2013-10-04 – CAVEAT DVMPTRVCK

Best hyperbole ever!
"tla alahui, tla petzcahui in tlalticpac" - Nahuatl proverb
He aquí los pensamientos aleatorios de un epistemólogo andante.
"eald enta geweorc idlu stodon"
"Is it getting solipsistic in here, or is it just me?"
"The immediate task of philosophy is to unmask human self-alienation in its unholy shape." - Karl Marx
"i" before "e" except after "c" - disproved by science!
"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo." - Don Marquis
"[M]etaphysics is no different from table manners, in that there are all sorts of ways to set the table, all of which will look “wrong” from the outside, but all of which work just as well as any other for those who adopt them?"
- Justin Smith-Ruiu
"A blog is the height of ego and narcissism, rivaled only by the act of procreation, or the wearing of a man-bun." - Jamie Wahls
"Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days." - Flannery O’Connor
"Down through the centuries, the notion that life is wrapped in a dream has been a pervasive theme of philosophers and poets. So doesn't it make sense that death, too, would be wrapped in dream? That, after death, your conscious life would continue in what might be called "a dream body"? It would be the same dream body you experience in your everyday dream life. Except that in the post-mortal state, you could never again wake up, never again return to your physical body." - spoken by a character in the excellent movie Waking Life (2001).
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius
"If I had a dollar for every time I got distracted, I wish I had some ice cream."
Sometimes setting yourself on fire sheds light on the situation.
"Tenho o dever de me fechar em casa no meu espírito e trabalhar quanto possa e em tudo quanto possa, para o progresso da civilização e o alargamento da consciência da humanidade." - Fernando Pessoa
피할수 없는 고통이라면 차라리 즐겨라
As of June, 2013, I have assumed a new identity: I am a cancer survivor. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
This world, for aught he knows, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard; and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity, who afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance: it is the work only of some dependent, inferior deity; and is the object of derision to his superiors: it is the production of old age and dotage in some superannuated deity; and ever since his death, has run on at adventures, from the first impulse and active force which it received from him.
- David Hume, in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, 1779
A blog, in the end, is really not so different from an inscription on a bone: I was here, it declares to no one in particular. Don't forget that.
- Justin Smith-Ruiu
재미없으면 보상해드립니다!
All things are enchained with one another, bound together by love.
- Nietzsche [really!]
Leviticus 19:33-34
Business is a good game - lots of competition and minimum of rules. You keep score with money.
- Nolan Bushnell
What if we're not conscious, we just think we are?
Donc, si Dieu existait, il n’y aurait pour lui qu’un seul moyen de servir la liberté humaine, ce serait de cesser d’exister.
- Mikhail Bakunin
Solvitur ambulando.
Only thoughts reached by walking have value.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Los Angeles is to America what America is to the world.
- someone on the internet
Art is not a projection of self, it is an utterly alternate self.
Loneliness. Did ya know that loneliness will kill you deader than a .357 Magnum? Did ya know that?
- Andrew Sims (Rapper)
"When I was a stranger you gave me razor wire and pushed me in the river." - Matthew 25:35
Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to soliloquize. Where was I?
- the villain Heinz Doofenshmirtz, in the cartoon Phineas and Ferb.
Is seer periculeus voor de onbekende, om aan te doen.
- Hendrick Hamel
Liberty and justice for all
Offer not available in some areas
Prices subject to change
- internet meme
I will buy a 32 foot ladder at home depot, and I will make America pay for it.
- a Mexican
Psalms 51:17
Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.
- Linus Pauling
I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.
여유있는 태도를 잃어서는 안 된다
Blogging online since 1965

My name is Jared Way. I was born in rural Far Northern California, and became an "adoptive" Minnesotan. I have lived in many other places: Mexico City, Philadelphia, Valdivia (Chile), Los Angeles. And for 11 years, I was an expatriate living in South Korea. In the summer of 2018, I made another huge change, and relocated to Southeast Alaska, which is my uncle's home.
I have a background in Linguistics and Spanish Literature. Two decades ago, I was a database programmer. Last decade, in Korea, I worked as an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher. Currently I'm a ne'er-do-well retail clerk and freelance website administrator living amid the Alaskan rainforest.
In June, 2013, while I was in Ilsan in South Korea, I was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent successful treatment. That changed my life pretty radically.
Currently, you could say I'm "between jobs," somewhat caretaking my uncle (to the extent he tolerates that) and getting adapted to life in rural Alaska after so many years as an urban dweller.
These bloggings, then, have been my random jottings on the subject of my mostly pleasant life among the Quasi-Confucian Cyber-Industrial Paleolithic Peninsulites of Lower Far Siberia, and my more recent time spent on the Free-range Insane Asylum known as Southeast Alaska.
I started this blog before I even had the idea of going to Korea (first entry: Caveat: And lo...). So this is not meant to be a blog about Korea, by any stretch of the imagination. Life in Korea, and Korean language and culture, inevitably played a central role in this blog's incarnation for many years, and life in the rural, temperate rainforest plays an important role these days.
Basically, this blog is a newsletter for the voices in my head. It keeps everyone on the same page: it has become a sort of aide-mémoire.
For a more detailed reflection on why I'm blogging, you can look at this old post: What this blog is, and isn't.
If you're curious about me, there is a great deal of me here. I believe in what I call "opaque transparency" - you can learn almost everything about me if you want, but it's not immediately easy to find.
A distillation of my personal philosophy (at least on good days):
I have made the realization that happiness is not a mental state. It is not something that is given to you, or that you find, or that you can lose, or that can be taken from you. Happiness is something that you do. And like most things that you do, it is volitional. You can choose to do happiness, or not. You have complete freedom with respect to the matter.
"Ethical joy is the correlate of speculative affirmation." - Gilles Deleuze (writing about Spinoza).

Bob Gehrenbeck on Caveat: Noise
Bob Gehrenbeck on Caveat: The true secret to privacy online
Bob Gehrenbeck on Caveat: Links #35
Bob Gehrenbeck on Caveat: I started my stupid blog 20 years ago today
Bob Gehrenbeck on Caveat: Poem #2859 “A lousy Buddhist”

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Caveat: What does the fox say?

Apparently this is a thing, right now.

It was circulating on the facebook this morning, when I looked inside. I'd heard a reference to it yesterday, somewhere, too, and wondered what it was about. Now I know.

What I'm listening to right now.

Ylvis, "The Fox."

My very first thought when I watched it was this: I have got to show this to my students – it's the perfect blend of ironic pop sensibilities and kindergarten English. I especially like the grandfather reading the storybook, in the video.

Lyrics:

Dog goes woof, cat goes meow.
Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeek.
Cow goes moo. Frog goes croak, and the elephant goes toot.
Ducks say quack and fish go blub, and the seal goes ow ow ow.
But there's one sound that no one knows…

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?
Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!
Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!
Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!
Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
Joff-tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!
Joff-tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!
Joff-tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?

Big blue eyes, pointy nose, chasing mice, and digging holes.
Tiny paws, up the hill, suddenly you're standing still.
Your fur is red, so beautiful, like an angel in disguise.

But if you meet a friendly horse,
will you communicate by mo-o-o-o-orse,
mo-o-o-o-orse, mo-o-o-o-orse?
How will you speak to that h-o-o-o-orse,
h-o-o-o-orse, h-o-o-o-orse?

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?!
Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow!
Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow!
Jacha-chacha-chacha-chow!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!
Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!
Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
A-hee-ahee ha-hee!
A-hee-ahee ha-hee!
A-hee-ahee ha-hee!

WHAT THE FOX SAY?
A-oo-oo-oo-ooo!
A-oo-oo-oo-ooo!

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY?!

The secret of the fox, ancient mystery.
Somewhere deep in the woods, I know you're hiding.
What is your sound? Will we ever know?
Will always be a mystery; what do you say?

You're my guardian angel hiding in the woods.
What is your sound?
Will we ever know?
I want to, I want to, I want to know!

Caveat: Three Months Cancer-Free

2013-10-04, 05:21 2023-03-22 Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Cancer

Well… as far as we know, anyway, I'm cancer-free. How can we really know?

I think this a good thing – there are things in the world I still have left to do.

But… lately, as a part of the radiation therapy aftermath, I'm experiencing a discomfort level a bit worse than my last months before the surgery that removed my tumor, 3 months ago today. So from a quality-of-life standpoint, there's room for improvement. Sigh.

Work today went OK. I had two classes. It's so hard to talk, and I worry the kids are just being polite and can't understand a word I'm saying – though the possibility that a group of 2nd grade boys are being polite is actually pretty slim, on further reflection.

What I'm listening to right now.

Psychedelic Furs, "Alice's House."

[Update, 2013-10-05 8 am: My friend Jeannine had this comment on this blog entry on facebook, this morning, and I decided it must be included here, along with my answer:

Jeannine: Cancer-free…strange words. I'm sure you know much much more than I, but my rudimentary understanding of cancer is that cell replication goes haywire quite often – but usually our immune system gets rid of them before they proliferate into a tumor. So are any of us every cancer-free? All we can do, it seems, is nurture the ecosystem of our body and help it do its job for as long as we are given.

Jared: Jeannine is right – I know that very well. Though I doubt I know more than Jeannine (biologist!). All those cells are all just swimming around , and the immune system is swimming around playing "enforcer" and we hope everyone remains a team player. Point taken. The term "cancer-free" is essentially a misnomer based on a misunderstanding of the disease. That said, I'll play along with the misunderstanding because it's a manner of positive thinking: I'll believe I'm cancer-free, and hope the immune system is listening and stays with the program.]

[daily log: walking, 5 km]