Friday, December 7, 2001 — Pearl Harbor Day (USA)

Well, it seems that the WebMages sysadmin has upgraded the ssh server from SSH1 to SSH2. This would be good, except that all of my ssh clients up to this point know only SSH1, so suddenly none of my ssh clients worked.

Fortunately, Saalon (based on yet another blindingly helpful suggestion from Brennen pointed me at PuTTY, a simple yet effective ssh client. I’m using it now; it seems acceptable. Unfortunately, this means that I can’t use BeOS for any ssh duties.

Meanwhile, I’ve been mulling a few ideas I’ve had for a webdrama. I may not write it, but its setting and potential appeal to me. Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

I’d like to write a webdrama that centers around a small community, and a momentous event that occurs in that community. This event could be a manmade tragedy (Columbine, September 11, discovery of corruption, etc.) or a natural disaster (flood, fire, hurricane, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc.).

Flood damage in Barcelona, Spain

The twist is that this story would be told from several viewpoints. The “central” story would be told through the pages of an historical account, an objective book written many years afterwards, chronicling the events of the time. In addition to this, however, will be diary entries, news clippings, and other material written at the time of the events. We can compare the personal stories with the actual events; what do people omit? What do people talk about, that doesn’t make it into the official record?

I’d like to have one primary diary, which would receive most of my writing attention, and I think I’d like the protagonist to be a woman who has re-entered the community after a long absence. She would do something momentous, during the tragedy, and one of the central questions would be, “Will she survive?”

Well, tonight is writing night. I’ll start outlining and researching tonight, and we’ll see what happens.