@chrislee35 Just knowing somebody thinks it's a good idea is very encouraging 🙂So thank you!

If you have kids, or know some who might be interested, would be great to have some beta readers at some point. I try to explain everything but maybe I'm explaining things too much? Or not enough?

Knowing the right note to strike would help and would probably help the final reader too since they might not get bored or throw the book away because they are drowning in words 😛

Somebody quipped that "Sir Lanka Files" (https://books2read.com/b/mgw00v) is not fiction since it's about an island nation ruled by a guild of thieves 😛

I started the book during the aragalaya. Have a sequel in mind but I will have to wait a couple of months to see where things go?

#Writing #LKA

While the siren-call still lingers to do some coding, I finally managed to get going on the writing today 🙂

Got 2k words written on the third chapter of my book on Flutter development aimed at kids. I wonder if I'd rather be writing fiction, but this is something I enjoy too.

#Writing #Flutter

Is it just me or are the re-works of old movies just crap?

Just tried to watch "Hellboy: The Crooked Man" and "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" and they were both so inane and boring that we gave up after a little while on both.

#Movies #English #Hollywood #MovieUpdates

@crcollins I don't get it either 🙂But maybe some people see Bluesky as easier to use since they can see numbers for interaction since likes etc. are a single figure instead of spread across multiple servers?

I have been subscribing to QI and Engadget across a bridging service but that spews a bunch of posts on to my timeline every week or so and that annoys me. So I do prefer accessing those accounts directly on Bluesky but other than that, I have not found that much engagement on Bluesky ...

I've been using Bluesky for a couple of days now and it's rather interesting that some accounts that I really liked on Twitter (like QI and Engadget) are either not present on the Fediverse or tried to create a presence but became inactive after a bit.

But on Bluesky, they are very much active.

So why the difference? Is it a lack of interaction? Or the percieved fragmentation due to how Mastodon works?

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Bluesky

So ... based on feedback about the Flutter book, pivoted from an adult/programmer oriented approach to be more kid/beginner friendly and re-wrote the first two chapters to fit the new approach.

I was set to start on the third chapter when yak-shaving struck again 😛

I started thinking about a BlueSky client because apparently BlueSky engineers are overloaded and can't add the ability to filter out reposts. And I wanted it ....

So that's where I am today — coding. Hopefully, will get back to writing later today?

#Writing

So, I suddenly have the time to write, but have three different books clamoring for attention 😛

1. A Flutter programming book with 2 chapters written
2. A completed novella that needs to be totally re-written
3. A new novel in a new genre that's suddenly very interesting

What to do?

#Writing

The audio book for my second novel, "Sir Lanka Files" is now available! It's about the humorous misadventures of a private detective in a future island city ruled by a guild of thieves. More details here: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DQ63PSMR/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-424788&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_424788_rh_us

Shout out to Brad Derry (https://bradderryvo.com/) for the great voice work! If you need somebody to voice your audio book, he's the one! Check out the book sample (at the link above) for Brad's excellent work!

#ScienceFiction #Humour #AudioBook #Writing #FediBooks #Bookstodon

If you like scam/con movies, you might enjoy "Mechanic Rocky" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27191250).

Most movies have one or two layers. I generally look for a second layer in any movie since I'm just that kind of person 😛This one had three layers and I almost missed the third one because I kind of relaxed after figuring out what the second layer was. So if you like that kind of mental acrobatics, this one will definitely appeal.

#Movies #Telugu #Tollywood

"Kanguva" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22036406) is such a horrible, pointless movie. There's so much lack of logic and pointless scenes just supposed to evoke some emotion that I don't know where to start.

I read the bad reviews and thought "There has to be something in the movie which redeems it" and watched it. But I was wrong. There is nothing to redeem this one and I probably should have saved myself some time by not watching it 😛

Only reason you might want to watch it is if the laughter caused by the absurd situations, the bad creature effects, and the bad graphics is something you'd enjoy.

#Movies #Tamil #Kollywood

@davemark Apparently it was Ashton who was the parrot, not Tate 😛

@davemark It's something I read a long time ago when I first read the Oz books. And like the fact that Tate in Ashton-Tate is a parrot, it has stuck with me through the years 🙂

@davemark I assume you know that L. Frank Baum created the name Oz by looking at his filing cabinet which had drawers for "A - N" and "O - Z", right? 🙂

@ceciliatan Only thing I can think of is that the default encoding for TextEdit changed for some reason — maybe an OS update?

So what I was pointing to was the second option on the page which lets you set the default encoding for TextEdit. I was hoping that playing around with it might help you find an encoding where any pasted in text just works.

But on the other hand, it might not be the encoding at all. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to say without being able to try things out in person ... at least for me 🙂

The other option would be to switch to a plain text editor. Theoretically, when you paste into that, all text should show up as normal but that might not suit your needs.

@ceciliatan This might (possibly) be what you're looking for?

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/textedit/txted1028/mac

I have availability coming up in January. If anyone is looking for an iOS developer, please let me know. #getfedihired

"A Man on the Inside" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26670955) is one of the better US comedies to come out this year. Ted Danson is brilliant in the show and the show itself is funny, insightful, and often very poignant. I loved the whole show but I loved the final episode the most — it just had so much feeling and emotion.

I really hope that there's a season 2.

#TV #US #English #Comedy #Netflix

Check out my audiobook about a man on the run from his wife's wrath after selling her dog to a Martian: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DL7S8Q24/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-418986&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_418986_rh_us

Shout out to Brad Derry (https://bradderryvo.com/) for the great voice work! If you need somebody to voice your audiobook, he's the man! Check out the book sample (at the link above) for Brad's excellent work!

#ScienceFiction #Humour #AudioBook #Writing #FediBooks #Bookstodon

@thegiddystitcher I write humorous science fiction (and PTerry was a huge influence when I was first getting started writing my first novel 🙂)

I only have two novels out at the moment since I took a 20 year break after my first one, but I'm hoping to write more now that I've started writing again ...

https://books2read.com/b/4E9lME
https://books2read.com/b/mgw00v