Julie's Web Journal at Stately Barrett Manor

Writers' Rooms

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:20:54 GMT

Oh the things I find when I'm on another track entirely.

A Guardian feature called Writers' Rooms. They range form the almost depressingly (for me, at least) tidy to cluttered spaces that make my work area look depressingly tidy. It's interesting to see what inspires other writers.

I would love a space that overlooks a park or something architecturally interesting, but at this point that's not to be. And even if I had such a space the weather in this locale would force me to keep the window shade closed for much of the year. So I'll console myself with my shelf of toys below my secondary monitor and pictures just below the ceiling level. The rest of the space is taken up by shelves.

Before I happened across this article I'd come to the decision (again!) that I needed to do another purge in the office. Yeah, as if that will happen. I should do it while things are in a bit of a lull, but I also should spend more time on the works in progress. But it's so damned hot that perhaps cleaning is the better option. I'll give it some thought.

Tags: Writing

Fireworks Pictures!

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:14:48 GMT

You can see the rest on the Flickr set. Duplicates are uploading to Zooomr as I type.

And yes, Trevor, I do have July Challenge shots for yesterday and today, but they'll come after my nap.

I breathed in way too much smoke last night.

Tags: Pictures

Back from firewrorks

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:48:36 GMT

I'm tired, I smell of smoke, and I have a CF card with 679 pictures. Twenty-thirty of them may be halfway decent, if I'm lucky. I'll probably end up with 10-20 good ones.

Instead of going to a fireworks display, we went out to a spot by the lake in an unincorporated part of the county. There, two fireworks stands face each other across the road. Each has a large field for shooting. It was very well organized. They had people directing traffic on premises. When we left, Sheriff's officers were directing traffic on the road. Cars were backed up for over a mile.

On the way home we ran into traffic from the Plano fireworks show. That's the one I shot last year. Took forever to get home, but we had a good time.

I'll probably process the shots sometime tomorrow, though I may end up posting one tonight. I'm pretty tired, and we're planning to get up for the First Saturday electronics flea market in the morning. That's the main reason I'm sitting here pulling pictures off of my CF card. I'd like a clear card to use tomorrow.

G'night.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:06:39 GMT

I've been busy on the tech museum today. Here's a list of new devices:

3Com Audrey
Amstrad PenPal
Casio A-11
Casio E-125
iPAQ 3635
iPAQ 4155
Jornada 430
LG Phenom Express
Connextix QuickCam
Sharp PC-1270
TRS-80 Pocket Computer
U.S. Videotel Terminal
And in the Toys section, a Merlin

Thanks to Larry Groebe for providing some of the pictures.

Tags: Technology

Speaking of free speech...

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:55:00 GMT

Here's the Author Advocate Defense Fund, set up to help pay legal expenses for the folks who have been sued by Barbara Bauer.

Just so you can see what the suit is about, here's a link to the documents available at the EFF. They were defending Wikimedia (parent of Wikipedia), which was dismissed from the suit the other day. If you feel like slogging through the 35-page complaint you'll see links to some of the particular blog postings and web pages that are being cited as containing defamatory material. Some material may have been removed since the complaint was filed. If nothing else, you'll get some insight into the legal system that you won't see on Boston Legal.

The Author Advocate Defense Fund page also links to some background material, for those who don't feel like going through pages of legalese.

If you have a couple of extra bucks to spare, please consider donating.

Tags: Writing, Legal