It was one of those 'I'll settle in and get everything done I need to get done' weekends. Or it was meant to be.

Did it happen?

Did it buggary!!

I can't even remember what happened on the different days other than I it was chaos and I now have far more grey than I did before. Here's the round up...

I screwed up my laptop. Pure and simple. I was installing a program and it went 'Urrrk! Not having that' and died on me. Did the 'boot up, windows did not shut down properly, start windows normally?' milarky. Only it didn't start windows, normally, abnormally or any other bloody way. Twenty four hours and three failed recovery attempts later and I called it quits and it's now in the repair shop getting stripped and vista *hiss* reinstalled.

So now I'm back on my old XP machine, which has had all the rubbish programs stripped off it and pretty much just contains word, photoshop, firefox and IM. My base necessities so to speak, although at a pinch I can get by without photoshop for a while. But not at the moment, since I have a cover to complete in the next couple of days.

On the plus side, this particular little rainstorm came with a silver (or at least pewter) lining. In an attempt to do something else I dragged out an OLD OLD laptop. It's a compaq presario 2100, about six years old. It looks like a brick and it's got under 200mb ram. I've only kept it because it was my first laptop and I was kinda sentimental. It's battery is useless so it only runs on mains power and because the power got cut it screwed windows as well. Now, I'm not going to pay to have something that old stripped and rebuilt buuuuuuuut...

In the midst of my 'oh hell, what do I do to get this back?' nightmare with the big Vista laptop (which could eat this one for breakfast seriously) I came across a mention of something called 'Puppy Linux' which is a whole operating system which boots from a CD or USB. So, I thought what the hell. It's useless as it is and this thing says it won't alter anything on the pc anyway. I didn't have anything to loose so I downloaded it and burnt it to disc (fairly simple, burn the iso to a disc, make sure it's bootable).

It works!!

It's so simple it's unreal. Booted first time from the disc and there's a little bit of setup - basically asking you what mouse you have and what keyboard layout you want - and it was there. The interface is a little clunky compared to windows but hell, it's running at lightening speeds on something out the ark!! Amazing.

I've not played a lot with it yet but the basic install has enough toys to get you up and running on basic officey type tasks. It has a word processor and a spreadsheet program. It EVEN connected to my wireless set up here using a real dodgy old BT voyager card - all with the minimum of fuss.

To say I am impressed is an understatement. It removes the - if my pc screws up how am I going to get to the interwebz or work? - issue. I'm still a windows person because there are no alternatives to word and photoshop for what I need them for (that I'm aware of) but hell, this has definately made me think about these things and look more into alternatives. And the fact that they can run on old kit impresses me (part scot so I don't like throwing ANYTHING away).

Even better Mr C - who is the biggest technophobe out there - LIKES the interface. He cannot work windows but this one? He was off and playing happily within a few minutes. Sure all he wants to do is look at youtube but he has his own mail now AND he can get to it. You never know he might actually do more than look at porn one day.

So, Puppy Linux is over here if you're looking.. http://www.puppylinux.org/

Okay, moving on now we have the PC dealy out the way....

Dark Diva Reviews gave Rockstar 4 delightful divas :D

"...the heroine, Zette Mathews, was the Rock star. She’s not an arrogant character but one that I could identify with, sexy, talented and unspoiled. In addition, I was thrilled that Zette wasn’t a perfect model thin type but had curves like most women... A little blackmail added some nice tension and a jumping off point for the story. The sex scenes were enticing and had the right mix of physical and emotion... J.J succeeded in being a better man to get his woman and I was glad to see a happy ending.

Overall, I would recommend Rockstar for a fun read about a strong heroine."

Read the full review

Four divas :D I'm off doing the tigger dance again to day and after the weekend, that review was wonderful. Em Epe also mentions Logan, who is one of the secondary characters in Rockstar. She mentions that she'd like to see a story about Logan *grins happily* I'm really impressed with that, that Logan caught the imagination as he is the hero of 'Playing with Fyre'. I know it's not done to request reviewers based on comments they've made in reviews but when Fyre comes out I'm kinda hoping Em Epe reviews it as well. Would be cool to see what she thought of it and whether it lived up to expectations. :D

Dark Embrace has a release date! It's on the Cobblestone Press release schedule for 1st May which is this friday!! My heads all in a whirl at the moment but it's all good :D So friday night will be party night. I'm fairly sure there's a release day chat on friday night. I'll gather more details and post them up before then!