el rinconcito

I have this week off from work, so my mood is fantastic. It's a great week for personal development and slouching around. Clean the house? Oh no, mustn't do something so needed as that.

I started the morning off with a large strong coffee and some shaking of the the house with some trance from Soma FM. I like the channel called Tag's Trip:

"Tag's Trip: Progressive house / trance. Tip top tunes."

I have plenty of heavy/good stuff to read this week, plus I have chats lined up all over the globe. It still amazes me how the computer can so easily traverse the planet. When I was younger, any international communication cost a fortune, now you pay the monthly ISP fee, or go sit in the free-wifi public library, and off you go!

This addiction to international communication goes way back for me. It has included letter writing (a long time ago), playing with the phone system , "slight" manipulation of the CB Radio service, Amateur Radio, then the Internet.

Calling CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ DX. Can you hear me?

I like about a two hour net session when I get up on a free morning.

Here's the approximate routine:

• Struggle to the bathroom to wipe the glop out of my eyes with a washcloth.
  
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• Put on the coffee. I like freshly ground beans and the French press method of brewing it. So yummy with a half teaspoon of sugar and a splash of soymilk in it.
  
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• First thing online, I check my messengers to see if anyone left me a message overnight. I prefer the Jabber messenger, but will also respond to ICQ, Yahoo, and AIM. I like it when there are a bunch of messages left for me in the morning. Please do this! My about page will give you a couple of them.
  
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• After the message check, I stop all the overnight file transfers I had running on BitTorrent. Usually, overnight, over a gig has uploaded, but in the morming I want all the bandwidth just for me! Strangely enough, I only share legal files, like Linux iso's, or ogg music files from jamendo.com.
  
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• Next thing is to get a little music throbbing to get me awake for the day. The Trance over at somaFM is particularly good.
  
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• Then I get my e-mail. I have a several accounts with different purposes, and Thunderbird gets them all with a single click. I don't use Opera for e-mail. I prefer it only as a browser, and a darned good browser it is. I can spend ages looking at the e-mail, as I like to get a lot of reminders and newsletters this way.
  
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• Then I hit MyOpera! This can be a real time killer. I look forward to seeing what has happened while I was sleeping. I still find it a miracle to see messages, comments, and blog posts from such far-flung places as Moscow, Tehran, Vietnam, Washington state, and even revolutionary Cuba! It sure wasn't that way when I was a child.
  
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• Next is some news from DemocracyNow and tech fun from slashdot.
  
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• On some mornings I will then proceed to look at some certain special binary files.
  
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• Lastly, a hot shower!
  

What do you like to do when you get up?

I'm halfway through my week off and enjoying it quite a lot. As usual, on my weeks off I have grand plans on getting a lot done, but I always turn into a total sloth.

Here's what's happened so far:

• I've looked at a lot of wonderful photography on flickr and have wondered how I can learn to use my digital camera better. I appreciate it when people take the time to document and share what they see.
  
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• I've browsed many wonderful blogs here on My Opera. Again, people all over the world sharing and communicating. Would we solve some world problems if we could all hear each other out more?
  
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• I've had several lengthy audio and text chats with a fine friend here on My Opera (you know who you are, sweetie!). We use Jabber and GoogleTalk for the text chats, and Meebo for the audio calls. You should join us!
  
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• I've looked at this rather odd picture of the fun and friendly Opera Software employee EspenAO, and wondered why he didn't prefer Batman, lol. Then again, I try not to criticize the fetishes of others.
  
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• I've followed a sometimes heated and emotional discussion on the Russia/Georgia violence in this post on Naomi's blog. Kudos to her for having the courage to touch upon the subject. My somewhat simplistic post about it is here.
  
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• I've followed the serious, thorough, and upsetting news of the nation and the world from the fine journalists at democracynow. Try it. Very informative.
  
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• I've enjoyed the smooth relaxing pleasure of drinking a few Miller Genuine Drafts and Blue Moons. I'm so surprised that the large American breweries can mass produce such yummy lagers. A lot of people think they are crap if they aren't from Europe, but hey, I love 'em. I love European lagers, too, though they are a bit expensive and not always very fresh here.
  
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• I've toyed with the idea of buying an ultra-mini Linux laptop, like this one, the Inspiron 910, that is soon to come out.
  

Still to be done this week:

• Read this book that I just got from the public library. Aren't libraries wonderful!
  
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• Cut the grass.
  
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• Drink a few more lagers on our new patio. Don't you want to come over for a few?
  
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• Find a new job that doesn't make me go crazy. Hilfa!
  

What else should I do this week?