Comme Terry Fox

 I had plans to go to the library this morning. Forgot that today is Terry Fox Day - a civic holiday so the library is closed. That's okay. Here we are in the month of August. Great month for two reasons. The weather begins to cool off - total godsend after the millions of heat warnings - and some pretty amazing people have birthday this month.

 Woke up feeling ravenous. Savoured a three-cheese snackwich from Subway. Probably my favourite of the four options. The BLT is pretty good too, but the 3-cheese is the best. This summer has been composed of ups and downs. Stuff that one has no control over. I've long repeated the phrase "tech is great WHEN IT WORKS." When it does not, gnashing of teeth ensues.

  Started reading 'On Hobbes' by Alan Ryan today. Love Hobbes... from 'Calvin & Hobbes', but I don't know all that much about the philosopher. He made to 91 in a world where making it to 45 is summat of a miracle. Was it genetics? His diet? That would be an interest skit to float on TikTok; the Thomas Hobbes diet!

 Anyway, I hope ye fab folk are doing well.

BYE.

An Adage

        Being an adult is expensive. My washing machine went up Thames back in May but because of reasons I was only able to get around to getting a new one recently. My dryer is still working but it's as old as the washer (could go any day) and it's usually cheaper to get the pair rather than one now and the other later. My devilish brain cooked up massive dollar signs but getting the pair (plus installation and taxes) is far less than I expected.

       Once I get these units shipped and installed (they take away the old units too!) then I can focus on my bathroom sick. My tap's been down a hole for a while and I'm well overdue to get a new one. And after that gets done I can focus on getting a new compy. Mine is Methuselan to say the least. I want something that will let me play TS3 (obviously) without needing to mess with the infamous 1.69 patch. Apparently Windows 10 is okay with TS3 these days. Or at least, there's a workaround because I am plummed if I am going to waste my life pretending to enjoy myself with TS4.

       Speaking of the Sims, I've been playing TS3 since it came out in 2009 but I do not for the life of me recall ever trying a 'homeless sim' game. So, my dude has a tent, a bonfire, a toilet and sink, and a pond to fish out of. That's about all. I just need to adjust his funds and he's good to go. Maybe I should remove the toilet and sink but I'm not by nature a draconian type. I wonder how he'll do in the winter.

Oh, and here are some random pics of my main family.

BYE.

Heavy Reading

Let's see... the most lighthearted thing I've read in the last few days was 'Measure for Measure', and while it's not one of the tragedies, it's not the most hilarious or light play Will ever wrote. A pretty good story, though. Hypocrisy, love, bawds to spare, politics; all come under Shakespeare's lens in this play. The bawds and the clowns seemed to be wiser than the leaders in some of Will's works. Meanwhile, I enjoyed reading this play and highly recommend it. Onto matters mysterious! I just finished reading 'Whodunit' by H.R.F. Keating. He has a great style about him regarding the Inspector Ghote series, I find, and his 'how to write mystery' book is also quite good. Mystery is not my personal favourite genre, but numerous names did catch my eye in this book. Marple and Poirot, Wolfe and Goodwin, Holmes and Watson (and Moriarty), Hammer and Spade, the blessed Brother Cadfael, and many, many others. Keating missed the awesome Jim Qwilleran, but the 'Cat Who...' series really came into its own after this book was published, and Keating couldn't cram'em all into this book anyway, could he?
Now I've moved on to Bakunin (again). That book on Anarchism opened my eyes to fellows in Bakunin's world, and I admit that I didn't give the guy a chance the first time I tried to read his works. I've given many things a look in my few years in this life, and there's no point in closing the book on someone just because I don't understand what they're talking about. And the failure to understand is usually on my end anyway. After Bakunin, I'm still upon the Anarchist path with William Norris. I believe it was the title 'News from Nowhere' that really stimulated my interest. Can't judge a book by its cover; should this apply to a book's title as well? Lots of heavy reading on my horizon. Before long, I'll return to the lighthearted fare, but for now, that's just the way things worked out.
In other news.... on the way to the lake last week a truck threw some gravel at my windshield, causing two nice little cracks to form. ARGH! So I went to a glass place and the guy there said they'd probably have to replace the entire windshield. ARGH!! There goes my deductible. I guess I can't get into anymore messes now, right? Not that I could've stopped that truck from doing its number on my windshield. And finally... I'm trying to get my mom interested in the Redwall series. She loved the Duncton series, so I thought I'd give it a try. Jacques has created quite a wonderful world with wonderful characters in his Redwall series. Thank you and goodnight.

Freaking out in Fargo

I spent half of my Spring Break vacation in Fargo driving around and shopping. I did my share of driving, and I guess driving around an unfamilar city caused me a lot of stress. My mom, sister, and I returned home yesterday and I'm still trying to deal with the residual stress. I worry needlessly about many things, and the thought that I might die of something stress-related (because of my worries) stresses me out even more. It's a no-win situation, and one I'm trying to examine and learn the root cause of. There must be some reason for me to worry like this, and until I can afford (money/time) the services of a respected outsider (analyst, etc...) I only have the comfort of the written word (my own and the examples of others) to help me find my way.
Meanwhile, Fargo was most enjoyable (when I wasn't stressed out about being stressed out). I hadn't been in the U.S. for several years, and cross-border shopping was certainly welcome. Although the Canadian dollar is approaching parity (again), things are still cheaper in the States. Still, with the worldwide recession, there were fewer Canadians in Grand Forks and Fargo doing their shopping. This absence was felt by the staff in the hotel's restaurant. This time, instead of taking a simple room, we rented a suite for three nights, and that increased space made all the difference. Next time I go to the States, I think I'll choose a suite again (who wants to go alone?) for my group. The only drawback with this hotel was the poor quality of toilet paper, but that's really no big deal.
Elsewhere in my little world, I have 200 pages left until I have finished reading that massive Intro. to Philosophy book. Ch. 33 and William James. Finally I've reached the 20th Century with these philosophers. I'm pretty pleased that I haven't given up on this book yet, and now, with only 200 pages left, I don't have much of a reason to stop now. Definitely time to make one last push and reach the last paragraphs of John Rawls. I also have the immortal John Shelby Spong to look forward to. Fantastic writer. Okay. That's about all I have for the time being. BYE.

Fresh paper!

Another diary filled, another diary in waiting. Makes me wonder if there's a record for longest time someone's kept a diary. Only the minds at Guinness would know for sure. I'm closing in on the 20 year mark, assuming I've done the math correctly. Let's see... I received my first diary for Xmas 1992 and really started writing in it in 1994... it's 2010 now.... Assuming I start with 1994, it has been 15 years since I got to scribbling. I was hoping to post a little something from that first journal into this post. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the flash drive that has all that memorial goodness. Also, my PC doesn't have Corel Word Perfect (my laptop does, but I don't have the Internet on my laptop). I'll find a way to put some ancient scribbles up on to this blog one day. I guess I could post from my parents' house... they've got Corel.
Oh well. In the meantime, I've started reading 'Indestructible truth' for the 3rd time. I've got a system (like many anal folks do) for books I like. I've got two lists going (books to reread in a year; books to reread in two years). I just don't have a third list started. Maybe I should. Call it 'books to purchase' so I'm not always going to the library. Of course, if I can't purchase the book, then maybe I could put it back on the Two Years list. Just me mumbling o'er meaningless matters. I'm also working through 'Classics of Philosophy', which has over 1000 pages. I'm close to halfway, and this time, I will not give up until I've come to the end of it. Then I have to decide whether it's worth keeping or giving to CD. Somebody's going to want this behemoth of a book.
I dug out my Mp3 player today. Busy charging it. I'm never sure when it's completely ready to go. I also have to fill it up with music again. And then there's my new diary. I like to wonder when I'll have it filled. It's fairly slim, so I'm going to guess that it will be full by the end of 2010. If it makes it to 2011, I'll be surprised.
That's it, that's all. There ain't no more. BYE.

Marking pages, marking time

Weekends my time is my own, and I spend much of that time reading, navel-gazing, or gaming. Yesterday I went out and did some shopping with my sister. Stuff I needed. Stuff I want can wait until Xmas, and I've already started work on the Xmas list. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get back into reading 'Classics of philosophy'. It's a mammoth book made up of all the greats, and I was having some trouble get through Plato. Now I've finally reached Aristotle, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Socrates choosing to drink the hemlock continues to bug me, especially when he had the option of making an escape. I know he saw it as submitting to the will of the civilization, but I still think he had a choice in escaping and coming back when the heat was off. I guess he felt that, being in his 70's, he could die before the heat was off. It's one of those things that cannot be answered. I read 'Republic' and enjoyed it somwhat. Are there any oligarchies or timocracies still alive today, or are we all monarchies, democracies, or dictatorships?
This massive book is not from the library, but one I kept from my University days (I decided that I was not going to drop this book until I was done reading it cover-to-cover). I also just finished reading Cornelia Funke's 'Inkheart'. Thick like brick but a good story. I've got 'Inkspell' waiting in the wings, and am on the hunt for 'Inkdeath', which is the 3rd book in the series. I'm wondering when Brendan Fraser is going to star in a movie treatment of 'Inkspell'? I should go and watch 'Inkheart' now that I've gotten through the book a second time. I've heard it's a good movie. Cornelia Funke is a pretty good writer (and her translator is pretty good as well). I read 'Dragon rider' recently as well. Another book I couldn't put down for long.
On the literary horizon, I've got a book about Carl Barks coming up, as well as another foray into Joyce Milgaard's book. I haven't read it in a couple of years, and thought the time was right. But before I go down this path, I've got a ton of Philosophy to get through. And that's what going on with me these days. I'll talk a little more about my navel-gazing later on. Whatever highlights I can come up with, I will post. BYE.

Dialectic and Dialogue

I forget who it was that first said that everything is connected. A good friend of mine came to the conclusion when he was younger and he told me about it. I'm coming to believe it myself. I'm sure it's one of those maxims that, sooner or later, everyone ends up discovering if they look hard enough. About a year ago, I read a phenomenal book by Francisco J. Gonzalez called 'Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato's Practice of Philosophical Inquiry', and I promised myself to re-read it in a year's time. Here we are a year later and I finished reading it last night. Reading this book has lead me to believe there are connections between Philosophy and Buddhism. Buddhism is probably one of the more philosophical religions Humanity came up with over the last few millennia, although many Zen masters will tell you that Buddhism cannot be examined like Philosophy can.
Plato had Socrates share his revolutionary points of view and ideas with men he admired and with students looking for a new way of perceiving the world. It's all about perception in Buddhism as well. What a person sees with their senses is not the reality -- it's part of reality, but not the whole thing. For one to know the entire reality, one would have to see the object from countless points of view. Plato's Socrates, on the other hand, accepts with some resignation that since we cannot 'know' an object this way, all we can do is learn facts and details about the object and use that as our basis of 'knowing' an object or an experience.
One word Gonzalez uses constantly is aporia: a difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it. Socrates, unable to confirm or completely prove his ideas before the Sophists he seeks to vanquish, ends everything in a draw. Personally, I don't think the Sophists took his ideas seriously, or anything seriously, for that matter. It was safer for them not to take a stand on something they believed -- I personally find it hard to believe that Socrates' critics believed in anything except trying to bring him down by trapping him with words.
Words and labels are all we have to communicate with, and Homo sapiens is too social an animal to keep from communicating with others. Here is where Buddhism and Plato part company, as far as dialectics is concerned. Words and labels serve their purpose of communication, but they also tie a person down with a constant identity, and Buddhism is all about merging the I, thus losing the identity. Labels especially keep the I from merging. Still, there are too many connections between Philosophy and Buddhism to ignore.
Time to gush over the book in a physical sense. Well-written and thought-provoking, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Plato's work. Apparently, this book presents an alternate view of Philosophy, so be sure to give yourself a few weeks to enjoy this treasure.

Dialogues, paradox, and stuff

It took me a while, but I finally broke through to the end of David Hume's 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'. This copy I read came from the library, but I have the piece in a big thick book I got when I took my 'Intro to Philosophy' course several years ago. I plan to revisit it in a little while. It would have taken me less time to get through had the Introduction in the book not been longer than the discussion itself. That's the trouble with in-depth critiques and observations in Philosophy. The Introduction is usually much longer than the real meat of the book. The Introduction was also much more confusing at times than the real meat of the book was. Philosophers. I don't really see myself as much of a philosopher, and this time, I'm glad I don't.
Hume, as some folks might know, did not have much faith in religion. He was raised a Calvinist, and I understand that a Calvinist house is very strict and forbidding. If there's anyone out there who can suggest otherwise to me, please do. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' for several reasons. One does not see the 'dialogue' method used much. Plato was very fond of this method; considering that was how he observed Socrates work, it stands to reason he would use this method. I admire Hume's use of the method.
I also was happy to get a look at what I call 'the major paradox in life and belief'. Evil and God are discussed in this paradox. If God is willing but not able to end Evil, He is impotent; If God is able but not willing, He is cruel; If God is both willing and able, why does Evil exist? Philosophers and theologians have been debating this paradox for millennia and they will debate it for millennia to come. I guess, in the end, everyone who comes into contact with this paradox has to accept that the answer can only come from within. We just have to accept it, I guess.
By the way, I might not have quoted the paradox correctly. If I got it wrong and someone would like to correct me, please do.
Happy Fourth of July to Americans around the world! That's all for me.