nikolai - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I am.

My Interests

Backpacking, discussing the trivialities of life, listening to music at obscene volumes, the occasional clubbing, waxing philosophic, snowboarding, literature, art, psychology, surfing, just hanging out and having a decent conversation

I'd like to meet:

Someone who, after years of knowing them, still surprises the hell out of me

I don't random add, and if you randomly request my friendship, you will be tossed aside like a used condom. Such is life, no one cares about your amassment of e-friends...come to this realization and deal with it.Other than that I'm a pretty friendly guy :)

Music:

Anything with a good beat and/or relatable lyrics

Movies:

Anything that makes me think...

Books:

I'm trying to get a book a week this year (damn new year's resolutions)...52 books is a hella lot of reading but we'll see what I can do, the list so far (I'll add my rating out of 5 of what I thought) (Edit: Taking the time-consuming nature of graduate school into consideration, I've decided to amend this resolution to a book every 2 weeks, it seems much more manageable (and realistic!) given my busy schedule):

1. The Basic Writings of Kant - Immanuel Kant (****)

2. Ethics - Spinoza (***)

3. Les Enfants Teribles - Jean Cocteau (**** 1/2)

4. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (*****)

5. Anthology of Existentialism - Various (****)

6. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (****1/2)

7. State of Fear - Michael Crichton (***1/2)

8. Mind - John Searle (****)

9. Twilight of the Idols - Friedrich Nietzsche (****)

10. The Anti-Christ - Friedrich Nietzsche (*****)

11. Faust (Part I) - Goethe (*****)

12. Faust (Part II) - Goethe (****1/2)

13. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut (****1/2)

14. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (****)

15. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (*****)

16. The Rebel - Albert Camus (*****)

17. The Consolations of Philosophy - Boethius (***1/2)

18. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (****1/2)

19. Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault (*****)

20. The Social Contract - JJ Rousseau (*****)

21. Das Kapital - Karl Marx (****)

22. Freedom Evolves - Daniel Dennett (****1/2)

23. Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels (****)

24. Republic - Plato (*****)

25. House of the Dead - Dostoyevsky (*****)

26. Introduction to Metaphysics - Heideggar (currently reading)

My Blog

Art 3

Yep, more art :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BSAuoOQtxc
Posted by nikolai on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:58:00 PST

Art 2

Here's one that I actually don't hate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QicxL39q0Qs
Posted by nikolai on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:45:00 PST

Art

I've been working on my artistic side lately, thought I'd post links to some of my work. I'm currently working with digital art, so I record the progress of my pieces so I can understand the pro...
Posted by nikolai on Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:56:00 PST

A (very) short discourse on Free Will

After many years ruminating over the concept of will and whether or not it is a so-called "free" one, I've concluded that the question itself is more pedantry than useful inquiry, especially due to th...
Posted by nikolai on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:26:00 PST

Innocence lost?

I watched an episode of Law and Order earlier today, as I often do to distract myself from the drudgery of academia, Despite the show's fictional subplots and penchant for melodrama, the cases t...
Posted by nikolai on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:28:00 PST

Abortion argument redux

I've seen this position many times from pro-life proponents, and while it is often their most potent argument, it is heavily flawed for assumptions that are very subtle, yet crucial to its misapplicat...
Posted by nikolai on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:47:00 PST

Meditations on Entertainment

During this past week's blitzkrieg of sporting events, made for tv movie miniseries, video game console launches,and thanksgiving thursday cinema releases (some, I might add, I have participated in to...
Posted by nikolai on Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:49:00 PST

A Polemic against a Death Penalty Proponent

More selections of various writings, this being a response to a proponent of capital punishment (many apologies for this is fraught with spelling and grammatical errors, I'd correct them but I'm simpl...
Posted by nikolai on Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:16:00 PST

Metarationality

Something I wrote up in an Atheist/Agnostic group, thought it was rather interesting... Rationalism, as a tool, is a methology for rhetoric, be it self-imposed for the sake of making a choice, ...
Posted by nikolai on Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:06:00 PST

Belief and Doubt

Another oldie-but-goodie: I felt this short treatise to be a necessary addition to the topics at hand, since a vast majority of them stand as failures in the face of modern philosophy, especial...
Posted by nikolai on Sun, 20 Aug 2006 09:48:00 PST