So, I know it seems like I’ve dropped off the face of the earth, but I haven’t.  Unfortunately, my health has deteriorated and I am no longer able to work.  For that matter, my employer terminated me because I had no “specific return to work date.”  Yes, I’m a little bitter about that, but oh well.  Life goes on.  We also had a death in our family recently.  We lost my grandfather who was a great man and is dearly missed.  My life has been busy and full, just not in the best way.  However, I will be trying to do more posts.  I will be doing more book reviews as well.  If you have a suggestion for me to read, then drop me an email.

As Always, Keep Reading

I will be teaching a class at the McMinnville Oregon Senior Center on Friday July 29th beginning at 11am.  I will be covering a variety of information regarding getting the most of your health insurance. Since this will be at the Senior Center, Medicare plans will be the primary focus, however some of the information will apply to all health insurance plans, including non medicare plans.

My website is going to be undergoing a redesign.  So, things may go offline for a day in the following two weeks, but hopefully the updates will be seamless and you won’t notice a difference.

We all have our favorite authors as kids and as adults.  I recently read Lois Duncan’s The Third Eye, which reminded me how much I like her writing.  One of my favorite’s of hers is Locked in Time.  That book had me riveted and it’s a great read.  My point, is don’t forget about your favorites, even if they are from when you were younger.  Good writing is good writing, at any age.

To find out more about Lois Duncan, check out her website: http://loisduncan.arquettes.com/

I hope that you like my web page header.  Curious on how I created it?  Yes, I did create it.  I did not have someone else create it.

Well, I started with photo software

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/

You can download the free edition and then upgrade it to the full edition for $10.  You can also go to their website and buy their latest and greatest for about $50 or $60.  This software, in my opinion, is a great substitute for Adobe Photoshop at a fraction of the cost.  I do own the $50 version now but when I created my header it was with the $10 version.

Next I bought a royalty free photo from a stock photo site.

I bought from https://www.123rf.com/purchase.php They had the best pay as you go plan.  You can purchase 15 credits for $15.

I opened the photo in my photo program

I typed in my name, picking a font I liked–this automatically creates a new layer

I changed the color of my text to a light, mint type color, green.

On my text layer I applied the difference blend mode.

Once I was happy with the way it looked (different text colors will affect how it looks and so will the position of the text) I exported it as a jpeg and uploaded it to my website server.  Now it was all ready for me to use as my header.

The serif website has a lot of tutorials on it to learn how to use the program.

According to Publisher’s Weekly The estate of Adrian Jacobs is suing Bloomsbury, J.K. Rowling, and Scholastic for plagiarism found in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  Do I think that these accusations are founded?  I doubt it.  I will be very surprised if the court rules in the favor of the Estate.

Plagiarism as defined by dictionary.reference.com
is : the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

Notice I quoted where I got that definition.

According to Reuters.com the similar plot elements include a contest, clues, and a bathroom.  Well, I don’t know that, that in and of itself is plagiarism.  Are all plots that have clues and contests then plagiarized?  Is it the bathroom that they find the fault with?  From the articles that I’ve read, the characters are vastly different.

The concept of a “hero” overcoming quests/clues/obstacles is found throughout literature.  Also if you have a society then you aromatically have to have laws and all the trapping of society like medical care, recreation, etc.  That is all part of creating the world.  I don’t think that every author who creates a world is plagiarizing simply because their book has a “wizard prison” and so does another book.

The book claiming plagiarism is only 32 pages.  Quite a difference from Rowling’s 752 page, paperback edition, tome.  I’m curious as to whether this is all a publicity stunt. Sue a renown author to get people to buy the book, if it’s still in print.  It will be interesting to see the outcome of the case and if it affects plagiarism laws and definitions.

Drop by my site and take my poll–do you like the new layout?

I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it like this or revert back to the way it was.

http://www.jinaoravetz.com

Since WordPress updated, I’m working on an update for my site, so please excuse the construction.  Whether or not I actually end up keeping a new theme or not is yet to be seen.