No luck.  Now I know how the SF Giants feel.

(See?  Even in adversity I can maintain my sense of humor.)

Now I’m going to go dancing with my wife.

(See?  I can still engage in life-affirming activities too.)

Translation: “Pravda (the official Russian Communist Party newspaper) is always right.”  This is an old Russian expression.

The latest example: a sophisticated, in-depth, thoughtful, and undoubtedly correct analysis indicating that sexy female outfits lead to male impotency.  See how the decadent West is sliding into corruption and ruin:

Men become impotent because of women’s low-cut dresses and bare legs

I need to start reading Pravda more often.  Yelena will be thrilled.

Fear the docx.  It’s from Microsoft.  It’s new.  And it means you harm.

Docx is Microsoft’s attempt to dominate the word processor market once again.  OpenOffice.org has been turning heads as a new, free, compatible alternative to Microsoft Office.  There’s also Google Docs which is likewise a contender.  Microsoft’s answer: Office 2007 uses a new document format which claims to be open but is not open at all.  Still, they were able to do enough of a sell job to convince the W3C, so that Microsoft’s “open” format will supposedly become the new industry standard.  The bad news: it’s not compatible with anything other than MS Office 2007.  (And I’ve already ranted at sufficient length about how much I hate Office 2007.)

So when a business contact sent me a sign up form in the new format, my computer (running Microsoft Office 2003) was unable to open it.  And since the IT guy isn’t in today, he can’t install the converter for me.

The solution: Linux (again!).  Novell has released a plugin for OpenOffice that lets it read Office 2007 documents, something even Office 2003 can’t do.  Of course, it’s a little tricky to install, but really not that bad.  And it’s a lot better than asking your sales contact to resend the file.

Working with .docx files in PCLinuxOS

The San Francisco Soup Company has matzah ball soup.  This week only.  With a slice of matzah instead of a hunk of bread.

Heck yeah.

J<

I just finished my taxes and upgraded Wordpress (my blog software).  You probably won’t notice the difference, although my blog should be a little faster and more stable.  But this is important because it’s the gateway to a bunch of other website improvements I’ve been planning for a long time.  Of course, most of my time is spent on my company’s websites (www.getincnow.com and www.pcf-inc.com), so I don’t have much time left over for my personal website.  But it will happen, slowly but surely.  And upgrading WP was the first major step.  Hooray.

J<

Good news - I’ve reduced the prices on all photographs in my gallery.  My prices before were in line with private photographers, but rather high considering I’m still pretty much an amateur.  My new prices are generally only a dollar or two above wholesale–much more comparable to places like Shutterfly or Costco.

I know I haven’t uploaded any actual photos since last July.  It’s been a busy time in my life and it still is.  I have a backlog of several thousand photos at this point.  I’ll get to them soon, I promise . . .

J<

Obama thinks we can.

McCain, we’re not so sure.

Credit to Amy for this one.

Today’s dose of awesome brought to you by Yelena.

Now that the bar is over, posting fun links on my blog is no longer “procrastination.” Now it’s just “enjoying life.”

garfield minus garfield

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? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness in a quiet American suburb.bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness in a quiet American suburb.

I finished the California Bar Exam yesterday.  For the second time.

“So Jordan, how do you think you did?”

Well I thought I did well last time, so I’m loathe to make another prediction.  But I felt I knew the material better this time, and last time I only missed it by 6%.  I felt I did a solid job so now I just need to keep my fingers crossed until May.  Yeah, May.

I did, however, go out with a bang.  Some of you may be aware that I had computer problems last time.  Those problems got resolved, but this time I bought a brand new Thinkpad laptop right before the exam.  The exam software only runs in Windows, but I usually use Linux so my Windows installation was in pristine condition, and I was doing all the updates, adware scans, my firewall was on, I didn’t run warez, etc.

My laptop ran like a dream for the Tuesday session, morning and afternoon, and again for the Thursday morning session.  The afternoon session was going smoothly, and then with only a few minutes remaining, my fingers somehow brushed an odd key combination on the cramped laptop keyboard.  Some random Microsoft utility popped up.  I’ve never heard of this thing before but apparently it can read text to blind people.  Well I didn’t want my laptop speaking out loud during the bar exam so I just closed the window and kept typing.  It worked fine for several minutes.

Then my laptop crashed.

With 30 seconds left in the exam.

Needless to say they didn’t let me get those 30 seconds back.  And I really could have used that time to wrap up the end of the performance test and maybe even add a conclusion.

The good news is the exam saves itself every 60 seconds, so I lost a maximum of 60 seconds worth of work.  I immediately raised my hand and called over the proctor, who of course was no help at all.  He called over the pit boss, who called over the head of the testing center.  She handed me her cell phone and let me call SoftTest.  So as everyone else cheered and filed out of the Oakland Convention Center, happy to be done, I was stuck on the phone with SoftTest, trying to rescue 3 hours worth of work.  By the time I got it fixed I was the last person in the room.  When I got up to leave, the head of the testing center called out to the maintenance guy, “all right, shut ‘em off!”

And yes, I did manage to upload all my answers successfully.  With triple confirmation.

It would have been really nice to have that extra time to polish up the ending.  I really that won’t make the difference between me passing the exam or failing.

Now I have to learn how to go back to normal life.  I’m really looking forward to going back to work.  Honestly.  It’s a great job and I love it.  Working is so much better than school.  And with a little luck, I will never have to study again for the rest of my life.  Now I can come home in the evening and actually have some time to spend with friends and family.  And play computer games, redecorate the apartment, get back to my photography, etc.  And all without the guilty feeling that I really should be studying for a giant exam hanging over my head.  Want to hang out?  Give me a call.

But seriously, computer problems for the second time?  Me, the computer expert???  It especially bugs me that I took such care of my laptop and some random fucking Microsoft program fucked it up for me.  Some of you may be aware that Microsoft and I aren’t exactly friends.  But, seriously.  Microsoft might have just caused me to fail the bar exam.

Fuck Microsoft.