- When Writer offers me an autocompletion, which looks exactly like I have typed the rest of the word then selected it, I should be able to hit a cursor-key to accept, not Enter. Enter means end of paragraph.
- If I am in Print Layout mode, and I click View -> Print Layout, I should stay in print layout mode, not switch to Web Layout. If I wanted Web Layout I would click View -> Web Layout.
- Where is Outline view mode?
- Why this fetish about offering me autocompletion while I’m trying to write a document? If somebody’s trying to count to 1000, or recite the fibonacci sequence, I don’t help them by shouting arbitrary numbers that also start with the same syllables. The chances are greater than 50% that somebody, having typed “Multi” wants to type something other than “Multicolumnar”, and shouting “multicolumnar” at them is not going to help their train of thought.
We had work’s Χmas do last night. I got a bit ahead of the curve early on - I was on my third large whisky by the time the fourth person turned up to the pub. Memories of the evening include some fantastic food, some funny looks, and ‘disappearing’ various items, including an after-dinner mint that magically made it all the way into the ear’ole of an unsuspecting member of the general public at an adjacent table. Oops. Also my replacement Palm received a stress-fracture across the screen from simply being in my jeans pocket while I was sat on the o-so-comfy wooden chairs. I learned three things:
1) John R’s hat is eminently jugglable
2) I am still capable of having a PROPER hangover
3) When you have torx screwdrivers and a spare palm, it’s possible to effect repairs when smashed out of your brains.
I had a major breakthrough in my drumming yesterday. I was reading Tito Puente’s Drumming with the Mambo King book, and struggling through the dots, when I realised there are a lot fewer bangs in a drum roll than I’m apt to try and put in. The rudimentary Mama-dada roll is simply two 1/16th beats on the right followed by the same on the left. It took some doing to undo the habit I formed in the ’90s of performing an inept press-roll, but - like my students find with the dancing - when it falls into place you find there is all the time in the world to get through the move and into the next thing you want to do.
I find myself wondering how my drumming would have been different if I’d been more studious when I was in the band. At the time I was reluctant to take lessons as I thought it would colour my style and stifle my creativity. I can’t decide on that still. More technique would have enabled cleaner drumming and opened up new creative avenues, but I’m still inclined to think it would have nudged me over to becoming more clinical and losing the feeling that I think I put in to my playing. I’m just guessing.
With the latin music, I’m taking on a whole new rhythmic language, and I’m soaking up lots of influences. For some reason I’m not scared to learn the fundamentals before spreading out. Partly I guess I’m older, and partly I think the richness of what there is to explore means it will be a great journey wherever I end up.
This whinge comes at you courtesy of not having anything to write but having a while to wait while my program compiles and immediately getting annoyed with wordpress.
The old version of wordpress had a link on the front page which, if you were logged in, took you to a page where you could write a blog entry. In 1.5 however, it takes you to the wordpress dashboard where you can catch up on the latest news from the wordpress blah blah something something. I don’t know what the rest says because I always click that link in order to WRITE something, and I immediately locate, and click on, the link that allows me to do just that.
Actually, I’m puzzled at the model that the wordpress community have taken on - pushing wordpress in the same way as a commercial product might be pushed - yet it’s free. What’s the angle? Simple-minded megalomania? Possibly. Every additional wordpress user is a burden on the download server so there is a cost in wordpress becoming more popular. In the case of FireFox, idealism may well be the answer. The combination of the former big browsers’ disregard for standards, and MicroSoft’s unavailability on non-Windows, non-Mac platforms can easily have created enough of a need in a large enough mass of people to get FireFox built and to get it an evangelical following, but a piece of blog software?!
And it emails passwords in clear =:-(
Today turned out to be a good’un. I managed to get an item off my todo list that involved going all the way to Leeds and back, a major undertaking considering the all-consuming torpor I have been battling over the last 18 months. I invited Kate for no particular reason apart from that she’d had a ratty Friday night with neither Kim nor I getting her texts asking for a lift until it was too late. My quest was for some timbale beaters and a mambo bell, to complete the timbale set I got off ebay recently. It had come with 1/2 inch thick sticks but I had a feeling they were a bit on the heavy side. I’ve gone to the other extreme, and with these 3/8 inch (just under 1cm) chopstick-like affairs, I can almost get away with playing them in the house. Almost.
I wound up getting a (plastic) woodblock too, so I now have a self-respecting timbale set-up which, if it’s missing anything, could do with a cymbal (but at £100 a time for something that just goes “pish” I think I can wait on that one). Now to get up to Kilburn and jam in the village hall…
We also got a trip in to the Chinese Supermarket where I looked for bamboo steamers (these have been on my list for over a year) but to no avail. Kate’s eagle eye spotted them in boxes over the far end of the shop from the bamboo steamer shelf, so as a token of gratitude I got Char Siu buns, noodles and Pak Choi to steam when we got home.
And of course serenaded her on the timbales.
I think she liked the food part better.