7 Jan

Q10 Makes Blog Posting Fun

Posted by Brian in Blogging, Review.

(for Windows only)

I know some of you may know about this little text editing program, although some may not. It’s called Q10. I have no idea what the Q10 stands for, but I’m sure it’s on the main website somewhere.

Features

It has several cool features that I really love. The first one is that it goes fullscreen and completely obscures everything else on your desktop in order to help you stay completely focused on your writing task.

The program is also very light-weight (less than 360kb). If your computer can’t run this progam you need to put away your abacus and get a real computer.

It also has a feature that I thought I would hate at first, but now completely love it. By default the program imitates the sound of an old-school typewriter as you press keys on the keyboard. Not only that, it is easy to change them to whatever you want (one sound set on the website is Mario-themed) or disable the sounds completely. I thought the sounds would annoy me, but I quickly realized that it gave me extra feedback when I struck the keys. For some reason, it makes the writing experience much more enjoyable. Some people may not like it but damn it I love it!

It also has a notes feature that I honestly haven’t used much yet but it is basically a commenting feature similar to what programmers use when writing code.

My personal flow with using it is:

  1. Write the text in Q10 (making sure DOS line-ending format is set in the options seems to work best)
  2. Save file
  3. Copy/paste into WordPress (or other platform)

You can get Q10 from www.baara.com. It is similar to Dark Room but I actually give this little app the nod simply because of the typewriter sounds.

5 Jan

Happy Belated New Year!

Posted by Brian in Uncategorized.

What a year 2009 turned out to be. I look back at what happened in my life and I realize that it will not be a year I will forget (at least until I get Alzheimer’s). Like any year, there were ups and downs.

The words that best describe the early part of 2009 are “bizarre” and “weather”. There is no excuse for having a foot of snow on the ground in March (especially in Seattle) but there it was. That was on top of snow around Christmas 2008 so we got plenty of the white stuff to keep the kids happy and the adults cursing.

not cool

Unfortunately while the snow was cheering me up, some guy by the name of Clay Bennett (or as he was affectionately known around town: Clay Clay) decided to steal my basketball team, the Seattle Supersonics, and make a dash for Oklahoma City. Definitely a chump move to top all chump moves. Definitely on par with cock-blocking. At least we still kept our baseball and football team, and Oklahoma City gets the wretched NBA. Good luck Okies!

Summertime Sizzlin’

The middle of the year featured the mother of all heatwaves (at least for Seattle). On July 29th it reached 105 degrees and half of the area’s population got in their cars and raced to the north pole.

Unexpectedly at about the same time, my Dad’s 5-year old pug Caesar passed away (not related to the weather), leaving a large gaping hole in the family. After a few weeks of mourning, Dad added another Pug, Brutus, and another puppy called Tobey to our family. Together they both provide lots of joy and love to everyone.

September

After spending 2 years providing faux tech support for company employees, I decided to leave and pursue other interests. I realized that while fixing people’s computer problems can be a rewarding experience, being chained to a phone all day is demoralizing and usually not very fun… especially when I have to pee and the person I am talking to wants to tell me about their trained pet goldfish.

Winter Blues

Right before Christmas, my Dad decided to scare the family by making a trip to the emergency room. Thankfully now he is okay, but visiting your Dad in the ICU is not usually how one spends their Christmas.

Positives

On the plus side of things, I received a Christmas gift in the form of a beautiful niece, Madison, to go along with my super-cool 1 year old nephew Austin. I can’t wait to see them as they grow up. Should be interesting!

So 2009 has come and gone and 2010 is now here. 2009 for me was like the first two acts of a story, with lots of drama and unanswered questions. I have a strong feeling that 2010 (and the ensuing decade) will be the resolution to the story where my life finally heads in the right direction.

As for all of you: Make 2010 the year you take back your life and your dreams!

Brian

P.S. My two cents: I think 2010 should be pronounced “twenty-ten”.

31 Aug

Blogs Can Be Hard Work

Posted by Brian in Blogging.

image by Jared

image by Jared

I’ve been spending the last couple of months working on creating a non-personal blog (or two), and I have to say that putting them together has been quite an eye-opening experience. Continue reading

27 Aug

Seahawks Get Edge, Lose Duck

Posted by Brian in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , .

A couple of days ago, the Seattle Seahawks signed free agent RB Edgerrin James to a 1-year deal with a reported $2 million. Then, the Seahawks decided to part ways with short-yardage back T.J. Duckett.

It sounds like a lot of players and fans were surprised Continue reading

10 Jul

Gadgets: Upgrade Mania

Posted by Brian in Gadgets, Geek, Money.

gadgets2I was sitting down a week ago, plugging away on my computer, when I came to a stunning realization. No, it wasn’t the realization that I should get a tattoo of Megan Fox on my {censored}, nor was it that I suddenly want to learn Tai Bo. Nosiree. Continue reading

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