What would you rather have:

• An overstuffed filing cabinet that so full the drawers can’t be closed?
• No filing cabinet at all because there’s no need for one?

No Filing Cabinet Gets My Vote

No doubt you’ve heard of cloud computing, right? It’s the concept of all our software applications, data files, photos, etc. stored on a server in a distant location and not on our computers. Doing so would keep our computers running lean and blazingly fast.

Wired.com’s Gadget Lab blog has a post that talks about Google’s plan for releasing the Chrome OS on netbooks in the second half of 2010.

Read the post here.

Here’s what I like about the concept:

1. All my applications will be online (like my WordPress blog files, images, and software) and not on my hard drive.
2. My hard drive (if there’s one at all) won’t get clogged with errant code from Microsoft.
3. I’ll be able to access my data from anywhere and on any computer.

I’m In the Cloud Already

Of course, there are limitations to this model but I’m already doing this with WordPress, Google Reader, Google Documents, and Gmail.

So I’m pretty stoked about the possibility of this time next year blogging and doing business from a netbook computer that I can carry anywhere.

What About You?

How do you feel about Google holding your files? Does it make you nervous? Or ecstatic like me? Tell me how you feel about it in a comment, won’t you?

Years ago, in the 70s when I was a teenager, a popular TV show called Love American Style introduced many of my contemporaries to the wonderful world of love and, sometimes, the ofent ill-fated side.

Each week’s episode featured tv stars of the day in one or two episodes that usually followed the same format:

• Boy meets girl.
• Boy woos girl.
• Boy loses girl.
• Boy and girl end up together.

It was kind of corny, but hey, it was the 70′s!  (Speaking of corny, you should see my pictures from the Age of Disco.  )

OK, so my life didn’t imitate art. (term loosely used)

There was nothing corny about my reaction to receiving an email from Rachel over at SingleMomSeeking last night letting me know that she and Dr. Leah would be ‘sending me some love’ via their jointly penned  blog, SingleMommyhood.

Of course, solo-parent bloggers have a special place in my heart, but these two jewels have often left comments here on Solo-Dad that have lifted me in those not-so-high times and encouragement when it was needed the most.

I was honored to be listed in Part I of their Father’s Day post.

Thank again Rachel and Dr. Leah. You both remind me how wonderful love is and how it arrives in unexpected ways.

If you’re not already reading their blogs, click below and see what you’re missing.

The immediate feedback from one reader has given me pause to think about the future of Solo-Dad.

As I mentioned in this (the only) post, during my upgrade to WordPress 2.8 the database that WP uses to access posts was overwritten/deleted. I’m not sure which.

I’ve been in touch with my hosting technical support folks.  They’ve managed to restore the content folder containing the images for the site, but the posts seem to be buried in my downloaded database backup file which, strangely enough, is password protected and evading efforts to unlock it.

Going Forward

That I enjoy blogging is a no-brainer.  I’ve been a professional writer in both self-employed and employed environments.

I can’t ‘not write.’ It’s not possible.

The issue I face is whether or not Solo-Dad meets a need for readers.  As I look back on the Solo-Dad journey it seems the most popular posts were those that shared my experiences with Little Elvis and the issues surrounding my custody decision regarding visitation with his mother.

No blogger likes to blog in a vacuum; when a blog doesn’t attract a lot of readers or comments, you have to give some thought to your premise.  That’s where I am.

I know that I can bring value to the Solo-Dad community. In what shape or form is the real area of my speculation and evaluation.

I didn’t envision an online diary blog, but that seems to be what attracts readers.  I guess it’s back to square one in my blog planning matrix for Solo-Dad.

Onward.