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authorCase Duckworth2015-03-25 21:49:45 -0700
committerCase Duckworth2015-03-25 21:54:26 -0700
commitecda49e0b20ad3bd52449356dccf2f8095ecfb70 (patch)
tree4789dd035fa827edf280fd8234d014b171de1c38 /collage-instrument.txt
parentFix makefile re: RIVER crashing (diff)
downloadautocento-ecda49e0b20ad3bd52449356dccf2f8095ecfb70.tar.gz
autocento-ecda49e0b20ad3bd52449356dccf2f8095ecfb70.zip
Flatten directory structure
All content files (*.txt, *.html, *.river) are now in /.
I did this to simplify the compilation step, and to make
linking easier.  I'm still thinking about whether I should
move the contents of js/, img/, and lua/ into /, or into
an 'assets' folder of some sort.  We'll see.
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1---
2title: Instrumented
3id: collage-instrument
4subtitle: a collage
5genre: prose
6
7project:
8 title: Autocento of the breakfast table
9 class: autocento
10...
11
12[`tr`][] has been a part of the Unix toolset since the late 70s.
13Short for translate or transliterate, `tr` takes two strings as arguments, and replaces incidences of the first with the second while reading a byte stream.
14It also supports ranges of characters, in formats such as `A-Z` as well as the POSIX-compliant `[:alpha:]`.
15Although [`sed`][] has more options and features, for a quick search-and-replace, `tr` is more than sufficient.
16
17The [wind blows hard up here][]---far harder than anywhere else I've been.
18I wonder, at times, if it might [pick me up like an angel][] and carry me into the night.
19
20The secret to truly great [rolls is mayonnaise][].
21Although I have received looks of disgust at this assertion, I think the explanation is enough to expel doubt: mayonnaise includes the fat, cream and egg content rolls need to be any good, plus in mayonnaise they come premeasured and perfectly blended, which makes for incredibly easy and delicious rolls.
22After I explain myself, the looks of disgust usually remain.
23
24My mother used to make me mayonnaise rolls, and hers will always be the best.
25I had a teacher in college who explained xenophobia as "Mother's cooking is best."
26
27One of my favorite fictional theories is the [Shoe Event Horizon][], an economic truth which states that as a society progresses, shoe stores become more and more prevalent.
28The demand for shoes raises slowly, almost imperceptibly, causing shoe manufacturers to make more and cheaper shoes.
29This begins a vicious cycle during which more and more shoes are made, more and more cheaply, causing more shoes to be bought, and thus made, until finally the society reaches the Shoe Event Horizon.
30This is the point at which it becomes economically impossible for any stores but shoe stores to exist.
31After the economy collapses, the society's people invariably turn [into birds][], never to touch ground again.
32
33[`awk`][] is often used as a command-line stream-editing tool, but it is actually an entire interpreted language.
34It supports multiple variables and logical structuring, and has been the inspiration for [Perl][], which has largely replaced it.
35It was originally written in 1977, but over the years has evolved, with multiple implementations made for different uses.
36
37The best shoes I ever owned were Franco Fortinis, a brand I have yet to find anywhere else.
38Sometimes I wonder if I dreamed the shoes, like in stories where the protagonist buys a powerful object from a mysterious store and try to return it after it backfires in some tragic way, only to find the spot where the store stood is an empty lot, or worse, a [blank brick wall][].
39
40After having moved to Arizona, I fear I will forget what rain is like.
41I don't think it's sandbags falling on the body, and I believe it is cold.
42I think _Daredevil_, that piss of a film, has endeared itself to me forever with its depiction of rain.
43
44Recent studies have proven eyewitness testimony to be utterly unreliable.
45It turns out that memory is not a record set down on the tablet of the brain, but rather a series of impressions, emotions, and physical states that changes even with access.
46One of my students is having a hard time finding arguments in favor of the use of eyewitness testimony for a paper.
47This is how obvious the workings of memory are.
48
49And yet.
50[Without our memory we are nothing][].
51Memory is the tether to the floor of the ocean of our past, the ocean is our collective subconscious, which we float on, on the inner tube of individual perception, slathering on the suntan lotion of our prejudices, wearing the sunglasses of self-deception, all underneath the sun of technology.
52The seagulls of death circle slowly, calling to each other the call of their society, secret in its machinations.
53
54My father told me that once, when swimming, a rip tide pulled him far out to sea.
55He said it was impossible to tell until it was too late.
56The shore simply receded too slowly.
57He never told me how he made it back, but I imagine him, bearded, beached, coughing up saltwater: a new shipwrecked victim.
58
59[`grep`][] is a basic search tool for UNIX-based systems.
60It has a robust syntax, though I've had trouble remembering the regex nuances between it, `sed`'s, and `perl`'s.
61There is a POSIX standard, but no one follows standards.
62
63My mother loves Annie Dillard.
64She always talks about the praying mantis egg case scene: Dillard could never find a praying mantis egg case, until she finally saw one by accident.
65After that, she saw them everywhere.
66
67My mother showed me an egg case once.
68I haven't seen one since.
69
70My friend Steven has over three hundred pairs of shoes.
71He tells me his goal is eventually to obtain a calendar of shoes, and wear a different one each day of the year.
72He doesn't include the forty days of Lent, however.
73[He goes barefoot those forty days][].
74
75[`tr`]: http://man.cx/tr
76[`sed`]: http://man.cx/sed
77[wind blows hard up here]: cold-wind.html
78[pick me up like an angel]: lappel-du-vide.html
79[rolls is mayonnaise]: riptide_memory.html
80[Shoe Event Horizon]: http://www.voxday.blogspot.com/2015/02/mailvox-marxism-and-shoe-event-horizon.html
81[into birds]: statements-frag.html
82[`awk`]: http://man.cx/awk
83[Perl]: http://www.perl.org/
84[blank brick wall]: building.html
85[Without our memory we are nothing]: early.html
86[`grep`]: http://man.cx/grep
87[He goes barefoot those forty days]: leg.html