The PowerPoint that ate Cinncinnati

A co-worker and I have been looking through all our old photo archives (back to the days of transparencies and slides through our 4000 some-odd photos that were taken last year) for a PowerPoint presentation to be shown at an upcoming conference.



My co-worker thinks I find too much joy in the old photos I've found, but it's just fascinating. I think I'm partly anthropologist at heart.



Anywho... After we found, scanned, touched-up, and saved many, many photos, my co-worker set about making the actual PowerPoint. To decrease the file size, which we assumed to be humongous, we tried to compress the photos. She has an old version of PowerPoint, which does not have the "compress all photos" function. So I told her to save it on our share drive and I would compress it because I have a newer version.

The following took place between 2 and 3 p.m.:

E (opening folder with file and seeing size): Holy cow!
Co-worker (two offices away): giggles
E (via instant chat): 408 MB???!?!?
Co-worker: Really?
E: You've created the PowerPoint that ate Cincinnati
Co-worker: I really have!
E (15 minutes later, after opening, attempting to compress and save): I think I've cut about 70 MB.
...
E (5 minutes later, when it's done saving): 402 MB!!! Compressing doesn't do anything! Hold on. I'm going to try something new.
...
...
Co-worker (coming into my office a few minutes later, seeing a look of concentration): How's it coming? What are you doing?
E: I'm just trying to paste the photos in differently. Hold on a sec and we'll see how we're doing...
save
E: Yes! 141 MB. I must keep going! This is so satisfying; it's like ironing your clothes! Immediate gratification. [Dear readers: Yes. I do like ironing.]
Co-worker (watching for several minutes): I really don't want you to have to do this. If you just tell me what you're doing, I'll do it. I know you have other things to do. Really, I feel bad.
E: No! You have to let me finish! This is great!
...

In the end: the PowerPoint that ate Cincinnati? Just 31 MB. (Large? Perhaps. But it ain't no 408 MB.) These are among the simple pleasures that bring joy to a day at work.