Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Ithaka is Boomin' When it Should Be Bummin' and Zen Yogi Explains

They probably popped twelve hundred reads today, Yogi, even when the situation is scary and repugnant to most people.

Zen Yogi:  I conclude, Silas, you are not writing scary and repugnant things in your articles.

Dunno about that since the #Blotto articles have enough repugnance and fear factor for people who eat spiders and worms on game shows.

Zen Yogi:  you're not trying to scare anyone, Silas, or people would probably vamoose faster than the Roadrunner on a hot day

Why do you add 'faster than the Roadrunner on a hot day?'

Zen Yogi:  I like the color, Silas







Maybe I changed, Yogi, since if you don't think you're worth a shit by now it's probably not going to happen.  Some stuff wasn't too bad as WEBSTER was a good trick.  I got the arched eyebrows from my ol' Dad when I was going to send out a letter of appreciation for the opportunity to write it but, on re-reading, he was right that it had too much of a tint of self-congratulation and I didn't send it.

Note:  he had a stroke and it wrecked his speech but his mind was otherwise still rocket fast.

It's ok to take a little bow now, along with Queen Bee for the ton of support work she did.  I don't know if anyone ever connected a VOTRAX speech synthesizer to a COMMODORE-64 computer before and I seriously doubt anyone programmed it with MOTOROLA 6502 assembler language.  That is so ancient it could easily make the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park run away.

Note:  if you can't do it with an accumulator and two index registers, how can you truly say it's worth doing.

He needed the speech therapy after his stroke and I didn't see anything which was particularly helpful when he was away from the therapist so WEBSTER happened and, sure, I will take a bow for that one since some aspects of life I left in a smoldering ruin but that one happened right and he used it for years.  WEBSTER became a virtual entity rather than a program and the family knew him by name.

Zen Yogi:  that was almost forty years ago?

Not far short of that, Yogi.  Even dinosaurs look like puppies to me.


Zen Yogi:  are you justifying yourself, Silas?

Nah, it's a pleasant memory since it seemed it worked and he swore it did when he was talking again.

I know Queen Bee was indispensable simply from what I saw but it was further confirmed when I sent copies of the program to people who requested them.  They could not get it happening even when the manual spelled-out specifically and meticulously with lots of pictures any instructions but there's something more since support took a tremendous amount of data entry and it needed to be insightfully prepared to have real value.

Queen Bee has some kind of simpatico genius for that and you can't see her but she ought to take a bow too.


Zen Yogi:  anything else, Silas?

I ate more chicken than any man ever seen.

Zen Yogi:  that was the Lizard King, Silas

You know The Doors, Yogi.  There are not many musically-hip bears about, pal.

Zen Yogi:  I have more rhythm than the average bear, Silas

Indeed you do, Yogi.  There's more but WEBSTER was kind of swell.


Zen Yogi:  what about that Galaxy Guitar?

She is the Zen, man, since I'm beautiful when I play.

Zen Yogi:  like Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is beautiful when he swims?

He is from whom I stole the idea, Yogi.

I want to try to record something but that's kind of difficult.

Zen Yogi:  if it was easy it wouldn't be a good trick and that's an old family saying of unknown origin

That's it, Yogi.  Popping off selfies is a drag but playing is real.


There are some rules, Yogi.

Zen Yogi:  what kind of rules?

No-one is allowed to say what a long, strange trip it's been.  I know it's a long, strange trip since I was on it.

Zen Yogi:  yep, sure don't need that one.  What else?

Not much, Yogi, since it's still a long, strange trip.

Zen Yogi:  it's not over until it's over

Hot dog, Yogi.  There's another one.

Zen Yogi:  another what?

What you just said.  Need to chuck that one also.

Zen Yogi:  hmmm

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