I’ve been putting this off. Sorry, it’s been awhile, I know.
Here’s to Another Year
Dear 2017, welcome into my life. I am full of hope for you. Last year was, well, I have no comment. Okay, actually I have a few. In spite of all of the carnage that took place in 2016, there were a few good things that happened. First of all, I went to school all year long, paid for it all out of pocket, got my GPA up into a respectable range, and, yes, that means I passed all of my classes. As a result all of my generals are done and I am another year into school. Among other things, 2017 is focused on Mathematics so I can take the classes I really want to take the following year—physics and chemistry. Without a doubt I am severely behind the ball on this school thing. That said, I am filled with a new life—doing it off of principle and reaping the benefits with open arms. You might be asking “what benefits? You mean the sleepless nights, the crushing payments, the uncomfortable conversations with school counselors and the endless red-tape.” No, the benefits of feeling capable of doing something. Just a few years ago I would never have been able to do this. School on top of work and on top of the unremitting existential crisis so prevalently pressing upon my mind—and my ears. Here’s to being compelled to be a “life-long-learner.” I am on my way one day at time. Cheers.
Another one of my goals is to read more this year. I think that is a realistic goal, as it is pretty general, and very doable. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I realized, under the covers with my cellphone light, that the title of Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation by Timothy Jorgensen actually glowed in the dark! That is quality work there. Last year I didn’t have one single caffeinated beverage (did that not segue well.) I suppose doing away with caffeine has helped my headaches, although they are still there, grounding my productivity with incessant dull and cloudy atmospheres dampening my desires to be more active. Sleep is a constant shoulder entity subtly drawing me to my bed so I can drown out the world and its abundant sensations, and it’s there with open arms beautiful silent—oh yes, except for the ringing. The ringing of which I’m sure is driving me mad one hour at a time. Either it is getting worse or I am getting less accustomed to it (so it appears to be getting worse). I think I slip a sentence or two about that ringing into every post, and I do it unconsciously. It is just always there. On occasion, and through the screeching I hear a slight variation of it while my head shifts around in a watery pool with whirling and grinding noises emanating from inside my jaw and ears. If I didn’t know that I’ve had some of the most traumatizing dental visits of the last half century I’d have thought I might have been abducted by aliens. I’ve determined that that second screeching sound sounds like a drill—the kind that dentists use as they grind away at your teeth and drill out their roots, probing you while your mouth is propped open for hours at a time, and cutting open your jaw, and infecting your brain, and cutting out their prior mistakes, and making you pay for it. Do you hear a little resentment in my writing? Well, maybe you do, but endlessly I must be grateful for the time in which I am alive. I truly am blessed. I know this more than I know most things. And yet, that whirling and drilling sound is a real audible noise that haunts me on occasion. It is different than the ringing, as I said. It is a battery powered whirling blade. It is like a ghost image of a past time, an impression forever forged in my ears and the traumatic memories of my past.
So, I hate to say it, but I’ve started off 2017 already frustrated because, if you haven’t noticed, I have postponed posting Chapter 4 of Heaven: Stratagem. You might have been wondering about that as I said I was going to post a chapter once a month. This gets me into my first topic that I really want to talk about: Stories.
Heaven 1 and Other Stories
Ok, so I am very excited about the drafts Blake Fruits has done for this latest chapter. You can see it below. Unfortunately, I won’t be posting it until February 1st. You can count on that date. Why am I postponing it? Well, because finishing up Fall semester during the month of December and working full time has taken its toll on my writing schedule. All I want to do when I get home is slink into my mega-Love Sac, pwn some noobs in Infinite Warfare for an hour and then go to sleep. The next several paragraphs contain spoilers to my work-in-progress, Heaven 1, so if you don’t want to know what is happening before it happens just skip this section.
Blake Fruits
Ok, first of all Abradm is dead and all that has happened so far is all his vision before he dies. I’m just kidding. Seriously, that’s not what’s happening and he IS NOT DEAD. Abradm is very much alive at this time. I was just testing to see whether or not you are still reading because now here are the real spoilers.
I’m thinking about just calling the story Heaven instead of Heaven 1. You can blame Star Wars for that… Speaking of Star Wars.
So, if you haven’t read it yet, or it is still a little vague as to what is going on, Heaven is a starship (a generational ship with sleep cells) from Earth that is a part of a larger fleet of ships out to colonize the universe because they were compelled to leave Earth for an, as of yet to be explained reason. I can’t give away too many spoilers, jeez.
Abradm and Hopi are brothers who have found themselves on a strange planet and both incapable of returning to Heaven.
Heaven, containing the rest of it’s Earthlings, Abradm and Hopi’s family, friends, and crew mates (all asleep) is still electronically active, and Hopi, somewhat estranged from Abradm on the surface sends his brother a Chess request that the two are capable of playing through a neural link to the command center of Heaven. Imagine just thinking about downloading a game on your smartphone and it happens, and your smart phone also happens to be in your brain. This is the future, people. Count on it. Either that or extinction.
That is all I’m willing to spoil for the time being. I do have most of the whole story planned out and am still going for posting a draft of each chapter once a month starting on the next post Feb. 1st. March 1st is the next scheduled draft, and so forth.
You might have noticed that the header to this section includes …”and Other Stories.” That is because I want to start posting some shorter stories on occasion throughout the year (my “stories” folder is chalk full of them). This idea is still in the preliminary stages, so we’ll see what happens.
Science
Do you know how awkward it is to try and get custom parts for your cloud chamber when you look like a stoner? Hey, I’ve come a long way, but still, when I’m tired and haven’t brushed my hair and I have to explain that my custom glass cuts are for a “cloud chamber, er, a science experiment…uh, I mean, it’s for viewing cosmic rays… dang it! Here, just look at this video I took of muons, and alpha and beta particles so you know that I’m not blazing up in my mom’s basement,” is more or less what I’ve stammered out twice already in front the aluminum guy and the glass guy at two different places. The aluminum guy was a little skeptical but the glass guy was stoked and wanted me to put the vid online! So, here. This is a shot taken from my iPhone of the inside of my cloud chamber that I’ve been building for the past several months. The cork has a radioactive (and microscopic) lead 210 isotope micro-plated into the eye of the needle that is protruding from it. Don’t worry, it is harmless alpha radiation. And the other object is a shelled Brazil Nut (trying to catch radiation from it. Current tests have remained inconclusive). But this video shows the best capture of a particle track that I’ve ever seen/captured.
Particle Trackstest
I am currently working on something special for all of you guys that involves the chamber. You’re just going to have to wait and see what it is, though!
Also, if you want to help the Pan African Program and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (you should, because what I am about to tell you is amazing!) visit chimpandsee.org. Yes, that is “chimp and see”, not “chimpanzee.” Scientists from both communities have set up cameras across 15 African countries and have collected thousands of hours of video footage and they are asking for the internet folk to help out! You literally get on and watch footage and anytime you see an animal you mark the clip and describe what you saw. The best part is that if you see a chimp you get to name it (at least that is what the description says. I have yet to spot one, but I’ve seen plenty of Red Duikers!) This is the closest I’ve come to Big-Foot hunting! And let me tell you, when you see a leopard skulking through the underbrush for the first time you want to jump out of your seat with excitement! It is also worth noting that this project is where Chimps have been recorded using stone tools and sticks for fishing! Seriously, they are using long sticks to capture things in the water. Stone Age chimps, anyone? Certainly
Games
Ok, what is next. Oh, yes. I have committed for 2017 to finish Heroic. What is Heroic? Well, it is my board game that I’ve been designing for the last decade plus some. And speaking of board games, here is an episode of a new podcast me and Joseph Slinker are working on called The Game Mechanics. We are just learning this whole podcast thing so it won’t be the most incredible thing you’ll listen to today, but we’re working on it! This episode is about Betrayal at House on the Hill!
https://www.podbean.com/media/player/embed/postId/PB665D0ECRTYU
All Hail
Another 2017 goal is to fulfill the demands of my heart. That would be to film my retirement skate part. I’ve been dying to film for a long time, and I am up against the wall (I’m 30 years old), so this is the year I film my part. I gotta get it done before I get too old. I don’t want to regret missing out on getting a finale. Flip-in-flip-out-ender. just sayin'
Treaties on Existence
I cannot speak of the irresolvable and perpetual angst in which constantly bombards my senses and my very core. Yet, I feel obligated to acknowledge that it is there. The wrestle with existence, the philosophies that have grown from the hearts of those striving to understand the world give rise to ever deeper puzzles, and yet, one of the greatest puzzles in which perplexes me to no end is of why there should be so many different points of view—trains of thought—if we are all existing in the same place, Earth? We are all here on Earth and we are all the measure of our world, and I ask, How can there be atheists existing in the same place as the religious, and how can there be, among the religious, so many interpretations of God? Is it a fallacy to think that there is one truth? Are there multiple realities in which truth remains ever subjective? Perhaps the impression that we are all here at the same place and time is merely an illusion, and it is this reality that is the root of every difference of opinion. The question then must be is whether or not one state is better or worse than another. To give a far removed example, is being illiterate intrinsically worse than being well read? And how does that affect one’s ability to understand the mysteries of life? In order to understand this place why should one find solace in retreating to the hills, denying oneself the pleasures of modern living and meditating all day long, while another dabbles in his basement laboratory for hours on end into the wee hours of the morning? Are the two individuals both not searching for truth? This is more than whether or not there is a God. This question that plagues me is how can there be one who believes while another does not if we are all subject to the same rules that govern existence as we know it. Are we not, as sentient human beings, the measure of our existence? And if we are than what makes it so that one person believes while another does not? You might say, well, some people haven’t been taught the truth. But I would rebut, how then, can there be people who are taught the truth (whatever it is) and remain unconvinced. Surely this issue arises if your system of beliefs is what you consider to be true for the sole reason that everyone doesn't think like you. How can that be? Do we live in a world where we cannot know the truth? Is it forever out of reach and are we doomed to an eternity of pushing a rock up a hill. Can it be reached by thinking about it alone? Or does a person need to experiment? If there is a truth upon the world and people are built to understand that truth, then why should it not have enveloped the world in its entirety and to every climb? I suppose it is because we are not built to understand the truth. We are built to be barely good enough to stay alive. Although, I would be remiss if I allowed this finite understanding of evolution be the sole guide of my understanding of reality. I shall revisit this later.
Pop Culture
Rogue One was really good. Oh, SPOILERS. However, I have a couple minor complaints. First and foremost, it seems like there are only two types of movies. 1) Everyone miraculously lives, and, 2) everyone dies. When K-2SO dies holding off the Storm Troopers so Cassian and Jyn can find the Death Star Plans I had one of two thoughts. Firstly, I thought because of the blatant abuse of character deaths in the Marvel Universe, among other films, that he was going to miraculously come back to life at the end. The second thought was more hopeful, perhaps he was really going to die and the rest of the crew was going to live. That would have made my viewing experience. Why? Did I hate K-2SO, that audience favorite reprogrammed imperial droid? Of course not. But I love a good and realistic story. And although everyone dying is pretty realistic I wasn’t prepared for that option because it seems to be rare. However, there is an even more rare movie. The one where some die while others make it and have to live out the rest of their days horrifically scarred both emotionally and physically (call me a pessimist). Then when Chirrut used the force to throw the switch in the fire-fight against the Death Troopers and he died, I was stoked even more that Star Wars wasn’t Marvel, but then almost immediately I realized that Baze Malbus was going to go into berserk mode and that he was most likely going to die too. Then it cut to Bodhi Rook. It was then that I saw it coming—they were all going to die. I knew it because at that point it wouldn't have been satisfying to the audience to have Cassian and Jyn somehow make it out alive if their entire Rogue One team died. I don’t like that I can tell what is going to happen based on what I know the audience will and won’t like. If Hollywood needs to do anything it is the opposite of what will appease your average viewer. Those are the movies that are worth watching. Why? Because they are made to tell a story, not to make money.
That said, I still liked the movie a lot. But… That said again, I have another complaint. It was indeed epic when Vader appears in the light of his saber as the rebels panic and start blasting away in the sealed corridor in one final effort to save themselves. That was an incredible scene working up to the beginning of A New Hope. So, that said, why oh why couldn't they have seamlessly transitioned from Rogue One to A New Hope? Don’t tell me that you thought they did. They didn’t. Seriously. That is what should have happened. But no, now there is this weird grey area in-between films where Vader has to get back on the Destroyer, they have to recapture the rebel ship with Liea on it and Vader has to re-board it after another Stormtrooper Rebel standoff. It could have been like an hour before they recaptured the ship or it could have been, like, days. No one will ever know (I'm sure someone has figured it out) and it is just a moment in limbo for Star Wars now. But I guess I’m being too critical.
Ok, all in all, it was a great movie. Now for the rating. If 1 is Joe Dirt and Jaws 3, and 100 is Casablanca and The Dark Knight, Rogue one comes in at a solid 85 for me. That’s just under Star Trek: First Contact (parentheses rant: Star Trek isn’t for everyone, I know. And the new movies aren’t really Star Trek. But Star Trek: First Contact is a movie for everyone. It accomplishes this without sacrificing it’s mythology and staying true to what Trek is all about. It is, in my humble opinion the best Star Trek movie ever made (just above The Wrath of Khan) and you don’t need to know the universe from head to toe to really appreciate it. It is a great movie) and rocketing over The Force Awakens. That is, I didn’t really like The Force Awakens. But that is for another day.
Until next time, my dear lovers. Stay tuned for Heaven: Stratagem on February 1st.
Good night.