[design] original content

I think original content scares people. I think it especially scares people that want to be original themselves. For example, originality in design makes other designers feel inadequate, although mimesis is guaranteed to follow. There is also the guarantee that some will immediately steal the original content and then quickly try to somehow pass it off as their own.

Self publishing a(n actual) book using a publishing service like xlibris.com is a lot of hard work. (I haven't been so busy doing daily work in years.) Ironically, for me, virtually all of the writing (of three books) is already done. The work now involves compiling and composing the texts and generating the images. I love how all of this is done digitally and electronically. Fingertips on keyboards comprises almost the entire process.

"To the Philippines with love" is what the first manuscript submission unknowingly turned out to be. Xlibris is a Philadelphia company, but (as I found out after the submission process) all the specific book representatives I dealt with (via email and on the phone) and all the formatting production of the book are and is done in the Philippines. (I had a hard time figuring out what kind of accents the representatives had--it is definitely Hispanic, but there is also a strange Oriental-ness to it. The Philippines never occurred to me, although my old stamp collecting days should have helped--the first Philippine stamps were issued under Spain (many of then picture baby Prince Alfonso, I think), and then after the Spanish-American War the Philippines was "owned" by the USA.) Anyway, I'm really happy that there is direct reference to the Philippines already within A QUONDAM BANQUET OF VIRTUAL SACHLICHKEIT, it's actually something I sent to design-l 21 July 1999.
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