Back at work today, so need to sharpen the spirits and post a picture of Ezra today. Here is the littlest bloke in the household demonstrating some fine neck control. There is something extraordinary in a baby who can lift up his whole head and look from side to side at birth, and Ezra could do that. He's clearly gifted!
Let me share just one of my frustrations at work today. I expect to present at an upcoming conference. I have prepared the abstract, have a title and so on, and just needed to enter the details onto the hosting organisation’s website. I am quite adequate at computer-related business, in fact, in my sector, I am regarded as something of a ‘computer whizz’ (bearing in mind that being able to appropriately shut down a computer probably qualifies you to that title here).
So all that I (think) that I need to do is enter the info. Twenty minutes of Name, Job Title blah blah blah through a bunch of slow loading pages (and we have a pretty impressive connection here at work) I am told “Thank you for uploading your abstract”.
Ah, but I haven’t uploaded my abstract.
Click ‘Back’ ‘Back’ ‘Back’ and at no point have I been offered the opportunity to ‘upload’ my abstract.
Click on the ‘Guide to uploading your abstract’. A word document, Times New Roman, 12 pt font name, title blah blah blah.
It wants me to put pretty much everything that I’d just spent the last twenty minutes entering into a word document and THEN upload it? Hmmmm.
Oh wait, I have received an automated e-mail response. “Thank you for uploading your abstract. You will be notified if it has been accepted”.
But I haven’t f&*#@ng uploaded my abstract!!!
Oh look, the bottom of the e-mail says: “If you wish to edit your abstract if necessary, submit your Final Paper and register for the Conference at a later date do so via this site.”
Beautiful syntax there, but I can let it slide and just go to the site (a different address, mind you) and see what we can do.
Big and bold: SUBMIT ABSTRACT
Enter the code, yes... yes...
Waiting... waiting...
There’s the info that I’ve entered, and here’s a new button: “Upload abstract” “Word document blah blah blah”
So it wants the info twice? Okay, I can’t copy and paste. Bastard! So here I go, type it all out again, save the thing as a word document and click “Upload abstract”.
DONE!
Just to make sure, I think, let’s click “Check information”.
Click,
So the one page word document is now 86 pages of gobbledygook. Great. Stupid bastards didn’t say “Save as Word 1997-2003 Document”, but I bet that this is the problem.
Open it up, save it again as backwards compatible, and click on “Upload abstract”.
DONE!!!
Better make sure though! Click “Check information”.
Oh for F$#K’S SAKE!!! 123 pages of gobbledygook.
Bugger these morons, I’ll just upload the bastard as a .pdf (naive little angel on shoulder says “but it says ‘Word Document’”, I tell it “Shut the f#%k up, these people are clearly retarded”.)
Click “Save as pdf”, and click on “Upload abstract”.
Click “Check information”.
Now it works. Yes, you have the same information twice over, but there you go. Fifty minutes later I’ve done it.
Yes, indeed, I am looking forward to this conference.
Comments
But about your question. (I was wondering if anyone would think about such a query.) Our dig was accompanied by a rabbi from the dig-monitoring ultra-Orthodox Atra Kadisha. Like every day, every hour he was on site. Fortunately he was friendly enough and I learned some things from him. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to photograph him. Ours was a salvage dig, done before a tall building is built on the site. So better to remove the bones in an orderly and respectful way than to have the bulldozers and drills destroy them in the construction. Our cemetery was Canaanite and not Jewish, so the Atra Kadisha was not up in arms as they sometimes become.
The human bones we found will get a reburial at a safe place.
There's an artical here:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15020325.900-forum--digging-away-at-the-foundations--bihaim-watzmanbi-explains-why-science-and-religion-in-israel-are-atodds.html
Yes, I imagine messing with Aboriginal remains would be quite a problem in today's Australia.
By the way I discover your charming blog.
I really appreciate your B&W pictures of your cute boy.
Fot your post today I just have a comment : welcome in the modern world.
Ezra is adorable... unanimous vote from my office. :D
Thanks for the Henry pics. Mob pressure sure did get to you. :-)
and yup you can get the watches for even less if your bargaining skills are upto the mark.
I am sure that you’ll get to see your too soon enough. Eyal looks a cheeky one though (they’re always the best ones though, let’s be honest). He does look like this archaeologist that I know...
Thanks for answering that one for me. It’s a touchy one!
Château-Gontierdailyphoto, thanks for stopping by. The modern world really has made some things easier, no doubt, but sometimes the easiest things are made so complicated by sloppy work! Oh for the artisans of old!
Priyanka, bloody computers! Ezra is lovely, even when he yells. The mob is often right, especially when it comes to Henry!
Jen does all the bargaining in our household, she’s far better at getting a good deal than me.
Poor carob, but poor chocolate-denied Jen. Oi, I'd die without chocolate.
BTW, I still owe you an answer on the religious boys' extreme haircut, but I have no one to ask.
Patience.
Dina, that’s Jen’s position too. On a related note, I happened upon a Turkish family, where it appears part of their tradition is to shave the baby’s head bald at one week old. Such a thick head of hair too!
Picture to words, I will pass that on, and keep visiting Hamburg!
Marie6, they go all right. I’m getting back into the old black and white, it’s been years and I don’t have access to a darkroom, but I do have Photoshop!
Ken mac, you can’t go past Schultz, or the ‘tude!
Boise Diva, I am thinking very much about changing my topic, to be honest. Either online registration systems, or PowerPoint presentations.