mariness

Brandon Sanderson has a post up about the Hugo Awards as a whole and the Wheel of Time nomination in particular.

In the spirit of his final paragraph, allow me to say that right now, the major reason I am unable to read all the works in the novelette and novella category has nothing to do with the nominated authors, their politics, their ability to write Latin, or the stories themselves, and EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT WINDOWS 8.1 SUCKS. MIGHTILY SUCKS.

Specifically, it does not like Adobe Digital Editions, a program I have used for YEARS to organize, open and read epubs and pdfs. Windows 8.1 allows the program to open, kinda, but then has FEELINGS about whether or not you can actually read the file. Microsoft will helpfully point out the other reading apps available, but a: most of my ebooks are NOT from Amazon/Kindle, Barnes and Noble/Nook, or Kobo Books, so shut up Microsoft; b: the Kindle app on Windows 8.1 didn't open up the epub file either (however otherwise it is a very nice app and does not crash my system, so kudos Amazon); and c: I don't want to have to jump through a lot of different and competing reader apps just to open up a 36 page book.

As it turns out, if you restart the computer several times Windows 8.1 will grudgingly admit that just maybe Adobe Digital Editions has a right to exist and be used, and hopefully - hopefully - I will manage to get the rest of my books to open up in it. (That particular epub was DRM free.) HOWEVER.

This is only the start of many issues that I have with Windows 8.1. Auugh. I will adjust, I know, and at least this time Windows hasn't added that terrifying paperclip thing, but seriously, Microsoft, can you try checking with users to find out what they actually want and need before launching Windows 9.0? Thanks muchly.

Grr. Last night I was caught up in a writing bit, in that rare moment of oh, this is going really well and people will actually love me and hee hee hee (I can't speak for other writers, but the vast majority of the time I think that my work is crap, stuff that would make readers double over in pain just standing in the vicinity, and we are not even going to discuss what my mind thinks of as "punctuation" and what the rest of you would consider torture of innocent commas that appear when I'm just putting down words. As it happens, I have now woken up and realized that actually, what I wrote last night was crap, and I mean, crap, really really awful stuff, and if anyone sees it that person will never ever speak to me again out of sheer embarrassment/horror and start quietly whispering, any way we can stop her from writing any more and inflicting this pain on the world? Writing is like that. Yes, sometimes I've been known to write nice clear copy and dash off a story or a poem that immediately works, where all the commas have decided to obey, presumably in a desperate attempt to avoid future torture later. Where was I?) I realized, auugh, I have things I must do tomorrow, I must sleep, must sleep, must sleep....only to find, of course, that I couldn't get to sleep. So all grouchy now, not helped by the irritating sound of leafblowers, which need to be banned from the planet and preferably from the universe if we can't find a way to make them quieter.

Meanwhile, I've finally upgraded to Windows 7, and I have to give Microsoft credit for one thing: this is the first new Microsoft operating system in, well, ever, where I have not, so far, found myself yelling at the screen "WAIT! WHERE DID YOU MOVE THAT FUNCTION?!?" or felt that I needed to learn to reuse the system; it's probably the easiest adjustment I've had to make since first getting introduced to Windows 3.1 way back when (in computer terms) which was such a delightful change from DOS whatever version we were using that I was more than happy to make any change. Also, so far, the computer hasn't frozen, so, plus. We'll see; I don't think a single day of use is enough to judge an operating system.

Meanwhile meanwhile, I've been watching the pictures of the Iceland volcano in awe. (The Guardian has nicer sunset pictures here, and the Boston Globe has more pictures here.

I did warn you: disorganized thoughts.