I'm not a nerd but I'm getting there

Today I've done no writing at all, and yet it has been productive.

I've gone back to an old system restore point and got rid of Windows XP Service Pack 2. It crashed my computer so many times! I don't care about the security vulnerabilities; I've got firewalls, pop-up blockers, SpyBot Search & Destroy including Trojan immunisation, and a few other things; I'll take my chances. What is most important is that the computer works, and with Service Pack 2 it doesn't.

Then I made some improvements to my website.

When I got my site I knew nothing about html. The entire "Roxyverse" is done with the "save as Web Page" feature of Word. For "Pandora's Boxer" somebody I know through the newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett did a style sheet and turned the first 18 chapters of "PB" into proper html for me, and also acted as a beta reader. Then she stopped. I last heard from her in April. She said she was going to e-mail me in a couple of days; she didn't. I've e-mailed her and she hasn't replied. She's still posting on alt.fan.pratchett, so she hasn't died or been abducted by other aliens or anything, but she doesn't communicate with me. So, it was back to the "save as Web Page" system for PB19 to 22, "It's Got to be Perfect", "I was made for loving you baby", and so on.

However, LiveJournal has taught me the bare bones of html, as I had to learn how to do LJ cuts and italics and links (thanks again mommanerd and missmurchison), and I eventually decided to do something about the fics. I've worked my way through "Pyromania", "I am the Walrus", "Working for the Yankee Dollar", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and all the Drabbles. Then I put the rest of the "Pandora's Boxer" chapters into proper html too. It's taken me all day, and really put a dent in my writing schedule, but I think it was worth it. They react to changing the text size on the browser now, which is a big improvement, and the file size is drastically reduced. One of them went from 211k to 66k. So they load faster.

I can't face starting on the other multi-chapter stories yet, so it's back to the writing. Expect the next "It's got to be Perfect" chapter, featuring the return of Angel and Wesley, on Wednesday; exactly one week after I said I was going to produce it. For me that's not too bad. There will be 4 more chapters altogether, and I'm going to just stick at it until I finish. No BuffyBot for a while yet, so all Violent Elizabeth's fans will just have to wait.

PS I added a couple of extra puns into "I am the Walrus" while I was going through it. Happiness is a warm pun.

I'm not a nerd but I'm getting there

Today I've done no writing at all, and yet it has been productive.

I've gone back to an old system restore point and got rid of Windows XP Service Pack 2. It crashed my computer so many times! I don't care about the security vulnerabilities; I've got firewalls, pop-up blockers, SpyBot Search & Destroy including Trojan immunisation, and a few other things; I'll take my chances. What is most important is that the computer works, and with Service Pack 2 it doesn't.

Then I made some improvements to my website.

When I got my site I knew nothing about html. The entire "Roxyverse" is done with the "save as Web Page" feature of Word. For "Pandora's Boxer" somebody I know through the newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett did a style sheet and turned the first 18 chapters of "PB" into proper html for me, and also acted as a beta reader. Then she stopped. I last heard from her in April. She said she was going to e-mail me in a couple of days; she didn't. I've e-mailed her and she hasn't replied. She's still posting on alt.fan.pratchett, so she hasn't died or been abducted by other aliens or anything, but she doesn't communicate with me. So, it was back to the "save as Web Page" system for PB19 to 22, "It's Got to be Perfect", "I was made for loving you baby", and so on.

However, LiveJournal has taught me the bare bones of html, as I had to learn how to do LJ cuts and italics and links (thanks again mommanerd and missmurchison), and I eventually decided to do something about the fics. I've worked my way through "Pyromania", "I am the Walrus", "Working for the Yankee Dollar", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and all the Drabbles. Then I put the rest of the "Pandora's Boxer" chapters into proper html too. It's taken me all day, and really put a dent in my writing schedule, but I think it was worth it. They react to changing the text size on the browser now, which is a big improvement, and the file size is drastically reduced. One of them went from 211k to 66k. So they load faster.

I can't face starting on the other multi-chapter stories yet, so it's back to the writing. Expect the next "It's got to be Perfect" chapter, featuring the return of Angel and Wesley, on Wednesday; exactly one week after I said I was going to produce it. For me that's not too bad. There will be 4 more chapters altogether, and I'm going to just stick at it until I finish. No BuffyBot for a while yet, so all Violent Elizabeth's fans will just have to wait.

PS I added a couple of extra puns into "I am the Walrus" while I was going through it. Happiness is a warm pun.