The Nth Reorg

I think this story is one of the most engaging so far and is definitely the most "transitional." I remember at school learning about how in Homer's The Odyssey the "descent into hell" is a technique successfully employed by many good authors.  (I particularly like Poe's story A Cask of Amontillado in this regard.)  This story is definitely an escalator trip down... nothing like going to a meeting to discover you don't do what you did anymore.

Please snag the story from Amazon, Google, or Indigo and let me know what you think! If you like it, post a review on where you got it, and if you really like it, head on over to GoodReads.com and like or review it. Thanks in advance.

Trying GoodReads!

Hi folks! I'm trying to see if goodreads can increase my reader base! Please help out by visiting and rating the stories! Click to visit GoodReads.com

But how will I warm my soup?

Replacing a monitor a few years back; the client had a huge 17" CRT.  The thing weighed about 60 lbs and could likely survive a nuclear blast.  Heck, it was probably irradiated itself and it was giving off tons of heat.  It was about 22" long and pretty much a big crate. I was replacing it with a newer flat-screen monitor, also 17", nice, slim, and cool.  The client at first was "Oh this is great, I have so much more room on my desk," but after a few moments, she said (surprised) "Wait!  You can't take my monitor."  "Why?" I asked puzzled.  "Because the new one doesn't have anywhere to warm my soup."

Stop Confusing Me With The Facts

I need to add something about email to the story line... Folks that don't read it. Folks that response without reading it. Folks that receive hundreds of email a day and spend all of their time reading it. Executives that delegate the reading of it to their secretaries. Folks that send too many emails and/or put in too much information. (I am guilty!) A previous boss suggested I add the [must read] tag to email subject if I wanted him to read it. I asked, "Why would I send you email if I didn't want you to read it?" He was unimpressed. Another complained that I sent too many emails or that they were too detailed and I needed to limit their content to one sentence. Another line boss, after telling me in person I could talk to him about anything and skip my supervisor, subsequently told my supervisor that all communication from me needs to come through said supervisor (after one message.) Yes, there is dark humor in email.

Legacy Published

Legacy is now published and I'm working on a podcast of it next (mp3.)  Fun.

*** updated ***

Podcasts are cool; just an XML header pointing at an image (cover) and MP3 audio file.

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Until I get the XML wrapper done, I've uploaded Legacy audio to two places:

• octavianit.com/legacy.mp3 (sometimes flaky)
• SoundCloud

Legacy Revisited

I have some positive responses to the draft, but also some negative ones.  The beginning is "way too technical" and "not related to the story."  I agree, to a point.  I was trying to bring some enlightening verbiage and set Mark up as proud of his work.  But I gather too much tech will turn off non-technical readers.  In re-reading this, it is a bit soap-boxy, and the more I read it the more I dislike it.  So here is the old beginning...

We missed Dean in the meetings.  His cutting wit had a way of getting to the heart of issues. He had moved on to be an IT Solutions Architect at a competitor. Dean only had a six month programming course from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, but he did have a good grasp of how software fit together and was knowledgeable about tech du jour.

IT Architects are supposed to plan, design, and oversee the implementation of technology in a company, but unlike real architects that make buildings, there is no requirement for license for safety purposes.  Though there are bodies that do offer some accreditation, like most disciplines in IT that grant certificates, there isn’t much validity to any of them.  I felt no need to certify in anything IT-flavored after getting my degree.  The paper didn’t make me an expert, my passion did and you could see it in my craft. People get accredited to get jobs.  This doesn’t always mean they have experience or can do the job - that is usually the point of getting a certificate.

Snip!  As for the rest of the techy speak in the story, I am not sure what to change yet.

Mission: iBooks

It is done.  It isn't painful, but it isn't trivial either.  I was unable to publish the stories individually - I could have fought with iBooks Author to try and get it to like my format - but ultimately I gave up and used its format.  You have a choice of writing a chapter book or a text book.  So I took the five published stories and made a short chapter book.  The import from Word per chapter was easy enough.  It even kept additional formatting (the list and font in Smackdown.)  But I could not use my stock book cover that I have on Play or Kindle.  There probably is a way but it was not obvious - I didn't see any over "default" covers so it is possible.  There are some quirks in the text edit for titles - it doesn't provide a mechanism to insert a newline, and if you split it, it looses the multi-line information when it gets pumped into iTunes Producer.  It was funky again when picking the device to publish to: one choice - iMac. One unfortunate thing about the BISAC codes - you can only pick one subject. iTunes Producer was trivial to use - but the publishing region is funky - if you select "world" it will not add it as a region (bad HCI Apple?  No interaction feedback? No!?) So, to select all regions, you have to select all regions!  The previewing tool was decent but the tab chapter view wasn't obvious (use the left and right arrow keys, don't click.)  It looks like it was designed for gestures.  Anyway, I'm going to splurge and see how it really looks on my iPad.

My brief summary: if you are starting from scratch iBooks Author is a cool studio.  But if you are just importing existing books, its not great.

Smackdown!

Smackdown has finished its third edit.  And it is not done.  Though I am happier with this version over previous versions, my supporting wife tells me there is too much going on and it is still too technical.  She suggested I put more comedic examples in of how Alan is inept, and maybe use it as an opportunity to explain some of the technical jargon.

She also finds the references to the MMORPG not well aligned with the story line.  Chris too thought this was dangling (and wanted more, so that would mean a dedicated story, or more inline references.  Its hard enough to explain what an Epic is let alone a game like EQ or WoW.)  And my editor also had some comments here...  So this aspect of the Mark's character is going away.  Leave that humor to The Guild.  Goodbye to the following verbiage.

... was home in time to attend the Epic Raid my guild-mates had planned for the day.  The game was a classic “Skinner Box.”  A friend had bought me this massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) just after graduation and I was quickly addicted.  Players organized into groups called guilds. Several of the folks in my guild were in the United States military.  They didn’t seem to sleep so there was always someone online to play with or talk to.  Accomplishing things in the game seemed to go better than in real life (IRL).   An Epic Raid is one of those events in the game that literally takes months to jump through all the hoops required, and all of your guild-mates help, to get bits and pieces for super rare weapons and armor that only your character can use.  The game took more time and effort than the job; I was over forty hours a week in game time.

.... In passing conversation I discovered Paul played the game too and had a character far superior to my own.  He’d even completed his epic.

.... Losing myself in my Epic Raid game when I got home was much simpler than what I was doing at work. There was no client to keep happy. The team in-game works because they want to play together to achieve common objectives. And you can never work outside the rules.