Woot woot!! https://sundragon.coffee FTW LFG!!

Woot woot!! I’m getting https://sundragon.coffee back up and running, so you didn’t get the super sexy bag labels, but they’re comin’ up soon! Keep on rockin’ in the free world, Oshi!!

Got a new Samsung phone? Cut out the proprietary app-crap you never asked for with this fantastic user-level exploit: https://www.makeuseof.com/i-removed-samsungs-unremovable-apps-and-my-phone-flies-now/

Synthdragon Radio is back online, baby!

NIP-53 broadcaster daemon comin' up next. I love zap.stream, but the RTMP server feature's Sat cost overhead gets to be a bit much for a lil' stream like mine. WIll support that awesome project in other ways.

Come get the laser juice straight from the source until then: https://synthdragonradio.com

Or, YouTube if you prefer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_SRDylU_Ic

#music #synth #synthwavenostr:@nevent1qvz...

On Love
BY KAHLIL GIBRAN



Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon
the people, and there fell a stillness upon
them. And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to
him,
Though the sword hidden among his
pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in
him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he
crucify you. Even as he is for your growth
so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and
caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and
shake them in their clinging to the earth.
•
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto
himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred
fire, that you may become sacred bread for
God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your
heart, and in that knowledge become a
fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only
love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover
your nakedness and pass out of love’s
threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
•
Love gives naught but itself and takes
naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be
possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
“God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am
in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil
itself.
But if you love and must needs have
desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook
that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own under-
standing of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate
love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with grati-
tude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the
beloved in your heart and a song of praise
upon your lips.

The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, "When you're older" must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game

16 springs and 16 summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him, "Take your time, it won't be long now
'Til you drag your feet to slow the circles down"

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is 20
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
And go round and round and round, in the circle game

Written by: Joni Mitchell
Album: Ladies of the Canyon
Released: 1970

https://youtu.be/5NEkJhBHh54?si=HhsLH9kdTj2Vpk9a

Hey @oshi! I’m not with Conduit anymore, but I’m still stoked to send you some beans from my personal brand, https://sundragon.coffee ! I’m still waiting on an address, DM me when you’re ready to rock. Merry Christmas!

"Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it
is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always
see it as a soap bubble?"

—Alan J. Perlis

From the "Dedication" page of the famous book, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs":

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that
lives in the computer.

“I think that it’s extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shaed every now and then, and aer a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don’t think we are.

I think we’re responsible for stretching them, seing them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun.

Above all, I hope we don’t become missionaries. Don’t feel as if you’re
Bible salesmen. e world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn.

Don’t feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.”

—Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990)





#gn

My written works are back online. Here's a little treasure, still a work-in-progress (as is all of my writing):

https://publish.obsidian.md/gondolla/Tales+of+the+Galaxy/The+Tragedy+of+S%C3%A1vofei

The Tragedy of Sávofei

This work has been part of my written works now for many years. It is a tale told among the people of my stories, and is taught at The Academy to encourage young ones to consider that their actions may be constantly and consistently watched, and they should behave in a manner that befits this. It also carries the dark connotation, in the later years within my Data Crash stories, as it bears the mark of the total domination, mind and memory, of rulers upon the lives of the people.

It is one of my prouder stories, though sad, and dark.

The arc of this tale is thus:

Savofei was a respected General of an army. A key facet of this army is the use of a sort of mind-connected battle meditation which allows a General to see through the eyes of their soldiers, inspire them to new heights, and at need, totally control their actions.

This General, at one time, meets the wife of one of his soldiers, and immediately falls madly in love. Infatuation causes a plummet in his ability to focus, and his wartime prowess begins to show cracks.

Maddened by his obsession with this woman, he begins looking through his soldier's eyes off the battlefield, which culminates in a moment of passion when he takes control of his soldier while in bed with his wife, thus engaging in acts of passion through the soldier, with the soldier's wife.

The tale inevitably concludes with a final stroke of madness, in which Savofei causes the soldier to be murdered on the battlefield by again taking control of his actions, and thrusting him directly into danger, thinking this would allow him then to marry the now-widowed woman of his obsession.

But, we learn in the last moments, that it was Pharaoh who murdered the solider... through Savofei. In fact, it was Pharaoh who coveted the wife of the soldier most, and it was he who was acting through Savofei, instilling the madness of love in his heart, inflaming him to passion, and inevitably causing Savofei to destroy his career, and himself.

Some tellings of the tale, especially those taught at The Academy of Scribes, place Pharaoh on a much holier pedestal, painting Pharaoh as a dealer of justice upon Savofei and not a desirous man.

Thus follows The Tragedy of Sávofei...

(follow the link above to read the tale)