caversham

Caversham, to me, means "When all events inform against you worse and worse, but prove ultimately to have been a false warning" (if you really care, ask me where it came from). So far, the school year's end and the look of the last two weeks appears to be the world crashing down around us (for the English rooms upstairs, quite literally), and I can only hope it's a big caversham.

couple thoughts

A couple of thoughts I had, while reflecting in a field.

.

Hope is something found in a person. If a situation has "no hope", it is because of the people involved.

However bright a light shines, its purpose is to illuminate everything else. We must be the light of the world.

If girls notice that men are full of themselves, it’s because when a girl notices something about a boy he feels like he must be worth a great deal.

The difference between ours and other religions involving human sacrifice is that in theirs it’s human sacrifice for God and in ours it’s God sacrifice for human.

No one has it right—not even the people who admit they don’t have it right.

Of course time passes like the blink of an eye—if you blink your eye, that is.

speeches

So because I've finished reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution, Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change, and Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis, I've been pretty strongly challenged... I'm not sure what I'm doing is alright as a Christian anymore. Is it really what Jesus would have wanted that we just grow up, get a good education, get a great job, make enough money to live by and maybe enjoy ourselves now and then, leave excellent little children, and see our grandchildren before we die and are buried in a plot of land?

I don't think so, see... we only fit within the system prescribed for us by the world that raised and directs us. You can't fight the major, non-Christian world powers by doing exactly what they want every individual person to do. Remember that Jesus' and the early Christians' means of living God's message out and giving it to everyone resulted in the world crucifying them. The world that would very soon after declare itself totally Christian.

What's the problem?
Everyone has the message now. But it didn't do anything major to the world. Nobody's dying for it in North America. It has no power. We have to show them the message. (Obviously, this doesn't mean go and die. It means do things "on the side of the rebel, Jesus", which contrast and oppose much of our society's priorities. Doing them sometimes ends up in persecution and death.)

I can't just live a complacent, happy life anymore. I think. Comfort has become uncomfortable.

a divine cheapness.

I finally decided I wasn't too cheap to buy the second proof copy of Divinities ($25 for a tiny tiny change. Sigh.) So now it's being sent to Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and various other slightly smaller names. They have to review it, and then choose whether or not to list it. According to Lulu, "They almost always list it." Well, that's just fantastic, my old untrustworthy friend. We'll see how it goes. The whole process takes 6-8 weeks, because some online booksellers only update their database once every two months.

While typing this, my right ear suddenly stopped working and a huge ringing started in my left ear. The only thing I can hear is my extremely loud typing.

divinities good & bad

So I finished overhauling Divinities. Want to hear what I did? OK, well I'll tell you anyway.

-Interior Art (including Part frontpieces and Map)
-Cover Art (front and back), including blurb and review on back
-ISBN, so it can be sold in retail (and guaranteed on Amazon - long delay for reviewing it to come)
-Rewritten beginning and end (prologue needed to address the rest of the book; the end was depressing, and the book meant much less than with the new ending).
-General awesomeness

Besides that, a million formatting issues were fixed (these never were problems all at once, they crept up here and there - like trying to hold down an octopus...), including that

All pages are square in the center, not floating off sides or eaten by margins. No page numbers are missing or extra. Text is of an appropriate size and font. Paragraphs are not orphaned across pages. Important sections' first pages are always on the right. Copyright page accurately describes the book. Picture of me updated, bio rewritten.

Funtimes, eh? Defs, yo. Anyway so with the ISBN, one can legally sell it in bookstores and online bookstores. This step begins with the publisher (Lulu Inc) sends off the manuscript to Amazon.

---below this line is complaining---

Now to complain! They don't do that unless you order a "proof copy" to review and make sure absolutely nothing is wrong with it. Fine! Sounds good. So I did. It cost $25 to manufacture and ship at a more reliable shipping method (ask me later). When it arrived, I reviewed it, was thoroughly pleased, and discovered one error.

So of course I fixed the error and re-saved the book, then went to click Approve! to send it on to Amazon. However, here comes the message: "You have created a new revision; before you can approve it you must order a proof copy." BAH!!! It's for my own good, I know, and they don't even profit when I buy one. But to have to spend another $25 to see the newer copy of the book to make sure it's "fine" even though I know exactly what I did, how and what it is?? Nonsensediculous!

So I have to bypass this somehow. -sigh-.

novel novel etc

I realized that when I really apply myself to it, I get a lot done, I do an excellent job, my workload significantly decreases, and it's fun and turns out to be rather easy!

*wakes up from dream exhausted yet again*

May

OH NO!
it's May!