Granddaughter Ysabelle, now doing politics at Leicester, left traces on my computer. A second hard drive allowed her to play "The Sims" without risking my files. But grandson Ian and I formatted Bella's HDD (ie, swept it clear) and installed a Linux operating system.Changing an OS is like switching your lungs from oxygen to some other gas (methane?). Or keeping a shark and a herring in the same aquarium. Early misinformation left us unable to access Windows XP on the other HD and we needed help. Eventually the chosen Linux (Ubuntu: after an African ethical concept emphasizing community, sharing and generosity) was taken aboard and the only problem is Ubuntu doesn't switch off. Why did we do this? Ubuntu is free, it avoids defects inherent in Windows and it's the techie sort of thing you'd expect me to do. More when I've time.
DELUSION Apart from casting me into the world scarce half made-up, my secondary school was also pretentious: it was never "Oh come all ye faithful" but always Adeste fideles. Years later I profit from this. As I do the drying-up I sing Cantet nunc aula caelestium pretending I understand Latin. A delusion, I know, but we all need our crutches.
WAY TO GO In "The discovery of France", recommended by Lucy, Graham Robb describes how Christians purged paganism by carving dolmens and menhirs into crosses. Paganists struck back and "Yah, sucks boo" ensued when an iron cross embedded in stone was struck by lightning and when a local priest was killed by a falling rock. Secular de-deconsecration was better: mapmakers mounted metal trig points on the crosses. French pragmatism!
Novel progress 20/11/09 (Working titles: The ruined con-rod. Or Con-Rod. Or The Connecting Rod. Or how about something based on bearings?). Chs. 1, 2, 3, 3A (Interlude), 4: 15,288 words. Ch. 5: 2972 words. Comment: More of the same grind
8 comments:
Discovery of France, by Graham Robb? I read that fascinating book too, good stuff.
Good luck with the Linux OS, our IT boyz eyes glaze over when they talk about it, tho they must confine that OS to their personal machines, not the corporate ones (including this one).
I took Latin as well, four years worth;other than "Ipse dixit, quid pro quo", gathered elsewhere, cannot remember a darn thing.
Without giving it any thought (so apologies), it strikes me that you should call the novel simply Con-rod even if you have to modify the plot to help it fitk.
I agree with Plutarch.
vae victis. He should've been nicer to her.
RR: DoF: A real plum-pudding of detail. I'm glad Linux glazes the pros' eyes; me I glaze all over. Re Latin: The motto of my wretched school was inevitably in Latin and very much in keeping with its learning-by-rote principles: Hoc age (Do this).
Plutarch/Crow: It was just a working title and I've wondered anyway whether its idiomatic abbreviation isn't in any case misleading. The full thing, Connecting Rod, might well be better. For those ignorant of this component's shape I have added a picture.
RW (zS): You're right, he's becoming more of a bastard by the moment. And I'm starting to go spoony about my secondary character.
Are we talking about Tom, or Hatch? I've missed a chapter, I think.
The Crow: Sorry for the confusion. I have, in effect, been talking to myself and will stop this. Chs. 4 (now finished), 5 and 6 kick off a parallel and separate theme which will eventually intertwine.
The beauty of Con-rod is the ambiguity in the syllable "con". Perhaps Hatch does't deserve the association. But if it turns out that he does ....!
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