Tarsus' Journal

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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Tarsus" journal:

July 2nd, 2010
09:06 am [Link]	Writer's Block: The tenth time's the charm What movie have you seen the most times in your life? How many times have you seen it? Will you ever grow tired of it? View 1882 Answers Easily Spaceballs. It was probably the only movie I liked when I was really little. As a result of spending so much formative time watching it, I more or less have the script memorized. Tags: writer's block (Leave a comment)
June 10th, 2010
04:07 pm [Link]	GIP Because Adventure Time is awesome, and friends are too. (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
May 31st, 2010
06:40 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: Light reading Some books are inspirational. Others are intellectually stimulating or emotionally comforting. Then there are those juicy, mindless reads that are only good for a plane ride or the beach. Which books or authors fall under this last category? First question listed was submitted by fixnwrtr. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 791 Answers On the plane ride to Chicago today I read most of The Cardturner by Louis Sachar. It was a quick read (finished it since), but turned out pretty good and it's about bridge to boot! I'll bring my copy back to lend around. Tags: writer's block (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
May 13th, 2010
02:50 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: Mark my words What gives your life special meaning and purpose? Do you think it's important to leave a lasting mark on the world? If so, what form do you think this will take? First question listed was submitted by lekook. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 943 Answers When I was in high school, I used to think it was necessary to have some sort of legacy. I considered it a logical consequence of being on Earth, you should contribute something that gives humanity some value from your existence, not merely perpetuate the status quo of the species by being alive and maybe having children. I disagree with that view now. My mistake was in presupposing that humanity needed to have any sort of deeper meaning. I am happy now to live for my own needs and desires, provided I stay within the limits of ethical behavior toward others. And part of what makes me happy is being able to make other people happy. So I'd say my existence is a positive influence on the world, just not on any sort of clearly identifiable historical scale =) Current Music: djpretzel - Red Waltz (Intermission) \| Powered by Last.fm Tags: writer's block (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
April 13th, 2010
02:35 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: I can walk under ladders Do you believe in luck? Do you think some people are luckier than others? Do actions cause reactions or are there intervening forces beyond our control that govern our destinies? First question listed was submitted by monstergaga. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 1040 Answers I believe in luck. But I believe in it to such a smaller extent than a lot of people do. Much more than luck I believe in the power of our own attitudes to change our current situations. If you can see yourself doing better at something, you WILL do better. It may take a lot of time, and effort too, but a person needs to be prepared at every fork in their life, to choose the path that leads them to their goals. And not the big decisions, those I think end up being the LEAST important, because you get so many chances to do similar, if not the same, big things with your life. But all the little changes that lead to slow patient growth. If you believe you can eventually achieve something, you'll be prepared to change in the ways necessary that eventually lead you to achieve it. I believe this above all other things. Tags: writer's block (Leave a comment)
April 5th, 2010
04:48 pm [Link]	A Platform for Platformers Super Mario 64 was the greatest video game of all time. It had all the elements of a great platformer, some of which it invented: worlds with creative discoverable features, an intuitive and fast control scheme, beautiful thematically united worlds with equally beautiful music, a "scoring" scheme that rewarded exploration and interaction with all the corners of the worlds, and callbacks to moments in our collective nostalgia with modern enhancements. Basically the only thing that stopped Super Mario 64 from being the single greatest experience of all time was the lack of Kuribo's Shoe. ( A recipe for a great sequel ) (Leave a comment)
March 29th, 2010
04:54 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: No regrets If you could eliminate one emotion (anxiety, sadness, jealousy, regret, etc.), would you do it? Why or why not? If so, which one would you choose? First question listed was submitted by 10thdrink. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 1983 Answers This is actually not a stupid question. As important as emotions are, I think anger is a legitimate candidate for deletion. The positive emotions are great, and some of the negative ones (stemming from pain) serve as a device to motivate us to improve ourselves. Sadness, also, can almost straddle the line, and be desired particularly because of the negative way it makes us feel. Dramatic cinema and theatre thrive on this. But anger has no redeeming feature. It leads to violence, it causes the one experiencing the emotion to want to change other people and not themselves. I don't think there's a place for that in modern society. Tags: writer's block (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
March 20th, 2010
11:53 am [Link]	My Health Care Plan Federalize minimum care standards, so health insurance can cross state lines. Such standards should ensure that sick people with insurance can get the care they paid for without insurance companies escaping by contract loopholes, legal stalling, etc. Creating an industry oversight body to that end that sunsets in 10 years. Tax employer-sponsored health care as ordinary income, with a $2,000 exemption per household member Create insurance exchanges (a la the Obama plan) for small businesses and individuals Grant eligibility for Medicare to individuals with certain recurring or catastrophic pre-existing conditions There, problem fixed, and via principles that should appeal to ALL our country. No expensive mandates on insurance companies, employers, or individuals. Can be tweaked to be revenue neutral, but need not be (we're willing to spend money on our sick). (Leave a comment)
March 16th, 2010
03:54 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: Welcome to the mobile decade The eighties were known as the Me decade. The nineties have been called the Electronic age. So far, what would you label this decade? First question listed was submitted by kimivalkyrie. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 1419 Answers This is really really easy and really really important. The 2000s were the Communication decade. Our level of connectedness to each other exploded as high-end technology leveled off and low-end technology became more pervasive. Web standards matured, and internet-connected applications became the norm. Meeting people online became something people other than technophiles did, and IM and email became accepted mechanisms of simple casual contact, supplanting the telephone. And then there's Facebook. And Youtube. Today, right now, if you have the right kind of cell phone, you have the entire world at your fingertips. This is revolutionary stuff. Tags: writer's block (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
March 8th, 2010
03:28 pm [Link]	Writer's Block: Best book ever! Is there any book you can read over and over again without ever getting sick of it? Do you discover something new every time you read it? First question listed was submitted by sematary. (Follow-up questions, if any, may have been added by LiveJournal.) View 2162 Answers A few maybe, but honestly there's so many books out there I have to get to, that I really try to avoid books I've already read with a few exceptions. Growing Up Weightless is perhaps my anthem, so it gets a read every now and then. Siddhartha and Paradise Lost are great springtime reads for more or less the same reasons: poetic evocative imagery, and complicated meaningful themes. I occasionally go back and read bits of fiction classics, like, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or The Lord of the Rings, though it's been a while. But really, I feel like reading the same book again is throwing away an opportunity to broaden your life a little! I like my life to be one with a horizon, not 4 walls, so I'm a bit loathe to revisit the familiar and comfortable. This weekend I tried to finish Absolution Gap, the last book in the Revelation Space hard sci-fi series. It's been a terribly difficult battle, because the pacing is enormously slower than the first two books, and I'm just waiting for them to wrap it up at this point. Then I'm not sure what I'll move on to. Hopefully something less sci-fi, but still interesting and dramatic, with maybe a hint of speculative? Shades of Gray looks appealing. Tags: writer's block (1 comment \| Leave a comment)

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