Daily Connotations

Daily Connotations

Entropy Happens.
Join the madness.

You don't have to push the boundaries when you set the standards.

Connotation. 1. a. The configuration of suggestive or associative implications consitiuting the general sense of an abstract espression beyond its literal, explicit sense. b. A secondary meaning suggested by a word in addition to its literal meaning. 3. Logic The total of the attributes constituting the meaning of a term.

Observations, opinions, and ideas, all brought to you by Daily Connotations Company. Who Else?

May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
September 2006
February 2007
March 2007

Disclaimer: Any opinions contained on this page are those of, well, we don't really know who. Any offense taken to anything present should be directed to Sven, who will file and ignore your comments. Praise or compliments can be directed to either Dr. N, Dr. What, or Dr. Olga. All plagarized material has been tested and deemed satisfactory according to the esteemed code of Lehrer, version 2.3.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO VIEWERS:
The Entire Physical Universe, Including This Blog, May One Day Collapse Back into an Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently Re-emerge, the Existence of This Blog in That Universe Cannot Be Guaranteed.

Things We Like

Sven Bjorn Borg: Sven has been with d-con since its humble beginnings, and is responsible for punctuating, finances, guarding the office from rabid dogs and loud noises, and acting as mediator amongst the other members. Dr. Borge is well-known as the world's foremost (and perhaps only) underwater-basket-weaving expert. Sven has recently published no less than 3 books, Klingon Grammar and Vocabulary for humans, Life among the Grapes, and Escher, Bach, Gödel: A gigantic elastic bungalow. In it's copious spare time, the Sven enjoys playing the harpsichord and diagramming sentences. Sven is Chief of Staff and Director of Intelligence in the UPICN,LLC.
Dr. Bob William "The Orange" Lavoisier a.k.a. Dr. Henry Parsons: Dr. N, as we like to call him, is officially the initiator of the Daily Connotations Company, and also holds important Offices in the VVIIPP society of America and The Department of Redundancy Department, which is a place where he holds an important office in the department of redundancy. Henry also spent a good deal of his life studying the behavior of Walruses (Walri?) in the wild, inspired by a long-running correspondence with Mr. J. Lennon, who, in fact, convinced "The Orange" that he was, in fact, a walrus. Dr. Parsons' curriculum vitae is rounded out by his extensive family history (including a brother, Alan), and double Ph.D. honors in Botany and the Study of Scandinavian Languages. Recently, Dr. Henry Parsons was elected president of the UPICN,LLC
The Doctor a.k.a. Dr. What??: Dr. What joins us now as a member of d-Con in very good standing. It is important that the doctor not be confused with his slightly-more-popular brother, Doctor Who, who has carved a niche for himself in the field of time travel. Dr. What never developed the talent for time travel, and has the ability to visit only two distinct temporal locations: The beheading of John the Baptist and that one time when Stanley met Livingstone (or was it Livingstone met Stanley?) Consequently, he spends much of his time knitting (the scarves, natch) on the planet Gallifrey whilst (and at the same time) contemplating Nietzschean philosophies and memorizing much of Immanuel Kant's work, both in the original German.
Dr. Phelealabean: Dr. Phelealabean also uses the alias Dr. Olga Olathe Parsons-Uhlmer. Dr. Parsons-Uhlmer is a sister to Henry and Alan. She has a dual honorary doctorate in Arabian Literature and Language. She also has teaching experience at the University of Rekjavik which was held in a small grass-covered hut. She iswidowed after an incident involving her husband and abandonment which she is not allowed to discuss pending criminal charges. Now that she is alone, she enjoys spending summers with her brother, Henry, in his summer home, The Parsonon.

11.02.2003

Nihilism

(warning! still philosophical.)

n. 1. A doctrine that all values are worthless and that nothing is knowable or can be communicated. 2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral value, consitituting a willingness to refute all previous theories of morality. 3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.

From my faithful Webster's II

I was pulled away last night in the middle of a post about philosophy (feel free to add your own background music). Now, I'm back to finish it. Actually, to expound on it.

One easy way to make everything worth nothing is by looking at it with a fine tooth comb. Everything we ever do - everything that exists - can be nicely explained on the level of positive and negative charges. How can arrangements of protons and electrons and neutrons really make any difference about anything? And actually, according to quantum physics and all that jazz, we're all 99.99999999% empty space anyway! (Not that that makes any difference to the tree when you run your car into it). (The impact of science on philosophy would be an interesting topic all to itself. I may tackle it later, or I may have to leave it to someone who is more of an expert on the subject.)

Looking at the dictionary entry, I find it interesting that nihilism claims that nothing can be communicated. Why be I writing this, then (well, I'm not a nihilist, might be the obvious answer)? Are there books about Nihilism? (I ought to do an amazon search. I won't) If there are (which I don't doubt), why? Isn't that hypocritical?

To the nihilist, I imagine, nothing is essential (esse - to be, remember?) because nothing exists - nothing is - nothing be's, if you will. (i speak english muchly good!)

I can not imagine anyone in the world actually holding a nihilistic viewpoint for a lifetime. Maybe it's my Judeo-Christian background, my deep rooting in the American Dream. Maybe it's because I was raised on 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451. Maybe it's the fact that I rammed my poor little left toe on the doorjamb on my way to the computer - and the pain running up my leg all the way to my brain matters. If nothing else - it matters. Not only that, I want it to matter. At first - it sounds nice - if nothing matters then it doesn't matter what I do with my life, so I can eat drink and be merry . . .then you remember or realize the rest of the quote and it all seems so pointless. (which it is - that's the point, remember? Wait! if it's pointless it can't have a point!). If a person can't believe there is a reason for their existence, then why should they continue to exist? We may not know the reason, but we've got to accept that there is one.

The answer (or, well, at least a lot more good questions) will come in our next exciting installment!

. . .to be continued.

--Posted by s. on Sunday, November 02, 2003.