Saturday, July 31, 2004
The Nature of Aphorisms
Up yours Dylan McDermott and tell your runty half-brother Ross Geller to go shove it, too!
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Happy Birthday, Mom
My mom was born on July 25th and 2 plus five equals seven.
I once wrote a short story that got longer and longer and less good the more I wrote about a lecture that Dr. Tyler gave about a people who saw the face as being the area starting from the eyes and going up (so... The forehead) and who saw clean toes as a measure of good character (so a bad big toe was a bad person) and his point was that different people analyze (by which he meant categorize or parse or cut-up) the world differently and that we shouldn't assume that our assumptions of how the world is organized is any more natural or that other people's way of cutting up the world is weird. In fact, he spent the whole semester giving weird examples of weird people who cut up the world in ways that we would find weird. He would then juxtapose this with things that we should find both weird and horrible, like how they delayed the end of the 1st world war until 11/11 so that it could have nicely symbolic symbolism and in the interceeding period between when they could have ended the war and when they did, thousands of people died.
Anyhow... I didn't need Dr. Tyler to tell me that people can have an extremely different world view or that the dominant portions of society can find this difference to be very alien because I have my mom.
This is the sort of statement that I make which can be taken the wrong way, if viewed out of context. So if you want to conclude that I am a bad son and a bad person, stop reading now. Not just this blog, just stop reading. Go back to watching game shows on the weather channel and listening to the Dave Matthews band duet with Kenny G.
Still there? Good. Now a tribute to my mom:
My mom has never felt the need to apologize for having a mind of her own, or more precisely I don't think that it has every occurred to her to do so. From her example, especially in contradistinction to much of the phony "non-conformity" that I witnessed in High School and College (see my cannonical rant on vegetarianism from May 3rd) I came to understand the meaning (and the price) of truly independent thought.
I deleted a long digression here that wanders far afield from my intended point in which I talk about an interesting book writing by Montana Katz where I end up making my poor mom carry the cross for all of feminism and all of intellectual purity. Goodness! I've made her life is hard enough without having to put that on her.
Rather, I mean that my mom has made up her own mind about what it means to live a good life, based on her own evaluations and her own axioms. This sort of freedom and independence has become increasingly difficult to achieve. More importantly, those people who do have such an oppurtunity often squander it through selfish, unethical conduct.
I also mean that my mom is quite a colorful character.
I also mean that my mom was very happy to let me become my own person and that I intend to do the same for my kids.
I also mean that I often have no idea what she is talking about like when she says stuff like, "Its quite interesting that I was born on July 25th"
"What's interesting about that, Mom?"
"Well... Two plus five equals seven and you were born on June 1st and six plus one equals seven"
"Ok... But Eugene was born June 18"
"Yes, but six plus one plus eight..."
"Equals fifteen. And?"
"Fifteen is three times five... The Greeks liked threes and fives and sevens so I've got all the bases covered"
"Happy Birthday, Mom"
I once wrote a short story that got longer and longer and less good the more I wrote about a lecture that Dr. Tyler gave about a people who saw the face as being the area starting from the eyes and going up (so... The forehead) and who saw clean toes as a measure of good character (so a bad big toe was a bad person) and his point was that different people analyze (by which he meant categorize or parse or cut-up) the world differently and that we shouldn't assume that our assumptions of how the world is organized is any more natural or that other people's way of cutting up the world is weird. In fact, he spent the whole semester giving weird examples of weird people who cut up the world in ways that we would find weird. He would then juxtapose this with things that we should find both weird and horrible, like how they delayed the end of the 1st world war until 11/11 so that it could have nicely symbolic symbolism and in the interceeding period between when they could have ended the war and when they did, thousands of people died.
Anyhow... I didn't need Dr. Tyler to tell me that people can have an extremely different world view or that the dominant portions of society can find this difference to be very alien because I have my mom.
This is the sort of statement that I make which can be taken the wrong way, if viewed out of context. So if you want to conclude that I am a bad son and a bad person, stop reading now. Not just this blog, just stop reading. Go back to watching game shows on the weather channel and listening to the Dave Matthews band duet with Kenny G.
Still there? Good. Now a tribute to my mom:
My mom has never felt the need to apologize for having a mind of her own, or more precisely I don't think that it has every occurred to her to do so. From her example, especially in contradistinction to much of the phony "non-conformity" that I witnessed in High School and College (see my cannonical rant on vegetarianism from May 3rd) I came to understand the meaning (and the price) of truly independent thought.
I deleted a long digression here that wanders far afield from my intended point in which I talk about an interesting book writing by Montana Katz where I end up making my poor mom carry the cross for all of feminism and all of intellectual purity. Goodness! I've made her life is hard enough without having to put that on her.
Rather, I mean that my mom has made up her own mind about what it means to live a good life, based on her own evaluations and her own axioms. This sort of freedom and independence has become increasingly difficult to achieve. More importantly, those people who do have such an oppurtunity often squander it through selfish, unethical conduct.
I also mean that my mom is quite a colorful character.
I also mean that my mom was very happy to let me become my own person and that I intend to do the same for my kids.
I also mean that I often have no idea what she is talking about like when she says stuff like, "Its quite interesting that I was born on July 25th"
"What's interesting about that, Mom?"
"Well... Two plus five equals seven and you were born on June 1st and six plus one equals seven"
"Ok... But Eugene was born June 18"
"Yes, but six plus one plus eight..."
"Equals fifteen. And?"
"Fifteen is three times five... The Greeks liked threes and fives and sevens so I've got all the bases covered"
"Happy Birthday, Mom"
Friday, July 23, 2004
Major League Baseball : News
a black hole was basically a cosmic version of Brooks Robinson
In related news, Quarks are said to be a sub-atomic Jose Oquendo and time is said to be a quantum Moises Alou.
In related news, Quarks are said to be a sub-atomic Jose Oquendo and time is said to be a quantum Moises Alou.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Precedent - Someone else making the joke so that you don't have to
Inter Alia poking fun at the "I'm so modern" language of the Model Penal Code.
Saturday, July 03, 2004
I am prevented by the Honor Code from discussing the exam
So I will instead tell you what my wife and daughter said about it sua sponte. First of all, I spent the aftermath, um I mean afternoon chasing Dakota around the house and backyard watching her play, although I was in a daze. At one point, Dakota got up from her tricycle and told me, "Its okay daddy, I know that you are learning." My daughter is truly wise beyond her ears.
Later on, Louren confessed, "I didn't want to stress you out this morning by telling you about the dream that I had last night. I dreamt that you and the rest of your class had to wear starfleet uniforms in order to take your test."
"Where we red shirt ensigns?"
"Actually... yes"
"That's about right."
Later on, Louren confessed, "I didn't want to stress you out this morning by telling you about the dream that I had last night. I dreamt that you and the rest of your class had to wear starfleet uniforms in order to take your test."
"Where we red shirt ensigns?"
"Actually... yes"
"That's about right."
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