07.15.2003 || 17h11

Stuff and word processing crap

So, here I am, fresh from making my love a Viet-Namese coffee, and about to leave for yet another close at Coffee Hell Co. Of course, it's another night of Just For Laughs festival goers running rampant in the streets and overflowing the edges of our store. Last night was rough enough; if to-night comes up the same, I'm going to stuff someone full of used espresso. Please note the pronunciation: It's *not* 'Expresso,' you buncha illiterates. The customers, I mean. Not you guys. Heh? Oh, and one more request for an iced *cappuccino,* and I'm definitely going postal. Go for the fucking latt�, you arsemonkeys. Please. For your own good.

This Viet-Namese coffee's good. And as a bonus, you can spit icecubes at the cats when you're done. I believe the girlfriend would say 'Fucking A!'

So, if all goes well, I should be taking Arabic in the fall. At Concordia, no less. They told me to buy the books now and practise the alphabet, so I'll trundle off next payday and pick them up.

I've been re-visiting a few of my old poems; mostly the ones I'd written off as unsalvageable. Some of them have a nice line or two, so I'm re-doing them around the one or two good lines or words. I'm finding it to be kinda clarifying in a way. Like time has given me the distance to look these poems over with fresh eyes, so I'm not married to the same parts as I used to be. I don't know if I'll have anything useable at the end of this, but it's kinda fun.

I'm also locked into a death-struggle with Microsoft Word. As in, I'm going to replace the fucker. now. It's not that the app is totally craptacular. In fact, it's not. It pains me to say it, but word:mac is actually a pretty well-built app. That being said, Office takes up as much space as a double-decker bus, and the files it creates are *way* too big. I can't stand the fact that word slapps that much baggage onto a fucking *text* file. Also, on my ageing doomBook, I sometimes get typing lag, which is un-fricking-forgiveable. That, plus the somewhat classless Microsoft approach to feature-creep makes it a no-go in my book.

In my search for a replacement, I have discovered that:
�Writer is functional and kinda neat, but *way* too underfeatured. I mean, I sometimes *need* tables, fer gossakes;
�Nisus Writer Express is slick and neat-o, but has the world's worst-looking toolbar. It's also pretty pricey at US$60;
�Okay, second worst. Also, it's a helluvalot faster than OpenOffice;
�I really, *really* like Ulysses. No text formatting, just like a good text-editor should be. Okay, so it's not an actual word processor, but I really like the way it works, and at �60 for two users (until the end of August), it's not *too* pricey;
�Appleworks is ugly, awkward, has no fucking filters, and the interface makes the thing feel like you're using the colour-by-numbers version of software. Yuk. A lot. Shame on you, Apple;
�Mellel. Ah, Mellel. Those Crazy Israelis make some of the coolest software, I tell you. I hate Mellel's extensive use of Apple's ill-advised brushed metal scheme, but the thing feels right when I use it, and I think that's the most important thing. It's also $25, which is nice as well.

Of course, I've also tried out BBEdit, an old copy of MarinerWrite, and one or two others, all of which have something neat to offer, and all of which are smaller and faster than Word.

I'm thinking of buying Mellel and Ulysses, just to support fucking cool software.

Enough. I'm late for work.



||Gods save the Queen,
||cf

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older shite

One last little note... - 09.21.2006

de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006

Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006

More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006

Scary stuff - 05.25.2006

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