maybe today

you took the trees without even touching me, at least in that way
someone else took the moon, turned the moon so that now it won't even look at me
yet another took my dreams and they are dead
then there are the roses, those liars

now I have no dreams. I have no nights. I have only days.
day after day after day
watching my skin wither
seeing my hair gray
trapped in a prison of hate and loathing and dull emptiness

you have taken everything I ever had and then taken some more

where is that generous child?

lame technology

Once upon a time I made movies. Yep. Me. Movies. With Director 6. Actually, it may have been the beginning of Flash back in 1996. Anyway, there is a choice you make on playback speed; choosing either frame rate or CPU processor rate. After a couple of experiments, I decided CPU processor rate sucked because:

a) it was unreliable and dependent on system load – and you never know what load the system will be carrying, and
b) frame rate was easily controlled using fewer resources, left control in the players domain and gives better playback.

This is why I am a huge Quicktime fan. Quicktime delivers all the time every time.

Fast forward to today. Many professionals still have not figured this out. Witness: above link to Verizon Broadband Beat. Hah! They think they can't support Mac because they won't get into Quicktime. News flash from the past: Quicktime is a quick download and simple install on a PC and guess what? It works all the time every time. And it won't eat up system resources like that no account Windows Media crap (which, by the way, does work on Mac just as good as it does on a PC) and it won't invade like Real (which also works on Mac just as good as it does on a PC). So wize up you geeks. It's 2006. I've know this for 10 (count them) years. What's taking you all so long?

Oh, and guess what Verizon? You do support Mac.

Kryptos Part 4 Solved?

Sure looks like it to me. Scroll down the page, clicking the answers as you go (why work it out when someone else has). You will see the fourth part of the Kryptos sculpture interpreted.

Now, what all four parts mean together I haven't even tried to ascertain. I think the GPS coordinates do point to the statue because precise GPS positioning wasn't as good then (when the sculpture was made) as it is today. Aside from that, go figure your own relationship to King Tut's tomb.

camel urine and a name change

I went to the VCU Student Center tonight to hear Dean King talk about adventuring for the cause of history because I like free stuff and because I like hearing writers talk about their craft, especially when they're good. As a bonus (sort of) David Robbins was there and asked the most pressing question of the evening, "Did you drink camel urine?" I didn't ask any questions.

I arrived four minutes early. The reception area and salon (auditorium) were almost empty. At two minutes to show time, I looked up from playing solitaire on the PDA and suddenly there was a crowd of old people filling in the seats (except for a young rastafarian couple in the back row).

As usual, there was a corporate introduction by someone from the library who actually told an amusing story that I can't recall. He looked like a gentle man who spends all his time reading. He relied heavily on his script.

Dean King spoke without notes in a driving, baritone that resonated like a newscaster's. He ran through sentences as if there was a race to see who can fit the most words into 30 seconds or as if he was afraid that if he stopped for a moment we might wander off. He has the kind of monotone delivery that one reviewer has accused me of. Hey, if Dean can make it, then so can I!

Once I got over the droning, I listened wrapped in fascination to his telling of how he found out the real name of Patrick O'Brian and how he crossed the desert on a camel. He didn't tell us Patrick O'Brian's real name. I guess we have to read the book.

There was also a 12 minute video summary of the theme and methods of his book, "Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival." Technically, the video was a mixture of stills and digital recordings put together by a group of some usual and unusual suspects including something that might have been a free download from the internet. There was some pixelation from compression but otherwise it was okay. I was a little disappointed that no Apple products were used.

I didn't stick around afterwards for the refreshments and conversation because 1) even though the library is still offering the best eats at a free gig in all of Richmond they still don't offer peppermint tea or quarter cups of Fiber One 2) I can only think of dumb questions to ask, like "Hasn't any one ever complained about your monotone delivery?" and "What's it like being a young guy playing to an old crowd?" and "How did you get to the podium wearing a plaid jacket and striped shirt?" Oh, and "How did you get funding?" I'm not concerned about Mohammed, the guide who was abandoned, because I know how the network works. Mohammed may seem to be alone but he has a very strong extended desert family and friends network that keeps him safe.

The best question of the evening was "What is your next project?" That one had me wondering if someone had been paid to ask it. The answer was Dean will be tracing Mao's walk through China during which about 50% of the men died and all of the women survived. David said he's going to talk to the women because they've got it figured out.

As I left I noticed there was one entire row of young people in the back. They didn't ask any questions either. And in case you're wondering, the answer is no, he didn't drink camel urine.

Current Fads
Music. Vangelis Music from Blade Runner
Movie. Blade Runner (1982)
Activity. investigating a life style change
News Source. NPR
Books. Snake Hips - Anne Soffee

Liberation

Song of the Night:
Into the Great Wide Open

That song happened to be playing on the radio as I drove home. It woke me up. I feel ... so ... I don't know. Free, I guess. It's hard most of the time to live the life I would like to choose; the one I feel within to be the real life. It's hard to feel anything after being cramped inside this small space for so long.

It's also the album of the night.
Into the Great Wide Open

Making Sense of Apple vs. Apple

... as much as one can anyway.
And, now, another appropriate attribution to John Lennon, Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem. Here's another good one: You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Apple vs. Apple

A quote attributed to John Lennon (see link above): Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it. I wonder if it would strenghten one side of the case to quote it in court.

My personal favorite: Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.