stevengharms

Reading this list I was put in mind of wanting to buy some of these texts. I have a great number of them already in paper-back, but was wondering where would I go if I were to want, say, a copy of the Republic in hardback? Or perhaps The Collected Aristotle?

I could see something like estate-sale staple, “The harvard classics”, but I always thought they were a bit too small and pretentious.

Is there some other ( insert: book ) solution?

Update:

The League pointed out the Everyman’s Library collection (which I had completely forgotten about). I remember when this came out because on BoingBoing there was a lot of fan-ism around the idea that for 2 grand you could basically have a collection of some of the finest works of the world.

My sister is getting married tomorrow. She’s not a net.personality ( not that I am ) so I don’t like to mention her life too much. I mean, if she wanted a net.persona, she’d have a site, you know?

But, I picked up my tux today, I’m doing rehearsal in a few hours, and I’m going to be standing on the dais tomorrow with the other groomsmen. So, I’m being in a wedding.

I’m going to Australia again in October, this time with my beautiful Californienne.

I’ve gotta start running and working out arms and lats. It’s going to be some serious bicep burn once I’m upside down again.

My work is having a meeting there so I figured why not go a week early with my girl and let her show me how she tears up a curl on a wicked short-board.

I was discussing this post from yesterday with Lauren and Kerbey Lane ( Eggs, Biscuits & Gravy, you know it’s good for the soul ) and was recalling this particular section.

I think this phrase, quite like no other, is a shibboleth of “I went to a university and got a degree of consequence” . Ironically, it is usually the people who adopted the shibboleth for exactly that reason, who most misuse it, leaving your fry cook’s teeth it ill-repair owing to the induced gnashing.

The discussion went something like this:

Lauren: So you wrote that people use “beg the question” as a shibbloleth of having had “higher education”. Me: Yes. Lauren: But that you know the word “shibboleth” is a shibboleth of that selfsame phenomenon: “I have higher education and am using a word for its shibbolethic power.” Me: Yes, and because the meaning of shibboleth is appropriate to use to describe the phenomenon.

I could be off in my count, but that’s a triple-irony-count discourse score.

She asked if I could count on my readers ( all 4 of you ) to correctly discern the weird subtlety afoot. If you did, you think I’m ridiculously ham-handed. If not, you may still think I’m ham-handed, but you may think that I was making a very inane joke.

I’ve not been writing a lot of late owing to having gotten over that bitch of an infection. I’m still a little bit cough-y but, not as bad as I was.

Trigon-ometry

Last weekend I was studying for a Trigonometry exam. Who knew you could uncover so many interesting things about the universe just by extrapolating relationships from right-triangles. I would really like to find some information about the history of the trigonometric identities. That is, who invented the tangent relationship? Who was it that said, hm, there’s something interesting going on between the side opposite θ and the side adjacent θ? Who gave it a name, who realized this relationship needed to be identified, who realized that this relationship had special descriptive power?

I’m similarly baffled as to how π came to be. Who was sitting there and what was the problem ( probably something about plowing, or using belt-wheels as labor saving devices ) that made someone think, hm, what’s the relationship between diameter and perimeter? And then to go the next step: “Is this the same on all circles?”.

I’ve enjoyed Trigonometry. I’ve not enjoyed the 11-week class format. It’s hard to accommodate with work as well, there’s just not any lull in which to catch up.

And a Wizard

While I was studying for that I also picked up Harry Potter 7 last Saturday evening and spent Sunday reading it. What can I say, JK Rowling did us all proud. There was no treacle, the answers were given, the characters moved and grew, Harry stopped being lucky and started to be smart and powerful - it was a real joy. I’m sad it’s over but I’m so glad it was done so well.

And, what’s more, is I think that it brilliantly captured the post-college graduate experience (although perhaps unintentionally). You leave this special boarding school and you go out into a world that’s unfamiliar and unpredictable. You live cheaply, wondering sometimes how you’ll get by, you share a funny-smelling place with roommates who may or may not be into each other. You have a yelling match over the dishes or whose-bright-idea-it-was-to-do-X-in-the-first-place.

I’d like to write more about it, but I may have to re-read the text to expand those ideas.

Zelda: Twilight Princess

I’m closing in on the Final-Final evil bad dude. I’d like to get finished — but I can only think that this Earth was truly blessed when Miyamoto-san’s recollections of running about the forests of Japan led him to imagine an adventure game in a beautiful, expansive world like Hyrule. The Zelda games are huge to me, coming out right as I entered my 10th year on this big blue orb of ours. I love the whole Twilight Realm / Light realm dichotomy, the Man / Beast dichotomy, etc. It’s all the great mystical and heroic stuff that Zelda fans are addicted to, and I’m no different.

I must give much thanks to my wonderful girlfriend who tolerated me playing for 5 hours straight yesterday. Keeper, ‘nuff said.

So, all these things have taken a bit of priority over writing of late, but I’m about to re-balance these as Zelda ends, book is read, and class is over.

I have a philosophy degree and, as such, I am uppity and snippy about a great many philosophical ideas that the non-philosophy-degree-holding public ( that is to say, those not asking “want fries with that” as the heart of their occupation ( I kid, I kid, my decadently over-educated bretheren )) believe they already know plenty about.

Much like an engineering magazine left in marketing, which leads to promises of Flux Capacitors in the next release, the non-Philosophy students occasionally get exposed to strange ideas which enamor them and which they begin to speak of regularly and, more dangerously, knowingly.

Exhibit A: “begging the question”.

“Begging the question” is a phrase that denotes a common type of logical fallacy. It’s where you assert what you’re trying to prove, as though it’s an established fact. Logically speaking it looks like

Premiss1 Premiss2 Conclusion

——

Conclusion

Versus

Premiss1 Premiss2 Premissn

——

Conclusion

Every time someone uses this phrase in the context of: “The car is broken, which begs the question of how we will get to school” my teeth grit. Why not say:

• “Which leads to…”
• “Which forces us to consider…”
• “Which immediately draws us to…”
• “Which, as a consequence, asks…”

Given that lack of options isn’t the reason for this misuse, it’s clear that there’s some sort of fascination with “beg the question”. Somehow people hear it once and, under its power, become like victims of Ampulex compressa. It’s compelling as an inter-sentence segue, it works a dark magic on the mind. As the pod-people continue to express the idea those of us with familiarity with the technical term chafe.

In this excellent article on how autistic children have a hard time understanding lying ( because they don’t have the ability to imagine minds with beliefs independent of fact ) the learned author writes:

If what other animals are doing when they appear to be dishonest is not real deception, this begs the question of what counts as real deception[1].

Now wait just a minute. Someone is writing scholarly work about autism research and misuses “beg the question”? Could it be? Have the scientists have been invaded by ampulex beggainterrogativa?

I think this phrase, quite like no other, is a shibboleth of “I went to a university and got a degree of consequence” . Ironically, it is usually the people who adopted the shibboleth for exactly that reason who most misuse it, leaving your fry cook’s teeth it ill-repair owing to the induced gnashing.

Footnotes:

1. Might I add, that for those who do know the meaning of “beg the question” it’s confusing as the author might actually mean the true technical usage…or may not. It took me several re-reads to decide if he was being logical about it or using this bastard usage.

The other day I got a spam mail from “Fentress Telling” who, in addition to having a name like a Jedi, sent me a mail entitled: “The Martians were there—in the canal—reflected in the water.”

Do you know the source of this quote? It’s the last line of one of my favorite books.

(more…)

My recent sickness has me taking some powerful drugs and it’s gotten my sleep schedule all messed up.

I slept for about 30 minutes between 10:30 and 11:00pm, but have been awake since then. I feel absolutely wired but my body is exhausted. So what else can I do but hole up with the MBP in the office.

Laying there is not really an option as my girl is a light sleeper. My pinky toe wiggle wakes her up, she can’t go back to sleep for a while, I cough, she’s miserable, etc. It’s not a good situation.

Last night Lauren and I, sick of being sick and trapped in the house, went out to Austin’s Paramount Theatre and saw the 9 o’clock showing of “Bombshell”.

The synopsis runs essentially like this: “Bombshell” film actress Lola Burns, a from the farm in Illinois to Hollywood starlet type who fickly hops from idea to idea: Marrying the tanned European marquis, adopting a baby, changing her Hollywood image. Naturally the studio’s publicity man and the studio head are none-too-keen on their bombshell becoming “a rubber nipple” and are thus dedicated to thwarting her ambitions and making sure she’s back for her make-up call.

Notably, this movie was pre-Code, so instead of smarmy pratfalls and fades to black, you get characters’ adult dialog being actually fit for adults ( implication of single motherhood, racy dialogue about underclothing, displays of drunkenness, etc. ).

It was stunning to both Lauren and I how different the expectations of movie viewers have become. These characters had absolutely no depth there was no empathy that I could have had for any of the characters. Rather, I thought this “talkie” to basically be like watching flesh-animated cartoons.

• “Oh look Daffy’s doing blackface (now considered racist) stuff!”

• “Oh look, they’re going to put the goldfish in the water pitcher!”

It was as if the idea of the character having a mental world wherewith the viewer could empathize, relate, or see their thought process was completely un-considered, like a cartoon.

Somewhat appallingly to the modern viewer, as the Lola’s character attempted to control her public image ( instead of being a slut, being a virgin, because that’s the only two choices a lady has, mind you ) and not be quite such a tool of the studio, the direction seems to prod you to the conclusion: “That silly platinum blonde dame, she lacks the gumption to stick to anything of import anyway, all the better the studio kept her from trying that!”

The subtext was very surprising to both of us.

Nevertheless, the pure absurdity, and that incredibly loud ( to add to the chaos ) soundtrack combined with the comedy of errors/manners/impaired mental function do bring together some absurd and farcical laughs ( especially when Lola is romanced by a Bostonian blue-blood whose spare time is occupied by writing “verse” )

Interestingly, the studio publicist, Lee Tracy had this tidbit of information at the imdb:

While in Mexico for location shooting for VIVA VILLA!, Tracy stepped out onto his hotel balcony and urinated on a passing military parade. He was immediately arrested and deported from the country. Embarrassed & furious, Louis B. Mayer fired him instantly from MGM.

Now that would be a turn in a biopic that I’ve not seen before.

I appear to have caught a cold during all my travels.

So what, the usual, no worries.

Well, this cold has hung around, migrated lungward for a week, and has generally continued to harass me. As such, I’m finally throwing in the towel and am going to see a physician tomorrow.

That’s the reason for the lightness in the blogging, my minions.

Update:

1. Flonase
2. Perscription Anti-biotic
3. Perscription decongestant
4. Albutrin inhaler