Testing a cross-posting plug-in

Apologies for this relatively content-less post, but I'm testing LJ-XP, a Livejournal CrossPoster plug-in. There doesn't seem to be much documentation on the website, so I had to go hunting for more info and found some here. Now let's try using the "more" tag, which should hopefully translate into a link back in LJ-land...


In theory, this paragraph should appear on a different page in Wordpress (I've used this before in my Babylon Five Virgin blog), but also NOT appear in the cross-posted LJ entry. Let's see what happens. For those wanting to see what happens on my Livejournal page themselves, follow this link.

The photo above, by the way, is of one of my new Blush card designs. More about these in an upcoming post.

Update #1: Hmmm...the "more" tag doesn't seem to translate properly. Must investigate...

Update #2: Aha! I had copied the "more" tag given on the LJ-XP site, which was incorrect (it had a capital 'M'). Changing it to lowercase fixed the problem.

Things, new Chocolate and Fall City Blues

I've decided to switch from Remember The Milk to Things as my task organization system of choice. RTM has a lot of great features, but the user interface on Things appeals to me more. Cultured Code recently came out with an iPhone version of Things that synchs with the desktop version, and that clinched my decision.

Things has some shortcomings but I've found workarounds while I wait for the developers to release new versions. I've been using the system for several weeks now, and it's definitely helped me be better organized.



One of my problems is that I tend to have a lot of projects on the go at once, plus I also needed a way to record all the ideas (writing ideas, cartoon ideas, songwriting, sewing project ideas, errands, books I wanted to read, websites I wanted to check out, etc.) that leap at me as I go about my day-to-day business.

Up to now, I've used a small paper notebook as well as little pieces of paper. The notebook works up to a point, but I needed to keep reminding myself to review it regularly, else reminders get lost amidst by other scribbles.

Anyway, now I just write everything down in my iPhone in Things. And I've gotten much better at two-thumb typing. :-) I review my "To Do Today" list first thing in the morning, and then my entire list once a week.

Some recently posted strips from Will Write For Chocolate:

Link O' The Day

Some of you may remember me mentioning a hugely talented young woman named Rin at Balticon. Well, Rin has a comic strip! You can find her strip at Fall City Blues on Livejournal.






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I love my iPhone

Most of today's Blatherphotos were taken at the cottage. The chipmunk above was opening up pods on a nearby bush (not sure what type, sorry, but they look like this) and munching on the seeds beneath the bush. I took the photo with our Canon 70-300 telephoto lens.

High-speed access is back, yay! Jeff theorizes that the propane explosion was the culprit. We were still at the cottage during the explosion, but our neighbours said that the sound of the blast woke them up and that the sky was lit up red.

Kind of glad I wasn't around for that. I suspect I would have been pretty freaked out. (!)



Had a wonderful time at the cottage despite the rain; more details and photos in upcoming Blatherings.



A ton to catch up on, however. One of the iPhone apps I'm finding the most useful so far is Remember The Milk, which is a task organizer that syncs with the online/desktop app. I'm using status tags like "-next" and "-waiting" as well as context tags (e.g. "@work, @home, @online" etc.) and project tags to implement a version of Getting Things Done.

As someone who usually has multiple projects on the go at any one time, I'm finding this HUGELY helpful.



I love my iPhone. Instead of carrying around my usual load of books, magazines, Toronto map, notebook, pens and pencils, iPod, point-and-shoot camera, I carry all that functionality in my iPhone instead. I read two books at the cottage on my iPhone. In addition to about a dozen books, I have an English dictionary as well as a German-English dictionary/language guide and German-English vocabulary flash cards.



John Kalisz came over for dinner last night (photo above taken with my iPhone); we had arranged the visit when Jeff and I chatted with him at Rand's and Erin's wedding. Super-nice guy, and I'm excited that he may eventually be moving to Toronto. And this is a Genuine Fact, not just one of my hopeful Spontaneous Rumours!

John will be appearing at Fan Expo in a couple of weeks, so I'm probably going to attend; I figure it would be a good opportunity to research and maybe do some networking for the graphic novel project I'm doing with Beckett Gladney. Plus SEAN ASTIN (Sam from the Lord of the Rings movies) is going to be one of the guests!

As some of you already know, I have a soft spot for Sam.



I am horribly behind in e-mail right now, so please be patient as I catch up this week. For those who asked, I will eventually be restarting my Babylon Five Virgin blog but need to focus on work first, including an article for Writer's Digest magazine due within a week.



So much more I want to talk about, but my iPhone To Do list is glaring me in the face, forcing me to prioritize. :-) Happy Tuesday, everyone.



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Sleep clinics and iPhones

Busy week. Not only did Jeff and I both get our iPhones, for example, but I also spent Tuesday night at a sleep clinic.

I haven't been sleeping that well for the past couple of years, and Jeff convinced me to try a sleep clinic. I was supposed to show up at 9 pm; ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but our new iPhones arrived by UPS just an hour before.




I think I freaked out the UPS guy somewhat by flinging the door open as he came up the walk. I had been looking out the front window way too often during the day because UPS had told us that the phones would be delivered by the end of the day.

Jeff set up my iPhone first (he's such a sweetie) so I'd have at least a little time to play around with it before my appointment at the Toronto Sleep Institute.



I meant to bring my point-and-shoot camera with me to the sleep clinic but forgot. Then I remembered that the iPhone had a camera! The picture above is of my bedroom at the sleep clinic, and was the very first photo I took with my new iPhone.

Some of you already have cameras in your phones so may question my excitement, but keep in mind that I've had the same phone for the past six years. it had a tiny screen and definitely no camera. The fact that I can take pictures with my phone makes me happy, and means that I probably won't feel compelled to always lug my point-and-shoot around with me everywhere I go anymore.



Above: some of the gear that got hooked up to my legs, arms, chest and head. I also had tubes up my nose and bands around my upper chest and lower abdomen to track my breathing patterns.

No, I didn't take any photos but you would have had nightmares, trust me.

It took Andrea (I think that was her name) nearly an hour to hook me up. Then she went back to the monitoring room and had me go through some tests to make sure that everything was connected properly: moving my eyes left and right, breathing just through my mouth, breathing just through my nose, moving my feet, etc.


An iPhone case with a wrist strap that I sewed
for myself, front view (flap closed).

When she was satisfied, Andrea came back into the room and turned off the light, telling me that if I needed anything at all, I just had to say it out loud and she'd hear me over the intercom system. Yes, that kind of creeped me out but I found it surprisingly easy to ignore the camera once I got into bed, with the lights out.

You'd think it would be hard to fall asleep with all that gear on, but I think I was asleep in about 10-15 minutes. These days I never have trouble falling asleep; I just keep waking up during the night (I estimate 20 times or more some nights) so that by the time morning rolls around, I wake up feeling more tired than refreshed.


Back view.


One of the times I woke up at the sleep clinic, I needed to use the restroom. Feeling somewhat stupid, I said into the darkness: "Um, hello? I need to use the washroom." Andrea answered over the intercom right away, and showed up a minute later. She efficiently did something to my Frankenstein gear so that I could wear it around my neck.

I risked a glance in the bathroom mirror while I was there: EEK!

When I got back to bed, Andrea undid my bizarre neck adornment and hooked me back into the main control.



I woke up on my own around 6 am, at which point I got completely unhooked. Andrea said I could use the shower to remove all the electrode goop that was in my hair on my skin, but I said I'd wait until I got home. After filling out a post-sleep questionnaire, I left; the results will be sent to my doctor, who will let me know what's up.

I'll be posting more about my new iPhone in upcoming Blatherings, I'm sure. Let me just say right now that I love LOVE my iPhone! One of many reasons: I've missed having an e-book reader since I had to give up my Palm Pilot ages ago when it quit hot-syncing with my (then) new computer. My old phone's screen was way too tiny for anything except the shortest of text messages.

Since my iPhone arrived, I downloaded a bunch of free e-books as well as buying some at Fictionwise. I'm trying out several different e-reading software programs for the iPhone and plan to write up a comparison for Inkygirl.



So much more to say about the iPhone, but this Blatherpost is long enough so I'll save other comments for later. But THANK YOU to Jeff for buying me an iPhone; what a wonderful and amazing gift, and I'm going to get a ton of use out of it.

I have a Contour Hardskin Case but was paranoid about dropping the phone (or having someone grab it out of my hand; yes, I'm paranoid!) so I sewed an outer case with a wrist strap out of some material I bought at FilKONtario last year; see photos above.

I can still use the phone as well apps on the iPhone with case still on, wearing the wrist strap. To use the camera, though, I'd have to pull down the back a bit, or take the iPhone out of its case.

I'm working on improving the design, and will likely add a pocket in front where I can tuck the screen cloth. Maybe add a tiny camera hole in the back; if the fabric has a pattern on it like the above, a hole wouldn't be as noticeable. Heh -- easier to take stealth pics that way, I'll bet.

Video O' The Day

Thanks to Jeff and Ray for the link:

Font Conference - for font nerds everywhere. ADORED this video.




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Managing E-mail and Blog Reading Time: How Do YOU Do It?

Wireless broadband access has made reaching the Internet so much easier but one of the problems, I'm finding, is that it makes reaching the Internet so much easier.

Yesterday I tried an experiment. Twice through the day, I purposely went without e-mail or blog-checking for two hours at a time. That may not seem like much to you, but I've been getting into the bad habit of checking e-mail frequently throughout the day, or taking a break "just to catch up" with blogs. With writing-related blogs, it's easy to convince myself it's work-related.

Anyway, I did make it through the two-hour stints twice, but it was way more difficult than I expected. I was horrified, in fact, to find that e-mail checking has become part of my muscle memory - I do it without thinking; it's almost become as natural a habit as eating and breathing.

I set a timer on my computer to keep myself honest. Anyway, the results were enlightening:

1. I was twice as productive (in terms of my daily wordcount, but that wasn't as surprising as #2)

2. How ingrained my email/blog-checking habits had become.

I'm going to continue doing the "two hours at a time" experiment. Maybe I'll be brave enough sometime to go to THREE hours, but first I have to retrain my muscle memory and also retrain my work contacts to accept the fact that I'm NOT in constant e-mail contact all the time. If anything urgent comes up, they can always pick up the phone.

What about the rest of you, especially those who work at home? How do you control your e-mail and blog reading time?



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