Monday, October 26, 2009

2636 Random thoughts

Monday, October 26, 2009

Comedienne Rhett Butler:  "I apologize for all my shortcomings."

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I had no idea what I had been committed to yesterday.  It turned out to be a friend of Daughter who has discovered that the Native American belief system satisfies and comforts her, and she wants to share it.  So it was four of us neophytes in her family room while she droned on for four hours about creation stories, and white buffalo woman, and rituals, and circles.  It was all very touchy-feely, which is not my cup of tea, but Daughter is still searching for her own path, so I went along with it.  (Twice I had a very difficult battle with sleep, you know, where your eyes start to unfocus and you can't get control back?)

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Driving home I was thinking about religion in general, which led to a general thought I have to think about some more.

It occurred to me that the belief of one person is more likely to lead to truth than the belief of two people. 

What I mean by that is that when a person finds another person who has the same belief as they (on any topic), the two reinforce each other.  Both become less likely to question further, or to examine more closely, or to drop parts of the belief that are not workable.  Further, they will feed each other possibilities that, simply because both accept the possibility, will become part of the belief, resulting in a spiral away from the truth rather than toward it. 

It has me wondering if the current emphasis on teamwork in corporate creative endeavors is a good idea.

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Also while driving home I was listening to the "Tribal Derivations" CD from Beats Antique (you can listen to samples at the link).  The beats, rhythms, are based on the antique Middle Eastern, and many of the instruments are the old old ones, but they've built on the antique base, and there's a new-age speculative flavor.  I had always interpreted the "Beats Antiques" that way - "beats" as the noun, and "antique" as the modifier.

As I was listening to the added bass and keyboard and synthesizer and tuba, I thought, "Yeah, it beats antique."  "Beats" as the verb, "antique" as a noun. 

It cracked me up.  Their name is a pun.  Love it.

A commenter on the Amazon site described this CD as "a hypnotic,opium filled fantasy full of deep smoky images from the past, seeping under the wooden floorboards of a jazz club down a back alley and with the right password, you gain access to its delicious rhythms."  Yeah.  That's IT!

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Back on the "ask me questions" post, Becs had asked, "If you got to give a "Last Lecture" like Randy Pausch, what do you think you would talk about?"  (Should have known Becs would get all literate on me, and make me think!)  Well, I'm not ignoring the question, I have some thoughts, I just first need to find out what Randy Pausch had to say.  I've heard of his "Last Lecture", found it on YouTube, but never got around to watching.  (I understand there's a book, too.)  Anyway, I'll get to it....
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