rereader

Below is a half-hour interview with Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock on "Sherlock",

(which is an absolutely wonderful show, if you haven't watched it DO SO IMMEDIATELY! You can find season one on Netflix, and the first two episodes of season two are playing on PBS's website now, so go! We'll wait.)

from "Bullseye with Jesse Thorn":



Of course, there have been dozens of interviews of various types in the past few weeks as part of the publicity for the second season of "Sherlock", but instead of the same old same old, this interviewer asks new questions about acting Sherlock as well as about Benedict's carjacking/kidnapping in South Africa a number of years ago, and it is well worth a listen.

***

In other news, my own website has gone live, and I would be very grateful for any and all feedback!

So, I've pretty much finished my first go at my website pages and am now soliciting comments, criticisms, corrections, and suggestions! (I wouldn't actively reject praise, you understand, not at all, but as this is a first draft, so to speak, I expect more needs fixing than not.)

( Pretty please? )

ETA: Some corrections have been made--many thanks to those eagle-eyed people (proudmommy0f4, dhole, aetherialgirl, and Lizzy Lemon, from elsewhere) who found the errors!

If you find anything to report, of if I've introduced entirely new errors, you can use the comments below, or send me a private message, whatever is easiest for you is more than fine for me.

My website isn't done yet--but! I have been working on it, and am almost finished with the most labor-intensive part (creating and posting the images for the design portfolio). I have to finish the text on two of the portfolio items, write the Home and Fees-and-Pricing pages, and put together a Contact form.

( For anyone who wants a sneak peek-- )

That's right, it's STAR WARS DAY, woo!

( And me without a slave girl costume to my name. )

Well. I've been told I ought to have a website (for my business, not personally. A blog is plenty for personally, I should think), as a sort of business card. And since this is the slow season for me, book design-wise, I thought I should get moving on that, since I have a server and domain name all set up already.

First I thought I would have to build it using HTML, which I've already started teaching myself *mumblety* times. And I have picked up on the basic concepts and tags. But. As most if not all of you know, there's a not-inconsiderable space between basic concepts and completed website--and I'm really not very interested in becoming a web designer just at the moment. So the lovely, generous, and brilliant woman who is hosting me pointed out that perhaps I could use some pre-built software, such as, say, WordPress, which she uses to build all her websites nowadays, or I could go with one of several other pre-built website software which she listed.

I thought WordPress might be a good idea. (I know good advice when I'm given it!) And I found several nice free WordPress templates that I think would be good for a portfolio, which is what this mostly will be, after all.

That was all yesterday. I've spent a nice chunk of today looking at other book designer websites, thinking about what I want to put on my site and how I want to organize it. And I'm thinking I'll work it in stages, so that I'll have something to show as soon as possible and then add to it and refine it as I go. And when I have something to look at, I'll post a link on the blog here and ask for input--especially how things look on other systems and in other browsers than mine--so prepare yourselves to be slave labor lovely volunteer beta testers/copyeditors/critics!

There was an article in the New York Times yesterday about sort-of-but-not-exactly-TV-shows-on-YouTube. The article didn't have anything particularly new to say, but it did link to a few of these YouTube channels, and one of them sounded interesting enough that I went and looked it up.



At this point I've watched about half the 60 episodes of SciShow that are so far available (I gotta say, streaming YouTube videos through my BluRay player is really very cool!), and if you have any interest whatsoever in geeky science-y stuff, I heartily recommend you look it up. It's interesting, irreverent, uber fast-paced, and has nice handy links to sources in the show notes. (NOTE: If you're a parent, be aware there is some profanity of the milder sort, so check out a few episodes before directing the young 'uns thataway.)


In other news, I have just managed to pare about $11 off my monthly phone bill by dropping voice mail. (Okay, yes, it's more complicated than that. It actually involved switching phone plans and adding individual services, but in the end, I no longer have voice mail and I'm spending $11 less per month.) Since I haven't had dial-up internet access for quite some time--and the inability to take calls while online was the reason I originally needed voice mail--I can do perfectly well with the answering machine built into my phone. So yay me!

(Source: ICanHasCheezburger.com)

That is all. Go away now. Thank you.

You may or may not recall, but about a month ago, I wrote a post complaining about tree pollen and the effect this unusually early and unusually heavy tree pollen season was having on my eyes.

I spoke too soon.

( Oy, vey. )


ETA: I did not go to class last night. Good decision.

I did go out to run some errands this morning. Bad decision. *tries not to rub at itchy puffed-up eyes*

Okay. Chip Kidd calls himself a book designer in this video, but by that he means he designs book jackets and covers (at which he is brilliant, I should add). This is not what I do--I design book interiors, the stuff between those covers. But watch this anyway, it's wonderful!

I have just finished cleaning out my files. Well, I clean out my files every year or so--throw out old receipts and other unnecessaries, to make room for new and useful bits of paper I will never look at again. And when folders rip I do replace them--with carefully salvaged folders that were in perfectly usable shape.

But this time, for the first time in... *thinks* ...ummmm, a very, very long time, I actually threw out the old, unmatching, pre-used folders and replaced them ALL with clean, new, label-machine-uniformly-labeled, matching folders.

It looks bee-you-tee-ful!!!

(I was going to take a photo for you, but I decided that was just too geeky. But it really looks so pretty!)