Category Archives: writing

New LibreOffice

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The Document Foundation has made the latest version of its LibreOffice free office suite available for download. Improvements have been made. Here’s the news: http://goo.gl/vSh7z.

Those who have followed my perennial thread on the virtues of free open source alternatives to expensive, proprietary software know that this is good news.

I downloaded and installed it over the weekend and it works just great. There are still features needed before LibreOffice is ready to take the throne from its big brother, but even now it’s a worthy heir apparent.

http://www.libreoffice.org/

The Key to Windows

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If you are like a lot of people, there are keys on your keyboard that you never use. What are PrtScr, SysRq, and ^? Well, I could tell you but the I’d have to Esc you, so let’s save those for later and deal with the Windows Key today.
The Windows Key lives on the lower left part of your keyboard, next to Alt and pretty close to Z.
windows-button
What does it do? Press it and see. Go ahead, it won’t hurt anything. Press it, watch what happens, then press it again to reverse the event.
The windows key does the same thing as clicking the Start button with your mouse. It opens the Start menu, so you can see your main menu, programs, etc.
Pressing the key a second time simply makes the menu go away.
This is useful because you can access a vital function of your PC with a press of a button. You’re not confined to using the mouse. And in Windows 7 your Search programs and files function is the first thing on the bottom of the menu.
start search

I’ll admit that I didn’t use the Windows Key for years. But now, and for a long time now, I do it without even thinking. That little Search element is my constant friend. I use it to quickly find documents and folders, and I use the larger Start menu to open programs, access photos and videos, navigate to My Computer, My Dropbox, etc.
Get to know your Windows Key. It will come in handy, you’ll see.

Something Unspeakable This Way Comes

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I read an excellent article on the transition to eBooks, and the resistance to it; what we gain and what we give up.

I like my Kindle. I think the only thing I miss so far is something sentimental, not organic like the heft of the object or the smell or feel of the paper. Many of the hundreds of books in this room were gifts from people I love, and those objects have special meaning beyond the words within the covers.

I’ve always enjoyed giving and receiving books as gifts. And I genuinely enjoy getting gifts cards for Christmas, Amazon being my favorite. However, if you give me an eBook on that day, I’ll probably arrange for the family pets to do something unspeakable in your stocking. “Hung by the chimney with care” should mean high security, is my point.

I’m kidding. I think eBooks will become good gifts, though so far I haven’t seen an easy way to do that, except the gift card. Which works: I got my Kindle and some downloads with a Christmas gift card.

Is all of this adding up to “it’s the thought that counts?” Let’s think about that.

The article is worth your 5 minutes, in my opinion. Here’s a link:

E-books Can’t Burn by Tim Parks | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books


Special addendum just for my blog readers (not on G+).


The title of this blog post is mindful of Something Wicked This Way Comes, a novel by Ray Bradbury, who is vehemently opposed to digital books. He told Yahoo to go to hell. Which is pretty funny.

Mr. Bradbury thinks we need less government, but the government should be vastly enlarged enough to put a base on the moon and shoot rockets at Mars so we can live forever. The irony of this fiction is that the only way Mr. Bradbury will live much longer (he’s 92) is through his writing. His books will certainly decompose if left to rot in paperback. I don’t think there’s a writer alive today who can count on being in print in perpetuity.

Life is Messy

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Here’s an interesting article and interview on the brain’s adaptability to organization skills, dealing with stress, and experiencing confidence.

“If you learn how your brain works and work with it, you can start to exercise more cognitive control over your own functioning. The first step is to figure out what is it that you really want that being organized will give you. “That’s the fuel that will keep you going when you’re struggling to change your brain,” says Moore. ‘Every time you make a change that lasts, you’re changing your brain.'”

http://goo.gl/HpfMy

Marginalia

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A few days ago, I mentioned that I’m posting more now on Google Plus, and letting Metaphor tend more toward my own original and creative impulses, for better or for worse. Links to other people’s creative impulses are good, but can live elsewhere.
It’s true and I hope that you have noted my address on Google Plus. There’s a link to it in the right column too.
It’s a transition, though, so here are some things for those of you who haven’t found me on G+ yet.

Here’s the last stanza.

Everything revealed is magical,
splendid in its ordinary shining.
The sun gives birth to rosebushes,
the myrtle, a snow shovel fallen,
overcome on the field of battle.

  • I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.
– Francoise Sagan
playwright and novelist (1935-2004)
  • If you missed the very beautiful little video I shared called The Piano, scroll down and watch it. It’s worth a couple of minutes.
  • If Web sites came with a printed manual, they would look like this.
  • Dr Weil says don’t go to sleep upset. He doesn’t say what to do about it. Stay up all night?
    I suppose meditating before bed, or talking about it, along with a stiff nightcap, might do the trick.
  • Definition of Marginalia
1: marginal notes or embellishments (as in a book)
2: nonessential items

  • My Google Plus address: