On Memory.

Eh, blast. Every time there's one of these "On a subject" posts, they usually end up as mere rants. Perhaps if I took psychology it'd be more interesting to read and write these things. And actually end up making sense.

Well. Memory. Funny little thing that helps us to remember events of times past. Even if you haven't got a creative bone in your body, your memory can apparently conjure up events of wonderous surrealism and complete falsehood. Even if you can't remember what you stepped into the kitchen to get, your memory can helpfully recall the embarassing moments of your childhood for you.

This queer phenomenon known as "remembering" allows one to recall, with near perfect ambiguity, precisely what happened that left that scar of a memory on one's brain. However, this amazing skill is usually not what people notice when recalling things. Nope, what people usually notice is all the long gaps in their memories. For example. What did you eat on this day 3 years ago? How many pages did the newspaper have today? Things like these are not supposed to be hard to remember, really (what did you have for lunch today?) and the answers we've seen before (if you read the newspaper, you should remember how many pages you read) so why the inability to answer?

Well, answering such inane questions with little bearing on one's well-being is really a waste of time. Who cares if the newspaper had 8975 pages today. (Bad example. Everyone would complain.) Who cares if the square root of 7 is 2.645. Here we have to delineate the two types of memory: (Not conscious and subconscious but) USEFUL and NOT USEFUL.

Admittedly, there is little difference between the two. After all, if one appears in a quiz show and some question like "What is the scientific name of the ixora?" is worth $100,000, obviously this little bit of trivia, usually completely irrelevant to life, becomes a life-changing piece of knowledge. However, typically knowledge that is of the practical variety is directly related to some aspect of one's daily routine, and has usage in one's life, like knowing how to brush one's teeth. If all these little things like knowing how to walk and remembering one's phone number were tallied, you'd be surprised how much you know.

Unfortunately, remembering things is scarcely this easy. Mathematics would be one realm where many people complain of specific amnesia, forgetting that important little formula before a critical test. (Trigo factor formulae come to mind here, or rather fail to.) If only we could all have better memories (although those "Improve Your Brain" genre of books all seem like they were written for laughs at us common people and seem utterly useless.) Such things as remembering acronyms, chains of pictures and funny sentences for the Reactivity Series, pi to 40 places and "how to answer AQ" seem extremely gimmicky. It may help some people, but personally, I think the best way is to forget all these tacky methods of memorisation and just remember whatever it is you should be remembering.

Running out of steam here. I think I'll end off, maybe pick up the thread of this train of thought later... if I remember.

To SCP-797...

...(Not late this time) Happy birthday! SCP-797 is now over one year old. By a matter of minutes. Even if it doesn't officially exist. (Here's the link.)

Well, unlike the other post (sorry 559) I have something prepared for this occasion. Um, only a handful of people may get this one, but what the hey. I'd like to dedicate this to the inspiration of 797:



;-)

SCP-797 is a year old. Enjoy.

To SCP-559...

...Happy birthday! (Oh the irony, I'm wishing a birthday cake a late birthday.)

It's been a year since 559 went up. And it remains after the huge purge! Yes! Good to see it survived the wave of deletions (with a healthy rating, at that.) Well, hallelujah and お誕生日おめでとう!

Collective consciousness.

A magnificent concept, the idea of many units operating as one single entity. It would make such things as databases and computing much simpler, by splitting the load amongst the individual members of a collective consciousness.

Well, I might eventually make a post on this concept. But the main point of this particular rambling is to bring you akinator. A fantastic example of a collective consciousness.

It guesses any character you have in mind, given that you answer its questions truthfully. He'll guess within 20 questions any character, and if he's wrong, should you deign to give him chances, akinator will guess again within 30, then 40 questions. It's essentially a huge database of characters, questions and character traits, much like the old punchcard system for computers. A punchcard computer for akinator would probably be recognisable only as a sea of paper, given its sheer volume.

One thing in mind: it's frightfully accurate at guessing within 30 questions. 20 if the character is distinctive enough. If it can't get it within 30, it'll probably fail at 40, but its final trick is to pull a HUGE list of characters after getting it wrong the last time. Akinator is sneaky. Yet, even with its apparent psychic powers, it is amazingly fallible.

For the record, it guessed some (not so) obscure characters I pulled: Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Samurai Jack, Aku and Emiya Kiritsugu. For popular people and searches like Obama, Luffy, Kim Jong-Il and Nanoha, it'll usually get it within 20 questions, so forget beating akinator with those.

It does have its weaknesses. It took the whole 40 questions to guess Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. (WUT) V from V for Vendetta was initially thought to be Anonymous (HERESY) and even Archer from Fate/stay night was completely unguessable for it (WUT WUT WUT). In fact:
- Caster, Archer, Rider from F/sn it failed, yet it got Lancer, Hasan and Assassin also from F/sn.
- Ilya, Irisviel, Kotomine and Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero it got, but failed hard at Rider, Caster and Lancer from the same.
- Pulling out all the stops, I went for Miyu Edelfelt from Fate/kaleid liner (bloody obscure, and she only appears in that one series and its sequel.) As expected, akinator failed.
- Damn, turns out I'm a Fate (Nasuverse) fan. Damn.

The collective consciousness seems to like anime, though. Akinator got the characters Shana (Shakugan no Shana), Hayate, Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku!), Sanji, Luffy (One Piece!), and about half of the F/sn cast (aside from those mentioned, it took 2 guesses to get Kuzuki Souichirou). Admittedly I'm quite lousy when it comes to characters, but I'm sure someone else would be able to really put akinator through its paces.

Good luck stumping it!

Odds and ends.

Just finished Endless Eight. FINISHED. DONE.

For the uninitiated, Endless Eight is a reputedly very aggravating series of 8 episodes in the 2009 airing of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) that is essentially nothing other than a series of events repeated, with minor variations, 7 times. Well, I didn't read the light novel (not that volume, at least) so it's hard to say how less annoying it could have been.

It really wasn't that bad. As for those who watched it over eight weeks, it must've been a question of self-restraint to not hammer down the door of Kyoto Animation. What made it more bearable was:
- It was watched over a couple of days. Instead of 56.
- It was only 8 episodes. Instead of 15532 as they could have gleefully attempted.
- There were minor variations. The first and last episodes were different. The wardrobes changed each episode. And there were several different punchlines across the episodes.
- Bad press online prepped me for this set of episodes.

Well, goodbye, endless summer. At least this doesn't happen in real life... does it.


Next, some random complaints.

Haven't been able to slack off and play comp games as often as hoped. Reason being? Too damned lazy to. Yep, lazy. Hey, comp games need motivation, OK?



After all, faced with the alternative of sleeping, comp games can't hold a candle to my interests. It's much easier to do nothing than grind in comp games.


Another grouse. What the HELL kind of maths book that claims to prep people for maths competitions, has not one, not two, but three and probably more very serious typos. At that, it's preparation for British (my guess) maths competitions. No offence to anyone here, but I think that China and Russia are way ahead on this front. Even the SMO is harder than some of the questions in the book. After all, stuff like trigo formulae, identities and, heavens above, probability are already part of the normal syllabus in schools here.

The typos happen to be of the following sorts.
1. secx = 1/sinx. Seriously. Even another reference table printed in the same damn chapter contradicts this falsehood.
2. x + 1/x = 1, and the solution for this is phi (1.618yadda.) Pray tell how this equation has any real solutions. And earlier in the book, the inequality x + 1/x >= 2 for all real x was proven.
3. Factorisation of 120 (was it this number?) into 2 factors. 1x120, 2x60, 4x30, 5x24, 6x20, 8x15, 10x12 and their reverses, giving 14 ways as the answer to a question. Waitaminute, isn't 3x40 also a factorisation?

Before doing anything. DOUBLECHECK. Yeek.

On Language.

Language, a communication medium, a barrier and a bridge between people. Enlightening and masking at the same time, it divides the world into a those who understand each other and everyone else. Of course, these are entirely arbitrary groupings. Anyone could be in the first group; it just depends on who you pick to start with.

People complain about language. Whether it should be learnt by rote or roleplay, which and how many languages to teach in schools, the evolution of a language, the low standards of language in society.

By its very nature, language divides the world into small portions, setting up walls of incomprehension between different zones of the world, between different languages. One can run away from this fact; for instance, if one only knows English, one can take relief that English is a remarkably oft-spoken language in the world, and that major countries such as the U.S. have it as their main/working/official language. Online, too, there are pockets of communities of different tongues; one could live their whole life being a monolingual and not be any the worse for it.

All the same, multilingualism is an advantage. Just as language carves trenches between people, knowing more than one language bridges the chasms. It multiplies your realm of knowledge, pushes your horizons further, and opens up new experiences on Earth. It is entirely worth it to be versed in more than one tongue.

...even if it is hell to learn more than 2 languages.

One language? Better excel in it, or you'll have serious problems.
Two languages? Excelling in one, comprehending the other. That's the bare minimum of aptitude.
Three languages? Again, you'd better be great in at least one.

Language has 4 main aspects to it:
- Reading (to be literate. To understand printed material.) [passive, visual]
- Writing (to create printed works.) [active, visual]
- Listening (to understand the spoken word.) [passive, aural]
- Speaking (to be able to communicate verbally) [active, verbal]

To understand a language, one merely needs to be skilled in reading and listening (still no mean feat, though.) To truly know the language, one must also know how to speak the lingo and write up a storm. In other words, all 4 aspects.

Then there's the choice of which language to study. Personally:
- English (compulsory; besides, it's a useful language, both on the interwebs and in general.)
- Mandarin (compulsory (erk) but useful. Useful for work/future, and useful for...)
- Japanese (it was this or French. French may have been easier/better, but Japanese has upsides...)

Namely, ANIME AND MANGA. Reading and listening to Japanese is simpler than speaking and writing. Mandarin (Chinese) is also incredibly helpful in learning the characters, and comprehending them.

One last thing: 3 languages = reduced reliance on any one language as a source. For research, for example. For online games, as another example. As a third example, if a particular sub/scanlation isn't out in English, Chinese would be the second choice. If all else fails, raw Japanese. :--D


Learn languages. They are useful. Fun. Or rather, the things produced in that language are fun.

A vent.

Well. Seeing as this blog is dead, I'd like to keep it that way (less effort required to maintain.)

However, since the last 2 weeks (and this week) have been/will be an utter hell of events, let's take some time to vent our anger.

Firstly, there's a guitar concert coming up; 2 songs more to learn in a week's time. Dead.



Next, there is also a rather important Japanese exam coming up soon. That falls on 3 days. Non-consecutive. With the schedule juggled around 4 times already. That also counts for 100% of the whole year's marks. Crazy.



無限の～です！
はははハははハはははハハ！
Now if only I dared to write that in the paper itself...

Greatest apologies.

Great. Down with flu-like symptoms. This means my brain will overheat if I Project any more thoughts into this reality. The standard, or indeed presence of posts will be reduced or nullified, depending on the outcome of this skirmish between virus and medichine. (not a typo)

A huge apology to the Al-air battery group at school. 39.1C fever means I will be generating more sparks than the battery. On the other hand, if I did turn up, you could use the battery to prod me like Frankenstein's monster if I collapse.

On Intuition.

Events of the past few days have been somewhat central to my understanding of how things are supposed to work and why they never do. The problem lies not in the things about us, but hinge about the things in us. Quite specifically, a key problem is intuition.

Yes. Intuition and instinct, the non-rational (note: not irrational) component in us that is dismissed as a happenstance phenomenon by our logical minds. It stands to reason that what doesn't stand to reason stands to be reasoned to be a "Phenomenon" not worthy of great intellectual rigour, merely to be accepted as fact or fable, depending on what one wants to argue. What most rational beings fail to consider is that this component deserves not to be overlooked but to be looked upon, as a cornerstone of the foundation of the building of thought. Despite the apparent unreliability, inexplicability and ineffability of one's intuition, it fully demands that we tend to its offerings and act as per it.

Well, I'm not extolling on intuition's reliability, nor attempting to explain nor eff the inexplicably ineffable. Merely making an honest observation on how it affects life.

Firstly, the obvious use of intuition. To render luck in one's favour, maintain credence in a belief of luck. To do so, rely not on ruthless logic but on gut feel, and there will be the illusory feeling of luck at the very least. Intuition trumps logic the same way bicycles trump jet fighters: one of them is a hell lot more accessible and user-friendly. (For that matter, an extended analogy is Apple > Microsoft.)

Next, a less obvious apparition of intuition. Language. One learns languages from the ground up (no other groundbreaking approaches I've heard of, like starting with rhetoric and proceeding to grammar.) So we first become aware of the existence of the noun, the verb and the participle. Then we learn a whole new way of mixing them up, grammar. It's not "Book is a on shelf that" but "A book is on that shelf", although rules can be warped into other patterns, "like ancient tablets, on which inscribed are symbols, foreign to eyes of modern" but still perfectly grammatical.

The point being, that however odd or convoluted the grammar, the brevity or length of the word, as soon as one is accustomed to using it, there's no further need to acknowledge, consciously, the rules of language. One just surfaces the polished product at the end, having sent the package through a subconscious construction. The rules of language become embedded in an instinctive, intuitive layer of one's mind. When that occurs, it seems simplicity itself to use language, rather than struggle over conjugation, form and structure.

Yet, alas, few manage to perceive or even be aware of the third layer of intuition. Once applied, it saves time in life. Similar to language, the syntax of intuition can be deciphered. Repeated actions, repeated sights, repeated exposure can lead to imprints on the subconscious strata of the mind. Punch a wall repeatedly, and eventually you'll know the pain of the wall, not of your fist. See the patterns on a chessboard repeatedly, and you'll see how and why it works, despite the principles remaining murky. Stay in the winter's chill for weeks, and at the end lies not chill, but winter's warmth.

Application is far more difficult, of course. If your state of mind is right (if you feel that everything in the world on that day, is yours, will be yours) and the subject resonates to you, achieving that level of instinctive aptitude is a matter of days if not weeks, weeks if not months, months if not years. Observe and admire not the details but the feel of a subject, and accept it as your own.

This even works for maths. I don't know if this really works for anyone but me, but I like memorising/factorising car number plates. How? Don't remember 4-digit numbers (e.g. 6495 = sixthousandfourhundredninetyfive) but as a string of vowels, the feel of a number (... how to write this? Trying to explain, 495 is a 'dry' number, 64 a 'mellow' number and 95 a 'sticking-out' number, remember the feel of the groups. And no, I don't know why I assign those tags.)

Whatever it is, some people also have natural talent. Either in the form of genius (grasping immediately concepts far past their level, able to explain it out) or the unsung 'genius' (possibly negative - I know one who can, pretending or not, consistently pick out the worst chess move in critical situations. Failing that, generic bad moves.) Developing those should be easier than for others who have to discover their resonance.

Also, intuition only gets one so far. True mastery of anything takes many, MANY long hours of studying (in order to beat the crazy people who studied before them) and this is simply unavoidable, barring a deep innate talent for the subject. Generally, intuition can get one quickly to the standard of one who learns by rote, and possibly leapfrogging many who do not see the underlying concepts and structures of skills. Emulation, analysis, dissection into components... all aspects of this art of intuition.



Thinking of the blue radiance,
Gently illuminating true wisdom,
Lighting the path to the faceted jewel,
The centre of understanding this dream.
Fear not the light, fear not the dark.
Dream of the knowledge that neither imparts.

Darkness rend thy soul of horror.

Wonder at life, the two-sided coin,
Marvel at hate, the jack of scorn.
Admire the dark, the balance to light,
Witness the dark, that lays in thine soul.
Fear not the darkness, for it is thy friend,
Shun not the evil that lays in thy heart.
Display outward virtue, blaspheme against truth,
Redemption of falsities, deep in the future lies.

Have you
Ever known
A second side to your heart?
That queries
And questions
Every step your conscience takes?
Conscience and morals
Have their antitheses:
Let not they fester, but fuel them to tempest.

A masque for thy true face.
A screen for thy heart.
A barrier for emotions.
A wall for thineself.
Board up the feelings that would otherwise ring true,
Lest they are broadcast and made known to those few.
Those same few that hunt you
And tell you "do good"
Those same few who tame you
To listen to their bid.
Hang all morality!
Cross all deception!
Unveil thy true self! O Servant of Heart!

Have you ever known a person who has a darkness in their heart? A weight that binds them down to hell, chaining them to their fate. Catalysts would be items, or events, or perhaps people; yet those who can quell these ebbs and pulses of the rush of evil: they are the ones who best balance their mental state. Even this comes at a price: A false persona is projected, empty and hollow, a mere husk to respond to the world. Behind the shell, the true self is collapsing, buried under the barrage of miasmic forces of rage. The conscience a mere weapon of light, hopelessly outmatched by the tide of evil.

And still unrent remain their souls, just lost forever in the void of abyssal hate. Nothing reaches them, touches them, moves them, saves them. The physical rejected, the transcendence of a great cost. And increasingly, they turn inwards, lost in their world, the eternal time-consuming task of reshaping their realm, a task so absorbing that one can only take it without a trace of joy. The darkness never wins, the soul never loses... nor sleeps.

Housed in its eternal orbit, the soul of the tormented flits about their astral scape, shying from the darkness at the border and the exclave of light just beyond. An abode of no escape and every door an entrance. A home where no man lives, at least lives like a man. And their body still fully flesh, in our corporeal world, interacting with none of the true intelligence, but an automaton-copy of the subject. This is their danger: There is no conscience, merely a Night Council of advisors, telling them what to do heedless of anything a real person would think.

There comes a point where one must ask: Is anyone truly like that?
And from shell to shell, husk to husk, I respond: Listen not to me, but to the counsel of your head. Detect you the Night Council, that tenuous link we share?
And scream in the knowledge of the Soul's true whereabouts.

F2P and P2P: Pros vs. Noobs... I mean cons.

Starting off with a quote from J.M. Pescado:
"Have you destroyed a paysite today?"
Less tactfully:
PAYSITES MUST BE DESTROYED!

That said, let's move on. Everyone knows that there are free to play MMOGs out there. Everyone also knows they make money out of "optional" payments for benefits in the game. Everyone also now knows that paysites must be destroyed. A few simple examples to be amusingly noted, of why certain Games Which Must Not be Named fall into the same category:



Game 1: "Flee" (not real name, which is ███████.)

• "A world three-times larger to explore!"
  • Oh yeah, like walking wasn't already so lag. 3 times the walking, 3 times the fail.
  
  
• "Nine more skills to train!"
• Can you say grindfest? How about Grindfest +9?

• "Over 100 more quests to complete!"
• Oh great. Now you're telling us that it's not just 3 times the walking, it's at least three times the purposeful walking.

All this win for a mere US$5.95. Yep, certainly buying that one. (If you did, don't kill me. If you don't know what this is about, you will not remember this. You WILL NOT REMEMBER.)



Game 2: [REDACTED] (Real name: █████/███ ███ ███.)

• Well, not much is said outright, but this is certainly the case:
• Pay and be able to effectively, "cheaply" upgrade items, essential for higher levels.
• Or don't pay and fork out a couple 10^x █████ to upgrade things just ONCE.
• Paying also nets you some fashion items (yippee) and random beneficial items to help you with one massive grindfest.
• You really want to work your way to max level ██ TWICE without paying real money? Because that's how the game works.

Well, that's 2 games I play. Or at least, don't pay for. Maybe I'll add more, maybe not. Just remember: Do your part, DESTROY ALL PAYSITES.

Power.

EDIT 1st August 2009 (Singapore time): ~Submitted for Foyle Young Poets of the Year award~

Mighty troops, march on to war,
Face your enemies on their homeground.
Fear nothing, announce your arrival,
Let them see your might a thousand miles away.

Fly your flags, beat the drums with vigour,
A terrible sight to see for your opponents.
March at day, cease not at night,
Let them hear your charge through the night and day.

Just imagine,
If you were
On the other side, would you
Not fear
The advance,
Of the rumoured forces-

-Storm your way towards your target,
Show no mercy, show no fear.

Charge on, Holy Forces!
Charge on, Mighty Forces!
Charge on, Deadly Forces!
Charge on, Holy Forces!

A countless host, in full reflective armour,
Sunlight thrashing on legions of soldiers.
Tall standards, relentless drum beats,
Shouting your cause to fame across the plains.

What if you were
The enemy,
Would you quake and tremble? what if
You knew
Of the troops,
Marching in to beat you-

-This is war, with only one outcome:
Strike with God's blessing and you will win.

Charge on, Holy Forces!
Charge on, Mighty Forces!
Charge on, Deadly Forces!
Charge on, Holy Forces!

Strike true, Holy Forces!
Strike hard, Blessed Forces!
Strike fear, Gallant Forces!
Charge on, Holy Forces!


This poem, inspired by and adapted slightly from Forces from the anime Berserk.
It's really a powerful song. Listen in awe, to Berserk's Forces. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkYYYew8CUI

On Music.

Music, yes. One of my lesser vices, if it truly deserves that title. If nothing else, the guitar lurking in my house is glaringly tempting to reach for in the middle of an important piece of work or study. Such inane devices as iPods and handphones are classed as "technology", and are hence deemed too complicated to turn on, let alone blast music on them.

Music can feed and awaken the soul. Particularly those that seem almost composed for that purpose. One of my favourites for entering a trance-like state where it seems that I'm far more relaxed than usual is Cloud Age Symphony; it's relaxing and not at all taxing on the brain.

Music can also enrage people. For example, most modern pop songs sound terrible to my ears. They sound worse when people try to sing off-key. They sound even more horrendous blasted across half an MRT carriage. And they sound downright [DATA EXPUNGED] when rammed unwillingly through everyone's ears via an "advanced" sound system at concerts. Ever wonder about those stampedes at pop concerts? My theory, they were all ignited by angry people trying to find rotten tomatoes (or just about anything) to jam the speakers with.

Being in a musical group, it's also hard to talk about music without talking about playing the same. CANON IN D! A spammable song that can go on for practically all of forever until baryons decay. Crazy songs like RV522 Concerto in A Minor (a minor? Which minor?) where finger incapacitation can be easily achieved by playing the solo at crotchet = 100+. Relaxing pieces like Radical Dreamers (Thanks Aza!) and Blue Bossa chords.

So I didn't really talk much, but this will have to do for a post. Just a random post to clear my systems.

UnEarth

Flame of ice, lamp of darkness,
Seas of gel, chains of silk,
Rolling, shifting, sands of hills.
Jagged, thorny, shafts of crowns.

Globulets of burning cold flaring in the dark,
Spores of electric mushrooms freezing in the frigid night.

Striders marching through the purple gel that is the ocean,
Ingesting algae through its feet, towering over the sea.

Slowly crawling creeping microscopic crabs,
Shifting the pale hills of sand one grain at a time.

Herds of titans, quadrupeds,
Pine trees sprouting, feeding on their backs.

Unearthly concepts, figures, sights and sounds,
Would arise from where else... but on an UnEarth?


Cookie if you know which Discovery Channel documentary some of these are on.

Genesis 1.1

Fractal he said, and there were 2.
And in these 2, the same they were.
The basics of art, the foundation of math.
Reflected in themselves were each other.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2uqngbt.jpg
A Sierpinski Triangle, green background.

http://i44.tinypic.com/20iw4xy.jpg
Same thing... but... BCG.

Mind you, this fractal is hand-drawn. A sixth-generation Sierpinski Triangle... goes to show how bored I am.

Personal information, and mind control.

A completely deceptive title. This is about my personal (non-personal) information and about mental control. If this were an English essay, it'd probably fall flat at the title.

Now. About me. I'm not sure. Seriously. Identity crisis is a little... maddening at times. I'm not bipolar, nor hallucinating, nor most other mental disorders. Online, my tone, identity and style of communication is completely different when in real life. A mere normal habit to cultivate, except that there's leakage both ways. Sometimes I write in real life with the sort of half-baked craziness online, and online I sometimes am a little more reserved than usual for that period.

Also, I have somewhat of a problem with mild mental failures. Self-diagnosed OCD, if you will, and a complex that leans preferentially toward unusual phraseology to discuss an otherwise elementary thesis. All things that make daily life... odd. Interesting. And mostly odd.

Mind control: Mind over matter. Mind has an unlimited control over your own self; you just have to subscribe to a reality you truly believe in and have its rules be imposed over "normal" physical rules. What is so normal about physics anyway? Also, one can exert a control over one's mind to clear thoughts out of it (a useful tool) and even tap into the domain of the subconscious to somewhat accurately predict events.

As a finisher, I think the world's on the brink of a major pandemic, and localised epidemics of more deadly diseases. The number of coughing people on public transport, I notice, has drastically increased, and it's only a matter of time before an incubating disease is released at large into the world. Don't take this as gospel or even a rumour; but it seems wholly possible.

The heck with cures and magical medicines,
The era of the virus may start at any time.
The danger's brewing, the germs are stewing,
The final tempo, the haste to man's last war.

HAPPY. NEW. YEAR.

(Not for those in timezones GMT -11:00 -- GMT -1:00... Yet.)

The new year descends in stages across the world,
The arrival of another subject of rhyme.
Yet what is this festival of new and old,
But an arbitrary marker of time?
It's been 364 days since January the second,
(365; 'twas a leap year last.)
But it's on this particular cosmological second
That we choose to be rid of the past.

The new year brings forth many interesting challenges
(Damn you, probability, don't get in my way)
Especially the one where it's last year's work
That I haven't yet finished today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!