The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply this, that the man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. Personal independence is a virtue and it is the soul out of which comes the sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must be developed from within.
~ Frederick Douglass
slip:4a16.
Two years ago today, I showed up at Wescosville Elementary at 4pm and tried parkour. A very big thank you to everyone ( Adam, Josh, Joseph, and Miguel in particular) who has been friendly, happy, and encouraging these last two years. This week I will be attempting the ADAPT 1 certification; I could not have accomplished what I have without all the help from the wonderful men and women of lehigh valley parkour. “allez, allez!”
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I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on Earth. Then I ask myself the same question.
~ Harun Yahya
slip:4a99.
You can harness and channel these needs, but a man completely ignores them at his peril. Modern men are told there’s nothing real about manhood — that it’s all a silly, outdated cultural construct — and they sure work hard to believe it. And yet they cannot shake a deep sense of malaise, and they don’t know why.
~ Brett McKay from, Where Does Manhood Come From? | The Art of Manliness
slip:4uaowe1.
I consider myself very lucky. I’m expressing my mid-life crisis in some pretty healthy and productive ways. Instead of going on a more traditional bender, I’m shaking off shackles and bindings that I in fact put on.
One day I realized that there is no longer anyone left to tell me what to do. Certainly one has responsibilities, but there are precious few of those which are immutable bedrock. You look at your life and think, “Look at all these ideas I’ve accepted.” When you pick idly at some of the threads, the whole thing comes apart, and you find yourself in a row boat on the sea — or on a bicycle on the open road (choose your own metaphor). On the open sea in a good way; You realize you are free, that in fact you have NOT always been free, and that there’s an awful lot of life left to live now that you’re ready to start.
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Ladies, please form an orderly line to the left.
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Who – only let him be a man and intent upon honor – is not eager for the honorable ordeal and prompt to assume perilous duties? To what energetic man is not idleness a punishment?
~ Seneca
slip:4a126.
First successful Turing Test: First Turing Test success marks milestone in computing history
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Here are 20 (out of 36 total) slides from their honeymoon to Niagara falls in 1968.
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Today is the 70th anniversary of the landings for the Normandy invasion.
A friend asked rhetorically, “Would I have boarded one of those ratty boats and waited for the door to come down?” I can only imagine that the training and “esprit de corps” would carry the day, because otherwise, attempted as individuals, what they accomplished seems inconceivable.
Unfortunately, those two most horrible wars feel as far away now as to be ancient history. I hope that humankind has subsequently climbed far enough up the moral ladder that we no longer need the visceral feeling of the wars to provide us with guidance.
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Yes! This just arrived…
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If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will be the sacrifice.
~ unknown
slip:4a142.
Bucket list: finally got around to picking up Chopin’s complete works. Something here for any coding/sysadmin occasion!
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A little something Tracy grew in one of our sprawling gardens.
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A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.
~ Winston Churchill
slip:4a270.
Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.
~ David Foster Wallace
slip:4a799.
It occurs to me that I’ve no idea who gave the commencement address at my graduation. After a bit of digging…
Robert W. Galvin, chairman of Motorola, delivered the main address yesterday to the 1,150 graduates at the 125th commencement of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
Mr. Galvin received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.
~ from the May 31st NYT archives listing several school’s commencement addresses.
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Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.
slip:4a799.
Memorial Day – May 26, 2014
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Today’s XKCD with the “flip iPhone” reminds me of something from 2011.
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Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
slip:4a352.
This is not the Internet the world needs, or the Internet its creators envisioned. We need to take it back.
And by we, I mean the engineering community.
Yes, this is primarily a political problem, a policy matter that requires political intervention.
But this is also an engineering problem, and there are several things engineers can — and should — do.
~ Bruce Schneir from, Take Back the Internet
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I’d venture that the vast majority of regular, everyday people working in technology related jobs are not actively trying to do evil. People go to work, make the best decisions they can and then go home. If that’s true, then it’s going to be nigh impossible to change the momentum of how things (e.g., NSA surveillance) are going. Because in order for it to change, we need to start thinking bigger.
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