Portal 2 trailer featuring cooperative gameplay: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/65508 (www.shacknews.com)
Hell yes.
During the week between Christmas and New Years is anyone going to have a bit of free time to do some kind of epic snow adventure of the walking kind?
I'm looking to climb/snowshoe one of the front peaks around the Anchorage bowl and the desire for adventure will indicate what gear I should bring up with me... you know: axe, ropes, harness, crampons, roll up sled and the like.
Any takers let me know.
I have absolutely no experience doing anything like that, but I definitely would have the time to do something fun in the snow! We still have to get our tickets home for the holidays, but we'll be there for sure some how or another. So if it's something that doesn't require much expertise or equipment that I don't have, then count me in. :D
That sounds pretty awesome JD...I have absolutely no experience doing any of that, and zero equipment to that effect. But I've done some serious backpacking and other outdoorsy stuff in my past, so I'm up for the challenge if you have the patience to teach me! (and have equipment for me and/or know where I could rent some).
With some research I've decided either O.Malley or N. Suicide will be the destination. Both of which are perfectly doable in a day of snowshoeing, no other technical gear really required, though if anyone has access to AT ski gear it would make it a hell of a lot easier and funner on the way down as well. At minimum warm boots, good wintry gear and stamina are required.
Rei rents snowshoes pretty cheap by the way.
And with Libby's votes, prizes go to Stross. Guess we'll read Saturn's Children. I hope it's good. Sexbots!
So... 150 pages and meet on Monday, September 27 at Josh's house?
Check out the cover art (www.amazon.com).
Did everyone already hear that Dave Coleman was involved in a serious accident last night?
http://www.adn.com...r-boat-trailer.html (www.adn.com)
Keep Kelly, Dave, and their families in your thoughts... Hopefully things are going OK. If anyone has heard anything can you update?
I talked to kelly earlier today and she said that Dave came out of surgery OK and was in stable condition. They successful fused his C3-C5 vertebrates, and basically completely reconstructed his tibia out of metal. When I spoke with her she was on her way to pick up Dave's mom from the airport to take her to the hospital, and Kelly's mom was at the hospital with Dave.
After hearing how it happened, I really can't believe it's not way worse. I think Dave might be the luckiest unlucky guy that is possible in a situation like this.
Libby's in a book!!!
https://www.novapu...0f50d28f2c9984f5175 (www.novapublishers.com)
She helped with "Cementitious Wasteforms for Immobilization of Low-Activity Radioactive Wastes". Looks like she used to be a little ol' environmental scientist.
Pictures from the hunting trip I went on this weekend. No critters bagged, but a good time was had by all.
 (picasaweb.google.com) |
| 2010 September Hunting Trip (picasaweb.google.com) |
I'm not sure it's settled any more noticeably. It definitely goes towards the front left corner still, but I think it's still good to wait until spring or next summer to try jacking it up again.
Also, when we weren't trying to hunt, I basically spent the trip with my earplugs in. So yes: the squirrels met an untimely demise.
Another new idkfa feature:
Users can now "tag" posts by clicking the "+" symbol next to the post they are viewing. What this does is mark posts they've read with a flag. This flag can then be searched for via myidkfa.
Why put this in? Well, in reading a weekend's worth of posts, I wanted to mark a post to respond to later. However, after opening up 20+ tabs, I figured if my browser closed, or I needed to do something else first, I wanted idkfa to remember what I wanted to respond to.
The new search term is "is:tagged."
YES. I did. In response to your question about the quarter life crisis. The only thing is that mine has been on and off for about 4 years now. It's only been in the past year or less that I've finally started feeling even remotely un-crisis-y. So you are most definitely not alone on that.
I too have been having a similar internal struggle about whether or not I want to commit the next forseeable future to being a student. I'm extremely torn. I see so many of my friends starting what I see as real lives with real jobs and real homes - and here's the kicker - TIME TO ENJOY IT ALL! haha. But it seems so far off for me. But I've starting feeling a little better about it recently... I've come to realize that grad school - especially PhD level grad school - is a completely different animal than undergrad. People actually do have lives while they go to school. So don't think that you can't do both if academia is the route you end up choosing. You can still have the personal life and the academic/professional life. One of the things I have really enjoyed about grad school is the fact that the faculty actually treats us as adults. You're a professional; just a professional student basically. They expect us to have a life outside of school, rather than my college profs who would make us feel like shit for straying from studies for more than a second.
And if you finish it all and decide you actually want to go into a federal job, you definitely won't be out of luck with that. If there is one thing I have come to learn while living around here it is that the feds LOOOOOOVE over educated people. Dan's sister in law finished her PhD in bioengineering last year and couldn't find a job in the private sector, but the fed just scooped her up and she's moving out here this month.
I've been told this whole quarter life crisis thing does in fact settle down, and life does in fact get sorted out eventually. Hopefully it will happen for both of us soon!
thanks Ashley! it makes me feel a lot better to know other people are feeling "crisis-y" too! I haven't figured out whether this whole thing with Dave's accident is making life MORE crisis-y, or whether it's forced me to take a step back and re-evaluate what's important. things are still up in the air lol...
I am completely floored at that fact, but then I also keep in mind that most of my connections and insider political gossip comes from people in the democratic party, so I'm also not that surprised I missed out on some of the rumors or insider speculations that I'm sure got passed around on the GOP side before the election.
Even though I've gotten drunk with the dem nominee before, I'd totally back Lisa over him. Sure, he's a great guy, and completely ridiculous when he's plastered, but I'd much rather have Lisa in office, out of all the choices in front of us.
That was how I felt too. I actually am kicking myself for not having voted on the republican ticket just so I could vote for her. I just did not think it would ever be that close of a race. I didn't think there was anything to worry about. WOW was I wrong.
I also wonder if anyone in Alaska has read the things about his history. He says he was the youngest magistrate or whatever the hell he was, but he was actually kicked out of that job. He has gotten into quite a few mishaps in his career just by being a raging idiot. How is this going to be any different? Do Alaskans really truly think that getting the federal government completely out of Alaska is going to be a GOOD thing!? (Don't get me wrong... I think there has to be a limit to government growth also...) There is a reason why Alaska wasn't hit as soon or as hard by the economic downturn as the rest of the country.
Well, being a Dem, I'm enjoying the craziness that the Republicans are doing, being from this state or in this state. I believe Palin killed the presidential election for the Republicians. While she probably pushed Miller into the running here, I believe Murkowski has a strong enough prescense that they will be splitting the votes again. We need to keep her around :)
haha no, I don't game. Dave does, though, and he's the one who turned me on to Falcon Northwest. honestly I just wanted a machine that would be able to run quickly while all my thesis stuff (such as statistical software) etc is going at the same time.
she's super pretty, though. and she has a fingerprint scanner lock (lol).
Shwooooops, missed the whole 'archiving' thing and whatnot... anyhow, let's reflect, shall we?
This last year has been pretty interesting. And by interesting, I mean much different than prior years. It seems like I have been through many transitory periods since graduating from college. Let's recall them:
1) Went back to Alaska, and applied for jobs. MANY jobs. And finally ended up doing corrosion testing on the slope (read: manual labor), which was soul eroding. Perspective changed to ideals, as I quit and decided to apply to grad school, and got in. Also worked a summer for big oil, which was fun.
2) Grad school. Very much intellectually stimulating, but soul eroding in another fashion. Decided real life was better than try to live through my ideals. Came back to Alaska.
3) Environmental science for Nana after applying for many jobs. For a whole year now, almost (!).
This last year has been great. Being close to family, friends, and Libby, and earning a decent wage while having variety in my work. And I have time for hobbies! Of course, living without having to worry about money is pretty awesome, and that's been the main change. Security. But in a big dumb life. I still somewhat miss the great PhD endeavor, but that just means I'll have to do something else to give back to humanity (working to remediate the environment is pretty cool, though, I must admit). The variety that my current has given me has kept me from trying to transition to yet another stage... but we'll see where the future leads.
I was recently reminded of a past era of my life, because I got rejected from 5 jobs I applied for in August 2009 about a week ago. Thanks for the timely response, State of Alaska. It was just interesting to think of that time, rather, those times in my life where everything was dangling by a thread. I know I don't ever want to go back to that. I guess I'm fortunate in a way, to have failed and picked myself back up through reinvention, so hopefully I've learned from everything that I've done wrong in the past. When times are good, it's so easy to forget about when things were less then ideal, and over this past year, I've been trying to fight getting too complacent with my position. For that reason, I've definitely been considering going for some further education (maybe a master's this time instead...), or at least trying to challenge myself so that I keep growing.
I'm rambling now, but I guess my summation is: life is good. But I don't want it to get too good.
We should cite this (science.slashdot.org) in response to their ambition.
Or just remind them that mo' money, mo' problems.
Some days all I want is to live and work on a farm in a sunny place with people I like and just till fields all day and then take afternoon naps and swim in rivers and eat porridge and sit around playing cards by the woodburning stove in the evenings. Ignore for a moment the juxtaposition of me doing manual labor and instead focus on the quaintness of that sort of life.
Or, I suppose a pretty close analogue is to spend my time working a pretty meaningless job on a train with people I like in a place I love.
But this sort of lifestyle seems appealing for a few months, and then its time to actually accomplish something.
It's amazing how even that sort of life actually would get old after a while. Any time I have had a period of time where I am not working or at least working towards something, it is absolutely phenomenal for a period of time, and then I just feel like a waste of oxygen. I think like Erik, that 19 year old ambition machine kid in me hasn't died yet, I guess...
That's a good question, I guess. And I think the answer boils down to the fact that we've already accomplished many things, and it becomes ever harder to top what you've already done. I mean, I still work towards goals, but they're more practical now (or completely impractical - hobbies). I think it just comes with being at a point in life where you're comfortable - as a student, you still have to earn that comfort, and once you have it, there isn't as much to gain in doing similar things. I'll call it refined ambition. We also have many more responsibilities now, which complicates things, of course.
I mean, I tried out teaching, and failed miserably, but that was something I thought would be fulfilling.
yknow, I almost bought the argument that it gets harder to top what I've already done, but then I remembered that in reality, I'm just a lowly EIT who in a sense is still green behind the ears at this whole engineering thing. I have a whole lifetime of engineering things to learn, and it gets even more daunting when I see the 40- and 50-year old engineers in my office go and ask the 60- to 70-year old engineers. I mean damn, if those guys are still trying to learn more about our profession, then f*ck my knowledge.
And you know me. You know my interests lie outside of just engineering. I can't believe how little I know and how much I have yet to learn! It's going to be an exciting ride, and I can't wait to find out more.
I think what Erik is talking about is different than what you're talking about. Erik's hypothetical 19-year-old ambition machine wants to be CEO of a company and cure cancer and invent a way to feed all hungry nations and then become president of the US by the time he's 40. You're talking about personal growth in one's chosen professional field. I think there's an important distinction here.
I also think that Erik kind of hit the nail on the head in his summation: at a certain point, you become comfortable wih life as you know it. Instead of thinking that you have to solve all the world's problems to be happy, you realize that happiness can come from much simpler sources, and that one's purpose in life is finely fulfilled by that happiness. Furthermore, as Erik said, one acquires responsibility that prohibits one from a realization of their 19 year-old selfs' goals, and that makes you reevaluate your life trajectory.
I think the issue up for debate is who has got the right attitude on life- the jaded mid-20s worker or 19 year-old ambition machine? Have we sacrifced something important as regards life goals in order to find the stability and comfort that we currently enjoy? Is it better to live a generally shitty life with grand goals and aspiration (and a small, but possible shot at acheveing those goals) or is it better to resign one's self to a life of quiet work with simple, comfortable, and ultimately happy-making pleasures?
Thank you Robbie, you express my thoughts much better than I ever could.
As for your debate, I think it just depends on the person. You personally seem to like putting it all on the line, whereas I don't enjoy that. I certainly hope you succeed, especially doing what you love doing, but that's way to much risk for me... and I also hate being in places where I don't know anyone.
I guess I prefer pragmatism at this point over idealism, which is a bit of a switch. I'm happy now with less grand ambitions, and I think I improve the happiness of others around me more as well. While research is still awesome, because discovering new knowledge is awesome, the people that really love it and enjoy it are better fit to do it than I am. Same with people that want to be president or whatever, I don't thrive in that sort of competitive environment. Just depends on what makes you happy. That's really the impoortant thing. And if you're not happy, change things until you are.
That's definitely true, and definitely a good point... I think all of our "life aspirations" or whatever you would want to call it, have all been adjusted somewhat as we've gotten older and realized what we're willing to sacrifice in order to achieve all those amazing things we thought we wanted so badly.
This subject seems especially relevant right now for a few reasons: a friend just broke up with his fiance, my own feelings on marriage and LTRs recently came into question, and just today I had a long talk with my mother about not only my own disinterest in marriage but in our generation's changing attitudes towards it.
What it comes down to is priority, because you can't always have it all, all the time. For some, settled family life is a high priority; furthermore, for some, their other life goals aren't mutually exclusive with a rooted family-style life. For some of us, though, it isn't feasible to have both a healthy family and a healthy career, and herein lies the "path taking" that you mentioned in some other post.
For me, my goals aren't compatible with settling down and starting a family, nor is that a high priority, so even though there are people in my life with whom I might like to pursue long term relations, those relationships are subject to my pursuing other goals. For you, something happened in your value system at some point that made you reassess your priorities; because doing the type of research you want to do and settling down in a long term relationship are things that can't happen in the same geographical location, you had to choose one.
Two last questions remain for me, though: first, who misses out? This is one of those either/or situations, which means that one side loses out. Is there an objective way to measure, or is the success of one's endeavor in this situation entirely dependent on each person's individual value systems?
Second, does it change? That is, although I don't want to be married or have kids or have a long term relationship that might root me down somewhere, will I see things differently in a year? Two? Ten? I think the answer here is probably "duh yes," but if it hasn't changed for me yet, will it? Is it just a matter of time before my biological clock goes and I get baby crazy? Can it work conversely too?
Well, I don't know when the gays go baby crazy, but for chicks, its in the early 30s if there are no kiddos yet (from my experience at least).
On a more serious note, it has to depend on your value system. Each person has different things that will make them happy. If being alone and poor in New York City while persuing your dream makes you happy, I hope you succeed. Your road is definitely much riskier than what I've chosen, but I like the safety of what I've done. And currently I get to see parts of the world I wouldn't have been able to otherwise, which rocks!
Also, I think your views on marriage and children are noble, because I don't really much like the institution of marriage, and the planet is overpopulated as it is (The Forever War, anyone??). However, I'll get married because the money and security (ie legal protection) are worth it, although love/relationship ideals are more important to me. I'll also have children, but a maximum of 2 (only replacing, not exacerbating), because I think raising a family will be fulfilling. Your views may or may not change, it depends on the experiences you have, but I know that you'll end up happy because you always seem to love changing when necessary. I think our views are dependent on our experience, so I guess that's my response to that question.
As for "missing out", life is life. I fight the materialistic view all the time (this is the only way things could happen), but I instead try to enjoy the moment. Sometimes it sucks, but it could always be worse. And you can always change to make sure you enjoy life. So "missing out" is a moot point, I guess. You could always do the other thing, if it will make you happier to do so.
Oh, I understand that there is always more to learn, and that it is a good day when you learn something, but I'm more talking about more practically targetting your ambition, because you'll be learning at your job no matter what. And as for accomplishing things, I guess what I meant is that accomplishment now will take more and more time. Which involves a lot of risk, and choosing one path to spend all your time. So you have to pick and choose (as Robbie said, you can't be president and cure cancer ;) )
At some point I'll probably take classes again, maybe for an MBA, maybe for environmental science, but it's mostly practical ambition now, as I said. Sometimes I miss that idea of the bright, wide open future (maybe that's what I'm talking about), but at some point you have to pick a path and stick with it, for better or worse - or else you're not really going to get very far. Unless you're a genius with never-ending energy or lucky ;)
hmmm. I think I was with you more when you were just arguing for enjoying and living life rather than stressing about doing more. But I can't say I'm with you in the thinking that we've done so much, why do more. To be honest, I still feel like a kid sometimes. I definitely don't feel that sense of comfort you speak of. I don't really feel like a professional adult who has accomplished much of anything. In reality, I know I have accomplished quite a few things, but there is just SO much more that I want to do! I really don't see myself getting to the point of saying that I'm content with what I've done or accomplish for quite some time. That's something I could see myself saying when I'm maybe 60 or 70 years old. haha. But until then, I really hope I continue to push myself to learn more, do more, contribute more, and generally be more... I feel like no matter what phase of life you're in you can always push yourself to reach some goal in some way or another.
Well, you're still in school and such. I would say I'm content with my accomplishments, but rather my position in life (ie the comfort of life), because as you've said, we're all still young. I think Robbie puts it better than I did, but the idea is that at our point in life, you have to choose what you are actually going to do with your life. And that's sort of a bummer, man! I still want to do everything, but none of us are quite that fortunate. But I still intend to make the most of what I have.
so... if this section is for "nothing in particular. general discussion." here is one for ya... I'm thinking about becoming a certified professional organizer to make some extra moolah in my spare time. a way to save up for a potential wedding that may or may not someday actually happen, and perhaps a way to finally afford some "real people adult furniture" as I call it. but I'm trying to figure out... would anyone actually be crazy enough to pay me to organize their life? I hear about people who are seemingly incapable of gaining any sense of order in their life hiring professional organizers who suddenly teach them revolutionary things that just seem like common sense to me. Apparently people pay for this - like up to $50 an hour for this even! But really? I dunno... am I crazy? or are they crazy and I should just try to profit from that?
In my case, any disorganization I have towards something usually coincides with my extreme disinterest towards it. For instance: laundry. People seeking your services would have a vested interest, of course, in trying to improve upon things, but how do you plan on overcoming ingrained, habitual lifestyle decisions that brought people to vast disorganization in the first place?
It might be the reason people do area-specific organizational stuff: weddings, parties, corporate org charts, etc. Solve for a specific subject matter, to where basic principals and practices have established success, and apply them liberally.
Otherwise, people's lives, as a rule, are messy, not because of outside forces, but because they consciously choose to have their lives be messy. I would worry you'd be dealing with more psychological drama than actual organizational practices.
It's definitely true that more often than not, having any lack of organization in ones life is usually attributable to nothing more than apathy. But that's the part that boggles my mind about this whole industry. It's apparently a huge business in big cities - especially east coast ones. One of my friends suggested the idea to me years ago and I laughed because I just couldn't imagine someone paying someone to organize my life. (Partially because I would just never feel that someone else did it the right way.) But apparently the fad here is that people just don't have the time to do it and don't want to do it; they would just rather hire someone to come in and put their office and closet in some sort of order.
The reason I thought of it recently is that I had another friend semi-jokingly bring up the idea this past year, so I got curious and decided to read into it a little. I have always seen those shows on TV about professional organizers coming into someones disastrous house and magically bringing order to it, but I thought that was the extreme, rather than the norm. Apparently it's more of a norm than I was aware of!
Though, I do agree with you... The part of having to deal with the psychological aspect of it all would probably be the most annoying. I could definitely imagine myself just saying, ok, leave, let me do my work, then come back and pay me so I can leave. hahaha.
Don't mean to sound negative on this, just think it's worth some analysis.
I think it's strange that big cities would have a market on this. I understand big cities mean a large population base to support the most "niche" of products and services. However, for organizational services at least, I would think big cities, with the perks of living there being central/close to amenities both utilitarian and luxury would make one's life more likely to be organized, and therefore big cities would have less of a need of organizational services.
If there need is indeed there, I'd certainly look further into it, maybe draw up a business case to see if it is worth your time.
No, you're not being negative, you're putting all my own thoughts into words. haha. This is the reason why I have known about this for years but have never done anything about it; because it sounds way too strange to me too.
If I actually do decide to do it - which remains unlikely - I would definitely just get in with an ongoing firm and be one their on-call consultant type people or whatever they call them. I have no desire to run my own business and get a business license. I would do this as a way to just earn a litle money on the side, not a full time job for sure.
You really would think that living in a city would make it easier to stay organize, right? But one of the things that always amazes me about this place is where people's priorities are. I know of so many people here who simply never make the time to do things like cleaning their house/apartment, making their own meals to take to work or even making their own meals to eat at home. It's a culture of "I work to do, I don't have time for that." I guess this is one of those things the wealthy big city people do to make their lives easier or something? Which leads me to another problem with the whole idea... If I did it, I would have to spend my time dealing with wealthy upper crust people who would think of me as their "help." woot! haha.
Hello, friends.
I hope you have had a wonderful summer and also that you have missed our little gatherings immensely. Perhaps it is time for a resumption of Monday Night Book Club. Are you ready? I was told to pick a book. As you may recall, I am very partial to collections of short stories and a sucker for authors with a tendency towards preciousness. I included a couple of novels, though. Here are some suggestions. What do you think?
Yours sincerely,
Sexretary
The Elephant Vanishes (stories), Haruki Murakami
This collection of 15 stories from a popular Japanese writer, perhaps best known in this country for A Wild Sheep Chase, gives a nice idea of his breadth of style. The work maintains the matter-of-fact tone reminiscent of American detective fiction, balancing itself somewhere between the spare realism of Raymond Carver and the surrealism of Kobo Abe. These are not the sort of stories that one thinks of as "Japanese"; the intentionally Westernized style and well-placed reference to pop culture gives them a contemporary and universal feel. Engaging, thought-provoking, humorous, and slyly profound, these skillful stories will easily appeal to American readers but must present something of a challenge to the Japanese cultural establishment. At their best, however, they serve to dispel cultural stereotypes and reveal a common humanity.
Labyrinths (stories), Jorge Luis Borges
If Jorge Luis Borges had been a computer scientist, he probably would have invented hypertext and the World Wide Web.
Instead, being a librarian and one of the world's most widely read people, he became the leading practitioner of a densely layered imaginistic writing style that has been imitated throughout this century, but has no peer (although Umberto Eco sometimes comes close, especially in Name of the Rose).
Borges's stories are redolent with an intelligence, wealth of invention, and a tight, almost mathematically formal style that challenge with mysteries and paradoxes revealed only slowly after several readings. Highly recommended to anyone who wants their imagination and intellect to be aswarm with philosophical plots, compelling conundrums, and a wealth of real and imagined literary references derived from an infinitely imaginary library.
t zero (stories), Italo Calvino
A collection of stories about time, space, and the evolution of the universe in which the author blends mathematics with poetic imagination. “Calvino does what very few writers can do: he describes imaginary worlds with the most extraordinary precision and beauty” (Gore Vidal, New York Review of Books). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book
The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin
The second part of this 1974 novel's title is: "An Ambiguous Utopia." It's the story of two civilizations. A wealthy but authoritarian culture thrives planetside, and on its arid moon is a feminist-anarchist colony created by dissidents who left the planet over a century before. A brilliant physicist is the first member of the moon colony to travel back planetside since the separation. What he learns there, using advanced scientific equipment, is nothing compared to what he learns about political conflict.
Lilith's Brood, by Octavia Butler
Butler brings us a story of completely alien creatures who want to merge with humanity. This series of three interconnected stories focuses on the Oankali, aliens who use biotechnology to reinvent themselves every few generations by merging with other intelligent forms of life. Their new chosen mates are human, and Butler takes us through three generations of the Oankali's hybridization project, introducing us to the Oankali's three-gender family structure as well as their biotech spaceships, created by lifeforms that devour entire planets to build themselves into vast habitats that roam the galaxy.
Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
A recent novel by award-winning author Stross, Saturn's Children is a deceptively light-hearted story of a sexbot trying to figure out what her life really means now that the humans she was programmed to service are extinct.
I'm was having a demo done in the lab today on a new assay that could potentially save us hours on a routine thing we do. It was not a complete disaster but almost made me bust out beers at noon and get as hammered as I could before continueing to trouble shoot further.
One, there is this guy here who wants to know how exactly everything works. And asks a million questions that really serve no real purpose other than, shit I don't even know. It just complicates the hell out of any regular situation.
And two, the machine we just got to demo the new assay wasn't even set up by the tech who brought it in... to do the damn assay. So I had to fight with software updates and pulling random filters and shit out of the machine to manually enter shit into the computer by hand.
Tired from the struggle, need a beer now.
I'm so appreciative that you post things like this. It makes me so happy I never succeeded in getting an NIH lab tech job/internship. I knew I didn't want to work in a lab, but I tried a couple times while in college so I could use it as a resume builder, and didn't get through the competition. I'm so happy I didn't. haha.
Though, I would almost take one right now just so I could actually have a job. ugh.
That's true... I will admit in the lab jobs I have had, I have really enjoyed the people I have worked with. Even in the data entry job I had in college. It was so mind numbing that we got to the point where we could do it almost without thinking and could carry on conversations on the side while we did it. haha. People really do make or break a job, no matter how great or bad it is.
We're planning on starting back up with our book club up here in Anchorage, and using idkfa as a combination discussion, scheduling, and coordination area. We'll try to include what we're reading, and when, and maybe try to provide discussion or questions about books as we go along.
Our usual deal is we rotate through members of the book club, with each person coming up with a list of 3-5 books for the rest of the group to vote on. Once voted, we give ourselves about 2 weeks to read around 250 pages, or half of a book, whichever comes first, or seems like a good stopping point.
Also, for those interested, our book list for the previous year was the following:
If you aren't familiar with RedLetterMedia, I submit that you should be.
RedLetterMedia reviews J.J. Abram's "Star Trek"
Part 1 (20 min): http://blip.tv/play/AYH5w0AC (blip.tv)
Part 2 (40 min): http://blip.tv/play/AYH5xHsC (blip.tv)
These are well worth the watch, as well as the other reviews for Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2. They're all well-formed, well thought out, funny as hell, and ask and answer what it means to be a "good film."
Trailer for The Next Review: http://www.youtube....ture=youtube_gdata (www.youtube.com)
Please. Someone. Love this as I do.
I've tried so hard to spread the good message of the Plinkett. Red Letter Media has veins of gold peppered amongst heaps of cut diamond. His reviews are never brief, always witty, and so go down smooth with a cherry aftertaste. I only wish more souls would venture down the path of hilarious righteousness.
John. I'm talking about John. John needs to watch all of those.
Interesting. I think that is what we all think about. Just be happy that you are firmly rooted in one thing. All of my trees would likely be shorter than your 'computer science' tree. I keep thinking of how easy it would be for me to be replaced in my job. My only advantages are that I can work quickly, and usually don't get things wrong. But knowledge.... oh I need a base of knowledge that is broader than what it is now.
Anyhow, how can you detest anger?? Just give in to the rage. Become the hulk. But don't end up in prison.
"I will die in chaparral."
You're going to die in California? Or maybe Baja, I guess?
There are two separate issues you're addressing here, both illustrating different odditys of the cargo cult phenomenon. [tangent- there are several books I've read which discuss cargo cults, but now I'm not recalling what books these might be. I know there is definitely a Palahniuk book where this is an important theme. Anybody recall?]
Issue one: the lack of knowledge involved with the practice of both everyday activities and the fields one specializes in. This, I think, is not very well illustrated by cargo cults, and your tree analogy only makes a little sense to me. Suffice it to say that I'd say that there is some sense in which you can totally master a subject; it may be that you can only master on subject in your lifetime, but I'd like to believe, at least, that it is possible to have all available knowledge about something. Probably not in fields like cosmology or history, but certainly in manmade fields like computers or something like language or semiology.
Issue two: the example of the cargo cult is really demonstrative of the existentialist's critique on modern society; that is, it serves to illustrate the modern (or eternally human?) tendency to simply live by the structures and tropes that have been already established for us. We worked this problem out throughout the 20th century though, at least in the field of philosophy: God is dead, and we have killed him. The preconceived notions of what life is or should be have been destroyed by our moving beyond them, and we are thus condemned to be free, and cursed by the freedom to choose or life's purpose, or lack thereof.
That being said, I don't think that imitating others to achieve a similar outcome is wrong or misguided, as long as the ends are sought for one's own purposes, and not the purposes of others. The paradox of the cargo cultist is that, objectively, they are clearly ridiculous, but given their situation, their actions are perfectly logical.
Also, where I'm originally coming on the cargo cult idea is from software engineering, not in the hundred years I'm apparently behind in philosophy. That's why I relate it to fallibility of knowledge, in that it's an example of people doing something with sufficient knowledge, but not the necessary knowledge for something to happen (e.g., when the tribal cultures built the landing strips, but no airplanes landed).
The important issue then isn't about the lack of knowledge, but rather about knowing when your knowledge is insufficient. The cargo cults thought they knew everything about building airstrips and attracting planes but their knowledge wasn't the whole story.
Of course, it is difficult to know how extensive ones knowledge is from within the system itself. This is why Socrates famously said that he was wise because he knew that which he did not know.
So I've discovered the most amazing invention ever: wireless tethering. Who needs a hardline internet connection anymore? I just transmit a wireless internet signal from my cell phone, meaning I have broadband internet speeds wherever I have 3G coverage, which is regularly faster than my landline speeds (and also more reliable, ironically). And I can go anywhere with my laptop and have wireless internet. Amazing!
Ah, good comments. Well, I have an Android phone (a Motorolla Cliq to be precise), and to get this functionality I had to "root" my phone (the equivalent of "jailbreaking" in the IPhone realm). If you're worried about the legalities of this, I believe a superior court or someone recently ruled that this kind of "rooting" or "jailbreaking" is 100% legal. If I could know about what particular type of phone Dan has I could probably be of more help, I'm pretty sure it would work for a Blackberry/IPhone as well, though I don't have these types of phones and I'm sure the way to add wireless tethering functionality is a lot different.
Please let me know specifically the type of things you're curious about, but basically your smartphone asks as a wireless hub that transmits your 3G signal to computers around you basically. Like I mentioned it will only be of any use to you if you have a 3G signal. It sucks the battery life out of your phone, so it is best used when you can connect your phone to a wall outlet (or car charger). I've had a history of really crappy ISP's, so in my experience the connection is way more reliable than landline connections.
I was surprised how well it works and how fast it is. It is way faster than an internet connection that is strictly on your phone, mainly because most of the time you wait when loading a webpage on your phone is waiting for your phone's processor to display the information it's receiving on the page, it has nothing to do with the speed of the connection itself.
Economics wise, I have Tmobile and I pay $95/month before taxes for unlimited internet, texts, and calls. I think unlimited internet only adds about $30 a month to most plans, which is cheaper the cable inernet in most cases. You may want to check with your cell phone carrier if they set a limit (like ATT recently did) OR if they slow down your 3G speed after you reach a certain threshold or GB downloaded. T-Mobile doesn't seem to do either.
Let me know if either of you had more questions about this.
A way to tell would be to go to whatismyip (www.whatismyip.com) when you're tethered on your computer, make note of the IP, and then do the same thing on your phone. If they're the same IP, that means your phone is acting as a gateway, if they're different, well, lots of stuff could be happening.
Side note on that, AT&T has always had a GB limit, even with the "Unlimited plan" of 5GB. It's in the fine print, but it's there. With the new options, it's even lower.
They do have a nice IPhone app though that will show you how much you've used as well as on their web portal. Also I've rooted my IPhone multiple times on a 3G and 3GS, so if people need help with those, I could probably assist, but the caveat is that if you ever upgrade through Itunes you'd lose your root. Buyer Beware :)
