Guitar Hero Wisdom

Shopping the Next 9/11

But we thought of them... Or is it a blank story?

Alcoholism in Today's Youth

Children don't get the big cups

Happy Vitamin C Day!

Btw - happy penguin appreciation day!

Happy Gravity Day!

This is the day that we join together and appreciate gravity! Think about what life would be like without gravity... it starts with being very careful pushing off the ground. The hydrological cycle would be all out of whack. As a matter of fact, the oceans would just turn into giant spheres - it would be really easy to drown in them... Actually, the atmosphere would become one giant haze of dirt and moisture. Actually, that wouldn't be a problem, because the atmosphere wouldn't hang around. Not that big a deal considering the planet itself would drift apart. As would the sun. As a matter of fact, without our buddy gravity, the universe would die a quick, cold death.

So let's hear it for gravity:
For he's a heavy old fel-low, for he's a heavy old fel-low, for he's a heavy old feee-eee-llooow, which nobody can deny...

It marks the first in a calendar full of appreciation holidays. It will include indoor plumbing, friction, oxygen, and possibly fleece. What basic comfort of life do you think we should add to the 366 days (Feb. 29th is Gregorian appreciation day?) of appreciation calendar, and why?

Purpose Poll Results

Do you have a true purpose in life? (9 replies)
6 - No. There is no such thing.
1 - No. I have not chosen one yet. <- My vote
1 - Yes. But I don't know what it is.
1 - Yes. And I know exactly what it is.
0 - Yes. It is divinely managed.

These results are informative - "No. There is no such thing" was the answer I least expected. It makes me aware that I am far from alone in wrestling with coming to grips with a universe that seems to lack inherent purpose. Thank you all for your input!

Lessons on Failure

When all you see is gray in front of you, you can turn around or keep advancing. You might be stopped by a concrete wall, but sometimes you will walk right through the fog.

As I said, it was my goal to determine my true life purpose by the end of last year. By that very measurable metric, I have failed. What is interesting is that I was much more public about my goal than nearly all previous occasions, but having failed publicly, I am not ashamed or deterred. I do not feel guilty like I have in the past.

I am not discouraged because I am continuing my efforts. When you experience a setback, you can truthfully say "I failed to meet goal X", but it is not a true failure unless you give up on a goal you still desire. In shorthand: you don't fail when you get knocked down - you fail when you don't stand up again.

I consistently explored my purpose through writing. I did not track it as I should have, but I think I wrote every single day. My self-discipline did slip in that I allowed myself to get sidetracked in writing about such things as my camera and transportation technology. I will expand in the future on my experience with mental and physiological effects that occur to distract me from topics I have resistance to.

While I did not achieve my goal, I have made progress toward it. I have had to define (sometimes for the first time) my assumptions about reality, belief, potential, the law of attraction, and other fundamentals. This exploration has been enlightening, and is already changing some of my beliefs - making me a more positive person.

Additionally, I have engaged other people in discussion about core beliefs. The most common response when I inquired about people's true purpose was "I don't have one". This is reinforced by the purpose poll results. At least one person was very content with their purpose, even though she did not have some sweeping, earth-changing goal. As with writing I wandered into adjacent topics while conversing with people, such as religion - which was illuminating, even while less focused on my goal. I will continue to increase conversations with others to get their take on the meaning of life.

I feel very close to my purpose. I will definitely have it described in clear verbiage by March 14th (Einstein's birthday) - also the deadline for my goal of losing another 11 pounds (the latter goal in light of multiple ideal-weight references).

Next

Did you hear about the zen monk who ordered a hot dog? He said he had one with everything.

I have a problem - when I look at a list of movies, none of them seem to interest me, but if I just start watching them I get drawn in and usually enjoy myself. Especially anything with a wreath from an independent film festival. And so, we sit down to watch a movie and "The Secret" is beaten out in popularity by "Next". One on-demand click and five virtual dollars later, the movie begins.

The basic plot is that our protagonist played by Nicholas Cage (a selling or detracting point depending on your predisposition) can see up to two minutes into the future. This means he can dodge bullets - but not in a Neo way ("I'm saying when you are ready, you won't have to") but more of a trial and error way. At one point in the movie their over-abundant CG budget is put to giving a feel for how his premonition works - he walks towards a bad-guy who empties a clip at him. Or rather _into_ him. With every step and bullet, the splits into potential paths - each possible body fading out as it is shot - leaving an un-riddled Cage face to face with the bad-guy (who is holding an empty pistol).

After the movie, a friend was contemplating how the character's vision worked. After all, wouldn't he get exhausted running all of those potential options? A single 30 second action could take hours worth of trial and error to get "right". I shared my view that it was intended that the split selves - the potential futures didn't happen - he _knew_ each possibility. Thinking on the fly I noted that he just set in his mind his desired outcome and all the possible outcomes were sorted by that desire until one outcome that resulted in what he wanted came to him.

In this explanation, he only walks one path - the one that gives him the results he seeks. I recognize that this is the plot of a fictional movie, but it is useful as a visualization of a hypothesis (a mental experiment as Einstein was prone to). Is this a metaphor for understanding how the law of attraction works? You set your mind on an intention and within the boundaries of reality, you take the path that reaches that desire.

It relates to your actions in a massive, unknowable universe. He can dodge left or right, but it takes into account the actions and reactions of the gunman - atmospherics, physical interactions.

This ties into determinism - it ties into the physics theories that there are infinite parallel universes - one for every possible permutation - all static in "time". Dynamic action - choice - time itself is caused by the meandering we take through those possible realities. The hard part is to understand that the universes aren't spawned at the moment of choice - they are always there - always have been - as they will be even if they are not taken. This touches on duality - and determinism. If I go left, the universe in which I go right still exists. I go left and right. Schroedinger speaks of this - on the quantum level. This is the game that might be played by the smallest building blocks of matter as we know it.

Wouldn't this effect become compounded the higher perspective you take - the more particles in the mix? Is it so hard to imagine that these interactions quickly exceed our comprehension and seem to us free will? So many possibilities that we feel the sensation as total freedom of choice. Is that not the truth then? But doesn't it mean that there is _one_ universe that we experience from start to end - the one that has all the outcomes we perceive? What is behind the coincidence that Pandora chooses to play "Building Tension in 2 Dimensions" right now?

What's interesting about all this? If I hadn't seen "Next", I would have watched "The Secret" - a documentary about the law of attraction. No matter what path I took between those two, I would have gotten a similar lesson. But those were the two I was attracted to - more so than Shrek 3. I'm off to reflect a bit more on this.

Happy New Year!