Hallucinogeneration

“It’s rough but it’s fair”

If I bought Rosetta Stone for the retail price (a couple hundred dollars), I would be inclined to use it regularly.  However, I was able to get it for free and because of that, I don’t feel guilty for my inconsistent usage.  Contrarily, the sunken cost fallacy dictates that I should use Rosetta Stone at a set frequency, regardless of how much money I paid for it. 

In other words, if I had bought the software for its retail price, the money I spent on it would be a “sunk cost” and thus, I should base my usage frequency only on relevant factors (how much free time I have, e.g.).  The key question is whether or not to buy Rosetta Stone in the first place, and this should be based on how much use I will get out of it, regardless of the cost.  After I figure that out, I can then determine if the price of the software is worth it for me. 

For the record, I’m typing this idea out in order to avoid using Rosetta Stone right now.  But hey, at least I didn’t pay for it.



The pledge of allegiance was originally going to include the word “equality” but the composer, Edward Bellamy, thought that the superintendants of education wouldn’t like it because of the whole black-people-and-women-aren’t-equal thing.

Santa & Mushrooms

Word of the Day:  indefatigable - (adj) tireless

I can’t imagine QVC having much success selling TVs.  How would the target market find out?

You don’t hear of too many Buddhist fundamentalists that give the rest of the Buddhists a bad name.

I would love to ask presidential nominees and other politicians the following question:  “Is it ever acceptable to break the law?”  If they say yes, I would claim that they should not be a politician in the U.S. government if they do not wholeheartedly believe in its core principles.  If they say no, I would bring up Rosa Parks.

Inflation has really affected the market for balloons. 

Your reaction to this blog is the underlying artistic meaning behind it.

I was gonna write an essay about nihilism but didn’t see the point.

TO DO:  Write a novel that breaks the 4^th wall mid-plot.

Should keep me busy for awhile...

Best Buy owns Napster.

You can’t be Christian and patriotic.

In the Steady Blur of the Days

from 11th Chorus, Desolation Blues by Jack Kerouac

“I have been empowered

to lay my hand

On your shoulder

and remind you

That you are utterly free,

Free as empty space.

---

Explode & go,

I won’t say nothin,

neither this rock,

And my outhouse doesnt care,

And I got no body”

I just realized that I always eat pop-tarts without toasting them because I’m too lazy to put them in the toaster.  I am actually too lazy for pop-tarts.

E.T. is God

The Pledge of Allegiance pledges allegiance “to the flag and the republic for which it stands.”  “To the flag and the republic.”  In addition to the republic, we are also pledging allegiance to the flag.  Why would we pledge allegiance to a flag in and of itself? 

If public nudity became socially acceptable, the Gap would be screwed.

Create a bumper sticker that says “back up, please.”

The mousetrap is the most frequently invented product in US history.

“Nothing lives which would be worthy

of your striving, and the earth deserves

not a sigh.

Pain and boredom is our being and the

world is excrement,

                                —nothing else.

Calm yourself.”

-Giacomo Leopardi

Listening

it's funny how music changes
the way you listen to it
inspired, invigorated, anxious
meandering from chord to chord,
unsure of the resolution

afraid to take the next step
for fear of dissonance
an active ear passively calling the shots

still working toward an ending
nowhere in sight or sound
perhaps the harmonies will hang
just a second longer,
or melodies unsung in airs of anticipation

Thelonious Funk

Lipslide/Other Side

At a nearby skatepark, police ticket kids who don’t where their helmets.  This makes sense from an economic perspective.  Overall, the skaters don’t realize the scope of their societal damage when they ride helmetlessly.  Expensive hospital trips, litigation, frustration, time, and fear are the result of injuries incurred by skating unprotected.  The townspeople can curb this behavior by forcing the culprits –skaters without helmets – to pay upfront for their statistical share of the damage.  In effect, ticketing these rule-breakers is equivalent to fining companies that pollute the environment.  There is now an economic incentive for the aforementioned groups to behave in ways that benefit the society as a whole, rather than solely the individual.

Sketch it Up

I spoke to a passionate caricaturist about his work.  This man graduated from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn, only to realize that his calling was more artistically inclined.  He told me that there are different philosophies behind the art of caricaturing, and regional differences between styles.  To the trained eye, one could tell where a caricaturist is from by the nature of his artwork.  His theory was that a good caricature is more recognizable than a photograph of the same person, because it accentuates the most prominent features of a person.  I fear that by only sharing these few details, you will not develop a full understanding of this man’s psychology- rather, just a caricature of his personality.  On second thought, maybe that’s not so bad.

Moving on...

I live in a state of anticipation.  Waiting for 12:15 so I can walk to class, waiting for the bread to pop out of the toaster.  But more generally, I spend my waking life living outside of the present.  All of my actions are either directly preparing myself for a stable future (e.g. going to college) or just killing time until I get there (e.g. listening to music, sleeping, whatever).  I have this fuzzy shape of how everything’s all going to turn out – because, ya know, it’s gotta turn out somehow, and most middle-class kids tend to grow up into middle-class adults.  But since time is separating me_now from me_then, I’m stuck waiting.  Once I get married, have two-and-a-half kids, and become the right fielder for my company’s softball team, will this anticipation disappear?  Will I then finally get to enjoy the present?  By then, will it be too late?

I Don't Get It

The Librarian of Congress is a badass profession.  English majors aspire to reach this level; the rhetorically competent Postmaster General.    He or she is responsible for appointing the US Poet Laureate.  The Po-La is a pretty fresh job, too.  It’s a vestige from Elightenment-era.  The town crier and the Po-La get together for tea ‘round noon.  Joseph Brodsky, former Po-La, established a program to make poetry available in airports, hotels, hospitals, and supermarkets.  A creative and potentially awesome idea, for sure.  The job of Po-La is to educate the US about poetry.  This seems beneficial on the surface, but I'm not sure how much of a difference he is making.  Instead, he should be responsible for painting the present US period in ink.  Tax dollars funding a poetic genius to tell future generations our tale – metaphorically, artistically, gutturally.

Cosmic Couch Potato

Saying Stuff

I’m saying stuff

He’s saying stuff, too

Then I say some more stuff and he responds to the stuff that I said.

I said that he said the stuff he was saying was already said, by someone instead

of him saying himself the stuff that he said

that I said.

Listerine was originally sold as a surgical antiseptic, and later as a cure for gonorrhea and a floor cleaner.

Beef, pork, chicken.  Why is there no euphemism for chicken meat?

Do Nothing for Two Minutes

I’m gradually coming to terms with the fact that learning is more important than grades.  This concept should be reinforced throughout one’s school career.

The Egg

Why isn’t there a decent (read: not attached to a cell phone) camera that can send photos directly to the internet ?

Eno(ugh)

Christian Scientists are Christians, not scientists.

RFD:  Alaska doesn’t have counties.

Dear Photograph

“When a Man Loves a Woman” is actually about a girl taking advantage of a guy who's in love with her.  Listen to the lyrics.

The word “sophomoric” means immature or juvenile, but its root, soph-, means wisdom.

Invisibility Cloak (yeah, for real)

The Beauty in the Banality

dribble (unfinished)

drib

ble drib

ble downthecourt

ball from hand to hand.

i pass the ball

he hands it off

drib

ble drib

ble. pass; a toss

acrossthecourt

i get the ball

Monkey Business

Better safeish than sorryish.

“Clint Eastwood” by the Gorillaz is called that because it samples the theme from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

A Stellar Point

If I drink a glass of water after eating a pretzel, it quenches my thirst.  If I drink a glass of water before eating a pretzel, I’m thirsty after I finish the pretzel.  What’s going on here?

RFD:  The earliest written evidence of a collapsible umbrella dates back to 23 CE when Chinese Emperor Wang Mang used one on his cartridge.  Jesus got wet in the rain.

I would like to watch Kanye West and Bon Iver have a conversation about being stuck in traffic.

New Jersey casinos are not permitted to kick someone out because he is counting cards.

There’s no present like time.

“The African-American genome is about 80% African ancestry and 20% European ancestry.”

My thoughts constantly turn to infinite regress.  I’ll start thinking about something, like the fact that I’m thinking about thinking about something, and then I’ll think about that… You see what I mean.

Young Kerouac thought poetry was for pussies.

Bullshit Makes Money

Faux Gopher Fur

In The Mind’s I, Daniel Dennett shares a reductio ad absurdum that Galileo created.  I will do my best to paraphrase it:

Premise:  Heavy objects fall faster than light objects (relative to each other)

1.       If a heavy object (x) and a light object (y) are attached by a string and dropped off a tower, y will act as a drag to x, since it falls slower

2.       X will fall slower when it is attached to y

3.       However, when x and y are attached together, they create a new object (z)

4.       Z, which is heavier than x and y individually, will fall faster than x

5.       Z cannot fall both faster and slower than x, because this is a contradiction

Conclusion:  The premise is invalid

Bob Dylan sells out

Black & white photos will have a different sense of nostalgia in the future.

Fractal Dimensions!

Cleanliness is next to godliness, which is cool, but sometimes it gets confusing.  Like the other day I went to the gym and worked out for about an hour.  Afterwards, I meant to take a shower but ended up at church.  

Machiavelli’s “The Prince” is a satire.

The Dream Theater greatest hits cd is four and a half hours long.

No food is better than our food.

Millions of people find Jesus every year.  It’s amazing how often this guy gets lost.

Random Fact of the Day (RFD):  The first Gideon’s Bible was placed in a hotel room in Superior, Montana.

It kinda pisses me off when people apologize for slavery.  Unless they’re reformed slavemasters, in which case it’s the right thing to do.

Mellifluous is autological.

Which is harder- brain surgery or rocket science?

Sometimes the destination is more important than the journey.  Like going to the ER.

The Richie Jackson of BMXing