user since
Fri Jun 23 2000 at 02:53:47 (24.4 years ago )
last seen
Thu May 6 2010 at 13:40:16 (14.6 years ago )
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33 - View st.augustine's writeups (feed)
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4 (Wordsmith) / 1419
most recent writeup
phase-locked loop
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"Let me tell you the most beautiful story I know.
A man was given a dog, which he loved very much.
The dog went with him everywhere,
but the man could not teach it to do anything useful.
The dog would not fetch or point,
it would not race or protect or stand watch.
Instead the dog sat near him and regarded him,
always with the same inscrutable expression.
'That is not a dog. It's a wolf.' said the man's wife.
'He alone is faithful to me,' said the man,
and his wife never discussed it with him again.

One day the man took his dog with him into his private airplane
and as they flew over high winter mountains,
the engines failed
and the airplane was town to shreds among the trees.
The man lay bleeding,
his belly town open by blades of sheared metal,
steam rising from his organs in the cold air,
but all he could think of was his faithful dog.
Was he alive? Was he hurt?

Imagine his relief when the dog came padding up
and regarded him with that same steady gaze.
After an hour the dog nosed the man's gaping abdomen,
then began pulling out intestines and spleen and liver
and gnawing on them,
all the while studying the man's face.
'Thank God,' said the man.
'At least one of us will not starve.' "

--The God Whispers of Han Qing-jao, from Children of the Mind, written by Orson Scott Card.
Soon to be in Canada, assuming they don't reject me at the border.

I play Go on IGS under the handle distcrime. I'd be honored to play with you.