Writing has always been a "nice work if you can get it" type of thing for me. I'm at a place in my life where that's something I can explore.
I tried Patreon for a while, but it had two problems -- my kind of thing really didn't fit their model, and their recent adventures in changing their fee structure really didn't give me any confidence in them. I'm exploring a couple options right now. You'll see them soon. I'm also working on setting up a store for selling my books both here and including them on Amazon. There's a lot of infrastructure involved there, too. Anyone who tells you that self-publishing is easier than traditional publishing, you can laugh in their face for me. Luckily I have the skills and tools to do it, and I think it will be okay. It's just a metric butt-tonne of work. And speaking of, I need to get back at it. As a part of my periodic attempts to get my ducks arranged at least into a shape that can be expressed as a fractal, I'm exploring what this site can do besides display words and annoy me with it's ideas of how HTML is supposed to work (see tomorrow's possible entry "Responsive design, or Replusive design?"). As a programmer and technical writer, I sometimes find cause to have to speak code in something besides a code editor. This can be a challenge. I have built fancy styles in my word processor, but those do me no good here. While flopping around in the apps list for this service like a stranded fish looking for anything that seemed even remotely useful I found an add-on that's supposed to do that for me. There it is. You have a few settings to make it readable, and it's supposedly language specific (that's a regular expression using the XQuery setting, in case you were wondering). Without context it seems kind of silly, but in application it's pretty slick. I just cut and pasted that out of an Excel spreadsheet and it figured it all out instead of me changing colors and doing all sorts of formatting chants and dances.
So, Hello World! ;) A friend and I are trying the Habatica app together. If you've never heard of it, it's a tool that allows you to setup a list of tasks, and then the app makes it into a roleplaying game, where you gain XP and gold from doing the things you've set up for yourself, and lose HP for not doing them. And you can have your friends join too, so you can all work together on your to-do lists and bad-habit-breaking.
We'll see how it goes. I'm EXTREMELY interested in it right now, but we'll see how it goes over the long haul. Heck, this blog post came about because it's one of the things I'm going to be trying to get better about. ;) You can check it out yourself at http://www.habatica.com A friend on Facebook asked me about my service dog, and their user interface wouldn't let me put my answer there, so I'm going to put it here and link to it. ;)
A lot depends on what you need the dog for. A mobility support dog, like seeing eye dogs, has a pretty defined path. If you need them for other things, it really depends on what your needs are, and what amount of effort you are able to put in. There are a lot of factors to consider. This is a complicated thing, and it's great that you're doing your research before you jump in. This is going to get long. Let me introduce us. My dog is a now eight year old boxer named Cleo. She's a rescue I've had for almost four years. Without her, I would have a hard time safely living, would have a much harder time managing the disease, and would have to be insulin dependent because I couldn't safely take the medications. I want to start by saying that I absolutely love my dog and everything about her (except maybe the way she hogs the bed at night and farts like a trucker if she gets too much in the way of people food - those things I love a little less). She makes my life better is so many ways. But a lot of this is going to read like a cautionary tale, because this is a large undertaking. You need to think about them as a dog. You have to care for them while they're caring for you. All the advice given to people generally considering getting a dog is a good place to start. Having a dog itself is a giant responsibility, and it's not cheap. And it's not just money -- it's time and effort too. Think about feeding, walking and exercising, grooming and toilet needs, vet bills. And think about their whole lifetime. Large dogs live 10-15 years on average, and little dogs tend to live longer than that. You need to figure out what the dog can help you with. That list someone else posted is a good start, but not inclusive. Do some googling with "service animal tasks (name of your issue)" and see what others have done. Then think about the tasks you need done and the dog together. What kind of dog will fit into your living space and your life? Can a dog that fits your life do the tasks? A 90 pound lab in a studio apartment is hard on you and the dog. But some tasks like opening doors would be difficult or impossible for a little dog. Let's take these two concepts together. For example, Cleo is a diabetic support dog. She's trained to detect the changes in my body that herald a low blood sugar and alert me by licking and nuzzling the inside of my right arm that she never touches any other time. If I don't follow the alert after 3 tries, she is trained to interrupt what I'm doing until she either sees me eat or sees me take my blood sugar with the machine (specifically, use the lancet). Preferably, eat. She can detect the changes before the machine can. When I say interrupt I mean that if I'm reading, she'll take my book. If I'm playing a game, she'll shut off the Xbox with her nose. If I'm on the computer, she'll keep nudging my hand off the mouse. When we're out, she carries the machine and information about my issues. Training is a huge topic. There are no hard and fast rules on how to get a dog trained or certified. In my case, I got Cleo just as a regular dog and took her in for re-training due to some issues with her previous owners. Her trainer was the one who realized she could do the tasks and set me up with the resources I needed and helped me train her. You'll need to google around in your area for resources. Assistance Dogs International has a service that can help you find what's in your area. Time is a big thing. Not just in "how long to train". Are you starting with a puppy? If so, they have to grow up. On top of training, their body (particularly their joints) needs to be fully mature and stable. And even if you're starting with an adult, it takes time to train them. And once they're done with classes, you'll still be working on this with them all the time their whole lives. Even if you get a dog that's fully trained, you'll need training too, to interact with them while they're helping you and to maintain their training as you live together. You are partners in this and you have to do your part, too. Even if you are an experienced pet dog owner of working breeds, a service dog is a different kettle of fish. I grew up in rural Alaska, and we had sled dogs so I grew up around them my whole life and I still had a lot to learn. It's not just the task training. They also have to behave like a service dog in public, which is more stringent than the usual obedience training, and can be more difficult than the actual tasks that help you. There are lots of guidelines, but this is a pretty good page of information, or just google "service dog public access standard". And sometimes it doesn't pan out for a dog. The combination of brains, temperament, and physical ability is far from common. In the case of Cleo, a dog that can be obedient until suddenly they have to not be is extremely difficult. If I'm out of it, I'll tell her to quit it or maybe scold her, but she has to keep at it. So she has to have that right kind of keen nose, be trainable to very complex and abstract tasks, and have the ummmm... assertiveness to carry them out even in the face of my possible opposition. They aren't perfect. They can misbehave. We tell the story of "The Accidental Chicken" at my house from when she was back in training and she nosed a wrapped chicken in the meat department (I bought it just because I didn't want anyone to feel upset). And there have been a couple times where other dogs have challenged her and she responded and she's not a little dog. And it's not all perfect freedom. You can try to do things they can't handle. For example, I help out with PAX. Cleo is timid around young men due to things that happened before I got her, particularly if they have a beard or wear a hat. PAX is thousands of them in one place. She's learned to cope with the regular show halls. But the Expo Hall floor with it's noise and everything else is simply beyond her ability to handle. Even "official" mobility dogs with years of training their whole lives have problems with it. So we don't go to the Expo Hall. And be prepared for a LOT more interaction with people when you go out. I was at the grocery store with my younger daughter once, and after the fourth or fifth person who came up to me to tell me their story about their dog and asking me what she does she said, "God, Mom! It's like you've got a unicorn on a string!" So we call it The Unicorn Effect. It has great points. The difference in how people treat you is amazing. You get smiles instead of frowns or being ignored. People actively engage you. But it can be a challenge. I'm not exactly a social butterfly on even a good day. I know it's been good for me, but sometimes I just want to get the shopping done and crawl back under my desk, not answer 15 questions about how I got her and how she helps me and fend off several tribes of house-apes. And be prepared for a few people who raise their nose and sniff as if your unicorn has been leaving little rainbow piles of glittery, suspiciously candy smelling unicorn shit all over. I've been told she can't be a service dog because of her breed, or yelled at. I had a gate attendant try to block me from getting on a connecting flight halfway through a trip because someone else's dog had previously acted up badly and she was soured on the entire thing. You'll have to learn to answer challenges and educate people on the rules. It's not every day, but it's quite often. I've talked about that airline problem. That was only the worst of the issues we've had. I've had to switch airlines three times now because of their stupid rules and the way we fall through the cracks. We had such a bad experience at a frozen yogurt store once with an uneducated manager I had to get a hold of corporate and give the education materials so they could teach them. And some people are scared of dogs or are allergic to them. I had a neighbor for a while that has just come here from North Africa, and she'd been attacked by a pack of feral dogs. I feel so badly when I run into that and try to be sensitive. Claire mentioned traveling, and this is a whole 'nother ballgame. If you get a dog that's a brachycephalic breed, you can have trouble traveling due to airline regulations (boxers, bulldog, shi tzu, pug, etc). They don't do low air pressure well (in worst cases they will die). So the rules about how they fly are kind of dumb. Make sure they're small enough to fit under a seat. Cleo just barely fits. The airlines do the best they can, but twice now we've had to fit her under a center seat between my feet. And Cleo digs the car completely, so even a trip to the grocery store is a great adventure. At any rate, there's a whole lot more to it than this. And everyone's experience is going to be as different as their own needs and the specific dog. But this is a start. For Joost's 40th birthday, I wanted to do something special. He's a giant Terry Pratchett nerd, and so something from the Discworld novels was an easy place to start. After planning an over-grandiose idea that there wasn't nearly enough time for (but will hopefully show up Christmas-ish) I settled on making him his very own Ankh-Morpork City Watch badge. It's not the final version. When I get my metalworking area setup I'll replace it with a proper lost wax casting of copper. But overall I'm very happy with how it turned out. Design The design was the first complication. The badges are not described consistently through the books. There was a "official" one made, but I can't just copy that. Plus I wasn't over-fond of the way they interpreted the descriptions. But then I had a stroke of luck. There's a set of postage stamps from the book and one of them featured the head of the City Watch, Sam Vimes. And as a decoration it included a view of his badge. That's just as official as the other, and it was quite a bit more like what I had in mind. So that's what I based my sketches on. It's not a precise copy of the design, mostly because that was for print and not physical media. There's a few nearly Esherian twists in the ornamentation that just wouldn't fly in 3d. Modelling Next was choosing a material. It's supposed to be made of copper, but I've done a lot of finish work for props, and so I know good and well it doesn't have to actually be made of that to look it. My daughter had just done a project using cold porcelain and had some left over. I'd never worked with it before, but I figured what the heck and I sat down to make a prototype. Getting those curls up around the top edge to look right wasn't easy. This stuff isn't as precise as modelling wax. It takes pretty good details, though. Sanding I let it dry for two days and then it was time to start cleaning up the rough spots. The process was backwards in a way. I didn't want it to end up perfectly smooth. So in the reverse of the usual order, I used a fairly fine grit sandpaper to just take the tooth off any burs, but left the main flaws. Then I got some really coarse steel wool and used that to add some serious character. There was one challenge with the material. I had some adventures with the various layers sticking together as I handled it. It didn't take me long to get tired of things randomly popping off as I was sanding. So I got out a pick and pried at every piece to see if they came off and glued down anything that shifted using a water-based superglue. Finishing It was almost a shame to paint it. The cold porcelain dried to a beautifully translucent ivory color, like fine bone china. But I got up my courage and started messing it up. First, I put on a layer of black to make sure the bottoms of all the nooks and crannies were dark. One of my favorite things to use for that is black scuff remover for shoes. It's a leather dye in a water-based carrier. It dries to a matte finish that takes other layers of various paints and things well, and when it's dried it helps the upper layers adhere. It comes in a convenient applicator, and is easy to manage and clean up. After that, I did three very fine layers of copper spray enamel from three different directions to make sure I got all the nooks and crannies. When it comes to spray paint, the finer the layer, the better the final product is going to look. Once that was good and dried, I rubbed in some more of the dye to grunge up that shiny finish. Then I topped it off with a layer of clear sealant just to make everything stay put and behave. Then I added a pin-back and started work on the case. Presentation Case I had an old clock-case that I'd had sitting around that just needed the right kind of TLC. I mended the leather stitching in some places, put some artistic wear and tear on it in others. There was already a panel inside but the hinges were broken and not in the right place so I replaced them. Then I attached the clay nameplate I'd made the same way I made the badge to the top. That's the fourth picture. The flap inside the case had a round hole for the old clock, which I rimmed with leather and then filled with a felted panel to stick the badge to. Here's the whole thing all together.
A couple of years ago, pedantic grammar nerds got their knickers entirely knotted when the Oxford English Dictionary bowed to the times and adjusted it's definition of the word literally to mean both the literal and figurative at the same time.
I'm not saying I wasn't one of that crowd, but I will say I untangled my knickers, put on my big girl panties and have moved on, at least where other people's usage are concerned. (I'm still punctilious about my own). But I have other hills where I will continue rolling my Sisyphean rock up all the way to the top. Sure, I'll accept the word "oleophobic" to describe the screen of my iPad. As long as you interpret that word as meaning that it's afraid of missing anyone or anything that might put a fingerprint on it within a 15 meter radius. It doesn't just collect them; it seems to manufacture them to it's own fiendish specifications. Though I do have to say I enjoy looking at other people's screens when I'm out and about and trying to deduce what application they were last using by the pattern of smudges and streaks. However, that's not the actual meaning of the word. It's defined as a substance that repels oil. It's supposed to stop the screen from collecting skin oils from your fingers. I know it's a bit of technical bafflegab put into service by a marketing department, and it's more than half wishful thinking by the engineers who put the coating on. People's fingerprints are made of more than skin-oils and those other things will happily stick. It also wears out over time and becomes less effective. It doesn't stop me from grumbling a little to myself when I have to clean the thing every 12 seconds. That's just one instance where today's language splats up against the old-school. Linguistic morphology and usage is a fascinating thing. Even without the help of market forces, the way people use words shifts over time in every language. And different people use the same words differently which adds even more chaff to the air. To quote Huey Lewis, "Sometimes bad is bad." The question becomes what do you do about it? Do you shift the language to match like the OED did? Or do you build some sort of formal standard and try to rein it in? Both approaches are out in the wild today, and both have mixed results. English, the amorphous amoeba that sucks in anything in reach of it's vacuoles, is one one side. This is great for responsiveness, especially as fast as the world is changing these days. But the overhead in misunderstandings and inaccuracies is considerable. And the older set is always having to relearn, with much grumbling. Strongly regulated languages like French on the other. The tension between what is considered "real" French and the slang usages people come up with trying to shoe-horn new concepts into old linguistic boots is considerable, and is felt all through their society when the Academie Francaise steps in to stop the what they see as the creep of Anglicanization. Luckily, since I'm working for the most part in informal prose in one of the most loosey-goosey languages, I have some room to work. Playing with the rules a bit is part and parcel of the trade. But I still go a few rounds with my editor every time I submit an article draft, mostly about the fiddlier bits of punctuation. The current APA styleguide be damned, I still have a hard time putting punctuation inside quotations. I feel like Ms. Martin is going to pop up behind me and bap me upside the head every time I do it. But I have my editor after me if I don't do it. And since it's their ball and bat at that venue, I play the game their way. I got Cyril the Accidental Canary a nest basket. I'd done some reading and it turns out that the males are responsible for a lot of the nest-building behavior for canaries. It's sort of proof they can provide well for a mate.
Well, he hasn't got a mate, and isn't going to, but from what they said it wasn't good for them to keep them from having that sort of outlet, so I got him one and hung it on the side of the cage. He certainly likes it. He's been hopping in and out of it, industriously lining it with his own feathers and bits of cotton string and toilet paper I provided along with it, happy as a clam. Well, the election results have me sitting, shaking my head. I have been struggling with this all evening, and I guess the thought I'm going to take to bed is this.
Some people are comforting themselves by thinking of the parts of this that are still undone, and the various ways to fight the results, hoping to somehow wake up from this bad dream. Even if it works and by some miracle the results are changed, that's not the point here. The fact that it was even close is the actual issue. I wish I was surprised. I wish I hadn't spent my career and my life seeing and fighting against the kinds of personal actions and attitudes that add up to numbers like this. I wish I could see this as anything more than a crushing blow. I hope this is a wake-up call. That those who minimized and marginalized these actions and attitudes will finally see that this is the reality out there. These things really happen, all the time, to a lot of people. And I hope they finally come to the the conclusion that, damn it, we all need to do something about it. This country fought it's way back from McCarthy. We fought our way through the Civil Rights years. It's not irreparable. Not if we get off our duffs and get to work. And for now, I'm going to go to bed, cuddle my dog, and try to get ready to face tomorrow morning. Wrote a thing for Gamerswithjobs about the Burning Legion expansion for World of Warcraft means for us players.
It's hard to explain in just the few words that fit in an article like that. On the other hand, I know it benefited from the sure hand of Wordsmythe, our editor, who winnowed out a bunch of detail that, while true and supported the main premise, got in the way of expressing it to anyone who isn't already giving up sleep over Each day, as they slowly trickle the story and changes into every part of the realms, I'm finding more evidence to support my fears. But there is still a glimmer of hope. |
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