thanks...

guys (joe and ben), now i just don't know how to feel about myself. my only consolation is that at least i teach undergrads.

i know...

that we just got done with thanksgiving. hope all had a good turkey day. however; we've got another holiday to get ready for. i'm not talking about christ-mas. i am talking about a day to celebrate your right as an american. and that day to celebrate is the fifth of december.

the fifth of december is repeal day; the day when prohibition ended. the day that the eighteenth amendment was repealed. the day that the twenty-first amendment was ratified, and we were able to consume alcohol legally.

so be sure to grab a drink, and raise a glass (or two), for this day in american history. i guess this is part of a reason why smokers have no rights, and drinkers do? nice.

anybody want to get together and celebrate?

[shalom...]

call your philosopher...

because november seventeenth is world philosophy day. brought to you by your good friends at the unesco. so take some time and crack a book that makes you contemplate things. look deeper into the nature of things. look at things from a different perspective. examine. but most important...raise the question...

[shalom...]

so a friend...

of mine reminded me about the boondocks. that is on adult swim. i used to watch it when i was 'younger' -meaning when i was able to stay up past twelve. but now that i've got a dvr, i'm recording it, and i'm back in love with this show. the humor is great. how they tease the culture. i laugh my ass off. hell, i may even pick up the dvd's.

[shalom...]

with all that...

we've done...are we any better? have we made any advancements? have we moved forward, or closer? closer to what? closer to any understanding?

as we look out into the world, we are able to see all these new and wonderful technologies. a device that is able to hold more music than any one person is able to listen to. things to get on the internet. things that make our lives easier. easier in the sense of what ever makes your life easier. the diesel engine in my car has made my life easier. i don't have to fill up the tank as much. i get further on a tank. it saves me some money...that goes other places, but at least not into my tank. so i'm running the whole gambit.

advances in science. knowing that a planet is orbiting a star. or that the universe is 'slimmer' than previously thought. are these advances?

while we are still killing each other over anything. we are still dealing with questions of ethics. no one is right or wrong. however some believe that they are right, and thus the state of the world today. what makes one view better than another. expanding into a political view. what makes one politic better than another. or more right than another. have there been any advancements? or are we just apes with opposable thumbs still living in an hobbesian state of nature...we just have political boundaries? what makes the world of today better than the world of the romans?

nothing. we have not advanced. we have not moved forward. just because i am able to have a 'phone' that is able to do everything but wipe my ass doesn't mean that i am a better person. or the fact that i have an understanding of what it means to be a person. much less the fact of your 'personhood.'

ignorance is bliss. is this even accurate? the word ignorance implies that there is knowledge.

what is the starting point? what then becomes the razor; ockham's razor?

[shalom...]

so yesterday...

i went to the game store i am always going to out in avon. sure i've got a game store closer to me, but they're not as nice. i'm sure it has something to do with the area.

so the last couple of times i was in there, the manager kept bugging me to pick up call of duty four; but i didn't bite. something about realistic first person shooter games just don't mesh with me. i went in there on halloween to pick up the simpsons game; which is an o.k. game, and he asked if i wanted to put c.o.d. on reserve. i just looked at him, and he started to laugh. so yesterday i went in there it pick up time shift, and he asked again if i wanted to pick up c.o.d. (joking). so i said let me see it. then he tells me 'if i don't like it, he'll let me return it.' well, how could i pass that up? but it also made me take it home and play it. this is odd for me; because i still haven't played halo three yet. i know. i know.

so i got home, and put this thing in, and holy shit. i couldn't stop playing. the only reason i stopped last night was because michelle got home, and she's not into watching me play games. i played for about an hour and a half this morning already, and if i didn't have to go to work...i'd still be playing.

thanks video game guy...

[shalom...]

o.k....let me preface this...

i'm not being racist, but why is it that most of the 'human abnormalities' from birth are from the other side of the globe? in my ever continuing quest for reliable news, i turn to yahoo, and i found this. the surgery of an eight limbed girl. eight freaking limbs.

it just seems that there are always these biological 'mishaps' from asia. why? or is it all just a coincidence? something in the water. and i just couldn't help but think of ganesha, and i know that is wrong of me.

i often read or see these news stories of these surgeries on these children dealing with these birth 'defects', and i'm not sure it is because of where i live, having the world renowned cleveland clinic, and university hospital down the road, and they are dealing with a lot these surgeries. so i don't know if i am aware of it, because it is in my back yard, or is it something that just 'happens' and we as a society become 'aware' and put it out there?

[shalom...]

say it isn't so...

what are we going to do now? how can we get by without the writing? without watching our shows!!! no jay. no letterman. (hey wait a minute...didn't those guys use to write their own stuff anyway?) are my 'reality' (pun intended from last post) on hold?

oh, wait...i've got a stack of books to read, and a three sixty (i still haven't put in halo three), and a basement full of bikes to ride. screw the writers.

[shalom...]

imprisonment of what...

john locke states that we are never 'free', i.e. having of free will. that we are immersed in a world that wants attention. that once we achieve one thing, another thing presents itself; and we desire that next thing.

my question is 'what world'?

there is a dualism of worlds. we have the created one, and the one that we have created. the world made by us and for us -does it want attention or do we 'want' to give it attention; this then is the question.

the world that we are in, does not want attention. it doesn't crave our attention. the tree outside my window does not care if i give it attention or not.

we have created a world of mass marketing. this is what you want. this is what you need. the definition between these words, at best, has become blurred. at worst they mean the same thing. this is control. this is how we control ourselves. this is the matrix.

here we have two evils. the marketing juggernaut of the world/mass media, and then the anti-media media -adbusters; which is an "anti-consumerist" (their words not mine) group; which allows you to consume their stuff. this group is littered with anti-media media.

another point i love is when media takes the 'blame' for given problems or issues. for over exposure, but not stopping the exposure -begging for attention. asking to control you. and we oblige them. so it's not a question of 'going against the machine' -just which machine do you prefer to be controlled by.

however...is there a third option?

it can't be an absolute freedom. because what is absolute? we are, at least, a body. a physical thing. a physical thing that, again at least, desires to survive (in the words of thomas hobbes). this desire to 'go on'. of self-preservation.

so maybe then we are able to recognize the dualism. one is crap, and as long as we don't 'feed' into it we'll be fine. in the words of chuck d 'don't believe the hype'.

i'll go one further...'don't believe it.'

[shalom...]