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October 21, 2006
Planning Ahead
This week, I tried something new by writing out to-do lists for myself the night before of all the things I needed to get done the next day. Today I found my list for Friday, which I had forgotten about and left sitting on my desk, in spite of the fact that I did everything I was supposed to.
Posted by tony at 10:01 PM | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Know What?
Someday soon, I will post something other than other people's poetry. But here you go.
Know Thyself
Alexander Pope
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Posted by tony at 11:41 PM | TrackBack
October 13, 2006
Who can wait 'till April?
Although I fully intend to have TBND celebrate National Poetry Month again this year, this verse by Christian Morgenstern is too good not to share:
The Birth of Philosophy
The heath sheep glares at me with frightened awe
as though I were the first of men it saw.
Contagious glare! We stand as though asleep;
it seems the first time that I see a sheep.
Posted by tony at 2:17 PM | TrackBack
October 10, 2006
If You Can't Beat 'em
Whoops, it seems I may have been more right than I thought. And it seems like only yesterday when $1.65 billion would have been a lot for Google.
Posted by tony at 9:54 AM | TrackBack
October 9, 2006
If You're Feeling Horn-y?
I was biking over to the post office to pick up a book that couldn't be delivered to my house (presumably because it was shipping from India), when I was greeted by what sounded to be not one but at least three brass bands. The first one I passed on my bike had the distinct look of the sort of band Bard graduates might form, if someone gave them a bunch of old brass instruments (and maybe musical ability). It seemed like all the most interesting merchandise from every thrift store in the area was on display in a sort of ragtag fashion show. It was only after watching the Stick and Rag Orchestra for an hour that I finally found a flier which (at least somewhat) explained Honk! Somerville has suddenly redeemed itself in my eyes. Seriously, go to any of the band's websites (but especially the Stick and Rag Orchestra for some odd, slightly funky but generally fun band music.
Posted by tony at 2:44 PM | TrackBack
In Search of Lost Time?
I just learned, to my dismay, that Daylight Savings Time ends on the last Sunday of October, or about three weeks from now. This is bothersome only because I seriously thought it might already have happened, which I can now say for certain is because I dreamed about Daylight Savings Time ending. Which is perhaps only slightly more disturbing than the fact that I also dreamed recently that I opened a drawer and found scissors (a fact which delighted me at the time, for no other reason than that I don't own any).
Posted by tony at 2:34 AM | TrackBack
October 7, 2006
Out!
It's sad that the days I forgot to post are the days I have least reason to forget to post. "I was doing a bunch of shit that required me not being around computers." Seriously, who uses these things?
Posted by tony at 2:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 5, 2006
Pain? Shame?
Unexpectedly, the worst part of falling off my bike and tearing my favorite pants (and knee) is having to make time to go home and change.
Posted by tony at 12:38 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
October 4, 2006
Making Things Happen
After a largely inactive summer, I think I'm finally learning to be productive again. Which is good, because I was attempting to get myself moving by taking on way more than I could accomplish. For each of the past semesters here at Tufts (this may be true of my time at Bard too; my memory doesn't go that far back), I've spent the first three weeks continually adding new activities to my plate. In the Fall, it was working at a scene shop in Cambridge, sitting in on a philosophy of history class (which required slogging through hundreds of pages of WWII history), and a German reading group. This inevitably means that I spend the next two months pushing myself to the breaking point before these activities drop off, one by one. Presumably, at some point I'll either die or get tenure.
Posted by tony at 11:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 3, 2006
Beaten to the Punch
Is it just me or was Google Video supposed to be YouTube? Why didn't that work out?
Posted by tony at 12:49 PM | TrackBack
October 2, 2006
Back talk
From yesterday's headlines: President's advisor denies Bush in 'state of denial'. I just love this because the Bob Woodwards book is titled with one of the hardest claims to refute without sounding like you're a 7-year old. "You're in denial!" "No I'm not!"
Posted by tony at 9:16 PM | TrackBack
October 1, 2006
Are we talking about the simpsons or unreal?
Ever since learning about it, I've had a fondness for the Turing Test. So ideas like How to Pass the Turing Test always strike me as misguided, in part because I agree with Dennett: even if you can imagine systems which can meet the challenge without also meeting our standards of intelligence, these would be as unlikely as actually intelligent systems trained to perform the same task, and aren't those more interesting anyway? And also because attempts by systems to fool a judge always result in performances like this Loebner prize winner. (For comparison, here's what the human said. Loebner links courtesy of Adam, who should blog more.)
Posted by tony at 5:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack