A loss... and a win.

My dad, much to my delight, discovered Lois McMaster Bujold. He read the first Chalion book and then the entire Sharing Knife series.

Last month I bought him a Nook as an early Xmas gift [since he'd had hand surgery].

Dad read The Warrior's Apprentice [and also The Mountains of Mourning] and wants to read all the Miles books. :D

So I'm re-reading a few myself. And Jo Walton's Tor.com posts about Miles, of course.

Edited to add: Look below the break to see my feelings on this day in history, as that was when the news of Anne McCaffrey's demise. :( 

Given up on yourself?

I've been trying to catch up on Kris' The Business Rusch. Having a new computer makes it somewhat easier.

But today -- tonight -- I used Goodreads as my blog reader. I've also had problems, unfortunately, getting her website to load. Right now Kris is updating the Freelancer's Survival Guide. I bought it, and I can't rave enough about the Guide. Go buy it!!

I stopped reading Giving Up On Yourself tonight because Kris was talking about how she gave up editing. And -- a friend asked me lately if I went to cons as a writer.

Those are tied together for me. I am not a writer, nor do I think of myself as a writer. I can write to communicate because I happen to be pretty good at communicating.

I am an editor. I've wanted to be an editor since I was in high school. I wouldn't give editing up for anything. I can't imagine being anything else.

And despite people who have tried to helpfully suggest that I do something else over the past few years -- well, see Roger Zelazny's answer about hardware stores.


I wonder how many people do give up on themselves. :/ I gave up for some while, about a decade ago, and kept on doing temp work. It was easier.

And I was afraid for a while that I wouldn't manage to break into editing. That changed in 2005, and now I'm doing what I dreamed about.

Don't give up. Please, don't give up. Dream for yourself and keep going.

Geek toys: tablets.

Or, as this blogger says, Cool New Device Ownership Hunger. Well, c'mon, you know that's what it is. :D

Mostly, I can resist cellphones. I used to have Motorola's lovely email pager, the Talkabout. It had a real keyboard. I still miss that.

But tablets that can have a real keyb... Funny, I loathe laptops [and the feeling's mutual], yet the idea of a tablet that's got a real keyb just hits my geek-toy devicery exactly right.

I was in love with the Asus eee Transformer, and still am somewhat. Then I saw two slates: There's T-Mobile's Springboard; what's far better is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It has Quickoffice HD.

Oh, yeah.

;) And you thought I just wanted a shiny toy to play with; well, naturally, but what's the point in a toy that you can't work on? Or in my case, meaning: type on actual real buttons.

Maybe that's the thing, that to me a Real Computer has to have buttons for I/O for my fingers.

You notice I didn't mention a mouse, right? I remember before we had computer mice. (I think the Commodore PET was the first mouse-using PC I ever used.) I don't spurn mice, certainly, but I also do not like the sliding panels on laptops either. Mice of the computer, they ought to have tails [i.e., wires]. Otherwise the farmer's wife has been at 'em.

So this is me trying to resist the urge to go shopping and get me a Galaxy Tab...

CE: Handy work aids.

Adjective order.

Grammar index. I have barely dipped into this yet. I was hunting something on Grammar Girl, and then tried the next thing Google found, which was the Grammar site. Wow!

Definitions: Creator.

Cracked.com, bless them -- and I mean that! -- for making a bunch of helpful things. Like debunking Hollywood myths on guns and a host of other tidbits. This is especially helpful when you ask the Interweb an important question and can't get good answers.

Because why should the treats only be candy? ;D