Journal bethanie's Journal: Mishmash, Hodgepodge, Gallimaufry, etc. 9
Got lots of little things to talk about, but none of them merits its own entry, so they're here altogether. Just right for some casual weekend conversation.
Software Question Update
First, an update from my Stupid Software Question entry. First of all, thank you VERY much to *all* of you who replied -- I am simply amazed at everyone's willingness to offer up ideas without being [openly] judgmental. I didn't reply to you all individually because it took me a while to figure out how to resolve it, and by then the thread was pretty cold. So a big, collective THANK YOU to everyone who made any suggestions!
So what did I finally do? Turns out that the PDF had *no* security on it whatsoever, so it was pretty easy to highlight the text and copy it into MS Publisher. Hubby (whom I also consulted) cleverly did a select image on the graphic I needed, and then manually erased all of the text around it (it was a very odd-shaped graphic) in Paint. I laid it into the Publisher document and discovered this nifty feature that allows the margins of the graphic to conform to the actual *graphic*, rather than the canvas that the graphic was orginally saved on. In other words, rather than having text run around a rectangle, it runs around all the lumps and bumps of the irregularly shaped picture itself. In any case, it was a great discovery, because I thought I was going to have to manually do one of those weird crop jobs in Paint, and I wasn't looking forward to it AT ALL.
So I used the text and the graphic, and did as close to an exact replication as possible of the original. Had to change the formatting of the text a bit, and I didn't have the original font (I think it was Garamond on the Mac; Garamond on PC is close enough). It was a fun challenge, and reassures me that although I am abysmally out of practice when it comes to desktop publishing, I still haven't completely forgotten everything I once knew.
I'd say that the biggest single help I got from y'all was a yeah, verily, that I wasn't just being stupid and overlooking some free & easy way to convert this into what I needed. I would have felt really stupid spending the time recreating it, only to find out later that there was something really simple that I had missed.
A Story & A Bit of Reflection
Next, I wanted to relate a short anecdote from my shopping trip Thursday and reflect on it for a moment. Went down to the 'burbs for some shopping -- I had received a duplicate gift (my mom, although generous to a fault, is really ditzy and can't remember for the life of her that she already bought me two 9" square cake pans, and what I completely lacked were some loaf pans) that I needed to visit a mall store to exchange. While I'm there, a very pleasant young man helps me find what I'm looking for, and it's a friendly exchange. And for whatever prejudicial reasons -- the earrings, his youth & retail employment status, the yo no se que of his ensemble -- I pretty much assume that he's gay. Not that it makes a damn bit of difference in how I deal with him -- who do I care who he fucks and/or sucks? Has nothing to do with whether they have a cake plate that I'd like, or how much that set of flatware costs.
So we part ways while I make up my mind what I want, and when I approach the register I see he's fiddling with his phone. I give him a little friendly crap: "OK, finish up the message and get back to work!" -- totally with a smile. He smiles back and I admit that I never use text messaging -- it's too expensive at $.99 per message. If I need to communicate with someone using my cell phone, I'll just dial their number and talk to them!
He casually explains that he and his partner have a plan where the messaging is free... I think it's Cingular's GMS whatever. We get a little geeky (just mainstream geeky -- not like Slashdot geeky) about it, but that's really not the point. The point is that he was *so* comfortable and casual about being "out," and *I* was so comfortable and casual about it, too. As if he had done nothing more outrageous than mention his girlfriend or wife.
And that's exactly the way I think it should be. I mean, it's not like it's a secret he's gay. It would be kind of like someone trying to hide the fact that they're black or Asian... or 6.5 months pregnant. :-) But it doesn't make a bit of difference what I talk to him about. I don't immediately change the subject and ask him what *he* thinks about gay marriage or the latest episode of Queer Eye. Just like he doesn't ask me when I'm due or "what" I'm having. It's just a normal, congenial conversation between two relatively decent human beings.
I sure wish that matters of public policy could be handled so civilly.
Survivor All-Stars
Next, a bit about Survivor All-Stars. [Spoilers ahead!] Hubby and I were quite tickled when Big Tom compared Rob to a weaned calf without Amber. We made several fun cracks about him feeling "udderly abandoned," and wondered how this sudden "weaning" would affect his gameplay.
And then when Rupert whisked the two chickie-boodles off to the resort with him, the first question Hubby asks when Rupert gets a massage is: "Do you think Rupert gets a 'Happy Ending'?" To which I reply, "I guess that's probably up to Jenna and Amber." Heh heh. We're so clever.
In any case, as far as results go, Lex pretty much got what was coming to him for making a really stupid strategy decision last week when he voted off Jerri instead of Amber. WTF was he thinking? Oh well. I guess he'll have plenty of time to think about it now.
Plain Vanilla? No thanks!
Finally, I just want to mention that people who only think that a few, select toppings should *ever* be eaten on a pizza are the kind of people who are only willing to go with one or two positions during sex. No adventure, no variety -- just the sacred Missionary or Cowgirl. Because that's just the way it's meant to be, right?
Sorry, boys, but I prefer the attitude of this glorious specimen of a man. Subsitute "pussy" for "pizza," and this is one *hot* comment! A little salty, a little sweet... Does he have to have the exotic stuff every time? Not at all -- but he goes for it every couple months. Just enough variety to appreciate the classic stuff. Can't complain about that. Not one bit. George, you can put your toppings for MY pizza *any* time!! ;-)
Software Question Update
First, an update from my Stupid Software Question entry. First of all, thank you VERY much to *all* of you who replied -- I am simply amazed at everyone's willingness to offer up ideas without being [openly] judgmental. I didn't reply to you all individually because it took me a while to figure out how to resolve it, and by then the thread was pretty cold. So a big, collective THANK YOU to everyone who made any suggestions!
So what did I finally do? Turns out that the PDF had *no* security on it whatsoever, so it was pretty easy to highlight the text and copy it into MS Publisher. Hubby (whom I also consulted) cleverly did a select image on the graphic I needed, and then manually erased all of the text around it (it was a very odd-shaped graphic) in Paint. I laid it into the Publisher document and discovered this nifty feature that allows the margins of the graphic to conform to the actual *graphic*, rather than the canvas that the graphic was orginally saved on. In other words, rather than having text run around a rectangle, it runs around all the lumps and bumps of the irregularly shaped picture itself. In any case, it was a great discovery, because I thought I was going to have to manually do one of those weird crop jobs in Paint, and I wasn't looking forward to it AT ALL.
So I used the text and the graphic, and did as close to an exact replication as possible of the original. Had to change the formatting of the text a bit, and I didn't have the original font (I think it was Garamond on the Mac; Garamond on PC is close enough). It was a fun challenge, and reassures me that although I am abysmally out of practice when it comes to desktop publishing, I still haven't completely forgotten everything I once knew.
I'd say that the biggest single help I got from y'all was a yeah, verily, that I wasn't just being stupid and overlooking some free & easy way to convert this into what I needed. I would have felt really stupid spending the time recreating it, only to find out later that there was something really simple that I had missed.
A Story & A Bit of Reflection
Next, I wanted to relate a short anecdote from my shopping trip Thursday and reflect on it for a moment. Went down to the 'burbs for some shopping -- I had received a duplicate gift (my mom, although generous to a fault, is really ditzy and can't remember for the life of her that she already bought me two 9" square cake pans, and what I completely lacked were some loaf pans) that I needed to visit a mall store to exchange. While I'm there, a very pleasant young man helps me find what I'm looking for, and it's a friendly exchange. And for whatever prejudicial reasons -- the earrings, his youth & retail employment status, the yo no se que of his ensemble -- I pretty much assume that he's gay. Not that it makes a damn bit of difference in how I deal with him -- who do I care who he fucks and/or sucks? Has nothing to do with whether they have a cake plate that I'd like, or how much that set of flatware costs.
So we part ways while I make up my mind what I want, and when I approach the register I see he's fiddling with his phone. I give him a little friendly crap: "OK, finish up the message and get back to work!" -- totally with a smile. He smiles back and I admit that I never use text messaging -- it's too expensive at $.99 per message. If I need to communicate with someone using my cell phone, I'll just dial their number and talk to them!
He casually explains that he and his partner have a plan where the messaging is free... I think it's Cingular's GMS whatever. We get a little geeky (just mainstream geeky -- not like Slashdot geeky) about it, but that's really not the point. The point is that he was *so* comfortable and casual about being "out," and *I* was so comfortable and casual about it, too. As if he had done nothing more outrageous than mention his girlfriend or wife.
And that's exactly the way I think it should be. I mean, it's not like it's a secret he's gay. It would be kind of like someone trying to hide the fact that they're black or Asian... or 6.5 months pregnant.
I sure wish that matters of public policy could be handled so civilly.
Survivor All-Stars
Next, a bit about Survivor All-Stars. [Spoilers ahead!] Hubby and I were quite tickled when Big Tom compared Rob to a weaned calf without Amber. We made several fun cracks about him feeling "udderly abandoned," and wondered how this sudden "weaning" would affect his gameplay.
And then when Rupert whisked the two chickie-boodles off to the resort with him, the first question Hubby asks when Rupert gets a massage is: "Do you think Rupert gets a 'Happy Ending'?" To which I reply, "I guess that's probably up to Jenna and Amber." Heh heh. We're so clever.
In any case, as far as results go, Lex pretty much got what was coming to him for making a really stupid strategy decision last week when he voted off Jerri instead of Amber. WTF was he thinking? Oh well. I guess he'll have plenty of time to think about it now.
Plain Vanilla? No thanks!
Finally, I just want to mention that people who only think that a few, select toppings should *ever* be eaten on a pizza are the kind of people who are only willing to go with one or two positions during sex. No adventure, no variety -- just the sacred Missionary or Cowgirl. Because that's just the way it's meant to be, right?
Sorry, boys, but I prefer the attitude of this glorious specimen of a man. Subsitute "pussy" for "pizza," and this is one *hot* comment! A little salty, a little sweet... Does he have to have the exotic stuff every time? Not at all -- but he goes for it every couple months. Just enough variety to appreciate the classic stuff. Can't complain about that. Not one bit. George, you can put your toppings for MY pizza *any* time!!
Plain Vanilla? No thanks! (Score:1)
Finally, I just want to mention that people who only think that a few,
select toppings should *ever* be eaten on a pizza are the kind of people
who are only willing to go with one or two positions during sex. No
adventure, no variety -- just the sacred Missionary or Cowgirl. Because
that's just the way it's meant to be, right?
Ahem . . . wrong on both counts.
Most of us said there are only certain things to be eaten on our pizza. Well, maybe you were speaking of the Mussolini pizza
Re:Plain Vanilla? No thanks! (Score:2)
But whatever floats your boat, enjoy it. No, really.
Re:Plain Vanilla? No thanks! (Score:1)
Just Curious...
BTW - Hi Sweetie!
BH
Re:Plain Vanilla? No thanks! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Lex Lex Lex Lex (Score:2)
Lex makes the same mistake most of them do; they think that even though Survivor is a game where everybody but one must lose, you can still go in with an 'everybody can win!' attitude.
Oh, and what's different about this, and what he did to Ethan, or Jerri, the other day? Simple; it happened to Lex.
Jeff even said as much at one of the reunion shows; John Nash's game theory applies. And that game theory, basically, states 'screw unto others before they screw unto you; you'll get fu
Gay people anecdotes (Score:2)
And this is why I would have enjoyed seeing his reaction when ILoveMexicanFood (our neighbor mentioned in this [slashdot.org] journ
Rule number one (Score:1)
Rule number two: break up the guaranteed alliances.
Rule number three: kick out the assholes.
Following these rules, in the appropriate order, would have yielded similar results, except that Amber would have been out last week. Jerri is not strong. She has no guaranteed alliance. But she is an asshole. Compare with Amber: weak, but has a guaranteed vote.
This is especially true now that it has come down to putting people on the jury. Rob/Amber have a vote automatically
Nice. (Score:2)
First of all, speaking as someone working on his life's primary goal to complete the Kama Sutra, I call fiddlesticks onto you as a curse. You just plain old don't get it. Asking so