Month: January 2012

Book Cover

On By Michel McDonaldIn Autobiography, BooksLeave a comment

I have been going crazy making all of these book covers for the paper book, the Nook and the Kindle.  I made a banner for my blog, iPhone icon, even a few iPhone/iPod wallpaper images lol.  I am even thinking about making a sticker to offer people when they check in to my book on the GetGlue website.

My bubble has burst though and I may have to rethink the whole texture part of the rainbow colors because the spine of the book won’t be textured, it will be a solid color.  Although that doesn’t really matter to me, it is a bit upsetting that I won’t have that one thing to make it match.  But do I really need it to be textured?  Hell yes I do!  It’s what makes it unique.  Whatever, I’m probably going to redesign it again before I publish it, I mean it is going to be forever and I don’t want to make something that I may regret forever just because the spine isn’t the same as the book.  I’m mostly designing it for ebooks, not paper books, but since I am offering that option, it has to look right everywhere else.

Tomorrow is another day so I will focus on trying to make it work then.

Header and Page Number Issues in OOo Resolved

On By Michel McDonaldIn BooksLeave a comment

Yesterday I posed a question about header and page number issues in OpenOffice.org. How will I be able to add page numbers for book, but starting on chapter 1?  Also, how will I be able to add headers to the top of the pages that will allow me to add the author name and book name, without having that on the same page of each chapter?

The problem that I am having is that I am using OpenOffice because it’s free.  I can’t afford Microsoft Office so I’m using an alternative.  Unfortunately, my alternative isn’t helping me when I need it.  Oh sure I was able to type out my book, but when it comes to headers and page numbers I can’t figure it out.

I am using CreateSpace to publish my book in paper book format.  In order for me to do so, I have to format my document file for 5″ x 8″ and I must have headers and so on.  They have a very good template and I wanted to use that but I also wanted to figure it out on my own, or at least get some help which I never got.  I decided today that I would use the template and see how that would work and it’s working fine for me.

Then my next obstacle was that this template only has 10 chapters, my book has 41, so I will have to find a way to add more chapters and I did.  Copy and Paste.  I just copied the first 10 chapters and pasted them, then copied one final chapter and pasted that too and all of the formatting pasted as well.

But, now I face another issues, I can’t save my file because that removes the formatting lol.  The only way to do it is to just do it all in one day without saving anything.  I just have to copy and paste all 41 chapters one at a time, then when I am finished, save the whole thing as a PDF file.

I was hoping to have it ready to publish this Friday, but not making any promises, and unfortunately it’s probably going to take a few more days after that.  Hopefully next week, but again, no promises.  I am just waiting for feedback from people who are reading it is all.  I also want to publish some quotes from a couple of people who are writers who I sent the book to.

So here’s to next week, cheers!

CastleVille

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games2 Comments

I don’t know what it is about these Zynga games that is so addictive, but I just cannot stop playing CastleVille.  I don’t want to play it, yet I am compelled to for some reason.

I can remember how fun YoVille was because you were able to chat with your friends.  We would go hang out at the club (in the game of course) and chat and buy drinks; it was a fun time.  But then people stopped talking in chat because suddenly they were too busy with all of the mini games and with the job, that they just didn’t have time to talk anymore.  All of a sudden it became a job to play.

Then I started playing another Zynga game where you have a farm, oh what was it called?  Oh yeah, FarmVille… they seem to like the Ville titles, don’t they?  I was into it, and you used to be able to chat at the beginning, but then they took that away too.  You could go to someones farm and do chores and then go back to your farm and “work.”  That seems to be a common theme.

Then there was Chef World, Pioneer Trailer, Treasure Isle… the list literally goes on and on.  I had to stop playing these games because they took over my life.  I had people TELLING me to get on these games and send them crap that they need and I’m just thinking excuse me but I am busy with my own stuff here lol.  “Oh alright, what do you need?”

I had to quit playing all of those games so it’s very curious why all of a sudden I’m playing CastleVille.  I guess because it’s one game and I only play it for 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there.  This game requires hours of your life everyday, otherwise you miss out on quests.  Like, you have to build these wood planks or stone blocks to build other buildings and sometimes you have a time limit like 3 days or whatever.  I am going to miss out on a quest today because they want me to build 15 planks, 15 stone bricks and I don’t know what else in 2 hours.  Well, it takes 1 hour to build each of everything.  I refuse to beg anyone for help so I’m just going to let that one expire.

I want to say enough with this stupid game because I have better things to do with my day, but in a strange way I don’t want to; I like it lol.  I have a love hate relationship.  I love it because it’s cute, but I hate it because it’s work.  But then again aren’t all games work?  I play Lord of the Rings Online, which I haven’t been playing because of my book, and everything that you have to do seems like a job.  Maybe I’m getting too old for games.

Whatever, I like it and I will continue to play it at 5 minute increments like I am doing now.  It is time-consuming, but I am not allowing it to be on my screen for 16 hours a day and that is all that matters.

I’m sorry, were you expecting me to make a point about something?  LOL

Header and Page Issues in OOo

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog1 Comment

I am still waiting for my book to return to me with highlights on what needs to be fixed so it’s not really ready to publish.  I have been working on learning how to do headers and page numbers for the paper book.  I am using OpenOffice.org and I know how to do headers, in fact on one page it says my name, and on the other it says the title of the book.  The problem is, I don’t want that to start until the first chapter and I don’t want that to be on the first page of each chapter.  Open a book, you will see what I mean.

I am also having trouble with the page numbers issue.  I mean, I can deal with not having i ii iii iv… etc, before the first chapter, I can have those as numbers, but I’d like to not have the page number on the dedication page and the copyright page.

I can write a book, I just can’t figure out the styles and formatting lol.  It’s very frustrating.  I would love some help if someone can reply to this because I don’t want to publish my book if it doesn’t look right, you know?  I would love it if CreateSpace would add the numbers and headers, but they don’t so I have to deal with all of that bs.  UGH!

*steps down from my soapbox now*

My Net10 Phone is Rubbish

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone2 Comments

I have had my Samsung T401G Net10 cell phone since last summer when I started riding my bike. I bought it through the Net10 website as a refurbished phone and I only paid $25 for it. I also got a free $25 phone card so technically I got the phone for free. I chose this one because it’s the one that Darrin had. I’ll admit that I was a little jealous because all of a sudden he had a better cell phone than I had, although now he has an iPhone…

I have had issues with my phone from the very beginning. When I activated it, I had to go through a process of typing codes in the phone through the prepaid menu. I wasn’t sure if the issues were because it was a refurbished phone, but I didn’t care because when it finally worked I was able to make phone calls, and that’s all that mattered.

I started out with the $25 750 minutes monthly plan, but they failed to charge my debit card every month so I was forced to buy phone cards instead.  I have had to add minutes every month from their website. I wanted to do it directly from the phone, but their menu doesn’t offer the cheaper $20 phone card. You have to buy the $30 and up. I didn’t want to do that so I had to do it on the website.

Darrin bought me a phone card in the beginning of December and it was the $25 plan again. When you go with their plan, they are supposed to automatically charge the debit or credit card that is in your account, but they failed to do so and my phone was deactivated. I tried to reactivate it by getting the $15 200 minute monthly plan, but it didn’t accept it for some reason so I had to call them.

I was on the phone with Net10 yesterday for 90 minutes. They walked me through a very tedious process of pressing codes in the prepaid menu like I had to do when I first got the phone, but that didn’t work. The operator I spoke with had reactivated the phone and added my minutes with the 30 days, but unfortunately my phone itself never reactivated. So he said that my phone was not working and that he would send me another one and then I’d have to return my faulty one back to them with a prepaid envelope.

When I asked him why they didn’t automatically charge my credit card for the monthly service on the first, he replied that it was the phones fault. Um, isn’t that the responsibility of the website, not the phone?  My plan was in their system, so they should have automatically charged my credit card $25 on the first of the month.  They didn’t and now it’s the phones fault?

It doesn’t matter, I am going to keep all of the minutes that are still on my phone from last months plan, get 200 minutes from the $15 I paid for the day before yesterday and then in another month I will just go back to the $25 750 minutes plan. If they don’t charge me automatically, I will just have to make sure that I am keeping up with it by going to the website.  It’s a schlep but what else can I do?

I noticed that they are now selling android phones, the LG Optimus Net and Q. The Q just has a slide-out keyboard and it’s about $20 more. I am not too happy with their service because I rarely have more than 2 or 3 bars and when I am downloading games, it always gets interrupted and I have to start over. Maybe because it’s a faulty phone though (that was said with a hint of sarcasm).

That’s another thing, I had spent a lot of my minutes buying games. I have 8 games that I paid for and now I will lose them because my new phone isn’t going to have them. I think I would be more pissed if I had paid for those with actual money, but considering I will be getting all of my minutes back from last month, I think I can either buy them again with my minutes, or just not worry about it because I never even played them.  If I had the android phone then I think it would be more worth my time playing games than it is with this crappy phone.

I will have to wait 3-5 days for my replacement phone so I will be out a phone until then.  It sucks, but there is nothing I can do about it.  I only ever use it for texting with Darrin so it doesn’t really matter because he can just email with his fancy schmancy iPhone 4S lol.

I want to upgrade to the LG Optimus Net this summer for my birthday because I can use my wi-fi to use the internet with it when I’m at home.  When I am out on the bike trail this summer, I will be able to make twitter and Facebook updates.  I couldn’t do that with my current phone because it didn’t store my long difficult passwords and I could never remember what they were to log in every time I wanted to update.  Also, an Android phone has apps like the WeReward app and the QR code scanner.  Not that I really need to scan QR codes, but it would be nice to have that option.

It’s funny, I rarely ever use my cell phone, but I am being tortured by not having it to play with.

My Book is Almost Ready for Publication

On By Michel McDonaldIn Autobiography, It Gets BetterLeave a comment

I started writing my life story many years ago, but really worked hard on it in 2011.  It took me 2+ months to write it and 4 months to edit it.  I have sent it off to a few people as an advanced copy and of course mistakes were found.  So it is not yet ready for publication, but it will be soon.

In case anyone is wondering what it’s about, I’ll tell you.  I was abused as a child by my stepfather; my mother and older sister also mentally abused me.  I tried to kill myself many times from the age of 13 until I was 20.  A woman attempted to molest me when I was 15 years old and I was raped multiple times when I was 20. I was homeless for 6 months at the age of 15 and for 10 months when I was 17.  I was also homeless in my early 20’s; I was living in motels, but that is technically considered being homeless.  I met my soul mate and life partner of 17 (going on 18) years and meeting him was when it got better.

I started out writing my life story (as if anyone cared because I’m a nobody) but then these gay children started killing themselves and it suddenly evolved into an “It Gets Better” book.  I want to show that I had a horrible life and I wanted to end it all, but it got better for me and it can get better for them too if they just hang on for a little bit longer.  It may seem like it’s never going to get better, and believe me, I thought for years it could only get worse, but it did get better.

My main goal is that it may help someone out there who is being bullied and wanting to end it all.  They will read my “it gets better” book and see that it got better for me and it can get better for them too.  If they don’t read it, and I don’t expect them to, then perhaps someone can read it and give them the cliffs-notes version to help them.

I am a bit nervous about publishing it because of course I don’t want the people who I wrote about to get upset with me, despite them being in the wrong.  They don’t even talk to me so I don’t know why I would care if they were upset with me anyway.

I am excited because I am finally finished and can publish it soon.  What makes me more excited is that I can finally help some charities when I get my first check from the sales of the book.  I have wanted to help these charities for a long time but couldn’t because I never had the money.

Today is Wednesday, so hopefully I will be able to publish my book within the next week.  Of course I will be advertising my little butt off here, on Twitter, on Google+ and on Facebook so stay tuned for that lol.

Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year!

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

Happy New Year!  Can you believe that it’s 2012 already?  I mean, it seems like it was just summer and now it’s a whole new year.

Time to make a new years resolution.  I don’t know what mine would be.  I kind of feel like I don’t really need to make one, you know?  I mean, I only keep one out of 10 so why bother making one?  I could be positive and say I want to exercise more and lose weight, but wouldn’t that sabotage me?  Every time I exercise and lose weight I say I’m doing it and get a big head about it and end up getting bored with it and gain more weight.

So I guess the only thing left to say is that I will make my new years resolution something that I was already planning, which is publishing my book, which I worked for the last 6 months to write and edit.  So it’s not new, it’s just something I was already in the process of doing.  So there.  On top of that I will diet and exercise, I just won’t tell you about it out of fear that I will sabotage myself lol.

Yes that picture is of a Christmas coffee mug that I got back in 2005 with Kahlua and Egg nog.  I’m not a huge drinker and I only had 2 cups of that.  No I didn’t get drunk, I didn’t even get buzzed lol.  I just wanted the taste of something naughty in my mouth… I know you have to be laughing at that.

Well, Happy 2012.  Be safe everyone!