The last
few days made me realize something. About a few very different things in life.
Those disparate points of interest being: 1. Word Processors and 2. Old Stuff.
Not much
correlation between them, so I will not mix them up. And start with number 1.
Recently,
I installed Microsoft Office 2007. After a brief stint of working with Open
Office for a few months. The switch had a profound effect on me. It made me
write more. More concise. More focused. More regularly. (As a matter of fact, I’m
typing this in Word ’07 right now)
And a
very strange simile jumped into my head. Word processors as homes. Buildings.
Rooms.
This
year, I worked with six different ones.
1.
Word
‘03
2.
Dark
Room
3.
Open
Office
4.
Various
web input forms
5.
Thunderbird
Mail Interface
6.
Word
‘07
Now let
me get to the comparison to homes and building now.
I’ll
start with the program I like the least: Open Office. Oh, sure, it’s free and
all. But I can’t work in it. I was raised with Office. I always worked with
Office. I can think and feel Office. So whenever I work with Open Office, I
tend to stop and search for functions I need but don’t know where they are. Or
simply being subconsciously put off by the design and look. – For me, Open
Office is like walking into a messy’s place
and having to work there. It’s uncomfortable and I never know where to put my
feet down.
Then
Dark Room (http://they.misled.us/dark-room).
I love it. Not for university or even gaming stuff, but for creative working.
Plug in a nice playlist, shut down Thunderbird and open up Dark Room. BANG! I’m
in my happy place and can type away. And often DO. – So, Dark Room is…
Effectively my room, at night, with some nice music. I don’t need anything
else, I am focused and I damn well know where everything is.
Word.
From Windows 3.11 (my first Office experience was back then) to XP, Word has
been a trusty sidekick. I type, I format, I print, I share, I correct, I
highlight… I do it all, and I don’t have to think about it. Sure. It’s
expensive as hell. But it delivers. Right now, after feeling my way into ’07, I’m
in love once more. Clean, functional, efficient. – Office (Being Word and Excel
and One Note for me) is a well taken care of living room. Surroundings I feel
at ease with, and which allow me to work undisturbed and concentrated, without
much distraction, but the ability to quickly get away if I want/need to.
And now
the weird rooms.
Web
Input Forums are… Workable. Focused. But very lightweight. And prone to failure.
– They’re pretty much offices. You could work from home, but as long as you’re
there, you can use them. You won’t do nothing fancy, but you’ll probably get
the task at hand done.
Thunderbird.
Thunderbird is the kitchen. You go there, sit down with a pen and a piece of
paper and scribble down your thoughts, to post them on the fridge. Sure, some
get longer, but most are concise enough to be kept short. Or at least
short-ish.
Yeah.
Office’s my living room. I like it there. And even if I move, I’m pretty likely
to decorate the same way, no matter where I am.
Point of Order No.2 – Old Stuff
Be it
music (recently started listening to old Blind Guardian stuff again), TV (Night
Court is my to-bed-series right now) or PC games (Why I play Drakensang?
Because It reminds me of the Nordlandtrilogie and old CRPGs. And I’m re-playing
Discworld 2: Missing Presumed?, too.), I really like stuff from my past.
Even
though some hurts (especially regarding certain songs), most of it makes me
smile. Brings long-gone memories to the front. Sounds of laughter. The smell of
smoke and whiskey to the sound of heavy metal. Marathon RPG-sessions. Driving
around with one or two close friends on a rainy autumn night, just because you
could. Simpler times. People long gone. People forgotten.
So
imagine my surprise when one of my closest, yet still slightly removed due to
time and life in general, friends contacted me a few weeks ago. And we started
planning. And we will start up a new roleplaying group with her and her
boyfriend and another old good friend. To keep in touch, have fun and see each
other more regularly.
During
the last few days, this thought has helped me to stay together. And even make
me smile.
So I’m
putting lots of energy into it.
And you
know what? It feels good. Being so creative and driven for an RPG again.
Also, in
a very ironic and fitting coincidence, we’re going to play Das Schwarze Auge.
My first RPG.
Funny
how old stuff can be balm for the soul, mh?
Signing
off,
Matt
