Three, it's a magic number

Michelle Sagara West brings up an interesting point on Self-Published Books versus large format trade paperbacks. What she is seeing is that some of her customers are equating "standard glossy stock" cover with "self-published" which is then regarded as "lower quality." It's an fascinating glimpse into some of the issues my day job deals with and also just how high-tech printed books are (IMHO, they're much higher-tech than the new e-readers, no, seriously, get me talking about it sometime if you want to be bored beyond belief). (I have MSW's blog in my RSS feeds, but I did see this one linked in Scalzi's Whateverettes first)

In case you missed it, the whole scuffle over Black Matrix Publishing at John Scalzi's Whatever (and the follow-up post). There's plenty of argument and counter argument over this in the blogosphere, however I tend toward this response (warning, blog with ads). Jim Hines also chimes in with some personal experiences. Boiled down to it's essence the argument is this, just being published for published sake (or credits) 1) isn't hard and 2) doesn't get you anywhere. Credits or "exposure" isn't worth it if those credits aren't worth it (think about getting a Canadian penny in your change, okay, bad example at the Canadian Dollar is almost equal to the US buck again) and, as said elsewhere, people die of "exposure." This is why I rarely submit stories to semi-pro or 4theluv markets. That's not saying there aren't semi-pro and 4theluv markets that aren't worth the time (I've submitted and will still submit to Andromeda Spaceways, LCWR, Weird Tales, and a few others). But at those markets I know they have 1) the readership (including those who read for "Year's Best" anthos) and 2) the editorial chops to make my story look good (or 3-I know the editor/reader on a more personal level). I may not get rich in those markets (and who really gets rich publishing short genre fiction these days), but I do get plenty of brand building from them. This is unlike BMP, which as far as I can tell the editor only shows up once before, when he published one issue (out of the 4 mags he is flogging now) back in 1989. At that point the fractions of cents per word rate is just insulting (IMHO).

Dan sends a /. story on "hackers" stealing hard working "phisher's" data. "There is no honor among thieves." And if you don't think that isn't a story bone, you aren't working hard enough.

Candle Light with Organ Music

Spent yesterday at Christmas in Zoar. We have photos and will try and get some of them posted. There were plenty of houses open to tour that we hadn't been in, and one old favorite (the Cider Mill, that if we had the mullah, we probably would have purchased when it came up for sale six years ago). Unfortunately they refurbed the Mill and added on some pieces that, IMHO, detracted from the historic plan of the place.

We walked around the village several times, put our order in for bread early (and got what we wanted, I think that's because 1) we ordered and 2) they had several bakes throughout the day). Usually on the crafters I don't find anything that interests me (and that goes for most craft fair things), however this time I did find some things I liked. And even though they were somewhat expensive, I did buy them (two big advances for me). I'll try and have pictures of those as well (they're copper foil wrapped switch plates, I would have liked the solid copper, but the designs on the copper foil were much nicer). Bought a holiday present for Bette, but had some problems with the vendor (changed price from 28 to $30, added in a $.50 gift bag which somehow brought us to $31 and with tax came magically to $41... uhm, no, backtracked when I called her on it and threw in a freebee, if Bette hadn't liked it so much to actually point it out to me I would have just walked out on the deal).

So all in all a mixed bag, but it was good to be out and about. Dinner at a small diner in Bolivar was very good, ran into a friend of sister-in-law who was showing their house. Their kitchen remodel, while breaking away from the historic flavor of the house, was fabulous. The cabinets were excellent (hand made, solid wood doors, matching laminate on MDF cases with solid hardwood faces, just OMFG fantastic).

Today we'll be doing some chores, adding lights, maybe rewiring one of the deer, doing some online research and hopefully getting close to the end of Chapter 36. It's bright and sunny, and now a little past noon, so time to get running.

Also, as a programing FYI, I may be turning on captcha today. I didn't want to but the spammers (or one) has found a way around the moderation. But from what I could tell they couldn't get around the captcha. Again, hopefully it'll be temporary.

Stare into the snark long enough, eventually the snark stares back

Since President Obama's speech this week there's been plenty of conservative bloviating. Here's my take on the two oft repeated criticisms. (I posted some of these comments over on Jim's Stonekettle Station)

On not giving McCrystal 40,000 US troops, although it looks like the total of US and NATO troops will be close
"You should always listen to the generals and give them everything they want."

General John Shalikashvili, anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

On his setting 18 months as to when we would start pulling out troops
"You should never set a time limit on military engagements."

Feb. 7, 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy: "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." (USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/educate/war28-article.htm)

On the "dithering"
"He waited too long to make a decision"

1) I like that he didn't knee jerk a decision and demanded a more realized plan and better answers, 2) Afghanistan is about to be locked down by bad weather. Even if we took our time now, all the first troops we could have positioned will be in place by the time the mountains open back up, and 3) I like that he thought about it before spending more of our blood and treasure. the previous administration would have done better if they had also done so.

WIP around the corner

Chapter 35 is in the bag. She came in at 1769 words. I added some words to previous chapters (adding to the story, things I knew where they went and didn't want to wait). Also went through and double checked the math. I hate to admit, but some other errors had crept in). So we're now at the total of 61135 (which is less than last time and a little disheartening). On the plus side I have about 300 words of Chapter 36. Also, of the last seven (planned) chapters, three are all action which I seem to bang out pretty quick, two are novel wrap up, and the other two tying up loose ends and connecting dots.

Also, I didn't like how the chapter was ending, it felt a little too facile. So I rearranged a few words of dialog and made it much punchier. Those words aren't in the part below (but occur right after, sorry, I want to hold that back as a gift for the book), but I'm still pretty proud of this part.

"This is getting redundant meeting you here," I said.

She smiled at me in the way lions smile at gazelles. "I wanted to thank you for getting me away from Xeing."

Her eyes were inticing. I could fall into them for hours and she happy consumed me. Fortunately for me I'd been down this path a few times before. "Knowing you're safe if all the reward I need," I said, trying not to lie too much.

She pressed forward, making the closet feel smaller. I backed up to the wall, found a desk behind me and sat down on its top. The scent of her washed through my senses and overwhelmed them. It had been a long time since I had layed with a woman. "But I think you deserve more," she said in a soft voice.

Think of mating preying mantises and you get a little of what is really happening in the scene.

So, to round up, happy with the chapter, pissed I got the math wrong (again), in good shape heading into the final part of the book. I know a lot of what happens. The major action scene I had already started writing as a second short story, but I'll be retying it from scratch as there's enough difference. That came through in the fragmented pieces I did last weekend.

Story Bones

Odd thought of the day because I've read several blog posts about the arrival (late or OMFG it snowed) of winter. For us here in NE Ohio, we missed some of the snow of last week, being cocooned in some odd parallel universe of summer winds. However the frost giants have arrived today and beat the mercurial temperatures into submission. (okay, you can use that as part of the bone as well, although I think it would be in a different story)

"No matter how hard you run, winter will find you. On fleet foot or clad in hobnailed boots, winter comes for us all."

And here, I hope, you see winter as a metaphor for death. (no, this is just poetics, not personal bleakery)

Updatery

Okay, I've taken off the word verify/captcha thing, but have limited commenting to the past three days of posts. If you see something from before then that you absolutely need to comment on, it will go into moderation. I'll try not to be too slovenly to not get around to moving comments out of moderation quickly. If it must get out now, you can comment on the latest post. Just make sure you reference the post you're talking about, please.

On other things, I'm going to reduce my intake of Wellbutrin for a week, and then stop taking it. After almost two years on it, I think it's time to move off. It was only supposed to be a temporary thing anyway (and two years stretches the definition of "temporary"). Last night I had the wind taken out of my sails (no I don't wish to discuss it here) and seriously reconsidered my position, but then I figured there would always be a reason to keep on it.

Now, I should say here, my move is not for everybody. When I started on I was drifting back into big D way too often and the world was going to 50% black all the time. Living without emotions may have been good for Vulcans, but it sucks for humans (and really, if you actually look at the Science Fictional lives of Vulcans, they aren't very good at masking their emotions let alone removing them entirely). The big D hasn't been knocking at the door lately (at least not that I recognize). I have been beating myself up pretty good lately, but that's normal for Fall (as well as finishing the novel).

So, forward into reverse. Or something like that.

Links around the world

A TPM article on drug-makers paying generic competitors to stay out of the market. Ah, good wholesome free market values in play. And I believe I've talked about this before in regards to the thyroid replacement therapy drugs we need (which, BTW, Forest Labs continues to say, "Hey, we're trying to play catch up with the new regulations." - Um, it's been half a year, guys. If this had been any other industry, and if you told the truth, heads would be rolling).

Fab Dad Dan send this link to a excellent venn diagram. Which now I need to write the Zombie Jesus story.

FAIL Blog continues to entertain with an excellent register button. Also note, this register doesn't have pictures of food on it, but actual numbers. However, there is also a note that references "Citizens Bank" which we used to have in Canton, but has long be gobbled up (by First Merit if memory serves).

The trouble with tribbles

So, there's a whole bunch of hullabaloo about the stolen emails from East Anglia University. And it's be portrayed as the "see, we were right, all this data is bogus, the models aren't to be trusted, and global warming is a hoax" smoking gun.

Right.

So now all those glaciers we've been hiding can come back (which is good, I need the closet space). We don't have to keep taking heat guns to the Arctic Ice Sheet to keep it in retreat (man, that'll be good because it's damn cold up there and there's polar bears everywhere). We don't need to worry about a shelf of ice that might slough off Greenland and disrupt the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean which might disturb the Gulf Stream (but hey, new real estate opportunities in Greenland!). We can stop dynamiting the Ross Ice-shelf to calve the huge icebergs ('cause, you know, dynamite is dangerous). And we can stop running radiant heating throughout the permafrost to melt it all and release the loverly methane that was trapped in the soil (because, you know, radiant heating is damn expensive, and if you puncture one of those pipes with a staple, it'll ruin your whole day). All those South Pacific Island Nation whiners can just STFU about their islands disappearing into the sea (and shut down those bilge pumps that keep upping the local sea levels where they have to move villages farther inland). And we can stop injecting CO2 into the oceans making them more acidic (and that's good, because that was also damn expensive and the pumps were real noisy at night).

And look, temperatures have cooled the past three years. Hurrah! It's all over! Heck, this might be a trend that leads us to a new ice age. You know, like Newsweek reported back in 75. Because it looked like that back then when you only look at 5 years of data and something like four sample points (can't find the original article, which I once had).

And it's so good to hear that we don't think scientists should be concerned about money and grant funding (you know, like people have been warning about for three decades now). I'm sure research scientists would also agree that the whole "publish or perish" model of research and university tenure is just hokum that should be dumped in the waste bin. They also shouldn't worry about the fact that the media and general public often get things wrong and have the attention span of gnats on coke (the Columbian kind, not the Atlanta kind). And when we throw barbs at them, they should be all noble in their white citadels and not worry about it. Plus I'm sure all those computer scientists who right custom code will be overjoyed at the knowledge that they only have to program it correctly, cleanly, and with great accuracy on the first attempt. And if they don't, by all means they should start over from scratch (think of the billable hours!). Oh, and hey, with all the money we'll save from funding this bogus research, we can research the important things like proving this Darwin guy was wrong and covering up all the data he found to prove God exists and the Earth is only 6000 years old.

Oh, and scientists should always keep every piece of data they ever collected just in case someone without credentials would want to examine it. Because nobody would ever throw out raw data or camera footage. You know, like how we store all that NASA data on our moon landings (probably the greatest human achievement ever).

Good to know all that. And glad we don't need to do anything about dumping all those gases into our atmosphere at the rate of a few tons per second. Cause a little acid rain never hurt anybody. After all, man can't affect the world. Like causing extinctions, the aforementioned acid rain, speed up the rotation of the Earth by damning the rivers and holding more water at higher latitudes, over fish ocean areas until they become deserts underwater, reduce to deserts what were once the lush cradles of civilization, expand the Sahara and Mongolian Deserts, light up the night side of earth to be seen in orbit, fill a wide swath of the pacific north of Hawaii with enough junk to make it a hazard to shipping (and wildlife), deplete the ozone layer, cover SE Asia in smoke so thick to be a breathing hazard from burning forests to make arable land, or dump enough pollution in rivers that they could actually catch fire. Nah, the Earth is simply too big for all of us humans, which, BTW, are now so numerous that the current living ones outnumber all who have died in recorded history, to have any effect on it.

Ah. I can sleep well now. And tomorrow I can go out and see the forest that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River so thickly that a squirrel could travel the whole distance and never touch the ground. Because I live in the middle of that place.

Jokers to the right

Haven't been able to get much done at night this week (today included). With writing over lunch I have about 1200 words on Chapter 35. Tied in the bits and parts and need to wrap up the semi-action.

Spent the evening writing reports and reading ordinances. Not a lot of fun, but needs to be done. Also trying to keep on the positive side of being tired. A few more days to the weekend. Of course that's scheduled up as well. We'll probably be at Zoar one of the days this weekend for their Christmas program. And to score a loaf of stollen (and maybe some other bread made in a real brick wood-fired oven, the kind you make the fire inside, clean out, then bake). Maybe this year we'll also make it back to the church in time to hear the organ practice. The other day will be rewiring the decorations.

For the duration

It seems the spammers want a full war. So for the duration, I'm enabling work check and disabling commenting for older posts. This hopefully won't last long. And we apologize for the inconvenience.

At this point they are starting to make it worth while to employ other tools. As has been said, I blog for the love of it. I don't monetize this (and hope to never have to). At some point I'd like to do it through my own domain as all the big kids do. So at this point there's no money in this.

The spammers have taken advantage of complacency to try and garner linkshare to their clients (or their own sites). What they don't realize is my temper. I'm pretty good up to a point. I'll give warnings. Once they cross that point I'm willing to nuke them (there is no middle ground for me, once I'm pissed, scorched earth is my tactic). The threshold they need to cross at this point is to make it worth my time and money to flush out the router maps to their machines, and to reinvestigate a few zombie nets.

The Graveyard of Empires

I've been resisting doing this post, but it's been taking up too much brain space lately. So here it is.

We need to win Afghanistan. What does "win" mean? It means denying al Qaeda a safe haven and keeping those who gave them safe harbor from regaining the country (for both security and humanitarian concerns). To do that means the Afghanis need to form a nationality, invest their government with the power to stabilize the country, and lay down their arms.

This is possible. The difference between us and the British, the Russians and the Soviets is that we have no interest in controlling the country as a colonial power or as a puppet state. If we are able to demonstrate to the Afghanis that a stable government is possible, that they will benefit, and that we support them in comparison to only supporting the central government it will happen.

The hurdles that need to be dealt with are legion. The Karzi government is weak, lacks legitimacy, and is rife with corruption and cronyism. The native military is considered aligned with the Pashtun and is generally seen as still being controlled by the warlords. The police force is not much better. The Taliban are resurgent including having shadow governments and courts in all the provinces. The country is land locked and we're at the mercy of SoFA's with its neighbors, some of which are no better, some of which were bullied by the Russian government to cancel our leases (which we convinced to change their minds through the diplomacy of the lucre). Our major partner in the theatre is more concerned with their long standing grievances and proxy war with our close ally in the region (whom we are also courting for closer bonds). Not to mention the median cost estimate to field a combat soldier in country is about $500,000 (some of that is support costs of the other soldiers in those neighboring countries). And the country is war weary (actually, this is the most important factor).

However, what's at stake is more important. If we were to pull out it wouldn't be long before the Karzi government was toppled, and probably by the more radical branches of the Taliban. We screw over the Afghanis for a second time (or third, my brain is saying third, but I can't remember the time before the Russians). The Northern Alliance is compromised (Taliban, again, have shadow governments in all provinces). And not only would al Qaeda reclaim a safe haven, the Pakistani military would have no reason to reform and would again leverage Afghanistan and the "tribal" lands in their proxy war with India (which would heighten tensions between two nuclear powers). The world would return to pre 9-11 status quo, only the counter balancing powers would be weakened (and no, I'm not talking about our military). Oh, and did I mention a resurgent Taliban and their patron al Qaeda?

Things in our favor include the Afghanis themselves want something better, or to be left alone. They are also war weary (although they also have a warrior society). Their wants are relatively simple. We have no desire to control the government beyond doing the right thing for their citizens. They're tenacious survivors who, while a young population, have enough people who remember when things were better. Their major cash crop, opium, actually has a large legitimate market (although most Afghan Opium feeds through SE Asia into the illegal heroin trade).

So, it's doable. A hard job, and somewhat expensive. And, to paraphrase Colin Powell about a different war, we broke it, we own it. It's easy to blame people for taking their eye off the ball and screwing up the future, but that doesn't get us anywhere. It's now the job to finish this, and do it fast.Do it right, but fast.

Plea for Sanity

To my fellow designers,

Stop trying to be clever with your layouts. You aren't good at it. Using all the idiotic bells and whistles in programs just makes it harder for me to make you look good. It also makes it difficult for me to correct the work so the client is happy. Learn the trade craft, not the programs. The software is not the designer. Don't let it be.

Also, if you do as I ask, you'll find the productivity of your own studios will be greatly increased as you won't have to spend an hour doing what should be a five minute change. You also won't need to rely on the same designer to do all the work for the project if you make your structure transparent and easy to use thereby reducing overtime and stress. Just some food for thought.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Me (design professional for two decades and the guy that typically gets asked to fix your screw-ups)

PS, bleed is .125 of an inch. Not .03125, not .0625, not 1". You should have learned that in Production 101.