\chapter{Coda}

\section{What I Learned About \LaTeX{} While Creating This Issue}

\subsection{Easy Ways with \textsf{tikz}}

I included some illustrations of card layouts back on page \pageref{cards}. Since these are just rectangles, I knew I could create them pretty easily using the \textsf{tikz} package. All I needed were the coordinates where the three rectangles would begin and end, and the coordinates of the nodes where I would put the letters. 

As it turns out, this was difficult to figure out using my mind alone—I have a lot going on, I am easily distracted, there was too much guesswork. I'm a big fan of having the right tools to do a job and then using those tools. I see no point in being a martyr. So I pulled out the best tool I had for this: graph paper and a pencil. No guess work, just straight lines and a bit of counting. I felt like I was in my eighth grade geometry class again, and I actually enjoyed it. 

\textbf{Protip:} draw it on paper first. 

\setlength{\fboxsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\fboxrule}{0.5pt}
\begin{center}
\fbox{\includegraphics[scale=0.28]{tikz-on-paper}}
\end{center}

\section{What I Learned About Other Things While Creating This Issue}



%\newpage % Use only to keep the afterword together if we end up with orphans
\section{Afterword}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\begin{small}
\noindent{}The past year has been a difficult one for me.

\paragraph{Good writing takes time}I actually knew this, but I was curious as to how much time it actually takes to write an issue of this zine. So for issue \#6 I grabbed a timer and kept track. (If you look at the git repo, there is a \texttt{.csv} file in there where I kept track of this.) I had a total of 3,429 minutes, which works out to 57.2 hours. Of course, when I was finished, I had more material than I could fit, so I moved an entire chapter (on flash cards in \LaTeX{}) to this chapter. That chapter required 871 minutes (14.5 hours) to research, write, and edit, which means that the total time spent on what would eventually become the finished product was 2,558 minutes or 42.6 hours. That's over a week's worth of work.

I'm okay with that number. After all, I have to justify the price as well. I wish I could spend all those forty hours in a single week though, because I could just take a week off work and write all day. But writing doesn't work like that—things need time to fully form in my mind. 

\medskip
\begin{flushright}
\noindent{}Thanks,\\—Ken
\end{flushright}

\end{small}
\end{multicols}