No problems here

Hurricane Michael blew through quickly and relatively harmlessly.  All is well.

My heart goes out to the families of those who died, though.  Last I heard, there was one fatality in Florida and one on Georgia.  The latter was a little girl who was killed when a tree fell on her home.  Man, I hate that.  Condolences to those folks.

The rain has begun

I guess I won't see the sun again for at least a day, maybe two.

No strong winds yet.

Anyway, I'm still around, hurricane or no hurricane.

Thanks, readers!

Thanks to everyone who purchased my books during the latest promotion.  I hope y'all enjoy them.

Patty Jansen's 99-cent book sale

All books are 99 cents.  My own Cities of Mars is one of the featured titles.  Check it out:

Direct link:  https://pattyjansen.com/promo/7-8-october-2018-99c-promo/

These promotions are a great way to try out new (to you) indie authors.  Please take a moment to browse the selection.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent authors.

It's not the instrument

In high school band, students who have difficulty with some note or fingering often complain about their instruments not working properly.  Band directors like to then joke, "Oh, sure.  Blame the instrument."  The presumption being, of course, that there was nothing wrong with the instrument.  The problem was with the operator.

The directors were usually right.

I think this lesson applies to a lot of things other than music.  We humans tend to make rationalizations for our own shortcomings.  We're always looking to blame anyone but ourselves.  It's only human nature, of course, and it's not going to change.  But I think it's something we should be aware of in a "self-aware" sort of way.  It's something we should try to avoid.  Because you can't solve a problem until you've accurately identified the cause of the problem.

Most of the time, it's not the instrument.  It's the player doing something wrong.

A delicate procedure

I don't like changing prices on Amazon.  The problem lies in the backspace key.  I have to use it in order to change the numbers, but sometimes the cursor disappears from the field right before I hit the key.  When that happens, the browser sends me back to the previous page, and I have to start all over.  When you're changing each territory's price manually, it can be a pain to have to start over.

So one must be very careful.  I had to restart this price change twice, but I got it done.

Endothermic reactor

That's what we need to terraform Venus.  Something that transforms the atmosphere and absorbs a lot of heat in the process.  We do that, and we can eventually make the surface livable.  Theoretically.

I have no plans to write another Venus story, by the way.  Just musing.