Mixing-Up the Format

I'm going to try something different today. I'm not sure what it is yet but I'm hoping that if I just keep on typing good things will happen.

Technology has transformed me into a very dependent and useless animal. Within the world of technology and consequently most of society I have some very useful skills but if technology were to suddenly give out and I had to live like people lived even half a century ago I would be in trouble. Obviously I'm relying on technology to not completely give out any time soon. Essentially all of my usefulness to the specialized job market is in computers, which I think is an important area to be knowledgeable in right now, but I can't help but feel like I'm throwing all my eggs into one basket. My knowledge in the basics of simple survival skills are probably not enough to keep me alive on my own in a difficult situation.

Should I be concerned about retaining these older 'animal' skills or do they actually only carry a value prescribed by idealized ideas of human ability. It does seem sad to think that many humans have become part computer simply by the fact that they would not be able to live like they do without technology as it is. I can recognize this, but is my wariness of technology causing me to doubt my investments in skills? Would my life be better if I was confident that I could live in the wild on my own? I doubt it would hurt.

If I think about it rationally I think the skills that are most important to have are those that can provide me with the most happiness. I don't need to be self-sufficient in the wild to be happy, at least as long as I'm not trying to live in the wild. Even so, I think computers have taught me one skill that applies to everything and that is how to teach myself quickly and effectively with the tools I have been given. At least I hope this skill translates into other aspects of life. Maybe I'm in better shape here than I think. Humans can be surprisingly resilient. Writing everything out now actually makes me feel better about it all.

I'm not sure if everything I wrote is completely cohesive or if I included every point that I should have. I could be making the necessary logical links in my head instead of having them occur in writing like they should. I am fired tired so I'm just warning it could be a rant. I had to write something. I should stop defending what I'm writing. I just going to stop writing this post now. This entire paragraph was unnecessary but I'll leave it so my thought process is visible.

Congratulations to the Babies Born Today

They just messed up everything. Way to go babies. It's a leap year. That means we get an extra day this year. That's an extra 24 hours. It really should be a holiday or something. It should be called 'Yourday' and people are encouraged to do what they really want to do, as long as that doesn't involve some violent criminal activity. I think if I could do anything today it would be not to write the exam that I have to write later today. That would be an amazing day.

I had some messed up dreams last night. In one of them I was Mario of the Mario Brothers. I had to infiltrate some enemy base and find important artifacts while simultaneously destroy their surveillance system. The strangest part was probably collecting mushroom power-ups. They were all over the place and I would pick them up often. I was never sure exactly how to make them take effect though. In the game Mario always just bumps into the mushroom and gets powered-up on contact, but this doesn't make so much sense when translated into real life, or at least real life in a dream. They turned out to be inflated plastic/rubber like beach balls. I sometimes tried to eat them but as you can imagine eating that material was disgusting. Sometimes I just popped them and then they worked. It was fun for the most part but at the end I realized that the bad guys would be super pissed when they realized I totally messed up their base and they would probably come after me and attack me while I was at home or something, so I was a bit worried about that.

I also had a dream that I wish I hadn't had. Do you ever get dreams that are just really real and they have a strong impact on you and when you wake up you're still feeling that impact and it changes the way you feel? I had one of those. I'm hoping it wears off quickly.

What did the tree say to the sky?

"I'm sorry that I'm pointing at you. I know it's rude but I'm kind of stuck like this."

In honour of the leap year today I'm going to not draw a picture. I hope that doesn't become a habit.

The catch phrase of the day is "Polar Glow Field". I actually spent several minutes there trying to thinking of something. I think this phrase is appropriate for just about any context.

The Future of Ghosts

I decided a while ago that when I die I want to become a ghost. Today I realized that with technology getting more sophisticated, ghosts will most likely have learned how to use it to some degree. I think when I become a ghost I will haunt computers and probably the internet. I could change wikipedia articles and stuff and edit myself into history. I can't think of a better way to spend my ghost time. I could also play online poker and always win and have the monetary winnings sent to a friend or family member that was still alive. I'd be like an untracable hacker. I doubt virus software could stop me, though it would suck if I got stuck in a firewall or something for eternity.

I was thinking about it the other day, and if I had an animal as a roommate I think I'd go with an octopus. We would both have clearly marked territory, mine dry, the octopus's wet, though the bathroom might cause some conflict. I have read that octopi also like to play, and they express emotion through colours which could be helpful if the octopus didn't like my interior decorating style. I also enjoy seafood so we could share a lot of our food. An octopus would definitely be a great animal roommate.

Today I had an exciting idea. Be warned it is also kind of cruel, but if you like animal fights you will like this. I think I'm going to buy a lobster and put it out on the docks and see if it can survive the seagulls for 15 minutes or so. I'd be very curious to see how the seagulls would approach it. I realized that they would probably just tear it apart so I'm now thinking it might be necessary to design some kind of lobster armour to give the lobster a fair chance. As soon as I figure out how to make this armour I think this event will probably happen. If the lobster makes it through alive I will cast it into the sea and hope that it has a good life there. If people have a problem with any of this idea keep in mind, lobsters are hunted in nature by predators too and were it not for my intervention, this particular lobster would definitely be cooked and eaten by a human. I'm giving this lobster a shot at freedom, just like the gladiators. It would be an event that no one should miss.

There will be no picture today because I am not at home and don't have my tablet. I wasn't sure if I'd have time when I got home, so that's it for today.

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

I had another interesting dream last night, but its logic did not carry over into reality so well this time. It was some kind of gift-giving time, similar to christmas but not christmas, and my brother had given me a pineapple that allowed me to float. I could only move at normal walking speed, but being able to sit down and just float around 6 feet in the air was really cool. I can't remember how I actually rode on the pineapple. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a pineapple when I was using it for floating. I also got to eat the inside of it because the outside was the only part that mattered for floating. My brother had one too and I was complaining to him that he had given me the smallest pineapple. He was getting offended by my suggesting he had intentionally given me a lesser pineapple. The pineapple tasted really good and I wanted more. If only pineapples were that amazing in real life.

I've developed a bit of a napping addiction. I feel like napping everyday. Napping is the best. I feel like napping right now. I napped too much yesterday and then I couldn't fall asleep which was bad because I had to wake up early today.

I felt really good today. I had at least several minutes of being in a state very close to ecstasy. I had just left my biology class to go home. I think I rocked the midterm exam and that felt good. I had also had a coffee which made me feel good. I put on my ipod shuffle and was met first by Of Montreal which made me feel cheerful. Shortly after that The Arcade Fire came on and I just felt amazing. After that I think it was Islands that played and I became convinced that my ipod was reading me or something. I can't say enough good things about my shuffle. It's like my personal radio station without any commercials, annoying DJs, and all the music it plays is stuff that I know I like. Sometimes it gets on a roll with some really awesome tracks and it blows me away. It's like magic.

When I got home I was starving. I made myself a four egg omelet with ground turkey, rice and corn, (leftovers from the night before). It was good. I'd recommend it. Rice omelets are usually pretty hearty.

What did the rice say to the egg?

"You've got so many options! Fantastic."

Today's picture is taken from the flying pineapple idea.
That wasn't really how it worked in my dream, but I liked the image of someone riding on a flying pineapple.

A Way to Reuse a Bad Book

I had a dream that I won a pack of books. I was looking over some of them with a friend and just judging from the cover of one, which featured a knight with a spear and stuff, I could tell that it was probably a poorly written medieval fantasy novel. My friend and I were discussing whether the book was still worth anything because it obviously had some kind of entertainment value even if it wasn't the greatest. Then I woke up and instantly considered highlighting only the words in the book that I wanted to have read. I could rewrite the entire book to be about something else entirely by picking out only the words that I wanted. Then I was wondering if anyone would be able to write a decent book in this way and how many of the original words actually be used and which books would be best to do this to. I thought it was a neat idea at the time and I'm surprised to say that I still do think it sounds cool. Sometimes ideas from dreams that seem so obviously amazing turn out to be complete garbage in the context of reality. I might just have to buy a cheap book and give it a try.

I've decided to discontinue my 'most painful thing of the day'. It is really just whining. And though I love to whine, I think it's a horrible thing to post here.

What did the pencil say to the bird?

"If only you had an opposable digit we could be friends."

MIDI is super exciting. There is so much that it can do that I had never considered before. I won't say any more because it would be boring.

A picture a day is what I say.
I once kicked a wasp nest to see what would happen. I was only stung once.

Apples Vs. Oranges

Which is better? The apple or the orange? There isn't a straight up one or the other answer, as usual it entirely depends on the context. By itself, I would say the orange is superior. Oranges can be sweeter and have a beautiful texture. They are also juicy, something that most apples do not excel in. Now, oranges have several disadvantages. Being juicy makes them much messier to eat than an apple. One can eat an apple without getting sticky fingers, but it is exceedingly difficult to do so with an orange. Oranges also have a peel that generally needs to be removed. This slows down the process of consuming the orange and I know for myself I have gone with apples precisely because I didn't want to have to spend time peeling my fruit before eating it. Lastly, I would argue that oranges don't mix with nearly as many other foods as apples do. Apples can be baked into a pie for example, but I have never heard of an orange pie. In conclusion I would say oranges are the better fruit, but apples beat them simply by their universal accessibility and ease of use.

What did the paper say to the cloth?

"Wow, you can fold in every direction and you don't really get crease marks. That's awesome."

Again that was not a joke. Yesterday's post will explain exactly what was going on there.

Oh, I almost forgot about the picture for today.
I managed to draw a figure and then I couldn't figure out what else to add, so I just went ahead with the titles. It is less interesting to look at but I think it still works. The writing also takes up lots of space which is helpful.

Is it Wrong to Talk About Bathroom Stuff?

I had lunch with some friends today and the topic of poop came up several times in conversation, often by my contributed statements I'm afraid. When lunch was over and we all went our separate ways I realized that I was somewhat embarrassed to have encouraged such a topic of discussion. To be fair, I think I was serious about what I was saying, not just making disgusting poop jokes. But it still seemed inappropriate. I would not be the first person to tell you that I am immature in many ways. I think poop is often very funny. I need to grow up. I wonder though if there is an appropriate context in which several people can discuss poop without it being gross or crude, and not just among doctors or other scientific folk that may work with poop itself. I think there should be. I think there should be safe ground for any topic of discussion and I don't feel like poop, or urine, really has an accepted place in any conversation at this point. Am I right or am I just being immature some more?

I'm happy to say I did not experience anything too painful today. In fact, I had almost no pain. About as little pain as one can get through an average day with I would say. It's almost not worth reporting. I will refrain in the future.

I realized some exciting stuff that I might be able to do with MIDI today to make my music playing setup even better. Skipping all the technical how to stuff, basically I hope to make my drum machine play my keyboard. I'll be able to have two automated instruments that way, leaving me free to play guitar, sing, and occasionally push any other buttons that might be available. I just need to get the proper cable sometime this week.

What did the anchor say to the ocean floor?

"It's nice to finally sit down. I've been hanging all day."

That wasn't a joke, so don't think I have a terrible sense of humour. I just suddenly thought of the question in the form of a joke and decided to write it down quickly, without any idea of what a punchline would be. Then I decided to answer it not in a funny way, but in a realistic way, (realistic if you accept talking anchors and ocean floors). It was an interesting exercise. I think I may try it again tomorrow.

That is all for today.