The Life and Times of Miblo del Carpio

If weekends are considered to be the generally designated days of rest, Wednesday seems to me to be my designated day of unrest.

You know I like to live a fairly peaceful life, living it fairly leisurely, and not filling it up with too many activities - after all, how can one put ones entire effort into a thing when there are dozens of other things all clamouring for ones time and attention - but these Wednesdays really seem to have it in for me. Trying to rock the boat, so to speak. No other day fills itself up these days so much as Wednesday does for me. Multitudinous activities converge on this single day: all of my Open University assignments are due in on Wednesdays, with the final exam being held on a Wednesday; the rehearsals at Our Lady's Amateur Operatics Society (OLAOS) are held on Wednesday evenings; recently my good friend Major and I have been designating Wednesday as our jamming day; and, of course, my blog is to be written on every Wednesday. Furthermore, in times past, rehearsals with Yarema have been held on a Wednesday. What is it with Wednesdays? On no other day would so many activities be so uncouth as to converge as they are doing on Wednesdays.

Word of the Week

Converge

converge v.intr. 1 come together as if to meet or join. 2 (of lines) tend to meet at a point. 3 (foll. by on, upon) approach from different directions. 4 Math. (of a series) approximate in the sum of its terms towards a definite limit.

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

There are times when the need to keep relationships cordial outweighs the need for eloquence, and hence fewer words than normal must be used. There are other times when a lack of time itself and the pressing of other commitments prevents the eloquence. Now is one of those such times - I will leave you to decide in your own imagination which of the two explanations now applies.

But, before the Word of the Week, a little mention to England's glorious tie with New Zealand in the 4th ODI (One Day International) of this New Zealand tour. It's notable in that it's the first game of this series of which I've managed to hear the first and last balls bowled, although there were plenty in the middle which I was forced to missed due to sleep (it was, after all, played from 22:00 yesterday to about 6:20 this morning, our time). And, more importantly, this tie keeps the series alive. Had New Zealand come back and surpassed England's whopping 340-6, they would have stretched this five-match series out of England's reach, winning it 3-1. Of course, the win for England would have been the ideal solution - for English and Neutral spectators alike - but the draw, nevertheless, maintains the 2-1 tally, and so there is all to play for (well, two-thirds of the possible outcomes) in Christchurch on the 23rd February.

Word of the Week

Cordial

cordial adj. & n. —adj. 1 heartfelt, sincere. 2 warm, friendly. —n. 1 a fruit-flavoured drink. 2 a comforting or pleasant-tasting medicine.

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

I can no longer speak with any heart, for she that held it captive in euphoric rapture has left me, and with her, still in pain, has gone my heart. A lamentable catastrophe it is, but one to which I now should be accustomed. But, alas! the dagger lessens not its sting as wounds are healed and time goes by, but more renews its vigour in delivering the fatal blow.

However, there we have it, and so we must go on. Of course, the reason for her departure is that Susie, the regular lexicographer, has returned from delivering her baby to continue with her duties in Countdown's Dictionary Corner. She does have a curious beauty of her own, but unfortunately it is pale in comparison to my darling Alison.

Good things, though, have arisen out of this unfortunate event. The first is that I now feel less animosity to she whom I unkindly called 'old Vorders' earlier on, meaning to speak of Carol. And also a little unrelated news, although no less triumphant, is that for my most recent Open University assignment I achieved a very palatable score of 78%. And doing a simple bit of arithmetic, I know I'm averaging just a single point below that. So, all in all, the departure of my darling oughtn't put too dark a blight on my condition. Much to celebrate, in other words.

Yes, finally the explanation for the Word of the Week from a fortnight ago is here.

It's probably a good month, now, since I did this little bit of research, on behalf of a person with whom I was communicating through a couple of torrent sites of which we are both members, into any possible origins of my name, Miblo.

Of course, my first act was to consult old Professor Google. A whopping 121,000 results (at present time of writing, so the amount at first consultation may have been less) returned for this word which I had never heard of or seen before I created it, myself, a few years ago. A handful of websites belonging to me were to be found on the first few pages, amongst a good plenty for which I can claim no credit whatsoever (I'll leave it to you, reader, to sort the wheat from the chaff), with nothing very exciting until I came to the seventh page and discovered this extraordinarily curious result entitled 'PLAYS AND ACTORS.'. Thus I duly followed the link, and found myself in the archives for The New York Times, but was dismayed to learn that 'The first paragraph is not available for this article'. Oh, how I wept! And it was only as I was drying the tears from my cheeks that I saw the button directing me to . Which I did, and was greeting with a .pdf document of a fantastically ancient article from The New York Times, dated the 11th November, 1883! Over an entire century before I was born! So I got to it, reading for this precious reference to my name, and in the fourth paragraph I found what I was after. I'll leave it to you to read it for yourself, but if any doubt is needing to be alleviated, Google's cache of that article clearly contains the word 'Miblo'. Enjoy. It's real history! And it's coincidentally bang up to date, for therein is a reference or two to one 'Fedora' - my current Linux flavour of choice. Curious how these things come round, isn't it? Fancy coming round to my garden for a hack?

Word of the Week

Curious

curious adj. 1 eager to learn; inquisitive. 2 strange, surprising, odd. 3 euphem. (of books etc.) erotic, pornographic.

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

No, it's no use. I've just tried cramming my typing up of my latest assignment into one measly hour, and I was then intending on cramming this very short article in after finishing that, and before tomorrow arriving. But tomorrow has arrived, and I could in theory take this one very leisurely, for there is obviously no goal to rush for, considering that it is late already. However, if I am to take the liberty of taking it leisurely, I ought really to do justice to the thing and write something fairly substantial, which you can all get your teeth firmly into. But, right now, after typing up 1515 words worth of assignment (excluding references, and header, etc.), I've had quite enough typing for one day, thank you very kindly, so if you don't mind, I'll just now give you the Word of the Week, and then all explanations and lamentations will be forthcoming in the next few days. Cheers.

Word of the Week

Cram

cram v. 1 tr. a fill to bursting; stuff (the room was crammed). b (foll. by in, into) force (a thing) into (cram the sandwiches into the bag). 2 tr. & intr. prepare for an examination by intensive study. 3 tr. (often foll. by with) feed (poultry etc.) to excess. 4 tr. & intr. colloq. eat greedily.

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

It's one of those words that you wish were quicker (and easier - note all those italics and parenthesis) to define. Well, well, well.

Call it slacking off, call it innovating, whatever one calls it the unprecedented is happening:

One of the sacred blogging laws is being rewritten.

Back in 2005 the laws were clear, they were understood, and for over two years since they have been most definitely wholly and truthfully abided by (if jokingly). But now in these enlightened times it seems we are due for a change, and thus is required a rewriting of the rulebook. No longer is only one article per day permitted, but now we may have plenty! The old rule (reproduced below), as it stood can be found in its original context in this article from September, 2005.

Law 4 (Intervals)

1. The blogger should not publish more than one post on his/her Blog in a single day.
(i) A day does not constitute 24 hours, but instead, the date the previous post was published.
(ii) Hence, if a post was published at 14:45 on the 6th September 2005, it is fair-play to publish a new post at 10:12 on the 7th September 2005.
(iii) To avoid confusion, it must be made clear that it is fair-play to publish a post at 23:55 on one day, and only a few minutes later, at 00:05 on the following day, to publish a new post.
(iv) However, it is not advised to publish a post at 00:05 in the morning on one day, and to publish a new post at 23:55 in the evening of the same day.

2. The only time this law should be broken, is when two unconnected and unconnectable issues of particular import need to be addressed without delay.

The new law reads thus:

Law 4 (Intervals)

The blogger may publish as many articles as he/she wishes in a single day.

Much more elegant and concise, methinks. But it doesn't stop there! A change to the chaptering system is now afoot. To my knowledge, the rule has never been set in legal terms, only having been alluded to in this article from March, 2006. The general gist was that each chapter is to contain eight articles, and each fourth chapter is to be devoted to a specific topic. This is no longer:

Law 3 (Chaptering)

1. Chapters may be of variant length, decided at the blogger's discretion.
2. Each fourth chapter is to be devoted to a chosen theme.
(i) It is advisable that these themed chapters are no shorter than eight articles.
(ii) They must begin with an introductory article, and end with a concluding one.

These seem much more satisfactory to me, and I expect they will serve us well for a long time to come.