You have entered my domain....

Tale of the Tape

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:18 GMT

The following conversation just occurred on instant messenger between me and a friend (who I will call J). Names have been changed to protect the insane.

*****

(4:35:52 PM) Me: I helped take an air conditioner out of the window. soon to do the second story one. I lead an exciting life here.
(4:35:53 PM) Me: lol
(4:36:31 PM) J: It's hard to decide if the repotting the plants was just as exciting
(4:36:40 PM) Me: lol
(4:36:40 PM) J: I DID get to play with dirt, though
(4:36:43 PM) Me: ooooo
(4:36:48 PM) J: that's always a plus
(4:36:59 PM) Me: I...I watched mom peel old tape off the bottom of the air conditioner. think it's a close call, here.
(4:37:07 PM) J: oh wow
(4:37:16 PM) J: you're right, it is
(4:37:38 PM) J: removing tape can be the highlight of one's day
(4:37:41 PM) Me: oh yes
(4:37:45 PM) J: if you time it correctly
(4:37:47 PM) Me: I only wish it could have been me, you know?
(4:37:53 PM) Me: she just got to it first
(4:37:53 PM) J: dman
(4:37:56 PM) J: lo'
(4:38:00 PM) J: that sucks
(4:38:04 PM) Me: I know
(4:38:14 PM) Me: but this upstairs air conditioner...oh yes, it's all mine.
(4:38:19 PM) J: although, PLACING new tape can be an experience
(4:38:35 PM) Me: I don't know, don't you need, like, some sort of safety equipment and training for that?
(4:39:14 PM) J: I think a safety class is all you need, but maybe some medical training.....depends what KIND of tape it is
(4:39:30 PM) J: certain tapes have medicinal purposes
(4:39:37 PM) Me: right, true
(4:39:41 PM) Me: for instance, duct tape.
(4:39:43 PM) J: yes
(4:39:50 PM) J: and adhesive
(4:39:58 PM) J: cloth tape
(4:40:09 PM) Me: other tapes are useful for fixing things. like, duct tape. other tapes are good for fastening things together or sealing plastic bags. like duct tape.
(4:40:29 PM) J: I think a semester in duct tape is truly needed
(4:40:36 PM) Me: yes
(4:40:42 PM) J: is it a 100 or a 200 level class?
(4:40:52 PM) Me: I even used duct tape to repair pants once (from the inside -- pretty good makeshift patch)
(4:40:55 PM) Me: 400, easily
(4:41:00 PM) J: ah
(4:41:01 PM) J: well
(4:41:12 PM) J: I don't know if I have the proper prerequisites then
(4:41:17 PM) J: *sad*
(4:41:28 PM) Me: probably not. but you can go far in plant repotting and dog diaper-fastening
(4:41:38 PM) J: ah, yes
(4:41:48 PM) Me: the biggest trick with the latter is getting the dog to stay still enough for long enough
(4:41:51 PM) J: I probably could get a master's degree
(4:41:56 PM) Me: easily
(4:42:00 PM) Me: you could teach a master's course
(4:42:00 PM) J: hmmm
(4:42:04 PM) J: ah, yes
(4:42:15 PM) J: maybe I could do the duct tape ones on line
(4:42:20 PM) J: on my own time
(4:42:46 PM) J: I have had the medical training on the cloth adhesive tape
(4:42:50 PM) Me: oooo
(4:42:54 PM) J: I am EXTREMELY good at that
(4:43:23 PM) J: also, minors in transparent tape, packaging tape, and silk and paper tape
(4:43:29 PM) Me: I bet. and after showing everyone how good you are, you head to the local bar to relax and have a good scotchtape.

*****

Yes, we really did have an 8 minute conversation about tape. *grin*

New Song

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:59:03 GMT

I posted a somewhat new song online here. Well, it's not new exactly; it's the orchestral version of a piano piece I wrote for a music class.

I'd say this one's a tad bit more epic.

.....

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:25:00 GMT

Lack of knowledge is one thing. Willful and intentional ignorance is another.

One but not the other

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:06:57 GMT

Some people still seem to have trouble getting it through their thick skulls that people like me who dislike Obama do so not out of racism, but do it simply because of some strange internal desire not to get screwed.

Call me crazy.

A Little Faster, Please?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:37:59 GMT

I want November. Not the cold or the snow or any of that, but November nonetheless. I've mentioned that a lot recently.

I attempted to get some writing done on Through the Fire last night but didn't get very far. Seems my brain still wants to work on the new story idea, even though I'm not planning on working on the next chapter until Nanowrimo starts.

Still, in a matter of a few minutes today, I managed to come up with the whole backstory for the mysterious, villainous organization I introduced in the first chapter.

At least, come November, I should have a ton of background information to work with. I don't know that I've ever started writing a book or story with so much stuff already figured out.

Thingsssss

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:19:03 GMT

I wants November.

That is all.

Okay, that's not all. Picked up the Luna Mortis album. Pretty good. Certainly worth it for the $5 I paid for it (I had a $5 credit on Amazon).

Oh, oh, and the new Epica album comes out a month from tomorrow. They posted another teaser on their site, so go check it out. Sounds like this album shall contain much rockage.

Yeah.

Now that is all.

A Couple Things

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:00:29 GMT

So, yeah. Things are happening.

Went to a concert with Kristen last night. Ended up with an overall feeling of, "meh" from the whole thing. A shame that my favorite venue (The Pearl Room) closed, so this concert was in a new place in Chicago (the upside is this one is close enough that I can get there in under an hour). On the downside, the acoustics kind of suck. Waaay too many echoes. Ok, they're tolerable, but they did make everything sound kind of muddy.

Anyhoo...the first couple bands were two I saw open for Edguy and Kamelot last year -- Something Beautiful and Shield of Wings. Kristen said it first but I agree that both were a good deal better than last year. Shield of Wings had a new female singer who, while not great, certainly improved their sound.

Luna Mortis came up next and were easily the highlight of the night. Very energetic performance that frankly was better than their music, but they certainly were entertaining. The singer was spot on, and if I didn't know it was her growling (yes, her) during parts of their songs, I'd have thought it sounded like a dude.

Epicurean followed them, but they were as forgettable as Luna Mortis was memorable. Typical screamo/hardcore/whatever metal/noise.

And then there was the main act, Edguy. Like last year, their performance was far better than their music. They were very energetic, and even though the crowd was small they were really into it anyway. They mostly played stuff from the newer album (blah), but did go through a few of the older ones I wanted to hear (King of Fools, Superheroes, and the one I wanted most but least expected to hear, Sacrifice).

So yeah. An alright evening. Like I said last night, though, I don't intend to go see Edguy again unless they're playing with a band I really want to see. I do hope to catch Luna Mortis again at some point in the future, and they did mention that they end up in the Chicago area rather often (they're from Wisconsin anyway, so not that far away).

* * *

In other news, I finally finished writing the first chapter of the novel I'll likely do for Nanowrimo. I might have been able to hold off writing that chapter until Nano started, but there were just too many details to cram into it that I felt it would be better if I just got it out of the way, so I'll pick up with chapter 2 come November.

Now I was originally planning on posting that chapter on LJ, but as it got longer I realized that might not be practical. Early on I figured it might come out to around 5,000 words, but it ended up being over 9300 (with 5,000 of that coming this weekend, including over 2,000 on Saturday, the most I've written in one day since last Nano).

I guess all I can say is, "Bring on November!"

lieMac

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:00:34 GMT

I'm getting tired of these Mac commercials. You know, the ones with the hip young mac everyone wants and the old lame PC that never works. So many of these commercials seem to be based around the claims that macs have fewer viruses, work better, and are more practical.

Okay, I'll give 'em one out of three -- yes, there are relatively few viruses for macs.

But unless your mac has a high amount of memory, it's nearly useless -- unlike PCs with low memory. And practical? Try finding software to do basic things on a mac, like, say, copy songs from an ipod. Yeah, good luck with that. If you find something that works, good job. But I bet I can find something better for the PC -- in less time.

And while we're at it, there's no excuse for macs to cost two or three times as much as comparable PCs, especially when they're really not much better.

And while we're at it, what if you want to upgrade the hardware in your computer (as I do from time to time)? Good luck if you have a Mac.

Would you like some lies with that?

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:08:51 GMT

I haven't said this quite so strongly on this LJ before (or online at all, really), but given several of the news stories today, you have to be out of your freakin' mind if you still support the Obamessiah and this liberal congress.

Looking at various coverage of Obamacare online, I see people split into two sides -- those who support Obama because they believe what he says, and those who oppose him because they observe what he does. Sure, Obamacare is "supposed" to make insurance available to the poor and provide coverage for everyone. Ignoring the fact that I don't think this is the proper solution to the insurance problem, it sounds good on paper. It does. But that's what Obama says.

But what he does is something else altogether. Up to $3,800 in fines per year for not having health insurance, however, is what is now being proposed, and suddenly this sounds like a bigger scam than it already was. It's one thing for people to want public health care (which I, the taxpayer, pay for whether I want to or not), but then to essentially force me to get insurance instead of leaving me with a choice...is this what you call freedom? Is this the "change" people were looking for?

Okay, so how about a more blatant contrast about what the Obamessiah says and what he does?

Perhaps you remember Obama promising not to raise taxes on the "regular" people, saying he would tax the wealthy instead (socialism, blah blah blah).

Well, so much for that. Granted, he's just considering it at the moment, but for him to even consider going back on his word is ridiculous.

How can anyone believe what he says anymore?

A Decision

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:35:54 GMT

I've come to a decision, as noted by the title of this post. It wasn't necessarily a decision I wanted to end up with, but I think it's the right one.

Some of you may remember the animated series I was creating called Hollow Creek, about a girl who develops telekinetic abilities. I've been working on it off and on for a few years, and it's a story I very much want to tell. That said, however, I've decided to develop it as a novel rather than an animated series. While I've always envisioned Hollow Creek as a tv show-type series, I just don't see it really getting done in that format without a good amount of help. This doesn't mean that I won't ever create it as an animated series, but seeing as how I'd have to drop so many things to be able to do it in any sort of reasonable amount of time, I feel a novel is the way to go.

And now, this time of year, an opportunity to write that novel presents itself in the form of Nanowrimo (in November). While I have a few episodes written already, I intend mostly to use them as rough outlines for the beginning of the book as their episodic format will have to be reworked to make sense in the context of a book.

Applebrainsauce

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:02:24 GMT

The following is an unpaid advertisement by the Idiotix Coporation.

Cheap bums...

* * * *

Hello, gentle viewers! We at Idiotix believe in spreading wealth to the people around us, and so we come to you with an amazing investment opportunity! How often do you know you can make double from your investments? And yet that is what we are offering today! There are no tapes to buy, no CDs to order! In fact, we are giving away our secrets right here in this commercial, because every time somebody does something stupid, we make a dollar!

It's so easy! All you have to do is find a crowded street corner. Just stop random people and give them a penny for their thoughts, and let them to give you their two cents! Soon the pennies will be rolling in!

Just listen to this testimonial!

"My comp'ny usedta sell candy to chilluns, but now thanks to Idiotix, we's making less money than we ever done did! Thanks, Idiotix!"

--Bob V., BrainOnDeFloor Industries

There, you see? It's as simple as 1-2....what comes after 2? Oh, wait, guess we just made another dollar! Yaaaaay!

The Convenience of Climate Change

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:49:44 GMT

I'll try to keep this post simple, straightforward, and to the point.

As many of you know, I believe/know that the whole global warming thing is a load of bullplop. I'm not going to explain everything here (as that is a subject for another post), but just consider that scientific data notes that both ice caps have been expanding over the last 30 years. Hardly sounds like warming. Add that to the fact that carbon dioxide makes a fraction of a percent of difference, and it's clear that man doesn't really have much of anything to do with the climate. Fighting climate change is like (and essentially is) fighting the sun. Yeah, good luck with that.

Anyway, I was out walking earlier when I started thinking about the idea of man-made climate change. The term "climate change" was brought around in the global warming argument as a replacement for the term "global warming".

Now there is no debate that climate change is a reality. Earth is not constant, not static, and people who think it is are foolish. It has been changing since its creation (this includes climate), and it will continue to change until the earth is no more. It's a natural process.

But in thinking about it, it occurred to me that calling any man-made effects "climate change" is simply terribly convenient. For years, we've been told that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are causing the climate to become warmer. But now we're having a rather cool year (there were, I believe, over 3000 record low temperatures set during July). Now some news sources claim that this is a temporary trend and that the warming will return in no time (although they are, in their ignorance, completely dismissing the effects of the sun's failure to begin another solar cycle, which I believe is the main cause of this cooling).

Other sources, however, are now crediting the colder temperatures to man-made climate change and urging restrictions on emissions. One argument I saw claimed that because of man-made climate change, the earth's temperatures were spinning wildly out of control, going up and down and up and down.

Now hold on a minute. If man-made climate change was still being called global warming, such an argument would look like lunacy. But no, it's "climate change", so now it all makes sense. But consider the problem -- the same contributing factors are being blamed now for both warmer and colder temperatures -- "climate change". How exactly does that work? Weren't the "excessive" greenhouse gas emissions supposed to increase global temperatures? So how is it that they can now be blamed for also lowering these temperatures? By labeling global warming as "man-made climate change", that surely makes all of this make sense. Before, we were supposed to fight emissions to keep earth's temperature down, but now we're supposed to fight them to keep temperatures up. So which is it?

The facts are straightforward. The "man-made climate change" arguments continue to change as they are shown time and again to be wrong or just plain silly. How terribly convenient that all these argument changes can now be lumped under climate change.

Finally

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:02:49 GMT

Finally, a mere day and a half after the idiots doing construction on the street outside severed our phone line, the phone and internet are back.

Oh, and they also managed to cut a neighbor's water line and pollute our water. Fantastic. This makes three days in a row where they've damaged something. What's next, they burn down the house tomorrow?

No Radio Show Today

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:03:19 GMT

Yep, you heard it here first. No radio show today. I'll be back on the air next Sunday at 5 eastern/4 central (in the afternoon) on Ocean Front Jams.

A Few More Things

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:19:00 GMT

Advertising in video games is a rather touchy subject. I've seen my fair share of people who either don't want it at all or don't mind it, but I haven't talked to too many who are in the middle (as I am). The way I see it, it's the context that matters. It's acceptable in some games but not in others.

For instance, if I walk into a city in Oblivion, I don't want to see a sign plastered on the castle wall telling me to get my oil changed at Lube King. Even context-appropriate advertising (for instance, for a shop that sells renaissance-type stuff) wouldn't be appropriate in a medievalish world.

On the other hand, such a thing would be a tad tricky in something like Fallout 3. While most advertising would not be appropriate, perhaps an old, worn sign for something like McDonalds could work (though I'm still glad there isn't any advertising there).

So what's the point of any of this, you ask? The idea for this post mainly occurred to me while looking at the rather blatant advertising in "MLB 09, The Show", a game based on major and minor league baseball. There was a big hoopla in the reviews (and somewhat in the forums) about the amount of advertising in-game, but I don't have a problem with it. Nearly every (or every) major league baseball stadium has billboards filled with advertising. In-game, these billboards are still there, and some have been used in the same way as their real-life counterparts. So where's the problem? If anything, it adds a touch to the immersion since any advertising is where it should be and is not just plastered anywhere (as some of the reviews seem to suggest).

Context matters.

******************

In other news, I've been thinking more lately about how if I ever get a couple weeks off from work and school and everything else, I'd like to go somewhere. Obviously with my old car, driving cross-country was pretty much out of the question, but now with a new car, that's not an issue anymore. This one would hold up if I were to try to drive somewhere and see the country (even if for a couple weeks).

On top of that, it's nice to finally have a car that's mine. Ok, so it mostly belongs to the bank, but I am paying it off with my money, and I paid the down payment with my money, so I don't really have to worry about people telling me where I can and cannot drive and how I can't take the car with me whenever I move out.

Here's hoping it lasts me several more years (at least).

One Stormy Day

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:10:30 GMT

A few things

Fri, 29 May 2009 03:53:31 GMT

I realize it has been quite a while since my last update. I would apologize for that but I'm not sorry. Really. There have been a few new things, but I've just overall felt "meh" about the whole thing.

That said, probably the only new thing worth mentioning is that I have a new car. Well, a new used car (though it's only a year old). It's a bit of a long story (and it just got longer today), but I won't go into that now. Nope, that's a subject for another time, if at all.

There's new music I've written (and am proud of) and I've made some significant progress on Through the Fire, but I'll go more into those sometime in the future.

But onto the real reason for this post. A few days ago I was suddenly hit with sort of an idea for a fantasy story/novel. I say sort of because I really have very little idea what the overall story arc would be or what anyone in it has to do with anything.

I did, however, write a few paragraphs that are little more than a character introduction, but I like how they turned out so I'm posting them here. I think I'll probably do this story for Nanowrimo come November (just 5 months away!) given that I don't need anymore projects right now.

The only backstory for this excerpt you really need is that in the first chapter, the prince in this kingdom was murdered, leaving the king, well, upset.

How chapter 2 begins --

Far away from the grief and anger of the king, over rolling hills and beyond winding valleys lived a man known only as Titus. He was a man of slightly short stature, perhaps five feet tall (though he would have told anyone he was at least five and a half feet with such confidence that none would have dared to question him). He did his best to keep from conflict with the few people he did occasionally have contact with. He prided himself on being known as a peaceful man though this, too, was also a stretch on the truth. The matter was not that he was known as peaceful; it was that he was hardly known at all for he lived in a small hut in the middle of the largest forest in the land.

The hut itself was built of branches of some of the sturdiest trees in the forest, and these were fortified and held in place by a mixture of mud and stone. So many grasses and other small plants grew from the outside of the hut that, had an observer seen it from a distance, they might have thought it no more than a small hill.

The hut was positioned perfectly so that it was bathed in sunlight for the majority of the day while also remaining well-lit at night by the twin moons that were in constant orbit around each other; for it was at night that Titus most often ventured out into the clearing to gather nectar from the glowing Thisilis flowers that bloomed only when the moons shined brightly on the forest canopy. The flowers grew only here in this forest but on a perfectly clear night bloomed so plentifully they lit up the forest almost as bright as day.

Titus had only a few acquaintances who made the long journey out to see him once or twice per year, for he himself never left the forest. In fact he had been here so long he had forgotten how he arrived; he was not even sure that he had been the one to build the hut he now lived in. Titus only kept track of years by the change in seasons though he had lost count many decades before. He wasn't sure if perhaps it was something about the forest itself or if he was the one who was different, for as his friends visibly aged year after year he seemed to remain young, youthful and full of life.

Idjits Abound

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:50:23 GMT

I hate AT&T. Have I mentioned that recently?

Tonight the modem decided to do what it occasionally does and erased some crucial piece of information. Specifically, it forgot the username and password to the internet account, and so it was bye bye internet. Now it's been a while since this last happened so I tried a bunch of things (including extensively testing the router to make sure that wasn't the problem, though in the process I had to change the encryption key). But because it had been so long, I had a bit of a brain cramp on how to fix the modem so I just took a couple hours off from working on it. But I decided a few minutes ago to give it another shot and I had everything up and running again in a matter of a couple minutes.

Maybe AT&T should hire me to do tech support (not that I'd necessarily want to), considering their existing tech staff doesn't seem to have a clue. Plus I'm pretty experienced at fixing their problems with how bad the service has been...

It just cracks me up, though, that I took a Jimmy Johns delivery to an AT&T store last week and the guy tried to get me to sign up for a cell phone plan. Man wouldn't take no for an answer. I came quite close to telling him he didn't have a chance what with the craptacular phone and internet service I've been getting at home. Maybe next time I'll bring that up. I do go in there every so often for deliveries and I do feel like unleashing on someone....

On an unrelated note, I've been watching Lost (new episodes as well as from the beginning). I'm up to the middle of the fourth season now. It's certainly not the best show ever (or even the best on tv), but it's interesting, at least. I don't get how people can claim the show is confusing though because it's really not. Yeah, there are lots of weird and unexplained things, but that's just it -- they simply haven't been explained yet (and in theory they will be at some point). But the show itself isn't hard to follow so long as you accept that some seriously weird things happen around that island (and again, supposedly that'll all be explained at the end of the series). *shrugs* I should be finishing the fourth season in a day or two, anyway. Yeah.

New Video Card Performance

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:41:41 GMT

I have to say, I'm impressed with this new video card. You know, now that it's working. While it's really only an upgraded version of my previous video card (which was a beast on its own), this one has indeed been improved. For instance, it runs about 10 degrees C cooler than the previous card since it blows air out of the back of the case instead of into the computer.

So far I've only tried the card in two games -- Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Oblivion's performance was about the same as with the previous card, which suggests to me that the game isn't optimized as well as it could be. Fallout 3, meanwhile, runs on the same engine but was vastly improved by the new card. With the old card I could run the game with a decent framerate on medium, but not really beyond that if I wanted it to be playable. This new card runs the game on high graphics settings perfectly smoothly, so I decided to try the card on ultra-high (as high as the graphics get), and it still runs about as smoothly as the previous card ran the game on medium. Impressive indeed.

Up next: Crysis. Bring on the beast.

And this is why I was up until 4 am....

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:29:50 GMT

So, yeah, I stayed up until 4 am last night with computer troubles.

It started yesterday when my new video card (otherwise known as vidjamacard) arrived courtesy of UPS. So I pulled out the old card and installed the new one. I didn't worry about drivers since I know nVidia cards all run on the same drivers. No big deal there.

But I booted up the computer and got an error that said, "Reboot and select proper boot device". Great. So I went into the bios and looked at the boot order but saw that it looked ok. No problem, I figured it was probably a driver issue, for some reason. So I downloaded the newest drivers from Nvidia and put them on a flash drive then put the old video card back in the computer and tried to boot up so I could uninstall the old drivers and install the new ones. However, I got the same error. Now things were really fishy, given that a video card that had just worked suddenly wasn't.

A short amount of Googling later, I found that perhaps the Windows boot got messed up and that going into the Windows recovery console could fix it. So I dug out my Windows disk and tried to get it to run setup, only to receive a STOP error. I googled the error and found there could be a number of causes, from a boot sector virus (which seemed unlikely) to hardware problems to driver problems (I figured it was the third option).

Another trip into the bios, however, revealed that somehow it wasn't detecting the hard drive at all. Well, crap. I figured this was like the problem I had dealt with when first building the computer, so I went online to look for SATA drivers, put them on a floppy and dug out and installed the old floppy drive I have. But after installing the SATA drivers, I ended up with the same STOP error. I figured perhaps a cable had come loose, so I checked all the cable connections and saw that they seemed okay. But by this point it was 4 am (I had spent 5 hours doing the above) and I needed sleep, so I figured I would pick up where I left off after work today.

So I got home from work today and, for good measure, swapped out the SATA cable from the hard drive. Then I noticed something odd in the process of making sure everything else was hooked up. I followed the power cable plugged into the back of the hard drive and found that it ran only to a fan on the inside of the case with nothing plugged in in between. Huh. So in about five minutes this afternoon I found that the power cable for the hard drive had simply disconnected while I was installing the video card last night. *facepalm* Needless to say the computer started up without any trouble. Nice waste of five hours that was.

The Proof

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:51:36 GMT

I've had a few things bouncing around in my head lately, so I figure I might as well post them here. This post is going to be sort of long, but I'm dividing it into three sections for you. This post also may or may not be the first in a series. Don't know yet.

Anyway...

The Existence of God

Actually, I think this one is pretty simple. We all know and have been taught that logic is only as good as whatever it is built on. You know, garbage in, garbage out. So I'm going to take a very logical approach to the question of God's existence.

Scientists right now are pretty sure the universe is expanding. We know this because in every direction we look in the sky, objects are moving away from us rather than towards us. So logically, if the universe is increasing in size, it had to be smaller in the past. Therefore, at some point in the distant past, all the matter and energy in the universe had to be confined to a single point. Scientists agree on this point.

Now this brings up two possibilities:

Option #1: The universe operates on a yo-yo effect where it expands but that expansion slows and eventually stops before it reverses. The universe would then collapse back to a single point, where it would then bounce back to create a new universe. If this is the case, the universe we are in now would simply be one phase of this potentially eternal yo-yo.

Option #2: The expansion of the universe is accelerating. Currently, science believes that this is actually the case, and even though it's not proven, scientists believe it enough that it is the assumption they are working under. If this is the case, it completely rules out option number 1 because, as the universe expands, it will reach (or has already reached) a point where everything is too spread out to be able to collapse back on itself.

So taking this into account, we know our universe was confined to a single point somewhere in the past, and that leaves us with two possibilities:

Option #1: The universe remained a single point for some time (possibly forever), then suddenly began expanding. This, however, is physically impossible, because according to the law of conservation of momentum (where an object in motion stays in motion until acted on by an outside force, or an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force), the universe can't just suddenly start expanding when it had previously held itself to one point. The mass and energy in the single point wouldn't have changed, so its moment couldn't have changed.

Option #2: The universe at that point began expanding the moment its existence began. This would fulfill the law of conservation of momentum, but would violate the physical law that says matter cannot be created or destroyed.

So in both cases, we see a violation of the very laws of physics -- something that, in the natural world, never happens. Sure, the laws of physics become funky when they are pushed to their limits, but they never break. If they did, we would have to scrap our understanding of these laws and start over from the beginning.

This means that, if the laws of physics broke, then something outside of those physical laws (and more powerful than them) would have had to have broken them, even if for just a moment. There would have to be a creator of some sort -- a God-like entity who exists outside of time and space.

Now this single point at the beginning of the universe would, from the huge amount of energy and how densely it was packed, give off a lot of light. Could this be the famous, "Let there be light."? Maybe, maybe not. Sure, you could argue this had to have taken more than a day. But the way I see it, there was no earth yet at this very beginning, so there was no way to measure time. Perhaps the "day" God spent creating light simply meant he worked, and then he looked upon his work, and that was one day, however long or short it was.

The Problem With Evolution

NOTE -- Slightly reworded thanks to a comment, but the point still stands.

I've heard the argument in the past that evolution disproves the existence of God. And while that in itself may not be entirely true, I've found instead that nature itself disproves the idea of evolution.

Science has observed a number of things about DNA and genetics that make the idea of evolution not seem very realistic.

First, genetics don't just invent new codes. That is, all existing genetic code has always existed or had the possibility of existing. Look, for example, at the great number of different kinds of dogs. There is general agreement that they all came, at one time or another, from some sort of wolf. Some of these kinds of dogs were bred by humans (where people mixed dogs with desirable, and therefore observable, genetic traits to make new breeds), while others came about as the result of natural selection, where animals with certain genetic traits were more capable of survival than animals with other genetic traits. Natural selection is a given, but it is not the same as evolution because evolution involves the creation of brand new genetic code -- something that science has never been able to demonstrate or observe. Rather, all genetic code in existence now have always existed. Different kinds of dogs are still dogs and still share similar DNA with just a few differences, even something as small as a new coat color (thanks to Jo for the input on that).

Some people bring up the point of mutation and the idea that mutated DNA could produce new genetic code. That is, however, a fallacy and not supported by science. In fact mutation actually disables pieces of genetic code rather than creating new code. Cancer, for instance, is brought on by a disabling of the genetic code that tells cells when to stop replicating.

But suppose, for instance, that none of this matters. Suppose new genetic code suddenly appeared one day. What would happen? Actually, nothing, because we have to take into account another aspect of DNA that is actually shown to be true by the idea of mutations. That is, all our bodies read DNA sequences the same way, and this has not changed. We are all programmed to read this "set" code in a certain way. Recall what I said above about how mutation takes away pieces of genetic code rather than adding them. This is because of our DNA decoder. If new code does pop up because of mutation, our bodies simply won't know how to read that code (the exception, of course, would be if the change in code is very minor, like simply rearranging pieces of code). If the code that tells cells when to stop replicating suddenly says something else, it simply stops functioning.

Look at language as an example. We all know how to read in English (at least I would think so if you've made it this far in this post). Suppose I tell you, "Take out the garbage." You know what that means because of language; your brain decodes it, and you know how to take action. But suppose I then spell out, "W3P5WL7SDP L@S%DF6P7SL PS3FL%A6P". You will have no idea what I just said and it would be impossible for you to act upon it, even if I'm trying to tell you to do something because these are new words that do not exist in English. It is the same with genetic code -- our bodies only act upon the genetic codes they understand, and as such won't know how to read code the truly is brand new (such as the effect of some major mutation, like one species "evolving" into another).

So with that in mind, evolution is not possible and, therefore, cannot rule out the existence of God. Meanwhile, since our bodies have always read genetic code the same way (something else science supports), where did the "language" come from? We've already established it couldn't have simply evolved since all traits have existed from the beginning. Simply put, this code had to have been created at some point.

A Perfect God

This subject is one I don't understand quite as well, but I've done a fair amount of research and have found what I am posting below to be true. Keep in mind I'm assuming God exists at this point, given the proofs above. There are a few other steps in here I'm skipping over (such as the idea that Jesus is God), though I can get to those in another post. For now, though, I'm going to focus on the question of a perfect God and how God can be perfect with the world being the mess that it is.

****

God's definition of perfection is His own. In other words, God the Creator defines perfection. While He created man in His image, He did not make man as powerful as Him. So while we can define perfection for ourselves, our definition cannot overrule God's definition, for we are not more powerful than him. By giving man free will, He allowed man the chance to choose to fall from God's perfection, and in doing so He opened the door to send Jesus to earth to demonstrate to all of us how much He loves us. In addition, we, not being as powerful as God, are in no position to define perfection. That job is God's alone. He has certain standards he wants us to live by, but we all fall short at one time or another.

Going along with all of this, I must define sin as any action that contradicts God's standards. There is also the idea of original sin, and that is that because Adam sinned, the human race is tainted with sin and is short of God's definition of perfection. While babies who are not capable of understanding would be considered innocent, they are still inherently evil, as they too are tainted with sin -- and no man, other than Jesus, is perfect, as every one of us sins at one time or another, even if it's something small (like stealing from the cookie jar when our parents told us not to).

So that said, God detests sin because it falls short of His standards. He wishes to destroy sin, and will eventually do so. But He is also loving and merciful. If people got what they deserve, all of humanity would be wiped out in an instant because we fall short of God's definition of perfection, even if we meet our own definition of perfection. So it is only by God's mercy that He allows us to live in the first place. That mercy, however, has its limits, and sometimes God allows it to expire. Keep in mind that Christians die too, as do their babies sometimes. Death is a result of sin -- because we fall short of God's perfection, we are mortal, and we are only alive because God allows it to be so. But because we do not meet God's definition of perfection, He sent Jesus to provide a way to heaven. We are not perfect, but if we live with Christ, He will make us appear blameless to God.

And God has a plan that is perfect. Sometimes he allows things to happen (for instance, the bad economy or even the wiping out of entire races). But God never deviates from His plan, but follows it perfectly, even if we don't understand. The things that happen to us are just tiny pieces of the plan. To look at the things that happen in the world and to say that these things mean God is not perfect is like looking at a single molecule of a particular object and saying we understand from that molecule how the object works or what it does. No, we have to step back and look at the bigger picture to understand the object. Now sometimes God allows us to see His plan. For instance, when my dad died, we saw a whole community step up to help us. Likewise, you can look at what happened in Egypt and at the deaths of the first born. Yeah, maybe it wasn't fair by our standards, but God's perfect plan was to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, which He did, and I believe it was also to punish the Egyptians for falling short of God's perfection even though they had multiple chances to do so. In the end, God achieved the His plan, even if it meant allowing his mercy to expire in Egypt in order to save the Israelites.

So while we may not understand God's perfection and He may not match up with how we define perfection, it is His definition of perfection that counts, and in the end, all things that are contrary to God's perfection will be destroyed -- our human bodies included. It is only through Christ that our souls can be wiped clean and can achieve the perfection God requires.

Three Projects

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:56:15 GMT

In order to make things manageable, I have decided to focus my efforts on three different projects (instead of the bajillion different things I'm working on, most of them novels). This way I can at least divide up my time and not feel guilty about not spending enough time on x project or about neglecting y project, because I really don't need that. This doesn't mean I'll ignore all other projects altogether; if I end up with specific inspiration for one of them, I'll go with it for a bit. But otherwise they'll be left alone for now.

These three projects are:

My Music -- Considering I have been writing music for about 15 years, if not longer, I think this is one that's going to keep on going for as long as I can keep on writing. Even though my album is slowly nearing completion, that won't be the end, not by a long shot.

Hollow Creek --My animated series about the supernatural goings-on in the fictional town of Hollow Creek, Montana. This one's my baby...if it ever gets done. It's going, just very very slowly. Though once I finish designing all the characters it should go a whole lot faster.

Through The Fire --The novel I started for Nanowrimo in 2006 and continued last year. This is by far the longest book I've ever written -- 133,000 words and counting -- and it's far from complete. I'm guessing it might end up somewhere around 200,000. This project will very likely be the first of the three to be finished (in fact I expect to at least have a rough draft done this year).

So what does this mean for the other projects? It means they may or may not get their turn. Fear not, those of you following Circle of Fire -- that one will be the first substitute once one of the other projects (probably Through The Fire) is done, meaning it's pretty much just on a short hiatus for now. Understand that I don't necessarily want to put that project (or To Dust, for that matter) on hold, it's just that I have to because I've found that while I can balance three projects, four is just too much.

Politics and Beyond

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:49:17 GMT

For the first time in a long time, I posted something over at Politics and Beyond. Feel free to check it out.

I heard it

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:10:12 GMT

Created by Train Horns

Things To Do, Part 2

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:08:57 GMT

I've been working out more details about that first-person shooter idea in my head, and I've come to the conclusion there are a few specific things I need the engine I choose to do. Without going into detail really at all, all I'll say is the Half-Life 2 engine seems to meet everything I've been coming up with. I still intend to play through HL2 before I really start anything though.

I've also settled on the name, "Echo" for the game -- a name I'm shocked isn't taken. Anyhoo, the title is a reference to an event in the game known as a dream echo.