Sunday, December 27, 2009

Yesterday was Blog day but I simply could not rake up enough enthusiasm to sit down and write it. Maybe because I have been concentrating so much on THE MUSEUM MYSTERIES, coming along quite nicely, my first attempt at a ghost story; but one can spend too much time sitting in front of this screen tapping away, easy though it may be. I am still constantly in awe of early writers who, until the advent of the typewriter, did it all by hand; of someone like Sofia Tolstoy who spent so much time copying her husband’s work. The computer makes life so much easier, being able to alter, to cut and paste, to rewrite time and time again if necessary without the laboriousness of previous years, even with a typewriter. I noticed the other day that the typewriters I used to use before acquiring a computer are still stacked on a shelf in the office next door. I wonder why! They are museum pieces and will never be used again, but in this house it seems the most difficult thing to do is to throw anything away. The last one was an Olivetti, the doyen of typewriters which was sort of half way to being an infant computer but, unlike with earlier typewriters, tapes could not be reused time and time again and were very expensive. The problem now is the speed at which computers also become museum pieces. My first one which I thought was fantastic relied on floppy discs, whatever happened to floppy discs? And even this machine I am informed is now out of date. However as all I want it for is to write words it can last a while longer. It has to last a while longer until we can afford one of its younger brothers or sisters. I talk as though an inanimate object is almost human. That’s as bad as those who used to think animals or inanimate objects involved in sin(?) or accidents, especially those involving death, were as guilty as the sinner(?) or the causer of the accident and had to be destroyed. But there is nothing to stop progress. We are now told that shortly we will no longer be able to buy old fashioned light bulbs so who is going to pay for all the new fittings that will have to be bought? And soon our old television set will have to be changed. How are millions and millions and millions of old TV sets all over the world going to be got rid of? Answers not exceeding ten thousand words on a postcard please. Entries to arrive before 2030, that is if the planet still exists which according to the doom mongers may very well not be the case. I should worry.

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