The steel frame is divided into four panels and each panel consists of wire squares in the form of columns of 13 squares and rows of 9. So 117 squares in each of the four panels.
Knowing my mathematical ineptitude you may guess at my level of boredom when I say how often I have contemplated the different ways to arrive at that number!
Using the faithful old 12 times table we learned in primary school by chanting it over and over, we can multiply 9 by 12 giving us 108 and then add the 13th row of 9 making it a total of 117!
Or since the numbers 9 and 13 are uneven you can call the centre lines 5 (horizontal) or 7 (vertical) and then treat the remainder as four seperate blocks like 4 times 6 is 24. 2 times that is 48 and now add the centre line squares and you get 54 then double that gives you 108 and the long centre line of 13 squares adds to 117 as before.
So thats whats been my amusement, endlessly calculating the number of squares in various ways such as triangles and diagonals and also dividing the panels geometrically and filling in various patterns to resemble a crossword or make a maze like the Spectrum game Ant Attack.
Talking of which (computer) I can also use these useful squares to mentally picture User Defined Graphics which is how the Speccy produces pictures and text by using a square of 8 by 8 pixels as the basis for each letter.
Propellers and caterpillars is about as advanced as I've got because its not the shape per square thats hard to visualize as to animate all the sequential pictures but Paint won't co-operate or else I'm a dimwit! I know its the latter...
As one ages the brain function does too, time was when I was cutting edge with computing, now I can barely use a so called 'smart phone', a misnomer if ever there was one and anyway who wants to join the ranks of glazed eyed morons forever 'connecting' with each other?
POLITICAL PROBLEMS REVISITED
In my journal, the big book dedicated to Tammy who doesn't care for my thoughts and ideas (hence this lapse into the here and now) I started to discuss the possible reasons for the ultra Rights apparent popularity and I might consider the lack of community spirit as being a result of all the smart phone use.
Of course its all too easy to blame the latest craze, its the violent games, its the TV, its...but ennui is perhaps the underlying problem which, like inadequate education, is the result of various unsuitable influences (such as political grandstanding in the latter example) and incompetent parenting and the invidious social pressure kids are especially vulnerable to.
Incompetent parenting seems an unfair label and so it is but its their circumstances that are largely to blame though you cannot discount a haphazard notion of what you should strive to encourage and possibly shield them from.
This is where some races seem to win out, by whatever means they manage to keep an integrated family and community alive and vibrant despite the outside temptations their offspring might encounter. At the worst a strict parent may be needed, at the best one whose duty is first and foremost to instill the right values, virtues, ethics and guard the childrens exposure to pernicious influences.
I'm deliberately avoiding naming either these hypothetical more fortunate races nor am I suggesting which practices to encourage or avoid because its not that simple a solution. I am a teacher and I did my best to bring up my children but I'm well aware of my failure to recognize some important details and didn't do my best to help them with, for example, their choice of gender partners.
Then again one has to recognize ones own need to change ones ideas especially those such as accepting gay peoples right to choose their sexual identities. I have never been homophobic but was careless in how I referred to them even though it was meant to be humourus which I know now is also inexcusably rude and hurtful but I grew up in an atmosphere that took that for granted.
Whether "you fag!" was a joke or an insult depended entirely on the circumstances and intonation but for the innocent gay bystander its no joke to have your identity thus disparaged and a son hearing his father talk like that even casually must create a psychological barrier which does nothing for any possibly sensitive communication between them on matters that might be really important.
In fact the more I recall my (I hope unwitting) shortcomings as a parent the more I realize that I have no right to cast aspersions on anyone elses parenting skills. All anyone can ask is that you show your children love and protect them above all else and for the rest just do the best you can in your peculiar circumstances.
It is still Halloween and only 2pm and already the bloody mice are running rampant over the garbage or whatever it is I can hear rustling as Tammy sleeps blissfully through the bedlam.
FANTASIA
When I was 8 my parents took me to see FANTASIA at a big London cinema and 'Night on bald mountain' made a deep impression on me especially since as a choirboy I had to walk through the church graveyard on practice night.
Pain level is considerably less than yesterdays for which I am grateful but then I haven't had to get up and go out into the cold windswept streets of New York city. Even if I had my full mobility, I'd be either here or in the nearest bookshop like Barnes and Noble that provides seating for browsers and often a small cafeteria for tea and biscuits to make your stay even more pleasant.
I don't like the cold, never have, never will so why you may wonder (or would if you knew me) did I ride motorcycles in wind, rain and snow? Good question, buggered if I know the answer, something stiff upper lip-ishly British and as dumb as the charge of the Light Brigade.
I'm sure it helped hasten my skeletal demise, Eric Payne overseer at the printers, rode a bike in all weathers right up to retirement and every work day from Tottenham to Hoddesdon which must be at least 20 miles if not more. He warned me about the inevitable rheumatism that would surely follow.
To my mind, owning a motorcycle was like having a horse, not necessarily better in every instance but for the most part superior and, after all, you could never pretend your horse was a Spitfire or a Lancaster! When the opportunity arose I would sometimes indulge in those fantasies and in my opinion rush hour traffic on the A10 (the London main road) is at least as dangerous as a dogfight in mid air.
Ride a combo (motorcycle and sidecar) and you are piloting a Lancaster especially when its crewed up with a friend in the sidecar such as the courageous Alex Geller who in my opinion, was twice the man of our other mates.
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