tue/20220726

in

12 point spacing between lines, margins lined up, on and on it goes: racing towards that first print test; trepidation ensues but relief that I only have to do this for the first time once. 73 pages.

Back screaming slightly less than last night so that's nice, mower back being a brutal beast, especially when you screw up any lumbar support said mower may have once possessed by getting clotheslined and thrown by a swingset – back/ass, meet ground  – but that's a story for another time already told.

I love my new doorstops and will order more doorstops soon. Back to work.

mon/20220725

in

It is still finished and I've thus spent the morning neck deep in the throes of Affinity Publisher formatting/final edits (never underestimate the impact that page turns will have on a text) but the dominant notion this morning is that I already want to go back to bed; tornado warnings at 0100 (north of us, we had some lightning but nothing major) and a strange sensation of being stretched like putty which threw my balance off considerably. Maybe I was replaying what Wanda did to 838-Jim-from-The-Office?

Goal today is to wrap up the formatting so I can see how the formatting actually looks on paper and then decide if I have to scrap it and start over with a larger format. I think I have to finish mowing the in-lawn too.

Hm. That stretching feeling might have basis in reality.

update upon a deadline met

in

DONE.

Will start the process of putting it into Affinity Publisher tomorrow – which will, inevitably, bring with it further edits and tightenings (though nothing structurally significant, hopefully). Won’t rush this part of the process just to hit an artificial release date; aiming for next Sunday, but willing to push it into the second week of August or so if it’s not quite there yet.

Regardless, relief.

final edits of a deadline blown

in

… on the final parts of PRESS(A) 01: tightenings and transpositions and memories resurgent via aural readings, for better or for worse. Doesn't look like I'll hit my lock deadline of today but, as was the case with my first blown deadline, COMICSTORYWORLD, it will be worth it (screenwriter for Abrams's STAR TREK called me up for an interview I’d forgotten I requested two days before the second deadline). Pushed it to Wednesday, though my guess is that I'll be able to say "I'm finished" before then.

Still aiming for release next Sunday to newsletter subscribers though I might push that off until the next week. All depends on how the assembly process goes. Don't want to rush it.

analog kindling

in

When I first opened up the Kindle Paperwhite, I couldn’t decide if it was useful or useless - that home screen didn’t help - until I sent my first article from my read-it-later app (DoMarks, absolutely fantastic) and checked out The Economist… and proceeded to shift my subscription from the iPad to the Kindle - and did likewise for NYRB and The New Yorker: each weekly issue delivered, much slower, much nicer.

I've already come across two or three books (one of which arrived the other day) which probably would have been better on a Kindle - or at least more amenable to fragmented reading than physical books. I'm also finding it great for reading B&W manga - Tezuka's BLACKJACK Volume Three is queued up.

Verdict: useful.

In tandem / parallel / whatever, I'm coming down with a desire to return to a more analog approach. While I won't be returning to the index card system – illegibility and utility don't mix in perpetuity – I do want to focus more on handwriting notes, journaling, etc. and using digital as a way to store and deep link them for use.