FreeCell, Solitaire, Hearts, Minesweeper
Mike Jankulak
[another me!me!me! installment, you know the drill, women and
children etc., get out while you can.]
Yesterday I found out that FreeCell doesn't work on my PC anymore.
Well, it works, sorta, for a while. But it no longer redraws itself
properly, and eventually freezes. I did a search on the Microsoft
Support pages (okay, you can stop laughing now, no really) and
learned that there's some sort of memory incompatibility between
FreeCell and XP. But I'm running Win98SE, fergawdsakes. But oh, I
recently upgraded to IE 6-something (and incidentally, Netscape
6-something too). IE 6 is "built on XP technology" or somesuch
garbage, I should have known better.
So, yes, I hate all things Microsoft, and now that I'm Gainfully
Unemployed (tm) and re-inventing myself (yesterday I was a airlines
reservation agent named Judy for about a 1/2-hour), why not simply
re-define myself as an Apple person? Or a *BSD person? Or an
anything-but-Microsoft person? Because I've had to reboot my
desktop at *least* once per day, and I hate it.
But I was talking about FreeCell. Yes, it no longer works. How did
I learn this, you may ask? Why, by playing several hours of computer
games yesterday afternoon when I -- apparently -- had nothing better
to do. After restarting the computer a few times because of FreeCell
crashes, I gave up and switched to Solitaire (won twice), Hearts
(couldn't outwit Pauline or Michelle, but managed to beat Ben a few
times) and Minesweeper.
Ah, Minesweeper! Following the lead of someone-who-lives-with-me-but-
who-shall-not-be-named-here, I've had occasion recently to play a
ludicrously difficult version of minesweeper on my 2-way pager, so the
Microsoft version appears laughably easy. I didn't actually manage to
win any games yesterday, but I'd had the sense that I was blasting
through it far more quickly than previously, so I stopped and checked
the best times. As I suspected, they were nothing to boast about, so
it shouldn't take much effort to unseat, well, myself. But these Best
Times had more to say than just names and numbers:
Fastest Mine Sweepers
Beginner: 15 seconds Mike 5/19/01
Intermediate: 98 seconds Mike 5/22/01
Expert: 468 seconds Mike 5/19/01
oh dear. I'd obviously recorded for posterity not just my *name*,
but the date on which I'd attained these glorious victories. And
it's no accident that these dates fall exactly one year ago, when I'd
been between contracts for a few months and going stir-crazy.
At that point, I'd not had steady work all year. I left Motorola at
the end of 2000, returning for a 4-week followup contract in March /
April of 2001. I'd done two weeklong consulting / training trips to
Ottawa, one in January and one at the end of April. I'd left my "job"
at the consulting company who'd sponsored my immigration, back at the
beginning of April. I was about to leave on a 3-week vacation to Nova
Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. I'd
circulated my resume to various online job sites and South Florida
consulting companies. I'd notified friends and colleagues of my
availability and interest.
So I was probably feeling depressed. Aimless, directionless.
Feelings of failure were threatening, as I'd done everything I could
think of to find myself a new contract without much sign of success.
Financial security was evaporating, and what kind of fool was I to be
going on a 3-week vacation when I had no source of income?
Meanwhile, the economy wasn't doing well, yadda, yadda.
Well, I tend to slow down when I get depressed. Rather than being
spurred on to new heights of job-hunting (company research! phone
calls! networking! training!), I distracted myself with less
constructive diversions -- Minesweeper is an *excellent* example.
This time around, in 2002, things are slightly different. Feelings
of failure aren't as much of an issue -- how can I be *failing* to
find a job when I'm not even looking? I haven't submitted online
resumes, I haven't contacted the local consulting companies, and I've
told very few of my friends and colleagues that I've left Motorola.
Y'see, this time is supposed to be different -- this time, I'm trying
to change tracks, to find a job that I don't actively loathe every
moment of every work week. To switch "careers," if you like,
although I don't know that I'd dignify my work experience to date
with the label "career."
But contrariwise, *aimlessness* is therefore much *more* of a
problem. I have no plan. I have no goal. I have very little idea
of what might await for me at the end of this period. I fear I will
end up abandoning these loftier notions and return to the soul-
numbing work that I've done for the last eight years.
Yesterday, I tried to knock off a few more items from my To Do list.
I nailed down some of the boards in the deck of Apartment B. [We'll
see if that does any good once they dry out -- and warp -- again.] I
started scouring out the oven, applying a coat of Easy-Off and (2
hours later) trying to shovel off the grime. [Needs at least one
more coat, but I need to buy more Easy-Off first.] In the meantime,
I finally caught up to panix.questions, then added back
rec.humor.jewish, panix.upgrade and (god help me) alt.polyamory. And
of course, I played computer games.
Today I'm already off on both the right foot and the wrong one -- the
right foot, because I'm *writing*, which is what I want to be doing.
The wrong foot, because I'm delaying my "real" chores -- shopping for
more Easy-Off, cleaning the oven (and apartment), proceeding with the
goddamn WCIYP? exercises, and reading my way through more of my
bookpile. [Not to mention calling my financial advisor re: my new
disability insurance, or researching individual Health Insurance, or
looking for a new HandyPerson for work around the house, yard and
apartments.]
Meanwhile, last night was kind of a low for me. I'd spent all
afternoon (after my shower) playing stupid computer games, cursing
Pauline or Michelle for slipping me the Queen of Spades (when I
didn't want it) or nabbing a stray Heart (when I did want them). My
evening plan was to join Sim at his work to attend a Commemorative-
slash-Informative event about the 1926 Hurricane (well, two of them,
actually: the September one that hit Miami, and the October one that
hit Cuba) and Hurricane Andrew (in 1992, which you'd know if you lived
here, and maybe even if you don't). But after a few hours of Hearts-
playing in the nude, I looked up to notice that it was 5pm and I
should've left for Miami already.
So I got ready and jumped into my car, only to hit unusual traffic
levels entering downtown -- the goddamn *president* was in town,
grousing about Castro to retain support of the Cuban exile
electorate. Still, I managed to make it to Virginia Key with moments
to spare, and I joined Sim for pre-event cocktails and hors d'oeuvres
with his colleagues and their families.
Most of these are people I've known for six years, now, although some
are more recent arrivals to the community than I am. Still, I like
and respect these people, and consider them to be probably more of a
"family" than most of my own co-workers have tended to be. I've had
these people in my home, and I've been in their homes. I'm on the
phone list of spouses to notify whenever one of the hurricane planes
has landed after a mission. I've met them at the airport as the
scientists take off or land, I've bumped into them around town
randomly, or at events like these.
So it's not like these people are strangers to me.
Still, I found myself even more silent than usual, even for me.
People asked me "how's it going?" or "what's up?" in an effort to
start those kind of social conversations that don't necessarily need
to lead anywhere. But I had nothing to answer. Nothing was up. I
wasn't working. [My identity was also in question, since I could no
longer claim to be a "computer programmer."] I wasn't occupied with
any huge project, home-improvement or otherwise. I had no pithy
observations regarding human existence to offer. The only
information I had to offer was negatives: not working, not doing
anything, not going anywhere, not thinking anything, and did I
mention not working?
[If I'd only thought of it, I had *lots* to say about my recent
vacation in Taiwan and Cambodia. In fact, I got into a
side-conversation with another Spouse at one point about foreign
travel. She was going to Brazil to attend a wedding in the near
future. Yet another Spouse had recently canceled her first trip to
Israel (alas). One young couple was planning their own wedding in
New England this summer.]
A few people knew that I was intending to re-define my career. A few
had heard that I'd been reading WCIYP?, either from my own lips or
from Sim's. This is something I'm mostly just embarrassed about,
since it hasn't *led* me anywhere (except perhaps AWAY from
Motorola). But the people I talked to were genuinely excited about
this idea -- rejecting one's status quo!, seeking out *meaningful*
work!, taking one's life into one's own hands!, etc. It was rhetoric
(and incidentally, it was rhetoric I'd used to push myself onto this
road in the first place), but that doesn't mean it was *empty*
rhetoric. It struck a chord with some of these people, generating a
lot of enthusiasm.
Partly their enthusiasm made me feel like even more of a fraud, since
I'd failed to achieve anything so far with this line of thinking.
But partly, I was cheered by it. I still found it difficult to admit
to aspects of my own failure and inadequacy ("what's up?" "nothing!
nothing's up, I'm NOT WORKING"). Say it again: not working. Not
working. Unemployed. ("Gainfully *Un*employed, get it? ha-ha.")
But by the end of the evening, I'd gotten over myself just a little.
--
Anyway we can
We're gonna find something
We'll dance in the garden
In torn sheets in the rain -- the B-52's
Clay Colwell
> But after a few hours of Hearts-
> playing in the nude, I looked up to notice that it was 5pm and I
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> should've left for Miami already.
> So I [...] jumped into my car,
Just wanted to quote that out of context.
[...]
> Partly their enthusiasm made me feel like even more of a fraud, since
> I'd failed to achieve anything so far with this line of thinking.
> But partly, I was cheered by it. I still found it difficult to admit
> to aspects of my own failure and inadequacy ("what's up?" "nothing!
> nothing's up, I'm NOT WORKING"). Say it again: not working. Not
> working. Unemployed. ("Gainfully *Un*employed, get it? ha-ha.")
> But by the end of the evening, I'd gotten over myself just a little.
Add "get 20 boxes of bonbons" to your To Do list.
Purchase one of those quilted housecoats and a pair of
fuzzy slippers.
Get Sim to take a picture of you, in housecoat and slippers,
munching on said bonbons and watching soap operas.
Post picture.
After that exercise, I'm betting you'll get some extra
enthusiasm.
(Joking aside: just be careful not to sink into mental quagmire.)
Mike McKinley
> Add "get 20 boxes of bonbons" to your To Do list.
> Purchase one of those quilted housecoats and a pair of
> fuzzy slippers.
> Get Sim to take a picture of you, in housecoat and slippers,
> munching on said bonbons and watching soap operas.
> Post picture.
Darling, really!
A *lady* wears a bed-jacket or a peignoir. Not a quilted housecoat.
Unless, you're going for the Hollywood Land Lady Look.
--
*************************************
We cannot all be self-serving dilettantes, mincing about on fairy wings
and preaching redistributive justice!
Monte Mitchell, Esq.
Brian Vogel
> Mike Jankulak <jank...@panix.com> wrote:
>>Partly their enthusiasm made me feel like even more of a fraud, since
>>I'd failed to achieve anything so far with this line of thinking.
Mike, having "been there, done that" in terms of what you're
going through, please don't feel like a fraud. Look upon it this
way, instead:
Procrastination means you know what you need to do and you don't
do it. If you don't know what to do you aren't procrastinating.
You are thinking.
~ Lynn Lively, _The Procrastinator's Guide to Success_
While there appears to be plenty of "small stuff" procrastination going
on (and to be truthful, how many of us *can't* say that?) it appears
that the "big stuff" is in thinking mode.
Many people never have the internal fortitude to examine and
rethink their lives, and even fewer take any sort of constructive
action if/when they do. It appears that you're taking the curve
that was thrown you and trying to bring something much better out
of it. Sometimes a "doing nothing" period is part of that.
> Add "get 20 boxes of bonbons" to your To Do list.
> Purchase one of those quilted housecoats and a pair of
> fuzzy slippers.
> Get Sim to take a picture of you, in housecoat and slippers,
> munching on said bonbons and watching soap operas.
> Post picture.
>
> After that exercise, I'm betting you'll get some extra
> enthusiasm.
I know that I'd be enthused by that photo! I can just
*imagine* the sheer wonder of it if the set, lighting, and
<let's not forget> hair are worked to full glory!
> (Joking aside: just be careful not to sink into mental quagmire.)
Yes. If you find that doing nothing starts getting you
really down then find something to do outside the home and that
helps others. It's always been amazing to me how much putting
the focus on other people and things can really work some magic
on one's attitude.
Brian
Frank McQuarry
Katie Schmitz wrote:
>
> On 21 May 2002 14:57:59 -0400, jank...@panix.com (Mike Jankulak)
> wrote:
>
> > After restarting the computer a few times because of FreeCell
> >crashes, I gave up and switched to Solitaire (won twice), Hearts
> >(couldn't outwit Pauline or Michelle, but managed to beat Ben a few
> >times) and Minesweeper.
>
> What?!? You haven't renamed the other three players after loved ones
> you live with?
>
> Katie, who plays with Tigger, Danny, and Frida when she plays Hearts,
> but now she's gotta get the game on her new Win2000 machine
I've renamed everyone, including myself. I play as Boob, against Bitch
Goddess, Scumbucket, and Beer Gut.
I've become pretty good at this game, and take all the points about
every 4th hand or so.
Some patterns I've noticed. Opponents rarely pass clubs. If they have
the queen of spades, it invariably passes that, often with the king and
ace.
Sim Aberson
Mike McKinley <mp...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> Darling, really!
> A *lady* wears a bed-jacket or a peignoir. Not a quilted housecoat.
> Unless, you're going for the Hollywood Land Lady Look.
He *is* a Land Lady, and Hollywood is only eight blocks away...
--
"Hurricanes and galaxies look alike, but while the former can strike
Puerto Rico, the latter CONTAINS Puerto Rico." -- Neal Dorst
Mike McKinley
> In article <3CEABB9B...@mail.utexas.edu>,
> Mike McKinley <mp...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
> > Darling, really!
> > A *lady* wears a bed-jacket or a peignoir. Not a quilted housecoat.
> > Unless, you're going for the Hollywood Land Lady Look.
> He *is* a Land Lady, and Hollywood is only eight blocks away...
He *is* GI Jane.
DRS
news:ace5bn$knt$1...@panix2.panix.com...
>
> [another me!me!me! installment, you know the drill, women and
> children etc., get out while you can.]
>
> Yesterday I found out that FreeCell doesn't work on my PC anymore.
>
> Well, it works, sorta, for a while. But it no longer redraws itself
> properly, and eventually freezes. I did a search on the Microsoft
> Support pages (okay, you can stop laughing now, no really) and
> learned that there's some sort of memory incompatibility between
> FreeCell and XP. But I'm running Win98SE, fergawdsakes. But oh, I
> recently upgraded to IE 6-something (and incidentally, Netscape
> 6-something too). IE 6 is "built on XP technology" or somesuch
> garbage, I should have known better.
My FreeCell runs just fine on my W2K Pro w/IE6.
[...]
> Fastest Mine Sweepers
>
> Beginner: 15 seconds Mike 5/19/01
> Intermediate: 98 seconds Mike 5/22/01
> Expert: 468 seconds Mike 5/19/01
Just Not Good Enough!
Beginner: 12 seconds
Intermediate: 57 seconds
Expert: 151 seconds
The trick to getting fast times is to learn to recognise certain patterns
which can only have one possible layout (ie, 1-2-2-1 in a straight line, the
mines (x) are 0-x-x-0) as well as double-clicking where you've marked the
mines to force the surrounds to display.
[...]
> observations regarding human existence to offer. The only
> information I had to offer was negatives: not working, not doing
> anything, not going anywhere, not thinking anything, and did I
> mention not working?
You're redefining your career. That's a positive.
--
"But then again, I have experiences which are lies, so be careful."
Net.psychotic Michael Thomas-LaRouche
Ned Deily
>>Katie, who plays with Tigger, Danny, and Frida when she plays Hearts,
>>but now she's gotta get the game on her new Win2000 machine
>Some patterns I've noticed. Opponents rarely pass clubs. If they have
>the queen of spades, it invariably passes that, often with the king and
>ace.
My advice for lone hearts: take the green weenie and shoot the moon.
--E.D, incurable moonshooter
Frank McQuarry
What is the green weenie?
Kevin Michael Vail
Clay Colwell <er...@hagbard.io.com> wrote:
> (Joking aside: just be careful not to sink into mental quagmire.)
I read this as "metal quagmire". Damn, I need new glasses.
Kevin, off to see "Sweeney Todd" at the Kennedy Center
--
Kevin Michael Vail | Dogbert: That's circular reasoning.
ke...@vaildc.net | Dilbert: I prefer to think of it as no loose ends.
http://www.vaildc.net/kevin/
Dennis Lewis
wrote:
>
>My FreeCell runs just fine on my W2K Pro w/IE6.
Going off on a completely new tangent: Are other people's Web surfing
adventures being cut short by groups.google.com, or am I blessed with
*yet another* unique Microsoft flaw?
This week groups.google.com has started producing "conflicts" with IE
5.5 on my PC. I can't read more than five or six messages before I get
the grey box informing me that the operating system (i.e., Win 2K) has
experienced a conflict and one of the windows (i.e., Internet Explorer
5.5) will be closed.
Google is the only site that's producing that message, and the problem
only began this week. If I avoid groups.google.com, I can leave IE 5.5
running in the background all day and visit every site from The
Washington Post to MSNBC to The Weather Channel without any problems.
So is anyone else experiencing this problem and just shrugging it off
as a problem on their machine? Or is it truly a problem on my machine,
even though no other Web site I've accessed has produced this error?
Brian Vogel
> Going off on a completely new tangent: Are other people's Web surfing
> adventures being cut short by groups.google.com, or am I blessed with
> *yet another* unique Microsoft flaw?
I'm running IE 6.0.26 here at home on a P-III under WinME, and
at the office under Win98SE, and have experienced no problems with
either. My only newsgroups access at the office is via Google Groups
and it has yet to barf (any more than the usual amount of Windows
barfing).
> Google is the only site that's producing that message, and the problem
> only began this week. If I avoid groups.google.com, I can leave IE 5.5
> running in the background all day and visit every site from The
> Washington Post
I have no problems with _The Washington Post_ site either here
or at the office, either.
> So is anyone else experiencing this problem and just shrugging it off
> as a problem on their machine? Or is it truly a problem on my machine,
> even though no other Web site I've accessed has produced this error?
You might want to consider upgrading to IE6. Let's face it, web
programmers program for the extensions afforded by IE6 (and Netscape 6,
etc.) even though they shouldn't. It wouldn't surprise me if that is
what may be happening "under the hood" here.
Have you also gone in under Start->Settings->Windows Update and
applied all "Critical Updates" and, possibly, some of the suggested
updates? These patches can make a major difference.
Brian
John Dorrance
DRS wrote:
> "Mike Jankulak" <jank...@panix.com> wrote:
> > Fastest Mine Sweepers
> >
> > Beginner: 15 seconds Mike 5/19/01
> > Intermediate: 98 seconds Mike 5/22/01
> > Expert: 468 seconds Mike 5/19/01
>
> Just Not Good Enough!
>
> Beginner: 12 seconds
> Intermediate: 57 seconds
> Expert: 151 seconds
Slow-ass.
> The trick to getting fast times is to learn to recognise certain patterns
> which can only have one possible layout (ie, 1-2-2-1 in a straight line, the
> mines (x) are 0-x-x-0)
Duh.
> as well as double-clicking where you've marked the
> mines to force the surrounds to display.
What? You can do that? I don't even bother marking the mines anymore,
since it's more challenging to just click away the non-mines. I'll have
to see how much better I do if I use the double-clicking thing.
It'll xo ox
certainly get rid of the ox vs. xo problem.
> > observations regarding human existence to offer. The only
> > information I had to offer was negatives: not working, not doing
> > anything, not going anywhere, not thinking anything, and did I
> > mention not working?
> You're redefining your career. That's a positive.
Good phrasing! I'll have to remember that.
John
John Dorrance
Mike Jankulak wrote:
> As I suspected, they were nothing to boast about, so
> it shouldn't take much effort to unseat, well, myself. But these Best
> Times had more to say than just names and numbers:
> Fastest Mine Sweepers
> Beginner: 15 seconds Mike 5/19/01
> Intermediate: 98 seconds Mike 5/22/01
> Expert: 468 seconds Mike 5/19/01
Oh yeah? As a challenge from one jobless (well, finally temping (at the
Oscar Mayer plant, of all places (though I don't officially work with
wieners, I work for a subcontractor that does machine-part purchasing
for the company). Very fun: easy, but busy, lots of little tasks to run
around and accomplish, easygoing coworkers. And it feels so good to be
earning money again, after a hiatus of more than a year, give or take a
couple month-long mismatched temp jobs), but no benefits and the
end-date is definitely going to be July 17, so it still ain't *real*
employment (beyond the aforementioned money-earning part) person to
another, see if you can beat these scores (particularly the expert,
since I've long given up beginner and intermediate as being hopelessly
pointless (which shows the depth of patheticness to which I have fallen:
I won't waste my time on insubstantial time-wasters)) (switches to
Minesweeper window, which just happens to be open at the moment):
Beginner: 14 seconds 6-17-01
Intermediate: 44 seconds 1-17-01
Expert: 118 seconds 4-14-02
> oh dear. I'd obviously recorded for posterity not just my *name*,
> but the date on which I'd attained these glorious victories.
At least you've retained a name for yourself.
> This time around, in 2002, things are slightly different. Feelings
> of failure aren't as much of an issue -- how can I be *failing* to
> find a job when I'm not even looking? I haven't submitted online
> resumes, I haven't contacted the local consulting companies, and I've
> told very few of my friends and colleagues that I've left Motorola.
> Y'see, this time is supposed to be different -- this time, I'm trying
> to change tracks, to find a job that I don't actively loathe every
> moment of every work week. To switch "careers," if you like,
> although I don't know that I'd dignify my work experience to date
> with the label "career."
I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
to do at some point.
> But contrariwise, *aimlessness* is therefore much *more* of a
> problem. I have no plan. I have no goal. I have very little idea
> of what might await for me at the end of this period. I fear I will
> end up abandoning these loftier notions and return to the soul-
> numbing work that I've done for the last eight years.
I so know what you mean. I have a long history of noncommittal
attachments to jobs I've never been able to work up any real enthusiasm
for, always feeling like the work was either below my abilities or
relying upon a completely different skill-set than whatever I would want
to develop and use. I have an English degree, fer fuck's sake - what
the hell can you do with that?
Earlier on in my Year of Unemployment, I went to the Dane County Job
Center to find out if they could tell me what I should be. They gave me
the Self-Directed Search assessment, one of those psychological job
profile things, which was interesting. According to the thing, I'm an
ASI (top 3 (out of 6) general personality traits being Artistic, Social,
and Investigative (the other 3 being Realistic, Conventional, and
Enterprising - I think that means I'm right-brained)), and the jobs that
are most closely-matched with that "summary code" are:
Exhibit Artist
Copy Writer
Dance Therapist
Laserist
Painter
Reporter
Restorer, ceramic
The only ones of the above I'd considered before were copy writer and
reporter (though laserist sounds cool, although I have no idea what it
is).
The test thing also asked that you look for every other combination of
the top three letters (as I said, they're ranked from strongest to
weakest affinity: I had a 47 out of 50 for artistic, a 42 for social, a
39 for investigative, a 31 for realistic, a 23 for conventional, and a
16 for enterprising. The marked dropoff for the last three worries
me...), which is a perfect (though potentially anxiety-causing)
busywork-type thing to do when you're jobless, come to think of it. (If
you're interested (and even if you're not, the other possible career
choices (according to this thing) were philologist (?), restorer -
paper/prints (which is corroborated by the fact that one of these tests
I'd taken in high school recommended I go into bookbinding), dictionary
editor, art appraiser, economist, psychiatrist, medical technologist,
nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, video operator (I *do* do
well with a remote control), speech pathologist, librarian, acquisitions
librarian, dental assistant, dental hygienist, clinical or counseling
psychologist, heating & refrigeration inspector (who knew these last two
had so much in common?), and general duty nurse.)
Anyway, I can't say how much good the test did me (I'm still not
gainfully employed in the career of my dreams, if that means anything),
but it at least gave me some shit to think about, so I'd recommend
trying it.
> People asked me "how's it going?" or "what's up?" in an effort to
> start those kind of social conversations that don't necessarily need
> to lead anywhere. But I had nothing to answer. Nothing was up. I
> wasn't working. [My identity was also in question, since I could no
> longer claim to be a "computer programmer."] I wasn't occupied with
> any huge project, home-improvement or otherwise. I had no pithy
> observations regarding human existence to offer. The only
> information I had to offer was negatives: not working, not doing
> anything, not going anywhere, not thinking anything, and did I
> mention not working?
I did a play last summer - it really helped keep me sane, since it
provided some structure in an otherwise-aimless existence (it is scary
how you can spend hours at a time playing the games bundled with
Windows, isn't it?) and gave me something to say when people asked what
I was doing. If you want something to keep you occupied while not
working besides looking for work or doing career-planning stuff, I
strongly recommend a frivolous-yet-structured activity like acting in a
play. Just wait until the next time you see something that makes you
go, "hey, that could be fun," and then do whatever it is that elicited
that response. It makes a big difference in your self image,
particularly if you're good at what you end up doing, which you probably
will be if it sounds fun.
> A few people knew that I was intending to re-define my career. A few
> had heard that I'd been reading WCIYP?, either from my own lips or
> from Sim's. This is something I'm mostly just embarrassed about,
> since it hasn't *led* me anywhere (except perhaps AWAY from
> Motorola).
I tried that and quickly abandoned it (never start a book about
job-hunting with a bunch of negativity about how hard it is to change
careers - it's a big turnoff). May your experience differ.
> Partly their enthusiasm made me feel like even more of a fraud, since
> I'd failed to achieve anything so far with this line of thinking.
> But partly, I was cheered by it. I still found it difficult to admit
> to aspects of my own failure and inadequacy ("what's up?" "nothing!
> nothing's up, I'm NOT WORKING"). Say it again: not working. Not
> working. Unemployed. ("Gainfully *Un*employed, get it? ha-ha.")
Maybe it'll help to think of it this way: you're where you are for a
reason. You wouldn't be jobless if your job had been a good fit. In
fact, you've known for a long time that it's not a good fit, it sounds
like, and it's possibly not even close to fitting. And you've wanted to
look for something else, but the job prevents you from leaving it
because as long as you've got a job, you have a security blanket, and
although it's rough and scratchy and rash-inducing and smells like
sewage, it's still a security blanket of sorts, so you put up with it.
After being stuck in this position for a while, the healthy response is
to finally get out of the situation you're in, one way or another, in
order to lick your wounds and regroup. Now that you're free, you're not
tolerably miserable anymore, and you can finally get the distance from
work to find out what it means to you now, and what you want it to
mean. I know it took me a long time to stop thinking of myself as
unemployable on all fronts after getting canned from the University, and
you've probably got some of the same issues to deal with if you have any
tendency towards self-blame.
Anyway, work is such a defining part of a person in this culture (you
expect different things from an accountant than you would from a dance
therapist, and it's entirely justified), and it has such centrality in a
person's self-definition (as you show above) that it's probably
impossible to rip out all the bad wiring and air out the sewage odor of
a long-standing job mismatch if you're still actually in the situation.
You have to break old habits and thought patterns, which you can't do if
you still have to actively rely upon them.
Don't blame yourself for these habits and thought patterns - they're
what got you through the shit job while retaining your sense of hope for
something besides shit, so they're there for a reason besides "I am
fundamentally flawed". You developed them (for a reason, remember, for
a reason), and you can get rid of them once the slate is clean.
When people ask what you're doing, you have lots of options for
answers. Say you're soul-searching, if you're feeling groovy. Talk
about your travels or a play or whatever if you want to focus on
pleasantries. Say you're doing research if you want to impress someone
judgemental. Say you're sitting on your butt playing Minesweeper for
hours on end if you're among friends and not beating yourself up by
saying it. Go ahead and play freecell, or bond with your cats, or
journal, or do whatever it is you do that centers you and allows your
mind to wander - just remember, this is a period of renewal for you, and
as long as you don't end up a homeless lunatic it will probably be
followed by a period of growth.
> But by the end of the evening, I'd gotten over myself just a little.
Fuck that shit! I'm taking this act door-to-door!
John
Chris Ambidge
>> After restarting the computer a few times because of FreeCell
>>crashes, I gave up and switched to Solitaire (won twice), Hearts
>>(couldn't outwit Pauline or Michelle, but managed to beat Ben a few
>>times) and Minesweeper.
[katie]
>What?!? You haven't renamed the other three players after loved ones
>you live with?
>
>Katie, who plays with Tigger, Danny, and Frida when she plays Hearts,
well, not *loved* ones, no
I'm more of a free-cell guy myself, and honestly get about 65%;
but I discovered that if you just leave a losing game (or games)
open, the stats aren't changed when you reboot.
Chris
who plays hearts infrequently, but when I do, it's against Cassandra,
Jocasta and Medea
--
if the planets are misaligned, I may have been logged in under an assumed name.
no matter WHAT/WHO the headers of this post claim , I am
Chris Ambidge =|= amb...@ecf.utoronto.ca =|= chris....@utoronto.ca
chemist by day=|=panda by night=|=www.chem-eng.utoronto.ca/~ambidge/panda.jpg
Brian Vogel
>
> I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
> a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
> hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
> to do at some point.
If you want to rake in the bucks do not, I repeat *NOT*, go into
teaching.
Definitely research nursing quite a bit before you commit to
it, either. This is a career (I come from a family with a number
of nurses) that your really have to feel "called to" in order to
avoid burnout, often rapid burnout.
I really appreciated the rest of what you wrote. It's
truly amazing to me to hear how utterly similar these experiences
are for some very different people, at the core level. Evidence
of our common humanity sometimes comes up in rather unexpected
places.
Brian
Ellen Evans
John Dorrance <jo...@chorus.net> wrote:
[]
>I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
>a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
>hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
>to do at some point.
Well, in my experience, they don't rake in the bucks, but as there is a
severe nursing shortage in many, many parts of the country, it's a really
portable skill. And a lot of places allow fairly creative scheduling as a
perk.
--
Ellen Evans 17 Across: The "her" of "Leave Her to Heaven"
je...@panix.com New York Times, 7/14/96
Ann Burlingham
> Well, in my experience, they don't rake in the bucks, but as there is a
> severe nursing shortage in many, many parts of the country,
And in most of the world, according to the BBC overnight radio
thingy I used to be awake for.
> it's a really
> portable skill.
Travel, John, travel!
--
Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net>
We're an oppressed minority that is easily rendered invisible.
We don't have the luxury of privacy. - Adam Cogen Wick
Christian Hansen
>In article <3CEAF339...@chorus.net>,
>John Dorrance <jo...@chorus.net> wrote:
>
>[]
>
>>I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
>>a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
>>hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
>>to do at some point.
>
>Well, in my experience, they don't rake in the bucks, but as there is a
>severe nursing shortage in many, many parts of the country, it's a really
>portable skill. And a lot of places allow fairly creative scheduling as a
>perk.
John:
Get trained up and then come to the UK...nursing shortage means high relative
salaries. And it'll be easy to get in and get a work permit.
Chris "Besides, we'd all love to meet you." Hansen
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com
"Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you
without our masks." Michael Swift
Jason Henry Parker
> I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
> a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
> hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
> to do at some point.
If you're going to be a nurse, watch your back!
jason, replete with fond memories of simply editing the minesweeper
high score file to keep his family working like there was no
tomorrow
--
||----|---|------------|--|-------|------|-----------|-#---|-|--|------||
| `This is the operative statement. |
| The others are inoperative.' jas...@uq.net.au |
||--|--------|--------------|----|-------------|------|---------|-----|-|
John Whiteside
"Ellen Evans" <je...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:acf3oa$gfb$1...@panix1.panix.com...
> >I know what you mean. I'm considering going back to school to be either
> >a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
> >hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
> >to do at some point.
>
> Well, in my experience, they don't rake in the bucks, but as there is a
> severe nursing shortage in many, many parts of the country, it's a really
> portable skill. And a lot of places allow fairly creative scheduling as a
> perk.
"Rake in the bucks" is relative, and compared to teachers they DO rake it in
(but then, so do most professions). But you're right - it's a highly
portable skill that's usually in demand, and can give one a tremendous
amount of flexibility as far as work location and hours. It's also very hard
work.
Long ago, I worked for a medical equipment manufacturer, and wound up
spending quite a bit of time with nurses and doctors. The experience left me
with a tremendous respect for nurses (because of the general level of
dedication to patient care) and a whole lot less for doctors (well - for
surgeons anyway).
Scott Safier
>Mike Jankulak <jank...@panix.com> wrote:
>[...]
>> Partly their enthusiasm made me feel like even more of a fraud, since
>> I'd failed to achieve anything so far with this line of thinking.
>> But partly, I was cheered by it. I still found it difficult to admit
>> to aspects of my own failure and inadequacy ("what's up?" "nothing!
>> nothing's up, I'm NOT WORKING"). Say it again: not working. Not
>> working. Unemployed. ("Gainfully *Un*employed, get it? ha-ha.")
>
>> But by the end of the evening, I'd gotten over myself just a little.
>
>Add "get 20 boxes of bonbons" to your To Do list.
>Purchase one of those quilted housecoats and a pair of
>fuzzy slippers.
>Get Sim to take a picture of you, in housecoat and slippers,
>munching on said bonbons and watching soap operas.
>Post picture.
>
>After that exercise, I'm betting you'll get some extra
>enthusiasm.
"Trophy wife"
--
Scott
http://www.pink-triangle.org/scott
Men are like a fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job
to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into
something you'd like to have dinner with.
Scott Safier
>What is the green weenie?
Rent _Europa_Europa_ and watch for when the main character tries to
regrow his foreskin.
Mike McKinley
> Fuck that shit! I'm taking this act door-to-door!
Well, dear, it's better than no gig at all.
Chris Ambidge
>>I'm considering going back to school to be either
>>a teacher or a nurse of some sort. The nurse idea is gaining the upper
>>hand, because they apparently rake in the bucks, a thing I really ought
>>to do at some point.
[jeeves]
>Well, in my experience, they don't rake in the bucks, but as there is a
>severe nursing shortage in many, many parts of the country, it's a really
>portable skill.
Ontario , and indeed much of Canada, has a fairly tight situation
for nurses; one of the factors is qualified ones being lured
south to the USA for fatter salaries, even when exchange rates and
local costs-of-living are factored in.
Chris
Clay Colwell
> In article <XPxG8.49398$yl.58...@bin3.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com>,
> Clay Colwell <er...@hagbard.io.com> wrote:
>> (Joking aside: just be careful not to sink into mental quagmire.)
> I read this as "metal quagmire". Damn, I need new glasses.
Or an AC/DC CD.
> Kevin, off to see "Sweeney Todd" at the Kennedy Center
I find it hard to believe that I've never seen the show.
Frank McQuarry
Jason Henry Parker wrote:
> jason, replete with fond memories of simply editing the minesweeper
> high score file to keep his family working like there was no
> tomorrow
That's just *evil*. Come sit by me.
Frank McQuarry
Scott Safier wrote:
>
> Frank McQuarry:
> >What is the green weenie?
>
> Rent _Europa_Europa_ and watch for when the main character tries to
> regrow his foreskin.
My legs want to cross just reading that sentence, but I have a cat in my
lap.
DRS
news:GwHoI...@ecf.utoronto.ca...
[...]
> I'm more of a free-cell guy myself, and honestly get about 65%;
> but I discovered that if you just leave a losing game (or games)
> open, the stats aren't changed when you reboot.
Use the Task Manager to kill any game of FreeCell you're in danger of losing
and you'll keep a perfect record (at least in W2k). Otherwise just edit its
registry settings.
Ned Deily
>E.D:
>>My advice for lone hearts: take the green weenie and shoot the moon.
In my youthful circle of hearts fiends, it was the queen of spades,
as in our oft-repeated proverb:
He who get greedy
Eats The Weenie.
--Greedy
E.D
DRS
news:blcmeuc4c89ooai2h...@4ax.com...
[...]
> Chris "Besides, we'd all love to meet you." Hansen
Yes, but are you sure you want JD in charge when you're at your weakest and
most vulnerable?
Frank McQuarry
We always referred to the Queen of Spades as The Bitch, and "shoot the
moon" as a "take all".
I only learned the term "shoot the moon" a few days ago. It seems to be
pretty standard. We just never learned it.
I spent much of high school playing cards and doing drugs. Ah, the
memories of Hearts on Acid.
David W. Fenton
<3ceadbe...@nntp.sprynet.com>:
>This week groups.google.com has started producing "conflicts" with
>IE 5.5 on my PC. I can't read more than five or six messages
>before I get the grey box informing me that the operating system
>(i.e., Win 2K) has experienced a conflict and one of the windows
>(i.e., Internet Explorer 5.5) will be closed.
Who uses IE? Mozilla is far, far better.
Apparently the Netscape 7 RC is out, too, a branch from somewhere
along the way form Mozilla RC1 to RC2, according to what I've read.
Try it. You may like it.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
Dennis Lewis
Fenton) wrote:
>
>Apparently the Netscape 7 RC is out, too, a branch from somewhere
>along the way form Mozilla RC1 to RC2, according to what I've read.
FWIW: Today I downloaded Netscape 6.2 (Hi Ellen!), and life is good
again. In between entering data in spreadsheets I can check new
messages in soc.motss, alt.gossip.celebrities, rec.sport.soccer,
rec.arts.movies.current-films, etc., etc., without having to relaunch
the browser after it closes itself prematurely. Ah, bliss!
Kevin Michael Vail
Clay Colwell <er...@hagbard.io.com> wrote:
> Kevin Michael Vail <ke...@vaildc.net> wrote:
> > In article <XPxG8.49398$yl.58...@bin3.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com>,
> > Clay Colwell <er...@hagbard.io.com> wrote:
>
> >> (Joking aside: just be careful not to sink into mental quagmire.)
>
> > I read this as "metal quagmire". Damn, I need new glasses.
>
> Or an AC/DC CD.
>
> > Kevin, off to see "Sweeney Todd" at the Kennedy Center
>
> I find it hard to believe that I've never seen the show.
I had never seen it before, either. What a dark little tale! This show
has been getting rave reviews, and for excellent reason.
We had box seats. One of the two women in front of us turned out to be
a talker, so at one point (when she was talking over the performers),
David leaned forward and told her to "shut up". (I thought he had just
shushed her! Didn't find out what he actually said until later.) It
worked, though if Looks Could Kill, David would have been toast. She
kept starting to lean over to her friend, glancing at David, and sitting
back up. Hey, if people want to talk through a show they should stay
home and watch television. Alone.
Kevin Michael Vail
Frank McQuarry <fmcq...@earthlink.net> wrote:
I am not commenting on your spelling.
Ellen Evans
Well, as David hinted, today the Netscape 7.0 Preview Release 1 went live
on the wire at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/7/default.jsp.
As "Preview Release" more or less translates into beta, let the browser
beware (Mozilla Release Candidate has the same basic translation). But
I've been using it for two weeks now (from when the code froze) and it's
lovely. The mail client is improved *and* it has tabs, which are just
fabulous. You might want to take a look.
Michael Thomas
> Ontario , and indeed much of Canada, has a fairly tight situation
> for nurses; one of the factors is qualified ones being lured
> south to the USA for fatter salaries, even when exchange rates and
> local costs-of-living are factored in.
I've heard that northern wetbacks can feed 10
bambinos, eh?, on a Burger King salary.
--
Michael Thomas (mi...@mtcc.com http://www.mtcc.com/~mike/)
Multi-mode fiber with an optical splitter |
B G P sessions conFIGGED not to litter | My Fav'rite 'Net Things
Reverting from A T M back to I P | by kc claffy, CAIDA
These are a few of my fav'rite `Net things |
Ned Deily
>E.D:
Note to az: 'twas a typo above.
>>--Greedy
>> E.D
>Oink, oink.
>Katie, greedy, indeedy (for the queen, the queen of spades!!!)
You go, girl!
Now, how about the jack of diamonds? I've found various
hearts traditions about that. In the Little Town, taking
the jack in a trick meant -10 points. In Minnesota, most
people I played with didn't know that rule. Lust for the
jack (AKA the greed factor) made for much more interesting
games, IMHO.
--FourEyedE.D
Robert Feiertag
news:kevin-F44B1D....@vienna7.his.com...
>
> I had never seen it before, either. What a dark little tale! This show
> has been getting rave reviews, and for excellent reason.
>
> We had box seats. One of the two women in front of us turned out to be
> a talker, so at one point (when she was talking over the performers),
> David leaned forward and told her to "shut up". (I thought he had just
> shushed her! Didn't find out what he actually said until later.) It
> worked, though if Looks Could Kill, David would have been toast. She
> kept starting to lean over to her friend, glancing at David, and sitting
> back up. Hey, if people want to talk through a show they should stay
> home and watch television. Alone.
Three cheers for David! My heartfelt best wishes will more than offset her
"looks-could-kill" glares.
Bob, who wishes he had the guts to tell the yakkers to shut up.
John Whiteside
"Robert Feiertag" <rfei...@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message
news:NSXG8.66181$G%3.252...@typhoon.columbus.rr.com...
> Bob, who wishes he had the guts to tell the yakkers to shut up.
Try it once and discover how easy it is. You'll want to do it again and
again!
Kevin Michael Vail
"John Whiteside" <johnn...@spamnologancircle.net> wrote:
And, alas, you'll have to do it again and again. :-(
Brian Vogel
> In article <bhYG8.10570$md.1...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>,
> "John Whiteside" <johnn...@spamnologancircle.net> wrote:
>
>
>>"Robert Feiertag" <rfei...@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message
>>news:NSXG8.66181$G%3.252...@typhoon.columbus.rr.com...
>>
>>>Bob, who wishes he had the guts to tell the yakkers to shut up.
>>
>>Try it once and discover how easy it is. You'll want to do it again and
>>again!
>
>
> And, alas, you'll have to do it again and again. :-(
And not just at theater performances, either!
I've yet to work up the nerve, but I've been on
the brink several times recently. Were shooting these
"beasts" legal or moral this would be right up there
at the top of the list of shooting offenses.
I can't imagine coughing up the bucks for theater
tickets and then yakking throughout the show! Of course,
since I've experienced it at movies, concerts, lectures,
etc. you'd think I'd have come to expect it by now.
Some people just have no couth!
Brian
Ann Burlingham
I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
"Shut up."
--
Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net>
We're an oppressed minority that is easily rendered invisible.
We don't have the luxury of privacy. - Adam Cogen Wick
Robert Feiertag
news:3CEC6ED9...@concentric.net...
> John Whiteside wrote:
> > "Robert Feiertag" <rfei...@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message
> > news:NSXG8.66181$G%3.252...@typhoon.columbus.rr.com...
> > > Bob, who wishes he had the guts to tell the yakkers to shut up.
> >
> > Try it once and discover how easy it is. You'll want to do it again and
> > again!
>
> I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
> think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
> not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
> "Shut up."
Normally I'd agree, but it sounds as if this person was especially
obnoxious. Thinking of her starting to talk, then turning and glaring at
them -- while remaining silent -- made me smile.
Bob. How's the weather in NY, Ann? We had March yesterday, April today,
and are supposed to have May tomorrow. I've started setting out 12 dozen
impatiens. I must be crazy.
Ann Burlingham
> Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net> wrote in message
> news:3CEC6ED9...@concentric.net...
> > I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
> > think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
> > not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
> > "Shut up."
>
> Normally I'd agree, but it sounds as if this person was especially
> obnoxious.
It's the Miss Manners strategy: you do the long-winded polite
version, someone else will say "shush."
> Thinking of her starting to talk, then turning and glaring at
> them -- while remaining silent -- made me smile.
Heh.
> Bob. How's the weather in NY, Ann? We had March yesterday, April today,
> and are supposed to have May tomorrow. I've started setting out 12 dozen
> impatiens. I must be crazy.
I was going to plant potatoes today, two days after the last of
three days of snow, but mostly, I rested. Head cold. Why does
being sick throw me off-balance? Generally I wouldn't, on
returning home from a morning out, go check to see my mother was
breathing (she was asleep, and it took some watching to make
*sure* - maybe her anti-snoring buckwheat-hull pillow is
working), but I did, today. Well, she hadn't brought in the
recycling bin, and wasn't sitting out on the porch in the
sunshine. We hit over 50 degrees, usually she'd be right out
there. (Upset Mummy tummy - she rested all day, too.) I looked at
my seeds, but no planting yet. I hope it doesn't rain tonight. I
only have a few days before I leave for Brisbane.
-Ann B., rambling
P.S. Geez, guys, I thought my uncooperative mouse was responsible
for my sad Minesweeper scores, but my 7 seconds beginner best
score has *all* y'all beat?
P.P.S. MikeJ: did you *intend* to start a flurry of Minesweep
playing, or were you really thinking we had minds above such
matters?
John Dorrance
DRS wrote:
> "Christian Hansen" <chrisha...@notrash.btinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:blcmeuc4c89ooai2h...@4ax.com...
> > Chris "Besides, we'd all love to meet you." Hansen
> Yes, but are you sure you want JD in charge when you're at your weakest and
> most vulnerable?
I come with miles and miles of healthy skin grafts.
John
Ellen Evans
Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net> wrote:
>John Whiteside wrote:
>> "Robert Feiertag" <rfei...@columbus.rr.com> wrote in message
>> news:NSXG8.66181$G%3.252...@typhoon.columbus.rr.com...
>> > Bob, who wishes he had the guts to tell the yakkers to shut up.
>>
>> Try it once and discover how easy it is. You'll want to do it again and
>> again!
>
>I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
>think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
>not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
>"Shut up."
Given how they were behaving, that *is* the polite version.
Ann Burlingham
> In article <3CEC6ED9...@concentric.net>,
> Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net> wrote:
> >I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
> >think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
> >not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
> >"Shut up."
>
> Given how they were behaving, that *is* the polite version.
I need to start carrying a fan more often.
John Whiteside
"Brian Vogel" <vog...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3CEC5E5F...@yahoo.com...
> I've yet to work up the nerve, but I've been on
> the brink several times recently.
I'm a little surprised to hear several people talk about having "the nerve"
to do this. I haven't really ever found it difficult to turn in the
direction of the yakkers and say, "Excuse me, could you please not talk
during the movie?"
It *ususally* works.
John Whiteside
> think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
> not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
> "Shut up."
Absolutely. Along with simply being the right thing to do, it works better.
John Whiteside
"Ellen Evans" <je...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:achtqv$qlv$1...@panix1.panix.com...
> Given how they were behaving, that *is* the polite version.
Yes but.... start with "shut up," and you've started a fight - people will
tend to respond angrily to the tone. Being extra nice is often so disarming
that the offender is surprised into compliance.
I've noticed that for really loud and annoying people, once someone takes
the initiative, others nearby tend to join in, whic his also helpful.
I wish that movie theater ushers would eject people who won't be quiet. I
would pay extra to go to a theater where that was the policy.
Moira de Swardt
Brian Vogel <vog...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> I can't imagine coughing up the bucks for theater
> tickets and then yakking throughout the show! Of course,
> since I've experienced it at movies, concerts, lectures,
> etc. you'd think I'd have come to expect it by now.
A soft request for silence is often ignored. A loud request for
silence usually works. The only complete failure I've ever had was
at Heathrow Airport where they have a "Quiet Lounge". A Muslim
extended family were in there with a child of about five who was
very fretful and a baby who was obviously quite sick or miserable or
both. I felt sorry for the mother so kept my own counsel about how
disruptive her children were. Then she started to talk to them.
Someone with an English accent asked her to keep quiet. She then
started a conversation with the other woman *and* the child. Yet
another person made "shushing" sounds. The English woman made a very
polite and pointed request for them to observe silence. This
mention of the word "observe" triggered something. The two men then
commenced their verbal prayer observation. The other people in the
lounge all looked very uncomfortable and rather dubiously at me - I
was wearing a clerical collar - at which point I mentioned that
there was a Muslim prayer room at the airport and that they were
disturbing all the occupants of the quiet lounge. They ignored me,
as the women had ignored the other people. Short of summoning
security we ran out of options for dealing with this family.
Reflecting back I think shooting would be an unacceptable way of
dealing with them, but surely would only call for a short suspended
sentence.
Moira, the Faerie Godmother
Brian Vogel
> Brian Vogel <vog...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
>
>> I can't imagine coughing up the bucks for theater
>>tickets and then yakking throughout the show! Of course,
>>since I've experienced it at movies, concerts, lectures,
>>etc. you'd think I'd have come to expect it by now.
>
>
> A soft request for silence is often ignored. A loud request for
> silence usually works.
I have observed that this is generally the case. I have
also observed cases (admittedly the exception) where requests
for silence [in instances where it was not only warranted but
a default expectation] were met not only with cold stares but
*increased* noise. Some of the most uncouth of the uncouth
seem to take reasonable requests as a challenge.
John Whiteside and you both have a very good point,
though. You can't expect that you're going to get silence
out of these oafs without some sort of *very* direct cue.
I need to work on that "nerve" thing.
Brian
Robert Marshall
> I've been using it for two weeks now (from when the code froze) and
> it's lovely.
Agreed! tabs - yum!
> The mail client is improved *and* it has tabs, which
> are just fabulous. You might want to take a look.
And it remembers which bookmark folder was open when I last ran it
and you don't have to double click bookmark folders any more
Can't get edit preferences to work though...
R
--
Poetry's not window cleaning.
It breaks the glass.
-- Chase Twichell
MJL
Fenton) wrote:
>d...@sprynet.com (Dennis Lewis) wrote in
><3ceadbe...@nntp.sprynet.com>:
>
>>This week groups.google.com has started producing "conflicts" with
>>IE 5.5 on my PC. I can't read more than five or six messages
>>before I get the grey box informing me that the operating system
>>(i.e., Win 2K) has experienced a conflict and one of the windows
>>(i.e., Internet Explorer 5.5) will be closed.
>
>Who uses IE? Mozilla is far, far better.
>
I have not checked the stats recently but since the AOL browser is a
"lite" version of IE I'd guess more than 75% of web surfers use IE.
>Apparently the Netscape 7 RC is out, too, a branch from somewhere
>along the way form Mozilla RC1 to RC2, according to what I've read.
>
>Try it. You may like it.
I gave up on trying to run NS on win 95 after both 6 and 6.2 crashed
so often that I thought it was a plot to drive me mad. 6.2 was a
little better and it did not seem to require all the resources of my
computer to run but it still locked up more than IE. I did notice NS
was clever in that with 6.2 they had some of the program load at
startup so that when you open NS it does not take so long that you can
go to the bathroom, get coffee, chat with the maintenance guy, and it
will still be grinding off the HD when you return.
MJL
--
There is no try, only do or not do.
Mike Jankulak
>P.P.S. MikeJ: did you *intend* to start a flurry of Minesweep
>playing,
Like, *duh*.
--
Anyway we can
We're gonna find something
We'll dance in the garden
In torn sheets in the rain -- the B-52's
Sim Aberson
Whoever you choose, would this not be quite a burden?
Sim, but I volunteer
--
"Hurricanes and galaxies look alike, but while the former can strike
Puerto Rico, the latter CONTAINS Puerto Rico." -- Neal Dorst
Scott Safier
>Scott Safier wrote:
>>
>> Frank McQuarry:
>>
>> regrow his foreskin.
>
>My legs want to cross just reading that sentence, but I have a cat in my
>lap.
That cat is a slut. First Clay, now you.
--
Scott
http://www.pink-triangle.org/scott
Men are like a fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job
to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into
something you'd like to have dinner with.
Scott Safier
>Like, *duh*.
YM: "Like, *duh*, Dude!"
HTH
Arnold Zwicky
<abe...@panix.com> offers to be borne:
>In article <3CEC7C4B...@concentric.net>,
>Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net> wrote:
>>I need to start carrying a fan more often.
>Whoever you choose, would this not be quite a burden?
>Sim, but I volunteer
he's not heavy, father; he's my fan.
b a
Ellen Evans
And when it doesn't, if they're sitting behind me, I put my hand in the
air and wave it around. I figure if they're happy to interupt what I'm
hearing, I'm happy to interupt what they're seeing.
Ellen Evans
Robert Marshall <rob...@chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
[netscape 7.0 PR1]
>Can't get edit preferences to work though...
What are you trying to do and what happens instead?
Clay Colwell
"You are sweet, Daddy David", Vail said in the cab,
"And your tush is exceedingly tight
And yet you incessantly shush those who gab --
Do you think that it might cause a fight?"
"In my youth," Daddy David replied to his Boy,
"I feared for a look of disdain
But, now that I'm sure it fills others with joy
Why, I do it again and again."
Clay Colwell
> Mike Jankulak:
>>Like, *duh*.
> YM: "Like, *duh*, Dude!"
"Dude, yer gittin' a Mine!" KABLAMMO! No more Dell dude.
Clay Colwell
> I spent much of high school playing cards and doing drugs. Ah, the
> memories of Hearts on Acid.
Sounds like a band name.
Clay Colwell
[re Hearts]
> Now, how about the jack of diamonds? I've found various
> hearts traditions about that. In the Little Town, taking
> the jack in a trick meant -10 points. In Minnesota, most
> people I played with didn't know that rule. Lust for the
> jack (AKA the greed factor) made for much more interesting
> games, IMHO.
The video-game machines at the local clubs have Hearts as
one of the available games. JoD=-10 is part of the default
option.
(Just don't play Euchre on them. Their AI is grotesquely
stupid -- my 'bot partner once called diamonds as trump with
no bowers and the 10 of diamonds as its only trump card.)
Scott Safier
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Ned Deily
>>>I need to start carrying a fan more often.
>>Whoever you choose, would this not be quite a burden?
>>Sim, but I volunteer
>he's not heavy, father; he's my fan.
My fan! Dad, go!
--E my! sure on a D
Clay Colwell
> Clay Colwell:
>>Scott Safier <sc...@pink-triangle.no.org.spam> wrote:
>>> Mike Jankulak:
>>>>Like, *duh*.
>>
>>> YM: "Like, *duh*, Dude!"
>>
>>"Dude, yer gittin' a Mine!" KABLAMMO! No more Dell dude.
> You say that like it's a bad thing.
I left out the "Huzzah!"
Gwendolyn Alden Dean
> I need to start carrying a fan more often.
You don't?
Gwendolyn
shocked
Cornelia Wyngaarden
: I'm a little surprised to hear several people talk about having "the nerve"
: to do this. I haven't really ever found it difficult to turn in the
: direction of the yakkers and say, "Excuse me, could you please not talk
: during the movie?"
: It *ususally* works.
It never works for me. Instead the yakkers have a tendency to become
embarrassingly loud and abusive. Something along the lines of "*You* be
quiet" or a very loud SSSSHHHHHHH! back at me or a collective loud "Hey,
she's telling us to be quiet, BE QUIET!! HAR, HAR, HAR!!!
I've learned to discreetly move to a different seat or hope that the
event will be spellbinding enough to eventually shut them up. Sometimes
even moving will get a loud "Hey you moving because of us?" if I make the
mistake of frowning in their direction. I find when people are rude they
are *thoroughly* rude and loath to admit they are doing anything wrong.
corry
--
--------------------------------------
Cornelia Wyngaarden
--------------------------------------
Cornelia Wyngaarden
: I expect there's a shortage because nearly everywhere the
: working conditions are total hell. And even under the best
: conditions, it's a very demanding job for substandard wages.
Two nurses I know quit. One became a carpenter and the other a video
editer. Both of them are happier and much, much better paid.
Chris Ambidge
[clay, after lewis caroll]
>"You are sweet, Daddy David", Vail said in the cab,
>"And your tush is exceedingly tight
>And yet you incessantly shush those who gab --
>Do you think that it might cause a fight?"
>
>"In my youth," Daddy David replied to his Boy,
>"I feared for a look of disdain
>But, now that I'm sure it fills others with joy
>Why, I do it again and again."
**APPLAUSE**
Chris
who is ashamed he doesn't have a specific memory of the tightness of
David's tush
--
Chris Ambidge =|= amb...@ecf.utoronto.ca =|= chris....@utoronto.ca
chemist by day=|=panda by night=|=www.chem-eng.utoronto.ca/~ambidge/panda.jpg
"Now where did I leave my pompoms?" -- Clay Colwell, cheerleader & poet
Mike McKinley
For her fan's the fairer face.
--
*************************************
We cannot all be self-serving dilettantes, mincing about on
fairy wings and preaching redistributive justice!
Monte Mitchell, Esq.
Jed Davis
> Ellen Evans wrote:
>> In article <3CEC6ED9...@concentric.net>,
>> Ann Burlingham <an...@concentric.net> wrote:
>
>> >I am going to assume you are using the polite version, which I
>> >think is what Kevin, if I read his tone aright, regretted David's
>> >not using, of "Excuse me, could you please stop talking?," not
>> >"Shut up."
>>
>> Given how they were behaving, that *is* the polite version.
>
> I need to start carrying a fan more often.
Hm. Now I have this vision of Ann in a fancy kimono, menacingly
wielding a razor-edged folding fan.
--Jed
--
#!/usr/bin/perl -- ## "But life wasn't yes-no, on-off. Life was shades of gray,
sub f{(($n,$d,@_)=@_)?(substr(## and rainbows not in the order of the spectrum."
" ExhortJavelinBus",$n&&$d/$n,1),$n?f($d## -- L. E. Modesitt, Jr., _Adiamante_
%$n,$n,@_):&f):("\n")}print f 1461,10324,55001,444162,1208,1341,5660480,79715997
Robert Marshall
> In article <wku1oz5...@mail.chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk>,
> Robert Marshall <rob...@chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
> [netscape 7.0 PR1]
>
>>Can't get edit preferences to work though...
>
> What are you trying to do and what happens instead?
Select Edit=>Preferences off the menu and the left hand area is blank
- the one that has all the categories in (I hope!), I just have the
area with the home page etc setting.
I try it a few more times with no better luck, and then
edit=>preferences and no form pops up at all
Rebooted without any improvement in the behaviour. I assume you're not
seeing this?
I've reported it on the feedback page
R
--
All the slow fish of ignorance
turned toward the sound
-- Chase Twichell
Moira de Swardt
Brian Vogel <vog...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> I need to work on that "nerve" thing.
Assertiveness. You have a reasonable right to be allowed to enjoy a
public function in peace and the quiet the function allows.
It's not just the talkers - they're easy to control - but the
wearers of jewellery as in loud jangly bracelets with lots of moving
of arms. Women who wear chains with dangles on them and then run
the dangly bit up and down the chain. Women who wear too much
perfume, setting off all kinds of sniffles and sneezes in the
allergic souls around them. People who eat potato crisps - potato
crisps. Mind you I have a problem with places of entertainment that
*sell* potato crisps.
My dear sweet niece attended a function when she was only four with
her pre-school and was reported to have said to a fellow pupil who
was eating something noisy: "You've come to see a show, not have a
picnic." Apparently my tone of voice was copied *perfectly*.
Moira, the Faerie Godmother
Scott Safier
>People who eat potato crisps - potato
>crisps. Mind you I have a problem with places of entertainment that
>*sell* potato crisps.
Cell phones (Hi David). And I've been to live performances where they
have asked the audience not to open hard candy because of the
crackling sound the wrapper makes.
Ellen Evans
Cornelia Wyngaarden <co...@oswald.eciad.bc.ca> wrote:
[]
>I've learned to discreetly move to a different seat or hope that the
>event will be spellbinding enough to eventually shut them up.
One of the reasons I believe E.T. to be a great movie is that I saw it in
an exceptionally rowdy Times Square theater when it first came back, the
kind of place where concession items are as often hurled at the screen as
put in people's mouths. Five minutes into the film, the place was dead
quiet, except for the soundtrack.
Ellen Evans
Robert Marshall <rob...@chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>On 23 May 2002, je...@panix.com wrote:
>
>> In article <wku1oz5...@mail.chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk>,
>> Robert Marshall <rob...@chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> [netscape 7.0 PR1]
>>
>>>Can't get edit preferences to work though...
>>
>> What are you trying to do and what happens instead?
>
>Select Edit=>Preferences off the menu and the left hand area is blank
>- the one that has all the categories in (I hope!), I just have the
>area with the home page etc setting.
Extremely odd.
>Rebooted without any improvement in the behaviour. I assume you're not
>seeing this?
Nope. Nor has anyone else I know. What platform?
Have you tried reinstalling?
>
>I've reported it on the feedback page
Excellent. More info, better RTM.
Mike McKinley
> One of the reasons I believe E.T. to be a great movie is that I saw it in
> an exceptionally rowdy Times Square theater when it first came back, the
> kind of place where concession items are as often hurled at the screen as
> put in people's mouths. Five minutes into the film, the place was dead
> quiet, except for the soundtrack.
I think I saw _The Mission_ in that theatre. My dear, the crowd was so
rowdy we were virtually mugged standing in line for tickets, and the
culmination came when one group started to take flash pictures of each other
during the picture.
Christian Hansen
I always wanted to see what the East Martian language looked like.
Chris "It looks like Euchre." Hansen
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com
"Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you
without our masks." Michael Swift
http://www.hansenhome.demon.co.uk
Mike Jankulak
>edit=>preferences and no form pops up at all
My Netscape 6.2.2 did this when I was first playing with it.
I had a suspicion that a preferences dialog was opening
somewhere offscreen, since the title bar of the main Netscape
window would dim... but I could never find it. [Win98SE, fyi.]
I rebooted a few times, sometimes it didn't seem to help,
sometimes it did. Eventually I managed to get my preferences
in a state that I liked and stopped fucking with them.
Nearly caused me to uninstall, as I didn't have much invested
in the attempt (I do mail/news from a telnet session, and I
use Opera for browsing). In the end, though, I uninstalled
Netscape 4.7 instead. Netscape 6.2.2 looks cool, although I
still tend not to go out of my way to use it.
jank+, reading through freebsd.org of late
--
Anyway we can
We're gonna find something
We'll dance in the garden
In torn sheets in the rain -- the B-52's
Frank McQuarry
Scott Safier wrote:
>
> Frank McQuarry:
> >Scott Safier wrote:
> >>
> >> Frank McQuarry:
> >> >What is the green weenie?
> >>
> >> Rent _Europa_Europa_ and watch for when the main character tries to
> >> regrow his foreskin.
> >
> >My legs want to cross just reading that sentence, but I have a cat in my
> >lap.
>
> That cat is a slut. First Clay, now you.
She will miss me this weekend, when I am schlepping about NYC.
The slut is back in the lap.
Lee Rudolph
>One of the reasons I believe E.T. to be a great movie is that I saw it in
>an exceptionally rowdy Times Square theater when it first came back, the
>kind of place where concession items are as often hurled at the screen as
>put in people's mouths.
I'm sorry, the "spit or swallow?" thread is thataway--->.
Lee Rudolph
Jason Henry Parker
> I find when people are rude they
> are *thoroughly* rude and loath to admit they are doing anything wrong.
Ex*act*ly.
I was knocked down trying to board a train the other day---completely
flat on my back, my ass ached for hours afterward---and the person I
ran into could not force himself to be any more gracious than
"sorry-but-if-you-watched-where-you-were-going-this-wouldn't-happen".
--
||----|---|------------|--|-------|------|-----------|-#---|-|--|------||
| `This is the operative statement. |
| The others are inoperative.' jas...@uq.net.au |
||--|--------|--------------|----|-------------|------|---------|-----|-|
John Whiteside
"Cornelia Wyngaarden" <co...@oswald.eciad.bc.ca> wrote in message
news:3ced...@199.60.227.1...
> I've learned to discreetly move to a different seat or hope that the
> event will be spellbinding enough to eventually shut them up. Sometimes
> even moving will get a loud "Hey you moving because of us?" if I make the
> mistake of frowning in their direction. I find when people are rude they
> are *thoroughly* rude and loath to admit they are doing anything wrong.
Really? I find the opposite: most rudeness is completely clueless, people
have no idea that they are being rude (though why they can't figure out, I
can't imagine) and when it is pointed out to them they are embarrassed by
it.
John Whiteside
"Scott Safier" <sc...@pink-triangle.NO.org.SPAM> wrote in message
news:slrnaeqi71...@frogger.telerama.com...
> Cell phones (Hi David). And I've been to live performances where they
> have asked the audience not to open hard candy because of the
> crackling sound the wrapper makes.
The theaters here now show a little "no cell phone" spot before movies. One
of the larger local chains has one that explains that cell phone users will
be dragged to the middle of the theater so people can throw things at them
(explained jokingly with cute little cartoons). When they play, everyone
laughs and claps at the idea of abusing those awful people who don't turn
their phones off.
Then someone's phone rings in the middle of the movie. Who is that person?
John Whiteside
"MJL" <jert...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:3cecd8d8....@news.newsguy.com...
> I gave up on trying to run NS on win 95 after both 6 and 6.2 crashed
> so often that I thought it was a plot to drive me mad. 6.2 was a
> little better and it did not seem to require all the resources of my
> computer to run but it still locked up more than IE. I did notice NS
> was clever in that with 6.2 they had some of the program load at
> startup so that when you open NS it does not take so long that you can
> go to the bathroom, get coffee, chat with the maintenance guy, and it
> will still be grinding off the HD when you return.
I periodically give Netscape a try, but always give up in frustration. The
interface drives me nuts - nothing about it seems terribly intuitive to me,
though that may be a result of using IE for too long. It seems to be even
more marketing-oriented than IE (with lots of buttons that lead to things
like Net2Phone and Netscape's NetCenter and new programs you never asked for
running on startup). And since I never have problems with IE, unlike some
other people it seems, I wind up uninstalling it in frustration and sticking
with IE.
Robert S. Coren
John Whiteside <johnn...@spamnologancircle.net> wrote:
>
>"Ellen Evans" <je...@panix.com> wrote in message
>news:achtqv$qlv$1...@panix1.panix.com...
>> Given how they were behaving, that *is* the polite version.
>
>tend to respond angrily to the tone. Being extra nice is often so disarming
>that the offender is surprised into compliance.
>
>I've noticed that for really loud and annoying people, once someone takes
>the initiative, others nearby tend to join in, whic his also helpful.
>
>I wish that movie theater ushers would eject people who won't be quiet. I
>would pay extra to go to a theater where that was the policy.
At the opera (where, after all, people have paid pretty steeply for
the privilege of disturb-- um, watching and listening), I've found
that a repressive glare *usually* works, but if it doesn't a gentle
tap and a whispered "please be quiet"will dot he trick. Of course my
tone of voice clearly says "shut up".
--
---Robert Coren (co...@panix.com)------------------------------------
"Never try to outstubborn a cat." -- R. A. Heinlein
Tane' Tachyon
I was at a play last weekend where this happened:
MC: "I would like you all to bow your heads and observe a moment of
silence ..."
I'm thinking: "Oh shit, who died?"
MC: "... while turning off your cell phones, pagers, watch alarms,
and any other such devices."
--
Tane' Tachyon = tac...@tachyonlabs.com = http://www.tachyonlabs.com/
Bratman
Ann Burlingham wrote:
> I need to start carrying a fan more often.
Serene or Lisa?
--
Will
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Homepage http://www.bratman.org
ICQ 124522078 Webcam http://Bratman.camarades.com/
"One of the first things I do in a new
city is to sign up at the local clinic
for help with my VD."-Rev. Paul Shanley
Bratman
Ellen Evans wrote:
> And when it doesn't, if they're sitting behind me, I put my hand in the
> air and wave it around. I figure if they're happy to interupt what I'm
> hearing, I'm happy to interupt what they're seeing.
I would talk just to see this.
David W. Fenton
<3cecd8d8....@news.newsguy.com>:
>I gave up on trying to run NS on win 95 after both 6 and 6.2
>crashed so often that I thought it was a plot to drive me mad.
I have been running Mozilla builds as my default browser since last
August (0.9.3 was my first), and my PC is a lowly Win95 P120 with
128MBs of RAM. Mozilla simply doesn't crash, and never has. This
was quite in contrast with Netscape 4.x. I have not downloaded any
of the Netscape builds of Mozilla as I prefer to avoid the crap
they've loaded into. Also, since NS is built on Mozilla, Mozilla is
always ahead of the curve.
In short, if your PC crashed with Mozilla, then the problem was
that your PC was fucked up.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
dfenton at bway dot net http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
Bratman
Mike McKinley wrote:
> I think I saw _The Mission_ in that theatre. My dear, the crowd was so
> rowdy we were virtually mugged standing in line for tickets, and the
> culmination came when one group started to take flash pictures of each other
> during the picture.
You really should try and make some new friends.
David W. Fenton
<NHdH8.16686$md....@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>:
>I periodically give Netscape a try, but always give up in
>frustration. The interface drives me nuts - nothing about it seems
>terribly intuitive to me, though that may be a result of using IE
>for too long. It seems to be even more marketing-oriented than IE
>(with lots of buttons that lead to things like Net2Phone and
>Netscape's NetCenter and new programs you never asked for running
>on startup). And since I never have problems with IE, unlike some
>other people it seems, I wind up uninstalling it in frustration
>and sticking with IE.
Try Mozilla instead.
Investigate the preferences.
As far as I'm concerned, the UIs of IE and Mozilla/Netscape are
interchangeable. Mozilla/Netscape now offers tabbed browsing, which
is a major UI improvement (the Single-Document Interface was always
a stupid idea, of course).
Mozilla renders better than IE, and it is much less vulnerable to
exploits. It also doesn't insinuate itself into the guts of your
PC.
Reason enough to avoid it.
Ellen Evans
Bratman <dont...@40dboobs.com> wrote:
>
>
>Ellen Evans wrote:
>
>> And when it doesn't, if they're sitting behind me, I put my hand in the
>> air and wave it around. I figure if they're happy to interupt what I'm
>> hearing, I'm happy to interupt what they're seeing.
>
>I would talk just to see this.
I would expect no less.
Ellen Evans
Mike Jankulak <jank...@panix.com> wrote:
>Robert Marshall <rob...@chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>>> [netscape 7.0 PR1]
>>I try it a few more times with no better luck, and then
>>edit=>preferences and no form pops up at all
>
>My Netscape 6.2.2 did this when I was first playing with it.
>I had a suspicion that a preferences dialog was opening
>somewhere offscreen, since the title bar of the main Netscape
>window would dim... but I could never find it. [Win98SE, fyi.]
The pref window is supposed to appear on top of the browser window, but it
can, if told to, go behind other window, although it still shows up in the
task bar as a separate thingee. Still, it's not modal - you can keep
using the browser even if the pref window is open, at least in Windows.
I'm stumped.