The other day I went for a short run. It has been a while, and I died. I got to thinking about the fact that I have a fairly low tolerance for pain as I walked part of the run. This relates also to normal work. I have a low tolerance for pain in the form of studying, too. This is why I will often take frequent breaks - especially when I am bored or tired of what I am doing. But luckily I also seem to have a fairly high tolerance for stress. This helps to balance out my low tolerance for pain when deadlines are only a few hours away (yep, today is one of those days!).
But then last night, as 1:30 AM rolled around and my eyes were tired and burning, I asked myself whether or not it was a bad idea to be trying to finish the edits on the MA thesis and if I should stop until morning...
I decided no.
Because I am hardcore like that.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
sara got a new do
ahhh, this one is overdue, but better late than never. Sara chopped the hair. shortest it has ever been.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Study Buddy
It has been a bit since I have posted a pic for not reason. Enjoying some coffee that some friends of our roasted.
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| From Photostream |
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Photosynth!
A while back I saw this video on TED about a 3-D photo viewing thing from Microsoft. It is available to look at and make your own now. I got excited about it and gave it a shot in our office. not too great of pics and it is all messy, but it is still cool. you can pan and zoom using the circular arrow thing in the middle.
Sometime I will do a 'real' one....
(you may need a Silverlight plug in to view it, but if you watch netflix, you probably already have it...)
(and it looks like you have to actually go to the blog to see the link, if you read blogs by a RSS reader...)
Sometime I will do a 'real' one....
(you may need a Silverlight plug in to view it, but if you watch netflix, you probably already have it...)
(and it looks like you have to actually go to the blog to see the link, if you read blogs by a RSS reader...)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
writing on the wall
You know how sometimes people write or draw stuff on the walls of public bathrooms? Baylor is no different, and sometimes this is pretty entertaining. Here it seems to develop into conversations as people write replies and what not. I have a new favorite bathroom wall conversation, just enough wit to make you think while standing at the urinal. There is the usual crass stuff, and then the following:
Person A: Act like men for God's sake.
Person B: Or, act like God for man's sake.
Person A: Touche.
Person A: Act like men for God's sake.
Person B: Or, act like God for man's sake.
Person A: Touche.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
inconspicuous consumption
I have been thinking about how I/we buy things this week. It mainly started after reading this article about books and publishing after Amazon. Now, I buy a lot of books and Amazon makes it so easy to find them, order them, get them for cheap, and they offered my free shipping on any purchase no matter the total price because I am a student. Mainly because of this last part, they have received a lot of money from me this past year.
It is easy to consume, but hard be consume well. Responsibly. Maybe even morally. Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist back in the day and he worried about the effects of modernization on society. In the pre-industrial revolution days, he saw society as being defined by mechanical solidarity - people are socialized and bound to one another because they were in community with each other and interacted or were aware of one another regularly. After society modernized, this changed to what he called organic solidarity. This was defined by a removed dependence on others. I don't know who provides my gas for the car, but I need them, and so on. We are all still connected, but in a different way; often unnoticed but still 'organically' needing each other.
I have mentioned before that I like Wendell Berry. He is a critic of short-sighted modernization. Being a farmer, this typically is aimed at agriculture, but he is aware of and talks about the wider implications. This is a point of a great essay, where he argues that we try to solve problems by immediate and short-sighted solutions, or try to get unrealistic gains that don't take into account long-terms results. (Solve problems with solutions that are the next problem to be solved.) He thinks that we do not think about the fact that everything is connected in some way and changes, or failings, affect the entire system for better or worse. (other related Berry posts talking about implications of this here and here... if interested)
My consumption is no different. It is easy to not think about the authors, publishers, book seller, and all the other people involved with each of my purchases. Amazon is arguably a less than responsible way for me to spend money, and my spending has implications for many other people out there that it is easy to forget about. The other day I spent a bunch of time trying to find more responsible ways to purchase books because I think it is important for me to be cognizant of the effects of my spending. This is the same reason we only buy fair trade coffee (I know, this list should be longer...). My spending DOES do something, it is just a matter of whether that something is in line with how I ought to live or not. We are blessed to be a society that has the option to consume; we are cursed to be a society habituated into doing it blindly. And that is costly.
It is easy to consume, but hard be consume well. Responsibly. Maybe even morally. Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist back in the day and he worried about the effects of modernization on society. In the pre-industrial revolution days, he saw society as being defined by mechanical solidarity - people are socialized and bound to one another because they were in community with each other and interacted or were aware of one another regularly. After society modernized, this changed to what he called organic solidarity. This was defined by a removed dependence on others. I don't know who provides my gas for the car, but I need them, and so on. We are all still connected, but in a different way; often unnoticed but still 'organically' needing each other.
I have mentioned before that I like Wendell Berry. He is a critic of short-sighted modernization. Being a farmer, this typically is aimed at agriculture, but he is aware of and talks about the wider implications. This is a point of a great essay, where he argues that we try to solve problems by immediate and short-sighted solutions, or try to get unrealistic gains that don't take into account long-terms results. (Solve problems with solutions that are the next problem to be solved.) He thinks that we do not think about the fact that everything is connected in some way and changes, or failings, affect the entire system for better or worse. (other related Berry posts talking about implications of this here and here... if interested)
My consumption is no different. It is easy to not think about the authors, publishers, book seller, and all the other people involved with each of my purchases. Amazon is arguably a less than responsible way for me to spend money, and my spending has implications for many other people out there that it is easy to forget about. The other day I spent a bunch of time trying to find more responsible ways to purchase books because I think it is important for me to be cognizant of the effects of my spending. This is the same reason we only buy fair trade coffee (I know, this list should be longer...). My spending DOES do something, it is just a matter of whether that something is in line with how I ought to live or not. We are blessed to be a society that has the option to consume; we are cursed to be a society habituated into doing it blindly. And that is costly.
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