On Optimism

“What is optimism?” said Cacambo
“Alas!” said Candide, “it is the madness of maintaining that everything is well when we are wretched.”

Voltaire. Candide: Or, Optimism.

Ultraholics

Just a brilliant post about After Hours Parties.

I’ve finished my Master of Arts degree and Oli’s coming to visit for a few days. We’re going to London, Brighton and back to Bristol, so there’s going to be a lot of drinking

“The problem with you is, you say ‘dude’ too much.”

“You know, what I was saying was—and there’s plenty of times when I think this is true—that if everyone got behind this, the whole world would be that much smarter because, see, the problem is, people don’t understand nothing and that’s why I’m right about this thing.”

Terrorists Vs. Pirates

Suprnova’s back.

“Whatever you sink, we build back up. Whomever you sue, ten new pirates are recruited. Wherever you go, we are already ahead of you. You are the past and the forgotten, we are the internet and the future.”

(emphasis my own)

I’m struck  by the similarities between terrorism and online activism. Is this a trend of contemporary culture that the traditional powers are going to have to adapt to manage?

“Too Busy To Breath!”

I just heard this on an advert on TV.

What a line.

I think it was for Nivea Visage.

Whatever that is.

Something to do with girls I think.

Heavenly Heroes

I’ve been watching a lot of Heroes recently. (Hayden Panettiere – Claire Bennet – is very cute!).

I noticed that Jessica and Micah were “playing” Heavenly Sword (which hasn’t even been released yet). Nice choice of game though. It’s about a beautiful but deadly woman, so seems fitting that Jessica – rather than Niki – should be playing it.

Philosopher of the Month!

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

“A subject under mescalin finds a piece of iron, strikes the window-sill with it and exclaims: ‘This is magic’: the trees are growing greener. The barking of a dog is found to attract light in an indescribable way, and is re-echoed in the right foot”

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. (London: Routledge, 2002). First published as Phénomènologie de la perception (Paris: Gallimard, 1945). p. 229

Webcam

I bought a webcam: Logitech QuickCam Chat £20 from Dixons.There’s no official OSX driver, but I’m using the Open Source macam which does the trick for Skype video chat. The only thing that threw me was having to adjust the saturation. By default all I saw was white, with a multi-coloured line either at the bottom or side of the display.