So last week I was reading Pratchett's "Hat Full of Sky" and there was a line in it that went something like: 'Talking about it will make it better. Okay, so it won't, but I'm a witch and naturally inquisitive. Tell me what's going on.'

Despite the fact that I can't remember the exact line I applaud the sentiment.

My neighbour's home. My neighbour doesn't come home very often - the house was his mother's and he's been kinda doing it up with what we all thought was the intention of renting it out. When he got married last year he and his wife sometimes stayed there on a Thursday and since the wall between the houses is not the thickest I got to hear her annoying whiny voice a lot. (And let's leave aside the completely stereotypical view that one might be surprised he got married at all given his fondness for boy bands and Scissor Sisters...).

When I got back home on Saturday I saw the light was on in their house and his car was in the drive. I've since heard him coughing (a lot, he seems really sick) and the dog barking a little. (Big dog, loud, but doesn't bark that often so it's cool with me). I have not heard the TV from his place, nor has he played any music whilst I've been home. And neither have I heard her.

He and I don't particularly get on (his mate is the guy I'm sure nicked the ladders from the back of my house), so I can't justifiably call round to see if he's okay.

Can I get away with the "I'm a nosy person, tell me what's going on?" approach?

(Oh, and I didn't make it a week without again getting spoiled for an upcoming SPN. Joy. (casting and title spoiler again - when will people learn that episode titles are spoilers?!))

So last week I was reading Pratchett's "Hat Full of Sky" and there was a line in it that went something like: 'Talking about it will make it better. Okay, so it won't, but I'm a witch and naturally inquisitive. Tell me what's going on.'

Despite the fact that I can't remember the exact line I applaud the sentiment.

My neighbour's home. My neighbour doesn't come home very often - the house was his mother's and he's been kinda doing it up with what we all thought was the intention of renting it out. When he got married last year he and his wife sometimes stayed there on a Thursday and since the wall between the houses is not the thickest I got to hear her annoying whiny voice a lot. (And let's leave aside the completely stereotypical view that one might be surprised he got married at all given his fondness for boy bands and Scissor Sisters...).

When I got back home on Saturday I saw the light was on in their house and his car was in the drive. I've since heard him coughing (a lot, he seems really sick) and the dog barking a little. (Big dog, loud, but doesn't bark that often so it's cool with me). I have not heard the TV from his place, nor has he played any music whilst I've been home. And neither have I heard her.

He and I don't particularly get on (his mate is the guy I'm sure nicked the ladders from the back of my house), so I can't justifiably call round to see if he's okay.

Can I get away with the "I'm a nosy person, tell me what's going on?" approach?

(Oh, and I didn't make it a week without again getting spoiled for an upcoming SPN. Joy. (casting and title spoiler again - when will people learn that episode titles are spoilers?!))

I have a question for the computer minded among you who use Excel. Even though it's evil.

The picture below is a screencap of the document I'm working with. I copy/pasted the info from a website which is chock full of back/forward buttons. I selected the sheet, cleared the formating in all cells and did a bunch of sorting and other things. Now... if you open the screencap (it'll open in a new window/tab) you can see the little blue arrows. They aint in a cell. I need to be able to get rid of 'em.

Anyone know how I can salt and burn 'em?

(I've tried inserting a row, moving the contents of the cells to the new row and deleting the pre-existing row but all it did was move the arrows down a little...

Help?

( not sensitive data, but this is why I hate Excel... )

ETA So I have no idea how or why, but it seems to have been fixed. I selected the entire sheet, copied it (intending to paste into a text editor and save as a .tsv (tab-delimited) file so I could import it back into Excel) and thought I'd try pasting it into a new worksheet. It only pasted in the data I wanted and all the weird graphics have stayed on the first sheet. Excel is ev0l I tells ya!

Thank you all so much for your help and advice! Now wish me luck for the rest of the afternoon when I have to track down 1324 URLs and check the holdings dates are accurate. No really, I love my job...

I have a question for the computer minded among you who use Excel. Even though it's evil.

The picture below is a screencap of the document I'm working with. I copy/pasted the info from a website which is chock full of back/forward buttons. I selected the sheet, cleared the formating in all cells and did a bunch of sorting and other things. Now... if you open the screencap (it'll open in a new window/tab) you can see the little blue arrows. They aint in a cell. I need to be able to get rid of 'em.

Anyone know how I can salt and burn 'em?

(I've tried inserting a row, moving the contents of the cells to the new row and deleting the pre-existing row but all it did was move the arrows down a little...

Help?

( not sensitive data, but this is why I hate Excel... )

ETA So I have no idea how or why, but it seems to have been fixed. I selected the entire sheet, copied it (intending to paste into a text editor and save as a .tsv (tab-delimited) file so I could import it back into Excel) and thought I'd try pasting it into a new worksheet. It only pasted in the data I wanted and all the weird graphics have stayed on the first sheet. Excel is ev0l I tells ya!

Thank you all so much for your help and advice! Now wish me luck for the rest of the afternoon when I have to track down 1324 URLs and check the holdings dates are accurate. No really, I love my job...