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November 6th, 2010
09:12 pm - Practicality.
I've always been a very practical sort of intellectual. I learn lots of things that aren't immediately applicable, but I always do try to examine the practical aspects once those thoughts have solidified. Now though, the thought occurs to me that applying practicality too early can give the wrong answers. Take the issue of morality-you have two people with conflicting interests, and they aren't easily able to resolve this conflict. Morality says that both of these people are important, that each one should not be crushed down for convenience's sake. But say one person cares not for morality and tries to crush the other in order to make their own life easier-caring not about the person whom they harm. Utilitarian morality thus means that it is more moral for the person who does care about morals to win, because hey, nobody is really better off if the jerk wins. It is more moral for the nice person to win than the jerk. We can simplify this, and say that one person is 'good' and the other is 'evil'. It's a handy way of phrasing it, but it's where the problem comes in. People don't go around thinking 'it's the least worst of my options to kill the evil person'; they go around thinking 'it's alright to kill the evil person'. I hope it's clear why this is a bad thing.
This doesn't just apply to morality. We come up with all these practical shorthand rules in our heads, that simplify issues pretty clearly. When we simplify an issue, we're usually pretty good at making sure it works, and that it doesn't make us do the wrong thing. Nevertheless, when we try and build on that simplified knowledge, we start making mistakes.
Wow, just read back over this. Using morality as an example makes it sound really patronising.
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June 10th, 2010
03:23 am - Depressing anime endings are depressing.
We find our strength to strive for a perfect world from the fact that this world is not. That is why we suffer, and that is where and why we find the strength to endure.
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April 20th, 2010
05:40 pm - Walking.
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Seems to me that it's smartest to start off with a baby step. Baby steps build up momentum faster than large steps, and once you have even the slightest bit of momentum it's harder to stop walking. You can move up to bigger steps of course, but with a difficult journey, the most important thing is to begin with little tiny steps that you know you can make, that you will choose to make.
Hey wait a sec, this post wasn't about walking at all! Lousy misleading LJ titles....
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March 27th, 2010
05:53 pm - Philosophisationing.
In order to actually enjoy life, happiness has to be the exception, not the rule. Otherwise melancholy reigns eventually, and the lack of emotion is deadening. Ironically, even pain or other negative things defeat this handily. I wonder if many Emos are former hedonists. Emotion is a shortened way of saying 'energy in motion'. It pushes us forward, gives us purpose. Without that, we'd be nothing but well-built computers that can manipulate lumps of flesh.
That said, it gives us purpose, not meaning. That we have to find on our own.
I think I'm feeling a bit less emo now. :)
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October 29th, 2009
07:29 am - I'm whinging again. How surprising.
Well, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, a misnomer since it's gone International now) is on in November and I'm going to participate. 50 thousand word novel in one month. If that doesn't get me off my lazy butt, I'm doomed.
Work is blarg. Oh so very, very blarg. I've kind of hit the point where I'm hoping for something really dramatic to happen so I have a good excuse to leave. This is what I like to call 'The flaming baseball stage'. They always say that you shouldn't complain about your work online for fear that some future employer will read it, but I.....um.....well, I don't have a good comeback for that. Ah well.
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July 1st, 2009
11:37 pm - Hephalump.
My life at moment:
Get up at 7am sharp, turn off my alarm clock. Return to bed.
7:55am, wake up again and hurrieldy get ready for work.
8:30am-forever, Work. I've made a game out of trying to make people turn vegetarian by entailing what occurs in stuffing chickens.
5pm, get home, go on computer. Distract myself in any way possible. Hope that hedonism will make things feel better.
Anywhere between 11pm and 2am, go to bed.
I think sleep plays a part in there too, but I'm not sure where.
Current Music: The one that goes 'Say it ain't so, I will not go!'
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May 19th, 2009
10:25 am - ugh, work.
Broke a record yesterday. Extended double shift at work. Left home at 10:30am, got back at 10:30 pm. Someone shoot me if I ever agree to an 11 1/2 hour shift again.
Hopefully will get my Ls soon. It's sad that I still haven't. Would have put it off longer, but I need the I.D.
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February 12th, 2009
09:23 pm - This are why me have been disappearanced.
I have been really busy. So, so busy. I have no idea why people look forward to the end of school.
Been working full time (well, working full time trying to GET full time work, though a few job applications are looking promising) and have been consisting in a pattern of 'work, spend the next day resting up, and if I'm lucky enough to have the day after that free, I might actually get some work done on the twenty or so things I have going, like writing, or sauntering vaguely towards getting my driver's license, or doing training to teach me how to search for jobs better (Yay free courses!) and the more things I have on my plate, the less likely I am to get anything done.
...Stupid laziness and procrastination. Heck, I'd been meaning to post up here for the last two weeks just to let you all know the reason I've been so preoccupied.
Oh, and I've just realised I didn't mention it above, so I've deferred uni for a year and am trying to get full time work in order to be counted as 'independent' and qualify for Centrelink payments to help with uni. I do not deal well with hard work. Lazy bugger that I am.
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October 10th, 2008
10:34 pm
8 days until I finish classes. 8 days until DOOOOOOOOOOOM. Dooooom says I.....
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September 2nd, 2008
05:09 pm - Emoticons cheer me up.
Between Business students at the La Trobe Uni Open Day on Sunday and amusingly obvious scammers on certain online games trying to convince me to give them my account, I'm feeling a little cynical today. 3 pieces of assessment this week, although admittedly one of them is for Religion and Society, so I'm more or less planning to come up with what I'll say for my oral presentation on the spot. Not that that would be hard, but anyway.
Been thinking about Uni and other after-school stuff. Growing up sucks a tad bit. Maybe I'll study Writing and Drama, maybe I'll just hide in cardboard box until I stop feeling blue about it. Or until I stop whinging like an emo brat. ;)
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frozenbird's journal