Windows Live Writer Beta

Well, I finally got myself onto the Managed Beta Team at Microsoft.  This means that I'll be testing products even further ahead than normal, and that my feedback will actually be looked at by someone ;)

Along with v8.5.0 of Live Messenger and Live Mail Desktop, I've installed Windows Live Writer Beta.  This is a desktop program that allows me to write directly to my Blogger (or any other blog).  This is my first post with it, but so far I am very impressed.  What I'm looking at now isn't a blank white textbox... I see this post as it will appear once published, complete with the theme of my (non-Microsoft) blog.  It also highlights spelling and grammar problems just as Word would, and has all the basic editing tools you'd expect.  This includes blog-specific tools like inserting hyperlinks, pictures, tables, maps, and tags.  Apparently, there are even plugins that can add more functionality.

I believe this means that I might actually start updating this blog again :)  I always found it such a pain to have to go to the site, login, click through until I'm able to add a post, then type it in that plain textbox, verify it looks ok, then post it.  This is definitly much easier, and I look forward to seeing what plugins become available.

As a quick update on my life, let's see.... Stormy has now caught 4 birds, all of which have been rescued before permanent injury.  At work I bypassed an assistant manager position due to too long of a commute, only to find that they will soon have the same position open where I currently work in BLV.  No word yet on when a second level RAS position might be open.  The apartment is a total mess, but I have declared that since I am car-less (hydraulic leak in the brakes again), and since it's been getting hot up here lately (85 degrees), that this weekend is a cleaning weekend.

That should do it for now, I'll make a more multi-media post later :)