(no subject)

[katallison]

Today's occasions of crankiness:

1) I can't get into my mrks.org blog this morning. I haven't changed any settings since I last updated it. I have no idea what's going on, and I can't get into the settings to look at them. Arrghh.

2) It is cold out. I'm a bit amazed at how suddenly and thoroughly my lifelong tolerance of and (at times) affection for winter has shattered. Because, I mean, good god, it's not really cold out. It's around zero, which is bog-normal mid-January weather. Cold is when it's twenty degrees colder than this (which it could easily get to at any point during the next four to six weeks). Really fucking cold is when it's thirty degrees colder than this, which it has certainly gotten to in my recent memory <repressing impulse to blather boringly about that thirty-two-below-zero morning back in '96, by cracky>. It's just that--somehow, after coping cheerfully with forty-six Minnesota winters (subtracting out the three years I spent in Calif.), I've abruptly lost my ability to deal. It's cold, and it hurts, and it's a major pain in the ass, and I am sick of it; and I need to get the hell out of here, whatever happens with the pending job application (about which I've still heard nothing ::stress stress::).

3. [Item deleted here having to do with massive anxiety about job application, and creeping conviction that I won't even get an interview, and general work-related gloom.]

3. The cold, which has moved to my head, is refusing to leave, but instead hangs around like one of those awful drunks at the tail-end of a party who seems incapable of taking a broad hint. "Yes! Ha ha! Well, it's been super, but I really would kind of like to breathe again now, if it's all the same to you, and ... yeah, right, but y'know, gotta get up early tomorrow, and, y'know, breathe, and ... yeah, I think you did tell me that story already, and ... no, really, I think the tequila's all gone, and ... ha ha! Right, it's been great, and here, let me get your coat, and ... nope, I think the beer's all gone too, and ..."

4. I was all industrious on Sunday and got some additions and revisions done to the story, and then Word had some sort of crack-addled nervous breakdown and I lost an entire afternoon's work. The only sensible response to such events is a deep breath, perhaps a brief sobbing fit, then a hearty "Heigh-ho!" and a rewrite of all the lost work before it departs one's brain forever. My own response has been an extended snit, which is neither emotionally gratifying nor productive. Fuck Word.

And. Um. OK, that's enough for now. Off to slap some good cheer into myself.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I hate, hate, hate Word. Good thing my laptop suddenly vomited it up one day and refused to let me use it. (If you're looking for a replacement program, BTW, Abiword is quite nice for freeware and is platform-compatible with Word documents.)

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this! Somebody, somewhere, somewhen (and god, it might even have been you) recommended Abiword, and I of course immediately misplaced the info, as is my scatty wont. But I have now downloaded it, and it does indeed look like a good alternative. Take *that*, Bill Gates and all your minions! <extremely rude gesture>

Cold

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Yes. Minnesota is far too fucking cold. I can handle the level of cold we get here in New England, just barely; there's snow aplenty, and will be for the next 3 months, but the 30-below days are pretty rare. Plus, our house has both hot tub and sauna, and let me tell you, I practically move in to that room over the wintertime. There is no feeling in the world quite as good as sliding into really hot water when you've had vaguely cold extremities all day. :-)

If I'd gotten around to inventing that teleportation device, I'd invite you over for a soak. Alas. Perhaps a cup of coffee at Escapade in a few weeks will have to suffice...

Re: Cold

[katallison.livejournal.com]

I am whimpering and making pathetic little pawing gestures toward your hot tub and sauna.

But yeah, hell, let's definitely do that cup of coffee at Escapade. And the way I'm feeling today, I may just STAY in Oxnard! Hah! There's probably a Starbuck's that's hiring, or something ...

[halimede.livejournal.com]

That's why after every sentence I automatically hit control key + s for save. Even when I use Roughdraft, which saves everything automatically every 10 minutes.

Roughdraft's really cool BTW, free and written especially for writers, by a writer. Much less of a burden on computer resources, and it hasn't crashed on me once. I especially like the really good search (& replace) functions and the note-keeping thing that gets saved with the document. So if you're mad enough not to want to use word anymore, check it out:

http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm

No stakes in the product (besides, it's free, remember?) just providing info. :)

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! I will definitely check that out, and thanks for the info! The only reason I've used Word this long is that the "Compare Versions" thing is sometimes useful in working with a beta, but few of my current betas even use Word at this point, so feh.

[halimede.livejournal.com]

Just remembered the one bug that almost put me off: if you have no printer installed, it panics and won't start up. If you have no printer attached to that particular computer, just install a printer driver for the heck of it (the most default driver works) and it is fooled and will start up fine.
If you have problems with roughdraft, contact me at vive at milant dot demon dot nl and I might be able to help.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I have trouble dealing with the weather here in Northern Virginia. It's hovering right around freezing today and I thought I would die waiting on the metro platform. You are a hearty soul indeed to have lived through many Minnesota winters! I always say I'll never move North of the Mason-Dixon line and I mean it.

In the meantime, I find that hot baths are immensely cheering. As is snuggling up to my dog. Hope your day gets better.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind thoughts! And actually, for all the grousing I do about Minnesota, I've never really been colder than in the house I used to live in in Santa Cruz, when winter storms were blowing in. Because nobody had ever thought to put *heat* in the place, or insulation, since hey! sunny California! and it had a huge fieldstone fireplace with no damper, so the dank chill wind blew right into the living room. But I blither. Your idea of the hot bath is spot on, and I think I shall go avail myself of one soon. Wish I had a nice snuggly dog, instead of a cranky tactophobic senile cat <g>.

[twistedchick]

I spent two years living above the Adirondacks, not far from the Thousand Islands, in college. The -40 temps (not counting wind) for more than a month in the winter was the main reason I didn't accept entrance to the music school there that would have kept me in the place four years longer. However, having lived through that (and a -50 Adirondack Search and Rescue trip that was the stuff of bad movies), it made living in the mountains in southwestern NY and walking to work in -15 fairly bearable, more or less.

I still get cold too easily and stay cold. And all the numbers feel colder to me here in Maryland than they did in New York, because of the higher humidity.

Wishing you hot baths, good soup, and an end to the head cold.
::passing you the teapot, full, ready to pour, your choice of additives (scotch is available)::

[katallison.livejournal.com]

<taking a nice deep swill of hot tea>

Thanks so much, Kit! And yeah, it is definitely colder in (a few) other places around the US, up in the Adirondacks for one. I feel like a Giant Wussie for complaining; I mean, hell, I could be living in Rawlings, Wyoming (where my car once broke down on a -47 F night). I'd love to hear the Search and Rescue story someday!

[minette.livejournal.com]

Winter is the season where you wish you had the medicinal equivalent of a flamethrower to burn out all your colds, coughs and such. So far, Buckley's is doing the job admirably, but there has *got* to be a better way to get rid of my hacking cough than to ingest liquid fire.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Heee. Have never encountered Buckley's, but Google informs me this is a fine Canadian cure-all for the common cold. I can only believe it's what Fraser's grandmother would have dosed him up with. [From their website]: "Because Buckley's Mixture has a herbal base, ingredients such as Canada balsam, menthol, camphor and pine needle oil give Buckley's a taste which most people describe as awful."

I *love* that.

[minette.livejournal.com]

Mwahaha! That and a big spoonful of castor oil, knowing her.

And God, the menthol, it burns! It burns! With a minty-fresh aftertaste. :)

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Omigawd, Kat, how *awful*. ):

Naturally my sympathies are winging their way toward you on all counts, but I'm especially sad about the loss of your afternoon's writing. I will refrain from my usual editorializing about Microsoft.

Let me know if I can help with any of it.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Hey, the hell with my minor gripes, what's important is --
<dancing around the room>:
Laura has an LJ!!
Laura has an LJ!!
Laura has an LJ!!
Wheeeee!!!!

(note the marked absence of pointing/laughing in the above. Because I am so frickin' nice.)

Thanks for the kind thoughts, sweetie, and believe me, you may bad-mouth Microsoft at length, in depth, and profanely. I'm reconstructing. May take a few days, but not a big deal, because everything up until Sunday was triple-backed-up. I just need to quit grumping, and get writing.

Utterly unsolicited advice

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

It sounds to me like you're spoiling for a change, Kat m'dear. You might want to think about making some kind of move or life regardless of whether you get this job or not. Just a thought.

Re: Utterly unsolicited advice

[katallison.livejournal.com]

<nodding> Yup, indeed, and OH yeah. My mental soundtrack, which is a reliable (albeit often cheesy) indicator of inner doings, has been playing a continuous remix of The Animals singing "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," Springsteen's "Born to Run," and Tracy Chapman humming "You got to make a decision, you leave tonight or live and die this way."

Examining my subconscious, I realize I've already been sorting through my possessions--which to pack, which to discard--and composing "I love you, let's keep in touch, buh-BYE" messages to my co-workers and family. It's just a matter of logistics and timing now. A year from now I'll be somewhere else.

All of which makes trying to cope with the ongoingness of daily life rather against-the-grain and thwarting-feeling. But soldiering on for now. As long as I have an escape hatch in view, I'm good.