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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.
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Team Members
- 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.
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8.31.2005
A hypothetical question....from the field of physics.
You know how when you spin something (a stick, or a rope), that the outside edge of it goes a lot faster than the the part that you are holding at the center of a circle.
Imagine you are standing on an infinitely large, completely flat, and totally unobstructed surface. You have a flashlight (maybe a laser works better - something that emits a light beam that doesn't diffuse). You start spinnning it.
What happens to the light at the outside of the circle?
(I don't know the answer.)
--Posted by s. on Wednesday, August 31, 2005.
8.30.2005
It looks like Integral Calculus is going to end up being a lot more time consuming than Differential Calculus.
It's not that I don't have the brains, or even that I don't have the technique. I just don't have the patience.
***
On the other hand, Kat showed me her combinatorics homework tonight, and I'm gonna make it to that class if it kills me.
Which, well, it might.
--Posted by s. on Tuesday, August 30, 2005.
I found out something very cool today. Georges Perec's novel, A Void, is being reissued in paperback form for a sweet $12.21. Not only is this price a palindrome and my grandfather's address, it is incredibly cheap.
--Posted by a. on Tuesday, August 30, 2005.
8.29.2005
A review of my summer reading:
Horror:
Dracula, by Bram Stoker is a very well written and well researched book. The horror level is not extremely high, but the chatacter and plot development is good.
The Phantom of the Opera is not as well written(this could be due to the translation) but is in, my opinion significantly more frightening than Dracula. The thing that I felt was missing from this book was discription of the Opera House (you here so much about it that is rather disappointing when the decore is hardly mentioned). It absolutly blows away Mr. Webber's musical adaptation.
Political Satire:
Being There, witten by Jerzy Kosinsky, has a nice little plot, not to mention it was written by someone named Jerzy. It's not really political and it's not really satirical but it sheds wonderful light on wisdom of simplicity.
Brave New World, I would say is on the level of Orwell. It had a sense of irony that truned back on humanity as it is, not as Huxley portaryed it.
Science Fiction:
Flowers for Algernon is a wonderful book and has much to say about human nature and how human nature could be better.
I also read several stories of Ray Bradbury, he never fails to awe me.
Non- fiction:
Godel, Escher, Bach. This is truly an amazing book written by what must be a truly amazing person. Douglas Hofstadter has an amazing grasp of the human mind as well as Bach's music. It was the best of my summer reading.
So I had a successful season and I hope you did as well.
--Posted by a. on Monday, August 29, 2005.
Two jokes from my psych professor:
(i knew this would get more interesting once school started)
1) I knew this girl who had a map of chicago tattooed on her body, from her neck to her ankles.
Say what you want about her, you always knew where you were with that girl.
2) My grandmother is so old, she only smokes arthritic joints
--Posted by s. on Monday, August 29, 2005.
8.28.2005
chapter titles from my textbook, The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates
Prospects for a Unified Theory of Consciousness or, What Dreams are Made Of
The Cartesian Theatre and "Filling In" the Stream of Consciousness
The Path Not Taken
The Identity Crisis
Understanding the Phenomenal Mind: Are We All Just Armadillos?
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
What Mary Didn't Know
Quining Qualia
Curse of the Qualia
What is Consciousness?
Clearly, someone has too much time on their hands.
--Posted by s. on Sunday, August 28, 2005.
8.27.2005
William James is one of my favorite philosophers, as far as merely writing style goes. (Goethe might not agree) Here is an excerpt from his The Stream of Consciousness.
From one year to another we see things in new lights. What was unreal has grown real, and what was exciting is insipid. The friends we used to care the world for are shrunken to shadows; the women once so divine, the stars, the woods, and the waters, how now so dull and common!-the young girls that brought an aura of infinity, at present hardly distinguishable existences; the pictures so empty; and as for the books, what was there to find so mysteriously significant in Goethe, or in John Mill so full of weight?
There is also this fragment, which I find pretty....interesting...from a nineteenth century philosopher.
When Peter and Paul wake up in the same bed....
--Posted by s. on Saturday, August 27, 2005.
8.25.2005
Franklin Pierce Pages
--Posted by s. on Thursday, August 25, 2005.
8.24.2005
Listening to Billy Joel's songs makes one think that he would be really good looking.
He's not.
(in other news, happy to be back in Grinnell - where even the vices have vices. and everyone gets more and more stressed and more and more depressed as the semester goes on. it's heaven, i tell you.)
--Posted by s. on Wednesday, August 24, 2005.
8.23.2005
ummm.... Ok?
That's pretty weird. I think they should do a series of some sort:
Catholic Priests saving people from sharks ("I think we're gonna need a bigger rosary")
Catholic Priests saving the entire universe ("I am your father....and your son....and your holy spirit")
Catholic Priests creating new life from old ("IT'S ALIVE!!!!")
--Posted by s. on Tuesday, August 23, 2005.
8.19.2005
I am much too excited about The Muppet Show coming out in seasons.
--Posted by s. on Friday, August 19, 2005.
8.14.2005
Bram Stoker's Dracula (the book) is heads (and fangs) above M. Shelley's Frankenstein (the book).
The "original" movie versions, however, are exactly opposite. Frankenstein the movie (starring Boris Karloff as the monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein) is a marvelous movie - not scary, really, especially by our modern standards, but well done - the scene with the Monster and the little girl throwing flowers in the water is one of the few moments of genius on the silver screen that does not involve either Frank Capra or Alfred Hitchcock.
Bela Lugosi's Dracula disappoints, however. It lacks both suspense and emotion. Quite frankly, I don't care at all about any of the under-developed characters. With the exception of the girl (Mina?) that becomes a vampire, none of the characters change at all (and she doesn't really develop emotionally).
Also, the ending is pretty terrible.
All of which is saddening. After reading the book I had high hopes for the movie. That, and I think that Bela Lugosi is a wonderful name. Perhaps I shall name a pet after him someday.
--Posted by s. on Sunday, August 14, 2005.
8.09.2005
Three Mother Goose Rhymes, none of which I have ever encountered before visiting this website.
Go to bed, Tom.
Go to bed, Tom!
Tired or not, Tom,
Go to bed, Tom.
***
Mademoiselle
Went down to the well,
Combed her hair,
And brushed it well,
Then picked up her basket and
Vanished!
***
Upstairs, downstairs, upon my lady's window,
There I saw a cup of sack and a race of ginger,
Apples at the fire and nuts to crack,
And a little boy in the cream pot up to his neck.
And just for kicks, three that are about Doctors:
An apple a day
Sends the doctor away
Apple in the morning
Doctor's warning
Roast apple at night
Starves the doctor outright
Eat an apple going to bed
Knock the doctor on the head
Three each day, seven days a week
Ruddy apple, ruddy cheek
***
Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain.
He stepped in a puddle
Right up to his middle,
And has never been seen again
***
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why, I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.
--Posted by s. on Tuesday, August 09, 2005.
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