Index - fun, art, music, people, misc

• Texting (February 02, 2012)
• You can study Truth through fiction! (July 04, 2011)
• Books (June 29, 2011)
• Two Awesome Things: (1) The Perennial Sophia and (2) Life as Omnipresent yet Unmanifested (June 19, 2011)
• Navigating the deep and complex world of philosophical thought (April 07, 2011)
• Anathem (March 21, 2010)
• Surrogates, film (February 06, 2010)
• "Science Scouts" (June 17, 2009)
• The Devil Wears Prada (June 11, 2009)
• Public speaking (February 18, 2009)
• The Springer GTM Test (February 07, 2009)
• Rise of the Ancients (February 04, 2009)
• I drew a picture (February 26, 2007)
• Rock on (November 18, 2006)
• Quizzes (September 08, 2006)
• Inscription above the Gates of Hell (July 23, 2006)
• First Podcast Appearance (June 24, 2006)
• Geek Humour (June 15, 2006)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach (May 13, 2006)
• Cultural Interlude (April 06, 2006)

February 02, 2012

Texting

For the second time in my life today, I sent a text message. Wooo! The first one was to my brother, the second one was to a friend.

The text message to my brother worked great, although it took me a reaaaaalllyyy looooonggg time to type it in. Do people actually do this regularly? There is no way I'm going to incorporate texting into my day to day life because I would get interrupted 4 or 5 times before I even finish typing, it, and then I will forget what I wanted to say!!

But I'm glad I gave it a try. On my second text message, it said "Error! Not sent, saved in Outbox. Please try again later." Then I went into details and it said "Cause code: 96". Obviously, I called the tech support. I didn't know why texting worked with my brother and not with my friend. It also fails for texts I send to my husband. The helper said that I should check to make sure I put in the area code, even for a local call. He was right! Since my brother lives in another province, I had the area code in by default, but since my friend and husband live in the same province I hadn't bothered to put in the area code.

COOL! So I can do texting now.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 02, 2012 12:08 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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July 04, 2011

You can study Truth through fiction!

Recently, a friend described the storyline of a comic book series to me. As I listened, I realized that the story was a very true, very deep analysis of REAL human state of being, even though the story, plot and characters were fictional. I made an observation (and a revelation, to me, at that moment!) about how fiction enables us to thoroughly analyze a real human issue from many perspectives. Fiction wasn't just "all made up" but it could be seen as a critical analysis of a truth. I was blown away. My friend, (hello JF!), who has a master's degree in English, nodded knowingly.

Here's a similar story. I am currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It talks about groups of monks in European 1300s: Benedictine, Franciscan, etc. I got a sense that each group had its own notion of epistemology and ontology. In fact, if one group embraced a certain shape of knowledge (for example, had a concept of how the world came to be, or maybe the role of God) and further, if that shape was "wrong" then they could face severe consequences (persecution, punishment, death). My revelation was that by studying History, you could study lines of human thinking. The subtle differences in approaches become stark when punctuated with interpersonal conflict.

There, I am changed. I realize that you can study Truth through fiction. And through History.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on July 04, 2011 06:57 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 29, 2011

Books

I have been reading some fiction lately, and I think that these books all really stirred me. I've finished them all except A Thousand Splended Suns, where I am up to the last few pages. If I had to sum up what these books have meant for me, I'd say:

These books demonstrate how there are things that are normally dismissed away as unimportant, irrelevant. However, it is possible to put words to these things, and to show examples of their impact.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Angel by Colleen McCullough

A Thousand Splended Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The latest book is The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 29, 2011 06:34 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 19, 2011

Two Awesome Things: (1) The Perennial Sophia and (2) Life as Omnipresent yet Unmanifested

Hello. I hope you are having a nice weekend. :) I would like to share two equally awesome things.

First, Therion:

Second, a discussion around the concept of life presented by Eugene Thacker in After Life.

I am enjoying Thacker's book because it is teaching me how to grapple onto an elusive concept like Life and to turn it into familiar, well-trod territory.

(Note, what follows is my interpretation of Thacker's book, and I could very well be wrong about what he meant in the original work.)

For example, you can think of Life in this way: "Life" does not exist outside of living things. It is beyond every thing that is alive, but itself is unmanifested.

A second way to think about Life is superlative: Life is beyond and greater than living things, while at the same time it is always "within". Life is in excess of the living.

I might be wrong about this, but I need to try and distinguish these. There are three, but I have only presented two. I see that there is room for the divine to exist in the second sense of life. Some anthropomorphic Creator would be an example of superlative life. While the first presentation of life is more pantheistic.

The third shape is to think of "life-that-forms" vs. "life-forms". This is Theology and Biology. "Life" is the *relationship* between creator and creatures. Is the "creation" relationship directed or undirected? If it is directed, then God exists. If it is undirected, then the "Creator" is "flattened" to be of the same type as creatures. This is also kind of pantheistic to me. In my head, I distinguish this from type (1) in that Life in type (1) exists simultaneously in all the beings. Here, it's about Life being in the same type-set as as living things. "God is One of Us" vs. "Each of us is God".

Whenever I think about this shape of concept (Life vs the living, Being vs beings) I think about object-oriented programming and how instances of classes implement abstract classes. I think that this kind of philosophy can give us language to talk about different kinds of programming. For example, would a language like Prolog or Lisp fit into one of these "shapes" of life better than another?

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 19, 2011 02:58 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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April 07, 2011

Navigating the deep and complex world of philosophical thought

Recently in my life I recognized the value of using conversation as a tool for exploration. I also recognized that can be good to re-visit topics multiple times. (see Thinking in Circles is O.K.)

Since embarking on this worldview, I realized that I still need structure. For example, in Mathematics you have lemmas and theorems and proofs to scaffold the multitude of ideas and creativity. I LIKE this structure because it gives you something to build upon and grow from. But what is the equivalent in philosophy?

I guess that in philosophy you still have theorems and proofs. But there is a heck of a lot that can't be formalized.

Maybe each person has to build their own scaffolding.

I think that is actually the reason I maintain this blog.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on April 07, 2011 12:46 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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March 21, 2010

Anathem

It has been a long time since I've been able to pick up a novel. I started reading "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson. I am on page 29. LOVE IT! :)

I was frustrated for the first several pages because there were a lot of invented words. I was receiving a lot of input about a complex clock-like structure, a rich culture and some characters in a situation that did not have meaning to me. So I cheated a bit. I had noticed the book was sprinkled with definitions for the invented words, so I skipped ahead and read many of them. When I started to see connections between the characters' situation and the new words, I was able to relax and begin to enjoy the story.

When two characters started having a conversation about domains of causality, I whooped with delight.

They talked about the complexity of causal relationships, and about how you have to make trade-offs about the accuracy of your model and the amount of time you can afford "tending" the model. I love this stuff.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on March 21, 2010 08:06 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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February 06, 2010

Surrogates, film

I just watched the film, Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. I enjoyed it, pretty good movie.

A theme was that human-to-human contact is magical and real, and that "something" is missing in a world that seems great on the surface with virtually no crime or disease, but the only way that we interact with each other is through robotic placeholders.

Watching the two humans hug at the end of the film, I couldn't help but think that we still have vast gulfs between each other, even in our actual surrogate-free world. I mean, you can tell someone, "I love you," but don't you know how *hard* it is to actually communicate the depth and context of thee words, and all its reverberating dimensions?

I love a lot of people in this life. But I don't think that even words and flesh are adequate to express it.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 06, 2010 09:53 PM | Comments (1) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 17, 2009

"Science Scouts"

I learned about "Science Scouts" from Mrs. Comet Hunter. I LOVE collecting badges. I should have been a Girl Scout. Ah, well.

This page shall house the collection of badges I have awarded to myself. :)

The “talking science” badge. Required for all members. Assumes the recipient conducts himself/herself in such a manner as to talk science whenever he/she gets the chance. Not easily fazed by looks of disinterest from friends or the act of “zoning out” by well intentioned loved ones. (DN)

The “MacGyver” badge. In which the recipient has demonstrated that his/her science communciation prowess was handy in simplifying a potentially challenging scenario. For example, was able to escape from unjustified prison term, with the clever use of a paper clip and WD-40. You know, that kind of thing. (Note that display of badge must be accompanied by explanation). (JN)
(I have used my uber web programming skills to get a number of people out of pickles, whether it be by hooking up data projectors for them in the 5 minute panics before a presentation, or uploading something for them so they could access it from somewhere else, or finding creative ways to get a document to a printer..... I think that these technical support sorts of situations are TOTALLY worthy of the MacGyver badge because you have to be creative about using the resources immediately at hand in order to solve the problem quickly, i.e. before the person gives up on you and tells you they didn't need to get done what they asked for your help with in the first place.)

The “I blog about science” badge. In which the recipient maintains a blog where at least a quarter of the material is about science. Suffice to say, this does not include scientology.

The “arts and crafts” badge. Because you can’t have a bunch of badges without an arts and crafts badge. This one assumes the recipient has all manner of “craftiness” with a sciencegeek twist. (AC)
(To me, my science is creative. It is art!!!!)

The “I may look like a scientist but I’m actually also a ninja” badge. Lethal when in combination with the “destroyer of quackery” badge. (AC)
(I know a pretty scary tai chi move. LOL. I also actually believe that I am a ninja.)

The “will gladly kick sexual harasser’s ass” badge. (And we mean “ass” in the most holistic of ways). In which the recipient stands up to such miscreants in the work place. Places of science should know better. (SF)
(I HAVE actually kicked a guy like that in the picture before. I still feel sort of sorry for him, because he sure seemed like he was in a lot of pain. But he shouldn't have done what he did.)

The “I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I’m not afraid to talk about it” badge. It could get ugly when two or more of these recipients get together.
(I wasn't to sure about awarding myself with this badge, because I only actually work with a handful of languages on a daily basis.... but over the course of the years I have used many!)

The “I build robots” badge (LEVEL II) In which recipients have built a semi-autonomous robot. (R)

The “I build robots” badge (LEVEL I)

The “science deprives me of my bed” badge (LEVEL I). In which your science, due to lab work or fieldwork, requires an overnight vigil (KS).

The “I use twitter to spread science” badge. Science in less than 140 characters is beautiful too (DN).
(I totally do.)

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 17, 2009 04:56 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 11, 2009

The Devil Wears Prada

I had an "at home" day today because we're having some work done in our backyard, and I wanted to be around in case the crew had any questions or needed anything. So, baby and I watched The Devil Wears Prada.

(Spoiler alert! Don't read this entry if you haven't seen the movie and don't want clues about the ending.)

I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would. It's about a girl named Andy who just finished college, and discovered what many modern women are discovering these days: If you work hard - really hard, like you pour your WHOLE LIFE into a job -- you'll find that your world around you - your "non-job" life - it crumbles. Her family questions what what she's doing. Her friends tell her that she's "changing". She breaks up with her boyfriend. I could relate to Andy's situation, because I feel like that about my research sometimes: that if I were really to dive in and pour myself into my work as much as I actually want to (and not just as much as my life and my allotted spare time "lets" me), that the relationships I have with the people around me would suffer for it.

Andy learns that you really can touch the highest stars, if you keep sacrificing everything and you keep pushing.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. It's like she touched the highest stars, but then she didn't want them anymore. She quit the job that she'd been working so hard to excel at. I wasn't so sure how I felt about this. I guess her concept of what "the stars" were to her had changed. I think I would have been disappointed with the movie if she gave up her dreams just to "settle" so that the people around her would feel better. But she *did* end up with the sort of job she'd wanted right from the beginning, so that's good. It was a good movie; made me think. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. :)

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 11, 2009 04:22 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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February 18, 2009

Public speaking

I prefer to be by myself and am uncomfortable when put on the spot to say something in front of people I don't know very well. However, like most people, I've bumped into situations in my life where I had to stand up in front of a room and speak.

I'm not talking about teaching -- this, I'm comfortable with. I've figured out how to run a workshop-style environment and I can break people into groups and bring them back together for classroom discussions. I'm talking about the sort of situation where you have to speak continuously for 10 or 15 minutes.

As a perk of my job - we work a lot with student leaders - I've had the opportunity to participate in a lot of public speaking exercises and I'm gradually getting better. Even though I'm not good at it yet -- I speak too quickly, need to take deeper breaths, pause, and I say "umm" too much -- at least I know, superficially, how to improve and all I need is more practice.

However! (As Frozone finally gets to her point...!) My husband just recommended a TED talk to me, and I just watched it, and I had a "Wow!" moment. I thought, "Wow, a role model!" At this point in my life, I'm actively looking for women role models, and listening to this talk - Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity -- I realized that THAT'S the kind of performance I want to learn how to give. This woman spoke calmly, slowly, and yet she laughed and seemed to be "herself" in a sense, even though she was giving a talk. It's hard to tell what a person is like just from listening to them give a presentation for 15 minutes: is she like me? Is she a quiet person, or an extrovert? But regardless, I felt like I could really identify with her and learn a trick or two. I also loved her hair. heh.

So, the next time I have to give a presentation (thinking ahead to the 880 presentations M.Sc. students give annually in our department) I want to re-watch Elizabeth Gilbert for inspiration. It's one thing to take public speaking classes and to have someone tell you about breathing, etc. but it's quite another to watch someone in that situation and see a good example of how it's done. I'm so inspired!

(P.S. I thought the topic of her talk was good, too.)

Some related links:

• How to make an Effective Technical Speech
  
• Phizzle on Giving Talks
  
• Arlenna on Science Communication

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 18, 2009 10:21 PM | Comments (2) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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February 07, 2009

The Springer GTM Test

Heh heh... copying Gail:

If I were a Springer-Verlag Graduate Text in Mathematics, I would be William S. Massey's A Basic Course in Algebraic Topology. I am intended to serve as a textbook for a course in algebraic topology at the beginning graduate level. The main topics covered are the classification of compact 2-manifolds, the fundamental group, covering spaces, singular homology theory, and singular cohomology theory. These topics are developed systematically, avoiding all unecessary definitions, terminology, and technical machinery. Wherever possible, the geometric motivation behind the various concepts is emphasized. Which Springer GTM would you be? The Springer GTM Test

I only recently started using Google Reader to help me keep up with academic journals. (Thx to my brother for encouraging me to get up with the times!! By the way, in addition to newly using Google Reader, I am also a new Twitter user.)

Anyway, one of the first things I did on Google Reader was subscribe to the RSS feeds for as many academic journals in my area that I could get my hands on. I'm still such a newbie and have no idea about the "culture" behind the different journals -- i.e. which ones are prestigious and which ones are less well known. I also have no idea how to find more journals -- I mostly just have Springer ones on my reader. (Any other major academic publishers a girl ought to know about?? especially for Computer Science??)

Anyway, this posting doesn't really have much point other than I really got a kick out of playing this game. :)

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 07, 2009 05:09 PM | Comments (4) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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February 04, 2009

Rise of the Ancients

I was tagged by Mrs. Comet Hunter to play this fun musical game. Enjoy!

RULES:
a) Put your MP3 player, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle
b) For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
c) YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
d) Tag at least 5 people
e) Everyone tagged has to do the same thing (no they don't, actually)
f) Have Fun! (Step f is not required)

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Hand Me Down (Matchbox Twenty) -- Hope I'm not feeling down-trodden, like hand-me-down clothing???

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Calling All Angels (Lenny Kravits) -- Teehee, well I am rather sweet!!

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Dante's Prayer (Loreena McKennitt) -- I guess you could say I like the meditative type....

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Mr. Cab Driver (Lenny Kravitz) -- Hmm, I don't drive very often...

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz) --What's with all the Lenny???

6. WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
The Piano Man (Billy Joel)

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
What You Want (Hayley Sales) -- It's nice to be wanted!

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
The Warning (Nine Inch Nails) -- Uh oh!

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Bringin' Da Noise ('N Sync) -- haha! I do enjoy causing a ruckus, if it's for a good cause.

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?
My Bloody Valentine (Good Charlotte) -- Eeew.

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Squeeze Box (The Who) -- Not sure how to interpret that one.

12. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
40 Oz. (D12) -- Ack, not quite!

13. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Young & The Hopeless (Good Charlotte) -- I hope not!

14. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Rude Boy Abroad (Bedouin Soundclash) -- Attracted to the bad-boy type??

15. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Lecture 09: Human Genetics (MIT OpenCourseWare Introduction to Biology) -- OOps, how did that get in there?

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Battle Theme (Nobuo Uematsu) -- Final Fantasy VI Video game soundtrack. Will I die in battle?? :D

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Crazy (Seal) -- Yeah, I guess my interests are crazy...

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Future Love (Seal) -- Heh. Another duplicate, though. Is my shuffle working??

19. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Boxer (The London Unity Orchestra) -- ??

20. WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Something In the Air Between Us (Sopphie Milman) -- I do often feel romantic...!

21. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
The Legend Of Ashitaka Theme (Princess Mononoke Soundtrack) -- ?

22. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Rise of the Ancients (Tracy Bush - Warcraft III soundtrack)

I'm having a hard time with the "Tag 5 people" part because I really have no idea who reads my blog. Here's a shot of a few people I know who've visited my blog before and who haven't been tagged yet:

1. James
2. Gail
3. Darren
4. Chris
5. Jim

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 04, 2009 09:12 PM | Comments (1) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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February 26, 2007

I drew a picture

I drew a picture yesterday (Sunday). It's not finished but I wanted to post it anyway. Sometimes works in progress are just as enjoyable as finished products, right? ;-)

I struggled and struggled with the hair but I just couldn't do it because my pen-and-tablet always makes jerky lines instead of nice big swooshy ones like I can make with my real pencils on paper. Maybe I should invest in a better tablet. Or a scanner.

'Anyway it was fun.

Oh, I forgot to do her eyebrows!

Posted by Frozone Permalink on February 26, 2007 08:42 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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November 18, 2006

Rock on

I dare you to watch this movie of me playing the guitar.

Warning: I don't know how to tune a guitar.

Warning: I don't know how to play a guitar.

Enjoy!

Posted by Frozone Permalink on November 18, 2006 09:53 PM | Comments (5) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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September 08, 2006

Quizzes

Posted by Frozone Permalink on September 08, 2006 10:52 PM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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July 23, 2006

Inscription above the Gates of Hell

Inscription above the Gates of Hell

THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY, THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.

Doesn't it just make you want to step through, to see what it's like? To see if I, as a human, can experience what is on the other side, and then to return as a stronger person? It's probably this same sadistic thinking that drove me into the computational sciences -- so challenging and difficult, but yet so rewarding in the end. =)

Dante Alighieri himself read this very inscription and was guided through the gates by his guide, the poet Virgil. I'm reading Dante's Inferno from the Divine Comedy - translation by Allen Mandelbaum.

In my University days I avoided English classes like the plague; 'never took any at all, having fulfilled my humanities requirements with a variety of Philosophy courses. Perhaps it's because I'm older now that I'm able to appreciate this.... well, poetry.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on July 23, 2006 12:29 PM | Comments (7) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 24, 2006

First Podcast Appearance

Check it out -- I'm in a podcast!!

See Planet Andrew, go to Podcasts, then go to Episode #3 for Saturday, June 17, 2006. He's used the M4A format so image clips appear at various points in the 'cast. You'll see a skewed picture of myself and Andrew - who works with my husband at NeuralNet - as he interviews me about fine cuisine and wrangles with Adam, another NNI employee. Previous to the interview with myself, Andrew speaks with the intelligent PowerBook G4!!

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 24, 2006 09:40 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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June 15, 2006

Geek Humour

The fact that I find this hilarious is unforgivably geeky of me.

After I finished my overview of a paper called "First Principles of Instruction" that describes content mastery levels of Knowledge / Comprehension / Application, I said to myself, "Cool - so, how can I apply this to my project?"

And then, I realized that that I myself was progressing through the content mastery levels from knowledge and comprehension to application of these three levels in my own AIEd system project. Hahaha! Get it? *looks around hopefully*

Posted by Frozone Permalink on June 15, 2006 08:36 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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May 13, 2006

Gödel, Escher, Bach

My husband and I were in the book store one day, and while I was looking for a book on beginner neurology (I never did find one, sigh) I stumbled on an amazing book that I had believed to be out of print - it is called Gödel, Escher, Bach. I immediately called my dad, whom I know had been looking for this book for some time. I asked if he'd like me to buy him a copy and he readily agreed.

My dad borrowed the book from one of his friends when I was in high school, and when I picked it up, I knew I was interested, but I was unable to appreciate much more than Escher's illustrations. Now, after I've gone through the Computer Science program at the U of S, I understand things like modus ponens, Turing Machines & complexity theory (well, most of the time), and loop strutures; it was now much easier to grasp what the author was talking about.

I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but the gist of it so far seems to be that it's an exploration of how sufficiently complex systems can begin begin to exhibit patterns of self-awareness. This immediately reminded me of another, much younger (2004), book that I've read recently: On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.
He describes a memory-prediction framework where an artificial system may be able to exhibit intelligence if it followed the same memory-prediction framework that our own human brains are using. (In fact, the whole reason why I was looking for a book on introductory neurology in the first place was because I'd read Hawkins' book and I wanted to learn a little more about brains.) So, one characteristic of intelligence is self-awareness.

[Afterthought: Is that why smart people are self-conscious?]

Anyway, I fully intend to borrow Dad's new book from him after he's had a chance to read the "new" (1999) introduction in the new print of this book.

In the meantime, I have quite enough to chew on - I'm still trying to make a hard connection between domain ontologies, RDF-generators and AIEd systems. Oh, and I also have to call the city today because apparantly they'll be planting a tree in front of our house. Cool. :)

Note to self: Continue searching google scholar for 'pedagogical ontology'.

Posted by Frozone Permalink on May 13, 2006 09:27 AM | Comments (0) categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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April 06, 2006

Cultural Interlude

the terrible thing about hell
is that when you're there you can't even tell
as you move through this life you love so
you could be there and not even know

but you say so what I'm doing just fine
the irony is that it's all in your mind
and that's why hell is so vicious and cruel
but you'll just go on an oblivious fool

--Phish, "Shafty" in "The Story of the Ghost" 1998

Posted by Frozone Permalink on April 06, 2006 11:01 PM categorized under fun, art, music, people, misc
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