Today's Quote

A scientist knows more & more about less & less till he knows everything about nothing while a philosopher knows less & less about more & more till he knows nothing about everything.

If this is true, what about a philosophical scientist then?

Yesterday's Word

Just noticed the "Word of the Day" from Sunday. It stood out in a way, and I really liked the sound of it. Prolix. Sounds like something my doctor could prescribe me, to be taken when behaving irrationally. (Which I never do, by the way...) Back to prolix.

I like the letter X, 'cause it's also a symbol and visually intriguing, and I like pro, which is a

prefix meaning "before, forward, in favor of, in place of," from L. pro "on behalf of, in place of, before, for," also in some cases from cognate Gk. pro "before, in front of," both from PIE *pro-, extended form of base *por- "forward, through" (cf. Skt. para "beyond," pra- "before, forward, forth;" Gk. paros "before," para- "from beside, against, beyond;" Goth. faura "before," O.E. fore "before, for, on account of," fram "forward, from"). Pro and con is attested from c.1400, short for pro and contra "for and against" (L. pro et contra). Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

I'd like to think of myself as a pro person. Pro life, pro love, pro lixus [akin to līquī to flow; see liquor].

But after a closer inspection this word then turns out to be an adjective, and not a noun which I thought it was! To my ear it still sounds like something I could get over the counter:
"Two bottles of anti-dandruff shampoo and a carton of Prolix, please!"

No, no, it wasn't, but I'm afraid this word suits me quite well after all...

New Year - New Gadgets

The Holidays are for several reasons perhaps not the time for spending late hours by the computer, and I have myself these past days been somewhat detached from the online communities I usually frequent. Last night and today I have however been more active, and look what I found on Jill's site! Like she says; snap.com offers an "über-cool see-the-site-before-you-click-the-link effect". Just my kind of toy, and what ever statistical information they can gather by tracking activities on my blog I don't mind. For now, anyway. I have no secrets, you know...

Write Or Not Write?

I was just about to start this post with the sentence "I'm sitting here trying to write the analysis about Whom the Telling Changed...", but that would have been a lie. I'm not even trying. The only thing I'm doing, is doing nothing. Waiting for time to pass so I can get really stressed and anxious. Best motivator there is.

I realize this isn't the best strategy, and at some point I really have to change the way I work. Or rather not work. But as I'm writing a post anyway to loosen up my thoughts and fingers, why not at least try to relate it to my assignment?

Whom the Telling Changed is a piece of Interactive Fiction created by Aaron A. Reed, and it's written in Inform 6.3. Curious as I am, and also needy of substantial information I visited Inform's homepage. There's now a Inform 7 which I have just downloaded, but the question is - what on earth am I going to do with it? I would love to try it out, but when? And I also think a course would be helpful. And fun. But I strongly suspect there aren't that many on this side of the pond. Maybe Jill knows something.

Do I really need any more toys that I don't have time to play with? (Read in the paper the other day that Norwegian kids have like 500 toys in their rooms, now that's absolutely insane!) Or maybe this is the tool I've been searching for? The the perfect medium for exploring and expressing myself? Very well could be, considering what they say on their site:

With a small number of exceptions, though, the most important works of interactive fiction have never been "published" in the sense of being issued for sale by a for-profit company. [...] For the most part, IF has not been commercially valuable since about 1988.

That would be so typical me, finding something really fun and interesting, and not getting any money out of it...

Almost Giggly

This I don't understand. The time is 9.48 pm, and I'm not panic stricken, even though I probably should be. The final paper is due tomorrow by 1 pm with all of its 3500-4500 words, and I have just under 3300. And they're not that brilliant, at least not enough to weigh up for the shortness. So why am I in such a good mood? Because I know it just have to do; I'm slowly learning to relax.

And on my way I always stumble upon words of wisdom from writers and thinkers who lived long before me, and who make me almost ecstatic. Montaigne I got acquainted with last year, and I decided then, I'd like to read more of him. What an exquisite brain he had; so sharp and witty, and very precise. (And I just love that he shows that you can write sentences that are words 120 long, and still work! My kind of guy.) Just taste these words here:

'Tis the custom of pedagogues to be eternally thundering in their pupil's ears, as they were pouring into a funnel, while the business of the pupil is only to repeat what the others have said: now I would have a tutor to correct this error, and, that at the very first, he should, according to the capacity he has to deal with, put it to the test, permitting his pupil himself to taste things, and of himself to discern and choose them, sometimes opening the way to him, and sometimes leaving him to open it for himself; that is, I would not have him alone to invent and speak, but that he should also hear his pupil speak in turn. Montaigne 1575

So if nothing has changed for the last 500 years, I guess it would be too much to expect a change overnight?

A Philosphers Gettogether

How I wish I could bring them back, all these great thinkers. It would be interesting to throw a Christmas Party and have like twenty of them there. Just imagine the discussions! Today I give you a few words from one of them, words I seem to live by every day:


”…I shall try little by little to reach a better knowledge of and a more familiar acquaintanceship with myself. I am a thing that thinks, that is to say, that doubts, affirms, denies, that knows a few things, that is ignorant of many [that loves, that hates], that wills, that desires, that also imagines and perceives;…” René Descartes

Looonnggg Comment

It seems like it's not possible to leave very long comments here for the moment. If it's a beta related problem or not, I don't know. But my dear friend Toril put a lot of thought and time in a comment on the previous post "Hodgepodge", so I better publish it in another way.

Toril said:

"In the midst of personal misery or more intellectually approached as cognitive dissonance I would like to direct your attention to Aristotle and his famous doctrine about "The Golden Mean", in which he suggests a virtue is the midway point between two extremes, and perceived self-respect to be the golden mean between vanity and self-abasement, and modesty between shamelessness and shyness. The aim is to find the appropriate balance in your personality, and I therefore suggest that you don’t turn off all your heat or vent all your steam. You are, undoubtedly in dire need of a little of both!!

There are periods in our lives that are contemptuously dreadful, and when those periods have passed we look back at them as a typically dark period of our lives, and they were, but the thing is that we learn a lot about ourselves and others in the excruciating process. We never learn anything when life is happy, wonderful and content, that much I know. On numerous occasions, I’ve been abruptly and unwillingly ushered into the darkness and grief that I clearly remember from my divorce period, but thanks to my children and friends I have returned quickly and joyfully. I would insist that in order to succeed you must listen and act on the advice and comfort that is coming your way. We cannot romance the stone endlessly, and sometimes we have to take HUGE steps to conquer the smallest cognitive dissonance. The longer we hibernate in our sorrow the longer the convalescence.
I tend to indulge in my own sorrow simply because I believe certain things are strictly personal. I sit on it, literally brood on it for weeks on end, and in the process I hurt the people that love me the most. I don’t want to bother them with my anguish, other sometimes I’m embarrassed about issues and certainly don’t want to share it with anyone. In the end I have to share it anyways, it eventually hurts more than I can tolerate unaccompanied. When the bubble bursts I feel like a new human being, and I wonder why the heck I didn’t share the distress sooner!!!!
Karin, in your case I can give a lot of advice, and you can choose to listen to me or not. Unfortunately, you’re a grown woman and you’ll have to find your own way out of the misery, but please look around and include your friends, your children and your family. Don’t pretend that life is wonderful, talk about your grief and anxiety – friends will listen, reflect and give advice. Friends may talk about you when you’re not there, I know I have, but it isn’t meant to hurt you in any shape or form. Friends don’t stigmatize friends intentionally, and if they have said something that has hurt your feeling they should be confronted with it if it makes you feel better.

I believe I had a lot to say about this issue, and it’s up to you whether you want to publish this comment or not. Whatever you do, always remember that you are beautiful, intelligent and precious, and a friend that I truly value exceptionally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Derogative" end of comment

Thank you, Toril! I know you're a true friend, no doubt about that.

When it comes to Aristotle and his thinking I totally agree, and I actually linked to the very same article in a blog post some time ago. And if you stay in the middle you're much safer, beeing far from the edge.

Talk to you soon.

Sea And Sardinia

How I love when everything makes sense, even though it might be a temporary illusion. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Tomorrow I'll be going away for a week, 'cause I have a fantastic mother who decided to treat her children with a holiday. Her children are now almost grown up at 40, 45 and 50, but we're doing our very best to stay young in mind. I think we're quite successful at that as well. Anyway, we're going to Sardinia, and I thought I'd post to the blog just once more before I'll leave.

As usual I have some ideas, or some sort of inspiration, on how and what about to write, but nothing is ever set from the beginning. Strange things and coincidenses happen all time, and are fantastic sources for my ponderings. This day has given me a few already, but the clue is to connect them all; ideas, thoughts, everyday events and peculiar incidents. If I'm able to do that, and moreover, put it in writing, I get this tremendous good feeling - ah, it fits!

So, searching the web for a suitable picture to accompany my Sardiniapost I came across this one, ready with the quote and everything:



It turns out D.H. Lawrence and his wife spent a week or so on Sardinia, and he then wrote a travelbook - Sea and Sardinia. The quote from this book hit me like a sudden wind, whirling up some forgotten desires. Liked that. "...Strong and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many years of complete forgetfulness..." Yeah, really liked that.

Lost myself there for a moment, almost forgot what I was about to do here, and so there won't be a smart and effective closure to this post as I intended. Sardinia next! A week of relaxation, and expectations, nice food and wine, and long walks and talks in warm evenings. And let there be music; if nothing else, always the music.

(Four Things) Meme

Yesterday I was tagged by Angela in this "Four Things Meme". I must confess I didn't know to begin with what a meme is. But that's me, amazingly unknowing at some points. My excuse then is that if I don't know, I do my best to educate myself. Dictionary.com is a good place to start, and here I found a rather short and handy explanation. Further, more substantial reading, was found on Wikipedia. Excellent!

Now that I had regained my belief in not beeing totally unaware and ignorant, I started to trace this meme backwards, to see what I would find. I must say, if this had arrived in it's original form, and without me reading Angelas inspiring ponderings about the online meme-phenomenon I would probably not have been doing anything about it. Because this meme thing is, to quote Bruce Lawson some seven steps back, "just geekspeak for “Chain Letter”", and I don't do them. (Stopped doing chain-letters when a "foolproof" one came around which should have provided me with lots and lots of nice wine. I delivered my bottle personally and went home, eagerly waiting for the followers to execute their part. Needless to say, but no bottles ended up on my doorstep.)

Only two steps back from me I found "The Ramblings Of Linden Langdon", and it's about now I once again realize why I don't read too many blogs on a regular basis. For the same reason I try to stay away from some new TV-shows and Smith's Crisps - They're too good!, I get so easily hooked and then I just have to continue. (reading, watching, eating...) But I think Lindens blog will be added to my daily sitevisits, much thanks to the artistic perspective. Very impressive! (and Langdon senior is a ceramist, what can I say?)

I followed the memetrace even further and 14 steps and only 4 days earlier Michele Finotto in Italy was tagged. A couple of days later he made this statement which I in a way can relate to.

It soon became evident that it would be quite impossible to find the source of the meme, not to mention absolutely pointless, so from here I instead tried to find out how many chose to continue the chain. That turned out, not surprisingly, to be a rather tedious task as well, but I think my conclusion is that not too many can be bothered. So we're kind of back with Angelas thoughts again, because even if we perhaps don't like these kind of memes, we'll still need them around if we're going to elaborate around the actual concept. Trapped once more!

I think I've mentioned it before, but I really don't like lists. I'm always afraid that some misconceptions could be read between the lines, and that might validate the reasoning of "favourites as identity markers", as Angela and Linden suggested. Very much in my own line of thinking, and certainly worthwhile pursuing sometime. Perhaps the fact I'm not going to write a list of likes and dislikes, is telling just as much about my personality and identity as if I had?

Somewhere else in the line I followed, I found this handsome young man. He seemed to be quite enthusiastic about this meme, but it might have to do with his young age, in time he will most likely be as cynical as the rest of us... He's even sticking to the "rules"! I'm not! Another trait of mine, beeing unruly (but yet conscientious - what a contradiction).

So my deepest apologies, Angela, for not following through, but hopefully it wasn't a total waste of time. I enjoyed it, even if this particular track stops here. Perhaps I'm just too lazy?