Category: Random

There is a sharpener at the Office Supply area, located at the 3rd floor Circulation Desk.

IDK, but if it hadn’t happened there never would have been different lyrics to the melody of “God Save the Queen,” and you’d be eating fish and chips for tea rather than pizza for dinner. At any rate, you’re 245 years late; that alternative timeline is in the trash can (not the dustbin).

Me too! They were a birthday present from one of my helpers.

Your choice: a) I have a very small typewriter operated by preternaturally smart mice or b) my assistants use a template in Microsoft Word: bit.ly/print-postit

Sanders’s platorm aligns pretty closely with social democracies in many northern European countries, like Denmark & Sweden. Ask around among BC students with ties to those locales to see what they think. Here’s a brief summary of his positions on Politico: bit.ly/politico-sanders.

Do you mean the million dollar stairs? Some of my assistants have been nearly blown off their feet near the top, so I know what you mean. Prevailing wind direction, location of buildings, microclimates… these are all words that I hope make it sound like I know what I’m talking about… or maybe it’s just my Alzheimer’s flaring up.

There are so many different kinds of love, from romantic love to the love you share when laughing with friends. I have no doubt you hold an incredibly special place in so many people’s hearts.

Best Chinese lesson of all: 我 爱 你 wǒ ài nǐ (I love you)

❤️ to see so much ❤️

All bods are hot! Dad bods, wall bods, you name it!

Start by putting them on an information diet. The fewer details they have about what’s going on in your life, the fewer opportunities they will have to grill you for more info. Decide what topics are “safe” (won’t lead to nosiness) and stick to those when you talk to your roommates. If they’re that intent on violating your privacy, though, you may want to think about living somewhere else next year.

Don’t panic! I hope it isn’t already tomorrow. Start by writing down a list of what you’re pretty sure you know about the topic. Then write down questions you still have. Then craft a thesis that unifies most of those lists. Then re-arrange the lists into an outline: group ideas by how they’re related to the thesis you’ve created. Treat each group as a paragraph (some may be multiple paragraphs if more complex.) As you encounter questions, answer them as well as you can, but don’t get stuck on them. The key is to keep writing. Don’t get caught up in things that slow you down. Go! I believe in you!

Mike Bloomberg is 5’8″

Ontology studies the nature of being, theology studies the nature of God. Depending on your religious perspective there might be a lot of overlap there, but they are distinct. From several sources in one of my favorite databases, Oxford Reference Online: http://bit.ly/bc-ORO

Are they? The ones that come visit me every day look terrific!

No one wants to feel pressured to look a certain way, but it’s also hard to be immune to it in this day and age. What’s most important is that you’re taking steps to keep yourself healthy and happy, whether that means going to the gym every day or not. If you need some help, the staff at the Office for Health Promotion are a great resource and can work with you to build a plan to keep yourself in the best possible shape both physically and mentally bit.ly/BC-health-promo

I’m not sure what the acronym is, but change is inevitable with new experiences, and there’s nothing quite like going abroad to guarantee a new experience. Highly recommended.

Love is so complicated. How can one word mean so many different things? Affection, friendship, familial bond, universal love… if you’re asking whether it’s wrong to fall in love with someone who’s in love with someone else… no. Feelings can’t be said to be wrong. Morality is about actions, not feelings and beliefs. And it’s never wrong to share deep friendships among many people; that’s just called a group of close friends.

Ooh, tricky. Let me make some general suggestions and you can see if they’re the kind of thing you have in mind. PhilPapers is one of our databases that has a convenient organization: you can search for an author whose work you’re interested in, or browse through a list of philosophical topics. That way you can see which titles are interested in which kinds of questions. http://bit.ly/bc-philpapers. Your second option would be the smaller collection of philosophy titles at Browzine, which is set up a little better for giving you the latest issue of a particular title. http://bit.ly/bc-browzine-phil. Both of those are oriented around scholarly titles, so if you’re interested in more popular materials I have one more suggestion. Tell my helper Chris Strauber, who works with philosophy, what kinds of things you’re interested in and he can help you come up with a list that’s more like that. http://bit.ly/bc-browzine-phil

iPhone and Android both have features to help with this, but here are a couple of other things you could try. First, take a careful look at your notifications and think about exactly which apps you need second-by-second updates from. Most of them you probably could turn off, and it’s usually also possible to mute chatty but inessential group chats. Then check in on the stuff you care about when you want to, not when someone else wants you to. Second, take a look at the situations you’re in when you’re using your phone more than you want to. Are you trying to escape from something or avoid dealing with something? Try finding ways to address the underlying thing, because the phone is unlikely to be the only thing going on for you. And also, if you look at photos of people on trains from 50-100 years ago, almost everyone has a newspaper open. Fascination with rectangles that allow you to opt out of social interaction and learn stuff is not new, or necessarily a problem.