Filed under: Art, Book Conservation, Connections, tech, YouTube | Tags: art, Ayun Halliday, blogging, book conservation, bookbinding, Japan, Japanese, jim downey, Open Culture, video, www youtube
Via Open Culture, here’s an interesting 10 minute video about my Japanese counterpart, doing a nice job on refurbishing a small dictionary. It’s entirely in Japanese, but that doesn’t matter too much — the images are all pretty self-explanatory.
If you want a glimpse into the processes involved in my work, this is a good one.
But it’s interesting to note the differences in his approach from my own. Most of it involves fairly arcane techniques which I’m not going to go into. And there may be reasons given in the narration which explain some of his choices, so I’m just going to make a couple of observations and leave it at that.
One, I was surprised at just how much he trimmed the edges of the book. Particularly on the fore-edge, you can see where the trimming has cut off part of the index icons. That’s a lot more aggressive than I usually am when I have to resort to trimming.
And two, the cover material seems to be an artificial or “bonded” leather, though that’s not entirely easy to determine from the video. While that would have been the original cover material, I would advise the client to go with something which would hold up much better over time, or the book will soon be back in the same condition that it was at the start of the video.
Again, there may be good reasons to make those choices, explained in the narration. So this isn’t intended as a criticism, just an observation.
And I like his little pink iron. It’s too cute. So how could I possibly criticize him? 🙂
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Augmented Reality, Connections, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Religion, Science Fiction, Wales, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, augmented reality, blogging, Communion of Dreams, free, Japan, jim downey, Kindle, promotion, religion, Science Fiction, St David's Cathedral, St. Cybi's Well, Wales, writing
Excerpt from today’s work on St Cybi’s Well. The scene is set here.
And because of those words, he did look down. And he saw a line. A wide line of darker grey stone which ran from the center of the West Front door to the pulpit. But there was something else there, as well. Something … deeper. Almost like water, shimmering. Somehow under the stone. Infusing the stone. Was it one of the absurd ley lines which St. John had talked about? But Darnell didn’t believe in those.
Or did he?
What did he believe, anymore?
“Look at it with new eyes,” Megan had said. “Try and see it as the believers see it.”
The believers? Or we believers? Did the distinction make sense anymore?
Did it matter?
He stepped onto the line.
Of course, it was like stepping onto any other stone. Solid. Hard. Dependable. Real.
He took another step, along the line of grey. And it was still solid. But now he felt something like a tremor run through the floor. He glanced up at the gorgeous wooden ceiling overhead, and remembered that it was there due to an earthquake which struck the area back in the thirteenth century. And he wondered whether the fault was again active.
But none of the others in the cathedral seemed to notice the tremor. No bells chimed in the distance. The carved panel depiction of the crucifixion high above did not sway.
He took another step, paying close attention. Again, he felt something. But it was less a tremor, and more a slight vibration, a springiness, like stepping onto a taut trampoline or a tightrope. There was a … strumming … but only in response to his steps. This wasn’t a ley line, at least not as he had understood it. It was, rather, a living path.
There’s about 12 hours left in this weekend promotion. About 500 people worldwide have downloaded Communion of Dreams so far … including, for the first time (that I can recall, anyway) 3 downloads in Japan. Pretty cool.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Bad Astronomy, Feedback, Health, Hospice, Humor, Kindle, Marketing, Phil Plait, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Slate, YouTube | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Australia, Bad Astronomy, blogging, Brazil, care-giving, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, humor, Japan, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, optical illusion, pareidolia, Phil Plait, promotion, Science Fiction, Slate, video, www youtube
Via Phil Plait, another wonderful illusion:
Plait has the full explanation (and a number of other links worth checking out), but here’s the critical part:
The key to this whole thing is the way your brain sees perspective, specifically convex and concave shapes, coupled with its uncanny ability to pick a face out of patterns (called pareidolia). Your brain wants to interpret the dragon as a face, and faces are convex: The sides of the face curve away from you (when you look at someone’s face, their nose is closer to you than their ears).
Definitely worth checking out!
Quick note about the promo results: 175 copies of Communion of Dreams were downloaded, including first-time downloads in Japan and Brazil! Her Final Year had a total of 63 downloads, and before the promo started someone in Australia bought a copy. I should be used to this by now, but I still really get a kick out of the fact that people around the world are reading both books.
Thanks, everyone!
Jim Downey
