Author: Giles

Recursion: The philosophy of boredom

The preface of English language version of The philosophy of boredom (Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 74,220) by the Norwegian philosopher, Lars Svendsen has this to say about the author’s motivation for writing:
“My reason for writing this book was this: I was deeply bored for a while. What made me reaslise the importance of the topic, however, was the boredom-related death of a close friend.”
He does not specify the exact nature of the boredom-related death of his friend, but the following snippet, plus some of the chapter headings perhaps give us some clue:
“I thank [my friends and colleagues] for their contribution, and, not least, for having put up with me at a time when I was virtually unable to talk about anything else other than the subject of this book.”
Chapter headings:
Typologies of boredom (p 41)
Boredom and novelty (p 45)
Ontology: the Hermeneutics of Boredom (p.116)
The experience of boredom (P.138)

Signs that warn you about things you can’t do anything about

I’ve often wondered why they put up static road signs with pictures of e.g. rain, falling rocks, collapsing road surfaces, fog etc…
How am I supposed to change my behaviour based on the knowledge that a rock might fall on me or that the side of the road might collapse suddenly. Should I drive in a zig-zag path, or on the middle of the road? Should I go home and get my macintosh in case it rains (I’d know if it was raining already).
This is a good example. I’m going down a mountain road after a walk in the snow – the road is covered with snow and I see this sign. I know there’s snow and ice on the road and there’s not much I can do if a big rock comes down on the car…

Another China rant…

This really gets to me: The chinese are violating more human rights than you’ve had hot dinners. They’ve got the history’s greatest mass murderer pinned up as the centrepeice of their capital’s main square.
They threaten nuclear attacks and don’t give a damn about retaliation.
They continue to torture, kill and abuse Tibetans and their own people.
They (allegedly – though I’m not so sure after tests) censor the internet.
Oh yes and they torture cats and dogs horribly:.
And do Bush and Blair invade them like we did Iraq (supposedly for nuclear threats and human rights violations) no – they are sucking up to them right left and centre with trade agreements, Presidential visits, etc… etc… The fact that the Olympics are in Beijing in 2008 reminds me of when they were in Berlin in 1936. No doubt, Chinese officials will be doing a similar coverup operation.
I just hope a bit of freedom of information through the internet will change things.

Abstraction errors

Recently I’ve been noticing an amusing category of daily life cock-up which I’d like to christen Abstraction errors. The definition is that they show you’ve abstracted a situation or action but you’ve then applied your abstraction wrongly. Perhaps nobody else is prone to this – but if you are, you could add your examples:
Here are the examples I’ve noticed so far:
1. Trying to shave my armpits instead of putting deoderant (take a stick-like object from the shelf in the bathroom and wiggle it about under your arms).
2. Trying to put my coffee key into my motorbike ignition (to get what you want, take coffee key and put in somewhere).
3. Trying to press ctrl Z when I’ve made a real life mistake.
4. Thinking about phoning a lost object which is not my mobile phone.
5. Going to the cinema, sitting down and reaching for my seatbelt.

Jokes with security guards

This morning I broke the golden rule of not making jokes about carrying automatic weapons with border control staff.
I rode to work as usual on my C1 scooter but this time with a violin strapped across my chest. It looks quite amazing because the C1 has to be ridden using 2 seatbelts or it won’t work. So the violin is really strapped across one’s chest rambo/mafiosi style.
Fotios took this quick shot with his PDA.

The conversation with the 2 JRC security guards went something like this. (JRC is actually a different country as far as Italy is concerned and has its own customs point. It is also a nuclear establishment so you have to pass a fancy looking checkpoint to get in.)
Guard 1: Smirk -“What’s that – a rifle?”
Me:”No actually, it’s a machine gun – is that OK?”
Guard 1:”Yes no problem” – Giggle
Guard 2:”What are you, a mafiosi?”
Me:”Yes that’s right, I’m just going to massacre a few people – OK?”
Guard 1: “Fine (va bene)” -without checking contents waves me on

Mobile phone etiquette

Here’s a draft charter for non-anti-social use of mobile phones:
1. It has been scientifically proven that ring tones suck badly and are not necessary. Ditch the electronic mozart. I have my phone on vibrate permanently and have never missed a call because of it – or if I have, I was quite pleased about it. Remember – you might think it’s cool to play Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in sine wave tones at top volume in a train but chances are, other people probably think you are sad. Ring tones for SMS’s are doubly bad.
2. Face to face encounters take precedence unless you have genuine reason to expect that an urgent call is pending.
3. Don’t have loud conversations in public. Forcible eavesdropping can be entertaining but as a rule, we don’t want to know. Or if we do, perhaps your ex-boyfriend doesn’t want us to.
4. If you do have a loud conversation in public of any sort, make sure you tell everyone the juicy details.
5. Don’t alter your conversation to show off. “I love you so much.”
6. Tell your conversation partners not to ask where you are as it is almost never relevant – and remember – all the other people in the bus/train/plane know where we are….
If you’ve ever paid money for a ring-tone – please leave me a message to explain why anyone would do such a thing.