Software Junkie

Today's word of the day is stultify (STUL-tuh-fye verb - 1: to cause to appear or be stupid, foolish, or absurdly illogical ; 2a : to impair, invalidate, or make ineffective : negate b : to have a dulling or inhibiting effect on). Trying to install my new software stultified all creativity - it also put me in a pretty bad mood.

I'm a bit (okay, a lot) of a software junky and I love to organize things. The software that I use the most is called Advanced Diary. It is divided into databases, which are divided into folders, and within each folder you can have one or more files. So I have a folder for Current Copies, and in that I have my menu planner for the month, a daily diary, my mood and sleep log, and a folder for my blog entries. I do the blog composing in Advanced Diary as it has some word-processing capabilities. It's kind of a dumbed down version of MS Word. I have a separate database for information that I want to keep apart, such as insurance information - this is password protected. And then I have another folder for miscellaneous information, such as a to-do-list and RV Information. The RV information file is just a bunch of links to excel documents. I love this software (no I'm not a representative for the company!)!

The other software that I use is Calendar Creator Plus. It is basically just a program that you put calendar events onto. The events can be setup as repeating events, either yearly, weekly, daily, or picked from a calendar. The events can be organized by type so that you can display a calendar with birthdays, appointments and campground reservations - and another with just campground reservations. The calendars can be saved to jpeg or html for online versions or they can be printed in a myriad of sizes. Artwork and photos can be added to enhance the output. I've been using this software for at least 12 years.

Today I purchased another type of software - digital scrapbooking. I'm hoping that I can get my photos arranged and print some albums. I've been doing digital photos since mid 2004 but haven't printed very many photos since then.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can actually get this software to install though. The install brought down almost 500MB of data, and then crashed when doing the actual install. To try again I have to download the data again - what a stupid design for software. I've sent a message to their service desk so we shall see what happens.

My pleasures yesterday and today:

• finding a pretty little notebook at the dollar store that I can use for my (paper) journal (I use Advanced Diary for digital version) - I like to have a paper version of some of it when visiting doctors, etc. ;
• running into a neighbor at the grocery store yesterday afternoon and having time for a good visit - pre-retirement days I would have felt I didn't have the time to stop so long ;
• enjoying some tasty asparagus last night for supper ;
• going outside in my pajamas early this morning to get Spike (Mr. Naughty) and not being too cold (side note: I froze when I went out in my coat later) ;
• eating yummy Pho for lunch today ;
• finding Carm after looking for him in Costco for probably 15 minutes - I was a bit cranky too though - what the He$$ was he doing that took so long? ;
• finding a cover for my Sony e-reader - we've been looking since Christmas. It's been okay to be without so far, but heading out in the camper I'll want a cover for sure - not so much of a pleasure though - paying Sony prices - I mean how can a little cover be worth $40? They've got you though as no one else makes them...