Computer Images; Shell Shock

Bey Maguire Larger image

I wanted to follow up on a comment I'd made about trying to associate the original source of a file with the file. This assumes you're going to save the image file on your system, and possibly change the name or manipulate it in some way.

It is really considered very bad form to link directly to an image on another site. It means when when you're trying to load a page, the system is having to find that image and also load it. Very time-consuming. And what happens if the other party takes down or changes the image.

One of the greatest tools of an XP system is the Windows Explorer option. (Usually found by pressing the Start key.) Notice on the left, you have a listing of all the folders on your system. If you move down and open one with some images in it, you have a number of ways to few the files. Note the tiny icon at the far right at the top - it looks like a very small web page with squares in it.

Click on it, and it gives you a number of options for viewing your files - Filmstrip; Thumbnails; Tiles, Icons, List and Details. If you click the Thumbnails options, you'll get thumbnails of every image in the folder. A most valuable resource if you're trying to sort through dozens of photos.

If you move your cursor over one of the thumbnails a box will pop up, far too quickly for my taste, that indicates Dimensions, Type and Size.

If you RIGHT CLICK on the image, you'll get a box listing what you want to do with the image. We're interested in the one at the very bottom - Properties. It gives a number of attributes for the photos under a number of tabs. Try the summary options, and you'll get the available attributes for the image. (You may have to click the Advanced key to get this info.)

If you switch to the Details options, you'll get a set of columns with info about each file. If you go the column titles such as Name, Size, Type, Date Modified, Date Created, Dimensions and RIGHT CLICK on one of the titles, you'll get a long box of options you can attach to a file.

In some cases, I don't know how you enter the info. If you click any of the title bars, you'll get the standard list of options. But if you click on one of the actual files, except for those under the name bar, you'll get a different set of options. This seems terribly confusing.

Another odd thing I noticed is that any number of files indicate a Date Modified, such as 2006-12-16, BEFORE the Date Created, such as 2007-01-05.

When you save an image file to your system, you'll only get the part of the name to the right of the rightmost "/". I thought of doing this and then cutting and pasting the full name of the site. But I immediately get a rude message that says "A file name cannot contain any of the following characters: \/:*?"<>|" Well, gee whiz, that's a big fucking help.

However, it did finally dawn of me that I could open the Properties pop-up, find the Title field and copy the complete address. So the image of Tobey above has a name of "taiwanon-tobey-maguire-06.jpg" on my laptop with a title of "http://taiwanon.com/cupcakes/tobey-maguire-06.jpg" I deliberately used this image of Tobey because it's so at odds with his quirky, sweetheart visage. This Tobey looks downright sinister. And what he sees does not impress.

(However, this only stays with the original image. Do not open the image in a photo manipulation package. Even if you do nothing to the file, but save it, the Title field becomes blank. If you upload the image to a web server, you'll also loose the info.)

I know! I know! Far more that you ever wanted to know.

Last night, as I was writing my diatribe on the "Fog of War," I thought of George Carlin's brilliant routine on "euphemisms." Carlin's sketches deal not just with the humorous, but with the ultimate way we use language to obfuscate, denature, obscure, obnubilate, and behaze events.

I'd never thought to look on-line for it, but it's available at George Carlin's Explicit Lyrics CD.

Item 15 deals with the words associated with "shell shock."

"There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war, that condition was called SHELL SHOCK. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago"

"That was seventy years ago. Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called BATTLE FATIGUE. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock! Battle fatigue."

"Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called OPERATIONAL EXHAUSTION. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car."

"Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-traumatic stress disorder. I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it shell shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha.'

"Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people...or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they? Never mention that part of it."

"Older sounds a little better than old doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. Bullshit, I'm getting old! And it's okay, because thanks to our fear of death in this country, I won't have to die...I'll pass away. Or I'll expire like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital, they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient-care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice, they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure. I'm telling you, some of this language makes me want to vomit. Well, maybe not vomit. Makes me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill."

PAX! Erin Go Braugh!