Inaugural Reflections

There is no fiercer hell than a great object unrealized.

— Keats

I suppose that's obvious to the point of cliché, isn't it?

Yet, it's not something you internalize until it happens to you, personally. Like learning for the first time you can bleed, or that you can break a bone. Or find yourself on an examination table watching your internal organs jiggle in a fluoroscope, laughing at your mortality - reminding you that, yes, you really are just another organism with limited time on this Earth.

Whoa!

Heavy thoughts for an inaugural note, I realize, but as the title implies, beginnings are a time to reflect on the past.

Lately, I've been going through racks and racks of slides - getting them into the scanner, preparatory to generating articles for Scribi. A set from Paris was particularly evocative - a momentary wave of vivid, fond reminiscence flooded my memory. Suddenly, I was there, again. I remembered every detail of the moments represented on those slides - where I was standing at Les Halles, the light breeze that brushed against my face, the scent of the lilacs between the trellises, the vision of Rose's animated face in the warm afternoon sunlight, the great edifice of St. Eustache in the background. I remembered what I said, what and where we ate afterward, how tired my legs were from the endless walking in this city made for walking.

Those slides were dated Fall, 1999. Five and a half years ago, as of this writing.

When I had those slides processed and filed into their archival sheets - waiting for the moment the great object should emerge - another vivid recollection surfaced: I had thought then, "Well, I should be able to get these things scanned and onto pages soon, now." Somewhere between that Paris trip and now, five and a half years went by. The slides weren't scanned and the pages didn't materialize.

Time passes.

A short bio on yours truly: I've been in and out of a lot of careers - locksmith, fork-lift operator, radio & disco deejay, (insert college degree here), geologist - the latest and longest as a software developer specializing in three-dimensional graphics. Mostly low-level stuff used in scientific representations. I've done work for the likes of NASA, Dassault Aerospace, Ciba Geigy, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. I've been a foot-soldier in the computer revolution, helping people solve real big-science-type problems.

That has been an enormously satisfying endeavor.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough brain cells to devote to more than one major endeavor, and software development has tied up all the ones I have. For quite a while. Time and circumstance have finally come around and allowed me to take a breather and get this site together - this other, "back-burnered great object" of sharing beauty and experience with my fellow passengers in life (that's you, dear reader). It's an endeavor that I am hoping will take me through my later years, and make them as fruitful and fascinating as those last 35 or so have been.

I hope you find these articles and images worthwhile.

1999.

Rick B.
Scribi