Mark Jerde wrote:

(From my great grandfather's collection.)

I have similar books. ;-)

I only have two.

Yeah, you have the gift. When I close my eyes I can almost picture your
shop clearer than mine. ;-)

Dude, it's a shed with WAY too much stuff crammed into it. What more do you
need to visualize?

(I kinda miss that POS Skil sometimes. At least it had a small footprint.
Until I fire up my saw and enjoy the gentle whisking of Crapsman's finest.)

I have written a lot of dry technical manuals and the like. ("From the
File
menu, select ...") I have a fantasy of writing a programming "bestseller"
snicker. I even had one serious tryout with a publisher. But nothing
came of it. If I spend 3 hours on a page, it can eventually become
publishable. But 3 hours per page on 500 pages is way too much time for
the $.

Now you know my secret. I've been working on "Using Rosegarden" for two
years, and I'm only up to 200 pages. Seven pages a day is good progress,
and I have lots of screenshots to fill up space. When I'm in it with both
feet, I spend eight hours a day on it. Eight hours for what probably comes
down to about five pages of copy.

I enjoy reading Charlie Self's posts just because he packs so much
information in so few words.

Yeah, that's definitely not my gift. I am many things, but I am not a man
who knows how to say things with few words.

I write the same way I talk, incidentally. There's almost no difference.

There's a reason publishers want him to
write
for them. O'Deen is also fun. After reading one of his typical posts I'm
ready to move to CA and take up surfing. Your posts tend to take me into
your world and look at things through your eyes.

I have a long history of being descriptive. I don't remember this, but I am
told that I once went to the principle to report some big female bully for
"descending upon my back with her talons of fire and raking them across me
like bolts of lightning" or some such blather that had "talons" and "fire"
and "lightning" in it.

In my high school, I was voted most likely to wind up driving a furniture
truck. sigh

I bought a used lathe,
and
I'm planning to make a bunch of stupid candleholders. g Wish me luck!

I didn't sell even one stupid candleholder at that show. None of the
mushrooms either. NONE of them. sigh

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/