Some Hope Abandonded
Well, it didn't go nearly as well as I hoped. I know I messed up on at least a few IPA symbols when writing out how sentences should be pronounced (and other bits of that may be wrong — it is very hard to sound out words properly when you can't make any sounds), and a few other things are questionable. I'm just hoping things are better than they seemed.
I'm not sure if they did, but by gaging the mood of everyone after the class, I think if the professor is merciful enough to grade on a curve it should not be too bad. I hope. It was probably one of the worst “feeling” tests I've taken, though.
I guess I'm only in the 8th circle or so, so I won't get to see any stars tonight… good news when I get it back would solve that, though.
Abandon All Hope
If I seem a little scarce, that's because of an exam I have tomorrow night for History of the English Language (those wondering about the Dante reference in the title should assemble the initials of the class's name, which gives the name students affectionally refer to the class by). At any rate, the tests in this class are absolutely legendary in their infamy. Every English major hears horror stories about how difficult these tests are.
There are many reasons for this, none of which I'll bore all of you with tonight, but I'll say this for now: I hope I am as fortunate as Dante and can look out to the stars tomorrow night.
God's Grandeur (a.k.a. Sequel to Last Night)
The following poem from Gerald Manley Hopkins is just simply a good thing to read, but I also was especially thinking of it in light of last night's ranting post. Enjoy.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
The Weary Rant of Madness
Ok, I surrender. I'm tired and weary — let's end this.
You want it? Fine, have it, I didn't want it anyway. Don't I? Well, that's not true. I do want it, but I know it is inevitable. You will win. It is always inevitable, so why do I keep starting over when it always must be surrendered at some point?
I'm too weary to fight anymore. Too weary for all the democratic window dressings over predetermined courses. Why the charade? You will do what you will do.
Fine. But you have to take the veggies and not just the dessert. I've given in before, let's do it once and for all and completely, now.
I just want to rest, so take it. But take it all.
Go, Go, Go
What a week. The first few days of the week I spent a lot of time preparing for the relaunch of OFB, particularly the technical aspects of the new site. Then I spent a good deal of time studying — trying to catch up on the things I didn't get done the first part of the week. Last night, I was at the wedding of a friend from church. Then today, we had a special service and installation ceremony for our youth minister who is now our Pastor of Youth and Celebration Worship, then I went and got a flu shot, followed by various small projects, and finally, Alpha. I also spent a lot of time on the phone providing technical support throughout the week — starting with two calls of about one hour each on last Monday evening.
The week got more intense, it seemed, as it progressed. Now this week I have two major tests. I can't wait until next weekend.
Late Night Haiku XVIII
L. A stream forgotten,
Yet it still flows, will anyone recall
Its existence — ever?
LI. The tree falls noiseless,
No one listening to what passed.
One bird lacks a nest.
LII. Ripple, ripple, the water
Flows by me as I write tonight,
What springs from that muse?
TQ: TV
I see I have some new blog comments — sorry I've not read them yet and I think it is time for me to hit the sack. For now, the latest questions from Mark.
1. What did you watch on TV when you were a kid?
Not much. Some cartoons, the cheesy old Batman reruns from the 60's, that kind of thing. But really not that much. I didn't “get into TV” until I became a Trekkie. Reruns of Star Trek episodes beckoned.
2. What do you still enjoy watching from your youth?
Very little, up until I got into Star Trek when I was eleven or so.
3. What new tv programs have you seen that you enjoy?
I can't think of any. The last new show I really enjoyed was Debbie Travis's Facelift — but that was a few years ago. I'm not sure if it is still on.
(As a side note, lest someone think I've been making grave punctuation errors, I do know that putting an apostrophe and an “s” after an “s,” as in “Debbie Travis's Facelift” was incorrect in the past, however in the latest editions of the Modern Language Association's style guides, they declared this formerly taboo style of punctuation as the endorsed way to denote a possessive [“genative case”] in English — even for words ending in “s.”)
4. Which show(s) can you not stand?
Most. I can't stand ones with absolute moral garbage; I also have a low tolerance for reality TV, poorly thought out news “magazines,” overly dramatized storylines, bad music, B-quality science fiction…
I'm picky, what can I say?
Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).
OFB 3.0
Mike came pretty close on guessing about the mystery image, so I'll give him the 20 asisaid points. Here's the real thing:
The new logo is part of the unveiling of the third major “release” of Open for Business. In its first iteration, which I launched five years ago this day (October 5), it was intended to focus on linking to useful articles on migrating to Open Source software. Eventually, the plan was to include some white papers on migration projects and so on. Within a few months, however, OfB, as it came to be known, seemed to naturally flow into a site with some original commentary and news pieces outside of the narrow realm of Open Source migration, so in late April of 2002, I announced a “new OfB.”
This new OfB focused primarily on original content, shoving non-original works off to the side somewhat. This was probably a smart move: there were so many sites that linked to interesting articles, another site that did just that would never have had the draw that OfB did during its height. This height was heightened with the partnership with the defunct LinuxandMain, along with KernelTrap, DesktopLinux and LinuxDevices to form LinuxDailyNews, a loose affiliate network that helped bring the stature of our small, independent sites up a bit in the world of Internet.com and OSDN. That launched on July 4, 2002, ushering in “wIndependence Day.”
2002 was also the year that OfB broke its first major story. In late July, I caught wind of some really stupid dealings of Red Hat toward KDE with regards to an upcoming LinuxWorld expo and wrote a piece that dealt with the issues. It quickly spiraled much larger than I expected and, within hours, Red Hat would offer KDE several RHL systems to use to demo KDE 2.x at the upcoming expo. Many other major articles and interviews appeared, especially with the excellent contributions of my two partners in crime and brothers in Christ, Eduardo and Ed.
With the help of those same two, and a new more general mission to comment on anything interesting about life, the universe and everything, OFB returns after taking its first hiatus for the last six months. The new OFB sports an all new look and an update of its long time ball logo. It also is powered by my SAFARI CMS; the old site ran on a modified version of PHP-Nuke, and I regretted picking that CMS for almost the entire time the old site was up.
Today's launch is only the beginning, so I hope you'll make a habit of visiting OFB and enjoying the exciting new content that will be appearing there in the upcoming days and weeks.
Tomorrow's the Big Day
On October 5th, the mystery object will no longer be a mystery.
The Open Door
Well, Evanescence's the Open Door has finally been released. I've been sort of fascinated with this release, not only because I really enjoyed Fallen, but also because I wanted to see what their first real post-Christian music release would sound like. For those not familiar with the group, since the band's founders at least previously claimed to be Christian and Fallen had some clearly Christian-flavored lyrics, it was briefly marketed at Christian bookstores, until a rather odd tirade by Amy Lee and Ben Moody, the co-founders, caused the label to pull the CD from the Christian market. I'm not sure whether Lee or the newer band members consider themselves Christians as of right now or not. At any rate, unlike Fallen, the Open Door is being marketed exclusively as a secular CD.
Moreover, it is the first release lacking Ben Moody, who not only co-founded the band, but was also the writer of the song that originally attracted me to the group, “My Immortal.” Given that I think Moody soften up the band's heavy sound a bit, I was wondering whether I'd like the Open Door or not. Even Fallen pushes the limits on what I can stand in music. I like it, but the heavy guitar sections of the CD come close to being too much for me.
From the iTunes 30 second preview clips, I'm not entirely sure of the Open Door, but at least several of the songs sound like they have potential. I've already heard “Call Me When Your Sober” on the radio, and it was pretty good; it is a bit different than their previous work while still maintaining the essential sound of the group.
I'll probably order the CD soon — in case anyone is interested, I'll post a review sometime after I hear the whole thing.
