22 September 2008
Happy Autumnal Equinox!
Tuck #141 is almost finished. I'll try to finish it, get it proofread, and out as soon as I can.
I have been quite bad about email lately. I'd apologize if I thought I was going to change; apologies when the person doesn't change, I see as a disgusting lie. I'll try.
30 August 2008
A momentary lapse of suck, if you will. Tuck #140 is finally out.
Thanks to everyone who donated; we paid the utility bills, got food, and got my car legal again. MANY thanks to the donors.
Also thanks to those who donated computer equipment; I now have a working SCSI card again - well, several - and have somewhat recovered the data I couldn't get to. By which I mean I finally BACKED IT UP (first), and have access to it, but I haven't integrated it yet. Next shall be the re-do of the bookmarks; I seem to have accumulated some... like, erm, five hundred more. Er.
I also have a working laptop for me, one for the SO, a SPARE that also works and is loaded - gawd, the hard drives these days! I can remember back when... - and the SO has decided she doesn't like Windows XP and prefers Debian. Nyah hah hah!
And I know how I want Tuck to go for the next week, basically. Hahaha.
13 August 2008
Please note some new fanfiction , this one by Jay Parrish.
One "little" mistake, and I go into a tailspin for a month.
I've changed the name for Tuck #139; please re-download it.
Somehow I suspect that this will have no effect, and furthermore I cannot escape the images of everyone - everyone gleefully howling and laughing at me, pointing fingers, throwing offal, for fucking up. That's why I've been effectively paralyzed for the last five weeks; that image, that I cannot stop sensing every time I think about it.
Also, relatedly, donations have stopped, and we're now down to $20 for next week's food and last month's utility bills.
06 July 2008
'Not Suck' is slightly working. At least on my side; Tuck has little to complain about at the moment.
Hopefully I can pay the bills this week.
I did get most of #140 done, at least to first draft; but I dunno yet. This one may take some banging.
21 June 2008
Trying VERY hard not to suck. I've got about 900 lines of #139, but it's going to be a longer episode, I think. Oh well. I did get some done this week.
Not enough money to pay the bills yet, though it's getting there.
17 June 2008
Tuck #138 is out. Sorry for the delay.
The reason for the delay is depression. I've been very down lately.
One trigger for the depression is lack of money for the usual things like utility bills and food. Not to mention the rent is going up another 10% which we really can't afford - but we couldn't afford to move either. {nuts-in-a-vise.jpg}
Another reason is that the server/my workstation has been ill. I was a fool, and figured, "Well, since all I need is to replace a power supply [to add a disk; the old PSU wouldn't power everything, so we had to get a new PSU or hotwire one I had, and I chickened out], and the SO is bugging me to get the new disk online, I don't need to back the server up."
You can guess where this is going.
What really set me off, though, was that despite the main drives being SCSI, and despite having two controllers, one not even plugged in, BOTH controller cards are now dead (not showing their usual during-boot-sequence BIOS information, or anything). I have also tried another drive that has another connector and uses another cable, on both controller cards; I have also tried both controller cards, with both disks, in another computer entirely. Nada.
And I also found out that my backups were not saving name-begins-with-a-dot files or directories, which mainly means that my GPG keys are now missing as well.
The reason I have not killed myself (yet) is that I had the Tuck and website info also rsync'd onto another computer entirely, which did not die. So, ha ha ha, at least I have that much.
It's entirely possible that the information on the disks is still good; they worked well on a boot the previous week, and everything worked fine up until the PSU switch. But I can't afford a new SCSI controller card either. Or even a used one. Natch, the drives are wide, so the ISA controller cards don't have the right connectors for the cabling.
Anyway, after I found that out, I spent a lot of the day screaming (so hard I hurt my throat) and pounding furniture and my own body, in lieu of throwing things that would break. And I haven't felt real good for quite a while.
Today I got some done on the next episode, though. So maybe I'm not a complete waste of calories and electricity. Maybe.
Life generally sucks and I'm really tired of it, though.
01 June 2008
How time flies...
Tuck #138 is finally first-draft-finished. Expect it to be put up in a week or so, when the CE's finish with it.
I've been fighting with another dental abscess.
Also, summer is approaching, and I really detest heat. I am far far happier with parts of my body going numb from cold, scraping ice off my windshield, and with melting snow oozing into my shoes.
17 May 2008
Progress has been made on Tuck #138, but not enough, never enough. It's not dead, though. I am trying to work more on it, but I have two sticky places. One of them is emotionally Hard, the other requires information I don't have and can only get slowly. I'm trying to work around the latter... and work on the former when I can.
Donations have been good, and the bills got paid. Thank you to everyone who donated. We've greatly enjoyed the things like food, electricity, Internet, car gas... actually, that's been it.
Stil depressed, with anxiety. Not like this is new.
I did, at least, remember to - and was able to - call Mom on Mother's Day. She appreciated the call.
26 April 2008
Tuck #137 is out; some work has been done on #138.
I have been horribly depressed lately. "Why am I eating?" sort of horribly depressed.
Donations would enable us to pay the two-months-due utility bills as well as purchase such items as food and gasoline. We've got maybe two weeks until they cut off the phone. Donations did not pick up after I released two episodes in two weeks; in fact, they dropped. Not good.
Donating money, not to put too fine a point on it, would help my depression moderately. Ten or twenty dollars makes a real difference.
Someone sent me this link, which I have mixed feelings about. The fact that a school is even bothering to acknowledge the issue, at all, is rather stunning. The abuse is... expected. But the other school, mentioned further down... *boggle*
03 April 2008
Happy Tuck's Birthyday!
29 March 2008
I made a bit of progress on Tuck. #137 required more rewriting than I thought.
The problem arose from a special email setting at Hurricane Electric; when your email comes from a different address than your receiving-email address - say, you send from verizon.net but you receive (and I am supposed to send to) email at mydogsings.org. It's called "MX+ Check". An explanation of the concept can be found here, offsite. It dumps a LOT of spam; it also apparently dumps some amount of 'legitimate' emails (since last week, I am aware of three). I didn't know it was doing this, since no one whose email got bounced notified me... for obvious reasons. Alas.
Anyway, now "MX+ Check" is off. And I'm getting spam again. Alas.
I don't have a good way in mind of alternative communication paths; anything a person could use, a bot or zombie could flood so much better. And judging from my experience with email addresses, if there's a way to send spam, some fuckwit is going to do it and sell the method to other people.
16 March 2008
Tuck #136 released.
Tuck #137 has been first-draft-finished, but requires some rewriting, as the few proofers/CEs I have working mentioned that perhaps Tuck is having too much relaxation and fun, and I need to jazz the story up a bit. If you have an opinion, you need to tell me what it is or I won't know it.
The links page was not only updated but recolored and redone a bit. Now I don't need to scream when going from my nice dark and soothing webpages to GLOWINGWHITEBACKGROUNDOhGodMyEYES! Especially in the dark, which is where I do a lot of my computing. I'm still taking links, and adding links, you know...
Donations should pick up after I release two episodes in two weeks, right? Alas, I went and blew all our money on frivolities like gasoline, utility bills, and food... Hormone money is still lacking.
The best-of-a-bad-bunch laptop seems to not deal well with suspend/resume either, locking up and requiring a reboot, which on this'un requires a more-than-an-hour-wait, presumably for something to cool off. This has inhibited me from trying to install either a new version of Debian (it has potato) or the drivers for one of the many PCMCIA Ethernet cards I have; either requires multiple reboots, and I haven't felt like devoting several hours to the project. This is why the ZIP file has not been updated; it's too big for a floppy, and without Ethernet there's no way to get it off the laptop. I could, in theory, either run dosemu+PKZip on this box, or collect all the episodes onto the SO's box and do it there, but I haven't done those either. I'll do something soon, I bet.
09 March 2008
Good news, for once; Tuck #136 is in proofing, #137 is almost done, and I KNOW what I want to do in #138.
'Bout damned time.
Much thanks to everyone who has enabled me to catch up on food, drugs, utilities, and the like.
01 March 2008
Okay, finally. I have theoretically been working towards this all this morning, over the last !eight! hours. Which is why I suck, because I did maybe an hour's worth of work, if that.
The ZIP file has not been updated, because I need to run PKZip rather than the Unix version, which requires DOS, which I don't have set up on this computer, and the boots-once-in-ninety-minutes laptop still doesn't have drivers for any of the PCMCIA Ethernet cards, and the zipfile is waaaaaaaay too big to fit on a floppy.
On the better side, I have #136 ready for the proofers, and I am seriously thinking about putting it out in two weeks.
On the worse side...donations.
On the better side, nothing ELSE has gone spectacularly wrong around here... yet... And I did finish the aforementioned Wednesday. And Friday night is looking kind of amusing...
26 February 2008
On the one hand, Tuck #135 is nearly proofed and should be out this weekend; and I should be able to finish #136 tonight.
On the other, money is critical and I'd like to go grocery shopping RSN. Not to mention hormones, utility bills, etc. Donations would, naturally, make this happen.
An interesting web site you should NOT go to, because TV Tropes will ruin your life. It will. You'll spend days looking through entries, going "Oh GOD I HATE that! But I never knew it had a NAME!" Although I'm doing better than I was when I was ill, it's still a huge time-sucker. This is why I don't write Tuck on an Internet-connected computer; because I end up not writing Tuck on an Internet-connected computer, because I'm looking up Dead Unicorn Tropes or something.
Oddly enough, Tuck showed up on a few pages there; however, whoever did it - and it was not me, and you know I don't lie about these things - needs to remember that I prefer to have external links go to the index.html page rather than the writings.htm page. Also this'un needs to re-read the series, as they made some rather obvious mistakes.
I could write an essay/go off on a rant about CrazyPrepared, but not right now, I want to finish Wednesday.
14 February 2008
Happy Valentine's Day
I had not realized it had been this long since I wrote a Tucknote.
To update:
On the good side I suppose, I am on 'Net again, backed up, computer area completely rearranged and better than it was, CD-RW drive at the ready, laptop working (and "netting" via floppy drive - did I ever mention that I like having floppy drives? This is why), bills paid until March, relatively warm and dry and fed, I don't hurt THAT much, and - most important - I've got a Tuck episode going out for proofing today. Ought to be up in a couple of weeks.
30 December 2007
Three days left in the madness...
Donations have been coming in steadily; thank you all. The bills have been paid up completely, and the larder is nearly full - like laundry, you usually can't get it completely full because you're using the stuff out of it immediately.
Tuck writing has occurred; yay.
Check this out:
DM Of The Rings
This is likely funniest only to roleplaying gamers - by which I do not mean you
computer MUD/MUCK/MU* wankers. But if you did the paper-and-dice kind for a few years,
or a few decades, you will enjoy this. FOOD&DRINK WARNING: Do not go to a new page
without clearing your mouth, or you will choke.
Also note that it is all true. All of it.
Since yesterday I've felt something heavy growing in my chest. This morning,
I coughed a few times, and brought something up, and now...
I find it vaguely disgusting, in an abstract way,
that I can tell what respiratory disease I've got based on the
taste.
The SO seems to have gotten it at the same time too. This is annoying.
Another annoyance, is that my throat tends to hurt, either from the infection or the mouth-breathing; which makes me drink more fluids; which eventually have to come out. It's hard enough sleeping in between cough syrup doses, as Tuck mentioned; harder still when adding the aftereffects of gallons of liquid.
Yet another: I try to stockpile cough syrup and other OTC meds and things, so that I don't have to go to the grocery when I'm sick. However, being sick depletes the stockpile...
I suppose I should be thankful that nobody has been at the window lately. I'd really hate to have to deal with cops when I feel like this.
If you sent an email in the last few days and are wondering why I haven't replied, I haven't felt like doing it yet. Now I know why I haven't felt like doing it.
2.5 hours until the next dose...
23 December 2007
Eleven Days Left In The Madness...
Remember last year, actually about 18-19 months ago, when I mentioned someone was fucking around our ground-floor bedroom window about midnight, and they stole the window screen? And the scariest part was that they came back in five minutes after I ripped the window open and cursed them? (not the mark of a sane burglar - the cops didn't like that part at ALL, and neither did I...)
Well, tonight about 0400, scrabbling noises around our ground-floor bedroom window woke me up...
Really, this is not the approved method for belated Christmas shopping.
This time, I called the cops the first time, and there wasn't a second.
A weird thing was, one of the cops was the same one that was here 18-19 months ago. I recognized his face; I'm not sure he recognized me until I mentioned it, because he does this sort of thing a lot - as if it's his job or something? - but I don't, so it's sort of highlighted in my memory.
Anyway, I'm real fucking alert at the moment, but not quite focused enough to do Tuck writing. And since I moved the bedroom furniture around the last time - at least this time it didn't happen right next to my head - I don't need to do that again.
The SO and I are also going to have some more discussions on tactics.
Anyway... it would have been real nice if we had some sort of plan that we all knew, and remembered, and had practiced, and could trust the other person to do when awakened out of a sound sleep. Kind of like the Tuckers do.
Eleven Days Left In The Madness... and @$*@*&^!&@$ I can't wait for it to be over.
22 December 2007
Happy Winter Solstice!
And, Twelve Days Left In The Madness (counting to 02 Jan)
Meanwhile, I did finally get Tuck #134 done. Hardly worth the wait, I know. #135 is coming along, and shouldn't be delayed like this one was.
Utility bills have not been paid in two months. A donation or two would be appreciated, but I expect that once again releasing an episode will cause them to stop entirely.
Bookmarks have once again been checked, and some new ones added; it hasn't been prettified yet though. I am, of course, still taking links if anyone would send some to me.
I also found out that I am the sole 'live' website hosting GURPS High Heels, if you can believe that. So I managed to scrape up the original pictures and stick them in, and now the page is available in all its original glory. Hoo-ray. Note the picture showing relative heel heights.
14 December 2007
Right now, #134 is waiting on editing/proofing. I am writing #135, sometimes; but I also redid the links page(s) like I said I was going to. Go take a look.
Donations would actually allow us to pay the utility bills. They are overdue.
One week or so until the Winter Solstice... not quite three until the insanity is over.
01 December 2007
No, it's not out yet. Yes, I suck.
The SO had one day of Acute Gastroenteritis, and one is-this-a-stroke-or-what incident the day after (it wasn't; but it wasn't fun either). My nerves are a little frazzled.
Slightly on the plus side, as a part of the convert-the-links project, I updated the Links page as it currently exists. Note that I don't have a lot of links there at the moment, and some of the categories are very sparse. This is your fault; if you'd send me more links, I could put them in. However, I also have to add the current bookmarks from the browsers, which I mentioned should be in the thousand-plus range (though you won't get all of them).
The anti-spam measures I took seem to be working; I haven't gotten a single one yet since I activated them. Yay... Note, however, that this probably merely puts the change-the-email-address off for a time. I'm certain that someone manually added me to a spammer's list, and I'm sure that it will happen again and again until I'm getting the few hundred a day that other people report. Most of those will be filtered out, but not all...and my tolerance for spam is really low, since I can remember years of my life in which there was no spam at all, anywhere.
25 November 2007
We hope you had a nice American Gastronomic Overindulgence Day. We spent Too Much Money on grocery goodies, which we've been eating for the past four or five days. No turkey, though, just to be iconoclastic. Plus the SO wanted ham, not turkey.
Having spent basically all of our money on food last week, we'd really like some donations to come our way.
I've been spectacularly unmotivated to write lately. Bad bad BAD Ellen! I have, however, been somewhat proofing the next episode, so it should be out next weekend. It's the one after that...
I have done some useful things, though.
Pacchi got in contact with me, and is producing Tuck related art. Some new items are now located here. Feedback is doubly appreciated, by Pacchi and me both. I'm awaiting word on what email address to use; until then, email me and I'll forward it. Anything at all is better than nothing, yah? Yah.
Backups have been done, twice. Backups are good.
The spam has increased dramatically (again) to about 10-20 per day. *sighs* You know, I was on the Internet before this kind of shit even existed... Anyway, I might end up changing my email address again, but before that I'm going to try changing my local email setup to include Naive Bayesian filtering (I have been saving all the spam to its own file for precisely this contingency). This sort of suggests changing the local MTA from Exim to Postfix. This is the sort of configuration change I find scary, because it WILL break things until I get the new configuration right. Also I need to back things up again. But if it works, I shan't be changing the email address. Also other things may be possible. Exim supposedly has wonderful documentation, but I find it suckful because there's so much and it seems not-well-cross-referenced. An O'Reilly book would do the trick, I'm sure; but I refuse to spend $50 on a single book for a single program.
I've been very very lax on the local Links page (bookmarks), yet I've
also been eagerly collecting bookmarks in various browsers.
Transferring them from their various file to the Links page is a severe
pain in the ass, which is why I haven't been doing it. I am now
looking at a variety of free ways to convert bookmarks into other file
types. Debian packages "xbel-utils" and "bk2site" are the main
contenders at the moment; neither does quite what I want, though.
I may end up putting up different ones and asking you which I should
use.
Also I have well over a thousand bookmarks to integrate, sort, edit,
and so on. This is taking a while. Hopefully, though, when it's done
there will be a very quick transfer-to-website option so you can be up
to date; and links
checking (see below) will also be so quick and painless I can do this
weekly or whenever, instead of the previous semiannual.
The local GUI, Debian + X + Blackbox (the smallest) is working well; though I still use commandline for about two-thirds of my browsing (Lynx no habla Javascipt, Java, Flash, tables, or inline images, which means pages load in seconds even through dialup) and 80% of my other computer work. Also working well is Iceweasel the Firefox-under-a-different-name-for-finicky-licensing-reasons browser. If you are using Firefox (or Iceweasel), may I suggest the following addons?
21 October 2007
Eh, whoops, my bad; haven't been doing notes.
But I did some writing, and I have something to do next weekend, so I got this one out "early". Be thou yayness, verily.
Enjoy episode. Donate.
29 September 2007
Tuck 132 is up. I'm tired; I did a long set of proofer-merges last night and then two passes myself this morning. And I have a major rewrite or two on 133 to do, plus first-drafting on 134...
23 September 2007
Well, response has been somewhat underwhelming, both in the donation category and in the opinions-about-print category. In fact, I would go so far as to say they've both sucked.
Ah well. I've been working on either fresh Tuck or figuring out how to use new software - I hate new software; I very much hate MS-style software, and bloody OpenOffice is very much MS-style - to get Tuck into print with the least amount of other-company-suckitude.
Wouldn't you like to know what Tuck's wearing to the ballet? And what happens afterwards?
19 September 2007
This is sort of an odd mid-week update; normally I don't write a Tucknote except around the weekend. But Things Have Been Happening.
On the bad side, donations have slowed to a trickle. We do not have food money at this time, much less utility bill money for the upcoming first of the month. Send some money!
On the good side, I've done a lot on computers this half-week.
First, I did a major backup of the server (which is also my
computer) on Saturday, five DVD's worth.
Have you backed up your computer recently?
Best way to do this IMO is to just take your favorite CD/DVD mastering
program - Nero and Roxio's EasyCD are common - and just copy over/write
selected chunks of your filesystem hierarchy to a disk (and then, on the next disk, do
the parts you couldn't fit the first time). That way, you can load the
data to any other computer (that has the appropriate drive) and you're
okay. The problem with any backup software I've ever seen, including
Unix tape backups, is that you need both the specialized hardware, AND
the special software, to be running on another computer, to get your data
back. CD-ROM drives are ubiquitous nowadays, and DVD-ROM drives nearly
so; if you write them in Joliet format and close the disk, they are
usable in nearly every computer.
Second, I mounted another 9Gb hard drive and copied over the previously- installed 9Gb (the one that holds the OS and program files, and my person data) directly. I do not think this is really possible in Windoze; I don't ever recall getting it to work. But it makes recovery from a disk error - hardware or software - trivial - just switch some cables.
Third, and the reason for the first and second, I performed a major version upgrade, from Debian Sarge to Etch (for the Debian pedants: yes, I know the names of Debian releases are not capitalized). That went well, though slowly - there were something like four or five hundred packages to upgrade, and dragging all that through the modem was not pretty. But it got done, and I've gotten everything working again (the upgrade ate the sound capability - that took another "upgrade" to ALSA).
Fourth, I installed X. I also subsequently got dosemu working, for the
first time; now I can use my favorite editor in Linux as well as
DOS.
(for future reference, you need: xserver-xorg; xdm or another
display manager; and a window manager such as blackbox. xfs font
server is nice but not required. xdm is the little bastard that
installs itself in rcX.d and autoruns the bloody GUI during boot.
Remove the link in /etc/rc2.D and it won't)
Fifth, I installed OpenOffice 2.whatever's-in-Debian-stable.
Sixth (though chronologically this happened before the weekend) I requested (and got) a set of altered Tuck files, that had all the hard-coded CR/LF pairs removed. They happen to be CSS-based HTML. This could be important.
About two weeks ago I signed up a user account on Lulu.com, and did some investigating.
All this adds up to
The path looks like:
Note: The one software thing I need to do, is to either: check that the SO's OpenOffice 1.x.x can read the 2.x files I can write over here; or somehow install 2.x on her system (it barfed on installation, complaining about the lack of a new installer).
None of these things are "finished"; the first two-thirds are going to be concurrent, like the write-code/compile/link/test/debug cycle of making software.
What I don't know, entirely, is how I want the book to look. Since Pacchi (see the artwork) has disappeared in the last couple of years, I can't get Pacchi covers. Damnit. I'd REALLY LIKE them, but I'm not going to do two or three and then have to do the rest of the series in a different cover style. Pacchi, if you're reading this...
I'm also not sure about fonts, what to do with the cute end quotes, and similar mechanical stuff dealing with printing.
I DO know the basic structure of a volume (and yes, there will be a lot more than one volume - the idea of printing it in 6-point type and nearly no margins in a seven hundred page anchor was, erm, discouraged by fans on Tuckerspawn). It will have:
If you have opinions on any of these matters, then I'd like to read them. Please DO NOT say "Well everyone does
it this way"; this is a stupidity. "Everyone" also uses Microsoft,
which I don't. "Everyone" stays in the gender they were born into and
raised in, which I didn't. If you have a real reason, use that
instead.
Also, don't claim you have such-and-such experience in the Real World
with books unless you're willing to point me to sources I could use to
independently verify your claims; like a phone number at the company you
claim to have done publishing work for, and the name you worked under at
that time. Otherwise, I won't believe it, and it's a waste of my time
to claim such a thing without providing verification.
However, "I saw {one particular thing} in a certain book, and I really
liked it" is perfectly valid, if you can actually describe or show me
what it looks like. Or "What about {...}?" I don't require that you
be a professional to contribute.
There should be a big discussion over on the Tuckerspawn forum shortly, as soon as I set it up. If you're registered, or want to register, do so and throw your hat into the ring.
14 September 2007
Currently I am not sucking too bad. Amazing. And hopefully Tuck #132 will be out by the end of the month (and not waiting past that for me to get off my ass). Maybe it's the end of summer - we could open the windows today, in the morning, for the first time in months. I did some Googling, and more than a handful of people have also come up with the concept of "reverse SAD". Comes from growing up in the South, methinks.
In case you wondered, donations have been low. We have all the bills current - for the next fortnight - but buying food would be nice... *sighs wistfully*
02 September 2007
Well, something to read on Labor Day; Tuck #131 is released.
My mind has been scattered this last week. I have also found two more kitty whiskers, and carefully saved them along with the others.
A bit IN the kitty would be helpful, assuming I can get out of the house to spend it. I haven't managed until today, and that went poorly.
On the brighter side, I found an odd site: Iusedtobelieve.com [EXTERNAL LINK]
A choice one:
I had a strange fear that if I closed my eyes in the bathtub, William Shakespeare would come up through
the drain and kill me. I knew his name, but I had no idea who he was, so I just naturally assumed he was
some sort of bathtub vampire.
Have any good, odd ones of your own?
27 August 2007
Writing has been slow, and will be stopped for a few days.
(please don't send sympathy letters - they'll only hurt me worse)
In addition, someone's put my email address on a spammer's list. I'd really suggest you don't click on anything in an email that purports to go to YouTube; the emails I'm getting SAY 'YouTube' as the link, but that's not the address of the link. Those of you who read your email in HTML, won't be able to see this; with Mutt, it's blindingly obvious. The spamming has been small so far, but I expect it will increase tremendously. I may end up changing email addresses again before Christmas.
I've been abominable lately. I'm not exactly depressed - or I wasn't - but I've had no energy for anything for the last month. Getting groceries has been Very Hard, much less anything else.
I found this piece, I dunno where, on my Web roamings a while back, and saved it for here....
Posted by Ellie, 27: It is disgusting how we live and I'm a British Citizen, the Americans have been a greedy nation and now THEY must make changes which OUR politicians must make sure of. [emphasis added; rest of post deleted] Saturday, February 3rd 2007 @ 3:36 AM
Ellie, she said as if this poster could hear her, this is what
we Americans call "an invasion". We revolted - and made it stick -
once, and the last time you tried this invasion thing we eventually
beat you out of our country again. Once we noticed you. Now we have
thermonuclear weapons that can vaporize large sections of your
population and your historical artifacts and set much of the rest on
fire. Yes, we Americans invade other countries and do the same thing to
them, that you are (effectively but not directly) suggesting
England/Britain do to us; but we've never felt a strong ideological need
to be consistent that I can tell.
Besides, you're just jealous that we can still throw our weight around
like an Empire - like you USED to do, back when you could.
Oy.
28 July 2007
Tuck #130 is out, #131 is finished, #132 is coming along nicely...
And, the electric bill is paid.
Though I had a spazz the morning after I paid it, when the electricity went off. As I've mentioned a few times, I cannot sleep without fan noise; right now, I have a 120v 120mm computer-case-type fan plugged in near the bed. I woke out of a sound sleep and was in the front room before it spun down to a stop. Luckily, it was not us; unluckily I suppose, it took two hours for them to "restore service" - which often means replacing what the suicide squirrels targeted. If you want to know what sort of disruption actual terrorism can cause, look for squirrel + electrical transformer incidents.
The squirrels, as far as I know, did not release a statement claiming responsibility, nor stating their demands. Oh well.
22 July 2007
Ow! Crap! I didn't realize it had been a month...
Okay. On the bad side, I've been depressed, and not writing; also the electric bill is overdue, now with a cutoff notice, because we haven't had the money to spare after food and gas. (Donations would, of course, fix this) The SO's computer dying one day a couple weeks ago did not help; I have old issues from when she used to freak out over computer problems, and I keep expecting her to do that now - which she doesn't, because she's drugged cross-eyed, under medical supervision - which makes it hard to concentrate on technical concepts. She did not freak out, and I did eventually get the disk transplanted into another computer - Windows does NOT like this, BTW, but older versions can be forced into adapting - but the stress I was under was not something you'd believe if I told you about it.
On the good side, I am full of writing tonight, and got some proofing done, as well as work on the next episode, plus a nearly complete plan to finish it and go into the next one. Maybe two. So Tuck #130 should be out next weekend, and possibly one after in three weeks.
If the electricity continues. Hint hint.
22 June 2007
Tuck #129 is finished; #130 is in proofing, a bit early; and #131 is about half done. I want to write more.
Bills still haven't been paid yet, though. Donations get them paid.
16 June 2007
The reread of the last ten chapters took me longer than I expected; Tuck #129 revision is finished, and it should be out next weekend; #130 first draft is completed, and will be going out to the proofers later today, after I make another editing pass myself. #131 is... interesting.
On the other hand, bills haven't been paid yet.
10 June 2007
Well, I am in the middle of revising #129; I have what I remember as a large number of small chunks to rewrite, and I should probably re-read the last five episodes or so, just to make sure. That shouldn't take long... I'd guess it's no more than two weeks away at this point.
Donations, you know.
I also got one unit of caseless computer done, the new shelf for housing them, and my computer area a little cleaned up. Total cost for the 7'6" unit is around $15 in "new" materials plus stuff I had on hand from before. Excuse me while I feel clever about being a packrat...
With some luck, and some more work, I should be able to reduce the clutter around the computer area down from "three computers on various floor or furniture plus a tangled mess of cables" to "one shelf plus a pair of speakers". This has to be a good thing. I'm still mentally juggling where to put some pieces, but that will continue until I physically move them and find out what works and what doesn't.
If you are very nice, I shall not only put up pictures but also directions. Most of you will hate the idea, and that's fine; if I wanted to be like everyone else I would be.
I now have a decent idea for a television-containing box, and where to put it. The sort of 360 degree swivel bearing one finds under a "lazy susan" is available from www.woodcraft.com for around $1, with a 200lb capacity. That ought to work for anything I can lift... And, amazingly, the television is a lot less annoying than I thought it would be, even when I permanently disconnected the speaker. I haven't gone into a frothing rage over some stupidity more than once a day, and I think less... which is about the same rate as the SO's habit of reading Internet news ignites me.
The last few Tucknotes have been longer than they were a few months previous... I guess it's been too long since someone made me regret putting personal information here. I'm sure it'll happen soon, so don't worry; the Tucknotes will shorten right up to the bare minimum of information on Tuck when it happens.
27 May 2007
I have just sucked lately. I apologize. Hopefully the episode won't suck, though CE/proofers have said this one is kind of slow. It's not slow, it's just... calmer. Despite the noise.
Locally, the SO's therapist recommended a fucking TELEVISION. And gave us one. Which had exactly one 75-ohm connection. This is probably why she was getting rid of it. It now also sports a 1/8" mono jack in the front, which is the only way I'd keep the fucking thing in the house; the speaker - and while the case has room for two there's only one - is now totally disconnected and she can only listen via earphones. No we are not getting cable; it sucks just as much but on more channels than broadcast television and, last I saw, had MORE commercials per half hour than broadcast, in addition to costing money.
Also more furniture must be built to handle this inconvenient box, plus the associated other-source feeds she wants, like VHS and DVD players.
Fleas seem to be gone; it is, however, about time to run some more insecticide over where the cat has been sleeping, juuuuust in case. I shall, however, wait until the cat is not actually sleeping on those spots. The virtual fleas have also disappeared, thankfully.
16 April 2007
Well, I can't say the stress has gotten better. But I did finally get episode #127 finished.
The house has developed a raging case of fleas. The cat has gone insane; she's been acting like a normal cat, going places she shouldn't and knocking stuff over, yowling at odd hours, and generally being a pain in the ass. Today, finally, the Advantage antiflea topical came in, and I also hit a pro pest-control shop for something to spray the house with. Naturally they also happen to sell the other antiflea topical (and the one comparative review I found said they worked about the same for fleas).
*sighs*
Also, the real fleas biting me are bad enough; the virtual fleas, when I can feel something biting me but I look and there's nothing there, are worse. But I didn't have the virtual ones until the real ones. Hopefully liberal amounts of poison will exorcise both.
I would suggest, if anyone has a similar problem, don't even bother with a grocery store solution; they seem to be an utter waste of money. It's worth it to get some professional level permethrin or similar, FleaFix or other IGR, and so on.
Many many thanks to everyone who has donated in the last few weeks. I did get the car window fixed; now I have to go back and try and get the door lock fixed (which worked fine before the window glass got into the mechanism; and fool me didn't specify "Make sure the door mechanisms work" when I had the window replaced).
I'm still very tired and unoptimistic, though.
31 March 2007
Life has been utterly suckful and stressful this week. First a radiator leak in the car - wide enough that I could hear it dripping but couldn't see the source - and the only auto mechanics I know in town I do not trust. Naturally I discovered this by the car overheating while out and about in the rain while dressed nicely. I feel vaguely clever for having a recycled 3L of water in the car (milk jug type bottles leak far far too easily during normal trunk use); I feel unclever about not having a pair of flats for similar circumstances.
Located a mechanic via Internet research, tried it, got rained on during the day whilst traveling back and forth; spent $300, got it fixed.
Next day, I find my driver's side window smashed, so hard in fact that there is glass inside the car, on the windshield, on the roof of the car, on the trunk lid nearly around to the passenger side, and on the ground in a 0.5x2.5m smear. Nothing stolen, and nothing disturbed either; apparently "just" vandalism. No one, of course, saw or heard anything. Window repair will be $200 at the one place I called; I haven't had the heart yet to try pricing other places.
I also called the auto mechanic to get him to verify the windows had been intact when I left his place Thursday afternoon. I have a hard time believing this myself.
Of course it rained last night. I did manage to catch this info before it actually rained, and got a patch up which might hold and might not strip the paint off when removed, but I am not very hopeful.
So I have done nothing on Tuck this week. I'd like to do something today, but haven't gotten to it yet; I've been trying to sleep.
Donations would be very helpful at this time. Bills are not paid this month either.
Altogether I would not call this a good week.
25 March 2007
Tuck is coming along; slower on the rewrite than on the first-draft, but coming along nicely. Many surprises... =)
18 March 2007
I really do not want to stop writing at the moment; #128 is coming along in fits and starts, as my back can stand the pain of sitting (badly). I think the excruciating agony from my lower back at times like this is god's way of saying "Stop $&*&ing around and set up a proper work environment. Stupid!" with a cuff to the head.
Lemme get back to writing Tuck.
Update: Episode is now over the minimum length, but there's some more needed... today has been going tolerably well writing-wise. Maybe god was saying "Get up and walk around occasionally, and burn some of that fat off your ass." Hard to say; I do better with email than Omens, Portents, and Signs.
10 March 2007
Hopefully banged the error out without introducing new ones. Tuck #126 out.
04 March 2007
Tuck writing continues. So does editing; #126 has an error in it I have to bang at for a while. Which is why it will be out next week.
17 February 2007
Tuck writing continues. There will likely be a new episode up at the beginning of March.
Bills are current, though I didn't get the phone bill paid in time and they sent me this month's bill showing last month's unpaid... *sighs* I hate that. But many thanks to everyone who donated this month.
Meanwhile, did you know that Daylight Savings in the US has now changed
the start/end dates? Yep.
Read about
it at the US Naval Observatory website.
Suggesting that Congress is the opposite of progress...
On a totally unrelated note, there is an item of physiological interest, Named 2nd to 4th digit ratio which is "merely" whichever of your fingers is SECOND longest, the index or the ring finger. Oddly enough, it seems to be (probability disclaimer disclaimer) sex-differentiated, with males having a longer 4th digit (ring finger) and females having a longer 2nd digit (index finger). Oddities...
04 February 2007
Well, I haven't had the money to pay any of the utility bills this month, and I need hormones Real Soon Now... and I'm sure that as in the last three or four times, donations will stop immediately and not resume for two or three weeks, but here's another episode of Tuck anyway.
Enjoy.
27 January 2007
Once again, I put out an episode, and once again, donations almost completely stopped. This is very discouraging.
Very discouraging.
I also lost my server's uptime, at 165 days; apparently the UPS works for momentary flickers but not for a few minutes. Damn. At least it rebooted; sometimes I wonder about that one's hardware.
Next one should be out in early February, I hope.
07 January 2007
Tuck #124 is out.
So is something with my local network; I seem to have buggered some setting or another, and now the laptop won't transfer files easily to the server. This means I can't easily back up the laptop (which is ten years old at this point) Damn; I smell a learning experience coming. And quickly.
Don't forget, I changed my email address. But not the address for donations, if that's what you were worried about. =)
31 December 2006
My email address is changing. To the email address that is at the bottom of this page. Immediately. Within twelve hours, I shall be shutting off the 'ehayes' email-box, which will then bounce anything sent to it.
I have gotten tired of the ever-increasing spam to the 'ehayes' box, and the last four trojans that showed up kicked it.
You should go and read this information if you run Windows. If you run Windows AND Outlook of any sort, you should get another email program. There are free ones out there, and they don't do the computer equivalent of holding you down while some nasty biker-mass murderer rapes you anally.
I wouldn't be so, uhm, 'pungent' in my language if Outlook hadn't been so fucked up from design. However, note that - having warned you and advised you - you will get the complete antithesis of sympathy if you complain to me about what happened via Outlook, Windows, and some malific email. I'll call you names and laugh at you.
Why not use 'ellen' like you used to?
I was going to, but dearly-bought caution suggested I activate that
mailbox and let it sit for a while first, just to check. It collected
four spams within 24 hours; I have not used this account in years, and
it's been bouncing everything that went to it. So the spammers have been
getting at least 4 bounces a day every day from that account and it
hasn't stopped them in YEARS.
Fuck. This is vaguely scary... until you realize that nowadays, the "thing to do" is to hijack other peoples' computers and send the spam through them, through their accounts if possible... and, hey, guess what? Spyware and email trojans are a great way to take over peoples' computers to turn them into spam-spewing zombies.
Are you still running Outlook or Outlook Express? What are you, stupid?
Writing continues, donations have been sparse... luckily I laid in supplies before the bedamned Week/Fortnight Of Madness. So the kitty has somewhat-fresh litter...
Oh, and we've almost survived The Madness... and remember to eat some blackeyed peas tomorrow to ensure your prosperity in the coming year.
23 December 2006
Happy (belated) Solstice!
The tuck.zip file which was not updated last week, due to an ld10t error, has been updated.
I've written a bit, but I've been very low-energy lately. I'm not so much still sick, it's the "after-sick" in which I am still guzzling cough syrup - $20 worth of the cheap stuff, well over a quart - and sleeping no more than five hours at a time, waking up and having an immediate unproductive coughing fit, and coughing little tiny bits up the rest of the day. Eugh. And this might last as much as a fortnight more. *tired sigh*
Still, writing is going, and editing/proofing shall be going as soon as I emit some source.
15 December 2006
Tuck 123 is finally up. Do your part...
I was fully intending to have this episode out last week, but Wednesday I fell ill, and I've felt like $*** since then. I pretty much ate slept eliminated took drugs and read, much like Tuck being restricted to shell programming. Respiratory, as a betting man would have predicted; I am finally at the stage where I merely wake up and have sixty seconds to do anything before I overbreathe and explode in a paroxysm of coughing for at least a minute. This is the part I hate most, more than the Nose That Drips Like A Faucet or the chunky cream-of-chicken soup taste in my mouth for days from Unspeakable Foulness. But my energy levels are climbing, to the point I can actually think about doing stuff like writing, instead of ... sitting there.
I probably won't have another episode up before the end of the holidays... might have one around the first week or so of January.
Luckily, fevers are conducive to 'executive planning' of the sort that can only be committed by the unemployed and the hideously overpaid strategic planning sorts; I got a few situations in Tuck worked out much better than I'd managed before. *chortles*
Unfortunately, I no longer have a fever. Just snot, in all its endless varieties...
Front room reformat went sort of okay; I didn't have to disconnect anything, which preserves the 120+ day uptime on the server, and I got another computer up; however, the furniture is not conducive to how I want everything arranged, and I still need to re-shove a lot of cables, once I figure out where to put them.
On the SO, all path reports except one report benign whatevers. I found out how to remove stitches, and that I can do a better job than the last yahoo, with stuff I have in my purse (which I am not allowed to carry into the facility; now I know why, because I might show them up). Less pain, less bleeding, faster. *sighs*
01 December 2006
Oy, been a while...
Tuck is roughly on track; I might put one out next weekend, if the editing keeps going well. (Can't have enough editing passes...)
Donations have been better; much thanks to everyone who sent some money, as everyone seems to like it when I pay bills on time. At this point, I actually have the electric up to date, and the phone is as-soon-as-I-get-out-and-run-errands. The kitty has fresh litter, too, for which she REALLY thanks all of you.
However, I may be offline for a day or three, as I need to reformat the front room again (wherein the server and my workstation sit). This involves disconnecting things, and I've noticed a regrettable tendency for disconnected things to not work when reconnected; this applies to anything, but especially the server's powerup. Not sure if/when I'll actually have to unplug it, but it might happen, and then I might be out for a while. At this point, I have enough crap computer stuff - which is the local tech level - to rebuild the system a couple times over, but doing so would take me a while...
Luckily, this isn't where I write Tuck. Tuck, in fact, can be written with the use of any Intel-type computer that has a 3.5" floppy drive, as my favorite editor can live on one such disk (if "high" density, 1440kb) along with system files, CD-ROM DOS driver, and nearly a meg of Tuck (which is at least the last twenty episodes).
19 November 2006
Since Tuck #122 went up, I have received zero donations. When I put Tuck #121 up, it was two weeks and a rather sharp message here before I got any donations. (then those donations paid the overdue phone and electric, and bought two weeks of groceries and sundries. I am quite grateful!)
This is not encouraging. It seems, to my overly-pattern-seeking neural net brain, that IF I put up an episode THEN donations stop.
Is this the pattern you want me to find? Is this the pattern you want me to base future actions upon?
Prove me wrong. Please.
SO had more things removed, this time bilateral arm and a couple from the torso. (no I didn't get to keep any of them) The torso items were benign; we don't have pathology reports on the arm ones yet. She's got two sets of stitches, and they want us to come back in two weeks to remove them. I'm inclined to save the $15 gas money it takes to get there and back, and the two hours minimum travel; it's not that hard to remove stitches.
As for Tuck, which seems to be the least of anyone's concerns, Halloween night seems to be dragging a lot; or maybe that's just because of all the things that are happening that day. It's going to be a Halloween to remember... if Tuck takes notes promptly.
11 November 2006
Thanks to those who donated, Tuck episode 122 is now up.
Writing has progressed... Halloween is getting realllllly interesting. If I keep getting money enough to pay the bills, you will get to read this; perhaps sooner than usual, as I have been thinking I could almost go to a fortnight-and-a-half release schedule, if I keep the writing up.
There has been some Real Life in my life lately, which I hate; and next week is yet another trip to get yet more skin thingies removed from the SO. I'm starting to wish we had kept the first ones; we could make a little kitsch-looking rack and keep the cut-off bits in formaldehyde. Ah well.
28 October 2006
Donations in the last fortnight have been very poor... so poor, in fact, that I may get cut off from the 'Net as the phone is disconnected. It's over two months due at this point, because I haven't had the money to spare after food.
But if you think this will stop me writing Tuck, you're wrong. It'll just stop me POSTING Tuck (as well as editing). So even if I can't access the Internet, I'll just keep writing on, past Halloween - which I have achieved already in draft, BTW - and you'll just have to wonder what has been happening to Tuck and his friends and associates...
14 October 2006
Tuck 121 is up. I have been exceedingly lax this week, in all things, but I feel some writing coming on... or maybe a chest cold. No, it's writing...
Hopefully also some chores will occur tomorrow, when I have done some writing.
On the good side... ah, hell, I don't want to jinx it. I just seem to be doing better at both writing and getting episodes up than I was a year or two ago, and I hope the seeming upward long-term trend continues. I'm TRYING to improve...
I can still use some costume ideas, though now more for background color than important characters.
Did you donate this month?
08 October 2006
Half done with #124, though I could REALLY USE some ideas for costumes for the kids at school. I have Tuck, Debbie, Mike, George, Kim, and Jill... and James, of course; the rest need YOUR HELP in finding decent costumes so they won't be laughed at.
Proofing drags, but I think I can get 121 up next weekend.
01 October 2006
First-draft of *counts on fingers* 123 is done, and proofing begins. 121 and 122 are already in proofing... which is not going fast. Sadly, the writing seems to be going faster.
A few links have been added as well.
Donations are nearly up to last month's bills. Which ain't this month, natch.
24 September 2006
Writing continues, despite all sorts of nastiness, including a heart- stopping dropped-the-laptop incident. It may be time to upgrade to something that isn't held together with duct tape... luckily, the floppy drive still worked, so I was able to save the Tuck writings thereupon.
Donations pay the bills so we can continue to eat and have electricity and a phone. And buy fresh kitty litter.
10 September 2006
Tuck 120 is out. This may be the LAST episode for a while, unless I get some bill money. That requires donations, folks.
And a hearty "Still got my shooting fingers you bloody wogs!" to those who scorned my insistence on having floppy drives on all computers; you wouldn't have an episode today if it wasn't for floppies.
02 September 2006
Tuck 120 is within a week or so of publication; 121 is in proofing; I've been slow in writing 122 because Real Life Is Full Of Shit, and a couple of RL people decided to fuck me over.
Donations would be very helpful; not only have they raised the phone bill 25% but they want it earlier in the month. Plus my expenses have gone up due to fuckation.
20 August 2006
Tuck 119 is out. Proofing continues (slowly, always slowly) on 120 and 121; I'm still writing 122.
Send money! The kitty is running low on food... *picture of very sad kitty with cheeks sucked in* See? Hungry kitty! *picture of kitty flopped over on her side* Too weak to stand up!
Mom showed up, with several cubic meters of Stuff, which I now have to cram into some sort of order within the walls. This is the reason for the extra two-day delay; I had a lot less "free" time than I thought. We're decent friends, I think...
I now have a sewing machine - Kenmore 1640, I think - in good working order (two shop visits to two repair shops in two towns saw to that) and so I now have something to do in my copious free time... and with my copious free space. Haha.
Comments and emails always welcome... but read The Rules first.
12 August 2006
Proofers have been in relatively short supply lately, but the next episode should be out next week. Hopefully Friday. I had to do a couple of extensive rewrites.
The usual plea for Donations. Electric bill still hasn't been paid...
Luckily, I have been going on, and the next episode is also in proofing at the same time; I have yet another rewrite & finish to do tonight on, um, *counts on fingers* episode 121. But I think this is going to be an all-nighter, so I've plenty of time.
Mom has somewhat derailed her schedule, so I don't know what day she'll be showing up, but sometime next week and/or weekend.
31 July 2006
Whups, a couple days late... I wanted to start doing these on Saturdays. Apologies.
Donations keep us in food, electricity, and connectivity, and the cat in kitty litter and larks' tongues sauteed in Guernsey butter. [that's a joke. Anyone ever read The Silent Miaow?] Seriously, it's starting to look grim again...
I've slacked off a little in writing compared to the previous fortnight; the episode count is up to 2 & 1/2. Proofing is still the major stumbling block, unfortunately; but I'm working on that.
The SO is now relatively staple-less, which she definitely appreciates. The docs pulled a switch on me the last time, so once again I didn't actually get to talk to them. Cowards!
My mother is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. I haven't seen them in a few years, and it's been a lot more than that since she came here, rather than me there. Don't think this is an especial thawing of relationships, though; the relationship isn't bad, and she's bringing a sewing machine for me - making room for which has been a major time- and calorie-sink lately - and I think she wants me to build her another computer.
23 July 2006
Two episodes in proofing, a third has begun... Yep, no kidding.
Bills are also starting to come up again. Not helped by the last trip to the moron-I-mean-surgeon, who looked at the staples on the SO's arm and went, "Nope! Come back next week!" Thanks for nothing you fuckwit... now give me the gas money I spent back! (the three hours spent are irrevocably gone...)
So Donations are appropriate. The less I worry, the more I write.
Speaking of worried, which I am not; one of the bits-removed on the SO's arm was benign, the other was a melanoma, caught before it got greater than 1cm and less than a year old and presumed removed-entirely. Hardly the first skin cancer, doubtful it's the last...
Mostly recovered from cold/whatever. I hate snot. I especially hate eating snot for a week, which didn't quite happen this time, but has in the past.
16 July 2006
Work continues, though slower; I read "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett in a couple of days, and either by coincidence or perversity I also seem to have picked up a cold/URI. I don't think this is a case of MSS (Medical School Syndrome) since I noted the pre-sickness feelings IN WRITING before I picked up the book; however, I'm perverse enough to have an interest in things like Ebola while feeling ill, so maybe it worked in reverse.
You'll be happy (I hope) to note that I am currently showing no signs of Ebola such as massive hemorrhaging, high fever, or dementia.
The SO has a dozen or more staples in her arm after a skin cancer removal Friday. She's bearing up well despite the fact that the cutter who did it apparently doesn't believe in pain medication. Nice. She didn't tell me this until we were on our way home, most likely because I am a great believer in pain medication, and might have attempted to convert the doctor in my own inimitable way. He also skipped the cancers on the other arm, for no apparent reason. I truly appreciate his thoughtfulness in condemning us to another three hours of driving plus Ghu knows what in waiting time and other bullshit to get those taken off at a later time.
So I haven't been writing very fast this last half of the week. I have been writing some, however. I may end up delaying release of the next episode a bit, until more proofing accumulates - one of them actually managed to convince the parole board she wasn't a threat to society, can you imagine? - and this would be good as it allows me to knit that episode together with the subsequent one(s) better.
More specifically, I thought I was finished with #119 but I missed an obvious thing that required a substantial alteration; the rewrite is half done. #120 is I think more than half done, and I know where it's going so all I have to do is sit down and write about it. #121 is not plotted but I know what's going on, for the most part... and so on and so on.
09 July 2006
Been a busy week. It being Independence Day (American), I decided to get off my a$$ and re-setup the crypto stuff I had before. So, you now get the weird-looking footer at the end of every email, which is a GnuPG digital signature. Key is here.
I also finished #118 - now going up on the site - and finished the first draft of #119.
Donations help keep us ALL free, in some nebulous but definite way I can explain to you if you have a couple of hours and a credulous nature. More seriously, donations pay for our (me, the SO, and the cat) food, utilities, and kitty litter.
02 July 2006
Time flies... but Tuck is moving along. #118 is in proofing, and should be up next week. #119 is half finished, and I expect to get more done today.
Donations are always good; they buy things like electricity (runs computers), phone (allows my computers to talk to the Internet), and food (lack of which keeps me away from computers as I attempt to catch small wildlife and dogs).
25 June 2006
Tuck #118 is first-draft-finished, and is now in proofing. This is going to take a while, I think; the proofing phase is slower than it used to be. Tuck #119 has begun - well, I've begun writing it - and it may be written a touch faster. Or not. I hope so.
Donations are definitely appreciated, and well-used. We're almost caught up to the point we can afford food without slighting some other obligation.
18 June 2006
Good news: the first draft of Tuck 118 is half finished.
Bad news: we're running out of money. Donations are where the food money, bills money, etc., come from. Having electrical power (bill not paid in two months) truly promotes writing via computer. Yes, I could stand to lose a few pounds by not eating for a fortnight, but instinct WILL propel me out the door to hit the local dumpsters quite quickly; and I shan't take a laptop.
11 June 2006
Tuck 117 is out. Next one is "back to usual" if you can remember that far back.
Donations would be very helpful...
04 June 2006
I apologize for the long delay and non-info. I am aiming Tuck #117 to be released next weekend.
Donations pay the bills, which are mounting again to critical levels.
What follows is a touch of explanation for some of the delay; I really don't want sympathy, and in fact I debated not putting this up at all, because of the likelihood of getting stupid "sympathy" letters and "suggestions". I don't need them; I am quite certain I shall get them anyway.
Delay was caused by a recurrence of black depression (2 weeks) and the curious incident in the nighttime last weekend.
To summarize, me and the SO were going to sleep when a perp started
fiddling with the window screen on the bedroom window (which window was
within inches of my head); I barked at him and he took off. Before I
calmed down, he came back - I say within five minutes, SO says ten - and
yanked the screen off and ran (taking the screen). I did not shoot him
because: A) all the guns in the house were removed due to suicide risk
some years ago; B) I didn't trust my instincts (which said "Get a
weapon") over my 'reason' (which said "Too late now, you're being
silly").
The only reason I'm glad I didn't shoot him is that I'd be
embroiled in legal crap for the next six months, at best.
What creeped everyone, cops included, was that he came back within 5 or
10 minutes to a place that he knew was alerted. This strikes me as
similar to rabies; a derangement of mental state so profound that even
basic cunning is gone. Cop's opinion was that he was intent on
harm-to-persons rather than theft-of-property.
I did go after him the second time, but I should've gone through the window, not the door, because he was vanished when I got outside.
In case you've wondered why I advocate guns, this is why; the cops got there within a few minutes, after I called, which was loooooooong after he disappeared, and long after anything had happened. If he'd been intent on mayhem - and the way the furniture was arranged, he could have punched through the window and instantly grabbed me by the hair - then that few minutes is long enough for a great deal of pain and suffering.
The bedroom furniture has been rearranged and other hardening measures have been put in place; I have recovered the 'family' firearms, and have re-placed my favorite by my bed; I'm still having trouble getting to sleep, though no nightmares (rearranging the furniture that night seems to have given me enough conscious time to process things; or, it's simpler than what I usually worry about).
I will now pay more attention to my instincts when I am disturbed.
But the good news is, Tuck #117 is almost out.
10 May 2006
I'm up to Monday night on #117, which may indicate to the sharper of you that I am moving faster than I have been story-wise. Still have some writing to go to get where I want, but not that far.
I've also done a few things to the site; I'm reorganizing the links section a bit, plus I found some old art which should have been up long ago. I also found where I had not included some information on the donations page, about what email address to use in case the link didn't work. Sorry about this; it's a simple thing, but one I just didn't realize was necessary until about now. My stupid, I guess.
I also solved the trivial problem of where-do-I-SMTP-to-get-my-mail-out, which had caused me problems in the past. I think it's fixed, and if you ever sent mail to me and NEVER got a reply, now would be the time to try again.
Still haven't fixed the guestbook, but I can work on that today as well.
30 April 2006
Tuck 116 is out. 117 is speeding things up, which I'm sure you'll all be grateful for; I know I am.
Donations are what keep me, the SO, & the kitty in food and kitty litter. Thanks to those who donated last week; the phone got 'saved' before the cutoff.
20 April 2006
Episode 116 is finished, and I'm sort of proofing it. Probably going out either this weekend or next. #117 is about 60% done, and we're getting someplace and tying up loose ends. I hope that I can go back to Tuck POV about #118, and I am definitely looking forward to it. #117 may be a bit long, therefore...
And, the phone's about to be cut off... You know what to do.
In addition, the guestbook is still fucked - thanks for not telling me - and I can't figure out how; and the person who did finally send me an email about it, I can't write back because my own dialup ISP is being blocked so many places. D, I tried to write back... So I have to revise my mail setup.
This is very frustrating and depressing.
Update:
I think - I THINK - I have the email routed in a way that goes around
the blocklists. No, I'm not spamming; one of my to-do's if I ever
acquire time travel is to kill messily (look up "blood eagle") the first
several spammers like Cantor & Siegel, in hopes that this would
propagate through net.culture ("Dude, you don't want to do that; they
only found thirty percent of the body of the last sucker who did it...")
In a not-really-related rant, why do people do this in email?
> *hugs* > > [signature]Would you actually do this to a person upon meeting them? I did not remember this person; even if they have sent me email before, I don't recognize them. This can also happen in Real Life; I might meet someone who remembers me six months later, whilst I don't remember them at ALL in six months. Or two months.
2 April 2005
Tuck 116 trickles onward; proofing has been slowed tremendously, not surprisingly.
Suggestions to implement a Canary Trap have risen to thirteen. C'mon, folks; I got the concept...
21 March 2006
Well, I've now gotten eight suggestions to use a Canary Trap, named in a Clancy novel and used at least two other places I know of ("Oath Of Fealty" by Larry Niven, and "Day Of The Cheetah" by Dale Brown). Thanks, I got it. So stop suggesting it.
Also, I found out today that I had buggered the guestbook; one person assumed that I had disconnected it. Not intentionally, I assure you. I changed the name and mentally missed the difference between 'oo' and '00'. Duh. Nor did I check for functionality after I'd made my changes. Take the lesson, kids... always test after a change. It's now working again.
19 March 2006
Tuck 115 is finally up. I had anticipated putting it up rather a while ago, but lack of work on my part caused some of that - but I have been writing more in the previous fortnight; I have another episode first-draft'd - proofers' objections and subsequent rewrites caused some of that, and then there was this week...
Some of you may have noticed two posts on the discussion board about someone violating my licensing requirements. They stemmed from an email... There's several emails here, or the text within, actually; I've removed names out of consideration for privacy...
Anyway, the first email told me of the problem.
(A) A link from [C] over on Erin's site has most of your tuck series included on the page that it is linked too, however a majority of the files posted there are in an html format without your digital signature and there is also an apparent advanced beta copy of chapter 115 that is in a Zip of all of the main tuck chapters. Also there are the files of the old Tuck seasons storyline that you had pulled for rewrite. Just thought that you may want to be aware of this distribution of your work that may not be legal as you have established your wishes of how your stories are released to the public.Pretty damned irritating; I have very a liberal use policy, and yet some people can't even be bothered to read it, much less adhere to it. I've gotten far more assholish about misuse since I started, but ever since the first episode went up, I knew people would fuck with it if they got the chance... it's happened more than once.
Anyway. I asked some questions, and got this:
(A) Let me clarify. I followed the link below to that site from a message posted on Erin's site and it appears that others may have an issue or two about copyrights and authorship.The 'message posted on Erin's site' had another complaint, about removing one of two co-author's names from a reposted story. Many of the links on that site wouldn't resolve either; I think IE ignores spaces in URLs whereas every other browser in the world pays attention to them, so that a followable URL in IE like "xxxxx/Ellen Hayes/" (note the space) is considered the same as "xxxxx/EllenHayes/", whereas everyone else needs a '%20' as in "xxxxx/Ellen%20Hayes/" to find the actual link instead of a 404 page. Or maybe it's MS's sucky server software, because I recall the 404's were MS standard (though I might be misremembering this).
Luckily, I am smarter than the average, so I could 'decode' the bad links and pull them up. Indeed, perfidiousness! The individual had taken each PGP signed episode and altered them, putting them into HTML format and specifying a font. If you don't know why this is bad, check this link to the PGP International FAQ, dealing with digital signatures and hash functions. Any alteration to the file will of course change the hashed value, and therefore the signature will no longer match the file - the very condition that I require in my license.
I pitched a bitch, and demanded that it be removed, and demanded help in doing so since no email address was available.
I got this from the apparent site controller:
(B) Hi Ellen they have been pulled per request.within a few hours. Good.
I got this from the... person who was responsible.
(C) I'm am sorry that I got you mad, I didn't mean to. But I did leave the copywite information (PGP signatures) in your stories (honest) all I am doing is changing the format from text. to html. and the font type. I was and still are correcting all the stories that I have removed your PGP tags from.As you may be able to guess, this person had not read the PGP Internation FAQ and thus had absolutely no idea what those funny scrambly bits were for.
The email continues:
As for the Yim contact. I didn't do that and (my mistake) I hadden't gotten around to changing it to my email address. (I just did!) but I borrowed your idea and set it up so one has to type it in. Please, please, Oh please let me post your great stories! (grovel, grovel beg, beg,) If not the I'll feel verry sad, mite cry some, may even get over it "in time, ""YIM" is Yahoo Instant Messenger for anyone who was confused like I was.
I'm still irritated at this person, for the same reason I sometimes wish computers required licenses to operate just like cars. "Just because you don't know what you are doing, doesn't mean you should do it." I am grateful for the prompt response and compliance.
Then I got this:
(A) In a side note the chapter file that is not supposed to be floating about, it is entitled "tuck115v1.htm" and is time stamped by [D's] computer supposedly as being created on 1/28/2006 at 10:03 PM. I do not know if this will help as far as tracking down why it is out and about illegally.I hadn't especially paid attention previously - or at least I hadn't panicked, that I recall - but this file, with that name and that date is instantly recognizable: it's the format in which I put up proofing copies, for proofers - NOT THE GENERAL PUBLIC - to download and comment upon.
Proofers are under NO circumstances to share the prerelease copies with anyone, ever. I blew a friend over this back in 1998 or thereabouts.
Naturally, I started asking pointed questions.
(C) I don't remember where I got it from and that is not a lie, if I dd that my wife would kill me. I suffer from short term and long term memory loss due to the medications I'm on. I'm permanently disabled because of this, ( its scary when you wake up and don't remember your own name ) [two lines deleted by me] As far as I know the original was wiped from the old computer when it was reformatted to become the kids computer (I'm sending you what I have but this is modified some). I lost more stuff then when that was done. I wish I could help you more. All I remember was that it blew my mind out that I had it and it wasn't posted in your site SO I didn't make it public .The fact that it was in the zip was most likely from my [identifer and several sentences deleted by me] I wish I was more help and I feel really bad (stupid) about this. Now I think I'm gonna be sick because I might have screwed up big time. I don't know if it is one of your stories or a fanfic. I'll send you a copy I stored it in my new computer. Shoot I wish I could be more help.I checked, and the file I got was exactly that which I had posted on 28 January, being the first revision of the episode I've put up today. (I'm now on, oh, sixth revision or so).
At this point I am extremely, shall we say, alert. I ask some more questions from the person who put the file up.
(C) I know I got it in a email from somewhere but I don't have that local server anymore. Not after they closed and wouldn't give a refund. I even had my in-law "geek" hook up the old hard drive and nothing was on that.And again:
(C) [I asked: Do you keep old emails? ] all old email information other then address has been wiped out, I am using a new computer thats only 5 day old. My old internet service provider is no more. Fools over extended themselves and are now out of bussness.Maybe I am just being paranoid at this point - I do have a tendency in that direction - but this person has claimed that they have mental problems, a wiped drive, AND a gone-into-bankruptcy ISP, when asked to provide information about where he got that file from.
I'm kind of suspicious.
So I remove all files from proofing, and tell people "either someone cracked it or one of you leaked it; I'm not doing anything until I fix things so this won't happen again."
Then I get this, from a proofer:
(D) Did a little asking around, and in fairly short order had a name. I've got a bit of a moral dilemma, though, since to get the name I had to promise to not say who it was. I will go so far as to say, though, that it's one of your proofers who (intentionally) made it available to the person who spread it around. (No, not me. I value my life.) :\If I wasn't paranoid before, I became so when I read this.
So many possibilities occurred to me that I wrote them down; they form a lot of combinations. I can't even tell if this supposed culprit is real - maybe the email-writer is just saying they know who it is to torture me. I've had people torture me psychologically before, just for the amusement value I presented, so this would be nothing new, just unusual (most of that sort of torture stopped when I got out of mandatory schooling).
I think it unlikely, but I have so little objective evidence that I really don't have any idea what is true and what is false, because all I'm getting is bare text words.
See, I'm paraplegic, which happened after my husband got into a car wreck and died himself; it ruined my modeling career, which was just starting to take off, and I spent months in rehab, which is where I learned to use a computer. I'm also lying, just as easily as any or all of these email writers COULD be; and if I hadn't said I was, you'd have NO way of telling for sure.
I saw the proofer-copy file, though, and checked it, and it was a proofer's copy, not to be released to anyone else. I'm sure of that.
I ask this'un some more questions, and get this:
(D) I just chatted with my source (who, btw, is a third party, not the leaker or direct leakee), passed on your message, and asked again for permission to rat the leaker out. Denied. Shit.Shit's a good word. "Shit" is how I feel about my trust being violated. "Shit" is where my mood went. "Shit" is where my enthusiasm for writing went. "Shit" is about the level of trust I now hold for every single one of the proofers... and that, dear readers, has always been the prime requisite for being a proofer, that I (thought I) could trust them.
I've gotten four denials from four proofers, in email. *snorts* I'd like to think they are true, I really would.
So this has been occupying my brain for the last several days, in addition to deaths happening (separately) to two RL friends and the SO having recently 'achieved' a memory which sickens me (and her) and the therapist taking a vacation.
I have a tendency to "blow" things and people that betray me like this - think scuttling charges. They hurt, and I don't like to keep something around that hurts every time I think of it. I decided I wouldn't do that. I do like writing, I re-found that recently; other people do like my writing (thanks for all the fans that have written nice letters in the last week, they REALLY helped); I think very few of you are involved in this.
So you're not being punished; as soon as I could get my brain and soul up to it, I posted the episode I had ready, today.
I don't know what I am going to do, though. I want to keep writing Tuck, and proofers/CE's help with that tremendously. I am unsure as to what to do next and how to prevent this from happening again, and I have to do something different or I shan't do anything at all and Tuck will stop right here because I can't bear to face betrayal again.
So, the next episode may be somewhat delayed... it might not. It may have lots of proofers, or none. I don't know yet.
I'd like to ask for donations again, because I AM going to find a solution to keep Tuck coming, and I already have another episode ready for proofing.... except I can't trust anyone to do it, especially not someone who writes me out of the blue offering. But I'll figure something out. Also the fresh litter from nearly two months ago has run out. =) (play cat_scraping_repeatedly_in_litterbox.wav)
Read Older Tuck Notes.