Regina Spektor, Bob Dylan, U2, Bob Marley, Nirvana, Allison Krauss, Dave Matthews, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, The White Stripes, Johnny Cash, Gillian Welch, the Beatles, Brett Dennen, Warren Zevon, Immortal Technique, Joanna Newsome...
Movies
Beat Takeshi Movies, Judd Apatow Movies, M.Night Shymalan movies, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Smoke Signals, Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Station Agent, Rebel Without A Cause, The Last Samurai, Hayao Miyazaki movies, Akira Kurosawa Movies, No Country for Old Men, Open Range, Lilo and Stitch, The Lion King, To Kill A Mockingbird, Billy Elliot, Brokeback Mountain, The Office, Napoleon Dynamite, The Last Picture Show...
Television
Cowboy Bebop, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Democracy Now, The Science Channel, Comedy Central, Nova, the Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, Real Time with Bill Mahr, Family Guy, the Conan O'Brien Show, Saturday Night Live...
Books
East of Eden, The Old Man and the Sea, Carrie, Les Miserables, Secret Life of Bees, Kabuki, The Red Star, Vagabond, Black Elk Speaks, The Shipping News, Let Us Praise Famous Men, The River Runs Through It, Anna Karenina, Moby Dick, Of Mice and Men, A Girl Named Zippy, From The Dust Returned, The Solace of Leaving Early, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, The Genealogy of Morals, A People's History of the United States...
Heroes
Morihei Ueshiba, Jean Valjean, Atticus Finch, Anne Druyan, David Mack, Renzo Gracie, Anne Frank, S.N.J., Charles Shultz, Bruce Lee, James Agee, Charles Sanders Pierce, Nikola Tesla, Paul Morphy, William Sidis James, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, Niels Bohr...
quoc's Details
Status:
Single
Hometown:
the universe
Ethnicity:
Asian
Religion:
Atheist
Zodiac Sign:
Capricorn
Education:
In college
Occupation:
scholar/pogue
quoc's Schools
The University Of Texas At Arlington
Arlington, TX
Graduated: N/A
Degree: In Progress
Major: English
Minor: philosophy
Clubs: Fencing Club, Aikido Club, Vietnamese Student Association, Philosophy Club (of course, I don't have time for any of these clubs anymore)
2005 to Present
quoc's Companies
"flectere si nequeo superos, Achaeronta movebo" IQ
quoc feels good. And it's been a long time. Posted at 6:35 PM Oct 2 view more
About me: I am a bundle of superficial contingencies that preexist and predetermine me. "I" am an emergent effect out of a matrix of differentiation which makes it possible to be at all. To identify absolutely to any aspect is to identify with what could have been otherwise. Ontological completeness lies in the ability to identify with objects and subjects across time and space; though the concept is alephic.
So on the question of "About me"? I am inescapably and deeply a superficial collection of various parts I had no choice over and whatever choices I do make is bound to be reactionary.
If that's the case, then let it be.
Who I'd like to meet: Robert Pirsig, Prometheus, Sam Harris, Joseph Campbell, Conan O'Brian, Utada Hikaru, Joan Baez, Rimbaud, Robert W. Smith, Jackie Chan, Molly Shannon, Adam Sandler, Dave Lowry, Elaine Pagels, Norman Rockwell, Karen Armstrong, James Agee, Howard Zinn, Socrates, Jacques Derrida, Yeshua ibn Joseph, Wilson Pitts, Dr. John Painter, Bruce Kumar Frantzis...
Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery - the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets - is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.
Hope this day finds you well, and that it fills you with a sense of awe and wonder in the world. Have a wonderful weekend, dear Quoc.
For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart.There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel—looking, looking, breathlessly.
~ Carlos Castaneda The Teachings of Don Juan : A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
For you, an excerpt from Thich Nhat Hanh's book 'The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation"
Peace is Every Step
Peace is every step. The shining red sun is my heart Each flower smiles with me. How green, how fresh all that grows. How cool the wind blows. Peace is every step. It turns the endless path to joy.
Wishing you every bit of happiness! Thank you for your warmth and support!
"I'm reading the new book by the religious historian Karen Armstrong, The Case For God. An ex-catholic nun, then an ex-atheist (kind of), she's taking on both the fundamentalists and the New Atheists in this one. Have you read Armstrong?"
~quoc
Seen it but have not read it. Read Hans Küng when I was about your age. I'm not a vet but let me ask you this ole' question, please:
"There are no atheists in foxholes"
So, what do you think? Any truth in this? I don't know...
I was very touched by what you wrote, and just want to say that I understand how you feel, and know what you mean. But you are exactly who you should be, and have kindly arrived where you find yourself. And your life journey will be amazing, because, you dear friend, will make it so. And along the way there will be envious trolls and dragons, and societal obstacles to overcome with ideologies of shoulds and oughts, and silly opinions that could cause one to doubt oneself--all part of the hero's journey. The fiasco you mentioned had a domino effect that has finished playing itself out, and impacted many people on myspace. In short, the smallness rested with that individual and not you. I have several of Armstrong's books, but not the two you mentioned--I look forward to reading, A Case for God. The PBS video, The History of God is excellent. I appreciate the way she gently probes and walks her viewers and readers through her perspective on things. Thank you for sharing her book titles with me. Lastly--I like you the way you are. Yes, all of us can learn to be better listeners and more compassionate, but at the core we are how nature designs us, and the way we describe, write, quote, and speak about our thoughts and experiences in the context of language is what makes each one of us unique.
Thought of you when I read the excerpt below...Words of advice: Stay away from those people in myspace that would devour you out of feelings of envy and some smallness within their own being that is based on vanity and hubris.
PS. I don't want to trip up on the word God below--but, Mandela is using the word in a spiritual sense. Much in the same vein Campbell did when concluding his work/understanding in mythological studies.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~Nelson Mandela Speech
I just saw the Seventh Seal today, John, and it was great.
Thank you. It is the often considered "The best" for philosophy films. IMHO, next would come Youth without Youth by Coppola staring Tim Roth followed by Monty Python The Meaning of Life. One can't go wrong with Python. If you want to try something off the wall but wonderfully acted --The Boys from Brazil by Franklin J. Schaffner with Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. The issues of cloning gone mad.
I saw a connection between myself and the main character, the crusader, Antonius; and I must say you are not like the character Death, as I first supposed, but more like that insightful, rational, too intelligent for his times, Squire Jon. Oh yeah, and his name is similar to your's, too.
Hi Quoc...just sent you a message, and neglected to send you this link about Dr. Young. I think you might find some of his thoughts in collaboration with Campbell interesting.
I've had many successes with the Sicilian defense, particularly the Najdorf variation (which I half-ass, so it's more like the Naj variation). Still an 1100 player, but when you start at 18, unless you're Steinitz, you really don't have a lot of hope of becoming great. It's a nice distraction, not something you ought to devote your life to, of course, there are people who feel that way about literature ;-) (the bastards).
