Quiz by Carrie.
1. You are going to an island for one week and can only bring with you 3 items. What items would you bring and why? Hmm. if I could bring only three things, it'd be a pretty crappy trip. If I was deserted on an island, however, then A paperclip, a rubber band, and a pencil. Then I'd just pull a MacGuyver(sp?).
2. If you were going to die within 24 hours, what would you do? For one, I would take care of any unfinished business I had. I would tell one or two people off, say goodbye to my family, and I would tell one person in particular how much I really care about her. Then I'd probably pull a Socrates and sit around with my friends talking for a while, as well as philosophizing about my own fate.
3. You have one million dollars to spend at will, what do you spend it on? You people don't think this one through enough. I'd invest it and live comfortably off the interest.
4. If you could choose any profession to do, what would you do? Philosopher. Unfortunately, you can't make a living off of it. Besides, I couldn't keep my mind going at that level constantly.
5. Your house is burning down and you have limited time to get out. What would you grab before you left the house? The cat that would be too dumb to get out, then I'd snag my memory cards, rpg books, and anime collection. Everything else is pretty much expendable.
6. What is one thing that you wish you could go back and change in your life? It's probably sometime within the portion of my memory that's blacked out. Besides, I couldn't choose just one. I fuck up a lot.
7. Tell us one lesson you have learned in your lifetime - The theory of balance. Shit, this is probably the first time I've actually tried to explain it or write it down. I went a little overboard, but oh well.
I. The total pleasure or pain resulting from an experience is based on comparison to former experiences in one's life. That is, the degree of pleasure one can derive from something is proportional to the amount and degree of pain that person has experienced, and vice versa. Consider the example of a person who lives a life of pleasure and a person who lives a life of pain, comparitively speaking. For simplicity's sake, suppose the first is rich and hedonistic, while the second is poor and destitute. The rich man experiences pleasure to a degree greater than the poor man, but has experienced little pain for comparison, so he is no happier. However, if he were to be reduced to the level of the poor man, it would shatter his life, causing him far greater pain than the poor man could experience. Conversely, the poor man experiences pain on a regular basis, but when he experiences pleasure, it has a far greater impact on him. From this, we can see that each person has a sort of "quality average", and pain or pleasure is only felt in how far it varies from this level.
-First Corollary: This is more or less a self-correcting system.
-Second Corollary: Any advantage or disadvantage a person has is irrelevant, as it has no effect on the quality of a person's experiences. That is, no matter how intelligent, wealthy, strong, etc., one might be, it only affects things on a comparitively superficial level.
-Third Corollary: The average of a person's experiences at the end of their life is equal to zero. The sum of a person's pleasure and pain in a relative sense will cancel out to zero at the end of a person's life.
-Fourth Corollary: This means that true equality exists, although not on the superficial level most people strive for. It is essentially a self-correcting system that will balance itself. Perfection in chaos, so to speak.
-Fifth Corollary: This does not mean there must be a divine presence. On the contrary. This theory supports that the quality of one's experiences are due to a sort of universal law. While this could be seen as evidence of a deity or supernatural presence, it is also true that such a being would only have to set the machine in motion, and would not necessarily be able to affect anything after the beginning of the universe.
8. You have two wishes. You can wish for anything in the world that you want. What wishes do you make? Honestly, I would put much more thought into the decision than I have time for here.
9. If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change? I would change the fact that I'm so inconsistent. I can't maintain the same level for any length of time.
10. If you had the ability to change all of man kind in some way or another, how would you change them? I would actually weaken the impact that instinct has on a humans actions, not obscure it and pretend it doesn't exist like most do.
11. What are some qualities you would want in a person of the opposite sex? Honestly, there are many qualities that are desirable. But really, the two most important by far are that they truly understand me, and that they can love me. Really, that's it. Understanding and love. Sappy as all hell, but it's the truth.
12. Is honesty always the best solution? Of course not. It almost always is, but there are always going to be situations where it's wiser to lie or bend the truth a little. I always attempt to tell the truth as much as possible, and I nearly always do, but to say that honesty is always the best policy would be a flat lie.
13. If you could visit a place anywhere in the world, where would you go? I would have to agree with my mother and say Ireland. And also, I would like to visit tibet. Don't ask me why.
14. We all have dreams/goals, tell us one of yours - This is just the first one that popped into my head, but I would love to publish a book some day.
15. Where is your favorite place to be? Geographically speaking, there is one place I've really enjoyed being. I can't really describe it's exact location too well, but it's a spot on the north shore of lake Superior. A 180 degree view of the lake, and it is completely tranquil.
I apologize for the length of #7, but oh well. I'm going to have to revise that one so it reads better, but you can get the gist of it. I'll do the second half of this quiz tomorrow when you get to hear a treatise on human nature and why I'm going to get lynched for my views on abortion. Damn, I have way too much time on my hands.
2. If you were going to die within 24 hours, what would you do? For one, I would take care of any unfinished business I had. I would tell one or two people off, say goodbye to my family, and I would tell one person in particular how much I really care about her. Then I'd probably pull a Socrates and sit around with my friends talking for a while, as well as philosophizing about my own fate.
3. You have one million dollars to spend at will, what do you spend it on? You people don't think this one through enough. I'd invest it and live comfortably off the interest.
4. If you could choose any profession to do, what would you do? Philosopher. Unfortunately, you can't make a living off of it. Besides, I couldn't keep my mind going at that level constantly.
5. Your house is burning down and you have limited time to get out. What would you grab before you left the house? The cat that would be too dumb to get out, then I'd snag my memory cards, rpg books, and anime collection. Everything else is pretty much expendable.
6. What is one thing that you wish you could go back and change in your life? It's probably sometime within the portion of my memory that's blacked out. Besides, I couldn't choose just one. I fuck up a lot.
7. Tell us one lesson you have learned in your lifetime - The theory of balance. Shit, this is probably the first time I've actually tried to explain it or write it down. I went a little overboard, but oh well.
I. The total pleasure or pain resulting from an experience is based on comparison to former experiences in one's life. That is, the degree of pleasure one can derive from something is proportional to the amount and degree of pain that person has experienced, and vice versa. Consider the example of a person who lives a life of pleasure and a person who lives a life of pain, comparitively speaking. For simplicity's sake, suppose the first is rich and hedonistic, while the second is poor and destitute. The rich man experiences pleasure to a degree greater than the poor man, but has experienced little pain for comparison, so he is no happier. However, if he were to be reduced to the level of the poor man, it would shatter his life, causing him far greater pain than the poor man could experience. Conversely, the poor man experiences pain on a regular basis, but when he experiences pleasure, it has a far greater impact on him. From this, we can see that each person has a sort of "quality average", and pain or pleasure is only felt in how far it varies from this level.
-First Corollary: This is more or less a self-correcting system.
-Second Corollary: Any advantage or disadvantage a person has is irrelevant, as it has no effect on the quality of a person's experiences. That is, no matter how intelligent, wealthy, strong, etc., one might be, it only affects things on a comparitively superficial level.
-Third Corollary: The average of a person's experiences at the end of their life is equal to zero. The sum of a person's pleasure and pain in a relative sense will cancel out to zero at the end of a person's life.
-Fourth Corollary: This means that true equality exists, although not on the superficial level most people strive for. It is essentially a self-correcting system that will balance itself. Perfection in chaos, so to speak.
-Fifth Corollary: This does not mean there must be a divine presence. On the contrary. This theory supports that the quality of one's experiences are due to a sort of universal law. While this could be seen as evidence of a deity or supernatural presence, it is also true that such a being would only have to set the machine in motion, and would not necessarily be able to affect anything after the beginning of the universe.
8. You have two wishes. You can wish for anything in the world that you want. What wishes do you make? Honestly, I would put much more thought into the decision than I have time for here.
9. If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change? I would change the fact that I'm so inconsistent. I can't maintain the same level for any length of time.
10. If you had the ability to change all of man kind in some way or another, how would you change them? I would actually weaken the impact that instinct has on a humans actions, not obscure it and pretend it doesn't exist like most do.
11. What are some qualities you would want in a person of the opposite sex? Honestly, there are many qualities that are desirable. But really, the two most important by far are that they truly understand me, and that they can love me. Really, that's it. Understanding and love. Sappy as all hell, but it's the truth.
12. Is honesty always the best solution? Of course not. It almost always is, but there are always going to be situations where it's wiser to lie or bend the truth a little. I always attempt to tell the truth as much as possible, and I nearly always do, but to say that honesty is always the best policy would be a flat lie.
13. If you could visit a place anywhere in the world, where would you go? I would have to agree with my mother and say Ireland. And also, I would like to visit tibet. Don't ask me why.
14. We all have dreams/goals, tell us one of yours - This is just the first one that popped into my head, but I would love to publish a book some day.
15. Where is your favorite place to be? Geographically speaking, there is one place I've really enjoyed being. I can't really describe it's exact location too well, but it's a spot on the north shore of lake Superior. A 180 degree view of the lake, and it is completely tranquil.
I apologize for the length of #7, but oh well. I'm going to have to revise that one so it reads better, but you can get the gist of it. I'll do the second half of this quiz tomorrow when you get to hear a treatise on human nature and why I'm going to get lynched for my views on abortion. Damn, I have way too much time on my hands.