Lakes

Yes, yes, yes: here we are in Wordsworth Country! It makes me want to read The Prelude: I hope some kind soul will buy me a copy for Christmas. The wedding was delightful, and the 7hr drive tolerable, though we stayed in a pub called the Swinside Inn which I cannot recommend for two reasons:
a) it was shit
b) they turn the central heating off at 10pm.

I wanted ear muffs and some kind of nose-warming device! I had to buy a cumbrian jumper to keep me warm during the night.

Here is me enjoying the Wordsworthian atmosphere:



















And here is my favourite kind of cityscape- humanity vs Nature all the way!:















And here's a picture of the Happy Couple:

The Lake District

More reading: voracious reading! Human potential is more than we give it credit for.

On a different note: Choral Evensong tonight, followed by drinks. Then, I'm off to Keswick tomorrow for a wedding. I shall return with a detailed account and, no doubt, some pictures.

[Edit: I'm hoping for some visitors from California. I suspect that the mere presence of the word 'California' in this post may attract some.]

Londinium

I'm presently in London, trying my best not to start work on the thesis again. The next stage is to read through the second and third of three lectures by William Alston. Though a different aspect of my work has been occupying my thoughts for most of today. It will have to be taken slowly and with Stoicism.

Speaking of that ancient school of philosophy, I'm very much of the opinion that philosophy is, or ought to be, improving [Edit: I'm using this as a transitive verb.]. It should not address its questions in abstraction from lived experience but should be intimately related to life, transforming. This approach to philosophy can be discerned throughout its long history but it has received little in the way of explicit articulation, especially recently. Of course there are exceptions: this book being a notable example, with its focus on a very specific period in the history of philosophy. All of us need to start doing more philosophy of this kind.

I think a similar argument could be made with respect to language. Language does far more than simply denote objects and relationships in the 'real world', rather it constitutes and cements our engagement with that world, without which the very concept of 'world' would be meaningless. I think this is roughly what Heidegger meant when he famously claimed that language 'speaks' man. Some of the best playwrights have intuited this idea. Harold Pinter, whose superb No Man's Land I was fortunate enough to see recently, makes language world-transforming in his plays and, by extension, an instrument of power. David Mamet's style is not dissimilar and I'm very much looking forward to his lecture to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tonight.

For a more light-hearted take on the topic of language Stephen Fry's blog post, and the following clip, should entertain:

Computing Conclusions

I have been using my Eee PC for a while now and have recently reached conclusions on how best to use it. Recall that in an earlier post I had installed Ubuntu Eee, which is a version of Ubuntu customized for the Eee by this man. The other option is to use Ubuntu with this customized kernel. My reasons for doing this were:

1. I wanted the freedom to install software outside the bundled package.
2. I wanted a more aesthetically pleasing OS. The default (a version of Xandros) is cruelly dubbed 'The Fisher-Price Desktop' in this thread.
3. I wanted to avoid Microsoft.
   

Note: None of the reasons are "I wanted to spend hours arsing around with an operating system". I wanted the machine to 'just work'.

Now I know very little about these things so it's unclear to me why Ubuntu doesn't work on an Eee when, presumably, it works on other machines. Anyway, it doesn't so I installed the customized version (which also didn't work), made necessary modifications to make that work and, after many hours, all was well. But then Ubuntu released a major update. My machine updated itself automatically but from the wrong source (i.e. from Ubuntu rather than from one of the non-generic repositories), something I (wrongly) thought I had guarded against. So the thing didn't work for the third time. I searched on the various fora dedicated to these matters and found ways of making modifications but, to be frank, I couldn't be arsed. I did not want a machine that had to be modified just to work properly every time a six-monthly update was released.

So I've reverted to the Fisher-Price Desktop - it works and does everything I would need a computer of that size to do. But the whole experience has taught me something about the whole business of software that is owned by a company (i.e. not free or open source): it has made me aware of just what one is paying for when one buys such software. One is paying for the fact that it 'just works'. And I have also learned that it would take more time and expertise than I have to make that happen myself. Now, I have not changed my opinion of Windows (which I think is horrid to use and bullying) but, I have learned from the 'Eeexperience', neither can my next main computer use a free operating system. So I shall turn to Apple when my ancient Toshiba laptop becomes extinct. By doing so I hope to acquire a machine that is aesthetically pleasing and 'just works'. I have not found that free software meets both criteria.

Entering the Artworld

I have today entered the artworld. Wittgenstein by Eduardo Paolozzi now hangs in our flat, courtesy of Jesus College's art collection. Some (substandard) pictures follow.