ModernAngel's New Writeups

Dream Log: July 13, 2004 (place)

2004-07-13T12:48:28Z

Stuff needs to get put away... the living room is full of my books and notebooks and computer parts, and other people's stuff. It's a big project but I get all my junk contained in a more orderly fashion in my own room.

Next comes the kitchen - dirty dishes and groceries that somehow never made it to cabinets and fridge - and some of this stuff should really be refrigerated - orange juice, cooked broccoli, jam. The sink is so full of dishes that it's hard to wash around them, and the crumbs and lip-marks and sauce and grease are all dried on, all need to be soaked and scoured. As I start shuffling food around, Mom quizzes me about what kind of desserts I would like, and I come up with lemon sherbet or chocolate chip ice cream or raspberry pastry.

One of the last things on the table is bacon: floppy greasy disgusting bacon layered willy-nilly on 3 or 4 white enameled wire shelf racks, about double-cookie-sheet size. As I seal it in the yellow Tupperware container we store…

In the night, all cats are gray (idea)

2004-07-04T19:10:36Z

And as in the Dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of Corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal and frequently superior; every Knack being by Practice capable of improvement.
- Benjamin Franklin, letter, 1745¹

Some 500 years ago, John Heywood observed that "When all candles bee out, all cats be gray." (Proverbes, Pt. 1 Ch. 5.)² Heywood's younger contemporary, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, echoed the sentiment in Don Quixote, Pt. 2 Ch. 33 - "In the night, all cats are gray"³. Presumably, Heywood saw fit to record it because it was an aphorism in common circulation at the time; and indeed, there are much older German and Latin sayings of similar meaning, warning against confusing superficial details with essential qualities.

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Final Fantasy XI (thing)

2004-06-13T01:06:12Z

Final Fantasy XI (or FFXI) is Squaresoft's entry into the MMORPG genre, marrying the huge popularity of the Final Fantasy line with a cult of multiplayer CRPG fandom that grew from Neverwinter Nights and EverQuest.

FFXI is available for the PlayStation 2, Windows PC, and Xbox 360 platforms. On the PS2, it's bundled with a hard drive kit, and also requires the network accessory hardware. On your Windows box, the most stringent requirement is probably a display adapter with "Texture and Lighting" (TnL) support. Thus, as of this writing, only a small handful of cards (ATI Radeon 9xxx or NVidia GeForce) are supported. Finally, your PC will also need an Internet connection.

That's right, FFXI has no offline mode. You pay US$50 for the PC version or $100 for the PS2 hard drive kit that happens to include the game, and after a complimentary 1-month PlayOnline subscription, you pay $12.95 per month for 1 character plus $1.30 per additional character. There are…

#everything (place)

2004-03-11T22:10:00Z

For a long time, slashnet's #everything channel (or "#e") was exactly as burnboy and masukomi's writeups suggest. In the three years since, the chatterbox has largely supplanted #everything as THE place to chat about nodes, noders and noding. Many of #e's regulars are "fled" noders or only very rarely active on e2, and for the active noders #e is often an escape from, rather than an extension of, e2.

To help prevent Internet tragedy and confusion, I'd like to share three observations about the current climate of #e. Failure to observe these conditions will almost certainly subject the unwary to flames, trollery, ridicule, and eventually, kickbanning.

#e is a clique. Many of #e's regulars have been there for years, and there's quite a network of offline relationships among its users. #e is not an "invite only" channel, but be aware that "being a noder" does not garner

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Psalm 148 (idea)

2003-10-19T16:24:15Z

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148:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
148:2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
148:3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
148:5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
148:6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.
148:7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
148:9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
148:10 Beasts, and all cattle;…

Psalm 147 (idea)

2003-10-19T16:02:08Z

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147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
147:2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
147:4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
147:6 The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
147:7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
147:8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
147:9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the…