The only thing differentiating the extraordinary from the ordinary is frequency, quantity and volume. If you were a Sherpa climbing Mt. Everest every day, helping tourists get their one minute at the pinnacle. What would the value of summiting Everest be to you? I remember reading Bernard Moitessier's "The Long Way", where he describes being … Continue reading The Extraordinary Intruding on the Ordinary
Category: writing
Soundbeaming
"'You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it…it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you.'By changing a setting, the sound can follow a listener around when they move their head. It’s also possible to move out of the beam’s path … Continue reading Soundbeaming
Alain’s Propos
""Years later he recalled how he wrote the propos: each evening, he would sit down before two sheets of paper, knowing before he started that the last line would be written at the bottom of the second page., and that within the confines of those two pages he would write a piece which, if he … Continue reading Alain’s Propos
Apocalypse is the Suburb of Utopia
The land of the possible has many paths, and we can know only one. Everything's stochastic and impermanent. Our lives are packed with luggage, the vast majority of which would be best left at the side of the road. Utopia is a place with kind and reasonable people using coalition-building, science and determination to solve … Continue reading Apocalypse is the Suburb of Utopia
Fakokta Dazibaos
Start with a basic principle: yauh peng, yauh leng - in English, inexpensive and beautiful. Empty, alone, a blank canvas five inches across, bounded by ears, separate yet susceptible, social mind virus. Catastrophe has already happened, from one view. Another angle, sees happiness, created whole-cloth out of disposition and a clean heart. Sense, nonsense and … Continue reading Fakokta Dazibaos
Celebrating Our Differences
After reading a bit about the Anne Hathaway kerfuffle on limb differences portrayed in The Witches, I find myself of two minds. On one hand, we are all imperfect, a work in progress. When we do something stupid from a perspective we haven't considered, it's good and useful to have our myopic perspective pointed out. … Continue reading Celebrating Our Differences
A Comment on The Expendables (2010)
Here's the Storyline from IMDB: "Barney Ross leads the "Expendables", a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road and loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the merciless dictator of … Continue reading A Comment on The Expendables (2010)
How Many Licks…?
On reflection, I look at the support that Donald Trump received during this year's U.S. election and the inescapable conclusion I find myself coming to: Given the U.S. population, perhaps socialism isn't a good idea and people are right to be against it.
Puzzle (2018)
Puzzle is a movie about the transformation of a mousey, suburban mom into a real person, complex and willing to stand up for herself. I love coming-of-age movies, but one featuring a woman in her 40s with grown children, was so much better for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on. Kelly Macdonald's performance … Continue reading Puzzle (2018)
Zuihitsu: 2020-06-16 to 2020-08-08
You can’t learn anything with your mouth open.Is it complex or merely complicated?Use the right tool and the tool will do the work.Always respect the task.It’s easy to make things difficult. It’s difficult to make things easy.Don’t put it down, put it away. Think fast and talk slow. Listen, analyze, evaluate, prepare a fallback strategy, then … Continue reading Zuihitsu: 2020-06-16 to 2020-08-08
Coffin, Cage or Cocoon?
Imagine being put in a box. Is it a small prison cell? Is it so small that you cannot move, a torture technique out of the middle ages or some 9/11 black site of torture? Imagine dying, and being reborn in the same box. Imagine a life that is a dying and an awakening and … Continue reading Coffin, Cage or Cocoon?
Rambo III
"Colonel Trautman: You expect sympathy? You started this damn war! Now you'll have to deal with it!Zaysen: And we will. It is just a matter of time before we achieve a complete victory.Colonel Trautman: Yeah, well, there won't be a victory! Every day, your war machines lose ground to a bunch of POORLY-armed, POORLY-equipped freedom … Continue reading Rambo III
What is Old?
"Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov suggest that we classify old age by looking closer at the end. Instead of counting the number of years someone has lived (and whether or not they’re at least 65), we can go the other direction and look at the number of expected years left. They recommend the 15-year mark, … Continue reading What is Old?
Percentage of Dumb (or Extremely Selfish) Americans? About 29%.
You don't need to be afraid, but concerned? It'll impact you, or someone you care about, either directly or through second order effects. So, stop being as asshole, 29%-er.
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