Nothingness

It is a curious thing. The secret always lies in the place you never think of looking for it. This is one of my favorite mixes of video/music/information. The combination is lasting to me, like a blanket on the mind. I watch it probably once a week. Love.

what a boss.

"rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools" -Douglas Bader

Boom. This guy! So there he is just chilling, right?! That is a pretty sweet guy you might say, strong! Really good at almost everything that is good: rugby, hockey, cricket, you name it he does it- really well. Then he takes up flying and is good at that too (duh) but he's 21 showing off, does some acrobatics, digs in a wingtip, and ends up having both legs amputated. Dang it! Wanna know what he had to say? "Crashed slow-rolling near ground. Bad show." Ha! Awesome, soooooo my legs just got whacked, but I'm really upset you folks didn't get to see the full loop!!

Does that hamper progress........ let me think. Smokes pipe in aircraft while holding stick straight with prosthetic legs and hopes the gas fumes don't get him! Leads a RAF squadron in WWII and kills it (literally) becoming Britain's 5 highest ACE for number of kills. Gets his tail shot off by a Bf 109 and while plummeting to the ground (400 mph give or take) his prosthetic gets stuck, but breaks off, he parachutes out, and gets captured. and THEN!!!

"'scuse me, mr. german, um, may i borrow your pen?!"

(writing)
"dear britain,
i am writing for a favor. i seem to have lost my prosthetic leg somewhere over france, would you mind sending me a spare? thank you, all the best.  -bader"

Wanna know who ok'd the op to parachute drop that little replacement off? Herman Goring. ha. but the brits obliged the airpost after they did a bomb run. Two birds with one stone, no kidding. Smart.

From historical records: "over the next few years, Bader was a thorn in the Germans side." Pretty much the prime example of goonbaiting; cause as much ruckus as possible to tie up as many resources and personnel as possible. Made the germans so mad they took his legs away, but then felt so bad they gave him them back and then he escaped again then next day.... again, what a boss.

Anamnesis

always learning....

today's (thursday= science) lesson: cognitive dissonance

In 1957, Leon Festinger, a social psychologist at Stanford, Published The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, one of the most influential papers on human behavior even written. It defines our personal ideas, thoughts, theories, beliefs and values as cognitions. Whatever they may be. And when they are preferences and unrelated to one another, we don't really care. But when they are related we do care and they need to be consistent.

"Contradictions result in a state of dissonance that the mind cannot tolerate."

Oh, dear. What a state!

Anamnesis

oh, ello again. Time for the weekly memorization. Everyone should know a bit of obscure poetry from some dead bloke that everyone forgot. Indeed. This week comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley (who apparently did not have the nicest parents, ha! The naming clearly had a drastic impact on the poor lad for he wrote sonnets. If you happen to also write sonnets, don't tell anybody, this is embarrassing) This sonnet came out quite nicely, however, and made it to this prominent place of display:


Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

Anamnesis

Oy! Chesta here:

What? Nah, can't remember, sorry there. Mo is always saying this, which sounds absolutely ridiculous to anyone listening and serves to imply that she could be  a chocolate teapot, which is not an optimal ideal to be represented by (a chocolate teapot is a general comparative standard for the failure of an object to perform in accordance with its intended function, for all the ones who were having a moment with that one)

Therefore to help the poor girl out, I have imposed a strict regimen of obtaining three things weekly and securing them in the memory ducts. They include:

• A story, myth, or extraneous account of an event
• A memorized piece of literature (an expansive vocabulary is super saucy)
• A bit about the western cannon (the 102 ideals that comprise the pillars of culture in the western civilization) Science, music, religion, mathematics, oh you know what I'm talking about, seriously.

Since she usually talks to herself anyhoo now we'll just share the lot up here with everyone! (apologies in advance!) Look at the Moche posts to expand your knowledge of the mundane, useless, and otherwise unimportant bits to float around in the upstairs!

Hello. My name is Chester Hunnyhucker and all I like is candy!

No, no. Just kidding. Because my better half would say I'm sweet enough! Well, they would if there was one, in this case I, Chester, am taking on the proverbial "other half" of a lovely girl who is a bit too plain and boring so I am the spice and life to make this blog interesting.

Well, good on you! Glad we got introduced and looking forward to another chat. Ta!

Parting thought: a giraffe and a lion walk into a bar and the giraffe falls asleep. The bartender says, "what's that lyin there?!" and the lion says "it's not a lion it's a giraffe!". Oh, boy. This is gonna get good....