Translating my thoughts into words.
Not “MacBook” Ends, you will note. So far as I know, Apple is far from ending their latest consumer model of notebook computer. No, i just thought I would share a picture of my office and reveal how I am making us of some old Macs. Most of these were just sitting in an office closet, about to be thrown out when I decided to display them. If you click on the image and go to my Flickr account you will see some notes regarding the Macs and the books.
UPDATE: £54 to fill up the rental car. That is $108! Not to my liking. And, for the record, I do not think that a similar approach of raising fuel taxes will help the US in any way. But that is another debate for another day.
Starbucks coffee in England is lousy. Through a week and several cups (most E’s) we did not get a single decent cup from Starbucks. And they didn’t have half-half or “single cream” for those who like a little cream in their coffee. (I take it black, but E takes it white, very white.) This wouldn’t be a big deal if Starbucks were a native company, but this is Starbucks! American capitalist imperialism catering to American tourists needs and addictions. How they haven’t capitulated to mass protests of caffeine and dairy crazed Yanks is beyond me.
Cafe Nero’s coffee is great. It could be the two shots of espresso they include in every cup of regular coffee (you have to ask for only one shot) but this stuff is good. Black gold.
The weather is the same as always. Grey, damp, with mild outbreaks of sun. Still, it makes being in the basement of the library palatable.
The Bodleian is the greatest and worst library in the world. It has everything, they just won’t let you near it. Actually, that isn’t really true and this isn’t my complaint from this trip. I was able to get at everything I needed easily and quickly and my library card was reactivated in mere minutes. But my colleagues were complaining that they are not allowed to have more than 3 (three) books at a time out of the Bodley. That is, assuming they are circulating books in the first place. These are senior faculty! And they are not trusted with more than three books at a time. Wow.
But the staff at the OI are great. It was as if I had never left and they were incredibly friendly and helpful. Great stuff. There was only one real shocker returning to the OI (Oriental Institute) and that was the smoking lounge was closed! Turns out the entire country went smoke-free on July 1. Now I don’t smoke very often, the occasional pipe and even more occasional cigar, but when I was a grad student it was a rare opportunity to chat with certain senior faculty. A casual conversation in that smoke filled upper room was a great treat for me. *sigh*
Water pressure? What is this thing that you speak of? I had forgotten about “Power Showers,” these necessary little add on turbine-type devices necessary to give your shower pressure on the scale of a light drizzle. Anything less and…well you take a bath. That and two faucets per sink. Someone in the plumbing guild needs to let builders know that they can now install a “mixing” faucet that allows both hot and cold waters to mingle and come out of a single faucet head. It is magic!
Great people. Above all we have had a fantastic time and everyone we have met, old and new, have been wonderful. We were expecting a certain amount of anti-American sentiment, but we have found nothing but very cordial and helpful people in restaurants and stores.
Most of all, it was great to see old friends and visit old haunts. We only lived here four years, but it was the first four of our married life and it still looms large in our hearts and minds. The visit back did nothing to diminish that.
Tomorrow is my bride’s 40th and this weekend we celebrated with her family. One of the “presents” was preparing a video of 40 years worth of pictures and, of course, music to go along with it. This led us into everything from James Taylor Something in the Way She Moves to Prince – 1999 to Cars (“Good Times Roll”). On the way home we rocked out to “Modern Rock – Dance – Disc 1” including “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. This was the first ever music video I was blessed cursed to see. Apparently this was written as a send up of the poppy hits then in vogue and lo and behold! It became a hit of its own. (I preferred “Antarctica” on the b side.)
I thought I would share this retrospective with you all:
Christopher Heard at Higgaion has written about trying out the new Nisus Writer Pro. For those who are unfamiliar with NW, it was an amazing and powerful word processor in the 90′s for the MacOS (I cannot remember how early, but through OS 9). One of the things that made it so powerful was its ability to do right-to-left languages (e.g., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac). I wrote my doctoral thesis and my book with it.
Chris has written about how easy the new NWP has been to use and indeed, so far it is looking great. BUT what is particularly impressive is that I was able to open my old NW documents with it AND almost everything (but not all) was just as it should be! Most importantly, the Hebrew and Aramaic were right there, looking as they should and editable! (The header and footer were messed up and I need to reload my Greek and Syriac fonts.) But here is the amazing thing: it even maintained the Styles from the original! (See the image below.) This means that I can simply go in and edit, say, the font size, and it will adjust all footnotes to the new font size, etc.
Now that is great! So, NWP may not be my full time WP just yet, but it will again become my WP of choice when using Hebrew and Aramaic. Way to go Jerzy and Gang!
(Reminder – When you see a squished image just right-click and select “View Image.” The WordPress template automatically squishes it to ensure that the image doesn’t run into the sidebar.)
This is great! A fan of DA put this together in the 1980s and now we can all enjoy it. You gotta love YouTube!
