Ars Gratia Artis

I don’t have a vast readership here, so I did not bother with blacking out my site on 18 Jan, but I did write to my representatives. In short, I’ve had some kind of creative presence on the internet and its precursors since 1984. (See, I am not kidding when I say I’m nearing a certain age. In fact, by some definitions, I’m already there. But I digress.) I have routinely lost things like blogs and websites and hard drives, but there is still a fair amount of content out there with my name on it.

Much of it has brought me no money. Reputation that waxes and wanes based on how active I am in a given community, yes, but money? Not so much. Certainly I have dealt with piracy and crackers — and still, to this day, can not get over the hilarity of a “pirate software cracking group” adding their brag screen to a shareware software piece*; specifically seen here, among many other places, and yeah, it burns my ass that these dicks are being credited with my game. Under SOPA/PIPA, I could shut those shits down. I am a nobody out here in the wilderness. No one would ever be so foolish as to imagine that I am a producer of Big Content. But I could technically shut that site out of the United States because they are displaying my content as someone else’s–should SOPA become real.**

The fact that I can do that is part of why I don’t like SOPA. You wouldn’t think that is the case, would you? However, here is the next bit:

I used to have AdSense on this site. (Yes, it’s related, hold on). It generated very little money and I actually found it far more useful as a way to have products and businesses I’d be interested in brought to my attention. This makes sense: if you put up a vanity website that is chock full of stuff you are interested in, the advertisements that are served based on the webpage contents are going to be related to things that interest you. It was how I found (and started using) CreateSpace, and what made me decide to apply to UWM, and so forth. Still, one day, there was a spike in traffic, which I simply can not account for, and my account was subsequently disabled. I, or anyone who shares my address, was permanently banned from using AdSense. There is no recourse. I could send a brief explanation regarding the issue, but some guy sitting behind a desk in India decided that this is what it is and too bad for me. Do you know how much money I generated over the course of the 5 years I had AdWords here? Approximately $124. And good luck to Google in refunding the pennies they now owe to various companies that got clicked back in 2006. It will cost them more to find and refund all those companies than it would cost them to just leave my account alone and label whatever they identified as the problem (because they don’t tell you what the actual problem is when you get the email shutting you down) as an aberration after 6 months of monitoring (or whatever).

However, the system is set up so that Google can decide that your account is fraudulent even if you have no control or awareness of the issue. It’s rather like jailing you because your neighbor’s dog was on your property when it bit your kid. You should have kept the dog off your property!

This kind of unilateral power on the internet is appalling. The thought of someone just deciding that your site statistics are proof that you are misusing the system or that someone else’s inadvertent misrepresentation/poor choice could take a whole site down because someone at a giant company too powerful for an indie artist to fight got a bug up his or her ass is chilling. Long sentence, but you get my point. I’m not in love with the idea of some trash talking teenagers getting credit for my work. But I am also not in love with the idea that my ire over this could remove the works of hundred of other legitimate creatives from distribution. I get that I deserve to have my content protected. I don’t think it should be at the cost of everyone else getting their content restricted.

Of course, today is Jan. 21. What brings this all up?

Moon Hollow Press.

I spent some time looking for alternative hosting programs and sites. I’d like the products I put forth to be as professional as possible, and while I can create a really lovely anthology/chapbook/compendium with HTML, a blogging platform, or as a straight-up PDF, I also want to use this time frame to experience and explore other free tools on the web. I stated out with blogger/google, and will complete the first ‘zine there, but I think I want to try some other products for electronic publishing of Grantswood. On the other hand, I also think about permanence on the web. As I have many times cried and ranted about–and surely will cry and rant about again–the intransigence of the web means that I have lost a lot of work. Poof, into the magnetic fields it all went to be buried! Some can be saved–a la the Internet Archive–and others may be resurrected by chance, but some stuff is just gone forever. When I put the anthologies and compendiums and chapbooks out, I want there to be a reasonable assurance of existence-at least for the lifetime of the authors.

I don’t want it shut down forever by an arbitrary and unilateral copyright decision.

I don’t want it shut down forever because of bad business decisions.

And I don’t want to never be able to offer anything but the token prizes I can pay out of my own pocket because the site hosts restrict revenue by independents.

So there are a lot of things to think about as I spend this next year experimenting with platforms and possibilities.

That said, I think I am going to open the call for Grantswood. I was going to wait until I had Marauders of the Waterways on line, but I/we don’t have any more works coming in for that and all I need to do is put it together and then web it on 25 March. I think I/we can start reading for Grantswood.

I could stand to edit this entry–it is a little run-on-ish, and some sentences are surely awkward–but I think I’d rather work on writing the call for Grantswood. I’m wiling to be awkward in my blog.
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Some articles that discuss some of the things I am thinking about here, but did not get to addresing during the course of this writerly ramble:

How to free your work. — Nina Paley’s contribution at Question Copyright. I have a lot of respect for Paley and what she went through with Sita Sings the Blues.

SOPA and PIPA: Where we are. What they want. — which says a lot of the things I’d say myself, so I won’t recap here.

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*Hilarious because while I retain copyright, the program was released as shareware. There was exactly no copy protection on it, and it was intended to be freely distributed over the modem–in 1985, when the first version was released, it had to be released to specific services (Q-Link, Compuserve, various local Bulletin Board Systems) and then would be redistributed by people exchanging programs at various sites–essentially, a very early bit-torrent system. They didn’t crack shit, they just appended their stupid screen.

**I know you are not likely to d/l those old interactive fiction games, and if you were going to, Tramontane Alliance would not be the one I’d specifically recommend (my favorite stand-alone game remains Garden of Balance), but if you did suddenly have an urge to play an oldtimy IF game in a way that reminds you of oldtimey computers, d/l this stuff from a place I respect: Internet Fiction Data Base, or 8-bit Adventure World, or from my own host of a loved but lost site. They don’t run independently; you need an emulator, such as VICE. And they are flawed, baybee, believe you me. Still, I am not the kind of creative who disowns her earlier works, and they were well-received in their time.

This does bring up another topic for discussion, though. The games are shareware, and it would be reasonable to consider how the crack screen could be considered an infringement. Here is how:

1. They are being presented as the authors of the work.
2. By presenting it as a piece of cracked software, they are misrepresenting it as a pirated version of a more standard commercial model, and thereby divert attention from the shareware model–people who might have sent money for the game are now discouraged from doing so based on the presentation of the program as one that was illegally obtained.

But we can consider that another day.

If things increase exponentially, do they diminish square-rootily?

Happy new year, everyone, and in the immortal words of Sherman T. Potter, may it be a damn sight better than the last one.

Given that I am on break from school, I should spend a little time doing something I love: writing here.

Of course, I was not kidding a few entries ago when I said that my inability to solve the problem of the conflicting databases for this blog deeply discourages me. I can still resurrect the archives from 2004-May 2011, but I have to put them back to bed when I am done looking up… whatever it was I was looking for. Another issue; the gallery data bases are not synced any more, meaning that I shall have to attend to that at some point in the future.

At this point, the readers I have are few, so this likely will never be an issue, but should you ever come here again and find something with a pre-June 2011 date, you’ll know that at that moment, somewhere on the other side of the Internet, I’m digging something out of the archive.

Meanwhile, if you ever want to comment here again, I am afraid you will have to sign up for a new account at the point in time you decide to comment. Why? Because one of 2 things is going to happen: the old admin program will never come back, or the new one, this one, will move to a slightly different address and you’ll still have to have a new account to comment on this one–I shan’t be putting any entries into the old admin. My goal now is to try to save what I can from the old admin, and whisper sweet nothings to the memories. This admin is the life of the new, now.

Out with the old….

In the grand tradition of Internet navel staring and the endless American delusion regarding a better next year, I’ve been looking over my massive to-do list for 2011. I actually got some of the very long term items crossed off the list.

I know, right? How the hell did that happen?

My speculation: 1) Turned the television off and 2) stopped trying to be funny on Facebook. I’m over Facebook, have been for a while, but I still check in regularly because it’s about the best 21st C. version of a newsfeed out there right now.

Anyway, I think that this might be how it happened. Facebook stopped being entertaining.

Here is the kind-of-screwed-up version of it:

THE 2011 (U:)BERLIST:

1. Write. Write. Write. Write.
   1. Recreate space
   2. Organize old stuffs
   3. Get as much as can be salvaged off of vintage & disused computers and storage.
   4. Revamp website

i.      Make a secondary site to separate hobby works from professional works

1. ****FINISH (a novel 1)***(private projects start here, just leave blank indications of intent for publishing)
2. Write a (revamped version of an older work 1-3)
3. Write a (revamped version of an older work 5)
4. (private creative stuff)
5. (private creative stuff)
6. (private creative stuff)t
7. (private creative stuff)
8. (private creative stuff)
9. Compile a volume of poetry. (which doesn’t need to be private, because, sheesh, it’s not like everyone who actually knows me doesn’t know I have poetry coming out my ears.)

i.      Submit for poetry contests.

1. Write more poetry
2. Take GRE
3. Apply for PhD program
4. Prestudy for calc 2
5. Get front porch made into useable space again
   1. Sitting Area
   2. Sewing area
   3. “Curtains” for closing off sections when heat is needed in winter. (Ropes hanging from hooks with self-haning curtailns. Excellent use for a number of curtains that I bought and won’t ever actually use.)
6. Garden work
   1. Square foot garden in raised bed
   2. Climbing annual vines for front yard on rails and awnings
   3. Espadrille the wild apple tree
   4. Turf seat
   5. Wattle Fence
   6. Cut back limbs on trees hanging over garage
   7. Move that pile of dirt!
7. Write more articles
   1. Fake Cheese sauces
   2. Leek and Mushroom tart
8. Thin Library
9. Thin craft supplies
10. Thin dishes!!!! And other kitchen miscellanea
11. Thin miscellaneous possessions
12. Thin wardrobe
    1. Remake favorite articles of clothing
    2. Make bags and other stuff for sale – will need it for some kind of income when in school.
13. Continue working with WAMM
14. Apply for several PhD/MA programs
    1. Take GRE
    2. Update GSU reference file
15. Rearrange kitchen
    1. Get spice rack up
    2. Repaint
    3. Wainscoting
16. Update Upstairs Bathroom
17. Finish painting guest room
18. SCA stuff:
    1. Repair Breakdown thrones
    2. Build breakdown boxes
    3. Roof cover for carport
    4. Finish!!!!!!

i.       clock refurburbishment

ii.      Alphabet blanks

iii.      Knitted bag project

1. Revamp SCA wardrobe
2. Project boxes for new clothing, sew it and sell it

Now, the numbering system got screwed up–the word-to-html switcheroo I did back in January went very wrong and I didn’t bother to save the initial file any place I can can currently find–but on the whole, there is a 4 year busy list up there. You know, a list that could keep me busy for 4 years.

Now, looking it over, I see that some Very Important Things got Started or actually done. Accomplishments related to this list, however, deserve their own list:

1. Thin Wardrobe
2. Thin Library
3. Thin dishes
4. This misc. possessions
5. Continue Working with WAMM
6. PhD issues diverted into HIT program, which I will finish up in February
7. Update the Bathroom (although, in honesty, I was the money and the driving force, but Michael did that work)
8. Built the raised bed & tried sq. ft. gardening
9. Got rid of the dirt pile
10. Tried a wattle fence
11. Mangled Espadrilled the wild apple
12. Wrote a new SCA article, although I should probably clean it up and move it to this site.
13. And, in conjunction with above, did some more knitted bags.
14. Wrote: took a creative writing class and got an A. Thank you Reggie Finlayson for listening to the wind and bending in the direction it blew.
15. Wrote: multiple items scheduled for publication or already published. I’m still a little sensitive about pointing out where they are right now, though.
16. Wrote: moved from 20 years of silence to 3 stories, three flash pieces, and three drafts. In one year. To be fair, the dam started breaking last year, as I had managed to finish 2 stories, one on my own and one in a workshop I took with Liam Callanan. I will not consider myself out of the woods, however, until I can steadily produce work. I’m still having a hard time focusing on fiction, having a hard time MAKING MYSELF WRITE IT DOWN.
17. Wrote: Started working with the Phoenix student organization.
18. Wrote: Staring my own small press. That will take years to come to actual fruition, though, so all I got there is a wet toe. Editing other people’s work will help me with my own. And me doing the editing will help other people’s with their work, so it’s win all around.

Tomorrow, I’ll start considering what I need to keep from the lists above for 2012. I plan to do another (u:)berlist, and we will see what the end of 2012 has to say about what got done when I get there.

For pie, Kmart is No Good. No good for pie, not at all.

Don’t forget to celebrate Discardia! I’ve been doing so, and I now have about $1000 in tax deductions. Big purge going on.

Kmart is fail for pies.

I love cream cheese and jam sammies.

I’m here, I am okay, but if I don’t post on 11/11, then clearly, I’m overwhelmingly busy.

We are in the process of a household overhaul, so between that, school, and work, there just isn’t time to write. But you know what? This won’t go on forever.

Also, I find I’m far more upset about the old database being out of service, out of sight. It really, really bothers me, more than I imagined. So I want to be building up a new one, but…

But text is so easy to misunderstand. It’s so easy to misread, misapply. It makes me … silent.

Books I had as a teen that I wish I could find:

1. Bless the Beasts and the Children
2. Where the Lilies Bloom

Facebook has a graphic with an excerpt of advice given by Ira Glass regarding working as a creative. I didn’t find the exact quote, but I found something equally useful, here.

Now,I have always loved Ira Glass; I have been aware of him since he first came to Chicago Public Radio–I listened to WBEZ all the time when I lived in Chicago (Now I tend to listen to WHAD/WUWM/WYMS/WMSE, which also marks me as a major Midwestern Girl, eh?).

Which is why I am sad that time took away my opportunity to prep a story for Dark Highlands–just too many other duties to get to before the duties I have to myself. I am, however, going to keep that on my list of markets to shoot for, in the hope that there will be another submission period. Do what you want to do, go where you want to go. I just have to do that in the margins that surround my other careers.

I did find the time to at least get the outlines of two short bedtime stories and start work on the next novelette. I feel pretty good about the novelette. I think it will find a market when it’s done, it’s a pretty good story. However, I have to take Ira’s advice, and work, work, work.

When I started using the deadline tracker on Duotrope it was to give myself a deadline structure, but that hasn’t been working for me. I have to think of something else.

It’s been a lackluster day. I can’t seem to pull my head around to the story I want to write, largely because of the distraction of seeking files. I have looked for them, and looked for them, and I can not find where I stored them. This reminds me of the dreadful impermanence of electronic records–so many things lost. I continue to struggle with what I shall do about this blog’s prior database–it’s there, intact, but not capable of being integrated with this one. I may face spending time switching back and forth to pull the entries I want to keep out of the old database and letting it go from there.

But worse is the loss of files. So many things gone. The files of background for the next story I want to write are completely lost. Did they get erased through some magnetic accident? I will have to start over. I hate that. There is a sort of fevered stage I go though when I first decide upon a story, and things get written as fast as I can type them, and forgotten as the next thought is captured. This is why it is a real loss to me when such files disappear. What thing did I loose?

In other news, I am not sure I have mentioned that I got called back to work. That doesn’t usually happen in a social services situation. Lay-off is generally forever in the social services. My hours have been reduced, but that’s okay. I use the time to write stories, and send them to publishers. And maybe something good will come of that, and maybe nothing spectacular will happen, but I will have tried.