Author: Sysadmin

On a recent opinion piece from The Irish Times by Ross O’Carroll-Kelly

The column is written largely in pure quotations, so you can only infer who is speaking (although the author does give some signals). I use the same technique in poems. It seems sleeker than saying so-and-so says. I guess it is a bit confusing.

The column has to do with Ireland not being a nice place to visit. It is a bit odd because many Irish-Americans and others consider it a great tourist destination. I think many places that can attract you for vacation can be much harder to live in long-term. It is why I plan to leave my current city later this month.

Every place has its problems. One line from the column is  “I would rather rip out my own molars with a pliers than go on holidays in Ireland again.” People often want to leave their home countries for personal reasons. I told one school friend who stayed in his home country almost all his life the old saw that “still waters run deep.” He actually got a bit upset with me at the time for saying that.

More on Gatsby

“Those things excite me so. If you want to kiss me any time during the evening Nick, just let me know and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you.” “Look around.” “I’m looking around. I’m having a marvelous–”

This is what Daisy Buchannan says while entering a weekend party at Gatsby’s house. The novel was written in 1925 during official U.S. prohibition of alcohol. I think despite prohibition of alcohol, it was a more relaxed time socially, so Daisy, a married woman, could still be flirtatious with another man like Nick. And of course she has a more serious interest in Gatsby.

Flirtation interests me. I chat a lot with women online now because I am single and lonely. I think there is often an erotic energy between a man and a woman that is usually not acted on in actual physical terms.

On a pop line

“Yesterday’s got nothing for me.” –Axl Rose

Was thinking of writing about textual literature today, but I have been listening a lot to a Guns N Roses CD a lot lately. Eventually it seems to disintegrate into vulgarity, anger, and stupidity, but the first few songs like the one the line from taken is from seem good to me.

I think the song the above line is taken from is about the danger of nostalgia. Memory can be a trap. There is a line from a recent movie that “regret is a disease.”

I said this to a casual buddy lately: “I don’t really like heavy metal as as genre, but sometimes it does hit the spot.” I feel that way about Guns N Roses and a few other heavy metal bands.

Just a few thoughts on comedy

I like the current film comedian Kevin Hart. He seems to know how to handle self-deprecatory humor without being self-destructive. I think one of his stand-up shows was called “Laugh at My Pain.”

A quote from the recent Wall Street Journal conversation with Hart: “Life is not going to wait for anybody,”

Apparently, Hart said some mean things about homosexuals. Frankly, while I have no problem with the homosexual lifestyle as an adult choice that you keep to yourself, some gay people seem especially angry and violent. If you hit me first, I may try to hit back. Including police.

On King’s The Institute and a poem

A quote from King’s recent novel and a few random comments:

On page 277, “A couple of times he heard men talking, once quite close, but there was too much noise to make out what they were saying. Luke listened and chewed at fingernails that were already chewed down to the quick. What if they were talking about him?”

I think one of the things King is really good at as a writer is conveying the sense of paranoia. And this novel seems to do it well. Sometimes paranoia is justified. Everyone has enemies.

King is also a funny name for probably the most-successful fictional writer in the U.S. In a way, he is really royalty.

“Paid” by yours truly

“Yes, I paid for it. Not proud of it.”

“Did you like it? Do you really give a s–t? Will you stay for it?”

“Okay, enough of it, Good-bye.”

“Bye.”

On Bierce, Gandhi, and a recent sermon

“Cynic ] Cf. “The Town Crier” (NL, 9  Mar. 1872: 9), where AB encapsulates his philosophy in his supposed parting column: “Be as decent as you can. Don’t believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect–don’t have anything to do with them… Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.” –Ambrose Bierce

This was an interesting entry from The Devil’s Dictionary because Bierce was probably one of the most famous cynical writers in U.S. history. What is cynicism? I think it is mainly telling impolite truths that sometimes go too far. Someone asked me what it meant recently, and I said, “tired of everything and negative in attitude.”

“We must become the change we want to see.” –Mahatma Gandhi

One of my best students and essay-writers when I was a college writing teacher used this quote. Self-improvement and self-healing matter. But the statement can seem a bit trite; if your environment/community is abusive, such self-improvement is not easy.

On a sermon

The last Sunday sermon I heard was interesting. It dealt with different language  versions of The Bible: Jesus originally spoke in Aramaic, but for a long time the book was ancient Greek. Of course, there is the Old Testament tale of the Tower of Babel, in which people compete with different tongues imposed by God.

Most people seem to read The Bible now in English. I think this has to do with the widespread use of English since Shakespeare. Harold Bloom has been a bit hyperbolic about Shakespeare’s influence, but Shakespeare did change world culture. English has become a global lingua franca.

On a Bierce and a poem/joke

“X in our alphabet being a needless letter has added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language. ” –Ambrose Bierce

The entry in The Devil’s Dictionary goes on a few sentences longer. A few thoughts on the letter “x.” It is used to represent pornography in the U.S, , and porn is a huge underground industry. The letter also is unappealing in a way because it you can make you think of an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, which is often wrong. “Focus forward,” as the saying goes. And try not to be x-communicated from the Church.

“Don’t” by yours truly

Heard at a  rally by We-don’t-care Anonymous:

“We don’t care!

We don’t care!

Please don’t stare.

Please donut stare.

(Even if you are in the police and love donuts.}

Buyer beware!

Buyer beware!

Brush your hair!

Brush your hair!”

“On -stans” by yours truly

Heard at a protest outside my apartment:

“No more Tajikistan! No more Tajikistan!”

Maybe Kyrgyzstan. I have a little plan.

Or maybe Kazakhstan. Women from Almaty are almighty!

Just no one from Ashe(ville)-ghanistan. Please, done with that.

On an opinion piece

From today’s The Irish Times

“It’s useful, though, to consider that you can be up and down at the same time. Going for a walk you might consider some positive aspects of your day or life and this can bring about a sense of lightness. But within this lightness could be a cloud, probably in your stomach, made up of gloom about a situation or maybe an unidentified issue. Here, both up and down are happening at the same time. People dealing with grief or loss or who are in a generally anxiety-provoking situation – such as having their job under threat – might be familiar with this.” –Padraig O’Morain, The Irish Times

Just a few thoughts. I am not suicidal and consider suicide to be a sin that hurts the people close to you, but there is a balance for most people between sadness and joy. Milan Kundera has a book called The Unbearable Lightness of Being  that seemed similar to this article.

Some people find life to be a burden. Some seem to have found Kundera to have been a sybarite; I think he was he was just honest about sex. And I think he was honest about the problems of East European communism. My family has family friends from Hungary. That is wonderful country, but it was hurt by Russian communism.