Why do we hate the French? Well, you are opinionated, cynical, have better food, and refuse to speak English. You work less, seem more relaxed, and have some wonderful history to fall back on. Put any citizen of the USA in your position, and they would eat it up. We too don't listen to others well, are opinionated, and remain generally cynical. Maybe everyone hates those that are similar to themselves.

Ok, so you live in a socialist society. We will agree to disagree, but we share more that we care to admit. You saved our butts in the Revolutionary War. The Marquis De Lafayette has a street or a town named after him in every state. We share the love of liberty. The French are always down for a good fight, and are all too aware of the consequences of war. When Russians invaded Georgia, the French took the lead. Some would claim it was the EU, but it took many in the USA by surprise. That is the France of the history books, the one that is still alive and breathing. Any Franco-haters, I included(It is fun), will give you hell about WWII. Yes we assisted in the retaking of your country. We owed you one. Even if we considered it even, there is not an American that would blink if asked to do it again. That is the secret. We actually like you, because we are like you.

I have had many chances to have a good glass of wine with the French. The same social dynamic is present in both countries. The residents of cities like NYC or Paris are generally assholes. I found the secret to getting along with a person from either city is being an opinionated ass. I have no shortage in this department. I was also raised for a time in the countryside. County people everywhere are the same. they work hard, play hard, and are ruggedly independent. Add to that a genuinely welcoming spirit and, I can say the people of the French countryside are wonderful people. If you have a chance to have a drink with one, I suggest it. It reminds me of home.

Why do we like you? I have no clue. Maybe it is the fact that you cling to your culture and language when you are attacked on all sides by our encroaching influence. In the same position, my people do the exact same. I know Anti-Americanism is the flavor of the decade in Europe. I think it is very Un-French to go along with the crowd. You have lead the way in art and culture long before the USA was founded. There is no reason we cannot coexist. We both share common threats from the outside world, out methods are different, but that makes us unique. Never hang out with people who agree with you all the time.

I know many will see this post as a radical diversion from my normal content. I don't. Why write this post? No clue. Maybe some things just need to be said out loud. So till next we meet, adieu.

I would try and write this post in French, but then I remember my Twain.

"In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.”
–Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869)

Buy this product online...

FEATURES- AC104 Digital Imaging System
The Smart All-in One Desktop Document Solution.
The compact Ricoh AC104 will handle all your document process needs
swiftly and efficiently. With this productive multifunction system-
you will benefit from advanced copying and out of the box printing
at 17 ppm- full color TWAIN scanning- plus Super G3 33.6 Kbps
faxing- all at your disposal in one sleek- space-saving design.
Includes a starter cartridge yielding 2-000 pages.
* Versatile Performace for all your Document Needs
Multitasking is here to stay. Whether you work in a small office or
workgroup- the compact yet hardworking RICOH AC104 will handle all your
document processing needs swiftly and efficiently. With this productive
multifunction digital system- you will benefit from advanced copying-
out-of-the-box printing- full color TWAIN scanning- plus Super G3 33.6
Kbps faxing- all at your disposal in one sleek- space-saving design.
Crisp 600 dpi resolution assures optimal image clarity- while a fast
17-page-per-minute print speed- easy to maintain all-in-one toner
cartridge- ample 250-sheet paper tray and standard bypass tray
streamline throughput of every job.
* Saves Space- Boosts Productivity
The Ricoh AC104 is as lightweight and space efficient as it is quiet and
easy to operate. Effortlessly access any of the system s capabilities
using the intuitive- simple-to-operate control panel.
- Copying Convenience. Scan originals once into the system- then tend
to other business while the number of copies you have selected is
produced. Besides saving you time- the AC104 saves on paper
consumption and filing space with Image Repeat Copy that prints
multiple images from an original onto a single page- and Combine
Originals that merges up to 4 images onto one sheet- allowing you to
easily copy both sides of insurance cards or checks onto one page.
Enlarge an image for display or presentation purposes by printing it
onto 9 sheets of paper with Poster Copy.
- Ready to Print. Right out of the box- the Ricoh AC104 is ready to
connect to your PC via a Standard USB 1.1 (USB cable included) or
IEEE-1284 Parallel Port. Because the AC104 seamlessly integrates with
all of todays popular operating systems- you will immediately enjoy
600 dpi- 17-page-per-minute printing of documents up to 8.5 x 14 in
size.</span>

<span>
- Brilliant Color Scanning. The Ricoh AC104s versatility is heightened
with 600 dpi full color TWAIN scanning. Scan any color document up to
8.5 x 14- save it on your computer- view the color image anytime-
or share it via e-mail with business associates and personal
contacts.</span>

<span>
- Flexible Fax Features. Enjoy advanced fax functionality with a fast
3-second-per-page transmission speed. If you need to prioritize
faxes- simply store jobs in the systems ample 320-page memory and let
Priority Transmission send the most important documents first. Use
the Remote Control Panel software to set up fax system data options-
create and edit Phonebook entries- or view the information of your
system right from the convenience of your PC. Use up to 10 Quick
Dials and 90 Speed Dials for easy dialing to frequent recipients- or
fax to many destinations at once with the convenient Group Dial
feature. Should an incoming fax arrive and your paper tray is empty-
the AC104 stores data in memory for easy printing later- so you never
lose important information.
- Environmentally Friendly. Ricoh maintains a longstanding commitment
to implementing sound environmental product concepts- as evidenced in
the Energy Star-compliant Ricoh AC104- designed for a healthier and
safer environment.

-- SPECIFICATIONS -----------------------------------
ENGINE     - Imaging Process : Laser beam scanning/marking and electro-
photographic printing.
Dry- mono component toner development
Reading Element : Flatbed with CCD array image-sensor
Configuration   : Desktop
Resolution      : 600 x 600 dpi
Grayscale       : 256 levels
Document Feeding: 30-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)
Paper Supply    : 250-sheet Tray plus 1-sheet Bypass
Paper Weight    : 16

Generally: It's quite complicated, I think. But if I'm sitting in a good place, I can better get to the place I want to write, and then "place" is always, always, a very important part of the writing. I totally blank out on my immediate surroundings as I go to the place I'm writing about.
I'm a camera.
The page is my film.
I am a sincere believer in "setting." Even if it's via one line. One good strong simple line.

Writing in the Midwest: If you had asked, I would never ever have guessed I'd be a writer in the middle of the country.  Everyone knows it works well in Iowa. But, Missouri? And yet it is working out fine, but keep the following in mind (and no, they are not complaints, but hey, I'm an urban Pisces who adores a skyline with an ocean view): 
Here there are no mountains. (like the Adirondacks where I grew up)
There is no ocean view. (like Florida, another place we lived)
There is no pulsing honking uptown downtown 24-hour energy. (like NY or Atlanta or LA)
There are no green rolling hills (like Vermont)
And yet it works. It's working. (It's the people and the approachability.)

Nutshell: So, am I at odds with my atmosphere/surroundings? Usually, no. But I tend  to step back and observe, rather than to throw myself into the Missouri fray (so to speak).  So, maybe that shows in what I write. Or, maybe it's missing.

Stories my location tells: hmmm...er...well aside from the Twain thing, what stories are told by this location? many...many...many...as there would be in any place, I think. It's not just a river thing here. Nor  is it simply fields of wheat and corn. Or catfish. It's rich.

Geez, I should get busy telling some tales of "here."

Aplastaba hormigas contra el retrato de Mark Twain pensando en lo bien que estaría tomándome un mojito bajo una sombrilla; y en que soy demasiado mayor, o demasiado torpe, o demasiado vaga para volver a estudiar.

El caso es que estaba tirada en la hierba, con el libro de texto a modo de almohada y autocompadeciéndome, cuando el viento se llevó mis apuntes. Al recoger las hojas, leí una frase subrayada: "La literatura no es un fin, sino una pasión". Y qué carallo. Hasta yo sé reconocer una señal tan evidente.

Mientras mi piel se vuelve aún más blanca por el reflejo de los folios, fantaseo con escaparme a una isla perdida en el Egeo con Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth y Pierce Brosnan (definitivamente, me hago mayor). No sé... Tengo la extraña sensación de que se me han adelantado...

Coming from a rock chick such as myself, this might surprise you. If you looked at the boys, you wouldn’t even suspect that they can play in a band. No, with their unassuming and sweet looks, you’d think that they work in your office, down the hall in the graphics department; Button down shirts, neatly tucked into jeans and chinos, with a belt of course. Nothing flashier than a simple wedding band or old class ring as bling. No bravado or swagger. But don’t let their prep school appearance fool you. You will be transformed.

Long before Vampire weekend or Chester French made preppy chic again, The Walkmen rose from the ashes of two great bands. Hamilton Leithauser, who could be perfectly cast as a‘soc’ in the Outsiders though he has the angst of a greaser, had formed the Recoys in Boston and then joined up with former classmates from the defunct Jonathan Fire Eater. The band members remain close, churning out more than an album's worth in any recording process, and still finding time for side projects such as recording a cover of Harry Nilsson’s Pussycats, recording a staged reading of Sex And The City (seriously), and co-writing the Great American Novel. Apparently the novel seems to be taking a lot more time than they thought to finish – tell me about it, boys. Tell me about it.

With BOWS AND ARROWS, they had a break out hit with ‘The Rat’, a blistering account of a soul broken by a split. I’ve even heard that it was written about a mutual friend in the Brooklyn indie rock circle, but I decline to name him. Perhaps you can figure it out when you read my forthcoming book (shameless plug).

YOU AND ME, the latest album, unofficially dropped in July in a unique way. With their creative contemporaries such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor offering the music online as a pay what you can scenario, The Walkmen teamed up with Amie Street and offered a download for a $5 donation to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. So now, if you were going to even think about downloading it illegally, bear in mind that the boys are donating the proceeds to a cancer charity. Even I, who gets her music for free, clicked on paypal for this. An advance of one of the greatest albums of the year – AND I get to help fight cancer? Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

But what exactly is it about The Walkmen that captures my fancy? It's hard to put a finger on it. Once when posed with the task of describing the sound of The Walkmen, a friend said it sounded like drunken fairy saloon music. I think that is far too passive and sweet a description. It’s more like elfin mad scientists drunk on absinthe turning wooden knobs at a Narnian console.

Their dirge-ish songs alternate in flavor. Sometimes big band, sometimes calypso or country, you are listening to the soundtrack to a weekend in an Irish pub or a stormy Caribbean vacation. Or perhaps this is the music of the underworld that Orfeo’s true love heard when she was stuck on the other side. Lest the sounds get too sweet, the lyrics can be like a thousand little cynical papercuts. “What’s in it for me….I heard you the first time.”, “You’ve got a nerve to be asking a favor…we’ve been through this before.” “I don’t get some people, but I don’t really try.”, and titles like “Revenge wears no wristwatch”, “This job is killing me”, “Everyone who pretended to like me is gone” These reveal a certain callous and unsympathetic look at what once was happy times. I suppose it's the duality which resonates with me. The inner idealist wrestling with the voice who has seen disappointment - a 'fuck you' to over-sentimentality, which by nature is somewhat sentimental.

The show at the Troubadour was all of this and more. The guys, armed with a horn section, took the stage in an un-assuming, modest way, but hit the crowd confidently with a beautiful, ethereal, punk wall of sound. The performance was so startling and arresting, and then lulling and then engaging.

Ham’s voice, an odd yelping cry which wavers between a Bob Dylan call to arms and a raspy Rod Stewart growl is an unique layer a top the swirling Wurlitzer and big band orchestrals. His fist over the mic like an MC, with the cord wrapped tightly around his arm, pulling on it, tourniquet style, he howled and yelped in epileptic fits, accessing and channeling some type of Brando rage.

There’s a sense of hearkening back when you’re listening in on them. Maybe it’s the vintage gear, or their somewhat formal and almost polite appearance. But one does feel like Hamilton is yearning for a time when people respected each other and did the right thing.

Of course nostalgia can be dangerous - looking at the past for those golden moments, and glorifying a time which was most likely the same mix of heaven and hell, is not an enlightened place to start from. But it is the stuff that bar dirges are made of. And old Hollywood movies. And sweeping novels. It is this magical lightning in a bottle, that the Walkmen capture for me. A bit of gilded memory with the somewhat sour taste of the present.

In fact, while listening to their set, this is what the music made me imagine:

The smell of library books. An empty field at twilight. A pork pie hat with a madras plaid band. Mass held at an all boys Catholic boarding school. A black and white Robert Doisneau photograph. The first time reading JD Salinger or Mark Twain. An old Frenchman covering Bob Dylan. A 400 year old pub on the cliffs of Dover. The ignited sugar cube dropped into a glass of illegal absinthe. Dickie Greenleaf in a late night jazz club. A flamenco dance on a honeymoon.

I can only blame The Walkmen and their gorgeous music for making me emoscribe like this. I want to go for a walk in a rainstorm. I want to smoke cloves while watching the sun set. I want to go plant a freaking tree. See? YOU AND ME has turned me into a mushy mess of flowery prose. Who knows? If I keep listening, perhaps I may just finish my Great American Novel.

The Walkmen perform at the Troubadour Friday, August, 22, 2008. Their latest album, You And Me was released on August 19th.

Mark Twain

Jack London:
"I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of millenniums. All my previous selves have their voices, echoes, promptings in me. Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born."
/Nie powstałem w chwili mych narodzin, lub mego poczęcia, Rozwijałem się i dojrzewałem poprzez niezliczone tysiąclecia. Wszystkie moje poprzednie istnienia odzywają się swoimi głosami, rozbrzmiewając echem we mnie. Oh - niezliczone razy jeszcze się narodzę./

Mark Twain:
"I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna."
/Rodziłem się więcej razy niż ktokolwiek inny, oprócz Krishny./

Lew Tołstoj:
"As we live through thousands of dreams in our present life, so is our present life only one of many thousands of such lives which we enter from the other more real life and then return after death. Our life is but one of the dreams of that more real life, and so it is endlessly, until the very last one, the very real the life of God."
/Tak jak przeżywamy tysiące marzeń w naszym obecnym życiu, tak nasze życie jest tylko jednym z tysięcy krótkich żywotów na tle naszego prawdziwszego życia (stanu), do którego też wracamy po śmierci. Nasze pojedyncze życie jest tylko jednym ze snów naszego prawdziwego życia(stanu), i to wszystko będzie trwać nieskończenie, aż do właściwego, prawdziwego życia Boga./

Henry Ford:
"I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. Genius is experience. Some think to seem that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives".
/Przyswoiłem sobie teorię reinkarnacji gdy miałem 26 lat.
Mądrość tkwi w doświadczeniu. Niektórzy sadzą że to jest dar lub talent, lecz to jest owoc wieloletnich doświadczeń z wielu żywotów./

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
"As long as you are not aware of the continual law of Die and Be Again, you are merely a vague guest on a dark Earth."
/Tak długo jak nie jesteś świadom prawa ciągłości śmierci i odrodzenia, jesteś zaledwie przelotnym gościem na mrocznej Ziemi/

Freidrich Nietzsche:
"Live so that thou mayest desire to live again - that is thy duty - for in any case thou will live again!"
/Żyj tak abyś mógł pragnąć żyć ponownie - to twój obowiązek - dlatego że i tak będziesz żył ponownie!/ Tłumaczenie:Conchi

Mahatma Ghandi:
"I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, and believing as I do in the theory of reincarnation, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth I shall be able to hug all of humanity in friendly embrace."
/Nie mogę sobie wyobrażać istnienia trwałej wrogości między ludźmi, i równocześnie wierzyć w teorię reinkarnacji. Żyję nadzieją, że jeśli nie w tym - to następnym życiu będę mógł objąć całą ludzkość w przyjacielskim uścisku/

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal." "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals… "
/Dusza wnika w ludzkie ciało, jak w czasową siedzibę, i wychodzi ponownie, przechodząc w nowe miejsce zamieszkania, albowiem dusza jest nieśmiertelna. To jest tajemnica świata - wszystkie rzeczy trwają wiecznie i nie umierają, lecz tylko na chwilę idą na odpoczynek by potem powrócić ponownie.
Śmierć nie istnieje, ludzie tylko pozornie umierają, i tak samo nieprawdziwe sa ich pogrzeby.../

generał George S. Patton:
"So as through a glass and darkly, the age long strife I see, Where I fought in many guises, many names, but always me."
~/Jak przez lunetę, spoglądam wstecz, poprzez mroczne wieki niesnasek i gdzie nie spojrzę, tam walczyłem - pod wieloma postaciami, wieloma imionami, lecz to zawsze byłem ja/

Walt Whitman:
"I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time."
~/Wiem że jestem nieśmiertelney, nie mam wątpliwości że umierałem już tysiące razy, śmieje się z tego co ty zwiesz unicestwieniem, bo znam bezkres czasu/

William Wordsworth:
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting. And cometh from afar."
~/Nasze narodzin są niczym  innym jak snem i zapomnieniem, Dusza która rośnie w nas, nasza gwiazda przewodnia, wykluwa sie nowym miejscu, przybywając z oddali./

Jalalu Rumi (islamski poeta z 13 wieku):
"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear ? When was I less by dying?"
/Skruszałem jako kamień i wzrosłem jako roślina, umarłem jako roślina i narodziłem się jako zwierzę, umarłem jako zwierze i stałem się człowiekiem. Czego mam się bać? Czy kiedykolwiek poprzez śmierć, stałem się czymś gorszym?/

Carl Jung:
"My life often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and no end. I had the feeling that I was an historical fragment, an excerpt for which the preceding and succeeding text was missing. I could well imagine that I might have lived in former centuries and there encountered questions I was not yet able to answer; that I had been born again because I had not fulfilled the task given to me."
/Moje życie często jawiło mi się jak historia, która nie ma początku ani końca. Miałem przeczucie, że to był kawałek historii, urywek, z którego brakowało poprzedzającego i następującego tekstu.
Z łatwością mogłem sobie wyobrazić, że żyłem w poprzednich wiekach i wtedy napotykałem pytanie, na które nie mogłem znaleźć odpowiedzi: Czy żyłem ponownie dlatego, że poprzednio nie wypełniłem zadanych mi celów?/

Socrates:
"I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence."
/Jestem prawdziwie przekonany, że istnieje coś takiego jak ponowne narodziny,  że życie odradza się ze śmierci, i dusze umarłych wciąż istnieją/

Jesus Christ w gnostyckiej ewangelii Pistis Sophia:
"Souls are poured from one into another of different kinds of bodies of the world."
~/Duszę przechodzą z jednego ciała, w drugie - w inne formy istniejące w tym świecie/

Voltaire:
It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection."
/To nie jest zbyt zaskakujące, narodzić się więcej niż raz, ponieważ wszystko w naturze się odradza./

Józef (żydowski historyk z czasów Jezusa):
"All pure and holy spirits live on in heavenly places, and in course of time they are again sent down to inhabit righteous bodies."
/Wszystkie czyste i święte dusze żyją w raju, i od czasu do czasu są posyłane ponownie by zamieszkiwać ciała sprawiedliwych/

Honore Balzac
"All human beings go through a previous life... Who knows how many fleshly forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand the value of that silence and solitude of spiritual worlds?"
/Wszystkie istoty ludzkie, miały już poprzednie życie... Kto wie jak niezliczone cielesne formy dziedzic niebios musi zamieszkać zanim będzie mógł zrozumieć wartość ciszy i samotności duchowego świata?/

Paul Gauguin :
"When the physical organism breaks up, the soul survives. It then takes on another body."
/Gdy ciało fizyczne umiera, dusza przeżywa, Przyjmuje potem następne ciało/

George Harrison:
"Friends are all souls that we've known in other lives. We're drawn to each other. Even if I have only known them a day., it doesn't matter. I'm not going to wait till I have known them for two years, because anyway, we must have met somewhere before, you know."
/Przyjaciele sa tymi duszami, które znaliśmy w poprzednich żywotach. Dlatego ciągnie nas do siebie. Nawet jeśli spotykamy ich na jeden dzień, to nie ma znaczenia, ja nie zamierzam czekać aż ich poznam przez dwa lata, ponieważ tak czy owak, wiem że już wczesniej się poznaliśmy/

Uwaga: powyże tłumaczenia zostały dokonane przez autorkę bloga
- jeśli ktoś wychwyci poważniejszy błąd proszę o informację w komentarzach,
natomiast zgłoszenia drobnych błędów można przesłać na adres podany tutaj : kontakt

Źródło : www.reincarnation.ws

Powiązane posty:

• Reinkarnacja?

• Inne spojrzenie na reinkarnację

• Inspirujące cytaty sławnych ludzi

• Koniec cierpienia - inspirujące cytaty z Thich Nhat Hanh

• Bądź wolny! - inspirujące cytaty E. Tolle

• Proste odpowiedzi na trudne pytania. Inspirujące cytaty E. Tolle

On a better note, I have a GOOD contour drawing!  Approval! Mr. Adams told me to focus on the face first and not to be afraid of dark shading. “Go dark.” We drew a generic eye, mouth, nose and head today. Seeing the array of experience in the class room made me feel much better. My fear was that I wouldn’t be prepared. I am. Sweet.

By the bye, -OH MY GOODNESS I JUST GOT THAT PHRASE! No really. It’s next to the goodbye! Is that right? Is it? Well I wasn't going to say goodbye yet, so it wouldn’t have been inappropriate.

Bye the way, my good contour drawing did look like a bug! The eye was an inch to the right yesterday! I fixed it before I took the picture this morning. :D

I ate lunch with three lovely people and one super creepy person who was stalking one of the lovely people. They were very friendly but I am just too awkward. I knew I’d to eat my burger patty with nothing but mustard in front of strangers eventually, but it was too soon. Sigh. I declined on going on a cigarette run with them (don’t worry, they're not hooligans, just very very country) using the old study excuse. Except it’s not really an excuse. I am doing something from the time I wake up until I go to bed! Who has time for cigarette runs? Hanging out? Boys? Luckily, I already gots one! Thank you, Jake! You are a time saver. :P I thanked them for letting me eat with them and gave my phone number to the chatty ringleader (she was the one being stalked).

The grill was closed at dinner! :( I had to eat salad and with the dressing that looked like it had the least dairy. Can’t wait for Mama’s two hundred and fifty calorie peanut butter bars. Yum! 

Ohkay, there is something I have been absolutely dying to tell you about Mr. Adams. I haven’t yet because this is the internets and all but I can’t help myself! Mr. Adams is a Johnny Depp fan. He is a huge Johnny Depp fan. And not just a Depp fan, but a Jack Sparrow fan. He mentioned Johnny in my first drawing class as an example of a celebrity to use in a photo copy. No big deal right? But in his office I saw a framed photo of Jack on his desk! Signed by Mr. Depp himself! But wait there is more! When I walked into the library, what did I see?

A life sized bust of Captain Jack Sparrow. My obsession with Keith Richards is now vindicated.

So I leave you with a quote by Mr. Twain : 

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. 

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man.I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

Oh how right you are, Mr. Twain.

Today in English Class Ms. Silcott had us read "The Lowest Animal" by Mark Twain. Never before have I agreed with an essay more. His tasteful use of satire keeps you interested and his spectrum sized vocabulary has you gripping at the dictionary, urging you to read more, to not only finish, but comprehend. I think, perhaps, Mr. Mark Twain (or Samuel Langhorn Clemens) is one of the most intelligent, respectable men of our 19th century.

However, not to criticize Mr. Twain but his satire is flawed when he mentions a Chinese Buddhist:

... a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away two whole days.When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh not a specimen left alive.These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.

Just a handy tidbit: a Buddhist wouldn't argue. He'd probably just chill and meditate.

Mark Twain

Stämmer gamle Howies teori kanske all amerikanism sedan 1849 på något sätt är en omedveten strävan bort från sammankopplingen med den mytomspunne författaren och poeten, bort från dennes mörka värld. Landet och dess ledare vill distansiera sig från spöken, röda dödar och andra amsagor. De motarbetar aktivt Poe och de motarbetar aktivt de otäckheter han skapade genom att flytta bort alla mörkermän och spöken till andra länder och stater, på lagom missilavstånd.

Slående är annars vilken roman som brukar kallas för USA:s nationalepos: valfångardramat Moby Dick. En groteskt tjock lunta om en tjurskalle till sjöbuss som bara är ute efter tre saker: hämnd, död och lite (lamp)olja.

Tonight she is teamed back with an oldie but goody. I'm talkin about Josh. Her first partner. They drew contemporary from Tice. They pretty much blew the roof off a motha fucka with their routine. Though it seemed that it was really Katee being awesome and Josh catching her. Don't get me wrong it takes a ton of talent and what not to do what he did but it was more her piece. Again, I speak from a very diverse dancing background in which I took at a tap class at the age of 7. So I know what I'm talking about. 

Haven't been able to attain any Vid yet, but you know as soon as I do it will be here.

Thier second dance was pretty interesting and by interesting I mean badass. The music changed to this Indian techno beat thing half way through which put the dance into another gear. It just seems that they always give Katee the cultural or risky dances. I say give because I seriously doubt the random-ness of the drawings. Really, the part I liked a lot in this was her costume. Shit, it looked cool. I think she should wear that to Chem next year. Oh thats right she'll be to busy going on a top ten tour. 

ANYWAY, as per usual Katee and Josh smashed it all hopefully securing themselves a spot for the final 4. (or at least Katee because I have no real significant ties to him except that I met his family and they seemed nice) 

Still no Vid.

As for So You Think You Can Write (Write...Write) I went flip mode on bitches. (Busta bust what!) ((that was a hip hop reference for you land locked people)) I decided to go way contemporary and break out a graphic novel for this week. It was pretty bad ass about a man who can't help but do bad when all he wants is to do good. I think It will be in FX in the fall. Oh that's right, they already have a million shows with that premise. Sorry. 

So this week, Mark Twain got the boot. His unique vernacular was keeping him in it but through my manipulation he also tried to go flip mode and tried his hand at a story about chinese immigrant coming to the U.S.A. and battling racial inequality. Without going into details, lets just say that his previous vernacular in such works as Tom Sawyer came across as very racist in his round of six effort.

To the final 4 we go!

Vote me me, and Katee as we take off on our competitions. Especially Katee since hers is actually real.  She really has earned it. Welcome to the child. The Middlest Child.

He lived in a world of fire and steel, a world forged by muscle and sweat, by blood and pain. During his seventy-four years, he witnessed the end of an inhuman institution, the advent of transcontinental rail travel, and the first powered flight. His life was punctuated by periods of both personal and professional success and failure, and he experienced highs and lows of financial plenitude and near-destitution. He was acquainted with happiness; nothing more than a polite, hat-tipping familiarity, to be sure, but he was on a first-name, backslapping basis with suffering, and tragedy was his lifelong companion.

He was born with the comet in 1835, and predicted that he'd die with its return in 1910. He did.

Mark Twain realized better than anyone that untapped potential enjoys the same practical application as no potential at all, that is, undelivered promises and neglected dreams are of no benefit to those lacking the ambition or wherewithal to see them to fruition. It's easy to make plans, after all, to conspire to success, but plans and promises without attendant accomplishment have no virtue. Often the phrase "it's got potential" is a euphemism for something more along the lines of "this sucks, but it doesn't have to."

When the Playstation 3 was released in North America in November of 2006, it had two distinct advantages working in its favor; first was the fact that sixty-thousand million PS2s had been sold since 2000, giving the brand some considerable installed loyalty. The second, which hasn't yet panned out as well as the first, was its versatility. With built-in b/g wi-fi, media card readers of every ilk, Blu-Ray and DVD playback, backwards compatibility down through the original Playstation, Bluetooth connectivity for headsets and controllers, USB ports, HDMI outputs, the Playstation 3 seemed poised to conquer the entertainment world as the first jack -- and master -- of all trades.

Instead of bursting onto the scene, its nostrils frothing and flaring, its flanks doing whatever it is that flanks do, the PS3 limped out of the gate with a rather weighty satchel o' sales inhibitors strapped around its its formidable girth.

Though Sony's monolith was, at the time, the least expensive Blu-Ray player on the market, it was the costliest game system since Trip Hawkins' exorbitant performance-art nightmare opened to a worldwide audience of crickets and tumbleweeds back in 1993. With the top-of-the-line 60-gigabyte PS3 priced at $599, many of the Playstation faithful found themselves embroiled in a sudden, seedy affair with Microsoft's $399 Xbox 360, which enjoyed a year-long head start over the PS3 and thus boasted a wider selection of games. (Rumors persisted about a $499 20-gig model of the PS3, but to this day I'm convinced they were, in fact, merely rumors, as Sasquatch has been more frequently sighted in the wild than the 20-gig PS3.) For many, it was a simple case of price-to-value ratio.

Asking consumers to purchase a big-ticket item on faith -- that is, asking for patience regarding the game library -- is one thing, a given for a console launch, but requiring them to purchase an unproven technology like Blu-Ray, driving the cost of the item into the technological stratosphere, that's just cousin-humping stupidity, no matter how reasonably priced the PS3 might have been in comparison to stand-alone players.

People don't approach buying a game system based on what it will do for them outside of gaming, and they certainly don't make such purchases intellectually. They seek intellectual rationalizations for them -- such as the mental acrobatics involved in buying a sailboat to help impress potential clients, which will in turn improve business -- but the underlying motivation for purchasing big-ticket items is always, always emotional. Blu-Ray had no demonstrable emotional value to anyone at the time of the PS3's release; it carried intellectual appeal, sure, but that's as far as it went. After all, movie fans weren't lining up to buy the Playstation 3 because of its Blu-Ray capabilities that November. Gamers were lining up to buy the Playstation 3 because of games, but they had to accept -- and pay for -- the unproven proprietary Blu-Ray format in order to even get their foot in the door.

Many of them, myself included, didn't bother with the PS3 until a year later (I got mine used, with a steep discount); thus with the inclusion of Blu-Ray, Sony committed a little bit of marketing suicide, and priced the PS3 beyond a reasonable emotional purchase. It forced otherwise interested consumers to rationalize paying a significantly higher price for something that had little or no value to them, but which they could certainly talk themselves out of intellectually. As Sony no doubt has learned in the intervening eighteen months, once you let the brain into the limo, the party's over.

Another thing which worked against the Playstation 3 upon its launch was a decent selection of games with no system-selling title among them. (Please note; "decent selection of games" doesn't mean the same thing as "selection of decent games.") While this might be the case for most, if not all, system launches, consider the combined effect of spending $750 on a system and two games, and then having nothing better to play than Call of Duty 3 and Resistance: Fall of Man (which is, by the way, a game whose appeal utterly mystifies me). But that's a review for another time.

Did the early adopters, those financially intrepid folks who set the tone for word-of-mouth feedback for any product, walk away from their paycheck-sized foray into the next-gen Playstation experience feeling like they'd made a good decision? Did the gotta-have-it meme set the world on fire as it did with the concurrently released Wii, or was the Playstation 3 like a Ferrari on a dirt road -- an overpriced block of underutilized fancy hardware with nothing to do but wait for some pavement to appear beneath its wheels? Perhaps both, but I'd wager it was more of the latter.

Of course no one expects a system to stun the world right off the starting block, but a year and a half later still so little can be said for the PS3's exclusive library that it hardly bears mentioning. With the recent release and subsequent drool-fest over Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriotic Libertines, or whatever the hell it's called, Sony has what many consider to be the first exclusive must-own Playstation 3 title, though personally, I'm still waiting. Nothing against shitty writing, or stilted dialog, or horrible characterization, or dated, special-case design, or any of its myriad other rectal-cranial concepts (which no doubt remain dear to those who purportedly "grew up" on MGS), but I hated the fucker.

So it falls to the likes of Heavenly Sword, Folklore, Eye of Judgment, Lair, Untold Legends, and Time Crisis 4 to extricate the lowing beast from the mire of exclusive crap, and frankly, these games just aren't up to it. Apparently, any Playstation 3 game is doomed to a life of mediocrity and/or dog shit cookies unless it contains a colon in the title, as the system receives a considerable boost from games like Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but even these respectable gents don't have the legs to carry Sony's hamstrung bovine into profitability.

Yet another potential inhibitor of sales, backwards compatibility, is really a component of a larger problem, namely that of ambiguous product identity. No fewer than four different versions of the Playstation 3 have been released in North America alone: the 20 and 60 gig launch models, each which offered hardware backward compatibility to older Playstation titles, and though the 60 gig also sported flash card readers and wi-fi b/g, the 20 gig did not. Later, in 2007, the 40 gig model was released, which offered no backward compatibility at all, and no flash slots, but it did have wi-fi connectivity. The 80 gig PS3 was released in August 2007, and it offered software emulation of older titles, plus flash readers. The upcoming (September 2008, if this particular Sony release schedule can be believed), 80 gig model will lose all backwards compatibility, the flash readers, and 2 of its previous 4 USB jacks, but it will retain the wi-fi capability.

While this isn't an issue for most people -- I don't know anyone who bought a PS3 in order to play PS2 games -- at best it's confusing, and at worst it conveys an image of constant removal, of less value for the same money. The persistent shifting of SKUs and features and hard drive sizes speaks of poor leadership and a misguided corporate direction, as even Sony can't decide what they want you to be able to do with their system. All of it can be traced to SCEA hemorrhaging cash due to its Blu-Ray fiasco; instead of producing a simple, reliable machine that played games well, Sony is forced to consistently triage arterial bleed-outs by removing, taking away, and trimming down the PS3's features in order to cut costs.

Instead of putting an affordable console into as many hands as possible, they tried, yet again, to force a proprietary format onto an unwilling, unready public, not just in North America, but around the world. In the process they priced themselves out of the game, and they keep aggravating the injury by constantly fiddling with it.

Sony is big on theatrical grandstanding (those of you waiting for Gran Turismo on the PSP, or LittleBigPlanet, or Playstation Home feel free to argue); they'll promise the world, then, a year late and absent advertised features, they'll deliver a town. It's difficult to root for such arrogance, not to feel a little bit of smug satisfaction when it falters because of its own pig-headed decisions, but I'll say this for them;

The Playstation 3 might not be perfect, but it's got a lot of potential.

A:
Der Einbau einer direkten TWAIN-Schnittstelle in ActiveFax ist momentan nicht geplant, jedoch bieten die meisten Scanner die Moeglichkeit, die 'Druck'-Taste auf einen bestimmten Drucker zu programmieren, d.h. beim Betaetigen dieser Taste kann der 'ActiveFax Drucker' direkt angesteuert werden und ermoeglicht so den direkten Versand von gescannten Dokumenten.

--
Cornelia Wegmueller, Customer & Partner Support
ActiveFax Communication Group
a division of
INTERTRADE ENTERPRISES LTD :: Blegistr.25 :: CH-6340 Baar/Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 5866974  ::  Fax: +41 44 2742350
mailto:support@activefax-distribution.com

ActiveFax Support Deutsch: http://activefaxdeutsch.wordpress.com/about/
ActiveFax Support English: http://activefax.wordpress.com/about/

Corporate WebSites:
http://www.activefax-distribution.com
http://www.creacity-group.com
http://www.intertrade.cc

Yes, you know they are there. You look at them every time you're hunting for something to read...and yet, you pass them over. What are their titles? Why aren't you reading them yet? I was going to gather them up for a picture, but that would be mean, to get them off the shelf for a pic, then reshelve them. They are not bad books, not disapointing, not too this or too that. No, no, it's just that I haven't ... well ... picked ... them ...up ... Or, maybe I do have "collecting" tendencies.

1) FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT - Mireille Guiliano
It's a nice looking book; nice paper, nice feel; I bought it in order to review it for a magazine.  But I'm not in any hurry to cook or do wine like a frenchie, though I love doing so when there, in France.  I don't know; this one has not moved me. Guess cause it's not bedtime reading nor does it pique my (rather listless) culinary curiosity.

2) DORIS LESSING - SHORT STORIES
I'm saving it. What for? For a week at the beach. An Atlantic beach. Where there is nothing to do but read, and in so doing, stop now and then to level my gaze across the ocean in what I think is the direction of South Africa.

3) THE FOREST FOR THE TREES - Betsy Lerner
I have a definite tendency towards books about writing. I always discover some kind of nugget in them. But this one has yet to be opened and experienced. I know it's good. I gave a  copy to someone as a gift and heard back that she really enjoyed it. I'm just waiting for some "right' moment to delve in there and see what the author has to say about the different types of writers.

4) EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES - Lynne Truss
This one is the Forrest Gump of books. Everyone read this one. Everyone talked about it. Everyone loved it. Even non-grammar types. As thrilled as I am that a book of such a nature (apparently) hit the best-selling lists, I am happy to have it smiling at me from the shelf on my dresser's hutch. I will pack the portable little thing in my giant purse one of these days and open it and laugh over it at lunch and wonder why I didn't read it sooner. For now, though, it's just one of those books I am content to own.

5) HUCKLEBERRY FINN - Twain
Ah, the Finn-ster. That brilliant little Huck of a lad!  The willy nilly feckless footloose fellow!  We even named our beagle after him. But no, I have not thrown myself into the several hundred page novel, not yet! Husband and both kids have done so, cover to cover. Not me. Even with living only two-days-on-foot from Hannibal itself, Huck and Tom's hometown, I have not yet been overcome with Twain-mania.  There it is, in all its red leather bookcover glory, with gilt-edge pages. It can just wait 'til I lean up against the porchstep with a bit of haystraw in my yap and a hat on my head to begin reading.

What's making me opine about this today is the fine piece in the current Time Magainze about Twain and his relevance today:

News in the form of edgy drollery may seem a brave new thing, but it can all be traced back to one source, the man Ernest Hemingway said all of modern American literature could be traced back to: Mark Twain. Oh, that old cracker-barrel guy, you may say. White suit, cigar, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated--but he died back in 1910, no? White, male, and didn't he write in dialect? What does he have to do with the issues of our day?

Read the article, read a Twain book.  You'll be smarter and happier for it!  Especially since, as Twain said, "Education is that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge."

Now let's just hope that Roger isn't a relative...

sono ancora all'inizio: Boston e stato del Massachussets, capitolo : Letteratura (direi che siamo nel mio preferito, senza alcun dubbio!).

Allora ho scoperto che andrò a fare le mie vacanze dove illustri personaggi hanno vissuto e raccontato le loro storie più famose....

Alcuni di loro sono: Ralph Waldo Emerson e il suo discepolo Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorn (La Lettera Scarlatta), Herman Melville (Moby Dick), Mark Twain (...Tom Sawyer) e la sua vicina di casa Harriet Beecher Stowe (La capanna dello zio Tom), Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott (Piccole donne)....

Non ho altro da dire... se non sarò ispirata quest'estate da quell'incantevole e magico covo di artisti, credo che potrei rinunciare!!! 

... poco distante c'è pure la casa di Stephen King.... magari vado a trovarlo e beviamo un caffè con ciambelle in veranda!!! Ahhhhh... i sogni!

A:
Eine direkte TWAIN Schnittstelle ist in der momentanen Version nicht enthalten, steht aber auf der Wunschliste.

Die meisten Scanner lassen die 'Druck'-Taste fuer Direktdruck auf einem konfigurierten Drucker programmieren, sodass damit die gleiche Funktionalitaet erreicht wird.

--
Cornelia Wegmueller, Customer & Partner Support
ActiveFax Communication Group
a division of
INTERTRADE ENTERPRISES LTD :: Blegistr.25 :: CH-6340 Baar/Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 5866974 :: Fax: +41 44 2742350
mailto:support@activefax-distribution.com

Corporate WebSites:
http://www.activefax-distribution.com
http://www.creacity-group.com
http://www.intertrade.cc

Werden Sie jetzt ActiveFax Partner: Partner Registrierung

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure."

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910) better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer, perhaps most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Fruit Salad Gay Podcast

Upcoming Fruit

Wed, August 20th @ 7:30P (PST)

Comedienne

Margaret Cho!!

FruitSaladShow.com