All posts by mhanlon

Writer 1.2 – 100% CLEAN – certified by Softpedia – Softpedia

Writer 1.2 – 100% CLEAN – certified by Softpedia – Softpedia

Umm… well, I guess that’s a good thing. Though why do I feel an undue pressure to put in a nasty little AppleScript that’ll pop up from time to time to announce that it’s still 100% malware free? Maybe I’ll get written up by an annoying-ware site (after all, there is that preference to turn on the keyboard sound while you type).

Writer.app 1.2 is Out

Writer.app 1.2 – Mac OS X – VersionTracker

From a comment in response to someone else on VersionTracker.:

“I still wish this had the use of the delete button and a spell check. I would even pay real money for this.”

Darn. I *knew* I should have released a pay version. 😉

With 1.2, you can now move the mouse to the top of the screen, go to the Preferences menu item, and turn the option to have “more modern text editing features.” It’ll take effect right away.

(You can’t use the standard command-, shortcut to reach the preferences because I figured that might be more inclined to be (mis)used when you should just be writing away.)

The Spelling menu is still in a hidden menu, but if you enable the more modern text editing features you can use the standard command-: and command-; to go to the next possibly misspelled word.

Go on and download your copy from Q.I. Software.

What American accent do you have?

Go figure:

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: The Northeast
 

Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.

Philadelphia
 
The Inland North
 
The Midland
 
Boston
 
The South
 
The West
 
North Central
 
What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

What American accent do you have?

A story about “Gravity’s Rainbow (Classics Deluxe Edition)”

by Thomas Pynchon


On the train this morning I got stuck into the part where Slothrop gets let back out into London, and runs into Darlene and goes with her to visit with old widow Quoad (In this edition of the book, it starts on page 116). The description of him in the sitting room with the widow, eating her horrific wartime candies is one of the brilliant scenes Pynchon has a knack for—the absolute horror of this foreign and frightening experience of eating chocolate, hiding their multitudinous delights (?) is so well conveyed… it’s one of those Pynchon-esque passages you wish you’d written, yourself.

This falls shortly after the incident in which the Dutchman is writing back about his time exterminating the dodoes, and the reasoning for doing so, which is a great little sidestep… this isn’t so much of a story about this book, more of an endorsement, I suppose.

You might be put off the by the sheer weight, or its weighty reputation, or any number of things related to how heavy a thing might be, but it is well, well, well worth it.

In a time when people shell out good money for a Neal Stephenson (thick) pile of excrement about the 17th century (Hello, Quicksilver), you’d be much better off investing in Mason & Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow by this fella.

William Gibson On Writing the Novel

William Gibson

I suspect that the biggest part of the labor of writing, for me, has always consisted of bludgeoning the editorial super-ego into relative passivity

One thing that I learned from my horrific train wreck of a NaNoWriMo was that very same thing. Each morning, I’d sit on the train, and for the 20-25 minutes I was there, I was to do nothing but write forward. A little like what Writer.app encourages you to do.

Write forward, don’t worry about the little typos, the slips, just chuck it and get going forward… a word takes too long to come to your head, maybe !!!MARK IT!!! and move on, get going with a more accesible one.

It’s a great way to go. Writing the shorter Sane Magazine pieces every week is a little more like Gibson’s feeling about short stories, only with less perspective… because that thing is going out, and it’s going out at a certain time, well, editing and writing happen all at once. Which works (sometimes) for these shorter shots, but would just bog down a novel (say, God Coffee, I Miss You), if you tried the same approach.

Bye to the original dirt dog?

Boston Red Sox Nation: It Will Be Perfectly Clear by Midnight

Now, I can’t stand Steve Silva. I think he’s a troll. He’s got a serious case of man love for Trot Nixon, and a couple of issues he might like to have sorted out with Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez.

But I just wanted to link here to a quote he had from a caller to WEEI about good old Trot, from whose a** the sun shines, in BDD’s eyes:

“When I heard that the Red Sox might be bringing Trot Nixon back, it restored my faith
in the front office…. he’s gritty, he’s a dirt dog, he would play with a broken leg…
he’s been great in right field.” — Linda, caller to WEEI’s Dale & Holley, 12.1.06

Broken leg, I suppose… torn bicep? Mild left groin strain, out five to seven days. Maybe not. Not that I’d like to play with any injury. Hell, if I woke up tired I might beg off, ask to be put on the disabled list, at least until I get the sleepy seeds out.

I love watching Trot play, and I wish the Sox would keep him (and Manny), but for Pete’s sake, Trot’s no more durable than Manny, so I really don’t get where BDD gets his man love from… and his intense hatred of all things Manny… in fact, you might argue he’s less durable than Manny. I’m not going to get all Sabermetrician on this here (partly because the thought of looking up cold, hard numbers makes my eyes water, and my brain want to throttle itself), but if you care to, it’d be interesting, as I’m sure someone else has already done it, to look at how many days Trot and Manny have missed over the last few years and compare and contrast.

Incoherent rant, over.