I don't really feel much like writing a post but I think it's high time I did. Wait, let me go start boiling some water for tea and throwing things in the washer first.
*50 minutes later*
Okay so I did those things, including making the guest bed for Laura and Nathan who'll be here tonight and drilling a hole in the cap of my spanking brand new usb drive. Okay, technically it's a usb card reader for micro sdhc cards, but a card can live in it. It's insanely small - see specs at Amazon.com.
Some of the comments were suggesting drilling a small hole in the cap so it can also be attached to the small lanyard loop thing provided. That way, less chance of losing it (unless you lose the whole thing, and then you have other things you worry about).
I was stumped where I was going to put it. I didn't want it with any of my keys - I plan to be using it at work and since I'm not always right at the desk I don't want to leave my keys out in the open or have to unplug it every single time I was going to show a patron where a book was. My work ID was a better option but still not great. I also want to plug it into my computer at home and something less bulky and/or prettier was preferable. For someone who collected keychains while growing up there is a surprising dearth of them at this house.
Result? A beaded bracelet with a spring string that can be quickly slipped on and off the wrist. I've had the bracelet for years (I don't even remember where I got it) but haven't used it much. I like it and this is a great way to use it. It does look a little silly but it could look worse. Perhaps I'll raid my collection of keychains next time I visit my parents' house.
I've also been vigorously organizing my family history research using GRAMPS. I tried the software before and went "Bleahhh so much manual entry," but really, it's an amazing tool. The manual entry is kind of a pain but once it's in there, it's there. In GEDCOM format, no less. I love the ability to add multiple entries for the same type of event, such as two birthdates for the same person, and being able to say which one came from what source. I also enjoy how easy it is to change things and welcome the census add-on. It's far from perfect and not terribly intuitive but it's much better than writing a raw GEDCOM file. Or having a tangled mess of text files, pdfs, and other documents in a computer folder.
I should say that I attempted to use a wiki (TiddlyWiki) to organize it all for the first part of this year. But it feels like a mess, no matter how hard I try to set up and stick to a organization system. It's easier to navigate and view the source text, but the wiki document would only work on FF on my computer (not Chrome or on a Windows computer), name changes meant having to change the wiki link wherever the person was referenced, and attaching actual documents such as jpegs or pdfs is not possible (or at least I couldn't find a way to do it). I also briefly tested out many other kinds of wikis, including http://www.wikispaces.com/
*50 minutes later*
Okay so I did those things, including making the guest bed for Laura and Nathan who'll be here tonight and drilling a hole in the cap of my spanking brand new usb drive. Okay, technically it's a usb card reader for micro sdhc cards, but a card can live in it. It's insanely small - see specs at Amazon.com.
Some of the comments were suggesting drilling a small hole in the cap so it can also be attached to the small lanyard loop thing provided. That way, less chance of losing it (unless you lose the whole thing, and then you have other things you worry about).
I was stumped where I was going to put it. I didn't want it with any of my keys - I plan to be using it at work and since I'm not always right at the desk I don't want to leave my keys out in the open or have to unplug it every single time I was going to show a patron where a book was. My work ID was a better option but still not great. I also want to plug it into my computer at home and something less bulky and/or prettier was preferable. For someone who collected keychains while growing up there is a surprising dearth of them at this house.
Result? A beaded bracelet with a spring string that can be quickly slipped on and off the wrist. I've had the bracelet for years (I don't even remember where I got it) but haven't used it much. I like it and this is a great way to use it. It does look a little silly but it could look worse. Perhaps I'll raid my collection of keychains next time I visit my parents' house.
I've also been vigorously organizing my family history research using GRAMPS. I tried the software before and went "Bleahhh so much manual entry," but really, it's an amazing tool. The manual entry is kind of a pain but once it's in there, it's there. In GEDCOM format, no less. I love the ability to add multiple entries for the same type of event, such as two birthdates for the same person, and being able to say which one came from what source. I also enjoy how easy it is to change things and welcome the census add-on. It's far from perfect and not terribly intuitive but it's much better than writing a raw GEDCOM file. Or having a tangled mess of text files, pdfs, and other documents in a computer folder.
I should say that I attempted to use a wiki (TiddlyWiki) to organize it all for the first part of this year. But it feels like a mess, no matter how hard I try to set up and stick to a organization system. It's easier to navigate and view the source text, but the wiki document would only work on FF on my computer (not Chrome or on a Windows computer), name changes meant having to change the wiki link wherever the person was referenced, and attaching actual documents such as jpegs or pdfs is not possible (or at least I couldn't find a way to do it). I also briefly tested out many other kinds of wikis, including http://www.wikispaces.com/
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