about Fairy Tales

“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

G. K. Chesterton

Sentry - Fredric Brown

One of my favourite short stories.

Sentry

HE WAS wet and muddy and hungry and cold, and he was fifty thousand light-years from home.

A strange blue sun gave light and the gravity, twice what he was used to, made every movement difficult.

But in tens of thousands of years this part of war hadn't changed. The flyboys were fine with their sleek spaceships and their fancy weapons. When the chips are down, though, it was still the foot soldier, the infantry, that had to take the ground and hold it, foot by bloody foot. Like this damned planet of a star he'd never heard of until they'd landed him there. And now it was sacred ground because the aliens were there too. The aliens, the only other intelligent race in the Galaxy ... cruel, hideous and repulsive monsters.

Contact had been made with them near the center of the Galaxy, after the slow, difficult colonization of a dozen thousand planets; and it had been war at sight; they'd shot without even trying to negotiate, or to make peace.

Now, planet by bitter planet, it was being fought out.

He was wet and muddy and hungry and cold, and the day was raw with a high wind that hurt his eyes. But the aliens were trying to infiltrate and every sentry post was vital.

He stayed alert, gun ready. Fifty thousand light-years from home, fighting on a strange world and wondering if he'd ever live to see home again.

And then he saw one of them crawling toward him. He drew a bead and fired. The alien made that strange horrible sound they all make, then lay still.

He shuddered at the sound and sight of the alien lying there. One ought to be able to get used to them after a while, but he'd never been able to. Such repulsive creatures they were, with only two arms and two legs, ghastly white skins and no scales.

—FREDRIC BROWN

Hello World!

First post, finally! To tell the truth I had already written a post while I was staying in London this summer, soon after having created this blog, but it accidentally got deleted and I didn't want to write it again. So here I am =)

Short introduction: my name is Elisa and I live in Milan, Italy. I'm a second-year Computer Science student at the University of Milan. I like science, technology and computers, of course, but I'm also very active and I love sports. I do acrobatic gymnastics, parkour and snowboarding in winter.

I also like reading books and mangas as well as watching animes.

My favourite animals are cats, hedgehogs and axolotls (if you're wondering if they are some kind of pokémon, you're not that wrong as they look quite like them, here's one:

...and yes, they really do exist, even if they only live in a few lakes near Mexico City and they're nearly extinct.

Anyway, I decided to open this blog mainly to have a place where I can freely write my mind, like some kind of open-diary. I see it as an experiment. In the past I've tried a few times to keep a diary or a journal, but I've never been able to.

I have often thoughts and observations which I would like to write down, thought. So I thought a blog might be a good idea. Like a small corner of my mind out of my mind where I can store some thoughts. A corner with a window to world, as a blog gives me also the possibility of sharing thoughts, unlike a simple notebook.

That's also the reason why I decided to write in English, because the world speaks English, and even if I don't think my blog will be read all over the world, I want to give anyone who stumbles upon my page the possibility of understanding what is written in it, even if it is just random thoughts. I apologise in advance for any language/spelling mistake though, as I'm not mother-tongue =P

Last but not least, someone may wonder about the name, "WIRELESS MIND". It is an expression I am really attached to and which I've already used in the past. Some years ago I was looking for a suitable name for my forum, "Wireless Minds" came to my mind and I immediately liked it. I'll try to explain why.

First of all, I think "wireless" is a key word in our modern society since a lot of the devices we use everyday work wireless. Secondly, the word "wireless" implies a "connection", usually a very strong connection that is not bound by cable-lenghts, which instead lets devices (and people) communicate from very far away distances, sometimes almost from everywhere. A wireless mind to me symbolises an open mind that is free to think about everything without any "chain" or "wire" to limit it. A mind free to fly to wherever it wants. A mind which is also connected to other minds and which likes to share thoughts without prejudice, not worried about distances or different points of view.                                                                                                                                                              Elisa