PyratePhil

"Striving but never arriving?"

Of course, we're far from my original point of that quote.

Even Taoists must persevere to some degree to resist the outer world in moving toward emptiness, flexibility, effortlessness and detachment. (It's something of a conundrum, really.)

"Striving and never arriving" - correct.

I realize we're a bit removed from your original point, for which I apologize - but just like life, sometimes the circuitous path is the most valuable.

Actually, Taoists DON'T resist the outer world - at least according to Taoist philosophy, they shouldn't. "Resistance is futile" - pitting strength against strength. Better to go with the natural order of world progression, while not actively taking part in most of it. Sort of like being IN the world, but not OF it.

Blend, don't oppose.

(*Shrugs* - that's what the fortune cookie said, anyway...)

Because when it begins to boarder on disrespect and cause a disturbance for other students... I say let him wear his patch during a working detention after school.

How does wearing an eye patch disturb other students, let alone an entire school?

Disrespect? The articles I read on this incident only claimed he refused to remove the patch several times "because of his religion". If he is indeed serious and not just yanking chains, that would be like demanding a Christian remove their crucifix necklace, or a Jew their yarmulke.

If he IS yanking chains then yes, he deserves what he gets.

Teachers tend to have hair-triggers these days when their "authority" is questioned, yet without questioning authority this country wouldn't have become what it is. Funny how they demand you fall in line in school while simultaneously teaching about the great "rebels" of the American Revolution, isn't it?

And I'll lay dollars to donuts that at this same school, there's bullying, gambling, sexual harassment and thievery going on daily...but those are TOUGH problems to solve, so let's just turn a blind eye (!) to them and make an example of the trailer-park trash kid, right?

I for one am quite happy Thomas Edison did not quit after his first week of trying to invent the light bulb.

Thomas Edison, while his inventions have proved useful, was not the giant genius and world-saving inventor that people make him out to be.

He was an anti-Semite; he was a real ba$tard to work for; he regularly stole ideas from other scientists and inventors; he demanded that any ideas that originated from his workers be credited to him; he was conceited and arrogant; he was obsessed with money, and he had an excellent PR team behind him. There were scores of scientists and inventors working simultaneously on the same inventions, and it's mainly through luck, coupled with some ingenious industrial espionage, that he "stumbled" upon the great majority of them.

In short: the typical persevering businessman.

I realize this may not be on the same level that you folks are discussing, but I just heard a segment of "Earth and Sky" on NPR that spoke of early signs of spring being indicators of global warming...their data was collected from the last few decades in the US and Britain and showed a definite upward trending toward seeing the "first signs of spring" - robins, crocuses - earlier and earlier.

I had to think on this before responding. Let me say if I can state your ideas in my words (and concepts).

Persistence in doing something that lacks personal integrity is bad.

If that's what you're saying, I agree. However, persistence is just a tool and, in and of itself, is not bad. In fact, a great deal has been accomplished by people who persevered when they wanted to accomplish something.

"For the resolute and determined there is time and opportunity." –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poetically put, my friend.

My view is more of the Eastern type - wherein perseverance is often seen as a negative trait, at least in its more extreme manifestations. Coupled with its use to achieve questionable ends, it's a deadly tool indeed. The preferred approach in said system is to do only what comes naturally - perseverance warps the natural order and leads to discord. Of course, this assumes a certain level of ability in the chosen field, so that the wheel is not re-invented and time and effort expended for naught.

Although I realize with my Western mind that in many endeavors such as science, athletics, etc. perseverance is often a useful tool, it can all too often swing too far to one side and lead to over-achievement, fixation and something we're seeing more and more these days - symptoms of stress.

My son, who will be graduating high school this spring and is already accepted into his college of choice, has been exposed in the last 3 years to a battery of tests in an attempt to both pigeonhole and label his abilities, and to provide raw numbers for the school district to "up" their success ratios. They lay claim for his success solely with the school's drive, spirit, and progressive teaching structure. Bulldinky. The kid is smart, and would be whether he was in school or out.

But many of his friends are forced to achieve by both the school and their parents. These are probably the same poor kids whose parents were shopping acceptable nursery schools five years before the kid was born, so that he'd get into a good grade school, then a good high school, then...

And all the while, the school and parents tell him "You have to keep trying! You have to burn the midnight oil, keep your nose to the grindstone, you won't get anywhere in life if you don't try harder..."

Bleh.

Not saying that a slacker lifestyle is the answer - that goes to the opposite extreme. Somewhere in the middle might be nice, though.

Factoid: Japan has a huge number of student suicides every year exactly because of this drive to achieve and be #1.

As W.C. Fields once said:

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.

No, I didn't see that - but I was just playing pool with my son tonight, and he would have told me if he had achieved nuclear fusion.

We're close that way.

That gladdens me heart, M'lady!

Gee, Phil. I'm surprised to find such cynicism coming from you. The horrors of the world have always been around us (and are not due only to the efforts of persistant buisinessmen - which is what I think(?) you're suggesting), we just haven't been able to be made aware of them so quickly and with such graphic coverage.

With all due (perhaps well-earned) facetiousness aside...

The entire structure of society is tilted toward awarding those that are pirates in deed and thought, from early schooling to grave.

Businessmen are just the most visible manifestation of the lot. The technology to be aware of them is just icing on the cake - for those who are skilled in observing the human condition, they'll have ferreted out the truth long before the media gets its grimy hands on it and spins it around.

Re: Masters - I'm not ready to get into this discussion since in my field the term has a very different connotation than any forwarded here. My response was solely toward your Coolidge quote.

In order for piracy to exist today, you need a complete absence of law enforcement, and to be near a country with a sizeable population and a nearly non-funcitoning govenrment. Somalia and Sri Lanka come to mind.

Sorry, I disagree.

Piracy exists whenever and wherever one party wants something more than the party that already has it, and has the means and the will to take it.

Law enforcement? LOL - I hope they're more effective at anti-piracy than they are at anti-drug campaigns.

Size of country doesn't matter - as long as there's ONE target and ONE attacker, you can have piracy.

Granite.

He stood there with a cold chisel and hammer, and carved that puppy out of a single solid cube of granite.

They didn't quite say how long that took - probably not much longer than drilling out the log by hand LOL!

Aye, potato guns - my son and his friend are the school brains, so they've developed some evil genius things for the guns - cyalume sticks stuck in the end of the potatoes for night-firing practice; achieving better formulations of propellants (hair spray, ethanol, etc.); new electronic ignitors...they've turned it into a quest, they have

One of my favorite quotes sums it up best and lays both to waste:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -Calvin Coolidge

Ol' Cal didn't live in a world where movers and shakers were responsible for the gutting of pension plans, the ripping-off of the public through stock fraud, the enslavement of young minds to electronic pablum, or a thousand other ills all wrought by those determined and persistent types.

So much for Willie Loman...

A new incarnation of my school...

PyratePhil's Wench Trainin' Academy

here is their bloody dress code...pretty vauge ain't it?

policies- look at 468

That's what happens when you subject yourself to others' rule

They keep it purposely vague so their lawyers can defend their $^@ backsides...

I just caught that myself the other day.

It was interesting, but like many of the MB episodes it leaves some things unexplained...the foremost being, just because THEY can't do it doesn't mean it couldn't have been done.

(calms down and remembers it's just TV, it's just entertainment, it's just...)

I mentioned it to my son, who along with his friend are experimenting with more and more powerful potato guns - his eyes lit up like a 5-year-old on Christmas morn, so I guess there's SOME good to come out of it

I especially liked the hand-carved cannonball!

It's worth being on there if only because of the hot pyrate chicks...

See, Christine? Something for everyone...

(BTW - maybe you just had to refresh your browser - it's a slower server, I think, than MySpace, so sometimes changes that you make lag a bit).

And as was I believe mentioned here before, it's nice having our Archer be a real person, not like Tom The Undead Corporate Zombie Clone...

It might not look like much, but I think there are certain advantages-

-you're not inundated with tons of crappy, stupid bulletins

-you're not inundated with tons of crappy, stupid viruses

-you're not inundated with tons of crappy, stupid run-time errors

-you're not inundated with tons of crappy, stupid people who have no other goal in life than to make yours more difficult

But what the hell - give it some time;maybe it'll be all that Myspace is, and more...

Eh, that's what I get for being away so long. Thanks!

If you can translate from German, you can pick up this toaster that makes skull and crossbones toast...

Pyrate Toaster

A. 0

B. 1

C. Fantasy

D. Escapism

Here I be, as usual a week late fer me own funeral.

A heart-felt thank you to you all - and may I paraphrase that the news of my death was premature.

And where is that coffee? Or Phil? I could use a good philosophy discussion right about now...

It appears you have your discussion without my meddling, young grasshopper.

Review: Fiddler is VERY hot!

...oh...did they play music, too?...

Disorder | Rating

Paranoid: Off-scale

Schizoid: Off-scale

Schizotypal: Off-scale

Antisocial: Off-scale

Borderline: Off-scale

Histrionic: Off-scale

Narcissistic: Off-scale

Avoidant: Off-scale

Dependent: Off-scale

Obsessive-Compulsive: Off-scale Off-scale Off-scale Off-scale Off-scale

...huh...

with People

Acupuncture

(I love it)