Memery

[batyatoon]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).

Then she remembers Bigend's iBook, with its bright new Heathrow security sticker. She hauls the nylon case up from the floor and opens it. She'd spent twenty minutes, the night before, poking around on the desktop, but now for the first time she notices an unmarked CD-ROM that proves, on insertion, to be a searchable database for all of F:F:F. Whoever does these things for Bigend has also provided, on the hard drive, a complete collection of the footage and her three favorite edits, one of them by Filmy and Maurice. Still sitting cross-legged, she makes a Stickie: COPY CD FOR IVY.

-William Gibson, Pattern Recognition

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I would, but the closest thing to hand doesn't have that many pages. It's the DVD booklet for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, an awesome movie, and if you haven't seen it, you should. I think you would identify with her...

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

You fool! You know I'm just going to quote "Torussenji's Priest." don't you?

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

"...Or every seventh year, whichever comes first."
"What about other sacrifices?"
Sir Thomas frowned. "So far as I know, there have been no human deaths. But every one of their meetings involves the ritual killing of an animal of some kind. It depends upon the time of year and the purpose of the meeting, whether one animal or another is sacrificed."
"All of which is quite illegal," Lord Darcy said.
"Quite," Sir Thomas said.

Lord Darcy, by Randall Garrett

[nomorekaraoke]

Linky linky

oohhh fun

[janmagic.livejournal.com]

on the face of it, the rule is simple: as and as if are always followed by a verb: like never is. Therefore you would say "he plays tennis like an expert" ( no verb after like) , but "he plays tennis as if his life depended on it" ( verb depended)

although that is the rule, you may wish to suspend it at times. except in the most formal writing, sentences like the one you are now reading and the two that follow should not be considered objectionable.

bill bryson: dictionary of troublesome words: a writers guide to getting it right.