A Lil Book Searching for Its Raison D’être
I guess you’d have to be me (or someone who’s tired of grading “grad” papers from subliterates) for this to bother you,
“But the Dock is so much more than just eye candy. It’s an ever-accessible venue where [sic] your frequently-used applications can call ‘home’.”
Sadly, this is typical of the writing in the otherwise excellent and useful (to newbies and those who need even more hand-holding than the Mac straight jacket already provides), “The Mac Manual” from makeuseof.com.
While there’s nothing really ground-breaking, and really nothing that someone of average intelligence cannot figure oput on their own, for those who find Windows just toooo hard and those who just want to know how to use the oh-so “intuitive” Mac interface more quickly, this is a very nice cheat sheet.
69 pages with loads of nice white space makes “The Mac Manual” from (makeuseof.com) and really quick read and even a handy enchiridion for incurious or lazy newbie Mac users.
But yeh, I have a copy of it and may even carry it with me for the next Mac user I meet who needs some help. 🙂
Ahh! The Blessings of “Junk Builds”
My home office desk is a build consisting of
- -a 3’X6′ top I slapped together from (mostly) scrap about 17 years ago.
- -four legs made of (average) better than 10″ diameter sycamore logs from deadfalls off our trees from The Great Ice Storm of 2007, with
- -oak 2X4 (from old pallets) and sycamore limb bracing
- -and a 2’X3′ “keyboard drawer” made from a piece of castoff formica counter and the only purchased item, a heavy-duty drawer glide.
Why is this such a blessing, apart from the fact that it was built for about $12? Oh, well, when I stumbled and fell on the extended “keyboard drawer” a few minutes ago, I broke one of the free oak pieces I used to attach the drawer glides to the desktop, along with the drawer glides.
Cost to repair? Maybe $10. (I can get better, heavier-duty glides now for less at one of my fav “fell-off-the-truck-pricing” stores. *heh*) I have plenty of pieces of oak 2X4, so since I’ll recycle the 3″ brass screws, I’ll need only the drawer glides. Sweet. Heck, I’ve been meaning to replace these now worn (over 10 years old) drawer glides, anyway, what with all the wear I’ve given them using my keyboard drawer as a footrest… 🙂
But… broke the oak support. Man, I have to lose a few pounds… 🙂
Oh, and when the “drawer” fell, I also broke my plastic trash can. S’all right. Pulled it out of a dumpster almost 10 years ago, along with its companion paper shredder (which I repaired and used for five years until it died again… and was replaced by another dumpster paper shredder). I have more such freebies with which to replace the trash can.
I tell ya. Folks toss out the most useful stuff. (I’m about to use a discarded horizontal file cabinet as a “build-in” to a full room height bookcase. What was wrong with it that it was discarded? Oh, the back–cheap, thin mahogany plywood–had been broken. I replaced it with better: a peg board on which things can be hung behind the horizontal file drawers! It was brand new but “broken” in transport. Thrown out. Asked the business owner, and he appreciated the removal.)
OK, this is more than just an “I broke my desk, but I don’t really care” post. Catching wise? Don’t need to be a hoarder, but why just throw out stuff? Put it on Craigslist or something if it doesn’t sell in a garage sale! Here are some Craigslist listings just today for a locale near me:
- Free firewood pic
- A Bunch Of Stuff – Couch, Lamps, Gardening Stuff And More
- puppy
- Golden Retriever pic
- FREE Wooden Treehouse/swing playset
- Car/Truck Hood
- 36 In. Screen Door pic
- WOODEN SHOP TABLE
- Free 20+ inch TV
Think what a blessing some of your junk might be either to someone in need or just some tightwad like me. *heh*
Still, didn’t even shake the desk. Just tore off the keybd drawer. My lap and a lil side table are working fine as keyboard rest and mousing surface for my wireless input devices. I frequently use ’em that way anyway when I have my feet up and am leaned back, comfortably “computing” from about a 5′-6′ distance from my monitor. Now, it’s reduced a tad, cos my feet are on the desk proper. I’m amazed i can find room for ’em there, though. The thing holds an awful lot of junk…
More Kind Than Deserved
Dennis Prager, in excessively kind and gentle fashion, takes Charles Johnson, of Little Green Nutballs (which I will not link) to the woodshed (kindly, gently) with, An Open Letter to Charles Johnson.
For those of y’all who may have missed the blogospheric kerfuffle, Charles Johnson once ran Little Green Footballs (still not linking it), which, once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, used to be a place where he fought against the evils he today defends. No, not just defends; virulently, slanderously–in many folks’ opinions–attacks those with whom he once allied himself.
Prager reiterates Johnson’s list of “justifications” for his switch and rebuts them all. Here’s #9, a typical example,
9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.). [Johnson]
I saw Pamela Geller’s site (The New York Times Magazine article about you cited it — Atlas Shrugs — and mentioned nothing remotely approaching your charges against her or her site) and I’ve interviewed Robert Spencer. Your charges against them only cheapen the words “fascism,” violence” and “genocide.” [Prager]
As I said, Prager takes Johnson to the woodshed most convincingly (read it for yourself) and, IMO, all too gently, especially given the fact that I have read the positions and assertions of all the parties Johnson condemns and have a good idea of their place in “the right”. Johnson’s place? IMO, Little Green Nutballs is juuuust the place for him… until someone can get commitment papers in order, for his own good. Then, of course, if a physical etiology for his psychological issues can be diagnosed, perhaps medical treatment could return him to sanity.
Of course, if there’s no one in his family who cares enough about him to begin commitment proceedings, he’ll likely spend the rest of his life frothing at the mouth and baying at the moon.
Lamest President Ever
President Bush got piled on by some leftards for reading to grade school students and not scaring the children by jumping up and running off in all directions on 9/11. But at least he was never caught using a teleprompter to speak to elementary students…
The TOTUS at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, with the useless appendage behind the podium, playing parrot.