Well, I’m back after a week and a half away and I’m already behind on everything. On the bright side, I’ve managed to get quite a bit done, not the least of which done with my input and someone else’s effort: the new cover art that will soon grace the stand-alone ebook of my short story, Screens.
Click the cover for a full sized image
In non writing news, I managed to see Legally Blonde at the Lyric Theatre, climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and made it to the Fish Market for sashimi. There will be show and food reviews, which I’m sure everyone will dread, but I highly recommend Mamak, which is the best Malaysian style roti I have had in Australia, and Chat Thai in the new Sydney Westfield complex, which was picked as a food destination on account of being the only restaurant there with a queue outside of it, which is always a good sign in my books. Figuratively speaking of course.
The big technology experiment has also come to an end, and I have my desktop, mouse, printer and software packages of MS Office and Scrivener. Also, I have found TextMaker, a fantastic software package for android that allows for true track changes, which was, of course, one of my primary concerns. It’s in beta at the moment, but I highly recommend you check them out if you’re going to be doing any serious writing on an android based system. Overall, I’m happy to report the experiment a great success, the Asus Transformer works fantastically as a netbook, and having both WiFi and sim card capability, keeps you connected outside of hotspots or friends’ modems. The keyboard is easy to use and the ability to plug in a USB thumb drive gives manual document control that is not reliant on internet solutions (such as Dropbox, Google drive and of course, email). It doubles as an eReader, works as an email client with K9mail, and even allows for blog updates through the WordPress app. Frankly, I now get into trouble when someone hands me a laptop because I poke at the screen and then go ‘Why isn’t it working?’ before realising laptops aren’t touch screen and looking even more stupid.
On side note, as a true tablet, the Transformer works in either portrait or landscape mode, and the background image shifts to give a visual indicator of the screen you’re on, requiring images that work in both portrait and landscape across various slices. Currently I’m using an awesome lightning background by Lachlan Downing, and you can check out the rest of his work here if you’re so inclined.
Melbourne Docklands by Lachlan Downing
In other news, Australia has voted against marriage equality federally as well as in Tasmania, where it was defeated by two votes. Attention is now swinging to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, where there appears to be more support for equality. Across the pond, the New Zealand Presbyterian Church is going to defy its governing body and perform same-sex marriages if New Zealand legalises them, as expected, and the internet is exploding into early Halloween fever. Check out Tara Lain’s Trex or Treat Halloween excerpt, Gay Halloween Costumes on Facebook, and my blog post on the Zombie Apocalypse over at Brynna Curry’s blog as day 9 of her 31 days of Halloween spectacular.
Oh and… braaaaains!
