An Unequal Distribution
Recently, I’ve noticed a colleague’s screen, usually freezeframed at spreadsheets, now perpetually displaying an MSN window. See, he’s met a girl, and he’s head over heels. The girl must be quite enamoured too, since she’s right there, chatting with him as well.
It makes me wonder, when will this oh I’ll die if I don’t have you I can’t live without you-ness end in a relationship? It doesn’t help that the two of them are miles apart, trying out a long distance thing while barely knowing each other face to face at the start, but does that augment the longing?
Which is to say, can it be worn out? If a couple is face-to-face instead, is the number of I-love-yous finite? Is every relationship assigned a bucket, each partner dipping into it till it ends?
Sometimes one of the two dips into it a lot more, and the bucket’s depletion is accelerated. Some other couples never seem to get enough of each other at the start and fizzle out soon after. And then you have those that dip slowly from the bucket, taking things in a long, drawn out way.
But that’s assuming the bucket’s supply really is finite. My parents seem to have a healthy supply of it, having settled into a life that still sees a dash of affection here and a sprinkling of love there each day.
So when you’ve come to the point where you enter that next chapter of familiarity and being settled, do you have to leave the bucket behind?
Will you collect another $200 on your next trip around the board, or head straight for jail?
slow and steady makes the day, i think. my parents, i feel, took 20years before they finally peeked into the bucket and realized it wasn’t THAT empty. weird. but good.
anyway. totally off tangent. but i need tech help, again. from you, or anyone who’s knowledgable? feel free.
um. i want to compress or reduce the file size of a PDF. there’s limitations for submitting portfolios for jobs online. and i wanted to know if there was like, a somewhat universal program that could do that.
so i don’t run the risk of the company not being able to read the file. or just something that friggin’ makes the file WAY smaller.
thank you, thank you.
sorry, vick. i feel like i’m milking your blog. but i’m desperate.
Haha, that’s fine dear, that’s what my blog’s for (and the handful of geeks that read it). I don’t know whether this’ll work, but I did google for a couple of freewares, and it came up with this. (Scroll down to “free pdf compressor”.)
Also, if you want to reduce the size of it, I think you should first reduce the original file that you PDFed. Like, make the image files smaller (rather than just scaling them down within the document but embedding the original huge ones), that sort of thing.
Anyone else?
@jun - Also what program are using to create your PDFs - Adobe Acrobat tends to create huge bloated PDFs (why is that not surprising) whereas Ghostscript generates smaller PDF files. Obviously downscaling picture resolutions, resizing rather than just copy-pasting (like vicki has mentioned above) would help as well.
@vicki - I think the answer is that there are different buckets at different points of times in the relationship. At first, there’s the whole fizz of being together phyiscally and discovering each other. As time goes by, it becomes more like a pair of old jeans - not glamorous, but comfortable and reassuring. The trick is knowing when to dip into which bucket.
Agreed that it’s usually the image at the source that results in a bloated pdf file size. Reducing that first, as everyone has already suggested, is the way to go.
Also agreed with Balaji, different buckets not only at different times but simultaneously as well. Just to expand the imagery, Humans are complex creatures and thus we (should) love in a complex manner. Thus when we fall in love with someone it usually rests on more than one level, like patience for that person and commitment to the person. These are just some of the levels that combine to make up “love”.
I like to think that each level has it’s own bucket. So there are actually alot of buckets that we are dipping into as time goes by. I believe that, if there is a case where one bucket is getting low, we can focus on dipping into the other buckets to maintain the whole complex love. Like our commitment for someone supporting the times when patience is running low.
This also means that buckets can be refilled; it’s not a closed system. There are and should be actions, deeds and thoughts from both parties that help to refill the various buckets over time. This is like how any healthy relationship has it’s ups and downs; it’s the constant dipping into and refilling of the buckets that allow this.
Ultimately, it’s all about balance….
Hmm, the old jeans analogy is a good one, or even an old pair of shoes. First there’s the initial excitement and a few years in the “honeymoon period”. Then you settle in and get comfortable for the long haul as (hopefully) a team. Every now and then you need to shake things up a bit so no one goes to sleep, and maybe mention the “L” word once in a while. Balance is must too, as in all things.
yeah, i figured re-scaling the images themselves. but it’s a shitload of pictures, and i’ve redone my portfolio a million times over so i’m trying to avoid that.
i’ll try some of the stuff, there’s an option that lets you save as the smallest file size on adobe though, i just found that out today. what an idiot. me, i mean.
anyway… thanks to all who helped, i’ll check those out..
thanks, vick.
aaaah kick the bucket!!