Saturday
It only occurred to me this evening that I didn't post to the blog yesterday. After flying home from Germany I raced home to continue working for several hours – putting fires out with untested code that had fallen over spectacularly. Today has been all about tidying up, washing clothes, drying clothes – the usual round of chores after a week away. And tinkering.
There's a reason for the tinkering this time though.
While I was away my other half called me one evening, asking how to do something on the old computer in the junk room – 'my' computer. I talked her through logging in, and running various programs to achieve what she wanted – and we had to wait first for the computer to wake up, then for the each application to open, before we even attempted to do anything with it. I'm not talking seconds either – it was minutes in each case.
Long story short – the computer now has Linux installed on it once more instead of Microsoft Windows. I had a look at a website called Distrowatch earlier to find out which Linux distribution is popular (and therefore supported by the community), and went with 'Manjaro' on both the desktop, and my old laptop. It would be foolish to say 'it's great!' just yet – but it does launch in half the time Windows took, and opens a browser in seconds rather than minutes.
One day – when I'm rich – I'll buy a new computer for myself (this will of course never happen).
While talking about money, and the cost of things, I found myself looking at Squarespace earlier – the blogging platform. If I could somehow guarantee making the hosting fees back, I think I might quite like to move to a platform like Squarespace one day – they are SO expensive though. It sounds ridiculous – worrying about covering $12 a month to run a blog – less than many people spend on coffee from coffee shops. And yet here we are – struggling along, and knowing that I really can't warrant that much money at the moment.
And before you ask – all of my expenses in Germany are paid for by work. Everything I eat – everything I buy from the supermarket – falls within agreed budgets. I pay for meals on a credit card, and work pay me it back.
When it comes to my own money... yeah. This is where I admit I just ate a bowl of cornflakes for supper, because I can't warrant spending the money on chocolate from the store. Of course I don't NEED chocolate – or the cornflakes for that matter. It kind of explains why I can't afford Squarespace either though.
I'm painting a very dark picture, but it's really not as bad as it sounds. It does make me smile sometimes though – when I hear other people complaining that they can't afford to do this or that – and yet they eat out several times a week, go on grobe-trotting holidays, have laptops, ridiculous phones, and all manner of other 'things'. I should make a huge banner with 'PRIORITIES' written on it, and sit behind it in a deck chair when they even think about opening their mouth.