R Allan Baruz: Hostage to Crap

The Dark Side to the Internet

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 02:01:24 GMT

My Usenet server only holds posts for a week, so I almost missed this in the latest digest. (I believe it was Ron who introduced me to these? or Dave? or Ron?)

Date: Mon, 07 Jul 03 12:34:37 -0500
From: Internet Oracle 
Subject: Internet Oracularity #1326-01

Selected-By: "Alyce Wilson" 

The Internet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
Your question was:

> Oracle most wise,
>
> Is it true people use the Internet for other things besides porn?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

} Absolutely! You can also spread viruses with the internet. Steal books,
} music and videos. And lets not forget the endless supply of "free"
} games out there waiting to be downloaded.
}
} There is a dark side to the internet. Some people put _information_
} on their web sites. No nude chicks or pirated music. Actual useful
} information about cars, the weather, what's on TV tonight, etc.
} I can't tell you how much those freaks creep me out. Stay away from
} them or next thing you know you might find yourself doing unspeakable
} things like studying and research. Imagine what you mom will think when
} she finds out you know WAY too much about 18th century Romanian art.
}
} You owe the Oracle some links to sites about naval warfare in the
} late 1500's. Not for me mind you, its... uh... for a friend.

------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle
Subject: Internet Oracularities Digest #1326
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 18:03:59 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: 
Reply-To: oracle-vote@cs.indiana.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: moose.cs.indiana.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 18:03:59 +0000 (UTC)
Originator: daemon@cs.indiana.edu ()

Speaking of which:

Sun, 13 Jul 2003 03:57:34 GMT

Pop culture images, rendered in the isometric perspective. I just thought it an interesting concept. Also expropriated from David Morford.

Malling!

Sun, 13 Jul 2003 02:17:45 GMT

In poetry collection news, I picked up Anne Carson’s Glass, Irony and God on the strength of “The Fall of Rome” and Hayden Carruth’s Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey. I forewent Louise Gluck’s Vita Nuova and Geoffrey Hill’s Speech! Speech!, but will probably reconsider in the next week. The Apple Store is offering an “Apple Store Pro Card.” Sigh. I don’t know how much, but the one day of ten percent off on software is looking attractive, especially with my Adobe suite (of which I only use Illustrator and Photoshop regularly) still stuck in the flakily emulated OS 9, and other software I really really want. But then there’s the G5 coming up soon. Sigh. Must resist urge to translate dissatisfaction into purchases.

Sun, 13 Jul 2003 02:07:52 GMT

Recently started searching for my old copies of Elementals and Coventry after picking up the graphic novel Fables: Legends in Exile, collecting issues one through five of Williamson’s new Vertigo series. I keep seeing little things in the dialogue and panel layouts that remind me of his earlier work, like Colin running around in the foreground and background while the main action is happening elsewhere in the scene. I couldn’t find anything, though, to verify my thoughts. Sigh. I enjoyed both of those comics while they lasted. Anyway, came across some old New Teen Titans issues, the stuff from which the Teen Titans cartoon series will be based. I had forgotten how risque Koriandr’s outfit was; the cartoon tones it down into a teenybopper tube top it seems. Kid Flash doesn’t seem to feature in the promos. The cartoon also seems to put them at a much younger age than the comic book, making the Robin/Nightwing-Starfire romance plotline unlikely. It seems to play up a Robin-Cyborg rivalry I don’t remember from the book. Also came upon the twisted The Lost, recounting Captain Hook’s search for the vampiric Lost Boys. Only two issues of a projected four came out, both of which I have. Pity.

Sat, 12 Jul 2003 03:22:51 GMT

Wilde on diaries and memory:

CECILY. I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didn't write them down, I should probably forget all about them. MISS PRISM. Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Wilde on three-volume novel, plaguing us even then:

CECILY. Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never happened, and couldn't possibly have happened. I believe that Memory is responsible for nearly all the three-volume novels that Mudie sends us. MISS PRISM. Do not speak slightingly of the three-volume novel, Cecily. I wrote one myself in earlier days. CECILY. Did you really, Miss Prism? How wonderfully clever you are! I hope it did not end happily? I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much.

Wilde on what fiction means:

MISS PRISM. The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.

Heh. The meaning of non-fiction, is, of course, beyond the scope of this weblog.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 04:22:52 GMT

DOS Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of others are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use wordwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form.
—New York Times, November 26, 1991

[by way of inluminent]

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 03:59:17 GMT

Though I’ve picked up everything she’s ever done since Girly Sound, hm. But then again, huh.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 00:52:32 GMT

From the Greek Anthology, compiled by various sources. Nossis’s first epigram: I Ἅδιον οὐδὲν ἔρωτος · ἃ δ’ ὄλβια, δεύτερα πάντα
ἐστίν · ἀπὸ στόματος δ’ ἔπτυσα καὶ τὸ μέλι.
τοῠτο λέγει Νοσσίς · τίνα δ’ ἁ Κύπρις οὐκ ἐφίλασεν.
οὐκ οἴδεν κήνα γ' ἅνθεα ποῐα ῥόδα. —Νοσσις I have not yet clapped eyes on an off-the-web Greek Anthology, but this Locrian site (by way of this site) has kindly put several of Nossis’s epigrams from the Anthology in picture form. I tried using the Macintosh’s support for foreign keyboards to type it in Greek, but it’s for modern Greek, so I used the Perseus Greek word study tool and its little language (a=alpha; h=eta; etc.) to compose the lines, save them to RTF Unicode-16, then used sed or awk to delete extras. Then to unicode.org to fill in some holes, some of which are not done yet. If anyone knows a better way to do this on a Mac OS X, please tell me!

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 02:49:43 GMT

Futurama: a little political parable that just goes in too many directions to make a point. It conflates the war with the tax refund and burning the Constitution. And at the end, when Johnny Z joins the bums, isn’t that the point of most ~~libertarian Republican~~ right-of-center economic policies, that it’s the people that best knows how to spend its money? I’m surprised no one within the first several pages (all I can stand, really) of the Can’t Get Enough Futurama discussion even mentions the political angle. The whale biologist, Bender’s adventure, and Fry’s caffeine-induced apotheosis make up somewhat for what is a mostly scattershot episode. My real disappointment, though, was the failure to follow up the last several episodes’ development of Fry and Leela’s deepening relationship.

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 01:32:34 GMT

Speaking of literary things, tomorrow is Bloomsday. But it doesn’t look like I’m doing anything tomorrow either. Definitely on the centennial, though. Yeah, sure.

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 01:17:17 GMT

Weldon Kees in the Chronicle, by way of Arts and Letters. James Reidel has written an autobiography.

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 00:20:19 GMT

A Barnes and Noble superstore opened at Menlo Park Mall recently. An Apple Store, a CD World, and a large enough bookstore. Now, if I were not careful, I could break myself upon this. Too bad the bookstore and the Cheesecake Factory ruin the lines of the front of the mall. But it does make it look more interesting and less faceless. Selection seems to be less than the Clark store’s, at least the topics I’m interested in.

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 03:11:25 GMT

The only reason I got this thing was for this: Well, that one, and this: Everything else will be icing on the cake. Whew. Glad I got those out of my blood.

Guess what I got?

Wed, 04 Jun 2003 02:35:19 GMT

Paul got one. Then Mike got a better one. I of course had to get the latest model. Nyah!

Sun, 01 Jun 2003 03:40:49 GMT

Armi and I picked up some movies last night after I came back.

Fri, 23 May 2003 01:03:25 GMT

Yesterday’s Academy of Country Music Awards ceremony: Kenny Chesney (why do I keep wanting to pronounce that chay-ney?) was touchingly touched by his award. Alan Jackson’s video for “Drive” I liked that video too, but then I’m easily swayed by that family continuity stuff. Toby Keith was voted Entertainer of Year. Was “How do you like me now?” only last year? Phew. The Dixie Chicks did not get a warm reception, and Alan Jackson enjoyed every moment of the hissing. Not that I think they’re traitors or disloyal or anything; that would impute a sort of high-mindedness to the kinds of things they think, like principle or something. No. I myself reserve the right to despise any person at all, most especially politicians. Of all the words painted on their bods in the recent EW, I didn’t see “Weasel” on them. They make their statement when they thought it would not get back to their listening audience. It did, and when their sales threatened to drop, when people were so angry they decided to boycott the band’s music, they made more waffling statements about their position. I hope that they will realize that there’s no pleasing everyone, shut up, and sing. It seems much along the same lines that Evanescence tried to dodge their Christian rock branding after heavily marketing to that audience, and seems to me to speak to a kind of lack of integrity on their parts. Do they, don’t they? To this they may now say, “We would rather you not concentrate on our opinions.” Well, sorry. They should have thought of that before they opened their mouths.

Sun, 18 May 2003 04:24:18 GMT

I am packing for a business trip for a couple of weeks, and connection status there is unknown, so if you don’t hear from me for a while, and suddenly everything appears, well. Afraid that the TiVo would delete the Series Finale of Farscape, I watched it. Wow, what a bummer of a cliffhanger to end upon, but the episode does tie up all the Ktratsi plotlines. My suspicions concerning .hack//SIGN seem to be bearing out, and I think I see the way that the rest of the 26-show series will shape up. I was hoping to get some more typing done, but.

Fri, 16 May 2003 03:10:00 GMT

Caught a bit of Rigoletto last night on WNYE. Though the TiVo said it was the Jonathan Miller production at English National Opera, with John Rawnsley, Arthur Davies, Marie McLaughlin, it looked more like it was set in the original period, rather than the Depression-era Miller production. The Mantuan duke was played by a Argentinian (?) tenor, so I suppose it was this one.

Ten things I hate about Star Trek

Thu, 15 May 2003 02:16:27 GMT

Everyone else is linking this, so why not? I’m juggling a few other things that are not ready for bloggage yet, so I hope this will entertain. It is quite a pity about Firefly, but I haven’t quite made up my mind about whether or not it surpassed the Farscape space opera. But certainly both touched more resonant chords in me than anything the Star Trek franchise has touched since the animated cartoon, alas. Except perhaps the psychological torture of Picard. Perhaps.

Wed, 07 May 2003 05:34:50 GMT

Which passage reminded me of this one:

And there were other things.

“You’re my teacher,” he said quietly. “My friend. Ten years ago when I was going insane trying to—to crush out the fire inside me—you told me that it was possible to have that fire, to hold it and keep it, not as a secret that I had to hide but as a way I could make my living and as a glory, a joy in itself. You told me that dreams were not insanity. Just for that, if you’d done nothing for me from that moment on, I’d still owe you...”

“You owe me nothing!” The crippled fingers tightened fiercely over the soft, stubby ones in their grasp. “Owe—it’s a filthy word! We are not permitted to marry, but we need sons and daughters, Rhion, to whom we can pass our knowledge. To whom we can pass what we are. Not children of the blood, but children of the fire.” There was a long silence, broken by the far-off mewling of gulls.

Rhion on magic; Jaldis on fatherhood
The Rainbow Abyss, 110<
Barbara Hambly, Sun-cross

Wed, 07 May 2003 03:06:54 GMT

I meant to post that last quotation last Tuesday or Wednesday when I read it or Thursday when I finished the book. Lots of literary references in other languages, some of which I can Just Make Out. Ooh, the next one in the Lymond Chronicles looks to be a court intrigue, which is a particularly favorite subgenre of mine, in any genre.

Tue, 06 May 2003 07:33:41 GMT

“Why should you think so? Why assume me to be of such different stuff? We have the same blood, the same upbringing. What else is there, at the end of the day, that we can call our own? We’re our father’s prejudices and our swordmaster’s dead men; our mother’s palate and our nurse’s habit of speech. We’re the books unwritten by our tutor, and our groom’s convictions and the courage of our first horse. I share all that. Five years—even five such as these—can’t tear me drop by drop from your blood.”
Francis Crawford of Lymond
to Richard, Baron Culter, his brother
Game of Kings, 449,
Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond Chronicles.

Mon, 05 May 2003 04:35:50 GMT

San Juan de la Cruz, sitting in his cell, staring out over the Castillan plain and the empty sky: todo y nada he mutters to himself, “Todo y nada.” But, fellow traveler in a latter age, which was which? Are you quite sure?

Like the dollar store...ON CRACK

Fri, 02 May 2003 18:23:09 GMT

I agree.

Thu, 01 May 2003 04:01:01 GMT

Bruce Wexler thinks poetry is dead, and that he helped kill it. Discuss. Whoops, I meant to write more. Notes: Wexler places the blame on the surrounding culture, rather than poets and the institutions with which they surrounded themselves, as Gioia did. Edmund Wilson: “Is Verse a Dying Technique.” Epstein once asked in... Commentary, was it? “Who killed poetry?” He ends with an allusion to Frost, much as Plato’s Republic turns on the pure poetry of the language. Wexler just isn’t as good as Platon. Experimental poetry of the sort... Love of language is the root of poetry; not all verse is, or need be experienced, as written verse. Nor was poetry strictly limited to the lyric anciently. The New Formalists and the Expansives have been telling long stories with verse... but do not seem to get much buzz. The book-length poem is not dead: James Merrill, Rachel Hadas, Frederick Turner, Vikram Seth, John Bricuth, ... By the way, would someone please apply some smackdown to Happy Tutor concerning Wallace Stevens and philosophy while I rummage about for the Necessary Angel? I can’t find my copy to do it myself.