B&W is going to fall silent or near-silent for awhile – until July 23d to be precise. I’m off to this Beyond Belief thing. I’d love to maintain B&W in the meantime but spyware ate my laptop two years ago, so I can’t, although Jeremy has kindly offered to let me use his when he’s not, so maybe I will be able to do a little.
So long!
Comments
26 responses to “A little peace and quiet”
Have an enlightening time, OB.
If you do get a chance to go to the Shaw Festival, take it. The theatre is wonderful, and Niagara-on-the-Lake is a pretty town.
Regards, Chris
OB: Enjoy yourself in Buffalo, New York. A change is as good as a rest. Yeah, you could not go too far wrong with putting up your feet and taking in a play or two at the Shaw Festival.
Hope the Seminars go well for one and all!
Slan! So long! Adieu!
Marie-Therese
I watched every video that was put online from the sessions lat year, and they were uniformly excellent. I hope they become available again this year. Will we be seeing one of you, OB?
Video? God, I dunno; first I’ve heard of it. I’m not doing any seminars, I’m just jawing at the beginning.
I’m surprised you weren’t advised that you’d be videoed, OB. Prudence says, “Be prepared.” Last year, there were perhaps 15 or 20 speakers in videos available online.
I’m confused. Are these two separate organizations?
This is what I’ve been referring to:
http://beyondbelief2006.org/watch/
I thought there were more videos than these, but maybe they’ve deleted some. Anyway, this is all recommended viewing.
Ophelia:
Have a great time! Your morale should improve greatly.
Er – get a new laptop?
Enjoy !
Have a great time. Fortunately, I’m on holiday most of that time as well so
I won’t have to worry about missing my daily fix.
“I’m confused. Are these two separate organizations?”
John Brockman / Paul Kurtz
Pas de deux or stepping on each others’ toes?
http://beyondbelief2006.org/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/education/beyond_belief_summer_2007
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Have fun! Ophelia
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That sounds like great fun (the beyond belief thing). Surely you will need a good novel to take with you. :-) The smile is because of what you said about not liking much recent fiction several posts back. I thought I’d recommend a book that doesn’t stick the reader inside someone’s head for 500 pages. It is Halldor Laxness’s Independent People… One of my favorite books of all time. Bon voyage!
Have fun! I’m always amazed at the combined prolificity and quality of Notes and Comment. You deserve to take a break. I’ll look for you on the 23rd.
Have fun Ophelia! And point us to some highlights if you like, when you can.
Doug, it’s a different thing, it’s at the Center for Inquiry. Not videoed.
Tingey,
“Er – get a new laptop?”
Oh, brilliant – why didn’t I think of that?!
If I had the money I would. I don’t have the money – duh. B&W doesn’t pay, remember? I’m penniless.
———-
Anyway – I’m here. Having fun.
OB, I got a beautiful (aesthetically, even) laptop last December for $1200 — an HP Pavilion dv9000. I’ll send you a check for $100 if another 11 B&W readers will pledge to do the same.
You’re a sweetie, Doug.
Perhaps someone has an old one she or he would like to donate; that would be useful. I don’t need a Ferrari!
Happy to contribute dosh (as long as you take PayPal). We usually have spare hardware sitting around, but doubt it really makes sense to ship elderly kit half-way round the world, and anyhow the specs go out of date so fast. Do you know what you actually need, spec-wise?
Put me down for $100 as well.
But I’m on holidays until August from Saturday (camping, so no internet). Could someone email me to remind me if we get enough pledges.
I always said that B&W should take donations.
Thanks folks; don’t worry about it. It’s just the price I pay for doing a job that doesn’t remunerate.
Just curious, OB, since B&W doesn’t remunerate, how do you, er, survive?
Did you inherit?
No, but I saved when I was working in a remunerative fashion (as if I knew that one day I would have a non-remunerative job) and I have two part-time jobs that do pay a little. But basically I’m very poor, so it irks me to be breezily told to buy a new laptop – especially by G Tingey of all people, who is always complaining about B&W as if he paid for it.
I sympathize as a fellow pauper, OB.
Hopefully your writing will generate more income and you can quit your part time work. If that happens, you can work on B&W for all of us (especially the gals) day and night and never have to leave your house again.
…
On second thought, it’s probably nice to have at least one of the part time jobs, just to occasionally detach from your computer screen.
Hah – one of the jobs is all computer screen: it attaches me more rather than detaching me any. (That’s the one for The Philos Mag.) The other does get me away from the computer, plus it provides other valuable benefits, such as being able to lift my eyes from the screen and see a big sweep of Puget Sound and the mountains outside my living room window. I don’t even have to move my head: I literally just move my eyes slightly. I’ve had this job for a long time…and it’s a big part of the reason I can do all this.
That’s a very curious and nice-sounding job (the eye-moving one.) It makes you come across as some kind of author-cum-lighthouse keeper.
Sounds rather romantic.