Bibliography tools & reading lists September 20, 2005
Posted by Phineas in : Info , add a commentI’ve been wanting a tool for managing lists of books and resources, like bibliographies. What I really want is to be able to just have on-line access to bibliographies found in books that I have read, or course reading lists (like MIT OCW), or any arbitrary list, like Books-I-Own, Books-I-Want-To-Buy, Books-I-Want-To-Read, Books-On-Some-Topic, Books-I-Lost-In-The-Hurricane, etc. That would then be an on-line resource for my self, something I could share. I’ve seen some things like it, and I will be keeping track of those tools, like:
- RedLightGreen (search for books, manage an MLA-style list)
- Amazon Wishlist/Listmania/Webservices
- Wikipedia Book source
But nothing is quite right. I know there are personal inventory applications out there, I might look at those.
But I think what I’d like is a tool that allows you to view a book on-line, click a tool in your browser toolbar, and capture that book’s data. Perhaps it captures the ISBN, looks up the detail from a webservice by ISBN, and saves the info into your list. Amazon’s wishlist and listmania are almost perfect, but you’re only searching that inventory, and it’s all organized for you to buy the book, so it’s meaningless if the list you want to create is Books-I-Own.
I might make my own application that does this, but Amazon and RedLightGreen come so close, I’d really like to find an existing tool if there is one.
Reading Notes September 19, 2005
Posted by Phineas in : Info , add a commentI’ve decided to compose for myself a syllabus in the History of Western Philosophy. It’s a little chaotic, but here’s the reading list. The text is Bertrand Russell’s The History of Western Philosophy.
I plan to pause after I wrap up Book One, and read The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan . I’ll try to dip onto primary source by Thucydides if I can.
Other primary sources, while my head is in Classical times:
Plato — The Republic, The Symposium, Parmenides, Apology, Crito and Phaedo.
For a taste of Stoicism:
Epictetus — The Golden Sayings of Epictetus (Harvard Classics)
Marcus Aurelius — The Meditations (Harvard Classics).
After that I’ll return to Russell’s History, and try to pause and read relevant primary sources as I go along.
If Only I had Time September 17, 2005
Posted by Phineas in : Info , add a commentOptical Illusions and Visual Phenomena
Posted by Phineas in : Irrelevant , add a commentMIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home
Posted by Phineas in : Info , add a commentBored?
news from home September 4, 2005
Posted by Phineas in : Poesiac , add a commentin stars and stripes news from home the bastard's dead from way over here it seems odd the news from home, the headline is something about you you hate the bastard now he's dead, good for you news from home your home is gone, wiped away like a frown in a hurricane it's your personal nine eleven your neighbor asks you want to say how do you think I feel? your nonna asks she visits in a dream, being long gone after all you have to say ok I'm OK. you add your name to the board listing OK names your town is gone, wiped away like a scowl mopped up by a sudsy froth around the world another town is wiped away all the men taken out and shot boys too in a town around the world where your nonna did not live but has the memory in her blood she remembers a future war she comes in the night to find you grieving when that town went down, where were you? soaking in a frothy tub feet up, sipping grappa melancholy relaxed quick to forgive yourself gasses fume and steam in mucky streets gassed and rank and sad that's not how he died, though that's just some TV news those people could be your people but they are so much darker
the first shower
Posted by Phineas in : Poesiac , add a commentthe first shower after days of it it feels like it will never be enough not enough water, too much water more soap please not hot enough the water you soaked in for days it has a film, it has teeth, it grips you and infects you this shower water lacks any strength it's far too congenial it will take a dozen more showers to feel clean you open your eyes and your arm is brown that's OK, that's normal, you think you close your eyes and the brown is a grey black green it crawls up your skin it drips down your skin the warm street water the stale humid street air you close your eyes and her dead face smirks her wet bloated face, laughing, forever laughing
