Do you know how hard it is to buy a screw driver in Surry Hills on a Sunday morning? I woke early yesterday, and while having a cup of coffee and reading email, my computer went bung. The floppy disc had failed, and so I wasn’t even able to reboot it. Needing to remove the unit and install a replacement, I didn’t have a screw driver of the exact size needed. So of course I went down the street looking for one. I tried the supermarket, though they were unfortunately out of stock. I tried the nearby service stations and guess what? Service stations don’t seem to actually sell anything vaguely mechanical anymore. A few hours later, the cheapie discount store had opened and it was finally there I located the exact one I needed. “I’ve never seen one of those before”, the woman at Dick Smith told me, when I asked her if they had any floppy disc drives in stock. “You’re not that young”, I thought to myself.

I was worried for just a moment the floppy disc failure was because I’d recently converted to Linux. Yes, Linux! I’m well and truly over and done with Microsoft, with the impetus being the need to reinstall Vista. After I´d typed in the lengthy registration key, I received a message that key had already been registered and was therefore invalid. “Yes, itś registered to me, you dickheads”, I yelled at the computer. I tried a few more times, and for whatever reason got absolutely nowhere, short of making a direct call to Bill Gates. Bloody Microsoft!

I’ve flirted with Linux for quite some time, and many years ago actually tried an installation, but found it far too complicated. A few months ago, however, I read about the release of gOS, a dumbed down version of Linux which I had, co-incidentally downloaded and burned to disc. After a few days trialing the live CD, and, having performed the install proper on Saturday I was hooked. I love the way my hard-drive moves along without any of the Windows rumbles which are far too common. There are still some things I don´t really understand about Linux, but I’m getting there and there’s some terrific online assistance resources available.

I sound like such a geek, eh? Add to that, last Thursday night I also went to a Bloggers Meetup. I met some nice people and we chatted at length about our common interest. Fellow blogger, Riayn has summed up the event pretty well…

We all had great conversation about blogging platform, niche blogging, what we blog about and admiring those who had reached the lofty heights of problogging. The only downside of the evening was that there was a person there from a media group who tried to use our group as a way to find out which up and coming hot new websites and social networking groups her company should buy. I really didn’t think that this was appropriate. We were not there to be a free resource for her company.

The establishment of a new bloggers meetup has also reinvigorated the old blogger group too, with plans there for a mid-February catchup. And there’s some discussion about a GLBTI (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex) bloggers meet during Mardi Gras, too. Rain always follows drought, doesn’t it?

I also caught up yesterday with some of my ABBAMAIL mates at the Brookvale Hotel, and had lunch with an old mate from Lismore at Circle 8 at Newtown. Amusingly he told me he knew my next door neighbour very well, and that he had actually been to my next door neighbour’s apartment on a number of occasions, not knowing I lived right next door. “He’s very quiet and he’s not often at home”, was how my next door neighbour described me, according to Andrew.

Work remains busy, but also very satisfying. In the midst of some of the usual bureaucratic stuff I have to do, I’m doing lots of hands-on creative stuff. Workwise, one of the most memorable occasions for me was covering the death of Heath Ledger. Although history will record his greatest performance as Ennis in Brokeback Mountain, I also thought he was terrific in Candy, which I saw just a few months later. I wonder what other great roles me might have played?