Results matching “dostoevsky” from Ye Olde Rad Blog III

My buddy eDawg just built himself a new beast. Here's a copy-n-paste from the invoice (totaling $1325 + tax). He's using dual flat-panel monitors imported from a previous system. See here:

• Case Antec | Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Retail » $100
• PSU Corsair | CMPSU-750TX 750W SLI + CrossFire Ready Retail » $110
• Motherboard ASUS | P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 X58 Intel Chipset Retail » $290
• CPU Intel | Core i7 920 Bloomfield 2.66G 45N Quad-Core - Retail » $290
• 2 x Memory | Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 PC3 - Retail » $320
• VGA XFX | Radeon HD 4870 1G 256-bit GDDR5 HD-487A-ZWFC PCI Express 2.0 x16 Retail » $145
• Hard Drive 250G | Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200-RPM 8MB Cache SATA2 - OEM » $45
• DVD Burner Lite-On | Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW SATA - OEM » $25
• Windows 7

This system has 12 gigs of memory (2 x 6-gig sticks). That's downright decadent. I think he could arrested for having so much memory (without a permit). We hate you, eDawg. Actually, that motherboard can handle (up to) 24 gigs .. in triple-channel mode.

I said, "Dang, you probably oughta call your local power company and let them know whenever you're fixin' to start that beast .. so they can tweak bus frequency up to 62-cycles, so you don't bring down the whole western grid."

I asked why he didn't opt for a giant 2-TB drive for storage, or a 10K-rpm Raptor to run his system & programs .. or better yet » a solid state drive (drool).

I remember back when we ordered and built his very first custom system. That wasn't long after eDawg's dad married my friend » Maria. We all lived in this big 5-level Euro-style mansion that eDawg's dad built (which later sold for several $mil) cut into the hillside high above Laguna .. with a killer 180-degree view of the Pacific. Ah, the good ol' days .. sitting out on the deck and watching the sun go down.

Enrolled in Amazon's Affiliate program, something I probably shoulda done years ago. They claim it takes ~3 days to process an application, but I received my acceptance letter today. (Applied late last night.)

Being a n00b, I don't know much about their program yet, except that they pay a percentage whenever a visitor clicks a link on my site and makes a corresponding purchase. (How big of a percentage I'm not sure.)

I've long included links to books at the Amazon site [ in pages such as this one » Best Books for Learning the Basics of Web Site Design (XHTML & CSS), and this one » Andy Budd's Book: CSS Mastery ] without ever taking advantage of their program.

If I start making considerable cash, I'll be bummed that I didn't enroll sooner. And if I don't (earn cash), I'll be bummed too, for wasting my time with this program. So either way .. which might be why I hesitated so long.

What I like best about the Amazon program is that it allows me to monetize the site without including visible ads (.. unlike Google's AdSense program). All I need to do is add the following code to the end of each Amazon link » ?ie=UTF8&tag=radifiedcom-20. So it's virtually invisible to visitors. If I didn't tell you, you might never know.

I also like that it doesn't cost visitors anything extra when purchasing a book via a link from this site.

After establishing an 'Associate' account (and logging in to the Amazon site), a toolbar magically appears at the top of the browser window whenever I visit Amazon.com.

The Associate toolbar allows me to create targeted links to the particular book/page I'm at/on .. with a single click. Couldn't be easier. I simply paste the auto-generated code into my web page.

Started reading Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground today. Somebody wrote (in pencil) on the top of the title page (library book, I have the Pevear/Larissa translation) » Extreme feelings of the underground man: anguish, caring, inadequateness .. all of which I can easily relate to.

So, even before the first page, I became intrigued. I actually *like* books that are marked up .. to see what others have found interesting. And this one is well-marked.

Wikipedia says it's, "considered by many to be the world's first existentialist novel." Plus its main character is a writer whose entries resembles a blog. Another source claims this is the book that made Dostoevsky Dostoevsky.

The book (1864) opens with the very first sentence connected to the second by an ellipsis. I've long-used a shortened version of this technique to connect many of my own sentences. (The two-dot ellipsis.) Never saw anybody else do it, either. Just created it myself. (Which is why you won't find anybody else doing it.)

Three dots seemed too many. I tried using a semi-colon, but it felt .. awkward. (Necessity is the mother.) Maybe some day they'll give my two-dot ellipsis a name .. such as » the radicon (Radified pausing connector), as a grammatical technique to connect two thoughts with a brief, thoughtful pause.

For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from Underground book 

You know you're in a bad place when you feel like reading Dostoyevsky .. as a way of commiserating with someone who can relate.

He was screwed over pretty badly. Critics claim it was these experiences that enabled him to write with such penetrating insight.

"The writer's own troubled life enabled him to portray with deep sympathy characters who are emotionally and spiritually downtrodden, and who epitomize the traditional Christian conflict between body and spirit.

Dostoyevsky sought to plumb the depths of the psyche, in order to reveal the full range of the human experience, from the basest desires to the most elevated spiritual yearnings.

Above all, he illustrated the universal human struggle to understand both God and self. Dostoyevsky was, as Katherine Mansfield wrote, a man who loved, in spite of everything, adored life, even while he knew the dank, dark places."

I've known a few dank, dark places myself. (Haven't we all?)

"Who loved in spite of..." That's not easy to do.

Even those who don't like Dostoevsky concede ungrudingly he is "a titan of world literature."

Critics seem to agree The Brothers Karamazov is one of the greatest novels ever written. Some even claim it is the single greatest novel -- ever. (That statement raised my eyebrows.)

• Einstein said, "Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist."
• Freud called it, "The most magnificent novel ever written."

Met a girl at the coffee shop this weekend, who said (after noticing my neck was stiff), "I want to give you an adjustment," .. which told me she did some type of bodywork.

Didn't have my reading glasses handy, so I slipped her card into my pocket and said I'd call to schedule an appointment.

Yesterday, when I saw the word Chiropractor, I got nervous, cuz previous therapy sessions have been painful. So the idea of someone torquing my neck seemed less than appealing.

On the phone, she assured me no pain would be involved, while emphasizing she was "excellent" at what she did.

"I'm an artist," she said, raising my eyebrows .. cuz you have to be good to even use the word. (Art comes only after one first masters the technology.)

I find confidence appealing, cuz it usually portends competence. Tho still hesitant, I went anyway. (This morning.)

Well, she *is* very good. (Definitely has the magic.) Indeed, no pain was involved, despite her jumping up and down on my neck .. (and kicking me in the head a few times).