The Anthropic Principle is the most ridiculous thing I have seen produced by real grown-up scientists.
It’s fascinating in a train-wreck way to watch geeks reinvent wheels. Clearly there wasn’t any need to stay awake during Philosophy 10, much less do any reading on the subject later on when they got big ideas about the place of humanity in the universe.
This LJ name was my third or fourth pick. My favorite nicknames were taken. I’d always liked this song. It’s catchy and fun to sing, and I loved Townshend’s self-deprecating irony. I also had good memories of covers by some of my musical heroes. The Minutemen played it at the last gig of theirs I saw, in July ’85, and I remember another great 80s performance by Richard Thompson, where he did “Pinball Wizard” for a laugh mostly and then this one for serious.
I didn’t realize how perfectly I’d chosen. I’m this guy, all right. From earliest childhood I was expected to be someone else. In fact, I was told I was someone else, and not given the option of living otherwise. And like the guy in the song I was always angry as hell about it. That impostor consciousness and anger about it have haunted my relations with other people my whole life.
Eerily, the song came out in 1966, when I was not yet two years old. It was a radio hit just as I was being introduced to the insane double bind of my childhood: be someone else, or be a failure. The way it all lines up is almost too good.
There was only one way for me to keep my pride and my sense of self growing up, and that was to sabotage my parents’ master plan for my life. As soon as I moved out and went to college, I was on a suicide mission to destroy every possibility of real adult success for myself. Mission: accomplished. I am now entirely authentic, and no one can say I am my family’s creature.
I’ve been trying to undo that victory for a long, long time now without much success. Anything but failure still feels fake. Pete, you had it down from day one. It’s like you were there.
Today’s Suburban Joy Photo is Westworld Paintball, from the beautiful and talented flickr user mannydiller. The rest of this entry is entirely stolen and in the style of the Exploding Aardvark (please note new varklink).
IBEX ATTACK RUINS GIRL’S BIRTHDAY
MOMMY, MAKE THE RETAIL VEGGIE MASCOTS STOP LOOKING AT ME
HERE ARE THE TOP TEN STUPIDEST “AS SEEN ON TV” PRODUCTS
Belated accident report: NASA says they may have hit a comet in 1965.
Are you a Catholic Kook? Take this handy test from holyoffice and find out!
Is there a real terrorist threat to the United States? Mmmmmmaybe not.
So, I was trying to find a cheapass pair of cheapass flip flops to replace my worn-out cheapass flip flops. And of course, I end up at the excellent zappos.com. Not finding what I need, and realizing for other reasons that I am way poorer than I thought this week, I gave up buying anything. And then I sorted the flip flops by price seeing “highest first” just to see how nutty that was. It was about this nutty. ” Rejuvenate your warm-weather-wardrobe with these high fashion thong sandals” indeed, at $240. But that wasn’t the good part! The good part is the random customer testimonial that Zappos chose to put on that page, which I quote in full below.
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Dearest Zappos Customer Loyalty Team — Zappos is like nothing I have ever encountered in a store, online or otherwise. The promptness of service, total ease of return (you guys really know how finicky shoe freaks are!), constant inquiry as to how you may serve us better, and your customer evaluations (which have helped me tremendously in evaluating a particular brand/type of shoe) all create the “perfect” shopping experience! I have even told total strangers (who I perceived were frustrated in shoe-shopping) about you; and, have shared your .com address with everyone I meet who evidences any inkling of being crazy about shoes (the latest was the admitting clerk at Palestine Regional Hospital!). It is really refreshing and comforting to encounter the spiritual-material balance in your concept of merchandizing. This is difficult to explain; but, Zappos takes away some of the “guilt” I feel in buying more-and-more shoes instead of sending more money to Hope International or Heifer International or Catholic Medical Missions…or any of the multifarious, marvelous organizations “out there” who are helping create a healthier world. Because you reveal the people behind the product, you bring home the truth that by our high standard of living (which includes having more than two pairs of shoes: Sunday-go-to-meeting and every-day), we are able to provide the income for numerous folks who will, in turn, contribute to all sorts of worthwhile social programs to renew our Mother Earth! Yes, I do realize that there may be a fine line between Imelda Marcos and one who appreciates comfortable footwear; however, as I try to stay on the “good” side of the line, I certainly appreciate Zappos.com! (Have you ever considered contributing a percentage of every shoe purchased to Hope International or Mother Theresa’s Missions or some such worthy cause?) God hold you all close, “in the very hollow of His hand” (an old Gaelic blessing)! Sincerely, Di M ~ Di M, June 05 2006 |
“Paramount Pictures is terminating its relationship with Tom Cruise’s production company, citing the actor’s controversial behavior, Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone said.” — Wall Street Journal just now.
Someone backhoed a natural gas main around here today and there was the usual excitement. Quote from OC Fire Authority on scene:
“Appears that a backhoe severed a gas main here. Area is cleared, and we’re just going to stand by until the Gas Company pinches this one off.”
This is intriguing, just received via myspace. I could certainly use more glitter words in my life, but what really got me excited was the “whore me generator.” It sounds like something Captain Haddock would yell, or maybe some software that would show me what I’d look like as a whore, or even better a way to get people to pay to have sex with a diesel generator, which would be all sparky and enginey and fetishey and incredibly lucrative. And I really, really admire the idea of charging someone to steal someone else’s code and paste it to them. That’s the kind of business thinking that will turbocharge an e-strategy into cyber-success.
I think it’s time for bed.
Hello,
Just want to let you know we are here to support your myspace profile. Here is a list of things we can do for your myspace account;Profile Generator.
Like Someelse’s layout? Snatch their code and use it for yourself.
1000’s of pre made myspace layouts you can use.
1000’s of graphics to use on your profile or to post comments.
Glitter Word Generators.
Scrolling Bar Generators.
Comment Box Editor.
Friend Box Editor.
Contact Images.
Online Now Icons.
Profile Counters.
Free Image Hosting.
Flash Music Player (Create your own MP3 music player with your own songs to put on your profile)
Auto Comment Generator.
Whore Me Generator.
Put a Custom Image on the “xxx is in your Extended Network” Section.
Music Codes, Video CodesEverything you would ever want. Check it out! there is def something you could use here.
Be My Blog 