I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee

I was reminded this week of the futility/vanity/lack-of-awareness of people regarding emails and using html formatting for them.

I received an email this week which was 2-3 sentences long, and 49K in size. When I responded to it with another few lines--doubling the content of the email--the size plummeted to 1K. Why the big drop (49 to 1)? Well, the big difference was that on responding, I removed an attached image file from the email; an image that was the company logo for below the signature (and that's all it was). The image didn't actually contribute anything to the email, other than to make it look "pretty"; and, in fact, it didn't show up in the email, probably due to my mail settings (ahhh, the beauty of not being trapped into MS Office).

But this incident reminded me of the emails I get, day-in and day-out, that are in html formatting and don't use any of the features of it (and even those that solely use a special font). A note: using the html formatting over plain text formatting automatically increases the size of your email significantly. Now that some/a lot of us/your friends are in this day of high-speed connections and unlimited storage, it doesn't seem like much of an issue. But not everyone is. Besides I don't think it's a bad thing to be conscious of when you're doing something more solely because it's more.

And maybe it'll stop me from getting image attachments that I don't need to download to open and view... :) (that's just an added benefit)

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you, don't you

I tell you that it's alright with me

At the moment I'm recovering from a trip this past weekend to Orlando, which in addition to seeing a halo around the full moon (like at left, though the air on Friday was clearer) in the crisp night air on Friday also saw us hit DisneyWorld on Friday night, Universal Studios on Saturday and Islands of Adventure on Sunday.


And while those parks are not far apart, as the map at right shows, spending 6 hours at each and then driving home late on Sunday did take its toll. (It did help that there weren't a lot of people at the parks, though.) Riding Splash Mountain at dusk and getting wet didn't really make the next few hours on Friday night any warmer, either....

But, hopefully, I'll catch up on sleep this week. Oh, and I did see August Rush on Thanksgiving Day last Thursday... :)

Friends come and friends may go
My friend, you're real I know
True self you have shown
You're alright with me

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night

As I was headed over to see Beowulf with some friends last night at the IMAX (in 3D! none-the-less), I remembered something I failed to mention in the last post: last week I noticed one of the local radio stations had already flipped over to its Christmas format. Last week! A full blown week before Thanksgiving!

I'm now boycotting the station through the holidays... hence the "so long, fare well" today (and so much for Holiday Cheer...)

I got so wrapped up in finishing Crime & Punishment on Monday that I forgot about that....
Beowulf, by the way, was interesting, though bloodier than my typical movie fare. Otherwise, not much else going on; just getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. And work today neared painful slow pace (particularly since it was the last work day this week).

There's a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple, too
And up in the nursery
An absurd little bird
Is popping out to say coo-coo (coo-coo, coo-coo)

Now there goes the neighborhood

Wow, it's been a week since my last post... and I'll blame the space between postings on:

• the craziness which apparently is the selection method for how the Olympic sailing classes get selected (in the news recently because a class is being cut for the 2012 Olympics, and it appears that the catamaran "Tornado" class is out--the only multi-hull in the Olympic regatta). This editorial on the class selection has some enjoyable quotes, such as:
  "If the IOC applied similar logic, Kickball and Hide-and-Seek would be Olympic sports."
  "Ahh, logic, that would be nice, wouldn't it?"
  "On the plus side, there's no need to have a sailing section at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Just send people to the 2012 regatta..."
  
  
• Regular tennis shoes (aka sneakers) apparently being banned from the swimming competition at next year's Olympics (FINA's "Apparel Guidelines" state that there can be "one identification of the manufacturer per shoe". When was the last time tennis shoes had only one company i.d. on them? I checked out my Reebox's today and each shoe has 5 references to the company: logos on both sides, name on the outside, logo on the heal and tongue.).
  
  
• There was a clinic I attended/ran on Thursday and Friday (no catastrophic problems--yeah!!!!--but it did dominate a bunch of time of late).
  
  
• Oh, and I'm now not only on page 700 of Crime & Punishment, but I've also gotten to the Epilogue (so I'm almost done; though I didn't really read all that much of it this past week...).

So, yeah, that's why I've not posted since last Monday... and I'll finish off for now and go read. hasta

Hey let's party, let's get down
Let's turn the radio on, this is the meltdown
Get out the camera, take a picture
Drag queens and the freaks are all out on the town

It's far, beyond the stars; it's near, beyond the moon

My car hit 140,000 miles today during lunch...




Happy we will be beyond the sea
And never again, I'll go sailing