Tuesday 14 May 2013

Sunday 12 May 2013

Need Microsoft Detox? Get Apache OpenOffice



Apache Open Office has everything you need to get off of Microsoft for good.  It is open-source software that not only competes with Microsoft, but seems to betters it in many ways by adding features that are not available in Microsoft products.  

It is a full suite of Microsoft-Office-like products including a word-processor, applications for spreadsheets, presentations, drawing and databases.   One of the most important features is that all documents can be saved in formats that are Microsoft-Office compatible.  So, for those who want to work from their home computer, but share with the world, there will be no problem. 

Download for free, virus free, from the Source Forge


Wednesday 1 May 2013

10 words - try to write a poem...

I read in my new poetry magazine (Contemporary Verse 2) that they just finished a poetry contest.  They had people sign up before the contest and then, when the contest started, they emailed them all 10 words and gave them two days to make a poem.  Winners got money, free stuff, published, etc.  So, I figured out the words from reading the winning poems.  Then I wrote a poem last night.  So, it has been one day.  

Here are the words:

1. Coalesce
2. Tickle
3. Salient
4. Garrulous
5. Pan
6. Wend
7. Scoop
8. Harbour
9. Abrade
10. Entrance

Here is my poem:

Titanic Survivors Arrive at St. John's Harbour

At the entrance to the harbour we wait. 
The garrulous gulls screeching tickles, then abrades my jagged senses. 
What are we waiting for?
My sister bends, scoops water into a pan.
We have lost all.
Grateful for everything. 
We drink. 
Ice and sky coalesce as we gaze, sun-blind, to try to see what causes this delay.
No clues. 
No salient details emerge. 
It is not for us to know. 
The ship rumbles. 
We board again. 
No answer is given. 
Broken, we accept this.
We wend our way home -
Limp back to port. 
The story to tell again and again. 
The waiting nothing to what went before.