Issuing supreme power to you...one moment.

My self-summary Propose an edit

And what's all this about 'reality'? Surely life is too short to confine our minds merely to what happens to be the case.

For that matter, and after all, what is a man, anyway, except for an oddly strewn-together bundle of transparent affectations? And what's wrong with that?

Here are mine. (also note the monocle)

new 8.31.2008: Okay I'm paring this bad boy down. Bare essentials, that's what I'm on about.

new 08.18.2008: Ask me about Proust, Particle Physics, Paradoxes, Propositional Calculus, and Principia Mathematica.

Also I am having internet troubles just lately, so communication may be intermittent. I mention this because apparently OKcupid says I'm still online sometimes when I'm not, and people are messaging me and thinking I'm ignoring them. I would turn the IM thingie off before I leave each time, 'cept you can't.

What else? I'm interested in the distinction (or rather, lack of distinction) between knowledge and belief. All of my beliefs are contingent, which is to say I don't know anything for sure, but there are a few beliefs that I'd have a hard time swapping out for new ones. Like, apart from stupid things such as "I believe I exist" and so on, I believe in (the goodness of) anarchy (as in libertarian socialism), and technology, and applied science. I believe the purpose of life is life. I predict (not believe) that one day I may well look back at all the stuff I'm thinking and writing now and be embarrassed by how dumb I was. But I still keep at it. Seriously, the main thing I need to be doing now is to just PTKFGS. The rest will sort itself out, I believe.

Moving on. Let's see. I am fond of animals. That is, I like to look at, and think about, and be around--but not necessarily interact with--animals, and in fact most other living things, but particularly corvidae and coleoidea and primates of all kinds. (Disclosure: the present author is a primate.)

Speaking of which, some of my favorite (living) people are amy goodman and dennis kucinich and noam chomsky and to an admittedly lesser extent naomi klein.

Some of my favorite slightly-less-than-living people are albert einstein (I almost wrote alfred) and bertrand russell and douglas adams and carl sagan.

And finally, my favorite thoroughly-unliving people include david hume and thomas paine and baruch spinoza.

Possibly important: All the stuff below about living in Tokyo and so forth is no longer strictly true. I am in the USA as of this writing. And I'm no longer living in an airport, either. I'm sure I'll get around to bringing this stuff up to date eventually. As it stands I get about 4 profile views a week, and almost always from the same people (you know who you are). So I'm not too worried about misleading anyone with my outdated okcupid profile information.

What I'm doing with my life Propose an edit

First of all let me state that I am not in any way similar to these people -->

Okay then.

At the moment I'm living in Tokyo and working as a translator in the video games industry, but it's purely as a means to support my philosophy habit. I've basically spent the last two years holed up in my apartment doing nothing but reading books, and each successive book requires me to read another 3 or 4 books. And so on, with no end in sight. This accounts for the 'less ambitious' attribute. Every penny (er, yen) of my monthly paycheck that's not allocated for rent and food goes to amazon or the local bookstore. I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement, except that I'm constantly interrupted by the whole having-to-work thing.

Although I'm obscenely happy with my current state of affairs, I'm planning to move along very soon, as I'm 29 (mother fucking) years old now and holy shit if I don't start graduate school now then it's just not going to happen, is it? So, I do believe it's just about time to be schlepping on back to the east coast of the USA.

Update: Got my ticket. October 24th.

Another update: I missed my flight. I now live in the airport. Send help.

I'm really good at Propose an edit

The kind of stuff where you could know me for ten years and never find out about it, and then be like, whoa I didn't know you could do that. Yeah.

Also I think I am hilarious. So far in my life I have met exactly 2 people who agree and a great many people who disagree wholeheartedly.

The first thing(s) people usually notice about me Propose an edit

That I'm at 7-11 buying snack food and stationery at a very strange hour.

My favorite books, movies, music, and food Propose an edit

(There's really no reason why you shouldn't just skip over this part, unless you're trying to think of something to write to me about.)

Favorite Books: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume (seriously, it's great. read it and see), Ligeia and Never Bet the Devil Your Head by Edgar Allen Poe (not really books but oh well), Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (it's the perfect book: literature at the zero-level)

Currently reading: The Parallax View by Slavoj Zizek

Recently read: Words and Rules by Steven Pinker (it sucked), No Logo by Naomi Klein (meh), Ontogeny and Phylogeny by Stephen Jay Gould, Failed States by Noam Chomsky. Exception to the Rulers and Static by Amy & David Goodman. Coming Up for Air by George Orwell. The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Love, Poverty, and War by Christopher Hitchens (violating my policy of not including crappy books in this list because it had a few very good bits),

On the shelf next to my computer: The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, A User's Guide to the Brain by John J. Ratey, The Moral Animal by Robert Wright, Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters by JD Salinger, America The Book by Jon Stewart & Co., a bunch of Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout, and some other books not worth mentioning.

Lately I am listening to The Coup, Bob Dylan (Bob I love you but please, put the goddamn harmonica down), Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, The Knife (esp. Heartbeats and also watching the video, which is worth checking on youtube at the very least.) Also, The Presidents of the United States of America, Nirvana, and Green Day because really this stuff just does not get old.

I also rather enjoy Heart, Ani Difranco, Amy Winehouse, Snail Ramp, Cocco, April March, CCR, Stevie Wonder, The Stanley Brothers, Johnny Cash, E40, J.S. Bach, Hikawa Kiyoshi, Did You Really, Read This Far, Nina Simone, and you get the idea.

Favorite TV Shows: Democracy Now!, The Office (UK), The Daily Show. Although I haven't watched a show on TV in years.

Some Favorite Movies: The Princess Bride, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kurenai no Buta, The Big Lebowski, Waking Life

The six things I could never do without Propose an edit

I rather enjoy being alive. I am a big fan of life. I really couldn't live without it. Fortunately I'll never have to.

I spend a lot of time thinking about Propose an edit

Language, and how we use it. And what it means to be alive, and human, and here and now.

And about how I think too much. But do I really think too much? Is there such a thing as thinking too much? That's a question worth thinking about. Or is it? Wait, what? Oh I was just saying, is it a bad thing to just think for the sake of thinking. No that's not what you were saying, you were asking about thinking about the act of thinking, which is a perfectly valid line of inquiry. Let's pursue it. Okay, let's see here.
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it would be cool to have one of those tiny little monkeys for a pet.
Yeah.
But then again it'd probably be too much trouble to clean up after it.
Hm.
Well it would be cool to have a friend who had one, though.
Definitely.

Also, I'm just recently starting to figure out what Einstein was on about, and what it implies. Apparently it implies a lot.

On a typical Friday night I am Propose an edit

Responding to external stimuli in a predictable manner.

The most private thing I'm willing to admit here Propose an edit

The concept of "truth" for the sentences of a given language cannot consistently be defined within that language.

Furthermore I am purely a phantasmatic projection of your own prejudices, desires, &c., &c., and I have no 'objective' existence as such.

Also, I'm gay for moleman.

And every single one of those "personality awards" at the bottom of this page is disturbingly accurate. Except for 'more sloppy'. I take umbrage at that one. There should be a personality award for 'takes more umbrage'.

You should message me if Propose an edit

you think the following sentiment, expressed by Bertrand Russel in like 1937, has got a definite ring of truth to it:

I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
(Also see: hot springs monkeys)

And here's where I pad out my profile length with some (more) quotes:

"The best games are not those in which all goes smoothly and steadily toward a certain conclusion, but those in which the outcome is always in doubt. Similarly, the geometry of life is designed to keep us at the point of maximum tension between certainty and uncertainty, order and chaos. Every important call is a close one. We survive and evolve by the skin of our teeth. We really wouldn't want it any other way. " --George Leonard

"So far as knowledge is concerned, a man should be aware of the minuteness of himself and his immediate environment in relation to the world in time and space...Taking an even wider view, he should be conscious of the vastness of geological epochs and astronomical abysses; but he should be aware of all this, not as a weight to crush the individual human spirit, but as a vast panorama which enlarges the mind that contemplates it." --Bertrand Russell

"The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it." -- H. G. Wells

"I hope that when I die, people say about me, 'Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money." --Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts

and the greatest one of all:
"I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this."
-- Emo Phillips

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