Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in diapadion's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, September 26th, 2009
11:28 am	How its going to be This is going to be a short, but much needed, to the point update. This is a time of great changes. For those of you who are not already aware, I am going to Africa for a period of about seven months. I am going there to study wild baboons just outside of Cape Town (their habitat is further up the Cape of Good Hope actually). I know some things about the research, but there's a lot I've yet to be informed about, and I've a feeling I'm going to get a serious crash course and learn a lot real real fast. I have decided to start up a "real" blog, where in I write about my exploits and occasionally tangential stuff, like the real meaning of life, which I happen to know. You can read all about the shit that'll be going on at http://lordoftheapes.blogspot.com/ Add it to your feeds and shit. This chronicle isn't going anywhere. Not getting deleted, anyway. Things like the annual camping trip will always be immortalized here and nowhere else, although now I've no idea if I'm even going to make it out to Central Oregon anytime in the "near" future. If I feel the need to be all privately emotional or hidden or angsty, then I'll do it here. But I have a very strong feeling that such things aren't going to be desirable anymore. I shall wrap up this little ditty with a quote from, of course, Cowboy Bebop. I have a feeling I'm not going to be throwing Spike-isms around as much, either. Besides, if I'm applying this one to my life, there's not really any Bebop that can follow after... "I'm not going there to die, I'm going there to see if I was ever really alive." see you... someday, somewhere! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
10:27 am	Ain't no party like the Irish Punk party 'cause the Irish Punk party don't fuck around So I went to see Flogging Molly again (and Parliament/Funkadelic a few weeks ago, hence the "ironic" title - more on George Clinton another time... maybe). It will probably be amusing to read the original post from more than three years ago. Flogging Molly is a pretty sweet band, and I think it was especially interesting waiting for what seems like a long time to me, before seeing them again. Also amusing that I think I saw them at the Avalon the last time they played there before it shut down, and now at this newfangled "House of Blues" (aka... The Avalon. No, really, its exactly the fucking same) which is the first club show they've played in Boston since the Avalon closed? I think that's how it went. Anyway, they played a rather different set from what we heard last time. Lots of new stuff, which is to be expected, though mostly the songs I liked from Float. Also a lot of older stuff, like first album material which I wouldn't peg for concerts (Sun Never Shines on Closed Doors, for example) and in general just not much overlap with what I heard before. So I guess that means I've heard most of their music live. They played some obvious winners both times (Salty Dog, Drunken Lullabies), but I still haven't heard some of my favorites (Wanderlust, Far Away Boys, Don't Let Me Die Still Wondering). Onto the moshing. It was... a real mosh pit. I think that I was spoiled for some period of time, since the first pit concert I ever went to was Flogging Molly the first time around. And as it turns out, most pits these days aren't as totally awesome as that. In fact, I've never seen a pit which is come even close. Except for this one. Which was a refreshing return to a more innocent time when people large and small get trashed and leap about the floor knocking into each other, pushing, fighting, falling. Just as many shoes were lost and probably as much property damage, but there was a distinct lack of crowd surfing, compared to the last time. On the upside, I only got hit in the face once. I also managed to get closer to the stage a few times. I floated around a lot more this time since I wasn't so worried about HOLY FUCK I'M GOING TO DIE IN HERE. The people right in the front weren't moving, and they could hold onto the railings so it was no big deal, though I did manage to work my way into the second row for a few songs toward the end. Crazy mohawked Irish kids in the front. The best was this dude holding onto his girlfriend the whole time in the third row. He seemed not to have realized this was how it was gonna be. At least no one here has the nerve to bother saying anything along the lines of "stop pushing." Once again, people are surprisingly conscientious about making room for you if you lose something in the mob. Uh what else? It was wicked sick. However, it has revitalized my fear of a Dropkick Murphys pit show. Kruzel said it was more energetic as Agannis than Molly was at the Avalon. Dropkick at the Avalon would be potentially lethal, methinks. Maybe one day, but not so soon. In the meantime, I can look forward to sweet concerts where no one moshes. I guess if I was into hardcore punk or thrash metal then I might find people crazy enough. But those people aren't drunk. They're ALWAYS like that. At least these people were crazy DRUNK Irish brutes. Oh, there was one other thing. It was a little odd after "hanging out" with these raucous Irishfolk and hearing lots of Catholicism references, it was a bit funky too ride back to Slumberville on the T which listening to Richard Dawkins read "The God Delusion" on my MP3 player. Its not as if I shouldn't dig their music though, Dawkins admits to being a big fan of Bach. I started to wonder how much these musicians were really into that Catholicism biz still - it'd be an interesting case study. Agh! One last thing. Dave King seems to have the same threads of jokes which he works with at every concert. Of note was his verbal attack on the lamers standing/sitting in the balconies. They'll forever be those damned "Gin and Tonic sippers." (Comment on this)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
2:34 pm	A Term in Review: Books Despite my term review via the live musical medium, I felt I ought to review my success with a new branch of leisure activities: audiobooks. Late in summer I started listening to audiobooks during workouts since I realized that this was a valuable source for multitasking. When I started commuting every day, it became clear that I could listen to a solid hour of audio each day throughout my commuting process, both ways. Plus, one can add time from many other travels like to EC and back, or pretty much anywhere I walk on my own. I read a lot of annoying and small texted scientific articles, so it is a problem that I don't have time to read too many other books for fun, and I don't wish to further damage my eyes by doing so. There is little else I can do during this transit hour, and I do like being able to read books, so the solution was clear. I still manage to read a short book for reals every now and then during breaks, and hopefully once this year and its abundance of class readings is finished, I will be able to do more. Magician by Raymond E. Feist I started reading this book a decent while ago, but its sort of two books. Originally it was published as one very long book, and in the second edition, Feist saw fit to split into two... still pretty bloody long books. I started Magician:Apprentice a ways into the summer, and finished Magician:Master around the beginning of October. The recording was long and old, but for some reason I really liked the reader. Maybe because he did not project a personality of his own in his voice, and in a book with as epic a scope as Magician, that is quite important. The characters also tended to just be likable. That helps I guess, though its usually nice to have some characters that one hates... isn't it? On the other hand, none of the characters were of exceptional interest to me. Maybe Arutha was my favorite, but I don't think anything too special of him. These books have made we want to play the classic game set in the same world: Betrayal at Krondor (which my brother was quite a fan of, then again, we went on to read a lot more Feist books, which I have no intention of doing. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman A classic sci-fi epic about a marine who fights aliens on other planets in weird armor whose operation doesn't make much sense. Yeah, it does kind of sound like Starship Troopers. The catch is that there is lots and lots of time dilation so the main character can see human civilization evolve over hundreds of years when he isn't boning some chick. Its pretty good. Not quite stunning, or shocking, or magnanimous, but interesting, and well worth the read-errr listen. Might not have been worth the read. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho This one may well grow to become one of my favorite books of all time. I listened to the Jeremy Irons reading, and though he is considered to have a near perfect voice, and I just really like Jeremy Irons, I believe that this is a book I need to go back and read. In a few years I think aI will do so. If you're not at all familiar with this one, it was published in 1988 and has since become one of the best selling books of all time. I think it was No. 9 on the the NYT Best Seller list last time I looked at it a few months ago. Seeker by Jack McDevitt Female protagonist? Female reader? How quaint. This novel is very much a mystery, which I enjoyed greatly, but makes use of lots of fairly interesting astronomy and physics stuff, since they fly through space and have to identify ships and planets and figure out what happened thousands of years earlier. Bascially, they're commercial archaeologists searching for a long lost human civilization on another planet, starting with the spaceship that took them there, The Seeker. I started reading a different Seeker book, one by William Nicholson, but the torrent only contained half the audio files. Its really annoying since I didn't know this till I ran out of story, and there are two more bloody books in the series. Whatever, it wasn't THAT great. American Gods by Neil Gaiman An unusual book. Very Gaiman-esque, though filled with Americana and folk influences. I'm not really sure how much I actually liked any of the characters. I'm thinking right now and nothing at all is coming to mind. Nevertheless, it is an extremely rich book, and quite a bit out of the ordinary for the likes of fantasy. Some might say that Shadow is like Morpheus, but I wouldn't. Maybe that was my problem, I went into it expecting more Sandman. I think that the voice of this particular reader didn't really fit well enough with the diverse cast of characters. He sounded very good for some of them, but his was just too limited to take them all on. Robota by Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card I actually read this one. Sorta had to since it was partly a picture book, and the author was an artist first and foremost, though he wrote the story, OSC just did the text. Doug Chiang was the lead art director for the new Star Wars movies, and he always wanted to create a world and story about Robots and Humans. It is set on an alternate Earth where aliens came to the planet hundreds of years ago and gave humans new technology, including the ability to create sentient robots. Since then, there have been wars between humans and robots, and Earth, or Robota, as the machines call it, has become a very different place. Towards the end it started reminding me a bit of Xenogears with some Midnight at the Well of Souls thrown in, but then again, a third of the things I read these days remind me of Xenogears. It was good, and pretty short, plus the art was oooh ooooh pretty. The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Not exactly during the term, but before the next term starts, so I shall include it anyhow. It is a story about a futuristic human civilization which encounters an alien probe sent from hundreds of light years away through normal space, using a huge laser to blast the craft via light sail toward a human star. From there, the humans are able to determine where the aliens originate from and send a naval expedition to see what is up with those crazy aliens. And they're crazy alright. Niven writes the alien stuff, and its quite well done. They are quite inhuman yet he tries very hard not to break the rules of genetics and evolution. Really imaginative stuff. The rest is by Pournelle, which is the navy tale of the humans and the intrigue within. My dad likes to joke about this part because its like something out of a Patrick O'Brien novel hurled into space. Which is fine really because O'Brien is a cool guy. The collaboration comes together almost seamlessly, and while the plot starts slow, it picks up rapidly, and when they actually start interacting with the aliens, it is pretty fucking fascinating. I want to keep raving, but I don't want to say much more. Its worth noting that the biology is pretty believable, and the book was even published in 1974, a year before Sociobiology. Also, if you need any more convincing, Heinlein, who offered Niven and Pournelle lots of advice, said that the book is "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." Coming up, The Icewind Dale trilogy, The Art of War, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, plus hopefully a constant, intermittent stream of Lord Dunsany's tales of Pegana from Project Gutenberg. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
1:56 pm	A Term in Review: Concerts This term I went to quite a few concerts. For me anyway. For mostly people I'd bet, except for you "underground" people who go to every hardkore punktronica band that rolls into town and is up to no good. Most notably, I ended up with what I thought to be a reasonably impressive level of variety, which I did not even strive for. Also, for the most part, they were all dead-freaking-awesome. I've gone over some of these, which I will only discuss briefly, but somewhat necessarily. First there was the epic of Journey wherein I was poisoned and close to death, an encounter which I am still just paying off the last of the hospital bills for. I missed that, but next time, NEXT TIME, they won't be so lucky. Nightwish was a surreal trip as I've said before. Need more keyboards though, which shall perhaps become a recurring theme in this post. Still - totally wicked sweet-awesome. Kamelot & Edguy This concert wins the prize for the worst concert I've been to. Don't take this the wrong way, though, I just happen to only go to sweet-ass concerts. It wasn't bad - it was alright. Which is unfortunate, because it would have been straight up good if the damn vocal levels for Kamelot weren't messed up for the whole time they played. It WAS a good set. Here it is again - the keyboard volume was also too low. I really don't care that much about Youngblood thrashing on his guitar at full volume. Edguy was sweet. Didn't end up with enough time to listen to their CD's to the extent I'd have liked. This concert turned into a last minute thing. I decided I'd had enough of preparing for my presentation the next day, so I biked down the the Middle East at the last minute, and just made it to catch all of Edguy before Kamelot. Pretty good times, still. Not much of a fan of the Middle East Basement, I'll confess. Whatever, it was cheap. The overall decision to go may not have been such a wise one, since though I and many of my compatriots thought I did fine on the presentation, the professor apprently hated it. That's an different story though. Balls. Robert Randolph and the Family Band I found about this from last.fm, but it became an almost legendary struggle to find out what the deal was. So, RRFM decided to put on this selective tour of free shows in small venues throughout the country. I thought it was pretty fucking sweet. But you had to go through unknown hoops to get the tickets. Some were given away on the radio, some given away at other events, some you could just pick up from a dude walking around a bar at a specified date and time. With no other recourse, the last one seemed the only choice. So, Lanthe and I went up to some Irish pub near North Station got dinner and some tickets. However, the story was that these were passes, not so much actual tickets. Which would mean nothing to me under normal circumstances, but apparently, you needed a pass to get in, but they'd only let so many people in, and if you had a pass but they had already reached the limit, you were boned. So one ought to get there early. It was at the Paradise, and surrounded by scary bouncers. Getting there early was fine, as in, when the openers started. Turned out not to be a big deal, but and excellent choice, because the opening band was sweet. RRFW decided to use local bands for their openers, and thus switch it up at each venue on the tour. These guys were called Parker House and Theory, and they played just like a top of the line jam band. We bought their CD later, which seems ot have a different feel, but its still pretty good. Replicating jams on CD's is a bit tough, but the live biz was awesome, I assure you. Then they finished, and we waited. A long time. Like, an hour 15 long time, while I guess a SINGLE dude sound checked all the equipment. Ack. It kind of sucked but it was pretty worth it. RRFW was mad excellent. As is the way of the funk music, they really get into their shit and rockgroove some serious shit. The chicks were all invited up on the stage to dance for one of the songs, which was pretty insane. They're all such damn good musicians though and they really like what they do. The one problem with this concert was the audience. It was alomost entirely made up of obnoxious white fratty bros and their soccer momette girlfirends. I mean this in the most admiring way I possibly can: the audience needed way more black people. Matisyahu Similar, to Robert Randolph and yet entirely different. The origin is funny for this one, too. I was browsing demonoid one day, looking for 100% legal torrent downloads, when the new page I entered loaded and spat out a fatty banner on top that said "MATISYAHU... LIVE AT THE BOSTON ORPHEUM... REAL SOON NOW." Okay, so the last part is a paraphrase. But it was all up in my grill with bright sunbursts and colors. Woah, I thought to myself, I remember Matisyahu. He was one of my favorite artists a few years ago. I guess I still have all of his stuff. Oh he's got a new EP out, let's have a listen. Pretty good shit. Does his old stuff hold up? Hell yes. You know, even though I removed him from my Favorite Music category on thefacebook, he's still awesome. I can't pass this up. So I order myself up a ticket. 30 bucks wasn't bad, and it looks like I got a front balcony seat at the Orpheum. Schweet. That place is cool, but they need to ditch the seats in the front of the first floor. Good thing I could get a nice ticket, since they conert was only a week away. So then I went back to rediscovering Matisyahu and getting pumped. The day arrived. My seat really was right in the front of the blacony, dead center section. It was a fucking amazing seat. I like pits and being down and dirty, but at place like the Orpheum where that's a bit hard to do because of the fucking seats, front row balcony is maybe the best seat in the house. Buying a single ticket really paid off. And I mean, REALLY paid off. The openers were Flobots, probably the only indie hip-hop group featuring violin and horns. They really got into their shit, too. It was pretty fun, even though I didn't know their muzak much. I bet you underground types would like it. And then, without great delays, the esteemed Matisyahu took the stage. Just him, his band, and a whole lot of space to get his freak on. Which he did a pretty good job of, for an Orthodox Jew MC. They played a fucking great set. He switched up one of the songs (I can't really remember, its a bit of a haze in my memory)and brought in a local orthodox Jew MC as a guest, and they did this back and forth freestyle rap for a good while. Later, during Time of Your Song, he brought out the Flobots violinist (sorry, hot Flobots violinist chick) and she played this sweet solo for that song. Yeah. Played pretty much every song I really like by him. Which ins't too hard to believe since they played for 2 hours and fifteenish minutes including encore. One of my favorite parts about the audience (second or third being the guy very obviously lighting up his doobie in the fourth row toward the end) was this bushy bearded white haired old dude, who got up the front row and was jammin'. Yeah. It was pretty damn amazing. Probably the concert which goes first in my book for when the artists just go above and beyond what anyone could hope to expect from them. Amazing. The Decemberists A while back, a certain fresh dude... we'll call him Mr. Helton... wanted to get together a pack to see the Decemberists when they came to the Orpheum for this date. The deal fell through, but much like Matisyahu, The Decemberists were once a favorite band of mine, and I still enjoy them. Somehow or other, I got Lanthe started on them when she wanted suggestions for new music which didn't feel like a constant reminder of what deep throating a penis probably feels like. I wouldn't know. Anyhow, she found out about the concert, and spurred me to get tickets. Ticketpooper sucks as always, leaving only seats in shitville available. SO I went to alternative sources. I almost got second row seats, but not surprisingly, they vanished too quickly. They were really nicely priced. In the end, I paid a decent enough fare for what turned out to be better seats than I thought. Coo. The Decemberists played a good set. This was also 5 days after the election, so it felt like an Obama rally the way they decided to play it. I was cool with that. Probably sucked to be a republican at that joint, but it didn't seem like anyone was. The set was a bit longer than usual, and filled witg good tunes. I was always a fan of The Bus Mall, but since they played the full; medley of that song preceeded by The Engine Driver, I found myself enamored much more by the firts song. The way they did it on stage, and used the lighting to change between the choruses and verses had a big impact on me - it was simple but quite powerful, at least in my mind. Real good stuff. Peter Lavender & Rusty Bones I saw him twice, actually. First was at the troubled Fred Fest earlier in the fall, where he played a one man acoustic set, which was damn good all by itself. SupaDupa during after him was a fun show, too. But, Joe told me he was playing at a spot in Somerville, and when I looked it up, it was just a little walk down the avenue, near Union Square. And his backing band was going to be there for the show, too, and I had always wanted the opportunity to see the full show. Joe came too, so it was a good time, hanging out there, listening to the tunes, and drinking beers... quite a few beers at that. Lavender's got a damn good voice, and his songs are nothing to scoff at either. But, I'm the biggest fan of a Bob Dylan cover he does: "Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You." The Dylan version has shitty vocals, which is no surprise, and there is a mediocre Cher version as well. I've tried rather hard to find a studio recording of the song that I like, but the fates are not with me on this one. Oh well. Anyway, Peter Lavender is a cool guy. ... and that's was all for the term. This term is looking less interesting. I scanned all the listings for events in the next few months without much success. Oh yeah and FUCK dropkick murphys concerts. GodDAMN. Four dates at the huge new House of Blues by Fenway, and they ALL SELL OUT in four fucking days. BULLSHIT. I'm never gonna make it to one of their concerts. In better news, Flogging Molly is coming to the House of Blues around the same time. People should get together and go see that. Also coming are The Pogues, which I might snap up, plus Funkadelic, which according to the gentlemen in the west, is awesome, and then maybe Cut Copy and the Derek Trucks Band. It appears that everyone is booking to play at the House of Blues, which I think is sweet, so more power to that shit. Finally, the other definite toward the end of spring is VAST, which I am quite stoked about. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 11th, 2008
5:33 pm	Burnt By the Sun This is a round-up, which I am past due for. In the past I often go over everything. Now I am merely going address the stuff I found particularly interesting or good in the past while since I did this. The Derek Trucks Band - I like slide guitar. Some years back, Rolling Stone put out an issue headlined, "The New Guitar Gods" featuring three great younger players on the cover photo. They were John Frusciante (of RHCP), John Meyer, and I couldn't remember the third. Found out recently it was Derek Trucks. He's just fucking awesome. Its a whole lot of extended jam style slide playing of the southern rock variety. I also found out he is now the guitarist for the Allman Brothers, which is totally fitting and awesome (he is Butch Trucks nephew, original drummer for the Allman Brothers, and is still with the band). He does some great shit. Batman - I enjoyed the Dark Knight, certainly, but I am going to BITCH about the fucking CG shit they pulled on Two-Face. What the hell? They went for realism for extra creepy effect on the Joker, so why then change your style and make Two-Face so goddamn silly looking. I liked that they did with the progression in Harvey Dent, but the culmination felt kind of flat. Still a good movie though. Magician - the "master" work of Fantasy author Raymond E. Feist. The first part is good, but is forced to spend much much time on development of the characters are scenery of the book. The second half they've got that and they can then get dirty. The three main characters are all pretty damn awesome, which is good. The second half also has some really great little moments of profundity, occasionally popping out of the woodwork of high adventure. Rescue Me - wow that's a depressing show. But good. And quite funny at times. But jesus. Death Note - Great stuff. I don't want to say anything because of the spoiler potential. And here it is worth it for every tiny twist or turn and Light and L pull on each other. Kino's Journey - A nice little anime. I'm not done with it, but it is best taken in small doses, and not barreled through. This is easy since it isn't really cohesively drawn together by a story, but is merely a series of vignettes from the journeys of a girl called Kino and the sentient motorcycle, Hermes. It can be surprisingly heavy stuff at times, but it plays it's part well. S&M - What's that you say? Oh, I am afraid not - I'd have to make this friends only if I were to discuss such matters, and where is the fun in that? What I refer to is the live album by Metallica & the San Francisco Symphony. Symphonic metal hurrrrrr. I'm not even a Metallica fan, but I really dig this album. Arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen, who is a significant film score composer in his own right. The Witcher - So I finally finished The Witcher. It may have been a bit too Witchy in final retrospective. So fucking long. Damn good I like long and involved role-playing games. I wish I had a counter for how many hours I sunk in there, though. The barrage of characters and moral choices one has to face are great, and the non-linear aspect which develops throughout the game as one establishes Geralt's personality. Also the sex. The sex is pretty good, or at very least hilarious. For further enticement, the story is written by noted Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski. The dark and non-linear aspect of The Witcher reminds me frequently of Planscape: Torment. Now THERE was a game. The Witcher isn't quite that, but its good. Oh Planescape, how wondrous you were. Green Mile - Serious Sunday is great. Maybe better when it happens less often. This was a good movie, if LONG. We need to watch Solaris again. And go to Woonsocket. VAST - This stuff is AWESOME. Its really weird, kind of electronic, kind of NINish or Depeche Modeish, but with lots of neat guitar stuff all over. The first album is just fucking great. Black Crowes - Oh hell, these guys are great, too. I'm a sucker for southern/bluegrass influenced business. Also harmonica. Dungeons and Dragons - 4th Edition has its ups and downs. I'm not sure if I like it or not in general. The powers stuff is fun as a ranger, but I'm not sure its a good idea for the system in general. Alignment changes are pointless, races suck, and classes are kind of dumb. The skills strip down also seems pointless. The change of saves to be more like AC is good. I did have fun playing, although it seemed quite different from the D&D I'm used to. I guess maybe I understand a little where my brother was coming from when they released 3rd ed. Then again, my recent discussion with him on the matter seemed to imply he was actually full of shit all along. End of Evangelion - Watched the last two episodes again. You know it WASN'T that bad. Enjoyable really, which is why I'm mentioning it here. Watching the whole show again probably wouldn't be my idea of a good time... not for a while now. Did I hear rumors of them redoing it in such a fashion that it isn't so silly? The movie still sucks thought I bet. Stargate - The final SG-1... finale (for lack of a better word) was pretty cool. Needed more RDA, but whatever. It was at least back to some classic Goa'uld action which is always nice. Still not exactly a conclusion because of the Atlantis stuff going on and probably the writers unwillingness to part with the characters they've been developing for more than 10 years. The Emerald Necklace - Been close to four years since I've been out there. I guess it was early freshman year the last time. Really great area, although what everyone says is true in that the making bikers cross these ridiculous intersections between the portions of the park is a huge pain. Also gravel bike paths what the fuck. But it was really great. Reminds me a lot of Forest Park up in Portland, which, last I checked, was the largest urban wilderness in the world. It was great weather, too, differed a lot though... also like Oregon. Rain showers drenched me twice but quickly evaporated in the heat. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, really, except for steering my bike down a steep hill, which was a little scary. I sat down on a hill in one of the rains, and carved up my own lunch from the materials I brought along. Ham and swiss with bruscheta on peasant rolls. Mmmm, soo good. Sat around a while longer and read. Kept biking for a while, and got lost once or twice but my internal compass saved me then when it let me down on the way to Lexington. Ended up returning via South Corridor Park, which is a pretty sweet concept. You could get out there that way too, and probably save a lot of trouble and time from the damnable intersections one would take by just following the necklace. But not quite as scenic. Then again, once you get out that far, you can just bike up into the hills The Darksword Trilogy - This is a series of fantasy novels (big surprise) I'd been meaning to read for a long time. And when I say that, I mean a LONG time. It is by the same authors as the well-known Dragonlance series' (Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman). After waiting so years to read them, I'm not really sure what I expected it to be like. In truth I'm not sure why I didn't read them as soon as I picked up my SFS membership four years ago. Its sort of fitting that my membership will expire in a few weeks so these are probably the last things I'll read from the SFS at MIT (my discovery of Interlibrary Loan makes everything so easy). A rather different premise from the usual fantasy in some ways, and the character of Joram is just totally awesome, and Saryon is also just a really well written fellow. The first part of Forging with the story of Saryon's youth was captivating to say the least, and served as a great intro to the world. The last book is just packed with so much stuff... so of which may have been served better from so more advanced foreshadowing, but then again I could easily have missed it in the tumult. Overall, great stuff. That's all. Be seeing you. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
11:14 pm	the Aces and the Curse Well, now I'm a graduate. Ceremony was dull, although the MP3 player was such an excellent choice. Throughout the half hour procession to Killian I listened to Artemis Fowl, and kept going with that after the speeches finished. Being experienced in the boredom of MIT commencements on two previous occasions, I knew what to do, and didn't really give a shit what anyone else might think. Dan was nearby when I donned the 'phones, and said, "Really? You didn't want to go with something more subtle?" Hell no, was my reply. This way I could drown out any annoying people, like the bleeding Sloanies. That is a strange book, Artemis Fowl, I don't mind saying. Got through plenty of it since Course 9 was so close to the very end. Right after I sat back down, I cranked it up for the Poet and the Pendulum, by the time it was done, they were starting the closing ceremonies. They sang the "School Song" which no one recognized, so the clear response was to blare some Dragonforce over it. Hells yeah. However, the whole time I felt rather out of place, whether it was walking down the aisle or just sitting there with those stupid caps. This entry feels strange, too, and I bet I know why: So I found my old journal from five years ago that I wrote throughout my high school psychology class. I prepped myself for what I thought I could expect, and I wasn't truly blown away by the stuff I had written. There's some really funny bits, a few mentions of memories I had forgotten about (I used to call Will "Mister Id," wow), but more than anything else, it is still VERY WEIRD to read much of the stuff. The writing style of this post has absorbed some of that contained within the journal, although hopefully not the whininess or Counter-Strike jokes (Keston: there was a lot of writing about LANs and video cards). This just gets eerier and eerier the more I write on this thing, though, so I think I'm going to stop soon, lest something horrendous transpire. *shudder* The discerning reader will notice that about a year's worth of entries are missing from this chronicle. The written journal predates the start of the live journal by about a year, and is honestly from a completely different era from that in which the missing posts were written. I really wish I still had those, now, should have just hidden them all rather than deleting them. Oh well, insert cliched phrase about past and spilled milk or something here. Hmmm, let's return to more of the usual, briefly. I really like the new Sigur Ros album. You know what band doesn't get enough kudos? The Verve. Everyone knows Bittersweet Symphony, but that whole album (Urban Hymns) is pretty solid, and its predecessor, A Northern Soul, is quite alright too. And Death Note - oh hoooooly jesus, Death Note. Its been a while since I've found a show I HAVE to just sit and watch without distraction, or else I won't understand what the fuck is going on. Its nice to see one of those again. The Witcher is a sweet game. Ate 15 scoops of ice cream today - $8 for the Scooper Bowl, and I didn't eat all day. I think I made my money's worth and got some much needed cooling from the heat. Life is slower during the summer. I like that - summer is so nice, even if it is ruinously hot and humid here and its been making it difficult for me to sleep. Hopefully I just need to get used to the sound of the AC being on all the time. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
1:39 pm	SO MUCH MUSIC First and most recently, Capen and I went to see Dream Theater last night, which was pretty fucking amazing. Seats turned out not to be so bad; after Opeth we slipped down a few rows toward the center and were about 30 feet from the stage. You could see almost everything but part of the screen and the keyboardist. They even played the songs I'm familiar with and particularly like, including, "Beyond this life", "Misunderstood," "As I am", and "Lines in the sand" (I think). They did a really good job meshing everything together so it was hard to say what all actually got played. It was more than that, though - they played for 1:45 before the encore, and it only seemed like an hour or so to me. Speaking of encore, that was probably the best I've seen, since they played a crazy extended version of Metropolis Pt. 1 with signature keytar/guitar Rudress/Petrucci dueling. Fucking great. Oh yeah, Opeth was pretty good too. As I had expected, they couldn't really hold a candle to Dream Theater, but it was still a good set. I think was sort of the ideal way to see them since I've heard so much about them, but I wouldn't want to hear them as headliners for two fucking hours or something. Secondly, finished 6.115, for which my final project was an audio spectrometer. It was a pretty swanky deal - worked great except my EIGHT band-pass filters wigged out on me at the last minutes, so I had to rewrite some shit, but it worked out in the end because I FINALLY got a fucking A in a course 6 class. Term after term of being SHAFTED. You know course 6, you really only hurt yourself by fucking me over - every time I get pissed off at the teaching quality (6.001), retarded quizzes (6.004), or complete random-ass nonsensical grading out of NOwhere fuck YOU (6.002 (totally not still bitter about that)), I'm much less inclined to take your classes. You're lucky I chose to take 115 after that 004 fuckshit injustice. Alright enough about my bizarre relationship with course 6. In other musical news, the last radio show for Vinayak and me is on Thursday night. I think its very solid; Vinayak is a little bitch. I shouldn't say more than that lest the "surprise" be ruined. Along similar lines, I've been helping a "friend" with his own up and coming radio show starting during the summer. It ought to be good. Lastly, I have this 9.35 final tomorrow, for which much of the content is derived from the sound lectures, for which music and speech are the most notable applications. The problem set actually had us build an audio spectrogram function in MATLAB, akin to my 115 project. Honestly, this is a pretty cool class - it actually touches stuff one wouldn't normally expect to see in course 9, and hit a number of topics that I haven't been beaten to death with yet. People bitch about the recent MATLAB additions, which are justified when we spend hours prettying up our figures, but the substance behind the algorithms and functions is really useful and cool stuff. Now I have to go, and continue to blare my music in a desperate attempt to save my remaining sanity. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
2:52 am	The Monkey's Paw No, this isn't a damn fucking thing about my UROP or anything like that in any way. It just HAPPENS that the bloody story has this title. I didn't choose it. Oh, what story you may ask? There is a classic tale of the supernatural by author W. W. Jacobs. My dad has this big old compilation called "Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural." We read a bunch of them together, including the one I refer to here, which is rather famous. I bring it up because I had been recently very curious about the origin of the almost cliched expression, "be careful what you wish for." I did not find much of an answer, but this story kept coming up in my mostly minimal searches, and I recalled what an apt and creepifying tale it is. When the original story was actually published in 1902, it was prefaced by the quotation "Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it" which is of unknown origins. That's probably as close as an original as I thought I'd find. I also thought I'd include the actual story text here. Its not too long, so hell with it. It makes for a nice read if you've got a little time. Face it - you want to punt. ( BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOOOO ) And that is that. In other news, I have one paper left and one final. I don't care that much about either of them. The paper won't be a problem. The final, I've got 6 days to study for it, and it really shouldn't be hard since its just course 6/9 overlap stuff I've seen before so COME ON. Hopefully when this paper is done I can get back to reading some books I've had laying about for a while. And clean my fucking room - there's no free flat surface anywhere except for maybe the floor, and only that because of my hallowed clothesline technology. Oh yeah, and I spent this whole week being sleep deprived/tricked out on caffeine, so I think I'm gonna go bed down now. Sweet dreams, Sir Valerian. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 10th, 2008
6:35 pm	I think I am going to try posting more often again. I was looking back through old entries and remembering a little more about how things used to be. Like when I made full posts about how pissed I was about them canceling Arrested Development, how awesome a game System Shock was, or my deep and personal thoughts about what has happened in the most recent episode of Babylon 5. Sure, they're childish perhaps, but there's something to those sorts of posts. Enough of this big deal shit for now. And it is nice to have a better record of how I think and what's on my mind. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and all that sort of thing, right? This week of two papers and a final project has and will continue to drive me nuts. But then it is done and I can get back to those wonderfully liberating shenanigans. I just saw Persepolis, which was sad, but very good. In my mind, it is difficult to beat an intelligently produced cartoon. The one thing that bugged me a bit was the whole thing being in French - I'm not saying it should have been en English (English dubs apparently do exist), but I've seen a decent number of Iranian films, so I was a bit surprised it wasn't primarily in Persian. I suppose it makes sense given this wasn't exactly an Iranian film since it came from France in most respects. Makes sense, truthfully, just took me a bit by surprise, I suppose. EDIT: Other thing I was mildly sad about - when they play "Iron Maiden" in the movie, its just some generic guitars and death grunts, which isn't Iron Maiden at all. If they'd played a short clip of Run to the Hills or Flight of Icarus (which are FROM that period), it would have been SWEET. I mean, they paid royalties for the Eye of the Tiger music, is Maiden that stingy about the rights to their songs? Maybe, but it would have been even more awesome with that subtle touch. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
8:47 pm	My only weakness I haven't been this sick since I came down with the stomach flu when I was a frosh. I get a minor cold and when I think I'm almost recovered, BOOM bronchial infection WOOOOOOOOO. I suppose it was arrogant to set the new currency to "Look the fuck out" and expect not to be hit myself. Damnation. However, the worst part about this is that it literally pains me to laugh. And if I can't laugh, I'm in pretty bad shape. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
4:13 pm	The laughing voice inside my head These past couple of days, I've been going through the Institute archives from the 70's, specifically a publication called "Thursday," an independent news source on campus during the period, which later merged with Voodoo. Voodoo's persona unfortunately overcame that of Thursday, since Thursday was much more concerned with articles about what was going on and very much connected to student interests. The publication arose out of the void which appeared when Tech Talk was created, and The Tech was tossed out as MIT's official news outlet. The Tech apparently REALLY sucked during that time, so Thursday showed up to fill part of the gap. It is truly fascinating stuff to read. I wish I had the time to leisurely look through the archives at my own pace. Thursday was sort of like the press champion of the east side. Lots of stuff about East Campus, Bexley, and Senior House being "oppressed" or the admins being dumb shits and not listening, plus the culture of the paper is very familiar to me, even though it is almost 30 years later (for example, I read a long article citing many instances of how the first renovation of Bexley was total shit, and all the flaws that came out afterwards). Even the frequent ads in the thing for SoCo and then assembly programmers and electrical engineers make perfect sense in the East Campus one would imagine 30 years ago (and from what I've heard from alums). You could read the Tech archives from the period and probably realize that they really suck, or you could try Voodoo before the merger, but my Dad assured me that Voodoo has never actually been funny, so good luck there. Thursday is probably the best window available through which one can see what MIT and EC were like for a long period of time. There's some funny stuff in there too; the comics aren't terrible, and there's a long series of articles about how much Transparent Horizons totally sucks from when the sculpture was first placed outside EC. Its good stuff. If you have a chance sometime, Thursday is worth having a look at. Its stored off site so you have to request they bring some of the volumes over, but it only takes a half hour and there's no charge. Then you can enjoy gems like an original review of Bruce Springstein's "Born To Run," and of course the usual wanking about Noam Chompsky and meal plans. That shit never got old. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 7th, 2008
10:21 pm	Highlights Notable instances from break- -Hanging out with Will, who at one point inadvertently started rapping, so I guess I've got some solidarity with my west coast brothers, and I gained VALUABLE street cred for the White Belts in the future. -Playing various games of Supreme Commander for like ten fucking hours, or longer actually. Although Cody, Colin, and I played a good amount of Strikers Charged for Cumshot because we got bored of that. -Slipping Janny the deuce. Highlight of the above highlight: so a number of years ago, I bought Jonathan (AKA Janny) a copy of Akira on DVD which Keston and I agreed is a mountain of ass of an anime movie (but known as a "classic" of the genre) and since then, we've been secretly passing it off between the three of us, and the DVD has come to be called "the onus" for further inside jokey reasons not to be disclosed here because oh god oh god oh god. Anyway, while Janny was off getting Taco Bell during the LAN, we opened up his case and found and lodged the DVD case in a spot where it wouldn't rattle around or fuck up anything in his case. He apparently found it a couple days ago, and is still baffled and exasperated as to how we managed to do it. We had a good LOL after that. Yeah, I said it. -Reinstalling Windows via a repair installation, which amazingly enough actually fucking worked. Further errors/problems have not been present, which is fucking AMAZING. -Hanging out with Wes who I haven't seen in a year or more. Good times. He's quite the YouTube aficionado; showed me some pretty damn good stuff, see here and here (Both of those guys are damn incredible). -Bloody relaxing with some TV which I haven't been able to just do for I don't know how long. Got some pretty good wins with the TV series I chose, more on that in the subsequent forthcoming post. -Organizing my fucking music collection which has gotten all nasty and shit from a term of random downloading with purging or categorization or anything. Vaguely cathartic. -NOT going to Will's Band's show because I was unable to find suitable transportation. Alas. -Sleeping. Fuck yeah. -Getting my hair cut and having it feel like I'm magically three years younger. -Having the expected realization that being in Oregon is relaxing and a good change of pace, but still a bit stifling and boring. Wooo IAP (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
8:58 pm	epic polls Poll #1103440 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9 choose wisely View Answers Call on Me (Eric Prydz) 7 (77.8%) Call Me, Call Me (The Seatbelts) 2 (22.2%) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
12:23 pm	Adjunction Much as I ADORE those rugged yet soft hearted G.I. Joes, I happened to find a better and more relevant quote to supplement the one I ended with last time (yeah I like quotes whoop dee doo daa). And if you have yet to see those G.I. Joe parodies, you're missing some pretty awesome shit right there. "Ice" is timeless. Anyway. The notable science writer and Washington State University biology professor David P. Barash said this about the whole genetic determination of behavior controversy/argument/wankfest. It seems clear that human beings are the most flexible and adaptable creatures on earth, capable of choosing their own destiny. At the same time, it is also clear that there is a definite genetic influence on many aspects of our behavior, especially when it comes to sex, violence, parenting, even tendencies for altruism and selfishness. The more we understand that influence, the more free we are to chart our own course. That sums it all up pretty good. Hmmm, now what do I splatter across this thing? (Comment on this)
Monday, November 5th, 2007
12:17 pm	That was a weird book I picked up a copy of "The Cognitive Neurosciences" Third Edition from the MIT Press garage sale my chance, which was a damn nice find (its a fatty motherfucker and probably about a hundred bucks new - I paid ten); one of those texts I see often on the shelves of grad students, post-docs, and profs in course 9. When glancing through it, I found that Sapolsky contributed a section for it called "Stress and Cognition," which sums up much of his own academic research, plus that of others, and is pretty much exactly the research I was talking about when I called our living conditions terrible in the last post. And, its quite a well written piece. It unfortunately isn't available for public consumption on the web, but here are a few articles that talk about the same issue to a less complete degree. However, what I really wanted to talk about here was an entirely different book. The 9.20 professor urged me to try reading a book he had mentioned to me entitled "Sperm Wars." Its about the underlying science (I can't stress this enough, the author is a professor of Biology at Manchester, and has spent years running carefully regulated studies involving thousands upon thousands of samples) of human sexual behavior. So I'm interested in this sort of stuff, and the book seemed pretty cool (and if you read the back, already mildly shocking), so I gave it a read. The stuff in there is really weird. Really fucking weird. Its also fascinating, for a number of reasons. For example, one of the scientific findings highlighted in the book is that 10% of all children born to married couples do not possess the genes of their "father." Another: male and female homosexuality exists as a genetic balanced polymorphism. Because of the very real reproductive advantages given via bisexual genes, homophobia probably developed in heterosexuals because the others were a threat to reproductive fitness, plus there is that unfortunate problem of the spreading disease. Its worse in industrial societies; secluded populations with less disease exhibit much higher rates of bisexual behavior and little taboo exists. There's a lot more where that came from, too. The primary goal of the book is to discuss the anatomy and physiology of human reproduction, leaving all aspects of societal influences out of it. The anatomy and physiology is certainly enough to fill the book since there is some weird weird shit that does make sense from an animal behavior perspective, but is stuff I would not dream of on my own. It is a strange strange thing we've got going for ourselves. I'm not sure I always agree with his uses of "scenes" to illustrate examples of behaviors. Some of it is pretty shocking, which is probably the author's intention, since without presenting the reader with realistic shock value, the legitimate points he is trying to get across simply wouldn't set in. Perhaps the author's primary takeaway point is that naturally, human reproduction is not innately cooperative. To our Freudian Id (Actuality: Hypothalamus, lower brain areas, endocrine organs, etc.), its an everlasting conflict against the opposing gender. The male "shotgun" approach is often viewed derisively as crude and stupid, but there is a lot more intelligence in these behaviors than it appears. Its quite unsettling how much simple hormones ("That's an unfair advantage! What if we just started saying 'Testicles'?"... sorry about that) and unconscious planning and scheming are able to manipulate us without our knowledge. Due to the drastic difference in "how shit works down there," the science says males should spread their genes to as many people as possible, minimizing personal risk, and women should try to collect the strongest genes possible (again minimizing risk). What does it mean to be the strongest? Well, that's always changing and fluctuating, but that unconscious machine happens to know damn well what's "best," and its often not what our minds are seeing. In one of Sapolsky's essay collections, he wrote a little piece about the neurophysiology of escalating arguments amongst people: where they come from, why the develop, how they end up exploding, and at the very end of the piece, what we can consciously do to take advantage of our own physiology and stop ourselves from being stupid. This book is not that. To the author's credit, he explains that he wanted to present the bare facts, unclouded by bias or agenda. To alleviate small arguments is easy, but to take a stance on what people should or shouldn't do sexually involves many questions of morality and ethics, issues we've been seriously debating for hundreds of years. To delve into that would needlessly distort what the book means to do. Which is to provide fair and balanced view of both genders and the various behaviors and structures involved. He does a relatively good job. After all, the guy knows his ethology and sociobiology, and he's in no way just pulling this out of his ass. I'd have liked to see more data, but that's not what this book is for. Hundreds of additional articles exist for that purpose. Plus, the book really does only touch on one side of human behavior. If we were talking about dogs, bears, monkeys, or any other animal, then this would be it. But, we're not that, and the author recognizes this from the outset. I'm not sure if this a book that I really think everyone ought to read. The information contained within is important, but its presentation is perhaps not ideal, which is unfortunate because people really should be aware of how this shit actually works. Some stuff in the book should probably be viewed with skepticism, but there's a lot in there that's been shown to have reproducible (haha) results. I'll have the book a while longer if anyone wishes to take a look at it. Heh, I think what it really boils down too is, as those silly G.I. Joe cartoons used to say, "knowing is half the battle." (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
4:45 pm	October Blues The title actually refers to the fact that I'm listening to Blue October as I write this, and it just happens to be the beginning of October. Doesn't help that the light seems to be fading rapidly now (I swear I didn't plan this). Going through the 9.20 material just makes me even more pleased to be TA'ing the class. The insight I found later in the course is especially intriguing when viewing the earlier material. The class spurs me along further lines of thought, and I've mentioned a particular issue to a few people, but I thought I'd elaborate a bit more. It is a sad irony that here at MIT, one of the greatest institutions of science, engineering, progress, and reason, we are made to live like we do. We being the undergrads in this case (to be fair, grad students are in a similar boat). Constantly bombarded by unpredictable and shifting schedules, overwhelming loads of work, and packed like sardines into ancient (although I wouldn't have that any other way...) buildings, forced to adhere to domineering codes in much of what we do. People aren't meant to live like this, yet here we are, future leaders and innovators or whatever they like to call us, crumbled and bent in ways that science has shown to be terrible, terrible. One of Robert Sapolsky's books is entitled "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." In that he's mostly talking about the individual in general, and how our physiology is abnormal because our stressors have been altered from those seen in the wild environments, and its not always for the best. And that's the average shmoe, someone who doesn't have to live anything like we do here. Some of us get a glimpse of it during the summer times, regular jobs and schedules, fewer people cramped together, and time had to spend in the outside or wherever you want, really. That's the best time of the year, as far as I'm concerned. But its just a glimpse, and then its gone and we're swamped in shit on all fronts once more. Sapolsky (plus untold others) tries to think of us as just another animal. Not for a second do I believe that. I wonder sometimes how much he can honestly hold that to be true. As I said to Marti about a month ago, "is it so hard to think that we can be just another animal and something more at the same time?" So many critics are fans of highlighting morals or religions or other high level concepts as being proof of this, but those aren't real issues of science, they're too deeply obscured by history and bias. You don't need to look that deeply. It is so much easier than that. The ulcers, the spectrum of mental disorders, even the fugues, distractions, and confusions; the countless little or large unhealthy and unfit behaviors, they all carry negative implications. All these bizarre things that makes us seem weak and unstable compared to the staunch beasts of the wild. Hell, you can even see these gaps among the subsections of our own species, and their magnitude can be staggering. Yet somehow, in spite of these clear flaws which should hinder us, we've come the furthest of anything. Here we are, in the center of the technological and academic community, the pinnacle of civilization. Neuroscience is full of things that no one can explain, but those are of a different nature, they're problems which we just don't have the data to solve. There's no lack of data here; we should be able to explain it, just can't... yet. Its one of those questions scientists brush off with a "who cares," a convincing but fundamentally flawed explanation, or an honest "no one knows." So, we're still stuck grappling with these issues. And you know, it fucking sucks, that's for sure. But, that's what sets us apart. Best to make the most of that. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
1:22 pm	The Pillows have a song called RUSH... intriguing I wasn't all that pleased with my last entry (for cool people, assume last entry means last public entry). Its alright, but in retrospect... ehhhhhh meh. It is especially difficult to write these after reading Robert Sapolsky's books, two of which I indeed read over the course of my "vacation." He has such a good hold on the entire field, while being interested in the same sorts of stuff as I am a lot of times and remaining humorous and cognizant of his own limitations. The years of experience don't hurt either. Particularly on the note of religion, which I meant to say a few things about, he has this great essay at the end of one of his books where he discusses relations to neurological disorders. So, Schizophrenics' progenitors are not always Schizophrenics themselves, but do often display characteristics which make them "Schizotypical," not delusional or imbalanced, but merely more likely to be into new age shit, or believe that the earth was really created in seven days, or think that ghosts are really floating around out there in haunted locations. Odd types, but not actually crazy. This isn't Sapolsky's idea, its something followed by many scientists for years, but the premise is this: Schizophrenia is a hugely debilitating disease with a strong genetic component. In those cases, the genes will usually die out because they harm the genetic fitness of the individual. Unless you have a balanced polymorphism in place (example: sickle cell anemia, carriers are resistant to Malaria thus the gene survives in heterozygous individuals and does not die out), then the gene should disappear. Where does such a balanced polymorphism exist for Schizophrenia? This isn't just some fringe crap I'm spouting off here, this is a fairly widely recognized theory with consistent evidence to back it. Here's the deal: in the earliest of times, simple hunter-gatherers, complex hunter-gatherers, and even some later agricultural villages, were all strongly influenced by shaman figures. The actions of modern hunter gatherer shamans and archaeological evidence indicate that Schizotypical individuals (not Schizophrenics themselves) are oftentimes highly suitable to fit into the role of the shaman. Thus, by giving Schizotypical individuals attention in these positions, you give them power, and such actions usually lead to improved genetic fitness. The trend continued for thousands of years, likely into the early age of cities and beyond (easily so when priesthood became a hereditary order). This means that the advent and development of religion might have indirectly allowed Schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder, to flourish in human beings. To me, that is some fucked up shit. It might or might not be entirely true, but almost certainly some part of the argument is correct, and shamanism did at very least help Schizophrenia stay alive. Strange strange shit. Its that sort of insight and bizareness that makes it hard to write this stuff. Coming up with original ideas is hard as is, but it makes one realize the stuff we don't know that others do. That isn't even Sapolsky's theory, its one that's been around for a while, and I'd never heard of it. I've already begun to enter the locked state of what I call "Rush Fugue," in which I eat little and irregularly, don't worry about sleep at all, work on something or other constantly almost, and gradually let my memories of the week fold in upon themselves because sleep deprivation does wonders for memory consolidation. I wrote a term paper about this, you know. Thus, I don't have time in the next while to write any of these things, and I don't have the inclination to do so, either. There are a lot more concerning things I ought to be worrying about for the next several months, and I could use all the focus I can muster. I actually have some real idea, then sometime in a while I'll mention it, but writing for the sake of just putting shit down isn't at all what I had in mind with these things. It's all fine really. I gained a good deal from Sapolsky's stuff, so I could hardly consider the course of actions a loss. Actually, if anyone's interested in his stuff, its really informative and entertaining to boot. I have three of his essay collections, of which The Trouble With Testosterone is probably the best, and Jo has a copy of A Primate's Memoir, which is rather different; an account of his time with people and baboons in Africa, and is one of the damn finest true stories I've heard in a long time. Highly recommended stuff. Right, so that's that, I need to follow joeg around tomorrow and then do fifty other things. Hopefully I won't completely crack up. I think I'll be pretty okay this year. Hopeful and all that. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 3rd, 2007
12:06 pm	Gusset I was saying something about ethics and the development of morals and such during very early times. Or I said I would say something about it. Yes. Anyway, this is subtopic with very little solid information behind it. Most of it is derived from incomplete archaeological findings and mucky anthropological speculation. Archaeology is cool stuff - the information one can glean from those sources is usually quite objective and more difficult to distort. But there's not a lot of it. Anthropology I'm not as keen on; most of the stuff relating to this topic is all about analyzing developing cultures and extant hunter-gatherer societies. So, that's great and all, but it doesn't actually give you a sense of development since you're only able to examine a static situation rather than a long progression, which is what this was in the first place. Minor side issues include the differences between western and eastern development, since the ethics and virtues and these halves differ. I choose to examine from Mesopotamia, since the Sumerians and their followers gave rise to many parts of all prominent culture groups we see on the stage today. However, since little is agreed upon here, I'll try to place things as simply as I can and weave my sociobiological approach about it in an attempt to clarify. I'll also try to keep it short and simple, since me rambling about this would just be mostly stuff I'd be making up via educated guessing. We'll see if I can meet any of these goals. As I've said many times, the basis for large group living (home camps, settlements, towns, temple-cities, etc.) is not entirely clear. However, they certainly came to exist, so if they were going to exist, you'd need some level of system to keep a bit of order. In mobile hunter-gatherer groups, you can rely on hierarchies to determine the roles of power. It isn't really much different from those used by the great apes. When you start settling down and staying put, that stuff just doesn't work as well. You tie yourself to a location, which means you can't run away to a new tribe if you fall out of favor, and your skills become specialized so that you can't do everything yourself, and what's more, the tribe might not be able to do so well without you. At this point, the discussion of mysticism is unavoidable. A major leader among these groups is the shaman character, who may or may not also be the war chief or something like that. But he plays a special role, and commands a great deal of control. Why? Well, archaeologists generally believe that when primitive people's saw lightning or other natural spectacles, they wanted to explain it, and when they thought about it a little bit more, they'd want to also explain commonplace shit like the earth, the sky, the trees, the moon, and animals, and so on. So they make a lot of shit up, and project themselves to imagine these larger than life deities which are really just stereotypical humans with too much power. But its what makes sense. So religion is born, and so comes another source of morality. When the chief or shaman institutes rules and such, we presume that he is still looking out for his own well-being above all else, which means genetic fitness. Being shaman means others will listen to you because you are presumed to be helping them with rituals for hunting and farming that that sort of shit. So they think you're improving their genetic fitness. In turn, they support you and you can live a posh lifestyle and maybe have a harem and reproduce a lot. A shaman must always remain concerned with keeping his base of support. He must make sure they believe in him. Same for a war-chief: he must be successful and lead well, otherwise he'll be ousted, just like when an alpha male ape starts to decline in physical aptitude. At a basic level, moving up to simple farming settlements, we can explain simple rules. The next progression involves the growth of true towns and cities. More labor specialization, more technology for farming, and larger spheres of control for those in power. Archaeological dating has placed the earliest temple sites in such dwellings. Before the rise of the monarchies came the growth of the theocracy. The religious orders, now many as opposed to just a lone shaman, would often act as governing bodies, instituting regulations on agriculture, construction, and civil order. People listened to them because they had been lead to believe that the priests were being advised from greater powers. This belief makes absolutely no sense from a great ape sociobio perspective, but if you think about it as an environmental factor perpetuated and built upon for hundreds of years, then sure, it would likely stand the test of time. More on this progression later. Not for hundreds of years did the position of king begin to take shape. Maybe they were original conquerors who placed themselves in sole control. In order to supersede the priesthood, they would also have to claim divine intervention, and thus the concept of rule by divine right probably took hold. Eventually you end up with the kings performing many administrative tasks while the priests stick more closely to religious practices. Both the temple and the palace of this era probably served as important drivers for ethics and morals. The king needs laws and order and justice to keep things peaceful. Other people accept this because it benefits them. At every stage of this game, it appears that these developments have clear benefits for everyone. If one were to realize this, they could take advantage of the situation for their own benefit (i.e. corruption, blackmail, etc.) which certainly happened, but then other people would be harmed, and eventually the outlier would likely be removed since everyone else's fitness was suffering. Or maybe the whole town would collapse as everyone went at it for themselves. These things happen. Once you're at a high level such as this, sociobiology is hard to apply. Sure, you look at a single situation in the modern age and examine the surrounding factors, and with knowledge of mechanism already discovered, you can often explain human behaviors. But a lot of times you can't, and certainly not large group behaviors since such massive crowds never made sense for human sociobio in the first place. One can identify trends based on individual motivations and such, and developed loose theories, but there are so many odd factors that arise at this point that you can never be sure, and there is no way to perform an experiment since all we have to stare at are these thousand year old middle eastern ruins. As I said earlier, religion is an odd thing. Who comes up with this stuff in the first place? How does a single person become the shaman who knows so much more than everyone else about mysticism? Does he come home from a walk through the hills, sees a landslide, and suddenly has a revelation which he shares with his tribe? Who would believe him? Monkeys, chimp, and gorillas don't believe that stuff. Why did we? What's the deal with this odd human desire for explanation beyond one's self? THIS is something that can be examined with sociobiology because it started so early in the development of agriculture and civilization, thus the standard animal behavior rules should still be applicable as they were meant to be applied. Mobile hunter-gatherers might well have caught on with this shit (contemporary MHG's usually have shamans). Yay, I found another topic for myself. For a time other than now, of course. To summarize: ethics and morals probably grew out of a need for order in growing societies from sedentary hunter-gatherers to agricultural city-states. Thanks to hunting/combat and religious leaders, these codes received reinforcement over thousands of years by many, many generations of people. It soon became a factor of the environment, the environment our species artificially placed around itself. With such a powerful environmental impact, that was just the natural way things to continue progressing. Again, it isn't clear how such a system managed to remain stable and grow for ten thousand years, but that's the way it is. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 23rd, 2007
11:40 am	The Assistant Pig-keeper My favorite author, Lloyd Alexander, died in May. I found out about this yesterday after curiously checking wikipedia. I knew he was old, but he had been continuing to write in spite of everything that might have gotten in his way. I've read some of his recent stuff, and it is as good as always. His final book will be released in August. Lloyd Alexander primarily wrote fantasy novels, and they were more often described as "children's books" than anything else. However, as my dad pointed out to me, the best of the fantasies out there tend to be these sorts of books. Harry Potter is the obvious example of the new age, but it stretches a long way back to Mr. Tolkien and his first work, The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings may be epic and groundbreaking and all that shit, but he did it first with a story for children: The Hobbit, which is the better work overall in the minds of many I know (plus it has dragons). Lloyd Alexander's best known work, the Chronicles of Prydain, certainly makes the most of itself. It is rooted in the medieval folklore of Wales, and is not afraid to deal with harshness of realities. I'm not sure how many people have actually heard of the books; I think it is less than I used to believe. Alexander liked to play around with a great many mythologies in his writings. The great majority of his fantasy novels take place in an altered mythological setting. His first novel, Time Cat, is perhaps the best indicator of what the rest of his writings were to be like. It is about a boy and his time traveling cat who allows the two of them to visit many different "historical" settings (mythological Egypt and Rome, medieval Germany), plus its got a cat as a main character. Lloyd Alexander liked cats a lot, and they certainly manage to show up a lot in his books. The notable exception to all of these guidelines is Westmark, a three part series and possibly his darkest work, about a set of odd characters and the gradual political enlightenment of a nation through various revolutionary events. Even many years ago when I went through a period of not being a big fan of reading, I'd always enjoy his books. That was the same time I basically went through every book the library had by Alexander, and from looking at this bibliography on wikipedia, it appears there were quite a few I missed. I'm not sure what else to say, except to reiterate that I thought his books were incredibly good, managing to be both whimsical, serious, imaginative, and possessing of a certain down-to-earthness that made them feel not so far removed from our own world. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
4:17 pm	And now for something completely different I've been mulling this over for a while, but the renewal of the Harry Potter frenzy brought it to the forefront of my mind. What's the matter with the British? Now what I mean is not that there is something wrong with Brits, Ires, Scots, and Welsh, but consider this: the British Isles are home to about 1% of the world's population (but certainly less not more), yet they're a major player in so many parts of world affairs. Now, one make the obvious political connections and such, but that's not even what I mean. By far, Britain excels vastly beyond its place in world populations, specifically in the realm of art. I had three major realms in mind when I hammered this out in my head. You've got your literature, you've got your music, and you've got your acting. Britain's illustrators have always been good, but the great artists have seldom been British. That's a bit of a moot point since I'm specifically ruminating over modern impacts. I had three major realms in mind when I hammered this out in my head. You've got your literature, you've got your music, and you've got your acting. Britain's illustrators have always been good, but the great artists have seldom been British. That's a bit of a moot point since I'm specifically ruminating over modern impacts. Literature- One could say that the British owe their prowess as a production house for writers to their extensive history. Sure, the long lasting influences of masters such as Chaucer, Pope, Johnson, Blake, the Romantics (Keats, Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge), Tennyson, Yeats, and of course the illustrious Wilhelm Shaxpeare. Certainly they have kept a strong and steady line authors that leads directly to the present day. However, with the decline of the British Empire, one would expect that the impact of British writing would also decline. No such thing has happened. Heck, I didn't even include British influenced, but foreign blooded masters like VS Naipaul. For some reason, literature just never declined in England, and their authors remain extremely prominent to this day. Acting- The thesbians of England owe much of their history to the above category of literature, and especially Shakespeare. He isn't regarded by so many as the greatest author of all time for nothing. So, theatre took off with him during the Elizabethan era and had some rocky tumbles (Puritanism), but stayed alive and flourished throughout the twentieth century, and now into the twenty-first. Stage drama is a dying art, but television and cinema only appear to grow in power. Even in this bleeding edge new frontier of special effects and whatever buzzwords are being thrown around, let's have a look at the prominent actors. Everyone in the Harry Potter movies is British, plus the Golden Compass, and much of the Lord of the Rings. I'm sort of counting Australian and New Zealanders in this, which is sort of cheating, but not really. I guess everyone in the Pirates movies is British except Johnny Depp. They're everywhere, honestly, just look. Even Jack Fucking Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is bloody British. And come to think of it, that's really weird. This (and having seen Robot Chicken Star Wars today) actually reminds me of a funny line a long time ago from the "Thumb Wars" parody. It's the Imperial Officers sitting around the table with Vader and Tarkin, talking about the Death Star, and at some point, Vader asks if there are any questions, and one guy asks, "Why do we all have British accents, when we are in space, and there is no Britain?" Vader sort of looks at him and he disintegrates. Anyway. Quantity aside, you've also got quality to contend with. Sure, the US puts out lots of great shit with winners like Matt Damon, John Travolta, and Vin Diesel (yeah I'm being a little harsh) but the acting you get out of Brits is generally top notch. After all, they're continually fooling us into thinking they're not British, so they must be reasonably good. I'd like to specifically mention television, where the British comedy honestly has the American sitcom beaten pretty solidly. Then again, I don't like most sitcoms so my objectivity is weak, but I've had a good number of people agree with me here. You've got silly stuff like Monty Python (see title) in the 70's, but then a slew of others like Are You Being Served, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, A Thin Blue Line, and Coupling (probably my favorite out of all these, and very recent to boot). Aside from just those, there are huge number of mysteries and dramas produced and largely outsourced to the US via PBS (I used to watch a lot of that), and they're pretty good. Plus, there's always the longest running science fiction TV show ever, Doctor Who, which has been ridiculously popular during its run, and while it only had a low budget, the writing and much of the acting was damn good. Not to mention, the British TV stuff tends to be a lot more highbrow than American grown stuff. Anyway, the point is that the British Isles are good at this stuff and have a fast hold on a large part of the industry despite being so tiny in resources and population by comparison. Music- Honestly, this is the part that surprises me most when I think about it. The foundational western music comes from the classical periods, and Britain didn't have a lot of famous classical composers. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, the British still weren't going all that much. But then World War II ends and suddenly WOAH its one after another of bands that are either hugely successful, massively influential, or both. When we were at Flat Top Johnny's last night, I was looking at their Best of Boston awards, and on one of them the cover was Aerosmith, "America's Greatest Rock Band picking their home town favorites." And I thought, Wait, no there's got to be bigger bands than Aerosmith from this country. However, try as I might I was unable to come up with much. I mean, I guess you could say The Eagles, Creedence, or The Doors, maybe Lynyrd Skynyrd. Otherwise you've got Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, The Clash, Eric Clapton and all his bands, U2, David Bowie, Sex Pistols, or The Police. When it comes to ze Rock Muzak, the Brits have got their shit down. True enough, the Motown/Soul/Rhythm field which developed during the same era and was immensely popular as well, was primarily driven by the US... and Black people. I'm clearly showing an extreme bias here, since I am white and grew up in a very whiter part of town, plus, as Dave Chappelle and John Mayer were able to show, rock music is apparently what white people dig. Although, I do like a lot of Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Four Tops stuff, so yeah. Many of the big instrumentalists backing the Motown stars were white, you know. I watched a whole movie about this shit. Sorry. This type of music is only part of the picture, but its a big part. And the fact remains that the Brits made the rock and roll revolution happen, and they're not slowing down. U2 has remained quite successful up to the present day, plus you've got popular bands like Coldplay and Oasis (not so much anymore), and then there are guys like Radiohead who are popular, innovative, and have been going strong for more than fifteen years. Even those losers from Dragonforce (and many of their metal cousins) are British. What gets me is that Britain's dominance in this field sure looks like it came out of nowhere. Were they just artsy and talented enough that if they put their mind to it, it wasn't so hard to make music that people like them would listen to? I honestly have no the slightest clue how any of this comes together. British power and influence in the world has been steadily weakening for hundreds of years yet they manage to maintain their abilities as much as ever or even more, and with music, break open new avenues and find all new methods of heaving their influence upon us. I don't mind; I like the many aspects of the British Isles and their history and culture, and am more than happy to be able to watch more good movie, read new books, and I guess listen to original or old music that they made up. But I keep thinking about this, and all I ever think is that it is still really weird. (1 Comment |Comment on this)