Random Thoughts

[Raiders]

I like my tea, both hot and cold, very plain. Lipton brewed w/ sugar. No lemon.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Love hot tea. But I detest flavored tea. Give it to me straight or not at all (kinda like our country, apparently).

[chrisnu]

Meg, where in the pluperfect hell did you find that? My God!

*more brain scrubbing*

:frustrated:

[Watashi]

I hate being sick with the cold.

[Derek]

I hate being sick with the cold.

I think everyone within 50 miles of Los Angeles has gotten this goddamn cold at some point in the last month. I can't completely shake it after several weeks and I know several other people in the same situation. Hasn't been bad for a week, but it won't go away completely no matter what I do. Hopefully you have better luck.

[EvilShoe]

I hate looking for a place to stay in my college town.
The prices are way too high for what is offered.
There's also relatively nothing out there, as the semester started in september. I'm checking out places of drop-outs. Missed out on a couple already because there was one (!) person in front.

[bac0n]

Top ten man haters!

Any list of manhaters without my ex-girlfriend on it can not be considered complete.

[Raiders]

I have had the most annoying sinus pressure EVER. It never goes into my nose and becomes a stuffy nose, and it goes away with Sudafed, but the next day, boom, sinus pressure and headache. If I leave it alone for a couple days, it just gets worse but never clears out and becomes a runny nose. It just sits in my sinuses. I must have had this for over a month now. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday.

[Scar]

Just spent some time on the roads here, since I had to work off-site for an hour.

It was one of those days where you wish you had a semi with a cattle pusher in front.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I fucking hate raking leaves. Seriously. Fuck raking leaves.

[Scar]

I fucking hate raking leaves. Seriously. Fuck raking leaves.

*jumps in pile of leaves*

[Raiders]

I fucking hate raking leaves. Seriously. Fuck raking leaves.

My dad and I had a rule that we did not rake but once, after all the leaves had fallen.

Now, I live in a penthouse condo, so I have no yard. And no leaves. :twisted:

[Wryan]

I love fall. My family home had at least two massive trees. I think the reason why I love fall so much is that I get to enjoy the leaves and not really be held responsible for raking them up so much. When I was younger, I helped rake maybe two or three times over the years. I think my dad just wanted to do it himself to ensure that it was done well/right.

[D_Davis]

I actually enjoy raking leaves.

It's quiet and peaceful.

I usually just throw on some headphones, and enjoy some music along with the cool weather.

I especially like raking leaves in a lite drizzle.




Raking all the leaves
A lite drizzle wets my face
A sign of the fall

[Kurosawa Fan]

I hate all of you. Every last one.

[Sycophant]

I hate all of you. Every last one.

Oh, the number of times I've resisted making this very post!

[bac0n]

I hate raking leaves too, I remember as a kid wasting entire weekends with my brother raking and bagging, raking and bagging. It was the pits.

These days, I'm helluva glad my yard's small enough so I can get that shit over with in about an hour, and the tree in the back yard is small enough so I can just mow over the leaves on the ground and mulch 'em.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Oh, the number of times I've resisted making this very post!

Glad I could come through for you.

I hate raking leaves too, I remember as a kid wasting entire weekends with my brother raking and bagging, raking and bagging. It was the pits.

These days, I'm helluva glad my yard's small enough so I can get that shit over with in about an hour, and the tree in the back yard is small enough so I can just mow over the leaves on the ground and mulch 'em.

Ugh. I have two GIANT maple's, one in my front yard, on in the backyard, and it takes forever for them to let go of all the leaves. The two reasons I did it today is, one, it's nearly 70 degrees here today, but it's going to rain tomorrow and will be a high of 42 on Saturday; two, my next door neighbors are both seniors who have no trees in their yard, take pride in how their lawn looks, and have been out raking the leaves from my yard that are blowing into their yard. They're extremely nice people, and I feel too bad about making them clean up what isn't their mess.

[Ezee E]

Put that snowblower to early use, haha.

[Scar]

I hate raking leaves too, I remember as a kid wasting entire weekends with my brother raking and bagging, raking and bagging. It was the pits.

These days, I'm helluva glad my yard's small enough so I can get that shit over with in about an hour, and the tree in the back yard is small enough so I can just mow over the leaves on the ground and mulch 'em.

I look out, see all the beautiful trees around here, and see all the leaves, and then see the association take care of it while I have a beer.

Ah, life is good.

When I get back from deer camp, we must plan another dinner get together. I'm guessing your place will be the better option in the upcoming months....

[D_Davis]

That's some diet!

It turned a fat black chick into a not so fat white chick!

[Sycophant]

Stephen Colbert must have put that ad together.

[happ]

Lately I've been thinking about morality, and how to explain it.

I consider myself an agnostic about these things, about everything. To make judgments, to consider reality, one must make basic assumptions. These axioms are the basis of human understanding, of the different strands of thought. These axioms cannot be proven. I think the most honest thing to do, since we can not be completely sure of our beliefs, not beyond a shadow of a doubt, is be in the agnostic camp. One can think about what is probably true, but since our knowledge is limited, there is no need to believe dogmatically that a certain thing is truth (new evidence could prove you wrong). Always be a bit skeptical about the axioms, know that they are axioms and not proven, only assumed (or 'self-evident').

I am against dogmatic thought, that black and white thinking, when the world exists in a full spectrum of colors. The honest, humble thing to do is say I really don't know, which is intellectual agnosticism. Still, this leaves open speculation, but qualified to the point where I say, "This is probably true, but I can't be certain, and I'm willing to change my ideas of probability if convincing new evidence is presented."

So what is probably true? From what I've gathered, materialism seems more plausible than some other things. It seems like we are physical beings existing in a physical universe. Our mind is part of the body, embodied in the brain, and we each have a consciousness, we each have a thinking pattern, a psychology. I'm not interested in the specifics of explaining intelligence or logic, but it suffices to say that we are seperated from other species on the planet by our unique intelligence, which allows us to reason.

So what does all of this have to do with morality? Morality is relative. There is no absolute, objective morality. I have grown up around fundamentalist Christians, and the problem with their dogmatic thinking is that they depend on the idea of an objective, God-given morality. Basically, whatever the Bible says is right is right, and whatever it says is wrong is wrong. That leaves no room for human logic. They also usually say we have a conscience, that God has instilled within each human being an innate sense of right and wrong. One question: if that were true, why would we need the Bible to tell us what's wrong and right? Couldn't we just rely on our conscience ("Let your conscience be your guide" sort of thing)? It is illogical, especially when you can explain it by other, more logical means.

Forget the Bible. It can be explains this way: the Bible reflects the culture and morality of the people who wrote it. That's all. So the question returns to logic. There is no universal morality, but there are many similarities between different societies. Why is this? I think it is because we are all human beings, and there is a basic human condition. Morality shifts from person to person, culture to culture, but it is logical. As intelligent organisms, perhaps with an innate will to survive, we tend to desire to keep living, and societies try to survive by making rules which will help it survive.

An easy example is the moral concept of murder. If everyone killed everyone else, there would be no one left, and since there is negative effects of that action, people tend to not want to do it. I'm not saying everyone will be logical. Yes, we have murderers, but they are being illogical, which happens, especially when emotions take over. People who think in a short-sighted way tend to do "immoral/illogical" things, but if someone is trying to think long-term, they will "do the right thing."


Right now I'm a little tired. I thought I'd write down some more, but maybe later. I thought through all of this yesterday at the library, and I had been wanting to write it down. Oh well...

[BirdsAteMyFace]

That's some diet!

Overachiever.

[number8]

Speaking of which, I had to buy new pants yesterday because mine are starting to slip off! Stupid shrinking waist.