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A great graphic design service for writers

Captain's Log, Stardate 06.06.2006

Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is HEARTS ON THE LINE by Margaret Daley.
My Monday book giveaway is THE SECRET LIFE OF BECKY MILLER by Sharon Hinck.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for HEARTS ON THE LINE and post the title for another book I'm giving away. Stay tuned.

Dineen Miller is now offering design services geared especially for writers at competitive rates. She has over ten years of graphic design and advertising experience. One sheets, bookmarks, postcards, business cards, letterhead, newsletters, logos. Using your book covers, pictures and information, she can create a design to fit your needs and your budget. Check out her website for more information.

TMI:

Aaah, the arrogance of a college degree.
Okay, the following rant is a bit technical, so feel free to skip if you’re not inclined to follow my geek-speak.

I was really negligent and let the battery on my PDA run down, so the device does a “hard reset,” which is basically a complete restart that wipes out everything on there.

It’s not that bad a thing, because all my files are on my storage card. The only things I needed to replace were programs like my Bluetooth Foldable Keyboard and Microsoft Reader.

I prefer Microsoft Reader because even if you upgrade the version of Reader or get a new PDA, all you have to do is activate it via their website. (Other secure ebook formats like Mobipocket are nice and easy to use, but every time I’ve upgraded the version or changed PDA, I’ve had to go back to my online library, change my security passkey, and redownload all my Mobipocket ebooks with the new passkey. Yeah, pain in the petootie.)

Anyway, I went to the Microsoft website, signed in via my Passport account, activated my Microsoft Reader, got a confirmation page. Tried to open a secure ebook on my PDA. It said I didn’t have access to the book.

I did absolutely everything. I downloaded a new version of MR. I reactivated dozens of times. I did soft reset. I did all three things they recommended on their troubleshooting guide. Finally I did another hard reset (oh joy).

At a loss, I sent an email to their support center, baffled at what I had done wrong, and frustrated that their suggestions didn’t work. I’m a college graduate! I followed instructions! I did exactly what they said and even came up with new things to do!

Then it occurred to me, what if I’m using the wrong Passport account to log in to their website? The activation is linked to my Passport account e-mail address, and if I logged in with the wrong e-mail address, the activation would be for the wrong user.

Yup, wrong account. I didn’t even realize I had two different Passport accounts (the wrong one is a default account created when I got a hotmail e-mail address).

So now Microsoft customer service is about to receive a snippy e-mail from an arrogant little booby who can’t keep her e-mail addresses straight.

They probably won’t even buy my book.

Blog Bible Study: My friend Heather has started a Blog Bible Study group. It sounds terrific. It'll start on June 12th with CAPTIVATING by John and Stasi Eldridge. I've joined and ordered both the book and the guided journal from Amazon. The timing on this is good because I've finished my Bible in 90 Days and feel a little disjointed in terms of my daily quiet times.

Heather also started a book club. I've joined that too, although I won't always participate in the discussions.

Health: Please pray for me, I'm coming down with a sore throat and I think it's ALL DINEEN'S FAULT. But then people will say it's because I spent the day writing with her at the coffeeshop and to just suck it up.
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Comments

  1. RuthTue Jun 06, 05:22:00 AM 2006

    Camy, your tech woes cracked me up. I could so see myself doing this (in fact I've had many of my variations on such moments...even ones less technical, LOL!).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Catherine WestTue Jun 06, 07:46:00 AM 2006

    Well, I am sure you spent the day at the coffee shop...;0) I know there was at least two posts from Dineen on the forums yesterday, so not sure how much writing was really going on.... :0L
    Go down some green tea and suck it up.
    Oh, did I say that out loud??

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousTue Jun 06, 08:03:00 AM 2006

    At least I'm not the only one doing stuff like that! Camy, sign me up for the Secret Life of Becky Miller contest (sbradley@iwon.com)

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownTue Jun 06, 09:28:00 AM 2006

    Camy, you sound just like me. I finally put together a notebook of logins and passwords because I never could remember which went with which. I know it's a bad thing, but it's worse to not be able to get your data.

    Captivating is a great book, and I think as writers we particularly can appreciate it because it helps us come up with wounds for our characters that many women deal with.

    And I bet your sore throat is Dineen's fault too. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousTue Jun 06, 10:49:00 AM 2006

    It does get very complicated after a while, doesn't it, trying to remember which I.D. and password you used at each site. And then they tell you to change any financial ones from time to time! I'm constantly stumbling around in the dark trying to remember my passwords. I finally found an unused address book into which I wrote my passwords, as well as some of the actual sites in "code". But then I lost that book. I've seen it briefly since I moved but it has disappeared again.

    And please don't mention "suck it up" again. I've become so sick of that expression. I've had it thrown at me oh, probably several 100 times in the last year. Who ever thought that up? I guess it will be a hot expression for a while but then, like any fad, it will gradually fade away. I sure hope so.

    I think that horrible "arguably" which is such a nonsensical expression, is finally losing some of its punch. Of course you can argue about everything in any direction you want. So the statement it introduces doesn't tell me a thing about what the person saying it actually feels. Is it possibly, probably, indubitably, or hardly that the following statement is true. We have good serviceable words which make a meaning clear. But then, perhaps the whole idea is to not commit to a definite opinion. Sheesh. I guess I sometimes think too logically.

    Sorry about the rant. I'm always behind on new expressions. The first time I heard the "suck it up" I just thought "huh?". Oh, well, that's just me, I guess. I'm getting too old and set in my ways.

    Get well quickly, Camy.

    BTW, e-mail coming.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Heather Diane TiptonThu Jun 08, 11:55:00 PM 2006

    LOLOL On the wrong email.

    Man, not you too??? Captivating?? Everyone and there mother keeps telling me I need to read this book... ask me if I have? Better yet ask me if I've bought it?? LOL Nope... Heather be broke.

    Yeah... you being sick because you and Dineen spent the day together... um, yeah SO not getting my sympathy! But I loves ya, babe!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dineen A. MillerSat Jun 10, 12:52:00 PM 2006

    Thanks for sharing my new venture, girl! Appreciate that. I hope it will be helpful to other writers and keep it affordable.

    I guess we're busted. LOL! Sorry if I got you sick!

    ReplyDelete

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