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By infmom, July 7, 2010 7:45 pm

I have now finished the manuscript for my second novel.  Who knows, at this rate I might just start thinking of myself as a writer.

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By infmom, April 15, 2010 1:44 pm

The easiest thing you can do to make a plain bracelet fancier is to change the chain the emblem is attached to.

For this project you’ll need a small but sturdy wire cutter, two small pliers, a chain of your choice, a clasp, and, optionally, a fairly large and sturdy jump ring to fasten the clasp to.

MedicAlert chains are firmly attached, so getting the original chain off takes a bit of muscle.  Begin by cutting the jump ring that fastens the bracelet to the emblem (not the chain itself, just that one ring).  Twist the cut ends in opposite directions with your pliers (don’t pull the ends of the ring apart to open it up or you’ll never get it back together again).  As soon as the ring is open enough to slip the chain through it, do that.  You don’t need to open the link wide enough to get it off the emblem.

Once that’s done, lay the chain on a table and measure the new chain, with its clasp attached, to match the length of the old one.  If you want to make the bracelet tighter or looser at this time, you can, but if you shorten the chain make sure it’s still long enough that the emblem can still be flipped over on your wrist easily.

If your clasp is large enough, you can just hook it through the opening in the emblem.  Otherwise you will want to add a good solid jump ring to clasp to (nothing flimsy here, you want the bracelet to stay on).  Take this into consideration when you’re figuring out the length of your chain.

Once that’s done, slip the new chain into the opened jump ring on the emblem and twist the ends of the ring together again.  Twist them just a little past being even with each other and then pull them back into alignment.  That’s the easiest way to make it straight.

And there you have it.  As you can see in the picture, I used inexpensive chain for this modification and that turned out to be a bad idea, because the thin gold plating wore off quickly to reveal the dull brass underneath.  I’ve reworked this bracelet into something a lot more attractive and I’ll show you that in a later post.  The illustration is just to show you how a simple chain change can look.

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By infmom, April 12, 2010 11:17 am

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I talked a bit here about finishing my first novel and writing my second (which actually got finished before the first one did).  Of course, everyone who writes a book hopes to see it published.  The problem is that the publishing industry has gotten ever more insular and harder to break into, in the face of declining book sales and the rise of the internet.  If you’re not going to rival the current best-selling authors, especially with a work of fiction, the likelihood some publisher would bother with your manuscript, even with an agent representing it, is depressingly small.

However, with today’s technology, publishing one’s own works one’s own self has become ever easier.  The self-published author undoubtedly won’t be rolling in money as the result of his or her endeavors, but the self-published author will have actual books in print where the big-corporation hopeful most likely will not.

So I’m thinking about self-publishing.  I’ve gotten excellent advice from a good friend who published several books through mainstream channels and is now self-publishing.  He recommended high-end layout software for formatting the manuscript to send to the publisher, but I can’t afford anything like that.  I was wondering how to get the layout done properly when I picked up a book called Self-Publishing Fiction: From Manuscript to Bookstore and Beyond, by Gavin Sinclair, at the library.  And in that book was the answer:  Desktop publishing software!  Of course!

I did a lot of work with desktop publishing software years ago, using, believe it or not, a Commodore 128 and a program called GeoPublish.  Which stacked up quite well against high-end, high-priced Ventura Publisher in a review by Computer Shopper magazine at the time.    So I already know the basics and I’m sure today’s software is even more comprehensive and easy to use.  Since I’m happy with my Serif web page creation software, I ordered their PagePlus X4 from Amazon today.

Next on the list, a thorough investigation of print-on-demand publishers.   That route makes the most sense to me, since I won’t have to pay for books I can’t sell, and books printed by the reputable companies will be available for sale through Amazon and other booksellers.  And I’ll have to create my own publishing company, probably in association with my family.  But that’s a ways down the road.

There’s a lot of work yet to be done but I’m fired up about it already. 

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By infmom, April 1, 2010 9:53 am

Ever stop to think about what you do last?  People talk about the start of a journey or the start of a project, but what about the end?  I got to thinking about this the other day when I realized that there are certain “last things” I always do.

Last thing before starting to cook:  Make sure the water in the faucet is cold, so if you burn yourself you don’t have to wait.

Last thing before you turn off the car:  Turn down the radio so you don’t get blasted when you start the car.

Last thing before turning off the computer:  Make sure you don’t have CDs in the drive or flash drives plugged in.  They might be bootable.

Last thing before leaving the bathroom: Put the seat AND the lid down.  If both genders put everything down, nobody feels put-upon.

Anyone else have any last words? 

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By infmom, March 6, 2010 2:12 pm

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I got The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright, from the library a few days ago.  I put it on the hold list so long ago that I don’t remember why I got the idea to do it–but I’m glad I did.

I’m only a few chapters in, but I’ve already determined that a library copy of the book is not good enough for me, I’m going to buy one of my own.  Because this is a book that deserves a thoughtful reading and re-reading.  It’s packed full of historical and linguistic information, some of which I already knew or had deduced on my own, but a lot of which is entirely new to me.

And yes, the title is apt.  Wright starts out with a discussion of hunter-gatherer spirituality (whether one can call it “religion” in the sense that we Westerners usually mean the term is debatable, since there’s no dividing line between religous and secular, in the way we understand it) and then goes on into a discussion of the beginnings of the Abrahamic religions (Judaiam, Christianity, Islam) and how we can still see how they changed over time.  (Interestingly enough, he says there is no word for “religion” in ancient Hebrew either.)

Let me mention, for people who don’t know me, that I’m not an Abrahamic believer.    That is to say that even though I was born into a Christian household and have been fascinated by the Bible and by Biblical history since I was old enough to read Egermaier’s Bible Stories on my own (I’m guessing around age six) I never got the idea that the stories were literally true.  I started reading Greek mythology at the same age and could never see a reason why one set of beliefs had to be “myth” while the other one was exclusively “true.”  That makes me, to this day, an interested heathen.

Some of the things Wright points out, I had already noticed in the Old Testament, and have had many a discussion with Christian friends about over the years.  Other things, I had noticed but had not considered them particularly noteworthy since they tied in with what other peoples’ gods were up to at the same time.   As I mentioned,  I’m still only into the first few chapters but already I’m so enthusiastic about this book that I wanted to take time out to say so.

It’s a book for believers and nonbelievers alike, and both groups will learn from it.  I recommend it.  But leave yourself time to do the reading.

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By infmom, February 26, 2010 1:51 pm

Anyone else ever watch James Burke’s wonderful series “Connections” on PBS, or read the accompanying books?  Burke made grand entertainment out of the simple premise that because this happened, then that happened, and because that happened, something else happened, and lo and behold we ended up with something completely unrelated to the event that set the chain in motion.

Well, that’s what life has been like for me lately.  I think my motto ought to be “It’s a good thing I LIKE doing this stuff,” because so often I have simply had to out-stubborn something till it worked.  (Not to mention that it is also a very good thing that I like learning something new every day.)

So here’s a typical recent chain of connections.

On Twitter, I get into a casual discussion about Twitter apps.  Someone suggests a particular app, but it runs on equipment I don’t own.  I make a casual comment about not owning the equipment.  Another commenter offers me an older version of the item, which commenter recently replaced with a new one.  Ooo.  Lovely.

For whatever reason, however, the item never arrives.  I chalk it up to “Well, it was sure nice to think about while it lasted” and move on.

However, as I think it over, it is clear that yes, I actually did want the item, which is simply too expensive for me to go out and purchase new or even used on eBay.  There is, however, a lesser-featured similar item which does most of the same things and costs noticeably less.

I mull this over.  And realize I’ve had a small inheritance just sitting around gathering dust (and about dust’s worth of interest) for many years, and I could for once in my life quit being the Queen of Older Versions and treat myself to something shiny and new.  I spot the item on sale and I buy it.

In the course of checking out assorted Twitter apps, I idly browse to my blogs and my main web page.  Ye gods.  My main web page has been totally wiped out and replaced with the very first placeholder version I put there when I first established the domain.  I hustle to replace the page, but it won’t replace.  I then copy the code directly from my web page software and upload that and it still isn’t right–all the custom elements provided by the software are missing.

I go back to the software and browse for my theme and…  it’s gone.  I can only conclude that the theme was old and the company discontinued it.  None of my other web sites were affected.

I endure pointed (and absolutely correct) comments from my daughter about people who rely on web page software instead of writing their own HTML.  Knowing that my HTML skills are rudimentary at best (but enough to create a placeholder while I figure out what to do next) I still opt for web page software, but no more NetObjects Fusion, thank you very much.  Relying on good reviews on Amazon, a reasonable price and a rebate offer, I choose Serif WebPlus X4.

The software arrives and, be still my beating heart, actually contains a printed manual in the box!  I’m in love.  This is my kind of software no matter how well it might work.    As it turns out, the software is easy to use, but the templates that come with it are nothing to write home about.  I therefore take my daughter’s advice and start creating my own page, using the software to ease the process along.

I have to create my own graphics, and in the process discover that the font I wanted to use, something I’ve had kicking around since the Windows for Workgroups days, crashes Photoshop Elements 4 like nobody’s business.

I discover that I don’t remember the ftp password to my site, and therefore have to go create a new one.  Then I discover that I’ve left one digit out of the username.  Then I discover I’m trying to upload to the wrong folder.  (See “It’s a good thing I LIKE doing this stuff,” above.)

Finally, the first working version of the new web page is in place.  It looks a lot better than the placeholder even though there is still obviously work to be done.  I have learned new software.  I have bought myself something shiny and new for the first time since I can’t remember when.

And it all started with a discussion about Twitter apps.

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By infmom, January 5, 2010 11:10 pm

I keep telling myself I need to update more.  That’s one thing I’m going to work on this year, for sure.

So, like a lot of people, I resolved to do better on diet and exercise this year.  I got a little gizmo called a FitBit to help me with that.  It uses the same technology as a Wii controller and tells me in no uncertain terms how sedentary I am during the course of the average day.

So I have decided to change that.  Granted, it’s only been two days, but I’ve done OK.  I’ve gone walking in Griffith Park because I’m so freakin’ bored with our neighborhood that I don’t want to walk in it any more (after 15 years, yeah, you get burnt out).  For now I’m walking the same stretch of roadway that the December light show is on, a distance of about two miles round trip.  But there are a lot more walking trails to check out and I can see covering many miles before I get bored.

In a few months I am going to build myself a new computer.  This one’s at least six years old (I can’t remember exactly when I built it but I believe it was in 2004).  It still works fine, but it’s showing its age.  I’ll have to buy a new motherboard and CPU, new memory and new hard drives.  I’m already deciding which of my current software will make the transfer and which I won’t bother to reinstall.  I’m looking forward to the project.  I like building computers.

I need to do some serious work on my web sites and I think I should look around for different website software.  I have been happy with NetObjects Fusion, but I think the structure is more complicated than it should be and let’s face it, the templates it comes with are dull.  I am not yet to the stage where I can design the whole look of a site from scratch, though, so I need templates for the time being.   I’m looking around to see what the options are.

In November, I wrote a novel for National Novel Writing Month.  I am proud of that.  The book is a sequel to a novel I’ve been pecking away at for more years than I really care to admit.  My goal for the first quarter of this year is to finish that first novel, edit both books to make them a reasonable length, and then try sending them out for publication.  Or perhaps go the self-publish route.  There are a lot of ways to go about getting published, these days, and I figure I have piddled around way too long.  Being able to write a 55,000 word book in less than one month showed me in no uncertain terms that I can do this and I should be getting my fanny in gear and doing it.  Besides, then I’ll have the fun of telling people to treat me right or they’ll end up in my next novel. 

Even though it’s only four days in, 2010 is off to a good start.

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By infmom, July 2, 2009 12:25 pm

I’ve been uncharacteristically silent of late.  Not because I had nothing to say (I doubt anyone who knows me would ever believe me if I asserted that) but because a lot has been happening that is difficult to talk about.

Our cat Zoe had been having intermittent urinary-tract problems for quite some time.  She’d seen four different vets and had every test imaginable and no one could figure out what her problem actually was.  A few weeks back, she wasn’t eating well, but I thought it was just because she didn’t like the food we were giving her.  We tried all kinds of different foods with no success, and then all of a sudden her breath started smelling like decay.

Naturally, this happened on a Sunday when our vet office was closed, so I took her to my daughter’s vet office which does have Sunday hours.  By that time, though, she was very sick indeed, and ended up staying at the vet office for several days, with IV fluids, antibiotics and everything else they could think of.

We brought her home with instructions to give her antibiotics, a phosphate binder, and subcutaneous fluids.  I learned how to administer the fluids, a process which both Zoe and I hated.  But it seemed to be helping.

She spent about two weeks hiding in various places in the house and not going to any of her usual favorite places.  Eventually I made a “nest” of sorts for her under a table in the office and she was quite happy there.  We put a cat box here for her so she wouldn’t have to venture out (and so we could see whether she was using it).  Slowly but surely she began coming out.  She re-established her favorite place as the cat tree.  She would sit in the tube most of the day, and purr if we reached in to pet her.  That in itself was unusual.  She was what I call a “stingy purr” cat, in that you could pet her and she’d only purr if she felt like it.  As opposed to an “insta purr” cat like our other one who will purr if you look at him.

Finally, she started sitting on our bed during the day again and acting as though she felt well.  Life was good.

And then…   last Monday, I woke up at 5:45am with the feeling something was wrong.  Zoe was curled up on the couch and when I petted her it was clear she was in pain.  I took her to the vet office as soon as they opened up.  The news was as bad as it could be.  Her kidney values were dismal and she was still in pain.

There was really only one choice.  She was purring almost to the end.

It has fallen on my shoulders to make these decisions for every pet we have lost.  It gets more difficult, and more difficult for me to recover from, every time.

Whether it was connected to that or not, this past Monday I had an attack of vertigo so bad that I ended up in the ER getting my head CAT scanned (and, as the old joke goes, they found nothing).  It was after 1am when we finally got home, and of course sleeping on the waterbed was out of the question.  So, for two nights, I slept on an air mattress on the office floor, which was surprisingly comfortable.  The vertigo didn’t really go away till Thursday.  I have medication to keep with me for the next time (and undoubtedly there will be a next time).

So that makes me a dizzy granny in a one-cat house.  Where’s the fun in that?

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By infmom, May 23, 2009 12:53 pm

I don’t remember exactly when I took my first ride on a city bus.  I do know I was in grade school at the time, and it’s just about 100% guaranteed that neither of my parents was with me.

My parents came from a society (bedroom communities of New York City) where men of substance rode public transit every day.  There was no social snobbery aimed at men whose wives dropped them off at the train station for their daily commute, nor those who rode the subway to their upper-crust office destinations.

However, despite my parents’ everyone-who-is-anyone-in-NYC pretensions, we didn’t live there.  We lived in central Virginia.  And in central Virginia, riding the bus was for, you know, THOSE people.  Even though there was a bus stop a block away, and a frequently-arriving bus that would transport him to a stop directly across from the front gate of the college where he taught, I can pretty much guarantee that the notion of riding that bus never once crossed my father’s mind.  Ever.  (If the car was out of order he’d get a ride with a colleague.)

Each morning, he’d pile us kids in the car, drop us off at school, and go merrily on his way to work, where he would park and leave the car for the rest of the day.  That’s what men did.  The fact that my mother therefore had no transportation didn’t enter into it, nor did the fact that we kids had to walk home from school, every day, regardless of the weather.  (No, this isn’t one of those “uphill both ways barefoot in the snow” stories–most of the time, we didn’t mind walking that mile.)  Needless to say, the idea of taking a bus anywhere didn’t occur to my mother, either.

However, I had no problem with it.  If I could wheedle the money out of a parent, I could go all kinds of places.  Two bucks would finance a trip to the movies downtown, plus drinks and popcorn, for my oldest brother and me, and my mom started trusting me to manage that destination when I was nine or ten.  I got myself to school and back on the bus after I transferred out of the mile-away elementary school.

To be honest, I liked riding the bus then, and I like riding the bus now.  Granted, I don’t ride it anywhere near as often any more–public transit in Los Angeles sucks, and getting to most useful destinations via the MTA can most charitably be described as slow.  However, I take the local bus service to and from my class at the community college each week and I still feel the same about bus travel as I did as a kid.

There’s a great sense of equal community on the bus.  Here we all are, from our different spheres, having one very important thing in common.  We’re all on the bus.  I have noticed that the old rules don’t seem to apply any more, though–in my youth, any kid who didn’t break land speed records getting up to offer his/her seat to an older person would be ordered to do so in no uncertain terms.  Nowadays, I seem to be the only person who ever offers a seat to an older person, and for pity’s sake, I’m pushing 60 myself.

If you haven’t ridden a bus lately, give it a try.  Pick someplace you can get to easily and go.  You might be pleasantly surprised by the experience–if you can get some zoned-out kid to give you a seat.
photo credit: Xaragmata

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By infmom, May 4, 2009 12:40 pm

Lifehacker today did a story about storing coffee beans.  Which got me to thinking about coffee in general.

My parents were big coffee drinkers.  They had one of those old-fashioned stove-top percolator pots that was featured in the Maxwell House commercials that so many people of my generation remember. The pot has a basket inside, into which you put the coffee grounds, and you fill the pot with water and put it on the stove.  As the water comes to a boil, it shoots up the stem that the basket sits on, into the glass knob on top, and falls back down into the grounds.  That water steeps through, drops back into the pot and gets re-perked.  The down side of this is pretty obvious; you can end up with coffee thick enough to stand a spoon in in short order.  Plus, you have to keep an eye on the pot and turn it off after whatever the brewing time is.  That’s where my parents had problems.

My mom was prone to going off somewhere and zoning out and forgetting about the pot.  She boiled them dry on a regular basis and once even left it so long that the aluminum actually melted into the stove burner.  After paying for someone to fix the stove, my dad decreed that from then on they would drink instant coffee.  (My mom would then put water on to boil in a saucepan on the stove, zone out elsewhere, and…   well, you get the picture).

Regardless of how the coffee was brewed, my parents poured a lot of milk and sugar into it.  They would take the wet spoon out of the coffee, dip it in the sugar bowl, and leave chunks of coffee-congealed sugar behind.  My brothers and I raised major objections to this, since we didn’t want coffee lumps in our Sugar Coated Sugar Sprinkled Sugar Soggs cereal in the morning.

I always liked the smell of brewing coffee, but loathed the taste.  Every time I was offered a sip I’d try it and gag.  But I loved coffee ice cream, go figure!  I could never figure out what the difference was and why one would be nauseating and the other delicious.

Fast forward many years.  I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and thus had to revamp my entire set of common food choices, including beverages.  Since I thought diet soda tasted vile (something I have not really changed my opinion about over the years) and I got tired of drinking water, on one business trip I decided to try a cup of coffee with just some cream in it.

What a revelation.  It wasn’t the coffee I had loathed so much, it was all that milk and sugar!

Not long afterwards, my daughter got a part-time job at Starbucks to help pay her college expenses.  One of the benefits of being a Starbucks employee is a free pound of coffee per week.  And so I became a free-coffee beneficiary and got a coffee grinder and thus entered into the wide world of coffee culture.  I had never set foot in a Starbucks till my daughter started working there, and she had to write down for me what she thought I should order.  I’d never heard of “caramel macchiato” in my life.

My son worked at Starbucks for a time, too, and thus my supply of free bags of coffee continued.  I got lazy.  I’d take whatever was brought home.  But after he left Starbucks I had to start making my own decisions about my own coffee.  I tried Armenian coffee from the international market up the street.  I tried small-roaster brands from Whole Foods.  I tried the in-store-roasted coffee from Costco.  Then I started experimenting with cans of coffee from Trader Joe’s.  (All the while ignoring all those mailers from Gevalia.)

Well, gang, I think I have finally found a winner.  Scandinavian Blend from Trader Joe’s.  Best combination of taste and price I’ve found in all my travels.  It’s so good it tempts me to have more than my one cup of regular coffee per day (I’m sensitive to caffeine so I have to be careful how much I consume, and when).  With just a little half-and-half in it, brewed in my Aeropress, it’s as close to perfect as it gets.  At least for me.  (That’s an Aeropress on the left, and if you haven’t tried it you have missed out on some really extraordinary smooth rich coffee…  I’m convinced it’d make even Folgers taste good).

Are you a coffee drinker?  Do you go to great lengths to store and brew “properly” or do you just dip out of the can from the supermarket and enjoy the ease of use?  Have you signed up with Gevalia?  I’m still not convinced about those guys. 

photo credit: phlora

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