Michael Schechter, writing at his blog A Better Mess:

They want to take their backlog of DOC, DOCX and RTF files and convert them into either Markdown files or plain text files with Markdown formatting. At the moment, there’s no solution that’s viable for average computer users.

I write my articles for this site in Markdown syntax because it’s easier to read and write. I can work with scripts and other geeky implementations when I have enough time to research how they work, but I rarely have that time. I would love a tool like the one Schechter calls for in the linked post. I hope someone takes him on the suggestion.

This post by Michael Schechter at his site A Better Mess hit home for me because I recently migrated this site permanently to Tumblr from a self-hosted Wordpress installation as part of a larger effort to consolidate the things I do in life and on the web. I’m also looking for a way to squeeze some exercise into what amounts to a 12-hour “work” day between my day job and evening classes. I am like Mr. Schechter in that I start lots of little projects, often with little or no eye toward whether they will still interest me in the long-term.

Sometimes they do. For example, I made Memeframes as a way to quick-glance Techmeme and its sister sites and I use that daily. But Fiction By Joe Ross, a Tumblr vehicle for my original sci-fi, hasn’t seen an update since July—and not for lack of material. It just isn’t in my weekly workflow.

Anyway, give Schechter’s post a read if you ever find yourself struggling with a similar problem.