Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

prepping myself to enter my cold garage to let the dog back outside on her runner. She is an old dog that cannot take the night air anymore.

Being nice to animals is surely one of the things that makes you such a happy_terd! Karma to you on behalf of the dog!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by omk3

It's Etgar Keret's "The Nimrod Flip-Out". It's a (rather small) collection of short stories, some of them very short, so I had many convenient places to stop without feeling guilty.

It's now finished (at last!) and I'm trying my luck at converting to epub. So much I have to learn, and so much else I need to be doing right now... I'll probably give it a rest for today..

But it's actually fun doing something completely useless

"completely useless" ?? learning xhtml and css and epub ??? surely you jest !

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Writing this:


I love it when I write a full story in under an hour

heheh, i've known girls like that.

Originally Posted by Verencat

Hey, we love the same things!

and me.

Right now trying to convince the cats to catnap a little - I find it so distressing when they chase each other at night, it makes me restless and...well, paranoid. Yesterday night they played a lot, so when I got to bed, I got to a point where I was sure I heard human-made noises in the corridor, so I got up, lit all the lamps in the appartment, then attacked a door, thinking that behind it was a killer/torturer/alien. I pushed so violently against the wall that books fell down from the shelf to the floor, making me even more nervous, so I finally succeded in turning the lights off at 3am.

I'd rather have a peaceful and early night today.

aw ! usually i find it reassuring when the cats are around, i know they would be aware of any killer / torturer / alien / ghost well before me, so as long as they are behaving normally i think i can be calm. that doesn't mean it doesn't drive me crazy when they are chasing each other around the house making an unholy ruckus in the middle of the night, but only because it prevents me from sleeping.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Now designing cover for story (but no evil murderers or cats outside my door like Verencat. Not that there were any evil murderers )

(just a tiny comment, have you tried putting a white background behind the text, so the letters will stand out more and look really like those labels ?)

[omk3]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

"completely useless" ?? learning xhtml and css and epub ??? surely you jest !

Well it was kinda useless, typing a whole book that I already have (in both greek and english translations by the way - was it my fault that they had different titles? how was I to know?).

But it was a great motive for learning. Typed it in openoffice, exported to html, then converted to epub with calibre, even added my own fonts as an experiment. But then I started thinking, why not do it properly?

So yesterday I read on xhtml and css (I used to work with html but quit before css became popular), and now I'm revisiting this awful html (I can't believe the garbage that's in there) and lovingly cleaning it, leaving only the bare essentials. Next step, creating my first css to go with it, and then preparing all that for epub packaging.

Ridiculously lot of work for something that only I will read (it is copyrighted after all), and I can already read it from the paper book anyway. But, if I find I can actually do it, I may put my new-found skills to better use by actually formatting something I can distribute. Plus I feel a silly sense of accomplishment through it all!

[BookishDreamer]

I'm currently trying to figure out how I ended up with a book written in Danish and what I'm going to do with it. "Eventyr Paa Stillehavskysten" by Otto Larssen. I know I didn't buy it so the book must have been in some books I picked up from my Mom's a couple of weeks ago. My Dad probably picked it up at a book sale, but why he would have wanted a Danish book, I'll never know. He didn't speak the language so reading the book was out of the question. Very confusing. And if I don't find anyone who wants it, the poor thing will be donated to the next library book sale.

Dreamer

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

(just a tiny comment, have you tried putting a white background behind the text, so the letters will stand out more and look really like those labels ?)

That's what's wrong! I couldn't put my finger on it all last night and most of this day. I liked the idea behind using the labels and taking a single word that was associated with Emily Dickinson and her poems, but the font just wasn't working for some reason Now I know why.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by BookishDreamer

I'm currently trying to figure out how I ended up with a book written in Danish and what I'm going to do with it.

Could it be Swedish??
My local Ikea store uses books in Swedish to stock their book cases (I presume it's Swedish as Ikea is a Swedish company) - presumably because they don't think anyone in the UK will steal them, but I'm sure some find their way out into the wider world.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by omk3

Well it was kinda useless, typing a whole book that I already have (in both greek and english translations by the way - was it my fault that they had different titles? how was I to know?).

how *were* you to know ? surely that was a deliberate trap on the part of the translator / publisher !

But it was a great motive for learning. Typed it in openoffice, exported to html, then converted to epub with calibre, even added my own fonts as an experiment. But then I started thinking, why not do it properly?

ah, those words are as sweet, sweet music to my clean-code-loving ears.

So yesterday I read on xhtml and css (I used to work with html but quit before css became popular), and now I'm revisiting this awful html (I can't believe the garbage that's in there) and lovingly cleaning it, leaving only the bare essentials. Next step, creating my first css to go with it, and then preparing all that for epub packaging.

i can, alas. karma to you for doing it right.

Ridiculously lot of work for something that only I will read (it is copyrighted after all), and I can already read it from the paper book anyway. But, if I find I can actually do it, I may put my new-found skills to better use by actually formatting something I can distribute. Plus I feel a silly well-deserved sense of accomplishment through it all!

fixed that for ya. you're quite right, these are skills which you can use for future projects, whether you can distribute them or not. and trust me i know just what you mean : i have so little patience for bad code that i've been known to take apart a commercial epub that i've bought and redo it, even if it's not a book i'm likely to read more than once.

Originally Posted by Moejoe

That's what's wrong! I couldn't put my finger on it all last night and most of this day. I liked the idea behind using the labels and taking a single word that was associated with Emily Dickinson and her poems, but the font just wasn't working for some reason Now I know why.

glad to help. i like the idea too, and i love that font. if only i had the chance to use it more often.

[pshrynk]

Wait... What? Robert Parker died?

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Could it be Swedish??
My local Ikea store uses books in Swedish to stock their book cases (I presume it's Swedish as Ikea is a Swedish company) - presumably because they don't think anyone in the UK will steal them, but I'm sure some find their way out into the wider world.

I put a couple of random sentences into an online translator and they were identified as Danish. Some of the text looks interesting (found a sentence where almost every word ended in 'g') and I've considered using some pages for a decoupage project, but I'm a little leery of using them untranslated. With my luck, I'd probably pick a page that contained some inappropriate statement.

Dreamer

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Wait... What? Robert Parker died?

so i hear. i only just found out about him and was looking forward to discovering his books.

Originally Posted by BookishDreamer

I put a couple of random sentences into an online translator and they were identified as Danish. Some of the text looks interesting (found a sentence where almost every word ended in 'g') and I've considered using some pages for a decoupage project, but I'm a little leery of using them untranslated. With my luck, I'd probably pick a page that contained some inappropriate statement.

Dreamer

i know just what you mean. i always think of that when i see (non-asian) people with tattoos of chinese or japanese characters. i suspect that most of them could be walking around with the word "lentil" (or worse, of course, but "lentil" would be really funny) permanently displayed and not know it.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Wait... What? Robert Parker died?

Fraid so


https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70411

[happy_terd]

Erich Segal also passed away.

[omk3]

Originally Posted by omk3

So yesterday I read on xhtml and css (I used to work with html but quit before css became popular), and now I'm revisiting this awful html (I can't believe the garbage that's in there) and lovingly cleaning it, leaving only the bare essentials. Next step, creating my first css to go with it, and then preparing all that for epub packaging.

And I DID IT!
My first hand-crafted epub is ready and it works! I'm ridiculously happy
Of course I've got lots more to learn, but now that my file is clean and tidy and reader-ready, I know where everything is and can edit to my heart's content!

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

fixed that for ya. you're quite right, these are skills which you can use for future projects, whether you can distribute them or not. and trust me i know just what you mean : i have so little patience for bad code that i've been known to take apart a commercial epub that i've bought and redo it, even if it's not a book i'm likely to read more than once.

Hmm, I can see that easily becoming a habit of mine too... What trap did I set for myself?

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

prepping myself to enter my cold garage to let the dog back outside on her runner. She is an old dog that cannot take the night air anymore.

Hope she has a warm bed in the cold garage. I have heard you can get electric blankets for doggy beds now.

[Katti's Cat]

Trying to enjoy new posts on MR while having my coffee. Enjoyment rudely disrupted by the sudden (and waaaaaay too early) appearance of step daughter. Ah well, 6 more hours to go, then she's on her way home. I'm sure I can handle that without committing murder. Will be hard, very hard. But I can do it. Grabbing reader and disappearing in the bedroom does sound like a very good option right now.