{OT] I went for awalk this morning.

[Richmond Mathewson]

Andre Garzia wrote:
> ants tried to nest on my iBook... a gang of 4 monkeys tried to steal my
> guitar amp...
> I rest my case. Silly tropical country...
>
>   
In the UAE I had termites that had lined the inside of a G3
(one of the beige lateral boxes) that had had a G4 processor
bunged into it; while I was away in Europe they had chewed
their way through 'Recherche  de la verite' of Nicholas Malebranche
(obviously looking for something) and taken the mulch to build
a happy home inside the G3/4. On starting up the computer
there was an entertaining pop and a slight smell of singed cardboard.
The computer got thrown outside between a cactus and a palm,
where, for all I know, the termire colony may still make their home.

Interestingly enough, when I opened the machine there were also
several dessicated corpses of cockroaches embedded in the
'cardboard' lining: whether they had been there before the termites
or got dragged in there as lunch I really couldn't say.

I was able to extract the hard disk without doing it any obvious
harm and leaving the cockroaches in peace; it (the disk) is currently
doing sterling service in my P4 Ubuntu box.

I balked at the idea of buying a seconf copy of 'Recherche  de la verite'
and cheated by buying the Lennon and Olscamp translation:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malebranche-Elucidations-Cambridge-History-Philosophy/dp/0521589959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254409401&sr=8-1

and that served me, on the second read through, to show me just exactly
how bad my grasp of French is.