Part of my month long voluntary semi-vacation from Steemit was to sort out why my PC had slowed down to the point it tripled and quadroubled the time for me to write a post here. Part of this was during the timeframe that Steemit was under some sort of attack, and many of us were able to use busy.org or chainbb to post...but that didnt help my own troubleshooting efforts.

Just when I thought I had that sorted out, and could start to write effectively again, the legal suit I was involved in ate up another couple of weeks.

And today, when I start trying to get back into the groove, my damn reference database (Zotero) started effing around again, and locking up all my (PC) memory. At least I was able to trace the problem to Zotero pretty quickly this time. As of a few moments ago, I have downloaded an update, so we'll see if this does the trick.

• Gripe One - tech types are always screwing with interfaces and with underlying mechanics. Stop that shit. Those of us whose paychecks rely on getting work done, and NOT on justifying a paycheck with new "innovations", work more efficiently with a consistent workflow, and not by constantly relearning UIs and troubleshooting tech problems. I'm going to end my rant against SW developers at this point, because it threatens to spill completely out of control

• Gripe Two - is there some reason that platform devs cant at least try to adhere to some interoperability standards? Firefox makes a change, Zotero loses some function; Zotero does an update, then Firefox doesn't work as well. Hell, I used to see that Firefox always slowed down if I didn't update Adobe Flash manually (and I never saw anyone discuss the problem on the net either). damn it, I want to write, not to troubleshoot

• Gripe Three - Just a gripe, no "policy suggestion". Social obligations and IRL issues seem to multiply when not tended to quickly. OTOH, sometimes hanging out creates more social obligations. And on the third hand, the fact that I need much less social times w/ friends than they do with me tends to put them on the defensive...A friend of me asked me if she annoyed me...well no, not generally, but I want to work now...cant really say that, now can I? ;>
  And don't get me rolling on car inspections and registrations and endless hours of needless paperwork. Computers were supposed to make this crap less burdensome, and yet it seems to have the opposite affect.

I will end on a positive note

I don't feel as pressured to do Information War posts with as much urgency as I did. I am starting to see indicators that Trump & company is working on the issue. Whether that is going to happen or not, I won't bet on, but my own urgency and feelings of being behind the gun are mitigated right now.

I'd be relaxed if I didn't have to uncluster the reference DB ;>