Experiments with Science Fiction #1

Oh boy, my longest hiatus left. Almost an entire summer! (And Fall) however, I have finally found something more to talk about. Well, more like a story idea. The idea goes that information technology has been perfected. All the data gathered is then sent to one massive super computer that analyzes the data to find patterns in people's behaviors. The super computer, in my idea, is able to predict with a near 100% accuracy the actions of any human being that is connected with the network. The effects of the super computer would be that every PC, smart phone, street camera, database, or any device that can connect to the internet will send data to the super computer, not because it is required by law, but because it is beneficial to the population if they send their data. A side effect or a cause of the super computer is that any one can access their personal computer from anywhere because everything they own is saved and recorded in cyber space or what w would call cloud services. Accessibility to computers is no longer determined by your personal budget but only by the distance of the nearest one and how quickly you can make a personal account. Here is where the logistics can get a little complicated. Following our modern standards, accounts would have membership levels. Free accounts provide all the typical useability like access to word editors and internet browsers, but more expensive applications and disk space would be available only for higher paying users. heres where it gets blurred for me. The subscription could go to the organization that maintains the super computer and its network which would allow users to access the same amount of disk space and provide access to the same applications anywhere but would also make public computers available at public spaces (like airports or community centers) a poor investment for business owners who would have no monetary reason to provide public computers. Personal computers would continue to dominate which I want to try and eliminate that. Personal computer, after all, can often become leaves or single connection nodes in the network web that can be closed off to the super computer or at least hide data. Instead, I want access points. Everyone logs into the supercomputer's network through access points which have replaced personal computers. The difference between access points and personal computers is that access points would not have any disk space of their own, only a built in OS that may access the supercomputer's network. The network would then, in turn, provide the user with applications and their stored data by downloading any necessary files to the access points RAM. This system would eliminate private storage and allow everything to be accessed by the supercomputer. (Note: I plan on replacing the term "super computer" to an anagram that describes an interdependent conglomeration of networks, mass data storage dumps, pattern finding AI's, and public interfaces) full access would enable the supercomputer's omnipotent capabilities. Let me go more in detail with that aspect as I have woefully ignored this main point. The purpose of the supercomputer is primarily to determine the benefits and disadvantages of any decision it is presented by analyzing similar or exact examples from its data dumps, comparing the context, descision, and results of each example, compare the findings to the posed dilemma, and return an output of "yes, do it" or "no, don't do it." the data the supercomputer would sift through would be anything remotely involved in the situation. Say some one asks if they should have a piece of candy at 12:00 exactly. Most would say there is no harm in one piece of candy. However, the supercomputer would do a full analysis of the situation. For example, what bodily harm may come from it? What can happen that can harm you while you're eating it? Will you be walking while eating it? Where will you be walking? If across a street, are there cars that can hit you? Will you notice in time? Can this be avoided by not eating the candy? What about medical harm? What's your medical history? Family medical history? Do you have an addictive personality? Will this piece lead to an addictive personality? Chances of heart attack resulting from the candy? Chance of heart attack that are assisted by the candy but are caused by external factors? Etc etc etc etc. in other words, it can see through the butterfly effect. Using the past data it has accumulated, it is able to determine the rhyme and reasons to anything and everything. This concept is heavily used in a movie called Mr. Nobody in this quote, "I lost the phone number on the card because it got destroyed walking home in the rain. The reason why it was raining was because a Brazilian was boiling an egg. The steam from boiling the egg created a microclimate in his home which expanded and strengthened, traveling north where it had developed into a storm cloud and rained. However, it is still my fault because the Brazilian was unemployed. They were boiling the egg that day because they had no job to go to. They had no job to go to because he was fired from a jean manufacturing plant after they laid off many of their workers. They were laid off because the company was going under. They were going under because not enough people found interest in their jeans. The interest was low because I never bought a pair. I instead bought a cheaper pair which I would have done regardless of the dollar amount in my pocket. Because I didn't buy a pair, a few people did not see the brand and did not in turn buy a pair themselves. Less people then saw the brand, less people bought the brand, and so less people held value in the brand and less people bought the brand." This is the model I'd like to follow. The super computer is able to find every result to any decision, no matter how small. Granted, there will be a limit. The supercomputer will not go on forever, but it will be able to predict the results of everything. Consequently, it also becomes a tool for law enforcement who are notified in advance of potential law breakers, doctors of potential health risks in patients, government in planning their policies, judicial hearings to determine the punishment and present evidence, and common citizens that have trouble deciding in encoding their day to day lives. I must end it here's, however, as this post has gone on long enough. I hope to further develop this later.

Experiments with Fluffy Writing #1: Cars and Country Side

June 18, 2016 was the perfect day to drive through the country side in western Illinois. The sky was bright blue and spotted with clouds. The sun beamed from above shedding light to the country side. The temperature was cozy with a warm summer breeze to blow off the thin layer of perspiration that coated your skin. The day was comfortable but the humidity made it warm. I never check just how humid it was because I never needed to. It was just enough to notice but not to bother, which for my tolerance is a low thresh hold. The day was perfect so I did what many people did on such a day: go out for a drive. That's not to say I enjoy long drives, anything over a few hours makes me anxious and eager to be released to the outside world. I didn't have a deeply root love for the union between man and machine on black top, rather personal understanding with the mechanical beast at my finger prints. It was made to take me where I needed to be and I needed to be somewhere. I do enjoy it, however, when I can fall into the brain dead stasis of highway hypnosis. While many try to fill that time with productivity, I take it for myself. Leave the work and thinking for the destination, the journey is mine. It is mine to feel the wind whipping at my face. It is mine to immerse myself in the beautiful landscape. It is mine to grasp the leather covered wheel at my finger tips. It is mine to listen to the rhythms and harmonies of my music and sing to my hearts content. I love these journeys that allow me these freedoms while I ride alone in my mother's small Honda Civic. I was a mere casual however to those who took the rode for themselves. Those who drove for drivings sake. These were people who came out with their motorbikes, how they chopped through the air, breaking it with their burning engines and blasting pipes. Usually in small groups, they rode together. When a woman was with them, they would either wrap their arms around their man in the back seat or ride with the group, asserting their spot to ride. Their bravado was superseded only by the muscle car, salvaged or maintained, and their predecessors the sports car. The muscle car roared down the road asserting its dominance and reminding the world of a time when gasoline was the least of anyone's concerns. The gleaming beauties pronounced their owners love for them with their polished sides and perfect colors. The sports cars made their presence known by cutting through the air like a chain saw breaking wood. their blasted down the roads, riding low and hard. Each driver pulling out their best ride to show off their money and style. I couldn't blame them. If I had the money, I'd do it too. Alas, I was a casual. Those like me drove because there was somewhere they had to be and drove their simple cars because they either had no reason to show off or couldn't. I saw no problem with that. I was content in that Civic. It was petite, efficient, and private. It had served my family faithfully for years, undertaking thousands of miles for us and not once breaking down. I was happy with it. It was taking me where I needed to go: to my girl. She lived out among farms and small towns deep in central Illinois and I always think of her when I see them. I used to not care for farm lands. I'd see them all the time and felt no sense of wonder or awe. On that trip, however, each glorious view brought beauty to my eye. As I drove through the rolling hills, I'd dip down, my eyes level with the crops such that the green a few yards away was my horizon and endless blue reached out beyond. I'd reach a peak and see the rolling hill quilted over with square farms that were hand stitched with roads, broken by rivers, and speckled with buildings. I would see charming farm houses, proud barns, and gleaming domed silos and elevators that made the rural skyscraper. The view was amazing but not perfect. Not yet. The farms told me I was closer than I had been, but the hills told me I was still too far. She lived on flat lands where wind erosion was required farmers to boarder their farms with tree lines. As she would say in her grand tour of the farms around her, "to your right, you'll see corn fields. To your left, you'll see a tree line covering corn fields." The hills were beautiful but they reminded me that I still had ground to cover and roads to travel.

Experiments with Mythology #2: The Hierarchy/Family Tree

in the last experiment with mythology, I presented my desire to create a mythology with inspirations from other mythologies. One inspiration I took was that of a hierarchy amongst the gods or a family tree. To begin, no gods will be born or conceived but made. Not all supernatural deities are gods, some will be spirits, others will be representatives, and some will just be mortals given immortality from natural death. The "family tree" in this case would be the relationships between creator and created and while some deities will be made from multiple creators, this is meant to show a joint effort in the creation of these deities. With that disclaimer out of the way, I'd like to present to you my current supernatural family tree:

                 Humans<-------------------Elder god--------------------------------------------|

                                                                 |                                                                  |

                                                    |-------------------------------|                                  Possession 

                                          Day                                 Night                                        |

                                                   |                                         |                                    The Great

                                          |----------|                          |----------|                                  Wolf

                                  God   Goddess                  God  Goddess                                |

                                    \/             \/                        \/            \/                                    |

                                      \-----------------------------------------/                                    \/

                                                                      |------------------------------|                  Eternal

                                                             4 Winds                       Hunter/Huntress-->Hunt

                                         |                                        |

              -----------------------------------------             |

              |                   |                 |                |             |

            North         South         East         West          |

                  |                   |                 |                |             |    

     Opportunity      Risk          Past         Future        |

                                                                                  |

                                                                                    Representatives

                                                                                   of Man to Gods

While I'm open to including more to this hierarchy, this is I expect to be the final family tree for the mythology. Notice that only 11 deities are depicted. The tags that are underlines are descriptors and not individual deities. For example, there's no deity called Day that made a god and goddess but an elder god that made a god and goddess of day and also for night. these tags will be explained further in later "Experiments with Mythology." I plan on explaining each of the deities in groups going down the hierarchy starting with the elder god. Also, the list of deities I intend on keeping small. This is for ease of writing so that I don't run in to contradiction with more intricate mythologies. Many ancient mythologies have been around for millennium and thus have most of their deities and concepts worked out. I obviously don't have this kind of freedom and must do with a smaller range of deities. This will also be easier for readers since it will not require much background. For example, the Percy Jackson Series by Rick Roidan, he has a huge range of stories and characters to support his demi-god heroes and has all the fluidity that comes with it. I still expect to have plenty to work with since these deities will have very vague dominions and powers. Overall, I'm very pleased with this family tree and will go into detail each of them (except for humans) in later blog posts.

Class Work: What do I love to do?

What do I love to do?
What do you want to do?
What will you do to reinforce that tomorrow?

I could go on for days about all the things I love to do because there's a lot that I enjoy doing. From music to video games, I could spend a life time on all of them. But, most of them I understand to be hobbies. I loved playing clarinet in high school but I never had the drive to be the best clarinet player in the world. Just good enough to get the solo. With acting, I want to get better and better at every scene and with every turn, I'm always looking for something to do better, but I can see a happy life where I never act again. With computers and programming, I get it, its like second nature to me. Every work and every character makes art on a screen and how good code flows into itself without draw backs or cut offs, but to sit in front of a computer all day hassling over the crap code that just doesn't want to work and hear everyone who doesn't know how to do something and asks everyone else around them to help them, I wouldn't last a day. Then video games. I love playing any game i can get my hands on but only once because after that its gets boring. It becomes static and worthless. two things that i know I will never stop doing though is 1: telling stories and 2: dealing with social drama. I love telling a rich story with intrigue and new surprises. I love getting any story I can if its well told. I love going up to someone and reminiscing about old times but not enough to make a career. With social drama, I couldn't tell you why. when a friend has a problem in their lives and they come to me for advice or just to vent, I get excited. I'm hearing about their problematic lives, figuring out ways to help them uncoil the mess they have, to cut the strings that hold them or bring them back from rock bottom. The idea is beyond fascinating, it's the one thing I'm really truly passionate about. I hate the idea of being a therapist though. Learning every little detail about the human condition and listening to heart wrenching problems from people who are paying me to listen. no thank you.

What do I want to do? I want to write stories. I want to touch peoples hearts with a good story in the theaters, on a page, or by voice. I want to change peoples lives by spreading my ideas in print or video games. if i could tell stores for a living, I's happily do so

What will I do to reinforce this tomorrow? I already have. It's even on my blog. under "Experiments with mythology" and "Experiments with short stories" i'm creating the backgrounds and practicing plots for writing a novel. when or if I will finish, I don't know.

Experiments with Mythology #1: Cosmology

Most if not all creation stories begin with some form of chaos. The Judo-Christian religion begins with darkness that is complemented with light. Ancient Greco-Roman mythology begins with chaos from which Oranous and Gaea were formed: the gods of sky and earth respectively. In the Hindu tradition, the common belief is that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, otherwise known as the Trimurti, are the gods responsible for the creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. Keep noted that I am not as well versed in Hindu mythology and what I am about to say is based off of light research but the Trimurti are often treated as one god or come together as one. In one case they come to earth as Para Brahman, or "Highest Brahman," as the avatar Krishna. Their origins are lost to me however. I was unable to find a tradition that could tell of the creation of formation of the Trimurti with the exception of Brahma who, in some traditions, was believed to be made by Vishnu with the purpose to take the raw materials of the universe he, Vishnu, had created and build the universe. Beyond this, I cannot find a creation story for the other two. I am hoping that a beginning or some explanation can be found but for the time being I must assume that the Trimurti have always existed. However, the Trimurti, while being the most honored gods, are not the ultimate power in the Hindu tradition. That title goes to the Brahman. The Brahman is not a god or any tangible anything. The Brahman is what Hindus believe to be the one true reality, that which never changes but causes all change. The Brahman is the ultimate law of the universe and reality such that all gods follow by Brahman as well. This is not to be confused with Brahma the creator, Brahman is and abstract something that is final and eternal. In a way it's similar to Greco-Roman mythology and its chaos. This is once again a loose parallel and not to be looked into very deeply. Of course the question arises why does this matter? For you, the reader, this doesn't matter at all. For me, I want to write a mythology. I want to create a world made by supernatural powers that is believable but in order to be believable it has to be able to explain itself. Each religion believes the world started in way or another and that the gods influenced this creation or were the cause of it. For this reason I saw the importance of finding one or more gods that are not eternal but all powerful or eternal but not all powerful. i plan to use this mythology in a book or some other story telling but never completely explain the supnatural giving me space, as the writer, to play with some rules. For example, I plan to have no magic in this world, only the powers of the supernatural dieties which can be channeled through physical anchors. When a main character questions this, the answer he receives is "you want me to explain the supernatural. The supernatural is that which cannot be explained. You want me to explain the supernatural," said with all the sarcasm and sass you can picture. In making this mythology I have discovered that I don't have to have all the answers, just enough to make the story work. But why would I need to look into mythology, why not start from scratch one might ask. Because every mythology has parallels to other mythologies. Almost every culture shares stories with similar archetypes or settings. The story of the great flood for example is shared between Abrahamic and Greco-Roman mythologies. The idea of a trinity of creation is shared between the Christian and Hindu religions. In other words, myths share stories. These archetypes seem to be inherent in mankind so it is only appropriate to have these archetypes in my mythology. Granted, I won't be following them verbatim but certainly taking inspiration from them. For example, I will be having two Prometheus inspired characters named the hunter and huntress. The hunter will hunt during the day and either sleep or die when the sun falls below the horizon and the huntress with hunt at night and die or sleep once the sun past the horizon. These two will be eternally joined as beloveds but will only be with each other at duck and dawn or when there is a solar eclipse. Their purpose is to be the representatives of humans to the god. Their goal is to hunt down an immortal wolf who's purpose is to kill the hunter and huntress. Any more details will have to be revealed later.  The essence of what I wanted in this blog post has been stated, the actual mythology will certainly be made in a later post

Class Work: My Research Question

My Topic: Should softer mattresses be provided to Lewis University students?

Why this topic for discovery? - I liked this topic because it is very relevant to me and incredibly local (oh no! now you know where I am!) I figured that I could find a lot of sources on why it matters, inside information from the school, and information in general. Its also very relevant to me because I'm starting to have back pains from our incredibly stiff mattresses


What question do you want to answer? - If softer mattresses will ever be provided, should they be provided, and what would the greater outcomes be?


Why this question? - Because my question has three parts, I feel like it encompasses everything that I want answered and will provide me with plenty to answer as it covers the can we, should we, and will we.


What do you need to learn in order to answer that question? - I need to learn the actual health benefits/problems that come with certain mattresses. Hard vs soft spring mattresses, memory foam, and hybrids.


What kinds of experts do you need to read from? - I need to read from a lot of skeletal experts and physical therapists. I might have to dabble in the work of neurologists on sleep as well. I'd also have to find some information on the budgeting of Lewis University because the money for the mattresses have to come from somewhere. Also, an interview from some one from the Resident Life office or any information from the office would be needed to figure out the logistics of acquiring mattresses.

Experiments with Journaling #1: The Pro's of Shnarffle Berries

Hello my cheering crowd of writing desperate readers! Today, I will not be shoving class work down your throats, instead, it will be on something personal that happened out of no where. That my loyal readers, would be the Shnarffle Berry. No, you have never heard of it, no you cannot find it on Google, and no, it's not supposed to make sense. It's supposed to be weird, random, and nonsensical. Why? Because my friend made it up, that's why. If this answer makes no sense, that's because friendship makes sense. Quoting tumblr, friendship is weird. You find some random other humans around you, think "yes I like these ones", and spend all of your time with them. End tumblr paraphrase. In spending time with them you create a bond that cannot be measure but a bond that you can tell grows stronger or weaker over time. You tell stories with the intention of sharing and not impressing or with the intention of impressing only to be brought down from your high horse with a smile one your face. And you tell jokes that start out tame and clever that slowly become bazaar and almost idiotic. Thus, Shnarffle Berries...and the great food wars, and peach, and special snowflake, and Wisconsin, and "the bear", and all the thousand other inside jokes that would make an ever expanding list. I suppose I am trying to make Shnarffle Berries slang for inside jokes in this sense. A euphemism for strange jokes that ,without context, make no sense. These jokes that are only available to friends that first experienced them. Even other friends couldn't make the same joke because "they just had to be there" for it to make sense. These jokes also make friendships as much as they maintain them. Everyone says that making friends is just about finding people with similar interest and hanging out with them and is said about every kind of human connection, but inside jokes are a great way to actually make new friends. Instead of waiting to find a similar interest or a joke you can both laugh at, you make one. They can't be staged, they can't be forced, they simply happen. This authenticity makes all the difference in a friendship because it's authenticity we crave for in a relationship. We all want something "real" in any kind of relationship and friendships are no different. An inside joke is real. It happened without meaning to. It's something that can laughed at in the future and is seen as a highlight of a relationship. "Shnarffle Berries" is just one of my inside jokes that I share with my friend and one I'd pick again and again.