| KHftCEA 2000-06.2 June |
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KHftCEA 2000-06.2 June
Rereading "Gilgamesh"- this translation is careful to be true to a single late version of the text, and does not try to fill parts where only a small fraction of the text survives with excerpts of previous versions, though the footnotes do give those texts. The result is a little saddening, a few disconnected words, like a culture descending into madness, or senility. I'm rereading Gilgamesh because it's interesting to see the view of mortality from so long ago. Alas, Gilgamesh.com, .net, and .org have been taken though Humbaba.com is still available. That's the giant of the cedars Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight, though the name is surprisingly familiar. 00-6-12 --- Gilgamesh opened his mouth, saying to Enkidu: "Friend, who can scale heaven? Only the gods live forever under the sun. As for men, their days are numbered; their achievments are a puff of wind. Here you are, afraid of death. What of your great strength? Let me walk in front of you, and let your mouth call to me, 'Keep on! Fear nothing!' If I fail, I will have made myself a name. 'Gilgamesh,' they will say, 'went against fierce Humbaba and died.' They will remember, afterward, the child born in my house..." --- The masonic sword belonged to M.T. Cunningham of Salamanca, NY. 00-6-14 --- To keep silent and act wise Still not as good as drinking sake Getting drunk and weeping. --Otomo no Tobito (665-731 CE) --- "Why does "philosophy of consciousness/nature of reality" seem to interest you so much?" "Take away consciousness and reality and there's not much left." --Greg Egan Eidolon interview --- "I've got to stop getting obsessed with human beings and fall in love with a chair. Chairs have everything human beings have to offer, and less, which is obviously what I need. Less emotional and intellectual feedback, less warmth, less approval, less patience and less response. The less the merrier. Chairs it is. I must furnish my heart with feelings for furniture." --Carrie Fischer's Journal, when she had a crush on Harrison Ford --- The Mundane Diary might be tapping off the KHftCEA a bit. I do miss the old minifiction I use to write in here. 00-6-17 --- "The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live -- moreover, the only one." --E. M. Cioran --- I had only one other sexual incident, and that was with the tree outside my attic window. When it flowered in May it gave off the most erotic odor. I would get unsolicited erections just sitting there at my card table. I fell in love with that tree. --Jonathan Ames, "What's Not To Love" --- Jonathan Ames can come up with sentences like "With the dog on the ferry I got a woodie, but with the fairy in the woods, my own little dog hid like a pussy." and that's actually half of the story right there. 00-6-18 --- Olives are bad. Little nugget shaped bombs of oily salt. Yuck. That fast forwarding technology, that lets you speed up sound without making it all highpitched, will revolutionize so many activities. I can absorb information so much faster than things play back. I think they're already using it on voicemail systems. The way soda converts from a foam of a liquid after you're done pouring is a miracle. 00-6-18 --- ZipTran and the Rapid Prototype Goal: Fully Assed Code from a Half Assed Develpment Cycle 00-6-19 --- I believe that God made sex as a kind of unsolvable Rubik's cube so that we could have something to do while we're killing time here on Earth. --Eric Bogosian --- •If you are a sitcom character and your camping trip is going badly, do not say, "Look on the bright side: At least the weather's nice." •Remember: Snakes are freaky-looking creatures that will bug you out if you chance across them. Why? Get this: The little fuckers *don't have any legs at all.* •To hike, put one foot in front of the other, propelling yourself forward at a steady, workmanlike pace. After repeating this action thousands of times, you will theoretically begin to experience "fun." --Camping Tips from The Onion |