The Men That Don't Fit In

A poem by Robert Service.

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they’re always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: “Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!”
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It’s the steady, quiet, plodding ones
Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that’s dead,
In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
He has just done things by half.
Life’s been a jolly good joke on him,
And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
He was never meant to win;
He’s a rolling stone, and it’s bred in the bone;
He’s a man who won’t fit in.

Overloading

I could never understand the logic behind this post by Ted Dziuba, until I read Sun's excellent documentation regarding method declarations in Java. 


The haze is clearing a bit. :)

Lamplighter

Evenings. The perfect time for reflections and ruminations. Memories, some floating back to what seems like eons ago, but was probably just a series of ripples in the pool of your life. The pleasant cold of the spring evening brings a touch of the chill, and is perfectly countered by the life-giving warmth of the lamp. And you think, and you go over seasides, and mountains, and forests with dripping lichens, cities with magnificently lit skylines, and you marvel at the beauty and majesty in it all. And then you go back to the paper you are supposed to be have been writing two hours ago.

Happiness, according to Mark Pilgrim

1. Stop buying stuff you don’t need
2. Pay off all your credit cards
3. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in your house/apartment (storage lockers, etc.)
4. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit on the first floor of your house (attic, garage, etc.)
5. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in one room of your house
6. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in a suitcase
7. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in a backpack
8. Get rid of the backpack

Fantastic.

Eldritch Wanderings

Dug out an old poem from my email, and it is suddenly very profound.

A light goes out,
(Four long years have passed)
and all is still.
(I didn’t expect you here.)

A faint thump is heard;
(You catch up on old times)
another, and another.
(As if nothing has changed.)
“Thump, thump, thump.” (a heartbeat)
(But it has.)
A mask is removed
(I used to cry over you.)
And thrown to the floor.
(I wish I could cry still,)

Let all the world know
(But my tears for you)

Vivandi is no more.
(Are long since shed.) 

The dark returns with silent violence
(Nobody deserves a third chance.)
And we shall enjoy ourselves.
(I never wish to see you again.)
This I promise you;
(This I promise you;)
Welcome to the land of Shattered Dreams.
(Welcome to the land of Shattered Dreams.)

Earth and Water

You tell me we can stop the rain,
You tell me that we all can change,
You tell me we can find something to wash the tears away... 

And I know, of the pain, that you feel the same as me,
And I dream, of the rain, as it falls upon the leaves,
And the cracks, in the ground, like the cracks are in our lives,
They are sealed, and are now; far away...

Why is it that rain is only fun when it drums violently on a tin rooftop?

Also, I find, not for the first time, that rains are good times for contemplation, colds, soup, and (oddly) listening to heavy metal.

Content

A bunch of Cory Doctorow's essays on DRM, electronic texts, and piracy are extremely insightful. Obviously, like his other books, licensed under the Creative Commons license, and available freely online on his site here. This is one of the best texts I've read on this stuff for a while.