non-well-founded thoughts

Posting elsewhere

2006-01-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

Just in case you care, I've started posting over at Daily Departures. I doubt that there will be any posting going on here at Non-Well-Founded Thought any more.

It is, of course, up to you if you keep checking this blog though. I won't stop you.

Odd Use

2005-09-24T20:44:00.000-04:00

I often read the New York Times Online Edition. Today I read a review of the New David Cronenberg film "A History of Violence." Under one of the included screen-shots from the film was the collowing caption:

Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello star in David Cronenberg's new film, playing a husband and wife living in a fictional Indiana town.

I think that this is a very odd placement (perhaps use) of the term 'fictional'. It seems natural to use the term 'fictional' as an operator that modifies the content of what follows. Here, the term certainly seems to modify 'Indiana town', but given the placement, it doesn't seem to modify what comes before it. One reading (the most literal one, I suppose) is that the husband and wife live in a fictional town. This surely is not what the writer had in mind, for it is impossible to live in a fictional town. A better reading of this sentence might be to understand there to be an implicit 'fiction' operator that is located before "a husband and wife." But then also, we have the odd situation where the fictional husband and wife live in a fictional town. Surely within the fiction, the town is not fictional.

No doubt, we can understand what the author of this sentence means, but he was certainly not very careful in writing it.

Hello?

2005-05-03T23:15:00.000-04:00

So... I'm getting flack about not posting. I guess what the problem is that anytime I think about writing a blog post, the task just seems to ominous. Yeah, yeah I know, "You don't have to write anything long, just write SOMETHING!"

So, I'm writing something.

I found a really cool program that is only for the Mac, but if you have a Mac, then you ought to download this program. It is called sidenote. As a matter of fact I am typing this blog post in the sidenote window right now!

Here's the basic idea: The name of this software is intended to be descriptive. The program hides at the side of the screen until you move the mouse pointer to the side where it is hiding. At that point, sidenote pops out with a text box for the user to type down little notes; URLs, memos, phone numbers, or whatever else you want. It is super cool.

(Oh yeah... did I mention that you can also save pictures from online by dragging them into sidenote?)

More frequent...

2005-03-03T01:10:00.000-05:00

I will post more frequently from now on, I promise. Actually, I don't know why I'm writing like this, because no-one is reading the blog anyways. Just check the stats.

More later.

Something Fun

2005-01-30T01:37:00.000-05:00

So, my motivation for blogging lately has been close to nil. I wish that I could find stats--from blogger or something--on how many people start blogs, publish two posts (maybe three) and then never again. I suspect that there are quite a number of people like this.

So, something fun has finally motivated me to post something short. I saw Ben Folds in concert tonight. If you don't know who he is, follow the link on his name. I have introduced a good half dozen people to Ben Folds and each of them became nearly instant fans. If you listen to some of the clips on his site and are thinking about buying an album, I recommend Ben Folds Live or Ben Folds Live [Clean]. Those are the same album, both an excellent buy!

Delicious Library

2005-01-18T00:36:00.000-05:00

Delicious Library is, I think, the single coolest program that I have ever seen. If you can be in love with a computer program, then I am! If you scroll down the page a bit you can see some screenshots...you will be impressed.

Delicious Monster, the company that makes this product, is very new; but with products so well thought out so early, they are bound to be big! What will be next... I can't wait to fall in love... again.

Not dead

2005-01-07T01:10:00.000-05:00

Yes people, that is right, I'm NOT dead. If you are wondering "Why the dearth of posts Mark?", then this post is for you. I have thought about writing things a number of times, but then when I sit down to get at it... well... I just don't feel like it. Besides, I sit in front of my computer all day (well most of the day) trying to finish off these papers that I am working on. Ugh.

So, there haven't been posts because I just haven't felt like it.

Oh yeah... Everyone should go and check out a p.h.a.t. new blog called "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry"

States of Awe

2004-12-18T14:15:00.000-05:00

***[WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG POST AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE, ONCE YOU BEGIN READING YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO STOP DUE TO THE EXEMPLARY PROSE.]***
I dont joke about warnings so take that seriously.

2:44AM and I am sitting in the Syracuse Airport waiting for my flight that leaves at 6:15AM. I have been here since shortly after 10:00PM.

I have been trying to get writing done on a paper that is due on Monday, but it is kind of hard to write. I did get some good stuff into the intro--which was rather sparse until now. I hope that I will be able to finish it in some manner that I will be happy with. (Well, maybe that is over optimistic, I am almost never happy with the way that my work turns out.)

So, my preferred method of trying to get the creative juices flowing is to write this blog post. Lets see how it goes.

A number of times in the last few days I have been struck with a feeling of awe. Not at the cold blowing wind that Syracuse has had the last week or sogoodness not that. The awe has been directed at a number of things. So, as I mentioned, I have been in the routine of sleeping in until 12:00PM or 1:00PM and staying up until about 4:30AM or 5:00AM. I really have been liking this. As I mentioned before, my brain seems to focus better at night. I really have no good speculations as to why that might be. (I thought that it could be that I was just tired, but since I was sleeping in late, that cant be it.) Anyways, all that to say that I have walked home at 4:00AM a number of days this week. One day, Tuesday maybe, I checked the weather before I left and it said that it was -9C but that it felt like -14C. Not too bad, but I was expecting it to be a cold brisk walk home to my warm apartment. (I should add at this point that I really dont like the cold, I dont like snow, and I dont like wind when it is combined with either of those.) So, on the walk home, I soon realized that there was no wind and that there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground but that it was no longer snowing. Since it had just been snowing I suspect that there was a lot of snow still floating around well up in the sky, the result of which was a orangey/pinkish coloured sky. As I walked through the graveyard with the crisp but clean air flowing into my lungs I could see the tombstones clearly. They each had their own personal dusting of snow that made themwellquite picturesque. As I looked around the whole scene wasawe striking. That is the first case.

A day later I was working on my paper and trying to figure out what to say about these things called plural universals that the author invokes in order to solve a problem. I wasnt happy with the way that these things were looking but I really didn't know what to say about them. So, what do you do when you have a philosophical problem? You go and look in one of the five volumes of David Lewis's collected papers. He has a paper called: Against structural universals. Structural universals are not exactly plural universals, however his arguments against structural universals apply (in a more generalized form, I think) to plural universals. At this point I was struck with the: WOW Lewis was so frickin smart! I SO wish I was that smart. I know that what I just wrote doesnt sound like awe, but it was. (I mean come on nowyou try to describe what awe feels like without using some equally unclear terms like wonder or amazement.) This was the second case.

The third and last case of being struck with a sense of awe occurred when I went into the deep. The deep was cold but warm, wet but dry, noisy but silent, bright but dark, sedating but stimulating, cavernous but uncomfortably small. All of these things it was and none of them at all the deep cant be explained, it is understandable and non-understandable. You grasp it or you dont; if you dont, then you dont and if you do, then you do. The thing about the deep is that you really cant visit it, but you feel like you are always there. People worry that they cant fathom the deep, but it is just then---in their un-fathoming---that they fathom it. The licentious attitudes that people harbour against the deep will only further push them into the cavernous expanse that is uncomfortably small. When they feel the walls caving in on their noisy but cold inner selves they think that the cavernous expanse becomes fathomable, but this just swells the divide between them and the deep.
Ok, enough subjection. If you think that you understand what I was writing, go see a psychiatrist or something like that, you need drugs! There is a lot of philosophy that is as unintelligible as what I just wrote. And lots of people think thator at least claim that they think thatthey understand what is going on in that sort of text. This invoked the sense of awe that I felt.

Meta-thoughts: The first two cases that I described are, I think, quite clear about what the focus of the awe is. However in the third case, the focus is multiply ambiguous. It might be that the awe is directed at the people who write that stuff (I am trying to avoid evaluative terms so stuff in scare quotes will do). It might be at the stuff itself; more specifically, it might be at the sheer ridiculousness (oops, evaluative term) of the stuff. Finally, it might be the case that the awe is directed at the people who say that they think they can understand what the text is trying to say and why they are not yet on any sort of heavy drugs.

I realize that there are times where we can say something by saying nothing; but I think, that anytime this is possible are times where we are expressing something via body language. In the case of the text above, the claim that the author was expressing something by saying nothing is false. I agree, the author (ME) said nothing (sheer nonsense it was) but in doing so, I did not also say something.

Wellthis has gone on FAR too long. It is not 3:35AM. I will save this and it will be posted when I get home.

(Interesting aside: I expressed the thoughts in this post between 2:45 and 3:45 lets say (rounding off for ease). If I then post them at 11:30AM, have I expressed the same thoughts again? Interesting I dont know. If it is the case that I express them again, do I mean something different by them then when I wrote them now? ok, I do have an opinion: namely, no, the meaning doesnt change; but I do think that there are some interesting things to say in favour of the converse claim.)

Last leg...

2004-12-17T01:38:00.000-05:00

...well sort of. It is now 1:39 am and I am trying to study for my logic exam that is in a few hours. So get this, they scheduled a Logic exam at 8 in the morning...for philosophy grad students. What is up with that. I know that some people are really sharp in the morning, but I suspect that most philosophy grad students aren't really the morning type. Anyways, that is when it was scheduled, so that is when I will write it.

I am really looking forward to that exam being over. I can then get onto finishing one of my papers and then onto another and then finally onto the last one. I will be happy when the first two of the three papers are finished. They have the most pressing deadlines--although they are, thankfully, staggered.

The last few days have been noon-4 or 5 am days. I think that I will continue this until (at least) my first paper is finished. I kind of like it. The night time is good to me. There are almost no people around and it is quiet and I seem to be able to focus better.

Okay, enough blogging; back to logic. I just finished the set theory stuff and now I'm onto semantic modal proofs...happy happy, joy joy!

Gameboy anyone?

2004-12-15T01:06:00.000-05:00

Isn't this cool? Who wudda thunk it?

I really just wanted to share that. By the way, that is a pretty cool site in general; it has lots of really neat things to look at and dream about owning. I suggest that you all have a look (if you are a gadget freak at all, that is).

Plodding along

2004-12-10T22:32:00.000-05:00

So, I have a lot of pages to write in the next week or so... let's say about 35. I also have an exam to study for. Oh well... hopefully I will get it all done.

I think that I am finally done all of the substantial work that needs to be done for the ethics class that I was TAing for. I taught my last ethics recitation this year. Hopefully I will be teaching Logic next semester. That is way more fun!

Well, since I said that I would end posts when I didn't have anything to say, I will end this here. I'm sure I'll have something to say soon, however; so keep checking back!

Instructions

2004-12-05T02:04:00.000-05:00

If you are thinking about posting a comment, DO. If you don't want to have to sign up, DON'T (well you can if you want to, if you do, you could start your own blog and then I can link to you and stuff; wouldn't that be cool?). Instead, all you have to do is select anonymous and then sign your name at the bottom of your post (or not, but I'd like to know who they are from). Anyways, I am expecting a flood of comments now from all of my three readers.

A suggestion

2004-12-04T01:54:00.000-05:00

So, I've sat here (in front of my computer) most of the evening. I have not been writing my paper, I have not been reading for my paper, I have not even been thinking about my paper. I was kinda stressed earlier and I just couldn't do it. Things are better now, I think. Anyways, I have a suggestion: If you have a large music collection on your computer (I have ripped all of my CDs to my computer), then I suggest that you go and listen to some tunes from bands that you use to like (or just never listen to anymore), I am almost willing to bet that you still do like them. So tonight I have listened to Pearl Jam "Ten", Smashing Pumpkins "Siamese Dream", Tragically Hip "Road Apples", Spin Doctors "Pocket Full of Kryptonite", and even some Eric Clapton "Unplugged". So far, I have enjoyed the Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins the most (I'm listening to the Smashing Pumpkins right now and WOW is Siamese Dream a good album; excellent lyrics and excellent music).

your sentiments?

2004-12-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

I can't help myself. Spirit of the West is awesome! I share the sentiments of this song. Do you?

D for democracy
you with the jaundiced eyes, drunk on your own reflection
propped up with desks and flags, 8 chairs short of
perfection
lines drawn here, there and everywhere
none of your own volition
unrecognized you pace you shadow
stripped of all your definition
scour the house, flip the wig,
shake the tree, until your whereabouts are known to me
you've been abused and cheated,
shat on you're beyond defeated
those who rise stand in your name,
then treat you roughly once they're seated
your pen in one, their sword in the other
satisfied the blessing is given
in god they trust only their way one way
afraid of the other isms
scour the house, flip the wig,
shake the tree, until your whereabouts are known to me
the grass is always greener
under western skies
but your Norman Rockwell nation
is being choked by weeds and vines
look here the old grey mare
she ain't what she used to be
look here the old grey mayor
he's all he's cracked up to be
scour the house, flip the wig,
shake the tree, until your whereabouts are known to me

i just don't get it

2004-12-02T00:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, first go and read this.

Now that you are back, I suppose that you know a little more about AIDS in Africa.

So, here is what I don't get: why does the USA not place any weight in the WHO approval standards? They are more than willing to give the money (and a lot of it) to various African countries, yet they are not willing to let them buy drugs that have been approved by the WHO and do work. Here are a few ideas, some less optimistic than others.

The company that makes the more expensive drug is located in the USA. I hope that this is not the case; or if it is, that this is not the motivation. I suppose that this would be easy to verify. If someone who reads this wants to do a quick search, feel free (and post it if you do!).
There is some moral objection. Now, this is nothing that is based on God or anything, so don't worry too much. Here is the objection: If we give money to someone who is going to spend it on something that we will not let our own people purchase, then we should not give the money. (Or at least, in this case, put stipulations on how the money can be sent.) Is this a crazy idea? No, but is it justified in this case? I'm not sure.
There is the worry that some people might be harmed from the drug. I have problems with all of these reasons, but I think that this is the worst one (and I think that it is connected with the first). This is a terrible reason because in this type of situation what I think we ought to do is some sort of utility calculation. I.e. figure out how many people will benefit from the WHO supported drug and how many will benefit from the USA supported drug. Then, subtract the cost in people suffering that the WHO drug will incur (if any) away from the WHO total and subtract the harm that the USA drug will incur (if any) from the USA total. Also, you need to subtract the harm done to the people who are NOT treated by the USA supported drug because of its prohibitive cost. I VERY VERY VERY highly doubt that the USA supported drug will turn out better.

So, what is the deal? I mean WHY on earth would the USA make such a restriction? I just don't understand.

[After re-reading this, I realize that there are very sloppy parts, but since I am not going back to fix it, they will remain. Questions for my (at least) three readers, are there other justifications? If so, what are they?]

While I'm sending links, you may as well go here as well. Enjoy!

far too Canadian?

2004-12-01T13:39:00.000-05:00

This is a song called "Far Too Canadian" by Spirit of the West. I know that the people who read this are Canadian, do YOU share these sentiments?

I'm so content to stand in line,
wait and see, pass the time,
talk a streak, fall asleep,
wake up late, whine and weep,
I kiss the hand that slaps me senseless,
I'm so accepting, I am so defenseless,

I am far too Canadian,
I am far too Canadian,

I pick the bones of what's been done,
and I'll lick them clean with a cautious tongue,
in dim lit rooms, I'll spill my guts,
I'm the revolution when the doors are shut,
I bite the hand that slaps me senseless,
but my patience it is.. too relentless,

I am far too Canadian,
I am far too Canadian,

I am the face of my country,
expressionless and small,
weak at the knees, shaken badly,
can't straighten up at all,
I watch the spine of my country,
bend and break,
I'm in a sorry state,

I scratch the walls to mark the days,
with my coup-de-tete, I am locked away,
with mother Jones, pots of tea,
the kitchen poster, anarchy,
I never march in demonstration,
I hold my breath for arbitration,
I am far too Canadian,
I am far too Canadian,

I am the face of my country,
expressionless and small,
weak at the knees, shaken badly,
can't straighten up at all,
I watch the spine of my country,
bend and break,
I'm in a sorry state,
I am a sorry state,
won't you welcome to the sorry state,

weak at the knees, shaken badly,
can't straighten up at all,
can't straighten up at all,
straighten up at all,
all.

biologio-what?

2004-11-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I've been working a good chunk of the day, except for when I was eating, or when I was reading e-mails, or when I was talking on the phone, or even when I was playing some lame-time-waster game that I downloaded online. It is weird when you apparently do a lot of work (I say apparently because I haven't really gotten that much done), and the day is gone. The way it feels is this: it feels like I have done hardly anything and yet the day is gone. it doesn't seem 12 hours later. Maybe it has something to do with this biological clock thing. You know, I've always thought that was kind of just a figure of speech, or a myth, or something else like that; however I am now starting to think that...nah, I still think it is a myth. Anyways, the break is done. back to reading "Plurals and complexes" by Keith Hossack.

a new class of rules

2004-11-25T22:27:00.000-05:00

so, i am adopting a new class of rules for my posting on this blog.

titles of blog posts are now allowed to be a reflection of the content of the post that they name.
following the grammatical rule of capitalization is not optional; whereas it was prohibited before.
posts will not always aim to either entertain or put the reader to sleep; posts can still do both of those, but they can also aim at neither.
posts need not always be accessible to a most general audience; instead, they can be on whatever i please.
there is no need to attempt clever in the posts--this was implicit in the old rule-class.

_____________________________________________________

Ah, a new life. i really feel free. I can capitalize 'I's if I want, but there is no reason to think i have to. wow, this is exhilarating. Well, now to say something boring.

I realized today, that when you need to read something (in my case philosophy) in preparation for a paper, it is a lot more fun to read something that isn't for the paper that you are supposed to be working on. In my case, I should be reading an article called: "Plurals and complexes" (I have to write a paper myself on material related to it), but I found that i am having a lot more fun reading select sections from a book called, Possible Worlds and an article called, "Postscripts to: 'Counterpart theory and quantified modal logic'." Normally it would be a bad thing to get distracted reading other things like this, but in my case, i have another paper that I have to be working on to which these two pieces pertain. So, it isn't so bad.

Actually, this suggests a strategy:

Plan (with all your might) to work on a particular paper.
Think about the paper that you have planned (with all your might) to work on.
Sit down and start reading books/articles pertinent to the one you have to write.
Get distracted a number of times.
Walk over to the shelf and pick up some books/articles pertaining to the other paper.
Start reading.
Think hard about the other paper.
Write a blog post (ok, well this step isn't mandatory).
Go back to the original book/article that you were supposed to be reading.

At this point, one should discover that the difficulty reading the paper has subsided. if this doesn't last for very long, return to step 5 and repeat.

Wow, everyone better click on the permalink thingy and come back to this post whenever they get distracted from whatever reading or paper writing that they should be doing!

raining in syracuse

2004-11-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

i was walking to school the other day when i heard someone refer to the university in an interesting way, they said: "this circus is falling down the rankings, if it doesn't 'buck up' its going to be on its knees begging for students to come here." i was of course puzzled by this statement, because i think that the university is doing pretty well, considering that it costs like $30 000 per year in tuition alone. if we continue the metaphor, we might even say that " the big top is crumbling down" and we could be referring to the carrier dome or something like that. it is kind of a cool metaphor if you think about it. (well, ok, not really.)

so, right now it's raining in syracuse which sucks, however it is much better than having it snow, so i guess i should stop my complaining. so, something that everyone should know is that only fifty miles east of syracuse is ithaca, well actually it is more south than east, but the 50 miles bit is relatively accurate. i'm not actually sure why i think that everyone should know that, but then again, no one reads this anyways. however, if someone was to read this, i'll tell you where you should be, you should be where no one's around because really, if they see you reading this, they will just laugh... at you.

so, people walk around school with their cell phones glued to their heads, and if they aren't glued there, the people have the phone in their hand and are crying: "i need a phone call" i seriously don't get it! even if it is raining, like today, and they should be crying "i need a raincoat" they still whine about the phone call. you know, when i think about it, if they yelled something as stupid as: "i need a big love" i would be happier than if they bellow: "i need a phone call." alas...

so, when people say these stupid things it is like they have been trained to recite them, and then if they do get a phone call, the conversations are not even interesting enough to listen to while these people are passing me by. and i really don't think that they have anything to say. instead, they have nothing to say but they say it anyways. maybe this is what the person who talked about the uni as a circus was referring too. i guess, the people who actually pay $30 000 a year to come here, (not me) and complain about this should be told: "you get what you pay for, you pay $30 000 a year in tuition, you should expect to be around people who have been raised on mtv and cell phones. but for me personally, i just had no intention of living this way. for one, you will not hear me whining: "i need a phone call" or squealing: "i need a plane ride" or, "i need a sunburn" or even, "i need a raincoat."

so, places called 'answers' are just a bad idea. they really are just the place that i go to and i don't get no answers. i really think that they are just out to trick people. similarly, when places that i give money to have 'exact change only' sign are just out to get me. i give them money and i just don't get no change. alas, what to do, what to do.

so, it's still raining in syracuse, and i just wish my baby was here, it would be fine. but i should mention that everything else is ok if it just stays the same. there's just some things that i know she'd help me remember and other things that i know she'd cause me to forget. i don't think that i have said: "i miss you" enough times, but i guess that i should. three thousand five hundred miles is actually further than she is away, but it feels that far sometimes. but what can i do other than say that i miss you. so what would you change if you could? anything?

well, you are still not going to hear me whining: "i need a phone call," but it would be nice. maybe i should buy a new car and then i could drive home... well that is a long ways (even if it is not 3500 miles). i might be able to take a train, i can always hear a freight train. you think i could pass as 'freight' baby? if i listen real hard i think that i can hear you laughing at that. and, another thing, i wish it was a small world so that i could take 2 steps and end up at your door. because i'm lonely for you, not for the the big towns. i'd like to hear you play a little guitar, maybe even 'old apartment'.

i guess it's just about time to finish this e-mail, but in order to keep with proper rhyming fashion, i need to once again return to the beginning of the e-mail by puting some of the phrases from the top of this e-mail down here at the bottom.

no whining, but i need a phone call, i need you here, and if we were to go outside I'd need a raincoat.

i wanna hang witcha

2004-11-21T23:07:00.000-05:00

so, if you like relations (in the philosophical, logical, and mathematical senses) and you like playing with them and massing them around, then you will like this song. it really is fun, i recommend that everyone go to listen to it.

so, i'm puzzled about why i do something; when i write on here, i am writing like there are a number of people that read this thing. i think that is a stupid thing to so, because i am quite certain that there is only one person who reads it. oh well, maybe it makes me feel better that i carry on this facade, maybe not; i'll probably do it anyways.

time to sea

2004-11-13T21:38:00.000-05:00

these people have got to be kidding.

these people must be out of their minds... literally.

and these people... well... just imagine.

and that is the daily craziness report, from my computer to yours.

side-winding

2004-11-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

so, today has been a day filled with logic and breaks. you really can't work on logic for too long when you get stuck on what exactly you are 'allowed' to do (within the rules). once, the rules are down, it can be kinda fun figuring out the best and shortest way to solve a particular problem. it is the set theory proofs with identity and biconditionals that kind of mess me up. i think that i have it now though. i hope anyways.

so one of the things that i read online today was this; i have no idea what people are thinking when they decide that they want to give their child a nut-zo name. like seriously. i say: good for japan on stopping stupid parents from giving their children names that will inevitably lead to the child's being harassed and teased and so on. i'm sure that there is an argument in there somewhere...you can pick it out. well... in keeping with the motto laid out in the last post, i'm stopping.

tsien

2004-11-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

so, this is my tenth post. pretty pathetic considering that i started this blog quite a while ago. i suspect the reason is that i try to make the posts more than just a snippet or two. perhaps that is what i should do. yes, let me make a proclamation to the blogdom,

here ye, here ye, from this day hence, there will be no posts comprised of meandering, unclear thoughts. what appears on this blog shall not be written solely for the sake of posting something, contrawise good sir, it shall be for the recording and proliferation of thoughts.

well, since i must, henceforth, remain faithful to the proclamation, just made, to the blogdom, i will end this post with a quote from a once great man:

to infinity, and beyond!

dollars to donuts

2004-10-31T15:15:00.000-05:00

so, i am having a hard time writing clearly. perhaps this will be better. i'm trying to write the proposal that i mentioned in the previous post (i have written it now), but as it is now, there is no way that it would win any sort of funding. i'm sort of not sure how to make the project clearer. maybe it needs to sit for a day, maybe someone else needs to read it. whatever the case, i don't think that i can finish it now. i think that i will go and read another paper that is clearly written and perhaps then, i will be able to make my proposal more clear.

if i haven't mentioned this site before, or you just haven't visited it before, you should do so now. it is the single best book finder type site on the web. well, perhaps i will write more later, but i am finished for now.

mitabrev

2004-10-30T20:08:00.000-04:00

alright, a little more frequent from now on i will be. so, i'm trying to write a proposal for a big grant; four years of funding and a lot of it. so, i want this thing to be good, but i'm vascilating between being technical and trying to make the project seem like it will have far reaching effects (i.e. in other fields). it is really hard to know what to do, mostly because it is really hard to know what they (the people who hand out the dough) want. i am sending the proposal to at least three people who have won these grants in the past two years, so hopefully i'll get some good feedback.

so i'm going to watch the election results this coming tuesday. i really don't like politics, however, some of my classmates do and they are going to have a poker party that night called "gambling away you future." the plan is: if kerry wins, champagne and if bush wins, whisky. i wish i could say that i didn't care (because, after all, i can't vote since i'm not from this country) but i do care. i mostly care because i don't want to see bush's face on the news so much anymore. i really don't think that kerry is a great alternative, but of the two... the choice should be obvious. okay, so that isn't a good reason to not want bush to win. here is a better reason that ties in with why i hate politics so much. when i watch politics, read about politics, or (for the most part) hear people talk about politics, i hear a copious number of bad arguments. people draw conclusions when there has been no premises given. that is just about the single most annoying thing in the world. since i hate that so much, i hate politics. i make no claims about politics being bad, just that i don't like it.

okay, enough of that. it was making me aggravated. anyways, here is the task for the day: figure out where i got the title of the post from. 100 pts if you do!

fetishes and flap-jacks

2004-10-16T18:58:00.000-04:00

so it has been all to long since i last posted on here. i will try to not let that happen again.

today has been an interesting day. well... it has been interesting in the sense that i slept lots and have been trying to read yet i can't seem to concentrate. don't you like that sense of interesting?

i found a really cool website a while ago and i think that everyone should go and look at it. the site is a drawing program. you are able to select your pen size and type, and then you can draw pictures and write messages in the browser. i know that this doesn't seem to fantastic, but i havn't told you the really cool part yet. the really cool thing about it is that you can e-mail your message to people. when they click on the link that is suplied to them (in the e-mail) they will see the pen move to write, or draw, what you did. so, without further adieu, here it is: http://www.imaginationcubed.com/LaunchPage

i'm sure you will all enjoy.

grunka-lunkas and kil-bo-ballies

2004-09-17T19:19:00.000-04:00

i surfed, i slept, i read, and i ate. that is pretty much all i did today. it is raining out and i had nothing to do at school; so, i stayed in my appartment all day. i'm not sure that i can really say i had a fun day, but at the same time, i've had worse. i did read lots of logic and some fun metaphysics, but otherwise the day was sort of like the lives of the poor little grunka-lunkas.

cleverness isn't coming easily today; so, this sentence will conclude this post.

pernicious attitudes and flagrant paper wasting

2004-09-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

from time to time i get the impression that people don't really believe me. i mean it's not that they think i am lying, rather they think that i am overstating or that i am saying something for their benefit or something like that. well, im not sure if i am in the situation just described, but i've wondered about it from time to time.

recently i moved about 1300 miles away from home. i think that someone (i'm allowing 'someone' to be ambiguous between one person or a few people) doesn't really believe me when i say that i miss them (i use 'them' instead of him/her to once again remain ambiguous about whether i'm referring to one of many people).

well, if i am right---namely, that someone (again...ambiguous...blah blah blah) doesn't believe me when i say that i miss them (blah...)---, then i think that i have a solution to what one ought to do when they think that someone doesn't believe them.

the answer is: blog-it. for those of you who are completely lost trying to figure out what 'blog-it' mean, let me fill you in. 'blog-it' is a verb. well, perhaps it is a verb demonstrative-pronoun pair. regardless, 'blog-it'=(df) to write, on a blog (noun) about an event, idea, or a thing (this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea).

so, here goes. someone, i miss you (again... 'you' is...blah...). i really mean it.

copiousness, cash, and value

2004-09-13T22:29:00.000-04:00

recently, i have been inundated with reading; or, i have lots of reading to do; or, i have lots of time ahead of me, during which, i will be looking at sentences like these. (however, the sentences that i will be looking at will be, almost certainly, less convoluted than these.)

when faced with situations like these the following question inevitably arises: namely, "(1) is it better to read all of the sentences quickly; (2) read some of the sentences (or sections) carefully and skip others; or, (3) read some carefully and some quickly. obviously if (4) one could read carefully and quickly, then the answer to this question is obvious: namely, do that (i.e. (4)). however, in my case, this is not an option. so, i'm stuck between (1)-(3). suppose, for arguments sake, that (3) is not an option (perhaps because even (3) will take too long); if this is the case, then is it better to do (1) or (2)? i'm really not sure. maybe it depends on what you are reading it for.

consider the following argument for the claim that, when pressed for time, one should do (2). suppose that you are reading the material for a class. this class happens to be with a professor that frequently asks: "does anyone have any questions or concerns about the reading?" if the material was for this course, then (2) seems like the best approach to take. why? because, when this question is asked, you can promptly put up your hand and ask a question or make a comment or voice a concern about at least one of the passages that you read carefully. if you do this, then you just might avoid being asked questions for the rest of class. (of course this plan is not immune to backfire. the professor might be one who feels incredibly awkward with the thought of silence and hence asks you, the eager student, every time he or she has a question about the text. this would be bad.) so, although this plan might backfire, i think that employing (2) as a method of attack is the best route to go.

well... maybe not. consider this argument for (1) being the best plan of attack. if you were to employ (2) and there was a reading quiz, short answer lets say, then you would likely find yourself in a very awkward situation because there will likely be a number of questions that, having employed method (2), you will not be able to answer; in fact, there will be a number of questions that you won't have a clue about. however, if you had employed battle plan (1), then you would be ready to (probably) answer any of the short answer questions. So, a better grade would result.

well... there are more arguments for why one ought to fly ones x-wing fighter down path (1) instead of path (2) and vice versa; so it is not clear what conclusion we should draw...

...well actually, there is one thing that we can conclude from this investigation; namely, writing a blog post is the way to make scaling the pile of reading insurmountable.

q.e.d.

gnigolb-txen

2004-09-10T15:41:00.000-04:00

so there is this phenomenon called 'next-bloging'. well i'm not really sure that the so-called phenomenon is really called that, but we'll pretend okay? just you and me.

well, now that we are on this next-blogging adventure perhaps i should tell you what this adventure includes (or what it is for that matter). well... next-blogging is a phenomenon that one is only able for partaking on the blogger network (and by network i mean, any weblog that is hosted by blogger---an affiliate of google). what it is is a function from one weblog to another and button used to evoke this function is available at the top right corner of any (?) weblog hosted by blogger. it is a pretty neat function. i really have no idea how the next page is decided upon during next-blogging, but you might get some interesting blogs... i have.

yeah, i have successfully bored each and every one of my readers to sleep (you know the universal quantifier can be satisfied by there being only one reader, provided that, in this case, that one reader was bored to sleep... ah hem, back to the story).

wait a minute... i just said "back to the story," but that was useless because the story really already ended...

well, i am kind of finding this funny, but i just realized that no one else will so i think that i should finish this pos

pain, pleasure, and pre-occupation

2004-09-08T18:47:00.000-04:00

just recently i began living in an apartment. it seems that there is an unending supply of interesting sounds inundating my space. for the last few days it has been someone playing the violin for roughly 10 hours a day (they are playing right now as a matter of fact). right now, aside from the aforementioned violinist (which is sometimes a string quartet, i think), there is a perpetual string of bass beats coming from my upstairs-next door neighbor. i know you all feel my pain... well, annoyance anyways.

amidst the music i'm trying to read about plural quantification. i won't elaborate, otherwise my reading audience---which is presently at 1, maybe 2---will drop to zero. let me just say: you need to focus when you read stuff on plural quantification, it isn't easy... lots of symbols and stuff.

i'm t.a.-ing a course this term. apparently, this is what i am supposed to know; sigh.

books are important. with that said, let me provide the link to my favorite book site: fetch book.

the random-string-of-ideas-for-today has run out. check back soon for more non-well-founded thoughts!!!

the time of day...

2004-09-07T01:06:00.000-04:00

so i have wondered whether or not the title of the post encourages people to read the post or not. i will be testing this theory out continuly as this blog proceeds. another thing that i will do continuly is, ignore the capitalization rule of english grammar. im almost embarrased to say what (who) gave me the idea, but i'll tell you anyways. i was looking through playlists at the itunes music store. each of the playlists (some of which are put together by celebrities) have write-ups about why each song was picked. i started reading one of these write-ups and thought that it was really well written. one distinguishing feature of the write-up was that there were no capital letters to be found. so...i decided to emulate this write-up in this blog. no caps...ever. (i only hope that this doesn't become a habit when i am writing papers for various professors. oh well... that is what spell check in ms word is for right? i mean it will frequently tell me that 'colour' is spelt wrong---when that is obviously a mistake---but it will always get the capitalization stuff right...i think.)

so, i hope that you come along for the ride (i've always wanted to say that) and i hope that you enjoy the ride.

p.s. i know that you are asking youself "who was it that wrote the write-up?" well... it was... fred durst... yeah, you see why i said it was embarrasing?