…oh.
Category: Pictures Page 13 of 46
Something I didn’t mention in my write-up about the classical music concert on Friday night was that, as the performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs came to an end, I became completely convinced that, were I to nick the conductor’s sheet music as an avid fan might steal a band’s set list, it would look something like this:
I know: I’m an idiot. I don’t deserve culture, do I?
So, Amazon have announced that their Kindle device will be available in an international form from 19 October. Which intrigues me.
I’m currently looking into the possibility of an e-reader for some hefty reference items I have in PDF, and the Kindle seems quite appealing, as it takes PDFs and allows you to annotate items (including, unless you can inform me otherwise PDFs), so that sounds about right. And the price is lower than the Sony ones I’d been mulling over and the like.
However, whilst carrying round something small and light is obviously more appealing than lugging round a big printed document, or reading a PDF off a screen (I often feel as if I spend about 90% of my waking hours in front of a screen of some sort or other), I’m slightly wary of getting dead-ended into a bit of tech that doesn’t last for a good number of years; I still think MiniDiscs are a terrific format, and they were super-useful when I was producing a hospital radio show every week, but now I can only use the MiniDisc recorder for a handful of purposes, and so it languishes in a drawer next to my AAC-format Sony music player.
So I’m not keen to go spending a three-digit sum on something which may prove to be something of a technological dead-end, and I have other reservations – there’s a whole DRM hoo-hah about books which you can buy for it, and Amazon recently had to undergo the irony of removing copies of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four from users’ Kindles. Then again, given the name of the device, it’s probably fortunate that it wasn’t Fahrenheit 451.
I guess I’ll wait until the devices actually start arriving in the UK before I throw my hat (a hat full of money) into the ring, and see if there are positive reviews; I like the idea of wirelessly buying books and magazines, sure, but I don’t want to end up with a bit of kit that’s duff sooner rather than later.
And besides, to answer my own question, no, it’s not available in black. Tch.
If any of you good folks have strong opinions about this subject (and to short-cut the usual comment, no I see it as supplementary to my bookshelf, not replacing it), or experience of using a reading doohickey of this type, please share in the Comments, eh? As is so often the case, I’m just learning my way around the topic, and informed input is always welcome.
And welcome to all of you who’ve come here via a search engine; prepare for disappointment.
I know a lot of the regular audience for the blog are involved in writing, though I don’t know how many of you, like me, run; anyway, this is one of those occasional posts about running.
The London Marathon has, for a number of years, been officially known as the Flora London Marathon (though it was rarely spoken of as such), because of the sponsorship provided by a leading spreadable product. Prior to that, if memory serves, it was sponsored by Mars, the ever-popular chocolate bar. Nothing, it seems, symbolises health and a stern training regime so much as sponsorship from a foodstuff containing a proportion of fat.
That used to be the case, anyway. As you can see from the logo, and may have inferred from the Google-baiting title of this post, the 2010 London Marathon is being sponsored by Virgin – a firm whose interests are strangely scattered, from credit cards to cola. No, I don’t quite understand it either.
Anyway, if you’ve applied for a place in the ballot for the 2010 Marathon, the decisions are apparently in the post. However, since the UK postal service is currently being affected by strikes (many people have inevitably noted that it’s hard to tell the difference), the mailout of the YES and NO notifications has been a bit delayed. But Virgin will apparently be e-mailing people this afternoon to let them know.
If you don’t get a place in the ballot (which is the scheme whereby enter a lottery-style system to see if you get a place, and then pay for it), there’ll of course be a vast number of charity places available; those of you with unnervingly long memories may remember that I ran in the 2007 London Marathon for just such a charity.
For reasons which kind of escape me in the cold (well, currently more like grey) light of day, I’ve entered the ballot for the 2010 Marathon, and so I should be receiving an e-mail today to let me know if I’ve got a place. If I haven’t – and I think the odds are pretty slim – then I have, for the sake of my own sanity, vowed not to see about a charity place; in all honesty, the hassle of trying to make sure I reached the target for sponsorship was more of a burden than the physical act of training for, and running, the marathon. So I won’t be doing that again.
No, definitely not. Uh-uh, nosiree. Not doing that again.
Oh no, I’m “protesting too much”, aren’t I? Uh oh…
EDITED at 3.58pm to say: Just had the e-mail to say I didn’t get in through the ballot. And that, as I say, means I won’t be pursuing any other means of getting a place. That’s what I said, and as we all know, what I say goes. Granted, it usually ‘goes’ by the by within minutes, but let’s try for some kind of certainty for once…
To commemorate my 1001st blog post, I commissioned a pair of special numerically-themed spectacles from noted stylist and creator, Mrs MyWife. Here be the results:
As you can see, they’re positively Elton Johnesque, so I intend to spend the rest of the day celebrating as Mr Dwight might (though with fewer tantrums and outbursts, of course).
Thank you for your continued audienceship, especially in the face of ridiculously self-indulgent posts like this one.
I’d like to have been at Companies House the day the incorporation paperwork for these arrived.
I post about writing often enough, it seems right that I occasionally say something about reading (well, more accurately spelling), wouldn’t you say?
A very old friend of mine (by which I mean she’s been a friend for a long time, not that she’s particularly aged, though knowing me has probably put the appearance of years on her), Rachel, is an experienced teacher, and she and an artist friend have recently put together an item designed to help children learn to spell. It’s called Picture Spell.
I’m not an expert on spelling and/or teaching, but the basic idea behind Picture Spell strikes me as a solid one; it uses pictures to teach children about the way the same sound can be formed by different combinations of letters.
Granted, as a reader of comics, I’m bound to be biased when it comes to items which combine words and pictures, but it seems a pretty sensible way to work on both hemispheres of the brain, and combining images and letters has a long and well-established history when it comes to helping people remember things; as well as the fact that the US Army has long used text and illustrations to teach soldiers how to carry out their duties, there was a little pics’n’words combo called the Bayeux Tapestry.
Anyway, this seems like a good idea, and so if you’ve got children who are about 5 or 6, you might want to think about this as a supplement to their school reading scheme. There are also packs for schools, of course, so if any of you are, or know, teachers, you might want to see if Picture Spell’s suitable for your classroom.
Learning to spell is I think, a very important thing, and anything that makes it easier has to be supported – after all, if you hadn’t learnt about the way words are spelled, the words you’re looking at right now would probably be nothing but meaningless black squiggles on a white background. A scary prospect, I know (though I’m sure some of you might aver I shouldn’t assume that my words have any real meaning, regardless of the reader’s ability to interpret them).
A moment’s reverent hush, if you will, for the news that venerable music duo Chas and Dave have split up .
(Pause)
Thank you. As you were.
One of those strangely busy (and busily strange) days, but I just wanted to alert you to the fact that, as of today, m’chum Steve is the proud father of a bouncing (if you throw it) baby paperback:
I’ve written about how much I enjoyed the hardback edition, and now you can buy it in a new, lighter-to-pick-up form (though I still maintain that the title should be in joined-up writing by way of consistency of theme). And it’s cheaper, too.
Go on, buy one. Make him happy. Or rich. Or both.
I notice that the new Jeffrey Archer paperback features a re-telling of the life story of mountaineer George Mallory.
As you probably know, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine may have been the first people to summit Mount Everest; on June 8 1924, Mallory and Irvine were climbing Everest and were seen from afar, as black specks just below the summit ridge, by another member of their party.
And then they were never seen again, though Mallory’s body was found about a decade ago. There’s never been any completely conclusive evidence to eastblish whether or not Mallory and Irvine made it to the top and died on the way down, or died en route.
Anyway, though I’ve never read an Archer book, the fact that his last book was a re-telling of The Count of Monte Cristo (one of my favourite novels) and his latest one is about another subject close to my heart inevitably makes me conclude that Archer’s deliberately trying to get my attention and make me read his books. And as a contrary type, I shan’t be duped so easily into parting with my cash (especially not to the funds of a convicted perjurer).
Instead, if you want to read about this subject, I’d recommend you either read The Ghosts Of Everest by Hemmleb, Johnson and Simonson for a very solid recounting of the search for the bodies and belongings of Mallory and Irvine; or – as pictured above – for a more fictional angle on it, have a look at The Summit of the Gods by Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi.
It’s the first volume of a Japanese comic story based around a chap who thinks he may have found Mallory’s camera (and the camera did exist and has never been recovered), with some lovely art. I’ll freely admit that I’m only halfway through reading it myself at present, but it’s a very good read, with several storylines running at once – including, of course, flashbacks to the 1924 expedition.
What’s that you say? You want evidence of the loveliness of the art? Well, all right, you demanding tyke, have a look at this five-page preview here. And as it’s a Japanese comic, don’t forget you have to read from right to left.
.ti naem I ,ylsuoires, oN