Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 130
August 28, 2014
Vacuum Sealed
Or my most exciting recent purchase. ;-)
I'd been thinking about getting one of those vacuum sealers for food because I like to buy in bulk and I can't go through things fast enough. I hate throwing food away, but I've done it many times because it sits too long. I had a conversation with someone who already had one, read some reviews and bought one.
I didn't have anything fresh to use it on since I hadn't grocery shopped in a while, but I decided to break up some packages of meat in the freezer. This way I wouldn't have to thaw out everything to get one steak or hamburger.
The directions on how to use it weren't that good, but I decided to wing it. As it turned out, it was so easy that instructions were unnecessary.
I quickly ran through the starter bags included in the box. Luckily, there are instructions for making your own bags from a roll of plastic. That worked easily too and I continued to bag and seal.
I've only used it once so far, but I can see this being a good purchase for me. The unfortunate thing is that vegetables have to be blanched before they can be vacuum packed. Like I'm ever going to do that. Overall, though, I can see this as something I use often, so money well spent.
I'd been thinking about getting one of those vacuum sealers for food because I like to buy in bulk and I can't go through things fast enough. I hate throwing food away, but I've done it many times because it sits too long. I had a conversation with someone who already had one, read some reviews and bought one.
I didn't have anything fresh to use it on since I hadn't grocery shopped in a while, but I decided to break up some packages of meat in the freezer. This way I wouldn't have to thaw out everything to get one steak or hamburger.
The directions on how to use it weren't that good, but I decided to wing it. As it turned out, it was so easy that instructions were unnecessary.
I quickly ran through the starter bags included in the box. Luckily, there are instructions for making your own bags from a roll of plastic. That worked easily too and I continued to bag and seal.
I've only used it once so far, but I can see this being a good purchase for me. The unfortunate thing is that vegetables have to be blanched before they can be vacuum packed. Like I'm ever going to do that. Overall, though, I can see this as something I use often, so money well spent.
August 26, 2014
When Did You Lose Your Compassion?
There's a thing that's been going on for a while online that bothers me. A lot. Sites like The People of Walmart and others like them--and the people who share these pictures on Facebook, Twitter, etc--make me want to cry for humanity.
You see, when I see someone who's wearing a pair of underwear cut up to make a shirt, I don't think OMG, that's so funny. Instead, I think, that poor woman is so broke, that she's struggling to keep herself and her family clothed.
When I see someone post a picture of a naked overweight woman outside in a clear plastic rain slicker, I don't think, Oh, gross. I think that poor woman is mentally ill and needs help.
I addressed this back in my 2010 release, In the Darkest Night. Farran is working at a discount store when some college-aged girl takes a picture of her with a scar on her face. The purpose was to laugh at Farran--cruelly laugh--and to get other people to laugh at the disfigurement, too. It devastated my heroine, and if these people have seen the mean-spirited and hateful comments on their photos, they're probably devastated, too.
I see this online time and again and it makes me angry at the people who think it's okay to laugh at someone else's misfortune--whether it be mental illness or fashion faux pas--or laughing at another person for looking different, for example like the stereotype of a nerd.
It also makes me hugely sad. When did we lose our compassion for our fellow human beings? People who've done nothing to us, but who appeared in public wearing something that others found worth mocking. So many of those pictures clearly show the person is probably mentally ill or so poor that they can't afford to buy better clothes. Don't even get me started about laughing at someone simply because of how they look.
I stopped going to places like Fail Blog because they became meaner and meaner and meaner about people. I even sent a comment to the site saying that I hated what they were becoming. When nothing changed, I stopped visiting.
Life is hard for a lot of people--why do some people think it's okay to laugh at the expense of others? Do they have to tear someone else down to feel okay about themselves? Because that's a pretty sad reason.
My wish for the world is that more people practice compassion and empathy for their fellow human beings. Life is about helping others, not mocking them.
You see, when I see someone who's wearing a pair of underwear cut up to make a shirt, I don't think OMG, that's so funny. Instead, I think, that poor woman is so broke, that she's struggling to keep herself and her family clothed.
When I see someone post a picture of a naked overweight woman outside in a clear plastic rain slicker, I don't think, Oh, gross. I think that poor woman is mentally ill and needs help.
I addressed this back in my 2010 release, In the Darkest Night. Farran is working at a discount store when some college-aged girl takes a picture of her with a scar on her face. The purpose was to laugh at Farran--cruelly laugh--and to get other people to laugh at the disfigurement, too. It devastated my heroine, and if these people have seen the mean-spirited and hateful comments on their photos, they're probably devastated, too.
I see this online time and again and it makes me angry at the people who think it's okay to laugh at someone else's misfortune--whether it be mental illness or fashion faux pas--or laughing at another person for looking different, for example like the stereotype of a nerd.
It also makes me hugely sad. When did we lose our compassion for our fellow human beings? People who've done nothing to us, but who appeared in public wearing something that others found worth mocking. So many of those pictures clearly show the person is probably mentally ill or so poor that they can't afford to buy better clothes. Don't even get me started about laughing at someone simply because of how they look.
I stopped going to places like Fail Blog because they became meaner and meaner and meaner about people. I even sent a comment to the site saying that I hated what they were becoming. When nothing changed, I stopped visiting.
Life is hard for a lot of people--why do some people think it's okay to laugh at the expense of others? Do they have to tear someone else down to feel okay about themselves? Because that's a pretty sad reason.
My wish for the world is that more people practice compassion and empathy for their fellow human beings. Life is about helping others, not mocking them.
August 24, 2014
August 21, 2014
Maybe Not Too Picky
After blogging about The Power of Two on Tuesday and that I'm still finding formatting mistakes after going through it many, many times, I began to wonder if I was being to picky. Then Tuesday night I started reading an ebook of an old favorite from the 90s. The book had clearly been scanned in the way mine has been.
No, I decided as obvious error after obvious error jerked me out of the story, I'm not being too picky.
It was so annoying and I know most of the errors are attributable to OCR scanning. I've spotted some of the same errors in my scans and cleaned them up. This author must have done some work, but not enough. What kinds of things did I see?
*Instead of a closing quote mark ", there was a parenthesis )*Dialogue from two different characters that should have been in two different paragraphs mashed together into one paragraph.*Weird breaks in the middle of paragraphs.*There was one place with two capital letters MI that I never did figure out what it was supposed to be instead of that. And believe me, I wasted some time trying to come up with an answer.*And many more errors.
All of which jerked me out of the story. So again, I apologize for the time it's taking to get TPOT ready for ebook release, but there's no way I'm putting my work out there with mistakes like this. Yes, I'll miss some, but I want them to be few and far between. I want you to be able to enjoy Cai and Jake's story, not be cursing errors.
No, I decided as obvious error after obvious error jerked me out of the story, I'm not being too picky.
It was so annoying and I know most of the errors are attributable to OCR scanning. I've spotted some of the same errors in my scans and cleaned them up. This author must have done some work, but not enough. What kinds of things did I see?
*Instead of a closing quote mark ", there was a parenthesis )*Dialogue from two different characters that should have been in two different paragraphs mashed together into one paragraph.*Weird breaks in the middle of paragraphs.*There was one place with two capital letters MI that I never did figure out what it was supposed to be instead of that. And believe me, I wasted some time trying to come up with an answer.*And many more errors.
All of which jerked me out of the story. So again, I apologize for the time it's taking to get TPOT ready for ebook release, but there's no way I'm putting my work out there with mistakes like this. Yes, I'll miss some, but I want them to be few and far between. I want you to be able to enjoy Cai and Jake's story, not be cursing errors.
August 19, 2014
The Power of Two Update
I've been getting a lot of emails lately asking when The Power of Two will be released in ebook format, so I thought I'd do a quick update here for others who might want to know, but haven't taken the time to contact me.
The short answer is soon. It's in work.
The longer answer is that I meant to have it out already and I'm sorry that it's taking so long. Part of the reason is how busy I am. My day job was relocated from Minneapolis to Atlanta, and while I technically have the same position, the job duties have expanded hugely. I'm usually more tired now because my brain gets a work out and I get home two hours later than I did in Minnesota.
The other issue I'm running into with TPOT is that so much of the text is italicized. I had the book scanned in and the words were sorted out by an OCR program. The accuracy rate for italicized text is much lower than regular typeface, and every time I think I'm on my final read through, I find more errors. As a perfectionist, I want the book as error free as possible, but it's a time consuming process to fix them because I'm working in the coded document. This means there is formatting language and symbols everywhere and I've fixed one issue only to introduce a new problem.
Anyway, I'm pushing for soon-ish on this book, maybe within a couple of months. I'm trying to schedule time to work on it between my day job and writing new words. The cover is done, though.
So please bear with me as I struggle to squeeze error searching into my day. Again, I apologize for the time it's taking. I'm moving it up the priority list as we speak. :-) And thank you for wanting this book enough to contact me about it! That is very much appreciated.
The short answer is soon. It's in work.
The longer answer is that I meant to have it out already and I'm sorry that it's taking so long. Part of the reason is how busy I am. My day job was relocated from Minneapolis to Atlanta, and while I technically have the same position, the job duties have expanded hugely. I'm usually more tired now because my brain gets a work out and I get home two hours later than I did in Minnesota.
The other issue I'm running into with TPOT is that so much of the text is italicized. I had the book scanned in and the words were sorted out by an OCR program. The accuracy rate for italicized text is much lower than regular typeface, and every time I think I'm on my final read through, I find more errors. As a perfectionist, I want the book as error free as possible, but it's a time consuming process to fix them because I'm working in the coded document. This means there is formatting language and symbols everywhere and I've fixed one issue only to introduce a new problem.
Anyway, I'm pushing for soon-ish on this book, maybe within a couple of months. I'm trying to schedule time to work on it between my day job and writing new words. The cover is done, though.
So please bear with me as I struggle to squeeze error searching into my day. Again, I apologize for the time it's taking. I'm moving it up the priority list as we speak. :-) And thank you for wanting this book enough to contact me about it! That is very much appreciated.
August 17, 2014
Humans Need Not Apply
This is seriously scary for someone who needs to work and earn money. The video is longer than I usually post, but I think it's worth watching.
August 14, 2014
Why I Stopped Watching Shark Week
Once upon a time, I used to look forward to Discovery Channel's Shark Week like a kid looks forward to Christmas. I've always been fascinated by sharks and I actually have done quite a bit of study on them on my own. Maybe if I'd been born closer to an ocean, I would have become a marine biologist and studied sharks for real. It actually was one of the careers I was looking at when I was in high school.
So Shark Week was a treat--a whole week of great new shark shows.
The change happened slowly. Discovery started scheduling shark attack shows in with the educational programs. Then it seemed as if every show featured some kind of "human in peril" angle even though shark attacks are rare and deaths from attack even rarer. I started watching fewer shows every year, trying to pick out the ones that had information and not sensationalism.
But then the Discovery Channel (forgive the pun) jumped the shark. They presented fictional material as if it were real. They lied to marine biologists and creatively edited their interviews to make it appear as if these scientists were supporting the drama as fact. This is completely unacceptable to me.
If I wanted entertainment, I'd watch Jaws. I want fact-based documentaries on sharks when I watch Shark Week. Nothing else.
There's more fake science AKA entertainment shows presented as documentaries this year on Discovery. I'm so disappointed in what has happened to this once great channel. I'm done with Shark Week. I'm done with any show that is fictional, but presented as fact.
Sadly, people still trust Discovery Channel. One of the guys I work with was talking about the show he'd seen over the weekend. I hated to burst his bubble, but I had to tell him it wasn't true.
Discovery Channel, you fail and this makes me so sad.
So Shark Week was a treat--a whole week of great new shark shows.
The change happened slowly. Discovery started scheduling shark attack shows in with the educational programs. Then it seemed as if every show featured some kind of "human in peril" angle even though shark attacks are rare and deaths from attack even rarer. I started watching fewer shows every year, trying to pick out the ones that had information and not sensationalism.
But then the Discovery Channel (forgive the pun) jumped the shark. They presented fictional material as if it were real. They lied to marine biologists and creatively edited their interviews to make it appear as if these scientists were supporting the drama as fact. This is completely unacceptable to me.
If I wanted entertainment, I'd watch Jaws. I want fact-based documentaries on sharks when I watch Shark Week. Nothing else.
There's more fake science AKA entertainment shows presented as documentaries this year on Discovery. I'm so disappointed in what has happened to this once great channel. I'm done with Shark Week. I'm done with any show that is fictional, but presented as fact.
Sadly, people still trust Discovery Channel. One of the guys I work with was talking about the show he'd seen over the weekend. I hated to burst his bubble, but I had to tell him it wasn't true.
Discovery Channel, you fail and this makes me so sad.
August 12, 2014
Robin Williams
I was trying to think of what to talk about last night when Twitter erupted with the news that Robin Williams had died. My first reaction was that it must be a hoax. Robin Williams couldn't be dead. But then the respectable news services delivered the same news.
Robin Williams was 63 years old and as I'm writing this, authorities believe his death to be a suicide. That he'd battled depression.
This is a good place to mention that the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.
Hours after hearing the news, I still can't quite believe it. Robin Williams' movies and comedy were something I grew up with, always there when I felt like paying attention. I never met him, never had any contact with him, but he still felt--well, if not quite like a family member, at least like an acquaintance. Maybe that was one of his gifts.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Williams. You will be missed.
Robin Williams was 63 years old and as I'm writing this, authorities believe his death to be a suicide. That he'd battled depression.
This is a good place to mention that the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.
Hours after hearing the news, I still can't quite believe it. Robin Williams' movies and comedy were something I grew up with, always there when I felt like paying attention. I never met him, never had any contact with him, but he still felt--well, if not quite like a family member, at least like an acquaintance. Maybe that was one of his gifts.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Williams. You will be missed.
August 10, 2014
What You Need to Know About Ebola
The numbers in this video are already out of date although it was made fairly recently. Still, it has some good information for people who don't know much about the Ebola virus.
August 7, 2014
Television Commercials - A Small Rant
I'll preface my rant about TV commercials by saying that I don't generally watch network television, so most of what I'm seeing is on cable or during baseball games. This might make a difference in the type of advertising I'm exposed to because of demographics.
Television commercials are--by and large--horrible right now. Totally horrid. Beyond horrid. How many ads for different drugs do they need to run? Seriously? It's reached the point where there isn't an advertising break without at least one drug ad. Sometimes more. If it isn't a drug ad, it's an ad for a lawyer about suing drug manufacturers for side effects or bad consequences. Interesting juxtaposition there, especially when they run one right after the other.
There's also the fear-mongering ads for security companies and the I've Fallen and Can't Get Up people.
I've reached a point where I automatically mute all television advertising now. it's appallingly bad. I expect that with local ads like the ones for the tire guys in the Atlanta area. They're working with a much smaller budget, but national ads?
I stand by my opinion which was the FCC made an ENORMOUS error in judgment when they allowed drug companies and lawyers to advertise on television. Thanks a lot, FCC. You've made advertising unbearable.
Television commercials are--by and large--horrible right now. Totally horrid. Beyond horrid. How many ads for different drugs do they need to run? Seriously? It's reached the point where there isn't an advertising break without at least one drug ad. Sometimes more. If it isn't a drug ad, it's an ad for a lawyer about suing drug manufacturers for side effects or bad consequences. Interesting juxtaposition there, especially when they run one right after the other.
There's also the fear-mongering ads for security companies and the I've Fallen and Can't Get Up people.
I've reached a point where I automatically mute all television advertising now. it's appallingly bad. I expect that with local ads like the ones for the tire guys in the Atlanta area. They're working with a much smaller budget, but national ads?
I stand by my opinion which was the FCC made an ENORMOUS error in judgment when they allowed drug companies and lawyers to advertise on television. Thanks a lot, FCC. You've made advertising unbearable.
