The Judge Killed the Bibliophile Dream

I had a dream, and so did Google.   The dream was that all the libraries in the world, their archives, their shelves would be scanned by Google and uploaded to a digital world collection, available to everybody ─ for a cost of course.   I’m fine with paying for such a service if it would mean access to rare collections and to books that would be hard to find and get to physically.  But sadly a judge put an end to that dream.  I suppose he had some good reasons for his ruling:  copyright infringement, privacy concerns, etc.  Still, for just a few moments I thought I could just pull up a book that I wanted online, and send it to an on-demand Espresso Book Machine and have a copy of it!  Sadly that is not the case now.  RIP Google book project.

My Favorite Thing

For those who love to read,
Then a Kindle’s what you need.
It’s the coolest thing I’ve got,
And I use it quite a lot.
It’s not overpriced and sad,
Like some slick and white iPad.
Oh, my precious Kindle reader,
Undisputed market leader!
It holds three thousand books,
And I love the way it looks.
I charge it once a month at most,
Which is surely worth a boast.
I just really want to sing,
About how I love this thing.
By now you must want one,
So come on and join the fun!

…om nom nom!

Yes.  I should be making a proper Passover dinner.  Instead, I spent some time at Target stocking up on plastic eggs and candy for Milkface’s school.  I am the worst Jew in the world.

Anyhooo…I don’t have much to say as my mouth is full of sweet delight and it’s impolite to talk with your mouth full.

zomgwtfbbqrolo!!!111!

Word of the Day: bliss

Today’s word is another feeling, more or less the antonym of the word I discussed in an earlier post. Bliss is defined as a state of supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment. In abstract terms, that is. The dictionary defines bliss but it doesn’t discuss what it actually is.

But how could it? Bliss is a very subjective thing and nothing and no one can really tell you how to get it.

You just have to take the late mythologist Joseph Campbell‘s advice and “follow your bliss.” Of course you have to figure out what your bliss is before you can start following it…

So I’ll open this discussion up to the group. What’s blissful to you?

I’ll go first.

Sitting in the sun next to the sea on a warm but breezy afternoon always puts me into a state of bliss. However, sitting with my friends at a table holding up many pints of beer is another blissful experience, albiet a completely different one.

Okay, your turn.

…until next time.

For A Moment….

Thought I found the perfect words to say,
For a moment,
Then they slipped away,
But in that moment everything was good.
You understood my innermost,
Saw the ghost of things that used to be,
I’d found a way to help you see,
Beyond the pain,
Blame,
Wrong or right,
To put things in a different light,
You had your own epiphany,
Knew the ties left binding you and me,
Are ties built deep and meant to last,
Irregardless of the past,
Saw your warm, accepting, glowing heart,
I sensed you ready to restart,
I’d found the perfect words to say,
For a moment,
Then they slipped away.

The Blink Of An Eye

The blink of an eye,
A lifetime comes swirling and twirling on by,
Leaving childhood memories,
Flitting stark through their haze,
As you lay there in bed near the end of your days,
While half worlds away I’m moved gently to tears,
With a soft reminisce through our parallel years,
To think that those times that we spent long ago,
Still live deep within us in ways we don’t know,
To come back in an instant when lately I hear,
You lay there in bed,
Your last days drawing near.

…central north carolina tornadoes

We have some wacky weather in the Tarheel State.  For example, stand in your front yard where it is sunny and look across the street at your neighbor’s home to see rain. There’s not much snow but we have snice (snow and ice mix).  The humidity in the summertime defies description and how people lived here before air conditioning mystifies me.  We have hurricanes.

Seldom, if ever, do we have tornadoes in this part of the state.  The last tornado to tag Raleigh visited in 1988.  I used to live in a house that hosted that tornado for tea. Before that, it was 1984.

Then there was yesterday.  Late afternoon came the beast that ate the piedmont.  The estimate of fatalities stands at two dozen as I write this post.  According to the most recent report, a total of 62 tornadoes touched down.

Mother Nature’s fury cannot quite be captured in words.  One needs pictures to process the destruction.  Far be it from me to not deliver.

More information on the storm can be found at WRAL’s website.  The viewer submitted photos are astonishing.

The pink streaks are the paths of the tornadoes.

The storm rolls into downtown Raleigh.

Debris litters downtown Raleigh.

Highway 42 outside of Sanford, NC.

Lowe’s home improvement store, a big box retailer, in Sanford, NC.

Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC (outside of Dock Ellis’ office).

Info Ovo

Back story, crack story,
Hooked on facts,
Give me info, give me stats,
Need to be in the know,
Let me see, let me show,
Who did what and where and how,
Need to know and know it now,
What’s that in the middle east?
How’s the planet, and the trees?
What’s with “B list” celebrities?
What’s new in science? Politics?
Who had flings? The latest tricks?
What’s hot on Youtube, and TV?
What does this quiz say about me?
What’s new in fashion? Latest looks?
Google all the latest books,
Take it all in, every drop,
Don’t know how to make it stop,
Soon I’m sure I will explode,
From information overload,
Need to learn to turn and shrug,
To reach down here and pull the pl…….

Word of the Day: nerds and geeks and dorks, oh my….

There are a lot of nerd-geek-dork pages on the internet. Examples can be found here, here, and at this page, where the differences between the three are illustrated with a venn diagram. These three terms are often used interchangeably, and quite erroneously, by the ignorant populars and other stupids who are just too cool use Wikipedia. Therefore, as someone who has never been cool and easily fits into all three categories (depending on the situation), I thought I’d try my hand at explaining the differences between the three.

As a service to all the cools, of course.

At the top of the hierarchy is the nerd. A nerd usually possesses a particular aptitude for engineering, science, or computer-related stuff. For example, a computer-type nerd knows everything about computers and can tell you what every single part of a computer does. He or she can build you a computer from the bottom up without looking at any instructions. Nerds can solve any engineering-related problem. Additionally, nerds are often highly educated and have remarkable memories. They have skills that are highly desirable, marketable, and bankable. Thus, many nerds are rich.

Somewhere in between the dork and nerd is the geek. One thing to keep in mind is that nerds can also be geeks, but not all geeks can be nerds. While a geek might possess an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek, as well as an extensive collection of Star Wars action figures, he’s usually unemployed and spends most of his time playing World of Warcraft and alphabetizing his collection of Dragonlance novels. His own knowledge is too obscure to be of any practical value, so when his computer crashes he has to seek out help from a nerd.

Finally, at the bottom of the pile are the pure dorks. A dork is someone who does not possess any skills whatsoever. He’s into stuff that even geeks would consider a bit too geeky. A typical dork might collect lunch boxes. He is so socially awkward that the only friends he has are other dorks. Napoleon Dynamite is often cited as an example of the typical dork, but I would argue that his sweet dance moves move him up into the geek category.  Maybe even all the way up to nerd.

Until next time.