sylvar

Jodi was getting tired of hearing the Jetsons doorbell every time I got a text message. So, since she delights in singing "Duh, Duh Dunnaluh (The FSU Fight Song)" to provoke me, I made a new ringtone in her honor.



You can download it here and send it to your phone free here. (After sending 3 songs, you have to register before sending any more, but it's still free.)

She'll get out of class at around 5:30 tonight. If you want, you can send me a text message to say hi to her.

Jodi and I had gotten into a cycle of "Ben hasn't vacuumed in weeks, so Jodi's allergies prompt her to want to spend evenings away from the apartment, so Ben can't vacuum", lather, rinse, repeat. Unpleasant and frustrating. And the carpet situation was just as unpleasant and frustrating as I was.

So last night while I slept, Jodi moved a bunch of crap to the perimeter of the living room, and this morning I vacuumed the living room. That's a great start, and I'm glad Jodi thought of it.

Do we make a great team or what?

Note: to those of you who actually overheard the process by which we discussed the situation, the preceding question was totally rhetorical. I swear.

And now for a very brief breakfast (no, I'm not talking about edible briefs, but loucheroo's comments on mariness's journal are making me think of 'em), washed down with one or two Diet Rockstars. That oughta sharpen my mind enough to focus on XSLT programming all day... I hope.

Ben and Jodi at the Starlite Majesty

I ended up wearing the tuxedo jacket, black slacks, and a new white dress shirt and a solid purple tie that matched some of Jodi's skirt.

Yesterday, following a trip to Safety Harbor for business purposes, I went to the airport to pick up Cat. I had a little time, so I parked on the top of the garage and took some photos of birds, construction, and occasionally the airport itself. I've included a few recent photos here, but check sylvarphotos or http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvar/ for all my most recent images.

We went to International Plaza and browsed through the hideously bright 75%-off rack at Dillard's. At Build-A-Bear, we watched as a helpless teddy bear was impaled on the largest needle I've ever seen and injected with fluff from a huge scary machine. I have no idea how kids don't get scarred for life by this process. But we also discovered that they're going to be selling a Hello Kitty stuffed toy soon, so I'm sure I'll be taking Jodi there at some point.

Teavana had some interesting samples, and I eventually chose an iced Strawberry Kiwi/Rooibos Peach with German Rock Cane Sugar. (I could ignore the sugar because the chocolate and cappuccino gelato from Gelateria del Duomo had been sugar-free, and the cappuccino gelato was fat-free. Go them. Go me.) As Cat was paying for her looseleaf tea (the same thing I had, only dry instead of wet), Katie arrived.

We headed over to TooJay's for dinner, and each of us ended up taking home some delicious leftovers. Since Jodi wanted to see Katie again and meet Cat, we headed up to my place, which I quickly gave a superficial cleaning. Sadly, Katie had to duck out early, and Jodi arrived just as Cat and I were coming back from walking Katie to her car. But we did get to spend some more time with Cat, since we decided to drive her to her hotel in St. Petersburg. We all got along famously, and around midnight I got back home with Jodi. I collapsed into bed shortly after we played a 10-card round of Skip-Bo and slept soundly.

And then I spent 45 minutes typing this up on a T-less keyboard while munching cheese and crackers, so that will have to suffice for details of the evening as well as for my breakfast. What a shame there's no TooJay's in Brandon. Where else will $6 buy you a huge spinach and feta omelet, sliced tomatoes, and a bagel and cream cheese? (It was dinner for me, and the leftovers were dinner for Jodi, if that gives you any idea of the size.)

Oh well -- I've been having fun. And I can't wait to see Katie again! (I'll have to wait to see Cat again, since she lives in Tallahassee, but I don't want to wait for that either.)



UPDATE: I've added a few images here.

These t-shirts are clever ways of raising funds for breast cancer research. I especially like the one that says fuck c*ncer (it's cancer that's obscene, says the explanation).

I woke up at 2:20 this morning and had some ice water and got into bed just in time for jitterbug5bi5 to return home from what turns out to have been her first official day as an employee of Sacred Grounds. I am so proud of my 妹妹!

And I am also very proud of Jodi, who will be going to Oregon next weekend to present a paper on friendship in Aristotelian and Confucian philosophy. This is her first professional presentation, and she's worked very hard on her material. I am confident that she will wow them.

I woke again at 5:00 and decided to use the morning productively: I looked up the azimuth (that's "which direction on the horizon?", if you're as new to astronomy as I am; this morning, at my latitude, it was around 101 degrees, or just south of east) and time of sunrise, grabbed some bagels near campus, and drove to the top of the less popular parking garage on campus to take photographs of sunrise and the dawn-lit campus.

Since this was all tripod work for long exposures, I don't think the shutter problem will have affected any of my shots. And since the moon was setting almost opposite the sunrise, I was able to get some nice telephoto shots of the moon setting behind a dawn-lit flag. (Which I'm sure will be blurred, but might be interesting. Swear not by the inconstant moon, nor less by an intemperate flag.)

I'll drop off the film later this morning. Costco does an amazing job -- for around $5 I get the film developed and scanned to CD at about 5MB per photo. And I can always get prints if I want them. I'd have to shoot 20 rolls a month to run into Flickr's upload limit for paying users, and I don't think I'll ever keep that pace with a full-time job. Which is fine by me.

(Update: here are the photos.)
 

Jodi is interested in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series. Here's a list of the whole series. Gift-givers, please note that she has a few of these already...

1. Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing
   How is Jerry like Socrates? Is it rational for George to "do the opposite?" Would Simone de Beauvoir say that Elaine is a feminist? Is Kramer stuck in Kierkegaard's aesthetic stage?
   A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
    


2. The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer
   Does Nietzsche justify Bart's bad behavior? Is hypocrisy always unethical? What is Lisa's conception of the Good?
   We've already got one, you see...
    


3. The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real
   Can we be sure the world is really there, and if not, what should we do about it? The book also explores other philosophical puzzles including ethical ones like Cypher's decision to choose a pleasurable fake world over a wretched real one.
   We've already got one, you see...
    


4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale
   How can Buffy's religious symbolism be squared with creator Joss Whedon's professed atheism? Is Buffy truly a Kierkegaardian knight of faith? Do Faith's corruption and return to the good life demonstrate Platonic eudaimonism? Or do they illustrate the flaws in Nietzsche's superman concept? What does the show's treatment of vampires, demons, and other entities say about ethical attitudes toward nonhumans?
   We've already got one, you see...
    


5. The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All
   Can power be wielded for good, or must it always corrupt? Does technology destroy the truly human? Is beer essential to the good life?
   We've already got one, you see...
    


6. Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box
   Chapters include: "The Zen of Hitting," There are No Ties at First Base," Baseball and the Search for an American Moral Identity," "Damn Yankees: Why America Needs Reggie Jackson," "The Ethics of the Intentional Walk," "Saving the Twins with Rawlsian Justice," "Wait 'til Next Year: The Faith of a Cubs Fan," "Taking Umpiring Seriously," "He Missed the Tag!: The Ethics of Deception," and "The Asterisk in the Record Book: Roger Maris and Normative Assessments."
   A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
    


7. The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am
   Is Tony Soprano a good man? Is Carmela a feminist? Morally speaking, who is the worst person on The Sopranos? Is watching the show harmful to one's moral health? And what if Tony had read Machiavelli instead of Sun Tzu?
   A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
    


8. Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy is Wrong?
   These essays explore such topics as how Schopenhauer's theory of humor emerges in Annie Hall; why, for all his apparent pessimism, Allen gives a brighter alternative to the Bogartian nihilism of film noir; the importance of integrity for the Good Life, as found in Manhattan; and the fact that just because the universe is meaningless and life is pointless is no reason to commit suicide. Also here are droll, probing essays on why hedonism is a health hazard, and why, despite the fact that Earth may be swallowed by a black hole and crushed to the size of a peanut, the toilet continues to overflow.
   A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
    


9. Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts
   Among the occult lore here revealed, behold the best recipe for true courage, proof that self-deception does not yield happiness, how ethics can be applied to the branch of technology known as magic, why the Mirror of Erised isn’t adequate for real life, whether prophecy rules out free choice, and what dementors and boggarts can teach us about joy, fear, and the soul.
   We've already got one, you see...
    


10. Mel Gibson's Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy
    How can we decide what God intended to tell us? Why do Christians and Jews apparently report seeing two very different Mel Gibson movies? Was Christ a pacifist? Does the film truly follow the gospels? How can we blame Judas for doing what God wanted him to do? Did Georg Hegel answer Mel Gibson 200 years ahead of time?
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


11. More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded
    We're going in. One more time. And this time we're facing some pretty mean programs. Cynicism. Obfuscation. Postmodern despair. Plus, the usual obnoxious bunch of totally ruthless Agents, who always insist upon Conformity or Deletion. And just in case you were hoping to make it back, they've reconfigured the culture so there are hardly any phone booths left.
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


12. Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine
    Why do bad Sith nearly always tell the truth and good Jedi often tell lies? When is it justified to raise an army by breeding clones? If the Force must have a Dark Side, how can the Dark Side be evil? Why and how did the tyrannical Empire emerge from the free Republic? Are droids persons, entitled to civil rights? Is Yoda a Stoic or a Zen master?
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


13. Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way
    "Finally -- someone's treating comic books with the gravity they deserve. If, as Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living, then make your life mean something by reading Superheroes and Philosophy." -- Kevin Smith
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


14. The Atkins Diet and Philosophy
    Is the Atkins Diet a new wrinkle in capitalist exploitation or a twisted expression of our negative body images? Is Atkins a symbol of super-masculinity? Has the Atkins diet under other names really been around for centuries? Can Atkins make you a smarter person? Or could it cause Global Warming and melt the polar ice caps? What's the relation between Atkins, current concerns about the obesity epidemic, and Fat Liberation? And of course you’re also dying to know: How does the Atkins Diet fit into Kant's conception of the moral life or Rousseau's vision of a kinder, gentler kind of human society? How does the Atkins Diet's challenge to orthodox dietetics relate to Nietzsche's critique of objective truth or Kuhn's account of scientific revolutions?
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


15. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy
    Under what conditions should we believe a story that runs counter to all our experience? Does might make right or are there objective moral rules? Would Albert Einstein have made any sense of the claim that time can flow at different rates in different worlds? If a boy is turned into a dragon, is the dragon still the same person as the boy? Can salvation be found in many religions or only in one? Do animals—even the ones that don’t talk—have souls?
    We've already got one, you see...
     


16. Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason
    Should we stop ALL the violence in hip hop? Does po-po have legit authority in the hood? How do we draw the line between the real Curtis Jackson and the artist 50 Cent, or the real Kimberly Jones and the artist Lil' Kim? Is hip-hop culture a "black" thang? Is it morally permissible for N.W.A. to call themselves niggaz and for Dave Chappelle to call everybody bitches?
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     


17. Bob Dylan and Philosophy (coming in early January)
    The book examines different aspects of Dylan‛s creative thought through a philosophical lens, including personal identity, negative and positive freedom, enlightenment and postmodernism in his social criticism, and the morality of bootlegging. An engaging introduction to deep philosophical truths, the book provides Dylan fans with an opportunity to learn about philosophy while impressing fans of philosophy with the deeper implications of his intellectual achievements.
    A place of honor has been reserved on her bookshelf.
     

See this photo on Flickr

Jodi poses at the Fries. Hey, it's a useful phrase for a philosopher to know...

When your mechanic tells you it's time to replace your car, take his advice.

We went to CarMax yesterday, me and Jodi and my mom, and sat in a bunch of different cars. I took an Aveo for a test drive, and while looking on their site today, found a 2003 Mazda Protege that I'd like to try also.

The Ford Focus doesn't seem to be comfortable for Jodi, which is a real shame because I loved it. The Aveo isn't bad, but Consumer Reports doesn't think much of it. I might also try a "traditional" car lot, one operated by a rental agency. They seem to have a decent selection, though I'd have to negotiate a mechanical inspection by my mechanic; CarMax would let me do this anyway, and return it within five days if I don't like what I hear.

We're trying to spend $12k or less. What would you recommend, dear reader?

Let's all welcome turtlebat23, who (after having an account for some time) is now actually reading what we write! And with any luck, she'll click here to write some of her own thoughts about life, philosophy, n'at.

[Poll #492956]