lilfluff

...if your character never actually mentions the other character's name? Still in the opening of my nano, and have one character make an of hand reference to, "The Brushtail's pet digger," which as I think about it isn't really a nice way for him to refer to Lady Dorothea Bayard, AKA Aunt Dottie, archaeologist and family black sheep from jeriendhal's Terinu fanfic Spin Recovery. He needed to make reference to someone known for studying pre-subjugation history, and hey, what do you know there might not be anyone mentioned in canon so far (that I recall being mentioned) but Dottie fits the bill (and is probably eccentric enough to be known). Which yes, means what I'm working on is also a Terinu fanfic. Or at least set in the same universe, most likely it won't involve any of the major characters.

Although hopefully my characters will be able to avoid running into addiction and loss of limbs like happened in Spin Recovery. Which isn't to say that they'll manage to avoid the involvement of law enforcement. Then again a story without troubles isn't going to be a very interesting story. For someone is going to be a very naughty boy, forcing my main character to take care of things when she'd rather not be on scene at all. ("Troublesome commoners and their silly celebrations, should never have accepted that offer of shore leave to visit home. Could have been in training, or doing paperwork, or getting shot at by pirates instead of this.")

Now to try and actually write past the opening scene...

EDIT: Hurrah, I do believe I now have a title. "The Unquiet Past"

From Royce's fic Altered Trajectory

Rufus fought the urge to just turn around, as the hairs rose up on the back of his neck. Looking into the reflection of the dusty mirror mounted behind the bar, he could see a figure hunched down over in a corner booth, nursing a beer. He appeared to be about two meters tall, with a scaly snout emerging from the hood of the cloak that left the rest of his face in shadow. Given normally suspicious nature of the bar’s patrons, he might as well have been carrying a three-dimensional holographic sign stating, GREETINGS! I AM TRAVELING INCOGNITO! PLEASE IGNORE ME!

Link when I'm not on battery fumes...

In which I make a brief post to comment on my habit of leaving lengthy comments elsewhere. AKA: Gee, maybe that should have become a post over here.

Subject line says it all.

For those wondering, disaster averted.

Still, they really need to take the baby magnets out of the design.

Rant RE: Please Don't Blame FSU and A Great Day For Sports Photography?

So Scott Kelby held a contest recently on his blog. Send in your best sports photo for a chance to be Mike Olivella's assistant at an upcoming Florida State Seminoles game. Apparently this was beyond the pale as some so-called adult professional sports photographers decided it was worthy of throwing tantrums and crying until FSU would agree to tell Mike he couldn't allow the winner to use his Assistant's pass.

Really?

Do they have so little confidence in their skills that they feel that threatened by a guy with no media contracts being allowed on the sidelines? They have that little confidence in themselves and they dare call themselves professionals? They have so little confidence in themselves that they don't even wait to find out who will win or to look at the winner's submitted photo before starting to insist that the winner will be a trouble maker?

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned if they have that little confidence in their skills and that little maturity that they would whine until getting the chance to crush someone's dream opportunity -- then the appropriate action for them to take is to hand in their photography passes to FSU and go practice until they don't feel the need to act like a cranky toddler with no-sleep and a wet diaper.

My continued employment and modest pay are guaranteed for one simple reason. A good many high school graduates and working adults are either unaware of the existence of indexes, don't know how to use indexes, or are so confused by indexes that they would rather sit and mope for a week before calling in to say, "How in the world am I supposed to figure out how to do this?" or "I know this came up in the book, but it's over a hundred pages long, how can you expect me to find it?" And 99 times out of 100 if I look in the index it is listed by name. Not hunt through all the pages covered by that topic, but the very term they ask about is sitting there in perfectly readable 12 point type.


=o.O=

=0.o=

sigh


Don't even get me started on the apparent failure of coworkers to have graduated from pre-school. I'm failure certain toilet training, at least to the degree of, "Aim for the bowl!" is covered there. I'm pretty sure it was covered at the preschool I went to.

I really don't want to be that old guy who yells, "Get off my lawn you damn kids!" But they sure seem to keep asking for it. Come on world, I'm not even old enough for a proper mid-life crisis yet... Am I?

Some of you may have heard me say in person in the past that if someone says, "All or nothing!" I don't feel much sympathy for them when they usually end up with nothing.

( The longer story placed under cut to save your Friends page )
Well, as I've said for some years now, when you say all or nothing it seems to me history usually doesn't say you'll get the all side of the equation. You might not get nothing, but it seems you usually get a heck of a worse deal than you were offered in the first place. And who knows, maybe when it reaches court it will turn out Party A was full of hot air and Party B has Perry Mason as a lawyer. But if that isn't the case I suspect someone is going to regret deciding to go for all or nothing.

(Edit: Oh, and as a note, quite intentionally not naming names as I'm not really interested in arguing the merits of that particular suit so much as commenting on my philosophy regarding people taking all-or-nothing positions.)

So, I got to thinking about the issue of Orphan Works.

I think one thing I would require in an Orphan Works bill before I would approve of it is:

1a: Require that someone actually document what they have done to search for a rights owner, and
1b: You don't then just use the work, you take your documentation to (either court, or a panel set up specifically for this) and they review your search and say yea or nay to using it.

Okay, lie, more than one thing.

2: After ruling on whether or not the work could be used there would be an official government registry of Orphan Work requests, and the ruling would be entered into it.
2b: Anyone else could then skip the research stage if they add their use and contact information to the registry.
2c: Anyone else could review the registry and challenge a designation of Orphan Work status by presenting evidence to show who a rights holder was.

I don't like the idea of having multiple competing registries, unless perhaps they are split by media type (photo registry, written text registry, etc) administered by one office. Access to the registry should also be open and free. No one should have to pay to find out if something of theres is in it. There should also he a high standard required in the research. No, "Well, I looked up the magazine and it's out print now, so it's free to use, right?" You should have to show how and were you looked.

I also like another idea I heard. Sure, you get your initial copyright free and clear. But it should be for a length closer to older copyrights, and renewing it should not be automatic. If you can't be bothered to fill out a form saying, "I want to renew the copyright on my book X goes to Y and does Z" should the government really be bothered to smack people down for doing stuff with it?

There should also be very stiff penalties for presenting false evidence, and the panel that reviews claims should have the ability to levy at least a modest fine if it's ruled that you should have been able to find out who the rights holder was with even a modest search. "Why no, honest, I tried for months to find out who might own this movie called Muppet Treasure Island." I also wouldn't complain if there was a waiting period between "Hmm, yes, you did do a decent search" and "Alright you can use it" during which the item in question would be posted with a bounty should anyone track down the owner (pay the bounty with a combination of department funding, application fees, and "You wasted our time trying to claim Men In Black was an Orphan Work?" fines).

Norton is acting up on my Sister's computer and will be banished as soon as a replacement is picked. Which raises the question, what should it be replaced with? Anyone here on the interwebs have suggestions for alternatives to look at?

From part 18 of A Thin Veneer:

"We get signal!"

Acaltha turned in his chair and directed a sharp look at his communications officer. "Mr. Vickers, I believe I mentioned something previously about a certain officer trying break the tension on the bridge by reviving three hundred year old Terran jokes?"

Mr. Vickers felt a vague unease. "Ahh.. yes sir. You did."

"And what was it I said at the time? Please refresh my memory."

"That if it happened again, I'd be assigned to Commander M'Zell as her sparring partner during personal combat practice?"

"That sounds about right. Now, you were saying?"

Vickers deflated slightly. "Subspace transmission directed to this ship, sir."