Books, Con Fluff 1, CONS, CREATIVE, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS, Writing

Everybody Dies…Or Not!

writingbear Whenever I write a short story with the intention of submitting it to a conbook, I have a tendency to want to write a happy or silly story. I’m not sure why, though it may have something to do with the overall fun atmosphere that I see at conventions. Nearly every large gathering of nerds that I have been to have been joyous experiences, regardless of the flavor of nerds that are present.

Unfortunately, “stories write themselves,” so that happy story might turn into one that is not-so-happy because I had some bad Mexican food or something. When this happens, I will end up either rewriting the story to make it ‘happy’ or shelve it completely in favor of a happy one. I have even had a few instances where I ended up with TWO stories that diverge at a certain point and at othertimes I’m satisfied with the happy story and abandon the other one.

I just feel odd sending a story that doesn’t end with a happy ending or a punchline into such a happy place. I should probably get over it. After all, I don’t think anybody actually reads conbook stories at the con because they’re too busy having fun!

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RANDOM REVIEW: Windows 8

EATING MY PEAS

So Purdy…

I first gave Windows 8 a spin when the Developer Preview was released back in 2011. As I have not purchased a new computer since then, I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the final product, but judging from prevailing opinion as well as feedback from customers, it seemed that I wasn’t missing much. As I work in tech support, I figured that I was going to have to support Windows 8 sooner or later, so I decided to eat my peas and installed Windows 8 on my laptop: a 14″ Toshiba P745-S4102 with 6MB of RAM.

THERE AND BACK AGAIN

The install went fairly well, but I made the mistake of not wiping the drive beforehand, so I had lots of icky bits left over from years of Windows 7 use. I would open up my boot drive to find rouge directories sticking out their tongues at me in glee. Obviously the thing to do was to delete them, so I got delete happy and of course, deleted an important directory.

So just like I did during my adventures with OS X, I had to start all over again. I formatted the drive, reinstalled Windows 8, and was back in business. Windows 8 seemed to be a little more happier after the second install, so lesson learned: always format the hard drive before dropping in a new OS.

THROWN FOR A LEARNING CURVE

Up until Windows 8 you could count on a few things like the Start Menu and Control Panel to be there. No mas. The Start Menu has been replaced by the Start Screen and other options are accessed by pulling up a ‘Charms Bar’ that is accessed by moving the mouse to either the upper or lower-right hand corner of the screen. Moving the mouse to the lower-left hand corner reveals a shortcut to the Start Menu, and the upper-left corner pulls up the last program opened and a list of currently open programs if you move the pointer down from there. The interface is not intuitive and poorly explained, you get zero help and are tossed into the Start Screen with nary a tooltip to help you.

A great example of how obtuse things are is the method for shutting down the computer:

Bring up the Charms bar by moving the mouse to one of the right-hand corners…that is, assuming you know its there.
Click ‘Settings’
Click ‘Power’
Click ‘Shut Down’ from the pop up menu.

Is it any wonder that people are upset about having to re-learn how to use their computer again? Expect to stumble around Windows 8 for a while (I certainly did) until you learn its intricacies or say ‘screw it’ and download a Start Menu replacement.

APPY, APPY, APPY

…or not!

One of the big reasons Windows 8 has received so much grief was because of the removal of the apparently-beloved Start Menu. I admittedly gave them static about this too, but having poked at it again, I now get what it is Microsoft had in mind when they removed it.

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have given us the concept of apps, or small programs that only do one thing or access a single service. Like many of you, I’ve gotten accustomed to doing things via apps. When done right, they’re great: you open up the app for whatever it is you want to do and take care of business instead of having to open up a browser, navigate to the website, login and all that.

Microsoft and Windows 8 want you to do everything in apps, and while I like this idea and would like to embrace it, the fact of the matter is that for whatever reason, the Windows 8 apps I have used have either fallen short of my expectations or just plain don’t exist.

The official Twitter app is one example. I have multiple Twitter accounts, randomizer9 is my main one and I have one set up for The Rules of Tech Support. The Twitter apps on my phone and iPad both allow me to switch back and forth between identities with a few taps, but the Windows 8 app only lets me login to one account, which reduces its usefulness.

Some apps just don’t exist. The most glaring omissions for me are Facebook and Gmail, though I can set up the Mail client for use with GMail. I’m also surprised that there isn’t a version of Office that uses the Metro interface. Granted, I don’t use very many apps to begin with, so its not that big of a deal to me, but other folks who love apps might be disappointed in the selection, though it should get better with time.

THE DOCKING DESKTOP

Luckily, the desktop is still around and is accessed by clicking the Desktop tile. While the Start Menu is persona non grata, much to the consternation of lots of folks (including myself) programs can be docked to the Taskbar just like in Windows 7. I found myself docking each one after installing them. This works pretty well for me and I haven’t really missed the Start Menu all that much, especially since discovering this handy list of Windows key shortcuts.

Unfortunately, installing legacy programs barfs icons all over the Start Screen just like it did before. It is a little jarring to see the a nice purdy Metro Start Screen morph into icky tile-o-rama with a tap of the Page Down key. The big problem with the Start Screen is that there is currently no good way to organize tiles that were installed by legacy programs. Sure, you can move them around, but one of the nice things about Ye Olde Start Menu was that it kept things you didn’t need out of the way. Hopefully the upcoming Windows 8.1 will resolve some of those issues, otherwise I’m not sure what I’m going to do once my Taskbar fills up with docked programs.

I have experienced no compatibility issues with older programs and hardware as of yet which is pretty darn lucky considering I still use Microsoft Money 2000 and WinAmp 2.9.

WHERE’S MY MEDIA CENTER?

I feel bad for Microsoft at times because even when they do things right they often don’t get credit for it or the Thing Done Right is completely ignored. Windows Media Center is one of those things. Media Center turns a TV-tuner equipped PC into a pretty decent PVR and can even stream TV from a PC to an Xbox 360, which is awesome. It was created during the Windows XP days (remember Media Center PCs? Yeah, me neither) and came included with certain versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. It does not come with Windows 8. If you want Media Center you now have to pay an extra $9.99 even if you have the Super Mega Deluxe Happy Version of Windows.. So much for doing it right.

CONCLUSION

Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth you’ve probably heard, Windows 8 is not that bad. Yes, it does have some annoying habits, such as the made-for-touch interface and missing Start Menu, but I have learned to live with those inconveniences. That said, I understand why some people are upset: Windows users (such as myself) have grown accustomed to the Start button/menu being there for nearly twenty years. For Microsoft to just yank that football away like Lucy does to Charlie Brown is just not right. I know workarounds, but lots of folks either don’t or don’t want to go through the trouble/hassle. Microsoft reached just a little too far ahead in that regard.

I understand what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8. I even like the idea of doing everything quickly in apps instead of having to constantly go to the web browser. Unfortunately, the apps either don’t measure up in terms of functionality or they just aren’t there, which means I end up constantly having to go back to the desktop, which defeats the whole point of the new interface.

The much-touted quick startup and shutdown is nice and my laptop appears to be performing as well as it did before, though, as with any new system, one should be leery of potential conflicts with old hardware and software. I haven’t hit any snags yet in that department, but time will tell on that.

To wrap up: Windows 8 isn’t quite The Future just yet. It takes steps in the right direction with its app-centric design but is hamstrung by sub-par apps that will have you going back to the desktop over and over again. If you are one of these folks that just can’t live without the Start Menu, there are third party add-ons, but I can’t vouch for their usefulness or reliability. Once you get over the steep learning curve, 8 isn’t all that bad, but it isn’t as great as it could have been, either. The upcoming Windows 8.1 should make things better so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. While I’ll be sticking with Windows 8 for the short-term, I won’t be tossing away my Windows 7 install disc anytime soon.

3 out of 5 tiles.

HOUSE, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM

27 Things I Noticed In My Just-Bought Home

After about 2 months of looking, negotiating, gathering money and signing a metric crapton of papers, I am finally in my new (to me) home. Of course, I noticed a few things:

As mentioned previously, we didn’t discuss which, if any, appliances were going to be left. They left behind the one thing I didn’t want: the electric range.
I took a peek inside the oven and wished I hadn’t. I don’t think it has EVER been cleaned.
On the plus side, there appears to be a gas line present. Time for an upgrade!
Well, after I buy a refrigerator, first.
and get the utility guys to make sure the gas line is good…guess it might be a while.
Seriously, it looks like it was never used, some people just don’t know what they’re missing
No refrigerator, but there’s a water line so I can get an ice maker. Woo!
There is a general air of uncleanliness around the place. The oven, the tub needs scrubbing, the floors need sweeping, and the carpet is shag-nasty!
I even had to sweep some webs and stuff from a few walls…ew.
Speaking of the carpet, there’s this weird red-pink fuzz all over the master bedroom floor??
Checking the keys, I found one that didn’t work in the outside locks…it was for the master bedroom. Oh-kaay.
…and the second bedroom door doesn’t lock. I’m sensing some trust issues here.
The doorbell doesn’t work, and I thought I was antisocial.
It’s only temporary anyway; I want a doorbell that sounds like the one from the Jetsons…seriously!
Finding bug traps everywhere…well, maybe if they cleaned up a little.
First major upgrade (after a gas stove) will be a new shower/tub, but for now some bleach and a good scrubbing will have to do.
People have gotten smarter about their network security, no open hotspots nearby.
Spent the first night vacuuming and filled up the machine’s dust canister after one bedroom…EW.
I don’t think I’ve ever filled up the dust canister when vacuuming my whole apartment.
Yeah, definitely going to need a new shower head, I like to feel the water bouncing off my chest like I’m Superman
I’ve never had a garage before, its nice.
Scratch that, having a garage is AWESOME. Yes, it has rained recently, why do you ask?
I found what appear to be used plastic bags and aluminum foil in a kitchen drawer…I wonder if the previous owner was also Mexican.
I didn’t think I was going to need a lawn mower anytime soon and then heavy rain came down the day I got the keys. Nuts.
Once again, I get to pick between the duopoly of suck for internet: Time Warner and AT&T 😦
Actually, I think I’ll go with Clear
Damn, it feels good to be able to walk around in my boxers again!!

BAKING, BUSINESS, COOKING, FOOD, HOUSE, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WHATS GOING ON

How Home Sweet Home It Is!

After years of dealing with annoying neighbors one wall (or floor) over, lousy parking, poor management, constantly increasing rents and not being able to own a cat without a big deposit and paying ‘pet rent.’ I am finally going to take the plunge and buy a house. I’m almost there, too: if all goes well I’ll be a homeowner within a few weeks.

Its a big step for me and more than a little bit scary. For better or for worse, I am setting down roots here in San Antonio. There’s also the whole ‘what happens if I lose my job’ bit, but these days, that cloud is constantly hovering over everyone’s head, so that’s nothing new. Instead, I choose to focus on the Good Things associated with having my own home:

It’s my house, and if you don’t like it… – On a philosophical level, an apartment is never ‘really’ yours, and it will be nice to do whatever I want without having to ask myself whether I’ll be dinged for something when I move out. Also, there is the whole ‘investment’ angle, but I don’t care too much about that. In my opinion, the mentality of the home one lives in being an ‘asset’ instead of a ‘home’ is partially to blame for the nutzoid homeowner’s associations I always hear about in the news.

More room! – I have always lived in one-bedroom apartments and even lived in a efficiency once when things got tight. Unless I get a Unabomber special (i.e. an isolated shack) I’ll be getting a 2-bedroom house at the bare minimum and it will more than likely have a garage, too. That’s going to be a LOT of extra space that I’m not sure I know what to do with. I might rent out the extra room and I hear garages are great places to store things. I’m also looking forward to hosting parties again, it has been way too long since I’ve hosted a Super Bowl or New Year’s Eve gathering.

Do What I Want – One of the crappier parts of living in apartments is you have to be careful with your noise level lest you arouse the ire of your neighbors. While I am not a very noisy person, I do like to turn up the sound when I play video games and movies and have occasionally been ‘that guy’ that has had his stereo or surround sound system up too loud. Conversely, I have also had to bang on a few doors and tell neighbors to tone it down.

WOW a Garage! – My parent’s house does not have a garage and so I have never had the pleasure of having one. Based on what I have seen from friends, I understand it is a storage space. I might go nuts and actually keep my vehicle in mine.

KITTEH! – I have wanted to have a cat for some time, but as I mentioned in the intro, certain things about apartments have kept me from getting one. I can now acquire a cat and hug him and pet him and hold him and call him George. 🙂

Good Old Gas – My parents have a gas stove, and it is awesome. I have not lived in a place that has had a gas stove since I moved out, and cooking food has royally sucked since. One of my requirements for a home is that it have a gas connection so that I can once again experience the joy of heating up tortillas and hot dogs the way God intended.

House Party – When I had a bigger apartment a few years ago, I loved having friends over for games and even Super Bowl and New Year’s parties or two. It won’t be too long before I’ll be hosting get-togethers and this time we can crank up the tunes! 😀

Buying a house is big and scary and fraught with pitfalls, but I’ll take the hits as they come and look forward to the good things that come with owning a home, like freshly-warmed tortillas!

Books, BUSINESS, Con Fluff 1, CONS, CREATIVE, FlipSide Stories, FURRY, FURRY FIESTA, JUST SAYING, One Sheet Stories, RANDOMIZER9.COM, Seven Super-Short Sci-Fi Stories, The Rules of Tech Support, Writing

Doing It Write

A spectacular failure can have the effect of dropping a big heaping scoop of self-doubt on one’s head. After failing to sell even a single paper copy of my first furry book, “Con Fluff 1,” in the Artist Alley of Furry Fiesta a few weekends ago, I found myself questioning everything I did there: my sales pitch, my table layout, pricing, and so on. The bigger question of “Am I Doing It Wrong?” has also been hanging over my head since then.

A friend recently made the observation that I was incorrectly trying to sell clean stories to an audience that was not interested in them. Given how I joke with friends about how some furry art sites don’t update until you turn off their “not safe for work” filter, I’m hardly in a position to disagree. A little part of me is wondering if I should cross that line and start writing erotica/smut/porn/what have you.

I’ve never written anything overtly sexual, and I don’t have much desire to…it’s just not my thing. Despite that, I now have a little nagging voice in my head telling me that if I just cross that line, I will gain a bigger audience. Oddly enough, the internal debate I am having is reminiscent of when I’ve see artist friends struggle with the question of whether to do fan art for conventions.

While doing your own thing as a creative person is very personally satisfying, it also carries some risk, especially where anime and comic book fans are concerned. Those fans have popular characters that they like and don’t often take chances on things that are different or new, especially coming from a little-known or new artist. However awesome an artist’s original creation may be, most folks are going to gravitate to the table with the cool looking Iron Man or Hetalia fanart. In the same way, I find myself wondering if folks are bypassing my works just because it is clean.

Part of the reason I don’t write smut is that I don’t think I’d be good at it, but that isn’t stopping me from considering crossing that line. The little cloud of self-doubt that’s been following me around since Furry Fiesta isn’t helping either.

I don’t know. I guess it wouldn’t hurt if things got just a little more naughty. We’ll see.

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38 Things I Noticed During Furry Fiesta 2013

I’m all ears!

For the second year in a row, I headed up to Addison for Texas’ one and only furry convention: Furry Fiesta 2013: The Time Traveller’s Ball. I had a wonderful time, and so without further ado:

JUST TAKE THE TOLL ROAD around Austin, especially if you’re going northbound.
Driving up was much more pleasant in my still-pretty-new Honda CR-V
The con was made even more fun by the friends that went with me and the ones I met there!
Artist Alley needs to be a little bigger and supervised.
What? No Rock Band in the game room? Aw, I so wanted to do Power of Love…again and again.
BuckHopper just barely got last year’s Voice Over panel uploaded before this year’s show because he was very very busy with work.
Of course when you realize that his work involves videogames, the amount of sympathy you have for him might drop just a teensy bit.
I think his Voice Recording Basics panel needed to be just a little bit more, well, basic. My head was spinning near the end.
I was a very sad bear just ten minutes before my panel started because nobody was there. *sniff*
People then started to show up, and I became happy, and nervous!
I burned through my prepared material in a half hour…need to rehearse next time
Things went downhill fast during discussion when the subject of DRM and piracy came up…argh
At dinner, the restaurant owner asks how we’re doing and notices the badges. Her: “Are you here for a convention?” Us: “Yeah!” Her: “What kind of convention is it?” AWKWARD SILENCE.
Seriously, I have never seen nine adults (including me) simultaneously freeze like deer in the headlights.
OH YEAH, ITS AN ART CONVENTION! :3
Luckily, I remembered my ‘training’ the next day. Get some furry common sense, y’all!
One guy trying to explain Furry Fiesta to an older person got “What? Fairy Fiesta?” as a reply. That explains a lot, actually.
I’m not sure which made my attempt to record the fursuit parade worse: the lighting, my iPad mini, or the two rubes that stood next to me…seriously, I kept expecting to hear one playing a banjo and the other a jug.
The Furry Psychology panel filled up quick, they should just give Dr. Nuka a video room next time, it’ll be like college but much less boring.
If the International Anthropomorphic Research Project were to change the last word in their name to something starting with “F” it would be I-ARF which would be pawsome!
Got my first dose of con funk in AA when some nasty dude decided to sit next to me. Ended up having to shoo him off later, too…jerk.
Not sure which was better: acquiring a pair of bear ears to wear, or my friend Chris’ reaction to them. “What the hell are those things?!”
There were lots of Marty McFlys but one guy (a fursuiter no less) NAILED IT. How? He had a WALKMAN. Everybody else GO HOME.
There were lots of 4th Doctors, too 🙂
While my panel went well, my attempts to sell berks in Artist Alley did not. *shrug*
I guess I didn’t really need that Sales Tax ID after all, then.
Speaking of AA: If you are going to be in AA read the rules on the wall and don’t whine like a petulant child when they don’t match your expectations.
$3.75 for gas? Makes me glad the Excelsior gets about 30MPG on the freeway even with 3 dudes with 3 days worth of luggage.
Thanks for putting us in the ‘annoying kid’ section of IHOP, waiter. *twitch*
Either the con is short on staff or they were not very noticeable, because I don’t remember seeing very many staff members.
One person in AA had an old school early digital camera that I used to take his picture with a fursuiter: a big chunky HP one that was the size and weight of a brick.
Never mind the burgers (which are good) I want In-N-Out to come to San Antonio because the ‘well done’ fries are the BEST. THING. EVAR.
Boston Market. We also need them in San Antonio, too.
Some friends call TFF ‘CircleCon’ because everything on the second floor is well, in a circle.
Thing I forgot: Electric razor. The ol’ greymuzzle was showing by Sunday
Every time I thought I was going to need/use my laptop, I didn’t because my iPad mini did the job. I may have crossed a threshold.
Of course, just when I start to get familiar with the area around the hotel, they decide to move it next year.
I’ll definitely have to take Thursday off next year…maybe Monday, too 🙂

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27 Things I Noticed During Ushicon 8

Ushicon 8 took place this past weekend. It is different in that it is the only 18+ anime con in Texas, as well as the first one I’ve ever attended. On with the list!

I didn’t know this year’s Ushicon was number 8 until I saw it on the t-shirt.
Yeah, that’s not terribly important, but if you’ve been around for awhile, you should crow a little, you know?
Worst thing that I noticed: Why does the men’s room on the first floor smell like mushrooms?
Round Rock has the screwiest parking lots I’ve ever driven through.
The maid cafe had the same large parfait on the menu listed as the “Lover’s Parfait” or “Forever Alone.” Clever.
Given that Valentine’s day is this week I was tempted to get a “Forever Alone” one but I think it contained enough sugar to put a horse into diabetic shock.
The Dairy Queen near the hotel has to be the fastest one I have ever been to. After placing my order, I filled my soda, sat down, started to chat with Chris, and BAM. Done.
The hotel did everything in their power to piss me off before and during check-in.
Wow, I can actually talk with fellow attendees about anime from the 80’s like Dirty Pair and even Robot Carnival!
No Rock Band in the video game room? WEAK.
It could have totally fit in the middle where nobody was playing table-top games.
Being an 18+ con meant swearing was okay. ***k yeah.
That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a con that was this well behaved.
Which, I guess, is kind of 0the point of the whole thing.
The panels were pretty interesting, or at least the ones I could enter because Panel Room 2 was too damn small for anything.
Meanwhile there were plenty of empty chairs in the video rooms…just sayin’
The cosplay show was cool; no judges or drama, just lots of folks showing off their cool costumes.
Holding up my iPad mini for 20 minutes to record it was not, guess I’ll stick with my camera.
Actually Panel Room 2 did work well for an improvised “Artist Meetup” on Saturday night 🙂
There were a few fellow furries present, w00t.
The number of bronies present (or at least the ones that were wearing t-shirts) could be counted on one hand. AWESOME.
The only time things got loud was when it got late and folks started drinking, you know, like at every other fan convention.
Went to a “Project Meeting” panel on Sunday to offer feedback. I sat around for about 10 minutes being ignored and left. They could have at least asked me to introduce myself.
Okay, not completely ignored, one guy was decent enough to offer me a doughnut.
There was a gap of ‘nothing interesting happening’ on Sunday long enough for me to make a quick sojourn to Fry’s Electronics.
Fry’s still has a anime section!
I made the mistake of going to the maid cafe to chill out during Yaoi Tea Time. It was like I was listening to a Spanish novela, and occasionally seeing…well, I’d rather not go there.

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Off To Binary Heaven

square cover

I have been on a bit of a ‘simplify things’ kick lately, as evidenced by the fact that I am no longer a video game website editor, a drummer in a band, or involved in any conventions outside of being an attendee or panelist. I cut back on my side projects and decided to devote the majority of my time to writing and getting the word out about my e-books.

Case in point: therulesoftechsupport.com (don’t bother, the site is kaputski and I still own the domain). It was intended to be a ‘companion’ to my second e-book, Things being what they are, I didn’t get around to updating it as much as I could have, partially due to the aforementioned side projects, and also because of all the other writing I do.

So its no wonder that there weren’t very many visitors to the site. The year of hosting I had prepaid for was coming due, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pay for a site that I didn’t have the time to keep up with and that wasn’t being visited. So I shut down the site.

While I took the liberty of grabbing all of the articles and pictures from the site prior to shutting it down, I feel a little sad over pulling the plug. Granted, I’ve had other websites that have gone off to binary heaven for one reason or another, but for what its worth, this one was mine.

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Apple Does Not Like Files

As my iPad mini is my first iOS device, I have had to learn it and adjust to its idiosyncrasies. Some of the new things I’m discovering are good, like the ability to swipe up with four fingers and bring up a list of currently open apps and volume/brightness controls. Of course, there are bad things to discover as well, such as the ‘locked down’ nature of the device. In particular, I was initially miffed that I could not work with files like I could on desktops or Android devices.

I like files. I know how to work with files. I like to make folders for my files and organize them and e-mail them and sort them and rename them and open them and edit them and do all kinds of fun stuff with them.

Apple does not like files.

Apple likes objects. On an abstract level, apps are objects in iOS,not files. Instead of having files scattered all about, like in Windows or Android, your stuff lives in the app that uses it. If you’re going to work with a picture, you open up Photos, select the picture you want to work with, and get to work. Music lives in iTunes, documents live in Pages, and so on and so forth. The app comes first.

iOS gets irritiating for people like me because unlike Android, where I can get an app like Astro and poke around at the underlying file system, iOS does not let you get ‘under the hood’ at all. I can’t put stuff where I want it because Apple won’t let me, and coming from a world where files rule and I can do whatever I want to with them, that is frustrating.

Case in point: I use Dropbox to store stories that I am working on. Indeed, one of the first apps I downloaded onto my iPad mini was the Dropbox app. I also got the Pages word processor because it had totally knocked my socks off on the iPad demo units. Awesome. I quickly learned that Pages does not talk to Dropbox. My file-centric brain then said: “No biggie, I’ll download a copy of my latest story via Dropbox, open it in Pages, do some editing, save my changes, then upload the newest draft back to the cloud. After all, that’s how it had worked on my Acer Iconia Tab A100.”

In response, Pages threw the finger at me and said, “NO SAVING FOR YOU. You’re going to open the file in Pages and I’ll make a copy there. Its staying there after that, too, because I don’t like Dropbox and I ain’t giving it back.” So I end up with two copies of the story floating around, one in Dropbox and one in Pages. So much for keeping things in sync.

Ultimately, I found a Microsoft Office-compatible app talkd to Dropbox direclty, so that fixed that, but its just one an example of how I have had to work around iOS because it ‘thinks different.’ Its methodology is awesome for end-users because files are icky things and people don’t like dealing with them. I think its because most folks can’t make the mental leap from objects (like documents, pictures, and music) to files. They can’t wrap their heads around the abstract concept like ‘computer people’ do.

If everything lives in the app, then they don’t have to deal with files at all. If they want to do something, they open the appropriate app, and everything is there. Instead of a list of files, they see pictures, songs, and documents, and that’s what they know.

Those of us that are more ‘computery,’ on the other hand, have a few options: muddle around iOS as best we can, jailbreak our devices, or just not bother with it altogether. Unfortunately, I think I’ve taken one step too far into the rabbit-hole, because for all that fuss, I’m still loving my iPad mini…even if it doesn’t want me to have my precious files.

Books, CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, WORDS, Writing

When Do I Start?

A question I often have to ask myself when writing a short story is just when do I start the story. “Well, at the beginning, DUH,” you’re probably thinking to yourself, but things often aren’t that simple.

Since I often have a word limit that I can’t go over, that often doesn’t leave me with enough space to set things up, so the story ends up starting somewhere after the characters, setting, situation, etc, have been established. Oftentimes, though, those details are not all important to the point I’m trying to make in the story, so that’s okay.

Whenever I’m doing a ‘gag’ story, which is fairly often, I really can’t start at ‘the beginning’ (wherever that may be) because starting near the end makes it easier to hide information that is critical to the punch line. The challenge there is making sure that I give the reader enough information so that they understand what is going on.

Start at the beginning? If it were only always that simple!

Eduardo Soliz

IT Guy, short story author, podcaster, and furry!

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