The Ethereal World

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 04:41:56 GMT

Mary's Room

So at Wash U. I attended an international relations(particularly about trade) class and a philosophy class.
Seeing as how I doubt people are quite as interested in the importance of Free trade areas vs. customs unions or the unfairness of the WTO as in Mary I'm going to talk about philosophy.

ok.
Physicalism - concept that everything can be broken down into matter/physical things. Basically a response to this theory that everything is physical EXCEPT what happens in the human mind. (descarte? could a frenchmen be good 4 something?)
anyway the thought experiment goes

Mary had a kinda weird life. She was born in a room that was black /white. the doctors were covered in white. everything she saw was black/white or a shade of grey. they even painted her skin so she never saw anything but black/white. They kept her in a room that was, surprise surprise, black and white. All she does is read, and mainly about human vision. This is all happening in the future and we know EVERYTHING about human vision- she knows all the chemical, neurological, physics what have u. She reads everything there is and can be considered omniscient.
she goes outside, sees a rose and says:
"so that's what it's like to see color"
She learned a new fact. that is, the 'what it's like to see color' fact.
So the philosophical problem is:
1)she knew ALL the facts.
2)she gained a new fact

now i don't find the whole physicalism that interesting, and there were a lot of responses to this (the guy that came up with it actually changed his mind eventually when ppl contradicted him) but I thought it was a cool thought experiment.

who's looking forward to college? Chris is looking forward to college (any1 else remember "who likes orange soda, Kel likes orange soda?")

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 04:57:11 GMT

American influence

"I learned how to swear from French TV, but thankfully the rest of the world watches American TV and knows real swear words. We wouldn't want Spaniards saying "Donde esta la bloody playa?" every time they can't find a beach would we? "Donde esta la fucking playa?" Yes, that's much better."

It's true, as much as this country sux the bad words from the US sure beat other countries' stupid words.

Played a game today, where every1 had to answer questions and one q was "if you could destroy any country what would it be"
Overwhelming majority said France.
just goes to show u how much ppl hate France ;-)

Kill her!

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:54:29 GMT

PLEASE!
This is getting ridiculous.
Ok so obviously the incompetence of the US government has helped democrats win on the whole Schiavo case. The husband wins. She can die.
BUT pleASE let it be mercifully. I don't care if she's incapable of thought/upper level brain functions - starve her to death? Hello lethal injection? Something? Stop her heart ? but a two week starvation? Right, that's "mercy killing?"

Granted I think the whole thing has been blown out of hand and I don't even like talking about it that much(because I think the government shouldn't have involvement and is getting involved to make the public 4get about ppl continuing to die in Iraq/ show that the government has "morality")
Blah - anyway.

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 06:17:15 GMT

I couldn't help but wipe that one solitary tear off my cheek - much like many washed their hands of the whole thing.
It worked, I was shamed - shamed like I've never been in my life. And rightly so.
It's too easy to say "I can't do anything" or "not yet" there are too many problems, how can I choose one? meanwhile I do nothing - like it's an excuse. and I'm sure I will continue to do it.
I guess that's the real shame, recognizing one's own hypocrisy, delusion and downright inhumanity.
I have an urge to give up everything, every privilege, dollar, advantage - but it's squelched by greed and self-interest, or at least it soon will be.
c'est la vie...la follada vida

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 02:34:04 GMT

An excess of penis

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:34:37 GMT

So Adrienne's party was ok. Saw some interesting things **** giving **** a lap dance was hilarious on a dare. the same person kissing some1 else's ass...etc
"Circle of death/truth" looks to be quite the cool game, always nice to laugh at your friends. Too bad it was 98% drunken males though. 1% drunken females and booker and me. I hope ppl don't drive home...too bad not too many ppl showed up though. i was hoping for another 'whole grade thing' though and it wasn't even close, + some ppl's shady friends ended up coming which was kinda weird.

o. and wake forest lost so i'm fucking screwed out of ncaa bracket...it's just not fair, i'm losing to a GIRL (except she chose oklahoma so may also lose hard)

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 04:27:05 GMT

Siento como un forastero en un mundo maravilloso.
Levanto en la mañana con un afán infantil, un deseo inalcanzable - disfrutir de todo que hay. Una sonrisa secuestra mi cara, no tengo ni la apariencia de control. La gente, las comidas, el aire…la mujer. Con mis prismáticos puedo ver la civilización de las hormigas, las venas rojas de la rosa, el carácter de un individuo.

Siento como que soy invisible.
Nadie me puede ver, ni oir, ni tocar. Pero yo sí puedo usar mis sentidos para vivir en una manera magnífico. La vista de la montaña, el canto de las pájaros, el sabor de esos labios.

Siempre he tenido una fachada de acero separándome de los dolores y agravios del mundo. Ahora siento desnudo y expuesto a lo que manda el poder divino. Pero, más que todo – siento un sentimiento profundo, simple y básico - feliz.

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 01:23:09 GMT

I'M GOING TO COLLEGE
(Wash U accepted me)
YAY!

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:58:05 GMT

One major thing Vargas and Peron had in common was a tendency towards fascism, both Vargas and Peron were fascists.
Both Vargas and Peron considered joining with the Axis forces during the Second World War due to their fascist leanings

There is an underlying similarity in Latin America with militaries however, in that they do take over from time to time.

One quick caveat on Chile's Pinochet regime. I wouldn't actually characterize it as fascist. The Vargas & Peron regimes were at least semi-fascist, but the Pinochet regime wasn't.

Vargas himself considered fascists on his side for the most part; ironically Peron was a fascist.

Chile and Brazil had powerful leaders who had changed each country economically towards the best, but as a leadership and freedom, for the worst. Pinochet took over Chile and leaned toward a more communist like ruling, just like Vargas.

Those were quotes from a college political science messageboard. They were supposed to read about Vargas/Pinochet/Peron and write a parragraph(i took a few sentences of each) that was worth 5 points...graded exercise. I mean it's one thing if you don't know what you're talking about, it's one thing if you didn't understand what you were reading but JEEZ. Pinochet- communist Vargas - communist? that's ironic. none of them were fascist none of them were communist. and then there's the whole "militaries take over from time to time" as Ceppa would say "una ignorancia profunda."
This also opens up the whole difference between the 'right' and fascism and the 'left' and communism. Not only were they wrong about pinochet/vargas being leftist (as they were both to the right) they equated left-communist.

And this was supposed to help me for my history exam - and then I did NO LATIN AMERICA!

The child

Sun, 13 Mar 2005 17:31:23 GMT

In my family, the youngest will always be the youngest. Barring the rest of my family going through time dilation, taking a spaceship at like .8 X speed of light for quite a long time resulting in them aging slower - I of course will be younger. But, I'd think that 17 would be old enough to hear about things like where my parents will be living next year.

The whole college thing kinda makes you think 'how far away' do I wanna be. some people take the california route, others england. I took northeast for the most part, close but not too close. I overheard my parents talking to my sister today, the person in Tanzania finds out before the one upstairs, that my dad may take his first overseas assignment in Saudi Arabia.
I don't know what's more frustrating the assignment, or the fact that they haven't told me yet.

Ah, family. Just a few more months and I won't have to deal w/ em.

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:03:23 GMT

dios me ha bendicido
-ok, so maybe I can't speak spanish. BUT, i can analyze a passage relatively well...particularly when it starts with

No se veia nada. Pero el hombre ensimismado se veia todo.
for my stupid oral I GOT THE PASSAGE WE HAD A TEST ON LAST WEEK - which is awesome.

haha. i'm so glad I chose Galdos!
If only God could eliminate physics...within the next 17 hours.

It's over....

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 16:31:15 GMT

What a terrible end to a rough b-ball season.
St. Anselms?!
WIS wins by 20 at St. Anselms
WIS wins by 30 at WIS
WIS loses by 6 at St. Anselms?!
Cos "One of the hardest things to do in any sport is to beat a team 3 times..." in his stupid high pitched voice.

Worst thing was we had a 9-0 run when Danny tried to dunk it (rejected by the rim cuz he jumped from 2 far back) keeping us from taking the lead. He then fouled, took a running jumper that hit nothing but backboard and fouled again. 4 plays --> Danny was in his dark place.
On the plus side I did have 7 pieces of fried chicken, a plate of lasagna and stole 4 cokes...it wasn't all bad.

But....November ----> Yesterday was the b-ball season.
Today...I...am...free!

And of course, ironically enough - I'm looking forward to Intramural B-ball...starting in a week.
Freedom is short lived, huh?

C'est la vie. (followed by something along the lines of ..."révolution...'ahoh hoh hoh' "

A part of life....

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 06:29:10 GMT

Death

Religions have a habit of making death a lot less feared/terrible. Most of 'em have something better after life so fearing death would be illogical.
Unfortunately for me, I'm not religious.
A friend of the family's died recently and only having seen her a few times in the last coupla' years made it seem much less depressing when I found out. She was my next-door neighbour in NZ, almost like a 2nd mother to me (she'd make me 'chrisscross' potatoes) sweet lady always had medical problems. I hear the "she's in a better place" "she's no longer suffering" stuff and I can say nothing but "bullshit." Death is bad, it's an end - an end to the one and only journey...life.

It's depressing already, and the other thing about life is - the closer one gets to his/her own death the closer everyone else gets too.

A moment of silence for Dianne Wakefield
A moment of silence for all those loved and lost.

Like a race

Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:52:50 GMT

A lot of things going on right now are like the last 100 meters of a race. That period of time when you dig as deep into yourself as you can, find what strength you have left and use it up. The time when you give everything you've got - at least in theory. Unfortunately, it can also be the time when you're sick of running, you're sick of caring, you're sick of dealing with it. It's the time when you most want to give up, ironically enough when you're closest to the finish line.
3 more games
3 more months

Deep breath.

Poor Nietzsche

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 15:54:13 GMT

This was a response to a question some1 asked- did Nietzsche's lousy luck with women influence his philosophy. i found it interesting...

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), one of the seminal modern philosophers and a forefather of existentialism, seems to have had a pretty sucky personal life. In chronic poor health, he was a lifelong but apparently unwilling bachelor. He made two marriage proposals that we know about, both of which were shot down.

In 1876, when he was 32, he popped the question to Mathilde Trampedach, a pretty, self-assured 21-year-old. It's a measure of Nietzsche's cluelessness in these matters that (a) he proposed to Mathilde mere days after meeting her and (b) he sent his rather breathless letter in the care of her boyfriend, conductor Hugo von Senger, whom she later married. Having been rejected, Nietzsche wrote Mathilde an apology, no doubt sensing that his performance had been less than totally cool.

He didn't improve with practice. Six years later he did the same thing with Lou Salome, a Russian-German writer who apparently turned the heads of quite a few male intellectuals in her day. This time he sent his proposal by way of philosopher Paul Ree, who had already proposed to Lou himself. She turned both men down but did suggest a menage a trois. Scholars somewhat prissily assume she was talking about an intellectual rather than a sexual arrangement, but in any case nothing came of it. Lou later married a professor, then had a celebrated affair with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke--she must be the woman you heard about in that lecture.

Nietzsche's philosophy has been tied to the rise of Nazism--unfairly, I might add, though his talk of supermen, slaves, the will to power, etc., sure lent itself to misinterpretation. The question is whether Nietzsche's lousy luck with women influenced his philosophy. Hard to say, but I bet his philosophy probably had something to do with his lousy luck. This is, after all, the man who inspires books like Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. Here are some of his thoughts on the female of the species: "When a woman has scholarly inclinations, there is usually something wrong with her sexually." "Woman has so much reason for shame; so much pedantry, superficiality, schoolmarmishness, petty presumption, petty licentiousness, and immodesty lies concealed in woman." "Everything about woman has one solution: that is pregnancy."

You can see where a guy like this might have trouble getting a date, much less a wedding band. Indeed, so far as we know, Nietzsche never had a genuine romance. He did manage to get laid but probably wished he hadn't; his mental derangement after 1889 and his death in 1900 were supposedly caused by an advanced case of syphilis contracted in a brothel. But what the hell. At least he could be philosophical about it.

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 05:07:49 GMT

Life's not fair. remember that one

Mom, Danny gets gatorade, why can't I get gatorade- it's not fair! (stomp/whine/etc)

Life's not fair.

What does that mean? Does that mean we quit. Oh well life's not fair so I guess I can't have it, no point fighting for it/striving for it/wanting it/having it as a goal. We shouldn't strive to be just/fair/and equal cuz things arent' that way now. Life's not fair? Life's not perfect either does that mean we don't strive for it to be. I think the expression sux and should be erradicated.

"If people were meant to fly, they'd have wings."
Well maybe whoever came up with that never talked to Mr. Richard Pearse (the first person to fly....and if you think it's the Wright Brothers you should start questioning the lies your teachers told you. :-)

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 03:41:27 GMT

Saw a movie today in history about roy cohn. I didn't capitalize his name because I don't think it deserves to be capitalized.
When you think of an 'evil' man, you probably would think Hitler/Stalin/Bush/Jinnah(haha jk)
But this guy was absolutely horrendous. I knew McCarthy was bad but this guy was so much worse. It was depressing to see, the way he'd force ppl to confess and then they'd commit suicide. I read an article online about him, and it didn't mention how he was a manipulative bastard. I mean they mention that he
"He played a prominent role in the trial of eleven leaders of the American Communist Party and in the prosecution of Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951."
didn't mention that a) those 2 were killed or that b) Ethel Rosenberg was innocent.

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality" (Dante then Martin Luther King jr then Kennedy etc...)
This guy had no morality whatsoever.

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 03:30:19 GMT

Though it would make sense, don't tie this into my last comment.

Ever feel like a lot of stuff is just..well futile?
U try to do something but secretly u know there's nothing u can really do to 'help.' and you feel awkward as hell and frustrated, you feel stupid and 'insufficient.' Like there's a solution that's hiding in the shadows, if you'd only look hard enough you'd make everything better. It makes it that much worse when you reach into the shadows and come up emptyhanded. There's no 'pause' button in real-life, let alone a rewind so what you dont' figure out on the spot just doesn't get figured out. "Help?" How can I, as much as I might say it- i'm not omnipotent, nobody is. And as arrogant as it sounds, it sux. One feels, and by one i mean I, that he or she SHOULD fix everything. If one is asked to help, one must help-and must solve the problem. Otherwise you'll let them down, you'll fail. (i know i'm jumping around from I to one to you. but 1st person is arrogant. 2nd person is accusatory and 3rd is impersonal)

I guess the biggest problem is that we're not accustomed to failing(we now) or at least we won't let ourselves fail. And as a result when we do, it's that much worse. If you expect to succeed and fail - the failure is that much worse. Now, it's obviously not a solution to just "expect failure" (I have low expectations so I can't get dissapointed! or even better, whatever life doesn't mean anything so fuck it)

Sun, 13 Feb 2005 04:41:15 GMT

God I hate being Darko.

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 03:35:11 GMT

Men are cruel, but Man is kind.

~Rabindranath Tagore~
(if i spelled his name wrong i'm sorry)

i'm not big on random quotes for the sake of them, 'make you think' but I like this guy and particularly this one.
so...
think about it :-)

I've constantly gone back in forth in my life, primarily based upon how happy or depressed i am at the time, on whether or not man(ok humans) are inheritantly evil or good. Read not a whole lot but enough philosophy to realize that there's no simple answer. I thought this kinda explains how the world really is. Mob mentality and the good old looking glass makes us go against ourselves. I dunno. it's interesting.
Then again i do have a PROPENSITY(THAT was what i was looking for) for asking questions I can't answer.
So ppl. comment and tell me the answer. Agree with Hobbes/Rousseau/Marx/LBJ/Truman/Gandhi/Trujillo. I don't care. but tell me the answer to the question
why the fuck are we so goddamn fucked up?

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 02:49:25 GMT

ABC family
add for Gilmore girls

"The gilmore girls put their tongues to good use" (flash pic of both women kissing guys)

This made me think of the habituation/conditioning that we feel. I would think if some1 said that outright there would be feminists up in arms. To me it was SO blatant it made me think of me making an obvious chauvenistic comment in english class. somewhat sad that it was actually a commercial though.

only use for a girls' tongue is for kissing guys? haha way to go ABC family.

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 02:10:07 GMT

EL REGGAETÓN por Chris Kyle
(Dile, don Omar)
Otra, otra canción otra
el reggaetón está tocando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
La gente está bailando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale,
Otra, otra canción otra,
pues todos están gozando
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale.

De los Panameños a las Boricuas caribeños,
De la Yucatán Mexicana hasta la Tierra del fuego,
Escuchamos la música, el reggaetón, el Abayarde
Lo puro, lo honesto desde la mañana hasta la tarde.

Las muchachas y muchachos, Nicas y Ticos,
los Chapines y Catrachos, los pobres y ricos.
Bailamos el perreo y cantamos con Don Omar,
La gente latinoamericana queremos honrar.

Otra, otra canción otra
el reggaetón está tocando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
La gente está bailando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale,
Otra, otra canción otra,
pues todos están gozando
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale.

Incluyamos elementos Jamaicanos y Estado-Unidenses,
Un sincretismo hemos hecho para entretener a nuestra gente.
La música nos une, el mundo latinoamericano,
Desde el “che” al chileno, el colombiano al chicano.

La cultura latina consiste de mucho,
comida, creencias, historia, el Caballuco.
Con tanto que atribuye a la lengua castellana,
el reggaetón lo tiene todo de Bogotá hasta La Habana.

Otra, otra canción otra
el reggaetón está tocando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
La gente está bailando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale,
Otra, otra canción otra,
pues todos están gozando.
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale.

El mundo escucha todo lo que decimos,
por el radio, discos, conciertos nos fuimos,
El tema nos invade en manera subconsciente,
En los hombres, las hembras y toda la gente.

No hay racismo en el reggaetón puro,
No margina a ninguno –eso te lo juro.
Todos están incluidos en las canciones de veras,
Y todos pueden disfrutar en la música ligera

Otra, otra canción otra
el reggaetón está tocando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
La gente está bailando,
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale,
Otra, otra canción otra,
pues todos están gozando.
Otra, otra canción otra,
Cántale, cántale

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:46:27 GMT

What Makes You.. by SheBangs12
Your name?
Your gender?
What makes you sexy?	Your lips
What makes you pretty?	Everything
What makes you loveable?	How loving you are
What makes you fun?	Everything about you!
What makes you irresistable?	Your voice
What makes you cute?	How you laugh

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Sun, 30 Jan 2005 06:10:24 GMT

There is a great deal of desensitizing going on in the world. Mostly we think of it as seeing stuff on tv/movies/video games(death for example)
but one thing that also undergoes this concept is something a lot simpler:
words.
We have a tendency to be extraordinarily skeptical about the use of certain words - things can never be as simple and innocuous and they seem. Oftentimes we get so used to hearing/using a word that it loses all of its meaning. "fuck" for example is hardly an expression of emphasis or even a curse word nowadays.
Hiperbole is all well and good but I guess it is part of the problem. "i LOVE those shoes."
My only problem with all this is there's something profoundly wrong with feeling like words are questioned when they ARE meant truthfully. It can be quite troubling.
And quite frankly,
I will NOT conceal the truth.

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 04:16:27 GMT

"You see Lucas, there is no way that you can PROVE to me that you are lucas. There is no way to really prove anything at all. You can show me your birth certificate, bring your parents here or even show a talent that Lucas exhibits and I have no need or reason to believe you. Nothing you say can change that. For all intents and purposes you are as likely to be Lucas as not. In fact in many ways, you are less likely to be Lucas than not."

"I'm not Lucas, I'm Daniel."

"You have just proven my point."

(Lucas and Daniel are identical twins that most ppl tell apart by the presence or lack thereof of braces)