So, I decided I wanted to do my blog differently because the picture limits were annoying me. However…I don’t like the expense for the paid blog here. So I paid for www.pattimouse.org Which I am waiting for the site to be situated that I designed…(And then it will probably take a bit of time to adjust to the new blog) I plan on still linking to it, HERE…and doing the random text blogging here…but I will be doing the picture heavy stuff there. So I will be doing some adjustments to how I post. Once I get it set up right…which as I said will take time. This should make my posts more interesting I hope.
They say that what you take pictures of is what you see as important. I remember the first camera I had. It was a cheap one that took 35mm film. That excitement of taking pictures…then I paid for development. The disappointment of the pictures were so blurry and disjointed.
It was enough to be a reason why I didn’t take pictures for years. That camera was a painful thing from my teen years. If digital ones had been available I would have figured out how to do more with them, but it was just not a thing. I could have used a Polaroid but they were expensive and I was poor.
So when my youngest child was born my friend bought me a new digital one. I took thousands of pictures of my daughter and her cousin. Babies are so good at looking adorable even if the one holding the camera is not good at the setting up the shot.
That camera was stolen when we had “friends” over for a Christmas dinner. But by that point I had a smart phone. So I kept learning about taking pictures.
Now I still have the random awful picture, but I have learned to accept that I don’t have to be a professional quality photographer. I take pictures of what I want to remember and when I look at the picture I have a memory. Sometimes I even have a good picture.
So, I ask you… what do you photograph? And are you any good at it? Or like me do you just have memories and the occasional good shot?
Thanksgiving has always been a large feast of a meal for me.
I spend days ahead cooking.
Sometimes traditions change.
The last couple of years have been bad because I have not been able to do the big meal. So I am doing it again this year. With minor changes.
We have to adapt to changes or they will wipe us away.
One of the Changes for me is the inability to make my favorite dishes. We have several Diabetics at the table so making so many desserts is a bad idea. Since I cannot make it, I wonder what recipes you are making, or cannot make.
Yes I realize it is really early for this… but I kinda am in the mood for the conversation.
We do yule. It is a wonderful thing where we celebrate the time together more than anything else. Yes we do presents but we don’t make it a big deal. Most of my gifts to my daughter have been homemade for years. I try to get the rest of the family something that will make them smile.
So much of the people end up feeling like they have to go into debt to get the best gift for the holiday thing… for me the best thing about the holidays is that I get to see some of my family that are too far away to see otherwise.
Okay…I get recommended writing tools at least once a day…sometimes once an hour. Most of them are bloody expensive.
I can’t afford to pay out for quite a few of them. Oh believe me…I have paid for some, and for services…(Including some editors that I plan to recommend on another post)
This one is entirely about the programs I use.
We will start with the ones I was willing to pay for.
Canva – I pay for the premium features. The reason is because of the amount of use this opens up. I use it for marketing, poetry images, blog images, cover design, and quite a few other fun little things. This is not an expensive cost but it is a monthly cost. I pay $13 a month.
Master PDF – This was a one time cost. It has come down since I bought it. It was closer to 100 when I bought it. It’s now $70. I can use this to make the full covers, sign contracts, adjust a pdf in whatever way I need to. This is the most comprehensive editor I have found. There is a few features I would like it to have and I used to have a pdf compiler program that did those but I don’t have it currently…might look for one.
Google Drive – I pay for the largest google drive so I can have some file access and backup ability. This is not a need. It is a personal preference. I have lost files too often.
One Drive/One Note – okay those who have followed me for awhile know I had to switch my writing on my phone from Evernote to One Note. This was a difficult decision prompted by Evernote choosing to go with a forced AI…I was uncomfortable with it and tried to opt out. The response I got was …sad to say the least. So I pay for One drive to make One note usable. It costs me $8 monthly.
That is it. The paid list.
Now for the freeware.
LibreOffice – This program does everything Microsoft office does and then some. And it does not cost anything.
Sigil – Epubs are the filetype that publishing require. Libre office will export to epub. But you have to fix the file. It only requires a couple of minor fixes – but it needs done if you expect to use the created epub.
And Lastly – this one is a tool I use for Communication.
Discord – It allows me to easily transfer files to the authors and be able to announce upcoming events and such. It makes things easier for me. Fae Corps Publishing’s Discord even has channels for writing games and such to try and help the writers. There is places for feedback and general help, and prompts. All conveniently in one place.
This of course is not all my tools. But it is the main ones. and it gives you a start.
Thanks to a wonderful gift my computer is getting a much needed upgrade.
So, it was decided that I would do a fresh install at the same time..
The only problem with that is NOW I am doing the back up of files that I have been avoiding for months…
UGH.
This is going to be a bit…
However, I will have more space as the upgrade includes another Terabyte Hard drive(SSD), and 16g Ram ( I currently have 8) and a pretty nice new CPU Cooler that will extend the life of my system. I am quite tickled by the gift.
It shouldn’t be something I feel so virulent about. I am aware that AI has it’s uses. I just cannot accept that it is being pushed into the creative space.
Drawing, writing, and other creative endeavors are not something that should be easily reproduced…
I have since 2014 used Evernote for my writing. It allowed me to do a notebook for each volume. It allowed me to organize me…
Evernote decided to send out an Email. Not only were they raising the price…to almost double….which I really dislike but would be fine with paying because it feels like I had something that worked for me…
But they also announced that they were adding AI to “Clean up your notes after a meeting.”
Nope.
No way to opt out. Just here is AI. It will help you. Although I did reach out via email… and the response was that the AI was an optional thing…but when I said that they needed to say that because the original email said nothing about options… and I got a uhm response.
I dislike Microsoft products and avoid them like the plague. I only use windows because I cannot get a couple of my programs to function in Linux. However…Since I cannot find any other option that has all of the options I need other that Evernote…I switched to OneNote.
This is going to be a learning time for me.
I have no idea if I am going to be able to do the same amount of writing, or if it will help me write more…or what.
We are trying to raise the money to get the roof repaired and the basement fixed. I don’t often ask for assistance but I’m stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place. Thank you for all your assistance and support.
The picture is of the garage. It’s sort of where my life really started. When I started dating my boyfriend, we lived in that garage. His grandma didn’t him to live in his car with me, and we had nowhere else to go. So, she let us live in the garage. Now we live in the house. The garage was home 27 years ago. The house roof has been patched but it really needs to be replaced. The cellar used to have a drain, but the septic tank was broken and his mom didn’t realize that it was still necessary. So when it was broken, she had it filled in…and the cellar floods because of it. We have temp fixed it with a sump pump, but it doesn’t ever empty.
We are trying to raise the money to get the roof repaired and the basement fixed. I don’t often ask for assistance but I’m stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place. Thank you for all assistance and support.
Pattimouse 