More apologies ...
If you apologise without admitting you're wrong, does it still count as apology?If you apologise without promising you won't do it again, does it still count as apology?
If you apologise without reparations, does it still count as apology?
If you apologise on behalf of someone else, while that someone else clearly is neither sorry nor repentant, does your apology even have meaning?
No comments - Edit - Delete
Apologies, and donations
If you are forced to apologise, does it still count as an apology?If you are forced to make a donation, does it still count as a donation?
If you are forced to be kind, does it mean that you are a kind person?
Is the action more important than the motive? Or is the motive more important than the action?
No comments - Edit - Delete
Fatdog64 812 RC is released
Yeap, still here. Still alive and kickin'.Just dropping by to let you know something that you've probably already known: that is Fatdog64 812 RC has been released.
Release notes here, announcement (and discussions) here.
Get it from the usual mirrors: ibiblio.org, uoc.gr, or nluug.nl.
Unfortunately we lost AARNET for the Australian folks.
No comments - Edit - Delete
Empty shells
I have been playing video games recently and are struck on how good games has progressed since the days I played Lemmings and Doom.What struck me was mainly how good the graphics look like, how life-like it has become; especially when the game protagonists are humans. Their faces are pretty and handsome, their bodies are perfectly proportional and toned, their movements are graceful.
No doubt, this is due to the talented artists that created meticulously them, from draft drawings, 3D modelling, skinning and texturing, and motion capture; it is also the attestation of the immense computing power of modern GPUs. When combined with talented voice actors, the imagery is complete - we are, definitely, in the uncanny valley.
However, no matter how real these characters look like, I cannot drown a tiny voice in my head that keeps saying that what I see is all there is. There is no depth. There is no substance. All I see is literally skin-deep. Underneath the skin of that pretty girl or handsome man, there is nothing. They are hollow. Literally. They are just million of triangles covered by textures; voiced by someone else with stories which aren't their own. They are just empty shells.
But sadly, there are people - real-life people - who are real-life versions of these empty shells. They do have flesh and bone, and will bleed if hurt; but otherwise, what you see of them, is all there is. There is no depth. There is no soul. They speak with with other people's voices and their life are other people's stories. There is nothing else beyond what the eyes can see or the ears can hear or the hands can touch.
Beware that you don't fall for these empty shells. For beneath their skin, there is only nothingness that awaits you.
Even more important, is to beware that you don't become empty shells yourself. Focusing on the outside, but forgetting the most important part of yourself - what's inside.
For when that happens, you become nothing.
No comments - Edit - Delete
Ants in a terrarium
Imagine ants in a terrarium.They are born there, they grow up there, they go about their daily life, and they die there too.
Lets say that there are multiple queens, each commanding multiple her own colonies of ants. Every ant will scavenge for food for its colonies, but they also fight for territories, and sometimes attempt dominion over other colonies. Generations of ants are born, alive, and die over time.
The ants think their problems are important, their possessions are important. Their territories are important, their dominion of other colonies are important. They think that they are important.
But they are just ants living in a terrarium.
---
(Originally contemplated on Feb 2006)
No comments - Edit - Delete
Christmas wishes 2020
Any bad things I did, I did it because of my own failings, so please forgive me.Any good things I did, I could only do it because God has helped me, so to God all the glory.
Merry Christmas everyone.
No comments - Edit - Delete
Fatdog64 811 is released
Fatdog64 811 was released on 10 September 2020.Release notes here, announcement here.
Get it from the usual mirrors: ibiblio.org, aarnet<