Done and To-Do:

[lwood]

• Got Idunna 53 (Heathen Music) into PDF format (PageMaker 5.5->PageMaker 6.5->InDesign CS 1...WHEE!).


• Supported my local farmers' market (yay!).


• Attended AMUH Business Meeting & @Home


• Put one batch of yogurt up and started another. Tomorrow, these will combine and make labneh!


• Twenty-four rows (one more motif of 25 total) on my latest devotional shawl.


• One devotional necklace (white moonstone beads, round, 6mm, white jade pendant) beaded.


• Made reservations to attend the Return to Fernwood Campout proposed by Troth Redesman Steve Abell.
  
• Announced same, plus declared intent to seidh, goldurnit. If insufficient interest for the pog & dony show, may hold impromptu Black Hat Party in same grove.


• Checked on my baby sourdough starter, process as described in The Bread Bible, working from all wild yeast, because, uh, I have some of the best on earth right here.


• Wrote various bits and bobs to many of you good folks.

Tomorrow's To-Do:

• Get Idunna 54 (Tyr) into PDF, another victim of the same crazy upconversions.


• Make labneh.


• Start half-red, half-white sauerkraut (mmm, sauerkrant), again with all wild beasties (not as scary as The Man™ would have you think).


• Start new batch of kombucha (from commercially produced bottle thereof). Monster Ranching for Fun and Profit Probiota!


• Complete another batch of 24 rows on aforementioned devotional shawl.


• Spend Quality Knittin' an' Kiwi Time with medancer.


• Quality Tea (and more Kiwi) time with dpaxson, grendel_todd, and whomever else attends (apel? medancer? Always a plesantly metaversal adventure is Greyhaven Tea...)


• Observe the baby sourdough starter and cheer him on, feeding if necessary. I'm starting him on rye instead of wheat, that's sure to slow things down.

And as always, my long-term goals, as freely and cheerfully cribbed from the strat guide to a video game:

• Learn the Secrets of the Universe.


• Defeat the Enemies of the World.

-- Lorrie

Comments

[shantak.livejournal.com]

I went to a Farmer's market today too. And I saw a Magnum of mead. I didn't ask how much it was because the last time it was sampled it was declared too sweet. Well, that and I'm not exactly flush or anything. I was going to ask you if you were still making yoghurt. Yum. Speaking of babies, are you expecting kittens?

-SMK

[lwood.livejournal.com]

mmmmm, mead!

I hadn't made yogurt in months, on the basis that it was too cold for a cold breakfast. It must really really be spring now, then, as lo, it is now yogurt time. 8-)

That are no kitties, and no toms either. Sigdrifa does not travel well at all: if we bring her to a boycat, the stress of travel knocks her out of heat (wtf!?). Nobody's got a tom they can bring to us, so sometime midmonth, we'll be getting her spayed...and that will end the Greyhaven line. I'm sad about that, but there it is.

-- Lorrie

[shantak.livejournal.com]

Awww, bummer. Well, you tried.

Yum yogurt.

-smk

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

Question--I'm curious, and you might have covered this somewhere else already and I just missed it. Is there a reason you're converting back issues of Idunna to PDF? Easier storage, then recycle the paper?

[lwood.livejournal.com]

At that time, Idunna was being produced in Adobe PageMaker, then printed out on an inkjet printer, then whipped 'round to a local print shop to be photocopied onto tabloid-sized (11x17) paper, which was then saddle-stapled into a letter-sized magazine.

In the intervening years, through lots of leaning, I finally got Diana to start submitting her masters electronically. She originally did this as PageMaker files along with a hit and miss selection of the included files--within a few issues, I finally figured out how to export to PDF so we started doing that, as it's overall a far more sensible format to send out to the printers. Several years after that I found out about creating a package in InDesign, but PDF does everything we need in one file (embedded fonts, we do well to get 300 dpi on our pictures in the first place, etc), and is therefore very efficient to upload to the selfsame printer.

PDF files also make it easy for the editorial staff to pull up and leaf through back issues on our arbitrary whim.

Anyhow, this same theory (one file easier to handle than a flock when sending to the printer, electronic master >> printed master) now has to be applied retroactively to back issues for reprinting purposes. We used to handle this in-house, but have had problems in the past with fulfillment--basically, we'd get a guy to do the job, and then, after a few months or years, they'd flake out. So, we're moving the back issues to lulu.com, which is great...but they want PDF's when the former method of "some guy" could (*sigh*) photocopy a hard copy.

On the bright side, this also means that one may purchase back issues in this same PDF format, saving trees. 8-)

I'm in the middle of coming down with something, so this may not be as coherent as I'd like. Let me know if this doesn't make sense--the bottom line was ease of electronic access and the ability to sell backissues by mail order or download.

-- Lorrie

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

No, it made perfect sense and answered all my questions, so thank you!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

(I know, delayed response, but my momma done taught me manners)

-- Lorrie

[apel.livejournal.com]

I'll be at Greyhaven as usual on a Sunday. Might bring some strawberries.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

-- Lorrie

[hljod-huskona.livejournal.com]

Oooooh...I've been experimenting with breadmaking with our local yeast, too. I'm a little new at it yet, but it's been loads of fun.
I'm going to be experimenting with my mother in law, we both made our own from our areas and then get together and see what the difference might be in flavor. She lives about 50 miles away. I'm looking forward to it. =)

Did Ben get in touch with you about an issue of Idunna from 1993? A few of us textile-obsessed ladies are looking for the issue that discusses crafting and spirituality. We found out there was such an issue (in addition to the one from the later 90s), but none of us have been able to locate an issue. Ben said that he would get in touch with you. =)
If you find one, that would be awesome. Tis a small thing, but...well you know how it is. =)
I'm considering purchasing the "Spindle Hearth" text. Have you read it? Is it a worthy purchase? Most of my devotional and pieces of "focused energy" have all been done with knowledge from what I've learned from within me, but I've more recently been interested in expanding that and seeing what others do, also.

Thanks! =)
...And thank you for putting so much time into making Idunna into PDF files. You guys rock!

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Oooooh...I've been experimenting with breadmaking with our local yeast, too. I'm a little new at it yet, but it's been loads of fun.
I'm going to be experimenting with my mother in law, we both made our own from our areas and then get together and see what the difference might be in flavor. She lives about 50 miles away. I'm looking forward to it. =)


Sounds like fun!

Did Ben get in touch with you about an issue of Idunna from 1993? A few of us textile-obsessed ladies are looking for the issue that discusses crafting and spirituality. We found out there was such an issue (in addition to the one from the later 90s), but none of us have been able to locate an issue. Ben said that he would get in touch with you. =)

If it's 1993, it's from before dpaxson's tenure as editor. That means we don't have an electronic copy. Until we found out that an old and dear friend had been collecting the whole run, we didn't even have paper copies of many of these!

The problem with these issues is that they have to be scanned, then run through a process called OCR (Optical Character Recognition), in order to not just restore them to their former glory, but actually make them electronic books for this Information Age. This is a time-consuming process that's a right pain in the ass--and when it's through, the end result still has to be extensively proofread, as this software is not perfect at determining what a word it. Add in that the given issue will have any amount of text in one of our liturgical languages (Old English, Old Norse, assorted other Germanic languages, a smattering of Latin), and, well...it adds up. Basically, the amount of work in bringing one of these really old issues is significantly more than putting together a new one.

So, recently, due to a perennial dearth of volunteers for the real scutwork of this (scanning and OCR'ing), we've recently received permission to farm this out for pay to the local print shop, who just started offering scan/OCR service for a reasonable sum. Because they're local, we can get exactly what we want out of them--both the text for us to work over and the pictures for us to put back in. This will drop the amount of work from "lots more than a normal issue" to "a little more than a normal issue".

It'll help...

I'm considering purchasing the "Spindle Hearth" text. Have you read it? Is it a worthy purchase? Most of my devotional and pieces of "focused energy" have all been done with knowledge from what I've learned from within me, but I've more recently been interested in expanding that and seeing what others do, also.

I haven't bought it, so I don't know what to tell you. My understanding about this is that, really, we're working at the folk magic level here, where it's less documentation and more experimentation, so there's not much a book can do except illustrate someone else's examples, and offer an alternate viewpoint.

...And thank you for putting so much time into making Idunna into PDF files. You guys rock!

You're welcome!

-- Lorrie

[hljod-huskona.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

If it's 1993, it's from before dpaxson's tenure as editor. That means we don't have an electronic copy. Until we found out that an old and dear friend had been collecting the whole run, we didn't even have paper copies of many of these!

This is what he told me, too. When I emailed him, I had a feeling it was a long shot, but it was worth a at least asking. =)
I've heard of OCR before, and understand how long the process can be. At least you found someone to help out with that. If ever you need an extra hand, I wouldn't mind helping...though I don't know if I could be of help or not, being so far away.

I haven't bought it, so I don't know what to tell you. My understanding about this is that, really, we're working at the folk magic level here, where it's less documentation and more experimentation, so there's not much a book can do except illustrate someone else's examples, and offer an alternate viewpoint.

This is the way I tend to see things, too. I always felt that my intent would come through from within me, that which was passed down to me from my ancestors, and the energies around me (I like the term "focused energy" in place of "magic" LOL). Recently in our group this very question came up from another member, asking what others do in their "magical workings", and where our resources came from. I gave her an example of things I'd done in the past (such as a weaving I made of blue and green wool with herbs to represent health, love, and protection...the herbs forming a Berkano, which when finished I placed under my bed and then his crib after birth, for example). Recently I've had an ache to read something regarding that (most likely seeded from that conversation, LOL), this text was one mentioned. Thanks for your input, I couldn't agree more with it.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

Re: OCR
If ever you need an extra hand, I wouldn't mind helping...though I don't know if I could be of help or not, being so far away.

Weeeeellll, now, the process rolls like this:

Hardcopy Idunna, available no other way, is placed on the bed of a scanner, which takes a picture of the page. The OCR program, aided by the operator, determines which parts of a page are "words" and which are "pictures", and tries to decipher the letters out of the words on the page. These educated guesses at words are saved in a document, usually a word processing document to preserve as much formatting as possible. This is a really annoying and time-consuming process, and requires physical access to materials.

The next bit, however, is also laborious and time-consuming but, on the bright side, is readily distributable, because everything is now in an electronic format, just a really crappy one. Still, it can be sent around and proofread. OCR is not perfect, so there's going to be typos everywhere, that's the first problem.

Idunna's content and custom fonts really complicate things. To give you an example, here's a representative page from issue 11:

An OCR program, by and large, expects US English delivered in a typical modern font. This page, as you can see, features a lot of Blackletter and Fraktur font styling (basically using it for anything cool and heathen-sounding), and a two-line Fraktur dropcap at the beginning of every paragraph. As you probably know, an issue of Idunna will also feature terms and quotes in one of our several favorite archaic languages (Old English, Old Norse, really any Germanic language is fair game with the rare foray into Latin or even Greek).

The dropcaps, random Fraktur words, and non-English stuff makes an OCR program curl up in the corner and cry in its beer.

Your task, should you choose to accept it (cue Mission: Impossible theme), would be to proofread the OCR output. It requires ridiculous attention to detail, familiarity with heathen jargon of all flavors, and attention to US and UK English style, grammar, syntax, and all that jazz. IN short...anal-retention is a must.

You can see why this winds up being really lonely stuff. However, I am heartened by the fact that you're interested in cardweaving, which tells me that you've already got attention to detail down pat. If you're nosing around our back catalogue, you're probably the sort of person I'm looking for to whom I may farm out some of this stuff. This all bodes really well for me, so I'm delighted to see this.

Are you the same person to whom I just sent the Idunna index from 1993? If so, e-mail me again, we'll talk more.

Thanks!

-- Lorrie

[hljod-huskona.livejournal.com]

The process really does sound long and lonely. I admit to being slightly intimidated, but only in the sense of "I hope I don't mess up this great thing they are doing!". LOL. =)

BUT, I really would like to help, knowing that it would benefit the community, and help those of you out who have been working on this project.
After seeing your example there, I do see what you're saying about issues recognizing the fonts...and I can only imagine the process for ON, OE, and other archaic languages!! Yikes!! So how do you fix this then? I assume at some point you might have the option of going in and correcting that? While I haven't really worked with an OCR program before, I do have lots of experience with computers and PDF files. The process reads clearly to me, though.
If you think that I might be a good candidate to help out, then I would be happy to do so. And I am the very lass that you emailed!
I'll be responding to said email after posting this response to you.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

The process really does sound long and lonely. I admit to being slightly intimidated, but only in the sense of "I hope I don't mess up this great thing they are doing!". LOL. =)

*grin* Well, I'm old and jaded and don't send off originals of anything. If you fail to proofread stuff, well, I'll be sad and all, but I'm used to it.

The OCR program spits out its best-guess of what it thinks it read. The proofreading team then has to go back and correct it to what the team thinks it is, and then I'm the last arbiter when I do my best to re-create the old layouts, complete with their crazy Old English dropcaps and everything.

I'll let you know when I've got some files queued up--thanks!

-- Lorrie

[hljod-huskona.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to helping out, and for any challenges sent my way. This is the kind of thing that I enjoy doing, and really grow from.
I'll keep an eye for your halloo...lol. =P