I’ve been thinking a bit about print solutions for my workstation. My wife and I bought a printer with bluetooth wireless about six months ago, but unfortunately we don’t have all the extras that are needed to make such a set-up work, and the cost of the accessories is actually less than just getting a second printer.

So I’ve been thinking that maybe, if I get get a computer desk, maybe I’ll also just pop for a second printer, too. Wireless sharing of one printer seems like a good idea, but is it? I’m no longer convinced it’s worth it. So whether it’s an Epson tm-t88iv, a Kodak, a laser or an ink-jet, I am thinking that a two-printer solution might be the way to go… again.

My wife and I for years have been talking about wanting to move out to the West Coast someday. While that might seem like purely a writer’s paradise, with every passing winter it seems desirable for more reasons than milder winters alone.

Sure, winter seems all cozy and romantic with visions of cuddling before a wood fire together dancing in one’s head; but the reality is that winter’s a lot of colds, congestion, sleepless nights, annoying weather and discomfort. Who needs it?

People have always told me, “If you don’t like winter, why are you living in Minnesota?” My response has always been that everyone who means something to me is here.

However, much as I care about my friends, it may not take too many more long, cold winters to make me start reconsidering how those scales balance out. Something like Seattle, Portland or even San Diego rentals sounds increasingly more attractive.

No, I don’t mean a dance. But I do want to rave about my new mp3 player, since it is no longer and off-brand but one of Apple’s iPods: namely, a fifth-generation 16GB nano!

Sure, there’s not a lot that an iPod can do to improve my writing directly, but I can listen to audio books on it, not just music, and they’ve never sounded better. I used to think there wasn’t much difference among MP3 players, but now that I have a real iPod with iTunes, I can’t imagine how I ever got along with that Insignia for so long…

Time is the enemy of us all, but lately it’s been the enemy of my novel-writing.

Five weeks and counting, and my desktop PC still isn’t back from Best Buy because they keep not fixing it completely. If one more thing goes wrong, I actually qualify for their “no lemon” policy and get a new computer out of the deal, although I’d be just as happy if they could fix the one I have so it works right and stops breaking down.

Of course, getting a new PC out of it would be OK, too, since it’d have Windows 7 on it and that would maybe fix some of the problems, though I wouldn’t bet my car insurance on that.

So, I’m still on my sloggy old laptop for now… which means it takes longer to do everything and I run out of time…

It’s good to know details about anything; one thing few young writers consider are the details of aging. At what age, for example, is it a good idea and a customary practice for a person to take chondroitin glucosamine? At what age does prune juice become essential to maintaining digestive health?

And does anyone really like prune juice, even when they need it?

For me, a lot of my questions on aging have been answered by caring for my father, who lives with my wife and I. It’s something few people do anymore, but it’s especially useful to a writer.

I was overjoyed when I received the call last night (and again this morning) that my PC was back from the Geek Squad and could be picked up at any time.

“It has a new motherboard, a new card reader and is running like a dream,” I was told by the enthusiastic Geek.

Then I got it home.

The first sign of trouble was this: my PC, which had great sound when I sent it in over two weeks ago, now recognizes NO sound device as being installed; not my speakers, not my headphones; nothing!

The second sign of trouble was when I received a runtime error when trying to run some of my games; they refuse to play, even after being uninstalled and re-installed.

So I called up 24-hour Geek Squad Support and was told I’d be connected to a techie who could fix things over my internet connection. Nice enough, I supposed.

Thirty minutes goes by; still on hold. At forty-five minutes I lose patience and fire up the 24-hour support software from Geek Squad. Takes ten minutes to get someone on a chat window with me.

And what does she tell me, even as I’m burning up an hour’s worth of minutes on hold, waiting for a live techie to help me?

“Oh, you need to take it back to the store anyway. We can’t help you.”

They couldn’t have told me this fifty anytime cell minutes ago?

So during all that time on hold, I got curious; I opened the box to see if maybe a wire wasn’t connected that would acknowledge the sound card. Nope, it was attached.

Then I looked more closely at my PC icon and noticed… my card reader’s slots were still invisible!

And right about then, my PC’s video started freakout out and sent my to a blue screen!

What? I realized the truth, then: all the same problems were still there, new motherboard or not.

I can’t say for sure whether my PC has a new motherboard in it, but I can say all the problems that were there are STILL there!

Then I remembered a KEY fact: My extended warranty was scheduled to expire on February 15. I renewed it for a year, though.

My suspicion? Best Buy gambled that I wouldn’t renew it, sent me the broken unit back un-fixed, and hoped to catch me out-of-warranty so they could either charge me for the repair, or force me to buy a new PC.

Heads will roll when I take this thing back to Best Buy Richfield tomorrow: BELIEVE IT! Outer banks foreclosures will be more pleasant!

Sometimes… not always, but sometimes… I regret not picking up my teacher’s license back when I was in college. It would give a writer like me a handy fallback career, being able to teach. Of course, that’s kind of why I didn’t pick it up to begin with; because I don’t think teaching should be viewed as a fallback career, but as a calling.

If I ever change my mind, however, it’s nice to know that there are resources available now such as I never had back when I was attending college in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Resources like an online university as well as online degree programs such as are found at Western Governor’s University.

With several areas of specialization, it’s far more convenient for working people to train and get licensed as teachers these days at a place like WGU. And more convenience will ultimately mean more and better teachers available to teach children to become tomorrow’s leaders. What could be better?

My interest in blogging has been on the rise lately. Sometimes I’ve gone almost two weeks between posts, but lately with my increased attention on writing in general, my interest in blogging is moving back up to a high water mark.

Maybe I’m just more in a confessional mood lately, or maybe I’ve balanced my life out a bit better. Whatever the case, I’m certainly enjoying the increase in my writing life, and it leaves me in a better mood in general, whether I’m working on my novel or contemplating the political aspects of garage flooring.

OK, so I’ve learned not to over-rely on hard drives; my big mistake last Friday was that I’ve come to over-rely on my flash drive. It went down suddenly after Windows 7 offered to “scan and fix” it. It scanned my drive, all right, but there was no “fix” to it. Windows 7 killed my flash drive!

And of course, I lost several sermons and commentaries, as well as any progress I’d made on my novel since the last time I backed up to my PC hard drive… back in October. Ugh!

Well, at least I didn’t lose it completely, or have my hard drive go down at the same time as my flash drive this time. That’d age me enough to need to look into the best wrinkle treatment around.

After as many times as my hard drive has crashed the past couple years, you’d think by now I’d have purchased a reliable external hard drive. Well, you’d be wrong.

Largely that’s because novels are tiny and I have an 8GB flash drive and while it certainly won’t store everything on my hard drive, it does a very nice job of storing all my critical files, and was only $20 compared to $80 or so for a decent 500GB hard drive.

Hope to still get an external hard drive at some point, but right now, it’s just not in the budget.

The spookiest winter story I’ve heard recently wasn’t crafted by Stephen King or Clive Barker. I heard it on the news.

A married couple in Oregon decided to go up into the mountains to get a rare breed of pine tree for their Christmas tree. This happened about a week ago. They haven’t been heard from since.

While a chupacabra pet franchise might scare some people more, this is in my eyes a whole lot eerier. Just the unknown aspect of it. And the fact that it actually happened.

While it used to be that the University of Phoenix was rather unique, now there are many online universities where one can acquire a high-quality online degree without spending a fortune or setting aside one’s current professional life. One of the more recent such places to emerge is Western Governor’s University, a nonprofit online university founded by 19 governors of western states.

WGU has solid programs in education, business, information technology and health – all areas that deliver much-needed professionals into decent-to-high-paying careers, even in the middle of a very down economy. What could be better?

Of course, the thing I appreciate most about WGU is that they’re non-profit, which means tuition is lower than at many other places, making it an attractive option.