Kat

It's a new year and I have stepped up as leader for the group, temporarily named Ayn Rand Rational Philosophy of Objectivism Meetup Group - Chicago Here is the proposed outline for 2006 discussions of Return of the Primitive. I am considering adding other books to the mix depending on the group's interests. We could do a new book every couple of months, stick with Luke's program of Return of the Primitive in 2006, or do both. Here is my suggested outline: All months - Discuss Rand's fictional works and how they relate to the ideas presented in the non-fiction works being discussed. Recommended Reading: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Anthem. They are available at www.objectivistbooks.com January - Return of the Primitive February - Return of the Primitive March - Philosophy Who Needs It? April - Philosophy Who Needs It? May - Capitalism The Unknown Ideal June - Capitalism The Unknown Ideal July - For the New Intellectual August - For the New Intellectual September - The Virtue of Selfishness October - The Virtue of Selfishness November - Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology December - Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology I would expect the ITOE discussion to continue into 2007. I am looking forward to a very exciting year for our group. If anyone has ideas for the discussions, please let me know. Kat

Love it! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL Kat

Here is the latest information on the Chicago/Evanston Group. We will be having pizza and discussing Return of the Primitive. See the Meetup site for more details.

Michael, Once again I am absolutely charmed. The storytelling, emotional power and literary style make me so proud of you and happy to be your little muse. You have a rare gift, sweetheart, and I know you will soon find commercial success with your writing. It is powerfully moving and improving all the time. I hope your writer's block becomes a thing of the past. It's amazing to watch all this unfold. You heard a piece of music that you weren't expecting to like, we talked and you shared your reflections of how the music took you back, you sang to me, and a few hours later you posted this magnificent article. It is like watching a great painting come to life. But it's so much more. It is you, in touch with yourself and sharing some universal values. You express yourself wonderfully. Yes..... I gush. Profusely. I'm your number one fan. purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I love you, Kitten

Wow, Roger, that certainly does sound like a night to remember. I wish we could join you. Be sure to tell us all about it. Kat

Welcome Col. Hogan. It's nice to meet you. We're glad you joined us here at Objectivist Living. I hope you like it here. Please make yourself at home. You may want to visit the Writing Techniques Workshop where Michael is talking about plots. Since you are a writer, you may find it very helpful. We hope you will share some of your writing projects with us here. We have both a creative writing section for fiction, poetry and songs and an articles thread for non-fiction, personal stories and commentary. And there are also the Objectivist philosophy sections as well as Chewing on Ideas for things philosophical but not necessarily Objectivist thought. Are you a colonel in real life? I gave Michael the nickname, Colonel, but that character seldom is seen anymore. I kinda miss my colonel and that sweet Southern charm... and those almost indecipherable posts. If you want to read about the Colonel and his Kitten, see The Virtue of Silliness in the articles section. Again, welcome aboard, Col. Hogan. We are glad to have you here. Kat

Tthe picture on the stamp is what I imagine Dagny to look like more than a picture of Ayn Rand herself. Kat

I think the words he or man are pretty neuter terms so even as a female, I'm not offended. What I don't like is the going back and forth for the sake of political correctness. That is insulting to me as a female. I don't wish to be pandered to. Take the rescue plot for example... I'm more comfortable seeing the protagonist as a he, victim as a she, and antagonist as a he. If you reverse the order to have the protagonist as a she, victim as a he and the antagonist as a she, then it just seems so unnatural, backwards and so contrived and it gets in the way. It is this type of hypersensitivity to gender issues that bothers me. I have always seen he and man as perfectly acceptable terms to describe either or both genders in a generic sense... Man can be commonly used as shorthand for human without offending this particular female. Kat

Okay, I suddenly got a bunch of new members in my club, four in about a week. Now I have stage fright. I am pretty low key and not exactly comfortable with public speaking and leading a discussion. Like many people, I'd prefer being a member over being the leader, but I'll have to get over that somehow. I was planning to follow Luke's program for book discussion as a guide, but I really don't want to talk about Return of the Primitive chapter by chapter for a whole year. I'd prefer to pull from several sources not just one book a year. I need some structure and some type of guide. Does Atlas come in a teacher's edition? 8-[ I am not looking to be a teacher or a guru and I am learning as I go and would prefer to talk about the book Philosophy Who Needs It and Atlas Shrugged. I am giving away PWNI to newcomers. I bought a bunch of copies cheap so I'm giving them away like churches are giving out bibles. Anyway, I am open to hearing about ways of making the discussion flow, discussion questions and some conversation starters. I'm listening. Kat

Here is the link and a peek inside of 20 Master Plots, which Michael is discussing over in the Writing forum. Kat

The portrait by Ilona is a nice little sketch but I have never considered it to be much more than that. It kind of reminds me of a Breck girl. I do however, like the stylized simplicity of it. I never realized it was an oil painting. As a drawing, it's fine, but as an oil painting it's rather disappointing. It lacks a certain richness. It is not a very strong rendering and barely resembles her.... although she is having a good hair day, which I'm sure made her very happy. I actually think she looks far more attractive in the photo by the window (just don't look at those arms :roll: ) I also really like the illustration of her used on the postage stamp instead of this one. Did Nick Gaetano make it without a reference photo? I know it is more of a stylized illustration rather than a portrait, but it captures both the intellegence in her eyes and a bit of glamour as well.

Unfortuately, I won't be able to go to the debate, but I would love to hear about it. Does anyone know about Dan Slater or his positions? And why does ARI get involved in all this foreign affairs business anyway -- when they could and should be focusing their energy and resources on Objectivist philosophy and individualism rather than promoting war? I realize that ARI distances themselves from Libertarians, but in real life many Objectivistists are Libertarians, so I'd rather see bridges built than subdivide the subdivided. I personally think ARI is not at all objective on foreign policy and this reeks of tribalistic thinking. They are putting foreign interests before American interests, and also ahead of individualism, capitalism or rational thinking. Ayn Rand was a radical for Capitalism, economics is the core emphasis of her political philosophy, not Middle East politics. Objectivism is an integrated philosophy, not just political, but you wouldn't know it from the media appearances and lectures coming out of ARI. They have taken the objectivity out of Objectivism and it comes from the top of their organization. Their pro-Israel bias makes them hard to take too seriously on political matters. This political posturing hurts Objectivism as a movement, at least in my view. Kat

Why of course two people getting together on a regular basis to talk about a topic is a club, especially if they are individualists like Objectivists. Every organization needs a name, I suggest Objectivist Living, Hawaiian Chapter. Good Luck, Kat

Hi Stuart, Aloha and welcome to Objectivist Living. We're happy to have you here. Make yourself at home and enjoy yourself. Kat

It was said somewhere recently that the Objectivist market has become saturated. I disagree. [-( As long as there are still independent thinkers and doers in this world there will be Objectivists. They just may not know it yet and they probably have not put a label on their way of thinking. I am one of those people who had a nameless philosophy for years that looks very much like Objectivism, but thought it was all me and my original way of thinking and looking at the world, until I discovered Rand, of course. Dayaaammm! Anyway, it is good to know that others share this worldview, and I am happy to have found many good friends and the love of my life by becoming involved with the movement. I believe in open-door Objectivism, I don't want to be a clone of a fictional character, a philosopher, or meet with the approval of Ayn Rand's ghost. No one can tell me how to practice my personal philosophy and I won't tell them how to live their life. I am me. I live for me. I share my philosophy selectively and spread my enthusiasm for it. Saturation is not so much the issue. There is a huge untapped market. The site is growing and my local club is growing too (three new members this week). Participation and involvement is lacking. I hope that changes and that memberships mean more than just names on a list. I am making a lot of changes in my local club such as giving away books, better meeting time and place and a more structured discussion topic. I am open to other ideas too as far as what works as far as outreach. Share your thoughts. Kat

I just wanted to say hi to the new members and extend a special welcome to the new gals around here, Summer from the other O'ist forums; Lydia, Jody's beautiful new wife; and Laura, who I believe is Ciro's daughter. I hope you all enjoy Objectivist Living and make yourselves at home. We're glad you are here. Kat

Thatsa more like it! Remember, keep the instructions easy and clear. This will help you when it is time to put together that cookbook and the recipe cards that you will package with the video that you sell on your late night infomercials. Thanks Ciro. purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Kat btw - what happened to the wine? Did you get thirsty?

Ciro, I'm a little confused :roll: I'm not familiar with deglazing and it sounds like you cook the chicken, remove it, waste some wine, and dump a quart of milk in the pan... I thought there was some cheese and other stuff in the sauce. Let's start out with one box of fettucine noodles and 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts and go from there. What type of cream are you using, half and half or whipping cream? How does the sauce get thick? Kat

The Ayn Rand Institute announces a free live event in Chicago. Debate on Foreign Policy: Dr. Yaron Brook vs. Dan Slater Monday, January 16, 2006 at 7:30 PM. University of Chicago; Chicago, Illinois. Location: Kent 107. For a map and directions, click the following link: http://maps.uchicago.edu/

I love you Michael. Kat

Ciro, do you have a recipe for a nice Alfredo sauce or maybe Chicken Alfredo or a pizza. I used to get a great pizza in my old neighborhood. It was a Chicken, broccoli and bacon alfredo pizza. Yum! Kat

Thanks, Paul, for sharing your story with us. It is a wonderful and touching story. Kat

Hey John, Thanks for the happy wishes and smiles on Silliness. When I read it again, it made me smile too. I'm so glad Mike and I hit it off after we met. It would have been a little awkward if we didn't. The article sure brought back a lot of memories. Remember the strike? Dayaaamm! And we are still having a blast! Michael really makes me feel special and I don't know how I ever lived a day without him in my life. I don't think I can ever stop purring. purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Kat best pick-up line evar... “Toothbrush in the jaw toothbrush brush brush tooth jaw foam dome in the foam Roman dome come home home in the jaw Rome dome tooth toothbrush toothpick pickpocket socket rocket”

There is another option with Amazon, but I don't know if it applies to overseas orders. They have a partnership with Borders Books where you can pick up a book at a local Borders store. If you are in Europe you probably need to shop locally in order to get decent prices and not have excessive shipping costs. Also many times a local book store will be able to special order a book for you if you give the ISBN number. LFB shows the IBSN number on their entries right by the price. I have had better luck with LFB as far as service. The overseas shipping thing is expensive but they do give a 10% discount for international orders over $200. They also have free shipping in US for orders of $100 or more as well as volume discounts. Kat Objectivist Living Bookstore

Hi Landon, I'm glad you finally made it in. Sorry you were having technical problems. Objectivist Living is a place to develop projects and chew on ideas in a supportive environment and we hope see many projects out in the marketplace over time. If you would like to share your comic book / graphic novel project with the group please feel free to start a new thread for Frontier War up in Creative Writing or maybe Inky's room if it is for a younger audience. Just be sure it's nothing too racy... this is a family site. I have posted instructions on how to put images in your posts in the Tech Support area. I hope Amy feels welcome here too. Unlike some Objectivists, we don't deny the existence of mental illness or trash psychology as a whole. Saying something doesn't exist doesn't make it go away. If that were so, I'd never get depressed and my son would not have an autistic disorder and no one would ever become addicted to anything. Anyway, six years is a long time to be engaged. Time to make an honest woman out of her. Do you two have wedding plans yet? Get your ass married already!! :D/ Wishing the best to you and Amy for the New Year, Kat