Happy Halloween!

Halloween, celebrated on October 31^st, most commonly associated with trick-or-treating, costume parties, bonfires, and jack-o’-lanterns.  This annual holiday originated from the ancient Celtic festival, Samhain(pronounced sah-win).  Samhain celebrates the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter.  Samhain became the evening of “All Hallows” (Hallowed=Holy) which eventually became “Halloween”. The Celts believed that on the night of Samhain, the boundary between the living and the dead became thinner, and ghosts of the dead returned to earth to cause havoc.

Traditions:

1) Costume wearing

The tradition of wearing costumes was believed to have been able to avoid or appease evil ghosts.  Dressing up as a harmful spirit would drive off other evil spirits, thus avoiding harm.

2) Bonfires

Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.  Farmers and herders killed weak animals which they believed would not survive the winter.  Bonfires were created by burning animal bones to ward off evil spirits.  Sometimes, two bonfires were lit side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk through it as a cleansing ritual.

3) Trick-or-treating

In some countries, this is a custom for children on Halloween.  Children would dress up in costumes and walk around in their neighborhood from house to house, knocking on doors and asking “Trick-or-treat?”.  Homeowners would normally respond by giving the children some candy.  The “trick” in the question is a threat to play a prank on the homeowner if no treat was given.

4) Jack-o’-lanterns

A Jack-o’-lantern is a carved pumpkin with a candle placed inside at night to illuminate it.  The tradition of carving Jack-o’-lanterns comes from an Irish myth about a man named “Stingy Jack”, a lazy but clever farmer who tricked the Devil.  The story goes that Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him.  Being “Stingy” Jack, he didn’t want to pay for his drinks, so he tricked the Devil to turn into a coin that he could use to buy the drinks.  Once the Devil changed, Jack kept the coin in his pocket next to a cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back.  Later, Jack freed the Devil, on the condition that the Devil would not bother him for a year, and should Jack die, the Devil would not claim his soul.  One year later, Jack tricked the Devil to climb up an apple tree.  Once the Devil was up there, Jack carved a cross into the bark of the tree, again preventing the Devil from escaping.  Once the Devil promised him not to bother him for ten more years, he set the Devil free.  Soon after, Jack died.  He was refused entry to Heaven, since he was such a dishonest man.  However, he was also refused entry to Hell, since the Devil had promised not to claim his soul.  Jack asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light.  The Devil mockingly threw him a piece of coal from Hell, which Jack put into a carved out turnip, and roamed the earth ever since.  The Irish referred to the ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern”, then simply “Jack-o’-lantern”.  Other than turnips and potatoes, pumpkins are more commonly used to carve Jack-o’-lanterns.

 

Modern Halloween still sees people practicing the above traditions, not because of their original purposes, but more for fun.  Halloween is now associated with the Grim-reaper, vampires, werewolves, and many other creatures of the night.  There are also many horror films that use Halloween as a setting for the film, or are shown in cinemas during the Halloween season.

**The Chinese Ghost Festival（中元节/鬼节）

According to Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the lunar calendar is the “Ghost Month”, and the 15^th day of the seventh month is “Ghost Day”.  Similar to Halloween, the border between the living and the dead in thinner on the fifteenth, allowing ghosts and spirits to come back to earth.  Taoists and Buddhists perform rituals to absolve the sufferings of the deceased.  Descendants are also supposed to prepare ritualistic food offerings, burn incense and joss paper (a paper form of items such as clothes or money) for their ancestors as a way of showing that the descendants’ filial piety extends to their ancestors even after death.  This festival is also known as “Chinese Halloween”.

The Chinese Ghost Festival is not to be confused with the Qingming Festvial（清明节, 104^th day after the winter solstice, usually occurring around April 5^th）.  The Chinese Ghost Festival includes paying respects to all the deceased, including the same or younger generations, while the Qingming Festival only includes older generations.

Learning Chinese

Did you know that, including the rarely used and archaic ones, there are about 50,000 Chinese characters? However, “full” literacy only requires a knowledge between three to four thousand characters…

 

Chinese markings dating back even earlier than the Mesopotamian writing system were reportedly found, although there have been doubts on whether or not these should be considered writings.  The Oracle Bone Script（甲骨文, literally “shell bone script”）are the oldest known Chinese inscriptions which are unmistakably writings.  They were discovered on pieces of bone and turtle shell, thus earning its name.  It is a well-developed writing system, dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1200 – 1050 BC).  Since then, characters in the Chinese language have developed over time into the traditional Chinese writing often seen in older versions of books, and the simplified Chinese writing we more commonly use today.

The Oracle Bone Script

Chinese characters, or Han characters （汉字）were formed through various ways, such as resemblance of an object (pictograms), or sound (phono-semantic compounds).  In most cases, however, the resemblance can no longer be seen or heard.  Chinese characters, as a whole, are now classified as logograms (symbols used to represent a word, for example the $ sign for dollar).

 

Based on the formation of characters, they are usually classified into six categories:

 

1. Pictograms （象形字）

Characters derived from pictures and simplified to make writing easier.

Example: “日”, for “sun”; “木”, for “tree”  

2. Ideograms（指事字）

Literally meaning “indicating the object”, these characters are mostly direct iconic illustrations.

Example: “上”and“下”, for “up” and “down”, the character for “up” has two strokes above a line, while the character for “down” has two strokes below the line.

 

3. Ideogrammic compounds（会意字）

Characters created from the combination of pictograms or ideograms.

Example: By doubling and tripling the pictogram “木”, the characters “森林”are produced, meaning “forest”.

 

4. Phono-semantic compounds（形声字）

Characters composed of two parts: the first part, known as the radical, is a set of pictographs which represent the general meaning of the character or what they’re related to (semantic); the other is an existing character pronounced about the same as the new character (phono).

Example: “河”for “river”, and“湖”for “lake”.  Both characters have three dots as the radical, which is the pictogram for water droplets, indicating that the meanings of the characters have something to do with water.  The phonetic indicator for “河” (pronounced “hé”) is “可” (pronounced “kĕ”), and in the case of “湖”it is“胡”, both pronounced “hú”.

 

Strictly speaking, the last two categories,” transformed cognates” （转注字）and “rebus”（假借字）are not categories based on the formation of characters, but more on the usage of characters.  Transformed cognates are characters which were originally one character with multiple meanings, later on separated into different but similar characters.  Rebus, literally meaning “falsely borrowing a character”, covers cases where another character is “borrowed” to represent another unrelated word with a similar pronunciation.

 

A single Chinese character can have multiple meanings and also multiple pronunciations.  Note that Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words.  Chinese characters have a single syllable, whereas Chinese words require two or more characters put together, thus being poly-syllabic, but have meaning that can be derived from the characters they are made out of.  For example, “手”means “hand”, and“机”can mean “machine”.  Put them together and you have “手机”, which means “hand phone”.  Since different meanings, pronunciations, and combinations of characters produce different words with different meanings, it is, of course, somewhat difficult to determine the meaning of a word you haven’t come across before.

 

The funny thing about Chinese characters is that when you play around with them, you often get ironic, but also meaningful results.  Here are a few examples:

 

1. Have you ever seen the Chinese character “福”pasted upside-down on someone’s front door?

 

Well, it wasn’t an accident.  The character “福”means “happiness”, or “good fortune”.  The Chinese character for upside-down is “倒”, pronounced the same as“到”, which means “arrive”.  So when “福”is upside-down, it is“福倒”, which sounds exactly like “福到”, meaning “happiness/good fortune has arrived/will be arriving”.

 

2. The Chinese word for “crisis” is “危机”.  Broken down into characters, “危”means “danger”, while“机”means “opportunity”.  Thus, it could be interpreted as a reminder to see the golden opportunity offered in every crisis.

 

3. The character “饭”means “rice”.  The radical for this character is also used in characters related to food, such as “饿”, meaning “hungry”.  The right side of the character is “反”, meaning “anti-” or “against”.  As often seen in the history of China, once the people of the country do not have enough food to survive, they rebel.

 

4. “不”means “no”.  “可”and “能”means “can”, or “able to”.  Put together, “不可能”means “impossible”.  However, adding a comma makes “不，可能”meaning “no, it’s possible!”

 

So, anyone interested in learning Chinese?

How Simple is Life?

How Simple is Life?

 

Life is simple.

 Or it might not be.

 To simplify something, it must first be complicated in order for one to simplify it, yes?

So life is complicated.

 Or it might not be.

 To complicate something, it must first be simple in order for one to complicate it, no?

 To define something, we should first understand it.

 So, what is life?

 I wouldn’t dare to give a conclusive answer.  After all, I’ve only had 16 years of it.  However, there is one thing I know – With life, comes death.  Wherever there is life, there must be, or eventually will have, death.

 So, what is death?

 I can’t answer that question for sure.  In fact, I’m not sure anyone can!  Those who know are in absolutely no condition to tell us about it.

 Since death is so closely linked to life that one cannot be without the other, isn’t it necessary to understand death in order to understand life?

 To understand something, we should first gain knowledge about it.

 Does knowledge simplify things or complicate it?

 Would a simple, short explanation of a complicated thing give you more knowledge than a complicated, lengthy explanation of a simple thing? Or vice versa?

 I guess it depends.

 So we can’t understand death.

 Neither can we understand life.

 So the next time someone tells you life is simple, ask them -

 How simple is it?

Chapter 1: Dimensions

 

Chapter 1 Dimensions

 

April 16

Year 2019

Miami, U.S.A.

 

                Ethan felt as though he was in a dream.  It was quiet, peaceful, serene.  He was floating, without a worry in the world.  Nothing could go wrong…

 

                A small suspicion began to creep into the corner of his mind.  Where was he?  He couldn’t remember how he got here.  In fact, he didn’t seem to have any memory at all.  Yet, he felt so calm, it felt so good…

               

                Too good to be true…

 

                As soon as he finished the thought, his surroundings changed completely.  He no longer felt like he was hovering between somewhere and nowhere.  It felt much more real now.  He glanced around.  

               

                Ethan was in a room surrounded by four walls.  Directly in front of him was a grand mahogany door.  To his left was a plain white door, and to his right was a door made out of bronze.  Each door seemed to have a kind of attracting force, luring him, pulling him closer…

 

                What’s happening?

 

                Something moved in the corner of his eye.  Ethan whirled around in alarm, only to find himself reflected in the mirror which hung on the opposite wall of the mahogany door.  There seemed to be nothing special about it.  It was just that, a mirror.

 

                Ethan glanced from the mirror back to the three doors.

 

                Which to choose…?

 

                Mahogany. 

 

                Ethan walked over to the richly colored reddish-brown door, turned the handle, and pushed.

 

                It was another room.  He walked in further, hardly noticing the mahogany door closing softly behind him.  There was something strange that he just couldn’t put his finger on.  The room looked like an old-fashioned dining room.  The floor was covered with a white carpet.  There was a long, rectangular, wooden table in the center, with chairs pushed neatly in. Ethan was facing the head of the table and the fireplace behind it.  Portraits and paintings were hanging on the walls.  There was one painting of the sea at sunrise.  The glow of the sun, the shimmer in the waves, the ripples in the seawater, the beauty of everything, it was captured perfectly.  It seemed almost normal…

 

                Then, he realized it.  The sun was under the water.

 

                It was upside-down.

 

                The room was upside-down.

               

                He was upside-down.

 

                Just when Ethan realized what was wrong, the room started spinning.  Despite his frantic struggle, he couldn’t keep himself upright.  He had absolutely no idea which way was up.  He felt himself falling…

               

                Suddenly, as though nothing had happened, Ethan found himself standing again.

 

                Standing in the very same room he was in earlier with the very same four walls, the very same three doors, and the very same mirror that he was now facing. 

 

                The mahogany door was still there, daring him to go through it again.

 

                Which door now?

 

                The bronze one.

 

                Ethan made his way over to the bronze door.  Just as he was pushing it open, he heard a voice.

 

                “Wake up…”

 

                It was a female.  It sounded distant, and vaguely familiar.  But just as suddenly as it was heard, it faded away.

 

                Ethan stepped through the bronze door, and found himself in yet another room.

 

                Big surprise.

 

                This room was also old-fashioned.  It looked like part of a museum.  There were glass display cases all around him, all empty.  The only display case that had something in it was at the very center of the room.  It was on a small platform, raised just a little higher than the others in the room.  Ethan walked over to it.

 

                Inside the display case was a small model of a mansion.  It was perfectly done, the walls, the doors, the windows, even the lawn looked real.

 

                In fact, it looked too real…

 

                The mansion, along with the display case, was growing larger.  Or was Ethan shrinking?  He wasn’t sure.  It grew, or he shrank, until the mansion loomed majestically before him.  There was no one else around.  Ethan was standing in front of the large oak front doors.  The sky above him looked transparent.  Or was it the glass of the display case?

 

                Then everything seemed to creep closer to Ethan, enclosing him…The glass-like sky was shrinking…

                With nowhere else to go, he frantically pushed the mansion doors open and ran inside.  The shrinking didn’t stop.  The walls of the mansion were closing in on him.  Ethan ran, not caring where his legs were leading him to.  A few turns and he was in a long corridor, the walls still growing closer, threatening to crush him…

 

                Why aren’t I shrinking?

 

                Ethan took another turn, threw himself through the first door he saw, only to find himself yet again in the room with the three doors and mirror.  The bronze door slammed behind him.

 

                Somehow, Ethan had expected this to happen.  It was a never-ending nightmare.  He was never going to get out…

 

                Then he heard it again.

 

                “Wake up!”

 

                It sounded more urgent this time, but Ethan couldn’t locate its source.

 

                Now what?

 

                It wasn’t a question, really.  There was only one door left.

 

                Pushing open the plain white door, Ethan was a bit surprised.

 

                This time, he was in a jungle.  The plain white door behind him disappeared.  There were enormous trees around him, almost blocking out the sunlight; there was a river running through the trees; there were plants and leaves covering the ground.  Again, like every other place he had been in, there was something wrong about it.

 

                Ethan stared around him in irritation.  His gaze stopped on the river.

 

                It was still.

 

                The water was stagnant, it wasn’t moving at all.  There were no ripples.  There was no cool breeze.  Even the trees seemed strangely still.  Nothing was moving, no signs of life, everything had paused.

 

                Time had paused.

 

                Everywhere Ethan looked there was no way out.  There were trees in every direction blocking his path.  His heart beat faster and faster as he turned around and around, desperately searching for an escape, refusing to believe that time was non-existent, searching for something, anything…

 

                But wait…Something hadn’t stopped…

 

                His heart was still beating…It had never stopped…

 

                So that must mean…Time still hasn’t stopped…

 

                Immediately, a gushing sound was heard as the water in the river flowed.  A breeze blew Ethan’s hair slightly, the leaves on the ground were lifted slightly in the wind; the sun shined brighter…Brighter and brighter…Ethan shielded his eyes…

 

                Then the sound of flowing water, the breeze, the sunlight, everything vanished…

 

                And when Ethan opened his eyes a second later, he was standing right in the center of the room, facing the mirror, with the mahogany door behind him.

 

                “AARRGH!!!”

 

                Ethan screamed in frustration.  He’d tried each door, what else was there left to do?  He faced his reflection in the mirror, thinking hard…

 

                Then it hit him.

 

                The answer had been in front of him all the time, he just hadn’t realized it…

 

                He was the answer.  He had been doing this.  He had been creating this…illusion…

 

                Ethan reached his hand out and touched the mirror…

 

                “WAKE UP!”

 

                The mirror shattered, and the room seemed to shatter along with it.  He was floating, falling, shrinking, all at the same time…

 

                And suddenly, he was staring into his twin sister Elizabeth’s blue eyes filled with concern.  Her hands were on his shoulders, still shaking him in an obvious effort to wake him.

 

                “It happened again, didn’t it?” She asked.

 

                “Yes.”

 

                Ethan sat up on his bed.  A glance through his open window showed the sun just beginning to rise.

 

                “How did you know?” Ethan asked.

 

                “I sensed it, just like before.” Elizabeth replied.  “Are you alright?” She asked.

 

                “I am now.”

Prologue: Genesis

Prologue: Genesis

 

                Evolution.

 

                It is a slow process, the changing of genetic material of organisms, a process that can take millions, sometimes billions of years.  The changes that occur in one generation are small, maybe even insignificant. However, these changes accumulate with each subsequent generation, and may result in the emergence of a new species.

 

                It is the key to our survival.

               

***

 

Year 2009

 

Beijing, China

 

                I was sprawled on my bed with my eyes glued to a spot of paint on the ceiling.  It was a Sunday, there was no school, and I was alone at home with nothing to do.  A loud screech of brakes drifted through my open window, and then I heard a bang.  Going over to the window, I saw a burly man getting out of a smashed-up car on the opposite side of the road.  Apparently, it was going too fast and had skidded over a large puddle of water, and ended up with its rear end kissing a sign board.  It was blocking half of the road.  Cars were already slowing down, and passing drivers were yelling at the unlucky man.

 

                The honking was getting louder by the second.  It seemed as though I was slowly nearing the accident scene.  All of a sudden, I could hear them.

 

                -Oh my-you idiot can’t you-god, my car-drive-what am I going-properly-to do-

 

                The sounds were still getting louder. The voices were mixed together.  I started to feel a splitting sensation in my head.  I covered my ears.

 

                The voices were still there…Louder and louder…

 

                What’s happening-

 

                -Car crash-I’m never going to-poor man-get there in time-another accident-why is this happening now-what should I do-late for work-

 

                -to me?!

 

                I screamed.

 

                Then it stopped.

 

***

 

Miami, U.S.A.

 

                “Hey! That’s not fair!”

 

                “Oh, come on…” I brandished the plastic sword at my twin sister.  “On guard!” I cried.

 

                “But I don’t have a sword!” She pouted.  I sighed. 

 

                Girls are no fun…

 

                “Fine…” I put down the sword.  “Let’s do something else, then.  Wanna hear a story?”

 

                “Okay!  One about fairies, please.”

 

                “Fairies are no fun.  I’ll tell you one about a dragon.  Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a dragon, a big scaly green one, that breathed fire-”

 

                I tried really hard to imagine a dragon that would scare her.  I pictured blue flames and smoke coming out from its jaws.

 

                She gasped.

 

                I paused to look at her, and I saw her wide eyes staring and her finger pointing at something behind me.

 

                “Look!” She said, “A dragon!”

 

                I turned my head, and there it was, the very same dragon I had made up in my mind, a little blurry, emitting the exact same blue flames I had pictured.  It was floating in the air, no larger than the ABC chart in the playroom.

 

                I slowly reached out my hand.

 

                As soon as I touched it, it disappeared.

 

***

London, England

 

                I had been eager to spar with him.  He was a master in Karate, the defending champion of the tournament.  I’d spent weeks preparing for this moment.

 

                I could see that he was tired.  He had already made a few mistakes.  I was confident that I could win.  I threw a few more punches.  My vision became cloudy.  I shook my head a little to clear it, then I saw him sending a roundhouse kick my way.  I caught a glimpse of my friends cheering in the crowd.  I smirked as I blocked.

 

                The smirk melted off my face as my arm swooshed through thin air.  There was nothing there!  My vision went back to normal, my arm was still held in mid-air, and he was staring at me with a confused expression.  Then he sent another roundhouse kick.  The exact same way he sent the first.  I caught another glimpse of my friends, cheering the exact same way like I saw them just now.  I was perplexed.  How could everything have happened twice?

 

                His foot made contact with my skull.

 

                Everything went dark.

 

***

Paris, France

 

                I looked at my watch.  2.05 a.m.

 

                Damn.

 

                Being a professor at a famous university, I had a never-ending pile of assignments to mark and grade.  I glanced at the intimidating mountain of unmarked papers sitting on the left side of my desk.  There were at least a hundred pages all together.  I hadn’t slept for two nights, and I certainly wasn’t going to make it three.  I picked one of the papers at random, determined to finish it as fast as I could. 

 

                I’ve done it before.  I can do it again.

 

                I started reading.  The words flashed before my eyes at lightning speed.  I finished marking it, and the next, and the next, and the next…

 

                Finally, all that was left on my desk was my glass of water and the pile of marked papers on my right.

 

                I did it!

 

                I looked at my watch again.  2.10 a.m.

 

                I grinned.

 

~~~

 

Confused?  Hehe…This is the prologue of a story my brother James and I　are going to be writing!  The few scenarios you have just read are different events happening in different places…The only similarity is that they have used their brainpower in a way that other “normal” humans have never done before…In other words…They’re evolving!
We hope to post a new chapter each week…So stay tuned!

Introduction

Hello! My name is Jean Ee Sun Zhe.

And yes, I am the sister of the notorious James Ee (*gasp* THE HORROR!!!THE AGONY OF BEING HIS SISTER!!!)!

Since my brother has been constantly pestering persuading me to join Mindstorm…Here I am!

So…I’m a normal girl (yes, I am a GIRL, regardless of what opinions YOU have on my gender, dear brother.) who has a normal life (or as normal as life can be while living under the same roof with YOU, dear brother.). Normal school, normal class, normal friends (I hope…). I’m 6 years younger than James, who definitely looks much more older mature than me. Our dear ol’ parents are the best in the world!

I like to laze around doing nothing sometimes…Not as hardworking as my brother sometimes pretends to be is. I don’t really mind disgusting, gory, bloody stuff in movies or in real life as long as I get used to it first. I can be pessimistic or optimistic, depending on my mood…Usually pessimistic though =P Certain things bother me more than others, which might be why dear James keeps saying I’m fussy…

And now I shall end my introduction…I certainly hope to be able to read and also write more articles in Mindstorm!

Jean

Do we exist?

“Ac proinde haec cognitio, ego cogito, ergo sum, est omnium prima & certissima, quae cuilibet ordine philosophanti occurrat.”

-Descartes (Principles of Philosophy(1644), Part 1, article 7)

_

The phrase ‘cogito, ergo sum’ (‘I think, therefore I am’), is a statement by Descartes used to prove his existence. Descartes pointed out that if someone is questioning his own existence, then that is the proof that he exists, since there must be something/someone who is doing the thinking.

_

The phrase is sometimes extended to ‘Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum’ (‘I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am’), which means doubt produces thought, which proves that we exist, since there’s something/someone that is doubting.

_

However, how do we prove that doubt exists?

_

Since doubt may or may not exist, it cannot be used to prove the existence of something else, hence the flaw in Descartes’ original statement. So how do we prove that WE exist?

_

Since we may or may not exist, we cannot use anything we see, hear, smell, taste or touch to prove our existence, because our senses might not even exist. In this case, we simply cannot prove our own existence, because there is not a person, thing, or thought that has been proven to absolutely exist! We can’t even prove that the word and definition of ‘exist’ exists!

_

However, does it really matter?

_

Regardless of whether or not this so-called reality truly exists, we still feel that it does exist. We still feel that we are living (Why do we call it living anyway, when we start dying the day we’re born?), we still feel the passing of time, we still feel that we’re thinking. In short, we still do exist in our own questionable existence that may or may not exist. Every consequence of every single choice that we make and every action we carry out still feels real, still affects us, even though we can’t prove that it really exists. Maybe it’s a never-ending illusion that we can never escape from. Maybe evil robots (that may or may not exist) have already conquered the universe (that may or may not exist), and they’re messing with our minds! Maybe our memories are fake, and we’re in a time loop. Maybe we’re already in Hell!

_

So what?

_

We’re still stuck here, whether we like it or not. Or maybe our minds are still stuck here in a fake reality, whether we like it or not. We were still born, and we’re most definitely going to die someday (Hmm…How optimistic…). Whether or not we really exist doesn’t change the fact that, regardless of whether or not we really live and die, we’re still going to supposedly live and die. Whether it really does happen, or whether it only happens in in our minds, or whether our minds don’t exist, we’re still going to feel that everything around us happens. Whether it affects us in reality, or whether it affects us in a reality that isn’t real, we’re still going to feel it, even if our feelings aren’t real.

_

So, Carpe Diem – Seize the Day! For there is everything to gain and nothing to lose in doing our best in everything we do. We only get one chance, one lifetime, in this world (again, that may or may not exist!), so why shouldn’t we make the most out of it?

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Don’t ask (it’s forbidden to know) what final fate the Gods have, what end the Gods will give me or you, Leuconoe. Don’t play with Babylonian fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be.

_

Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite – be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have already fled.

_

Seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow.

-Horace (Odes 1.11)