Ye Olde Rad Blog

Been considering adding a new feature to the site. Previously, I told myself I was going to concentrate on maintaining the guides I already have. They all require periodic updating. I planned to focus on *quality*, rather than quantity .. but lately, I've been jonesin' to create something new. The features listed in the 'New' category to your left are no longer new.

One idea for a new feature that I've been kicking around is a detailed guide to installing Windows. By that, I mean taking a new system from blank hard drive to Ghost image. This would include the installation all device drivers, such as chipset drivers, Windows service packs and updates, and basic Windows configuration.

The process involves many steps, each with its own set of variables. While there is no official "correct" procedure, there are some common-sense principles, that if ignored, can cause problems. There are guides already out there, but I've yet to find one that my friends couldn't take and screw up with. =)

It surprises me how many of my buddies wind up with IRQ conflicts and yellow exclamation points in their device manager after installing a fresh copy of Windows, and experience the strangest problems afterwards. They obviously did something wrong. The paths to Windows Nirvana is fraught with many pitfalls. I know: I've fallen into most of them. =/

The problem: is I know that this project would take more time than I'm willing to commit to it right now. In my head, I think I can crank out this guide in an hour or two. But I've learned that this is never the case. Especially to do it right. Every guide you see posted here took way longer to complete than I originally envisioned it would.

Another project I've been considering is a guided tour to my town: Laguna Beach. Laguna is a cool place. Weird, but cool. The people who live here are known as Lagunatics, and for good reason. Laguna is an artist's community, a beautiful place to live. There's no place like it.

When you first visit Laguna, the people here seem weird. They are into weird stuff, like getting massages, taking yoga classes, vegetarian diets, relaxation techniques, and all that tree-hugging crap associated with a salubrious lifestyle. But after you live here a while, the rest of the world starts to seem weird .. by that I mean uptight, shallow, concerned with unimportant trivia.

I mean, what could be more important than getting a double-shot of wheat-grass before your massage with "Terri the healer" after morning yoga class. I am trying to resist becoming one of "them", but it's a hopeless battle I'm waging. This means I should probably crank out a Radified guide to Laguna Beach while I still have an objective bone left in my body. I just received a gift certificate for a month's worth of yoga classes. So it won't be long.

Maybe one day soon, I'll take my digital camera into town, and borrow a friend's video camcorder, and take you along with me. I could probably get some aspiring, young models to stand in the shots and help show you the weird, cool, beautiful place where I live. Of course, you'll learn all the dirty, little secrets that you'll never find on the official site. The first idea would garner more traffic, but this one would be more fun.