Random Thoughts - 21/9/06

Well, I'm back, I guess, and here are some pretty random thoughts interspersed with limericks... (I haven't had the time to organise them as I've been busy).

Life's busy, so am I, I guess
Not that I can't handle stress
But when I study
My head gets giddy
But I rarely study, I confess.

So, here we are, with a long post waiting to happen...

The Net, and Movies

When I switch on the TeeVee
I find no movie channels for me
The ban's still on
Star, HBO are gone
I'd rather be an Aussie, or Kiwi.

My two biggest pastimes. About the net, I've been researching info on astrology and such to prepare for my anti-astrology post soon. And discussing crappy science journalism like this with my friends online. More on that later in the post.

About movies... I've seen two oldies in the past two days... The Long Goodbye certaingly was entertaining. Cool potrayal of Marlowe by Elliot Gould. Guess who's coming to dinner was nice, with good conversations between the characters. I like it when the characters converse a little. Adds reality to them.

Studies and Laziness

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Don't you wish
I wrote another limerick or two?

Well, the exams are near, so I'd really, really, like to study. But I'm lazy. I don't want to solve problems. And the textbooks are very uninteresting to read. By very, I mean more uninteresting than watching Steven Seagal's facial expression. Booooring.

But I'm trying to find solutions. I did force myself to solve a few problems in Math, and will force myself to do a few more. I'm trying to study the most uninteresting part of physics in my opinion (although that may be due to uninspired teaching) from a cool electronics ebook. So, while exams are planned for... what about my independent physics study? Well, it's falling apart. I wanted to solve problems from Griffiths and the Math Methods ebook I have... Ah well... I'll do it.

Spiderman

What is it? It's a plane, or bird!
Nope, It's just another super-turd!
The thng 'party-pooper'
Is being Less super
And more human... more milk, less curd.

Well, what to say? That I can identify with the character of Peter Parker? That I like the witty comments? That I like the focus on Peter's personal life? Or that I like Mary Jane? ;-)

It's been one of my favourite comics since years. I gave away many of my collection a few months ago, but saved a few of the choiciest ones... make me smile and luagh everytime I read them. If there's wit to be found that's my liking, it's in Spiderman comics. The movies took away much of it because Peter's in-battle comments and monologues were absent. But I liked Spiderman 2 because it made the Peter character seem more real.

You might think: why all the focus on Peter, not Spiderman? Well, I think it's Peter who's important... even beneath the costume, it's him, juggling his shaky personal life with his tremelous superhero reputaton, and this with his rigid conscience.

Philosophical and Psuedoscientific musings

Women just need to work more
'Cause it's less, their IQ score
For ages they've been
Lazy, Dumb, Mean
And what's intelligent about a whore?*

*That's a sarcastic limerick, if you didn't get it. ;-)

Now comes the non-personal matter... or so it seems as I'm writing this.

Now, I haven't trudged through the lands of Philosphy... I am only interested in Ethics and the Philosophy of Science. I believe those are the two important things: understand the world through understanding what understands it (Science) , and understanding what's right and wrong. Now, I have books on both these subjects, if only I get the time to read 'em, I surely will. Currently, though, it's only independent thought, nudged on by a friend of mine who's studying philsophy. Well, so, such musings are not in order today.

About psuedoscience... I'm reading articles at www.astrology-and-science.com and such websites. My astrology post is gonna be a well researched one, lemme tell you. But it'll take a long time to prepare for. I hope you'll find it worth the wait. :-)

Now for the crappy science journalism I mentioned earlier... beware of such articles which go into an overtly sensational tone. Scientists have known for years that women's and men's average IQ's differ a little. Beware of misinformation. I believe no respectable scientist would say that "women can achieve just as much as men - as long as they work harder". Because scientists know a thing or two about Bell curves, which aren't even mentioned in the article. Always google if you think something's wrong... and look at wikipedia. Go here for this issue.

The Thing about science
Science is boring
It invented snoring.

Well, that's all for now... long, wasn't it? If you were bored, I'm sorry. Science does bore people, and personal musings even bore me. But, understanding doesn't come easily. To understand other people, or the world, you have to know their thoughts, and read a lot. And experience the world.

Do comment. :-)

Next post: A serious poem plus some limericks. :-)