Paean to Propane [Jim]
Shocking News for those of you that know her: Emma has managed to either sprain or break her toe. It seems that Lily pushed Clara onto Emma’s toe, bending said Toe backwards to the point where excruciating pain ensued. Emma is now limping around. Sadly, we neglected to pack Emma’s crutches.
The course of Life in the last week in the Hartley Household has been primarily determined by the lack of Propane. Our propane tank, used for the stove, ran out of gas on Friday. So, we called the place that takes care of such things,. And they duly promised to bring us new propane “tomorrow.” Saturday came and went with no new propane. Subsequent days saw a repeat of this lack of propane. Today, one of the neighbors took pity on us and lent us their spare propane tank to use until they deliver a new one, which will presumably be “tomorrow.” Now a lack of Propane may not mean much to many of you, but consider this—without propane, we have no means to boil water. Without boiled water we have no drinking water. Well, OK, we can buy drinking water at the store right next to our apartment. But, even more importantly, without boiled water, we have no water to make the Elixir of Life Itself—and being Coffeeless is not a good state. There are coffee shops, but, this being India, they do not open until 9 or 10 AM—which is a tad late for one’s first cup of coffee. Also, without Propane, we have no means to boil our milk, which, since the delivery of milk continues even in a Propaneless world, means that the refrigerator rapidly filled up with unboiled milk. And finally, without propane it is difficult to cook dinner. So, the moral is, be sure to express a little gratitude for Propane the next time you think about it.
Monday was a strange day in these parts; a set of political parties decided to call a 12 hour strike in town. So, almost everything closed for the day. There were no taxis running, so the streets were quiet. It was strange. The point of the general strike eluded me even after reading all about it in the paper. But, I think its real purpose was to take care of an insidious problem with the calendar—Last Monday was unfortunately the date of two separate Holidays (the last day of Durga Puja and Gandhi’s birthday). One of the papers quoted somebody who is one of the Somebodys organizing the strike who noted that since everyone only got one Holiday instead of two last week, the strike would make up for that fact by given everyone an extra holiday. This, I note was the only explanation for the strike that made any sense to me. Also, I can note that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) opposed the Strike, for reasons which were also unclear.
Michelle asked for more details on the proprietary vs. open-source software panel discussion. That Michelle asked for more details is of no surprise to anyone who knows her—she is, after all writing her senior thesis on such a topic. She also, I should note, thinks I am generally quite wrong in my thinking about such topics. Indeed, during the whole panel discussion, I kept thinking that if Michelle was on the panel, she would have duly shredded my arguments. But, the details. The essence of my argument was that proprietary software provides greater incentives for innovation; without control over the end product it is hard to get financial rewards for your efforts (hard is not the same as impossible, I should note). Thus, at the cutting edge, I suspect proprietary software will always be in the lead. Moreover, there is an enormous advantage in software when everyone uses the same operating system, for example. If all computers have Windows, then I can sit down at any computer and use it; without standardization, there would be enormous switching costs when using different computers. It is harder to have standardization with open-source software because the software is easily modified. In the Indian context (which was the point of the panel), I find it likely that Microsoft will dominate the market as computer use spreads. Linux is just too complicated and has no standardization. From the question period, I think most of the audience agreed with me—the other guy got all the skeptical questions. However, I am not sure that people actually agreed with my underlying argument. The problem here is that everyone uses Windows, but almost nobody actually pays for Windows—piracy is big, and I mean *big* here. So, for most Indians, there is no price differential between proprietary software (like Microsoft) and open-source software (like Linux). If both are free, it is hard to argue for things like Linux.
We fired our cook. It wasn’t a good situation. It turned out that both our maid and our neighbors across the hall had deep animosity toward the cook. We are not quite sure why, since all the discussions are in a language we do not understand. Moreover, the cook was charging quite a bit by Indian standards, and then telling other servants in the building that they were underpaid—this was not going over well with some of the neighbors. In the end, we decided that harmony in the household was rather important. Servant politics is a fascinating thing, though since we don’t understand the language, we have no idea what all the issues are. Anyway, our maid has said that she is happy to cook for us. With no propane, however, this has not been a concern yet. Also, Janet feels a certain measure of guilt for firing someone, so if you ever want to see Janet look anguished, just say to her “I cannot believe that you fired some poor cook.”
Clara’s birthday is next week. She will be 7. It is hard to believe that Clara is so old. She is a great kid.
Book Reports:
1. Wilde: Lady Windermere’s Fan
The Decay of Lying
The first is a typical Wilde play; amusing and quite clever. The second was an interesting discussion of the problems with the Realism in 19th century Art. The essay provides an early argument for the later development of magical realism in literature.
2. Emerson, Essays
I read a few of his essays in the last week. I have never been a big fan of Emerson. Nothing has changed.
3. Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
This is one of those modern novels that I suspect is beloved by professors of English. Cleverly written, with a very good prose style. The story leave just about every question raised in the book hanging at the end—there is zero explanation about how everything that happened could have actually happened, which is probably the point of the book. Probably. The only way to figure it out would be to reread it at least one more time, but there is no reason to assume the book would reward a rereading; I suspect it isn’t a Great Book.
4. Pound, Cantos I-XXX
Cantos 1 to 30 were the first published set of the cantos. I have browsed the Cantos before, but I finally just forced myself through the first 30. In essence, this is the sort of book for people who think the plot of Finnegans Wake is too straightforward.
5. Nietzsche, TheBirth of Tragedy
A terribly uneven book. A few parts of it (a very few parts) rise to the level of interesting, but the bulk of it is simply terrible. Very overrated in the Nietzsche canon.
The course of Life in the last week in the Hartley Household has been primarily determined by the lack of Propane. Our propane tank, used for the stove, ran out of gas on Friday. So, we called the place that takes care of such things,. And they duly promised to bring us new propane “tomorrow.” Saturday came and went with no new propane. Subsequent days saw a repeat of this lack of propane. Today, one of the neighbors took pity on us and lent us their spare propane tank to use until they deliver a new one, which will presumably be “tomorrow.” Now a lack of Propane may not mean much to many of you, but consider this—without propane, we have no means to boil water. Without boiled water we have no drinking water. Well, OK, we can buy drinking water at the store right next to our apartment. But, even more importantly, without boiled water, we have no water to make the Elixir of Life Itself—and being Coffeeless is not a good state. There are coffee shops, but, this being India, they do not open until 9 or 10 AM—which is a tad late for one’s first cup of coffee. Also, without Propane, we have no means to boil our milk, which, since the delivery of milk continues even in a Propaneless world, means that the refrigerator rapidly filled up with unboiled milk. And finally, without propane it is difficult to cook dinner. So, the moral is, be sure to express a little gratitude for Propane the next time you think about it.
Monday was a strange day in these parts; a set of political parties decided to call a 12 hour strike in town. So, almost everything closed for the day. There were no taxis running, so the streets were quiet. It was strange. The point of the general strike eluded me even after reading all about it in the paper. But, I think its real purpose was to take care of an insidious problem with the calendar—Last Monday was unfortunately the date of two separate Holidays (the last day of Durga Puja and Gandhi’s birthday). One of the papers quoted somebody who is one of the Somebodys organizing the strike who noted that since everyone only got one Holiday instead of two last week, the strike would make up for that fact by given everyone an extra holiday. This, I note was the only explanation for the strike that made any sense to me. Also, I can note that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) opposed the Strike, for reasons which were also unclear.
Michelle asked for more details on the proprietary vs. open-source software panel discussion. That Michelle asked for more details is of no surprise to anyone who knows her—she is, after all writing her senior thesis on such a topic. She also, I should note, thinks I am generally quite wrong in my thinking about such topics. Indeed, during the whole panel discussion, I kept thinking that if Michelle was on the panel, she would have duly shredded my arguments. But, the details. The essence of my argument was that proprietary software provides greater incentives for innovation; without control over the end product it is hard to get financial rewards for your efforts (hard is not the same as impossible, I should note). Thus, at the cutting edge, I suspect proprietary software will always be in the lead. Moreover, there is an enormous advantage in software when everyone uses the same operating system, for example. If all computers have Windows, then I can sit down at any computer and use it; without standardization, there would be enormous switching costs when using different computers. It is harder to have standardization with open-source software because the software is easily modified. In the Indian context (which was the point of the panel), I find it likely that Microsoft will dominate the market as computer use spreads. Linux is just too complicated and has no standardization. From the question period, I think most of the audience agreed with me—the other guy got all the skeptical questions. However, I am not sure that people actually agreed with my underlying argument. The problem here is that everyone uses Windows, but almost nobody actually pays for Windows—piracy is big, and I mean *big* here. So, for most Indians, there is no price differential between proprietary software (like Microsoft) and open-source software (like Linux). If both are free, it is hard to argue for things like Linux.
We fired our cook. It wasn’t a good situation. It turned out that both our maid and our neighbors across the hall had deep animosity toward the cook. We are not quite sure why, since all the discussions are in a language we do not understand. Moreover, the cook was charging quite a bit by Indian standards, and then telling other servants in the building that they were underpaid—this was not going over well with some of the neighbors. In the end, we decided that harmony in the household was rather important. Servant politics is a fascinating thing, though since we don’t understand the language, we have no idea what all the issues are. Anyway, our maid has said that she is happy to cook for us. With no propane, however, this has not been a concern yet. Also, Janet feels a certain measure of guilt for firing someone, so if you ever want to see Janet look anguished, just say to her “I cannot believe that you fired some poor cook.”
Clara’s birthday is next week. She will be 7. It is hard to believe that Clara is so old. She is a great kid.
Book Reports:
1. Wilde: Lady Windermere’s Fan
The Decay of Lying
The first is a typical Wilde play; amusing and quite clever. The second was an interesting discussion of the problems with the Realism in 19th century Art. The essay provides an early argument for the later development of magical realism in literature.
2. Emerson, Essays
I read a few of his essays in the last week. I have never been a big fan of Emerson. Nothing has changed.
3. Ackroyd, Hawksmoor
This is one of those modern novels that I suspect is beloved by professors of English. Cleverly written, with a very good prose style. The story leave just about every question raised in the book hanging at the end—there is zero explanation about how everything that happened could have actually happened, which is probably the point of the book. Probably. The only way to figure it out would be to reread it at least one more time, but there is no reason to assume the book would reward a rereading; I suspect it isn’t a Great Book.
4. Pound, Cantos I-XXX
Cantos 1 to 30 were the first published set of the cantos. I have browsed the Cantos before, but I finally just forced myself through the first 30. In essence, this is the sort of book for people who think the plot of Finnegans Wake is too straightforward.
5. Nietzsche, TheBirth of Tragedy
A terribly uneven book. A few parts of it (a very few parts) rise to the level of interesting, but the bulk of it is simply terrible. Very overrated in the Nietzsche canon.
posted by Jim Hartley | 8:09 AM
1 Comments:
I can't believe that Clara is going to be 7 either!!! It makes ME feel old. She was born my first semester in college. It was probably the only time you ever cancelled class (in any of the courses I took with you), Prof. Hartley!
Post a Comment
<< Home