Koogy: It's an open and shut case Bob McAdoo.
Wiluggbai: Tell me something I don't know.
K: Water falls, stars shoot, options call, bread makes me poop.
W: Enough. Let's go and get a coffee.
K: Smooth, real smooth. I oughtta smack in you face.
W: Hey, hey! Hey.... calm down. Now's not the time for games.
K: How's your sister?
W: Troubled. She's been trying for weeks to solve her Rubik's cube, but she can't get it out of the packet.
K: You ever cried out of anger?
W: Always. It's when I feel most alive.
K: Tell me more.
W: Communication is only possible between equals.
K: You been riding around on the horse as fast as you can, looking for the horse.
W: Are not.
K: Willugbai, show me your nuts.
W: I keep them in tupperware, but matching lids is always a problem. There's cashews, almonds and pistachio disguisey.
K: Do you think it's a problem that people are largely ignorant of biochemistry and neuroscience?
W: Hardly, Koogy. I don't know how I'd perceive the world without evolution and the amazing scientific details, but it doesn't stop some people from being great.
K: And it stops you from being a modesto. Recite some poetry for me.
W: Flow, flow, float your boat, gently cross the stream, utterly utterly utterly utterly life is butter dream.
K: All's well that ends swell. I got a permanent semi.
W: Enough! Coffee. So long to wait, but it's good to have to wait. Makes you appreciate it some.
K: True dat. But then at the end you never know if you're gonna be served a bad beveridge.
W: There was a strong visual pattern on the stage tonight. It soaked my retina and felt nice. It was still a shallow emotional experience.
K: If all your clocks are showing the wrong time.
W: There is no clock. There is only movement. Take away movement you take away time. Clock is the stars and what if the stars stopped moving? What if they weren't there?
K: Hellish knowledge.
W: To know whether your struggle against the flow is a motor or a drown starting.
K: You never struggle, you never change.
W: Bullshit. Reasonable woman don't change the world, ergot all change from the unreasonable woman. Load of crap.
K: Aim for the fulfilling experience.
W: Don't aim. Do what thou willst.
K: Warm, warm, stretch satisfied. Sleep sleep smile deep sleep.
W: [nods]
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wince memory
What are your wince memories? You must have one or two that stand out. I better not go into the details of mine. We've all done stupid things, and we'll all do many more. Some of them are stupid enough that when we recollect them we wince. The wince is all about preventing pain. The pain of embarrassment, stupidity and pain. When we wince, it's like the shaking the mind's etch a sketch and trying to forget the wince memory. A little GO BACK WRONG WAY sign in the minds pathways. Wincing acknowledges that something very awkward or humiliating happened. It's possible to get over wince memories, I reckon. On closer inspection, we might not get over them, just smooth over them. If we are forced to revisit in fine detail the thing, the wince may well return.
~~~
I've mentioned this before, perhaps, but Foreign Correspondent has indeed a really lame theme song. This song belongs on a kids educational programe, not one of TV's premier world current affairs shows.
~~~
The once proud once Belmore club.
~~~
Involuntary subjunctive replays. This is a topic worthy of far more detail than I can give it now. I just wanted to draw your attention to it. This is a universal human trait, which isn't to say that all people have it, just that it's part of the human cognitive repertoire. It may well be connected to one of your wince memories. Here's how it works. Something happens. Something goes wrong, and it's very significant those ramifications. It could have gone the other way (couldn't it have?). So nearly might have. Sport is the obvious example that comes to mind, but would form but a small part of the human catalogue of subjunctive replays. Bulldogs up 20-6 at half time in the grand final qualifier against Brisbane in 2006. They go on to lose the match 37-20 and the mind afterwards is populated with what if thoughts. What if Hodges hadn't busted that tackle and made that inspirational break that lead to the first comeback try? What if Luke Patten had scored in the corner just before half time, stretching the lead out to 26 points to 6? I can't remember the other ones, but the essential features are
- bad, significant outcome
- it's plausible that things could have gone the other way
- your mind replays the events over and over
- it's involuntary
- there's a strong what if element - your stupid mind almost thinks it can change reality if it tries hard enough.
I once wrote to a scientist in the UK asking them about the possibility of studying involuntary subjunctive replays, and they replied that they were interested in collaborating with me. I was flattered, being an honours student and all, but never pursued it. I sent out a lot of emails like that during my study days, and had some really nice exchanges. Gee, academics are nice.
~~~
I've mentioned this before, perhaps, but Foreign Correspondent has indeed a really lame theme song. This song belongs on a kids educational programe, not one of TV's premier world current affairs shows.
~~~
The once proud once Belmore club.
~~~
Involuntary subjunctive replays. This is a topic worthy of far more detail than I can give it now. I just wanted to draw your attention to it. This is a universal human trait, which isn't to say that all people have it, just that it's part of the human cognitive repertoire. It may well be connected to one of your wince memories. Here's how it works. Something happens. Something goes wrong, and it's very significant those ramifications. It could have gone the other way (couldn't it have?). So nearly might have. Sport is the obvious example that comes to mind, but would form but a small part of the human catalogue of subjunctive replays. Bulldogs up 20-6 at half time in the grand final qualifier against Brisbane in 2006. They go on to lose the match 37-20 and the mind afterwards is populated with what if thoughts. What if Hodges hadn't busted that tackle and made that inspirational break that lead to the first comeback try? What if Luke Patten had scored in the corner just before half time, stretching the lead out to 26 points to 6? I can't remember the other ones, but the essential features are
- bad, significant outcome
- it's plausible that things could have gone the other way
- your mind replays the events over and over
- it's involuntary
- there's a strong what if element - your stupid mind almost thinks it can change reality if it tries hard enough.
I once wrote to a scientist in the UK asking them about the possibility of studying involuntary subjunctive replays, and they replied that they were interested in collaborating with me. I was flattered, being an honours student and all, but never pursued it. I sent out a lot of emails like that during my study days, and had some really nice exchanges. Gee, academics are nice.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Games of the 29th Olympics
when you’re a sports commentator, it’s a real benefit when you can call your event by multiple names. football is also the world game, the beautiful game. Racing is also the sport of kings. well, the olympics are not just the olympics, or the biggest and most watched sporting event in the world, the best of the best, the olympic spirit yada yada yada – they’re also the games of the twenty ninth* olympiad. This is great. It’s such an unusual construction. You can’t say ‘7even is proud to broadcast the Olympiad’, it doesn’t work like that. It’s the games of the olympiad. What is an olympiad? And I will have no wikipeding or googling here. We must reason this out. Is an olympiad some kind of quadrennial festival, not limited to games? If it were limited to games, then saying they’re the games of the olympiad would be a tautology. Is there anything else of the olympiad? And has anyone ever used the word olympiad without preceding it with ‘games of the [insert ordinal possessive]’?
Can we coin some other –iads? How silly would it be if we referred to pollies as members of the XXIV Parliamentariad? (Forgetting for a moment politics would never qualify for RN status).
For the games, I prefer Olympiac anyway. Stay tuned, for more of the Games of the 29th Olympiac!
More importantly, Olympiad could be the first name in the history of all names in which a man’s name is derived from a woman’s. This is a landmark event in the anti-sexism in language movement. Olympia is a nice name, although somewhat spoiled by Olympia Dukakis. Olympiad is strong, athletic, great.
And while we’re on diving, what an incredible sport. A couple of things here. Firstly, as far as I can tell, there is no greater sign of skill in diving than making the least possible impression on the water as you enter it. That’s a little perverse, isn’t it? Like running as hard as you can into a brick wall and then walking away serenely as though nothing had happened. Alright it’s not really like that, but it’s like something I can’t put my finger on but the point is the same it’s odd. Secondly, surely the judges shouldn’t be so myopic as to limit their judging to what happens in the air and then the initial entry mark – they should follow divers all the way through as they descend to the pool’s well-lit depths, and possibly even as they rise to the steps. Divers should have to make their way to the steps while making as little impression on the water as possible. Thirdly, in the synchronised diving, if one person’s landing is piss poor but the other person matches it exactly, they should be rewarded, not penalled. Finally, there should be more scope for playfulness in synchronised diving. They could bow to each other mid-air, shake hands, embrace, or have one person acting out attempting to win the other’s attention for purposes of seduction, while the other acts out cooly ignoring them.
Matthew White just informed us that Olympic fever is spreading fast and the only cure is gold. Well, I’ve just inhaled 30 migs of gold filings and my sinuses are worse, not better. Matthew, you’ve just secured yourself a malpractice suit.
* in this case, aka XXIX. Note thus that the olympics qualify for roman numeral (RN) status, a mark of history, dignity and esteem. Curiously, Wrestlemania and the NFL - but not rugby league - have attained RN status.
Can we coin some other –iads? How silly would it be if we referred to pollies as members of the XXIV Parliamentariad? (Forgetting for a moment politics would never qualify for RN status).
For the games, I prefer Olympiac anyway. Stay tuned, for more of the Games of the 29th Olympiac!
More importantly, Olympiad could be the first name in the history of all names in which a man’s name is derived from a woman’s. This is a landmark event in the anti-sexism in language movement. Olympia is a nice name, although somewhat spoiled by Olympia Dukakis. Olympiad is strong, athletic, great.
And while we’re on diving, what an incredible sport. A couple of things here. Firstly, as far as I can tell, there is no greater sign of skill in diving than making the least possible impression on the water as you enter it. That’s a little perverse, isn’t it? Like running as hard as you can into a brick wall and then walking away serenely as though nothing had happened. Alright it’s not really like that, but it’s like something I can’t put my finger on but the point is the same it’s odd. Secondly, surely the judges shouldn’t be so myopic as to limit their judging to what happens in the air and then the initial entry mark – they should follow divers all the way through as they descend to the pool’s well-lit depths, and possibly even as they rise to the steps. Divers should have to make their way to the steps while making as little impression on the water as possible. Thirdly, in the synchronised diving, if one person’s landing is piss poor but the other person matches it exactly, they should be rewarded, not penalled. Finally, there should be more scope for playfulness in synchronised diving. They could bow to each other mid-air, shake hands, embrace, or have one person acting out attempting to win the other’s attention for purposes of seduction, while the other acts out cooly ignoring them.
Matthew White just informed us that Olympic fever is spreading fast and the only cure is gold. Well, I’ve just inhaled 30 migs of gold filings and my sinuses are worse, not better. Matthew, you’ve just secured yourself a malpractice suit.
* in this case, aka XXIX. Note thus that the olympics qualify for roman numeral (RN) status, a mark of history, dignity and esteem. Curiously, Wrestlemania and the NFL - but not rugby league - have attained RN status.
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