St Andrews and Georgia

Great news indeed! Today I've been accepted at University of St Andrews and it's been decided that I'll go to Georgia in June to talk about Ingmar Bergman at a film festival I've put together. Not bad for a late April Wednesday. 

How shall I celebrate? Well, I'm not really one for celebrations so I leave that for someone else. I settled for being very happy.

follow up

In my post from last Wednesday I said that I was going to do something though, if my nerves didn't fail me. Well, they didn't. I did what I had planned to do. I hope that this new habit I've got, of doing and not just talking, is here to stay.

everyday philosophy

A lot of arguments are based on the fact that those arguing are using different definitions for the thing that they are arguing about. This is often not properly understood. But definitions are important, as this example from Gulliver, The Economist's blog on travel, makes clear.

United Airlines and its larger passengers Gulliver Economist.com:

"The arguments, it seems to me, boil down to the question of what exactly a ticket is.

Is it a) the guarantee of transport for one passenger to an agreed destination? If so then the airline must provide seating for all, and any inadequacies must be addressed at no extra cost to the passenger.

Or is it b) the guarantee of a certain amount of space in the aircraft? If so, then a passenger needing more space is obliged to buy another ticket."

I'm here

Yes, I'm good. I feel very very good. Sharp. Is this life? It's some life.

Dreaming of the Queen

The very first album I ever bought was Pet Shop Boys' second album Actually. I was in my early teens and I wanted to have it on cassette, but I couldn't find one. I tried all the record stores in my suburb but with no luck. But in the suburb were my grandparents lived there was a little store that sold TVs, radios and such. So I tried there. Alas, they didn't have any cassettes. But they did have it on LP, and the clerk suggested I buy that instead because it would last longer and I could easily copy it to a cassette at home. And so I bought it even though if it was slightly more expensive that I had hoped for.

I've been a fan since then, and I still am, just as much. I have all the albums. There's just one thing missing, Chris Heath's book Pet Shop Boys, Literally. It seems to be out of print.

I wonder if I would be able to do a top ten list of my favourite PSB songs. Probably not.

I'm feeling calm and happy. I feel like I could do anything. (Which makes you wonder why I'm sitting here writing...) Tomorrow I will do something though, if my nerves doesn't fail me.

Maeby and Locke

A dog is a man's shoes best friend.

There was a time when I didn't much care for dogs. That was before Maeby. Now I care about very little else. There's so much love in her it's sometimes unbearable, if for no other reason than that she is so very physical in expressing it. After a few hours no part of my skin which she's been able to reach with her tongue and her teeth (that is my face, ears, neck, arms and hands) is left unmolested. It's a good thing I'm not her owner but only her very good friend.

I had a cold last week but now I'm well and good again. Not very eager to get back to work though, so it's a good thing I have 26 days of paid vacation which I must take advantage of before the last of June. There will not be many office hours the coming month.

I've bought myself some books, and begun reading one called Locke, unsurprisingly about Locke, the British philosopher from the 17th century. Always had a soft spot for him so it's about time I read a book entirely devoted to him. Have read a fourth of it and I like it.

Other than that I spend most of my time listening to Pet Shop Boys. They're so very very good. 

post easter post

When I wrote about Israel some weeks ago I was worried about Kadima not getting a seat in the government. Now it seems everybody but Kadima is in the new government. We'll see how that pans out, But it doesn't really matter who's in charge as long as the peace process, such as there is, continues and gives birth to something lasting. 

It's finally warm here and I've started running. It's going very well and it feels good, very fulfilling and satisfying. I'm simultaneously reading Haruki Murakami's book I wrote about in my last blog post, which is also fulfilling and satisfying. For some reason I only read it in the bathtub, bathing. Oh, well.

I've also finished reading Cosmopolitanism, which I also mentioned in my previous blog post. It was slightly disappointing. It's written by a professor at Princeton University, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher, and I had expected more. I agreed with most of what he wrote, in fact I've written myself most of the same things he wrote. But shouldn't he, with all his experience and age, gone farther than me? On the other hand, if he can write a book like that, so can I. One of these days I'm gonna. The working title is at the moment Transit.