Diary notes

by Jean Weber

Big news - I've moved!

I mentioned last issue that Eric and I were buying an apartment in Airlie Beach, north of Mackay, Queensland, and that we planned to rent it out for a year or two and then move up there.

Since then, things have moved along fairly swiftly. The tenants moved out in January and we weren't able to rent the place again quickly (mainly because it was the worst time of year for rentals), so we commissioned renovations and I moved in late May. Eric plans to follow in July.

I've included a map and some photos.

Here's the new postal address:
PO Box 640, Airlie Beach, QLD 4802, Australia

Change your address books now!

I sold the house

In late January two houses on my (very short) street went up for sale. So I hired somebody to slash the waist-high weeds out of the backyard, tidied up the interior a bit, got a contract drawn up, and organised an agent - and within a week of first advertising the place, I had a buyer. Evidently the "buying frenzy" in Sydney housing had finally reached my area. I even got a bit more money than I expected for the place.

The timing of this meant that I had to move out of the house rather sooner than I'd planned, and nearly a month before the Airlie Beach place was ready for me to move in. So everything went to Eric's and then was moved a second time. Not the most fun I've ever had.

Travels

Eric and I made our now traditional November trip to the USA. Actually Eric left three weeks before I did, visiting Cincinnati and Minneapolis before meeting me at San Francisco airport on November 8. We had each flown business class across the Pacific (using our frequent flyer miles to upgrade), which was quite pleasant but this time there were no spare seats so I couldn't lie down (in contrast to my trip in May).

In San Francisco we picked up a car and drove to my sister's for the weekend. On Monday we shifted to Alyson Abramowitz's place where we stayed until Thursday, when we flew to Las Vegas. While in California we saw a few (too few) friends. We also attended a meeting of BASFA (Bay Area SF Association). I didn't find them any more interesting than I did LASFA, but I was glad to have the chance to visit at least once.

Las Vegas was, of course, Comdex, the giant computer show. This year we spent 11 days in Vegas, giving us plenty of time to do other things in addition to the show. Some of the highlights were: the "hard hat tour" of Hoover Dam; free tickets to the Lance Burton magic show and the Starlight Express musical; a tour of the then-not-completed Star Trek Experience at the Hilton; and a day with two high-school friends, one of whom I hadn't seen since 1959 (she just happened to drop in to see the other friend, who lives in Vegas, the week I was visiting). All in all, an eventful and most enjoyable 11 days.

We even managed to get out of Vegas and make our connection through San Francisco to Seattle, without any flight delays, an almost unheard-of event.

And so to my parents' place for Thanksgiving, where I discovered to my delight that my father is looking (and feeling) better than he's been for several years. He'd had a serious gall bladder and pancreas attack a couple months earlier; after he'd recovered from the operation, he felt great. My mother and I had been quite concerned for some time that he was on his way out, but now he seems good for another 10 years. (He turned 79 at Christmas.)

While we were at my parents' place, Janice Murray and Alan Rosenthal drove down from Seattle to visit and to bring us some software. It was great to see them again. The only other Seattle friends we managed to see were Marilyn Holt and Cliff Wind, who drove to SeaTac airport to spend a few hours with us before our flight left to return to Sydney.

The flight home was fairly good, too. So many seats were vacant that we were able to spread out a lot. I got a whole row of 4 seats to lie down on, and Eric found a 3-seat row for himself, so we got more than the usual amount of rest on the way home.

Health matters

Most of you already know that Eric had a heart attack in December, just two days after getting back from our US trip. He was doing fine for several months and then started having pains again, so was scheduled for an operation in late May. He's now had the op and is again doing very well. His zine includes the long version of all this. The "good news" (from my point of view) is that it has certainly helped him make the decision to kiss the University goodbye sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, my eyes seem to be getting better, though my vision's still doubled at times. Maybe I'm just getting used to it. On the other hand, I can read without glasses, though it's more comfortable to use them. And my distance glasses take care of the double vision when that matters (most of the time it doesn't).

Writing and editing work

All of this coincided with a busy season in my work. (But of course - just when I need time to do other things!) Using one of the internet job lists, I found a nice little job in January and early February, writing online help for a company whose office is about 3 blocks from my house. Ironically, they were happy for me to work at home. There should be more work from them, and they should be able to cope with me living in Airlie Beach.

Just as that was ending, and I was dusting off my list of people to phone (having not located another job through the internet, despite contacting several potentials), an agency rang me for a short-term job they had going. I interviewed the next day, and started 2 days after that. This job requires me to write a series of paper-based quick reference guides to be used in conjunction with some training on a in-house piece of software. I did the first bit of work but there was some follow-up that dragged on, and on, with delays in the software development. I seriously doubt they'll cope at all well with me being several thousand kilometres away, however - especially since my role involved a lot of sitting in classrooms scribbling down notes on what the trainers were covering, then going away to play with the software and write it up.

Then came the big news - IBM wanted me back! Their writing department is getting busy but they don't have a senior editor on staff, and they also need some "on call" editors for particularly busy times. They offered my asking hourly rate (to my surprise) and barely flinched when I said what "working from home" would involve. Unfortunately they have a big job with a tight deadline that I'm working on right now (just when I have no time and little energy), but perhaps they'll have enough odd jobs after that finishes.

Anyway, things are looking up for my prospects of working from a home office with a fabulous view!

Time zones can be your friend

As part of my efforts to move my editing business onto the internet, I've been answering ads for writers and editors. So far I've had lots of non-responses, several expressions of interest, and one contract. I was the technical editor for a book being published by Microsoft Press. The author, who was responsible for subcontracting the editing, was the first person who hadn't run away at the very thought of working with someone at a great distance. Later I discovered that the author lives in New York, the co-author/graphic person lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and the copy editor lives on Vancouver Island, BC!

One thing worked so well I've decided to use it as a marketing ploy - I was effectively working the "night shift" for the author. In August, the time difference between New York and Sydney is 14 hours; 5 PM Monday in NY is 7 AM Tuesday in Sydney. At the end of his working day, the author would email me a chapter of the book. I'd pick up the file at the beginning of my working day, edit it, and email it back. The author would find the edited version waiting for him when he logged on the next morning. It all happened while he was asleep, and he thought it was great!

DUFF visitors and Basicon

I'd planned to spend a couple weeks last September driving around with DUFF winner Janice Murray and Alan Rosenthal, but it didn't work out that way. Various work projects got delayed until the deadlines were in the middle of their visit. So I saw them for a couple days in Sydney, sent them off with Eric to drive to Melbourne in a rented car, flew to Melbourne for Basicon (the Australian NatCon), flew home, and saw them again for a few days after they got back from Adelaide.

Basicon was fun. The venue was good, and I had time to talk with everybody I wanted to catch up with. The con was so laid-back that the usually-busy Melbourne fans had time to talk, not just deal with crises!

This issue of Wrevenge

My goodness, nearly a year gone already since the last issue. Not too bad, I suppose, considering that I'd intended to stop publishing at number 50.

This issue was encouraged on its way by Irwin Hirsh, who offered the second part of his Conspiracy 87 report (part of his GUFF trip report) for me to publish, since I was one of the unsuccessful candidates in that year's GUFF race. How could I turn down such an opportunity, especially as it included photos-on-disk!

This issue of Wrevenge is the first planned to be published on the World Wide Web. I'll probably be putting some back issues on the Web as well, including the colour photos from my Cape York trip. Future issues are intended to be webzines first and printed zines second. This is mainly a matter of economics (when Eric leaves the university, we'll lose our cheap photocopying facilities; postage is expensive; and there appears to be no conveniently-available cheap source of paper here), but is also a response to some readers who've asked for me to make it available that way.

If you do want a printed copy, for whatever reason, please let me know. I'll keep sending them to people who request them, but if you're willing and interested (and having the facilities) to get the webzine, that's how I'll prefer to provide it.

Thylacon II

I hope to distribute some printed copies of this issue at Thylacon II, the 1998 Australian NatCon, in June. I hope I saw you there! It's got a great lineup of guests, including my now near-neighbour Leanne Frahm of Mackay, a mere hour-and-a-half's drive down the highway.

Cheers, Jean

Click on the map or a photo to see it full size.