Payday
Posted on 2004-06-20 at 08:02
After much bitching, whatever logjam was holding up the latest payment has been lifted. I get to get money today. It's sorely needed, what with me closing on my new house this coming Monday.
Deadpan
Posted on 2004-06-20 at 08:01
Arturr hits 9th
Posted on 2004-06-18 at 08:02
Last Saturday, Arturr and Eldrith both hit 9th level. If you don't know D&D then let me explain. Though it's been forgotten in the current edition, 9th level used to be called "name level" and it was when your character was finally coming into his own. You don't know Arturr? Well that just means you haven't been to our D&D group's web site in a while!
Walk through
Posted on 2004-06-18 at 08:01
Last night, I got a chance to get into the house I'm moving into next week. Very cool. Can't wait to get moved. I took Dave with me, since he's gonna be doing a lot of carpentry work for the Caudroplex. I plan to have a raised rear floor (for the back row) and the speakers will be inset in columns that will hide their raw ugliness. Now I just need to get the current occupant outta my damn house!
gTweakUI: Just what the doctor ordered
Posted on 2004-06-10 at 08:01
gTweakUI is an app that offers an easy interface for changing settings that power users have been asking for for a while. If you are like and use Gnome, but want to change more than the standard UI offers without having to go into gConf, then this might be what you need.
Untitled Haiku
Posted on 2004-06-09 at 08:04
The strength of my youth
bends to the vengeance of age
and time poorly spent
-Tom Caudron
-Inspired by my current post-op condition.
Wintel
Posted on 2004-06-09 at 08:03
Plugged in. Online
Jacked up. Fucked up.
T1 line-in. Media upchuck.
Mankind. MetalSoul.
Info Blackhole.
Lord Almighty,
Flood this rathole.
Byte-sized. ArkSafe.
Hi-Tech Street Waif
Who cares anyway?
Why should I pray?
Lead in. Lead out.
Have faith. Have doubt.
Talk loud. Don't shout.
Sine wave. Crest. Bough.
Christ when? Christ now!
Windows. Intel.
Dead soul. Oh well.
Hatred and sin.
Grow weak. Grow thin.
Love to hate me.
Ricki Lake me.
Let life linger
And infestate me.
-Tom Caudron
-Inspired by my job. Maybe I need a new one?
Thoughts of Summers Ago
Posted on 2004-06-09 at 08:02
I betray'd a fragile solace in my longing for thy love.
Tho' devotion in thee's dawning by the touch of Lord above.
Hear the Angels to thee speaking; listen closely to their song,
As our passions sing superior to songs of ages gone.
Listen to the sparrow singing; lingering on the sweetest note.
Listen to my soul beseeching; pledging love in poems wrote.
A gentle rustle and a ripple washes from the sea ashore.
And I watch in sullen silence as I often have before.
In a wild, foolish wonder I would tell thee how I feel.
All the love within me spoken, while before thee I would kneel.
But just as lips are parting to, in broken silence, speak,
A babbl'd blurting issues forth, yet not the words I seek.
My love then still remains a secret by the donning of a mask.
All the soul within me burning, begging to complete my task.
Slumbering still, I'll pray thy love awakens at my sight,
As the dawning of the morning, when the darkness fades to light.
See the world around thee blossom; for our love's ordain'd to be.
Open up thy eyes, belov'd; open up thy eyes and see!
Dost thou love me now, my darling? Would'st thou ever love me true?
Shall my love, in lonely labour, ever more than look at you?
Yet until thy answer's clear, I'll be pleas'd to stand a'nigh.
Staring at thy buttress'd heart and longing for thy open'd eye.
-Tom Caudron
-Inspired by my wife, Denise, on the occasion of our first summer friendship
I must be getting better
Posted on 2004-06-09 at 08:01
Because I'm more active feeling and I am writing again. Damn surgery took it outta me! Anyway, Here is my latest installment of poetry.
I wrote Lee...
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:04
...and as expected good political debate ensued. I can't agree with him on many things, but I can't deny he does a good job of defending his points.
Notes for the Beginning Writer
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:03
The concrete world around us predates us and inspires us. The world of sense---of streams and streets and stars---speaks to us in a way that our dry, a priori logic cannot match. This is the language of poetry and parable, of fable, legend and myth, of anecdote and allegory. This is the language we naturally speak, and yet many beginning writers choose the language of the prosaic and barren world of logic over that of this fertile and variegated world of the senses.
If it is good say that that a man loves, how much better to say that his "luve is like a red red rose," as Burns did? If it is necessary to compare two virtues, how better than to say that they are "as moonlight unto sunlight or as water unto wine," as Tennyson proclaimed? Through these literary devices we begin to understand in a penetrating way that logic plainly cannot convey. The objects of our imagery cannot be preempted with the constructs of our logic. People from Kierkegaard to Jesus saw this dilemma and avoided it through their use of the parable form. This is because the parable is at heart a mythic form that energizes and brings to life its themes.
Belief arises out of experience. Our lives are ripe with a narrative quality through which we interpret our world. It is not through dry text but through the image of Jesus hanging broken from the cross that Christians understand salvation, through images of burning bushes and vast deserts that Jews find identity as a community of believers, and through images of the Gautama Buddha sitting peacefully beneath the Bodhi Tree that Buddhists come to understand the maya. This strong literary tradition ought not to be dismissed too quickly by the beginning writer. Ralph Waldo Emerson said in The Natural History of Intellect, that "a war, a crusade, a gold mine, a new country, speak to the imagination and offer swing and play to the confined powers." The legend of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot tells more about our understanding of love and loyalty than a library of psychological treatise'.
Imagery is about specificity. To speak of "fruit" is to be stingy. What image does that conjure? What shape? What color? What kind? These are the questions to answer. To speak of "apples" or "pears" is to be generous---more so if you speak of the smooth rigidity of the apple's surface, the acidic sweetness of its taste, or the blood-red hue interrupted only by a single small-toothed bite from its otherwise inviolate side. To say, "I walked," is mere disappointment when it could be said that, "I wandered lonely as a cloud," as William Wordsworth did in his famous poem of that same name. Had Romeo merely said that Juliet was his most beloved person, we would be left wanting more. Instead Shakespeare, in his intense Romeo and Juliet, told us of Romeo's love for Juliet through this language of imagery when he said, "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
The beginning writer must seek the right image for the context. It's like making a good stew---ground cumin may seem the best spice, but until the cook tastes it, he will never realize the need for paprika. This is perhaps the most difficult task of writing. For this, there are no rules. There exists no tome of ancient, codified wisdom ready to yield answers to the inquisitive student. To be understood, it must be done. Just as in cooking, writing---the act itself---is the best teacher of its methodology, its idiosyncrasy, and its wonder. A well placed onomatopoeia, a fitting metaphor, and a specific time in a specific place are the tools of the good writer. Jessamyn West said it well: "There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths as exist ... lead through ... the jungles of the self, the world, and of craft." Literature is not mere words. Literature is not mere logic. Literature is not mere communication. It is all these things rolled into a bundle we call art. It speaks to us of ourselves and our world.
The Transit of Venus
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:02
The Transit is coming! Cool stuff. The Transit of Venus (the event whereby the planet Venus passes between us and the sun) is quite rare and used to be quite important scientifically. In fact, it was the transit of Venus that helped us in our initially calculations of the Sun's distance from Earth. though we know how far away the sun is, it is still scientifically useful. This time, scientists will be studying it to figure out of they can determine atmopspheric content by the specific muted spectra. They will use this to help them do the same to extra-solar planetary bodies! That is SO DAMN COOL!
The Economist
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:01
The Economist seems like a pretty good magazine. I might subscribe.
Picnic
Posted on 2004-06-07 at 08:02
The picnic with Brent and Kyoko was great! Will, Liisa, and Bryan should've been there. Much fun was had. Dave had a boat-sized skateboard and I had to abstain becuase I'm still healing from the 4 inch knife wound in my gut. Damn the luck! It looked like SO much fun! They flaunted in in front of me. Taunted me with its skateboardy goodness! Revenge is still in the planning stages.
Right o' Reagan
Posted on 2004-06-07 at 08:01
I saw Lee yesterday. I used to work with him at the schoolyard. Good guy, and as conservative as the day is long. Surely, he'd correct me and say, "Good guy because he's as conservative as the day is long". Anyway, I think I'll write him.
New terms
Posted on 2004-06-04 at 08:01
Heisenbug - A bug that disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or isolate it.
Schroedinbug - A design or implementation bug in a program that doesn't manifest until someone reading source or using the program in an unusual way notices that it never should have worked, at which point the program promptly stops working for everybody until fixed.
Casa De Caudron
Posted on 2004-06-02 at 08:02
The pics of our new home are up for your perusing pleasure. The furnishings are the old owner's. We have not yet moved in. Soon though, soon!
My Geek Code
Posted on 2004-06-02 at 08:01
GC/CS/H/L/O d-(--) s: a C++(+++)$>++++ UL++>+++ P+ L+++>++++ E- W+++ !N !o K>- w++(--)$>--- O M !V(-) PS+ PE(+)>- Y+(++) PGP++>+++ t+(++) 5+ X R+++ tv+ b++(+++)>++++ DI+(++) D++ G+ e++>+++ h---() r+++ y+++
What? You say you don't know what a Geek Code is? Well, let me help you to correct that oversight.