| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hatrack River Writers Workshop
![]() Grist for the Mill
![]() Random musings. (Page 9)
|
This topic is 42 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 |
next newest topic | next oldest topic |
| Author | Topic: Random musings. |
|
snapper Member |
Post 400! Two-fifths of the way to a grand. May 26th will be the date. That is my prediction. IP: Logged |
|
InarticulateBabbler Member |
Date with whom? IP: Logged |
|
Collin Member |
I ate unsweetened chocolate the other day and I still can't get rid of the nasty taste. IP: Logged |
|
InarticulateBabbler Member |
They only told you it was chocolate!
IP: Logged |
|
Rommel Fenrir Wolf II Member |
man i have forgotten what we were talking about. it hurts my brain to try and remember whats been said before. any way... i think i almost asended last night as i lay in bed awake. it came to me this way, i thought if the WHOLE KNOWN universe was compressed to the size of a football stadioum what would we be? how big would that make us? what would our whole existance be but a insiginigant minute nothingness with size less than that than the spaces between subatomic particals. and at that moment i looked i was floting above my body and was asending through my sealing. needless to say i freeked out and fell back into my body and jumped out of my bed gripping my .45 Colt drenched in sweet. and no i was not on ANY mind alutering subestences including my sleeping ade and pain pills, or my anti depresents (its the weekend so i dont take them) just thought i would shair my interisting experiance with you all and maybe one of you can asend your human body and know everything, just think of us here from time to time RFW2nd IP: Logged |
|
shimiqua Member |
That was random. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
"Ah, Doctor Watson, I see you have donned your winter underwear." "Astounding, Holmes, however did you deduce that?" "Elementary, my dear Watson, you have forgotten to put on your trousers." IP: Logged |
|
Natej11 Member |
I nearly ascended one night when I was thinking about physics and I realized that time travel is absurd because the very nature of time is different than what people thought. If you view the universe as a constant now which is always changing, then time becomes a function of determining the state of the universe at any point of its change. Example: If a ball is rolling and you were looking at a clock, you would see a different time at every position of the ball, but the only true position is at the time you're observing, the constant now. This means there is no past, except the evidence left behind by the constant change. For the universe as a whole with stars moving away from each other, that evidence is that light from billions of light-years away shows us an image of stars as they were billions of years ago. For humankind in general, there is only the now, and history is simply collective memory of the universe at some earlier state. I got to thinking that that meant our view of the past was probably an evolved mechanism for recording fatal change (ie anything that kills us), which branched complex animals away from living in the constant now (with no recollection of a nonexistent past or the changes that may take place in the future). It's a bit hard to put into words, but the practical gist of it is that if someone wanted to go forward or backward in time, they would have to change the universe around them to the way it was at that moment in the constant now. Which would mean having the type of power to move unimaginable numbers of elements back to the positions and states they were in that past time, as well as having the recording equipment required to know each position and state. Highly improbable. And since quantum theory proves that you cannot view things on a subatomic scale without changing their position or speed, this makes time travel also technically impossible. I don't know, maybe this is even weirder than an OBE (out of body experience) >.<. IP: Logged |
|
snapper Member |
That makes very good sense, Nate, however that supposition is solid only if you believe that our universe is limited to 3 dimensions. If the universe is capable of additional planes of existence, than the ability to slide to and fro outside our 3D existence may be possible. Mathematically, extra dimensions are possible, but clouding your brain around the concept of a tesseract will only give you a headache. Philosophically, time itself is referred to the fourth dimension. The question isn't really if extra dimensions exist but rather is it possible of a 3D creature to be able to navigate a 4D passage? 2 dimensional objects can't exist in our universe (everything has depth), so could we exist in a 4D one? Do we live in one now? At anycase, the answer to those questions are beyond our grasp, at the moment, but they are fun to write about. [This message has been edited by snapper (edited April 13, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Recipe for an ideal marriage: find a partner who think's you're the most wonderful person on the face of the Earth. You must agree. IP: Logged |
|
extrinsic Member |
Observation determines n-dimension. String Theories observe 10, 11, or 26 dimensions in a unified quantum universe. Humans have an ability to indirectly observe time linearly, past time and future time. Memory and history perceive the past, indirect observation. Predictive projections perceive the future through indirect observation. Immediate future perception is crucial to existence. Thought of moving across a space becomes real deed usually more or less as perceived, though largely taken for granted. Without the ability to perceive a bracket of time, humans would live solely in the moment and not be able to track the linearity of time, in other words, not able to exist in the three observable spatial dimensions. Imagine driving a car and not being able to orient it in three dimensions because only the now of three dimensions is directly observable, for example, no stopping because stopping depends on perceiving the immediate future. Pressing a brake pedal results in a car stopping. Lifting a brake pedal results in a car moving. They're not coinciding events. Pencil a thin line on a piece of paper, it's perceived as a line on a two-dimensional plane, though both have at least three observable dimensions. Like the paper, the graphite has observable depth, otherwise it wouldn't leave a visible mark. Tardyon or Bradyon space, the realm of the observed universe, falls between two asymptotes, the boundaries of the velocity of light and theoretical zero velocity of Absolute Zero. The special relativity derived theoretical tachyon realm occurs beyond light speed and has theoretical properties. The less imaginary mass and real energy a tachyon instance has the higher its velocity, approaching infinity as mass and energy approach zero. No one has even suggested let alone explored the theoretical possibilities at the opposite end of the velocity spectrum. Experiments have pushed the technological limits of reaching Absolute Zero, but it appears to be an asymptote. Twice as much effort is needed to halve the temperature from previous efforts; therefore, theoretically, an infinite quantity of effort is needed to achieve Absolute Zero. At Absolute Zero, no known or theoretical instance with dimension or velocity or matter-energy properties, but what if? Say a luton (absoluton) has somewhat similar propeties to a luxon (photon), except it is an imaginary absolute rest instance. Then assuming that the space-time continuum continues beyond absolute zero toward minus infinity instance velocity, there's a whole other realm, say the fractyon realm where minus velocity equals fractal dimensions. |N^(N-1)| when graphed shows interesting possibilities. That's an equation I invented for determining the complexity of a scientific model, where N equals the number of discernible discrete parts. 0 for N = undefined, 1 for N = 1, -1 for N = -1, 2 = 2, 3 = 9, 4 = 64 . . . 25 = 3.552713679^33. There's a continuous infinite nonparabolic curve on the plus side of the Zero asymptote, but fractal points along an inclined slope on the minus side. All these dimensional possibilities might coexist as a divisible but as yet unobserved space-time continuum. If they were at one time in homogenous solution and then precipitated, might there be a big bang? Say a thought caused the precipitation. Let there be light. Fractyon, luton, and absoluton are terms I've coined and claim exclusive rights to. [This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited April 14, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Extrinsic...maybe if you boiled it down to a haiku... IP: Logged |
|
philocinemas Member |
extrinsic, I think I'll stick with string theory, but time travel can easily be explained just using relativity. Natej11, going into the observable future is easy. Every time an astronaut journeys into space, he/she is time traveling. It has been proven. If you put an atomic clock on board the space shuttle and have an atomic clock here on Earth both set precisely the same, there will be a time difference between them when the shuttle returns. Time is relative - Einstein. One minute always feels like one minute no matter how fast you're traveling. However, as one approaches the speed of light, what passes as a minute for the traveler, appears much longer to the observer. Traveling back in time would be more tricky, and I question whether there would be anything there. If you could move anywhere in the universe in a second and had a powerful enough telescope, you could see the Earth anytime in its past. Getting there may be a problem with relativity. Even though you can see it, that still means it happened a long time ago. I believe quantum mechanics solves this problem, but I'm not sure how. IP: Logged |
|
shimiqua Member |
Oh man, don't let math kill this post, like it did my degree. IP: Logged |
|
extrinsic Member |
If there's anything that's not random, it's math, as close to a perfect language as there is. I find mathematical proofs to be works of art. I had struggles with college math, but got through the requirements and then some. IP: Logged |
|
snapper Member |
Not random? Explain pi. Another headscratcher. How about imaginary numbers? Only math could prove the existence of an impossibility. One subject that I was fascinated with was Geometry. Proofs, Theorems, Hypothesis; contemplating shapes without the cumbersome manipulation of numbers was an enlightening experience. I hated the mountain of homework but loved going over those proofs. It was like walking among the Greek scholars of yestermillenia working over those theorems. IP: Logged |
|
Owasm Member |
I only have my lack of mathematical ability to blame for not being elected President of the U.S. Actually, it kept me from applying to dental school. I became an accountant instead. Go figure. IP: Logged |
|
extrinsic Member |
There was this four-foot snake taking its leisure among the canned goods in the cupboard, a Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon. It wasn't the first to come inside. I've encountered dozens in my homes over the years. Once, I came home to find two small males and a mature female engaged in a mating dance on the kitchen floor. I killed the males and left them outside for a hunting Pergrine that perched in a live oak beside the swampy drainage ditches where the snakes live. I've found many shed snake skins around the clothes dryer and the water heater. One of the identifying characteristics of Neroidia is a distinctive double row of wide scales on the underside of its tail. They are often confused with cottonmouths and copperheads because they have similar markings elsewhere. Also over the years, people have brought me Neroidias they've killed because they wanted to show me what they were convinced were cottonmouths or copperheads. Neroidia is a nonpoisonous snake, and a beneficial one. I don't have a mice problem, though I live nearby a field mice haven. Neroidia do bite and have an anticoagulant in their saliva, which makes a bite wound bleed liberally. I've not been bitten by one, but have been bitten by a boa constrictor. The eight-foot boa lost a fang. I got a small bruise on one of my knuckles. A small misunderstanding between a housemate--owner of the boa--the boa, and me. Snakes and I have natural enmities that are apparent to us, but not to others. The boa and I had another encounter involving a third party that's too grisly to relate here. I've also caught rattlers, cottonmouths, and copperheads, but never a coral snake, though I've seen a few in the wild. I don't seek out snakes. For some reason they seek me. My earliest experience with a snake was with a rattler in the mountains of Southern California when I was a young lad of seven years. Grandma was about to take a squat on the snake when I pointed it out to her. We shared a common bond in the way snakes seek us out. The rattler and I had a staring contest while grandma hysterically ran off screaming. The rattler flinched first and slithered off. Snake tastes like gamey catfish. [This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited April 16, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
I had to quit school after college. It was interfering with my education. IP: Logged |
|
Unwritten Member |
I had a wicked nightmare last night. I don't get too many nightmares--in fact I rarely remember more than fleeting wisps of my dreams--but this was a humdinger. Do any of you have nightmares in deep limited third person pov? And do you think this is unique to authors? My husband has nightmares on a regular basis, but he always seems to stay himself in them. At the risk of being psychoanalyzed and declared a total nut, here's my dream: Suddenly I WAS the man, and the whole mansion, including my son, just vanished. I was driving down the road (and it gets Melanie IP: Logged |
|
InarticulateBabbler Member |
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote:
quote: [This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited April 16, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
Kathleen Dalton Woodbury Administrator |
Ahem! We need a Smily for the look that Drabble's father gives him (something like Z( maybe?) In absence of that, perhaps this will do: IP: Logged |
|
satate Member |
I dream in third person occasionally, but I never meet myself in the dream. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Every other month or two, I get something that looks like it might be shaped into an idea I can then shape into a story. The last time was last week. Other than that, they run the gamut. Characters from whatever I'm watching or reading wander through...I revisit (a) old familiar places, or (b) places I'm familiar with but have never seen before...dreams where I'm wallowing in a familiar word that begins with "S"...dreams of being frustrated by this or that, usually at work (but I get enough of that in real life). Not much in the way of nightmares. The last disturbing dream I had---I'd say it was sub-nightmare, though it did wake me up---I was swimming underwater and I had to get to the surface to breathe...only when I reached the surface, instead of bursting through, I found it was a pane of unbreakable glass and I was trapped. IP: Logged |
|
AmieeRock Member |
I don't have many nightmares, but the last one I had, about 4 years ago, was so bad that I was afraid to go to sleep alone for about a year and a half after. The night after I had it, I went to work at the jail, and they sent me home early, at about 2-3 AM. I had to drive some really rural roads to get home and I was terrified the entire way.If my husband was away, I'd stay up all night watching "happy" movies and would always have a large weapon near by. I don't even remember what it was about. Often, I have the same dream several times in a night, only each time I have the dream, I'm a different character in the dream. In these dreams, though, I'm never in them as myself. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Actually there are two familiar words beginning in "S" that I could be wallowing in in my dreams. One happens too often...the other doesn't happen often enough... IP: Logged |
|
Kitti Member |
I tend to dream about what happens next in my current WIP. It's quite annoying because then if I wake up in the middle of the night I have to jump up and write down my dreams before I forget them. And then the cat decides that's the signal to get up for the day and starts yowling for breakfast :-) IP: Logged |
|
Unwritten Member |
My sister thinks that my dream means that I watch Heroes too much. She also says she would never own a bamboo walkway, so my dream will never happen. That's good, since the rest of the dream was so darn realistic, I was getting worried
IP: Logged |
|
satate Member |
The only dream I have on a recurring basis is the one where I lose control of the car and plummet off the side of a mountain with my children in the backseat. I always drive extra careful after that one. IP: Logged |
|
InarticulateBabbler Member |
I've got to say it, satate: Maybe if you drove carefule before the dream, you wouldn't have it. (Drive safe. )
IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
The theory still goes that if you can't remember it, it couldn't have been any good. I suppose this goes for ideas found in dreams, too. IP: Logged |
|
Kitti Member |
So I was out at a pub the other day and came across this sign. Had to share :-) Rules of the Inn NO THIEVES, FAKIRS, ROGUES NO 'SLAP an'TICKLE o'THE WENCHES FLINTLOCKS, CUDGELS, Bed for the Night 1 Shilling 1786 [This message has been edited by Kitti (edited April 20, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
InarticulateBabbler Member |
LOL. Kitti, that's great! Thanks for sharing. IP: Logged |
|
Zero Member |
I had to re-read the bottom because I saw "Stabbing" instead of "Stabling" and thought it was a rather odd service. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Whatever happened to the Archies? IP: Logged |
|
snapper Member |
quote: Archie's freckles faded as did his red hair. It started thining to the point where he was bald at thirty. He realized his first big mistake of signing up To be all you can be the first morning when the drill sergent banged metal garbage can lids together. He did his four years and now hangs out near the VA over by the freeway off ramp with a dirty rag and a free offer to clean your windshield. Jughead learned that a youths metabolism slows down dramatically in your twenties. The thin stick figure double, than tripled his size in ten years. He can be seen on sunny days waddling down the street in a effort to exersize. He walks to the donut shop and back home everyday. Betty took her good looks to hollywood where she became very aggresive at trying to get noticed. You could see her in the background of some of the paparazzi's photos of the secondary stars of the day. Boomhauser of King of the Hill, Moe of The Simpson's, and Mr Garrett of South Park; too name a few. The last time she made the news was the infamous 911 call that Dilbert made in which she ended up in jail. She was last seen waiting tables at a Denny's in Long Beach. Reggie ended up on top and married Veronica (the real reason why Archie enlisted). Veronica was used to a life of letting other people do things for her and let her husband managed her family's vast fortune. Reggie proceeded to invest all the money in a can't miss fortune 500 company: Enron. Things got really touchy in the mansion after that. Matters didn't improve when the Mr and Mrs found their counterparts profile on Asheley Madison. Moose got a scholarship to Nebraska as the football teams left tackle. Prospects were looking up until a NCAA offical happen to peak into his open locker and saw all those vials of steroids. He is currently working in the World Wrestling Alliance as the Masked Maniac. IP: Logged |
|
Natej11 Member |
I just want to know: 1. Why was he always wearing a crown?; and 2. Why do I remind my mom of him? IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
I was thinkin of the musical group. I read various Archie comics all the time, at least lately. (My freckles and red hair are still with me, though the latter is thinner and gray at the edges. I'm told I have a bald spot, though I can't see it from here.) IP: Logged |
|
shimiqua Member |
Speaking of Heroes. So they totally broke the rules when Sylar got stabbed in the head and then survived it. The rules said that is how you kill him, he killed him, and then he healed. That said, I'm glad. Sylar is the best thing on that show. But still. You can't break the rules without an explanation. IP: Logged |
|
Kitti Member |
Really? Sylar drives me crazy sometimes. I was esp. annoyed about how the thing with him and Elle ended. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
It took me a minute to realize you were talking about "Heroes" the TV show...rather obviously, I don't watch it. ***** Ever feel you're having your nose rubbed in some aspect of popular culture you're completely unfamiliar with? I don't mean anything with computers or the Internet or cell phones or whatever...they're always coming up with something new that (sometimes) I fail to catch up with. I mean something that seems to be all over the place but you have no idea what it is. For example: I keep seeing these little white oval stickers on cars...they'll have two or three letters in them...but what are they there for, and what do they mean? That, so far, has eluded me completely... (Sometimes I find it in others. A couple of months ago, my mother denied any knowledge of "rock, paper, scissors," which others in my family found hard to believe...) IP: Logged |
|
CABaize Member |
shimiqua, I'm not so sure they broke the rules with Sylar... I seem to recall them doing the same thing with Peter & Claire in previous seasons. I think the mistake they made was saying "kill" instead of "indefinately incapacitate"... doesn't have quite the same ring to it, I guess. *Edit* Oops... realized after I got home that I hadn't seen the latest episode... you are totally right. Really left me scratching my head. [This message has been edited by CABaize (edited April 21, 2009).] IP: Logged |
|
Kitti Member |
Robert - in a word "TWITTER." Up until a few weeks ago, I didn't have the faintest idea what it was. And before that, I managed to go several months before finally asking someone what a Blog was. The little round stickers have abbreviations of place names in them. OBX is Outer Banks, that's the only one I know for sure. It might even be the origin of them, for all I know IP: Logged |
|
satate Member |
Here is my deep dark secret: I think Spongebob is hilarious and sometimes really well done. Hahahahahaha, I must be going crazy. IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
The airports of this country have three-letter designations---which I had to be familiar with for my job of shipping the mail around the country. But they often don't seem to have anything to do with the actual name or nearby place. JFK in New York is JFK, while LaGuardia is LGA, but Newark is EWR---unless I'm misremembering, which is possible because for the past dozen years I've dealt with incoming mail, and the letters are for outgoing mail. Some of the little round stickers don't seem to match up with anything I'm familiar with. I wouldn't have picked "OBX" for Outer Banks, for instance... ***** "Spongebob" seemed to me to be one of those "we know we're in a cartoon so we don't have to behave like real people" cartoons. I don't mind breaking the fourth wall but I do mind cartoons with characters that behave in this way. IP: Logged |
|
Unwritten Member |
quote: After publically declaring that I hated the way they were trying to turn Sylar into a good guy, I went and totally bought into it, and I'm still upset at how they pulled the carpet out underneath me. I don't think an author could get away with something like that. And I'm still not sure they did get away with it--at least with me. IP: Logged |
|
snapper Member |
Spongebob is cool, so is Patrick Star. God made cartoons so we would have kids so we can have a good excuse to watch them in are 30's and 40's. IP: Logged |
|
philocinemas Member |
I imagine they are going to explain how Sylar survived fairly soon. IP: Logged |
|
Natej11 Member |
I have for the past several hours been extensively pondering, down to the minutest detail, various means, methods, and models for the improvement of my various writing techniques. Samples taken from past works and present projects thoroughly dissected and reexamined have finally and unequivocally offered the most efficient means by which my prose can be improved. And the means by which this effect can best be achieved is the complete and total eradication of extraneous information and detail, cutting the verbiage down to the sharpest and most concise form. After I realized this I went back and did some major editing. For example, the above paragraph reads much better as four words: Keep it simple, stupid. (seriously though, this is one of my major problems >.< ) IP: Logged |
|
Robert Nowall Member |
Well, the cartoons I like tend to be the ones not embraced by mass culture, the ones whose characters become pop icons---and, coincidentally, these same cartoons also tend to have characters who strike up histrionic poses and talk as if they're speaking for the ages and not to each other. On Nickelodeon, for me, it's "Spongebob" no, "Hey, Arnold!" yes. On the Cartoon Network, it's "Powerpuff Girls," no, "Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy" yes. (Search my name for the depth of my devotion to one other cartoon show in particular.) (A lot of ones I like don't last very long. I miss "Mike, Lu, and Og" to this day.) IP: Logged |
This topic is 42 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 All times are ET (US) | next newest topic | next oldest topic |
![]() |
|
Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com © 2000
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47d