Source: Eddy Van 3000. License: CC share-alike, attribute

Just look for a bit. I'll be quiet.

I came across the morpho butterfly in a book awhile back, but forgot the name. To my delight, I saw this picture today on Flickr while hunting for something else, and finally got to see a much bigger picture than the one in the book.

That blue is not merely "intense". Tiny scales on the wing actually bounce the lightwaves around to heighten the color. As the current Wikipedia article explains:

These colors are not a result of pigmentation but are an example of iridescence: the extremely fine lamellated scales covering the Morpho's wings reflect incident light repeatedly at successive layers, leading to interference effects that depend on both wavelength and angle of incidence/observance.

There's a diagram that might make that a bit clearer. Basically, when light hits you or me, what doesn't get absorbed simply bounces off our skin and goes its merry way. But when lights hits these scales, it cascades into multiple layers of reflections. Some waves bounce off the highest scales, some off the lowest, and some off those in between. Almost all of these reflected waves cancel each other out. But the scales are perfectly spaced so that these particular shades of blue bounce back in phase--and we see a brilliance that, unless I'm mistaken, isn't possible with normal pigments.

To top all this off, the underside of the wings is brown. So one moment you think you're looking at a moth, and the next moment, an open butterfly flashes a blue that would vanish if its scales were a few more nanometers apart. (In fact, the scales are even based in melanin, to absorb the other colors.)

The description was fascinating, the picture is gorgeous, and now I can't wait to see one in flight.

Do you ever think of places on the Internet as places? I never thought about it much before, but if this is my "home" site, where's the den?

Like everyone else on the Internet, I'm still trying to figure out at least a little of what we're all doing here. I enjoy having my own little site, but I'd be hard pressed to summarize the thing for you. Every so often, I get frustrated with my current structure, rip it apart, gather up the broken pages, clean them up, bind them to their own lost links out in hyperspace, and try something new.

Blog: Feed the Monster

Until recently, I thought of this place as a blog. For many years, I attempted to keep a blog, but a blog is all about quick posts that must be deep frozen in their particular bracket of the space-time continuum, preferably sized to the minute. You aren't even supposed to edit them, really, without using delete tags. Nor are you encouraged to add second or third thoughts--why would you? On the off chance that someone will wander through your archives, rereading old blogs for old times' sake?

Sure, decent software bubbles updated blogs to the top, but readers still have to scroll through your old stuff, and by the time you're scrolling through a blog, you're violating the medium.

In short, a blog really is a 'blog--a web log. A log. You do not playfully tweak a ship's log. You do not go back and revise the CHANGELOG if you think Version 0.05 got insufficient attention. You work on the current version.

Logs make perfect sense for certain projects, like sailing a ship. But I'm not sure they work for me here.

• Time is the focus. You haven't updated your blog!
• Which, looked at backwards, means: If there's nothing new, the old stuff is boring/outdated/consumed.

I'm not the first person to notice that this dynamic easily leads to frequent posts that consist of nothing but keyword-laden links to similar keyword-laden links. C. S. Lewis could easily base a rewrite of The Great Divorce in such a hell.

Not that I mean to trash a good blog. If it works for you, great.

Wiki: Group thought

In stark contrast to the blog stands the wiki. The wiki is concept-centered. You don't link to /2003/03/8/35/59/52/elephants, you link to /elephants. If you have a second thought, you edit the wiki. No one cares.

After years of blogging, discovering the wiki was a draught of champagne. I wandered around the original wiki, and kept thinking, They can start a page about whatever they want. It doesn't have to go into a category. And you can link to it without remembering the exact day you started it. And you're encouraged to edit it whenever you want.

I suppose I could call this den a "personal wiki", but I'd rather not. An essential aspect of the wiki seems to be the group effort. Anyone can edit anything. The more you think about that, the more amazing it gets--until you start reading about, say, the medieval intellectual world, not to mention most tribal cultures. Then we're the ones that start to look odd. Anyhow, odd or not, since I'm the one writing all this, wiki doesn't seem quite right.

The Den: No Pressure

I'm also happy to call this a den because it reminds me that I've finally moved all this away from my front door, and I can relax a bit. Although I've had a separate professional site for years, this is still my main email address, and I still expect editors and other formal visits from time to time. From the beginning, I've had a not-so-creative tension about this place: can I relax and just talk, or need everything need be polished and publishable? The result can be a bit tense and cheery and didactic, like a permanent phone call with a new client.

Yes, life is too short for any of us to be slovenly. But it's also too short to agonize and polish and repolish a piece that's meant more as a conversation. One could argue that we'd both be better off if I shut up and we went to our separate copies of Shakespeare, but if there is a value in this ephemeral sort of conversation, and I think there is, one has to feel free to chat and be done with it, even if one is also labouring mightily to craft more permanent work. We writers don't fret over our face-to-face conversations that aren't worth publishing.

Since I'm not trying to sell anything (except my own books, I suppose), nor hijack the blogosphere, I would like you and me to understand that this is my den, it's where I hang out and shuffle papers and thumb through books and talk to a friend. It's not a chat room or forum, of course, since it's usually just me, but on the other hand, the online journal or diary metaphor doesn't make much sense either. I'm not alone, I'm talking to you, and hoping you'll talk back.

Besides, I do have a journal, and I don't have any intention of tossing it into the Internet. Online journals actually rather frighten me. This is the Internet--everything is in public. I've moved this den away from the front door, but it's not hidden, merely discreet.

Anyhow, there's a long explanation of a short word. Welcome.

An overview of Markdown syntax, refactored from http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#html.

Markdown is a minimal syntax set, designed to make it easy to write and edit your prose. You can use HTML tags whenever you need to.

Markdown syntax cannot be used within block-level HTML.

Span-level HTML tags -- e.g. <span>, <cite>, or <del> -- can be used anywhere in a Markdown paragraph, list item, or header.

Overview

More examples

> This is a blockquote with one paragraph. Each line begins
> with an arrow.

> Another blockquote, but only one arrow at the beginning.
Don't actually need more.

> This is the first level of quoting.
>
> > This is a nested blockquote.
> 
> Back to the first level.

* An unordered list
+ With mismatching bullets
- Still works

1. An ordered list
23. Just needs to begin with 1.

This is [an example](http://example.com/ "Title") inline link.
[This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
See my [About](/about/) page for a relative path.

[An example][id] reference-style link.
[An example] [id] reference-style link with a space.
[An example][] reference-style link, with an implied id of "An example".

Reference links require link definitions, which can take several forms:

[id]: http://example.com/  "Optional Title Here"
[id]: http://example.com/  'Optional Title Here'
[id]: http://example.com/  (Optional Title Here)
[id]: <http://example.com/>  "Optional Title Here"
[id]: http://example.com/longish/path/to/resource/here
    "Optional Title Here"

Reference links are case-insensitive.

Image links:

![Alt text, inline](/path/to/img.jpg)
![Alt text, inline](/path/to/img.jpg "Optional title")

![Alt text, reference-style][id]
[id]: url/to/image  "Optional title attribute"

Additional notes

Lists

Separate list items with blank lines if you want each item to be enclosed in a <p> tag.

List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent paragraph in a list item must be indented by either 4 spaces or one tab.

To avoid an accidental list by a number at the start of a line, you can backslash-escape the period:

1986\. What a great season.

Blockquotes

A Markdown "indent" is 4 spaces or one tab.

To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote's > delimiters need to be indented.

Code blocks

To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.

To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs to be indented twice -- 8 spaces or two tabs.

Special characters

Use a backslash to escape:

    \   backslash
    `   backtick
    *   asterisk
    _   underscore
    {}  curly braces
    []  square brackets
    ()  parentheses
    #   hash mark
    +   plus sign
    -   minus sign (hyphen)
    .   dot
    !   exclamation mark

You'll also want to read the original, full Markdown syntax here.

On this site, I'm actually using pymarkdown, a pyblosxom plugin.

Here's another python implementation of Markdown. This is exciting because you can use extensions.

You can convert Markdown to formats besides HTML with other programs. Like Pandoc.

Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line tool that uses this library. It can read markdown and (subsets of) reStructuredText, HTML, and LaTeX, and it can write markdown, reStructuredText, HTML, LaTeX, ConTeXt, RTF, DocBook XML, groff man, and S5 HTML slide shows.

I haven't tried Pandoc yet, but since I went to the trouble to install Haskell to get it working, I thought I'd mention it. :)

Resumé

You know what you want to say. Let's say it. I will write, edit, proofread, lay out, typeset, illustrate, design a web site. Whatever it takes.

My full resumé is available at my company web site, Wineskin Media.

About Bill Powell (me)

Hi.

I write, and I'm alive. Wherever I go, whoever I meet, I find we usually have at least one of those in common. I do like to check.

This site is primarily my den, which was formerly known as my blog, Adventures of an Ex-Suburbanite, until I gave up trying to name it something other than the web site, Bill Powell Is Alive. For years I've let this email address amuse and bewilder hapless data entry folk, but it's time I explained that the site name is a reference, perhaps oblique, to Chesterton's Manalive, which is one of my favorite books. In fact, maybe you should just go read it right now, or at least my sample typeset chapter. Or find out how I made it into a game.

I have also given up pretending I really qualify as an ex-suburbanite. Not yet. But you can still read about my adventures in land hunting, organic farming, and permaculture under quest. Oh, and then there's that home birth or two under family.

If you prefer not to think about chickens as cannibals or what it's like to actually use your pocketknife, fear not, fellow sedentary friend. A casual perusal of the categories at right demonstrates the true proportion of outdoor adventuring on this site.

For instance, my last few years have been rather disproportionately occupied with GNU/Linux. You wouldn't guess it from the volume of posts, but that's because it's more fun to play with Linux. Or fight with it.

I've also posted a fair bit of my writing here (especially at the portfolio), but most of my current stuff is still offline while I send it to market. In fact, I originally conceived of this as my work/personal site, but that little slash turns out to cover rather an abyss. If you're interested in professional typesetting, layout, and graphic design services, please consider Wineskin Media for your next click.

And if you don't find enough around here on Distributism and other social justice topics, you might enjoy my new free ezine:

And if you're tired of the Internet's collective posturing at veracity, perhaps you'd enjoy a bit of open satire:

Wherever you go next (here!), I hope you have a lovely day.

And if you have any questions, comments, or uproarious tales of derring-do, please let me know.

Portfolio

Layout and Typesetting

For samples of my layout, design, and typesetting work, please see my portfolio at Wineskin Media. You’ll find book covers, typeset book pages, and links to web sites I've designed.

Art

On this site, you can see several children’s illustrations which appeared in workbooks by Seton Press.

Writing

Understandably, I can’t put all my work online. Upon request, I’ll be happy to send you private copies of the following pieces:

• Is There a Hobo in Your Attic? (Bibliophilos Magazine).
• The Case of the Missing Binoculars (Reading-Thinking Skills 6, Seton Press)

Nevertheless, while almost everything on this site is my own work, here are a few of my polished pieces:

Reviews and Criticism

The Complicity of Jobs
By limiting ourselves to scientific language, scientific reasons to save the planet, we destroy the concept of reverence for nature. White explicitly hearkens back to religious traditions, Christian dogma, even Thomas Aquinas, finding there a reverence for what is that’s missing today as much from the Sierra Club as from Silicon Valley. So what can we do? Wrong question. What are we doing?

An apple for Ms. Cavatica?
Seen in this light, the story features a rather narcissistic but mysteriously adorable young child whose only friends, really, are his teacher and her descendants (replenished yearly). All his love, respect, and devotion are for the Cavatica clan alone.

Essays

Whose Bod Is It Anyway?
On the other hand, maybe I thought also of my wife. She gives up her body for our daughter. Pregancy, birth, nursing plenty of joys, but also plenty of pain and aggravation. And plenty of time.

Procreation: The Neglected Superpower
You’re not listening. I told you. My wife and I can make new people.

I’m hatin’ it!
On one side of the billboard, occupying literally half the billboard, is a giant Egg OMuffin. Again, Im veiling the actual name of this product, but to help you visualize it Ill say that it apparently consists of two muffins, lightly toasted, each about twenty feet wide.

Hannity: Critique Not, Lest Ye Be Critiqued
Suppose I said I was Muslim. We progressive Muslims, I might say, actually reverence Jesus more than we do Muhammad. Further, we have a special veneration for St. Thomas Aquinas. And we’re encouraged to go to Confession at least once a month. To a Catholic priest. Now, in proposing these fascinating ideas, I might be right or I might be wrong. But would I be Muslim? A progressive Muslim? Any kind of Muslim?

Christ in the Utility Closet
And countless choirs of angels would appear, not to the Pope, or even to the local bishop, but to a few greasy oil-change mechanics in their shop, just finishing up on an old station wagon

Satire

Annual convocation of hypocrites opens
Kindred spirits find support, hypocrisy at Annual Convocation of Hypocrites

Vitamin C now requires a prescription
“And that includes those risky oranges,” explain anonymous doctors

Online dating now officially safe
Would-be murderers can’t bear to click, “I’m good”

The Milwaukee First Church of Mammon
Find fellowship on the path to True Wealth

Television fundraiser ends in fistfight
Operators standing by flee in terror, laugh

Teens

Something To Talk About Besides Girls
Youll notice that Books werent high on our list. Theyre deep in Everything Else, somewhere between Sports and Toe Cheese. (Listen Magazine, 2004 October)

Children

Bill Powell on abcteach.com
With over eighty lessons on abcteach.com, and titles like How To Argue Without Cheating and Flory’s Gulp, how can you go wrong?

How To Talk To A Rock
Of course, if you tell everyone youre going to go talk to a rock, some folks will say things like, But rocks dont talk! or Are you feeling okay? or Rocks are only good for eating! Dont worry. Theyre wrong. Rocks can talk.

Phonics K Story Sentences
I want jam on my bread.
You want Jim on the bread?
No, I want jam.
Is it a ham you want?
Stop! I just want jam!
(Phonics K, Seton Press)

Scripts: Radio/TV

Preview for “Hotel Horror”
INT. HALLWAY, NEAR VENDING MACHINE
MEL gets a drink from machine. MARK stands there.
On drink is a paper reading, “Melchizidek, you are going to die.”
MARK: Must be some other Melchizidek.
(Produced 1999.)

One Foot Can Make A Difference
AGAPE: Whats the matter, buddy? You look sad.
STINKY: I always look sad.
AGAPE: Thats cause your face is drawn on.
(Finalist, 2001 Christopher Video Contest)

The Catholic Perspective
The only show that gives you the TRUE Catholic perspective on hot, contemporary issues from the afterlife to pattern baldness-and everything in between!
(Produced 2000.)

Rates

Please check out a full description of my rates and services over on my company web site, Wineskin Media.

Hello.

Breathe. You're alive.

Welcome.

• If this is your first time, you might want to know a bit about me before venturing into the labyrinth.
• If you're an editor, you may prefer to browse my more polished writing.
• If you want typesetting, editing, book covers, or web design, please see my company site.
• Old friend? Please, into my den.

...How and why do you display all this energy for clearing walls and climbing trees in our melancholy, but at least rational, suburbs?

The stranger, so far as so loud a person was capable of it, appeared to grow confidential.

Well, it's a trick of my own, he confessed candidly. I do it by having two legs.

Manalive

Why say hello?

Here follows the wisdom of sdcv, abridged and with emphasis added:

$ sdcv hello

-->Webster's 1913 Dictionary
-->Hello

(interj. & n.) See Halloo.

$ sdcv halloo

Found 2 items, similar to halloo.
-->WordNet
-->halloo

halloo
     n : a shout to attract attention; "he gave a great halloo but no
         one heard him"
     v 1: urge on with shouts; "halloo the dogs in a hunt"
     2: shout `halloo', as when greeting someone or attracting
        attention

-->Webster's 1913 Dictionary
-->Halloo

(n.) A loud exclamation; a call to invite attention or 
to incite a person or an animal; a shout.

Hello!   Halloo!    Hello!

• What's a den? What is this place?
• Where do I post my comment?
• Where's the site map?
• Hey! That old post isn't under the same date/tag anymore!
• Full FAQ