Steel
Topic: Daily Info

Well, thus far, I have done really well after a hell of a semester. I have two B- and A with one grade yet to come in. This proves it: I am made of steel.

I have come through the crucible intact.

No more finals
Topic: Daily Info

Well, I almost didn't make my last final today. I woke up at one by accident, but luckily I made it to the final only 15 minutes late. Let's just say I'm setting two alarms during finals week from now on.

Ayah.

I'll have a little bit of opinon on Christmas tomorrow sometime.

Bing and Frank
Topic: Daily Info

One more quick thing before I pass out:

Jessica Simpson, you are not Frank Sinatra nor are your Bing Crosby, so stop singing the Christmas Carols, they did it first, and in this case, the best. People remember Bing and Frank, not you and your Boy Bander.

Long live the Chairman and the Crooner.

"I'll be dreaming of a White Christmas..."

Especially one without commercials for crap.

So tired......
Topic: Daily Info

Two down, two to go. One more morning at 5:30. Come Wednesday, I may need to be spoon fed.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Live next to forever
Topic: Rambling

You know, I was reading this thing in the BBC the other day, and just saw it in my copy of PopSci about a guy with a plan for super-extending human life. We're talking living for a thousand years or more. And I got to thinking, would I want to live that long?

At first, I thought that it would be great, that I could learn all that I want to learn. It also extends: research does not need to be so hurriedly transferred from one generation to the next, and people would actually think in the long term (such that we could actually build and live in mega-structures). It would be a boon to all mankind, and we could seriously move forward as a species.

Then I began to think of the ramifications.

First, what of the people who cannot afford such things? There will be tremendous resentment when some country prospers because its citizenry can work on such large-scales while they strive to keep up. This definitely would no bring humanity closer together. If we fight over such petty and insignificant genetic differences today, can you imagine how brutal this kind of fighting would be?

Second, what if people I know voluntarily opt-out or cannot afford it? People that I care about? Can you imagine how hard that will be to know that your friends died hundreds of years before you did? I mean, if people have such a hard time living just 20-30 years after their same-aged love ones pass, I have to think the melancholy would be severe. Think about, one day, say 500 years after your best friend died, you end up doing something you used to do together, and you remember as you do when remembering something 5 years ago. Can you imagine that kind of heartache? Or how about watching your friends age and die?

I'm not sure I would want to live that long unless I was assured everyone else would live that long. While people can get over losses from the past, there are still memories, and those are powerful devices, especially magnified on that time-scale.

Frankly, I'm still exploring the idea in my story of the two AI's, and the further I progress, the more lonely the existence seems. To get perspective, I think about ancient peoples that are long gone, people that lived just mere thousands of years ago. That's another thing, can you imagine having remembered the middle of the dark ages up through and beyond men landing on the moon?

Needless to say, there are some serious psychological ramifications involved that no one has ever really thought about.

Anyway, I now finish my rambling, and once again attempt sleep.

Rend the rift wider, we are never far enough from them
Topic: Rant

I think I am becoming more violent for some reason. As I was driving home this evening from some Christmas shopping, I wound up behind a person in an SUV. These vehicles normally only irk me a little, but what was going on inside the damn thing and what was plastered to their bumper just tripped some kind of switch. They had videos on inside, this irks me because it makes children unimaginative, therefore they grow up to be drones incapable of doing anything beyond tedium. The thing plastered on their bumper? Take a guess. Haven't figured it out? It was one of those fucking "W '04" stickers. Seeing that, with the video and the SUV, something inside my head went "click". I began to rage alone in my car (if I had passengers, I may have caused a heart attack). I became so pissed that I seriously contemplated cutting the fuck-stick off, forcing them to stop, dragging the douche bag out of his vehicle and proceed to beat the living shit out of him. Now, mind you, I didn't do this, but I felt all the classic fight symptoms.

I'm tired of these fuckers. Really tired. These ass backwards, dumb shit, douche bag, mother fuckers and their stupid "moralism" and "valueism". Honestly. These fuckers have their head so far in the ground they're finding coal. Terrorism? You voted based on a persons stance on terrorism? In this fucking state? What's a terrorist target? The Mall of America? There are hundreds of other places that are more likely for a strike. And guess what, the two states that suffered? They didn't vote for your douche-in-suit. Gay marriage? They weren't asking that their marriages be mandatory in your precious churches. They were asking for a simple legal right. Fuck off. Just fuck off, you idiots. I'm tired of you. You people and your offspring are the ones that have tormented people like me for ages. Screw you and your half-assed situational morals (why is abortion wrong, but daleth penalties and war right?). I would call you idiots Cro-Magnon, but at least Cro-Magnons thought and created. No, you are more like parasites, leeching off others. It's not the man on welfare who needs to reform, it's you. You with your fucking tax-breaks and your gas guzzling SUV's (12 miles-per-gallon on the EPA highway test is not efficient).

You conservative fucks. I hate you all with all my passion. You people who one minute ridicule and profane my science with pseudo-science and then the next minute co-opt it for your trillion dollar safety blanket that will never work. You who mocked the kids good in math and science, and then ask them to figure out how to save you. We have taken all your punishment, and in naive hope of the bettering of all, we get screwed.

This is my call. I call that all good scientists abandon these people. Leave them with their pollution and their disease. Let them fall. Let their seed begone from this Earth lest we all go with them. All they have ever done is hold humanity back. They were the ones reluctant to hunt or forage when their tribe needed it the most, yet claimed their help in better time. They are the ones that forced Socrates to drink the hemlock. They were the one who supported the Roman practice of crucifixion for political dissenters. They were the ones that plunged Western Europe into an intellectual black-hole for a thousand years. They are the ones who persecuted Galileo Galilie. They are the ones that hounded Darwin. They are the ones who forced that stupid law in Tennessee that Scopes fought against. They are the ones who fought effective contraception. They are always there, alway fucking meddling when so many are trying to push humanity forward.

Their very nature denies humanity. They refuse change, and in doing so, refuse that essential element of human existence. They cease to be human, and instead become something less, something truly profane.

So fuck them. Cut them loose. Let them go. If they like intolerance so much, let's give them some of their own medicine.

Build no more bombs for them. Build no more security blankets. Build no machines. The world will be better for it when they are gone.

<personal>
I will suffer the attacks of these fools no more. Ever since I first showed imagination in school, I have been hounded. I was in detention for fighting back against these ass-clowns more than I can properly remember. I refused their world, their model, their relegation of me to the host for the parasites. I refused to play their game and refused their petty structure. I shattered their conceptions and challenged their authority. And for it I received beatings and death threats. But I said no. I refused to help these people. I turned the other cheek, and in doing so, asked them to hit me as an equal if they were going to fight me.

But these ass-hats refuse to accept me as equal, they want to treat me as some kind of servant. I wish not to serve men who send people my own age off to die needlessly. I wish not to serve men who would saddle the coming generations with a world sick with pollution, strife and debt. I wish not to serve men who would deny the rights of others. I wish not to serve men who see science as a political tool, men who profane a pure and clean practice.

It isn't the science that is good or evil, it is neutral. It is those who practice it that are capable of good and evil.
</personal>

Only 7 days
Topic: Daily Info

I would use the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s line, but I respect his work and general philosophy, and so won't profane it by using it as a humorous expression of my relief.

Instead: feels damn good to be homework free.

I also had a nice long rant abotu a lot of things, but I decided that little fire-starter should stay put at its present entry in the NTFS on this box.

Some explanation
Topic: Rambling

So close to being done, so ridiculously close. Yet at the same time, that last final on the 22nd seems light-years away.

So as I was talking with folken yesterday, I was asked, "Why are you so angry in your blog?" And I was taken aback. I had not realized how strange and bitter my ranting on here has been of late.

I think it has a lot to do with trying to stay civil and calm during the day when I have to interact with what I perceive to be a bunch of raving fools (certain folken excluded, you know who you are). Maybe they act non-foolish elsewhere, but I can only act on my observations and knowledge of human behavior (I am no psychologist, but I've studied enough of the base theory and observed enough to be considered more than a casual observer). If I didn't vent here, I'd likely beat the living crap out of people. There's just so many people doing things with no thought what-so-ever. The best example I have is this: remember the Frank Grimes character from the Simpsons(TM)? Sometimes I feel like him, only on a larger scale.

Then there are the times I get angry for other reasons. I get extremely angry when people make what I consider to be stupid ideological decisions. This is not stay I think their ideology is stupid (with a few major exceptions my regular readers already know), but their motives for the decisions. Things like "Well, ever body does $insert_position_or_act$ so I should too." NO! That's so ridiculously stupid. Your mother/father/parental-unit gave you the bridge-jumping analogy for a reason. And the bridge-jumping analogy extends further than ignoring childhood peer-pressure to an even better goal, it breaks conformity. Excessive conformity gets a species killed quite readily -- it is the over specialist species that die first under flux. I have no problem with a person having a general set of beliefs, as long as they arrived upon them out of their own reasoning. But the second that reason becomes based on peer-pressure, I call shenanigans.

Let's see, what else ... Oh yeah! The supposition of the superiority of one belief system over another. Nothing drives me more ape-shit than this. I have my own moral convictions and I came to them upon my own terms, and I think they are right. But, I stop right there. They are only really applicable to myself. If I were to force my beliefs upon others, I would consider it morally reprehensible, especially in the context of a global society and in terms of protecting the religious freedoms of others. This sense of reprehensibility comes not from my own values, but from what many consider to be a universal value. I'd prefer if public officials would keep this in mind, otherwise they are no better than those Mayflower tools that tortured men and women for religious reasons.

Remember children, the Pilgrims did not flee, they were kicked out. They were persecuting people left and right in England and Amsterdam and then made a lot of people angry. The solution: send them as geographically far away as possible at the time (Australia came later).

That's another thing as I think about it: can we get rid of this stupid familial precedence crap? You know, "My family is oh-so-special because they came at such-and-such time and on this boat." Big deal. So your ancestors came on the Mayflower. For everyone of you idiots, there are hundreds more whose ancestors were crammed thick on boats for all manners of purposes, some of them very vile and disgusting purposes (slavery). I care not who your great-grandmother's uncle was, that person is long past dead and decomposed and no longer figures into the world other than a smattering of nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and a few sundry other substances. My only concern is with who you are in the here-and-now.

That's all that really figures into one's day-to-day dealings with people, the immediate past (say 10-20 years), the present and the immediate future (say minutes to weeks). It does not matter to turn the scope wider than that for each person as an individual unit in such a large population. On an aggregate level, then the scope needs to be much much wider.

Oh, just one more thing to wrap up on tonight. Why do people idolize the wealthy and elite? It makes no sense. Frankly, the "stars" and their lives have no bearing upon my own. And when I hear of their personal lives, it makes my gorge rise. Pick any star and I can tell you why it's wrong on so many levels. Just look at what they have and then what you do not. And not just you, but a huge number of people who are not only lacking minor luxuries, but are also lacking necessities. Tell me if they are so great now. Sure, such-and-such can sing really nice, but does it matter? I'd find it more enjoyable to listen to a person singing a simple song that truly reflects on how they feel in their own simple voice, than listen to some star who can sing each note perfectly. Or so-and-so can act really well. Again, every parent acts out a more crucial play for their child, and they do it better than even the best of actors. We enable these fools and their life-styles, all the while taking a little more from ourselves. Honestly, I think I'd rather put my six bucks in a Salvation Army bucket than give it to a greedy and oligarchistic movie industry.

As I've said again and again, these petty things we squabble over are what will spell our doom. There is a reason I call them small and petty: you can read any book about astronomy to see why. I've written examples here before, so I won't do so again this time. Just remember, infinity is beyond all grasp, and that is what we all have to contend with.

I realize it may seem I contradict myself, but if you are willing to look a little further, you will see variance and purpose in my meaning. Conformity is bad because it causes stagnation. Unity on a global scale is good. But that global unity does not imply global conformity beyond agreeing to think beyond current geographical and political circumstance. Think on it a while, and you should be able to see why this is not a contradiction.

Flux or Fade
Topic: Rambling

<VERSE>

And so on we shall fight
Always asking, questing, searching, seeking truth

No half-answer acceptable
Only full truth or resignation

Liars, thieves and cheats run out on a rail
So far right they've crossed into the wrong

Conservatism is backwards against progress
Against all human nature to grow and move ever forward

We are adaptable, malleable, flexible
Our existence denies the unchanging

Change and motion, mutation and flux
Discomfort creates agitation

Agitation creates imbalance
Imbalance dis-allowed in nature

Imbalance leads to flux
Flux leads to reordering and all are better

All is changed and the previous meaning is moot
Humanity's greatest gift is to change

To change and come beyond arbitrary geological features
To go beyond this little spheroid cradle

To go beyond this star
Beyond this galaxy

Maybe beyond the universe?
Maybe to be infinite?

Infinity
Beyond all we can ever know

Infinity
Deny importance of petty and insignificant games we play

The infinite, uncaring of us
But we can stand together an cry out into the vastness

Or we can fight amongst ourselves
Leaving only arbitrary radiation in space as our mark

</VERSE>

Long days and longer nights
Topic: Rambling && Rant

Long days and nights you fought for truth
Gotta hand it to you
Uprising paid for in blood
Only to lose
We're gonna hang you up
You've got balls but.....

We got the whip
we got a better bomb
We got the whip
We got the whip
we got a better bomb
We Got The Whip, Audioslave

Sometimes I don't get it. What in the living hell is wrong with my generation? It went from being a brewing rebellion to a drooling order-taking legion. So many live in constant fear for no reason. And so many support leaders that perpetuate this fear and do nothing to resolve true underlying problems.

It seems, some days, like all I do is fight a losing battle. I try to show people the reason, the logic, the facts, and yet, I get no where. I talk with friends, and the result is like preaching to the choir, you'll know exactly the response you'll get. Don't get me wrong, it feels good to speak with those that understand your thoughts, a recharging of the batteries, but I really wish I could get just one person outside my friends to listen. Just one. But all I get when I begin to mention the facts, is a stonewall. They curl up tightly in fear as I bring the reality in.

I cannot fathom that so many people have such a small and artificially organized world. I have long since signed off on Shakopee and showing them the world. Those here have no desire to see it. But surely there must be others who could see beyond the artificial reality as spun to them by "patriotic", Hearst-esque news sources. But all I find, it seems, are either people cowering in fear or people like myself. And those that cower in fear react violently, in word and deed, to this intrusion upon their order.

It drives me up the wall that these people bastardize a word that was once so laden with determination, resolution and strength. It's now a stupid denigration that I have place between quote markers so one understands my intention. I used to describe myself with that word, but due to its bastardization, people become confused at its use and my continual stance of being critical of elected and appointed officials. They do not understand that this is required of every citizen of a democracy for it to function properly. Even if Kerry had won, I would have been critical of him as well, and held him to same standard. I pull no double standards with this, its deadly serious business.

To give complete and tacit support to an official of any kind is to surrender to the first stages of a dictatorship. Every elected official in history that was able to herd his people one way or another into supporting him completely has become a dictator: Julius Cesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Kaiser Wilhelm, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler.

There are several forms of government that humans should have left far behind a long time ago. The dictatorship is one, right along with the autocracy and a few others. What I think those others are you can probably infer if you've been following along well enough.

So while some members of my generation continue to throw everything that was handed to them upon a platter, I know myself and my friends will continue trying to shake the world and bring the truth. Change and adaption is crucial for the survival of humanity, not the irrational adherence to the status quo.