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Month: July 2014

The Rapid Prototype Model of Drafting

The Rapid Prototype Model of Drafting

(Image credit: Imagebase.net) When most people think of “editing,” they think of reclining on the couch with a printout, red pen in hand, making tiny, gentle corrections in the space of an afternoon.  Probably followed by a cookie and a well-earned nap. With a novel-length work, though, editing is a complicated slog.  You take out extraneous words, and collapse chapters.  You add words where they’re lacking, and split chapters.  You say, “holy crap, this character would NEVER do/say that!”  You…

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My Firefly Break

My Firefly Break

The view out my front door is ever-changing.  A developer has torn out a high school that used to be there to put in apartment buildings, offices, and townhouses over the next several years.  Presently, a mountain chain of excavated dirt stares me in the face.  On its right lies a lovely new bike and pedestrian path that, once open, will provide a shortcut to a major street, a park, and our groceries. On its left is a patch of…

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The Easiest Way to Back Up Your Files, Right Now

The Easiest Way to Back Up Your Files, Right Now

Quick, let’s go back and save fourteen year-old me! When I was a middle-school teenager, back in the era of one computer per household, my dad got mad at me for something- I don’t recall what.  Shortly thereafter, I logged into the family computer, and discovered my personal folder on the hard drive- the repository for everything I did- missing.  Not in the trash, not in a different folder, just gone like it never existed. “You must’ve downloaded a virus,”…

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