The Journal, Friday, February 23

Hey Folks,

The saga continues. I looked over several Mac laptops and frankly, they were all well out of my range currently.

So I finally contacted Lenovo to see whether there was a way to manually disable the trackpad, since Bill The Godfaddah Gates decided I can no longer disable it through Windows. (Actually, if Gates knew what some mindless moron did, he probably would fire the guy.)

The tech said to disable the trackpad, I had to either press fn+f6 or just f6. One of those would work, he said.

Neither one worked.

Then he said then obviously it was a hardware failure. He recommended I take it to Best Buy to get it repaired.

So let me get this straight: the trackpad DOES work even though I don’t want it to, but it “fails” by not being able to be turned off.

Fine. Got it.

Thing is, I don’t want the trackpad anyway. Why should I pay to have it repaired just so I can turn it off. 🙂

So I flipped over the computer, whipped out my set of jeweler’s screwdrivers, and took a shot of whiskey. Then I opened the back of the computer and poked around until I found a cable that was conveniently marked with a TP (TrackPad) tag. I unplugged it, then folded it back out of the way.

(Thanks to my granddaughter Amber for suggesting I unplug the thing. I’ve done that before but didn’t think of it this time until she brought it up.)

Guess what? No more trackpad. YAY! Now maybe I can get back to more enjoyable things. Like poking myself in the eye with a stick. Or maybe even writing.

For now, the writing ‘puter goes back to the Hovel and the Lenovo resumes its place in my office.

***

I recently copyedited a long novel for a guy. When I emailed him recently to ask about the balance owed, he wrote the reasons the payment was delayed and asked for a couple of weeks’ extension.

Then he wrote something that shocked me: “Anyway, I can’t publish this novel without your concent as you are my copy editor.”

Folks, that’s just flat wrong. No matter who you hire to copyedit or do a cover or formatting or whatever, that person can never require you to get their permission to publish. Just so you know, neither can they require you to include their name as co-author or editor or cover designer or any of that nonsense.

In fact, I specifically tell my clients that if they reject more than 10% of my suggested edits, they are not allowed to tell others I copyedited their work. To do so wouldn’t be fair to me or to the reader.

If any service provider tries this with you, them NO (resoundingly) and find someone honest to deal with.

For a great deal more on this sort of thing, see the first item in “Of Interest” below.

***

No writing today, probably, other than this. Today I’m putting my little two-computer world back together now that I rectified my problem with a pair of pliers and a large hammer. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

See you then.

Of Interest

See “Business Musings: Editorial Encroachment” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/02/21/20734/.

Just in case you’re interested in supporting Dean’s North by Northwest Kickstarter, check out “Five Days Left” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/five-days-left/. The guy’s helped me so much I try to support him in any way I can.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 570
So total words for the day: 570

Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 8193
Total fiction words for the year………… 46349
Total nonfiction words for the month… 9510
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 17530
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 63879

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 1
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 28
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182