…we don’t stand much on protocols here. I’m CJ, not ma’am, flamers will be assigned a marshmallow stick and set in a corner to do something more useful, and we generally just ask that people be courteous toward each other.
If your membership ever should disappear, it probably got caught in our tougher spamcatcher, me: I’m always suspicious when I see a user name that could not be replicated without a codebook. If this happens, nothing personal: if you post once, you enter my memory bank, and it’s less likely to happen. Besides, part of the fun around here is people getting to know one another, and we have some of the most interesting hobbies and pets and people on this site.
We are tightly linked to two other sites, listed over in the left sidebar, with a clickable link. Lynn doesn’t have memberships on her site—anybody can post; Jane’s site requires a membership to post (it’s the spammer thing) and if you join this site, might as well zip over there and join hers, and zip over to Lynn’s and comment, too. But we are all 3 the owners/managers/artists/writers of Closed Circle, which is how we sell our e-books: we all 3 used to share one roof: now we’re at opposite ends of the country from Lynn, but we’re all working on the same project. If you want pix, Jane’s site has lots of them, and if there’s anything going on that’s picture-worthy, Jane almost always has them—the more so since she finally got a replacement for the camera which kept shedding parts as you took pictures. It ran out of parts to shed, and she finally got one of those little jobs you can carry in your purse or pocket. Pix may now blossom all over the place.
Joe – A year ago, when I got my first ereader, there were not a lot of choices – Kindle (not in Canada), Sony (pretty expensive), Bookeen(French, didn’t seem to reliable at the time), and BeBook 6″(Endless Ideas). I got the BeBook, and although I have several others, I keep coming back to the BeBook, because it is easy to use, fits my hands, and it pretty light.
You might wander over to wiki.mobileread.com and check out the comparison matrix, then check the fora (right, CJ?) for many of the ereaders there.
Finally, if you are not in a hurry, there is an improved e-ink screen in the pipeline – the new Kindle DX is using it. I expect by Fall or Winter most everyone’s new models will use it.
Yep,they’re fora.
@pholy, Thank you. Forum, fori, foro, forum, foro. fora, fororum, foris, fora, foris. Darn, I can’t remember second declension.
That’s a neuter 2nd decl; masc. is -us -i-o-um-o, pl -i -orum -is -os -is.
@ Brittanie — Hey, nice to “see” you. Somehow, I missed the connection to na Spence, but nice to know it.
My mom loved scifi, and my dad liked it. I think my first “real” science fiction read was, of all things, a story about a boy and a stegosaurus, in elementary school. By junior high, there was Andre Norton’s Daybreak 2250 AD and Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy, but I think by then, I was already reading her books and Heinlein and others.
Hah — As a kid, I used to tune into Star Trek reruns, and then hurriedly switch to the news before my parents got home (from next door, my mom’s art shop). That is, until they decided to ask me what I was watching (LOL) and then said it was fine to watch. Why I thought it wasn’t, I really don’t know. Goofy elementary kid, there.)
Yup, scifi geek from way back, and proud of it.
I was in college when my mom and a college buddy both recommended one of the Chanur books and the college buddy loaned me Downbelow Station. I don’t think I surfaced all weekend from reading Downbelow Station, and I promptly borrowed Pride of Chanur and Chanur’s Venture. 🙂 The next would’ve been Merchanter’s Luck or the Faded Sun trilogy, I think.
OK, fanboy mode disengaged (somewhat). — Currently rereading the Chanur books and reading Foreigner 1.
P.S. — I also hang out at TerraFirma.com, a forum for Farscape and other science fiction fans. Nice place, something like a cross between attending a con and sitting across from friends at the dinner table. (Or, I suppose, the galley bench.)
CJ, I heard you a few days ago on a podcast I subscribe to. Sounds like you won over some fanboys. They’re always going on about getting the industry up to date as far as technology goes. I kept wondering why they hadn’t had you on yet since you guys are already doing it here. I’m glad someone made that happen finally.
We had a good time with that.
Sweetbo which podcast was that? I’d love to listen to it. =)
Dragon Page Podcast. It’s a part of the Farpoint Media podcast group that does Slice of Scifi and some other stuff too. I listen to Slice of Scifi the most, but occasionally Dragon Page when it is relevant. You can either subscribe through iTunes or just listen to it through their website.
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
Just found the Gate of Ivrel novels in one paperback – perfect 4th of July reading. Cats definitely have their own pace – when I took Sylvester home from the Trenton NJ animal shelter giveaway at the local big box pet store because he was shaking and had hid his face under his paw (everyone else was adopting kittens), he jumped out of the carrier, ran up the steps and hid under the bed in the guest bedroom. I closed the door (so Cassie wouldn’t hiss at him) added food, water, and a litter box which I’d change daily…but he wouldn’t come out from under the bed while I was in the room. After 2 weeks, I started leaving the door open when I was home. Three weeks later, I was sitting on the couch combing Cassie when I saw him venture timidly down the stairs. He walked into the living room, I held onto Cassie, and after a bit of exploring he jumped up on the couch and sat next to me. Four years later, he still sits next to me at every opportunity.
awwww.
He found what he was looking for.
Too many people are afraid to adopt adult cats, fearing they can’t change—but cats, if calmly dealt with, really understand that particular rules go with particular places. The way ours adapt to hotels is amazing.
The only one we really worried about was in a town in Utah that started with a P, and the hotel had each room interior styled as the outside of a chalet, with a huge sloping eave poised above each bed. 😉 You may imagine. But our kittehs were a little hesitant to take full advantage of this, figuring full 6 foot leaps could be chancy in the Rules and Regulations department.
One of the most terrifying moments of my life was several years ago when one of your visitors naively picked up Ysabel (aka “Miss Cuisinart”). I could barely sputter the warning “Put-put-put-that-cat-down!!!”.
I was certain a trip to the ER by said visitor was imminent, being personally well acquainted with Ysabel’s blinding speed with tooth and claw.
The stunned look on Ysabel’s face when she was being held stomach-up by a stranger was priceless. She was so amazed *anyone* had the temerity to scoop her up that she forgot to utilize her weapons of mass destruction. Disaster averted!
Would that have been Xheralt???? He mentioned something about that to me while we were out there. My first cat was 8 years old when I adopted her. Such a sweet disposition, but her previous owner “couldn’t take her back to Pennsylvania”. No, because she had 2 other cats that were much younger. Some people think animals don’t care, but the poor girl was terrified at the SPCA, and even more so when I brought her home. However, she did finally come out of hiding, and one night, I was eating chicken for dinner, and she kept watching every bite. I took a piece and laid it on the chair where she was, she took a sniff, and then the chicken disappeared. A second piece went the same way….after that, she’d come lay on my lap and let me pet her. There are still vestigial scars where her claws dug into my thighs while I was petting her.
@CJ, if forum is neuter, why would I use a masculine ending? I’m confused, I actually thought I had it declined correctly as a second declension neuter noun. Had it been servus, that would have been servus, servi, servo, servum, servo, servi, servorum, servis, servos, servis, yes?
No, no, you said you didn’t remember the second declension, so I gave you the other half of it, the masculine, as for servus. Forum is a second declension neuter noun, which you correctly parsed.
Joe — yes, it was Xh.
We’ve taken in innumerable stray cats of various ages and dispositions. Our latest one found a place in a corner of the bookshelf that we called her “cave”. She could see out and no-one else could get in. It’s taken over a year but she hasn’t retreated to her cave in about 6 months. Instead she now stands up for herself and isn’t above swinging a paw at whoever comes too close. It serves them right … they (all 3 of them) tormented her for a year, frequently chasing her back to her cave.
To show how far she’s come … I heard faint noises in the kitchen and she was investigating the top of the stove. NOT allowed up there. Before we brought her in a neighbour saw her getting a turkey carcase out of the garbage bin and it was as big as she was. She knows how to scavenge.
I’m sorry, I misunderstood…..Mr. Raterman would have my backside if I didn’t get that correct. We used bellum, belli for our 2nd decl., neuter noun. Servus was the masculine. Then there were the exceptions in the 1st decl., PAIN (poeta, agricola, insula, nauta) I doubt I still remember the 3rd or 4th, much less the 5th declension (Say, weren’t they a popular group in the 60s?) 😀
Third works by rhymes. If it rhymes, it matches. dux, lux, etc. There are about 50 paradigms for the third, and if you know 40-50 of the right words you can fake the rest convincingly, or at least as literately as most Romans. So dux,ducis, duci, ducem, duce; duces, ducum, ducibus, duces, ducibus. Lux matches. Rex matches -spex, etc. Mater, pater, crater, etc. So if you know dux and rex and mater, you’ve got the paradigms for anything that rhymes closely. There are a few oddwads.
Actually the male nouns of the first declension can be female if their adjective declares them to be, as “Dido nauta bona erat.” As the male-behaving nouns of the second or third declension can be female if so construed—as when Antony’s wife raised a few legions trying to get her husband back. So she would have been dux rei, leader of the affair, et dux legionum, though not in the field, one would suspect.
Oh, I remember them, just buried deep in the cobwebby reaches of my tower. I didn’t mean to make you think I was being stupid, I was really agonizing over the 2nd declension, because I had to change things several times before the memory came back to me of how the neuter were declined. 4th and 5th are fairly straightforward, IIRC. I used to be so good at conjugating verbs, but that’s pretty much gone by the wayside, as I don’t keep up with the studies. it’s been 36 years since I graduated from college, 40 years since high school, 42 since high school Latin II.
A friend handed my Stranger in a Strange Land when I was a sophomore in high school and the rest is history — it’s been almost entirely sci-fi ever since and when I found Gate of Ivrel in 1976 as a destitute college freshman, I was hooked. I’ve haunted boostores for years, lusting after the next Cherryh book, until computers made tracking such things easier. Now we get to talk to you! Which is a distinct treat.
One the cat side of things, most of ours have been foundling babies we stumble across. We convinced our snowshoe was dumped because she didn’t have the classic Siamese markings. Took us 3 days to catch her, we knew she was starving — about broke my heart when I saw her fall in the book at the condos we were renting [she was trying to get a drink and luckily fell in near the steps]. Took her two more days of hiding under the couch before she came out and promptly ignore our other two cats and decided she owned the place. Nothing has changed; she still owns the place, orders us about, has numerous caves around the house, lurks under blankets and throws and still kills her tail at 10 years old.
Dogs are for companionship; cats are for amusement. ;D
sigh. She feel in the pool — we lived on the 3rd floor and there was no way I could have gotten down there in time to unlock a gate and try and fish her out. I was way relieve to see her climb out on her own.
Poor baby. Even a well cat will sometimes miss their footing on the edge, and other than natural pools, with a shallows, can be dangerous. She was a very lucky kitty. 😉
When I was a student at UT-Austin, I saw a poor dog that had gotten into the Littlefield fountain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_University_of_Texas_at_Austin_-_Littlefield_Fountain_and_Main_Building.jpg). This isn’t a very deep fountain… maybe a foot or two, but as you can see in the photo, there is an overhanging lip all around it. The poor dog just couldn’t get out, until some good Samaritan jumped in and lifted it out. Otherwise it would probably have gotten exhausted and drowned.
@philospher77, so very happy to hear that Trinkett is doing well, toes crossed for a full recovery. Adult animals can influence behavior in each other. Kiki was a very shy two year old when we got her from a shelter….very sweet and playful but given to hiding for long periods of time. Aloysius was 8-9 mos when I brought him home. (He had not begun spraying indoors) As soon as we got him healthy (and altered) he and Kiki started bonding. Ten months later they are a pair and get upset if they can’t find each other. Together they are the Dumpster Duo. i *really* believe that given time almost any cat can be tamed. Boogaloo and Kezar were 12-13 when we got them and lived in my kiln room for almost two years before they had enough confidence to come upstairs. I had two cats who loved water. Visitors would find it disconcerting to see two cats sitting in the kiddie pool on a hot day!
Cats are opportunists, and hedonists, and I swear what we are dealing with is not domestication —but Culture, like those sauna-bathing monkeys in Japan: one cat learned that humans do massage and hand out food, and it passed the knowledge to its inlaws, and so it goes. Even Persians can be fierce hunters (they were actually bred as ratters during the Plague, so the legend goes, with short noses and powerful jaws and thick coats to go after the vermin and stand a chance of surviving)…the lofty Persian was intended as a warehouse guard; and the short-fused Siamese allegedly as a temple guard, capable of going after (small) cobras like a mongoose. I do know Jane’s half-Siamese Elrond was death on snakes.
But the legend goes in cat-dom that humans are a soft touch and domesticatable. Dogs are in it for the handout from the campfire, and because they love a strong leader and love games. Cats are in it for the ear-scratches, the full-body massage, the spa treatments…
Certainly spa treatments, but some of the crew aren’t at all fond of pedicures. Now our dog will just lie there and let us do pedicures and dental hygiene (chicken flavoured toothpaste).
CJ I just found this fascinating web site on Victorian London – http://www.victorianlondon.org .
Where else can I go to find discussion of Latin noun declensions and feline culture? 😀
Waitaminnit, those massages and spa treatments and gourmet food all sound pretty good. Sign me up! How come I haven’t found somebody to live in the lap of luxury with yet? :O
::waves:: Hi! Long-time fan (I believe it was the Morgaine books that first caught my eye, followed by Cuckoo’s Egg and Paladin, and then of course all the others). I’m hoping to replace my whole Cherryh collection with e-books someday, so I heartily wish you success with your Closed Circle venture. Especially since right now I’m dying to read the latest in the Foreigner series, and it seems not to have come out in e-book yet. Who holds the e-book rights on that novel? Any idea if/when an e-book will become available?
Hi there! There is (probably fittingly) politics in the way of the Foreigner novels: DAW’s politics with Penguin, etc, and the fact I have some of the rights but not all. DAW does have erights on the latest (an oversight in the contract, darn it!) but I have absolutely no idea what Penguin intends to do. DAW’s books, I suspect, get done when Penguin feels they have a little time to spare.