Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Making my day a whole lot better

I'm sorry

Loving a woman is the hardest thing you ever had to do.

O Rio

Ser como o rio que deflui
Silencioso dentro da noite.
Não temer as trevas da noite.
Se há estrelas nos céus, refleti-las.
E se os céus se pejam de nuvens,
Como o rio as nuvens são água,
Refleti-las também sem mágoa
Nas profundidades tranquilas.

 Manuel Bandeira, Belo, 1948

For the Mantis Shrimp Kung Fu seems like Tai chi

These are a few of my favourite things

I've been toying recently with the idea of starting a set of new projects: gaming related blogs, video content, just a some political articles about everything I have an opinion on - or even free translation on the web of relevant texts. Every time these projects fall short - either because I don't have enough time to dedicate to them, or because... With everything else I have already going on, it feels like a strange waste of time to start something again, instead of using what I have. I have this blog, for instance - but when was the last time I wrote down longer texts here? Then again, another relevant excuse: this blog is deeply personal, a dairy of thoughts and nice things for my personal enjoyment. I post whatever I want, whenever I feel like, in whatever language. I don't want that to change. Posting here, however, won't solve my issue either, because I don't advertise to the target readers.

Ah, the dilemma...

Here for posterity, for when I want to revive some of these projects again!

The library as an island

“This sleight of hand is achieved, every time a reader locks onto the Web, by stressing velocity over reflection and brevity over complexity, preferring snippets of news and bytes of facts over lengthy discussions and elaborate dossiers, and by diluting informed opinion with reams of inane babble, ineffectual advice, inaccurate facts and trivial information, made attractive with brand names and manipulated statistics. 

But the Web is an instrument. It is not to blame for our superficial concern with the world in which we live. Its virtue is in the brevity and multiplicity of its information; it cannot also provide us with concentration and depth. The electronic media can assist us (do in fact assist us) in a myriad of practical ways, but not in all, and can’t be held responsible for that which they are not meant to do. (...) 

Neither will the Web lend us bed and board in our passage through this world, because it’s neither a resting place nor a home, neither Circe’s cave nor Ithaca. We alone, and not our technologies, are responsible for our losses, and we alone are to blame when we deliberately choose oblivion over recollection. We are, however, adroit at making excuses and dreaming up reasons for our poor choices. (...) 

It is likely that libraries will carry on and survive, as long as we persist in lending words to the world that surrounds us, and storing them for future readers. So much has been named, so much will continue to be named, that in spite of our foolishness we will not give up this small miracle that allows us the ghost of an understanding. Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination.” 

Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night