I found this quote in a book and i needed to write it down somewhere.
Discourage litigation. Persuade neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of becoming a good man.
-Abraham Lincoln
Discourage litigation. Persuade neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of becoming a good man.
-Abraham Lincoln
The way a crow shook down on me
the dust of snow from a hemlock tree
has given my heart a change of mood
and saved some part of a day I had rued.
-Robert Frost
I'm supposed to have a draft of that paper on Rwanda done today. It is not done. I'm also presenting my research in class. My research is lacking. It's going to be a rough day.
School aside, and its pretty damned hard to put school aside, things are pretty nice here right now. The weather is getting warmer and the last of the snow is melting off the ground. (Maple) Sugaring season has come and mostly gone. I took my first long walk in a while this afternoon. I don't get out enough. I love where I live. I love it because it is beautiful. I haven't had time to take advantage of that the past few years. That's bullshit. I have had the time. I've had plenty of time. But rather than use the time to get outdoors or to get my work done I've used it to blot out the world with video games. I drown out the responsible voices in my head with audiobooks and video games and TV. The last four years have been really, really bad, and I wonder how much of that badness I've caused by my failure to stand up and smash the things I've been using to shut out the world.
I spend a lot of time at a coffee shop a few towns over. I always order Turkish coffee, which I recently discovered they all hate to make. They've been nice to me anyway, so now I order tea. Anyway, the staff and the regulars all called me the Turkish guy before we got to know each other. Now they know me as Charlie Turkish, which I think is kind of funny. One of the other regulars gave me a kefir grain today, and I'm wicked excited about the possibilities.
the dust of snow from a hemlock tree
has given my heart a change of mood
and saved some part of a day I had rued.
-Robert Frost
I'm supposed to have a draft of that paper on Rwanda done today. It is not done. I'm also presenting my research in class. My research is lacking. It's going to be a rough day.
School aside, and its pretty damned hard to put school aside, things are pretty nice here right now. The weather is getting warmer and the last of the snow is melting off the ground. (Maple) Sugaring season has come and mostly gone. I took my first long walk in a while this afternoon. I don't get out enough. I love where I live. I love it because it is beautiful. I haven't had time to take advantage of that the past few years. That's bullshit. I have had the time. I've had plenty of time. But rather than use the time to get outdoors or to get my work done I've used it to blot out the world with video games. I drown out the responsible voices in my head with audiobooks and video games and TV. The last four years have been really, really bad, and I wonder how much of that badness I've caused by my failure to stand up and smash the things I've been using to shut out the world.
I spend a lot of time at a coffee shop a few towns over. I always order Turkish coffee, which I recently discovered they all hate to make. They've been nice to me anyway, so now I order tea. Anyway, the staff and the regulars all called me the Turkish guy before we got to know each other. Now they know me as Charlie Turkish, which I think is kind of funny. One of the other regulars gave me a kefir grain today, and I'm wicked excited about the possibilities.
True or false: The notion of love at first sight is a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Why?
Edit: I'm not sure I used the fallacy correctly. Here's what I think. I was washing the dishes the other day and thinking about an old friend. I went to boarding school in tenth grade. I was kid of a shy kid when I got there. My very first morning I was sitting at a window in the dining hall eating my breakfast and looking out over the green hills of Vermont, utterly blown away. So this girl comes and sits down next to me, right, and I'm really not that used to that kind of thing. You know, getting attention from girls. Anyway, she's staring down at this sketchbook the whole time we eat our breakfasts, but we manage to have a cutely awkward conversation. The only thing I can remember about it now is that her granddad ate bacon and eggs for breakfast every single day for 50 years. Anyway, I was pretty instantly attracted to her, and she was pretty attracted to me too, unless I'm very mistaken. We never ended up dating because we were young and insecure and proud and afraid of each other. I ended up in a very long term relationship with I girl I didn't like half as much, and she ended up in several mid-length relationships with some pretty fantastic guys who all ended up driving her crazy. All that was 12 years ago, but the two of us have always stayed in touch, and I think we've pretty much always stayed in love, but it's a friendly type love not a romantical love.
So here's what I was thinking as I was washing the dishes the other day: I'm in love with this girl, who is now a woman, and it was definitely all fireworks from that first meeting. But I don't think it's really fair to call it love at first sight. I didn't love her when I first saw her. I thought she was really cute. The loving came much later after I got to know her a heck of a lot better. I think it kind of sells love short to think that it can happen in a second. So by post hoc ergo propter hoc I meant, the notion of love at first sight seems to imply that you fell in love because of the first sight, whereas I think you probably just fall in love after the first sight. It kind of falls apart when you consider that you really couldn't have fallen in love if it weren't for the first sight, but I don't think you fall in love at that first sight. I think you just know love is a possibility.
Edit: I'm not sure I used the fallacy correctly. Here's what I think. I was washing the dishes the other day and thinking about an old friend. I went to boarding school in tenth grade. I was kid of a shy kid when I got there. My very first morning I was sitting at a window in the dining hall eating my breakfast and looking out over the green hills of Vermont, utterly blown away. So this girl comes and sits down next to me, right, and I'm really not that used to that kind of thing. You know, getting attention from girls. Anyway, she's staring down at this sketchbook the whole time we eat our breakfasts, but we manage to have a cutely awkward conversation. The only thing I can remember about it now is that her granddad ate bacon and eggs for breakfast every single day for 50 years. Anyway, I was pretty instantly attracted to her, and she was pretty attracted to me too, unless I'm very mistaken. We never ended up dating because we were young and insecure and proud and afraid of each other. I ended up in a very long term relationship with I girl I didn't like half as much, and she ended up in several mid-length relationships with some pretty fantastic guys who all ended up driving her crazy. All that was 12 years ago, but the two of us have always stayed in touch, and I think we've pretty much always stayed in love, but it's a friendly type love not a romantical love.
So here's what I was thinking as I was washing the dishes the other day: I'm in love with this girl, who is now a woman, and it was definitely all fireworks from that first meeting. But I don't think it's really fair to call it love at first sight. I didn't love her when I first saw her. I thought she was really cute. The loving came much later after I got to know her a heck of a lot better. I think it kind of sells love short to think that it can happen in a second. So by post hoc ergo propter hoc I meant, the notion of love at first sight seems to imply that you fell in love because of the first sight, whereas I think you probably just fall in love after the first sight. It kind of falls apart when you consider that you really couldn't have fallen in love if it weren't for the first sight, but I don't think you fall in love at that first sight. I think you just know love is a possibility.
True or false: The notion of love at first sight is a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Why?
15 years ago today, Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down and the genocide in Rwanda kicked off. I'm writing a paper on the West's involvement. More to come, perhaps.
In other news, Jim Douglas just vetoed the VT gay marriage bill. Tomorrow we'll see if the legislature can overturn it. Keep your fingers crossed.
Update: We won! Marriage for everybody!
In other news, Jim Douglas just vetoed the VT gay marriage bill. Tomorrow we'll see if the legislature can overturn it. Keep your fingers crossed.
Update: We won! Marriage for everybody!
My November Guest
Robert Frost
My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
This much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
Robert Frost
My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
This much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
I'm a little upset about Bald Eagle's abrupt departure from the site. I had dinner with him and his wife just last weekend. It was a pleasure. They're lovely people.
We got our first snow this week. Just a frosting, really. I meant to take pictures, but I couldn't find my camera. I still haven't got all my wood stacked, so I guess some of it will just have to go in the shed snowy.
Finally, I wish I shared everybody's confidence about the election. It's really nice to see Obama in the lead, but after 8 years of Bush, nothing is going to surprise me. Well, I'll be voting, and I guess that's all I can do, so no sense worrying about it.
Take care, folks.
We got our first snow this week. Just a frosting, really. I meant to take pictures, but I couldn't find my camera. I still haven't got all my wood stacked, so I guess some of it will just have to go in the shed snowy.
Finally, I wish I shared everybody's confidence about the election. It's really nice to see Obama in the lead, but after 8 years of Bush, nothing is going to surprise me. Well, I'll be voting, and I guess that's all I can do, so no sense worrying about it.
Take care, folks.
