Sea Ruminations
Chekhov at the Dollar General... I mean Checkout at the Dollar General.
Not that anybody would ever care about this minutiae. But our Airbnb doesn't have towels so I just went to Dollar General to buy four. They were all in a big mess but it looked like they were either $2 or $4. She rang me out and it came to $29. People were behind me so I didn't want to make a fuss, I just paid and left. In the car I saw that she rang up five towels, somewhere $7 and some were $4. Since I was going in to return the one anyway I told her that I only wanted the two $4 towels. She told me she price match $7 towel so I decided to stick with my original four. She said it would be easiest to do it as one transaction, and at the end of it I owed $1. That seemed weird, but again there was a line behind me so I just paid and left. It haunted me as I was driving home... I figured gave me some refund in there but in the end, I had paid $29 and then ended up paying another dollar, and had fewer towels, and a deal! Was like the victim of some Paper Moon style scheme??? I couldn't make sense out of it. I thought- I'm smarter than this aren't I? Finally I had a breakthrough. She refunded a $7 towel and charged me for two $4 towels, so I did owe $1, but I already had bought those two towels for $7 each. Now that I had my story straight I had to go back in and talk to her for the third time and hope it makes sense. She had another line! When I got my chance I explained and she didn't seem to understand, but she respected my authority. I love it when a logical fallacy works out in my favor!
I thought I was being a bit dramatic and hoity-toity that Chekhov reference, but look at this:
Chekhovian- adjective. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Anton Chekhov or his writings, esp. as they are evocative of a mood of introspection and frustration.
It applies!
September 16, 2022
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My notes from earlier tonight... quite dehydrated. Is dehydration a drug?
I just left racquetball after playing my soul right out of my body and took a picture of a sunset. There's something about seeing a sunset in the strip mall parking lot when the only energy left in your body is in your mind... I can't explain it. It might be the juxtaposition of the beauty of nature and the ugliness and artificiality of the modern world, coupled with the realization that the modern world with all of its parking lots and fluorescent lights is all still of the earth, the same as our bodies. All the world's atoms were born out of exploding stars billions of years ago. (It's been said that they died so that we could live.) Our minds were not born from stars though, they seem to have been born from us, the grandchildren of stars perhaps, reflecting on the universe yet still of the universe, like looking through a keyhole and seeing yourself looking back. When you recognize that you are a small piece of the universe communing with itself, I and thou become one. Buddha said that enlightenment is a dried piece of turd. In the last scene of The Office, Pam said, "There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?" After Roger Sterling told Don Draper about his acid trip and seeing the sunrise, Don asked how it was. "Average." These are my thoughts as I reflect on a perfectly average sunset, after an extraordinary night of racquetball, and complete physical exhaustion.
September 16, 2022
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Pandora's box was opened up today.
At the beach, the kids have always splashed around a little bit in the waves, but this time they started going out a little bit further, jumping the waves. Technically I'm on vacation but this is the most stressed I've ever been. I can't let on though, they are having the most fun ever.
Nevertheless...
The Weezer lyrics keep going through my head. "All along the undertow is strengthening its hold. I never thought it would come to this, now I will never grow old."
Gretel said she saw a little fish. I think- some fish eat those little fish, there are fish that in turn eat them, and the fish that then eat those fish, are eaten by the fish that then get eaten by, you guessed it, great whites. So they can't be that far away. They are always there, it's just a matter of how close. Sites that track them have proven my worst suspicions.
I don't even want to talk about that Pulitzer Prize-winning picture from the 50s, the one taking on the beach. Don't even bring it up.
Of course they're going to be fine, but this process is one of the cruelest methods of torture I've ever endured.
September 16, 2022
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From Yen
Happiness is…receiving a post card from my school friend Ben Kreider! We’ve known each other for 40+ years, mind boggling. Happy to know he exists in this world + that we share some funny memories. #thankful
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An old man at the grocery store gave Gretel & Zuzu each a $2 bill. He said it's for good luck. Gretel at least is going to need it, her face was sticky and she decided to wipe it off on the floor.
September 16, 2017
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Cover letter I just received: "As a young adult, there is always the fact of true successes. In order to have the true meaning of a great employee, go beyond and show that the work is done for the company. Keep the positive attitude and drive to succes."
It's like he threw darts at a bunch of motivational posters to choose his words.
September 16, 2016
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Pavlov was sitting at a pub one night enjoying a pint. The phone rang and he jumped up shouting, "Whoops, I forgot to feed the dog!"
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I'm becoming convinced there's only one fruit better than an asian pear- and that's another asian pear.
September 16, 2012
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Johnny Walker red label does go well with Swedish fish.
September 16, 2010
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Can omniscient God, who knows the future, find the omnipotence to change his future mind?
September 16, 2009
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It goes without saying that Europeans of the 17th and 18th centuries were responsible for mass atrocities in the New World. But it's worth remembering that the vast majority had good intentions and were escaping evil as any of us might. On this day in 1620, 35 religious dissenters set sale for Virginia on the Mayflower.
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The Montreal Protocol was signed on this day in 1987 to protect the ozone layer from depletion.
And hey, fuck you naysayers, it worked! Science fucking works. You can't pray the ozone layer better.
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On this day in 1994, a kid played a practical joke on a Zimbabwe playground and convinced 62 kids that they saw a UFO and beings who spoke to them telepathically. Many of them to this day swear that the kid didn't lie, that it actually happened. The incident is featured in Episode 2 of the Netflix documentary, Encounters.
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Drive was released on this day in 2011.
Taste of Cinema- 8 Reason Why Drive Is a Modern Masterpiece
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2017/8-reasons-why-drive-is-a-modern-masterpiece/
Oh man... that's a great 8 reasons! This article reminded me that I studied philosophy in college in part to help me better understand films.
#4 Existential Tropes
At one point in the movie, Irene asks the Driver a rhetorical question – if his job is dangerous. He says it’s only part-time. In his philosophical works, Friedrich Nietzsche emphasized that living dangerously is the responsibility of a man who wants to overcome ordinariness and test his strength against adversaries.
The Driver is a man who invents himself; for him, existence comes before essence, as Jean Paul Sartre defined existentialism. The Driver lives by his own inner laws and does not make compromises when it comes to his personal ethics. He represents “master morality” as defined by Nietzsche.
On the other hand, Standard represents “slave morality”. His act of seeking protection in prison for money is irresponsible and lacks anticipation of further events (putting his family in danger). David Fincher deals with the same ideas in his film “Fight Club”, but he puts them so bluntly that much of their potency is lost. In “Drive”, this characterization is much more subtle and one needs to put it in perspective in order to grasp it; it makes it more powerful and beguiling.
The Driver is stylized as a Nietzschean Übermensch, a term brutally misused by the Nazis, but also next to untranslatable in English. Über means both over and above, so the term should not be translated at all; the goal for a strong individual must be to transcend man.
Alasdair MacIntyre believes that this idea belongs to the “philosophical bestiary,” but Nietzsche probably wouldn’t mind that characterization. For him, to be completely alone means to be both beast and god – the Driver seems to be that kind of person.
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Lauren Bacall was born on this day in 1926.
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John Knowles joined us on this day in 1926.
"Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever."
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Millicent Lilian "Peg" Entwistle jumped off the Hollywood sign on this day in 1932. A sad example of hopes turning into despair. So strange how people are drawn to iconic landmarks to end it all. I think somebody jumps off the Golden gate bridge every week or two.
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Edward Albee left us on this day in 2016.
"You're alive only once, as far as we know, and what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?"
That's a sentiment that could only be expressed by someone who had lived their life.
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Other notable birthdays- Allen Funt (1914), Lauren Bacall (1924), B.B. King (1925), Mickey Rourke (1952), Robin Yount (1955), David Copperfield (1956), Amy Poehler (1971)
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Other notable deathdays- Marc Bolan (1977), Jean Piaget (1980), Richard Brautigan (1984)
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I was just reading Alain de Botton's book Religion for Atheists, and I liked it, but decided I didn't like it enough to read it for hours. So... I found a nice 25 minute you tube clip of the author discussing it. Ben 1, books zero. Now on to other books...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQVjhCbll8o
September 16, 2012
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MSNBC- Jon Stewart hits Capitol Hill, gets results
A law that helps 9/11 first-responders is in trouble. Jon Stewart went to Capitol Hill today in the hopes of giving the measure a boost.
Of course those knuckleheads would oppose it.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jon-stewart-hits-capitol-hill-gets-results
September 16, 2015
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CNBC- A 2,000-year-old Chinese mindset can make you more successful—it 'takes almost zero effort,' says psychologist
Wu wei... just letting things happen, recognizing and accepting that you are not in complete control.
Accepts things as they are, embrace it perfection, and implement mindfulness.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/07/12/2000-year-old-chinese-mindset-can-make-you-more-successful-in-life-says-psychologist.html
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From Richard Dawkins' God Delusion- ‘Tell me,’ the great twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once asked a friend, ‘why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the sun went round the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?’ His friend replied, ‘Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth.’ Wittgenstein responded, ‘Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?’ I sometimes quote this remark of Wittgenstein in lectures, expecting the audience to laugh. Instead, they seem stunned into silence.
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