The Laboratory

POETRY • PAINTING • PHYSICS • TECH

Efficiency is Independence

I'm a retired architect building systems that don't need "Big Tech" permission to exist. I run a full web presence, mail stack, and security layer for a dozen users on 1GB of RAM. No Docker. No bloat. No bullshit.

Scarlet Shadow Scarlet Shadow
~2015 • Acrylic on Canvas
This acrylic on canvas piece explores the "Chiaroscuro" effect—the use of strong contrasts between light and dark to affect a whole composition. While the subject matter is provocative, the technical execution emphasizes the anatomical shadows created by the pose. The cross-hatched texture of the...
understand
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Understanding Friendship A quest to understand understanding: What is friendship?
Or, more precisely, what does it take to be a friend?
I've never considered myself a good friend to anyone.
I'd offer help, not necessarily when it was convenient, but when it didn't cost too much, if that makes sense.
I suppose I'd evaluate the investment.
I might help for days or weeks if I deemed it worthy and if it didn't take away from my family.
If I believed it would in any way negatively impact my child ...
The Death-Dream
by Walter De La Mare
Who, now, put dreams into thy slumbering mind? Who, with bright Fear's lean taper, crossed a hand Athwart its beam, and stooping, truth maligned, Spake so thy spirit speech should understand, And with a dread "He's dead!" awaked a peal Of frenzied bells along the vacant ways Of thy poor earthly heart; waked thee to steal, Like dawn distraught upon unhappy days, To prove nought, nothing? Was it Time's large voice Out of the inscrutable future whispered so? Or but the horror of a little noise E...