Thinking About Style

Maya Angelou with Bloomberg and Nadler in the background. This picture was taken as part of a government event, the commemoration of the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City on October 5, 2007. Therefore it is in the public domain.

Thinking About Style

I am reading Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies by Suzanne Gilad. I enjoy reading this kind of book. It is for my own entertainment. Writersinthesky mentioned it on Twitter. http://twitter.com/writersinthesky . Words fascinate me, especially written words.

Reading Copyediting and Proofreading For Dummies has made me think of some of the stylistic choices I make in writing this blog. I sometimes write my posts out longhand then type them up in Wordpad before posting them. I want to keep the process as simple as possible, so I don't use Wordperfect which has a grammar and spellchecker built in. This probably leads to more grammar and spelling mistakes. But, it also makes the style much more personal. There is a certain charm in not being quite perfect.

I realize that my grammar is not perfect. I try and focus on using grammar to provide clear statements about what I am writing about. I am not as much concerned about the finer technical points of grammar and structure. Like most bloggers, I don't have an assistant or editor to check what I am writing.

There are a few stylistic points which I would like to make. I don't indent paragraphs, instead, I put in a line break between paragraphs. I also break my posts into sections with headings that are bolded. I think this makes it easier for people to read my blog. I put in my own paragraph and line breaks using html.

I also write out the full url of any links which I put in. This is because of a style of web searching which called stripping. I like to see the whole url when I am going to a blog or website. This allows me to parse the url into sections; I can then use pieces of the url to go to different parts of a website. I also can use various search commands to find information about a website; the url command allows me to find all the pieces of a website, the link command allows me to find who is linking to a web site, and the document type at the end of the url allows me to search for specific types of documents attached to a specific website.

I try to include an image with each post I write. This is usually of something writing, publishing, or library related. I often use Wikimedia http://www.wikimedia.org/ ; or public domain image websites listed in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources . I try to use public domain images as much as possible.

Somtimes, I will include a Youtube video. This is usually something which is directly related to the post which I am writing about. For example if I am writing a review of a Neil Gaiman book, I might try and find a Youtube video of Neil Gaiman reading from the book which I am reviewing.

My writing is also not formal. I am not writing to have my work published in magazines. Although recently, I have submitted a book review to The Society of Midnight Wanderers, book reviews to the Book Review Blogcarnival, and to some of the Blogcatalog threads: http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/book-readers/discuss/entry/the-book-review-thread

I have also been picked up with links from several different authors for the reviews I have written. This is a link from Slow Train To Arcturus by Dave Freer and Eric Flint. http://davefreer.livejournal.com/#entry_82576

I may have to reconsider the formality of my writing style. David Henderson who wrote The Media Savvy Leader Visibility, Influence, and Results in a Competitive World sent me a copy of his book for reviewing purposes. I was very surprised and pleased with this. I also enjoyed the book a lot. http://twitter.com/davidhenderson

I am constantly trying to improve the quality of my writing. I don't mind if people criticize me for the content that I am writing. I want to improve considerably. This is one of the reasons I am reading Copyrighting & Proofreading for Dummies. I have read numerous other books on writing and reviewed a few of them here. One of my favorites was Writing Begins With The Breath by Laraine Herring. http://bookcalendar.blogspot.com/2008/10/writing-begins-with-breath-laraine.html

Style is of course a matter of personal taste.

Morning Thoughts, Afternoon Thoughts, B Movies In the Library

Taft's auto leaving New York Public Library.
This photography comes from the Library of Congress photo archive on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/







Morning Thoughts

This morning, I read a little bit more of Acacia on the train as well as some of the book, The Public Domain. It was a quiet, peaceful morning. The only difference this morning is that I had half and half instead of milk in my coffee.

I also requested a robot detective novel, The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez. This is a classic theme in science fiction. I rather like science fiction detectives.

When I got in to work, the first thing I did was look through the Nutshell series printed by Thomson West. They are legal summaries for different subjects like constitutional, family law, and criminal law. I requested a bunch of these be ordered along with a variety of Nolo books for our collection.

Right now, I have a copy of Iron Man the movie novelization by Peter David sitting next to me. The cover says "Based on the screenplay by Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway." That is a lot of authors for a single screenplay.

Afternoon Thoughts

I am looking at the two copies of Vampire Hunter D, volume 1 and 2 by Hideyuki Kikuchi. The novel is being adapted into a manga comic by Saiko Takaki. The publisher is Digital Manga Publishing. The story is rated 16+ on the back of the book. It would be close to the equivalent of PG-13, maybe R, for its content. A lot of the manga publishers are now providing ratings for their books.

I saw Vampire Hunter D as an anime film a while ago. I would give the film about the same rating. It is not a childrens movie. It is full of all sorts of strange mythical creatures, vampires, werewolves, and other things. I enjoyed watching the film, I hope that the manga is just as good.

Right now, I am also contemplating whether or not I should watch Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It is the story of J.M. Barrie the author of Peter Pan. For some reason, I like watching films about authors.

I can recommend another film about a fantasy author, Robert E. Howard, The Whole Wide World starring Vincent D'onofrio as Howard. It is a very tragic story.

B Movies In The Library

I got home tonight. I watched a short bit of Earth Versus The Flying Saucers. This was a 1950s film, it just was colorized recently. The special effects are by Ray Harryhausen. I think it is kind of funny. I rather like how hokie the flying saucers look. The beginning of the film is classic as soon as the aliens show up, the United States military starts shooting at them.

Watching this film reminds me of some things that have been happening with videos recently. We actually circulate more videos of movies than any other item in our collection. My experience is that these are not great videos, they are often the most mind numbing things imaginable. People love to escape. They especially like television series like the Sopranos, Gilligan's Island, the old Star Trek reruns, and other things like that.

A lot of people come in to check out movies to escape. They want the B movies which aren't in our collection sometimes. We get asked for Rambo a lot even though it is not available. Mindless horror films like Chuckie, or Freddie vs. Jason are also popular.

Also, there seems to be a preference for R rated films. Some even want the unrated versions. There really is no one watching what you bring home to your family. So, people can and will take out anything. There is not an audience like in a theater and nobody knows whether you are watching a good quality film. The only real limitation is that we don't really have anything that is pornographic.

It really is hard sometimes to say why are you checking this thing out. I actually have asked some people why are they checking out American Pie, or Norbit and the generally answer is we need to unwind and escape. We don't want to think too much, we have been thinking a lot at work and we want something which we can laugh at.

It is no different than a lot of the things at the public library in book form. Romance is the most popular item in the fictin room. It is nice to dream about having romantic notions and read inexpensive Harlequin romances sometimes.

Sometimes, you wonder about the choices being made. It is hard to fathom why someone wants to watch House of Frankenstein, or all five seasons the television show Colombo. I guess people have different ideas of what is fun to watch.

You also wonder sometimes about people who will come in and check out three or four videos or dvds every single day and return them the next day. I guess it is free entertainment. It is really not something which I am supposed to ponder too much. If you ask these questions, you are often called an elitist in the library setting. People check out a couple books every single day and return them the next day sometimes.

Are videos and dvds the main point of the library? It seems to be the thing which most people want more than anything else in the library. It becomes a question in the movies also what should we get. A lot of the old classics are not ever watched. However, surprisingly there is a strong demand for the old silent films and some of the classic black and white films. People want to see every old silent ever made.

At one point, I decided that I wanted to see every classic science fiction film ever made. I've seen The Day The Earth Stood Still, 2001, Godzilla, The Empire Strikes Back, Bladerunner, Metropolis, Things To Come, and a huge amount of old science fiction films. I am sure that there are plenty of people who want to see all the classic horror, detective, and monster movies ever made.

I don't always want to see things that make me think too much. I rather like The Three Stooges and I can understand why so many people love Jim Carrey movies. Watching deeply intellectual things can make your head hurt.

Still, you ask yourself, is the library an educational institution for self-education and self-improvement or is it purely for entertainment value. Is it more important to house ballet tapes or slapstick comedy. Where is the balance? I think there is not enough self-reflection on what we are doing sometimes.

Morning Thoughts, Afternoon Thoughts

Muse reading a scroll.

Morning Thoughts

I've had my coffee and I've done a few errands. I am working a little bit late tonight. They had copies of both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal at the diner I went to this morning. It is $1.50 for the Wall Street Journal, and $1.25 for the New York Times so it was a bargain. It is always nice to read the paper with your coffee. It is a very traditional thing to do.

I am heading off to work soon. I am bringing the new blank journal I have with the Cat In The Hat picture on it on the train with me this morning. I am hoping that I will get a chance to write some notes in it. It is time for me to head out the door.

I ordered some more social science books this morning. I am also going to put in an order for legal books for the layman. I'll order books from Sphinx Legal, Nolo Press, and the West Nutshell Series. These three series are good basic material for understanding the law in everyday terms.

On the train to work I read some more of The Public Domain How To Find & Use Copyright Free Writings, Music, Art and More. I am finding the book to be very interesting. For example the maximum fine that someone can receive for putting a copyright notice on a public domain item is $2500. This encourages people to claim copyright for things that probably should not be copyrighted.

Another example is that displaying an item in a museum or library is not an infringement of copyright because it is not an attempt to distribute the item to many users. There are a lot of really interesting facts in this book. Some of them are probably quite useful to people in the book business.

Afternoon Thoughts

There is a program running right now. A lawyer is doing an estate planning workshop in the community room. There are eleven people downstairs taking notes. She left a couple handouts with people. I asked the maintenance people to set up four tables with chairs so people could sit down and take notes. A few fellow staff members are downstairs taking notes.

I requested that the volunteers pick up some items for refreshments: 1 gallon of apple juice, 1 gallon of water, 1 packet of napkins, 1 packet of small paper plates, 1 pack of sandwich cookies, and 1 large container of strawberries. It is always important that the speaker have water to drink whether or not you are serving light refreshments. Remember this as a courtesy for every event.

Public Domain Superheros, Copyleft

This is the symbol for copyleft, a form of mark that indicates that an author wants you to distribute their work as widely as possible.

This is a copyleft image of Scott McCloud, who is the author of Understanding Comics and Making Comics.

I wanted to post a picture of a superhero on my blog with a comic book character in the public domain. I ran into a little problem. Nerod comics had a number of characters that were in the public domain, but these characters had been recreated for the current market in a very simiilar manner to the old characters creating a kind of weird hole of legality. I am very careful about this kind of thing. There are numerous articles on this subject. This is article seemed to sum it up very well. http://www.newsarama.com/dynamitenew/Superpowers/PublicDomainHeroes.html

So, I decided to post a Krazy Kat panel. What I found out was very interesting. While the image was in the public domain, the words Krazy Kat had been trademarked. You could not use the words without permission.

Today, I have started reading The Big Switch, Rewiring The World, From Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr. Hopefully, it will provide some interesting insights.

Last night I did a search for sites which linked to my website. I checked my site referrals on Sitemeter. Then I did a link:bookcalendar.blogspot.com search on Google to check for any sites that had linked to my site. There were a few. I looked at a few of the sites. Finally, I checked to see who was commenting on my blog posts on Technorati. This gives me an idea of who is linking to my site. If you are new, it can be a way to build your blogroll or link exchange.

Elizabeth Moon and Some More Random Thoughts.

I am about halfway through Moon Flights by Elizabeth Moon, a short story collection. I enjoyed reading her earlier science fiction and fantasy. Both the Deeds of Paksenarion series, and the Vatta's War series are very good. There is a short story called Say Cheese which is set in the Vatta's war setting. This collection is a mix of swords and sorcery and military science fiction. So far, I've liked "Fools Gold" about a miser turned into a dragon, and "Politics" which is about the politics of a group of marines in the future. There are fifteen stories and an introduction by Anne McCaffrey who she has collaborated with.

I've finished adding images to each of my posts. These are all public domain images with their copyrights removed or just in the public domain because of age. I got most of them from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page .

It is fun to look through this site, there are a lot of very interesting images. Most of the images aren't particularly modern, but they are free and in my mind free is good. They are good for things like bookmarks, newsletter headers, and other minor items.

I haven't found any new places to post my site. I might go through and look at my keywords again to see how they might be improved. I am working a little bit each day on making this site better.

I just went and added a listing for Book Calendar to the social network site http://www.technorati.com/