Mick West

[Update again - This is probably fixed in the new update.  So the real fix is now to connect your PS3 to the internet before you start playing - it will then download and install the patch]

I’d played GTA for a few hours, all seemed well. I then upgraded my PS3 system software (although this might not have been the root cause, based on comments below), to get the new Playstation Store. That went well, new store looks nice. But then I try to play GTA-IV, and it just hangs on the loading screen saying “LOADING - CLEAN GETAWAY” (the name of the last mission).

I tried various combinations of resetting and re-inserting the disk, nothing worked. So I then went to the “Game Data Utility” (at the top of the “Games” tab), and selected the GTA data, and deleted it (press Triangle, then select delete). This does not delete your saved game, but forces it to re-load all the data it had cached. I figured maybe there was something OS specific in the cached data. Anyway, rebooted, it re-cached all the data (”Installing data to hard disk drive“), and then IT WORKED. Phew! And poor work, Sony and/or Rockstar.

Step by step

1. Take GTA Disk Out
2. Reboot
3. On the “Game” tab, go to the top and select “Game Data Utility”
4. Select GTA, and press Triangle
5. Select Delete, then Okay.
6. Re-insert disk and start game
7. Game will re-load all the data, taking a few minutes.
8. It should now load the last saved game, hopefully!

[UPDATE] Stefan suggest a simpler fix. Try this first as it’s much quicker.

1. quit the game
2. sign out of psn
3. sign back in to psn
4. load game

Note I’ve not actually tried Stephan’s method, as deleting the game data worked for me. It could be there’s multiple bugs causing similar symptoms - just try both fixes.

[UPDATE 2] I had it crash again, so I signed out of PSN (did not bother to sign in again), and it worked.

Books I’ve read since Feb 4th 2008, with a ranking out of five of how much I enjoyed reading them.

1984 by George Orwell. (4/5)
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (4/5)
Sabriel by Garth Nix (4/5)
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (4/5)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian, by Marina Lewycka (3.5/5)
What is the What, By Dave Eggars (4/5)
World War Z: An Oral History, by Max Brooks (4.5/5)
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (3/5)
What is the What by Dave Eggars (4/5)
Lirial by Garth Nix (4/5)
Abhorsen by Garth Nix (4/5)
13 Bullets by David Wellington (3/5)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (4/5)
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (3.5/5)
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (4/5)
Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh (3.5/5)
Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta (4/5)
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester (4.5/5)
In the Woods by Tana French (4.5/5)  (Finished July 2nd, 2008)

Very easy to do, you just need to install two free programs:

1) DVD43: http://www.dvd43.com
(Reboot after installing)

2) Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/
- More specifically, install the Windows GUI version.

Then:

3) Insert DVD, cancel any auto-play

4) Run Handbrake, under Source, browse to the VIDEO_TS folder on your DVD drive

5) Under Destination, browse to any folder on your PC where the converted video will be stored, pick an appropriate name for the movie.

6) Under Presets, click on iPhone/iPod Touch, do not adjust any other settings.

7) Click Start, and wait 30 minutes to 2+ hours (depending on computer speed, and DVD length)

8) Drag the converted (.mp4 or .mpv) video file into Movies in your iTunes library

9) On the iPhone in iTunes, click the “Video” tab, then select the Movies you want to sync.

10) Sync, done. Movie will show up on your iPhone’s iPod “Videos”.

Tip: When playing, double tap to adjust the zoom in letterboxed movies.

Just got back from Mammoth Mountain, where we had a great three days of Skiing. I liked the skis I rented so much that I actually bought a pair. Now I feel like I’m a real skier!

Holly made this excellent video:

And here are some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mickword/2008MammothWithZT

I must have read this book a thousand times when I was young.  Finally someone scanned it, and stuck it in an online museum:

http://www.pointlessmuseum.com/museum/usbornebookofthefutureindex.php

We could see Malibu burning across the bay for the past two days.  Here it is going up Malibu Canyon.  You can see some fire-fighting aircraft.

This is a few hours later, the fire has almost got to the top of the hill.

This is a closeup of the top of the hill in the above photo:

It seems all fairly clear now, although there are lots of fires burning elsewhere, filling the whole sky with hazy smoke.

A month and a bit away, and we are finally back home in Santa Monica. I like it here.

Marcus Aurelius supplies this quote

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith

Which I like for various reasons, so I just copied it from some page of Aurelius quotes, which listed the source as Meditations IV. 31..

Now I always like to see quotes in context if possible, so I tried to find it in the gutenberg text.

But then, Gutenberg says it’s actually 4:26, translated differently:
(by Florence Etienne Meric Casaubon, 1907)
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/medma10.txt

What art and profession soever thou hast learned,
endeavour to affect it, and comfort thyself in it;
and pass the remainder of thy life as one who from his whole heart
commits himself and whatsoever belongs unto him, unto the gods:
and as for men, carry not thyself either tyrannically or servilely
towards any.

Hey, that sounds different in meaning! “comfort thyself in it” is not the same as “be content with it”. What the?

Bartleby, where I found the original quote, has the full text, but here the 4.31 becomes:
(Translated by George Long, who died in 1879)
http://www.bartleby.com/2/3/4.html

Love the art, poor as it may be, which thou hast learned, and be content with it; and pass through the rest of life like one who has intrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making thyself neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man.

That certainly seems the closest, and may well be the actual origin of the popular saying, just simplified a bit for the books of quotes where is it found.

It seems to me the original greek is actually 4:30

http://zipper.paco.net/~yury/LL/aurel.html.utf8

Τὸ τεχνίον ὃ ἔμαθες φίλει, τούτῳ προσαναπαύου· τὸ δὲ ὑπόλοιπον τοῦ βίου διέξελθε ὡς θεοῖς μὲν ἐπιτετροφὼς τὰ σεαυτοῦ πάντα ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς, ἀνθρώπων δὲ μηδενὸς μήτε τύραννον μήτε δοῦλον σεαυτὸν καθιστάς.

Which is all Greek to me.

Now, I’d looked at the new (2002) translation by Hicks, and I found the language dull and uninspired. Looking up this phrase we have:

Cherish your gifts, however humble, and take pleasure in them. Spend the rest of your days looking only to the gods from whome come every good gift and seeing no man as either master or slave

“Cherish your gifts”? Pap! “your gifts” is not the same as “the art, poor as it may be, which thou has learned”. Danggit, now I’ve got to translate the original Greek to see what he really said. Are the Hicks dumbing it down, or did the older translators spice it up?

Another modern translation, Gregory Hays, 2002:

Love the discipline you know and let it support you. Entrust everything willingly to the gods, and then make your way through life - no one’s master and no one’s slave

Better. “Discipline” is better, but still so distinct in meaning from the old timers.

Back to the “original”

Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith

This is listed as the quote in lists of quotes and aphorisms. Indeed the first use I find is in 1906, in a book “Familiar Quotations” by John Bartlett.

Rather oddly it is also attributed to “Mabel Ashburton” in the 2005 book of quotes, “The White Wallet”. “Mabel Ashburton” does not appear on the internet, but is probably “Mabel Edith Baring” (nee Hood), Lady Ashburton, which is confusing until we find The White Wallet was actually written by Viscountess Pamela Grey of Fallodon, in 1912, collecting and publishing quotes being an acceptable occupation for a gentlewoman. Probably Mabel stole it from Bartlett, and offered it to Pamela as her own.
http://www.thepeerage.com/p8064.htm#i80632

We also have a latin version, by J. M. Schulz, 1802
http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/pedagogy/latinitas/ma/ma4.htm

Artem, quam didicisti, diligito et in ea acquiesceto: quod autem vitae super est, id ita exigito, ut qui Deo omnia ex toto animo commiseris, neque ullius hominis aut dominum aut servum te praebeto.

Transliterated very badly:

Art, how learnt, esteem and in also (?accquire?), that also life/career beyond is
http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe?Artem%2C+quam+didicisti%2C+diligito+et+in+ea+acquiesceto%3A+quod+autem+vitae+super+est%2C

2006 Oregon Christmas

That’s a link to a picasa album, they let you cut and paste some code to get it looking all purdy like that, but unfortunately the generated code is missing a final </div> tag, which I had to add manually to keep it from messing up following posts. What’s up with that Google?

Then you can also embed individual photos:

From 2006 Oregon C…