What a difference a week makes! Last Friday I was really kicking myself and that mood hung over the weekend, like a long autumn shadow. Tonight, I feel a spring in my step and a smile on my face. The reasons why, I could not tell you, because even I do not know. I am looking forward to the weekend, even though there is very little happening. I have piano lesson on Sunday evening. The first lesson in over two months and I have not been practicing enough at all. In the back of my mind is next week, but more on that nearer the time. When I logged onto my work laptop, MSN automatically logs in. However, this morning, it came up with some absurd message that I had to upgrade to latest version. Great! Just what I needed. However, some how I got around this. Do not ask me how, I just declined the invitation to upgrade several times and then was able to login into MSN 7.5. Do not get me wrong, I love the IM client from Microsoft. However, I have always tried to hang onto the previous version as long as possible. There are many reasons for this. Firstly I customise and tweak Messenger, so it works perfectly for me. Any upgrade involves, multiple patching and updating, plus I have to reset all my customisation. So you can appreciate my annoyance when Richmond force it down your throat. When I got home, quite late last night, I came across the same situation as some twelve hours earlier in the office. However, on this occasion, I was not able to get around the update and had to oblige. Nav, back in the strange days of November 2003, recommended Messenger Plus to me. It was at this time, I started to use the instant message client as my main form of communications online. Seems a long time ago, but now I cannot live or breathe without the client being by my side (or rather system tray). The story continues from Leicester to the capital with the date log 20th July 2004. (Seems wherever I have worked, I been able to use MSN). There you can see the true power of Messenger Plus! add on. The software just got better and better with each update. The Boss key being one of the great features! However since the introducion of 6.2x, MSN have included lots of bloatware components to just get in the way. Not just advertising but pointless features on the right click context menu. I was not going to put up with this. It was bad enough being dictated into software upgrades, I was not going to let Microsoft win. Some work on Google helped me find the Mess with Messenger website and I downloaded their patch. This enables you to fully customise the IM client. You can remove the nudge protection, so to annoy your friends, you can send constant nudges without the minute delay that exists in the standard software. I highly recommend this tool to get the best out of Messenger and strip out all the dead wood. Generally I have always been reluctant to upgrade to the latest version of messenger. I kept 6.2 until I was forced to upgrade and will be the same with the onset of 7.5 and so on. The reason for the abandoment of 7.5 is a security vulnerability. While I am sure this would affect every day casual users, I am quite capable to manage my own online security. I remember Chris at work downloading MSN Live and loading it on his machine (against my advice) only to find his contacts blank. As you can imagine, he quickly reverted back to 7.5. I suppose my main gripe with the latest version of the MS IM client is the visual appearance. It is in line with Vista, so therefore has that light blue, almost plastic finish. I suppose I will just have to put up with it. Doesn’t mean I cannot publicly express my anger. Another thing, what are all those icons for?

I will finish my blog with a positive thought, which I saw as a personal message for one of my friends on MSN. “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.” A fantastic quote from business guru, Stephen Covey. Something tells me that a new journey, with new friends is slowly beginning to form. My excitement outweighs my nervousness. I was going to write, “for a change”, but the phrase I am actually looking for is “for the first time.” For the first time in my life, I feel free.