Bible Book

I love these quizilla Quiz's...

You are Proverbs.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I don't know about this... I like to talk. I rarely find those 'comfortable silences' when I'm around other people, so I like to fill the quiet with chatter about this that and the other. At least it's entertaining - most people usually tell me I think too much as opposed to talk too much which is sort of interesting. In fact, of the four flights I took to get to Ottawa (Winnipeg to Toronto, Toronto to Ottawa and vice versa) I believe in 3 of the 4 conversations (lengthy ones - the only way I can get through a flight is if I'm talking to someone) that I had I was told I think too much. I say you can never think enough.

Islam

I often get into religious debates with the different denominations of religious folk who frequent TGM, my favorite forum. You can only talk about a video game demo for so long before the conversation topic wanders, so religion and U.S. politics are frequent flashpoints of controversy. In one of the the latest debates (I didn't chime in until the 4th page), an interesting facet of Islam was brought to my attention. Apparently the Qur'an is can be modified, or at least added to. Check it:

(btw, I have to get a nice quote stylesheet going - any hints?)

So basically, if someone with a tongue for prose and some new ideas comes along they can add some sûrahs to the Qur'an. Now if only I could quit my job, become an Islamic scholar, learn Arabic and write some beautiful chapters because let me tell you, as bad as Christianity is for being out of date, Islam is probably worse. Or at least some of the values that lie therein seem, to me at least, to be horrifically dated. But then again, that's just me.

Anyways, After a long bout of dizzying heights (my vacation) the agonizing lows are descending so look for more angst - ridden prosaic nonsense from this one with too much time on his hands!

Well

I don't know what it is about being on vacation, but I really don't want to do any writing. Maybe I am a little useless if I overindulge in the spirits and herbal treatments. I wish it were otherwise, I wish I had motivation, but right now I'm pretty happy; maybe it's unhappiness that drives us to speak our minds.

Ok so first of all I'm getting the royal treatment. Meals that I want, activities and music that please me, the works. It's been a very pleasant vacation so far. As it stands, I'm a little too content to be bothered to do any work whatsoever. Now before the kitty pipes up 'what work', I will admit that I don't do much productive work generally speaking, but at the same time I have faith in the quality of my work. At least until the software stops working, or the program stops running.

So anyways, that's really nothing about nothing. I think I'm going to head to bed. ;)

Art

If, for example, you were ever bored, you might be able to pass the time very pleasantly clicking around the picture of everything. I consider this to be a form of art, as the artist clearly has taken capturing a meme to the point obsessiveness; lingering around the point of insanity.

I am currently watching Human Nature. I highly recommend anyone to watch it - it's one of those finger pokes at society that some people should take notice of.

Hello, Ottawa

This will be a brief post - it's almost 3am and I have a flight to catch tomorrow. I'll be spending the week with my buddy sl8r and hopefully many others... We'll see. The reason for the lateness? I started packing at 2:30am. What was I doing until 2:30am the night before I left? Writing my short story for the CBC literary awards. After much internal debate and close examination of the rules and regulations, I've decided that I cannot post it here as enRoute has the right of first publishing unfortunately.... So it will have to wait until some time after February. What with K5 having a fiction competition, this is a great disapointment to me... I'd really like you guys to read it. Unfortunately it cannot be. :|

Anyways, I'll be updating while I'm away with my adventures in the 'most boring city in Canada'. Maybe it's time to liven it up a bit. ;)

Complexity, revisited

There was a warm glow around the city tonight with an odd colour - pink rose. It was a nice night to enjoy the stars. They weren't very many but it was nice to see them after what seemed like ages of clouds. It was also quite a bit warmer, thankfully. That's the thing about Winnipeg, the weather teases you... When you least expect it will change from foul to fair and fair to foul.

So it's a nice night to stay up late and type away to that ever growing internet. All those millions of connections being made, people meeting new people and the general complexity of the world increases ever so slightly. A slow subtle shift upwards in the global conciousness. Call me crazy, call me a fool, but humans affecting random numbers in such a way that collective focus on global events trigger statistical anomolies around the world sounds like something that people should probably be sitting up and paying attention to. It's hard to argue with statistical data.

What does it all mean though? How is it in any way important to my day to day life? When is this noosphere ever going to pay my bar tab?

I think the meme saying we're all connected in some fundamental but unknown way is also a subtle shift, but noticable in shorter time. You begin to appreciate other people more. You can understand that your attitude and actions affect the people around you in small, subtle ways, because the people we learn the most from are our friends and family. These are the people you are most strongly connected to and are subsequently most affected by as they are by you. A friend of mine once told me we are made up of shards of each other's personality. Of course in order for that to happen there has to be a true self, a uniquness that is wholy and completely you, otherwise what would be reflected? It would all be the same image, like staring to too deeply into an elevator. Wouldn't that lead to insanity? Surely the universe isn't insane?

And now onto a bit of other news. I'm very happy with my first experience using the new p2p, Suprnova.org. You need to have BitTorrent to use it, but it works great and the concept is neat. Whenever you download a file, the parts that you've already downloaded are uploaded to others at the same time. Now if only these guys had a software client where you could do better searches and having bitTorrent encapsulated within, well that would be sweet. As it is I got to see the Star Wars Clone Wars that's only available on the cartoon network already. I must say that I enjoyed it, short as it was. I can already feel the old star wars blood pumping through my veins like some endless source of wonder.

I quite enjoy reading Wired Opinion, but I often get upset discussing morality issues. It seems that morals are a behavior that are as good as set in stone for many. Moralistic arguments are frequently futile as neither side will concede to even consider the other's perception, despite just being values trained into us since birth. Issues like abortion are a typical example. It would seem there are no right answers either way - on one hand the rights of a new living being that hasn't even been born and on the other the safety and health of the mother. I don't know where I feel on the issue to be honest. I can see it from both sides and I don't want to have to make a decision. It's incredibly hard to find the right answer but you can always find an answer, and that's what scares me.

Anyways, I'm cutting it short in a vain attempt to cram the birth, adolescence and twilight of the development of a short story in the space of 8 hours tomorrow. Chef's last stand against apathy and laziness.

Politics, revisited

One of the great things I love about TGM is the forums where every one in a while brilliance emerges. My milenko brother * 99 Cent * has produced the greatest shit since sliced bread, honestly. Especially if you're a bush basher. All of those bush backers might have a few words to say, and I'd love to hear them. The ensuing discussion is quite interesting as well, if you're bored and looking for something to pass the time.

There are elements of evil in our society that we have become so used to that we don't even give it second thought. It seems funny to me that christianity has so tightly held onto the belief in the fact of Jesus that they've forgot the teachings of God. Wasn't he all about the 7 deadly sins? Why do people seem to forget these things, or pervert them out of some sense of owed comfort? Why don't people ever talk about virtues? Aren't there things we should be striving for that can make us better people? I know there's nothing written in a stone tablet handed down from god himself but surely a collective of people can come up with some virtues that are good for the best of everybody?

The Bush's Resume post led to an interesting discussion about the values and aspirations of the republican party as well as some derogatory discourse about the democrats. I'm all about finding the balance, so I had to post my idea of a perfect governing system:

Why is it that everyone assumes that it has to be either free enterprise democracy or marxist communism? Aren't there benefits to both systems? Perhaps a democratic communism with information and entertainment as the main currency and not so much the big house, the SUV, the fur coat.

Everything in the world changes, new theories come about and adaptation is a strength that humanity relied on to get this far. If we start viewing the system as rigid then we lose sight of this. Remember, we invented the currency system and there's absolutely no reason to think it's set in stone. We can easily reinvent it. Change it. Mold it into a better purpose for humanity. But everybodie's so fascinated with the big house, the SUV, the fur coat.

Connections

The one thing that I always enjoy at parties is the new connections you can make with people you might never have talked to under everyday circumstances. I went to a good friends birthday party tonight and I had an awesome time. Good people, good conversation, good vibe. I felt like a stranger when I arrived but a friend when I left. I told a couple of them about this site so I hope they'll post a comment or two.

I talked about the Green Party today with an interesting gentlemen. He felt that I should take a look at what the green party had to offer the political spectrum, so I intend to do this over the next couple of weeks. I talked with some others about video games, drugs and that good feeling you get when you seem to attain oneness while working, or playing, or building. I talked about Salvia divinorum which is supposed to be an incredibly powerful pyschodelic which is apparently quite legal in Canada and the US.

Depending on dosage, the Salvia experience can vary from a subtle, just-off-baseline state to a full-blown psychedelic experience. At higher doses users report dramatic time distortion, vivid imagery, encounters with beings, travel to other places, planets or times, living years as the paint on a wall or experiencing the full life of another individual. Needless to say these can be extremely powerful experiences and should only be attempted with a sitter. While most people remain unmoving during the experience, some individuals will attempt to get up and walk around while in a completely dissociated state.

While sub-threshold effects are somewhat innocuous--leading some people to be cavalier in subsequent experiences--once full effects are achieved, many people find S. divinorum to be unpleasantly overwhelming and more scary than fun. As has been found with pharmaceutical kappa-opioid agonists, salvia is aversive for many who try it.

It sounds like an interesting experience, but I'm worried about the contraindictions:

Individuals currently in the midst of emotional or psychological upheaval in their everyday lives should be careful about choosing to use psychoactives such as SAlvia as they could possibly trigger even more difficulty.

Individuals with a family history of schizophrenia or early onset mental illness should be extremely careful because strong psychoactives have been known to trigger latent psychological and mental problems.

Although I've never been diagnosed with any mental disorder, I can't help but feel my perception of reality is different than others. I often feel a bit crazy watching my life unfold before me - it drives me to distraction. I hope others don't see me as crazy either.

Anyays, It's another late night. I'm going to slink into bed and try and get 8 hours of sleep, although that would have me waking up 2pm... Not a very productive time to arise, but such is life.

21 Grams

I saw an interesting movie poster on Wednesday while going to see Kill Bill. The title was 21 Grams and at first I thought hmmm, another film about drugs and then I read the tagline: "How much does life weigh?". Ah, right. I can remember hearing something about this some time in the past. The questions this meme asks us are both intriguing and scary but ultimately beneficial to our growth as a society. Is it possible that the human body loses an amount of mass when a person perishes?

I was determined to investigate. I first decided to hit the straight dope as I figured this question would have to have been asked before, and this site seems to be a great place to find The Truth. Entrusting someone with the truth is getting harder and harder these days; it seems everyone has their own particular perception of what the truth is. I could not find the answer though I did get pleasantly sidetracked on the way. I don't know if I'm ever going to get through all of those but I bookmarked them and hope some day to have the chance to read them.

Google was most helpful. I found an urban legend site which tells the tale of Dr. Duncan MacDougall "who has experimented much in the observation of death" and took it upon himself to actually measure terminally ill patients in the stages of before, during and after death. I recommend you read that article for it gives a much more unbiased evaluation of the experiment that unfortunately could not settle upon a solid conclusion. However there were noticable losses of weight ranging from "one-half ounce to nearly an ounce and a quarter" within a minute or two upon the moment of death in all of the human subjects that were experimentally valid tests.

It's an interesting supposition because it leads one to believe that there may be empirical evidence for proof of a soul. It's unfortunate that there haven't been attempts to return to this experiment (conducted in 1907) because if nothing else people need some explanations that these questions answer in this time of uncertainty. Souls. Spirits. Forbidden words in the hallowed walls of science. Perhaps those of us heading down the path of science and logic should heed our own advice and open our deepest beliefs to question and examination. If we disregard fundamental questions about ourselves then we stagnate inner growth and our self withers as a malnourished potted plant in a lazy man's apartment.

I feel regret that my path did not make me a scientist as I would be very interested in redoing Dr. MacDougall's experiment. I think that in today's day and age this experiment could be conducted with a lot less room for error and with less ethical dilemmas. Would not terminally ill patients sick of their life of pain want their death to mean something to science? I know if I was on my deathbed I would probably volunteer my body for this experiment; I mean it is after all in the name of Science. Better for my death to mean something besides just a loss for loved ones.

There was some controversy over his comparison to the death of dogs. It is assumed that he took sick dogs and injected them with poison - this had many greatly upset as his acts could be acknowledged as unethical. However again, there are probably many dog owners who wish to have their terminally ill friend ease away in a manner that benefits mankind. At the very least, how many dogs are put to sleep every day because of irresponsible owners? Surely their death can mean something too. It is important to compare because according to Dr. MacDougall's experiment there was no loss of weight at the time of death. This too is an important meme to digest - if human's have 'souls' why don't dogs?

For some this may be a strange topic to think about. A lot of people go through their day to day routine without giving a thought to the meaning of their existence, to the truth that lies beneath all the layers. That's not necessarily a bad thing - everyone has their own agenda in life because ultimately you're only responsible for one perception: yours.

I can't stress how important examining phenomenon like this is to our evolution as a species because as our medicine and hazard free environment ease the workload of survival, evolution needs to follow new paths that aren't necessarily biological. Evolution is adaptation of life to a hostile environment but always with the agenda of increasing complexity. That's my theory anyways.

I also have some theories that may explain this phenomenon but I'll save that for another time as it's getting quite late. I'll leave you with this quote of some of Dr. MacDougall's conculsions for his experiment:

Basically a filler

Not much to say, I've been busy reading the debate going on in my ghettopoly post. I'm getting a surprising amount of traffic from google and other search engines with ghettopoly as the search term. There's some interesting comments and I suggest you click the link.

So yeah, November 2nd was my last post. On Novemeber 3rd, I bought Crimson Skies on the advice of the boys at Penny Arcade and all my spare time has gone into that. Yeah, I'm an addict, what can I say. I love video games. It's been a while since I've found one that engrossed me like this one does - I only hope that I can pull out long enough to write a short story for the CBC literary awards... Of course one needs an idea first... Ah well.

Northern Lights

One of the things that I'm jealous to see my southern neighbours enjoy is the rare spectacle of the Northern Lights. I wish I could keep that quiet majesty all to myself here in Winnipeg. The Northern Lights have inspired me greatly for the last year, I'm glad to see that it's inspiring others with the solar activity as of late. I can still remember the first time I really appreciated the Aurora Borealis, I had to write it down. I don't know what it is about the Northern Lights that consumes me but maybe it has something to do with the same kind of energy that was prevalent at my Halloween party tonight. Man I love to throw a party.

First of all, I'd like to thank my guests for contributing so much of their energy in the shooting of last nights feature film. Some kind of intense vibe permeated the crowd as stranger shyness was overcome and common ground was found. There were so many good people here tonight! How can one ever think that the world is a fucking madhouse when there's people who can all just get along so famously?

I was very happy with the costumes tonight - I must confess that of all 'holidays' halloween is my favorite. What other night do you get to dress up as someone you want to be other than on halloween? It's art; pure expression of self. It's also lots of fun trying to guess what other people are dressed up as. I must say that I was not at all impressed with how my costume turned out this year. I was trying for a wizard; I ended up a monk. All I can say is that I made the costume by hand, but unfortunately I didn't have the cahonnas to shave my head bald like a monk. I could have saved the outfit with some authentic "helicopter pad" shave job, but I think that at this point in my life it's probably best that I hold onto those hairs - who knows if they'll grow back? If my dad was bald, does that mean I'm going to be bald to? I can't believe I'm starting to ponder this dreadful topic... I figure it's a nice piece of karmatic retribution for my cavaleer attitude towards hair loss in my younger years... Boy I'm pretty sure I teased my father and brothers relentlessly - I think I'm in for some possible taunting in the future.

Anyways, the recipe for a good party is a tricky balance yet there are some critical ingredients that can ease the birth. For instance, the easiest way to guarantee an enjoyable social engagement is limit the number of chairs to half the amount of people. This arrangement forces people to 'mix it up' as whenever a chair opens there are plenty of takers. People meet and greet and find common ground, it's just a matter of finding the right questions to ask. Everybody is interested in something; if you just find out what that something is you can find out a lot about someone else and in turn a lot about yourself.

Plus, you've got all that strange energy mixing it up in complex new patterns. New connections are made, old bonds are solidified. The right mix of alcohol and drugs can lead to the altered perception where everyone is equalized, egos are left at the door and everyone can learn from each others experience. Drugs. There's a sticky situation. There's such a vocal part of me that proclaims so loudly that they are an unchaining experience, an opening of the doors of perception, a breaking down of barrier betweeen universes. That's what it all comes down to - the connections you make create the complexity of your soul. Experiencing anothers perception is an awe inspiring experience if only you have the courage to face it, for it will close some doors in a world where one would preferably see no change.

Ok, now for some links. I've been listening to Groove Salad from this stream and let me tell you, it's just the right ambient sound for my moment right now. Everyone has a soundtrack to their life. Daily Connotations has an interesting link on philosophy, but at this moment my eyelids are dimming the room to a nice defused fifty percent regular light. I'm really just putting this link here so I'll read it again tomorrow.

One more thing I think I'll share: I've been getting a lot of search hits for Ghettopoly - there's the start of an interesting discussion and I'm getting a nice amount of traffic from it. Thank you Google! I wonder how many people now have uttered that phrase.... ;)

Everything's fine

Well, emergency's over and TGM is back up. It's a strange experience, being heavily involved in a forum. I'm sure a lot of the people on the internet can relate, and it sometimes feels dorky, but it really does have the essence of a small town community in the day to day goings on. The boy / girl ratio is the only thing that I would change. As it stands in todays gaming world there are still *very* few girls interested in FPS 3d shooters. Percentage wise, of course.

To give you an example of what I'm talking about with that communal feeling, one of the main problems that you get when you spend you're current gaming world revolved around a one level demo is that if there's a way to cheat, someone will have found it. Cheaters have been a rampant problem in the last year or so, ranging from annoying barrel campers to insidious wall hackers. Since this game was a demo there was no support from Raven who had more important things to worry about with the full version. Enter sheep, our resident computer proficienado. He felt that SOF2 was in dire need of anti-cheating software and selflessly stepped up to bat to program it. Well I shouldn't say selflessly, there's always an element of self in everything you do. However any source of accomplishment should be nourished and I'm pretty sure that the TGM crew have fueled him by lauding him with praise.

Yet praise and wellwishing do not pay the bills unfortunately. There are a lot of people out there on the internet that are contributing in small but meaningful ways without any kind of financial reward. The fact that they do this without any kind of (substantial) financial reward should speak well of their character and sense of duty. Why else would the contribute, as a programmer like sheep or any of the other thousands of open source programmers who toil away for hours upon end, if they didn't receive some kind of compensation? Perhaps they believe that what they're doing will be benefitial to the world in some small way, or because they enjoy the encouragement from others, but it would be nice to see some kind of financial reward for their efforts.

Anyways, I think I've talked about TGM stuff for too long, plenty of other stuff happened tonight. Went to a rave party here in Winnipeg, watched Wally spin some records, smoked a bit of pot and enjoyed that wonderful Winnipeg vibe. I started writing an article about the Winnipeg night life a week ago or so, but I've been neglecting it. I wish I had more time to write, aghh! This was more of the same, that open honesty that comes from being equals. I was dressed as a monk, which was originally supposed to be a wizard. Unfortunately the shoddy job on the robe design (thank you, me) led to a change of plan. You see? I'm like the willow who bends in the wind, whereas the strong oak breaks and comes with a shitty costume.

There were a lot of nice people there tonight, a lot of younger kids from small communities all across the Manitoban prairies. Everybody was on some kind of drug or another but it led to a nice mix of different conversations. The guy on mushrooms vs the guy on crack led to different levels of introspection and communication. The one poor kid was bragging about how many rocks he'd smoked and all I could think about was why was he trying to break the smoking exit door? Where's the satisfaction from wanton destruction? What is so wonderful about crack? Then there was the girl on E with whom I had a terribly un-smooth conversation about what my costume was. I'm pretty sure I scared her, although I don't know why.

So tomorrow I'm heading to a funeral. It's 4:30 and I have to be up in 6 hours or so, yay for the weekends. Then another party tonight at my house, Chez Quix, and then sunday, beautiful sunday. Maybe I'll have that article up then.