New Papers

I've finally posted my spring papers, including my three papers from my mental causation class (Mental Causation Through Constitution, Actions and Causes, and Minds in Action), my big paper from my ethics class (Ethics as a Science), and my monstrous paper for the TOC Advanced Seminar (Analytics on the Mind: An Objectivist Survey of Analytic Philosophy of Mind).

With the exception of the last, which is a PDF file, all are MS Word files. One of these days, I'll convert all my papers to PDF format... probably in August.

And if you're interested in such academic stuff, you might want to take a sneak peek at this site.

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Protests in Iran

Ach, this personal account of the protests in Iran makes me ache. The perseverence and bravery of these protestors is awe-inspiring. I only wish it weren't so very necessary.

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Lileks in 2008

If Condi doesn't run against Hillary in 2008, I'm gunning for Lileks. Really. His press conferences will be even better than Rummy's. And I think I'd generally like his policies:

Mr. Enrichment Facility, meet Mr. Moab. Mr. Moab, Mr. Enrichment Facility. I’m sure you two have much to discuss, so we’ll just leave you to sort it out.

Gnat would be a damn cute First Daughter. And Jasper would make an excellent First Dog.

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Busy Busy Busy

I'm sorry that I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been revising the lectures of my Objectivism 101 course, riding the horses, gardening, compiling lawsuit docs, preparing to be absent for a month, and so on. Basically, I don't expect to be blogging much until August, although I might be able to post a bit with the promised high-speed connections in the rooms at both the TOC summer seminar and ARI summer conference.

Update: Due to serious philosophic and moral objections, I am no longer associated with The Objectivist Center in any way, shape, or form. My reasons why can be found on my web page on The Many False Friends of Objectivism.

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Mind Boggling

This story, if true, is nothing short of astonishing -- even given what we know of Bill Clinton's moral character -- or lack thereof.

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More Projects Off the Plate

Yesterday, I finished and sent off two projects!

First, I finally finished my revisions of my paper on false excuses. It has now been sent off to The Journal of Value Inquiry for consideration for publication. They don't have to give me an answer to four months, so I might be waiting around for a while to find out its fate. I'd really like to have it accepted for publication when I apply for Boulder's Ph.D program in January 2004, but that might not be possible.

Second, I sent Lorie Bugby my final revisions on my Camp Indecon lessons. I briefly reviewed them, corrected a few minor bugs, zipped up the whole lot, and sent them off!

Yesterday, I also finished reading all of the TOC Advanced Seminar papers, so that's off my plate too. (I don't think I've ever been so organized about reading those papers... usually it happens on the flight on the way to the seminar!)

That's not bad progress right after my return from a Los Angeles business trip (for iHealer) which included a fair amount of late night programming work.

My only remaining major projects before I leave for my month-long tour is my revisions to Objectivism 101, my opening remarks for my session on philosophy of mind for the Advanced Seminar, and perhaps the preparation of some formal comments on someone else's paper for the Advanced Seminar. Oh, and I have some work for my super-secret OSP project to do, but I can't say much about that at the moment...

But this morning, it's time for gardening, as I bought a bunch of perennials yesterday at Home Depot!

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Sensual Art

I just posted this to the SOLO Forum:

I was recently in Taos, New Mexico perusing some art galleries and museums with my parents. Unfortunately, much was the usual *#$^@% of modern art, but we did run across some interesting work by an artist by the name of Ray Wiger. He creates sculptures of the human body in wire mesh. The figures themselves are beautiful -- particularly with the strong lines and shadows created by the semi-three-dimensionality of the wire mesh. The photos from his web site don't quite capture the sensual feel of the art, but they do give some idea:

http://www.raywiger.com/

Of course, my tastes in art are purely my own... but I'd be interested in the reactions of others. It seems like a case in which an unusual medium actually served a purpose.

Reactions?

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I'm Baaaack!

Yesterday, I returned from three days of vacation with my folks who are RV'ing through the southwest. As usual, they showed me an excellent time -- although I'm a bit sunburnt and my calves are sore from a trek up and down an awesome 800' canyon (at the intersection of the Red River and Rio Grande outside of Toas, New Mexico).

It was pure bliss to be wholly separated from my computer and any philosophy work, particularly after my grueling schedule of 84 hours of writing in 12 days to revise my paper on philosophy of mind. (It's a great paper though, with many good arguments, some of which may even be true! I'll post it next week.)

I'll be getting my life organized over the next few days before heading to LA for a very quick business trip for iHealer, a most beloved programming client. (Yes, I still have a few of those!) Then I'll be returning to work as usual, including a bit of blogging, of course!

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