a study in emerald

[incandescens]

The meeting today was shorter than expected, and did definitely increase my knowledge about the cross-mapping process (between clinical coding systems), but was not, shall we say, the world's most interesting of meetings. My scribbled notes were full of marginal notation about current writing projects. I must cultivate more illegible handwriting.

I must also get down to more serious research rather than being distracted by these new Shadowrun books I have. Noir they may be, but they are not the right period or quite the right concept.

I was rereading my copy of A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman earlier today, and yet again admiring how well it was done. I remember the first time I read it, and my sudden surprise and sheer delight as I realised exactly who the protagonists and antagonists were. It was just so perfectly done. Of course, it's never quite the same when you reread it, but it's still very good.

I've been working in the NHS for more than 10 years now. It feels weird to think about it.

---

The Stare's Nest By My Window

The bees build in the crevices
Of loosening masonry, and there
The mother birds bring grubs and flies.
My wall is loosening; honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

We are closed in, and the key is turned
On our uncertainty; somewhere
A man is killed, or a house burned.
Yet no clear fact to be discerned:
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

A barricade of stone or of wood;
Some fourteen days of civil war:
Last night they trundled down the road
That dead young soldier in his blood:
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare,
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

-- W. B. Yeats

Comments

[shiny-monkey.livejournal.com]

Holy cow. I've never worked anywhere ten years. You're old! (runaway)

[incandescens]

(makes rude gestures) Well, not all in one place, just in one organisation, and in more than one job. ;)

[archangelbeth]

Walter's worked at BBN, sans one year in a start-up spun off of BBN, for... over 20 years, I think.

[incandescens]

Go Walter!

[shiny-monkey.livejournal.com]

I kid, I kid. Really, I'm most envious, I've never worked anywhere I've wanted to be for that long. I get itchy feet!

[incandescens]

Awww.

Incidentally, have now totally pwned ancient tomb in heart of Coldwood and obtained Star Sapphire while leaving succubus to rot in cage. So very grateful for my beloved Linu and her undead-turning skills. It is much easier to hit greater mummies and vampire priests, etc, while they are trying to run away from you into a solid wall.

Also got barbarian murderer acquitted 5 torches to 0 swords, due to careful pruning of evidence. Go me!

[shiny-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yes, I made the mistake of freeing that succubus once. Learned my lesson, reloaded my game, and left her there!

I love the trial quest -- it thrills the mystery-loving part of me, muchly. Go you indeed -- it does take careful presentation of the evidence to get a 5-0 acquittal! =D

[incandescens]

I admit I did a teeny bit of online research first . . . do mention the drugs, do mention the bad guy's prejudice, don't whatever you do mention alcohol, don't ask the defendant or his wife to talk about prejudice against their tribe, and if everyone's voting in your favour, quit while you're ahead. ;)

(Succubus to Luffy : Set me free and I will give you whatever you desire . . .
Ten Years Later : Succubus is still providing food.)

[shiny-monkey.livejournal.com]

Ten years? When will she ever get a chance to stop? He'll drag her aboard the ship... =D

I got the trial results by (no pun intended) trial and error, and healed the guy with the injured leg without realising that it would get me information ::mwaha:: It took me a few tries that first time =D

[incandescens]

. . . and healed the guy with the injured leg without realising that it would get me information . . .

Virtue is its own reward. ;)

[marici.livejournal.com]

So, I'm lost. Was Watson's friend Moriarty while his opponent was Holmes? I don't know enough to tell.

[incandescens]

Watson's friend was Holmes. Holmes' opponent ("The Napoleon of Crime, Watson!") was Moriarty. (Professor James Moriarty, the author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid.) Watson was therefore anti-Moriarty.

"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed--the word is passed to the Professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught--never so much as suspected." -- Sherlock Holmes, in The Final Problem

[incandescens]

Oh wait, sorry. I misunderstood.

In _A Study in Emerald_, the narrator is actually Sebastian Moran, assisting Moriarty, while Holmes and Watson (the Limping Doctor) are the villains. Moran was also an army man, a colonel and an expert with the rifle. In the usual canon, Moran is Moriarty's right-hand henchman and assassin.