Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tuesday Thoughts

You've probably noticed I haven't written many blogs in the past couple of weeks. Definitely not my normal self.

Sorry.

I've been working on Wrath of Hades (Book 2 in the Children of Atlantis series). I finished the revisions and now I'm working on line edits with a new edit partner, and we're on a deadline. The book will be out before Christmas.

I don't know about you, but i can't believe it, but Christmas is almost here. Where has this year gone? The past six months have flown by for me. Publishing two books, promoting them, teaching full-time, writing another book, and all the other daily stuff I do has filled most of my hours. Many nights I've only averaged 4-5 hours of sleep. I know...not good.

Yesterday morning I didn't want to get up. I could hear the wind blowing and there was a chill in the house. I wanted to stay in bed, warm under the covers, but I couldn't. There's two weeks of school still to go before we're out for Christmas break. But a front blew in last night and the temperatures dropped into the 40s(Fahrenheit) / 10s (Celsius). This morning it was just below freezing. I like cold weather, but where I live in Texas, cold weather doesn't stay for very long. By Friday it will feel like spring again. Snow is not a normal winter occurrence for me either. I get envious of people who get snow where they live, but I probably would change my mind if I actually had to deal with it on a daily basis.

I started looking at computers over the weekend. As much as I'm dreading it, I'm going to have to replace my laptop. I've had it for about ten years,and for the most part, it's been a really good one. About a year ago, I almost lost it, but I managed to fix the problem and kept it going . But now it's having problems again. Yelp, I think my Toshiba Satellite is slowly trying to die of old age on me. So what do I want? A laptop? An ultrabook? I'm not sure.
When it comes to features, I want:
  • a back lit keyboard,
  • a good battery life,
  • ability to run the programs like Word and Photoshop,
  • around 14 inches in size, and
  • at least 3 USB ports.
I'm thinking about staying with a Toshiba. And I have to keep the price in mind and on the low side. Any suggestions?