UMPITYGRUMPITY.COM!

Well, in these maddening times we live in, we all have something to gripe about. I think I’m not the only one who shares in the feelings described in the title of this post. I have to say, that times were really pretty decent this summer, all the way up until about 2 weeks ago. I don’t have a clue what’s going on now.

I mean, geeze, for once i finally had a niche… work that paid me $50/hour for my technical services, and could finally get a fair amount of hours during the week. Then BAM! Hit like a ton of bricks, it dwindled down to only a couple of lonely hours a week if that. I was making plans to get Dell certified in every certification there is. Making plans to start training other techs. This has got to be a shift to something much better….. because if it’s not, then I think I’m gonna be upset that all my efforts are not getting me anywhere.

Do we all need to band together in order to make it? Do we need each other? Could it be, that without being around one another, our dreams have no real chance? That our lives aren’t enriched or our skills and senses sharpened? Maybe that’s just an illusion and grasping for some kind of solution that isn’t there, or perhaps that’s just it. Maybe the answer is this thing that we practically loathe because we like our privacy, and live on competition breathing through our lungs, and get irritated with others that we get familiar with.

I don’t know how I could have made it these last months during the past year or so without my family. I very much have felt frustrated and hurt and angry with all of them over the course of it all, but if I had abandoned them to escape to my own devices, I would probably be much much worse for it. They’ve grown sharper and more tolerable, and I’ve also grown sharper by their input and care. I’m sure we’re all better now that this has happened.

Maybe what this shows us, is that adversity is a necessary ingredient to character development, but not only enhances our own character, but those who bring the adversity as well. I suppose we could be reflecting back a bit of adversity to them when they bring it, so there they have some for themselves.

It’s often we find that by our own observation, they (people) are not and cannot be growing in any way but for the negative and worse. Take heart; first the thorny prickles grow…. then the rose bud!

I’ve been using a LifeHacker home-brewed app called Texter to quickly replace text that I might find myself typing a lot. I’ve already made two bundles that I can see myself adding to regularly; Logins, and Me.

What you see in the picture above is my own Texter management window. It shows my Default bundle in the bundles list, plus my own custom bundles. The Me bundle contains any personal info about - you guessed it - ME. I’ve chosen to go with a somewhat universal programming classes format, so all I have to do is type in me.whatever and press enter or tab and the info comes up automatically. For instance, me.age{Enter} will quickly put 28 into whatever I’m typing into.

It’s actually quite an advanced little app in fact. I’ve found that I can store not only my username and passwords for web sites, but I can have it automatically scripted to log me into the site as I type in the trigger phrase. One example would be for this site. All I need to do is type ::log.ump into the username field of the login form and BOOM - it’s logging me in. It’s not the most secure place to store logins of course - although it’s better than risking your login identities with some online tools. It just leaves it open to somebody figuring out your Texter hotstrings on your actual computers. For me, I’m willing to take that chance since I know that no one else uses my computer.

So, after this brief initial playing around, I am certainly convinced of it’s usefulness. I should mention though, that I’ve noticed a bug that semi-crashes the app when I use the global disable hotkey. Another strange thing is I’ve seen it try to auto-type stuff I haven’t made hotstrings for, like the word “although” when I just type altho.

Texter is a free app by Adam Pash, made using AutoHotKey (my favorite!)

Texter via LifeHacker

This new spell-check app seems like it might do the trick for anybody needing a basic spell-check on their system.  It’s not something I’d need, but it’s probably handy for the average joe.  It’s called TinySpell. 

It’s 10:45 PM and I’m ready for bed.  Since my fast begins at midnight, this is it.  I’m gonna fold up this laptop now and keep it shut down until my computer fast is over with.  I don’t know how long it will be.  I just know that barring some kind of emergency, this thing won’t be powering on until I’m done.

So here goes nothing.  (Nighty night compy.)

I don’t say this to toot my own horn or anything.  In fact, there’s a good reason I’m posting this.  I’m not going to be around for a while online.  I’m fasting computers too.  I’m way too addicted and need to learn to slow down and not get so consumed by it.  Besides I really need to start being more consumed by God’s holy fire now anyway.

So here’s the whole story about it on my other site: GetDistracted.net

Bye bye for now..