Posts

Showing posts from June, 2008

No surprises here

Image
You are The Fool Idea, thought, spirituality, that which endeavours to rise above the material. The Fool is the card of infinite possibilities. The bag on the staff indicates that he has all he need to do or be anything he wants, he has only to stop and unpack. He is on his way to a brand new beginning. But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop daydreaming and fantasising and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking the fool. What Tarot Card are You? Take the Test to Find Out. Meme nabbed from Around The World In Beautiful Shoes . Although Tena also has it on her blog(scroll down, it is on the left side).

Dancing Porcupine

Amazing what you can find on Google Maps . I just discovered today that people put links to all sorts of pictures and videos on the map (I had to select My Maps to be able to enable this). Found a video of a "dancing" porcupine at the EcoMuseum near where we live (about 7.5Km or 5 miles). You can take a virtual tour here or look at some photos I have previously posted .

NOTICE OF SUSPENSION

This was not exactly the response I was hoping for from the USPTO (United State Patent and Trademark Office) to my latest amendment to my trademark application. SUSPENSION PROCEDURE: This suspension notice serves to suspend action on the application for the reason(s) specified below. No response is needed. However, if you wish to respond to this notice ... I wondered if this was because I had waited until the last minute (as usual) to file my amendment and they were now preparing for abandonment proceedings. This Office action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on MONTH dd, yyyy . In its response, applicant amended its identification of goods and services. This amendment is acceptable and has been entered. Ok, this sounds good, they have accepted my latest amendment. Action on this application is now suspended pending receipt of a true copy, a photocopy, a certification, or a certified copy of a foreign registration from applicant's country of origin. I've

There was no sense in what he said.

Image
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. Sunday morning the church was filled; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; then came

"Call me old fashioned, but if you really wanted peace couldn't you just stop fighting?

Image
Lieutenent Cobb: "Only when we have the Source. It will give us the power to erase every stinking Hath off the face of this planet." The Doctor: "Hang on. Hang on. A second ago it was peace in our time and now you're talking about genocide!" Lieutenent Cobb: "For us, that means the same thing!" Exchange between The Doctor and Lieutenant Cobb in the Doctor Who episode The Doctor's Daughter (exchange occurs around time 2:00). Image nabbed from here (look under Posters).

"I saw in the whole Christian world

a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human." - Hugo Grotius, On the Laws of War and Peace (1625)

Inspired by Ice Cream

[I]f there are self made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's. - Star Trek, This Side of Paradise

"There was nothing they would not do

to secure the rights of exploited and abused animals. This year alone they, personally, had already chalked up the realease of several hundred prisoner-rats from a lab in Lisle, Illinois.It was too bad about the mutated bubonic plague spreading through Chicago afterward, but as Ken said, people had choices, the rats didn't." From Last Rights by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon.

It doesn't hurt to ask

Image
Two days ago, I picked up a very nice art book called Master's of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion . It features the work of many extremely talented illusory artists and at $19.95 Canadian it was an extremely reasonably priced book considering it is full colour and quite large. The problem was that the bottom edge of the book was dirtied and slightly damaged. I looked for another copy but could not find one. I asked at the cash if they had any undamaged copies and they found another, but it too suffered from the same imperfection. I asked if another store had any copies. They did, but it was in worse shape then the ones I had in my hand - the cover was torn. So I took the least damaged copy, they gave me a 20% damage discount (book is now non-returnable) and I got an additional 10% off because I'm an iRewards member. (Going online, I see I could have got an immaculate copy for pretty much the same price). Being religious, I find this picture by Octa

"[W]e’ve been receiving material from people who apparently learned to type by throwing their cats at the keyboard..."

Taken from this post at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing .

Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant

Image
In the not-productive-but-sidetrack-distraction-of-the-moment I spent some time (please don't ask how much) translating two sentences from Tacitus' Agricola from Latin into English using an online Latin-English dictionary and what Latin roots I can glean out of English words. It wasn't a completely blind translation since I already had a translation for the above line: To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. . However, I wasn't completely captivated by the English and it didn't quite seem to match the Latin. After some searches for alternate translations, I came up with a fuller quote, Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari, si pauper, ambitiosi, quos non Oriens, non Occidens satiaverit: soli omnium opes atque inopiam pari adfectu concupiscunt. Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi sol