tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.comments2023-08-16T00:25:03.236-07:00have me pompeii your townChris Almondhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comBlogger910125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-71950431249673026192012-09-29T10:05:17.219-07:002012-09-29T10:05:17.219-07:00Lincoln!
Hey, I've been updating my blog via ...Lincoln! <br />Hey, I've been updating my blog via a iphone app and (probably because I am not using it correctly) I hadn't seen your comments! I just now logged in on a computer and here they are! Anyway, thank you very much, I will check out your link! Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-73795681090741775132012-09-21T14:00:16.760-07:002012-09-21T14:00:16.760-07:00This comment has been hidden from the blog.Lincoln Cannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09758620457581101045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-91800413346620501452012-09-21T13:58:08.740-07:002012-09-21T13:58:08.740-07:00Oops. Here's the link: http://lincoln.metacann...Oops. Here's the link: http://lincoln.metacannon.net/2012/09/evolving-gods-and-richard-dawkins.htmlLincoln Cannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09758620457581101045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-64396091684766153482012-09-21T13:54:45.059-07:002012-09-21T13:54:45.059-07:00Chris, that's an interesting observation. I th...Chris, that's an interesting observation. I think most atheists are rejecting understandings of God that I don't believe in anyway. This might interest you: Lincoln Cannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09758620457581101045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-78594975729695573732012-09-21T13:42:24.252-07:002012-09-21T13:42:24.252-07:00Hi Chris. Check out the New God Argument (new-god-...Hi Chris. Check out the New God Argument (new-god-argument.com) and the Mormon Transhumanist Association (transfigurism.org). Lincoln Cannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09758620457581101045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-79653890125135960452011-10-28T11:19:35.794-07:002011-10-28T11:19:35.794-07:00I agree with you vincent. My point wasn't to a...I agree with you vincent. My point wasn't to advocate the guru system, I find it distasteful. My point was to praise a conceptual framework that sees the institution as a mere stepping stone to something else, rather than an ends in an of itself. That, in practice, it does not always work out that way is unfortunate and expected. But that a religion would have such a concept at all, is something I find admirable particularly because it is in such stark contrast to one of my biggest issues within mormonism.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-45670370478786130462011-07-17T01:08:53.450-07:002011-07-17T01:08:53.450-07:00OK I will offer a specific example of three words ...OK I will offer a specific example of three words which cannot now be used in any innocent and literal way because they have become terms of abuse: cunt, nigger and asshole. <br /><br />The American 'ass' in the non-donkey sense is derived from the British 'arse'.<br /><br />Nigger was used innocently in Britain, but we never had negro slaves on our shores (only in the colonies) and so one kind of racism was unknown. Conrad wrote the "Nigger of the Narcissus", Agatha Christie wrote "Ten little Niggers". As boys we used to count "eeny meeny miny mo, catch a nigger by his toe". There was no race hate in these usages at all.<br /><br />In "Lady Chatterley's Lover" Lawrence has Mellors using the word cunt to mean vagina. He did his best to rescue the good old Anglo-Saxon word from its vulgar usages. I suppose he failed. I find it most unfortunate that it's used hatefully these days like asshole and nigger.<br /><br />I may not be factually correct in blaming the hateful usages on America, but they seem more popular there, and I don't like the way that they catch on here!Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-59034756782010567702011-07-15T17:53:21.397-07:002011-07-15T17:53:21.397-07:00@Vincent, No offense taken. I have no clue. I don&...@Vincent, No offense taken. I have no clue. I don't even have a clue if that generalization it is true or not since I've not had the chance to spend hardly any time outside of the Usa. Were I to venture a guess, I think it would have to do with American's general distaste for formality and things that are 'proper'. Seems like the State's rebellion against Briton was cultural as well as political and part of that cultural rebellion involved a resistance to things which seemed overly stuffy or formal. <br /><br />When I use the term 'gross' I am referring to anything at all that could be classified as gross, speech, behavior and otherwise. I don't know if the term is used differently in the UK but I use it as being synonymous with disgusting. It seems like what I wrote wouldn't have made much sense if it had it been in referring only to speech.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-56450996591564698362011-07-15T17:40:57.856-07:002011-07-15T17:40:57.856-07:00@Whitney. Thank you. I've been trying to post ...@Whitney. Thank you. I've been trying to post short things like this more often and hopefully I keep at it.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-7661191781493312452011-07-11T00:30:21.444-07:002011-07-11T00:30:21.444-07:00Hasty afterthought. I certainly wasn't referri...Hasty afterthought. I certainly wasn't referring to you in my previous comment, & meant no offence!Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-44800919509490761272011-07-09T23:10:58.419-07:002011-07-09T23:10:58.419-07:00I hate to ask this, but have sometimes thought it ...I hate to ask this, but have sometimes thought it and you are the best person to ask. Why are Americans, in particular males, so gross compared with non-Americans?<br /><br />When we say gross, I assume we are referring to speech, and not behaviour.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-14929722819889172612011-07-09T21:24:21.187-07:002011-07-09T21:24:21.187-07:00That is interesting, I agree with your thoughts on...That is interesting, I agree with your thoughts on this. I am glad you think of these things and post them, because they are things I would like to think about but never get around to doing it.Whittronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07673444007809515880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-2740017499788664812011-07-06T22:32:37.193-07:002011-07-06T22:32:37.193-07:00You are right that I haven't known many schizo...You are right that I haven't known many schizophrenics. I had a friendly neighbour in the apartment below me, a Jehovah's Witness who had never grown up. He played with his train set, went on long bicycle rides in shorts (usually getting arrested by police for going on highways where bikes forbidden) and had to take his anti-schizophrenic medication every day. Usually this was enough to keep him as his usual sweet kind self, though it seemed to have severe side-effects too, affecting his memory. But when he ran out of medication, or some scary situation arose (water leaking from our flat through his ceiling) Dr Jekyll turned into Mr Hyde.<br /><br />I agree with you that this unique case is quite inadequate for an understanding of schizophrenics and their relationship with medication.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-50566783052993188962011-07-06T15:39:47.591-07:002011-07-06T15:39:47.591-07:00I have 3 friends with varying degrees of schizophr...I have 3 friends with varying degrees of schizophrenia and have been acquainted with 2 others with a more severe form (in my experience it is close to impossible to have a meaningful relationship with someone who has an extreme and untreated form of the disease). <br />One reason they tend to see their medicine with skepticism or paranoia is they often believe their delusions as more 'real' than their medicated perceptions, so their medication becomes, for example, something that authorities are using to control their mind and prevent them from seeing the world correctly. <br />Small things that you or I might not make a big deal about, become huge issues that fit into their grand conspiracy. So something like a drug being recalled because of an unexpected odor might be seen by a schizophrenic as part of some plot to, I don't know, kill everyone taking the drug or whatever. It doesn't even have have to make any sense.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-63846489918752928412011-07-06T15:29:28.930-07:002011-07-06T15:29:28.930-07:00I take it you haven't known many (or perhaps a...I take it you haven't known many (or perhaps any?) schizophrenics? While you or I might not be paranoid about the very thing which alleviates paranoia I can assure you many many schizophrenics are. This is part of why this type of illness can be so difficult to treat, because those afflicted do not wish to take their medicine, for a variety of reasons, a common one being paranoia.<br /> I think you are ascribing to them reasonable, rational fear, but that is contrary to the very nature of their illness.<br />As for your second point, I agree that taste and odor can largely be linked to association....but I'm not quite sure I see the connection to what I wrote. I make no value judgement about the smell other than that it was strange, meaning it had an odor that particular medicine does not normally have, which is generally a sign that something is amiss.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-62046114995689770482011-07-05T08:06:52.393-07:002011-07-05T08:06:52.393-07:00i think the octopus looks more like a pikachu from...i think the octopus looks more like a pikachu from pokemonSkrollinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-47740426548384267702011-07-05T08:06:14.198-07:002011-07-05T08:06:14.198-07:00the octopus thingy looks more like a pikachu, dude...the octopus thingy looks more like a pikachu, dudeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-62663794677498659412011-07-03T19:43:11.092-07:002011-07-03T19:43:11.092-07:00I'm with you there. So many innovators are pra...I'm with you there. So many innovators are praised with a cliché like "If X had never lived then women would still be wringing out their clothes beside a river." Whereas in fact there was usually a queue of competing inventors claiming credit for the wringer, electric washing machine etc, so that if X had never lived, the secrets of the atom/antibiotics/DNA would have been discovered eighteen months later.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-22129454612860685432011-07-03T02:55:37.637-07:002011-07-03T02:55:37.637-07:00I think there may be a self-contradiction here.
A...I think there may be a self-contradiction here.<br /><br />At any rate I could not imagine a schizophrenic paranoid about the very thing which alleviates his paranoia. It would surely be the one thing he trusts, no matter what the odour.<br /><br />And I would imagine that our aesthetic response to sense-inputs is affected by association. You or I may think that the preferred delicacy of a certain tribe stinks, but they salivate when they catch its aroma. An example I can think of is the durian - a tropical fruit prized in south-east Asia, one which I grew to love.<br /><br />Wikipedia remarks:<br /><br />"The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-79580241681330302802011-07-02T22:36:42.429-07:002011-07-02T22:36:42.429-07:00Yes, but the guru is like a dentist, whose job is ...Yes, but the guru is like a dentist, whose job is to keep your teeth healthy so that you don't need a dentist. Do you imagine any dentist wants that situation, when there are so many dentists competing? No, he needs customers who come back, not those who have been weaned away. I have had thirty years' experience of the guru system & would not recommend it any more than I would Mormonism.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-86154027671320806662011-07-02T22:29:36.779-07:002011-07-02T22:29:36.779-07:00I do think this is the right decision for you. In ...I do think this is the right decision for you. In any case art teacher makes more sense than writing teacher, but then I am a little prejudiced against "creative" writing courses. Certainly pupils at school (as opposed to college: being English I mean school = up to 18, college = > 18, approx) should be taught how to use the language correctly, though there are not too many teachers capable of doing that, at least here, where English first developed. <br /><br />Writing is something we all need to learn, like doing up our shoelaces. You cannot teach someone to write a novel, or rather you don't need to. We swim in language, think in language. Art and music do require specialist study and teachers.<br /><br />I am "an editor of some sort". I am helping one writer of short stories to put a collection together. You can email me from my site.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-10180023818862737602011-07-02T18:38:23.079-07:002011-07-02T18:38:23.079-07:00Hi Jack, nice to hear from you, it's been a wh...Hi Jack, nice to hear from you, it's been a while.<br />I read it in the Ira Glass book.<br />I remember you having mentioned ol' D.F as your favorite writer and was anticipating a comment from you! I remember you suggested some of his books to me before and I regret not having taken the suggestion more seriously. But now I am really looking forward to reading more of D.F. Wallace. <br />And maybe it is because I'm fairly stoned right now, but I can't understand the rest of your comment.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-56139329147137296022011-06-13T23:48:59.451-07:002011-06-13T23:48:59.451-07:00D.F. Wallace is my favorite writer. Did you read t...D.F. Wallace is my favorite writer. Did you read this in Ira Glass's book, or in Consider The Lobster? Or just online?<br /><br />He has a penchant for describing emotions his readers feel deep down, like oceanic deep. And his sentences often invoke laughter and sadness all at once. To me he is in a league of his own.<br /><br />I, too, shy away from overly dogmatic stances or umbrella rationalizations for actions or toward defending an argument. Though my family has been for the most part understood my having moved on from church activity, I've found there are points in which I breach their comfort level of understanding the definitive 'Why' regarding my jettisoned beliefs. <br /><br />I guess what I am trying to say is that perhaps for each person an individual spectrum of political or otherwise dogmatic correctness steers the ship of communication in which a person is willing/unwilling to engage in. Anything past this personalized spectrum -- the elasticity of such which is determined by each consumptive activity one's attention is calibrated toward -- turns into white noise and therefore cast aside as drivel, nonsense, extremism, et cetera.<br /><br />It is perhaps no surprise that dogs can hear more sounds, pitches and frequencies and are thus (hu)man's best friend, audibly and perceptively.Jack W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08145238245760290309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-13586395780253276242011-06-13T14:00:40.563-07:002011-06-13T14:00:40.563-07:00Thank you very much mom. The dog kicker actually r...Thank you very much mom. The dog kicker actually reminded me a lot of John Dougall. The moment I saw him, even before he did anything he reminded me a John Dougal. I wonder how the neighbors got their dog to stop barking? But it is a good thing they did, non-stop dog barking is the total pits. We are very lucky that margaret only barks once or twice a week, if that.Chris Almondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13107791774450498377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632066603779000512.post-53910153710121815322011-06-12T10:54:19.122-07:002011-06-12T10:54:19.122-07:00I all so think that you are a marvelous writer. An...I all so think that you are a marvelous writer. And I am so proud of what you did. I to will rethink many think and wished I handled it differently; I am so glad that you stuck up for your self! Jerks like that really need to be told off, maybe they will think twice about what they did next time. But I am not good at that at all, but on the other hand when I do stick up, I think I go overboard and then I spend the next few days regretting what I did. Like I wrote a note on the neighbors door, because there dog had been barking loudly and no stop for days, I went to talk to them and sense they weren’t home I put a note that said “your dog is driving me CRAZY” And I called the police. I think it was a little over kill and they probably never want to see me again, but they did get there dog to stop barking, so there you go. But it is now heaven in the back yard. So I say GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!! (just don’t let any one shoot you)nancy allmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17517562540585464027noreply@blogger.com