Well I’m back from my little 10 day break up to Scotland and, as you can see, I didn’t do too well in the keeping the blog updated department. My time away wasn’t a total washout though work wise. My little test run has opened my eyes to a few things.

• Blogging - I know myself and having to stick to a routine while I’m on the go will kill me. If I even attempt to blog more than 4 times a week I know I’m going to end up drop kicking my computer into a river. I love the blogging thing but for me it will be just as enjoyable to skip a post here and there as it will be to keep on top of things. I’m expecting that once I start travelling I’ll have a lot to share with everyone so my focus will be on quality instead of quantity.
• Working on my websites - I was only able to hide myself away twice, each for several hours but I managed to get a lot done in that time. Because I didn’t have wifi, I was sat at my uncle’s desktop doing research and doing the actual work on my laptop. Having two screens is handy! A major obstacle that I’ll have to sort out is how to work on my sites when I’m offline. I use the PHP equivalent of Server Side Includes (SSI) which means that I need to view my sites online because offline they’re just bits and pieces of separate code. I could still do content updates but it just makes things messy and confusing. It’s something I hadn’t even thought of so I’m glad to have the chance to sort things out before hitting the road.
• New laptop - My new laptop has been great! I think I am in love with it. Well maybe not yet… it needs to buy me dinner first. And then maybe get me drunk. I didn’t come across any wifi in Scotland so I still have to see how quick it is online but the battery lasts for 5 hours and I’m getting used to the keyboard and small screen.
• Software - I loaded Adobe Photoshop and it runs really well. It’s already got Explorer and Firefox and I want to get Illustrator too since I’ll have a lot of time on my hands and want to spend some of it learning new things. Other than that there’s not a whole lot going on as far as software is concerned. I’ll need to put an FTP program on it and I might make the switch from Notepad to a better text editor. I might even start using Notepad++. I am one crazy mofo.
• Carting my stuff around - I bought a courier style bag that sits on one hip with a strap that goes over the opposite shoulder. It has plenty of space for my computer and SLR and lenses but things were starting to get heavy so I left my camera at home this time. I guess I’ll have to get used to it because I’ll want to carry all my valuable stuff with me when I travel from place to place. I’m really going to concentrate on packing light because I think I had too much going up to Scotland and my shoulders were pretty sore.

So all up I’m pretty pleased with my first little laptop adventure. I even busted it out at the airport and felt all cool and sophisticated. That didn’t last long though. I’m really glad I took my computer up to Scotland for a dummy run. I’ve got a few things to sort out before taking off on the real trip in a couple months. I’m already counting down the days!

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