Timewaster's Guide Archive

You should come work with me.  

http://www.wizards.com/jobs/welcome.htm

We're hiring an EA!

I just realized that if we had a group of 3 or more, we could save about $25 (putting us at the SCBWI member price). I just did my taxes and have decided I'm going to go. Chimera, you haven't bought your ticket yet, have you? Who else is interested in going to this?

I didn't know whether to put this under writing group or books, so I'm putting it here. Anyone else ever seen this? It's sent out with my PW Weekly children's email. It's a webcomic of a guy who writes picture books. Sometimes it's not really funny, but sometimes it's hilarious. I liked today's:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6289875.html

Let me know if you can't see it. I've clicked on previous links and been unable to, but it seems to work now.

So, I'm thinking about setting myself up again to do wedding photography out here as a side business, what with the student loans coming due. I think I need to choose 10-20 of my very best pictures to showcase my talents before I go live on this. Can you guys go to my portfolio at http://norroway.thelemur.net/view_album.php?set_albumName=portfolio and tell me which of those you think is my very best picture? If each person picks five, then perhaps that will help me narrow it down.

As a side question, what do you think of the quality? Even though I've been doing this for something like 9 years, lately I've felt like my talents are slipping, probably because I have gaps in my photographic training (I was a photography major for a while, but only took one class, then went back to MFHD to graduate earlier).

That's only a very small sample of what I've done over the years--when I reformatted I lost the electronic copies of half my portfolio, and I haven't rescanned. I don't even know if my best work is up there, really. I'm feeling rather disorganized.

Perhaps I shouldn't even worry about it, because I've got plenty to worry about with work, but it's something I'm considering for occasional evenings and weekends, and it'd be an incentive to get back going on that hobby. And perhaps I could make enough to replace my computer, which is currently falling apart--screen no longer holds itself up, CD/DVD drive burnt out, and the rest of it on its way out. I'm also freelancing for my old magazine again, and working on my book--but the book may never get done. I've got too many projects and not enough time or energy, man.

Sprig (among others), this means you. What kind of files should I back up other than my documents and my programs? For instance, where would I find the files for my Outlook? I want to back up my contacts, but I have no clue how to go about it.

And hey, if you happen to be hooked into cheap (that is, free) laptops, whoever, let me know. My stupid CD/DVD drive is shot--shorted out because of the cord short--and I have no idea what else might be shot, too. I have functionality right now, and I'm backing up like crazy, but apparently the backup function on my external hard drive doesn't work (it runs the program, but when you try to retrieve the files, you get empty folders--it replicates the folders, but not the actual files... !!!). So I don't want to just plunk the whole C: drive over to the E: drive--this would take forever; I'll do it eventually, but for the present I want to find the most important, un-recreatable things.

Of course, if i were to need to wipe my hard drive at this point, I wouldn't be able to reinstall anything because the drive is dead. I suppose I could buy an external. But the thing I worry most is that it isn't just the drive, that there's more that isn't working. The repair shop guy said it could be the whole channel too (I just had him look at it to see if the drive should be brought in for repair, while I was buying my new cord).

More economical to replace the drive? Or just get a new computer?

I wish I knew someone here who could come look at it. At any rate, it seems to be working for now. I just worry that it won't be for much longer.

I thought it would take me longer to get my pictures developed. I'm still working on organizing and captioning and uploading the pictures from last weekend, but to whet your appetite, enjoy pictures of my kitten (who, by the way, has already grown past looking like these pictures).

http://norroway.thelemur.net/view_album.php?set_albumName=mogget&page=1

I figured that perhaps not everyone reads Site News and that I should put something here instead, since I only saw two people reply to my other post. This is what I said there:

Okay, so I'll be in Salt Lake for Conference weekend--Friday morning (a week from this Friday) through Monday morning. I've got Friday lunch booked already, as is Saturday night. I'll be up in Salt Lake for pretty much all the sessions of Conference. So, that leaves Friday night or Sunday night--or, if you all insist, Saturday between sessions, but that becomes more complicated--to hang out with you lot.  

I'm thinking that since we enjoyed learning Magic from EUOL when he was up here, and I've since heard that Fell has prepared a Very Special Deck, a game of Magic would be in order. I can bring some cards as well, either for a draft or just for something fun to do.

So, who wants Friday and who wants Sunday? Where shall it be and what shall we do?

Fell has voted for Friday, playing Magic. Chimera has voted for Sunday. I'm available for either, though I have another old friend who may claim the open night, and I think Friday would probably be a better night for most.

I also would like to play Magic, but if we have a large enough group, we can have other games going on at the same time, too.

And we definitely need a host. And I suggest a potluck dinner rather than eating out. I can bring my grandma's famous chocolate chip cake, as it travels well and always tastes better on the second day anyway.

Thoughts?