The Monstrous Aspect of Technology!

If I didn't love the computer so much I'd hate it. I crashed a Mac iBook! Didn't mean to, but apparently I drained the battery printing my 282 page document several times without always being plugged in. Then I put it to sleep before the battery had re-charged enough. Pop! and it went into a coma. Luckily the technician was smart and kind and rescued my my data onto 2CDs before performing hard-drive to hard-drive resusitation so I could hand it back into IT central. Now I'm writing on a borrowed computer, but hey, it's a PowerBook G4 and I love the feel of the keyboard.

What I really care about is a place to keep making adjustments on my thesis. So I borrowed this computer, after checking to see if it had Lucida Grande, the font I use most. I didn't think to check for Lucida Handwriting which I also use. I saw the words "Lucida Grande" in the list of fonts and assumed I was home free. Tonight when I finally got my EndNote properly installed (don't ask) and opened my thesis document, it looked funny. I looked at the font closely. It says "Lucida Grande" but it isn't. Not even close. And "Lucida Handwriting" isn't there at all.

There must be some way around this, but I keep remembering when I moved my thesis over from the IBM laptop to the first PowerBook and found that the Lucida fonts I'd been using weren't on the Mac. I had to reformat all my "voices." It took AGES! I liked the name Lucida, and the looks of Ludica Grande so I adapted to and adopted that BUT I really don't want to do that again.

I used the Minotaur at the centre of the technological labyrinth as a metaphor about learning to use the computer. The Minotaur was created out of a deep desire through the use of "technology:" the "blind" Daedalus built so Pasiphae could have her "way" with the white bull her husband had seized from Posidon. Now imprisoned by more Daedalus-built technology, the labyrinth, I was set to prove the Minotaur was wonderful and not a Monster. Now I'm not so sure.

Technology is wonderful until you have to deal with its montrous side, its difficulties.

Whoops!

Oh, well. some experiments do not totally work, as you can see below.

I will try again another day, another place.

An Experiment in Cutting & Pasting HTML

cellpadding="2">

style="font-weight: bold; font-family: helvetica,arial,sans-serif;" size="+1">Playing with WYSIWYG Web Authoring and cut&paste of HTML

style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 204, 153);"> I went to a presentation today on using the Discussions feature of WebCT. It was fascinating. But what I really loved and what I was really fascinated by was the possibility of cutting and pasting HTML code created in a WYSIWYG course authoring program, in this case Mozillas Composer. I realized that I could use the same feature in my blog, as Im displaying here. I am on a different computer which for some reason does not show an apostrophe for the apostrophe key, but an e with an accent, so I have to write this with no apostrophes or quotation marks until I figure out how to fix it. I had a problem with the computer I was using and a wonderful (I hope) technician says he has saved all my data. I will find out for sure tomorrow. For now, I am playing with this other computer, which belongs to the person I live with who is currently on the other side of the world, in India, innoculating children against polio as part of the Rotory campaign to eradicate polio worldwide. So here is my experiment; let us see how it works!

The Details, the Details!

I'm having trouble stopping making adjustments to my thesis, and the printing process is driving me crazy. After deciding to ignore the rule about using small roman numerals for the first section and printing up one copy, I set to work and figured out how to do that, so I'm keeping that first copy for myself, and will just write in the correct pagination. Since then, with the colour cartridge running out and then the black cartridge running out twice, I've had to deal with delays and irritations!

As well, I had to print up a bunch of separate pages to replace the ones that were messed up colour-wise during the last bit of the colour cartridge. After I put those into that copy, I realized that there were extra blank pages and I had better check through page-by-page. I hate that kind of detail! But I did it.

Then I realized that the next copy was significantly thinner than the others. Page-by-page checking showed that somehow the missing pages that I had printed up had been left out of this printing!!! So, more individual pages printed up.

Then I got the three copies I had cerloxed and took two into my supervisor's office, one for him, and one for another committee member; the one for the external, I'll take in on Thursday when I have a class, and I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member.

This part of the thesis journey is like being at the airport on the way home. After planning, travelling, holidaying and then packing for the return, I am waiting to have my baggage checked and be called to board the plane - the slowest and most boring/irritating part of the process. But there's no escaping it, so I better find a way to make meaning from it.

Just Abandon It!

A piece of writing is never finished; it is merely abandoned. I can't remember who said that but it is definitely true. I keep fiddling with it. I just change that phrase. Then I remember something my supervisor said and change something else. I get bugged by the numbering and spend a few hours figuring out how to start with small roman numerals then switch to Arabic. I finally got it figured out and printed up the next two copies. That felt good. It took about a day each at the speed my printer goes, and partway through the third copy, the colour started changing and I had to get a new colour cartridge.

So here I am printing up my supposedly finished thesis, fiddling with it, and then getting the numbers done right. Then, in checking for what pages I'll have to reprint to get the colour right, I discover an almost blank page where the picture has shifted right in the middle of the document. I don't want to reprint all the second halves. I think. Finally I decide to add a little bit more text and another picture so I will have the right page number when the next chapter starts.

At this point I'm getting tired and irritated with the thesis and printing it up, and I know what I should have done; I should have printed up a (cheap) non-colour copy (commercially and quickly) and checked and edited it carefully before I printed up the colour ones. Next time. That's one reason I really like web pages; they're so easy to correct and upload. Paper has to be replaced after any corrections.

Today I printed up the fourth copy, and I think it's okay. I don't have the energy to check at this point, but I will print myself up a copy before the oral and go over it very carefully. Tomorrow I will get all four copies cerloxed and take three of the copies in and give to my supervisor so he can distribute them. I'll courier the fourth to my other committee member myself.

I haven't heard back from anybody about the dates for the oral. I hope I do soon, but I am impatient.

I heard Dr. Jonathan Butler speak on suffering today. Interesting.