Update on files situation

I'm proud of myself. I purchased a bargain machine from w00t, a refurb slightly better than what I'd have otherwise bough and for slightly cheaper. The real bargain was the $5 shipping. Rather than fix my old POS, I bought a case and turned my old hard drive into an external. I grabbed all the files I need, wiped it, and now I have an 80 GB dump drive! woohoo!

I have not yet purchased MS Office, however, so I'm still waiting to be able to use those files again. The part I was afraid would be complicated is done, and it wasn't. Soon I will have that list of 100 books, with the added ones I've read since and have been keeping track of with ink and paper.

In other news, after reading Stephen King's On Writing, I am more confident than ever that I will soon at least know whether I have any future in the field. I have purchased a copy of Writer's Market, which also has an excellent web version; and am in general more motivated and dedicated to finishing projects. Before, it was write for a while, get some promising passages thrown down, and maybe hashing out 1,000 words of first draft.

Here's hoping they don't combine this with "Google Bombs"

This seems like an extraordinarily bad idea to me. Really, who thought this one up?

Enemies fleeing from you? Use new Google Refugee to kill every last one of the bastards!
Need better data on how to hit 'em where it hurts? Google Earth now features new Google Target logos pinpointing each food and health supply tent.

Perhaps next will be Google Counterintelligence or Google Troop Movements?