Article: "Without String, There is Chaos"

(For the title reference, read previous post.)

"Why is it that once we become adults, we become so serious all the time (generally speaking). We get so caught up in the hectic race of everyday life that we forget that we are here to experience joy, to experience Life. We forget to smile and enjoy the beauty of the present moment. I notice that I fall into the many demands of my life story. Recently, I have gotten so busy that a week can pass without realizing. I don’t get the chance to slow down once to reflect and to be present. I seem to fall into the pattern of constantly living in the future, running after that next goal or achieving that next task on my never-ending list of Todos."

Click here to read the entire article.

Entry: It's OUR turn

Source: http://xkcd.com/150/

"Because we're grown-ups now. And it's our turn to decide what that means."

To me, that is an exceptionally profound statement. I've noticed that the author of the xkcd webcomic has an unbelievable knack for plucking those odd strings in my head that seem to serve no other purpose than to make me want to climb tall buildings and, in my loudest voice, ask the world what is wrong with it.

There's an old saying...."Without string, there is chaos". I've heard several different interpretations of that adage and also several different theories regarding the source. Here's what it means to me...

String represents the simple, unambiguous, and selfless joys that are brought to us as children. Many an adult would just as soon step on a butterfly than to take the time to crouch down and spend the requisite thirty minutes required to stare at the creature in utter curiosity and amazement. It seems like age brings with it the indefatigable erosion of that little piece of us that only needs the slightest catalyst to launch a full-scale assault of the human imagination. The chaos I speak of are the multitudes of people out there who simply aren't "interested" unless life is brought to them in digital, high-def, 128-bit, 3-D, Dolby surround sound. To those people, I can only say this: go look up at the clear night sky sometime.

I had more to say on this topic but I can't remember what it was. :)

Image: So true....so true!!

As much as I dislike putting profanity in my posts, the insert below had to be posted and would have lost 75% of it's potency had it been censored. I really must admit that whomever came up with the idea of paper beating rock should be forced to spend eternity chasing an ant around a Moebius Strip.

Entry: Today's quote

"Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris."

Source: http://www.xkcd.com/319/

Picture: When taking pictures, a flash can make all the difference

One of the things that I hate about digital photography is the amount of attention one has to pay to the shutter (sp?) speed of the camera in question. I've noticed that pictures often come out blurry when done with enough lighting. For whatever reason, longer exposures are used in such cases. That is why I'm fond of using a flash even when it isn't required. The exposure is synced to the flash and thus rarely ever comes out blurry. Here is one such example of how a flash on a camera can make all the difference.

Picture: No explanation required

Article: The most popular Xmas toys in 1985

Ahhhh. Good ol' nostalgia! This list really brought back some memories! Is it sad that I can remember most of these? Is it sad to remember a time when 99% of all toys had absolutely nothing to do with Japanime or anything Japan-related? Then again...isn't that the year that Nintendo released its first console?

Article: Dude...your wife is such a dog!

Yeah...so this guy in India married a dog. I honestly didn't think that that was legal ANYWHERE! :)

Entry: Pedestrians suck!!

Maybe it's just a Charleston thing, but has anyone else noticed a significant irreverence on the part of pedestrians in today's streets? Now, I don't know what today's whipper snappers were taught growing up, but in my day, it was as simple as this....

"Roads are for cars. Sidewalks and yards are for people. People can be in roads, but not when there are cars there."

Seems simple enough...right? Unfortunately, no. Nowadays, the street is seen simply as an extension of the sidewalk. Vehicles are merely guests on the asphalt and are expected to walk on eggshells so as to not disrupt the local neighborhood basketball game or child playing hop scotch.

I think I'm losing touch with the times. Maybe I should move back to Saudi. :)

Entry: The weekend

I just got back from a walk and my hands are frozen nearly stiff. I've never actually tried to type with frozen hands. It's....difficult. :)

What have I done this weekend? Well....I spent some time re-building an older computer of mine. I've turned it into a dedicated Windows machine (irk!). Just to give you some kind of an idea how much I like Windows, I upgraded this one to XP. Why have I done this? Because I really haven't had a decent machine to play games on in a while. Doom 3 is working like a champ, but FEAR blows chunks (in the shape of superfluous polygons) all over the place. I REALLY must be getting old because I asked for the AGP version of a video card at a local store and they sneered at me and said that it'll be difficult to find a high-end card these days with a little ol' AGP 8x interface. Actually, what's really sad is that my mobo only supports 4x. What's worse, is that the card that I bought hangs the machine if I don't keep it in 2x mode. Woe is me! Actually, this particular card has a pretty nice GPU so the bus between the mobo and the GPU doesn't need to be all that huge. I've been getting my Doom3 1280x1024 in ultra-tight graphics mode groove on. Perhaps I should think about buying a game that was actually released within the last 3 years. :)

That's pretty much been the extent of my weekend. That, napping, and reading. I'm rarely motivated to go out when I have a project to work on. Of course, what sucks is when I work on those projects and forsake all of the REAL stuff that I'd really like to get done. I guess you could cal lit a form of productive procrastination.

On a lighter note, the Fanchers (aka my sister and her family) are now, again, full-time Charleston residents again. Yay!