This tree (which tree?) has the mountain across the inlet as its background.
I saw this chunk of snow eroded by rain into an unusual shape, so I placed it on top of a wooden post and took a picture. I call it “snowcritter.”
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Month: February 2020
Caveat: an infinity of worlds or creatures
Below is an early, European effort at conceptualizing the bigness of the universe. Though there are passages in the Buddhist scripture (the Pali Canon) that are somewhat similar – without reference to the unitary God – that date to a much earlier era, of course. Anne Conway is an interesting character from the history of philosophy. It’s argued that she had a profound influence on e.g. Leibniz. But she’s somewhat erased from the standard histories – possibly in part because of her gender.
Since [God] could have created worlds or creatures from time immemorial, before 6,000 – before 60,000 – before 600,000 – years ago, he has done this. God can do anything that doesn’t imply a contradiction. ‘Worlds or creatures will exist continuously through an infinite time in the future’ – there’s nothing contradictory about that; so there’s no contradiction, either, in ‘Worlds or creatures have existed continuously through an infinite past time’.
From these divine attributes, properly understood, it follows that God has made an infinity of worlds or creatures. He is infinitely powerful, so there can’t be any number n of creatures such that God couldn’t create more than n creatures. And, as we have seen, he does as much as he can. His will, goodness, and kindness certainly extend… as far as his power does. Thus it clearly follows that he has infinitely many creatures of infinitely many different types, so that they can’t be counted or measured, either of which would set a limit to them. Suppose that the universe of creatures is spherical and is this big: ‘Its radius is n times the diameter of the earth, where n is the number of grains of dust in the entire world.’
And suppose that its ultimate parts, its atoms, are this small: ‘A single poppy seed contains 100,000 atoms.’
That yields an immensely large finite number of very small atoms; but it can’t be denied that God with his infinite power could make this number greater and greater by multiplying to infinity…. And since (as I have said) God is a necessary agent who does everything he can do, it follows that he did and always does multiply and increase the essences of creatures to infinity. – Anne Conway, from The Principles of the most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, 1690
Caveat: Poem #1287 “A portrait of the world outside”
Clouds glow in purple, in orange and in gray. Morning's vast dome made of blue frames the day. Fragments of snow show persistence through time. Forming strange shapes beside trees lined with rime.
– a pair of rhymed tetrameter couplets
Caveat: Tree #401
Actually, this is a picture of snow. The snow is along the road, melted into a strange shape by rain. There is a tree, out of focus, in the background.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: MFBGA
MAGA => MFBGA
The current emperor apparently wants to use his executive power to Make Federal Buildings Great Again (link). I’m not sure this bodes well for Federal Architecture, considering the executive’s previously oft-expressed taste in design.
Caveat: Poem #1286 “Ends sought”
Streams run down past rocks, spray drops, carve paths through earth, stone, fight time, wait for ends.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #400
I wanted to do something special for tree number four hundred.
But I failed to take a picture of a tree today.
So I had an idea. I’m a linguist (by college training). Linguists draw “trees” – diagrams of sentences. And I thought of a great sentence that benefits from having a tree drawn of it.
The sentence is: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
This sentence is hard to understand. Bear in mind that there are three groups of buffalo in this sentence, but they are all from the town of Buffalo – probably Buffalo, Minnesota, rather than the better known Buffalo, New York. And these buffalo from Buffalo like to buffalo (which is to say, “annoy”) other buffalo. It starts to come clear.
Here is a tree diagram.
Have a nice day.
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: life is more than who we are
Arthur and I were in town, for our weekly Thursday shopping trip. This song came on the radio at Zat’s Pizza, where we almost always stop for lunch on our Thursday trips. Art doesn’t think much of the music there – he just tunes out and listens to his audiobooks. But I sometimes end up a bit nostalgic, as the music is often set to some “oldies” station. Music from particular eras in my life can end up being quite evocative.
I don’t know that I necessarily liked this song in any deep sense. But it was part of my “soundtrack” in 1995, when I was working nights at the UPS Package Sorting facility in Northeast Minneapolis and doing some graduate coursework (non-degree program, at that time) during the days. It was when Michelle and I were already married but still keeping it to ourselves, and living together in south Minneapolis, just off Franklin Avenue.
My commute up I-35W (across the bridge across the Mississippi that later famously collapsed from poor maintenance killing many people) to the UPS facility took about 30 minutes. So I would play the radio. And this was one of those songs on high rotation at that time. Since I was working the late shift, I would end up coming home during very low traffic at around 3 or 4 AM. The freeway was often completely empty.
So I ended up feeling nostalgic when I heard this song. It’s a very 90s song.
What I’m listening to right now.
Goo Goo Dolls, “Name.”
Lyrics.
And even though the moment passed me by
I still can’t turn away
‘Cause all the dreams you never thought you’d lose
Got tossed along the way
And letters that you never meant to send
Get lost or thrown away
And now we’re grown up orphans
That never knew their names
We don’t belong to no one
That’s a shame
If you could hide beside me
Maybe for a while
And I won’t tell no one your name
And I won’t tell ’em your name
And scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there
Did you get to be a star
And don’t it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are
We grew up way too fast
And now there’s nothing to believe
And reruns all become our history
A tired song keeps playing on a tired radio
And I won’t tell no one your name
And I won’t tell ’em your name
I won’t tell ’em your name
Mmm, mmm, mmm
I won’t tell ’em your name, ow
I think about you all the time
But I don’t need the same
It’s lonely where you are, come back down
And I won’t tell ’em your name
Caveat: Poem #1285 “The eastbound ducks”
Stones drink purple light. Snow melts and crawls off downhill. Ducks swim slowly east.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #399
A younger tree experiences the forest.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: using the free wifi at Starbucks
I have in my life gone to Starbucks mostly to use the free wifi.
This was especially true before I went to Korea in 2007. Starbucks rolled out their free wifi quite early relative to other businesses, so I remember using the free wifi at Starbucks while on various trips in the mid 2000’s.
Apparently, using the free wifi at Starbucks is still a thing in 2019. And apparently the FBI does it, too.
This article (link) on the emptywheel blog describes how the FBI used the Starbucks free wifi to download leaked documents about CIA hacking. Interagency cyberwarfare conducted over the airwaves while enjoying a nice nonfat soy latte.
Caveat: Poem #1284 “Later”
Procrastination's better left to tomorrow. Today I'll watch rain.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #398
A tree foregrounds the moss garden covered in snow.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: 마른 나무 좀먹듯
Here is an aphorism from my book of Korean aphorisms.
마른 나무 좀먹듯
ma.reun na.mu jom.meok.deut
be-dry-GER tree moth eat-AS-IF
[…] like a moth eating a dry tree.
Apparently this means to be consumed either by a physical ailment or by stress and anxiety. I’m not sure off the top of my head what an equivalent English language saying might be.
Caveat: Poem #1283 “Not the rock we had in mind”
The sea advances, besieges snow-covered rocks, then retreats, dismayed.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #397
It’s difficult to see the depth of this photo. The snow-covered “tree” is a down-hanging branch of a tree above. The snowy stream is behind the branch, several meters back.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: tras años-luz de insomnio
Ofertorio (Número cero) Sin ti. Sin ti. Hora inviolable. Inescrutable sollozo. Fuga sagrada de lo que invado y destruyo. Mis piernas de tristeza golpean las estrellas. Navíos secretos de habitantes desnucados hunden odio amargo, sediento de dislocadas primaveras ciegas, donde se yergue el titán enano de la Vida vencido inmenso mar de donde surgen albas implacables como una mano tierna. Ciñéndome en la furiosa danza de este sangriento olvido, de este pozo espeso de agonía en cuyo fondo muere amanecer un despertar hermoso en antigua sonrisa de las Madres. Tu brisa dorada de muchachas me explica la lección conmovida Con el sublime ejemplo del pequeño escarabajo de los cementerios. ¡Conducta que no admite discordias! Pero yo rompo feroz todos tus espejos y con mis navajas de fósforo rasgo de punta a punta tu vientre de mentiras. Los Cielos se me derraman podridos límites. Hambrientos de corazón postrado me interrogan -acuchillan- piden limosna a ratos amorosos, tras años-luz de insomnio, donde los termómetros azules se convierten en sueño sin tormenta, aglomero a todos los innumerables muertos humanos ya galope tendido de tigres desbocados los conduzco hacia el fin de los mapas solares para pedirte cuentas por nuestra inconsolable voz acuchillada. - Miguel Labordeta (poeta español, 1921-1969)
Caveat: Poem #1282 “Wintery morning”
Before dawn, stars hung. Now, the sky has turned to pink, and snowflakes flutter.
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #396
The sun appeared.
This was unprecedented, so I decided to take a walk down the road. Arthur came along.
This tree has appeared before, here. But now it’s been winterized.
Walking along the road, we ran into our neighbor Mike, out walking the dog. He’s a little bit hard to see: center of the road, a bit behind the dog.
Caveat: The Superb Owl
Today is Superb Owl Sunday – when people throughout the US and all over the world contemplate the fine owls they’ve seen.
I remember how weird it seemed to me, living in Mexico City in 1986, the way that the city seemed to grow so quiet and shut down because of the football game to the north. In fact, I learned that American football is shockingly popular in Mexico. I’ve always thought that Mexico City would be a smart place for an expansion team.
Unrelatedly…
Today’s date is a palindrome, regardless of your preferred format.
Do you like MM/DD/YYYY? Palindrome, check: 02022020
Do you instead prefer DD/MM/YYYY? Palindrome, check: 02022020
Or, like me, do you prefer YYYY/MM/DD? Palindrome, check: 20200202
When will this happen again? Far, far in the future.
Caveat: Too many projects, not enough motivation
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
There are many things I could be working on, geofiction-wise. I was chatting on the OGF Central discord channel a few days ago, and managed to enumerate 9 different ongoing geofiction map-drawing projects, all essentially unrelated.
- OGF / Makaska
- OGF / Tárrases+Mahhal
- OGF / Ardisphere
- Arhet / Deadlands+Hellbridge
- Arhet / Rasfsayan
- JOSM Only / Lekista
- JOSM Only / Tsiqeye+Preye+Domeye+Sekeye (4 continents of a planet)
- JOSM Only / Bofobunda+Zhebeyem
- JOSM Only / Senhar
All of these above-listed projects are basically not moving forward at all.
Meanwhile, I also feel that I should be working on things like upgrading and/or completing the deployment of my map server (currently called Arhet). I also wish I had the energy to develop my expertise in the realm of getting contours working on Arhet, as they do on OGF. I won’t be happy with my own server environment until I’ve solved that.
But I have zero motivation, lately.
Anyone have any motivation to spare?
Music to motivate by: Taylor Swift, “The Man.”
Caveat: Poem #1281 “Self-skepticism”
My beliefs dwell in a parallel universe where I disagree
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #395
I like to capture trees in the early morning. They can be caught unawares.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Brexitology
Yesterday, the UK officially left the EU.
There’s an unattributed quote circulating online:
Only the British could colonize half the world, and then leave the EU because they don’t like immigrants.
Here is a cartoon I saw that I felt matched up some with my understanding of Brexit.
The above cartoon is credited to the Chronicle Herald, a Canadian newspaper, but I couldn’t find it on their website.
Another pithy quote circulating online on the topic:
“Brexit means we are at last freed to obey whatever the Americans instruct us to do.”
Caveat: Poem #1280 “Setting standards”
Would you ever date a disembodied being? I could see trying.
– a pseudo-haiku