I got the draft cover design for my book. It’s nice. How strange, though, to see my name on a cover mock-up. Feels good.

I’ve used Microsoft operating systems for most of my computing life. It goes
CPM
IBM PC-DOS
(Dos flavors)
Windows –> etc

Oh, I’ve flirted with Linux boxes, but the desktop I do my writing on has always been some Microsoft product. That’s ending.

In recent versions, I’ve been willing to tolerate some distressing functionality because I really like Win XP compared to all the past versions. But the creeping DRM’s been annoying me. It’s a whole other rant.

Anyway, I’ve followed Vista’s development for a while as an interested guy, and the news that it’ll let you install it only once after the initial installation

I already own a set of matched Win XP discs because of authentication/serial number issues. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on this. And that’s on top of the wrangling I’ve had to do when XP’s decided that my latest upgrade is one too many and I have to call in again. There is no fucking way I’m rolling over for this. Maybe I’ll stay with XP, and maybe I’ll move back into rolling some Linux distributions in the world of minimal usability, and maybe I’m going to use my beautiful MacBook Pro as my box until Apple forces the issue on their own.

But that’s it. From a News.com article:

[Shanen Boettcher, a general manager in Microsoft’s Windows Vista unit] said that Microsoft has heard some concerns regarding virtual machine issues, but doesn’t think the license changes represent a threat to Vista sales. “It hasn’t come up as any kind of a blocker for adoption,” he said.

Well, here’s one. I can’t believe there aren’t others, but mark me up as the first if no one else has come forward.

And don’t tell me that if I’m all anti-DRM I shouldn’t buy an HDTV, or an X-Box 360, or whatever else has crippleware built in: I’m not buying them either. Either years down the road kids are going to point at me and laugh at the lame guy who only reads books that don’t self-ignite after reading and doesn’t have a Holoplayer or whatever, or this thing’s going to turn around and consumers are going to start getting devices that work like they want them to work.

Either way, I won’t have upgraded to the newest and greatest Microsoft operating system for the first time I can remember.

If you didn’t dig the podcast, or wanted to read it yourself, I’ve posted an HTML version for your enjoyment.

Anyone with suggestions on how to easily create well-formatted XML/HTML pages out of RTF or Word docs should please, please drop me a line, because this stuff is really horrible.

I just tallied up how much we spent while in Europe. Hooooooooooly mackeral.

It’s a good argument to make our next vacation to somewhere extremely cheap. Like, uh, our backyard. Or Vietnam, which I hear is nice.

I was in my workshop yesterday night, joking about how the way to get published for sure was to write vampire fiction, especially raunchy vampire fiction, and I took up the gauntlet. I intended to write a really horrible, break-every-rule-of-writing short, but my problem is I keep making it turn funny, or philosophical, so it’s this bizarre mix of horrible vampire parody with occasional scenes of my standard writing, so it kind of succeeds on neither level – it doesn’t fail in the way it’s supposed to fail.

Got my first rejection letter in my new career as a fiction writer yesterday, a quite nice personal note on letterhead from an editor. It’s easily the most encouraging rejection notice I’ve ever received, but I’d rather have been accepted.

To the drawing board!

or, Derek’s Cheater’s Guide Drinking Guide

When I was working almost 16-hour days during the home stretch (July-August) I used to make these when I was taking a break. I don’t recommend this at all, as it seems likely it has the same horrible side-effects that alcohol-with-energy-drinks do. Except that there’s no taurine.

Anyway, I used to drink this at 9, 10, when I was running out of steam and also really stressed out, and it did the trick for the last half-shift of writing.

The Norm Cash Double
—
– Using your Aerobie Aeropress or the method of your choice, make two espresso shots with a nice Sumatran bean. Don’t skimp on the quality of the coffee. Pour into glass.
– Pour in equal measure of good-quality Irish cream liquor.
– Drink warm.

Really nice taste, mellowing effects, plus it’ll keep the eyelids peeled.

Gonna be doing a lot of work on this beast this weekend. Proceed with, uh, caution?

In the meantime, free fiction!

(bump)(bump)

I’ve been writing science fiction shorts for a workshop I’m doing, trying to get back into fiction writing, and I thought it might be cool if I put some readings up.

Here’s me reading my short story “Transcript of the Best, Most Powerful Symposium Presentation That Is Strong, Funny, and Promises To Respect You In The Morning”

I hope this turns out okay – this is my first time doing anything like this, soooo… let me know. Troubleshooting if you find anything would be good, too.

If this goes well, I’ll start putting others up, maybe early versions of stuff I’m working on, and so forth.

And I’m an author.

Here’s the problem: copyright doesn’t serve any of the semi-noble purposes it was intended to.

I’m writing a book and I wanted to use some great old photos I found. But the magazine they were in had long gone out of business and the photographer, as best I could determine, was dead. None of the big archivers (Corbis, Getty, etc) had bought up an archive that owned the photos.

So we had two choices: skip using them or scan them from the printed material and run them ourselves, and if someone came forward and claimed the rights, we’d have to either pay them off or go to court. We skipped.

These are fifty-year old photos with no locatable owner. And that’s one example – I have a whole folder here with photos I can’t figure out how to clear. It’s crazy. No one’s helped by this situation.

Why? So Disney can keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. The public domain is great! Everyone wins with public domain! I’m seriously thinking about releasing all my short stories (and anything else I can pull this off for) under a Creative Commons license just to avoid inflicting anything like this on future generations.