I apologize for a drastically slowed pace of posting here.
I’m spending time this holiday working on a comprehensive citation index to Charlesworth’s Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, volume 1 and volume 2, now in the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. This is one of two books I’m working on for publication, with Charlesworth as co-author. The other is a complete concordance to the translations included in the two volumes of the OTP. This is taking an extraordinary amount of time because I have been doing it properly: checking every citation for accuracy. I’ve been working on this index for over two years now, but I I’m finally in the home stretch.
I’ve forty handwritten pages of corrections to citations in the two volumes so far (and I’ve got about half the second volume still to go), have filled one Blueline quadrille notebook (highly recommended) completely with citations from the footnotes, have started another, and have marked up a printed copy of my OTP index of citations that I used to have available from my website (which itself was full of all the errors found in the printed volumes, with bonus errors from my own typing mistakes). I still face typing all this stuff up. It’s faster writing the notes initially, though, believe me. I’ll do the typing, and I or someone else will do the proofreading.
I’m excited to be nearly done with this. I feel guilty whenever I read a book because I haven’t finished this! And I still have to knuckle down and do the scanning and proofing of all the translation texts. That’s not as daunting, though, or as time consuming. Once the scanning is done, I’ll be able to do the proofing anywhere, with a printout of the scans and the disassembled pages from the copy of the books that I’m using for scanning. I could even do it in a pub! Or a café! How exciting.
So, maybe I’ll be posting some few things over the next few weeks, but it won’t be much.
I surely know the temptations of procrastination. By way of encouragement:
“This we learned from famous men,
Knowing not its uses,
When they showed, in daily work–
Man must finish off his work–
Right or wrong, his daily work–
And without excuses.
Servant of the Staff and chain,
Mine and fuse and grapnel–
Some, before the face of Kings,
Stand before the face of Kings;
Bearing gifts to divers Kings–
Gifts of case and shrapnel.
…
Some beneath the further stars
Bear the greater burden:
Set to serve the lands they rule,
(Save he serve no man may rule),
Serve and love the lands they rule;
Seeking praise nor guerdon.”
— From Rudyard Kipling, A School Song (Preface to Stalky & Co.)
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-school-song/
Read the whole thing; it’s wonderful – poignant and stirring. But to really appreciate its point, you’ll need to read Stalky & Co. itself to understand just what the author has really learned about school and life.
Gday,
I’m interested in knowing why the blueline quadrille pad is recommended, and some more information about it. I am from Australia, and I can’t seem to place what they are. Are they squared? Spiral bound? Any information would be helpful because I’m always looking for good tips in stationary.
Love the blog.
Cheers.
Andrew
Thanks, Yitzhak! I’ll read that during a break!
Thanks, Andrew! Yes, the Blueline quadrille notebooks are square-bound (glued, but flexible, and I’ve never had pages fall out). There are 192 pages in each that I have (I bought a stack a few years ago). The paper is bright white, and better quality than other quadrille pads that I’ve used (which tends towards almost newsprint sometimes), and the lines are crisp and clear, without bleeding, as is too common in quadrille these days. They’re a good size, too (18.5 x 23.5 cm, or 7.25 x 9.25 in), not too big and not too small. The covers are black and sturdy, like a standard hardcover book’s cover, not just flimsy cardboard. There are two sheets inside the front of adhesive labels and index tabs that you can attach to pages if you wish to. Get one and give it a try. They’re great for me for writing, but that might not be the case for someone else. I’d be interested to know what you think.
Kevin,
Thanks for your reply regarding the blueline quadrille notepads. I have searched all over Melbourne, Australia for them – none to be found.
Can you recommend a brand name, and I will try and buy them online?
Regards,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
The company/brand of these that I’m using is Blueline, Inc, and their website is available now. It wasn’t last time I tried, so maybe it’s kind of flaky.
You can search for the product number A9Q and these notebooks pop up. They’ve got lots of other interesting things available, too. Some look pretty cool.
It looks like they only ship within Canada, though! Lame! They have a set of distribution partners listed for North America, but they don’t mention Australia. I’ll bet one of them will ship to Australia. Good luck!
I really like these notebooks. I bought a stack from a local shop several years ago, and I’m slowly filling them up. The only ones I like more are the Moleskine quad notebooks. The paper’s a little bit better in those, and the covers are much nicer.