This and that

[cleolinda]

From: Annabelle Webster

Subject: Looking for cheap high-quality software? sequester plums

Annabelle? I sequestered the plums, but... they don't seem to be doing anything. A little help here?



I just discovered--after about three years of using this damn software, by the way--that ACDSee has an auto-resize function. Like, you highlight all the files you want, and you specify the width and the height (or the percent you want them enlarged or reduced), and it does it all for you. This may not seem all that exciting until you realize that I've downloaded tons of movie screen caps over the years that had wonky proportions, and I had to go through and manually resize them all to, say, 840 x 480 or whatever. Oh my God. I was so happy to discover this just now that I almost cried.

(Also? It will convert extensions for you. Like, all the bmps to jpgs or the jpgs to gifs. Cried, I tell you.)

DiCaprio Gets Lifetime Achievement Award. Holy crap, the guy is thirty. Yes, I know he's a great actor. THIRTY.

Jacob's new American Idol recap: "Then there is a freaky, freaky slow motion shot of Seacrest throwing beads off a balcony at an unknown, unseen figure. I feel all of a sudden like I'm in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil and the deeds are unfolding and sins will be visited on the people." The best part is really about the hot incestuous brothers who sing "I'll Make Love to You" to each other, however, and how conflicted horrified Jacob feels over this.

(Oh, man. I am still so giddy over the image editing thing. Nerrrrrrrrrrd.)

I feel really bad for the kid who apparently lost his frog, but... do you remember the "All Your Base" clip? Where the whole Engrish video game catchphrase thing was photoshopped into approximately 1001 different pictures? Yeah. This site basically does that with the "I lost my frog" flier. Only it's web pages, not video, and it's... well, it's a little more creative. Like, Domo-kun is involved. And Guernica. And security cameras. And Hellboy. And Saruman. Here's the one that slew me.

This commercial has been banned from the Super Bowl, which is a damn shame.

From peot (One of Many Martins): Star Wars: Episode III--A Lost Hope.

Meme: If there is at least one person in your life whom you consider a close friend, and whom you would not have met without the Internet, post this sentence in your journal.


Yes, my real name is Lauren. Yes, I meant to say so--I've mentioned it in passing before, and as paranoid as I tend to get, even I don't think y'all are going to be able to track me down based on a first name that's pretty common in my area, particularly for girls my age. (I don't know why that is, either. My mother was all proud in 1978 that she'd picked a name no one else was using, and then a few months later her friend named her baby Lauren, and it was just all downhill from there.)

People have asked me how I can bear to use a pen name and not see My Real Birth Name of All That Is Holy in print. I don't know. I have complicated feelings about my name, first and last. I'm to the point where I like it well enough, generally speaking; I've moved past that adolescent stage of wishing everything about me was different. But I kind of like the idea of having a name that's just for me. Really, this should tell you what an egotist optimist I am: I'm planning on needing one name for public life and another for private.

That said? I'm starting to want to see my real name more often. I don't get called "Lauren" much--I mean, do you get called by your first name often? Think about it. Unless someone's going through the house looking for you or calling you up on the phone, they're not just going to start every sentence addressed to you with your name. (Which is why it rings so false in fictional dialogue. And yet I have a huge compulsion to write dialogue that way, too.)

On the other hand, think about the internet as a print medium. I don't hear "Cleolinda" much, but I see it stinkin' everywhere--in my email, on my.yahoo.com, on message boards when I log in:

"Welcome back, Cleolinda!"

"Cleolinda, So-and-So just posted a reply to a topic that you have subscribed to."

"Logged in user: cleolinda."

I knew things had gone too far when I had lunch at Panera Bread over Christmas and the guy asked me for my name, instead of giving me a beeper thing, and I actually hesitated: But--I don't want to say "Cleolinda" in front of all these people, they'll think it's a weird na.... WAIT A MINUTE. So you'll forgive me if I feel the urge to call myself Lauren every now and then. Just for sanity's sake.

Comments

[kaytethinks.livejournal.com]

Hee, I wondered what you preferred; like if I should say "happy birthday cleo!" or "happy birthday lauren!" and then would it be weird if I called you Lauren or what... :) So I'll keep that in mind.

Also, DiCaprio's lifetime achievement award is pretty funny.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Online I generally go by Cleo, yeah, although I will not take "Lauren" amiss. : )

[all-ephemera.livejournal.com]

Lauren. Lauren Lauren Lauren Lauren. I think it's a pretty name. :)

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I know exactly what you mean about the name thing! When I first started using the internet and got into forum RPing my character's name was Arealin, which everyone shortened to Lin. Thing is, it could be used a short form for my real name too so people just called me that... After a few months (years.. who knows) when I'd hear my actual name, I'd be like, "Huh.. that's pretty, I don't hear that often." It didn't even feel like my name anymore, so I started asking people to use it again. It was actually a good thing, gave my name some "time off" and made it sound new again :D

[lizzyrose89.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm called Elizabeth properly, but I'm Lizzy to everyone; have been since I was six (which is seven years ago). But every now and again I get called Elizabeth by some unsuspecting teacher who has spoken to me twice before or something, and I answer to it on reflex, despite the fact that my moody teenage brain wants me to ignore them.

Eet eez vair vair stronge!

Although I suppose I made my decision about my name when I was pretty small, and t'was my decision rather than other people just saying it....

I ramble. Forgive me! :-)

[cellardoor28.livejournal.com]

i like the name lauren, and i totally understand why you'd want to use it more (and having read your LJ for a while i also understand why you dont necessarily want to use your whole name either).

and i solemnly promise not to sell your name and address to the highest bidder on ebay. honest. unless i get REALLY broke...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I actually spent much of my childhood wishing I had a "prettier" name that ended in -a or -e or something. I was obsessed with "Samantha" and "Rebecca" for a while, actually. "But Lauren Bacall is badass!" doesn't really carry all that much weight with a nine-year-old. ; )

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

I feel so bad for that kid. That poster is so cute.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

oh, for crying out loud. it's the santa barbara film festival. they have a reputation for being somewhat h0r-ish. :)

[rpp.livejournal.com]

Lauren is a great name! It's my middle name, actually, which makes my initials TLC, but let's not get in to how annoyingly cute and clever my mother thinks she is sometimes.

If I was Leo, I'd be a bit worried that the awards people somehow stumbled upon some lost, progressive-disease-diagnosing medical records. Or that I was about to be whacked.

[dietcokebreak.livejournal.com]

OMG, that frog thing is the best thing that I have seen all day.

This one (http://lostfrog.org/41.html) is my personal fave.

Hey, are you still watching DOOL at lunchtime? I was home last week due to snow and caught part of it. I felt like I was watching something in a foreign language, it was THAT wacko!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I haven't watched it in months. Are they still on that damn island?

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I was called Jenny for most of my life. It was fine until I found out that a jenny is also a female donkey. (Strangely--and perhaps fortunately--enough, I did not discover this fact until late in high school.) As soon as I hit college, I introduced myself as Jennifer to everyone, or Jen. Anything but Jenny.

(I must also get this image program. Just...wow. I think I might cry too.)

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

I stopped referring to myself as Jenni when, in third grade, my teacher asked us if we had nicknames. I said "Jenni - with an I," meaning of course that it needed to be spelled with an I at the end instead of a Y. Yeah, already tormented & teased little me spent the year being called "with an I" in that horrible harrassing voice third graders use to drag each other down. Since then I've been Jennifer or Jen. In college, in classes that had too many Jennifers/Jens, I went by Jenna. Now, I introduce myself as Jen. Always.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Somewhere--it might have even been on LJ--I heard the entire Hopkins Green Frog story.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

What is the story? I heard something about it being a flier all over Seattle a few years back.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Nothing to forgive you for - it's your name and there's no reason you shouldn't use it whenever you'd like. I'm sure they can get you quickie restraining orders for psychos people that would feel the need to track you down using your location and "Lauren"

Personally, I made things easy on myself by giving my main rp character my own first name since I like it anyway. :)

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

they're not just going to start every sentence addressed to you with your name. (Which is why it rings so false in fictional dialogue. And yet I have a huge compulsion to write dialogue that way, too.)

That's one of my bugbears too. Even the Grey Havens scene in my beloved ROTK has started to irritate me because Frodo calls Sam 'Sam' every few seconds....

Hi Lauren

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hi!

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

Jacob said:
Idiotic Seacrestiana about the "darker side of New Orleans," over, like, fucking shrunken heads and bullshit like that. If I'm this irritated by that crap, can you imagine what it's like for people who grew up there?

I have to shout a loud AMEN to that.

And I've seen that Budweiser commercial on t.v. Maybe they just decided not to show it during the Superbowl.

[kagamikami.livejournal.com]

ACDSee is SO 90s. :) Have you tried Irfanview? (www.irfanview.com) It does all the same stuff but it's FREE, and it doesn't have annoying popups. Also the interface is much more user-friendly.

If you've already paid for ACDSee and it has lots of fun features that I never found on the demo version (which killed anything I did with its "YOU HAVE NOT PAID, YOU SHALL NOT PASS" popups) then kudos to you and I hope it's good.

As for a name...my name is Orli. It seems so easy, and yet no one can pronounce it or spell it. I've had Orlin, Yarla (??), Oren (my brother's name, actually), Yori, Orally (don't even get me started on that one) and many many more. So now I introduce myself as Lee. Or Bob.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I paid for it 3-4 years ago and I *still* love it. It was annoying as shit in the unpaid version, though, now that you mention it. It was only $45, though, and since I was running a website at the time, it was a good investment.

[penelopeblack.livejournal.com]

Hilarious commmercial. Now I finally understand what really happened. ;)

[vladimirsever.livejournal.com]

Kitty, I'm so intimidated by your posts... Each one seems to require at least half an hour of clicking on hyperlinks and so on, and I'm so behind on my various jobs that I simply can't... Just can't. Please understand.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Kitty! Don't be intimidated! I can give you the quick version next time we talk. It's not like the stuff is all that important as it is. : )

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

My cousin was born a year before you were and her name is Lauren - they thought it was brilliant at the time. ;) I actually think it's a beautiful name. My mom thought she was being really original in '86 when she named me Jessica. Funny how that turned out. lol

Leo? Is amazing, but way too young to get a lifetime achievement award. Don't put him at the end of his career just yet!

Oh, and thanks for the info about ACDSee - I've had it for two years and I didn't know it did that, either! Yay! <33

[aurora-borialis.livejournal.com]

I feel you pain on the name thing. I started using Aus as a shortened version of my whole name, but only online and stuff. So all over the internet and stuff I saw Aus everywhere. No one calls me Aus ever. So then I came to LJ decided my whole name was more fun so now I'm Austynne here. It feels better knowing you actually have a real name. Lauren is a nice name. I know many good Laurens.

P.S. Shall I start using L-Dawg now? lol!

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'they're not just going to start every sentence addressed to you with your name. (Which is why it rings so false in fictional dialogue.'

Kinda like those 'personalized' books we got as kids:

One day, Lauren got up and found Lauren's favorite teddy bear missing. 'Oh no,' said Lauren, 'whatever shall I do?'

Then a fairy appeared. 'Hello, Lauren,' the fairy said to Lauren. 'You look so sad, Lauren. Furthermore, Lauren, you appear unhappy. Is there anything, Lauren, that I can do for you? Lauren?'

Lauren thought for a moment, then said, 'I am missing my favorite teddy bear, which my mommy gave to me. She said "Lauren, here is a teddy bear. Enjoy it, Lauren." I said "Oh thank you mommy!' And she said 'You're very welcome, Lauren."'

The fairy smiled at Lauren and said, 'Well, Lauren, looks like you're shit out of luck. Lauren.'

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

*cackle* I love the moral of THAT story. That fairy rocks.

A Treatise on the Nature of Identity

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that Budweiser commercial is great. Shame it won't air.

And the Nabokov parody: ha!

I also totally understand about the name thing, although I was never very secretive about it. I am Polter-Cow all over the Internet (I would have been Polter-Cow here, but I couldn't use a hyphen: poltercow and polter_cow just won't cut it) (well, there is one message board where I'm still under Mulder), and it's a name I've made for myself, you know? I've embraced my online identity. Now people even use the nickname P-C.

So I get a little thrill whenever my name is used online (especially at TWoP, where they bold it to make you feel all important!). It's an acknowledgement of your existence.

Yet. Like you, I'd really like to be addressed by my real name (Sunil) more often. Because as much as my online identity is who I am, it's not who I am. It can only go so far. Sunil's the one who's going to have the bylines and the money and the name on the address. Polter-Cow's just this collection of words. It's something I've thought a lot about over the years, as I've become part of more and more online communities.

The real name has a power to it, a familiarity. It turns you into an actual person, being addressed by another actual person. It makes that online connection something stronger.

So hey, Lauren. I'm Sunil. You make me laugh. Keep up the good work.

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

hahahahahahah Cleo - its kinda funny that you would say that, how no one thinks of you as Lauren and you even think of yourself as Cleo, because I just came to the realization yesterday:
I was kinda surprised when you called yourself "pasty" or something to that degree in a reply to me one time, because in my head you are purple. That purple profile show that I believe is your default icon? Yeah, that's always how I picture you in my head for some reason.

I am afraid I do not have the same problem as you, as my lj name is an offshoot of my actual name (being Lezlie, since you weren't curious) and is actually a nickname people call me, which is kinda weird.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

because in my head you are purple. That purple profile show that I believe is your default icon? Yeah, that's always how I picture you in my head for some reason.

You're not the only one.

[suitcasegnome.livejournal.com]

I love this one: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/pain/SequentialMirror/SWE3_large.mov

Thanks for the links! Conside my day made.

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

so.fucking.funny. OMG I'm in pain, PAIN from the Star Wars... thing. Brilliant! BRILLIANT!

Oh-Lauren, you rock!

[genesisdesire.livejournal.com]

I've got far too many nicknames. I actually made an entry about it once. And I need to learn to stop reading you in class. I sporfled so loud at that commercial. My teachers are starting to hate me.

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

This page seems to explain the whole Hopkin tale:
http://mike.whybark.com/archives/001951.html

My name is Chasity, the majority of people I know well online call me Chass, which I prefer, even in real life. Some call me Sapph or Saph (even though they know I'm Chass). And one awesome friend calls me Spah (a typo gone wrong one day became my new nickname =P).