Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

Daily Scribble

Quest for wisdom

4 Comments

I didn’t take any part time course at SFU this term because I have to adjust my newly wed life and I to work in India for 3 weeks in October. I am going to resume my studies next term. I can only afford to take one course per term, so I am working very very slowly to my philosophy degree. Next term I am taking intermediate ethic theory and political philosophy. The course is in the area of my study interest. I want to prepare myself well equipped to rebuke intellectual attacks from the both end of the political spectrum.

When I went to the bookstore pick up next term’s textbook, I have a habit of browsing textbooks of other courses, to see is there any interesting course I might want to take in the future. I come across many interesting and useful courses outside of the philosophy major. Philosophy is the mother of all subjects, which gives me a good foundation in making connection from knowledge in different fields. But I have to broaden my knowledge outside of philosophy into related areas if I want to survive in battle for the minds.

I observe that many leftists have a social studies background and many right-wingers have a economics background. I often feel kinda dumb when I read the theories quoted from both side to support their claims. Well, I sort of understand the quoted theories, they appears to be quite convincing in their context. However, without more knowledge on related fields, I can’t tell whether the theory really holds up or it is merely an intellectual bluff. I have identified a few other courses to take in the future if I couldn’t find a philosophy course fits my schedule on that term. Here is the list of core courses for my undergrad degree:

PHIL120 – Introduction to Moral Philosophy (done)
PHIL203 – Metaphysics (done)
PHIL220 – Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy (done)
PHIL242 – Philosophy of Art (done)
PHIL280 – Introduction to Existentialism (done)
PHIL300 – Introduction to Philosophy (done)
PHIL144 – Introduction to the Philosophy of Natural and Social Science
PHIL201 – Epistemology
PHIL240 – Philosophy of Religion
PHIL320 – Social and Political Philosophy
PHIL321 – Moral Issues and Theories
PHIL322 – History of Ethics
PHIL341 – Philosophy of Science
PHIL421 – Ethical Theories
SA250 – Introduction to Sociological Theory
SA350 – Classical Sociological Thought
SA351 – Classical Marxist Thought
SA450 – Advanced Sociological Theory
ECON208 – History of Economic Thought
ECON282 – Game Theory
ECON309 – Introduction to Marxian Economics
ECON402 – Advanced Microeconomic Theory
ECON403 – Advanced Macroeconomic Theory

Daily Scribble

Age difference

13 Comments

People say love should overcome difference in religion, race, age or even gender. There should be no different in religion and race, since those are artificial difference not compatible with modern society. I am always against homosexuals and spent lots of time research into this topic. But I didn’t give much thoughts on the age differences. I found most people accept love relationship with older man and younger woman, even the man is much older. On the other hand, we think older woman and younger man is pretty gross. I am not talking about a merely a few years of insignificant difference. I am talking about real different, probably separate by at least a generation. Older man and younger woman is acceptable in the norm of our society and history. It is easy to understand why a older man wants a younger woman. What puzzles me is why we treat older woman and younger man differently.

When I know a thirty something woman going out with a early twenty boy, my first reflective impression is yuck. I am visualizing a old woman preying on young boys, kinda like how the witches keep themselves forever young in fantasy novels. I can’t rationalize my feeling towards old woman and young boy, technically it should have no difference from old man and young girl, except the gender is reversed. The only reason I can come up with is on reproduction, young girl is fertile but old woman is not. But that is a pretty weak argument, unless I want to condemn all couples choose not to have kids. I definitely won’t go after an old woman, unless she is super rich like “little sweet sweet” and leave her darling boy a fortune worth a few billion dollars.

Daily Scribble

The Liberal-NDP-Bloc coup

2 Comments

Canada has a very weird political system. We just had an election 2 months ago, we elected a minority government and the voters are still happy about the Conservative Prime Minister. Then suddenly the other three losing parties try to form a coalition and take over the government with majority seats in the parliament. The coup has became one of the most talked topics in our office. We all puzzled by this weird three parties coalition. The NDP and Liberals has totally different political platforms and they were criticizing each other like crazy in the past election. Yesterday’s enemies become today’s friends, yet the we have no clue what kind of policy their will bring forth. Just the Liberal and NDP is messy enough, then bring in the Bloc Quebecois can only make it messier. Bloc Quebecois is another weirdo political party does not exist in provinces other than Quebec. They have only one agenda, separation of Quebec from Canada. In the parliament, they don’t care about any policies for national good, all they care about is bringing more beef to Quebec. How can we trust the Bloc with power? We feel like cheated by the coalition, we did not vote for this screwed up government.

If the coalition really want to take the power, maybe they should do it fairly and call for election on a common convincing political platform and let the voters decide. I would rather have a Conservative majority government than another government with the leftist NDP and the separatist Bloc. I don’t mind a minority Liberal government if they can win it on their own power though. On a second though, Canada is still part of the common wealth and still ruled by the Queen. Maybe we should just reinstate full monarchy and ask the Queen to be our head of state with real power. I am sure she is more popular and nicer than all of the political party leaders. I may even go so low that I am willing to accept Prince Charles as our King than having the coalition government.

Daily Scribble

Fruit manual

3 Comments

Pomegranate

Nowadays, even fruit come with a user manual. I went to grocery shopping at Superstores and come across a weird looking fruit, Pomegranate. It is red in color, in the shape of an onion, looks like a decoration ball on a X’mas tree. I have no idea what it is, how it tastes or even how to eat it. To my surprise, the fruit come with a user manual. The food producer printed a nice pamphlet answering all my questions and place them next to the fruit. From the pamphlet, I know pomegranate suppose to be very healthy, it has lots of antioxidants and Vitamin C. There are illustrations in the pamphlet show me how to eat a pomegranate step by step. You are not actually eating the fruit, you are eating the seeds inside fruit. After you cut open the pomegranate, you have to loose the arils (seeds) from the membrane attached to the skin and then pour the arils through a strainer to remove any remaining liquid. We bought one home, but I don’t know it taste yet. I am waiting for Pat to open a pomegranate. I would never buy one if there is no user manual. I feel more comfortable trying new things if I can read some related information first. Maybe all odd looking fruits in the supermarket should have a user manual too, so I know what to try.

Daily Scribble

Charlie has cancer

12 Comments

Charlie

Our family dog, Charlie, is 13 years old. Pat grew up with it since a little girl. Charlie is a very adorable golden retriever. Now, it is getting old and it can’t even get up on its own due hip problem. We have to help it getting up by giving it support on the stomach. Pat took it to visit a vet yesterday and did its annual lab test. The results come back today and reveal that it has cancer. We will see whether the insurance cover for the surgery fee. If not, we will just let it live its remaining days peaceful. It is simply cheaper to buy a new dog than fixing the old one. I guess 13 years of life is long enough for a dog. It does not do much everyday, spent most of time sleeping and gets up only for food and its daily walk. To Charlie, everyday is just the repeat of the previous day. Life of a dog seems so meaningless, all it does is eat, sleep, walk, pee and shit. The function of a pet is to give joy and pleasure to its owner. When owning a pet brings more trouble than pleasure, maybe it is time send it to SPCA to end its suffering.