This is the Message Centre for Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond)
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May I intrude...?
Mund Started conversation Nov 6, 2001
Declaring an interest, I'm a male of the human species, and I don't think I'm insane, but it could be just me saying that.
I like connections, but I'm not sure about cats in boxes and lottery numbers which could be one thing or another until the moment I check them - quantum solipsism?
I would never purchase an electric monk. Haven't you seen the product recall warnings?
But, having said that, I am reduced to the massively open-ended question "Can we help with your life?". And I'm not sure we have the insurance cover.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 6, 2001
Ah, those lottery numbers, which hang in their state of maybeness until they sublimitate with the pop of a ball into their state of of-course-not-edness. Such is the sum total of my whole life (sigh).
And you, unlike so many other (that damn Dirk), request permission to intrude. How odd! Is it intruding if I say "Yes, you may"? And why ask permission for something you clearly intended to do anyway.
Funny, I first put up that introduction just over two years ago, and I have to ponder just how different my state of mind is from then. Forgive me if I slip into reality a moment and say that as an American, my life has been altered so strangely since the events of a couple of months ago (and I am sure that you know what I mean) and yet I go about my life in a semi-state of normalcy (whatever that may be for me). But even before Sept. 11, my life has had so many changes that what I was writing and thinking then seems almost foreign. So perhaps I should rewrite my intro.
Not to say that I am not still continually harassed by insane men prattling on about Schroedinger's cat. That apparently will be the definition of my existence. The moment I stop being haunted by the interconnectedness of things, I may go puff in the light of the sudden logic of everything. Because isn't that the message underneath? Once everything starts to make sense, it will all disappear. Pretty sure that is why 42 is the meaning of life - because it doesn't make any sense, and we all know that life doesn't.
As for the electric monk, well I had him deprogrammed a while back. He was far too busy trying to imagine that my back yard was indeed all pink, and walked in an odd shuffling sort of way, and generally got in the way of things without helping to clean any of them up. Sigh...
So yes, you may intrude, although declarations of interest may raise an eyebrow or (counting... two eyebrows per person, 5 people... hmm) What is the sound of ten eyebrows raising, anyway??
Pleased to meet you, and welcome the intrusion anytime.
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 6, 2001
Thankyou for your gracious answer. I found your introduction thought-provoking, and if it's two years old (I should have looked at your number, which is so much lower than mine), why haven't you had more enquiries?
I ask whether I may intrude in the same way as someone might say "can I ask you a question?". It's polite but already too late.
The idea that the universe crumbles when we understand it sounds like the old science fiction story which has the stars go out when all the nine billion names of God have finally been uttered (a frightening but stupid and shallow story!).
We won't mention the electric monk again unless there's a query about the warranty.
Pleased that you're pleased to meet me, and I'll try to intrude graciously every time.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 7, 2001
Well first to explain the apparent lack of interest by anyone other than yourself (and myself, I guess) in my page... Being two years old, I eventually changed email addresses and promptly forgot my password. Pesky little thing, being unable to have it email it to a different address. Until recently, I never went through that whole bothersome process of trying to explain to the gurus that be the whole story. I find it amusingly odd that the very day that I reactivated my account is the day that you left me the first message. Fate? Fortune? Bad bratwurst?
I am intrigued that you found my intro thought provoking... What a ramble it was! I suppose one day I will update it, but haven't had any good rambles rumbling in my head lately. My brain seems to have taken something of a creative hiatus, and hasn't quite returned. Hopefully soon?
So, any thought-provoking thoughts from you?
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 7, 2001
It's not easy, coming up with something I can label "thought-provoking". I have been thinking about cloning, to write a novel about it, and the story is threatening to be boring because cloning won't do what people seem to want it to do.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 8, 2001
Sounds much like many of the stories I have started... Piles and piles of started works and nary a finished one in sight. Pretty much the approach I take to anything... Attack it with gusto, and leave it languishing because it just doesn't seem to go anywhere, for one reason or the other.
Bonsai for instance. Bought books, bought plants, could not for the life of me get my hands on some decent wire and couldn't bring myself to drop the bundle of cash for the tools... Still fascinated however, and still resolving to create one.
Then there is my "Arts and Crafts" movement... Suddenly finding myself flooded with artistic inspiration, I attacked the stores and bought a wide range of supplies from various different mediums. Figures that the one medium I finally settled on - paper crafts (origami, paper engineering, etc.) leaves me hopelessly unable to find any decent supplies in decent range.
The constant undercurrent has been creative writing. As a teen, I wrote hundreds, literally, of poems, some of them rather good, I think, however they sit unviewed in an old tattered journal, or in notebooks. Every once in a while when fishing through the pockets of an old jacket I find a scrap of paper with the beginnings of a masterpiece ode. But having long forgotten what the inspiration was in the first place, well, they remain unfinished.
Interactive fiction, text adventures. Play them with the heart of an addict, but never succesfully finished writing one. Sigh...
And back to stories, which is where we started. I am constantly finding notebooks full of the beginnings of stories, and even as my own worst critic, I find some them to be well-written and intriguing, however I always failed to record what the whole plot of the story was to be in the first place, and have no idea where I would go from my leaving off point.
SO there is the theme of my personality... Attack with gusto, then stand staring, hands in pockets, feet shuffling, wondering where to go from here. I wonder if there is a psychological term for that?
Whoops, this was a long one, hope you made it to the end
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 8, 2001
I made it to the end. Your experience isn't quite mine, but not far off. I've got a pile of old poems (a couple accessible from my home page) and song lyrics, and I'm sure some of them are pretty good. But so what? Who's going to read or hear them?
I've written a few novels, but finishing is definitely a problem. You can write the last chapter, but that doesn't mean you've finished.
One of the stories needs some fine-tuning but it really is just about done. The one I'm working on now is close to the last chapter and I think I know what needs to be filled in further back. I hope I'm improving in terms of saleability, but I still have to achieve that first sale.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 9, 2001
Funny, after my youngest was born (6 months ago) I decided to take a "hiatus" from the career world and spend some time at home with my children. However, I really REALLY dislike the stigma of the "homemaker" title. I told my husband that I would from thenceforth tell people I was a novelist. Seems to me that the profession (like many others) lies in the attempt, and not necessarily in the product. So there we go - I am a struggling Author, searching for the Great Novel in the Sky.
Perhaps I will put that in my intro (which, BTW, I updated). Sounds far more noble (though often far less satisfying) than Happy Homemaker. And believe me, I don't make much of my home - I am the world's worst housekeeper. Ask anyone, its verifiable.
Oh, and here's an odd and useless experiment. Just write down the first answer that comes to mind, but don't tell me yet because I'm supposed to guess your answer. I want to see if it works as well outside the United States (where it does work fairly well, most of the time.) Anyway, consider:
You have beeen told that in one month, you have to meet someone; it is someone you know, but you are not told who. In one month, you have to meet this person, in a location that is 1) outside of England and the United States, 2) is non-secular and 3) is very specific. Not just the name of the city, or country, or a vague place, but a very specific spot. ("London", "The Airport" or "Under the apple tree" won't work). The trick is, you won't be discussing it with the person you are meeting. You simply have to go, and hope that they have chosen the same spot. Where would you go?
We'll see if this works.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 10, 2001
Non-religious... So no churches, mosques, etc...
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 11, 2001
Maybe you mean secular.
Anyway, I've put my location in a plain brown file on my hard disk. How do we see whether it's "right"? If I show you mean, will you show me yours?
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 12, 2001
(slapping forehead)...
(rubbing forehead, that hurt)
Secular... Thinking non-religious and secular simultaneously... Ever done that? Anyway,
I will have to do this on the honor system... Usually this is a 30 second party gag type deal, never tried performing it over the course of a few days, so it may not work anyway?
My sources tell me that you would go to the Eiffel Tower. Was I right?
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 14, 2001
I must think too much of myself, rather than actually wanting to meet up with my friend. I can see how we would end up with the Eiffel Towel (a mis-type, but in this context it's one I'll retain), but I selected a place which means a lot to me (and which some of my friends will know about). It's the New Zealand tourist office in Brisbane, Australia, which may or may not still be there, since I remember it from 20 years ago. I think I may have failed you slightly.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 14, 2001
More a failing of the totally non-scientific question. About 90% (again, totally unscientific) of the people I have asked have said the Eiffel Tower. Another popular choice seems to be the Louvre, although I doubt half of those people would even know where or how to find it... Figuring among the odder answers are The Moon (could be waiting there a while for someone to show up), a specific spot in the Sahara desert (??) and the like. But most people choose the Eiffel Tower. It's classically amusing when it works, to induce the look of worried surprise when I guess correctly.
Otherwise, I sigh and plead non-scientificity (?? My own personal dictionary will be out shortly). I personally would pick a gondola in Venice, and if my mystery meeting never appeared, would simply talk the gondolier to death.
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 14, 2001
The main reason the NZ tourist office sticks in my mind is the wonderfully simple fountain at the front - just a staircase of water. I think your gondolier would have trouble negotiating it.
The Melbourne art gallery had a waterfall around its entrance - water, pouring down between two panes of glass. I believe it had something to do with the air conditioning, but it was really just there to impress.
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 15, 2001
I would love to visit Australia. It's right there on my to-do list, right below tea with the queen. Obviously not sorted by any sort of likelihood (why do I feel certain I have spelled that word wrong?) to happen, especially since I've never even been to England. Although, I have suspected that I was English in a previous life, given my disposition towards all things English.
It is this odd attraction that first brought me to the Hitchhikers books in the first place. A certain male with a devastating English accent once quoted to me "What's wrong with being drunk?; Just ask a tonic and gin" and I immediately bought the first. I finished it in hours, and bought the rest immediately after. That, unbelievably, was over 10 years ago, when I would have eschewed doing anything of "cult popularity". Littled did I know. I ate up every word of DNA that I could get my grubby little hands on, and bought my copy of H2G2 (for my Commodore 64, hee hee hee) as soon as it was available. I was in absolute heaven, to say the least.
Incindentally, all these years I have been searching for a copy of Bureaucracy, to no avail. Yesterday, however, I FINALLY got my hands on a copy, and expect to spend days trying to sort it out. Sigh... here we go again.
Have you ever played his games? Wonderfully, frustratingly, maddeningly fun.
Look, I've done it again. Talkative this AM, the caffeine must have kicked in.
(off to look up "Row UP the stairs" in Italian)
May I intrude...?
Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) Posted Nov 15, 2001
I would love to visit Australia. It's right there on my to-do list, right below tea with the queen. Obviously not sorted by any sort of likelihood (why do I feel certain I have spelled that word wrong?) to happen, especially since I've never even been to England. Although, I have suspected that I was English in a previous life, given my disposition towards all things English.
It is this odd attraction that first brought me to the Hitchhikers books in the first place. A certain male with a devastating English accent once quoted to me "What's wrong with being drunk?; Just ask a tonic and gin" and I immediately bought the first. I finished it in hours, and bought the rest immediately after. That, unbelievably, was over 10 years ago, when I would have eschewed doing anything of "cult popularity". Littled did I know. I ate up every word of DNA that I could get my grubby little hands on, and bought my copy of H2G2 (for my Commodore 64, hee hee hee) as soon as it was available. I was in absolute heaven, to say the least.
Incindentally, all these years I have been searching for a copy of Bureaucracy, to no avail. Yesterday, however, I FINALLY got my hands on a copy, and expect to spend days trying to sort it out. Sigh... here we go again.
Have you ever played his games? Wonderfully, frustratingly, maddeningly fun.
Look, I've done it again. Talkative this AM, the caffeine must have kicked in.
(off to look up "Row UP the stairs" in Italian)
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 18, 2001
If you can find "Row UP the stairs" in any language (including English) I'll be impressed.
May I intrude...?
Mund Posted Nov 18, 2001
I've just read your updated introduction again. How many people are there in the world who value their children more than just about anything else, but would love to be recognised as a great (or even good), money-spinning novelist?
The count currently stands at two - you and me.
Key: Complain about this post
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May I intrude...?
- 1: Mund (Nov 6, 2001)
- 2: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 6, 2001)
- 3: Mund (Nov 6, 2001)
- 4: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 7, 2001)
- 5: Mund (Nov 7, 2001)
- 6: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 8, 2001)
- 7: Mund (Nov 8, 2001)
- 8: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 9, 2001)
- 9: Mund (Nov 10, 2001)
- 10: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 10, 2001)
- 11: Mund (Nov 11, 2001)
- 12: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 12, 2001)
- 13: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 12, 2001)
- 14: Mund (Nov 14, 2001)
- 15: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 14, 2001)
- 16: Mund (Nov 14, 2001)
- 17: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 15, 2001)
- 18: Kate Schechter (Back on the right side of the pond) (Nov 15, 2001)
- 19: Mund (Nov 18, 2001)
- 20: Mund (Nov 18, 2001)
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