My other additions to the site include a flavicon, which is the little logo you should now be able to see next to the URL at the top of the screen, or in the title bar of the tab this site’s open in, if you’re using tabbed browsing, and a simple line break to separate posts in place of the rather obtrusive borders I had before. Also, I re-enabled comments on all posts, so you should all feel free to tell me what you think about anything.

Minor as these changes are, they herald the beginning of further updates and improvements I have planned for the site, which have unfortunately been delayed by the apparent death of my computer. Yes, I thought it would be a good idea to reinstall my OS with a newer version of Linux Ubuntu and at the same time sort out some problems I’d been having for a while. Naturally I predicted there would be problems, wireless internet being one of the prime culprits, but I didn’t expect the computer to completely freeze multiple times halfway through installation or, even after installation, at random intervals every few minutes, forcing me to reboot.

At first I blamed the new Ubuntu, nicknamed in the quirky Ubuntu tradition ‘Jaunty Jackalope’, but I had the same problem reinstalling the previous version, ‘Intrepid Ibek’. Consequently I removed the case to check for overheating, and discovered the fan on my graphics card had stopped working and the whole thing was becoming horrendously hot.

I took out the graphics card and tried to reinstall ‘intrepid’ while I worked out if the fan was completely bust or not. It turned out it was just clogged up with dust, which I delicately cleaned out with a bent paper-clip (which has remained with the other tools in my drawer for quite some time now, and has proven surprisingly useful for a multitude of tasks).

‘Intrepid Ibek’ Ubuntu did eventually install, by which time I had built up in unexpectedly multitudinous collection of dust bunnies from the tiny fan and heat-synch, but only to experience again the aforementioned problems. I reinstated the graphics card, the fan which is now so unhealthily loud that it can be heard throughout the whole house, and resolved to reinstall Windows XP, lest it should be a sudden problem with Linux that my computer developed.

Well, that ‘installed’ alright, or so it seemed, because now my computer can’t get past the splash screen; it just goes black. So something is seriously wrong with that computer, that’s obviously not a software problem, but is very possible the result of something overheating and burning out.

To be fair, the computer is now either four or five years old (I forget which) and the graphics card only a few months younger, so I suppose this was inevitable. Still, I am left at something of a loose end with regards to the writing I planned to do and the updating of this site, not least because I’m looking for a job at the moment with little success and without any supplement to my current funds, shall have £160 to live on until September, once all my rent is paid, and not accounting for any bills I have to pay when we move house in August. So, unless I dip into my savings account or scrounge some money off my father, perhaps with the incentive that I tried really hard at uni this year and got good grades, I can’t really afford a new computer.

(By the way, anyone reading this want to hire an aspiring writer?)

Fortunately, I do have my Eee PC, a marvelous little machine which, although an updated model was released at a lower price-point within weeks of me getting my first-generation one, remains handy whenever, for whatever reason, I don’t have access to my main desktop. In fact, it’s what I’m typing this post on right now, rather awkwardly though, due to its minuscule keyboard (which I can still touch-type on and would take any day over any normal-sized laptop keyboard), and small screen, which causes some awkward formatting on pages such as the WordPress dashboard.

Anyway, when I am back with a large keyboard and screen, I shall begin work on the new improved The Aspiring Writer, which should hopefully be more attractive, receive greater traffic, have a larger diversity of articles including some ‘how to’ posts as soon as I work out some subjects on which I know slightly more than the next person, and should hopefully at least offset to some extent the cost of running this site.

Until then, keep checking back, because I will continue to post at my regular irregular pace,

Henry.