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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Oi, I Miss Wordstar

To come so far only to be foiled by formatting has me foaming at the mouth.

I have reached the chapter on formatting. How improper formatting can irritate editors and indicate you're an amateur who can't tell her cranium from her keyboard.

Guess that's me.

I go to put in a header and it adds it to every page, even when I check the "different first page" box.
Try to change the margins to one-inch and it resets it to 3.5 inches. Every time. Oh, except the times I remove the header entirely. Then it won't let me put it back.

I used to think I was moderately versed in Word. I use it at work. I'm generally able to do whatever I need to do. Maybe this is an upgraded or older version or something.

It's humiliating, is what it is. I can't figure out how to add a text box with picture. I have a Master's degree, for Pete's sake. I've talked down angry teenagers with chairs aimed at my head. This shouldn't be this hard.

Wordstar was so simple. It was text-based. You remembered the little codes and typed them in and everything worked. It was beautiful. You didn't need Mr. Clipit because a monkey could do it. A monkey with a good memory. I used to have one.

I am hoping last night was some kind of stupidity glitch and today everything will work perfectly and do exactly what I want it to do.

Yeah, I don't believe it, either.

I'm running on day three of late nights and extremely early mornings cleaning up hairballs before the dog does. Mica is having another bout of stress-related grooming, probably from being pilled every day for the last week, thus I am having bouts of grooming-related sleep deprivation. I will miss her when she finally dies, but I will have trouble remembering why.

On the other hand, Elder Brother dropped by, transferred the last of my files to my new computer and made suggestions regarding my website. Once I get some sleep, I should feel pleased instead of knowing I should feel pleased.

Terry Burns' chapters on Marketing Platforms and Marketing Strategies were surprisingly reassuring. He managed to make the process seem doable. I was inspired to expand my platform as I wrote and "think outside the box." That's new for me. I'm a turtle. I don't mind boxes, as long as they have food in them.

So, I get to face Thursday with less-than-adequate sleep, left-over formatting frustration and the joy of knowing I'll have to administer 3 pills a day to Mica for the rest of her life, which may mean I'll never get another uninterrupted night's sleep until she dies, whenever I muster the courage to make that decision.

Today's mantra will be "all days are good days" but I will have trouble believing it.

TT: My Dear Friend, this post should ramble enough even for you. Perhaps your trouble is sleep deprivation.

3 comments:

  1. OMG, I have tried twice now to post a comment. Hopefully this one will take. What I had tried to say was - if only lack of sleep was my problem! I am sorry to hear about Mica and will say prayers for you both. Also, what is Wordstar?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you kept trying!
    Wordstar was the original code-based word processing program. No graphics, no point-n-click. Just typing words and programming code, like < I > for italics. (HA HA! The program wouldn't let me post this as originally written because I didn't close the italic. Guess there's a bit of code left in every upgrade.)
    My first computer had Wordstar, and I've missed it ever since.
    Have I mentioned I have trouble with change?

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