Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

Up early; chewed mail, off to Millbank.
Tried to fix up CORBA Policy problem thrown up by a change in a default inside ORBit. Started making an evolution import filter from my procmail hacks.
Arrived rather too early at the Tate, sat around and chatted to some Swedish lady artist. Finally the lady arrived, looking demure: lots of lovely pinky, reddy, floraly crinkly stuff.
We wandered round the exhibition ( apparently the largest of Blake ever collected ), lots of strange dodgyness in his art, his pantheon of created creatures was most strange.
'The Tiger' ( of burning bright fame ) turned out to be available in several versions, all extremely small, and the tigers rather anaemic.
Hard to focus on the art with a rather more exquisite specimin nearby. Liked the illustrations of some of Dante's work also, a rather good scene of the crucifixion from behind only seeing the reflected glory in peoples faces.
Suddenly realized it was nearly 2.00, the 1/2 hour lunch break having gained a rather sumptious extra hour, Julia had to hurry back.
Having frowned upon 'petting' in public ( esp. railway stations ) in the past, rather changed my tune ( parting on a tube needs more thought ).
Sandwich on the train and more hacking.
Got together a new Bonobo release - 0.32, wait for the paper bag errors to start rolling in.
Implemented the gb Environ and Environ$ functions for Scott Blomfield. Committed Matthew's Screen object code. Discovered a nasty bug in gnome-print's font listing code. Fired off Bonobo release notes. Got another gb patch from William - today is gb patch day it seems.
Providentialy Ben was ill so I didn't go out for dinner / drinks with him and could thus field several super embarassing problems in the latest bonobo release.
Found a most excellent poem at the back of a book Julia let me have "God's Chosen Fast" [ NB. not hasty, not eating ] by Arthur Wallis:
They Fasted
On Sinai's mount, with radiant face,
To intercede for heaven's grace
Upon a stubborn wayward race,
He fasted.

Once lifted from the miry clay,
When opposition came his way
This soldier-king would often pray
With fasting

A seer, possessed of vision keen,
Who told the troubled king his dream,
Had light on God's prophetic scheme
Through fasting.

The prophetess in temple court
Beheld the Babe the two had brought;
For Him she long had prayed and sought,
With fasting.

He came to break the yoke of sin,
But ere His mission could begin
He met the foe and conquered him
While fasting.

'Set these apart', the Spirit bade.
A spring, that soon vast rivers made,
Broke ope by men who as they prayed
Were fasting.

So shall they fast when I am gone';
Was this no word to act upon ?
Ask countless saints who fought and won
With fasting.

When we shall stand on that great day
And give account, what shall we say,
If He should ask us, 'Did you pray -
With fasting?'

My content in this blog and associated images / data under images/ and data/ directories are (usually) created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0 license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes / improvements / corrections by private mail.

In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE, Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International), or anyone else. It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy. Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences or fun.

Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

2001-01-18: Thursday

They Fasted