The Not Happy Thread

I hate this fucking ice bucket ALS challenge. Give or don't give, but fuck this stupid fucking, "Ooh, I don't want everybody to see a video of me yet I do it anyway bullshit."

 

Oh, so sad. I'm sorry and my silly computer problems look so insignificant now.

 

I do to and I don't get it. I thought it was supposed to be donate or else the ice water. It's fine they are raising the money so if the publicity helps, then oh well.

 

Have you ever tried LibreOffice? I loves it, and it seems cross-platform-ish. Also, word & character count are always displayed in the status bar for moi.

 

I mostly write with Scrivener, but I make the Word docs for my writing critique group because they are easy to double space and print. I think on my iMac, Word shows the word count on the status bar. But the desktop baby is on the fritz and I'm not writing on it currently. What I really want is WordPerfect back but all of my clients use Word and I can't send then WP docs when I write policies and such. I hate Word but I'm stuck with it.

 

Scrivener, @GingerCoffee. Scrivener.

I don't mind the ice bucket challenge. If it raises money, good. I just wish people would challenge assholes to get cold and wet. Has anyone challenged Donald Trump? How about Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity? Or (please god) Ann Coulter? And, just to balance things out politically, we also need to see Bill Maher, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Schultz do it. Bono should do it too, for being a self-important boob.

The Koch brothers should do it, too. And they should have to give more to ALS research than they give to political campaigns.

 

You do know that Scrivener will automatically format your output, right? I write in Times New Roman single spaced, but when I compile, it comes out as proper Shunn manuscript format: Courier New, double spaced, headers and footers all set up, margins and everything done properly. Scrivener does it automatically - you don't need to use Word for your writing critique groups.

 

Yeah but the Word doc is 1200-1500 words at a time I'm taking to the critique group, the actual novel stays on Scrivener.

And I'm old, so learning new formatting is a pain.

But it just dawned on me we need a new sticky thread in General Writing: Quick format or computer questions. Think I'll bring it up in the proper sub-forum.

 

How exactly is putting a bucket of ice water over your head a challenge?

 

Few things weigh heavier on the heart than having to watch one's own pet being put to sleep, it watching you with those trusting eyes.

 

You can feel guilty about those trusting eyes, or glad to be with your pet when it goes. When I was a child our dog died. I don't know if it died of natural causes or my parents had her put down and didn't tell us, they took her to the vets and told us the next day she'd died. I've always been bothered that she died in a cage in the night alone.

A lot of vets don't let you stay in the room at the end, but even going to the vets and saying goodbye a few minutes before it's over is better than leaving your dog and finding out it died alone in the night.

 

I assumed all vets let the owners watch. It's the right thing to do.

 

I wouldn't go to a vet who didn't allow me to be there when my pet is put down. I understand if someone gets so hysterical, they disturb the procedure or something, but apart from that, I'd definitely insist on being there for the last moments.

 

THIS

Every vet I've worked for has always allowed the owners the option. There were a couple that were so hysterical we had to kind of escort them out, but we never forced them out. In fact, it's common practice for Vets to have other people with the animal - even if the owner chooses not to be. That was usually me when I was still working. I find it disturbing to let an animal die alone and afraid. It's heartbreaking, but it's just something that I have to do. Most people in animal care feel the same, though many can't take the constant heartbreak.

 

I've been dieting the last few weeks because my back doctor has challenged me to lose some weight. The problem is I have no energy. I'm on a lot of meds so it could be those, but I even started taking DHEA and it hasn't helped. My doctor is going to do a testosterone test on me next month to see if that is it. If so the testosterone meds will help give me energy, lose weight, and some other benefits.

So far I've lost between 10-15 pounds with diet alone. I knew I had to do something once I started to get my Dicky-do.

 

In the last two days I've had 3 spam calls from people who "bought my name and number" from someone selling lists. Normally despite being on the do not call list, I get dozens of calls a week, I mean that literally. I'm this close to just canceling my land line. Now people are selling lists like people sell mailing lists of people.

Twice they called saying they were following up on my inquiry for a mortgage. I don't even know if I ever called anyone about a refinance. And once it was claiming I had inquired about a heater tuneup. One of them claimed they had my name from a purchased list of people to call.

This is a new scourge, an amplification of an already existing evil.

 

I get the same thing. Must be a way to report them. I have been meaning to research it.

 

There is a reporting mechanism on the do not call list website. You do need either a phone number via caller ID or some means of identifying the caller.

There's also a * code you can key in right after receiveing a nuisance or harassing call. After three reported calls to your number from the same caller, prosecution can begin.

 

In need of a pick-me-up.

For some reason I woke up feeling all down-in-the-dumps, the gray rainy autumn weather agrees, and everything's like a bowl of porridge sans strawberry jam. Meh.

 

That's pretty good

 

I don't like jamless porridge, and I don't like this jamless day... Oh hang on, was that the pick-me-up I asked for?

Well, maybe something nice'll happen. Like maybe I'll see a puppy on my way home, or one of our poltergeists has killed the potential wasps that like to crawl into our apartment when the weather gets colder.

ETA. Thank you, Universe, for putting things into fucking perspective. Just received news that a co-worker died -- at the age of 31! Nobody knows yet why, but they're suspecting an aneurysm of some kind.

 

Shit, sorry to hear that. Hope it wasn't who I think it was...

And the universe is gonna give you a break sooner or later, don't worry about it. I can fix you something nice for dinner today and then we can write, draw, run some dry fire drills etc. Whatever would cheer you up. Even our poltergeists killed another wasp, so they and yours truly are holding the fort against buzzing intruders.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your coworker, and also that you were already having a bad day.

 

Thanks . It came as a shock for sure.

Then again, I just got news my nephew was born! The circle of life, eh?

 

Yep. And now I say CONGRATULATIONS