Today just a silly meme, because I'm exhausted, and I'm trying to post for Conley before bed.
. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle (I used my mp3 player)
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 20 friends.
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing
6. Have Fun!
1. IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Light My Fire
2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Pulling Teeth
3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Helpless
4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Hold on Hope
6. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
People as Places as People
7. WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Man Outta Time
8. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
The most Wonderful Girl
9. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Impatient
10. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Runaway
11. WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Cuntry Boner
12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Shit Luck
13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Last Caress
14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Where Idols Once Stood
15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Top of the World
16. WHAT SONG WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Tunnel Vision
17. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Can’t Heal You
18. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
My HEAVEN
19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Disconnected
20. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Sons of Apollo
21. WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Marchin On
22. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
You’ll Rebel to Anything (as long as it’s not challenging)
23. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Winterborn
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
A short list of things I want
Things I want to do
Teach in a foreign country
Be a peace corps volunteer
Contribute positively to higher education, either by starting my own school or similar
Receive my phD
Understand how the brain works, as far as anyone does these days
Write a biographer of a philosopher (Dante?)
Write a pop technical science/philosophy book
Make my parents happy in some lasting way/free them from their crappy circumstances
Be the inspiration that helps my lover find his passion
Inspire and coach a brilliant student
Get a motorcycle license…and a motorcycle (driver’s license unnecessary)
Successfully learn basic first aid/be an EMT for a year
Publish a YA novel
Teach in a foreign country
Be a peace corps volunteer
Contribute positively to higher education, either by starting my own school or similar
Receive my phD
Understand how the brain works, as far as anyone does these days
Write a biographer of a philosopher (Dante?)
Write a pop technical science/philosophy book
Make my parents happy in some lasting way/free them from their crappy circumstances
Be the inspiration that helps my lover find his passion
Inspire and coach a brilliant student
Get a motorcycle license…and a motorcycle (driver’s license unnecessary)
Successfully learn basic first aid/be an EMT for a year
Publish a YA novel
Sunday, November 7, 2010
blargh
I feel like I should have accomplished something by now.
Why am I not already David Foster Wallace? Why haven't I already started my own humanitarian aid company? I'm serious.
I'm lying in bed now. What a stupid waste of time. Most of the things I do are complete wastes of my time; either I'm at my job, which requires compensation in the clearest sense of that word, or I'm trying to convince myself that my job isn't so bad by entertaining myself after my job, usually by reading books that, while often very good, are...being read, and so are necessarily passive.
I should be writing more. Just that would be better. Maybe I should start doing daily writing exercises. Or start a writing project. I like having writing projects. Nonfiction. Maybe I could do some research. What thread do I want to follow...maybe I could pick a question, something I actually want to know, and see what I can find with research? That sounds like something I'd enjoy doing.
Topics of interest: love and marriage. Pride. Memory and the role of memory in self image. Memory and personality. <--specifically, what we remember as oriented in who we are. I became interested in this thinking about the kind of memory I have; I tend to shed a lot of information I know a friend of mine keeps; thinking about the differences between she and I, one difference that seemed important was that she cares a lot more about people and being social than I do, while i spend most of my energy thinking about things she doesn't care about (as shown by the fact that she isn't particularly interested in conversing with me on those topics). I wonder if there's a link, more particularly, between attention and memory. That seems obvious, of course, but I wonder what the actual link is.
Because I've already learned that the fact that I don't know I've looked at something doesn't mean that what I actually saw isn't imprinted in my short and long term memory. I've heard things like that smell is the strongest sense to be recorded in memory (long term memory), but I have no idea why that would be so (it doesn't make actual sense when we consider how little we think about our sense of smell).
Hm. It seems like I'm interested in memory right now. ...Might as well pick something related to that. How to tilt and narrow it. Memory and love? I know of a particular mental disability where the person afflicted believes that the people he loves are imposters, even though he knows rationally that they look, smell like, are identical in every way to the people he loves. This has to do with the fact that the part of his brain that creates light physical changes when he sees people he likes (light sweating in palms, slightly elevated heartrate, things that cause the 'warm' feeling when you see someone you love) has been damaged. His brain rationalizes that because he no longer receives the emotional response to his mother, the personhe sees must not actually be his mother.
I'm interested in that kind of memory. I know that that wouldn't usually be called memory, per say, but I'm very interested in subconscious learned emotional and physical reactions to loved ones.
'His very presence calms me.'
How do people do that to us, without saying a thing, or necessarily even being near us? How does the learned reaction work? I don't want some simplistic pavlovian learned response crap. I know very well how complex the simplest responses become in the human mind.
I've lost my train of thought. Gotten far away from it, and in the process I've become rather unintelligent. Reigning it back in, past the past few paragraphs (which are filled with nothing all that interesting), something related to memory.
Or--I'd like to write a biography of Dante. There seem to be really bad ones out there...
or right a popular account of the philosophy of love. I've already sort of started that one.
I'd also like to write about some number of essays and works a student going into college should read before he/she thinks he/she has an opinion on anything, or just write something for hte beginning philosophy student warning against different kinds of douchery.
I'd also like to write a few short stories, I have some ideas.
I don't know. Somewhere in the middle of this I lost my energy and just got sore.
Why am I not already David Foster Wallace? Why haven't I already started my own humanitarian aid company? I'm serious.
I'm lying in bed now. What a stupid waste of time. Most of the things I do are complete wastes of my time; either I'm at my job, which requires compensation in the clearest sense of that word, or I'm trying to convince myself that my job isn't so bad by entertaining myself after my job, usually by reading books that, while often very good, are...being read, and so are necessarily passive.
I should be writing more. Just that would be better. Maybe I should start doing daily writing exercises. Or start a writing project. I like having writing projects. Nonfiction. Maybe I could do some research. What thread do I want to follow...maybe I could pick a question, something I actually want to know, and see what I can find with research? That sounds like something I'd enjoy doing.
Topics of interest: love and marriage. Pride. Memory and the role of memory in self image. Memory and personality. <--specifically, what we remember as oriented in who we are. I became interested in this thinking about the kind of memory I have; I tend to shed a lot of information I know a friend of mine keeps; thinking about the differences between she and I, one difference that seemed important was that she cares a lot more about people and being social than I do, while i spend most of my energy thinking about things she doesn't care about (as shown by the fact that she isn't particularly interested in conversing with me on those topics). I wonder if there's a link, more particularly, between attention and memory. That seems obvious, of course, but I wonder what the actual link is.
Because I've already learned that the fact that I don't know I've looked at something doesn't mean that what I actually saw isn't imprinted in my short and long term memory. I've heard things like that smell is the strongest sense to be recorded in memory (long term memory), but I have no idea why that would be so (it doesn't make actual sense when we consider how little we think about our sense of smell).
Hm. It seems like I'm interested in memory right now. ...Might as well pick something related to that. How to tilt and narrow it. Memory and love? I know of a particular mental disability where the person afflicted believes that the people he loves are imposters, even though he knows rationally that they look, smell like, are identical in every way to the people he loves. This has to do with the fact that the part of his brain that creates light physical changes when he sees people he likes (light sweating in palms, slightly elevated heartrate, things that cause the 'warm' feeling when you see someone you love) has been damaged. His brain rationalizes that because he no longer receives the emotional response to his mother, the personhe sees must not actually be his mother.
I'm interested in that kind of memory. I know that that wouldn't usually be called memory, per say, but I'm very interested in subconscious learned emotional and physical reactions to loved ones.
'His very presence calms me.'
How do people do that to us, without saying a thing, or necessarily even being near us? How does the learned reaction work? I don't want some simplistic pavlovian learned response crap. I know very well how complex the simplest responses become in the human mind.
I've lost my train of thought. Gotten far away from it, and in the process I've become rather unintelligent. Reigning it back in, past the past few paragraphs (which are filled with nothing all that interesting), something related to memory.
Or--I'd like to write a biography of Dante. There seem to be really bad ones out there...
or right a popular account of the philosophy of love. I've already sort of started that one.
I'd also like to write about some number of essays and works a student going into college should read before he/she thinks he/she has an opinion on anything, or just write something for hte beginning philosophy student warning against different kinds of douchery.
I'd also like to write a few short stories, I have some ideas.
I don't know. Somewhere in the middle of this I lost my energy and just got sore.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
People I'd like to meet
Secondary post today, more self-indulgent because...it's my personal blog, shut the fuck up, this isn't for anyone to read, I just like having it.
I keep saying this, but I seriously need to meet new people. Maybe some who actually share interests of mine...heh, quite a concept, yeah?
I'd like some people like the following:
--talk about books with, and have someone have also read the book in question, or be willing to read it with me
--someone I can go hiking, rock climbing, and caving with
--someone to go dancing with in the city (who drinks, and preferably has a car)
--someone who actually enjoys the theatre, and doesn't just sit through it so we can talk later.
--someone who likes weird science experiments, and would play mad scientist with someone (me) who knows almost nothing about chemistry.
--someone who just is quirky and intellectual, and preferably isn't a pretentious boor convinced that anyone with empathy, who thinks that everything isn't a relativistic mess of nothing, is clearly a neanderthal.
--someone who likes debate, and rides that thin line where they care and have real opinions (not just playing devil's advocate), but can debate without feeling like every slight against their position is clearly an unwarranted attack on their person.
--someone who likes cocktails and is an adventurous eater.
--Someone willing to volunteer downtown with me, who isn't doing penance, community service, or just coming along because they want to talk to me about their problems.
--someone who's just honestly a good person--human, and curious--and preferably a huge dork, but one who doesn't make the fact that they're a dork their entire life.
Any of those would do it, really.
I keep saying this, but I seriously need to meet new people. Maybe some who actually share interests of mine...heh, quite a concept, yeah?
I'd like some people like the following:
--talk about books with, and have someone have also read the book in question, or be willing to read it with me
--someone I can go hiking, rock climbing, and caving with
--someone to go dancing with in the city (who drinks, and preferably has a car)
--someone who actually enjoys the theatre, and doesn't just sit through it so we can talk later.
--someone who likes weird science experiments, and would play mad scientist with someone (me) who knows almost nothing about chemistry.
--someone who just is quirky and intellectual, and preferably isn't a pretentious boor convinced that anyone with empathy, who thinks that everything isn't a relativistic mess of nothing, is clearly a neanderthal.
--someone who likes debate, and rides that thin line where they care and have real opinions (not just playing devil's advocate), but can debate without feeling like every slight against their position is clearly an unwarranted attack on their person.
--someone who likes cocktails and is an adventurous eater.
--Someone willing to volunteer downtown with me, who isn't doing penance, community service, or just coming along because they want to talk to me about their problems.
--someone who's just honestly a good person--human, and curious--and preferably a huge dork, but one who doesn't make the fact that they're a dork their entire life.
Any of those would do it, really.
Four Quotations
Philosophy is the strangest of subjects: it aims at rigor and yet it
unable to produce any results; it attempts to deal with the most
profound questions and yet constantly finds itself preoccupied with
the trivialities of language; and it claims to be of great relevance
to rational enquiry and the conduct of our life and yet is almost
universally ignored. But perhaps what is strangest of all is the
passion and intensity with which it is pursued by those who have
fallen in its grip.
--Kit White
Philosophy needn’t be vain: it helps us understand the world, and
sometimes it changes it for the better. But its pull is not in its
utility. As Adam Smith said: ‘wonder…and not any expectation of
advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts
[us] to the study of philosophy.
--Rae Langton
Progress in philosophy consists, I think, in a clearer delineation of
the conceptual options, not in reaching determinate conclusions.
--Kwame Anthony Appiah
If Jim is playing dice and needs a six, then proceeds to roll one, we don't say that he rolled a six on purpose. If he loads a bullet into a revolver, spins the chamber, and proceeds to shoot John, his mortal enemy, we say that he shot the man on purpose. In both cases he desired a certain result against identical odds. If he didn't intentionally roll a six, why did he intentionally shoot John?
--my friend Steve
I posted the third quotation here, and I agree with it to some extent, however--I'm honestly a bit short with people who are content to simply delineate more questions; I agree more with Wittgenstein on that one.I think philosophy can be, perhaps should be, studied like a businessman, to some extent. I believe in real, concrete answers, the actual settlement of questions.
but I suppose utility isn't what leads anyone to philosophy; that part I agree with.
I think the best reason to be a philosopher is that...you'll never get any sleep, you'll never have a moment's peace unless you are
unable to produce any results; it attempts to deal with the most
profound questions and yet constantly finds itself preoccupied with
the trivialities of language; and it claims to be of great relevance
to rational enquiry and the conduct of our life and yet is almost
universally ignored. But perhaps what is strangest of all is the
passion and intensity with which it is pursued by those who have
fallen in its grip.
--Kit White
Philosophy needn’t be vain: it helps us understand the world, and
sometimes it changes it for the better. But its pull is not in its
utility. As Adam Smith said: ‘wonder…and not any expectation of
advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts
[us] to the study of philosophy.
--Rae Langton
Progress in philosophy consists, I think, in a clearer delineation of
the conceptual options, not in reaching determinate conclusions.
--Kwame Anthony Appiah
If Jim is playing dice and needs a six, then proceeds to roll one, we don't say that he rolled a six on purpose. If he loads a bullet into a revolver, spins the chamber, and proceeds to shoot John, his mortal enemy, we say that he shot the man on purpose. In both cases he desired a certain result against identical odds. If he didn't intentionally roll a six, why did he intentionally shoot John?
--my friend Steve
I posted the third quotation here, and I agree with it to some extent, however--I'm honestly a bit short with people who are content to simply delineate more questions; I agree more with Wittgenstein on that one.I think philosophy can be, perhaps should be, studied like a businessman, to some extent. I believe in real, concrete answers, the actual settlement of questions.
but I suppose utility isn't what leads anyone to philosophy; that part I agree with.
I think the best reason to be a philosopher is that...you'll never get any sleep, you'll never have a moment's peace unless you are
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