Maieutism is an old Greek idea that truth is innate within the mind. This is tied to Plato's ideal that the universe is based upon archetypes such as math, and that everything is a derivative thereof. Since the human mind is capable of reason, he considered it to be a higher reality than the physical world because it suggested to him that the mind, especially a reasonable mind, required less integrating to get to the root archetypes. Understanding of greater truths had to be obtained by reaso
They're both raised in Kansas and lived on farms just outside of town, but they were also born in a faraway place that defies the mundane modern world. It seems that America's heartland bred incorruptible pure children, because these are two of the nicest people in all of cinema, and both quintessential characters in Americana. I ship it. Merida
If One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Juno had a baby, she would look something like this. It doesn't make a dramatic case for neurotic people and how they are abused by society, though it still makes them into underdogs who compel audiences to root for them. It breezes through the daily life of these individuals without earnest intensity, although that doesn't prevent it from being a sincere and serious story about these people. From the perspective of Silver Linings Playbook, social disabi
I would like to create some constructed languages, but I don't want to be a total novice who assumes that everything sounds Indo-European, or worse, basically like an English cypher language. So here are links to some articles on grammar on Wikipedia that I'm promising myself I'll get around to reading. Learning all of the different grammatical cases used across the different languages will take an especially long time. Boy, the stuff you never think about when you only speak one language. Learn
I first felt emotionally directed towards the that one special girl before I ever even saw her. I was friends with a guy, paralyzed, who happened to be her older brother. I cared a lot for him. Then I found out that he had a sibling, and I thought that whoever she was, she must be a very cool person, naturally, having grown up with him. Several months later my infatuation was in gear. Once he graduated and wasn't around in school anymore, I found other reasons for liking her. She's a farm
Fairytales are wonderful stories that spring from archetypes hidden in our simplest of fantasies. At the center of it all is "The Hero". The main character is usually quite special for a number of various reasons. Sometimes he or she has a special talent, or he or she is royalty. Sometimes he or she is more persevering than everyone else or he or she has outstanding strength of character. Sometimes he or she is curious, or simply defies the expectations of society. Something makes him or h
I thought that they were going to run out of naming schemes for each generation, because there are a limited number of basic colors to choose from. However, only recently did I realize that this would never happen, because they're not limiting themselves to colors and materials. They can name their stuff after just about anything. So I'm going to throw out a few hypothetical generation names out there. Good and Evil Introversion and Extroversion Order and Chaos Positive and Negative Blond and
Move here, to my state. I watched this reality TV show about thousands of Chinese millionaires who moved to Vancouver, and I thought, "Why Vancouver? It's rainy. It's a stuck-up coastal city, just like all of the other stuck-up coastal cities. They should come over to my state, specifically my town! If they're rich, they can start businesses that will make Valjeanville more interesting. Right now, the only cool business that we have that makes our town an interesting place to live in is ou
Fret not, those who feared that Pixar could not live up the the standard set by the Toy Story trilogy! Going in, it was difficult not to get anxious that the prequel to the now classic Monsters Inc. would be an unnecessary shoe-in with an arbitrary storyline. One he contrary, everything about this story completely lives up to the original, and adds depth and context to Mike and Sully that feels absolutely right. I watched it and realized "Yes, that's them! That's who they are." It really ma
I was really excited for the movie and it made for a wonderful way of celebrating Christmas. When I walked into the theatre, it was packed, and that was saying something considering that it was a big theatre. It was a good thing I claimed my seats early. Regardless of this film's quality, I formed some opinions beforehand. First, any Les Miserables film is better than no Les Miserables at all. It's a story that needs to constantly be retold, and I can live without seeing my dream version r
The one thing that I knew about this movie going into it was that it had very good aesthetics, and that it was on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 level of prettiness. I guess you could say that I also knew that it starred Scarlett Johansson, although that wasn't really a selling point for me. Actually, that was a point against it, because it made me think that it would be a lot like Luc Besson's dumb Lucy movie. I enjoyed Lucy, but I didn't want a retread of that. Now that I've seen it, I ca
I have only seen The Bourne Identity out of the prior Bourne films, which was a while back. I might not have even been a teenager, so my memory is a bit foggy. So while watching this film, I had no choice but to view it as a standalone, as I suppose it was meant to be. I'm used to watching series installments as standalones, which in a sense I can do if I've already seen the other films because my mind fills in the blanks without realizing it. This time was different, as the film looked to b
Today Jordan Wieber, American women's gymnast, failed to pass on to the final all-around by the slightest of margins. Even though she still gave one of the most powerful performances that would have otherwise qualified her, there is a strict 2-gymnast-per-country limit for the final round. Commentators and news anchors discussed whether or not this should be allowed, and there are diverging opinions. What's yours? In other Olympic sports it's possible to have three people from one country o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog When I was a little boy, my father had two things in the basement. The first was a whip hanging from the ceiling rafters. The second was a personal library filled with old books, with yellowed pages feeling soft and tender under my fingers. Among those books were classics from Jules Vern, books about science, history books, and so on, but as I write this I vividly remember pulling out an Indiana Jones chose-your-own-adventure book from eye-level
I was visiting the graduation party of a friend called Kitty. I stuck around for a while to enjoy the place, because of the oreo cookie creme and stuff like that, but there was something that struck a major philosophical idea in my head. As selected senior pictures to keep of Kitty, I grabbed one of her on the gold course, and I suddenly realized that golf was a sport. I've always opted to go out for track instead, since it was more athletic, so I never thought much of golf until, for some r
7 - Molly Mahoney "Mahoney Baloney!" says Professor Magorium. It must have been a delight for such a childish man to have an assistant from the normal world who inexplicably matched his youthful charm. If you think about it, Molly Mahoney is neither child nor adult. She's a fantasy person, because she can fit in with Magorium's magical toy shop as if she was born there, and yet she comes from the outside world and has her own real-life problems. At the Toy Shop, she gets along with th
I moved into my dorm earlier today at Western Iowa Technical Community College (known colloquially as WIT). Due to cultural osmosis, it feels very natural, as if I've been here before, but I haven't. This is the first time I've ever been in this atmosphere. having college friends and classes in high school definitely prepared me, though, because I can't shake off the feeling that I should be suffering from some form of culture shock. Unpacking was very easy. With the exception of a few thi
Some controversy has been raised on this subject, courtesy of my idol Steven Spielberg. He's a big believer in the power of the Big Screen, and that the Oscars celebrates the culture of the Big Screen every year. It isn't necessarily a celebration of all movies across all mediums. After all, movies that are made for television win their awards at the Emmy's. So how does Netflix fit into this? Netflix movies have budgets, and major directors and actors attached, and they aim for a cinematic exp
Perhaps not everybody is familiar with this situation, and I'm sure that many of you might have many different opinions on it, but I'm sure that many of you at least are aware that some people simply refuse to cooperate with their photo takers. In a family portrait, someone might decide not to smile and perhaps even pose or look at the camera. Their common reasoning for this is simple: photos are meant to capture memories. Why lie about my feelings in this photo? I might as well be honest i
For the last few years, I've had a certain perception of masculinity. Just before I sat down to write something, I noticed that someone had carved into the public desk I was using a rather rude way of saying, "Earn lots of money and get girls." This struck me as peculiar. Since when was a man's masculinity dependent upon picking up girls? Why should men obsessed with masculine things find so much value in mingling with some"thing" so fundamentally opposed to their masculine pursuits? Somet
When I was about eight or nine years old, I picked up a book called The Andalite Chronicles. I had seen similar books with teenagers turning into animals lining the library shelves. That was before the library burned down, but I always remembered those images. It was exactly the kind of thing to catch a little boy's attention. I didn't know what the stories were about, or what the pitch was, and what the implication was that they could turn into animals. Personally, I didn't even expect the
Wow. My expectations were pretty high when I entered into the theatre, because the trailers made this look like a pretty solid action film. I love it when my expectations are high and they are still beat. Where to start? This film is technically perfect. I am predicting that a year from now it's going to have a nomination for Best Picture. The whole package is good. It has great directing, great acting, great characterization, great writing, great music, great pacing, great editing, great
The title basically says it all. I've just noticed that a lot of my friends have about an average of eight replies for their typical blog entry, even when they're the random ones. Yet, for some of my entries, I'd be lucky if I get a comment at all. What do they have that I don't have? Your Honor, Emperor Kraggh
