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WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 31, 2004 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon -instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today. - Dale Carnegie Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://www.kalama.com/~carola/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: I'm standing on a checkout line at a store across the street here. The line was long … and slow. I'm kind of used to it. The woman at the register snippy … and slower. The guy in front of me didn't seem to mind and didn't seem to be in any particular hurry. He chatted amiably with me. And when he got up to the register, even chatted amiably with the woman at the register. "How 'ya doing with all these people?" he asked. Without even looking at him, she just shrugged, said something about dealing with it. "Well, you deal with it very well," he said. "I thank you." She looked up. And as she handed him a few bucks back in change, he grasped her hand. "Keep it," he said. I couldn't believe my ears. I don't think she could either. She cocked her head. Then this most forgettable looking elderly gentleman said something I'll never forget. "The season's tough, but it shouldn't be. Have some fun." And he walked away. Just like that. I think me and the cashier were the only ones who heard him. She never said a word ... not one word. But when I came up on line, she did manage one thing -- a smile. I wanted to rush and tell the old man about it. But something told me he already knew. By Neil Cavuto mailto:cavuto@foxnews.com Source: Laughter for a Saturday mailto:ed548@yahoo.com?subject=Subscribe_to_Laughter_for_a_Saturday ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Signs Your HMO is CHEAP The trend towards lower cost Health Maintenance Organizations has many Americans worried. Here are the "Top 30 Signs You've Joined a Cheap HMO" Pedal-powered dialysis machines. Use of antibiotics deemed an "unauthorized experimental procedure." Head-wound victim in the waiting room is on the last chapter of "War and Peace," Exam room has a tip jar. You swear you saw salad tongs and a crab fork on the instrument tray just before the anesthesia kicked in. "Will you be paying in eggs or pelts?" The company logo features a hand squeezing a bleeding turnip. Tongue depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicle. "Pre-natal vitamin" prescription is a box of Tic-Tacs. Directions to your doctor's office include, "take a left when you enter the trailer park," Doctor listens to your heart through a paper towel tube. Only item listed under Preventive Care feature of coverage is "an apple a day." 24-hour claims line is 1-800-TUF-LUCK Source: Top Greetings ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: Some people REALLY love Christmas. Me, I love Thanksgiving. Last year I had my chance to do the traditional thing of shooting my own turkey for Thanksgiving. Man, you should have seen the people scatter in the meat department! Source: Monday Fodder mailto:dgaufaaa@iohk.com?subject=Subscribe_Monday_Fodder http://www.fishermansnet.com/monday-fodder/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Convert text to speech Q. I am looking for a program that allows me to scan a paper into the computer, then listen to it read back via audio. Does such a thing exist? A. It certainly does exist. As a matter of fact, there are many programs that will do this. Here are three good ones: --2nd Speech Center, v.1.50. This program not only translates text to speech, it does it in 11 languages! It costs $40. A free 30-day trial version is available. Get more information at: http://www.2ndspeechcenter.com/index.html --Natural Voice Reader. The Standard version has the perfect price- free! Two other versions, Professional and Enterprise, cost $40 and $70, respectively. Both offer clearer voices than that of Standard, according to the company. They can also convert text files to sound files, such as MP3s. More information is available at: http://www.naturalreaders.com/ --SpeakText. This program is $30 with standard voices, and $65 with AT&T Natural Voices. It can convert text files to MP3s. You get a free 31-day trial, after which you must pay for the program. It is available at: http://www.speaktext.com/ These programs can read documents made in various applications. You'll probably find that they're all pretty happy with Microsoft Word. It's the biggest word processing program out there. When you scan the documents, a picture will be created. To use the text-to-sound software, you will probably need to convert the scans to text. Most scanners include such optical character recognition software. It usually outputs the data to a word processor, such as Word. And speaking of scanners and documents... One question that I get asked time and time is, "Is there a way that I can scan in a form and use my computer to fill it in?" You'll find the answer to this question here on my Web site: http://www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=6936 Thanks for writing! And don't forget that you can listen to me this weekend on hundreds of radio stations. Find my three-hour national radio show near you here: http://www.komando.com/findkimonair.asp See you on the radio this weekend where you're bound to learn a few things that you won't find in our newsletters. Kim :) Copyright 2004, The Kim Komando Show. All rights reserved. Source: Kim Komando's Daily Tip http://www.komando.com/newsletter.asp |