Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Truly Random

Despite the title of this little blog thingy, most of what I put here is not really very random. The center of the Universe is, of course, true. Now though I'm desperately putting off studying for a French test (un examen de Francais) I have tomorrow. The internet has failed to produce anything fantastically interesting to help me in my procrastination. I'm not feeling creative enough to Google random words and see what I find. So I've turned to this blog, which I have somewhat neglected lately. Yes, I know I've posted some things, but not nearly as often as when I started. To all my devoted fans (are there 3 of you now?), you'll get over it. Tying back to the begining of this paragraph, I'm just typing whatever pops into my head. Truly random thoughts from me, the center of the universe.

Remember Mrs Lake? Only if you know who she is... East High, English teacher. One day she told my class that we should try to find one paradox every day. I think it was her (or is 'she' the proper pronoun here?) who mentioned that. I could have made it up. Anyway, I haven't. But I did stumble on quite a few today. Well, not so much stumbled; they were thrown at my head in the form of a lecture on Taoism (a philosophy that does not make any sense to me so far). The easiest is the simple form of "the liar's paradox" (or something like that):

This sentence is false

Try to wrap your mind around that one. If you Dare (insert evil laughter here). My favorite paradox that was not mentioned in relation to Taoism is probably "The Barber of Seville." I'm sure there are several versions but this is how I remember it:

The Barber of Seville shaves everyone who doesn't shave himself.

So, when he shaves himself he doesn't. But if he doesn't shave himself, he does. Very tricky that barber guy. I bet he was named Mick. Why Mick? Why not?

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