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?

Ahh okay, thanks. I've only heard it in reference to martial arts. What kind of response is that?! I say X and you say, "No, it really isn't." To that I say...Nu-uh you big poopyhead!!!

I understand how you feel though. I love discovering, but not learning. Learning means memorizing what others have discovered, but discovering transcends existing knowledge and formal structures. It's just you and an idea, left alone to develop your own twists and turns. Learning is pretty boring I think.

Don't forget that a scientist is first and foremost an observer. Rules are just a way for us to wrap our brains around things. If you don't like the rules, stick to pure observation.

A martial arts maxim is: "Learn the form. Master the form. Break the form." I'm still struggling to fully understand it, but I think the point is that ultimately you DO want to break existing rules (the best martial arts style is to have no style). However, without total understanding of the current system, you're just an anarchist hoping to get lucky. I think the vast majority of us live and die without ever having mastered the system.

That's not fair at all! What evidence do you have that I would be making that up? You just don't WANT to believe that any of that is true. That's your business of course, but please don't call me a liar just because you don't want to face reality. You recently said that you've never been on a real date. Please explain that. Is that comment about the quality of your dates, or are you saying you've never dated period? I understand that people don't want to accept that there's a rule book -- I never wanted to either -- but the older I get, the more I see that people are all virtually identical in their behavior, and even though I don't like it, I do believe there is a manual (figuratively speaking of course). Sure, we all dress different, but that's trivial. I'm talking about behavior that actually matters.

Here's a summary of a recent convsersation I had with my girlfriend. She's a very independent woman that I respect a lot. She's smart, objective, and I love debating with her. Anyway... Me: "Why do women nag men?" Girlfriend: "Because we see your potential." Me: "But I thought we were supposed to accept each other the way we are." Girlfriend: "Right, we want YOU, just...a better you. We're trying to help you improve. -----Me (thinking to myself): "Boy, what would she say if I told her she needed to improve..."----- Me: "Instead of trying to improve your man, why don't you improve yourself instead? Then you can lead by example." Girlfriend (after much thought): "Because we're too afraid to do it ourselves, plus we prefer the men being in charge." Me: "So you're kinda living by proxy then?" Girlfriend: "Yeah, kinda."

That movie BLEW!! The whole "whoops, I caught a cold" idea really, really sucked. I don't blame Wells, considering the time we wrote it, but it's totally unbelievable today.

The worst I've seen was in "Independence Day." They fly the alien ship up to the mother ship, then use their laptop to: 1. Access to the alien computer network 2. Connect via wireless LAN 3. Communicate with the alien OS 4. Upload a virus that was written without knowing anything about their computer architecture 5. Completely disable the alien network as if there are zero security protocols in place. That movie was good, but the virus part was laughable.

The price of society is rules. If you don't like rules, remove yourself from society. But this goes beyond that; these are children we're talking about, not adults. Yes, it's the parents' responsibility to control their children, but if the parents don't (and many don't), then someone else has to step in and define their boundaries. On a side note, I was at the market at 11:30pm one night, and I saw MANY todlers and young children there. Wow! When I was that age, I had to be in bed by 7:00pm!

Americans are getting bigger and bigger, and I don't just mean weight. I've seen 14 yr. old kids who are as tall as I am (5'7"). While the average height might be 5'8" or so right now, I suspect that number will spike as today's kids finish growing. It amazes me when I see some teenage boy with peach puzz on his upper lip (not even shaving yet) who's wearing a size 13 shoe!! One wonders what happened to make them grow so large. The simple explanation is that better health care when they were babies prevented any growth-inhibiting illnesses, but who knows...