tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22486717159199300292024-03-13T08:30:50.441-07:00JunkPhilosophyHmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-3506879765750131192012-09-02T10:36:00.005-07:002012-09-02T10:44:52.676-07:00Logic and Religion<br />
Organized religion: what is it doing here? How does it fit into our modern world? Does it even matter? (Note: the following paragraphs may contain gross generalizations. Also, for the purpose of this writing, i'm leaving the various cans of religion flavored worms closed - violence, corruption, oppression. I realize every sin that exists has, at some point, been committed in the name of religion, but you can read about that anywhere.)<br />
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Let's take a moment to consider why religion exists. Think about this: it's the middle ages, you're born in a small village, you grow up among adults who were born in the same small village. They haven't seen the outside world, and you probably never will either: there's too much work to be done at home - work upon which your very survival depends. That's right, no going to Paris for the weekend, no vacations in Iceland - Paris is weeks away by foot, and there are too many Vikings in Iceland.<br />
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Every now and then, you experience out-of-the-ordinary events - a mysterious sickness kills half of your family; your crops are ruined by a plague of insects; drought; flood; basically all of that "wrath of god" stuff. Now, why did humans become the dominant species on this planet? It's a hairy question that could be debated until we're all dead, but i'd put some money on one of the reasons being: our ability to ask "why?". We want to know how things work. A peasant living in the middle ages is not going to know what we know today - nevertheless, their human minds will inevitably crave an explanation for extraordinary events.<br />
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This is where religion comes in: it answers these questions. Any religious text, or local mythology seems to have the foremost purpose of explaining why the world is the way it is. In addition to this, it gives the people a framework around which to base their lives. It gives them a community and a specified set of morals. I don't know about you, but if i had no education beyond what i needed to survive, i would have been more than happy to take all my answers from any source that offered them. It's protection from the uncertainty of the world, protection from the deep, dark abyss that is not knowing why.<br />
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My point here is that religion began with, in my opinion, the same basic goal as science - to explain our world and inform us as to how we should live in it. Over the past few centuries, science has taken over this role, often with resistance from religion. Regardless of the relationship between the two, science is now carrying one of the torches that religion and mythology started out carrying. Religion today, one one hand, seems to have become more of a political tool - for gaining and maintaining power over the masses. On the other hand, while these organizations have become vast and powerful, a large part of what's kept it alive is the community aspect. You're born into a faith, make connections through it, and have a framework for your life. I think that's why it's still around - not everyone shares the same endless curiosity we do, and people love structure.<br />
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Personally, i don't subscribe to any religions. I don't want the answers to be easy; in fact, i'm very wary of anything that's too easy. Still, i can totally understand the appeal of having unquestioning faith in something; something that tells you it's all going to be ok if you just follow the rules. As much as we try to isolate ourselves from the harshness of our world, it's still out there - death, disease, violence - these are the things which, in my opinion, drove people to religion in the first place.<br />
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And they are not going to go away any time soon.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-3504043287365832522012-07-27T22:41:00.001-07:002012-07-28T10:29:21.634-07:00Zombies and Vampires - Why we love them<br />
In recent years, we've seen a deluge of undead on our screens: from the (more or less) biologically explained 28 Days Later, to the more supernatural True Blood. Vampire Diaries, The Walking Dead, Zombieland, Let the Right One In, and many others have swarmed all over our screens.<br />
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Let The Right One In - The sweetest vampire film i've ever seen.</div>
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Why are they so popular?<br />
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<b>Zombie Apocalypse</b><br />
First, think about zombie films. What traits do they share? They usually involve a few human protagonists discovering that everyone around them has turned into brain-thirsty creatures, devoid of humanity. The battle for survival begins; running; hiding; gathering food, weapons and medical supplies.<br />
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So, to put it one way, the zombie genre focuses on the downfall of humanity. Money, jobs, dentist visits, rent payments, dinner with the in-laws - none of it matters anymore. Instead, life becomes about finding a big enough stick with which to protect yourself. In a world where we're expected to hold ourselves in the form of civilized beings, i can see why the return to battling for survival has its allure. These films let us, for their duration at least, fantasize about testing our strength in the wild.<br />
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Dead Snow - Nazi Zombies. </div>
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<b>Vampires</b><br />
No, what about vampire films? These seem to vary a bit more. Sometimes the vampire is a mysterious terror, which must be found and killed. Recently, the vampire has found him(or her)self in the role of protagonist. Works like Interview With the Vampire, True Blood, and Let the Right One In explore the vampire as a sympathetic character, rather than an undead terror. It was bound to happen, as our cinematic artform evolved, searching for new angles and new stories, but why do vampires make such popular protagonists?<br />
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At one time, when our individual worlds were smaller, we feared monsters: whether they were creatures of myth, or other nations who our leaders had taught us to fear. Today, when news of an event can spread across the world like ripples from a stone piercing the surface of a still pond, we're beginning to realize that the terror of the unknown can lurk within that which we think we know. Rather than fearing vampires, Germans or wrathful spirits, we fear our neighbors - because we have learned that they can easily be serial killers, pedophiles or rapists. We don't believe this because it's more likely than it once was, but because when we hear about a single such instance anywhere in the world, we can't help but apply it to our own lives.<br />
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Compared to the unpredictability of our fellow human, vampires don't sound so scary, do they? Plus, they always seem to be sexy for some reason.<br />
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True Blood - Turning the undead into a fetish.</div>Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-72001642222075584522012-07-07T16:33:00.001-07:002012-07-27T22:42:22.565-07:00Spiders and Snakes<br />
Australia: The land of deadly spiders and snakes... everything wants to kill you! Or does it?<br />
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<b>Redback Spiders</b><br />
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Look at that huge abdomen; the telltale hourglass shaped red marking; those spindly legs - that is one evil motherfucker. Sound pretty damn dangerous?<br />
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Nope. In Australia, there are around 250 cases per year in which redback antivenom is administered. That's about a 1 in 88,000 chance that you'll be bitten badly enough to need treatment - roughly the same as the odds that you'll die at home in a fire. And that's only the cases that require antivenom - which account for 20% of bites. That's right, 80% of redback bites never escalate to the point where urgent medical care is needed, and since the antivenom was introduced in 1956, there have been no recorded deaths.<br />
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<b>Funnel Web Spiders</b><br />
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Now these look like prehistoric tarantulas from tarantula hell; i'm pretty sure that thing could eat a small dog. That must be a good reason to fear the land down under, right?<br />
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Nope. Up to 30-40 people are bitten by funnel web spiders each year - which works out to odds of 1 in 550,000; about the same as your chances of dying from falling out of a building. And, the same as the redback, there is an antivenom. The last recorded death from a funnel web bite was in 1979; the antivenom was introduced in 1980.<br />
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By the way, these are the only 2 species of spider on record as having caused deaths in Australia. While none of our other spiders will win spider-beauty contests, they won't kill you either.<br />
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<b>So what about Aussie snakes?</b><br />
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This guy looks pretty plain, right? Well this is an Eastern brown snake, and is responsible for about 60% of snakebite deaths in Australia. Not so ordinary now, right? So should you fear this boring looking killer next time you're in Australia?<br />
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Not really. Your chances of suffering any snakebite during a year in Australia range from 1 in 5500 to 1 in 33,300. The actual mortality rate averages 0.03 per 100,000 per year. That's 1 in 3,300,000. For perspective, riskcomm.com lists the odds of dying next year from "Falling from bed, chair or furniture" as 1 in 366,804. So it's nearly 10 times more likely that you'll die falling from your bed, than that you'll die from an Australian snakebite.<br />
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So, while Australia may have more than its fair share of poisonous spiders and snakes, we have it under control. When visiting, you'd be better served taking note of the more banal dangers, such as cars and accidental drowning (you might also want to watch out for house fires, high windows and falling out of bed). Of course, if you are one of the very unlucky few who are bitten, please do seek medical aid. But for now, as a general rule, don't stick your hands and feet where you can't see them, and you'll be right.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-76351377959489728122012-05-19T18:45:00.001-07:002012-05-19T19:00:50.199-07:00The Dunning-Kruger Effect<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">I'm going to get straight to the point: the internet is a magnifying glass for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect" target="_blank">Dunning-Kruger Effect</a>. Many of you may know what this is; basically, it's an effect observed in a study conducted by Justin Kruger and David Dunning at Cornell University. Basically, the idea is that incompetent people will overestimate the level of their skill, and underestimate that of others. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The internet, being a place where you can anonymously interact with people from all over the world, naturally attracts folk who just want to be heard. I think this can be dangerous, and encourage people to develop an exaggerated sense of self worth, where being right is more important than actual learning.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">So please, question yourself; when someone has an opinion that you want to resist, examine it carefully before you throw it away. Overconfidence doesn't really beget self improvement.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>"One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision." </i>Bertrand Russell</span></div>Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-28185746177169667732012-05-12T19:21:00.000-07:002012-05-19T19:00:37.332-07:00Fate and Opportunity<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Something that i seem to hear a lot is that something was "meant to be". The idea is that fate, or some other guiding force, has caused a positive event in your life. I can certainly see why this idea is so appealing, but i don't really agree with it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">On the one hand, you have little things, like taking a different path to work one day and finding $20 on the ground. This is merely coincidence. You could call finding money on the ground a low probability event, but the odds are that many low probability events will happen to you throughout your life. To assign greater meaning to something simply because it's unusual doesn't make sense to me.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">On the other hand, you have bigger things like moving to another country and falling in love with someone. Now i know it's romantic and sweet to say that fate brought you together, it's perfectly natural to feel that way. But who's to say that you wouldn't have found someone even more amazing had you stayed where you were? Or perhaps you would have made an amazing friend, or landed a great job. Without time/dimensional travel, there is no way of knowing this. To me, it all boils down to assigning arbitrary meaning to positive events.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Don't get me wrong, i don't mean to sound bitter or pessimistic. I just don't like it when people hand the reigns of their life over to "fate". Humans can adapt to a lot; we are able to find opportunities anywhere. If you make the most out of any situation that life throws at you, you'll always feel like fate has favoured you. </span></div>
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<br /></div>Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-64381515924530437902012-05-05T22:37:00.000-07:002012-05-19T19:05:18.853-07:00Opinions are so hot right now<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Who doesn't have an opinion?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe it has something to do with the company i keep, or with the fact that anyone can post anything on the web (it's like a giant global conversation where people can say anything they like and not worry about looking stupid), but it seems like everyone has strong opinions on everything... lest they be called a fence-sitter.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You pick an opinion, and defend it with everything you have - ad hominem, straw man arguments, ignoratio elenchi, whatever you have to do. No matter what, though, there is always a loser: knowledge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Try saying "i was wrong". It's really damn hard - but you will be wrong from time to time. It takes balls to man up and say "you're right". I have a lot of respect for anyone who has an open enough mind, and who cares enough about knowledge, to bow out of an argument when they realise their position is flawed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And if you're not confident about your sources - if you haven't satisfied your own standards of research - it's ok to say "i don't know for sure". Nothing spreads bad information faster than people rabidly arguing their half-baked opinions to everyone they talk to.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Debate for fun, debate for sport, but keep your mind open.</span>Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-74862979822350051392012-04-28T11:53:00.002-07:002012-04-28T11:54:30.585-07:00Knowing what we don't know.Ok, so what do Aboriginal dreamtime stories and the theory of relativity have in common?<br />
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Both come from Man's desire to explain the world we live in.<br />
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It seems that humankind has done this since we developed language, at very least. An Australian Aboriginal <a href="http://www.dreamtime.auz.net/default.asp?PageID=62&n=Goo2DGoor2DGaga+the+Kookaburra" target="_blank">dreamtime story</a> tells of how the sun came to be, fulfilling a need to explain day and night. Many cultures developed their own various theories of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth" target="_blank">flat earth</a>, feeding a desire to know more about the world around us. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirudo_medicinalis" target="_blank">Leeches</a> were once commonly used in medicine, as humankind tried to discover how to maintain and heal our bodies.<br />
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Modern science tells us that our ancestors were wrong on all of these counts. We might look at these beliefs and think it's quaint that people once believed these things, but think for a second - they were just like us. These people were merely trying to explain the world that surrounds us, just as we do today, with whatever resources they had.<br />
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Science has progressed well beyond these old beliefs, but i think it's a mistake to think that we're anywhere near knowing it all. In 2000 years, will future generations look back and scoff at what we believe we know today?<br />
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We don't know what we don't know.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-32440033807819550592012-04-19T16:03:00.001-07:002012-04-21T11:25:51.087-07:00Miswanting and (Misfearing)What do you want right now? What would make you happy?<br />
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Think about it.<br />
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According to a study by psychologists from Harvard, the University of Virginia and Princeton, it might not make you as happy as you think.<br />
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Over the past several years, i've developed the opinion that a lot of decisions don't matter. I can't see the future, so how should i know which fork in the road will be best for me? I only feel this way about difficult choices where i can't find any clear advantages for either option, but this study suggests that even a decision that we feel 100% confident about might not be the best one in the long run.<br />
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Here's an example of miswanting:<br />
I'm making a decent living in my current job, but i want to be able to save more money, so i look for a second job. I believe i'll be happy when i have more money coming in. I find a second job! I'm satisfied, but not as happy as i thought i would be. More money is coming in, but it doesn't make as big a difference as i thought it would, and now i have less free time.<br />
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The idea is that the happiness we think we'll get from something is actually not as intense or long lasting as we think it will be, as our mind quickly adapts. Have you ever finally acquired something you've been wanting, only to get over it disappointingly quickly? The expectation of happiness is like our mind dangling a carrot in front of us.<br />
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The flip side of the coin, according to this study, is that we misjudge negative events as well. We might think that a particular event will be horrible, but not actually suffer as much from it, when it happens, as we thought we would. This is another case of our brain exaggerating things to force us into action.<br />
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For example, we all fear the loss of our loved ones. This makes sense, as it's in our nature to protect our kin, so this is our brain motivating us to do so. When we do lose a loved one, it's hard. We grieve, but not for as long as we may think we will. Our "psychological immune system" kicks in and helps us deal with it.<br />
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So perhaps that thing you fear most won't be as bad as you think it will be. And next time you have to make a decision about your future, keep this in mind. It might just be your brain dangling a carrot in front of you. For those interested, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wjh.harvard.edu%2F%7Edtg%2FGilbert%2520%26%2520Wilson%2520%28Miswanting%29.pdf&ei=b0SST__FAuXw6AGNpLCrBA&usg=AFQjCNHPRkvH0ag4MybwSseiq7MYQTM7lA&sig2=VUyCkf6rnDZlpWg1OJRSeQ" target="_blank">here</a> is a download link to a pdf of the study.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-76159023331526992722012-04-15T16:48:00.001-07:002012-05-08T09:29:16.199-07:00Dolan and DadaismThere's a meme-based webcomic floating around the internet called Dolan. It consists of poorly drawn Disney characters speaking broken english (possibly because it originated on a Finnish image board). It's generally centered around Donald Duck, with his named misspelt as "Dolan". In these comics, Dolan is often seen raping, murdering, and defecating in peoples' food. Below is one of the more tame comics.<br />
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A lot of people find these horribly offensive, downright juvenile, or they just don't get it (or all of the above). But somehow, on some level, a lot of people find them very amusing. I think it's interesting to look at them from an art theory standpoint. Memes have become a kind of "art 2.0". Anyone with MS paint and an internet connection is able to create their own Dolan comic, and many websites have their own meme generators. While it's not exactly fine art, it is a form of expression.<br />
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When i see a Dolan comic, i'm reminded of the Dada movement. Dadaism was a cultural movement that arose, around the time of WWI, out of anti-war sentiment that rejected the prevailing standards of the time through various art forms, creating "anti-art". Dadaism was anarchistic, and set out to ridicule the meaninglessness of the modern world. Dadaist art works were created with the intention of offending and challenging peoples' standards preconceptions.<br />
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To say that all that can be applied to Dolan comics might be reading too much into it, but it's the anarchistic and challenging nature of the comics that made me draw the connection. The comics, for the most part, seem to be very deliberately made to be as offensive and tasteless as possible. I think that's also what gives them their dark appeal. In a world where we're supposed to be becoming more and more civilised every day, i think that the innate human desire to tear things down is stronger than ever, and i think that the Dolan comics are just one of many symptoms of this. <br />
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Another outlet of this, i think, can be seen in the current obsession, in the US at least, with zombie apocalypse scenarios, but I'll cover that in a future post.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-7268050369355728862012-04-14T21:15:00.001-07:002012-04-19T10:53:30.934-07:00LivingGood evening folks. Now sometimes i hear people say that they're not enjoying their life, or that they don't really enjoy living. I don't really agree with this because i think they're focusing on the wrong thing.<br />
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Living, by itself, is nothing. Living is like a canvas. No one looks at a painting and says "what an amazing canvas". The things that you enjoy doing, the things that you get satisfaction from in life - they are the paint on the canvas. Being alive allows you to do those things the same way you can't really make a painting without something for the paint to stick to.<br />
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Living, while pretty amazing, doesn't feel that great. I mean who gets off on blood flowing through their capillaries, or shedding and replacing cells? That's just the canvas. What we do with the paint is the most important thing.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-52865703572806306752012-04-12T16:35:00.000-07:002012-04-12T16:35:05.959-07:00Weird PhrasesGood evening chaps and chapettes. There's an old, but still commonly used phrase that's been eating away at me for a while, and i need to get it off my chest:<br />
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"To have your cake, and eat it too"<br />
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I know what it means; something along the lines of having the best of both sides of a decision, and none of the negatives; but it just seems so... inappropriate. For one thing, what is the point of having cake, if not to eat it? It would have to be a really beautiful cake for me to enjoy possessing it as much as i enjoyed eating it. For me, to have cake IS to eat it.<br />
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I suppose the rebuttal to this would be "ah, but then you won't have the cake anymore, hence the benefit of the 'have your cake' half of the phrase". At the risk of sounding like Marie Antoinette, JUST GET MORE CAKE! There is a finite supply of cake in the world, but you would never be able to eat that much without getting sick of it.<br />
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So in summary, it is a stupid phrase because cake holds very little value except when eaten. Perhaps a more appropriate phrase would be "To have your cute baby lamb and eat it too".Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-26995016306496905732012-04-11T11:57:00.000-07:002012-04-11T11:57:37.901-07:00Money is TimeI was doing my tax last week, and i mentioned daily budgets. My tax preparer said that when she looks at what she's spent on a given day, she can recall exactly what she did that day. I offhandedly remarked that our lives are punctuated by transactions. She laughed and said "that's really sad, isn't it?".<br />
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I didn't go into any further detail because 1) i was shocked at how much tax i had to pay, and 2) neither of us had alcoholic beverages in our hands. However, i don't think it's just buying things that punctuates our lives, it's everything. That may seem like an obvious statement, but let me explain...<br />
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A while ago, i had a class on a Russian film maker by the name of Tarkovsky. We were talking about the way he uses motion in his shots to give them a rhythm of their own. This led to discussion about what guides our perception of time. I think there are so many ways in which this can influence us, that it's hard to talk in absolutes. For example, if we have a day at work where different tasks are constantly being thrown at us, it can seem to fly by - both at the time, and in hindsight. On the other hand, if we have a day off work and sit around all day, that time can also seem to fly past. However, if we're anticipating an event, that is when time can seem to drag on forever.<br />
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So basically, our perception of time is punctuated by things happening. Anything at all. This seems to apply over the long term as well. Many people say that, as you get older, the years go by faster. I think this is because you stop doing new things. When i was 22, i worked at a supermarket and drank a lot. A couple of years went by just like that. I spent another couple of years after that doing a Masters degree. This also involved a lot of drinking but, because i was learning new things, those 2 years seem so long in my memory.<br />
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The conclusion i get from this is that we need to keep doing new things if we want to feel like we've had long lives. The day in/day out stuff doesn't count is hard to avoid, but it's important to mix things up whenever you can.<br />
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And if it's the spending of money that helps you measure your time, it's better than nothing.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-87068306361952834332012-04-09T05:57:00.000-07:002012-04-09T05:57:39.135-07:00In BetweenHave you ever had a really profound thought in that spacey area between wakefulness and sleep? Here's one i had:<br />
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I was walking up some stairs with some industry idols of mine, but once we got near the top, i was unable to pass the top few stairs. So i was left there, and became one of the top stairs.<br />
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I woke up with this thought: some of us are bound to be top stairs - not quite at the level we want to be, and constantly walked over by others on their way to the top.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-21363892519633856812012-04-08T15:55:00.000-07:002012-09-01T10:30:35.532-07:00"I don't know" is an answerThis is something that bothers me: when pressed for my views on religion, i have to describe myself as agnostic. This bothers me because i feel that people have a general view of agnostics as fence-sitters unwilling to commit to one side or the other. When i examine my beliefs however, i don't find any kind of indecision or non-committal.<br />
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This my point - Christians believe in God; Muslims believe in Allah; Buddhists believe in Nirvana; Atheists believe there is no God or other higher power. Personally, i don't want to believe, i want to know. All of the above mentioned religious/non-religious demographics can offer up arguments of various degrees, but can any prove themselves to be 100% correct? While many would say Atheism, with the help of science, can; i would say that it may come close, but there's always that miniscule degree of uncertainty. Do Atheists know there is no god? Or is believe a more appropriate term? I am just fine with anyone believing what they want; but i think it's arrogant to assume others will take up your beliefs over their own.<br />
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I don't feel the need to believe or disprove anything to anyone. Personally, i'm happy to try to discover the best ways to live, and to appreciate people regardless of what they might believe. And my rejection of the need for belief is anything but indecisive.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-4671102525886191342012-04-08T00:43:00.000-07:002012-04-08T00:43:57.525-07:00New York CityI moved to New York City about 3 years ago and i've since noticed that, amongst people you meet, there seems to be a general sense of self centred-ness. I know this is the stereotype for New Yorkers - fast talking, no bullshit, opportunistic survivalists. I don't like stereotypes, so i tried very hard to disprove it for myself. However, after these 3 years, i have to say that the stereotype is fairly accurate in general. I do realise that there some lovely New Yorkers who will go out of their way to help you, but the "me-first" attitude is still very common.<br />
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I was wondering why this is, and i was reminded of a wounded animal. A wounded animal can growl and snap at anyone who comes near, out of a basic instinct for survival. I thought, perhaps, the chaos, noise and immensity of this city is threatening to us humans, on a subconscious level. Maybe the selfish New Yorker stereotype is a kind of survival instinct. Maybe we're all just wounded animals walking around with our defenses up.<br />
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On the other hand, maybe New York is more like the Amazon: a vast and complex eco system, highly dangerous for anyone who doesn't know their place, where a naive newcomer can easily be eaten, poisoned, or go hungry.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-57429445837731796332012-04-06T22:59:00.000-07:002012-09-01T10:29:41.854-07:00Time and SleepGood evening chaps and chappettes. Tonight, my topic of thought is time.<br />
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If our perception of time is determined by individual events that happen within that time (more, and varied, events making time seem longer), then sleep is the enemy of feeling like you've lived a long life. However, lack of sleep will take away the quality of your waking hours.<br />
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So, is there a ratio of waking:sleeping hours that is an ideal balance? Maybe it's the old 8 hours that we're always told about. Maybe it's less. I have had some terrible days on 10 hours' sleep, and some hilarious days on 5. Perhaps the key is variation, although we're told that our body doesn't like that.<br />
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Tonight, i believe, calls for at least 10 hours. It's been a long week.<br />
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Good night folks!Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2248671715919930029.post-58047938727059356102012-04-06T11:02:00.000-07:002012-07-28T10:28:36.753-07:00Junk PhilosophyHi there! I didn't see you come in.<br />
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Sometimes i think things. Well, actually i think things most of the time. Although sex does tend to be better if i'm not thinking things...<br />
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Anyway, what better place to air my weird and mundane on-the-spot ideas than the world wide web? Where strangers can heckle me, worship me, or post links to sites that earned their brother in law's wife $3000 last month doing 30 minutes of work a day.<br />
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That's all i have time for now, but i'll be sure to post some more whenever that little speck of gold shows up in the dirty stream that is my mind.<br />
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You take care now, and enjoy your afternoon.Hmmmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15085172522137484051noreply@blogger.com4