Ethical philsophers

I just took the ethical philosopher selector at this site. It appears that I tend towards rationality and utilitarianism, with dashes of existentialism and and spirituality thrown in for good measure. I am a bit concerned that Ayn Rand is in there.

1. Aquinas (100%)
2. Aristotle (94%)
3. Jeremy Bentham (91%)
4. John Stuart Mill (89%)
5. Epicureans (81%)
6. Jean-Paul Sartre (81%)
7. Spinoza (72%)
8. Ayn Rand (71%)
9. St. Augustine (60%)
10. David Hume (54%)
11. Kant (53%)
12. Stoics (51%)
13. Thomas Hobbes (51%)
14. Nel Noddings (49%)
15. Prescriptivism (43%)
16. Ockham (42%)
17. Plato (42%)
18. Nietzsche (39%)
19. Cynics (37%)

Funny video

My LDS readers--active and otherwise--will get a kick out of this video. I was laughing almost as much as I do during "Arrested Development." Okay, not that much, but it's really funny.

Zen on a coffee table

Wait a second; what's that deliciously violent DVD doing there? 

Tibetan singing bowl

The singing bowl works much like when you were a teenager at a boring adult event and you ran your wet finger along the top of your water glass. With the singing bowl, you tap the bowl to start a vibration, then run the stick around the top of the bowl. You can either hold the bowl atop your palm or place it atop a pillow. The bowl is made from an alloy of several different metals, and the sound supposedly helps calm the mind. And it's kind of fun to play inside a large hotel with guests on either side of you. 

Ever since I was a teenager, I've wanted a leather jacket, but they were always too expensive or too impractical for a Louisianian to own, so I always talked myself out of it. Yesterday I was mildly depressed, so on the way back to the hotel, I stopped off at Foley's and bought one. It was half-off, so the practicality-guilt factor was greatly diminished. I'm generally skeptical about the efficacy of retail therapy, but I'll be damned if I didn't feel better when I walked out of the store.

Hurricane humor

Fine dining. 

The weekly Houston Press published a comparison of Astros and White Sox fans. The series might have only lasted four games, but there really was some excellent baseball played.

Oh my goodness. This morning, two of my coworkers commented on the rudeness of some other hotel guests during breakfast the past few days. There is a quilting convention in town, and the guests in questions were quilters--you know, nice granny types. Now, these are lawyers commenting on the assertiveness and bad manners of others. We lawyers as a class have a reputation for rude, assertive conduct, so when a lawyer comments on the behavior of others, you know there's something to it. I told one of my coworkers not to worry, that I would sic DW on the offending quilters. So we went to the evening social hour in the breakfast room downstairs a little while ago, and I wasn't disappointed. One of the quilters ignored the utensils and grabbed some veggies with her hands. DW went up to her and pointed out that most civilized people don't do that. The hotel staff applauded DW. Incredibly, one or two of the other quilters came into the room later on and also took veggies with their hands. One of them ate write at the buffet table; another was licking her fingers at the same table. Heaven only knows where those hands have been! Damn, it was fun to watch.

Scary photo

This is the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina, topping the levee along the Intracoastal Waterway in N.O. East. The water scoured a trench at the bottom of the levee, and the weight of the water in the canal punched holes in the structure. The photo was taken by an Entergy employee who was manning an elevated energy substation.

Toby and I had big fun over the weekend, though I might have had more fun had he not awakened between 3 and 4 a.m. three days in a row, with notebook and pen in hand, demanding that I draw for him. Most amazingly, Toby somehow knew about a lengthy canal that runs along I-10 back behind the John Slidell Park. The two of us spent a couple of hours throwing sticks, branches, and clumps of dirt into the canal. Toby even knew about a stretch of the canal that was obscured by a thick clump of fallen pine trees. He must be able to smell water, or maybe he just figured out from scoping things out from the car and from the swingset how the geography around there all fits together. I had no idea that the creek even existed. 

Heading for mischief

After seeing a train, Toby headed off to look at a boat.  

Train!

Toby at the park. 

Freedom in the piney woods

We brought Toby home to Slidell today, and, a few minutes after arriving home, he took off across the backyard, through the broken fence, and into the woods in his bare feet. "French fries! French fries! French fries!" he shouted, as I--also barefoot--ran across the post-Katrina canopy of pine needles, downed trees, and rather a lot of household garbage behind the neighbor's house. Silly me, shouting "you can't get there that way!," which, while true, was quite beside the point. There was a tantrum as I pulled him back into the yard, but it lasted only a couple of minutes. It should be an interesting weekend.

People at work in the refrigerator graveyard in Slidell, Louisiana. Those look like some good eats!

Sports!

First, the good news: The Astros won the NL pennant, which led to much rejoicing in downtown Houston last night. Go 'stros!

Second, the bad news: The New Orleans Saints are openly seeking to make their temporary move to San Antonio permanent. First, on Monday, Tom Benson fired the team's main proponent of moving back to Louisiana; now Benson is trying to get out of the lease on his training facility. It's his team; he can do what he wants, but, hey, what loyalty!

Creole Tomato

A friend has alerted me to this New Orleans-themed, Onion-type website. It's funny, especially if you get the purely local references. For example, "I'll bet you $5 I can tell you where you got them shoes" has been heard in the French Quarter since time immemorial.

A work haiku

caffeine


empty mental frenzy


pop!

Violent film review

"A History of Violence" is the best film I've seen about violence since "Fight Club" ripped its way into the psyche of Gen. X and younger-end Baby Boom men and created great unease among film critics and the usual assorted very serious social commentators. "A History of Violence" is very different from "Fight Club," with more conventional storytelling and filmmaking technique. It's a very tightly written and edited movie--there are no wasted or gratuitous moments--though you wouldn't know it at first. The movie is about the corrosive effects of violence and the inability of people to escape the long-term consequences of their violent behavior. And there's violence aplenty, of different types and with differing motivations.

Viggo Mortensen was well-cast as the main character in the film. His sensitivity and physicality make him believable during all of the twists and turns his character goes through. Mortensen had an excellent supporting cast--his character's wife and children are convincing in their reactions to the fall-out from the main character's twists and turns. Ed Harris and John Hurt are cast as quirky, lethal mobsters, unlike any I've seen in the classic mob movies or "The Sopranos."

"A History of Violence" is not a movie for anybody averse to violence. But it's very good, and is likely to be remembered at Academy Award time.

Keep Austin Weird!

We spent the weekend in Austin, visiting friends who moved from New Orleans several years ago. We drove around town a bit, ate excellent barbeque at the Green Mesquite restaurant, and hung out with our friends and their kids. Good friends; good times!

We also saw some excellent, violent movies this weekend--"A History of Violence" and both "Kill Bill" movies. DW usually doesn't like blood and gore, but even she liked those movies. Somehow, I kept falling asleep during the first "Kill Bill," and during the Astros game we watched before that.

The Astros lead the Cardinals, three games to one. I hope I win that lottery for World Series tickets. 

Too dang fast!

The construction company that is rebuilding the I-10 "twin spans" bridge between Slidell and New Orleans announced today that one of the spans will be opened tomorrow to two-way traffic, and that both spans will be open by the end of January 2006. With that, my rationale for working from home once my office moves back to New Orleans will be rendered moot. This bridge job was supposed to take much longer.

Ethical quagmire

According to CNN, doctors and nurses at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital (known locally as Southern Baptist Hospital) discussed euthanizing patients during the few days after the facility was flooded in and the power went off. They may have even whacked some of the patients. I really don't know what to think; I suppose my opinion will depend largely on the circumstances of each patient. I don't think euthanasia would be appropriate when an individual of sound mind doesn't want to die, and I wouldn't want to have a staff treating me making such decisions under the duress the staff faced at Southern Baptist.