From Cranky to Calm in NaNo Seconds.

moar capshuns and kittehs  see  share   caption  vote

I went looking for a picture on cheezeburger.com with a cat looking at a computer screen, maybe paw on mouse or keyboard.  I wanted to make a caption that was a rant about malware and obnoxious ads that pop up on top of what you are looking at.  Because I'd just spent over an hour trying to figure out how to get rid of the ads that were overlaying my Blogger Create Post with links on top of the command icons!  I'd never seen ads on that page before and never seen anything like pop ups or banners on any of the Google aps.

I tried reloading the page, closing the tab, closing the browser, trying a different browser.  They just kept coming back.  I couldn't work on my post and it was already past my bedtime.  I was tired and cranky and starting to panic.  Then I happened to notice a very faint grey line of tiny text that said "Ads not by this site".  I Googled the phrase and discovered I had malware.

I learned I needed to uninstall the program with that name and disable and remove the browser extension.  I did the first with no problem but could not find the extension in Chrome.  I'm afraid the thing will replant itself during the next restart.  Memories of the whack-a-mole game I played with the worm that took over my laptop in 2006 flooded back. I do not have time for another such go-around.

The weeks I wrestled with that worm were the start of my blogging stepping up from once or twice per month to several times a week because I needed to vent. I'd go find the link to the one where I first used the phrase "whack-a-mole' to describe the encounter but I don't have time.  I need to be awake for vid chat with Ed in three hours.  Tomorrow I see my counselor and that is going to eat up the whole day.  My sister has an appointment in Portland for that same hour so I have to be ready when she leaves to take Mom to our brother's.  At 12:30.  Two hours early. Then hang in the waiting room another hour or two after.

Anyway... This picture caught my eye because of the laptop but with no cat 'working' the computer it wouldn't work for my plan.  But I kept coming back to gaze, drawn to it by some some deep and strong current in my psyche.  I yearned to crawl inside that picture and sit at that keyboard and type as I listened to the water below flow and the breeze stirring the leaves and the kitten purring and the birds twittering.

Within a few minutes I noticed that I was much calmer and no longer wanted to rant.  I decided I needed to caption this pic.  I was about to look for an author quote to grace it but a stray thought rose like a dolphin leaping from the sea:  Wouldn't this be perfect for NaNo?

I had my theme and an hour later I had my caption.

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Danger! Books Can Change You.

Danger!
Books can change your operating system.
Are you sure you wish to proceed?
moar littrary kittehs

In honor of Banned Book Week a serious LOLcat, a presentation of an invaluable set of books about banned books accompanied by a rant likening book pricing structure to a form of suppression.


Banned Books Four Volume Set Published by Facts on File
Ken Wachsberger (general editor)

Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds by Nicholas J. Karolides
Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds by Margaret Bald
Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds by Dawn B. Sova
Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds by Dawn B. Sova

These are an invaluable resource for anyone needing to research the history of book banning over the centuries.  Each book begins with an overview of its category followed by brief histories of a hundred or more books that have been suppressed somewhere at sometime--many repeatedly.

Every public and school library from middle school to college should have two sets--one for the Reference Shelves and one for checkout.  Every news organization needs at least one set for those times when attempts are being made to exclude books from curriculum or libraries. So those covering the story can have their awareness grounded in the historical context of the current hullabaloo and the facts at hand.

But unfortunately that is unlikely to happen as at $60 per book that's $240 per set.  Even the one volume version is priced at $240.  They are all hardback and use library quality binding and paper so that is almost understandable but it prices them out of range for many public school and public library districts.

There are no paperback or ebook editions that one could expect to be priced affordably for the average home reference library at any of the online booksellers and tho Infobase Publishing parent of the Facts on File imprint does show ebooks in their catalog the price is hidden until you sign in and based on their statement that they cater to educational institutions and libraries I doubt I'm even eligible to have an account with them even if I could imagine being able to pay their prices.  

In my humble opinion this amounts to a form of suppression essentially excluding those below the upper middle class and the school and library districts in their neighborhoods since they are funded by local property taxes.

I know.  That rant doesn't jive with my first statement.  Well, I made that before I found the publisher's page with the price quotes.  I stand by it.  For the essence of their value is in the impact they can have on the local and national consciousness on the issue of book banning and thus on the debates surrounding every local attempt to take a book off a public shelf or out of a curriculum.  But if over 60% of the people never encounter them that value is diminished, even nullified.

Yes.  I understand that a lot of care went into creating these books--gathering the facts and compiling them and writing the overviews for each category and the histories for each book and designing the books.  But dictionaries, almanacs, atlases, and quotation books have all managed to provide affordable editions.  It mystifies me why so many publishers can't see that more sales at lower prices would likely increase profit.

This post spun off its original axis after the first paragraph.  I fully intended this to be a several paragraph rave about these information packed reference books. I still feel as enthused as ever by the books themselves but the news about the price structure shook me up.  I believe I was harboring a bit of hope for having a set for my own reference library and that has been dashed by what I learned today.  Which soured my mood and morphed the rave into a rant.

I came close to deleting everything after the first paragraph and returning to the original intent.  But when rereading it and encountering the line comparing this price-jacking to suppression itself I realized the relevance of the rant to the Banned Book Week theme and decided to make it part of the discussion.

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O'Rile Me

This speaks to why I am no longer interested all that much in being published by one of the 'big boys' aka the big publishing houses that are more than likely already folded into a multi-media monolith.

I mean really! Would you buy a book by Jeffery Dahmer on table manners for kids?

Seriously. Who would? And yet someone thought it was a good idea to produce this morality and ethics tract for kids which includes advice on interpersonal relationships by one of the most notorious bullies in all of mediadom: a man caught on tape bullying his co-workers and the guests on his show; a man who settled out of court with a co-worker who had taped him conversing with her about the interesting things he could think of using a loofah for ...

It is bad enough that the man still has a job! But seeing that the publishers are still hawking his hypocritical drek as fit for kids? That is gorge rising!

Who are the parents buying this book for their kids?

And I bet his manuscripts don't sit on an editors or agents desk for six to sixteen months while 'due consideration' is given as to whether it 'fits their current needs!'

I have no desire to share a publisher's imprint with this compost. (Um. I meant the book not the man. I think.)

Nor do I want to even bother trying to compete for the attention of those who even consider for a nanosecond that there is value in advice packaged for kids under the name and face of our nation's most iconic tantrum thrower, stalker and racist? Why would I entrust my work, into which I've poured my heart and soul and infused with the values of my spirit, into the hands of someone whose values are reflected in this shinola?

I wouldn't. I won't! I will find another way.

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