Monthly Archives: March 2015
There is an old saying about March coming in like a lion (and going out like a lamb). The reverse is also imagined: if it comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion. Weather mythology aside, March does have some significant dates for me.
One is “Vern’s Equal Ox” — a day of rejoicing for Lovers of the Light. Our days will now be longer than our nights. That’s less than two weeks away. The coming Saturday is a doubly special date (especially this year), but more about that another day. Lastly, March contains the birthday of one of the four people I consider life-long best friends.
Trumping it all right now: last night I had my first fully lucid dream!
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27 Comments | tags: dream control, dreaming, dreams, lucid dreaming, March, vernal equinox | posted in Life
Bear with me; I have another get it off my chest rant about how something on the TV machine made me angry. In this case it concerns a show that’s risen quite high on the list of shows I watch: NBC’s Grimm.
I enjoy the show a lot, but I’m really annoyed about one particular aspect. It’s a glaring flaw in an otherwise very appealing show. I understand why the flaw exists, but it concerns something that’s generally bugged me in storytelling for a long time. In the case of Grimm it especially grates; I wish the writers had taken another tack.
The issue concerns keeping secrets from loved ones.
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18 Comments | tags: Batman, Castle (TV series), Galaxy Quest, Ghost Rider, Grimm (TV series), mistaken identity, Nick Burkhardt, secret identity, secrets, Spiderman, Superman, The Man Who Knew Too Little, TNT, wesen, woge | posted in Rant, Sci-Fi Saturday, TV
A whale of a tale.
Somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean swims what is said to be the loneliest whale in the world. He (or she, but here I’m going to assume he) is known as the 52-hertz whale. That designation comes from the sound of his whale song, which has a much higher pitch than any known species fitting his migratory pattern.
His calls were first heard by Woods Hole in 1989 and again in 1990 and 1991. His cries have been detected every season since 2004. His movements (he’s been tracked, but never seen) don’t match blue or fin whales any more than his cries do. One theory is that he was born deaf and never learned to sing like others of his species.
All of which gives me a real affinity for the poor guy!
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17 Comments | tags: blue whale, deafness, fin whale, Heinrich Hertz, hertz, loneliness, ocean, the hum, unexplained sounds, whale cries, whale song, whales, Wiki Walk, Wikipedia, xkcd | posted in Life
My Minnesota Twins played their first spring training game last night. It was an exhibition game against the University of Minnesota. And, wouldn’t you know it, those professional experienced baseball players managed to beat the college kids. That hasn’t been the case for some other teams (the Philadelphia Phillies lost to the University of Tampa Bay last Sunday, for example).
In about three hours the Twins begin Spring Training games for real by hosting the Boston Red Sox (who beat two different college teams in a double-header Tuesday).
To celebrate, I thought I’d share my MLB Parks Tour plan.
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14 Comments | tags: baseball park, baseball season, Boston Red Sox, Major League baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, MLB Ballpark Tour, MLB baseball parks, road trip, Spring Training, Twins 2015, University of Minnesota | posted in Baseball
Once I’ve decided that I like something, I tend to be pretty loyal. That’s even more the case when it comes to people. But hate is very close to love; both are very strong and persistent emotions — they just have opposite polarities. The true opposite of love (or hate) is indifference.
And it does happen that, sometimes a single event that gets on the wrong side of me instantly flips the polarity of my feeling. Sadly, it’s always been from positive to negative. I’ve never had the movie experience of hating and then loving.
Recently two things have flipped my switch, and a third one is tugging at it.
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34 Comments | tags: customer service, delivery pizza, NCIS, NCIS:Los Angeles, NCIS:New Orleans, Papa Johns, pizza, salsa, Target stores | posted in Life, Rant
I don’t know that synchronicity plays any greater role in my life than it does for anyone else. I seem to notice it fairly often, and I love when it happens. It’s generally an illusion; coincidences occur all the time. Sometimes they stand out in a way seems like evidence of greater import or design.
But that is usually a matter of selection bias. Coincidence that impresses us is memorable. Cops, as well as doctors and nurses who work ER shifts, often think the full moon brings out the crazies, but the data doesn’t really support that.
Regardless, synchronicity is fun when it happens.
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5 Comments | tags: Captain Kirk, Colonel Klink, David McCallum, Illya Kuryakin, Leonard Nimoy, Leverage (TV series), Mr. Spock, Napoleon Solo, Robert Vaughn, Star Trek, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Werner Klemperer, William Shatner | posted in TV
As one ventures ’round the ‘web, a topic that arises time and again is the endless debate — or perhaps war might be a better term — between the poles of theism and atheism. I’ve determined, at least as far as my participation elsewhere, to recuse myself from that war. I’ve served my time on both sides, and I’ve pretty much heard it all, said it all, bought many tee-shirts and a couple of souvenir coffee mugs.
So, this isn’t about the war itself, but about a topic that frequently arises as part of that debate: the idea of morality and/or ethics. A sub-question is whether those are different things, but the main question is how we define morality and how we ground that definition.
Here’s my stab at defining the difference along with some ideas about morality.
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56 Comments | tags: absolute morality, agnostic, atheism, consciousness, equality, ethics, Immanuel Kant, intrinsic meaning, moral philosophy, morality, morals, morals and ethics, relative morality, social mores, teleology, The Golden Rule, theism | posted in Religion
Logos con carne 