I had so much fun SEx Blogging Saturday over at Silver Expressions!  It was actually a pretty remarkable thing, since my laptop (aka, my outside-brain) was on the fritz and well, being Frankensteined by Mr. Xandra at the time.  But since I did sorta plan ahead, I had drafts of posts prepared, and used the BFGaming Computer to post my posts and read/respond to comments.  If you actually come to this blog to read, thank you for reading!  And if you commented over at SEx, thank you, too!

But I’m now proud to say that I’m back on Ol’ Sparky, live and Open Source.  I’ve discovered a freedom to Linux that I don’t think I had with Windows since the days of 3.11.  Customization, lean and fast operation, FREE.  Secure.  I’m so diggin’ this.

…but it got eaten by stupid Windows security updates that oh-so-helpfully restart your computer when you’re not looking. This is the third time this has happened to me. Fortunately, this time, I’d saved the truly important stuff–my writing–so I didn’t lose much. Still, I had a really interesting post that went into my first experience with the editing process, and how familiar-yet-strange it seems. But it’s like messing up the punch line to a joke and then trying to retell it. It just doesn’t work the second time around.

So…long story short, I was amazingly surprised at how easy the edits for Alien Communion went. And exceedingly grateful that my own efforts led to it being a very clean story before being initially submitted. I was able to make my corrections, and even continue tightening in the vein suggested by the editor, and send them back to her in a week. Which, considering what my home life has been like, is kind of a feat.

Losing a blog post isn’t as narsty as losing a day and a half’s worth of writing–and yes I know, save early, save often is a mantra worth chanting. But having anklebiters underfoot means a lot of the time, that silence between the crash and the scream has to be spent running to the scene rather than clicking “save.” But you know, it’s not the saving or not that gets me. It’s the fact that random updates will seize control of my computer and either nag me until I bow to their will, or sabotage my authority. All because their software/platform is highly exploitable.

So that’s it…I’ve made the decision and I’ve had enough. I’m gonna make the jump! I’m moving to Linux

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m no big fan of dressing up. My usual uniform is jeans and t-shirt, or cargo pants and t-shirt. Unless, that is, I’m in the other extreme of wearing medieval garb or dressing as an alien. Then, of course, all bets are off. I’m a mother of young children, and anything I put on is going to get messy in the course of the day.

Dressing up on the web, however, is a completely different story. I think I’m a terminal fashion victim when it comes to website design. Perhaps it’s because for years, site design, like my writing (I was a tech writer) had to be functional before it had to be artful. Plus, it had to use a lot of corporate doublespeak and company logos, so the artistic side of it just couldn’t get creative. The mindset was that usable and pretty could never cohabitate functionally. I say nay (and did say nay at the time, too, but functional and pretty were both high-maintenance princesses, so the words “over” and “budget” were frequently the wacky sidekick pair.  Of course, that time in my life taught me a lot about clean writing, so I walked away from the old life with some valuable, if painful, lessons.
Now I’ve got my chance, though. I’m determined to make Xandragregory.com the functional and lovely site I know it can be in my heart. So the changing fonts, graphics, and layout may hurt a little…

So I’m trying out attaching my tagline to my title.  The current theme I’m using doesn’t display the tagline, and I feel that’s rather a shame.  Taglines are important.  They can be used to remind us of who we are.  They can also remind us that we should not be blog h0rz and get back to writing.

Well, it’s been one hell of a weekend. I’ve stared at about a hundred WordPress themes, trying to figure out the one that says, “Xandra!”

Y’know what? None of ‘em really do. Or maybe a half-dozen do, depending on the mood I’m in. So if you do happen to keep tabs on the twists and turns through the cornfield of La Vida Xandra via this site, don’t be too surprised if a new theme jumps out and grabs you every few days. Themes are like shoes. Why just have one pair?