Dave Ljung Madison FAQ

D a v e F A Q
S e v e n - - B e l i e f s / T h o u g h t s

What do you believe in?
How do you spell nihilist?
What is most important?
What drives you?
What are your opinions in computing?
What does QED mean?
What do you eat?
Drugs?
Drink?
Smoke?
You sound like an opinionated bastard!


1:   What do you believe in?
Nothing, depending on your definition of "believe."
I'm somewhat of a relativistic nihilist

According to Wikipedia, nihilism is often associated with extreme pessimism
and a radical skepticism that condemns existence.  Let's examine.

extreme pessimism             Nope!
radical skepticism            Yup!
condemns existence            Nope!

They also link an 'impulse to destroy'...  where the hell does all that
bad attitude come from?  Why would you condemn existence if you don't have
any proof about it either way.  That's like condemning someone for a crime
that you have no information about.  That's Mr. Angry.  Just because I have
no proof doesn't mean I can't continue to happily ride the experience 
that seems to keep heading my way.

Anwyays, I am a nihilist about "belief" in the strictest sense, not about life.

2:   How do you spell nihilist?
nihilist

3:   What is most important?
Love, Truth, Freedom

4:   What drives you?
Creation   - Not in the religious sense, but in the sense of building and inventing.
Pleasure   - I believe we should find as much pleasure and joy as possible.
             I guess that makes me somewhat of a hedonist, if you like labels.
Simplicity - Those that are most beautiful are those that can no longer be reduced.
Truth      - I am driven by what is real and true - for example I can't stand
             makeup or non-functional mechanical stylings or denial, etc..
             It's ironic, when you think about it, that I am driven towards
             truth but as a nihilist I am convinced that I can't ever find it.

5:   What are your opinions in computing?
I am a firm believer in the following concepts:
NIH:   (any code that is)  Not Invented Here  (sucks rocks)
TRW:   (there is)          The Right Way      (to do things)

Because I hack and I like to break things and use things improperly, 
I prefer code to be stable and robust.  I am also a huge proponent of 
good interfaces, part of TRW that most people don't know about and 
never learn about.

Code should be consistent and orthogonal.  It should be clean and
modular.  It should have a well thought-out upward migration path
and should generally be backwards compatible if possible.

I also have the weird tendencies to try to compress my code to
as few lines as possible, which I think comes from using 1200 and
2400 baud modems to edit code in a single 80x24 terminal window.

I'm also one of the few people in the world who will document my
code even if I'm not required to.  I get a kick out of writing man pages.

Because of the above opinions, I like UNIX and Mac, and dislike Windows, QED.

6:   What does QED mean?
As one of my math teachers taught us, 'Quite Easily Done.'
I think it's really something latin - teachers lie all the time, don't they?

7:   What do you eat?
Pre-1997 or so I used to eat meat like there was no tomorrow.  Yum.

Around 1997 I turned veggie.  I was somewhat of an ovo-vegetarian with
vegan tendencies.  I didn't eat meat or dead animal products like gelatin.
I also avoided milk/dairy, though I've always avoided that because I'm
allergic.  And no, not just lactose-intolerant.

I've found quite a craving for eggs since turning veggie, and I'm okay
with eating them because I'm pro-choice.

I turned veggie for ethical reasons - see the Zoo for the main reason why.

I noticed that since becoming veggie, I was tired and hungry all the time.
I have a theory that some people thrive on veggie diets, and some don't (and
I've noticed it's mostly us scandinavian folk).

In 8/2001 I talked to one of my townies at Burning Man who had stopped being
veggie after over a decade because of this, and she feels better now.  Hrm.

I wasn't ready to start killing cows because I was hungry, so I started
eating fish.  And I noticed that while I used to despise fish, I now
craved it madly.  That's an indicator.  Fish tacos.  Yum.

In 6/2002 I found out exactly how much casein was destroying me, so I
went from a no-milk-but-occasional-cheating diet to absolutely no milk at all.

And that's where I am today.

I have a list of SF veggie restaurants.


8:   Drugs?
No thank you.

9:   Drink?
No thank you again.  I guess you could call me a straight edge - I used to be
all righteous about it but now I don't really care what others do, but I'm not
going to mess with my head like that.  That stuff is crazy.  But if others
want to do it, fine, long as they leave me out of it.

10:  Smoke?
Glad you brought it up.  I take back my statement above, I do care if other
people smoke.  That's just revolting.  If they just ate the tar, that would
be better, but people who smoke in public need to be beaten.

  

11:  You sound like an opinionated bastard!
That's right!
You can find out all about my beliefs/thoughts/opinions at DaveOpinion

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