Oh hey there. I haven't been on in a while (mostly busy with real life stuff), but I'm always up to share some classical music I love to others. If piano pieces are what you want, OftenBen, here are a few pieces that I absolutely love: Ravel - Miroirs no. 3: Un barque sur l'ocean: This is a wonderful piece by ravel in a series of piano pieces, all of which are good, but this one is my favorite of the bunch. It's calm, melodic, meditative and very oceanic if I do say so myself. A wonderful piece by one of my favorite composers. Ravel - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand As a lefty, it is almost an obligation to post this wonderful piece by Ravel. Would you believe this piece was composed for famous Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's brother? Didn't even know he had a brother before discovering this piece! Paul Wittgenstein lost his hand in a war but still wanted to play piano, so he got Ravel to write this piece for him. Unfortunately Ravel was incredibly displeased at Paul when he performed it, because Paul decided to change a few things in the piece to make it more palatable to his musical tastes. This is a wonderful, heroic sounding piece, just like Paul. Alexander Scriabin - Piano Sonata no. 5 I've listened to a lot of versions of this piece, but Sultanov imo does it best. When I first listened to this I felt as if I was listening to some cosmic otherworldly music. Really amazing stuff here. Simeon Ten Holt - Canto Ostinato Got two hours? This piece is really something beautiful. Whenever I listen to this piece it's like my mind wanders through medieval labyrinths. It's a very minimal, meditative and almost transformative piece. My favorite part of the entire piece has to be section 88. A very dark and lonely sounding, but beautiful part. Unfortunately this isn't my favorite version, but it's the only one on youtube. The one I first listened to, and is my favorite, takes it much faster and spends more time repeating 88 quite a bit. Kasputin - Piano Sonata no. 8 This piece is very jazzy. Kasputin is a perfect blend of jazz and classical that is really worth a listen if you like either genre. Valentin Silvestrov - Last Love Silvestrov is a wonderful Ukrainian composer. His sixth symphony is one of my favorite symphonies of all time, but this isn't about symphonies, lol. This piece in particular is terrible. Yeah right; It's stunningly beautiful. As is this piece by him: He's well worth a listen to, but be forewarned, he is a modern composer. Other pieces by him might be a bit more inaccessible for those who dislike modern music, but if you give him a shot, I think you'll grow to like it. Try this piece: Walter Abendroth - Piano Concerto The stuff you find on youtube, I tell ya. I don't know much of anything about this guy, but I found this when randomly listening to obscure composers on youtube and really like it. Perhaps it's not Tchaikovsky, but I found it nice enough in any case. Granados - Valses Poeticos Very melodic and beautiful waltzes. Theodor Adorno - Piano Piece A very interesting dream-like piece. Debussy - Images I: Reflets dans l'eau Debussy is another favorite of mine, and this piece in particular is a favorite of mine. The first piece of his I ever listened to was his suite Bergamasque: Which is very beautiful and contains the famous Clair de Lune, which you've probably heard somewhere else before in a movie or game or maybe mentioned by someone in a book. A very beautiful piece. Steve Reich - Piano Counterpoint A beautiful minimalistic piece. Minimalism might not be for everyone, but this piece, among others by him, are really something great. Watching the work slowly alter, evolve and change is really something that's a treat to my ears. His Music for 18 Musiciansis also a minimalist masterpiece, albeit not entirely piano, though it plays an important part in the piece in any case: My favorite part has to be his section IIIA The piano is performed by Reich himself, btw. ...I think that's enough for now. I could go on, but I think that's enough piano tunes and places to search for more piano tunes... Well, actually, one more: Camille Saint Saens - The Swan The piano is mostly in the background compared to the violin that just tugs at your heartstrings, but I think it still belongs here. It's a very beautiful piece.
I am about to get my drivers license, and hopefully after that a job working as a school lunch helper in some public school. I'm actually pretty happy with how things are going so far. With this job (If I get it), I get about the same amount of vacation time as the students do, which gives me free time to pursue my interests, while also having the ability to work on other things and save up money for any investments. I live a peaceful life where no one bothers me for rent or noise complaints. I don't really care for college at the moment, since I don't wanna get in debt. Besides, I'd go to college to either study philosophy (something you can't really get employment from) or something in computers, which is a field that is replete with the do-it-yourself spirit. Everything I could want to learn about computers in a college, I could learn on my own. I don't have that tick-tocking feeling you have, but that might be because I have a rather odd view of life. I have hopes and dreams like everyone else, but I don't mind if I never achieve them. I came into this life with nothing. I didn't even ask to be brought into this world, and I get to experience all the joys and horrors this world has to offer at no discernible cost. There seems to be no purpose to life, so all I want to do is make myself happy, and it turns out that doesn't require fame, fortune, a lofty position or anything really. I have tons of books on my bookshelf, perhaps 50 years worth of books and many more I don't have but want, and I'm sure I'll never be able to read them all while I'm also listening to tons of great music, playing tons of neat games, watching tons of interesting videos, and doing lots of cool stuff. My only regret is not being able to experience all of it. And that regret goes away when I realize I experienced at least some of it. I'd like to one day create something really great, be it a game, or some music, or write some long novel or play, or do some poetry, or maybe all of the above, and release it in the public domain one day. I don't know what it is, but I want people to experience it and really feel something they've never felt before. I want it to be something that really makes you feel human. But if I don't ever get a chance to do that, well, no harm done. The only thing in life I'm particularly melancholic about is my love life. That's the one thing in life I feel really nervous about. It's even hard to explain what makes me so nervous, but I guess the best way to explain it would be a low self-esteem towards myself and being in a relationship with someone I love. I'll deal with that when it comes, if it comes, if I let it come. Aside from that, everything is just fine and I wish for life to remain in this same easy-going mode, which, given the fact that it's life, is no guarantee. It takes one war and draft and I'm in prison (Because I don't want to fight in a war and hurt people) or hiding in some foreign country. I haven't decided which one I'd do yet. Who knows what life has in store for me? I sure as hell don't.
In absolutely no order: 1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. An amazing, hilarious, and (imo) heart breaking classic. Alonso Quixano and Sancho Panza are some of my most favorite characters in Literature, and also my most favorite duo, second only to Mephistopheles and Faust, and speaking of which... 2. Faust (Goethe). This is perhaps one of the greatest works of art I have ever read. I wish I could read it in the Original German, as the english translation I read was beautifully crafted as it is. I mean, here's one of my favorite quotes ever: This is play of truly epic proportions. heaven and hell, love, death, ambition, regret, damnation, salvation... It has everything. 3. The Castle by Franz Kafka. A lot of people don't seem to love the Castle, but it's perhaps my most favorite Kafka work, and I've read everything he's ever done except Amerika. Something about the castle is very subliminal. If you asked me why I specifically prefer it over The Trial or any other of his amazing works, I couldn't really tell you. I think, however, that the Castle is Kafka at his purest. All of the characters are all so erratic and (imo) rat-like (best way to characterize them), and yet they feel so human in a darkly comedic fashion. It's so sad that this novel was never finished, ending in such a disappointing manner and with no ending, aside from a speculation of how it was supposed to end. 4.Ulysses by James Joyce. I bought this book mostly because I heard it was a difficult novel, and I LOVE challenges, and since I paid 12 bucks for it, I figured that would be the safety that would force me to read it. Little did I know, James Joyce and I are like brothers! I loved the Stream of Consciousness style of writing, I love the hilarity that the novel is soaked in, and I love the fact that he can make using the bathroom read like a poetic triumph of the human spirit. Stephen Dedalus is one of my favorite characters and someone I can relate to on a level not like any other character. I read Ulysses once a year, starting on Bloomsday. I loved Ulysses so much, I read most of his other works and can vouch for them as well, The only works of his I haven't read yet are his plays and Finnegans Wake, which I plan to read some day. 5.Symposium by Plato. A dialogue on Love that is so filled to the brim with content that I've read the dialogue more than 5 times in different translations and I still keep on finding new insights. If you think Plato was just a philosopher, reading the Symposium will convince you that if he didn't go into Philosophy, we would be praising him for creating some of the best plays ever written. He masterfully chooses each character, all of their words and actions carefully calculated with meaning and purpose. What seems like an unfinished conversation point or interruption actually is part of a larger point (most of the time very ironic and contradicting what certain characters say on love) It's also one of the most enjoyable dialogues to read because the subject matter is something that is always interesting to everyone. Aren't we all fascinated by love?Glitter is coined to meet the moment's rage;
The genuine lives on from age to age
I do... Then again, I'm a bit of a special case. I try to stay away from porn videos because every time I watch a video, I always end up thinking: Who are their parents? Would they have wanted them to do that? What caused them to do this? Do they really enjoy doing what they do? Do they enjoy being known by millions of people for this, while millions of other people hate them and their profession as something artless and disgusting (And a lot of it is artless)? In short, I cannot live with myself knowing I might have watched someone being exploited and demeaned (unless of course that person enjoys that). It's funny; People often like to mock hentai and doujins, a kind of erotic manga made by small or not so small groups/artists, for being extreme and bizarre, but the good majority of it is quite tame, the normal stuff being tamer than most normal porn. Since it's fictional, the characters are oftentimes more affectionate towards one another than the two (or more) actors in porn videos who are paid to get on stage and fuck. Of course, since it's fictional, you can also get really depraved stuff, and because the nature of the Internet amplifies the extremes, most of the time that's all you ever see if you just skim around. But no one is harmed in the making of these works of erotica, no one is exploited or used, and many of the artists doing these works are quite talented in their own right, some having a complete mastery over anatomy (And others mess with it for the purpose of making appealing characters, which takes talent to pull off well), lighting, scenery, and color (For the few that do full color works): all of the essentials that a good artist was expected to master a couple of centuries ago (I don't know how modern art is, given that all I see of modern art is conceptual pieces). I personally find this kind of porn much more ethical, or rather, I feel a lot better viewing this kind of porn. Anyways, Me, personally, I like to limit myself. I perhaps view porn one day, and perhaps skip the next day or two, and then watch porn the next day, and then skip a few days. I do this as a means to make things more pleasurable and to avoid things like what the author goes through.(but c’mon, who would look at pictures when there are videos?)
Watching movies, I guess. For whatever reason I can't stand movies. I can count the number of movies I've seen in a year on one hand (This year: 5, all anime related actually), and I only really care about three directors: Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa and David Lynch. Some other people who have managed to earn a kind of respect are Kubrick, Del Toro, and I've been meaning to watch a film by Jan Švankmajer. That's about it. I don't discount the artistic merit of the medium, and if I dig deep enough, I know I'll find tons of movies that are fantastic with great directors and all that, but for some reason the medium doesn't appeal to me, and I loathe the current age of movies (You ever seen a movie trailer today? To me they all look and sound the same), which has slowly creeped into the world of video games and making that all the more unfun for me. Another thing I really hate is shoes. Of any kind. As a child I loved to walk with my bare feet and hated shoes. A part of it might have been the fact that I always had trouble tying them, but even I never found a pair that was as good and comfortable as my own two feet. I don't get people who collect them and all that stuff. I had a teacher who claimed to have a rather sizable shoe collection, and I get personal enjoyment and everyone has their own interests that I won't/can't judge them for or anything, but I still wonder why. Nowadays I get used to it and wear shoes and socks and all that, and I get that walking barefooted is a dumb idea what with all the sharp stuff around, but I'll avoid wearing shoes as much as I can. I suppose lastly is driving. I dislike driving very much. I dislike the idea of being behind the wheel of a machine that can kill someone so easily. My mother was run over by a car (She survived the accident, and while she has back problems that persist to this day, she's okay). The guy behind the wheel was talking on a cell phone. That is probably a good enough reason for a person to not like cars anymore (On another note, I kinda don't like cell phones either), but in any case I feel nervous driving and feel that I never have a good enough view of the outside. But, this is something you have to do, so I drive. I'd rather ride a bicycle, but sometimes you just can't. I'd rather walk, but sometimes you gotta be somewhere at this or that time. Public transportation is good in theory, but unreliable. So a car it is. I drive, but not with much pleasure. I think that's about it.
Whoa, this surprised the heck out of me. I actually wouldn't mind using this. EDIT: Oh okay. I see the problem here. That is some magical font right there.This is quoted text. Zounds!
I got turned away from classical for the longest time because of these composers (With the exception of Beethoven and Bach, whom I've always liked). I was about to give up classical as something I'd never understand until I found out about Erik Satie: http://youtu.be/atejQh9cXWI This started it all. This piece, all of his pieces were so different from all other classical pieces I've ever listened to; This was no surprise as Satie never quite liked romanticism and the previous classical composers and their ways. He had an entirely different style, one that was a kind of predessecor to other musical genres (Muzak, "furniture music" and ambient of the likes of Brian Eno and friends). I suppose this is my Number 1. Here's a good documentary on Erik Satie: http://youtu.be/rCacoDnHGe4 After Erik Satie, I wanted to look for similar artists, and many people have told me that he hung out with Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and they composed in a musical style inspired by the paintings of the impressionist painters, which is what they called themselves: Debussy: http://youtu.be/ZdBjJZ0sAJQ Ravel: http://youtu.be/amGl9Qmgu7E These are my numbers 2 and 3. After a while, I wanted to go back to the ones I disliked and see if I liked them now, at this point, I found a composer named Gustav Mahler: http://youtu.be/URKGIa0b_jI Now, this was some really heavy stuff. I went to listen to all of hy symphonies and all of them were great, and even moreso, all of them had that "link" I couldn't find in Mozart or the other usual folks. I guess at this point, I was well on my way to becoming addicted to classical. This is my number 4. After Mahler, I better appreciated Mozart and friends but I still didn't like them, I just put away my issues with them. I wanted to go more modern, as it seemed that has never let me down. Enter Stravinsky and Shostakovich and my numbers 5 and 6: Stravinsky: http://youtu.be/aGFRwKQqbk4 Shostakovich: http://youtu.be/ogJFXqYEYd8 From here, I wanted to go even more modern, to see what's going on so far, an I discovered Alfred Schnittke, my number 7, and oh man, was this a real mindscrew: http://youtu.be/xNKWoo9Fe40 If you want to take a gander at the abyss, this guy will help you there. All of his works are so deliciously dark and demonic. Very excellent. From here I went to the Minimalists: Steve Reich: http://youtu.be/fx27voOtpNs Terry Riley: http://youtu.be/BHBvoBti_eg I find it harder and harder to write. I don't know who said it, but someone said writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I'll just leave it to you to hear them and let them speak for themselves. Those are my numbers 8 and 9. Long ago, I found out about John Cage and his radical 4'33'' and the more avante-garde classical at the time. I liked a lot of it, but there was one composer in particular that stood far out from the rest, and that guy was Morton Feldman: http://youtu.be/MR4o9sjA1EE http://youtu.be/x-9QcADiekY http://youtu.be/myIvdeQH8hQ This guy... He was a lot like Satie. He spend most of his time in music school arguing with his teachers about what music should be like. I found a kindred spirit in him. I never got classical music before when it was all Mozart and Schubert and Haydn so on. His music is so quiet, so meaningful, so sad. It's quite avante-garde, so it takes some buffering time for someone used to only Mozart or Beethoven, or even Mahler, Satie, Reich and everyone else on my list, to get into him but his work, imo, is really something special from all the other composers I've ever listened to. He's my number 10 favorite composer. And now, some honorable mentions: Perotin, a very OLD composer: http://youtu.be/bpgaEFmdFcM This is a funny quirk. I actually like Medieval composers/Gregorian chant because they were actually similar to modern composers in a certain sense (Hard to explain, since I'm not musically educated). Somehwere along the line, composers like Mozart and Beethoven, the classical and romantic periods, changed their musical style. Arvo Part: http://youtu.be/PzSlmWQuHFw Modern composer, and very excellent. John Luther Adams: http://youtu.be/g6wX1c-Zk9Q Inspired by Morton Feldman and the natural areas of Alaska, so naturally, I'd like his work. Very beautiful stuff. Simeon Ten Holt: http://youtu.be/f7yeIWne0iw This piece is magnificent. This is my number 11, if I could add in a number 11. IT's a strange piece that just makes you want to reflect the longer you listen to it. It's a really amazing song. And for now, that is it, because this is already a long list, but at least I gave you some recommendations that are more on the modern side, which I think more people should look into, as there's a lot of neat stuff there waiting to be found and enjoyed. As always, this is all my opinion, I have no musical background and the likes
Have you ever read a book and just wasn't feeling it? I'm reading Pride and Prejudice, and I'm 30 pages in, and I just want to tear the book in half. Some pages my eyes just glazed over and yet I feel as though I've lost nothing of importance. And yet I also can't be bothered to even describe the story so far. Apparently some single rich dude came to town and now people are throwing their daughters at him. Some hintings at people hating the social norms are mentioned. I was expecting it to be better, and I'm going to complete it because I'm a stubborn idiot that can't put down a book once started, and I liked Jane Eyre and everyone hated that, and it seems nearly everyone hates this and expected to like it, but I'm reading it and am starting to wonder why I'm reading this when there are so many other good books and if I have to read more pages of pointless banter oh my gooooooooooooooooooood. Aside from that I'm fine! The weather is chilly here in New York and rain has been coming and going. I could certainly use some sunny days. I'm trying my best to do the whole NaNoWriMo, but I can't really come up with any substantial story, so I'm just writing short stories, but I want to do the novel!
I dunno what to call it so I'll just use a vague term: "the system" these days has these kinds of problem, I've noticed. I'm talking more than just schools and tests here. I notice this in all aspects of life, like, say, buying from Wal-Mart instead of a mom and pop store. They're set up so that no matter what you're always potentially hurting someone. If you opt out you can potentially hurt teachers and schools. If you stay in... You still hurt them by participating in a system that you don't believe in, and if you believe it's best for your children's educational well-being to opt out, you're obviously hurting them as well. Maybe that's why we find the trolley problem so compelling: Many choices in our lives in the systems we live in have similar kind of scenarios. The trolley problem is also set up so that it always has one "lesser of two evils" choice that people think we should lean towards, like in this instance the choice of letting the kids stay to help the teachers and schools, which would correspond to killing one dude to save five on the other side of the tracks. Or not; I dunno. Maybe I'm just being stupid and comparing things that shouldn't be compared.
I don't think I'll ever lose the Flame of Rebellion, because I believe that if you're happy with the way our current society is, you either have low standards--This is an age where stuff like this STILL HAPPENS--Or just don't really think too hard about everything in society that just doesn't make sense. On another thread of living a Designed Life, I started pondering if my life was designed and realized something: The world is really cruel if you don't fit in or cater to the demands of it. As a young kid I once had very long hair. Hair longer than most girls. I personally liked having long hair and didn't see the big deal over it. I thought I looked neat with it. However, everyone else seemed to disagree. I was called a faggot, a girl. I was alienated from all of my former friends and harrassed and bullied constantly, by boys and girls. Someone even tried to set it on fire in a Chemistry class once. And the adults weren't very kind either; Various adults either assumed something was wrong with me because I had long hair or did the typical adult passive-aggressive suggestion that I should cut it without saying I should cut it. I know rebellious teens are annoying, but I just had long hair. I didn't even bother anyone else or get into trouble. At least not initially; Turns out when you're alienated and alone, you tend to find some group that will accept you, and the only group that moderately accepted me was a kind of outcast group; Kids who went to 4chan and laughed at the gore and casual bullying that was rampant in those "golden years" of /b/. I hated them, but couldn't hate them too much, because hanging out with them made me realize that despite being a group of assholes, they were pretty much no different from the other group of assholes, and they talked to me to boot. Not only that, I took a little piece them with me along the way. You can't help it, really. I went from living a relatively calm and normal life as a somewhat average kid into being directed straight into the other status, and boy were my eyes open and mouth firmly shut. I don't think I'll ever lose the flames of rebellion, because the flame of rebellion came to me and left its burn forever with me. I didn't want to be outside the status quo, but it happened, and I guess I'm better off for it. I know how it feels to be severely alienated, and have taken a bit of a complex about it, defending people who are often attacked. It's funny how something seemingly innocuous can drastically alter your life. I often wonder how my life would be if I decided to stick "on-track" as my guidance counselor told me I was supposed to be. My entire life from middle-school to this day has been quite off the tracks of a normal life. I probably wouldn't be here typing this and pondering about this. Such is life.
Oh hey there. It's been a while. Been busy doing my own things, listening and discovering more music in my quest to find that platonic, archetypal piece that is in my head waiting to get out, and maybe even attempting (gasp) to try my hand at composing a thing or two myself. As someone whose knowledge of music is all informal, taken from bits and pieces at my own leisure, I doubt I have anything more interesting to say that coffee hasn't already said. The passion in enjoying something like this, however, and not just music, but anything, is admirable as all hell and deserves a badge. Passionate people who are passionate about things are cool. I really dig Shostakovich's music myself. His 5th symphony is a great one. A lot of shostakovich's music is really colored by the area and time he was living in, and you can feel it in the anger that coffee mentions in his post. My favorite Shostakovich piece has to actually be his Second Symphony, which doesn't seem as popular as most of his others, and is a piece even he disliked, but I managed to find some beauty in it, especially in the latter half. If anyone likes angry, ferocious pieces, I would heavily recommend Gavriil Popov's 1st Symphony. It's sad he got soviet folks angry, causing him to be more conservative in his composing. That explosion at 5:18... Potent stuff there. Here's something on Popov: http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/09/the_popov_disco.html
Thinking of a piece that gets me as passionate as coffee here seems like a fun idea, so I'll try that. I would say Erik Satie's Le Fils Des Etoiles is a piece that speaks to me: I feel as though there's a secret in this piece that careful study will unravel. It feels alien and otherworldly to me, almost as if it it is out of place in history. Here's an orchestrated version arranged by Toru Takemitsu: For whatever reason, when I think of pieces that get me passionate, I also feel compelled to post this piece: Scriabin in general gets me excited. How many other composers have the courage to write a piece to signal the end of the world? And of course he had to die before finishing it... They always die before finishing it!
You know, there was a discussion on hacker news about this being censored by US news media, and a ton of people were pointing out some news media outlets in the US did report on it, albeit rather poorly, and it reminded me of something that's been bothering me. I haven't put much thought into this, so this might sound like gibberish or nonsense, so be prepared for that, but I think I'm noticing something going on with words and the way people use and abuse them. I guess the best way to explain it is through an example, that you can only say you live in a fascist society when you cannot say you are living in a fascist society. Simpe enough. ...But I think you CAN say that in any case. I think there was censorship going on, even if it wasn't censorship by the exact definition. It's like what Snowden is saying in the interview about the distinction between "spying" and "data collection", and how the NSA doesn't spy on anyone, but it certainly collects tons of data on everyone. It's not spying by the exact definition. I think there's this recent trend of troublesome words reviving themselves while we try to say those words are dead (There is no racism anymore, no slavery, etc.) and, I guess I want to say surpass... Transcend the limits of their definitions? It's like nonalcoholic beer. It's beer, except it's not beer. I know this probably makes no sense, but it's been bothering me.
So beautiful to watch. The way they slowly fade in and out of view as they disperse is really a sight to behold. But if this is beautiful to behold, and a mathematician uses a formula to fully describe their movements with exact precision, wouldn't he be no different than a painter or an artist who each use their own tools to describe the movements? A mathematician who uses formulas to describe reality, then, is an artist as well. I dunno. I just thought of that when I saw this video. If people can say Shakespeare was a scientist and Austen a game theorist, then I can say mathematicians are artists. The movements are captivating. But I wonder if they ever bump into each other? Guess I've got something to look up.
So we want to interact with new people, but obviously not all new people. There are a lot of new people that make it hard for one to talk to new people one wants to talk about. I guess that even my suggestion that the most upvoted or starred, trusting the community to promote a user who makes a new comment, elevating him/her from the rest of the users, isn't good enough with my idea of separation of account ages. Well, it was an admittedly naive suggestion spurred on by: So then my brain clicked with the age separation idea. In any case. Here: Personally I'm inclined to believe that, unless "new" is meant in "familiarity" and not "new user", those interesting people are still going to big places, but are just drowned out. Coming up with a way to undrown them is perhaps something too complicated for me, but I gave it a shot for whatever it's worth. I'm interested in hearing why you think they wouldn't be attracted to coming to a place with users like that. I can hazard a guess and say it has to do with what you've already said on reddit trilogy, and then the question changes to something more structural and probably out of my league.#askhubski is a miasma of tedium, whereas last year, it wasn't.
and when they outnumber you ten to one, the community stops attracting interesting new people.
You'd be correct! It's actually one of the first few books I bought: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/barnes-noble-leatherbound-cl... It's actually pretty cheap, and it's a prose translation (Which while I personally liked, is not really how one should read these classics I suppose) but the design is neat. What I'm most proud of is my Deluxe Edition of Plutarch's Lives from the 1800's. It even has a neat little poem sticker from a previous owner called J. F. Pease:
Sorry for the blurry pictures. I also need more bookshelves, lol. Also, GUNDAM.
I go outside of what I'm supposed to be doing. So one day I was waiting for my father to pick me up in front of a church, and while I was waiting on this quiet Tuesday morning, I started thinking about my failures as a student and my failures in my studying and was really just in a slump. I was taken by these odd looking shrubs placed near the front door of the church. The leaves were tiny and blade-like, and they were grouped in little clusters all over very thin long-ish branches. How fascinating the design, I thought to myself as I started to feel the little prickly leaves, turning them over in my hand, observing the little creases on each leaf. I looked a little deeper and noticed that there were brown little clusters of leaves hidden near the base of the shrub hidden from plain sight. I felt sad seeing this otherwise healthy looking tree conceal such a dismal little sight as that. I reckon that particular little branch never had a chance of growing to their full splendor. I started thinking to myself about those leaves… And I started to wonder: who was to blame for their not being able to simply bask in the sun? It was a silly question, but in my defense I was young. I blamed the other leaves at first, since they took up all the sunlight and never gave those poor clusters a chance to grow, but I realized that these leaves had no say in the matter. They just did what they did best. They needed sunlight too, and they had what was needed to get it, so natural selection did what it did and now everyone who was lucky to have wider leaves is now on top, and whoever was at the bottom was out of luck, I guess. And yet it still seemed so cruel to me that life was as thus. Unfairness is a natural part of existence and is used daily by those living to continue living while leaving others to die, perhaps without even realizing it. What makes humans different is the need to make things fair, to rebel, perhaps not in actuality but definitely psychologically, against evolution by letting those who would normally die live. These weren't great thoughts by any means, nor were they original thoughts, or even coherent thoughts, as I was only 15 at the time, but I was out of my slump and I got motivated to learn more about humanity and nature. Or, if what I said wasn't anything interesting, here's a similar experience by Richard Feynman, a man much more interesting than I: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10036024/Richard-Feynman-... The relevant part is here, although the entire article is worth a read: Sometimes you go outside and do something you've never done before, or just be in a different context, and you'll find yourself in a situation where your interest in rekindled by a seemingly unrelated event that turns out to be very related. Being bored I guess is the wanting to be derailed from your situation, so the solution is to let yourself be derailed and you'll find yourself naturally coming back.Physics had slipped down his list of priorities, but he suddenly rediscovered his love for the subject in a most unexpected way. In the canteen at Cornell one lunchtime he became distracted by a student, who had thrown a plate into the air. As it clattered onto the floor Feynman observed that the plate rotated faster than it wobbled. It made him wonder what the relationship was between these two motions.
Hrm, perhaps a solution to the breast thing would be that each google glass has a privacy feature that acts sorta like an invisible shield. You opt-in to this feature, and your glass will send signals to other glasses that you don't want to be contacted or photographed and so on. If someone is around with that, taking a picture/video of/with them won't be possible. They'd have to get out of the screen or maybe even some photoshop magic would happen where they just disappear from videos and photos. As for the credit cards and personal privacy, that's a bit harder... I mean, the law states that you can pretty much record someone on public property. This is only just really making use of that law. I guess a solution would be the have everything go through the glass. So, someone has to pay via credit? Google glass will do that, no need to take the card out. Alternatively, credit cards could also change. I know this misses the larger point of your privacy concerns, but I'm just speculating on potential solutions for fun. I find it a bit sad that things are going in this state of constant surveillance, but what can you do? This seems to be the future people want. I still have this minor unverifiable suspicion that this is really a generational thing. I think future generations won't like all of these things as we do, and we only like these things because we've been from an era in which contacts, memories, photos were constantly lost. Maybe the future will grow to appreciate this losing of memories, ideas and so on and no one will see the appeal of Glass or maybe even the always remembering Internet as a whole. Honestly what I find crazier is that if google glass takes off, nearly everyone will wear glasses. I know about the valid privacy concerns and everything, but I just find THAT the oddest thing out of google glass.
Depends. Right now I've been at Herman Melville's Typee for a couple of months now. I could read Ulysses faster than I'm reading Typee. Before starting that I was reading Murakami's Norweigan Wood and went through that in a couple of days, and during the interim I read a work entitled "A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings", which is a badass title btw, by Knut Hamsum, which was pretty decent, although the contents weren't as badass as the title. I read that in two-ish days. It's not that Typee is a bad book (It's a good book) but sometimes there are books you just read in a sitting no matter the page number then there are books that you make excuses to avoid reading, not out of hatred or anything but just that other things start looking more interesting. Typee is in the latter category. Ulysses the first time took me a few months, but every other rereading gets faster and faster, only slowing down to annotate my book with all of the references. That's really the nasty part of Ulysses: It doesn't end when you finish it, because now you got all these shitton of references that you have to research because they actually are interesting. Joyce you motherfucker. I love you. I can't wait for June to do it aaaaaallllllllllll over again. People should give up on books if they feel they should give up on them. I've had this argument before. I'm more or less of the camp of always finishing a book I read, after reading and watching movies that I wasn't too big into and then by the end I was left with my foot in my mouth (Eraserhead!). But it doesn't matter. There are more books in the world than we have time to read them, and everyone has different reactions to books. I don't think the great books are the end all be all just because a lot of people like Dante and reference him. Maybe they like them, but someone who doesn't shouldn't really have to sit through it just because others did. Find what you like and enjoy. I read Mein Kampf once. That was perhaps the only book I never finished and never will finish. I had a hundred pages to go and I just could not go any longer. I barely remember anything except a lot of frustration at trying to read the book for more than a few minutes. It might have been the translation but I hear from many that the translation doesn't matter. Hitler could not write for shit. I still have the book. I often second-guess myself at times and wonder if maybe now if I read it it'll be different, but I know. I know. I should probably finish Typee. I only have about a hundred pages to go. That in theory takes perhaps about two hours for me. Less than that even. But every time I say that and then try to read it I am faced with the incontrovertible truth of Hofstadter's law. Reading as an achievement? ...I never cared about it. I only started to read because I was faced with a kind of crisis where I decided I wanted to change myself. I started reading anything I could get my hands on. Found out about many authors and Project Gutenberg. Found out about the Western Canon and enjoyed a lot of stuff from there, while also still enjoying things out of the canon and just read anything that sounds interesting to me. I mean, in a way I read Ulysses every year just to say that I do, but also because I genuinely enjoy that book. Wanting challenges and goals to achieve isn't wrong, but don't make it all that matters. Enjoy yourself.
I was listening to the music of Morton Feldman and I heard this beautiful piece: http://youtu.be/x-9QcADiekY And I saw Rothko's works: And I started caring about art right then and there. I guess it's a lot like poetry to me, or like a flower.
It was a pretty fun test, and at least they're aware of some biases in the test that could affect certain people (As it says on the bottom with the little text)
I haven't been here in a while, and it seems a book club was founded. I look forward to this, as I love reading and talking about books. I've read The Fountainhead before around 5 years ago when I actually got into this reading habit. None of my family were readers, and this, Paradise Lost, and Mein Kampf were the only books around the house. I don't even know why these books were even in my house, although I suppose they must have come into the family through a kind of residual purchase from a yard sale. It was a very odd beginning as a reader. I think it was Paradise Lost alone that kept me from quitting my decision to pick up reading (And I don't need to tell you about how good that book is). I had just suffered through some tough times due to some external difficulties (putting it lightly), so the tale of a man going against the grain and succeeding against all odds should have really resonated with me, but I remember it making me feel even worse. To put my problems with the book succintly, it seemed unconvincing. I read the entire book in two days. I actually don't remember most of the novel, aside from a few scenes that stuck to my mind for whatever reason. I guess spoilers if you haven't read it yet. I remember Dominique being the most interesting character, only because she showcased, I thought at least, Rand's ideas of love. She was with a guy, Roark "raped" her (Both apparently wanted it, and we are just told that they both knew without, um, letting each other know), and now she was with Roark because he was more a manly individualist than the other guy, and the other guy accepted this and let her go to Roark without a fight. It just seemed so alien to me. She somehow made love to be a very mechanical and cold affair. I felt sorry for everyone involved in the love affair, even though I had no real reason to feel sorry for them. Meanwhile I remember that large speech at the courtcase and when I saw what happened afterwards, I was thinking to myself: "Man, I wish I could blow up a building and then be acquited on all charges by making a speech with a beautiful babe by my side and a reputation that's good enough to still get jobs". At that moment I was forcefully pushed out of the world of the book and had to admit none of this would ever happen in real life. That's what I mean by the book being unconvincing. It's a fairytale wolf in the sheep's skin of realism (per se). It has the semblance of being plausible enough for people to believe in, since there's no fantastical elements, but is full of falser things and people than even the most extraordinary of fantasies. I saw the story of a guy going against the tides of the days and living happily ever after while I was thrust into the whirlpools of the world and was treated with a torrent of ridicule, exclusion, failure, and a bit of humility. I probably need to reread The Fountainhead one of these days, but I figure before I even get to that, I should read her other works. I think it would have been better if Roark actually did go to jail for his principles, being a kind of Martyr, although I suppose that wouldn't have worked out for what Rand.
Strongest case for rereading High School Classics: They're not really for High Schoolers! High Schoolers shouldn't read anything by Shakespeare. Shakespeare deals with simple awesome concepts like revenge and love, but he does so in a way that no real High Schooler can appreciate. It's like those prodigy composers. A kid at age 16 who can conduct orchestras, but his own music is so bland and lifeless... There are some things that you have to grow up to understand and appreciate. A teenager wouldn't understand Mahler's 9th but a 30 year old man suffering from depression and health conditions with an unfaithful wife would completely understand it to the point of tears. This isn't me snubbing children or their intelligence. It's just that we shelter them from the world, and thus they have no understanding of the world as it truly is. If you read To Kill a Mockingbird, or any classic in High School, for god's sake reread it! You never know just much you don't remember about it. A book you might have found normal enough might have a darker subtext underneath it that you can only understand as an adult. Or perhaps a witty one, or a satirical one, and so on.
Reminds me of a scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin. There's this black slave girl, named Topsy that does all sorts of bad stuff, and this white girl named Eva asks her why she does what she does, and the black girl responds something along the lines of "Hey, Not like people expect better of me" Just found it odd; Was never expecting to be reminded of that scene today, or this year, or ever. The human brain is really quite interesting. Eva shows Topsy some love and forgiveness, basically treating her like a human being, and Topsy turns for the better. Responding to poor tipping with poor service really doesn't seem like a good idea.This causes a feedback loop of a garunteed bad tip and terrible service for the next group of Black patrons who will in turn not tip for shitty service.
Of course! Knowing may not help change the outcome, but it sure as hell can change what you do with the remaining time you have! If I knew I would die in, say 5 months, you'd better believe I'd attempt to do everything I need to do before those 5 months are over. It can at least give me time to make sure I go with perhaps some peace of mind that I've done all I can. Well, I suppose it doesn't give me time more than it does make me acutely aware of how much time I actually have. It forces me to make no assumptions. If I didn't know and realized it too late, how many regrets would I have right before the end? It's sad for me to admit, but I live as if I have an eternity to do what I feel I must do. We often say to live each day as your last, but the reality is that that is too stressful for most people to maintain. I wish I could do it. If I could, I wouldn't be here (Not to say I don't like you guys and all).
I could never get it to work. One time I thought I got it to work and changed all of my friends to cats, but then I realized if I were really lucid dreaming I would have done other things than change my friends into cats. Other times I could tell I was dreaming thanks to the lightswitch trick, but I couldn't go farther than the acknowledgement that I was dreaming. I couldn't actually do anything. I tried with something that I thought was simple: Changing the color of a room. My dreams usually take place in the night time for some reason, so I thought I could change between morning and night, but that never worked. I could also never fly in a dream. Sometimes the lightswitch trick doesn't even work. One time I remember dreaming that the lightswitch was broken instead of realizing that I'm in a dream world. The fingers trick doesn't work as well. I try pulling my fingers, but they don't extend like others say they should, so it oftentimes makes me think I'm awake when I'm not. I suppose the best tip I know of is to keep a dream diary. Not just for lucid dreaming, but also to keep track of your dreams, since some really interesting shit happens in dreams. I can't even begin to explain what goes on in some of my dreams. It's amazing what stuff your mind can come up with. All the other tricks tend to not work for me that well, but I guess it's like anything else; If you really want something and work for it, you'll get it. If you spend time thinking and trying to lucid dream, you'll get it.
Really shows how things can get blown up from misunderstandings on the 'net. If this was someone smaller time than Colbert and someone more malicious was bent on causing some harm, a lot of lives and careers could be ruined from misunderstandings and the media picking up anything that smells of the smallest amount of controversy for coverage, views and so on.
Every past year I always do crazy resolutions I know I'll never reasonably accomplish (with one serious resolution), and try to accomplish them (The idea is to just do things I wouldn't normally do otherwise, even if it amounts to nothing). This year shall be no different. THIS YEAR, THE GREAT OWL WILL TAKE ON THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES: Challenge the First: I shall learn how to compose music and write a symphony. Last year I tried to learn how to play the piano and failed (Somewhat). Was my problem in going too far? Nah, more like I'm not going going far enough. I'm going to be a composer! Step aside, Karl Maria von Weber, 'cuz It's Owl's time to rise 'n shine! Challenge the second: I shall write a novel, publish it on Amazon, and rake in the $$$ I actually do write from time to time, but I keep it to myself because I know I'm terrible at writing. This year I'm going to write a novel that will sell HUNDREDS... Hopefully. Better watch your back, Dan Brown! Challenge the last: I'm going to become an artist. I'm gonna learn the rudiments of proper drawing/painting techniques and make some art that'll dazzle and razzle you. DaVinci's gonna have nothing on me, baby! Actual Resolution: Write some Poetry every few days/weeks/whenever I have a small library of poetry, and the more I read from it the more I fall in love with poetry and want to write some of my own. So this year I'm going to try to write some poetry. I've already gotten started writing some poems inspired by various events and stuff, and I hope to write some more.
Hey there, I finally got around to reading this and have to say I really enjoyed it. I don't know why, but I found myself comparing it to Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, which also has a lot of drug use and delves into the lives of a young generation looking for a place, but where that one was heavily pessimistic, you showed a more optimistic look into the future. Maybe it's the scenes that are different, maybe it's just the generations changing... In any case, I liked your novel, and felt like telling you that.