DAY TWO: ComputoReviso

As explained yesterday, Apple replaced my defective 14 month old MacBookPro with a brand new, top of the line, machine. It arrived yesterday and during my non-working hours I am teaching it to dance, sing, and think. In most ways one can sense it is very similar to my old machine (which must be sent back to Apple in 29 days or else one of my credit cards takes a humongous hit) so while it's exciting to have brand new machine (fresh off the assembly line in Shanghai) there isn't quite the same rush you get when you unbox a toy that's stuffed full-up with new geegaws, flashies, and thunder thingees.

This is NOT a complaint. The thing is faster (2.16 to 2.4), it's got a bigger hard drive(120G to 160G), and twice the RAM (1Gig to 2 Gig). The old machine's memory maxed out at 2gig, this one will accept up to 4, and given my graphic needs, this should also reduce rendering time. While the improvements are marginal, they're nice. Oh yeah, it also comes with Mac's new OS: Leopard. What's most important is that I shall be able to trust that the disk drive won't go defective losing everything on it and necessitating yet another trip to Macintosh and the time it takes to rebuild everything.

Of course that's what I am doing now, rebuilding the new laptop from the old. Which consumed last night and will probably consume tonight. It also means that I'll probably need to buy a book on Leopard since no manuals come with op systems today. And that means yet an additional learning curve.

Hope to be back uploading images tomorrow, but I'm a tad worried that life is intruding on my photography. Darn. Stop back for the latest news.... K?

Slip Together

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Can a skeptic savor a dream?
Can a disciple scrutinize one?

Fountain Of Thought

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Nine Disputable Facts Of Life

As a writer, I keep note of things that occur to me in discussions, when I’m reading, or when I’m just sitting and contemplating a fountain like this in the gardens of the Vlla D’Este (which I discussed yesterday). Looking at my notes, I found that I mulled over three-quarters of a dozen that trundled through my mind like those melodies which you just can’t stop humming.

So okay, let me get them out of my head and into yours. I have no idea whether they are right or wrong, good or bad – and I cannot promise they are all that original, but I hope you’ll agree, they each seem worth kicking about to see if anything worthwhile scurries out from under, eh?

1. Happiness cannot be caught by pursuing it.
2. Rights are not requirements.
3. In fact most rights are often more demanded than needed.
4. You can never be offended against your will.
5. No faith is reasonable, all faith is passionate.
6. Defining poverty as a virtue therefore makes wealth a vice.
7. Almost any act, no mater how dreadful, can be explained away by appealing to its consequences.
8. Before the nuclear missile we could wait for reason to catch up with passion.
9. Parenting and breeding are different things. One of them is hard.

Chilly?

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Beyond Rome in the hill town of Tivoli sits the Villa D’Este built by the Cardinal Ilppolito il d’Este in the mid 1500s. Travertine marble comes from Tivoli’s hills, its abundant tumbling water supplies some of Rome’s electricity. Tivoli's slopes are covered with olive orchards,vineyards and gardens.Some fine papers are manufactured there.

Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), was the son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia and grandson (!) of Pope Alexander VI. He was appointed Governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III. The villa's known for its opulently restored splendor and particularly for majestic gardens resplendent with enormous fountains that are entirely powered by natural water flows (no pumps). They are both an artistic and engineering amazement. Cardinals, unlike many hundreds of the priests who they ruled, quite apparently failed to take a vow of poverty, eh?

A central fountain (Of the Great Cup) has water issuing from a seemingly natural rock into a scrolling shell-like cup. Sadly the lighting was so awful in the mid afternoon of a searing day that there was no interesting way to picture the fountains. But the internet’s replete with photographic tours through the villa and its gardens.

Frankly though, it was the details of the place which flaunted the lavish wealth of the Cardinal/Prince of the Roman Church. Look at this one travertine detail on the fountain executed by the incomparable Bernini. See how the face looks more like an illustration from a modern comic book than a medieval hero? Look at the eyes and the very real expression. There’s nothing calm or idyllic – this guy is worried and I think damned chilly standing all those centuries naked in the water-logged air.