Who would imagine a few hours of swimming could wear you out so bad? I am so sore.

But the kids all had fun and that’s the important part. We’re ordering pizza and I hope (once the kids get in bed) we adults can play some games.

Well I was on the road most of yesterday and completely forgot about this. I cleaned the car out before I left listening to this very interesting podcast:

Dr. Kleinfeld has some great insight into controlling violence, but the one that stood out the most for me was to give monetary relief to the middle class and motivate them to improve their own society. Of course, this isn’t always true, but Dr. Kleinfeld makes a good case for when it could be applied.

Search for it in your podcasts.

I’m currently listening through the Inheritance Cycle books (aka -Eragon). The pace is generally fast and enjoyable. Worth an Audible credit if you have one you would like to use.

Today felt like a whirlwind. Work lasted an extra 40 min to make sure everything was lined up for me being off until Tuesday. Then I went to a kettlebell class with my wife. I had no idea what I was doing. I mistakenly grabbed two 10kg bells instead of 10lbs! That was fun…. but it was overall a good work out and went by faster than I expected.

Then I played Minecraft with the kids on the Xbox One (well one of them was on an iPhone). Now it’s a late bedtime and we’ll hit the road in the morning.

I’m currently listening through the Inheritance Cycle books (aka -Eragon). The pace is generally fast and enjoyable. Worth an Audible credit if you have one you would like to use.

Today felt like a whirlwind. Work lasted an extra 40 min to make sure everything was lined up for me being off until Tuesday. Then I went to a kettlebell class with my wife. I had no idea what I was doing. I mistakenly grabbed two 10kg bells instead of 10lbs! That was fun…. but it was overall a good work out and went by faster than I expected.

Then I played Minecraft with the kids on the Xbox One (well one of them was on an iPhone). Now it’s a late bedtime and we’ll hit the road in the morning.

For all the negativity I’ve had this week, my go to song has been “I Promise” by Kayden. It’s catchy but not really symmetrical. So I wouldn’t say that it’s artistically the best, but it’s catchy, upbeat, and I like the message.

Another artist I found is Griffin Oscar…. this guy’s voice is unique and perfect in this song. I hope to see him go far too.

Is it okay to post screenshots of album covers? No idea right now. I’m sure someone will say something if it isn’t, but this is a plug for them so hopefully not.

It seems like the time allotted to just be free is so little that it is hard to decide what to do. Work takes up so much of my time and then I get home and either prepare dinner or clean up messes that I can’t even claim responsibility for. Once that’s done, I might have 30 min or an hour to myself if I’m lucky. But what else kind of life is even an option for me at this point? And so we all just take it.

Well, besides that depressing rant…. I figured out what it was in Harman’s work that bothered me. I think he makes a case for considering objects the way he does, but it’s a language game more than a true ontology. An object for Harman is something distinct from other objects by not being the totality of their effects nor the pieces that make up the object.

But really what he is saying simply results in an object merely being recognized by its relationships to its own identity and to the identity of other objects.

In other news, my stomach has killed me most of the day and I don’t know why. Eating and not eating have the same result. I need to be getting ready for a Tennessee trip this weekend too, but it’ll have to wait.

I’m finishing up the first chapter of Harman’s OOO today, but I have to comment on his view of an object, especially in relation to his equivocation of objects and events.

To Harman, “an object is more than its pieces and less than its effects” (53, emphasis his). But what does this really tell us? To me, it means that any conglomeration of any group of things is an object. But each of those things is also an object. I’m assuming that calling this an event means that an object is in time as well as space.

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be any issue. However, an object seems to lose all sense of identity when viewed this way. I think my objects extend well beyond identity though. From a New Realist perspective, objects must exist somewhere. Harman combines the object with its space-time location. But consider the nature of reality – it contains everything within it. It eliminates effects – true, but it also makes all objects fall into Harman’s category of objects being less than their effects.

This does not mean that he is wrong, only that he isn’t telling us much in a positive sense. I think that he might fail due to his rejection of a physical basis of objects and the combination of an object with its information.

On another note, the book is quite enjoyable to read and his writing style is wonderful. For now, I’m off to sign some providers up for training and reconcile some Excel sheets.

I have a playlist that I rarely take away from and only occasionally add to. I call it Down. It’s twin is called Positive. The former was the list for the night with only a few showing above.

Tonight, I also added some Minecraft worlds for my daughter to play with and got frustrated that the Xbox One doesn’t exactly play nice with iOS add-ons so I had to buy a different set for her there in the end. I had one phone call, one FaceTime, and a few texts that said Happy Birthday.

But tomorrow, I won’t receive texts unless someone is telling me they are running late for work or they are out with a sick kid (or because they are without electricity from this weird ice storm that did nothing at my house but tore up areas within a 30 min drive). On the upside, I did have one of my wife’s friends say, “Hey, friend!” When I saw her Friday and it shocked me for a moment because I haven’t heard that phrase towards me in a while. She works with good people and that one has even come to a game night and slept over. It makes me wonder if a shift in jobs to people who are also near my age would make me feel better. Everyone I work with is older than me except for one. And I’m over almost all/responsible for all of them so I don’t interact much outside of my tasks. It sucks life from you.

I need to find some positive things to talk about on here. One day RC may find this and think man this guy’s life sucks! But really it’s not that bad – just mediocre, like everyone else.

ADHD medicine/weight loss medicine does not give me energy. The weight loss – yes, but it’s driving me insane with boredom. There’s a feeling of numbness that pervades everything. Nothing feels beautiful or fun, nothing tastes good. We are simply a bundle of chemicals and mass and we’d better not forget it. We are happy because of these chemicals and there’s nothing we can do about it. Evolution sucks sometimes.