Just a random little code-generator I encountered this evening. It seems harmless enough and is too cute not to post, so here it is. Enjoy:
| adopt your own virtual pet! |
Meanwhile, of course, the real Luna wants in on the action, and no virtual imitation compares to the real deal, so over and out.
Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement has ended with the setting sun (which actually appeared out there for a moment this evening). Most people know this holiday as the time when their Jewish friends fast or disappear altogether. As someone who is not religious or all that observant, I have fasted only a fraction of the 33 times this holiday has come around, and then primarily for “tribal” and identity reasons. Fasting is only a part of the holiday, the primary focus being the reflection upon and owning up to the good and bad from the past year, letting go, and resolving to do better for the next year. For the most holy day of a major religion, this is remarkably reasonable and realistic, and something worth doing.
However, this year it is the idea of “fasting” itself that perhaps suggests my atonement for the next year. I didn't really think about fasting per se when I ate nothing except a small bowl of cereal Sunday morning, before going out on a major hike in the Santa Cruz mountains in the afternoon.
The hike was a wonderful experience, physically, aesthetically and socially. I left ready to enjoy and quiet, restful and reflective evening. However, on the drive back I started to feel quite nauseous, and then noticed my limbs shaking, and soon found myself in tremendous pain, unable to drive or do anything except complain about my situation. Fortunately, my friend was able to drive the rest of the way, and also recognize the symptoms of extreme low blood sugar among other issues – and eventually I made it home safe but quite ashamed and embarrassed. Needless to say, I did not fast between sundown yesterday and today – indeed, I have found myself eating even more than usual and feeling merely sated.
If such breaking of fast is met with scorn by the more orthodox, I really don't care, because it has been an opportunity to explore the deeper concepts of holiday. This experience in retrospect seems like a serious wake-up call, a “Katrina moment” if I may wax popular-media for a moment. I have considered myself healthy, and indeed in increasingly better shape in mind and body over the past couple of years, but there is clearly a lot of work to be, and indeed I've probably slipped a bit in recent months.
Thus, it seems a renewed focus on body and mind are in order for this new year 5657. I expect such a focus to not only allow me to get in better shape and enjoy improved health, but to spill over into the other areas of life in which I usually spend my energy, such as music and creativity, work, and my relationships with the people and animals important in my life.
I think it is quite fitting that Luna is here sitting on my chest and purring as I type this piece.
I am upset by the names of her brothers.
It is not clear where they belong,
where she belongs.
Close to the family,
to their heritage,
or off on the mean streets of cities
or nestled among the trees
barely out of Nature's reach?
Does history begin in a stranger's room
with dyed red hair
and a black dress
and words that no one wants to hear?
It doesn't seem finished
It doesn't seem to have begun
The eyes are all around
And I am tired.
I've been a little under the weather the last couple of days. Actually, more than a little. Mostly just resting and recuperation, with Luna?s help, of course. That is, when she?s not too busy looking out the window or hunting bugs, which she spent a lot of time doing yesterday and today. There was one large fly in the window that she became quite obsessed with, tracking it and swatting. Took a while for the mighty hunter to finally catch her quarry.
I did read some more from Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas (which I briefly discussed in an earlier post). I would like to share some interesting thoughts from that as soon as I feel up to the task.
Of course, one can?t spend the entire time on intellectual pursuits, however recreational; so Luna and I also caught up on some DVDs:
I pretty much use the TV as a DVD viewer, I don?t have any television service. So I?m not really up on either current popular programs, nor what?s going on in TV and cable news. Aside from the occasional good drama that I can rent on DVD anyway, it doesn?t seem like I?m missing much, especially when it comes to television news. However, TV news does intrude into other domains however, for example, I found several references online to this commentary by Keith Olbermann. As a follow up to my [post from a few days ago], I provide the following quote which mirrors not only what I have been thinking with frustration not only about the big empty space in New York, but about what happened (or failed to happen) politically in the past few years:
Five years later this space is still empty.
Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country's wound is still open.
Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.
I strongly recommend reading or viewing the whole article in its entirety.
Like I said, I'm pretty out of it when I comes to TV and cable news personalities, so I'm reading a lot of this for the first time. Seems like he?s a bit of an anti-O?Reilly but a bit more civilized. His recent commentaries have earned him a fair amount of praise at several internet outlets that I read; but not surprisingly a lot of flak from the right. He even has his own anti-fan site, though who doesn't these days?.
I'm also curious about this whole “worst person in the world” thing…does he take suggestions?
A friend emailed this to me months ago, and it's been one of my favorite net videos since (though that muppet-anime mashup is pretty classic, too):
There's nothing like watching a cute kitten get the better of a canine rival to brighten one's spirits…
This mashup of gritty anime with the Muppet Show is just too classic to pass up:
Apparently it has been making the rounds online, and was even picked up by a PBS Online article. I wonder if that somehow gives the clip a left-wing bias…
For those who are not familiar with the original sketch for the Muppet Show, here it is:
I actuallly remember this scene and probably too many others from this classic show. It really had an edge that keeps it fun well into adulthood. How many contemporary children's shows can say that?
Excerpted from an article originally posted elsewhere on April 6, 2006:
I was anticipating being a wreck tonight, but actually I'm somewhere between at peace and numb. Having a glass of wine, listening to one of my favorite nighttime CDs (Xenakis Electronic Music from the 50s and 60s). Luna must be somewhere nearby, but she's earned a little time to herself after cuddling and purring w/ me for well over an hour straight. She's really good that way.
I was looking out my bedroom window earlier – mostly dark, except for the nighttime glow off the sides of the houses and buildings and bright spot of neon and fluorescent lighting from the convenience store nestled in the middle of them. For a moment, it seemed like I was living somewhere on the edge of a large city (as opposed to simply “on the edge”).
In contrast, on this night I'm pretty relaxed and content, and instead of Xenakis I'm listening to the soothing sounds of the dishwasher.