rattus rattus' blog » overviews

Simplify simplification

rattus — Fri, 18 May 2007 21:47:27 +0000

A few days ago, I was skimming through thousands of pictures looking for eyes, preferably eyes of a strong tree out of a dream come true, but that’s another story. In my breaks, I did some day-to-day work like hopping over, actually scurrying over, to Dave Pollard (who we had already referred to) reading his daily blog on why we have not yet saved the world. So much for the history. Recently, Dave was asking for advice in seven words or less. His list, whether I like it or not, made me add our blogs starting credo Stop making sense to the list of comments and further advice. But only when I checked back I found the one advice (to love, to remember, to be and trust)

Breathe!

Added by Siona van Dijk. Or in my mother’s words: Schnaufn nid vagessn (Austrian dialect for “Don’t forget to breathe”). Thus, in a daring attempt to get the feel of an eyes’ glimpse of the air she is breathing, I scurried over to Siona’s profile where she writes

I trust uncertainty, don’t care for irony, and believe that paradox is a profound measure of truth.
— Siona van Dijk

Paradoxes only! Can you see the tree? On the path from trust to truth and back, the very grounds for liars to let trees flourish (trees with leaves of words) what more could we ask for? — Coffee! Of course, yes, but that’s again another story (though the same as above). — Simplification? — This is going to be complicated.

However, in the list of Siona’s bookmarks I found a link leading us to a list of Ten Commandments for a Simpler Way of Life (maybe we should make a list of lists, Juliet, please) where one can find (further) advices such as

II. You shall laugh on a daily basis.
VII. You shall turn off your technology.
VIII. You shall be spontaneous.
X. You shall learn what is ‘enough’.
— Ririan, 2007-04-05

An interesting list of commandments as only no liars could ever compile. A liar, though, cannot resist to add: For to lead a simple life You shall simplify simplification!

Sure, we “believe that all this could very well be wrong” (Siona van Dijk).

Having found the eyes, I’ll now go and look for roots.

But before I gonna move on, one more advice from yours truly rattus rattus: Answer for yourself what advice means to you.

T-shirts

rattus — Sun, 06 May 2007 09:28:21 +0000

ratTus rattUs co-maintains contradicTshirts, a collection of (mostly) “T-Shirts for the conshirtiously contradicTshirty“. Some designs are inspired by postings at rattus rattus’ blog, thus there is also a series of rattus rattus’ shirts:

The dichoTomizer

WRONG but wrong

Simply wrong

Not explaining explanation

rattus — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:47:50 +0000

How can we explain explanation? Of course, dictionaries explain explanation. With ease, and without a word about self-reference. Though, implicitly (they explain a lot).

I wonder whether they have to in order to sell. Like scientists need to stick to objectivity in order to get funded. (This explains a hell of a lot.)

So, we can explain explanation (like we can think about thinking). Imagine we cannot. — I can’t. Now explain that you cannot!

I cannot explain why I cannot explain that I cannot explain. This is my explanation.

Taglines

rattus — Mon, 01 May 2006 21:29:38 +0000

rattus rattus’ blog‘s collected taglines

2009

June: where lies keep rotting away
February: a liar’s weblog

2008

2007

January: a “funny game of constructivism” (Andreas Zeuch about rattus rattus’ blog)
February: the flaw that makes perfection perfect
March + April: the unknown unknown
May + June: an ordinary rat’s blog
July — September: Warning: Lies ahead!
October + November: Respectless
December: Ratical

2006

February:
March: devoted to self-contradiction
April: an applied liar’s paradox
May: watch out for dichotomies
June: lies about lies
July: silence with many words
August: sustainable paradoxes
September: a critic in denial criticizing criteria
October: 147% pure mendacity
November: facts about facts and other lies
December: warning: contains self-referential statements

Me, my lies, and I

rattus — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:03:25 +0000

Who am I? — Of course, trivially I am I. But who says so? Who is I and who is I not? Can I trust this I?

Who am I? Who is me?
Am I the sum of my history, or am I more than the sum of it? Or less? I keep forgetting. Nature or nurture? Are my hopes and wishes part of me?

What about the collection of aches and pains that consume my body? How old am I? Old enough to kick my father’s butt? Am I ready to accept my rheumatic disorders? Or more? Where do I draw the line? On my birthday? When I die? Does death end my life, and me?

What have we forgotten about ourselves? There is this and that which I am proud of, what I believe in, and those I love. And there is everything else. I am the one to decide. So, it depends. I depend on me?

People keep asking: Who are you? — I’d like to answer honestly: I do not know. And I do, because there again is this I. I says about I that I does not know.

Maybe this is why trivial is not derived from a broad way but from three ways crossing at one point: The I that is me, the I that says I, and all that is not I.
Who said that?

Ignore this!

rattus — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:37:02 +0000

So, you did not?! You ignored the “Ignore this”.
You are welcome.

Here are links to some posted posts of this blog:

Did I say you should not read this blog?

Here is why I started this blog. No, it is not as it is not. It’s just I can’t … Stop Making Sense. However, who is me anyway?
More non-nonsense can be found in The Nonsense Box. The Nonsense Box can be found in Nonsense. This is disfinism, but who cares?
As a member of the Club Of Liars I welcome you as a new member. Or have you already been a member?

I think that no answer is an answer. Even poems are. But then, it’s all just Rats!

Well, I do not know how much time you have. Or, what do you think? What do you know?
May I ask one more question: Do I blame others?

Go ahead, give me some feedback, and then give me feedback about feedback about feedback.

You mean this is all too complicated? You do not understand? — Move on, simplify your life!

Of course I’m lying, too.

(Last update: 2007-05-19)

About me

rattus — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:43:22 +0000

I am sorry, you are reading the wrong page. This page does tell absolutely nothing about me. Of course, this is an aporia as is my whole blog.

Who’s that me anyway?

I am a liar

rattus — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:11:35 +0000

I am a liar, and you are probably not. I am even a member of the Club of Liars. Are you? What does it mean if someone says “I am no liar”?

That’s a tricky question. Maybe we should ask a scientist. Science “refers to a system of acquiring knowledge (…) aimed at finding out the truth” (Wikipedia, 2006-01-16). So, scientists should know. They are telling the truth, aren’t they?

Most scientists, like other people, too, are understandably eager to make us believe that they are at least not telling lies. Let’s assume for a mere moment that scientists do not always tell the truth — in fact, there are some hints for this. How do we know? If it is possibly a lie that scientists are not telling lies, what is it they are doing?

Was Epimenides the first scientist, indeed? Rats!

What do we know anyway? Never I would dare to state that I knew everything. I do like to learn, and I am sure there is a lot I do not know. So, what do we know about what we do not know? Might that what we do not know be even more important than what we know?

These are big questions. Aren’t they? Let’s ask whether they are. Or is this one?
No, I do not have any answers. But, I am afraid, this is an answer. You might think that this is all nonsense. Go ahead, I won’t object your objection. There are puns, games of words, even riddles, and paradoxes. Language is deceiving. (I love this one.) We are used to deal with everyday paradoxical situations, unanswerable questions, and double binds. Some say the fun ends where these games are to affect people but that’s just where it started.

(Last update: 2006-05-20)