Jump to content

Drak

Author
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    209

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Drak

  1. Drak

    Amor Fati

    By Drak,

    Amor fati, or the death of desire, is a common goal sought after by those that pursue the spiritual path. Desire dissipates the overwhelming, ruthless Will, which should be paramount. The Will of one that serves the Light would achieve what is right and best and good. Desire surrenders control to external entities, transitory and of limited value. This is why desire should die in one who seeks more than the obvious from this life. And so mystics since time began have sought amor fati. For desire does lead us astray and chain us to the wheel of karma. So it has been written in the holy texts and not without reason.
     
    From the airy, cold mountain side, isolated and alone and beyond reason, cross-legged in the lotus position, peering through the expanse of space, through stone, and metal, and wood, and flesh; I note the beloved ones of long ago and recall the golden palaces that I built for them in my heart. I set these palaces afire, one by one, and watch them reduced to ashes, and rejoice. The irrelevant strangers will never know nor care, and I am far past caring, and free, finally, of desire.
  2. Drak

    The Alternative To Windows 10

    By Drak,

    I have five computers. Two run Windows 7 and 8, respectively, in order to access certain programs that only work on Windows. The other three run Linux. I love Linux, and I'll tell you why. It's easy, for one thing. Over the years, Linux distributions have gotten smarter and made more of their operating system GUI, which means the times a user needs to drop to the command line to type anything in are few and far between. It's free. That matters in a world where Microsoft charges $100 a pop for an OS install. The spyware situation is a lot better than in Windows 10, too. Linux is not designed from the ground up to spy on its users, unlike Windows 10, which notifies Microsoft anytime you do something on your computer. Finally, Linux will run on anything. That old computer that ran Window XP until Windows XP finally died? It will run Linux fine. No problem. All the software we know and love--Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice, qbittorrent, and SMplayer--are all on Linux.
     
    I recommend keeping one or two Windows boxes around just to access those occasional Windows-only applications. There's seldom a good excuse to make an application Windows-only nowadays, because software languages can compile for many operating systems, including Mac, Linux, and PC, but some developers just don't get it or don't want to spend any extra effort toward supporting operating systems used by a small subset. Qbittorrent is an excellent torrenting program that runs on all three operating systems. Torrenting, by the way, is how we download Linux. The Linux distributors deliver their work to you via fast, efficient torrents to ensure a valid download and minimize consumption of web server resources.
     
    Why do people bother making Linux distributions (distros)? Much of the motive I think centers around enthusiasm for knowledge, but having a Linux distro on one's resume certainly will lead to job offers, if one is in the market for one of the great-paying Linux jobs in corporate America. A large chunk of the Internet runs on Linux, incidentally, so Linux isn't going anywhere except continuing to improve, and will be around several generations from now.
     
    One area where Linux has low adoption rates is the desktop/laptop market. Probably 1% of desktop users use Linux. This is mainly due to lack of awareness of what Linux is and what it offers and scarcity of knowledge resources. If your family uses Windows, then more than likely, you are going to go straight to Windows and not think twice about it. Microsoft has been great at marketing, and it does make a fairly good operating system, as well. I like Windows and use it. I just believe that Linux is a valid option that should be considered, especially by people who have been or may be victimized by malware.
     
    The one thing about Linux that people don't know about is that Linux is secure. Your operating system is not going to go to hell because you clicked on a web site. It is not impossible, but it just does not happen, and why? Partly because the bad guys don't see a margin in targetting a 1% minority with generally higher levels of tech knowledge. Also, Linux is designed for security from the ground up. Goal number one was security. For Microsoft, goal number one was pleasing the business customer and making things as easy as possible all the time. Different philosophies, both laudable, but those who know less about computers ironically have a horrible experience with Windows once their computers become infected, which over time, they will.
     
    Firefox is my favorite browser, when I don't have to use Internet Explorer or Chrome in order to access a specific web site for work-related reasons. I like Firefox because I like their philosophy, emphasizing security and efficiency. I do not know what Internet Explorer emphasizes. I trust Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, and I also like their mail reader, Thunderbird, another seldom-used and seldom-appreciated gem out there that makes reading email a lot safer and faster. Why people use a web browser to read their email, I do not know. It seems like a lot of trouble to me.
     
    No-Script is my favorite add-on for Firefox, because it gives control back to the user as to what a web site can and cannot do. I can surf the worst malware site on the planet and yawn. Because the malware site cannot touch me. No-Script blocks everything they try to do. The most a malware site can do is annoy me with their tackiness. Meanwhile, the sites I love and trust, like gayauthors, work fine, and I let them do whatever they want. No-Script is a bouncer. You train it for a couple days, and it keeps the troublemakers out of your bar.
     
    My advice to the desktop or laptop computer user is simple. I've said it before and I will say it again. Install a distro of Linux, any distro, and if you don't like it for some reason, fine, install another one. I am partial to Xubuntu and Linux Mint XFCE, but there are hundreds of distros to pick from, each with different philosophies and styles. Next, use Firefox as your browser. Install No-Script as an add-on within Firefox. Open your mind and learn as much as you can about Linux, Firefox, and NoScript, the golden triad of secure computing. From that point on, malware is something you do not worry about. You are more secure than 99.9% of all computer users out there. Period. It is as easy that.
  3. Drak

    Touri$M

    By Drak,

    Tourism is the backbone of Charleston's economy and doesn't hurt South Carolina as a whole, either. One of that little coastal state's trump cards has always been its controversial role in igniting the bloodiest war in U.S. history, the rebellion against the nation in defense of slavery. So a lot of people are making money off the Confederate flag and off of the Civil War history angle, because it brings people to travel to S.C. and buy knick-knacks, such as the pewter 4" replica of Robert E. Lee that I bought at Fort Sumter's gift shop in 1980. All I knew then about Robert E. Lee was what my grandmother had told me, which was he was a fine gentleman, and what our history books had told me, which was he was a good general. And that is what a lot of people think they know.
     
    So any attempt to scale back on the Confederate porn industry meets with resistance not only from the "true-believers" who don't understand history but the people who do understand, but want to keep the cash-cow intact, because they are busy fleecing the know-nothings who think the Civil War was about Southern pride or chitlins or deer-hunting or chewing tobacco or the song "Dixie". The reason the South seceded is they wanted slavery extended to the new territories out West, and Lincoln and his Republican party opposed that. The hotheads down South thought that intolerable, so they turned traitor. Today we continue to venerate these traitors with monuments, dedications and whatnot, which is very confusing to some people who think history begins and ends with dates and names.
     
    I think that many streets in Charleston should be renamed, beginning with Calhoun Street, because Calhoun was no sort of a good person. Rename Calhoun Street "Rosa Parks Street," and I think that would be a better reflection of history and of who really mattered. I don't know that Germany has any streets named after Goebbels, Roehm or Hitler, and we shouldn't have anything named after slavery-evangelists that wanted to spread slavery all over the Western Hemisphere. The statues of worthless scumbags like Calhoun need to be placed in the furnace and recycled just like Saddam Hussein's statues.
     
    Eventually all these things will come to pass, too.
  4. Drak
    As a boy, I was asked by our social studies teacher which famous person I admired most. I answered Robert E. Lee. Lindsey Graham reminded me of my boyhood choice in a recent news article, in which he said Yea to removing the Confederate Flag from public buildings, but Nay to renaming all the roads and schools that are named after Robert E. Lee.
     
    Curious, I looked up the Wikipedia article on Robert E. Lee. My education on history is not all-encompassing. I know the general outline of Western history, but the details about specific individuals tends to be murky. Prior to reading the Wikipedia article, I had a negative view of Lee, although I despised him for the side he chose. His decision to serve the South is morally equivalent to Ernst Rommel's decision to serve the Nazi state. At least Rommel got what he deserved in the end.
     
    Turns out Robert E. Lee was a right devil, about as evil as they come, and a racist through and through. Anyone who defends him today is either ignorant of history or a racist, one of the two, with no exceptions. The way Lee treated his slaves was inexcusable, and his defiance of his dead father-in-law's will is also inexcusable. Lee was a liar, a torturer, a kidnapper, and a murderer, all told, and those who defend him would defend anything and anybody, and their words can be disregarded in all cases. The only reason I liked Lee as a boy was because the history books I read were full of lies and omissions, written by liars with no concern for the truth. Such books should be located in all libraries and destroyed before they get into the hands of impressionable young minds. Their paper can be recycled to make books that tell a more balanced and truthful version of history.
     
    My grandmother used to tell me "The War of Northern Aggression" was started by the invading Northern armies because they were against states' rights. She was wrong, told wrong by the wrong-headed men in her life. The real reason the South started the Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter is because the rich slaveowners insisted, not merely on keeping their slaves, but extending slavery into new territories out West, in order to improve their representation in Congress and open up new opportunities for slave-based agriculture in those territories. They were not simply defending slavery, but wanting to expand it all over the Western Hemisphere, to eventually include Cuba, Mexico, and Central and South America. The Civil War was about States' Rights only in the sense of the right to secede from the Union. If you believe slavery is morally right, only then can you sympathize with the Confederacy, but if you do, then you would believe absolutely anything is right, and that there is no right or wrong at all. Lincoln pointed this out in his speeches and letters many times.
     
    Someone I admire is Abraham Lincoln. He was amazing, and his speeches and letters are still worth reading today as an example of what politicians can be if they try hard enough and resist the temptation to go into service for the rich. I think Lincoln had his heart in the right place and had a brilliant mind for politics. He probably had some gay experiences in his early life, based on the letters he wrote to an old buddy.
     
    Unfortunately, his predecessor, slavery-loving Buchanan, certainly was exclusively gay, and set a rather bad example. Fortunately, there are a couple of other gay Presidents to offset that stain on history.
     
    I get mad as hell when I read about people defending Robert E. Lee or anything about the old Confederacy. It was a bad time, a very great evil, and they want to enshrine a stinking turd as though it were a sacred cross. Drop that rag in the wastebasket and forget about the ignorant fools that died for it. The rebels deserved to die, a thousand times over, and each of us would be duty-bound to kill them now, if they were still warring against the Union.
  5. Drak

    Vicious

    By Drak,

    I object to the gay critics of Vicious, the Brit sitcom starring Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi.
     
    The oh-so-vicious critics declare in reviews printed in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph that this is an old-fashioned show, a throwback to the worst shows of the 1970s, and that the characters are ugly and mean, and that they are gay stereotypes from the bad old days, and finally, the Coup de grâce, they don't Represent. That's right, McKellan and Jacobi do not serve as flattering ambassadors from the gay community to the straight. In short, they make us gays look bad.
     
    I object! I call Lie upon the critics! Firstly on the grounds that Ian McKellan is one of the greatest living actors and that anything he does has got to be dope. It has just got to be. He earned the gay sainthood as wonderful Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, that sweet dear man who has championed gay rights at every turn since he came out. His creds as an out gay man are impeccable, and the notion the show is homophobic in any way is preposterous on the face of it. If you like Ian McKellan and think he's dope then you will like the show, Period, end of discussion. If on the other hand you suffer from a chronic case of Lookism and see just two old queens and yearn for eye candy then okay, pass, like the jaded critics aforementioned, who apparently aren't very accepting of the elderly. If I need eye candy, I've got pr0n. When I watch a comedy, I just want laughs. If the vehicle of those laughs has gray hair, so what?
     
    Second, the show is funny, yes Sirs, it is, if one only suspends, just for thirty minutes, the compulsion to evaluate every gay as an ambassador to the str8 community and insist they must Represent a cookie-cutter, politically correct, squeaky-clean version of the Gay Man to the rest of the world. Well look, chaps, this a comedy, all right? I allow a bit of literary license to the writers. There are plenty of shows about str8 people that depict them in less than admirable terms. Why should gays be saints all the time? It is not necessary. Not today. Not with so many other shows around.
     
    These stuffy critics that demand every comedy be just like the latest favorite are killing television with their compulsion to conformity. I say Viva la Difference! Give me more Vicious!
  6. Drak

    Wit

    By Drak,

    I like people who style themselves as witty, letting fly with the snappy comeback like Oscar Wilde was said to have done back in the gay 1890's.
    Bless them, because they entertain.
    Wit is not exclusively a gay talent, although I suppose being gay might nurture the wit in some way, in some cultures.
     
    I put a cork on the bottle of wit a long time ago and put the bottle on the shelf.
    I don't trust wit and don't wish to use it, anymore than I do liquor.
    Wit requires speed in execution, and speed leads to mistakes.
    I've seen what the rush to mirth can do... harm relations, damage reputations, make new and unexpected enemies.
    WIt is born of Boredom, the child of an active intellect annoyed by the humdrum pace of social interactions that the Norms call Society.
     
    Ask Oscar Wilde what wit did for him, against the legal mechanizations of Bosie's Papa and the harsh realities of Victorian England.
    Two years in prison at hard labour, financial ruin and separation from his wife and children forever. Besides that, no more plays.
    The sweet Nightingale was silenced Forever. Like jailing Shakespeare because he compared his boy to a summer's day.
     
    It is better to keep witticisms to one's self or for private utterance with intimate friends.
    Nice and dull wins more friends than witty and harsh by about a thousand to one, every day of the week and in every kind of weather.
    However, perceiving this truth requires a different variety of intelligence than the kind that fuels wit.
  7. Drak

    Orphan Black

    By Drak,

    Yes, I am blogging about a TV show from our brothers up North. Call me random.
     
    I love Orphan Black, although at first I hated it, but it grew on me episode by episode until I realized, and it struck me like a train, that Tatiana Maslany of freaking Saskatchewan of all places is going to take over the freaking World, and the Emmy Awards are a travesty against Justice.
  8. Drak

    Shi'ite Vs. Sunni

    By Drak,

    I don't often have a reaction to the incessant Sunni vs. Shi'ite warfare now raging in the Middle East, but make an exception following the bombing of a mosque in Saudi Arabia.
     
    Saudis learn from grade one that Shi'ites aren't real Muslims. And Muslims think it is fine and dandy to kill non-Muslims.So, basically Saudis are programmed from grade one to kill Shi'ites and anyone else that is not Sunni.
     
    The Shi'ites and Sunnis are almost as bad as the Protestant vs. Catholic rivalry than plagued Christians hundreds of years ago. It is like the Muslims are hundreds of years behind the Christians and working their way through the same growing pains that Christianity went through.
     
    It seems to me that Saudi Arabia overall is just as evil as Iran. Both countries are fanatical, torturing tyrannies. The best that can be said about the Saudis is they are intelligent enough to manipulate the U.S. government in advancement of their own interests, whereas Iran is pigheaded to their own detriment. Iran goes out of its way to oppose U.S. interests. In reality, if politics were removed from the equations, I suspect Americans have more in common with Iranians, culturally and intellectually, than we do with the Sauds, whose Wahhabi brand of Islam has fueled the rise of the Islamic State and sponsored terrorism around the globe.
     
    The Saudis need to recognize that their religion is a bunch of Shi'ite, and Allah is a mirage like the kind you get in the desert when you haven't found water. They need to visit the oasis of knowledge. Billions of dollars and thousands of fanatic imams have not improved their ethics one iota. Maybe we should let Iran take over their country and teach them a lesson or two, that is, after oil has been replaced as the world's main energy source. Those two barbarian tribes can fight it out in the desert sands and figure out the right version of their cult, just before it gets erased from history.
     
    As for ISIS destroying world heritage sites in the Middle East, that's fine, clever Westerners have already recovered most of the knowledge available from those places. No civilized person will have any reason to visit that area ever, and once oil is done with as a commodity, those people will not even be able to make a living through tourism. Their stupid vandalism now impoverishes their children just a little bit more a thousand years from now. "Gee thanks a lot, Grand Dad, now we have to go harvest salt from the sea all day long in order to buy a crust of bread."
  9. Drak

    Boston Bomber

    By Drak,

    I'm tired of hearing about murderers in the news. I don't really think their trials are newsworthy. The latest headline concerned the Boston Bomber. Do victims' families want him executed? I guess some journalist took a poll.
     
    You know what, who cares? My opinion on the Boston Bomber can be summarized in four words: Take Out The Garbage.
     
    Human life is neither precious nor rare enough to nurse a mass-murderer all his days. There are millions in the world dying of various causes, disease, famine, neglect, or war, millions that may even be deserving of life. We should look after them, maybe, or at least think about it, before we keep a mass-murderer alive at our own expense. His case is pretty clear-cut, too, no if's, and's, or but's about it. If he is willing to donate his organs and eyeballs to those who need them, then reward him with a couple weeks of nutritious food or whatever and a pencil and a few sheets of recycled paper to write his last will and testament, but in the end, set up the guillotine.
     
    The guillotine. I think that is the most honest form of execution, regardless of its pedigree or history. It is sureproof and fast and low-tech. What's not to like? Separate a human head from a human body, and life is soon ended. What could be more humane? All this nonsense about lethal injections is ridiculous.
     
    His victims were dear, good folks. Runners are the salt of the earth. And Boston is one of the nicest cities. Anybody associated with Mr. Bomber needs a one-way ticket out of this country, yesterday. A hundred miles would be the limit that taxpayer money should fly them. They can swim the rest of the way or else enhance nutrition for aquatic life in the Atlantic.
  10. Drak

    Forced Vaginal Exams

    By Drak,

    So what are you learning up there in college, dear?
     
    Lubricated transvaginal probes, indeed. That was a lawsuit waiting to happen if there ever was one.
     
    However, it is an open secret in medicine that students practice on one another. That includes some touching, grasping, occasional disrobing, listening, feeling, and probing. I still find lubricated transvaginal probes surprising, though. Especially when sexual stimulation is needed to insert them properly.
     
    Clever students! They may get a sizable portion of the profits they otherwise might have earned from a lengthy career in medicine. And they can proceed with a career in medicine if they so desire, with ample funds to pay tuition, boarding and living and entertainment expenses. Much more lucrative than, say, being an escort, as one of the defendants suggested. Why put out for a couple hundred, when you can score hundreds of thousands, potentially, just by attending court for a few months?
     
    A follow-up question is, how long has this been going on and how many students have already gone through the process? What are the opinions of these graduates of lubricated transvaginal probing?
     
    Anything sex-related is a surefire way to score the lawsuit jackpot in America. Sure beats working.
  11. Drak

    Pope Francis is Right

    By Drak,

    Pope Francis was right to name the atrocities committed by the Turks against the Armenians what they are, genocide. The Turkish ambassador to the Vatican flapped his wings and flew away in protest. Hey, if Turkey wants to act like a turkey, so be it. The fact remains that Christian blood has been on Muslim hands for the past hundred-odd years, and no amount of white-washing is going to get that stain off.
     
    I like Pope Francis, even though he disagrees with me on a lot of things and even though I'm not Catholic. He at least has the minimal amount of courage required to say things that are not only true but glaringly obvious. I don't really expect that much of him, because he has to play the part of the titular head of a very conservative institution resistant to any and all change. But for a Pope, he's pretty good, about as good as I've seen in all my years.
  12. Drak

    Fubar

    By Drak,

    I are Fubar today, f***ed up beyond all recall, not as a result of substances but rather an anonymous virus, likely a cold virus. I called in sick today for the first time ever, but I probably will trudge in tomorrow just to show the boss, hey I'm not pulling a sickie, I'm sick for real. I like for people to know I'm honest. He is probably okay with me working from home, but I need to pick up a few gadgets from work in order to make that happen.
     
    Morally, I hate coming in to work sick, because it means I'm Typhoid Mary, a disease vector working the will of an evil virus. I hate that, being a pawn of an evil virus, but economic necessity and all that... and anyway, staying home, people may naturally think, well, he's not really sick, just hungover or goofing off or whatever. Apparently a lot of people do call in sick when they aren't, which spoils things for those of us who are really sick.
     
    Firing on three instead of four cylinders isn't a great idea for productivity and will increase my error rate, but it will give me a chance to see whether anyone notices or cares.
     
    I think I caught this stinking virus from a guy sitting next to me that came in to work sick. Well, the cycle continues I guess. I find the situation morally ambiguous, but possibly I am in the wrong to come in to work tomorrow. On the other hand, a lot of people think it is pure laziness to stay home sick, and I wonder whether that is so.
  13. Drak

    Unions

    By Drak,

    Law enforcement should not have unions. Or actually, anyone who works in government should not belong to a union. Our government is a powerful entity. Its servants should not band together to amplify that power. Whenever I read a statement from the Policeman's Union, I perform a translation. The Union spokesman states, in translation, "The accused is guilty of all charges without reservation. There are no mitigating circumstances. There are many other things that have not yet been brought to light, of which the accused is also guilty." This is what the Union representative always means, in every case, whenever he speaks on behalf of anyone in his Union. Unions of government employees should be disbanded. Government servants have enough power as it is without needing to form a collective organ to defraud and deceive the public that they are supposed to serve.
  14. Drak

    On Being Old

    By Drak,

    As a young man exploring the gay subculture for the first time, twenty-five seemed the outer limit, old age in the youth-centered gay scene I was exploring. Once I reached twenty-five, I decided that was not so bad after all, but everything must be downhill after thirty. After reaching geezerhood at thirty, the time had come to open my mind to a new way of thinking about age.
     
    Now that I am, shall we say, older than thirty, I'm happier than I ever was. I'm legally married now, thanks to the blood, sweat and tears of our brave gay and lesbian activists. I'm comfortable if not rich. I have a settled, sensible and orderly life devoid of drama and confusion. None of this was true when I was young, single, poor, and lonely, playing at love with one Mr., Ms., or Mrs. Wrong after the other.
     
    Truth be told, I'd rather be old than young. Granted, I am not as pretty as I used to be, but that does not matter very much. I was never so vain about my appearance as to spend much time looking in a mirror. What remains important to me is my inner world, thoughts and ideas, and those are just as poignant now as they were back in my lonely years. Chess, books, television shows, writing, conversation, and walks in the park are just as fun now as they were back then.
     
    Young man, envy those of eighty. Do not pity your gray and withered elders, because they have already banked many good and productive years, which can never be taken away from them, not by misfortune and not even by death. Pity the young, such as yourself, because your fate remains unclear, subject to the whims of Destiny. I expressed this thought to a young man at a dinner party, and he retorted, "Why wouldn't a young person make it to old age!" The thought of tragedy seems strange to the young of today, lucky ones who do not attend funerals of those slain by AIDS, war, or shootings. Sheltered ones, who live comfortable lives in loving homes, you are lucky, but destiny has a long reach. Even if death seems remote to you now, It is a good thing to make it to old age, a rare thing, I tell you now. It is fine and splendid to appreciate what Sinatra named "the dregs of life," which can be just as good as the first sips from the cup.
  15. Drak

    Rutabagas

    By Drak,

    My grandmother cooked rutabagas with bacon and butter every time I visited for lunch, and they tasted great. I loved my grandmother. She was the nicest lady in the entire world. She died of leukemia, but lived a long life, and everyone she knew loved her just as I did. In fact, people loved her too much, and she had to hide from some people. That is one of the problems when you are too lovable. You have to hide from the non-lovables. She did the best she could. I remember she used to tell me to keep my voice down when I was in her apartment, lest her neighbors hear me and come a-knocking on the door wanting to visit.
     
    I wrote to a world-famous author the other day to ask whether he liked rutabagas. He was only lukewarm on the rutabaga controversy. I'm a rutabaga partisan and was offended. At least he said he eats rutabaga. He demonstrated he does know how to pronounce the word, so that is progess at least. Authors. All they care about is words and grammar and pronunciation. What about the turnip? I think that secretly he detests rutabaga, and is just being polite on the off-chance I might be a fan, but in reality, I have not read any of his books in over thirty years. He did not need to reply to me at all as I am just a time-waster, not a paying customer, but I did not tell him that. I do remember back in the day I used to read him, but then I got tired of him, because all his books seemed the same. Then I bought another book of his second-hand on E-bay and I hated it and threw it in the trash can. This is the sort of thing I did not tell him in my email. Instead, I just discussed the rutabaga.
     
    I like rutabaga.
  16. Drak
    There's a legal case pending for some poor woman on death row. She graduated from a prison theology program in 2011. Now in 2015, she's set for a graduate degree; instead of studying God, she's going to meet Him. Oh, Georgia, you wry old thing.
     
    Seems to me only the poor get sentenced to death. The rich get off with murder, rape, theft, or whatever they fancy. If they don't buy the judge, they'll buy the best lawyer, or buy the governor, or buy the prosecutor. Somehow or another, the rich get off, whatever they do.
     
    On the other hand, what about the lady's poor husband, mouldering in the ground? Does the victim not deserve justice? These death penalty cases are complicated morally. Sometimes I feel it is hubris, our taking another life. Maybe Gandalf was right when he said, "There are many who deserve life. Can you give it to them? Be not eager to deal out death. Even the wise cannot see all ends." Other times, like in the recent case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy, my gut reaction consists of five words. First-degree murder. The chair.
     
    Blame the whole situation on the killers. They are the ones that put us in this accursed moral predicament. It's all their fault. We are absolved, morally, as long as we make the death as swift and painless as can be. I find a swift death rather enviable. Many of us will not die so cleanly, so elegantly, so painlessly. What about the victims? Again and forever we must ask that question. I wonder if her husband died so painlessly? For my part, if the grace left me altogether, and I slew another, then most likely I would not fear death, but accept it as inevitable. I reckon, given her chosen field of study, she has embraced philosophy as well.
  17. Drak
    Yahoo disrespects gayauthors. The picture above speaks for itself. I complained to my little search engine provider, DuckDuckGo, which gets its feed from Yahoo & Bing, but have not heard anything back. I may have to stop using DDG, because there are too many sites I just can't find. How about coughing up exact url matches, Yahoo?
     
    No such problems with Google.
  18. Drak
    Channel Four's Peep Show is the best-written comedy on television and one of the few that I can watch over and over again. I don't know of anything remotely like it. Everyone I've shown the show to here in the U.S. hates it, absolutely hates it, possibly because it is unique, unlike any other show ever produced, with an ongoing narrative from either Jez the stoner or Mark Corrigan the geek, and the camera shoots scenes from the viewpoint of one of these two gentlemen. Although the show is about sex, drugs, and relationships, the writers toss in pedantic references to history, science, economics, politics, sexuality, psychology, and philosophy. Maybe people hate this show because it is an intellectual comedy.
     
    I think the show bursts with brilliance, and many in the U.K. agree, because the show has endured eight seasons across the Atlantic and even spawned an inferior imitation in the U.S. The writing, the camera work, and the acting approach perfection, although the writing carries the show. Sadly, there is only one season remaining of Peep Show, the ninth, after which the show ends.
     
    Thank goodness for our English brothers, producing the finest television shows in the world.
  19. Drak

    The Democratic Gun

    By Drak,

    The gun is democratic. It requires little in the way of training or skill. What can be easier than pointing a gun and pulling a trigger? The gun does not care who you are--rich or poor, skilled or unskilled, young or old, strong or weak, smart or foolish, sane or insane, or good or evil. Guns deal death, and death is equal opportunity. Anyone can pull the trigger. What an easy thing a gun is! Anyone can die. A genius may be slain by an idiot, a billionaire by a common thief, or more likely, a good person by an evil person. What a remarkable thing a gun is, leveling the entire world just like that.
     
    Whenever good people are slain by evil-doers, and this does happen often enough, people hate guns and want to ban them or place limitations upon their use. Maybe democracy is wrong where guns are concerned. The evil should not have guns. The insane should not have guns. The old, those whose mental and visual faculties have decayed, should not have guns. Probably everyone would agree on that. Should the poor have guns? The foolish? The young?
     
    Then there are people that love guns, really love them. They believe that guns equal freedom, freedom from fear if nothing else. Guns equal power, because what power is greater than the power to end life? Guns give control to the user, control over destiny. Some people feel confident in themselves, in their judgment. They do not fear making mistakes. The power to take away life does not frighten these people as much the possibility they might lose control to someone else with a gun or with a strong arm.
     
    I do not see where a gun benefits me, unless I were to receive a specific threat, in which case my opinion would change. I think that guns are dangerous and pose an unnecessary risk for most people uninvolved in the threads of violence, the tentacles oozing with blood spread throughout the world. To remain uninvolved, safe and protected by a law-abiding society, is a blissful luxury that we enjoy and take for granted in our wondrous modern age.
     
    A gun is an ugly thing, capable of great evil, and sometimes humans are capable of foolish decisions. The possibility of someone getting the draw on me and ending my life, remote as that may be, does not frighten me as much the possibility of making some careless mistake with a weapon of great power. If someone else takes my life, then I am in the right of things, and they are in the wrong. Being in the right of things matters to me. They will die too, after all, and the only difference is a small sum of years. In the end, everyone is equal. The gun just hurries things up a bit for those that lack patience.
  20. Drak

    Of Comments, Be Skeptical

    By Drak,

    Comments here on gayauthors.org are fine. Let me say that right away. This web site is a moderated, safe, fenced-in area of the internet. If you blog out in the wild, wild west, that is to say today's Internet, on your own little blogspot or wordpress or what-have-you, unfenced-in and left to your own devices when it comes to security and access, then be skeptical, please. Be skeptical of comments that are left on your blog and of messages emailed to you. Please.
     
    Ask yourself first, is the message what it appears to be? Some comments are left by human beings, others by automated bots, which is to say computer programs that access a database of canned messages that may have, at one time, been written by a human being, with an eye to appearing genuine and able to satisfy the scrutiny of most readers, and deposited on a vast number of blogs, including your own. Why would a bot do such a thing? Because it is trying to promote a meme or a web site.
     
    I visited a gay author's blog tonight in which a bot had deposited a message that appeared to be a question asking for a recommendation on blogging software. The comment was left because it promoted a web site having something to do with e-cigarettes, a fashionable and profitable product. The writer wrote about five paragraphs in reply, not realizing that the commenter was not human. I will not identify the author. I tried to warn him, but his blog requires logging in with a Wordpress username. Look at the links, please. If nothing else, scan the links. The links give bots away faster than anything. But sometimes, a bot merely wants to promote an idea. If the comment is generic, then it is likely a lie. Delete it.
     
    Bots and their authors can have more motives than I have discussed, but the above is enough.
  21. Drak
    Click "Read Full Entry," below, to view the illustration. In this ten-minute blitz game, I played the White pieces against a New Zealander of a similar rating as mine. Black is just two moves away from resigning. What is my next move?

    The answer is below.































    In this game, as usual, I played the Drunken Knight. My opponent adhered to Classical principles by opting for a strong center occupied by pawns, while I went the hypermodern route. The board above displays the fifteenth move. I haven't analyzed this with a computer--I never do--and haven't studied it for long. There may be a better move for White for all I know. If so, let me know what you find via a comment. 1.Na3 d5 2.g3 e5 3.Bg2 c6 4.b3 f6 5.Bb2 Be6 6.d3 Bd6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.O-O Ne7 9.c4 O-O 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Nb5 Bc7 12.Nxc7 Qxc7 13.Rc1 Qd6 14.Qd2 Rac8 15.Qa5 a6? Poor fellow did not see the threat at all. 16.Ba3 At this point, he loses a piece, and that came as a shocker, resulting in an early surrender. 1-0
  22. Drak

    No More Computer Viruses

    By Drak,

    I've been fighting viruses all my life. As a kid, I got cold viruses. As a young man, friends died or got sick from the HIV virus. Now, my friends get computer viruses. These are good people, intelligent, creative types that have their computer taken away from them by a malicious trick played by lowlife scum. I hate viruses and I hate virus writers because of what I have seen happen to my friends and family.
     
    To my knowledge, my computers are virus-free. I only say to my knowledge, because one never really knows. If a state government wanted to bug me or anyone for that matter, they could, and there's not much that could be done about that without spending a lot of time and effort on passwords, encryption and the like. I am too lazy to bother with any of that, and since I am not engaged in espionage, I imagine governments have better things to do with their time than spy on me. I am only really confident that my computers remain free of common, garden variety viruses. To experience my level of security should be easy. I will break my strategy down into five steps.
     
    1. First of all, try to avoid downloading and running anything. This is a really basic principle. If Windows pops up a warning saying, "Do you want to allow / run / permit," then choose No. There are some things that are okay to run, but it's not easy for a non-technical person to determine what those things are. The default answer should be no. Also, if you are the admin setting security at your home or office, novice or minor users should not be granted access to install software. There is too much risk.
     
    2. Use Firefox as the internet browser and install the add-on "NoScript." This add-on gives the user control over the scripts a web site can run. It pesters and annoys, but only the first time a new web site is accessed, because it will remember any permissions the user grants. This simple precaution of asking the user for permission first makes surfing to unknown sites safer. Only when a site is deemed trustworthy need a user permit scripts. An element of consent is introduced into the equation. Blindly accepting any and all scripts, the default behavior of web browsers, is not a particularly good idea. Keep the Flash player updated.
     
    3. Do not download and run any pirated software, ever. That includes operating systems. Pirated software used to be safer about ten years ago, but now hackers are trying to make a living out of the scene. There is a reason that hackers make pirated software available, and it is not out of the goodness of their hearts. There are not many Robin Hoods out there. Just because software scans virus-free does not mean it is virus-free. Please. Running an .exe of unknown origin betrays a spectacular level of trust in strangers. Besides, software is not that expensive anyway. If you're on a budget, then use Linux and free software. Linux is far more secure than Windows. If in doubt as to which version of Linux to use, choose Xubuntu or Linux Mint XFCE. Look them up. Download today and replace Windows, if you're already infected.
     
    4. If you don't have an anti-virus or can't afford one, then download and run Microsoft Security Essentials, a free anti-virus offered by Microsoft. I use it. It is efficient, effective, and stays out of the way. P.S. If you go the Linux route, you will not need an anti-virus. Ever. Just forget about anti-viruses in that case.
     
    5. Don't continue using any email account that gets spammed to death. Either install filters to weed out or redirect into different folders incoming mail, or else create a new, virgin email address and only tell your close friends about it. If you receive 20 - 30 email messages per day and they all arrive in the same folder, chances are you will click on some phishing attack sooner or later and compromise your computer's security. Spam works because humans are careless and click on things by accident. So do whatever you have to do to avoid spam. Sometimes the simplest way is to discontinue using an email account and create a new one.
     
    People tend to use web pages to check their mail these days, but this is not desirable, because it is slower, and one becomes dependent upon a specific mail provider for things like filters. I use the Thunderbird mail reader and have created a vast number of filters to delete or redirect incoming mail, so that the only things I see in my Inbox are vitally important messages from my friends or family. I seldom ever see spam, but if I do, a new filter will be installed that very day. I think about a year ago, I received a spam in my Inbox, but it was something to which I had inadvertently subscribed.
     
    Remember, the three main vectors to virus infection are email--internet browser--downloaded software. It is also possible to get infected via the local network or by inserting an infected flash drive into the computer, but those scenarios are less common. I have seen both happen, but most people are infected through something they did on the Internet and because they had taken insufficient precautions. All of the above suggestions are precautions.
     
    -------------------------
     
    Recommended Software List
     
    Operating System: Windows 7+. I recommend using Xubuntu or Linux Mint Xfce as a free and secure alternative to Windows. The software below is available to Linux, with the exception of MPC-HC and Notepad++.
    Internet Browser: Firefox, because it is a configurable and extendable browser. Install the Add-on "NoScript."
    Internet Search Engine: DuckDuckGo claims to respect user privacy and can be easily configured, but Google remains king for finding obscure things.
    Mail Reader: Thunderbird. With this powerful tool, you can check all your many email accounts with a single click, without using your browser at all.
    Need a good, free word processor and complete office suite? Download the latest version of LibreOffice.
    Text editor: Notepad++
    Video Player: MPC-HC for Windows, Smplayer for Linux.
  23. Drak

    Laying a Trap

    By Drak,

    Click "Read Full Entry" in order to see the picture, above. This is my best recent blitz game. I played Black against a higher-rated player with a time control of ten minutes.

    With Black to play, what is the best move?

    White resigned two moves later. The entire game is below. Decide what you would move as Black and then compare your answer against mine. The chessboard displays move #21. Do you agree with my choice or do you find a better move?

















    The algebraic notation used below is best explained by Wikipedia's article. Modern players use algebraic because it is actually simpler. Everyone knows just what the e4 square is. It is the same square White's pawn moves to when he plays P-K4, but it always remains e4, regardless of whether White or Black is moving. Algebraic notation never varies based upon whose move it is. That is why players prefer it.

    Here I play what I call the Drunken Knight opening with Black. I like it because it always puzzles my opponents and breaks them out of book straightaway. I have been told that other players call the opening Sodium, maybe because they find it causes high blood pressure. Note that the chessboard above displays move #21, with Black to move. 1.e4 Na6 2.Bxa6 bxa6 3.d4 Bb7 4.Nc3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.O-O c5 7.Be3 Nf6 8.e5 Ng4 9.h3 cxd4 10.Bxd4 Nh6 11.Re1 O-O 12.g4 e6 13.Bc5 Re8 14.Bd6 f6 15.exf6 Bxf6 16.Qd2 Nf7 17.Bf4 e5 18.Bxe5 Bxf3 19.Bxf6 Qxf6 20.Rxe8+ Rxe8 21.Qxd7 Bc6 22. Qxa7?? White ignores the looming threat and grabs a pawn. White's best reply is the passive, dismal Qd3. 22. Nd5 looks promising, but is refuted by 22. .. Qxb2!, which wins at least a rook and a pawn for a bishop. The game continued: 22. .. Qf3, at which point White realized the error of his ways and resigned. 0-1.
  24. Drak

    I'm No Pal to Palladium

    By Drak,

    While shopping for wedding rings for my husband and myself, palladium made my short list, but in the end, something stuck in my craw. I'm the type of geek that likes to learn the gory details, for better or worse, and just had to read the Wikipedia entry for this metal I had seldom heard of save in the commodities page.
     
    Turns out palladium is mined heavily in Russia, where the politicians manipulate the price on the world market to benefit Russia. The same can be said of platinum, by the way. Well, that's a huge problem for me, because Russia is not playing nice with the gays right about this time. Gays are being scapegoated and prosecuted just for being gay. It's not right, and I don't want any of my gay dollars going to Russia if I can help it. For that reason, I opted for another metal, one that Russia hasn't cornered, good old-fashioned gold.
  25. Drak
    My parents were English professors. When I was a university student, I showed them my prize science fiction story. Mom refused to comment. She was always of the opinion that if you haven't anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Dad used diversion. He said my talent was clearly in non-fiction, and he praised the A+ papers I had written for my classes. "But Daaaaad! What about the story?" "I've got to grade some papers, son. Maybe another time." I asked my best friend, Blobbo, to give an utterly ruthless line-by-line critique, telling him I wanted nothing but honesty. Boy, was he honest!
     
    From my friend's helpful line-by-line critique--and yes, he remained a dear, dear friend--I discovered to my dismay that every single line in my story was bad. Nothing was right, absolutely nothing! Although the grammar checker and spell checker were satisfied, those things are elementary mechanics, which all writers must master first of all, but they represent a low level of skill. There were errors in logic, far too much passive voice, horribly common cliches, airy verbosity, lazy disorganization, outright contradictions, and other blunders of style, taste, sense, and clarity.
     
    My ego was slain. Buzzards circled. Years passed. Ego is a funny thing. It just keeps getting resurrected somehow. If one enjoys doing something, one is likely to find an excuse to do it. Writing turns me on. I purchased some books on the art of writing, practiced, and possibly improved a little bit. I may know nothing, but at least now I understand that writing is a difficult art that takes time to master. I take comfort from reading Mary Renault's early works. Wow, did she improve! Well, there's some hope for us all, perhaps.
×
×
  • Create New...