Weight's always been a big issue for me. I used to be underweight when I was 6-7 years old. I wouldn't eat, and my mom had to run after me and force me to eat. The tables have turned now and instead I'm overweight, and eating too much. That might be an exaggeration since I have controlled how much I eat and I have been able to keep my weight around the same for about 5-8 years with a fluctuation of maybe 5 lbs. I'm thinking about this because I found a little fortune teller scrip where I weighed 174Lbs and 5'09" dated 17-07-1999. Funny, because I don't ever remember weighing that weight/height combination, because then I'd be in better shape than I am now.
Time to get my shape on and go work on my Wii Fit that I got this tuesday. (Maybe, I need to get out of shape, because I'm pretty pear shaped right now)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Philosophy Hour: Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil
I tried reading through my copy of Beyond Good And Evil, but it was also beyond comprehension; for me anyways. The text is just full of aphorisms and thoughts separated into multiple chapters. Each highlighting a different facet of Nietzsche's perspective. I might not have been able to read it because of what is lost in translation as the original work was in German. Instead, I used good ol' Sparknotes as my guide and referred to the book to verify the arguments.
This is a philosophy piece and thus prompts you to think. It provokes very different thought than usual philosophers. Nietzche tries to prod the reader to consider what he reads from philosophers; as they are inclined to force you to think how they do, or convince you that how they, the philosopher, thinks is the "right" way. In fact, by doing this, Nietzsche openly subjects his own work to judgment.
Perspectivism. This is what I think is the strongest argument from his work. He challenges the thought of "absolute truth." He posits that any truth is subjective. The same observation could result in different interpretations based on who is seeing it, and similarly some "truths" or rather opinions change over time. That is why he has an aversion to writings or language. They are fixed in time, and are only relevant at that time. Languages grow, but the words are unable to change with it. These words are forms of thought that someone has affixed to a word and will no longer be accurate as the words change meaning over time. In my opinion, this is especially true in religious teachings and texts as certain ideas made sense in the time they were written, but no longer correlate with modern society as it has not evolved with civilization. This creates conflict between those who follow the written word literally as to those who take it as interpretation.
Truth is such an interesting concept. There are so many concepts of how truth is no longer truth, and as I have said above, only relevant at the time. Such ideas in science such as Newton and Einstein on space/time, Ptolemy and Copernicus on the geocentric/heliocentric, and all those other "truths" that have been shattered. The same problems viewed from different perspectives can yield any multitude of "right" observations. In all fairness, no one can really claim the truth. They can only claim what they think is true, and only at that time. What Nietzsche tries to champion is the idea of taking everyone's opinion and going from there rather than just believing in one and ignoring the rest.
We must rather ignore "truths". If someone believes in a "truth", then it means that they have chosen their perspective and chooses to regard other opinions as false. We must move to a higher level and rather believe that truth is fluid, and changes as people need it to. We must ignore assumptions, and base our beliefs on knowledge instead. Facts that can be proven, and hold no perspective, and only give information without an opinion. If we can use this knowledge and listen to opinions, be open-minded, and then we may start looking for truth by being open to possibilities.
This is a philosophy piece and thus prompts you to think. It provokes very different thought than usual philosophers. Nietzche tries to prod the reader to consider what he reads from philosophers; as they are inclined to force you to think how they do, or convince you that how they, the philosopher, thinks is the "right" way. In fact, by doing this, Nietzsche openly subjects his own work to judgment.
Perspectivism. This is what I think is the strongest argument from his work. He challenges the thought of "absolute truth." He posits that any truth is subjective. The same observation could result in different interpretations based on who is seeing it, and similarly some "truths" or rather opinions change over time. That is why he has an aversion to writings or language. They are fixed in time, and are only relevant at that time. Languages grow, but the words are unable to change with it. These words are forms of thought that someone has affixed to a word and will no longer be accurate as the words change meaning over time. In my opinion, this is especially true in religious teachings and texts as certain ideas made sense in the time they were written, but no longer correlate with modern society as it has not evolved with civilization. This creates conflict between those who follow the written word literally as to those who take it as interpretation.
Truth is such an interesting concept. There are so many concepts of how truth is no longer truth, and as I have said above, only relevant at the time. Such ideas in science such as Newton and Einstein on space/time, Ptolemy and Copernicus on the geocentric/heliocentric, and all those other "truths" that have been shattered. The same problems viewed from different perspectives can yield any multitude of "right" observations. In all fairness, no one can really claim the truth. They can only claim what they think is true, and only at that time. What Nietzsche tries to champion is the idea of taking everyone's opinion and going from there rather than just believing in one and ignoring the rest.
We must rather ignore "truths". If someone believes in a "truth", then it means that they have chosen their perspective and chooses to regard other opinions as false. We must move to a higher level and rather believe that truth is fluid, and changes as people need it to. We must ignore assumptions, and base our beliefs on knowledge instead. Facts that can be proven, and hold no perspective, and only give information without an opinion. If we can use this knowledge and listen to opinions, be open-minded, and then we may start looking for truth by being open to possibilities.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Pain. I've been in pretty harsh back pain since last week. I can't sit down for long periods without having my spine hurting. It's been getting better over the week, but now after badminton today, I can't even move without feeling my spine stiffening. Plus my glutes, quads and knee are aching. I really need to go exercise more.
Friday, May 02, 2008
The end of Narnia
I've been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia the past few weeks and enjoyed every story. The books are a breath of fresh air reminding me of the imagination we all lose once we move on from childhood. Characters from the stories themselves make that point when they first enter Narnia. We are all adventurers except when we are skeptics. It's sobering to see how blinded we become when we are drowning in fear, scared of reality. How is it that the amazement and wonder of youth, that crazy spirit that sets us free dissipates with age and experience.
I'm going to start looking for my own adventure now. There's a passage in the book that truly brought this to light for me. It sums up for me what the Chronicles of Narnia books are all about. Life, adventure, and being able to take it all in.
"For all find what they truly seek" -Aslan in The Last Battle
I'm going to start looking for my own adventure now. There's a passage in the book that truly brought this to light for me. It sums up for me what the Chronicles of Narnia books are all about. Life, adventure, and being able to take it all in.
"For all find what they truly seek" -Aslan in The Last Battle
Got my spots!
I have made the leap. I finally installed Leopard. It's a little early to say if I like it just yet. It is different. Spaces is a little in-between for me, but I am very happy with Stacks. I'm gonna do a little mini-review on Safari since I wanted to do one for Safari 3.0, but never did.
Well, I wanted to praise Safari's improvements of having functional tabbing. Safari 2.0's tabs were pretty terrible, but the improvements in 3.0/3.1 have made up for it. The tabs are now draggable, and "pull-out" feature of being able to turn into new windows and vice versa, pulling tabs from other windows and transferring it into another Safari window is just phenomenal.
I guess for functionality that's it really. But the most important thing is the jump from 3.0 to 3.1. The SPEEEEEED! Apple boasts about it on the site, but they are not kidding. It just renders everything on screen faster.
Firefox has taken a backseat now. I didn't have a choice before and needed it to run my Gmail so I could use Googletalk, but Safari/Webkit's upgrades have made that functional. Now I almost use Safari exclusively, except for when I need to do browser tests. Or when Safari crashes.... which seems to come a bit more often than usual.
Well, I wanted to praise Safari's improvements of having functional tabbing. Safari 2.0's tabs were pretty terrible, but the improvements in 3.0/3.1 have made up for it. The tabs are now draggable, and "pull-out" feature of being able to turn into new windows and vice versa, pulling tabs from other windows and transferring it into another Safari window is just phenomenal.
I guess for functionality that's it really. But the most important thing is the jump from 3.0 to 3.1. The SPEEEEEED! Apple boasts about it on the site, but they are not kidding. It just renders everything on screen faster.
Firefox has taken a backseat now. I didn't have a choice before and needed it to run my Gmail so I could use Googletalk, but Safari/Webkit's upgrades have made that functional. Now I almost use Safari exclusively, except for when I need to do browser tests. Or when Safari crashes.... which seems to come a bit more often than usual.
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