30.12.07

best game of the season...

and i mean it. the giants may have been the only team all year to give the pats a run for their money, in their thirty-eight to thirty-five lost last night. the game was amazing. also, it's the first night game all year that i didn't pass out during. so that must mean that i really enjoyed it.

both sides played well. near perfect. brady showed me that he can't put the ball wherever he wants, with a couple of missed balls. manning played better than i have ever seen him.

the pats came out and did what they needed to do, and that was stop the running game. all else was in the hands of manning. and the only mistake that he made...the one int. that was it.

the giants showed up last night to win. it sucks that they didn't, but i think they gave new england a run. and if they are able to play like that in the playoffs...who knows?

[shalom...]

24.12.07

why can't these...

baseball players just admit it? i hear on the radio that one after another is denying the mitchell report. just admit it already. this is why european athletes, and more specific cycling; has more integrity, because they do something about.

during this past year's tour de france...the leader in yellow lied to the team about his whereabouts. out. the team dumped him. just for lying. sure he might have been doing something 'illegal', but we don't know that. cyclist caught doping. out. two years. we don't want to see your face. and they admit it. and maybe in two years you'll see them on the pro circuit. if you do...they often talk about how they messed up, and cheated. we often get cases in cycling like that of landis. who was called out for a form of cheating, and he took it to court. he lost, but he challenged it.

which brings me to my next point...why don't these guys challenge it? why don't they take these people who put together this report to court for defamation of character? all they do is hold press reports, and say that they didn't do it.

two years ago at the tour a similar report came out, and guess what? any name in that report was kicked out of the tour. no one was found guilty at that time, but if your name was on the list...out. granted some never returned to cycling, because of that report; because they probably were guilty of doping.

all i hear from the mlb, is that they are going to do something about the steroid issue in the sport. well? i've seen nothing done. do i really care? not so much. if you want to 'cheat', and take steroids go for it. destroy your body. if winning means that much that you are willing to risk your life for it...do it. do i agree with it? would i allow my child cheat, in any way? would i do it? the answer to all of these is no. if i had a child that did that, and i found out...i'd probably beat him within an inch of his/her life. for the simple fact...it's not worth it.

all i'm saying is that if the mlb has such a problem with it...do something about it. take action. suspend all the players on that list for however long. tell the players...if you cheat in any way shape or form...you can't play. that's it. take a stand. i remember hearing the 'penalty' for getting caught (i can't remember it exactly), but it wasn't much. something like being suspended for a couple of games. big whoop.

step up and do something about, or shut up about the whole thing. let them take steroids, and be done with it. accept it. or take action against it. either one. i'm just getting sick of hearing about it, and nothing being done about it.

extra...i'm going to start putting a 'lyric of the day' at the end of each post. just because i've come across some pretty good lines in the music that i've been listening to recently. so here we go...

lyric of the day...
'baby quick your crying put the clown britches on.
the wheels keep rolling
and another mile post gone
all along the road behind
can't you hear me calling
just like the sad whale song
i'm on that road behind.'


[shalom...]

19.12.07

since i've...

been on holiday; i have put assassin's creed in the three sixty. in the beginning i was amazed. the graphs. the play. the game play itself won me over. the buttons are easy to use, and quick to memorize. they keep alot of it in the hud. running. jumping. sprinting all done with the same combo of buttons. it provides a real user friendly interface.

if you need a lesson in patience...play this game. i don't mean that it is slow...you just need patience to play. like the title states...assassin's creed. the key word...assassin.

however (here comes my critique)...the story is a bit redundant. do side missions (which are the same each time), get information, and kill someone. then report back to you 'master'; where upon he gives you another assignment, and a new weapon or skill. i would say that i'm about half way through the game, and i finally learned the skill of 'side-stepping' an attack. my question becomes...i didn't know that before? i had to be rewarded with that? where the move before that is much cooler, and i would think would come after. but no.

as i play along, and i don't mean to ruin anything, but i don't think i will...i get the feeling that in the end my 'master' is going to turn against me, and everything that i have fought for. just like some other games i have played just recently. if that's the case, that will suck big baby butt. i'm sick of those types of endings. my january issue of the xbox magazine even bitches about the ending. they don't give it away, but they bitch about it.

i do recommend it, for the graphics, the play, the interaction with the city, and people...it just gets a little redundant.

[shalom...]

i heard a...

very disturbing stat today on the radio. that there have been sixty different starting quarterbacks this season alone. sixty. the browns have had two in fry and anderson.

this fact tells me something about the state of the nfl, and that is...it sucks. the quality has gone way down. i hate to sound like an old fart, but the game is not what it used to be, and i'm only talking ten years ago.

i'll focus on quarterbacks since that is the stat that i'm referring to. they are not what they used to be. it used to be that if you had a great quarterback, and a damn good running game, you were in the playoffs. now what? think of the 'great' quarterbacks of today. who comes to mind? brady? valid case. look at what he as done with new england. he is number one in the league right now, followed by favre (another good case, but more on him in a little bit), romo (you're kidding), brees [as of right now the saints are seven and seven(man i haven't had one of those in a while), and what kind of record is that?]; next comes kitna (and have you seen detroit play?). that rounds out the top five.

peyton manning coming in at seven. not a great quarterback. for all his hype, the colts ought to be at the big show every year. but they're not, and for good reason. his little brother eli is number eleven. i love the giants, but come on. he has a hard time being a leader. he lives in his brother's shadow. it's no wonder that he has a hard time. but when he does complete a pass, he puts up good numbers. kurt warner is washed up, yet he is above mcnabb. and mcnabb has always had too much hype around him. i never liked him. he never produced. yet everybody loves him. he's classified as one of the 'greats'; was limbaugh right? ouch. sorry. won't get into that.

my point these guys are not that good. i believe that favre is just sticking around because of the numbers. sure the packers are in the playoffs, and he's having a really good year; but i just think it's time to retire. especially if they do not go to the big show.

now the moment of truth...who was the last great quarterback (in my eyes)...number seven...elway. the man that could pass like a monster, and still take a hit, and get back up and ask for more. no one has come around like him. how about warren moon. remember him? phil simms. or how about this man. that's right kelly. he many never have won the big game, but he was there constantly over how many years?

these are some of the great quarterbacks of the nfl. not what we see, and have to put up with today. because of this occurrence within the nfl...one aspect of the game has gotten better. and that is the wide receiver. only because they are the ones that have to catch these crappy passes.

[shalom..]

17.12.07

the snow...

was even a factor after the game.

the bills just couldn't get out of cleveland. after the snow during the game, it effected them trying to get home. they had to spend the night in cleveland, and then take a bus home to buffalo.

[shalom...]

15.12.07

do you remember the 'good old days'...



when guitar players would know how to play the guitar? i do, and this above is proof. frehley is one of the greatest guitar players in all of music history. bold statement? nope. just listen. he single handily influenced a generation of musicians. single handily. not the group of kiss, but rather frehley himself, and his playing.

the music of today is missing something. and i've been talking about this with other music lovers. one thing that the music of today is missing is the solo. rock. metal, oops, sorry...american metal/radio metal. missing the guitar solo. the ancient art.

now there are bands from europe that remember this art. and it is still within their music today. in flames is one of them.

well, i think i'm going on way too much already. i think i'll just wrap it up with these final words...remember the solo.

now if you'll excuse me...i'm going to blast some real music, and remember the 'good old days'...

[shalom...]

14.12.07

i am under the belief...


that philosophy, as a whole, permeates everything we do. and the greatest tool that we use for this is logic; the laws of reasoning if you will. the Form of language. the Form of relationships. the study of relationships. what kind of effect has logic had? well, we are still using the works of aristotle some two thousand years ago. we still use his original studies in class today. he was the first to write on and about logic. the laws of logic.

throughout its time, logic was seen as more of a study of mathematics. throughout history, as some of the great mathematicians got on in years, they turned to philosophy. too many to begin to drop names, so i will not. well, durning the nineteenth century approached a mathematician by the name of boole; who came up with boolean algebra, and really since this logic was seen as an 'outgrowth' of mathematics. now in the early nineteen hundreds, two philosophers by the names of russell, and whitehead wrote a small book called; principia mathematica. and in this book they proceed to show that mathematics stems from logic, and not the other way around.

a small example...how are we able to have an understanding of the relationship between two and three, if we do not have understand of what it means for something to be 'greater than' something else? it is this relationship that has nothing to do with mathematics. this is more of a relationship of language. a Form of a given thing to another given thing.

so why this rant/background? well i'm reading my current issue of the bulletin of symbolic logic, and the writers use a lot of mathematics to try and prove given logic equations.

my question becomes...if, since russell and whitehead, mathematics owns, in a sense, its existence to logic, then are we able to use it to 'prove' logical theorems? how to use mathematics to 'solve' logic? or should i ask 'why'? what is mathematics without logic? however...isn't logic able to be without math? meaning logic covers much more than math does. mathematics is not used as a device in language in the sense that logic is.

just to prove my point...the journals are sent from the ams; rather than some philosophy society, or symbolic logic society.

kant once said (and i'm sorry that i can't find the exact quote but,) that no one takes the study of logic seriously, because no one deems themselves illogical.

[shalom..]

fine...


i admit it. i have a crush on tina fey. i never really noticed her on snl, in fact i really don't care for snl (maybe that's why i never noticed her on snl). but i've been watching thirty rock since it has aired, and i enjoy the hell out of it. it's funny has hell, and fey is just so damn adorable, and witty.

so there.

[shalom...]

10.12.07

this is something...

that i will have to 'deal' with next semester, and that is distance learning. it is something that hubert dreyfus speaks out against, especially in dealings with philosophy. as a link from warbuton's blog, the l.a. times wrote an article about lecture's and ipods.

so the question becomes...how am i able to lecture philosophy to a distant learning class? part of the problem is that i do not like to lecture philosophy, rather i want to discuss philosophy through the readings. but now next semester i have a intro. class where not only am i in front of a class, but also being televised to a group of students who will watch the lecture at home. so as dreyfus argues...where is the 'face-to-face'? where is the discussion?

because i like discussion, i now have to 'dive' into the technology aspect; which i am not a big fan of. and that being the discussion board. i will set up a discussion board for the class; where then they will be able to ask questions, talk with other students, and more importantly myself. and i'm not a big fan of discussion boards. for various reasons. have you ever tried to follow a discussion on one of those? i have had a couple of 'on-line courses', and often had a hard time following what was being said, especially if the 'strand' goes on for a while.

now as far as the ipod thing...i do listen to podcasts that deal with philosophy. however; these are for my own enjoyment, and 'professional' enjoyment. often listening to relevant ones before a lecture, to get the 'mind set', or pose new questions to the students. i was even vindicated by one of them. [the short story is that i disagreed with a professor of mine, and she said i was wrong, but never really gave me a reason for my mistake (nice thing to do in philosophy class), but now years later one of the podcast proved me right by someone who (as i would hold) is more 'steeped' in the tradition that we were discussing.] so there is a benefit to the podcasts; however no interaction. i am unable to ask given questions, and hope that the 'interview' (because that is all that they really are) is complete, in a sense the understanding that i get. also, the understanding that the podcast is only going to cover a given amount of the topic.

so as i type this...my itunes has just finished downloading dreyfus' podcasts on heidegger...let's hear what there is to learn.

[shalom...]

7.12.07

so i thought...

that i'd do a little more work on my myspace page. check out music, and such. anyway...it seems everyday that i get messages in my mail that i have a new message in my in-box. so i check it out, and it turns out to be shit like this; who happens to be moving to 'my area', and 'WONT KNOW ANYBODY WHEN I MOVE!! :( ' (her words not mine) poor baby...i don't think she'll have a hard time finding somebody.

i also love the fact that in the message she states that 'whats up cutie... ' (again her words not mine), the funny thing is...is that there are no pics of me on the page.

it's like i've always said...the advancement of technology is also the advancement of porn. i think i kind of miss the days of going into shady places, and picking up some skeezy publication. in fact, come to think of it, how are porn shops still in business? the physical places that is.

i now wonder what this will do to my 'reading level' of the blog?

[shalom...]

5.12.07

happy repeal day...


stay wet...

[shalom...]

how metal are you?

i just got...

finished watching the first three star wars movies, for the second time. i haven't seen them since they first came out. so i thought i'd give them a second chance, i'm sorry that i did. my first impression is still valid...they suck. the acting is terrible. the story itself, is terrible. i regret watching them, again...and probably will not watch them again. (i type this while my cat is sitting next to me watching you tube i put on some cat videos, and he just sits here and watches them)...anyway...the only 'cool' scene in all of them was the whole yoda fight scene at the end of two. why do people still 'suck off' lucas? a monthly magazine? why? who cares that much? screw star wars...

[shalom...]