Recommended: Pro Writing Software

I love MS Word.

This love comes out because I just endured several days of Mac people bashing MS / pc people as if the Apple world is divine.

It's good. Sometimes it's even great. Divine? Nyah.

Try 25 years with MS Word.

First "computer" I ever used for word processing had DOS. Remember DOS? DIR to find your files. C: and the blinking cursor on a black screen. Yeah. Those days.

Then came Windows! And the world never looked back.

I’ve used MS Word about 25 years and changed as it changed. Mac, didn’t love so much in the early days. Once I shifted to pc, I never returned to Mac (except for the iPhone, which I hate for its planned obsolescence [which intuitive spelling keeps changing to “insolence”—is that telling me something?] and box-tight control of what it wants me to do.)

Over the years with Microsoft and other electronic devices I learned to avoid the shiny new and wait for later iterations. I avoided Vista and all of its crashes. Since I had to buy a new system around ‘10, I jumped past that issue. Not having Vista on the system prevented the crashes that most people had with it that continued to 8.

I also learned, from watching people trying to bring work from home that wasn’t compatible with the work software programs as well as listening to people complain, that anything labeled “Home” wasn’t worth the price. I’ve purchased professional- or work-level software from that point.

You get what you pay for. 

Last year, with all the viruses and malware and ransom ware and more that was going on, I took a hard look at keeping my security and programs updated. That’s the primary reason that I subscribed to Windows Office 365. I didn’t want the constant hassle.

I’m not a lover of any big corporate entity. I hate monopolies. I hate algorithms that try to shove me into one box when I’ve got fingers in 10 different ones and toes into a few others. But MS treats its products and customers professionally, and that’s what I want. (And I certainly don’t want any entity adding things I didn’t ask for—the way Apple added that U2 album without my permission to iTunes on my computer.) 

I can make Word and PowerPoint do pretty much everything I ask them to do. It’s easy to flip between the programs using the task bar at the bottom of the screen. I lust after those widescreen monitors that allow two screens (3! even) to be open at once. But I’m too thrifty to add the monitor when my magnified glasses and laptop work fine 

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Remember Windows 3.1.0.2? Loved that program. Loved the mouse interface that beat keyboard commands (CTRL + C). Loved the advent of wysiwyg printers (what you see is what you get).

Change is always happening. Who said that? Herodotus?

Okay. Rant over. Only it’s more like the homily for the day. :) 

What I'm Reading Now

To put me in the thinking mood for the second book in the Enclave World trilogy:  To Charm the Air

What would do that?  That's what I started thinking about at the first of July.  Soon, I need to pick up that story, refresh myself on the characters and events in To Wield the Wind.

What reading would inspire me?

To put myself in the mood for To Charm the Air, I picked up an old Andre Norton The Year of the Unicorn, recommended reading this past Spring.  That was then.  This is now.

What now?  What now?

What's Inspiring

Summer always needs a little light inspiration to make it through the heat.

I enjoyed Alice in the Wonderland when I was a child.  In the last decade, though, I've come to a greater appreciation of what Lewis Carroll was doing:  a book for children that makes adults laugh, too.

No Disney, please.

Try this when things seem absolutely, utterly, completely without possibilities:

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was young, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

public domain image

Possibilities.  Those are nice roads to travel. And inspiration to help us continue on.

What I'm Reading: Uncommon Wonder from a Fantasy Master: Year of the Unicorn

A Grand Master of the SF/F Field 

~ Wondrous Worlds and Wondrous Stories ~

I came to Andre Norton in the mid 1970s through Warlock of the Witch World, and I found Year of the Unicorn after about 3 years of continually picking up her books.

I'm re-reading Year of the Unicorn, probably for the 7th time, and enjoying it just as much as the first time.  Maybe more.  Every time I read it, I see something that I didn't see before.

Norton is a hit-or-miss for me.  Some of her books are just meh.  Some of them I really really like.  Some of them stick in my head after one reading even years later.  Year of the Unicorn is the one that I consider her best work.  Other people name the Witch World series as her best.  Besides the Witch World series, she has many more fantasies as well as forays into science fiction (Zero Stone, even as science fiction, is my next fav.).

The Year of the Unicorn is an enjoyable read that is yet very unusual.

1)  I don't think anyone before or since has done shape-shifting were beasts in quite this way.

2) The Chosen One is definitely not chosen and is not ever going to be--with all the Chosen One books flooding the marketplace, more people should read Unicorn to see how Andre Norton broke the mold.,

3) The struggles of both protagonists are understandable and difficult.  Tricks and obstacles abound that you are not going to expect. 

One element that set this book apart was the creative plot twists with antihero protagonists. Gillian would not have been chosen without her trick; Herrel is not considered the best of the were riders. The descriptions are vivid. The storyline still charms me every time I read this book, and I re-read it about every five years while I don't pick up the Witch World books.

Likable characters. Strong imagery. Twists on the mythic tropes. Clear narrative that develops the story rather than skips through it (a problem with modern story).

Enjoy.


Here's the link.  I don't do affiliate links.  Geez, it's a good book.  Read it.