www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html

"I didn't mean by this that Java programmers are dumb. I meant that Python programmers are smart. It's a lot of work to learn a new programming language. And people don't learn Python because it will get them a job; they learn it because they genuinely like to program and aren't satisfied with the languages they already know."

"Which makes them exactly the kind of programmers companies should want to hire. Hence what, for lack of a better name, I'll call the Python paradox: if a company chooses to write its software in a comparatively esoteric language, they'll be able to hire better programmers, because they'll attract only those who cared enough to learn it. And for programmers the paradox is even more pronounced: the language to learn, if you want to get a good job, is a language that people don't learn merely to get a job."

http://alexthegirl.com/2008/07/290

"Overcoming this has been more mental than physical. It's about retraining my brain to walk the right way, to stand tall, to look forward, to be at ease instead of hunched over and closed off. To erase the negative curves and the awkward position. To fight the old tendencies and embrace the new healthy ones where I'm looking at life instead of looking defeated.

Thinking of this made me think of other things in my life that I've passed off as not a problem instead of fixing it. Things that were perhaps not working right but went unchecked and then just became a nasty habit that my brain accepted as right."

http://www.umass.edu/umassmag/archives/2001/winter2001/athens.html

the cultural theorist Stuart Hall puts it:
"I don’t think that we are whole subjects or whole identities or have a pre-formed experience outside of the process in which that experience is represented. I think we know ourselves when we see ourselves represented. . . . (We) recognize our evolving selves biographically in the stories we tell about ourselves – the self is a kind of endless set of narratives."

http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html

DH0. Name-calling.

This is the lowest form of disagreement, and probably also the most common. We've all seen comments like this:

u r a fag!!!!!!!!!!

But it's important to realize that more articulate name-calling has just as little weight. A comment like

The author is a self-important dilettante.

is really nothing more than a pretentious version of "u r a fag."

"the rum was like soy sauce. I'm serious. my cuba libre was fucking kikkoman and coke."

"their bean burritos taste like cat pee smells... kinda musty, kinda tangy."

"I generally don't have that much faith in the current justice system. I feel like 'justice' tends to be more about who has the better salesman."

"I'm going to poop a baby."

"there were a lot of hot older ladies in vancouver. we started calling it 'vancougar.'"

"I am not a box of porn hiding in the closet"

"my urethra is a wild goose."

"there's some irony in being hungry for hot dogs after a class on freud."

"if I were in charge of a day care, it'd be all strobe lights and air horns."

"the irritation of doubt causes a struggle to attain a state of belief" from c.s. peirce the fixation of belief

from some professors:
*ponders*"....you are both correct and incorrect....be proud of that, for that's complexity."

"and that is where counseling psychology and Madonna coincide: there is much discussion of the borderline, without any discussion of what exactly the borderline is between."

"I'll tell her you said, 'hi.'"
"okay, thanks"
"anything else you want to say?"
"'konichiwa, bitches.'"

"I don't understand how guys could do that."
"that's because you see women as actual people and not just life-support systems for vaginas."

"i'm glad you work here...it makes the days that my brain feels like it's about to fall out of my butt not so....brain butt falling."

the picture should probably be filed under "shit that's funnier when you're drinking." in a brazen display of "not being down with the lingo", we spent some time coming up with alternative meanings to the phrase "ridin' dirty." here is a selection:

-- winging it
-- making shit up as we go
-- paying with credit instead of cash
-- car full of drugs
-- sex with no condom
-- riding a horse with no underwear
-- riding a horse with no saddle
-- robbing a bank with no gun
-- riding a horse while drunk
-- refilling a beer glass without washing it
-- a car with only three working spinners
-- turning your underwear inside out instead of changing it
-- making out with someone after throwing up
-- flossing your teeth with hair
-- not washing your hands after using the bathroom
-- sitting down on an uncovered toilet seat
-- masturbating at a friend's house
-- sex with only boots or black socks on
-- dating someone's friend for revenge
-- sex in parent's bed

looking back, I like that some of them have ambiguous phrasing.

"I'll tell her you said, 'hi.'"
"okay, thanks"
"anything else you want to say?"
"'konichiwa, bitches.'"

"I don't understand how guys could do that."
"that's because you see women as actual people and not just life-support systems for vaginas."

"i'm glad you work here...it makes the days that my brain feels like it's about to fall out of my butt not so....brain butt falling."

the picture should probably be filed under "shit that's funnier when you're drinking." in a brazen display of "not being down with the lingo", we spent some time coming up with alternative meanings to the phrase "ridin' dirty." here is a selection:

-- winging it
-- making shit up as we go
-- paying with credit instead of cash
-- car full of drugs
-- sex with no condom
-- riding a horse with no underwear
-- riding a horse with no saddle
-- robbing a bank with no gun
-- riding a horse while drunk
-- refilling a beer glass without washing it
-- a car with only three working spinners
-- turning your underwear inside out instead of changing it
-- making out with someone after throwing up
-- flossing your teeth with hair
-- not washing your hands after using the bathroom
-- sitting down on an uncovered toilet seat
-- masturbating at a friend's house
-- sex with only boots or black socks on
-- dating someone's friend for revenge
-- sex in parent's bed

looking back, I like that some of them have ambiguous phrasing.

"he hasn't really grown up, but he can buy pretty much whatever he wants. he's basically tom hanks in big."

"what is peru's national sport? laser tag?"

"everyone needs at least one pair of shoes that make them feel like jump-kicking someone in the face."

"which deodorant is that?"
"I dunno, the one with the flavor-stripe."

"....yes, but chomsky also said, 'you're fucking ridiculous and ridiculous really isn't enjoying it.'"

and other pickings from my notebook:
"the zen pimp asks 'what is the sound of one hand clapping?' just before slapping his ho."

things to master: 1 - totally backhanded compliments.

"well, that's when I have the most trouble. I'd like to see how the master handles himself in those situations."
"the master flails."

"are you a hypochondriac?"
"only when I'm wrong."

"there is a limit to what you can blame on ADD. beyond that, sometimes you just have to consider the possibility that you might just be lazy."

"...it's interesting how place can cause us to close off another place. (me to Phoenix, you to Scottsdale) That's what is fascinating me...how and where the doors get closed..."
"well, I don't know that it closes me off. I was noting the strangeness."
"you said you didn't feel comfortable here"
"not unsafe, out of place."
"maybe me saying I feel unsafe is just a Scottsdale way of saying, 'I feel out of place.'"

"talked to r the other day. i guess he got into law school and will be starting there in the fall."
"I thought he was an engineer."
"he is."
"that's pretty awesome."
"i don't understand the reasoning, but i've never been able to comprehend people who make plans and stick to them."

"I want to be so rich I can use humans to play Jenga."

"I just brushed my teeth!"
"with what? a bean burrito?"

"you KNOW golem was a tweaker."

"sushi is basically a japanese burrito. this is why sushi is so close to my heart."

one of the smartest people I know:
"in high school, we did that experiment where someone drops a yardstick and you catch it to test reaction time. they said that 20 or 21 inches was borderline mentally retarded. I got 19."

and pieces of a much larger rant about a book::
"they make the statement, I shit you not, 'freud has mostly been debunked, but we can still see how he applies.'"
"that's like saying, 'unicorns don't exist, but if they did then they would most certainly support our theory.'"

"here's another quote: 'humans are innately aggressive.... society forces us to repress this instinct.'"
"well they aren't totally wrong on that point, but they are wrong in a fundamental way. everyone has the capacity for aggression. the purpose of society is to reduce the need for it or its effectiveness as a viable strategy."
"yeah, that's what I mean! 'not totally wrong, but fundamentally so.' I feel like they wrote half of this stuff as sophomores in college....I think my sophomore year was 'not totally wrong, but fundamentally so."

"something else that's interesting to look into: dweck's studies on how ideas about intelligence can make people act in incredibly stupid ways. she has a section of an article entitled 'making people stupid by telling them they're smart.'"
"she's got a pretty jacked-up face. I wonder if she looks that way because someone told her she was beautiful."

lin chi writes, "if you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha."
the Buddha you see is not the true Buddha, he is merely a collection of ideas you have about the Buddha. these collection of ideas about reality limit your understanding of reality. your concepts of what Buddha is and how he acts narrow your comprehension of Enlightenment. kill the Buddha and free your mind to apprehend true reality.

huang lei-mon writes, "if you see an individualist, slap the individualist."
an individualist who feels the need to broadcast his individualisticity (or bitchiness or assholicism) is not a true individualist. more often than not, he is just some annoying person with tragcially self-denying low self-esteem. such flagrant apathy and assholicism is less an assertion of identity than it is a mere imitation of true independence. slap the individualist; even if it doesn't make them stop at least it'll make you feel better.

hunched monks clicking chips
meditate on fate and choice
seeking clarity

"that'd be great if people had a mute button... oh wait, they do have that; it's called 'ipod.'"

"you'd make a good ninja except for the whole noisiness thing."

"she cut all her hair off? I'm a long-hair guy myself. not just for me, but for women too. what are you supposed to pull during a fight? I'm a hair-puller."

"I didn't like the new mars volta album. it was disappointing because so many people (whose music tastes I actually respect) told me how fantastic it was."
"see, that's how I was, I didn't like it at first time I heard it, but after like 15 times, it started growing on me. now, I really like it."
"so you're saying, I just need to let the cognitive dissonance take effect and then it'll be a great album."

other reflections:
I love being reminded that you forgot to pour yourself a drink by the searing of tabasco in your mouth.

"my website is only as interesting as my life is. seems pretty boring right now. I should do something about that."
"about your site or your life?"
"probably a little of both."

I realize that I'm not terribly old. given the proper circumstances, I can still convince myself that I'm, how you say, "hip to the jiggy." still, I've definitely reached another epoch of my life; I have begun prefacing more and more statements with "when *I* was that age..." "back in my day", "kids today..." and other substitutes for the phrase "fuck, I'm old." this is, of course, the beginning of the end.

eager for breakfast
but lacking sufficient funds
feast on condiments

"I may have grown up on punk rock, and I may lift my spirits with techno, but hip hop is my gospel. Even if I do come from a middle class suburban household, I still hear the message. Everyone, except for maybe the ultra rich, wants to rise above where they're at. It's Manifest Destiny. The roots of hip hop are instilled with that vibe. Even if the current wave of artists are less concerned about the message and more concerned about record sales, its spirit is out there. Let's just hope someone remembers what to do with it when it's rediscovered." --from Preshrunk via lj

"what's the name of the computer that beat kasparov?"
"skynet?"
"skynet's the computer in terminator!"
"well... it could probably beat kasparov too. skynet's a dirty cheater."

tom wanted credit for this
t:"I heard constantine was actually pretty good."
"well, it's good that it's good. I would've seen it either way because I'm a sucker for action movies."
t:"you're a sucker for keanu."
"what gave me away? the life-sized poster I have of him hanging over my bed?"
t:"no... that it's scratch and sniff."

"does she buy rubber penises in bulk??"

"you know how we used to joke about the nuclear reactor under tech [a huge building at NU]? campus nukes i want my own reactor."
"your gasoline powered vibrator isn't powerful enough?"
"no man. i don't like the fumes it gives off"
"I'm surprised you can smell anything in that face mask."
"it has nose holes... though sometimes i get carried away with the latex"
"that's a lot of set up. for like, what? a minute or two?"
"and years of hazy, braindamaged memories"

"how ugly do you have to be to be a ho wannabe?"

"you need pants that lift and separate."

note to tucson drivers: you're probably driving too slowly if you're getting passed by a fucking HOUSE.

"is there only one definition for perineum?"
"the area between the balls and anus?"
"yeah."
"think so."
"... why the FUCK is it the name of a medication in two of my dreams??"

"I'm not saying that's true, I'm just saying that's what they said. and come to think of it, what they said may be suspect.... we're talking about people who've been known to get tattoos instead of paying the electric bill."

"did I tell you about that dream I had where I was eating quarters?"

"he is the guru of all things lame."

"I feel so bad for him, I just want to kick him in the balls."

"you play poker?"
"nah. I always end up naked."

"new year's is a holiday for amateurs; people who don't ever party get all excited and retarded and have to 'do something' which translates to 'get stupid trashed, get all the cops out on the streets and generally fuck things up for people who've been partying the other 364 nights of the year.'"
"they mess everything up for the 'professionals.'"
"exactly."
"and by 'professionals', you mean 'alcoholics.'"
"basically."

“i was thinking the other day about what if we were all hit with a weapon of mass destruction, i'd be totally fucked in a mad max world. i mean, you don't need corporate lawyers or computer programmers in post-apocalyptic society. as soon as my spaghetti-os ran out, i'd starve to death.”

“final fantasy 7 is one of the main reasons I joined the air force.”

“what are you watching”

“some bond movie… ‘the world’s not big enough’ or something like that.”

“they need to install drool troughs at the apple store.”

“virgin mobile is charging to block yourself from dialing certain phone numbers to prevent drunk dialing... so you block them before you start drinking. awesome.”

unprocessed drifting
thoughts within lounging statues
languidly blissful