January 28, 1986 – one of those days in history. We all remember where we were, what we were doing. Most adults who could, were watching television.
We saw it live: the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members. Flight commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; Gregory B. Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
Only a little arm-twisting and I got The Cable Guy to write about the evolution of stored music. I was inspired by the sight of boxes and boxes of CD’s now stored in a corner of our bedroom, compared to a “party favor” we handed out this summer — a small flash drive with hours and hours of music.
Here’s The Cable Guy, in his own words:
I got my first stored music in my life when, as a child, I listened to 78 RPM shellac records. A 12-inch record side could hold around 5 minutes. When I was a teenager, records came as 33 1/3 LPs and could hold around 22 minutes/side. When 1982 came around, the Compact Disc could hold around 75 minutes.
As can be noted, as time passed, the volume of space needed to store music declined significantly. The birth of the CD brought music into the era when it could be stored in digital form. The personal computer could now be used to supply audio signals to a sound reproduction system which had no moving parts to wear out. Each replaying of the stored music was as good as the last.
Along with the technological progress in computers, storage of digital data became more reliable, needed less space and had larger storage capacity.
WHAT I DID WITH MY MUSIC STORAGE LATELY
In the last year or so, I converted all my analog music sources to digital files. These included records, tapes and CD’s.
As a summary of this activity, all of the CD’s in my collection were converted to .mp3 files by using the Apple iTunes software program.
The 6 boxes shown contain about 750 CDs:
A view of the inside of one of the boxes:
The conversion of about 200 Clssical CDs to .mp3 files resulted in 53GB of digital data. This amount of music can fit into the USB flash drive shown on the left side of the image below.
My entire 700 CD collection has 122GB of digital data and can fit into the USB flash drive shown in the middle.
The 2 1/4 inch SSD shown can hold almost 1000GB of digital data.
To provide a perspective of the volume of space that has changed over my lifetime, consider the time on the side of a LP record (22 minutes/side) compared to the 10 hours that the 64GB flash drive can hold.
I have limited computer access this week, so I’m cheating and forwarding a Proclamation sent to me by a fellow writer, Chuck McFadden.
The only item I disagree with is #3 – like (as in #2), I’m not giving up the Fourth of July.
A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
In light of your failure in recent years…to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
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1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’ in the Oxford dictionary).
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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’
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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. This goes for Canada as well. They are both part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancys).
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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
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13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
PS: Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (NOT humor)!
Fictional model of the world
On my crafts table is a room box, newly painted, waiting to be furnished. On my computer is my latest novel, newly crafted, waiting to be furnished.
Adding a descriptive passage to emphasize a point in a scene is like dropping that tiny string of pearls onto m’lady’s dresser in the Victorian dollhouse mansion. Cutting a paragraph from a chapter in a novel translates into removing a too-large scatter rug that overpowers the rest of the kitchen furnishings in a modern dollhouse.
I change a verb for a more powerful statement; I change the draperies in the dollhouse dining room for the same reason.
For a miniature scene or room box, after I choose the colors and assemble the pieces, I leave it on my crafts table for a while, living with it, looking at it from different angles over the course of a week or so, to be sure all the elements fit together nicely. Only when a particular design has stood the test of time, do I glue all the parts in place.
I do the same for my novels, leaving each chapter or day’s work to sit for a while. When I come back later, I see the flaws. I notice phrases or sentences or plot elements that don’t work well together, and make the changes. Only then do I consider it “finished” and metaphorically glue it in place.
I have the most fun when I can combine my two favorite crafts, making miniature scenes and writing mystery novels. At writing conferences and meetings I donate miniature scenes for charity auctions, often including miniature replicas of books that are featured on the panels. Here’s one put together for a recent conference.
Miniature model of the world
In each case—making a miniature scene or writing a novel—I’m creating a model of reality, a fictional world where things can be easier and often make more sense than in the life-size world.
Both endeavors also involve cheating!
When I put a roof on a dollhouse I don’t have to worry about the materials really being weatherproof. Dollhouse admirers assume all will be well if it rains. When I move my characters about in a novel, I’m not concerned about filling their cars with gas or giving them a rest stop on a long journey, unless it’s crucial to the plot. Readers assume the mundane things are being taken care of.
This house has no kitchen. Cute, huh?
In the world of dollhouses, there’s no laundry to do, and a houseful of carpeting can be changed in a matter of minutes. In my mystery novels, the good guys always win and justice is always served.
What could be more satisfying?
I remember a time when waiting for reviews of my book was a nail-biting experience. Not that I’m completely over it — I’m still thrilled by a good one, cranky at a bad one.
But after 25+ novels and short stories, I don’t get quite so anxious. Without actually counting, I’d say the good ones outnumber the bad ones by at least a small margin!
Here a few favorites.
1. In one of my early books, a character refers to May 5 as Mexican Independence Day.
Oops – I’m from Boston, where our big holidays are Patriot’s Day (April 19) and Bunker Hill Day (June 17). How was I to know that Mexican Independence Day is September 16? I don’t remember any fuss being made on that day that matches the fuss in California on Cinco de Mayo.
I received an email from a professor at a college in Mexico City. “Gringos!” she wrote, and proceeded to lecture me on Mexican military history; a few nasty terms were included. Following my rule of never defending myself, I apologized, and in turn received an apology from her for being less than civil.
2. An amazon reviewer gave one of Margaret Grace’s Miniature Mysteries one star because she thought Maddie, 11, was a spoiled brat. I didn’t respond, but wondered what kind of grandmother she’d make. Another reviewer complained about the books because she doesn’t like miniatures. Hello?
Possibly my favorite is a reviewer who said one of Ada Madison’s books was “awful” and listed reasons. At the end, he said he bought the next one in the hope that it would be better. Well, thanks, sir, as long as you keep trying . . . I can’t ask for more than that.
On the positive side, it’s a huge boost when anyone likes a book and, I must admit, when a reviewer claims to have “learned something,” whether about science, miniatures, academic life, or—most recently—interesting facts about the USPS.
Finally, one anecdote about my nonfiction “How to Live with an Engineer.”
It’s a short book, and a woman read just about the whole book while standing in front of me at a table at a fair. I was curious about whether she’d buy it after the long perusal. She did, asking me to sign it.
“How would you like me to address it?” I asked.
She thought a minute. “Just say, ‘To Ellen, good luck with Scott’.”
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Jan.28,2016