Thursday, July 17, 2008
Euthyphro's Dilemma
My friend Andy (not my brother Andy) wrote in his blog about Euthyphro's dilemma ("Is what is moral commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God?"). I think it is an interesting question, but I also think that, at least in his explanation of it, it is a bit oversimplified. I encourage you to go take a look at the post and at the comments and add your own input, either in my blog or in his. It's not in my nature to take anything at face value or to believe that there could be a question such as that with only two possible answers... so let's explore the gray area together!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Continued?
I am going to try to continue writing in this blog, when I am doing interesting things. Interesting to me, anyway. We'll see how it goes.
So on Monday I went to Connecticut to visit Jim, who I spent a lot of time with in Paris. He got home on Saturday, and I drove to Connecticut on Monday morning. I have never actually stopped in Connecticut before, except maybe to stop for gas on my way to Philadelphia. I am not sure what I was expecting, but Connecticut certainly exceeded my expectations.
I got to Jim's house around 11:30, and he showed me around his house. I saw his mom and his brother, who I met once before in Paris when we went down to the Catacombs. Jim had to vacuum their pool (yes, they have a pool) so I got to lounge around in the yard in my swimsuit and then go swimming in the newly clean pool! Afterwards we played Guitar Hero, which was a new experience for me. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. We had some lunch and we went to the place where Jim was trying to get his job back, but they were closed, so we went back. We hung out a bit and then had dinner - Cajun style catfish on the grill!! Mmm. After dinner we had sherbet and sat out on the porch in the sun - Jim, his parents, his brother Danny, and me. While we were sitting out there, his older brother Steve came home with his girlfriend Sam, who was really fun. They threw around a rugby ball and I sat with Jeanne and Danny. Steve wanted to play Rock Band so we all went downstairs and took turns playing the guitar, the drums, and singing the vocals. I was horrible at it, but I take pride in not having a lot of experience with video games!
I got a little bored of it so Jim and I went for a walk. He showed me his town, South Windsor. We walked around and saw his high school and stuff. It was quite buggy so we headed back, and chilled out with the family and just lazed around. It was quite summery and nice. I don't usually do those quintessentially summery things, like swimming in pools and sitting on the porch eating sherbet. I enjoyed it.
Later that night Jim and I watched "The Others." It wasn't as scary as I had feared, and I slept just fine. I got Jim's room while Jim slept on the top bunk in his brother's room. He has a big bed. It was nice, and comfy, but I am not used to big beds so I just squished myself over to one side the whole night.
Around 6:30AM was when the trouble started. I have this problem where I can't sleep once it gets light out. I didn't have as much of a problem in France because I had heavy, dark-colored curtains. In my room at home, I have blinds that nearly black out my room. But the shades in Jim's room don't do much, so I woke up around 6:30 AM. But I laid around until about 9 and then showered and then we had breakfast. Jim and I drove back over to his place of employment to pick up his uniform, and when we got back we picked up his brother Danny and went over to their cousins' house to swim in THEIR pool. Everyone has a pool!
Now Danny just had an appendectomy, so he couldn't swim. He had to sit by the side of the pool and throw the beach ball back in at us. But he was a good sport. It was Jim's aunt Christine's new house, and they have an in ground pool with a diving board. I wasn't sure I remembered the proper form for diving off a diving board and not seriously injuring yourself, but apparently muscle memory is a spectacular thing. As soon as I got on the diving board my legs and arms knew what to do. It was really fun. I love the feeling of diving. It's so amusing to me that it came back to me so easily, considering how hard it was (and terrifying) for me to learn to dive in the first place. I remember, I was about thirteen, and I had to start by diving in from the side of the pool, and then once I got the hang of that I had to do it from the low board, and then I had to learn how to run and do it, and finally I was able to do it off the really high board. And then of course there was the time I dove so hard I lost my bathing suit top and had to swim around in the town pool trying to find it. Oops.
So anyway, we had a good time. I met Jim's aunt Christine and her children Kenny, Christopher, and Isabelle. Christopher (age 11) was pretty crazy and just generally out there and excited to meet a new person. It was fun. We heard thunder so we all ran inside and played Wii Bowling and ate snacks. The sun came out again so we went back into the pool, until we heard more thunder. Then Christine wanted us to see her new rocking chairs in her breezeway, so we sat out there and rocked and eventually everyone came out and joined us. At this point we had also been joined by another aunt and two more cousins. The highlight of the day was MOST CERTAINLY an article we read in the local paper about a chimpanzee. Christine read it out loud to us. You can find the article here. You really have to read the whole thing.
After a while we headed home to Jim's house, where we had Shepherd's Pie for dinner. After dinner Jim took me to the mall (ooooh) and then one of his friend's from UConn called so we drove to UConn and saw Jim's future apartment, where his friend is currently living, and we hung out with them and listened to music and watched some guys light off Roman candles.
On the way back I was starving so we stopped at Subway and I got a meatball sub and burned my mouth. Very exciting, I know. But seriously. I haven't had a meatball sub in over a year. It was late when we got home, so we crashed.
Wednesday we went to the beach. We had been invited by Christine. We met a different cousin, Bob, at his house around 10:30, armed with sandwiches, soda, potato chips, CheezIts, Swedish Fish, towels, beach toys, sunglasses, a blanket and a million other beach necessities. We packed it into Bob's car and drove the hour and a half to Westerly, RI, to Misquamicut State Beach. I didn't know there were things in Rhode Island besides Providence... and a beach?? What a surprise! It was pouring rain when we left South Windsor, and by the time we got to the beach, it was covered in fog. It was very strange, and you couldn't see more than about twenty feet in front of you. And yet the beach was packed. Christine predicted the fog would burn off by about one, and she was exactly right. After that it was a perfect beach day. We swam, we boogie boarded, we walked along the beach, we got ice cream, we ate out sandwiches, we wore our sunglasses, we got covered in sand, and I got burned. We were at the beach until at least five. Then it was a sandy drive home. I was supposed to drive home that night, but Jim's mom suggested I stay the extra night because I was most likely exhausted. She was right, especially because I had woken up at six-thirty again. We ordered a super yummy pizza, and then pretty much just crashed. We were all exhausted and we all had to get up in the morning
This morning I woke up at 6:30 again. What a shocker! Jim was getting ready for work so I joined him for breakfast. After he left I showered and packed up my stuff and got in the car, after saying goodbye to Jeanne. About halfway home I got a call from Jim saying he'd gotten called off work, but at that point it was a bit late to turn around. Oh well. The best part of the trip home was that I knew that gas was much cheaper in MA than in CT (they got rid of all the tolls in CT, but upped gas taxes, apparently) so my goal was not to stop for gas until I crossed into Massachusetts. I barely made it, but it was worth it. I saw gas for up to 4.39 in CT (for regular unleaded) and the stuff I got was 4.05. From Mobil, no less.
So I got home around 10:30, and ran some errands, after which I kind of vegged out for the rest of the day. I need a vacation from my vacation! Hanging out with someone else's energetic, large family for three days was exhausting! But tomorrow I start actually working (more on that later, perhaps) and then tomorrow night my friend Monique and I are going camping at Harold Parker State Forest for the 4th of July. I'll keep you updated!
The one picture from the weekend: Bobbie wakes up to a friendly cat.
So on Monday I went to Connecticut to visit Jim, who I spent a lot of time with in Paris. He got home on Saturday, and I drove to Connecticut on Monday morning. I have never actually stopped in Connecticut before, except maybe to stop for gas on my way to Philadelphia. I am not sure what I was expecting, but Connecticut certainly exceeded my expectations.
I got to Jim's house around 11:30, and he showed me around his house. I saw his mom and his brother, who I met once before in Paris when we went down to the Catacombs. Jim had to vacuum their pool (yes, they have a pool) so I got to lounge around in the yard in my swimsuit and then go swimming in the newly clean pool! Afterwards we played Guitar Hero, which was a new experience for me. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. We had some lunch and we went to the place where Jim was trying to get his job back, but they were closed, so we went back. We hung out a bit and then had dinner - Cajun style catfish on the grill!! Mmm. After dinner we had sherbet and sat out on the porch in the sun - Jim, his parents, his brother Danny, and me. While we were sitting out there, his older brother Steve came home with his girlfriend Sam, who was really fun. They threw around a rugby ball and I sat with Jeanne and Danny. Steve wanted to play Rock Band so we all went downstairs and took turns playing the guitar, the drums, and singing the vocals. I was horrible at it, but I take pride in not having a lot of experience with video games!
I got a little bored of it so Jim and I went for a walk. He showed me his town, South Windsor. We walked around and saw his high school and stuff. It was quite buggy so we headed back, and chilled out with the family and just lazed around. It was quite summery and nice. I don't usually do those quintessentially summery things, like swimming in pools and sitting on the porch eating sherbet. I enjoyed it.
Later that night Jim and I watched "The Others." It wasn't as scary as I had feared, and I slept just fine. I got Jim's room while Jim slept on the top bunk in his brother's room. He has a big bed. It was nice, and comfy, but I am not used to big beds so I just squished myself over to one side the whole night.
Around 6:30AM was when the trouble started. I have this problem where I can't sleep once it gets light out. I didn't have as much of a problem in France because I had heavy, dark-colored curtains. In my room at home, I have blinds that nearly black out my room. But the shades in Jim's room don't do much, so I woke up around 6:30 AM. But I laid around until about 9 and then showered and then we had breakfast. Jim and I drove back over to his place of employment to pick up his uniform, and when we got back we picked up his brother Danny and went over to their cousins' house to swim in THEIR pool. Everyone has a pool!
Now Danny just had an appendectomy, so he couldn't swim. He had to sit by the side of the pool and throw the beach ball back in at us. But he was a good sport. It was Jim's aunt Christine's new house, and they have an in ground pool with a diving board. I wasn't sure I remembered the proper form for diving off a diving board and not seriously injuring yourself, but apparently muscle memory is a spectacular thing. As soon as I got on the diving board my legs and arms knew what to do. It was really fun. I love the feeling of diving. It's so amusing to me that it came back to me so easily, considering how hard it was (and terrifying) for me to learn to dive in the first place. I remember, I was about thirteen, and I had to start by diving in from the side of the pool, and then once I got the hang of that I had to do it from the low board, and then I had to learn how to run and do it, and finally I was able to do it off the really high board. And then of course there was the time I dove so hard I lost my bathing suit top and had to swim around in the town pool trying to find it. Oops.
So anyway, we had a good time. I met Jim's aunt Christine and her children Kenny, Christopher, and Isabelle. Christopher (age 11) was pretty crazy and just generally out there and excited to meet a new person. It was fun. We heard thunder so we all ran inside and played Wii Bowling and ate snacks. The sun came out again so we went back into the pool, until we heard more thunder. Then Christine wanted us to see her new rocking chairs in her breezeway, so we sat out there and rocked and eventually everyone came out and joined us. At this point we had also been joined by another aunt and two more cousins. The highlight of the day was MOST CERTAINLY an article we read in the local paper about a chimpanzee. Christine read it out loud to us. You can find the article here. You really have to read the whole thing.
After a while we headed home to Jim's house, where we had Shepherd's Pie for dinner. After dinner Jim took me to the mall (ooooh) and then one of his friend's from UConn called so we drove to UConn and saw Jim's future apartment, where his friend is currently living, and we hung out with them and listened to music and watched some guys light off Roman candles.
On the way back I was starving so we stopped at Subway and I got a meatball sub and burned my mouth. Very exciting, I know. But seriously. I haven't had a meatball sub in over a year. It was late when we got home, so we crashed.
Wednesday we went to the beach. We had been invited by Christine. We met a different cousin, Bob, at his house around 10:30, armed with sandwiches, soda, potato chips, CheezIts, Swedish Fish, towels, beach toys, sunglasses, a blanket and a million other beach necessities. We packed it into Bob's car and drove the hour and a half to Westerly, RI, to Misquamicut State Beach. I didn't know there were things in Rhode Island besides Providence... and a beach?? What a surprise! It was pouring rain when we left South Windsor, and by the time we got to the beach, it was covered in fog. It was very strange, and you couldn't see more than about twenty feet in front of you. And yet the beach was packed. Christine predicted the fog would burn off by about one, and she was exactly right. After that it was a perfect beach day. We swam, we boogie boarded, we walked along the beach, we got ice cream, we ate out sandwiches, we wore our sunglasses, we got covered in sand, and I got burned. We were at the beach until at least five. Then it was a sandy drive home. I was supposed to drive home that night, but Jim's mom suggested I stay the extra night because I was most likely exhausted. She was right, especially because I had woken up at six-thirty again. We ordered a super yummy pizza, and then pretty much just crashed. We were all exhausted and we all had to get up in the morning
This morning I woke up at 6:30 again. What a shocker! Jim was getting ready for work so I joined him for breakfast. After he left I showered and packed up my stuff and got in the car, after saying goodbye to Jeanne. About halfway home I got a call from Jim saying he'd gotten called off work, but at that point it was a bit late to turn around. Oh well. The best part of the trip home was that I knew that gas was much cheaper in MA than in CT (they got rid of all the tolls in CT, but upped gas taxes, apparently) so my goal was not to stop for gas until I crossed into Massachusetts. I barely made it, but it was worth it. I saw gas for up to 4.39 in CT (for regular unleaded) and the stuff I got was 4.05. From Mobil, no less.
So I got home around 10:30, and ran some errands, after which I kind of vegged out for the rest of the day. I need a vacation from my vacation! Hanging out with someone else's energetic, large family for three days was exhausting! But tomorrow I start actually working (more on that later, perhaps) and then tomorrow night my friend Monique and I are going camping at Harold Parker State Forest for the 4th of July. I'll keep you updated!
The one picture from the weekend: Bobbie wakes up to a friendly cat.
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