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I've just noticed that the photography category on this blog has 105 entries and the writing category has 130 (including this post). For a blog that's supposed to be primarily about writing that's not so good. I'll have to do more writing to make sure that photography doesn't take over.

That means that I can't use photography as a means of procrastination. Hmm... 

I'm waiting for Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced Juice, by the way) to download at the moment so that I can do some virtualised stuff. Well, more accurately, so that I can do some virtualised stuff without having to wait for ever and ever and ever for X to start when I don't need it. Since JeOS is only 151MB of ISO as opposed to the server install's 600-odd MB, I figured that it might make things slightly quicker all round to just download the new, no-bells-or-whistles flavour of Ubuntu. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's not just the unwieldy nature of, say, the Gnome desktop when running under VirtualBox that concerns me. Just half an hour ago I had to power down my machine and do some fairly hefty maintenance with a can of compressed air and some thermal transfer paste to ensure that my backup script, which runs once every six hours, didn't make my CPU overheat. Something tells me that it's getting close to the time when I'm going to want to build myself a new PC. Maybe I'll see if I can get this one to last 'til April and then stick Hardy on the new one as a fresh install. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. (And also, by having just written that, I've talked myself out of spending the money that I was thinking of spending on a new bass on PC bits; it's always nice to be able to talk myself out of things I don't really want to do).

Right. The JeOS install is running in a new VirtualBox instance. The CPU is currently running at 61° C; let's see how it does (it got to 70° last time around).

"So what news from the wilds of Lancaster?" I hear you ask. Well, dear reader, once again I have been consumed by work, work and a bit more work. It seems like I haven't done much besides hack on Launchpad since I returned from Massachusetts last month. Not that I'm complaining about that - after all, hacking on Launchpad is what keeps me in new bass money - but it's been nice this weekend to not think about it, at least for a while. Launchpad version 1.1.12 will hopefully be rolled out this week. After that we as a development team will be taking time off for Christmas, ready to start on the next development cycle in January. I think that in terms of improvements Launchpad 1.1.12 is going to be a pretty good release. I've managed to get quite a few bugs fixed and new (and in demand, I might add) features added this cycle, and I'm absolutely certain that other members of the team will have done that and more besides.

All of which means that, once again, I haven't had much time to write. Normally, not having written anything would have seriously pissed me off by now, but I've been enjoying my work so much (apart from the bits where I find myself still hacking at 11 o'clock at night and unable to make sense out of what turns out in the morning to be the simplest of problems) that I haven't really had time to get annoyed at myself. I plan to do some scribbling over Christmas (I did have an idea for a Christmas story which I might try and jot down this week if I have the time).

Other than that, life continues pretty much as normal chez Binns. Tomorrow night I'm going to be at a wedding party, which means that for the first time since I joined Canonical I'm going to have to get my hair cut. Whether I get it cut short or just shorter I've yet to decide. Part of me wonders what I look like under this great shaggy mass; another part is glad to have a warm covering in the winter months.

And finally, dear reader, the JeOS install is more-or-less complete. Bon. And the CPU temp never went above 61°. Très bon.

Mur Lafferty, writer, podcaster and tiara-wearing queen of wannabe writers is putting Geek Fu Action Grip on indefinite hiatus for reasons which I have no business repeating here (go there, use ears, understand).

I first came across Mur and her work when, Googling for writing resources, I found I Should Be Writing. I subscribed to Geek Fu some time after that. Mur's great gift is in making one feel like an equal, no matter the subject matter. Geek Fu will be missed, though I'm glad that ISBW will continue since it gives me a great deal of motivation (and also acts as an archive of those bits of advice that I need to have repeated to me constantly).

For more of Mur's work, such as the highly acclaimed Heaven and Hell podiobooks and their successor, Earth, take a look at geekfuactiongrip.com and ishouldbewriting.com.