Sunday-Funday

[altivo]

It got above freezing for a little while this afternoon, but not very long. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer still, but with rain.

The north door of the arena is still stuck, but closer examination indicates that my fear that it will be derailed by the lifting frost heave from below is probably ungrounded. (No pun intended, or maybe it is.) Unlike the simpler sliding door on the older barn, the two on the arena have split double tracks with the doors hung from bars that travel between the two tracks. Even if the wheels are lifted right off the rail, the door can't fall off the tracks and crash to the ground. With any luck tomorrow it will be warm enough to loosen the earth under the frozen door and free it up.

Made oatmeal bagels today. I don't do that particular recipe often enough, and I need to make a note on it to adjust the flour proportions a bit. Otherwise, they turned out well enough.

Finished Pratchett's Thud! and while I found parts of it very clever and well done, I thought the last chapter or so was so weak it might as well have been left off. The impact of the main resolution is lost in the vague conclusions.

Comments

[scruff.livejournal.com]

D'ya think that might be due to Pterry's condition?

Was wondering if people'd noticed in his writing or not.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Condition? I wasn't aware of any, but if you mean he has medical issues, yes, that might well affect his work. I haven't read the latest yet (Making Money.)

I also noticed that the editing and proofreading was really poor. This is probably not Pratchett's problem, but rather Harper doing it on the cheap. Typos? I haven't seen so many in a book from a major publishing house ever. Many were things that even a basic spelling checker would catch, like transposed letters and such.

[hrrunka]

He describes it as "An Embuggerance", and the primary source is this page on Paul Kidby's website. I first heard via DWCon.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the details. Surely he means to say:

"I AITN'T DEAD"

though. ;D Treatments and diagnosis are improving constantly in that field, so I think his attitude is appropriate.

Which allows me to better answer the question posed above. No, I doubt that the things to which I objected are related to that particular issue. To me it looks rather like either a length limit or a time deadline forced the last couple of segments to be rushed more than would have been desirable.

[hrrunka]

Y'know, I'm almost sure the original version did use Granny Weatherwax's phrasing. Someone must've done some proof-reading... ;)

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*goes out to the barn and puts his back into it*

GRRRRNNNNNN!!!

*sees stars from the effort*

Okay, your on your own.

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You should have told me you were going to try. I'd have warned you not to hurt yourself. No, that thing isn't going to budge until either the frost subsides or we get some of the earth out from under the bottom edge. The frost heave must be about an inch and a half right now.

[typographer.livejournal.com]

I felt the ending of Thud was a little rushed, too. I still loved the book overall, though.

I will be interested to see what you think of Making Money.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I had some difficulties at the end. I'm not sure if I missed some points or what. I understand that the dwarf king and the troll king had met to sign a treaty and were swept away in a flash flood and trapped underground. But that really doesn't explain how they and their attendants got petrified, particularly the two kings just sitting at the game board and one about to move. It was just a bit much, even for Pratchett.

Then I felt cheated in terms of resolution. So, an important historic discovery was made, and the devious old grags were caught. But then what? It all fuzzes away in talk about Sybil and Vimes' son.

I won't be reading Making Money for a while yet. It's sitting here, but I have other things to do first. I did like Going Postal a lot, so it sounds interesting.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oatmeal bagels? What do they taste like? (don't say oatmeal)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bananas of course.