September weather

The weather has settled into a state of constant perturbation, which means the rest of the residents of the town have settled into cozy sweaters and jackets. People have started to warm up together when walking around and there are more smiles as the fresh wind breezes by their mouths.

Unlucky Rabbit

Why are rabbit feet lucky?
I'm sure there's some long convoluted explanation that could somewhat attempt to justify it. But, really? You get your foot chopped off and you're lucky?
It's a sick world we live in.

On another note...
I've been back in the USA for 2.5 weeks now. My grandmother's 87th birthday would have been tomorrow, if she hadn't died 3 weeks ago.
It feels strange that she's gone. When she was here, she wasn't all here. But still. It feels weird. When my grandfather died, it took me a month to realize it. He had a way of irritating my grandmother by talking into the other phone while she was on the line. He knew she was speaking to someone, but he would always interrupt and be aggravating and jokingly chortle into the phone, "What do you want? What are you selling? We don't want any". I called one day, and when he didn't pick up the phone after a while, I thought to myself, "Where is Paw Paw?" And then it hit me. All at once.
The funeral didn't do it. The repeated visits to his grave didn't drive it home. It was the absence of his voice on the telephone. And I realized I'd never hear his voice again, except in my mind, or except by providence's benign design. Or who/whatever that's out there that defies the human intellect and existence.

I've been fighting the whole blindly accepting an assumed "universal truth" of one God. I mean, there are people in the world who believe there are many gods, and I can't tell if people that insist there is only one are any more happy than the polytheists.

I doubt a lot.
Some people have claimed I won't be "saved" because of that. Because I doubt. But I doubt that. If there were something to be saved from. Which I also doubt.
One thing I do not doubt, however, is the fact that there is something far greater in the world, galaxy, and universe than my religious affiliations. It's petty peacocking to claim one has a "better" view. One corner of the world is never darker or lighter than another. We all know there's more out there than we little humans will ever know.
And that is the greatest and most wonderful thing of all: the unknown. Not the explainable, the rational, the quantifiable, or the tangible. It's all things that fall outside these realms which draws me into belief of something greater than my own problems, or my own ego.
The sun shines on all of us.
No one is better.
And no rabbit is luckier than another.
Some just get their limbs chopped off and get claimed as lucky.
I'd rather keep my limbs in tact, thanks.

Unlucky, doubtful, sad, ridiculous me.

The Ridiculous Philosophy

So, there are a million and a half ways to describe, define, quantify, qualify, identify, and sort the world, universe, or a blade of grass.
It's like a ribbon, it's like a string, it's like an atom, it's short, tall, green, blue, tubular, conical, the list goes on forever.
It would be simple and easy to spend life doing all of this beauracratic listing of important things in the cosmos.
But why?
Although psychology is often poo-pooed in the scientific world for being "soft" or being "psuedo", it has it's valuable insights. Almost every human endeavor is instilled in childhood, by nurture and nature. How we are born, raised, and grown. And every event in our lives culminates into who we are right now, in this very time and space. Neurogoly/psychology has also proven that the human mind doesn't perceive time in a linear fashion. Something like this is pretty fundamental, it makes perfect sense. The time we have fashioned is artificial. It is not an absolute. Western philosophy once believed the Earth is at the center of the Universe, and to some people it still is, if you think about it in an Earth-centric sort of way. We can't help it, as beings, we see things from our point of view first before we see it from another point of view.
Anyway, my philosophy is this: rather than spend all the time in one's life... I mean, we are animals. ANIMALS. We like to laugh. We like to enjoy ourselves. Explaining the universe with a mathematical theory is all fine and correct, but it just turns into an interpretation thing. Only the people with the knowledge of science can have the answers, and once again, a circle of interpretation through a talking head (like the Pope interpreting the Bible) happens again, and again, and again.
The system is cyclical. People's life spans are just so short they don't learn about or recognize the patterns. But all the evidence is there. Science is the new religion, and there are the "believers", the "non believers", the "literate" and the "illiterate". It's the time honored tradition of the human race.
People say, "Oh no, that doesn't happen. But it's so easy to blind ourselves to our follies."
I say life is meant to be laughed at. If you can't have a good sense of humor, life isn't worth much. And we want life to be worth something.
I believe that peace is in the world. It's like a great river that constantly flows around us, we just don't always have the guts to immerse ourselves and simply let go of the bank. To let go of the stony ground, although we may be gripping it until our hands seem like a part of it.
My ridiculous philosophy is that philosophy is ridiculous.
Why take things so seriously?
There's nothing for it but to be. And that's all. It's incredibly easy. Who cares if it's simplistic or seen as naive and stupid? Happiness, love, and peace are the only things worth all the pain. Why endure the pain longer than necessary?

Enough of the preachy, philosophical, ridiculous me.

Déjà Vu

Probably the most ridiculous thing about me is my brain's lack of respect for ordinary social conventions. Conventions such as time, or normality of dreams, or perhaps just the ordinary denial of existence of anything that can't be consciously identified.
Ever notice how often the consciously unidentifiable becomes regarded as worthless?
If anything the unidentifiable should be worth more since it is within the mysteries of the world that lie the most important discoveries.
But I digress.
Like I was saying, my brain has no respect for social norms or the term "impossible".
In a world where we can't explain how an electron moves from ring to ring around a cluster of nuetrons and protons, the word "impossible" should probably not exist.
Impossibility, like Time, is a matter of perception.
By all accounts of the physical rules of the Earth (as per Newton and Einstein, etc.) the behaviour of said atoms is phyisically impossible.
And yet, it happens.
So, doesn't this denote a sort of out-dated understanding?
No.
It is simply one way to understand the world. And so far as observable data and general rules about the earth, it works. The problem is when people start trying to use these tools to measure things they were not made for: like the universe. Trying to measure the universe in means of light years and miles per second is like trying to measure the Earth's density in the weight of rabbit fur.
In order to more fully understand things, ideas must adapt. Ideas we have now, especially about the importance of controlled testing, are antiquated. The reason why I think controlled testing is sort of antiquated is the importance placed on statistical evidence. It's all very interesting, but all it does is perpetuate our ideas we have about the world. Sometimes, looking in the "wrong" place is the only place to find an answer. The answers lie in the "wrong" and unlikely places. The most rational thing is the supposedly "irrational", because the universe doesn't operate in any way in which humans can possibly understand with their reason. Our reason is so primitive, it's silly for us to parade around like we have the answer.
The singular most important answer is there is more than one answer!
And also that irony and self-contradiction are extremely helpful. If we don't doubt ourselves, how do we discover anything new?
Anyway,
I was going to write about my episodes of déjà vu, which ties into all of this other stuff I've been talking about...
Okay, so when I was about 10, I had a dream I was playing soccer and talking to my friend Ethan about Burger King.
At the time, I had never played soccer and didn't know anyone named Ethan. Four years later, when I was 14, I was playing soccer at the YMCA with my friend Ethan and we were talking about Burger King. Everything in that moment looked, smelled, and felt exactly as it had in my dream. I had dreamed it, but it was happening. At the time, I had to sit down because I almost fainted.
This sort of thing happens to me all the time- except now I'm used to it so I don't feel like I'm going to pass out. It happens to my father as well, and my sister.
In neurology, my dad says they explain it like this:
The human brain doesn't recognize Time. Time is an artificial custom imposed by society to make sure people show up at the same time, same place, type thing. Just like boundaries on maps are simply conventions used by humans so they can have something to talk about.
Anyway, so the human brain doesn't perceive time like a clock: so when one has déjà vu, one has already experienced the event, but a part of the brain tells you it happened before... Now, to add to the confusion of this, when I was 10, I distinctly remember waking up and remembering my soccer dream, which is one of the reasons why it shocked me so. So apparently, if I understand this theory correctly, which I kind of doubt, the dream when I was 10 was an echo of something I had already done when I was 14. They call them reverberations, but isn't that SO FREAKING COOL?!
People say there is a rational explanation for everything, but wouldn't it be so amazing if the most rational explanation is the lack of rational reasoning? What if we have been so caught up in using our logic, we have forgotten that we have other faculties as well. It's almost like we've become so dependent on our logic, that we're afraid to use any other part of our brain: the part that we don't really pay attention to. The part they call our subconscious, may not actually be out of our conscious reach, but is simply more subtle and less developed.

It comes down to letting go of the world and all you've learned and embracing the unknown. It sort of borders on mystic: but that is where science and religion meet. Both attempt to explain the unknown, but both, in their pure form, are based in the pursuit of the unknown. But sometimes, the unknown can be the most known and it is, most certainly, the most important.

Anyway, I am tired.

Ridiculous, unconsciously, irrational me.

Steampunk Palin: Palin is too Funny

This is a piece I wrote for the collge newspaper...


Call it poetic justice, call it irony, but Sarah Palin is now officially a comic. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, admit it, she is hilarious in a twisted sort of way, as is the latest piece of her propaganda. It is “Steampunk Palin“, and she, within it’s graphic pages is a half-robot, half-human kicking political butt in a future hypothetical universe where Al Gore is the evil mastermind she is fighting for a solution to clean energy because all natural resources are totally destroyed in a terrible war. Oh, and Obama goes by the name “Robama“. Did I mention Russia is also waging war with Alaska’s border? Well, in the comic, Russia, our cold-blooded enemy, is back to wreak some revenge on that dastardly nature reserve! It is truly the work of a demented media genius. This is not a practical joke arranged by the Democrats. But what is funnier is “Steampunk Palin” depicts Palin, along with her pair of amazing breasts, as the hero of the day, naturally.
Sometimes there just isn’t enough barf in the world.
“Steampunk Palin” is the epitome of political ploys playing dirty. Political comic book heroes like Palin are trying to reach out to young voters, by appealing to their tastes. But, there are more palatable tastes to appeal to, and better ways to get attention.
“How stupid do they think we are?” You may ask.
But is it really stupid? “Steampunk Palin” reflects a trend in popular culture to turn political figures, Republican and Democrat, into comic-book-style super heroes, and action figures-- you can get a John McCain or a Barak Obama action figure for roughly $15.00 online. They blur an already fuzzy line between product consumerism and the politician, cultivating an idea that political power can be bought. These toy ploys do little to cultivate respect for the politicians or bring attention to their plans for the country, but instead reduce them to fetishes, talking heads and plastic parts. Fetishes that are encouraged, like the eight pages of “Steampunk Palin” devoted to robo-human Palin in pin-up get-up; a puzzling interpretation of Palin, which is difficult to stomach. Even for staunch Palin supporters, this must seem a bit out of line, and it is doubtful the majority of Republicans will point out what a great testament it is to their political party. One cannot correctly judge an entire party on the antics of one member-- if that were so, everyone who knew Sarah Palin graduated from the U of I would think all of us attending the university to be very annoying conservative Republicans--but we judge anyway. And that is what political cartoons are for: judgement. They set up scenarios which lend us to judge political events in a certain light. They generally appeal to our sense of morality and sometimes our vanity. But whatever moral high ground “Steampunk Palin” is trying to appeal to, it has the repugnant smell of the incredibly strong hubris of the person it romanticizes. As a cartoon, it is simply selling to the fetishes surrounding Palin and her sexual appeal. As a political cartoon, it is worthless since it does not actually follow any sensible line of political commentary and has no valuable input for current political issues. “Steampunk Palin” erects, excuse me, raises, I mean, places Palin at a new, exciting level of bare-faced self-righteousness. But more than that, it blatantly tells it‘s readers that America needs “Steampunk Palin” as a delivering savior from the bad guys. While the vigilante savior of “Steampunk Palin” is hilarious, it still makes the innards churn with shame for whoever thought of it. So, thank you, “Steampunk Palin” for playing to our insecurities about the safety of our country, completely insulting our intelligence, embarrassing Sarah Palin by selling her image as a pin-up, trying to squeeze a few dollars from us, while offering no practical advice to solve any problem because all the problems presented in the comic are imaginary. But most of all, thank you for making us laugh.