Websites for writers that have been eaten by monsters (perhaps)

The domain writersdigest.com is not available. However, writersdigested.com is. Think of the possibilities. Think of Harlan Ellison trapped in the stomach of some great mythological monster like the hydra or the leprechaun.

Then think again about how the domain is still available and maybe there’s a reason for that.

But still, Harlan Ellison trapped in the stomach of a leprechaun. It demands to be written.

Bad design: Dell XPS 13 nosecam

UPDATE March 30, 2019: The 2019 model of the XPS 13 finally puts the webcam at the top of the screen. The Verge’s review.

In 2015 Dell introduced the XPS 13, a laptop that had such narrow bezels along the sides and top of the display that the 13 inch device was closer in form factor to an 11 inch laptop. This is good design.

However, a side effect is that the bezel along the top of the display, which normally hosts the webcam, no longer had room for such a device. Rather than skip the webcam entirely, Dell moved it to the lower left corner of the display. This has led to what many have dubbed the nosecam. Peter Bright reviewed the original model on Ars Technica and included this photo of the view the webcam provides:

The webcam that lets you check for ceiling cat

This is one of those “how did this go to production?” things. Except with the refreshed model that came out this year, still featuring the same webcam, this has become a “How did this survive to a second generation?” thing.

Three possible solutions come to mind:

  1. Remove the webcam entirely. If someone wants both a Dell XPS 13 and a webcam, they can buy the webcam separately and clip it to the top of the display, like we did in the olden days with our coal-fired laptops.
  2. Reduce the rather large bottom bezel and expand the top bezel, keeping the total height the same but providing the room needed for proper webcam placement. Obviously I don’t know how difficult the engineering for this would be and perhaps the fact that Dell hasn’t moved the webcam means it is difficult, but even if it is, there’s still option #1.
  3. Put the webcam in a recessed slot on the top of the display. You could press a button/say the magic word and it would pop up, ready to reveal all the embarrassing personal effects in the background you forgot to clear out of sight before launching Skype. There is at least one laptop that uses this design now, though it is possible the XPS 13’s display may be too thin to accommodate this design. Again, there’s still option #1.

Book review: Shattered Glass

Shattered Glass (Shattered Glass, #1)Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of my “what the heck, it’s on sale” impulse purchases.

Shattered Glass could also go by the alternate title Biting Lips because the characters bite their lips enough for it to be an obsession (of the characters and/or author). The main character, 26 year old police detective Austin Glass, frequently points out these biting lips, particularly those of a 20 year old hustler, the red-headed Peter, a volatile young man who has a shady past, a shady present and perhaps a shady future (in the ground) if he’s not careful.

Part police procedural and part coming out story, Shattered Glass begins with the Glass, a rich trust fund baby, preparing for his upcoming wedding. The story is narrated by him and he quickly demonstrates then confirms and re-confirms that he is a cheating, self-serving, smart-mouthed jerk. He also has daddy issues. And mommy issues. And then gay issues as he thinks back to all the signs that he was repressing who he really was when growing up. The planned wedding goes up in smoke. He begins a vision quest. Well, he gets drunk.

It comes to a head (and lips start getting bitten) when he and his grizzled veteran partner (yes, who woulda thunk it?) investigate a scheme that leads to a murder, arson and other fun stiff, all centered around the inscrutable yet angry yet distant yet tender but always smouldering hot Peter. Within a week Glass has fallen hard for the guy, despite constantly referring to him–usually to his face–as a whore. That could be the other alternate title for the story: Whore. You see the word a lot. Maybe Whores Biting Lips would be the best alternate title, although it perhaps suggests a different type of story than police procedural.

The two constantly fight, occasionally fool around a bit (the sex scenes are brief and would probably get an R rating if translated to screen, depending on how creative the camera angles were) then go back to fighting as the investigation gets increasingly complicated and dangerous.

The character of Glass reels off a constant sarcastic patter and I loves me some sarcasm, but it does wear after awhile. The story as a whole feels padded out, too, and yet still comes up short on dealing with the various relationships as the police procedural and “figuring out the gay” constantly vie for attention. Strangely, even though Glass ultimately come to terms with being gay, he doesn’t seem to experience any real growth as a person. He starts out an argumentative jerk (you know, one of those people who has to say something smart, no matter how ill-advised) and basically ends the same way, except in an allegedly committed relationship. It left me feeling like there were parts missing from the story, despite the aforementioned length of the novel.

Overall, though, this is a decent effort and though it wobbles a bit when trying to juggle the competing plot lines, I remained invested enough to stay with it to the end.

I’ve just discovered this is the first book in a series of Glass novels, though lamentably, the author elected not to give subsequent books awful glass-based puns for titles. Perhaps Glass experiences more growth in these additional books. Given the abrasive nature of the character I’m not sure I’d want to find out. But…maybe.

View all my reviews

Camp NaNoWriMo, Days 7-9: The wrong way to write

After a trickle of words on Day 7, work came to a stop with nothing at all written on Day 8 and 9. In fact, what I just wrote here is more than I have written for the past 48 hours on the story.

There are a few issues. Here they are:

  1. Although I had a better plan this time than I did during NaNoWriMo 2015, it still wasn’t a very detailed plan. It was less a map and more a series of scratches on tree bark that had then been assaulted by a ravenous woodpecker.
  2. I opted to use some real life settings and people as templates, intending to blend/merge and refine these things on a subsequent rewrite to make them more genuine composites rather than thinly-disguised stand-ins. But I went so all-in on this that a rewrite would be a challenge at best and a lot of work to make the reality more fictional. Too much work, possibly. In other words, I kind of screwed up.
  3. My efforts to write at lunch have been stymied by distractions. I’ll probably move future writing there from the staff lounge, which can be loud and prone to interruptions, to one of the designated quiet areas of the library, which are prone to silence because very few people want to occupy areas that are truly silent, even in a library.

Mainly though, my plan is lacking form and shape and what I’ve written feels like warmed over work-based fanfic than an actual piece of fiction. I haven’t decided what to do yet but come tomorrow (Monday) I’ll move forward with…something.

Run 436: Running with women

Run 436
Average pace: 5:38/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.06 km
Time: 28:32
Weather: Sun and cloud mix
Temp: 21ºC
Wind: nil to light
BPM: 169
Stride: n/a
Weight: 158.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 3492
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6

July has been pretty poop so far in terms of traditional summer weather (sunny, warm) but for running it’s actually been kind of nice.

After last Sunday’s run my right leg felt a bit stiff/sore over the next few days and even my daily walks were slower. I opted to take a week off and so didn’t run again until today. It seems to have had the desired effect as my pace is back to where it was prior to last Sunday and the right leg, although again stiff and a little sore, recovered quickly.

The first km was a decent and measured pace then the next two I fell off quite a bit before finding more pep for the 4th and 5th km. I ended with a pace of 5:38/km, basically equaling my best post-recovery runs. My plan right now is to do a pair of 5Ks over the week then try a 7K next weekend. We shall see how the week progresses.

As alluded to above, conditions were pleasant, 21ºC and little wind. The trail was a bit muddy in spots from an overnight rain and I had to navigate a few puddle remnants but the worst part was the South Shore trail. Park crews starting work on resurfacing it on July 4 and so far the main work has involved running heavy equipment over the trail, leaving huge, ankle-breaking ruts and dips. I nipped around those. Fortunately if I choose to run clockwise or do a full 10K it looks like I can use the same Freeway trail detour I ran in 2012 when they replaced the first boardwalk to entirely bypass the resurfacing work, at the cost of a longer run and a good stretch through an area completely without cover (not a real concern, given the amount of sun we’ve seen so far. A lightning strike is probably a greater risk than sunstroke at this point).

There was some Rocky-something Women’s Run taking place, hence the title of today’s post. It must have been nearing the end because by the time I got back to the dam the person standing there in Official Cheering Capacity had packed up and left. I felt a little guilty passing by so many other joggers but they were there for a good cause and I remember how hard it can be to run when you don’t do it regularly. In fact, on today’s run my mind shifted from the right knee area feeling stiff to more “hey, a week off does seem to affect your cardio” as the last few km, despite being faster, were also more effort.

In all, decent progress and encouraging to see no lingering ill effects in the aftermath of last week’s slowdown.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2016, Days 4-6

Day 4: No writing done as I came home completely pooped from work.

Day 5: The weather outside was frightful so I took advantage and wrote about 1,000 words over lunch. I was not overly enthused with the output but this is quantity over quality time so I made temporary peace with my mediocrity.

Day 6: See Day 4. I sat down to write and immediately felt ready to doze off. Was I actually tired or was it the thought of continuing the unexciting scene from the previous day’s work that was yawn-inducing? Note to aspiring writers: don’t end a writing session with something dull like, “Randolph washed the dishes, put them away and went to bed.”

Hopefully Day 7 will see exciting plot twists and hijinks, possibly involving blimps. But probably not.

Not yet, that is.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 3: Little things going wrong (but in a good way)

Day 3 of Camp NaNoWriMo and I am remaining a wee bit ahead of the pace, finishing the day at 5,650 words (the minimum for three days is 5,001). The protagonist of Weirdsmith leads a fairly ordinary, even slightly dull, life. His biggest issues are little ones, with things never quite working out the way they should. His frustrations are growing and in a few more days I expect to see some big things go very right for William Smith before it all goes horribly wrong. And after that? Things get weird.

I’m enjoying the ride so far. I don’t even want to think about editing this mess, though.

Run 435: Breezy with a chance of bears

Run 435
Average pace: 5:44/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.08 km
Time: 29:10
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23-24ºC
Wind: moderate to strong
BPM: 162
Stride: n/a
Weight: 160.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 3487
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6

Today was the first post-recovery run with a normal downtime of one day between runs and the results were about what I expected. The muscles in the right leg were a little stiffer, I was a bit slower but recovered quickly again. It was also sunny and much warmer than on Friday, though a strong breeze offset that somewhat.

My BPM was also down again, to 162, another promising sign.

After I finished the run I was heading up the final hill to the dam and a guy who had run past me came down from the fountain there and warned me and another nearby guy that there was a bear. He didn’t specify where, precisely, but it seemed to be somewhere across the dam, as the runner was heading in the opposite direction. The other guy said he’d lived in the area for thirty years and the idea of bears would have been inconceivable back in the day. Since crossing the dam was required for me to get home without a long detour, I and the other guy slowly made our way across the dam. I pointed out someone approaching from the right and then more people from the left. It seemed unlikely that these people would be strolling so casually in the obvious presence of a bear.

“The bear would eat the kid,” the other guy said, gesturing to the family approaching from the left, as if to assure me. I continued on, keeping alert but remaining bear-free for the rest of my walk home. I hope to remain bear-free as if I’m on an actual run and encounter a bear I will already be engaged in about the worst possible activity for bear encounters. “But I’m just jogging!” is unlikely to be persuasive.

Meanwhile, I am planning on continuing my regular running schedule, so will see how Tuesday goes. According to the forecast I will not have to worry about it being Africa hot. 😛

Camp NaNoWriMo 2106, Day 2: 1,984 more words (yay)

Starting late and a little slowly, I still managed to add another 1,984 words to my story today. Hooray!

It’s still a bit shapeless and when I’m winging it like this I always have a hard time getting a sense of the pacing, but I think it’s starting to pull together in a few interesting ways so I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to keep puttering along until I arrive at the real meat of the story where things get weird. I’m still in the setting-things-up stage where the story is very conventional, just an average schmuck in an average job trying to write and find a steady date. Soon events both bad and good (but actually still bad) are going to happen that will make life suddenly a lot more interesting for one William Smith.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 1: Opening day success!

The first thing I did today for my inaugural Camp NaNoWriMo project was abandon my chosen project.

This happened to be my failed 2013 NaNoWriMo novel, Start of the World. Instead I decided to take another stab at my failed 2015 effort, Weirdsmith. One advantage here is I’d only written about 5,000 words of Weirdsmith before abandoning it, so it’s easy to start over rather than figure out what to do with a larger chunk of text (as would have been the case with Start of the World).

I also happened to come up with just enough ideas and little hooks while running today to give the story an overall arc, something it never really had last year. I still wasn’t sure what the opening scene was going to be when I sat down to write, and having now written 1,780 words (above the required minimum of 1,667) I’m still not convinced this won’t all blow up in my face like one of Wile E. Coyote’s inventions. Still, it was nice to write something longer than an amusing cat image.

I’ll mull over whether to switch to first person perspective before starting tomorrow’s session. On the one hand, first person has an immediacy that I find appealing. As a bonus, it’s easier to find the protagonist’s voice, though there is a danger in making it too much your voice.  If I’m undecided by the time I’m writing again I’ll stick to third person to at least keep things consistent.

Hopefully tomorrow’s update won’t be a picture of me sobbing into a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Run 434: Patriotic Canada Day run

Run 434
Average pace: 5:37/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 5.16 km
Time: 28:15
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 17-19ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 166
Stride: n/a
Weight: 160.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 3482
Device used: Apple Watch and iPhone 6

Also unofficial walk-your-dog-unleashed day based on the number of people I saw with their dogs off-leash (nearly every dog I saw).

Today was my second run after the six weeks off and the weather was near-perfect, though a bit poopy if you were just looking to go outside to celebrate Canada Day. The temperature stayed in the high teens and the sky was cloudy, making it a lot more comfortable than last Sunday’s run in the sun with unseasonably high temperatures.

I again worked to maintain a steady but not fast pace and the conditions allowed me to do so more easily today. I ended with a pace of 5:37/km, besting Sunday’s pace by 14 seconds. My BPM were also down to 166 from 169–still higher than what I’d expect when I’m conditioned but about right for this early in my renewed running.

My big concern was The Leg. The calf and muscles behind the knee (not the knee itself) of the right leg began to feel a bit sore midway through the run but the soreness peaked early, never getting worse nor getting bad enough to affect my pace. Even better, the soreness disappeared on the nine km walk back home, which was done at a fairly brisk clip of 8:42/km. I am pleased by this result, though I’d have preferred no soreness at all. I’m guessing I’d have needed to sit out for two to four months to guarantee that.

Still, I am happy with the progress made. I am tentatively planning on a third run on Sunday so we’ll see if things stay the same or improve. If they get worse instead I will be sad and make a sad face.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2016, Day 0

Nope, no ideas yet. My brain is in that mode where if I try to come up with something it just freezes over like a pond in winter. There’s probably some nifty trick to get past this–maybe I’ve even used it in the past and just forgotten–but it eludes me at the moment.

Still, no need to panic. I still have almost 24 hours to do that.

I asked a pair of co-workers for ideas. They suggested:

  • a Die Hard remake set on a zeppelin (or the Titanic)
  • some kind of love story featuring Herbie the Love Bug, Knightrider and their possibly illegitimate offspring, some kind of smart car
  • a person driven to (ho ho) madness by traffic and daily commutes. I suggested the title Honk.

If I do most of my writing during lunch I will be using my Surface Pro 3, which works well enough, though I still think I’d like a real laptop, mainly for the better keyboard and slightly larger screen. A person on Broken Forum said he switched to using an iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. When asked why he said it was mainly because of weight and lack of distractions. iOS has never been great at multitasking so you just tend to focus on what you’re doing instead of constantly flipping between different things. Hopefully he hasn’t heard of split view…

While using the iPad Pro intrigues me, the price is hard to take. It costs more than some (pretty good) laptops and that’s before you add things like a cover, keyboard or whatnot.Then again, it looks almost cheap compared to the Surface Book, one of the laptops I’ve considered (which can go for over $2000 after tax. That’s a lot of money, even in Canadian dollars).

Maybe I’ll write a story about a man who can’t decide what to buy and somehow the decision gets made for him and he has to live with the consequences. If it was a horror story, I’d end up with an 11″ Chromebook.