Month: April 2009

Crankypantsing

Adventures in Shopping

Shelly

I went to Target, looking for fold top sandwich bags, a wall mounted paper towel holder, and cheap, plastic food storage containers. Big fail! They had nothing but Ziploc baggies, nothing but counter top paper towel dispensers (what is the purpose of those?), and their plastic food storage containers were not cheap enough.

So I went next-door to Kmart. Still no fold top sandwich bags, but I got a great deal on Ziploc containers (two packages for $5 plus $1 off coupon for each). I also found a paper towel holder, but when I got home and took it out of the box, it was obvious that it had not only been used, but thoroughly abused. So now I have to take it back. Hrmf.

I did finally find baggies, at the grocery store. Third time’s a charm, yes?

Crankypantsing

“My Google Changed”

Shelly

I wonder sometimes how the people I work with manage to dress themselves in the mornings. Over the weekend, LIT pushed down an update for Firefox. No problem for those of us who use Firefox instead of IE, nor for those who are moderately clueful about software. And by moderately clueful, I mean, they know what a web browser is. Apparently some of my coworkers do not.

Now, I realize that there are plenty of folks who manage to find their way around a computer without overstuffing their brains with information they don’t really need to have on tap. So if I asked my mom what a web browser is, she is unlikely to know what the hell I’m talking about. That’s fine. My coworkers, though? We all had to go through a web 2.0 workshop, so they ought to bloody well know what a web browser is, right?

Twice now, I’ve had someone come to my cubicle to tell me, “My Google changed.” Now, I had no idea how to unpack that statement. What the hell were they talking about? Knowing about the Firefox update, I asked which web browser they were using. “What’s a web browser?” Uh-oh. I asked if they were using Firefox or IE, and coworker A said, “I’m using Google.” Um, no. I explained that they had to be using either Firefox or IE (there are no other options on our workstations). “Oh, definitely IE, then, because I never use Firefox.” (Any guesses as to which browser was open when I went to their workstations?) Lordy!

Apparently, when the new Firefox update was pushed down, it made itself king of the mountain (“All ur shortcuts R belong to us!”). Folks who usually use IE as the default browser now found that Firefox was the default. Some folks–including coworkers A and B–litter their desktops with shortcuts to websites, instead of bookmarking them. Because of the update, clicking on any of those shortcuts launched Firefox, not IE. Folks realized that things looked a little different, but couldn’t figure out why, so their explanation was that Google–which LIT has automatically set as the default homepage in both IE and Firefox–had changed.

If I wanted to hold people’s hands and help them sort out their lives, I’d work in tech support. But I don’t, so I don’t.

Uncategorized

A Few Things

Shelly

I’ve been enjoying the 30 Bucks a Week blog. It’s made me more mindful of what I buy, and more careful about using up all my fresh food, instead of wasting half of it. I went hunting and gathering yesterday. I’ve been on a citrus kick, so I bought more grapefruit and splurged on some blood oranges, to go with it. I think the two together will make a tasty and pretty snack.

The other thing I picked up was a new litter box for Pandora. She’s gotten so wobbly that it was becoming hard for her to get in and out of the old one. This one has super low walls, which should help. The up side, if there is one, to her increased unsteadiness is that I no longer have to worry about her climbing up on the kitchen cabinets. She can’t even jump onto the dining room chairs, so the cabinets are out of the question, which means that food left on the counters and stove is once more safe from thieving wee kitties.

Speaking of the kitchen, I did some more rearranging, and I think it’s almost the way I want it. Still searching for a rug for the hideous floor, though. Urban Outfitters has a cotton one the right size, in a dark blue, that looks light-weight enough to stuff in a washing machine. It’s cheap, too, which is a plus.

In book news, I’m reading Inkheart. I got it through ILL a month ago, and it sat on the coffee table until last week. Once I had it in my hands, I wasn’t motivated to read it, and even after I finally picked it up, it took me awhile to get into it. The writing seemed uneven, which I found distracting. My mom pointed out (duh!) that it’s a translation, so the fault likely lies in that direction. Some of the passages are absolutely gorgeous, but others seem clumsy. I’m trying to ignore the clumsy ones, and the story itself has become so engaging that I think I’m over that mental hurdle.