Musings of the Hearth: July 2007 Archives

July 24, 2007

Harry Potter (no spoilers)

Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows late last night and, with no spoilers, thought it was the best of the series and huge congratulations to J. K. Rowling for so effectively completing the series.

Posted by aarondf at 11:39 AM | Books | Comments (0)

July 13, 2007

World Series of Pop Culture

This show was great last year and this year is being even better, with the two episodes last night reaching new heights. The introduction of the category "Those Talented Baldwin Brothers" where "all the questions refer to the work of Alec Baldwin" was just absolutely hilarious. The whole ass category (particularly the shout out to the one player's butcher) was of course also supremely funny as was the young Indian-American woman having to say "sugar tits". The "please be more specific" response from Pat to the "balls" answer was also laughing out loud funny. Pat really is just amazingly good as the host of this show. Note also that none of this is done in an at all offensive way, at least IMHO. Really recommended, particularly if you like trivia, but probably fun even if you don't.

Posted by aarondf at 10:59 AM | Television | Comments (0)

July 03, 2007

iPhone

Not that I am planning to buy one for a variety of reasons (basically the $60 minimum monthly cost - I actually don't find the $600 base cost at all unreasonable), but the iPhone release really does seem pretty hugely significant. Seems technologically and interface-wise lightyears ahead of other similar devices and many of the existing issues I expect will be solved in the 1-6 months timeframe via software upgrades or in the case of GPS will need new hardware and might take a bit longer. The only one which seems likely to take significantly longer is the 'locked to AT&T' issue which I still don't really understand - did they give Jobs just a bucketload of money? Yes, I understand he wanted to keep a ton of control over it and AT&T agreed to that but, still, this seems like it is going to be the only big limiting factor for them for the moment.

Posted by aarondf at 05:43 PM | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

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Quotations

Selections from
Aaron Fuegi's Collected Quotations

Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, "a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all." Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Dr. Strauss says I should rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on..: Daniel Keys, opening line of Flowers for Algernon
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.: J.D. Salinger, opening line of The Catcher in the Rye
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.: Albert Camus
"Do you know what I learned from you? I learned what is possible, and now I must hold out for what I thought we had. I want to be very close to someone I respect and admire and have somebody who feels the same way about me. That or nothing. I realized that what I'm looking for is not what you're looking for. You don't want what I want." "What do you think I want?" I asked. "Exactly what you have. Many women you know a little and don't care very much about. Superficial flirtations, mutual use, no chance of love. That's my idea of hell. Hell is a place, a time, a consciousness, Richard, in which there is no love. Horrible! Leave me out of it.": Richard Bach, Spoken by Leslie Parrish and Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever
I don't wish to be everything to everyone, but I would like to be something to someone.: Katherine Kurtz, spoken by Javan
...that was the first thing I had to learn about her, and maybe the hardest I've ever learned about anything--that she is her own, and what she gives me is of her choosing, and the more precious because of it. Sometimes a butterfly will come to sit in your open palm, but if you close your hand, one way or the other, it--and its choice to be there--are gone.: Barbara Hambly, Spoken by John Aversin, Dragonsbane
And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.: Ursula K. LeGuin, The Tombs of Atuan
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.: William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.: Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP Keynote Address
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.: Oscar Wilde
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.: Joseph Heller, Catch22
My close relationship with Alice Waters illustrates the kind of client with whom I get along best. We have a clear aesthetic, are dedicated to our work, and leave each other to do the best we can for each other. I cannot imagine a finer relationship.: David Lance Goines, Graphic Designer
"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while?" Death thought about it "Cats," he said eventually, "Cats are Nice.": Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!: Albert Einstein
One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.: Mitch Leigh, The Quest, based on Cervantes
That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.: Richard Bach, note written by Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever
The main problem with today's high-technology society is that we allow politicians to run it instead of people equipped with the wherewithal to understand it. Their mentalities are still in the nineteenth century. How can they hope to manage complex economies when they're not competent to run a yard-sale. What can they do that requires even a smattering of knowledge or intellect? People let them get away with it. If people are gonna elect turkeys to tell them what to do, then the people are gonna have problems. You can't blame the turkeys. The Constitution never guaranteed smart government; it guaranteed representative government. And it works - that's what we've got. The trouble with the damn system is that it selects for the skills needed to get elected, and nothing else... which requires only an ability to fool a sufficient number of people for just long enough to get the votes. Unfortunately the personal qualities necessary for attaining office are practically the opposite of those demanded by the office itself. A test that you can pass only by cheating can't possibly select honest people, can it?: James P. Hogan, Code of the Lifemaker
Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.: Warren Buffet
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There. There," said the marquis de Carabas, awkwardly, patting her shoulder. And he added, for good measure, "There." He did not comfort well.: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.: Buddha
The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote.: Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5: Believers
Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.: Will Durant, The History of Civilization
You cannot rule the world El-ahrairah, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you--digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.: Richard Adams, Watership Down