First off, the design question again, splash page or not? As the first thing a surfer-browser encounters when hitting the website, which is better?
Onto meatier topics: I’ve been reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
I have habit of reading with a pencil in hand. Usually, at least these days, with a cat asleep on my belly, or stretched out next to me on the futon. While I was reading Blood Meridian, I kept stumbling on short passages that I thought were worthy of quoting, a turn of the phrase, some bit of prose that was so emblematic that it deserved to be quoted. But as I looked over the pages with the lines underlined, I’ll be damned if I could recall what was important at the moment. Maybe there was something about the way it was said, but with prose, and especially with McCarthy’s style, taking something out of context renders the material useless.
However, reading a book should be interactive. Why I read with a pencil. However, even as much as I like the author’s style, I prefer to use a little more punctuation.
The feeling, the senses, though, of the west, the oppresive heat and so forth? It was ringing in my ears when I was on the trail. Bank buidling said 107. Some how, I forgot to bring water. Stopped and bought a liter, wasn’t risking it. Cleared over 7 miles in the hot sun. “Seven in 107.”
Got home, took a nap, got on the phone with several readings. Then it was back to copyediting. I was winding my way through Sagittarius when Word gave me the dreaded error message, “Microsoft WORD has mysteriously quite working, like, you know, gone.”
Now, I did get rather irate. I could fling stuff about, but I took a moment to get up and stretch, go outside the front door and look through the telescope. My neighbors must think me a bit strange, but what the hell.
I’d looked at the Sagittarius Moon a few hours earlier, but this is one of those really cheap, cheesy items, and it’s not really good for looking at the stars. Or planets. Does give a nice view of the moon, though. But Mars? Not quite as good.
So what if I’m a bit odd, looking at planets at close to midnight on summer’s night? There are worse things to be doing. One would suppose.
“The arc of circling bodies is determined by the length of their tether, said the judge. Moons, coins, men.” McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian. Random House, NY. 1985 (Vintage, 1992). Pages 245-6.
