Sometimes, there just aren't enough characters available in a Facebook status or tweet.
Here's what's been happening since September:
I got a job. And then, I got 3 jobs. Simultaneously.
The stop-mo short that I've been working on (and off) for four years got a grant. So since March, I've been shuttling back and forth between here and the center of the Canadian universe, sleep-deprived, cranky, anxiety-ridden are probably a little fatter because of all the takeout I've been eating. Yup, it's at that stage where it's more cost-effective to pay someone to cook for me than to actually cook for myself. Because by the time I factor in the transportation time, cooking time, waiting time ... when I could just be working. I don't know how people regularly eat out every day for almost all three meals. After a while, you get bogged down by the constant decision-making and guilt over choosing the deep-fried Asian food options. Part of you chooses the things you won't make at home, and part of you really just wants ... vegetables.
A colleague heard me coughing and saw me leave the room yesterday. He asked if I was alright. I said that I was fine thanks, and why? Apparently, that is the same cough that his wife had when she had morning sickness. I said, "I'm not pregnant, I'm just getting fat." He wasn't alluding to any sort of weight gain, but I thought I'd point it out as my quickest response, instead of my usual, "I am NOT spawning offspring at the moment."
The thing about blog posts is that people just really hate to hear about the 9-5 grind. In my case, it's been a 7 a.m. - 12:00 a.m. grind. And no one wants to hear about that, because it entails lots of whining, lots of sentences that make no sense at all because of your stupor. And when you take on projects that take more energy than required, you get WICKED cranky. Crankier, in fact, because the project you love only pays you in love and instant gratification when you see your work in all its glory on screen. Until your director cuts it, explains to you that you shouldn't fall in love with a prop, at which point, you pretty well want to throw a tantrum and tell him that it took four hours to make that. Or the giant set that took you pretty much four years and all of last fall to paint ... which comes out lit for night-time. So when you're done exploding in your head, you compromise and say that you'll use it in the credits. Lit for day time. And that solves that.
We are near delivery and on the home stretch. I don't have time to keep writing. I have cost report stuff to do.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Monday, September 6, 2010
Adventure in the 21st century is not like hobbits going to dispose of a ring
With this being the long weekend, and my birthday coming up soon, hubby and I decided that we would attempt going away for a few days. The parameters were something along the lines of driving distance and relatively cheap.
I sort of got set on the idea of Maine, just because I was kind of digging the idea of seaside and clam chowder, and it's about twice a year that I get to have lobster. Well, now that I can cook them myself, I'm thinking that number will up itself a bit.
Anyway, Hurricane Earl dashed any sort of plans for Maine, and while I could probably do the travel search thing in a heartbeat, for someone else, professionally, on my own, I'm really quite useless when it comes to booking any sort of vacation. Business trips seem to be a different story, because then you have a starting point of reference, like location of the conference, hotels and restaurants in close proximity, things to do according to the given schedule.
When we were planning our honeymoon, I was set on the idea of learning to surf somewhere. I scoured for days, looking at places like Costa Rica, Hawaii ... all for nought, because we ended up going to the Bahamas on the great and fabulous recommendations of two of our best friends. But also, hubby is generally quite good at planning travel stuff, and on other occasions, while I have been searching for days, he finds something in 15 minutes.
This, however, was not the case. For various reasons, hubby was being all defeatist in his travel searching. We have been thoroughly put off bed and breakfasts, and availability of "nice hotels" seemed to be dwindling as the hours went by. Eventually, hubby called it quits on the search and declared that we would just be spontaneous.
Yikes. I really don't enjoy being spontaneous. I like knowing where we're going, I like knowing what to pack, and I like having a plan of action for stuff like nearby restaurants that I'd like to try.
ANYWAY ... we woke up late, and hubby says, "So, let's just get in the car and drive."
Me: "Uhh ... okay. We'll leave in two hours."
So I scurry around the house like some headless chicken on crack, flailing about trying to get snacks and grab things that I think we'll need. I packed spinach dip (to use up the expired-but-still-good sour cream), tortilla chips, water, watermelon (1 pound eaten, 14 to go) and two apples which are sort of nearing their last legs. (Yes, you do sense a theme here.) I scurry around some more, grabbing things that I think we'll need, and what hubby should take but doesn't think he'll need. Then the hallway looks like we are leaving for two weeks of camping.
We get in the car and drive west. Armed with iPhones and a sat nav (GPS), we briefly enjoy the sites of small towns along the way. There's a lovely beach near Turkey Point, there's a majestic lighthouse in Long Point, there's a cute little dock somewhere close by. We stop in Point Stanley, and hubby gets completely turned off of the post-50s bed and breakfast crowd yapping about ponchos.
"We are not staying here," he says gruffly.
So we get on our iPhones and use a combination of the HotelPal, TripAdvisor and Priceline apps to find somewhere close by. I tell him that the closest available and cheapest hotel is the Howard Johnson (Ho Jo) in London at $90 for the night. He later tells me that his experiences with the Ho Jo have never been stellar, and which is why we were rushing off to find a Staybridge Suites in London. We actually really like that brand of hotel - usually the suites come with a kitchenette, and the rooms are quite large.
While hubby drives, I get online to see if the Staybridge Suites have a vacancy. Nope. Determined, hubby plows on to London, where he decides that there has to be something available. We get there, drive through, hubby saying all the while that he's looking for the nice downtown historic part. We drive down what appears to be a main street, find "town", and decide that it looks too much like Hamilton. A LOT like Hamilton. Nevermind.
We keep driving through, and suddenly, London looks like it's finished. There are just houses and side streets, then more and more farm land. Oh, guess we went through it.
Eventually, having this wretched cold and blowing my nose every five minutes, I pass in and out of consciousness as the medication weakly kicks in. When I wake up, we're still in farmland like area, and hey, it looks a lot like 10 minutes from where we actually live.
It starts to rain, and hubby sees a blue provincial sign for two inns. We drive by the one, call and find out that there's no vacancy. Boy, I can imagine a pregnant Mary swearing Joseph up and down on that donkey for not having called ahead.
Somewhere along the way, striking out on GOOD hotel availabilities, I did actually say, "This is what happens when you don't call ahead." I don't think the Bible does justice for Mary in censoring what she probably said.
Eventually, we drove past the Stone Willow Inn. I looked online quickly and found out that they had ONE room left with two queen beds. $150 minus $5 for a CAA discount ... sold. We were tired of roaming around southwestern Ontario.
It turned out to be alright ... no Hilton NYC, but decent enough. The restaurant wasn't really stellar. The beds were alright, they had free wireless. They had a little fridge in the room stocked with bottles of water. Umbrellas in the lobby for guests to use. The toiletries were okay, but there was a big set-in stain of some sort on my bath towel. THAT freaked me out. And I wrote so on my comment card.
So we won't be visiting St. Mary's again. It didn't really help that people were staring us down at the diner where we had breakfast. (And the food was terrible.) Usually, if you're a "foreigner" to the town, people will be friendly and greet you, or kind of stare until you engage them in some sort of conversation. If they keep staring with the frowny face after that, well, then you sort of chalk it up to old-school racism. Surprisingly, living where I do, it happens frequently enough that I'm fairly familiar with the drill.
Our "weekend getaway" wasn't great, but it wasn't disastrous. Hubby agrees that we're relatively done with small town tourism, but that next time, we'll just have to do a proper vacation and go somewhere city-like. And book ahead.
I sort of got set on the idea of Maine, just because I was kind of digging the idea of seaside and clam chowder, and it's about twice a year that I get to have lobster. Well, now that I can cook them myself, I'm thinking that number will up itself a bit.
Anyway, Hurricane Earl dashed any sort of plans for Maine, and while I could probably do the travel search thing in a heartbeat, for someone else, professionally, on my own, I'm really quite useless when it comes to booking any sort of vacation. Business trips seem to be a different story, because then you have a starting point of reference, like location of the conference, hotels and restaurants in close proximity, things to do according to the given schedule.
When we were planning our honeymoon, I was set on the idea of learning to surf somewhere. I scoured for days, looking at places like Costa Rica, Hawaii ... all for nought, because we ended up going to the Bahamas on the great and fabulous recommendations of two of our best friends. But also, hubby is generally quite good at planning travel stuff, and on other occasions, while I have been searching for days, he finds something in 15 minutes.
This, however, was not the case. For various reasons, hubby was being all defeatist in his travel searching. We have been thoroughly put off bed and breakfasts, and availability of "nice hotels" seemed to be dwindling as the hours went by. Eventually, hubby called it quits on the search and declared that we would just be spontaneous.
Yikes. I really don't enjoy being spontaneous. I like knowing where we're going, I like knowing what to pack, and I like having a plan of action for stuff like nearby restaurants that I'd like to try.
ANYWAY ... we woke up late, and hubby says, "So, let's just get in the car and drive."
Me: "Uhh ... okay. We'll leave in two hours."
So I scurry around the house like some headless chicken on crack, flailing about trying to get snacks and grab things that I think we'll need. I packed spinach dip (to use up the expired-but-still-good sour cream), tortilla chips, water, watermelon (1 pound eaten, 14 to go) and two apples which are sort of nearing their last legs. (Yes, you do sense a theme here.) I scurry around some more, grabbing things that I think we'll need, and what hubby should take but doesn't think he'll need. Then the hallway looks like we are leaving for two weeks of camping.
We get in the car and drive west. Armed with iPhones and a sat nav (GPS), we briefly enjoy the sites of small towns along the way. There's a lovely beach near Turkey Point, there's a majestic lighthouse in Long Point, there's a cute little dock somewhere close by. We stop in Point Stanley, and hubby gets completely turned off of the post-50s bed and breakfast crowd yapping about ponchos.
"We are not staying here," he says gruffly.
So we get on our iPhones and use a combination of the HotelPal, TripAdvisor and Priceline apps to find somewhere close by. I tell him that the closest available and cheapest hotel is the Howard Johnson (Ho Jo) in London at $90 for the night. He later tells me that his experiences with the Ho Jo have never been stellar, and which is why we were rushing off to find a Staybridge Suites in London. We actually really like that brand of hotel - usually the suites come with a kitchenette, and the rooms are quite large.
While hubby drives, I get online to see if the Staybridge Suites have a vacancy. Nope. Determined, hubby plows on to London, where he decides that there has to be something available. We get there, drive through, hubby saying all the while that he's looking for the nice downtown historic part. We drive down what appears to be a main street, find "town", and decide that it looks too much like Hamilton. A LOT like Hamilton. Nevermind.
We keep driving through, and suddenly, London looks like it's finished. There are just houses and side streets, then more and more farm land. Oh, guess we went through it.
Eventually, having this wretched cold and blowing my nose every five minutes, I pass in and out of consciousness as the medication weakly kicks in. When I wake up, we're still in farmland like area, and hey, it looks a lot like 10 minutes from where we actually live.
It starts to rain, and hubby sees a blue provincial sign for two inns. We drive by the one, call and find out that there's no vacancy. Boy, I can imagine a pregnant Mary swearing Joseph up and down on that donkey for not having called ahead.
Somewhere along the way, striking out on GOOD hotel availabilities, I did actually say, "This is what happens when you don't call ahead." I don't think the Bible does justice for Mary in censoring what she probably said.
Eventually, we drove past the Stone Willow Inn. I looked online quickly and found out that they had ONE room left with two queen beds. $150 minus $5 for a CAA discount ... sold. We were tired of roaming around southwestern Ontario.
It turned out to be alright ... no Hilton NYC, but decent enough. The restaurant wasn't really stellar. The beds were alright, they had free wireless. They had a little fridge in the room stocked with bottles of water. Umbrellas in the lobby for guests to use. The toiletries were okay, but there was a big set-in stain of some sort on my bath towel. THAT freaked me out. And I wrote so on my comment card.
So we won't be visiting St. Mary's again. It didn't really help that people were staring us down at the diner where we had breakfast. (And the food was terrible.) Usually, if you're a "foreigner" to the town, people will be friendly and greet you, or kind of stare until you engage them in some sort of conversation. If they keep staring with the frowny face after that, well, then you sort of chalk it up to old-school racism. Surprisingly, living where I do, it happens frequently enough that I'm fairly familiar with the drill.
Our "weekend getaway" wasn't great, but it wasn't disastrous. Hubby agrees that we're relatively done with small town tourism, but that next time, we'll just have to do a proper vacation and go somewhere city-like. And book ahead.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
A pretty rad thing ...
Yup ... life in a small town is just a little more manageable when you hear that the project for which you were the only writer/researcher for seasons 2 and 3 got a GEMINI NOMINATION!!!
Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, www.TasteBudsTV.com got a GEMINI NOMINATION for Best Cross-Platform Project - Children's and Youth!!
And even though my name is not on the billing (it's all the producers' names), I am totally riding the coattails even for the nomination. Spent time updating my LinkedIn profile, resume and Facebook status ... because my claim to fame by association on that is being THE writer/researcher for seasons 2 and 3. CONTENT, baby, CONTENT ... is king. So let's be clear now though that I'm not claiming ownership for all things word-related, but at least I can say that there's enough of a contribution there that I'm going to toot this horn until the if/when of a next award.
I know we'd all be jazzed about nominations for the actual show, but the website is (albeit cross-platform because of the brand but) a separate entity, and my absolute FAVOURITE gig in the whole wide world. I love the team, I love how straightforward the tasks were, I love the positive responses I got for my work (which didn't feel like work because it was mostly fun); I love that I got to work from home; and I love how promptly I got paid compared to some other companies that take a MONTH or MORE. (Can you tell that I'm waiting for a cheque?) And I love that I got to speak on a panel. [Thanks again Sasha!]
Worked on the stop-mo short today and had a fabulous day. More on that later.
Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, www.TasteBudsTV.com got a GEMINI NOMINATION for Best Cross-Platform Project - Children's and Youth!!
And even though my name is not on the billing (it's all the producers' names), I am totally riding the coattails even for the nomination. Spent time updating my LinkedIn profile, resume and Facebook status ... because my claim to fame by association on that is being THE writer/researcher for seasons 2 and 3. CONTENT, baby, CONTENT ... is king. So let's be clear now though that I'm not claiming ownership for all things word-related, but at least I can say that there's enough of a contribution there that I'm going to toot this horn until the if/when of a next award.
I know we'd all be jazzed about nominations for the actual show, but the website is (albeit cross-platform because of the brand but) a separate entity, and my absolute FAVOURITE gig in the whole wide world. I love the team, I love how straightforward the tasks were, I love the positive responses I got for my work (which didn't feel like work because it was mostly fun); I love that I got to work from home; and I love how promptly I got paid compared to some other companies that take a MONTH or MORE. (Can you tell that I'm waiting for a cheque?) And I love that I got to speak on a panel. [Thanks again Sasha!]
Worked on the stop-mo short today and had a fabulous day. More on that later.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Coffee Protocol
Okay, so I'm putting this out there.
I admit that I'm a little petty about etiquette. (Like on the train: when seats are empty, people should sit diagonally from you as opposed to next to you.) But I also think that if there's a standard etiquette-related protocol, people should know about it.
The big thing about this [media] industry is that everyone takes people out for coffee, whether it be for networking, or meetings, or when you're in that awkward stage of just starting your career, and you want to pick someone's brain for their "tips and secrets to making it big."
I've had a few instances now of being invited to coffee for specific industry reasons (by people I didn't really know), and then I have to pay for my own, or in the more unusual case, I'm COMPLETELY left without a beverage. This happened the other day, and then I realized that it happens to me too frequently.
Here's where I think you're in charge of picking up the entire tab for coffee, especially for someone you don't know that well:
I admit that I'm a little petty about etiquette. (Like on the train: when seats are empty, people should sit diagonally from you as opposed to next to you.) But I also think that if there's a standard etiquette-related protocol, people should know about it.
The big thing about this [media] industry is that everyone takes people out for coffee, whether it be for networking, or meetings, or when you're in that awkward stage of just starting your career, and you want to pick someone's brain for their "tips and secrets to making it big."
I've had a few instances now of being invited to coffee for specific industry reasons (by people I didn't really know), and then I have to pay for my own, or in the more unusual case, I'm COMPLETELY left without a beverage. This happened the other day, and then I realized that it happens to me too frequently.
Here's where I think you're in charge of picking up the entire tab for coffee, especially for someone you don't know that well:
- you're the one who invited the other person out for a specific reason
- you used a phrase somewhere in the initial correspondence (leading to the coffee meeting) such as:
- "I'd like to pick your brain about .... xyz"
- "I wanted to know what you thought about ..."
- "I have this show idea and I wanted to run it by you, seeing how you're a development executive, could you comment?"
- "I'm new to the business and am looking for some advice ..."
- "I was hoping you could walk me through how to ..."
- "I wanted to run something by you ..."
- "I have a show idea and wanted to see if you'd like to work on it with me"
- you're pitching someone on the idea of working on something for free
Summer 2010
Well ... yes, shame on me for having a blog and then failing to update it.
Truth is, there hasn't been a whole lot of interesting stuff to tell you about. I suppose I'm keeping up the blog because it's a nice outlet on which to vent (and write things like "Coffee Protocol", see next entry), and people tell me that it's hilarious. Thank you. I'm steadily losing followers on Twitter, but I'm wondering if maybe that's because I had a bunch of animal rights' lovers. Motorcycle Man has been replaced with "Neighbours-Who-Do-Not-Control-Their-Yappy-Dog", and I tweeted the other day that if it didn't stop, that dog might soon become a muff.
Well now, it's hard to pick up sarcasm in 140 characters sometimes.
So if you really want to know what's been going on, I'll tell you.
The Short
My friend Animal (not his real name but close) and I have been working on the neverending stop-motion short that seems to be taking us years. Lately, we've been getting help from skilled friends who can make tiny prop magic. It's rather inspiring for being able to work on my own shows later on in life, because there's this truly gratifying feeling of working all day toward something that *I* wrote/created. Amazing.
Starcraft 2
Yup ... who knew that I would have nerded out and gone gaga over Starcraft 2? Well ... it's like reliving high school, even though I caught onto the wave a bit late. The game's slightly varying variables somehow really appeal to my organizational sense and need for order. Of course, my desk is in chaos most of the time, but I like that SC2 units have certain jobs and functions. And they do what you tell them to do.
Weight loss
Turns out that Starcraft 2 is a fabulous distraction, pain reliever (I sprained my ankle) and appetite suppressant, which was a great help in the initial weight loss regiment. I went to the doctor for a physical, and while I think that perhaps the nurse may have overestimated my weight, I pretty much freaked out when the doctor told me what my current weight was. YIKES! So I've been using this iPhone/iTouch app called Lose It!, which basically acts like a calorie counter. You log the foods that you eat and the "exercise" that you do, and you have a handy way to see what your calorie budget is for the day. Of course, I've been sort of cheating on this thing by programming in regular type activities for which there actually is a calorie loss count, like cooking, typing, loading/unloading the car, shopping, driving, washing dishes, etc. I suppose the kicker is that I added "playing board games" and while there is no actual moving of physical pieces or picking up anything while playing Starcraft 2, I figure that it raises the heart rate a little, so I think it counts. Plus, you sort of forget about food while in battle sometimes.
My friend Syd thinks that there's no way I could have lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks (since it's too rapid a period), but overall, I'm sticking to the story that I've lost 11 pounds in 4 weeks.
Cooking
As usual, hubby has been enjoying meals around here. While it hasn't been anything too exciting, (I usually save that for Facebook updates), here are some of the things I've tried in the past few weeks:
Truth is, there hasn't been a whole lot of interesting stuff to tell you about. I suppose I'm keeping up the blog because it's a nice outlet on which to vent (and write things like "Coffee Protocol", see next entry), and people tell me that it's hilarious. Thank you. I'm steadily losing followers on Twitter, but I'm wondering if maybe that's because I had a bunch of animal rights' lovers. Motorcycle Man has been replaced with "Neighbours-Who-Do-Not-Control-Their-Yappy-Dog", and I tweeted the other day that if it didn't stop, that dog might soon become a muff.
Well now, it's hard to pick up sarcasm in 140 characters sometimes.
So if you really want to know what's been going on, I'll tell you.
The Short
My friend Animal (not his real name but close) and I have been working on the neverending stop-motion short that seems to be taking us years. Lately, we've been getting help from skilled friends who can make tiny prop magic. It's rather inspiring for being able to work on my own shows later on in life, because there's this truly gratifying feeling of working all day toward something that *I* wrote/created. Amazing.
Starcraft 2
Yup ... who knew that I would have nerded out and gone gaga over Starcraft 2? Well ... it's like reliving high school, even though I caught onto the wave a bit late. The game's slightly varying variables somehow really appeal to my organizational sense and need for order. Of course, my desk is in chaos most of the time, but I like that SC2 units have certain jobs and functions. And they do what you tell them to do.
Weight loss
Turns out that Starcraft 2 is a fabulous distraction, pain reliever (I sprained my ankle) and appetite suppressant, which was a great help in the initial weight loss regiment. I went to the doctor for a physical, and while I think that perhaps the nurse may have overestimated my weight, I pretty much freaked out when the doctor told me what my current weight was. YIKES! So I've been using this iPhone/iTouch app called Lose It!, which basically acts like a calorie counter. You log the foods that you eat and the "exercise" that you do, and you have a handy way to see what your calorie budget is for the day. Of course, I've been sort of cheating on this thing by programming in regular type activities for which there actually is a calorie loss count, like cooking, typing, loading/unloading the car, shopping, driving, washing dishes, etc. I suppose the kicker is that I added "playing board games" and while there is no actual moving of physical pieces or picking up anything while playing Starcraft 2, I figure that it raises the heart rate a little, so I think it counts. Plus, you sort of forget about food while in battle sometimes.
My friend Syd thinks that there's no way I could have lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks (since it's too rapid a period), but overall, I'm sticking to the story that I've lost 11 pounds in 4 weeks.
Cooking
As usual, hubby has been enjoying meals around here. While it hasn't been anything too exciting, (I usually save that for Facebook updates), here are some of the things I've tried in the past few weeks:
- cornbread muffins
- oven "fried" fish
- chicken korma (using the VH Sauce)
- spaghetti with homemade meatballs (I described it as "spaghetti with homemade meatballs, a thick tomato sauce peppered with fresh tomatoes, sauteed sweet vidalia onions and roasted yellow zucchini; garnished with Parmesan and fresh basil from our front-step 'garden.'"
- homemade herb chicken burgers and homemade fries (which even enticed our friend Mike to drive all the way out here for dinner)
- Chinese beef stir-fry with rice and Chinese broccoli (hubby went for THIRDS!)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
New laptop ... I miss my old one, but I guess it was time for a change
So I had to buy a new laptop (the one in the Amazon ad is close, but not quite it) because while working on Taste Buds on the TV side, my old laptop started eating files. Eating files in a really disastrous way. I would be working on files, save them, then not be able to open them again. When it happened the third time, I was just about ready to cry. I was house-sitting that week, and boy, would it have been a way less stressful week had I just been able to use the one laptop and that's it. It was a Friday, so I drove across town to come home, work until 2:30 in the morning to finish what I had to do so it was ready for Monday. But then it wasn't that it had to be ready for Monday, we had actually PLANNED to work that weekend because of late script deliveries and whatever else.
I've been able to get away with just using my desktop, using other people's computers (thank you Sean J and Mark), but unfortunately, unless it's your own computer, it's kind of like driving someone else's car. You're really afraid to do stuff in it, just in case you trash it. On Monday, I had a punch-up room with some hilarious folks (3 of whom I really quite adore from previous gigs), but I'm thinking now that I looked like a boob because I wasn't typing as fast as I normally do, and since there were no delete or home/pg up/pg down/end keys, navigation was a little spotty. That, and the wireless mouse with a delay ... cripes. I must have looked slightly inebriated. Which sucks especially, because I was a little excited after hearing my typing test results (more on that later), that I type at 103 wpm with 99% accuracy. Apparently, the average is about 40.
ANYWAY ... so now I'm all geared up. It's just a matter of getting used to this keyboard, where the shift key is a little too far to the left, and the return is a little too far to the right. I keep hitting the keys adjacent to those, but I think with things like blogging, which help me type straight on, I'll get used to the keyboard soon enough. I miss my old laptop, I really do, but when you're only keeping a half hour of battery power, it's time to go. I miss that keyboard; I miss the functionality of the keyboard, because you could press the blue function key and get certain parts of the keyboard to act like a number pad. I also remember getting used to the shift key, but that's not to say that I can't do the same with this one. Maybe it'll just mean that my pinkies will be a bit stronger than the usual nothing that they are.
I'm also getting used to Office 2010. I was sporting a real dilemma for about 24 hours there, because I couldn't decide whether I wanted one registration ($120) or the full package which comes with 3 ($160). In the end, I thought that there's no way I'd be able to sell off two registrations, and plus, who knows what would happen to those two in the land of Ebay or Kijjiji. I might find myself with some subpoena for piracy that wasn't my fault. So I bought one, which makes me feel a little ripped off, but I didn't have much choice. That's another thing - I totally would have gone Mac for this laptop, but didn't feel like paying $1500 for something that's not going to be my main computer. It might become my main computer until my next writing room so that I get used to the keyboard, but really, I love my Mac too much.
Actually, getting MS Office 2010 was a bit of an adventure in itself. I opened the box for the registration key, then realized that whoops, it was not 2010 pre-intalled on my machine but 2007. Luckily, they let you convert the trial version, but crap, the Canada-based link wasn't available. And then the Microsoft customer service chat representative really wasn't helpful, giving me US (geo-blocked in Canada) links.
Now that MS Office 2010 is installed, I'm slightly intrigued as to what new features it holds, although quite irritated by this Ribbon nonsense. Instead of having shortcuts and drop-down menus so that you have more page space and nice little toolbars, you have tons of options which you're sort of forced to keep on the screen. But like a big nerd, I've been going through the keyboard shortcuts list from the Help Section, and learning what I can to make things easier for myself. Like splitting the screen with Alt+Ctrl+S. Oooooooh. And now I realize what I have to add to my Auto-Correct list in Word. See? Customization. Love it. That's also the difference between Office 2007 and 2010 - you can customize that damn Ribbon too.
I've also been doing quite well at Ribbon Hero. Find it in the Help section. It's not a bad way to learn the program.
Just a note that next job, I am charging double time for working weekends and evenings past 7 p.m. Even if that just means it's greater incentive not to have my plans cancelled left, right and centre. If you want to be a time vampire, it's going to cost you.
I've been able to get away with just using my desktop, using other people's computers (thank you Sean J and Mark), but unfortunately, unless it's your own computer, it's kind of like driving someone else's car. You're really afraid to do stuff in it, just in case you trash it. On Monday, I had a punch-up room with some hilarious folks (3 of whom I really quite adore from previous gigs), but I'm thinking now that I looked like a boob because I wasn't typing as fast as I normally do, and since there were no delete or home/pg up/pg down/end keys, navigation was a little spotty. That, and the wireless mouse with a delay ... cripes. I must have looked slightly inebriated. Which sucks especially, because I was a little excited after hearing my typing test results (more on that later), that I type at 103 wpm with 99% accuracy. Apparently, the average is about 40.
ANYWAY ... so now I'm all geared up. It's just a matter of getting used to this keyboard, where the shift key is a little too far to the left, and the return is a little too far to the right. I keep hitting the keys adjacent to those, but I think with things like blogging, which help me type straight on, I'll get used to the keyboard soon enough. I miss my old laptop, I really do, but when you're only keeping a half hour of battery power, it's time to go. I miss that keyboard; I miss the functionality of the keyboard, because you could press the blue function key and get certain parts of the keyboard to act like a number pad. I also remember getting used to the shift key, but that's not to say that I can't do the same with this one. Maybe it'll just mean that my pinkies will be a bit stronger than the usual nothing that they are.
I'm also getting used to Office 2010. I was sporting a real dilemma for about 24 hours there, because I couldn't decide whether I wanted one registration ($120) or the full package which comes with 3 ($160). In the end, I thought that there's no way I'd be able to sell off two registrations, and plus, who knows what would happen to those two in the land of Ebay or Kijjiji. I might find myself with some subpoena for piracy that wasn't my fault. So I bought one, which makes me feel a little ripped off, but I didn't have much choice. That's another thing - I totally would have gone Mac for this laptop, but didn't feel like paying $1500 for something that's not going to be my main computer. It might become my main computer until my next writing room so that I get used to the keyboard, but really, I love my Mac too much.
Actually, getting MS Office 2010 was a bit of an adventure in itself. I opened the box for the registration key, then realized that whoops, it was not 2010 pre-intalled on my machine but 2007. Luckily, they let you convert the trial version, but crap, the Canada-based link wasn't available. And then the Microsoft customer service chat representative really wasn't helpful, giving me US (geo-blocked in Canada) links.
Now that MS Office 2010 is installed, I'm slightly intrigued as to what new features it holds, although quite irritated by this Ribbon nonsense. Instead of having shortcuts and drop-down menus so that you have more page space and nice little toolbars, you have tons of options which you're sort of forced to keep on the screen. But like a big nerd, I've been going through the keyboard shortcuts list from the Help Section, and learning what I can to make things easier for myself. Like splitting the screen with Alt+Ctrl+S. Oooooooh. And now I realize what I have to add to my Auto-Correct list in Word. See? Customization. Love it. That's also the difference between Office 2007 and 2010 - you can customize that damn Ribbon too.
I've also been doing quite well at Ribbon Hero. Find it in the Help section. It's not a bad way to learn the program.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Shocking, rocking headlines from the town Post - July 2010
I've noticed lately that nothing much goes on here. Lots of pictures of sunshine, rainbows and clueless looking babies.
Hubby gets the credit for first making me laugh when looking at the headlines. We get this free paper delivered three times a week, and usually I just take the flyers and recycle the rest. One day, he said, "When are they ever gonna have some real news? Enough with the girl guides and the sunshine and rainbows."
So to give you an idea of what headlines are gripping the town, I'll be posting a few more as they come.
1. Is city hall too white? (July 2010)
Hubby gets the credit for first making me laugh when looking at the headlines. We get this free paper delivered three times a week, and usually I just take the flyers and recycle the rest. One day, he said, "When are they ever gonna have some real news? Enough with the girl guides and the sunshine and rainbows."
So to give you an idea of what headlines are gripping the town, I'll be posting a few more as they come.
1. Is city hall too white? (July 2010)
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