Hodgepodge

[tmcg]

To put an end on the confusion: My chapter of Atlanta Nights begins and ends with the line "Inside Richard Isaacs." Upon rereading, I long with all my heart to change the last line to "Inside Richard Isaac's." Ah, hindsight. I'd also lowercase every trademarked term. (By the way: Proceeds from sales of the printed book go to the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund.)

I found these Snuggle Safe disks that purportedly stay warm for up to twelve hours after a few minutes of microwaving. I ordered one to put in the nest we made for the feral cats (which one of them is actually using). I post the link because the price is better than I found elsewhere, and hey, you never know what people might find handy.

The new Battlestar Galactica rocks. I'm not sure what I think about the way The West Wing is tending--toward a portrait of an idealized presidential race in which both major-party candidates are extraordinary men of integrity--but it's made for some interesting what-if discussions in our household. Lost is the current water-cooler show; one family member says they're all dead and they're in Limbo or a No Exit type of Hell (I recall a film with Richard Basehart called The Sole Survivor--has anyone else seen that?), another's money is on an sfnal dimensional vortex/time travel, and I think the kid's creating the entire reality from the comic book he was reading--but my theory changes weekly. On 24 this week, there was a triumphant surprise that somehow no one spoiled for me in advance!. We watch Lost and 24 the same way--griping about how stupid they are and then going, "Oh. Cool," and continuing to watch. The fans of EastEnders managed, on their own, to raise more than the $29,000 that the BBC charges one of our local PBS stations to carry the show for a year; I'm peeved at the greedy gouging BBC and happy for the fans and glad they raised the funds even though I couldn't bring myself to contribute to that over other causes in the world, which I'd be conflicted about except that I have more pressing conflicts to conflict me. I miss Queer as Folk and I wish I knew when it was coming back.

There was a really cool piece about industrial musicals on NPR last weekend. You can listen here.

Whoever is responsible for Microsoft Word should die alone, in pain, and infested by the fleas of a thousand camels into the eternal afterlife.

Comments

[larryhammer]

So the one Derryl attributes to Judi B. Castro. Hmph!

The true trademark name is Word Ack Ptui^TM, but for obvious reasons they shortened it for marketing purposes.

---L.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

The attribution plot keeps thickening! And keeps making me question my sanity. Of course, I could be lying to throw everybody off.

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

I swear I included my lj name and age (well, old enough).

[larryhammer]

These things don't always post correctly in comments.

---L.

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

That explains it. Thanks.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

You would definitely win the battle of the bedcovers. *g*

:: envies your daniel result ::

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

"Whoever is responsible for Microsoft Word should die alone, in pain, and infested by the fleas of a thousand camels into the eternal afterlife."

I loath bloated, interfering Word myself, and have been actively trying not to use it. Do you work on a Windows machine or a Mac? If the latter, there are some decent alternatives, like Nisus Writer Express, or (I'm still evaluating this) Apple's own Pages program. I've written most of a novel on NWE (which saves natively in RTF format), and it's been a much more pleasant experience...

[norilana.livejournal.com]

Funny you guys mention this, I just totally ranted about MS Word (http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=read&group=sff.people.vera-nazarian&art=41087) in my ng. :-)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

What you rant about there is exactly what I had to do! Hah!! I can't tell you how much I feel your pain.

[norilana.livejournal.com]

LOLOL!!!

Isn't that Headers and Footers and page numbering crap a bitch? You would think they would make it at least doable! As is, I think I managed to arrive at it by accident like once in a decade. ;-) And since then was never again able to replicate the miraculous feat.

Our mutual pain knows no end. ;-)

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions! I work on Windows machines, so I can't check them out, but for my own writing I happily use WordPerfect for Windows 6.0a, and I fondly remember WordPerfect 5.1 (DOS version).

I created some faux-typeset galleys recently for a client who needed proofs sooner than the typesetter could provide them. The printer couldn't handle WordPerfect and the RTF conversion didn't go well, so I ended up having to set the whole thing up all over again in Word. Much hair tearing ensued.

Luckily, I don't have to use the bloody thing for writing novels.

[larryhammer]

WP 5.1 for DOS was the best werp ever. <snf>

I use FrameMaker for writing. Because it really tickles me to use high-end typesetting software to create standard manuscript format.

---L.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

I've toyed with the idea of using PageMaker for that, since I have it and should get to know it better. My old company switched to Quark and so I never learned PM the way I wanted to. It's been sitting on my machine unused. Hmm!

[norilana.livejournal.com]

The New Battlestar Galactica rocks, and I totally agree with you (http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=read&group=sff.people.vera-nazarian&art=41034). As far as that chapter, supposedly Judy Castro has been credited with it, but we can probably verify by emailing Adam-Troy.

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I'm sort of tickled by the confusion and don't mind it remaining mysterious.

Cool ng posts! I keep trying to keep up over at SFF Net and failing. Must make good on that New Year's resolution to be a better participant over there.