
Wilde_Guess
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Status Updates posted by Wilde_Guess
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I managed to get a new iMac I didn’t want to buy yet a hop, skip, and jump before the old one died. My “old” version of Office won’t install on the new one. I’ve tried “Pages.” I’m a lot less unimpressed than I was before trying it.
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Microsoft is brutally awful with older versions of Word. Basically, they want you to buy a subscription to Office 365, so they make it incredibly difficult. I had to uninstall Office on my old computer, and still couldn’t reinstall it on my new computer. We don’t want to talk about how hard it is to actually buy a new copy of the standalone program.
I’m not an Apple user, so I can’t comment on Pages, but someone told me you can save Pages documents as Word documents, so that might be helpful if you really need the Word format.
But anyway, congrats on the new Mac!
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Microsoft will still sell Office “outright” instead of the “crippleware that only works with an Internet connection,” for about $240, but you have to buy it straight from Microsoft, not the Apple App Store.
And, it isn’t the “Intel vs Apple Processor” issue, either. The current Mac OSX, even the “A chip CPU” version, will run older “Intel era” OSX programs via an emulator. However, the Office install program claims that I already have a “newer version of Office installed,” and I haven’t been able to find out anything about what exactly the Office installer says that it sees. This computer was new out of the box, and I had not installed anything on it.
But, at least it “plays nice” with my iPhone. And all, or at least most of the websites that were “broken” on the old iMac work just fine with this new one. I’m tolerating the Bluetooth keyboard with no “forward delete,” and I bought a Logitech MX Anywhere 3S Bluetooth mouse to replace the POS mouse it came with, along with a USB hub and a DVD burner.
Thanks.
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I wound up buying Office as a digital download, and got the product key via email, which is the least secure method for purchasing software ever. The biggest issue was getting past the zillion “Are you really sure you don’t want Office 365 because it’s neat and you can save everything to the Cloud and everyone will think you’re completely awesome and we get RMR which is our dream scenario because we don’t have to do a damned thing to get your money every month” sales pitches.
Of course, the installer was suspicious about my older version of Office that had lived on my 10 year old Dell, despite my having uninstalled it. I was lucky enough to get someone in Tech Support who actually knew what they were talking about, rather than just reading from a canned script. It was a miracle...
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Dame Maggie Smith dead at 89 according to published reports.
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The Dowager Countess has gone to her rest.
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Joins Alan Rickman
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- BronxWench and Wilde_Guess
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And Richard Harris, and Robbie Coltrane. It’s getting to be like a Hogwarts faculty meeting up there.
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- BronxWench and Wilde_Guess
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Annikin Skywalker has truly lost his voice. US Actor James Earl Jones dead at 93 according to published reports in Variety and other news sources. Fair winds and following seas.
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I suppose the recent spate of spam posts in “Report Trolls/Flamers/Spammers” are almost on-topic, since that’s the area where you’re supposed to report their garbage. Elsewhere, it’s just plain annoying. Perhaps they’re trying to join the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, while doing it on the roof? Oh, well...
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I am supposed to be in charge of nuking the spammers, I’m afraid. Things have just been bananas up over here, with half the fam having been made basically homeless due to the volcanic eruptions and my former hometown now being abandoned, and then the stress of the family needing to find housing, and myself having been unable to renew my lease on my apartment, and then needing to find a new place to live. And all of this has not been beneficial to the mental health of any of us.
BUT, thankfully, the fam has now found (and bought) new permanent homes, the parental units are already moved in, baby sis and her units are probably moving near the end of the month, and I will be moving into a permanent home around the middle of next month
So, to recap, everyone’s in or getting into new permanent homes, and therefore my mental health is getting back on track and I’ll do better around here, I swear
Edit: But, yes, they do make it lovely and uncomplicated whenever they just go right ahead and post directly in the Trolls/Flamers/Spammers forum. That way I don’t have to go far to find them
And sadly, the report function does seem to still not be operational, but please keep hitting the report button if you see those posts, because who knows, maybe it’ll work one day.
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- BronxWench, Wilde_Guess and InvidiaRed
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I’m on EDT, as is BronxWench, so if something comes in the middle of the night my time I won’t attend to it. But, will do as soon as I see them.
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- Wilde_Guess and BronxWench
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Just to be clear, I was going for humor, and not criticality or passive-aggression. The garbage “shows up,” and it also goes away quickly.
@WillowDarkling, I’m glad to read that your difficulties are almost solved.
Thanks to all who run this system (both the story archives and the forum site) for all of your hard and effective work.
Cheers!
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- BronxWench and WillowDarkling
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I’m also not terribly fond of having to check my story calendar for full moons. But in the Rowlingverse, needs must, I guess. That is unless I want a werewolf pandemic in my story.
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See, this is why writing fanfic is not easier than writing original stuff. You can’t play with someone else’s toys without playing by their rules. Or you can, but then they’ll take their ball and go home, or...Where was I going with this?
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Thanks for the laugh, @GeorgeGlass. If anyone said that fanfiction was easier than original work, it sure wasn’t me. It’s not harder, either; but the challenges to write well in either one can vary. Fanfiction for “non-episodic” canon stories almost always involves changes, along with either following canon, or explaining why you took a different path through the story itself.
That’s why I’m working on Chapter 12, and I’m only putting Charlie Weasley on the Hogwarts Express. While I’m effectively having to write a compressed story just to get to the ‘Harry Potter as lead protagonist’ part of my story, the other alternative would be a literal cosmic ass-pull, since Harry, Ron, and Neville will have changed that much by September of 1991. It was tricky enough demonstrating that Petunia Evans had changed that much in Chapter 1, simply by choosing a different husband.
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A serious fanfiction requires some level of effort… heck I consult the above even in my originals too.
For instance, lots of canon characters are very underdeveloped, so you gotta flesh them out into fullness that’s in line with canon (or in line with your premise). Original characters… I actually have those developed better in my story than some of the canon!
However, if it’s a short fluff bit...well, you don’t have to work too hard if you’ve got something of Fred’s & George’s backfiring to fill all of Hogwarts up with daffodils.
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I hate having to write “storyline calendars” for fanfiction, especially when the original author could care less. But not writing the calendars is even worse. (Sigh.)
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Ages ago when I started my main potter fanfic, I did write up a spreadsheet. And when I came back to it after a decade hiatus – it’s been a godsend for trying to remember how things were setup, what to elaborate more on, etc.
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- BronxWench and Wilde_Guess
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“Len, don’t become a drunk. Otherwise, stick to ale. After all, ale will never lock you out of your own house and bust up all of your belongings in the front garden just ‘cause you’ve had another pint!” Would you expect to read this in a “T” rated fanfiction?
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I’d think a “T” rating would cause some of my stories to implode into clouds of nothingness, or at least lose a lot of their impact.
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Of course, that depends on the story itself. “Yankee” is plot-driven, and sex isn’t necessarily needed. The original story where I ‘borrowed’ the Dvoraks from, though, is a different story altogether in more ways than one. It won’t be appearing on the originals side of St. Elsewhere. Ever.
Cheers!
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My potter fanfic is similarly plot driven. That’s why even the “cleaner” version is substantial at 631k right now. However, the “explicit” version stands at 1765k, with sex, incest, slash, nudism themes mixed into it. Something like “Jefferey” would have some parts that could work in a sexless “T” rating, the nudist aspect was part of why I wrote/developed the character, as Jeff’s needed for the main protagonist’s swim instructor.
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You should never, and I sincerely repeat never write without first writing an outline of your story—ever! My story, and my protagonists, have had a new band member foisted on them by the plot-bunnies! You’ll see him around Chapter 38 or so. 😉
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Most of it was rewriting, expanding a bit on old. Though there’s some additions too. Now, I’m into virgin material (at least for a while), it’s technically filling in what had been a four-year gap in the character’s development, which is the underlying theme to the episodic serial.
Ironically enough, now outlining and trying to figure out what I want for this next episode.
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Andy is really not happy with me right now. He’s dyslexic, barely avoided being forced to join a monastery at gunpoint, and just got stripped naked and spanked almost hard enough to need medical attention in front of a yard full of people he’s barely met. And he also got disowned by his father in front of the same people.
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Whereas… Jeff’d be more embarrassed if he was forced to get dressed, didn’t mind showing up on live-television interview (annoyed they censored out bits of him), and basically disowned by his mother instead (during a court proceeding)
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Have you ever been hit with “chapter mitosis?” Well, I’ve been hit with it again. Chapter 36 is ‘skinny’ again, but should be fattened up enough to post before the end of the week. Chapter 37 is bigger, but has a ways to go before it’s ready. Oh, well… Just another ‘first world problem.’
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Nothing wrong with splitting up an overstuffed chapter, especially if there’s an obvious place to split it.
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While I’m working on Chapter 36 and continued editing and revising elsewhere, here’s some more incidental music.
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More ear candy for you all, courtesy of the kids in Mokena. Danny might play this in Chapter 37. The RL artist doesn’t actually finish it, but his improv is still beyond cool.
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Here’s some “ear-worm candy” for all of you to go along with mine.
A very newly formed teenage rock band performs a cold-read “spite-set” during a live appearance before an audience because the band’s leader totally misunderstood a criticism offered by a performer he invited in to listen to them.
The set consists of: Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin,) Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees,) Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin,) Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (Led Zeppelin version,) transitioned directly into 25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago.)
The band hasn’t performed any of these songs as a complete band before, and have no sheet music in front of them. They literally put the set together in a two minute conversation before playing it live.
Yet they’re good enough that only the few people who know the band pulled the set out of their asses on the spot even realize that the set was anything other than a well-rehearsed performance. This was their second set of the night. The first set, which the band leader didn’t think they rehearsed well enough, was also very good and well received by the audience.
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Switching between two different projects can get frustrating.
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I’m switching between editing and a new project. I think I prefer two projects if i have to switch. Editing needs focus.
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Agreed. “Lincoln” Ch. 19 is giving me just a little bit of trouble, since I haven’t paid attention to it lately. “Bond” is mostly being “brought over” from St. Elsewhere. It needs some editing and revising.
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Usually, I just have to focus on one project, or the other. So, now, I’m focusing on Jefferey again, which, cross my fingers, should be until a particular point when I can start working on the main protagonist’s story. There is a threat in there, a plot bunny that’s agitating.
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I’ve posted two “Harry Potter” fics over here from “St. Elsewhere.” One is SFW, the other one will eventually “earn” its warnings, but not right away.
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Chapter 17 to “Riding the Lincoln Way” is now posted.
http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600108829&chapter=17