The elderly Russian syndicate boss is dedicated to ensuring that his beloved city, Stalingrad (Volgograd) is never threatened with destruction again. His syndicate bears the name "Never Again."
Apparently the original English-Russian translation used in the story is ... how do I put this? ... not so good. So it will no longer be "Hukozda Choba" but will henceforth be the more accurate Russian phrase: "Nikogda Snova."
I was told that, "What you have in Hukozda Choba is an approximation of latin characters from the cyrillic, not a transliteration, which gives latin characters which have similar sounds to the cyrillic.
So "Nikogda Snova" it is ... now try to repeat that three times very quickly without spitting down your shirt front, then toss back a shot glass of vodka. Cheers!
I'll eventually get around to a universal search & replace in the earlier chapters, and repost them. Until then, we'll just live with the two phrases.
I'm rather pleased with how the story is rolling along, but I'm even more pleased with some of the outstanding feedback it's been receiving. To those with whom I've exchanged correspondence, please accept my profound appreciation. It's a nice reward for what is actually a lot of hard work.
Polyglot Spanish
If there are glaring errors in the brief snippets of Spanish language included in Chapter 23, accept my apologies in advance, and blame my reliance on Google Translate for whatever offense has been committed.
Finally, at sea!
The plot is going to expand in several directions now, as several conflicting and competing interests begin to converge on Siple Island and McMurdo Sound. Wish me luck as I try to weave all these together.
This tale has grown much, much larger than I'd originally intended. I guess that's a good thing! <smile>
I realize this is kinda dabbling into the techno-nerdish wading pool, but lets give it a quick look-see: I've had no answer from the site guru, but I've concluded that the plain text input software for story submissions that is also used to translate the "filename.md.txt" files coded with "markdown" punctuation that I love to use for auto-HTML generation ... well, I'm guessing that the site's "filename.txt" or "filename.md.txt" input translater doesn't honor the UTF-8 character set. (I'm thinking that it is stuck back at ANSI)
Today I used my "chapter_21.md.txt" file to generate an HTML version, "chapter_21.html", made sure the header specified the UTF-8 character set, and uploaded that to replace the original posting.
Problem solved. the word now displays as "perdóname" as it should. So, it's more work for me to generate the HTML file, but not much; and you get to avoid wondering what those garbage characters are.
(end of techno-nerdish boring stuff)
Be well,
Gray
I've got a help message in to the webmaster of Finestories regarding the interpretation of certain special characters. You may have noticed this glitch:
"He rocked back and forth, his eyes staring but not seeing, his mouth moving, words pouring forth, again and again: "Madre de dios, perdóname!" And again, that same phrase, like a prayer, a plea to the heavens: "Madre de dios, perdóname!"
MIke turned to Ernesto. "What is he saying?"
"He is begging the Mother of God to forgive him!"
That is supposed to be "Madre de dios, perdóname!"
In the earliest days of personal computers, a limited set of letters were programmed to display. As things progressed, and computing became an international thing, the nerds had to figure a way to encode all the possible characters of the languages. This required a new encoding mode, and the most commonly accepted is UTF-8 encoding.
I compose in UTF-8, post a UTF-8 coded text file, and view all my web pages with browser set to UTF-8.
So, of course, my uploads are coming back in something else. So I see garbage where a nice Spanish character word is concerned.
Hopefully we'll get this cleaned up sooner rather than later.
Thanks,
Gray
First, my apologies to all. My wife often tells me to never say "sorry" as that just doesn't cut it ... doesn't excuse the problem. So I'll not say it. But it's been a long, dry spell between chapters. Also, thanks for all the kind notes. Problems with the wife's elder siblings have eased a bit. Both are settled into their respective care facilities in north Idaho. The huge hoard they left behind at the old farmstead is locked away, sitting untouched. Neither will give permission to touch anything, so the property cannot be sold. The old house is actually unsafe to enter, due to filth and disease. Someday a controlled volunteer fire department burn may be needed to solve the problem.
The story adventure continues. Michael, Steve and Marie are now racing cross country with their precious crate of thorianite crystals to rendezvous with their sea link to Siple Island. Dee'rah and her people are working rapidly to prepare their damaged ship for reactivation.
Two men are determined to seize control of the secret for their own purposes, and may become engaged in a deadly clash of wills, pitted one against the other as enemies.
Mike and Steve face the huge challenge of eschewing deadly force, a decision completely foreign to their training and culture. Mike realizes he was forced to accept Dee'rah's warning or lose his soul; he faced his inner demon and vanquished it. Steve has yet to fully face the challenge, but his moment of trial will surely come.
This is a long story. We will see it through to the end. Stories, once begun, have a way of finding their own path. I'm never quite sure which fork of the path this one will take each time I sit down to the keyboard. So in a way, I'm just as much a traveller in this tale as the rest of you.
With appreciation to all,
Graybyrd