April 2011
1 post
redirect from codydjango.com
A monstrous server migration and my django blog is still in hiding. I’ll restore it when I have some time for a redesign. I’ve also always wanted to make it compatible with MarsEdit - I get so much satisfaction using that program. It’s up there with Papers, QuickSilver, and Things. It’s nice to be able to update blogs with a native UI.
I’ve moved again, now...
November 2010
1 post
hi guys
Hey! I graduated. I started doing web-development full-time. The green room burned down. I met a girl and fell in love. We split on good terms when I moved from Montreal to Vancouver, and I’m living on commercial drive. I’ve started running regularly, and I feel pretty good! I’m starting a new contract in gastown, and I have some shows coming up with “collapsing...
December 2009
1 post
Redirect: codydjango.com
I have a lot going on right now. And I don’t ever update my tumblr… so goodbye. I might start up again once I have a reason.
I’ll be booking wednesday nights at the green room in the new year. It’s gonna be a sophisticated, classy night. More of a vernissage than a traditional show. Tight schedule, on time, good sound and cheap drinks, and instead of promoting,...
May 2009
3 posts
A Thousand Plateaus: Arborescence and Rhizomes
The book imitates the world, as art imitates nature. The law of reflection: one becomes two. This is the “most classical and well reflected, oldest, and weariest kind of thought”.
Art imitates nature with a civilzation, culture, society — a second nature. But Nature itself is not one-without-two; nature is not unchanging. There is a dynamism of and in nature, and no...
Towards a Genealogy of Morals [Nietzsche]
In Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 260, Nietzsche makes the claim that there are two basic types of traits which regularly reoccur in combination, linked to one another: master moralities and slave moralities. While initially speaking historically about culture, Nietzsche also claims that these traits are found within individuals. “In all higher and more complex cultures, there are also apparent...
Temporality and Cogito in Phenomenology of...
‘Pieds Noirs’ is the name that was given to the non-native French in Algeria during the period in which Algeria was a colony of France. For 130 years, immigrants became French citizens under French law, and participated in the colonial culture of the time. Once an end to the colonial war was reached, more than a million Pieds Noirs fled Algeria for France, fearing a backlash from the...
April 2009
2 posts
[Merleau-Ponty] Structure and Perception [1]
This is an attempt to show what’s going on in the concluding chapter of Structure of Behaviour, and to situate its significance vis-a-vis Phenomenology of Perception. These books were published in sequence – the former in 1942, the latter in 1945 – and together they present the novice phenomenologist with a plethora of mysterious words, phrases, and ideas. The concluding chapter reads of...
Paul Jantzi is pretty much the best songwriter in...
March 2009
6 posts
The Pathos of Bathos [Nietzsche]
Could Nietzsche’s use of the literary exclamation reference a perspective of absurdity?
Could he denote, with exclamation, that a particular idea should not be linked to cultural context? That an idea is so funny, so exciting - precisely because it exists prior to our conception of it?
The availability of an idea to be found, in itself, is absurd. Of course, life is an abundance of...
I hate to do this again, but... →
Since this site gets WAY more attention than my other sites (for now, at least) I’m gonna see how big a difference a ‘lil post here makes on a newly indexed site.
Yes yes, a development blog is on the way… Humor me.
About Autos Inc is a small business outside Calgary. They refinish/refurbish vintage automobiles. The site has hardly any content at the moment, but it’s...
Websites as a means and an end. →
This is a website for Iris Behren, who is a greater-vancouver area Keller Williams agent. Nothing much fancy about this site yet, but I’m looking forwards to including some cool google-maps mashups. At this point it’s just a start, an experiment to see how easy it is to implement a wordpress site with rapidweaver.
Perspectivism vs Subjectivity
What’s the difference? I’ve often wondered. The answer I found in Nietzsche’s “Will To Power” fragments. I don’t have them with me at the moment; I’ll post them later. For now, off the top of my head:
There’s no ego in perspectivism.
Subjectivity comes from cogito, and is passed through the physiological analysts. Perspectivism exists without...
Interpretations of the Relationship between...
Aristotle begins The Metaphysics with the premise that all men desire to know. Natural sciences sought knowledge of beings revealed as natural objects, but said nothing of the ontological grounding of what can be known of being. Aristotle defines “first philosophy” as the study of the “first principles and causes” of being, and by book five posits that “first philosophy” is primarily concerned...
February 2009
1 post
Living in Expression [Nietzsche]
The purpose of this paper is to disclose the relation between language and thought as present in On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral sense. I believe this to be an important aspect of Nietzsche’s work; despite his condemnation of the arrogant way language is used to speak authoritatively about the world, Nietzsche himself, as a philosopher, was essentially tied to the medium of his expression.
On...
January 2009
1 post
Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet from Added Bytes →
It’s really time for me to start up a Development blog.
December 2008
8 posts
Categories Of All Known Animals
Those that belong to the Emperor;
Embalmed ones;
Those that are trained;
Suckling pigs;
Mermaids;
Fabulous ones;
Stray dogs;
Those that are included in this classification;
Those that tremble as if they were mad;
Innumerable ones;
Those drawn with a very fine camel’s-hair brush;
Those that have just broken the flower vase;
Those that from a distance resemble flies.
from the...
Bathroom Preacher
A conversation started in the downstairs Concordia men’s room between myself and a neatly dressed man. We were washing out hands, and he commented on the weather. We had a few laughs, and then as I was about to leave, he leaned in, although he was about to tell me a secret:
“Everything you are learning here, you already know.”
Myself, having an interest in a similar position...
ChangeThis collection of .pdf files →
Adapting to shifting paradigms; new and important ideas for networked societies. I came accross this collection while searching for Chris Andersons (Editor-in-Chief of Wired) article on the ‘long tail’ business model, an essential read for any entrepreneur.
Politic / Police [Foucault]
I’d like to take this opportunity to write about the expanding role of the police in relation to the emergence of the modern state. I think it’s interesting that ‘police’ and ‘politics’ share a common root, “polis.” I suppose this isn’t surprising, since they both pertain to the administration of a city. But apparently, and perhaps surprising, the institution of the police, as...
Origin and Destination [Foucault]
I’ve often wondered what separated certain great thinkers from the academic disciplines of which they came. I’m thinking specifically of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Heidegger, although I suppose there are many more. I’m curious over what causes a break from tradition, and how a new framework for philosophy comes to be. It seems an incredible feat – and unfortunate, for such...
Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom...
In my adolescence, I had a dislike for popular culture. The ideals represented in its imagery did not correspond to my experience, and I felt insulted that my experience was expected to be something so altogether difference. I developed a cynicism towards society, and was hard pressed to find its merit. Perhaps it simply evaded me while I grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver. If someone had...
Rendered Rational [Foucault]
I’d like to take a moment to speculate on neoliberalism vis-a-vis Foucault. Biopower can be understood as the force of government to affect the population as a whole. Biopolitics is administration at the level of population. The governing of individuals as the level of population emerged from a liberal rationale in the eighteenth century.
Liberalism is an ideology, but moreover, Foucault...
Mediating the Public Sphere: Habermas and Net...
“If it is to be truly relevant to our world today, the theory of the public sphere must not content itself with being a theory of communication: it must also become a theory of mediation.”
In a 1963 dictionary article, Habermas described the public sphere as “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed .” The idea was that citizens could gather as equals...
November 2008
6 posts
Society Must Be Defended: From Sovereignty to...
This response is an attempt to situate the final lecture within the course summary for the 1975-76 lectures given at the College du France. These lectures are specifically noteworthy in their tracing of a genealogy of force relations; how the traditional form of power as sovereignty became a decidedly modern biopower. Lecture 10 ended with the Third Estate emerging as the nation as a totality at...
Society Must Be Defended: Response #2: The...
Foucault engaged in historical analysis to in order to reveal a particular mode of thought (episteme) for a period. An unearthed episteme contains the conditions (beliefs or principles) that enable a particular force relation to obtain between various groups. But while an episteme may contain the conditions of possibility (the norms of a society, the possibilities of action within a system) it...
Technology is a service, not a product.
Society Must Be Defended: Response #1 History as...
By speaking of “Historical Discourse”, Foucault seems to be engaging with something much broader, and altogether different, than our common understanding of “History”. This common understanding - as often coupled with “language” in defining the boundaries of nationhood - seems definitive in its use: history, as in our shared history - something uncontested. ...
Foucault and the Quiet Revolution - Part One.
As a Quebec resident, I have been living in Montreal for three years. I first heard of the Quiet Revolution from a school friend, who mentioned it as a very significant cultural movement; she was surprised that I had never heard of it.
This semester I’m taking a class on Foucault. It has some title like “Politics of the Body” or “Bio-Politics” - I can’t...
October 2008
3 posts
Achewood! →
This is my favorite webcomic. Full characters, deep friendship, zany story arcs that spring from the most unlikely of places. Wholly unique, yet sometimes reminiscent of that sharp profundity found in Calvin and Hobbes. It takes a bit of reading to learn the characters, but it’s worth it!
September 2008
31 posts
Feats of Strength Presents: Montreal 2008 →
Burn the music, print the art, and package yourself a fancy new compact disk. Or, just load it in itunes. 01 Valleys Killer Legs 02 Tune-Yards Sunlight 03 Paper Tiger Better Now 04 Mussaver f. RCG Daredevil 05 Elfin Saddle Kaila’s Song 06 Aww Shucks Tearin’ it Up...
American Presidential Debate #1 →
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stomach it. I had to stop watching the debate. Obama was playing it too safe, and as a result, was being overshadowed by McCains ridiculous talking points. Every time I heard Obama say “John’s right”, I felt a drop both in the polls, and in my hope for the future. Why was he being so accomodating? I expected fury - a presidential...
If you know me, you are probably aware of my...
Daily Show in top form →
I normally don’t push comedy, but this is genius.
Collider halted until next year
Collider halted until next year: “The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be out of action until spring 2009 while engineers probe a magnet failure.”
(Via BBC News.)
American Foreign Policy as Political Failure →
Older vid of Robert Kuttner, Founding Editor of the liberal American Prospect mag, discussing the failures of American foreign policy. If only he knew what the next two years would bring.
Simple Rules
I can’t remember where I gleamed this, but the sticky note has been sitting on my desktop for at least six months now. I’ve edited it over time, boiling it down to the essential. A little silly, but it certainly puts things in perspective for me when I’m feeling uninspired.
Consider everything an experiment
Find something to trust and then trust it for a while
There are...
Unnatural History of Wall Street →
The second episode of Concrete Jumble, a series of animations about the history of New York City, by Gary Leib.
Heidegger: The Essence of Language
“Language is the House of Being.” With this statement, the impression is given that Heidegger presents language as something more than an instrument of communication. What is it exactly that Heidegger trying to convey?
This paper focuses on language as found in Letter on Humanism. The Letter on Humanism articulates the metaphysical role of language in Heidegger’s thought, but it...
Nietzsche - "In Favor of Criticism"
A detailed analysis of aphorism 307, “In favor of criticism”, reflects an aggregate approach that intertwines scientific thinking, artistic energy, and practical wisdom. The aphorism relates to the themes of of science, truth, art, morality, and intellectual conscious as they are found in “The Gay Science”. The aphorism is in favor of criticism, and merits the method of critique as a...