Golems
From Alessan, who got it from straightdope:
Within the last half-century, we've gone from even relatively small computers filling rooms and requiring special power supplies to computers of much greater speed and power being etched into a flake of silicon that could reside comfortably on the top of your thumb.
Due to photolithography, modern integrated circuits are Hieronymus
machines: The detailed design of the machine is the machine. Software is even more esoteric: It is the power of logos, the sacred Word, made real, and given direct power over physical entities.
We etch something into rock and control it with words. Golems are real and they give us our daily pornography.
Came back from Auckland with either jessikast's or PJS' cold. Gloried in the remembered music of Phantom but have failed at listening through the soundtrack all the way yet. The few pieces of spoken dialogue and the body language make a huge difference. My parents were slightly disappointed when they saw it, I think - Mum reckons it's a rather weird love story, which I suppose it is really, but I hadn't thought about it like that before. The gorgeous fob watch on a neck chain I bought in an antique store there seems to keep appalling time, but I like wearing it anyway.
Have mostly failed at getting to the gym until today. Played frisbee without socks and got a blister on my arch. It's fine in heels and work shoes; sneakers will probably be different. Not planning to do that again.
Went to the Dave Dobbyn and Vector Orchestra concert through the social club at work on Tuesday night (I'm making use of having my Tuesday nights free from frisbee) and it was very good. The first half was songs from his new album, Anotherland, and it helped that I'd bought it not long after it came out. The second half was the classics. The orchestra was as good as they were at Romeo & Juliet and Dobbyn is an excellent showman - he played the crowd brilliantly. A quiet first half and increasingly built up second half (people were dancing in the aisles on the ground level), finishing with an encore of the Footrot Flats song and Welcome Home (which was the song I was waiting to here live).
thesane is here for the weekend; I have a half day off work tomorrow to meet her at the airport. Work will be busy, but I got most of the stuff for settlement ready today, so that should flow smoothly. We have vague plans to go to the vintage jumble sale in Newtown and meet up with a high school friend for afternoon tea. Maybe go see the glowworms in Wilton bush.
There was a Health & Wellness seminar on sleep at work today. It was quite interesting. The guy noted that most adults are habitually sleep-deprived; apparently, if you need an alarm to wake you, you're sleep deprived. I'm in that category, but I knew that. Adults need at least six or seven hours of sleep a night. He also went over some sleeping disorders and other aspects of sleep, but my aim was to be in bed by 11.00pm tonight and it's almost that now, to bedtime for me.
Within the last half-century, we've gone from even relatively small computers filling rooms and requiring special power supplies to computers of much greater speed and power being etched into a flake of silicon that could reside comfortably on the top of your thumb.
Due to photolithography, modern integrated circuits are Hieronymus
machines: The detailed design of the machine is the machine. Software is even more esoteric: It is the power of logos, the sacred Word, made real, and given direct power over physical entities.
We etch something into rock and control it with words. Golems are real and they give us our daily pornography.
Came back from Auckland with either jessikast's or PJS' cold. Gloried in the remembered music of Phantom but have failed at listening through the soundtrack all the way yet. The few pieces of spoken dialogue and the body language make a huge difference. My parents were slightly disappointed when they saw it, I think - Mum reckons it's a rather weird love story, which I suppose it is really, but I hadn't thought about it like that before. The gorgeous fob watch on a neck chain I bought in an antique store there seems to keep appalling time, but I like wearing it anyway.
Have mostly failed at getting to the gym until today. Played frisbee without socks and got a blister on my arch. It's fine in heels and work shoes; sneakers will probably be different. Not planning to do that again.
Went to the Dave Dobbyn and Vector Orchestra concert through the social club at work on Tuesday night (I'm making use of having my Tuesday nights free from frisbee) and it was very good. The first half was songs from his new album, Anotherland, and it helped that I'd bought it not long after it came out. The second half was the classics. The orchestra was as good as they were at Romeo & Juliet and Dobbyn is an excellent showman - he played the crowd brilliantly. A quiet first half and increasingly built up second half (people were dancing in the aisles on the ground level), finishing with an encore of the Footrot Flats song and Welcome Home (which was the song I was waiting to here live).
thesane is here for the weekend; I have a half day off work tomorrow to meet her at the airport. Work will be busy, but I got most of the stuff for settlement ready today, so that should flow smoothly. We have vague plans to go to the vintage jumble sale in Newtown and meet up with a high school friend for afternoon tea. Maybe go see the glowworms in Wilton bush.
There was a Health & Wellness seminar on sleep at work today. It was quite interesting. The guy noted that most adults are habitually sleep-deprived; apparently, if you need an alarm to wake you, you're sleep deprived. I'm in that category, but I knew that. Adults need at least six or seven hours of sleep a night. He also went over some sleeping disorders and other aspects of sleep, but my aim was to be in bed by 11.00pm tonight and it's almost that now, to bedtime for me.