I am either a complete moron or a complete computer imbecile. It is hard to know which. I spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on a Na No Wri Mo excerpt for my writing group tomorrow, an excerpt I was also going to send off today to Bow Wow magazine, a journal which solicited Na No exceprts on the Na No forum page. So, I found a nice four thousand to five thousand word section, printed it out, went over it with a fine tooth comb and a red pen, witrh the merciless attitude of an editor. Then, I made all of the formatting changes they requested for the mag, relating to info on the top page and page numbers and word count. Then, I made all the requisite corrections and saved it on my disk. Then, I even wrote a nice letter explaining my submission as a Na No excerpt, which was for a specific issue of the mag they had planned related to Na No. Anyway, then I got to work today to print it out on a nice computer, and well la de da the disk was blank. Just empty. Completely, freaking empty. I am such a tool. I know, what's the big deal, you ask, just put it on your disk today and send it out. What is the big deal, you whiny whiny person! I know, that sounds like it makes sense, but I don't get home until 10 pm tonight (more whining, I know) and I would rather not have to power up the stupid computer just for five minutes work. It is more the principle of the thing, having forgotten it or screwed it up or something, than anything that is a real problem. Except that it was already a few days late, and another day will not do my submission any good. This is the first literary submission I have ever done, so forgive me if I am a little nutsy cuckoo over it.
Also . . . more whining coming up. The time this weekend that was not spent working on my Na no excerpt was working on finishing up and formatting my academic paper which has won an award and which is scheduled to be published in the summer or fall. Well, I finished it up, paid strict attention to all of the minutae that they wanted on the submission, which this time included four copies and a disk with the file. Again, no problem, i will just toss the file on to a disk at home and print it out today on nice paper and even scrounge around for a mailing packet for the disk to protect it in the U S Mail system. Well, again, it was not on the disk. Am I a moron, or did I just imagine doing this, or am I a complete computer loser? Any of these are possibilities, and I am not leaning one way or the other at this point. At least this one had not passed its deadline, so it is not as big a deal as the one above. It was just the second bonehead news event of the day. Or maybe I can pull them together in my mind to just be one, single, undivided bonehead move. Maybe that will make me feel better. It is worth a shot.
So tonight I need to make sure for sure for sure for sure (which I thought I had done yesterday, but who is going to quibble) that the files are on the right disks and print them out here tomorrow. I need to mail them both -- althought I can save two minutes and snag envelopes here today and address them. Big freaking whoop! I still need to find that diskette holder, protection device. But that is not as time sensitive as the Bow Wow paper, because the academic paper has a few more weeks before the deadline. But I still hope to impress them with my punctuality and get it in WELL in advance. That way if there are any problems (like, I don't know, maybe the files not being on the disk!) I can fix them and still beat the deadline. But the other needs to go out ASAP and I need to make a few copies for my comrades at the writers group tomorrow night. Last time I did not bring copies and it was a bit of a problem. Reading them out loud (or having them read out loud) was a good thing, but it would have been nice to have given them something to look at and follow along. Some did, some did not. I did not. I want to this time.
Judging from the emails and postings on the group site on Yahoo (a nice feature, by the way) some may not have much to bring. I am cheating maybe a little in bringing an excerpt, although a re written excerpt. So I do not think that is as bad. We were supposed to write something one to five thousand words long, and since writing is all about rewriting, then I am judging that rewriting counts to. Or maybe I am in the "it depends what the meaning of the word is, is" mode of legalistic thinking. But no I think it's cool. It was a Na No group, so presenting some of my Na No novel has to be acceptable.
It is up in the air what the rest of the group will do, from this point forward. I like the idea of having some general assignments. I would like sometihng open enough to let me work on one of those "First Lines" stories I mentioned some time ago. I missed the February 1 deadline, but that first line did not seem so hot, anyway. So I did not miss much. But I hope to get something written for the May 1 deadline. I don't have the exact wording at my fingertips right now, but I remember it was something I could work with.
Also . . . more whining coming up. The time this weekend that was not spent working on my Na no excerpt was working on finishing up and formatting my academic paper which has won an award and which is scheduled to be published in the summer or fall. Well, I finished it up, paid strict attention to all of the minutae that they wanted on the submission, which this time included four copies and a disk with the file. Again, no problem, i will just toss the file on to a disk at home and print it out today on nice paper and even scrounge around for a mailing packet for the disk to protect it in the U S Mail system. Well, again, it was not on the disk. Am I a moron, or did I just imagine doing this, or am I a complete computer loser? Any of these are possibilities, and I am not leaning one way or the other at this point. At least this one had not passed its deadline, so it is not as big a deal as the one above. It was just the second bonehead news event of the day. Or maybe I can pull them together in my mind to just be one, single, undivided bonehead move. Maybe that will make me feel better. It is worth a shot.
So tonight I need to make sure for sure for sure for sure (which I thought I had done yesterday, but who is going to quibble) that the files are on the right disks and print them out here tomorrow. I need to mail them both -- althought I can save two minutes and snag envelopes here today and address them. Big freaking whoop! I still need to find that diskette holder, protection device. But that is not as time sensitive as the Bow Wow paper, because the academic paper has a few more weeks before the deadline. But I still hope to impress them with my punctuality and get it in WELL in advance. That way if there are any problems (like, I don't know, maybe the files not being on the disk!) I can fix them and still beat the deadline. But the other needs to go out ASAP and I need to make a few copies for my comrades at the writers group tomorrow night. Last time I did not bring copies and it was a bit of a problem. Reading them out loud (or having them read out loud) was a good thing, but it would have been nice to have given them something to look at and follow along. Some did, some did not. I did not. I want to this time.
Judging from the emails and postings on the group site on Yahoo (a nice feature, by the way) some may not have much to bring. I am cheating maybe a little in bringing an excerpt, although a re written excerpt. So I do not think that is as bad. We were supposed to write something one to five thousand words long, and since writing is all about rewriting, then I am judging that rewriting counts to. Or maybe I am in the "it depends what the meaning of the word is, is" mode of legalistic thinking. But no I think it's cool. It was a Na No group, so presenting some of my Na No novel has to be acceptable.
It is up in the air what the rest of the group will do, from this point forward. I like the idea of having some general assignments. I would like sometihng open enough to let me work on one of those "First Lines" stories I mentioned some time ago. I missed the February 1 deadline, but that first line did not seem so hot, anyway. So I did not miss much. But I hope to get something written for the May 1 deadline. I don't have the exact wording at my fingertips right now, but I remember it was something I could work with.
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