Tag Archives: rants-raves

Sometimes my lack of maturity smacks me in the face

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You would think, by now, I’d be old enough to know better…

Sometimes, I expect the world to be fair and for other people to observe the golden rule. Just because you put your personal differences aside and do the right thing when it comes to someone else, even if you have to grit your teeth to do it, doesn’t mean that very same person in a remarkably similar reversal, will do the same thing. I should just know that by now, right? Maybe this time I’ve actually learned that. Maybe. Hey, it could happen!

Sometimes not saying anything is better than saying something nasty. (My mother taught me that one.) So when I say nothing and say nothing and count to 100 and say nothing…. when does the goading stop? Does an ulcer signify success? Would taking up kick-boxing help… at all?

My father was the one that always said “Life’s not fair” — and I always argued. But you know what? He was right. Life isn’t fair. And, like parenting, no one gives you a manual. You, me and everyone else, just have to wing it, do what we can and hope for the best.

I laughed when both my parents told me that “parenting adults is harder than parenting children.” I felt the sting of the words aimed at me, while I complained about the messes my tiny children made and how hard it was to have two boys so close together in age and to literally start over again with a girl 10 years after the eldest boy was born. They didn’t understand, I assured myself… they never had THREE kids and they never tried to do it alone. I was wrong. They were right. ‘Nuff said.

So here I sit… trying to figure out how to learn to “let go” of the things I can’t do anything about and there I go… searching under every un-turned rock to find the wisdom to know the difference. Here I am, waiting for a miracle, a revelation, a tiny sliver of insight so I can figure out what my role is and if, indeed, I still have one in so many situations that find me lately.

In the meantime, while I impatiently await enlightenment, maybe I can be mature enough to quit worrying about everyone else and give myself permission to just take care of me and the one child I have left who is still under legal age.

Maybe now is the time to quit wringing my hands about all the things I failed to do perfectly, and start enjoying life a little more. Maybe today is the day I finally reach a comfortable level of maturity and realize that being a little more selfish isn’t necessarily a bad thing… maybe it’s a bit more like self-preservation. Maybe that’s what it really means to be mature. Maybe.

Printers aren’t what they used to be…

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Until recently, even if you didn’t have a “network” enabled printer, you could putz around with the thing and get it to work… especially if you have a dedicated server to run it through.

Those days are over.

In the same way that the win-fax modems put the stupid in a periperal, the printers are now relying on the CPU of the host computer to run the things. This means that they need a constant connection with that host computer.

Thus, if you try to “share” it across a network, a whole host of ugly (and hard to troubleshoot) things can occur… like intermittent printing, endless spooling, and serious wait times — I’m talking up to 12 minutes to print a simple .txt file!

So, if you think that a printer you are going to buy now might EVER need to be on a network, do your research carefully and skip on over to Best Buy and New Egg and CNET for the reviews and the ratings (stars for BB, eggs for NewEgg) and read what others say about the products.

Like I just told my “social networking naysayer” father — social networking isn’t just about Twitter and Facebook… it’s about using the collective knowledge to make better choices. (He still resents that I call his time spent on NewEgg as “social networking” time — of course he’s just a lurker, he never actually leaves any reviews of his own.)

I’m wearing him down. :)

So, save yourself the headaches, stress and frustration — do the research first and don’t assume that the old “tried and true” methods will work. You can’t simply add a printer or even lock it in via TCP/IP or, set it up as a local printer by specifying the IP address and share name of the printer.

Times have changed.

Also, the drivers for Vista are not all created equal. Very few of the lower-end printers have decent drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit machines. (They do well to support standard 32-bit machines).

And before you buy, Google “problems with ________ (insert the model you plan to purchase) with __________ (the operating system(s) you plan to use) on a network.” Then read and be scared… very scared.

That just about does it for my rant’o the day. It’s late.

Free Software Program for All Serious Writers

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It’s amazing how complex life can become. Writing, it seems, is more difficult every day. I love to write, but whenever I sit down to do that (especially creative writing) I find myself torn by the constant dings of this program or flashing notifications of that one.

Sure, I should be more disciplined when I write. I should ignore all that noise. I should be able to just mentally turn it off — but I can’t.

Alternatively, I should be able to physically turn off all the distractions, disable the notifications, log out of all the programs that clamor for my attention before I even begin a serious attempt at writing…

But I won’t. I don’t. It’s too much trouble. Besides, once I’m finished, I’d have to go back and try to remember everything I turned off and flip it all back on. What a hassle. So… I tell myself:

“Maybe it’s just better to wait until things are quiet to write. Now’s not really the best time… later I’ll be more focused…”

And that’s how the writing I really want to do never actually happens.

Now, I have a way to do it all — keep all my techie stuff up and working and have a clean slate to do my writing without distraction. I’ve looked at several of the “blackout” programs that take your stuff off-screen and give you a blank slate for writing.

Most of them look like one of the old computers my father built in the late 70s and early 80s. So, there’s an attractiveness for me to that black background/green text look. It reminds me of the Multi-mate program I used when I was first hired as a reporter at the newspaper in St. Mary’s County, MD.

So, it has some sentimental value and a offers me a reminiscent feel that others may not enjoy.

Today, I tripped across one that was free! And it’s multi-platform. So no matter if you are a Mac user, a Windows buff or a Linux fan — there’s a version for you. You can change some of the colors to fit your own preferences and there’s even a PDF Manual available for those who need to know everything about a program.

This writer’s tool is called JDarkRoom. Check it out for yourself.

It’s not really a word processor. It’s not going to tell you if you have spelling errors or grammatical issues. It’s basically a typewriter — a distraction-free environment for those who take writing seriously and need a place on their computer to slip into the creative “zone” for a few minutes… or a few hours.It delivers your writing in a plain text file that you can then import into a word processor for editing, spellcheck and format tasks.

Personally, I find it terribly alluring. It’s already got a place of honor on my iMac’s Doc. I love it.

Open Letter to Parents of Screaming Child

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screaming

I’d like to address this to the lovely woman (and her understandably quiet, seemingly embarrassed husband) who took little screaming Junior to Wild Oats in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday.

Dear Mother -

No, I did NOT roll my eyes at your child. Had I rolled my eyes at anyone, it would have been at you. My sister tells me that I exude disgust without the need to roll my eyes and that I’m terribly transparent. She’s probably right. My apologies. Obviously, you misconstrued my total disgust with eye-rolling. I’m not sure how that happened.

However, having a child in a public place that screams at that decibel rate and in that particular key (I think it was a high c, although no glass actually shattered), is not ok. Perhaps you have been led to believe otherwise. I can understand that you may have been instructed incorrectly at some young impressionable age, but you are surely old enough to know better by now. If not, you may want to seek professional help.

To yell at me, “There’s no reason to roll your eyes, he’s just excited!” does not eliminate your responsibilities to others (many of whom WERE rolling their eyes, BTW) who must share the public space with your adorable child. Did it not occur to you that it was strange that you had to blurt that well-practiced line so quickly while Junior was taking a breath before screaming again? He nearly cut your mini-speech off with his tireless squeals.

At what point did it become ok for your child (or anyone else) to invade the sanctity of my personal space in such an offensive manner? The old adage about your freedom to swing your fists stopping at the edge of my nose also applies to my ears and your precocious child’s vocal cords.

I would understand if it was a sudden outburst and you scrambled to educate your child on how to be a better, more sensitive individual and a more pleasant member of society. Instead, you opted to condemn those of us who were surprised by your incredulous incapacity to even recognize a problem. Let me tell you a little secret…  just because your child wants to be the center of your attention and your world does not mean that he should automatically be thrust into the spotlight in ours. There, I said it. Believe it.

I realize it’s old fashioned of me. I realize that I’m not “cool” with the new trends toward lenient parenting. I’m an old fogy. That’s ok. I can live with that. I actually like that my own young daughter’s mouth physically dropped open in disbelief as your child expressed himself.

But if you had not been so quick to jump — if you had not had that comment a little too “at the ready” — perhaps you may have noticed the entire fresh produce section stop in their tracks and turn to stare when Junior demanded center stage. He truly is hard to ignore. Bravo for you!

If you want Junior to be the center of attention, you might try for a more subtle approach. Perhaps a talent or a skill. Maybe he will be an amazing adult… but somehow I think he may need a little more guidance than you are obviously willing (or able) to offer.

Do him a favor, do yourself a favor, do the rest of us a favor… discover a better way for him to claim his fame. And, if you can’t control his abuse of other people’s eardrums, leave him at home. In fact, why don’t you stay home with him and properly adore him at close range and in private?

Your husband appeared to be mannerly … maybe he could do the shopping.

note: photo courtesy of morguefile.com, artist: xenia.