A Day in FedoraLand

Friday was a work-from-home day. I could have gone into the office — on the one hand, I felt unproductive on Thursday, despite getting a great deal done, because the one project on my board that I knew would take multiple days was left unfinished; on the other, the office flooded last weekend and wasContinue reading “A Day in FedoraLand”

Don’t Forget Your Towel

Fedora 42 released today, and I upgraded my installation. With a release number like 42, that called for a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy wallpaper. I liked this wallpaper, based on the movie. You can find it here. I really should have the Infocom Hitchhiker’s game running in the terminal — I have it hereContinue reading “Don’t Forget Your Towel”

March 1844, 2020

Five years ago today Diamond’s office shut down for COVID and went work-from-home. Tomorrow, bids for Diamond’s assets are due to the bankruptcy court. When work-from-home started, I was writing the May 2020 catalog, which went unpublished. Yesterday, I began writing the May 2025 catalog. This has been the longest month. Before the COVID shutdown,Continue reading “March 1844, 2020”

When I Thought About Learning Python

Two years ago I intended to learn Python. Then I never did. And there’s a story to that. What brings this up is an article I saw online a few days ago, “VBA vs. Python: Which is the best tool for Excel automation.” It began, as many such things do, with a work problem. WeContinue reading “When I Thought About Learning Python”

Diamond’s Bankruptcy and My Future

Tuesday, Diamond Comic Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. For almost eighteen years–212 issues, counting the unpublished (though finished) May 2020 COVID issue–I’ve been the copywriter on Diamond’s monthly PREVIEWS catalog, though that only scratches the surface of what I do. I wear many, many hats at Diamond, and I have joked my businessContinue reading “Diamond’s Bankruptcy and My Future”

An Unexpected (Partial) Work-from-Home Day

Four and a half years after going work from home, yesterday, for the first time, I executed one of my key job duties remotely. Each month I run a process called the “Page & MCBA Number Update.” To describe it briefly, I load all the items in the month’s PREVIEWS catalog (typically about 3,000, plusContinue reading “An Unexpected (Partial) Work-from-Home Day”

Coding Myself a VPN Toggle

At fifty, I am becoming the Linux nerd I feel I should have been at twenty-five. I had a problem. I wanted an easy way to connect and disconnect from Diamond’s VPN. Yes, I could use the Network Connections interface in Linux Mint, but sometimes it expands while I was navigating to the VPN toggleContinue reading “Coding Myself a VPN Toggle”

So Smart I’m Dumb

Let’s begin with this: Windows XP, running in a virtual machine on Linux Mint. Hell, I even configured the Quick Launch toolbar, and the single screenshot I have of my XP days shows I never used the Quick Launch toolbar. So, why do I have a Windows XP virtual machine running under Linux? Yesterday morning,Continue reading “So Smart I’m Dumb”

Office Space, Three Years On

Last week, Diamond entered the fourth year of work-from-home. I work out of the offices two or three days a week — it depends on the kind of work I’m doing and the projects I’m working on — and have, honestly, since the end of March 2020, but full time in the office, for mostContinue reading “Office Space, Three Years On”