The Month of Study nears its middle on a Sunday, when the days are long. Fortunately for one who favors twilight, that, too is long these days. But there's a ways to go to get t twilight, and much to be done meanwhile...
So. This interweb thingie. Kinda cool, isn't it? I've heard it said you could be a dog on here, and no one would know the difference. Well, the typing might be a little less graceful, what with the paws versus fingers deal, but you get the point, I trust.
It's really like a second life (pun not intended)- it's a world of thoughts, and ideas, and concepts. Even the silliest aspects of this world have a gem somewhere at their core. Now that gem may be a perfect emerald, or it may be a black market black diamond carelessly irradiated by the Russian mafia and still quite radioactive as you try it on your finger in blissful ignorance- but again- there's a point for meditation in each aspect of this ocean of information we swim in.
It's a big sea in some ways, and small in others. It's fast to traverse, but nearly infinite in expanse. There's always more room, more water in which to swim. There's always more to see and the tides can pull in so many directions you wind up swimming in circles. Then too, sometimes you jet out over a vast expanse of this ocean you've never seen, and it's new and beautiful. Or you come home to a favorite place, and it's old and beautiful.
That's freedom, pretty much as pure as we are going to get it, in this life, anyway.
So... what does it say about you if your idea of fun in all this freedom... is to be mean? Heh. Look around the real world. Aren't there sharks in abundance? Is that what you enjoy being?
The reason I like the internet- here and elsewhere- so much, is that for once, it is a place where thoughts can help. It's not that there's never the temptation to be a shark, but it's just as easy to be an Eschrichtius robustus {*}, and that's why I will keep swimming in this sea. ..
Questions, to this point:
So. This interweb thingie. Kinda cool, isn't it? I've heard it said you could be a dog on here, and no one would know the difference. Well, the typing might be a little less graceful, what with the paws versus fingers deal, but you get the point, I trust.
It's really like a second life (pun not intended)- it's a world of thoughts, and ideas, and concepts. Even the silliest aspects of this world have a gem somewhere at their core. Now that gem may be a perfect emerald, or it may be a black market black diamond carelessly irradiated by the Russian mafia and still quite radioactive as you try it on your finger in blissful ignorance- but again- there's a point for meditation in each aspect of this ocean of information we swim in.
It's a big sea in some ways, and small in others. It's fast to traverse, but nearly infinite in expanse. There's always more room, more water in which to swim. There's always more to see and the tides can pull in so many directions you wind up swimming in circles. Then too, sometimes you jet out over a vast expanse of this ocean you've never seen, and it's new and beautiful. Or you come home to a favorite place, and it's old and beautiful.
That's freedom, pretty much as pure as we are going to get it, in this life, anyway.
So... what does it say about you if your idea of fun in all this freedom... is to be mean? Heh. Look around the real world. Aren't there sharks in abundance? Is that what you enjoy being?
The reason I like the internet- here and elsewhere- so much, is that for once, it is a place where thoughts can help. It's not that there's never the temptation to be a shark, but it's just as easy to be an Eschrichtius robustus {*}, and that's why I will keep swimming in this sea. ..
Questions, to this point:
I have no answer for last time until asked. 
This time, I will ask:
What's the handiest trick you know that you can summarize in a few words to a few paragraphs?
[Yeah, I'm looking to steal mad new skillz and I'm lazy at the moment... well, except for studying. *sigh* better get back to it. now.]
{*} Gray Whale. 
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
As far as being mean....I hate when people use the anonymity of the net to be total dickheads to others. That sort of behavior only goes to bolster my feelings about that person that they legitimately need to over compensate for failings in other areas.
A-If I came upon one footprint I would be pissed! I would figure I missed whoever was here and that they probably were pushing off in a boat one foot in and one foot out and were now gone.
A- I rode my bike down to Mosquito Cafe and had the most delicious breakfast while reading the paper and rode along the beach afterward and then back. It was reallty lovely.
A-I am kind of not a believer in magic per se. I do believe you can set in motion a chain of events which yield
positive results. I believe in good will anda lot of things....but not much into the whole chanting and spell making sort of scenario.
Q-What was the first thing you wanted to be when you were little?
A through G are the column labels and 1 through 11 are the row labels. Row 1 contains column headers. In the Item Count column (F2), I use "=if(D2=D3,F3,G2)" and copy that down the entire column of cells, with each number advancing by one. F3 would have the formula "=if(D3=D4,F4,G3)" and so on. In the Item Rank column (G2), I use "=if(D2=D1,G1+1,1)" and copy it down all cells in that column. G3 would be "=if(D3=D2,G2+1,1)" and so on. The Item Count column does not work until the Item Rank column is populated. The nice thing is that it doesn't matter how many Categories or Items there are - it works regardless (unless I exceed the 65,000 row maximum in Excel - then I usually break each division into a separate spreadsheet). My department is usually only looking at the Categories in which we have products, so by filtering to that, it's less than 55,000 rows.
No, seriously, that's the best trick I know.