The Beginning

A beginning is a very delicate time.

Or so spake Princess Irulan from 1984’s Dune. It’s one of those fun statements that’s both profoundly true and demonstrably false depending upon circumstances (bringing to mind Malaclypse the Younger’s quote, All things are true, even false things). It’s frequently said that a first impression can never be unmade, but yet when does a band make sound checks?

This post is intended to be more of the blogging equivalent of a sound check than anything else; the next post here will hopefully give a better taste of what this blog will be about. Since this is my personal blog I’ll occasionally be posting on various things that catch my fancy, but it’ll still mostly focus on computers and (especially) software. This post I’m using primarily as a testbed to try out various software and play around with layouts.

I’m currently expecting to post more or less fortnightly, but that is bound to change with real-world schedules.

The next section can be completely ignored. It’s some traditional dummy text in Latin used to fill space in documents for purposes of typesetting and layout. I’m using it not only for the latter purpose but also some XHTML/CSS coding tests as well...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Of course, even though it’s basically Latin, it’s also semi-nonsense as it’s a bad chop & combo job on a couple of paragraphs from Cicero’s de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (which translates roughly to the “Extremes of Good and Evil”). The original paragraphs are as follows:

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.

Translating the first paragraph into Esperanto (to both add length for this layout tweaking exercise and check on Unicode support) we have:

Sed mi klarigas vin kiel ĉio tiu ĉi erara ideo pri plezuro denunca kaj doloro laŭda naskiĝis kay mi donos vin raporto kompleta de la sistemo, kay prezentas la efektivaj instruaĵoj de la esploristo granda de la vero, la konstruistestro de homa feliĉeco. Ja, neniu evitas plezuron mem, ĉar ĝi estas plezuro, sed ĉar oni kiu ne scias kiel postkuri racie plezuro renkontus sekvojn doloregajn. Krome neniu amas aŭ postkuras doloron mem, ĉar ĝi estas doloro, sed ĉar de tempo al tempo incidentoj de laboro kay doloro havigas al si iom plezurega. Ja, por malgranda ekzemplo, kiu de ni entreprenas ekzercon fizika peniga, krom gajni ia supereco konsekvenca? Kiu havas ia pravigon trovi kulpo kun homo kiu elektas ĝui plezuron kun ne ĝena konsekvencoj, aŭ oni kiu evitas doloron kun ne plezuro rezulta?

Of course, I don’t claim to know any Latin at all and my Esperanto is by no means the best in the world. I’m sure I’ll find any comments or corrections from folks with more Latin and/or Esperanto experience educational.