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Saturday, August 9th, 2003
So I finished Nuns and Soldiers yesterday and found it to be a bit of a disappointment. I was really getting into the story through Tim's character and really enjoyed it when he got back together with Gertrude. But then the last hundred pages or so were really downhill -- it seemed to be a lot of extremely self-conscious tying up of loose ends on Murdoch's part. I think the book was supposed to be about Ann Cavidge, whose character is not really too interesting; when Murdoch realized she had written a book more about Tim and Gertrude, she decided to write another couple of chapters to focus on Ann -- bad idea. The penultimate chapter in particular, in which Manfred and Mrs. Mount have their big conversation, was not related to the rest of the book in any organic way -- that is to say, it was tied in to the rest of the book by bringing up plot devices from earlier on -- ones which had not seemed particularly important at the time -- and revealing that Manfred or Mrs. Mount or both had played key roles behind the scenes -- which does not strike me as a very useful method of character development. And the last chapter too, with Ann searching for Daisy and hearing people talking about her, was out of left field.
posted evening of August 9th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Nuns and Soldiers
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Thursday, August 7th, 2003
Geez, lots of stuff going wrong with my house this week -- a short circuit in the basement, water in the basement, a rotten piece of siding, and a broken step in the staircase going down to the basement. Lots of work for this weekend!
posted evening of August 7th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Carpentry
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Wednesday, August 6th, 2003
This is a fun song, by Syd Barrett. It is also quite easy to play on guitar, as I discovered this evening. I cannot guarantee the chords here are accurate but they sound alright. (Woops -- some of those chords were way off -- these should work a little better.) C G
This is a story bout a girl that I knew
C G
She didn't like my songs and that made me feel blue
B♭ A G
She said a big band is far better than you.
C Am
She don't rock and roll
G
She don't like it
C Am
She don't do the stroll
G
Well she don't do it right
C C7
And everything's wrong
F F6
And my patience is gone
C
When I woke one morning
G
And remembered this song.
C Am
G
Kinda catchy,
C Am
G
I hope
C C7
That she will talk to me now
F F6
And even allow me
C G
To hold her hand and forget that old man.
F C C7
I strolled around to her pad
F C G
Her light was off and that's bad
F C G
Her sister said that my girl was gone
F G
But come inside boy and play play play me a song.
I said yeah
Here I go
She's kinda cute don't you know
That after a while
Of seeing her smile
I knew we could make it
A-make it in style.
So now I've got, all I need
She and I are in love, we've agreed
She likes this song, and my, others too
So now you see my world is...
Because of this tune.
What a boon this tune,
I tell you soon we'll be
Lying in bed
Happily wed
And I won't think of that girl
What she said.
The key thing in picking this song is that nearly every time there is a G chord followed by a C chord, you need to end the measure of G by hammering on from an open G string to an A. That will establish the mood of the song -- for everything else you can pick and strum pretty loosely. Keep a nice walking pace, a little faster in the middle of the song.
posted evening of August 6th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Guitar
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Monday, August 4th, 2003
Motivation is in short supply over here... I eventually got myself down to the basement this evening, looked at the wood and decided I did not want to chop any mortises. It was not such a bad thing though -- I realized I could mark all the joints at one go, which ended up taking about a half hour with all the futzing around I was doing. Tomorrow night I will start chopping. ... Also I got some guitar practice in tonight; I worked out what I think will be a pretty convincing picking pattern for "While my Guitar Gently Weeps."
posted evening of August 4th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Window seat
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Friday, August first, 2003
We're off to Kutztown tomorrow for a big picnic at Bill Grumbine's place -- get Ellen and Sylvia introduced to the whole WoodCentral and CJWA crowd.
posted afternoon of August first, 2003: Respond
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Thursday, July 31st, 2003
It is LanguageHat's first birthday, and I wish him a good one; seeing that prompted me to check how old I am now. I see my first post was made on April 25th, a couple of days more than 3 months ago; and that the current post number is 96. So I am averaging right about a post per day which seems like a good rate of output. (Of course many of those posts are little throw-away ones like this; the number of serious, meaningful posts is probably more like 40. Still a respectable figure.)
posted evening of July 31st, 2003: Respond
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I did some more work on the window seat tonight, finishing off the rear half of the frame. The mortise and tenon joints came out very nice, and without too much effort. I see from my referral log that a lot of people are coming here looking for window seat plans; while I don't have any plans to offer I can tell you it's pretty straightforward design, all you need is a simple frame with two flat pieces of wood on it -- see my first post for the design process and some rough drawings. And if you have questions about it, send me an e-mail -- I'd be glad to help if I can.
posted evening of July 31st, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Home improvement
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I was happy to see in the Voice this morning, that a movie of "American Splendor" is coming out, opening in 2 weeks. Looking forward to it!
posted morning of July 31st, 2003: Respond
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Tuesday, July 29th, 2003
I have gotten further into Nuns and Soldiers and am enjoying it. The plot is pretty easy to follow thus far, as long as you keep track of where the flashbacks begin and end, and interesting. I like the prominence of Tim Reede in the section I'm reading now as I find it easy to identify with his character, moreso than most of the others. One annoying thing is Murdoch's tendency to break into the middle of a dialog with a long expository couple of paragraphs -- this is ok in moderation but she makes use of it way too often. Her descriptions are vivid and even moving; but when she is narrating a scene I often get a pretty clear picture of where she is going with it way before she gets there.
posted evening of July 29th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Iris Murdoch
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It's back! Scott McCloud has restarted his daily Morning Improv session. Check out his first completed improv, The Junk Bar -- it is an amazing piece of work, sort of American Splendor meets A Clockwork Orange. [Well whatever -- the A Clockwork Orange comparison doesn't really work.]
posted afternoon of July 29th, 2003: Respond
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