Shiny Toy Guns

Well, I have a bunch of other blogs in the works - ideas that need to be written about, but I thought I would share this interesting song I had heard the other day. I'm not one to watch MTV or any of the many other video channels that I get, but I happened to catch the title of one of the shows on IMF: World's Best Videos. The name sounded so arrogant, I had to check it out so that I could scoff at their lame videos that they had the gall to call the world's best! Posers.

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed quite a few of the videos that they featured from around the world! I hadn't really enjoyed a music video in years, so it was kind of refreshing. Besides the Lady Sovereign video, I really like one call Le Disko by Shiny Toy Guns. They have 2 videos for this song on video.google.com. Very impressive videos.

The problem I have is one that has haunted me since MTV - once I see a cool/weird video, I can not get that song out of my head. The images seer the music into my mind. Listening to the music doesn't do it for me - I need to see the video again in order to get it out. In the olden days, it would require many hours of fast-forwarding through hours and hours of MTV crap. But now with the internet, I was able to find the video and watch it again! So, I now only have a small part of the song running through my head! But it will never be as bad as "Why Can't I be You" by The Cure, nothing will. It took months for those jackasses to play that song again.

If you find the video and watch it, let me know what you think! (The standard one was cool, but Version 2 was the one I saw on TV, which was also very cool.)

The Edward

PS Besides the ones mentioned above, to which the videos exist online, I also liked a song by Babul Supriyo called Pyar Hua Hai Pehli Baar. Not my normal type of music, it was kind of snappy an upbeat. I haven't found the video online, maybe you will have better luck.

And of course the songs by Deathklok!

I Believe!

Since I have purchased a few books on amazon that they consider to be "Self help", when I go there now they seem to recommend quite a few more for me to buy. This got me to thinking: there must be a rather large selection of these types of books in order for them to show up with that frequency - and there are. So I looked at a few of the titles to see what the authors were writing about. Pretty much all the same topics, but all taking a different approach to that topic. The topic: you can do it. That is pretty much all that they say. If that was the point of this blog post, it would be kind of boring, so on to the actual topic.

Looking at all of the various methods that authors claim will unlock the limitless power within you, I saw a pattern. That pattern was that there was no pattern. Each author had such a widely different point of view, it is hard to imagine that they all came from the same research. That was the realization, there was no research. All of the books are full of anecdotal evidence! And a lot of it contradictory. Yet, if the claims are to believed, each of these methods worked for at least one person...

So, this takes me back to a topic I have hinted at before: no one is born with a book of knowledge in his or her hands. The only information one had about the nature of the Universe is from what others tell you. The question that popped into my mind: why is what any one author telling equal to The Truth? I have the answer: it isn't. Each truth is true for the person who tells it. Some people pray and get windfalls of money, yet that doesn't work for others. Some people think that if they wear their lucky underwear, then they will get lucky in some way, and they do, while others don't.

What is the defining characteristics of all of these things? That the person believes in his or her system. Sure, the system doesn't always work, but it seems to work sometimes. But, if a person has no believe in a system, nothing ever works. People seem to need a system in which to believe, and there are a lot of people trying to sell you theirs.

The overall thing that I realized is that I can create my own! Sure, I could read "Think and Grow Rich", but there is no real content in that book. Instead, I should believe that I already know the answer to my problems, then just follow this made up advice. I can say "If I eat nothing but bacon and eggs with chocolate cream pie for dessert every day, I can live forever!" I could! But I would be wrong, but not for the seemingly obvious reason, but because I actually got that from a book called "Money is my Friend." Someone actually believes that, and it is something that seems to be so at odds with what most people believe. And yet it might work for him.

So, what I am saying is that there really is no belief too "whacky"! You can make up anyone you want, and as long as you can make yourself truly believe it, it will be the reason you succeed in your goals. So, go ahead, pick something wild, I guarantee it will make your dreams come true!

The Edward

Friend's Sister

Throughout my time on this planet, I have made many friends. A lot of these friends seem to have sisters (or a close woman friend), but not just sisters, single sisters. While it is true that I do not like people in general (actually, I tend to really hate people when I first meet them, but I'm good at covering it when I want to), I found that I actually enjoyed meeting a few friend's sisters. I always thought that very odd, since I really do mean it when I say, I just can not stand to be around most people. So, to find someone that I am interested in being around is very rare. And to have someone in common with this single woman, even rarer.

The issue happens when I actually like this sister person. What do I do? If she doesn't like me and I ask her out, then I run the risk of ruining a friendship. Yet, if I do not ask her, I run the risk of never knowing if she is interested and missing out on a woman I know I at least enjoy spending time with, possibly more. So, many years ago, I struck upon this novel idea: I would ask my friend! He/She could then tell me if his or her sister said anything at all about me after meeting me, then I would take action from there, since I wouldn't want to leave my actual chance at hitting it off in someone else's hands. Seemed like a great plan! But, I found it not to work for me. :(

It seems that when I say "So, did your sister say anything about me." The universal answer is "No." :( So, I usually follow that up with "Can you ask if she had any opinion about me?" I have a brother, and if anyone ever had said to me "Say, is your brother interested in me, or had any thoughts whatsoever about me, could you tell me?" I would immediately ask him what he thought. You know, help out a friend and my brother. But, it seems that the answer to my second questions was also a universal "No." Shocking. So, now I am left with no knowledge, and no easy way to find out, or contact this sister in question.

In thinking about it over the years, and seeing it happening to me 2 or 3 times, I believe I understand the problem. Firstly, even though my friends know my general lack of interest in people in general, they somehow seem to believe that I am solely interested in their sister because I am interested in all women and she is a women, and that is all that matters to me. Since I do not believe I send that message, it must be that they have been asked all of their lives about their sister, so I just get mapped into that category, rather than being amazed at that I was actually really interested in her.

Secondly, if when the sister and my friend went back home after dinner, and my friend said "Edward was there for dinner" or some simple sentence like that, if she didn't excuse herself, jump up and run to the bathroom to pleasure herself with the shower-head while screaming my name for an hour, my friend would think there was no interest on her part. My friend's thoughts, in my mind, run like this "Wow, she only used the water pick, not the full on shower-head, so she obviously has no interest. No use actually asking her what she thought, since there is no obvious interest. Probably only disdain since her shouts only woke up one neighbor rather than two or more. Sad, really, they seemed to get along so well at dinner." And that is the end of it, and I just hear the "No, I would rather not take the 5 seconds it would take to ask her "What did you think of Edward?""

So, if you are reading this, and are a single sister of a friend and have met me, but thought, "Wow, my brother/sister never said anything about Edward, he must not have enjoyed dinner enough to even mention me to his friend! I'll just never bring it up, since there was obvious no interest." you might be wrong. Very wrong.

The Edward

Dance of Power

I used to read a lot of self-help books, books that claimed to know how the mind works (and tastes) therefore leading to the author's pet theory on how to improve ones mental abilities (and taste). A claim that spanned a few books, one that has stayed with me throughout the years, was: there are 3 ways that people think: kinesthetically, verbally, and visually. Everyone has a dominate way of thinking, which defines ones personality (though all are used by everyone, just to varying degrees). Verbals are talkers and use sentences like "I hear what you are saying." Visuals says "I see your point." Kinesthetics say "I feel that you are right." And each maps to a body type, food preference, etc. Becoming aware of this allows one to understand why communicate fails or succeeds and teaches one how to talk to the various types effectively.

That is all of the lead up to the topic at hand: the dance of power. For me, since I have spent a lot of time thinking about this, I try out different ways of thinking about something to see which works best. If I need to remember a phone number, I found kinesthetically works best for me, etc. I also found that certain ideas naturally map to certain types of thinking as well.

A long time ago in my past, I wanted to think about what it would be like to be a powerful person. Not in human terms, but in the super-hero terms. What would it feel like to have superpowers? When this question used to come up in the past (which it did to a surprising amount), I did not have a verbal or visual, but a sense of motion. I would feel a dancer in my mind, the way a person with power would move rather than how one would look.

So, I have this dancer in my mind, but not in a visual way, in a movement way, and I can feel what it would be like to have superpowers. I often wondered if I could move my muscles in the way that I feel in my mind, would I gain the powers that map to those muscle movements? Could I realize that Dance of Power in this world?

The Edward

My view of my world

So, I haven't been posting in a while because of somethings in my personal life, and since the nature of this blog is not Edward's Personal Life Exposed to the Masses, I will probably not talk about it here. Actually, I probably will, since it is part of my Arcane view of your world.

One the problems that has been troubling me has been my blog posts and the comments I get. I enjoying writing, and I enjoy reading what others have to say, and I look forward to reading comments. Fun times all around. The issue is with my view. I began to realize that my view of the word is very skewed from what most people's view is. Well, "began to realize" is kind of wrong, since I actually did know that before I start this whole thing. It is more like, I started to realize that either I am insane or the world is.

When I started this, I was of the opinion, as I had been all of the previous years of my life, that the world is insane and that I was one of the few sane people. Sure, people who know me well would always scoff at this, but I kept to my belief. The recent turn of events followed the research about Mirror cells and how a lack of them in humans make humans not fit in. People with this lack will not see the human world for what it is and seem like people trapped in an alien world, a world in which they understand nothing of the natives and vice versa. This is how I always felt. Even the simplest of human interacts seems to elude me - I actually have to think about how to react. (Though, after many, many years of observation, I believe I pass reasonably well for a normal human (I can hear you scoffing...))

This started bothering me so much, that I stopped my internal dialog that I used to generate my blog posts. And I had some really interesting ones in the works - sister fucking was at the top of the list. (not one's own sister, but the idea of a friend dating a friend's sister) It was going to be very funny and yet insightful - I'll still do that along with the rest of the topics I had in mind, soon. I believe I finally came to grips with the issue - by human standards, I am insane, since sanity isn't an absolute but a judgement of how well a member of society matches the beliefs of the whole of society. If almost everyone believes something to be true, and there is one lone voice speaking out, that voice holder should be locked up - at least that is how it seems to work with humans (which is why I usually keep most of my ideas to myself). In the land of the blind, a one eyed man is not a king, but a madman!

To the point! My point is: my views by definition are that of a madman. So, what is the point of my continued postings? Well, to continue to explore the ideas in my mind in a way that is separate from my real life. Hence, I continue with the blog, even if it seems to me that I am beating a dead horse some times. And liking it.

So, I hope you enjoy my point of view and musings. I hope it makes you think of something different. (Yes, I know, I can not make anyone do anything, it is just a figure of speech! :) And at least for me, it is an affirmation of my Arcane View of your World.

The Edward

So far behind

I think about this blog every day. Throughout the day, I think "Wow, this would make an interesting blog entry! Now, how can I word it for maximum effect! And get the idea across that I am trying to get across with the least number of words and the clearest writing and not repeating and not using run-ons and get the idea across, and stuff!" It is usually at this last part that I stumble, and therefore do not end up writing anything. Which was the reason I created this blog in the first place, to convert the masses to my way of thinking! No, actually, to build up my ability to effectively convey a message to the masses so that I can influence their thinking in order to convert every to my way of thinking! Wait, how did I end up there again...

Okay, I wanted to work on my comedy skills, so that I could be a stand up comedian! Or write for such crack shows like Saturday Night Live or MadTV! And I wanted to start my own philosophy, one that was based on my world view, which I stole from many other people. And cash in writing books on this One World View, books that will get me lots of chicks and stuff. And stuff...

But then something wonderful happens - I spend so much time thinking about the right words that I never actually write any of them down. I spend all day obsessing over it, and never quite getting it right. Sure, I think of what I believe to be a few funny phrases to toss into the blog, but being able to put them all together in not only a coherent way, but also an interesting yet entertaining way. I want people who read them to find it worth their time. As well as find it funny to my future self, since I tend to reread my blog in the future rather than in the past.

Then, the Behind part kicks in. I get so far behind that I do not want to think about it again, so I avoid it. Same for most things in life - once I am behind, I want to walk away. Like trying to read a book for a book report. The closer to the date that it is due and I still hadn't read page one, the more and more annoying it became, because there really was no way to catch up, so I would just not do it. Just let it eat at me from the inside, like a giant... big something that eats things from the inside out.

But here I am again, writing in my blog, sharing my thoughts. Though this blog entry caught me by surprise, because it really wasn't a topic I was planning on writing on. Sure, I could say I was going to write about pussy, since I hadn't in a while, but I wasn't. Something about social contracts and the rich - kind of boring actually. Though I did think of an exciting one yesterday, but can not recall it right now.

I plan to keep it up going forward. I hope to see you here!

The Edward

Porn is cheating

Some people (let's call them women) believe that watching porn is the same thing as cheating (though, if you have read my earlier posts on cheating, one can easily see that one is not having sex as long as one wears a condom or some barrier between the two or more parties involved).

There was an interesting article in this months Scientific American: Mirror Cells in the Brain. Basically, they found that when primates do something (like lifting a block) certain neurons in the brain fire. They also found that when a primate watches another primate do that same thing, those same cells fire. As far as that part of the brain is concerned, watching someone do something is that same thing as doing it. They of course didn't make the connection to porn, so that is where I come in.

Watching pornos has the same affect in the same regions of the brain as if you are actually the one engaged in these acts. So, you are in essence, having sex. Which some consider cheating. Seems like an obvious conclusion. But wait, there's more...

These neurons do not fire in people with autism when watching others, which is what they believe might be the source of autism. These mirror cells allow us to empathize with our fellow humans. We feel other people's pain. We can understand what people are going through, because we feel it ourselves. Except for people with autism - they live in a world where they do not understand why others do what they do, because they can not put themselves in the other person's place. Trapped in their own world. Though, name me a human who isn't.

And all of this ties together! By watching people have sex, you understand sex better, you build up that sexual empathy. So, go get a better understanding of the people around you, watch a porno.

The Edward

PS Okay, so I didn't tie autism into my conclusion, so here is an alternate one: I've watched adult movies with friends before. I always found it fascinating to watch, because I always felt that I was missing out on something, and now I know - I wasn't developing that empathy. To me, it was just something interesting to see, but I now realize why some people have issue with this, because to them they can not separate out the reality of watching something from the reality of actually doing something. Watching a porno, they are feeling like they are there, which was something I had never considered. Same with going to Good Vibrations, the act of holding a dildo and seeing pictures probably was triggering mirror cells. It definitely shines a whole new light on some of my memories of events and things people have said!

Family, religion, friends

Family, religion, friends.. these are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. -- Mr. Burns

A simply fabulous quote. It starts off in a manner that lulls one into a sense of security, which then turns out to be false as the rug is verbally ripped out from under one. These things that most people value and are associated with positive feelings turn out to be a hindrance for the true objective of this world, success in business.

Actually, I think it is interesting and funny, because the quote shows what it assumes the audience will consider to be the most important things in the world to them. If the quote was targeted at me: Food, science, pussy...

The assumption that there would be three things one could name that would get the largest possible group of people to agree with is the interesting part. It also shows the underlying assumption that to succeed in business one has to become a monster, shunning things most people consider to be an important part of being human.

Everyone has their own demons to slay, something holding them back from the success that they feel they would have had if it weren't for the items on their list. Are they really things that matter to you, or just what other people tell you that you should believe in or they will consider you a monster? Why not be that monster, be who you can be, be who you believe you want to be, no matter what the cost to your safe secure self, the person you have become as the world as lulled you to sleep...

The Edward

Collapsible Universe

We can represent the movement of particles with simple equations. So, if we look at the whole Universe, there is an equation that describes it all, completely (time, space, other dimensions we are not yet aware of, etc). That equations is vastly more complex than simple motion, and the equation itself wouldn't probably fit within this Universe, but it exists.

With an equation in hand, one can create a counter to it - an equation that will cancel out the first. In the case of simple motion, we just create an equation with the opposite velocity, acceleration, etc, such that when added to the first equation, we get nothing. This second equation can be considered to cancel out the first.

In the Real World, we would apply this equation to make it cancel out the first. In the above example, we would actually apply the forces, slugs, impulses, etc to the physical object, giving us a net zero motion.

So, with the equation of this Universe, if we derive our second equation, one that will cancel out the first, we can see a path to the cancellation of this Universe. We could potentially, with this knowledge, collapse this Universe. It wouldn't destroy this Universe, it would just cease to exist, it would be like it never happened. Just gone from all past, present, future, and space.

The question: With only a small part of these two equations, could one cancel out only part of the Universe? Wouldn't this be the Ultimate Weapon? Not just wipe out your enemy, but make it so that the area in which they exist, doesn't exist, and possibly never had existed. Sort of like what the major TV networks do to really good TV shows, shows too good for the masses...

The Edward

The Problem with Black People

Let me tell you a tale, one of a younger The Edward, an The Edward back in college. Back then, I was a different person to be sure, but the one way in which I was very different I will describe to you now: I hated black people. Stupid people, not in touch with their surroundings, very rude, etc, basically one step above chimps. But, that wasn't the problem. The problem is that I didn't like Hispanic people either. Stupid people, not in touch with their surroundings, very rude, etc, basically one step above chimps. And not only that, I hated gay people. Stupid people, not in touch with their surroundings, very rude, etc, basically one step above chimps. Do you see a pattern here? A better summary that one could draw based on my statements: I hated every Human equally. That wasn't the problem either. What is the point/problem with this younger The Edward and his world? The problem with Black People or Any People that classify themselves, is that they classified themselves - and I didn't, they were all just Human to me. Equally Human.

So, I would walk around hating people back then. I lived in an area of a City where it was predominately black people. The problem I had was that groups of people who think of themselves as different for some reason, would think I hated them for the color of their skin, sexual orientation, religion, etc, rather than their Human-ness. If I refused to talk to someone who considered themselves to be black, they would shout racist things at me, believing that I was a racist so therefore it was okay to let out their true racist nature upon me. This tended to cause me a lot of problems back then.

I realized that my internal dislike for people was not only justified, but appeared to have been shared by everyone around me. Sure, these other people weren't original thinkers, they were taking my general hatred and internalizing based on their own preconceived notions. It was kind of annoying for me, because they took my general feelings and trying to make it that I hated them specifically and went out of my way to think about them, rather than that I was just trying to avoid all possible contact with any of them. They took my feelings and twisted them to their own means, and I of course hated them for that as well.

"You and your people..." is a phrase that can get someone in trouble if one is not aware of which group a listening Human considers himself to be a part of. I think it to be pretty obvious, "you" being Human "and your people" being the rest of the Human race. Or "Your kind is always slow in thinking." "You people need to stop being such idiots." "On the planet I hail from, things are done better." See, obvious what I am talking about!

The Edward

PS There was a funny scene on "3rd Rock from the Sun" (which was about aliens living among us) where he kept forgetting that one of his coworkers considered herself to be black and therefore would misconstrue his feelings about humans as feelings about blacks, since that was the World in Which She Lived. So, took a sticky note, wrote Black on it, and put it on her forehead so that he would remember to treat her as a black person rather than as a human. This of course caused problems because of her perspective on what had happened. Some old story, it really is all a matter of perspective...