The free laptop is set up with all of my writing software. Next up is the Adobe Suites and Netbeans...The best bit of this is that I now have 2 laptops ready for home and travel. I can start writing anywhere again!

Bring on the coffee shops, lunch breaks, my down times as I wait to pick folk up. I will now have one of my laptops on hand and I'm ready to start the creative projects in earnest.

This is awesome. Writing, design, movie projects, and game design...all ready to go. This old/new laptop is going to become my main road warrior for writing in the upcoming days. Eventually, when the coffers are restored, I'll probably get an ultra-portable laptop (instead of a netbook I think) to replace the current ones.

The old Pentium 3 laptop (which works damn fine for just about everything--including a lot of game) will be my home/downstairs computer. Flash drives or a passport HD will be the main storage mediums as I'll be able to readily switch back and forth. Back ups will be made frequently and files will be stored in the Window's Live Skydrive for backup from anywhere. Very, very cool.

A side note: the new laptop (actually an old laptop that I was given for fixing it up) has a wonky mouse pad. It works, but it's a bit flaky with the mouse movement. I think it just needs some tweaking and then it'll most likely work fine. If not, no biggie--I have a port-a-mouse. :o)

Hell, I think that I just solved the wonky mousepad in typing this entry out...my palms resting on either side of the pad caused the mouse pointer to jump around because of the weight pressing down on the pad. I wasn't touching the pad, but I was touching the laptop case to the sides (actually resting my hands on the metal as I typed) and I noticed that the pointer would drift or jump like a little jumping bean to which ever palm was exerting some pressure on the laptop case. So, I just upped the palm protection in the mousepad's software and I seem good to go. Doubly sweet! It was driving me batty.

Night everyone, I'm wiped.

--Jason Henke

So, I've been on a pill for my insomnia for years...never felt I really had any side effects. I wasn't ill from it, didn't feel bad, and it seemed to help a little bit.

Turns out, I was wrong about the side effects--way wrong.

This all came about after I had browsed our health library at work and looked up the med's side effects. I seemed to have a number of them without knowing or suspecting anything.

One side effect was weight gain and trouble losing weight. This I definitely had. I'd been going nuts trying to lose weight and nothing was working...including barely eating while increasing my exercise. It made no scientific sense at all, but I was actually gaining weight rapidly instead of losing...very discouraging.

Using this finding, I decided to cut down the sleep med and I dropped 20 pounds just by doing that. I dropped it rather quickly in truth.

I was shocked; I had no idea how much a little pill could affect.

I shouldn't have been surprised though; I had been given some Mirapex a couple of years back to see if I had restless legs. I was to start Mirapex on the lowest dosage (half a pin head in truth) and then ramp up to the proper dosage. That med messed me up in a major way. I was a zombie, totally F'd up by it. I took this half a pinhead dosage exactly twice and then said, there's no way I can do this, I'd lose my job and I couldn't function or think straight. That was actually a bit scary.

Then, in Dallas for the convention this last week, I decided to cut the sleeping pill out completely. It was a perfect time to do it. I was going to be up and very tired for the convention anyway. It worked out perfectly. Now, the other major life impacting side effect is diminishing as well.

This is awesome; I'm making progress. Lesson learned: always watch for side effects and know what they are. You might be doing everything right and it might be a pill standing in your way.

Live well, laugh often, love much!
Jason Henke