On the high points of owning an iBook

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

I got my copy of The Last Samurai and ended up rereading the book again for the third time. ^_^ I also had a whole list of things I wanted to write down in my LJ, but now I forgot. Oh dear.

Well, one of the things I wanted to mention was that my iBook's speakers are much, much better than my Vaio's, so I borrowed Father's Ethernet card (he never told me he had an Ethernet card!) and transferred all my mp3s (plus all my other files) to the new laptop. The visualizations on iTunes are terribly cool, if somewhat...um...seizure-inducing. I am just amazed by the speed of an Ethernet connection, by the way. I transferred nearly a full gigabyte in about fifteen minutes, at 100 MB/s. O_O By the way, if you guys ever have trouble hooking up a Windows computer to a Mac by Ethernet, here's the best way to do it: on the Mac, change the System Preferences under Sharing to enable file sharing, and check the box for FTP connections. Then go write down the IP, and enter it into your FTP client on the Windows machine. Your username and password would be whatever username and password you use for the Mac. This then allows you to transfer files back and forth via FTP. I'm sure there's a more complicated and probably expensive way by hooking both computers up to a network hub, or something along those lines, but this works and it only takes a minute to set up.

Another thing cool about my iBook is that I can use the keyboards for almost any language. Did you know that the German keyboard switches the "Y" and "Z" keys? Also the "-" key produces an "ß." By the way, Angelette-oniichan was complaining how the Korean keyboard systems are actually based on the Korean alphabet instead of allowing you to spell out how they sound in the Roman alphabet and producing the syllables accordingly. Now, if Korean was like Japanese (by the way, Japanese keyboards do work that way; you write "watashi wa Tari desu" and it writes out the phrase in kana) and had a writing system based on ideographs or a syllabary, that would make sense, but why would we do that when we have our own alphabet? I mean, that kind of system would only benefit Westerners trying to type in Korean and second-generation immigrants who had a limited understanding of the Korean language! Yes, exactly like oniichan and me, I know, but still...we should know hangeul well enough. Also remember the fact that unlike Japanese, Korean has about three or four systems of romanization, and while one is adopted by the government, none of them are truly standard. Well, despite this tirade, apparently there is a system that allows you to type in "nae ireum eun Tari ibnida, and it comes out with the hangeul equivalent. Cool, neh? It's called romaja, which if you look closely is the same as romanji. There are two of them, plus two systems that just write in the Korean alphabet (one is simple, the other more complicated), one for writing hiragana and one for writing katakana in the Korean keyboard package on the iBook. Oh and you can type in Greek using the Symbol keyboard too. Ah, how lovely! I have no idea how the Chinese keyboard works, simplified or traditional, but I suppose it could be useful some day...

Oh dear, I've just been informed that I should make an anime wall by October 27. ACK! ::runs around panicked:: Need pictures, need pictures!

Lorena-sama has just written a new part to "Bean Sidhe" which makes me very happy. I have now completely forgotten whatever clues I had to whatever else I wanted to say, so I'll just conclude...

...Tari

In which Miss Gwaemir finds herself obsessed with costume dramas

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

Yes, I've been reading Emma and browsing the Masterpiece Theatre website. I've also been mentally noting how many weeks there are 'till October 6 (premier of the Forsyte Saga on PBS) and reminding myself to look up Elizabeth Gaskell next time at the library. 'Tis official my friends, Tari is in a Victorian rut and she will not get out until she watches plenty of Merchant-Ivory productions, reads all the Sherlock Holmes stories for the fourth time, and finds all the historical GW fanfics online. Oh and this is why I want to go watch that new Kate Hudson movie, "Four Feathers," which is set in Sudan and involves lots of young dashing British officers in red uniforms.

This is your cue to run.

But seriously, it's not too surprising. I grew up on Victorian-era books, and for quite some time, I thought it was normal to have amahs if you were rich and living in India or to dress up in several layers of petticoats (I wondered why I never wore any myself and concluded that I was still too young). Then I went to school and was most severely disillusioned.

...Tari

Post-script: Have just found e-texts online for many Victorian authors, including Gaskell at List of E-Texts. Annoyingly, the files are often too big to download.

In which Miss Gwaemir is amused

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

Oh, I meant to do this before. What I've read from the 100 Most Banned Books list, which I shall not cut, simply because I'm lazy and because I'll put in commas:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, Harry Potter (and series), Bridge to Terabithia, The Catcher in the Rye, The Giver, Goosebumps (only two of series, so I don't know if that counts), The Color Purple, The Great Gilly Hopkins, A Wrinkle in Time, The Witches, Anastasia Krupnik (and series), The Goats, Blubber, Julie of the Wolves, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Outsiders, The Pigman, Flowers for Algernon, A Light in the Attic, Brave New World, James and the Giant Peach, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, The Face on the Milk Carton, Lord of the Flies, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, How to Eat Fried Worms, and The Headless Cupid. A grand total of 29.

I'm sort of confused. Something like The Goats was good, but contoversial, so I can see why that's on the list. But what on earth was wrong with Anastasia Krupnik? Or Julie of the Wolves? Oh wait, attempt at rape or something like that. But How to Eat Fried Worms? Maybe I just conveniently forgot what was so bad about these books but this still sounds a bit ridiculous.

I can just hear Lyd-chan saying, "Censorship always is." Although personally, I wish they'll censor out boring commercials on TV once in a while. Like those stupid cars driving down scenic roads that in all probability don't really exist anywhere anymore.

...Tari