#37 Being who you are

And knowing who you are - That's more important. It is perhaps the quest of life.

I was watching a documentary about Muslim extremists there the other night. Twas a fair an equitable case, but Dad spotted a few Israeli jibes under the table as it were. No such thing as an unbiased opinion. Facts? Those are just commonly held mass accepted opinions. But at least they're something we can all agree on. The ideas I got from the documentary were that some people, when exposed to circumstances which preclude the establishment of healthy ties, will invariably establish ties that bring the individual no good. These ties spread, and society suffers for it.

The documentary highlighted a caveat of free will, and reminded me of a line I read in a Warhammer book 15 years earlier. 'An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and open'. True enough then that life will present us with individuals who have persuasive language and ideas.

Keep track of your ties that bind. In my case, reading books means I'm less likely to become an Islamic extremist. I'm kidding of course :p

What I mean is a good set of books that you can bolt opinions of your own to will do a better job than a few hours listening to misguided rhetoric. Someone who doesn't know who they are can be easily misled into being someone else for another persons use.

Identity has quantifyable value. It's the currency of the celebrity world.

It is my hope that with the Internet, world peace will become a possibility. There are still language barriers to overcome, but now at least, for the first time, a means of international open dialog exists. With a little know-how and a few button presses, I can get talking to just about anyone else on the planet.

#36 Personal struggles with the vaguries of reality

Now we all know children suffer horrific nightmares. It's been documented. That's just them trying to rationalise existence. Dangerous business altogether.

I've gone back to reading Plato. Nothing has really changed since his day and ours. I did realise something though. The reason you can never be happy where you are, in that happy medium is because your brains wants new stuff. It needs to learn in order to grow. Such is the same with people. We learn to grow, and grow to learn. This is hard, therefore it is worthwhile. It's the routine that really kills you. Like I said before, you are (or sometimes I am) the sum total of collected memories. The old tree falls in the forest again. Only now, there might be a camera in the sky to see it. The most noble of occupations then might be the development of technologies to ease the human burden. It certainly gives cause to the Luddites to complain. Think back to the yesterdays before mobile phones and the internet. Was it easier? Was it happier? Can you remember?

By this merit, the most useful exercise is the development of your memory. Paramount to this is a means of committing things to long term memory. Forgetting the past repeats mistakes in the future. Though because human memory is invariably fallible, we must instead rely on our technologies. Writing and its offshoots. How abhorrent would it be if we found something truly static?

We are living in a most interesting age,
when the word has been freed from it shackling page

#35 Time and Senessence

The worst part of it all is that we only get one go on the carousel in the fairground of life, and when that ends, all we have is what we've left behind for our descendants. Certainly, there is a large set of common human experiences such as health, sickness, love, depression, hunger, thirst, anxiety, bliss and joy, but if it's happening to you, it's different. Sons will forever watch their fathers striding forward less with each passing year. As their own strides stretch, their fathers' wane and shorten.

Seeking of course the beautiful uniqueness in every moment to find its grain of perfection. A fine way to live, since it means stopping to look at the sky and the unique clouds that will never be before or since. So similar though, that they are en masse unremarkable. Such is the nature of a place in time known as the 'present'.

When man first began roaming the earth, he had only 4 directions to choose from. Backwards, forwards, left and right. The same idea applies to early video games. Eventually, man learned how to soar like the birds. 2 more directions were put within his grasp.

The directions of time have yet to be conquered. If something can happen, no matter how unlikely it is, it will eventually happen somewhere. Man has crafted devices and machines to conquer the skies and see where eyes could not. So indeed it will be time, someday, for time to be but another direction. Like any of the other 4 directions however, it too will have its limits. How far can you run or walk before you fall over? How long do you have left to get as far as you can? Why bother if indeed the end will come and only your memories will persist to evidence your existence?

Simply perhaps, because the alternatives are unacceptable. We live for our ancestors for our children. All things said are intrinsically, intuitively known, though their mention is not perhaps a waste of time as many would see it. Technology and its advancement is our legacy. To what end we cannot know.

If I break my computer I can fix it using my spare. This is not the case with Planet Earth - our sum total of absolutely everything. We must be as who we best are for others, and they for us.

#34 Video Games

Hopefully, Warcraft will arrive on Monday. I like that game. Eve online though, it's not as much fun. I mean I play it and all but they've disabled inactive accounts from training skills. Can't blame them really.

The real trick will be getting through to the atheists on WoW. Those guys are nuts!

#33 2009. Start.

2009. Off we go then.

I have a DS now. It's really quite great. Tonight will be very cold. It is winter. Almost colder than Tipperary.

So it appears I write but do not change. Time will do its part. Musing thusfar has not best served me. Dating needs to begin. I'm falling behind.

Now what? Or more politely, what's next? 1 thing at a time. Sneak up on it. Prove me wrong. Enable undo.