Generica

"These differences of opinion come into consideration in their own proper place. It is certainly difficult to find a state intermediate between life and the absence of life. Some, too, will urge that a plant, if it be alive, is therefore an animal; for it is difficult to assign any principle to the life of plants except that of the life of nutrition. But, when men deny that plants have life, they do so because plants do not possess sensation--for there are certain animals which lack foresight and intelligence. For nature, which destroys the life of the animal in death, preserves it in the continuation of its kind by generation, and it is wrong for us to suppose any intermediate state between the animate and the inanimate. We know that sea-shells are animals which lack foresight and intelligence and are at once plants and animals. The only reason, therefore, for their being called animals is that they have sensation; for genera give names and definitions to the species which fall under them, while the species give names to the individuals, and the genus ought to rest on a common cause present in the several individuals and not on several causes; but the nature of the cause, on which the genus is based, is not familiar to everyone. Now there are animals which have no female sex, and some which do not procreate their kind, and some which lack the power of movement, and some in which the colour varies, and some which produce an offspring unlike themselves, and some which grow from the earth or from trees." -Aristotle

Reading Aristotle on science is a different affair than reading Aristotle on ethics or politics or epistemology or metaphysics. In one sense, it's less productive. Aristotelian theory in the sciences is either inaccurate or rudimentary from the modern perspective. However, it's for that very reason that I find it interesting. The question here, whether or not plants are alive, is one all of us have known the answer to since we were in elementary school. However, once great minds struggled sincerely with this question and, in Aristotle's discussion, we can see the issue carefully pondered, evidence collected and weighed, concepts about the nature of life struggled with. I think it really illustrates the way knowledge builds on itself. Today's genius is tomorrow's starting point.

More personally, I'd like to apologize for my long hiatus. When I last wrote, I was rather depressed and I didn't want to use this as an excuse to wallow in self-pity. After that, I was pretty consistently busy. However, I do plan to write more. I want to straighten my thoughts out and this seems as good a place to do it as any. I've been questioning a lot. I've gotten rusty discussing and debating first principles. I think I've taken them for granted for too long. I prefer playing around with ideas to arguing from conviction. It is, in some ways, what philosophers are trained to do. However, I think I have taken to an extreme. I need to argue more, not simply consider arguments I disagree with. I need to have both the confidence and the arguments to say why I disagree. Therefore, I will largely get my thoughts in order here. I will also share a bit about my personal life and what I am working on.

Onward

 

Starving

for the luscious

IMAGE

and the-

the initiative to write the

passing poesy (p)of passionate perceptions

rolling through his brain

(since he no longer scribbles in notebooks)

tHINGS worth more than the ten thousand pages he garbled-

through broken shards of memory-

about the face that launched/lost a thousand ships: Helen, “Lauralanthas”

and the old phone “con”verse-ations

with grandiloquent phrases-

extravagantly thrown unto crowds-

scores at least-

That more being life,

material reality from day to

...............

day

"While the argument was going on, Captain Teruzo Ando and 150 men were bursting into the official residence of Grand Chamberlain Kantaro Suzuki, who, like Viscount Saito, had so enjoyed the private showing of Naughty Marietta a few hours earlier. The elderly admiral, wakened by a maid, rushed to a storage room for a sword. He couldn't find it. Hearing footsteps in the corridor, he stepped into the next room -- it would been a disgrace to die in a closet. In moments he was hemmed in by a score of bayonets. One soldier stepped forward and asked politely, 'Are you His Excellency?'" -John Toland

So I've finally moved into my new apartment. It's nice to get away from the drugs, the smoking, the violence, the vandalism, the theft, the misogyny, everything which characterized at least one of my erstwhile roommates so thoroughly. I've really just completely settled in today although I've been moved for a couple of weeks. This seems to be a general problem with my life. I feel like I'm perpetually starting. I feel like I'm only now just getting settled in to second semester, for example, when it's almost over. I felt the same way much closer to the end during first semester. Only it isn't as though there's all that much which I substantively failed to do because I felt like it's the beginning. I simply didn't fall in with an exact pattern of how I would manage my time. The tiniest variance, oddly enough, made me feel like the semester hadn't even really started yet.

This seems to be the larger pattern of my life. I have no real problems. I'm doing well in school. I'm smart. I'm decent looking, although I don't think I'm especially attractive. I have a good family to fall back on. I have a lot of friends. Still, for some reason, usually for no reason at all, things perpetually feel like they're falling apart. It's like my only problem is that I always feel like there's a problem. I guess one good example might be my sleeping. I worry so much about not being able to sleep that it keeps me up. I'm not sure if I'm making this clear enough but I don't know any other ways to say it.

And yet I haven't fallen in love with a Mexican girl. I'm actually not looking. I still feel almost not allowed to think about other women that way because I still feel strangely loyal to my now ex-girlfriend. I know that sounds silly. I'm also grateful for all the advice people have been giving me about getting over her. The only problem is that I'm not sure I want to. I still love her. I don't think I've really loved a woman before. I said it a lot in high school but I didn't know what it meant. This felt real to me, even if it wasn't that long. I guess it's good I'm not looking at anyone else. As silly as my feelings might be, it would be wrong to see someone else while I still have them.

Anyway, I'm in El Paso now, working on the Asylum Law Project. We're trying to help people, well, get asylum. I'll go into more detail later. I know I say that a lot and I normally don't but prompt me about it and I will. Nate, Chris and I are doing research as Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services. It's going poorly. Most of the cases we deal with have the deck stacked against them.

Earlier today, I walked to Mexico and bought candy, a Coke without high fructose corn syrup in it and a corn dog. There was nothing else to do, actually. I have a lot to say but don't have the energy. I know I say that a lot too.

Love to all,
Dayton

"We continued our travels to Cana and then along the paths of Jesus in his early ministry to Capernaum and other communities around the Sea of Galilee. It was especially interesting to visit with some of the few surviving Samaritans, who complained to us that their holy sites and culture were not being respected by Israeli authorities -- the same complaint heard by Jesus and his disciples almost two thousand years earlier."
-Jimmy Carter

This is one of those entries where I feel like I should be saying a lot but, now that I actually sit down to right it, not much is coming. I've been going through a break-up and, while I don't feel it would be appropriate to discuss it in any detail on here, However, it seems to overshadow all the stuff that I had previously meant to talk about. I had intended to reflect on the successes and mistakes of my first semester of law school but it's hard to focus on that. I guess I can talk about it anyway. I think I've done fairly well the last semester. I can't really vouch for that until I get my grades. However, it didn't magically solve my self-image and self-esteem problems to simply be in law school. For some reason, I was under the delusion that it might. My only real problem is that I can't shake the impression that I have problems but that is in itself a serious problem that doesn't simply disappear by recognizing it or by deciding to relax. To work on it is to work on everything else that has given me trouble but I'm not completely sure where to start. In any event, I have some more specific new semester resolutions.

1. Start outlining earlier

2. Balance time better between class/study, extra-curricular activities, social activities and creative outlets

3. Be more involved

4. Sleep better and get on a schedule

5. Start outlining earlier

6. Be a joiner

7. Keep up with what's going on

8. Eat out less

9. Watch less television

10. Budget more carefully

11. Exercise regularly

12. Take care of my psoriasis

I had thought that I would work out in greater detail exactly how I'm going to live next semester, going into detail on each of these points to clarify exactly what I needed to do in my own mind. I can't quite focus enough for that right now. Besides, I'm sure it would be boring to anyone but me. I have a fairly decent general idea.

"On September 17, 1787, some thirty-nine men, having completed their labors in Philadelphia, signed their names to a short document that bore a title as spare and simple as the text itself. The Constitution of the United States had taken almost four months in the drafting, and more centuries to prepare than anyone then or later could precisely estimate. In addition to the thirty-nine signers, there were present at the ceremonies a few men who refused to sign; several other disgruntled colleagues, having failed to achieve the document they wanted, had already departed for their homes in discontent. Nonetheless, the prevailing mood must have been one of satisfaction and optimism."
-Robert A. Dahl

Some of you might have noticed me poking around communities and such. For those who didn't, I am in fact back on live-journal. I'm mostly writing this entry to clear my own head. My first semester of law school is almost over. My first exam is on Tuesday. So far, this has been a mixed record for me. I find myself bothered often, sometimes by nothing specific and sometimes by something silly. I always have the impression there's something I need to work out when there isn't anything. That, in fact, is what I'm doing now.

I have had a few adjustment problems in law school. I've been having trouble with my sleep cycle and, well, all the other problems come from that one. That's why I'm going to try and get to bed soon. I always have this idea of the perfectly organized, productive day. The problem is that I sometimes think of it in an all or nothing fashion. When the day doesn't go according to plan, I sometimes write it off entirely and decide to try again tomorrow. Those are all things I can best get over by simply relaxing so I probably shouldn't be writing about them. Anyway, I've studied and am still studying hard for Contracts on Tuesday so I should do well. Yen Li is coming on Thursday. I'm excited about that and a little nervous. Anyway, time for sleep.

"Sadly, Blum accepted the refusal of the opposition. 'I am conscious of having gone to the limit of any possible effort to fulfill the formula for a government which I judged the interests of the country dictated ... I cannot conceal my surprise or my sadness ... If I thought that the creation of 'republican unity around the Popular Front' had more chance of succeeding on the initiative of another political leader, I would at once resign my commission.' But no one came forward to make the effort, As a pis aller, Blum formed a new Popular Front cabinet on March 13; it would last hardly a month. 'Everybody knew that it would be brief when it took office, and I assure you, I knew it as well as anyone,' he later said." -Joel Colton

On Wednesday, Senator Obama is having a town hall meeting in Greensboro and my mother and I have volunteered to work at it. We have to be there at 9:30. I finally get to see him in person after working on the campaign for so long. I've never really felt this way about a politician before. I don't have,an especially long or elaborate entry to make on the matter. I'm not in an especially expansive mood. I never care to write too much when others are in the room and when I'm not especially energetic. Still, I've been extremely excited all day and had to at least attempt an entry on the matter.

This poll is wildly off from my actual preferences and it really upsets me that Giuliani is the highest Republican on it but at least the Democrats are on top and the Republicans on the bottom.

89% Mike Gravel
89% Dennis Kucinich
84% John Edwards
82% Chris Dodd
81% Barack Obama
78% Joe Biden
77% Hillary Clinton
72% Bill Richardson
36% Rudy Giuliani
29% John McCain
26% Ron Paul
22% Mike Huckabee
22% Tom Tancredo
21% Mitt Romney
11% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

"Unfortunately, instead of innovation and bold reform of our schools -- the reforms that would allow the kids at Thornton to compete for the jobs at Google -- what we've seen from government for close to two decades has been tinkering around the edges and a tolerance for mediocrity. Partly this is a result of ideological battles that are as outdated as they are predictable. Many conservatives argue that money doesn't matter in raising educational achievement; that the problems in public schools are caused by hapless bureaucracies and intransigent teachers' unions; and that the only solution is to break up the government's education monopoly by handing out vouchers, Meanwhile, those on the left often find themselves defending an indefensible status quo, insisting that more spending alone will improve educational outcomes."
-Barack Obama

The best thing about going to law school will be finally getting back out on my own. When I first came home after library science school, I was sure it would just be for a couple months. Then I turned twenty-four and then twenty-five working at Gate. I find it really humiliating to be dependent on my folks at this age and sometimes they do little things that make me feel like a child. For example, this morning, I woke up and my toothbrush had been thrown away. My mother apparently thinks it's still her job to decide when an old toothbrush has lasted as long as it can and to handle it for me. Her one concession to my age is that she didn't, as she did when I was younger, replace it. Of course, all this small consideration means is that I didn't have a toothbrush this morning and had to go to the store and buy one before I could brush my teeth and those of you who know how I am in the mornings know how much I hate to go out before I've washed up and brushed my teeth and the whole thing just made me feel like I was still a child. Just six more months!

"Twenty years later, getting close to the White House wasn't so simple. Checkpoints, armed guards, vans, mirrors, dogs, and retractable barricades now sealed off a two-block perimeter around the White House. Unauthorized cars no longer traveled Pennsylvania Avenue. On a cold January afternoon, the day before my swearing in to the Senate, Lafayette Park was mostly empty, and as my car was waved through the White House gates and up the driveway, I felt a glancing sadness at what had been lost."
-Barack Obama

Usually, when I do get around to writing an entry, it's some sort of general update on my life or some sort of general reflection. Today I have actual events to talk about. This Saturday, I went down to Bennettsville, South Carolina to canvass for Senator Obama. I was part of a group of about thirty from North Carolina which met up in Raleigh and drove down to four different South Carolina counties to canvass. It was exciting to actually participate in the democratic process instead of just talking endlessly about politics but I found that, as much as I talk about politics in general and the primaries in particular on a daily basis, I often clammed up when real people wanted to talk, saying only a little and giving them literature. As the day wore on, however, I opened up a lot and I had some pretty good conversations in the afternoon. A few women in my group encountered overt racism directed at Obama from some of the people they canvassed but I didn't encounter any. However, I did notice that African-Americans seemed a lot more open to Obama, generally speaking. I'm planning to go back down on the day of the primary.

On the way back, I was in a car accident. A woman three cars in front of me had her hood pop up and was pulling over. The car directly in front of me slowed suddenly because of her and I, well, I tried to slow suddenly but I wound up hitting the middle car and sending it into the front car. Incidentally, this was in my mother's Camry. She insisted I take it because it was safer. Anyway, no one was seriously injured. Wrecks always make me think though. If things had happened just a little differently, I might have died. The weirdest thing is how suddenly it happens. One moment, everything is normal and, the next, I'm in a wreck. I'm still a little bruised up. They have me on muscle relaxants. I can't drive on those but we only have two cars now anyway.

I guess my third piece of news is that I was accepted at the George Washington University School of Law which is a very good school. I'm five for five so far although I'm bound to get rejections at some point. Even the worst law school in the nation rejects more applicants than it accepts. Anyway, I actually posted. Yay me!