Some Easter eggs.

I really was doing research for work when I found this Firefly website. I can't remember what keyword I was using to somehow pull up -- wait, it must have been gridlines.

I do remember how I got this map of Earth, however. It's so cool. The sunlight's moving.


(Here's the xkcd about Cadbury eggs... :) I wasn't looking that up for work, though. I wonder if Randall cooks with Kinder eggs, it'd have some potential for worse things than Cadbury.)

Warped, no foolin'.

Today it took me about 4 tries to open a Word file successfully. That is becoming standard with this file. It is very tiresome. I don't know if Classic Menu doesn't work well with docx files, or what. That's my guess, but... I don't think so. I think it's something peculiar about this file. :/

But I could swear I had a docx file in February, or maybe January, and this didn't happen then.


I wish this were a joke -- lots of good ones today. Alas, this... isn't. I'll snag some of the good jokes I saw off Twitter later. Off to dig back into That File.

The way I know there's a problem with the docx file? Whenever I open it every day, the right margin grows from normal -- quarter of the screen -- to enormous. Every Comment goes off into the far distance, stretching abnormally.

That's the first two or three times I open it. Every time. Without fail.

Doesn't matter what way I open it, either. Going through the file tree, from the Windows button, from the pinned recent files...

You know, it'd be nice to blame this on Cthulhu. I'm just sayin'.


I hope you're having a Happy Facepalm Sunday. :)

Just musing.

[Mostly written 15-March-2012.]

I have a really cool job.

I get to look up all sorts of weird things, neat things, things I probably never would have stumbled into on my own. There's also trying to figure out how to phrase something so the Web will like it, or understand -- or not give me really peculiar and/or unhelpful and/or frustrating answers.

Someone said to me once, "You get to read everything before it comes out!" and that threw me. I don't. I mean, not everything. If I worked on every book I read, I might not love reading quite so much.

No, scratch that. It'd be tiring. I could never work on as many books as I've read. Working on books involves a lot more than just reading.

I've been grateful, rereading a Patricia McKillip book, that I didn't work on it. I get to see all the pretty parts flow by. Fool's Run is a great book. I didn't know how to copy edit when I first read it years ago. Many years ago.

I know that... because I remember quoting it on newsgroups in the 90s. :)


But I love my job.

This week. :) When I get to the stage where I pull out my hair, that's another kettle of fish entirely. I don't think I'll be pulling out hair with this book... ETA: Famous last words, eh?

Defining history...

Just watched Game Change. [Warning: Link has spoilers if you haven't seen it yet.]

It was riveting. Just as The Social Network was.

I suspect it'll have a similar impact; even though it's a movie, it -- like any movie -- is a work of fiction. I'm not slamming HBO's work. Far from it.

But even though when you see a movie you know it's not real, you've seen it. On some level, it becomes real for you. It's defined events whether you saw them or not.

This isn't like The King's Speech in that there's considerable decades from 2008. Putting the three together, Game Change, The Social Network, and The King's Speech... it's pretty safe to say that for many viewers, that is how those stories will be perceived.

I don't necessarily feel the same way for all three, though; only two have characters I really care about. I think Bertie and Lowe are marvelous people, and probably always will.

And that applies to the sympathetic figures of Game Change too: Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, and yes, even Sarah Palin some of the time.

Game Change was brilliant. Wow.

ETA: When Nicole cries, I nearly cried myself. How shattering it must have been, to be a political operative, and to make that choice on Election Day.

CRACK!

Last night, we were watching Bill Maher... and heard this awful noise, somewhere between an explosion and a gunshot.

The wind picked up in a big way.

And that's how we found out about the windstorm. It was a doozy. Outside the house -- which we couldn't see before 11pm, naturally -- two trees have fallen. Matchsticks is the word that comes to mind. I'm certain at least four fell within our hearing last night.

The storm's not gone, as the wind still rises every so often. I stayed up last night because it was too loud to sleep. Mind you, I wanted to be asleep.

No tornadoes here. Chainsaws, yes. A neighbor or two are buzzing away merrily.

[Maybe that's not how they see it, but when you've listened to the monthly tornado siren test, and heard it end quite gratefully, then chainsaws are not what you want to hear. Not when the winds were still loud past 7:30am!]

Okay, now I'm rambling. I'm considerably less awake than I'd prefer to be. :/

On the plus side, several times after midnight, I thought the winds had died down. Or stopped. They were considerably muffled from where I sit now. :)

Anyone out there?

My friend Adam Israel wrote about the importance of keeping records today.

It is important. As a self-employed person, running a small business requires records. Check in with Nolo Books if you don't believe me... or the IRS.


Even in SCA, I kept track of things -- what I bought, what I bartered. I wasn't doing that for anyone but myself. It was fun at Pennsic War to find that I'd bought something, traded it for other things, and still had money [or trade goods] for shopping the next day. I loved seeing what could become something else: "That dagger I had yesterday? It's this pouch!"

I track who I've queried for work. What they reply, if I should try again, and when. I don't have to track stories -- their genres, editorial comments, suggestions for revisions -- but I track where editors are, of course.

This makes me sound tremendously organized. Like Adam, I've had problems sorting my data. I have spreadsheets, along with some other docs. It's something that -- if there's someone out there doing this as an app for writers and editors -- it'd be a great resource to have.

Anyone know of such a thing? Considering all the creative types out there, seems amazing to me if no one HAS created some tracking apps.

"Our only hope."

What happens when bookstores close? What about when brick-and-mortar bookstores just don't choose to stock your book?

How do readers find books in those cases?

Jim Hines has a guest blog by fellow author Joshua Palmatier/Ben Tate on The Importance of Shelf Space.

Here's author J.F. Lewis on why you should support your favorite writers by buying their books... concluding:

But spread the word or the words you crave may stop flowing.

(Also from Jim Hines, his annual writing income post. Check 'em all out; Jim's 2007 money post has the link to Scalzi's writing advice post about finances.)


Remember, if you just figure that "lots of people buy books" or that you don't need to speak up about the books you love -- you lose. No more future books. Maybe you think that books cost too much or that electrons [and electronic books] should be free.

Air is free.

Every book is a chain of people working to make that manuscript into a book. Unseen. Many people assume a book came out of nothing. As if it's a direct route from author to editor, which goes kazam! And lo, a book.

Just as another process is taken for granted, how cars are made -- with a great deal of effort by many (unseen) people. Books have a long production process. The only human face the average reader knows is the author.

Don't forget your authors create the words you crave. Feed them. Buy their books.