Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday was my last day at work. I didn’t get half of what I wanted to do done. I did go out to a bar with my coworkers afterwards. Had pizza & beer (yes, yes, not vegan, but we all know I’m more veganish than vegan.)

<insert sleep here>

So, I’m more optimistic about this jobless time than I was about the last jobless time. I got up and did exercise type stuff this morning, which I’ve been meaning to do in forever, and haven’t really gotten around to. I’m prepared to label this a good thing, and an auspicious sign of my proactivity (we’ll ignore the fact that I dragged my ass out of bed around 2pm 😉

Tomorrow is my last day in the office. And wednesday is my last day in pittsburgh. I’m emotionally excited, incoherent, and stuff. =)

Also, I realized recently that the cool people who want to meet me in Kansas City are going to have a hard time getting past airport security. It’s only an hour and a half layover. Probably have to board half an hour before take off, so make that an hour. In which time I would have to get off the plane, and through security, both ways, as well as to & from the respective gates. This is sounding a little dicey to me.

Stupid, irrelevant, useless restrictions of additional airport security. Bleh. The terrorists had tickets.

Nudism

So, I’ve been to a nude beach or two in my time. Took a dip or two in the Pennsic classic swimming hole, and skinnydipped under other circumstances. At it’s best, there’s something profound and mystical about public nudity. A shedding of concealment, an unshrinking exposition of the self, no pun intended. More conventionally, it’s about grabbing attention, or fitting in at a spot where you can scope freely. At its worst, it’s just for shock value.

But, the truth of it is, I get bored and restless at these casually nude locations. Despite not really believing that I have a great body, I’m pretty comfortable with being seen sans clothing. But being naked has no great entertainment value for me. Nor does seeing a bunch of naked people. And it seems like not alot other than that happens at these venues. Fun to splash around in the water, though.

Love Poems

Remember
by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

The Hopeful Appeal
By Minyoung Sohn

If perchance I am sent
to a distant hollow
Sweetest love I ask,
with me should you follow?

Would you close your eyes
and hold your breath
Take a step into Tomorrow?

Would you grasp my hand
and still my heart
Purge me of my sorrow?

Whee

One bookshelf and one bike down. Dad bought the bike, I almost wonder if he was doing it just to provide me the only support he could without directly giving it to me, though he does claim to intend to ride, and in particular to work on wednesdays. I hope he does. That would be so cool.

stuff sold

Morality and War

(posted in response to radi0actv‘s slew of comments on an earlier entry of mine)

Comment #1: A stylistic suggestion. There are no limits on entry length, even though there are on comments, so it would probably be simpler to put the one entry in your journal, then provide a link to in via a comment in mine.

Comment #2: The way I see it, we’re looking at this from two different perspectives, aptly summed up with the difference between a couple of prepositions in spanish (and in french, as I understand it). Among many other things ‘por’ means ‘because’, as in, “I smacked him because he smacked me.” It sums up the conditions that led to an action, or, a reaction as I tend to think of it. The corresponding meaning of ‘para’ is harder to sum up in one word. Usually, in english we construct the concept with an infinitive, but without a preposition, as in, “I smacked him to stop him from smacking me”. But indicates the ultimate intent of an action. You’re talking ‘por’, I’m talking ‘para’.

Perhaps I’m a bit odd in my thinking on morality, in that the ‘por’ angle doesn’t matter to me. I care about the future. I do not approve of punishment or revenge. I approve wholeheartedly of prevention. And I can see situations where even capital punishment is a valid and morally justified form of prevention. In general, I oppose it only due to the fallibility of human judgement.

I do not accept prior crimes alone as justification for response. Whether he hit me, killed my parents, or destroyed everything I ever loved. From a moral perspective, I care about that only as an indicator of future actions. In general one is justified in taking action where the predicted net consequences do not outweigh the harm of inaction.

What I’m predicting is that by our action over there we’re building resentment which will result in at least as many kamikaze terrorists as we took out. We’re doing this by killing more people than they ever did, and imprisoning more, under conditions we don’t have much information on, but you can guess aren’t meeting the Geneva Conventions. I fail to see how this is a moral war, from the ‘para’ perspective.

If we go back to another ‘por’ v ‘para’ perspective on post-war treatment, and the consequences thereof, we have only to look at the end of WWI, and compare it to the Marshall plan at the end of WWII. Tell me whether you’d rather live through the Great Depression again, or, far that matter, WWIII, with nuclear technology far more widely spread?

As was put quite eloquently on a poster I noticed on my way home last night: “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” You may believe that the U.S. performed no hostile act against the Afghanis prior to the attacks on the world trade center, but I assure you, they do not. No one will ever agree that it’s all even ‘now’, no matter when now is. Someone has to be willing to let the last word go to someone else. And it’s hardly likely that the side that lost most will be the first to forget.