I can't contain my excitement in anticipation of U2 and MUSE together in concert this September.
Observe:
Epic:
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
people and places
t: what do you like best about Australia and being abroad? tell me, I need to day dream about far away places.
p: what I like best about Australia isn't anything exotic. it's the people. auzzies as well as internationals. getting past the exterior and pushing the limits of casual conversation. really getting to know people. you can go many places in people.
p: what I like best about Australia isn't anything exotic. it's the people. auzzies as well as internationals. getting past the exterior and pushing the limits of casual conversation. really getting to know people. you can go many places in people.
Friday, April 10, 2009
I reckon
that things are more complicated than you [can] think. It's hard to accept uncertainty, and in the course of daily life I suppose we have to act certain about some things. But I think we often run into problems thinking things to be so clear-cut. We like to simplify. We have to simplify. It's evolutionarily advantageous for our survival (like a local optimum). It's efficient. Conserves energy. Human understanding has its limits, so we have to bend the world to fit within the boundaries of our understanding. That's the only way it all makes sense. I'm suspicious when things make too much sense. Something's bent.
None of this is remotely practical, but I'm through with practicality. If I were a machine, I'd be doing economics instead of philosophy.
Everything I know or think I know is used to configure a framework for "seeing" the world. If I take the things I know to be less clear-cut, more uncertain, less stable, I get a more "open" view of the world (as contrasted with the popular phrase "narrow-minded"). The world opens up, if you like. It's easier to slide my knowledge around and reconfigure new and more sophisticated frameworks for thinking and perceiving the world. I don't know what truth we can aspire to. We have to realize that we can't help but bend things to make sense. Human understanding covers a fairly wide range (to what do I compare it to?), but a finite range none the less. All we have are interpretations. Interpretations are never "wrong." It's not wrong that we bend things, and I don't see it as a condition to be overcome. That I see it, however, is important.
Things that do make "perfect" sense to us most likely only do so because they are parts of a system, a worldview, that we invented -- that we've bent into shape because we find it meaningful. Myths. Sometimes myths we live by.
So I'm building up a tolerance for uncertainty. You may not be thick if you don't understand the world; you may not be thick if it doesn't make sense. Don't always let yourself bend it, whatever it is you're trying to comprehend. Sometimes allow things to seem unstable.
Your brain may fall out; I don't know. I think it'll be okay if you're open-minded but pay attention to your feelings.
I really like when something prompts a radical alteration in my perspective of things. My experience from then on is deepened and more attuned. Each time I am repeatedly aware of many more uncertainties as well. My worldview has to be ever reconfigured to make meaning of particular uncertainties, and each time inevitably reconfigured in such a way that a different set of uncertainties crop up (sometimes "tainting" ideas and views which used to stand firm and unchallenged).
That's what I reckon.
None of this is remotely practical, but I'm through with practicality. If I were a machine, I'd be doing economics instead of philosophy.
Everything I know or think I know is used to configure a framework for "seeing" the world. If I take the things I know to be less clear-cut, more uncertain, less stable, I get a more "open" view of the world (as contrasted with the popular phrase "narrow-minded"). The world opens up, if you like. It's easier to slide my knowledge around and reconfigure new and more sophisticated frameworks for thinking and perceiving the world. I don't know what truth we can aspire to. We have to realize that we can't help but bend things to make sense. Human understanding covers a fairly wide range (to what do I compare it to?), but a finite range none the less. All we have are interpretations. Interpretations are never "wrong." It's not wrong that we bend things, and I don't see it as a condition to be overcome. That I see it, however, is important.
Things that do make "perfect" sense to us most likely only do so because they are parts of a system, a worldview, that we invented -- that we've bent into shape because we find it meaningful. Myths. Sometimes myths we live by.
So I'm building up a tolerance for uncertainty. You may not be thick if you don't understand the world; you may not be thick if it doesn't make sense. Don't always let yourself bend it, whatever it is you're trying to comprehend. Sometimes allow things to seem unstable.
Your brain may fall out; I don't know. I think it'll be okay if you're open-minded but pay attention to your feelings.
I really like when something prompts a radical alteration in my perspective of things. My experience from then on is deepened and more attuned. Each time I am repeatedly aware of many more uncertainties as well. My worldview has to be ever reconfigured to make meaning of particular uncertainties, and each time inevitably reconfigured in such a way that a different set of uncertainties crop up (sometimes "tainting" ideas and views which used to stand firm and unchallenged).
That's what I reckon.
Friday, March 20, 2009
INWARD BOUND IS A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY
...is the sub-heading on the Indemnity Form. Further:
As a participant of Inward Bound I understand I will be exposed to SIGNIFICANT RISKS OF PERSONAL INJURY, and possibly, death.
Some risks include:
I have read this indemnity form, understand its contents and agree that its terms and conditions bind me and my heirs and successors.
--I take it seriously but, at the same time, it's a bit humorous.
As a participant of Inward Bound I understand I will be exposed to SIGNIFICANT RISKS OF PERSONAL INJURY, and possibly, death.
Some risks include:
- unmarked hazards (eg. cliffs, rivers, creeks, fences, low-lying trees)
- rugged terrain and unpredictable conditions
- bad weather
- darkness and poor light
- plants and animals
- contaminated water
- dehydration
- getting lost
- contact with vehicles on roads
- heat temperature exposure
- cold temperature exposure (eg. possible risk of hypothermia)
- fatigue and personal bodily injuries due to long-term exercise
- disparity in experience or condition of participants
- disparity in maturity or competitiveness of participants
I have read this indemnity form, understand its contents and agree that its terms and conditions bind me and my heirs and successors.
--I take it seriously but, at the same time, it's a bit humorous.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
it's official
...I've been placed in the fourth of 7 divisions, where the lower one's division the more kilometers one will race. I'm set to run somewhere between 50 - 60 km (31-37 miles) with my three teammates, one of whom is our navigator and another our assistant nav. Each residence hall will send a team to compete in each division. And the hall whose teams accumulate the most points across divisions will essentially "win" IB. We'll be blindfolded, transported, and dropped-off on April 3rd at around 10 or 11PM somewhere 50 kilometers from campus (on a mountain or in the bush) and will navigate back to campus with our head torches, maps, compasses, and other supplies. Our packs will weigh about 8 kilograms (18 Llbs) each. We won't reach campus and the finish line until sometime the next morning, April 4. This will be the most I will have ever put my body through.
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