text:
they reached the low lying city of Lacedaemon, where they drove straight to the abode of Menelaus [and found him in his own house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his son, and
also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his consent and promised her to him while he was still at Troy, and now the gods were bringing the marriage about; so he was sending her with chariots and horses to the city of the Myrmidons over whom Achilles' son was reigning. For his only son he had found a bride from Sparta, the daughter of Alector. This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who was fair as golden Venus herself.
So the neighbours and kinsmen of Menelaus were feasting and making merry in his house. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune.
Telemachus and the son of Nestor stayed their horses at the gate, whereon Eteoneus servant to Menelaus came out, and as soon as he saw them ran hurrying back into the house to tell his Master. He went close up to him and said, "Menelaus, there are some strangers come here, two men, who look like sons of Jove. What are we to do? Shall we take their horses out, or tell them to find friends elsewhere as they best can?"
Menelaus was very angry and said, "Eteoneus, son of Boethous, you never used to be a fool, but now you talk like a simpleton. Take their horses out, of course, and show the strangers in that they may have supper; you and I have staid often enough at other people's houses before we got back here, where heaven grant that we may rest in peace henceforward."
So Eteoneus bustled back and bade the other servants come with him. They took their sweating steeds from under the yoke, made them fast to the mangers, and gave them a feed of oats and barley mixed. Then they leaned the chariot against the end wall of the courtyard, and led the way into the house. Telemachus and Pisistratus were astonished when they saw it, for its splendour was as that of the sun and moon; then, when they had admired everything to their heart's content, they went into the bath room and washed themselves.
When the servants had washed them and anointed them with oil, they brought them woollen cloaks and shirts, and the two took their seats by the side of Menelaus. A maid-servant brought them water in a beautiful golden ewer, and poured it into a silver basin for them to wash their hands; and she drew a clean table beside them. An upper servant brought them bread, and offered them many good things of what there was in the house, while the carver fetched them plates of all manner of meats and set cups of gold by their side.
Menelaus then greeted them saying, "Fall to, and welcome; when you have done supper I shall ask who you are, for the lineage of such men as you cannot have been lost. You must be descended from a line of sceptre- bearing kings, for poor people do not have such sons as you are."
On this he handed them a piece of fat roast loin, which had been set near him as being a prime part, and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them; as soon as they had had enough to eat and drink, Telemachus said to the son of Nestor, with his head so close that no one might hear, "Look, Pisistratus, man after my own heart, see the gleam of bronze and gold—of amber, ivory, and silver. Everything is so splendid that it is like seeing the palace of Olympian Jove. I am lost in admiration."
Menelaus overheard him and said, "No one, my sons, can hold his own with Jove, for his house and everything about him is immortal; but among mortal men—well, there may be another who has as much wealth as I have, or there may not; but at all events I have travelled much and have undergone much hardship, for it was nearly eight years before I could get home with my fleet. I went to Cyprus, Phoenicia and the Egyptians; I went also to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Erembians, and to Libya where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, and the sheep lamb down three times a year. Every one in that country, whether master or man, has plenty of cheese, meat, and good milk, for the ewes yield all the year round. But while I was travelling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked wife, so that I have no pleasure in being lord of all this wealth. Whoever your parents may be they must have told you about all this, and of my heavy loss in the ruin of a stately mansion fully and
magnificently furnished. Would that I had only a third of what I now have so that I had stayed at home, and all those were living who perished on the plain of Troy, far from Argos. I often grieve, as I sit here in my house, for one and all of them. At times I cry aloud for sorrow, but presently I leave off again, for crying is cold comfort and one soon tires of it. Yet grieve for these as I may, I do so for one man more than for them all. I cannot even think of him without loathing both food and sleep, so miserable does he make me, for no one of all the Achaeans worked so hard or risked so much as he did. He took nothing by it, and has left a legacy of sorrow to myself, for he has been gone a long time, and we know not whether he is alive or dead. His old father, his long-suffering wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus, whom he left behind him an infant in arms, are plunged in grief on his account."
Thus spoke Menelaus, and the heart of Telemachus yearned as he bethought him of his father. Tears fell from his eyes as he heard him thus mentioned, so that he held his cloak before his face with both hands. When Menelaus saw this he doubted whether to let him choose his own time for speaking, or to ask him at once and find what it was all about.
While he was thus in two minds Helen came down from her high vaulted and perfumed room, looking as lovely as Diana herself. Adraste brought her a seat, Alcippe a soft woollen rug while Phylo fetched her the silver work-box which Alcandra wife of Polybus had given her. Polybus lived in Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in the whole world; he gave Menelaus two baths, both of pure silver, two tripods, and ten talents of gold; besides all this, his wife gave Helen some beautiful presents, to wit, a golden distaff, and a silver work box that ran on wheels, with a gold band round the top of it. Phylo now placed this by her side, full of fine spun yarn, and a distaff charged with violet coloured wool was laid upon the top of it. Then Helen took her seat, put her feet upon the footstool, and began to question her husband.
"Do we know, Menelaus," said she, "the names of these strangers who have come to visit us? Shall I guess right or wrong?—but I cannot help saying what I think. Never yet have I seen either man or woman so like somebody else (indeed when I look at him I hardly know what to think) as
this young man is like Telemachus, whom Ulysses left as a baby behind him, when you Achaeans went to Troy with battle in your hearts, on account of my most shameless self."
"My dear wife," replied Menelaus, "I see the likeness just as you do. His hands and feet are just like Ulysses; so is his hair, with the shape of his head and the expression of his eyes. Moreover, when I was talking about Ulysses, and saying how much he had suffered on my account, tears fell from his eyes, and he hid his face in his mantle."
Then Pisistratus said, "Menelaus, son of Atreus, you are right in thinking that this young man is Telemachus, but he is very modest, and is ashamed to come here and begin opening up discourse with one whose conversation is so divinely interesting as your own. My father, Nestor, sent me to escort him hither, for he wanted to know whether you could give him any counsel or suggestion. A son has always trouble at home when his father has gone away leaving him without supporters; and this is how Telemachus is now placed, for his father is absent, and there is no one among his own people to stand by him."
"Bless my heart," replied Menelaus, "then I am receiving a visit from the son of a very dear friend, who suffered much hardship for my sake. I had always hoped to entertain him with most marked distinction when heaven had granted us a safe return from beyond the seas. I should have founded a city for him in Argos, and built him a house. I should have made him leave Ithaca with his goods, his son, and all his people, and should have sacked for them some one of the neighbouring cities that are subject to me. We should thus have seen one another continually, and nothing but death could have interrupted so close and happy an intercourse. I suppose, however, that heaven grudged us such great good fortune, for it has prevented the poor fellow from ever getting home at all."
Thus did he speak, and his words set them all a weeping. Helen wept, Telemachus wept, and so did Menelaus, nor could Pisistratus keep his eyes from filling, when he remembered his dear brother Antilochus whom the son of bright Dawn had killed. Thereon he said to Menelaus,
"Sir, my father Nestor, when we used to talk about you at home, told me you were a person of rare and excellent understanding. If, then, it be possible, do as I would urge you. I am not fond of crying while I am getting my supper. Morning will come in due course, and in the forenoon I care not how much I cry for those that are dead and gone. This is all we can do for the poor things. We can only shave our heads for them and wring the tears from our cheeks. I had a brother who died at Troy; he was by no means the worst man there; you are sure to have known him—his name was Antilochus; I never set eyes upon him myself, but they say that he was singularly fleet of foot and in fight valiant."
"Your discretion, my friend," answered Menelaus, "is beyond your years. It is plain you take after your father. One can soon see when a man is son to one whom heaven has blessed both as regards wife and offspring— and it has blessed Nestor from first to last all his days, giving him a green old age in his own house, with sons about him who are both well disposed and valiant. We will put an end therefore to all this weeping, and attend to our supper again. Let water be poured over our hands. Telemachus and I can talk with one another fully in the morning."
On this Asphalion, one of the servants, poured water over their hands and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them.
Then Jove's daughter Helen bethought her of another matter. She drugged the wine with an herb that banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humour. Whoever drinks wine thus drugged cannot shed a single tear all the rest of the day, not even though his father and mother both of them drop down dead, or he sees a brother or a son hewn in pieces before his very eyes. This drug, of such sovereign power and virtue, had been given to Helen by Polydamna wife of Thon, a woman of Egypt, where there grow all sorts of herbs, some good to put into the mixing bowl and others poisonous. Moreover, every one in the whole country is a skilled physician, for they are of the race of Paeeon. When Helen had put this drug in the bowl, and had told the servants to serve the wine round, she said:
"Menelaus, son of Atreus, and you my good friends, sons of honourable men (which is as Jove wills, for he is the giver both of good and evil, and can do what he chooses), feast here as you will, and listen while I tell you a
tale in season. I cannot indeed name every single one of the exploits of Ulysses, but I can say what he did when he was before Troy, and you Achaeans were in all sorts of difficulties. He covered himself with wounds and bruises, dressed himself all in rags, and entered the enemy's city looking like a menial or a beggar, and quite different from what he did when he was among his own people. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and no one said anything to him. I alone recognised him and began to question him, but he was too cunning for me. When, however, I had washed and anointed him and had given him clothes, and after I had sworn a solemn oath not to betray him to the Trojans till he had got safely back to his own camp and to the ships, he told me all that the Achaeans meant to do. He killed many Trojans and got much information before he reached the Argive camp, for all which things the Trojan women made lamentation, but for my own part I was glad, for my heart was beginning to yearn after my home, and I was unhappy about the wrong that Venus had done me in taking me over there, away from my country, my girl, and my lawful wedded husband, who is indeed by no means deficient either in person or understanding."
Then Menelaus said, "All that you have been saying, my dear wife, is true. I have travelled much, and have had much to do with heroes, but I have never seen such another man as Ulysses. What endurance too, and what courage he displayed within the wooden horse, wherein all the bravest of the Argives were lying in wait to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans. At that moment you came up to us; some god who wished well to the Trojans must have set you on to it and you had Deiphobus with you. Three times did you go all round our hiding place and pat it; you called our chiefs each by his own name, and mimicked all our wives—Diomed, Ulysses, and I from our seats inside heard what a noise you made. Diomed and I could not make up our minds whether to spring out then and there, or to answer you from inside, but Ulysses held us all in check, so we sat quite still, all except Anticlus, who was beginning to answer you, when Ulysses clapped his two brawny hands over his mouth, and kept them there. It was this that saved us all, for he muzzled Anticlus till Minerva took you away again."
"How sad," exclaimed Telemachus, "that all this was of no avail to save him, nor yet his own iron courage. But now, sir, be pleased to send us all to
bed, that we may lie down and enjoy the blessed boon of sleep."
On this Helen told the maid servants to set beds in the room that was in the gatehouse, and to make them with good red rugs, and spread coverlets on the top of them with woollen cloaks for the guests to wear. So the maids went out, carrying a torch, and made the beds, to which a man-servant presently conducted the strangers. Thus, then, did Telemachus and Pisistratus sleep there in the forecourt, while the son of Atreus lay in an inner room with lovely Helen by his side.
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, Menelaus rose and dressed himself. He bound his sandals on to his comely feet, girded his sword about his shoulders, and left his room looking like an immortal god. Then, taking a seat near Telemachus he said:
"And what, Telemachus, has led you to take this long sea voyage to Lacedaemon? Are you on public, or private business? Tell me all about it."
"I have come, sir," replied Telemachus, "to see if you can tell me anything about my father. I am being eaten out of house and home; my fair estate is being wasted, and my house is full of miscreants who keep killing great numbers of my sheep and oxen, on the pretence of paying their addresses to my mother. Therefore, I am suppliant at your knees if haply you may tell me about my father's melancholy end, whether you saw it with your own eyes, or heard it from some other traveller; for he was a man born to trouble. Do not soften things out of any pity for myself, but tell me in all plainness exactly what you saw. If my brave father Ulysses ever did you loyal service either by word or deed, when you Achaeans were harassed by the Trojans, bear it in mind now as in my favour and tell me truly all."
Menelaus on hearing this was very much shocked. "So," he exclaimed, "these cowards would usurp a brave man's bed? A hind might as well lay her new born young in the lair of a lion, and then go off to feed in the forest or in some grassy dell: the lion when he comes back to his lair will make short work with the pair of them—and so will Ulysses with these suitors. By father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, if Ulysses is still the man that he was when he wrestled with Philomeleides in Lesbos, and threw him so heavily that all the Achaeans cheered him—if he is still such and were to come near
these suitors, they would have a short shrift and a sorry wedding. As regards your questions, however, I will not prevaricate nor deceive you, but will tell you without concealment all that the old man of the sea told me.
"I was trying to come on here, but the gods detained me in Egypt, for my hecatombs had not given them full satisfaction, and the gods are very strict about having their dues. Now off Egypt, about as far as a ship can sail in a day with a good stiff breeze behind her, there is an island called Pharos
—it has a good harbour from which vessels can get out into open sea when they have taken in water—and here the gods becalmed me twenty days without so much as a breath of fair wind to help me forward. We should have run clean out of provisions and my men would have starved, if a goddess had not taken pity upon me and saved me in the person of Idothea, daughter to Proteus, the old man of the sea, for she had taken a great fancy to me.
"She came to me one day when I was by myself, as I often was, for the men used to go with their barbed hooks, all over the island in the hope of catching a fish or two to save them from the pangs of hunger. 'Stranger,' said she, 'it seems to me that you like starving in this way—at any rate it does not greatly trouble you, for you stick here day after day, without even trying to get away though your men are dying by inches.'
"'Let me tell you,' said I, 'whichever of the goddesses you may happen to be, that I am not staying here of my own accord, but must have offended the gods that live in heaven. Tell me, therefore, for the gods know everything, which of the immortals it is that is hindering me in this way, and tell me also how I may sail the sea so as to reach my home.'
"'Stranger,' replied she, 'I will make it all quite clear to you. There is an old immortal who lives under the sea hereabouts and whose name is Proteus. He is an Egyptian, and people say he is my father; he is Neptune's head man and knows every inch of ground all over the bottom of the sea. If you can snare him and hold him tight, he will tell you about your voyage, what courses you are to take, and how you are to sail the sea so as to reach your home. He will also tell you, if you so will, all that has been going on at your house both good and bad, while you have been away on your long and dangerous journey.'
"'Can you show me,' said I, 'some stratagem by means of which I may catch this old god without his suspecting it and finding me out? For a god is not easily caught—not by a mortal man.'
"'Stranger,' said she, 'I will make it all quite clear to you. About the time when the sun shall have reached mid heaven, the old man of the sea comes up from under the waves, heralded by the West wind that furs the water over his head. As soon as he has come up he lies down, and goes to sleep in a great sea cave, where the seals—Halosydne's chickens as they call them— come up also from the grey sea, and go to sleep in shoals all round him; and a very strong and fish-like smell do they bring with them. Early to-morrow morning I will take you to this place and will lay you in ambush. Pick out, therefore, the three best men you have in your fleet, and I will tell you all the tricks that the old man will play you.
"'First he will look over all his seals, and count them; then, when he has seen them and tallied them on his five fingers, he will go to sleep among them, as a shepherd among his sheep. The moment you see that he is asleep seize him; put forth all your strength and hold him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you. He will turn himself into every kind of creature that goes upon the earth, and will become also both fire and water; but you must hold him fast and grip him tighter and tighter, till he begins to talk to you and comes back to what he was when you saw him go to sleep; then you may slacken your hold and let him go; and you can ask him which of the gods it is that is angry with you, and what you must do to reach your home over the seas.'
"Having so said she dived under the waves, whereon I turned back to the place where my ships were ranged upon the shore; and my heart was clouded with care as I went along. When I reached my ship we got supper ready, for night was falling, and camped down upon the beach.
"When the child of morning rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, I took the three men on whose prowess of all kinds I could most rely, and went along by the sea-side, praying heartily to heaven. Meanwhile the goddess fetched me up four seal skins from the bottom of the sea, all of them just skinned, for she meant playing a trick upon her father. Then she dug four pits for us to lie in, and sat down to wait till we should come up. When we were close
to her, she made us lie down in the pits one after the other, and threw a seal skin over each of us. Our ambuscade would have been intolerable, for the stench of the fishy seals was most distressing —who would go to bed with a sea monster if he could help it?—but here, too, the goddess helped us, and thought of something that gave us great relief, for she put some ambrosia under each man's nostrils, which was so fragrant that it killed the smell of the seals.
"We waited the whole morning and made the best of it, watching the seals come up in hundreds to bask upon the sea shore, till at noon the old man of the sea came up too, and when he had found his fat seals he went over them and counted them. We were among the first he counted, and he never suspected any guile, but laid himself down to sleep as soon as he had done counting. Then we rushed upon him with a shout and seized him; on which he began at once with his old tricks, and changed himself first into a lion with a great mane; then all of a sudden he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next moment he was running water, and then again directly he was a tree, but we stuck to him and never lost hold, till at last the cunning old creature became distressed, and said, 'Which of the gods was it, Son of Atreus, that hatched this plot with you for snaring me and seizing me against my will? What do you want?'
"'You know that yourself, old man,' I answered, 'you will gain nothing by trying to put me off. It is because I have been kept so long in this island, and see no sign of my being able to get away. I am losing all heart; tell me, then, for you gods know everything, which of the immortals it is that is hindering me, and tell me also how I may sail the sea so as to reach my home?'
"Then,' he said, 'if you would finish your voyage and get home quickly, you must offer sacrifices to Jove and to the rest of the gods before embarking; for it is decreed that you shall not get back to your friends, and to your own house, till you have returned to the heaven-fed stream of Egypt, and offered holy hecatombs to the immortal gods that reign in heaven. When you have done this they will let you finish your voyage.'
"I was broken hearted when I heard that I must go back all that long and terrible voyage to Egypt; nevertheless, I answered, 'I will do all, old man,
that you have laid upon me; but now tell me, and tell me true, whether all the Achaeans whom Nestor and I left behind us when we set sail from Troy have got home safely, or whether any one of them came to a bad end either on board his own ship or among his friends when the days of his fighting were done.'
"'Son of Atreus,' he answered, 'why ask me? You had better not know what I can tell you, for your eyes will surely fill when you have heard my story. Many of those about whom you ask are dead and gone, but many still remain, and only two of the chief men among the Achaeans perished during their return home. As for what happened on the field of battle—you were there yourself. A third Achaean leader is still at sea, alive, but hindered from returning. Ajax was wrecked, for Neptune drove him on to the great rocks of Gyrae; nevertheless, he let him get safe out of the water, and in spite of all Minerva's hatred he would have escaped death, if he had not ruined himself by boasting. He said the gods could not drown him even though they had tried to do so, and when Neptune heard this large talk, he seized his trident in his two brawny hands, and split the rock of Gyrae in two pieces. The base remained where it was, but the part on which Ajax was sitting fell headlong into the sea and carried Ajax with it; so he drank salt water and was drowned.
"'Your brother and his ships escaped, for Juno protected him, but when he was just about to reach the high promontory of Malea, he was caught by a heavy gale which carried him out to sea again sorely against his will, and drove him to the foreland where Thyestes used to dwell, but where Aegisthus was then living. By and by, however, it seemed as though he was to return safely after all, for the gods backed the wind into its old quarter and they reached home; whereon Agamemnon kissed his native soil, and shed tears of joy at finding himself in his own country.
"'Now there was a watchman whom Aegisthus kept always on the watch, and to whom he had promised two talents of gold. This man had been looking out for a whole year to make sure that Agamemnon did not give him the slip and prepare war; when, therefore, this man saw Agamemnon go by, he went and told Aegisthus, who at once began to lay a plot for him. He picked twenty of his bravest warriors and placed them in
ambuscade on one side the cloister, while on the opposite side he prepared a banquet. Then he sent his chariots and horsemen to Agamemnon, and invited him to the feast, but he meant foul play. He got him there, all unsuspicious of the doom that was awaiting him, and killed him when the banquet was over as though he were butchering an ox in the shambles; not one of Agamemnon's followers was left alive, nor yet one of Aegisthus', but they were all killed there in the cloisters.'
"Thus spoke Proteus, and I was broken hearted as I heard him. I sat down upon the sands and wept; I felt as though I could no longer bear to live nor look upon the light of the sun. Presently, when I had had my fill of weeping and writhing upon the ground, the old man of the sea said, 'Son of Atreus, do not waste any more time in crying so bitterly; it can do no manner of good; find your way home as fast as ever you can, for Aegisthus may be still alive, and even though Orestes has been beforehand with you in killing him, you may yet come in for his funeral.'
"On this I took comfort in spite of all my sorrow, and said, 'I know, then, about these two; tell me, therefore, about the third man of whom you spoke; is he still alive, but at sea, and unable to get home? or is he dead? Tell me, no matter how much it may grieve me.'
"'The third man,' he answered, 'is Ulysses who dwells in Ithaca. I can see him in an island sorrowing bitterly in the house of the nymph Calypso, who is keeping him prisoner, and he cannot reach his home for he has no ships nor sailors to take him over the sea. As for your own end, Menelaus, you shall not die in Argos, but the gods will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world. There fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men lead an easier life than any where else in the world, for in Elysium there falls not rain, nor hail, nor snow, but Oceanus breathes ever with a West wind that sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all men. This will happen to you because you have married Helen, and are Jove's son-in-law.'
"As he spoke he dived under the waves, whereon I turned back to the ships with my companions, and my heart was clouded with care as I went along. When we reached the ships we got supper ready, for night was falling, and camped down upon the beach. When the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, we drew our ships into the water, and put our masts and sails within them; then we went on board ourselves, took our seats on the benches, and smote the grey sea with our oars. I again stationed my ships in the heaven-fed stream of Egypt, and offered hecatombs that were full and sufficient. When I had thus appeased heaven's anger, I raised a barrow to the memory of Agamemnon that his name might live for ever, after which I had a quick passage home, for the gods sent me a fair wind.
"And now for yourself—stay here some ten or twelve days longer, and I will then speed you on your way. I will make you a noble present of a chariot and three horses. I will also give you a beautiful chalice that so long as you live you may think of me whenever you make a drink-offering to the immortal gods."
"Son of Atreus," replied Telemachus, "do not press me to stay longer; I should be contented to remain with you for another twelve months; I find your conversation so delightful that I should never once wish myself at home with my parents; but my crew whom I have left at Pylos are already impatient, and you are detaining me from them. As for any present you may be disposed to make me, I had rather that it should be a piece of plate. I will take no horses back with me to Ithaca, but will leave them to adorn your own stables, for you have much flat ground in your kingdom where lotus thrives, as also meadow-sweet and wheat and barley, and oats with their white and spreading ears; whereas in Ithaca we have neither open fields nor racecourses, and the country is more fit for goats than horses, and I like it the better for that. None of our islands have much level ground, suitable for horses, and Ithaca least of all."
Menelaus smiled and took Telemachus's hand within his own. "What you say," said he, "shows that you come of good family. I both can, and will, make this exchange for you, by giving you the finest and most precious piece of plate in all my house. It is a mixing bowl by Vulcan's own hand, of pure silver, except the rim, which is inlaid with gold. Phaedimus, king of the Sidonians, gave it me in the course of a visit which I paid him when I returned thither on my homeward journey. I will make you a present of it."
Thus did they converse [and guests kept coming to the king's house. They brought sheep and wine, while their wives had put up bread for them to take with them; so they were busy cooking their dinners in the courts].
Meanwhile the suitors were throwing discs or aiming with spears at a mark on the levelled ground in front of Ulysses' house, and were behaving with all their old insolence. Antinous and Eurymachus, who were their ringleaders and much the foremost among them all, were sitting together when Noemon son of Phronius came up and said to Antinous,
"Have we any idea, Antinous, on what day Telemachus returns from Pylos? He has a ship of mine, and I want it, to cross over to Elis: I have twelve brood mares there with yearling mule foals by their side not yet broken in, and I want to bring one of them over here and break him."
They were astounded when they heard this, for they had made sure that Telemachus had not gone to the city of Neleus. They thought he was only away somewhere on the farms, and was with the sheep, or with the swineherd; so Antinous said, "When did he go? Tell me truly, and what young men did he take with him? Were they freemen or his own bondsmen
—for he might manage that too? Tell me also, did you let him have the ship of your own free will because he asked you, or did he take it without your leave?"
"I lent it him," answered Noemon, "what else could I do when a man of his position said he was in a difficulty, and asked me to oblige him? I could not possibly refuse. As for those who went with him they were the best young men we have, and I saw Mentor go on board as captain—or some god who was exactly like him. I cannot understand it, for I saw Mentor here myself yesterday morning, and yet he was then setting out for Pylos."
Noemon then went back to his father's house, but Antinous and Eurymachus were very angry. They told the others to leave off playing, and to come and sit down along with themselves. When they came, Antinous son of Eupeithes spoke in anger. His heart was black with rage, and his eyes flashed fire as he said:
"Good heavens, this voyage of Telemachus is a very serious matter; we had made sure that it would come to nothing, but the young fellow has got
away in spite of us, and with a picked crew too. He will be giving us trouble presently; may Jove take him before he is full grown. Find me a ship, therefore, with a crew of twenty men, and I will lie in wait for him in the straits between Ithaca and Samos; he will then rue the day that he set out to try and get news of his father."
Thus did he speak, and the others applauded his saying; they then all of them went inside the buildings.
It was not long ere Penelope came to know what the suitors were plotting; for a man servant, Medon, overheard them from outside the outer court as they were laying their schemes within, and went to tell his mistress. As he crossed the threshold of her room Penelope said: "Medon, what have the suitors sent you here for? Is it to tell the maids to leave their master's business and cook dinner for them? I wish they may neither woo nor dine henceforward, neither here nor anywhere else, but let this be the very last time, for the waste you all make of my son's estate. Did not your fathers tell you when you were children, how good Ulysses had been to them—never doing anything high-handed, nor speaking harshly to anybody? Kings may say things sometimes, and they may take a fancy to one man and dislike another, but Ulysses never did an unjust thing by anybody—which shows what bad hearts you have, and that there is no such thing as gratitude left in this world."
Then Medon said, "I wish, Madam, that this were all; but they are plotting something much more dreadful now—may heaven frustrate their design. They are going to try and murder Telemachus as he is coming home from Pylos and Lacedaemon, where he has been to get news of his father."
Then Penelope's heart sank within her, and for a long time she was speechless; her eyes filled with tears, and she could find no utterance. At last, however, she said, "Why did my son leave me? What business had he to go sailing off in ships that make long voyages over the ocean like sea- horses? Does he want to die without leaving any one behind him to keep up his name?"
"I do not know," answered Medon, "whether some god set him on to it, or whether he went on his own impulse to see if he could find out if his
father was dead, or alive and on his way home."
Then he went downstairs again, leaving Penelope in an agony of grief. There were plenty of seats in the house, but she had no heart for sitting on any one of them; she could only fling herself on the floor of her own room and cry; whereon all the maids in the house, both old and young, gathered round her and began to cry too, till at last in a transport of sorrow she exclaimed,
"My dears, heaven has been pleased to try me with more affliction than any other woman of my age and country. First I lost my brave and lion- hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos, and now my darling son is at the mercy of the winds and waves, without my having heard one word about his leaving home. You hussies, there was not one of you would so much as think of giving me a call out of my bed, though you all of you very well knew when he was starting. If I had known he meant taking this voyage, he would have had to give it up, no matter how much he was bent upon it, or leave me a corpse behind him—one or other. Now, however, go some of you and call old Dolius, who was given me by my father on my marriage, and who is my gardener. Bid him go at once and tell everything to Laertes, who may be able to hit on some plan for enlisting public sympathy on our side, as against those who are trying to exterminate his own race and that of Ulysses."
Then the dear old nurse Euryclea said, "You may kill me, Madam, or let me live on in your house, whichever you please, but I will tell you the real truth. I knew all about it, and gave him everything he wanted in the way of bread and wine, but he made me take my solemn oath that I would not tell you anything for some ten or twelve days, unless you asked or happened to hear of his having gone, for he did not want you to spoil your beauty by crying. And now, Madam, wash your face, change your dress, and go upstairs with your maids to offer prayers to Minerva, daughter of Aegis- bearing Jove, for she can save him even though he be in the jaws of death. Do not trouble Laertes: he has trouble enough already. Besides, I cannot think that the gods hate the race of the son of Arceisius so much, but there
will be a son left to come up after him, and inherit both the house and the fair fields that lie far all round it."
With these words she made her mistress leave off crying, and dried the tears from her eyes. Penelope washed her face, changed her dress, and went upstairs with her maids. She then put some bruised barley into a basket and began praying to Minerva.
"Hear me," she cried, "Daughter of Aegis-bearing Jove, unweariable. If ever Ulysses while he was here burned you fat thigh bones of sheep or heifer, bear it in mind now as in my favour, and save my darling son from the villainy of the suitors."
She cried aloud as she spoke, and the goddess heard her prayer; meanwhile the suitors were clamorous throughout the covered cloister, and one of them said:
"The queen is preparing for her marriage with one or other of us. Little does she dream that her son has now been doomed to die."
This was what they said, but they did not know what was going to happen. Then Antinous said, "Comrades, let there be no loud talking, lest some of it get carried inside. Let us be up and do that in silence, about which we are all of a mind."
He then chose twenty men, and they went down to their ship and to the sea side; they drew the vessel into the water and got her mast and sails inside her; they bound the oars to the thole-pins with twisted thongs of leather, all in due course, and spread the white sails aloft, while their fine servants brought them their armour. Then they made the ship fast a little way out, came on shore again, got their suppers, and waited till night should fall.
But Penelope lay in her own room upstairs unable to eat or drink, and wondering whether her brave son would escape, or be overpowered by the wicked suitors. Like a lioness caught in the toils with huntsmen hemming her in on every side she thought and thought till she sank into a slumber, and lay on her bed bereft of thought and motion.
Then Minerva bethought her of another matter, and made a vision in the likeness of Penelope's sister Iphthime daughter of Icarius who had married Eumelus and lived in Pherae. She told the vision to go to the house of Ulysses, and to make Penelope leave off crying, so it came into her room by the hole through which the thong went for pulling the door to, and hovered over her head saying,
"You are asleep, Penelope: the gods who live at ease will not suffer you to weep and be so sad. Your son has done them no wrong, so he will yet come back to you."
Penelope, who was sleeping sweetly at the gates of dreamland, answered, "Sister, why have you come here? You do not come very often, but I suppose that is because you live such a long way off. Am I, then, to leave off crying and refrain from all the sad thoughts that torture me? I, who have lost my brave and lion-hearted husband, who had every good quality under heaven, and whose name was great over all Hellas and middle Argos; and now my darling son has gone off on board of a ship—a foolish fellow who has never been used to roughing it, nor to going about among gatherings of men. I am even more anxious about him than about my husband; I am all in a tremble when I think of him, lest something should happen to him, either from the people among whom he has gone, or by sea, for he has many enemies who are plotting against him, and are bent on killing him before he can return home."
Then the vision said, "Take heart, and be not so much dismayed. There is one gone with him whom many a man would be glad enough to have stand by his side, I mean Minerva; it is she who has compassion upon you, and who has sent me to bear you this message."
"Then," said Penelope, "if you are a god or have been sent here by divine commission, tell me also about that other unhappy one—is he still alive, or is he already dead and in the house of Hades?"
And the vision said, "I shall not tell you for certain whether he is alive or dead, and there is no use in idle conversation."
Then it vanished through the thong-hole of the door and was dissipated into thin air; but Penelope rose from her sleep refreshed and comforted, so
vivid had been her dream.
Meantime the suitors went on board and sailed their ways over the sea, intent on murdering Telemachus. Now there is a rocky islet called Asteris, of no great size, in mid channel between Ithaca and Samos, and there is a harbour on either side of it where a ship can lie. Here then the Achaeans placed themselves in ambush.


text:
The key to the discovery of California teen Hannah Anderson and her alleged kidnapper on a mountain in Idaho appears to have been a chance meeting they had with an ex-sheriff, his wife and two friends who were out riding their horses.
As The Associated Press writes, "the highly publicized multistate search for the Southern California teenage girl probably would have taken longer if she and her abductor hadn't encountered a sharp-eyed retired sheriff and three others riding horseback in Idaho's rugged backcountry, authorities said."
"It just didn't fit," former Gem County (Idaho) Sheriff Mark John told reporters Sunday about what he, his wife and their two riding partners saw when they came upon James Lee DiMaggio and 16-year-old Hannah last Wednesday.
"He might have been an outdoorsman in California," John said of DiMaggio. "But he was not an outdoorsman in Idaho. He didn't fit." John retired in 1996, the AP says.
"I just asked him where he was headed and he said he was going to the Salmon River, hopefully," recounted Mike Young, 62, who was riding with the former sheriff. "But they were headed in the wrong direction to get to the Salmon River. That was one red flag for me."
Another suspicious sign: DiMaggio and Hannah didn't appear to be very well prepared. The riders said Hannah was wearing pajama bottoms. Neither DiMaggio nor Hannah had hiking boots.
When John got back to his home Thursday, he heard about the Amber Alert for Hannah that had been issued Aug. 4 after the body of her 44-year-old mother, Christina, was discovered in DiMaggio's burned home near San Diego. Another body found at the home was later identified as that of her 8-year-old brother, Ethan.
John called Idaho State Police. That focused the search on the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in the heart of the state.
Saturday, the 40-year-old DiMaggio was killed by an FBI officer during what authorities say was some sort of confrontation at the campsite where he and Hannah were found.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
VMware Opens Ground For Hyper-V, Xen
With vSphere 5, the vendor no longer offers a truly free enterprise hypervisor because it no longer scales without licensing.
August 11, 2011
You have to hand it to VMware. Right when the market seemed completely stable, the virtualization vendor releases its new vSphere 5 product with both an unparalleled enterprise virtualization feature set and a pernicious new licensing model constrained by virtual machine memory usage.
First, the good news. Latency requirements have been reduced for both conventional and storage vMotion, facilitating cloud-based machine migrations without breaking the bank on LAN speed connectivity options. Further, VMware now supports Apple's latest server operating system, 3-D acceleration for Windows-based systems, and USB 3.0. It's raised the cap on virtual CPUs to 32 with support for a terabyte of RAM, trumping its previous virtual CPU and memory constraints by a factor of four.
In addition, the company has refined the ESXi firewall for a stateless, policy- and service-oriented configuration and strengthened its high-availability infrastructure to support greater scalability with reduced resource constraints. In addition, vSphere 5 offers policy-based deployments via the new Auto Deploy feature, better management of NFS data stores, an enhanced storage API and I/O sharing mechanism, and one new feature unavailable anywhere else at any cost: storage DRS. That's right, campers: VMware will actually load-balance data store I/O by dynamically moving virtual machine volumes using storage vMotion.
So what does this mean for the rest of the market? Basically, VMware's competitors were one step behind in the enterprise. Now they're two. For small and midsize businesses, the game hasn't changed that much except that the price tag is bigger to use a VMware offering. The way I see things, the only market where version 5's new features sell without much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the higher cost is the enterprise private cloud market.
Sure, it's possible we'll see some high-availability service vendors or private SaaS apps using VMware as a backbone to build a software lease delivery model, but why wouldn't you run Xen and pay nada? Unless you offer your clients service-level agreements for 100% uptime, why pay for VMware? Even if you need high availability, why pay so much more just to use the premier vendor?
While you could technically have matched the "nada" price with ESXi free licensing in version 4, new constraints on memory make this impossible to do in version 5, hence VMware no longer offers a truly free enterprise hypervisor because it no longer scales without licensing. If you want to build white-box servers and sell a virtual private server service, you're going to throw together storage and resources on commodity hardware and run an open source hypervisor.
Any organization that's moderately proficient with technology can easily use open source Xen without any substantial difficulty -- and at zero cost. If you need support, numerous organizations support Xen running on their particular distros, in some cases with high-availability options. Ubuntu provides pay support through Canonical, while Red Hat offers three tiers of support per physical host machine and competitive licensing options for virtualizing multiple instances of licensed Red Hat Linux running on Red Hat with Xen hypervisor. SUSE offers paid support for Xen running on SUSE. Oracle (Solaris) provides support for Xen on Solaris.
So where is all this going? The clear trend is the commoditization of resources of all types into a single aggregate pool. But when we're talking about commoditization of resources, what we're really talking about is cloud, because cloud and virtualization are like yin and yang: They intensify and buffer each other.
Is VMware's new feature set attractive? Sure. Is it worth the cost in a tight economy? That's a decision each organization must make after careful analysis. But our take is that Microsoft and Citrix have an opening here that all the hot new features may not be able to block.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like


text:
FRIDAY NIGHT IMPROV Hilarious interactive comedy based on audience suggestions and participation is the perfect way to start your weekend. Whether on the way home after work or on the way to the theater and clubs, this show will help you process the weeks news and scandals. Bring the whole office. Bring all your friends. Hosted by Walt Frasier (Letterman, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains). Come be a part of the show! There is a one drink minimum per guest ($5-15/beverage)
FAMILY MATINEES - Fun for the whole family... think WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY with a touch of MTV, Broadway and NICK. No two shows are ever the same.Featuring the cast of EIGHT IS NEVER ENOUGH. ONE Drink minimum
NEW - COMEDY 4 TEENS by TEENS - Do your kids like NICK because they love watching other kids and teens perform? Then this show is for you.
HAPPY HOUR/LATE NITE SHOWCASES - NYC teams, guest comics and musical acts, and discuonted drink special. What more could your want? ONE DRINK MINIMUM


text:
There are two main filters to start your search of Tłı̨chǫ Government publications:
- Filter by Category
- Filter by Date
Filters are located on the right hand side of the screen.
You can check one box or multiple to refine your search.
If you are not able to find a publication please email info[at]tlicho[dot]com
Tłįchǫ Government Audited Financial Statements for April 1, 2014 - March 31, 2015 Law
This law adopts and approves the Audited Financial Statements for the Tłįchǫ Government for the period of April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015.
Tłįchǫ Government Budget Law 2015-2016
This law adopts and approves the budget for the Tłįchǫ Government for the period of April 1, 2015 – March 31, 2016.
Amendment to the Tłįchǫ Investment Corporation Administration Law 2015
This law allows TIC to determine its own structure and appoint the senior officers of the Corporation in consultation with the CEC. The law also determined that the majority of Board of Directors shall be Tłįchǫ Citizens.
Amendment to Capital Transfers Protection Law 2015
This law amends section 12 of the Capital Transfers Protection Law by increasing the number of trustees from five to seven.


text:
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the recipient admits a limited (or inferior) status within the relationship, and it is within that sense that charters were historically granted, and that sense is retained in modern usage of the term.
The word entered the English language from the Old French charte (ultimately from the Latin word for "paper"). It has come to be synonymous with the document that lays out the granting of rights or privileges.
The term is used for a special case (or as an exception) to an institutional charter. A charter school, for example, is one that has different rules, regulations, and statutes from a state school.
Charter is sometimes used as a synonym for 'tool' or 'lease', as in the 'charter' of a bus or boat by an organization, intended for a similar group destination.
Chartering is an activity within the shipping industry. In some cases a charterer may own cargo and employ a shipbroker to find a ship to deliver the cargo for a certain price, called freight rate. Freight rates may be on a per-ton basis over a certain route (e.g. for iron ore between Brazil and China), in Worldscale points (in case of oil tankers) or alternatively may be expressed in terms of a total sum - normally in U.S. dollars - per day for the agreed duration of the charter.
A charterer may also be a party without a cargo who takes a vessel on charter for a specified period from the owner and then trades the ship to carry cargoes at a profit above the hire rate, or even makes a profit in a rising market by re-letting the ship out to other charterers.
Depending on the type of ship and the type of charter, normally a standard contract form called a charter party is used to record the exact rate, duration and terms agreed between the shipowner and the charterer.
Time Charter Equivalent is a standard shipping industry performance measure used primarily to compare period-to-period changes in a shipping company's performance despite changes in the mix of charter types.
Bitstream Charter is a serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter in 1987 for Bitstream Inc. Charter is based on Pierre-Simon Fournier's characters, originating from the 18th century. Classified by Bitstream as a transitional-serif typeface (Bitstream Transitional 801), it also has features of a slab-serif typeface and is often classified as such.
Charter was originally optimized for printing on the low-resolution 300 dpi laser printers of the 1980s, and remains suitable for printing on both modern high-resolution laser printers and inexpensive lower resolution inkjet printers due to its strong, legible design. Its structure was optimised for low-memory computers and printers. In a 2013 interview, Carter explained that it used "a very simplified structure and a minimum number of curves, more straight-line segments... very economical compared to, say, Times New Roman." In its simplification of serif forms, it anticipates Carter's later landmark design, Georgia.
In 1992 Bitstream donated a version of Charter, along with its version of Courier, to the X Consortium under terms that allowed the font to be modified and redistributed. This has resulted in open source derivatives of Bitstream Charter, including Charis SIL. Some consider Bitstream Charter to be one of the best free fonts available.


text:
How To Sell A Distressed Property in Altoona
For those who need to know how to sell a distressed property in Altoona, we'll cover the options you have available. Traditional listings for this type of property are not suggested as they don't attract most buyers, take far too long, and are too costly for most owners of a distressed property. Life can bring … Continued


text:
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Hillary Clinton on Wednesday ripped Donald Trump as a "shameful" businessman with a history of exploiting workers, holding up the presumptive Republican nominee's turbulent history in struggling Atlantic City as a warning for American voters.
"What he did here in Atlantic City is exactly what he'll do if he wins in November," said Clinton, standing on the seaside town's famed boardwalk outside a shuttered hotel formerly owned by Trump.
Clinton's remarks were part of a growing effort by her campaign to tear down Trump's business reputation, which Democrats believe is overhyped and based more on his ability to attract publicity than actual private sector skills. In the coming weeks, Clinton's campaign is expected to highlight "victims" of Trump's business ventures, including contractors who went unpaid — replicating a strategy Democrats employed successfully against 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Clinton focused narrowly on Trump in her address, making no mention of the FBI's recommendation Tuesday that she not face charges for her controversial email practices as secretary of state. In clearing Clinton of breaking the law, FBI Director James Comey was blistering in his criticism of the Democratic nominee, saying she was "extremely careless" in handling classified information on a private email and personal internet server.
Even with Comey's tough rhetoric, Clinton aides were relieved to have the investigation formally closed so they can fully turn their attention to the fall face-off with Trump. Campaign aides say that while Trump's controversial comments about minorities and women weaken his prospects of winning the White House, he is still viewed favorably as businessman by many Americans.
For Clinton, Atlantic City provides a picture-perfect backdrop to try to undermine that reputation.
Once a casino-lined coastal jewel, Atlantic City has struggled in recent years, losing more than half of its gambling revenue during the last nine years. The casino struggles have led to job losses and credit downgrades.
Trump defended his record in the gambling town, saying he "created thousands of jobs and made a lot of money in Atlantic City, which was what, as a businessman, I am supposed to do for my company and my family." Earlier Wednesday, he blamed Atlantic City's troubles on politicians' "big mistakes."
But in even in the years when other Atlantic City casinos were growing, casinos carrying the Trump name weren't. When Trump's publicly traded company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., went bust in 2004, Atlantic City's casino revenues were on their way to an all-time high. In fact, two of his casinos' three bankruptcies occurred in years when overall Atlantic City gambling revenue was rising.
"Isn't he supposed to be some kind of amazing businessman?" Clinton said. "So it's fair to ask, since he is applying for a job, what in the world happened here?"
She also placed blame for Atlantic City's troubles on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of Trump's biggest supporters.
"If your governor would start doing his job instead of following Donald Trump around holding his coat, maybe we could really get New Jersey's economy moving again," Clinton said.
After a months-long fight over the city's future that included threats of a state takeover, Christie signed legislation in May that kept Atlantic City solvent and staved off immediate bankruptcy. The city now has until the end of October to formulate a plan for balancing its budget in order to avoid being taken over by the state.
Christie, meanwhile, has blamed the city's issues on Democrats as well as larger structural forces, including increased competition from new gambling centers and the city's failure to rebrand itself and expand its attractions.
Following Clinton's remarks, she briefly greeted striking casino workers at Trump Taj Mahal. While the casino still bears Trump's name, it now belongs his friend Carl Icahn, the billionaire businessman magnate.
In Washington, Clinton was getting support from Democrats on Capitol Hill. House Democrats met privately with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who challenged Clinton vigorously in the presidential primary and is yet to endorse her.
Lawmakers voiced frustration with Sanders' slow-moving support for Clinton, shouting "timeline, timeline" at the presidential candidate during a closed-door meeting. Sanders never clarified when he would endorse Clinton, though at one point he said, "our goal is not to win elections," then paused. During that pause, Sanders was booed, according to a Democrat who attended the session and spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the meeting.
Following the session, Michigan Rep. Sander Levin said Democratic believe Sanders should throw his support behind Clinton "right away."


text:
Due Diligence
Regarding vendor safeguards and processes, in November 2015 SurveyGold changed to the HostingSource.com web hosting service for our web services, which are critical to the online features of any SurveyGold application. HostingSource.com is located in Secaucus, New Jersey, USA. Their data center is HIPPA compliant and employs a parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network architecture. All data links provide Tier 1 bandwidth. Their privacy policy meets all standards as set forth by U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information. This ensures excellent performance, up-time and data protection.
Regarding our reputation, we have been serving a global customer base since 1999. We received a 9.5 out of 10 rating for three years in a row from the independent review site TopTenReviews and also have high ratings from CNET/Download.com where over 60,000 users have downloaded and used our SurveyGold application.
We manage our support services pro-actively and have a high response rate to inquiries, with approximately 50% being responded to in one hour or less. To give you a lens into how widely used our SurveyGold application is, take a look at this representative sample of our customer list.
Regarding our right to change the terms at any time, we have gone on record regarding our view of the data ownership and sacred trust. Simply said, if we blow that promise, we blow our brand. Trust is an essential part of our brand promise.
We also have published website notices specific to SurveyGold software, documents and links as well as general legal notices.
Exit Strategy
The SurveyGold solution delivers the data to the SurveyGold application which records it in the SurveyGold database application...all of which reside on the survey author's computer. SurveyGold application users have access to this data forever, even if Golden Hills Software goes out of business. SurveyGold application licenses are perpetual, which means that they never expire, so you will never be locked out of the SurveyGold application.
As part of normal practice, the SurveyGold application provides the ability to backup and restore the SurveyGold database using your own data storage solution (e.g., network folder, USB drive).
So, the bottom line is that the SurveyGold solution puts you in possession of your data.
Proportionality of Safeguards and Encryption of Data
Statement on encryption. Transmission of data to the vendor site must be encrypted. The data must also be encrypted at the vendor.
Our Privacy Policy describes how we encrypt and secure all SurveyGold data. Refer to the topic entitled "How Do We Protect Your Information?".
Our SurveyGold Online Services services manage, process and track your SurveyGold data. These services are built upon the world-class data center operating environment of our web hosting partner, HostingSource.com.
All of our servers are actively monitored and regularly scanned to be compliant with PCI Security Standards.
System Architecture
SurveyGold Response
This conceptual diagram of the SurveyGold solution describes the relevant details:
SurveyGold application - (surveygold.exe) A Windows application that installs on the survey author's computer. It is a stand-alone application that uses HTTPS (Port 443) to interact with SurveyGold Online Services. SurveyGold interacts with Microsoft Word, if it is detected on the computer, for the purposes of publishing reports and producing surveys in Word format. There are no other interactions with the SurveyGold application except for the following:
SurveyGold database application - (rteng9.exe) Sybase SQL Anywhere (SSA) is the database application that installs as part of the SurveyGold setup program. SurveyGold employs SSA for the purposes of securely and efficiently managing and tracking survey data.
SurveyGold updater application - (update.exe) This application installs as part of the SurveyGold setup program. SurveyGold uses it to provide software updates.
SurveyGold online services - A set of online services employed by the SurveyGold application and accessible via surveygold.com (IP address: 188.8.131.52) and surveygoldcloud.com (IP address: 220.127.116.11) for the purposes of publishing web surveys, collecting responses, acquiring SurveyGold application updates and other online features.


text:
Help Center
Issuetrak Help Center
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Toggle navigation
Release Notes
Contact us
Getting Started
Issuetrak Deployment Fundamentals
How to Install Issuetrak Using the Issuetrak Deployment Utility (IDU)
How to Install Issuetrak Using the Issuetrak Deployment Manager (IDM)
Post-Deployment Configuration
About Integrated Security
Password Policies
About the Features Screen
About Organizations
About Departments
About Tasks
About Locations and Regions
About Issue Types and Subtypes
About Priorities
About Issue Templates
Incoming Email Overview
Issue Notifications
Visibility Controls Best Practices
About Issue Forms
About Causes
The Benefits of Customer Training
Getting Started in Issuetrak
Ways to Utilize Issuetrak Consulting
Implementation Guidelines
How To Get the Most Out of Your Professional Services Consultation
Term Dictionary
HTML Enhancement Options
About Issue Responsibilities
Issue Types - A Guide from Planning to Implementation
Rich Text Editor Limitations for Copying and Pasting
Configuration and Customization of Issue Submission
Total / Adjusted Time Open
Licensing FAQs
Navigating the Issue Lifecycle in Issuetrak
About Entities
About Embedded HTML
Additional Benefits of Locations and Regions
How to Install Issuetrak on Your Desktop
Issuetrak System Requirements
IDU Verb Documentation
Working with the JSON
Introduction to the Issuetrak Deployment Utility (IDU)
Introduction to the Issuetrak Deployment Manager (IDM)
Issuetrak's Release Pipeline
Network Share for Attachments
User Management
About Users
About Groups
User Permissions
User Templates
How to Reset a Password
Multi-factor Authentication
User Administrator Feature
Attachments within User Profiles
Using Issuetrak
Best Practices
Best Practices - Moving a Workflow to Issuetrak
Managing Task Groups
How to Embed Video
Best Practices - Expanding Issuetrak
Best Practices - Working with Task and Processes
Custom Record Table - When to Use
Best Practices - Issue Assignments
About Issue Hub
My Settings
About Bookmarks
About Dark Mode
Make Issuetrak Your Own
My Notifications
About Reports
Change Password
Submitting Issues
Saved Searches
Searching Issues
Self-Help Password Reset
Logging into Issuetrak
How to clear browser cache and storage
Issuetrak Navigation
About Issuetrak
How to reset a locked user account
Using Global Issues to Submit Multiple New Issues
Custom Productivity Reports
How to Use Issue Hub
Working with the Task Manager
Web Accessibility Guidelines
Add to Home Screen (A2HS)
Anatomy of an Issue
Issue Updates
How to Use Tasks Groups for Change Management Workflow
How to Use Tasks Groups for Employee Onboarding and Offboarding
About Automation
About Auto Assignment Rules
About Workflows
About Substatus Rules
How to Use Round Robin with Automation
How to Use Issuetrak Automation
Time and Event-Based Automations
Outgoing Email in the Issuetrak Cloud
Cloud Vanity URL Overview
About Solutions
About Issue Statuses and Substatuses
About Global Issues
About the Knowledge Base
About the Calendar
About Projects
About Issue Auditing
About Embedded Images
About Scheduled Issues
About Admin Auditing
Issuetrak Release Notes
About Classes
About Round Robin
About the Custom Record Table
Activating Rich Text
Previous Release Notes
Custom Record Table - Usage Notes
Service Contracts
About Labor Hours
About the All Restrictions Screen
How to Activate Issuetrak
Using SSL with Issuetrak
About Note Tokens
About Quick Notes
About Printing Notes
Project Examples and Best Practices
Incoming Email
About Incoming Email
Managing IEM Mailboxes
Using Google App Passwords with a Gmail IEM Account
About Microsoft Office 365 Integration
Viewing the Incoming Email Log
Email Tokens
Exclude Text
Blocked Attachments
Issue Handling
Mass Updates
About Issue De-Escalations
About Issue Attachments
Linking Issues
Issue Submission Methods
Entered Date vs Submitted Date
About Report Writer
About the Dashboard
Setting Report Writer Defaults
Scheduled Reports
Dashboard Settings
Summary Reports
How does Issuetrak define Report Permissions?
Service Level Agreements
About Service Level Agreements
Managing Severities
Managing Service Levels
Managing Service Terms
Managing Service Agreements
System Settings
Mobile Settings
About the System Menu
About User Defined Fields
Outgoing Email
About Optional Fields
Hours of Operation
About the License Screen
Interpreting Admin Auditing Logs
System Colors
System Defaults
About Configuration Items
Site Appearance
Custom Links
Best Practices - Time Zone Adjustment in the Cloud
About Site IDs
Upgrade & Migration
How to Perform an Upgrade Using the Issuetrak Deployment Utility (IDU)
Configuring Services and Scheduled Tasks
How to Perform an Upgrade Using the Issuetrak Deployment Manager (IDM)
Test Site Creation
SQL Server Migration
Web Server Migration
Web and SQL Server Migration
Issuetrak License Update Utility
About the Issuetrak RESTful API
Installing the API
API - Encrypting ConnectionStrings
API Authorization Overview
API - Swagger Overview
API Samples Overview
API - Elevating NLog
API Operations
API Operation Conventions
API Operations for APIMETADATA
API Operations for Attachments
API Operations for Causes
API Operations for Classes
API Operations for Departments
API Operations for Issues
API Operations for IssueTypes
API Operations for IssueSubTypes
API Operations for IssueSubTypes2
API Operations for IssueSubTypes3
API Operations for IssueSubTypes4
API Operations for Locations
API Operations for MenuItems
API Operations for Notes
API Operations for Organizations
API Operations for Priorities
API Operations for Projects
API Operations for ServiceLevels
API Operations for ServiceLevelAgreements
API Operations for ServiceLevelSeverities
API Operations for ServiceLevelTerms
API Operations for Substatuses
API Operations for TimeZones
API Operations for Users
API Operations for User Types
API Operations for User-Defined Field Types
API v2
API v2 Overview
Asset Management Module
About the Asset Management Module
Asset Audits
Asset Reporting
Managing Assets
Asset Tables
Managing Software
About Barcodes
Billing Module
About the Billing Module
About the Chat Add-On
How to Enable Chat in Issuetrak
How to add a Chat Agent
Creating Issues from Chat Transcripts
Issuetrak Chat - Enable Emailing Transcripts
Configuring Proactive Chat
Chat Shortcuts
Identity Management
About Identity Management
About Active Directory (LDAP) Integration
Activating Identity Management Integration within Issuetrak
Configuring Active Directory (LDAP)
Migrating to AD Federation Services
Importing Users from Active Directory
Preparing to use the Active Directory LDAP Integration
Granting permissions to Agents
About Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS)
Rolling back to AD from AD Federation Services
How to Configure Active Directory Single Sign On
Preparing AD Federation Services for use with Issuetrak
About Azure AD Integration
Migrating to Azure AD
Troubleshooting the Active Directory Module
About OAuth / OpenID Connect
Power BI
How to Integrate Power BI with Issuetrak
About the Surveys Module
Designing Surveys
Survey Reporting
Managing Surveys
Planning Surveys for Various Scenarios
Closing Surveys
About Webforms
Webforms Requirements
Issuetrak Webform
Webform Limitations
Baby Steps: Creating a Simple Zapier Integration
Using Zapier with Issuetrak
Trust Center
Security in Issuetrak
GDPR Compliance FAQ
Subprocessors Used by Issuetrak
How To Comply with GDPR Information Requests in Issuetrak
Network Protocols and Ports for Issuetrak
Log4J Vulnerability
Firewall Exceptions for Use With Issuetrak's Hosted Service
Terms of Service
Issuetrak Terms of Service
Issuetrak Cloud-Based Application Agreement
Business Associate Agreement Addendum
Issuetrak Software License Terms and Conditions
Data Processing Addendum
Webform Design and Implementation Agreement
Issuetrak Privacy Policy
Mutual Confidentiality Agreement
Full PDF Download
Integrations and Add-Ons
Billing Module
About the Billing Module
The Billing Module gives you the ability to add multiple line items to an issue to represent Product and Service charges against an issue. For service companies, this results in an ability to record charges for services provided and to charge for m...


text:
The Duke Law Building
Alumni and others returning to the Law School after a few years away are pleasantly surprised by how much the building has changed. With a new wing and exterior façade, new classrooms, a renovated library, a new public gathering space, and the addition of several outdoor spaces, it has never looked better. These seemingly disparate elements in fact all have a common theme: to create special places, both formal and informal, for the Duke Law community to gather.
A Developing Campus
When the current Duke Law School building at the intersection of Science Drive and Towerview Road was dedicated in 1963, the corner was nothing special. Neither of the intersecting streets were major thoroughfares. Since we were building on side streets, the University felt that the new building did not require a strong architectural presence; it could be more utilitarian in design. There was no need for "Duke stone," simple brick would do. The building also need not have the customary Duke Gothic tower.
Over time, however, our part of campus had grown and become an important center of University activity. With the addition of the ever-growing Fuqua School of Business and, in the early 1990's, the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, our corner had become an important focal point for Duke's graduate and professional schools. The simple fact was that the Law School had become a prime location on an important crossroads of the campus.
Architecturally, the Law School building had never engaged the corner. As designed, the Law School did not even present a clearly-defined main entrance. The strong pediment of limestone columns on Science Drive seemed to be the main architectural feature. Yet, the building's main entrance was oddly tucked away on Towerview. While the entrance could be seen on architectural drawings, in reality, it was practically invisible from the street. In an early photo, one can barely see the small array of columns that marked the entrance. As the trees grew over time, it became even more hidden.
The Birkerts Addition and Courtyard
Not surprisingly, as various efforts were made to improve the Law School building, architects looked to strengthen the building's expression on the corner. In the 1980's, the Law School retained Gunner Birkerts to develop a completely new look for the law school, as well as to plan for a major expansion. His plan - which was never fully implemented - would have created a major new entrance in the key corner location that included a domed rotunda. University officials questioned whether the dome was consistent with Duke's overall architectural style which presented an important question: would the Law School have its own architectural style or would we work to be integrated with the larger campus?
The Law School did build an addition designed by Birkerts that used a new material - polished granite - on the façade and created a large courtyard between the addition and the original building. But we elected not to complete the renovation of the old building according to his plans. There was a sense that simply building an expensive new entrance - that would add no usable program space - was ill-advised. Birkerts' plans for the corner were put on the shelf.
A New Wing
In 2001, the Law School engaged Peter Saylor of Dagit & Saylor, a prominent Philadelphia architectural firm, to conduct a new concept study of how to expand the Law School. His subsequent study was the basis for the decision to add a new wing - built of what has become known as "Duke brick" - along Science Drive. Completed in 2005, this handsome new wing included a tower that defined a new main entrance to the Law School and provided new space for faculty offices, six of the student law journals, and two new seminar rooms. The principal beneficiaries, however, were those students and faculty engaged in the Law School's expanding clinics.
Need for Community Space
Peter Saylor also developed a detailed plan for enclosing the interior courtyard to provide much needed public space and studied how to animate the corner. His initial idea was to create a raised plaza area that could serve as an outdoor venue for events. As the concept was developed by a prominent landscape architect, the plaza was embellished with benches and a water feature. The sentiment was the same as with past plans - this space was exceedingly important to the future of the Law School.
In 2002, at the University's urging, another architect - Bill Rawn from Boston - was engaged to look at alternatives for enclosing the courtyard to create an interior atrium, as well as how to expand the Law School. Focusing once again on the corner, Rawn's preliminary sketches suggested that the corner could be the location for a new office tower. This scheme was never fully developed as it did not match our sense of how best to add needed space. But it did provide yet another vision of what this space could become.
In 2005, it became clear that the plans for the creation of an atrium space were going to be prohibitively expensive. The Law School began to search for an alternative approach for creating the community space that was so clearly needed. Our attention was drawn to the possibility of building on the corner. This highly visible - yet architecturally elusive - location seemed to be very well suited. It was, for example, about the right size. The covered courtyard plan would have totaled about 7,000 square feet in program space, which would have included a large monumental stair bringing people up from the back parking lot. In pacing off the dimensions of our corner, the area measured about 50 feet by 100 feet - providing a core area of about 5,000 square feet which closely fit our needs.
We knew we wanted a light-filled space with a sense of openness. Again, the corner space seemed perfect. A new building would face northward. This would be an ideal orientation - there would be no blinding sun in the morning or afternoon, but excellent reflected natural light throughout the day. There was also a great potential to create an architecturally-significant statement that would be highly visible to all passing by this part of campus. The Law School had never had a stunning architectural feature that captured people's attention. It seemed to us that by building on the corner, we had the potential to accomplish just that.
Star Commons and J. Michael Goodson Law Library
A ground-breaking ceremony at alumni weekend in 2007 marked the beginning of a construction project that, when completed by the time classes started the following year, would create that significant architectural feature and give the School a completely renovated law library.
With ideal natural light and a prominent location, the new Star Commons, named after Stanley Star '61, is an important part of the Law School's exterior - a shining jewel that helps define the Law School's image. It contains over 4,200-square-feet of space within a three-story glass enclosure. With balconies that look into the space, an adjacent café, and outdoor patio, it provides comfortable seating people to read, study, eat lunch, or work together. It is also able to host large lectures and dinner.
The renovation of the Law Library, named after J. Michael Goodson '66, includes a new façade with larger windows in the reading room and mezzanine and the "Duke brick" that was used so successfully on the front of the Law School and the new addition. The seating was rearranged to take advantage of the new two-story glass window walls and allows the reading room to be a light-filled center of our community's intellectual life.
Furthermore, the main reading room was completely re-conceptualized. There are fewer books on the main level, as the goal is to provide easy access not only to library collections and services, but to those of the Law School's computing, web, and media services departments. A single point of service near the renovated entrance makes it easy for students to obtain reference help, check out books, and obtain computing assistance.
The Duke community celebrated the completion of the Law School's multi-year expansion and renovation project at a series of "Duke Law Enlightened" events in November 2008. Lectures and dedication ceremonies provided an opportunity to reflect on the Law School's history, growth, and future direction while paying tribute to those who made possible the cornerstone elements of the project: the J. Michael Goodson Law Library and the Star Commons.
The celebration culminated with an official dedication ceremony during which keynote speaker Justice Anthony Kennedy noted the symbolic relationship between the renovated facility and the principles of the legal profession. Said Kennedy: "Here in this space you can see the affirmation of the stability of the law by the strong verticals, verticals which frame a heritage and a culture and which allow light to inform our work."
Classrooms and Other Spaces for Learning
Along with the new wing, Star Commons, and the library renovation, we have completely refurbished our classrooms. In five separate projects, with a total investment of almost $10 million, we have rebuilt most classrooms from the ground up. Each of these new classrooms features great acoustics, cutting-edge technology, and comfortable furnishings. We believe they are the finest law school classrooms in the country. In 2014, we created a new classroom and conference room in underutilized space. In 2012, the staffs of most student journals moved into specially-designed offices in the Law Library.
Special Outdoor Spaces
The final phase of renovation and construction also included two special outdoor venues to provide areas for the community to enjoy the natural beauty of the Duke Campus. The Beber Sculpture Garden, made possible by a generous gift from Robert Beber '57 and Joan Beber WC '56, features several pieces of outdoor sculpture by prominent North Carolina artists and includes a patio with "Duke stone" walls, as well as a less formal area with tables set in the woodlands. Several of the sculptures are arranged around a lawn area with a brick seating wall.
"Marcy's Garden," named in honor of the late Marcy Horvitz and donated by Richard Horvitz '78, is located along Science Drive in front of the building. There, a long "Duke stone" wall with special seating areas, lush plantings, and a large lawn area provides a place for students to enjoy the outdoors while reading, studying, or talking with others.


text:
CES 2012 was a mammoth display of the trend toward smart, connected devices for every form of consumer activity: toys, appliances, entertainment, health, mobility, etc. More than 20,000 new products were launched at this year's CES and a large portion of them could be considered "smart."
"Smart" (robotic-like) products profess to add value, assure safety, and provide convenience through connectivity… claims that in many cases are true, particularly with in-car infotainment systems.
3,100 exhibitors, 1.86 million sq ft of exhibition space, 153,000 attendees of which 34,000 were international and only one good food stand (Nathan's hot dogs – you can't ruin a Nathan's hot dog). Massive crowding, slow moving, loud, extravagant and wonderful. Thin TVs – so thin they looked like they couldn't stand up by themselves without bending – 3D with and without glasses, projectors, smart appliances, and apps for everything from TVs to refrigerators to scales.
Consumer robotics represented a very small part of CES but had the same combination of glitz, glamour, marvelous stuff, misrepresentation, uninspiring products and hidden gems, just like the rest of CES. Robotics Trends hosted a Robotics Tech Zone but the action was well beyond their purview because many of the companies wanted to emphasize their consumer orientation instead of highlighting the robotic.
One of the most interesting areas was focused on Digital Health – where one could easily see benefits from sensors and smart apps providing data for the cloud to process and selectively inform doctors or users of the results, and progress over time. The highlight of the area was Life Technologies $150,000 Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer, which, by the end of the year, will be able to sequence an entire human genome for about $1,000 in a few hours. Digital Health was also the only area where research was shown and where the NSF/Carnegie Mellon University Quality of Life Technology booth was located, an area packed with healthcare inventions and eager young inventors. Few fell under the robotics umbrella (most were digital apps and devices) except these three:
- Romibo, a do-it-yourself robot for therapy, education and play.
- PerMMA, a personal mobility and manipulation appliance for power wheelchair users.
- Myomo, rehabilitation robotics and interactive gaming systems for stroke victim rehab.
Certainly the most publicity went to Tosy Robotics, a Vietnamese manufacturer of robotic and high-tech toys, for the launch of their new mRobo, a transformer-type boom-box entertainment robot with a two-hour meet-and-greet by teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.
Tosy also showed their other robotic toys: DiscoRobo, a dance to the beat with lights toy, and Sket-Robo, a robot that draws.
Cubelets, $160, by Modular Robotics, had a small booth and a big hit for their educational robot construction kit. These magnetic blocks can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. Since each cube has unique functions, you can build robots that drive around on a tabletop and respond to light, sound and temperature.
Parrot, a French manufacturer of hands-free wireless devices for cars and phones, was the hit of CES 2010 with their AR.Drone, a quadcopter with two cameras that is driven from an iPhone or iTouch. This year they upgraded the camera to enable hi-def video, improved their software for still and video capture, and added a range of games and customization accessories… all shown at a huge outdoor booth at CES.
iRobot launched their Roomba, Scooba, Verro and Looj vacuums, floor washers, pool cleaners and gutter cleaning robots at previous CES's, but at this CES they only had office visits for demos and marketing where they were also showing off their AVA concept robot and promoting their partnership with InTouch Health, a provider of telepresence collaboration for doctors, nurses, paramedics and patients and a place where iRobot's lower cost AVA robots could be armed with InTouch Health's hospital experiences and enable the resulting systems to be available to a larger audience.
More than 7 million robot vacuum cleaners have been sold thus far with real competition for iRobot showing up recently with a flurry of similar cleaners – all displayed at CES:
But LG and Samsung entered the arena, and, with their large consumer client base, vast manufacturing and marketing resources, and an array of add-on features, has been selling their vacuums in Asia and Europe; not yet in the US. iRobot should feel their presence very soon.
Another consumer products manufacturer (of home theater systems), South Korean Moneual, also sells a robot vacuum and a more interesting $1,000 home mobile air filter / security device. The mobile air filter is also designed as a safety system for the elderly, it connects with a wrist band that can detect a fall and can call for help if one occurs.
Pleo, the baby robotic dinosaur, was represented by both the seller (Innvo Labs) and the manufacturer (Jetta Co. Ltd.) that reincarnated the old bankrupt company, and was showing the new Pleo rb (reborn), with accessories and software enhancements.
Amongst the pseudo robotic products were three which act as a pedestal for the camera and video functions of iPhones and swivel or have wheels or tracks to move as wirelessly directed:
- Xybotyx, a Colorado start-up, is launching a $111 wheeled platform and app for your iPhone that lets you drive your phone wirelessly.
- Swivl by Satarii, is a $159 stationary platform for your iPhone camera or video. It swivels to follow you or can be remote controlled.
- Romo by Romotive, is a $99 tracter-like iPhone holder which can stream video to your PC and also dance to music on your iPhone.
Karotz, by Violet (a subsidiary of Aldebaran, the builder of the Nao robot), announced the launch of their Karotz "intelligent internet companion" into the U.S. market with a $99 special price for the rabbit and 30% off all accessories. Ideal for learning how to develop apps with voice recognition and Internet connectivity, and now with Aldebaran stewardship, this interesting little device may hold a key to the future of human-robot communication.
Other vendors under the robotic umbrella included:
- Windoro, from Ilshim Global, a window washing device.
- Sphero, by Orbotix, a robotic ball controlled from your phone.
- Ladybug, by JS-Robotics, a bug-like mobile device with collision avoidance sensors.
- Mantaro telepresence robot, a mobile Skype platform using your own iPhone or iPad.
- Paro, the therapeutic furry seal-like bot for hospitals and eldercare.
- Crawler, by Topy Industries, an experimental tractor-like base for search and rescue.
Not exactly robotic, but for prototyping and DIY'ers, there were three 3D printers of note: Makerbot announced their new $1,750 two-color 3D printer, Essential Dynamics showed their $3,000 Imagine Printer that prints with a whole host of materials, including food, chocolates, silicone, cheese, epoxy, organics, etc., and the Cube from Cubify which offers both a $1,300 3D printer and also a service for those that just want to send their designs in and get back the finished product.
So there you have it — 25+ robot vendors focused on consumer products — less than 1% of CES — and perhaps only one or two to rave about. Maybe next year….
[source: This story originally published by Frank Tobe on Everything-Robotic]


text:
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Backs, ballet and books
The car's gone in for a service & MOT today, so Lord H and I have swapped cars for the day. Must try and remember that his Renault Laguna is built like a tank, compared to my little Fiesta (goodness, how typical boy/girl couple we sound, all of a sudden, at least in our car choices …) so I can't swerve into the parking spaces as I can with my own. Hope poor little Rupert (yes, I do name my car – don't you?) is okay, and safe back tonight. I do worry about him.
And I've been thinking lately about scaling down the attempts to break into the world of the mainstream published. I'm just starting my seventh book now, and in my seventh year of writing fiction, and there have been no bites from any of the "big boys" so perhaps it's time to accept that it simply isn't going to happen. The constant attempts to chip away at the very thick glass ceiling that seems to exist around me have also, particularly over the last two years, been very debilitating and have really taken away a lot of the enjoyment I get from actually writing. I absolutely loved writing my first novel, The Hit List, and though I think it's my worst one in terms of quality (which is probably better than it being my best – I like to think I'm improving after all), I'd love to get back that enthusiasm and sense of freshness that powered me through it. And yes it's lovely to have been recently published by Flame Books (http://www.flamebooks.com) but I think they're finding it hard to sell decent quantities of A Dangerous Man which must therefore be tricky for them too. After my attempts to be smiley and nice to people with ridiculous and surely unjustified amounts of emotional power at the forthcoming Annual Writers' Conference (http://www.writersconference.co.uk), we'll have to see.
The same goes for my poetry, which I've been writing for about twenty years now. I get accepted so rarely in magazines these days (though I was doing better – perhaps writing better? – a couple of years ago), that I think it's time to revisit my once a month submissions schedule. I might scale down to trying once every couple of months. Rejections are soul-destroying enough, after all. Why put myself through it more than I absolutely have to? And I certainly won't be sending collections out anywhere again. In my experience, people have enthused and promised to come back to me, but then after a year or so they just seem to disappear. I'll stick to the self-publishing route. It just makes me feel a lot happier. Apart from the lack of sales of course. That's always a bummer.
All this writerly thought and potential decision-making does make me feel sad, I have to admit. It's hard to win awards for my work and yet get shunned by 99% of the publisher world – with the honourable exception of Flame! And also not forgetting Goldenford though there of course I do have a directorial say. But, for my own peace of mind, I do have to begin to think practically. And number my sales in the tens and fifties, rather than the hundreds or thousands.
Went to my back exercise class at lunchtime – the last of the academic year, at least for me as I can't do next week's. I'm hoping to get away with a light regime this session as I'd like to be able to move without aching tomorrow. I'm such an old crock, you know … Though now they tell me that they might put an extra week on, so is there, even in Health, no mercy?! Darn it, eh!
And I've just given up on Linda Fairstein's Death Dance. I lost interest by page 103, to be honest. I think it was all too fast-paced and exhausting, and I didn't care enough. I also preferred the sub-plot and had no interest in the main plot about the ballet dancer. Sigh.
Talking of which, tonight, Lord H is taking me out to the ballet at Woking – we're going to have dinner at the theatre and see "Sleeping Beauty", so that should be great. I love the ballet. I could have been a ballet star, you know, except that I have no sense of grace or balance. Or indeed any kind of skill or talent in that area. Ah well, another vocation cruelly snatched away, ho ho …
Today's nice things:
1. Cakes at the office
2. The back class
3. Sleeping Beauty.
Anne Brooke
8 comments:
- Nik Perring said...
Happy birthday for tomorrow, Anne!
Many happy returns.
N xx - 5:38 PM
- Irene Black said...
Anne - I know what I should be saying - DON'T GIVE UP!!!! Your work is outstanding, your books mindboggling, your poetry just amazing. But I know exactly what you're going through. Winning awards seems to do little to help. And I know how disheartening it is to keep sending stuff out and then back it plops. I'm still going to say keep trying BECAUSE YOU'RE WORTH IT, DAHHHLING! But only do as much sending out as you can without stressing yourself out - and once you've sent it, forget about it. If it comes back, shrug your shoulders and try again. Easier said than done, I know. You know you're good. And meanwhile we'll all push Goldenford on from strength to strength! It's a great little institution.
Irene xx - 6:14 PM
- Cathy said...
Anne, Irene is right.
Don't give up, but maybe take a break from submitting work for a short while? Recharge your writing batteries, perhaps try something different as an experiment, do a short course or go on a writers retreat. Write what you WANT to, or what you NEED to, but not what you think a publisher might want. (On the other hand you could try to write something formulaic with a very mainstream theme, but frankly I suspect it would do your head in...)
You know you are a GOOD writer. I've not read too much of your work, but ADM really kept me gripped (not easy to do nowadays) and your poetry seems effortlessly accomplished. Just remember that sadly what sells is not necessarily the best written (Da Vinci code, anyone?) It is sometimes just a case of having hit on a theme that becomes topical, but it is mainly just a matter of luck. I'm sure your luck will change eventually.
Have a wonderful birthday tomorrow,
Cx - 7:07 PM
- Anne Brooke said...
Thanks, Nik!
And also thank you, Irene & Cathy - I'm really touched by your support (well, you always knew I was fairly touched ...)
A writers' retreat sounds really nice - I'll have a think on it, for sure. Maybe even a weekend somewhere (the upcoming Winchester Conference doesn't count - way too stressful!!)?
I also agree about Goldenford, Irene - I've had more fun from that than anything else, which was why I thought I'd scale down and concentrate on the things I enjoy.
Hugs to you all!
PS I've had chocolate for breakfast - yummy!! - 6:37 AM
- Jackie Luben said...
First, Happy Birthday, Anne (It's today, now.) I'll go along with what everyone has said.
The near misses I've had with agents, are almost worse than not having any acknowledgement of the worth of a book. ('I'm not going to offer you a contract ...it was very much a borderline decision ...').
On the other hand, the occasional shortlisting; publication of one short piece in a small magazine, and best of all, one person saying they loved your work - those small triumphs are disproportionately worth the heartaches that the big people cause us in spades.
We know they don't know what they're missing.
love Jackie - 2:00 PM
- Anne Brooke said...
You're quite right, Jackie! And your stuff should definitely be out there in a much bigger way - it's fab! (Fab? Fab?? Have I been stuck in the 70s?? Sorry ...)
We'll have to work to make Goldenford a much bigger name for sure!!
xxx - 2:41 PM
- Lover of Books, Films and Good Coffee Shops Everywhere! said...
Happy belated birthday Anne. Hope you got our 'e' card ok - it was a bit tricky to send so if it came out all wrong I apologise - technology!!!
- Anne Brooke said...
It was a lovely card - thank you! I left a thank you message on your blog - hope you got it!