Things I Like this Week (Write Smarter Edition)

-- I'm not an open source fanatic by nature. Some open source programs may provide better results, but it's just easier to pony up the cash for the big boys than tracking down the hidden gems. So, the Windows logo greets me on start-up, and I pulled up Microsoft Word when it was finally time to get started on that paper. However, Writer might be good enough for me to break away from tradition.

In addition to the ability to open and save as Microsoft Word files, the program offered by OpenOffice sports a user interface that bears a strong resemblance to its Microsoft counterpart making the learning curve nearly nonexistent, and the programmers actually make intuitive changes. Writer moves the ability to edit headers and footers to the insert menu from the view menu – a perpetually bizarre choice in Word. Writer's programmers also excised the obnoxious auto complete functions inherent in word where a simple tap of the enter key can produce an unwanted outline or worse.

Writer isn't perfect. Although it does include English spell-check (with more languages available to download and install), but grammatically challenged writers will have to make friends with a good proofreader since there isn't an available grammar checker. Some of the other features lack the same polish available in Word and WordPerfect and copy/paste can entail some formatting issues.

Writer exceeds expectations particularly for a donation supported word processing program. Check it out. It might not be enough to convince you to uninstall Office, but you might discover you only like Word because everyone else does. [OpenOffice.org]

-- Word Couter is a nifty little tool, which allows you to count the frequency of words appearing in a block of text. Seeing how many time the words demonstrates appears in that English lit paper has never been easier. The program allows for pasted text or an uploaded .txt file and organizes words alphabetically or by frequency. You'll still need a good thesaurus to figure out different ways to say 'improves,' but Word Counter gets you halfway. [Word Counter via Lifehacker]

-- The rewind button can be friend or nemesis while typing up transcripts depending on how quickly you can type. Listen and Write helps get those fingers moving quicker. Although the text can be a little dry - most articles are edited news stories – the content is interesting enough. Topics range from the plight of the honeybee to a selection from Anne of Green Gables, which is not for the slow-fingered. Articles are organized by length of repeatable segments. [Listen and Write via Lifehacker]

Things I like this Week (Manly Edition)

-- Earlier this month, Tom Chiarella put together, for Esquire, a list of 75 things every man should know how to do before he dies. The list ranges from the practical (Tie a Bow Tie) to bold (Talk to a Woman out of his League) to bizarre (Understand Quantum Physics Well enough that he can accept that a quarter might, at some point, pass straight through the table when dropped). Take the unofficial test for yourself. My 40% would seem to explain why I can't get my beard to be anything but patchy. Maybe I can fill in some of those gaps if I can knock of some more of these.

-- While you're waiting for the DVD release of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, check out this mash-up of The Count from Sesame Street singing "Dracula's Lament," a ballad from the puppet musical with-in the film.



Not as funny or heart-warming as the original, but a fun diversion. For official Sarah Marshall viral marketing check out I Hate Sarah Marshall. It looks like Peter has let his blog languish a little bit, but the links are as funny as ever.

-- Ben Stiller takes on movie about making a war movie in Tropic Thunder. Featuring perfect casting with everyone playing into their type, Thunder looks like it could be the perfect antidote to the inevitable blockbuster hangover that sets in during August. How could any movie featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as a method actor so committed that he dyes his skin to play a black man go wrong? Tropic Thunder Theatrical Trailer

Neil Partick Harris and Jason Segal Make Daytime TV Legen...

...dary. Megan Mullally's daytime talk show may have not even gotten to tape 50 new episodes. Thankfully the show managed to squeeze in an hour with the cast of How I Met Your Mother. Harris and Segal launch into an impromptu version of "Confrontation" from Les Miserables.




Oh cast of HIMYM, how I've missed you. Hopefully, you'll be able to ride its recent, much-talked about guest-star into a fourth season.

Things I Like This Week (Literal Title Edition)

An anonymous blogger catalogs the various things that excite white people at Stuff White People Like. The blog more accurately provides a tongue-in-cheek survival guide for interacting with affluent 20-somethings. If you're not white and ever wondered just why all white people live Michelle Gondry, wine, irony, pretending to like soccer, or Barak Obama, here's your chance to find out.

"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?" claims the editor at at garfield minus garfield. Simultaneously funny and tragic, this new strip takes Jim Davis's beloved strip and removes all traces of Garfield. While Davis's original strip may now overuse the premise of a wacky Jon Arbuckle followed by dead space and a wry quip from his cat, garfield minus garfield requires Davis's wacky Jon but leaves us to provide our own quip or tears.

No longer young enough to laugh at anything or old enough to find the humor in the darndest things kids say, I wearied of The Family Circus a long time ago. The Nietzsche Family Circus makes the strip worth reading again. Seemingly relying on a random pairing from a set of both Family Circus and quotes from the German existentialist philosopher Frederik Nietzsche. Random selection fails to produce a winner every time, but there's an inherent irony in having educated dialogue- "When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back into you" and "The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception" - coming from the same child, who in today's actual strip retorts to someone doing their homework, "You did? When will your TV set be fixed?" Ah, kids.

Meme(ories)

Is there a statute of limitations on memes? No? Should there be? Yes? Well, Linda at Pataphysical Science tagged me with this meme back in July. I half wrote an entry at that point, but I struggled to come up with eight media related items to fill the list and never finished. As I was cleaning up my computer, I stumbled across this file and thought I’d give it a second shot.

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to tag eight people and list their names.

I once drove to another state just to see a movie.
What? One of my friends and I went to go see a movie projected digitally. The closest theater was in Maryland. We piled into the car for the four-hour trip, caught the film, then piled back into the car for the drive home. We hit 88 miles per hour on the drive home while listening to the Back to the Future theme. It was awesome.

I saw Attack of the Clones twice in the same theater on the same day.
I caught the 12:01 show with one set of friends and a 11ish p.m. show with another set. One of us got interviewed for local radio as we were walking into the building for the second show.

I watch A Christmas Story at least twice every year but have never seen It’s a Wonderful Life.
It’s not entirely my fault. No one in my immediate family has seen it either. We even bought it on DVD for Christmas 2006, but it’s still sitting in the drawer unopened.

I used to watch professional wrestling without irony.
It was high school. It was ridiculous, and I liked it. I vaguely remember writing a defense of it for the entertainment section of my high school newspaper. Mick Foley’s autobiography still sits in the non-fiction section of my bookshelves.

I once listened to the theme to Ghostbusters for the entire eight-hour car ride to my grandmother’s house.
I’ve always been a little skeptical about whether or not this actually occurred, but my parents swear to it.

Calvin and Hobbes helped me get into college.
Ok. That might be a stretch, but I did write one of my application essays about their final strip. I still remember the final strip, but my eloquence about it has been lost to the ages.

I nearly forgot to show up for a play I was performing in.
My friend’s older brother, who was also in middle school at the time, wrote a play about vampires, and convinced someone to let him put in on before school in conjunction with a canned food drive. (I know it sounds made up, but it happened.) I was cast as an understudy, and found out on Friday that I would be performing on Monday morning. After ignoring the fact all weekend, I learned my lines in the car on the way to school.

I impulse buy DVDs.
Most people struggle in the checkout lane; I can’t deal with the DVD section. The past two Christmases I’ve picked up a movie – Marie Antoinette and The French Connection – to be a ‘from me to me gift,’ and have yet to watch either of them.

That’s the list. I debated tagging people since most of the people I think most of those intrepid few, who check in on my blog, have already been tagged. Intentionally double tagging seems slightly less annoying than double dipping, but some of you have new side blogs. Here’s a start. If you’re reading this and feel like playing along drop me a comment. Try doing it on theme, or curse my name and ignore it.

Amanda at The Cheese Stands Alone who to my knowledge hasn’t been tagged
Dante at Crazy from the Heat who has ignored prior requests from others
Raquel at A Glass of Papaya Juice – her movies, music etc. blog that appears to be out to squash Juno – who has already done this nonsense at Electric Warrior.
Linda at Pataphysical Science who neglected to say no tag backs