Interweb Travels

The Great Hike, by mynti at DeviantArt.

P H Y S I C A L T H E O R I E S A S W O M E N .

BY SIMON DEDEO

- - - -

0. Newtonian gravity is your high-school girlfriend. As your
first encounter with physics, she's amazing. You will never
forget Newtonian gravity, even if you're not in touch very
much anymore.

1. Electrodynamics is your college girlfriend. Pretty
complex, you probably won't date long enough to really
understand her.

2. Special relativity is the girl you meet at the dorm party
while you're dating electrodynamics. You make out. It's not
really cheating because it's not like you call her back. But
you have a sneaking suspicion she knows electrodynamics and
told her everything.

3. Quantum mechanics is the girl you meet at the poetry reading.
Everyone thinks she's really interesting and people you don't
know are obsessed about her. You go out. It turns out that
she's pretty complicated and has some issues. Later, after
you've broken up, you wonder if her aura of mystery is
actually just confusion.

4. General relativity is your high-school girlfriend all grown
up. Man, she is amazing. You sort of regret not keeping in
touch. She hates quantum mechanics for obscure reasons.

5. Quantum field theory is from overseas, but she doesn't really
have an accent. You fall deeply in love, but she treats you
horribly. You are pretty sure she's fooling around with half
of your friends, but you don't care. You know it will end
badly.

6. Cosmology is the girl that doesn't really date, but has lots
of hot friends. Some people date cosmology just to hang out
with her friends.

7. Analytical classical mechanics is a bit older, and knows
stuff you don't.

8. String theory is off in her own little world. She is either
profound or insane. If you start dating, you never see your
friends anymore. It's just string theory, 24/7.
Um, yeah. Whatever.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
-e.e. cummings

Blacklisted
Why shall I keep the old name?
What is a name anywhere anyway?
A name is a cheap thing all fathers and mothers leave
each child:
A job is a job and I want to live, so
Why does God Almighty or anybody else care whether
I take a new name to go by?
-Carl Sandburg

"Sit up," she says in the darkness. With a knowing smile the Magister complies -- next to last Chokmah Day taking form beside him. From behind, Obliqui lightly traces out the Serpent's path against his spine with one hand while the other reaches among the cushions of the altar. Then, slowly, she pulls it from the folds. She fondles it in both hands, savouring her delight. "And now," she says, "the power is mine!" Swift & agile as Adept, the Priestess flays young Magister of his skin, save that where the hair of his head, face & pubic lie. Laughing as a raver, Obliqui renews her earlier spiraling dance about the chamber as the Priest sits bleeding in semi-lotus amidst the now soaked linens of the altar.

"Fool. Fool!, Obliqui cries. "Priest, Master & Magus indeed! Oh, poor Samson, the table's turned. Your delightful Delilah has this time taken your Body & Life & left you with your silly Freedom. You prove your impotence at every turn. Come now, mighty man, pose for me here in the dim light. Entertain me with your knowledge of the unseen & perhaps bring this temple down to ruin. Ha! All that you had is now mine. Remain there on the altar as only the Ibis Headed One can. You are only the worthless worm in moribund embrace!"

A silence falls over the chamber. In the thick atmosphere the Priestess stands with mocking expression. In one swift movement the Magister rises to his feet -- Obliqui's expression now shifts to disbelief. Slowly, a dolorous sound grows to fevered pitch from the depths of the Magister's very being. The chamber falls away revealing a desert landscape -- waste from horizon to horizon. The moon falls upon the two, lighting two tall minarets, a path & a pack of howling jackals. The knife in Obliqui's hand now falls silently to the soft sand as her hands rush to cover her pained ears. Incredulity & awe cloud her eyes as the Magister steps with assurance to her.

"Sweet Obliqui," he says, "fondest of mine Adepts, it is you who plays the fool; seeking in another the power you already possess, yet deny the offer of those very things you need to control that power". Gesturing to the East, the Magister continues, "Look there, the sun begins to lighten the sky. You & I stand here on this plane while those jackals eat the Qliphothic raiment of my past for a purpose. Indeed it was I who transformed the chamber to this alembic of mind, but it was you who made it possible that I could do this. Watch". The Magister frees Obliqui's blood stained arm & steps away. The first ray of daylight strikes him, bathing him in a golden light, & as it dances in arcs of deep blue & violet over the clotting blood of his form, new flesh begins to appear over the sinews. He turns to Obliqui in radiance, sparks falling from his hair.

"There is also this", the Magister says smiling. "Having understood why Delilah chose to cut Samson's hair in place of that which would indeed have left him the worthless worm, I am confident you will understand this: In allowing me my Freedom, you bind me ever more tightly. My choice is clear, for again -- you make it possible -- I choose you, with or without your skirting & contradictory manner. As I'd told you before, my love -- the magic only now begins".
-Mine

Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, claims aliens HAVE made contact - but it has been covered up for 60 years. But is this really news?

What a stupid concept. Supermodels Go Into Rehab photo shoot. Don't you know? I guess you don't. Rehab offers topless yoga!

"Alphabet City is that perfect area for strolling. Especially nighttime. All kinds of bars and restaurants from all over the world. Vintage stores open till midnight. Party crowds laughing and smoking on the streets. And trees - mind me - with flowers. This is so my New York.

____________________

EAST VILLAGE 6-11 streets between ave 1 and c some restaurants are closed daytime."

Man, do things change. The Strolling New York blog tells us about Alphabet City now. Sure wasn't like this when I lived there. I too loved "strolling" there, but compare my description in my short story The Empress. My description, as most everything in that story, is either exactly as it happened, or, at least, based in the reality of my experiences in NYC in the 1980's.

It's been hell to know ya,
So good to see ya go.
-New Year Blues
From:
Tuwa's Shanty and The Roots Canal.

How To Write With Style from one of the best writers ever, Kurt Vonnegut. I think, perhaps, I need a refresher course. Vonnegut mentions, near the end, possibly the best book ever written on how to write. Get a copy of The Elements of Style by William Strunk & EB White. This is a must read for anyone who has the slightest aspiration to write. Remember: Omit unnecessary words.

So, I was looking at photos of NYC from a bit before the last century through the 1970's (although there's a pic of the destroyed World Trade Center, 2001), & I come across this pic of Lower Manhattan from 1928. I wonder, looking closely at Battery Park (foreground, for those who don't know), that it really doesn't look that different from how I remember it in the 80's & 90's. Which brought me to this:

There's no date on this second image, but it's clearly recent. Not much difference at all.

Good or bad?


Let's all go red.

These images at Hammorabi blog are mostly heavily edited, but damn nice.

Looking for some nice wallpapers? Have a look at The Wallpaper Hunter.

The Great Goddess Lilith -- Goddess to some, demon to others -- is described differently by many (nothing new there). This is an ancient Hebrew version of the Sumerian legend of Lilith.

Plague, the Black Death. Remember, this, the bubonic -- & other forms -- are still round. Of course, they pale in comparison to the wondrous engineered viruses in the hands of our all too fallible leaders. Will we, the race, be wiped out by a meteor? A prolonged heat wave? Nuclear holocaust? Or maybe by Genetically engineered foods.

Yeah! Highlights magazine: For Children by Satan.