JOATMON

YAUP

With the morning fresh air, 
as the stately sun does rise, 
I sit here and wonder, 
about your beautiful eyes. 

Our hugs, not a feeble grasping,
or a crushing embrace,
we clasp each other firmly,
sharing a great moment.

Then a thought comes to me,
and my flesh does warm and glow,
because I am thinking 
of your lips and tender charms.

So I miss you this morning,
but not with a heavy heart.
I will see you soon enough
and we are not apart.

Konrad

Where'd dat come from?

Here I am, looking at some of my old poems, and thinking, "wow, how did I come up with that?"

Really, it baffles me at times how I seem to stumble into a chain of thoughts, cadence, or whatever.

There is no planning these things.  They just happen.

I'll keep posting these older works.  One day I may even have someone who reads them.

Herm.  I should probably make another category and organize things some more.

Konrad

Lost something?

All a rush, trying to make up those lost minutes?  How can you lose minutes.  They passed, and they may not have passed how they were intended to by you, but they were not lost.  It isn't like you dropped a few minutes through a street grill and could not fish them out.  No time swept under the carpet, or put in the wrong cabinet.  It went on its regular way, and you just did not notice, or passed up your chance to apply the time properly.

Konrad

Ware the Dead

Blood fires below me,
ice flows beside me,
air flows above me,
death flows inside me.
Ware the dead.

Ware the dead.

Konrad

The dear and bitter heart.

The dear and bitter heart.  The slave presence.  If you feel unhappiness at not seeing the person you hold close, that is fine.  It is good that they can bring you pleasure in presence.  The leading this grayness control your thoughts and acts is another matter.  They bring you the glory of their life and it makes you feel good.  They are away from you and you feel them not, but do not let it drag on you.  When it does this, it has become the whole of your life, and this is not proper.

And so the sum of love becomes the buoyancy of the moment.   Rather, that tender ache should remind you of them and make your dear thoughts come to the quick.  In the case when it does defeat and bring sorrow, there is a bit of you missing, for you have become what you are when they are there, not you alone.  And so, unself, you limp through life undone at your own behest.

Konrad

The GNU/LINUX User Show

I am going to ramble a lot here.  I started with one thought, moved to another, and really did not care to edit it all by the time I was done.  Perhaps the hour, and half a glass of wine had to do with that.  So struggle through if you want.  I really don't care at this point.

--

I was listening to The GNU/LINUX User Show, http://www.thepodcastnetwork.com/linuxuser/, which is another podcast I am catching up on.  I had to cringe a tad every time they said Linus' name, or LINUX.  That is because they kept on saying them wrong.

Jon would say GNU properly, which is to pronounce the G.  While in the animal, the African Elk, the G is silent, and in C divided by lambda, it is also silent, in GNU the organization/project, it is pronounced.

This is for a few reasons.  One is because it is an acronym meaning GNU Not Unix.  This makes it a recursive name.  Another, and perhaps the most important is because the inventor of GNU pronounces the G.

Now, since Jon pronounced GNU properly, you might think he would pronounce LINUX properly, and perhaps even Linus.  Well, you would be wrong.

But this is not an uncommon thing.  Many terms get changed by whomever uses them.

A "hacker" historically comes from two sources.  One is a programmer who wrote software without hash tables, so he was like a hack writer in the news who would write the "news" without any facts.  The other is a ham radio operator who hacked into a commercial radio for the purpose of modifying it for legal armature use.  So in the end a hacker was someone that modified computer software or hardware for their own personal use.

Then three teenagers broke into a bank.  It was the first time that type of computer crime had been done.  The reporter objected to using the proper term.  They refused to call three teenage makes a bunch of crackers.  So the reporter abused the word hacker, and that story was picked up by the AP wire.

English is the most changed language that is still in use today.  The Latin, Slavic, Germanic and Asiatic languages have changed far less than English.  Part of this is due to the mixed influences of conquest.  Part of it is because people simply don't bother to learn the proper usage.

I constantly abuse the language myself.  Irreguardless [sic] of this, it is of note to me when I see, or hear, someone do one thing proper, and then completely botch something else.  This is especially true when the things are related.

At least Kelly over at  The GNU/LINUX User Show has an excuse.  She is all new to this, and is exploring things for the absolute first time.

Jon, on the other hand, might be expected to be geeky enough to have downloaded and listen to the audio file by Linus on the subject.

Well, they finally did listen to that particular audio file.  So all is getting better.

Other than rambling on about that, lets see. . .  They have had some very interesting guests.  This included Richard Stallman, who is in my opinion a bit of an extremist, and unrealist.  Still, the interview was exceptionally wonderful to listen to.

Jon tries to bring a practical approach to showing the usability of LINUX.  My favorite LINUX for this is SimplyMEPIS.  He uses another Debian based distro, Knoppix, both of which support common core, and are good platforms for a more friendly install, intro to LINUX.  I just favor MEPIS because of their focus on stable version of apps.  This limits their distro some, but makes it a better intro to novices.

Another tactic Jon uses is doing stuff while he reports on it.  He describes the menu as he sees it, and the commands as he does them.  This makes for a very tangible result with the, "He did it, so can I," sort of feel.

Now back to Kelly Penguin Girl.  Kelly is an artist.  A good artist from the look of her site.  She is also a redhead.

Now, if I was to think of a stereotype and toss artist and redhead in, I would get a touchy, easily to irritate person who is highly interested in direct usability with minimum effort, and looks more than substance.

You can toss that stereotype out the window.  Kelly is exceptionally descriptive of what she does on the show, both the good and the bad.  Even when drinking beer, and just playing around with things, she relates it all in a wonderful way that captures your interest.

She struggles through things that do not interest her, even while saying she is more interested in the looks!  Since Kelly does the work she can not be completely interested in only the look and feel.

Kelly also learns as she goes, and this is expressed in the show.  This greatly enhances the "He did it, so can I," sort of feel be adding the, "and heck, she did it too!" thing.  This is because most people don't think women can be geeks.

Yes, the largest percentage of online gamers are women over 40, and I know several women who are deeply immersed in technology, like my boss, but the public perception is far different.  Geek girls are just not something you see presented in media, so people miss the true number of them.  But for a podcast like this, it is a big plus.  People get the misconception that she can't be a tech lover, so her understanding is accepted as clear proof that anyone can do this stuff.

Need to remember to mention that theory to my friend who codes IPV6 stuff for a router manufacturer.  She will get a laugh out of it.  And no, my deep coder friend is not available.  She has been with another geek for like eight years now, and I keep telling them to formalize it.

Back to the show. . . . sorta.

All and all I would say the material is reasonably accurately presented.  Corrections are done through their web site.  The hosts are well worth listening to.  That makes their podcast one of the better ones out there.

Being a vendor neutral user with Windows, LINUX, FreeBSD, Zenix, MacOS and other experience, I have some skill in identifying resources that might be worth it for a non-enthusiast to latch on to.   The GNU/LINUX User Show can certainly be one of these.

While I think that LINUX still has a ways to go in user friendlyness, this show really helps demonstrate how far it has come.

You can hear practical applications of LINUX technology, and use this to expand your options and understanding.

Konrad

YAUP

Let them lie in blood.
Let them be gone.
Let all things end.

And they were dead to me.
They did fade into darkness,
and I was alone.

Low and woe did the others say.
They did look upon me in vengeance,
and then the loneness did become alone.

And they were done to death,
the death of sleep,
and none would walk,
None would weep.

Konrad

YAUP

The dear and bitter heart. The slave presence. If you feel unhappiness at not seeing the person you hold close, that is fine. It is good that they can bring you pleasure in presence. The leading this grayness control your thoughts and acts is another matter. They bring you the glory of their life and it makes you feel good. They are away from you and you feel them not, but do not let it drag on you. When it does this, it has become the whole of your life, and this is not proper.

And so the sum of love becomes the buoyancy of the moment. Rather, that tender ache should remind you of them and make your dear thoughts come to the quick. In the case when it does defeat and bring sorrow, there is a bit of you missing, for you have become what you are when they are there, not you alone. And so, unself, you limp through life undone at your own behest.

Konrad

YAUP

Then dream the dreary day away, and find a friendly place, where in to rest your lovely head.  Go now, go swiftly slow, go gently to sleep, and dream of dragons flying, dream while dragons weep.  For your sun shining eyes will not cast their light on the world till you next wake, and all of us will miss you, so rest well for dear heart's sake.

Korad

Ouch

Why do people stop and go in traffic?  Find a steady speed, no matter how slow, and roll along.

I was on the freeway.  It was a steep hill going down.  There was a little rain.  Someone had gotten in an accident and some lanes were closed.  Thus there was stop and go traffic.

While stopping I hit a slick spot, the back tire of my bike fishtailed, and at 3 MPH, or less, there was little I could do.  I put my foot down, but it slid too.  So I fell over, and now my ankle hurts.

If people would just go steady the the chances thing like this would happen are much less!  But when they constantly change acceleration and deceleration, there is only so much I can do to adjust for it.  Compounding this is the fact that a motorcycle is harder to control at such slow speeds, and I fell.

Konrad