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A dozen notes and quotes #14

November 6th 2011 02:03
I didn't recognize the person, but I remembered their dog.

***

Girl 1: New guy arriving.
Girl 2: Fresh meat!
Girl 3: I don't mind a first-thing-in-the-morning perve.

***

The enema flushed out all the things he had misguidedly swallowed over the years, and which his system had never quite purged itself of.

These included: bits of glass and plastic; a pebble; a bronze ring; a toy soldier; a flea circus; his mother's house; an eighth-rate football team; two sad dinosaurs; and regret.

He'd never felt so relieved.

***

Noisy typers aren't efficient typers. Their fingers rise too far above the keyboard, and expend too much force in falling. The real pros have a lighter, more flowing touch -- more of a steady hum, and less of a clatter: -- more like dancing or swimming or playing an instrument.

***

He equipped the robot with thought-reading sensors; and, on her return, she duly reported the data.

Of 59 males she passed, 52 rated her fuckability, including the one who were blind and the ones who thought she looked like their mother. Three quarters of these went on to fantasise scenarios and/or calculate their chances of a successful pickup.

Of the remaining 7, 1 was mad and 6 were gay.

***

If you're really attracted to her, you're going to be attracted to anyone similar to her. Ie, her sister, her best friend and her mother.

***

He said something droll, along the lines of, "I don't know what's so great about personalities. I've managed without one for years."

***

She used to store up every insult thrown at her -- every word of abuse spoken by others or by herself.

She never did anything much with the collection -- she just liked the collecting.

***

...wished that she were lesbian rather than married, so at least he could tell himself she was off the market.

***

What the world needs now
Is drugs, sweet drugs
It's the only thing
That there's just too little of

***

Athens had a population of 250,000 around the time of Socrates (says Russell). Why did Western Philosophy start in Greece?

Australia had a population of around 19 million at the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Why did it win so many medals?

***

The word "uber" is epic.

***

There's some nits over there. Go pick 'em.


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A dozen notes and quotes #13

October 19th 2011 20:40
Two people applied for the job: a white female and a black male.

How do you reconcile your sexism with your racism?

***

Feelings of home

You know, some of these things, like your home when you're living in it, you feel pretty safe, but when something like this comes along and it takes that from you, it's hard to get it [the feeling] back. You know, cos when you're at home, there's where you feel your most safe and secure.

-- Sheriff Kevin Smith, "Raging Planet 2: Episode 6: Tornados"

***

I'm quite capable of digging my grave all by myself, thank you very much.

***

I'm really interested in what you're saying, but I can't keep my eyes open.

***

...finds it more interesting than trying exotic local foods to sample local versions of his native cuisine, and see what spin they've put on it.

***

Computer games are designed to be able to be beaten.

***

"Be proud of yourself, because you're a special person" = hijacking of the word "pride", which is normally competitive, other-facing.

***

When one is a child one assumes more care and connection between strangers than could be the case. One expects the world to care about one's scratched finger, the shoe salesman to be a kind man, etc.

One doesn't realize it's just about money, which is just about sex.

***

Birthday cakes aren't the most hygenic things. Firstly, there's wax to flavour your food with. Secondly, there's spit. If not observable spit, there's at least water drops from the blowing.

How many children's-parties infections have been spread this way?

***

Death by urinating on an electric fence.

***

In the urinal -- pubic hairs. Someone had a serious moulting problem.

***

The rational thing to do is to run screaming out of here.


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A dozen notes and quotes #12

November 25th 2010 19:57
"And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas."

-- "Do you know the way to San Jose?", lyrics by Hal David

***

The partner was looking to assign a case, and the choice was between two capable employees.

The choice led to a promotion, the promotion meant a position in France, and the position in France meant a ride on an aeroplane, which went down over the Pacific, losing 128 souls.

So all things considered, the surviving employee was lucky not to have been assigned the case, and of course he recognized this.

But even then, he regarded it as a missed opportunity, and was resentful.

***

-- "Excuse me, you forgot your bait."
-- "A wise man does not fish to catch fish."

-- "Shaolin Wuzang", series 1, episode 10

***

Sadness often makes a face more beautiful, because it softens the muscles.

***

Among the factors that guide our behavior are urges to educate.

***

What snail mail I do get tends to fall into the categories of:

1. Bills.
2. My old high school asking for money.
3. My old university asking for money.
4. Charities asking for money.
5. Theatre groups asking for money.
6. Writers asking for money (long story).
7. And bank statements telling me how little money I have.

***

He was suffering from a bad case of conflicting desires. On the one hand, he was friendly with her, he liked her as a person, and he wanted to screw her; on the other, he needed to screw her over to get ahead. So which impulse won -- power or sex?

Fortunately, the boss ended up firing her anyway, so he was free to be a pure friend to her -- with no moral conundrum to trouble him, and no immoral action on his conscience.

***

Mail order

Yes, she did see him as a passport to a better life, but does this mean that she was being underhand (she wasn't -- everyone concerned knew where they stood), or that the relationship was somehow illegitimate or bad (but arranged marriages are more stable than love-marriages, and often develop love feelings)?

What gets to people is that marriage is treated as a contract like any other contract, and things that aren't normally on the bargaining table -- like love and sex -- are part of the deal.

***

If your breath smells bad to you yourself, then you've got a problem.

***

After injury or pain, it's common to feel that the world owes you something, that you deserve something -- for instance, forgiveness for crime, failings or vice, or permission to engage in them.

In this thought one can see, amongst other things, the conceptualization of "the world" -- perhaps as a basic notion -- different from "the Other", and very different from "other people".

***

Going to the supermarket to shop for girls.

***

...without speech, yet instantly united, people were quietly freaking out about the girl who in the swimming pool 50m away had taken her top off.

Whilst I, short-sighted, could perceive the disturbance around me, but was unsure if I was just imagining it, and was entirely oblivious to its cause.

This is what it can be like to lack a sense?

For a more obvious lack -- travelling with a group of mongoose, when all at once the pack stands erect, tense, whilst the human observer scratches his head.

***

How could it be so vivid, this dream, then a minute later be gone so completely? -- Gone, but one notices, one feels the loss.


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Introduction to philosophy books

August 7th 2010 01:34
Someone wanted to start a philosophy discussion group, and asked me for recommendations -- introductions to philosophy, complete overviews, etc.

Here's some suggestions, but I'm definitely not the best person to ask; my experience is limited and has holes (a better bet is to drop any philosophy prof an e-mail


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A dozen notes and quotes #11

June 27th 2010 17:09
There's nothing more cynical than refusing to be a cynic.

***

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A dozen notes and quotes #10

June 16th 2010 08:50
The temptations of Oxford street: hookers, pubs, heroin, designer clothing, kebabs, and pizza.

***

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A dozen notes and quotes #9

June 4th 2010 03:24
For a couple of years I worked in data entry during nightshifts, 1am-7am, and it was repetitive, mindless, tedious, endless, but I used to walk out into the morning after a shift, and the sky was clear blue, and the night was fading, like it had never happened. You disappear somewhere, you disappear from yourself, you go there for a few hours, and when you return you pick up where you left off, only a little the worse for wear -- you're back from the alien abduction. Life goes on, the nightmare recedes.

From this perspective I have sympathy with similar accounts in literature


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A dozen notes and quotes #8

May 11th 2010 23:43
"He was high on intellectualism.
I've never been there, but the poster looks nice."

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A dozen notes and quotes #7

March 26th 2010 00:17
At Officeworks, a customer walks up to the information desk in front of a wall of paper.

"Do you sell paper


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A wartime story (Norman Lebrecht)

March 23rd 2010 14:00
From Norman Lebrecht, "Tales of the recording angel", La Scena Musicale, 31 October 2007: --

"Anne-Sofie’s father, Baron Göran von Otter, was a Swedish diplomat in wartime Germany, adjutant to the ambassador. On the night of 20-21 August 1942, travelling from Warsaw to Berlin, he became an involuntary witness to the Holocaust


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A dozen notes and quotes #6

March 4th 2010 23:51
Money is literally filthy. The coins that you handle every day -- well, they have passed through tens of thousands of hands, and through all sorts of situations. Who knows where the hell they've been.

***

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Test

October 18th 2009 13:06
Haven't posted in two months, so just a test to check that the account is still working.

Will write something new soonish.
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Some of the points I found interesting in the September 2007 podcasts.

***

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Philosophy bites: August 2007

April 18th 2009 05:24
Some things I found interesting in the August 2007 podcasts.

***

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