"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
-- Winston Churchill
"A relationship is a cart
pulled by two horses. But if you feel like
you're pulling all the weight while she rides in the back, then
something's
got to give. Preferably not you." -- Meryl thinks it was her Grandma
who said
that.
Allan chirbles, "But Linux is
better than Unix. Cheaper, too."
A sign of the times sigh.
Monolith nods! "If you can't
feel good in your mind, how could
you possibly expect to feel good at all?"
"The moral universe is a long
arc, but it bends towards justice." --
Martin Luther King, in his ``We Shall Overcome'' speech.
Profound Truth differs from
simple truth in that the negation of a simple
truth is a simple falsehood, while the negation of a Profound Truth may
be
another Profound Truth. E.g., a button with "Life is just as simple as
it
seems" on one side and "Life is not as simple as it seems" on the
other.
A logician saves the life of a
space alien, and is rewarded with an offer
to answer any question. After a thought he asks: What is the best
question
to ask and the correct answer to it? After a brief panic the alien
consults her computer and says: The best question to ask is the one you
just did and the correct answer to it is the one I gave.
In theory, there is no
difference between theory and practice. But, in
practice, there is.
O threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain - This Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has bloomed for ever dies.
Omar Khayyam (fl. 1100)
Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee;
nor too long, lest it blind thee;
nor too near, lest it burn thee.
If thou like it, it deceives thee;
if thou love it, it disturbs thee;
if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee.
If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise;
if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory.
It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace.
-- Quarles (1592-1644)
I recently finished reading the 4-book Ender's Game series, by
Orson Scott Card. It read remarkably fast, considering my horridly slow
reading speed. The first book, Ender's Game, had me enthralled.
The story was told in a sort of stream-of-consciousness fashion, which
is a
particularly favorite style of mine. Card's ability to relate the
genius
thoughts of Ender is the key to the story's capcity to arrange the
reader's
thought patterns to something more compatible, resulting in a strong
and
immediate intimate bond I'd not experienced before.
That was the first. Speaker
for the Dead came next. It had a
similar power, but presented rather differently. What Ender's
Game did for genius and tactics, Speaker did for human
emotion and sense of family.
Xenocide and Children
of the Mind followed, two parts of
the same story really, and would be in one book, were it not for
various
pressures of reality. Here, Card continues to bring the reader on his
journey through philosophies, cultures, and moral questions on a
species
scale.
Although I preferred Speaker
to Ender's Game, and found
them both more enthralling than the latter half of the series, none
were
without merit. And although there were many sections that would be
worthy
of being placed in this archive of quotes and excerpts, I came across
one
towards the end of Children of the Mind that I found rather
interesting in light of the virtual bent of the newly born Internet. I
managed to remember to mark it for later recall, and I include it here.
It
is somewhat of a spoiler, though, so if you don't want to read it,
don't
click on the URL. ;)
Here is the excerpt.
Billy Mills was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He won a
gold
medal in the 10,000 meter run at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. He has
become
a motivational speaker and travels the country talking to people..he
especially works with Native American children. This is from a book he
wrote called Wokini (New Life)
"In my youth I respected the
world and life, I needed not anything but peace
of heart. And yet I changed despite myself and believed in Iktumi's
lies.
He seemed to know all the truth, he promised to make me happy.
He made me ask Wakantanka for
wealth, that I might have power;
I was given poverty, that I might find my inner strength.
I asked for fame,
so others would know me;
I was given obscurity,
that I might know myself.
I asked for a person to love that I might never be alone,
I was given a life of a hermit, that I might learn to accept myself.
I asked for power, that I might achieve,
I was given weakness, that I might learn to obey.
I asked for health, that I might lead a long life.
I was given infirmity, that I might appreciate each minute.
I asked Mother Earth for strength, that I might have my way,
I was given weakeness, that I might feel the need for Her.
I asked to live happily, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might live happily,
I recieved nothing I asked for, yet all my wishes came true.
Despite myself and Iktumi, my
dreams were fulfilled, I am richly blessed
more than I ever hoped, I thank you, Wakantanka, for what you've given
me."
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and
demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its
purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for
the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign
of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when
in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When
you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of
living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in
yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to
fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your
time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of
death, so that when their time comes they
weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in
a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."
Tecumseh
"He who knows he has enough is rich indeed."
-- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
There is a legend about a bird which sings more sweetly than any other
creature
on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it
searches for a
thorn tree, and does not rest untill it has found one. Then, singing
among the
savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine.
And,
dying, it rises above it's own agony to out carol the lark and the
nightengale.
One superlative song, existance the price. But the whole world stills
to
listen, for the best is only bought at the cost of great pain......or
so says
the legend. The bird with the thorn in it's chest, it follows an
immutable
law. It is drivin by it knows not what to impale itself and die
singing. At
the very moment the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the
dying to
come; it simply sings and sings untill there is not the life left to
utter
another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our chests we know, we
understand, and still we do it. Still, we do it.
"inspired/semi-snagged from a
movie ... can't take full credit." --
kathori@Delusions, in reference to Thorn Birds.
"Rape is so heinous a crime that not even innocence is a valid
defense."
Ben Stein, Defense Lawyer.
Friend: How do you do?
Dragon: How do I do what?
Friend: What you do, of
course!
Dragon:
I listen to the bells when they
ring,
I listen to my heart when she sings.
I hear the words my mind speaks,
And nourish the wisdom that he brings.
To laugh is to risk appearing foolish,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.
To live is to risk dying.
But risks must be taken,
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing,
Does nothing,
Has nothing,
Is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live.
Chained by his opinion, he is a slave, he had forfeited freedom.
Only a person who risks is truly free...
Contributed by: Kristin Noel
Author: unknown
Movie Fav's ...
- Star Wars series (no
particular favorite amongst them)
- Koyanisqatsi (haven't
seen either of the other 2 of the series)
- Bladerunner (Director's
Cut)
- Ladyhawke
- Animalympics
Others:
Name of the Rose, The
Hitcher, WHMS, Always, Ghost, -
- Tales from the Darkside (version with the RealNeat
- lovestory at the end), Beauty & The Beast, Grand Canyon,
- Highlander, The Midnight Clear, Phantom of the Opera
- (play), Fearless, The Killer (Jon Wu), City of Lost
- Children (French), Alien series, 2001.
-
Castle
Walls - by Styx - mail me
for the lyrics (great lyrics)
"The opposite of
loneliness...is not togetherness. It is intimacy."
-- Richard Bach,
Bridge Across
Forever
I don't know why fate
smiles on some
And lets the rest go free
- Eagles -
"Finish
every day and be done
with it. You have done what you
could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as
soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely.
... This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its
hopes
and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Taken from the back of the
Celestial Seasonings
Herb Tea box, "Tension Tamer" flavor,
which sports a princess dressed in red
sitting atop a green dragon with a yellow
ventral, snorting flames.
"And see that all these
things are done in wisdom and order;
for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he
has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be
diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore,
all things must be done in order."
Mosiah 4:27
number - n
- The set of all sets that are similar
Spencer
Brown, Laws of Form
"When the grapes of wrath
come falling down
and shrivel in the sun
a poor farmer-boy will come along with a basket
and pick them up."
- David "Dragon" Michaels -
"I knew she'd be changing
.. and I knew that any change could
only split us apart. But I had to hope ... to hold on ..
for as long as I possibly could. And still sometimes I
think I had not done enough. A lesson for next time, should
there ever be one ..."
"Whatever
you do will be
insignificant, but it is very important that
you do it." --Mahatma Gandhi
If you listen carefully,
at the
end, you'll be someone else...
The Mahabarhata
(thanks Alice!)
According to Plato there are
seven types of love: - 1. Love of man and woman
- 2. Love of parent and child
- 3. Love of a friend
- 4. Love of good
- 5. Love of wisdom
- 6. Love of God
- 7. Love of beauty
"At the touch of love, everyone
becomes a poet."
- Plato -
Always seek for the
highest possible aim,
but never put up resistance in vain.
- Hans Selye -
(thanks Shipman!)
A UNIX saleslady, Lenore,
Enjoys work, but she likes the beach more.
She found a good way
To combine work and play:
She sells C shells down by the seashore.
Matt
Goolsby (catbutt) says:
"Television will not be perfect until you can
push a button on your remote, and make the head of the person on the
screen
explode."
Prime
example of "Sometimes,
you've just gotta say, what the f*ck." --
"The england that Elizabeth bequeathed to James I, like the colonies it
would plant, was a unique blend of elements. The Language and the
people
themselves mixed Germanic and Latin ingredients. The anglican church
mixed
Protestant theology and Catholic forms in a way unknown on the
continent.
And the growth of royal power paradoxically had been linked with the
rise
of English liberties, in which even Tudor monarchs took pride. In the
course of their history the English people have displayed a genius for
``muddling through,'' a gift for the pragmatic compromise that defied
logic
but in the light of experience somehow worked."
- George Brown Tindall -
"If
old England is not by this
lesson taught humility,
then she is an obstinate old slut, bent upon her ruin."
Dating of a profanity: General Horatio Gates, after defeating "General
Johnny" Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 17, 1777.
And
you thought Thomas Jefferson
was a cool American Dude?
He was with John Adams one mind on the matter of women
voting -- "the tender breasts of ladies were not formed for
political convulsion."
"Experience
must be our only
guide. Reason may mislead us."
John Dickinson, 1787. Deligate from Pennsylvania to the
Constitutional
Convention.
"Forests precede
civilizations, deserts follow them."
- Francois-Auguste-Rene De Chateaubriand -
(say THAT 5 times fast!!)
"You're younger now than
you ever will be."
Me.
Out
the 10Base-T port, through
the router, over the leased
line, off the bridge, past the firewall... nothing but net.
Finally
found these Lyrics, so I
figured I'd transcribe them:
From "Yes: Tales from
Topographic Oceans", song is "The Revealing Science of God; Dance of
the Dawn". It's sung mostly with a somewhat flat
rhythm, and monotonic sound, save for a few dramatic swings.
Dawn of light lying between a
silence and sold sources,
chased amid fusions of wonder,
in moments hardly seen forgotten.
Coloured in pastures of chance dancing
leaves cast spells of challenge,
amused but real in thought,
we fled from the sea whole,
Dawn of thought transferred through moments of days
undersearching earth revealing corridors of time provoking memories
disjointed but with purpose!
Craving penetrations offer links with the
self instructors sharp and tender love,
as we took to the air,
a picture of distance!
Dawn of our power we amuse redescending as
fast as misused expression,
as only to teach love as to reveal passion
chasing late into corners,
and we danced from the ocean!
Dawn of love sent within us colours of
awakening among the many wont to follow,
only tunes of a different age,
as the links span our endless caressses
for the freedom of life everlasting!
"The
bitter irony is that one
cannot begin to try and know
everyone, so the first selection eliminates without
judgement."
- loopynoodles@GlobalMUSH -
Q:
How many Apple Newton
programmers does it take to screw
in a light bulb?
A: Foe. There to go gladly,
eat gravy soup.
Dragon's
Proof that To love me is
0.03125 earthquake:
1 Knowing is half the battle
1a To know me is to love me
2 Half the battle is fought with weapons
3 Half the weapons are made from plastic
4 Half the plastic is made in the Far East
5 Half the Far East is tortured by earthquakes
"Somebody" by DepecheMODE
- send for the lyrics
A piece of a song by
"October Project":
I am here, calling your name
I am here, calling you back
Return to me, Return to me
You shine like the moon over water
And darken the sky when you leave..
"...I
wish to shew [sic] that
elegance is inferior to
virtue, that the first object of laudable ambition is to
obtain a character as a human being, regardless of the
distinction of sex; and that secondary views should be
brought to this simple touchstone."
- Mary Wollstonecraft,
"A Vindication of the Rights of Woman", 1792.
Another Glitch in the Call
------- ------ -- --- ----
We don't need no indirection
We don't need no flow control
No data typing or declarations
Did you leave the lists alone?
Hey! Hacker! Leave those lists alone!
Chorus:
All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
For years a secret shame
destroyed my peace --
I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNiece.
But now I think a thought that brings me hope:
Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
- Justin Richardson -
"Virtue not lies in the
success of our heroes,
but in that they tried." -- JCA
"I
regret that I did not grab
ahold of the tail of
inspiration and motivation, and allow it to drag me through
life from the day I first observed it. For had I done so, I
would have been better prepared to have met you .. and we
would not have lost what we did. But I turn that regret
around now, and use it to propel me forward, never to catch
where I might have been, but never to fall behind again."
- David Michaels -
The
second she left,
The first I fell;
The right I had
To be the last.
- DM -
Seeing is Believing
by Margie Adam (with music), or LeeAnn Kimber (lyrics?)
When I was growing up
My best friend was a unicorn,
The others smiled at me and called me crazy
But I was not upset
By knowing I did not conform,
I always thought their seeing must be hazy
The unicorn and I would wile away the hours,
Playing, dancing, and romancing in the wild flowers
And we'd sing:
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
When I was seventeen
My best friend was the northern star,
The others asked why I was always dreaming
But I did not reply,
I found my thoughts were very far
Away from daily hurts and fears and scheming
The northern star and I would share our dreams together,
Laughing, sighing, sometimes crying in all kinds of weather
And we'd sing:
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
And now that I am grown,
My best friend lives inside of me,
The others smile at me and called me crazy
But I am not upset,
For long ago I found the key,
I always known their seeing must be hazy
My friend inside and I, we wile away the hours,
Playing, dancing, and romancing in the wild flowers
And we sing:
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
Seeing is believing
In the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love
(To
the tune of "Modern Major
General", from "Pirates of
Penzance", by Gilbert & Sullivan)
I've built a better model than the one at Data General
For databases vegetable, animal, and mineral
My OS handles CPUs with multiplexed duality;
My PL/1 compiler shows impressive functionality!
My storage system's better than magnetic core polarity,
You never have to bother checking out a bit for parity;
There isn't any reason to install non-static floor matting;
My disk drive has capacity for variable formatting.
I feel compelled to mention what I know to be a gloating point:
There's lots of room in memory for variables floating-point,
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
I've built a better model than the one at Data General!
- Steve Levine, "A Computer Song" -
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He's built a better model than the one at Data General!
(To
the tune of "Modern Major
General", from "Pirates of
Penzance", by Gilbert & Sullivan)
I am the very model of a Usenet individual
I've information meaningless and ultimately trivial,
I know the basic elements of alien biology
And all the hidden secrets of the Church of Scientology!
I've seen "The Wrath of Khan" and every Start Trek film that followed
it,
I moan about my Servicecard and how the cash till swallowed it,
About the laws on handguns I am sending off a counterblast,
With many cheerful facts about the way you can MAKE MONEY FAST!
If Dr. Seuss Were a Technical Writer
Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say:
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless, and your system's gonna crash!
You can't say this?
What a shame sir!
We'll find you
Another game sir.
If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'Cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risc,
Then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM.
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!
-- unknown
More
to Come -- Johnny Carson
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