Monday Cup Of Links #27 - Swimming Monkeys, Writer-Spies in WW1, Visa-Free Islands, and COBOL Strikes Back.
Krakatoa erupted!
Happy Monday!
I had a burst of inspiration yesterday, and wrote 4846 words of India House. For perspective, I had only written 3000 words since the start of April before that, and last NaNoWriMo, writing more than 3000 words a day was near impossible.
I’m loving how easily the words flow, because there are so many sources to fall back on, and I took care to plot out my chapters in advance, and writing this novel has been a much easier experience than before. The manuscript now stands at 17,149 words.
But bursts of inspiration isn’t how progress is consistently made. The reason I was able to do this was because I had built up my writing stamina over the past couple of months by writing 500 words a day, and slow consistent writing is important to enable large bursts of inspiration.
Onto our links!
While researching a character for India House, I found that Viren “Chatto” Chattopadhyay, the brother of poet and politician Sarojini Naidu, had been the inspiration for a Somerset Maugham story. In the story, there’s an Indian spy, Chandralal, who Ashenden, the main character, based on Maugham himself, is trying to catch. It’s amazing how many popular European writers worked in espionage - did you know Roald Dahl was the inspiration for James Bond? Anyway, the short story, Giulia Lazzari, was a treat to read. I’ve put it up here. Do read it!
The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is a visa-free zone. You don’t need a visa to stay there, as long as you can get there and pay for yourself without assistance. Given its remoteness, it’s difficult to live there, and also expensive. You also can only get there through Norway, so you probably need access to Norway before that. But it’s interesting that such a place exists at all.
You thought COBOL was dead? Well, IBM is training a new generation of COBOL programmers! A lot of states have their unemployment systems programmed in COBOL and it’s important in times like these to keep it going.
For those of us who are bored by regular, everyday things, or think they cost too little, Tiffany’s has a collection of extremely expensive everyday, regular things. For instance, here’s a sterling silver paper cup (how does that work?) for $625. And a clothespin for $515. If you’re feeling particularly fancy, do get the chess set for $75,000!
GIF of the week: Monkeys took over the pool of an apartment complex in Mumbai. They seem to really be enjoying themselves! There’s another video with just two monkeys having a good time in Thane, diving off of the building and everything.