Jeff Stallar

1. Joe Versus the Volcano - So many people are embarrassed to be connected to this movie, but it is absolutely brilliant. There's a cutesy surface story, but running parallel is a deeper, some would say Existentialist, story about self awakening. 2. The Red Violin - Outstanding all around, but better if you understand the emotional bond between a musician and their instrument(s). 3. A River Runs Through it - The movie is as good as the book, although the book does have more details. 4. Cyrano D'Bergerac (with Gérard Depardieu) - Funny, exciting, touching, great production quality...what more can you ask for? 5. Ikiru - A japanese film about a dying civil servant wanting to accomplish something in his short time left.

I saw Primer a few nights ago. It's good, but I tend to not go for time-travel movies. I liked their explanation of "enter at the B, exit at the A" but it seemed like they were being intentionally vague, like they were showing off how confusing they could be. It's much better than the average movie, but I can't see watching it again.

"What is the ultimate truth about ourselves? Various answers suggest themselves. We are a bit of stellar matter gone wrong. We are physical machinery - puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time pulls the strings beneath. But here is one elementary inescapable answer. We are that which asks the question. Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility towards truth is one of its attributes." -Sir Arthur Eddington

To quote the Little Rascals, "I don't know where we're going, but we're on our way!"

Well that all depends on how fast we would feel the gravitational effects of the sun disappearing. If gravity propogates at the speed of light, then yes, we'd still be orbiting eight minutes after it disappeared. However, several theories suggest that gravity is on another dimension, one that is not bound by our speed limit. If that's true, and gravity propogates FASTER than the speed of light, then the time it took to feel the effects of the sun's disappearance would be less than eight minutes, or it might even be instantaneous.

Following are the definitions of "science:" 1. a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences. 2. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. 3. any of the branches of natural or physical science. 4. systematized knowledge in general. 5. knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study. 6. a particular branch of knowledge. 7. skill, esp. reflecting a precise application of facts or principles; proficiency. Therefore, I'm going to amend my previous statements and say this instead: Whether something is a science or not is determined not by the particular area of study, but by the way in which it is approached. Science is merely a way of looking at something.

You are who you choose to be, thus your purpose is what you choose for it to be. What purpose have you chosen?

"What is the ultimate truth about ourselves? Various answers suggest themselves. We are a bit of stellar matter gone wrong. We are physical machinery - puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time pulls the strings beneath. But here is one elementary inescapable answer. We are that which asks the question. Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility towards truth is one of its attributes."

Music is asthetic and subjective. It is not a science. I might be willing to call it a SOCIAL science though.

Smith's 1st Law of Syncopative Attraction: For all live songs featuring a consistent backbeat between 65 and 96 bpm, the number of panties thrown on stage will be directly proportional to the amount of leather worn by the performers at a rate of 1.344 panties per sq. meter of leather. Seriously though, if it's a science, then what are the rules? If I test your rules, will I get the same result 100% of the time?

The weird thing is...many of my favorite movies don't have villians. However, I'd have to say Darth Vader.

I studied the German language for four years, and it's not very hard at all. Sentence structure is slightly different (verb placement particularly) than English, but overall it's not any harder than any language. Verb conjugation is hard in ANY language. Oh wait, the one thing I thought was really difficult was noun gender: male, female, or neutral. There were no formal rules about a noun's gender; you just had to memorize it all. Bugs Bunny: Ich BIN ein Nase!!

"So we acquire a sense of self worth either by realizing our talents, or by keeping busy or by identifying ourselves with something apart from us - be it a cause, a leader, a group, possessions or whatnot. The path to self realization is the most difficult. Similarly, we have more faith in what we imitate than in what we originate. We cannot derive an absolute certitude from anything which has its roots in us. The most poignant sense of insecurity comes from standing alone and we are not alone when we imitate. It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are." "What is the ultimate truth about ourselves? Various answers suggest themselves. We are a bit of stellar matter gone wrong. We are physical machinery - puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time pulls the strings beneath. But here is one elementary inescapable answer. We are that which asks the question. Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility towards truth is one of its attributes." "In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. The oldest Egyptian or Hindoo philosopher raised a corner of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did, since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that now reviews the vision. No dust has settled on that robe; no time has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. That time which we really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present, nor future."

Then he will be history...and the one after him...and every man you ever date. Actually, women tend to date according to a rulebook a lot more than men, probably because women sit around and discuss each other's boyfriends (yes, they do). Men might brag about how they nailed so and so, but they don't get into personality details. The more you discuss other boyfriends, the more pages you add to your dating rulebook. How do you KNOW the man should open the door for you? because that's what the rulebook says. I know that, at your age, "being yourself" is the single most important thing, so I can see why you wouldn't want to accept, or admit, that you live according to a rulebook. We seem to have drifted off the subject though...

1Veedo, there's a fine line between confident and arrogant, and I think you've crossed it. Having a reputation as a pimp isn't a good thing. You're right that women test, read love advice, and otherwise go by an established rulebook, but being completely unwilling to compromise is just bull-headed. How old are you by the way? You mentioned school, so can I assume high school?