Arlo and Thoreau, Undying Adventure on a Neighborhood Walk

We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return– prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again–if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man–then you are ready for a walk.

–Henry David Thoreau, Walking
   http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/wlkng10.txt

Thanks to Jimmy Johnson for introducing me to that essay, in today’s Arlo and Janis. Arlo is one of three comics that I read every day. (The other two are Doonesbury and Zits.) I love the characters and the comic timing in Arlo. Follow the link — Janis’s response is great. If the page disappears or becomes inaccessible, please let me know. I’ve saved the .jpg and will post it here under fair use if I have to, in the interests of preserving culture. :-)

Free Software Note

Spent some time this weekend installing and playing around with Java on my Ubuntu machines. I learned several things, and it felt great to be using the system to do something useful. I didn’t approach the challenge of remotely connecting to the NSLU2, though, and I need to do that before I can start moving files and use GNU/Linux for more day to day tasks. Maybe I need to approach each foray more in the spirit of undying adventure…