joelperry.comtag:www.joelperry.com,2008://12008-02-05T05:03:23Z It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level I'm really quite busy. Movable Type 3.32Links 2008tag:www.joelperry.com,2008://1.202008-02-05T04:46:17Z2008-02-05T05:03:23ZThis is my current unmodified bookmark status....Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
This is my current unmodified bookmark status.
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DNSstuff: Free fast, advanced and comprehensive web-based DNS and domain name tools for DNS hosting, going beyond just ping, tracert/traceroute, WHOIS and DNS lookups.
Kubuntu is a user friendly operating system based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment. With a predictable 6 month release cycle and part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu is the GNU/Linux distribution for everyone.
Stratfor, a leading security consulting intelligence agency, offers intelligence and strategic forecasting services on world events, terrorist attack threats and geopolitical activities affecting national security.
Google TechTalks
July 26, 2006
Luis von Ahn is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, .... 51 min 31 sec.
Unlocker is an explorer extension that allows you with a simple right-click of the mouse on a file or folder to get rid of error message such as error deleting file or folder, cannot delete folder: it is used by another person or program. Unlocker can unlock files, folders, dll, and can also delete index.dat without restarting your computer.
LogMeIn is FREE, secure remote desktop access to your PC from anywhere. Remotely control the mouse, keyboard and desktop from any computer or PocketPC connected to the internet.
Password tools effectively make managing your computers' passwords easy. Some programs in this category can retrieve forgotten or unknown passwords from popular programs such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, Web Pages and more.
Translate words, phrases, web pages between languages, and identify a language -- English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Norwegian, Chinese, Japanese & Korean
If you ever wanted to be able to say at least one thing in every language, start here. This should also allow you to seem like an idiot anywhere on the planet with style.
EzineArticles.com allows ezine or email list publishers to upload or download free expert content that can be used within email newsletters or websites.
These are from the University of Tennessee mathematics department. As the website implies, they are heavily visual, relying on graphical representations to explain mathematical concepts.
There is an entertaining set of excerpts from this very entertaining set of books here. For those of you who have managed to sap all of the humor possible out of your calculus textbook (that should not have taken long), buy these books. They are sungularly unique in that they are actually pleasant reading.
Online calculus book with a heap of excellent video lecutres! I havent seen a direct link, but these appear to correspond to the Thomas Calculus textbook 11th edition!
mathcentre has been established to deliver mathematics support materials, free of charge, to both university professionals and students.It aims to provide students with an opportunity to study important areas of pre-university mathematics which they may have studied before, but which may have been forgotten.
This is a large collection of video lectures for 2 semesters of calculus, and differential equations. Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Somewhat entertaining videos of of a teacher solving calculus problems that have been emailed to him. While not as brushed as the guys using sharpie markers on paper, a few of the problems are more interesting.
The American Mathematical
Society was founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and
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The International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences is a refereed math journal devoted to publication of original research papers, research notes, and review articles, with emphasis on unsolved problems and open questions in mathematics and mathematical sciences. All areas listed on the cover of Mathematical Reviews, such as pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, theoretical mechanics, probability and mathematical statistics, and theoretical biology, are included within the scope of the International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences.
This is an excellent tool for your browser. One of the many interesting functions of any sequences you may be looking at here, is that you can chromatically play them. It really sounds horrible, so if youre having trouble trying to get into some new music, play pi chromatically for 5 minutes, and by the time youre done, any music should sound great by comparison.
Mathematica will easily float pi to 1million digits in short order. I know because I did it! I also really like star trek. What do these things have in common? I am not sure, but then again, why would anyone want to look at a text document of any more than 12 or so digits of Pi??? Well, in the future, if anyone asks you to look at an approximation for Pi, you can say "No thanks I already did that. Get away from me kid! Yer botherin me!"
Solve x^2-x-1=0 for x and the positive value is the golden ratio. Does it really make the sexiest rectangle? Im not sure but maybe donning it with gold lace, blue chiffon and some corinthian columns for support might help. What precisely is blue chiffon by the way??
Suppose that x^2+y^2=14x+6y+6. What is the maximum value of 3x+4y?It took me a while to solve it.A written solution can be read from http://www.gaussianmath....
MIT OCW Physics Department numberical course listing. The MIT Department of Physics has been a national resource since the turn of the 20th century. Our Department has been at the center of the revolution in understanding the nature of matter and energy and the dynamics of the cosmos. Our faculty - three of whom hold Nobel Prizes and 21 of whom are members of the National Academy of Sciences - include leaders in nearly every major area of physics. World leaders in science and engineering, including 10 Nobel Prize recipients, have been educated in the physics classrooms and laboratories at MIT. Alumni of the MIT Department of Physics are to be found on the faculties of the world's major universities and colleges, as well as federal research laboratories and every variety of industrial laboratories. Our undergraduates are sought both by industry and the nation's most competitive graduate schools. Our doctoral graduates are eagerly sought for postdoctoral and faculty positions, as well as by industry. The MIT Physics Department is one of the largest in the nation, in part because it includes astronomy and astrophysics. Our research programs include theoretical and experimental particle and nuclear physics, cosmology and astrophysics, plasma physics, theoretical and experimental condensed-matter physics, atomic physics, and biophysics. Our students - both undergraduate and graduate - have opportunities to pursue forefront research in almost any area. All undergraduate students at MIT study mechanics, electricity and magnetism. Beyond that, our physics majors pursue a program that provides outstanding preparation for advanced education in physics and other careers. Our undergraduates have unusual opportunities for becoming involved in research, sometimes working with two different groups during their four years at MIT. For more information, go to http://web.mit.edu/physics/.
The official U.S. time. Public service cooperatively provided by the two time agencies of United States: a civilian agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and its military counterpart, the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO). Also historical and general interest exhibits.
Geomagnetic data and information relating to Earth's magnetic field and Earth-Sun environment, including
current declination, geomagnetic field models and magnetic indices, geomagnetic observatory data, and geomagnetic surveys.
MIT World is a free, open streaming media web site of the most significant public events at MIT. It features the most recent speakers and guests from across the campus and around the world. It is a project of the Professional Education Programs at MIT's School of Engineering.
ScienceDaily -- the Internet's premier award-winning science news web site -- brings you the latest discoveries in science, health & medicine, the environment, space, technology, and computers, from the world's leading universities and research institutions. Updated four times a day, Science Daily also offers free search of its archive of more than 30,000 stories, as well as related links, books, encyclopedia articles, and jobs, in hundreds of different topics, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, mathematics, physics, and more.
Explore a wide range of recent research in mathematics. From mathematical modeling to why some people have difficulty learning math, read all the math-related news here.
An old group staple, Java Jive, is shown here as presented in a 1988 concert video that is interspersed with clips from several mid-1970s sh.... Feb 21, 2007.
James Taylor's unofficial online home since 1994. Includes an active discussion forum, live chat, daily news updates, tour dates, sound clips, lyrics, a complete discography, biographical info, and more.
WolframTones: A New Kind of Music -- Unique cellphone ringtones
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This is a favorite, and their live birdbox webcams are alot of fun to watch over the life of a nest during the times of year when there are actually birds in them. Check out the owls.
Pandora is the music discovery service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites. Create custom internet radio stations, listen free.
A comprehensive look at the life of Benjamin Franklin, including a biography, quotations, anecdotes, interesting facts, and detailed descriptions of his inventions.
He was the most remarkable of the founding fathers: in his time, he was America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, humorist and business strategist. In this second annual chapter in TIME's Making o
With NC LIVE, North Carolina
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The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress
present a selection of ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and
folklorist. Deposited in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were
rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997. The plays reflect Hurston's life experience, travels, and research, especially her study of
folklore in the African-American South. Totaling 1,068 images, the scripts are housed in the Library's Manuscript, Music, and Rare Books and Special
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Tomorrow’s fighter pilots got a taste of tomorrow’s combat airpower Jan. 8 and 9 at the Air Force Academy when F/A-22 Raptor manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corporation let cadets take the controls in their updated F/A-22 cockpit flight simulator.<br /><br />The F/A-22 Raptor is the next generation of
mathcentre has been established to deliver mathematics support materials, free of charge, to both university professionals and students.It aims to provide students with an opportunity to study important areas of pre-university mathematics which they may have studied before, but which may have been forgotten.
Computer Hardware Reviews at Computer Power User Magazine. Your source for overclocking software guides, building your own computer, pc cooling and computer modding
The Extents to Which The Death of a Salesman is an Aristotelian Tragedytag:www.joelperry.com,2007://1.192007-02-11T07:46:02Z2007-02-11T08:30:00Z In 350bc, Aristotle wrote Poetics, and in that discourse he defined the elements of a tragedy as compared to other plays like an Epic. According to Aristotle, “Every Tragedy…must have six parts, which parts determine its quality- namely, Plot,...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
In 350bc, Aristotle wrote Poetics, and in that discourse he defined the elements of a tragedy as compared to other plays like an Epic. According to Aristotle, “Every Tragedy…must have six parts, which parts determine its quality- namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song.” When Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is compared to Aristotle’s definitions for tragedy, we can indeed put it in the ranks of Aristotelian tragedy in more of a modern form. My senses tell me that a Greek tragedy played out in exacting 350BC Greek style would seem strange to the modern viewer. The choric song, for example, would not suit modern tastes any more than three actors changing full head masks. Therefore I submit that, short of the modifications necessary to make a play interesting to a modern audience, Death of a Salesman indeed fits the spirit of Aristotelian tragedy in a modern style.
According to Aristotle, the plot is “the soul of a tragedy.” The plot is “…the first and most important thing in tragedy.” Aristotle’s idea for the plot in tragedy is such that it has a beginning middle and end, that all parts follow each other in concise fashion, the parts should not be “…'episodic' in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence.” Aristotle goes on to say that the events should not occur simultaneously like the “epic” play. “we must confine ourselves to the actions on the stage.” Miller’s play fits this entire criterion well. With the artistic development of the play stripped off (Miller’s version of Aristotle’s suggested arrangement “not on the simple but on the complex plan.”), we have, quite simply, a beginning where the hero becomes a successful salesman with family, a middle where our hero and his family go through the unsurprising and easily identifiable struggles and realities of being a salesman, and a classic tragic end wherein our hero dies. The sequence of Willy Loman’s life is indeed “probable” and all parts are necessary to the wholeness of the play. Lastly, no events occur simultaneously; in no case do we find simultaneous stage events.
According to Aristotle, “Character holds the second place” in importance to a tragedy. An ideal central character should be “that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.” The reason for this is clearly to “imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragic imitation.” In Willy we have such a man. He is imperfect, for he has weaknesses that the audience can relate with, but it is not those weaknesses that bring him down. It is his error in judgment when he turns down the job at fifty dollars per week and goes in his downward spiral to a tragic end on the very day the mortgage is finally paid off. He began as a great and successful man of prosperity, and ends with tragedy through error of judgment followed by the revelation that he is worth more dead than alive. In part fifteen of Poetics, Aristotle suggests four aims to character. First, it must be good. Willy Loman is basically a good man with very good intentions. He wants happiness for his family. The second is propriety, or good behavior and adherence to that which is right as a general “aim.” While Willy does commit unsurprising human sins, in general, he never utters anything less than good advice and the sage wisdom befitting his status as the patriarch of the family. Aristotle’s third suggestion is that the character be “…true to life.” Willy’s aforementioned human sins are exactly what are necessary to make him fit the definition of true to life while at the same time possessing “propriety.” Aristotle’s last point is that the character be “consistent,” or even “consistently inconsistent.” Willy fits both definitions and the result is predictability. The audience can predict what will happen from scene to scene, and in general, Willy’s actions and the end result are those that we would expect from him. He is a salesman; we expect him to struggle. He is overbearing on his children; we expect them to grow up confused. His whole world crashes down on him when he loses his job, dignity, and income with no apparent recourse. We expect him to kill himself. This satisfies Aristotle’s suggestion that the character act in such a way as is “…necessary or probable.”
Aristotle ranks thought as his third element. He defines this as “the faculty of saying what is possible and pertinent in given circumstances.” In general, what the speaker says should coincide with what he thinks. Aristotle lumps the element of thought together in his discourse on the fourth ranked element of a tragedy which is diction. He defines it as “the expression of the meaning in words.” He suggests that this “province of knowledge belongs to the art of Delivery and to the masters of that science.” In effect, he is saying that this is the actor’s job. Dustin Hoffman accomplishes this goal through his highly expressive and visual acting of Willy Loman.
Aristotle suggests “the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.” Spectacle is one of his criteria for a tragedy. In the play, lights become dim during sad scenes and bright during happy scenes. Miller puts an enormous amount of emphasis on the spectacular staging of the play to produce emotional effects in the audience.
Finally we come to the tragic element of song. Aristotle suggests the word song is “a term whose sense every one understands.” He suggests it to be the “chief embellishment.” While we do not have “choric song” in the classical Greek sense, it is befitting that we make the following amazing observation. Aristotle refers to the playing of the flute five times in Poetics. An electronic search of Arthur Miller’s script reveals the word flute eleven times, and, throughout the play, we find the song of the flute as the underlying musical theme.
As a result, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, while being written over two thousand years after Aristotle defined tragedy in his book Poetics, has sufficient parallels to the genre as to be easily considered a modern Aristotelian tragedy. It has a unified plot with fully interrelated events in a chain of causes and effects. The central character meets all of Aristotle’s criteria for a tragic hero. Within the plot, the central and generally good character meets demise through an error in judgment. The central character is of average moral character and effectively results in gaining the pity of the audience. The characters have unity of thought and diction along with great expression as Aristotle suggests being necessary. This coincides with Aristotle’s third and fourth element. The stage effects within the play comfortably conform to his “spectacle” element. Finally, while there is no great “choric song,” Miller chooses the flute as the melodic backdrop for the play, and the flute is a fundamental element of song in Aristotelian tragedy. A study of this genre would not be complete without a study of Aristotle’s Poetics, but at the same time, a study of Death of a Salesman can help us to understand what Aristotle was referring to when he wrote his discourse on the genre through a modern version of the style over two thousand years later.
~ Joel Perry
A Concise Comparison of Hebrew, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian Lawtag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.182006-10-06T01:22:44Z2006-10-06T01:26:27ZWhether you thank Yahweh, Ishtar, or Osiris for your daily bread a few literary comparisons may prove to be insightful when looking at the written laws for your particular flavor of faith. For example, The Negative Confessions, The Code of...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
Whether you thank Yahweh, Ishtar, or Osiris for your daily bread a few literary comparisons may prove to be insightful when looking at the written laws for your particular flavor of faith. For example, The Negative Confessions, The Code of Hammurabi, and The Ten Commandments and Covenant Code all offer insightful similarities. The Mesopotamian and Hebrew texts are remarkably similar. That being said, while the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hebrews subscribed to remarkably similar laws, their concept of God differed in distinct ways. While the outcomes of these documents were likely similar, their individual intents differed slightly. These documents provide uniquely prime insight into the inter-influenced moral traditions and legal codes of the ancients as well as our current western legal traditions and historical roots.
It would seem that enacting a law prohibiting theft or murder could go without mention, but common sense may not be so common after all. All of these documents, whether bluntly or in a roundabout way, specifically admonish theft or murder as one might expect. The Book of the Dead, incantation twenty nine (“not carrying away milk from the mouths of children”) and incantation ten (“…defrauding the oppressed one of his property”) jibe well with the very succinct “thou shalt not steal” from Yahweh, as well as the implicitly clear code twenty two from Hammurabi stating “If a man practice robbery and is captured, that man shall be put to death.” None of these civilizations had to wonder whether murder was à propos in their respective cultures. Incantation sixteen from Egypt says “I have done no murder” from the good book we have “thou shalt not kill” and from Mesopotamia, code one tells us that you can be put to death for the mere accusation of murder without proof. While those rules may sound like natural law, it might behoove a youth of ancient times to be well versed on the rules concerning parental relationships. Oppressing members of ones family would surely not please Osiris as negative confession two states. Striking your father in Mesopotamia meant forfeiture of your hand, as code one hundred ninety five tells us, while to not “honor your father and your mother” may result in a potential abbreviation to your potentially “long life” in The Ten Commandments. The Covenant Code clearly explains a probable cause for your early demise. Quite simply, “anyone who strikes his father or mother must die.” Adultery and fornication, as well, are ubiquitous transgressions. The Osiris worshipper would hopefully be able to state incantation twenty two (“I have not committed fornication”) with a straight face, while fooling around with someone else’s spouse in Mesopotamia would result in being bound and thrown into the water as per code one twenty nine. Yahweh is quite succinct in his command that “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
A close comparison of the Hebrew laws with the Code of Hammurabi reveals not only common laws against theft, adultery, and being nice to the parental units, but they also share a common spirit in law. For example, compare the phraseology in codes three and four of Hammurabi to commandment nine of the Bible. The phraseology admonishing us to not “…bear false witness….” is common to both documents. As well, the penalties, while not always implicitly stated, have a common spirit better known as the “eye for an eye” system of fairness. In Hammurabi’s time, false accusations of murder meant death (codes one and three); destroying your neighbor’s grain field means you simply pay him back the amount of grain he lost (codes Fifty three through fifty five). Code one ninety six specifically offers an eye for an eye. Codes one ninety seven and two twenty nine offer a broken bone for a broken bone and knocked out teeth for the same respectively. Consider some excerpts from The Covenant Code. Paragraph one, among others, offers death for death. Paragraph three suggests the Hebrew should prepare to have a guest for a while after incapacitating someone, as one was required to nurture the person back to health and otherwise compensate them for their misfortune. Lastly, this equitable fairness is restated in the timeless phrase of paragraph five “…life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stroke for stroke….” Comparisons of the spirits of these laws indeed show remarkable similarity.
That being said, while the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hebrews subscribed to remarkably similar laws, their concepts of God differed in some ways. From what we have just discussed, it can be safely concluded that these three civilizations had a keen sense of fair play as they included in their laws most of that which might be considered generally decent today. They differ however in their discussion of fair play regarding God or gods. Hammurabi felt safe not mentioning what might ensue in the event you disrespect Ishtar, while failing to utter incantation thirty eight regarding “obstructing gods” might not bode well for your Egyptian afterlife. The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, offer some truly unique insights right from the beginning regarding one’s relationship with God. To wit, you are to have only Yahweh as your God and no others, you should not worship so much as a statue, and under no circumstances should you “misuse” the name of God. Swift punishment will come to those who do not adhere to these commandments regarding the one true God, and, by all means, “remember the Sabbath day….”
While the outcomes of these documents were likely similar, their individual intents differed to some degree. The general outcomes of these documents in their respective civilizations were likely the same; they all resulted in a general trend towards that which is considered decent behavior. While that was surely a mutual intent in all three civilizations, there may indeed have been some variety in the initial spirit of the projects. The Negative Confessions, as they are so aptly called, while giving the living something to strive for, seem to have their major importance in one’s ability to recite them to Osiris with a straight face in the afterlife. The implied penalty was singular in that you may not be able to continue on your post mortem journey failing one of these affirmations. The Code of Hammurabi appears to more closely resemble a set of secular rules with less consideration given to how one should actually conduct or not conduct a relationship with your god of choice. Inversely, the Hebrew laws seem to be rooted in a close concrete relationship with Yahweh as the one true God, and a sentence rarely passes without a requisite reference to God.
The impact of these laws and codes were likely mutual from the aforementioned spirit of equity in the “eye for eye” rules, to their common phraseology such as “…bear false witness….” Additionally, they have certainly had an impact on current western legal tradition. Consider the not so obvious death for the thief. While it may seem archaic, it is indeed current martial law under emergency situations in our country today with measure meted on the spot. Modern civil courts offer financial recompense from a transgressor. Hammurabi and Yahweh, as well, offered equitable compensation in the form of grain or assistance in some way. The twenty third and twenty fourth laws of Hammurabi have a ring of welfare to their spirits. As adultery and fornication were prohibited in the ancient world, so to this day do we make laws concerning with whom you may be permitted to have sex. Many states offer legal recourse for adulterous behavior. The list of modern parallels is abundant.
As a result, these three cultures and their requisite laws do have similarities. The spirit of Mesopotamian and Hebrew law are, in many ways, identical. That being said, their respective concepts of God indeed differ in some ways. While the outcomes of these documents were likely similar, their individual intents differed slightly. A study of these texts is indeed a study in the heritage of what we know today to be our modern western legal tradition. ~Joel Perry
One Maltese Postage Stamptag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.172006-09-24T22:54:47Z2006-09-25T01:20:38Z"Stamp Collecting dispels boredom, enlarges our vision, broadens our knowledge, makes us better citizens and in innumerable ways, enriches our lives" – President Franklin D. Roosevelt In the course of my life, I have had many hobbies. There is much...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
"Stamp Collecting dispels boredom, enlarges our vision, broadens our knowledge, makes us better citizens and in innumerable ways, enriches our lives" – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
In the course of my life, I have had many hobbies. There is much to be said for the notion that having too many interests and not enough focus is somewhat of a downfall, and on reflection, I tend to agree. I will soon be thirty seven years old; I have enjoyed and still enjoy many hobby activities too numerous to mention here. There is one hobby however, my first hobby, which stands above all as being a very special part of my life, and that is my love for philately, the collecting of postage stamps and all that is related to the hobby.]]>
In telling you my story, I will attempt to make it as interesting as possible, and I promise not to make you sit with me for the twelve or so hours it would likely take for me to show you my entire collection; that could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Instead I will tell you my story, and you will discover the amazing power of philately and how it is possible for a childhood hobby to become a life altering experience that could not be traded for all the gold in the world. It taught me patience in a time when I needed it most; I developed a keen sense of detail and manual dexterity that has been paralleled throughout my entire life even till today; and lastly it triggered a lifelong interest in strange lands and linguistics that has not been abated to this very day. Here is my story.
When I was ten years old on a lazy summer day, my mother, brother, and I were visiting with her friends. This, as I recall, was generally quite boring; my brother and I had our minds on everything except for sitting in a house with a bunch of adults. But on this one particular day, one of my mother’s friends, a lady from Malta, for reasons unbeknownst to me, decided to give us a postage stamp from her native land. Now prior to this point, I cannot recall even so much as thinking about the idea of a postage stamp any more than it being a sticky picture with a numeric denomination that people lick and affix to their mailed correspondence. But something about this one simple Maltese postage stamp welled up such an inexplicably huge amount of excitement in me, that I find it difficult to describe. My brother and I shared a common comic book, and sports card collection, but the comic books were interesting to me only to the extent that I enjoyed reading them, and the sports cards were only interesting to the extent that they came with chewing gum. It seemed to me, at this moment in time, that there was nothing more interesting under the sun than this one lonely Maltese postage stamp. In fact, it kept my attention for days in the most extreme of ways. I would daydream that maybe this stamp was worth a million dollars, and immediately proceeded to think up ways to protect it, putting it in this envelope, then that piece of saran wrap, and finally ending with it shielded in the glassine housing once inhabited by a baseball card. Within days, my focus left that Maltese stamp only to be magnetically diverted to the letter holder on the kitchen wall, where our parents kept all of their correspondence. I removed every single stamp I could find from those envelopes, and organized them by type, size, shape, color, and continued reorganizing them, until their organization made sense to me. I was a veritable “stampivore” with a boundless appetite. After plundering the letter holder for all it was worth, I found myself standing beside my parents as they dug through all of their old correspondence in the storage space, in search of new stamps to satiate my appetite. It consisted mostly of love letters my parents wrote to each other when my father was in the navy, interesting in and of itself to my ten year old mind, and airmail stamps from the sixties. Two significant developments happened within weeks of the Maltese acquisition that solidified my membership in the world of philately. Firstly, I somehow learned how to soak stamps off of an envelope. I cannot exactly recall how I learned this skill; I must have read about the technique somewhere. I had my own system however, which basically started with cleaning all the porcelain surfaces in the bathroom, mainly the sink, the toilet lid, and the edge of the bathtub. Now this was surely a pleasant sight to my family, except for the fact that postage stamps drying in all of these places, and a sink full of soaking stamps, make it difficult to use these facilities for the purpose to which they were intended. The second thing I did was talked my brother into a special trade that went something like this: he could have all of the comic books, and sports cards, if I could have the stamps, and for the rest of our lives, if I were ever to have a comic book, I would give it to him, and vice versa. Even to this day, as far as I know, that treaty has never been broken; and that is how I started in the world of stamp collecting.
In medical terms, during my teen years, I would have been described as extremely hyperactive, with attention deficit disorder. While it is quite true that getting me to focus on school work in grade school required a combined total of a few years on restriction, this was far from true when it came to stamp collecting. In fact, I often spent dozens of obsessive hours engulfed in this hobby, organizing stamps, categorizing stamps by country, soaking, drying, observing under magnifying glass, comparing the stamps to documentation, studying watermarks of seemingly identical stamps, mounting in albums hands free with tongs and mounts, and all that is related to the hobby. Bulk boxes of unorganized stamps of the world can be bought for less than a penny per stamp, and so twenty or thirty dollars of my parent’s money went a long way towards keeping me busy. It is the sort of excitement that is one hundred percent internal, and a stamp collector alone in his hobby is the epitome of silent, patient, and detailed work, on the exterior. All you can see is calm, skilled hands, poring over sometimes boundless amounts of material, possibly a desk or floor covered with countless stacks of that which is being organized, and tools of the trade spread out everywhere. The collector has no reason to speak; there is no jumping up and down, and the most you may notice is the occasional grin on the discovery of something truly beautiful or interesting. That occasional calm grin may be reflecting an enormous eruption of mind spinning internal excitement, and the pulse may be beating ferociously; on the other hand, it may be reflecting a swooning sense of internal warmth akin to stumbling upon a delicate and rare flower in a field of weeds; but all you will ever see on the outside are calm hands, someone engrossed in the detail that is philately, and one person constructing and discovering that which is known as a stamp collection. This whole idea shoots a major hole in the theory of hyperactivity and short attention span. While it is true that children and adults often display the traits of inattention and hyperactivity, is it not possible that this behavior could be considered selective based upon interest in the occasion or task at hand? Stamp collecting, for me, was natural. And reflecting upon all of that which I had accomplished was a constant reminder to me of the fact that I not only possessed the ability to focus calmly for extremely long periods of time on one task, but that it was within me to be patient.
Manual dexterity, and an attention to detail go hand in hand with the art that is, being a stamp collector; but one skill does not necessarily precede the other. In my case, the hobby came first, and the dexterity and attention to detail came with time. I never consciously tried to develop an ability to see that which is not obvious on the surface; neither did I purposefully attempt to develop the ability to work with fine instruments in a careful precision that is common to philately. It was just something that came naturally over time. It is the kind of thing that one learns, when one is not forced to learn, but learns through natural interest. The process of stamp collecting can involve many forms; one can buy other collections if they have the means; another may only collect in one area of philately, such as first day of issue envelopes that post offices around the country offer on a subscription basis. But for most children, stamp collecting usually involves taking a completely disorganized pile of stamps, some on envelopes and some not, and after soaking, grading, organizing by country, organizing by year, or maybe by topic, they add them to a stamp album. Many stamps, from many countries, including early American stamps, are virtually identical except for a marking, or attribute, that cannot be seen without magnification. Some stamps are virtually identical, except for a watermark that can only be seen by soaking the stamp in watermark fluid, observing this hidden watermark on the back of the stamp, and comparing it to published data on the relevant stamp issues. Stamps collectors assign quality grades to individual stamps, and this grade translates into a relative value for each stamp. Some of the elements that are included in the overall grading of a stamp are the centering of the print, the lack or inclusion of gum, evidence of a prior hinge mount and how badly that hinge affects the stamp, the heaviness of the cancellation on the face, and whether the entire stamp is intact as printed, with no prior restoration. Furthermore, a young stamp collector, when dealing in worldwide stamps, will spend an exorbitant amount of time classifying and organizing individual stamps by their country of origin. At first this is done by comparing the writing or details on the stamp with a book that identifies the writing as being from a certain country. Eventually the collector memorizes these features and immediately knows for example that “CCCP” means U.S.S.R., “Sverige” means Sweden, “Norge” is Norway, “DDR” is East German, while “Deutsche Bundepost” is West German, all the way through every country that ever mailed a letter. The role of details involved in stamp collecting could take up volumes of literature, and the techniques involved in handling them are extensive. Most of these things, I learned through natural interest before the age of thirteen. These skills have become a part of who I am and have unavoidably overlapped into the rest of my life. I can hardly use the bathroom without noticing that the tag on my underwear reads “100% algodon,” “Hecho En Thailandia” and take humorous mental note of the fact that my cotton underwear is made in Thailand for Spanish speaking people. And that our cultures share similar techniques for washing clothes. I am an unavoidable observer of that which is not always obvious; I attribute that, and my dexterous ability, to a lifetime of philately.
My lifelong interest in strange lands and linguistics would have to hail, as inspiration in chief, the study of philately. It is difficult to imagine anyone spending this much time on a hobby of such magnitude, without walking away with additional interests. A postage stamp can tell a wonderful story if the beholder takes the time to observe. First, there is the cancellation which says so much. This stamp may have traveled the entire globe, by ship, air, and land. The date indicates an era or time when this stamp made its amazing journey; the country of origin, and writing on an envelope can tell a story in and of it self. My air mail stamp, cancelled in 1945 with a cachet on the envelope says the following: “First Flight T.W.A.F.A.M.27 – New York To Basra, Iraq”. This reminds me of a time when relations between our countries were much friendlier. While one stamp tells a story, a whole collection of one nation’s stamps tell a deep history. We can see that which our nation has in common with other countries; we can notice extreme differences in our nations. We can observe Fifty years of communist style propaganda and all of its intricacies by studying a collection of Soviet and Chinese postage stamps. We can remember events that occurred in our global history, by studying and researching a large collection of postage stamps. The insights are endless. Recently, I purchased a postcard with no stamp on it. Why was this so interesting? Well, it happened to have a cancellation of 1942 from a military hospital in Illinois, and the soldier wrote ‘free” in place of the stamp and sent it to his mother with his thanks for all her cookies and love. This is the only stamp less envelope in my collection, but it reminds me of a time when our country was in a great struggle, and just as mothers send cookies to their sons at war today, and soldiers love their mothers, so was it back when our grandparents ran the world. When I turned thirteen, I decided I was going to learn how to speak French. By fifteen I was in high school, I was taking Spanish, French, and German at the same time, spent most of my time hanging out with my best friend from Panama, and I dreamed of traveling the world. Foreign languages never left my line of interests, in fact to this day I enjoy thinking on them, speaking them, learning their intricacies, and comparing them to each other. Most of my twenties involved working in sales, and very little foreign travel, but I finally took the opportunity to travel Europe twice over a combined span of three months in my late twenties. I cherished every single minute of it. Sometimes I try to think about why I became so interested in the world, and why languages are so incredibly interesting to me. It all comes back to that wonderful childhood hobby; the hobby that took up thousands of hours of my time; it is the mysterious, and wonderfully rewarding hobby known as philately.
I still enjoy my childhood hobby with the same level of enthusiasm, and it seems that the patience that it requires, and I possess, is a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle that is the world around us. When I look at my dexterous hands, and when I am faced with anything of detail, I thank my lucky stars that I was given this beautiful gift that is philately. When I see a postage stamp, I see it so much differently than I would have, had I not been involved in collecting them for the better part of my life. I see the world, I see strange languages, and sometimes I understand the meaning of it all. The most wonderful and amazing thing of all you ask? That would be the fact that this whole adventure started with one Maltese postage stamp. ~Joel Perry
Christian Parallels in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobetag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.162006-09-18T02:15:05Z2008-03-06T04:55:24ZClive Staples Lewis, the author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is considered to be one of the greatest Christian apologists of the modern era. In his lifetime he wrote over fifty books of fiction and nonfiction including...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
Clive Staples Lewis, the author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is considered to be one of the greatest Christian apologists of the modern era. In his lifetime he wrote over fifty books of fiction and nonfiction including many discourses and lectures on medieval literature. He was a professor at Oxford for nearly thirty years, as well a professor of literature at Cambridge. This is all very interesting in and of itself, but coming closer to the point, many of us know him as the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia and his first installment on that chronicle which was recently cinematized by Disney.
Lewis, Clive. Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories. New York: Harcourt, 1994.
---. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.
The Holy Bible. King James Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1960.]]>
All Quiet on the Western Front: The Great War Through the Eyes of a Soldiertag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.142006-09-17T02:06:26Z2006-09-24T22:40:07Z“Once and for all the idea of glorious victories won by the glorious army must be wiped out. Neither side is glorious. On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants and they all want the same thing -...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
“Once and for all the idea of glorious victories won by the glorious army must be wiped out. Neither side is glorious. On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants and they all want the same thing - not to lie under the earth, but to walk upon it - without crutches.” ~ Peter Weiss
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As the evolution of human warfare evolves, so does civilization’s perception and understanding of its human realities evolve. When cavemen threw rocks, their civilian population was inundated with the glories and realities through stories and sagas. Today, we get up to date coverage and live footage ad minutiae when a burp occurs in modern warfare. Erich Remarque’s brutally graphic and realistic account of World War one, through the epic tale All Quiet on the Western Front, lies somewhere in the middle. Throughout the novel, he uses literary sights, sounds, and smells, to offer the reader a profoundly rare insight into the horrible human realities of the western front experience. Remarque brings these realities down to a bone chilling common denominator in his account of a face to face encounter between Paul and a French soldier; he uses this terribly sobering encounter, as well the poignant questions posed by Paul, to imprint the truly odious human reality of warfare in the mind of the reader. Remarque writes his literary masterpiece to give the civilian population a rare glimpse into the devastatingly tragic terror that is warfare sans la gloire de la guerre that so typically convolutes the perceived reality of all except the soldier.
The sights of real warfare are something quite beyond the reprehensible disgusts that are the sounds and smells of war. In and of themselves, quite rightly, the lot of these senses should and do have a civilian viewer rating far beyond unequivocally detestable. Earth, and its requisite mud and muck are the solace and deified sanctuary of the soldier; within her bosom the soldier avoids death for yet another moment. “To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier” (55). The otic pains of warfare abound, but the surrealistically deafening sounds of artillery can be mentally rendered into white noise. The cries of life, suffering, and dying, on the other hand, are intolerable. “…this appalling noise, these groans and screams penetrate, they penetrate everywhere…. We must get up and run no matter where, but where these cries can no longer be heard. And it is not men, only horses” (63). In this, the war to end all wars, both sides stay a relatively unmoving line—and for this line they die in trenches by the thousands. The artillery is solace to the sounds of dying comrades just within death and just beyond reach, but they do little to quell the stench of death. “…the smell of blood…. This deadly exhalation from the shell holes… fills us with nausea and retching” (126).
Righteous cause and the justification for violence are easily marketable from the viewpoint of the rear echelon (those behind the desk). But take death’s door, add two helpless grunts and a lonely crater where threat is no more, and the equation solves for “why are we doing this to each other?” Such is the case when Paul finds himself trapped in the crater with the Frenchman—his first and much lamented hand to hand kill. “Forgive me comrade…. If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother…” (223). Prior to this emotionally devastating and prolonged vigil with the man dying a slow death at his hands, the war and death were something of an abstract misery to Paul. Now it occurs to him that they never tell them that the enemies are, in fact, just “…poor devils just like us…” with anxious mothers, “the same fear of death…dying, and the same agony…” (223). The timelessness of this gripping scene and the questions he asks are a part of our human commonality. There is something life and soul altering that occurs the first time any human realizes they have taken another life for the sake of any cause. When Paul realizes the dead enemy soldier is the dead printer Gérard Duval, father and husband, war takes on new meaning.
Rarely will a soldier be able to confess the horrors of war without a steady flow of tears, but the same story told by anyone other than the soldier is invariably a diluted version of reality. What is an acre of land worth in terms of human life? Who wages war—the soldier or the politician? Remove weaponry and uniforms and stand two enemies beside each other; what is the difference between the two? Indeed there is a justification for violence, and no one knows that better than the soldier, but when a politician makes the call, the cost in human life should be necessary. Remarque offers an eternal reminder of the price in his depiction of “The War to End All Wars” through the eyes of the “grunt”.
Remarque successfully uses literary sights, sounds, and smells to offer the reader a rare glimpse into the hideous human reality of the western front experience. In his depiction of the encounter between Paul and the French soldier, we realize the tragedy of war and its meaning to the soldier. The politician or historian can not tell the truth of warfare better than the soldier; the politician and historian unavoidably sugarcoat with glory and nationalism the reality of war. The soldier has the real story that they would prefer no soft civilian ever has to see or know. It is just that odious. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front offers us a glimpse into reality without the veneer that we inevitably put on war to keep our own sanity. The soldier, politician, human, friend, and foe would do well to keep this book at hand and give it an occasional read when questions of war surface. The blind, emotionless numbers of war take on new meaning when we consider the price of war to the soldier. ~Joel Perry
A Personal Interpretation of The Five People You Meet In Heaventag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.152006-09-15T02:12:50Z2006-09-24T23:14:41Z“It’s a wonderful life!” ~ Jimmy Stewart A typical human life is that of random collisions with life altering events whether positive or negative in perception. Perception is the key here. We may not notice an event that alters our...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
“It’s a wonderful life!” ~ Jimmy Stewart
A typical human life is that of random collisions with life altering events whether positive or negative in perception. Perception is the key here. We may not notice an event that alters our humanity, and neither do we always perceive these occurrences to have an impact for the better; nonetheless, we are a product of the happenings of our existence. ]]>
Mitch Albom’s portrayal of the life of Eddie through a post mortem window is indeed an exemplification of that very concept. Through learning comes growth, and through Eddie’s reflective education in heaven, he comes to find ultimate peace and the answers to the random collisions of his existence. Through Eddie’s five lessons, each and every one us can enhance and learn the meaning of our own lives. I will explicate and offer a self evaluation to that effect. Eddie learns the extents of our intertwined and mutually impacting existence through the blue man; he learns of the equal or greater opportunity that results from adversity through the captain; through Ruby, he learns to let go of hatred and anger; through his wife he learns of enduring love; through Tala, he comes to realize the significance of his powerful purpose in life.
Recall a moment in time where either, someone uttered a kind word to you or, someone said something of impacting hurtfulness to you. Now it took one breath to cast the words, but how long did it take the receiver to get over it? Weeks, months, maybe you are still not over it. The point here is that everyone you met from that incident onward likely felt your happiness or anger, and in turn, they transferred that same feeling to everyone they met. Casual occurrences can cross the entire globe of humanity in such a way with no one knowing the better. Such was the case with the blue man. A young boy throws a ball, it is retrieved from the street, and blissful childhood play continues. Meanwhile back in the traffic, one man is shaken from the accident that almost ensued, he continues down the street, and in startled inattention, participates in the death of another driver, in this case, the blue man. Who is at fault here? Was it the startled driver, Eddie, the person who gave him the ball, or was it the stoplight that put the blue man in that location at that time? Who cares? The point here is that one thing always impacts another. Heaven only knows the number and amounts of calamity that have ensued just from my being in a bad mood. And inversely, heaven only knows how many lives have been changed for the better through nothing more than the utterance of words from my own mouth. The Key to remember here is that I do not live on a promontory in the middle of the ocean. I am impacting and being impacted by the lives of others as we read.
Eddie was plagued his entire life with the lost functionality of a leg that was shot during the war. What he found was that his own captain shot him to prevent him from an imminently life threatening self action. While he lost the partial use of his leg, Eddie gained much more; he gained the rest of his life. Finding the greater opportunity in adversity is probably one of the single hardest things for me to do while in the immediate midst of said adversity, but on reflection it seems stunningly clear. I had trouble in school as a child, and that struggle caused me to become a great adult scholar. I was picked on as the new child in all seven schools I attended before high school, and it made me a stronger man of moral strength and character than I would have been had I not suffered these travails. It has been said that in every adversity there is an equal or greater opportunity. Sometimes we take advantage of this opportunity, and sometimes we never notice the advantage, but keeping this lesson close to heart is the key to taking the greater good from adversity.
Eddie never really had a good relationship with his father. He looked up to him as any child would, but that love was not returned, and in effect, Eddie spent the rest of his life with this chip on his shoulder. It has been said that hate is a double edged sword; any vengeful pleasure we gain from it we pay for in twice the amount of damage to our own humanity. When Eddie learned to forgive his father, as his father forgave the man who attacked Eddie’s mother, he came to find peace in his heart and soul. I wasted a lot of my youth thinking about every jerk I ever met, and all it got me was a miserable constitution. I forgive them all; they had no idea what they were doing in the first place. Maybe they should have read Mitch’s book. The key lesson here is that when you let go of anger, the void you leave will be replaced by peace, and a more productive life.
When Eddie’s wife passed away, he lost the only person that he ever really loved. And when she left him, he lost the impact of that love in his life. What he did not realize was that she never left him. While she was watching him from heaven, she left him with the memories of their life together, and in this way their love never ended. It took death for Eddie to realize this, but we can learn something from this fact. While my wife is thirty minutes away, in reality, she is right beside me. I can feel her loving presence, and I hope she can feel mine. Death does not abolish love.
Eddie spent most of his life in utter regret of the fact that he was everything he never wanted to be, and none of what he did want to be. He had his father’s maintenance job, and he never went off to school to become an engineer. In fact, the last breath he drew was as that man he never wanted to be, but in that last breath was the true meaning of his life. He never realized that he served the most profoundly powerful purpose on this earth till he went to heaven, and then it took a little girl to show it to him. Eddie spent his life as a protector of children, and not only did they love him for it, but heaven only knows the number of life altering experiences he caused through his most worthy of roles. There is a verse in the book of John that goes something like “greater love hath no man than this, than that he give his life for his friends.” Eddie’s attempt to save Tala from the burning hut was of no avail, but his last act on this earth was that of putting the wisdom of Jesus Christ into action. Eddie indeed served a tremendous purpose in life, but it took death for him to arrive at this conclusion. What is the meaning and purpose in my life? If I died today, what would be my epitaph? I help people, and I have been reminded that some things I have done for others have had profound effects on their lives. To what extents, I will never know, but indeed when we look at the twine that binds all of our lives together, it is surely significant. As a great mind once said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” In that spirit, along with the fact that it may also be our last, we should act accordingly. Our impact and purpose in life began the day we were born, and it will not end until we leave this earth. We need not wait until the end to realize this, we can begin today.
As a result, the lessons that Eddie learns from his life can indeed enhance the meaning of our own lives. Realizing the communal impact of our actions can help to make us all better humans. Searching for the greater opportunity in every adversity can help us to live a richer existence today. Hatred is not a life enhancing tool, and just as Eddie forgave his father, and he his friend, forgiving those who hurt us will help us to live more productive lives. Love is not something that exists only when our beloved is in the room, it is ever present, and it endures even after death. Our purpose in life may be more significant than we realize. What good have you done today? What will be your epitaph? In an intertwined coexistence such as ours, we have the ability to serve out our meaningful and important purpose in life this very moment, and I see no greater significance in the life of some famous person or engineer than in Eddie the man that paid the ultimate sacrifice for a fellow human. Reading Mitch Albom’s book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, has served me as a powerful reminder of the important things in life. If you are curious about meaning in your own life, give this book a try. Its words, and their lessons, will surely meet your ears with warm welcome. ~Joel Perry
Java IRCtag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.32006-09-13T01:01:02Z2006-09-18T03:20:47Zjoelperry.com uses a Java client to connect to an IRC channel on Nullus.NET. If you are having problems please make sure your java program is installed correctly. Click Here to chat with yourselves in this fine channel that Joel has...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
Java client to connect to an IRC channel on Nullus.NET. If you are having problems please make sure your java program is installed correctly.
Click Here to chat with yourselves in this fine channel that Joel has apportioned for your pleasure.]]>
Links 2007tag:www.joelperry.com,2006://1.132006-09-10T00:01:01Z2007-02-11T08:32:30ZFirefox Bookmarks 2007...Joelhttp://www.joelperry.com/
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Kubuntu is a user friendly operating system based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment. With a predictable 6 month release cycle and part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu is the GNU/Linux distribution for everyone.
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