When Gizmodo alerted me to the fact that Intrepid Ibex, the latest version of popular Linux distro Ubuntu, was out for download, the early adopter in me screamed, “upgrade!” So today, I spent the entirety of the day away from the computer and on my iPhone as Ubuntu upgraded to 8.10. Finally, after ten hours of waiting, the process is complete. Hello, Ibex!

This isn’t a huge release for Ubuntu. It’s not a Long-Term Support (LTS) release unlike 8.04, Hardy Heron, so nothing radical has changed. It has enhanced driver support though—my TravelMate’s WiFi button light thing, which didn’t use to blink, does now. There’s also this new utility in System -> Administration -> create a USB startup disk. It does exactly that—create a USB startup disk from which you can boot Linx. I unfortunately don’t have a spare flash drive lying around, but will see to it to try this thing out when I do.

As I said, this isn’t a major release. The next LTS they’ll be putting out is 9.04, codename Jaunty Jackalope. Its due date is relatively far off—April of next year, says Gizmodo—but I’m psyched nonetheless.

There’s nothing much to say about Ibex, except that you should probably download it now. If you already have Hardy Heron on your system, upgrading’s easy (albeit, with speeds like mine, painfully time-consuming).

Ooh, and the National Novel Writing Month starts in about half an hour. Weeee!

Book cover of my NaNoWriMo project.

The National Novel Writing Month begins in just 24 hours, and I’m participating for the first time! I’m going to use a long-forgotten plot from a story in one of my abandoned Mibba accounts, and my novel is tentatively titled “Calhoun Beach”. I even have a book cover already!

NaNoWriMo, as the project is often called, is a monthlong event that encourages you to write that novel you got around to doing. The goal is 50,000 words by the end of November, and you win if you get to—or better yet surpass—that threshold.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, although I only began dabbling in novel/story writing in my freshman high school year after seeing some friends doing it (“it” being writing, of course, you naughty boy/girl you). I can’t tell you how many novels I’d begun to write and scrapped because I was discouraged by my own work.

But the NaNoWriMo’s all about hussle. It doesn’t matter how bad your writing will become, how senseless your plots will turn out to be, or how gooey your brain will be at the end of the month. What will matter is that you write.

If you’re an aspiring novelist who’s never gotten around to writing your masterpiece, NaNoWriMo might just be the spark to ignite your career. Head on over to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up. When you’re done, add me to your buddy list—my user handle over there’s dlozarie.

Oh, and semestral break hasn’t been as productive as I hoped it would be. It’s back to school this Monday, but I plan to write, write, and write (blog posts) over the weekend to catch up. (For now, I’m plurking and looking to upgrade my Ubuntu install—8.10, Intrepid Ibex, is out!) I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t taken care of my blog as much as I ought to, but what the hey.

I’ve also implemented a new theme on the blog, and it’s something I created myself. Yay me! If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you might want to check it out. Feedback is welcome. If you spot a bug, please, please, please report it through my contact page. Thankies!