marasmine

09:32 am: This is still alive?
I'm sure I tried to get on here some time ago and it had vanished - but, obviously, I was wrong! I just got a deletion notice so I have re-activated the account.

All I need do now is use it occasionally!

11:26 am: Two years???
My how time flies... guess I forgot about the cross posting idea.

07:46 pm: That book quiz

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

07:47 pm: Fifth of September Meme
It is the fifth of September and there is this idea about taking pictures for your journal to show what your life is like - or something like that! I did think of taking a picture of the inside of my camera case - black, blank and boring to represent RL - but it isn't really quite that bad at the moment! So I took pictures of some of my shiny things because they are the interesting parts of RL. I didn't even try and take pics of the thousands of books, the growing collection of manga and anime DVDs or the other heap of DVDs I'm going to watch one day... you can all imagine them! I suppose I should have taken a picture of THE book because that is pretty important to me too, but there is a perfectly good pic on Lulu if anyone wants to look at it!

( Read more... )

I'm going back to feeling sorry for myself now and trying not to throw up on the keyboard - upset stomachs are no fun at all!

09:32 pm: I think I might need a new brain...
My four days of peace and quiet are over. Sigh. Himself and Brat returned at 11:45am today. And tomorrow I have to return to work after a pleasant, if wet, week off. Even bigger sigh.

I did sucuumb to a moment of hysterics while making tea and coffee for the people Himself brought back with him. Brat came in to announce their arrival (just in case I'd missed the V8 pulling into the driveway) and relay the instructions to put the kettle on for three drinks, but refused to ask what anyone wanted. So I wander outside to collect orders from the three men unloading Brat's bike from a van. I take possession of the bike from one of the men, who asks me not very politely if I'm just going to stand there holding it. I hand the bike off to Brat's girlfriend and leave her to stand there with it - there not being room to fit the handlebars between the cars to get it round the back of the house. No sign of Himself but I assume he is either in the bathroom or garage. I get drink requests from two of the men, one I've met before and one I haven't, the third one wanders off with the straps that had held the bike. I head back into the house, realise that I've missed one and go back out to interrupt the conversation again and ask what he wants to drink. It is only when he snarls 'coffee' at me that I realise the third man is Himself. In my defence he was wearing a plain creamy/beige t-shirt that I don't remember seeing before, and he had a haircut last Thursday that I had forgotten about, so his normally scruffy collar length hair is actually a neat short-back-and-sides for the first time in many years. I went back in to make the tea and coffee in a state of shock. I know my eyesight is bad; I know I don't pay much attention to people; I know I can't recognise anyone more than ten feet away with any certainty; but after 34 years I really should be able to recognise him when I am standing next to him! The shock passed and I had trouble making the drinks because I was laughing too hard.

(And yes it was himself who spoke to me about standing there and holding the bike - maybe I should be considering a hearing aid as well as new glasses)

I have just completed a marathon reading session. I have been immersed in TalthaX's wonderful WK Full Circle arc all weekend. I'm not sure I have finished it completely but I don't think my brain can take any more just now. I am punch drunk from lack of sleep and fic overload - but it is quite a good feeling!

I have my proper printed copy of my book and within two minutes of unwrapping it spotted the error on the back cover blurb - I had edited the inside of the book but forgot the back cover! It is fixed now. So Susie and I will have the only copies of the First Edition (with the errors on) and it is now into Edition Two! I don't think it will show up in the ebook format because I don't think that has the back cover - so sorry Lisa, your copy isn't unique yet! But if I spot any more errors it might still end up that way! All in all I am quite pleased with the way it has printed up, the font is a little small for me - so next time I am sticking to size 12 Garamond and not saving pages by dropping it to size 11. And next time I'm doing the download and the print version as different files. The print format doesn't look right as download. It has been a good learning experience and I am glad I did it.

06:21 pm: A little something
A couple of Neil Gaiman links stolen from anogete :
http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/stories/snow.html A little twisted fairy tale

http://www.powells.com/features/gaiman.html Words of wisdom about writing (mainly about American Gods)

And now I have stolen that I can remember what I was going to post originally!

06:44 pm: Success?
And finally the editing is over. The book is on Lulu. And my brain hurts! But it is done!

When my eyes stop bleeding and I recover from the impulse to add commas everywhere, I will resume normal service - such as it is!

But for now I am going to hide in some nice smutty fic until the panic goes away...

Edit: Because B2B and broken_moons are right (and the panic has subsided slightly):
http://www.lulu.com/content/1096627

10:01 pm: Saving your work is a really good thing!
Warning! There is another auto-restart Windows update about! That is the sort where it re-starts the computer unless you keep telling it not to - and it doesn't save and close any open programs first! So if you are called away from your work in progress for ten minutes you might come back to find that the pages you have slaved over for the last few hours no longer exist!

I nearly lost two hours worth of editing but caught it on the final countdown. I am on the third (hopefully final) edit now. I am mainly adding commas - but there are still a few words here and there to be tweaked... I knew that it wouldn't be a quick job to fix 350 pages of manuscript - but I never thought it would take as long as writing it, to read through and correct typos and grammar!

I have to take a break after two hours or I start putting commas after every other word... sigh. I'm sure I'll finish one day.

06:20 pm: Places to go, people to meet...
And it really did work! Yay! I have also thought of some words I meant to post before.

twocorpses on LJ is working very hard to set up another journal site, Scribblit, as a more friendly place for fandom. You won't be able to keep absolutely anything up on there once it goes live - it has to be legal! But if anything generates complaints there will be discussion and the user account won't be deleted arbitrarily. The offending item might be removed but not the entire journal. Scribblit is at the beta testing stage now. If it sounds interesting go over and have a look at the detailed explanation. http://twocorpses.livejournal.com/

Journalfen is another refuge. I haven't checked it out but apparently they aren't always open for new accounts; and when they are it may be paid accounts only. But it could be worth a look on a really twitchy day!

And just for the hell of it (GJ and IJ didn't get them before) the links for the 'tools' again:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ljarchive/

http://www.ljbook.com/


http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=84783

05:52 pm: Cooking?
And I think I might have got the hang of it - maybe! If I have this will turn up in three different places. Shame I don't have any stunning words of wisdom to impart in triplicate!

05:37 pm: Semagic testing...
Hookaayy.. I have malformed thingys that will mess stuff up... but hopefully only on IJ!

06:09 pm: Hello?
I am here. Not sure what to do now - although that insipid orange/grey colour scheme could be a good place to start...