“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept active through use.
The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may posssibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.”
– Charles Darwin
“Then the dead, hot, pale air breathes on my face again. He could fix it alright, if he just would. And he dont even know it. He could do everything for me if he just knowed it. The cow breathes upon my hips and back, her breath warm, sweet, stertorous, moaning. The sky lies flat down the slope, upon the secret clumps. Beyond the hill sheet-lightning stains upward and fades. The dead air shapes the dead earth. It lies dead and warm upon me, touching me naked through my clothes. I said You dont know what worry is. I dont know what it is. I don’t know whether I’m worrying or not. Whether I can or not. I dont know whether I can cry or not. I dont know whether I have tried to or not. I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.”
from As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 2723 to Atlanta is now boarding and we apologize for the long delay. Also, we’ve just been informed that the lavatories on-board are not functioning, and you’re going to notice that in about two hours. Please use the facilities here before boarding.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Now boarding business class passengers for Flight 884 to Toronto. To our Business Elite members, please feel free to select any member of the economy class and ride them into the plane like a horse.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 184 direct to Washington D.C. is now boarding rows 45 through 30. Please be advised, due to mechanical difficulties this flight will not be able to deploy landing gears after take-off and the staff has started a 12-to-1 pool for your safety. Now boarding, rows 45 through 30.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 683 to Buffalo will be delayed two hours for cleanup crews to finish work due to an outbreak of ebola. The airline appreciates your patience as they continue to investigate the source and has informed us that all passengers will be treated to double frequent-flyer miles and leftover meals.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 867 to New York is ready for departure and will be piloted by an unsupervised third-grade class as they learn about what it’s like to work at an airport. Now boarding all rows.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 5290 to Chicago is full of spider monkeys and will be departing on time at gate 22.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 2749 to Boston will be a live comedy art show with theatre troupes from French art schools. Please be advised that rows 11 through 20 will get wet and rows one through 10 will get REALLY wet.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 102 to Dulles will be racing Flight 4723! Now boarding all rows!”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Flight 378 halfway to Dallas will be making use of its floatation devices and emergency exits.”
So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the Plone Conference in Seattle, Washington. Good times, good times. Certainly turned me on how to better use the system as well as a number of new and upcoming products that are downright amazing. Tech conferences are like Christmas in that you know you’re going to leave with about a dozen new things to try out and explore. Gotta love it.
There were two opening keynotes: Alexander Limi and Alan Runyan naturally gave their State of Plone, which is always interesting especially following a glance at what’s in store for Plone 3.0. The second keynote though on Day 3 was a speech from Eben Moglen, General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation. He was a bit of a last minute edition to the conference but his speech, “Software and Community in the Early 21st Century”, was easily one of the best parts of the conference if not the best. It’s.. amazing. Certainly once of the best speeches I’ve ever heard in terms of content, knowledge, presentation and inspiration.
Watch. This. Speech. It was just put up on YouTube. I would say the people who would enjoy this speech most are the people who contribute to open source projects, the people who support open source projects in other ways, and the people who use any product put out by any open source community at any time. So pretty much everyone.
Here’s one excerpt from the first ten minutes or so (grab a drink, too, because it’s an hour long):
We are moving to a world in which in the 21st century the most important activities that produce occur not in factories, and not by individual initiative, but in communities, held together by software. It is the infra-structural importance of software which is first important in the move to the post-industrial economy. …
In this neighborhood, at this moment, the richest and most deeply funded monopoly in the history of the world is beginning to fail. Within another few months the causes of its failure will be apparent to everybody, as they are now largely apparent to the knowledgeable observers of the industry who expect trouble for Microsoft. The very engineering limits of trying to make software that you own work as well as software that the community produces are becoming apparent. … The browser, as we are all aware, is a pretty crummy piece of software. It’s commodity activity now, these browsers. And Microsoft has written some browsers. And they have been working on the browser they just released for years. And now they have announced what their best browser, at present levels of engineering investment, can be. And on the day of its release it is less good than the unowned competitor. Produced by who? What? Where? When? On the day of its release.
Well said, and that’s probably one of the smaller points of his talk. The whole thing is a mesh of ancient industrial era commerce practices, present day community driven development achievements, and where this will all lead in the future. So, again, without further adieu, go check it out. And if you like it stay tuned to archive.org as I hear a hi-res version will be available next week. It’s also available in hi-res at archive.org.
“I have merely reported what I have witnessed, no more than that. I have written and, less frequently, I have spoken. I am even reluctant to comment, because it reminds me too much of the imposed opinions of my Soviet childhood and youth. It seems to me our readers are capable of interpreting what they read for themselves. That is why my principal genre is reportage, sometimes, admittedly, with my own interjections. I am not an investigating magistrate, but somebody who describes the life around us for those who cannot see it for themselves, because what is shown on television and written about in the overwhelming majority of newspapers is emasculated and doused with ideology. People know very little about life in other parts of their own country, and sometimes even in their own region.”
–Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist murdered in Moscow last week, in a previously unreleased interview about her work. Full interview at the Guardian.
Goodbye
by Susan Holnik
I fed the pumpkin muffins I baked you
to the pigeons.
They reminded me of you
They never said
Thank you.
Afraid So
by Jeanne Marie Beaumont from Curious Conduct
Is it starting to rain?
Did the check bounce?
Are we out of coffee?
Is this going to hurt?
Could you lose your job?
Did the glass break?
Was the baggage misrouted?
Will this go on my record?
Are you missing much money?
Was anyone injured?
Is the traffic heavy?
Do I have to remove my clothes?
Will it leave a scar?
Must you go?
Will this be in the papers?
Is my time up already?
Are we seeing the understudy?
Will it affect my eyesight?
Did all the books burn?
Are you still smoking?
Is the bone broken?
Will I have to put him to sleep?
Was the car totaled?
Am I responsible for these charges?
Are you contagious?
Will we have to wait long?
Is the runway icy?
Was the gun loaded?
Could this cause side effects?
Do you know who betrayed you?
Is the wound infected?
Are we lost?
Will it get any worse?
Now this is fun.
Google “unfortunately [YOUR NAME HERE]” and list the results you find in the snippets of the listings out of context. The results are pretty hilarious. Here’s mine.
- Unfortunately Rob was apparently caught in a weak moment. It happens.
- Unfortunately Rob (their father) is going through a Johnny Cash phase and as a result so are Isaac (who is
and Sonia (who is 4). I did fall into a burning ring of fire. - Unfortunately, Rob himself has indicated that the cut off for well-defined predictions regarding meteor trails seems to be at around a ZHR of 500 and the distance between last year’s 4-revolution trail and Earth was a relatively large +0.0016 a.u. I may be off by an a.u. or .0002.
- Unfortunately Rob had moved his small unit of light cavalry into the path and charge range of a Sasanian elephant. Have the scars to prove it.
- Unfortunately, Rob had not made a firm appointment for fear of tipping his hand too soon, and Arno managed to become involved in business. Damn you, Arno.
- Unfortunately Rob had to wash his pants, because he ended up getting barf on himself. Worst. Bar Mitzvah. Ever.
- Unfortunately, Rob represents a growing number of Christian men who struggle with pornography. Forgive me, Lord.
- Unfortunately, Rob’s fears are justified; Drennan has become a Shadow agent, and his treachery allows the Shadow fleet to destroy the UP convoy on the ground and surround Centris. Damn you, Drennan, son of Arno.
- Unfortunately, Rob is a morphologist who didn’t bother to find out what his primates eat before introducing them to his island. Oh, come on. Who doesn’t like pizza?
- Unfortunately, Rob still hasn’t cracked the US market. I think I forgot to carry the eBay.
- Unfortunately, Rob, you are the exception to the vast majority of the TV audience. No problem.
- Unfortunately Rob’s machine gave up the ghost on the traffic island at Anstey. The rest of the Ghostbusters are gonna kill me.
- Unfortunately, Rob is bagel-aware, and has fast reflexes. Ohhh my god.. now I’m just in tears in this point. Hahaha
Oh my. I could do that for awhile.
Excerpt from last night’s after dinner conversation with the little sister:
“Mom and Dad got the Jesus coffee from church again.”
“Good! It’s fair trade coffee, they should be buying that stuff.”
“Well, do you want Fellowship Blend, or Fellowship Decaf Blend? Why’d they get both?”
“Decaf, please. Well, sometimes you want some Jesus in your life but you don’t want him keeping you up all night.”