Сахалин, Сахалин,
Чудесная планета!
Двенадцать месяцев зима,
Остальное — лето.
This is a thought I had on Friday. It may seem at first like some Chassidic fundi type of thought, but it's actually a rather green, hippy, liberal kind of thought. It may also seem like a depressing thought, but it is merely contemplative. And not a major chiddush, just an observation.
We have surrounded ourselves with death.
What I mean is: we live, work, relax and enjoy ourselves mostly in places that are dead. Look around. Our cities are made of dead stuff (either dead to begin with or made dead), and we should be so grateful to see sometimes a tree or two. If we want to see something living, we have to go to a special place, which we ourselves have built with our hands (and which is a cheap imitation of the real deal).
The more advanced, the more civilized, the richer one is, the more he is surrounded with dead materials, in his home or in his workspace, the more stone, metal, glass and plastic there is in his life. And for the most part, we excel at making more dead things.
We are like the dwarves from the fantasy books or games who live in the underground cities, tunnels, huge caverns, surrounded by stone, blind moles and nasty creatures attacking at night. Of course, there is a sky above us, but the more civilized a city we live in, the fewer stars we can see (in order to see the starry sky, one has to go to a planetarium and listen to some goofy guy poking at a projection on a ceiling with a laser pointer).
There is no real punchline to this thought. No resolution, no advice, no conclusion or drawing of deep connections. That's how it is. Just, next time you're out in the city, look around. This is the life that we, humans, created for ourselves. And remember what it looked like the last time you were in a forest. If you're a religious Jew, when you're out, one with the nature, sometimes you actually sense much more strongly the presence of the Creator.
Sakhalin island, Russian Far East. More here.
(Yeah, I still like my PC, my car, my toilet paper and shower, my work and my mp3 player. Not to mention the sforim I can buy cheap. That's not the point.)
34 comments:
1. where's sachalin?
2. What did Jefferson say that is relevant here?
3. According to Christopher Alexander, not everything with which we surround ourselves is dead. According to him, a well designed building is alive.
4. Whenever I try to say "Christopher Alexander," I often find myself about to say "Crawling Axe."
1. North of Japan, in the very far east of Russia.
2. He claimed that cities are evil and will eventually destroy the human spirit.
3. I think it's safe to say it is nominalistic. It's alive in his mind.
4. Maybe because one of my names is Christopher.
3. I think that other CA would beg to differ, but I certainly wouldn't.
the word "planeta" doesn't mean quite the same thing as "planet," does it?
3. Well, I wonder if he would argue that the buildings are as alive as us. Plants and animals are alive independently. But of course, to us it matters that their life causes pleasure. So, the fact that architectural design "flows" may cause Christopher Alexander even more pleasure than flow of life through an ecosystem to me.
Planeta = planet. In this case it was just used figuratively.
3. I don't know. I stopped reading his book around 60 pages in.
aha! But in English no such figurative usage used!
I usually respect such analogies or liberal usage of common concepts, but never use them myself and don’t particular like it.
I once knew someone who’d say that a tree has as much rights as a human; therefore, one shouldn’t cut it down. I think that’s b/s. A tree doesn’t have rights. But one should still worry about destroying forests, etc. A house is not alive. But certainly, there is something to be said for a flow of purpose in its design.
Russian is much more figurative language than English, in my experience. English uses a lot more individual words which have varied meaning, but Russian has more expressions.
For instance, to say “one’s roof started going” (“крыша поехала”) means that someone is nuts (notice how in English one uses one word, whose meaning is expanded). My middle school friends used to say: “тихо шифером шурша, крыша едет неспеша”.
Also, Russian culture is very fond of rhymes.
oh.
That was not a very insightful comment.
neither was that one.
neither was that one
neither was that one.
shut the fuck up, e
How’s learning Go going?
Why don’t you go on KGS and watch some games?
I totally should. The problem is that boredom breeds boredom. When I have nothing to do, i get glued to my spot and don't see all the cool stuff that there is to do.
I got out two go-related books from the bpl, but they don't look very good.
I can recommend some good Go books.
You can also read online at Sensei Library.
http://www.gokgs.com/applet.jsp
Also this.
If you want books, I started with this and this ones.
I have a thirty-five dollar gift card at bn.com!!! I can buy some of this stuff!
It's really cool how you use the html stuff for the links, but it makes it harder to keep track of which links are which.
you're links have no personality!!!!!
It’s a tough life.
I would buy the last two books (the last two this’s). But first I would go on KGS server and observe some games that are going on and see if you like the look of the game. (Plus, maybe go through the tutorial on KGS server quickly.)
right. it's not wise to spend money before seeing if i actually like the game. I like the idea of liking the game.
Some guy: What are your hobbies?
e: Well, I teach trig to high school students and play go in my free time.
That sounds really awesome, but how true is it?
I know about Go from a book called shibumi in which knowing go was like knowing chassidus-it made you into a mentsh. So you can see that i'd like to like go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibumi_(novel)
Well, playing Go is very simple. I recommend KGS highly. It’s not some Yahoo Games.
Although finding a real person to play with is nicer emotionally. I also like a lot the feel of real stones and the real wood (nothing fancy, just cheap glass stones and cardboard board; although people attending your local Go club might have more expensive stuff).
Find a Go club nearby.
Yeah, I wrote about it in my latest Go post. It was one of the seven arts. Like fighting with your katana, singing, writing calligraphy and painting with ink, tea ceremony, etc.
Go clubs in NY state.
I'm in this state of limbo. I'm waiting for my sister to pick me up and drive me to my cousin's bar mitzvah. so now is not a good time to embark on learning a new art. I shall look at it soon.
This Domino’s commercial has Go in it.
Or you could watch an actual game.
Actually, Sakhalin has very interesting nature. My mom (who did her Ph.D. thesis on it) calls it “natural laboratory”. Because of very hot temperature and very high humidity in the summer, the southern forests obtain tropical climate. At the same time, the forests in the north are taiga and tundra (like the forests of Siberia and Northwestern territories). On some winter days, my mom’s neighbors had to dig her out, because her door would be completely snowed in.
Because of such high contrast in climates and its isolation from the mainland, the island has interesting unique ecosystem.
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