Lulu Publishing

My aunt wrote a sequel to her first book The Christmas Tree. It is called The Paperboy's Dream and talks about how my Uncle Steve first learned about paratroopers and how he decided he wanted to jump out of planes.  And how he managed to make that happen. 

It turns out that his awareness was triggered by a stunt by Bernarr Macfadden. That was an interesting internet hole to dive into. You never know what experiences will impact others. 

Posting these links to her author's page and books so that people can find them. I'm not sure why her friends struggle with the Lulu Bookstore so much, but they do.   

• Constance Gessner's Author Page
• The Christmas Tree
• The Paperboy's Dream

Memories

 I found a really interesting project online and wanted to share (and save it).  I am working on a project to make pillow cases out of tees and the few that I have done in the past are either sewn closed (so hard to clean) or the cat climbs into them. Seriously. She loves to hide in open pillows. 

So, this DIY trick for an envelope pillow cover, using existing seams, seems like a great idea. Saving it to try and will update if they work! 

Second verse, same as the first....

Wow. What a year.

Back in April, I posted about how COVID-19 has changed so much and parts of the world seem absolutely frozen right now.  We are in worse shape now than we were back then. 

We should be learning to adapt, but people who resist change are dragging this illness around with them. But, projects persist and life goes on. 

If you need help with a project or someone to fill a gap while things continue to change let me know. 

ASL

 American Sign Language (ASL) is something that I started to do last year before COVID. My husband is interested in ministry to the deaf community, so he really needs to learn it.  I'm just fascinated with how people learn to communicate. 

As part of our lessons, we are learning signs associated with the Catholic Mass. So, I'm saving this link here for my future reference. Maybe it will help you too! 

Our Father at OKScribbler. 

My one sheet printable version (not an accessible PDF)

Let me know if I can help...

Wow. What a month.

COVID-19 has changed so much and parts of the world seem absolutely frozen right now.

But, things will return to "normal".  Normal always changes.  What was normal when I was 20, is not what is normal now. My whole work world flipped upside down, but we are getting things done. I am fortunate that my freelancing made my home office very adaptable to my primary occupation, but that is not necessarily the case for many. We are all learning to adapt.

The need to continuously learn is really the only constant in my life.  So, if I can help you with a project, or learn something new, let me know.  Hang in there.

Long links and other issues in Adobe

Continuing to push my way through several PDFs that need remediation. Today's lessons:

What do you do when a long link breaks across two lines and now the hyperlink is doubled (and tripping a warning because of the duplication)?

Well, you work through each duplication, copying the links as you go. Then edit the link, delete them and edit the PDF by drawing an invisible link box over the two lines. Add back the link info and now all of the text will launch the desired web content.

What to do with the character encoding issue?

In this instance you really want to have the source document, because this means the PDF was made with the wrong fonts embedded.  I have most often found this with logos, but it can happen with bullets, checkboxes etc.  Often you can copy the graphic and place as an image (and then tag as an artifact) but sometimes you just have to recreate the PDF from scratch. 

Tagging Links in PDFs

I am writing this post mostly to not lose this very useful piece of info that I read today.

I was working on remediating a PDF for a new client and there were several links that had been mismarked by the first person who had reviewed the PDF.

This article by Lynn Pacquin solved all my problems in about five minutes.

Her thoughts (copied and edited below)

To be accessible, each link in a PDF document must have three tags (in this order):

• a parent tag.
• a child tag.
• a child document content tag. 

The tag alerts a screen reader to the presence of the link. Acrobat tags each URL by adding a document content tag to the tag tree, but it does not also add a tag. A link that does not have a tag is considered an unmarked link and is inaccessible to assistive technology.

You must locate all instances of unmarked links in the tag tree, and then add tags to them, by following these instructions

1. In the Tags tab, choose Options & Highlight Content, and then choose Options & Find. 
2. In the ind Element dialog box, select Unmarked Links from the Find drop-down menu. 
3. Click Find. The first unmarked link is highlighted on the page. 
4. Close the Find dialog box. Use the select tool to select text that is near the link, then choose Options & Find Tag From Selection. 
5. In the Tags tab, select the document content tag for the link (the tag that names the URL), and then choose Options & New Tag. 
6. In the New Tag dialog box, select Link as the tag type and click OK. A tag appears below the selected document control tag. Drag the document content tag down to be the child of the tag. 
7. Select the tag, choose Options & Find, and then select Unmarked Links from the Find drop-down menu. 
8. Click Find. Acrobat finds the URL that you have been tagging. 
9. In the Find Element dialog box, click Tag Element. The following two things happen: - A tag appears as a child to the tag directly above the document content tag. The tagging for this link is complete. - Acrobat highlights the next unmarked link in the document. 
10. As needed, repeat steps 4 through 9 on the rest of the unmarked links in the document.

A custom coat

For Christmas, my aunt gifted me wool she inherited. The clearing out of closets is a whole series of posts for a future time, but suffice it to say, my relatives have been strongly encouraged to go into drawers that have been ignored for a while. She found several pieces of beautiful fabric and wanted at least one converted into something new. So, we set out to find a tailor. Most people told me to leave Buffalo and head to Toronto or New York City to have a coat made, but we went to Chayban's instead. He took one look at the fabric, agreed it was beautiful, quoted me $600 and took my measurements. One fitting later (only needed to adjust shoulders and determine the final length) and I'll have a custom coat in one month.

I admit that I was surprised when he quoted me that figure. But, now that I've gone through the fitting process I realize that I got a great deal. His experience was worth every penny for something I'll have for the rest of my life.

When you decide you need something done, and you go find the right person to do the work, pay them what they are worth.

26 Shirts

Sometimes I am lucky.  I picked Feb. 2 as my first 26shirts sponsorship day cause it's the day of the big game :)  And in addition to the regularly offered shirts in Buffalo, these are the special ones available this time around! 

Buff-Emoji

The Buffalonian Shirt

Connections

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the 20th Celebration of Catholic Education dinner at the Buffalo Convention Center. My husband and I were guests of a friend who works for Uniland, so we came to the event not entirely sure who we might find. We promptly walked into the parish group where my husband volunteers (teacher of the year award winner!), a former colleague of mine from Roswell Park and UB, and several other friends we don't always get to see. It was a lovely evening. The bonus to the whole event was the potential for a new project, updates on some other former colleagues, and a reassessment that everyone on Buffalo knows everyone else, so acting politely at all times is needed :)

Happy New Year!

WOW. Last year was crazy busy for me.  I just selected my days to support 26 Shirts this year and realized that it's been over a year since my last sponsorship. Last year was an interesting one for OPP, I had the most diverse group of clients I've ever had and stayed very busy right up to the end of the year. In this new year, I hope to continue to expand my connections while continuing to learn new things. Let me know if I can help you!