Notice Anything Different?

Yeah, got tired, after all these years (I started this blog on August 21st, 2005 - Happy Belated Birthday, NVNC IS VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES!), of the green background. I did get some complaints here and there about the color, which I've been ignoring, but it was finally starting to wear on me, too. Also changed text color and restored the text to 'normal' (apparently I had set it to bold instead of just making the size a bit bigger when I decided the text was hard to read - I've learned new things since then).

I added a little blurb at the top - I know I haven't been great about updating, but I do put something up at my other blog almost daily, so I thought, if you're visiting you might be interested in what I've been doing that's kept me from updating here.

I had a great, half-hour long chat with my son today. We're counting the days until he comes home from Iraq. I won't say anything more specific, except that the light is just beginning to glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

He, of course, wants me to be there when he lands and has started 'reminding' me to make plans. I know I don't always do things as far in advance as I could, but it's really to early to be buying airplane tickets, etc. Especially since the current arrival window is about a month wide.

He's always been one to want things structured and thoroughly planned out. Not that he's not spontaneous, but I think just knowing that there *is* even a tentative, flexible, plan keeps him from getting nervous that there won't *be* a plan.

I can't believe it's already Labor Day weekend. This summer seems to have sped past faster than any I can remember. Tomorrow I go to see CSU San Jose vs. UC Davis - my nephew plays for Davis, so I'll be sitting with the Aggie fans instead of the home team fans. Not that college football has ever been much of a passion for me. My college didn't have football. National champion wrestling and basketball, but no football. The local community college had a great team that I think did very well in its division - but I didn't follow it, either.

I don't want to get all political here, but the news that McCain has chosen a woman as a running mate is all over the place. While it's rather stunning that a woman is on the Republican ticket, the choice has me completely bemused. Did he pick her for her looks? Seriously, the woman is probably wonderful, but she hasn't finished her first term as governor (of Alaska) and her other political credits are all very small potatoes. Her positions are very far to the right, but that can't help McCain, he's got the right. Does he think an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage woman will get him all those disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters in his camp? Color me confuzzled about this one.

In Which Dawno Plugs a Book

The happy serendipity of the Internet leads me from a post about a great food meme to a post about a book by a waiter...

I am on Twitter. I tweet. I read other folk's tweets. I follow about 50 tweeters, one of whom is Wil Wheaton, actor, writer, blogger and uber geek. In a tweet he sent last night, he recommended reading a post by the writer of Waiter Rant, a blog, and also, as I find out at his blog, a book. I followed the link in the tweet and read the post, which was insightful. Went to take a look at his book. The Harper Collins website had preview pages, so read all there was available of Chapter 1 and decided I wanted to read the book right then - and, as luck would have it, they had it available as an e-book, so I could download it immediately and not have to wait for it to come in the mail.

Download completed, I dropped everything else I was doing (I've been very busy with the whole beading thing lately and was in the middle of re-organizing my beading area, doing an inventory of my creations and re-naming and creating tags for them, amongst other stuff) and started reading. By 11 pm I was getting rather tired and went to bed with about 3/4 of the book completed. I have just finished reading it.

Waiter Rant (by Steve Dublanika, The Waiter) starts off with a preface that introduces you to the author's conversational, first person style. He's obviously educated and witty:

"Today waiters are expected to be food-allergy specialists, sommeliers, cell-phone-rule enforcers, eye candy, confessors, entertainers, mixologists, emergency medical technicians, bouncers, receptionists, joke tellers, therapists, linguists, punching bags, psychics, protocol specialists, and amateur chefs. Foodie-porn TV programming has generated a new class of entitled customers with already overblown culinary expectations and a rapidly diminishing set of social graces. Economists say that the restaurant business is a bellwether of the nation’s economic health—but I think it’s a bellwether of America’s mental health as well. And let me tell you, 20 percent of the American dining public are socially maladjusted psychopaths. We should start putting Prozac in the Perrier."

147 words into the book and it's got me completely hooked.

The sub-title is "Thanks for the Tip -- Confessions of a Cynical Waiter" and yes, he's cynical. But he's also self-analytical, a keen observer of people and a writer whose descriptions neatly place you right in the setting - I felt like I would be able to recognize his anonymized restaurants and the people who worked there, if I ever made my way out to New York City.

About mid-book the reader has learned a lot about the author's life, what led him to become a waiter, how and why he struggles with the culture of the restaurant world and its denizens. If you are going into this thinking it's just a series of anecdotes about the behavior of quirky customers, you will be disappointed - it's that to a point, but it's also an introspective memoir and very nearly a psychological/sociological treatise on the way people treat people in the service industry. He keeps it all moving apace, however, with his personable writing style and sense of humor. You also find that he puts his education to use with mention of, or allusions to, classical literature, but also from popular literature and culture. While his prose is accessible, it doesn't talk down to the reader, either.

The book is also about the author learning that he *is*, indeed, a Writer. Starting with a blog that eventually gains a large following and then on to getting an agent, and a book deal, the author discloses the ups and downs many writers experience before finally breaking into publication. I know a bit about that as a moderator on Absolute Write where daily writers discuss their triumphs and challenges and disappointments.

*SPOILER WARNING*

Because I want to make a point about writing, I'm going to discuss the end of the book - please don't read on if you don't like spoilers and intend to read Waiter Rant. There's nothing else said after the spoiler, so if you're going to pass up the spoiler bit, you're done - thanks for visiting!

*****************

The book closes with the author still working as a waiter, even though his book has sold. Unlike the lotto winner who walks into work the morning after the numbers were posted (yeah, you don't have that dream, do you?) and says "take this job and shove it," he takes a respite from waiting and then, eventually, goes back to it, albeit at a less stressful place and pace. The hopeful thing about his return to the job, is something he says just a few paragraphs from the end of the book:

"Now that I’m a waiter trying to become something else, I feel like my life has direction. The chip I was carrying on my shoulder fell off. My sense of hospitality has returned. I no longer feel like a loser. Those horrible dreams about wasted talent have disappeared. For the first time in a long time, I’m at peace with myself."

I like a book with a happy ending.

Denvention is Nearly Here!

I'm looking forward to going to Denvention, the 66th Annual SF WorldCon. I voted for the Hugos and I've been reading the pocket program. There's a party on Friday night I'm looking forward to attending - I "know" everyone who's going to be there, although I'm such a lurker on the site that's hosting it, they'll probably go "Dawno who?"

I may have to hand out these (well, not the last one, I'll be wearing that):

I'll try to post about the trip, we'll see if I have enough energy left at the end of the day.

Moderating

I'd love to see more discussion of mediation techniques people think work well and maybe links to some posted discussions elsewhere, if you know of them. I've read just about everything I can find that Teresa Nielson Hayden has posted at Making Light and at Boing Boing about her methods. I was drawn to this post at Making Light yesterday because I've seen James in action over at Absolute Write where I am a moderator, too.

I co-moderate the Politics and Current Events (P&CE) forum at Absolute Write with MacAllister Stone. That part of AW has been going through some interesting changes lately.

MacAllister and I have been attempting to create a place where there can be rough and tumble discussion by the members who like that sort of thing, but also create a more comfortable space for the ones who don't feel comfortable in that environment - a topic that the comments in "Got it in one" back on July 1st explored to my great edification at at time when we were just making our changes (the "new P&CE" began on June 30th).

It's been exhilarating, exasperating and exhausting at times to moderate there, and I'm always on the look out for discussions that will help me do a better job.

I hope to see some comments...well, I always do, but this time I'm hoping even more.

note: thank you Dr. Science, for your comment on the above-mentioned thread, where you discussed posting your comments into your blog - I hadn't considered that before now!

Thank You, Charles Stross!

Charlie Stross, SF author of The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, Singularity Sky, Halting State, Accelerando, the just released Saturn's Children (and many more), has posted about the Author Advocate Defense fund in his blog today and the fund got a nice run of donations, it's over $1k now. If you can't donate, please post about the fund, because others will donate if they hear about it from someone they trust.

Some good info on how to post about the fund are in this post on Absolute Write by my blogging forum co-moderator L M Ashton - just skip the parts about joining the blog carnival (or not - join AW and join the carnival!) - there's advice about what to say, links to information about the cause and code for a donation button, all in the post. (Thank you again, Laurie, for taking the time to do the post and organize the carnival)

A bit of personal stuff...

Tomorrow is my son's last day home. Three weeks seems like a nice, long time for a vacation from work, but when the job you have to go back to is soldiering in Iraq for 5 or 6 more months, it's way too short. My dad came up from L.A. to visit earlier this week and we had two lovely days with him. We shopped and ate out and just sat around and talked, it was wonderful. My son has caught up with friends, visited Las Vegas, and also taken care of some important stuff he could only do in person here, so I think he'll go back satisfied that it was a good visit.

Otherwhere on the web...

I hope you're all watching Dr. Horrible's Musical Blog. Act II is up now, Act III goes up the 19th. The FAQ's on the Master Plan page are a good read for the background to how the whole thing was conceived.

Back from Vacation in Vegas Update to Author Advocate Defense Fund News

Just got home yesterday from Las Vegas with my son, his girlfriend and my husband. Stayed at the Venetian, which is beautiful. Two things will keep me from going back, the constant perfuming of the hallways on the way to the room, and the distance from the monorail. I prefer taking the monorail whenever possible to get to other hotels, and from the Venetian you have a long walk out, down the strip and then through Harrah's to get to the station.

We visited the Hilton to have a final lunch at Quark's and ride the Star Trek: The Experience ride (we just did the Klingon Encounter one) before it all closes down in September. On the way home (hubby and I drove) we stopped and bought a couple bottles of Klingon Blood Wine and a case of Romulan Ale.

We went to Zumanity on Friday night and had dinner at Benihana's on Saturday. Don't ask me about the gambling - I didn't come home ahead like last year. I did stay within my gambling budget, but only brought home a little of it. I did hit two pretty big jackpots Friday night and Saturday morning - just gambled with it later and said "bye bye".

While I was gone Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi posted about the Author Advocate Defense Fund. The traffic to the page did take a nice uptick. Unfortunately the Pay Pal script that had been working just fine up to the time I left stopped working. I'm not sure if it's something with Googlepages not liking the script, or what, but when I got back I had some emails saying people had tried the button and it didn't link to anywhere. I've updated the page and will use different coding for the link if it breaks again. There's always the button in the sidebar of this blog, too, if you just happen to be hanging out and decide to help.

A couple posts ago someone suggested starting a blog tour and now there's one going on with the Absolute Write bloggers. Thank you L M Ashton! Now, go give the bloggers some link love, and fund tour in your blog, too!

Another Mention of the Fund!

Origami Unicorn mentions the fund. Thank you Catherine!

Other bloggers are mentioning the suit, and while I'm leaving comments, perhaps if you're a regular commenter/friend on their blog or LJ, it would mean more to them to hear from you about the donation site? Your help is appreciated. Your donations are too - there's a button right over there in the sidebar, for your convenience :-)

Keeping Track of My Conversations

For me, one of the best things about blogging is the conversations one can have in comments. I see blogging as the building of communities of interest unfettered by one's location, time of day, sex (see there Medievalist, I didn't use 'gender'), disabilities, race or creed. The more blogs I visit (and I have a huge list) and the more comments I drop about, the harder it is to keep up with them, right?

Well, kinda. I signed up at coComment in February of '06. Recent updates to their software and new features has made it even better for following my comment history, and for knowing when there are new comments on blogs that I've left my comments on. It's especially nice if the blogger responds to something you've said, you'll know about it as soon as you check your conversations page.

So, I wanted to recommend it to you and hope you'll consider signing on - I don't get any compensation from them for this, I just like the service and would love to have more "neighbors" there. You can see where I've commented recently.

dawno

Lazy Saturday Posting

Found a new web comic today Marry Me. It has only been around for a few months so it didn't take long to catch up. Clever writing and good art.

Tomorrow and Monday I need to do some housework - my son will be here on leave next weekend! I'll also be putting up another small press book review on Drive by Booking tomorrow. My Brontë books arrived, but I have a couple things to finish before I can get to them, so they aren't on the list of things to do this weekend.

I nearly had a crisis today - due to a completely my fault miscommunication my ohdawno.org hosting company agreement was not renewed and the site was down. A few years ago the husband and I read about this hosting company, 1&1, that was giving away hosting. We took them up on it and it was only recently that our free hosting agreement came to an end. My husband quickly got things turned back on, the monthly rate is very reasonable, and nothing was lost. I, coincidentally, discovered reading Whatever today, that site is hosted there too.

No hamster news. How about a cat picture? These are the grandkitties Pudding (l) and Jello (r)


dawno

After Due Consideration...More on Teaching Reading

In the comments section of this post, John Althouse Cohen left me this message:

Wait a minute, I don't even see the disagreement here. Althouse: "Kids need to learn to read, and they should also be learning science and history too, so why not combine the two tasks? ... I'm also not opposed to teaching history and science through the kinds of novels and storybooks that present the information accurately." Isn't that precisely what you're describing with using the moose book to teach math or using A Wrinkle in Time to teach science? Those don't seem markedly different from her example of using 1984 to teach history. If there is any disagreement here, it's much subtler than would justify this kind of "I can't believe anyone with a post-graduate degree...!" attack.

I promised I'd take that comment under consideration. Yes, I was heavy handed in my post. Perhaps I should have waited longer and been less riled up before I hit "publish." I am a total fanatic about reading, and fiction reading in particular. It's a huge part of my life. I also taught lower elementary school grades (k - 3) in a poor, rural school district. I am passionate about the subject of helping children become life-long readers. So, let me say that I am sorry I made snipes at Ann. It was really more about the opportunity to get on my soapbox, that I do disagree with the ideas proposed, and that's what I should have completely focused on. I got caught up doing something I dislike seeing when it happens elsewhere amongst other people. So, I want to say that there are points she made that I agree with, albeit conditionally.

Here's where I agree with Ann:

I'll bet if you had a shelf of books for kids to choose for their free time and it had some nonfiction books like this one, lots of kids would pick them over fiction. And I think a lot of boys would be grateful and some girls mind be inspired to go into careers that are more common for boys.

I think using well written and exciting non-fiction books in the curriculum is very important, not just having them available for free time reading, but that's a minor quibble and in general, I agree.

I also mostly agree with this:

In saying that, I don't mean to say they are just for fun and that there's nothing deep. I'm saying that reading fiction books is or should be intrinsically rewarding and that intrinsic reward is best felt when you are exercising free choice. And I also think that the depths in fiction are best absorbed in a free environment without an authority figure trying to lead you or tell you how to think. Much good fiction is about challenging authority, and I worry that authority figures will choose fiction that they approve of because it teaches the values they like. That's not my idea of how good fiction works.

Yes, I think all lovers of reading, and most teachers, believe that reading fiction books should be intrinsically rewarding, etc.

My concern with the above, is that it goes on to make the suggestion that teachers will impose their values on the students by the books they use to teach reading. It's not outrageous to think of the possibility, I will grant. The other side of the coin, I think, is that students will be exposed to many teachers throughout life. They will learn that those teachers have opinions and values, some quite different from theirs, and some quite different from the other teachers they've had, as well.

It's only through being exposed to those opinions that you learn how to challenge values you disagree with (and not only in fiction, but what about the 'facts' in texts - are they always true? But that's a whole other can of worms). If teachers aren't allowed (and don't forget, the basic premise underlying all this is that fiction reading shouldn't be required reading - period) to expose their students, through teaching, to fiction at all, how will they learn to challenge it?

Now, let's look at the context of my commenter's quote from Ann Althouse's second post in defense of her position (emphasis is mine):

I'm also not opposed to teaching history and science through the kinds of novels and storybooks that present the information accurately. And I think a history class could very well have students read novels that had an effect on history or how people think about history, like "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or "1984." I've taught a couple "Women in Law and Literature" seminars myself. (We'd read a court case and a novel that dealt with the same subject as the case.)

This position is not opposed to teaching history and science 'through' novels and storybooks 'that present the information accurately'. As a supplement, but don't teach reading purely for reading's sake and use fiction (storybooks) to do it. I don't think I'm misreading that. However, I didn't think that was the point of the initial post at all, using fiction to teach other subjects, rather it was not teaching reading as a stand alone but using the reading of texts in other subjects to take the place of reading class. I'll go into that more, later. Here is where I have a fundamental disagreement with the premise in the quote above.

A novel about slavery in the US, a novel about King George III, a novel about the history of Hawaii from the day it rose from the Pacific, through the influx of the Japanese and Chinese immigrants (I really loved that Mitchner book but I sure didn't mistake it for a history text), those novels, as well researched as they might be, are not meant to be textbooks of accurate history or science information - they're made up stories - all "fiction" is that by definition, right?

So, it seems to me, that you can't really teach those subjects "through" novels, no matter how good they are, you can only supplement the facts, and you'll need to spend a lot of time explaining to your students about what are the non-factual elements in those stories. Something an English teacher in a literature class is trained to do.

While good fiction can give one an appreciation of the ideas, and shed much light on the social mores and climate as the author perceived it, of the era, the emphasis in any history or science class needs to be history and science facts. The fiction portion will, necessarily and rightly, be given secondary importance and the teachers of history and science will not spend the time, nor possibly have the right background, to expose the class to the literary aspects of the work.

But, more importantly, those types of books would be taught in upper grades/High School, and if you look at the initial paragraphs of the first post she made, wasn't the whole thing about teaching reading, which occurs in the earliest years of school? Here are two crucial excerpts:

And why does reading even need to be a separate subject from history in school? Give them history texts and teach reading from them. Science books too. Leave the storybooks for pleasure reading outside of school. They will be easier reading, and with well-developed reading skills, kids should feel pleasure curling up with a novel at home. But even if they don't, why should any kind of a premium be placed on an interest in reading novels? It's not tied to economic success in life and needn't be inculcated any more than an interest in watching movies or listening to popular music.

...

I'm not saying reading shouldn't be taught. I'm saying that the reading materials used in teaching reading should be nonfiction, so that students are absorbing information and practicing critical thinking while they read. I consider this to be efficient and appropriate for the school setting. Students would have access to fiction to read on their own for fun (and maybe, because it would be a change of pace, they'd have more of a tendency to experience it as fun).

This advocates using texts *on* other subjects to teach reading rather than using storybook (fiction) texts. So, what I was saying about the moose and the muffin book, is the opposite of that - use the READING to launch learning in the other subjects. But it all starts with the reading lesson, not substituting a history book for a story book designed to teach reading. Did I get it wrong? Maybe it's because that statement isn't really talking about 'learning to read' but the existance of the later grade reading classes?

Separating out history and science as separate subjects does not occur until the later elementary grades, as I recall it was about 4th grade, maybe 5th. I suppose at that point if you stopped having a separate reading class and curriculum, but used well written, interesting texts for those subjects and supplemented them with fiction or simply had a "free reading" period, it might work out ok.

I don't like it. I bet there are those out there who are much better qualified in how education works that can explain whether it's realistic or feasible to do so. All I can say is that in my gut, it seems wrong to stop teaching reading, using fiction.

That's my promised consideration of John's comment. I feel better now.

dawno

Fare Thee Well, Miss Snark - and Some Other Stuff

Miss Snark, the literary agent, has posted her last post. There are hundreds of comments on her announcement post and over 20 trackback links (so far). Her blog has brought us Killer Yap, "The Crapometer," Snarklings (a "devotion of" is the proper term of venery), clueguns, nitwittery, and a glimpse behind the scenes of the life of a literary agent. Thankfully, she's leaving the blog up for access to its archives. I'll miss my daily dose of Snark.

Now, several Kleenex later, on to the other stuff:

I am a fan of Alternative History. I'm addicted to Harry Turtledove's series of alternative US histories (Settling Accounts, Great War, Colonization, American Empire, and so on - he's prolific), S M Sterling (Conquistador, Dies the Fire, Oceans of Eternity, The Peshawar Lancers, etc.), Eric Flint's 1632 & 1633. There are others, of course, with the earliest one I've read being Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. The art of "what if" to perfection.

I mention this, not only because I like to share what I read, not only in the hope that fellow travelers will reveal themselves, but also because I just started* reading the Subterranean Online magazine and there's a great little fiction article there by John Scalzi (Old Man's War, The Android's Dream) called "Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search Results" and it's very funny. So, I hope you'll go read it. I think #5 scenario is my favorite.

*I just started reading it because I wandered over to Subterranean Press to do my advance order for a limited edition** copy of John Scalzi's The Ghost Brigades and then decided to wander around the site and "hey!" I said to myself, "there's an online spec fic magazine here, too!"

**I wish I could justify the pricetag for the "lettered" edition. Maybe someday I'll win the Super Lotto.

Mystery Writer friends - do you have Hey, There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room on your reader or otherwise bookmarked? I discovered it recently and it's been a consistently good read. For some reason I always want to call it "Hey, There's a Dead Guy on the Couch." I have no idea why.

Returning and editing to add: I recommend that Snarklings go read the lovely post on 101 Reasons to Stop Writing. The blogger there has also created some nifty buttons, here's the one I like:



It links to Miss Snark's blog, and the creator would appreciate your comment on 101R2SW saying you're using it.

dawno

Blogging, a Gathering of Medievalists, and a Talking Koala

In my role as the moderator of the blogging forum on Absolute Write I occasionally check around the web for information that will help my fellow bloggers. A few days ago a new blogger was having issues with posting and asked about blog hosts/software. I did a quick Google and found Blogging Basics 101. I thought it was helpful and written in a friendly, approachable tone. They are currently running a series of guest blogger posts by people using different blog hosts. I hope you'll visit. Tell me what you think, either here or in the thread on AW, should you be a member there. (and if you're not - join! It's free and a fun place to hang out)

I started blogging with Moveable Type software on my own domain. Some online friends of mine had Live Journals, so I joined there. Very different experience. I had no clue how to customize the blog at OhDawno.org (I do now, but I haven't played around with it in a while - it needs work, I know). Live Journal had templates and a pretty easy to use interface. The other advantage of LJ is that you can limit the access to your blog by making it "friends only" - a nice feature if you want to be able to let off some steam in a safe environment. Cuts down on trolls, too. Most of my posts on LJ are friends only - in case you clicked over and wondered why I don't have any posts up to speak of...I have a lot of posts - you just can't see them.

After joining Absolute Write I found that there were various members there who had blogs here at Blogger. One of them seemed to only allow comments if you were a member of Blogger. I thought, what the heck, it's free, and joined.

As you can see, I've been fairly active here ever since. The posting interface is easy to use, there are a lot of nice features and changing the template isn't too hard with a little bit of HTML or CSS knowledge. I'm quite happy here, although I still, occasionally, wish I could figure out how to post what I write here over on my own domain. Yes, there's a way to do it, but it still befuddles me - even after many friendly attempts to explain it to me. Someday I'll just bite the bullet and give it a try. If I disappear from the blogosphere, you'll know I botched it. Hope I figure out how to back up my blog, too.

Completely random stuff:

I've been getting emails from a Rabbi. They are very nicely done, full of news and information. The most recent email is about summer camp and included an invitation to a Shavuot Dairy Buffet and a reading of the Ten Commandments. And this joke:

A husband looking through the paper came upon a study that said women use more words than men.

Excited to prove to his wife his long-held contention that women in general and his wife in particular, talked too much, he showed her the study results, which stated: "Men use about 15,000 words per day, but women use 30,000."

His wife thought awhile, then finally she said to her husband, "That's because we have to repeat everything we say." The husband said, "What?"

I'm not really sure how I got on the mailing list. The only thing I am sure about is that I don't want to report it as spam - it just seems wrong, somehow, to send these pleasant notices off to the same folder with the v1@gr@ and EUROLOTTO WINNER!!!1!! emails. I have this nagging sense that it would be a hit against any good karma I've managed to accumulate to do that.

My dear friends MacAllister and Medievalist are at the International Congress on Medieval Studies this week. I hope they're having a lot of fun. *waves*

New online comics I've become hopelessly addicted to: A Girl and Her Fed, The Devil's Panties (not Satanic Porn!). A Girl and Her Fed has a talking koala and the ghost of Ben Franklin. The Devil's Panties is about a young woman artist and offers a glimpse into the world of comic book conventions and rather interesting clubs as well as her even more interesting friends.


dawno

eBooks and Technopeasantry

Many moons ago I had a Palm Pilot. I could Hotsynch it with my work computer and keep my appointments on it. That's about all I used it for for some time. Oh, that and a MahJong game.

Then I discovered Mobipocket, which provided ebooks and stories including some good SF and fantasy. So I got an account there. I downloaded many stories and read them while waiting for something, like the start of a meeting, or an appointment with the doctor.

Eventually my laptop lease was up and it was exchanged for a new one and the program that synched the calendar was no longer supported at work - some silly security thing. I stopped using my Palm Pilot. My Mobipocket newsletter comes to a Yahoo mail account I have all but abandoned in favor of using Gmail and I kinda forgot all about it.

Until yesterday. I had cause to check that Yahoo account for something and saw the newsletter. So I clicked on it. Mobipocket has changed considerably! I searched around and found some Star Trek I wanted to read. They had 4 of the 6 part series available. I downloaded them. Then I searched on the web for the other two. I find that they're available on the Palm ebook site. Ok, downloaded them. Got all 6 for the price of two paperbacks. Not too shabby I think.

Then I come to discover that the two Palm ebook downloads can't be read on the Mobipocket reader. And I spend about an hour working out how to get the Palm books so I can read them on my laptop. They had ended up in my laptop Palm OS folder, since I downloaded that in a futile attempt to get my Clie to synch up with my laptop about two months ago. Since I can't figure out how to get them transferred to the Clie at all (not that it really matters, the battery on the Clie lasts about ten minutes these days) I need to read them on my laptop.

I discover that I have to load yet another reader, and this one, of course, can't read the Mobipocket ebooks. Oh, and while the Mobipocket reader was free, the Palm one cost $10. That made my 6 ebooks cost all told about as much as a hardback. Gee thanks.

I really would buy lots of ebooks if a couple things happened. Get them in a format that you can read on any kind of reader. Get someone to produce a portable reader that costs less than three or four hundred dollars and *also* reads any ebook I wanna buy from anywhere. Tell you what would be really cool. That electronic paper I read about - figure out how to use that stuff - lightweight, completely portable. I'd shell out for it.

Sadly, until then, I'll probably not read many things published in ebook format only.

And that leads into the "Technopeasantry" part of my title. I've been watching the discussion amongst SFWA folk (and bolder fans than I) about a statement the outgoing VP of SFWA asked Will Shetterly to post on the Live Journal SFWA community (Dr. Hendrix, the outgoing VP, doesn't "do" blogs). He has an issue with writers posting their works online and giving them away for free. He calls them "webscabs". This has raised some ire.

Now, see, even with my dismay at the state of things ebookish, if someone gives me the opportunity to read their work online for free, I just might start out reading it on line, but if I decide I really like what I'm reading, I'll certainly go out and buy (or go over to Amazon and order) that and other books by the author. (I have done this - I have a growing collection of hardbacks by those authors because I want to read their newest as soon as it comes out). How does this equate to "scabbing"? One commentor went on to post what he thought about that.

I won't go into all the details but there are a number of SFWA members (and others) who have posted on his use of the term "scabs" and "webscabs" to categorize the writers who give away their works for free. (nor will I go into the statement: "wikicliki, sick-o-fancy, jerque-du-cercle of a networking and connection-based order")

He also used a phrase "Pixel-stained technopeasant wretch" in this interesting paragraph:

Since more and more of SFWA is built around such electronically mediated networking and connection based venues, and more and more of our membership at least tacitly blesses the webscabs (despite the fact that they are rotting our organization from within) -- given my happily retrograde opinions, I felt I was not the president who would provide SFWAns the "net time" they seemed to want at this point in the organization's development, or who would bless the contraction of our industry toward monopoly, or who would give imprimatur to the downward spiral that is converting the noble calling of Writer into the life of Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch

(emphasis mine)

And there's been quite a bit of reaction to that part as well. Pixel Stained LJ icons and even a couple Cafe Press sites. To read more, should you have the interest, try a Google Blog search on Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.

Finally, don't neglect to show your solidarity on April 23rd: International Pixel Stained Technopeasant Day.

dawno