TODAY's QUOTE Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. - Pablo Picasso Yesterday's Entries 2000: Blue Christmas (Sigh...the
Christmas blues) TODAY's CD's PhotoShop tutorial on the Magic Wand tool. (Cool stuff!) The Sopranos on NetFlicks DVD YESTERDAY's FOOD Breakfast: A grapefruit Lunch: Peanutbutter & Jelly sandwich Dinner: Chili, salad, tortilla, Skinny Cow TODAY's EXERCISE I biked to work and back (3.8 miles total)! (And I didn't fall off, though I was quite tense when dealing with those leaf piles on the street) TODAY on the TELE All Saddam all the time. Yes, I'm glad the man was caught. I just wish I felt comfortable about where we go from here. TODAY's WEATHER Brisk, but bearable.
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I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS 15 December 2003 I hate computers. You need to know that about me. I hate computers. This is strange coming from someone who spends roughly 28 of every 24 hrs on the computer, who says that her hobby is computers, who can't write a grocery list without a computer. But there are times when I just want to take a sledge hammer to one of them. I have this superduper new computer with more bells and whistles than any aging housewife should have. (Dude--I got a Dell!) It's a Porsche and I'm a Ford kinda gal...but I do love the speed, the graphics capabilities, the direct connection to the internet. The hard drive the size of the SuperDome isn't bad either. But, see, I'm an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" person. Walt, years ago, gave me WordPerfect 9 to replace my beloved WordPerfect 6.0a for windows (which I reluctantly upgraded to from the DOS version when it became apparent that this "windows thing" was here to stay). I rarely used WP9 because 6.0a worked just fine and I didn't want to deal with the learning curve. But the Dell came with WP-11 and, in all honesty, 11 behaves more like 6 in the ways I was used to than 9 did, so I grudgingly have been restoring all of my quick corrects and my settings to the 11 and have basically been fairly happy with it. Until today. 6.0 had this neat "quick find" feature I used a lot. The psychiatrist constantly gets things screwed up and I have to quickly find a document when usually the only clue I have about it is a certain word that he used in that document. Well, with the quick find feature, you just brought up the folder, hit "quick find" (or whatever they called it), typed in the specific word, and instantly you had a list of all the documents where that word was used. You could then view each document and the word would be highlighted, so it was super easy to find which document you were looking for. This feature does not exist in WP-11. Well, it exists, apparently, but getting to it is more complicated than the instrument panel to a 747. AND, once you finally figure out what you’re supposed to do and do it, the ultimate folder you’re looking for doesn’t exist (WP Utilities). That’s when you read, in the fine print that "Not all operating systems have the menu options, buttons, and controls described in this documentation." Ergo, you’re screwed, baby. Undaunted, I went to the Corel Tech Help page on the Internet. I am a computer person. I can find my way around these problems. Well...not exactly. First you have to wade through a bazillion FAQs, to discover that your question is not covered. Then you write your question and it gives you two more subgroups of choices to make sure that your question is really not covered in their FAQs. Then they tell you they’ll get back to you in one working day. Which doesn’t help me today, of course. I also attempted to change my password to something I could remember and that was a comedy of errors. You put in the password they send you and it takes you to the tech help screen, with no place to change password. I did this three times, thinking that being a bear of little brain I had obviously missed something somewhere. On the third try, it wouldn’t even recognize the password they had sent me. I ended up getting a new password and somehow I was able to get into the "change my password" screen, but I still don’t know how I did it. I’m too old for this. I’m also fighting with Amazon. My beloved Amazon, whom I have supported lo these many years is trying to screw me for $3. I ordered 3 books. They sent the first two and a notice assuring me that when the third book arrived it would be sent out, at no cost to me and that they were being nice in sending me the first two now. Only when the third book arrived–an $8 book, I might add–I was charged $3.50 shipping and handling. Somehow the idiot at the "help" (I use the term loosely) desk can’t seem to understand the problem. I was told that my order didn’t equal enough to qualify for free shipping. Twice. And when you don’t like their answer, you can’t respond, of course, because it comes from an e0-mail address which bounces mail back, so all you can do is file ANOTHER complaint, which goes to another "helpful" person who sends you back another variation of the same answer. I’m about to find the phone number for Jeff Bezos and yell at him personally. Amazon, like Word Perfect, used to be a nice, friendly little place, but the bigger it’s gotten, the more bells and whistles it’s added, the more frustrating it has become to deal with. I hate to leave Amazon over $3.50, but I’m damn near close to doing that. As for WordPerfect, I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do about that. The buck stops nowhere and I’m floating on a big ol’ iceburg of frustration somewhere mid-stream. What makes me most angry is that this simple little thing wasted over an hour of my day in actual time spent trying to get an answer, and in periodic outbursts of rage because I was so damn frustrated just trying to do one simple little task (and I never did find the file I was looking for). Arggghhhhh. Addendum: Amazon, when threatened with loss of my business (i.e., half of their annual revenue), agreed to refund me not only the $3.50 I was asking for, but the entire shipping costs, so I am now richer by $5. Woohoo! |
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THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST
1955 |
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For more photos, please visit My Fotolog and My FoodLog |
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Weight Lost to date: 48.6 lbs
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Created 12/15/03
