there are Old & there are Wise

While strolling just now with a four year old and a five year old and a seven year old , I was reassured that even though the sky looks like it's right on top of that building over there, it's really kapillions bajillion million grillion feet high. And that even if I would stand on top of that really high building down there, and jump up really high cuz I'm tall, I still can't reach it.

I also found out that space is dark all the time cuz of the clouds. And that space is after the sky and you could only get there by rockets, and they tried to send rockets to the sun, but they never could able to get there yet cuz it's so big like the world.

Also, when you're on a plane if you stick your hand out the window you won't feel the sky, so that's why even if the moon is on top of the sky, you could still see it from standing on the world. And that nuh uh, the moon is not following us.

Profoundly Duh.

Playing classical music while pregnant breeds higher IQ's in the child born.
Duh. Which DUM parent plays classical music while pregnant?

The answers we get depend on the questions we ask.

Figures don't lie, but liars can figure. Fine, I like:)

A lie in print is still a lie.

2/3 of smokers die.
mmmmm.
Cuz 100% of everbody else ends up withering somehow...
and here you've iproved your chances for survival by a third...

hAppy dAy to U2! :-')

keeping dry.

There's a delightful image in Plato, which explains why a sensible person is right to steer clear of politics. He sees everyone else rushing into the street and getting soaked in the pouring rain. He can't persuade them to go indoors and keep dry. He knows if he went out too, he'd merely get equally wet. So he just stays indoors himself, and, as he can't do anything about other people's stupidity, comforts himself with the thought: 'Well, I'm all right, anyway.'
-Raphael Hythloday in Utopia by Thomas More

Intelligence

Are our understandings first internal or external?
Do words cause our understanding of concepts, or do new understandings come to be expressed in words?
Does grammar help us form concepts in an organized manner? Or do we have thoughts organized in our brain and only use grammar to express those to others?

And why is every single professor using the word indigenous today?

by Don Isaac Abravanel

So I escaped alone to the KIngdom of Castile from the sword of my opressor. I came there as a sojourner, and in order to pay my debt to them for saving me, I turned my attention to an investigation of the Scriptures. I made notes on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. This took place in the yar 1484. As I intended to begin a commentary on teh books of Kings, I was summoned before Ferdinand, King of Spain, the mightiest of the kings of teh earth who ruled the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, Sicily, and other Mediterranean islands. I went to the court of the King and the Queen, and for a long time I served them, finding grace in teheir eyes and in teh eyes of the first princes of the realm. I was in their service for eitht years, begin blessed with wearlth and honor. But as a result of my heavy duties to the King, my literary efforts slackened, and I abandoned my inheritance from the Kings of Israel and Judah for the King of Aragon and Castile.

In 1492 the King of Spain seized the great city of Granada, together with the whole kingdom. His haughtiness broughtr a chnage of character; his power led him to sin against his God. He thougth to himself: "How can I better show my gratitude to my God, Who gave victoryto my army and put this city into my power, than by bringing under His wing the scattered flock of Israel that walks in darkness? How shall I better serve Him than to bring back to to His faith the apostate daughter? Or, if they remain stiffnecked, to drive them to another land so that they will not dwell here nor be seen in my presence?" (who ever knew this guy was so righteous. I'm blown.)

Consequently the KIng enacted a decree as fixed as the law of the Medes and the Persians. He commanded that the children of Israel could remain in the country only if they submitted to baptism; but if they were unwilling to embrace Christian faith, they must leave the territories of Spain, Sicily, Majorca, and Sardinia. "Within three months," he decreed, "there must not remain in my kingdoms a single Jew."

I was at the court when teh decree was proclaimed. I was disconsolate with grief. Thrice I addressed teh King, imploring his mercy: "O King,j save your loyal subjects. Why do you act so cruellly toward us? We have prospered in tehis land and we would gladly give all we possess for our country." I begged my noble friends at court to intercede for my people. The King's most trusted counsellors pleaded deperately that he revoke the decree and turn from his design to destro y the Jews. But his ears were closed a though he were stone deaf. *

The Queen, seated at his right, opposed revoking teh decree; she pressed him to complete the task he had begun. Our exertions were therefore withough effect.(women.)

Despite the fact that I neither rested nor relaxed, the thunderbolt struck.

*It is reported that the King, persuaded by a delegation headed by the author promising a payment of 300,000 ducats, was on the point of revoking the decree when Torquemada, the notorious Inquisitor, appeared on the scene and declared, "Judas Iscariot sold his Master for 30 pieces of silver. You want to sell him for 300,000 ducats. Here He is-take Him and sell Him!" The decree wbecme irrevocable.

of Lions and a Fox

A prince, being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognise traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

-The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli

You must know, then, that there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force: the first mehod is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second. It is therefore necessary for a prince to know well how to use both the beast and the man...

-The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli

upslide ramp.

Random ending piece from and essay ich hub tzurik bakumen:

So in which direction does a staircase go? Is a ramp built to help a person up or to allow him to slide down? And would it make sense to beg for a construction that only lets one go higher? Even a child knows that such a notion is ridiculous. Any construction that enables one to climb will give him room to fall. That is just the way it works.

When lookin at society's failures and faults, it is human nature to look for the highter authority on whom to place the blame. But all that this higher authority has done is build a ramp. It has bestowed liberties on its people. But it has not forced its people to slide.

The United States has constructed a society which lies on an angled plane. The freedom to make the right, moral choices lies in the hands of the people. They simply have to choose to climb.

Righter's Handbook

So my Comp. Professor totally gets into those random textbook examples...and we'll just wind up discussing the most off the wall stuff. But anyhoo.

Unwanted music is privacy's constant enemy. There is hardly an American restaurant, store, railroad station or bus terminal that doesn't gurgle with melody from morning to night, nor is it possible any longer to flee by boarding the train or bus itself, or even by taking a walk in the park. Transistor radios have changed all that. Men, women and children carry them everywhere, hugging them with the desperate attachment that a baby has for its blanket, fearful that they might have to generate an idea of their own or contemplate a blade of grass. Thoughtless themselves, they have no though for the sufferers withing earshot of their portentous news broadcasts and raucous jazz. It's hardly surprising that RCA announced a plan that would pipe canned music and pharmaceutical commercials to 25,000 doctors' offices in eighteen big cities-one place where a decent quietude might be expected. This raises a whole new criterion for choosing a family physician. Better to have a second-rate healer content with the sounds of his stethoscope, than an eminent specialist poking to the rhythms of Gershwin.

-William Zinsser, The Haircurl Papers

So why be good?

Because you cant' know if you're saved until the very end, and you want to lead a life that reflects one who is "elect."
So, if you manage to lead a life of good and morality, then that is a "sign of election."

Anybody catch what comes first???

(and nope, not gonna save as a draft to post later, cuz I wanna post now. so tuff.)

hmm.

Lab A was overwhelmingly preferred over Lab B by those who expressed a preference.

True story:') Heard on the radio. So anybody care to share how Lab B totally sucks plz?

Also, at about 7:20pm, a classmate was kindly asked to stop her talking. but only until spring.

(Can the people who go to Susquechanna University pronounce the name of their school?)

You can go to heaven from anywhere...

'When Anaxogoras was dying at Lampsacus, his friends sked him if he wanted to be taken home to Clazomenae, in case anything happened to him; to which he made the splendid answer, "That will be quite unnecessary- you can get the the Underworld from anywhere." '
(Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, I, 104)

the readers.

excerpt from Utopia by Thomas More

To tell you the truth, though, I still haven't made up my mind whether I shall publish it at all. Tastes differ so widely, and some people are so humourless, so uncharitable, and so absurdly wrong-headed, that one would probably do far better to relax and enjoy life than worry oneself to death trying to instruct or entertain a public which will only despise one's efforts, or at least feel no gratitude for them.

Most readers know nothing about literature- many regard it with contempt.
Lowbrows find everthing heavy going that isn't completely lowbrow.
Highbrows reject everything as vulgar that isn't a mass of archaisms.
Some only like the classics, thers only their own works.
Some are so grimly serious that they disapprove of all humour, others so half-witted that they can't stand wit.
Some are so literal-minded that the slightest hint of irony affects them as water affects a sufferer from hydrophobia. Others come to different conclusions every time they stand up or sit down.
Then there's the alcoholic school of critics, who sit in public houses, pronouncing ex cathedra verdicts of condemnation, just as they think fit.
They seize upon your publications, as a wrestler seizes upon his opponent's hair, and use them to drag you down, while they themselves remain quite invulnerable, because their barren pates are completely bald-so there's nothing for you to get hold of.

Besides, some readers are so ungrateful that, ecven if they enjoy a book immensely, they don't feel any affection for the author. They're like rude guests who after a splendid dinner party go home stuffed with food, without saying a word of thanks to their host. So much for the wisdom of preparing a feast of reason at one's own expense for a public with such fastidious and unpredictable tastes, and with such a profound sense of gratitude!

And to all this I say, walla, this is why I write for myself. Yeah, writing is about communication and thoughts don't really hold much credence if they make sense only in your head, but yuh huh (like the YES way), they do:)

irregardless

uh, help, anyone?

Papal Dispensation?!

Even King Henry VIII needs a heter sometimes...
----------
In other executionary news:

Thomas More (Utopia writer guy) was beheaded because he was a staunch Catholic and would not take on the Oath of Supremacy, which gave right to the Protestants. Anyhooo, as he lay down to be chopped, his beard got caught in the blade. He rose to readjust it, saying that the beard need not be severed, for it had done nothing wrong.

Mary Queen of Scots executor practically missed the proper blow three freeken times till he managed to get the whole head... and then, when he raised it by the hair to show the "traitor to the king" he ended up with a wig of red hair in his hand, while the grey haired head went rollin' away... (uh, jahhhh, ew.)

Bichlal, the whole execution ceremony with its gowns and speeches and lavishness (?) seriously could have been mistaken for a coronation where they just happen to chop of heads at the end.
But yeah.

A Little Tooth

by Thomas Lux
Your baby grows a tooth, then two,
and four, and five, then she wants some meat
directly from the bone. It's all

over: she'll learn some words, she'll fall
in love with cretins, dolts, a sweet
talker on his way to jail. And you,

your wife, get old, flyblown, and rue
nothing. You did, you loved, your feet
are sore. It's dusk. Your daughter's tall.

Get a job

,but then quit:D
Totally bestest thing.

Lo kala hi. Lo kala darkeinu.

od sadot porchim yesh lefaneinu,
od harim g'vohim, vtzonenei psagot.

especially when things are good. and bad. and both. Forget Lo kala. Hi Kasha l'gamrei.

In Praise of Folly

Now here's the thing about Desiderius Erasmus. He was a Northern Humanist, a Religious one, too. He never rejected or undermined the Papacy's authority, he just though that even the common man should have an understanding of the Bible and of his connection to G-d.
Which is why he said, "I wish that even teh weakest woman should read the Gospel... I long that the husbandmen should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveler should beguile with their stories the tedium of his journey."
Which might be why he wrote a new edition of the Greek New Testament. And why the above quote is from its preface:)
And also why he wrote this satire against theologians and Church dignitaries:

Excerpt from The Praise of Folly, 1511

FOLLY: But no one sacrifices to Folly, they say, an dno one built a temple dedicated to her! Indeed, I myself, as I said, fid thie inngratitude somewaht surprising. Sitll, I am good natured enough to take this also in good part, though I couldn't really want such things anyway. Why should I need a bit of incense or grain or a goat or a hog, when all mortals everywhere in the world worship me with the kind of homage that even the theologians rank highest of all? ...I condider that I am being worshiped with the truest devotion when men everywhere do precisely what they now do: embrace me in their hearts, express me in their conduct, represent me in their lives. Clearly this sort of devotion to the saints, even among Christians, is not exactly common. What a huge flock of people light candles to the virgin mother God- even at noon, when there is no need! But how few of them strive to imitate her chastity, her modesty, her love for the things of heaven! (sound familiar to anyone? kinda close to home...) For, in the last analysis, that is true worship, the kind which is by far the most pleasing to saints in heaven. Furthermore, why should I want a temple, since the whole world, unless I am badly mistaken, is a splendid temple dedicated to me? (familiar, familiar) Nor will there ever be a lack of worshipers, as long as there is no lack of men. Moreover, I am no so foolish as to require stone statues decked out in gaudy colors. For sometime these are a drawback to the worship of us gods- that is, when stupid numbskulls adore the figures instead of the divinities (and yeh, this is the line I posted for:)), and thenwe are left in teh position of those who have been edged out of their jobs by substitutes. I consider that as many statues have been set up for me as there are men who display sometimes even unwillingsly, a living image of me. And so, there is no reason why I should envy the other gods because each is worshiped in his own corner of the world, and on set days too.

She is such a woman. ye, called Folly.

Friar Johan Tetzel

hehe, now say that like you grew up in Villiamsberrg. Mamash sounds like he coulda been de shammash fun G-t vaist vu...

He was, in fact. No, not ah Id, but stam ah Christian who came to sell indulgences and raise money for the Basilica of St. Peters... but with a name like that- yah just neva know.
-----------
In the spirit of Jews and Christians, check this:
So there was always this weird understanding that Martin Luther was a friend of the Jews. That notion came about as follows:
He had started questioning the Church and challenging it for being corrupt. The only other people until now, who had never accepted the Church were the Jews. So he looked at them in wonder, saying, "Well by GoD! How DID you know not to convert?? The Insitute of the Church is indeed blah blah blah..." He though that it was so cool that they always knew what he had jsut discovered:)
Howevaaaa, when he made the reconstructed the Church to a Protestant form... and the Jews STILL didn't accept it... well, that's when he wrote this:

THIS will be in the next post, dividing this one in two, in honor of Nemo who has trouble keeping up. Come on, I am jsut so nice:D

"...because contrary to the rumor that you're the center of the universe, clearly, you are the universe."

gosh, that's sweet.

It feels like you're negating your own self when you post humor on off black days. but yeahhhhh.

So this priest makes his way up to heaven and is greeted by the saint at heaven's gates. He's greeted and is asked how he can be helped. The priest tells the saint that he'd like to see the Bible in its original text, and he's directed to the Heavenly Archives. After a while of not hearing back from the priest, the saint walks into the archives to check up on him, only to find the priest lying on the floor over the books, in tears. The saint asks him what the matter was, and after calming down, the priest manages, "The word... was celebrate."

And duh, no one but Faheet and one other "doing speech" person erupted in laughter. Actually, only I erupted. She just swallowed. At least she got it!

Let's do something with the standard deviation:)

How could I possibly not love Stats with a professor who writes that on the board with a huge smiley face following in colored chalk? And with a classmate who blames every incomrehensible formula on "Some dude in Princeton..."

r.i.p.

Nice 2 Meet U by Yanni
And just know, that though you caused others heartache, I still love you dearly.

"Contempliva"

"I don't do anything," said Anna, blushing at these searching questions.

"Don't do anything," he repeated, with a subtle smile. "That's the best method. I've been telling you for a long time," he said to Lisa, "that in order to stop being bored all you have to is not to think you're going to be bored. It's just the same as not being afraid you won't be able to fall asleep if what you're afraid of is sleeplessness. That's just what Madame Karenin has been saying."

Aside from the simple truth of this... all Anna said was "I dont do anything." And he sees a whole Toireh. Ppl. Poems. Literature. gosh. but I do love it.

Define Psych

Sesory issues- invented by OT's (NOT the kind that go to school on EP), because they just had nothing to do.

--------
Instead of A group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impariments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests Dr. Psych calls Autism "Oh, just a garbage can term for people with funky social quirks." Talk about formalities.

Utopia

Aside from the fact that this a book that I need to do a report on, Utopia also doesnt mean a perfect place. Well, it kinda does, but not in that way.
It's actually nowhere. Literally. O Topus. A place that is not.

Mass to a Classmate

Talk about closed minds...

"So this old dude comes up to take communion, has a priest put a wafer in his mouth, calls it a host, drinks wine from a chalice and tada!, the miracle of transubstantiation occurs and the wafer and wine is transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ.
Now that must taste yuck!"

------------------

"Heresy is a sign of religious vitality."
That shows some pretty good hope for our little town, ay?

"Life is kinda somewhere between a rock and a hard place."

uhh, Duh I'm stuck!

Life's like that:')

and just like that, u snap:') i say it's way easier being happy. a copout, mebbe, but definitely easier:')

by MARTIN LUTHER
Justification by faith
...therefore the moment you begin to have faith you learn that all things in you are altogether blameworthy, sinful, and damnable...

Makes you wonder, and then when you're done wondering, and realize that, uh, yeah, ure done, you'll be thankful for who you are and what you got. what's that, you ask? ahhh...learn:)

.

what is it
what is it that can cause tears and silence
shock
and confusion. and horror.
and pain
why do they call it life and who are they
and why do they give it such a short name when it should be hard to say and never ending

TRacy Chapman Karaoke- Fast Car

stringed puppet.

if that's all i am, then what is my heart? what am i feeling when im happy? why would i ever really be sad? what if im not real at all, but just tugged at by the puppet master? and even if he lets some strings more loose, to give me some freedom in my movements... im still a puppet. here to do his wish? if he's got my strings then what satisfaction can i give him? who's to say i wont just be dropped, or slowly pulled up above the stage one day... what is the point of it all?

Virgil

Do we see with our eyes?

If our brains never grasped the concepts of volume, depth, shape, distance, height and context, would we be living in a huge flat picture? And if we were, then what would photos be?

bits I picked of:
To See and Not To See
by Oliver Sacks
The New Yorker (like a hundred yrs ago)

...who told me about his daughter's fiance, a fifty-year-old man named Virgil, who had been virtually blind since early childhood.
Forward to a surgery that enables him to see with his right eye.

"Virgil can SEE!... entire office in tears, first time Virgil has sight for forty years..."
But the following day she (his fiance, Amy) remarks, "Trying to adjust to being sighted, tough to go from blindness to sighted. Has to think faster, not able to trust vision yet...Like baby just learning to see, everything new, exciting, scary, unsure of what seeing means." (and no, she doesnt' speak in note form:) this is from her diary.)

So what would vision be like in such a patient? Would it be "normal" from the moment vision was restored? This is the commonsensical notion- that the eyes will be opened, the scales will fall from them, and (in the words of the New Testament, and why nit the old, freg mir nit, I'm pretty sure it's in there somewhere too) the blind man will "receive" sight.

But could it be that simple? Was not experience necessary to see? Did one not have to learn to see? ... the bandage on his eye was finally removed, and Virgil's eye was finally exposed, without cover, to the world. The moment of truth had finally come.

Or had it? The truth of the matter was infinitely stranger. The dramatic moment stayed vacant, grew longer, sagged. No cry, "I CAN SEE!" burst from Virgil's lips. He seemed to be staring blankly at the surgeon, who stood before him, still holding the bandages. Only when the surgeon spoke- saying "Well?"- did a look of recognition cross Virgil's face.

Virgil later said that int his first moment he had no idea what he was seeing. There was light, there was movement, there was color, all mixed up, all meaningless, a blur. Then out of the blur came a voice that said, "Well?" Then, and only then, he said, did he finally realize that this chaos of light and shadow was a face- and the face of his surgeon.

When we open our eyes each morning, it is upon a world we have spent a lifetime learning to see. We are not given the world: we make the world through incessant experience, categorization, memory, reconnection. But when Virgil opened his eye, after being blind for 45 years- having little more than an infant's visual experience, and this long forgotten- there were no visual memories to support a perception, there was no world of experience and meaning awaiting him. He saw, but what he saw had no coherence.

And blah blah blah, it goes on for 20 more pages, giving examples and little stories...and he ends up losing his sight at the end. wala! how's that for a spoiler?!:)

I love school. I love to learn. I love to know.
and duh, I love to spoil good stories:-p

Lokshen's Evolution

along with our worlds conception of him. Check this:
First it was The Great Pump ---> the great machine ---> the great telegraph ---> the great switchboard ---> the great computer ---> ??
Maybe one day, some smart brain will call it just that. hmm...problee not, but.
--------
So how come lil kids put everything into their mouths?
Prize for the best answer.
--------
Agnes de Mille was a dancer who lost sensation in her right hand all the way up to her shoulder. She was so in tune with her body's every muscle that if a person picked her hand up, even though she couldn't feel anything in the actual arm or hand... she was able to know her hand was raised from the slight increase in tension in her shoulder muscle. Gosh! And you gotta see this woman--- she must be older than 90, and she's all pritzed up in a velvet gown and tight bun with a bow. Duh she could do that.

This disturbed me, but not in a bad way, and not more than anything that can disturb me right now.

Eli: "Ad mosai tishtakorin?!"
Chana: "Lo, Adoni." (with the Lo came the intent that he was lacking the divine spirit, or he would have known that she had not drunk anything at all, and was simply praying.)
She says in defense: "Veyayin VeShaichar Lo Shatiti."

ZUGT DI GEMAREH: Amar Rabbi Elazar, Mikan Lenechsad Bedavar She'ein Bo, Tzarich Lehodiyo. Like serz man... how is that gonna work in my life...?

Today I learned that we are mortal beings. And that we die. Just like that.

Flipped up Italy...

ALGEMA
Fabbrica Argenteria
3010 CADONEGHE (PD)
Via Marconi, 94/A

in and of itself

= in itself + of itself.
ahh.

Chana

This morning I met Alex, and I became a greek goddess with a warrior's name.

so it all has significance, I learned.

First box up on your left hand, then wrap twice more over the strap to create a SHIN, travelling down, keep wrapping, twice, once, four more, which gives you 7 total on the arm, I think: 7 lyrical notes, 7 midos, 7 days of the week (good as any).
Get to the hand wrap: once between the thumb and over the hand and then twice diagonally across to form the DALED.
Down to middle finger (some things just work out), wrap once and twice down over it to create the YUD.
Remaining leather wraps back up around the hand.

Second box up on your head, settled between the eyes, straps coming down over shoulders, black leather part seen.

Say the prayer. That's what it all means, maybe.

Leaving 36th Street station...

just as the train leaves the dark tunnel and heads out to light outside, look at the wiring to your left. Just look till ur mouth goes O.

And hated? Never at all.

by Machiavelli

...From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved morr than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.
...And men have less scruple in offending one who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared; for love is held by a chain of obligation which, men beign selfish, is broken whever it serves theri purpose; but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails.

Taken from an excerpt of THE PRINCE, basically the first poli sci textbook ever written.

You cannot HEED attention.

Nor can you deny someone their opinion,
or rebel to something,
or be more superior than someone,
or be embarrassed of something,
or leave to somewhere,
or remain in spinsterhood,
or have a country that you live in.

Say hi.

Meet student.
She studies; she lives; she sees; she is blown away to the point that she thinks others might be also, maybe.
Meet school.
It stands, and stays.
Meet peers.
They have straightened locks; they wear only a color which is absent of it; they do speech; they are getting engaged; they are dum, but in a fun way.
Meet professors.
They teach; they fascinate; they're cool, but in a not cool way.
Meet me.
I see and tell, some, most or all:')