Also have changed to a new theme, as I was getting a headache from the bright green and I really like how the links have a highlight box.

Organizing is a daily process, I’ve noticed. Papers from school create a weekly blizzard only tamed by the use of boxes.

Fandom is wild and crazy and oh so fun, yet it seems like a lot of the fans don’t care how showing their tributes and ideas in fandom are taken. I’m talking about the ones who butcher the English language/canon¹ and take any sort of criticism personally, rather than a way to improve and get better. But perhaps they think they can’t change or improve, that they are perfect in every way, but sad to say nobody is perfect, and can only be the best they can be.

Writing is both a joy and a cross. On one hand, finding out how a story develops, and characters change is exciting and wonderful, but then the actual sitting down and making oneself do the work is the cross. So many wonderful distractions, so little time!

Motherhood. I was thinking about that while on my daughter’s field trip to Knoxville last week. We saw A Year With Toad and Frog plus toured the McClung Museum. I was thinking about how I’m one of the younger mothers to actually participate and be involved and that it seemed to be sad that it was mostly the older mothers who were more involved with their children. Or it just may be a quirk in my daughter’s kindergarten class and school. Speaking of which, it seemed just yesterday it was her first day of school and now the year is half over.

Feminism. A bugaboo to many women, who seem to think that feminism means not being a woman, but trying to be a man in all ways. I’m of the opinion that one should have the right to be ourselves, rather than conforming to others’ perceptions of us.  It is a necessity that women are accepted as human beings, not as brood mares or prizes or objects to be collected, fawned over, etc., but ordinary humans with equally valid viewpoints and beliefs.

¹ Canon in this case meaning the creator’s version-what is published be it manga, anime, books, TV shows or movies.

Upgraded to Firefox 2.0 and waiting for two-three extensions to be updated-Blog This for Firefox for Windows Live Writer, del.icio.us and Furl tools. I adore the new built-in spell checker and like the fact I can add spellings to the dictionary. The default theme is very pretty. I got rid of a bunch of extensions and haven’t missed them-well except for the three I listed above and the handy dandy BBcode extension (which I wish had LJ specific codes for ease of use in commenting and posting)

Listening to: Bahia by 7 Samurai on www.samurai.fm/transeuropaexpress (Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape 07)

Technorati tags: meta, blogging, “http://technorati.com/tags/firefox 2.0″ rel=”tag”>Firefox 2.0

Listening to: Crimson Phoenix by Atlas Plug on 2 Days or Die

Testing Windows Live Writer with the currently playing plugin and iTunes plugin.  Seems to work so far, though it is a bit slow in updating the song when the song changes.

Much nicer than w.bloggar and seems much prettier.

I just want one place for my stuff. This time around I’m using Office 2003 Professional and have adjusted rather quickly. Perhaps I could quit fiddling around with the system and actually use it.
Now I have to figure out how to get my e-mail archive into Outlook from Thunderbird, since I can’t download the archived emails from Gmail anymore as I’ve been deleting them from the server.

Used the steps and program recommended at Export Thunderbird to Outlook, which has worked very well so far, well with a few minor things like some emails lack a subject line and is pretty much a plaintext version of HTML formatted email. Much fun is ensuing and once I get everything loaded in OE, I can remove duplicates in the address book and then set up filters so they could be imported into Outlook. Bah on filters not exporting easily.

I like Thunderbird, but the calendar/Lightning tie-in isn’t what I want and well the RSS function needs some work. It will only import a certain kind of feeds apparently and wont import folders. Sage works well in Firefox, but it makes my bookmark file HUGE. GreatNews works well, and I love the duplicate remover function and the ability to sync with Bloglines, but it takes a while to load up when all I want to do is add a feed.

I’m using Attensa 2.0 for Outlook for RSS and I really like it. It automatically populates iTunes with podcasts-both audio and video plus making a playlist. Rather nice. I’m editing my feed list so I don’t get too many duplicates/posts saying essentially the same thing. As soon as DemocracyTV gets OPML import/export capability, I’ll move my podcasts over.

I’m also trying out MAPILab’s NNTP for Outlook so I won’t have to use OE for Usenet.

I’m looking for a way to get Attensa to publish posts to my WP.com blog if I want to blog on something in my feeds. Right now I have w.bloggar set up and I’m chasing down a plug-in I used last year. I may have the file on back-up CD’s. Located the file on the second disk I popped in. The site where I got it went down and it was the only place to get it. w.bloggar has issues with Unicode and made me lose my spacing and commas. So bah on w.bloggar. It was only useful for one thing-reporting what I was listening too, but the plugin will only report one song and won’t update it when the song changes. So a bit of a dead end.
I went and gathered up all my to-dos/goals/on my mind lists and dumped them into a single file, and I still had stuff handwritten on the back, so that counts as the brain dump.

I did feel a lot better having that stuff all in one place and how much of it was duplication/had already been done.

[Listening to: Sanctuary - Utada Hikaru - Kingdom Hearts 2 OST (4:16)]

EDIT: Got Blogroll up after editing for funny characters, and my CC license is up but without the graphic. Must ponder and google some more.

EDIT 2: Got graphics in the sidebar and am now sending out change of address messages to various places.  Oh joy.  The I'll put a post in my Blogger site andhen clear it out. 

I've been rather busy the last couple of weeks. Started back to reading fanfic again plus playing Start Ocean Till The End of Time (I have a serious crush on Albel Nox) and planning out a story/book plus having some ideas for some fanfic of my own. I also got the Fruits Basket series boxset and watched it twice already. I really love Fruits Basket and perhaps they make another season taking into consideration the latest information from the manga.
The voices kill me though, especially Ayame's English voice-so fruity yet posh at the same time, and Kyo's English voice made me roll on the floor the first time I heard him speak.
I think the Abbey will most likely undergo a bit of a change of focus to anime, fanfic, writing, sci-fi, fantasy and gaming with a bit of GTD and organization and a bit of politics for flavor, rather than trying to be a politics blog with just a bit of what I like. I don't have the time to constantly be on the lookout for the shenanigans of those in power and I'm tired of always being upset and outraged. It is bad for my health, so I may just do a bit of commenting on various things that draw my interest instead of concentrating on the topic.