Off day the second

No post today again due to still not feeling well.

I will just say that the (highly predictable) problem with the “democratization” of the publishing business enabled by eBook readers is lack of quality. If a writer is not obsessive-compulsive about correct grammar, he should have an editor who is. Of course, in many cases this does not matter because the book is unsalvagable in other aspects anyway, but not always. For example, Daniel by Keith Yocum is a novel that is mildly entertaining but marred by such lack of attention to basic issues. Unsurprisingly, it is published by a “self-publishing company”.

Off day

No post today due to not feeling well.

I will just mention that Fellini’s 8½ is a very good film.

Of mosquitoes and men

I read somewhere that a new method of repelling mosquitoes was discovered: apparently, the creatures will not pass through certain kinds of light beams. The cause for this seems to be unknown.

When I went for a run the other day, I came across a strip of blue LED lighting integrated into the pavement – one of those features that are entirely without merit but seemingly beloved by property developers. There is something very peculiar about having light coming from below; it felt like I was approaching some kind of physical barrier, and had to exert my force of will in order to cross this line of light.

Advice

If I were ever to publish a Life Advice book (and I would avoid calling it a “self-help” book, since I want to make it clear that it is I that does the helping), it should contain a passage somewhat akin to the following:

It is often advised that difficulties are to be faced, as opposed to avoided. If you are a wimpy person (and I know many of my readers are), I recommend strictly against this. To wimpy people, difficulties are monstrous, immeasurable icebergs that admit no trespassing around, over, under or even through them. Facing them, attempting to stare them down like one’s arch-enemy, will only result in contracting hypothermia from the antarctic winds. Instead, dear reader, you should avoid making them part of your life as far as possible, whilst not falling prey to the dangerous temptation of denying their existence. This is the balancing act you must master: set your sail smoothly towards fresher waters, whilst keeping an awareness of the icy-blue obstacle at the rear of your consciousness; like a grain in one’s eye one can’t get rid of, or a pimple at the tip of one’s nose one must not extinguish.

Luckily, I have no plans to publish any such work.

On tour

One regularly reads about people embarking on a journey with some sort of highly artificial and in some sense comprehensive goal: hike the entire Appalachian Way, traverse England from south to north, cycle along the circumference of Afghanistan.

I’ve always seen the attraction in these endeavours. A variant which I imagine to  be worthy of investigation is a thorough criss-crossing of a limited territory. For example, spend two months walking x kilometres of London’s streets, never walking the same street twice. Take a great deal of photos and write down impressions in great detail. The only downside to this would seem to be its gruelling monotony and potential loneliness, although one could undertake it as a group project. In that case, however, one can imagine what a juxtaposition of the initial and the last pages of the final report might look like:

“Seven Dials, Covent Garden, 6 am. A hazy, uncertain light greets us. Seventeen strangers have become friends within the last amazing three weeks of meticulous planning – and now we are finally here, burning to explore this familiar yet strange city with new, greedy eyes. Spiralling ever outwards, we will make our way through its pompous boulevards as well as its seedy side-streets. And off we go, sauntering giddily into the sunrise, towards Holborn…”

—versus:—

“Dave finally quit as well yesterday; stayed on another night at that dirty so-called hostel (forgot the name, too many recently lol!), while we were off again. Were going to get early start but Lizzy and what’s-her-face were bitching about some trifle again. Really don’t know why I’m still doing this. Oh yeah, and we saw the millionth independent fucking record store. Who cares.”

That’s how I imagine it anyway.

Colours

Is it conceivable that there exists an as yet undiscovered colour? The obvious answer is “obviously not” – all one has to do is traverse the electromagnetic spectrum from infra-red to ultraviolet, and one has seen them all.

But if one takes a subjective rather than a purely scientific approach to this question, the answer becomes perhaps a little less clear. Who has not seen some stunning colour in a painting or a sunset that seems entirely its own – and is not at all to be found in the Microsoft Paint palette? One may argue that this is merely a psychological trick which the composition of the painting or the brilliance of the sunset plays on us; but then, we are interested particularly on the subjective effect of the colours.

This encourages us to believe that maybe there are other colours which can be perceived, if one seeks to enlist other agents in support of the mere electromagnetic wave. The first things that springs to mind are psychoactive drugs, with which your correspondent admits a lack of familiarity. Also, they are “cheating” in the sense that any novel chromatological experiences are merely simulated internally rather than stimulated externally, although the boundaries are admittedly blurry.

So who knows – maybe there is some unique combination of electromagnetic waves of various frequencies, made to perform some elaborate microscopic dance upon one’s retinas, which, when the experimental conditions are right (test subject 1 m under water, eyeballs gently vibrated), necessarily leads to the perception of an entirely new colour, which no man had theretofore ever experienced.

On the Kindle

Everyone knows the Kindle. It’s a great product. It’s also pretty revolutionary. I thought I’d write down the pros and cons of a Kindle (you may substitute any similarly-featured ebook reader) versus a book, in approximate order of importance in each category.

PRO

• Many classic books are available for free, e.g. on Project Gutenberg
• It features a convenient built-in dictionary
• You can purchase books anywhere with WiFi / 3G (depending on your model)
• Many books are cheaper, including current bestsellers
• No need for bookmarks, the device remembers it for you
• If you have lots of books on it, and you lose your Kindle, replacing it is easier (and certainly more convenient) than replacing all the books
• Nobody knows that you're reading the latest Twilight movie tie-in (but then you’re not, so that's okay!)

CON

• It Just Isn’t The Same Feeling
• You cannot rapidly flick through the book, or rapidly look at the previous page; the E-Ink screen is just too slow
• Nobody knows that you're reading an excellent and very erudite/hip (delete as appropriate) novel
• On a Kindle, all books look the same; there is no individuality in terms of paper quality and thickness, font face and size, page margin etc. etc. While some of these options can be configured on the Kindle, there is no way to set them per book.
• If you only have a few books on it, and you lose your Kindle, then replacing it will be more expensive than purchasing the same books again
• If you’re somewhere without electricity for a long time (a few weeks to a month), you won’t have anything to read

I’ve listed these because they make a rather interesting set of advantages and disadvantages. There is no clear winner here; to me, both have their deserved place. It really is revolutionary.