Very (Un)Creative

A couple days ago I headed down to Universal City (just a quick trip down the Orange Line followed by a one-stop ride on the Red Line … I actually am making use of the EZ Pass I bought…) for a screening of the latest Shrek creation. I believe it’s titled Shrek 4 – The Quest for More Money, or something similar… Not only did I see the flick, but I also paid the premium needed to experience it in IMAX 3D. I now think that I might have been better off saving my $18 and waiting for the DVD (oh wait, Blu-Ray, of course)…

Not that the movie wasn’t visually awe-inspiring; it was. The storyline (and I do realize this is basically a kid’s flick and, admittedly, I was a bit drunk at the time) however seemed way too “cookie cutter” for me. I’m not going to bore you with any review of the flick – there are plenty of those online already; however I am going to give my two-cents on this latest money-making fad that’s hit theaters everywhere – 3D.

It’s rather interesting as 3D has been around for quite some time now. There was a short-lived fad in the early to mid 1950’s and an attempted comeback in the 1960’s that resulted in something like 50 other movies (mostly of the sexploitation variety) being produced; however 3D never caught on as the standard movie-going experience. Perhaps it was the crudeness of the technology back then (the old red/blue 3D glasses); however I think 3D never became the standard for a much simpler explanation – it’s unnecessary. Now that the technology has advanced and the visual aspect has become much more vibrant, the uselessness of this 3D effect is still there…

Now, just to be fare, I’ll let you know that I am not a “normal” person when it comes to 2D vs. 3D. From birth, I have always been quite near-sighted in my right eye. I’m not exactly sure how old I was when I discovered this; but my first pair of eye-glasses were purchased at age 23

when I needed them in order to obtain a driver’s license in Florida. I had been living in Michigan until then and was always able to pass the eye test by explaining my condition; Florida was different. As my optometrist explained to me, I don’t use both eyes to focus when I look at things. My brain has compensated for my right eye near-sightedness by learning to only use the image from one eye to focus. Although my eyes are open and light is being detected by both, my mind is only “paying attention” to the focused image of one eye. And it’s not always the same eye – I can actually make entire pages of text “jump” between two virtual positions just by concentrating and explicitly selecting which eye to use… It’s hard to explain to “normal” people; unfortunately what ends up happening is that I basically have very poor depth perception. And by “very poor” I think it might be none. So basically, the world in general is 2D to me (not that I don’t understand what depth is, I’ve just never “seen” it) which, I suppose, makes me not the best person to be berating this 3D movie technology; however I doubt my opinion would be any different if my eyesight were normal.

You see, the problem I have with all these movies being shot and shown in 3D is that it gives the producers yet one more reason to ignore what should be the most important part of any movie – the story. I mean isn’t that why we go to the movies to begin with – an escape from our mundane lives with the opportunity to spend a couple hours experiencing the lives of others (real or imaginary)? When did we, as a society, decide that all we need from these exploits was bright, flashy colors in 3D? Whatever happened to the import of the story…?

And what the heck is with this latest trend of remaking old movies? They don’t even bother to change the names anymore. Oh look, The Karate Kid is hitting the theaters on the 11th of June. That’s interesting … maybe I’m going mad but I seem to remember seeing that movie (with a completely different cast) back in 1984. But this new one’s different, right? Basically change the cast, change the setting and re-tell the same story … how very original…

Oh well, I suppose it is what it is. As long as people continue to pay the premiums to go and watch this stuff, they’re going to keep pumping it out. I guess the real problem is the audience’s compliancy with this. Unfortunately it ends up being a classic Catch-22 – you can only see movies that are actually being shown. Heck, I paid $18 a couple days ago basically because I had nothing better to do. I guess that puts me right up there as part of the problem…

bis später,

Coriolis

They ARE Very Sorry

Okay, so I moved to my new apartment. I dropped quite a bit of money in an effort to furnish said apartment and am actually getting close to being done – I still need to get the two bathrooms finished and pick up a few more kitchen needs; however it does appear that I will soon be fully “moved in”… So where do I go from here? What’s next on my silly little agenda that is my life…? I know! I’ll head on over to eHarmony and see if they can find me someone to hang out with – they can match anyone, right? Nope…

The thing is, I was rejected by eHarmony a few years back. I filled out their rather extensive questionnaire with what I believed at the time to be 100% honest answers. The result was a notification that their system could not predict good matches for me. Oh well, whatever… Perhaps I was not being as honest as I should; unfortunately, once you get rejected, you are not allowed to change your answers. I don’t know how long you need to wait before you can try again, but (at least with the email address used for your first attempt) their system is set up to block access to the questionnaire on people that get deemed unmatchable. I basically let it end there and assumed that I had made a mistake with my answers…

Today, however, I logged back on to eHarmony. Apparently, enough time had passed to clear out my old, unmatchable questionnaire and I was once again allowed to give it another shot. Now since I’ve got no reason not to try again, I filled out the questionnaire – this time with the knowledge that my last attempt was unmatchable. I spent quite a bit of time making sure that all of my answers where completely honest. The way I figured it was that, the last time I did this, I did it too quickly and must have made some silly mistake. This time, I was going to get it right. I think it took me somewhere around 2 and a half hours, but I answered all of the questions and this time I know I was 100% honest.

The result: “We’re very sorry, but our matching system cannot predict good matches for you.”

I guess that explains a lot… For one thing, it shows that I was correct in thinking that my answers to the questionnaire a few years back were actually valid. I guess I didn’t make a silly mistake; I actually am unmatchable by eHarmony. But why…?

You see, that’s the rub. They come back and tell you that “ matching system cannot identify high quality compatible matches” based on your responses to their questionnaire; however they give absolutely no explanation as to why this is. They “apologize and regret inability to find good matches” and even provide you with a free “Personality Profile” to let you learn more about yourself and “provide you with valuable insights.” I looked over the Profile provided for me and wasn’t able to find anything that would make me out and out unmatchable. It actually describes me as a pretty well adjusted, rather stable, focused and agreeable man. But then I remembered…

Whilst filling out this questionnaire, I was struck by a few of the qualities it was asking me to rank myself on. There were three in particular that, to me, stuck out like a turd in a punchbowl. They were having me rate the importance of my religious beliefs – after, by the way, I had already chosen “neither religious nor spiritual” on one of the first questions asked. This got me to pondering … “Was my lack of religion the reason I was unable to be matched?”

I would have just gone back and changed my answers for those religious-based questions as a test; however, as I stated above, one is not allowed to change any answers once one has been deemed unmatchable. That, however, didn’t stop me from starting over from scratch with a different email address; and in today’s technical society, who doesn’t have multiple email addresses that they can use, right? So that’s what I did. I started again from scratch with my work email address and changed my name and location. I answered everything as identical to the last time as I could remember except for the religious aspect – there I decided to become a rather devout Christian from the “Church-of-Christ” cult.

The result this time: I was suddenly extremely matchable and given seven pages of matches with 20 women on each. Now remember, this is for the exact same person (me) with the only difference in responses being that I was now lying about my religious beliefs.

Now I’m not really sure how mad I should be about this. It’s just one more blatant example of how religious people can be such narrow-minded, self-righteous pieces of shit. I mean, think about it; why would somebody bother setting up an online matchmaker service and automatically ban non-religious people from using it? It’s not like any atheists are going to join that site in an attempt to pull theists away from their mindless flocks. Maybe we (the atheists) are just looking to find a date as well. But I guess they’re just using that intolerance that their religion has taught them so well…

bis später,

Coriolis

Aye Batter Batter

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been attending “alcohol/drug addiction education” classes. Not to learn how to get addicted to alcohol or drugs – that would just be silly – but rather as group counseling sessions (usually mandated by a California court) aimed at helping addicts to quit their addictions. I’m only there as a “good will” gesture suggested by my lawyer in order to get an obstruction of justice charge dropped – I am not an addict. That being said, I’ve decided to give you, the reader my analysis of just how useless I believe these sessions would be for me if I were an addict. To sum it all up, I believe these court-mandated counseling sessions for fee are just one more of the seemingly endless pieces of bullshit that our government (well, the California government at least) has decided to force on the citizens to allow the self-assuming superior people a false sense of helping others. Let me explain…

First off, let me sum-up what I have been able to learn about how “the system” here in California works. The way it goes is that, if you get busted for some sort of drug/alcohol related crime (mainly possession and DUI), there is a possibility that the court will give you the option of attending these “educational” group sessions rather than going to prison. What the odds of getting this option are is still unknown to me; however it appears that where you get busted as well as who you get busted by seems to have some impact on this happening. Of course since I’m using these sessions for a court case in Colorado, I did not experience this procedure first-hand; however it doesn’t take a genius to realize that a large majority of people presented with this choice would opt for the counseling, right…? One would think…

There’s a little bit of a twist to the counseling option though – it’s a “pay for” service. This means that, if you’re interested in taking the “education”, you need to be willing and able to pony up some cash. It’s $30 per session plus a registration fee. In my case, the registration fee alone was $260. Whether this is a conventional amount or some sort of “special” pricing they came up with for my unique case (it brought my total amount due with the eight sessions to an even $500) I am unaware; however since the typical court-ordered counseling is either a 16 or 24 week stint (one class per week), the pricing for this option can easily get out of reach for many people. So basically what we have here is a government run court of law giving “get out of jail free” cards only to those that can afford them. Isn’t it ironic … don’t ya think?

To add to this irony, the government gets absolutely none of the money that is paid for these classes – none! There are actually institutions in California that have somehow arranged it so that courts can “strongly suggest” people pay them for their services else go to jail. Courts can mandate that somebody either purchases a service being offered by a private institution or go to jail. Am I the only one who finds this fascinating? I mean yeah, there are strict rules that need to be adhered to in order to complete this counseling; but it sure beats going to prison! So basically you’ve got private institutions that have obtained the right to have people forced by the courts to buy their services. And the worst part about all this is that their services (at least as far as I’m concerned) don’t work…

Why do I say this? Well for many reasons. The first of which is the number of people in the classes I’ve been attending that have “been here before” … for quite a few, many times. Several of the students have even been to prison already and are using this option as a change of pace. For this spin through the judicial revolving door they’ve decided to take a much more expensive, somewhat more scenic route. If nothing more than positive results were used to justify the existence of these non-prison options, I seriously doubt they would be around much longer. But then what would we do with the sudden influx of people in need of incarceration? Is this no more than a way to keep prison populations down?

The main reason however that I believe these classes don’t work is based on the fact that I’ve been attending them for some nine hours now and have learned absolutely nothing. It’s exactly what I was expecting it to be – well intentioned people spouting out dime-store philosophy to a completely uninterested audience. Most (if not all) of the people are only there to stay out of jail and it’s extremely difficult (even for those with actual educational training) to teach those uninterested in learning. Having some former addict (and I do believe all of the instructors are former addicts) attempt to explain basic societal mores that I’ve been well aware of since elementary school to me seems like little more than an insult to my intelligence. Throw in their biased views on philosophy being taught as “must dos” and it becomes downright frightening.

But you can’t blame the people administering these classes. I do believe that they are actually trying to help. Unfortunately, the problem is not this counseling. The problem isn’t even the government giving people the option to buy their “get out of jail free” cards. I believe that the real problem we are facing today is the lack of responsibility shown by a large portion of the American people. Mix this in with an unrealistic need for vengeance upon the unknown for crimes that the media is doing their best to often times glamorize, slowly stir in an attempt to reach uniform consistency and let set.

What we end up with is what we currently have in California: laws becoming stricter with respect to drugs of all varieties and tolerances asymptotically approaching zero for those that try to test these law’s boundaries, prisons getting overcrowded with more and more three-strikers to the extent that alternatives need to be found quickly and finally the government mandating citizens to purchase services from private institutions else join the crowds already in prison. Has our society really come to this? Are many of the crimes committed actually worthy of the punishment they’ve incurred? I seriously doubt it…

Now you might be wondering exactly what I’m getting at here and I wouldn’t blame you at all for that – I’m kind of curious myself… It just seems to me that something needs to change. Perhaps we should get rid of the “three strikes” rule and go back to evaluating the severity of a crime on a case by case basis? Seems to me like that might just open up the possibility for a ton of new jobs considering the number of cases prosecuted each and every day. Maybe we should take a lesson from many of our friends across the pond and learn to start tolerating an individual’s decision to use drugs as long as nobody else is endangered. When you think about it, how is this any different than the use of alcohol…? Maybe we should instill the value of personal responsibility in our children so that these issues never arise.

I actually don’t know and am not about to claim that I have any answers. I will say however that the experiences I’ve been going through the last couple of months sure have posed a lot of questions…

bis später,

Coriolis

Cough, Cough...

The FDA has decided to take it upon their authority to ban all flavored cigarette products sold in the United States. Interestingly enough, menthol flavored cigarettes are the one and only exception to this ban. It’s an act targeted at removing a gateway currently used to, I don’t know, “fool?” children and young adults into becoming regular smokers.

It’s a huge piece of bullshit, though… The government can throw out numbers (pulled usually directly out of their butts) showing how this ban is going to save billions and billions of lives, right? So what?! All this is in reality is one more freedom being stripped away from the American citizen. It’s just another case where those that can have decided to mandate their own personal ideology onto those they regard as too stupid to think for themselves. Not to mention that I don’t even think it’s even indisputably legal.

Tobacco, even with its heinous image in modern society, is still a legally marketed substance. Even with this latest ban, anybody of age (what is it now, over 18???) can still legally walk into a convenience store and purchase any number of cigarettes he wishes to purchase – as long as they’re not flavored.

Now the chemicals that are currently being used to add a little “flavor” to these cigarettes are also completely legal to use. I’m positive that you will find these same “artificial flavorings” in any number of other food items being sold today. Put the two together and suddenly the FDA has the right to say that you can’t sell the resulting flavored cigarettes? Umm, why???

The argument is that this magical flavoring of tobacco makes tobacco products more desirable to children and young adults. However true this statement is – and it sounds like nothing more than pure speculation to me – it’s still not a valid reason to completely (except for menthol flavored – I guess some exceptions are justifiable?) ban a product. Hell, you can even throw out the “young adults” portion of the reasoning since young adults are defined to be at least 18 years of age and are therefore old enough to purchase tobacco if they so choose. The argument now becomes something about these flavored cigarettes being a gateway for children to become regular smokers; however children are already banned from purchasing tobacco products by their age alone…

So let’s just call a spade a spade here and admit that the purpose of this ban is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to force a viewpoint about the evils of tobacco into everybody’s mind with a law. We can continue to dance around the actual law of banning tobacco completely by creating more laws that make it harder and harder for someone to legally enjoy a smoke; however I’m just waiting for the actual ax to fall where the “know betters” finally do the smokers of this country a huge favor and completely outlaw this vice they are too stupid to quit on their own. After all, in this “land of the free”, it’s best not to let the citizens choose what freedoms they get. We’re all far too stupid for that…

Another interesting aspect about this newly adopted ban is exactly who it’s going to hurt. It will, in no way, hurt the “Big Tobacco” industry. They’ve even gone so far as to exclude the one flavoring (menthol) that the big boys even use. No … those that are going to be hurt by this are the somewhat smaller companies (the ones that aren’t financing political careers as much as the big boys) currently selling clove and flavored cigarettes to niche markets. It’s also going to give the FDA some precedence required for them to start making wider and wider bans on various other forms of so-called “alternative” nicotine delivery systems. I’m thinking the vaporizers (i.e. Green Smoke) will be feeling some pain soon; they rely on flavors as a way to separate themselves from competition.

Putting capitalism aside, I believe the political ramifications alone from this latest ban should scare the shit out of every freedom loving American. As I mentioned above, they (the FDA) are banning the combination of legal substances to enhance the appeal (for some, I personally am not a fan of flavored cigarettes…) of one of those substances based on shaky assumptions. Not only is the “gateway” argument purely speculative; it’s a pre-defined set of values getting prescribed to all through the enactment of a law. How long before all of our freedoms become sanitized to a point where we’re merely free to behave as our government has mandated?

bis später,

Coriolis

To tip, or not to tip: Why isn’t that the question?

Is it just me or does anybody else out there think that tipping needs to finally be done away with??? I just don’t get it. You go out to a nice restaurant, enjoy an already rather expensive meal, receive the check and are automatically expected to add somewhere around 15-20% more than the actual meal cost. Doesn’t this seem a bit silly? I mean why don’t they just charge us the 15-20% more to begin with and cut out the unneeded hassle…?

I realize, of course, that the “idea” behind the tip makes sense. It’s supposed to be an additional reward for the wait staff on a job well done. Note that – “a job well done.” I’m wondering when it was decided that this apparently unnecessary causality was removed from this equation. Was there a meeting that I wasn’t invited to…? Why am I now expected to leave a tip regardless of service quality? Aren’t we just taking one more step toward mediocrity being expected in this society … not only expected but rewarded?

“But these waiters and waitresses rely on receiving tips for their livelihood” … “their pay is insignificant for survival without the added income from the tips” … “the tip is actually taken as a given when the wages for these positions are decided” … “you’re a complete asshole if you don’t tip regardless of the quality of service you received” … “the wait staff needs the tips to survive.”

I’ve heard it all before although I’m really beginning to wonder why I should care. I’ve worked very hard to earn the income I currently receive and nobody is expected to be throwing any more money my way regardless of my performance. The only thing that I can guarantee is that my income, in complete, will cease to exist if I don’t do my job well enough. As a matter of fact, my income always has the possibility of vanishing completely due to a myriad of scenarios in which I have absolutely no control over – it’s called life. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the people that serve me at restaurants? Is this a pity thing???

You see I’m of the opinion that the people that wait on me in restaurants are just that – people. I have no ill-founded sense of superiority over them nor do I believe that they are any better than I. They are getting paid to do their job which just so happens to be serving me and my guests food and drink. That’s all. Why is it my responsibility to cover the inadequacy in income that their employers have agreed to pay? They took the job. If the pay scale agreed to was insufficient, they had every right to ask for more or look elsewhere.

Over in Germany they’ve already addressed this. Gratuity (as well as taxes, for that matter) is already included in the prices on the menu. It sure as hell makes things quite a bit simpler. Yeah, the prices seem a bit steep at first, but that’s all that is expected to be paid. When you receive your bill at the end of the meal, the total amount due is precisely the amount shown – nothing extra is expected. Not that you couldn’t add on a tip if you felt the service worthy enough, it just isn’t expected. I guess over there they pay their wait staffs sufficiently for survival. And as a bonus, there are quite a few Americans visiting…

The reason I say this is because we Americans have been so well programmed to automatically add on a tip that the whole idea of not doing so seems so wrong to us that, even in places where tips actually are optional, not leaving one just feels a bit dirty – so much so that Jon was constantly giving me shit for not leaving tips when I was over there. Even after pointing out to him on several menus where it clearly stated (in German, of course) that gratuity was included, he always added approximately 15% to his bills. Maybe that’s why the German waiters were always so glad to see Americans…?

What I propose is that we adopt the same system here that they use in Germany. And you might think I’m a bit silly proposing that the prices for meals be raised in restaurants, but I’m not. I’m proposing that the “actual” prices for meals be displayed on the menus. We could then do away with this whole nonsense of tipping. The extra income to the restaurants can be used to pay the wait staffs fairly and the whole unnecessary tipping routine can go the way of the dodos…

Just a thought…

bis später,

Coriolis

blah ... blah ... blah

It appears as though I have survived the onslaught of activity that has recently invaded my world … well, the most recent round. I’m back in California with a newly renewed registration for Precious and a bit less money thanks to my two stops in Vegas. My company has moved to our new office (adding somewhere around 8 miles to my one-way commute) and life continues to trudge forward. Where, exactly, it’s lumbering toward is a complete unknown…

Lately it’s become rather obvious to me that I really don’t have any solid goals that I am trying to meet. Apart from the standard survival routine, there’s really nothing that I am striving to accomplish. Yeah, there are quite a few things that I would “like” to achieve – self-sufficient wealth and the removal of the “need” to work for a living would be nice – however it’s recently come to my attention that I’m not actually pursuing much of anything. And the funny thing is that it really doesn’t bother me much…

I remember – vaguely – an earlier version of myself that was going to be something. I was going to be successful, rich and favorably acknowledged in my community. I suppose my current condition is merely a result of this younger me never actually spending the time and resources to develop and implement a plan for achieving this; however it just seems so obvious to me now that, at my age, I am where I am … it seems like the risk associated with changing the status quo just isn’t worth it. I guess I need to learn how to extract the most pleasure from whatever activities I get involved in and try to make this routine a bit more interesting.

Or maybe it’s exactly the opposite. Perhaps I did come up with a plan on an earlier date that I have completed. Is it possible that my plan was flawed and the expected results where, in reality, a bit exaggerated…? It seems to me that I have pretty much accomplished all of the realistic goals that I had set for myself however my mansion and Lamborghini are still noticeably absent. Maybe the materialistic “high life” that this capitalistic society programs each of us to strive for just isn’t obtainable … at least not by me. The strangest thing is that I really don’t care…

I now realize that, if I had my mansion and Lamborghini, all that would mean is that I would have more crap that I would need to deal with. That’s basically what everything is – more crap to deal with. But is that all life is … dealing with crap…? I sure hope not. There’s got to be something more…

Sex??? Is that it? If you think about it, a hell of a lot of this need for things is no more than a by-product of the quest for a mate. I believe it’s a widely held view (at least in male minds) that the quickest way to a score is to impress with excess. It’s bullshit, but when has that ever stopped us? Let’s also not forget about the morons that are convinced to kill themselves for the outlandish promise of sex with a few dozen virgins. So is that what “it’s” all about, sex?

Hell, I don’t know… And that is basically all I know – I don’t know. I suppose all that anybody can do is decide what is important to him and consciously strive to accomplish it. Happiness comes in small doses and believing otherwise seems to me misguided. Love those that will let you and try not to get overwhelmed by those that won’t. Find that special something and hold onto it for dear life. Try not to get caught up with worrying where your life is headed – just sit back and enjoy the ride. Nobody comes out of this alive…

bis später,

Coriolis

Don't Sweat the Stuff (regardless of size...)

“Life is what you make it.” As anybody who’s been reading my blog is already aware, this is basically the mantra that I have chosen to live by. I recently got a request from an old friend to further explain this ideology and am now caught in a bit of a conundrum. The problem (well, not actually a “problem” … more of a “concern”) is that I honestly feel that I cannot logically explain this reasoning – I can only tell stories… It’s within the details of these stories that this viewpoint should become evident…

However – since the request was made – I’m going to do my best to explain my reasoning. First, and foremost, I just want to clarify that I am not trying to tell anybody how they should be living their life. I am not, in any way whatsoever, qualified to be telling others what to do (hell, I’m hardly qualified to be telling myself what to do…) so, if you mistakenly take this post for my insisting that I am right and everyone should be thinking like me, then you’ve missed the point. I was asked to elaborate and elaborate I shall…

For me, the realization came when I got the opportunity to spend nine months working a contract job in Germany. I call it an “opportunity” now; at the time I wasn’t so sure. I had been rather recently put into a position where I was one of the far-too-many people in this country that are forced to take on the somewhat odious appellative – unemployed… And being “Coriolis the Unemployed” was most definitely something that I could NOT be doing for long. Like most working-class Americans, I had bills to pay. I most definitely needed to find a way to get some income!

Now the reason for my jaunt back to the world of the unemployed was no fault of my own. The company I was working for (Flextronics Semiconductor) got sold which basically meant that the entity that had been providing my much needed income ceased to exist. Sure, as is usually the case with these corporate shenanigans (Can I call the sale of an un-needed subsidiary a “shenanigan”? Sure … why not…?) I had the fortuity to basically re-interview with the purchasing company in an attempt to keep my job. There were some other negatives associated with this (apart from having to re-interview for a job I had been doing for the last five years) and I think I covered all this in a much earlier posting; however I basically chose not to attempt to keep the job. I was really getting sick of living my life as nothing more than a number to be bought and sold by the whims of some rich dudes that didn’t have any concern for “my” well being whatsoever…

So I guess my mindset began changing then, really. Up to this point in my life I had always just done what I believed was expected of me – which basically consisted of becoming yet another cog in the capitalistic machine that America runs on. I wasn’t really living my life so much as letting my life control me. Sure, I was actually making decisions that had effects on my life (this is unavoidable); however all of my actions were basically decided for me by my attempt at living the life I felt I was “supposed” to. For me, this insanity was about to change…

After deciding that I wasn’t really enjoying my job enough to justify re-interviewing for it and choosing rather to be unemployed – putting me in the position of needing to get money somewhere – the job in Germany popped up as a possible solution to my monetary woes. But it was a job in Germany … I didn’t speak German and, with my wonderful American public school education, had absolutely no knowledge of what would be required (both legally and personally) to work independently in Germany … could I even consider this? Fortunately, I didn’t need to “consider” it – due to my quickly dwindling monetary resources, the “consideration” was revoked – I had no choice. With slightly more than two weeks to prepare, I was off to live in Germany (on my own, mind you…) for a bit…

Now how all this relates to the “life is what you make it” mantra is buried in the details. The bottom line is that everything ended up just fine. I was basically forced to do something that intimidated me (Who am I kidding? It scared the shit out of me…) but I was able to pull it off. And not only did I pull it off, but the final result is that my life (personally and monetarily) is the best it has ever been! This kind of got me to wondering … perhaps I should take these risks more often…? Perhaps taking these risks is me “creating” my life? Perhaps the “stuck in a rut”, “doing what’s expected” life I had been living until then wasn’t really “living” at all? Perhaps choosing to become that cog is tantamount to death…

I have since then had some very interesting situations arise. I was – upon returning from Germany – once again unemployed; however it never really bothered me. I knew that I would find something somewhere … in time. Heck, maybe I’d head back to Europe and find another contract job … maybe somewhere else – Asia, perhaps? Maybe I’d be able to get a job in Colorado and actually have an opportunity to live in the house I’m currently paying for…? Maybe I’d get that chance to throw away the engineering world for good and become the professional poker player that I long so much to be? I was thinking, “anything but California…”

And here I am now … in California… I’ve got the best paying job I’ve ever had, I’ve once again got medical – and dental – insurance (been a while since I’ve had those…) and I’ve finally met a woman that loves me for who I am. I think I’m doing a decent job “making my life” so far…

bis später,

Coriolis

It's All Good

Well, in case anybody was wondering, I am still alive. I do realize that it’s been quite a while since I posted anything on my blog; and I apologize to anyone that might have been expecting some interesting reading. Of course, my writing again may not be of any solace – I’ve never guaranteed any intrigue … I will, however, continue to write about life a bit – basically mine…

As the title for this post suggests, my life is going pretty darn well as of late. It’s funny how – usually when you least expect it – life has a way of surprising you. A lot of times these surprises take the form of a negative – money woes, problems with your automobile, the loss of something or someone special, your standard bad days… We deal with these downturns and continue to trudge through life with the hope that something better is on its way. There are, however, the rare occasions where life hits you straight in the face with an unexpected BINGO! This is when the time spent getting through the downturns pays off – it makes the pain vanish and reminds us why we’re alive. The latter of the two aforementioned scenarios has happened to me recently and I must admit that I’m feeling pretty good…

A couple weeks ago I headed back to my home in Colorado. I decided that driving the Pussy Wagon around southern California was something that I needed to stop. Heck, I own a couple other cars that were left in Colorado when I headed out here and one – Precious, my ’02 Trans Am Firehawk – seemed like an ideal car for cruising southern California in. I decided that I would fly back home, participate in the Denver Poker Tour semi-finals (I didn’t make the finals), get a crown (dental work, that is) and drive back to Cali in Precious with my buddy Todd. And, since I didn’t make the finals at the DPT, we could spend a couple days in Vegas on the way back. It was a good plan…

The part that I didn’t plan was meeting my soul mate. It’s a complicated story and I really can’t get into the details for reasons that I can’t explain right now; however I will say that I have met someone – here in California – that has pretty much reminded me what life is all about. The interesting (well, to me anyway…) part about it is what I have learned in such a short period of time. Granted these lessons are pretty much self-evident; but in all my years of being by myself, I’ve forgotten them. Not so much “forgotten” as lost faith in their existence. Please bear with me for a bit whilst I pontificate on some ideals that I beg you, the reader, to never lose faith in – no matter how hard the current day society attempts to eradicate them…

First and foremost is the fact that there is always somebody out there in the void that will appreciate you for who you are. I mean, that pretty much goes without saying when you consider the number of people that exist on this planet; however the point I want to make here is that there is never a valid reason to pretend to be somebody you aren’t in order to win somebody else’s affection. And I do realize that many people constantly play the game of wearing a façade in public with the intention of getting the one thing that they’ve fooled themselves into believing they desire most – sex; however you must be careful if you start playing this game. Play it too much and you risk becoming what you are portraying. You risk losing your desire for actual happiness to the far more materialistic desire of the sexual act. You risk losing your humanity… The whole attempt at becoming what the media is portraying as desirable leads many to abandon their true selves. This, my friends, is not only unnecessary but, in my opinion, very dangerous.

Another thing that I have recently discovered … realized … remembered … is that even the mundane tasks that life is filled with become so much more enjoyable when they are shared with the right person. Even when we can’t be together, I find that I am much more willing to complete these trivial tasks quickly and efficiently in an effort to gain more time that can be shared when we are together. The interesting side effect of wanting to make time has actually turned me into a much more productive person. Who’d of figured…?

I apologize if I’m sounding preachy or arrogant with this posting – after all, who am I to tell others how they should behave? All I know is that my life has been broadsided by a completely unexpected greatness that I am positive I would have dodged had I seen it coming. As some of you already know, I had just begun to play “the game” and even went as far as studying the playbook (I’m now on David DeAngelo’s mailing list…); however I must admit that it is a relief to discover that playing the game is, at best, unnecessary… When all is said and done, the people playing the game are usually not even who they appear to be … how are you expected to have an honest relationship with a façade…?

bis später,

Coriolis

Lust vs. Trust

Call me naïve if you want, but I’m of the opinion that we, as a society, really need to once again start focusing a bit more on adherence to what is appearing to be a now long-lost characteristic – fidelity. And it’s not because I’m jaded due to any recent betrayal or anything – heck, I haven’t been in a position where this situation is even a possibility for so long that to even presume that would be silly – it’s more of an emphatic request to those that are in a position where cheating is an option to have some self control. Nothing good ever comes from betraying somebody that you are supposed to be loving. People get hurt, lives often get ruined or severely screwed up and all because some dumb-ass decided to throw away loyalty to satisfy lust. It’s stupid…

I’ll be the first to admit that my appeal is being put forward out of pure, unadulterated selfishness. I honestly believe that greater adherence to fidelity would be a big plus for people like me. Not only would it bring personal values back into the mating selection process but it would weed out all the douche bags (and believe me, in today’s society, there are a lot of douche bags) that don’t even try to hide the fact that they’ll fuck anyone they want regardless of situation. Sadly though, these days it seems that being a douche bag is seen as a plus for many. It’s like willingness to be faithful is a sign of weakness. This I do not understand…

Don’t get me wrong now … I completely understand the desire to be with an attractive mate; however I was under the impression that human beings were supposed to be intelligent. Aren’t we able to separate ourselves from the primitive urges that have always existed as a method to guarantee the survival of the species? I’m pretty sure that we really needn’t worry about whether or not enough people are reproducing in order to keep our species around – that game was won long ago… Shouldn’t we be a bit more concerned with the newer game of making this life as pleasurable as possible? I think so. I also think that the damage done on the “big picture” through infidelity far outweighs any pleasure obtained. Life, after all, is a marathon not a sprint.

I would also like to remind everyone that the individual that is in a relationship is not the only guilty party when it comes to infidelity. No … far from it – it takes two to tango and anybody that is willing to tango with an involved individual is, at least from my perspective, worse than the de facto, commonly defined cheater. Not only is this person guilty for disrespecting an often times unknown individual by having sex with his or her partner, this person is also to blame for tempting the cheater to begin with.

Please feel free to leave a comment on this posting if you disagree with me here. I mean, am I crazy? Am I the only one that feels this way? I doubt it. Why then is the world the way it is? Shouldn’t it be common sense that people shouldn’t behave like this?

And fine, I do realize that people fall out of love every day. A lot of the people that are involved in these encounters consider them justifiable due to something missing in their actual relationship. If that’s the case then why keep it secret? Nothing is stopping these people from breaking off their relationship prior to looking elsewhere for love; but no, that’s not an option. It’s better to continue the charade with the known entity and keep the new activities secret. That way they get to have their cake and eat it too. Damn the poor sap that is stupid enough to believe the lies – he (or she) doesn’t matter anyway. Right…?

bis später,

Coriolis

Breaking an ARM

So let me get this straight … Georgey and the American Securitization Forum are planning to implement a 5-year rate-freeze on millions of subprime loans taken out by citizens that, once the actual consequences of the loans they opted for were realized, are having trouble making their payments, right? Doesn’t this seem to be rather counter-capitalistic to anyone else? And since when did the government ever want to help out the layman at the expense of big business? Something seems fishy here…

For one thing – and at the risk of sounding a bit cynical – where’s my payola? I mean sure, I could have opted into one of those ARM loans when I purchased my mortgage (or when I refinanced it – on two occasions) but I understood the risk and chose the safer (and what I thought was much more intelligent) alternative – a fixed-rate mortgage. Hell, if I knew the government was going to step in and change the “rules” for the subprime option, maybe I would have chosen differently. But no … I thought I understood the risk and opted to select the higher fixed rate for the main reason that it was fixed. Now that it appears there’s a life-vest being thrown to those that chose incorrectly, it seems that my sound financial planning was in err…

And how, exactly, is this going to be a good thing for the nation’s economy? I think any somewhat reasonable person is aware of why the financial institutions were so quick to push the variable rate loans on pretty much everybody – they stood to make a lot of money if the economy took a downturn, right? Well, now that this downturn has occurred, the government is going to (at least temporarily) punish these financial institutions for bad choices made by borrowers? Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to please investors. I don’t think missing projected profits because the government decided to basically nullify the contract terms on millions of loans will sit too well with the people that were supposed to be making money with the original terms…

The main reason that this whole idea bothers me is because it’s just one more situation where ignorance is being rewarded in this country. It’s no wonder that other nations hate us when we keep getting away with such blatant stupidity. And since when was ignorance a viable candidate for charity? If they choose to “help” those that made the wrong loan choice, exactly when are they going to “help” those that chose correctly? Oh wait, those that chose correctly don’t need any help. For those that didn’t, I’m of the opinion that “you made your bed – lie in it”.

bis später,

Coriolis

The Long Walk to Nowhere

I read this article “How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook” by Cory Doctorow on Yahoo! News yesterday and it got me thinking…

Mr. Doctorow presents an interesting study on the social aspects of the Internet and the various “walled gardens” that keep popping up (Facebook, SixDegrees, Friendster, MySpace, etc…) providing pretty solid arguments as to why these social networks are really nothing more than ways for big businesses to squeeze more money out of the public (be it through membership fees or the less direct – however highly trafficable – pushed advertisement) as well as detriments to the open Internet that everyone should be pushing for. He also demonstrates the dangers that these social networking services present which was what got me to thinking…

The conclusion that I came to is that social ability is a set of skills. Unfortunately, for most in today’s society, the importance of teaching these skills has been minimized. Everybody is apprised of the importance in acquiring academic aptitude; however the need for social savvy seems to have been mitigated to skills one either acquires naturally else is condemned to trudge throughout life in absence of.

How I came to this conclusion might not be very obvious to many – or perhaps it’s blatantly obvious to most but just not evident to me. You see a while back, prior to flying out to California, I was checking out my MySpace page when Todd started asking me who my “friends” were. I have a whopping total of 34 “friends” on MySpace and, interestingly enough, I was only actually able to identify 10 of them as people that I would even consider “known” outside of MySpace and fewer still that I would consider friends. Todd was amused by this. He has 31 MySpace “friends” and, except for Tom (the default sysop “friend” that everyone gets by default) and Tool (the band), the remainder actually are Todd’s friends.

He then asked me why I would want to have people I don’t even know as “friends” on MySpace and I basically told him that I didn’t care. The way I figure it is that, if somebody stumbles onto my MySpace page and decides they wanted to be my friend, who am I to say “no”? Sure, you need to at least attempt to verify that the new request is coming from an actual person (this is usually easily accomplished by checking out their page) and you’re going to get some people that may become nuisances in the future; however there’s nothing stopping you from removing them from your “friends” if this happens. I’ve noticed quite a few people on MySpace with literally thousands of friends which leads me to believe that I’m not the only one that thinks this way…

But I’m starting to stray from my original point… You see Todd is somebody that understands what is necessary for a person to be socially adept. He’s learned the importance of this well enough to not even have to think about it – it’s become second nature. I, on the other hand, have somehow missed out on this education. The whole issue of us comparing our “friends” lists on MySpace was just one more of many instances where my lack of ability in the social arts has become painfully obvious. And it’s not just that he has somewhere on the order of ten times more actual friends than I have on MySpace; it’s more about my having friends that I don’t even know seems comical to him. After all, it is pretty silly…

So what am I getting at here? I don’t really know… I guess it has to do with the realization I recently came to that “what” you have in this life is far less important than “who” you have. When the shit hits the fan, you can always count on your friends – assuming, of course, that they are true friends. And don’t get me wrong here – I am extremely thankful for the few friends that I do have; I’m just wondering why, when I am in a situation that separates me from my friends for any length of time (and it seems to be happening quite often…), I seem to be completely incapable of making new friends. Is it a learning disability?

Oh well … fuck it. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly come to any realization that’s going to change anything. Besides, the grass is always greener … right? I really need to stop over analyzing everything. Bottom line here is that shit happens because shit happens. Now where was I going with this post…? Oh yeah, nowhere…

bis später,

Coriolis

not me ... not now...

Well, today was my last day of work here in Germany. I was given a travel book of Braunschweig and a bottle of something (I believe it’s Jägermeiſter although I haven’t opened it yet to check…) as parting gifts. The guys that I worked with over here were your typical fine German citizens and I really will miss the sometimes awkward (purely in the social sense – they are all business professionals) interactions. However, that’s life – you need to continue on the quest. It’s time for me to get back to my home and begin work on the next phase of my life. I said my farewells to the crew here in Germany however I do not believe I will ever truly forget them. I wish nothing but the best for each and every one of them in the future.

As for me, I’m actually in a rather interesting (if not slightly troublesome) situation. The work here is done (which, of course, means the income is done as well), I’m signed up to be heading back to the states via trans-Atlantic steel freighter sometime early next month followed by a rather extended visit with friends and family back in my hometown … but then what? You see, that’s the question I’ve been wrestling with… Exactly what crazy and mixed-up scheme am I going to partake in next…?

I’ve always believed that the only person truly responsible for anybody’s choices in life is that person. For me – since I have no immediate family to support – this belief seems to ring absolutely true. I completely understand that any bad decisions I may make could have negative impacts on other’s lives – my friends and family who have always been there when I truly needed them – however it has become very clear to me during this latest venture down the “path less traveled” that mine is, by and large, a lone journey.

Try not to read this the wrong way … I’m not complaining. What is is. My current life is just a culmination of all previous decisions made and, to be honest with you, I think I’m doing pretty well. I’ve actually been able to earn enough money to pay off most of my debt (there will always be the mortgage … that one’s kind of tough…) which basically can be looked at as a financial reset. I now get the often desired opportunity to start over fresh and see if I’ve learned anything from the sometimes ill-advised choices previously made when originally acquiring said debt. But here’s the rub, I feel that I’ve completely burned out in my chosen profession. The thought of needing to – once again – go through the rigors of finding a new job, jumping through the hoops required to secure any open position found and devoting a large portion of my life to the execution of said job is enough to bring tears to my eyes. It’s already making sleep a bit more difficult … nothing like lying awake in bed trying to figure a way out of this – especially when the way can’t be found…

I actually had a technical phone interview with a company in Fort Collins last night. Put aside the fact that it was on my cheap cell phone and the signal strength was almost constantly fluctuating (making even basic communication challenging), I realized something a bit shocking – I didn’t want the job. Yeah, it is true that I most definitely need a job; but I’m becoming more and more of the opinion that what really needs to be done in order to have a fruitful life is to somehow get your desires in line with your needs. I have very little desire to become another overworked and underappreciated line item for yet another corporation. There’s got to be a better way…

I guess the real trick in life is figuring out how to make your desires pay off. I think that all (well, at least most) of the successful people in this world have done just that – they’ve been able to prosper on terms that they, themselves, came up with. Their path to success very well may have included periods where effort was spent on sustaining the lifestyles of others that were further along in the game; however their own success was reached by never forgetting the reasoning behind these periods – to obtain the resources required to live their lives on their own terms. Perhaps their own terms are to stay in that 9 to 5 job and sacrifice a portion of their own life to support loved ones – there’s nothing wrong with that, in fact I believe that a decision such as this very noble and anyone choosing to live this way is a success. It just happens not to be my desire – not me … not now…

bis später,

Coriolis

Excretory Openings

You can actually learn quite a bit when you decide to live in a foreign country. It’s interesting to see how different cultures live; and the myriad of hassles that will inevitably need to be dealt with are great ways to discover things about yourself that may actually surprise you. This completely unexpected trip to Germany that I have been on for the last eight months has taught me quite a bit about myself and has actually changed me in many ways – most notably in the way I look at people, in general (myself included).

No matter where you go, there seems to be two general classes of people – people that are genuinely concerned about the well-being of others and people that are only concerned about their own; or, nice people and assholes. I realize that this is a very broad generalization; however, I honestly believe that it is true. The thing is that the assholes are almost always hiding behind the façade of a nice person; however, without fail, their true colors will slowly (sometimes rather quickly) erode that façade and the nice person that you thought you were dealing with will be replaced by just another asshole.

The thing about this that I still don’t understand is why somebody would chose to be an asshole (and it is a choice). Is it ignorance? We all want the best for ourselves – wanting anything less would be silly – but why can’t the assholes out there (and there are many) understand that the best thing they can do for themselves (and the world) would be to stop being assholes? No, the sad fact of the matter is that, once someone decides that he is the only important being on this planet, he has made an almost irreversible decision to be an asshole for the rest of his life.

Interestingly enough, the urge to become an asshole is usually taught at a young age. Parents, as well as educators, are always teaching that a child needs to learn how to fend for himself. I believe that this is true – one must learn how to take care of one’s self – although the technique of getting the child to think of themselves as “the most important person in the world” needs to be stopped. All it’s accomplished is increasing the population of assholes. Besides, it’s an absolute fabrication. If you honestly believe that you are the most important person in this world then you really need to reassess that belief by analyzing yourself from someone else’s point of view – is it possible that you’re just an asshole? I’d wager that it is…

The truly frightening aspect about this overabundance of assholes is clearly seen when they group together. As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together,” and when this “feather” is an artificial sense of superiority, bad things are sure to happen. A few groups come to mind right away (the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and the Bush administration to name a few) and I doubt anyone can show any good that’s come from these groups…

It’s obvious that assholes have always existed – if you’ve ever wondered what the true reason for the foundation of the plethora of religions was, I’d argue that it was the existence of these assholes. I mean religions have been around forever (well, at least since man decided to create them) and I honestly believe that the purpose behind these religions was to basically reign in these assholes a bit. If you have a bunch of people ignorant enough to think that the world revolves around them, trick these people into behaving better by creating some fictitious being that will punish them for their selfish behaviors. You already know they’re ignorant, so getting them to believe the fairy tale wouldn’t be too difficult. (Of course any of you that have read my Most Intelligent Creatures? and Who’s Your Daddy? posts are already aware that I think the time for religions is over; however I do believe that they once were very much needed…)

So, where exactly am I going with this? I’m not really sure… I’ll tell you what inspired this post though: Not a day goes by when I don’t receive at least one email designed to do nothing more than perpetuate this self indulgent superiority complex. As of late it’s been masquerading as patriotism (and yes, it’s always us Americans) but what is being spread by these chain-letter emails is really nothing more than thinly veiled intolerance –intolerance of foreign cultures and intolerance of foreign people. I think it’s about time that we start considering the well-being of others before America becomes nothing more than a nation of assholes.

Now I realize that all of this is merely my own personal opinion. I also realize that people reading this blog may not agree with me … and that’s fine. If you’d like to add a different perspective, please feel free to post a comment – I completely understand that there are always several ways to look at any issue and perhaps I am the ignorant one here. If that is the case, I would be eager to learn. Perhaps I should start thinking of myself as the most important person in the world… Would becoming an asshole myself somehow make dealing with other assholes easier? I doubt it…

bis später,

Coriolis

Who's Your Daddy?

I feel that I need to better explain my thoughts on life a bit. I will freely admit that this feeling is a direct result of the rather long and in-depth scolding that I received on my Most Intelligent Creatures? post. The fact that I received such a scolding is, by no means whatsoever, surprising to me – this is exactly what is to be expected in a world (such as ours) where the behaviors of the masses are being programmed by the myriad of systems created to do just that – religions. I just think that the time for arguments based upon stories that many people have been falsely (in my opinion) lead to believe were written by some sort of all-mighty being is over. Let’s start living our lives and making decisions based upon reality.

Okay, fine … so where am I going with all this? I realize that many people have figured out that I have actually come to the conclusion that life – in all of its spectacle and glory – is basically meaningless. You’re born; hang around in existence for a bit; and die – that seems pretty meaningless to me. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Neither … it’s just a “thing”. Why is it that everybody wants to label everything as either good or bad? Some things just are and life (once again, in my opinion) just is.

The part that I can’t quite grasp is why so many people want to believe that the purpose for their existence is something that won’t be realized until their existence is no more; that the only reason they exist is to bring glory to some “spirit” that only exists as a belief. The “spirit” takes on whatever form the specific religion practiced assigns to it (and yes, Diane, there are many religions in this world – in fact, if you look into it a bit, you will quickly discover that the religion that you were so quick to rather arrogantly claim as the only one true religion is actually not believed true by a large majority of the world); however the “spirit” is always the same – it’s something that is always described as “too powerful for man to understand”. Seems rather convenient to me that the powerfulness of this being makes its absence of any actual physical presence unnecessary…

The result of all this is basically the current world that we are living in – several groups of people all believing that their religion is the one and only correct religion and that each and every one of the other groups has somehow made a mistake somewhere and got the “actual” truth either a bit skewed or down-right wrong. Here’s something for you all to ponder – what if none of the religions got “it” right? What if this all-powerful “spirit” doesn’t even exist? What if, after your time is up in this existence, you don’t go anywhere but actually cease to exist? This, after all, is what I truly believe and the conclusion that this brings me to is that we might as well do our best to enjoy this existence whilst we still have it.

Now I’m not saying that everybody should just become self-indulgent assholes with absolutely no regard for others (could you imagine how bad life would be if the world was filled with Paris Hilton clones?); the proposal that I am making is that we set aside our differences that are manifested through our beliefs in these various religions and learn to live together in peace and harmony. I happen to think that the world would be a much better place if we stopped teaching these religions as absolute truths and started teaching the ideals behind them for what they really are – good ideas.

That’s actually another issue that I would like to clarify: Although I am a true atheist (and you need to take my word on this – I do not believe in any god), I am not therefore against the ideals that most religions are attempting to teach. I am, however, very much against the way these ideals are being taught. It seems to me that these same ideals can be better realized if the true essence of them was taught rather than creating some fantasized, outrageous penalty for not “following the rules” that will need to be paid after one dies. To be honest, I find this to be an insult to my intelligence. Sure, when I was a child I had direct penalties that were doled out by my parents for doing stupid things – and rightly so; however I am no longer a child and am completely able to understand the ramifications of my actions. I don’t need to create some illusionary father figure to control me anymore – I can take care of myself.

The funniest thing about it is that, in taking care of myself (as well as using what my parents taught me when I was young), I have found that most (if not all) of the ideals that have become buried in the Christian religions are actually the correct way to live. It just makes sense – be nice to people, help out whenever you can and try not to get too caught up in any of the high-risk activities (aka sins) that you lose control. The thing is that I don’t need to actually be practicing any religion (or believing in any god) to come to these realizations – I just need to learn from life’s experiences.

Well folks … that pretty much covers it. I’m an atheist, but I’m an atheist with a heart. I completely understand that the effect that my blog postings are going to have on organized religions is nil; however I am hoping that I may have given some of you a bit of a peek into a different way of thinking…

bis später,

Coriolis

Most Intelligent Creatures?

Did you ever stop to think what, exactly, you were ‘supposed’ to be accomplishing with your existence…? For that matter, did you ever even wonder why you felt that something was ‘supposed’ to be accomplished? I mean why is it that we, as intelligent (supposedly) creatures, even let ourselves think that certain activities are more noble than others? Is this really the case? I actually believe that this is the case; however I’ve begun to question the reasoning behind all this. I think that the only thing that anybody is ever actually able to strive for is happiness – anything else would be rather counter-productive … now, wouldn’t it?

Bottom line here is that we’re only going to exist for an extremely brief period of time. I vaguely remember hearing something about the entire existence of human beings thus far being pretty much inconsequential – something like a mere fraction of a second if the existence of the universe were compressed to a single, 24 hour day. If you then understand that the average lifespan is a mere fraction of total human existence, it becomes pretty clear that one human being’s existence is darn near close to nothing.

Interesting? Sure, I think so. Pretty much meaningless? Yep.

Why I believe this to be meaningless is pretty easy to explain. After all, the incredibly small ratio of human existence to complete existence in no way changes the fact that I exist. Although I am aware that my existence has a currently unknown expiration date, the fact of the matter remains that I do currently exist. Not only that, but I – being a true atheist – honestly believe that there will be nothing (at least for me) after I die. I have absolutely no delusions about any form of after-life. I can very easily remember what it was like to not exist – the few billion years that passed prior to my birth – and I can just as easily imagine what my non-existence will be like after my death.

Many people have decided to believe in one of the many many religions that have been created as a justification for their existence; however believing in set of rules in no way makes these rules valid. All it does is give people a completely irrational sense of superiority over anyone who chooses not to believe in that person’s chosen rule-set. The result of this ends up being justification for causing pain (and, more often than not, death) to fellow humans that happen to exist in the same time-frame that these believers do. This is absolutely asinine.

I’m lead to wonder what this world would be like if these religions were never created. What would the world be like if everybody understood that decisions made were only based on reality – if people understood that the only consequences they would ever have to face were going to be realized during their life – if the whole concept of owning up to one’s life in an effort to get accepted into a magical wonderland after one dies was seen as the nonsense that it actually is? Anarchy, perhaps? But why is that?

I suppose it’s just human nature. I find it rather interesting that, as humans, we so easily will turn on our neighbors in an effort to better our own lives. It’s a bit selfish, don’t you think? Or is it more of a sign of our ignorance? We are the self-proclaimed “most intelligent creatures on our planet” but is that actually the case? I’m reminded of what Douglas Adam’s wrote as the first paragraph of chapter 23 in his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book:

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.

Interesting, huh? Suppose the dolphins are correct. Wouldn’t we actually be much better off if everyone could just get along and try to enjoy what little time we are given? I really do think so. Sure, we wouldn’t have all the technological advances that we currently have but would we really need them? After all, you really wouldn’t miss them if they never actually existed…

The funny thing about it is that we would still have the desire to create. We seem to be unable to live in a world without trying to improve it. The flip-side to this, of course, is that we would actually be unable to live in this world without our creations – we have (as has been postulated in many sci-fi stories) become slaves to our own creations. What would you do if you were unable to go to the grocery store to get food? Suppose the electricity was no longer conveniently supplied… The water, the gas… The saddest part about these speculations is that I know what would happen – people would start to turn on their neighbors. The whole idea of “dog eat dog” would ring truer than ever and only the strongest will survive. Intellect will mean very little and pure strength would be king.

Am I saying that we need to throw away technology and return to a simpler time? Hell no – it’s far too late for that… Throwing away the religions, however, might not be a bad idea. We’ve accomplished so much as a species yet we seem to be completely unable to let go of these archaic belief systems that have become absolute truths to so many people. Why, exactly, is that? I believe it’s because many of us need a reason to live and these religions appear to give just that. The fact that all of these religions were created by man in an effort to control man just doesn’t seem to be acceptable to many.

My proposal to everyone is that we let go of these religions. Face the fact that we’re only going to be here for a rather limited time and try our best to get along. Let’s take some advice from the dolphins and learn to just muck about in the water (and on land – there’s one advantage that we do have) having a good time.

bis später,

Coriolis

The Art of Thought

When I was a kid attending elementary school the whole concepts of art and science where pretty well defined for me – art was what we were learning between 10:00-11:00am and science was from 12:00-1:00pm. There were many other fields of study (math, English, literature…) but art and science were their own, separate sections.

I’ve since come to realize that the strictly defined lines separating these two principles are actually quite blurry. I’ve begun to consider whether the standard characterization of art (as defined by the various educational organizations) is actually missing the point. About a month or so ago I ate some philosopher stones (a variety of shrooms for anyone just joining this conversation…) and decided to record myself (I had a weekend to kill). Upon reviewing the video created, I heard myself utter the following phrase – “Thought is art.”

Okay, fine … so that’s not very awe-inspiring; however, what I was trying to express was, at least to me, rather interesting. The only problem is, when you’re tripping on shrooms, words are often hard to come by. In fact attempting to actually explain what you are thinking often interferes with your thought process and usually causes one to lose track of the subject – that’s the problem with psychedelics (such as shrooms). Since I recorded my trip, however, I am able to recall what I was thinking about.

I was actually contemplating life in a way. I was considering the idea that children are so easily taught new concepts while adults seem to have much more difficulty with this – “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks…” Why is that? The conclusion that I came up with is that a child’s mind basically accepts new information mainly because there’s really nothing much more it can do with it. Since a child has very few experiences to use as references, any new information gets absorbed by the child’s mind rather than being processed with respect to earlier experiences (as an adult does). Of course this new information then becomes a building block used as a keystone for that child’s knowledge base and, over time, becomes a part of the experiences used to process any new information received.

Being that I am an engineer and have basically decided to devote my professional life to the study of what essentially boils down to scientific systems, I then began to consider the human body as a system (which, of course, it is). The simplified view of this system is that inputs are taken in and processed – outputs are then generated. The most obvious outputs are various wastes although an easily overlooked output is actually thought. The funny thing about the output of thought is that it is actually not expelled from the system but is rather stored in the brain as another piece of the person’s knowledge. How a person chooses to express (or, as is often the case, to not express) this knowledge becomes the basis for that person’s behavior. It was then that I came to the conclusion that thought is actually art.

When a painter touches brush to canvas, he is expressing his knowledge. When a sculptor creates what he believes to be a finished piece out of raw materials, he is expressing his knowledge. When an architect completes a new design for a building, his knowledge has been expressed. You name the discipline and the bottom line is that anybody involved in it is expressing their knowledge. Therefore thought – the basis of a person’s knowledge – is art.

Yeah, I know, blah blah blah… Who cares? But isn’t that the whole problem? We should all care. If we continue to let the arts be systematically removed from our educational institutions (as is happening more and more these days) aren’t we doing a disservice to future generations? What we are doing is limiting the scope of education to what has already been deemed necessary for the current state of science as we know it. I wonder if including the study of arts could actually lead to more advancements in science as well. After all, the scientist working in his lab is also expressing his knowledge…

Some food for thought…

bis später,

Coriolis