The "stupid little questions that don't deserve their own thread" thread.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The "stupid little questions that don't deserve their own thread" thread.

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I have a 4-page grid thing I made in indesign (cs4) to serve as my course calendar. How do I:
1. Shrink it so that it prints two formerly 8.5x11 sheets landscape on a single slice of paper?
2. Merge the resulting pdf it so that it is part of the word document which contains the rest of my boring syllabus boilerplate? (office 07)

many thanks, pixelistas!

# ¿ Jan 13, 2009 01:40

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:08

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

terrorist plumber posted:

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as overconfident about publishability (is that a word?). Just covering my bases, you know. Anyway, guess I'll just go ahead and put it up, what the hell. And yeah, I completely missed the fact that there is a fiction writing thread. I�ll post in there in the future.

If you're doing this right, then your work will change dramatically between drafts. Revision, revision, revision

# ¿ Mar 21, 2010 16:48

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

zap actionsdower! posted:

Licensing work for a non-resale situation: What's a fair fee? I was approached by the state arts council to use one of my images on a promotional postcard, and they want to know what I want as a "fair fee". I've looked into royalties/licensing fees some, but they seem to all be based on merchandise - the resale price, how many are made and sold, where they're distributed.

Anyone have ideas/experience/recommendations?

When we license images for textbooks, we get flat reprint fees usually between $75 and $200 for interiors, $500-600 for covers. We are also hella for-profit.

I'd float them $200 and be willing to negotiate

# ¿ Sep 15, 2010 21:52

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Raenir Salazar posted:

If I wanted to post a critique on a short story that I may expand into a full novel and may want to publish one day if there's potential should I be worried about losing my 'First Rights'?

No, because by the time you get around to selling it to anyone (or placing it in a lit mag) it will be so very very different than whatever you posted. And if you're really worried about it you can edit out your post after the critiques.

Also First Print rights are an agreement between you and your publisher that you're not going to go off and give the content to someone else. They might be pissed if you've already made it available on a blog or what have you, but that doesn't mean you've LOST the ability to sell first print (or first electronic) rights.

PROTIP: If/when you submit to literary journals, don't ever put a little � notice on the bottom. The point of submitting is that you WANT the publication to pick up rights to it. Plus you look like a tool.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2011 16:53

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

40sTheme posted:

For lyrics writers/poets I guess cause it's pretty similar:

The lyrics I write are always either boring or incredibly banal. I read a lot and have a great vocabulary, but I always write stuff fit for like 5th grade. Any ideas on how to get unstuck from this?

Are you trying too hard to make straight rhymes?

Listen to more rap.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2011 23:27

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

Can anyone suggest how to lay out a page for writing a book best in word? I mean I just psychologically hate looking at 8.5 x 11 and feeling like I'm writing an essay etc.

Uh if it's just for the writing part then it makes absolutely zero difference. Do it in 500% zoom doublesided screenshot view for all I care.

Or use a funny font?

# ¿ May 11, 2011 07:07

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Doghouse posted:

I am about to start tutoring 3 boys - ages 10, 15 and 21 - in writing. The schools they attend probably have fairly poor english programs, but they are smart kids. I am thinking of telling them to write a short essay on the most interesting or important thing that they did this summer, read their essays, and take it from there. I also want to be able to read them a very, very good essay of this kind, which I guess is a narrative essay, so that they will have some idea of what they are shooting for.

Does this sound like a decent starting point? Does anyone have any tips? I also don't know what to use for the example essay, does anyone know of a good one?

Are they ESL students? Is the oldest one in a college? Do you want to focus more on grammar and usage, or composition?

# ¿ Aug 2, 2011 23:50

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Doghouse posted:

Older one is not in college yet. They are not ESL. I think I'll need to focus on both.

I'd definitely start with composition, then address grammar as a logical extension of the editing process.

It's going to be rough making assignments that will fit both a 10 and 21 year old. For the oldest, I'd start with a basic "what is a thesis" lesson and move on to intro/thesis/support/conclusion structure from there. For the youngest, I'd start with a basic report structure (describe something or some phenomenon, give descriptive information about it in an organized way)

I started my classes with an assignment where the students had to introduce themselves to me as a writer. What kinds of writing do they do (texting? blogging? scripts? fiction? [this was arts college])? How had they been taught to write? What did they hope to get out of the class? Anything to get them thinking about the process of writing. Not as a wordcount to be fulfilled, but as a crafting process.

Definitely have them read a lot (both professional writing AND other student essays, if you can find them.) AND write a lot. Like, every day they should be at least getting some freewriting time in where they reflect on some writing topic or something related to what they're reading.

Also for organization, if you can get away with it, http://www.textfiles.com/uploads/koalas.txt

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 04:39

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Harold Ramis Drugs posted:

Me and one of my friends are trying to self-publish a collection of short stories. We would really like to use the name "The Bleeding Sun" for the collection. The only problem is that there is a symphonic-metal band from Spain that has the same name. Would we get into any trouble if we still used this name, or would we need to get approval from the band or potentially just come up with a different name?

IANAL but titles aren't copyrightable and I really doubt you will have any problems so long as you're producing a book and not a CD.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2011 04:06

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Humboldt squid posted:

So I've been thinking about doing commissions but I don't really know how to do that thing. I was wondering if someone had a guide (or just general advice) or something that they could link me.

I don't have advice for the getting of commissions part (are there freelancer websites for such things like they have for writing?) but I highly suggest you read The Business of Art thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3468091

# ¿ Dec 31, 2013 15:43

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I'm using Lightroom 5. I have a large collection of images (7k), from which I want to pick out the ones that do not meet my institution's high res standards: 300ppi, 10" on the long edge.

I made a smart collection with the parameter "belongs to [the main] collection," and now what should I use for the "size" parameter? Megapixels doesn't quite get to it, nor does pixels in the long edge.

e: nevermind, I got some help and this is a math problem, which I hadn't considered. 3,000 pixels on the long edge

Defenestration fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Apr 3, 2014

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 15:46

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Good News Everyone posted:

I am not quite sure where to pop this question, as the book subforum doesn't seem to have a mini questions thread, but hopefully someone can help me out!

I'm looking to get a phrase tattooed; it's a reference to the book House of Leaves. In it, one of the characters has a phonetic tattoo of a Latin phrase, 'Non Sum Qualis Erum' (he has it written as 'Known. Some. Call. Is. Air. Am.'). It supposedly means 'I am not what I once was'.

Can anyone confirm that that is what the Latin means, or give me a more exact translation? Thanks so much in advance.

Look and see if there's still a latin thread in the science philosophy education subforum

# ¿ Apr 7, 2014 01:40

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

titanium posted:

So this site is using a photo I took without my permission, what do I do to get compensated for it? It's the background one they over sized, I'm guessing they took it off my tumblr page.

http://www.fastcompany.com/tag/soundexchange

Kedo's advice is solid on this, just popping in to say that a license for this kind of use can be in the several hundreds of dollars, and feel free to tack on more because they put it up without permission.

You won't get it but on the offchance that you manage to shame them properly and it gets in the hands of a semi-decent employee you can get what it's worth. Since Fast Company is one of those heavily online "innovation" joints, I'd tweet them too, and maybe try to get the story in Valleywag

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 13:01

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Does anyone in here understand how ASCAP/BMI work for music streaming rights? And if so can you explain it to me or link me to some documentation?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 03:15

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I recently sold an essay to a website that gets a high volume of traffic. I am updating my (hand-coded, babby's first HTML/CSS) website in preparation for my inevitable legions of adoring fans and potential agents.

I want to post a chapter of my novel on my website. What is the best way to do this? PDF? Intro blurb? It's an 8,600 word chapter, do I need to pick a shorter excerpt?

# ¿ Aug 21, 2014 04:45

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I want to be better at Lightroom. Is there a good website/video series/book that would help me with file management tricks and some light photo editing?

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 18:31

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

zelgadis posted:

Not sure if this is the exact forum, what's the deal with using music in youtube videos? I've read all about fair use, and policies youtube has etc. But I saw a Pat the nes punk video where he use "Push it to the Limit" in a montage, and maybe he got permission but I highly doubt it. I believe i have seen push it to the limit in parody montages regularly on youtube. This is not a fair use because it does not parody the song itself and uses it nontransformatively.

In creating Youtube videos I have lots ideas that would utilize licensed music(i.e. music by any band), but I assumed the automatic detection would render it unusable, like twitch mutes vods with commercial music. I thought maybe if your aren't a partner then maybe you're more likely to slip under the radar, but i'm pretty sure pat monetizes his videos. So, without getting into legality too much, is it common for this use to go unnoticed on youtube for old songs? Or whats the deal? Can't do a montage with stock music.

We don't have to get into the legality at all. If someone big enough cares enough, they'll issue a takedown.

There are also subscription services that he might be subscribing to that would make his use legal, but who knows

# ¿ Jan 11, 2015 19:53

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Trebuchet King posted:

A writing question: I've tried, in the past, to do the 1000 words a day thing, but it's never gone as well as I'd like.

A coworker recently, after complimenting my storytelling, suggested I take up blogging. I like the idea, as I think standalone 1000-word things would be easier (relative to my strengths/weaknesses) than 1000-word continuations of the previous day's writing.

I don't really know much about what kind of options there are beyond tumblr, though. I get the impression livejournal is kind of languishing these days, and blogger's the only other one I know about. Is there a better service out there or should I just flip a coin between tumblr and blogger?

Wordpress

# ¿ Jan 18, 2015 15:25

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

BigHead posted:

My father is retiring here in a few months. He worked in a job where he was fortunate enough to spend the money to become a preeminent world authority in a specialized niche hobby (as an analogy, think Spanish postal history or Montana bison history, something weirdly specific). He wants to write a book on the subject, but has zero writing experience. I would like to buy him a retirement gift that would help him get started. He is very intelligent, but inexperienced. I'm open to all ideas, from educational materials to pens to software. I have no idea where to even begin. What do you recommend?

Buy him some time with a development editor. There are editors out there who help with the development of the book as opposed to the editing of it once it's complete. It might help him to talk to a professional up front.

# ¿ May 24, 2015 03:40

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Bojanglesworth posted:

Does anyone here have any experience with selling stock photos? I have this gigantic catalog of automotive photos, from nearly every manufacturer, interior and exterior high res. Someone must have a need for that type of poo poo right? I checked out Getty and it seems to not accept automotive photos at all.

other stock sites that exist:

corbis, alamy, thinkstock, 123rf, veer (owned by corbis), superstock, istock, dreamstime, 500px.
I think flickr is doing selling now?

Do you hold the rights to license out these photos?

# ¿ Jun 13, 2015 21:59

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

raging bullwinkle posted:

I went to buy a quite average looking photo off getty the other day and it was priced at $2,500. Who is buying that stuff?

At $2500 you're probably looking at an exclusive commercial license or an extremely high print run/term. Most royalty free images will top out at a few hundred, and rights managed it depends on what you want it for and how famous the photographer/specific photo is. (If they let you use it for anything but editorial use to begin with)

# ¿ Jul 5, 2015 18:00

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I do a lot of looking at digital files of fine art for work. Assuming that I can get a quality monitor out of the department budget next year, what are some midrange models I should be considering? (Note: PC)

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 04:26

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

JuniperCake posted:

There is a thread that covers monitors pretty exhaustively and it might be helpful in your search. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3372494

Personally, I'm partial to the Dell Ultrasharp line for IPS monitors, they aren't terribly expensive but they are far from the only option. I'm sure the thread will be able to give you a good recommendation if you tell them your exact requirements.

Will do, thank you

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 15:33

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:08

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

I have done some hobby level acrylic painting and I want to set up a space in my apartment to do more. The problem is that between living in a 1 bed that I'm using as a 2 bed to make Boston rent, and having a very curious kitty, the best place to do this is in my basement.

Will the fact that the basement is dingy and dank hurt my setup here? I'm most concerned about the wood easel, since it is not mine. I don't want it to get moldy

What do you think?

# ¿ Oct 10, 2016 16:32

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The "stupid little questions that don't deserve their own thread" thread.