Sopef Log
Objectifying Beauty
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Taxonomy of the Sciences
Oft do I see attempts to place the divers realms of Science into some sort of hierarchy. Typically, the pecking order is built by defining modular dependencies: Chemistry is based on the laws of Physics. Biology is based on Chemistry. Physics, in turn, is dependent on Mathematics. Therefore, every physical scientist must bow down in awe and gratitude to mathematicians. Hail Math!
Today, I would rather discard the snarky, snotty hierarchies and produce a different type of conceptual taxonomy. The delineations are fuzzy; for example, there is broad overlap between applied Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and the more esoteric domains of Computer Programming. Yet the following should provide a general descriptive view of a few fundamental disciplines. Behold:
- Physics
- The Laws of Nature
- Chemistry
- Nature’s Lego Set
- Biology
- The Study of Life
- Engineering
- The Science of Building Useful Stuff Using Science (i.e., applying Applied Science to applied technology)
- Mathematics
- Physics of Hyperreality
- Computer Science
- Engineering of Hyperreality
- Computer Engineering
- Combination of the Engineering of Hyperreality (architecture, software, architecture-level hardware) with the Engineering of Reality (physical-level hardware).
- Computer Programming
- Construction work to implement Computer Engineering. Computer programmers may be either fine artisans (wizard code hackers) or (semi-)skilled laborers (code monkeys); most fall into the latter category. Monkeytude of a Computer Programmer is inversely proportional to the degree that said Programmer is also an Engineer, and proportional to how blindly the Programmer is hauling about 2×4s and nailing them into place. The hideous state of current software results from most site foremen (and even architects) being more-experienced code monkeys rather than studied Engineers. Were this state replicated in physical reality, most buildings and bridges would simply collapse under their own weight; for experience in welding beams does not grant the knowledge requisite for determining how the beams should be configured, and why.
Does this turn physicists into Nature’s juris doctors, and physical engineers into Natural working lawyers? (My first instinct is to say, Perish the thought! But aye, yet the laws of Nature are not corrupted like the laws of mankind.) Should Lego go into the business of producing chemistry sets? If God requires an algorithmic hyperskyscraper built in purely-abstract hyperreal space, does he call upon Computer Scientists? And are mathematicians, after all, only discovering the hyperlaw from Paul Erdős’ fabled Book?
The above is but a terribly abbreviated overview of a certain perspective in the sciences; and like much “soft” philosophy, it is a rough and squishy model at that. I find it nonetheless both amusing and useful. And in that spirit, with a wink and a smiling heart, may I propose a toast: Here’s to all the useful sciences, for they impart to humanity an advancement in richness heretofore extant only in dreams.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Friday, August 18, 2006 14:52:39 | Permanent Link |
Sex and Music in Ambient Society
I can discuss in polite and intellectual company my love for music; and none will think me the worse for it, nay, all will laud me. Yet it is not so of sex. An I broach the topic and explicate my love of sex in all its depth and profundity, I am branded a pervert, a degenerate—the very nadir of filth in society.
Why must this be so? Music and sexuality are truly more alike than not. Both are sensual pleasures that originate in the physical realm, yet may reach so much farther. Both speak wonders and emotions that defy the best of poets to express in words. Both may be fast or slow, hard or soft, heavy and ponderous or light-hearted and casual.
And on the ugly side, each may be so terribly corrupted by those of a loathsome bent. Yet when I speak of music, people understand I speak of Bach; while whilst I extoll the virtues of my [archetypal sexual actress 1], people turn in disgust, self-deluded by the decadencies of their own souls and loins, and thusly blinded to the beauty I describe.
Such are the prejudices of men in ambient society.
1 In my original notes, I used a neologism that has no proper translation in current English. After I have formally defined the word, I shall substitute it back on this page. The best brief construction I can currently offer is “a (female) person who engages in sexual action”, with denotations of certain ideals, roles, rôles, and relationships in a larger context. —JQ
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Friday, August 18, 2006 14:12:47 | Permanent Link |
Lip-Locked Quartet
Damsels of empassion’d hearts
Who sapphic pleasures lust to seek
May twice by two engage the arts
Of flutt’ring stomachs and knees gone weak.
Yea, two-squared advantage best
May they take of intimate bliss:
For each of womankind is bless’d
With dual lips with which to kiss.
In sylph-like superior osculation,
Lips north and south join exaltation.
A single pair is juxtaposed,
Poles turn’d about to unify:
For in each others’ arms enclosed,
Flesh fused dost electrify.
Or face-to-face, the duet may
See eye-to-eye and cunt-to-cunt;
Closeness is unmatched this way:
Breast-to-breast and front-to-front.
Yet this duet may multiply—
Four do now together lie.
Two by two speak tongue to tongue,
And two by two press lips to lips;
Yet two lovers dost each lover kiss:
One with her mouth, one ’twixt her hips.
Legs entwin’d, they lengthwise lay
With heads at each end of the line,
Words needed not: As fused mouths may
Commune, as may each midpoint writhe.
Two pairs kiss, and two pairs grind,
For pleasures, body, soul, and mind.
Kisses aren’t all joys in bed,
Yet kisses for the soul do speak;
Thus, let it be more often said,
Girls kissing girls stoke fires unique.
The female doth the female match
In chords of spiritual harmony;
Mouths, breasts, and cunts fit to attach
As psyche mirrors physicality.
And circuit doubled to quartet,
Those four may find kissing bliss kismet.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Friday, August 11, 2006 20:55:52 | Permanent Link |
Vaporware and Navigation
I am currently in the process of building my own content management system. Actually, that process started in July, 2005; thus far, the product has been vaporware.
However, I have realized one feature that may be of greatest importance to my users: Categories and “tagging”. Since I have now diversified my writings into divers unrelated topics, readers may have trouble navigating to the topics of their current interest. Additionally, my archives have long grown too large to skim through quickly. I am concerned about the concomitant hit to ever-important usability.
As an interim measure, I plan to at least start adding category tags to my posts. The server-side navigation will still be nonexistent; but tags should assist in scanning for material of interest, and perhaps certain external services may allow site-specific tag searching. Of course, I eventually plan to build a simple, easy-to-use navigational system; but “it’s done when it’s done”, and it isn’t done just yet.
So, dear readers: Hang in there. My output of posts is low, so it should not
be too much trouble for regular readers to merely skim through. Tags will
be forthcoming shortly. And in the distant^H^H^H^H^H^H^Heventual future,
navigation will be as easy as eating a peach off the belly of a lithe yet curvy, nubile girl.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, August 10, 2006 23:20:13 | Permanent Link |
You Do Not Like Me
I have no friends.
Strictly speaking, that statement is false: I do have friends, few and select as they are. And in a looser metaphysical sense, I have plenty of friends: Principles, axioms, logic, science, art, beauty, &c. But in terms of like-mindedness, my “friends” are indeed quite the rarity; and for reasons of both logical consistency and my hope to retain sanity, those who are not at all like-minded to me in principle are likely to engage me in mutual dislike. Either they make sure of it, or I make sure of it.
Most people write me off out-of-hand. This is rather intentional on my part: By overtly exposing aspects of myself that are at odds with ambient society, I am assured that I shan’t have to waste my time on people who make fallacious snap judgments. I don’t write to shock 1—on the contrary, for how low that would be!—but I do most certainly fail to hide ideas of the sort typically spoken of in hushed whispers. People see aspects of me that they would accept iff they first knew me very well in other aspects; and from that, they run away. The primary benefit of this arrangement is the freedom it affords me, with the people-filter as an ancillary bonus.
Naturally, there is plenty hidden in plain sight to suggest the thinking person take pause for a second look. My writing, by and large, is of good literary merit; my presentation is neither crass nor thoughtless; and anybody who takes notice of these characteristics will delve deeper to find the context and the sincere purity with which I craft my words. Those are the people whom I seek; and the rest will bounce harmlessly off the surface, off on their merry ways to oblivion.
On seeing my home-page, for example, prudish Republicans will see sex and anti-Semitic Democrats will see Zionism. Neither shall look further than that. The same goes for almost every visitor: I have something to displease everybody, right there on Page One. (Mostly, it’s the sex.) I have arrived at this arrangement in a fashion more organic than planned, but the results are all the better for it.
The issue, however, runs far deeper than that. I am one of those few people who truly could not ever be a part of any ideological group founded by somebody else. Believe me, I tried that in my youth. Miserable failure was met as kismet, and many a night was spent trying to cleanse my soul of guilt by association. And if ever I enter your activist troupe, you shall, in the end, regret it far more than I.
You do not want me in my organization. I will raise hell upon your contradictions and bring your ideological house of cards crashing down about your ears. My tolerance of corruption approaches the limit of zero; my political tact is nearly non-existent; and although I may attempt such on the occasions when my brain is less than fully functioning, I vehemently eschew allies of convenience: I may stand with an outside group in a limited sense when a single issue is of world-shaking import; other than that, I have been burnt too many times to fall into that trap again (or so wise I would like to believe myself).
Someday, perhaps, I shall have a truly developed .org
of my own; and I shall gather the like-minded unto me, that we may change
the world together. Until that time, I stand proudly at the pinnacle
of ideological loneliness. 2
Yet returning to the original issue, I’d like to talk about you, dear reader. Whether you happened upon Sopef years ago or you are a new arrival, you are weighing in your mind whether to stay, to read, to mayhap get in touch with your not-so-humble author. Whether you have found your first impressions pleasing or otherwise, I have for you but one piece of advice:
You do not like me, and I do not like you. If neither aforegoing lemma holds true, then greetings, fellow traveler! May we henceforth enjoy each others’ fine (and lonesome) company. Otherwise, might I say: There are billions of web pages on the Internet. Most of them are crap. You will find many of them to your liking, so I suggest you leave this place and seek drier, more-wilted pastures.
1 Well, not usually; in my weaker moments, the temptation is too great to resist. ;-)
2 Compulsively as I give credit, that was an Ayn Rand reference.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, August 10, 2006 14:30:57 | Permanent Link |
Der Pornohass
Through the magic looking-glass of sexuality, I have seen humanity at its highest zeniths and its lowest betrayals. In the visions of my mind, in the eyes of the people around me, and through the screen in front of me as I write, I have variously seen the essences of purity and the putrescence of utter filth. Sex, indeed, may reveal what lies in the hearts of men more surely than any other simple test; for no other inborn characteristic ubiquitous amongst all people spans the full spectrum from our primal ancestry to the potentials of our future, all the while touching on our very purpose in life. It is small wonder that societies from the dawn of history have kept sex so tightly bound and leashed, for its secrets are revealing, and its falsehoods tell no lies; and there is no doubt in my mind that for humanity to be redeemed from its current form, sex must be cleansed, freed, and rightfully embraced.
My naïve a priori assumptions to the contrary notwithstanding, that is not what is happening in the world of porn.
If I must watch another empty-eyed drug addict being monotonously, mechanistically drilled by another tattooed ex-convict, I may well find the necessity of removing my eyeballs and soaking them in bleach. Were I to take a random sample from the general opera of our august porn industry, the viewing experience would approximate the following pattern: Start playing scene. Briefly check out faces and attitudes of performers. Skip to next scene. Lather and rinse visual cortex, and repeat. Nine times from ten, the first few moments of cursory examination will suffice for judgment that there is to be no slaking of thirsts here but through drinking from a sewer; and if I persist, the results are certain to be less than healthy or fully satisfying.
Earlier in my transition from joyful innocence to stony understanding, I presumed Sturgeon’s Law to be the sole cause. Later, I realized that other factors magnify the effect, with the 90% rule recursing at least twice again; I shall fully explicate these matters in some future treatise. It shall suffice for the moment to note that in the present-day marketplace of sexually-explicit material, perhaps one in one thousand parts may meet the minimum criteria for acceptable enjoyability. The distribution is not entirely random, and somewhat higher rates of reward may be sought in certain genera, such as some niches of sapphic bent; but across the board, porn in general is a sea of disgusting and abysmal human failure. Even the very best producers meet the lowest standards no more (and usually less) than one time in ten. And for the curious, “alterna-porn” is usually more promise than panacea.
Part of this change in my stated judgment stems simply from reviewing a larger sample, and from eliminating confirmation bias (pesky and pernicious as it always is). And partly, I have better learnt how to read the faces, eyes, and attitudes of humanity, so as to infer from momentary examination a variety of characteristics. Overall, however, identifying the problem has required discovery of a whole new realm of reality. At first, my eyes were blinded and blurry; then, they were closed; and finally, I have with full sight undertaken study of the picture. Where before I lacked proper hypotheses, now I have tested theory.
As to what actions could constructively ameliorate this problem—and what could not only be minimally acceptable, but superlatively beautiful—yea, the future awaits us again. In the mean time, anybody possessed of decent standards yet semi-reliant on porn for sexual satisfaction faces an unpleasant reality in the ambient world. Suspension of disbelief (or willful self-delusion) helps, for those who are capable of engaging it over even short periods of time; so does a vast library through which to sift, although doing so is as tedious and anhedonic as panning for gold in a Superfund site. Today, alas, I have tales of woe but no quick fix.
Perhaps all of this is merely a logical extension of my general standards for people, which are high (and some may say impossibly so). But for myself, I will keep my standards. For the present, the leading lights of Porn Valley and its simulacra can wallow in their odious creations; and I shall mourn the few of some real potential who may occasionally become entangled in their web. As I have said of other subjects, they can proceed without my moral imprimatur—a pox on all your houses, say I, with no irony whatsoever. And for the future, I can only hope and dream—dream of hope, and hope for dreams.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Wednesday, July 26, 2006 18:09:25 | Permanent Link |
The Future Awaits Us
Unsolved problems are a specialty of mine. As the essences of innovation, identification and resolution of unsolved problems are the foci of the creative impulse; and as I am a creator in my soul, I devote much of my time and energies to deeply researching the unknown frontier. Much of the unknown lies interwoven into the fabric of our everyday lives, simply unidentified; other realms of the unknown reach beyond the wildest dreams of mankind; and all of the unknown is of keen interest to me.
And in the resolution of unknowns lie the keys to our future.
Humans come before me have also expended great effort on resolving the unknown. That, after all, is how we reached the future where we stand today. As such, most of the “low-hanging fruits” amongst unknowns have been identified and resolved long ago—and even many of the more-expensive endeavors. Deep exploration of today’s unknown requires complex thought and challenges to many assumptions taken by ambient society as axiomatic. The product of such exploration can be voluminous, and the exposition of such in writing is the work of years, not hours.
Locked in my mind, I hold the fruits of both completed and ongoing efforts in exploring the unknown. My deepest instinct is to race to the mountaintops and proclaim my works to the world; in the education of humanity lies much of my pride, my joyous love, my purpose for living. However, the communication of complicated works is an arduous task, and oftentimes a tedious one.
Much of the work that now absorbs me cannot be reduced to a blog entry, or even to a serial production of essays. Any substantial engagement in such summary communication would result in exposition of half the truth, and in detrimental erroneous assumptions on the part of my readership. While I may drop bits here and there, and I may occasionally assert hints about my conclusions, a full exegesis of my discoveries shall require a far more in-depth treatment.
Naturally, such in-depth treatment shall be rather less than hasty in arriving. In the mean time, I ask my readership to keep an open mind, a resolute heart, and a brightly spirited view toward what is possible in the beauties of this world.
Most of my strongest innovations to date lie in the realm of philosophy (specifically, ethics and politics), justice, art, interpersonal relations, human sexuality, and the metaphysics of beauty. Certain other threads of my thought run into the physical and mathematical sciences, and the practical applications thereof to technology. As to that latter group of endeavors, I ask interested professionals in certain disciplines to contact me, as I cannot work alone with the complexity of rigorous science. As to the former group, individuals strongly motivated to apply such innovations in their own lives are invited to contact me; the world at large will have to wait for a bit.
Per all the above, many of my short essays currently in public release may contain unexplained assertions, oblique references to larger ideas, and other material that raises more questions than answers. In those cases, I shall link to this page as a placeholder in lieu of future, larger works. If you arrived at this essay through such a link, rest assured, you have touched only the tip of the iceberg—with the rest waiting patiently, just out of sight.
The future awaits us. With patience and determination, I shall see my pieces of it delivered, all in due time.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Monday, July 17, 2006 20:11:21 | Permanent Link |
I Told You So With Tears
Cue scenes of apocalyptic doom. Arab rockets rain down on major cities while terrorist groups kidnap hostages. Army forces move into areas that have been well-fortified by groups backed by the likes of Syria and Iran. Air Force raids target Islamic missile bases and weapons caches, but this belated action cannot stop attacks that have already come to take lives. Young men and women in uniform brace themselves to enter a rain of hellfire from which some of them will not return, and others will return as cripples.
Bad movie? No: Israel, 2006. And adding insult to literal injury, all of this was entirely foreseeable by those not corrupt enough to stick their heads in that golden, oil-rich Arabian sand.
You heard me aright. As politicians run around in a frenzy trying to figure out what to do, I have only one question for one of the men most responsible: With all due respect, Mr. Bush, what the bloody hell did you expect?
With super-power comes super-responsibility. It is high time those who give lip-service to the war on terrorism own up to the disastrous results of their actual policies.
I have a most splendid idea: Let’s let Osama bin Laden take over southern Canada and build up an army there. Then, let’s give him California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Just to round things off, Osama should get political and security control of about two dozen states in the eastern half of the country; to ensure he can keep law and order, we’ll give him lots of guns and a few billion dollars in taxpayer money. In the midst of all of this, we’ll make speeches about how he deserves his own sovereign state.
Gee, I simply cannot imagine what could go wrong.
I predicted ex ante the horrors that would materialize on September 11. I was written off as an alarmist.
I opposed the Oslo process, the Gaza expulsion, and Israeli policy toward southern Lebanon. I was brushed away as a reactionary.
Today, I bring you dire prognostications of terrorism, war, death, and generalized horror in both Israel and America. Yea, the entire civilized world now stands at a precipice. The only reason we haven’t yet seen it here is that the Feds are working overtime—yes, with the likes of NSA wiretaps, SWIFT monitoring, and other operations that hopefully the New York Times will never hear about—but they can’t stem the tide forever. Every passing day is a gamble with our lives.
Please start listening to me. Being Cassandra is tiresome and not very rewarding.
Save some lives; save, indeed, the world itself. Against all odds, there is still time. Support full-scale military action now.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Friday, July 14, 2006 11:28:58 | Permanent Link |
Papist Perfidy, Part 666
Rarely do I comment on the Catholic Church; thus far, I simply have deemed such enterprise to be unworthy of my time. Yet occasionally, some piece of information draws my attention back to the vileness of spirit that is the Papacy. Just such a moment occurred when this old Associated Press dispatch crossed my desk and reminded me how anti-life the Holy Mother Church truly is (emphasis added):
At Pope Benedict XVI’s request, the Vatican is preparing a document about condom use by those with AIDS, a top cardinal has said.…
“My department is carefully studying it, along with scientists and theologians entrusted with drawing up a document about the subject that will soon be made known,” the Mexican cardinal [Javier Lozano Barragan] said.
“It is Benedict XVI who asked us for a study on this particular aspect of using a condom by those afflicted with AIDS and by those with infectious diseases,” he said.…
The Vatican opposes the use of condoms as part of its overall teaching against contraception. It advocates sexual abstinence as the best way to combat the spread of the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.
Last week, retired Milan Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a former papal contender, said in comments published in the Italian newsweekly L’Espresso that condoms were the “lesser evil” in combating the spread of AIDS.…
Lozano Barragan has said in the past that condoms can sometimes be condoned, such as when a woman can’t refuse her HIV-positive husband’s sexual advances.
First of all, I find interesting the dearth of options seemingly offered to a woman whose diseased husband is forcing himself upon her. Rather than divorcing him or having him thrown in prison under the relevant laws, it is evidently a given that she must take his HIV-infected semen into her vagina. Fortunately for her, at least one cardinal condones her usage of a condom—thus providing a 50-micron film of latex between the infected fluids and her own—and the Pope himself is graciously considering that such an allowance perhaps should be universal Catholic doctrine.
Thus, the Vatican is now debating whether, given a choice between condom use and HIV proliferation, condom use may be the lesser evil. The Pope has convened a panel of scientists and theologians to ponder this intricate and heart-rending question. The sheer difficulty of this conundrum is probably keeping poor Mr. Ratzinger awake at night; angels would weep, should somebody commit the sin of Onan whilst protecting herself from disease and death!
Anybody who does not see the drastic anti-life implications of the above is someone I do not want living in the same society as I inhabit.
The article goes on to note:
In the La Repubblica interview, Lozano Barragan was asked about Martini’s suggestion that unmarried women could carry frozen embryos to term if the alternative is letting them die in the freezers of fertility clinics.
Church teaching holds that all procreation must take place within marriage; moreover, the Vatican opposes many assisted fertility procedures.
The modern Catholic Church (unlike the medieval church) holds that life begins at conception. Leave aside, for the moment, the absurdity of this proposition; it shall suffice that they do (claim to) believe it. Given that, they would rather let a human person die than allow such a person’s life to be saved outside of marriage. At least, one Cardinal is logical enough to suggest otherwise.
(Background information: For those who are not familiar with it, Catholic theology holds that marriage is a three-way covenant between a man, a woman, and God. A logical twist or two later, since man cannot sunder what God hath wrought, divorce is impossible. Or so the Pope would have you believe.
(Laws in many places prohibit HIV-infected persons from using deception or force to have sex with uninfected persons; and if I were the district attorney involved, I’d add on capital murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly (biological) weapon charges, plus first-degree rape for the scenario aforementioned. Recklessly or wilfully infecting someone with a deady disease sounds like malice aforethought to me; and reckless disregard for life is sufficient for a murder charge in many jurisdictions. Acting in the face of knowledge that an action will likely harm and/or kill a person is ipso facto demonstration of intent in my book, thus rounding out the charge of malice and moving from recklessness to wilfulness. Even if she did not become infected, the attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and (obviously) rape charges still hold. If the jurisdiction carried any bio-weapon or weapons of mass destruction statutes, I would prosecute under those, too, given how a virus has a habit of spreading to wider society. People who despise human life shall rue the day I become their prosecutor.)
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Monday, July 3, 2006 17:16:04 | Permanent Link |
Gardasil HPV Vaccine Approved
Bright news in a world bleak with diseases: Merck’s vaccine targeting four strains of HPV has been approved by the U.S. FDA as of June 8, 2006. According to Merck’s press release, approval is either pending or already granted in many other areas worldwide.
The quadrivalent vaccine targets two strains (16 and 18) responsible for 70% of cervical cancer incidences, as well as two others (6 and 11) that cause many cases of genital warts. If my memory serves me correctly, there are about 30 known strains of sexually transmissible HPV, including about 8 or so that can lead to cancerous effects, out of one or two hundred total known HPV strains. (The others can do things like cause warts on your fingers.)
HPV is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact; so condoms are of limited use in stopping it, and dalliances of a sapphic nature are not safe from its ravages.
Ladies, this nasty little virus—and its oncogenic effects—are the reason why you must have that annual Pap smear starting from the first time you have sex, pretty much forever. This vaccine will not eliminate the need for the Pap smear, since it only does target two of the cancer-causing strains—but it will essentially reduce by two thirds your chance of getting back heart-sinking results from your doctor, if (as noted below) you get this vaccine when you are a virgin. And men, if ye claim to be gentlemen indeed, protect your ladies: Get this vaccine and stop spreading these strains. (HPV can also lead to penile cancer, by the way, although this is much more rare than the cervical variety.)
For both men and women, the vaccine’s protection against the virus strains that cause 90% of genital warts should give pause for consideration, too.
In my view, everybody should get this vaccine unless it is specifically contraindicated for them. Although most people fail to realize this, HPV is endemic in the sexually active population. With a vaccine in our medical warchest, we can now take real steps toward eradicating four of the most common strains of this nasty and dangerous disease. In a perfect world—where vaccination was universal and all women continued to have annual Pap smears, and leaving aside the evolutionary dynamics that may be exerted on other strains—the next generation could see a 70% reduction in combined rates of cervical cancer and pre-cancerous lesions, plus a 90% reduction in genital warts. It is already well-recorded that I am a big fan of vaccines, and this is a great example of why.
Gardasil is a three-shot course over the course of six months, so starting as soon as possible would be wise. When all three shots were correctly administered, it essentially provided 100% protection during clinical trials (which is very darn good).
One caveat, though: This vaccine is only effective for people who have not yet been exposed to these strains. It should ideally be administered to people before they become sexually active, which is why the original clinical trials and the FDA’s initial approval are “for use in females 9–26 years of age”. For now, indeed, it is off-label for men and for women age 27 and up; but I cannot for the life of me think of any reason why it would be harmful. As the American pharma commercials say, “ask your doctor”. I certainly shall be asking mine; I put my body where my mouth is.
Here are some other informational details for this vaccine:
- Brand name: Gardasil®
- Generic name: Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) Recombinant Vaccine
- Manufacturer: Merck & Co., Inc.
- PDF: Gardasil Package Insert (Prescribing Information)
- PDF: Gardasil Patient Product Information
- Gardasil® website for patients (will probably soon host sleek ad copy)
- Gardasil® website for health care professionals (ditto, with bigger words)
GlaxoSmithKline has an HPV in the works, too; but it only targets strains 16 and 18, and it is not yet approved. When Merck’s offering shows such promise and offers tasty quadrivalence to boot, GSK’s shot seems like a non-starter to me, barring any future news that speaks contrariwise.
Thanks to Merck and to Kathrin Jansen (who spearheaded the research team) for this great news. This all dovetails into another idea I have had lately, too… But for now, it is time to stop reading, call the doctor, and get protected.
[No, I do not have cites on hand for any of the above; except for the bits from the press releases and product info sheets, it is all from memory. I am in an inexcusably lazy mood. Ask your doctor, and all that. At this writing, I am not affiliated with any of the principals involved; in any case, I would make a very odd pharma shill, indeed. ;-]
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, June 8, 2006 20:13:17 | Permanent Link |
God Delivers (High Quality Glassware through φ)
For months, now, I have been mourning the end of Jenaer Glaswerks. [If you cannot see that press release, set a cookie by simply visiting this page first; Schott evidently makes fine glass but abysmally unusable websites.] I do so appreciate quality glassware; and the centenarian German shop called Jenaer (or sometimes Schott, thanks to a Cold War-era split) delivered cups and teapots that actually feel like lab glass in my hands. Unfortunately, the consumer products division was hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate; and Schott, who continues to persist as one of the premier industrial glass manufacturers in the world, shut down the Jena teapot operation and transferred most of their skilled workers one year ago this month.
It appears, however, that somebody harks to my never-ending mathematical prayers.
In my continuing quest for the auric harmony of divine guidance, this eve
I engaged a meandering search for “φ”.
That, as you all know, is the
Golden Ratio
(represented as the Greek lowercase letter
phi, Unicode U+03c6), a transcendental number approximated by 1.61803.
Architecture, art, the
Fibonacci series, and the human body itself are all related to φ.
φ+1=φ², and φ-1=1/φ. ’Tis a fascinating little number, indeed—and as I thought,
a fitting one after which to randomly chase ’cross the Web.
Though a Jenaer teacup was not far from my hand, my thoughts were elsewhere—yet lo! φ, that goldener Schnitt, leads me to the Good News that Jenaer Glas has risen again. Even the Cold War failed to stop them; so I suppose I should be unsurprised that they may be undeterred by the economic reality of unwashed masses who do not even recognize quality, let alone appreciate it. According to the aforelinked blog entry, they are now running with Hungarian labor as Trendglas-Jena.
It remains to be seen if they retain the old German quality (which to me, of course, is their only conceivable raison d’être). Yet for now, I may at least take comfort in the grace of hope for my precious supply of glassware. My breathing will now be easier, my sleep sounder; food will taste better when I wake up on tomorrow’s morn. And for bringing me this news, I am grateful to God and good old φ.
Pray to the God of Math. He delivers.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Saturday, April 1, 2006 10:10:42 | Permanent Link |
Never Meet the Artist
Darkness surrounds me, ’though I thought to walk into a realm of light. Where sweetness I had tasted ’pon my lips, bile now churns from the depths of grief in my gut: For I had lifted a worldly glass for to drink of life, only too late to realize I was swallowing a draught of raw sewage.
Reeling like a drunk, he stumbled out into the alleyway. Fetid miasmas swirled before his eyes, and the screams of horror and suffering pierced his nostrils. Falling to his knees in the mud and city refuse, he retched uncontrollably.
I broke one of my cardinal rules of praxis and survival: Never let myself to know the artist. I have yet to understand why or how or whither-for such beauty may be so oft portrayed—thus, betrayed—by persons so unworthy of it; yet even without clear understanding of the principles behind, I know it by rote as if a matter of irrefragable fact. The face of an angel may so well mask ugliness to make me claw my eyes out in shame and disgust, and those eyes of hers which promise a soul of purity are underlain by mouths and hands wreaking works of blasphemy.
The reasoning had seemed of such simple truths at the time: She understands some small part, he thought, at the very least; oh, she must! Thus did he take her to his embrace and make love to her under Luna’s watch and witness; thus did he so nearly bring her to bathe in his pool of dreams.
There is one author I have seen underscore this point in her writings: Ayn Rand, and none other to date. For daring to make this observation not once, but strongly and repeatedly in her early opera, I give her a vast amount of credit; it is not a politic face to put on for a young immigrant determined to break into Hollywood (of all places!). Of course, she may herself have ended up providing us an unfortunate demonstration of this principle in action; I may never know since, perhaps fortunately in an ironic way, I never met her in life.
Her eyes—oh, those eyes had haunted him, lingering about him like a ghostly presence throughout the day and following him to his very dreams with their soulful calling. One look had done him in; and so, one strong and poignant look had very nearly proven his undoing. He failed to grasp how the windows of the soul could shine with such truth if this truth were not reflected deep within; and blindingly suffering, now, bound to pain without understanding, he still could not bring himself to believe that such beautiful eyes could break their promises. As he vomited into the mud, he saw them watching him from the dank puddles of the alleyway; and they lingered on the edge of his vision as he collapsed to a wretched heap and surrendered his consciousness unto the night.
With such credit given as due, I must say I am surprised I have never heard any other famous person enunciate this rule. Perhaps it is widely known, and I am but narrowly read; or mayhap those of wide social recognition in the realms of art or literature or philosophy are afraid to betray themselves, hapless proof as they are of the rule’s stark veracity.
He awoke in a bower of filth and refuse. He looked, felt, and smelled as a castaway piece of human garbage. A hoodlum had stolen his wallet during the night as he lay; had his luck turned hot or cold, one might very well have murdered him. The stench and grime went to his eyes, making them burn and tear. He squinted hard at the sky, searching for some signs of hope; but the heavens, grey, bleak, and listless, gave him no reply save an apathetic breeze, stale and stultifying air to chill him in his sadness and its despair.
Is there hope? Yea, there is always hope; there must be, yes, there must! I may be redeemed, and so might some others. Furthermore, I bend myself by force of red-hot iron to believe in hope for the world—and in hope for the actress of this eve’s harsh trials, object of shattered hopes I might hope one day to see wrought anew.
Whilst lying in the alleyway, he had dreamt of a bath; yet as the clean water lapped over his skin, he could feel only her flesh as he had when he knelt at the tub, cleansing her body in its every detail. He squeezed his eyes shut and washed himself mechanically. Over the hollow feeling of his heart, he locked out his emotions and forced himself to act on command; and thusly determined, he performed his ablutions and took himself to bed. To bed, respite so sweet, for there to lie forelorn, tears leaking from beneath his eyelids as he prayed for hope and hoped for redemption.
Away I am, now, to dream indeed: To dream of prayers as I pray for my dreams. And mayhap as Luna watches over me this night, she will kiss me and forgive me and make love to my love for right.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Saturday, January 21, 2006 20:04:28 | Permanent Link |
My Audio Virginity: Now a Gang-Bang
[Updated 2006-01-04! Downloads below.]
Unto you, dear readers, I present the official surrender of my audiorecording virginity. As any first-timer, of course, I am giddily excited but a bit unsure of my footing; hear my first shy steps as I learn my editing program, then gain some control over my plosives. I shall learn yet, yes—and you may expect far more in the future as I learn to ply my (microphone) instrument with a bit more skill, for in this realm of media, I have plans, indeed.
Thusly am I deflowered that I might bloom.
Now, it seems my defloration night did turn into a gang-bang. Enjoy the wanton excess as I have pushed myself to my limits, determined as I was to put forth the following sextuple acts:
- Orgiastic Fluid Exchange: Elixirs Crossed in Text & Audio
- The Joy of Getting Knocked Up: Unto Life in Text & Audio
- Male-On-Female Passion: Frenzy in Text & Audio
- Spirit: Interlude in Text & Audio
- An I Be A Whore: Hath Not A Whore Eyes? in Text & Audio
- The Spirits Speak: Humanity’s Piaculum & Recrudescent Call for Humanity’s Piaculum in Original Text/Followup Text & Audio
Acknowledgements: My thanks to Audacity, LAME, FLAC, BitTorrent/Bram Cohen, and all the other essential free tools I have used tonight or I plan to draw on for my audio content creation and distribution enterprise.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Tuesday, January 3, 2006 00:11:47 | Permanent Link |
She
In my mind, a paragon of beauty stands naked and proud at my beloved dream-pool’s edge. She knows aught of villainy or corruption, for she is pure; and as the rain-drops fall from the moon’s silv’ry sky, her skin is wreath’d by an aura of crystal sparks. Each spark is also a prickling point ’pon the senses of her skin: Chill and bracing to match her heat, wet to match the flows in her heart or loins. You have yet to meet her, but she haunts me in my dreams; and if she comes to visit you, I bid ye, make love to her until the stars overhead are matched by those in your heart, in your blood, ’fore your eyes.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, December 29, 2005 00:52:53 | Permanent Link |
Identical, Spherical TAs
A university-student associate of mine recently e-mailed around an urgent question of practical etiquette:
how do you refer to a TA? I refer to my mgmt TA as “Rose”, but that’s how she introduced herself to us. i’m emailing my math TA, and I don’t know what to call him. i figure formal is better, but i’m not actually sure if he’s “Dr.” yet. his website is [snip]. how should i address him?
I replied:
I’d start by assuming that all TAs are identical and spherical. This would mean that he is congruent to Rose, reducing this to a known problem. Therefore, I would address him as “Rose”.
Q.E.D. (Quick, Easy, Disposable)
I should dare her to actually try that; if he’s a real mathematician, he’ll laugh when it is explained to him. Oh, how I love mathematics.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, November 3, 2005 13:36:01 | Permanent Link |
Recrudescent Call for Humanity’s Piaculum
It is not without some small churning of grief in my heart that I come, today, to reissue and renew the call for humanity’s piaculum to be sent forth unto me. Such times are upon us of change and decision that further delays may gravely impact upon the world’s future course: Promises made must be kept for promises given, and failings further do indubitably endanger the hope that a new era offers for humankind.
An epoch is come of decay, stench, and filth. In the midst of civil decline, I stand firm in declaring that a return to barbarism of times past is not an option. The choice, thence and henceforth, is binary: Either we rise and bring humanity to a new course of growth in purity, or we exit o’er the downfall in total of the thusly-failed human experiment. Portents of doom match those of hope step for step; be the race won, we rejoice, yet be it lost, I wash my hands and move out, sad but sure, to worthier waters and more-rewarding projects.
The call, then, is clear: Corruption must be vanquished. The future of humankind on the outside shall be firmly matched to the future of humankind’s heart; and if erasure of corruption within thus requires the extinguishment of future’s history without, then so be it. No longer shall savages of the soul, lowsome beings, be let to masquerade in the glorious achievement that is the human form. If human potential cannot be saved, then neither shall human existence.
And the call, as so stated, must start with the individual. Units of purity are amassed soul by soul, heart by heart, mind by mind; only so much may be accomplished in the crowd when faces that promise cover hearts wrought with lies. The individual, indeed, is unitary in origin and nature: Such is a fact hugged tight to the purpose, the potential, for which this experiment was indeed begun.
So, show me one: Let us start now with one. An ordinary human, neither god nor goddess, who glimmers as a bright spark amongst the masses of seething rot—so shall be the spark that is the start of salvation. Shewn to me and yielded to my hand, let this one be my hope, be my guide, be example and paragon as proof positive that perhaps yet there is hope for the others, the all.
Yet e’en as I impose this simple demand, I realize how difficult it is. Yea, whereas the ancients, in corruption, worshipped gods who demanded sacrifice of human life unto death: I say with contempt for them, death is easy, death is cheap. And cheapness shall fill the place for aught in my search for death to be vanquished. Life, and righteous living—this is the new demand of new gods, a new order, a new sacrifice.
Grief is a heavy burden indeed; yet sleep eternal is an escape from the purpose for which human seed were sewn on this Earth. Show, give unto me that soul strong enough to hold the burden of joy—joy so pure and joy so demanding, it is a rare element to shine scarcer than gold. And give me such in a human, one to become one womb for all man’s future hope.
Show me one so beautiful; give me one so pure. Let me weep in joy as I embrace her and take her to my hand. I shall take her and shape her and make her in the image of her highest potential. And by eyes so bright and a mind thus steady, I shall ordain her to a new purpose additional to herself in sich: To use her, to show the gods that human purity exists, to trade the sight of her visage for a future of human hope.
Time’s march is nay but inexorable as ever it was. The gods are waiting, their hearts heavy and patience weary. I warn ye, tarry not.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Saturday, October 22, 2005 14:40:29 | Permanent Link |
All-Natural Super PRE-CURE
While I typically refrain from posting about this type of product, I simply feel I cannot stand by and let this message be unspoken. For the information I have to present is of most vital importance. This could save your life—or the lives of your children—so please, read this carefully and pass the message on to others!
What if your body had built-in defenses against disease that simply are not being used? What if you could activate these natural defenses using readily-available products, so that your body could recognize diseases and kill them on sight? Yet what if there were a vast conspiracy afoot to keep you and your family misinformed and in the dark about the truth of the matter, leaving your body’s natural defenses below their highest natural capacity to fight germs?
I am here to make sure that the Truth is known. Lives are on the line, and I feel it incumbent upon me to spread the word.
Nature Herself has armed your body with natural disease-fighting weapons. There is a method out there that can build up your body’s arsenal, stimulating the immune system you were born with to produce natural antibodies. This way, your immune system will “remember” a disease instantaneously upon countering it—and will have the weapons to stop germs in their tracks, CURING DISEASE BEFORE IT STARTS.
Centuries of painstaking research have given us this way to arm your body’s natural immunities against smallpox, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A&B, common flu strains, rabies, and scores of other deadly and crippling diseases! Prevent all these diseases and more—often with a one in a million chance of serious side effects! Think: Do you want to put yourself and your children at major risk, or do you want to go the safe and healthy way to giving your bodies’ immune systems a super mega-boost?
Unfortunately, there are people out there who don’t want you to have this information. There is an organized cover-up involving half-truths and outright lies to keep you and your family in the dark. Often, it’s all about the money: Many of the people and organizations spreading misinformation about this method have a vested interest in keeping you and your family unprotected. They have something to sell—and they don’t care who they maim and kill, just as long as the check clears at the bank.
Greed and the almightly dollar are putting you and your family at risk. The saddest part is, if you have medical insurance, extensive effort by pro-Truth activists has forced even the greediest insurance companies to cover this method at little or no cost to you; and even if you are uninsured, there are good-hearted non-profit organizations out there that will often provide this method to you and your family for free.
I use this miraculous method to protect my own health, and I make darn sure that every member of my family does, too. I’ve made sure everybody I care about is informed of the Truth about how to bolster their bodies’ natural immune systems. And now, it’s time for the public to know, too.
The method is called vaccination. The mechanism of action is to stimulate your body’s immune system into producing all-natural antibodies; this way, when you are exposed to a disease, your immune system is poised to stomp on it before it has a chance to get you sick! And the conspiracy of which I speak is probably familiar to you if you have researched “alternative therapies” or encountered anti-vaccination activism on the Internet. A (very) few elements in this conspiracy are well-intended but misguided people who have suffered personal tragedies so rare as to be like being struck by lightening; but most are quacks, charlatans, and snake-oil salesmen who want to wring you for cold cash in any way they can get you. And if that means a fly-by-night company can convince you to avoid life-saving treatment so that they can cheat you for a “cure” that might even make you sick by itself, these greedy slimeballs are all the happier for it.
Remember: They want you to be sick; and even moreso, they want you to be afraid of getting sick. That way, they can sell you books, videos, oft-dangerous chemical concoctions, wonky machines, or whatever else they can rip you off for so they can get some money. If you and your family were protected against disease, they wouldn’t have anything to sell you—right?
(God, I just had to get that off my chest. Shoutz to Jonas Salk, Louis Pasteur, and the thousands of good scientists working hard in pharma to bring us new vaccines today, yesterday, and tomorrow.)
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Monday, September 26, 2005 21:38:12 | Permanent Link |
Alertbox & Internationalization Clue
Dear Jakob Nielsen:
Your latest little bit about internationalization basics on the Web is concise, well written, and well-explained. However, the advice therein offered is so stupendously basic that any company or webdesigner who is not aware of these issues today, in 2005, is hopelessly clue-resistant.
Unfortunately, from where I sit, empirical observation suggests that companies who do international business—and the webdesigners who work for them—were vaccinated against clue at birth, or perhaps were even born with congenital clue-antibodies. Even the famous Alertbox doesn’t stand a chance. Sorry.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Monday, August 8, 2005 19:26:26 | Permanent Link |
Mac, x86, & VMware
Now that Mac is moving to x86, Apple should really produce a special “developer” version of OS X that runs on VMware. If they want to prevent people from building their own cheap Macs with off-the-shelf parts, fine! Just allow developers an easy way to port and test their apps with OS X—which is good for Apple!—without being forced to buy an expensive piece of white-elephant hardware.
Really, it would be a win-win situation for Apple. More apps would be ported to OS X, but they would still be able to maintain their godawful chokehold in so far as disallowing cheap Mac clones. I’m sure that VMware would be amenable to working with Apple to add the capability that the special Dev-OSX would be locked to only run on VMware; after all, it’s definitely a win-win situation for VMware, too.
Price the Dev-OSX version at USD $50 or so—or make it available for free!—and watch the number of OS X-compatible applications grow, particularly in the freeware and open-source departments. Plus, PC enthusiasts would have an opportunity to play with OS X, get hooked on it, and then suffer an irresistible urge to go and buy overpriced Apple hardware so they could run an OS X system for real.
This is really in Apple’s own self-interest.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Friday, August 5, 2005 15:06:15 | Permanent Link |
A Technical Hiatus
I have lately been embarking on a bit of a “teχy” holiday, so to speak. Fear not, little lambs, for I shall return anew—anew, yes, with projects in the pipeline that fulfill and extend the promises of which I have yet but merely hinted.
While I may technically be on hiatus, I am far indeed from the ills of idle oblivion. And naturally, Sopef.org shall serve as my central point of announcements to the public. Watch not yet with bated breath, but watch ye yet with care for the ideas and ideals of beauty that, with good time, shall be put forth upon this stage.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Wednesday, July 13, 2005 20:57:01 | Permanent Link |
Renunciation of Support for George W. Bush
Updated 2006-02-14; see below.
June–July 2005
Renunciation of Support for George W. Bush
In light of this President’s continued failure to prosecute a strong and effectual War on Terrorism, I hereby renounce all support for the administration of George W. Bush.
I cast my vote in his favor out of vain hope that Bush would finally take matters of national security under control; that single issue, the issue of American survival, outweighed all else in my practical judgment. And on that very issue, George W. Bush has failed.
At home, as expected, he has denigrated freedom, upraised theocrats, and put forth a domestic agenda more well-suited to the nineteenth century than to the twenty-first. Abroad, as I had feared but had hoped would not be true, his foreign policy has continued devolving into a pattern of big talk, empty words, and appeasement-by-default. He has embraced our enemies and comforted murderers, then sold away our closest natural friends and allies in the global struggle against terrorism; in the mean time, American national interests rot in a cesspit—and American soldiers continue to bleed onto the infertile sands where he tries futilely to plant seeds. We are on the losing side of a war of attrition; and as our wounds fester and boil, our enemies circle above, waiting and watching and smiling behind their hands.
If civilization indeed survives the onslaught of barbarism that continues to roll forth in wave after sickening wave, future historians shall mark the Bush Administration as an epoch of weak will, lost opportunity, blind fumbling, and petty betrayals.
Bush is still, by far, the lesser evil between the two major candidates offered up on the ballot of November 2, 2004. And of course, we do seem to be stuck with him now. However, he shall now have to continue wrecking both freedom and security without any further shred of my moral endorsement.
Strong leadership is amongst the rarest of traits; and though valuable at the best of times, it is most vital of all for a nation beset by insidious threats and subtle turmoil as America is today. Yet alas, we find ourselves, at this juncture, with no strong leader at the helm—and none likely to arise in the immediate future. We thusly do have little choice but to stumble blindly on, eyes closed and prayers on our lips. I, as an American, look to the future with hope in my heart but fear heavy in my mind.
SIGNED— Jonathan Quince
Addendum
It has come to my attention that some might interpret the above words as a call for President Bush to pull out of Iraq. I cannot state this more emphatically: No, no, and no a thousand and one times!
The U.S. should and must stay the course in Iraq; as such, one of the only policy actions for which I still give Bush credit is that he has bucked the political opposition and kept military control in the region. Bush’s Iraq policy may be half-baked, yet it is still a lesser evil than succumbing; for America to slink home with her tail between her legs would instigate total and near-immediate catastrophe, whereas the current course will at least postpone the same.
I supported the Iraq invasion from the beginning; and indeed, since 1991 I had consistently advocated the forceful termination of Saddam Hussein and his regime. Nothing has changed in that regard—and since I have been right all along, nothing shall. My sharp criticism of current policy, rather, was a statement that this American military venture has been executed with abysmal weakness. My order is to annihilate terrorism with radical and unrelenting prejudice: Soldiers currently given police work must be ordered to fight a war. To do otherwise both undermines America’s entire reason for entering the theatre and leaves American soldiers suffering a far higher loss of life and limb.
(Incidentally, the current dishwater-weak policy also results in much more death and strife for Iraqi civilians in the long run; but nobody really cares about them, anyway, so I shan’t mention them.)
If (or when) Bush pulls out of Iraq, the last shreds of the Bush legacy shall be forfeit and Bush shall officially go down in history as a miserable failure. God help America on that dark and treacherous day. Until then, persistence in Iraq gives both the sitting President and America at large some final shreds of dignity and hope for the future.
—J.S. Quince 2006-02-14
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, July 7, 2005 20:04:13 | Permanent Link |
She in the Forest
As I sat upon the clearing’s ledge, looking out into the forest, the stillness was upon me; and ’though the quietude of woodland wonder broke not for any visible movement, save the insects on the ground and the birds in the trees and creatures of every stripe making home in their nests, a wave of motion swept over my being. I was overtaken, for She was there—She was beside me, above me, inside me, surrounding me and touching me, holding my spirit as a mother or a lover cradles one beloved to her chest. And Her fingertips upon my spirit were felt by my body—yes, as a physical caress; for the power of Her being was, is, and will e’er yet be a monument of universal Force, and what was in spirit today, was in flesh yester-evening and may yet be again on the morrow’s morn.
Air shimmered around me in the late-evening light; and very nearly did I see Her in full and brilliant form.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Thursday, June 23, 2005 19:41:19 | Permanent Link |
The Focus
The warmth of his breath broke the cool pre-dawn stillness as he reached the mountain peak; liquid frost issued forth from his lips, melting away to become dew for a new day’s good morning. Tendrils of chill air teased the heat of his skin, tantalizing muscles fresh from a climb with the promise of warm daylight soon to come. He sat down upon an enormous mountain rock, challenging its hardness with his, nestling comfortably into the textures of a face weather-beaten for time older than history; and the living creatures of that habitat did witness a statue sitting carved upon the stone, a figure seated utterly motionless but for the pulse at his neck and the slow, measured rhythm of his breath in his chest.
Looking out to the eastern horizon, he waited; as stars faded from the sky and greyness swept the world, he counted and enjoyed each precious moment, savoring the time of a new day in the making.
The world turned beneath him; and as if for an artwork meant for his eyes alone, the horizon bloomed with colors, Light’s trumpet silently shining to announce the coming of the Sun.
Brilliance swept the sky and bathed the world at his feet. He became one with the rock, with the mountain, with the Earth herself as he watched and felt and drank of the brilliance, imbibing such nourishment as bread for his spirit. Bowing in his will before the glory of Nature, he opened himself to be touched by it; and thusly, thereby, was he gifted to touch the sacred and sublime.
In the moment, he was purified.
As the light melted and melded and turned to gold—as the sun broke the horizon with the glare of its fiery visage, declaring by its presence that a new day had arrived—he meditated upon the light, and he was certain of what he must do. He stood, rising from the rock in one swift, silent motion, and turned, walking down toward the door of his workshop.
| Filed by Jonathan Quince | Sunday, May 22, 2005 19:41:06 | Permanent Link |
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