Alkahest my heroes have always died at the end

Time Magazine publishes a letter from a Marine officer in Iraq – read it.

So, a “Which Tarot card are you” quiz isn’t my usual thing. I blame labrown

The magician You scored 59 change, 74 wellbeing, 71 wisdom, and 87 truth

The magician represents the conscious mind. With focus on an idea or goal, the conscious mind sets into action these ideas and brings them forth to the material world. The magicians hands are stretched forth, one to the sky holding a wand, and the other pointing to the ground below. This is suggestive that as is “as above, so below”. The table in front of him has all the tools to make this possible. The wand, cup, sword, and pentacle, which are representative of all the suits to the tarot cards. The mage has an undergarment of pure white, showing his pure wisdom and is held shut by the serpent around his waist. The outer garment is red, symbolic of desire and passion, which has no belt holding it shut so it can be removed if necessary. The flowers in the garden represent things as well. The red roses are symbolic of desires, and the white lilies represent pure thought, untainted by desire. This card is under the vibration of the number 1. some extra words: taking action doing what needs to be done realizing your potential making what’s possible real practicing what you preach carrying out plans producing magical results using your talents acting consciously knowing what you are doing and why acknowledging your motivations understanding your intentions examining the known situation concentrating having singleness of purpose being totally committed applying the force of your will feeling centered setting aside distractions focusing on a goal experiencing power making a strong impact having vitality creating miracles becoming energized feeling vigorous being creative

Why Alkahest?

It’s mainly a joke, but on a couple of different levels. Alkahest is a mythical substance, thought by alchemists to be the universal solvent. The universal solvent was the one substance that could dissolve anything (which leads of course to the obvious question about what you keep it in). It was also thought to either be or be useful in making the philosopher’s stone. Calling a blog Alkahest implies at least that you are willing to take on a large number of different subjects as opposed to specializing. In modern chemistry, water is known as the universal solvent. Given the number of water/plumbing related problems (and therefore posts) I have, this amuses me. Finally, a blog really needs some title other than its URL.

Who am I?

I’m not attempting to be anonymous, but also tend not to use my name on this blog. I used to be the IT Security Officer at a major university, but in August of 2007, I left to join an engineering company where I am a Senior Research Engineer. Don’t know what that means?  Join the club – I’ll tell you when I find out.  I tend not to refer to my former university or my current employer too often, mostly because it’s a personal blog. That said, it’s trivially easy to find out who I am and where I work.  [cec: is this still true?  I’m not certain it’s still easy to find out where I work.]

I have a doctorate in computer engineering and have studied topics including: neural networks, video compression, biological modeling, micro-electromechanical systems, computational chemistry, parallel computing and Internet security. Currently, I’m interested in social issues such as wage growth, social security and social equality; as well as photography and learning to play the guitar.

My wife, K, is currently a wildlife rehabilitator which means that I’m also a general handy man, cage builder, and computer support person.