Synaxis TV

…it’s a blog! But if you want to think of it as an away message, that’s ok.

So, there are two choices. Either we destroy humanity to save it or we carry on with the hope that it will repair itself. I once told a friend that I would respect his stance if he came to the conclusion that humans should be removed from the earth for the sake of all other living things, so I can understand the former position. Aside from my skepticism over the latter, this is a difficult question anyway for a nihilist.

My conclusion of late (influenced by Getting Things Done mind you) is that it does me no good to think about grand questions. My actions are still limited to immediate existence (kind of like the Buddhist parable about the arrow), and as long as I have that figured out on some level, then I’ll know what to do. I know that my actions have ramifications beyond the immediate, but I don’t have the resources to figure those ramifications out, and I’d probably be wrong anyway since I am in a dynamic environment that is constantly changing.

As for the manifest content of the film, I thought it was good, especially the scenes where they were using the fear drug. It was really interesting to have such a vivid example of the difference between “reality” and our experience of “reality.”

Back to the latent content though, I kept thinking of the world that we live in and how helpless and frail we are. If there was an actual savior in this world like Batman (or God) then I would be able to hope without feeling like an idiot. Does that mean I have the answer to the movie’s grand question?

Or perhaps movies like this distort our vision of what a savior is. As a (naturalistic) pantheist, I believe that GOD exists. It’s you, me, everything. So maybe I/we should stop looking for a savior out there and manifest it in ourselves through love, kindness, and solidarity. Or even just holding the door open for someone.

My succession of dreams has unfolded in such a way as to demand I write about it.

Last night I had a dream that LauraMS told me she wanted to get back together and such. I was hesistant and skeptical but she said she realized some things and that was that. In the dream I obliged though I had that “this isn’t right” feeling in the back of my head. What’s weird is that I don’t really ever remember having positive dreams about LauraMS (before or after the breakup — a warning I should have heeded). But that’s not as weird as the dream I just had.

In this dream LauraMS and I were at some concert when she had to go to the bathroom. It was dark so she wanted to borrow the light I always bring with me to clubs and concerts so I can read during downtime. Only I had trouble finding it and she was actually flexible about it! She said that if I couldn’t find it she’d just make her way and kind of laughed, and I was amazed.

Then (in my dream remember) I grabbed her and told her that I had just remembered this crazy dream I had the night before. Somehow I was able to show her my blog where I had posted about the dream just so she wouldn’t think I was lying or crazy. Part of my in dream and out of dream logic was that I have had dreams about her (well one) that were prophetic, like the one about her seeing a new guy shortly after we broke up (I told her about my dreams but she didn’t let on about the new guy until a couple of weeks after that).

When I woke up the dream/real lines were still a little blurry and I had to really think to figure out what had happened. I don’t really know why my brain does this. Though it’s been a year and I feel great in general and with regards to that relationship. Maybe the dream is a sign of that. An indicator that I’ve made peace with her in my head. But I still don’t want to talk to her in reality.

Pretty soon we’ll all just be batteries.

I read an interesting article a while back about some plastic that generates a charge when flexed and using this to power electronic devices by putting it in the soles of our shoes. More recently I came across a similar article that talks about using the up and down motion of backpacks to generate a charge.

My question is, why don’t we take this idea further? Why don’t we have gyms where the bikes and treadmills are connected to generators? If not set up for usage by our local governments then at least co-ops could take advantage of them.

A line in the article states, “Pound for pound, food contains about 100-fold more energy than batteries,” and it makes me wonder how long it will be before human labor is used for precisely this reason — pure energy.

I spent the day going to Japanese, talking to Blanton about grading and my project, and getting some books at the library about content analysis.

Later I went to dinner at the Lafayette Brewing Company with Suzanne, Becka, Greg, Elizabeth, and Alan, where I had a great with with Elizabeth about listening to ska and how she got into the Unitarian Universalist church.

After the LBC Suzanne, Becka, Alan, and I went to see the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but Alan had gotten the time wrong, so we got there too late. I wanted to go to Staples and Target, but Suzanne didn’t think we had enough time, so we went to Dairy Queen instead, where I got a mutant dipped cone. We decided to take a break at HSSE efore seeing the movie and I found a great article on prostitution in Thailand. As for the movie itself, it was just ok. There were some funny parts, but I wasn’t expecting another love story.

I finished up the evening by making some changes to my website, the results of which I was quite happy with, then had a chat with George’s friend Suzie about queer Japan.

Wouldn’t you know it, another love story.

Though slightly more interesting, or at least different, than most. This movie didn’t quite deliver it for me, though some parts were quite humorous, but leave it to me to get all deep and shit.

I had that feeling again. None of this is real. We’re just meat machines trying to make meaning out of that simple fact.

So, what does that mean (no pun intended)? Well, nothing. Except that we are completely free.

That is all.

P.S. God is the ultimate meaning giver. Think about that.

In 205 Blanton talked about the relatively recent invention of the kilt. Then I talked to Suzanne about the value of close-mindedness when we went to lunch at Subway. In 505 we had a great talk about Bourdieu vis-a-vis agency and the fluid nature of culture conceived as habitus. After class I went to eat with Suzanne again, this time at Arby’s, where we had some wonderful peanut butter shakes. We ran into Hubert on the way so he ate with us and told us about how the “Numa Numa” song became the theme for his trip to Poland. I finished up the evening with some grading.

There! Are you happy!!!??

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Today I started off with a trip to the lab to finish up some work on Ethnoquest. Then I went to a talk for Sandra Barnes’s new book, The Cost of Being Poor, with a stop at Von’s afterwards. After that I went to dinner with Suzanne, where we talked about India and acceptance theory, captured in a diagram I made of our conversation, inspired by my hyper mood. From dinner we moved on to Borders where I got some lip balm, then to Nubreed so Becka could get her nose pierced, and then to Harry’s where Becka through popcorn at me.

When I got to 505, where we talked about Levi-Strauss and exchange, I found out that the paper I had been working on all day wasn’t due yet. After that I was up until 4 a.m. toiling with Ethnoquest, with a break at dinnertime for a trip to La Fiesta with Mark.