Ottobre Sell-Off

Time to get serious. I’ve toyed with the idea of selling off my Ottobre collection, but if you’re here to look for back issues, you know how hard this idea is on a collector. But the job market is still difficult, and even though my furnace doesn’t really heat the house, it’ll sure be a lot colder here if the electricity gets turned off. So I’m opening my collection to you all, to find new homes for these beloved issues. And let me tell you, as I flipped through the stack to list the issue numbers, there were any number of memories of what I made from each issue while my daughter grew taller and taller.

Each issue listed is in good/very good condition, carefully used, and contains the original pattern sheets. Pattern sheets might be detached (if I used them, I verrrrry carefully opened the center staples and then carefully closed them again), but some are still attached to the center staples. No markings on the pattern sheets that I’m aware of.  Each issue is $15 plus shipping (media mail or priority mail, your choice).  Post a comment here, or email me directly (preferred), athene1 at gmail dot com.

I also have issues from 2006, 2007, and 2008 that aren’t listed here. If you’re interested in any of these, please let me know.

Also, just to clarify, the issues from before 1/2003 are  in Finnish, not English. For more information on the individual issues, go to Ottobre’s website, make sure to click on “In English” on the left side, and click on each issue’s cover photo for more information, including a link to the All Designs pdf (mouse over the picture to determine the issue number).

I update this list constantly, and am keeping a waiting list, so even if you see the issue you want is crossed out, please email me – it might become available. Also please remember that when you request to buy an issue (or two or three), that’s not money I’ll be spending frivolously, that’s money going to pay my bills. I’ve been out of work for several months, I’m a single mom, and I’m trying to keep food on my table. That bit about the electricity?  That’s for real.  

Okay, on to the list of magazines. Crossed-out ones are spoken for, and as the spoken-fors get paid for, I’ll remove them from the list completely. 

2000/4 

2002/2

2002/4 

2003/1

2003/2 

2003/3 

2003/4 

2004/1 

2004/2

2004/3

2004/4 

2005/1

2006/1              

2006/2

2006/4

2007/2

2007/5

Postal information:

Priority Mail flat-rate envelope is $4.95, and box is $10.35 – up to 5 magazines by weight. I’m not sure yet how many issues will fit into an envelope. So basically there’s only shipping costs on the first issue, additional issues ship for free

        

Juxtaposed

 Seen within the span of five minutes watching CNN this morning:

- a segment interviewing a college student about how the recession is affecting high school and college students in their job searches (summary: restaurant and retail sectors have been hardest hit, so jobs there aren’t as available, and young people are having to compete with older laid-off people also looking for any job they can get)
- a Mercedes Benz commercial, which proclaimed that “this is the time to get that Mercedes that’s been on your wish list!”
- a Salvation Army commercial involving homeless people and an infant in arms being rescued off a rooftop during a flood

Seriously, these segued right into each other. Whoever was in charge of arranging ad times at CNN really screwed up.

I spend a lot of time at my computer. A lot of time. Too much time, really.

And I like a pretty screen to look at. I’ve tweaked Vista so that all desktop icons are hidden. I keep about a dozen instances of Chrome running at any given time, but only one window up at a time – and not maximized. 

I have a 17″ laptop with a rather good screen resolution. It’s very sharp, and I like it a lot. (Another good reason to get a 17″ laptop? 10-key, baby, it’s all about the 10-key)

For several months, I’ve had some generic Vista background graphic up, and it did the job well enough. Somewhat interesting, yet still calming to my eye. I can’t stand a cluttered desktop. But I really prefer to use beautiful nature photographs for a background.  For a long time, I had a close-up macro photo of a pale pink iris in my garden – I mean really close-up, a photograph of the place where the petals converge, and it showed the really interesting color variations of the iris’ beard. So it met my requirements of pretty, calming, nature, and interesting.

But in the past week or so, I’ve come across several photos that would each make fantastic desktop backgrounds.  I’ve had one up for about a week, but now I can’t decide.  So I figured I’d post smaller versions here and solicit opinions.

Found via WeLoveDC.com, the iconic view of the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin, at a non-iconic time of year. 

 

 Also found via WeLoveDC.com, a stone bridge in Rock Creek Park in DC. I’ve never been there, but what a beautiful photograph.

 

 When I take photographs, I’m influenced by the work of Jon Armstrong. Photo taken in Destin Florida. This photo works well even when stretched to fit the screen.

So, opinions? Comment here, or email me at hazelmoon1 at gmail dot com.

laugh til you cry

Found this post via Dooce, and I haven’t even been able to get through the entire thing yet because I keep having to wipe away the tears of laughter. I’m so hanging onto this post for when I need to laugh.

Read it, then come back and tell me about the funny looks you got from laughing so hard.

Reading Any eBook on a Palm

I think it will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me – I love to read. I read incessantly. The first book I remember reading is Wind In The Willows; I was four years old. In school I would get in trouble constantly for reading a book under my desk while the teacher was lecturing. I read as I walked through the hallways. I find it nearly impossible to eat a meal without something to read in my hands. Book, magazine, cereal box, doesn’t really matter. I just love to read.

So you’d think with this severe love of the written word, I’d be all over the Amazon Kindle, right? Yeah, no, I’ll pass. It’s not that I think it’s not an amazing piece of technology; it absolutely is. It’s just that I have a quite reasonable substitute right here in my hands already, and it cost a fraction the price of a Kindle.

 

My Palm OS Centro is not only a cell phone, web browser, game player, calendar, alarm clock, email client, or any of the dozens of uses I don’t actually use that much – it’s also an ebook reader (also? it’s pretty and red like the one in the picture). Most commonly, I use it as a PDF reader, using Adobe’s free program for Palm OS. This program reformats the text so that it automatically wraps lines, and the text is large enough to read easily.

But here’s the catch: ebooks don’t usually come as PDF. In fact, sometimes the only way to find a book you’re looking for is in LIT format – Microsoft’s proprietary format for ebooks, requiring MS eReader to be used – and I couldn’t find a Palm version, which kind of makes sense, since Microsoft focuses on the PPC market. Note: if I wanted to read an ebook sitting at my computer, MS eReader would do the job nicely.

So how do I get the files onto my Palm Centro, to be read in Adobe PDF Reader? It’s really quite simple, although it does require a few steps. The first method deals with a text file, such as you’d find on Project Gutenberg; the second deals with a LIT file that you want to read on your Palm.

Text to PDF conversion:

1. Find the text you want to put on your Palm. My favorite site is Project Gutenberg, but of course there are no current books listed. For the classics, this is your best bet. Open the text file – I use Open Office Writer, but if you have MS Office on your computer you can use that.
2. Copy the text. Easiest way is to Select All (ctrl A), then Copy (ctrl C).
3. Paste the text into Writer – I’ve also used Google Docs with great success, with the caveat that Docs has a size limit on files. Don’t worry about the formatting of the text, or the size of the font, or any of that.
4. Save the file. Partly because this will become the new PDF’s file name (especially in the case of Google Docs), but also because it’s just a good habit to get into!
5. In Writer: click File, then Export as PDF. In Docs: click File, then Download File As, then PDF. No, really, it’s just that simple. Writer will ask you where to save the file, Docs will simply download via your web browser.

Okay, now we have a PDF of our text. Usually to get a file onto the Palm, one would simply move the file into the HotSync program, then sync with the Palm. This will work to get the file actually onto the device, but Adobe won’t be able to read it, or even know that the file is there. What you need to do now is convert the PDF again, using the Adobe Reader for Palm OS on the desktop computer.

1. Open Adobe Reader for Palm OS on your computer.
2. Select the username for the device you’ll be syncing to, if there is more than one available.
3. Click Add, to add the files you just converted.
4. Wait for the program to convert the file; the length of time this takes will depend on the number of pages in the file.
5. Wait a bit longer. Why I chose a 236-page file to use as my test file is beyond me.
6. Once Adobe Reader has done its conversion, click Exit.
7. Connect the Palm device to the computer and HotSync.
8. On the Palm device, click on Adobe Reader.
9. Happy reading!

But what if the book you’re dying to read (or, in my case, re-read for the umpteenth time) is only available as a LIT file? You guessed it, more conversion! But first, more downloading! There are several options I’ve found, but the easiest is ConvertLit GUI. Install this, then open it.

1. Select Extract from the button options at the top.
2. Click Select Lit File, then find the files to be converted.
3. Click Extract. No, really, it’s just that simple. The files will be extracted as both OPF files and HTML files. Don’t worry about the OPF files, just open the HTML files, then copy and paste into Writer or Docs as above.

And now you’ll never be without something to read. You’re welcome

Note: if you use a Windows Mobile device, these instructions should still work, just download Adobe Reader for PPC instead. 

Postscript: This has become the most-viewed post on my blog in the month since I wrote it. If you found it helpful, please leave a comment and let me know!

meh.

I have a high level of dissatisfaction with my life right now. This is in combination with a high level of apathy to the environment around me. Which basically means I hate the way I’m living, but can’t really be bothered to change it.

Mostly this translates into hours and hours of television watching.

move along, move along…

Not really anything to see here. I pretty much spent the day doing not much of anything, and now I’m trying to whittle down the backlog on my DVR and consume too many Tootsie Roll midgees leftover from Halloween. 

I added West Wing to my list of shows to automatically record (reruns, obviously), and who the hell knew Bravo ran so many 4-hour chunks of West Wing?! So my DVR went from 28% full to 75% full in a matter of days.

My favorite new show this year is Privileged, on CW. I found out about it when I looked up Hot Army Guy’s profile on IMDB. Remember him from last season on Grey’s Anatomy? Quite yummy. Anyways, I really like this show, it’s shallow and smart at the same time. Plus the lead characters carry Centros  The main character has a red Centro! Which clearly means she’s just like me, right?

History in the made

Not an eloquent post at all. But tonight, history was made, and is still being made.

At 11pm Eastern, all the major networks, plus AP and Comedy Central, called the election for Obama.

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama.

At 11:25pm Eastern, John McCain gave the classiest speech we’ve ever seen him give. Too bad for him it was a concession speech. His crowd of supporters was incredibly tacky, however. Stop booing, your lack of manners is showing.

Indiana is still too close to call. Of course, it doesn’t “matter” in the grand scheme of things now, with the difference of nearly 200 electoral votes. But I want to know that I live in a state that voted Democratic, not just the county I live in. According to cnn.com, there are currently less than 9000 votes separating the two, with 97% of precincts reporting. It’s been veering between 3000 and 10,000 votes difference. Well, once Obama pulled ahead, at least. I wasn’t paying as close attention up til then.

This is an amazing night. It’s been unbelievable, the way social networking has played into it. Watching the Election feed on Twitter, seeing the Facebook live feed simply explode at 11pm, like verbal fireworks! Hanging out in the MUSH with my Zoner friends. Chatting with a CKI friend on Facebook. Unbelievable.

Hardcore? Maybe

Tonight, I fell asleep sometime in the 7:00 hour, just dozed off in my standard pose – stretched out on beloved green loveseat, fingers on laptop keyboard.  I woke up at some point during the 8:00 hour (halfway through Big Bang Theory, which my TV had changed itself to; since it was trying to record two shows at once, it couldn’t stay on the third it was already on).  I was coherent enough to realize that I’d gotten less than a handful of hours of sleep the “night” before, so I dragged off to bed, in order to not repeat the epic insomnia I’ve been dealing with.  Which may or may not be election-coverage-related.

Barely managed to put on pajamas and crawl into bed.  Didn’t even think about the fact that I hadn’t posted here today.  Just sleep, baby, sleep.

So when I woke up suddenly and the clock read 11:30, I held an internal debate.  Should I drag myself back out of bed and attempt to post something in the next 30 minutes? Or should I take my nascent goal and hurl it into the big steaming pile of all my other goals?

Well, gentle reader, I got up.  Back out to the living room, ignoring the cat I’d forgotten to feed, and flipped on the tv.  For some reason I was expecting it to be on CNN, since that’s what I’d supposedly left it on.  Okay, I get why it’s on CBS, now I remember about the “recording two shows at once” thing, but why in the world is – is that CSI Miami that’s on my TV? The hell?

I assume you’ve already guessed what it took me far too long to realize.  Stupid daylight savings time.  Even stupider me, for not changing my bedroom clock yet.  

In other news, my cable internet and/or router is not working for some reason. But I’ve been able to use my cell phone tethered to my computer, and this makes me reasonably happy.  Especially since it now means that I won’t be tied to finding a nearby Panera when I’m traveling and need to use the internet  It’s not the fastest speed, it’s classified as “dial-up”, but it’s faster than I remember dial-up speed being, and it’s faster than the neighbor’s crummy wireless!

Now the big conundrum, should I go back to sleep or should I stay up and watch election coverage? sigh

Ch-ch-ch-changes

While watching Senator Obama’s speech being broadcast on CNN, I caught one of their stupid little factoids they like to run across the bottom of the screen.  For example, if McCain gets elected, he’ll be the second graduate of the United States Naval Academy to serve as president, the first being Jimmy Carter. I’m sure McCain would love being grouped in any way at all with Carter.

But another one caught my eye.  It said that this is the first election in 24 years that doesn’t have either a Bush or a Clinton on either ticket.  Okay, that’s mostly right, it seems to me.  But doesn’t that continual line go all the way back to 1980?  Didn’t George H.W. Bush run for vice president on Reagan’s ticket in 1980 as well?  Wouldn’t that then make it 28 years?  I could be completely wrong, I’ll admit to only being five years old when Reagan was elected the first time.  But it could be that CNN is more completely wrong in this instance.  Unless they’re stopping the clock at 2004, which I suppose is possible, although not logical.  

Obama is speaking in Cincinnati at the moment.  I’m really impressed with how he’s managing to shoehorn in as many rallies as possible. He’s even fitting in another campaign stop in Indianapolis on Tuesday, presumably as a stepping stone on the way back to Chicago for his big Grant Park rally.

It’s going to be an interesting two days. 

As for me, the October Surprise is that the leaves didn’t reach their peak until November.