Comic Cuts - 21 December 2018

I'm at the end of week number three with nothing particularly new to report. I'm still working up company profiles for a revamped website relating to a locally published franchising magazine. As of Thursday afternoon I've written 14—a total of just over 19,650 words, so they're averaging about 1,400 words each. I'll have written over 100,000 words by the time I finish all 75.

Good news: we had some feedback from a firm relating to the first few profiles I wrote and they seem happy with them. This was an SEO report—Search Engine Optimization, which is the vital internet tool de jour as it helps make your website or webpage more visible, as it ranks higher in Google searches. We've been given a few pointers about how to make a few minor changes to the text to make it work better with Google's algorithms and make it more relevant to the kind of searches that people are likely to do in search of the companies we're covering.

The only thing that has changed from week one to week three is that I'm now listening to a podcast that's being played by my new tablet. Rather than lug my old laptop into the office every day, and lug it home again, as it sits next to the bed so I can play DVDs before dropping off to sleep, or play audio if I wake up early (I've been listening to old recordings of The Unbelievable Truth for a bit of fun).

Rather than risk damage to what is still a usable machine despite its age—I think I must have got it in around 2003 because it is still running Windows XP, and XP wasn't that old when I got the laptop—I've spent some of my wages on a neat little tablet which runs Windows 10, has a little keyboard built into the cover, and enough storage space for me to take a dozen folders of various podcasts, including a couple of music podcasts (The European Perspective, Progzilla Radio) and a bunch of interview podcasts that I sometimes let build up (Book Shambles, Rule of Three, Like I'm a Six Year Old, The Adam Buxton Podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, The Allusionist, etc.).

Unfortunately, I'd just loaded the hard drive up when Windows decided it needed to do a major update and I had to dump everything because Windows takes up 12gb of the 32gb storage... and required 10gb of space to do the update. I'm thinking that I might have to treat myself to a 128gb SD card just to avoid having to dump everything I've loaded onto the machine every time Windows wants to fix the various problems of its own making.

And I might treat myself—having just treated myself to the tablet itself and the docking case with keyboard—to some decent headphones, as I had to borrow the little earphones I'm using.

That's pretty much all the news I have as I've not had much time for anything else. I'm spending my lunchtimes trekking down to the nearby Tesco to buy fresh rolls for lunch each day and a few bits for Christmas (I bought mince pies today) so that I don't have to do everything at the weekend.

I now have a week and a bit off, so you may find some odds and ends posted that I've had hanging around for some while and a couple of things tied in with some of the books and magazines I've put up on eBay. It all depends on what I can get lined up on Saturday because Sunday we're planning to go for a couple of long walks and Monday is when the Christmas celebrations kick off.

If I don't get another chance to say it, or you don't get another chance to pop by, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and that you have a great time over New Year. Don't drink if you're driving and don't drink anything you haven't kept an eye on. And if you have to drink, make sure you have a designated sober pal to hold your hair and help you home. You are a select group of readers and I want you all back here a safely in 2019!