Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Snow Way!
Wow, it's really snowing tonight! We've had more snow this year than any winter I can remember in Chicago.
Kindling
I'm still watching lots of Olympics, enjoying my "staycation" of sorts (mostly just not fiction-writing at the moment, but I am doing a lot of blogging, obviously). Exene goes off on yet another marathon this weekend, so it's just me and the boys. Good times! (honestly) The month of March will live up to its name, lemme tellya! I have so much to be done. My last month of being in my 30s -- I intend to put the time to good use.
Speaking of writing, I should find out tomorrow whether the novel I entered in the Amazon competition advances or not. We'll see. I can't get my hopes up, but it would be nice to at least advance past that first round of eliminations (then only three more rounds to go -- *GAK*)
On the bus, which was pretty crowded (well, my second part of my commute, up the Mag Mile), I counted 19 people in my immediate area, and took stock of what they were doing:
Speaking of writing, I should find out tomorrow whether the novel I entered in the Amazon competition advances or not. We'll see. I can't get my hopes up, but it would be nice to at least advance past that first round of eliminations (then only three more rounds to go -- *GAK*)
On the bus, which was pretty crowded (well, my second part of my commute, up the Mag Mile), I counted 19 people in my immediate area, and took stock of what they were doing:
- 1 writing on notepad (me)
- 4 reading books
- 1 reading newspaper
- 2 listening to their iPods
- 2 reading Kindles
- 2 using cell phones (one texting, the other on the phone)
- 1 using iPhone (I can't be sure what she was doing -- either playing a game or texting)
- 6 just sitting there
Stoicism. Epicureanism. Romanticism. Classicism.
My rule of thumb:
That simple axiom can be applied in so many ways, in so many settings. Stoicism likely has its place in life, but Epicureans should always be entrusted to the things that make life worth living. I'm an Epicurean to the bone, without a doubt. I savor the pleasures of life, in all their forms. And it's true -- I think it's part of what lets me be a generally happy camper, even when things are rough: I find the fun, and I find the funny. I savor life -- even when life hurls a cream pie in my face, I'm one to take a lick and say "Hmm. Tasty." Not really. I HATE cream pies.
*shudder*
I feel that love is best understood by Romantics, and not by Classicists. I remember in high school, for sure by my junior year, realizing in an epiphany that I was a Romantic. I told a friend of mine (himself, a tried-and-true Classicist), in English class: "Tom, I'm a Romantic!" and he laughed, said he was a Classicist, and that he knew I was a Romantic, just from the stuff I'd say in class. That amused me.
Byron's works, Shelley's poems -- they really hit me hard, framed so much of my sense of self, and of the world. I remember reading Shelley's stuff out loud in my room and just loving the dance of his language. It was so clearly-defined to me, I can actually remember that conversation, can see it in my mind's eye so well. It's funny to me -- I think Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is a bit of a sly answer to her own father's Romantic, revolutionary spirit, and, of course, to her husband's Romantic vision. But I'll talk about that some other time.
Epicurean. Romantic. Yup. Me. Okay, so, maybe idealistic, but so what? What's the opposite of idealism? Realism. In other words: ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZzzzz
Anyway, if you know a Stoic, remember those words. Never let'em buy the groceries, buy the gifts, pick the music, or plan the parties. Just don't. Seriously. Don't.
Never let the Stoic buy the groceries.
That simple axiom can be applied in so many ways, in so many settings. Stoicism likely has its place in life, but Epicureans should always be entrusted to the things that make life worth living. I'm an Epicurean to the bone, without a doubt. I savor the pleasures of life, in all their forms. And it's true -- I think it's part of what lets me be a generally happy camper, even when things are rough: I find the fun, and I find the funny. I savor life -- even when life hurls a cream pie in my face, I'm one to take a lick and say "Hmm. Tasty." Not really. I HATE cream pies.
*shudder*
I feel that love is best understood by Romantics, and not by Classicists. I remember in high school, for sure by my junior year, realizing in an epiphany that I was a Romantic. I told a friend of mine (himself, a tried-and-true Classicist), in English class: "Tom, I'm a Romantic!" and he laughed, said he was a Classicist, and that he knew I was a Romantic, just from the stuff I'd say in class. That amused me.
Byron's works, Shelley's poems -- they really hit me hard, framed so much of my sense of self, and of the world. I remember reading Shelley's stuff out loud in my room and just loving the dance of his language. It was so clearly-defined to me, I can actually remember that conversation, can see it in my mind's eye so well. It's funny to me -- I think Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is a bit of a sly answer to her own father's Romantic, revolutionary spirit, and, of course, to her husband's Romantic vision. But I'll talk about that some other time.
Epicurean. Romantic. Yup. Me. Okay, so, maybe idealistic, but so what? What's the opposite of idealism? Realism. In other words: ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZzzzz
Anyway, if you know a Stoic, remember those words. Never let'em buy the groceries, buy the gifts, pick the music, or plan the parties. Just don't. Seriously. Don't.
Video: Song of a Baker
I really like the Small Faces. They were a great band. The exuberance of this tune always psyches me up. Just powerful stuff...
And I love the Mod kids grooving to it, the babes doing their groovy 60s dancin' to it, too! Hee hee!
And I love the Mod kids grooving to it, the babes doing their groovy 60s dancin' to it, too! Hee hee!
Robo-Cuisine
The Snackbot is coming! Barring some human-induced cataclysm or just cosmic bad luck (e.g., an asteroid hitting us or something), I think we're going to see so much more with robots in this century. Of course, the flip side of that shiny coin is that a huge proportion of humanity will be even more irrelevant than they already are, if robots get good enough at whatever they're programmed to do. Note: I don't think anybody's irrelevant -- that's one of my beefs with the capitalist economy, the winners v. losers aspects of it (e.g., rich v. poor). The litany of "get an education, get a good job" that was part of the 20th century's economic model of progress has really begun to take a tumble -- the jobs, increasingly, just aren't there to be had, and you have PhD's working far beneath their capacity. Demand for good jobs seems to have always exceeded supply.
So, you throw actually effective robots into the mix, and suddenly they're doing the jobs nobody wants to do -- the jobs historically taken up by immigrants and other needy souls. And as they get better and more diverse, then they're taking up increasingly challenging and desirable jobs, putting more and more people out of work.
What do all of those people do? Our country already fails to really help its neediest. What'll happen when all of these people are out of work? Trouble. There's a chance for self-improvement, yeah, but will people take it? And will governments make it easier or harder for people to do so? Europe and Japan, I can see doing it -- but our country? Not so much. I imagine fundamentalists staging anti-robot riots, etc.
So, you throw actually effective robots into the mix, and suddenly they're doing the jobs nobody wants to do -- the jobs historically taken up by immigrants and other needy souls. And as they get better and more diverse, then they're taking up increasingly challenging and desirable jobs, putting more and more people out of work.
What do all of those people do? Our country already fails to really help its neediest. What'll happen when all of these people are out of work? Trouble. There's a chance for self-improvement, yeah, but will people take it? And will governments make it easier or harder for people to do so? Europe and Japan, I can see doing it -- but our country? Not so much. I imagine fundamentalists staging anti-robot riots, etc.
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