Month: July 2009

bookmark_borderUpdate #Whatever

Posted on by PaulaO

I have been properly fussed at for not saying much here lately. So here’s some updates.

– Knee is doing better. It’s only been 9 weeks but I think I expect it to be normal already. I started PT (finally!) and although it is painful and I gripe a lot, I know it is for my own good.

– Mike is great! He’s not a year yet and is on that cusp between puppy and adult. He’s still only about 50lbs but he should put on muscle mass soon. He may get to 70lbs tops. I don’t need him for weight bearing so it’ll be just fine. I keep wanting to get started on his official training but haven’t. Not sure why. My gumption level is low for most things.

– Joella has fully recovered from her own joint problems. Well, as much as she ever will. We give her an anti-inflammatory each day and she gets a ton of supplements. Joint wise, she’s doing good. Skin wise, however, she’s having a tough summer. We were late with the flea stuff and I think she is reacting to them. She’s chewed a chunk of her back raw. It’s about the size of my hand overall. She’s had several baths with lots of cool rinsing afterwards. We are using Calendula cream on the wounds and started giving her benedryl to help control the itching. No, we won’t do steroids.

– The Johnson Horde descended and retreated last week. We had a blast! Kev, Col, and Ryan went on a Segway tour of the NC Arboretum while Lorna, me, and Kelli explored the Bonsai Exhibit and explored some of the gardens; Lorna, Kev, and Ryan went to Gray, TN for a day long fossil dig while me, Col, and Kelli went to the Silver Armadillo to get beading stuff and then to the Asheville Aquarium to see the fish tanks; all of us plus a young friend went to see the Asheville Tourists (an awful game that rained so we left early); and we played Uno, talked, and laughed (usually all at once!) at the cabin they rented. At times their visit was relaxing while at others it was exhausting. I was tearful when they left but didn’t let that stop me from napping most of Friday. I wished they lived closer but perhaps the distance is why we still like each other so much.

– In June, Lorna and I celebrated our 19th anniversary. Wow. 19 yrs. Bless her heart.

– Writing – well, yes, I am writing. Truly I am. I missed the GCLS Con this year because the Johnson Horde was here at the same time (and the choice between the two was easy). I miss the battery charge I get from attending. I am working (still) on Simple Sarah. I keep wanting to make the Setting more real. At the moment, it is just a flat surface, like a green screen in the movies. I need to help the reader see what is going on behind everything.

– We have some sad news but I will share that later, perhaps tomorrow. Not ready quite yet.

bookmark_borderPain Management Option

Posted on by PaulaO

and one I actually like!

Swearing Makes Pain More Tolerable

That muttered curse word that reflexively comes out when you stub your toe could actually make it easier to bear the throbbing pain, a new study suggests.

Swearing is a common response to pain, but no previous research has connected the uttering of an expletive to the actual physical experience of pain.

(….)

Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual’s tolerance to pain. Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person’s tolerance.

As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true.

(….)

The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body’s natural “fight-or-flight” response….

(source)

So I’m wondering if it can be any “swear” word or must it be an actual “dirty” word. Would repeating “dagnabbit” work as well as repeating “goddammit”? Would “fudge” work as good as “fuck”? I would assume it would be the emotion behind the word so yes, the prettified words would work as well IF that emotion was behind it.

There are several flaws I see in the research, and perhaps it is further discussed in the actual paper. The subjects stuck their hands in cold water and repeated a cuss word. Then they stuck their other hand in cold water and said the non-cuss word. So did they tolerate the cold less the second time because their tolerance was already down? Was there time between the two? When they said the non-cuss word, they used “a more common word that they would use to describe a table”. The same word with any emotion behind it? If I said “flat” with as much emphasis as I would “fuck”, which direction would it go?

bookmark_borderOpenOffice.org 3.1

Posted on by PaulaO

OpenOffice.org has come out with a new version. This one has an interesting new feature. They call it the “User Experience/OpenOffice.org User Feedback Program” and is the major component of their “UX Project” which, in turn, is part of “Renaissance“.

“Create a User Interface so that OpenOffice.org becomes the users’ choice not only out of need, but also out of desire”

The Feedback Program is a cool concept. In a nutshell, you give them permission to collect data on how you use OO.o and they use that data to make OO.o better. The data collected is not what you type, but the commands you use and how you use them (as in via macro, toolbar, keyboard shortcut, etc). I would assume that any time a command is activated, the data is collected. You can keep track of what they are collecting by going to Tools>Options>Improvement Program. You can click “show data” and get an actual report. I haven’t typed anything since I agreed to it but I did go check the Options thing. The report already has tracked that I did that. I can also save that data into a file for myself.

This effort is yet another reason why I love this program and the people behind it. It follows the old saying of “we can’t fix what we don’t know is broken”. They are making an effort to find out what works and what does not and, hopefully, will use that information to actually do something. For example, I hope they see how many people have to: Tools>Options>Language Settings>Writing Aids just to change the active personalized dictionary. A major PITA for writers with different manuscripts going at the same time. This would be much easier if it were part of Tools in a sub-menu.

I’ll get back to y’all later on how it works (the process on my side).

Linkages:
OpenOffice.org (free productivity suite)
User Feedback Program main page
UX Project (User Experience Project)
Project Renaissance