Stuart Aken's Blog, page 274

Passion to Die For, by Marilyn Pappano, Reviewed.

This romance is more than a mere love story, otherwise, as a man, Iwouldn't have read it. With its undertones of menace, thread of injustice, mysteryto be solved and unspoken comments on small town American life this is a novelthat should attract readers from both genders and all adult age ranges.The characters are alive and, whether nasty or nice, cynical or naive, beautifulor ugly, they portray traits we can all both recognise and empathise with. Themain story, of unrequited love, is interwoven with another that deals withjealousy, intrigue, hatred and injustice. The reader is driven to first trust the heroine and then doubt thattrust, as she grows through the experiences she faces and even doubts herself.The hero remains a stalwart but retains his professional concerns andsuspicions so that he is reluctant to make the conclusions necessary to end thedoubts he's faced with.I won't spoil the story by alluding to the ending, except to remarkthat it is apposite; it fits without being contrived.As a reader of many different styles and genres, I found I was drawninto this novel by the characters very early on. The mystery and intrigue keptme absorbed and the emotional content, coupled with the well-drawn characters,carried me through to the ending.A book I enjoyed and can happily recommend to men and women alike.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Metaphor

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Metaphor: noun - a figure of speech where a name,descriptive word or pertinent phrase is assigned to an object or actiondifferent from, but similar to, that to which it is literally relevant; aninstance of this, a metaphorical expression.
'One indication that anovel falls into the genre of literary fiction is the confident use of metaphorthroughout the writing.'
'Crossing the beach from thesea in her bikini, the girl burned the eyes of her followers as theyfelt the heat wave she left in her wake.' 'A breath of wind stirred the standingbarley, sending waves across the field.'  'The hippie girl swayed in her rainbow muslin sheath.'   
942 - William I ofNormandy was assassinated.
1900 - A first prize of 10,000francs was offered for communications with extra-terrestrials, but Martians wereexcluded as they were considered too easy. Could be a retrospective claim offalse discrimination, taking account of current knowledge.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Metaphor

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Metaphor: noun - a figure of speech where a name,descriptive word or pertinent phrase is assigned to an object or actiondifferent from, but similar to, that to which it is literally relevant; aninstance of this, a metaphorical expression.
'One indication that anovel falls into the genre of literary fiction is the confident use of metaphorthroughout the writing.'
'Crossing the beach from thesea in her bikini, the girl burned the eyes of her followers as theyfelt the heat wave she left in her wake.' 'A breath of wind stirred the standingbarley, sending waves across the field.'  'The hippie girl swayed in her rainbow muslin sheath.'   
942 - William I ofNormandy was assassinated.
1900 - A first prize of 10,000francs was offered for communications with extra-terrestrials, but Martians wereexcluded as they were considered too easy. Could be a retrospective claim offalse discrimination, taking account of current knowledge.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Laborious/Easy

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Laborious/Easy
Laborious: adjective - assiduous, industrious,hard-working; characterized by or involving labour or exertion; necessitatinglabour in execution.
Easy: adjective - comfortable, quiet, tranquil; characterized by ease orrest; conducive to ease or comfort; an action or task that can be completedwith little effort.
'As the eldest daughter, Dubaku,was forced into the laborious task of providing water for the whole family bywalking two miles each way to the well, carrying two ewers, four times everyday.'
'Fadil led an easy life,as a married man with three wives and seven daughters, he had nothing to do allday but sit and talk with his contemporaries, whilst the women did all the workand kept him fed and comfortable.'  
1431 - King Henry VI ofEngland was crowned king of France; just think, if subsequent wars hadn'tintervened, the English and French would now be a single nation!
1631 - Mount Vesuvius,Italy erupted, destroying 6 villages and killing 4,000 local inhabitants. Itwas this eruption that led to the discovery of Pompeii. There is strongevidence to suggest it will erupt again in the near future, which, with over2,000,000 people living within the immediate vicinity, could cause significantloss of life.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell wassworn in as English Lord Protector, ostensibly replacing the late King CharlesI as head of the nation. As usually happens with leaders, he quickly forgot hisdislike of dictatorship and became a tyrant.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Laborious/Easy

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Laborious/Easy
Laborious: adjective - assiduous, industrious,hard-working; characterized by or involving labour or exertion; necessitatinglabour in execution.
Easy: adjective - comfortable, quiet, tranquil; characterized by ease orrest; conducive to ease or comfort; an action or task that can be completedwith little effort.
'As the eldest daughter, Dubaku,was forced into the laborious task of providing water for the whole family bywalking two miles each way to the well, carrying two ewers, four times everyday.'
'Fadil led an easy life,as a married man with three wives and seven daughters, he had nothing to do allday but sit and talk with his contemporaries, whilst the women did all the workand kept him fed and comfortable.'  
1431 - King Henry VI ofEngland was crowned king of France; just think, if subsequent wars hadn'tintervened, the English and French would now be a single nation!
1631 - Mount Vesuvius,Italy erupted, destroying 6 villages and killing 4,000 local inhabitants. Itwas this eruption that led to the discovery of Pompeii. There is strongevidence to suggest it will erupt again in the near future, which, with over2,000,000 people living within the immediate vicinity, could cause significantloss of life.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell wassworn in as English Lord Protector, ostensibly replacing the late King CharlesI as head of the nation. As usually happens with leaders, he quickly forgot hisdislike of dictatorship and became a tyrant.

Have We Reached Overload on Passwords and Security?

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I don't know how you feelabout passwords, security questions and the proliferation of barriers placedbefore us so we can supposedly safeguard our online activities. But I'mreaching saturation point with it. Those who devise websites and, especially,those who produce the ever-growing range of security products and advice, wouldhave us invent a new password for each of the sites and applications we usewhere personal information is stored. They also want us to produce securityquestions and answers for each; all different from the others. I've actuallyrun out of mothers to provide maiden names, towns I was born in and favouritefilms, books or pasta dishes.Just to confuse the issuefurther, we are required, REQUIRED mind you, if we are not to break the primaryrule that, 'You MUST NOT write any of this information down'. Now, I acceptthat I am approaching my dotage and will soon achieve my ambition of becoming acantankerous old sod (what do you mean, I already have?), but even the youngadmit to running out of personal memory space (as opposed to the virtual type)to store and retrieve all these different passwords and the accompanyingparaphernalia. And then, just in case wethought we'd managed to jump through all the hoops and commit all thisinformation to memory, they tell you that you should change the lot every threemonths or so. In fact, at my place of employment, they recently introduced awonderful new system that must be accessed if you want to find out what you'vebeen paid each month; they no longer produce the printed versions they used to.(Exactly how one is supposed to provide an original pay slip for thoseorganisations that require such evidence in the future, I've no idea and they'vefailed to explain). But, on this wonderful site, which most of us took at leastseven attempts to actually access the first time, due to its idiosyncrasies, thepassword lasts for, wait for it….40 days. 40 DAYS; that's right. So, every 40days you have to think of a new password. This means that most payslips willonly be accessible after a change of password. Brilliant, eh?I foresee a future inwhich all education will revolve around the invention of passwords and securityquestions and answers, at the expense of actual learning. Of course, most peoplewill continue to consider that 'password' is adequate security and forget thattheir date of birth, mother's maiden name and place of birth are all readilyaccessible to the public from their many profiles on social networks.So, is there a solution,something that will render this whole farrago redundant? Well, Norton 360 seemsto have partially solved the problem by offering to store passwords securelyfor you and then retrieve them at your request. And I'm sure there must beother such helpful solutions out there. But I'm looking for something a littlemore radical, something that requires no memory at all, in fact.If all PC, Mac, Mobilemanufacturers (all those who produce any device that require us to installsecurity, in fact), were required, by law, to include a fingerprint or irisreader, none of us could lose or forget our means of access (unless we sufferedamputation or blinding, of course). Further, it would be near impossible tosteal or otherwise retrieve the necessary entry requirements. Of course, themanufacturers of security software would lose a lucrative market. But who'smore important here; the customer or the business that makes money out of thecustomer?Sorry, silly question. Ofcourse the business is far more important. Or so they would have us believe.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Kaput

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Kaput: adjective – slang: worn out, dead, finished, made useless or unableto function, destroyed, broken.
'The armadillo you sold meas a pet yesterday is kaput; it is dead, no longer extant, finished, no use,defunct, incapable of any function, done for and generally no longer acceptableas a companion. What are you going to do about it?' (With apologies to MontyPython's Flying Circus 'Dead Parrot' Sketch.)
A question for you toponder: Should you get to heaven (in the doubtful event that such a place actuallyexists), will you get stuck for eternity in the clothes you were buriedin? 
1488 - Bartholomeus Diaz arrivedback in Portugal having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.1612 - Simon Marius was thefirst to observe the Andromeda galaxy through a telescope, thus hammeringanother nail in the coffin of those who believed in a flat Earth, anEarth-centric universe and the concomitant lies put about by the various holyauthorities of the age. 

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot: Kaput

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Kaput: adjective – slang: worn out, dead, finished, made useless or unableto function, destroyed, broken.
'The armadillo you sold meas a pet yesterday is kaput; it is dead, no longer extant, finished, no use,defunct, incapable of any function, done for and generally no longer acceptableas a companion. What are you going to do about it?' (With apologies to MontyPython's Flying Circus 'Dead Parrot' Sketch.)
A question for you toponder: Should you get to heaven (in the doubtful event that such a place actuallyexists), will you get stuck for eternity in the clothes you were buriedin? 
1488 - Bartholomeus Diaz arrivedback in Portugal having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.1612 - Simon Marius was thefirst to observe the Andromeda galaxy through a telescope, thus hammeringanother nail in the coffin of those who believed in a flat Earth, anEarth-centric universe and the concomitant lies put about by the various holyauthorities of the age. 

Stuart's Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Jaded/Refreshed

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Jaded/Refreshed
Jaded: verb - exhausted, worn out; fatigued,tired; sated, dulled.
Refreshed: verb - gave fresh strength or energy to someone;reinvigorated or revived; made oneself fresher or more energetic by resting,walking, taking food or drink; relieved or cleared of; renewed.
'Years of gambling,drinking and womanising had left Reginald jaded and lacking in the lust forlife he'd so eagerly embraced as a younger man.'
'The final three days ofwalking beneath the searing sun of the dessert had left Giselle worn, drawn andthirsty, but a plunge into the cool clear waters of the oasis pool soonrefreshed her mind, spirit and body so that she felt revived enough to continueher journey.'
1287 – the Zuider Zeeseawall collapsed, causing the loss of 50,000 lives1911 – the South Pole wasfirst reached; Norwegian Roald Amundsen leading his party across the icywastes.

Stuarts' Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Jaded/Refreshed

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Jaded/Refreshed
Jaded: verb - exhausted, worn out; fatigued,tired; sated, dulled.
Refreshed: verb - gave fresh strength or energy to someone;reinvigorated or revived; made oneself fresher or more energetic by resting,walking, taking food or drink; relieved or cleared of; renewed.
'Years of gambling,drinking and womanising had left Reginald jaded and lacking in the lust forlife he'd so eagerly embraced as a younger man.'
'The final three days ofwalking beneath the searing sun of the dessert had left Giselle worn, drawn andthirsty, but a plunge into the cool clear waters of the oasis pool soonrefreshed her mind, spirit and body so that she felt revived enough to continueher journey.'
1287 – the Zuider Zeeseawall collapsed, causing the loss of 50,000 lives1911 – the South Pole wasfirst reached; Norwegian Roald Amundsen leading his party across the icywastes.