Forbidden Planet

Erm ... if it is filled by volume, settling of contents should not be an issue. Read this on the side of a bottle of pigment. I was tempted to buy the pigment, but decided against it. It came in a variety of colors, red, blue, green, yellow, black white as well as copper and silver and gold. The metallic pigments were more expensive. I can't deny that the thought of possessing those bottles filled with their exquisite powders excites me. Not that I would know what to do with them - aside from making a mess. [This was prerecorded]

but you will not exhaust all your foes. If you quell your own anger, your real enemy will be slain. - Nagarjuna , a Buddhist philosopher, c150-250 CE He that will be angry for anything will be angry for nothing. - Sallust, Roman historian, 86-34 BCE. When we reject people in anger, or turn on them with the aim of inflicting pain, we damage our souls even more. - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, 121-180 CE (Meditations, Chapter 2) [For those who are curious where I've been ... erm ... mixture of a lack of enthusiasm, energy and time for blogging. But not to worry, I have had plenty of time to come down with Strep throat - twice. I am currently on my second round of antibiotics, apparently the first round wasn't wholly effective. Makes me wonder how 10 days was decided upon as the standard treatment duration because this is not the first time a round of antibiotics has failed to cure me and I have ended up going for a second round. I have also been busy reading about photograph...

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. - Kent M. Kieth I also found this version, which, personally, I liked better: People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-...

to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived -- this is to have succeeded." - attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

the chief guardian instructed. Vandara's voice was firm and bitter. "The girl should have been taken to the Field when she was born and still nameless. It is the way." "Go on," the chief guardian said. "She was imperfect. And fatherless as well. She should not have been kept." But I was strong. And my eyes were bright. My mother told me. She wouldn't let me go Kira shifted her weight, resting her twisted leg, remembering the story of her birth, and wondering if she would have an opportunity to tell it here. I gripped her thumb so tightly. "We have all tolerated her presence for these years," Vandara went on. "But she has not contributed. She cannot dig or plant or weed, or even tend the domestic beasts the way other girls her age do. She drags that dead leg around like a useless burden. She is slow, and she eats a lot." The council of guardians was listening carefully. Kira's face felt warm with embarrassment. It was true, ...

Yes. This is why movie stars, fashion models, politicians and pop singers have such dreadful personality and relationship problems - their souls have been severely depleted by all the photographs which have been taken of them. - from a very good Canon EOS Beginner's FAQ . Especially good is the section on lenses. I think the FAQ is general enough that any beginner with an SLR camera would benefit from reading it.

it is many short races one after the other.” - Walter Elliot (1842-1928) Good advice for me. I have a tendency to look too far out and see that the final goal is seemingly unattainable. On the other hand, I have to work on reasonable short term goals. I find it easy to set trivial short term goals, unfortunately, achieving them doesn't satisfy; it is the difference between busy work and meaningful work. Also, I have a tendency to try to do too much, instead of just enough. For example, I might decide to reorganize my chemistry books (despite my best Hell paving intentions, my books have a tendency toward chaos), but I will end up trying to reorganize everything - possibly even catalogue them. Consequently, nothing gets done. Need to focus on just reorganizing what needs to be done and forget about the rest. Today's thought (no promise of thoughts tomorrow).

for one simple reason: the pros hire really good-looking models... . They're models because they photograph really, really well. So, what makes our job so hard is that we are not surrounded by fabulous-looking models who just happen to be standing around not eating. Nope, we usually wind up shooting portraits of our friends, many of whom (on a looks scale) fall somewhere between Mr. Bean and Jabba the Hut. This is why our job, as portrait photographers, is actually substantially more challenging than that of a seasoned professional - we've got to make magic from some seriously un-model-like people. This is precisely why we're often so disappointed with our portraits (when its really not our fault)." - Scott Kelby, The Digital Photography Book: Volume 2 [Updated 02-July-2008 @ 10:26: added link to author's site selling the book (no, I don't get a commission)]

"Would someone go to Wimbeldon to play one match? Become a heart surgeon just to do one open-heart surgery and then go back to his regular life? Would someone go to law school to try just one case in court? Or go through all the trouble of opening a coffee shop to stay open for one day?" - Heather Sellers, Chapter after Chapter My response is "Yes! I would" , it is who I am. Some days, I feel I really need to be more passionate about one thing, rather than interested in many things. You can read a sample chapter (chapter 7) here . It is a pdf, so you might want to right click and download it first (for Windows users, I have no idea how a Mac user would do it). Loved the second and third paragraph on the second page. [Updated 02-July-2008 @ 10:27: provided link to author's site selling the book (no, I don't get any commission). Also added paragraph and link pointing to sample chapter pdf].

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...

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).

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)

[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

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.

Taken from this post at 101 Reasons to Stop Writing .

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...

Throughout the city [Jerusalem] people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse, which even animals would reject, was collected and turned into food. In the end, they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas. But why dwell on the commonp...

"A man is thrown down on his back and three or four men sit or stand on his arms and legs and hold him down; and either a gun barrel or a rifle barrel or a carbine barrel or a stick as big as a belaying pin, -- that is, with an inch circumference, -- is simply thrust into his jaws and his jaws are thrust back, and, if possible, a wooden log or stone is put under his head or neck, so he can be held more firmly. In the case of very old men I have seen their teeth fall out, -- I mean when it was done a little roughly. He is simply held down and then water is poured onto his face down his throat and nose from a jar; and that is kept up until the man gives some sign or becomes unconscious. And, when he becomes unconscious, he is simply rolled aside and he is allowed to come to. In almost every case the men have been a little roughly handled. They were rolled aside rudely, so that water was expelled. A man suffers tremendously, there is no doubt about it. His sufferings must be that of ...

Before gaining entry to the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians believed that the deceased would be judged before a tribunal of gods (actually, his/her heart would be weighed to see if they had been just or not). They were also expected to recite this negative confession. There are a few different versions of this floating around - the exact number and specific assertions sometimes slightly vary. The form is always the same: "[Name of god] who comes from [name of place], I have not [committed this transgression]" . I have eliminated the introductory clause of each assertion. The Egyptians had a lot of gods and there is some overlap (e.g. "I have not stolen" and "I have not stolen grain" were affirmed to two different gods). I have not committed sin. I have not committed robbery with violence. I have not stolen. I have not slain men and women. I have not stolen grain. I have not purloined offerings. I have not stolen the property of God. I have not uttered ...

Leonardo da Vinci