destabee | (no subject) (Reply)

The last few days have been incredibly intense and busy. I have class off campus today and it doesn't start until 1 so I took a bit of time for me this morning. Well sort of for me, I took time to pay some bills, start a load of laundry, and similar sorts of things before heading out. As I did these things, the following thoughts were brewing.

I need to shift things around and get rid of my desktop computer. I use it for two and a half things. (1) to print -- not necessary as I could simply install the appropriate drivers and arrange my desk so that I can print from my laptop easily. (2) for quicken (easy enough to add quicken to a laptop and copy the data files over) and (2.5) I sometimes shift to my desktop when I want to use a mouse rather than the mouse pad on my laptop or when I want a larger screen for some reason.

Advantages of getting rid of the desktop (which probably means taking it my office as it is a better systgem than the one campus provides for me -- more space here and better computer there. Seems like a no brainer. The question is do I do this now or upgrade to a new laptop first. If I upgrade, I am not sure what to get. I would like to go with a Mac but that isn't in the budget within the next few months. I suppose I could make it fit into the budget but at the cost of several other goals (HAI and debt reduction for starters and it would make moving this summer less likely). Not sure going MAC is worth all that. Feel free to try and convince me otherwise.

I also need to figure out if there is a way to save settings for things such as bookmarks, favorites, preferences, profiles and such to a USB drive so that I can make my firefox and seamagic experience similar as I go from home, to office, to off campus teaching location, to computer lab on campus. The alternative is to start carrying my laptop with me from place to place which seems unnecessary.

Professional service I could use: I need to hire someone who could do the research on purchases or figure out the process for doing something. Someone to whom I could give basic parameters (e.g., I need a computer that will do X and have $$ to spend, or I would like to go on a vacation that has attribute set M but don't know where to go, stay, etc., or I would like to start a business or get a liscense of of a given type in state Y). The person in question could then do leg work of putting together a list of options that fit my purchasing needs along with estimates or make the calls/search the net and find out what steps are involved and where you go to do each of those things and present you with a briefing/map forward.

I suppose this is a combination of life coach and personal shopper. Maybe most people don't need this service but it is the stage where I get bogged down when it comes to moving toward goals. I am ashamed to admit how little I understand about the world outside of academia. If you want to get a Ph.D. or go back to college, I can walk you through that process. If I need to buy a new refrigerator, I am about as useful as a 12 year old. I easily become overwhelmed with information and options and end up doing one of two things: (1) giving up before I really get started or (2) spending money unwisely by using the strategy of buying the most/best I can afford in case I need the features in the future or buying something that doesn't meet my needs and thereby waste money.