Programming Frosty Michigan Nights

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the [dark] streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…” -- Howl

I don't much remember being stuck in snow, it happened once or twice, but it has been calm.

I imagine Michigan's old winters used to be tough, it is always cold as heck.

But that is one thing about the world, it changes, no matter what.

We have thinking machines now, one day it was dumb to think it would come true.

And then we discovered something, that could copy and thrive on our collective intelligence.

I had a visitor to my website, who seemed to be really torn-up by stress.

Not just hos words, but thinking was gnarled.

He appeared to have been a programmer like me, but he does it for money, not exploration.

When I get desperate with code, I make great, healthy executive decisions.

But when the paid workers get stuck, they get desperate and tangled up.

Human beings are precious, we are not meant for boxes.

With cure for aging around the corner, we have to take better care of our selves.

But even if that was untrue, we’d still need to appreciate our days, and ourselves.

While I never allowed poverty to harm me, I worked long hours for many years to make my litter program.

And that would not be possible, without caring about myself.

Like young bodybuilders, it is too easy to think to ourselves, heavier weights mean more muscle.

But more work, does not mean a better life, it interferes with our creativity, and learning, and joy of life.

We are delicate, we are works of art, we are the opposite of machines.

As a programmer, I don’t actually just built cities with streets, but I also build the layers of skyscrapers too.

I start with a foundation of data trees, but then build on top a new notion, components connectors.

And on top of that I add data agents, and user interfaces.

Mine are cities left and right, and up and down.

Overwork would cause great damage to that, we must take good care of our minds.

We are adventurers, storytellers, creators, and dreamers and philosophers.

For all of that to take bloom, me must live in the center of ourselves; not pushed to some edge.

At the center, we love winter, despite it being cold, and, making everything else cold, yikes!

We wonder about frozen lakes, and just exactly how foolish... would it be to try to cross one.

And with one foot, firmly planted in adventure, we immediately want to read and listen to some books.

Where we simply begin teleporting all over time and space, and sometimes distant words, even.

We need to learn, and learn all the way, as it is dictated by our own inexhaustible curiosities.

Because we need to grow, and grow all the way up, until we each stand as a great being.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...

--- Henry Thoreau