So I’ve had a shift in scenery to Bellingham since yesterday, which is, as usual, quite welcome. It’s interesting to go somewhere else for a little while and just sit around doing nothing but observing and relaxing. Well, not entirely true — we’re still doing some things, Amanda and I, though perhaps not as much as we could be doing. Not that I’m complaining or anything!

I’ve been thinking the last little while about the implications of being a licensed driver. I came into it later than most people, though that’s not all that uncommon judging from other people I’ve talked to. Obviously, it’s a great responsibility, both for the safety of others and for your own mobility. If there’s one thing that not getting my license officially for a few years showed me, it was that driving isn’t something to be toyed around with. That’s probably a lesson I had already learned by being in a head-on car accident back when I was about 15, but it’s driven home to me now that I’ve finally gotten a license rather than still sitting around with a permit for two or three years.

The fact is, I now have some measure of freedom with that license, even if I don’t have a car and I’m not a perfect driver. Everyone can improve, of course (some more than others, and some never improve). I somehow feel like I still have a long way to go before I can consider myself a “safe” driver. Perhaps that’s a misconception on my part about my driving skills and my comfort behind the wheel. Only time will tell.

Someone said the other day that I was crazy to switch all my computers to Linux, that I’d never be able to run anything. That’s one of the major misconceptions about Linux today. While it was once true that you had little or no accessibility to common Windows programs, the fact is, I’m running Macromedia Dreamweaver MX on this system (which itself is a SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional laptop). In addition, I will be loading Adobe Photoshop 7 for my graphics work in the near future. For the Linux people out there, I’m not relying on Gimp simply because I’m used to Photoshop and I’ve always been taught to use what you know. Granted, running Linux may lower the number of options I have in running Windows software, but that’s not that big of a deal — I’m not much of a gamer, so my Windows games don’t matter much. I may, however, research getting SimCity 4 and Civilization 3 on this system, just for fun.

It’s funny, there’s almost an overlap in my interest in computers and getting my license — switching to Linux has brought me a measure of freedom from having to pay higher prices for software, and has also allowed me a greater flexibility in tinkering with my systems. My license has given me physical freedom without tying me to other people to get me places. Granted, in the short term, I am still relying on others, but I hope for that to change quickly.

We’ll see what happens on both fronts.