Sick...As...A Dog

All of these kids I've been seeing the past month carry some nasty germs, and I was afraid that it was only a matter of time before I too got ill. I was a little sick over the Thanksgiving week with some sinus congestion and cough. That went away within 4 or 5 days and I thought I dodged the major bullett. However, starting this week I've felt pretty bad all week. On Tuesday I went to bed at 9:30. On Wednesday I went to bed at 4:30. I've been sleeping a lot lately. I just have this nagging cough, chills, muscle aches, and fatigue. I don't feel like doing anything but rest. I haven't missed any work but it's pretty difficult to work when feeling like this and honestly I probably should've missed, especially on Friday. I can't remember the last time I have been this sick for this long. It has been a really long time. I think I might get my flu shot next year. I always pass on it because I never got sick in the past.

I'm still using my 2005 Dell XPS desktop for my main computer and it was becoming a mess. It had three operating systems on it, including a corrupted version of XP that was worthless. My Ubuntu kept giving me warnings about being low on hard drive space so I thought it was time to upgrade my system and clean things up a bit. Doing this was one of my goals for the weekend and I got the project done despite being sick.

I did a clean install with Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot). They've made a lot of changes to the GUI on this new version compared to the old one. The big thing is that they've added a Mac style task bar that sits on the left of the screen instead of the bottom. Also, following in Apple's path, they've placed all of the "file" and "edit" buttons for programs on the very top task bar within the OS itself, separate from the window the program is actually running in. Those of you who have used Apple computers will know what I'm talking about, otherwise this might be a bit confusing. Suffice it to say there are enough new changes that were made that it feels almost like using a new computer for free! Also an important thing to note was the ease of install. Ubuntu continues to make this distribution of Linux more and more user friendly. I got my printer to install with no problem at all this time. I haven't had time to mess with the network settings but have my fingers crossed that sharing folders won't be too difficult.





The feature I'm really excited about is the VirtualBox program. This time, instead of having a dual boot system where I have to restart the computer every time I want to get into Windows (yes, I still have to use Windows occasionally), I am using a program which simulates a different computer to run Windows within Ubuntu, which means no more restarts. Thus far I have had no difficulties (Excluding the phone call I had to make to Microsoft because apparently when you try to install an "upgrade" version of Windows on a computer that doesn't already have Windows, the product key doesn't work. This is so stupid and typical of Microsoft. Luckily they fixed the issue but I was prepared to go off over the phone if they told me I had to buy a different version.) with the program and it seems to be running fine, so I'm really excited about this integration.

I also got an electronic car starter for my car from my parents this weekend for Christmas. I'm pretty excited about this too. It's so James Bond like. It will be nice to have on those snowy and icy mornings.