March 31, 2005

alcohol..

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 11:02 pm

i’m not the biggest fan of the substance.. as most of my friends can attest i don’t drink a lot.. in fact i drink rarely if at all..

this comes as a problem at parties when everyone is drinking and i am … not…

but i have methods… devices i use… i’m a common modern day batman in the social situation with comments ranging from, “but i’d rather not right now…” to “well you see i’m driving home tonight…” even including the devious, “Mary has a much sharper pallet then i and therefore can appretiate it a lot more…”

To be frank, they always sound weak and childish at the time. Perhaps batman is a bad comparrison. Robin might be better. I do so wish i were batman.

I have discovered a liar in my midst. Mary has “claimed” to be a fancier of peter jackson’s films, but this is but a lie. She hates… nay detestes the films on the front of it. She has the images of what the books are, and apparently can’t wrap her head around peter jackson’s interpretations.

They are interpretations, of course. More like works inspired by tolkien’s novels. They are not in fact close to the works themselves. Where there was fantasy and heroism, there is now shock antics and melodrama. Is this all together bad?

I say nay friend. In the end, i love Lord of the Rings as a book. If it were to have been made into a movie, i’d have died from sheer impact as the information was lobbed at my head. The books were so fucking dense with material, if there wasn’t the hyped up suspense i’d probably have fallen asleep. (Star Wars episode One anyone?, come on you spend the whole movie snoring until the pod racing… then snore snore snore.. lightsaber dual… snore snore snore…. or maybe that was just me and trey)

I digress. The last two days have been hell. I’ve been scrambling putting my thoughts on paper. Two drafts of my paper were trashed, six pages and four pages respectively. I know what i’m arguing, it is just expressing it such that it doesn’t come off canned and rehearsed. Not to mention logical. the arguments are not the most logical i’ve ever created. I’m having problems organizing my thoughts because this might be the last paper i do for a bit. i kind of feel giddy about the notion of never writing a paper again. is that wrong?

I do not know.

For way to much information click the below link…
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March 30, 2005

Ta daaa..

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 1:42 pm

Hello friends and family. I know long time since i last posted. I’m in New York, well technically new jersey. I’ve had a really fun time since i’ve been up here and i’ve worked a great deal on my paper. things i plan on doing tomorrow:
– Ashes and Snow
– MoCCA
—-Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art
– Dali art exhibit
– Visit the discount bookstore again because i really want to pick something up this time.
– Cotton Club
– 2 other unnamed jazz performances hopefully.
– finish watching the lord of the rings trilogy extended version.

and there you have it.. thats all i have planned right now…

i’m dissappointed in google maps… it doesn’t appear to do directions very well, or even at all… so mapquest will remain my warm blanket for now… remember mapquest for all your mapping needs… do you need a map to wrap your young child in? or how about a map to find your keys? or how about a map to help you with your homework? mapquest is the place to go.. www.mapquest.com… i always use mapquest…*

Sin City opens friday. They have been advertising the hell out of the movie lately. I saw steamboy last night. It is a movie made very much in the vein of Akira, except with bad dialogue and bad subject matter. Beautiful film though. I experienced a miracle. Mary and I went wandering around to different jewerly shops last saturday and we ate at a restaurant called Miracle. The mircale nachos sucked. The miracle lemonade reeked. The miracle steak was expensive, but ok. See a trend? Mary got the miracle quesadillas… i’m not joking.. they named everything miracle.. and there was a cross on the front of the menu… and on the sign. it was all disturbing.. BUT the place was very well decorated and very well designed. i enjoyed the atmosphere.. and mary was very beautiful.

* The above opinions are not the opinions of the author but instead the opinions of the paid advertiser. If location problems still persist after consulting mapquest, please see a psychologist. Warning: Mapquest has been known to have serious side reactions like paper cuts, physical dislocation, illusions of parrots speaking, vaginal bleeding, urinal discomfort, oily discharge, and more. Consult a physician if you experience any of the above reactions.

March 23, 2005

Personal update and more..

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 1:20 pm

Friday is the begining of my last “visit” to NYC. The next time i see the dirty streets and the grime filled subways it will be my home. Will it honestly be my home though? Who knows.

I realized i probably won’t apply to CUNY for the Fall semester… more then likely the Spring semester. Why you might ask? First off the deadline for filing for Financial Aid has passed. Secondly i keep reviewing over the paper i’m considering turning in and i feel like my metaphysics paper would be better. Third i want to make sure i pass this semester and graduate. Fourth i want a break. I think i need a break. Fifth but last and least important is monetarily speaking it would be wise. Sixth I can redo my GRE during the summer and see if i can bring up my already lagging scores. Seventh God came to me in a dream and said that if i went to CUNY next semester he would kill a kitten, unfortunatly that didn’t really persuade me because i hate kittens and i know God didn’t exist.

So yeah. Metaphysics. Need to work on that baby.

March 21, 2005

WHOOO hooooo…

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 12:25 pm

I think i may have figured out my objection to the book and arguments put forth by the book. I just have to figure out how to work it out in my mind. To begin, i think my primary function of disproving the book is to deny a major premise running through the book. In several points he offers this argument:
P1 Human mathematics is the mathematics of the Humans can concieve of.
P2 Humans’ knowledge can only be derived from scientific understanding.
C1 Human mathematics is only understood through scientific understanding.
I know this might be simplified but i’m on a blog and i’m working this out with my mind.

March 19, 2005

ha ha

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 10:46 am
You scored as Green.

Democrat

92%

Green

92%

Socialist

75%

Anarchism

75%

Communism

67%

Republican

50%

Fascism

25%

Nazi

0%

What Political Party Do Your Beliefs Put You In?
created with QuizFarm.com

March 18, 2005

New link…

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 11:51 am

You all know comedy central right? Well apparently this is a blog created by an intern for the comedy central channel.

It is hillarious. I do suggest following the link.

*edit link works i believe now.*

March 16, 2005

Robbed From Snaar’s Mind..

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 12:16 pm

What you are about to read below is Snaar’s philosophical question of the day…

Quote: Snaars
There was some heated discussion in my philosophy of law class today regarding the relative merits or lack thereof of punishment within our criminal justice system.

Turns out that all the evidence gathered through two hundred years of social science have shown that the threat of punishment does not deter crime.

One student asked how we could possibly know that the threat of punishment does not deter crime, since if it did the only evidence would be the lack of a crime being committed, which is something we can’t measure. No one had the facts and statistics at their disposal, but the student was assured that the question has been studied thoroughly and it is the belief of social scientists that threat of punishment does not deter crime.

Another student claimed that violent crime seems to be committed only by irrational people, so it made sense that punishment would not deter that kind of person – to which it was replied that perhaps the student thought we should put in jail anyone who could not pass a critical thinking test? It was also replied that white collar crime actually harms the most people – not violent crime – and yet the focus of our criminal justice system is and has always been violent crime.

Someone else piped up and said that of course punishment deters crime, since people in jail can’t commit a crime. But this missed the point, since we were talking about recitivism rates – assuming that these people are not in jail for life but will be released at some point. It was assumed that the purpose of jailing criminals is to ‘reform’ them (although there is good reason to think that this seldom or never happens – and when it does, it’s probably a fluke). Also, it was asserted, prison produces criminals – it hardens people, puts them in the center of a criminal culture, etc.

All in all it seems our punishment system is in desperate need of reform. We have a higher percentage of people in our prison system than any other culture throughout history has ever had.

One thing I heard in the discussion that I had never heard before. It turns out that punishment is the least effective method of behavior modification. Just a little more effective is reward. The very best system involves intermittent rewards. People will work the hardest if there is a chance – not an assurance, just a chance – of being rewarded for it.

I was thinking of a (very informal) thought experiment. The experiment is just a kind of survey, to see whether or not people would intuitively agree that this kind of reward system could be effective.Here’s the experiment:

Traffic is becoming increasingly problematic in America’s cities and on our highways. Drivers who speed or are negligent in obeying ordinary traffic laws are both annoying and dangerous. The technology now exists to put in place a monitoring system by which the government can know if a person has violated traffic laws and regulations – and the police do not even have to be involved. For instance, a camera can take a photo of a car as it runs illegally through a red light, and the offender can get a traffic ticket through the mail. It doesn’t seem fair though, to punish people for every single instance in which they make a mistake, as though we were robots and should never make one. So, instead of having a system of punishments for violators – why not have a system of intermittent rewards? People who commit infractions could receive warnings. (Maybe if they are chronic offendors, they should pay some sort of fine. In this case we would be subscribing to a system of intermittent rewards combined with intermittent punishments.) Those who commit no offenses would be entered into a lottery, with winners drawn monthly. Winners would receive a reward, say $1000.

So, the question is … do you think you would be effectively motivated to drive safely if you knew there was a chance you could win a monetary award for doing so? Notice that the question is about you personally, not about whether you think the system would work on other people or the population in general.

March 14, 2005

wow.. video games industry talk..

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 11:55 am

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/03/burn_the_house_.html

and as a side note.. Mary isn’t the only blogger with an alice in wonderland motif.

hillarious…

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 11:41 am

So when mary got angry a while back at how WB is anime-ing the old Loony Toons and turning them into angry looking super heroes, I got a little put off myself at the destruction of an image.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6989380/
Here is a link just so you know.

When you click on the link below it takes you to an artists representation of what this is. Now it is highly offensive, horribly offensive. Don’t click the link if you are in a public setting and in fact don’t click the link if you don’t want to hear a stream of obscenities. Horribly offensive obscenities. On the other hand the link is hillarious, in that sick demented taken to far kind of humour.
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March 11, 2005

fucking people…

Filed under: Entries — arglor @ 12:09 pm

today is an odd day.. i assisted one person avert disaster with his research.. and another guy is kicking the shit out of the computer. I finally asked him what the fuck was the problem… literally… cursing an all.. “The mouse isn’t working”…………………………………………………
me: “Did you clean it out perhaps?”
him: “it moves it just won’t go where i want t to go… ” *slams the mouse again into the desk.*
me: “Look your not helping anything and if you do happen to break the mouse your going to have to replace it… open up the bottom and look inside on the rollers and see what kind of buildup has occured.” *look of astonisment on the individual and then embarrassed resignation*
I then went back to surfing the web. He was embarrased because the whole computer lab snickered at his outburst. oh the joys of working in a computer lab.

ok back to writing my letter for Mr. Kinsella.

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