In a world of walls and barriers, people are overlooking out simple connections. We are consumed by our fear of what is different. We have a long history of fearing the unknown. Douglas Adams said something along the lines of "...it's a sad world when you suspect a neighbour's wave."
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long.-You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long.-You come too.
-The Pasture, Robert Frost
Friday, July 08, 2005
Frost
The creator, the artist, the extraordinary [person], is merely the ordinary [person] intensified: a person whose life is sometimes lifted to a high pitch of feeling and who has the gift of making others share their excitement. The ordinary [person] lives by the creative spirit. [They] think in images and dreams in fantasty; [they] live by poetry. Yet they seem to distrust it. [They] cling to the notion that a poet is a queer and incompetent creature, a daydreaming ne'er-do-well, an eccentric trying to escape the business of the veryday world, a soft and coddled soul.
Almost the opposite is true. History is the record of [people] who were not only poets but workers, [beings] of action, discoverers, dreamers and doers...
[A]ny account of Robert Frost's life must being with its curious contradictions. Descended from a long line of New Engalnders who were rooted in the region since 1632, Frost was born in California. The most American of poets, he was first recognized not in his own country, but abroad, and his first two books were published in England. He has never entered a competition and does not believe in prize contests, yet the Pulitzer Prize for the best poetry of the year has been awarded to him four times.
Robert Frost's ancestors were Scotch-English. His mother was of a Scottish seafaring family of Orkneyan origin, a scho0olteacher whose name appears in most records as Isabelle Moody. Frost was more than fifty when he learned the correct spelling from a distant cousin in New Zealand; the relation from down under informed him that the proper spelling was "Moodie." A few years later the poet acknoledged the correction in a poem which serves as "mottoe" for A Witness Tree, a poem playfully signed "The Moodie Forester."
-Excerpt from Louis Untermeyer's introduction to "New Enlarged Pocket Anthology of Robert Frost's Poems"
Almost the opposite is true. History is the record of [people] who were not only poets but workers, [beings] of action, discoverers, dreamers and doers...
[A]ny account of Robert Frost's life must being with its curious contradictions. Descended from a long line of New Engalnders who were rooted in the region since 1632, Frost was born in California. The most American of poets, he was first recognized not in his own country, but abroad, and his first two books were published in England. He has never entered a competition and does not believe in prize contests, yet the Pulitzer Prize for the best poetry of the year has been awarded to him four times.
Robert Frost's ancestors were Scotch-English. His mother was of a Scottish seafaring family of Orkneyan origin, a scho0olteacher whose name appears in most records as Isabelle Moody. Frost was more than fifty when he learned the correct spelling from a distant cousin in New Zealand; the relation from down under informed him that the proper spelling was "Moodie." A few years later the poet acknoledged the correction in a poem which serves as "mottoe" for A Witness Tree, a poem playfully signed "The Moodie Forester."
-Excerpt from Louis Untermeyer's introduction to "New Enlarged Pocket Anthology of Robert Frost's Poems"
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Everything Must Go
You left me with some things:
a spoon, a tie, some socks.
I kept the old shirt you'd wear at night
when we'd climb into bed and turn out the light.
They're all piled in the corner now,
and everything must go.
You made me mighty blue,
so I'd used to look around at day
and see what'd take this hole away.
Your favorite color poking through
the sheets would drop my spirits low;
now everything must go.
I kept your letters and your face
embrodiered on a sleeve of lace
as memories of happy times
and shallow grace;
but now they feed a hungry fire,
and everything must go.
a spoon, a tie, some socks.
I kept the old shirt you'd wear at night
when we'd climb into bed and turn out the light.
They're all piled in the corner now,
and everything must go.
You made me mighty blue,
so I'd used to look around at day
and see what'd take this hole away.
Your favorite color poking through
the sheets would drop my spirits low;
now everything must go.
I kept your letters and your face
embrodiered on a sleeve of lace
as memories of happy times
and shallow grace;
but now they feed a hungry fire,
and everything must go.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
My Friend Dab
"Sleep Paralysis (SP) condition in which someone, most often lying in a supine position, about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep realizes that s/he is unable to move, or speak, or cry out. This may last a few seconds or several moments, occasionally longer." (http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html)
A sensation of not being able to move, even in the slightest manner, your muscles. Sometimes a twitch is accomplished. Sometimes I lie for several minutes trapped inside my own body and completely aware of it. Whether this is a fully concious or semi-concious state is something I'm struggling with defining - I'm concious in the sense that I can look out through my eyes and perceive color, recognize my surroundings, and focus my attention, but it feels like I'm caught halfway between The Dreaming and The Wakening.
"People frequently report feeling a "presence" that is often described as malevolent, threatening, or evil. An intense sense of dread and terror is very common. The presence is likely to be vaguely felt or sensed just out of sight but thought to be watching or monitoring, often with intense interest, sometimes standing by, or sitting on, the bed. On some occasions the presence may attack, strangling and exerting crushing pressure on the chest. People also report auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and tactile hallucinations, as well as floating sensations and out-of-body experiences (Hufford, 1982). These various sensory experiences have been referred to collectively as hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHEs). People frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes one feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering anxiety. Extreme effort to move may even produce phantom movements in which there is proprioceptive feedback of movement that conflicts with visual disconfirmation of any movement of the limb. People may also report severe pain in the limbs when trying to move them."
(http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html)
A sensation of not being able to move, even in the slightest manner, your muscles. Sometimes a twitch is accomplished. Sometimes I lie for several minutes trapped inside my own body and completely aware of it. Whether this is a fully concious or semi-concious state is something I'm struggling with defining - I'm concious in the sense that I can look out through my eyes and perceive color, recognize my surroundings, and focus my attention, but it feels like I'm caught halfway between The Dreaming and The Wakening.
"People frequently report feeling a "presence" that is often described as malevolent, threatening, or evil. An intense sense of dread and terror is very common. The presence is likely to be vaguely felt or sensed just out of sight but thought to be watching or monitoring, often with intense interest, sometimes standing by, or sitting on, the bed. On some occasions the presence may attack, strangling and exerting crushing pressure on the chest. People also report auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and tactile hallucinations, as well as floating sensations and out-of-body experiences (Hufford, 1982). These various sensory experiences have been referred to collectively as hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHEs). People frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes one feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering anxiety. Extreme effort to move may even produce phantom movements in which there is proprioceptive feedback of movement that conflicts with visual disconfirmation of any movement of the limb. People may also report severe pain in the limbs when trying to move them."
(http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html)
Friday, April 29, 2005
Borrowed
The following quotes are often attributed to Mandela, but in actuality have been borrowed from another source:
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Actual Source: Marianne Williamson [1994 Inaugural Speech]
Monday, April 11, 2005
The Preying Mantis - Nature's Abomination
Okay; fun animal fact #1.
The female Preying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) has been made infamous for it's cannabalistic tendancy to consume the head of the male prior to, during, or post-coitus. While previously thought to be a manic method of nutritional input (which it is regardless; brains are high in protein!), it is now understood in some circles that it may be a vital part of reproduction.
The male mantis has several sexual inhibitory censors in its head that limit/repress its sexual behavior. Upon consumption, these inhibitors are removed. Normally, you'd think that this would present a problem for most species, but the amazing curve ball of nature foils even the most expectant of expectant expectators...yeah. Turns out the mantis is still able to successfully reproduce AFTER THE HEAD HAS BEEN EATEN. Apparentely it's worth it to get that rushing orgasm. Not something I'd normally think with insects, but hey! all males are alike.
The female Preying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) has been made infamous for it's cannabalistic tendancy to consume the head of the male prior to, during, or post-coitus. While previously thought to be a manic method of nutritional input (which it is regardless; brains are high in protein!), it is now understood in some circles that it may be a vital part of reproduction.
The male mantis has several sexual inhibitory censors in its head that limit/repress its sexual behavior. Upon consumption, these inhibitors are removed. Normally, you'd think that this would present a problem for most species, but the amazing curve ball of nature foils even the most expectant of expectant expectators...yeah. Turns out the mantis is still able to successfully reproduce AFTER THE HEAD HAS BEEN EATEN. Apparentely it's worth it to get that rushing orgasm. Not something I'd normally think with insects, but hey! all males are alike.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
How many words are there in the English language?
There is no single sensible answer to this question.
It is impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it is so hard to decide what counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (dogs plural noun, dogs present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since we might also find hot-dog or even hotdog?
It is also difficult to decide what counts as 'English'. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Youth slang? Computing jargon?
The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).
This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.
--Reference: www.askoxford.com
There is no single sensible answer to this question.
It is impossible to count the number of words in a language, because it is so hard to decide what counts as a word. Is dog one word, or two (a noun meaning 'a kind of animal', and a verb meaning 'to follow persistently')? If we count it as two, then do we count inflections separately too (dogs plural noun, dogs present tense of the verb). Is dog-tired a word, or just two other words joined together? Is hot dog really two words, since we might also find hot-dog or even hotdog?
It is also difficult to decide what counts as 'English'. What about medical and scientific terms? Latin words used in law, French words used in cooking, German words used in academic writing, Japanese words used in martial arts? Do you count Scots dialect? Youth slang? Computing jargon?
The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).
This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.
--Reference: www.askoxford.com
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