I used to share nap time with my youngest. Well… it was nap time for me. Or it was supposed to be. I’d lie down for a nap and he’d tumble into the bed and decide that it was play-time. He’d offer me his blankie, I’d accept, snuggle it, and then he’d steal it away. I would petulantly say "hey!" and he would giggle. Then he’d offer it again. Repeat.

It was called "The hey game." 

I lay down for a power-nap about 45 minutes ago and discovered that my youngest, now almost eight years old, had left his blankie in my bed. It’s a nice, thermal item — too small to be an adult blanket, but perfect for wrapping around a bald head, turban-style. I did so.

Nobody stole it from me. On the one hand that left me longing for the days when my children were younger. On the other hand, I got a nice, warm nap with a blankie wrapped around my head.

Sometimes the good things in life are better when they’re enjoyed while savoring the memories of other good things in life.

I’ve been harboring three big worries about Doctor Who for the last several months.

1) The Professor River Song story seemed to be broken.
2) The trailers showed The Doctor punching someone.
3) The trailers showed The Doctor firing a pistol.

As of right now, all three of my concerns have been put to rest (though in truth #2 and #3 didn’t worry me all that much.) I’m confident that The Doctor remains true to the overarching elements of his character, and that the River Song story has not only not been broken, it’s going to rock the Tardis. 

I’m also of the opinion that Stephen Moffat is going to succeed in turning the Weeping Angels into a returning Doctor Who villain worthy of upstaging the Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen (all of whom have been played pretty far past their shelf life, so upstaging shouldn’t be a big trick.)

In short, I’m really, really happy with Season 5 thus far. 

So.. I just confessed to replacing XP with a drive-scrubbing clean install of Windows 7. Why didn’t I move to Linux instead? 

Three things, really:

1) Text boxes in Microsoft Word 2003: These things have defined my process for creating scripts, and are now so integral that I can’t imagine life without them. I tried Open Office, and the boxes didn’t work right. No Open Office means no Linux.

2) Photoshop’s learning curve: I’ve figured out how to make Photoshop do what I want it to do. GIMP may do all those things, but I’d have to learn how to make it do that. I’m not interested in spending time learning how to do what I already know how to do. I’d rather spend that time learning something new that makes the comic better.

3) InDesign and my Print Broker: I have to use InDesign to make books. It’s not available on Linux. Books are my livelihood. End of argument.

We can shout about technological superiority, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, market forces, and disruptive innovation until we’re BSoD in the face. Ultimately everybody complaining about my choice of OS will realize with frustration that I quite amenably agree with most all of their points. 

What it comes down to, really, is that I love the idea of open-source software, but I don’t want to use it. Sure, sure, if everybody felt that way then open-source software would die, but everyone CAN’T feel that way. Humanity, even just the computer-using slice of it, is just too diverse. So I can choose freely without worrying that I’m somehow hurting the cause.

The open-source movement has gained enough momentum, Linux and Open Office have enough market penetration that Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and others must compete aggressively for customers. They have to bring their ‘A’ game, and they have to play HARD. In that world I, the customer, win EVERY TIME. Even when I choose something too expensive and technologically inferior, I’m still choosing something that is worlds better than it would have been without the competitive marketplace.

When I worked at Novell I felt very passionate about what was on my computer. I loved certain software because my friends had helped to make it, and I was helping them sell more of it. These days I have no such connection with what I run, and that’s okay. It leaves me free to run what I believe will work best for me, and I’m pretty sure my friends at Novell, Apache, UTOSC, and Penguicon will understand. Though only indirectly, their excellent work makes my life better.