Nuce and green
Yeah, I think green is nuce too. I am not as wild about good old Microsoft Word. At least not today. Evil? Yes. And I am not a novice user of word/text processing software. Lemme see, there was the Wang of course and 9891L-WRITER (you don’t wanna know) and *FORMAT* and the good old MTS mainframe editor, accessible by typing “$EDIT file”, “file” being whatever file you wanted to edit, of course. It was pretty cool with all kinds of what I’m gonna guess were regex-based pattern things you could do to find/change things. I was a pro with those in that environment, at least. Somewhere after that, the old blue screen of WordPerfect came along and I can still remember tabbing along through documents like nobody’s business. Is WordPerfect around any more?
Anyway, I switched over to MS Word sometime back in the dark ages, maybe 1992 or whatever? I don’t even remember. It is a love-hate relationship, lemme tell you! On one hand, computerized word processors just can’t be beat. You can SAVE YOUR WORK! When I was in college, I had to write papers on an old manual typewriter. I am fast at typing but I absolutely rely on backspace and spellcheck and I love to just get a good old outline and/or stream of consciousness going when I have to write something. Just get it out there and edit it later. Typewriter? Can’t do it. And Word can do just about ANYTHING! On the other hand, I was ready to kill Word today. I was trying desperately to publish a document by the end of this afternoon. First, I somehow managed to switch from insert to overstrike mode. I NEVER use overstrike mode! I KNOW there’s an option (and a keystroke) that switches back and forth. I must’ve hit that key because I did NOT go into the options to change that! And I couldn’t remember/find the key. THEN! Word got REALLY CUTE and swapped all of my Figures for Tables. And vice versa. I don’t know HOW I did that! And we won’t even talk about bullets. Yes, I know you can control them via styles. I even know how. I just don’t think the average user should have to dredge down into that stuff. Document published? Not. 99% done though. Tomorrow morning, if no more hornet’s nests are opened up.
And there is NO baking powder in this house. What does that say about my baking skills?
I suppose all this is due to the fact that Comet Lulin is near the star Zubinelgenubi. Nuce and green and whatnot.
G’night and good word processing,
KW
February 9th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
No Baking Power?!?
What kind of cook!?!
It means you used up all of you “DOUBLE ACTING” Baking Powder.
Your supply has been replenished as of 6:45 pm (by me).
February 9th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
LOL – I actually pitched a near-empty can of baking powder ‘cuz it’d expired recently. Opened the new can and actually have dipped into a few times. Somehow have a nagging feeling that there’s an unopened can in my pantry….
February 10th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I am often heard to say ‘I HATE Word!’ at work. and one of my friends found this absolutely hysterical video. if you have worked with Word, and have experienced the damn paper clip (which I disable as soon as I get a new computer), then I think you’ll laugh along with this one. caution – there are swear words!!
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2002/paperclip-p1.php
February 10th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Well, if you FINISHED a can of baking powder, instead of just pitching it, you bake way items that need bp than the G2 units do at the old cabin! When I made blueberry buckle last summer, I happened to check the expiration date AFTER I’d made the buckle. The G4 kids who ate the buckle were younger than the baking powder in it! It tasted okay, and seemed to be average height. Of course, I’d never made that recipe before. It was in either the old Betty Crocker cookbook – 1950’s vintage, or the ancient Fanny Farmer cookbook.
Lucky for us, Bubs bakes pies, and pie crust doesn’t need baking powder!
February 10th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Worked with law back in the ’80s/’90s where they use Word Perfect (which has much simpler reveal codes), then with Word when working in marketing through the late ’90s and mid-’00s, and never liked it as much. Now working in law again where Word Perfect pretty much died and surrendered its place to advanced Word and I hate how it corrects writing incorrectly with its limited brain and infinite anal retentiveness. I’m appalled at what this program is capable of fucking up.
February 10th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Overstrike is my nemesis too; I somehow activate it and then cannot figure out how to get out of it!!
February 11th, 2009 at 11:32 am
MS Word’s bullet feature frequently makes me fantasize about using a bullet on the programmers, but wait, I’ve been a programmer, I couldn’t do that! Alex’s comment about infinite anal retentiveness is right on — pages after you’ve finished one section with a feature, say numbers, you type one simple number, and whoosh, back to the previous scheme we go. The spell checker has the weaknesses, (or is it weeknesses?) of any automatic attempt two dele width the Enlist languish. The grammar checker is sometimes just plain wrong, and sometimes just plain annoying. Jane’s video link is hilarious.