"On this trip two distinct sides of my personality struggled for dominance. In one respect I had never been in a more scientific and skeptical frame of mind. Under the influence of acquaintances, I had become a zealous (though temporary) devotee of the living German thinker Thmas Metzinger, who reduces all problems of philosophy to questions of the brain. His Being No One, that remorseless opus magnum, now emboldened me to scoff at the assorted ghosts, fairies, and unicorns that filled the philosophies of the unlearned, with the their fear of scientific rigor. At times this new standpoint even awoke a spirit of physical assertion: though it was highly out of character, I remember once feeling the wish to shove several priests as they passed by me on a sidewalk in Chennai." --Graham Harman, Circus Philosophicus
I'm reading through this book; there should be a proper review up shortly, as it's a brief read at 80 pages or so. For now: man, Harman's weird.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Quick Rant
Okay, this is probably a point that deserves proper fleshing out, but frankly, I don't have the time or inclination. So here you go:
I do a lot of research and interaction with pop culture stuff. And a lot of it is sexist, degrading, violent, racist, homophobic, and otherwise pandering to various lowest common denominators. And people complain. And people defend the products against the complaints, usually with some variant like this: Hey, smut sells. It's just biology. They're giving the people what they want. They're running a business. You can't blame them for going where the money is. They have a responsibility to their shareholders to do what's profitable.
And I call bullshit. Yes, companies have a responsibility to their shareholders. They also have a responsibility to the society they're a part of. A responsibility to not make things worse. A responsibility to be better. Everyone does. (See related principle: don't be a jerk.)
Money isn't the only relevant metric for measuring success.
Later Days.
I do a lot of research and interaction with pop culture stuff. And a lot of it is sexist, degrading, violent, racist, homophobic, and otherwise pandering to various lowest common denominators. And people complain. And people defend the products against the complaints, usually with some variant like this: Hey, smut sells. It's just biology. They're giving the people what they want. They're running a business. You can't blame them for going where the money is. They have a responsibility to their shareholders to do what's profitable.
And I call bullshit. Yes, companies have a responsibility to their shareholders. They also have a responsibility to the society they're a part of. A responsibility to not make things worse. A responsibility to be better. Everyone does. (See related principle: don't be a jerk.)
Money isn't the only relevant metric for measuring success.
Later Days.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Bibliophile: He Shoots, He Glowers! : The classic NHL gothic romance that never was, and some books that actually exist from University of BC
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
This is Bibliophile.
We're returning to University of British Columbia this week, the largest university in BC (apparently, population-wise; I would have assumed the biggest was Simon Fraser, so there you go).
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid
This is Bibliophile.
We're returning to University of British Columbia this week, the largest university in BC (apparently, population-wise; I would have assumed the biggest was Simon Fraser, so there you go).
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Melancholy Meanderings on a Most Monstrous Moment
Person of Consequence, you might ask, what did you do today? Did anything interesting happen?
Oh, no, I answer. Only THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER. Whatever was it? Sit back, folks, and I will regale you with the Tale of the Board-Bound Key.
First: I have a laptop. I have an M-14X Alienware gaming laptop. I love it. I need it. I strongly suspect I can't live without it. That is the problem.
Second: I have a Book Hug. I got it for Christmas. It is one of these:
It's the metal thing holding up the book, in case that isn't clear. For someone who spends a lot of time typing passages from books into computers, it is also essential. Between this, the rain cover for my backpack, and the wool socks, my mother has been bang on this year in giving me things I desperately needed without knowing it.
Today, however, my beloved laptop and my beloved book hug ran afoul of my stupid hands (Futurama reference), which proceeded to drop the book hug on the laptop's keyboard from an unfortunately high height. The result was that it dislodged the "m" key. Not knocked off, mind you--just dislodged. I could, conceivably, kept on typing, with only a minor annoyance.
But now. Like a scab on the knee, I couldn't resist pulling at it. Poking at it. Whirling it around and around like a ten year old twisting a loose tooth in its socket. And just like those teeth, it suddenly came loose. I was suddenly holding three pieces in my hand: the key itself, a small plastic tab, and a large plastic tab. I then spent about fifteen minutes trying desperately to get the piece back in place. It prompted this facebook post (heretoafter posted in bold; responses will be posted in italics):
which prompted the quick response I'm going with "m," assuming that you couldn't write "my" laptop. Sound detective work, sir.
I also got one piece of good advice: I found tweezers helpful when one of *redacted*'s popped off awhile back.
I requisitioned my roommate's tweezers, and continued. I began to peruse the internet for help. Laptop Repair 101 had some very nice pictures, but they also advise removing another key to see how everything fits together, and that was clearly madness. Replace Laptop Keys had a free video of someone actually putting the pieces back together, and had a different video for dozens of models. (And no, I'm not being paid for advertising. I just think people should know, dammit.) So that gave me the idea of what to do, but not how to do it. I struggled for about an hour to come up with something, anything, to do...
In case anyone's wondering how the repair's going: Aaaaaaagh. Why do I have such tiny hands if the fingers attached to said hands are too thick for anything useful?
And yes, there's a dirty response to this question, but I'll thank you to keep your mind out of the gutter. But shortly after this, I had my first major breakthrough:
Yeah, I've been working a pair of tweezers into the routine. They're co-ing in handy. Pun INTENDED. Oooh, I got the two plastic tabs to fit together. That's pro--- that's pro--- that's a good step.
The lack of an m, despite the relatively small number of common words that use it, really hindered the comedy there; co-e instead of come really detracts from the "handy" bit, and the Porky the Pig stammering doesn't really work unless you can deliver more of the word "promising." The art suffers, you know? But once I figured out which side of each tab was up, how the two fit together, and which had to be connected to the keyboard first, it all fell into place.
Then it was a simple matter of mashing the keyboard button into place until it clicked. That was actually a pretty weird part; it was like following a precision surgery with a blunt hammer.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmkmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmjmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
This is going to be a fun day to explain to my supervisor tomorrow.
Indeed, Facebook me. Indeed.
All in all, I was very lucky. None of the pieces were broken, either in the original error or my ham-fisted attempts to fix it. And I managed to do something actually requiring manual dexterity, which doesn't pay off outside of a videogame very often. But it all worked out in the end, and I learned a valuable lesson:
Don't drop your book hug on a keyboard.
Sage advice.
Later Days.
Oh, no, I answer. Only THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER. Whatever was it? Sit back, folks, and I will regale you with the Tale of the Board-Bound Key.
First: I have a laptop. I have an M-14X Alienware gaming laptop. I love it. I need it. I strongly suspect I can't live without it. That is the problem.
Second: I have a Book Hug. I got it for Christmas. It is one of these:
Today, however, my beloved laptop and my beloved book hug ran afoul of my stupid hands (Futurama reference), which proceeded to drop the book hug on the laptop's keyboard from an unfortunately high height. The result was that it dislodged the "m" key. Not knocked off, mind you--just dislodged. I could, conceivably, kept on typing, with only a minor annoyance.
But now. Like a scab on the knee, I couldn't resist pulling at it. Poking at it. Whirling it around and around like a ten year old twisting a loose tooth in its socket. And just like those teeth, it suddenly came loose. I was suddenly holding three pieces in my hand: the key itself, a small plastic tab, and a large plastic tab. I then spent about fifteen minutes trying desperately to get the piece back in place. It prompted this facebook post (heretoafter posted in bold; responses will be posted in italics):
which prompted the quick response I'm going with "m," assuming that you couldn't write "my" laptop. Sound detective work, sir.
I also got one piece of good advice: I found tweezers helpful when one of *redacted*'s popped off awhile back.
I requisitioned my roommate's tweezers, and continued. I began to peruse the internet for help. Laptop Repair 101 had some very nice pictures, but they also advise removing another key to see how everything fits together, and that was clearly madness. Replace Laptop Keys had a free video of someone actually putting the pieces back together, and had a different video for dozens of models. (And no, I'm not being paid for advertising. I just think people should know, dammit.) So that gave me the idea of what to do, but not how to do it. I struggled for about an hour to come up with something, anything, to do...
In case anyone's wondering how the repair's going: Aaaaaaagh. Why do I have such tiny hands if the fingers attached to said hands are too thick for anything useful?
And yes, there's a dirty response to this question, but I'll thank you to keep your mind out of the gutter. But shortly after this, I had my first major breakthrough:
Yeah, I've been working a pair of tweezers into the routine. They're co-ing in handy. Pun INTENDED. Oooh, I got the two plastic tabs to fit together. That's pro--- that's pro--- that's a good step.
The lack of an m, despite the relatively small number of common words that use it, really hindered the comedy there; co-e instead of come really detracts from the "handy" bit, and the Porky the Pig stammering doesn't really work unless you can deliver more of the word "promising." The art suffers, you know? But once I figured out which side of each tab was up, how the two fit together, and which had to be connected to the keyboard first, it all fell into place.
Then it was a simple matter of mashing the keyboard button into place until it clicked. That was actually a pretty weird part; it was like following a precision surgery with a blunt hammer.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmkmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmjmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
This is going to be a fun day to explain to my supervisor tomorrow.
Indeed, Facebook me. Indeed.
All in all, I was very lucky. None of the pieces were broken, either in the original error or my ham-fisted attempts to fix it. And I managed to do something actually requiring manual dexterity, which doesn't pay off outside of a videogame very often. But it all worked out in the end, and I learned a valuable lesson:
Don't drop your book hug on a keyboard.
Sage advice.
Later Days.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Too Long for a Tweet, Too Niche for a Facebook Post
I just started reading Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch. The premise is, so far, that the various supernatural creatures of good and evil are managed by the Night Watch, which tries to push things towards Good, and the Day Watch, who push toward Evil. Rather than open warfare, though, there's just the general acknowledgment that they're too different agencies working toward preserving a general balance. There's something fundamentally Russian about taking the battle between good and evil and turning it into an ill-running bureaucracy.
Later Days.
Later Days.
Bibliophile: Doing Something About the Weather at Trinity Western
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
― Groucho Marx
After a brief hiatus, Bibliophile is back. After the break, we have discussion of some new books available at Trinity Western University.
― Groucho Marx
After a brief hiatus, Bibliophile is back. After the break, we have discussion of some new books available at Trinity Western University.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Friday Quotations: Jealous of the Sparkle
"As Claire Kahane has shown, the underlying hint of father-daughter romantic love predicated on an absent mother is a central subtext of the Gothick women's romance, and (for the first three books anyway) Bella the emotional orphan clearly craves this kind of masterful paternal attention." --Victoria Nelson, Gothicka: Vampire Heroes, Human Gods, and the New Supernatural
1) Sorry it's a day late.
2) Sorry for the quotation. Insulting Twilight is admittedly grasping the low hanging fruit. In this case, it should probably be noted that Nelson did add that proviso that the relationship between them changes dramatically in book 4, and that it is essential that Bella chooses to become a vampire, insisting that their relationship be one of equals. ...The books themselves still annoy me, though. I have nothing against the fans, but the books...I'll stick to my Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher for my urban fantasy, thanks.
Later Days.
1) Sorry it's a day late.
2) Sorry for the quotation. Insulting Twilight is admittedly grasping the low hanging fruit. In this case, it should probably be noted that Nelson did add that proviso that the relationship between them changes dramatically in book 4, and that it is essential that Bella chooses to become a vampire, insisting that their relationship be one of equals. ...The books themselves still annoy me, though. I have nothing against the fans, but the books...I'll stick to my Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher for my urban fantasy, thanks.
Later Days.
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