Look! There is a thing!

 

You may or may not know that I've been attending regular acupuncture sessions for over a dozen years. I was having increasing pains (felt like electrical jolts) in my fingers, caused by carpal tunnel syndrome. I did not want surgery; considering that I cared for two horses, and all the other daily chores of country-living, I knew there was no way to avoid over-using my hands during the healing period. After my hands were better, sessions segued into alleviating the irritating pains of increasing age.

ANYway, he's a very personable man, and we always chat a little before we get down to business, so he's known for years that I read, write, and edit fanfic. Several months ago, he asked me for writing advice. He has a bunch of letters from his grandfather in WWII, and wants to turn them into a book.

Picture me with a frozen-deer-in-headlights look; I consider fanfic -- at least the way I approach it -- far different from planning a book. Finally I told him to just start writing, like writing a college essay, which he agreed he had experience with, and gave him the old saw about, "You can edit what you've written, but you can't edit a blank page." Then I said I'd ask online and bring back the advice.

I posed the question in a Reddit comm, and got the name of a writing book, which I passed on. Then sholio offered a couple of good suggestions for connecting with local writers. He was surprised at both additions; I think he expected that my first quick suggestion was all I had. So now it's in his hands, but I still keep my eye out for tips or sources that he might find useful.

A few weeks ago, an answer on Reddit included a link to a post from Writing Advice from a Poorly Drawn Spider. It was very good -- clear, concise, and short enough to not be overwhelming. I thought, "That's exactly what (my acupuncturist) needs!" But, in true StarWatcher fashion, I figured why stop at one post, when there might be other valuable advice?

In short, I went to the archives and checked out each post. They're mostly aimed toward novel-writing, but the advice applies toward most writing efforts. So of course I made a list to give my acupuncturist -- title, link, and a short snip from the post that explains what's inside. And now that the list is made... well, might as well share, right? (I can't help it; I think it's the eldest sister in me. Or maybe the teacher.)

So, behind the cut -- an alphabetical list of titles, with (month/year) in case you want to access through the archive. Below that list, linked titles in random order, with the blurb. I figure if the title looks interesting, you can copy/search to find the linked title.

( This way to the goodies. )

So there it is. I know not everyone here is a writer, but you may know folks who are. If you think any of this is useful to them, feel free to link to this post.

 

 
In another community, a user said they were getting their flu and covid vaccines, and hoped they wouldn't "feel as knocked out afterward" as the previous time.

kathmandu had this advice:

If you are capable of taking antihistamines, that often helps: the histamine response is usually what makes people feel bad, and it's not necessary in order to educate your immune system.

The response we want is the vaccine's effect on T cells, B cells, etc., and that will proceed fine even if you take antihistamines.

What I usually see recommended is

* 50mg diphenhydramine (Benadryl) 15 minutes before vaccination

OR

* a dose of Claritin/Allegra/Zyrtec 2-3 hours before vaccination.

A few hours after vaccination still works, just not quite as smoothly.

I intend to remember this. My reactions haven't been severe, but I usually feel icky enough the next day that I get nothing done. It would be nice if antihistamines could prevent that.
 

.

Yesterday... mm, Wednesday afternoon, I think... I opened iTunes and it invited me to upgrade. I hesitated, but then figured, why not? With only one week of experience, it's not like I was invested iTunes-as-it-was. So I clicked the button and started the upgrade.

Bad move. Bad, bad move. The look is so totally different, and it's hard to find things. But, I can handle that. What's far worse, in my view, is that the "Display Duplicates" option is no longer available. I used that a lot; when I had loaded all the songs of a particular artist, I displayed duplicates, listened to each one, then deleted the less-liked version. I looked at every drop-down on the menu bar, and every sub-menu -- several times. It's not there!

And at that, I have it easy. coffeeandink and her friends are having all kinds of trouble finding their iPod music, moving it around, synching things up; as coffeeandink said in comments, " Apple has made some remarkably bad UI decisions."

So, I've uninstalled iTunes 11, run CCleaner (recommended on the net), then had to restore all my URLs and sign back into all my sites, and am now installing iTunes 10.7. (I assume that's the one I had, since I got iTunes so recently.) We'll see how it goes.

But, if you have iTunes, and you like its features as they are -- save yourself a lot of fuss and hassle, and DON'T UPGRADE!!!

ETA: Several pages that promised me iTunes 10.7 wouldn't load on my computer. I was successful with the Old Apps Page. The directions for saving your music to have access to it may make sense to you; they didn't to me. BUT you can copy/paste (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V) all your music into a folder on your desktop. After your downgrade, iTunes will load from that folder, if you tell it to.

.

.

I sent the links I found yesterday to my family. My brother gave us an added tip -- both the Firefox and IE browsers can be set up for "private browsing". Although it occurs to me... if you keep a lot of tabs or windows open, and expect them to be automatically restored when something glitches and you need to reboot your computer, this may interfere with that. I'm only guessing, here, but it may be something to research. (PS - reading brother's explanation, it certainly looks like that might happen.)

Anyway, here's how...

For those truly concerned, both IE and Firefox have private browsing capabilities. This is a browser function that lets you surf without saving any history, cookies, temp files, or the assorted stuff that they use to track you. In I.E. start the browser, then click tools, and look for "in private browsing" For the firefox users, click on the the drop down arrow in the firefox button (upper left corner of screen) and select "start private browsing".

A while back, I did find an option in Firefox that, when you start a new session (like, reboot), it automatically recreates all the open windows you had last time. We'll see if that works the next time my computer insists on a reboot.

Click on Tools - Options - General. The first line under there says,

Startup
When Firefox starts: Show my windows and tabs from last time

The other options are blank page or home page.

This has restored windows I hadn't yet saved (phew!). We'll see if it still works with private browsing.

And now -- breakfast, then work. See you on the flip side.

.

.
Thanks to sholio for the reminder and link...

Starting March 1st, Google will be interconnecting all its faces on the web, such as Gmail and Youtube. BUT! anjak_j shows us how to [a] clear your web history from Google, and [b] turn off the feature that keeps track of new history. It wasn't at all difficult, and now I can keep using Gmail without worrying about who's collecting what, where.

(Well, until their next marvelous innovation. Dammit! I went to Gmail because I was tired of switching every time I switched providers. And now it looks like they'll eventually toss that idea in the dust, as well. *grumps*)

Only another day and a half, folks. If you have a Google-recognized account (I think that also includes Yahoo groups and Flickr), this is probably a good idea. Even if you have "nothing to hide", I think it's the principle of the thing; *I* decide how much I want to share, dammit, not come corporate machine.

.

.
ebonypearl is passing on her discovery of an almost miraculous drain cleaner. She says, "I discovered the power and wonder that is Joe's Hand Cleaner." She gets it from an Auto Parts store; it's a pink gel that smells like bubblegun. Ebony says this works better than any commercial cleaner she has tried.

Just mix 1/4 cup of the gel with 1/4 cup of water, pour it into the drain, and let it sit for half an hour; afterward the drain runs clear, no matter how gunky the clog is. And as a side benefit, it's great for cleaning your hands and the sink.

So, if you have someone whose gunky hands clog up the drain, it might be worthwhile to invest in some of Joe's stuff. I know I plan to.
.