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So I've been so busy at work and school lately. As some of you know I wrote 2 books while in Japan and have completed a few short stories. I've been too busy to clean them up for publication, but I really really need to. Now that I have some free time because my 20 and 10 page papers are turned in, I hope to get some me writing done.
Right now I'm in a creative mood and am going through a creative spurt. I'm kicking around two story ideas. The first is a story of a world with four overlapping realities that share the same landscape but are on different planes so they never interact. There is an eternal race that distributes the energies of the world that accidentally introduces the groups to each other sparking a four way civil war, the eternal race charges itself with keeping the peace between the different realities. The eternal race will have special abilities akin to magic, but not strictly speaking magic. The energies of the world are more akin to a elan vital than a mystical force/magic energies. Similarly, there will be rules to the elan vital that also govern the eternal race. I view the elan vital as a character of the story with its own quirks and whims. The story centers around that the eternal race is suddenly dying. I have thought this story out a lot more, but don't feel like giving away every detail now.
The second idea just kind of came to me a few days ago. It's called "The Seventh Song" Essentually the Singer of Songs, god, goes to the edge of the writhing Chaos. Into the tempest he sings the Seven Songs of Creation, separating the world as it is. Into the hands of the Seven Great Kingdoms of Man the Singer gives a copy of each song and explains that if all seven songs are sang again the world would be undone. God then vanishes from the world leaving humanity to its destiny. The book would essentially be seven vaguely connected stories of how the songs came to be sung. I'm not sure if the world is destroyed in the end but I'm playing with some ideas as each song is sung the world is drastically altered as more and more of it is no longer delineated from the original chaos. This will also serve as the "magic" of the world. As the world begins to collapse back into itself people begin to manifest in such a way that there essence predates the song being sung. So I'm thinking the hero in one of the stores can teleport over short distances because the song that separated "Presence from Nonpresence" has already been sung allowing him to violate normal laws of space. I have no idea what the separations will be or why people would want to sing the sangs to destroy the world. That's on the to do list :P
Any thoughts? |
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As I was driving to school today I was turning onto 77 when suddenly the back end of my truck went swinging widly around. I ended up doing about a 280 degree spin and facing down the on ramp. Now there are certain times that I entertain the idea that I am "a bit of a badass", but then things like this happen. As I was spinning around thinking that death was imminant I either yelled, "Yikes!" or "Oh dear!" I can't remember which. I would think that if I was going out in a car crash, I'd be yelling all kinds of profanities, but no, I went with the rated G profanity. Dork.
Anyway, the truck spun out and I was facing down the on ramp. I put on the four-way flashers, get out of the car and did a quick inspection, and see nothing apparently wrong. So I drove across the street to the Marathon station and called Dad. He gave me some pointers on what to look for, I did another inspection and nothing seemed too wrong. So I started to drive away and just turning back onto the road I could feel the truck shuttering and not gripping properly in the turn. Back to Marathon and on the phone with Dad. We decided he'd come get me. Turns out my tire mysteriously deflated. We put on the spare and drove home. $70 later I have a new tire to replace the magically deflating one. I missed school making it my first philosophy course absence ruining my perfect attendance.
I was pretty shaken up and am really really tired of the bottomless money pit that is my truck. |
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A frequent attack employed against both Candidate and President Obama is one of questioning his existence. By this I mean there is a concerted effort to undermine belief in his true/real nature. We have seen several fronts in this ongoing offensive such as, “is he a secret socialist/communist?” devolving into “is he a secret terrorist (or person who palls around with terrorist/terrorist sympathizer)?” and, in many ways most shocking, “is he even an American?” These questions, by their very phrasing and nature, suggest that he has cloaked himself in a certain level of illegitimacy: that Obama is not presenting himself in an authentic manner. By questioning his “true nature” attackers are cutting to a basic notion of his existence - who is he, really?
This constant attack on his basic existence as a capitalistic, non-terrorist, or American slowly builds layer upon layer a narrative of illegitimacy. Eventually, the questions create a critical mass convincing the person that is inclined to believe such things that Obama is not legitimate. People begin to believe that he isn’t an American, or is in some way in violation of the Constitution or Oath of Office (perhaps even giving aid and comfort to our terrorist foes) - in effect, that he does not exist “as President”. Even if one is not a birther outright, by surrounding oneself with a culture that questions the most basic of Obama’s existence as the legitimate President, a person can come to believe that legitimate questions exist. It is human nature to believe that the environment that one finds oneself in is the “normal”. This is true of Congressman as well. If even a loud enough percentage of one’s supporters/voters hold a certain belief, it is at minimum advantageous to agree to some degree (for reelection purposes), but more than likely a subtle form of peer pressure can create an atmosphere whereby one believes at least to some degree that these questions of Obama’s legitimacy are some form of “common wisdom”.
Once this level of distrust is established, is there any wonder what could motivate someone to heckle the President directly? -- Now here I must make an aside. I like the British model. I think every once and a while the leader needs to stand in front of a group of angry people and get what’s coming. For the very same reasons why I believe Rep. Joe Wilson could come to have doubts about Obama’s legitimacy as part of Wilson’s basic background facts, so too can a President surround himself with (for lack of a better term) Yes-men. See the sad case of President George W. Bush for an example. Also note that he was booed during the ‘05 State of the Union, and that was a good thing. I think it is okay to boo a President while they give an address (be they Dem or Rep or Green or Libertarian!). But calling a President “a liar” (which is logically equivalent of saying “You lie”) is a difference in kind. Booing is a form of disapproval, it is rude, rowdy, and disrespectful and I wish that there was a better way to go about doing it, but it is what our representatives have at their disposal. One step down in rudeness would be not standing during a standing ovation line. That is also rude and a little rowdy and defiant, but few would say that everyone must stand for those standing ovation moments in order to preserve the dignity of the Presidency. I think a little bit of booing is along similar lines. Leaders need to hear, from time to time, that you do not agree with them. But where not standing is a step down in rudeness, outright calling the President a liar on the floor of the Congress is a big step up. Booing is a statement of disagreement with ideas (as I interpret the action), calling someone a liar is a qualifier about the person him/herself. It is not about the ideas as booing or not standing is a statement about ideas. Yelling “you lie” is a statement about the person speaking. It skirts the line of the ad hominum attack. That, I feel, is wrong. Modest booing is okay, but outright abusive yelling is wrong. With that established, I go now back to the point at hand. – I believe people like Wilson can justify their actions because they do not wholly believe Obama exists as president. I take many on their word that they really do believe that the President (regardless of your and his political ideology) is deserving of respect. Yet, if you believe there are questions of the legitimacy of Obama as president, then it becomes easy to attack him because you are, in your mind, no longer attacking the real President.
By my thinking, Wilson’s outburst is not a byproduct of racism or the hot button issues of healthcare and/or immigration or the usual pop psychology rationales. I feel it is instead the natural consequence of a concerted effort to undermine Obama’s credibility of the legitimate President of the United States. By painting Obama as overwhelmingly “other” he has become other. By making a concerted effort to undermine Obama’s legitimacy he has, in those same minds, become illegitimate. The seeds of attack are being sown in unexpected ways. Rather than weakening Obama’s support, Republicans are weakening their own ability to view Obama with the respect that I honestly believe they feel the Presidency is owed. Though Wilson has apologized and (depending on sources) seems genuinely embarrassed by his actions, I somehow doubt that he would have been quite so willing to cross the line that he did had there not been a year and a half of nonsense surrounding the President’s authenticity as a supporter of American and our values. It is easy to scream at a communistic, terrorist loving, Kenyan – significantly easier than the legitimately elected President of the United States of America. |
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I love Stephan Fry and the always fantastic Hugh Laurie. I'm currently going through their BBC series "A Bit of Fry & Laurie" and this has to be one of my favorite sketches. It really captures a bit of the American mindset. The line that really sticks out to me is, "We don't care who's ass we kick; if we're ever all alone, we just stand in front of the mirror, and try and kick our own!" Which pretty much sums up what I see the Blue Dog and Republicans doing when it comes to healthcare reform.
Enjoy this classic "A" "Bit" "of" "Fry" "&" "Laurie"
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Dear Jupiter,
I saw you got hit by a big chunk of space something or other in July. Bummer man. It never is nice to get hit, particularly when it leaves a big black mark about the diameter of Earth. You do have planet insurance, right? Well, anyway, I guess the whole getting hit by a comet is why I'm writing. I just wanted to say thanks.
Thanks for always being out there getting clocked by space junk. We're such a little tiny planet, and you are so big. Your electromagnetic field is the largest structure in the solar system and if you were just a little more massive you'd start to glow. You're so awesome like that. That's what makes you so damn cool, you are just out there, doing your thing - being all big. With that size comes a huge gravity well that just sucks up all that space junk. From one tiny fragile planet to a great big one, thank you so much for that. Without you who knows how many meteors and comets would have struck Earth by now -- would have reset evolution or ended the whole humanity thing Earth's got going right now. But you were always out there sucking up that junk, letting it hit you instead of us, never complaining or bemoaning your fate. You're a good biggest planet in the solar system.
We don't always appreciate you for you, we like your moons because a few of them might have life. So that's all we talk about. It's all, "Oh Europa or Callisto might have a sea!" and "Isn't Io hellish, we'd sure die quick there!" That's just our biocentrism talking. You know how life forms are, always thinking about life forms and life form stuff. But if we really give pause and stop thinking about our life related crap, we gotta admit, you're the man Jupiter. I'm glad you're the biggest planet in the solar system and not that punk Neptune. (Neptune what's his deal?) We love you J-Dawg. Keep up the great work.
Sincerely,
-Andrew (Earth inhabitant) |
| » Why stand up when we can just compromise harder? |
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A fantastic open letter to President Obama from (of all people) Larry Flint. The language is a bit course, but these are course times requiring lines in the sand.
( Why stand up when we can just compromise harder? )
I'd add Don't Ask Don't Tell to the list of Mr. Flynt's. It is time that liberals start making some noise in this country. Obama's liberal campaign talk has not been backed up by liberal deeds. This is unacceptable. So long as liberals simply vote for democrats that don't serve our interests our interests will never be served. The Dems have a super majority, come out of one of the strongest mandates in recent history, and overwhelming support (which is slipping due to inaction). The rationale for needing to vote for crappy Dems due to Republican boogiemen seems hollower day-by-day. I often say we need less Clinton and more FDR out of Obama. I fear that comparison is growing inaccurate. As more and more campaign promises go unaddressed, I am beginning to fear we actually need less Hoover.
Jul. 31st, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
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| » Rifftrax Live! |
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Ohhhh hell yeah! On August 20th a live Rifftrax event is taking place and being beamed to theaters to watch live riffing from the makers of MST3K. AND (unlike when the MST3K movie came out) theaters very close to me are participating. Which means I will be laughing myself horse on August 20th. I am happier than Happy McHappyton the five time incumbent mayor of Happy Town.
Who's coming with me?
Jul. 28th, 2009 @ 09:56 pm
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| » On Sojourner, Going to the Moon, Transformers II & Ebert |
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On July 20th 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar lander touched down on our closest celestial neighbor. Many of the TV channels I like to watch (mostly Discovery, Science, and History Channels) are having tributes to this monumental human accomplishment. What strikes me now is not so much the actual lunar decent and walk, but the reaction of people to the moon landing. I cannot help but wonder, where has all that wonder gone? Watching the coverage of the coverage, I am struck by how awed and inspired not just America, but the entire globe, was by those iconic moments. Most people can recall where they were when they saw Neil Armstrong hop down the ladder. But can they say the same about when Sojourner rolled off of the platform onto Martian soul almost exactly 28 years later? I'm guessing not.
I was standing in the middle bedroom of Grandfather's house in New York when Sojourner first beamed back images of the red planet. I don't know what it must have felt like to watch a man walk on the moon, but I can tell you that I found the idea that we had tentatively touched the surface of Mars to be both inspiring and humbling. Yet, why is it that there was not the same outpouring of emotion at that little rover's accomplishments as Neil Armstrong's? In many ways, navigating even an unmanned vehicle to Mars was a more difficult task than getting three people to the moon. Even more so when Cassini dropped the Huygens probe into the thick atmosphere of Titan. I was at home sitting where I am now, desperately hitting refresh on my browser when the images of a murky methane world in the shadow of Saturn began streaming in. So where was the jubilation from the world?
I'm not sure. Perhaps these events that shine so brightly in my mind as our great work accomplished are simply missing that human element. Perhaps if I were to live long enough to see a man touch foot on Mars I would understand, and all this silly nonsense and sentimentality I feel for mere probes would be wooshed away, and our globe would weep as one; bound together by the monumental accomplishments of our species. Or perhaps the amazing things that science does on a daily basis have become so ingrained within our modern thinking that it really isn't amazing anymore that we have sent our little servants and probes out beyond Earth to measure the unknown. Like indoor plumbing, there just isn't a whole lot left to be excited about. I hope this is not the case. I hope we always retain the childlike awe we feel towards mechanical things and the accomplishments of the imagination over reality. Since college when I was exposed to real physics, I have always tried to view the world as a three year old that understands differential equations. When we loose that sense of the epic and scope of beauty that we have struggled so hard to build, I fear we loose a bit of our greatness. We loose perspective. Yet, it is hard not to. How could one stand in the shadow of the Great Pyramids of Gaza and not marvel at the engineering feet, yet care little for the United States electric grid (the most complex system ever build by human beings)? It seemed we are conditioned to take for granted the accomplishments of the present. Maybe that was what the lunar landing was then, a shining moment that broke through the wall that cloisters off our wonder for modern things.
Yet, I cannot help but also feel that attitudes were simply different when we landed on the moon. I fear that an anti-intellectualism is slowly growing in this country. I felt it prominently upon returning from Japan. It is a feeling of how dare people be smart, or that knowledge MUST inherently do something -- that seeking knowledge is itself worthless if there is no application for information gleaned. In short I saw a kind of pro-engineering anti-theory that startled me. Engineering is undoubtedly important, elegant, and beautiful in its own right. It is, after all, the application of knowledge wrestled away from the tight clutches of the universe. But engineering is not knowledge itself, nor pursuit their of. Engineering is not theory or experimentation. I fear that there is a movement afoot to tear down science and replace it with engineering, and it scares me. So we come to Roger Ebert's review of Transformers II.
Essentially, Ebert complained that the only thing epic about Transformers II was how epically abysmal the whole affair was. Ebert was berated for this from die-hard fans of the film. Prompting him to write this response. It is well worth reading for its own right, but I shall paraphrase. Ebert echoes my fears that there is an anti-intellectual movement afoot, and that there is such a thing as "good" and "bad" movies. His argument struck a cord with me not only because I hear this a lot in the writing center (that writing is subjective), but also because I see this as an all too common attack on science (wacko/pseudo-science is given as much cred as the good).
I'm not sure why seeing Sojourner roll down the ramp onto the red dust of Mars was not the same kind of transformative moment that seeing Armstrong hopping down the ramp onto the gray dust of the moon was for so many around the globe. Regardless of the reasoning, I fear the fact that those two moments are not comparable is deeply revealing. I think we have lost something in the nearly 40 years since the lunar landing: our awe, our wonder, the novelty of greatness, or our admiration of intelligence and the power it commands - a piece of our innocence, perhaps.
Jul. 20th, 2009 @ 02:56 pm
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| » Presidents You Can Have a Beer With |
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Guess that President:
This President helped make it illegal for citizens that had their 4th Amendment Rights violated sue the telecoms that eavesdropped on their telephone conversations.
This President made it illegal for those same citizens to sue the government that authorized the eavesdropping.
This President no longer allows the public to know who visits the White House. Which is, essentially, our house!
This President's idea of a stimulus package was to bail out the CEOs and Companies that helped get us into the financial meltdown, refusing to regulate and make meaningful changes.
This President is pushing to have CIA interrogations no longer recorded and also refused to release detainee abuse photos despite Freedom of Information requests.
Which President was it?
Most people probably read these things, got all foamed up at the mouth, and answered "BUSH!" And in many cases you'd be correct, but you'd be even more correct if you answered, "Obama". Obamapologists please start your long list of kowtowing and back flips as to why he did these things or HAD to do these things, but also how you forgive him or how they make us/him/the country stronger, blah blah blah... no, seriously, I'm listening.
Look, people that criticizism Obama tend to do so in a sloppy, ham-handed, "he don't throw dem baseballs no good" or "he probably be one of dem dere fer-reigners" kind of way. Or worse, in ways involving guns. It makes criticizing him dicey because one does not want to be thrown into the same boat as the Republican noise machine or just plain crazy people. So let me just say everything bad about Obama was bad about Bush, and though the conversion is not true, certainly there are a lot of things that Bush was big on with which Obama agrees whole heatedly. We have less of a 4th Amendment now than we did during Bush, and that is scary. Dick Cheney did not allow us to know who was in his meetings, but Obama doesn't even want us to know who is in our house. So why aren't liberals spitting mad? Why don't we hear the kind of rhetoric about Obama as we did about Bush, even as Obama is (clearly) going beyond even Bushian levels of the Imperial Presidency? The sad truth is this, neither Democrats or Republicans have a problem with the Imperial Presidency; they have a problem with the other side having it. As long as your "guy" is the king it is great to have a king, and the way things are going it looks like we are going to have 2 kings in a row, lucky us.
I humbly submit the following solution to the conundrum as to why people can berate Bush but give Obama the pass for the exact same (if not more conservative) policies: Liberals want to have a glass of wine with President Obama. Just like Conservatives nodded along as Bush said he was conservative and used all the right buzz words, only to then watch W wspit in their ideological faces (running up big debts, more intrusive government programs, weakening of States' rights, expansion of the government, etc.), they stood with Bush because they liked him - they could have a beer with him. So too are liberals gleeful at the thought of popping a bottle of wine with Obama and shooting the breeze. They don't care that he was listening in on our phonecalls, because gosh darnit you could have a beer, err, glass of wine with him! "He seems so real!" "He's such an intellectual!" "What a compelling life story!" "I just want to have a glass of wine with him!"
Being a teetotaler, I am immune to the charms of imbibing desire. It allows me to look at the issues, and under both Bush and Obama the issues are pretty scary. It's okay to like Obama. It's okay to want to have a glass of wine with him, but for crying out loud you are being just as stupid as those rednecks that liked Bush Administration because you could have a beer with him regardless of his policies. You can like someone personally but hate their politics. I think Ron Paul is a pretty cool guy, but an absolute psycho when it comes to what he thinks the government should do. I like Ron Paul but I would vote against him everyday of the week.
Much was made by liberals this last election that, "you can't pick a President on if you can have a beer with him". Exactly! Yet, as liberal sources remain relatively quiet about the horrid expansion of many of the most egregious Bush administration programs, I fear that mantra was never learned. Sure liberals substituted some hooty-tooty alcoholic beverage for beer or maybe we were thinking it'd be okay if the beer was an import, regardless, many liberals like the Obama administration because they like Obama. That is bad for our nation. If you like not having a 4th Amendment Obama is your man. If you like not knowing who is going to the White House, Obama is your man. If you like a strategy of rewarding the wealthiest people in this country and not properly regulating or punishing their recklessness, then Obama is your man. If you like an Imperial Presidency, then Obama is your man. But if any of these things don't quite sit right with you, than maybe you don't really like the Obama Administration, and it is time you say so, publicly.
I like Barack Obama. He's better than McCain would be. But "better" is not logically equivalent to "good" or even "adequate". I may really like Obama, I think he is an intellectual, I think he does have a compelling life story, but none of those things mean that I like the Obama Administration. I'd love to have a cup of tea with Barack, but I don't think my wanting to have a tasty warm beverage with Obama makes him a good president, and neither should you. There's more to this than likability. What makes a president good or bad is his/her policies and actions. If you didn't like the Bush Administration because of its secrecy, than you cannot like the Obama Administration for the same reasons. It is that simple.
Jul. 19th, 2009 @ 12:14 am
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| » Happy Birthday "The Wizard of the West" |
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Today was Nikola Tesla's birthday. Tesla holds a special place in my heart. He was one of those people that I find absolutely captivating. When I was in middle school, I believed that he was the scientist par excellence. I didn't really understand that he objected to most forms of science, rejected Conservation (come on how do you reject Conservation!?). In short, I didn't really know what science was back then. So Tesla became my model of science. Though I have moved away from many of Tesla's notions of the order of the natural universe,there is something about him. Something compelling and tragic. Not just because he was BFF with Mark Twain, or a the inventor of alternating current. He was whole and broken all at the same time. He was eccentric and brilliant, but also possibly quite insane. That's what I like about him. He's been to the mountain top and had a chat with the God of Thunder, and came back somehow both more and less than human because of the encounter.
In his autobiography, Tesla recounts that as a very young child he was swimming and swept down stream. He ended up holding onto a concrete dam. With the water running against his chest he knew he would not be able to hold on long. Suddenly, in a flash, he saw the fluid dynamic equation for water pressure materialize before his eyes. He realized if he swung himself sideways and wrapped an arm around the dam, rather than holding on by his fingers, he would reduce his surface area to the oncoming water; thus, reducing drag and lessening the amount of force required to hold on. He was able to stay in that position for hours until the search party found him.
That has always stuck with me. Over all of his other eccentricities (fear of hair, claims of building death rays and earthquake machines, and ability to build machinery in his mind) that story somehow is Tesla to me. I don't know why. Perhaps, its simply because we have all had those moments of brilliance or it reminds me of the time I dreamed the solution to a particularly difficult math problem I had been working on. Maybe it's because that is (in many ways) the only thing I have in common with Tesla. I don't know.
“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”
Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
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| » Uhh... |
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I have pinkeye, because, apparently, I'm seven years old.
May. 29th, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
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| » Ursa Major |
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I was mucking about in the backyard tonight and Ursa Major was particularly beautiful so I tried my hand at taking a few pictures of it. Ursa Major contains the asterism The Big Dipper. I attempted to take pictures of both the handle and the cup, and combined them in the second picture. A neat feature is that the camera saw what I cannot. The second star of the handle is actually a two stars, Alcor and Mizar. If you can see both stars you have good eyesight and would traditionally be allowed to go into the crow's nest on ships as well as special night watchman perks. I can't see Alcor and Mizar, but my camera clearly captures both.
Tree in my backyard and the Big Dipper
Combined Dipper and tree, notice Alcor and Mizar are clearly visible in the handle:
May. 21st, 2009 @ 01:25 am
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| » I'm (not) a PC |
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I used to be a PC. I used to love PCs and was an ardent defender of Windows. Then when Macs went intel chips and could run Windows I decided to give them a try.
Forget all the nonsense spin about how Mac OS and programs are more intuitive than windows programs. They aren't. They have their own set of quirks and things you need to learn -- just like windows. Certain things could be better different ways. But here's what Macs do do, THEY WORK! Which is more than I can say for PCs.
It should be noted that I do things right. I am careful to maintain my computers and not do stupid things with them. My Alienware recently underwent the usual Windows update and suddenly getting stuck on a driver and would not boot at all. Not into Safe Mode, not nothing. I had to jump through hoop after hoop to disable the driver. Then the video driver doesn't work anymore. Got that fixed and find out that my machine no longer sees my additional hard drives. I can't get it to recognize them. I suppose I'll have to open the thing up unplug them and plug them back in. B.S. Windows is such crap.
I've worked on 3 Macs now (mine, and my parents have 2) and the only problem we have ever had is the learning curve of getting to know a new OS. That's it. No random network bridges (whatever the hell those are), no random drivers rejecting the motherboard (my current problem), no random blue screens of death (my beloved IBM), no random slowdowns. I plug macs in and they work. I tell them to connect to the internet and they connect. No network adapter configurations, no random spyware and viruses. They just work.
Don't believe all the hype about Macs being more logical or intuitive. But believe me when I tell you that they WORK, they just WORK. So you have the time to learn that "return" does not open a program but instead toggles the rename feature. You can learn such idiosyncrasy because you are not busy fixing the latest bullshit random problem that has popped up because you are running a windows machine.
My name is Andrew, and I used to be a PC.
May. 17th, 2009 @ 09:07 pm
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| » Operation: GPDT |
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School is done for the semester! Hurray!
Now I start my summer project, Operation Get Published or Die Trying. I really need to beef up my publishing cred. I wrote somethings for the JET Program that it was indicated would be published in some form, but who knows what they ended up doing with the things I wrote. So my goal is to get some things published and be able to wave it in potential employers/grad school people's faces yelling, "See, see, give me money!"
To accomplish this I've decided to shotgun this. I have diverse interests and my potential publishing list reflects that.
Here's what I've got cooking:
I. Sci-fi Short Stories
1) "Trogger's Tale" -- The distopic future about consumerism, voyeurism, and lack of objective reality.
2) "You Can't Stir a Superfluid" -- two scientists discuss science and end up monkeying around with the Lunar Partial Accelerator.
3) "The Mute" -- A man is found as the sole survivor of his planet but no one can speak his language. A look at the role of history and the historian.
4) "The Green Belt" -- Parallel to the Iraq War in which a soldier wonders what they are doing trying to put down a Martian insurgency as the planet continues to be terraformed.
5) Just an idea: "Moving Day" -- a family packs and prepares to move to the next city in a circular ring on Mercury as the current city begins to exit twilight and enter the Sunside.
II. My fantasy book and its sequel as well as 1/4 to 1/3 of the finale.
Book 1 "The Light of the Learned" -- what is the role of science and philosophy in an immoral world? How do the mortals interact with their parasitic gods?
Book 2 "The Twilight of Faith" -- the fallout from book 1 and continuation of themes of book 1 as some mortals begin to fight back against the gods, and the characters struggle to find meaning in their science, their friendships/loves, and their philosophies.
Book 3 "The Starless Patch of Night" -- conclusion to the trilogy and still in progress.
III. Writing Center Theory
1) "An Empiricist Goes to the Writing Laboratory" -- a scholarly article about how "audience" is not as important a consideration as it is traditionally thought. A look at Bertrand Russell's notions of knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description to create a better way to help clients.
IV. Philosophy (these I haven't written at all just kind of have some ideas)
1) A look at Descartes' notions of absolute skepticism, and the proper conclusion that we can draw from it. I will show that the only thing we can conclude in such a situation is not that we exist (Descartes conclusion), or that we are experiencing sense data (Husserl and Russell's conclusion), but the true conclusion is that an external world exists.
2) A refinement of Russell's knowledge by description whereby we treat everything as equipment with margins of error when judging if it should be believed.
V. Book about Japan
1) I really want to write a book about my time in Japan and think that large portions of this blog can be converted without too much hassle.
If anyone wants to read any of my stuff let me know. I'm always happy to hear comments, but the goal is to get published so act now or you will have to pay for it when it is in a magazine :P
May. 13th, 2009 @ 06:32 pm
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| » Getting There |
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Job is done until Summer Term starts up in June. Hurray!
Two finals to go until school is over. Have to read some about aesthetics and finish my paper about Henri Bergson and Bertrand Russell, you are so going down Bergson.
I have discovered that Rudolf Carnap may be my philosophy co-pilot, but Bertrand Russell is in the back seat reading us fun stories if there is nothing on the radio. We occasionally give W.V.O. Quine a ride because he is an Obie and because I respect his essay Two Dogmas of Empiricism even if I think it is ultimately wrong. I don't know where we are driving, but that's who's in the car... a car that's made out of philosophy.
May. 8th, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
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| » Pirates, Logical Proof, & Flickr |
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I updated my flickr page. It contains some great pictures of the garden and two of a kimono exhibit we went to in Canton. Finally there are pictures from the Good Year Blimp. My parents got to ride it while I was at school T_T
And as an added bonus, please enjoy this logical proof:
I’m not a fan of pirates (I’ve always been pro-ninja) but what really gets my goat is how these Somali criminals are being called pirates, when they logically cannot be. Here is the proof:
1. ∀x(Px→Gx)
2. ∀x(Mx→~Gx)
3. Ms // ~Ps
4. Ps→Gs U.I. 1
5. Ms→~Gs U.I. 2
6. ~Gs M.P. 3,5
7. ~Ps M.T. 4,6
Such that:
Px is “x is a pirate”
Gx is “x drinks grog”
Mx is “x is Muslim”
s is “Somali”
The argument written in English is as follows:
1. All Pirates drink Grog.
2. All Muslims do not drink Grog.
3. The Somalis are Muslim.
4. If the Somalis are Pirates, then they would drink Grog.
5. If the Somalis are Muslims, then they do not drink Grog.
6. Since the Somalis ARE Muslims they do not drink Grog.
7. Therefore, since the Somalis do not drink Grog, they cannot be Pirates.
Apr. 24th, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
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| » Awesome |
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This is quite possibly the coolest idea in the history of cool ideas. It is made out of awesome:
Apr. 16th, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
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| » Short Story |
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So, I am currently in the process of cleaning up a short story to try and get published. As I go along I realize that some publishing credentials would really help me out.
I would love to hear your, my loyal readers and only friends, opinions on the story. Unlike my book (which was like 700 pages long), this is only about 14 pages double spaced. It really is a SHORT story, I promise.
Come on, you know you want to read a fun filled romp into a dystopic future ruled by corporations, driven by Randian Objectivism, and featuring unlimited voyeurism because everyone's life is broadcast completely online! Ohhh the fun never stops!
If you want to read it and give me your opinions, let me know. You'd be doing me a solid.
Apr. 10th, 2009 @ 08:48 pm
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| » Are You Listening? |
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The Obama Administration did something remarkable recently, not only did they defend and uphold the NSA Wiretapping policy (the one that means the government can listen in to any conversation, anytime, without a warrant) but they one-uped the Bush Administration!
The Bush Administration always claimed that even if you couldn't sue the Telecomms (a bill Obama voted for even when he said he wouldn't) you could at least sue the government. Now the Obama Administration says that you can't sue the government either. You had no 4th Amendment rights under Bush, and you have even fewer under the Obama government.
So let's review, you can't sue the government that took your rights away, and you can't sue the machinery that they are using to take your rights away.
Just because the new king is better than the old king, doesn't mean he isn't a king, and it certainly doesn't mean that you are free.
Apr. 8th, 2009 @ 10:28 pm
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| » Kodo |
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I've gotten pretty busy again at school and work, but I had to take a few minutes to tell everyone about the awesomeness that happened to me a few days ago. Two weeks ago on Tuesday at Playhouse Square the amazing Japanese taiko group Kodo played. It was a one night only engagement, and I had to throw everything together at the last moment. I just happened to catch an ad for them on "Around Noon" on NPR the previous Thursday. Since my first taiko experience I have made a solemn oath to myself, never pass up the experience to see more taiko.
For those who do not know, taiko is traditional Japanese drumming. In fact, taiko (太鼓) literally translates, tai (太) big around/plump and ko (鼓) drum. Taiko is simply the greatest thing ever. It is pump up music to the extreme. If I ever become rich I will hire a group of taiko players to follow me around and whenever I am feeling blue or need a pick me up, I will have them play. Listening to intense taiko really can't be described except it is like being stabbed in the tympanic membrane with an icepick made out awesome.
Like a lot of aspects of traditional Japanese culture, taiko really demonstrates the poverty of ancient Japan and the sheer minimalism of their aesthetics. Songs can be grandiose and feature lots of drums, or can be as minimal as a single drum, a hand cymbal, and a flute. You really get the sense that the music evolved from what a village had on hand. Unlike a lot of Western Classical music that presupposes an orchestra or a set group of instruments, you really get the feeling that taiko is all about "run with what you brung" and it makes the music incredibly versatile.
I like music that collapses into noise. My favorite aspect of Beethoven is when he has everybody playing all at once and the melodic line completely falls apart only to reemerge from the train wreck. Taiko does this as well on such an amazing scale. Sometimes it literally sounds like cacophony on stage with everyone wailing away on their drums and then SUDDENLY the melody surges out of the noise within a single beat. It makes for some amazingly powerful and breathtaking transitions.
Another aspect of taiko is the theater of it. It must be seen to be understood. The players moves are deliberate and purposeful. There is something to the way a player moves that makes the performance hypnotic and visually stunning.
Kodo is far and away the best taiko group I have ever seen. They were fantastic. They were quirky and funny in a very Japanese way for certain songs, but also brought their A-game and tore the place down when things needed to get real serious. These guys and gals know how to play! Mom and Dad were going nuts the whole time. Kodo played this one song with drums about the size of a snare. At first, it was soft and distant like rain. It built your tension as each person tapped out a little drum roll; each getting just a little bigger, until they were all playing and it was exploding off the stage. Then it changed from rain into something very VERY different. It sounded terrifying and creepy, like the whispers of demons in a graveyard. It was intense.
I want to see them again so bad!
Here is a vid that vaguely does them justice, but taiko really has to be seen live to be truly understood and enjoyed:
Kodo was AMAZING!
Apr. 4th, 2009 @ 09:39 pm
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