How I've Been Spending Time

[And How I've Been Keeping Track Of It All]

Right now, we are selling our house, buying a new house in Madison, finishing Kat's graduation plans, and finishing wedding plans -- some of the most stressful things one can do in a life. And we're doing all of them within a couple of months. Things seem to be moving along well, though. I'll have more definite news on the first two things on the list by the end of the week.

To keep track of everything, I've been using Backpack for lists, and Google Calendar for organizing time. Similarly, Kat was looking for a replacement for her current email/calendar setup with Outlook and her school/cox email accounts. She has been thinking about a Gmail account for some time Add Google Calendar [GCal for the rest of this post], and you've got something, at least via web access.

I set up Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook, at least for email. Thunderchicken [as Kat calls it] just reached version 2.0, which has some new bells & whistles. The trick was finding a way to access Google Calendar when away from internet access. I have tried out Calgoo, a stand-alone application that syncs up with your GCal, and allows you to work offline. I like it pretty well, since I only use web-based email. However, for Kat, we wanted an all-in-one solution.

Then my friend Max chimed in. Max is an award winning comic book creator, diligent reader of Lifehacker, and all around internet resource. He found a post on how to add use your GCal through Thunderbird. The Lifehacker blog post is here, but the actual how-to article is here. Basically, you need to add Lightning, a calender plug-in for Thunderbird. Then you need to add the Google Calender Provider Extension. There are more steps, but the article takes you through them pretty well.

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Also in the world of the interwebs, I am excited about the new features over at Achewood. Chris Onstad has some pretty rabid fans. Just look at the Great Outdoor Fight fan site, and all the fan-created lore there. Give them a chance to rate & discuss the actual comics, and they're going to go ape wild.

I say "them" but I mean "us."

I admit to being a pretty big Achewood dork. I talk it up whenever I can, and support Mr. Onstad by buying merchandise when I can. I've only gone through the archive once or twice, so I don't know if I qualify for "rabid" status.

That said, I think I'll be revisiting some older favorites, which are much easier to find now. I'm not sure when the archive switched over, but now you can view a month's worth of thumbnails at once. That seems a pretty intuitive way to find a strip. Then again, you can always search for dialogue on the  main page. The search box should be below the comic.

Comments

[bizz]

ive tried most of the options you listed and i have to say calgoo (www.calgoo.com) is my favorite. i need to access my schedule at all times and im not always around a net connection so its nice to have the option. also the outlook import freed me from outlook and i could finally fully migrate away from the microsoft beast without losing all my appointments.

bizz

[Holtmann]

Almost time for the six-month update, Ben.

M.

[Holtmann]

Or the seven-month update.

M.

[Holtmann]

And as we near the one year anniversary of your last post, I'd like to remind you how much I miss your musings, Ben. Should you ever return to this site to dust it off, know that your reading public waits in the wings.