I’m going on vacation tomorrow! We’ll be leaving after I get home from work and grab a quick shower and a bite to eat. We’re going to be gone until some time on Monday, so don’t expect to see any posts here from me in the interim. If I can remember to pick up some batteries for the camera there may even be photos to share when I get back! Hope everyone enjoys their weekend and leave plenty of comments on previous posts!
S
Okay, so now you’ve downloaded Open Office and now you’ve created your first document in there after fumbling around in it for a few minutes, realizing that all of the tools you’re used to are there, and work pretty similarly. However when you sent it to your buddy Joe-bob he came back complaining that he couldn’t open this crazy document and don’t you use Microsoft Office?!?
What you have there is an instance of Microsoft not supporting the open document format (yet). Remember my post a few days ago? Well, I’m here with a quick pictoral tutorial on how you can set your Open Office to automatically default to Microsoft formats. Please note, for the sake of preserving my blog’s layout, I’ve linked the images in instead of inserting them inline so you can read the text on the images.
First open up Open Office (I started with the Writer portion, but you could do it from any part of open office). It will look like this:
Now that you have this window open, you want to click on the Tools menu and go to Options, thusly:
After opening the Options menu, you’ll see something that looks like this:
You want to go down to Load/Save, so that it looks like this (make sure you highlight the General selection on the left):
General Settings/Load-Save Options
Now, you’re going to change the following values to those shown in this setting area:
And that my dear constant reader, is all it takes to set up Open Office so that the people who still stick to a non-standards compliant office suite can read your documents. Feel free to post any questions about this or anything else in the comments section and I’ll try to answer as best I can.
S
Most of you probably won’t realize this until after I’ve said something about it, but I spent a good portion of today going back through every post that has ever been made on this site and categorized them. I’ve also added a new category labeled ‘life’ because, well, to be honest, I post a lot about what’s going on in my life. Hope this helps anyone who’s trying to find certain posts.
In other news, I finally found my glasses this morning! Decided to look in the one place I hadn’t yet that made sense, so I cleared out a spot on the floor between my bed and the wall and laid down there and dug out things that randomly, mysteriously, migrate under the bed. There they were laying dusty and forgotten – yes even a little forlorn – by a plastic drinking tumbler that had made its way under there to keep them company….all the way under the middle of the bed. How they got there I have some strong suspicions. I probably knocked them off my side table one night fumbling around in my sleep, then they got pushed underneath by a random flick of a pants leg or something similar…then as time passed they likely were pushed back further and further by encroaching Items of the Forgotten Variety.
Whatever the case may be, I’ve found them again and they now perch upon my nose in their old familiar place, cleaned and providing me with clarified vision once more!
More Later,
S
So, I was surfing Slashdot last night and I came across an article about Microsoft planning support for the Open Document Format (ODF) in the next Office 2007 service pack (planned in 2009 sometime), instead of fixing their implementation of Office Open XML (OOXML). I can’t help but wonder at Microsoft’s strategy here. I mean, as a proponent of Open Source software in general and Linux in specific, I’m happy to see that the monolithic corporation – or the Cathedral if you will – is finally caving a little to the pressures of the public and releasing support for a standard that is proven and tested by the community, but I also feel like they (Microsoft) are simply trying to put something through to get their office suite into ’standards compliance’ so that businesses and governments will use it until they can come out with their next release of office (Office 14, the codename for the next office suite). Once the newer version of MS Office is out, I can’t help but think that Redmond may toss aside the support for the ODF in favour of its own OOXML format and set the world back years in terms of communication and data sharing.
Think about it like this: I use linux, and you use Microsoft, and my buddy J uses a Mac. If we can all use our own favourite word processing program and save in a universal standardized format (ODF), then we can share data harmoniously without horrid and unexpected changes in layout and formatting. However, with MS in the mix, unless J buys a version of Office for the Mac (at an absolutely /huge/ cost to him, no less) and I get a version of crossover office (again at a huge cost to me), we won’t be able to share data with you ‘natively’.
By saying ‘natively’ that means that I don’t have to buy or run any type of conversion software for my office suite (though Open Office does do a fairly admirable job of saving in MS Office format) that leaves the document weirdly formatted at best, or completely mangled at worst. What I have to worry about here…or at least wonder about….is the fact that MS Office is so universally adopted because ‘that’s what came with my system’. I feel like screaming sometimes when I hear people say that – not because I don’t want them to use the software that they have, but because they don’t have the capacity or the urge to research a little bit and find out that MS isn’t standardized – hell, they even have problems opening their own documents between versions. When I start to mention this, that whole blank stare comes across their faces and they immediately tune me out. Here it is in a nutshell folks: Just because a lot of people use the software, doesn’t mean:
So, here’s the crux – if you don’t know a thing about standards or document formats or anything else, at least give other office suites a test drive (hell, Open Office is even FREE. Both in concept and in price. If you care about the other people you’re going to be sending your documents and spreadsheets to, if you care about the information in it being presented in the manner in which you created it, then try out a different office suite. Hell, if you feel bad about using free software, go out and buy Star Office. And don’t come back and complain to me about it not having Outlook in it or a calendaring client. There are plenty of free solutions out there for that such as Thunderbird2 and Sunbird and Lightning. And if you don’t like mozilla for some strange reason, get out there and fire up google and search for free/open source software. It’s out there. It’s waiting. Don’t let the monolithic company dictate to you, pull the wool over your eyes and make you think that just because ‘everyone’s doing it’ that they abide by true standards. And when they do implement the ODF, I suggest that each and every one of you that use MS Office out there write to MS thanking them for /finally/ getting something right, for complying with standards in at least one thing, and urging them to continue forward with standards compliance throughout all of their software.
Now for all the legal shit – Each company owns its own name and trademark and blah blah blah, I’m not trying to infringe on anyone’s trademarks here. Just trying to get the word out about something that I personally feel is important in the present and in the future. Standards helps everyone because it gives everyone an even footing to stand on. What you do with all this standards compliant software that I’ve linked you to is up to you. But I hope that at least one person will go out and give this stuff a chance – that’ll make the last half hour worth it to me. And to everyone, I know that this post is really link heavy. That’s okay, I’m hoping that some of you will take it upon yourself to research some of the stuff I’ve been talking about here. I’m not asking you to go out and nuke your windows installation and put linux on your systems. However, I am asking that you not be one of the mindless millions and just go along with MS because everyone else is doing it. Everyone else is /not/ doing it, and even if they were, does that make it right? Don’t we all tell our children to learn to think for themselves?
Peace and good tidings,
S
Sometimes you try and help someone out and they think you’re not paying any attention to them. I just don’t understand that sometimes. Or worse yet, they think you’re actively not wanting to help them. Sometimes you just can’t win. I suppose that it’s a case where no matter what is said or not said, you end up saying the completely wrong thing. Times like that make me shut down completely and just fade into the woodwork. There’s obviously a disconnect somewhere between my mouth and their brain that what I’m saying isn’t making it through. Or maybe it’s a case where people just don’t want to hear what you’re saying so they just willfully decide that you’re not going to help them. I don’t know which it is.
I guess when people ask me ‘what’s wrong’ or ‘hey, you’re quiet today’, all I can do is say that I’m fine and imagine that everything is really okay, when some days it’s just not. Some days you get the elevator, some days you get the shaft. I don’t always have all the answers…hell I don’t always have answers, period. I guess I’m not as good at listening and talking as I once was, maybe that’s the problem. Perhaps it’s just an issue with me. The world may never know. The good thing about keeping most everything bottled up inside is that you never have to deal with talking to anyone else about it, to answer the questions, wonder if they’re thinking you’re nuts or just plain pathetic.
In other news, I’m going out of town on the 29th and will be gone until late in the evening on the 2nd. We’re going to visit some friends, and hopefully get in a little rest and maybe clear my mind a little bit. I guess that’s what I really need is a change of scenery, a little time to unplug from everything and everyone. Maybe it’ll do everyone some good for me to go away for a while. You never know I guess.
And that’s it for this post. I’m pathetic, I know, but maybe I’ll be less brain-dead later.
S
So, sitting here with yet another thumping, pounding headache, I was talking to annabannana and realized that she too was having problems submitting comments to the posts here, as did bru, and I’m sure a couple of other folks who might have tried and given up in frustration. So I decided that no matter how much I liked the bash theme that I was running, I need to listen at least a little to the people who frequent my little niche of the web and come up with something that looked and worked better. Thus we have the graytone. I’ve dutifully modified it a little bit and made it somewhat my own. The penguin came with the theme actually, and I may change it – haven’t decided yet if I want to or not. Maybe I’ll come up with something better to use…or maybe someone who doesn’t suck at photoshop will make me a neat nifty little free logo. Or maybe I’ll get off of my ass and make one for myself. Of course if I do, I’ll be using The Gimp.
I’d like to perhaps get some suggestions from you folks on sites/links that I should add to my site, maybe even get some traffic back going through here seeing as how I’ve decided to post more and more often. Maybe even some suggestions on content that folks would like to see. I’m sure nobody really cares much one way or the other on my opinion of things – that’s assured by the intense lack of reader response to pretty much everything I say (except for Anna, she’s my one faithful commenter!), but if there’s something you guys would like to see – more linux content, more stuff about what I do on the mush, about computers and such, just open up that little comment link down there at the bottom of this post and you’ll have a free forum to enter your ideas and suggestions. Would love to hear some feedback from you about what I’ve got going here, as it’ll help me provide you with more interesting things to waste your time reading/looking at while you should be doing laundry or typing up a school paper.
I guess that for now that’s all I’ve got, seeing as how I’m going to go stuff my head in the oven and wish we had natural gas instead of electric. Maybe the intense wishing will stop the skull splitting sensations! Yeah, that’s the ticket…pseudo-shock therapy through creative imagination! MUAHAHA!!!
Oh, and for those sticklers of you out there, no I am not going to go try and commit suicide, sometimes I just have a sick and twisted sense of humour.
Hope the day finds you well, and hope to hear from you soon.
S
So, the good news of the month is that mom is finally home! Went tonight after work and saw her for a little bit and she looks outstanding. So much better than when she was in the hospital, and much stronger now. Of course her caveat for all of that was ‘But I still have rubber knees’, but that’s okay. It’s just good to see her finally better and home. I can’t say ‘well’ yet because she’s not – she still has a good bit to go, needing to gain back a good bit of weight and rebuild her strength, but to see her actually able to sit up and feed herself (albeit through a tube) is a great improvement. I have been praying for her for a long time now, as have so many others (and thanks to you folks who have kept her in your thoughts and prayers, you’ll never know how much it means to me that you have), and I think that the prayers are being heard. Heard and acted upon.
As good as it is to see her home again where she’s happiest, I must admit that I’ve been low this week…bronchitis and sick headaches every day all day have worn me thin. There are times at work when I walk by the mirror and catch myself looking into it, checking to see if I’ve become so paperthin that light is showing through from the other side. Now, of course those that know me are aware that I will never be what someone might consider ‘thin’ physically. However, emotionally and mentally I am just completely drained down and rubbed thin, like the middle portion of a long set of stair treads that has seen a century of feet passing over them. I sometimes feel swaybacked and worn down to beyond the grain, a state that no matter how much sanding and staining you do will fix it. I think that the worst of it is the constant blinding pain of the headaches. I’m used to getting headaches…used to get them every day as a young teenager and even as an adult, but the ferocity and sheer mind-blasting pain of these is beyond my scope of reckoning. I’m sitting here right now writing this in a cozy little laundry area of my home, a nice soft light with some soothing music playing and the left rear side of my head and neck hurt so badly that my eyes have puffed up greatly and are watering from it. I tell ya folks, it’s an experience and a half, and while it reminds me that I’m still alive I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
Enough about me. I have to say that I’ve been listening to NPR a good bit on the radio whenever I’m in the vehicle driving from one place to another, and hearing about what’s going on in China and Myanmar…I wonder sometimes that the very earth does not try and shudder us off its back at times like these. I can only listen with mounting sadness at the number of lives lost in such terrible tragedies, so many of them children that never had a chance to grow up and experience life. For them the life experiences came too suddenly and tragically to an end. I can’t help but wonder where we’re headed as a species. We kill each other in droves, we torture and maim and figure out new and more efficient ways to deliver death and destruction to one another, all the while acting like we can compete with our environment for sheer violence. What do we do in a world where 20,000 people can be killed at one swipe – not by disease or famine, but by natural happenstance? On the one hand, the indomitable spirit of humanity to rise above the obstacles in our path amazes me…but the most base and selfish of us act upon this Earth as well, keeping those who would help others out, misusing things sent to salvage and save people in need…I know that there will never be an end to war as long as humankind walks this world – it’s in our nature to beget bloodshed and violence – but in that contention we also have to deal with ruination and destruction raining down on us from the very world we inhabit. I guess the weight of the world rests on no single man or woman’s shoulders, but it’s at times like these that I look upon the others of my world and see that the most noble and altruistic of us must needs contend with the basest and most evil of us. I suppose the most troubling thought to me through all of this is that in the end, a month, two months, a year from now someone will mention the Chinese earthquake, or the tragedy in Myanmar and I’ll shrug and say ‘Oh yeah, I remember that’, and go back to whatever meaningless task has claimed my attention at that point. We live in a world that neccessitates a degree of numbness to function at any rational level, and that ability to cast that numb pall over my own life just to be able to sleep at night scares the absolute hell out of me. It’s this numbness that, let loose among our other more noble emotions, allows us to become the Jeffery Dahmers, the Ted Bundys, the Adolf Eichmanns…our numbness towards the strife around us is the enabler of the rage and despicable contempt for our fellow humans. Maybe one day we’ll learn to overcome things like cancer, AIDs, influenza…but I fully believe that we will never cure the root cause of our warring and destruction of one another – that insensate disregard of the plight of those around us.
I guess the deep thoughts were closer to the surface tonight…sorry folks. Sometimes you pull a card from the deck and it’s all aces. Other times you pull a card and see that it’s a business card for a shrink that’s been tucked away inside the deuces and treys like some benign party-favour to remind you that we’re all just a little bit crazy. For the people who dislike the random rambling diatribe above, I suppose there’s always the ‘back’ button on your browser, but I fear if you’ve come this far, then I’ve already wasted far too much of your time for backing out to help much now.
S
So I’m feeling marginally better…good enough that I might actually be able to go back in to work tomorrow, assuming I don’t have any sort of disgusting relapse in the middle of the night. I swear it felt like I was going to choke to death last night when I got up at 3am…I’ll spare you the gory details. Let’s just say that I thought I was going to have to battle the lung-funk that came bursting out of my chest and up through my esophogus with a sword. It was bad. So anyways, I stayed home from work today and pretty much just rested. It was nice to actually be able to catch up on some rest. I’m sure it’ll be drained away from me by this time next week, but that’s okay.
On to other matters! I notice that the more I’m stressed out the less I care about world events. Usually I follow NPR (National Public Radio) pretty closely because I like some of the stories they produce on there, but as I get more stressed out, frustrated, I find myself preferring to listen to music instead, especially on my drives to and from work. Sometimes I guess it’s better for me subconciously to have a soundtrack going in the background to let my mind deal with whatever bit of sand has made its way in there and begin coating it like a pearl. I can’t say that it’s always pleasant – sometimes I have to think about some serious shit on my drives, things that I’d rather not ever have to deal with, but I guess those are the times where I get to be absolutely truthful with myself. I guess those are times when I come to realize that I’m not always the man I wanted to grow up to be…I don’t wear a cape, I’m not a super-hero, and I’m not as impressive as I wished I were. Sometimes though I realize that I’m doing the best I can in life – I haven’t always, there have been times where I just coasted…let whatever happen that was going to – but now I’m at a point where I’m willing to work for the things I want and while I’m dissapointed in myself for coasting in the past, I realize that I’m a different person now. Maybe I’m no super hero, and maybe I still make mistakes, but I’m willing to work for what I want, to be better than I was before, and that’s important. I guess what I’m trying to say is – I’m not what I wish for, but I’m willing and working to make myself better than I am.
Maybe all of this is just a rambling diatribe, but maybe it makes sense to someone out there.
S
I’m not getting better….apparently I’m still as bad as I was this weekend. Ended up leaving work early and coming home and collapsing on the couch for two hours before getting up to go to a meeting I couldn’t miss. Sat through the meeting sweating buckets and labouring to stay upright, hell, drove the half-hour home from work with my eyes half-closed for most of the trip. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like when I turned 30, all my ability to fend off sickness just left me. Packed up its bags and left. Did have a relatively good meeting though and feel like some things were accomplished. Maybe things might start looking up for us. I know that I’m tired of being sick, tired of not being able to breathe, tired of coughing and feeling like the back half of my skull is going to vaporize. All kinds of fun. Now if I can just find something to take my ibuprophen with.
Talked to dad today, he’s down with the same funk. Good news from him though, mom’s not over in swingbed yet, she’s still at the other hospital. This is a bit of good and bad news. Good because she’s at least in a hospital with actual doctors and nurses that will take care of her…bad news because it means they still haven’t gotten the blood fungus under control (I don’t even like saying ‘blood fungus’…sounds horrible). I guess old Jerry was right, every silver cloud does have a touch of grey. But in the immortal words of the mortal man, I will get by.
Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, those of you who still read my roughshod ramblings, and think about us every now and then…maybe good thoughts and prayers will be enough to help keep the darkness at bay and the nightmares away.
S
Okay, it looks like the new script works, though for some reason the last post I tried, it posted in GMT instead of EDT, so things were just a little bit wonky. It may do it this time as well, but we’ll see. As for why I’ve been so quiet, well, I made up a post with my neat-nifty little desktop blogging widget last night and the little fucker ate my entire post when I hit ’send’. It said ’sent successfully’ but it lied. Kblogger destroyed my life! And now I’m just another burned out crack-head living on the corner, mumbling into his beard trying to score some smack…Oh wait, that’s not right. I’m actually just a little miffed that Kblogger ate my post, and so it sent me on a hunt to find a new blogging widget. Since I like vim…okay, love vim…I found one that, after a little tweaking, I can use to post directly from my favourite editor. Nice, neat and simple! Just like me. I’m pretty simple.
So, anyways, about what’s been going on with me. As it just so happens, the wiffy and I got sick over the weekend, both of us with colds, and let me tell you, it /SUCKS/ having a cold when everyone else around you is nice and perky and the day is bright and shiny and the sky is full of those puffy little white cottonball clouds. It thoroughly blows. But that’s okay, cause I think I’m starting to get a little better. Well, maybe.
This ends up being the point where I do most of my rambling. Sometimes it's good, most times it's not. As far as I go, I'm a 30-something husband, father, friend, geek...everything else you want to know about me and everything else you don't is contained right here in these pages.
~Swift