Thursday, December 20, 2007
This story simply broke my heart. A life mindlessly ended at age 7. If those kids go to prison and the inmates find out why, they are quite likely to find what real Mortal Kombat looks like. I don't expect it will be pretty.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
I was educated as an engineer.
In the invulnerability of youth thought that science would explain everything, that man would understand everything. Let's just say I'm a little older now and know my place in the universe a little better.
Last night, my 8 year old son wept the bitter tears of a child whose pet was dying: His tarantula named Krakatoa—Crackers for short—was flipped over on its back and not moving much. I felt the end was near and tried to comfort my son. My daughter, just 3 years older, overheard us talking, and wept as well. They love creatures of all sizes and shapes and see the wonder in them all. To have one that was dear to them in its death throes was painful.
I woke this morning and went to check on Crackers and there in its cage seemed to be a second spider: Crackers had molted. Joy swept the household for the spider that seemed lost but had then seemingly returned from the dead.
My wife quickly found on YouTube a film of a tarantula molting. In two minutes, she found text that described the behavior before and after the molt and so we took the crickets out of the cage and made sure Crackers was left alone.
And so, the children had their miracle.
And I, the engineer, had mine. Frame what the spider had done as an engineering problem: Build a device that uses an exoskeleton, that when it's time to make the device a little bigger, simply shed the outer skeleton and have the new one automatically constructed and ready to go underneath with only a little time spent drying and hardening to be ready for use. Seeing the requirement written out, I would have said it can't be done.
But wait a minute: It gets done all day, everyday, everywhere. Just go outside and look around.
Miracles everywhere.
In the invulnerability of youth thought that science would explain everything, that man would understand everything. Let's just say I'm a little older now and know my place in the universe a little better.
Last night, my 8 year old son wept the bitter tears of a child whose pet was dying: His tarantula named Krakatoa—Crackers for short—was flipped over on its back and not moving much. I felt the end was near and tried to comfort my son. My daughter, just 3 years older, overheard us talking, and wept as well. They love creatures of all sizes and shapes and see the wonder in them all. To have one that was dear to them in its death throes was painful.
I woke this morning and went to check on Crackers and there in its cage seemed to be a second spider: Crackers had molted. Joy swept the household for the spider that seemed lost but had then seemingly returned from the dead.
My wife quickly found on YouTube a film of a tarantula molting. In two minutes, she found text that described the behavior before and after the molt and so we took the crickets out of the cage and made sure Crackers was left alone.
And so, the children had their miracle.
And I, the engineer, had mine. Frame what the spider had done as an engineering problem: Build a device that uses an exoskeleton, that when it's time to make the device a little bigger, simply shed the outer skeleton and have the new one automatically constructed and ready to go underneath with only a little time spent drying and hardening to be ready for use. Seeing the requirement written out, I would have said it can't be done.
But wait a minute: It gets done all day, everyday, everywhere. Just go outside and look around.
Miracles everywhere.
Monday, December 10, 2007
I just finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and I'm not quite sure how to describe my reaction to it: Thoughtful and respectful at the end, distant and skeptical during the read. It's a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and National Book Award winner; I expected to be riveted by a book so acclaimed, but just wasn't.
One personal observation: The sort of utopia described in the book looks, by the eyes of this 49 year old who was young during the aftermath of the if-it-feels-good-do-it 60's, to be fatally flawed. Having seen what most of that nonsense from back then turned into, it's not plausible, in my mind, that the Utopian society described could remotely work. Such things seem based in a liberal naivete that, by 2007, takes on a tone of irresponsibility that is either criminal or laughable.
Having said all of that, I would still recommend the book. It's well-written and one of the classics in its genre. My disagreement with its ideas may not be yours.
One personal observation: The sort of utopia described in the book looks, by the eyes of this 49 year old who was young during the aftermath of the if-it-feels-good-do-it 60's, to be fatally flawed. Having seen what most of that nonsense from back then turned into, it's not plausible, in my mind, that the Utopian society described could remotely work. Such things seem based in a liberal naivete that, by 2007, takes on a tone of irresponsibility that is either criminal or laughable.
Having said all of that, I would still recommend the book. It's well-written and one of the classics in its genre. My disagreement with its ideas may not be yours.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Thoughts get scattered as the morning gets underway, so I better write now.
I'm about 4/5's of the way done with Le Guin's The Dispossessed and I don't quite know what to make of it. It's kept me reading, obviously, but beyond that I don't feel a lot of sympathy for the characters. I expected to have a different reaction to a book that garnered the awards this one did. I'll finish it, but I'm not that excited about it.
Disk 1 of Ken Burn's The War left quite an impression the other night, mostly of the violence man can perpetrate on man and how horrible it is. Relevant to that was an idea mentioned by some of the soldiers interviewed, to wit, that although, as one of them put it, there is no "good" war, there are in fact some necessary wars, and that World War II was one of them.
Another impression was the sheer scope of that war. That dawned on me as I observed that this first disk of a six disk documentary did nothing more than hit the highlights of what it covered. Nothing was discussed in depth because there's just too much of it.
My mind wanders, linkages made from one topic to the next . . .
The first of the Buddhist Ten Great Precepts concerns killing. The Buddhists I'm affiliated with interpret that to mean killing anything. "Thou shalt not kill" is one of the Ten Commandments from the Judeo-Christian family of faiths; it is often interpreted as "that shalt not murder", something a touch different. It's a difficult thing, sometimes, to reconcile these profound teachings with the reality of survival in the face of a regime like, for example, Nazi Germany. Shall we kill to survive? I think Buddhists I know—they regularly pick up cockroaches and gently take them outside, something I've done myself and see the logic in—would shun even this, while the Christians, for the most part would struggle with it, but likely come down on the side of survival. Both faiths clearly struggle hard to come to grips with the idea. Both would clearly rather not be involved in any killing of other people. I imagine it to be a very ugly thing to confront and am thankful I've never had a personal encounter with it. My heart goes out to the soldiers who have.
I'm about 4/5's of the way done with Le Guin's The Dispossessed and I don't quite know what to make of it. It's kept me reading, obviously, but beyond that I don't feel a lot of sympathy for the characters. I expected to have a different reaction to a book that garnered the awards this one did. I'll finish it, but I'm not that excited about it.
Disk 1 of Ken Burn's The War left quite an impression the other night, mostly of the violence man can perpetrate on man and how horrible it is. Relevant to that was an idea mentioned by some of the soldiers interviewed, to wit, that although, as one of them put it, there is no "good" war, there are in fact some necessary wars, and that World War II was one of them.
Another impression was the sheer scope of that war. That dawned on me as I observed that this first disk of a six disk documentary did nothing more than hit the highlights of what it covered. Nothing was discussed in depth because there's just too much of it.
My mind wanders, linkages made from one topic to the next . . .
The first of the Buddhist Ten Great Precepts concerns killing. The Buddhists I'm affiliated with interpret that to mean killing anything. "Thou shalt not kill" is one of the Ten Commandments from the Judeo-Christian family of faiths; it is often interpreted as "that shalt not murder", something a touch different. It's a difficult thing, sometimes, to reconcile these profound teachings with the reality of survival in the face of a regime like, for example, Nazi Germany. Shall we kill to survive? I think Buddhists I know—they regularly pick up cockroaches and gently take them outside, something I've done myself and see the logic in—would shun even this, while the Christians, for the most part would struggle with it, but likely come down on the side of survival. Both faiths clearly struggle hard to come to grips with the idea. Both would clearly rather not be involved in any killing of other people. I imagine it to be a very ugly thing to confront and am thankful I've never had a personal encounter with it. My heart goes out to the soldiers who have.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
MMOG's fascinate me.
I've had an avatar in Entropia Universe for a couple years now and at one time spent perhaps 10 hours a week in there, which is not a lot by a lot of gamer's standards. Now, Entropia is expensive—for most players, around $1 to $1.50 per hour. That, combined with what feels like the impossibility of progressing via the small number of hours I play, plus life outside, has driven me out of it except for the occasional visit to say "hello" to a couple people.
I decided to sign up for a trial of EVE Online a couple days ago, am very impressed, and have the feeling that it will be my new online diversion of choice. It's very complex and will take a while to learn my way around, even at a novice level. Set in space, it's huge, composed of over 5000 solar systems. The biggest question is whether or not a non-hardcore player can feasibly enjoy a game this complex. I think it's possible and that the secret is in the attitude and approach. We'll see.
I've had an avatar in Entropia Universe for a couple years now and at one time spent perhaps 10 hours a week in there, which is not a lot by a lot of gamer's standards. Now, Entropia is expensive—for most players, around $1 to $1.50 per hour. That, combined with what feels like the impossibility of progressing via the small number of hours I play, plus life outside, has driven me out of it except for the occasional visit to say "hello" to a couple people.
I decided to sign up for a trial of EVE Online a couple days ago, am very impressed, and have the feeling that it will be my new online diversion of choice. It's very complex and will take a while to learn my way around, even at a novice level. Set in space, it's huge, composed of over 5000 solar systems. The biggest question is whether or not a non-hardcore player can feasibly enjoy a game this complex. I think it's possible and that the secret is in the attitude and approach. We'll see.
