Online Angst-o-rama

It seems like entropy passes through in waves. I think "things come in threes" is a version of that observation, because it's hardly ever things coming TOGETHER in threes, one after the other. In the world of mechanics and data, things spontaeously break. It's only in the amazing world of biology that broken things mend. But that's a story for when I'm wearing my PT hat. This morning, I speak specifically of things digital.

First, I discovered early last week that my AdSense ads had disappeared from my sidebar. Then later that day, they reappeared. The next day they were gone again. Blogger Gary Boyd told me he had the same problem, but it was a FireFox problem. Sure enough, they show up on MSIE. And should I worry? Problogger is talking about reports of Adsense pay-per-click freefall. So maybe my little problem makes no difference.

Second, while my switch from PC-Cillin Internet Security to Kaspersky Internet Security went fine on the desktop, it failed to install completely on the laptop. I'll hold my flames pending what now can no longer be a prompt resolution of that problem. But one consequence of the proper installation is that I can't get to Sitemeter (Kaspersky smells a rat.) Again, maybe that isn't such a bad thing, since Sitemeter seems to have sold out to a sitetracking cookie monster (half a dozen, actually; I just followed the directions at this link and removed them and banned the source--specificclick.net--from my browser. You might want to consider doing the same. If anybody thinks this is NOT true, or NOT a problem, I am willing to be disabused of my sadness at the loss of Sitemeter after more than five years of use.

Thirdly, well as I said, Kaspersky. Tech support has responded to two emails, but each time it has taken a full two days (this is the third since the last one and no reply.) So my Friday installion from last week on the laptop still has not been resolved. I'm hoping that once it is, we'll have smooth sailing. I'll most definitely let you know the outcome.

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

It was exactly the kind of morning I dread: no traction, no resolution in sight, damned if I do or if I don't. The issue, to upgrade my internet security / antivirus software (PC-Cillin 2007) before the deadline a week off--to suffer the ills I know, or change to something else entirely. The pros just about exactly equaled the cons, and I could not for the life of me decide.

But in the end, given the bad consumer reviews of my current program, I decided for a change despite the negatives--like the fact that I have to buy separate licenses for laptop and desktop. But wait: there's a competitive upgrade, $25 off. All I do is send in my original install disk of PC-Cillin 2005. Hmmm. Now where have I seen that lately?

But it wasn't in any of the obvious places, and yet I had a clear image of it in my mind. Where the heck could I put my hands on it, now that I had committed to Kaspersky Internet Security 6?

Aha! I remembered: it's tied out on the garden fence, one of a dozen sparkling, twirling CDs blowing in the morning breeze, software defense turned gardening offense.

I think they'll take it for the rebate, even though it has a little hole drilled in it for the fishing line. Ya think?

Image: Sensitive Fern, Onoclea sensibilis, so named for its susceptibility to the first frost of fall, and somewhat unusual in that its pinnae are lobed lightly but not dissected like the more lacy ferns. I think the term is "once-pinnately divided".fff

Phoenix: Fragments from the Ashes. Or Not

I'm going to have to do something drastic--not to mention half-informed--to be able to make changes to the sidebar again.

One day last week, comments disappeared, only for a single post. To get it back, I hit republish (my blog is housed off-site, not with Blogger) and when the page reappeared, the background was white. My light gray text disappeared, of course.

A reverting to a saved February template brought back the gray background (and the old header images, and the outdate Adsense blocks, and the first not second set of notecards.

I'd really like to fix all that--and add some important new elements as well--but now if I do as much as add a single space or change one letter of one word in the template, when I preview it, I'm back to the white background .

Blogger forums have been silent to my posts for help. I'm on my own with this one. So if I disappear for a day or three, I am fumbling blind trying to start over with a fresh template and build it back, one item at a time.

I'll still have Nameless Creek as an outlet for my blogger notions, so check over there if things are FUBAR'ed here. And of course, if anybody has an inkling what might be going on, or how to make this repair/transition without excessive hair pulling, I'm listening. I probably won't dive in until some time tomorrow.

Summer Stock. Woodstock. Photo Stock

What do I know about image sales? Not nearly as much as I hope to after a few months growing a portfolio over at Lucky Oliver. What! You never heard of LO?

Swing over and take a look, including a visit to the blog where the "grand scheme" marketing plan unfolds. Or start from the Main Page, the Big Top of this carnival of imagery and community.

I'm pleased that I deal with people--folks like Jill yesterday who repeatedly looked at an image I was trying to submit unsuccessfully and guided me along through a string of immediate email replies until I got it right. I now have my first three images accepted, and hope for a few dozen more over the next few weeks.

The other thing I appreciate at Lucky Oliver is that the story of the image is given considerable emphasis. There's more going on here than a simple repository of pix. It's early yet, but I'm impressed with the feel of the place, and hope you'll help spread the word. Heck, maybe toss your three in the ring and see if you win a Cupie Doll. Step right up! Roll up those shirt sleeves, and test your luck and skills, bucko!

Blunt Trauma

The sickening blow came suddenly, without warning, just the way that accidental injuries always happen.

One second, parts are intact, working normally, and we take them for granted. The next, we wonder what we could have done to have avoided the pain, the dysfunction, the inconvenience we know will follow. And there's not a thing we can do to put the genie back in the bottle; we just live with the consequences of the fickle finger of fate and hope for the best.

No, I'm fine. It's my camera--specifically, the Nikkor 18-200 VR lens--that is on its way to the Nikon Hospital in NY. At work on Friday, the camera fell from about a foot while I was using it to photograph a patient's exercises for her.

The lens filter is bent, and it just might be that, in addition to other internal damage, they won't be able to get the damaged filter off because of the bent threads. It might be it can't be fixed. A new replacement lens (oh how that would hurt my Goose Creek account!) might be hard to find; they're on backorder most places.

I love that lens. (The camera, thankfully, is okay, and I'm back to the 18-80mm plus the luggable 80-200, for how long, I don't know.)

I literally got sick at my stomach when it happened and for much of the day on Friday. But then I put my little crisis in perspective compared to the events of the noon news, or to recent events so close to home. All things considered, it's only a scratch.

Bodies Fit for Work

I have a compliant patient! Can you believe that?

On her first visit, we addressed the obvious observable issue of posture (forward shoulders forward head) and its role in her presenting complaint of upper back pain.

We talked about her workplace ergonomics, bent over a computer keyboard for the better part of each day. Oh, carpal tunnel-like symptoms, too? Let's look at how you use your keyboard, your monitor placement, that sort of thing.

And you have stress at work? How remarkable!

And how often to you get up and move around? Do you do any stretches at work? NO? I'd suggest you find a freeware program that minimally reminds you to stop using the keyboard every 15-20 minutes or so.

She came back the second week having fully implemented everything we'd talked about. Matter of fact, with her input after the PT evaluation, her boss recommended "ergonomic keyboards" for everybody who wanted one.

And she told me about Ergocise, a free reminder-and-exercise program she found that I strongly suggest for ALL YOU GEEKS out there that forget you have an actual bricks-and-mortar body to tend to while you surf, browse, blog and chat. GO GET ERGOCISED!

Going, Going. GoogleGone!

I thought I'd jump in here and post something quickly--before the Google empire decides to disappear again.

First thing this morning, I could get anyplace on the web EXCEPT if it was owned by Google.

No Gmail. No Blogger. No Adsense reports. No personal search history page. Google News was there but sluggish.

Now, mail is back--sort of--and has been SENDING a single short email now for several minutes, and will probably crash. So I'm expecting the same thing to happen when I try to send this post--wanna bet?

So just in the way of a warning if you're online day is just starting: the bridge to Google may be out. That the entire empire can be effected (by a server-swarm failure, by a hacker, by whatever) gives one pause before investing fully in the Google empire of apps. At least it does me.

The Right Stuff

I'm eternally searching for just the right tool for the task(s). Lately, definitely PLURAL.

"Right" means it helps me work the way I think, carrying me with the least possible intrusion by the tool toward completion of the job or jobs at hand.

And when it comes to sorting out the "action items" on my plate, it helps me to see the whole plate. For that, I've often tried, then abandoned software utilities called "mind mappers."

But here's one such web-based, free and sophisticated program I just might stay with. It's called Mindomo. Just click the LAUNCH button. My PROJECTS map has 16 MAIN TOPICS so far, some of them running three levels deep. I can SEE all the things that are "out there", in various states of need or progress, and decide what "to do" to move each along. Then I set alarms and calendar events accordingly. And I can see the same map from work or home, laptop or desktop.

Works for me. Another similar program is bubbl.us but I think I like Mindomo better. I wish it didn't take so many clicks to start a particular saved map on startup. It's still in beta but I'm finding it fully functional. Your mileage may vary.

Why I Want an iPod: End of message

I've tried to convince myself that when my "egg money" built to a certain level, I'd look at getting an iPod. Why? Because radio reception is crummy between the house and work (though sometimes the static only enhances the mood of the oldies station from Wytheville.) And I have six CD's in the built-in stereo. And NPR always comes in good, even the other side of Pilot Mountain. So maybe this isn't a very good reason.

But I've thought man, it would be great to have an iPod to be able to listen to audio books when I travel. That would make the miles zip by. But other than to work, I hardly ever travel. And when I do, it's usually not very far.

And I have a CD player in the car--and the easiest way to get audio books is on CD from the library. (Tip: Converting CD's to iPod files) And I generally would rather be thinking about something I wanted to write about than being entertained by somebody else's thoughts.

But then, there are some really interesting looking podcasts available for download that I would never sit and listen to stuck behind a computer. Where would I listen to this kind of audio program except driving to work? -- so we've come back to caveat number one.

Well then. I feel better having had this little conversation. And I appreciate your contribution to the egg money fund by following sidebar ad links to the Biltmore House, Blue Ridge Parkway, Crooked Road, bed & breakfasts, and the good links to Virginia.org visitor information like the Virginia Travel Directory. (Sorry for too many that sell land or law or irrelevant junk, but they're getting more contextual over time.) I've been curious myself where some of these lead--like "hiking in Virginia"--but I can't go there per google's rules.

So the egg money fund will grow on little bit by bit, and I'll most likely look to invest in something related to either the photography or the writing. Or find a suitable local charity. When I decide, I'll let you know, and thanks again.

FeedBack, Y'all

I told you in the "FEEDS I'M READING" sidebar about Scribd, billed as the "You-Tube for Text". It was swamped with submissions when I first tried to upload a file; it was zippy today.

And for starters, I uploaded Gene Hyde's review of Slow Road Home that I converted to pdf, but this seems to load much faster than pdf, and may be the wave of the future for linking to documents that in the past have been too complex, too large, too slow to load in a browser.

Would a few of you click on the link here to tell me if you could access the page quickly and without problems? Many Thanks! -- Fred

Serving Suggestion

To read the Google Reader sidebar FEEDS/BLOGS I'M READING all on one continuous page, click the READ MORE at the end. Or click here.

I find this is a good way to both share and remember news or blog pieces I might want to return to--sort of like creating my own newspaper for later. However, unless you go to the trouble periodically to "unshare" older items, this list can grow indefinitely--which I guess is no big whoop since Google is storing all my "newspaper" pages on their server.

Snappy Screen Capture

I haven't added many new Firefox extensions lately. At least, I haven't kept many once I tried them.

But Snapper now lives on my browser window just above the task bar. It shows there up as a little red fish.

When I want to save a piece of a browser screen (for instance, to send tech support an image of a dialog box with an error code) I click the fish (that temporarily opens his mouth to show the program is active), left click and drag around the rectangle of screen I want, and the file, in png format, is sent to storage where ever I have designated the program to store these little pieces of browser screens. Very handy.

But if you use Firefox 2, you'll need to get the modified extension here at this link.

Nibbled to Death By Mice

I hate it when something that outta work just won't. And I'm sorry to voice my frustations publicly, but only do so to say: I'm getting there. Bear with me.

I don't know how many of you bloggers are using Google Adsense for your blogger.com blogs. Some will be far more focused and on-topic than Fragments. And your frustration with getting relevant ads may be less then than mine has been this first week.

But I bring this up because I am no longer at the very bottom of the learning curve. I've learned a couple of things that might help others. And miles to go before I sleep.

Curse of Fragments: too many subjects, too few particulars (of brand name, place name, hot-button topics). The google-bots may have a hard time figuring out what this page is about. (Heck, I've been writing it for almost five years and I'm not sure myself!)

Partial fix: First of all, be patient. It takes Google weeks sometimes to do a thorough scan of a site, especially one with as many pages in archives as Fragments from Floyd. Second, label pictures, and make post titles specific to topic--not the zany, alliterative types I like to use.

And lastly (at least for now) use Section Targeting. I can do this for words and phrases within posts. Haven't quite figured out what part or parts of the blogger template to apply this to yet.

Also note: if you click on recent archive pages (like January 07) or an individual permalink, they show rather precisely targeted ads. The main page: not so hot. Yet. Keywords: blogger.com, Adsense, ads relevance

Notezilla: Sticky Notes Brain Extender

Work Flow and Organization Habits are like belly buttons: everybody's got one.

But getting better at keeping projects, bills, calls, emails, deadlines, blogs, columns, and honey-do's all done well and on time--at least for me--gets more complicated as life (paradoxically) gets MORE complicated here in our SILVER YEARS and the cerebral software needs more frequent rebooting.

I thought I'd mention a few of these over the next little bit, as some of you may find them helpful as I have.

Notezilla is the latest version (and name change) of a sticky-note software I've used for a couple of years. Formerly called Quick Notes Plus, I debated about upgrading. There is always the risk of having so many different methods and destinations to store facts and factoids and alarms that the tools make the task MORE complicated rather than less.

But in the end, I took the gamble, paid the $15 upgrade fee, and am glad I did. Briefly, here's what this program does for me that sets it apart:

Hot key brings a new note to the desktop. I type a few words or a short paragraph I want to remember or do. That note can be 1) sent to the relevant "memoboard" (think FOLDER) for storage, with or without an alarm. 2) it can immediately be sent to my laptop (with or without a file attachment) or sent as an email. 3) it can immediately be hotkeyed to "stick" only to the webpage, word doc, spreadsheet or html editor I'm using at the time, with text based on the context of that page only, with or without alarms. Next time I call up the page, there's the sticky with my password, or what I meant to do next time I was on that page.

Function #3 is the one I use constantly. If you participate in a larger network than just your desktop and laptop, this program could be very useful--almost like an instant messenger within your local network.

Your mileage may vary. The program is free to try. What have you got to lose--except your to-do list, your travel expenses, your web addresses for the problem du jour, your...

Help Wanted

UPDATE 2 pm 29 Jan: Thanks to 7 ad clickers, this morning's grand total of 31 AdSense pennies jumped to more than $4 today. Much appreciated, and consider giving an occasional peek at an ad while you're visiting the blog. I'm not in it for the money, but I'm not opposed to making my hobbies come closer to break-even. Yoo Hooo!

Doh! Murphy was right: whatever you want to do, you have to do something else first. (And the corollary is also true: whatever you want to do takes longer than you think. And costs more than you figured.)

I have no way to say for sure. I used a different kind of CD-R disk yesterday and the NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A built into my 3.5 year old Dell XPS desktop still gives me E800418ac: fixation error after it seemingly has copied files to disk. If I had a second machine and could try it there, I could rule out a Windows problem. As it is, I could put in a new drive and STILL not be able to move image files from 2000 through 2004 from the hard drive to disk storage. With the 16 Mb RAW images from the D200, I'm going to be needing to make room. Doh! Nothing on the web about fixing this problem that seems solid. Machine no longer under warranty. Doh!

Also under HELP WANTED: any Virginia readers who know about events coming up in 2007 where a starving author could pitch his books to a potential readership, please let me know. This morning, emails sent to the Galax Book Festival and the Fall for the Book festival at George Mason in September. I know there are others. Somebody out there in bookfestland might even consider a self-published author--ya think?

Also, I'd still be grateful for supportive reviews of SRH at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And I trust the Google Adsense ads aren't causing a great deal of wretching out there in Fragments land. Heck, man, I've already made 31 cents! At this rate, I can pay almost 15% of my DSL charges per month! Click on a couple of those links, wouldja, so I can see if they make any discernable difference at all in "income". Hmmm. Slow going. But then the continents have spread apart going only 1 millimeter every hundred years. I'm patient. If not immortal.

Bird Flu Yet to Fly

This is a topic I've not blogged lately, but I've continued to follow the H5N1 news all along. I became aware of, interested in, and concerned about the potential of this global public health issue while teaching biology at Radford in 2004 and 2005.

While the tens of millions of birds who have died from it or been slaughtered because of it might not think so, the virus has been kind to the planet by an evolution toward human transmission that has been slow. But change in this direction has not been non-existent. The incidence of Tamiflu resistance and possibly of family cluster And since it first appeared in a relatively small geographic area, bird hosts now harbor the virus over the majority of the planet. Take a look at the clickable map, and especially of the changes over the second half of 2006. Meanwhile, vaccine development goes on, with small victories and discouraging defeats.

And the press, understandably, is suffering from bird flu burnout, as is the general public. How does a nation, state, or community far removed from the Asian center of this pathogen remain appropriately vigilant for months, for years and not become complacent?

From Yahoo News: Bird flu surges in 2006: WHO chief - Yahoo! News: ... 2006 was a record year for human bird flu deaths. There were 161 deaths from bird flu worldwide in 2006 out of 267 confirmed cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.

"More deaths occurred in 2006 than in the previous years combined," the WHO director general said Monday.

The fatality rate reached 70 percent last year, 10 percent above the average since the first recorded deaths in China and Vietnam in 2003.

"The message is straightforward: we must not let down our guard," Chan said at the opening of the WHO's executive board meeting.

"As long as the virus continues to circulate in birds, the threat of a pandemic will persist. The world is years away from control in the agricultural sector," she warned.

A Little Times a Lot

The latter measure remains to be seen, but hopefully, sales of SRH via a wider distribution will eventually net a bit of return. I'm in a better position to see how that will shake out, now that for the first time, my "publisher's compensation" page on the Lightning Source site shows some books have been ordered. Here's how it shakes out.

Retail price: $15.95
Wholesale price: $7.18 (at 55% discount, a pretty standard expectation)
Printing cost per book: about $4
My profit per book: about $3.25

This seems pretty sad compared to what I net from direct sales (if you don't count my time or the cost of gasoline for travel or depreciation on the car, or...) But even so, compared to the return per book of 4 to 7.5% in royalties I'd expect if I had gotten the book out through a publisher, this 20 percent return isn't bad. And it requires no more time or effort on my part than to keep the records I'll be sent (and deposit the check) at the end of each month.

So where to go with the color image book? Lightning Source can print them. These folks can do it cheaper with long-established presses in Canada and China.

How will I see how each image comes through the printing process without a direct proof of each page? The way it looks on my monitor may be way different from how it comes out on paper. With a publisher and graphic person to communicate with, this would we far easier. Should I then think about pitching this to a publisher, knowing if I pull it off, I might make less than a dollar a book?

Sorry. Just thinking out loud this morning. This is all new country for me and I'm a little unsure where I'm going in it. It's nice to have your company.

Wider Circles

This may seem a small accomplishment to some, but the fact that Slow Road is now available via Amazon.com is a major milestone for my little project. The book is also on Barnes and Noble's webpage, and others, perhaps.

This opens up a new means of getting the book before readers outside southwest Virginia even while I've only been reaching that audience in some small and limited way for about eight months at this point.

However, being qualified as a POD book, Slow Road will not routinely be shelved in the Shopping Mall Big Box Book Stores stores for people to pick up, peruse, and purchase. And of course, Amazon is all virtual, and the book will only be found by folks guided to the site by connections with other similar books, by tags, key words and getting the book's site up from the low end of the rankings of the gazillions of books offered there.

Here's where I would be most appreciative of your help.

Both Amazon and B&N welcome reader reviews. This would be especially easy to do for those of you who have in the past months been kind enough to write a short review of the book on your blogs--a matter of cut and paste. Please consider doing this, won't you?

A thousand people have the book now. A dozen nice reviews that also mention other similar books would do wonders to make Slow Road Home visible to a wider readership.

So many of you have been a part of this sojourn since the early days. Thanks for hanging with me this far, and for spreading the word as many of you have done to your book clubs, family circles, workplaces and local bookstores. Please continue to do so as I am preparing my spring and summer calendar and would love to pencil in 4-5 engagements per month within 100 miles of home.

I do look forward to what lies ahead. If Slow Road can reach a little self-sustaining momentum via online sales, I will be able to focus more on some of the other things I'm excited about--both new writing and photography and the marriage of both. Perhaps more about that to come later this week.

And lastly, let me mention that if you want a first edition, fewer than 100 copies remain upstairs in the Very Back Room! Don't delay! And a reminder: the book and a pack of Fragments Notecards (see Fragments sidebar) are still available for $25.

Review Slow Road Home at Amazon.com
Review Slow Road Home at Barnes and Noble

Those Look Lyke Cumftubble Shoes

Granted, I didn't know where I was going yesterday afternoon. Originally, the meeting was scheduled for the Winston Link Museum, but nobody there knew anything about it. A phone call found out that the writers' meeting had been rescheduled for the art museum three quarters of a mile away, in the center of downtown Roanoke. As problematic as parking would be, I'd walk, thank you.

But no, actually it was not at the art museum but around the corner another few blocks at the Center on Church. And so I paid the penalty of being a half hour late, and only after the meeting was over, as I began to walk the mile and a half back to the car, did I realize I also had paid the penalty that a country boy pays when he walks fast on city streets and sidewalks in his prissy dress shoes--fine for standing about but not so good on pavement.

My shins were so sore after the meeting that I had to walk on my heels all the way back to the car. And yes, they are even more sore this morning. Call me R2D2.

On my way home from Roanoke, I stopped by to see an elderly gentleman I had learned about from a local minister at a party. The man's wife of almost 70 years and died recently, and the minister, knowing that I was interested in local stories, described this gentleman is being a master storyteller and in some considerable need of company just now. My intention was just to stop by and introduce myself to him, bedridden and living with relatives at the foot of the mountain.

Instead, I spent almost an hour there--only maybe 15 minutes of that with my recorder on, with his permission of course. I haven't reviewed it yet. I'd like to think I would go back and hear much more of what he has to tell about life in Floyd County in the 30s and 40s. I at least need to get what I have onto the hard drive today and then send it on a CD to his family, who have never been able to get this man's life to paper or other permanent recording. Pity, the loss when these old treasures are gone.

By the time I got home it was already dark. My camera and lens had come (I was almost too exhausted to care) but only be after the sun comes up this morning will I be able to do anything to test the combo, now that the batteries are charged and everything is ready to go. The D200 sure feels good in the hand!

I have waded into an online users guide for the camera that is quite excellent, making recommendations about some of the custom settings and explaining some of the more arcane aspects of this extensively--tweakable camera.

It is a little unsettling to be near the bottom of the learning curve again, after the D70 had become so familiar. But it's a little exciting, too. And I'm up to my hip waders in taking notes, so apologies for this blah blah post. Maybe I can get an image up later today--from the new camera-lens combo, of course!

A Penny Saved...

...is a big disappointment.

I have been pleasantly distracted these past several days with the notion that it is time for me to upgrade my camera: FROM the current Nikon D70 since April 2004 TO the Nikon D200. And although I initially considered lesser lenses, I had at last resolved to spend extra for this lens:

Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX VR II

What a lens! What a combination! Do it!

But then, my camera-lust relented as my frugal nature regained control, and I arrived at a middle position: hold off on the camera body and stick with the D70 until the price drops some more on the D200. Just get the lens. You can sell your 18-80mm and your 80-200mm and recoup some of the high price for the 18-200 and carry just the single lens! Perfect compromise solution! Yes, I'll do it. I'll order the lens this morning.

No you won't. They seem to be backordered (at acceptable prices) until the third quarter of 2007. Sigh.

NOW THIS! Since posting the above at 5:00 as a draft, I caved. The lens is available WITH the camera body. B&H has them in stock. I ordered the combo at 6 this morning. Oy. Now, I'll be looking to sell some Nikon lenses and a D70 body. More about that soon enough. (Fred doing happy dance--quietly: wife still sleeping.)

Ho Ho Hum

Don't mind me. And of course, I don't have to tell you that, all you bloggers who are NOT reading blogs or writing to yours today, immersed as you are in family events of the holiday. I, however, am alone and entertaining myself--watching the fog roll down off the ridges, occasionally tormenting the dog, snacking on sugary or fat-sat munchies to wile away the hours til the first wave of company rolls in after dark. Ann left for work a bit ago, won't be home til midnight.

Not that I have not been busy this past week--hence, some gaps in the regular posting to Fragments--but those tales have only been the kind of thing to blog on a day when nobody is listening--for my ears only, mostly--like today. And hey, it's my blog, so here's what's happening on Goose Creek.

On Saturday, the proof copy of Slow Road Home was delivered--a day late, not overnight by UPS as promised, but over two nights: "item missed at destination" it said on the tracking page. Somebody in Roanoke was asleep at the wheel. And I must tell you, it was with some dread I upboxed the book and took my first look on Saturday afternoon.

Suffice it to say, at first glance, I was relieved. The only option for the laminate was glossy, not mat like the first edition. I had feared it would look like plastic. In fact the colors and edges are sharper and brighter that the original (in addition to the fact that I upped the saturation a bit before submitting the cover file.) I also eliminated the background color from the spine, and so now the text (title, name and publisher) is simply laid down over the cover image that spills nicely without a break from front to back--much more contiguous a scene than before. Downside: the cover stock is not as heavy, and I think maybe a little less durable to wear than the offset-printed book from Edwards Brothers.

Internally, the Table of Contents I think is a good plus for the second edition. I made some changes there after seeing it for the first time in the Lightning Source copy. The interior black and white image quality was another place I dreaded to see in the revised version, but they actually are little different from the offset half-tone versions, and I'm pleased.

However, the subheadings for each little piece that originally were gray (60% black) just for detail came out looking thin and rasterized, so I converted them to 100% black. I'll have to send in a revised text file now, but that's all ready to go on Tuesday, and the book should be completed and ready to have its presence made known to Amazon, Barnes and Noble and such by the first of the year--which was my target date! (and Google Books? I rankle at having them scan the book and parse it out to customers. To be decided--next week.)

Busy year? You bet. This time last year, I hadn't even started compiling the book from the Fragments posts that formed the basis for the book. I didn't have a clear idea of where I wanted it to go with it, organization-wise, and had no idea how I would create it other than to start out in Word (but ultimately purchased Adobe Creative Suites through my now-expired status as adjunct faculty at Radford U.)

I had little certainty then that I would persevere to complete it and actually ever have it in my hands. This in the end came to reality on April 27 when 24 cartons of 48 books were deposited in our driveway. I did know that, for the first run, I wanted to "do it by hand", which I have done. Every copy sold to date has been signed. Now I'm ready for step two: making the process run itself via digital printing and order fulfillment while I move on to other things (while still doing book events, drop-shipping to individuals, and keeping some degree of direct personal involvement.)

About future endeavors: more to come!

Sand in the Gears

Technology. Bah! Humbug. It's down a few notches on my list of the Wonders of our Age. Sometimes I wonder how things would be without so much of it intruding into our dreams and waking hours. But then, I've just been dealing too much lately with computer keyboards and not enough with family and friends. Maybe that is about to come to an end. I'll be with folks for the bulk of today, much of tomorrow, and away from blogger issues, upgrade decisions and the fine print of digital paperwork. I bet I'll wake up in a more technophilic state of mind tomorrow.

BlahBlahBlogger
Blogger is unreliable. Several times in the past two weeks, it won't let me post (like yesterday for instance.) Then after I give up and am away, mysteriously, it posts. Something about an sFTP socket error.

Failing Memory
I probably should upgrade and add another gig of RAM to bring my 3.5 year old desktop up to 2 GB. On such an old machine, does that make sense? And with four 256Mb chips in the four slots, I'd have to replace them all with 512MB chips to get to two gig--more than $200 upgrade. I've lived this long with barely enough memory to run Photoshop, Word, Excel and InDesign at the same time--sluggishly. Maybe I should just make do.

Did I say that?
The speech-to-text software (Naturally Speaking) is a mixed blessing. I can't use it in the mornings when I do a good bit of my writing because Ann is either here talking or here asleep. It has done some strange things on my desktop--like hanging the system during use, deleting entire email messages suddenly, as if I said "the dog ate my lunch" which means "delete this document immediately!" On the laptop, it is helping with the physical therapy paperwork, now that I've finally trained it to recognize that I'm saying PARASPINALS and not PAIR OF SPINE EELS. And so on.

BookNotes
Thanks to Fragments friend, reader-editor Bob, for helping me find my way forward into what happens next with the life of Slow Road Home. I'm dipping into the last of the offset-printed books (about 160 left from the first shipment of 1145) and need to move on. Here's what I've decided to do, with advice of those who have a better idea of how these things work than I do: Have the book digitally printed. Call it a second edition rather than merely a revision (it has a full TOC and I made maybe 100 small changes and a dozen corrections). Give it a new ISBN number (I purchased a bundle of 10 and only used the one for SRH 1st ed so far). Get a Library of Congress catalog number for the book (a PCN that is the self--published book version of the LCC#). This process will pass the book back through Books in Print and help it "start over" with the potential of distribution through Ingrams to those places that wouldn't bother ordering it from my back room here on Goose Creek. So all that is in place, just awaiting a few final details.

Christmas Giftpack from Goose Creek
Thanks to all who have availed themselves of the one-book plus notecard set offer for $25. I packed one up last night, and stopped for a minute to really appreciate how amazing that really was. Last year this month, I told people (and myself) I was finally going to complete the book. I honestly didn't know if I would or could do it. Then it was done. Then hundreds of them came up our drive on a truck. Then I wondered if I'd still have 900 in the Annex come Christmas. The notecards came only a week ago--at Ann's insistence, and now I've done another thing I said I was going to do "some day" but never really believed myself. And what a wonderful role you readers, friends, editors, writers, bloggers and general characters, online and local, have played in all of this. And that is the most wonderful part--to be able to share these times from this place with you, in words and pixels.

And coming full circle, it certainly wouldn't have happened this way without the marvelous technologies that we rely on. When they work, they are the most amazing tools. Now, let's see if the software will hark up a hairball when I try to post this at 6:45 on Saturday morning...