(Inspired by DavidW's post in The Chat Threat)
But what are some of your other serious interests? By this I mean one in which you've spent a significant time investment into learning more about it, maybe even possession some sort of expertise in the matter.
I'll answer mine in a bit.
I'm really interested to know where people's passions lie.
Besides music, I have always been passionate about water whether it be an ocean, river, a stream, a waterfall, etc. I'm also passionate about learning about different cultures and their traditions, geography, television sitcoms, film, and art.
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 26, 2012, 04:06:27 PM
Besides music, I have always been passionate about water whether it be an ocean, river, a stream, a waterfall, etc. I'm also passionate about learning about different cultures and their traditions, geography, television sitcoms, film, and art.
Water in what way? Simply learning about it in general, or something specific like water rights, water security, etc.?
What other cultures?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 04:08:18 PM
Water in what way? Simply learning about it in general, or something specific like water rights, water security, etc.?
What other cultures?
It's kind of hard to explain, but I'm fascinated by it -- the physical part of it. I'm interested in Native American and European culture (French, Czech, Hungarian, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Finland mainly).
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 26, 2012, 04:14:56 PM
It's kind of hard to explain, but I'm fascinated by it -- the physical part of it. I'm interested in Native American and European culture (French, Czech, Hungarian, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Finland mainly).
So when you say water, you mean the actual water, not some abstraction about water. That's pretty cool, actually. Very gaea-like.
What about those particular cultures drew your eye?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 04:17:32 PM
So when you say water, you mean the actual water, not some abstraction about water. That's pretty cool, actually. Very gaea-like.
What about those particular cultures drew your eye?
Yes, besides the water itself I'm fascinated by how it moves in rivers, oceans, waterfalls, etc. Again, the whole physical part of it.
I was drawn to Native American culture when finding out that my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee. The European culture has always been interesting for me because there's so much history there and people just treat each other much different in these countries than we do here or at least from what I understand they do. They value the simple things in life and this always appealed to me and I've tried to uphold this in my own life in some way or another.
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 26, 2012, 04:23:09 PM
Yes, besides the water itself I'm fascinated by how it moves in rivers, oceans, waterfalls, etc. Again, the whole physical part of it.
I was drawn to Native American culture when finding out that my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee. The European culture has always been interesting for me because there's so much history there and people just treat each other much different in these countries than we do here or at least from what I understand they do. They value the simple things in life and this always appealed to me and I've tried to uphold this in my own life in some way or another.
I admire that sort of interest in water. I share a similar fascination with it as well.
Thanks for fleshing it out.
You probably didn't notice this, being that we are in a music forum, but I have an abiding interest in history. No matter what other aspect first drew my attention to something, it is only a matter of time before I have at least a basic grip of its history. Thus, reading is my necessary corollary to everything else. :)
Golf. It is one of the few physical activities that has aged along with me. And I am passionately fond of it, despite that I never had the physical talent to excel at it (it requires just gobs of hand/eye coordination).
Long distance target shooting. Although I'm useless at ranges beyond 400 meters because my eyesight isn't up to snuff any longer.
Things that fascinate me;
Trains
Weather
Geology
Paleontology
Taxonomy
Fish. Aquarium fish, that is.
Dogs
Probably other stuff if I think about it. :)
8)
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Now playing:
(http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa159/Gurn_Blanston/CD%20Covers/Haydn%20Covers/HaydnHaselbckOrgancover.jpg)
Divertimento Salzburg \ Haselböck - Hob 18_07 Concerto in F for Organ 2nd mvmt - Adagio
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on April 26, 2012, 04:27:25 PM
You probably didn't notice this, being that we are in a music forum, but I have an abiding interest in history. No matter what other aspect first drew my attention to something, it is only a matter of time before I have at least a basic grip of its history. Thus, reading is my necessary corollary to everything else. :)
Golf. It is one of the few physical activities that has aged along with me. And I am passionately fond of it, despite that I never had the physical talent to excel at it (it requires just gobs of hand/eye coordination).
Long distance target shooting. Although I'm useless at ranges beyond 400 meters because my eyesight isn't up to snuff any longer.
Things that fascinate me;
Trains
Weather
Geology
Paleontology
Taxonomy
Fish. Aquarium fish, that is.
Dogs
Probably other stuff if I think about it. :)
8)
Well the history part I picked up in one of your posts talking about the classical era, and instead of suggesting music, you suggested books on rhetorical theory.
What about those listed things fascinates you? Like when you say trains do you mean actual trains or model trains?
Baseball Stadiums, mainly at the major's level.
I love the atmosphere, I love the sounds, the food, the drinks, the crowd and most of all the game.
But have always had a fascination for sports arenas, but mainly baseball.
I'm not going to be able to recall all of the things that interest me. This is probably true of many, but I'll simply post the most salient in my mind.
Intellectual Pursuits:
Media Studies: specifically fame and celebrities in the 21st century (integrating the history of fame with the advent of youtube)
Organizational Theory: specifically viewing them as organisms, looking at their inner workings, comparing the apparent with the actual.
International Politics: specifically Liberia, but I try to keep in touch with it all. I'm not really interested with the theory here but rather praxis.
Psychology: specifically the concept of identification. I'm also interested in grief and mourning.
Non-Intellectual Pursuits:
Skateboarding, Contemporary Art, Yoga, Hiking, Film.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 04:33:03 PM
Well the history part I picked up in one of your posts talking about the classical era, and instead of suggesting music, you suggested books on rhetorical theory.
What about those listed things fascinates you? Like when you say trains do you mean actual trains or model trains?
Trains. Both actually. I'm old enough for two aspects there; when I was a kid, steam locomotives were still operating freely in my area of the world, and how can anything be more interesting? The sound of a steam whistle in the middle of the night fires a person's imagination like nothing else. And the other thing, of course, is that one of my first 'adult toys' was an American Flyer, one of the great model trains ever. A microcosm of America, right on my ping-pong table. :)
Weather. How does it work? What are its extreme capabilities? Why is it prevailing a certain manner at this place at this time? You know? Only predictable in retrospect. Sort of like my first wife.... :D
Geology. Probably tied to my history fetish. Just a question of scale, isn't it?
Paleontology. My other early 'toy' was a box full of dinosaurs. Need I say more?
I was a professional aquarist for several years. Taxonomy and aquariums go together for people like me. I likely know more about fish than any other single subject. The beauty of watching them in a
good simulation of their own environment is unmatched for me.
Dogs. Can't really explain that one. I have had a many, only have 4 now. I once had 7 Scottish Terriers simultaneously. They were my pride and joy. Wouldn't live without a dog, that's all there is to it. :)
Golf. It is simply the most addictive game ever devised. Also the most difficult. If your experience of it is watching a professional on TV one Sunday afternoon, then you haven't a clue of the challenges involved. It is almost the only thing I have ever undertaken in my life that I wasn't immediately successful at to some degree. The pure pleasure of hitting the occasional perfect shot is indescribable. I could go on to say that putting it in the hole is damn near erotic, but what would you all think of me? Someone would call a mod! :o :D
8)
Quote from: Gurnatron5500 on April 26, 2012, 04:47:56 PM
The beauty of watching them in a good simulation of their own environment is unmatched for me.
Thanks for extrapolating. I found this statement to be the most interesting. I never really thought about fish in that manner. Thanks for that thought.
:)
Edit: Another thing that I've been investigating is objectification, being caught in the gaze, and what it means to be the sexualized other.
Taking Philo's template:
Intellectual:
- History broadly, with focuses on tactics and campaigns of the American Civil War; Theodore Roosevelt; the Ottoman Empire.
- History of thought on morality in the late 1600s through the mid-1700s. I wrote my master's thesis on the influence of 1650s sermons about human nature on the likes of Leviathan and John Locke.
- Geography and maps. At age 11 I placed 4th in my state Geography Bee and I still, at work, waste time by zooming in on places I've never been via Google Maps, or plotting walking paths across countrysides I've never visited.
- Cultural shifts to secularism.
- The novel, 1950-present; the contemporary movement to craft great 'entertainments' (Chabon, et al); novelists of all times whose primary concern was 'how to live', e.g. Fyodor Dostoevsky, David Foster Wallace.
Non-intellectual:
- Baseball. I am a die-hard Washington Nationals fan and study the major and minor leagues; I'm slowly but steadily learning the stats and 'sabermetrics' of the game, too.
- Food. Food food food food food. Nearly anything from tapas to burgers.
- Craft beer, specifically porters, stouts, and Trappists.
- Hiking.
- Comedy film and TV (Mel Brooks, Monty Python, Arrested Development, et al)
- Murder mysteries. PD James, Chandler, Christie, Columbo, or more frivolously Psych; see also Dostoevsky, Chabon, and Wallace
History
Politics
Economics & Business
Photography
Whiskey
Quote from: Brian on April 26, 2012, 05:53:04 PM
- History of thought on morality in the late 1600s through the mid-1700s. I wrote my master's thesis on the influence of 1650s sermons about human nature on the likes of Leviathan and John Locke.
- The novel, 1950-present; the contemporary movement to craft great 'entertainments' (Chabon, et al); novelists of all times whose primary concern was 'how to live', e.g. Fyodor Dostoevsky, David Foster Wallace.
That sounds like a wicked neat thesis. What exactly were their influences, in short, if you could?
What do you meant by great 'entertainments?'
Genre fiction & Eastern philosophy
Origami: I've been folding paper since I was a child. But it's no mildly entertaining hobby, it became more of an obsession. I have hundreds of books and magazines from countries all over the world. I've folded everything from the simple crane to complex insects and everything inbetween. I've folded models, created them, participated in the community via the email list for years, I've been in a club, and I've taught others how to fold.
But I have gradually lost interest in origami, I hope to find a new hobby. But for the years I was into it, I was REALLY INTO IT. :D
More minor obsessions: this will sound very boring but somehow I got wrapped into it. TV calibration. My first hd set was crap, and I wanted to find settings to make it look better. It's not really possible on that tv, but the more I learned the more I became fascinated by the science and art of calibration. I have a meter and paid software to adjust grayscale and color management system. I actually enjoy doing it. I used to use free software and I would use a spreadsheet to calculate errors (called dE's) to find the settings that minimized error, and I would spend several hours doing this every few months. ;D
I also have a bad habit of collecting headphones and ereaders. As any friends on facebook know, I obsess over the current news around amazon, bn, apple and the big 6 publishers. It's not anger at any one side, more like exciting because I think this emerging transition to digital for books is going to shape itself alot around these opening salvos between these big companies.
I also enjoy horror, I watch and read alot in that genre.
Quote from: Todd on April 26, 2012, 05:55:39 PM
History
Politics
Economics & Business
Could you expand or do you just mean in general?
Quote from: Ataraxia on April 26, 2012, 05:56:06 PM
Genre fiction & Eastern philosophy
Expand, if you would.
Quote from: DavidW on April 26, 2012, 05:56:42 PM
I also enjoy horror, I watch and read alot in that genre.
You don't say, old boy. 8)
Quote from: DavidW on April 26, 2012, 05:56:42 PM
What about astrophysics and maths that I can't pronounce?! ;D
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 05:57:32 PM
Expand, if you would.
Genre fiction: fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery. The reading and writing of it.
Eastern philosophy: Mostly Buddhism. It's what gets me through, you could say. Changed my life. Blah blah blah. ;)
Quote from: Ataraxia on April 26, 2012, 06:00:29 PM
Genre fiction: fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery. The reading and writing of it.
Eastern philosophy: Mostly Buddhism. It's what gets me through, you could say. Changed my life. Blah blah blah. ;)
Thanks.
Changed your life in what manner?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 05:57:32 PMCould you expand or do you just mean in general?
In general. I'm not an academic, so it's all very non-technical, though I do tend toward somewhat less popular areas (Great Man bios aside) - economic history and development, changes in international order and potential future developments, etc.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 06:03:46 PM
Changed your life in what manner?
It gave me better control over it, over my emotions. The minute I started reading a book on zen, everything clicked; epiphany city, bam bam bam. Since then (around 1990), I haven't looked back and I feel I'm a MUCH better person because of it. 0:)
Quote from: Todd on April 26, 2012, 06:06:19 PM
In general. I'm not an academic, so it's all very non-technical, though I do tend toward somewhat less popular areas (Great Man bios aside) - economic history and development, changes in international order and potential future developments, etc.
Thanks for that, Todd.
Quote from: Ataraxia on April 26, 2012, 06:06:40 PM
It gave me better control over it, over my emotions. The minute I started reading a book on zen, everything clicked; epiphany city, bam bam bam. Since then (around 1990), I haven't looked back and I feel I'm a MUCH better person because of it. 0:)
Thanks for that, Ataraxia.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 05:59:00 PM
What about astrophysics and maths that I can't pronounce?! ;D
The old research area in grad school was gravitational wave physics. I don't do that anymore though. I'm interested in fluid dynamics as applied to gas planets like Jupiter. I would like to learn more about that and possibly publish in that field someday. But it stands as a hobby now that I barely have time for.
Quote from: DavidW on April 26, 2012, 06:27:41 PM
The old research area in grad school was gravitational wave physics. I don't do that anymore though. I'm interested in fluid dynamics as applied to gas planets like Jupiter. I would like to learn more about that and possibly publish in that field someday. But it stands as a hobby now that I barely have time for.
I'll freely admit that all sounds awesome, and yet, I don't know what any of it really means, but it sounds really heady and important. 8)
Screw-ups, fuck-ups, rejects, perpetual victims, the mentally ill. The people for whom every day is a struggle for sanity and a glimmer of happiness.
Also, from the above, the moral problems of the individual vs. society. These are what drive my thinking and my writing.
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 06:45:09 PM
Screw-ups, fuck-ups, rejects, perpetual victims. The people for whom every day is a struggle for sanity and a glimmer of happiness.
Also, from the above, the moral problems of the individual vs. society. These are what drive my thinking and my writing.
Very cool. I'm also interested in oppression and its kith and kin. Thanks for sharing.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 06:46:32 PMVery cool. I'm also interested in oppression and its kith and kin. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. I added "the mentally ill" to my list. I guess the difference between our approaches would be that you are into systemic analysis, whereas I am more into simply delineating the emotional experience. Figures - I'm a drop-out!
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 06:54:20 PM
Thanks. I added "the mentally ill" to my list. I guess the difference between our approaches would be that you are into systemic analysis, whereas I am more into simply delineating the emotional experience. Figures - I'm a drop-out!
I don't know if it has to do with educational levels. You just have to go where your mind fits. I'm not good on that sort of level. Really anything to do with emotions, I'm piss poor at. I would wager that the kind of things that you write compared to the kind of things I might write, are read with much more frequency. I note this only because, when I check out my books for researching, and you see the stamp card nearly empty or sometimes non-existent, you realize that you have to press forth only because you find it interesting.
Very interesting! Here are a few of mine:
American History Especially from perspectives not often heard (women, minorities, the working class.) Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States has been revelatory.
Computer Programming This ties in to my job in software QA. I'm specifically working on honing my C# coding skills, but anything related to technology fascinates me.
Natural Living My wife and I are working on this together - learning lifestyle choices that are sustainable and friendly to the planet.
Cooking I've always loved food - I went through a big 'foodie' phase about 10 years ago. Now our focus is on healthy eating and food allergies - we currently eat mostly vegetarian, with some seafood mixed in. No red meat or poultry, though I do love to barbecue. And my wife is allergic to soy and dairy, so that presents a few more wrinkles to our diet!
Baseball and American Football As I grew up in New Hampshire, I'm a devoted follower of the New England teams (Red Sox and Patriots); as I now live in the Northwest, I'm a devoted follower of the Seattle teams (Mariners and Seahawks), though I'll watch any game, especially an NFL one!
Parenting With two young kids, this is only natural! We try for a gentle, positive approach based on the Attachment Parenting model. Also, our 6-year-old daughter has Asperger's, so we're learning as much about that as we can so we can give her the support she needs.
Travel Mostly we just fantasize about where we'll go :-[ since travel in our situation is a luxury. Hopefully when we're retired we'll be able to fulfill some of these fantasies! We are looking forward to 10 days in Maui this coming July, though... 8)
Oh... did I mention classical music? ;D
Quote from: classicalgeek on April 26, 2012, 07:16:36 PM
American History Especially from perspectives not often heard (women, minorities, the working class.) Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States has been revelatory.
Thanks for sharing. What exactly is interesting to you about those perspectives?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 05:55:58 PM
That sounds like a wicked neat thesis. What exactly were their influences, in short, if you could?
I wanted to understand where the 'Enlightenment' ideal of man as a reasoning, sympathetic animal came from. e.g., Adam Smith saw man in
Theory of Moral Sentiments as a creature whose moral judgments were naturally guided by forces like sympathy, compassion, and imagination. It's all very different from the traditional theological view of sin, inherent tendencies toward vice and evil, etc. What I found was that from about 1620-1650 we started seeing various English clerics and average-joe clergymen arguing against the sterner continental breeds of Protestantism by suggesting that for all his sinful tendencies man has good tendencies too. Then, when Hobbes published
Leviathan, members of the Church tried to take it down by disproving the 'nasty, brutish, and short' natural life of man - inadvertently suggesting for the first time that moral behavior and good deeds could be a natural tendency rather than a product of piety.
Quote from: Brian on April 26, 2012, 07:20:05 PM
I wanted to understand where the 'Enlightenment' ideal of man as a reasoning, sympathetic animal came from. e.g., Adam Smith saw man in Theory of Moral Sentiments as a creature whose moral judgments were naturally guided by forces like sympathy, compassion, and imagination. It's all very different from the traditional theological view of sin, inherent tendencies toward vice and evil, etc. What I found was that from about 1620-1650 we started seeing various English clerics and average-joe clergymen arguing against the sterner continental breeds of Protestantism by suggesting that for all his sinful tendencies man has good tendencies too. Then, when Hobbes published Leviathan, members of the Church tried to take it down by disproving the 'nasty, brutish, and short' natural life of man - inadvertently suggesting for the first time that moral behavior and good deeds could be a natural tendency rather than a product of piety.
Thanks for that summation. That sounds like a really interesting thesis. How did you come to choose this as your subject, rather than something else?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 06:57:11 PMI don't know if it has to do with educational levels. You just have to go where your mind fits. I'm not good on that sort of level. Really anything to do with emotions, I'm piss poor at. I would wager that the kind of things that you write compared to the kind of things I might write, are read with much more frequency. I note this only because, when I check out my books for researching, and you see the stamp card nearly empty or sometimes non-existent, you realize that you have to press forth only because you find it interesting.
When I mentioned I was a drop-out, I meant not that I'm uneducated but that I have an outsider perspective. I also don't really have the discipline for academic work (I couldn't stand doing all that undergraduate work on stuff that interested me not at all), but am a fair to good thinker in the narrow corners that interest me. I'm a much better thinker than I used to be, thanks in large part to 10+years of following Arts & Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) (admittedly I used to be terribly stupid, so the improvement is definitely only relative).
Re emotions, I think I'm generally regarded by people IRL as being relatively cold, but my experience is there's no practical benefit to allowing yourself to get worked up about things. Strong emotions are best partaken of only at 3rd hand.
Keep pushing with your research! I like the idea of being part of a great knowledge-building enterprise.
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 07:56:15 PM
When I mentioned I was a drop-out, I meant not that I'm uneducated but that I have an outsider perspective. I also don't really have the discipline for academic work (I couldn't stand doing all that undergraduate work on stuff that interested me not at all), but am a fair to good thinker in the narrow corners that interest me. I'm a much better thinker than I used to be, thanks in large part to 10+years of following Arts & Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com/) (admittedly I used to be terribly stupid, so the improvement is definitely only relative).
Re emotions, I think I'm generally regarded by people IRL as being relatively cold, but my experience is there's no practical benefit to allowing yourself to get worked up about things. Strong emotions are best partaken of only at 3rd hand.
Keep pushing with your research! I like the idea of being part of a great knowledge-building enterprise.
Ah! Sorry for the misunderstanding on my end. Thanks for clarifying it. Have you written anything that's been published or that I could see?
I feel you on the emotion issue.
Thanks. I'm hopeful that one day I can make some sort of contribution.
I'm another history guy, though my interest in that is only about 6 or 7 years old, so I've barely started. I can't narrow it down much; I can't think of any part of the history that doesn't interest me, but I must be most interested in intellectual history, cultural history, economics, technology and especially military technology, and the dynamics of state power.
I'm as interested in science as anyone - biology, geology, physics, astronomy, chemistry, materials science, computing. One thing I want to learn a lot more about in the relatively near future is 18th century science.
I used to have a big interest in philosophy, and even majored in it for 5 semesters before changing to religion. Now what interests me in philosophy isn't so much the details of someone's thought or whether we can criticize it, but just understanding what it was about that thinker's world that he or she was responding to, and how he or she influenced later people. I still read the occasional book, but for the most part contemporary philosophy doesn't grab me.
Before I got into history, my biggest interest was in religion. A sort of systematic interest; I'm not only interested in theology or sacred texts or ritual or music or whatever, but in all of it, how it holds together, how it works psychologically, and how it works politically. Unlike most English-speaking people, I'm as interested in Hinduism and Chinese religion and ancient Mesopotamian religion and new religious movements as I am interested in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. Also, I'm more interested in religion in practice than in religion in theory. In fact, to me, religion in theory (theology and so on) is interesting to me as a sort of practice: theology as performance.
I used to be interested in politics, but I fear that freedom and democracy are probably doomed, and that resistance to the emerging oligarchy is not only futile but self-destructive. I just hope I'm allowed to go on listening to music, reading books, and to save enough money to travel extensively before I die.
I have some interest in famous fiction, mostly because of its relation to history. But reading alertly is one of my strengths, and had my interests lied in that direction I think I could've been a critic or an editor. In my attempts to write fiction, I fail at dialogue. Very hard thing to do well.
Quote from: coffee on April 26, 2012, 08:04:36 PM
Also, I'm more interested in religion in practice than in religion in theory. In fact, to me, religion in theory (theology and so on) is interesting to me as a sort of practice: theology as performance.
Thanks a lot for that post. Could you perhaps expand a bit more on this idea above, I found it pretty interesting.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 08:10:58 PM
Thanks a lot for that post. Could you perhaps expand a bit more on this idea above, I found it pretty interesting.
Sure. It primarily means I'm less interested in something like "the essence of Christianity" than in what Christians actually do. Makes a big difference if we look a tradition like Hinduism, where you've got these famous, deep philosophical texts, but most Hindus in practice ignore them entirely. Someone can say they're wrong to do that, but I'm not interested in whether they're wrong or right to do it, only in the fact that they do it. (Edit: I'd also be interested in the motivations of the person who says they're wrong. Likely enough he's trying to use his knowledge of those texts to gain status. "I'm the one who's really doing it right.") Similarly within Buddhism: you go to Thailand and you won't find a lot of people spending hours in meditation; you'll find people praying to astrological spirits and so on. Within Christianity it means that I'm only interested in something like what Jesus meant if I'm studying Jesus; if I'm studying contemporary Christians I'm interested in what they think Jesus meant, which passages they cite and which they ignore, and so on, and not really whether they're right or wrong.
But when you get that way of thinking, then it is interesting to see how people use scripture and so on. The way the Bible is used, or the Koran is used, and so on, is interesting: When is it cited, and when does discussion go on without it? Is there a sense that things need to be put in context, or can you pull out a key phrase or sentence? Allegorical interpretation? Not what they say about these issues, but what the actually do - and if they say something about these issues, why they say that.
And then at a more cynical level, you can see individuals and groups using their knowledge of something (such as a text or anything else) to gain status within a community or a society, and sometimes you can see people resist that, for instance by claiming direct knowledge or experience from a spirit (or God).
That kind of thing.
Quote from: coffee on April 26, 2012, 08:26:37 PM
Sure. It primarily means I'm less interested in something like "the essence of Christianity" than in what Christians actually do. Makes a big difference if we look a tradition like Hinduism, where you've got these famous, deep philosophical texts, but most Hindus in practice ignore them entirely. Someone can say they're wrong to do that, but I'm not interested in whether they're wrong or right to do it, only in the fact that they do it. Similarly within Buddhism: you go to Thailand and you won't find a lot of people spending hours in meditation; you'll find people praying to astrological spirits and so on. Within Christianity it means that I'm only interested in something like what Jesus meant if I'm studying Jesus; if I'm studying contemporary Christians I'm interested in what they think Jesus meant, which passages they cite and which they ignore, and so on, and not really whether they're right or wrong.
But when you get that way of thinking, then it is interesting to see how people use scripture and so on. The way the Bible is used, or the Koran is used, and so on, is interesting: When is it cited, and when does discussion go on without it? Is there a sense that things need to be put in context, or can you pull out a key phrase or sentence? Allegorical interpretation? Not what they say about these issues, but what the actually do - and if they say something about these issues, why they say that.
And then at a more cynical level, you can see individuals and groups using their knowledge of something (such as a text or anything else) to gain status within a community or a society, and sometimes you can see people resist that, for instance by claiming direct knowledge or experience from a spirit (or God).
That kind of thing.
Man, I'm digging this thread. I figured that is what you meant. I view it in much the same way. Although, you've put a lot more thought into it. You're a really interesting cat.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 08:29:56 PM
Man, I'm digging this thread. I figured that is what you meant. I view it in much the same way. Although, you've put a lot more thought into it. You're a really interesting cat.
Well, that's nice of you.
I don't know whether you'd be interested, but the book that really opened my eyes to this way of thinking about religion was Middleton's
Lugbara Religion. Lots of anthropological stuff to wade through there, but ultimately what he's showing is how religious leadership works. There should be a simpler and more direct study, but I don't know if yet...
Quote from: coffee on April 26, 2012, 08:34:28 PM
Well, that's nice of you.
I don't know whether you'd be interested, but the book that really opened my eyes to this way of thinking about religion was Middleton's Lugbara Religion. Lots of anthropological stuff to wade through there, but ultimately what he's showing is how religious leadership works. There should be a simpler and more direct study, but I don't know if yet...
Thanks for that recommendation. I'll definitely put that on my "to read" list. Thanks a lot for that. :)
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 08:00:00 PMHave you written anything that's been published or that I could see?
No and no, sorry. Nothing in presentable condition. I spent my late 20s writing a big crazy book about Satan, in the style of William Burroughs, but it doesn't really represent where I am now. Over the last decade I've been getting to grips with plot and character, which most people think are essential, but which I'd prefer to do without! Mood and atmosphere is what really interests me. The other stuff is just the scaffolding, but the craft of building plots and characters has its own interesting qualities.
Re Buddhism, I read a useful introductory book years ago which was interesting for the clarity with which it laid out the difference between the supposed origins and the eventual resulting religion. Gautama seems to have believed that speculation on spiritual realms was useless. But it seems that is not what people want to hear.
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 08:55:50 PM
No and no, sorry. Nothing in presentable condition. I spent my late 20s writing a big crazy book about Satan, in the style of William Burroughs, but it doesn't really represent where I am now. Over the last decade I've been getting to grips with plot and character, which most people think are essential, but which I'd prefer to do without! Mood and atmosphere is what really interests me. The other stuff is just the scaffolding, but the craft of building plots and characters has its own interesting qualities.
I see, so you have plans to try and get published and what not or is this more for personal interest?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 08:57:58 PMI see, so you have plans to try and get published and what not or is this more for personal interest?
I definitely want to get published, but only started getting serious about this in the last couple of years. I wish I could go back in time and give myself a kick in the arse.
Ideally I will earn enough to quit work and write full-time (doing both is impossible once middle-aged tiredness has set in). But this will require having a "hit", and the odds of that aren't great.
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 09:18:55 PM
I definitely want to get published, but only started getting serious about this in the last couple of years. I wish I could go back in time and give myself a kick in the arse.
Ideally I will earn enough to quit work and write full-time (doing both is impossible once middle-aged tiredness has set in). But this will require having a "hit", and the odds of that aren't great.
Very cool. I wish you all the best in that endeavor. :)
Intellectual interests:
-science, mainly chemistry and physics
-history of science, mainly chemistry, physics, and maths
non-intellectual interests:
-TV shows: All Creatures Great & Small, Darling Buds of May, Morse, Lewis, Columbo, Frasier, 3rd - 7th season Simpsons, Futurama
-Sports (watching): Ice Hockey; the Finnish Championship series, international games, football (Champions League, European top divisions, international games)
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 09:20:10 PMVery cool. I wish you all the best in that endeavor. :)
Many thanks. All this positive feeling is very weird ...
Quote from: North Star on April 26, 2012, 09:23:56 PM
Intellectual interests:
-science, mainly chemistry and physics
-history of science, mainly chemistry, physics, and maths
Could you expand a bit or do you just mean them in general?
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 09:30:52 PM
Many thanks. All this positive feeling is very weird ...
Really?
Quote from: North Star on April 26, 2012, 09:23:56 PM
Intellectual interests:
-science, mainly chemistry and physics
-history of science, mainly chemistry, physics, and maths
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 09:32:08 PM
Could you expand a bit or do you just mean them in general?
In general.
Does anyone remember an old PBS series called Connections? It showed how a vast web of discovery and invention came about almost by accident, by an endless series of serendipitous mashups. I imagine this is how an ant colony exhibits intelligence, only ants are more like cells than self directed agents. Yet intelligence emerges in the colony, and something like scientific and technical progress emerges in human society even though no individual plans it or really has more than a tunnel view of a part of it. People are just curious, and adventurous. So this bottom up self organizing is responsible for everything our culture has achieved.
That's the kind of thing I like. I mean the show, and also that I learn things in that way. Intelligence is made of lots of stupid parts and the intelligence isn't planned for, it just happens when a certain set of conditions are met. And that's why it's so hard to make an intelligent machine, not because machines can't be intelligent or conscious but because even really smart designers are dumber than a slow process of accretion operating on a vast scale with all the time in the world. I think the machines will have to get smart on their own. And I have no doubt that eventually they will, just like us.
Anyway that's what I like, reading and thinking about that process, which is the reading and thinking thing that's me. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/Smileys/classic/cheesy.gif)
Besides music, my main intellectual interests are literature (incl. poetry and drama), history (in general and of anything), geography (I have a lifelong fascination with maps and I can spend hours studying them), political philosophy (particularly Paleo-Liberalism and Christian-Democracy). Non-intellectual interests: traveling, hiking, soccer (watching only).
If I try to think of the question in terms of how long I spend occupied with each interest, I sadly cannot even include "literature" given how much I neglected reading. I retain a strong theoretical interest in it, though. The things I tend to spend most time involved with are:
Collection maintenance and general preservation of books. I realised a year or so ago that working in the conservation field involves such a happy combination of factors that it became impossible for me not to try to do. The neatest thing is that it could combine typical "work" with things that are already strong hobby interest of mine: art, architecture, social history, assessment of worth and risk, and generally treating things with careful hands. It also gives me an excuse to push myself beyond my incredibly limited boundaries - i.e. I'm going to have to force myself to be more sociable than I would in a normal job (as networking is essential even to get a short-term paid position, as much as it terrifies me), get used to the idea that I will probably have to move to another area of the country, and even if I don't, I will have to for study as pretty much everything is in London. Even if I can't get paid in the end due to not being seen as a capable enough candidate in general (multi-tasking, teaching, and socialising is so important, brr) it'll have been great fun and will increase my skill-set a lot. Socially it's also amazing because of the lack of stressed or edgy people in this and many associated fields that I will end up dealing with.
E-sports. Seriously - it's taken over any need to watch real sport for me since I've discovered how hard the players train (often more than actual athletes), and how what is happening is more visually complex and relatable as a person who can just turn on the same game and play myself 30 seconds after I watch a high level match. It even has educational/cultural benefits - I now know an ungodly amount of things about South Korea, for example.
Cooking. I come from a family background with a very limited interest in experimenting with food. The designated cook mostly provided standard choices out of duty rather than passion, though they produced their usual recipes with great precision. I gradually got into cooking because curiously, this lack of creativity inspired my super autistic brain into not being scared by the randomness of experimentation. I produced food to the original pattern, then gradually tweaked the recipe until I was producing distinct versions of the same meal (lasagna, chili, etc). I am still far from confident so don't cook as often as I would like, but I have a house full of people to eat what I make, so if I become good at some styles I should have no problem with demand.
Art - to a highly limited capacity, as I do not visit major cities very often, but I cherish local exhibitions. There is a (sort-of) temporary exhibition of Tudor and Jacobean paintings nearby on loan from the National Portrait Gallery that I continually visit. As much as I like to collect art books, paintings experienced in person are completely different (much like music) and often much more richly detailed and vibrant. I include concertising in this because I experience both similarly - I don't live near a city so I don't attend performances with regularity, but this scarcity makes me value even standard rep.
Fashion. I am married to somebody who has a strong understanding of the area - they constantly prove me wrong when I have unvoiced concerns about "that cheap thing will look good on you?" or "that price totally isn't worth it" by how well they look wearing it in combination with other things. This has made me continually reconsider my own wardrobe, and I feel it's benefiting me a lot. Looking classically smart is nice, looking casual and eclectic is also nice, but the space between the two when both factors are still active and interplaying with each other offers a sense of engagement with what I wear that I couldn't experience until recently.
Edit: spam.
I have a strong interest in many kinds of popular music: '60s, '70s rock, blues, '60s and '70s country (Bakersfield, outlaw movement), folk music, among other things.
Anarchism
Classical literature/culture
Deserts
Geology, which I intend to make a career of.
Guns
Hiking
Invertebrate paleontology
History
Literature
Science in general
There are probably more I'll think of later, but that will do for now.
Quote from: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 09:18:55 PM
(doing both is impossible once middle-aged tiredness has set in).
Nonsense.
"Anarchism
...Guns"
;D
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 27, 2012, 12:03:15 PM
Of what variety?
Generally speaking, of the philosophical or theoretical variety. That said, I'm also interested in how anarchism affects the thought processes and philosophies of famous writers/thinkers like the beats and Edward Abbey. In a more indirect sense I'm also interested in how it can very basic anarchist theory can be applied to get people thinking in a moral, rather than legalistic sense. For example, focusing on whether something is wrong rather than whether it is illegal, and figuring out why the two do or do not intersect. (E.g. why is something wrong legal, or why is something that's harmless illegal?)
Quote from: Jim Rockford on April 27, 2012, 12:05:40 PM
"Anarchism
...Guns"
;D
I assure you, the two interests are unrelated! :D (I'm not planning a revolution any time soon, I swear...)
Quote from: Geo Dude on April 27, 2012, 12:25:56 PM
Generally speaking, of the philosophical or theoretical variety. That said, I'm also interested in how anarchism affects the thought processes and philosophies of famous writers/thinkers like the beats and Edward Abbey. In a more indirect sense I'm also interested in how it can very basic anarchist theory can be applied to get people thinking in a moral, rather than legalistic sense. For example, focusing on whether something is wrong rather than whether it is illegal, and figuring out why the two do or do not intersect. (E.g. why is something wrong legal, or why is something that's harmless illegal?)
I suppose what I mean is how do you understand the concept. There are some very different ways to define it, and being a political scientist, I am attached to that meaning.
Edit: Another thing I find fascinating is 1990s cyberpunk.
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 27, 2012, 02:55:07 PM
I suppose what I mean is how do you understand the concept. There are some very different ways to define it, and being a political scientist, I am attached to that meaning.
Edit: Another thing I find fascinating is 1990s cyberpunk.
Ah! I view the concept of anarchism through the lens of a political system aimed at eliminating the state, or more specifically, rulers and focusing on a collective society without rulers. I do not yet know enough about the subject (as you may have noticed, I have a lot of interests to split my time between!) to say much more than that.
History: Especially ancient, Roman and Egyptian. I have concentrated on patches. I am especially interested in how the individual can affect the world around them. But then I got into how inflation affected the ancient world, how economics drove changes. I read vast numbers of the Greek and Roman historians. I was fascinated to learn through that how truth and fact become such moveable feasts and latterly how tenuously many archaeological findings cling to any kind of respectable thinking.
Travel: I have a lot of back problems and these are getting worse. My wife and I downsized the house to release income to travel as much as we could for as long as i am able. Not exactly adventurous travel though. Most of it is to the obvious places and I enjoy writing about it, photographing what I see and blogging the results.
Photography: This from a non academic standpoint. I don't have any fancy equipment. For me it is about composition and colour and about the unique view, the partiality, the latent lies that any collection of photographs of one place tell.
Counselling: I practiced for over 25 years, but not lately. That required study for qualifications, now lapsed, and I enjoyed gaining insight into how we tick.
Management: I used to teach management and management theory. It became a chimera where a respected set of tools would suddenly be dumped for the latest fad. But I still deploy a lot of different management techniques in the jobs I now do.
Nudge theory: I was instrumental in introducing this into a part of the public sector, I have written about it and taught it.
Then there is looking at art, eating loads of food and generally nourishing friends and colleagues.
Nothing much on the active side. Watching Roger Moore raise his eyebrows is my kind of exercise.
Mike
Quote from: Geo Dude on April 27, 2012, 05:07:57 PM
Ah! I view the concept of anarchism through the lens of a political system aimed at eliminating the state, or more specifically, rulers and focusing on a collective society without rulers. I do not yet know enough about the subject (as you may have noticed, I have a lot of interests to split my time between!) to say much more than that.
I see. I don't know if I'd call that a political system, but that's not really the type of anarchy that I focus on.
Quote from: knight66 on April 28, 2012, 01:27:06 AM
History:But then I got into how inflation affected the ancient world, how economics drove changes.
Nudge theory: I was instrumental in introducing this into a part of the public sector, I have written about it and taught it.
I like that view of history. That's definitely a different way to look at things.
What's nudge theory?
Nudge theory is a method of influencing people to make what are likely to be good decisions for them and for society. It leaves them with all the same choices, but uses aspects of the theories to nudge them in a specific direction. It is used in the public and private sector, it can be an effective and cheap method of social engineering.
Example: we want school kids to eat more healthily, in the canteen we remove chocolate from the eyeline and replace it with fruit. The chocolate is available, but the nudge means more fruit sales and less consumption of sweets. That is a basic example and to an extent it involves the kind of techniques that are present in advertising, but instead of parting people from their money, it builds choice architecture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16943729
Mike
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 28, 2012, 10:04:04 AM
I see. I don't know if I'd call that a political system, but that's not really the type of anarchy that I focus on.
What type of anarchy do you focus on?
Well, coming in late to this thread - away in the mountains for a few days - my interests (many shared by my spouse) to mention some in no particular order include:
Travel - more local now (i.e. car trips) but more diverse & international in our earlier (and in my academic) years.
Wine - history & consumption - ;) - dates to the late 1960s; now visiting a lot of NC wineries (was at one today).
Woodworking - intermediate skills w/ a LOT of tools/machines (maybe better described as Tool Collecting!).
Art Collecting - since the late '60s; house is FULL of art of all sorts (some of which I've posted in the GMG forum over the years).
Music - history & listening (all styles pre-1960/70s); Susan is the musician & singer!
Computers/Electronics - have always loved these gadgets; read a lot; subscribe to a handful of mags, etc.
History - mainly American (esp. wars, Revolution & Civil, living where we do) & European; just been reading this stuff for years!
Reading - now non-fiction typically related to the topics listed.
Paleoanthropology - Darwin in my teens; anthropology undergrad courses; reading human evolution books for decades.
Golf - use to play; now mainly watch - going to the BMV Championship w/ my son, early September @ Crooked Stick.
I'm sure a few more will come to mind; of course, my career as an academic radiologist/research/teaching/writing cannot be ignored, but that was my JOB, now recently retired - Dave ;D
Quote from: knight66 on April 28, 2012, 10:24:19 AM
Nudge theory is a method of influencing people to make what are likely to be good decisions for them and for society. It leaves them with all the same choices, but uses aspects of the theories to nudge them in a specific direction. It is used in the public and private sector, it can be an effective and cheap method of social engineering.
Example: we want school kids to eat more healthily, in the canteen we remove chocolate from the eyeline and replace it with fruit. The chocolate is available, but the nudge means more fruit sales and less consumption of sweets. That is a basic example and to an extent it involves the kind of techniques that are present in advertising, but instead of parting people from their money, it builds choice architecture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16943729
Mike
That's fucking wicked, dude. Thanks for sharing. 8)
Quote from: Geo Dude on April 28, 2012, 11:05:34 AM
What type of anarchy do you focus on?
I focus on anarchy from a political theory perspective. Anarchy, in political science, is not a system in which there are no governments, in fact there are more governments in an anarchic system than any other. What anarchy means in political science is that there is no overarching authority, so that nations must utilize self-help because there is no one else to depend on. It's essentially a realist construction, so it has more play in the United States than anywhere else, but I feel it displays the world's working picture fairly well.
Quote from: SonicMan46 on April 28, 2012, 12:40:54 PM
Computers/Electronics - have always loved these gadgets; read a lot; subscribe to a handful of mags, etc.
Are you one of those people who has to have the latest gadget when it comes out?
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 28, 2012, 01:10:54 PM
Are you one of those people who has to have the latest gadget when it comes out?
Hi
Philo - no, I tend to be more cautious; never like to get an X.0 version of a software program, typically like to wait for the bug-improved update. Also, rarely buy into the newest released hardware - in fact, just purchased my first Blu-ray player & HDTV late last year (would have done it earlier but just lazy, I guess) - BOTTOM LINE, I like to wait a little to see what the 'early' problems may be? Dave :)
Quote from: SonicMan46 on April 28, 2012, 03:44:03 PM
Hi Philo - no, I tend to be more cautious; never like to get an X.0 version of a software program, typically like to wait for the bug-improved update. Also, rarely buy into the newest released hardware - in fact, just purchased my first Blu-ray player & HDTV late last year (would have done it earlier but just lazy, I guess) - BOTTOM LINE, I like to wait a little to see what the 'early' problems may be? Dave :)
Very sound. ;D I was hoping you weren't one of those Apple cultists. :P
Apart from the passion for classical music (All types but definite bias to the 20th century) im kinda crazy about all the arts
With art itself love the impressionists and the so called cult of beauty (Rossetti Waterhouse Berne Jones etc) also like to dabble into modern and contemporary art even though cant pretend to understand all of it :-\
Also love literature from Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys right up to the modern novelists Ian McEwan and plenty others
Cinema and Theatre are also a great passion and such directors such as Bergman O'Neill Haneke and Mike Leigh.
For guilty pleasures and in complete contrast like On the Buses and The Professionals
I think whatever interest it should be done with a passion 8)
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 26, 2012, 04:23:09 PM
I was drawn to Native American culture when finding out that my great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee.
I have a feeling a large percentage of us in the south have some sort of Cherokee ancestry...
Quote from: Mirror Image on April 26, 2012, 04:23:09 PM
They value the simple things in life and this always appealed to me and I've tried to uphold this in my own life in some way or another.
Too bad I didn't inherit that.
Quote from: Greg on April 29, 2012, 03:10:11 PM
I have a feeling a large percentage of us in the south have some sort of Cherokee ancestry...
My great, great grandmother is full-blooded Cherokee, for what it's worth.
Quote from: Geo Dude on April 29, 2012, 03:46:25 PM
My great, great grandmother is full-blooded Cherokee, for what it's worth.
Yep, that's what I mean. And the reason why all of these ancestors tend to be women:
Wikipedia:
QuoteIntermarriage with European Americans had occurred before the 19th century, generally between male traders and high-status Cherokee women whose families were seeking joint alliances. Some of the mixed-race sons of such high-status women became leading chiefs among the Cherokee; they gained hereditary leadership from their mothers' clans and used what they learned of American culture to benefit their people.
It was unusual for a Cherokee man to marry a European-American woman. The children of such a union were disadvantaged, as they would not belong to the nation. They would be born outside the clans and traditionally were not considered Cherokee citizens. This is because of the matrilineal aspect of Cherokee culture.
Interesting! I know very little about them, though, overall, besides Sequoyah and the writing system. Might make for an interesting study...
Quote from: Philoctetes on April 26, 2012, 05:55:58 PM
What do you meant by great 'entertainments?'
If you have a chance, seek out a little essay by Michael Chabon called "Trickster in a Suit of Lights." If you don't, the basic gist is that today "entertainment" is perceived by lit-crit and cultural elite as a contemptible pursuit for the masses - as in the essay's title metaphor. Basically we think that a work of art that's "entertaining" must in some way be junk food or empty calories - that for something to be really Important or Serious it can't also be sheerly enjoyable or else it's suspicious. And Chabon hates that - his essay's a sort of straw-mannish diatribe against that point of view. His career lives it out too - he's written a novel about comic books and a hard-boiled alt-history noir thriller, he published a Sherlock Holmes fanfiction novella, and he did some script doctoring on
John Carter.
So then: what's entertainment and what's nourishment? Is the difference worth heeding and taking sides over? I'm starting to think I could write a good undergrad paper about Chabon's "entertainment" versus the Entertainment in
Infinite Jest. Too bad I'm not an undergrad anymore.
Quote from: drogulus on April 26, 2012, 11:26:04 PM
Does anyone remember an old PBS series called Connections?
With James Burke?? I was more fascinated by the wonderful weirdness of James Burke himself, to be honest. Still the all-time #1 Alfred Brendel lookalike.
(http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Bio-BIG/Brendel-Alfred-09.jpg) (http://bilchamberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/JamesBurke1.jpg)
Quote from: Brian on April 29, 2012, 05:02:47 PM
If you have a chance, seek out a little essay by Michael Chabon called "Trickster in a Suit of Lights." If you don't, the basic gist is that today "entertainment" is perceived by lit-crit and cultural elite as a contemptible pursuit for the masses - as in the essay's title metaphor. Basically we think that a work of art that's "entertaining" must in some way be junk food or empty calories - that for something to be really Important or Serious it can't also be sheerly enjoyable or else it's suspicious. And Chabon hates that - his essay's a sort of straw-mannish diatribe against that point of view. His career lives it out too - he's written a novel about comic books and a hard-boiled alt-history noir thriller, he published a Sherlock Holmes fanfiction novella, and he did some script doctoring on John Carter.
So then: what's entertainment and what's nourishment? Is the difference worth heeding and taking sides over? I'm starting to think I could write a good undergrad paper about Chabon's "entertainment" versus the Entertainment in Infinite Jest. Too bad I'm not an undergrad anymore.
Thanks for that, Brian. I'll definitely keep an eye out for that essay.
Another thing I've been digging recently is a more personal connection with some of my professors through Facebook and Twitter. It's very interesting to see how they act in these 'wild west' forms, and I think it gives a view into some of their real interests, which are sometimes difficult to bring into the classroom. As an example, my one professor's love of the banjo. ;D
- beautiful landscapes
- good food, and cooking
- spending time with friends
- comedy
- particular television series
- history, especially 20th century history
- languages
- a girl whose name begins with H ;)
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 01, 2012, 08:36:47 AM
Which?
My two favourites are
'Life on Mars' and
'Ashes to Ashes', and some comedy series such as
'The Office' (the Ricky Gervais comedy series.)
I also enjoy the current T.V show
'The Apprentice'.
:)
Quote from: madaboutmahler on May 01, 2012, 08:50:19 AM
My two favourites are 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes', and some comedy series such as 'The Office' (the Ricky Gervais comedy series.)
I also enjoy the current T.V show 'The Apprentice'.
:)
The others I get! But that one deserves some explanation.
Hmm, apart from classical music:
- spending time with friends;
- reading, mainly the classics;
- physics;
- chemistry;
- history;
- philosophy;
- watching movies, especially the old ones (Hitchcock, Bergman, Chaplin, Marx Brothers, etc.);
- walking, especially in the countryside or in the mountains (I really like the beautiful landscapes);
- playing/watching football (Inter, Arsenal and Bayern Munchen).
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on May 01, 2012, 09:10:08 AM
- physics;
- chemistry;
- history;
- philosophy;
In general or something specific?
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 01, 2012, 12:29:53 PM
In general or something specific?
About Physics and Chemistry, in general; about History, I really adore everything till the end of the World War II. Instead about philosophy, I like the Greek one and the various thinkers of the 17th, 18th and 19th Century.
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on May 01, 2012, 12:56:35 PM
About Physics and Chemistry, in general; about History, I really adore everything till the end of the World War II. Instead about philosophy, I like the Greek one and the various thinkers of the 17th, 18th and 19th Century.
Thanks for expanding on that.
This is sort of a question I have. Many have said they are interested in a particular subject in general. How does that work exactly?
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 01, 2012, 12:58:17 PM
This is sort of a question I have. Many have said they are interested in a particular subject in general. How does that work exactly?
Hmm, well, I suppose they appreciate all the aspects of that particular subject, without restricting to some specific ones. Speaking for myself, for example about Physics, I like reading, learning and practising about many different arguments: Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics, Waves Mechanics, etc.
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on May 01, 2012, 01:24:51 PM
Hmm, well, I suppose they appreciate all the aspects of that particular subject, without restricting to some specific ones. Speaking for myself, for example about Physics, I like reading, learning and practising about many different arguments: Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics, Waves Mechanics, etc.
Ah. That makes sense. Thanks again for the reply. :)
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 01, 2012, 01:26:45 PM
Ah. That makes sense. Thanks again for the reply. :)
My pleasure. :)
Something that I can no longer do myself, but I still find so much joy in, is skateboarding.
This video sums up pretty well my feelings.
http://www.youtube.com/v/SpmJY_aAIoM
There's another video, as well, but I can't remember it right now. I'll post it when I do though.
Edit: Found it!
http://www.youtube.com/v/T9Pqg3Yo_b0
Speaking of television, I'm really in love with the following sitcoms: Seinfeld, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Wings, and Becker.
The films of...
Wong Kar-Wai, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Andrei Tarkovsky, Seijun Suzuki, Fritz Lang, Jean-Luc Godard, Takashi Miike, Peter Greenaway, Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Park Chan-Wook, Guy Maddin, Miyao Miyazaki, Werner Herzog, David Cronenberg, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano, Terance Malick, Freferico Fellini, Woody Allen, F.W. Murnau.
Sorry, couldn't pick just a few.
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on May 05, 2012, 05:35:59 AM
The films of...
Andrei Tarkovsky, Fritz Lang, Freferico Fellini, Woody Allen, F.W. Murnau.
I really like those directors too, especially Woody Allen.
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on May 05, 2012, 05:55:44 AM
I really like those directors too, especially Woody Allen.
Which Allen films do you enjoy the most?
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on May 05, 2012, 06:20:49 AM
Which Allen films do you enjoy the most?
Hmm...my favourite are
Scoop,
Love and Death,
Manhattan,
Annie Hall,
Zelig,
Deconstructing Harry,
Play it again, Sam and
Manhattan Murder Mystery.
What about yours?
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on May 05, 2012, 06:28:58 AM
Hmm...my favourite are Scoop, Love and Death, Manhattan, Annie Hall, Zelig, Deconstructing Harry, Play it again, Sam and Manhattan Murder Mystery.
What about yours?
Zelig! Absolutely Zelig, I keep thinking about one of the ending scenes at the Nazi rally, such ingenious filmmaking
Some of my other favorites are Shadows and Fog, Stardust Memories, Broadway Danny Rose and Crimes and Misdemeanors.
I'm a little bias though, I find some enjoyment in all of Allen's films.
Wookiepedia!
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jawa#Society_and_culture
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tusken_Raider#Society_and_culture
Besides classical music I also like:
Jazz, primarily from the '50s and '60s - actually, most styles of pop, r&b, country and rock from the same period.
Cooking, I love slow cooking stews, chilis and soups, also grilling and learning how to make recipes I used to think were difficult.
Reading, I have been a huge fan of William Faulkner, and Southern fiction in general, especially short stories - and dark, violent writing such as Cormac McCarthy, Larry Brown and Jim Thompson. I've also been into English period fiction like Jane Austin and Anthony Trollope - but not for a long while. I still love to read, but less fiction than historical books, mostly about the Classical era.
:)
I love walking over bridges. I always mutter to myself that this is the Pass of Caradhras and smile.
http://www.youtube.com/v/RCvUrVQSFy4
The feeling after the test.