Lakoff take-off

Lame. How lame of me and my title.

I absolutely hate introductions. I read this one, though. And it bored me. Towards the last few pages of it, I sort of skimmed the words and flipped the pages to the awesomeness that was chapter one. I'm hardly exagerrating when I say that too! I really liked chapter one.

There was an abudance of information and evidence of applied science in this chapter. I find this reading a bit more believable than Ramage's because.... While there were points in chapter one where I kind of felt like the examples were stretched a bit-I at least understood what was going on. Anyway...a few things.

About news stories that took over peoples conversational lives.......
"Each of these stories, whatever it appears to be about, is really about how hard, yet how interesting, it is to be us, here and now." <--pg 18 GREAT! AWESOME! RIGHT ON! That's what all of this is, right? Why talk about anything? --that intrinsic need to know what's going on with ourSELVES ...we find satisfaction of that need in each other...and the stories we share.... when news stories don't die-it's not that these stories are changing our lives and that the news is so surprising and that we really care. I don't think we really care...it's more like... when we talk about whatever -bs- we talk about..it's kind of like... CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE WE'RE ALIVE RIGHT NOW?

Yah, anyway.. I thought I found Ramage's takes on identity interesting.... I enjoy Lakoff's explanations even more. The way it was presented...sort of reminded me of Buddhist philosophy. Great, I'm gonna drag Buddha into this one.. um. Lakoff points out that sometimes authors of "fictional" books will put themselves in the shoes of the main character...describing very real events, with only the mask of some other character...when in reality-this piece isn't incredibly fictional at all... Don't we do that in our daily lives? I mean, I remember who I was when I was six....I wore a hyper-color shirt...and stretch pants and had a missing front tooth. (That was probably in June of that year.) So...everything that has happened to me since then.. I am that as well. But..I don't really have proof-except pictures...but I just show you pictures that tell a story....and it's not happening anymore-but since I told you that it happened...you believe me. I suppose I can trust my memory? This reminds me of one of my favorite parts in the movie "Waking Life" ...when a woman is talking about her baby pictures-she says that she KNOWS its herself, but only because a story leads her to believe it. Hmph.

The Alice in Wonderland excerpt really helped me get a good grasp on the discussion of identity as well. (pg 38) Where do we draw the line between who we were and who we are now? How does it happen? What is going on!??

I'm going to back it up a little bit...to the discussion on apologies. I will admit, that I, unfortunately, have the awful habit of saying "I'm sorry" when it's completely unnecessary. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? So, after reading that part...I quit. I was listening to Fiona Apple a few hours after finishing my reading...and I was inspired by some of her lyrics that, I find, really compliment the reading. {Please, please, please No apologies At best, they buy you time Till you next step out of line} Lots of apologies are just combined words and phrases that sort of seem like they mean something-but actually hold no real weight. I think I know what that's like...and um, thanks Fiona for singing about it. And.. that's it, why do I always feel like I've said nothing once I'm done writing one of these blogs..

I'm really dizzy-there's something in the air of my apartment-I'm not lying. I'm nervous. Anyway, good chapter Lakoff- I'm looking forward to see what other exciting lessons I will learn from reading your book.