Shimmer Issue 10 review

I downloaded the free copy of Shimmer and after reading only 2 stories, decided I'd better just go ahead and subscribe.  So I did.  To the print version.  Because there's just nothing better than holding reading material in your hand.  You can change position, lay down, sit up, kneel, curl up in the chair, get up and lay the book down.  And the eye strain is much easier.  And I just never get around to reading off a screen because there's usually so many others things to do with the computer, like write or visit the internetz.

So I devoured Issue 10 this weekend.  I enjoyed almost all the stories, a couple didn't thrill me all that much.  But on the whole, I was very pleased.  My favorites:

"Jaguar Woman" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - easily my favorite favorite.  She has lost her name and even worse, her jaguar shape.  The Spaniard who keeps her brings her trinkets, one a silver mirror in which she sees two dark eyes, but they are not jaguar eyes.  She sobs, but he doesn't understand, but just wants.

"Carnivale of Abandoned Tales" by Catilyn Paxson:  Beautiful language and evocative images in this story of fairy tale characters working in a carnival.

"One for Sorrow" by Shweta Narayan:  A tale within a tale, of witches and magpies and sisters--even if they are only sisters of the heart. 

"River Water" by Becca De La Rosa: A tale of Allison's journey to bring her sister back from the land of Death.  Her will is strong enough to pass all the challenges, but some things are just meant to be.

"A Painter, a Sheep, and a Boa Constrictor" by Nir Yaniv:  A boy with a Maker machine asks a stranger to draw him a sheep.  He doesn't mean on paper, either.  A very short tale, but very nicely done.

Computer stuff and a question

So, what does it mean when there's a vertical line one pixel wide through my screen?  Well, okay, there was just one, and now there's two.  The first one happened several months ago, but was off to the side and not that troublesome.  The second one just happened and is almost down the middle.  They're a different color:  greenish-blue on white background, and purple on black background.  I expect it means my monitor is going to bite the dust.  This is my laptop, so no replacing.  The thing is 4+ years old and hasn't given me any trouble at all, but I know it's life expectancy is wearing thin.

Hence, I downloaded Dropbox the other day to back up my writing stuff.  It's a file sync service that gives you 2 gig of online storage for free.  It runs pretty seamless in the background.  I found it through courtesy of Jeremy Tolbert, aka the_flea_king  (who, by the way, does websites, especially writer websites, if you're in the market).  It constantly check your files for changes and uploads each file change and even keeps track of deleted files.  I was afraid it would spend a lot of resources and make my computer run slow, and although I have noticed a lag, it's usually just on startup.  Nothing major, that's for sure.

The only small drawback, is that it puts its folder in your documents folder and any files or folders you want it to sync has to be placed inside that dropbox folder.  So if you have any shortcuts to files, the path is changed after.  Plus I keep forgetting that my files are no longer in the folder where they've been for that last 4 years.  It'll just take getting used to.  Haven't yet decided how much I want to keep track of.  Mainly writing stuff, as those are the files that change the most often.  The others will still be backed up to the external hard drive.

If you want an invite, let me know, cause apparently I get more free storage for referrals.  But you can just sign up on your own, too.