It looks like I will be the executor of my grandparents' Will -- well, actually, the term is personal representative, but you can still say I will be executing the wishes of the Will. This will be a another full time job to add to what was already the most challenging job I have ever worked.
Therefore this blog will be suspended until further notice.
I will e-mail Degringolade when I am able to publish again as he is one of my most reliable readers. Until then, check out his blog. He and I very like minded people, even though we are at different points in our lives, and I am glad that I have been able to know him through posts and e-mails.
Another similar spirit is Ran Prieur, though I do not vouch for his musings on consciousness (I don't repudiate them, either -- it's just not a sphere I am thinking of much, and my intuitions line up differently from his at present).
Odds are decent you came here from John Michael Greer. If not, let me introduce you, and then send you along to his most recent work. (With Greer, my caveats are about Astrology and support of Donald Trump -- but no one said you have to read every piece someone writes).
==
I am weary, friends.
It's all I can do to make a little time to journal and doodle a bit. I am making time to be creative because it has now becoming a more reliable way for me to feel alive -- especially under the restrains I am now living under during working hours -- and besides, it honors my grandmother's life as an artist. I am using some of her paper and supplies. My skill level is such that all I am able to is cartoons and then maybe use some other marker or paint to make the piece pop, but it is a better escape than anything consumerism and its so-called escapism has to offer.
Writing is my favorite medium, for its expressiveness, but it is stressful for me to get my drafts right, especially under any kind of deadline. I need art to be about pleasure and joy right now, and to serve as a solace in the stolen hours between an endless grind.
I hope to see you on the other side of it.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Round Up #20
Free Books Read
Romeo and Juliet. A rereading, of course. In fact, I taught it for several years. I had a conversation recently with a friend that reminded me that we discount a great many books we read when we were younger, leaving them in a ghetto to no longer be examined. Romeo and Juliet is a play not just for the young, but everyone who was once young.
Hamlet. I think I had last read it in high school. It was more powerful for me then when it was the story of a person, this time I caught the subtleties to know it is a story about a world. If you think life is unfair, you should really examine death more closely. Hamlet is a play not just for the dead, but everyone who will one day be dead.
Reddit
That's why I'm the friendly doomer.
Oklahoma is not exactly what you think it is.
Aphorisms/Shorts
We are living an odd double life, still a rush from judgement in face-to-face encounters, but a stampede to judgment online. Something has to give.
As Hume lifted Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, Captain Beefheart lifted me from my slumbers of normality. And so far, the results have been lasting.
Speaking of music, I find that Beefheart and Miles Davis great for drawing and painting, terrible for writing a draft. I listen to pink noise instead.
Only artificial things can get as clean as most conservatives want, and most conservatives don't know that.
Of all the lessons to teach a Harvard or Oxford grad, the hardest seems to be a non sequitur. Particularly about where one went to school.
In reviewing the cliche I hate the most, I came across someone criticizing another, "it is what it is."
Anti-social media platforms which allow only upvotes are the ultimate fool's paradise.
To someone who wrote: "Imagine actually believing things in 2019 LMAO." . . . Imagine believing that as you don't believe in anything you are free from consequences.
The literati: by pretending to have read everything, they end up not reading anything (at least not deeply).
Reason operates on the Faith that it has all the information. (Faith often reasons that it doesn't).
Romeo and Juliet. A rereading, of course. In fact, I taught it for several years. I had a conversation recently with a friend that reminded me that we discount a great many books we read when we were younger, leaving them in a ghetto to no longer be examined. Romeo and Juliet is a play not just for the young, but everyone who was once young.
Hamlet. I think I had last read it in high school. It was more powerful for me then when it was the story of a person, this time I caught the subtleties to know it is a story about a world. If you think life is unfair, you should really examine death more closely. Hamlet is a play not just for the dead, but everyone who will one day be dead.
That's why I'm the friendly doomer.
Oklahoma is not exactly what you think it is.
Aphorisms/Shorts
We are living an odd double life, still a rush from judgement in face-to-face encounters, but a stampede to judgment online. Something has to give.
As Hume lifted Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, Captain Beefheart lifted me from my slumbers of normality. And so far, the results have been lasting.
Speaking of music, I find that Beefheart and Miles Davis great for drawing and painting, terrible for writing a draft. I listen to pink noise instead.
Only artificial things can get as clean as most conservatives want, and most conservatives don't know that.
Of all the lessons to teach a Harvard or Oxford grad, the hardest seems to be a non sequitur. Particularly about where one went to school.
In reviewing the cliche I hate the most, I came across someone criticizing another, "it is what it is."
Anti-social media platforms which allow only upvotes are the ultimate fool's paradise.
To someone who wrote: "Imagine actually believing things in 2019 LMAO." . . . Imagine believing that as you don't believe in anything you are free from consequences.
The literati: by pretending to have read everything, they end up not reading anything (at least not deeply).
Reason operates on the Faith that it has all the information. (Faith often reasons that it doesn't).
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Just Processing
I'm taking this week off from writing to process my grandmother's death and catch up my work.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Obituary for my Grandmother
Virginia Huddleston was born in Norman, Oklahoma on November 12, 1933 to Leroy and Emily Allen. She lived her entire life in Norman. On June 19th, 1954, she married Max Leroy Huddleston. Virginia was a cheery, bubbly, eccentric who dressed in bold prints and pursued a passion for painting. At the same time, she was always dedicated to her family, generously giving her time and help. She was one of the most positive people you could meet, and never had a bad word to say about anyone. She would advise family members to "wake up every day with something exciting to look forward to for that day." She believed in dreams, and she believed that if you were having enough fun the hard work would take care of itself. And through her creative spirit, she showed that it could be true.
Virginia was preceded in death by her husband and, tragically, her two children, Alan and Ray Huddleston. Many in the family take comfort in thinking she has rejoined her men.
Norman Transcript
Virginia was preceded in death by her husband and, tragically, her two children, Alan and Ray Huddleston. Many in the family take comfort in thinking she has rejoined her men.
Norman Transcript
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Round Up #19
Finds While Surfing
1) The hacking mindset as essentially the opposite of mathematics. And, bonus, he points out that hackers like puns. Thus, a possible corollary: the reason normies don't like puns is because they want a more stable reality than language -- and really reality -- can offer. << That's one of my favorite sentences I've ever written.
2) Ran Prieur on status
4) Also Anthill had a podcast whose theme was darkness and did several riffs on different aspects of the word, including London nightlife and dark matter.
5) Math can be as beautiful as so-called abstract art, which is really non-representational art, which is really decoration. I probably should add that I think that beauty is much more important than most people think.
Infinite Jest
Some of the most thoughtful writing I have done recently is in threads on the Infinite Jest subreddit.-
Books from the Local Library
No Time to Spare Ursula LeGuin. I will put some quotes from the book below.
1) The hacking mindset as essentially the opposite of mathematics. And, bonus, he points out that hackers like puns. Thus, a possible corollary: the reason normies don't like puns is because they want a more stable reality than language -- and really reality -- can offer. << That's one of my favorite sentences I've ever written.
2) Ran Prieur on status
It's hard for me to even understand status. If you use status to get your way with people, it's different from paying them, different from physically threatening them, and different from being actually qualified to tell them what to do. As far as I can figure, status is a mental shortcut, the appearance of being qualified to tell people what to do, for observers who are too lazy to discern the reality. The word "prestige" comes from French and Latin words for deceit and illusion.3) Anthill podcast series on the Future of India. Listened to this and this and this.
4) Also Anthill had a podcast whose theme was darkness and did several riffs on different aspects of the word, including London nightlife and dark matter.
5) Math can be as beautiful as so-called abstract art, which is really non-representational art, which is really decoration. I probably should add that I think that beauty is much more important than most people think.
Infinite Jest
Some of the most thoughtful writing I have done recently is in threads on the Infinite Jest subreddit.-
- A piece on Infinite Jest and the film critic Bazin, moving on to good art being about more than one variable.
- Responding to a criticism of Wallace's choice of characters to focus on.
Free Books Read
Right, Ho Jeeves (audio) and My Man Jeeves and The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. The prose of Wodehouse is like a tonic for the soul. My wife said she was reading a bougie mystery. I replied that Wodehouse's world is so aristocratic that you get beyond bougie anxiety to real comfort, and eccentricity.
MacBeth by you-know-who. I recommend using a side-by-side translation, such as here, though that does add distractions and ads. You could find printed copies cheap or at a library, though.
MacBeth by you-know-who. I recommend using a side-by-side translation, such as here, though that does add distractions and ads. You could find printed copies cheap or at a library, though.
Books from the Local Library
No Time to Spare Ursula LeGuin. I will put some quotes from the book below.
Aphorisms/Shorts
Nostalgia is one hell of a drug . . . almost as much as belief in progress.
The short run is the only run Americans care about anymore.
I actually think there are many business books that are well-researched and have important things to offer, however in the interest of truth they should open with this disclaimer: "the vast majority organizations will not be able to get through the incentive-traps of their own office politics to correctly do any of this, but . . . "
"It's so much easier to blame the grownups than to be one." Ursula LeGuin
"Fear is seldom wise and never kind." Ibid.
What if happiness meant being the kind of person who overreacts to spoilers?
" . . . the real difficulty of democracy is not that voters are unworthy, but that their vote is generally the least worthy thing about them." C.K. Chesterton
Americans are trained to show their taste by complaining, especially about what they lack. If you say something is good enough to an standard American, prepare for an intense argument.
Nostalgia is one hell of a drug . . . almost as much as belief in progress.
The short run is the only run Americans care about anymore.
I actually think there are many business books that are well-researched and have important things to offer, however in the interest of truth they should open with this disclaimer: "the vast majority organizations will not be able to get through the incentive-traps of their own office politics to correctly do any of this, but . . . "
"It's so much easier to blame the grownups than to be one." Ursula LeGuin
"Fear is seldom wise and never kind." Ibid.
What if happiness meant being the kind of person who overreacts to spoilers?
" . . . the real difficulty of democracy is not that voters are unworthy, but that their vote is generally the least worthy thing about them." C.K. Chesterton
Americans are trained to show their taste by complaining, especially about what they lack. If you say something is good enough to an standard American, prepare for an intense argument.
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