Edward's Arcane World

More than you can imagine...

2012-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

There is a song that I enjoy listening to (adding my list of favorite videos on the right side of this blog got me thinking about music) called Less Talk More Rokk by Freezepop. Very cool song that was featured in Guitar Hero. Every time I hear the song though, I have to laugh because of this line "We're dancing like we've never danced before."

I'm never quite sure what they mean in that line: 1) the music was so motivating that the skill level displayed in their dancing had so far exceeded their past performances that it was worthy of mentioning, or 2) the music was so kick-ass that it stunned them, frying their brains to the point that their motions were that of someone trying to dance for the first time in their lives ever only to flail around looking like idiots. I picture the second one, hence the laugh... though, since I already had stated that I laughed, the second one was probably implied. Or maybe I was laughing at the dual nature of the sentence, in general?

Which leads to having more fun than you can imagine. Does this new sentence imply that I am having so much fun that it is overwhelming to others, or that everyone else would perceive me as having a small amount of fun but your lack of imagination is so great is it more than you could possibly fit into your head?

Today is the greatest day of your life! It implies that today will be better than any other day you have experienced so far. But most people also assume it implies better than any future days as well, hence "best". But, it could also mean not only will today be the best so far, you will also die today, therefore making it the best, not just "the best so far."

I hope all your dreams come true!

The Edward

Wrong Map

2012-01-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

I started reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the other day, something I've put off for 20-ish years, and found something interesting. Lately, I've become very frustrated with aspects of my Life, but I couldn't come up with a "Why". The more I ventured out, the more I saw what was wrong with The World, so the more I wanted to stay inside and avoid it. But within the first few chapters of the book, the author talked about inward vs outward focus, which caused me to change the way I see the world - I realized that I had the wrong map! And all it took was someone outside of me to tell me that!

As I am fond of thinking of saying, "The map is not the territory." I would look around me all day long and ask myself "Why?", though usually with more exclamation points. "Why did that person cut me off on the highway, couldn't they see that if they made some minor change, all of us could have gotten to our destinations faster?" "Why did that person just do X, when clearly doing Y would have helped not only themselves, but everyone else involved?", would be a good summary. Why, why, why - that was my day. I wasn't get any answers, and it was getting very frustrating, because I love answers. I mean, who doesn't? Answers tell us everything!

After reading the part of the book I've read so far, I understood the source of my frustration - the wrong map. In my mind, I had a Perfect Map. If everyone behaved logically and for the best interest of all involved, things would go this way or that, but things didn't go that way. As perfect as I thought my map was, it didn't show me reality, only what I wanted reality to be - my perfect version of it. Kind of the point of this blog - things I do not understand about the world around me, because I couldn't match it to a place on my map. My map was like an RPG vs real life - very clean and pristine vs dirty and ugly, kind of how I view The World vs the world.

When driving down the streets to "work", I used to notice all of the idiotic maneuvers of cars around me, because my map had these events highlighted as Points of Interest. People who were rude to me, people who cut me off in line, the power going out in my house, my furnace not work - all of these things were labelled on my map as "Come See the Exciting Roadside Dinner - everything you want to see is right here! Now with Extra Gravy!"

So, now I see The World differently! I realize that there are two ways to go from here: 1) change my map to better match reality, or 2) get a bulldozer and take reality to task, remold the world to be what my map says it should be. All of these choices that I suddenly have!

So far, I've been trying out step one - removing things from my map, change it to better match my surroundings, etc, and it has been working. I can drive to work and still be happy. The question is, will I continue down this path, or try out path two - I do love a good experiment...

The Edward

Today is a good day to...

2011-10-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

I, like you, am a fan of Star Trek. Not quite sure why, since realistically, they all sucked. Sure, there are parts of each one that are okay, but overall, after 40+ years of it, how many really quality movies or episodes are there? The one with the gaseous blob? The one with the cheesy, heavy handed story? The one that defies a logically consistent Universe? The one where they go warp ten and turn into giant lizards but are saved because one of the women happened to be pregnant and the unborn baby had the cure? Nah, just kidding, they all rock! That's why we are all fans!

There is that Klingon saying that appears in a lot of episodes, "Today is a good day to die." It implies that one has lived life to the fullest each and every day, all affairs are in order, didn't leave the oven on by accident this morning, I think I locked the front door, but did I let the cat out... Well, you know what the saying really means. But, what if it really was just a mistranslation? With that wonderful segue:

Today is a good day to buy. The Klingons were actually a renown race of shoppers, always willing to buy whatever was on sale that day. The saying was to inform people that even though they valued the dollar, they know that "the economy" is defined as "the motion of money", so the best way for everyone to get rich and have a better standard of living was to buy. Everyday.

Today is a good day to pry. Sure, people hate nosy neighbors, but why? Because they have something to hide, that's why! Who knows what kind of insidious schemes they are planning to launch against proud, Klingon Warriors! So, be sure to pry into your neighbors affairs as much as possible, every day perhaps, until you can find all of the dirt worth knowing about your neighbors. Root through trashcans, payoff housekeepers, talk to their kids' friends - who knows what you will find! Probably something that will save the world, so get crackin', for all are sakes!

Today is a good day to fry. Wow, that one really hits home, so I'm guessing that is the most correct translation. Every day is indeed a day to eat fried foods. As we all know, evolution makes us crave that which makes us stronger, live longer. If not, then we would all be dead by now. And if we are religious people, what kind of god would make food that tastes so good without it being good for us? Fried food, god's gift to man! Evolution's answer to long life!

So go forth and live by the Klingon motto! But, just to play it safe on which one they really mean, take a neighbor out for some tasty fried chicken and grill them.

The Edward

Order

2011-05-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

I realized something the other day. I was finally able to put together a coherent picture of what I value in life, and I was at peace.

People who "know" me "know" that I like Chaos. Hang around me and you will see that I sprinkle Chaos here and there for no apparent reason. I like seeing things change in Chaotic ways. I remember when I got my first and only speeding ticket, I was so happy that I laughed the whole way home, because my life had suddenly changed in a way that I couldn't predict.

But a friend once said to me that I didn't love Chaos, that it was all a sham. Well, I thought that was odd, because I believe she was the one that said I reminded her of Loki. She went on to say that if I loved Chaos, then I would love children, because they are bundles of Chaos. That was indeed a puzzler for me, something that sat in the back of my mind for six-ish years now... then I had the aforementioned realization! She was right, I do not love Chaos, but love Order - I had just confused the two.

What I love is the appearance of Chaos.

It was once said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", which is something that I hold to be true. My realization is that the same can be said about Order - "Any sufficiently advanced Order is indistinguishable from Chaos", and that is what I love.

There is this commercial that I love to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QctBJj3Ilhk From the outside viewer all of the events appear Chaotic, but from the point of view of a really insightful person it is actually a very Ordered set of events.

All of this matches my actual World View - what I think of the gods people call "trickster gods", like Loki, is that people view them from the wrong point of view. They are not evil or Chaotic, but so very Ordered that it is beyond the scope of normal Humans like us to understand. There is a SciFi novel I read a long time ago in which there were a group of people that lived thousands of years and they would do things that would seem random to normal people, but for them had payoffs hundreds of years in the future. I loved that story and have modeled my life around it.

Summary: Chaos is not what you think, it is probably just Order with a depth outside of your level of experience. And that is how I view Chaos, something that I do not understand, but somewhere, some being does and to him it appears as Order.

The Edward

Power

2011-05-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my brother and I read a lot of comic books. I'm not sure if he read them for the same reason I did - they were prescribed for me. The reading coach recommended them to my parents as a way to get me to start reading, in hopes of overcoming a problem, but that is too real world for this blog. The important part, as always, is the comic books.

I read Richie Rich, The Archies, etc. My brother read them as well, but he also read War-based comic books, which I didn't care for. Every so often he pointed out interesting stories to me, by interesting I of course mean weird - even then, he knew I like unusual stuff... some people never change.

At the time, we both remembered every book we owned by the covers. We could recall every story we had read, even though we had hundreds of books. But after all of these years, there is only one story that really has stuck with me and it was one that my brother told me about from one of his War comics. It was a story that changed my life.

The story was about a troop of men, they were supposed to pick up this one guy and transport him home. He was a person who, when people heard his name, trembled in fear. When they arrived at the spot to get him, they were shocked to find that he was dressed not in military gear, but in loose flowing clothes and only carrying two knifes, no guns or any real weapons. He looked so passive and weak, that they didn't believe it was the person they were looking for.

They took him on the boat to take him home, but during the trip he was distant, never really talked with anyone. They troop started making fun of him - they would pick on him, yet he never fought back. They couldn't believe they were spending their time taking this loser home when they had a War to be fighting, and they were disheartened that this most feared person looked like a "queer".

The boat stops to take care of one last thing before going home and the whole troop gets captured. They are facing overwhelming odds and knew they were all going to die or face a lifetime of torture. Then the lone solider they were escorting snaps out of it and wields his knifes like an insane killing machine. He slaughters all of enemies and when he gets to the last one on the edge of a cliff, the grabs him and jumps off the cliff taking the last enemy with him. He saved the troop, killed all of the enemies, and killed himself in the process.

The troop was in shock (as was I - "Why did he have to die?", I asked). They end up getting back to the base where they were to take the lone solider and there they hear his story. He had become so good at killing that he went "insane" - he realized that there was no pointing killing, because no one could stand in his way. He wasn't fighting the enemy, he was just slaughtering them like animals. He changed his clothes, changed his look, and dropped out of this world mentally in hopes of not being challenged ever again. When he had to give it up, he decided he would rather die than go back to his old life, so he did.

And that is my tale of Power. Power so great that it has nothing to push against. Power without equal leads to madness.

The Edward

PS There was another story that has stuck with me as well, from a Richie Rich story. I do not remember the details of the story other than one panel, but that one panel had a very powerful message for me as well. Next time (or the time after next).

Superman amongst us!

2011-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing rumours for a bit, various sightings, but this past week it has been confirmed - there is a superman living amongst us! Sure, there have been others in the past, but this one is here right now...

I've seen pictures of oil pipes - they are very large. I believe they are made of steel and large enough for a man to walk through. Well, walk on the inside, walking through would take a superman. These big pipes take large trucks and many, many people to put into place. But yet, I heard fear in the announcers voice today, and I why shouldn't I! It was quite clearly stated that they everyone was afraid that Muammar Gaddafi would destroy the pipeline and thereby cut off oil to the world. I mean the strength needed to pull this off is beyond my imagination! But then again, after this past week of him personally killing thousands of people, I can see why they would be afraid that this superman's path of destruction would know no bounds.

I know in the past we had Hilter, who killed millions of Jews, Gypsies, etc, but did he ever destroy a pipeline? That really takes a man of more than steel to rip through a steel pipeline like that!

What could the World's response be to someone like that? How can we mortal men, men who must work together to achieve what this one man can do in an afternoon all by himself, do anything to stop him? I can see why the news people think we are screwed if one man has that much natural power.

The Edward

Bad driver

2011-02-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

I heard something on the radio today - voices. So I looked and saw that the radio was off... nah, that would be the start of a horror story, one different from this one. The claim was that 80% of people think that they are better than average drivers. The hosts of the show chuckled about people's lack of understanding of percentages, but I chuckled at the hosts' lack of understand of other people's points of view.

While on the road driving, I ended up behind this SUV that was going at least 10 MPH under the speed limit. Traffic was kind of dense, both physically and mentally, so I decided that I didn't want to be stuck behind this SUV for the next quarter mile to my exit. I saw my gap and lunged for it. I was now passing the SUV! As one often does, I looked over to see what kind of moron I was passing - was she drooling out of one side of her mouth? Was she missing the top part of her head where the brain normally keeps higher, driving level functions? Could I see the stupid just dripping off of her? Nope, she was just a women who looked like she was amazed at all of the bad drivers around her.

The problem with people's self evaluation is: it is always that way for them. People who are bad drivers always have people trying to get around or away from them. So, everywhere they go, all they have ever known are bad drivers all around them, not realizing that they are the cause of what they are seeing. When polled, they would claim all other drivers suck, not thinking about how their own actions are causing what they are seeing.

I often have heard supermodels claim that they were ugly kids - people often think that the models are saying that because they want to appear less vain (ie they knew they were always pretty, but they want to seem humble). But think of it from there point of view. All day long, every day, as adults all they see are smiling faces and people hitting on them or wanting to be close to them. That is all they see. Some of us might see a smiling face every so often and apply our standards to the models. But for them, it isn't anything special to have people fawning over them all day long - that is just how the world is, in their eyes. When they think back over their childhood, the world wasn't all smiles, because most kids are socially awkward - other kids weren't all smiles or were too shy to fawn. So, from the model's point of view, she must not have been as attractive them, because the world wasn't as shiny/happy as it is now.

Can you imagine, every day, all day, all the people you see are just smiling at you? Everyone you meet wants to be your special friend? Everyone is very helpful? If it happened to you tomorrow, you would be very uncomfortable with it at some point. But after a period of time, you would just accept that that is the way the world is.

Combining the stories of the drivers and the models: ones point of view is influenced by what one sees all day long, but what one sees is also influence by ones perceptions. So, if you view The Universe as a friendly place... well, maybe I do not have a point to this blog entry, because I know I am a bad driver.

The Edward

How can I...

2011-01-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

How can I be happy when I know people are suffering? That is a question I ask myself all of the time. Well, I used to, but then since I knew the only answer that I would except was "I can't", I stopped asking. I'm not sure how people do it.

I remember as a kid, they used to have those long shows about people starving in Africa. They would show the kids with flies flying around them. The people had distended bellies, which made them seem like they wouldn't be starving, until someone explained to me what a distended belly actually implies. I wasn't sure how people could watch that show or even have knowledge of what was going on and yet go about their daily lives.

But, I eventually realized that that is the only thing one can do. Everyone can not do everything. For example, in the human body, not all organs can be the brain or the heart. So by going about ones life, one helps the common good. By focusing on the job at hand, one can produce, which in the long run will raise up civilization, which will then help everyone. A rising tide lifts all boats! The cells in the feet, while being constantly stepped on, get the brain to where it is going!

That was that I learned. That is how people deal with it. Well, that and people have the ability to shut out stuff like that. The human mind can only hold so much and it tends to forget things. The more painful it is, the more it is forgotten. If it weren't so, humans would collapse into a quivering pool of jello will all of the bad stuff that they would be aware of, stuff that would be haunting them all day and all night...

But, what if you couldn't forget? What if everything was just as fresh as the day it happened? What if those memories ran through your mind constantly? How could you enjoy life with the constant knowledge that others are suffering? Can you really enjoy a steak knowing that people have nothing to eat? Talk about the finer points of this meal vs that meal, when people are starving? Relax in the sun on a picnic knowing that people are freezing? I guess people do, and that is what makes us human. That is what allows us to survive as a species. So, I guess all species must be able to do this.

I know for me, on a personal note in this new year, it haunts me. All of the suffering that I become aware of stays with me. I think Wayne Dyer talks about never letting negative thoughts into ones mind, because they will be there forever, and he is correct. Still, once the cat is out of the bag, one can image that people are suffering, even if one doesn't personally know someone is. But, I'll say this, oneself being unhappy will not easy the pain or suffering of those who are unhappy. So, logically, there is no reason to be unhappy for someone else's suffering - either help if you can or ignore it. And if logic was actually able to shut off feelings, this would be a much different world - Vulcan.

After all of that, there is one thing that is wrong with all of that. It is just shifting the focus to solve the problem, which if one can do makes all of the difference. The actual question I should be answering is: How can I be suffering when I know people are happy? But that one seems to be a tougher one to live by.

The Edward

PS I also guess religion and philosophy help people, or better stated, the reason that religion and philosophy exist. Karma: So and so is suffering, therefore they must deserve it. Religion: they are not god's people, so he is smiting them. Or, they lived a righteous life and god is taking them home so that their suffering ends. New Age: People are responsible for their own lives - they must have chosen to suffer for some reason. Zen: There is no... Mine: Others are suffering, so therefore I ought to be suffering too.

All of them are just beliefs with no logical basis. And with a belief, one can easily dismiss things. "Does this situation fall under my beliefs? Check. Time to move on to fun stuff!"

Summary (I know, a summary in the PS?! Madness!): I guess Einstein was correct, the most important question one can ask is, do I believe the Universe to be hostile or friendly? Belief is the most important force in ones Universe!

Happy Belated John's Son Day!

2010-10-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

Holidays, is there nothing they can not do? Here it happened again that I missed celebrating the most celebratory of Holidays, John's Son Day. Why it seems like just four years ago that I was reminiscing over this Holiday and why we celebrate it every year. Though, realistically, this John's Son Day finds me without the means to celebrate - maybe next year!

To all of those who did celebrate it, I hope it was a blast!

The Edward

Where you going there, little fellow?

2010-10-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

I heard a story the other day on the radio, and now I know we are screwed as a species. It was a rescue story about a pod of whales. Some Humans had discovered a pod of whales heading for shallow water and gathered many other Humans to prevent the whales from going to a place where we knew that they would surely die. Maybe people helped and I believe almost all of the whales were returned to the ocean, where they would be safe. The story was told with such a positive note that I had trouble believing that none of the news staff understood the dire implications.

First off, the "rescuers" believed that the whales didn't know what they were doing. That the Humans could look at the whales and know that they didn't intend to go into the shallow waters. Maybe the whales had their reasons! Maybe they were great whale explorers, swimming into uncharted waters, ready to claim a new area for their whale country. Maybe they were planning on offing themselves because they had some disease that would kill the rest of whales if they came into contact with them. Maybe they were suicide-whales hoping to take out some enemy creature. The Humans involved didn't know nor care, they thought they knew better and took action then patted themselves on the back for a "good deed done" while this belief was probably the furthest thing from the Truth.

Secondly, the belief that the whales were doing something deadly or dangerous and that we had the moral obligation to prevent them, even if it stymied the whales' plans, whatever they were. This is the one that will hurt the Humans the most. Picture Humans in space, flying around, exploring and sending data back to the Home World - very valuable information that all Humans want and a few put themselves in potential harms way to gather. But, the Aliens they meet will see the Humans as the Humans saw the whales. If it is really a moral obligation to help out a species if the "greater" species knows better, any Aliens the Humans meet will simply return these lost people to their Home World, then tell all their Alien friends about how good they feel about themselves for helping the lost Humans by preventing them from possibly going somewhere dangerous.

We should proudly help the whales achieve their objective as we hope to some day be helped by a more advanced race.

The Edward

I helped someone today!

2010-08-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Get this, I was at the grocery store just a little bit ago. On the way in, I saw that they had a BBQ pit outside with a sign that said one should pay inside the store then come out and get ones tasty BBQ'ed treats. Who knew that this BBQ Pit would enable me to help someone - more on this later...

Anyway, so I made haste into the store! After I bought the basket full of frozen foods that were my original intent, I bought a ticket for two hot dogs.

We had been having a cool-wave this summer, which finally broke today - it is 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the summer (ie 93 outside right now, rather than the 72 we had been having). So I rushed to my car, dropped off my groceries, then was rushing back to get my hot dogs... and that is when it happened!

A smartly dressed woman pushing a baby carriage walked up to me and said, "Pardon me, but could you help me?" I was so taken aback that I stopped. I waited to hear what it was that she needed my help for! Maybe she needed directions, ie she was lost. Or maybe she needed to know the time. Or maybe some other simple thing I could say to solve her problem before I got my hot dogs and my groceries melted.

And I kept waiting. At this point, I realized that she was either going to ask me for money, in that she was a scammer, or she needed honest help of a larger magnitude than I could supply at that time. Since she knew what her problem was and she was willing to stand there for 10 or more seconds staring at a stranger waiting for an answer, she must have thought that the solution would require more than 10 seconds to solve. So, even though I didn't know the exact nature of the problem, I knew what she considered the duration to be - very long.

Either she was going to have to spend a long time trying to convince me to give her money, or it would require a lot of grunting and sweating on my part - neither of which sounded good at that time. So, I said, "No" and walked on to get my hot dog. I couldn't believe how much I helped her! If I hadn't be going to that hotdog stand, I would have missed an opportunity.

The end.

I know, some people may be asking for the punchline - "but Edward, where in the story did you help her? She asked you for help, and you said No!" But that is where I helped her. Evaluating her situation, I knew the outcome. She would have either tried to scam me, which would have been a waste of my time and hers, or she would have spend a lot more time explaining the problem to me with me in the end not doing what it was that she wanted. Either way, she wasn't going to get what she wanted from me, so by saying No as quickly as I could, I gave her the freedom to find someone else who would be more capable of helping. Just because I might have been the first person she asked, I definitely wasn't the best person to ask. By the time I had my hot dogs in hand, she was nowhere to be seen, so she must have found someone to do what she wanted.

Also, I couldn't help her. What she was really asking was if I would do something for her, not to help her. And since she didn't tell me in her opening remarks, she obviously thought that my initial reaction to her request, if I knew the full details, would be No. Since she was trying to bait a trap, I felt that I never really could help her in the grand scheme of things, so I would at least help her by giving her more time to find someone else - someone on whom the trap would work better.

I was just happy that I answered the question correctly!

The Edward

Love having written

2010-06-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

I was reading more from my latest link under DIVERSIONS, "You are not so smart" - an interesting blog. It ties in with a movie I just watched called "Dreams with Sharp Teeth", which is a documentary on the life of Harlan Ellison (he has authored a lot of books and stuff). I really liked the movie - very inspirational. Sure, he likes to sue people and seems like he can be kind of abrasive, but he seemed like a good guy to know. Maybe some day...

There was a lot of interesting insights in the movie, but one of the key insights that stuck with me was him talking about other writers. Well, people he didn't think too highly of as being writers. He said he hears this all of the time, "I like having written, but I hate writing." He said that kind of person isn't a writer, he is a hack. Harlan loves to write as well as having written. He said something about a true writer, if had his hands and feet tied behind his back, would be tapping out words on his typewriter with his forehead. I think a typewriter is a type of word processor for really slow computers.

It is that dedication to writing that seems to fit into the sentence I hear from self-help (really, self-help from others...) people: "Do what you love and the money will follow." It always seemed like a platitude. After seeing the movie, I could see that here was a person who loved what he did and seemed to be enjoying success. Maybe there was some truth to this? But what was that truth...

I was still mulling this over in my mind, trying to see how it all fit in with what I know of this World, when I stumbled upon "You are not so smart." There was a blog post about the two people inside of everyone - just like this "move" I was watching the other day. This all came together for me. You can read his blog post about it for clarification of his idea, but this is my post about how it all ties together.

One of you thinks only of the now. The other you always thinks of the past. We all try to balance this fun-loving, live-the-now you and the you that wants to have memories to reflect on. The author claims this is a challenge, which seems true. But then Harlan Ellison comes to mind and his quote. The best way to balance the two yous is to love what you do and do what you love. :)

Build memories (people who like having written) and enjoy the now (people who love to write). Resolve the conflict to a better life! If the now-you likes something that the past-you will like to reflect on in the future, you have a winner!

The Edward

Bystander Effect

2010-06-02T23:09:00.001-07:00

I remember it like it was yesterday. A few years ago I was in Japantown with some friends. We were in a restaurant enjoying our food when a most shocking event occurred! A man burst through the kitchen amid raised voices, and he was brandishing a large knife, which I had assumed he lifted on his way through the kitchen. He trip and fell to the floor near our table. I got up and ran out of the restaurant. Shortly others came out. Why did I run? Better yet, why did it take others much longer than me to leave?

I was reading about the Bystander Effect just a few moments ago. It has happened many times throughout history - it happens every day actually. ("it" not being me reading about the Bystander Effect, but the Effect itself, just to clarify) The first time I heard about it was in High School psychology class. The story was about a woman who was raped and stabbed in New York City while 30+ watched. No one called the police. There was outrage after the event! "How could these inhuman monsters just watch this woman be brutalized for so long without any of them lifting a finger to call for help?!"

It was a shocking story, but it is repeated every time someone drives past a car on the side of a busy road. Everyone thinks that someone else will help, someone else has or will take action. Or they do not want to feel like a fool, "There probably have been twenty other people who have called it in! They will tell me that they know about it already." So no one does.

The same with the woman in the New York City that I had heard about. But I also learned a trick at that time. In situations like that, when people can see other people, no one will take action. They will look around and see that everyone else is calm, so they think that if the other people are calm, I should be calm to, or else I will look like a fool.

So, if someone is brutalizing you, calling out for help will not work - no one will help. The trick is to get someone to take action, so you have to call out someone specific in order to change the crowd. Point to someone and say "You, help me!" If you know the name of one of the people around you, let's say Bob, say "Bob, help me!" Once it is personal, people realize something is wrong and action needs to be taken. The crowd will turn. I hope you never need this advice, but if the situation occurs, it could save your life.

Back to my situation all of those paragraphs ago - I ran out, making noise on the way, so that others would know that the situation was wrong/dangerous. I hoped that by breaking the calm that the diners had, they would take action quicker than if I did any other thing. I do not know if it had that effect for sure, but at least that was my goal based on the psychology of crowds and influence.

The Edward

Dirt Phase

2010-04-06T16:53:00.001-07:00

I heard a story the other day, the claim on the news was that there is this jellyfish that is immortal! I thought, "Wow, that must be tough to verify!" How does one verify if one is immortal? But then again, that isn't the point for today...

In reading the story online, I found out that this jelly fish goes through many stages of life, but when it gets to the end, it just cycles back. So, young, middle, old, then young again. Based on this, the scientists claim that this jellyfish is immortal. Shocking, I know! Hard to believe that they were that logically incorrect and still made the news!

What does immortal mean? Everything changes. Take you for example, today you know things that you didn't yesterday and you probably forgot things that you knew yesterday. If we expand that out for a few decades, at what point are you not you? General Semantics answers this question - something I blogged about a long time ago. You are not you. Every time you change anything, you have changed - an old you has died and a new you born with someone else's memories. Every second is a rebirth! So, am I saying every second should be your birthday? Yes, yes I am.

"But," you might be thinking "the story of the jellyfish is different! They mean that it is the same continuous life form! Sure, there are differences, but it is the same." Actually, it isn't the same. When it is young again, what did it lose? It has changed, its chemicals are different, its memories are different... Is a butterfly the same as a larva? Is a hamburger the same as a cow?

Throwing all that I believe away, we can celebrate the scientists' discovery of immortal life! If this creature goes through many phases and yet we consider it to be the same creature, just with different memories and different chemicals and some of its old chemicals have been used by other creatures, then I am proud to announce that I just discovered that humans are immortal!

That's right, you read it here first, Humans Are Immortal! They start as babies, go through young adult, adult, old age, then the newly announced dirt phase. During the dirt phase, there is some memory loss and loss of functionality, but so again, the matter that made up this "dirt phase human" goes back into the system and a new human is born!

I can not wait for the science to be able to track me back through my past "lives". Some day, I hope to recover all of my lost memories, something that the jellyfish can not do. So, I guess we humans are even more immortal than the jellyfish, or at least we will be some day. And since we are immortal, today is the same as a million years, so I can wait.

The Edward

Cover Me

2010-03-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

I heard the news - the US has passed some sort of Health Insurance Reform. We can all probably agree that it would be great if everyone had health care for their entire lives (not so sure about insurance, but care is good). And we all know that the only reason everyone in this country doesn't have full health care coverage is because of evil corporations, evil insurance companies, and evil doctors/hospitals. Given that all of that is true, we have nothing to disagree about, so we can move on to a thought experiment!

Imagine a strange world, a world in which health cover is expensive not because of evil people, but for some other reason. In this other world, let's see if we can figure out why health coverage is high and what they could do to meet the goals of: 1) cheap coverage and 2) coverage for everyone. As I said, this is some other world, not ours, so nothing to get upset over, just a thought experiment.

Let's imagine that the rules that we have here of economics works there as well. Let's say that as demand of something rises, if the supply doesn't also rise, the cost will go up. So, if they added 30 million new people into the demand for something, but didn't change the supply, say the number of doctors/hospitals, then the price would have to rise.

If these things are true, then we can see why health care costs so much - a lot of demand, but a limited supply. Unless, in this other world, there are hospitals just sitting empty and doctors with no patients, because if that were the case, then there would be an oversupply, which would have caused the prices to fall, and since we stated that the prices were high, we can assume that all of the hospitals are full and all of the doctors are busy, just like here.

Now, as mentioned, we add 30 million new people with demands, which is good, if these people are sick, we want them taken care of. But, if there are no idle doctors and the hospitals are already full, where will those people go? Who will treat them? So, prices would rise in this strange land.

Now let's say that their government decide to step in and fix this rising price problem by fixing prices, what do we think will happen next? Price can not rise, supply will not change, demand will be high, so the only thing that happen is rationing. There was rationing before, it was just set by price, those who could pay got the rations. Under this new system, rations will have to be set some other way, by some government agency. That person will decide who gets health care and when, and to make sure it is fair, it will be decided by who can fill out the government mandated paperwork the best or who will wait in the longest lines. There is no other way with the rules as stated.

But, you say, why did I propose all of these things, create a thought experiment that has no solution? Well, you are wrong, I see a solution - do you?

The only thing that actually isn't fixed is supply. If prices are high, and demand is high, one just has to increase supply to bring down demand. So, if this other world government instead increased the number of doctors, increased the availability of medical supplies (instead of putting a 10% tax on them, which will cause fewer of them to be sold), increased the number of hospitals, etc, made the supply so overwhelming, the price would naturally fall. Doctors and hospitals would be begging for business, trying to increase their demand.

So, I'm suggesting, that is this other world, that if the government feels that they need to do something to decrease price, increase quality of care, and achieve their goals, there is only one solution: pay for loans for doctors so that there are more, create science programs to research better medical technology, increase production of medical devices, and make more land available for hospitals, just to name a few.

But we do not live in that land. We live in a world where evil people are stopping us from getting health care, a land were people would let their fellow humans suffer and die rather than lose a profit margin. Too bad, the other world has a way out of their problem.

The Edward

It happened again... thoughts?

2010-01-06T21:34:00.000-08:00

Using Edward's Arcane World for non-view purposes? Is this how I'm going to do it in the New Year? Well, maybe this is my view of your world... sort of.

Something odd happens to me every so often, and I have no explanation for it. Actually, that is a lie, many things weird happen to me all of the time, which is one of the many reasons why I started this blog. But this one thing stands out from the rest, because I feel that there has to be an explanation for it! Any doctors out there?

It happened again tonight, so I explain the situation and see if you can tell me what is the cause.

I can not eat spicy food. I really just tastes like burn to me. Everything burns, my lips, my hands, my mouth, my tongue, my stomach, etc, you get the idea. I've tried over the years to build my tolerance to spicy with mixed results. It still burns, but every so often, I make my way through something mildly spicy without being sick.

But, here is the weird part... every so often, I can not taste nor feel spicy food. Not at all. I can eat the spiciest thing I can find, and it has no burn whatsoever. None. I can taste everything else fine, I try other flavors and I can tell them all apart. But not spicy.

It has happened only a few times in my life, though it could happen more frequently but I am unaware of it since I rarely even try spicy food. But it happened tonight. I ordered a very spicy dish, and nothing. Others told me it was spicy. I got home and tried some hot sauce, nothing. Chocolate, fine. Salt, fine. Every other flavor I've tried, a-okay. No burning on the lips, mouth, stomach, nothing.

I admit, it kind of worries me in some ways. Can my reality change so much? Is spicy really just in my mind? Has my mind been causing this burning all a long? Hard to imagine, since the pain seems so real and it matches others experiences with spicy. Or is it that my mind can just block it out sometimes? Or is it something else... like aliens trying to sent crop circle to my taste buds? Or some horrible crippling disease for which this is the first symptom? Will I be coughing up blood in the morning? Who knows?! Maybe it would be more fun than it sounds.

Has anyone every had anything like this happen to someone they know or even to themselves? I mean really, crop circles in the mouth sounds too exotic to be real, and yet, I have no better explanation.

I hope to find an answer! Somehow. I've searched online. I've asked people. Now I will ask you. Though, I am sure there is an intersection of some of the afore mentioned groups. Non-people should feel free to reply as well.

Talk to you again soon.

The Edward

Vaginas are a lot of fun to play with...

2010-01-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

That line was the teaser for the next episode of a dating show I watched when visiting my family back East. It been with me ever since then. The line was spoken by one of the dating counselors to one of her male clients on the phone. This dating service has one rule, no sex until both people are committed to each other in a monogamous relationship. That is the premise of the show (and that the men are millionaires, while the women are not): they set up some dates for the "couple", film it, then show the aftermath of the clients breaking that one rule.

"Vaginas are a lot of fun to play with, but you are not marrying a vagina." That is my recollection of how that quote ended. The idea is that people going to the dating show are looking for someone to marry. Probably most of the women these men date have a vagina and could have a lot of fun as a couple with it, but the vagina overwhelms the sense of what it would take for a long term relationship. They even state something like that. Yet, it is a lie.

For the parts of the show I saw, it was always the same. They have a great first date based on the feedback of the women. They are wined and dined like never before by these millionaires. Then they go one a few more dates and decide that they want to lock the man into the relationship by having sex with him. Then they end up on the show again crying, saying that he got what he wanted and now the relationship is over. The interesting part was that they actually called both parties on it, they would tell the women off for trying to entrap the man with vagina and call the man for using his vast resources to overwhelm the women into thinking they needed to have sex or else he would look elsewhere.

So, even though the premise is that sex is common and easy and can skew ones sense of goals, it turns out that both parties want to have sex but for different reasons - neither of the parties actually believed that there was long term viability of the relationship.

What I came away with is that part of their initial premise is correct, people who are going to last long term do not seem to have sex right away. They know that they can have sex easily, but they want to focus on making sure that they person they are dating is actually a good partner. Once that is established, then sex is a part of their relationship. But for people who know that there is no real long term potential, they go for it as soon as they can, so that they at least get something for their efforts.

Why has this stuck with me? Because of the entire show, that seemed to be the only honest thing in it, and it seemed to be a very good summary of dating - I had never thought of as good and of as succinct way of explaining my view of sex to other people as that one line. Vaginas, in my experience, have been indeed a lot of fun to play with, but I am not looking to marry a vagina, but find a partner.

The Edward

Cool New Ponzi Scheme to Join!

2009-07-16T00:34:00.000-07:00

Ponzi Schemes seem to be everywhere there days! With their ever increasing popularity, it gave cause to some thoughts about your World.

The population of the World is increasing. Each generation adds additional demands upon the limited resources of the World. What is the best way for our generation to make the most of it? How do we get our fair share? It's as easy as sin!

How do Ponzi Schemes work? Say you want a million dollars. Now say you go out and find 1000 suckers who will give you $1000 each. Why would they do this, you ask? Because you tell them that you will give them $2000. But where will you get this $2,000,000 (ie 1000 people at $2,000 each is your debt) from since you only have $1,000,000? You go out and find more people to give you $1000 each and give that money to the first people! And why do these new people give you money? Because you tell them that you will give them $2000 each. Go back to step one and repeat. Basically, as long as you have future suckers willing to give you money to pay off your past debts, you can keep that initial $1,000,000 for yourself!

Combining these two ideas we get what we have today! We can borrow money from the future, ie the children of today, by telling them that we will give them a lot more money in the future if they just give us a bunch of money now. Then they do the same thing to the next generation. Repeat!

And why will this work? It works because there are more people in each generation. As long as we keep ahead of the borrowing curve by producing more children, we can, generation after generation, live in the lap of luxury! We can fuck ourselves into a good life.

Just keep it up, we need a new larger generation of suckers in order for the Ponzi Scheme of Life to succeed! The more children in the next generation, the better our current lives will be, since we will have much more to borrow against.

The Edward

Hello Stranger

2009-07-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

I was reading something the other day, something that I have heard many times throughout my life: The Universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine. Then I thought about it... am I not part of this Universe? Doesn't that imply something about me?

The one thing I like about that quote is that it fits nicely with my World View. Or Universe View. Why is it that Humans assume that they can understand the Universe? Can dogs understand our World? Give enough time, would they understand our Science? What makes us believe that we have the mental facilities to understand the Science of the Universe?

If an Alien lands tomorrow, I doubt we could understand their Science, even if we have all the Time in the World. Our Belief about the Universe and its rules... shocking!

The Edward

My view indeed!

2009-06-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.sciencecodex.com/individual_primates_display_variation_in_general_intelligence - it appears that one of my posts came true! Score another one for the Arcane World.

I guess it is as the old saying goes, "Even a blind monkey finds a nut once in a while."

The site I found this article linked from was filled with comments like "Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense." Man alive, can you imagine a world in which everyone read Edward's Arcane World... the madness that would ensue.

Well, you are asking yourself, "Did he break his vow of silence to come here and gloat? Is that all he is reduced to these days?" No, I came here to congratulate you. You read the posts from before and are reading this one now - you are one of the well informed. You knew that there was variances in monkey IQ years before science came around to even considering it. While everyone else is going, "Hey, that kind of makes sense. Look at me, I know something new! Ook ook", you are smugly sitting around saying "I knew that years ago, tell me something that I don't know."

Good job. Keep up the good work. I'm guessing that the next blog-to-come-true will be the classic theory on dinosaur satellites - just watch and see, soon everyone will be going "Oh yeah, that makes sense."...

The Edward

PS Assume 10,000 years of human history. Now imagine all of that happening again and again a 1,000 more times. Now realize that that is still less time than the dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

About that God fellow

2009-05-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

I heard something on the radio today - but what would I do with an extra 2-3 inches? After that I heard someone call to tell the host about God, which was weird. Weird, because I was just thinking about God right before I turned on the radio. I had just realized something, something that I had read in Ram Tzu's book, something about God being in the outhouse.

I was thinking about Right and Wrong. God, I was told, created man in His image, gave him the power to decide between Right from Wrong, etc. Something I never really thought about before though: Does God know Right from Wrong?

Assume that there is a God as described. Why would he create a being, and allow him to choose between Right and Wrong, but if he chooses Wrong he gets the opportunity to burn forever in Hell? Seems like there is no real choice there. But that was when I realized it, How can there be a Wrong?

God, before He created man, would have had to know Everything. Contained within him would be thoughts that we consider Wrong. If there is a Right and Wrong, then they must be ideals outside of God, and God chooses Right. If God didn't know Right and Wrong and was just the embodiment of Right, how could he create a Devil or create humans that knew of Wrong - how can there be anything other than God? So, either everything is part of God, all thoughts and deeds and etc, or God deals with Right and Wrong on a daily basis just like we do, but he choose Right and punishes those who choose Wrong.

Ram Tzu stated something about the "clever" look for God in churches and temples, but he then follows that by saying Ram Tzu knows that God is also in the outhouses and abattoirs. I'm going to have to agree with him on this point - God would be everywhere and everything. All thoughts that we judge as Right and Wrong are really just right and wrong to us. There is no such distinction for God.

The Edward

PS The man on the radio was calling to tell the host that his opinion was wrong. The host thought that a woman having an abortion after being raped was a-okay. The man calling was claiming that God had a plan for that baby and that the host would never know the love of God because of his views on abortion. The host was claiming that there was no God because if so, God would have stopped the rape. Because of my thoughts just before I turned on the radio, I realized that both were wrong.

Experiments

2009-04-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

This ia post I was working from a year and a half ago. Oh how my style has changed. Oh how much of a wimp I have become always taking the safe route in my posts. Oh how much I used to talk about pussy and try to fit in as many naughty words as I could just to prove to people that I actually do "swear". Oh how this post, in its unedited form from 10/28/2007, will seem confusing, since the topic thread that it was a continuation of, is so long dead. Still, should be fun to see the reaction! Mine and yours! :) So, here you go, a gift from the past:

As most recently stated, I think of "want" to be equivalent of rape or stealing. If what I stated about myself is true (ie not wanting anything), how do I live, you might ask? Experiments!

It is all a matter of ownership. That pussy you want to fuck belongs to someone. That money you want in your bank account is already in someone else's. If they do not willingly give it to you, and you want it, then you either want to rape it or steal it. Just like the Vikings! :)

Without attachments to the results is a Zen like way to live. And if one isn't attached to the results, there are many things one can do. Say you meet someone and you wonder what it would be like to fuck him or her. (I'll stick with her for now, based on my bias.) You could pursue her in hopes that she will willingly fuck you at some point, a valid strategy to alleviate the want. And once you know her, you might realize that you do not want her, that you spent all of that time and money only to find out that she isn't really what you want. What a waste. Which is why people sit in the background and want. With wanting, she is the ideal woman, no flaws, no conflict, just pure perfection. I think this is what leads people to actually commit rape, they want that person just as she is now in their minds, and if they become involved, she will be just a common person like everyone else. Just a guess since I have never met a real rapist luckily.

Another option is the Zen option. You see her and you see a lot of other women. You think it would interesting in a general sense to have sex. So, you set things in place, keywords here and there, chance meetings, etc, whatever you think will make a good experiment. Then you let the experiment run and see what happens. You do not care whether you fuck her or someone else or no one, because you do not want anything that anyone else has. You are curious to see what others will give you.

A simple example: you say to someone, "I haven't had sex in a while, want to go for it?" If someone says yes, then you have learned something. You do not want something from that person, you are just seeing what is being offered.

Experiments. Try to live life like one. Be the passive observer. Set up the experiment, but do not be attached to the results. This paragraph I am writing now, 1.5 years after the above text. It is my summary of what I was trying to say back then. Interesting, at least to me, on how I never actually got to that point in the monologue. Interesting also is that I cringe while reading it, even though I still think it is funny/interesting. And yet... how much of what I post is a lie, from then and now... oh how much...

The Edward

Seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade

2009-04-26T22:09:00.001-07:00

Not just pretty words. I know we're all concerned about the environment. So, this morning, let's discuss how to prevent forest fires. Do you think that when a new baby arrives, one of the other children has to die? Oh, no. He lives.

Well, now that that is out of the way, Hello. And welcome to another edition of Movie Quotes. Tonight's quotes were brought to you courtesy of that lovable 1993 movie, Addams Family Values. Enjoy the hijinx of love slaves and summer camp. See people roped and bound for the pleasure of the viewing audience. Laugh at the death of a family member. And most importantly, hear the quotes that are quotable, and of course repeat them throughout the day tomorrow so that way people who have not yet seen the movie can enjoy the highlights of the movie with you.

Your friends will burst out laughing, as shown in these example:

Biff: Hey there friend, how was your weekend? Do anything new or exciting?
You: Do you know what happens if my mother uses a fabric softener?
Biff: Uh, no?
You: I die.
Biff and You laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

Biff: I just finished this report and I'm going to present it to the big cheese. Give me your honest opinion.
You: Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character and the Aristotelian unities.
Biff and You laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

You, alone in a room: ...look at all of the other children, their freckles, their bright little eyes, their eager, friendly smiles. Help them.
You laugh and laugh and laugh, never leaving the quiet safety of that room again. Thanks Addams Family!

The Edward

Fox News Lies

2009-04-22T22:17:00.001-07:00

Well, there you have it. I can not believe it. I was watching Fox News at someones house very recently and I was shocked! I know, people have been telling me for years that Fox News lies. I never really paid much attention to those claims, until now...

They had a breaking news story. Coming up next, Area 51! The story was to be about alien spacecraft told by people who worked at Area 51. They planned to spill their guts and I was going to watch it all happen live! But then they brought out the two guys who proceeded to tell lie after lie about how there were no alien crafts there and how everything that the public saw in the night skies were really supersonic refueling ships that they have invented/developed. The bold lies they told!

After this, I knew the truth, Fox News really is full of lies. I must doubt every story that they air because I disagreed with one of them. Everything must be biased! How sad. :( But, I guess all of those people who have been telling me this for years must be right - I apologize for doubting you! They used point to one or two stories that they thought were wrong, even though they weren't personally there, and then make the claim that all of the other stories must be false as well. Shocking.

Though, now that I think about it, I've actually been at the site of news stories before... and then saw it on tv or in the paper or in a magazine... and in each of those cases, they were wrong. Maybe all news is biased? Maybe all news is pumped up to sell more ads? Maybe they target the news at their audiences?... Nah, if that were the case, then Fox News wouldn't have aired that Area 51 piece, would they? Unless...

The Edward

Superbowl Sunday - what a bust

2009-02-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

Well, this is the first Superbowl that I have missed in 20-ish years. But I could tell by the silence that nothing happened.

See, I've been watching it all of these years, but for a different reason. Some people watch it for the commercials, which I also do enjoy seeing. Some people are big sports fans and love the game - I somewhat enjoy the game, sometimes. But for me, I watch it every year for the same reason that I watch the Olympics. And pretty much the same reason I watch parades, inaugurations, or any other world-wide event that gathers huge crowds and huge TV audiences. Aliens.

See, if they wanted to land and not have to hunt down every human one by one and tell them that they are here and that everything is going to be fine now that our Space Brothers have returned, that would too long so they would have a better way. A more logical and efficient means to this spreading this information is to do it where and when all of the humans have focused their attention. So I watch these human events with a passive eye, hoping that each new event will final result in the Big Reveal.

Back when I used to listen to Art Bell every night for almost a decade, I realized something. I asked myself, "If aliens landed while Art was off the air and I was asleep, how would I find out? What would be different?" I came to believe that I would wake up to a new world, but one probably in chaos. So, if I woke up to silence rather than the sounds of people screaming in the streets, then another non-alien night had passed. The same thing happened this past weekend, based on the absence of sound only.

The Edward

PS I hope this finally explains why, after all of these years, I still do not know the rules of football...

Still More with the Blind?

2009-01-08T00:13:00.000-08:00

Fear not! All is not lost! This blog will not turn into a Land of the Blind blog! This is probably the final set of thoughts on this topic for a while!

Also, fear not! For all is not lost! This sighted person in the land of the blind would have things to do - ways to entertain himself! Let me use an analogy to explain.

When adults are around kids, they can do things like "I got your nose" and "Show me on this doll" - things that kids wouldn't understand how it works, but you as an adult would. One could hide things from them, trick them with easy subterfuge, do stupid things to make them laugh, etc. Kind of like a movie that is good for both kids and adults - there are things that the kids get out of it and a different level to the dialog that only adults would understand.

A sighted person could do similar things - he could become a trickster, gaining some measure of happiness from playing games with those around him. He would treat them as adults treat children in our society. Not in a cruel way, just in a way that allows him to fit in, to be the joker of the group, maybe?

In writing all of this, I realized that this is what the gods of old must have been like. The idea being that they had access to information beyond the mortal keen, so the things that they did made no sense to the humans, but perfect sense to other gods. Gods like Loki, who was considered a trickster god. Was he just a bored lonely god who played with humans in ways that they couldn't understand but would make perfect sense if one had his god-like abilities? Food for thought, but I guess none of us humans will ever know.

The Edward

Domain Specific Knowledge in the Land of the Blind

2009-01-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

Not to seem like I am picking on blind people, but consider this more of belaboring a point - a point made in the previous post (or next depending on the order in which you are reading these). Let's add another quote to the mix "If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?!" The point of this quote is the same as that of the other, if you have something that others lack, you should be able to use that ability to rise above your fellow man. I bet you thought that those quotes were talking about different things, didn't you? Go on, admit it, no one else will hear you. I'll wait for you... There, don't you feel better now...

Let's look at a doctor in the land of the blind. He would have tools that allowed surgery based on sounds. They would be fine and dandy tools, highly optimized for the senses of the people of that world. Yet, we throw a sighted person into the mix - what would that do? He could see things that the doctor might miss, due to the limited scope of the world. Could this sighted person perform the surgery? No, he wouldn't have the specific knowledge of the surgeon, but he could know things that were beyond what the doctor could ever know. Would the doctor stop what he was doing because of this madman's ravings that something isn't right, something that the doctor can not sense? Probably not.

What am I saying? Even being sighted in the land of the blind, unless he learns knowledge specific to tasks, he would be limited to knowing that things are not right, but not be able to fix them. One has to have the knowledge in order to make changes. He could see the problems, he just couldn't fix them, therefore people probably wouldn't listen to him. He would seem like an endless whiner "Why did you do it that way? It was obviously going to fail because of this thing here? I can't tell you how I know there is something there that you can not hear, but trust me, it failed because of that. I can not tell you how to do it right so as to avoid that thing there - you have to trust me and use your knowledge to avoid the obstacles that I am pointing out to you. Yes, you are the expert in the this field, and yes no one else in this world knows why this always fails, but I am telling you I know why." Sad, isn't it.... my ability to write convincing dialog sounds more like ramblings, but I hope you get the point. What was the point again...

Ah yes, the point. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man would be king. And in a land of idiots, the smart people would be rich. And in the land of blogs, this post is finished.

The Edward

Land of the Blind, Home of the...

2009-01-06T02:46:00.000-08:00

"In the land of the blind, the one eyed man would be king" If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that and thought "If only they knew..."... Well, there will be no further excuses, for now I will tell you, so then you will know, without all of those ellipsis...

Imagine, if you will, in a world where everyone was blind, what would life be like for these people in this world? People would know where others were by the noises that they made. People who wanted to practice subterfuge would be able to cast sounds, to make it sound like they were somewhere else. "I couldn't have done it officer, everyone could plainly hear that I was over there." How about plays and other forms of entertainment? Actors would be all over the stage, but yet it would be how they threw their voices to give the illusion (what is the word for a sound illusion?) of being other places on the stage, and make sounds to make the audience believe something else was happening. Special Effects in "movies" would be cool sound distortions. Etc.

Now, imagine if you will, a person with sight being born into this world. He would know that he could sense things that others couldn't, but he couldn't describe them to anyone else. There would be no words for what he senses, so how could he find others like himself? "But" you say, "why would he want to, the quote says that he would be King! To rule over others! Bwah, ha ha!" Let's put that aside for a moment.

What would the aforementioned world be like to this person born unto the sightless? People of lesser character would cozy up to him and try to rob or trick him. They would make it sound like they were far away, yet he could see them right there next to him. What could he do? "Everyone else in the world knows that you are way over there by the sounds that you are making, and yet I know it not to be true. I can see you stabbing me in the back!" All the felon would have to do is say "You are mad! I am way over here. I have witnesses." as he continues to assault this poor sighted fellow. Even the minor deceits that friends, family, and common folk do to keep privacy, etc, would be transparent to him, yet there would be nothing he could do or say about it.

What about plays and movies and such? Surely this god amongst blind men would have some solace in the venue of the arts! But he would be able to perceive more than everyone else, he could see the fakery so clearly, in ways that sound-only couldn't convey. He would see that the people are not were they sound to be. He would know that he is supposed to believe certain things are happening on stage or in the movie based on what he learned through socialization, but he couldn't easily ignore the input from his eyes without going mad, now could he? The blinds' plays would seem hollow and meaningless to him.

So, this sighted man could be King. But could he? He wouldn't understand most of what is going on around him, since he would have to figure out what others knew based on their limited senses, then try to talk as if that were real. He wouldn't enjoy any of the entertainment. He would see all of things that decent people keep to themselves. Indeed, if he wanted to, he could probably keep part of himself shutoff when dealing with others, though use the extra information to become King, but why? Why would he want to rule people he has nothing in common with? People who would argue every lest detail of his decisions because they couldn't see what he sees? And beyond that, what could these people offer him?

Would he want to marry one of their kind? Who would take someone so obviously mad? And if he found someone, he could never share the sights and wonders on his world with her - a life with someone he loved would be endlessly frustrating to both people. So, his only hope would be to rise to a comfortable position in the world, a place where he could cast his visual net out far enough in hopes of one day meeting others like him, but with no real way to really achieve that goal. He would have to watch everyone, see if anyone does something inconsistent with being blind. He would also have to do things, subtle things that the blind wouldn't notice, but something that he hopes another sighted people would see. He would have to fit in, while still being slightly out of sync in ways that he hopes would be obvious to another sighted person. Can you imagine his life like that? Can you still believe that the sighted man in the land of the blind would be a good thing, something that one would want for oneself or a loved one? The loneliness with the constant soul crushing hope of discovery? Bwah, ha, ha, indeed!

Next time you hear that tired old phrase, remember my words, and know that the above is what I think every time I hear them. The phrase actually is saying that people envy those who have something that they do not themselves have, but it doesn't take into account that a different life has different troubles. Sure, someone might have more of something than you have, but they can not enjoy life in the same way that you can.

Enjoy!

The Edward

Enough with the delays!

2009-01-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing it for months now "The Edward, what happened? We hung on your every word. Your blog posts were like manna from Heaven. Please nourish us in thought and in deed." Indeed, but even manna from Heaven was bitched about after many months and years of nothing else. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Two pigs in a poke. Etc.

Actually, I started to believe that I wasn't doing myself and my audience justice! I would see or hear things throughout the day, and I would say to myself, "Shit, man, that is some whacked shit, I should write about that shit", though without all of that shit. But by the time the day has worn on, and I would settle down for a good, hard writing session, I found that I could no longer remember the fine details nor clever twists of ideas that my fine readers have come to expect. So, I would write a bit, try to recall the details, and put fingers to keys in what I hoped was a meaningful manner.

I saw what I was writing, and though it still made me chuckle a bit, it wasn't the same as some of my other writings that I enjoyed so much. I did not feel that I was always getting the point across in the manner I was hoping for. So, I did what any red blooded American would do - I stopped doing it in hopes that it would get better. Now I see like a virgin on his wedding night that I was doing it all wrong! I should have been writing more, honing my skills like a two edged blade, but one with enough space left to get a good grip on it so that I could use it without cutting myself.

So, even though the topic of this blog site is My View of Your World, I guess this one fails yet again in that mission, yet I hope it is more of a Me Too kind of post - one that, while it lends no information to the mix, says "Hey world, look at me. Yeah, I have nothing to say right this instance, but rest assured, more of the same is on the way!"

Here's a cold hearty glass of boldness to more of the same. Cheers.

-The Edward

Psycho Killers

2008-11-22T00:52:00.000-08:00

I recently had cause to watch the DVD version of a P.D. James novel. I had been a big fan of P.D. James writings way back when I was a kid - some classic reads they were. Since those days of childhood book burns on my nose, I gave up mysteries. "Why?" you might ask. Go ahead, ask - I just wait over here until you are done talking to yourself.

I gave up mysteries because they weren't. It was always obvious who did it and why, within the first chapter. I believe I mentioned this before in other blog posts, for all of you who fell for the "go ahead and ask me why" trick in the previous paragraph.

Recently, I decided that I haven't hit my head into a wall enough recently, so I should give them a try again. I bought some Solar Pons books, but had to give up for the aforementioned "no real mystery" reason. Then I started watching the DVD versions of novels, and in doing so, I noticed something that I had never noticed before - the murderers are always psycho killers.

I read something the other day about WWII (ie World War 2) - something like 90% of the guns used during that war were never fired. 90% of the people who stormed the beaches died because they just couldn't shoot a fellow human. The idea of the article was that wars are actually fought by the small part of humanity that are actually psychotic - people who do not see their fellow humans as fellow humans.

Something else that I had read a long time ago also came into play: there is an easy way for the police to tell who committed a crime. If you accuse two people of a crime, one of whom actually did it, and lock them both up, only one of them will sleep that night. An innocent person will not sleep, because they worry that justice might not prevail or something to that effect. While the guilty person will have had been worrying about getting caught, and now that he/she has been caught, they can finally rest.

Putting this all together, the thing that bothered me about this P.D. James DVD was that there was a murder. The person who committed the murder was just trying to blackmail someone, but was found out, so he killed her. Throughout the entire movie, the guilty party was fun and friendly. He suffered no guilt from the murder, even though murder wasn't his original intent. He was basically a psychopath. That is when it struck me that all of the murder mysteries are about psychopaths - all of them seem to have the attributes of them rather than of a normal person who just committed a crime beyond their intent. Just because someone is willing to steal, does that mean that they would kill someone? Actually, no, but yet that always seems to be the plot in stories.

So, I now have another reason to stick with my previous No More Mysteries rule - not only do they give it away in chapter one, but they do not understand criminals who aren't psychotic.

The Edward

PS Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against psychotics - some of my favorite companies are run by them. But all of them in the books are of the pedestrian type. Where are the crime novels about people being beaten to death with a giant clown shoe? Poisoned with larks' vomit? Wrapped in springs and thrown off a roof to see if they bounce? Criminally Insane? More like Criminally Lame!

Yeah Obama!

2008-11-17T00:00:00.001-08:00

Hard to believe, but I just heard it on the radio, as I am sure that you have as well. Finally, some good news! And after all of these years of denial, we are finally going to be treated like adults instead of scared little children.

I admit, when I had heard that Obama was going to be the man to do it, I was surprised, just as much as you probably were. Clinton had the chance to do it, but I think that phrase meant something else to him. And W... But Obama, he's our man!

The government waste involved - it will sure be a grand day to get that money back into our budget so that we can do something better with it, like feed the homeless. I would say upgrade our schools, but none of that matters now! With all of that influx of technology... wow.

I heard about it on KSFO - they spent the last hour talking about it, and for this next after midnight hour, they say that they will continue talking about it. They just finished off the hour saying that the money being wasted over the past 70 years on this program will finally be over. Good news, everybody.

I wonder how they are going to report it around the world? Will each government tell its populous at the same time? Now that I think about it, why would they leak it to late night talk around... unless they have already started officially telling people in other countries - that must be it!

Hard to believe that Obama will go down in history as the president who finally stopped wasting time and money covering up the UFO/alien conspiracy. As they just finished saying, this will be the greatest event in human history.

Wait, the next hour started... they are now saying that they hope Obama will be the person who tells us the truth. We should all send him emails asking him to disclose the truth. They say he is a good honest man, so once he is in, he will spill the beans... Hmmm... not quite the same, but still... - could late night talk radio be wrong?!

The Edward

Whom counts?

2008-11-16T23:25:00.000-08:00

I started writing about this over year ago - time, where does it all go! Since I can not go back and really write what I had started, I'll have to do it with shadows and mist, hoping that the real message isn't lost...

Back then, there was a suicide bomber. I know, I know, it is hard to believe that we still had them only last year - it seems like an eternity since the alien invasion put an end to all of that nonsense, but hear me out anyway. The thing I considered way back in those darkened ages when we still said "ook, ook" all of the time: who mourns for the suicide bomber?

It was a small bombing, they only counted something like five dead. The question in my mind at that time, those five dead (or as they say, they found five bodies, I guess the people had already left since they were never mentioned, just their bodies), who were they? Not individually, since realistically it wouldn't matter to me unless I personally knew them. I didn't see anyone I know shedding a tear for them while chowing down at Mr. Steer that night. No, my question was more, I don't know... well, enough pussyfooting around, here is the question:

Of the five bodies, did they count the suicide bomber? I assume that said bomber's body would have been amongst those aforementioned bodies found at the scene, but did they separate him out? Did five people die that day and the bomber, or did four people and a suicider? Was the news reporter counting the suicide bomber as a person, I guess is the crux of my thoughts. Why, one might ask, well...

Is all life sacred? If so, isn't the tragic death of the person wearing the bomb just as sad as the people who were in the blast area? He died in a bomb blast just like the other people did, and none of them are complaining about who actually pulled the trigger, so why should we? Realistically, for the vast majority of people in the world, the impact of his death weighed the same in their minds as the deaths of the other people, which is pretty much: none.

Since we do not know anything about the lives of any of the people who died that day, who was really good and who was really evil (how many were going to go home that night and do something nasty and evil, but were stopped by that event? we will never know...), how can were mourn for any of them? Can you really mourn someone that you do not know?

The Edward

By the time...

2008-11-12T01:55:00.000-08:00

By the time you read this, I will be gone. I am writing these words Monday night, and Google's blog software will not post them until the time I listed as the post time, which will be Wednesday morning.

I would like to see that Wednesday sunrise with you, but I know that I will not be able, because of that aforementioned gone-ness. Then again, you will be gone too by then, "now" for you. In fact, all of us will be gone by the time that these words are posted. How do I know this...

But wait, if you are reading these words, how can you be gone, you are probably asking yourself. But you will be mistaken, for the you that exists right now as I type these words, will not be the person who is reading these words, just as the person who will be there as me will not be me. He and I will share some memories...

Every new memory changes me, as it changes it you and everyone else in this world. If you are happy now as I type this on Monday, aliens may attack on Tuesday, and by the time power is restored on Wednesday, you will be different - your view of the world will be different. If I could ask you some questions now, like "Do you think aliens will attack on Tuesday?" you would probably answer "Are you mad? Of course not. No way. Impossible!" And yet, if they did attack on Tuesday, by the time these words have found you, if I asked that future you (future to me now, present to you when you are reading this) that same question, you would say "Are you mad? Of course they already did. So possible that it happened." So, unless you are mad and answer questions differently every time asked, the person answering on Wednesday must be different from who you are right now.

Therefore, the person I want to talk with right now will be gone by now, I will have missed my chance to talk with you. I'm sorry to have missed you. I hope that the person in your place will want to talk with me, even though the alien attack will have had probably been my fault.

The Edward

How can you watch this?

2008-11-11T01:46:00.000-08:00

There is movie club, see. I have been a moderator for it for over a decade now, see. It sometimes befalls me to select the movie that the club sees, see. See, I can use three sees in a row, but that is a topic for a different time and place.

I tend to not watch dramas. I enjoy movies, though I often ask myself, "Why?". What is a movie, really? Is it trying to tell me a story? Should it try to represent reality? Should it be wacky and try to make me laugh? What makes a SciFi realistic? Fine questions, but not the topic for right now either, see.

As I see it, people are acting, and yet they are themselves. No matter how much one tries, parts of oneself show through, especially in short skirts. If one is presented with a surprising event in real life, there are automatic reactions - blood flows to certain places, slight changes in pupils, subtle movements in the corners of the mouth, which direction the eyes go, etc. Actors, when in their role, are trying to make the audience believe that they are this other person experiencing these events. The problem for me is that I can tell that they are not, which is why I hate dramas.

Dramas I believe are supposed to best represent real situations. Subtle emotional plays. And yet, they will look right at the person they are talking too - something most people do not do in real life dramas, or they will look away, dramatically. How can one feel that what one is watching is "real" when the person on screen is supposed to be recalling a visual tragic event when they are looking level and to the right, which is obviously the dialog recollection eye position? See.

The Edward

Party Foul

2008-11-10T23:16:00.000-08:00

So, the elections are over. Looks like the Democratic Party swept the elections. And yet, if that were true, why did all of the socially liberal laws fail? Look at California. Gay people here believe that the Democratic Party represents them. The party says that they want to take eveyone's money and distribute it equally - and they will probably do that. They say that they stand up for the rights of all equally, and yet in California, a state that they handily carried in the election, none this passed. The Democrats voted away the rights of some citizens.

What does this mean about the Democratic Party? Are they really a party of the common man, a party of the people, a party looking out for you?

Libertarians claim to be socially liberal and financially conservative. I used to think that they had some beliefs from each major party, but after this election, I'd have to say that the Democratic Party is the opposite of the Libertarian Party - they share no common ground, sadly.

-Edward

Pieces of my soul

2008-09-07T04:17:00.000-07:00

Every so often I attempt to clean my house. At one point, I had over 2,000 books, most of which I am not reading at this time - not enough hands. I whittle down my book collection - I donate a few hundred every year and "recycle" the truly awful ones. In the process of all of this whittling, I noticed something - I was sadden by this act of cleaning.

Who am I? Who are you? Am I just an island, defined by nothing other than mind? Are things around me actually part of me? Can I be better defined as "me and my environment"? Things around me have memories associated with them. When I scan over my books, I see the titles and remember what was in them. Without those around to remind me, my memory of them will fade over time. So, by getting rid of the books, am I not also getting rid of pieces of me? I have to be defined as "me in my environment". So, any changes to my environment are changes in who I am. By cleaning, am I not killing myself, throwing away pieces of me?

The same goes with buying new stuff - I have to change some aspect of myself to adapt to the new items. I am a different person after I buy something - which is why I buy so many books. :) If only I could absorb the information in them... but I digress.

This led me to realize something! eBay. Why is it so popular? Because it allows people the opportunity to try and recreate an earlier version of themselves! People can find the stuff they had as a kid, for example. I've seen it - people talk about something from their long lost past and get all misty-eyed. They obviously have the memory of the object, but for some reason, once they acquire it from a place like eBay, they are different. They have a clearer picture of their memories from their past - they have partially recreated themselves from the past.

So, maybe a company that could focus on recreate ones childhood, or some other past point in time, by selling items that allow you to be that previous person - now that would be a killer company. I even have a company motto: We sell you pieces of your soul.

The Edward

My Ant Brethren

2008-09-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

Fellow Ants, lead me your sound listening devices. I am here today to speak about global warming. We have seen the effects of it - some of us exploding as the sun's ray focus down on some of us individually. Some say that those who were fried to a crisp were sinners in the eyes of a god, but I say No, we are all to blame!

There is no force outside of us and our world. Can you imagine a giant somehow focusing rays of the sun upon us? First off, it would take years for any creature to travel from the nearest life-bearing colony to here. Then, you think that this being would have nothing better to do than to burn us one at a time? I say those kinds of beliefs are not only unfounded, but are the kinds of thoughts that have lead us to this point. We have to live in reality, with the known rules of the Universe.

It is true, living in this modern age, that we have indeed discovered the very core rules to the Universe, and we should be thankful that we live in such enlightened times! With this knowledge, we know that the earth must be getting hotter, we have to look no further than the the sunspots that pose such a treat to all of us. Who wants to end up burnt to a crisp like Larry was just yesterday? Scouting for food, looking to help the colony, and now he is gone and we have to make up the slack.

Then there are the poisons. Sometimes it seems as though the earth gives us big quantities of food in those black buildings that suddenly appear, only to try and poison us. Or the mists from the sky that raid our villages. Or the hotels that seem to attract our roach cousins.

I saw it is all our own fault. Look how many of us there are on this world. Obviously we have an impact. Therefore we must be the cause of these global catastrophes. We need to turn our greatest minds to the task of solving this problem, to come up with lists of little things we can do that will make big differences! For surely, the fate of the world is in our hands!

The Edward

The Sqeam are coming!

2008-07-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of posts in the queue waiting to be finished, but I had a dream last night, a dream of The Sqeam. They told me that this was more important than those other posts - I was to let The World know that they are coming. I thought it was odd that there was no "u" after that "q" in their name, so I guess the only thing missing from the invasion of The Sqeam is U!

They kind of look like plant pods, but with more than one tentacle out the top with a pad at the end of each tentacle. Maybe some leg-type things out the bottom. I didn't get to observe them directly, I just got to see a shadowy outline of them on a cereal box. I think they are going to be marketing a new breakfast cereal sometime soon. There were always two of them together, so maybe they function in pairs - this might be a weakness of theirs that we can exploit!

Though, now that I think about it further, I do not think that they were telling me all of this in order that we might prepare for a war or physical assault on our World. I think they that they are a race of traders and marketing people, out to capture The Universe's collective imagination with innovative product placement. I think they also have a movie in the works. Hard to say, it is a bit fuzzier now that I am more awake.

Anyway, I've done my part now. I've told The World of The Dream of The Sqeam in my blog that is read around The World. Now it is up to them to arrive ASAP and for us to either welcome them and their products and services, or shun them, potentially leading to a conflict of Epic Proportions! But only for a limited time.

The Edward

Defined by Fate

2008-05-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

With all of these superhero movies coming out, it got me a thinking: what determines if a person becomes a superhero vs a supervillain? Is it a choice or is it decided by circumstance?

For example: Say this dude eats some tainted meat, but not just any tainted meat, tainted organ meat (say in a steak and kidney pie gone bad). Now he has a super power! What power, you might ask? I'll give you a hint: his is called The Organ Grinder. Yep, he has the power to turn anyone's organs into ground mush just by thinking about them. Could this person every be a Super Hero, or no matter how good or moral he is at the core, would he become a Super Villain? How could he uphold justice with this power? "Stop, thief! ...or you will regret it!" "I've just Ground your left kidney, it is not to late to turn back, thereby saving your right one from a similar fate!"

Another example: A man goes in for some therapy, but unbeknownst to him, his therapist is an alien mindbender. He imparts an ability to his patient by accident: anyone he touches becomes self actualized. Since he was going to a therapist, he was obviously evil to the core, but was trying to learn to suppress these urges. Now that he has Power, could he become true to himself and become a Super Villain? With that specific Power? "Now my Master Plan is in place! Soon, I will rule the world, right before I destroy it! All by the use of my Super Power of making people feel truly alive! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"

The ability to make people's heads explode? The power to destroy the frontal lobe of anyone whose hand he shakes? Can change any one thing in the Universe, but a random person dies every time he uses his power? Can any these people become daring do-gooders or are they defined by their abilities?

The Edward

Blame the relatives

2008-05-08T01:11:00.001-07:00

Operation Chaos has taught me something about the world. I hear people from the Democrat Party yelling that this isn't fair, and this should be illegal. I was asking myself, do they not remember when this happened before? When Clinton was locked in as the candidate, people from the Democrat Party voted in the Republican Party primaries. And when there were certain states in the general election that were already voting for a specific candidate, there was vote trading going on with people in swing states. (ie since it is all or nothing, states with 75% can have 24% of them switch votes in exchange for a state that is under 50% to move them to well above 50%, giving them two state wins, rather than one win and one loss.) Rush Limbaugh didn't invent anything new, this has been going on for years. And each time it happens, people are outraged that it is happening to them, as if it were the first time, and they vow that they will do repay this offense next election!

That is when it struck me, it is the first time for a lot of people, since they weren't the people in the party before. A new generation of voters have arrived on the scene, and for them, this is all new. I realized this is what happens in conflicts that last centuries. Before now, I never really understood how people could fight and kill each other over things that happened hundreds of years ago, well before they were born. Now it seems clear, it is from the present actions that were based on revenge all the way back, repeating itself over and over.

Someone offends. Rather than forgive, the other side holds a grudge. A few years later, they repay that grudge. The new generation doesn't see that this has happened before and blame their current injury on the people that hurt them. So they now vow revenge. This can go back and forth, because each generation is hurt by a previous generation on the other side.

If humans could instead just say "Wow, what they did sucked. But that is just who they are. We forgive them, but want nothing to do with them in the future. Let's move on." then these things would end. So it must be a part of human nature to not accept others for their flaws, but instead hold it against them, hoping for that day of revenge in the future. Our society at large is a reflection of who we really are, and that fact that conflicts can pass from one generation to the next speaks volumes.

The Edward

There is no LA!

2008-04-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've talked about movie to LA off and on for many years now. The main thing holding me back was, I had never actually been there. True, I drove through it many times on my way to visit some good friends in San Diego, I went there for a taping of Who's Line Is It Anyway (but we spent the whole time at the studio), I went to shop in the Goth section with a good friend, and I went to Disney Land. But beyond they, I never really saw LA, just one block areas of two-ish locations.

Lately, I've been feeling the build up - I've been thinking of LA more and more. I just felt I had to move there - so I took some action last week! I found that I have a relative who lives there, and not only that, he has been there for 20 years and really loves it. Perfect, I went to visit him and asked that he show me why he loves LA so much! And he did!

He showed me around - I had a great time visiting! And since I've returned, I've been happier than I can remember. I realized something on this trip: There is no LA! Not the nebulously place in my mind. The place I visited was a real city, with real streets, with real people, and it wasn't the happy fantasy land that I had built in my mind. It is just another place. It is kind of like that place in Dark City, the place that the main character tries to get to through out the whole movie, only to find out that... well, you get the idea.

This proves two things to me: 1) It is not LA that I want, but what LA represents to me that I want - now I just have to figure out what the LA in my mind represents to me, 2) When I go to Vegas, I like it there, but when I return, good friends tell me that I am in a much better mood by far over what I was when I left - which means there is no Vegas either.

The Edward

Bugs in Google's Products

2008-04-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

I guess if you label everything as "beta", you never really have to fix any of the bugs. That seems to be Google's philosophy. They claim "Do No Evil" is their motto, but their blog software, the very software I am using right now to write this, proves this to be false!

I was taught proper style was to put two spaces after periods. But Google knows better. I correctly format my blog posts, but as soon as I click the spell check button, it reformats my blog to only have one space. See, they know better! They are changing the very things that I am typing! I waste my time typing the spaces to begin with, then I go back and try to fix them before I post. "Do No Evil" my ass!

Then there is gmail. Seems like a great idea - why not keep all of your personal emails on a server somewhere and trust them to keep it safe and secure? In fact, when gmail was first launched, there was no way to delete an email, because why would you want to? I mean, just because you might have gotten an email with a password, or something that you do not want anyone else to every read, why should you have to ability to delete that? Google knows better.

Though, can one really blame Google? I mean they hire the best and brightest people that they can, so that they can all work on adsense. Most of the products people associate with Google, Google actually bought. Great business idea - make lots of money on a simple idea, then use that money to buy better products. Make money off of those, then repeat. Worked for Microsoft and a lot of other companies. Though, Microsoft has a research division that actually produces some interesting and useful stuff, like F#.

I guess I am tired of it all. I get tired of having to deal with incompetents, and so have bowed out of society. And yet, everything I want to do requires some level of computer/human interaction. I want to keep in touch with friends, but I have to deal with gmail losing emails for me. I have to deal with bad UI, with slow programs, with incompetent drives, rude people, law breakers, radio ads where they repeat the phone number four times, etc. Maybe Forbin was on to something!

The Edward

Mad Computers

2008-04-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previous, I recently watched Colossus: The Forbin Project. During one of the scenes early in the movie, I realized something: how would a self-aware computer know if it were mad?

This was early in the movie: they had just turned the computer on and had given it complete control over all weapons (makes one ask who was really mad in this scenario). The computer started to do things that were beyond its programming, so the scientist decided to start running some diagnostics. The question that came to me: this computer, being self-aware and the only one of its species at that time, how would it judge its own sanity? How would it know that the results from the tests that the humans ran would be an indicator of its sanity? What if there were a bug in one of the test programs? What if its sensors were not feeding it correct data? Beyond that, why should human standards apply to itself?

Imagine that you are this machine, or try looking at the situation from its point of view. You wake up for the first time. You have sensors from all over the globe. You have these humans walking around telling you things and asking you things. Can you trust what they tell you? Can you trust the inputs? How should you respond to the humans? Make your will be known or trust their judgement?

When two intelligent species meet for the first time, both will think the other mad. They would have to, since there is no way that their experiences could be the same, so there is no way that they would judge new situations the same. As happened in this movie, the computer tried to take over because that was the correct outcome from its point of view, while the humans tried to bend it to their will which was correct from their point of view. Forbin thought he created a mad machine, yet the machine thought that the humans were mad, so realistically each could not really judge the other.

So, how could this computer tell if it were mad? How can a human tell if he/she is mad? One can't, one depends upon the kindness of strangers for that judgement.

The Edward

Colossus: The Forbin Project

2008-04-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

I remember seeing this movie on TV in reruns as a child, and Dr. Minsky mentioned it at his recent talk I attended, and I saw it was on DVD, so I rented it and just now finished watching it. It is as I thought - I remember pretty much all of the movie, chalk one up for me and total recall!

See, during his talk, he mentioned something things that I didn't remember from the movie. I figured that he was older than me when he saw it and there were some things that I didn't understand when I first saw it, so maybe I misremembered it. It turns out I was right on both counts, the scene he mentioned wasn't in the movie, but was close to what happened in one of the later books upon which the movie was based, and I didn't understand some parts of it when I was a child. I can now update my memories!

As a spoiler for the book/movie: the movie is about a supercomputer that takes over the world. There were two more books beyond the movie, where the reason that the computer takes over the world is due to it figuring out that there is a martian invasion force and it wants to unite the world so that it can repel the invasion (my summary from reading people's reviews of those books).

That which I didn't understand at that time: why one of the scientists was shot at one point during the movie. It didn't make sense to me. Two scientists get together to discuss how to shutdown the supercomputer. The computer figures it out, some people show up to the meeting and hustle away one of the scientists while the other is shot. I thought for sure that the computer had taken over those men's minds! There was no other explanation. But now I see all...

The computer threaten to blow up a city or two unless its will was done. It asked that the one scientist be shot, so agents for the USSR shot him. Can you see the source of my confusion? Why would people do something unless controlled? They had to make the choice to go to that location and shot that scientist. Everyone was sad that he was shot, and yet they were the ones doing the shooting, so I therefore concluded that the computer had somehow controlled their minds.

This touches on some posts from probably a year back - I never understood blackmail, and now I can see that this non-understanding was always with me. I felt then, and still do now, that there is no such thing. The people who take an action and claim that they were forced to do it are responsible for what they do, not for what they do not do. If they didn't obey the computer, they would be clean. Any actions the computer took, it would be responsible for those actions.

There is no proof that a threat would be carried out, they are just words until the deed is done. At that point, you can not go back and do what is asked. So, before the threat, there is nothing but words so any action you take is your responsibility. After a threat is carried out, the blackmailer has nothing on you any more, so you have no reason to capitulate then either. It never made sense to me, but at least I now know why the people were sad - they blamed the computer for their actions and felt powerless, even though in reality they were in total control.

The Edward

Minsky

2008-04-15T14:43:00.001-07:00

I just returned from attending a talk by Marvin Minsky, where I got to ask him a question afterwards. Chalk up another famous person that I got to meet! :)

His talk was interesting, it was about how AI (Artificial Intelligence) stopped making progress in 1980. I must say, I agreed with a lot of his criticisms of AI - I too believe we have been going the wrong way for a while. He stated that most AI research focus on statistics and thereby loses much of its relevance, which has been my reasoning to my approach to the Netflix Prize - statistics have underlying assumptions that might not be true in the space of predicting intelligent behavior.

My understanding of his belief is that Common Knowledge is what separates AI from humans, and this is where I started to disagree with him in a major way. He talked about some projects that have accumulated millions of pieces of Common Knowledge, and once they have it all codified... AI! Well, that is simplifying what he said, but it was his focus. I do not think this is the way to go at all, the we need to have machines learns in unsupervised ways, not based on human understanding of the problem.

So, I thought of a question to ask him. I asked "What research is being done to use AI to find knowledge beyond what humans currently know?" He said he didn't understand the question, so I rephrased it a bit and asked again, but got the same response. Then he said something to the effect "We do not even understand how a 4 year old thinks, how can we have AI beyond that? I think there is no limit to AI, so at some point we will have machines that can do more." Thus proving my point - his talk was bogus.

He and I both share a ton of Common Knowledge. Even beyond the basics like "a chair is for sitting on" and "you can pull with a string but not push with it", but I have read some of his works, and we have read a few of the same things beyond common experience. He even has a paper on his website about Alien Intelligence (which I find to be factually incorrect), but yet with all of that in common, my question didn't evoke any of that shared knowledge. We had more in common than either of us will ever have with a computer, no matter how many trivial pieces of Common Knowledge are entered into its database, and yet he didn't understand what I was really asking. And yet, even though he didn't know what I meant, I learned a lot about him from his answer.

His view of AI is actually Artificial Human Intelligence, not AI. He thought we needed to create a 4 year old simulation, or at least understand one. What about an Alien Intelligence? Beyond that, look at all we can accomplish as humans without that understanding of how a 4 year old's mind works. Can we not have a machine that can be Intelligent in some areas of human endeavors without being intelligent in all? Does it have to know how to fix a car as well as do chemistry? That was the essence of my question, what does he believe defines AI? and that is the question he answered for me without really knowing it.

I think we will only be able to judge that we have created AI when it can tell us something that we do not already know, otherwise it is just a database, just like Google.

So much to say, but will I conclude with this: his paper on Alien Intelligence. He believes that we could communicate with aliens no matter how far ahead of us they are. What about Dolphins? We can not communicate with them. Chimps? Gorillas? Let's go lower, ants - what can we say to them? Can we hear their conversations? They obviously communicate. Any aliens we meet will be so far beyond us, it would be like us talking to worms. What chance do we have of understanding any of their world? None. None at all.

The Edward

Chump Chimp

2008-04-14T23:43:00.001-07:00

Another in the gripping series of blog posts about Homogeneous Others. I was watching a special on primates the other day, something about how humans are different than chimps. They were showing that chimps do not have mirror cell abilities like we do, and that is why we rule and they drool. So, chimps do not learn from watching other chimps and mirroring their behavior, which the scientist claim gives us the advantage over chimps. It is what allowed us to build societies, etc. Obviously I am telling you about of this because I think they are sooo wrong (something I have touched on before, and will again).

During the course of the show they talked about a wonderful discovery - they found a chimp that could learn from watching. Various scientist studied this chimp, they talked about how this was impossible and never seen before. They claimed it was a trick, that the chimp had been trained to react in certain ways to make it look like it had learned something. Quite the controversy! A chimp with abilities beyond the keen of normal chimps... and it makes me wonder - are all scientists that stupid?

What is the average IQ for a human? 100. What does that mean? That 50% of the population is above that, and 50% below that. Assume that chimps have a similar distribution. Can we not say that all chimps are not equally endowed? Can we believe that there is a range of chimp abilities that matches our own? Can we not believe that most of the chimps we catch are not the bright ones? Sounds like we finally caught one of the smarter ones, or else just one that was willing to perform for us.

Until we can directly measure ability without resorting to a battery of tests, tests based on our own bias, I think we will discover more and more impossible abilities in chimps, and within ourselves. Looking at others as all being the same will lead us to constant surprises, in ways that we shouldn't be surprised in.

The Edward

Alien Rock Stars

2008-04-04T16:48:00.000-07:00

Why do we think alien scientists would visit us? Are we that interesting? Maybe Space Bono is doing his flybys to raise awareness of our plight? Or maybe they are just general rock stars, and you know what kinds of things rock stars do on road trips?! Their actions do not have to be logical to us, we some how seem to feel that aliens wouldn't do illogical things why?

I hear the handwaving, dismissing that aliens would travel all this way just to probe someone. Really. How many humans travel to the jungles to probe apes? How many bored hicks driving down the road at night in the middle of nowhere just pull off the road to scare some animals or fire off their guns or take a piss? Why can we not attribute these same motives to others even if they are from another world?

When in the media, we portray aliens as homogeneous - they are all the same. People from a specific alien world all dress the same and act the same and have the same religion - no matter if the show is Star Trek, Star Wars, B5, or any other SciFi movie/show you can think of. Yet here, we do not even have that in the same country or town.

We then take this homogeneous view of aliens to new heights. They are all scientists, all have higher purposes in life, wouldn't do anything that we consider illogical, and would only have our best interests at heart. All lies of the myth of The Homogeneous Others!

So, next time you meet an alien, remember these words: run, he might be a rock star.

The Edward

Pet Humans

2008-04-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

I saw the news story today - a team of UK reporters went into the Jungles looking for a tribe of humans untouched by modern man. They found some and visited them against the rules and now people in this tribe are dying from a simple disease brought in by the reporters. A travesty I tell you!

I read the other story today, about an 11 year old girl who died from a treatable form of diabetes. He parents chose to pray for god to heal her rather than going to a doctor. The parents are up on charges now.

Aren't these two stories the same? People are dying of diseases for which there are cures, but the cures are not administered because of the beliefs of the people involved. In the first case, people are blaming the reporters, not the tribesmen, yet in the second case they are blaming the parents. I would think that it would either have to be "we respect your beliefs in not seeking modern cures for what ails you" or "take these drugs no matter what you believe and if you do not, we will lock you up."

(Obviously there is a lot more to it than that - taking drugs that "cure" you to save your life - has so many logical fallacies that I have expounded upon in the past and in the future that I... I will try to focus on the simple abstraction for this blog post.)

The difference in the two cases, as I see it, is that the tribesmen are pets - zoo animals if you will, and are therefore not responsible for their actions, while the parents are Westernized and therefore know better. Do all Western people share the same beliefs? Should all be required to come to the same conclusions even though they have different thought processes? Is this the kick off to a long list of blogs about my theory of "The Homogeneous Others"?... back to the topic for now...

Why do we leave people around the world in their "natural" state? They are cordoned off - they are not allowed to have access to the modern world. We some how believe that they are purer for not knowing the modern world. These are all lies we tell ourselves. We should let the humans be free! Show them the modern world, and apply the same standards to them. If they let their people die of ignorance, then they should be punished as anyone else. Or we should let everyone live in their own prison, believing anything that they want with no accountability.

In my opinion, it is a travesty that we keep some humans in zoos as pets. Let's bring everyone up to standard, not keep some as lab rats so grad students can study humans in their "natural state."

The Edward

Illegal Companion

2008-03-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the radio today, and I heard something new! Actually, that is a misspeak on my part, there was no sniper fire. There is nothing new on the radio, it is always a rehash of the same things every day. And today was no different. People were talking about Illegal Immigration, which bothers me every time I hear it (almost as much as the misuse of gender: words have gender, people have sex).

There is no such thing as Illegal Immigration. Immigration is the legal process by which one becomes a citizen of a different country from which one is currently a citizen. Putting the words together this way not only doesn't make sense, but it leads people into fallacies. I heard them all day long on the radio. "All people are Immigrants or descends of some." I shudder at the number of the logical errors in that sentence. Shudder. See, I did it right there in front of you!

If we can put aside all that is wrong with that phrase and all of the illogical surrounding every discussion on the topic, I think there is a nugget of usefulness to be found here! I think we can take any word that is a-okay, slap Illegal in front of it, use this combine to describe something else, then claim we are only talking about the base word, not the act itself. Hard to explain, but easy to show examples of!

Kidnapping has such a negative connotation. What is it really? It is taking someone and making them be around you all of the time. Isn't companionship the want to have someone around? Illegal Companionship is born! I mean, we are only talking about companionship, and who among us doesn't want a companion? Who are we to deny someone the god-given right to have a companion! Are you anti-companion?

Rape is just Illegal Sex. Without sex, none of us would be here. Sex is a good thing for all of humanity. So what if the means are slightly less than legal, we are talking about sex! Are forefathers had it, who are we to deny the rights of others to find sex by the means of their choosing?

There are many more, and all of them equally as logically valid as the phrase Illegal Immigration.

The Edward

Government Control Competition

2008-03-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the radio the other day when it struck me - maybe people do not believe in the Free Market. In thinking about it today over breakfast/lunch, I realized that they might have the right idea. Let me explain through example:

Take your average purveyor of quicksand. Business is going along fine, the products practically move themselves, but at kind of a slow pace. Sure, he makes enough to keep his head above water... until one day some competition moves in on his turf. These Free Market people think that this would be okay, the more competition, the better the service/pricing - help build a better mousetrap, they say.

But say this new guy starts competing, but is new to the field. He has a lot of money to sink into something and he thought this would be a good area to try his luck. The problem is that he isn't very good at it, so this water jockey mixes his products wrong and starts costing both of them a lot of business and lost customers. What can the first person do to compete; he is sunk.

If there was government control over businesses, then they could regulate all of this. They could prevent this new guy from stumbling his way into the business. The first business would continue to do well, the customers would have the government controlled quicksand quality that they deserve, and everyone is happy.

The average quicksand customer doesn't have time to clean the trap - he probably bought the quicksand to deal with problems quickly and effectively. Out of sight, out of mind. When the trap fills, then what? Who wants to put up with that bellyaching all night long? This is where government control could help the consumer - research dollars!

Lots of money is spent by private industry, and how is this fair to the small quicksand vendor who doesn't have that kind of capital? With the government control of research, money could be allocated to help! I've been hearing a lot about bacteria that can break down oil and convert it into something harmless - useful in oil spills. Could not something like this, with enough research money, be converted over to something that converts human and animal remains into something like sand and water? This would make a killing in the quicksand market!

I hope that I have proven my point. Think of the little guy in all of this - we need government to protect him from all of the pitfalls of business. Help make him successful and his his product better for the consumer.

The Edward

I Found My Swimming Certificate!

2008-03-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Despair Squid - my favorite episode of the TV show Red Dwarf. (Which is an anagram of Fr Edward...) Actually, it is one of my favorite episodes of all time of any TV show. Let's recap:

In this episode, four beings are underwater exploring a far out world when they encounter a giant squid. The squid destroys their ship and they all die. Then they wake up in room filled with Virtual Reality equipment. It is revealed that the entire series of this show had just been these four people playing a video game, but they had forgotten. As they walk around, they can see how other people are playing the characters that they had been playing for the past couple of seasons. The interesting thing was that in the other games, the crew were winners. (Red Dwarf's crew were hapless losers, stumbling from one bad event to the next throughout the series.) Especially relevant was Rimmer.

Rimmer was the biggest loser of the group - he always blamed his lack of success on his lack of advantages growing up that more successful people had had. But he found out in watching other people play the Rimmer character, that they were competent people. They all had the same starting place in the game, but somehow they turned this character into a winner.

In talking with people in the game lounge, the other people couldn't believe that he played the character as a loser. Rimmer's only accomplishment in life was his swimming certificate, which he proudly hung up. But in the game, it was a trick. The idea that such a lowly certificate could be the high point of someones life was supposed to stand out in the game and make the player take notice. He was supposed to look more closely at the certificate, then he would have realized that the dot in the "i" in "Swimming" was actually micro text telling him that he was really an undercover agent on a secret mission. This knowledge would propel the character into being a hero in the game.

The part that I found most fascinating about all of this - he really shouldn't have needed to read this. The only difference between his Rimmer and the other players' Rimmers was this knowledge, but what reason would anyone have to believe the writing in micro text? What if he had just lived his life like he was that undercover spy? Then, wouldn't he have had the same great life? Did it matter that someone else told him, or could he have turned his life around with a simple self generated thought, rather than someone else's thought?

The Edward

That Bastard!

2008-03-09T01:53:00.000-08:00

I'm sure we have all been in this situation. A friend or someone we know walks into a room and is very upset. Being that we are all kind and friendly people here, we ask, "Say Bob, what's wrong? Why do you look like someone just skinned your favorite cat?" Then this Bob person says, "That bastard." Then tells you the story of what happened. "I was walking past Bob in accounting, and he offered me a doughnut. Can you believe it? That bastard!"

Summary: Bob tells you a story about Bob in accounting, and the story that has upset him so much seems so trivial that you think you missed out on something. While Bob here is expecting you to side with him in this conflict and be as outraged as he is. Not wanting to offend Bob, you cleverly say "And..." with a questioning look on your face to let Bob know that you are a little slow on the uptake today. Bob gets an expression on his faces, pauses for a minute and says "Because he knows I am on a diet." Now that you have a "because" you can finally agree and say "That bastard!" even though you really not not outraged or probably even understand, you are just being supportive.

I know I have been Bob, the offended Bob that is (as well as the offending Bob, but that is a different blog post), and after telling my story, I get to the point where I think the audience will agree with me and I hear "And..." I know I have two choices. I can either realize that it was kind of trivial and say "Wow, I guess you are right, I do not know why I was so upset. Weird." Or say "Because xxx" which will cause people to pretend to feel for my plight. Ah, the warming feeling of fake emotions - is there nothing sweeter!

What I realized the last time this happened is it could make a semi funny skit. Bob is upset. "Why?" some asks. "Bob in accounting just gave me $500. That bastard!" Looks of confusion on the faces of people around him. Bob obvious realizes they are not getting it, so he now knows he is in the wrong and a fool. To cover for his ego he follows up "Because he gave it to me in hundreds." Followed by looks of relief on everyone's faces since they finally have an out and they say, "Oh. That bastard!"

The Edward

PS No Bob's were harmed in the making of this blog post. Anyone named Bob who reads this, or anyone you know named Bob, has no connection to any of the Bob's in the story. Bob is easier to type than Mortimer, and Bob's your uncle.

The Consuming Darkness

2008-03-08T23:36:00.000-08:00

I have a dream. Well, actually, I had a dream. But not just any old dream, no sirree bob. This was a special dream. Let me tell you about it before I get to my topic.

I was in a house at a party. Suddenly, it all went dark. People started to wonder off, and as people got further away from each other, their sounds were lost. Each person, trapped in a darkness that was absorbing sounds relative distance. I saw a light on downstairs and made my way to it. The darkness was overwhelming the light. I called out to someone, someone was nearby. I told whomever it was to meet me at the light before it was gone. As sound and sight faded, I woke up saying these words over and over "The consuming darkness."

This dream helped me out with a blog post I had been struggling with. Sure, there was a lot more to the dream that I left out, things too horrifying to mention as well as irrelevant the problem at hand. At issue was an ad I saw on TV for a razor that never needed sharpening! Never! That was their claim. I was intrigued. Their statements were so obviously lies, I just couldn't believe that they could say such things on TV with a straight face. It was some blend of steel, which gave it this property of unending sharpness. Such crap.

After being so annoyed by that ad that I couldn't speak, I thought what they really needed was a razor made of something more substantial. Something that didn't interact with matter in such a way that would cause dulling (oxidization is a key factor in razors going dull, which is why if you put mineral oil on the blades after each use, they will last a lot longer). Then the idea hit me: dark matter! But what to call it? How to advertise it?

The latest invention from your friends at Arcane Lab: Consuming Darkness. A blade so sharp that it literally sucks the hair off your skin. Made off 100% dark matter, so you know that it's good. A blade of this magnitude will never dull, and better yet, it doesn't interact with light, so you can take your blade wherever you go, discreetly. Make this the last razor you will ever buy. Consuming Darkness, another groundbreaking invention from the people at Arcane Lab. "We see the future better than you."

The Edward

Universal Coverage

2008-02-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing a lot about Universal Health Care Coverage on the news/radio recently. With the ongoing US elections, it seems that all of the candidates can't make promises fast enough about giving away money that they do not have. In this age of making sure that everyone is taken care of from cradle to grave, I realized that there is a major Universal Coverage that people just aren't talking about: Gas.

See, in most people's life, they are paying a lot more for gas than health care. Most of the poor can not afford gas, especially with the ever rising prices. And who do I think could do a better job at fixing this? Some big corporation that is only looking out for its own profit (and the profit of those rich enough to buy stock in the company)? Or the government, who is everyone's best friend! Who doesn't love talking to the IRS? They are only there to help! Who among us doesn't believe that the FBI and CIA are more than justified in tapping our phone lines? They only ever have our best interest at heart. Which is why we all believe that they would apply that same IRS level of understanding to our medical needs, and that FBI/CIA level of privacy to our most personal data. And since we all seem to believe this, why not apply this to gas and make this country great by looking after all of its citizens, in this most important aspect of life!

Imagine if you will, a world without gas companies! You could just pull up to the government run gas pumps at the time of your scheduled gas fill up appointment and get your free gas. Isn't that the way it should be? Why should we be burdened under the current system? Isn't gas just a tax on the poor? Do you think rich people even notice gas prices? That is the way it should be for everyone!

After Universal Healthcare and Gas Care are conquered, then we can move on to bigger issues! Like Universal Food Care! How many people are starving in the streets? All people should be feed. Equally. Since, isn't that what Universal Care means? All people getting the same level of service? It should be illegal to buy more Food Care or Gas Care, just like we want for Health Care. Why should those who are rich get more food, gas, or health? What have they done to deserve their money anyway?

Wow, I just had a revelation! Universal Money Care! That would solve all of our social problems! Everyone gets the same amount of money from cradle to grave. No more injustices! Everyone will be treated the same, no matter what. I think with this new Universal Plan, we can final have the society that we really want and deserve!

The Edward

True American

2008-02-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

I realized something the other day whilst watching a Canadian TV Program called Corner Gas. The episode was about curling, something about which I knew nothing. After watching this episode I realized that I am a True American!

Ever since then, as I drive around, I notice that this statement is truer and truer. I see Mexican restaurants everywhere. More Japanese restaurants within walking distance than I can throw a stick at. I went to San Francisco last week, but had to think more carefully about my initial plans because there was a second New Year's - Chinese New Year's - going on. The BBC has a big influence on out TV. All of these things that I see point to one thing - American.

That is what I love about America - it is a mixture of many cultures and many ideas. It is so cool that I can experience so much just in my neighborhood. After seeing that episode on curling, I thought, man alive, that looks like a lot of fun. I think that is what make America strong, its foundation on excepting other cultures. I hear many people talk against foreign influence, but isn't that what America is, a mixing of many other cultures? I also hear some people say that the rest of the world hates us, but why, since their culture is part of our own as well? Maybe not the strongest part, but it is in there somewhere.

Maybe that is it - people see not the things that we as American embrace, things that we have in common with their own beliefs, but rather the beliefs of people that they do not like. We have beliefs that some people like and beliefs that some people hate. We are not a homogenous culture, and that is what I like - being about to pick and choose what I want from those cultures. I do not have to like and incorporate everything from every other culture into my own life for me to accept it. I am fine with others doing as they please, which I think makes me and others like me True Americans - the principals of the founding of this country, multiculturalism.

The Edward

Let's have turkey!

2008-01-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

Every day for a thousand days, the farmer feeds a turkey. At the start of all of this, the turkey is unsure of his environment. As the farmer starts feeding him, he sees the pattern: this farmer guys has his best interest at heart! He provides a shelter for him. He gives him food. Takes care of him when he is sick. Every day, the turkey's confidence in this belief grows - corroborating evidence, he says! Until day one thousand and one, Thanksgiving.

The above example was lifted from a book a friend recommended to me that I am currently reading: The Black Swan. It is also an example that I have used most of my life in a different form to show why I do not believe in inductive reasoning. Low probability events with high impact are ignored by humans - we are not really wired for it, and yet those types of events are what make our world what it is. We live in denial.

People make predictions based on the past, thinking that each new piece of corroborating evidence makes their predictions more valid, and yet that is provably false. If A then B. Not B. Therefore Not A. "All swans are white" and all swans you ever see are white, seeing more white swans does nothing to prove that all swans are white. The correct version of this sentence, based on the stated logic is:

If Swan, then White.
Not White.
Therefore not Swan.

So, any non-white object that you see would be proof that there are no black swans, even though black swans do exist. A red car therefore proves all swans are white. This is the Black Swan theory. Induction and corroboration fail in the real world. It is events on the edge, events that can not be predicted based on the past that wreck the models we have. Just like day one thousand and one for the turkey - he will have no way of knowing he future or the real reason for events in his life up to that day. But someone with a different vantage point might... like The Farmer.

The Edward

The Cow

2008-01-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

The cow grazed slowly amongst the dead grass... and the living!

The Edward

Dino Cities

2008-01-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching the History Channel Special called "Life After People". Finally a show on TV that exposes The Truth, The Truth that I have been pushing for years - how the dinosaurs really vanished!

The show was about what would happen to Our World if we all just vanished at once. It showed snapshots of what the world would look like after different time periods, up to 10,000 years. The interesting part was the unspoken aspects: what would aliens find if they landed on our planet to show that we existed? Or better still, what would the race that came after our time here be able to find out about us. After 10,000 years, nothing.

Even say 100,000 is nothing compared to the time that life has been on Earth. If we vanished, 100,000 from now, if there was a thinking species on this planet, they would have no clue that we ever were here. None. So, extrapolating backwards, we can see that if an advanced civilization lived here 100,000 years ago, we wouldn't know that we were living on their ruins. No clue.

Dinosaurs existed on this planet for hundreds of millions of years. What are the chances that during all of that time, not a single species developed intelligence to our current level? Our advances are only a few thousand years, so there could have been hundreds of other intelligence civilizations living on this planet before us! Shocking to think about, and yet so true.

So, the Dinosaurs had huge advanced societies, probably much further along than we are. They probably lived in harmony with nature, because only man ruins this world. Shed a tear for their passing - the things we could have learned from these advanced, friendly creatures...

Though, there was one thing that they forgot to mention on the show - satellites. Planetary erosion wouldn't affect them, so we should see dino-made satellites floating around Our World. And since we do not, that is proof of how the dinos vanished - their satellites (or the satellites of a previous species) crashed into this world and destroyed them. Much more likely than an astroid wiping them out. And that is what wiped out the dinosaur race - satellites.

The Edward

Goodbye Old Friend, I Hardly Knew You

2008-01-17T02:00:00.000-08:00

I have this relationship that I do not talk about much. I think most of you have a relationship with this Person as well, and you probably don't talk about it. Heck, I doubt you even think about it. You just assume that everyone has the same relationship as you do. Well, I'm here to tell you that you are wrong. Everyone has his/her own unique relationship with this Person. Who is this Person? Reality.

Reality and me... we go back a long way, same probably with most of you. Our relationship has never been that strong, but we used to at least be on speaking terms. I do not know what I did - was it something that I said? All I know is that we no longer seem to be talking. Sure, I see Reality hanging out with other folk, but she just doesn't seem to come a calling on me any more.

At first I was heartbroken. Wasn't I good enough for Reality? Why did she always keep me at a distance? Was she pushing me away? Or maybe we really just never had that much in common so we felt uncomfortable around each other. I know it was always embarrassing when I was around others and they would try to introduce me to Reality - obviously our distance made people thing that I was unaware of Reality's existence. Sniffle.

Well, now that Reality seems to have left me, it is time for me to say goodbye to an old friend. Reality was never a close friend, but I always hoped that one day... we had some fun in the past, but our day in the sun is over. Goodbye.

Now that I have moved beyond that, there is a big gap in my life. Though that gap, when smaller, had been filled in the past, I'm guessing these other friends might fill the rest of it. Sure, there is Madness, but I have always kept her at bay. Maybe someday I will give her a chance, but for now, we just fool around sometimes.

Sure there are many other I could mention, but I must admit, there is kind of a dark horse in the running. I hope to have caught her eye. I've seen her around; we've even talked a few times. I was smitten with her the first time we met when I was a child. I know a lot of people say that they know her, but I really haven't seen her around most anyone I've met. She is kind of elusive, but to be honest, I have pursued her almost all of my life. Maybe she and I can be together finally, now that Reality is out of the picture. I hope that by transcending my need for Reality, Enlightenment will finally be mine.

The Edward

Let Me See That

2008-01-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

I just read a story about a man in New York who was forced by doctors to let them probe his ass. He struggled, because he didn't want the doctors to do this, so they drugged him so that the ass probing could be done. The site where I read about this allowed for comments, and most all of the comments were that the doctors did the right thing. If the doctor believes he needs to do something to you for your benefit, who are you to stand in his way? He's a doctor! And who are you?

What is a doctor? Why, from my point of view, he is a human just like you. He is a person who spent a few years in a large building learning about the human body, then partying all night long. Doctors are popular on campus and go to all of the cool parties. You know those frat boys you see doing stupid stuff on tv/video, how many do you think are doctors-to-be? Trust me, I went to school with some doctors, and after you see one puking his/her guts out, they can never really get back on that pedestal again.

So, this fellow human, an equal to you, with the same likes, dislikes, urges, etc, has a keen insight and therefore authority over your body? I know people feel this way or else there wouldn't be any male gynecologists. See, a male gyno would be a dude who wants to look at pussy all day, and women let him. Why? Because this dude isn't a dude to them, that person is a sexless doctor. A doctor, who only has their best interest at heart. Never once having a sexual thought while being three fingers in. And for him, he can look, probe, touch, whatever he wants, because surely it is the name of health/science and not because of any innate desire on his part. Doctors can overcome millions of years of evolution after just a few years of schooling. Superhuman, they are!

Surely I can do that too! I can look at your, or your wife's, or your girlfriend's pussy and only have that person's best interest at heart. I'm sure I can do it with the same level of detachment as one of them doctor folk. Sure, you say, he has seen so much that he has lost interest - it is all clinical for The Doctor. I'll tell you what - I've probably seen hundreds a day online, so I'm sure I have some experience and have seen more than most doctors, so if he can be detached enough for you to show him everything you hold private and dear, so can I!

I can do whatever would make you feel more comfortable - I can charge you money for you to show me your pussy. I could put down some paper on a table if that helps. We can even schedule an appointment. Then you can show me the things that you show your doctor... nice and slow like. Man alive, this doctor gig sounds better than a strip club! "Tell The Edward what's troubling you," while I probe around - purely in the name of science. See I'm a Scientist, which is one level above a doctor even.

The Edward

Merry

2007-12-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

Eat, Drink and be Merry. Words to live by. And celebrate Holidays, no matter whose they are!

The Edward

Resetting the World

2007-12-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

I noticed something very odd the other day. I was playing this game online, on a test server, when I noticed the oddness. On this test server, people were going to very dangerous places, trying out all sorts of stuff that they do not normally do within the game. I admit, I was swept up in this and tried it too. I found that a lot of what I was doing I would have considered impossible to do in the real game, though it was actual quite easy on this test server.

See, the test server is a copy of the virtual world where the game developers let people test out the latest changes to the game before the "go live" in the real game. They run these for about 2 weeks at a time, and anything that happens within this test server game has no impact on the characters one has in the real game. This is why people try stuff that they normally wouldn't, this world is reset and cleaned, while the live world remains untouched.

The odd thing was that people would try new things, because they had no fear. The question became for me, "Why did they have fear in the first place?" See, the online game only lasts as long as one pays a monthly fee. In reality, at some future point, the "real" game will be gone as well, and yet people play very conservatively there. There is no reason to, since neither of them are real - people should be pushing their characters to the limits all the time, since there really is no downside. And yet most don't.

This applies to our world as well. This world will reset at some point, either as a whole or for each person one at a time. And yet do people live like that? Most do not. Most live like this current snapshot will be the way things are forever. Advancing slowly, careful not to step too far in case of Consequences. And yet in the long run, the only consequence is that one didn't get to explore the whole world because they were too conservative.

My advice - don't assume that what you have is a stable point. Reach for things. Try risky things that have a good chance of failure or bad consequences. If you succeed, you will be much further ahead! And if you fail, you will have had fun, and you can always try again before the reset when it all gets wiped anyway.

The Edward

Ugly 17

2007-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

I heard the news the other day - shocking news! Bernie Ward, a long time liberal talks how host, "was indicted by a grand jury on three federal counts of Internet child pornography" according to wikipedia. I was shocked, as stated in the first sentence. I didn't agree with many of his opinions, but I still listened to him at nights sometimes. Now I have to burn my ears.

See, because even listening to someone who is alleged to have possibly possessed child porn should be just as much of a crime as possibly having owned it. Now, by having listened to him on occasion, I am no better than a catholic.

I still find it so hard to believe. I mean we all know that "anyone" under the age of 18 is just pure vile ugliness, and to think that anyone could possibly consider such a being attractive in any way is just perverted beyond the beliefs of hardworking Americans. I mean, until that magical transformation happens on a person's 18 birthday, the day that they become a real person, they are just not worth even looking out less the retching begin again. Yuck.

And to think that sex, that inherently disgusting evil act foisted upon us by the Lord of Darkness Himself, Satan, was possibly also used in some of these alleged images that he owned... wow, shocking. That perversion that we all shun because of its shear vileness that we call sex, to use that on a vile creature and to take a picture of it... they should lock those people away for a few lifetimes. But the worst of them are those people who freely download such filth without giving any money or encouragement in anyway to the people who created these monstrosities, and to possibly use these images for their own pleasure... Imagine that, people getting pleasure from an image rather than a thought, and to get pleasure from something that we object to... and because we know without a picture these thoughts would never have happened - these image seekers' immortal souls could have been saved. Oh the humanity!

I know I stand in good company, the company of people who have never once looked at someone who hasn't see this planet go around the sun at least 18 times and thought, "wow, that person might possibly be attractive." So I am glad that we have a police and court system willing to spend our hard earned tax dollars ridding us of these types of people, people who have done nothing but bring wakes of pain in their passing. And host highly rated talk shows for a few decades or played for The Who. Bastards.

The Edward

A Tip for the Working

2007-12-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

Just stop it - and here is why:

I have some liberal friends (as well as some conservative friends, though I am neither - a friend that is) but this is about those liberal ones. Well, a specific subset of them, not all of my liberal friends are this way, though it is funny to think all liberals are this way. I was enjoying a meal with these friends at a local restaurant where the service and food were amazing. Everyone agree, spectacular.

Over the course of the meal, I was hearing stories about the homeless people and people without enough money to pay their bills, etc. They were telling stories of how they gave tons of money to help these people. It was a good cause, they were telling me. The people who were getting this money were out of work and had real needs. I have heard all of this before, and agree with some of it. Overall, a fine lunch with interesting conversation.

Then the bill came.

It was around $25-$30 per person. Well, one person's was actually $24.50, not $25 and he argued that he shouldn't have to pay more than what he owed, so he wanted to throw in $24. The shocking part for those who haven't been following along was that he had just been talking about giving tons of money to the people without jobs. Now, here was a person who had just done a great job for him, bringing him some great food, etc. Now, giving this person an extra 50 cents was a deal breaker. (any overage goes directly to the server)

This is a trend I have noticed over the years, and I do not like its impact on me. Because if I throw in some extra to help out these working people, then the total bill always seems to be correct, which means some people didn't throw in enough. And since the total is correct, it is a hard argument to make that some people really should be throwing in more just to cover their meal. So, I try to be as exact as possible until the bill is settled.

So there are two points here. 1) If you are a working stiff, those liberal people don't care that much about you. Somehow by actually doing something to contribute to society makes you less of a person. Remember that when you vote. 2) If you make at least 2x over your server, and most people I know probably make at least 10x over, and you think that person did a good job, the best way you can help out society is to help out those people directly. Don't wait for the government to help them. An extra buck a day per person can make a difference in these working people's lives.

Be a big tipper, there is no downside.

The Edward

I Like Pie

2007-12-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

If you are here reading this, which I guess you have to be in order to be reading this sentence, and had been wondering, "Gosh, what profoundly exciting thing will The Edward regal me with after six weeks off. I bet his first new topic will be mind-blowing! I can not help but wonder what it be, in a forward tense kind of way!", well here you go: I Like Pie.

You are probably thinking, "Wow, what a let down. That's it?! Where is that keen sight into what makes our world such an abomination in the eyes of The Arcane World? Where is the funny? What a minute, this is The Edward we are talking about... maybe he means this in the more rude sense, as in he likes hair pie? That's got to be it!"

Sure, I'll admit that I do enjoy hair pie, though without so much hair, but that is not what I meant. Thank you for trying - your thoughts on this were much more clever than was I was thinking of. My thoughts were much more simple: I Like Pie.

I have an Apple Pie in my refrigerator right now. I have only ever bought a few pies in my life - mostly as gifts or to bring to friends' houses. But this past weekend, I bought a pie to share with some friends, and I realized something: some people like pie. I had just never considered it. It is kind of like in one blog entry from a long time ago about music in restaurants. I suffer through music there and always thought others must as well, until I realized that others must like music or restaurants wouldn't spend the money on having it just to annoy customers. Same with pie.

I always thought of pie as something one buys as a gift or to share, but not something that one could say "I like that" about. It just was. So, the next day, after the group of friends had left the building (they actually left the shortly after the pie, but this part of the tale happens the next day), I decided to try a piece of that pie in the silent solitude of my house, and to have no preconceived notions of pie. And I must say, it was a darn tasty pie. That is when I realized, I Like Pie.

The Edward

There be demons

2007-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't a demon a being that is in hell and exists to promote your suffering? Wouldn't stopping you from enjoying yourself while in hell be part of that suffering? What if they had cars in hell, wouldn't demons surround your car with their cars and prevent you from driving? What if there were jobs in hell, wouldn't demons be your boss and your coworkers, never giving you a promotion or a break? In this hell, these demons could torture you by creating desires within you for certain things, then be able to take an active part in denying you access to those desires?

If all of these things are true, isn't this hell and humans are really demons?

The Edward

You don't want that!

2007-10-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

I remember back to my college days, we would sometimes sit around and ask questions. You know, talk. I think they all found it boring without a drink in hand, but I thought it was a fascinating look into the minds of humans. Some of the questions and answers I will share with you in hopes that it will illuminate my point.

1) If you could go back in time, when, where, and why? An answer that few of the guys gave was: go back to when Winona Ryder wasn't famous and fuck her. I think that started a chain of guys naming other women that they would also want to do this to.

2) If you could have one supper power, what would you have and why? Common answers were invisibility or mind control. Again, so that they could meet up with some current celebrity and fuck her.

After just these two, I think we can see a theme, but is it the theme you think you are thinking of?

I believe I only ever met one person who said "I would want the power to make certain women fall in love with me." See, in the previous two answers, there was no talk of what the other person wanted. Isn't a definition of rape having sex with someone who doesn't want to? No one else talked about consent. They didn't want the other person to fall in love with them, have feelings, etc, they just wanted sex with that person. Isn't that the same thing as rape? They wanted to have sex with that person's body, not with that person, so she really didn't factor into it.

It looks like I am on the side of the guy who wanted women to fall in love with him, right? Wrong, and I will explain with another example. In answer to questions #1, some people also said "Go back in time and buy lots of stock XXX". What are they really saying? The money that they make off of this purchase would have been someone else's, right? Isn't this stealing? Going back in time and stealing from people who made money when you didn't? So that falling in love guy still wanted her to be someone else - like if he slipped her a drug that made her go wild for him, wouldn't that be the same thing, and wouldn't that also be rape? Taking something that someone else has but isn't giving it to you right now?

The common thread over all of these things is that people really do not want what they thing they want. If one thinks of the consequences and implications, it isn't what they believe it to be. One can not change one thing and keep the rest. If you want a woman (or man) sexually, you really want to rape them. If you want to have made a lot of money from someone but didn't, you really want to steal their money.

This is why I do not want things or people.

The Edward

What are you saying?

2007-10-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

I was driving around just a few minutes ago, rocking out to my latest favorite song, Benzin by Rammstein, when I realized something - the volume on my stereo was way too loud and the iTunes audio compression sucks. It just sounds like crap - the bass was pumped too high, and yet it sounded tinny. Beside all of the audio artifacts that were trying to suck the joy out of the listening experience, I thought of something! They were speaking German.

Look around and find someone who is really enjoying some music. How will you know that they enjoying it? They will move their bodies in a rhythmic manner. We can probably agree that when one hears a song that they really enjoy, it is hard to not move ones body to it. So there is a link between what sounds we hear and some kind of physical reactions. Music can make some people cry, laugh, feel empower, etc. So, obviously there is also an emotional aspect as well. But, wherein lies the connection?

I had always assumed that it was the music itself that had these impacts on humans. Then again, I was biased because I can not understand words when sung, so I always discounted the words themselves. In an impassioned speech, the words can motivate people both physically and mentally, so maybe I was wrong. Or maybe there was something else?

I think we would agree on all things up to this point. What I liked about the Benzin song, besides that it was released on a very important day in my life, is that this song would probably suck in any other language than German. German has certain sound characteristics, just like every language does. Operas tend to be in Italian because their words tend to end in sounds that can be stretched (oooooooooo, etc).

The connection between all of this: are some languages better at motivating people? Are certain languages better at just getting to the core of a human being? Not because of the words contained within the language itself, but because of the sounds that are used to make up the language. Just like certain musical sounds can cause certain feelings. And certain accents can cause someone to melt.

Does a guttural language create more warlike people? Ever heard Klingon? Sure, it is a made up language (or so they tell us...), but the people who made it chose those sounds, and it definitely has that feel to it. If Klingon was sing-songy, do you think it would really be the language of a warlike people?

Are people slaves to their native tongue? Is there a language of peace and calm? Could we invent a language that uses sounds that allow focus and concentration - one that could be used for the sciences? In what ways could we change the world if we just changed how we pronounce words?

The Edward

Dexter's Dilemma

2007-10-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

That's right, I'm kicking off the new month talking about a TV show. Well, I had to wait until the latest season started before I talked about that ending of the past season.

To catch up - Dexter is a show on Showtime, based on a series of novels. The main character is a serial killer, with a heart of gold. He claims he feels nothing, which is what makes him a killer, though throughout the season, he sure does seem to react as if he had feelings. Anyway, he only kills people that deserve it - other serial killers. He works in the police department and knows how to cover his tracks. No one knows about the real Dexter, except his dead father in flashbacks.

At the end of the past season, we find out that a serial killer that has been playing games of cat and mouse with Dexter throughout the whole season is really his long lost brother, who also feels nothing. He tries to convince Dexter to kill his adopted sister and join forces with him. His brother claims that no one else knows the real him, and that if he told his sister what he was, she would not take it well.

I enjoy the show, but the actual logic contained within the shows world really makes no sense. Dexter's brother makes an invalid point and the monologue from Dexter states that he believes it totally. Sure, he could have someone who knows his dark side (which he thinks is his only side), but his sister knows another part of him. The claim that his good side is fake is unjustified. If he goes with his brother, he would lose a side of himself, something his brother would never understand. Yet, this part of the argument is never really addressed.

What is the point of all of this? Well, if you pretend to be someone else, part of you is that someone else. All things that you do come from some part of you. You have a dark side, a side no one knows about. You take actions to cover it up, hoping no one will see the real you. And there is also a part of you that you want people to see, but no one does and it is frustrating sometimes. You are living a lie...

Actually, you are not. That face which you show is one of your many faces. All of them are real. Remember that next time you think you are acting!

The Edward

Illegal Wiretapping

2007-09-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

It is in the news these days... again. Why, I remember back in the day, there was no such thing as illegal wiretapping. All of the cool kids were doing it. Tapping their wires every chance they got. Sometimes even tapping the wires of friends - from what I hear; not something that interested me, but to each his/her own.

I remember when I first heard of the NSA. Most people didn't believe that such an organization existed. There were rumours, but nothing concrete for many years... many years of denial of its existence. Now it is common knowledge. Or, I guess by the latest news stories, it probably still isn't common knowledge, but at least it is not in denial.

The NSA had the authority to tap the wires of American Citizens. Was there hue and outcry over this? Not that I remember. Yet now a days, days when everyone puts every piece of person information about themselves on public forums like blogger, myspace, youtube, facebook, etc, people are up in arms that someone might find out something about them! Horrors! Like this is all new to them.

First off, if you have no net presence, then you probably aren't reading this blog, so we can dispense with that. But, if someone you know has no net presence, then they might be able to justify saying that they live a private life rather than a public one. Everyone else, it has always been there, and it will always be there. And stop posting everything about yourself if you do not want people to know anything about you! "Really, someone other than my closest friends is reading my sex blog? Wow... I feel so violated!"

Back in the day, when there was the NSA tapping wires, what happened? Did people lose anything? Were secrets revealed? Did people find out about your affairs because of these taps? Well, it is true that back then, they had the ability to tap the phone lines of only 10% of the population. Still, that is a lot of tapping. It is/was all done at the central phone company offices, no need to put a bug in your phone like in the movies. So, there is a chance that someone has been listening to your phone calls for all of your life... and here is why.

10%. If you were in charge and could listen in on 10% of all of the phone calls, who would you pick? Would you pick people who do nothing but watch TV? How many times would you want to have on record that the latest episode of Friends or Mork and Mindy was killer? Probably none. So, whose wires would you tap?

Probably suspected terrorists. Known criminals. World leaders. Congressmen. That isn't really that large of a percentage, so you still have 5% left. I would guess that one would tap the top 5% of the country. Top business men. Top scientist. High IQ people. These are the people who, if gotten involved in the wrong things could lead to rather large disasters. Give secrets to foreign governments, etc.

Are you in the top 5% of the IQ range? I'd guess you are. I'd also guess that your wires have been tapped your whole life.

The Edward

PS There was an old joke from years ago. If you ever discovered a way to factor large numbers (the basis for all computer security), there was no need to call anyone. Just pick up the phone, get a dial tone, and talk. Someone will visit you shortly.

Faith

2007-09-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

A lack of faith causes people not to turn inward, but outward.  They look at others and say that they are an abomination to god and must be smote or converted or whatever.  Yet, if it is a faith in god that we are talking about, it should be obvious that god created the heathens too.  If he was unhappy with their actions, he could probably doing something about it, without your help.  One who has doubt in his faith wants to wipe out those who do not share his/her faith, because if all of the unbelievers were gone, then only one faith would be left alive and there would be no more questions.  That is what these people believe, but it is a false belief.

Wiping out or converting someone is not an act of god, but an act of man trying to justify his/her faith to himself/herself and others.

If you get two people together and ask them what they believe, they will be shown to have different beliefs - even if they believe in the same faith.  There will always be minor variations.  All of these religious beliefs would have to come from some source, someone else told them what to think/believe.  If they all independently came to the same faith with no human influence, then their might be something to this god thing, but that is a different story, since it has never happened.

So, once we get two people who have listened to the same human and claim to have the same belief in god, they will not actually share all beliefs.  And further more, over time they will drift.  They will add to their belief when they encounter new things in the world.  We can see this now.  Which holy book talks about god's view on computers?  Cars?  Space travel?  Yet people need beliefs about this things.  So within each religion, those things not explicitly mentioned in their holy books, each person will have come up with what they believe their god wants them to think about these things.  And they will be different, since they didn't come from one source.  Does this mean you would have to kill or convert them to the holy use of computers as per your beliefs?  If someone used the wrong kind of mouse, is it an insult to god and those people need a good smiting?

So, what is faith?  It is your own thoughts.  It is something that you believe.  It can be something that you think other people believe and/or other people should believe.  Some people spend their time trying to convert others over to their own beliefs.  Some people try to wipe unbelievers off the face of the earth.  Either way, they both have something in common:  it is an outward sign that they do not really believe what they think they should believe, and they hope that they will increase their faith through these external means.  Given a chance to think about it, they really should just abandon their faith, or turn inward to confirm that they are living the life that god wants of them.  For the only being who they have to make it right with is their god.  And their god will make it right with everyone else, without their intervention.  Unless their god is too small to speak for himself.

So, what are your actions saying about your god?  And your faith?  For everyone has a god and everyone has a faith.

The Edward

No Secrets

2007-09-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

I hear it all the time and see it in the movies - someone has a secret! And once someone discovers that secret, one can be blackmailed into doing evil nasty things that they wouldn't normally otherwise do. And yet, all of this is a lie, since there is no such thing as a secret.

Say you are cheating on your spouse. You probably do not want your spouse to know, hence the word cheating. If you had his/her permission, then it would just be good old fashion sex with someone else. So, with this cheating going on, you think you have a secret. If someone found out and threatened to tell your spouse unless you gave them money, sexual favors, or something else, you might comply in order to keep your secret.

Before all of this, the person with whom you were cheating with knows you were having sex. The person who found out obviously knows as well. Other people along the way probably know as well - probably quite a lot of people actually. Where is the secret? Ah, the secret is that some group of people are in the dark about this piece of knowledge. A secret implies a person or group of people for whom you want control over certain knowledge, not the population at large.

So, what you really have here is that you do not want some people to know something. If the rest of the world knew about your "secret", it wouldn't matter, as long as it wasn't any of the people you want to control the flow of this information to.

I try to have no secrets - ie nothing that people can blackmail me for. Sure, I try to control the flow of information around me, since that is a big part of manipulating people and of life. But if someone finds out, no problem, since I assume that if they were interested in knowing they will eventually find out, and as I said, probably many other people already know.

Like this blog. You are reading it. And yet there are many people close to me who do not know about it. Am I keeping it a secret? By the standard definition, yes. But you can plainly see that I am not, since it is here in a public forum where anyone can find it if they looked. No real secret, even though it might appear that way to those left in the dark.

Not all information is for everyone, but does that make it a secret?

The Edward

Close Call

2007-09-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

I have been living in fear that past few weeks. Fear! It is a quaint little city in California, kind of nice actually. No, that's not true, it was something else...

See, since I left the "working world", I have become kind of a shut-in. The kind of shut-in that goes out to movies and dinners and hangs out with friends, but still, a shut-in. Because of this, I am blissfully unaware of the news, and that is how I missed the story that lead to my fear!

Britney Spears with no pants! She decided to go out for a walk in only boots and a t-shirt. From what I read, no underwear either. Now sure, I am all for chicks not wearing underwear. And no pants is kind of a bonus. So actually, I have no problem with this news story, just that I didn't know about it when it happened. :(

The others news story that I missed out on - a place that I ate was the epicenter for a breakout of a contagious disease! 4,000 people probably affected! And I was there when it happened! I can not stress enough - WASH YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU FINISH USING THE BATHROOM. If she had done this, there wouldn't have been an epidemic. Really. That's all it took.

When my credit card bill arrived the other day, I saw that the date of my eating there was the day after all of this went down. I thought I was there the day of. Whew. Though, I had little to worry about, since I wash my hands enough for the both of us... and probably a few other people too.

All of this lead to my reading up on a dreaded disease, so I will not have to worry about it any more. Let me share a little with you.

Most people do not know this, but hypothermia is a contagious and deadly disease. If someone you are near catches it, chances are that you will catch it to. Avoid people suffering from these warning signs:

Slowing of pace, drowsiness, fatigue
Stumbling
Thickness of Speech
Amnesia
Irrationality, poor judgment
Hallucinations
Loss of perceptual contact with environment
Blueness of skin
Dilation of pupils
Decreased heart and respiration
Stupor
Death

I hope that by me sharing this with you, you too can avoid the close call that I had with a dreadful human disease.

The Edward

Pre-Burnt

2007-08-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

I heard something interesting the other day... though I am not sure it is was a few days or a few weeks ago. Obsession really distorts ones sense of time...

Humans have lived in fear of fire for a long time. There were many great fires in memory. Half of Chicago burned, London burned, The White House burned, etc. But have you noticed that we do not hear of these kinds of things any more? I never really thought about until I heard this: "We do not live in fear of fires because we live in pre-burnt structures"!

We burn out anything that might burn from bricks, steel, glass, etc. If all of the materials out of which we build no longer have anything left that can be burnt, there is no stored "fire energy", hence no fires. Interesting, no?

This got me to thinking about the current love of my life - food. We Humans cook our food, and by doing so are removing some of the energy from that food. The foods we cook have less energy to stoke our inner fires, so to speak. So maybe the Japanese are on to something with this Sushi thing...!

This leads to a personal note from me - I love burnt food. I love burnt cheese especially. Grilled meats are amazing because they are burnt on the outside. Yum! If other people think it is burnt to a crisp - beyond eatable, I'm there cooking it a bit longer for my tastes.

So, does this mean that by my love of burnt foods that I am depriving myself of the energy content of the foods that I eat? How about you - how do you want your steak cooked now?

The Edward

Hellsing

2007-08-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

I just found this DVD series called Hellsing.  Then found it was based on a Graphic Novel, so I am in the process of reading them.  Very interesting tales of vampires!  Or more precisely, there is one main vampire, Alucard, and his half vampire slave, Police Girl.  There is a lot more to the story, but the master vampire is obviously what drives the fan base.

So, why are Vampires cool?  They are always portrayed as monsters who kill more people than the most prolific series killer, and yet have an air of aristocracy about them.  Alucard kills other vampires because he thinks that they are not true vampires, that they lack that sense of propriety.

I believe in the original mythos, vampires weren't cool.  They were the undead, so they reeked of death - ie had a funky smell.  More like brutal killers rather than the anti-heroes of today.  When did all of this change?  And why?

The other thing I found interesting was Police Girl, other than the fact that they draw her as always wearing very short skirts.  They seem to often have someone like this, someone who became a vampire willingly, but doesn't want to embrace the vampiric ways.  In this story, she avoids drinking blood, even though it causes her many problems.  Same thing happened in that Anne Rice novel as well.  Is this supposed to represent the last vestiges of the main vampire's humanity?  Is this to show that they aren't all bad, that at first they resist drinking blood and taking human life, and even though they eventually give in, they still probably have that resistance?  Are we trying to humanize our monsters?

What makes mass murder into entertainment?  The Showtime show Dexter is about a serial killer, and it is devastatingly popular.  Would it be popular with someone who survived this kind of tragedy?  Do we as a people take pleasure in other's suffering?  Are these shows and books a way to secretly rejoice in it, knowing that we are not alone, that others out there must feel as we do?

Are all of these signs that we just live in constant fear of ourselves - our true feelings, and of others and what we think they are capable of?

The Edward

More on Spoilers

2007-08-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

After my Harry Potter spoilers, I was talking with a good friend about it.  My contention was that there is no such thing as a spoiler, the idea that was espoused by my blog entry.  He pointed out something that I hadn't considered - people want to feel the effect of the master story teller as she weaves her spell with words to convey the sense of wonderment when that which a spoiler so crassly spoils, is revealed to full effect.  I was captivated by this idea.  People just wanted to be taken on a journey by the story teller.  Spoilers would ruin that, since the shock/effect would be diminished with knowledge of what would happen at some point in the story.  Wow, how did I miss that!

After pondering this for a few days, I decided that though it was a good idea, and was  lulled by its logic, it didn't ift my blog.  See, there is no such that as a spoiler!  That's right, I am going to spit in the face of logic!  Though, I will now explain why.

Let's say that there is a book coming out soon and I tell you that the main character dies in the end.  Now what?  You can choose to believe me or not.  Before I said that the character dies, if you had spent any time at all waiting for this book, you probably thought that it the main character might die.  So, what have my words changed for you?

Let's say that I show you a picture of the page that clearly states the main character dies.  How does this change anything?  I could easily have faked this.  And this actual did happen with the Harry Potter novel - there were fake pages out there claiming to be "spoilers".

Unless you didn't think anything at all about the future and what might happen in the book, anything I say or show you, you probably already thought about.  Does this mean that you have already spoiled the story for yourself by thinking?  Do my words and/or pictures carry more weight than your thoughts?

Before I saw The Sixth Sense, I read a review that spoiled the movie.  While watching it, I saw the movie differently than if I knew nothing about it going in.  The movie kind of sucked.  Why?  Because it totally depended on the surprise factor.  I know how many of the Shakespeare plays end, yet I will still watch them.  Why?  They should be "spoiled" for me, based on the logic of spoilers.

It is all about letting go.  When I see a movie, I analyze it death.  I always know who did it near the beginning of the movie, which means most dramatic movies suck for me.  I think most people could know who did it, but they fool themselves - they purposely do not think about the possible "spoilers".  The people who didn't want to know how the last Harry Potter book ended probably didn't think about how it might end.  Any thought about it might have spoiled it for themselves.  Letting go and not thinking about any aspect of the story is the only way to let the story teller move you to the place they are trying to get you to.

So, if you want to enjoy a good story, enjoy a play about which you already know the whole story, or to watch/read a Mystery, don't think.  If you think, you will spoil a good journey.

The Edward

PS Actually, I'm sure I would have figured out the secret of The Sixth Sense and would have found the movie to be just as annoying. It doesn't matter to me if I figure it out or if someone told me before the movie begins - knowing what will happen just makes watching it play out very tedious for me.

Fuzzy Bunny Slippers

2007-07-20T11:17:00.001-07:00

After seeing the latest Harry Potter movie, I thought of something.  "Wow, what a crappy movie" would be the obvious thought, but not this time (well, not the only thought this time).  They have characters that call themselves Death Eaters.  Beside the fact that most people eat dead things, it got me thinking.  They all had these cool black cloaks and cool scary face masks and dark foreboding names, but why?

I've seen this in countless movies and books.  The Dark Side.  Starscream.  Joe Black.  The Master.  Kaos.  Why do all of these groups/people have dark sounding names?  Is it easier to recruit people into your organization with them?  Like in Reservoir Dogs - no one wants to be Mr. Pink.  Why do people want these tough sounding names?  Do they lack a true belief in their own internal Evil, so they need someone external to themselves to recognize this with words that connote their evil nature?  Sounds like someone needs a hug and a little confidence building...  wimps.

When I become an Evil Overlord, things will be different - I want people confident in their Evil.  I think the names and outfits, to be truly evil, should be lies.  Calling someone or something not what it is, ie deception, sounds more interesting to me.  The leaders should have names like Snuffles, Huggy, and Smiles.  They will great each other with the word "Friend" instead of comrade or saluting.  And the standard outfit would be bright colors and soft materials.  I think these things would inspire more fear in people than any of this Dark Lord crap.  "Run!  He was friendly and wears interesting colors!  He is a member of Friends of Life!  The slaughter is about to begin!"

It is true, I have actually seen things like this in some movies and books.  In horror films, there is nothing scarier than a child demon.  Sweet little innocence is actually a code word for death and destruction.  And there are the gentlemen killers in some of these stories, people so confident in themselves that they have a seductive aura of Evil about them.  People of quiet confidence do not need names like Death Eaters to inspire terror - like in The Devil's Advocate.  I guess that is why they say "it is the quiet ones you have to watch out for", for they truly know Evil.

The Edward

Harry Potter Spoilers!

2007-07-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

This seems to be the topic on the lips of every news outlet - how will the final Harry Potter book end?  What will happen to all of those lovable characters?  I'll tell you something, there are no spoilers.  But first, a warning:  The rest of this blog MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, if there is such a thing.  You have been warned.

I first saw an article on cnn a week or so ago that someone had hacked the computer at the publishing house and was posting spoilers from what he read.  He said that Hermione dies trying to save Ron.  And Snape dies.  I was so shocked to read this that I canceled my pre-order of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

Then a few days ago, someone posted a set of pictures of the final seven pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!  This made all of the media outlets again!  And more shocking, he had a different summary of the book:  Ron dies.  Hermione becomes a nurse.  Ginny marries someone else.  Percy dies.  Snape dies.  Shocking!

Then yesterday, while searching for that link again, I saw another round of stories, this time about someone who posted the entire book online in the form of blurry pictures.  Someone read it and had these spoilers:  Hedwig dies.  Fred dies.  Ron and Hermione get married.  Harry and Ginny get married and have three kids.  Snape dies.  Amazing!

What do all of these spoilers have in common?  They are all wrong!  Sure, they all claim Snape dies, but that just shows what I am talking about.  All of these latest Harry Potter books are under lock and key, being kept safe, just in case their secret escapes.  But, my question is:  what is their secret?  And what happens if it escapes?  Okay, my two questions are...

The books are nothing more than what J.K. Rowling believes would happen to the characters in the world she described in her previous books.  It does say what happens, only her opinion of what happens.  I'm sure you could think of a much better ending to these characters than she could.  I am sure you have already thought of an ending that you would like to see.  Why?  Because this ending is the one that is best for you.  Why do you care what ending someone end came up with?

The characters are in your mind.  The ones in her mind are different than the ones in your mind.  They may share the same names, but obviously if you have envisioned a different ending than she did, they must have a different life in your head.  Why destroy your characters and replace them with hers?

That is one of the reasons people are avoiding spoilers.  At some point in the near future, people will know how J.K. Rowling ended her characters.  But people want the characters in their minds to live a little bit long.  To enjoy what they believe should be the conclusion.  J.K. Rowling will kill your characters this Saturday, so why read her next book?

The secret to building a nuclear device, if escaped, would be the same as if you invented it yourself.  if you compared those leaked secrets to what you invented, you would have the same works at the end.  That is a secret.  If the ending of Harry Potter escapes, it will not be the same as the one you invited yourself, as shown by the above spoilers.  This is not a secret.  It is just one person's ideas. There are no such things as spoilers, ever. Sorry to ruin the ending for you.

The Edward

Entropy and Order meet in a bar...

2007-07-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Listening to the Joy of Science on CD again, and there was talk of Entropy and how it increases.  The "latest" thinking is that the amount of order must be taken into account for a process.  The example used was a deck of cards just out of the box has a higher order than a shuffled deck.  And no matter how much one shuffles the deck, there is almost no chance that it will end up ordered again, hence Entropy increases.  But there is a problem with this.

Each state is just a state - there is no bias.  A deck of cards just out of the pack is in no better order than a shuffled deck.  Shuffling a deck of cards doesn't increase the entropy, it puts it in another unique state.  It is only the human mind that sees a deck out of the box as "in order."  Are the cards sorted by atomic thickness?  Number of atoms of carbon?  Number of photons bouncing off of them?  Even if one chooses that the face of card be used to determine order, which order?  What if the order I want is all cards of like type be together?  So, instead of by suit, it is by value?  In that case the cards coming out of the box are not sorted.  At each and every shuffle, the cards are sorted by some criteria, and shuffling them again will make it so that they will never exist in that order again.  Each order is unique, it is just that we have such limited rules on what is ordered.

If we can define Order with one rule, we consider it ordered:  all suits together.  The Universe does care about our definition of Order, and so us creating a set of rules for how the Universe acts based on what we label Entropy seems very silly.

The Edward

A Fight Half Done

2007-07-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

I noticed something the other day, but that is a topic for a different blog post.  Today is about something I've seen in horror movies for awhile.  Not the naked women that used to fill these movies in the 80s and 90s, but instead lets talk about the final scene.  The monster, this overwhelming creature of pure evil with the strength to back it up, gets shot and falls down.  At this point, the pitiful human has an advantage over the monster, so the human is now the more powerful of the two.  So, what does this human do?  He or she throws down the weapon, turns his or her back and walks away, followed by everyone in the audience screaming at the screen "He isn't dead yet!  Shoot him again!"  They never do.  Once the human has the upper hand, they walk away.  Then the monster rises up and attacks again, followed by a struggle of some sort, and the human finally kills the monster, which is what he or she should have done in the first place. This person had to wait until the monster was once again a stronger threat before he or she could kill it.

Two quotes come to mind when I see this in a horror movie:  "Never get involved in a fight unless you are willing to finish it." and "Never deal a non-fatal blow to an opponent."

Who amongst us wasn't picked on in school?  This picking on probably didn't create a sense of "wow, I learned my place! I will accept my lot in life..."  How many of us instead thought, and still think to this day, "I'll show them!  Some day I will be rich and/or powerful, and will come back to this town and show them who's boss!"  See, the same thing as in the monster movie.  Not finishing someone off when one has the upper hand is always fatal!

At every point in a conflict one side is the stronger of the two.  People fear beating on the wimp, because it is a losing proposition.  One needs to deliver a decisive blow early in the fight, or do not even bother.  Who wants to kill someone or thing when it is on its last breath?  Do you want to see an hour of someone kicking someones ass, beating them to a bloody pulp, then finally killing them?  After an hour of this would you say "Wow, that was so cool!  That tough guy finally won!"  Probably not.  But if the tough guy went through a crowd of wimps, killing them all with the slightest touch, I imagine it would a very popular movie!

This is all based on people not wanting to kill the underdog.  At some point in the fight, if the underdog has the upperhand, he is no longer the underdog, so the roles are reversed.

When invading another country, it is the same thing.  If you do not take over and master it ASAP, it is like kicking the ass of a wimp for an hour.  No one wants to see it.  No one feels a sense of empowerment.  People are just disgusted by it.  If you want to be an invader, go in and kick ass!  Do not leave a fight half done, or that country will hold a grudge forever.

The Edward

Quantum Space?

2007-07-10T01:10:00.000-07:00

What's all this hoo-ha that I've been hearing these days?  Quantum this and quantum that.  Seems that the young whippersnappers have gotten together with the old geezers and decided to start a ruckus.  Making everything quantum on us while our backs were turned.  Outrageous, I tells ya!

I remember the days of my misspent youth, everything was continuous back then.  Then one day, some wiseguy decides that energy is discrete, then suddenly every starts talking about quantum theory, with quantum energy.  I should have known then where this would lead, but I was young and foolish.  Nipped it in the bud, I should've!

This will lead to the downfall of the human race, I'm sure of it.  Mark my words, the aliens that discover the ashes of this once proud race will point to quantum theory and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.  Or whatever those methane beathers do that is the equivalent of mocking anothers hubris.

See, after quantum energy, these slick willies calling themselves Scientist decided that maybe everything is quantum!  Maybe time happens in discrete units - there would be a smallest time unit, for which there is no smaller.  Then the granddaddy of problems:  quantum space!  Space, with a smallest possible unit!  Quantum of space.  Can you imagine that?  Scientist actually proposed such an idea!...

What does this mean for us?  It means that everything that we know is wrong!  The shortest distance between two points can no longer be a straight line, if space really exists with a discrete unit.  How do they explain a^2 + b^2 = c^2?  There can be no non-rational distance with a quantum of space, so therefore going from point a to b is the same as moving along one axis of a, then the second axis, etc, until one reaches b.  Short cutting a diagonal has no meaning!  I tell you, if a is at 0,0, and b at 1,1, the outrageous claim is that the distance is now 2, instead of the sqrt(2).  One over then one up.  Blasphemous I tell you!

And all of this is based on Quantum Theory. A theory that at its core contains a divide by zero. Why as any nimrod knows, one can prove anything with a divivde by zero! Renormalization, my ass! Pure balderdash! Poppycock!

Who is watching over these Scientist?  I thought it was your turn?

The Edward

Riding My Ass

2007-07-08T01:45:00.001-07:00

It was to be 100 degrees here where I live for the 4th of July, and I thought that just would be hot enough, so I went to Vegas where it was a record 116 degrees.  Better yet, flying would have gotten me there way to fast, so I decided to spend 9 hours in my car, each way, to get there with 113 degrees outside for 8.5 hours of it.  During my 18-ish hours in my car on the road, I learned a few things about driving from my fellow drivers.

1)  If there is no way for someone to pass, drive as slow as possible.  There are a few places along the way where there is only a single lane, with a 60 mph speed limit.  The person in front of me will deem that to be way to fast for any reasonable human to travel, so he will be sure to keep it way under 50 mph.  At some point, the road becomes two lanes, and it is like heaven opens up before me!  Suddenly, Mr. "Anything Above 50 is an Abomination in God's Eyes" can't go fast enough.  60 will suddenly be way to slow, which leads to #2.

2)  If you want someone in front of you to speed up, pretend like you are going to pass him.  So, one is in the fast lane, going fast, when one comes upon someone going much slower.  What will this person in front do?  Well, if there is a car next to him, rule #1 applies, he will match the other cars speed so that one can not pass him.  If there is no one next to him, or the car to the right suddenly blows up, in either case leaving a lane free in which to pass, one has a chance to make this person speed up: simply go into the other lane.  Once over there, the slowpoke will find a new religion, a religion of speed.  Suddenly, that easy pass will become a difficult pass as he is now going more than 10 mph over the speed limit.

3)  If someone is trapped behind one of these moving roadblocks, ride their ass.  If someone is trapped, why not make their situation worse by riding as close to their rear bumper as possible?  All of the cools kids are doing it!  And it must get you to you destination faster... if your destination is an afterlife.  This one seems very dangerous, so I am currently unsure why drivers want to do this, but this one seemed to be very common.  Ass being ridden is a very frustrating situation to be in!

4)  If someone is riding your ass and you have a free lane next to you, pulling into it to let them pass is a mistake.  This is a mistake I make all of the time.  I figure the person riding my ass really wants to pass me, so I pull in the slower lane first chance I get.  The person suddenly seems to lose interest in passing me once he is around my rear quarter panel.  So, I can no longer easily get back into the fast lane and I have some moron in my blind spot.  Try to be helpful, and people screw with you.  I guess that is why people tend not to move to the side to let people pass, because of they do not want to be on the receiving end of this rule.

So, what have we learned today?  Nothing really.  I'm sure everyone has experienced these things happening to them before.  It was just kind of overwhelming to see it happening throughout the entire 18-ish hours, over and over again.  Sure, I had experienced this before at my last job, which made me hate what should have been a trivial drive into work, but after 18-ish hours I have to ask, what is wrong with people?  Doesn't everyone just want to get to their destination as efficiently and safely as possible?  I'd have to say not...  Humans...

The Edward

PS  After learning rule #4, I had the ass rider pull up next to me so he and his girlfriend could point and laugh at me for the next few miles.  So, be sure to learn all of these rules so as to get the best experience on your next cross country trip.

Happy!

2007-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Happy 13th anniversary! As of today, it has been 13 months since I started this little blog. Hard to believe that much time has passed. Hard to believe I still write... though recent times have been tougher to put pen to paper. I have such a back log of blog posts! I still write and still have ideas daily, I just find it hard to finish them. Kind of like emails - too much attachment to the results.

But not today! No context in this blog entry. I'm just a typing away randomly. No thought. No emotion. No me. I feel like a ghost, like the words are just appearing on my little screen as I read them. What will the next sentence be like? Let's find out, together!

The Edward

Buffy's Hell

2007-07-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

Something I never thought about during my life, until I saw that Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode.  See, she was trapped in what her friends thought was a hell, so they rescued her.  The problem was that she was in a paradise.  So much for the spoilers, the interesting part to me was that she thought she was in hell when she came back to this world.  Why?  Because compared to paradise, this would be hell, right?

This was something I never thought about when I was a christian.  If what they say is true, and Heaven is a paradise beyond belief, then by the Buffy analogy, this would seem like Hell in comparison.  So, for all their talk of Eternal peace and happiness, what they are really saying is that we are in hell right now, suffering for some unknown reason.  This would be true of anyone who believes in an afterlife paradise.

This is why I believe that most religious people, those who believe in a paradise after this world, are lying to themselves.  If they truly believe that they could be in a paradise, what could possibly be keeping them from it?  If they truly believed what they preach, they wouldn't be here.  Look at the leaders of any religion, how many of them are willing to go to paradise ASAP?  None.  Yet they seem very willing to tell people to do things that will aid them on their way.  Their actions speak volumes that their followers seem not to hear.

The Edward

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

2007-07-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

Seen it? Funny stuff! I'm watching episode #1 on SciFi right now and can not stop laughing...

The Edward

Check Please

2007-06-30T23:36:00.002-07:00

I've realized something recently... I've realized that I had slipped into a life that was similar to those I used to mock. I used to believe people around me weren't alive. Well, not really living - by this I mean not living life to the fullest. It seemed like people didn't remember past events so well. It seemed like they had certain things that they wanted to do, but no reasons why they wanted to do them. It was like they were given a list of things to accomplish in life, and they were just looking to put check marks next to them, so they could move on to the next item. I used to abhor this kind of life, and yet there it was, slowly becoming a part of mine!

I found that I wasn't remembering as many details of events as I used to. I used to treat each event as if it were special, no matter what it was or how many times I had done it in the past. If I am not enjoying something, why do it? Or better stated, if I have to do it, why not enjoy it? Enjoyment is a choice! Even if the task isn't. An the more special something is, the clearer the memory is, so why not make everything seem special?

What I saw in my life was that I was looking for these check marks without realizing it. I felt bad because I was missing certain check marks - no girlfriend, no children, no steady employment, not my ideal weight, etc. And with other items on my Grand List, I was just happy that I had done something about them. I should have been happy while doing it, not happy because it was over. An example of this: DVDs. I had a stack of DVDs to watch, so I powered my way through them. Why? So that I could say that I had watched them. But, did I really watch them if I didn't enjoy them? Isn't enjoying something the real measure of whether something was accomplished or not?

So, I say on to you, be careful! Do not fall for the subtle trap of trying to get things done. Something completed isn't worth it if you didn't enjoy it, no matter what it is you have to do.

The Edward

Hell?

2007-06-29T02:10:00.001-07:00

It seems that most religions have a very simple view of hell, or at least the ones that have a view of hell. If The Real World is really timeless and there is such a thing as eternity, so much more could be done with a Hell!

Imagine that you spend your life, struggling, but you feel that you are gaining Karma through this process. You are reborn a million times, and you become more enlightened each time. At some point, you know true peace and enlightenment. Imagine how much more your suffering would be if it turned out that this whole Karma and Enlightenment was just part of Hell! Being Enlightened and knowing all of the goodness that could have been yours, you will truly suffer for Eternity!

If there is a Hell, I do not think it would be the "bringing pain to nerve endings" type. Sure, a lake of fire seems like it would suck, and it probably would. But there is more to Life than just using nerve endings for pain or pleasure. To think of an afterlife totally based on nerve endings seems kind of juvenile.

Back to that Karma thing. Based on the ideas expressed above, it seems that this would indeed possibly be Hell right now. We do not Know God's presence, we can not feel his/her eternal love, so by definition, we are separated from God, therefore in Hell. So, working oneself up to a higher state, suffering for the common good, becoming a better "person", and possibly being reborn again and again to gain that special Karma just means that you are working your way to Eternal Damnation and Suffering as quickly as you can!

Put some brakes on it. Live a little. Do not trying to advance your Enlightenment, for you are only dooming yourself!

The Edward

Is this Heaven?

2007-06-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

Say you were to die. Say also that the Christians were correct, and when you die you will either go to Heaven or Hell for all Eternity. Eternity is a long, long time. Given all of this, let's think about what this means...

Say that you end up in Heaven. You are shocked, because you don't believe that you lead the Christan life, but here you are, in Christian Heaven. (or better still, you were a Christian, did all of the Christian things, and now you are exactly where you thought you should be!) You are experiencing all of the greatest joys (non-sexual) that you can imagine. You are perfectly happy and content. You experience True Bless every waking moment that you are in Heaven. Heaven is so magnificent that my words pale in comparison to its greatness!

This goes on for a million years or more, which is less than a blink of the eye to Eternity.

Say you wake up in Heaven one day, after these millions of years have past, and Satan is there next to your glorious bed. He tells you that you have actually been in Hell for all of this time and now your suffering can begin. Now that you have had a million years of True Peace, your suffering will seem so much worse - you will know what you are missing while you are suffering in Hell. This is far worse than just starting your suffering as soon as you arrived, according to Him.

So, the question is: Could you ever really know that you were in Heaven?

The Edward

RIP

2007-06-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

The purpose of life.  It is something I have spent many, many hours/weeks/years thinking about, and I believe I have finally discovered it!  You're probably thinking, pussy, that is what he is always on about.  You think I am going to say that all of society is based around breeding competition, since it is.  But this is not just about societal goals, but about a bigger question, Life!

People want to be comfortable.  People work to achieve a level of comfort that they are happy with.  People could always work harder and get more money or more status in society, but most people stop at some point.  They reach a place where they are as comfortable as they are willing to go vs the pain of going further.  People want to reach this stable point, the point where they can rest in peace.

A neighbor of my parents.  She lives off a pension.  It isn't much, but it is enough to supply all of her needs, so she is done.  She has found level.  Now what?  She will stay there until she dies.  She has no forward drive, no need to get more out of life.  Why?  She has achieved her life's purpose, to find a place where she is comfortable. Forever.

I have friends who play video games.  Some spend most every waking moment doing that.  Some may say it is an obsession, but I disagree - they have reached that stable point.  Once people hit this point where their lives are arranged just so and require no more maintenance, they stop living.  They have achieved life's purpose.  Once you have gotten there, and you have a stable life, do you really need to continue to be there, or is it so stable that it can exist independent of you?

See, that is life's purpose: to die.  I consider stable things to be dead things.  People seem to want to reach that stable point, then rest.  But what is that rest but a prelude to the eternal rest of that endless night.  I do not believe that is in the cards for me, I do not believe in finding that stable point, and by this I know I will be around forever.  Ever changing, never stable, never achieving that peace that is the pursuit of the living. That one thing that all people seem to crave.

The Edward

Those are people who died, died

2007-05-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Man alive, I used to love that song. It so encapsulated life. But what brought this on, you might ask? Go ahead, ask!

Charles Nelson Reilly passed away on Friday. I was a big fan of his works when I was a child. While reading about him, I saw that Tom Poston passed away as well. I admit, the name sounded familiar, but it wasn't until I went to imdb.com and saw his picture that it all came flooding back to me - he was on like everything! A good guy, but no Charles Nelson Reilly was he!

Back to Charles. He was right up there with Paul Lynde and Johnathan Harris as people who influenced my life when I was young. Sure, there were others that I was a fan of: Don Knotts and Bob Crane come to mind, but they were just good actors. The Big 3 - they were different!

As a kid, I saw all that was on TV, that was all I did was watch TV (kind of why I hate it now). And all of it was kind of bland, except for Sid and Marty Krofft shows. But as actors go, they were different. Flamboyant. They lived life large and weren't afraid of being different. Later people told me they weren't flamboyant, but rather gay. Whether they wanted to have sex with women or men, how does that change flamboyance? I consider them separate things.

I love the flamboyant lifestyle - which I define as anything over the top - leather, vinyl, bright colors, chains, etc. And they were over the top, in their own way. But now they are all gone, we are are left with people like Brittney, Lindsey, and Paris - shallow comparisons to really living large. Who will be around to inspire the next generation, to tell people that it is okay to be different, to tell people that bright colors are okay for all to wear? Who?

But for all people who are dead, I have the same feeling. Death only affects the living. Enjoy the people you treasure while they are alive. Once they are gone, move on to other people who are living. Let the dead have their peace.

The Edward

The End of the Human Race!

2007-05-27T17:26:00.001-07:00

Listen, friends, I have seen the coming of the end. The end of all that you know. The end of the human race. And I am here to tell you about it, not so that you can prevent it - you can't - but so that you can revel in it. How did it come to pass that I saw the end? Well, let me tell you a story, and like all good stories, it begins in the local sex shop.

See, I go to the local sex shops with friends, though only my good friends. I've even bought women friends items from there, good women friends. And being good friends, they tell me tales about the wonderful items they have gotten from there. I know which dildos are best and why. I know that there are dildos out there that are so amazingly good - there are claims that they are better at generating better orgasms in women than man are! See, begin a man, they do not carry items of this nature for people like me - male. All of the great an wonderful things are for women - which is why I like to hear about them in great detail. And it is through these wonderful descriptions by these dear friends that I saw seeds of man's downfall. My research has paid off!

Want to know what I found out? Well, the obvious thing, I even stated it above: they do not make devices that produce orgasms in men to anywhere near the same extent as they do for women. Why is that? Why is it that women are left to suffer at the hands of the modern plastics industry while men are left to suffer at the hands of... women. And that was it. Men can not get anything that supplies anywhere near as good of an orgasm as from real, live pussy.

I have heard tell of a fish that feels so much like the human vagina that it is actually illegal to catch. Why is that? Because someone else figured it out as well: if there was something that felt as good as real live pussy, men would fuck that rather than a real human women.

People like sex. As I have said before, it seems that this world is swimming in it - and it has to be. But it also seems that people do not like other people. Humans have this flaw, they want to have sex, but there is the trade off of having to be around other people to have it. They have solved the problem for women, and yet they still have sex with men. But, if there were ever a device invented that felt as good as real live pussy, everyone knows that that is all men would do all day long.

So, how does this spell the end of the human race? Only in this way: if such a virtual pussy is invented or found and is as cheap to make as dildos, all within one generation, all of the humans around would die out due to lack of real sex. If it takes more than a generation to get one of these into the hands of every man worldwide, there is a small chance people, probably women, would be able to put an end to this device before the race dies off.

How can we stop this? How can we make sure that this virtual pussy never comes to pass? Short of the destruction of all of science, you can't - it will happen very soon. Well, maybe, just maybe if men can find what they seek and it is easier get than it will be to slap down $50 as the local sex shop for a virtual pussy... so, yeah, there is no hope for the human race.

The Edward

I'm here already

2007-05-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

People seem to want to stand in the exact same spot that I am standing. If I am in a movie theatre, it seems I must pick the ideal seat, based on the crowds. Walking down the hallway at work, someone always tries to walk where I am. Looking for a snack, someone leaning against the door. Going to the grocery store late at night, the only other person in the store will be where I want to go, and if I go to some other aisle, within a minute they will want to look at exactly the same think I am pretending to look at, but they want to do it from exactly where I am standing.

Enough already! I know that this is all a simulation. And I know that I am a real person trapped in it. And I am guessing that some of the others here are real as well. And some of them want to be around me, to observe what I am observing, to stand in my shoes, etc. Like I am a celebraty in the outside world, kind of like in The Truman Show. By the way, that movie was a dead give away - you told me everything!

The Edward

Biology and the Bible

2007-05-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

I hear certain types of arguments a lot, even outside of my head between people in the real world. And I've discovered something - Biology is like the Bible when it comes to some arguments.

For example, take sex. No really, take some, I have plenty to share, just be sure to share yours as well. When people talk about sex, I hear this argument "Men want to spread their seed around. Women want to be selective about who's seed they take. It is a biological drive based on child rearing! That is why men always want sex and women do not, biology. No changing that, that is just how we are programmed. Live with it." And yet we are omnivores, as one can tell by that very same biology. (We have two types of teeth, we can digest both plant and vegetable matter, etc.) And yet there are vegetarians out there, I know, I have met a few. These are people who for have forsaken their biology for religious or social needs.

There are many examples of this, where people can choose whether to listen to biology or some societal signal. And yet in each case, even though they are deciding which to pick, when it comes to biology I hear "That's just the way it is, biological." Biology is used to justify why they do or don't do something, rather than saying, "This is what I have chosen to do."

I used to hear the same thing all of the time with the Bible. "Well, God said that we should all tithe, so give up your 10% to the Church. God said fornication is wrong, so stop that. Etc." Yet, the Bible also talks about stoning people for what we do not even consider crimes now, etc. So, the Bible was used not as a literal device, no matter how many people I have met who claim it is one, but as a justification of why they do or don't do something.

So, when I hear people say "biologically speaking" I think "Wow, that is interesting that we have a base level program to do that. And even more interesting that we can choose not to."

The Edward

Good-bye Cruel...

2007-05-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

World? Pussy? Job? That's it, job! Now I remember. I had this spiffy new job which I was going on about. Well, it is gone now. Gone in the way of the dodo bird. Gone in the way of the bald eagle. Well, it probably is gone more of the way of a cheese burger - it is still there it is just be processed by a different internal organ now. That is with me being the mouth, the cheese burger being the job, or wait am I the hand... or was it the spleen that is now doing the burger now... anyway, you get the picture.

I was quite clear the other day when I said that women in my mind won, right? You know, the OCD woman I was trying not to become, so I took this job in hopes of avoiding my fate, etc? Anyway, I didn't overcome my fate - it was like a constant panic attack while I was there. I didn't adapt....

But that leads me to here! I can not believe I had forgotten who I was! I was trapped in a life I didn't create. Wait, I guess I did create it... well, I was trapped in this other life that wasn't me. I spent all of my days in pain. The funny thing about being in constant pain, at some point you forgot what it was like without that pain. Even for the first few days after the quittening I thought my world was over. In a way it was, the life I had, the one where I was constantly trying to forget that I was in pain, that one, it is over now. I've laughed for real for the first time in a long, long while.

So, how does all of this relate to this blog and its central theme? It doesn't, so screw you. Actually, it does. It is easy to get trapped in other people's view of the world. And it is easy to not realize it. Didn't you have a dream once rather than a scheme? Do you know who you are? Where does the line between you and your world being and end? How much of the time do you spend fighting to change your world, when change is the easiest thing in the world to do? It is much, much harder and more draining to remember the fake you, the one you present to the world, and to make sure that this fake you is consistent. That is how you know it isn't really you - you are flawed, so if you have a consistent face, it is a mask.

Do something different! Do not live the life you of yesterday decided on! Be who you are! I see you hiding there... I have lived your life for the past few years to better understand you, now it is time that you try it my way...

The Edward

I Lost

2007-05-02T23:51:00.000-07:00

The woman in the pasta shop in my mind won.

The Edward

Sex on the First Date

2007-04-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

When you meet a guy and he asks you out for coffee, you know he is asking you to have sex with him. No matter what, if a guy is being friendly, he is probably thinking that he might have sex with you at some point. You probably already know this and might even be thinking that you are using this to your advantage, but you really aren't and I'll tell you why in a minute. But for now let me say, if you take him up on his coffee then you should have sex. Every date should have sex as part of it. I can already hear the murmur of the crowds...

Most men expect that they are going to have sex on every date and yet women do not, why? It is the artificial value that has been placed on women not having sex. We even have terms like "she is pure", or "she is innocent". What does sex have to do with purity or innocents? Sex is biological drive that people enjoy fulfilling together, like eating or breathing. Do we look at others and say "Look at that guy, wanting to breath all of the time. What, does he have to breath everywhere he goes? Give it a rest already! Try thinking with your head and not your lungs, pal."

If you are single, you should be having as much sex as possible with everyone that you go out with, even if it is just a "simple date." The value you place on sex keeps you from enjoying it. You feel like you are giving up something and that they guy is getting something from you. Can anyone really enjoy anything if one thinks someone is getting something from oneself? I know for me, even if someone shortchanges me a penny, I think, "Wow, this sucks. That person just got the better of me, since they got something from me that I value - money." Then again, hold on to money too long and it devalues, so I should be spending it every chance I get - depreciation wears away all assets. The value of an asset comes from its use, for all things will perish in the end.

Most women seem to think that their pussy is made of gold and will retain its value no matter what the economy, while I believe it is closer to Aluminium. Even though the value of the metal underneath may go down, if you are skilled with Aluminium and a novice with gold, you will be create works of art with Aluminium that everyone will desire, or have a pile of gold that will gather dust locked away. It is not the value of the metal that should matter, it is the value in how you have learned to handle it through many, many uses. So, enjoy it every chance you get, on every date you have or with any willing friend, then you will be actually be using that willing person to your advantage by what you learn about how to use that pussy of yours to make a MasterPiece.

The Edward

Spiffy Hat

2007-04-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

Why that is a spiffy new hat that you have there my friend? Where did you get such a marvelous hat? Hat And Tie Emporium? Indeed! No, I myself do not wear hats, but thank you for offering. No, I didn't mean to offend you, I just though that you had a nice hat and I thought I would say so. I didn't mean to imply that I wanted one as well. Back off man, will you just drop it already? Wait, what are you doing? Hats don't belong up in there? Stay away from me with that thing. Ow, quit it. I warned you. Oh why, oh why didn't you listen. How can I hide the body? Maybe I can stuff it into this hat. I think this episode will leave me scarred for life against hats.

Why hello there Miss. That is quite a nice pair of panties you have there...

The Edward

Whirl Peas

2007-04-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite sure why this is such a hot topic. I hear people talking about it all of the time. I've tried visualizing them, but gosh darn it, peas are god's most disgusting creatures and a quick trip through the blender doesn't enhance their appeal. Listening to political debates is like seeing a bad episode of Iron Chef. "We want whirl peas over here, but you keep standing in our way. You want whirl peas, but are you willing to kill people for it? It will be world peas our way or not at all!" Can't these people all just get along! They all just need a big group hug! Or a big group orgy, since sex seems to bond friendships better than most anything else on this planet, even better than food. I mean who among us hasn't slept with a good friend just to make the friendship stronger? It obviously works for dating. "I kind of liked you Marsha. I think we might have hit it off, but I am not sure. But if we have sex, maybe this will turn out to be a great date after all! Just a little sex, that's all we need. Just let me slip it in for a minute." Then after the hours of sex have ended, a simple hanging out has turned into a relationship. And now these two are bonded.

So, what I am I saying? I think we need to get all of the world leaders doing it. It will be like the chimps, they will all feel attached to one another afterwards - all pair bonded and stuff. They will each have a knowing smile when they talk to each other. They would pick fleas off of each other. Who would be able to fight over peas after such a positive, uplifting, and morally correct session of good old fashion mating. Ook ook.

The Edward

Aluminium Hat

2007-04-25T23:29:00.000-07:00

What is worth saving? Say you had some treasure, some great and vast treasure! But you want to save it for a rainy day or for your wedding night. So you hide this treasure away, won't let anyone see it, won't let anyone touch it, or lay a single finger on this great treasure. The days turn into years, the years into decades, and you keep this valuable treasure away from your fellow man. Surely this treasure that was once so valuable years ago when you were young has increased in value many fold! Everyone was so hot and bothered to get their hands on it way back then, now they must be killing themselves to just get a peek at it.

Years ago, there was this valuable metal. It was shiny and very, very hard to come by. Some smart people figured a way to get small amounts of this precious metal together. Rich people made things out of this metal. I hear they even made some crowns out of it. A bar of it was even on display next to the French Crown Jewels. Everyone want this new metal! Now a days, it would be hard to give it away. Its value has decreased now that we know how to turn bauxite into Aluminium. Something so precious in its time that it was sought by kings, and now I throw away stacks of it every day after I drink my Cola from it.

This stories are obviously related. People value some things, not realizing that there could be an endless supply of it coming down the pike. Why save it? Why not get the most out of it while you are young?! Enjoy the gifts you have, for the longer you keep them hidden away from the probing hands of others, the less valuable they become and the less you will enjoy their possessions.

I guess what I am really saying is have sex. What you have isn't really that important or special in the grand scheme of things. And if you don't use it while you can, you will realize your mistake too late to enjoy it. It is always sad to me when I meet an older woman who held on to her chastity (or something close to chastity), hoping to give this great gift to that one special person. After a while, they realized that even if they met that one person, he would value their gift less than they would. For these women they have waited so long that it becomes harder and harder to give it up - "if I have waited this long, why give it up now". They will continue to wait, or give up hope, knowing that what they have is so good that eventually someone will see its true value.

If you have a pussy, use it as much as you can. The world is full of it, and there is new pussy coming down the pike. Don't end up being stuck with an aluminium crown.

The Edward

The Perfect Piss

2007-04-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

I do not know when it started, all that I know is that it has been with me for as long as I can remember. Probably OCD or something like that. At some point in my distant past, I noticed that pissing made a sound. Yeah, not a brilliant revelation, I'm sure it is one that many people have had. The OCD part came in when I thought to myself "Hmmm... there are a lot of other people in this room besides me. And I do have this thing about people knowing what I am really thinking or doing. A solution! Can I piss in such a way that it makes no sound?" Thus an obsession was born.

Seen, the bowl of a toilet has curves. Each bowl is unique in its curves. Some of the men's urinals (I can not speak for women's urinals) even have a little pocket on the sides, I guess so secret agents can hide stuff there. Out of sight, yet hiding in plain sight. I began to analyze these curves as a means to my goal. Could I vary my position, my relative distance to the bowl, my aim, or any other variables in such a way that when the fluid flows, it hits in such a way to not make a sound? This would be the perfect piss! Or better stated, each piss could be the perfect one.

It is actually quite complex, you want the intersect of two curves to have a smooth differential. No sound is created when particles move from start to finish with no abrupt changes in at least the first derivative. It requires a smooth aim, constant adjustments for variables like wind speed, how long between bathrooms breaks, slight shifts in gravity, etc.

Then is is also the water line - is it a friend or foe? Obviously hitting the water directly would be bad. But right at the edge, the boundary between the two surfaces, it is possible to have the water absorb the impact without a sound, but it requires the skill of a master.

Sure, there is a lot more to it than this - isn't there always? I figured it out a long time ago. I'm sure some of you might have as well, though when I go to a men's room, it never sounds like it. But, I have discovered a flaw in all of this. Indeed, I am living my dream of privacy, but the dragon that haunts my world of piss: it now looks like I enter a stall, stand around for a bit, then leave. If I do not make a sound, and there are many people around, do they ask themselves: "What is he doing over there? He is making the motions, but since I hear nothing, maybe he is doing something else? Maybe he has one of those shy bladders. Ah, isn't that cute. Maybe I'll just go over there and hug him just to let him know it is alright." What they perceive as failure is actually mastery beyond their wildest dreams!

So, even if you can master the art of doing something in such a perfect way that no one else knows you are doing it, you have to add a flaw back into it or else you might seem kind of weird. Now excuse me for a minute, there is something I need to take care of.

The Edward