On a Lighter Note
After the accident (see below) I slept until almost noon. I got up and spent thee day just hanging out, making phone calls, and sitting around. Guapo and I decided to try the whole camping thing again. Once again we strapped a canoe onto the roof, and this time we took my parents van to the beach.
The ocean this time of year is frigid. We swam anyhow, it's pretty fun when the beach is empty. We spent the night fishing for sharks, watching thunderstorms roll across the bay, and watching the full moon shine on the crashing waves. It would have been pretty romantic if Guapo was a female (named Bonita), or at least a lot better looking.
The next day we took the canoe into the ocean. It was pretty awesome. We put in in the Delaware Bay and went out around Cape Henlopen into the ocean. My aluminum canoe is made strictly for lakes, so it takes some pretty tricky maneuvering to stay afloat in the ocean. The tide was going out, so there was a current that looked like a serious river flowing out into the ocean. We kept ourselves between that current and the breakers and stayed relatively dry.
As soon as we got back to our starting point we saw a search helicopter fly very low over the point to the place in the ocean where we had just been. It got there, kind of circled around and then made a few passes over the bay and flew away. It was pretty exciting.
32 Comments:
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Sorry about the deleted comments. I decided to make them into an official post.
Im glad all is well Ian and that you had a splendid time with Guapo.
"The next day we took the canoe into the ocean. .... My aluminum canoe is made strictly for lakes..."
Hmmm, somehow I'm getting the picture of God thinking, "I've got to protect him again?! Sometimes I wonder why I ever made free-will."
El guapo
Ian come on, i'm better looking, you just don't appreciate my boyish good looks any more. The spark in our relationship is gone.
To MyNym: i doubt god thought that. Where's your sense of adventure? life is much more then just logic and big words, it is about passion and vigor and if you can't experience that when you're young, than when? God's world is so amazing and i want to experience it all as much as possible. it might have been alittle risky, but definitely worth it.
on different note, every comment you have posted, MyNym, that i've read anyway, has been negative. why the hate? it seems that you loathe the look machine and any of their ideas? why post then, why come on a site of people you totally disagree with on so many issues? i just don't understand your motives at all. I may be wrong.
(nah, I never wrong
Guapo is pretty smooth looking, but not smooth looking enough to make Ian play for the other team. . .
"Where's your sense of adventure?"
Maybe it's in the same place your sense of humor is. Hehe...
It's there when I windsurf out in front of a storm or out in the ocean. Something you've never done, I'll wager. ;-) Just because someone uses big words doesn't mean they haven't experienced life. After all, "That's stereotype." Okay, it does mean that a little. Lol.
As to disagreeing with and loathing, etc.... sheesh it seems you've got a mix of emotional goo there. Hmm, but let's think about it. If that is true then name one thing on which I am deeply at odds with the Look Machine on. You say it's everything so an example should be easy. ;-)
Other than philosophizing which I do in fact care about, yup, I'm just amusing myself. What of it? Do we have to be logical all the time? Isn't life meant to be lived? Hehe... At any rate, don't tell me what my feelings are.
mynym.. you say you are only jokeing right? then why joke everytime you talk? itts good to be serious sometimes but i do admit i see the things you say are negative, you hurt me when you insult (maybe jokenly) my friends, it is good to have fun but why negatively? i don't want to offend you, or make you angry but seriously maybe you should think about what you say and how it really effects peoples lives, you seem like a cool guy just realize with that free will god gave us he gave us power to speak life and death... i just think you should think about it... el guapo's girl
As to the joke, I'm sorry. I apologize. If I had known someone would be hurt by that then I certainly wouldn't have said it.
"i don't want to offend you, or make you angry..."
Cool... not to worry, I was told that there is hatred and loathing in my heart and I didn't take offense. ;) It's understandable because someone's feelings got hurt. But I did sit back and think about it for a moment anyway. My conclusion is that I'm not going to let someone tell me what my feelings are and then judge me by them sans sound argument. I prefer not to deal with such things nor subjective feelings in general. But will deal with them if necessary. I tend not to argue that someone else is motivated by visceral feelings or that something hurts my feelings. This isn't done in philosophy. It would be helpful if you are pointing to a pattern to use some examples. I have made both positive and negative judgments.... but yeah, generally negative. You're right. I'll try to be more sensitive to other people's feelings and how they can be hurt. Sardonic and laconic jokes are a way of life for me so I might not be that successful. But I did just edit them all out of this comment. So there is that! ;-) I will never always be a nice guy since I am not just a nice guy and don't intend to be.
But here again, I apologize for hurting your feelings. And to you too Guapo!
(....edit sardonic comment.... sheesh, that's like the fifth one, must resist!) =)
Later.
MyNym,
Sorry that you don't have (or at least respond to) emotions dude, I think that they are a really great part of life, and deffinately God given. But I just wanted to let you know, I thought that your joke was pretty funny, and I wasn't offended. I do sometimes wonder how God doesn't just get tired of watching out for me in all the dumb stuff I do and give up. So I got a good laugh out of it. I am happy (yes, emotionally happy) that you are going to try to be sensitive to us weaker far inferior beings who enjoy and suffer from emotions. Thanks.
hey mynym,you are a cool guy thanks for seeing my point of veiw and not throwing it in my face like some would do, i admire that, but i didn't mean to say that you couln't be sarcastic or joke around i would be a huge hypocryte to say that!!! just what i ask is to make sure that it doesn't offend or hurt any one... and i guess that was just a way to stick of for my boyfriend too, my name is beth by the way, and i hope that we can be good blogger friends:)
El Guapo -
(wow i never check this site any more, tons of people posted) but in any case...
A doctor with a mean sense of humor goes to meet her new patient in the exam room. First thing she says: "Well, Mr. Smith, as we discussed, you will experience some short-term memory loss."
"I am happy (yes, emotionally happy) that you are going to try to be sensitive to us weaker far inferior beings who enjoy and suffer from emotions. Thanks."
No problem... I can be a nice guy and emotionally feel that we should all be sensitive to each other's feelings. How does that make you feel? I'll be sensitive to your feelings in the moment and try to have feelings about your feelings... and you can feel my feelings too and then we'll all be touchy-feely together. All we nice guys. Girls don't seem to like merely nice guys? Ah well, we nice boys must be nice anyway. It is nice to be nice, after all. And pay no mind to the birds of prey circling and fighting in the background, we nice guys will be nice...even as we start to sweat as we do so. What are they fighting for? What are we fighting for? These are the questions without answers for we nice guys. After all, answers might be a mighty bit tricky for we nice guys. But what is this in the answers of all we nice guys, a creeping insensitive sarcasm?! Are we not merely nice? This insensitive sarcasm, with its skepticism that brings up the niggling matter of the truth? Are not all feelings true in themselves? It seems that even we nice guys want to attempt to wield the sword of judgment. But fortunately we nice guys keep our swords a might bit dull and rusty. Our iron does not sharpen iron. This is the only way we nice boys can be safe and don't cut ourselves or anyone else, after all. It is nice to be always sensitive... always nice. Perhaps we can make it our highest ideal, we nice little lambs. "...if the lambs say among themselves: 'these birds of prey are evil; whoever is least like a bird of prey, but rather its opposite, a lamb--would he not be good?' there is no reason to find fault with this institution of an ideal, except perhaps that the birds of prey might view it a little ironically and say: 'WE don't dislike them at all, these good little lambs; we even love them; nothing is more tasty than a tender lamb.'" We nice guys will pay no mind to the birds of prey, the practice of iron sharpening iron might be a mighty bit tricky for we nice boys. And even if a bit of irony creeps in inspite of ourselves, fortunately we keep our iron dull and rusted so that our swords can't cut very deep. We nice boys of the faith.
;-)
Ah, poetry.... or should we discuss things more rationally? You can get at the truth either way. I did not say you could not. Although it is a bit "ironic" for guys to argue in certain patterns. It was more that a poetic emotional position that has all the profound emotional, ethical and philosophical content of the Jerry Springer show "Don't be hatin'!" cannot be taken very seriously, than anything.
You seem to have assumed that the emotional is "weaker" than the rational or inferior?
"i hope that we can be good blogger friends:)"
I'm a nice guy, so I'm sure we can be. ;-) You seem like a sensitive honest person. I'm liking this whole "cool guy" thing. In the interests of furthering a cool personal image here is one of the websites I've made. (Not one dealing with alienating philosophy, hehe.)
http://mysite.verizon.net/watt2020/index.html
Not sure how you link on here but hopefully there it is. I just fixed my sisters computer the other day and got pictures she took off of it. Anyway, people who enjoy doing dangerous things on the water should try windsurfing! It's not that dangerous anyway. At any rate, I hope that helps make a cool image so people think I'm a cool guy. Then maybe I could be a nice cool guy! For the moment, too bad mere images fade into memory though...
;-)
Later.
MyNym, that was sarcasm, a joke. I think (as we argued about earlier) that emotions are an amazing part of life. I like them.
"MyNym, that was sarcasm, a joke."
Yes, a sarcastic comment, an insensitivity to emotions.... maybe you aren't a nice guy. You have some wit, perhaps I can help you sharpen and hone it. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 Note that we both might get cut in the process. ;-)
"I think (as we argued about earlier) that emotions are an amazing part of life. I like them."
Do you think it or do you merely feel it? What of courage? What of duty? Perhaps you would put your emotions aside for such things....or perhaps not. What of all the other times you have to put your emotions aside? I.e. almost any time when the emotional/physical does not match the guidance of the rational/metaphysical. If you *think* that emotions are amazing then you should seek a greater awareness by the mind, knowledge, etc., because that is generally the way you are aware. All art is greatly weakened by a decreasing awareness and increasing ignorance. E.g. a chef with a deep knowledge of the culinary arts often enjoys a gourmet meal much more so than a mere glutton. And so on. That is a small defense of knowledge and wit in general. It is possible to say much more in a process of sharpening and honing. And this can cut away some of the emotional so that it might be refined. To all the merely nice guys...careful, you might need a sharp wit to cut through something someday. Then what will you do?
MyNym, perhaps you have misunderstood me, {and who knows, maybe I'm understanding you : ) } I don't think that people should driven entirely emotions. There is deffinatly a time when you need to act in a particular way even if your emotions would say otherwise. I'm not saying that they are the most important thing in life or that they are how we should choose how to act, but I do think that they are very important. Just like the eyes can't say to the nose, you can't see so you're not important, the intelect can't tell the emotions that they are not always perfectly logical so they aren't important.
About the chef eating gourmet food, I agree with you partly but here is something that I have observed. When I eat gourmet food, I'm like "wow, this is really darn good!" and I enjoy it immensly. However the connesior (sp?) will be like "it's ok, just a dash too much tumeric and slightly undercooked, I would have used a different grade of meat and fresh parsley is much better than when it's dried, but overall it's pretty good" sometimes people who know so much and are so analytical about everything rob themselves of some enjoyment by being too critical.
speaking of food: the expression "you can't have your cake and eat it too," i find it weird and a bit confusing. i understand the basic premise that there are of things or situations people want which are often incompatible (having the cake and eating it). i don't know it's just a bewildering way of saying it. It would be a little clearer if it were written as you can’t both have your cake and eat it. Or you can’t eat your cake and still have it. Am i the only one to find this widely used phrase baddly written and baffling?
What if you don't like cake? you're screwed
-El Guapo
any thoughts MyNym (the wizard of words)
Ian I can't believe that you didn't flip over.
MyNym, that was freaking funny. You get the prize for the funniest comment of the week
Guapo,
Nope, no wit or wisdom here...I always thought that cliche is unclear too. Have your cake, not have it...what does it all mean?? I always thought you had your cake as you ate it in a miraculous convergence of space, time and matter. It makes as much sense to say you can never have what you want.... because once you have it, you can't want it. So you can't want what you have nor have what you want. Some people say this sort of thing in poetry and the like and there is some truth to it. But only because all our desires are for something more. "We were meant to live for so much more." But I quite disagree with the full-blown ascetic who assumes that the physical/carnal is all
corrupt or all that is corrupted. So do away with it and then you're "good." Christians can disagree with both the glutton and the ascetic as they enjoy what Nature offers while being thankful to the Creator for it. It's easy to notice that in a decadent culture like America many people are tending to gluttony. It is not as if people tend to sin by idolizing the metaphysical/Law... they don't even have much knowledge of it anymore. It is a great loss. The mind loses to matter and all the traditional vices become more common....
Matter: "I don't mind, you don't matter."
Mind: "I do mind, what's the matter with me?" Matter: "I can't change my mind."
Mind: "I'll keep that in mind. Mind me!"
Matter: "In the end, it doesn't really matter. Come along now..."
Mind: "Oh, nevermind."
Or in some cases:
Matter: "Hello...ello...llo...lo? Hey, why is there an echo in here?"
Notice how the word blonde was not mentioned, just some hypothetical cases. That's because I'm a nice guy. I
guess I probably lost the dummer back at the word "cake." Mmmmh, caaake.... It's the rhythmic/physical over the melodic/metaphysical that does it to 'em! ;-) That's probably a little too "deep" for a drummer. As is most thinking... hehe... I joke with you drummer. Or do I? Hmmm.
"About the chef eating gourmet food..."
Yeah, knowledge is a necessary condition for deeper enjoyment but not a sufficient condition. Yikes, "big words," just lost the drummer... Yes, there is something to the joy of infants and drummers as they eat and the like. You can see that light in their eyes of, "Mmmmh, it's tasty!" But with a deeper knowledge all of Nature is enjoyed to a fuller more fulfilling extent. Some things that are good become twisted vices that people need more and more of if they idolize the physical in itself. It takes the mind to be aware of matter, after all. When physical/emotional needs are idolized as in gluttony, etc., more and more is necessary. Until one day the remnants of a weak mind says, "How did it come to this?"
"Sometimes when I'm faced with an unbeliever, an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook." --Ronald Reagan
"Ian I can't believe that you didn't flip over."
Or flip out on me... but then, he's a nice guy, like me.
"You get the prize for the funniest comment of the week."
Thanks. So is it a free CD? Are you guys going to make some CDs or what? Maybe I'll get some music from David. I'd like to support you when you make CDs.
Hey, I agree with you about the knowledge thing. I think that a good musician has (or should have) a deeper appreciation for good music.
"Hey, I agree with you about the knowledge thing."
Cool, as you agree then you can sharpen your knowledge/wit and refine it to more and more clarity. Hmmm, I threw down the gaunlet and the craven drummer does not meet the challenge! Coward! Hehe... no excuses, no sniveling, I box you even though I don't know what I'm doing. Or would any clash really be attempting to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man? No, there is something more. So I think I'll just keep poking you.
Keeping with the cake example, there is a cake on a table:
The poet might say, "Look at the beauty of the cake, its image has meaning. Why, just the other day I walked past a cake and in seeing its form I caught a glimpse of transcedency!"
A nice guy might say, "Hey there's a cake. I wonder who made this cake. Let's be sensitive about the emotional reasons for why this mighty nice cake was made. Awww, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!"
An environmentalist might say, "This cake was made using some animal products. Other things were taken from my mommy Nature to make it too! I must protect her from you and other exploiters! I love my mommy Earth."
An intellectual might say, "Let's make sure we see the cake from all sides. See, each person has a different view of the cake... fascinating! Hmmm..."
Having already eaten the cake... the drummer's mouth would probably be too full, "Mmmph, thish ish good!"
Is there something more? I suppose there had better be...
Hmmm, I was doing some other things and my mind came back to what I just wrote there. I thought, "You know, some people, especially emotional people, might get hurt feelings." So here I am, Mr. Nice Guy that I am. If that's so, I feel your pain in as touchy-feely a way as possible. I really do...okay, maybe I don't. But in classifying different stances with respect to what is true and what is valuable, morals and values and the like, I was not necessarily disagreeing with anything fundamentally. Just sardonically noting surface patterns. I like the fact that people have different patterns and so on. And I like that people will stand up for things they feel are valuable, emotions, Nature, etc., unlike craven drummers who apparently have no values worth fighting for! Hehe.
As a nice guy, I would think, "hey here's a cake, I think I'll eat a piece. I wonder if MyNym would like a piece, I'll get him one... nevermind he's too busy sharpening his iron to eat cake. He's busy with the more important aspects of life.
Ps. I have fought the drummer, careful He's tough.
Guapo (talking in third person is great) would think: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm caaaaaaaaaakke (rub belly).... i'll definitely eat one big piece, i love cake. but oh noooooooooooo... wonder if there will be enough for Ian and MyNym to eat some also? (scratches head and thinks)
that's a problem. there no way i'm letting ian or mynym have some of this cake... IT'S MINE( feral look on face).... I'm full, and there is still some cake left.
(light bulb goes off in head)
So either i hind the cake or step on it until it becomes a messy paste..... They might find my precious.... so i'll mash it into oblivion... moral of story: if i cannot have my cake and eat it too, you won't have it or eat it.
"hey here's a cake, I think I'll eat a piece. I wonder if MyNym would like a piece, I'll get him one... nevermind he's too busy sharpening his iron to eat cake. He's busy with the more important aspects of life."
But then with well honed iron I might ironically point out that the poet believes in searching for cakes in dumpsters, while the intellectual believes in seeing things from the homeless side, while the environmentalist believes in recycling. Then someone who took the cake that looked pleasing to the eye and did eat of it says, "Was that white stuff on the cake icing or...?! Argh!!" I might note that I tried to tell you about being blinded by appetites! But did you listen, noooo... Ah well, Aristotle said that philosophy is lost on the young...and well, it usually is.
"Ps. I have fought the drummer, careful He's tough."
Oh yeah, he's tough. He's tough to me like a cake is to a fat kid. Listen to the silence, that's the silence of the lambs. Drummers will probably want to deal only in necessary conditions, not sufficient conditions. The base rhythmic and not the melodic...let alone the harmonic. I know what might be likely and yet I keep poking anyway. On the whole, it's may be best to be the drummer in any band. But best not go into why that might be... ;-)
You know, I think it's really cool how all the different kinds of people will look at one thing (I think you have over generalized people and fallen into some dangerous stereotypes, but that was probably on purpose). I think that all kinds of different people see little bits of the truth in all different places! It's incredible. Maybe there is cake in a dumpster, maybe there is cake in homelessness, maybe it's delicious no matter where you find it or what you think about it. Maybe there is truth in philosophy and maybe there's truth in blind apetite. As "all our Hands" points out, there is blood on all our hands, but there is also some aspect of the truth in all of us, some manifestation of the immage of God. I think that God's creativity and vastness is expressed perfectly through all of the diversity in the world.
"(I think you have over generalized people and fallen into some dangerous stereotypes, but that was probably on purpose.)"
You're half right. But the point is not that merely understanding patterns that is dangerous but that merely blindly falling into a pattern is. There are stereotypes/patterns out there that you can fall into that are dangerous. Generally it is not dangerous to note that they exist. Notice how the prejudice that merely recognizing patterns is dangerous per se is part of the current postmodernist cult(ure). This is part of what has been called "the closing of the American mind" because closing the mind to pattern recognition/"stereotype" as "dangerous" closes off vast amounts of knowledge. But often it is ignorance of patterns that is more dangerous.
"Maybe there is cake in a dumpster,"
Which then shouldn't be eaten...
"maybe there is cake in homelessness,"
Or maybe most vagrants are clinically insane, addicts, etc., which is why they are homeless, not because there is something good in it.
"maybe it's delicious no matter where you find it or what you think about it."
Maybe some things are declicious to addicts, etc., regardless all else. But isn't that what Eve thought about the fruit?
"Maybe there is truth in philosophy and maybe there's truth in blind apetite."
Nope.
"I think that God's creativity and vastness is expressed perfectly through all of the diversity in the world."
Nope. "Stereotype" qua pattern recognition is treated as a bad thing per se by some people because they are those who want to keep you blind to the patterns of this world so that you might conform to them. "Diversity" has become a buzzword among some people because there are those who want to say that deviance is diversity. Deviance such as the insanity, addiction, etc., of vagrants. I know you probably meant something else, etc. I'm just going by what is written. It's probably hard to express yourself using the language of the current cult ("stereotype," "diversity," etc.) I suppose. But at any rate, this is one for the archives. (Although I would have liked to hear how you "feel" that noting certain patterns is dangerous.) Later.
There's a mangled sentence in there but it's not worth fixing.
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