Remember how Crabby mentioned offhand that dog ownership might be healthy for you? Well over here at Diet Blog (sorry for the extra click) are some further thoughts she had on the subject. They are, of course, silly thoughts meant mostly in jest, and who knows if they will annoy people not accustomed to Crabby's weirdness. She hopes for the best.The timing for the appearance of this post was good, actually, as last night Crabby was finishing up her post for this morning, and guess what? She carelessly dragged the base of her thumb across her touch pad, and in a split second managed to both highlight and delete 7/8ths of her post!
That should be no problem, right? Because in any other software program Crabby has ever used, if you accidentally delete a huge chunk of material, you don't save that version! You either "undo" your delete, or worst case, you go back and open up your old version where all that material hadn't been carelessly deleted yet.
But welcome to Blogger! Because if there's an "undo" function Crabby hasn't found it yet. (Readers, please tell her if there is and this will never happen again!) In addition, Blogger's lovely "AutoSave" function makes sure transient errors become permanent by deleting your old version within seconds. By the time she tried to open up her old post, it was gone.
So today she will rewrite the rest of the lost post, perhaps pop back in with something small later this afternoon (there are two great blogs she wants to recommend, and Friday's Roundup was looking a little crowded) and in the meantime, send you over to Diet Blog.
If you have any thoughts about Dog Ownership and Exercise, please share them either over at the Diet Blog post, or here, or both places, or neither! If you have any thoughts about Stupid Software, Accidental Deletion, Blogging Platforms, or computer frustrations generally, this would be the better place as the poor Diet Blog people have no idea Crabby is whining about that today.
You may want to write your blog in Word or your word processor of choice and then cut and paste the whole thing. You then get the benefits if all of the spelling and gramattical functions of your word processor.
ReplyDeleteWhat Holly Said said.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I do.
As a cat owner I tend to emulate my feline and just lay in the sunny spot. With that being said, as a cat owner, I do not lick between my toes.
ReplyDeleteOnto the other topic at hand, I too have that problem with Blogger and it drives me crazy! I have resorted to doing what Holly suggested.
Thanks Holly, Leah, and Klinde, That was really helpful!
ReplyDeleteI had thought there was supposed to be some problem with Word adding extra coding that ends up messing things up. I know I have that problem when I cut and paste into emails.
But it sounds like you folks have used it without that problem? That would be great. Because I really was about ready to throw my laptop out the window last night I was so mad! Would like to avoid repeating that scenario.
And Klinde, there even less appetizing feline grooming habits which you had the discretion not to mention. But I'm glad you don't emulate those either!
My husband and I love our mutt to itty-bitty pieces. Especially my husband, he is totally ridiculous over this dog (then again, it's his first).
ReplyDeleteThe list you made was very good. I get irritated at people who don't realize the importance of exercising, interacting with, and TRAINING their dog.
I tell people who are thinking about getting a dog the following:
- ADOPT! Don't buy! Unless you plan on showing the dog, there's really no good reason to insist upon a "pure-bred".
- Some types and breeds tend to have certain issues, both physical and behavioral. Pretty much ANY behavioral disposition can be overcome with good training. (I hate the stigma against dogs like pit bulls and Dobermans. They're no more likely to be aggressive than any other dog, and a lot less likely to be with proper training.)
- The First Duty of Pet-Ownership: Pick a good fit for you and your family. If you can't stand a yippy dog, DON'T get one, no matter how cute your kids think it is. If you really don't have room for a big dog, DON'T get one. If you can't guarantee that you'll be up to playing and exercising a lot everyday, DON'T get a energetic dog. Etc.
- Dogs are expensive at first. They need shots, monthly heartworm and flea medication, spaying/neutering, food, chew things, etc.
- A dog is a pet. It is not your child. You will likely expect too much of him/her if you fall into that kind of mentality.
- The Last Duty of Pet-Ownership: Know when to let go. If your dog becomes ill to the extent that his/her daily quality of life is severely diminished and he/she is in constant pain, it is your responsibility to consider putting him/her down. Again, a dog is a pet, not your child. You will not go to hell for helping your pet find peace. If you want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars keeping your dog alive, knock yourself out. But ask yourself who you're really doing it for.
Whew! That was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I'll shut up now, heh.
I compose all my posts in WordPress (that is, in my blog) and when I'm home (and able to use Firefox) my browser provides the spell-check; at work I just re-read before I post and try to trust my brain-tionary. :p
ReplyDeleteI've done the slip-of-the-mouse delete-a-bunch-of-stuff before, but my browser's edit->undo always works. (WordPress doesn't even have any sort of "undo" feature, it does have AutoSave, but it's never screwed me over and has been helpful on occasion.)
re: Word and extra coding -- for a blog post it shouldn't be a problem, I would think, because Word's own formatting doesn't come along for the ride the way it might in email. If I were going to write my posts in an external editor though, I wouldn't use Word for two reasons:
1) I'm a Linux user. I don't have Word. :p (Okay, that's kind of silly -- I do have other programs that are more-or-less like Word, but I don't bother firing them up because...)
2) Unless I'm doing something that really demands Word-usage (or, ahem, Word-replacement-usage) I prefer to use something more lightweight, especially if I'm writing for the interweb. I would therefore use a straight-up text editor (because I'm hardcore like that) or one of the really good text editors with spellcheck and syntax highlighting (so I don't mess up any of my nifty HTML tags).
Anywho, bad Crabby's Laptop! Bad! Would you like me to strike it with a LART for you? :)
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list! That was really excellent advice for anyone thinking about getting a dog.
I hate to think of all the poor dogs owned by people who don't think these things through.
ChickenGirl,
ReplyDeleteI learn so much from you! Luser's like me need help with all these interweb complexities. I dislike many things about Word so perhaps I should investigate the alternatives. Thanks too for the vocabulary lessons!
I do what Holly and Leah do. I write in Word and then just cut and paste.
ReplyDeleteAs for dogs and life in general, there have been studies that caring for a dog if you have HIV/AIDS and for seniors, that they increase their life span. The knowledge that you have to get out of bed and walk the dog or care for it keeps you from getting isolated.
The love they have for the animals keeps them going.
I know there was a program, I'm not sure if it still exists, in some major cities specifically for people with AIDS who have dogs. Their fear about getting a dog was what to do when they are in the hospital, and this was a network of vets and dog sitters who would care for the dogs while their owners were in the hospital.This, of course, relieved much of the stress and allowed them the companionship of a beloved pet.
...cats are better.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I love dogs, but it's like having a dumb kid that never grows up. It LOVES YOU SO MUCH!!!, but it can get really tiring dealing with it. I prefer cats, who're like affectionate roommates.
jim, I totally laughed at this: "Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, but it's like having a dumb kid that never grows up." HA!
ReplyDeleteWe're total nerds at my house: allergic to everything. We'll unfortunately never enjoy the joys of owning a dog or cat. We're considering fish, but they just don't seem very "pet" like. Or a turtle... if we go any more reptilian and we're getting REALLY nerdy.
I never write then cut and paste, the autosave has worked fine for me. But it sounds like maybe you should start!
"enjoy the joys?" argh. My brain won't turn on this morning.
ReplyDeleteThe program Marjike is referring to sounds like PAWS -- Pets Are Wonderful Support. Katieo, I would say from past experience that a tropical fish tank can be a fascinating fur alternative, if not so cuddly. We kept an aquarium when I was growing up. I never got tired of the color and sinuous motion of the fish or of the metaphor of having a miniature transparent pond or ocean in the kitchen. We kept anoles (green lizards) in a separate terrarium. Occasionally one would escape and disappear, only to be found much later, dried up in some dusty corner. My brother called them "floor pretzels." Oh, and we also kept cats, a dog, hamsters, rabbits, turtles (the dullest of the lot), and a couple of chickens for a few years, until the chicks turned into roosters and their crowing bothered the neighbors; then it was off with their heads and chicken fricasee for dinner...
ReplyDeleteAs an owner of a computer that crashes at will - be it every few days or every few minutes, I've learned to do my so-called writing in either word, or a cute little app called Ultraedit and save my work constantly.
ReplyDeleteUltraedit is a text editor, and doesn't do what word does. You can use it, and have a hundred text files open at once in a tabbed kind of way. It opens huge files (I'm talkin gigs here - which is actually why I bought it - to open large corrupt log files). You can have favorite files and open them immediately. It's lovely and I highly recommend it. There is a price for it - Last time I looked it was 49.95 - which is what I bought it for but it was so worth the price.
But if you crash - you can look in your temp files and find the temp file it creates. It's saved my butt countless times. http://ultraedit.com
Marijke,
ReplyDeleteThanks for both the advice on Word and the AIDS pet info! I do think that animals can be incredibly inspiring and offer great psychological benefits as well as physical one.
(Although right now my cat is trying to get between my hands and my keyboard and is drooling up a storm too, so the "psychological benefits" are somewhat questionable at the moment!)
Jim,
Very true! I like both cats and dogs but cats are WAY easier. Right now, just have the cat and that's plenty.
Hi Katieo!
Sorry about the allergies. Actually, it seems like most of our friends are allergic and we have a particularly toxic cat. At least thats why everyone claims they can't make it over to our house for dinner--but perhaps it's really our cooking?
Appleton!
As usual, you're hilarious. You start off all warm and fuzzy and end up with lizard "floor pretzels" and decapitated chickens.
I do think the fish tank idea is intriguing, but as you say, perhaps not too cuddly.
Elizabeth,
Thanks for the advice! Ultraedit sounds like a great program. However, being cheap, I might stick with the despised Word at least for awhile. But at least I'll be ahead of composing in Blogger. Until you folks helped me out, I didn't even think of doing it in a "real" text editor and cutting and pasting.
(I hate the stigma against dogs like pit bulls and Dobermans. They're no more likely to be aggressive than any other dog)
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree. A dog will revert to it's breeding. We just had an instance here where a Pit Bull took off it's 19 year old owner's face! 900 stitches to 'repair' it! If your poodle gets 'pissed' and reverts it will take you to the beauty parlor for a makeover :-)
Dr.J
So, I read once in WordPress not to copy and paste from Word because it adds all this unnecessary code. But it also seemed like it was useless, but wouldn't mess anything up so I don't really know.
ReplyDeleteI'm a cat person. But, I'd love to know where Jim up there finds cats that are like affectionate roommates. Mine have always been furry satans. They won't sit on my lap and keep me warm, but they will bite my face and give me scars. Ah, I miss my lil bubba...
I've sk-rted you, over at Diet Blog, Crabby (sounds a bit of a bold move, doesn't it)! Goodness knows what category it should have gone in but I stuck it in Mind, Body and Spirit because all the others sounded even less appropriate!
ReplyDeleteWoof!!
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff about the benefits and responsibility in pet-ownership. I've been positively craving having a large dog around again, but can't commit to the walks and extra care, so I'm being responsible and resisting. *long drawn out sigh* I hate acting like a grownup!
As for the deleted post problems, I sympathize, I really do. No matter what program I use, and what safegaurds it has, I wind up deleting the wrong thing eventually.
Still, ya'll might give Windows Live Writer a try. It's a mahvelous bit of free blogging software from *gasp* Microsoft, with the ability to undo/redo, text formating and spell check. Though I'm a Wordpress kind of gal, I'm told it works with Blogger.
appleton, I'm back only to say I laughed hysterically at your comment!
ReplyDeleteCrabby I try to do most of my most in word first -- I just paste into the coding box for the post (rather then the regular text part) - at least that is how it works on wordpress, and that gets rid of all the extra stuff from word. Another option would be to type up posts in notepad -- no extra hidden coding like word so you could paste directly into your blog post. Once it's posted you can delete the notepad version, but at least you have it there just in case.
ReplyDeleteMy DF and I are simply too lazy to have a dog...oh and he's scared of them. So we have 2 cats and I absolutely think they make us happier people.
ReplyDeleteOn pasting from word, you need to paste into the HTML tab. I oddly know this because I build websites that have HTML editors like blogger. So when you log in by default it's in "compose", there is a little tab next to if for Edit HTML. If you paste there, you shouldn't carry over things from Word.
I've never used blogger, but most programs that you can type into you can use ctrl+z to immediately undo what you've just done. Try it out sometime. ctrl+z is my friend.
ReplyDeleteI am using this topic as a blog entry for myself, since I don't have anything better to write about.
ReplyDelete-- P
Dr J. -
ReplyDeleteWas the pit bull trained to be aggressive? Or not trained at all?
ANY dog that lacks training or was trained to be aggressive can be dangerous. Even a full poodle could leave you with stitches. I have had a couple of scary experiences untrained/poorly trained German Shepherds (including being outright attacked), but not many people would freak out if you got one for the family pet.
It is unfortunate that people who train dogs to fight commonly use pit bulls on account of their physical capabilities. They have to train the meanness and aggressiveness into the dogs, usually beating into them, literally.
If you got a pit bull puppy and trained it properly, it'd be no more likely to attack a person than any other dog, and a lot less likely than a dog that wasn't trained well.
Assuming that ALL pit bulls are naturally dangerous is absurd, and that kind of thinking is leading to some cities passing laws against having them. I wouldn't want someone telling me I couldn't keep my well-trained, well-behaved dog just because she was a certain breed.
Sorry, after three of them attacked me without any provocation, I have a different opinion, and it looks like I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteDr.J
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteDarn, hated to miss the second round of great comments--though part of the afternoon I was at lunch with my mother and sister, and my sister firmly admonished me to "stop apologizing so much about not responding to comments!"
Good point. Apologies can sound a lot like whining, and I have better things to whine about than my inability to always get to comments!
Sounds like you all are WAY ahead of me on composing posts--I definitely need to start doing it elsewhere.
And some great suggestions on the best way to do that. Along with wonderful pet observations. And Thanks Dawn for doing the Skirt thing!
(Note: I will stay out of the pitbull discussion, as I know nothing about the issue. Since Dr. J and Lisa are both valued and respected contributors here, I'll let them diplomatically share their views and hope there are no hard feelings).
And welcome new visitors! (I'm getting paranoid about mentioning names because sometimes I misidentify former visitors as new ones, or I'll think that someone new has been here before when they haven't.)
Thanks so much everyone for all your thoughts!
Dr J -
ReplyDeleteI can understand your hesitation. I'm not very fond of German Shepherds nowadays. :)
If it makes you feel any better I just had a huge computer issue and it was particularly bad because it was for an online college class. I had to write an essay on gay marriage (and as I'm sure you can guess, that's about the easiest assignment ever for me) Aned it had to be submitted on the site. I stupidly typed it there too and could have sworn I hit the submit button. Two days later, after the due date passed, it said online I had never submitted the essay. I e-mailed the professor freaking out and he did all he could but I never sumbitted it!!!! I have no clue what happened there and I got a nice 0... So computers are evil!
ReplyDeleteDo you ever get the feeling too, when that sort of thing happens, that maybe you just lost some great masterpiece of writing? Like maybe you wrote something so great it could've gotten you somewhere but now it's GONE? Ha ha. Or is that just me? Since I was about 8 I've had this plan to publish a novel and have spent my life and planning for that. ha ha. But the computer is sucking up all the good writing... Or at least that's my excuse for why that book hasn't been written yet...
Crystal--I tested out control z and it works in blogger! God, I wish I'd known that. Probably only works for one action, but that would have been enough. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMeg--Oh dear, your story is so much worse than a missing blog post. How frustrating! I could totally see doing that myself though.