The further adventures of web searchers

It seems there might be some research going on in someone home remedy department. Via a look at my StatCounter, I found one of my hits came from a search for can a tooth be pulled while on crack cocaine? So, first of all, just exactly who is expected to do the pulling? I don't want a dentist playing around in my mouth after smoking a rock or two. As to what effects the substance might have for those who are sitting in the chair -- I'll leave such experiments up to our intrepid web searcher.

Oh crud -- I'm 50

I awoke this morning to the bleeping of my cell phone alarm. It seems that today is my birthday ... the golden anniversary* of my birth. I have now experienced 50 years of life and just working up to this milestone has been murder. All I have to do now is find a place to hide the body until the heat dies down. With summer approaching, that might take some time.

[In the Why Not? Dept.]

*Feel free to send me ample amounts of gold, if you please. Also note that my birth falls in April, thus making diamonds my birthstone. You can throw a few of them into the pot as well. ;)

Things you miss when you are very busy elsewhere

Hmmm, seems as I have been working hard to get my book ready for the publisher and my blogging has been slow, the visitors keep coming despite my absence. I have noticed there is still an average of 300 visitors a day hitting the site, and sometime here lately, the 200,000th visitor, in accordance to the StatCounter meter, dropped by to visit. I'm sorry for forgetting to leave out a cold glass of lemonade. Forgive me, won't you?

My navel is pleased to report that it is unchanged from the very last report and feels badly to have not kept up with its nightly duty. I'll gladly take that blame, however, as I have been using the computer for other uses, so it is hard for my navel to do anything while I'm here. Strangely, it still seems to feel it has to accompany me wherever I go, though, so maybe the blame is not all mine, after all. End of report.

These days the rod never sees the light

I just caught wind of the story out of Florida about the little 5 year old girl who literally was arrested, cuffed, and detained in the back of a police car for acting badly in kindergarten. Although the situation is appalling, I was possibly most appalled by this:

The girl's mother, Inda Akins, said she is consulting an attorney.

"She's never going back to that school," Akins said. "They set my baby up."

I don't know, but I somehow figure that any child who attains the age of five and lacks the necessary respect for authority to do what this child did was likely set up by a tragic lack of parenting, more than anything else.

Of course, ya'll knew that, didn't ya?

OTBTJTB™

Apr. 24, 2005

Today's strip just gave us a simple reminder, appropriate, I suppose for springtime. Despite how you feel sometimes with all the crap turmoil that life throws at you, there always exists a quick fix. All it ever takes is a borrowed wheel chair grocery cart and a steep hill.

BTW, check out berkeleybreathed.com. I'll wait to rate it when Berkeley links the Eye on Opus archive.

Things to do besides cleaning house

Those boys at Jib Jab have gone Jewish Hip Hop. Be the first on your block to see it, 'cause you know all your friends will soon be talking about it.

I just don't know what to make of it*

Your Friday, April 22, 2005 Horoscope Taurus!

Your motivation to clean up around the house could be the start of an interesting chain of discoveries. Reorganize things in order to make them more compatible with new methods instead of the way they used to get done.

Is this a specific indication that I badly need to clean up my act, that I'll find a $20 bill I previously misplaced and now be able to put a couple of gallons of gas in my tank, or just your average Taurean spring cleaning reminder?

Your votes will be tabulated later this evening by some Florida Democrats, who've already promised that Al Gore will win despite not even being among the possible choices.

*This message was blessed by the spirit of Pope John Paul II.**

**Only it is truly a matter of faith.***

**Although I hope you know that I am also amenable to charity.

Concise but perhaps profound (Or, who's verbose??)

I have found myself thinking about the profound nature of one of Tig's recent posts:

My ego is exceeded greatly by my own insignificance.

Could this statement be akin to a very complex theory propounded by Michael Hoffman?

The ego-entity exists as a real set of patterns and dynamics, but the ego is not as solid, continuous, or powerful as it seems. The ego is both a set of real patterns, but also a projected, constructed image. In a way, the perceived ego exists, and in a way, it does not. The mind usually projects and constructs a fairly solid and simple image of oneself. Seeing the illusory aspects of this mental representation and feeling the absence of the accustomed sense of personal solidity can be experienced as death, as literal cessation of personal existence, because the naive mind strongly identifies with the projected image and the feeling of personal solidity.

Mental processing is structured with the conscious ego-representation as the center of control and experiencing. This representation of the ego is a dynamic set of mental constructs. The ego-entity at the center of mental processing is partly an illusory projection. The ego includes the deceiving, projected representation of the ego-entity. This deceivingly tangible representation of the self or ego is only a part of the ego.

In a dissociative cognitive state, the usual cognitive structures constituting the ego relax, loosen, and disengage, while remaining available to a degree, as a tool. The projection of the ego image also ceases, unless called upon. Oneself still exists in many ways, such as a body, a brain, a mind, possessions, and a personal past. One genuine aspect of oneself has temporarily ceased to firmly exist: the egoic cognitive processing, which is largely but not entirely suspended. The projection of the self-image is also partly suspended. Insofar as the mind confuses the projected self-image with that part of the self which is genuine, that projected self never existed, other than a perceptual illusion, and so the projected self could not cease to exist.

If the ego is defined strictly as the natural assumption that the mentally projected self-representation is literally oneself, then the ego is only an illusion. But such a narrowed definition of "ego" ignores the real cognitive structures that reliably project that illusion. The ego, as a mode or subsystem of mental processing, is more than just the illusory aspect of the ego projection. The ego, considered as an entire subsystem of the mind, is a large, complex, and dynamic set of mental processes, of which the deceivingly tangible mental representation is only one part.

Regarding insignificance, a physicist noted the following:

Humans seem to be extremely unimportant in the grand scheme of the Universe. This insight is often associated with Copernicus, who suggested (although not for the first time) that the Earth was not the centre of the Solar System. A bigger step towards calibrating our insignificance was taken by Edwin Hubble, who determined that astrophysical nebulae are really separate galaxies in their own right. We now think there are about one hundred billion such galaxies in the observable Universe, with perhaps one hundred billion stars per galaxy. But a metaphysically distinct blow to our importance came with the introduction of the idea of dark matter — we are not even made of the same stuff that comprises most of the Universe.

Apr. 22, 2005

There was a job opening in the country's most prestigious law firm and it finally came down to Robert and Paul. Both graduated magna cum laude from law school. Both came from good families. Both were equally attractive and well spoken. It was up to the senior partner to choose one, so he took each aside and asked, "Why did you become a lawyer?"

In seconds, he chose Paul. Baffled, Robert took Paul aside.

"I don't understand why I was rejected. When Mr. Armstrong asked me why I became a lawyer, I said that I had the greatest respect for the law, that I'd lay down my life for the Constitution and that all I wanted was to do right by my clients.

What in the world did you tell him?"

"I said I became a lawyer because of my hands," Robert replies.

"Your hands? What do you mean?"

"Well, I took a look one day and there wasn't any money in either of them!"

I actually became a lawyer in line with Robert's reasoning. That might be why I am broke most of the time.

Multifaceted Moona?

Found this little test while visiting Eric & Denita's blog.

You are the rare, the overlooked, yet incredibly useful dodecahedron: the d12. You are a creative, romantic soul. You often act without thinking, but make up for your lack of plans with plenty of heart. You easily solve problems that stump others, but your answers tend to put you into even deeper trouble. You write long, detailed backgrounds for all your characters, and are most likely to dress up as one or get involved in cos-play. You can be silly at times and are easily distracted by your own day dreams, but are at the end of the day you're someone who can be depended on.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

[Sneaking in the back door to post my own results on Moona's blurb:

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Tig]

Continue reading "Multifaceted Moona?"

It'd definitely stir shake things up

Jake Coyle of the AP was going through the possible choices for the next Bond, analyzing what each contender brings to the role. He even went as far as throwing a couple of possibly overlooked people who could play the role. I loved this one:

Christopher Walken: OK, so Walken is over 60. But who wouldn't run to the theater to see Walken play Bond? It would immediately be the most interesting movie of the year. In reference to one of Walken's Saturday Night Live skits, if there's one thing Bond could use, it's more cowbell.

Of course, trying to envision that might make me laugh myself to death. I chuckled heartily when I read it. Story source.*

*Of course, it might have already slipped down that where did it go? rabbithole.

It's nearing the end of the trail

The latest word from my editor is that the suggested changes should be coming my way somewhat later this evening, so I will likely be looking over such, and making such changes, modifying the text so as to fix whatever the problem is, or whatever, etc. As usual, if any of you want to look it over, leave me a comment. I am always looking for more input.