rescdsk's New Writeups

Coleman Barks (person)

2003-03-07T22:50:05Z

Coleman Barks is a translator of the poetry of Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi, a Middle-Eastern mystic and ecstatic poet in the Sufi tradition of Islam.

Barks's translations might more accurately be called "versions," because they are much more free interpretations of Rumi's work than most. He has come under criticism for his work because some scholars feel that his versions do not accurately relay the poetry of Rumi. This is partly because Barks does not know the original Arabic (and therefore uses multiple existing translations as his sources), and partly because he actively sets out to convey the meaning of the poetry rather than the diction.

Barks's versions are excellent for casual reading, I have found, but if I were to do serious study of Rumi's poetry, I would use other sources in addition to, or perhaps in place of, Barks.

Sources: memory of introductions to a couple of books of his versions.

false pocket (thing)

2003-02-09T06:05:45Z

A false pocket is basically a hole through one piece of clothing, made so that one can access a pocket in clothing worn under it. False pockets are often found in jumpsuits, robes, religious vestments, and other one-piece clothing.

jumpsuit (thing)

2003-01-18T07:53:30Z

Jumpsuits are one-piece suits. I guess the idea is that you can just jump right into them (this doesn't work very well, particularly if your suit is a little too small). You generally wear them over other clothing, particularly because they often have false pockets which are kinda nasty if you're not wearing anything else. Or else maybe that's sexy. Whatever.

You can find jumpsuits at places like Goodwill, they will be cheap. People might laugh at you at first, but be assured that you will be the life of the party if you wear the funky jumpsuit. Especially if it's red. Here is expert testimony, live from the noder par-tay that I am at:

Where did you get your jumpsuit? that's really fucking cool. I want one now... but I'm not sure that's my color. --(anonymous Lawg member who chooses to protect her identity so it does not ruin her editorial reputation.)

…

Professionalism (idea)

2002-04-09T21:23:30Z

Professionalism is what causes your bio for the school musical, rather than the usual "I was in Candide my Freshman year, and The Secret Garden my Sophmore year...", to say "Her stage credits include ..."

Professionalism as a religion is the death of the soul. If your life gets to the point where you mainly care about semicolons, you are dead. Living a life while holding down a job as a copy editor lies in striking a balance between clichés such as "striking a balance" and getting out and taking on that world--it's no cliché, it's the truth, as it is said.

Aiee, killing interrupt handler! (idea)

2002-01-21T04:24:36Z

Found in kernel/exit.c (at least in linux version 2.4.17, and it's been that way for a while), getting this message is a sign that something is truly going Wrong. The do_exit function of exit.c is used to finally and once-and-for-all exit a task (a process, such as an IRC client or init). Before do_exit actually destroys the process, it checks for three things: is the task processing an interrupt? Does the task have no process ID (PID) (which would mean it's the idle task which does nothing so something is incredibly fucked)? And, Is the process ID 1 (which would mean it's init, as in "initialize"--vital to the health of the system)? If any of these answered Yes, the kernel panics. The one about the interrupt handler gives this message.

Why, I hear you ask, is it necessary to panic in this case? Well, interrupt handlers have to temporarily disable the kernel's function of collecting interrupts (interrupts happen when, for instance, a key is pressed, or a packet is received…

Recession (idea)

2001-09-01T05:03:58Z

A state never reached in the present. If the economy's
state is not depression, economists tell you that nothing
is wrong. If it gets really bad, they admit
it's a depression. A recession is only possible in hindsight.