Archive for December, 2003
23 Dec, 2003
If I don’t know you, you don’t exist
This is a conversation between Teo (The Enlightened One) and Gwaq (Guy Who Asks Questions):
What are you going to talk about today?
I’m going to talk about existence — nothing exists unless we think it exists.
Are you saying that if you don’t believe I exist, then I don’t exist?
Yes. If a man died of AIDS in Africa, and I didn’t know that — he never existed.
So if I punch you — and you flinch, and hurt, and bleed — could I still NOT exist?
If I refused to believe, you still wouldn’t exist.
That’s just insane!
I don’t believe in insanity. Insanity is but a shell some people choose to put on, in order to escape from, if you will forgive the expression, the insanity of this world.
Now you’re being self-delusional.
And what is that? I never heard of such a term, nor do I want to believe it. What did you just say?
You’re being childish and immature.
I would prefer it if you used the term “childlike” — and I’ve never heard of this word, this, “immature”.
What’s the point of this conversation? I can’t believe you wasted my time!
Ah… expectations — imagine if you never expected this talk to be fruitful, to be meaningful, would you be as upset as you are now?
Well, I guess not.
Does happiness not lie in the ceasing of expectations?
Of course not. If we didn’t expect anything there would be no progress — people would just accept everything as it is.
And there’s something wrong with that?
Of course. There are many things we can improve upon. Slavery would still be here if there was no progress.
But is all progress actually good? It seems progress is just a constant cycle of repairing the damage we have caused ourselves through previous bouts of “progress”.
Slavery for instance, was a form of “progress” once — people found that using others as slaves could enable them to spend more time doing more important things like thinking and philosophising — that to them was “progress”.
But surely some progress has to be good?
Progress always has its pros and cons — in the end, we end up with just as many problems as we had when we started trying to solve them.
Advances in technology have enabled us to reduce pollution — the very same pollution that advances in technology helped create.
But it isn’t right to just accept everything without looking to improve. What sort of life would that be?
It would be a content life.
It would be a boring life
What’s boring?
…thank you, Teo.
Welcome.
23 Dec, 2003
What is Dry Humour?
What is dry humour anyway? Is it humour minus the saliva?
Dry humour defined
“dry humour” or “dry humor” (as Americans spell it) is humour told in a “dry” way, without emotion (e.g. seriously). So you tell a joke like it’s not a joke, in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
It is an implied or indirect kind of humour.
Wordreference.com defines it as this:
humorously sarcastic or mocking; “dry humor”; “an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely”; “an ironic novel”; “an ironical smile”; “with a wry Scottish wit”
These may give you even more clues to what dry humour is (or if you like, check out the comments at the bottom of the page. You’ll find many useful definitions, links, and other miscellaneous information from my readers):
- One type of British humor is often said to be “dry humor.” It is based on a hardly observable, or small deviation — a slight gesture. — From the essay How Can Humor Be Classified?
- Humorous or sarcastic in a shrewd, impersonal way. — From thefreedictionary.com/dry
- dry is really no more than a clever circumlocution or a punch line that doesn’t need to be said. — From article How Dry is Dry?
- Deadpan is a form of comedic delivery in which something humorous is said or done by a person, while not exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression. — From Wikipedia definition of deadpan, which is what some people claim dry humour to be
19 Dec, 2003
The Contradictions of Web-Design
Give me Skip Flash Intro or give me death.
“My God, it loaded so quickly and worked so well, even in IE3 on my Dad’s old Dell machine.” You know how awards show judges are always saying things like that? Neither do I.
– Jeffrey Zeldman, from the article Style vs. Design
13 Dec, 2003
Strength and Endurance Training
Just some information for those interested in weight-loss/strength training:
Wayne Westcott, Ph.D. conducted a study in which 72 over weight individuals participated in an eight week exercise program. The participants were placed in two groups.
The first group performed 30 minutes of endurance exercise on a stationary cycle. The second group performed only 15 minutes of exercise on the stationary cycle plus an additional 15 minutes on weight resistant exercises.
At the conclusion of the study, the “endurance only” group lost a total of 3.5 lbs.; 3 lbs. of which was fat and a half pound was muscle loss. On the other hand, the “endurance and weight resistive” group lost 8 lbs. with an actual fat loss of 10 lbs. and an increase of 2 lbs. of lean body weight.
View source article — includes a graph.
Was looking to concentrate solely on endurance running, and less on weight-training, but after reading this, I think I better give them closer-to-equal emphasis.
12 Dec, 2003
The Apple Slogan
Here’s to the crazy ones
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
This slogan emphasises Apple’s selling point of originality and individuality.
One of the main drawbacks of Apple computers is the price — it costs too much.
Ironically, one of the main attractions of Apple computers is its rarity — because it costs so much.