Translating my jibberish

I stumbled across this clip from "Waking Life" just now it really sums up my Free Will debacle. Its one of those times when you know something and have worked it out in your head but just cant put into coherent words, and then something comes along and does it for you. A few weeks ago I also started reading the Wikipedia entry for Free Will and came across Causal Determinism which is one take on free will which states, "determinism is the thesis that future events are necessitated by past and present events combined with the laws of nature." I also unwittingly tried to explain an old thought experiment called Laplace's Demon, named after the philosopher in 1814. The demon is a hypothetical entity that knows all the laws of the universe and the location and momentum of all things. With these tools he could conceivably predict anything. All of this I had been trying to work out in my own, young mind, but it looks like there are more experienced people who have already done it for me. Just goes to show what a little research can accomplish.

Stick it up The Man

Welcome back, my loyal drones. Did you miss me? Well I missed you. And to show how much I adore you, today's post is the first in another series of topics this time called "Stick It Up The Man". You might be thinking that the phrase is actually "stick it to the man", but I feel that sticking things up The Man is more gratifying.

I'm going to be blunt here. I hate stop lights. I hate stop signs. I hate stop lights and stop signs. Sure they have their usefulness. Channeling traffic, preventing collisions, etc. And for the most part I tolerate them. However, you may not know this but stop signs and lights are just another way The Man is keeping us down. Lets start with stop signs. The "law" is, when you come to a stop sign you make a complete stop, wait for three seconds or until the road is clear (whichever is last), and then proceed through. Doesn't sound so bad, right? But the thing is, you have to stop even if there is no one around. Recently I started taking every opportunity I could to stick these signs up The Man's ass by rolling through vacant stop signs. I dont speed straight through, but I slow down to a cautionary speed and roll right on through, just as if the sign said Yield. Aw the Yield sign. The world would be a far better place with more yield signs. What does yield mean exactly? It means use your F'ing brain, think for yourself, and stop being a sheep. Yield means use your eyes and your common sense to judge for own damn self whether you need to stop if there are other cars around. If not, just roll on through. This also brings me to stop lights. Now I cant really argue that we should replace stop lights with yield signs. Big intersections are just too packed and busy for that. However, there is one hidden hammer that The Man has been beating us senseless with for years. The left turn arrow. Oh how I hate thee. I have spent too much of my life sitting at the red left turn arrow. The straight light is green on my side and the straight light is green in the oncoming lanes. There is no one coming in the oncoming lanes for miles and the "law" tells me I can't make the turn. Well no more! Along with rolling through stop signs, I have been taking every opportunity to lead by example and wake my fellow motorists from their mindless obedience by turning on these red arrows. If Im in the front of the turn lane, and there is no one in the oncoming lanes, I'll stick that left arrow right up The Man's tight ass and hit the gas. Hell, sometimes I'll go out of my way to make a left turn. Even if I'm not going that way I just can't pass up an open lane. Cuz every time I roll through a sign or drive through an arrow, I get a little bit of freedom back. And it feels oh so good.

Don't be The Man's bitch anymore. Join the resistance. Roll on through and make the turn...just make sure the fuzz ain't watchin.

Stopping the problem before it starts

Its time to kick off the new year and semester with a much anticipated new update. And as a little bonus, I'm introducing a new recurring feature called "When I'm King..." in which I will let you all know in advance of some of the changes you'll have to get used to once I am the all powerful and unquestionable lord and master of everything everywhere. Fasten your seatbelts, here we go.

When I'm King, there will be no unwanted teen pregnancies. There will be no starving children in Ethiopia. And we will finally stop feeling guilty every time we see those "for the price of a cup of coffee, you can help this little girl get an education" commercials. Why? Because none of those will exist anymore. How? Mandatory birth control. Let me elaborate.

Its sometimes painfully clear that some people just should not have children. Ever. I'm talking primarily about families or parents that are either abusive or do not have the means of adequately supporting a child. Thats where my knights and I step in. Every couple that wants to have children must be approved to do so by passing a series of evaluations. These evaluations examine the couple's income, living situation, extended family, substance abuse history, mental state, and general wellbeing among other things. If we decide that the couple is capable of raising a child in a reasonably non-threatening atmosphere, then they will be a approved. I should make it clear now that it would be by no means hard to pass the test. This is simply to keep the obvious people from having children. People like 13 year old girls, heroin addicts, people who can't even afford to feed themselves, pedophiles, physically or verbally or sexually abusive assholes, and others. This is by no means a campaign to cleanse the world of the impure (man that felt weird to type), its about protecting those who can't protect themselves. The kids.

The only question is how to do it. There needs to be someway to ensure that the only way to get pregnant is to take some pill or shot or something that only the administrators have. For most of their lives, the rest of the population (just one gender I suppose) would be completely sterile. Free to have as much sex as they want without ever worrying about the worst STD of all.

It just says McLovin!

After my last post about marriage and mating, which I dont think I presented very well, I realize its been a while since I posted something less "Thought"ful. So here's a little something that I hope everyone can partake in.

Everyone needs a good alias. And I mean a GOOD alias. Not just some funny fake name like Humpy McBoobs. Something believable. Something with a backstory. A whole alter-ego. I seriously can't count how many times I've wanted to give out a fake name or school or something, only to awkwardly sputter out, "I'm....uhhhm....Christian Henderson". And then everyone is wondering why I was so confused. Its cuz I was frantically trying to think up a witty and humorous fake name. This especially comes up at Starbucks or ordering a pizza. Even though I know its coming, I still fail when they ask my name.

So why does everyone need a good alias? If it hasnt happened yet, somewhere down the road you're going to be talking to someone somewhere and you dont want to give out any personal information. However, if you have a prethought-out alias with a full backstory, you'll always be covered.

I now call all of my readers to come up with a good alias for themselves. Make a believable name and an equally believable backstory. I dont want to hear about how Sergio McLovin was the first person to slingshot himself into space. I haven't come up with one for myself yet, I'm horrible at naming things. However, once I do I plan on running with it. So that means fake MySpace page, business cards, student ID, etc. You can never be too prepared.

If you have any suggestions for names for me, please post them! First on my list is Sean Neil.

So they got married and lived hapilly ever after

Back by popular demand here is the latest Thoughts editorial.

Today I'd like to stream a little about mating. No not sex in particular, but selecting and staying with "that special someone". Some of you already know my view about love (I might post my argument from Long Beach Philosophy about love as an illusion later for those who are unclear). But my first post about free will should explains it also. Essentially love is just what we call the biological drive to mate and procreate. The only reason we experience this sensation of love is to ensure that life goes on. Still with me? Good. Now, I like to imagine what life would be like if we were all robots. That is to say, not having an organic body that is hindered by the need for sleep, food, and sex. I think you can see where Im heading with this. If there's no need for sex, then does the whole monogamous (and even polygamous) mating thing fall apart? I'm probably making this more difficult than it needs to be, but my whole point is why do we mate? Why do we marry?

For as long as I can remember it seems that society has deemed marriage (or at least mating for life) as something everyone needs to forever be seeking. Teens are encouraged to date and beyond that you need to be always seeking your soul mate. That special someone that you have to spend the rest of your life with. That special person of the opposite gender (I would like clarify again that I am not sexually attracted to men, and if you recall I'm actually trying to kill my sex drive). Why does your one-and-only have to be of the other sex? If there is anything that I took away from my philosophy classes at Long Beach its that I need to think for myself and analyze why I believe the things I do. In this case, mating and marriage. Now you may say that marriage is a good thing to work towards because if it wasn't it would have been abandoned long ago. And rightly so. Studies have proven that time and time again married couples provide a batter environment for raising children. And thats great. I'm all for happiness and raising children in a good environment. However, my problem with marriage is that far too many people don't know why they strive to attain it. It seems like most people would say they do because its the normal thing to do.

I'm going to try to summarize and clarify a little now. But of course you probably won't agree if you don't follow the first premise.

Mind > Body (biology)
Sex depends on the body
Marriage (mating) is a direct product of sex
Therefore, mating is unnecessary.

Please note: This is just my own view and it is still in its infancy. I've only been toying with this for a few years now and I'm only twenty one. Things change, people change. This is where I'm at now.

Its just a matter of time

Sorry I didnt get around to writing a Thoughts monologue this week, but I've been busting my ass to finish my sculpture five days early because I'm leaving for Mexico in twenty minutes. So you probably wont hear too much from me til Monday night. What I am going to write about however is a major career concern of mine.

As you all should know by now, Im training to become a video game designer. Whats that? I'm on the top of the totem pole and tell the guys below me what to do. Its my job to plan out a game and see to it that all of my programmers and artists are working towards the same goal. I have a lot of good ideas that I want to implement and show the world but by biggest concern is that my unique and innovative ideas will have already been done by the time I have the resources to produce a big time game. Case in point recently: Mass Effect. This is a new game for the Xbox 360 coming out soon. Its a space shooter. Not really something I'm particularly interested in, but from cryptic statements from the producers, it seems that the game will offer a few distinct story arcs depending on a few key choices throughout the game. While this is nothing new, what they hinted at is that these decisions could carry over into the two planned sequels. I had been playing with this idea for a few years now and couldn't figure out why no one had done it yet. I guess it just takes time. Eventually everything will be done. I'm racing against the clock in an industry where I'm already behind.

However, I do have other (and better) ideas, but how long before someone beats me to them?

If it weren't for those meddling kids

I'm not a fan of Shrek. In my honest opinion its just not that great. The jokes are so-so, the animation looks like the Family Guy guys got a hold of it (actions are too fast), and the concept isn't as satirical as they want us to believe. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered to watch the third Shrek movie, but it happened to be playing on the way back from (or maybe it was to) China. I would just like to say that I've seen Scooby-Doo episodes with more original endings.