Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
My palindrome post: 868.
A fathom (abbreviation: ftm) = 1.8288 meters, is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.
On a voyage to New Orleans down the Mississippi, steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby inspired Twain to become a pilot himself. A steamboat pilot needed to know the ever-changing river to be able to stop at the hundreds of ports and wood-lots. Twain studied 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Mississippi for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859. This occupation gave him his pen name, Mark Twain, from "mark twain," the cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms. (Wikipedia)
Today is my 50th birthday. I was born on a Tuesday, the day before a full moon.
So in celebration of living half a century in reasonably good health, I depart from physics ever so slightly. Mark Twain apparently loved science and technology, balancing friendships with both Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison (the AC/DC war rivals).
"My boy: you are a thinker," I recall my father saying to me. I do think on things deeply, and sometimes pour into paper/cyberspace what I don't think to say publicly or personally.
I am Ronin. I am also Giri. I say that with some sadness, chagrin, satisfaction, double entendre and satire. I do not say it, however with regrets.
Living half a century does give one the licence to look back on the achievements and mistakes of one's life, and consider the lessons learned.
Plus, as I age, I am using the licence to not care what others think about how I apply those lessons...
Vicomte de Valvert: Such arrogance, this scarecrow. Look at him! No ribbons, no lace, not even gloves!
Cyrano de Bergerac: True! I carry my adornments only on my soul, decked with deeds instead of ribbons. Manful in my good name, and crowned with the white plume of freedom.
"The soul that is within me, no man can degrade." Frederick Douglass
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