62 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2025-10-26T18:36:00-05:00
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aliases: []
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title: 2025-10-26 18:36:??
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tags:
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- authorship/original
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- destiny/permanent
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- original-format/typewritten-print
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- status/complete
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- topic/hobbies/reading
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- type/periodic/timestamped
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dg-publish: true
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---
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# 2025-10-26 18:36:??
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_Sunday evening_
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I read Harlan Ellison's _I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream_ this morning.
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It took me about two hours. What may be curious about that is the story is
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less than six thousand words. What I did for _IHNMAIMS_, though---and what I've
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made a habit of doing with all short-form literature I read recently---
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is only half reading. Here's my process:
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1. Google or DuckDuckGo (Google's cooler but less studious cousin)for
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"(title).epub", or "(title).pdf" if the first doesn't get any good
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hits.
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2. Convert the ripped doc to markdown using one of several tools as
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most appropriate and no small amount of manual effort.
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3. Convert the new markdown file to epub and upload it to my calibre
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library.
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It's during step 2 that I read the piece, and I really get in there.
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Because markdown ignores single line breaks you can put them where ever you
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want in a paragraph without changing the output. Some standards recommend on
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sentence per line, but that's often to long to be practical, and, more
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importantly, misses out on the ability to punctuate another author's writing
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the way they goddamn well should've in the first place. Again I stress, this
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doesn't affect the output.
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I do this so often that reading any other way---
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web articles, where line breaks are meaningless, or worse print, where the
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the same is true and text is broken up arbitrarily into pages---has become
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noticeably more straining. Equally straining is writing in this wall-of-text
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format. I've done it so far simply because I like hearing the margin bell ahhhh
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We're too advanced as a species to be treating books
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as anything but an imperfect medium for the pure expression of text.
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I have what some might consider a liberal view of artistic ownership.
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Suppose you were conversing with a coworker and they said something poignant,
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later you speak with another and share the first's anecdote as your own.
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Is this theft? No. Immoral? Unethical? Perhaps.
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Your coworker has not lost anything.
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Not the idea, and not the certainty that _they_ came up with it.
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It is possible to believe that something should not be done
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without believing those who do should be imprisoned.
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Personally, I cite my sources because I respect _information_ not authors.
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I _would_ "steal", but I really get a kick out of paying.
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To value the profit of one's ideas above their inherent worth is shameful.
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