Countries that come to mind ...

  • April 10, 2009
  • James Skemp
When I think of Europe I think of the U.K., France, then Germany. What about Spain though? Moving east, Japan and China, followed by North Korea. I realize that India should be on the list, but it's not one that immediately comes to mind. Africa, as a whole, is not on the list; only bad things come to mind (AIDs and spammers/scammers). Same with Israel; isn't it bad that I think not of religiousness, but rather of constant war?

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On "Shafty"

  • February 17, 2009
  • James Skemp
the terrible thing about hell is that when you're there you can't even tell as you move through this life you love so you could be there and not even know but you say so what I'm doing just fine the irony is that it's all in your mind and that's why hell is so vicious and cruel but you'll just go on an oblivious fool (Phish/Marshall. "Shafty." Lyrics. The Story of the Ghost.

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You either did or didn't waste your time playing the video game

  • January 26, 2009
  • James Skemp
You know what grinds my gears? When people say that they wasted time playing a video game. For example, 'I was playing Fallout 3 and it began freezing at this certain point, twenty hours in; since I can't proceed, I've wasted twenty hours of my life.' Hello? What do you get for finishing the game? Not the hours that you spent playing it. Or did you? If you spend 80 hours and beat a game, how is that really different?

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Thoughts on sacrifice and religion

  • January 21, 2009
  • James Skemp
The following is a reply to a co-worker on Facebook regarding a particular topic. Since it's on Facebook, I probably can't link to it, but since I don't want to lose my response ... I'm afraid I can't be as eloquent as everyone else; I'm a little mentally drained on nights. That said, Obama called for all American's to be ready to make sacrifices. There is little doubt that greed (part of the great motivator) is what brought this country to the knee it now rests on.

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Why I Don't Care For Ethics: 9 people on a boat

  • January 1, 2009
  • James Skemp
Since college I have disliked ethics. However, I couldn't explain why. On December 10, 2008, at approximately 10:04 PM, I turned on the lamp next to my bed and wrote the following: 9 people on a boat that can only hold 8. What do you do? Even then I knew the answer. Morally, I think the answer is you (me) jump off the boat. Maybe I was reading too much Schopenhauer, but this seems like the only answer you can give.

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On my funeral

  • January 1, 2009
  • James Skemp
While in college I heard of the Greeks who, when death was near, would throw a party. All the friends of the dying would come together to drink and merry. The dying would slit their wrists and party along with the others, his life spilling out from him all the while. While I'm sure that in today's world this would never happen, my hope is that when I die those who know me will celebrate, instead of mourn.

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Why a philosophy major does Web development

  • December 16, 2008
  • James Skemp
Here's what my answer is: No, I did the standard Philosophy major with a minor in Humanistic Studies. In high school I liked doing Web stuff, even though my stuff was *horrible*, but I didn't want to do that for a career (hard to make a career out of something you love, and still keep that love alive - or so they say). Originally I was going for Psychology, but I was told that wouldn't be a good field for me, and my Biology grades were horrid.

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Do you assume I'm a liberal because I wear Grateful Dead shirts?

  • November 19, 2008
  • James Skemp
I ran into a co-worker who suggested that I probably held a certain environmental view, because I was wearing a Grateful Dead shirt. While I knew it to be true, I'd never really thought that my political views too may be out there based upon the band t-shirt that I was wearing. Wearing Grateful Dead? Liberal. Wearing Bruce Springsteen? Liberal. Wearing Fleetwood Mac? Liberal. Billy Joel? That's probably liberal as well. My co-worker Rob (looks like his domain expired) was wearing a OS X shirt.

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Display parts of the Waking Life Transcript on your site

  • September 1, 2008
  • James Skemp
A lot of people like to pull full passages from Waking Life, as it's a very quotable movie. However, the problem with that is that if things change there's a whole lot of sites that are out-of-date. And, sometimes people forget to add attribution ... I've been thinking about ways to make this easier, and believe I've come up with an idea. Looking at the numbers, I'm working from the most popular to the least popular chapters, with the goal of having all available.

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Notes for a future reading of Dostoyevsky's The Possessed.

  • August 14, 2008
  • James Skemp
The below page references refer to the Signet Classic version of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Possessed. suicide/life: 109-112, 421 marriage/children: 119 charity: 323 free will: 637 Great Idea/life: 679-680 Passages may be elaborated upon in future articles.

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