Nietzsche's Poster Child

"Duke Ai asked, What can I do to get the support of the common people? Confucius replied, If you raise up the straight and set them on top of the crooked the commoners will support you. But if you raise the crooked and set them on top of the straight the commoners will not support you."

Confucius - The Analects: Book 2, Verse 19
(Circa 470 BC.)

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, 'Death to all those who would whimper and cry'
And dropping a barbell he points to the sky
Saying, 'The sun's not yellow it's chicken'

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I grew up listening to Dylan. It wasn't until reexamining his work recently that the level of surreal absurdism in his verse really struck me. Being rather young when I was first introduced to this album my experience also lacked the scope to understand how influential this album was / is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_61_Revisited

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"It seemed to go on and on forever. It was just beautiful ... He showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further." - Paul McCartney

"I knew the song was a smash, and yet I was consumed with envy because it was the best thing I'd heard any of our crowd do and knew it was going to turn the tables on our nice, comfortable lives." - Paul Rothchild

"That snare shot that [kicked it off] sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind." - Bruce Springsteen

"When I heard 'Like A Rolling Stone,' I wanted to quit the music business, because I felt: 'If this wins and it does what it's supposed to do, I don't need to do anything else.'" - Frank Zappa

Figured out how to do Chinese character input in Linux. It's real neat, but unfortunately my limited vocabulary keeps me from talking about much other than coffee (咖啡).

-

I've been reading the english version of the People's Daily Online lately. It's the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. Not to be confused with the official newspaper of the Chinese government (Xinhua). They are *totally* different! :P

There are three types of articles that are posted in the PD. News stories, opinions, and editorials. The news stories are almost always a direct feed from Xinhua. The other two are rather interesting though. An editorial represents the core party line on an issue. The opinions however represent an ongoing internal dialog on the issue and may not reflect anything more than the authors opinion. This obviates the need to read between the lines in the same way that you must with most foreign state sponsored news agencies.

Tangentially there was no coverage this morning (at least on the english page) of N Korea's decision to test nuclear weapons. I assume it's because they don't approve of the decision but don't want the American public to feel that they agree with us on an issue that is so "close to home" for them.

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From a PD article about Japan's post war attitude and resistance to declarations of responsibility over war atrocities：
"The United States has felt agonized with Japan's right-winged nationalism in history, and its statesmen are still fresh with sense of history in this regard. Besides, most of the Americans have paid close attention to the Yasukuni Shrine homage trips with a critical approach toward the erroneous Japanese views on history, according to a recent opinion poll."

Roflmao!!! They think that Americans have paid close attention to the visits of a foreign PM to an obscure foreign war memorial?!??? I think most Americans are just now getting past the "war is over" mentality.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
"Christian."
"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"
He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.

- Emo Philips

Any day that ends with fewer organs than you started with will not be a good day.

:(

The Legendary Pink Dots

Date: Mar 24, 2006 4:32 PM
Subject: First Confirmed North American LPD Tour Dates
Body: The following dates are now confirmed for LPDs North American tour:

Sun/Jun-11 Kansas City, MO Grand Emporium
Wed/Jun-14 Detroit, MI Magic Bag
Thu/Jun-15 Toronto, ONT Lee's Palace
Fri/Jun-16 Montreal, QUE Cabaret
Sat/Jun-17 Winooski, VT Higher Ground
Fri/Jun-23 Atlanta, GA Vinyl
Sat/Jun-24 Orlando, FL The Social
Sun/Jun-25 Tampa, FL State Theatre
Thu/Jun-29 Austin, TX Stubb's
Fri/Jun-30 Dallas, TX Gypsy Tea Room
Mon/Jul-03 Phoenix, AZ Clubhouse
Thu/Jul-06 San Diego, CA The Casbah
Mon/Jul-10 Portland, OR Berbati's
Tue/Jul-11 Seattle, WA Chop Suey

More dates will be confirmed/announced shortly.

The Web site will be updated with more detailed information over the weekend. We will be holding special ticket pre-sales for most of these dates, so stay tuned.

Lisa
http://www.legendarypinkdots.org

My fathers (rather appropriate) advice to me this morning:

"Don't let the alligators bite you in the ass. . .
while you're draining their swamp. . .
that they insist should have been drained last week."

Today I had the ultimate experience in consumer whore americana. Today, I purchased an iPod Nano. . . from a vending machine at a grocery store.

Five hours later its running linux and DOOM.

I get core geek points.

Every other question made me giggle. It's so rare that I find a meme that really speaks to *me*. :)

--

You scored as Joy Division. Manchesters Joy Division remain one of the most popular and influential post-punk bands, perhaps thanks in part to singer Ian Curtis martyr-like status following his suicide in 1980. Their music is a dark, atmospheric, almost gothic sound which is complemented perfectly by Curtis tortured lyrics, best heard on 1980s Closer. </td> Joy Division 87% Throbbing Gristle 83% The Pop Group 77% Cabaret Voltaire 70% Wire 63% Gang Of Four 63% The Teardrop Explodes 60% The Slits 57% The Fall 57% Public Image Ltd. 53% Which Post Punk band are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Love don't make the world go round, it holds it right in place
Keeps us thinking love's too pure to see another face

Love's another skin-trap, another social weapon
Another way to make men slaves and women at their beckon

Love's another sterile gift, another shit condition
That keeps us seeing just the one and others not existing

Woman is a holy myth, a gift of mans expression
She's sweet, defenceless, golden-eyed, a gift of gods repression

If we didn't have these codes for love, of tokens and positions,
We'd find ourselves as lovers still, not tokens of possessions.

It's a natural, it's romance, without the power and greed.
We can fight to lift the cover if you want to sow and seed.

The trouble with opportunity is that it always comes disguised as hard work. -- Herbert V. Prochnow

Happy birthday atomichyperslug!

You are Gonzo the Great.
You love everyone, and still you get shot out of a
cannon on a regular basis. Oh, and you are
completely insane and have a strange
fascination for chickens.

ALSO KNOWN AS:
The Great Gonzo, Gonzo the Great, Just Plain Weird
SPECIES:
Whatever

HOBBIES:
Tapdancing blindfolded on tapioca while balancing a
piano on his nose, backwards, five times fast.

FAVORITE MOVIE:
"From Here to Eternity...with no brakes."

FAVORITE TV SHOW:
"Touched By An Anvil"

QUOTE:
"No parachute? Wow! This is so cool!"


What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Q: What is a regular bear?
A: A polar bear that's undergone a coordinate transform.

Q: What do you get when you cross a turtle and a snail?
A: |turtle| |snail| sin(theta)

Q: What is integral(1/cabin)d cabin?
A: log cabin + c.

--

http://www.proudnerd.com/

Well, here's the long awaited post about my world travels. Ton's of misspellings, but it's too long for me to go through and correct, so, oh well. ;)

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( notes from abroad )