Another window project


As always I just do the outside frame, not the window itself.

Project: replace "inferior" Project Gutenberg book covers with hopefully superior self-created covers
Status: I'm nearly caught up with PG titles currently on my Paperwhite

A project of mammoth proportions. As of now, I have created some 435 replacement covers. Considering that I began (so far as I can tell) on 05/08/2025 (with Moby Dick), a goodly portion of each day has been devoted to cover creation. At the same time, I removed 174 PG titles from the Paperwhite, considering them of questionable worth. (They still exist on my hard drive, and of course at the Project Gutenberg site.) I can't say that any of my covers have artistic merit, but they're IMO at least better than what they replace.

Some questionable quality PG covers remain on the Paperwhite. I might or might not replace them. And of course, any new PG download is a candidate for cover replacement. In other words, it ain't over yet.

Thanks, Acadian


-Guys, I'm making a thing again!


Instead of this,

we will have this

Inside

Before

After

Inside



Project status: Complete (Well, the window needs a bit more cleaning...)

Project: Winter tires on car
Status: Complete



Was gonna wait a bit but since we have freezing temps I decided to change the tires on the official Rocu Car™. Better do it now since I'm moving back home tomorrow. It's getting cold in Chez Cottage!

Nice job, Mirocu!

So, while M's been building a workshop, I was writing a book... which was why I vanished for the summer - I do like to dive into things. The book is fantasy fiction, that somehow grew out of the fan fiction I've been posting here, but it has its own world and story. It takes inspiration from the late Roman Empire but is not very historically correct (hey, it's fantasy!) and draws rather heavily on the Hebrew Bible, mostly on the books of Ezekiel, Judith and Enoch, with a touch of Solomon's verses. For anyone not sure what those books are all about, let's just say they've got angels (fallen and otherwise), Nephilims, giants, undead, spirits, visions, magic, love, sin, judgement and wrath... You know, all the usual biblical stuff. It is my intention to have the book self-published on Amazon eventually, so I won't be posting it here (sorry). Besides, it has quite a bit of adult content (mostly not sexual but adult in other respects), so it would not fit with this forum. The main themes (besides the undead) are slavery and cruelty, faith, self-sacrifice, personal integrity and morality, and love and sexuality (a.k.a. what is love?).

The book turned out quite long, 560 paperback pages, 155K words, divided into 12 parts with a total of 66 chapters, which is comparable to 66 posts in the fan fiction section because I kept the chapters to roughly the same length as my episodes (2000-2500 words on average). It also has 176 illustrations - elements generated with AI, then put together manually using my own brain and a lot of GIMP magic (which brings the page count to 634). So it has been quite a project, and yet I am not done... because the story continues, the second book is already planned out and started, and I can see into more of them to come. The story covers some 30-40 years and follows the lives of several main characters, it's all in my head, it's getting crowded and needs to get out. Considering that the first book only covers 16 months out of those 30-40 years, there's potential for a book series here.

I think I'll take it to Amazon when the second book is done so that I could publish both of them together. Or may be I'll wait even longer, we'll see. I haven't made it into the ePub format yet, it's just in PDF for the moment, although I did have a quick foray into converting it into ePub, just to make sure it's not too hard with all the illustrations. I made sure it was a workable structure and stopped at that for the moment. Because, you know, the first step in publishing a book, is to write it... (you wouldn't believe it, but that's what self-publishing tutorials find necessary to point out... dohhh!!).

With that said, it doesn't mean that I'll stop writing fan fiction in the universe of Elder Scrolls. I feel like I've had a break, and now Lena Wolf is starting to complain that she's bored and wanting new adventures... Meaning that I'll be back to modding and gaming later this Autumn, and also writing and posting, because, after all, I am Lena Wolf...

Oh, I LOVE that inside view!!!! How did you manage to get the exact same paint color?

We got some paint from the very guy who painted it nine years ago so that's why it's the exact same color. And funny you should say it looks how it did ten years ago because that's exactly how old the garage is now. The frame and roof were completed in October 2015

Wow, what a huge undertaking!!! What was your inspiration to write about this, was it the Bible or something recent in your life?

Do you treat the wood inside the shed with anything like Polyurethane?

Nah, no one ever does that. Especially not on a simple building like this.

Those stories and characters have been living in my head for the past 30 years or so, changing and evolving and eventually connecting with each other so that it started making sense. And also over the years I've been reading the stories from the Old Testament on and off, as you do... no specific Bible study, just an odd reading... and once you get used to the style of the language and learn a few things about old traditions, you no longer get lost in them and start understanding what the stories are actually telling you. Some of them are tragic, some are funny, some are erotic even (like the Song of Solomon), and of course there are a lot of fantastic visions and dreams. And all of it is there for you, open to interpretation, and once you get used to reading the actual text instead of reading the interpretations and indoctrinations of that text, you start seeing things in it that you never thought possible... not in the Bible! But yes, in the Bible... So that then merged with the fantasy world in my head and sent my characters on a quest of discovery and a fight against the undead, because obviously we had to have the undead. I chose Late Roman period as the backdrop, because let's face it, the Roman Legion was the coolest thing under the Sun... The main character is a Legionnaire, sent on a very special mission to an archipelago on the other side of the Great Ocean, so far away from his native Imperial Mainland that even the Legion does not have a presence there, and so he has to uphold the Imperial Law all on his own. Which can't be easy. He'll have to make friends and alliances, he'll be joining the Order of Ezekiel which stands against the undead, he'll have to learn about the local Faith and customs and have his strict Roman moral values challenged... and besides, he is a Nephilim. So yeah, plenty to talk about.

I am on the second book now. I've done a rough plan for all the stories and events that I currently have in my head - they fill 11 books... But there will be more, these things tend to multiply when I'm sleeping at night. The story is almost writing itself, the characters imposing their will on the events, and I'm only the scribe, more or less... But it's great fun to do.

I didn't treat or stain my wood fence/Torii Gate/or raised garden beds = this past year they all turned colors from their beautiful wood color to gray. It really irks me, I should have stained them = wished I had.

Yeah, but now we're talking about wood completely subjected to the elements; getting rained on plus sunshine. That will definitely turn it grey. The inside of the garage, or shed as you call it, is covered from rain and sun and will not turn grey. That's why the ten-year-old insides of the original walls are still yellow

Well they sure still look gorgeous, that is why I asked if you preserved them. I really wish I had done something with mine, hate the gray.

Nice gate!

There might be a way. If you sand it down a bit you may get the lighter tone back and then of course treat the wood in your preferred way.

This is fascinating!!! When I was midway in the pregnancy with my younger son I (was originally carrying twins) and started to miscarry. The doctor put me on strict bedrest. Well, of course I was praying through it; and picked up the Bible and started reading it from the Old Testament. You are absolutely right, there are (and yes on Song of Solomon; I was surprised by that too = it was almost instructional!) so many aspects of it that are never touched on in Sunday School classes growing up.

Your story line sounds really interesting!

Thanks, mALX! The Bible is certainly not a children's book, and I suppose if it is to be presented to children, it needs softening around the corners, so to speak. The more reason to read it as an adult, corners and all.

My book is not about the Bible as such, but the Faith has a presence in it. And obviously, it is some other fictional Faith, it just happens to be based on similar scriptures, sort of like the Roman gods were very much like the Greek gods even though the two systems evolved independently. I am not even saying we are on Earth... It is some other fictional world that may resemble ours in some ways... convergence is a common phenomenon in the Universe, it appears.