| Next quarter is going to be brutal.
I just finished signing up for 21 credits--16 of which are advanced math and physics.
Well, it's not like I have much of [read: any] social life anyway. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| How low has our culture declined that it's standard to spread hate, bigotry, and stereotyping as "news"?
In one of my rare moments of watching TV, flipping through the channels, I landed on a "debate" show on Fox, uh, "Fox News".
I can't recall the name of the appalling program but, if I could, I would be tempted to write a letter of disdain to an e-mail address where it would unceremoniously be tallied towards some obscure rating and stripped of all meaning. How can such show hosts wake up each morning knowing that they will spread lies? How can they claim any sort of fairness when their bias streams forth like blood spewing from a severed artery.
"News" these days, at least by such organizations as Fox (had I happened to hit CNN or ABC I might as well have been writing them instead), isn't about informing the population about important issues--it's about selling commercials. It's about finding the interesting spark of a controversial story, blowing it out of proportion, adding bias and, sometimes, unfounded information, and covering them with such lack of candor it can no longer justify a name above that of "cheap entertainment".
This is the emerging shape of pure, unchecked, capitalism. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Heros | | Time: | 11:57 am |
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| | Heros sell. They always have but recently they are THE selling idea. That is, the implication that *you* could be a hero, seems to lurking just beneath the surface... are we really that pathetic that we hope for a preternatural change to fix our problems for us? | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Since I've started taking German I have been increasingly misspelling English words like "perceive" and "receive". Yeah, yeah: 'i before 'e except after 'c and words like... What a load of tripe. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| There was a college fair yesterday.
It was amusing, if not generally pointless, to talk to the representatives at different booths.
It actually wasn't that bad--I did learn where NOT to go for an IT Major.
I asked the "Computer Science Major" sitting at the WSU-V booth what programming language he liked best.
His answer was both prompt and disturbing:
"PHP" ... "I don't have to think"
Why do people pride themselves in NOT having to think? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| From -AM-, in reply to one of my e-mails:
So then let's have a huge tirade.
Are we free? What is it to be free? Obviously we can't grow wings and fly if we want to, so we are not free in the freest sense of the word. Yet most people would agree that we at least appear to possess some degree of free choice; try not-choosing to get out of bed in the morning.
There is no proof-positive for the existence of a will of any kind, of course. That is, it could be argued that if you feel like trying to not-choose to get out of bed, that's simply the way events look from your perspective. From a more objective perspective, some might insist, that "choice" was actually just the end result of a chain of events that ensured your brain would not command your body to rise. The fact that you were aware of the choice means nothing, since simply being aware of the occurence of a determined even does not mean it was not determined.
On the other hand, it is also impossible to disprove the existence of free will, at least as long as we continue not to understand the mechanisms of consciousness. And some might claim that simple common sense is proof enough that some measure of free will exists. Take the example above, expand on it. What would a society look like that presupposed the Universe and all our actions are predetermined? Would there be any laws at all? Would laws make any sense?
No, it goes further than that. In fact, if everything is predetermined, it doesn't make sense to try to think about how else things might have happened or how else things could be. Everything you think is what you had to think. Everything you say is what had to be said. Everything done had to be done; the rapist had to rape, the victim had to be victimized. The judge had to judge, the guards confine, the inmates brutalize. Everything follows from everything. If this is true, it is not possible to truly think about anything... verbs stop making sense. You don't "do" anything.
That doesn't fit at all with the way reality appears to our senses. We do seem to do things. Not everything we do do we do actively. Some things are clearly operating under the laws of cause and effect, and are predetermined with regard to their operation before and after they are affected by consciousness.
What do you think about God? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| In Sociology class the first two groups "debated". Only it wasn't a debate.
It was a group of monkeys making broad inaccurate stereotypes and assertions with not so much as a cross-check to the level of stink on the shit they were throwing. The entire fiasco, if transcribed, would make a perfect entry for (what I can only hope is a tongue-in-cheek) site such at Shelley The Republican (http://shelleytherepublican.com/). I really do hope that site is a parody. If not the authors needs to be publicly flogged for such brazen stupidity. (Edit: On further reflection, it's the idiots who continue to buy into this game who should be mocked for their gullibility. I think I might just make it a daily reading.)
Some "key points":
-- Internet is the Devil and all who use it are myspace-pedo-junkies
* Alcohol 120% (which, incidentally is a legal commercial virtual drive application) is a "hacking tool"
* You can "download port scanners and ZOMG haX0rz yer c0mp3rz; Ph33r m3h!"
* It's like, you know, you do research (on the Internet) and then like *BAM!*, a virus eating your socks! And I like, so totally, had Norton installed.
-- Internet is the Goooogles; just search--you're guaranteed schooling AND good employment!
* The recent (post-2000) decrease of the unemployment rate is due to Teh Internet! (I don't even know where to begin with this statement... it can't even be called a spurious correlation.)
I held back. Trying to be nice.
Or rather, not come off as an asshole trying to make other people look bad by pointing out how obviously misinformed they are. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | You have to be fast to act to "seize the moment". Yes, this is out of context. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | There is a cute girl sitting next to me--I wonder how old she is. So many people that go to Clark are so young. There are people in my German class who are only 16 years old... it's been awhile since I was that age. Well, single-serving friends are good. I suppose. My mind keeps drifting back to Christy (Christie?)--but she is older. Maybe 27. Maybe older. I'm definitely partial to younger girls. But there is a range and fringe. Chesterpox! Well, whatever works? It's all about what each party in the relationship can provide; and what each member demands. Tug and pull. Man, I'm a sucker at helping out girls. Especially cute ones. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Control | | Time: | 08:18 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) bored |
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| I feel like a Fox today only ... not a compromising fox. I was on the attack with the goal already set in my mind. I went back to the Toyota dealership ;)
Car shopping is actually quite fun when there is no pressure. I suppose I should be scared of not having transportation as classes are starting in just over a week but even if I am not successful here, there is still time for a scrappy consolation victory.
The thing is ... car sales people having *nothing* except your own desires and haste to commit you to a purchase. They will pick on your ego and desires by selling you the "look" and they will try to urge you into rashness by promising "everyone is looking for that vehicle" or "this sale ends soon". But, that is all they can do... there is no exclusiveness, no gun or hostage held. Just you.
I feel like an asshole in a way --
* Showing dominance towards the floor sales-man
* Throwing around indifference towards either the particular sale or choosing between different cars
* Demanding that the price they offer is the drive-off-the-lot price
* Turning down the signing and offering up a cold, calculated, "It's not worth that much" backed with general technical aspects of the vehicle.
Yet, at the same time my hard-line attitude seems to have actually been not-hard enough. They are either meeting my demands--which are fairly based on the value of the car--or they are trying to catch me with a "you've been financed" routine and try to hurry me into signing a buyers agreement. In this case, only the first option will result in a sale.
Tomorrow will be interesting. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Today while driving I saw four "homeless" people standing on different corners begging for a handout. I pretend to ignore them. On one hand it saddens me to think that people no, healthy looking adults who have no problem standing for hours, can be in such a situation but, in the end, I do not feel any respect, duty or sympathy.
I do not understand what motivates people to try and live off of other people's scraps -- their change and their garbage; free handouts used to offset guilty hearts. Are jobs, even unskilled day-labor, in that scarcity that their is no other way to live apart from using the compassionate hearts of others as a crutch?
Yet, even though they simply act as parasites, they are much more courageous than I; letting their name and face publicly fall to such a low bracket of our society. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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