Backward to go Forward

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my OS from 2000 to XP.
Since then my computer crashes anywhere between 5mins - 1 hour after starting.
So all I've been doing is reading your blogs etc. until it crashes. I haven't bothered to make new posts here.
Normal service at Winston's World will resume when my OS decides to work.
See you then.

A Necessary Evil

This is an ad hoc opinion about Evil in Narnia.

In Narnia there are distinctions of evil. I'll refer to them as Pure Evil and evil. I'll borrow heavily from dr. calm who said, "it is better to have evil entering the new world from an old, stale world that has had plenty of time to go wrong, than just appearing there..." Pure Evil is not natural to Narnia. It comes to Narnia from an external source. Pure Evil can take a physical presence. A Pure Evil creature is different from the creatures of Narnia.

Evil is but the sinful actions of Narnians (or its human visitors). The main difference between the creatures of Narnia and a Pure Evil creature is that Narnians have the possibility of redemption through Aslan, whereas Pure Evil creatures are offered no such redemption.

I'd like to picture Pure Evil as a virus invading Narnia. Narnia as a training ground for souls doesn't require Pure Evil. And the motivations of Pure Evil are difficult to fathom. To overdraw the long bow of viral Pure Evil, it may well have no other motivation than survival. The most powerful embodiment of Pure Evil is the White Witch, and she espouses neither a unifying theory nor higher purpose for her subjugation of Narnia. She enjoys wielding the power of life and death over lesser beings, but by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe her rule has become one of never-ending vigilance and the knocking down of upstarts, rather than a glorious march toward an eventual goal.

Narnians without contact with Pure Evil would still be able to complete their soul's training; Narnia at conception had no such thing, nor was it needed. Or to put it another way there is already enough evil in Narnia without Pure Evil. And so while the removal of evil from one's self is required for admittance to Aslan's Country (which might be viewed as the absence of all evils), Pure Evil is at best a distraction for, and at worst the destruction of, a Narnians higher path.

Continuity is for the Fanboy

The ever-blogging dr. clam (Narnians, I highly recommend his current blog The Skeleton in the Wardrobe) has provided a link to a great article about the much debated preferred reading order of the Narnia books. It seems that not only is there Lewis’ recommended reading order (I couldn't tell exactly, but this is possibly based on a single comment in a letter to a young fan), but the order the books were written in is also different from the order they were originally published in. Put that with "any order you feel like" and there are at least 4 immediately identifiable recommended reading orders that can be thrown into the pit to see which has the strongest arguments for it.

I really liked the discussion about how one approaches the books effecting how one perceives the books. It would be good to know who/when/why "Chronicles" was attached to/imposed upon the stories. The word certainly has a more epic sense than "A Collection of Episodes from Narnia", but I'd never until now realized the implications of that upon the reader. The point certainly bears remembering when one approaches the books. I'd also completely forgotten that The Horse and His Boy takes place in the final chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

All in all a great link that thankfully opens up more questions than it answers.

Let's Hunting

The money from the canceled U2 concert returned to me and was sitting restless in my pocket. It was money that had been earmarked for entertainment, and so it obviously couldn't return to savings – that'd throw the budget out. There was really only one thing to do.

I met up with Ted on Saturday and we ventured forth to Akihabara – the Mecca for all things electronic. I was hunting for a DVD-RW, an XP upgrade for my W2K, and if it were available Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. A golf program, you ask? Yeah, I've been looking for a game that doesn't require me to think too much or too quickly. Something like The Sims 2 that you can just enjoy walking around the virtual world in. A golf game seemed perfect for that. After all what is golf but mostly walking around with the occasional stop for a slash?

But I came home with a sack stuffed full of even more goodies. It was like Xmas in July; unfortunately because I hadn't been good I had to fork over the cash rather than a jolly fat man presenting them to me. Actually Ted – a not so fat but certainly jolly after purchasing copious stuff himself man - did buy me Tiger Woods. Thanks mate! So that left me with a little more cash to blow on Micro Machines V4 and Monster Hunter Freedom X 2 (1 for me and 1 for Ted). With Star Wars, Micro Machines V4 and Monster Hunter Freedom owned by both of us we have so got to organize a WiFi weekend.

I feel I've shown restraint beyond human endurance in not spending all that remained of the weekend playing the PSP. And I've even turned up to work this morning (albeit so far all I've done is blogged on the company's time). But I've told myself that these new purchases can't be plugged in until summer vacation begins this Friday at precisely 15:25.

But whose counting?

Man vs. Machine

With a work schedule that's finally settling down I'm turning my eyes once again to that time-sucker Mr. Sony has dubbed PSP. So far I've only played games on it, but I've really wanted to utilize its music and video capabilities. On the weekend I had another stab at it.

I say "another stab" because I tried to do so with little success about a month ago. The PSP is no iPod; it doesn't seem to have an inbuilt, intuitive interface to upload or catalogue music or video files. Nor am I a technophile by any means. If it literally isn't plug and play them my mind immediately clouds over. To give you some idea of my incompetence, setup wizards are the first circle of my computing hell.

My last efforts almost ended with the PSP sailing out the window. It took several hours of googling to find out what to do, then to find out why it wasn't working, then to find out what to do next, then to find out why that wasn't working. My best guess of the scenarios is:

The PSP can't play .wav unless you enable this option. You can't enable this option without it connecting to a network (so Mr Sony can keep track of you???). For this option you can't connect to a network using the USB, it's got to be WiFi. The WiFi connection begins with some kind of setup wizardy thingy, for which I not only have no WiFI network, but I also don't have Read Magic to comprehend.

Or if you go the non-.wav option you need a program to convert files into a format the PSP will read. These programs can be downloaded from the Internet.

So the first scenario I tried last time. It left me in defeat and with a notion that the PSP would look better smashed into a million itsy-bitsy pieces.

The second scenario I tried yesterday. This met with more success. I downloaded trial versions of xilisoft's products. Video Converter did convert the videos successfully (up to the 5 min limit of the trial). And Program Manager did put them onto the PSP, and I could watch these snippets with much hand-clapping glee. However the conversion took about 5 mins for a 5 min video (thank Gandalf I wasn't converting Return of the King) which seems a little slow to me, and Program Manager kept telling me the device wasn't a PSP (I said copy them over anyway) and after each copy, it crashed (although the copy was successful). As I'm unsure whether it is my fault, my computer's PSP driver's fault, or Program Manager's fault, I'm hesitiating to fork over the cash for the full version.

So to cut a dull story not short enough, to the other PSPers who may read this blog:
Is my take on the scenarios correct?
What do you do or use to listen to music or watch videos on your PSP?

Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, ad infinitum...

Stop hitting me over the head with your god, Mr. Lewis.

I remember now why I gave up on the Narnia books when I was rereading them a decade or so ago. There's just too much God. And not in a subtle way either.

Just finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I recall this was the one that last time finished me. Having had enough of Aslan's visage appearing to give a disapproving growl whenever the children were going to do something bad, or even worse the appearance of the Lamb, I never completed the series I'd once enjoyed so much as a child.

This time the one good thing I could take away from it was that I've found that, "proof denies faith". In Narnia Aslan is an active superior being - he either saves the day or provides assistance with annoying regularity. But for me this just begs the question, why he isn't more active? Why does he let bad things happen to good people? Why was Narnia in winter for 100 years? Why not 50? Or 1? or not at all?

I much prefer stories where the characters achieve something through their own mettle, rather than because a god has decided that this is the right time to take a hand in the proceedings. Aslan's reasons for dalliance are cryptic and pat.

Aslan, get off your arse, roll up your sleeves and muck in. Or as another put it, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way".

Last night I started The Silver Chair. Sigh... Aslan's already made another useless appearance.