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~1919: global pandemic
~2019: global pandemic

~1920: Dr Thomas Tuttle's life is threatened for mask mandates
~2020: Dr Anthony Fauci's life is threatened for mask mandates

~1922: roaring 20s
~2022: we are so back!

~1923: Beer Putsch - attempted coup by fashy Germans
~2021: Jan 6 - attempted coup by fashy Americans

~1920s work on Autobahn begins. Fash hate the infra projects
~2020s Biden's infrastructure bill starts. Fash hate the infra projects

~1924: Hitler indicted
~2023: Trump indicted

2024, keep your eyes open for a (ghostwritten) "Art of the Kampf"

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Right now if you search for "country in Africa that starts with the letter K":
- DuckDuckGo will link to an alphabetical list of countries in Africa which includes Kenya.
- Google, as the first hit, links to a ChatGPT transcript where it claims that there are none, and summarizes to say the same.
This is because ChatGPT at some point ingested this popular joke:
"There are no countries in Africa that start with K."
"What about Kenya?"
"Kenya suck deez nuts?"
Google Search is over.

Confirmed:


well not sure if the joke is the reason per se

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Two by Yuval Robichek



via Fractals on the Mind - a cool brief lecture video on Fractals and Biophilia form an old mentor of mine.

Biophilia is a very right brained kind of thing - the controlling left brain doesn't like it as much, it's a bit more out of control...

But as I read more about the physics of chips, I started to have a kind of acceptance of assembly language. I stopped seeing it as an annoying, unfinished abstraction--a bad programming language--and started seeing it for what it is: an interface to the physical world.

I am very bad at it now but I'm glad I dug into a little assembly language to make my Atari 2600 game JoustPong - and what I've learned about how damn physical and timer-based EVERYTHING is on that thing.

I remember having just a dash of assembly (of the Sparc or Solaris or whatever variety) in a computer languages class in college. It felt a bit dishonest, to be frank - like to run assembly that was talking about low level stuff like registers and what not, but then knowing it was on a system that was a bit virtualized, how it might be paged out by the OS at any time.

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Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose. And whenever the conscious mind clings to hard and fast concepts and gets caught in its own rules and regulations--as is unavoidable and of the essence of civilized consciousness--nature pops up with her inescapable demands.

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This is the black-metal nature of task management: Every single time you write down a task for yourself, you are deciding how to spend a few crucial moments of the most nonrenewable resource you possess: your life. Every to-do list, is, ultimately, about death.

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We like lists because we don't want to die.

Yesterday I made up a virtual version of one of those gimmicky binary clocks I had once given to my Uncle Bill... mostly so I could see how some variations I thought of would look like in practice.
click to see

binclocks (I really dig recreational programming, being able to take a few hours and make some odd idea like this a reality)

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Lately I've been spending Sunday mornings hanging out with my superniece Cora - playing some sort of dolls, or drawing together, or parallel building play, or more lately just hanging out playing video games - her telling me what to do and me doing it in game. Anyway, I had a hard time finding a holder for the phone so I could position the back camera towards the TV (but still see Cora on the screen) so I decided to build a new one out of Lego during our session this morning... here it is

And here it is in action...



I'm sort of frustrated with my Lego collection. I split my childhood Lego collection into threes, and gave two of those parts to different friend families. (I'm planning on giving the final third to Cora at some point, though Lego has only been a minor jam of hers thus far.) So my current collection, the one in my office that I used to build this, is just the stuff I got as a grownup. And I'm not sure if it's the number of bricks or a trend towards more fiddly, specialty pieces, but it seems harder to come up with stuff for a good build. Of course, I've always done more in Space Lego then Technic and actual sturdy construction, and while there are more "flexible joint" pieces than ever I'm not as practiced with using them, and I don't have enough of any single type to focus on it.

(Incidentally this is my third phone cradle out of Lego... here's one from 2005, also at a jaunty angle, and then a simpler upright on one for my 2009 work phone. All 3 of them were built around making sure the charger cord could snake on through.)

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Whoa. I just realized at bricklink you can just...order individual pieces, like Lego "Pick a Brick"... and it's cheap! (though there are some minimums... it's so weird to think about these dealers having to do all the legwork to gather an order) The hardest part is finding the piece you're thinking of... I find myself longing for a "natural language Lego brick search engine"...

But overall it feels like a "cheat code" for Lego... you don't have to rely on the vagaries of what high price sets you receive as gifts (or maybe if you get a big ol' flea market tub) - you can just go and get it!

Actually it reminds me of one of the weird things about the "LEGO Masters" series... I think roughly there are three types of builders: people who keep the bricks in the form of the original purchased set, like on display, people who put all the pieces from the set into a big bin (the model I grew up with) and people who carefully sort (I dabbled with that after college, but it was so much work.)

But whatever the level of organization, for casual Lego fans it's often a scarcity model- you have a limited number of really unique or useful pieces and you have to dole them out - like for me with Space Lego it was a certain number of cool Blacktron wings and cockpits windows. But to compete on a show like LEGO Masters, you have to be designing with the idea that you'll be able to get your hands on all the parts you need, or close enough...

In retrospect I think it's time to question Billy Joel's claim that his generation didn't start the fire

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Doing old Blog Grooming I found a 2006 article 'Sleeping on it' best for complex decisions - way back when I quoted

Thinking hard about a complex decision that rests on multiple factors appears to bamboozle the conscious mind so that people only consider a subset of information, which they weight inappropriately, resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with.

The thing is, I still think it’s a mistake to conflate that sense of satisfaction with objective correctness. That unconscious overnight process is not amenable to inspection or rational confirmation, and I think is pretty much at the mercies of every ingrained prejudice and presumption we’ve internalized.

It’s like that muscle memory thing… to perform a skill at high level it's crucial that you impress the movements into your subconscious - but it’s not so good to drill and drill and practice if you’re just letting your poor form or style become a more deeply ingrained habit. It's the same for athletic feats as it is thinking. IMO one of the most important episodes yet, the Fringe Game History Podcast interviews Shawn Hargreaves who started the Allegro game programming library in the 90s. I missed out on it for the most part, but it was hugely influential.

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RIP Aretha Franklin

We're all just future cadavers, right?

(Inventor René Laennec worked with sick patient before and after they died to learn more about what the sounds could tell us...)

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Was thinking about doing a snarky comparison with Trumps "I like winners" view on McCain set against his tolerance for statues of Robert E. Lee. Skimmed the wikipedia page on Lee. I guess the case is made that he, himself, wasn't a big defender of slavery. I mean, I'm not sure it matters; this cultural fight takes place about a lot of really important ideas, ideas that go down to the roots of what this country stands for, and how we must treat each other if we want humanity to thrive, with liberty and justice for all; but maybe it's sometimes useful to remember that sometimes specific fights are mixing up the map with the territory. I finished "Don Quixote" for a second time a few weeks ago. (living out some old maxim that just as a piece of architecture should be viewed in the morning, mid-day, and dusk, so should this book be read as a young person, a middle-aged guy, and an old man.)

I read Edith Grossman's 2003 translation. Some highlights I made to record here:

The one passage I remember from my first reading is from Marcella's defense, as she's being accused of a shepherd's death because of her failure to return his love:

Heaven made me, as all of you say, so beautiful that you cannot resist my beauty and are compelled to love me, and because of the love you show me, you claim that I am obliged to love you in return. I know, with the natural understanding that God has given me, that everything beautiful is lovable, but I cannot grasp why, simply because it is loved, the thing loved for its beauty is obliged to love the one who loves it.

In the same way I sometimes dig the KJV version of the bible, this translation is nicely old school:

Heav'n, you're pleas'd to say, has made me beautiful, and that to such a Degree, that you are forc'd, nay, as it were compell'd to love me, in spite of your Endeavours to the contrary; and for the sake of that Love, you say I ought to love You again. Now, tho' I am sensible, that whatever is beautiful is lovely, I cannot conceive, that what is lov'd for being handsome, sho'd be bound to love that by which 'tis lov'd, meerly because 'tis lov'd.

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Another idea I saw cited in Jack Kerouac's "Dharma Bums" was "Comparisons are Odious":

'Stop right there, Señor Don Montesinos,' I said then. 'Your grace should recount this history in the proper manner, for you know that all comparisons are odious, and there is no reason to compare anyone to anyone else. The peerless Dulcinea of Toboso is who she is, and Señora Belerma is who she is, and who she was, and no more should be said about it.'

While here "Comparisons are Odious" mostly applies to people, I find it critical in my understanding of "Amor Fati", the love of one's fate; we spend so much effort comparing this world to all these other, slightly more pleasant alternative universes (just like this one, but I'm not stuck in traffic!, for instance) that it makes us miserable with very little return.
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Harold Bloom's Introduction to the work mentions:

It remained for La Rochefoucauld to restate the other side of the paradox: some people would never have loved if they had not heard of love.

The book cites verses from other source, such as Commander Escrivá's

Come, death, so secret,
so still I do not hear your approach,
so that the pleasure of dying
does not bring me back to life.

and there was also a reference (Sancho watched everything, and not one thing caused him sorrow) to

"Nero, on Tarpeian Rock, / watched as Rome went up in flames; / crying ancients, screaming infants, / and not one thing caused him sorrow."

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Of course, much of the joy of the book are the proverbs and quotes, famously by Sancho but also Don Quixote himself:

too much wine cannot keep either a secret or a promise.

The ox who's free can lick where he pleases.'"

stultorum infinitus est numerus:

Whether the pitcher hits the stone or the stone hits the pitcher, it's bad luck for the pitcher

"I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to the lowborn is throwing water into the sea."

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At one point the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance says "Now you will see, said Agrajes" which Grossman footnotes "Agrajes, a character in Amadís of Gaul [One of the most established tales about knight errantry] would say these words before doing battle; it became a proverbial expression used at the beginning of a fight."
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Some passages still resonate today:

"Be quiet," said Don Quixote. "Where have you ever seen or read that a knight errant has been brought before the law no matter how many homicides he may have committed?"

"In short," said Don Quixote, "it seems clear, Sancho, that you are a peasant, the kind who shouts, 'Long live whoever wins!'"

"Even so, I want you to know, brother Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "that there is no memory that time does not erase, no pain not ended by death."

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I was interested in a view of the year that seems to put the year into five seasons, not four

spring pursues summer, summer pursues estío, estío pursues autumn, autumn pursues winter, and winter pursues spring, and in this way time turns around a continuous wheel;

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Finally, I loved this rant:

"Oh, base, lowborn, wretched, rude, ignorant, foul-mouthed, ill-spoken, slanderous, insolent varlet! You have dared to speak such words in my presence and in the presence of these distinguished ladies, dared to fill your befuddled imagination with such vileness and effrontery? Leave my presence, unholy monster, repository of lies, stronghold of falsehoods, storehouse of deceits, inventor of iniquities, promulgator of insolence, enemy of the decorum owed to these royal persons. Go, do not appear before me under pain of my wrath!"

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Hello from Ireland!

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Rudy Giuliani: "Under those eight years before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States. They all started when (Hillary) Clinton and Obama got into office" Between this and "Obama founded ISIS", Republicans are deciding to double down on Big Brother-esque rewriting of history.

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The next level: Zapp Branigan READS those Trump Quotes Lego!
So the Silverball Museum in Asbury Park got a classic Pong (sadly the head of one of the dialsis missing) I was a little shocked to see that it has a fancy end/attract screen! Pong is shorthand for "the simplest game possible" but the physical production of it had some serious nuance, from the return angle of the pongbats to stuff like this. Honestly it's still a game that's fun to play, so well-tuned to a social night out with beers.

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Probably the best JP Honk Vid yet!

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If there's one thing I wouldn't want to be twice, zombies is both of them!

NEWSFLASH moving: still sucks.

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Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.

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My new concept for a labor-saving device: the Self-Jousting Windmill! #kickstarter

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Is life too short to be taking shit, or is life too short to be minding it?

I just read Penn Jillette's "God, No!", his kind of big atheist libertarian and tons of crazy story bombastic screed.

He tells entertaining stories. When it comes to philosophy, you have to take it with a grain of salt... he's a big believer in using the "fallacy of the excluded middle"... he figures if you would be unwilling to kill your kid if you thought God told you to (ala Isaac and Abraham) then you're pretty much an atheist, because your faith isn't total.

Still, he comes up with his own version of the 10 Commandments, or "One Atheist's Suggestions", printed here along side the Biblical ones (a lot of people don't realize that you do have to specify which version of the 10 Commandments you're referring to... there's some disagreements between faiths and even as it's printed in any given copy of the Bible.)

1.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.	The highest ideals are human intelligence, creativity, and love. Respect these above all.
2.
Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.	Do not put things or even ideas above other human beings. (Let's scream at each other about Kindle versus iPad, solar versus nuclear, Republican versus Libertarian, Garth Brooks versus Sun Ra- but when your house is on fire, I'll be there to help.)
3.
Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain, for the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.	Say what you mean, even when talking to yourself. (What used to be an oath to god is now quite simply respecting yourself.)
4.
Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain, for the lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.	Put aside some time to rest and think. (If you're religious, that might be the Sabbath; if you're a Vegas magician, that'll be the day with the lowest grosses.)
5.
Honory thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the lord thy god has given thee.	Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children. (Love is deeper than honor, and parents matter, but so do spouse and children.)
6.
Thou shalt not kill.	Respect and protect all human life. (Many believe that 'Thou shalt not kill' only refers to people in the same tribe. I say it's all human life.)
7.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.	Keep your promises. (If you can't be sexually exclusive to your spouse, don't make that deal.)
8.
Thou shalt not steal.	Don't steal. (This includes magic tricks and jokes'you know who you are!)
9.
Thou shalt not lie.	Don't lie. (You know, unless you're doing magic tricks and it's part of your job. Does that make it okay for politicians too?)
10.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor.	Don't waste too much time wishing, hoping, and being envious; it'll make you bugnutty. (Man oh man, that MILF at my child's school sure looks hot, but I have work to do.)

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Do you think Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait" is a post-apocalyptic scenario?

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I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to.

--All-iPad Music! I'm keeping my eyes open for the equivalent of GarageBand for the iPad; maybe then I can meet my "self-appointed goal for my 30s" of getting electronicified versions of all the basslines and riffs I was working with in high school.

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FUN FACT: Space-sickness is measured in "garns", a unit named for Rep. senator Jake Garn, who politicked his way to a space trip and upchucked like mad...

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heh, Pam's purple/green shimmerchange dress at Office Season 2-3 cliffhanger is what M. had at EHS Spring Fling '92- so nostalgic for me, it was such a gorgeous dress...

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Forget iPhone antennagate and the "grip of death"-hold ANY iPhone "wrong" for a game and you totally block the sound. #speakergate #whatevs

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Insects' mouth parts are modified legs. A similar process may have given us our language of thought.

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Osmos (for iOS, PC, Mac, Linux) is amazing; elegant physics (including emergent intuitive orbit mechanics) and a solid "eat or be eaten" mechanic... the "Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer" idea of the latter is interesting, I remember a fellow A-life student in college who was playing with a more linear version of that... never thought of its game potential until Osmos added a "burn mass for thrust" aspect.

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http://gizmodo.com/5613877/worlds-laziest-adventurer-traveling-length-of-britain-via-street-view - point and click tourism!

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http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9039615 - crap, I can't believe I fell for that Back to the Future thing and missed Bionic Commando Day
To view this content, you need to install Java from java.com
markovlove 2008 - source - built with processing
My entry for Klik of the Month #26. I harvested years of Blender of Love poems to make a computer/human collaboration tool for writing love poems using "Markov Chains"-- the last 2 words of the poem determine the options for the next words (the white/pink boxes on the right side) and once you click on the next word, the penultimate word and the word you just clicked determine the next set of options, and so on.

This is technically "markovlove 2008", using just the works on the Blender from 2008. The version dating back to 2001 won't run with the settings in most browsers. Possibly I should have picked a year with more entries, a bit too often there's just one choice, where the word pair only appeared once in what was sent in that year.

It was a huge turnout for Klik of the Month, which is kind of cool, but also makes it hard to to get heard, and kind of changes the group dynamic a bit.

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District 9: 40 Year Old Virgin meets The Fly via Blackhawk Down and maybe a bit of... I dunno, Transformers and Enemy Mine? It's a "sales tax holiday" in the fair Commonwealth of Massachusetts, (Sidenote: I love that I'm in a Commonwealth rather than a mere State) a bit of an annual tradition. Like Bush's tax rebate, its meant to give a boost to retailers during a down time. It's an odd bit of psychology, people go gaga over not having to shell out to the government, even people who wouldn't shop around for a 5% savings otherwise.

SCREW THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS! I GOTTA GET MINE! TODAY!

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Quotes of the Moment

So! The Tao is a mysterious female! No wonder I love it so much! What could be more enthralling than a mysterious female? A mysterious female is delightfully enchanting for two reasons: (1) She is a female; (2) she is mysterious. Yes, femininity and mysteriousness are certainly two of the most entrancing things in life. But combined! Good God, what could be more divine? The two in conjunction are far more than twice as intriguing as either one separately. That is to say, a mysterious female is more than twice as attractive as either a female who is not mysterious or a mysterious something which is not female. So it is no wonder I love the Tao so much!

I enjoyed the repetition and general goofiness of that passage. I also like this poem of his:

Most people hate egotists.
They remind them of themselves.
I love egotists.
They remind me of me.

I guess both of these bits might leave an odd impression out of context, but overall there's a sense of playfulness and tweaking of assumptions in the book that's very enjoyable.

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Articles of the Moment
Two topical pieces from Slate: Let's Get Rid of August, and a explanation of why all these records are falling along with a proposal for calculating "world record inflation".

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Perhaps tonight was not the best night to catch a game at Fenway.

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Olympic Ping Pong I can see, possibly thanks to the movie "Forrest Gump". Olympic Badminton? Still seems like a stretch. Minor upgrade to the site: I used some URL-rewriting cleverness so that past updates (daily, by month, or by year) all have the same interface:
kisrael.com/2001/01/17/ for the day,
kisrael.com/2001/01/ for the month,
kisrael.com/2001/ for a quick year reference.
Plus, I made it so the title in the header of a day's entry is also a permalink, but it doesn't show up with the underline until you put the mouse over it.

So not the biggest deal, but I like it, especially the /yyyy/mm/dd/ style archive.

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Literary Bit of the Moment

Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone.

"But which is the stone that supports the bridge?" Kublai Khan asks.

"The bridge is not supported by one stone or the other," Marco answers, "but by the line of the arch that they form."

Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: "Why do you speak to me of stones? It is only the arch that matters to me."

Polo answers: "Without stones there is no arch."

Someone said it's the book the "Einstein's Dream" clearly cribbed from, but halfway through the former, I have to say I still hold the latter in higher regard for its visions of alternate modes of reality that are meditations on our own. For lack of something better to say... is this, what seems to be a stock photo, used on this pawnshop / check cashing software site the worst ever, or what?

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Link of the Moment
Speaking of the end of the world, it's A Brief History of the Apocalypse. I have to admit all those fails prophecies are kind of comforting. (On the other hand, I suppose they only have to be right once...)

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Obscure Idea of the Moment

If only 2^(7/12) were equal to 3/2, music would sound a lot better.

I'm pretty sure I understand the temperament of what he's getting at, it's an interesting kind of "what-if". Hmm, I guess a more lesiurely morning schedule is a boon to the remembering of dreams...the "Pirats vs Ninjas" I wrote about in the sidebar, yesterday I was going back in time and coping with a new timeline where Ksenia's mom had her youngest son much earlier, and this morning I was at a big dorm-based church thing and stopping people from throwing shoes at my grandmother. I think most of the people were black and I was worried it was going to become a "racial" thing.

Been pretty quiet on the comments here lately...Dog Days slump, or has kisrael.com been dreadfully boring? I thought some of the links were cool.

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Dialog of the Moment

"The Russian doesn't want to have kids. Had one a long time ago. He's done."
"Well, then, doe-svee-don-yah or however you say it."
"What? No! For you maybe, but not for me."
"Don't you want to have the option?"
"Well, yes. But it is my experience that men like him don't come along that often."
"But we're 38! These are the years."
"Yes, I know, I've heard. I'm running out of time. I don't even have time to eat this cookie."
"How is it?"
"It's so good I forgot to have children."

Laughed out loud at the last line. Ksenia are winding up probably today with the final DVD of the series.

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Prudes of the Moment

• The Rating System
• Wal-Mart
• Broadcast Television

--Slate.com explaining why there's so little sex in the movies. Jeez, it feels like movies in the 2000s are getting the same treatment comics did in the 1950s...all for the sake of the damn kids.

I wonder if some of this is counter-acted with the trend for "unrated director's cut!" that a lot of lowbrow movies are going for these days.

Well, at the risk of revealing what a crude vulgarian I truly am, I will state that I am much likely to spend my DVD dollars and films I suspect will show a little skin.

Article of the Moment
For "Popular Science", a man tries to live with only the ideas and technology available in 1954. He even writes "I can't go to yoga or the gym, since only the YMCA was around in 1954 (it turns out, though, that sit-ups and push- ups aren't a bad workout, and they're cheaper than a gym membership)." Makes me wonder about the idea that you don't need props to stay fit for the most part.

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Quote of the Moment

To the lonely it is company; to the forsaken it is a friend; to the aged and impotent it is a benefactor; they that be penniless are yet rich, in that they still have this majestic diversion. There are times when I prefer it to sodomy.

And as long as I've brought us to this level of discourse, those who are more easily amused than offended may want to check out this non-explicit European print-ad for sexual lubricant. (mirror)

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Image of the Moment

--via boing boing, photos from a wedding with stormtroopers. Strange world.

Buzzwords of the Moment
"decay ... failure (fail) ... collapse(ing) ... deeper ... crisis ... urgent(cy) ... destructive ... destroy ... sick ... pathetic ... lie ... liberal ... they/them ... unionized bureaucracy ... 'compassion' is not enough ... betray ... consequences ... limit(s) ... shallow ... traitors ... sensationalists ...

endanger ... coercion ... hypocrisy ... radical ... threaten ... devour ... waste ... corruption ... incompetent ... permissive attitudes ... destructive ... impose ... self- serving ... greed ... ideological ... insecure ... anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs ... pessimistic ... excuses ... intolerant ...

stagnation ... welfare ... corrupt ... selfish ... insensitive ... status quo ... mandate(s) ... taxes ... spend(ing) ... shame ... disgrace ... punish (poor ... ) ... bizarre ... cynicism ... cheat ... steal ... abuse of power ... machine ... bosses ... obsolete ... criminal rights ... red tape ... patronage."
--1990 Newt Gingrich memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control." These words had been test-marketed and Republicans were urged to apply them to their oppenent and their opponent's record, proposals and party, via this Salon article.

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Image of the Moment
Cleveland during the blackout, via Ross. That's a pretty spooky shot I thought. (I didn't mention the blackout much yesterday because I wanted it to be a one-entry kind of day.) Speaking of Cleveland in the dark, there's a pretty cool Blackout Blog that Clevland.com put up on a temporary server. Camworld.com had some cool photos from NYC as well as links to a lot of other photo galleries and writeups.

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Line of the Moment

He was the kind of guy you could write home about...
if your parents were into booze, drugs and cheap sex...

Sometimes I wonder if I should rename this blog to "Of The Moment". Is that too cheesy? OfTheMoment.com is taken, though the .net version is free, as is BlogOfTheMoment.com. I dunno. Maybe it all springs back to my vague discontent with my last name.

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Typo Link of the Moment
I mistyped my own URL and got to kirael.com (no s), home of the Photon Energy Forecast. Him. This page says about the site "Not since the burning of the Alexandrian libraries between 200BC to 200AD has so much information become available." I'm not sure if that sentence says quite what they meant it to say.

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Literature of the Moment

He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was...

I finished this book, the one assigned reading I didn't get through in high school. I think it helps to have lived through chasing a doomed romance. Also to know people kind of like Tom Buchanan. I know Charles Shulz like to reference the stip sometimes (maybe because it's such a classic American work, maybe because he and Fitzgerald share a hometown) and I wish I could locate some examples of that.

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Quote of the Moment

There's one thing computing teaches you, and that's that there's no point to remembering everything.

Context and more quotes are available here. I'm trying to utilize this statement as encouragement to discard all these old files that are only slightly interesting in a "passing interests and random activites of Kirk in the late 1990s" Wow, wow, wow. I am TEN THOUSAND DAYS OLD this very day. (As always, I have a tool to figure out your own 10k day.) Alas, life is too hectic now to do anything but have a small fun party tomorrow. And this update is gonna be nothing special (especially compared to yesterday's... yowza.)

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Quote of the Moment

85% of life is just showing up.

I think this especially can apply to human relationships, showing up is hugely important.

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Image of the Moment

Just a big ol' turtle that was crawling across the road Tuesday, near where I work. John Sawers and I kind of stood guard as it made its slow way. It didn't seem to have any kind of undershell, but it had cool spikes on its tail.

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Link of the Moment
Tackamarks exposed! Those aren't just harmles dates and labels attached to the back of traffic signs, but a secret code to direct the black helicopters and UN troops! (I especially like the photos on this page... all I can think about is the old line that "oh, that Stop sign had a white border? That means it's optional...") (via cruel site)