Browning's Complete Poetical Works

My fabulous coworker Terri returned from an out-of-office excursion the other day, and dropped this book on my desk. She had been to one of our thrift stores, and as an avid reader, she always checks the books to see if there is anything she must have.

On this occasion, she did not so much want the book herself, as she wanted someone to want it. Maybe someone who likes poetry, and can appreciate a 120-year-old book, and the handwritten notes therein.

I know nothing about Browning, except that Elizabeth Barrett fell in love with him and wrote the heck out of sonnets because of it. My first comment after thumbing through the pages was, "There are a LOT of words." In order to pack all of the words into one volume, they used tiny print and two columns, so each page is crammed full of Victorian verse. What little I've read, I've found to be slow going, and not particularly engaging, although there were occasional moments of what appeared to be poetical smart mouth.

So, I consulted with the oracle, Wikipedia, which assured me, "His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax." I should be able to get behind that. It also noted that even Browning's fans were sometimes vexed when his poems were too long or too dense.

Still, it's lovely having a bit of the 19th century sitting on my desk in a 21st century office.

Twine-ing around

This weekend, I brought home some work from the office to proofread. It was a new procedure, and I was checking to see if the logic made sense. After identifying several hiccups, I thought it might be easier to make a flow chart or some other sort of diagram to help me see the problems.

I tried handwriting one, and didn't like it. I looked at some flow chart software, and it was way more complicated than I needed. Then I remembered what the boss said when she asked me to look at it: "Try out all of the options. Choose your own adventure."

Some time ago, I read something on the web about software that would help you organize a Choose Your Own Adventure story. A bit of Googling later, and I had a copy of Twine.

It was, quite simply, exactly what I needed, and really simple to use. The program opens with one window open. You type your text in that window, then use some simple wiki-style formatting to create links for your options. (Twine is based on TiddlyWiki, which I have also played around with a little bit.) The link opens a new window, and you type more text, and create more links. Lather, rinse, repeat. When you are done, you can export a document for proofreading, or an .html file for playing the actual adventure.

It didn't take me long to map the entire project, and see where the goofy parts were. Even better, it was fun. The way the boxes popped up and linked together was very satisfying. The only problem I found was that the .html export didn't work for me, but since I didn't need it, that was not a problem.

My internal clock can't help thinking about writing things in mid-October, and it tells me, "Something like this would make NaNoWriMo more fun. It had a word counter, you know."

I may need to remove the batteries from that clock for the next couple of weeks.

Not a photojournalist, part 2

More pictures from the cell phone...

They remodeled the men's room at my office, and for a few days we saw this first thing when we got to work.

When you go grocery shopping after and ice storm, you may have to beat the ice off of the shopping cart.

The view from my office window. Melting snow and a degree of shelter makes this rooftop an irresistible spot for pigeons. The pigeons are not actually blurry in real life. These two gray ones are Fred and Ethel. They act like they own the place.

Howie comes to town

Monday night, we were delighted to play host to Piker Press West Coast Editor and maid of all work, Sand. She is driving cross country with her husband, Bernie, and dog, Howie, both of whom are charmingly well-behaved.

I don't know if Howie actually remembered us from our visit to his house, but his cautious phase was very brief, and soon gave way to his wandering around, sniffing us and our things. The only thing he didn't get to sniff was Katie. She took one look and dived under the bed, where she stayed until That Thing was gone. Even Tuesday morning, after they were back on the road, she avoided me, the traitor who allowed That Thing into her home. She's over it now, though.

Work. I don't usually talk about work here, and I won't now, other than to say that there is a lot of stuff going on. Good stuff, planned stuff, but changes nonetheless. Today, I move to my new office and they start installing new equipment. Tomorrow, I get a new boss. Next week, if not sooner, we take on some new business, and we are pitching for other new business. It's exciting, but still stressful.