Everything2 New Writeups

Two weddings full of mystic secrets: My Deathly Hallows moments (fiction)

2009-11-27T19:50:37Z

This was the summer that I finally finished my bachelor's degree, through the white flag maneuver of signing up for lots of random classes until they gave me a degree in Liberal Studies, which is the academic equivalent of an "irreconcilable differences" divorce. I managed to graduate by riding around on a bus at odd times, and in between all of, my friend got married. And by friend, I mean "girl who I agonized over all through my late teens and early 20s", but you've all heard that story before, and that is not what I am going to talk about. Only point is: it was probably as well that I was invited to the wedding, and I did promise not to embarrass myself. I am, after all, named after the Goddess of Should-be-invited-to-weddings-to-avoid-trouble. This is the wedding that Khadija put on for my friend, out in the scenic, lahar-prone valleys of Hood River. And I am not even going to talk about that, I am going to talk about walking up by the reservoir. In…

The help you need (fiction)

2009-11-27T18:13:29Z

"Security cameras picked you up masturbating in your cell last night." Dr. Stearns said matter-of-factly.

Imperceptibly, Meyer started tensing for a fight. The first flushes of heat in his forehead started pulsating; his fingers became jittery, tapping lightly on his jeans. Meyer looked up from the burgundy office chair he was sitting in and considered the question. "Yeah, I was" he admitted, "what's it to you?"

Stearns was mildly annoyed by the tepid defiance. "Tell me about the fantasy you were using. Was it the same one as usual, or something different?"

Meyer leaned back and crossed his arms. Closed off. Barrier. He felt the familiar resistance now in his mind to this ridiculous question, felt his blood pressure rise. Felt lightness of head, quickness of foot, like an ancestor stumbling upon a sleeping lion. Today, though, he wasn't going to yield. He wasn't going to…

The day my best friend cried (event)

2009-11-27T17:20:42Z

It may as well have rained that day, it would've at least preserved some of her dignity.
I never want to see it again.
It was the most beautiful, yet heartwrenching sight I'd have ever seen in my life.
My best friend was crying behind the store dumpster, smoking in a vain attempt to calm down, like it somehow was supposed to help.
It doesn't matter why she broke down in front of me, all that mattered was that I was there to make it more bearable...The intense pain that she was exhibiting, that she was trying to hide...
I wish it were raining... At least she'd have smiled a little then.
I had gone to check on her, and there she was...
Looking like a complete mess...
Sobbing helplessly, uncontrollably.
Asking if I brought weed...
I came bearing worse news that I didn't want to impart to begin with, but when I saw the intense pain she was in...
It ate away at my very essesense, and suddenly...
The only thing I had to do...
Was listen.
So I did.…

Thurisaz (thing)

2009-11-27T16:49:49Z

Thurisaz is often called the rune of winter, the rune of giants, and the rune of misfortune. The alternate, more prevalent title, is Thorn, as the usage is generally that of a goad or a sharp point. At best, this rune is useful in a bindrune, generally against ill-fortune or to turn back perceived bad luck upon the source. Thurisaz is an unpredictable, chaotic rune, and is useful in rune divination as a warning against folly or malice.

Translations of the Icelandic kennings have given us the following verses to consider:

The thorn is exceedingly sharp,
an evil thing for any knight to touch,
uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.

torture of women
and cliff-dweller
and husband of a giantess.

Modern pagan literature insists that Thorn may also be a reactive catalyst, useful for clearing boundaries, purging trauma, or other forms of catharsis, mainly…

James Bond Titles (essay)

2009-11-27T14:37:25Z

James Bond Titles

The James Bond franchise perpetually pulls people in to picture theatres despite being at the point where it's repetitively regurgitating the recombined recycled remnants of the first five or so films for the fifth phase of the franchise. By this point I think people go just to see what combination of key elements have been pulled out of the big box at EON Productions, and whether any interesting twists have been added to them.

The thing about this series is that many of the titles were - and still are - very catchy. I'll happily make the accusation that the Bond franchise has probably been the cause of more generic, knock-off spy thriller titles than anything else. But some of them do seem irrelevant to the story. Well, that's not true in most cases...

Here, for your reading pleasure, is a list of the titles of the James Bond films, novels, and short stories - along with what relevance they have to the plot. I'll go with the order of film…

price war (thing)

2009-11-27T13:44:54Z

A price war is a situation that frequently occurs in an oligopolistic business market when companies begin to aggressively lower their prices to compete with each other, which can cause some pretty interesting price combinations for consumers (like $9 airline tickets).

A Primer on Oligopoly

An oligopoly is a market setup in which there are a few very powerful firms that collectively control most of the product being exchanged in the market. Examples include OPEC, the airline industry, and ye olde broadcast television industry. Because there are only a few powerful firms in the market, they can have a direct impact on the price of goods, unlike in a perfectly competitive market, where the producers all charge basically the same price (think foodstuff markets).

Because of the substantial price-setting power possessed by these firms, each of them has an incentive to drop its prices and capture a larger section of the market. By doing…

Cory Doctorow (person)

2009-11-27T12:24:25Z

Cory Doctorow is a Canadian science fiction author and Internet celebrity who currently resides in London. Doctorow has gained fame in the online world by working with groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the UK Open Rights Group and by releasing his literary works simultaneously free-of-charge online and in low-cost print form.

Doctorow's novels, short stories, and essays have been nominated for several prestigious awards, such as the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and have won the Prometheus Award and the Indienet Award. Besides making it easy for people to access his books free of charge, Doctorow contends that releasing his works online has actually increased print sales of his books, proving that a pairing free, online releases and print runs can be economically viable.

At the time of writing, Doctorow's latest book is Makers (October 2009), which deals with the issues of innovation during times of economic collapse. His next two…

Friesian (essay)

2009-11-27T10:12:09Z

The most beautiful, graceful, gentle horse in the world, and also the one you've probably seen a lot of. They're average to tall (14.2 to 17 hh), with a rounded nose characteristic of most Spanish breeds. They have small heads and a body that is dependent on their breeding, while mostly they are of a stocky build the more modern, sport-designed Friesians are lighter-boned.

You'll know a Friesian most instantly from their hair. To be classed pedigree standard, a Friesian must have no white markings, and must be perfectly black. Occasionally they will be chestnut, but this is frowned on and won't be accepted as a true Friesian. A Friesian will never have his hair cut, which includes his mane, forelock, tail and fetlocks. The hair on the fetlocks is called "feathers" in the business.

Friesians are gentle in nature, and although their blackness, hair and stocky body makes them seem large and imposing, they are actually very docile and willing horses. Despite this, they…

Re-expansion Theorem (idea)

2009-11-27T08:28:40Z

Course in Complex Analysis, Section 2

Def'n 2.1: The series Σa_n is said to converge to a complex number a if the limit of the sequence of partial sums exists. That's to say,

Σ_n=1^∞a_n = lim_n→∞ Σ_k=1ⁿa_k

whenever the right-hand side exists. A series is said to converge absolutely if the sum of the moduli of the terms converges. Absolutely convergent series are nice because it is possible to rearrange terms freely.

Def'n 2.2: The series of complex-valued functions Σf_n(z) is said to converge uniformly on a compact set K if there exists some function f(z) such that

∀ε>0 ∃N ∀n≥N ∀z∈K |(Σ_k=1ⁿf_k(z)) - f(z)| < ε

…

How Much for just the Planet? (review)

2009-11-27T08:03:26Z

When I was a preteen, I went through phases of channeling my latency into obsessively collecting a variety of things. Lego, comic books, basketball cards, each had a phase of three or so months in which I spent all my energy on it, before moving on to the next thing. And one of those collections was of Star Trek novels. The owners of the Star Trek franchise turned these out in great quantity (and continue to do to this day). Most of the books were numbered. Often, when you are reading a book with the name of a TV show and a number attached, it might not be great literature.

Much like Star Trek in all its incarnations, the books were meant to be the sort of entertainment that was just thought provoking enough to be one grade above pulp. Or at least that was the median: some fell below that standard, and some were above it. Despite the fact that these novels were printed in such great quantity that they are easy to find in even the most…

Complex-differentiable (idea)

2009-11-27T07:48:30Z

Course in Complex Analysis, Section 1

Def'n 1.1: The complex numbers are the algebraic closure of the real numbers. Every complex number can be written in the form a + bi, where a and b are real and i^2 = -1. The complex numbers are a field under the addition and multiplication induced by the reals. The multiplication of two complex numbers is defined as (a + bi)(c + di) = (ac - bd) + (ad + bc)i. The complex numbers as a set are labeled C.

In a natural way the complex numbers look a lot like the real Euclidean plane — viewing them this way is called the Argand plane, after an electrical engineer who used the idea to think about alternating current.

In addition to the field structure, there are three other common operations defined on complex numbers. First, there is complex conjugation, usually written as an overline or a star. If z = x + yi, z* = x - yi. The second is the modulus, which represents the length of a complex number…

surface tension (poetry)

2009-11-27T06:58:49Z

A sonnet

Sometimes, when the world is looking the other way,
I am gorgeous. My eyes and hair shine, I have a glow
I walk with my shoulders back, more graceful than any ballet.
I am a goddess – not that anyone would ever know.
When glances fall on me, I stumble, stutter, spill -
become clumsy and clownish, my radiance fades.
It doesn't matter. Another glorious moment will
sneak up on me, when life's dull tirades
grind me so far down that I need to be lovely again.
I keep my beauty, like treasure, in a velvet box
ready to be applied, a secret balm for secret pain –
a shield against time passing, a curse on clocks.
Remember, when you look, the surface that you see
is only your impression. It never was me.

microphone (how-to)

2009-11-27T06:35:18Z

Most people believe that a microphone is a simple enough instrument that they don't even think about what can go wrong with it. You talk into it, it records you. However, in a similar manner to amateur photography, a little bit of ignorance goes a long way and can produce avoidably shoddy results. There are several quick and easy tips that can help people avoid the most common mistakes with a microphone without going into full-blown sound engineering.

One of the most world-changing things about the internet is that it gives normal people a global audience for blogs and podcasts. But just as poor spelling and grammar can drive people away from a blog, poor recording quality can ruin a podcast. Fortunately, you don't need to hire a professional editor to write a passable blog, and you don't need a recording studio to get decent audio for your podcast. The plastic mic that came with your computer certainly won't let you…

fail (thing)

2009-11-27T02:56:29Z

Okay. Ever had one of those reports you just typed out and turned in, and then you looked at it?

This should make you computer people laugh.

Laptop vs. Desktop

When buying a computer there are many things to…

Season's Greetings (person)

2009-11-27T00:09:08Z

Round and slow moving, her mind is elsewhere.
Flurrying maybes burn holes in her attention,
fear lends thorns to her glances.
Still she pushes on through the Christmas shoppers
a silent knight with shopping trolley steed,
a quixotic queen saving bottles, cans and treasure.
Shrill clusters of family life contend for toys
and peace of mind. Parents match her startled
stare as they sift the mental clatter for the
right mix of food and presents. Children call
like small birds; mouths and eyes all consuming.
The yellow dog waits outside the fish shop, also hopeful.

Into That Brilliant Night (fiction)

2009-11-27T00:05:57Z

The doors to his apartment slid open, silently and effortlessly, and Tom Miyaki crossed the threshold for the first time in nearly a week. The main lights had been turned off, and the corridor was lit only by the cold blue of the emergency lights, slowly oscillating in step with the tones of the warning alarm.

Tom took five steps across the narrow walking space in front of his door and then rested on the dull silver of the railing. The drop-off was about fifteen feet, to a small indoor park on the thirtieth floor of Tower One. As he listened to the soft babbling of an automated spring somewhere below, Tom recognized the stillness of the place where he was. There were no people moving about their tasks, no heels clicking on the hard metal floors, no voices echoing against the sharply constructed walls and ceilings. Just the babbling of the brook, the breathing of the emergency lights, and the humming of the alarm.

To his left, not more than thirty feet distant, was an elevator tube.…

Thanks. It's a pleasure to serve you. (personal)

2009-11-26T22:09:28Z

It was six months after my twentieth birthday, and several weeks after I had gotten my first real job that I learned the True Meaning of Thanksgiving. Before, like most youths raised in the culture of cynicism, I had heard "we have so much to be thankful" for that the bland benedictions were stopped by my filter before their meaning registered. But, at 20, I had a job doing tech support and I learned the meaning of thankfulness: it was the feeling when the first 15 minute break came, which let me know I was half way to lunch hour. And lunch hour was halfway through the day. And there was one more day down. Life was easy with that short focal length. Because I was a working man, now, I couldn't visit my family that Thanksgiving, but I went to my friends' house, and had a nice tofurkey with their somewhat-traditional Catholic family.

I am sure everyone has a story like that, where they learned that there was a truth behind the cliches of gratitude. A time when youthful…

No One Ever Listens Do They, 'Lyssa (poetry)

2009-11-26T21:34:23Z

Your eyes
are painted
black
and your mouth
is painted
red
You scratched your arms and legs
and bit your nails
until they bled
The doctor
gives you pills
but still
you wish
that you were dead

No one ever listens,
do they 'Lyssa

They said
your grandma's house
would be a better
place
to stay
Your mother
drinks too much
and now
your daddy's
gone away
But you know
that's not why
you did
the thing you did
today

No one ever listens,
do they 'Lyssa

Did it happen
like you planned
did it happen like you dreamed
did it satisfy
the hunger
when you
finally
heard her scream
She was only nine
and you were only
just fifteen

No one ever listens
do they, 'Lyssa
…

convertible bond (thing)

2009-11-26T21:29:35Z

Introduction

A convertible bond is a hybrid security that has the behavior of (subordinated) debt and stock, as desired by the holder of convertible. As such, it is similar to a reverse convertible, only here, the holder, and not the issuer, has the choice between payoff as a bond or payoff in shares.

What is it?

When one buys a convertible, one buys a bond and a call warrant. This means one profits if the shares of the company rally, but is not affected as strongly by the downside, namely a drop in share price. The only point at which this becomes an issue is if the issuers goes bankrupt: in this case, both bond and shares are worthless.

Because the buyer of the convertible bond also receives a warrant, the interest rate on the bond is lower than for a normal bond of this company. As such, it represent an option for companies to…

store and recover corrupted data from CD/DVDs (how-to)

2009-11-26T20:40:23Z

Everybody remembers those CD commercials years ago, which claimed the superiority of the CD as a means of storing data since it would last for a thousand years (sic)! Well, I know that most of my 3-decades old tapes still play, and most of my 5 year old CDs fail to read! Anyway, sometimes you just need to make space on your hard disk and a CD or a DVD is the only choice.

BUT, now and then you still need your data. All of it.

Don't despair, for there is a solution. (warning: the tutorial is for Linux users)

Let's take an example. I just finished my PhD and need to archive my PhD folder which contains all my research and sums up to 1.5 GB. First of all I make one compressed file out of it. Since I am a Linux user, I use my favorite combination of tar + bzip2…

elf and dwarf crap (idea)

2009-11-26T19:11:26Z

This is a catchall term in fandom for books which are a shallow (and usually bad) ripoff of Lord of the Rings. As implied by the title of the trope, elves and dwarves will exist in happy profusion, characters will be carrying, or in search of, a magical macguffin, which is usually, but not always, a magic sword ala Excalibur.

Common inclusions to this trope include the plucky band of adventurers, many of whom longterm D&D players will recognize immediately as being the standard composition of their own Friday Night group (i.e., the mage, the rogue, the druid, the priest, and usually, the mysterious princess/priestess love interest of the the protagonist). Hobbits and/or halflings are usually considered optional (most likely due to the fact that it's hard empathize with an eternally cheerful, gluttonous, hairy-footed thief).

For a few decades during the evolution of the modern fantasy novel, the shelves of the local poorly-funded science…

These Feelings (poetry)

2009-11-26T18:09:21Z

These feelings are so strong
Can't pull yourself away
The world we're living in
Is governed by emotions

These feelings get us down
They tear us into shreds
Leave us bruised and battered
Things never recovered
Years of our life wasted

These feelings break our hearts
I've seen it all before
Fallen in love again
But it will never work
Every time it's the same

Is it really her fault?
Or is this how it works?
Were hearts just made to break?

easter egg (thing)

2009-11-26T16:51:56Z

In video games, an Easter egg is an optional hidden feature in a game that involves an unimportant but sometimes humorous event. For example, in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, if you could get yourself into a certain secret room (which I will keep a secret to avoid spoilers), there is an actual chocolate Easter Egg. In the sequel, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, another secret room has a weird Easter egg - a note saying "There are no Easter Eggs here. Go away."

Common Easter Eggs are:

Big Heads
Little Heads
Different Costumes
Invincibility (usually found after the game is beaten)
A non-canon appearance of another character

A story about a person I do not know (personal)

2009-11-26T16:42:52Z

At seventeen, I knew the way the world was supposed to work. The daughter of a soldier from a line of soldiers, I was going to join the Army, avoiding the question of college, avoiding the question of career, free choice, and all the other bugbears that drive teenagers to distraction. SATs? Not important. All that mattered was that I had a great ASVAB score and a way out.

All that stood between me and eight years without thought or question of who or what I was was Military Entrance Processing.

We were told to come to the Holiday Inn before ten o'clock that night. Breakfast was paid for (and turned out to be horridly cold eggs and badly-cooked sausages): in the morning, we would wake up before sunrise to go to the good old Bishop Whipple building.

It was all paperwork and medical testing. Somehow, I wasn't prepared to be hustled into a big room with ten or twelve other girls and told to undress, standing side by side with another girl.

The two of us…

Emily. Emily. Emily. Delete. (poetry)

2009-11-26T16:04:04Z

Emily.
Dearest Emily
why so long without words?
why is your only answer silence?

Emily.
Dearest Emily,
I am sure I could explain why
there was dress on the floor, in the foyer when you walked in
last week

Emily.
when I saw you dancing at the club
last night, by yourself with your eyes closed
I was struck by how alone you are

Emily. Emily. Emily.

Delete