shadowkat | (no subject)

1. It's 81 degrees in my office with no air circulation, while 26 degrees outside. No wonder my chest is congested and I keep coughing, with itchy eyes. The temp changes are playing havoc with my sinuses apparently. And everyone else's. Another side-effect of the hot greenhouse office? Is I feel sluggish and want to sleep. Ran my desk fan all day long, while every time I spoke, it sounded like I'd literally swallowed a frog.

2. Erotica Novels vs. Erotica Fanfic on the Kindle The problem with downloading ~~porn~~erotica for no more than 99 cents or 0 cents a pop onto your kindle is that you can't get it off your kindle. (That removal button just syncs it to archives..dang it) Which means if anyone looks at said kindle or the archives..you have to deal with the embarrassment of having these things. Damn the writers for not coming up with less pornographic (albeit silly) titles, not to mention covers. Romance novels have the same problem. Seriously...you can't come up with a better title than "The Last Hellion" or "Scoundrel's Desire"??? I can come up with better titles than that. But alas, this is the problem with formula writing, even good formula, unimaginative titles. Fanfic porn/erotic does a better job. (Note to self - stick with fanfic porn in the future - a)cheaper, b) more imaginative, and c) better titles or less embarrassing at any rate. Also...another thing about fanfic? The I-PAD was made for it. Easier to read on the I-Pad than on the Kindle.

3. Community is to television parody what Jonathan Swift is to satire. Their parody of Glee is rather inspired. Particularly since I'm annoyed with Glee at moment. And this parody is pointing out all the reasons...I'm annoyed. It is a bit over the top in places...but rather tame in comparison to Raising Hope (which I've finally given up on.) Sad that they are considering canceling Community when it is in some respects far more innovative than just about 80% of the sitcoms on network tv. I don't tend to laugh much during it - parody doesn't do much for me, never really has. My sense of humor is a bit blacker...and twistier...I like absurdist comedy - which tends to be drier and subtle. Broad comedy doesn't work for me.

4. Comic Apps on IPADYou can't get Buffy comics on the IPAD or Angel&Faith for that matter. (Not that I was necessarily planning to or anything...but I was admittedly curious.) The Dark
Horse APP is horrid. The graphics are bad, the resolution, and the selection (there's almost nothing but old stuff or the least interesting titles. ie: no Umbrella Academy, The Guild, Angel & Faith or Buffy). BUT..they do provide Free issues of Hellboy. The best App is XComics...that has a great resolution and a broader selection. You can get issues of "Bone" for $1.99 and free comics on it. Also well organized and indexed.

5. Feeling tired and bummed out...most likely due to the sinus attack from hell and a visit from the monthly pain the you know what fairy, or at the very least these two things have not helped the situation. Work overall...not bad. Just sluggish - even though I am incredibly busy and incredibly backlogged. So...ahem five positive things:

*No snow - which while not positive to some folks, is incredibly positive to me. Snow is a pain in NYC. Particularly when you have to go to work through it.
*Temperatures overall on the mild side. Will make it up to 53 on Sunday!
*Lots of reading material - I have almost as many books on my Kindle that I haven't read yet, that I have on my bookshelves. I appear to be a hoarder of books, all types of books. Ipad for Kindle gave me four free books - Pride & Prejudice, Treasure Island, Aseops Fables, and Winnie The Pooh.
* Three day weekend coming up - hooray for New Years!
* ~~New TV Season starts next week or week thereafter...~~ Made a great gluten-free chicken noodle soup that's lasted four days.

Okay that's a lame list. But I'm sick...it's hard to come up with cool things when you are sick.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It synscs automatically. Ick...Bwah, why is the stuff you don't pay for so much more customer friendly, that can't be good for business.

I-Pad is perfect for reading fic online, although longer pieces are awesome to download and transform into kindle format. I was think about offering to do it for several writers I love, so they can post the downloads on their journals. But I'm not sure they'd be interested, because if people read it outside a browser they are less inclined to comment, especially on multiple parts.

There is an app called Cloud reader for the I-pad which is superlovely for comics. it can open CBS, CBZ files that you can put on via cable or dropbox. Superhandy. I wish the kindle could deal with more formats, it would be perfect for Manga and other small format black and white stuff.

Bwah, why is the stuff you don't pay for so much more customer friendly, that can't be good for business.

Agreed. My difficulty with Dark Horse is they really don't take the time with their app. It's horrible. But they have some good stuff. Wish the art for the Buffy comics were better,
I may have been less annoyed if they were - I'm admittedly very picky about art. For me - comics are 100% art. The writing is secondary. I've discovered the people who still love the comics...are less picky about the art. Or have different taste. By the way - I love your icon, always have. Great art.

I-Pad is perfect for reading fic online, although longer pieces are awesome to download and transform into kindle format. I was think about offering to do it for several writers I love, so they can post the downloads on their journals. But I'm not sure they'd be interested, because if people read it outside a browser they are less inclined to comment, especially on multiple parts.

Nautibitz has made the mistake of putting hers in PDF - its actually better if you can convert to rich text then to Kindle - that way you can change the size of the lettering so you can actually see it. I tried to transfer a PDF of hers - and it was teeny tiny print, I gave up finally.

Unfortunately the Buffy comics killed my interest in Buffy fan-fic...I don't know why.

There is an app called Cloud reader for the I-pad which is superlovely for comics. it can open CBS, CBZ files that you can put on via cable or dropbox. Superhandy. I wish the kindle could deal with more formats, it would be perfect for Manga and other small format black and white stuff.

Thank you! Found it and grabbed. I discovered there are a few free Manga style Harlequinn romance novels believe it or not...very odd. Manga actually does go the gamut.

For me - comics are 100% art. The writing is secondary. I've discovered the people who still love the comics...are less picky about the art.

I'm similar. The art is very important to me, although there are some comics that I think are written really well were I was willing to go over imho hideous artwork. Watchmen for example. I know it is supposed to be some kind of homage but ewww. And also parts of Sandman (which I otherwise love to pieces).

I tend to prefer the European drawing styles, because it seems less muscle and plastic to me but there are some truly brilliant US-artists too like David Mack for example.

I love your icon</>
Thank you :). Benjamin Lacombe, he does wonderful creepy children's book artwork. Sadly no comics, I would instant buy if he ever did.

I tried to transfer a PDF of hers - and it was teeny tiny print, I gave up finally.

Pdf is horried for the Kindle (nice for the I-pad though), I was thinking of converting it to .mobi (the kindle format) there you can also change the size of the text and fond and so on. There is a freeware software called Calibre, which can convert basically everything into everything. PDF to reader sometimes does unfortunate things like writing the page numbers in the middle of the text but it still massively beats trying to navigate a PDF on the kindle.

Manga actually does go the gamut.

It really does, there is everything in Manga. It's weird because they actually react to the customers interests even if they don't conform with society. See the amount of gay love stories from women and read by women. Japanese society is quite homophobic in many ways but they don't seem to have the urge to suppress a literary subculture just because it is not targeting men. Or the fictional women advertisers imagine.

Watchmen for example. I know it is supposed to be some kind of homage but ewww. And also parts of Sandman (which I otherwise love to pieces).

It is, and agree. Watchman's art is very stiff. And flat. There's a plastic feel. It's a homage to the old Noir pulp comics...but I found it difficult to plow through mainly because of the art. In some respects the movie was more engaging because better art. But the writing is quite good.
This is true unfortunately of most of Alan Moore and Frank Miller's books. With the exception of Dark Knight - which did have great art.

For me? It's all about facial expressions. I care a great deal about that. Also - making each character look different matters.

I didn't like the art in a lot of Gaiman's tales, Blood Orchid - his first comic? Beautiful art - truly beautiful, like a painting.

I like Alex Ross, Jai Lee, and a little Jim Lee and Tim Sale.
Joan Chen is also a favorite. Rebecca Issacs isn't bad and Elena C - who did Illyria was interesting. But would have to agree the European art is more interesting and less plastic.
That goes for animation as well. Japan and France have created some truly complex and interesting animated films.
The US has gotten a bit too dependent on computers, abandoning the soft-cell animation...that the others are still playing with.

So, PDF works well on I-PAD? Good to know.

Agree - Japan is odd about pop culture. It's animation and graphic novels/magna tends to be broader. Live action film not so much. But animation and comic books...definitely.

I got all the Buffy and A&F comics on my Ipad. I think it's pretty fabulous to not have to go to the store. Looks good to me, though I'm not all about the art, so maybe it could be better. Anyway, I won't be going to my comic book store any more. I love having it all right away and all in one small compact space.

Which app did you use? I guess you just subscribed?
Because they didn't have samples available to preview on it, nor to buy. So I'm guessing you subscribed?

Okay, I give up...how are you accessing these on your ipad? I searched the store at Dark Horse app and they weren't available.

If you go to the "manage your Kindle" page on Amazon.com, you can delete things for good, actually. Go to "my account" and on the right of that page, there's a "manage your Kindle" button which shows you everything in your Kindle library. If you go to the library, each item has a little button that says "Actions" one of which is "delete from library" - that permanently erases all record of the book in question from your library/Kindle etc. (If you want to read it again, you have to buy it again, so it's not archived anywhere.)

Thank you! I thought there had to be a way to get rid of things. But couldn't figure it out.
Of course that's because I'm seldom in my Amazon account. Buy it all direct from the Kindle.

This helps a lot, will try it tonight. There's some books that I really want to delete. (They were that bad.)

YAY! It worked! I was able to delete the ~~porn~~ erotica. (Really bad porn and erotica.) So thank you!!!