The Trickster
Created | Updated May 18, 2006
After last time's heavy political article, this edition of The Trickster is on a lighter note. Hey, we can all use some relief from the stresses of The Real World1.
The first thing I have to do this week, however, is to thank Certain People. My first two articles were written a while before publication, and so I have decided to put all the thanks here: firstly, thanks to Shazz for reading my articles, editing them, putting up with my annoying emails and publishing my work in The H2G2 Post. Secondly, thanks to DoctorMO for his wonderful logos, which I didn't eventually use, but were great nonetheless. Thanks to MaW for proofreading my first two articles and telling me to send them to Shazz. Finally, thanks to FABT for all the <feedback> 
. Thanks everyone!
Anyway, this week, apart from doing schoolwork, I've been looking at what time of year it is. And I've suddenly realised something: it's Yuletide!
The Solstice Approaches
Apart from being the time of an ancient Christian festival and an even-more-ancient Pagan one, mid-winter is also traditionally the time of year for:
- Overeating
- Family Arguments
- Pretending to like your inlaws
It's also the time for colds and flu, which is why I'm feeling particularly snorgly today. Well, that's to be expected.
I'm looking forward to a productive festive season, involving the consumption of too much food and the imbibing of too many alcoholic beverages. I'll also probably end up going to one or two Christmas parties... including, it seems, the h2g2 Winter Party! It originally looked like I wouldn't be able to make it, but now I probably will.
Now, what have I actually been doing in the past couple of weeks? Read on...
Anyone Can Play Guitar
As I mentioned in my first article, recently I have been learning to play guitar. I have come across a couple of slight problems related to this:
- I have very little musical ability
- I am starting to annoy people with the noise
However, I still persist, and have taken the (not at all) bold step of teaching myself to read guitar tablature. If you didn't know already, tablature is the format in which guitar music is commonly transcribed. Most tabs found on the internet are highly inaccurate. However, the net is my only library, so I decided to use it to try and find some good 'interpretations' of familiar songs.
I originally went for understated songs that I thought would be easy to play. However, this was not as simple as I thought... and led to me learning very little. So, for a laugh, I downloaded a pretty accurate-seeming tab of New Born by Muse2. To my amazement, after dropping the tuning and turning up the gain on the amp3, I actually started to produce something that vaguely resembled the record. I've been working my way slowly through the song, and admittedly it sounds terrible, but currently the only thing really causing me difficulties is the solo. So, the moral of this story is... things can sometimes appear far more difficult than they actually are! No, wait. Maybe there's another moral there somewhere.
Beowulf
I've been lent a copy of the new Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf, and am enjoying reading it immensely. The original poem's astonishing power and lyrical depth has been accentuated greatly by Heaney's tremendous prosaic aptitude4. I have a copy of the original Old English as well, and comparing the two texts is very interesting...
The story of Beowulf - which I suppose practically everyone knows - is one of the oldest surviving examples of written English in the world. It is still taught in many schools (using an interpretation of the text rather than a direct translation - that's left for higher level). The tale of the Geat who defeated Grendel in Denmark, and then a dragon in his homeland, is still enthralling today. I couldn't recommend it much higher.
Well, that's me done for a while. The next time I'm back amongst you will be after the 25th... so for now, enjoy yourselves, and make sure you eat and drink too much!
