...more recent posts
The New York Times (Friday) has a full page obituary for W.V.O. Quine, an American philosopher, who died Monday at age 92. I wanted to be able to say something more on this occasion, but I just don't have the time today. If you have the NYTimes maybe you should check it out. It's fairly lengthy. He was very important to me, and to the path I took with my college career. I read the essay "Two dogmas of empiricism," which the Times talks about, in my freshman year, and it really set my mind toward philosophy (at least as it was presented in that context.) Not sure how it turned out, but I was surprised to see all the space the Times lavished on his obituary. I guess he was important to some other people as well. I'll have to find that essay and read it again. I think its in my storage space. Yikes. That would be quite an adventure. I haven't been there in years. Anyway, I wonder how I would find it now. Perhaps I'll report back.
MB took the neice and nephew (10 and 11) to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and they didn't like it. It all makes sense to me now, but I wouldn't have expected this (at least from the boy.) His complaint? The flying looked stupid. And indeed, I see what he's saying. I think it's beautiful, but I guess it could seem a little hokey. He thought they should just flat out fly around. Why all this jumping and skipping, and almost flying? For me it was brilliant because I'm not convinced that (some) people can't fly, and if anyone can, I think they probably do in a way similar to what Ang Lee shows us (as opposed to, say, the way superman flies which I doubt any human can do.) Anyway, here's an interview with Mr. Lee.
When I wrote about having monitor troubles I was refering to the fact that mine was refusing to wake up from sleep unless it was unplugged and left to sit for many hours (not too nice when you crash in the middle of the day.) But during my trouble shooting session yesterday I was carrying it up and down the stairs to test it on different machines, and I completely threw out my back. Is this the first shot of middle age? Seems a bit early if you ask me, but I'm hobbling around like an old man, that's for sure. I could barely get out of bed this morning. If I lay flat on my back, or sit or stand straight up, there is no pain.
So I've got that going for me.
How long does it take a back to fix itself? (Maybe I don't want to know the answer to that one.)