Our only apparently unique invention is written language, and there’s lots of evidence that it’s the least effective form of communication we have, and the form most prone to misunderstanding
writes Dave Pollard in his recent blog post Turning Together Without Words.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
— George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“In the age of the internet attaching a famous name to your personal opinion to give more weight to it is a very valid strategy.” — Benjamin Franklin
Quote posted by Anonymous in a comment to a blog post of Bruce Schneier about a misquote.
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.
Today, when using a local e-learning platform to get information about a course on “Interdisciplinary Communication” I learned the imperative way that interdisciplinary communication is inaccessible to guests. Even more so, it is forbidden.
There you learn. Faster than any course could do.
In “le rouge sans le noir” Cairo Otaibi wrote
sometimes we do not care, those are the good times.
And because it is not right what you say I so much trust your words.
We have already quoted Calvin & Hobbes here several times. In Wikipedia’s entry on Calvin & Hobbes it says:
Calvin sees Hobbes a different way (alive), while other characters see him as something else (a stuffed animal).
— Wikipedia, 2007-03-15
In fact, there is a whole article on its own about Hobbes including a discussion of his reality, also quoting creator Bill Watterson:
When Hobbes is a stuffed toy in one panel and alive in the next, I’m juxtaposing the “grown-up” version of reality with Calvin’s version, and inviting the reader to decide which is truer.
— Bill Watterson, as cited in Wikipedia, 2007-03-15
I remember having discussed this issue with friends. Apparently, many (that is most if not all of my friends) see Hobbes as a stuffed animal. They think that Hobbes as a real tiger exists only in Calvin’s imaginations.
Whereas, I think that Hobbes is real as a tiger could be, and it is only other’s imagination where Hobbes is a stuffed animal.
Though, this is imaginary, of course.
