Horrors behind my eyes

Sleep is usually a good thing. Not only does it replenish energy, organize thoughts, and give you something to do for about eight hours, but there is also a chance that your subconscious mind will cook up some wonderful fantasy for you. One of the most terrible things that can happen is for that fantasy to be twisted into a horror. In dreams I have seen things worse than I have ever seen in real life. Catastrophes so great in scale, with so much death and suffering that they make even the worst current events seem like normal occurences. To make it worse, I experience them all firsthand as they happen. This doesn't happen too often, but it has been happening with greater frequency over the last month. Luckily, in most of these nightmares there is some shred of hope. I do believe that if something terrible were to happen to man as a species, there would be some shred of hope in most cases. Something has to survive!

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant

Here is an interesting article about creationism, which is now commonly disguised as "intelligent design theory." The author, Richard Dawkins, discusses how intelligent design theorists love to take scientists' quotes out of context, and then how they use these quotes against the scientists in a very ignorant way. Funny/sad/interesting.

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant - Weekend Review - Times Online

Animals and us: Close encounters

If you've been hanging around me lately, you may have noticed that I do a lot of talking about primates other than humans. Namely, Chimpanzees and Bonobo Monkeys. Here is a timely interview with Jane Goodall, who is very famous for her research and study of chimps.

New Scientist Animals and us: Close encounters - Opinion

"But Jesus made me, so he should save me from pity, sympathy, and idiots discussing me; Yes, I am a freak, and nothing can make good of the bad that's been done"

-Morrissey, "November Spawned A Monster" (live)

Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein

A really interesting article from Wired; it is about Peter Lynds, a man who believes that time cannot be broken up into individual quanta, because time is just an illusion created by man's brain:Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein

The article also postulates that Lynds' soon to be published book could be a very popular one. A book that could really get the pop science ball rolling again. This is probably be a good thing, as long as the ideas in the book aren't total bullshit. I guess anything that gets the public interested in science is a good thing.

An Interview With Pixel:

The Guy Who Created Doukutsu Monotagari, One Of The Finest Games In Years. It's free too. Check out the interview, check out the game. It's for the PC. It's free. It makes me wish 2d gaming wasn't essentially dead.

The Independent Gaming Source: The PIXEL Interview

Everybody Loves Raymond?

I never felt compelled to watch a single episode. I do not love Raymond. Sorry, Raymond.

Sunday

~

Sometimes I like my music loud. So loud that it sort of arrests my other senses and forces me to listen with everything I've got. My body feels numb in a way that is indescribable. When it is loud enough that other things cannot be concentrated on, those other things that cannot be focused upon cease to matter. In a way though, they matter more than everything else. If the music is loud, I can reflect on things that I would otherwise be too busy for. Every day, one is bombarded by so much information. Every sight, taste, smell, feeling, and noise; these are all pieces of information that are force-fed to our persons every conscious moment. For me, it is helpful to just concentrate on a single sense sometimes. I usually do not do this, but in the future I will make a point to do it more. I feel like if I saturate myself with one sense, it will help the others along in some strange way.

People, Why?

I walk around every day feeling like just beneath the surface, our culture is fundamentally damaged in some way. Suicide, depression, obesity; these things are everywhere, and the people who experience them are not to fault. It could not simply be a trend because it is too widespread. Somewhere in the fabric of our society is a seed of corruption, and it has spread outward, causing people to either lose their lives entirely or live with greatly diminished quality of life. Don't believe me? Then look elsewhere to other Westernized nations. The Japanese who adopted Western culture very rapidly after being essentially cut off from the rest of the world for hundreds of years have an extremely high suicide rate amongst their youth. In fact, it has been higher in the past than the suicide rate of American kids. Their overall suicide rate is higher; the highest of all Westernized nations. Want another example that backs the idea of Western culture being not as ideal as its champions would like us to think? Look at this painfully current fad in the UK: teens engaging in risky group sex. Daisy Chaining! Wow, what a great term. HIV and other diseases are spreading among the youth there. Maybe we'll just have to go back to teaching kids that sex will kill them indiscriminately, and anything that feels good is a sin! That's the way you all were brought up, right?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1588791,00.html

Oatmeal Swirlers

Damn, does anyone remember those? So good. I only had them one or two times in my childhood, but something about that product was simply magical. What child would not want to put some red syrupy stuff into his oatmeal and make designs with it, or basically do whatever he wants inside of the bowl? If you were one of these kids who was not impressed by this, we cannot be friends. Ever. If you did not know about this delightful breakfast cereal until now, that is okay with me. I just wish I had more to tell or show you about it. Google only turns up a few pages of results, and no images. I know that if I were to eat this food today I would probably be disappointed, but I still want to try it. Maybe the magic will carry over, and it will make me a better person.

Here is a petition to General Mills to get this food produced again: http://www.petitiononline.com/Oatmeal/petition.html

Over-Sentimentality: The Battle Against Mush

I abhor mushy shit. Maybe I just don't like romance; I hate seeing a movie and there being a bunch of needlessly mushy shit in there. Often times it makes me cringe. That is not the way I choose to live my life. I don't believe that people are that way by nature...not most of us anyway. I worry that people see movies with this kind of stuff in them, and then they emulate it in real life, which is pretty bad. You've been around it, you know how it is. I believe romance in a movie can be done without all of this nonsense. I believe one can create a great movie that does not end with someone getting what they always wanted in a significant other. I have seen such films! Such films though, are few and far between, because Hollywood at large believes that these mushy scenes in films are more palatable for the average movie-goer. Is this true? I hope not. I fear it might be.

Sometimes, I wonder:

People who scream loudly when they get upset; do they do this because they think perhaps God will hear their plea and help them out? Example: A man screams "I HATE THIS CAR! IT IS A PIECE OF SHIT!" It is obvious that this man hates his car and considers it of equal or lesser worth than the contents of his own bowels. Does he scream this at the top of his lungs in the hopes that some divine benefactor will give him a new car? Or perhaps a wealthy person who is in a giving mood will take pity on him?

Ponder that.

Lamentations About Foobar2k:

Just kidding, it's as awesome as ever.

YES!!!

"MARCH/05 UPDATE:

MC Paul B is hard at work on a new LP!"

http://www.mcpaulbarman.com/

Going to pick my hair out; Then go and use what lies under that hair

I mean, fuck it. Why not?


God, I hate that kid. I hope he gives me a reason to act on my feelings.


Peace to Scoggin.

Pruning / Reorganizing MP3s

This process involves me deleting music which is no longer relevant, or albums that are incomplete or otherwise fucked. My rationale for deleting albums that are really just missing a song or two is that I would not want to listen to an album that is incomplete, and to spend the time searching for just one file is a waste of my time. After all, there is an ocean of music out there and I can't ever possibly listen to everything I would like to hear.

Libertarian Perspective: Father, Son, and Environment

My friend Peter has an interesting and thought provoking blog. His most recent entry can be seen here:Libertarian Perspective: Father, Son, and Environment

I am giving up on DeadAIM and moving on to Trillian

It's good so far. Really.

My iPod Needs Purging

All 30GB are filled up. I need to go through and remove what I know I will never listen to again.

There's a new AIM virus going around

Don't click links unless you ask a person if they are legit

Read about it here