No, it isn't.
And have you retired?
Nobody knows. As far as _I_ know, he's still designing obscure arcane
multifunction chips for some multi-billion-dollar company, and pulling
down a very, very comfortable salary. In fact, he brags about it from
time to time.
He occasionally also brags about other aspects of His Good Fortune,
which, of course, since I'm a leper, bothers me no end.
But, life goes on, long after the thrill is gone.
Speaking of that, today's "fortune" was:
-----
Life is a game. In order to have a game, something has to be more
important than something else. If what already is, is more important
than what isn't, the game is over. So, life is a game in which what
isn't, is more important than what is. Let the good times roll.
-- Werner Erhard
-----
Well, I disagree with his fundamental assumptions here, but that's a
whole nother topic. But, just to quote it, I looked it up in my
"fortunes2" file (actually, found it in fortunes2 by grep Erhard *), and
was amazed at the philosophy I found contained in that text file, so here
is an excerpt, from Slackware's /usr/share/games/fortunes/fortune2 , about
"Life": (BTW, it's GPL, so there's no copyright infringement that I know
of.)
I'm gonna sign off here - it's kinda long. As usual, please post your
feedback intelligently and blobbedy blah blah yadda. %-}
Thanks!
Rich
-----
%
LIFE:
A whim of several billion cells to be you for a while.
%
LIFE:
Learning about people the hard way -- by being one.
%
LIFE:
That brief interlude between nothingness and eternity.
%
Life -- Love It or Leave It.
%
Life begins at the centerfold and expands outward.
-- Miss November, 1966
%
Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.
-- Paul Gauguin
%
Life can be so tragic -- you're here today and here tomorrow.
%
Life does not begin at the moment of conception or the moment of birth.
It begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.
%
Life exists for no known purpose.
%
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society
being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded responsible
thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money
system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.
-- Valerie Solanas
%
Life is a biochemical reaction to the stimulus of the surrounding
environment in a stable ecosphere, while a bowl of cherries is a
round container filled with little red fruits on sticks.
%
Life is a concentration camp. You're stuck here and there's no way
out and you can only rage impotently against your persecutors.
-- Woody Allen
%
Life is a gamble at terrible odds, if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.
-- Tom Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"
%
Life is a game. In order to have a game, something has to be more
important than something else. If what already is, is more important
than what isn't, the game is over. So, life is a game in which what
isn't, is more important than what is. Let the good times roll.
-- Werner Erhard
%
Life is a game of bridge -- and you've just been finessed.
%
Life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporania;
And love is thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.
-- Dorothy Parker, "Comment"
%
Life is a grand adventure -- or it is nothing.
-- Helen Keller
%
Life is a healthy respect for mother nature laced with greed.
%
Life is a hospital in which every patient is possessed by the desire to
change his bed.
-- Charles Baudelaire
%
Life is a series of rude awakenings.
-- R.V. Winkle
%
Life is a serious burden, which no thinking,
humane person would wantonly inflict on someone else.
-- Clarence Darrow
%
Life is a sexually transferred disease with 100% mortality.
%
Life is a yo-yo, and mankind ties knots in the string.
%
Life is an exciting business, and most
exciting when it is lived for others.
%
Life is both difficult and time consuming.
%
Life is cheap, but the accessories can kill you.
%
Life is difficult because it is non-linear.
%
Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.
-- Woody Allen, "Annie Hall"
%
Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.
%
Life is just a bowl of cherries, but why do I always get the pits?
%
Life is knowing how far to go without crossing the line.
%
Life is like a 10 speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
-- C. Schultz
%
"Life is like a buffet; it's not good but there's plenty of it."
%
Life is like a diaper - short and loaded.
%
Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
-- Tom Lehrer
%
Life is like a tin of sardines.
We're, all of us, looking for the key.
-- Beyond the Fringe
%
Life is like an egg stain on your chin --
you can lick it, but it still won't go away.
%
Life is like an onion: you peel it off
one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
-- Carl Sandburg
%
Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after
layer and then you find there is nothing in it.
-- James Huneker
%
Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was
going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then
being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends.
%
Life is like bein' on a mule team. Unless you're
the lead mule, all the scenery looks about the same.
%
Life is not for everyone.
%
Life is one long struggle in the dark.
-- Titus Lucretius Carus
%
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
-- Goethe
%
Life is the living you do,
Death is the living you don't do.
-- Joseph Pintauro
%
Life is the urge to ecstasy.
%
Life is to you a dashing and bold adventure.
%
Life is too short to be taken seriously.
-- O. Wilde
%
Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.
-- Storm Jameson
%
Life is wasted on the living.
-- The Restaurant at the Edge of the Universe.
%
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
-- John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy"
%
Life, like beer, is merely borrowed.
-- Don Reed
%
Life may have no meaning, or, even worse,
it may have a meaning of which you disapprove.
%
Life only demands from you the strength you possess.
Only one feat is possible -- not to have run away.
-- Dag Hammarskjold
%
Life Sucks. Cynical, misanthropic male, 34, looking for soul mate but
certain not to find her. Drop me a note. I'll call you, we'll talk and
I'll ask you out to dinner where I'll probably spend more than I can
afford in a feeble attempt to impress you. Then we'll realize we have
absolutely nothing in common and we'll go our separate ways, more
embittered and depressed than before (if such a thing is possible).
%
Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all.
-- Thomas J. Kopp
%
Life without caffeine is stimulating enough.
-- Sanka Ad
%
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
-- Dave Olson
%
Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.
-- G.B. Shaw
%
Life's too short to dance with ugly women.
%