dglenn

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three." -- Alice Kahn (thanks to blueeowyn)

dglenn

Stupidity can be painful and messy as well as embarrassing, and some tools probably oughtn't be used when one is less than fully awake (and that's probably enough said about how I screwed up). :-( Punctured my hand kinda dramatically a day or so ago, with bruising as the icing on the cake. Bleah.

I can mostly play guitar, but I can't make my pinkie reach for an F chord. If there are any Fs in the music for Saturday, I'll use a capo to transpose them to a different fingering. I can type, but when I do so one-handed (as when typing in bed propped up on my other elbow), some of the shift-key combinations are awkward.

Not sure how long it'll take me to find all the places blood dripped. Yuck.

dglenn

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." -- Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE) (thanks to blueeowyn)

dglenn

"Woodward meets Bush at a White House Christmas party in 2002. Though it's months before the prez would declare war on Iraq, Bush suggests that a sequel to Woodward's previous best seller, Bush at War, should be in the works.'Maybe it will be called More Bush at War,' Bush says. Laura Bush responds, 'Let's hope not.'" -- [Slate's "Condensed Bob Woodward"; Woodward, p.25] (via outragedmoderates.org)

dglenn

Argh. Started writing long entry partly about why I haven't been posting much; got dizzy in middle, not going to finish it right now ... but it does serve as a partial example I guess.

Showed up @ Mom's on 25th, discovered that family Xmas stff scheduled for earlier (before I got my body working well enough to drive) hadn't happened because Mom had been in hospital two days and had returned home shortly before I arrived. Family Xmas rescheduled for today but as of a few hours ago nobody knew when today, and I was unable to sleep last night (*grumble*) and though I thought I was getting second wind, at the moment I'm really really glad I'm not behind the wheel -- this'd-be-pull-over-on-shoulder-and-try-to-take-a-nap bad.

Much more to say. Have to wait until I can focus.

Sorry about crappy communication on my end lately, folks.

dglenn

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2007-01-18:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

-- William Butler Yeats, from his poem The Second Coming.

(submitted to the mailing list by Mike Krawchuk)

dglenn

"Hello, and welcome to Munich, for the 27th Silly Olympiad, an event held traditionally every 3.7 years, which this year has brought together competitors from over 4 million different countries. And here we are at the start of the first event of the afternoon: the second semifinal of the 100 yards for people with no sense of direction ..." -- John Cleese (b. 1939-10-27), in the Monty Python "Silly Olympics" sketch, which first aired 1972-01-02, making today a multiple of 3.7 years since then. (The next time would be 2012-09-14.)

dglenn

From "Sounds like a plan?", by William R. White (pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church, Madison, WI, US), in The Lutheran magazine:

[...] when I searched the Internet, I discovered that "God's plan" is a theme on dozens of Web sites. And these sites typically state that not only has God developed a master plan for your life but that part of your mandate by Christ is to follow this prescribed plan. Some promise "true joy, happiness and success" for those who do just that.

As a faith descendant of Martin Luther, I've learned that our warning light ought to go on whenever someone promises us a reward for being faithful to God. Luther reminded us there is no direct connection between being faithful and being successful. The faithful life of Jesus led him to the cross. Why would we expect anything different?

[...]

Here is how God led the original disciples. Shortly after Jesus selected 12 men for training he sent them out with this admonition: "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons" (Matthew 10:7-8). This sounds less like a plan and more like a mission statement.

The Lutheran magazine, (ISSN 0024-743X) January 2009 (vol. 22 no. 1), pp.28-29

[The full text is, alas, available online only to subscribers. I found it clarified a few things I've had in the back of my head for a long time.]

dglenn

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." -- Eleanor Roosevelt (b. 1884-10-11, d. 1962-11-07; First Lady of the US 1933-1945)

"How you spend your time says much more about your character than how you spend your money." -- Allen's 17th Axiom

Happy Gregorian New Year!

According to http://www.funaba.org/en/calendar-conversion.cgi, and http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/, this is also:

dglenn

"I think we agree, the past is over." -- George W. Bush [thanks to blueeowyn]

[2008 has been pretty rough for many of us. Here's a wish for all of us to have a better 2009!]

dglenn

"We are only ready to undertake a piece of work when we have completed that piece of work. Doing the task prepares us to do the task: we are learning on the job. So, clearly, we don't understand how to do the job until we've already done it." -- Robert Fripp, 2008-11-21 [ thanks to acroyear70 for pointing it out]

[Compare to the dictum that the military is always prepared to fight the last war, and recent observations that the only people with job experience that makes them really prepared to be president are ex-presidents.]

dglenn

"You people in America need to understand one thing - it does not matter if Barrack Obama gets to be president if he does not dismantle the administration that runs your country and reverse the constitutional and human rights law abuses and the torture and terror regime that they created." -- Alternet reader 'usterroristnation', 2008-09-05

dglenn

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2005-11-22:

"You're never too old to become the person you might have been." -- John Lennon (1940-1980)

dglenn

Er ... is there a tool (WinXP or Linux) that'll check a downloaded-but-not-yet-installed TT/OTF font file to see whether certain characters are in it (or to list the Unicode ranges it covers, from which I can find out whether the characters I want are present)? I see a couple of tools that (somewhat clumsily) let me do this for fonts already installed, but I'm hoping to avoid a lot of install-check-uninstall steps if I can.

(And yes, I've decided it's time for another round of "hunt the yogh".)

dglenn

-- from the comic strip Kevin & Kell by Bill Holbrook, 2007-06-22

dglenn

"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." -- C.A.R. Hoare (b. 1934-01-11; inventor of Quicksort)

dglenn

"I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there; I went to the temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys, but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Kaaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers, but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart, and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was nowhere else to be found. " -- Jalaluddin Rumi [thanks to blueeowyn]

To my fellow Christians, Merry Christmas! Let us rejoice in this celebration of the birth of our Saviour, and go and observe various family traditions and eat! ... Uh, and merry Christmas to those who celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday, as well -- just minus the religious bit ... (And to everyone else, please bear with us; the Christmas elevator-music shouldn't last too terribly much longer.)