Links
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- Something about a future God...
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- Bash
- Questionable Content
- XKCD
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It's only semi autobiographical
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
I should be sorted again after easter, at which point normal service will resume.
Bad timing too, since several things I had really wanted to Blog about have occured, but I feel they are now too far gone to write about, therefore I leave you with a few quotes.
"Guns 'n Roses are gay" - Legit
"Attack ... parry, riposte, parry, riposte, parry, riposte" - Referee at South Western competition.
"I'm not even going to try to phrase that." - More sensible referee.
Now I'm tired, and I'm not going to this problem class.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
I have also been asked to relate a rather unusual and confusing sequence of events connected with shooting fish. However it happened a few days ago now, and there is not much more to say than that I had a discussion with various bodies at RHUL on the subject of shooting and general violence, including the merits of Ninja. (Is that the plural? "Two ninja" "Suddenly we were surrounded by Ninja" "Several ninjas"?)
Right, thats it for today. However, on the subject of ninja...
Now I'm awake, and will carpe diem.
Friday, March 12, 2004
Shot some pool today with our resident Greek, however owing to a pronounced lack of a white ball, we were forced to use the black.
This went well until aforesaid black ball was potted by myself. Cleverly I decided that we could use one of my opponents ball as the white, which both returned us a cue ball, and disadvantaged me for losing the black.
I won, by the way.
While I am on the subject of shooting, (see what I do here, clever) on Wednesday I shot a 98/100 at rifle club. (Arguably close to a 99, but I'm not arguing.)
I only mention this since it is the highest I have ever got, so I am understandably pleased. Plus it puts me something like 0.01 points ahead of nearest opposition, which is a bonus.
While we are on the subject of weaponry (wow, I am on a roll here with the seamless integration. Or would be, if I stopped mentioning it.) I also recieved a call about fencing with the university on the weekend, so I am off a week on saturday to compete in the South Western Foil and Sabre competitions. Should be fun, though I do expect to be rapidly taken apart by superior opponents.
<--This portion of message deleted due to the fact that certain people who read this Blog can never be allowed to hear what I had to say-->
Now I'm tired, and I'm going to a tutorial.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Actualy looking back on my last blog, I realise I was rather drunk and realy should not have written that. Ah well, never mind I shall leave it up as a reminder not to surf while pissed.
Back to Carlin, at one point he suggests taking a notepad and recording hw many people you meet during the day who are; "stupid", "full of shit" or "just plain nuts." He suggests that one would find at least 40 people in the first category, and I wish to test this. Of course, I will add my own categorisations, and publish them here.
Can not log off tonight without complaining about peoples hangups about their body and sexuality. However I also can not summon the energy to rant about it. And do not think this is solely directed at you, (you know who you are) it just made me consider the subject again. When everyone forgets, I will rant then.
Now I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.
Should not have said some stuff tonight. Bad move.
Being nice is a con. Complete bastards get just as much respect in the end, and have more fun on the way.
Even if you claim they do not have respect, they definitely have as many friends.
As a social experiment, am now being significantly less nice for a week. Will see what happens.
Had something moving and important to write, but forgot due to alcohol.
Go figure.
Now I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.
Friday, March 05, 2004
Are two people "going out" simply because they spend a good deal of time alone together? Should people who call themselves "best friends" be allowed to kiss? What if a couple who are "seeing each other" do not spend time together out of work or study?
Our lives are dominated by our language, our own words our prison. How ironic that the very tool that helped give us dominance over the globe and the other animals, is the same one that now restricts our thinking. I know people that flinch at hearing certain words, single words can carry charges of emotion, so much stronger than the laws of physics would seem to allow. They are one of our strongest assets, and yet some of our greatest weaknesses.
People attempt to change our culture through language, political correctness is an example of this. These people believe that by changing what we say when refering to the sexes for example, we will eliminate prejudice. Chair-person, refuse collection officer, fire prevention operatives (Yeah, I made the last one up, but probably). They might even be right, to an extent, because of the way that we think, but they should not.
I have been told off for refering to my friends as "The guys" Since I was including some girls in the group. Apparently this was sexist. I returned fire, claiming that it was sexist to say what I has said was sexist. My argument was that my term covered both males and females, and therefore I was not distinguishing between them, since I was not even acnowledging a difference between them as friends, I could not be implying that one was better than another, therefore I was not being sexist. The retort was that 'guy' was a word used to refer to males, and by using it I was suggesting that either all my friends were male or the girls were somehow inferior.
At this point I took a deep breath, and attempted to explain myself one more time without exploding.
The point is, society assigns meanings to words, and if my part of society wants to use 'the guys' to refer to a group of good friends, then we should be able to. We control our language, or should do. Just because a word has been used differently does not mean it has to stay that way. But instead, we let the words control us, can not even understand how it could be otherwise. Pathetic attempts to control them have been made with laws, political correctness gone mad, what we need is the realisation that regardless of what words are used, it is the meaning that is important.
Why do we consider "Fuck" to be worse than "have sex" or "make love"? People say it is the connotations of the first word, but why do we find them so bad? We have a set of words we use when things go wrong, some of which are considered 'rude' but to be frank, they are just collections of words or phrases, often having meanings which are not inherantly bad. I recall someone being punished in school for using the word "Rowlocks" when he made a mistake, because it sounded like bollocks.
Every attempt we make to regulate things through language increases the power that it has over us.
I see now I have perhaps got carried away, and the point I was building to has eluded me. Which is a shame, because I did feel quite strongly about it. Never mind I guess.
Now I'm tired, and I'm going home.
