slow but interesting...

We managed to close—or almost close—two big projects at Griffith Publishing. Today we sent the pdf files to TableRock printing for the April-May-June edition of BeWell, and tomorrow is the self-imposed deadline for the final changes in the Frost Mortgage book.

I’ve already received the first half of the total payment from Frost and have invoiced the hospital for BeWell.

All that means a surge in income, and I like that. I’m buying a tiny little patio set from Costco to celebrate.

I learned an important point about making a telephone voice recorder work. My entire hour talking to Roy Stanley about his escape from Poland went down because I plugged the connecting cord into the receptor named “ear” instead of the one named “mike.” Maybe I’ll catch on one of these days! I did take notes, but I’m slow with the cast still on my right wrist.

That ends in two more days, and that impediment will be impeding me no more.

Above is a rare peek into my office last week end—before I cleaned it up.

Ready for Christmas, almost

HealthWorks

We have all the bugs worked out, and HealthWorks is being printed as I write these words. Kay hasn't been able to make all the address changes, which is nigh unto impossible for anyone to make now that the USPS has decided it won't deliver any mail that doesn't meet their every requirement for how elements are spelled and punctuated.

BeWell

BeWell stories are ready to roll, but I have some "regular" business I need to take care of first.

Web design book

Finishing up on correction and design elements for this book by Jason O'Connor. I want to hire him as my consultant for setting up my blogs and web pages to be well integrated.

Ghostwriting

Telephone rings. I pick up the receiver, give my name, and the person says, "I called you three years ago." Turns out to be a man who escaped from Poland, has been kidnapped and otherwise threatened trying to help people win freedom etc. I vaguely remember talking to him. He has my proposal and says he'll be ready to send it after he talks to his attorney, and I should receive it by December 23.

Reading it on screen

Kindle may have a grand vision of people buried in their plastic boxes for hours on end absorbing the 90,000 books Amazon.com has made available so far on the world's newest e-book product. I do not.

Staring at a blinking screen doesn't ruin the eyes, apparently. All it does is give out headaches. Nobody has gone blind that we know of because of reading too much text on the screen.

Still, screens are slower and less efficient than reading from sheets of paper. And working with complicated formulas or illustrations is next to impossible on a 6-inch screen.

Bur they're so convenient!

Truth be told, I'm fascinated by e-books and plan to get involved in some aspect of electronic publishing soon. But I hope the wonderful books available in paper and ink today never go away. They're treasures on my bookshelves, works of art in their own way.

Progress on T-Day Plus 2

Story lists are done for HealthWorks and BeWell and have been posted as follows:

BeWell story list:

Why so many allergies? Why are allergies increasing? (no conclusions available, just general awareness…Would like a good quote from an expert…)

Kitchen fires and household burns—prevention and treatment

Myths your mom may have passed along to you:

Following are common pieces of medical advice handed down to kids

by well-meaning adults. They are not true.

1. Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis.

a. It may be annoying to everyone within range, but no studies have ever been conducted that show a relationship between arthritis and knuckle cracking

b. You can stretch and damage ligaments…From Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center: There is no evidence that cracking knuckles causes any damage such as arthritis in the joints. However, a couple of reports in the medical literature are available associating knuckle cracking with injury of the ligaments surrounding the joint or dislocation of the tendons (attachments of muscles to bones) which improved with conservative treatment. A study found that after many years of cracking habitual knuckle crackers may have reduced grip strength compared with people not cracking their knuckles.

2. Don’t swim for an hour after eating

a. No formal recommendations from American Red Cross, AAP, or the Consumer Product Safety Commission

b. Very small additional risk, e.g. a huge meal is eaten just before swimming can result in vomiting and if the swimmer is in trouble, drowning is more likely

3. Eating chocolate makes acne worse

a. No foods have been proven to cause acne

b. Some research indicates that a bit of chocolate can actually fight acne

4. Starve a fever, feed a cold

a. Second is good advice: need lots of liquids and nourishment to get over a bad cold

b. First is bad advice: if you have a fever you also need lots of liquids and good nourishment

When in doubt about the validity of homespun advice, ask your doctor or other health care professional at the nearest Saint Alphonsus clinic…

Follow-up story on Express Care

Taking charge of your health and working with your provider team when things go wrong

Staph can be anywhere

HealthWorks story list

Stress and work (lead story)

Scaffolds and planks--stemming from a story of a worker who fell three stories from a plank that was loose and dilapidated

The power of nature

Slides, cave-ins, floods, electrical storms. Wait til it happens?

Who’s afraid of big bad staph?

Crushing injuries—when something heavy lands on a person

Waist management, a top priority for workers

Micron story, a primary care clinic at work

Ice hazards
BLS statistics show decline in work-related injuries

EOY Approaches

As the end of the year approaches, I'm trying to figure out how to get all the writing and editing done by deadline time.

Top priority now is for Jason O'Connor's book on web design. I have 68 pages to go on the editing. Then I have to work on getting his graphics in place. Should have it ready to send off to him soon.

Not to neglect the final changes for Gary Pawlukewich's book on parenting from a dad's perspective. He has high hopes for his book, and he may realize them. He's determined, he's optimistic, and how many dad-written parenting books are out there?

And the wonderful world of breathing. That book's content finally seems to be complete. Dr. Ing has added a lot of text to it, and I just have to try to smooth it all in one continuous, reasonable piece.

I'm hoping to see two books from Doug Kane: a teenage novel on the Icelandic horse, and a historic novel called "Eagle Bay" about government dealings. Then there's John Pedlyak, who is still working with "the boys," as he calls them in putting together another historical novel, this one about the Chicago Cubs of 1907.

Then there are two Saint Alphonsus newsletters to complete by the end of the year.

I'd rather curl up in my recliner and read some of the books I've just bought!

The March of Books

Urology Manual

This afternoon I sent off the Third Edition of the Pocket Guide to Urology, by Jeff Wieder, M.D., to the printer in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Before I did that I took a look and was taken back by some of the typographical features that are not quite standard. I taught Jeff everything I know about using FrameMaker to format books, and he learned well. So now he just sends me the completed book for printing and binding. All well and good, but we don't underline in printed books any more, and we line up lists by the right-most decimal, and we don't print words in bold unless we have to.

Cheerful author that he is, he assured me he knew everything I'd just told him because I'd told him before, but he wanted it this way anyway. He's always so polite and cheerful about things, I could never resist his logic. The book is going to the printer exactly the way he wants it to go. And it will do well. Very well.

Wish I could do that

My mortgage company, Countrywide, is called the colossus of all lending firms. Well, they lost $1.2 billion third quarter.

Terrible news?

Nope. Shares are up already because the company promised no more sub-prime and other high risk loans and says their earnings will recover next quarter.

I wonder if that means they lost $1.2 billion in a three-month period because of risky loans they authorized that defaulted.

All I know is that I, for one, can't lose money any quarter of the year.