updates

Good news:

The FedEx box was brought to my dorm this morning, a bit after 10am. I had been trying to get some shuteye when the phone rang. The delivery guy said he was outside. Friendly dude; he simply wanted me to sign so he could be on his way.

Murphy's Law was in force, though: our concierge (one of two middle-aged guys who are usually there, each on alternate days) had decided to absent himself. As a result, the FedEx guy was trapped outside. I groggily made my way downstairs: I was wearing glasses instead of my usual contacts, and my hair looked like a wind-blown bird's nest. I went outside into the cold, and signed for th package. The FedEx guy skipped off... and I, too, found myself locked outside, because I hadn't brought along my damn keyring, which has one of those elliptical plastic doodads you tap on a sensor pad to unlock the main door.

Figures.

There was no concierge, so no amount of buzzing the door buzzer was going to help (I buzzed several times all the same). I resigned myself to waiting for someone to come along and open the door, and after about ten minutes, a woman inside the dorm shuffled down the stairs and made her way out. As the door opened, I thanked her and went inside before the door could close and auto-lock again.

Many thanks to the parents for the chocoholic's delight: I got Lindor (i.e., Lindt) "blue label" truffles and a huge bottle of "chocolates of the world" (obviously a Costco purchase). Along with that, I got a new pair of pants, two books I had ordered a while ago from Amazon.com, two Christmas cards (one with images of dung all over it, from my brothers), a mess of thick, woolly socks, an old pair of paint-spattered jogging shorts (a hint, I think), a pile of junk mail from my undergrad alma mater and from United Airlines's frequent flyer service, and last but not least, half a rum cake!

When I saw the box it was in, I initially groaned because I thought this was going to be a fruitcake. After opening the box and removing the styrofoam peanuts, though, I was hit by a familiar fragrance, and suddenly all was right with the world.

(By the way, the cake's condition is fine. So if you're in Korea and want to order a rum cake, I can personally vouch that it will arrive both safe and eminently edible.)

Then I went back to sleep until Dad called and woke me from my nap a second time. Heh.

And now, the bad news:

CafePress's PDFHelp service tells me there's a problem with the PDF. You'll recall that they are the ones making the PDF, not me: I can't, because I'm on a Mac and don't have the same control panel functions to adjust printer settings. PDFHelp had told me back in June that CafePress simply had no service for Mac users (still true), which is why I had no choice but to send them my manuscript and ask them to render the PDF from it. In the meantime, they referred me to a message board for people publishing books and producing CDs. The board's not helpful to me, since I'm not making the PDF myself, but it does show, somewhat depressingly, that life is hard even for PC users when it comes to making one's own PDF. Take a look at some of the message titles.

More book news as it happens. A few people keep badgering me, "When it coming out?" At this point, it's safe to say that the book won't be arriving before Christmas, though there's still a chance you can order it before Christmas. Veuillez patienter, s'il vous plaît.


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