These postings, with an "MGG" flag in the subject, are my memoirs. A memoir is a kind of autobiography, where the author has not taken sufficient rigour for the piece to be counted as a biography. As I have never been particularly rigorous in the books that I have published, and because I have lost my editor, and thus my writing is suffering and is even worse than it used to be, this can't be a biography, so I guess it must be a memoir.
If it ever gets published, the title will be "Memoirs of a Grieving Gnome." This is the explanation of the folder on my computer that holds these files, and, if I get around to posting them on my blog, the indication of why any subject might be tagged with an MGG. The reason for this title is currently given by the fact that it is a memoir. Another part is that I am a grieving widower. (Hence my lack of an editor.) And the third part of the rationale is given in one of my blog postings, which details some of the story behind my gnome-like appearance.
A number of people in the infosec world have asked me to write my memoirs as a "leader in the field" and one of the "old guard." I have a bit of trouble thinking of myself in this way. I have known people in the field who are older than I am (well, a few, anyway), and definitely known some who have been in the field longer than I. (I came to the field pretty late in life.) I also have real trouble thinking of myself as old. I recently read some material on "subjective age": the age you, internally, think yourself to be. Apparently, most people think of themselves as about twenty years younger than they are. I, apparently, take this to extremes. I have, for five decades, thought of myself as nineteen. I have no real idea of the reason for this. It may be because nineteen was "legal" age where I grew up, and so that was the last birthday that had any significance. (But then, when I turned sixty-five, I became eligible for a pension, and it didn't change my "subjective age," so ...)
As I say, I have lost my editor, and my writing has suffered. I never did publish a book before I married Gloria, and it was Gloria's help and support that allowed me to do so. After I had published a book or two, some of my friends, who, themselves, thought that they might have a book in them, asked for my advice on writing and publishing. I had two pieces of advice: one was that when you had finished writing the text of your book, that was the easy part done. However, more than that, much more, was the advice that I gave that, if you came across a good copy editor, you married her. Actually, as noted, I hadn't published any books before I married Gloria, so that advice was a little bit misplaced, and not entirely based upon my own experience. But it was my experience that Gloria was able, due to her excellent grasp of the English language, and her command of spelling and grammar, as well as her command of written language in all of its forms, that allowed her to not simply correct my copy, but to prescribe editorial changes, which improved my writing no end. Unfortunately, while my writing is undoubtedly better than it was before I married Gloria, and before she died, I still don't seem to be able to turn out text of the quality that I did before she died, when I was able to submit it to her for reading and editing and comments. Therefore, it is unlikely that this memoir will ever be published as a book, but I might publish it, piecemeal, on my blog. Heaven knows, my blog is not good for much else these days.
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
Table of Contents (so far):
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