So, about that redesign…you might have noticed just a couple of minor cosmetic changes here and there. Just a couple.
theLogBook.com has had very, very minor variations on the same logo ever since I first rendered the word “LOGBOOK” in Microgramma Bold Extended on a Video Toaster in 1994 or ’95, just for giggles. Ever since then, that’s been the logo, and that’s been the “look”.
In 2011, Amazon.com cut off all of its affiliation agreements with affiliates in several states, as a response to those states pushing for laws that would force Amazon to collect state sales tax in those states. This action was a calculated effort to get the affiliates to put pressure on their state legislatures to rescind the bills in question, but as many Amazon affiliates are either small businesses or sites run by individuals, Amazon didn’t get the result expected. If collecting the taxes in question made business impossible to do in those states, Amazon would’ve stopped shipping things to Arkansas and the other states in question, but of course they didn’t. That would affect the bottom line. Can’t have that.
theLogBook.com had been an Amazon affiliate since the late 1990s, which was really the point at which it went from “disorganized fan site” to “somewhat more focused site that can make a bit of money”. Then there came a tipping point at which the site was legitimately paying its own bills – the costs of hosting, the domain name, bandwidth, even my internet connectivity at home, were all being paid for by the site. This justified expansion of the site and the time spent on it, and led to a few “boom years” where content seemed to increase nearly exponentially. That had to slow down substantially when my first child arrived, but it was still worth spending time on. When Amazon cut all of its Arkansas affiliates off in 2011, myself included, it was like losing a limb. What point was there in generating more material for the site when it was no longer going to pay its own bills? Indeed, the money to buy the things frequently covered here – DVDs, music, and so on – ran out. The emphasis rapidly changed: it was time for that Doctor Who book I’d been working on at a slow burn for several years to come to the front burner in a hurry. The kind of content I could charge for was the only kind that there was any justification to work on.
Now, thanks to a change in federal law, Amazon is required to collect state sales tax nationwide…and without announcing it to anyone, they’ve re-opened the doors of their affiliate program to sites in those states they once spurned. Here’s what that means at theLogBook. … Read more
It’s with a heavy heart and a light head that I have to announce that the second volume of my Doctor Who guide, VWORP!2, likely won’t see print until January 2014. The revised second edition of its predecessor, VWORP!1, will arrive alongside it, with several pages of new content pushing it past the 400 page mark.
So last week I tried an experiment, and it wasn’t entirely successful. It’s probably a damn good idea… for someone who isn’t me, and has more free time, to try.
The idea was as follows: borrowing a page from the playbook of the ol’ teevee production days, record a week’s worth of daily podcasts in one session. Tightly time everything – each podcast should be roughly the same length. Work from a detailed outline. Get five of these done in a day… and… go! … Read more
If you’re on Facebook, you may have noticed that I’ve been gradually deleting the photo albums and videos I’ve had posted on there forever. I probably had close to a thousand pictures on there, from various gaming and other events, birthdays, visits to the zoo, all sorts of fun stuff like that. I’ve been taking all of it down.
With the frequency and vague wording with which Facebook changes its privacy policies, I’ve decided that it can’t be trusted. … Read more
I recently got a new phone (way before Black Friday, mind, so no, I haven’t taken part in any retail stampedes), the first one I’ve had where the whole thing’s basically a touchscreen. It’s ridiculously customizable as far as caller images, wallpapers, event sounds, etc., so I’ve been, as they say, geeking out.
If you’re actually in my contact list, then believe it or not, you’ve got one of these graphics with your name on it:
Hey, my cat calls me a lot. 😆 (It’s pretty quick work to apply the individual name to the basic template. I may have had some free time on my hands today, but not that much.)
I whipped up a couple of geek-a-licious animated wallpapers as well; suffice to say, they’re in the same “universe.” I’ll show them off another time.… Read more
There’s a terribly good article here about what I spent a lot of my life doing between 1999 and 2007. I miss the ol’ collection sometimes, but recently got back into a fray in a small way to accumulate some GBA games for the boy. I’d forgotten how entertaining the hunt was – almost as fun as actually playing the games.
I’ll post some photos soon; I didn’t exactly take a glut of pictures because my hands were full of presents and goodies. He got quite a haul of clothes and goodies, and to everyone’s amazement he seemed genuinely jazzed about all of it. No “oh… yay… socks” from him. Not yet anyway. To my not-inconsiderable shame, I think he knows we’re struggling a bit financially, and the sheer amount of clothing he got was a Good Thing. I hate that he’s aware of that struggle at the age of five. But he’s also very happy about all the goodies he got, whether they were clothes or games. I’m very grateful to all the family who showed up for the big oh-five bearing gifts. I wasn’t expecting that.
theLogBook.com hasn’t been terribly active lately; I’ve had my head buried in a project that is, ironically, related to theLogBook.com. The project started out as supporting research for the webseries idea I’ve had, and then it struck me, a few days into that research, that the webseries project had indirectly provided me with an answer to the question “What’s your website about?” Which has been an elusive question, you know, for a long time. (Pretty sad when the thing has been operating in one form or another for over 20 years.) That’s when it hit me: the thing I’m working on is going to become the new main menu for the site. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with the current one, mind you, but after all this time, I’ve figure out what the site is about, and so it’s time to jump in with both feet and do this main menu revamp that nails down precisely what that is. Because it’s kind of neat.
And at that point, after all these years, I think the time will have finally come when I give up the ghost on saying “Yes, there will be regular daily/weekly updates, like clockwork,” because even with me being out of work, that’s just not happening like it should. Real life intervenes. And I’ve found that when I’m trying as hard as I can to maintain that schedule, it becomes a chore instead of a joy. This site should never be like that. It will still be updated – probably quite a lot, actually, in support of the book projects I’m working along in parallel – but the notices that “hey, I posted something new” will probably happen in the forums after that, since the main menu will be taking on quite a different form. A “most recent updates” widget will be added to Episode Guides so everyone can keep up with the most current stuff.
What exactly that form is… you’ll just have to wait and see. As usual, I hope everyone enjoys using it and reading it as much as I’m enjoying putting it together. As always, the site’s not going away, just entering a new phase where I can add stuff at my leisure.… Read more
I’m giving up, for now, on the podcast. The existing podcast material has been folded back into my blog for the time being. (Damn you, Time Being!)
Fig. 1: Time Being
I simply don’t have the time, at present, to do this on a consistent enough basis to merit its own whole section of the site. … Read more
For those interested (which is probably an amazingly small number): for some reason, Facebook is not allowing me to update my status, comment, like, lick, spin, dodge, parry, or thrust. It will allow me to update theLogBook’s page, and apparently it will allow me to post links, but that’s it.
For those who wonder why I post stuff on my blog and link to the blog from Facebook… this is a pretty good example of why.… Read more
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So, funny story related to today’s episode of Doctor Who. It really won’t make any sense unless you’ve seen it already, but it’s absolutely true, it was absolutely unexpected, and it’s right up there with the “draw hash marks on your friends’ arms while they sleep” gag. …