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1:28 AM
1:55 AM
@Hemant is the person new to the field, or to the company, or to project management, or...?
2:27 AM
@UrsulaV @keetfeet I have this theory that kids' fiction has to be better because kids won't read some crap just because they're supposed to
 
11 hours later…
1:35 PM
0
Q: What's a good LaTeX template for self-publishing a short children's book?

mateuzThe trick is that the book is in three languages... layout becomes tricky fast. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 
1 hour later…
2:52 PM
@MattЭллен @KitFox - Hello! Would either of you want to write a piece on the Nose for Banned Book Week later this month?
How many words-ish?
@NeilFein Hello!
3:09 PM
@MattЭллен - Normal blog post length, 500-1000 words or so?
So the piece would be about the Nose?
Hi. I didn't get your ping.
@MattЭллен - No, I'd like to write about banned books for a week. I'm thinking, pick a book that's been challenged a lot and write about it. Maybe pick a book that's affected you personally?
@KitFox - Hi! How's it been?
[insert inarticulate mumbles here]
@NeilFein I see!
@NeilFein fiction, specifically?
3:24 PM
Books we'd like to ban? Great idea!
I'll start with Fifty Shades of Grey. Because it blows.
Then I'll work my way through dozens of popular pieces of crap.
And end by concluding that most people don't deserve to be literate.
@KitFox - Ah, no.
Oh.
Well. That's awkward.
3:27 PM
And hi.
Maybe something off this list? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
I think I might do A Wrinkle in Time.
I liked that book.
Just realized that Banned Books Week is also the week of Rosh Hashana.
I'll have to make sure to have mine ready early.
Are you there God? It's me, Margaret because we shan't have young ladies knowing about menstruation. And what if the young men should chance to read it!? Scandalous.
I'm surprised how many of these I've read.
Where Did I Come From? was my book about the birds and the bees.
Ooh, The Dead Zone is on there.
Flowers for Algernon was amazing. I can't imagine why anyone would want that book banned. Although... weren't there sex scenes in the novel version?
3:37 PM
I don't recall that, but I am pretty sure I read an excerpted version in a textbook in school.
And not the actual novel.
And sex scenes, well, there are plenty of novels with those.
@KitFox I do believe it was originally a short story, later expanded into a novel?
Maybe.
Or you're thinking of Lawnmower Man.
That definitely had at least one sex scene in it. In the movie. Which I might have rewound and watched, just to make sure. A few times.
Like how I went through The Mists of Avalon and counted the sex scenes, then I had to do it again just to make sure. Then once more, because I was sure I had forgot one.
Hi @Jasper.
So. Should we do Writers Chat today?
sure. I'm about to head home
3:50 PM
I've got meetings in an hour for two hours.
so we'll have time in three hours?
@KitFox Hi! I noticed you were missing in the Eng room so I came here.
@MattЭллен Well, how long does it take you to get home?
@KitFox 45 minutes to an hour
@MattЭллен Do you still cycle back?
3:53 PM
yes
OK. Then we'll have to go asynchronous. I'll have to leave after my meetings to go home.
OK. I'll catch up when I get back :)
CU
Bai!
@Jasper, @Neil, @waxeagle are any of you participating today?
@KitFox No, of course not!
Then would you kindly provide a topic for today's ten-minute freewrite?
4:00 PM
OK, let me think of one now.
@KitFox If the baby lets me type, yes. 1pm or are you thinking later?
Today's topic: My high school crush.
@NeilFein Right now.
@JasperLoy kthx. brb.
Okay, go ahead. Baby's napping ATM.
FOR NOW!
sssh
4:13 PM
And time.
grumbles
Oh, we'd started?
I can't write anymore.
@KitFox Wow, that was quick. You people are very good at writing.
It's ten minutes. That's all we get.
@NeilFein You hadn't?
Good practice. I often had problems thinking of what to write in an exam essay.
4:14 PM
No, I was waiting for you to say "go".
I've switched over to narrative, and I really suck at writing that way off the cuff.
@NeilFein Go.
I should probably go back to third-person or something, but I figure I could use the practice.
I think I'm done.
158 words.
You had another 12 seconds.
But that's cool.
Baby still sleeping?
So far, yes.
Oh, this is her (his?) first Rosh Hashana, innit?
Sorry I can't remember your baby's gender.
Or name, although I knew it at one point.
4:26 PM
Yes, it'll be her first.
No worries.
Well, maybe I did remember after all.
Is there something special you do for the first one?
What's Rosh Hashana? A Jewish thing?
New Year.
Jewish new year, one of the two biggest holidays of the year
I seem to recall something about being written into the Book of Atonement?
I don't know Jewish holidays very well though.
4:27 PM
This one we celebrate. The week following is Yom Kippur, when we fast and atone and so on.
Oh right. That's Yom Kippur.
I know of 0 Jewish people in my country, lol.
Where are you?
Singapore
4:29 PM
But I have met 3 Jewish people on SE, excluding you.
I grew up with a lot of Jewish kids, so I was surprised to learn that there are a considerable number of anti-Semites in the world.
Yeah, I haven't encountered it all that much.
And when I moved down South, no one had any idea about Jewish holidays.
Not personally.
Like, they had no awareness of them at all. I found it very weird until I learned that there were approximately 50 Jewish families within 500 miles of where I was living.
I decided it must be a strange for me as it would be for a Southerner to move to my hometown and suddenly realize that there were no black families within 150 miles of where they were living.
And vanishingly few Spanish-speakers.
4:32 PM
Look at the star wall. All have links!
So. @Neil. Are you sharing or not?
I like to marvel over such trivial observations.
Yeah, hold on
How can I publish a text file on the web somewhere?
Um. Pastebin?
Haha, I don't know.
Aww.
shakes mental fist at Sharon
Fictionalized a bit, but it sorta happened.
I just read both your stories, lol.
Where are the others?
4:42 PM
They knew I was coming, so they escaped.
I don't know. Maybe everybody just stopped coming.
wax is very quiet.
This is the first chat I've been to since the last one I was at.
Which was months ago.
This is the first sentence I've typed since the last one I typed.
Glad you got the joke.
4:43 PM
I kind of hate writing so I will never join you.
I guess it was a little over a month ago, and a little over a month before that.
When will this site finally graduate? It's been a long time in beta.
@NeilFein I know what that is without clicking, lol.
@JasperLoy That's unclear, but we are trying to clean things up a bit for now.
Speaking of which, we would really appreciate some feedback on this meta thread about critiques:
4
Q: Critiques considered harmful?

Monica CellioFor pretty much all of the time I've been active here (more than three years now), we've allowed critique questions and I've wondered if they're a good idea. Let me recap: The on-topic summary says this about critique questions: Critiques: You can ask a Q&A question concerning your own...

4:50 PM
I'm not sure what else to say except to vote on it.
Sounds like critiques are your equivalent of EL&U's single-word-requests.
Each answer has positive votes.
And the answers say the same thing.
Both answers basically say the same thing
So we have the answer.
jinx
so Jasper, you're here now
4:52 PM
are you everywhere?
Yeah, I was spying on Kit.
Hola, @Mr.Shiny.
Are you here to do the writing exercise?
I did mine early on account of I have a meeting at 1.
We really need more people in the community to comment and vote on this.
I have suggested the topic today. It is "My high school crush" @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇
@KitFox Yes, I'm here
@JasperLoy Are you writing something?
4:54 PM
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No, but the rest have done theirs.
He's not, but he offered the topic.
It's lunch time, you all should go eat something.
@JasperLoy You should write something! Just change the names and call it fiction.
I just realised you are a room owner here.
Yeah I'm special here.
4:56 PM
You get to see deleted messages too.
really? I don't think so
Either that or nobody deletes them here
Can you see ^?
Well, I can see the deleted message, since I'm a mod.
I am pretty sure a room owner can see, since one just told me in another room.
No, I see (removed)
oh! there is a history link
yes I can see it from there
5:08 PM
Aha, that's how it works.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nice one!
I am sorry I can't write, I am bad at writing stories.
@JasperLoy practice makes perfect!
That's why we're here
In fact, you could try writing something, and then if you don't like it, just don't share it.
You don't have to write a good story, just write something.
Mine was pretty bad.
5:16 PM
Or share it anyway, and then say what you don't like about it
@NeilFein For a 10 min write, it was good. I liked it.
Thanks.
I looked at her from a distance. Her smile was sweet. She was talking to a friend. I tried to find an excuse to approach her but couldn't think of any. All I did was to sit there and stare at her. Then she turned in my direction and I looked away, pretending to be looking at something else. Finally, she took her bag and left the canteen, and I followed suit. @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 DONE!
It's a good way to sum up a relationship: "In college, it became glaringly obvious that Sharon didn't want to have anything to do with us. But that day in the cafeteria I grinned at her and opened my sketchbook"... I could totally see that in a novel where the protagonist is providing background on his old crush who just walked into his private detective office
@JasperLoy That's good! Also: been there, done that.
Now add some descriptive words, spice it up a bit, and you've nailed it.
Incidentally I am listening to Superunknown right now and it brings back memories of high school. Hard to believe that album is 20 years old now.
Well, most of my life has been painful. However, I still have good memories of the time before I went mad.
I think I went mad at around 18, around the time I was enlisted in the army.
5:22 PM
Storytime?
That really screwed things up because I did not have time to sort out my thoughts in the army.
I had to wake up early without sufficient sleep, and had to do stupid things all day long.
An incident then caused me to think over and over about something, and slowly I lost concentration.
Since I could not focus, I was not sure if I switched things off or not.
Slowly I developed the OCD of checking that things were off indeed.
BRB, I have to answer the baby.
The OCD themes changed over the years. But they were mostly of the checking type and not the cleaning type. There was once it was of the sinning type, where I always felt guilty about doing this or that, but I have gotten over that now.
In fact, the first theme I had was of the sinning type, but I am too shy to share the details here.
Then last year, I finally decided to try some meds.
I am not sure how much they help, but I will continue taking them.
Anyway, I have not been working the past 7 years or so. This period of time, I dropped about half the hair on my head due to stress from worrying about things.
Oh wait, why am I telling my story here? lol
I had a lot of problems with my dad since young. Anyway he moved out a few years ago and I am staying with my mum who is caring for me.
5:30 PM
@JasperLoy People often write about what they know. You've got enough to work with, that's for sure.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Is it lunch time now?
@JasperLoy I thought you said you can't write. But here you are, telling a story.
Yeah, this room is the doctor's room, lol.
Just finished my lunch. The baby's having hers now.
Gonna eat something now.
5:34 PM
k, l8r
user116848
6:08 PM
hi
Hello
user116848
I am usually at ELU chat :)
user116848
I thought I should drop by here
We had our writing exercise chat, but you can still do it if you like.
user116848
Yes I was reading it above. Looks like a good work
user116848
6:10 PM
So what do we have to write here? Anything?
10 minutes to write whatever you can on high school crushes. Wanna do it? I'll time you.
user116848
Can I get time to think?
The point is that you just get thrown into it. It doesn't have to be good.
But let me know, whatever you like. :)
user116848
Okay so you tell when to start :)
user116848
6:12 PM
Thinking....ok
@Arrowfar Aaaand stop.
user116848
Crushes suck basically. But truth be told I have a story of myself to tell. So there was this girl in my school whom I liked very much but such was like one of those mean chicks that we try to stay away from when we get older, or at least who are gold diggers.
So on one occasion she even tried to talk to me, but only that I realized later that she was playing me to get the ideas of my assignment that I had completed. Pretty bad right? Anyways time passed and I was madly in love with her until I completed my studies at school and left that part of my life forever. However, still when I think
2
user116848
But don't at it though.
Awesome.
High school crushes are usually pretty sad. At least here, in this room, today.
I liked the note of happy in yours.
user116848
hah :)
user116848
6:25 PM
@NeilFein But I got the message that the writing is too long therefore I couldn't press the send button when you told me to stop. You know why is that?
user116848
I had to break it in half.
These chat fields have a size limit.
No worries.
user116848
I see
user116848
thanks :)
user116848
So have you written your crush story today?
user116848
6:26 PM
I haven't seen it
Check the star wall
user116848
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Oh, hi :)
Not sure if I starred it, let me look.
I starred it
But it's not that descriptive a msg
I see it now.
6:27 PM
You could use your super-mod powers to edit it into a more descriptive link :)
user116848
Ok I see it now.
user116848
Let me read,,,,,
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Done.
user116848
I notice that in every crush story there is a lot of staring :)
6:39 PM
That's what people do when they don't know what else to do
user116848
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You crush story was about a guy? (If you don't mind me asking)
Well, it was from the perspective of a guy
It's not written in first-person
user116848
About a guy? :)
user116848
I see
user116848
@MattЭллен hi Matty
6:44 PM
@Arrowfar No, the last word in it is "her"
The guy in the story is all angry and sad and frustrated because his plans for "her" have gone wrong.
user116848
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes I noticed that at the end of the story.
user116848
@MattЭллен Matt you wrote anything here today? Apart from some Limericks :)
7:14 PM
Hello. Mine had no staring. And see you later.
user116848
@KitFox hi Ms Fox
user116848
What happened to your profile pic?
user116848
how did you upload a blank avatar? I can't seem to figure it out
user116848
@MattЭллен Nice!
7:27 PM
thanks
7:38 PM
@MattЭллен ah, the downfall of obsession.
 
2 hours later…
9:17 PM
@Arrowfar It's not blank. It just looks that way.
10:04 PM
0
Q: Cheapest way to self-bind a large book

AmunaI'm finishing up a 350 page book that I will self publish. I plan on printing my book at a local printing store but they charge $6 to bind each book. I'm paying my tuition with the profit of this book and would like keep my expenses to a minimum. What is cheapest way to bind a large book?


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