Posts Tagged ‘philosophy’
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Vegetarian Shoes - Apollo Black
My new shoes have just arrived from UK-based Vegetarian Shoes! They make high quality footwear using no animal products and this is the 3rd time I’ve bought from them. I’ve got no affiliation with the company, just one satisfied customer.
Part of my lifestyle includes an effort to avoid actions that directly require killing other creatures. This has mainly led to me being a vegetarian and choosing not to use products made from new leather and other animal remains.
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Tags:consumerism, ethics, philosophy, shoes, vegetarianism
Posted in general | No Comments »
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
I went out to see Michael Geist talk at the WISE Hall in Vancouver last night. He’s incredibly articulate and has a great grasp on the wide variety of issues that modern copyright reform lays at the feet of citizens. I especially appreciated his focus on the protection of the freedom of citizens within the new digital paradigm.
He also reminded me that I hadn’t yet posted my submission to the Canadian Copyright Consultation.
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Tags:competition, consumerism, copyright, internet, law, michael geist, philosophy, politics, technology
Posted in law, politics | No Comments »
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
It’s common for people to spend a lot of effort planning a trip away. Even the shortest excursion can be smoother and safer given good foresight. But few give much thought, if any, to the difficulties they might encounter upon their return.
I recently came back from 2½ months away on a meditation retreat. There were little breaks here and there but I was mostly shrouded within a very focused and protective environment, letting the rest of the world whirl and change without me. These retreats are not new to me, but I usually go for only 10 days. While I knew coming home would include an adjustment period, there’s never really any way to know what you’ll get until you arrive.
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Tags:environment, focus, home, integration, meditation, philosophy, travel, vipassana
Posted in meditation, travel | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
I tend to believe that ethics is a sort of sense, a faculty that is developed by making sound and unsound choices and gaining experience from living through the results.
Those aspects of an action (mental, vocal, or physical) that lead to benefit of any sort for any being push the action toward the ethical end of a scale, while harm of any sort to any being push it towards the unethical. In this sense most choices have some mix of the two and it is often the case that we find ourselves having to compromise, though generally through lack of awareness of the true nature of the situation.
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Tags:conditioning, ethics, health, meditation, philosophy
Posted in philosophy | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 7th, 2006
This is a long one!
I’ve always liked computers. I liked that they could play games and produce documents. I liked that you could use them to draw and even make music. I liked them even more when the internet landed and you could use them to communicate. But it’s long been apparent to me that without software a computer is just a fancy electricity sucker. And in the past few years I’ve become more and more aware of how the quality of and intention behind the software can affect the usefulness and even usability of the computer. Bad software and poorly motivated software development can seriously affect the social empowerment of the end user.
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Tags:amiga, environment, free geek, free software, home, internet, langara, linux, open source, philosophy, school, technology, travel, ubuntu
Posted in philosophy, technology | No Comments »
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
I used to be a terrible procrastinator. Any excuse to not do something today was good enough, though the excuse was usually TV or some variant of screen watching. I would push aside most things that weren’t an immediate need until the last minute.
Anything with a deadline resulted in a flurry of rushed work. Essays that were started in the evening were finished just before I walked out the door to school in the morning. Personal projects were left undone. Cleaning simply wasn’t done (because who likes cleaning?).
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Tags:home, philosophy, procrastination, school, sleep
Posted in philosophy | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 18th, 2006
There’s a funny thing about getting things done… you need to stay focused to do it.
That’s not to say that one who isn’t focused won’t accomplish anything, just that they’re unlikely to have much control over what they get in the end.
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Tags:discipline, focus, goals, ouch, philosophy, vision
Posted in philosophy | No Comments »
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