Category: Musings

Beginning My Deep Dive Into Tolkien

ppp_400x400A dear friend of mine sent me off on a wonderful Tolkien tangent last week when she replied to my Podcast Pickup post and directed me to the Prancing Pony Podcast.  I quickly scanned the last half dozen posted episodes and settled on #038, also entitled “I Will Choose Free Will” – which immediately gave me a Rush earworm.  Not one to be daunted by a nearly two hour podcast (we are dealing with ‘epic’ fantasy here), I gave a listen to the ongoing discussion of The Silmarillion, specifically Chapter 21 and Túrin Turambar.  I pulled out my ebook edition and quickly skimmed Chapter 21 to remind myself of the story.  I really enjoyed the insights and the banter of the hosts.  It took me several days to completely listen to the episode, but by the end I was hooked and a plan began to form in my mind.

I have read The Silmarillion at least three times, possibly four.  My first attempt occurred in high school, followed by a reread during college.  I probably pulled it out for a third reread in the 90s, but with two young kids, I doubt I succeeded a complete journey.  The most recent rereading took a different tack wherein I switched to an audiobook edition, the one read by Martin Shaw.  I adore English voice actors so I had no trouble listening to the entire book twice, in 2010 and again in early 2013.

Having been impressed with the podcast above, my plan now is to begin at the beginning, to rewind back to episode #001, “In Defense of Fantasy” originally released in February 2016.  I’ve requested the recommended reading from my local library (the biography by Carpenter and Tree and Leaf by Tolkien).  I already own the ebook editions of Tolkien’s letters.

I am not going to rush this journey.  The road goes ever on, as any Tolkien fan knows.  I will indulge myself as the fancy takes me, betwixt and between my other reading and listening projects.  I will consider this an ongoing and long running blog posting series and please remember that “Not all those who wander are lost.”

Podcast Pickup

The stars have aligned recently in my personal universe allowing me to enjoy audio podcasts once again.  Years ago, I used to listen to them via my laptop, a web site or perhaps my Palm Pilot (yeah, remember those)?  I never owned an iPod but my children had a couple.  I liked the concept, but for the most part I preferred listening to audiobooks (and still do for the most part).

I’m a Patreon supporter of an author (Kameron Hurley), who recently started producing podcasts on a monthly basis.  Rather than download yet another application to my smartphone, I decided to use an existing installed app to listen to her podcasts.  I downloaded the audio file and placed it in my audiobooks folder so that my Smart Audiobook Player app would pick it up automatically.  It found the new file and I was able to listen to it through my Bluetooth headset and through my new car’s stereo system while commuting. I’ve listened to both episodes and enjoyed them both (although I do warn you that profanity is prolific).  I even submitted a question for a future podcast to her.  Kameron has made the podcasts available to everyone via her website at this URL:  http://www.kameronhurley.com/podcast/

This listening experience reminded me that there are other podcasts to be discovered.  I did some searches for best podcasts of the last couple of years for science fiction and fantasy.  I found two that seemed to fit my bill:  Sword and Laser and Wired’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (GGG).  I subscribed to both of them and downloaded the most recent episodes to my Google Music app.

Continue reading “Podcast Pickup”

Zen for the Ages

My uncle recently read and reviewed the late Robert Pirsig’s seminal Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  I’ve added this book to my ever growing list of philosophy-related to-be-read pile.  For more of Ron’s insightful review, please proceed to his blog via the link below:

Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig Five Stars “We are all of us very arrogant and conceited about running down other people’s ghosts but just as ignorant and barbaric and superstitious about our own.” I wish I read this book forty years ago. Instead […]

via Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig (Five Stars) — As a Matter of Fancy

KC Area ‘Beltway’ Enters 3rd Decade or “A Tale of Two States”

“Kansas followed the Texas plan, buying a wide enough swath of land for the high-speed interstate artery plus room for parallel service roads,” says Kerr. “Missouri just bought enough land for the interstate route and diamond intersections, and didn’t connect those diamonds from point to point.”

http://kcur.org/post/after-30-years-i-435-more-success-story-kansas-missouri#stream/0

I drive I-435 on the Kansas side nearly everyday. And I remember before it was completed and you couldn’t drive completely around the 81-mile circuit. I’m thankful my home state took the long view instead of being shortsighted for future generations. 

Dropping the Bomb

My Brain Upgrade Project continues apace with readings on social and political philosophy.  I wrapped up the chapter with a section on the Limits of the State, which included the following Philosophy and Life insert on p. 595 of my Philosophy textbook:

Philosophy and Life - Society and the Bomb (p. 595)

I choked up reading the quote above in the left-hand column attributed to Henry L. Stimson.  Continue reading “Dropping the Bomb”

Metadata Morality?

I’m struggling to adequately complete my third homework assignment in my Philosophy class today.  I finished reading Chapter 7 on Ethics this past weekend and spent time Sunday between movie breaks gathering my notes to answer my professor’s questions. I am almost finished; just agonizing over a couple of questions that require my opinion which I am very uncomfortable stating in writing in an assignment for which I will receive a grade.  Not fun.

Over lunch I took a book break to continue reading Version Control when I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read this paragraph:

… keep in mind the difference between a person and the data generated by a person as she moves through life. This is a distinction that is easy to forget. Information is not a person, and a person is made up of more than information. A person has beliefs and feelings and a will and a soul: information does not. You have to remember this because we do not want to dehumanize our clients by speaking of them in terms of numbers, but you must also remember that while it is possible to have a moral or ethical obligation to a person, it is impossible to have such an obligation toward data. The very idea is nonsensical. What would it mean to talk about being fair to…bits? How would you talk about treating bits with respect?

Oh dear!  Here we go again!

Is it truly ‘nonsensical’?

Continue reading “Metadata Morality?”

Modesitt on the Fallacy of Undergrad as Vocational Programming

I am guilty of advocating more women pursue STEM degrees, but I’m also one hundred percent behind my daughter’s choice of career in vocal performance. At one point in her life, she was perfectly happy to pursue a STEM related career in zoology or chemistry. But her talent and love of music won the battle for her vocation. I have a career, more aptly referred to as just a job, in technology, but I can in no way begin to claim it is a calling or satisfying as a true vocation would have been. Ah, the regrets.

Recently, a semi-prominent president of an educational institution told a group of music professors that they shouldn’t complain about the fact that they were paid less than professors in other disciplines or that they were required by the institution to work longer hours and more days than most other professors because they “knew what they…

via The Education/Business Fallacy — L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

On Human Nature and Political Ideologies

This paragraph in the “Human Nature” chapter of my Introduction to Philosophy textbook speared me, considering the turmoil before, during and continuing after our most recent elections.  It’s a long paragraph so bear with me.  I’ll split it at points to add more white space for emphasis and where my mind flipped thoughts from ‘right’ to ‘left’ instead of its usual on-edge position:

Your perception of human nature determines even how you think we should set up our society. Ask yourself this, for example: Should our society be based on capitalism or socialism?

Continue reading “On Human Nature and Political Ideologies”

Defining Philosophy Survey Results

As I promised in yesterday’s post on my Brain Upgrade Project, the following are excerpts from the email responses I received to the following question:

“Ask six friends what they think philosophy is.”

The study of critical thinking.
∞ ∞ ∞
. . . philosophy is the contemplation of our existence, sentience, and interaction with the universe and its inhabitants. I believe we as humans agree that our capacity to reflect upon our existence is unique. And that we are seeking  elusive knowledge for our propose through this process.
∞ ∞ ∞
Narrowly, philosophy is the love of knowledge. Broadly, it’s the inquiry into what is real, true, valuable; how we know it and what difference it makes; what is man, who am I, why am I here, what am I to do? It is the search of meaning and purpose in life.
∞ ∞ ∞
Philosophy to me is a general moral framework to help determine one’s actions and explain how the world works (or should work).
∞ ∞ ∞
After taking two required philosophy courses in college many moons ago, I decided philosophy is the opportunity for a professor to put forward his/her agenda and give you poor grades if you don’t agree with it-no matter how much you support your point of view.
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I guess I would define philosophy as the study/search for answers regarding, well, existence:  who we are, what things are, why things are the way they are, and how things should be (i.e. ethics and morality).  I believe (although I could be wrong) a lot of science has it’s roots in philosophy (if I remember correctly, it was one of the very early philosophers that theorized the existence of atoms).  You could almost say that philosophy is the study of questions.
∞ ∞ ∞

I would say philosophy is the study of thinking, the why we think, that we can think, the how we think ~ leading to our conclusions ~ which remain in a state of flux,  to a point!!

The importance of this should be that we understand the decisions we make, there is a trail or should be of how we got to that point.
∞ ∞ ∞

My answer to the similar question posed to my Philosophy class by our professor:

“How philosophy is defined? How would your define it?”

Philosophy means the love of wisdom with a goal to help us achieve autonomy, by making us more aware of our own beliefs and encouraging us to think through issues for ourselves.  Philosophy is also an activity, and not an easy one, but the struggle for freedom never is, especially when we examine our most basic beliefs and assumptions under the microscope of reason.  I would define philosophy as unrelenting curiosity and drive to ask, and attempt to answer for ourselves, the hard questions about our purpose, our place in the world and the universe, our mortality and our morality

Next post I’ll ruminate about my reading of the second chapter of my Introduction to Philosophy textbook:  Human Nature