User:Texture

Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. (Invictus)

"abandoning leap seconds would break sundials"

Cognac is a type of brandy named after the commune of Cognac in western France. Cognac production falls under French appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) designation, which stipulates that it must be grown in a specific wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. The AOC also mandates that particular grapes (of which St. Émilion is the most common) be used, and that the drink be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in oak barrels from designated surrounding areas of France. Close to 200 cognac producers exist, of which the largest producers are Courvoisier, Hennessy, Martell and Rémy Martin. This photograph shows cognac in a snifter, a glass with a large tapered bowl and a short stem that allows the drinker to enjoy the aroma by placing their hand underneath the bowl and warming the cognac.Photograph credit: Didier Descouens

Archive – More featured pictures...

After I die I promise not to perform any miracles

Did you know...

Meg White

... that Meg White (pictured), a key figure in the 2000s garage-rock revival, has not made any public appearances since 2009?
... that Italian football clubs could have a third reserve team in the early 20th century?
... that Lourdes Klitzkie took up running in her late thirties to combat boredom, then qualified for the Olympics?
... that Herb Alpert's 2024 album 50 commemorates both his 50th studio album and his golden wedding anniversary?
... that Margarethe Hardegger established an illegal abortion clinic in her own home?
... that in July 2025 Elon Musk opened a flying saucer–shaped diner on Route 66 in Hollywood?
... that Queen Melisende wanted to get rid of her husband's friend Elias, so she made him an offer that he could not refuse?
... that the joint-most successful team in the Indian Premier League finished last in 2025?
... that Bishop Anselm, Abbot Geoffrey, and Viscount Rohard were sent in 1142 to delicately inform the Byzantine emperor that he was welcome in Jerusalem—just not with an army?

Favorite Books:

The Time Traveler's Wife

Favorite Wikipedia articles:

I met a man who wasn't there

"Yesterday upon the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish that man would go away." Hughes Mearns (1875-1965)

What is Texture reading?

Empress Orchid (audiobook on audible.com)

Newsweek, Wired, National Geographic, Hawaii...

Books based in Japan:
- Cloud of Sparrows
- Autumn Bridge
- Accross the Nightingale Floor

Fun new words

Mokusatsu

Looking at:

Theo van Gogh (film director)

The problem of Hell - Cool article

Strange attractors (constantly vandalized articles):

What is Texture watching?

Time altering/paradox movies:
Question reality movies:
- The Matrix
- The Thirteenth Floor (better than the Matrix in plot and concept)
- Existenz
Mind movies
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
God and the Devil

The Kizilbash (red-heads) were Turkmen tribes

http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif

Standard diving dress - grandpa's picture (on the right)
Codd's 12 rules - of RDBMS

The following is a JOKE

This Wikipedia page is considered semi-tractor-trailer-policy. Semi-tractor-trailer-policy pages are an attempt to jack-knife any real policies and present herculean efforts in codification to questionable purpose. These long-standing unwritten unapproved unthought unrules have widespread support since no actual vote ever becomes real. They should be treated as law, unless they do not support your flame war.

It is so terribly sad that I have to explain that the above is a JOKE

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

For unique design and interesting content, I present you with this Excellent User Page Award. –**Frater5** (talk/con) 16:12, 29 May 2006 (UTC)