At least 3-4 hours of it, which was the time I spent deciding I needed a new external HD, buying one in haste from the local big box, trying to install it, failing miserably, and driving back to big box to return it.

Yes, Dear Reader, it was a Day of Unintended Tech.

I found the right external HD online and ordered it, so sometime next week I may finally be able to use Time Machine as it was intended. I have an external HD currently, but it’s only 80 GB (only 80 gigs ::shakes head::) and is just about full–I can save individual files and folders, but wholesale backup is no longer possible according to said Time Machine. In addition, the 1 TB unit (1. Terabyte.) I ordered is already formatted for a Mac, which the one I struggled with today wasn’t. Yes, there were instructions for reformatting, but something kept accessing the drive even though I was sure I disabled/turned everything off, and I frankly don’t have the patience + know-how to grapple with something like that at the moment. So back to the store it went and left the store I did, return credit in hand.

What started this little rainbow ball spinning merrily down the mountain was the fact that MobileMe is going away next month and with it my access to Backup, its nifty, straightforward online storage application. I liked Backup. I could configure it to save the files/folders I wanted saved when I wanted them saved. Every night at 730pm, a little brollie appears in my Dock, and all my writing files–PC Word, Works, MacWord, Scrivener–all get backed up within an inch of their little virtual lives.

Starting sometime next month, however, MobileMe will be replaced by iCloud. The issue that served as the first warning pebble in this avalanche of WTF was the fact that iCloud only works with Lion, the new OS which I had yet to download because I kept hearing that there were Issues. Supposedly many of those Issues have been resolved and I was running out of time in any case, so today I took a deep breath and downloaded/installed Lion. I then checked Scrivener to make sure it still worked, which it did. Then I set about setting up my iCloud account.

I did believe at first that I would be able to backup my files as I had before. Not so, Dear Reader. iCloud apparently only works with iWorks and other Mac products, none of which I am using, so backing up my files as before was Right Out. This was when I reevaluated Time Machine, learned that my present external HD was no longer up to the task, and set about finding a replacement. And failing. At least until later in the week, when I SHALL SUCCEED, DAMMIT, AND SPIT IN THE FACES OF ALL THOSE *&^%$#@ WHO REPLACE PROGRAMS THAT MEET MY NEEDS WITH PROGRAMS THAT DON’T.

Don’t mention Dropbox to me. I opened an account today. It doesn’t do what I want, unless I am missing something obvious which is totally possible because I tend to intuit applications instead of reading the instructions. This system usually works reasonably well, to tell the truth, if only because a program that I can intuit is one that I will be able to work with. Like Backup. Which is going away next month, did I mention?

Night is falling. Coffee has been brewed. Some days, there isn’t enough coffee in the world.

At least the brownies came out all right. This recipe, courtesy of the folks at Recchiuti, but without the nuts and marshmallows. My batch actually tasted fairly close to the to-die-for brownies that Recchiuti sells on their website, but there were differences due to, I think, the pan and the butter. I used a glass 8×8 baking pan/dish, and did not remember until too late that you need to bake at a lower temp in glass. As for the butter, I used plain ol’ grocery store unsalted, which I doubt met the 82% butterfat requirement specified in the recipe. So, watery butter and too high a heat meant that the brownies came out slightly overbaked–still moist in the center, but dry around the edges and lacking the flourless chocolate cake density they were intended to have. That said, they’re still the best brownies I have ever made and among the best I have ever eaten. It’s a keeper recipe. I just need to tweak. And get hold of a good metal pan and some boutique butter.

And it’s now dark outside. Chilly day, as it turned out. Rainy morning. Tomorrow, however, we are supposed to set records–I am hearing rumors of triple-digit temps, which would be an almost 40-degree upswing from today. Personally I think those of us north of the city will be cooler, but I guess we’ll see.

Mind’s churning a little bit. Tech has that effect on me. If I were a hard drive, I would be racing.

Backup’s going away next month. Fck.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/?p=3754

The church across the way has for some reason taken us under its wing—they came to our rescue when Jane was sick last year, laying paths in the back yard, around the koi pond, helping with weeding, and such, and laying the very heavy boundary stones, moving our load of rock up onto the level of the lawn and putting it in place, and generally doing in one day things that would have taken us all summer.

They are coming back tomorrow to do their thing, move basalt chips, lay paths in front, and generally to help us get in shape for summer. They are, the next week, having a garage sale, and we have ton’ o’ stuff to offload, literally not the kitchen sink, but the bathroom one, and so on and so on. This was an offer we couldn’t refuse—or afford, if we had to hire them: we contribute cookies and sinks and they contribute labor, making it possible for us to get our whole lives sorted out.. We were supposed to be at Miscon, not as guests, but as attendees, and I’m going to miss my old corresponding buddy George RR Martin—and John Dalmas; but we just can’t turn this down. Our wheelbarrow finally broke down (one of those really tough Lowe’s best ones) and we got another. So we’ll have two wheelbarrows going and people with rakes and weedcloth and weedcloth pins, and it’s all going to be so good!

We’re not members. They’re just being nice. Maybe one year we can go across the way and help them gardenize their corner, which could be a great garden.

Words: 2264
Total words: 5764
Files: 3
Tea: White Orchard
Music: Three Double Concertos, arguably the best music of all time ever.
RSI: Forgot that line, didn't I? Well, reminded of it now.
Reason for stopping: end of chapter.

I'm two chapters in, and these people are five courses through a twelve course lunch? Seriously? Oh well, we've also had a lot of backstory. It'll work out.

Anybody know anything about ballet that they didn't get from Noel Streatfeild and Rumer Godden? Any recommendations for ballet blogs?

Books 2012: 83-84


83. M.K. Hobson, The Native Star. (Spectra, 2010.)

I believe it was anne who described this as a slight book. I have to agree: there is little here of substance, and ultimately failed to portray its world or characters in convincing depth. Afficionados of late-19th-century fantasy Americana may be entertained by this fish-out-of-water quest-cum-love story, but it has little to say for itself that has not been said better elsewhere.


84. Ian McDonald, King of Morning, Queen of Day. (Bantam, 1992.)

An astonishing and accomplished novel, if stylistically difficult and, conceptually, very much working in a postmodernist vein. (I hate postmodernism as found in literature, normally. This? This is very much an exception.) It is also a deeply Irish book. And it treats the fantastic in an oddly slipstream/cyberpunkish/sfnal fashion. Although, hmm. I do not feel that the ending was earned.

I mean, I still have no plans to read Brasyl or River of Gods or the like. But this is a damned interesting book.

---

I am tired and sour and hate the world. I wonder why? Oh, right. I have work to do, and cannot conceive of how to start. (And fretting about finances and other things I cannot change is very wearing. I must wait until August to know if I have achieved funding, and backup plans cannot be set out upon without more knowledge of what shall come to pass at that time. Sigh.)

This entry was originally posted at http://hawkwing-lb.dreamwidth.org/479699.html. There are comments there. Comment where you like.

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Two fascinating surveys appeared this week. They look at opposite ends of the writing business, but dovetail in interesting ways. (This is going to be a long post, so please bear with me.)

The Writers' Workshop Survey of Professional Authors

In March, the Writers' Workshop, a UK-based writers' consultancy, launched a survey of traditionally published authors. The aim: to discover how authors feel about their publishers in a time of rapid change, where "it has become possible – arguably for the first time in history – for authors to detach themselves from publishers."

The survey results were posted this week, and they make for interesting reading. Authors are generally happy with a number of aspects of the traditional publishing process--notably, the editing they receive.

Around 75% of authors rated their editorial input as having been good or (more commonly) excellent. Just 14% disagreed...

Similarly – and again contrary to many stories about declining standards – authors rate their publishers extremely highly on copy-editing, proof-reading, page design and so forth. More than 80% of authors regarded their publishers as being good-to-excellent in these areas...

On the matters of cover design and jacket copy, authors remained broadly positive. About three-fifths of authors were highly satisfied with the way these things turned out. The remainder were, on the whole, ‘somewhat’ satisfied.

Marketing, however, was a different story. A majority of authors felt they weren't adequately consulted on their publishers' marketing plans, that their skills and strengths weren't adequately utilized, and that they had little input or control (ah yes--I know the feeling). About half the respondents felt that communication by the publisher was poor, and nearly half said that their publishers never sought feedback from them.

And while there is much grumbling in the writing community about the lack of publisher loyalty, with publishers no longer willing to stick with writers over several books while they build an audience, authors are just as fickle. 40% of survey respondents said they'd move to another house if given the chance. 22% weren't sure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

I'm hearing from people who've found early copies of Casket of Souls, so I'm setting up the usual space for conversing, with the caveat that THERE WILL BE SPOILERS most likely, so if you haven't read the book, don't come in!

Almost makes me want to watch Eurovision. Almost.

Should the OAS set upsomething similar for North and South America?

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2012/05/some-comments-on-the-comments-selective-service/

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/?p=4990

Although I often get tempted to get into the discussions that keep coming up in the “Comments” appended to each item we post, I usually hold my tongue. This isn’t because I don’t enjoy a good argument, it’s just because I don’t think it’s fair for me to get into arguments where I would always [...]

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/26/musical-synchronicity-of-a-certain-miserable-sort/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18704

It may just be me, but I think the lead characters of these respective and currently popular songs deserve each other. Listening to the lyrics will help to explain why.