a poem involving cunnilingus

Another poem from a friend that I'm not sure what to do with. So I'll just post it here.

----- Original Message -----
From: T-Mack
To: Many People
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 1:42 PM
Subject: a poem involving cunnilingus


Self-Improvement

Just before she flew off like a swan
to her wealthy parents' summer home,
Bruce's college girlfriend asked him
to improve his expertise at oral sex,
and offered him some technical advice:

Use nothing but his tonguetip
to flick the light switch in his room
on and off a hundred times a day
until he grew fluent at the nuances
of force and latitude.

Imagine him at practice every evening,
more inspired than he ever was at algebra,
beads of sweat sprouting on his brow,
thinking, thirty-seven, thirty-eight,
seeing, in the tunnel vision of his mind's eye,
the quadratic equation of her climax
yield to the logic
of his simple math.

Maybe he unscrewed
the bulb from his apartment ceiling
so that passersby would not believe
a giant firefly was pulsing
its electric abdomen in 13 B.

Maybe, as he stood
two inches from the wall,
in darkness, fogging the old plaster
with his breath, he visualized the future
as a mansion standing on the shore
that he was rowing to
with his tongue's exhausted oar.

Of course, the girlfriend dumped him:
met someone, apres-ski, who,
using nothing but his nose
could identify the vintage of a Cabernet.

Sometimes we are asked
to get good at something we have
no talent for,
or we excel at something we will never
have the opportunity to prove.

Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.

The climaxes of suffering are complex,
costly, beautiful, but secret.
Bruce never played the light switch again.

So the avenues we walk down,
full of bodies wearing faces,
are full of hidden talent:
enough to make pianos moan,
sidewalks split,
streetlights deliriously flicker.

-- Tony Hoagland


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Philosophy Colloquium: Paul Skokowski

Now for something more substantive -- I think. This was either a discussion at the deepest reaches of human comprehension. Or the most simplistic. I'm not quite sure how the model discussed would have been different from anything a 18th century philosopher might have imagined. There was undoubtedly a lot of research between now and then propping it up. But the discussion hovered at the level of simplistic illustrations, hypotheticals, and presupposition. Someone brought up "ordinary language" problem in apologizing for his question. If I understand the term correctly, that's what I took it for.

My notes:

Structural Content: A Naturalistic Approach to Implicit Belief

not Searle
belief and desires - internal states that cause behavior (Dretske model)
important content of behavior can be missing
boy and bike
need internal state w/ missing info -- how?

Dretske : indicators (hawk indicator for chick)
got promoted to beliefs : where do implicit states come from? (Ev.)
two examples
1. neural networks
transparent architecture
2. LTP - long-term potentiation

Neural Network
learning causes internal change
history installs weight structure
Gorman-Sejnowski Network
types not tokens
H -> W
Hebbian Learning - Mazzoni recurrent networks
-> more biologically plausible
NOT covariational account of regularity theory; rather, stable

Rumelhart : all knowledge in the networks -> implicit in structure
distributive, not declarative

Q) What is W for? (function)
functional state -> causal role
Empirical measures -> weight space
IF network computes function, THEN it has learned, an history (H)
WETWARE - neurons in brain
LTP example of Hebbian learning
H -> W
Eyelid Experiment : tone-puff; humans, rabbits

Damn. Got another gmail offer on my other blog. But then, when I hit the accept button, it dumps me in a page telling me I already got it. Meanwhile, over here on this blog: bupkis.

I was in a really good mood this morning. For no apparent reason. Well, I suppose that there are always reasons. But I was in a good mood without having to try. It's the first time I felt that in a while. I feel indifferent honest right now. Still no gmail offer. I was telling my friend Matt how great it is and would like to give him a gmail invitation.

On Gov. Schwarzeneggar in today's New York Times:

The budget deals are part of a pattern the governor has followed since he was inaugurated six months ago. Instead of slowly rolling bills uphill through the Legislature, Mr. Schwarzenegger has gone directly to the voters and interest groups and struck a separate peace.

The deals have left some legislators spluttering. But they cannot undo them without angering important constituents and contributors.

The governor said Thursday that by bringing together parties with claims on the budget he was gradually restoring the state's finances after three years of crisis. "I remain firmly opposed to tax increases, because no state can tax its way to prosperity or financial health,'' Mr. Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "A more positive business climate will pour revenues into our state treasury.''

With many of elected politicians' major constituencies already in the governor's pocket, there is little for lawmakers to do except ratify the governor's plan, analysts said.

"Arnold is looking at the big picture," said Bruce E. Cain, director of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Cain added, "He skips the legislators who are merely at the beck and call of interest groups, and he talks to the interest groups directly."

I give him credit for his efficacy. But like me, treasurer Phil Angelides is waiting for the tab to come due:

"These deals with special interests are committing the state to a boatload of future debt, far beyond anything Gray Davis would have attempted or imagined," Mr. Angelides said. He said college students would pay sharply higher fees next year with no assurance that they would ever come down. In addition, he said, spending on social services and health care would be cut deeply so Mr. Schwarzenegger could keep his promise not to raise taxes.

But I imagine Gov S will wait as long as he can for an economic surge to make up the difference. Then if too many middle class parents object to the college fee hikes, he'll find some kind of regressive tax to appease them.

I was just skimming though the statement issued by Matt Kaczmarek, President of the University of California Student Association and UCLA Student Body External Vice President in response to the compact announced between the state university system presidents and Gov. S. that had been forwarded to me. Typical student activist boilerplate. This remark, however, did get me thinking:

Education is a right not a privilege. Someone needs to advocate for the future of higher education, and the students are ready to do so.

I suppose most people would agree some basic level of education is a right. But I don't think it's ever be widely accepted that higher education is a right -- at least not a universal one. But it does make me wonder. How much more difficult has it become to get a state university education in California? That is, how has the cost changed in real dollars? And has the number of students as a proportion of applicants or the college-age population overall significantly decreased? Did the baby boomers really take the key to the house and lock the door behind them? Is the compact a sign that the current generation of tax-payers is stingier than previous ones?

I would guess that the one thing baby boomers did have that is missing today was an employment landscape in which well-paying low-skill jobs were much more plentiful. For college-graduates, well-paying jobs are still plentiful. Those without a college education are the ones facing the squeeze. And those on fixed incomes -- which includes now any low-wage, hourly, or manufacturing job -- don't feel as if they have a lot of money to spare and where they exert influence over policy-making, don't show themselves to be supportive of tax-hikes in the abstract.

Reading Coriolanus today. Great election year reading. Scene 2.3, in which Coriolanus must don the "gown of humility" and make nice with the citizens is perfect. The Senate has offered Coriolanus the consulship after he beats down the city of Corioles. He needs the endorsement of the tribunes who represent the people. As a token of courtesy toward the people, he must put on loose gown and walk out in public, so that citizens can approach him and shake his hand and look at his battle scars. Coriolanus, an unrepentant elitist, despises the whole charade and can't even pretend to be civil to the proles. He insults them and, under the sway of the tribunes, they turn against him. I just hope the same thing doesn't happen to John Kerry.

Wondered why Blogger was so sketchy today. Just saw the new interface. Pretty slick. (But still no Gmail invitation.)

Ha! I got my gmail account. Not through blogspot as I planned. A bird whispered in my ear.

Perfect September weather. Made it down to Blacks at 4:30pm today. Crowded, but got a couple nice lefts to myself down near South peak.