RDF/RSS Feed
Atom Feed
Some of you know the nonsense song, and some of you don’t, but in terms of finishing this book…I found the elusive duplication, removed the elusive duplication, put the single copy in a better place in the sequence, and…then found the elusive sequence gap that I knew was in there somewhere and filled it. Progress returned to normal for a time, with only top-level fine-polishing to do.
Unfortunately, it has not been one peanut, duplication, or gap. Soon I was holding the polishing rag in one hand, the wax in the other, and staring at a gap too big to jump across without a running start. Once I’d imagined the rope and grapples and then the bridge-building materials, and built the bridge, and started off to polish some more…there was a vertical cliff right across my path, and the next sequence was up a few thousand feet, its raggedy edge dripping clods on my face.
Moreover, new fossils are appearing every time I set fingers to keyboard–fossils being those facts, characters, and conversations that made sense in the previous version, but now are not there…or shouldn’t be there. Though the correction be made in one chapter (no such fact, person, or conversation ever happened), their consequences–now fossils–may be spread across a dozen, and failure to find and eliminate all these connections leads to snarky remarks from readers, of the “This writer is so careless/lazy/whatever…” variety.
I am not happy with whomever wrote this thing in the first place. Lovely scenes here and there; lots of disconnection. The chart (the plot daemon has finally provided one) makes sense, but the person steering the boat seems to have run aground on a few reefs, left out some of the ports where vital machinery was to have been delivered, and stranded passengers at ports not even on the chart. That’s the maritime version. The map (the plot daemon has finally provided one of those, too, for the land portions of the journey) clearly shows that the expedition leader *could* have gone this way, and avoided that long detour through alluring but useless History of Elves, thus allowing ample time to explore (building bridges and scaling cliffs and Making Things Clear) the rugged but interesting Land of Long Plot-Moving-Forward.
Remonstrating with the plot daemon does no good at all; he has retired to the boiler room, from which come mysterious and alarming noises, curses in five languages, and the comment that “She could blow any second…!”
So it’s up to pitiful remnant of the rescue team…the one who only yesterday was polishing away for all she was worth, thinking that the worst was over…to hitch up her jeans, locate the tools, machinery, etc. needed, and get the job done, meanwhile joining her curses with those of the plot daemon lest, in fact, “she blow any second.”
There will be a stern lecture to the original writer just as soon as this book’s turned in and I recover–say after a week’s sleep.
Just for the record, the author is imbibing chocolate at a fearful rate, that being the only known sustenance that fuels such efforts. All good intentions related to not overeating in the holidays this year have gone down the tubes, as the need to work well past midnight made itself clear.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 17, 2011 @ 11:06 am
Sigh. Best wishes for the long holiday nights, may they be not too long, now that the plot daemon has brought forth the map. … Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good … 😉
Comment by Jenn — December 17, 2011 @ 6:37 pm
May I suggest Cadbury’s fruit and nut for your chocolate consumption. That way you can say it is nutritious. Fruit = fruit and nut = fiber.
Comment by elizabeth — December 17, 2011 @ 7:03 pm
No, no. Esther Friesner, the Mome of Chocolate, has already assured me that chocolate is itself a fruit. The darker the chocolate, the higher the fruit content. (Though, if one needs calcium supplementation, milk chocolate has its place, mostly in growing children to keep them out of the good stuff on the grounds of building strong bones.)
My chocolate of choice is Green & Black’s 85% cocoa, followed by their dark chocolate with crystallized ginger (VERY hard to find here), their 70% cocoa, and Endangered Species (several varieties–with espresso beans, with chili bits, or 88% cocoa with a black leopard staring at me off the cover.) Cadbury’s is too sweet. Early in a book, a preferred chocolate bar may last me two weeks, nibbled in tiny amounts each day. In crisis…it’s way more than that. WAY more.
Comment by Wickersham's Conscience — December 17, 2011 @ 11:22 pm
That’s serious Chocaholic territory, that is. That’s just short of mainlining. The plot and continuity challenges must be more serious than you describe.
Comment by Jo Thomas — December 18, 2011 @ 5:05 am
Have to say I agree with your chocolate preferences, Elizabeth. Although, oddly enough, Green & Blacks is owned by Cadbury’s, and therefore Kraft. (http://www.greenandblacks.com/)
Comment by Jenn — December 18, 2011 @ 10:11 am
How happy you have made me Chocolate is a fruit!!! 5-7 helpings a day
That was the best Christmas present ever. 😀
Comment by Richard — December 18, 2011 @ 1:58 pm
I didn’t know the peanut song and now I do. The things I learn coming here!
(In England we have Ilkley Moor – Ilkla in dialect – of which for a long time I knew the tune but only one or two verses.)
Elizabeth, Jenn: I guess the coffee bean is also a fruit then (how much coffee to make a portion though?), but tea leaves a vegetable.
Comment by elizabeth — December 18, 2011 @ 8:58 pm
And I had to look up Ilkley Moor–which I remembered I’d first heard of in a Kipling story–and have now heard (YouTube, hurray.) The Kipling mention made me want to visit Ilkley (and I did, on my last trip) but I didn’t hear the song there.
E.
Comment by Richard — December 19, 2011 @ 4:01 am
For anyone else who goes looking, some of the versions on YouTube are abbreviations (even the male voice choir’s), but the one posted by 4WordsMediaNorth (some singers in a park bandstand) is a straight sing-through of the full 8 verses.
Comment by Jenn — December 19, 2011 @ 12:24 pm
Richard I did some quick research:
Beans fall into 3 nutrition categories:
Fruit (seed bearing part of plant), Vegetable and Protein. Nutrition guides allow 5 1/2 oz. of Protein, 2 1/2 cups of vegetables, 2 cups of fruit.
In order to get the most out of this guide one could melt and re-solidify chocolate in to 4 1/2 cups and take 5 1/2 oz of ground coffee.
Just to round out the diet add 3 cups of milk and 6 oz of oatmeal. But may be not mixed all together.
Comment by Sam Barnett-Cormack — December 20, 2011 @ 8:58 am
It’s amazing the way we use ‘bean’ to mean a range of different things. True beans, such as borlotti or haricot, principally fulfil the dietetic role of providing protein, as does meat, but provide vastly more fibre and vitamins than meat.
Three related types of ‘bean’, however, are actually roasted berries – coffee, cocoa (cacao), and kola.
Similarly, peanuts are not nuts at all, though they share dietetic similarities with them (including some allergenic proteins), but are in fact legumes. Cashew nuts are just weird, actually being the seed of the true fruit of the cashew tree – for culinary purposes they may be nuts, and they share dietetic characteristics, but they are largely distinct in terms of allergenics. The “cashew apple” is actually an accessory fruit separate to the true fruit, which is not eaten (except the seed inside), being quite toxic. The cashew apple is eaten, apparently.
Similarly, the strawberry, while clearly a fruit dietetically, is actually an aggregate accessory fruit botanically, as it does not contain the seed, but instead holds many seeds on its surface.
I have no idea why I felt compelled to share all that.
Comment by Dave Ring — December 20, 2011 @ 11:00 am
I’ve read that parts of the cashew fruit contain urushiol — the potent allergen found in poison oak and ivy, and I’ve always wondered how the workers who prepare cashew nuts manage to avoid disabling skin reactions. Any contact allergens in the forests of Paksworld?
Comment by Jenn — December 20, 2011 @ 11:27 am
Sam Barnett-Cormack,
I found your outpouring of knowledge very interesting. I once heard that a banana is considered an herb instead of a fruit. Do you know anything about that?
Comment by Iphinome — December 20, 2011 @ 4:25 pm
@Sam Barnett-Cormack perhaps the great author in the sky decided to use you as an info dump?
Comment by filkferengi — December 20, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
No, no; chocolate is a vegetable. It says so in the Pegasus-nominated song, here:
http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/chocolate-vegetable.html
Also, there’s the song “On Filkley Moor.”
😉
Comment by Sam Barnett-Cormack — December 20, 2011 @ 7:17 pm
Dave Ring: I understand the urushiol (actually a close analogue, not exactly the same stuff) is in an inner layer of the fruit – it’s only when it’s processed that it’s released, and the “nuts” have to be roasted outdoors because of the release of poisonous vapours. However, the roasting does destroy any trace on the nuts themselves.
Jenn: As I understand it, bananas are true fruit, it’s just that the bananas commonly eaten in the west are a variety that’s been bred to be sterile. They don’t produce viable seeds, barely producing seeds at all. However, in other varieties, they produce plentiful hard seeds. However, in some cultures, the hearts of the banana flower are apparently eaten as a vegetable. Who’d’a thought it?
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 21, 2011 @ 7:21 am
1:20 am Ms. Moon? I hope it was a chocolate high and not tearing more hair out getting all the people to their proper ports at the proper time. We’re cheering you on here at Paksworld.
Comment by elizabeth — December 21, 2011 @ 2:54 pm
I know you are, and I appreciate the cheering on. Progress is being made, but much slower than I would like. Taking off time to visit with friends and celebrate the arrival of The New Table didn’t help with the progress, though ideas did flow and have been jotted down.
New Table takes the place of two old tables that did not match in height or width and also had inconveniently placed legs for guests. Here’s a picture of the oldest of the old tables and a corner of the next oldest. Oldest table was my childhood dining table, small enough to fit (without its leaf in) in the little dining alcove in my mother’s house; I don’t remember when it wasn’t there, so Mother probably got it shortly after we moved to that house–1946, that would be. Next oldest table is one we got when we moved to San Antonio in ’73.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 21, 2011 @ 8:50 pm
Christmas presents to oneself are a good reason to stay up late!
Comment by Richard — December 22, 2011 @ 3:39 am
Jenn (#10) a balanced diet, then: double chocolate cookie in one hand, oatmeal and raisin cookie in the other?
Elizabeth, before going offline for a week, I have to thank you for the literary chocolate-box (many flavours) that is Moon Flights. You’ve mentioned in these blogs a couple of times why “Judgement” is worth reading now, but I want to single out “Gifts” for special praise. Though it has no relevance to the current series (is there a word quinquology, or shall we just say quintet?), beyond being a Paksworld story, I find it a thoroughly satisfying one. And despite this being the Paksworld site I must mention also Paksworld’s antithesis, the LA&AS. Please do not tell the ladies how much I enjoy following their adventures. (Repeat: DO NOT TELL Sophora that I find her friends funny, or I may never see my Internet account again.)
Comment by Jenn — December 22, 2011 @ 8:51 am
Richard, I think we maybe on to a great diet 🙂
Have you ever put sunflower seeds in chocolate chip cookies? Wonderful!
Comment by elizabeth — December 22, 2011 @ 11:20 am
Richard: you’re welcome, glad you enjoyed Moon Flights and the ladies of the L.A.A.S. They were fun to write. I may someday finish the longer story of which “Gifts” is part.
Jenn: Sunflower seeds in chocolate chip cookies? I will have to try that!! I use raw sunflower seeds as part of our regular cereal mix.
Comment by patricia nancarrow — December 23, 2011 @ 4:32 pm
it is 9.23am here in Australia ,and it is Christmas eve.I have just finished cooking the ham and the turkey. It is far too hot to have the oven pumping out any more heat,hence the early start on the one day of the year I love. I made my chocolates last week and hid them from myself, but I will find them again after I come home from the carol service at church tonight.To you Elizabeth and all at packsworld whoever you may be, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY WONDERFUL AND JOYOUS NEW YEAR
Comment by elizabeth — December 23, 2011 @ 11:55 pm
We’re still behind, as it’s now (11:45 pm Friday) not quite Christmas Eve yet. Quite chilly for us, but not freezing yet (tomorrow night we’re supposed to get a solid freeze.) I’m singing two services (8 pm and 10:30) at St. David’s tomorrow (Christmas Eve to us.) We get a brass quartet along with the usual organ for festive occasions.
When Richard was still in the St. Matt’s choir, he’d sing the early service there and then we’d pile in the car and zip downtown to St. David’s, where I’d sing and he’d be in the front row with our son. But St. Matt’s moved its early service–a half hour later, so there’s not really time to sit through its most crowded and get to St. David’s on time for choir warmup. So this year, there’s no frantic rushing between services. We’ll get home between 1 and 2 am.
Comment by Daniel Glover — December 24, 2011 @ 11:05 am
The joys of the internet age. The good days can lsat 47:59:59 starting at the international date line. And if you count Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and good old English Boxing Day with that makes nearly one hundred hours to spread the cheer around.
I, too, will be singing tonight (eve) and then back to help assist with services in the morning and finally off to my parents for the rest of the day tomorrow.
Merry Christmas and Peace to all the Earth!
Comment by Iphinome — December 25, 2011 @ 12:29 am
Happy Christmas Lady Moon.
Comment by Jenn — December 25, 2011 @ 11:51 am
Blessed and Wonder-filled Christmas to all
Daniel: Following the older Liturgical ways will allow you to celebrate Christmas until Jan 6. The newer Liturgical Christmas is just an Octave.
Comment by Gareth — December 28, 2011 @ 6:44 am
Saw someone referencing the Yorkshire (UK) circular song.
Yorkshire lyrics
Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
subsequent verses
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
Tha’s bahn’ to catch thy deeath o` cowd
Then us’ll ha’ to bury thee
Then t’worms’ll come an` eyt thee up
Then t’ducks’ll come an` eyt up t’worms
Then us’ll go an` eyt up t’ducks
Then us’ll all ha’ etten thee
That’s wheear we get us ooan back
Translation (regular English)
Where have you been since I last saw you, last saw you?
On Ilkley Moor without a hat
Where have you been since I last saw you, last saw you?
Where have you been since I last saw you?
On Ilkley Moor without a hat
On Ilkley Moor without a hat
On Ilkley Moor without a hat
subsequent verses…
You have been courting Mary Jane
You are bound to catch your death of cold
Then we will have to bury you
Then the worms will come and eat you up
Then the ducks will come and eat up the worms
Then we will go and eat up the ducks
Then we will have eaten you
That’s where we get our own back
At my daughters carol service the choir sang and arrangement of ‘While Shepherds watched…’ to the tune of Ilkey Moor.
Comment by nancynew — December 30, 2011 @ 3:32 pm
In Dorothy Sayers’ “Clouds of Witness” someone sings Ilkey Moor… That’s where I know it from…
Also, Elizabeth–I’ve been melting dark chocolate and dipping crystalized ginger in it, then letting it harden, simply because it is so incredibly delicious.
Comment by elizabeth — December 31, 2011 @ 12:35 am
Dark chocolate and crystallized ginger….oh…I’ve had that and it’s…really, really good. Have you tried dark chocolate with flakes of chili pepper (another good one)?