Okay, time to complain a little bit.

I’ve just spent the last FIVE hours trying to figure out how to write text in Arabic in either Fireworks or Photoshop. I’ve tried to import the text from Word but the letters don’t connect. I tried to take a pictures of that what I want to say using print screen, but that makes the picture static and not vector-based. That doesn’t work because you can’t produce a high-quality item. I’ve searched the entire internet both here on Earth and on Mars (that’s another adventure worth telling later) trying to find a simple, easy and free solution. You can produce a beautiful Word document in Arabic, Hebrew, Tifinagh, Punjabi, Thai, Georgian and even dead languages like Sanskrit, Linear B or Avestan. But can you design stellar logos and documents in Fireworks or Photoshop? Nooooo….unless you want to pay. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, for a mere $485, you can have a program that will fix all of your problems. That’s how much I make in 2.5 months…. Alas, I shall not succumb to reticence.

In other news, everybody’s having a baby! Scott’s august sister Leslie just had twins–Mya May and Ty Steven (MyTy)…Wouldn’t it have been a hoot if they had been named Mya May and Ty Yt? My poor children… Betsy, my beloved former coworker, is also giving birth just about now. I know five other people who are due in the next week or so. You would think that these births would be normally distributed over the entire year. Nope. Binomial (or maybe Poisson–it’s been too long) sneaks up on ya when you’re least expecting it…

So what are your favorite news/blog sources? I’ve been spending a great amount of time recently frantically reading all the blogs I can (and not finishing my website: I know the links don’t work, but I’m busy ). I feel that the blogolution has left me in the sticks during my 11-month internet hiatus. I’m particularly fond of michaelmoore.com, moveonpac.org and blogalization.info. I would like to know what you’ve been reading…

In Moroccan news, I’ve just written a baby grant to get some start-up funding for my frame project (see previous posts). I hope it’s accepted so that I can get to work and stop talking.

Thank you and good night.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2004 at 01:40 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.