I should only be thankful that my final exams only last until Thursday this week. I'll be more productive afterward, methinks.

The Sounds and Senses

I think I understand poetry now. It is not a marked impact on any particular object or instance; rather it's an impression on time and all time.

According to some existentialists, an infinitesmal instant happens forever. It may be an application of Zeno's paradox, or a suggestive fatalist idea on the circularity of the universal timeline. Regardless, a poem, maybe art in general, is an expected deviation from the destiny of things.

Or maybe poetry is only an empty art that tries to define itself? Who knows, but the beauty behind is the suggestion of a foundational medium that cannot be eliminated, unlike the other arts. In music, sound is deemed unnecessary. In visual arts, there are no rules as to what works.

Poetry needs words, even if they make no sense together. There can be no Jackson Pollock of the words.

Breaking

I wonder who would wake up if for an hour the internet broke down, and our telecommunications ceased entirely.

The lilacs have been out, and right now, you are staring into the eldritch.

Buzzwords

NYT had an article in the way back about how the FBI has a gigantic record with "1.1 million names and aliases" potentially linked to terrorism. Naturally, the ever-astute Times reported that these names were from outdated and poor methods of monitoring suspects. If we had brain-stemmed folk running the papers, this wouldn't be big news.

Of course that bothers me; I can casually tell someone that the FBI is watching me, and not be actively concerned about it. It takes a lot of perspective to really wrap your head around that sentiment.

And on top of it, the magnanimous NYT, along with everyone else, seems to go right along with it. How can we find people "...with genuine ties to terrorism"? What is a tie to terrorism, or, in fact, what the hell is terrorism? I say we arrest the police state we've been forced to grow up in.

If we're looking at principle here, the FBI should be an Ouroboros

The Old Trees

I'm pretty sure there has been no word either way toward the demolition of a local park for, quite literally, a parking lot.

If you're not familiar with Oneonta politics, allow me to explain. There has been talk about a tremendous lack of parking space for people's vehicles in Oneonta. Of course, such isn't the case. You're looking at two small pictures of the top floor of the parking garage I took a while back. It was a peak time, and there were plenty of folk walking around, so apparently they've parked somewhere while barely touching this place.

Now that an historic building is being renovated, and in the process being turned into smaller stores and apartments, people are pre-emptively demanding even more parking space. What the hell, seriously.

I'd like to pose a few realistic solutions. Considering that thought toward the long run is essentially proven to be more effective in the long run, it would be sensible to create a space for commuting folk to leave their cars behind, then connect the rest of Oneonta and the surrounding area to an electric-run trolley system.

If every employed body in the city donated $100 to a project, we could come up with almost $2M. Realistically speaking though, a few large financial backers could run the trolleys through Oneonta, and turn an incredible profit in the long run.

Because America has lost the sense of enjoyment in day-to-day life, it's not surprising that there would be opposition to this idea. But Oneonta did have a trolley at a point, and in that time, Oneonta thrived.

Occam

My gripe with "existentialists" is that they assume everyone else in the world feels exactly the way they do, or that existentialism is an incurable advancement, so to speak.

I just think people misunderstand Occam's Razor, that's all.

Weekend-Wide

An interesting idea came to me earlier. What if consciousness happens five seconds after the present? In other terms, something happens and we react to it, then five seconds later, we become aware of that moment as being the present.

We would not have control over ourselves, only a sense of volition through trying to make coherence out of involuntary strings of events.

Everything on the way to the capital seemed so stretched out. The highway system is ruining the countryside, and these "environmentalists" keep missing the target.

Why is everyone so concerned with the state of our planet, anyway? A large quadrant in the propaganda relies heavily on aesthetic value. So, if people care about the way things look, then why would the government want a say in Chrysler?

I don't get the "too big to fail" argument. I was brought up in a comfortable environment, in one which provided a level comparable to what would make the old kings envious. But doesn't all that seem pretty artificial, anyway? Where is Solomon's wisdom now?