Eagles Over the Kennebec

I’ve been thinking about the various suggestions on how to manage this project, and I want to thank everyone who participated in the discussion.  My thoughts follow.

1.  What I really, truly need a is a list of Weird Words (including all “foreign” words, be they Liaden, Terran, Delgadan, Vandese, or etc.), and  Names (including ship names, planet names, city names) for each book.  One book = One list.  It does, after thought, seem best that the WW and Names be combined into one, very long list.

2.  Ideally, the words should be in the order they appear in the book in question — which was the idea behind the page numbers.

3. We do have to work within the constraints of my abilities.  I am not a database whiz — not even close. I can keep the dern things, but multi-level/multi-directional sorts are beyond my skill level.  Telling me that database wrangling is simple has in the past produced. . .no discernible improvement in my ability to do advanced sorts of any kind.  In fact, my ability to deal actually plummets.

3A.  The commodity I’m very short on for the foreseeable future is time.  I cannot myself accept bits of databases to chain onto a master database or anything of that sort.  Even if it *is* dead easy (which, believe me, it’s not), it will still take time.  This project has a deadline associated with it; I’m not entirely sure when, but I don’t think it impossible that the lists for at least the first two books would be needed by early June.

4.  It seems to me that, if the word harvesting process is completely automated, someone is going to have to check the lists against the books anyway, to make sure the automagic didn’t miss something. (Why, yes, I have had programs fail me. Why do you ask?)  That said, it seems like it would be very useful to run a script as a check, in case the humans missed something.

5.  In terms of volunteers, I think we’re going to need:

*At least one Word Wrangler for each book, to receive the information from volunteers, or to tend the database/wiki, check the list against a software-produced list (if any), and to compile the final list that will be forwarded to me

*At least two Word Harvesters for each book, who will compile the words and the page numbers and either forward them to the Wrangler, or enter them in a database/wiki/form

*An Automagician to automagically generate a list from each book to be checked against the list produced by the Word Harvesters.  This is a luxury.

Note:  I don’t really care about the process used to produce the lists.  All I really care about is having accurate lists.  That means that if three or four folks want to pool resources as the Gathering Team on Book A, I don’t care how they bag the words, only that all the words are bagged, and that I receive them in a simple, and understandable, format.

Does all of the above make sense (or is, at least, clear; I don’t actually expect anybody to enter into the Database-Free Zone that is my brain)?

Discussion open until tomorrow, Wednesday, mid-morning.

Thanks!

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

As advertised elsewhere, Steve and I knocked off early last night and watched The Music Man. It turned into a two-part viewing when the portable-back-up DVD player pitched a fit and stopped working immediately following Harold leaving the library after bedeviling Marian. We brought the disk back to my office and watched the last half on my computer. Handy things, computers.

Who can explain this Netflix over-the-web delivery system to me? I need special equipment for the television, right; if I want to watch movies with my husband couch in the living room? Any guesses how that whole thing is going to play out, now that Netflix has committed to phasing out DVDs, given the sell-out of net neutrality by the FCC?

Absent burning questions of bread and circuses, today was About the Chores. I finished pushing the last of the snow that I could move off the deck — the rest is remanded to solar power. I washed dishes, dusted, did almost all the laundry, took care of the cat boxes and did some work on George.

Steve made French toast for breakfast and salmon cakes for supper. Hmm. I wonder what’s for lunch.

I note, in the spirit of sharing the joy, that the income tax papers from our accountant have arrived. Sigh.

Tomorrow, sadly, is Thursday. Only four more days of winter break left. *wonders where she put the time turner*

Progress on The Book Presently Known as George:
20,008 words/100,000 OR 20.01% complete

“I have to see my mother,” Syl Vor said sternly. “On a matter of importance to us both.”

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.