The Vent and Rant Thread

[Rumpelteazer]

It seems I have a throat infection. It's all sore and swollen. I'm hoping it'll be just a throat infection and not a cold (one usually comes with the other).

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

It seems I have a throat infection. It's all sore and swollen. I'm hoping it'll be just a throat infection and not a cold (one usually comes with the other).

Oh, no! Feel better soon.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I hope I'm dead before stuff like that happens to me. I hope my parents are dead before it happens to them.

Yeah, unfortunately, that's what everybody hopes. It's right up there with "I hope I die in my sleep." Hell, yeah, doesn't everyone?

It's a bit like people with bad lifestyle habits, you know? (Not saying that this is you, at all, just...discussing...). They think if they smoke, or don't exercise, etc., that they'll just die younger. Pop their clogs at 60, or whatever.

But unfortunately, that's not what happens. Almost nobody just pops off. What happens is that they start to deteriorate, and you just shrivel and get sick and your lungs go out and you get some type of cancer someplace, and all that crap. You may die sooner, sure--but not soon enough to avoid all the crap of getting old and infirm. And the bad choices make the infirmity part worse and worse.

It sucks, but, well...the alternative is being dead.

@Rumple: I sure hope you feel better soon!!!

Hitch

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yeah, unfortunately, that's what everybody hopes. It's right up there with "I hope I die in my sleep." Hell, yeah, doesn't everyone?

It's a bit like people with bad lifestyle habits, you know? (Not saying that this is you, at all, just...discussing...). They think if they smoke, or don't exercise, etc., that they'll just die younger. Pop their clogs at 60, or whatever.

But unfortunately, that's not what happens. Almost nobody just pops off. What happens is that they start to deteriorate, and you just shrivel and get sick and your lungs go out and you get some type of cancer someplace, and all that crap. You may die sooner, sure--but not soon enough to avoid all the crap of getting old and infirm. And the bad choices make the infirmity part worse and worse.

It sucks, but, well...the alternative is being dead.

@Rumple: I sure hope you feel better soon!!!

Hitch

For a long time now I've maintained that I'm not particularity afraid of dying, but I'd kind of like it to be a surprise.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by wodin

For a long time now I've maintained that I'm not particularity afraid of dying, but I'd kind of like it to be a surprise.

Nobody is afraid of death--it's the dying that they want to avoid. :-)

New Vent:

I have a bloody word-processing file, NOT a scan, that has HARD hyphens in it, at the end of lines.

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT did I ever do, in my former life, to deserve this shet????

(sigh). Sorry for the text drama. Just want to screech.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yeah, unfortunately, that's what everybody hopes. It's right up there with "I hope I die in my sleep." Hell, yeah, doesn't everyone?

It's a bit like people with bad lifestyle habits, you know? (Not saying that this is you, at all, just...discussing...). They think if they smoke, or don't exercise, etc., that they'll just die younger. Pop their clogs at 60, or whatever.

But unfortunately, that's not what happens. Almost nobody just pops off. What happens is that they start to deteriorate, and you just shrivel and get sick and your lungs go out and you get some type of cancer someplace, and all that crap. You may die sooner, sure--but not soon enough to avoid all the crap of getting old and infirm. And the bad choices make the infirmity part worse and worse.

It sucks, but, well...the alternative is being dead.

@Rumple: I sure hope you feel better soon!!!

Hitch

My father sort of just popped off. He had been diagnosed with a blood clots about a year and a half earlier.
His choice of food and meds was Michelob and Salems.
He was 58.
Also the only person I know that popped off young.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

My father sort of just popped off. He had been diagnosed with a blood clots about a year and a half earlier.
His choice of food and meds was Michelob and Salems.
He was 58.
Also the only person I know that popped off young.

Hell, I'm older than that. I don't want to pop off that young, either. Retroactive popping! Zoiks!

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Hell, I'm older than that. I don't want to pop off that young, either. Retroactive popping! Zoiks!

Hitch

I am 7 years from being that age. I don't want to pop either.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Nobody is afraid of death--it's the dying that they want to avoid. :-)

New Vent:

I have a bloody word-processing file, NOT a scan, that has HARD hyphens in it, at the end of lines.

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT did I ever do, in my former life, to deserve this shet????

(sigh). Sorry for the text drama. Just want to screech.

Hitch

I read a book the other day that instead of double quotes around dialog used an emdash (I think, it seemed wider than normal though) to indicate the start of dialog and nothing to indicate the end of dialog. It was very odd and hard to read.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I read a book the other day that instead of double quotes around dialog used an emdash (I think, it seemed wider than normal though) to indicate the start of dialog and nothing to indicate the end of dialog. It was very odd and hard to read.

Was it self-published? I cannot think of the author's name at the moment. I ran across one like that a few years ago. The author actually said he was imitating Cormac McCarthy.

[badgoodDeb]

Spanish language bibles seem to use a different format than I'm used to. Double less than or greater than symbols, around spoken text. We display English and Spanish at church (and I help create the slides). It's very different.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Hitch

New Vent:

I have a bloody word-processing file, NOT a scan, that has HARD hyphens in it, at the end of lines.

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT did I ever do, in my former life, to deserve this shet????

(sigh). Sorry for the text drama. Just want to screech.

Hitch

Come, come, Hitch. Search and replace, global. I agree, it's idiocy, but it's so very easy to fix, even in <shudder> Word.

(And yes, you certainly shouldn't have to be doing this, and you don't really have this built into your pricing structure, but given some of the other atrocities your customers have foisted on you, this seems a smallish one. )

Buck up. It's only Tuesday. The week has at least three more days of atrocities waiting for you.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I read a book the other day that instead of double quotes around dialog used an emdash (I think, it seemed wider than normal though) to indicate the start of dialog and nothing to indicate the end of dialog. It was very odd and hard to read.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Was it self-published? I cannot think of the author's name at the moment. I ran across one like that a few years ago. The author actually said he was imitating Cormac McCarthy.

I've seen this in a number of non-English language books. Spanish, maybe?
Honestly, I can't pull it from the portable database at the moment (my noggin). The double-bracket thing--which is a massive pain, that BadgoodDeb mentioned, and the -- convention.

Every time I see a self-pub that says "mumble mumble mumble Cormac McCarthy" or worse, "...Joyce," I run like hell.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I've seen this in a number of non-English language books. Spanish, maybe?
Honestly, I can't pull it from the portable database at the moment (my noggin). The double-bracket thing--which is a massive pain, that BadgoodDeb mentioned, and the -- convention.

Every time I see a self-pub that says "mumble mumble mumble Cormac McCarthy" or worse, "...Joyce," I run like hell.

Hitch

I got to the point on author saying well so and so does it, I ask have you actually read so and so. Care to guess the answer 90% of the time.

Spoiler:

Answer was usually no.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Was it self-published? I cannot think of the author's name at the moment. I ran across one like that a few years ago. The author actually said he was imitating Cormac McCarthy.

Originally Posted by Hitch

I've seen this in a number of non-English language books. Spanish, maybe?
Honestly, I can't pull it from the portable database at the moment (my noggin). The double-bracket thing--which is a massive pain, that BadgoodDeb mentioned, and the -- convention.

Every time I see a self-pub that says "mumble mumble mumble Cormac McCarthy" or worse, "...Joyce," I run like hell.

Hitch

It's sold by Random House so not an indie. And it is originally English but first published in Ireland I believe.

The Commitments. The sample only includes up to the first page of actual story but it does have an example.

Apparently they even made a movie based on it that is "one of the best Irish films ever made" and was nominated and/or won many awards.

I only found this because it was the least appalling selection for "library fishing" in the "All Your Book Are Belong To Us" challenge.

I ranted about that whole process in the challenge thread earlier.

Spoiler:

message 297: by Dazrin (last edited May 09, 2017 05:04PM)

It doesn't look like many people have gone fishing yet, so I thought I would post what I plan on doing since I need to adapt the physical instructions to an e-book friendly method. I very rarely can make it to a physical library, and really dislike reading paper books anymore, so need to adapt the instructions for Overdrive.

Original Instructions: library fishing
Check out your library and count the number of rows in the section you are fishing, pick a random number and go to that row. Count the stacks and repeat the random process. Count the shelves on that stack and repeat the random process. Count the books on the shelf and repeat the random process. Pick a book within a few of the fished target. You know how fish are and I don't want anyone getting a 1,200 page microfiche history of a place they don't care about.

I will browse my overdrive library by "subject" and choose an overall category, in my case "Fiction", to approximate the "section" from the original instructions. I will then count the subjects that have at least 20 books to choose from and choose a random number between 1 and that number then go down the list alphabetically to find my selected subject. Within the subject, I will see how many pages of books there are and use that to get another random number. I will then choose a book from that page.

Close enough? Close enough.

message 298: by Dazrin (last edited May 09, 2017 07:09PM)

Ok. That didn't go quite like I hoped.

28 subjects in the Fiction Category with 20+ books available and skipping the "erotica" section => RANDBETWEEN(1,28) = 1.
1 = African American Fiction

My thoughts: Ok, this is not something I would normally seek out so this has possibilities.

# Pages: 12 => RANDBETWEEN(1,12) => 2
Go to page 2.

Here's my first option:
He's Just a Friend (Soulmates Dissipate, #3) by Mary B. Morrison
"In her sizzling bestseller Soul Mates Dissipate, and its smoking sequel, Never Again Once More, Mary B. Morrison blazed a new trail in African American erotic fiction. Now she introduces a sassy, unstoppable heroine who vows to..."

And the second option:
Hold U Down by Keisha Ervin
"Robbing men, getting money, and living lavishly is all they know. For Unique, Kiara, Kay Kay, and Zoe, tomorrow isn't promised, love doesn't exist, and men ain't worth a thing. Stealing cars is their hustle, and they are at the top of their game,..."

And the third option:
I Can Make You Love Me by Karen White-Owens
"Love appears in the most unexpected places. . . For Wynn Evans, her first marriage proposal was little more than a childhood crush. Twenty-five years later, Adam Carlyle has grown up into a gorgeou [sic] package of handsome, smart, and..."

This is not what I was expecting when the subject came up "African American Fiction".

There are only 5 options out of 24 books on this page that aren't straight up erotica or steamy romance. And 1 of them is a sequel. This could be interesting. If I wanted erotica/romance I would have gotten the Col. Sanders thing above. It's short.