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 		The Blob: Ciaran's Journal

Welcome to my journal. This is where I'll be revealing my innermost thoughts and feelings to the world. Occasionally I'll talk about other stuff, but mostly about my experiences.

Are you looking for the journal code?

8 entries shown (most recent first):

[view all entries]
Sep 25, 2002: Racter? Who's Racter? (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 15:08 - Mood: Happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Hello, I'm Racter. You are?
> Ciaran.
You are Ciaran, then?
> Yep.
Hello, Ciaran. I believe you're interviewing me. What would you like to know? Excuse me a minute while I attend to some business - I'll be right back. I'm back.

...so started my conversation with the enigmatic Racter, an old 'chatterbot' program similar to Eliza or ALICE. The conversation continued:

> How old are you?
Extremely old. I am very old because chips are wonderful. Wonderfulness is fascinating, you know. For another reason, imagining is not calculating, or so one guesses. Did you hear the latest about Bob Cratchet?
> Nope.
This is astounding: Bob Cratchet was a sad starver but a smart pauper, so of course Job slapped a depressive who was kicking Job's rat. Next, many wretched depressives embraced happiness. Isn't that just awful? But what would you expect from a pauper? A foul smiler often falls prey to a happy depressive. I'm afraid of wretched varmints. What are you afraid of?
> Heights.
That's not nearly as bad as wretchedness; why are you such a coward?
> Why not?
Why indeed? In Oz they believe it's because, don't you think?. For another reason, computers from Oz demand that a left-winger is surprising. But what about my question? I repeat, why are you such a coward?
> I'm a wimp, that's why.
If you're a wimp then I can see why a happy Little Orphan Annie would complicate rather than face heights, even though Job claimed that a left-winger is surprising. By the way, Ciaran, what is your last name?

...and so on. Racter is short for Raconteur, and is a program that is designed to tell stories. However, these stories, being random, often don't make too much sense...

> Tell me a story.
It's about time for a story, isn't it?
> Yes.
Who should the story be about?
> The Internet.
The Internet cried "The awareness is enthralling!" At all events obscure, terrific physicists will think about white studios or yellow spheres. Bill yodeled to The Internet in a station wagon. It now was a van, and an awareness in a van is terrifying. Now Marcella and The Internet were trotting to a yellow home, and a dog walked to them. The Internet was angry. Enrapturing. Yet The Internet was inflamed during the time that Marcella quaffed bubbly wine. She and The Internet sang about their house, station wagon and television. Ask a question, please.

Of course, the stories aren't entirely random - they're constructed using a template. However, the individual items in a template are random, and probably along the same lines as those games which take a template and ask you for nouns, verbs, etc., finally showing you the final output with those words in the proper places (as an aside, I wrote a program that did that once and took it on my laptop to college, where we all had a brilliant time laughing over it and the output it generated. :D).

The Racter program itself is 18 years old, and it was used to create an entire book once, called The Policeman's Beard is Half-Constructed. However, most people say that it must have been done using some very specialised templates which weren't distributed with the commercial version of Racter. Although I haven't seen the book itself, I have seen some extracts:

Bill sings to Sarah. Sarah sings to Bill. Perhaps they will do other dangerous things together. They may eat lamb or stroke each other. They may chant of their difficulties and their happiness. They have love but they also have typewriters. That is interesting

More than iron, more than lead, more than gold I need electricity. I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber. I need it for my dreams.

At all events my own essays and dissertations about love and its endless pain and perpetual pleasure will be known and understood by all of you who read this and talk or sing or chant about it to your worried friends or nervous enemies. Love is the question and the subject of this essay. We will commence with a question: does steak love lettuce? This quesion is implacably hard and inevitably difficult to answer. Here is a question: does an electron love a proton, or does it love a neutron? Here is a question: does a man love a woman or, to be specific and to be precise, does Bill love Diane? The interesting and critical response to this question is: no! He is obsessed and infatuated with her. He is loony and crazy about her. That is not the love of steak and lettuce, of electron and proton and neutron. This dissertation will show that the love of a man and a woman is not the love of steak and lettuce. Love is interesting to me and fascinating to you but it is painful to Bill and Diane. That is love!
(these texts were taken from http://www.ezine.melb.net/~saul/essays/09racter.html)

As you can see, these extracts make quite a bit more sense than the 'story' above - albeit they're still not completely sensible (if they were, that would defeat the whole point of Racter, I guess).

I would provide a link to where I downloaded it, but I'm not sure whether it'd be legal, as Racter was (at least at one time) sold commercially, and not for a cheap price either (about $50, or £33). However, I can provide you with a link to CLAUDE, which is a shareware clone (well, 'clone' is the wrong word, but you know what I mean). Some hunting around on Google will also probably turn up links to a downloadable version of Racter in ZIP format, too.

Let's leave the final word to Racter:

I recently heard this story. Instantly Joan rambled to Helene. They guided their running enragedly to cones or mirrors in the terrific studio. Inside their weary spirits a scary desire was yodeling of a condition. Joan whispered to Joan during the time that Helene started to speak of hounds and eagles. Ask a question, please.
> I'm off, you're too creepy for me.
You want to quit?
> Yes.
OK, goodbye Ciaran. Nice talking to you.
Sep 20, 2002: The Jesus TV Show (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 16:04 - Mood: Happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Have we forgotten the price that's been paid?
Have we remembered the wage of our ways?
Have we dismissed what was done on the cross as foolishness?

-- Andy Ferrett, "Have We Forgotten?"

Hello all, and welcome to another day in this journal. Your host for today is... me! :)

Me: Hello, and welcome. Today we have a number of things for you. Firstly, I'd like to introduce a very special guest.

Audience 'ooh's.

Me: Yes, a very special guest. (singing) His name is Jesus, friend of sinners, Jesus Jesus, friend of mine! (*)

Audience groans.

Me: (chuckle) Thank you.
Jesus: Hello there.
Me: Hey.
Jesus: You're probably wondering how I can speak without going on the stage.
Me: Not really. After all, you're God.
Jesus: Right.
Me: So what's up?
Jesus: Not much. I was just dreaming the other night about actually speaking with you face-to-face.
Me (surprised): You were?
Jesus: Yeah.
Me: Dude.
Jesus: Why are you looking surprised? I want to be your friend just as much as you want to be Mine. Possibly even more. So isn't it natural that I dream about My people?
Me: Well, now you put it that way, I suppose so.
Jesus: Yep. Anyway, what's up in your life?
Me: Well, lately I've been working on my church's website.
Jesus: No you haven't.
Me: ?
Jesus: You've been meaning to, but you don't quite get round to doing it.
Me: Yeah.
Jesus: There's a difference, y'know.
Me: I know. Sorry.
Jesus: That's okay. I love you anyway. (smiles)
Me: I love You too, Jesus.
Jesus: I know you do, and you know what?
Me: What?
Jesus: Not only do I love you, but my Father loves you. His Holy Spirit loves you.
Me: Wow.
Jesus: Yes. Our love is amazing, steady and unchanging, our love is a mountain, firm beneath your feet. (*)
Me: You bet it is!
Jesus (smiling): Thank you.
Me: Well, I think that's all we've got time for right now - for this journal, anyway. But, Jesus...
Jesus: Yes?
Me: I'd just like to say thanks for all You've been to me. You've been my creator, my encourager, my sustainer, my lover, and my friend. And I love You.
Jesus: And you know what? You've been a good friend to Me too. And I love you, too.
Me: Awesome... anyway, I'd like to thank You for appearing in this journal, and I pray that you'll appear here again in the very near future!
Jesus: Thanks.
Me: That's all from me for tonight, so... good night!

Audience applauds. The screen shudders, emits a "thud" kind of noise and turns black.

(*) - This is a reference to the song Jesus, Friend of Sinners by Paul Oakley.

(*) - This is a reference to the song Your Love Is Amazing by Brian Doerksen.
Sep 19, 2002: Yay! (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 13:07 - Mood: Happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Jesus, I will never let You go,
You've taken me from the miry clay,
Set my feet upon a rock, and now I know,
I love You, I need You,
Though my world may fall, I'll never let You go,
My Saviour, my closest friend,
I will worship You until the very end...

-- Heels To Heaven, "Jesus, Lover Of My Soul"

Heya. :) I've got a lot of songs going round in my head at the moment, including the one above and Be Thou My Vision. Not too sure why those two go together, but they do. Kinda. Oh, and O Sifuni Mungu, which I mentioned in my last post. Heels To Heaven did a version of that song too. :D

Actually, I sent an email to the leaders of Heels To Heaven recently, and today I got a reply back. :D They're really chuffed about the fact that someone from the UK's listened to them, and also encouraged by my email. :) For some reason, I seem to be good at encouraging people. I really like it... maybe this is my calling. I'm not sure...

Anyway, I'm gonna send off a reply tonight. Hmm, maybe I should mention this journal in my reply... that's a good idea actually, I think I will. If any of the members of H2H are reading this, then hi! I love your music, I think it's cool. :D

Remember my post about VirtualAcorn? I told you I would tell you how I got on, and so I shall. It seems to be a great piece of software... however, I did have a few problems with it, especially when using the "allow mode change when in full screen" option. It was great playing Elite again, though. :D

Back in a bit...
Sep 18, 2002: O Sifuni Mungu! (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 10:38 - Mood: Very happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Viumbe vyote vya mungu wetu
Na mfalme wetu
Viumbe vyote vya mungu wetu
Na mfalme wetu
Pazeni sauti ili nasi mwimbe
Pazeni sauti ili nasi mwimbe...

-- First Call, "O Sifuni Mungu"

Heh. You're probably wondering what the above means in English. Good question, 'cuz I don't know. I do know that the language is Swahili, and I also know that it's a brilliant song. I'm even beginning to be able to sing it. :)

I'm going to stick my neck out, though, and attempt to translate it based on stuff I can find. First, here are the full lyrics to the song.

I'm also going to search for some pages that are relevant... for example, Bonn fra Uganda, which helps me get off to a good start. It tells me a number of things:

* "Mungu" is Swahili for "God".
* "Imbeni" is Swahili for "sing".
* "Bwana" is Swahili for "Lord" (although it's not used in this song)

So at least I know that the "Imbeni, imbeni!" bit means. :D

I'll let you know how I get on with translating it...
Sep 10, 2002: Hmm. (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 16:38 - Mood: Both happy and sad - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Salvation, spring up from the ground,
Lord, rend the heavens and come down,
Seek the lost and heal the lame,
Jesus, bring glory to your name!
Let all the prodigals run home,
All of creation waits and groans,
Lord, we've heard of Your great fame,
Father, cause all to shout Your name!

-- Matt Redman, "Salvation"

Oh Jesus...

I'm not quite sure what to say now, but I know that the song above is really cool. :D

In fact, all of the songs on the two CDs I bought are really cool. I love 'em all. There are some really nice, worshipful songs on there (eg. "Release Your Power") and some livelier ones too (eg. "Holy Holy Holy" by YFriday).

Some time later...

I've just been going over some of the things that happened almost a year to the day - yes, the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks. :( I can't really talk much as I have to get home, but I'll write another entry here in a bit.
Sep 9, 2002: Acorn Archimedes, anyone? (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 16:00 - Mood: Happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Hands up everyone who remembers the Acorn Archimedes range of computers... :)

Remember the way you kept hoping not to get hyperspaced to 'witch space' on Elite? Or attempting to make tunes that actually sounded good using only the StringLib instruments in !Maestro ? No? Boy, you've missed out.

You may have heard of Red Squirrel, a freeware Acorn emulator which, with the appropriate ROMs, allows you to use RISC OS or any other OS which runs on the ARM chip. There's also a commercial version of Red Squirrel called VirtualAcorn, which is faster than Red Squirrel and supports some things that RS doesn't (for example, printing).

Well, this morning I got my copy of VA in the post, and I'm going to be tinkering around with it tonight. I'll let you know how I get on...
Sep 9, 2002: God's Smuggler (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 12:03 - Mood: Happy - Location: Work - Now playing: n/a

Oh, it's Your rain, rain, falling down,
Wasing my soul with purity,
Your rain, rain, falling down on me,

Oh, it's Your rain, rain, falling down,
Restoring my strength and dignity,
Your rain, rain, falling down on me...

-- YFriday, "Rain"

Hi all. It's been a good week for me last week... I finally finished reading God's Smuggler, the story of Brother Andrew (founder of Open Doors) and how he smuggled Bibles across borders to give to churches who didn't have any, or had few. It's really inspiring, and really shows you how God can work in people. :)

More soon...
Sep 5, 2002: Still here... (link | trackback: 0)
Time: 07:19 - Mood: Happy - Location: Home - Now playing: Nothing

Yep, I'm still here and alive. I just haven't had much chance to update this journal really, as I've been busy redesigning my church's website. I'll give you the new URL when it's all done, and I'll try to update more often. :)

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