ahem
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
A new post has been a long time coming. But never fear, exams are over on Friday, and by then I fear you will have to deal with a regular output of slurry. I bought a new memory stick the other day which was mildly exciting. It's a mighty 2GB with a retractable stick bit. And it was mine for a mere tenner. Excellent. As you can doubtless tell I have no real news. I do however plan to go to the beach after exams. Possibly on my own, hopefully with someone else. There will be colourful windbreakers, bracing smiles against a c hilly wind, and of course, tea in a flask and cucumber sandwhiches. I am also thinking about wearing a tie and jacket. When I do, there will be lots of wonderful pictures of the happy event. Until that time though, I have decided to infill with a bit of self-effacing web-comic action.
Today's work of art comes from the ever savvy Toothpaste for Dinner. I suggest you go over there right now and cover your respective blog(s) with hastily drawn wonderment.
Also, I went to see Pirates of the Carribean 3 last night. It was a bit rubbish to be honest. There was far too much plot in the film for a single movie, albeit a soul-crushingly long one. But Kiera Knightly looked tremendous. Mind, I didn't have to see her ribs at any point, which was a bonus.
posted by danny @ 02:31,
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The study of dreams
Thursday, 7 June 2007
I cleared up my desk today (it was a filthy mess, more an excavation than a clean-up) and thought about what my ultimate study area would look like.
Because I am actually that sad.
My current one is pretty good, and seems to have pretty much all of the essentials:
- Good desk lamp
- Large surface area
- Executive pendulum toy
- Near limitless post-it notes, treasury tags, flash cards and other non-essential stationary
- A small bust of William Shakespeare
- Novelty gnome mini lights
I thought I had it all covered. I thought I had, to a greater or lesser extent, the single greatest study area of anyone. In the world. Ever. How wrong I was. It turns out that Will Self, satirical novelist and comedy game show guest extroidinaire has gone one better. Where I constricted myself to two-dimensions, he expanded, outwards and upwards. Onto the walls. Bloody legend. Have to say I am more than a little envious of this brainwave of his mind. Anyway, just thought I would share that with my readership of myself, Cal, and that foreign guy who commented a post, but I couldn't figure out what anything said on his blog because it was in another language. Apologies to you sir, I would have hit you back, but I don't speak anything other than Queen's English. Apologies.
To see all 71 pictures of the room (they do tend to get a bit repetitive mind) click here. Or here.
posted by danny @ 06:59,
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Best laid plans
Monday, 14 May 2007
Sod you Blogger. I am going to work for several hours. First I am going to clean my room and desk. Then I am going to ensure there is plenty of artificial light (my favourite kind). Then I will set theJazz on the old DAB playing gently in the background. I will arrange my pens and pencils, rulers and calculators in a neat order at the sides of my desk, and put a pad of fresh paper slap bang in the middle. Then I will make notes on the Law and the State, and read over all of my earlier notes about Ideologies, along with epistemology and moral philosophy. At this point I will have a short break and watch the F1 highlights. I will continue working until roughly 7, when I will take a 30 minute break, return to ensure my quotes are still fully remembered, and settle down for whatever is on telly.
posted by danny @ 03:54,
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Dreamy days
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Why won't I do any revision?! My life is forfeit if I don't start working!
I have been trying to have lucid dreams, but have had no luck so far. If I get it to work I'm going to try and shag Eva Green in my dream though. And then fly over the Atlantic and turn the seas to custard.
posted by danny @ 13:15,
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the quotable bowler hat
I am a bit concerned with how little work I am doing, so I have decided to mix blogging with revision. Here are all the quotes I can remember:
MILL
the nature and limits of power that can can be legitimately exercised over the individual
the only purpose for which power can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant
peculiar evil
oppress part of their number
fully, frequently and fearlessly discussed it will be held as dead dogma, and not the living truth
grounded in the permanent interests of man as a progressive being
one of the principle ingredients of human happiness
in other-regarding acts, the inidividual is accountable, and may be subject to social or legal punishment
unless it is good for the extreme, it is not good for any case
society can and does execute its own mandates
the moral and mental powers, like the muscular, ar eonly improved by being used
better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied
permenent possibilities of sensation
infirmity of charachter
WILFRID SELLARS
it goes against the idea that we come to know general facts...only after we have come to know, by general observation, a number of paticular facts
WITTGENSTEIN
form of life
doubt would seem to drag everything with it, and plunge it into chaos
DANCY
there is a red rose in the dark
in general, if we find ourselves scrutinising something we believe, we retain that belief unless we find something against it, on the gorounds that it is already a belief
WOLLHEIM
function...to discriminate within the judgements and eliminate some in favour of others
G.E. MOORE
two human hands exist at this moment
MACKIE
by selective attention, [I] ignore all the properties they have, but this one they share
BERKELEY
esse est precipi
I cannot by any effort of thought concieve the abstract idea
LOCKE
where there is no law there is no freedom
no man can, if he would, conform his Faith to the Dictates of another
tabula rasa
a thinking, intelligent Being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider it self as it self, the same thinking thing in different times and places
THOMAS JEFFERSON
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it
BENTHAM
two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure,
nonsense on stilts
ALAN RYAN
to say that Socrates prefers his way of life, even though he is constantly dissatisfied is to say that he thinks it is better, not that he thinks it more pleasant
KANT
act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will it should become a universal law
act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end
who wills the ends...also wills the means
every rational being must always act as if he were through his maxims, always a law-making member of the universal kingdom of ends
STUART HAMPSHIRE
utilitarian thinking is a kind of moral esperanto
BERTRAM RUSSELL
philosophers, for the main part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars
'I simply do not like staying in good hotels' is an intelligible thing to say
DAVID HUME
find a sentiment of disapprobation...it lies in yourself, not in the object
C.L. STEVENSON
immediate aura of feeling which hovers about a word
PRITCHARD
is immediate in the same way in which a mathematical apprehension is immediate
R.M HARE
the acts of supremely virtuous men as an example, but only in so far as the traits of charachter which they exemplify fit into a coherent ideal we find ourselves able to pursue
PETER WINCH
I see no reason why a contemporary history scholar might feel more at home in the world of medieval alchemy than in that of twentieth century football
NIETZSCHE
god is dead
they are rid of the Christian God, but believe all the more they must hold onto Christian morality
what sort of monster of falsity must modern man nonetheless be to have no shame in being called a Christian?
SINGER
even an abortion late in a pregnancy for the most trivial of reasons is hard to condemn
CARRUTHERS
nobody would seriously maintain that dogs, cats, sheep, cattle, pigs or chickens consciously think things to themselves
it ought to be impossible to feel sympathy for animals
P.J. TAYLOR
either a man possesses it and is possessed by it or he does not, and there is no more to be said
IRIS MURDOCH
why not consider red as a concept infintely to be learned, as an individualaspect of love
JULIA ANNAS
if knowledge requires grasp of Forms, they must be applicable to experience
HOLLAND
evil is the unlimited range of points lying outside the circle of action drawn by the geometry of goodness
HELL YES!
Labels: revision
posted by danny @ 04:21,
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Update 2
Tuesday, 8 May 2007
Right, time for a recollection of the last week or so since I posted. Apologies for the late one, but c'est examens. Unfortunately this means it's unlikely that there will be any reviews any time soon, which I know my readership of exactly one will be bitterly disappointed about. Since I last spoke:
- I have finished 20% of my A-Level in an exam. I think it went well, but only time will tell.
- I was disappointed that the LibDems did quite as badly as they did in Local Elections
- I have downloaded lots of music
- I plan to make a feature film about myself in a mocumentary style after exams
- I plan to make a feature film about myself and a friend in a mockumentary style after exams
- I am actively searching for a white bow-tie; not a fake one mind, don't like them
Apologies for the brevity of this post, but if you really cared, you would email me or comment to let me know. But you clearly dont. So boo you whore.
posted by danny @ 09:19,
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E-lections and X-ams.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Oh god. I have an exam tommorow. Sigh.
And local elections. Come on the Lib Dems.
Labels: revision
posted by danny @ 16:25,
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Short update
Sorry about the pretty terrible lack of blogging, but I have been pretty busy revising. I have an exam tommorow (which I'm not too worried about to be honest, for better or for worse). Had to visit the dentist yesterday which wasn't cool. And then I had my hair cut today which was better than the dentist, but not by the biggest of margins. Have not managed any revision today at all, which is fairly tragic. What's on the cards today then?
1. Go to college.
2. Ring Mike
3. Read book (Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino - it's absolutley amazing)
4. Revise
If that doesn't prepare me for exams I'm not sure what will.
Labels: revision
posted by danny @ 03:38,
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A Dull Day
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Well, it has been another dull day. To be honest, I'm starting to look forward to revising next week, it will at least prevent boredom. I woke up today at 2 after watching The Conversation. I think I will stick in a review perhaps. Today what I mainly did was plan what I was going to do tommorow. Which is tragically short-sighted, and hardly progressive, but there you are. When I finish I will write a new review for sure, it's been pretty good.
Also have been thinking about what I will do at university a lot and have to say I am really excited at the prospect of fencing, I watched loads of it on YouTube, and it was bloody brilliant. Also checked out The Cheesegrater, UCL's alternative publication, and have to say if I get in, I want a piece of that pie. Check it out.
Labels: revision
posted by danny @ 13:21,
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Knuckling down
Sunday, 22 April 2007
I'm really bored. First of all, I have made myself a promise that I am going to really start knuckling down after next week; zone in on some philosophical goodness. Hopefully it's all going to pay off, because I have been so worried about not getting into UCL. Twice lol.
Been reading a fair old bit though. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis was excellent and a little dark-hearted, but very comic in a kind of macabre way. I will stick a book review up soon. Still making my way through The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov though, it's something of an epic read. Pretty sure it will be worth it though; very honest writing. Anyway, hitting the hay now, so turrah!
Labels: revision
posted by danny @ 13:18,
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