It's An Eee PC!!!

[LauraJUnderwood]

LOL! Go take a nap and come back to a discussion of dialects.

Not that I mind.

For the record, I am from East Tennessee, and we can generally tell when someone "ain't from around these parts." Middle and West Tennessee actually sound different to me. Writers here often get into discussions of "voice" and say that you can tell the difference in the writer's voice and it varies from location to location.

One of my favorite local columnists does a whole speech on the way we speak. If someone offers you a "cheer," it's so you can sit down. Or "he blowed a tar," generally means his tires need replacing.

"To glom" is actually suspected to be similar to the Scottish "to glam" and since East Tennessee was settled by a lot of "Scots-Irish," it sorta makes sense. And yes, I suspect using the word shows my age. I still say tin foil on occasion and they haven't made aluminum foil from tin since I was a child.

But yeah, you do have to go a little more than 40 miles to hear a difference in dialects here. And there are more distinct dialects in the eastern seaboard of the US. I am often accused by my fellow East Tennesseans of being a midwesterner because I speak more clearly than my kinfolk do.

Of course, when I hear a recording of my own voice, I hear the East Tennessee Nasal clearly.

Laura J. Underwood

[Teresa Edgerton]

My father was from Missouri, Laura, so I grew up hearing some of the folksier expressions used in your neck of the woods.

[LauraJUnderwood]

Originally Posted by TheEndIsNigh

When you say paid in books are we talking 100's 1000's or warehouses.

I'd have to go look at the exact numbers (its in the letter of rights return), but I am thinking I ended up with around 600-700 books.

I ask because if you have since been published is it possible there could be a kind of 'second hand' market for them (I assume you own the right to distribute them). You could even try Amazon or a local book seller chain, maybe they have a local writer section. Just a thought. You may get some kind of return even if its just the satisfaction that it's being read by someone.

I have a right to do pretty much whatever I want with them. SRM Publishing is letting me sell through their website. My editor at YDP lets me sell them off the table at conventions. And I can do the Basement Full Of Books thing from SFF.Net if I want to since I am a member (just haven't set it up yet).

If nothing else it's a lesson to us all. It certainly hadn't occured to me that getting published isn't the end of the trail when it comes to counting oneself sucessful. Sounds like a nightmare that you had to me and for that thanks for the sharing.

As Marion Zimmer Bradley (who bought my first short story) used to say, "No one told you not to be a plumber." The economy being what it is, I have now seen three small press publishers I've been associated with go down, and I have learned that one other publisher I've had a book with for several years is letting me out of my contract when it expires here in a few more weeks. Which is normal. And as I understand it, they have gone through some restructuring.

It happens.

One just learns to "get over it" in some fashion or another.

I let my inner geek run rampant and buy new electronic toys to make me happy.

Laura J. Underwood

[Grimward]

Just here to bear witness to the diversity of the Eastern Seaboard dialects, LJU. Lived here all but 1 year of my life, and you can hear differences just around Baltimore alone, much less the rest of Maryland and its relative neighbors to the North and South.

EDIT: Haven't ventured far into the palmtop market (beyond the Blackberry work provides, that is), but my congrats on your acquisition, too. I'm kept busy enough with laptops and desktops, nevermind the apps I support, but one of these days I'll have to dig in and "play"...

[LauraJUnderwood]

Bill Cosby used to have a wonderfully funny routine wherein he talked about things like that fact that people in Maine can die of a "hat attack."

I wonder if I still have that album? :-)

Laura J. Underwood

[LauraJUnderwood]

Oh, since I started working out in the Carter Community (I'm a librarian when I am not writing) I even hear a difference there from the Fountain City community in which I was raised, and they're both in the same county seat.

Of course, I get a LOT of mountain folks and farmer folk, and good old salt of the earth folk because it is an extremely rural community...

Huh...just looked over and Toby (the Toshiba) informs me he's looking for wireless connections.

Silly laptop doesn't HAVE wireless unless I insert the card in the PCMCIA slot.

Must have accidentally clicked the icon.

That, or he's jealous of The Black Pearl..

(Okay, just kidding--I name my devices but I know they're just machines...aren't they?)

Laura J. Underwood

[Grimward]

When you collect enough of them, you begin to need names to keep them straight, whether you're concerned about hosts on a network or referencing your tools, of course (after all, who'd want to say "Toshiba Laptop without Wireless" when they could just say "Toby")?!

[LauraJUnderwood]

I have Toby the Toshiba (my main machine), Moss the NEC Versa 5080X, The Brick (aka the old NEC Versa 2405--still works fine), Hippy (the HP desktop).

And then there are the MobilePros (Moby, the 800, Moby II, the 880, Moby Jr the 450 and The 900c--which is a joke no one ever gets, but hey--probably should have named it Sparta instead...), and the various Velo 500s (starting with LittleBit, Velo II, Velo The Third and My Prrreccciousss...who is the Velo with the coveted V-Module attached, two of whom suffered the nasty broken hinge problem and one of whom just doesn't recognize anything that gets attached to it, but works otherwise).

And then there's The Black Beauty--but that's my truck... ;-)

Laura J. Underwood

[Grimward]

The defense rests!

And may I amend my earlier statement to say that you have a fine collection of the aforementioned devices, indeed!

[chopper]

i have but one machine and it's affectionately known as Bloody Stupid Thing IV.

there were 3 previous BSTs, components of which are still scattered through the house....

[TheEndIsNigh]

Originally Posted by chopper

i have but one machine and it's affectionately known as Bloody Stupid Thing IV.

there were 3 previous BSTs, components of which are still scattered through the house....

Now then, there's no need for verbal abuse -

Take one hammer and as my old boss used to say "Why use a one pound hammer when you can use a TEN pound hammer.
With a rotational movement pivoting at the elbow in a vertical plane such that the face of the hammer meets the horizontal surface of the BST in a perpendicular axis, apply several heavy blows to the aforementioned BST.

Repeat this action as required until one of the following occurs :-

A. The BST behaves itself, boots normally and greets the user with the cheerie vision of pretty wallpaper with correctly operating desktop icons (it is acceptable if these are somewhat more disorganised than before). Sit down with a smug smile of self satisfaction from knowing that you taught it who's the boss.

or ,

B. Smoke, fumes and sparks errupt from all orifices of the machine accompanied by horrendous screeching noises as the heads on the hard disk gouge deeply into the soft semi-permanant ferous magnetic surfaces of your 450GB drive.
Then, ensuring absolutely that the area below is clear of possible colateral damage victims and holding the machine in two hands, taking extreme precautions agains the risk of personal injury, cast the BST out through the window, which depending on your own preference, you had previously opened. A first, second or even higher floor window located above a source of standing water produces the more spectacular effects.

Sit down with a smug smile of self satisfaction from knowing that you taught it whats what and there'll be no more of that thank you very much.

WARNING: It is advisable in most cases to take a backup of the system before attempting the above procedures.

Since we're trawling up memories of previous technolgies. I was once involed in the design and coding of the first PDA, the good old Amstrad PenPal.

[chopper]

i've looked, but i can't find the secret cameras you've clearly hidden inside my house.