Periodical Charles
Spy higher for later dated.
Early debasement is surely in the basement.
Date: 09/29/06 Title:What is Freedom Without Freedom Within?
    There is a force that I believe motivates most of today's workforce: the weekend. I'm pretty sure that almost all of those who value the weekend, do so for its unlimited possibilities of doing something new, or more importantly, just doing something different. The simple concept of the week (the only one I know) comes with a definite end. Supposedly, the moment that a person is not bound to a set schedule for a while, that person has a more enjoyable time just because of the freedom to choose what to do next. I followed that logic until I tried it out myself. I'd go to my last class on Friday thinking, "Alright. After this, I'll be home free." Unfortunately, I feel no such freedom until after at least 10 minutes, when I get back to my room. This is because I don't feel free until I actually do what I want. Now that I've thought of it, isn't that how freedom really works? Is it freedom if you don't live differently because of it?
    But this active freedom happens every day in smaller amounts. Then I thought that maybe people are less happy during the week because even during their free time, like lunch breaks, people are just thinking of what they will have no choice but to do once the break is over. I am currently different in that sense. I either have a short attention span or a short attention range. That is, either I don't think about one thing for long, or I don't think about things too distant. Either way, I feel the same way when I come out of a class, whether I have two days or one hour before the next one.
Date: 08/14/06 Title:Aura-wareness and Dim-mentions
    Alright. It's been a whole day and my mind is still perusing this dimensional topic.
    I'd say that when discussing something like how attractive someone looks or how annoying something sounds, it's important to identify what kind of space you are using. With these two examples, it's near obvious that one would be talking about a single dimension of space. Though there are several attributes of a person or a sound that each contribute separately, they are all given weights and combined into a single value. By this I mean, there may be a multiple dimensional space used for what kind of attractiveness or annoyance, but when people discuss things like this, they tend to reach a final, single-value answer.
    That's not the point I was trying to make today, though. When dealing with only one dimension of description, as simple as it may be, you should also consider that there are different kinds of one dimensional space. The most recognizable examples that come to mind are magnetic charge and heat. For magnets, charge can be higher or lower than we can imagine, but also anywhere in between. To use this kind of space, you need to be able to say that there are two subjects that have opposite values for the quality discussed. "This is just as annoying as that isn't." I guess that example could use some proper inflection to get the idea across. I'm sorry I don't have any to offer. Now, for heat, every value is on one side of an absolute, a limit. There is a temperature (even if hypothetical) that is the least hot. Likewise, you should discuss qualities like height. "That person is twice as tall as this one." just means that this person is halfway between that person and a person of absolutely no height. This quality is easily recognized by how it never has negative values.
    Okay, I'll try to make this funny next time. Maybe I'll make a tirade about how I've put the number 37 into my life.
Date: 08/14/06 Title:Aura-wareness and Dim-mentions
    I understand that heat can act as an aura when it comes to explaining things like heat vision and wind chill, but what if people could feel more effective (stronger) auras? Would sneaking up behind someone be impossible? Would they be different for every person? Would they be luminous, but outside of our spectrum? I imagine that in practice they would be most similar to very long floating invisible whiskers that are all around people.
    But that's only a nervous system association. If they were a psychic connection sort of thing, auras would be centered at people's brains. I bet that in that case they wouldn't have bounds, but would just be weaker farther away, like electron clouds or magnetic fields.
    That reminds me. Everything that diminishes from a point, like magnetic and gravitational fields, does so at a specific ratio. That is to say, magnitude is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. If we discover something, like a certain type of radiation, that diminishes faster than that ratio, would it prove to you personally (without further proof) that there is another dimension that we don't know about? I think it would be enough proof to me.
Date: 08/01/06 Title: Logic: I could take it nor leave it.
    The way I see it, in English we've got four out of six of the Boolean Operators: or, not, nor, and and. But we use neither nand nor xor. So, with some extra vocabulary, we could easily convey situations we normally wouldn't be prepared for... grammatically. Think about it. Wouldn't life just be simpler with, "I could go to noth Arby's nand Guthrie's." But that's a bad example. It implies that a logical person might choose to go to neither (might choose to not go to either). We all know this is just silly, as Arby's and Guthries are the very foundation of logic itself. I mean, once somebody mentions either place, I'm ineXORably going to go there.
Date: 07/27/06 Title: To each, his zone
    For a few years, I've noticed that I always get the same feeling whenever I am visiting an academic advisor or keeping a doctor's appointment. This is a feeling of relief that is strong enough that I relax even more than when I go to sleep. This situation is so odd that I've tried several times to explain it. Perhaps I am always carrying stress and these are the only people professional enough I trust to give up my stress to temporarily. Perhaps I feel less ready in life until they assure me of a less uncertain future.
    At any rate, a couple of weeks ago, my dad sent me a clip from a very nice song, and we discussed what about that song made it nice. It was through the discussion that I recognized that same relaxing sensation. I feel it every time I hear the 10 seconds of music he sent me.
    Now that I've been paying more attention to it, I've noticed this feeling several times each day at very random times, the significance of which I am unable to explain. I cannot force this feeling. Whenever I think of how much free time I have or how easy my day is, I achieve boredom instead. It actually tends to be that I don't feel based on my future, but on my present. In other words, I will not enjoy the weekend after my last class until I get to do something that makes the weekend fun. For this reason, I guess that maybe I feel this special calm for the exact moment when I am not worrying about anything or when I do nothing because I am content to do so, not just because I have nothing good to do.
Date: 05/30/06 Title: ROFLMOO
    So, there's this expression familiar to those who abbreviate online. Okay... so there are about twenty such expressions, such as LOL, ROFL, FTW, et cetera. I am so immersed in this culture that I know a few people who joke around by using some of these in everyday speech. I've decided to adapt one of these to become my own. I guess this isn't really interesting, but it's just an example of one of those little things I do each day to try to make myself unique. Anyway, The expression ROFL means "Rolling On the Floor Laughing", and it has another form, ROFLMAO. I decided that ROFLMOO, "Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Organs Out" would be appropriate for those especially funny situations. Okay. From now on, I'll start abbreving these posts as well. And I'll stop refering to them. In fact, I don't know why I'm wr
Date: 05/10/06 Title: Today, I found a map
    to a magical land of wonder.. and joy.. and joyness... where the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks. Now that's what I call a landmark! Oh, this is in case you don't know what CANDY MOUNTAIN is.
Date: 05/05/06 Title: A look at me from another direction
    So this morning, I checked my computer to see if anyone had sent me an instant message, as usual. I received a message from one of my close friends, specifically, she who used to be my girlfriend (we broke up a few weeks ago). The message was along the lines of "I miss you." In my usual manner, I made an effort not to take this the wrong way. I responded nonchalantly, questioning how and why she missed me. Knowing that her response was important, I anxiously waited. However, I didn't have to wait long, for after just a couple of seconds, I woke up. I understand that dreams have no affect on or direct connection to conscious lives, but I thought of this as a notable experience worthy of sharing nonetheless.
Date: 04/03/06 Title: continuation from that art one
    ...So far, I've gotten by with complementing art for how it looks like a lot of work was put into it, such as, "oh yeah. Look at that detail!" or, "It totally messes with my mind." If I can't recognize effort in the piece, I just say something like "oh yeah... it looks nice." Of course, I guess I also say that when I'm distracted, so it's not always that bad of an insult.
Date: 03/24/06 Title: Art you glad I didn't say Picasso?
    I occasionally have a hard time talking with people about art, in much the same way as about politics, religion, sports, or which Starburst flavor is the best. It's just too fuzzy of a subject for me to use my logic on it. I try to use just one definition for art that applies to everyone, like that it is "something that can affect someone emotionally" or "things I will never need" but these don't seem to apply all of the time. Or at least, they don't agree with what anybody else says....
Date: 03/21/06 Title: Speech
    I got a lot of practice socializing in high school. How I interacted there pretty much directly evolved into how I act around people here in college. I made many useful discoveries about social interaction, such as the vast difference between writing something and saying it. Even though written word can be saved and used as evidence (in a legal and social sense), spoken word can be so much more personal and meaningful. For this reason, in high school I put enough weight on conversations that I began to plan out possible spoken scenarios like chess moves. I found that not only did this keep me busy in moments of otherwise idle thought, it also prepared me for conversations more than experience would, making me sound quicker on my proverbial feet. At any rate, in that setting I had few touchy subjects and a lighthearted attitude, so spoken words were much more convenient and I never relied on writing notes as the stereotypical early socializer might. Still later, I've found that written words have advantages that occasionally come in handy. For instance, written words can be received at any rate. If the receiver needs to stop to get some coffee, nobody else will care. A written letter expresses an exact message that is unaffected by the emotions of the reader. This, of course, makes it not only perfect at delivering that message, but also very detached from emotion.
    Conveniently, as writing on paper is two dimensional, so is sound. However, sound is so detailed that it's excentricities outnumber that of a written thought by an amazing amount. Each wave of sound, each period of air compression can be defined as a collection of sine waves, but in such a detail to put the shame any written period on earth.
    Although a paper with writing is more solid, sound, as a vibration, can have a much more moving effect on people.
Date: 03/17/06 Title: How I make friends
    I shouldn't really use an active transitive verb for what leads to my having friends. That is, I take a lazy approach to making friends. I just act as "charming" as I naturally can, then anyone who likes my personality starts to hang around me. If I don't like that person's personality, I tend to act more distant to that person. This might be an unfair method of friend making because I don't tell people if I like them, but I'm way too lazy and I'm a bad judge of character to look for people whom I want to get to know better.
Date: 03/16/06 Title: Recycling my thoughts of aggrivation
    Sooo... There's this recycling bin in the basement of the place where I live. It recycles aluminum cans and donates to this one organization. Hanging over this big box that takes the cans is a little plastic bag that collects aluminum can tops for this other charity. I hear that donating can tops can be cost effective because the material in the can top is more expensive. That is, the can tops have a higher specific cost ($/kg). So, it really bothers me that people take the can tops off of the cans in the box and put them in the bag. I really think the first organization deserves those can tops about 30 times as much as the other organization... but maybe that's just me.
Date: 03/14/06 Title: Out of the crackpot and into the fire
    Live every day like you are on fire. Then, when the day comes when you are actually on fire, you will be ready. And other people will hardly notice the difference.
Date: 01/06/06 Title: Probability
    Okay. Here's the deal. I like math / logic / numbers because they are pure and I can almost always use them to give a straight answer. I recently decided that I would be much happier if I could use probability and ratios to answer any and all yes / no questions. I said to myslef, I said, "Hey, Self. 'Yes' and 'no' are such certanties. Why not be more precise / annoying by replacing words with numbers?" So I did. I decided that I could avoid extremes by scaling every answer from 0 to 10, 0 to 100, or even 0 to 1. Unfortunately, I don't expect people to enjoy it nearly as much as I will. So, I probably won't do it. I give it's premire about a 19% chance.
Date: 01/05/06 Title: Offense
    I am the eternally offensive and unoffendable. The truth is that I cannot remember the last time I was offended. About 6 months ago, I met some REUs (Research Education Undergrads). One night, I visited them while they were playing a card game. To bridge the conversational void, I mentioned to them that I have a very hard time being offended. So, we spent about two hours seeing if they could do anything or suggest a situation that would offend me. Their creativity must have peaked, because they just kept calling me "worthless" for the rest of the night. My theory was upheld, as I was not offended that night. We also had to agree on a definition for "offend." My current definition is this:
    Offend - To bother someone by giving him/her the impression that you dislike her/him. (not to say that I dislike hermaphrodites or anything of the sort)
    And so, I have recently come to realize (through telling many people this story while analyzing my nature repeatedly) why nobody has been able to offend me. The case is this:
    Now, I first assume that the only people who can offend me are those whom I respect, as otherwise, I would not be bothered at all by what they think of me. Almost every time I've heard one of my friends say something that is possibly offensive (which happens with almost every word we speak to each other) I assume that my friend is making a joke, being sarcastic. In other words, I keep the impression that my friend still likes me. Now, in the rare, hypothetical situation where someone I respect says something to me, and makes it a point to indicate to me that he/she does not like me, I immediately think, "What kind of person goes out of her/his way to tell me that he/she dislikes me?" Fortunately for me, the answer has always been, "A person whom I no longer respect. Yeah, that's who."
    At this point, you might say, "Hey! Idiot! You just bent logic to your advantage by making a loophole!" To which I'd say, "No. It just so happens that being such a big fan of Logic paid off. It's on MY side now!"
        There you have it.
Date: 12/15/05 Title: When I talk about me...
    When I talk about just about anything, I tend to say things with a lack of certainty (like "just about anything" or "tend to say"). I do this not only because I think in terms of probability at all times, but also because I just don't ever want to be wrong. Oh, right there (don't ever) was an example of how I'll use expressions of certainty for purposes of joking... I always do that. I mean, exaggeration may be a million times worse than understatement, but understatement is really only a little bit better. ... where was I... oh, yeah:
    So, self-analysis aside for these words that I am writing now, I tend to act uncertain when someone asks me about my desires or behavior. In fact, I usually just make things up. If it makes sense to me, I don't deny it afterward... and I probably believe it myself. Just keep that in mind when you ask me what I think about sneezing (or anything else along those lines).
Date: 12/14/05 Title: Words.
    Okay. Here's something about me: I have refused to say certain words. In some other words (and a couple of the same ones) I have, so far in my life, avoided using profanity and other traditional curse words. If you do not know me, I know that there is a small probability of you believeing this, and it amuses me.
    I am not offended by these words. In fact, I have become quite familiar with the common profanity since I got to college. I just thought I'd try something like this, and it's worked alright so far. It has been a limit to my vocabulary, but then again, I never slip-up in the presence of certain offendable people... not that I can think of any at the moment. I think I've heard each of my friends say at least one word that I have put on my list-of-avoidance...-of-SCIENCE! I'm really trying not to sound like I think I'm better than my friends.... or anyone.
Date: 12/04/05 Title: Creation
Behold my latest creation: online journals!
Wow, I feel inventy today, as though I am a suppository for unique knowledge.
I am truly a genus.