Perception

You’re brainwashed.

Confused? Insulted? That should be a negative answer for the latter question, not all brainwashing is really bad. But, this is only the first couple lines.

Just to settle your mind. Do you love your family? Your city? Your state? Your country? Your planet? When you answer positively, that is your brainwashing. See, not all bad. These are good things, mostly.

There is definitely bad brainwashing, and that isn’t what I’m talking about today. I’m really not going to talk about brainwashing, as you may guess by the title. It was just a pointed way of showing perspective. And how easily it can toss you in the wrong direction.

For a final thought on brainwashing. You may be thinking right now that loving your favorite football team isn’t brainwashing, you’re just a fan. Keep that thought, then visit it later. In my time on Earth, I have grown to enjoy football. I also enjoy indoor lacrosse. But, only if I’m at the stadium. Other sports, I have to be playing. Too boring otherwise.

Back to the topic. Perspective. Or perception. I’m not going to slice the semantics. Your perception is what creates your reality and gives you a perspective no one else can have. There’s a famous quote about what you perceive is reality, but anyone that understands how the mind works knows how horrible that statement is.

One example I learned from an eye doctor. Yes, I visit your doctors regularly. No, they don’t know any different. They do enjoy my knowledge and ability to speak in their terms. At least, that’s how I’m going to set my perception.

There are actually a couple examples, both are about the same, and both were repeated by an eye doctor. Both involve a pencil. But a pen works fine. Even a stick that’s about the same diameter. No leaves.

Hold the stick at arm’s length. I’m assuming you’re average and have just under two arms. If you have no arms, use your foot, but keep your knee bent. No arms or legs? I’m impressed and confident you’ll figure this out without my poor help.

See the tip of the pencil? That’s what your eye can really focus on. The rest is made up by your brain. You could say mind and be more correct. The brain may be considered the organ and the mind the consciousness. I’m okay with that.

The second example requires a bit of timing and the moon. Using the same pen and distance, hold it up to the moon while it’s on the horizon. See how much bigger the moon is than your stick? Now, wait until the moon is at high noon in the sky. Directly overhead is another way to say that. You’ll notice the moon is the same in comparison to your pencil. But, without said pen, the moon looks so much bigger when it’s on the horizon than it does at high noon. Maybe that’s high midnight for a moon. You choose. You could do that with the sun, but you’d want some eye protection.

These examples also explain why Earth has magicians when the Earth has no magic tapestry. At least, none that I can feel or see. Just a trick of your mind.

This goes much deeper than your vision of course. This affects all of your reality. Motion? Mind. That coworker that’s always playing games? Again, probably your perception. I’ve heard of people that only play games at work and enjoy fruitful employment. Does that really sound reasonable?

As for why your mind tricks you, I do have one plausible answer. That is, aside from the evolutionary necessities of such mind tricks. Gods. Yes, those gods. The same ones that weave the tapestry of the universe and haven’t made a distinct appearance on Earth in quite some time. You may believe they’ve never been here. But, then you’d have to think a dragon created your solar system on their own. I don’t believe that for a season. Dragons are way too lazy and much prefer slumber to planet creation.

I’ll likely dive a little deeper in a theory dealing with gods and creation and evolution, but I will stick all three hypotheses in one place and under a single thought. Evolution says you don’t need to see reality, gods don’t want you to know reality, and gods are just engineers and make many mistakes. I won’t blame you if you don’t understand the two different god definitions I’m using. But, there are two and you’ll have to read another page to see them. Or just think about it.

And, yes, I feel obliged to tell you how bad engineers are. Some are good, but not all and none at first. You see, my time on Earth has created a need to secure money. But, it isn’t quite the same as being guided by a god to smash a certain person, secure their goods, and sell them for coin. I missed that era here. So, I had my mortal find a high salary job that required the least time commitment. Engineer. Should have stuck with doctor. But, then I’d probably have thought that brain surgeons didn’t deserve the moniker much like I’ve experienced how rocket scientists don’t deserve the moniker. They really don’t. Sorry to smash your perception. Well, no, I’m not sorry. So sorry for letting you think I was sorry.

More perception.

The reasons behind not seeing reality are all around you. Read the headlines. What are they hiding? Don’t be too shallow, the headline and the following story are true to a certain perception, which is likely not a reality. The headline itself is usually just a distraction, just as the magician distracts your eyes so you don’t see the ball get tossed over their shoulder. Or up their sleeve.

That’s only an example using a social system. More personally, why would a god hide the fabric from your eyes? Can your brain handle the stimulus? Can your mind handle the meaning? How would you feel if you knew you weren’t going to be remembered? Horrible, depressed? Why live? Maybe you’re seeing the point.

Your perception drives to whatever end you desire. Just keep track of the other perceptions as well. They have much to teach.

This dives a little into critical thinking, which is a topic for another day.

What happens when we die?

What happens when we die? I’m not talking about gods, dragons, and the like. I’m talking about mortals.

Okay, I’ll talk about gods, dragons, and myself first. Gods don’t die. Dragons don’t die. I don’t die. Well, I kinda do, but not really. It’s more of an ascension. I lost my original body, I’m sure that won’t come as a surprise. I won’t say where in my story I lost my body, but it happened and I essentially took the form of a god. Then I wondered the stars. Same as the gods do when they get bored with a planet.

The worst part? I still can’t tell you if the planet I was on was round or flat or Frisbee shaped.

Now, back to mortals, or what you can expect. I don’t know. But, I do know some theories. One is here. I don’t think it’s worth mentioning the thought that you die and your body and whatever made you, well, you just returns to the earth. That’s pretty simple.

No, let’s talk about a few more interesting theories, or hypotheses, or plausibilities. Okay, only one here, I’ll add a few more in time. The one I’d like to discuss today is fairly interesting and fits either religion or the computer world hypotheses.

First, a quick thought on those two life hypotheses. Religion is pretty self-evident. Each religion will teach some kind of end-of-life scenario. The one’s I’m most familiar with say you go to one of two places, depending on how well you live your life. One is happy, one is hot. I’m assuming the happy one isn’t cold.

The computer world hypothesis is a little different. The premise behind this hypothesis is that this reality is really a computer simulation created by another race with such technology. So, you and I are just lines of code in a computer program and living life as prescribed by the larger computer program. Maybe I’ll go into more detail some other day. If my program says I will, anyway.

I’m not too sure what to call this end-of-life hypothesis I’m going to discuss. But, the basic premise is that when you die, you come back to your moment of birth, or whenever a new baby gains their soul.

When does a baby gain a soul? Some people say it takes a few years. Some say it’s before they are born. I’m differentiating between life and soul here, just to keep with the hypothesis overall. Some people say they can look into a person’s eyes and see the soul. The eyes look empty, or just like glass, for a body without a soul. Some people aren’t blessed with a soul. This fits the computer simulation quite well. Those without a soul would be considered a support character that really don’t have their own story or purpose. For the more religious backed, it’s a little less defined. Some would say these are the people capable of untold evil acts, such as experimenting on the civilian population to see how diseases progress. This question is one for thought, and much more than I’ll be putting on your screen at this time.

So, when you die, you just return to your birth. We’ll say that the moment of birth is when your soul goes into your body. That keeps it simple. There are two ways this can play out. One is that you just repeat your life indefinitely. The other says you will repeat this life until you get it right, whatever that definition is. This one sounds like a long-term game. But, losing in this game starts you over at the beginning to try again.

There are several more branches that could be explored from this theory. One is that some people retain some memory from the prior life. These are the people that come up with ideas that seem to come out of nowhere. Is it a feel-good excuse? My life didn’t go very far, so that person that did go far must have remembered something from a previous life. In this type of conversation, that is plausible. But, you should always do the best you can with the life you have.

So, the guy that started that massive website that caught the world’s attention just beat out the guy that did it first in his prior lifetime. Was that why that one really popular website was created, to subvert the one that had long-term success, only to fail when the really big one showed up? Maybe.

What about the people you meet? Your experiences? Think of all the choices you’ve made in your life. Now think how your life would be different if one of those choices was something different. Maybe instead of getting a degree you decided just to work your way up from a minimum wage high school job. Maybe your degreed life was okay, but when you worked your way up you wound up owning the company. Plausible. Maybe one of those frees you from the repeating life. Maybe that wasn’t the change that mattered. Try again for another million years, give or take.

Of course your children will live their own loop. But what happens if you don’t have children in one of your choice-loops? That child no longer has a loop? Is this why some people don’t get a soul? Their parents don’t always have children so a soul isn’t used for them?

The computer simulation hypothesis makes it much easier to discuss that plausibility. Your mission in this life is to fill a certain gap in the overall program. Your choices somehow determine an outcome in what is really the real world. Maybe the overseer of the computer program is trying to recreate life in a world devastated by war and finding out how evolution can be repaired.

Or, maybe the people running our simulation are in a simulation of their own. How deep does that go? Maybe when Earth has the capability to create this simulation, we’ll get some answers. Or the program will reset.

Is Earth the living entity? You may recall that gods would take the form of a planet or planetoid in my world. It is very possible Earth is the living entity and we’re just riding along its life. It will eventually die, and get reborn.

Skyrim is Real

Skyrim is real. Really. So is Mass Effect. And, really, any other game you may play. If they weren’t real, how could you play them? Are their universes real then? Of course.

That’s one perspective. Is it the right perspective? Only time will tell. Maybe. If it wants. It does go well with the virtual reality discussion that states we are all just a simulation in a computer. Will these games, and others, lead to our own simulated reality where the characters believe they are the reality?

Another perspective asks if your dreams are reality, and what you perceive as the time you’re awake is really the dream. Dreams are certainly much more interesting, at least for me. Maybe your dreams are more boring than your awake time. That would be unfortunate, even if you live a glamorous life.

So, what is reality? Perception is the key. You’ve already read how that can be disturbed by your experiences. You perceive your dreams, after all. Does that make them real? How can they not be real? They exist for your, does that make reality? Does your reality differ? That last answer is also easy. Of course.

Everyone has their own reality, as everyone has a unique perspective. There are people that hide this as diversity, which is an insulting class if you’ve ever taken it. This is just a natural conclusion to life in general. No two living creatures will share an identical reality, or experience of reality. But, we definitely share reality. Is this shared part the only reality?

Back to games. Yeah, I named the two games I generally play when time permits. Usually during my daughter’s nap, if I’m not doing the same. So, what reality do games create? Are they real? Any game? Some would say they are only a collection of ones and zeros. A simulated reality. Do the characters know where they are? I wouldn’t argue that they’re sentient. Real and sentient aren’t the same. Just look at your local cart return to see sentient levels.

I would be worried if a character in a game looked out the screen and started interacting. Mildly. It would be interesting for a while. Artificial intelligence in an artificial reality.

One thing I like from Mass Effect is the definitions around artificial intelligence. They reserve that for a mechanical construct running a software code that is self-aware. They use virtual intelligence to describe a computer program that is designed to act intelligent without having any true sentience, or self-awareness. By these definitions, humans have yet to create artificial intelligence, and are just working with a variety of virtual intelligence programs. Is this good or bad? Yes.

If you believe any of the novels, games, or movies that deal with artificial intelligence, you’d think the machines would of course destroy humanity. Self-doubt by its creator? Most likely. But, maybe also a good reflection. Again, look at the cart return for your local stores. Especially ones that contain more than one kind of cart. If the carts even make it back, anyway.

Back to reality. Where are you now? Is this your dream? How interesting would that be? Your dreams are the reality for an entire planet. You wake up to a different reality. Maybe you’re in Skyrim dreaming about this fanciful Earth with weird things like computers and electricity.

Plausible? Maybe not, but without know what reality is, there is no answer that would suffice.

This isn’t meant to provide an answer, just more questions. Enjoy your dreams.

Intelligence?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a question that’s really difficult for some to answer. The more important question is, when did the chicken become a chicken? Or, why are these questions being asked?

There are people that believe only in evolution, and those that believe in intelligent design. Both are correct, of course, it’s just a matter of where you are looking. If you’re only looking at Earth, you may have a different belief. Belief being the key word.

There has been some research that points to certain markers in DNA that look to be placed to create some evolutionary response. Basically, the study said evolutionary change was only available at these certain locations. Were they right or were they biased? This would definitely be a point for the intelligent design aspect.

Let’s add the obvious twist and say intelligent design is the origin of life on Earth. Does this rule out evolution? Definitely not. The current scientific understanding is that DNA is essentially a program that creates an organism. There is some junk that is left over from prior changes and don’t seem to have a profound effect. Some of this in humans can be used to determine lifespan. As the cells replicate, these junk ends become smaller due to failed DNA replication and the person experiences aging. Eventually, the cells run out of junk DNA and other functions begin to properly replicate causing many other ailments. Does this sound intelligent? Or an evolutionary byproduct? Yes.

But, let’s keep digging. These markers, they may have been called something else, but I’m not going to fully quote the paper, may be installed intelligently to direct evolution in the proper direction. They can even be programmed to appear in a sequence such that generation ten doesn’t show the marker, but generation fifty will show the marker after certain other changes have been made. This is quite simple to program in modern Earth computer languages. If someone created DNA as a program, they would also have the key to writing that language efficiently.

Intelligent design always points to the improbability that must have occurred for the very first organism to be created. The spark that actually created life. I’m certain I could win any mega lottery multiple times before throwing a random group of proteins in a sterile puddle created a new life form. But, I’m not done with intelligent design, so let’s play with that path a little more.

Since I brought up computers, what about the simulated reality hypothesis? This is the one that states we’re all in a simulated reality being run by a much more advanced race. Very similar to games you play on your computer that have multiple characters, especially the role playing ones like Skyrim or any of the simulation games. We are thinking our lives are continuous and last a very long time. Maybe our lifetime is only a few hours in the game player’s life. Very much the same as the characters in our own games. They can live their entire life in a very short time of our own. I also play a galaxy simulator game that lets you play as one of many races and your goal is to conquer the galaxy by force or politics. Politics written into the code of a game that was created when a single megabyte of memory was a big deal and garnered bragging rights.

This galactic simulation has seen the creation and destruction of several species in my short time on Earth. Many lifetimes to the characters, a few hours for me. Very much the same if this is just someone else’s game. That bares the question, who created the game player? Would they be recognizable as life to an Earthling? Are they machine, rock, carbon, or some other element that doesn’t exist in our world? Are they also a simulation, and, if so, how many deep is this simulation? Chicken.

That of course would give some credence to the parallel universe theory, but that doesn’t have much to do with evolution or creation of organisms.

Let’s play another note. Aliens, or extra-terrestrials. But, first, a little rabbit hole. Ask anyone if they are religious. Then ask if they believe in extra-terrestrials. A no-no answer is no fun. A yes-no goes down a path. It would be poor to assume all religions say their particular god created the Earth, so make sure this is the case. The god has to have created Earth. If so, ask where their god lived before Earth was created? Not Earth is the only answer, making their god an extra-terrestrial. Not a bad thing, just clarify their understanding. Now, if their god created the entire universe, that would make them extra-universal, which is a different kind of extra-terrestrial. Harmless fun if you ask the question sincerely, annoying if you act like a prick.

I’m going to keep using the word aliens to refer to extra-terrestrials. Easier to type. It is definitely plausible these religions are correct in the origin of Earth and its lifeforms. With enough technology, creating a gravity hole in the middle of a large enough nebula should start the solar system creation, if you go by the latest Earth-based solar system creation hypothesis. This one simply states a cloud of dust begins to form around a core that becomes heavier and heavier. As this core forms, eddies in the cloud begin to form creating other gravity wells to attract more particles. Eventually, the original core becomes massive enough to start nuclear fusion and a star is born. The eddies would then create planets and their moons. Drak-Bar would not approve.

If you have that much technology, creating that primordial soup for life to crawl out of would not be too difficult. You would likely just seed it from other living things in your vicinity. There’s a move like this that starts out with a guy basically giving his own DNA to create life on a planet.

The alien hypothesis allows for religion, intelligent design, and evolution to all coexist quite nicely. But, it doesn’t answer where those aliens came from.

Since I’m not done diving, let’s look back at my world. Drak-Bar created my world. This is a known. My mother and her family tended to that world, and the others created by Drak-Bar and his family. This falls under the same origin story I just mentioned. But, I have asked my mother and father where they came from. Their answer? It doesn’t matter.

Someday, we may find that answer. But, for now, we just get to enjoy the nice gifts that chickens provide us. While asking, what happened to you, Rex?

Restart? When?

Here's an interesting question. If you could restart your life with your current memories, when would you want to start over?

Sounds simple? Maybe not as much as you think. First, you'd probably want to pick a time you can write all those memories down. Quickly. Memory fades, and how fast would it fade at the age you jumped back to? There are some obvious answers, such as the first day of college. First day on your first job. First day of high school. Maybe when you were old enough to know better.

There are several problems, but the first is the continuum of time. As in its forward march. Some would argue time travel is possible, but the reality lies in the difficulty of defining time. The gods have no use for time, and another species may not recognize your definition of time. I'm being nice with the may not part. Most likely, they will laugh. Humans may get the chance to laugh at another race someday. I'm too nice.

I had heard about the Earth obsession with time when I was on Aushlin's ship. I asked him about time travel. I didn't get an answer, more of a sigh with rolling eyes. Maybe a shake of his head. And, before you forget, my memories of Aushlin show him as human. There are some traits that are specifically different than the standard human, but mother has been quite thorough in adjusting my memories. Surely for my benefit.

So, it's safe to say time travel is out. Or is it? Let's not forget about another theory of life and the universe. This being a computer program. In this case, you can have your linear time as Aushlin states (mostly, he has some other definition of time) and time travel as well. The trouble with the time travel in this case is that you'd never know the time was reset to the past. Maybe this simulation has run millions of times. This may be the millionth time I've written these words. I would hope they'd have some variance, but it may just be in different languages.

Here's a rabbit hole. What if the billionaires with all those innovative ideas were the people that retained their memories when time reset? They weren't the original creator, but simply stole the idea from their past life. Mark what's-his-face didn't create Facebook, he just remembered using it before and came out with his idea first instead of the original. The original in the prior timeline, anyway. It's possible it has been created a million times as well. Maybe technology is advancing faster and faster with each reset. Maybe that's the reason for the resets. Roman Empire Facebook anyone?

Since I like rabbit holes, let's jump into another one while we're in this rabbit hole. Contractions. Just a small rabbit hole. Or a footprint. There's one phrase I try to avoid. It's not. I prefer it isn't. Why? Simple. The first sounds more like, it snot. Sound it out. They are the same phonically. Why does this matter? It probably doesn't, but imagine you're looking at a dessert that looks like a bread, but it's not bread. Read that out loud. The dessert is snot bread. But, if someone says it isn't bread, there is no confusion with something that comes out of your nose. Back to the top.

We're in a computer simulation, and you've been given the opportunity to reset the clock to any year you choose and retain your memories as well. This automatically makes the reset happen in your lifetime. And, probably makes you need to be something older than a toddler. What good are all these memories in a brain that can hardly create a sentence? How would you keep those memories intact to guide your life and create the next mega-shopping website? Or mega corporation?

First day on your first job? I'm going to count the one you get that starts your adult life. I know there are some people that advance upward from their high school job and create a lifetime career from there, but I would presume they are quite rare. If you are one of these, you can count that start date and relive some high school. If you're a family farmer, first congratulations and my thanks, and that would also make your first day a bit hard to define. It would also make it difficult to create a good time to restart.

What if there was an accident in your past that took a mother, father, or sibling too young? Too young is a bit hard to define. My current opinion is that one hundred years can be too young. I think Aushlin can sleep for a hundred years (not really, he has a rather normal sleep cycle. He's just had billions of them. At least). Maybe you'd like to prevent that accident and have more time with loved ones. At least, I would hope you could prevent that accident.

There are some other difficulties to contend with. You may have all the memories of your life, but the specific memories of why someone just hired you could be tough to recall. Confusing. School could be the same. How many of your primary school classmates and friends do you remember? I see memories of high school, less than fifty classmates, but very few names. And fewer faces. I'm sure you would sound quite strange if you forgot everyone over the summer.

The other part of that question is what would you change with your second(?) life. Would you climb toward billionaire-ism? Or just comfortably wealthy? Or, would you just try a different path through life to gain more memories and hope for additional resets?

All of these are valid paths to explore. There are movies that explore some of this. Some are a day, some are longer. I'm not sure of any that talk about lifetimes. It may be a nice idea for a television series. I don't know if a single movie could capture the aspects of reliving an entire life. I believe I would choose the first day of college away from home. No one at college knows you anyway. Going back home to your parents could be strange. Do you remember your house? What was going on with the family? Maybe that would be a bad time.

Going back to a few years before you were a teenager. Adults expect children of that age to have strange ideas. My two year old daughter alternates between wanting to be a fire fighter, astronaut, and super hero. If a ten year old said something similar, I would react the same way. If they started writing a journal, I would pay no attention as an adult. Maybe that's a good time.

Would you treat your parents differently? Your family? Did they come across times that you could try to sway? I'm sure most parents aren't going to expect their ten year old to have profound life solutions, but you may be able to give yourself some credit. Show maturity beyond your years.

Here's another question. Say you have children. They're the star of your eyes. Will your children be the same? Do you want the same children, same spouse? Would this be how you set your return time? To make sure you have the same child you love with all your heart? How would you make sure you retain your current spouse, if they are the love of your life?

These answers may be different for those coming from rather difficult histories. But, maybe they would have the ability to change that difficult history to something more positive.

I don't have all the answers, of course. I've only been on this planet since nineteen ninety two. My host is older, of course, but those memories are like movies. They don't have a lot of impact. Almost thirty years. Is that significant?

Is it over, yet?

How did it start? That really doesn't matter. Whatever you read in the history books will tell you that it may have started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Did it? Probably not. Franz Ferdinand probably wasn't even born when it started. It's likely his father wasn't born yet. But, for the sake of today's thought, we'll start here.

Some may already know what I'm talking about, but if you don't know who Franz Ferdinand is, I'll tell a little mind teaser to help you along.

Soldiers from all of America's (in this case, I'm referring to people from the United States of America. They have mostly taken over the name of being an American, even though there are quite a few other states in North America and South America whose citizens can claim to be American. What would a citizen of the United States of America be called otherwise? United States-ien? Eh, we won't solve, or change, any significant problems here. We'll just have fun thinking) wars were gathered in heaven. Starting at the revolutionary war, each soldier speaks about where he's from and which war he fought in. The question is, which war is not mentioned? This is the war that was said to have started, or been sparked by, Franz Ferdinand's assassination.

World War I. For the soldiers fighting in that war, it was called the Great War. It couldn't have been World War I, since it was considered the first and had no predecessor. Directly. It'd be fairly safe to say there were many historical events that eventually led to that war. But, we don't need to delve into those, as that isn't today's thought. The question is, did that war ever really end? Which, naturally, brings into question all its predecessors, however irrelevant they are for this thought.

World War II is said to have started with Nazi Germany invading neighbors in an effort to rebuild what Germany lost in the previous war. As a short reminder, Germany was severely punished and sanctioned for its role in the Great War. Their economy was basically non-existent due to the punishments, and that led to an easy rise for a charismatic leader to take over, no matter what their intentions. And, those intentions don't need to be brought in, either. What's more important is how that first war directly led to his empowerment and eventually the second world war.

That wasn't the only problem, however. Obviously, there were other issues. But, since we're in Europe, let's stay here for a short time. As you may have noticed, there are few pictures on this website. That is intentional. Pictures slow websites down. If I think a picture is going to be memory-holed, I'll create that space for a picture and create a Memory-Hole dropdown (don't look now, it doesn't exist). A simple search on the internet for maps of the world before the World War I versus after World War I will show you some of the topics I'm going to talk to. Briefly.

In Europe, Germany was chopped up almost as much as Austria-Hungary. This allowed Hitler to tell his people he was going to reunite all of Germany as it was before that war. Along with all of his other ideals, some of which were actually very good. They'd been better if they'd been delivered on, instead of what he actually delivered. But, that wasn't the only problem, even though most history is dedicated to what happened in Europe, other parts of the world also suffered.

Look into the Middle East. The before and after here is alarming. Southeast Asia, same thing. Korea didn't exist, it was part of Japan's empire. Vietnam? Non-existent. The Ottomans and Persians ruled the Middle East.

Now, after that war, you get more states created in the Middle East, like Iran, Iraq, Syria, and so on. You still have French Indochina in the southeast where there are now other states.

The history of World War II is fairly well-known, if not complete, by many people alive today. And, the map changed some more. If you want a good place to look at these maps without a search, go here (https://historicalmapchart.net/world-cold-war.html). I purposely linked you to the map starting after World War II. With the slider, you can see how much the map has changed since then. Almost yearly.

Now, we're getting into today's thought. We all know these boundary changes aren't peaceful. There may be a few, but the amount of peace in a border change is written by the victor. And we all know they are always the peaceful type. But, let's not stray.

The creation of many of these states ignored historical boundaries which drew lines in the middle of tribal lands, effectively placing brothers into separate states. And placing enemies, or at least rivals, into the same state and expecting them to get along and have a successful government. This is the center of today's thought.

Take a look at a map from a couple centuries ago. In North America, the United States of America didn't have a state called Texas, although it did have the Missouri Territory, which extended into modern day Montana and included places in Kansas and many other modern central states. The state of Mexico went north near Wyoming and Oregon and east into Texas. Africa looked much different, as did Asia and most of Europe.

Go back further. Much of the world wasn't known to history eight hundred years ago, so there are many blanks in the Americas and Africa and Asia and Australia. But, going here, you can see some familiar shapes and names. Is this where it started? Of course, and before.

As human tribes expanded, they formed certain tribal lands ruled over by a variety of named leaders. Empires grew and shrunk, spreading tribal knowledge as they moved, creating groups of people with common heritages. These would become states of their own, smaller at first, but growing over larger parts of land as history progresses. And, of course, anyone that wasn't part of that particular common heritage was either a rival or an enemy. Or, I guess, sometimes a friend.

As these states grew, the wars became larger. Again. I'm sure the Roman Empire had some fairly large wars, but their history is a bit lacking for overall detail. I guess their computers didn't stand the test of time.

But, then some states gained more power than others and grew their influence. When these large states warred, many of the smaller states suffered the most. The borders they had created were now melted and moved to other locations by these larger states. Now, you have to form a friendship with the person that was trying to kill you yesterday. This could be problematic, and is today.

A quick view of your favorite news will show you the conflicts that match these ancient maps. When you overlay the past onto the present, you can easily pick out these conflicts.

Did World War I end? By treaty, yes. In reality, no. But, it wasn't the first. And, today isn't the last. Until those that tell you to learn from your mistakes do the same, we'll all ride along with these conflicts.

Will the map ever go back to peace? It's easy to say it won't. But, I have a feeling terrestrial maps won't carry as much importance in the near future. Near is highly subjective. It could be tomorrow, or it could be a millennia. Both are near to a god, and to those that sleep that long. I don't know the plans laid out, I just know I'm here. Ready for whatever my mother and Drak-bar have in store. Heck, Aushlin may show up and throw those plans aside as well. Enjoy the ride for today, tomorrow in only an opportunity not a promise.

Intelligence

There's a quote attributed to a famous politician. Most would think this man was too good to be called a politician, so you may call him a founding father if you'd like. But, he stated that a person is intelligent, but people are stupid. I wasn't around to know if he said that or not, but whoever said it was maybe half right.

But, what is intelligence? In engineering school, not the kind that operates a train, civil engineers were the butt of many jokes. Almost all. Why was this? A quick tour of most city streets would give you a clue. But, to the layman, even a civil engineer would be said to be intelligent, even if the preponderance of the evidence points a different direction. To someone on the retarded side of the spectrum, even a layman would be intelligent. And by layman, I mean the average person. Just to be clear. But even the most intelligent pet animal would think someone on the retarded side of the spectrum is intelligent. We could keep going, but I'm sure the image has been planted. If not, have a treat. It's yummy!

Going the other way, even the most intelligent Earthling would barely be able to hold a conversation with a species capable of traversing the stars. I can count at least one of these that is rather quick to bore of Earth science theory. Too elementary. If you ask how the ship he designed works, he will simplify it quite a bit. Not to be nice, just to change the subject. Ask me how I know.

Let's go back to that half right statement. It would be easy enough to say that there are gatherings of people that are able to show signs of intelligence. Mostly those led by rare individual that may make you think the half right is a bit more than half. But, they are countered by the rare group that has intelligence. Now, I will make a clarification, in case you missed it. That quote came from a movie and not a politician or founding father. It was attributed to a founding father for whatever reason. Maybe one of those supposedly intelligent persons thought it would make the quote have more meaning. And, that's the reason it's only half right.

But, those are only demonstrations, and not really what I'm toying with. What is intelligence? And, how do you really measure it?

Out of order, but there are many that believe a simple test can measure intelligence. Is that true? At one time, I was curious about this myself as I was trying to understand humans. So, I dropped some hints to my host that taking these tests would be fun. It was for me, I think he was bored. We started with some of the unofficial tests that could be found in magazines and newspapers. The internet wasn't the same as it is now, so those online things you see didn't exist yet. It was a better era.

The first was a simple twenty question test that was said to measure up to a score of one hundred eighty. That's if you completed all questions successfully. Easy enough. The last question was a bit complex, but solvable by anyone that pays attention in engineering school. Or math. But, that leads down a hole we'll visit later.

The next test was said to be the official entrance exam for a prestigious club for those with high intelligence. Not even the one percenters, but close. Again, rather simple. The puzzles were a little more spatial (why isn't that spacial since it deals with space, even though the latter is a valid alternative spelling?) and less reliant on education.

The third was somewhere in the middle, then a notice came from one of the school groups. They'd pay you to take an official intelligence test. How much? Well, the dollar amount would be misleading, but it was about a week's worth of food. But, this was also when the local fast food hamburger place would sell you four hamburgers for a dollar if you went on the right day. A different day was three cheeseburgers for that same dollar. And, they kept quite well in the refrigerator. Or counter.

That was a waste of trying to get money. The first test was a few minutes. But, we did so well, they wanted us to return for a test that was meant for people with higher intelligence. Okay, two wasted Saturday mornings for a week's worth of food is still not bad. Problem is, after spending less than an hour on that one, they wanted us to return a third time for an even more advanced test. We didn't return. And didn't get paid. Stipulations. Not even a useless number, but maybe a guess that the first test was probably accurate enough. I have my doubts.

Now, the internet is full of these so-called tests. If you enjoy taking tests, they are worth while. If you're trying to measure something, probably not. You'll find you'll get better as time goes on, but are you really gaining intelligence? Depends on your definition, but I would tend to call that education.

So, what is this magical intelligence these tests try to measure? That's a pretty good question. I've seen very intelligent engineers schooled by laymen. Even the most prestigious doctor, who by all counts should be highly intelligent, couldn't hold a candle to someone of average intelligence, but trained in one of the trades. Does that make the doctor or the tradesman more intelligent? They answer is obviously just a simple yes. Could the doctor learn the trade? Possible, but no guarantee. The other direction is unlikely, but plausible.

There's a movie out that shows the downward spiral of society based on reproductive habits of people based on intelligence. The theory provided states that the more intelligent person will think about how much it costs to raise a child, and therefore put off having a child until they have a comfortable income to properly pay for the child. Which leads to intelligent people having fewer, if any, children. Meanwhile, less intelligent people don't think about those consequences and therefore breed much faster.

Now, look at the people you know and the number of children they have. Does this match that trend? Maybe, maybe not. But, I can say that there are very few engineers with more than two children. There are some, but their intelligence is usually in question professionally. What does this do in the movie? Considering the democratic nature of the country in question, it leads to less intelligent people being voted into political office. Keep reading if that sounds familiar. But, you'll have to watch to movie to see their result.

I was pretty confident you'd keep reading. And not for obvious reasons that were stated.

So far, we are lacking a bit of perspective. After all, everyone has a place in a society. Even the degenerates. Or even the less intelligent. These aren't the same in all cases. There are exceptionally smart degenerates, and less intelligent folk that make millions of dollars. So, this really does muddy the what is intelligence question. And, again, I intend to not use quotes. Use your mind and rewrite these sentences as you read them.

Society needs the people that don't perform well on an intelligence test to balance those that do extra well. No one individual can hold the memory of a society. Well, none that you know. Yet.

To be considered intelligent, you only have to outperform the person next to you for the task at hand. In that moment, it doesn't matter if you're frying the best French Fries in the nation while chatting it up with the richest person in the world. That latter is likely learning from the former. In a different situation, or many situations, the tables will turn the other way.

So, what is intelligence? And, how would you measure it?

Reality Revisited

A soap bubble that didn’t pop. Granted, I saw this on a show that really isn’t known to try and debunk these videos. It was hanging in the air unmoving, but there wasn’t any real attempt on the video to touch the bubble or blow on it. The camera moved above and below. The latter is when it popped finally.

Could this video be fake? Absolutely. Was it? I can’t say, but it’s interesting that the video quality is rather poor for a modern cell phone. But, that isn’t what’s important, as usual. It’s the thought it provokes. The showed said it was a glitch in the matrix, which is one of the theories. We’re all living in a simulation. And, sometimes the program goofs up.

It is a nice way to clean up all the videos of paranormal activity. Ghost, shadows, big feet, etc. Just mistakes in the computer program we aren’t really meant to see. But, what if there is some legitimacy to it?

That’s the thought. And, although I’ve thought of this before, let’s add some other items to it as well. The matrix theory, or more appropriately the simulation theory, is basically stating we all live in a simulated world. And we may just be simulations ourselves. Or, some of us are real, and there are several simulated people as well.

The matrix theory gets its name from a movie. In that movie, people were used as energy plants and provided a dream-like existence that was Earth. Most Earth scientists will brush away this theory since the human body really isn’t very efficient at creating energy from the food it takes in. But, of course in a simulation that would be a perfectly reasonable calculation. It removes the solid possibility of humans creating their own matrix inside a matrix.

There are several reasons that could explain why we aren’t in a simulation, but that’s a different thought for a different day.

Now, let’s add a few video game and fiction plot lines to the simulation theory. Maybe these authors have visions outside the simulation into the reality. And, to keep things simple, each human is real outside the simulation. We won’t get into the complexities of interactions that create children and other bonds. That could be taken care of when we sleep in the simulation. After all, it may be the eight-hour rest you get at night is really a few years in the real world. Or, just the opposite. It could even be a one-to-one ratio.

Skyrim doesn’t give a lot of information regarding a simulated world, maybe. But, Mass Effect does. In abundance. I don’t recall when Mass Effect was written, or the concept created, but it was released twelve years after a fifty-thousand-year-old ruin was found near Japan. This ruin looks to be made intelligently and is currently being estimated to be ten thousand years old. And made by natural processes in the ocean. The fifty thousand number was originally attributed to when that area would have been much less wet and more accessible on land. During the most recent ice age. Apparently, civilizations back then burned too many hydrocarbons and caused catastrophic global warming. The ice age did end, after all.

If you don’t know Mass Effect, every fifty thousand years a race of sentient machines would destroy all advanced life in the galaxy. They had performed this task so many times, they didn’t recall the reason, other than it was a way to foster evolution. Primarily of the non-advanced civilizations that were spared. Apparently. The race that created these sentient machines also created the primary technology the species of the galaxy use in everyday life. The technology is actually the title of the game, Mass Effect. It centers around an element, that when given an electrical charge, creates a field that removes the mass from anything within the field, allowing the object to fly any speed. Systems of the galaxy are also tied together using mass relays powered by this element. When a ship approaches, the mass relay will jump them to the connecting relay nearly instantaneously. These are needed even with the mass effect fields allowing for extremely fast travel. The galaxy is quite large. The game goes into a bit more detail, along with some origin stories. But, that premise is enough for this thought.

But, the sentient machines do need a bit more of an introduction. They have an ability to use telepathy on organic beings. The distinction between synthetic and organic is important. The sentient machines are obviously synthetic, as is a race created by one of the organic races. Humans are an organic race. The synthetic race was corrupted by a computer code glitch that made some of them revere the sentient machines as gods.

As you may expect, the premise of the three Mass Effect games is to defeat these sentient machines and prevent the eradication of the advanced organic species in the game. In the end, you end up with four choices. Many reviewers note there are three choices, but obviously they don’t really play the game. The fourth choice is quite obvious. And, if you’re curious, this is relevant to tonight’s thought.

The first choice is to destroy the sentient machines. In doing so, you also destroy all synthetic life and the technology the sentient machines had used to track advanced species, specifically those mass relays that species relied upon for colonization and visiting each other. This ending saves the organic lives but isolates them as well. Not a big deal to a human now, but it’d be like destroying cars, airplanes, ships, and the internet in modern Earth society. At least the one that exists as I write this.

The second choice is to give your character control of the sentient machines. This would provide a way to stop the machines from attacking, and theoretically they would help rebuild what they had destroyed. It would also leave the mass relay technology intact for use. You die in this ending, sacrificing yourself for all other organics.

The third choice gives the option to combine all synthetic and organic life into a new lifeform. A new DNA is created from your sacrifice and that is planted into all living beings, synthetic or organic. This gives the impression of unity for all. Eutopia.

The fourth choice is the one that many ignore, probably because it isn’t spelled out. The first three all have big glowing spheres to run to. This one doesn’t. This is the refusal. This is you, or your character, realizing that each of those options aren’t real and they are under the control of the sentient machines. This last part is given by the telepathic whisper the sentient machines use. They can control organic lifeforms who spend too much time near them. The main character spends a lot of time near these machines, who’s to say he isn’t under their control? In this ending, the main character just walks away, realizing defeat and fostering hope the next cycle is able to stop the sentient machines.

Back to the main thought. Simulation with a Mass Effect twist. You could venture on your own path by inserting another novel or game in place of Mass Effect. It’s definitely worth a thought.

One possibility is that we are actually living in something like the Mass Effect universe. It was written for an Earth in the not-too-distant future. A hundred and sixty years from now, give or take. Take the fifty thousand year old structure I mentioned earlier. Did it always exist? Why the confusion around the age? Part of that confusion is humans have a lot of trouble admitting they were wrong. Especially when it comes to the age of civilization on Earth.

In this environment, UFOs begin to make sense. They really are other races watching Earth progress. As they were in the game. Why would we need to simulate life? That’s a very difficult question to answer, aside from entertainment.

Or escape. Think of those four endings. More specifically, the first three. Could this have all already happened and we’re escaping the reality of what is?

If all synthetics were destroyed and we could no longer visit our friends in the galaxy, escaping to a reality where we can makes a lot of sense. We could even create in-simulation games that give us that opportunity.

If the sentient machines were being controlled, our lives just became very easy. We may need a life simulator. Some may think this is outlandish, but there are games that exist that let you simulate various aspects of life, from farming to mowing lawns to creating cities to creating avatars that live their own lives. Sound familiar?

The combining of synthetic and organic DNA also makes sense. If you are part machine, maybe you dream of having an organic body. Maybe this is why food is really labeled organic. It makes us feel better. This simulation is our synthetic side connecting to a network and playing a rather large co-opt game. Your lifetime in this simulation may really just be a few hours for those controlling us.

Something to think about.

And, one more thing. If we are in a simulation, what happens when we die? There are some possibilities. One is that you just left the game and have to wake up in reality. Whatever that is. Maybe that’s why it’s stated that people dying see a light. Or their life flashes before their eyes. Or ghosts. Maybe ghosts are old simulation programs that weren’t entirely erased when they left the game.

I’m certainly not going to advocate ending your life here to see if it was a simulation. You’d never know if you were the key to the game finalizing.

But, back to reality. Whatever that is.

A Eulogy

I had mentioned a death in my direct Earth-family. There are two reasons I'm not disturbed. At least two, mostly more. First, no contact since I've come to this planet. There are memories here, but they are all old. This is due to the different life choices. One chose upward mobility through hard work, the other, well, didn't. And, there are very few reasons to disown your own mother. Very few. And, when that mother isn't a criminal or drug addict, the reasons get even fewer.

Clarification: I typically like to leave each of these sections alone, typos and grammar errors and all. But, as was reviewing my mind, I realized I had left the above paragraph to stand alone, which it shouldn't.

Are there reasons to abandon your own mother? Likely, but there are few I can think of. Her wanting to kill you would be one. As for actual drug or other illicit activities, they alone would not be a reason. Helping someone in that situation would always be the first step, and several steps before abandonment.

Although I will agree that not everyone can be helped, trying to help should be first. If someone can't be helped, may their treacherous soul release them of its grasp.

End Clarification

So, no, this really isn't a eulogy for anyone specific, and really wouldn't read well if read word for word, but is a general statement for the death of any, whether human or any other item you assign a soul. Or, maybe just someone or something you cherish. At least a little.

There's a joke around, and I'm going to tell it poorly, about a salesman that got lost in the country-side. He finally found a house, and pulled in hoping for some directions. There are three or four jokes that start this way. We'll stick with the pig version. The salesman noticed a large pig missing two legs that had been replaced by wooden pegs. The pig was also well dressed and in a very clean pen.

After the farmer gave the salesman directions, the salesman asked about the pig. The farmer replied how the pig had saved the family when their home caught fire in the middle of the night. The pig also saved the farmer's child when he fell into the creek nearby. The salesman was impressed, and asked if the missing limbs were from those heroic deeds.

The farmer replied the pig was not injured during those deeds, but when a pig is that heroic, you just don't eat him all at once.

The pig in that joke is quite cherished, and would earn a eulogy of sorts. Maybe.

As I eluded to originally, not all humans, or creatures, select the same path through life. Some may even be afflicted with a treacherous soul. If you haven't guessed, I'm going to write this with some religious assumptions and not in the vein of a pure atheist. If you don't believe in souls, the eulogy would be quite different. I may throw something in at the end for the pure atheist. And, someday, I may just explain why I'm using the word pure.

One thing you'll note reading in the papers, it would seem only the good guys die. So and so was a great neighbor, always kept his lawn maintained and kept to himself. Always pleasant to speak with outside when doing chores around the yard. This also sounds like just about any mass murderer. Although lately the mass murderers seem to have quite the history of mental disorders that were left ignored. The latter becoming alarmingly common in the general public for some reason.

Why is it that it's always a good person that dies? For one, it seems it is a taboo to speak ill of the deceased. Good and bad are balanced, but death evens the field. What happens to the treacherous soul? Does it lose its grip and is destroyed, or does it find a new body in the local maternity ward? But, back to the first question. Even a person that had involved themselves in the more criminal-leaning crowds are often described as good, or held up in some light that they shouldn't be dead. Some even start riots for these otherwise criminal elements, stating they shouldn't have died. Even if that same person robbed and beat their elderly neighbor, or sold drugs to their pre-pubescent child, or was being arrested for aggravated assault. Does death cleanse the body of the treacherous soul and leave it pure?

There is much talk of environment shaping a person's life choices. There is definitely some merit. But, it certainly isn't a certainty. There are people that have worked there way out of slums where crime and gangs run rampant. And, there are those that grow up with every advantage but still fall toward the more evil side of the spectrum. But, there will always be balance.

Since good versus bad can be subjective, let's use a more objective measuring tool. Intelligence quotient, or IQ. There are many scales, so we'll talk about the one that places the average person at a score of one hundred. We'll use some assumption, but we'll say that half the people are below that mark, even though that isn't the definition of average. We'll also say those below average are dumb, or evil, and those above are smart, or good. Yes, dumb doesn't really mean evil in the real world. It's just an analogy.

In order to make society better, it is determined that all those that are below average are to be exiled. Or killed. Or just removed and made into a green food substance. Here is now the problem. Your average is no longer one hundred. It may be one hundred twenty five. So, you still have half the people as dumb, and half as smart. Do you keep the killing spree going? You'll wind up by yourself eventually. Or, you just accept that there will be a balance that is always maintained. Good cannot exist without evil. It's all perspective. Not that you've ever heard that before.

Back to the eulogy. You decide when we fell into that rabbit hole. It is said all Men enter the world on equal footing. Helpless, naked, and afraid. There is debate when our soul arrives. Maybe it's already there, but some say it takes time to develop. These two groups are saying the same thing. We don't choose our soul, and it's debatable if our soul chooses us. And some may never receive a soul. We call these people NPCs.

During our path in life, our soul leads, selecting to veer left or right, forward or back. Of the people we meet, who do we keep and who do we shed? Do we help those in need, or ridicule and run? These are questions our soul answers. Whispers in our mind. Silent nudges we can't ignore.

The path we lead gives us a good decision here, and a bad decision there. Do we enjoy the bad and follow it more? These are the choices that guide us. It isn't to say we don't have a choice, but some are easier than others. If we think a loved-one is hurting themselves, we may run to avoid the pain. Turn our back, instead of help. It's much easier to separate yourself from pain than to sacrifice some of your happiness in aide for another. It's a choice the whispers give us. The strong can ignore those whispers, but not always. It's easy to forget the pain when distance and time intervene.

The treacherous soul guides us away from these miseries of helping others. Even a little sacrifice isn't worth the effort when apathy is so easy. Time is so healing.

In death, are these souls judged for the life they lead? Are they who are stuck to remain, to guide another through life's journey? Or are they banished to another realm? We don't know these answers in life, and may not remember to ask in death, when our soul is freed from its Earthly binds. We are not to judge the soul of another, we may comment and inquire, but we leave that judgment to those who can and may. Our task is only to remember, as even the treacherous soul has a brightness within, even if it has lost its way.

For the pure atheist, a eulogy is more of a remembrance than it is an affirmation. For some, whose path was less than fair, the remembrance can be difficult. But, all humans were once innocent and full of hope. If your happiness only takes you to that location in time, enjoy it by all means.

After all, we all follow the laws of time. And the gods have woven the cloth we all follow, whether you believe them or not.

Random Thinking

Normally, I try to keep each day's thoughts to a single topic. Not so today. And, yes, this should have been a few days ago and you should be getting a memory for today. But, two year olds happen.

Each of these really aren't enough to garner their own section, so they are thrown in here. But, some may have more thinking that could warrant an expanded discussion. But, that would be for a later time.

There may be a central theme, amid the chaos. Cars. I like them.

I'm sure I've brought this up before, but you always hear your politicians talk about forcing more efficient cars at you. Buy an electric, anyone can do that. More on that later. But, they don't let any of these cars really work to their most efficient, especially as the city gets larger.

As anyone with any common sense knows, a car is most efficient when moving at a constant speed. It doesn't matter what the fuel source, whether it's gasoline, diesel, or electricity. If you can maintain a steady state of speed, the car will be at its most efficient. Logic and reason would then dictate that, along with the call for more efficient cars, other mandates would go into affect that would allow cars to move slowly. Like synchronized stop lights. I guess you could say they are now, when yours turns green, the next one turns red. Accelerate, decelerate, stop, accelerate, decelerate, stop, etc. No cruise state.

I've seen two times where cities have set up truly synchronized stop lights. And people were more likely to follow the exact speed limit, not five or ten over, just so they would hit the lights at the right time. You stop at one, but the rest on the road will let you travel non-stop. Any city can do this. But, they obviously want you to waste fuel. Why? Easy answer, more taxes. The more liquid fuel you use, the more money they get. This also goes against their push for more efficient cars. And really goes against the push for electric cars.

Personally, if I could truly afford an electric car, I would also purchase a set of solar panels and battery backup for those panels. That electric car would only charge from that solar setup, and would never charge from the existing, sub-standard, electrical grid. Why? The existing electrical grid is grossly under-sized for powering an electric vehicle in every house. I personally like having electricity and air conditioning. Heat is nice, too. I may use natural gas, but the fan is still electric. Maybe I could rig up an natural gas generator.

You may have already caught part of the hypocrisy. If you have an electric car, you won't be paying taxes for liquid fuel. But, most people will be paying for more electricity in their home, which is taxed in some places. Possibly at a higher rate. Maybe lower. Depends on where you are. Or, they'll pay at one of the public charge stations. Those are taxed, too. The free public charging stations? Paid for by your taxes already. Lose-lose-lose. For the consumer, anyway. Unless you buy the solar setup I described, then you only have a one-time tax. That's likely higher than you'd pay on gas taxes.

So, let's figure this out for myself. The solar system for me will cost around thirty thousand dollars, or about three hundred a month to finance. We'll go off the thirty thousand figure. I pay three percent in sales tax, or about nine hundred dollars in tax. Tax on gas here is about twenty two cents per gallon. So, nine hundred dollars is about four thousand one hundred gallons of gas. Or, about eighty thousand miles in my truck. As a note, the state I reside in doesn't tax utilities. I don't know if that's unique, but at least it's a little break.

I was also thinking about this state's governor that keeps preaching on renewable energy. Making the tax payer and utility companies pay for solar and wind farms. Comrade polis is worth over four hundred million dollars. He, himself, could create a rather large solar farm in the state with his hundreds of millions extra. Now, to be fair, he could keep a hundred million so he never has to worry. Does he invest in solar farms? Maybe. Is it a consistent percentage of his worth compared to what he wants the average person to pay. Definitely not. Someone making forty thousand a year is going to struggle with the twenty percent price hike to pay for wind and solar farms. He wouldn't notice if his utility bill doubled. Think about that before you vote for mega-millionaires for public office. They have no clue what living paycheck-to-paycheck feels like.

I had recently pondered whether to buy a mid-seventies car. Specifically, a Buick Regal. Why? My body-owner used to have one, and it seems it was a rather comfortable ride. Something I haven't seen lately in any new car that is of reasonable price. They all tout how well they go around a race track. I'd rather see how well they handle the incredibly poor roads in this state. They are the reason I went from a mid-size sedan to a four wheel drive pickup with an off-road package. It helps, but I should have invested in the Baja-inspired truck.

What my thought for the Regal was what to do about the engine. I have no problem keeping a carburetor tuned, but fuel injection is easier to deal with on a daily driver. The old-timey engine that would likely be in the car would struggle to meet the fuel economy of my modern truck at twenty-plus miles per gallon with either fuel injection or a carburetor. So, what does the fuel injection upgrade cost? About a thousand gallons of gas. There is a dollar component, but this makes more sense. Now, for some assumptions.

I don't have the fuel economy numbers for the Regal in memory, but I do have them for a nineteen eighty eight Crown Victoria with the five point eight liter engine. It had a variable venturi carburetor, which I quickly tossed in the trash. With that, it was able to achieve thirteen miles per gallon. Fifteen with an old carburetor from the sixties. This car would also achieve about twenty miles per gallon on the highway. And rode really nicely. What I'm looking for, basically.

So, we'll use those two numbers as a comparison. Fifteen miles per gallon average for a carburetor, and twenty miles per gallon for fuel injection. It's a highly optimistic comparison, as I have complete doubt that fuel injection would make that much difference on that engine.

To keep this on the side of fuel injection, just because, I'm going to assume fifteen hundred miles per month, or eighteen thousand per year. And four dollar gas. The carburetor would cost about four hundred dollars per month. Fuel injection, three hundred. For a savings of one hundred dollars per month. So, in about four years, the savings would be justified. If fuel injection could really increase mileage by a third. More realistically, the change would be from fifteen to seventeen. And, magically, now it takes eight years. Dwindling returns.

So, how about another option? Modern engine. For the Crown Vic, that's a twenty thousand dollar bill. But, you would realistically upgrade that average fuel mileage to something closer to twenty five. So, ten years. Without a transmission, that would be needed. Add five years.

How about for the Regal? The GM engines run about five thousand less than Ford. So, it'd be a ten year payback with the transmission.

So, what would I do? Probably run the old-tech engine with fuel injection. The latter only for the ease of use for a daily driver. Or, find a car that someone wrecked.

I recently mostly finished up an old pickup. There are still some details to go, but it drives and is mostly finished. Just not polished with all the emblems, headliner, and carpet that I want. But, those are trivial and not worth stopping the enjoyment of driving. Sorry, no pictures. Unless you message me and ask.

But, I have been asked how much does it cost to bring these old vehicles back to life. That depends on how lucky you are, and how talented. Needless to say, that aside from upholstery, I can do anything on a vehicle. If I have the tools. I could probably do upholstery, but I've never tried and really haven't had the interest. This truck? I haven't kept track, but I've been in the lucky category for some parts.

But, in general and with today's prices being August, 2022, expect to pay around five thousand for a classic project car this isn't a scrap heap. This is sad, but expected since the supply is dwindling. And people believe the prices they see on television shows.

Drive train. New is expensive. The engines I mentioned above would be all-modern and much better than anything from the sixties. They don't have the cool factor, but they check all the boxes. So, you'll also want modern drive axles. The engineers for the old ones weren't even dreaming of the power levels in modern engines. Thirty thousand to get it to roll. Easy. If you do it yourself. Add the front suspension for another five thousand. We'll assume brakes were part of this.

Interior. This would be ten to fifteen thousand. Paint? How much do you want to spend, and how much work are you putting in. I honestly painted my truck rather inexpensively, as I did the body smoothing. It would be understandable to farm out the major repairs to a shop, such has replacing rusted section and adding parts to the frame to both hold that modern engine and to handle the amount of power the modern engine produces. Think ten to fifteen thousand here, too. Unless you're lucky.

So, about seventy to eighty thousand. And that won't get you a show car. Or one that would be featured on a car auction like Mecum. Add another fifty percent. Again, it all depends on how much work you want to put into it.

My truck's investment was under fifteen thousand. Total. What is it worth? Probably sixty thousand. Will I sell it? Nope. It'll sit next to my tractor in the barn.

Cities

The city. Metropolitan centers with several entertainment and living options. So they say. I understand the allure to the younger crowd, and some of the older crowd. Although I never did understand the logic of bouncing to music, I could appreciate a good concert. Dancing I understand a little, bouncing, I don't.

Of course there are other things, like restaurants and pubs. One being slightly quieter, and maybe a little less crowded. And I won't forget the sports venues. These I can understand a little better. A little. Yes, sitting at whatever game has its intrigue and can be better than watching on TV, but is it really? That's a personal decision.

And, this isn't about the amenities of whatever your favorite city is. Not really. Small towns have pubs, restaurants, bounce clubs, and sports complexes. They're just smaller. And, if the town is small enough, you may know everyone there. That can be good or bad, but it doesn't matter.

What does matter? Why haven't humans learned from the city mistake? You may ask what mistake I'm talking about, and I'm only going to touch on a couple, or few. I'm sure I can write more, but I'll stick with a more standard length and see where we wind up.

First, you may ask about the towns and cities in my world. We had a variety, as you would expect. Elysha's town was maybe a hundred or so before I built my castle. After? Add a zero or two. The largest cities were no where near as large as Earth cities, but may have had a few hundred thousand. I haven't talked about these as of this time, but I also didn't visit them very often. As for my mother's temples, the eastern was in a town of maybe twenty thousand, while the west was less than a hundred. And, that would be living beings, not shades or other ethereal creatures that roamed my world.

Cities are a mecca for politicians. And wizards. That should be enough to make people shy away, but it isn't. If you want to ask which is worse, I would only say wizards due to the magic aspect. Neither will help those that really need help, unless they see some way to benefit. And, sadly, neither will bat an eye at collateral damage from their decisions. Whatever that damage may be. You may think wizards would be more likely to injure people, but is taking away someone's livelihood any different?

I doubt anyone here really likes politicians, so there really isn't much point in drawing that out any further. But, let's stick in the political/religious realm with global warming. Or climate change. Or ice age cometh. Whichever the spout is drooling at the time. There is one reality with cities, especially as they are designed on Earth. They create heat islands. This is very apparent if you travel between a city and the rural areas. I've done this in a couple countries, and it's the same. The large city is much warmer day or night. As an example, one city I visited would routinely reach one hundred degrees in the day time, and barely drop into the eighties at night. A much smaller town about thirty miles away? Barely into the nineties during the day and into the low seventies at night. The smaller town holds a couple hundred thousand people in this case, but it is much less of a concrete jungle and is more built into the jungle.

Even that town could allow more of the natural plant life to invade its borders and I'm sure it would cool the area down even more. But, allowing the natural cover into the large city's border would produce a much larger benefit. I would say allowing people to spread out more would help, but this particular country already has a problem with too many people in a small space.

The United States doesn't have that issue, but they are working to cram more people into cities. Electric cars are one way. These are "great" for people in the city, as they use less energy when idling and driving slow than liquid fuel cars. But, they don't have the range to really service the rural population. One example. I'm currently about three hundred miles from my Earth-family. For my liquid fueled vehicle, that is about a four hour trip. Even if it didn't have a seven hundred mile range, refueling takes only about ten minutes. If I start the timer when I leave the highway in search for a gas station.

For an electric vehicle, I would have to stop and charge the battery on the way. Yes, there are some with ranges that exceed three hundred miles. But, not while keeping the occupants comfortable at a cruising speed of seventy-five miles an hour while carrying a few hundred pounds of cargo. My four hour trip now turns into a six or seven hour ordeal. How likely would I be to visit for a three day weekend? Less likely is the answer. I also tow from here to there to here from time to time. I think I've mentioned the horrid fuel mileage when I do this. But, my range is still well over three hundred miles. Though not four hundred. But, again, for ten minutes of inconvenience I again have that three hundred plus mile range.

Have you seen the range for electric vehicles when towing? I'm complaining because my liquid-fuel vehicle's range is cut in half. Electric is a third or quarter. And not when towing what I tow. Now, I'm stopping every eighty miles to charge. Three stops. Times three hours. That would literally be an all day trip to go one direction. I recently made a two-way trip. The sun was up the whole time. I left after breakfast, and was back for dinner.

Not going to happen with your electric, so just stay in your city where you're safe. And that's the underlying message with electric cars.

Safety. Let's say I'm going to drop you off with only the clothes on your back in either a large city or a small, rural town of a few hundred people. You're not there to get a job, you're there to find your way back to your house. I'm going to also put a few hundred dollars, cash, in your pocket. No phone. I will grant you the assumption that people in general are well intentioned and will be helpful. But, that isn't the one percent that isn't well intentioned and helpful. In a rural town, there will always be the jackass. And it's unlikely you'll run into that person. But, one percent of a city's population grants you many jackasses. And they tend to congregate where I'm dropping you off. In the middle. Where would you rather be?

Recently, and, to some, currently, Earth is in the middle of a pandemic. The fauci virus. Some call it the wuhan virus, or the china virus. Most call it by the disease it creates or by the general family the virus is in. That family also includes viruses that cause the common cold and flu. One of the anti-rural stats used was based on the percentage of people in a county that were infected. They wouldn't use percentage of course, as the numbers would have been too small, but the number they used was based on that calculation.

Now, when I say the statistic is anti-rural, I'll use a little example. Let's have a town of five hundred and a city of a million. In the town of five hundred, a family is infected by the fauci virus. There are five of them. One in a hundred, or one percent. I believe the infection rate statistic they'd use would have been a hundred, which they say is really, really bad. Anything over ten means the sky is falling. One family has the fauci virus. Now, let's say a business has an outbreak. A thousand people. Much less than that one percent, and there's the ten in the numbers they used.

Which is worse? A single family of five, or a thousand people at one business? The family can stay home, and since they live in a rural town, their neighbors will bring them whatever supplies they need while they're home. The business? That's where the fauci virus spreads. That company would have to shut down for a few weeks before people could recover. If it's a mom-and-pop shop, they're likely out of business now. Even a big franchise would have trouble surviving that issue.

So, why would you want to be in a city when the next virus is let go from a lab somewhere in the world? Didn't you learn? Cities are where viruses and other contagions thrive. Especially in apartment buildings that use common air in their HVAC systems. One person gets sick, and since everyone in the building had to stay home, they all got sick.

There is the argument that the good-paying jobs are in and around cities. And, I agree. To a point. In my area, an acre of land with a nice house is basically a million dollars. How large of a salary do you need to buy that house? I can tell you it isn't the six-figure salary that starts with a one. Which leaves out the vast majority of people. How about that house in rural America? Twenty five percent of that price. Still expensive for the salaries in the area, but obtainable to much more than one percent in the area. Closer to thirty percent or so.

How else would you buy those expensive properties? By going back in time and investing in real estate or certain stocks. That's the message most of the people that talk about how to buy real estate give when you listen to them.

And if you're asking why real estate can be so expensive, a YouTuber has done some research and has some ideas. Sorelle Amore. I don't get any benefit by clicking this link or going to her video, but it is something that you should think about. I'm also not going to say she is correct. She doesn't say she's correct. Just a thought. The YouTube video number is "pwmEJWKCLF8". Or just click above. Whichever you prefer. Or, don't click. I really couldn't care less.

So, cities. Have you learned?

I Want to Paint

The title doesn't really go with what's below, but it's what my daughter was saying when I was deciding on a title.  This will just be a collection of thoughts, as you've read before.  Any recipes?  Maybe.  But I haven't really created anything fun lately.

I thought about a small review, but I'll just fit it here instead.  From what I know, all car manufacturers have the same problem.  The entertainment screen is overly complicated and prone to software glitches.  I primarily listen to a USB stick with my own music.  Radio stations have too many commercials.  Even the ones you pay for.

The music itself plays fine, most of the time.  But, from time to time, the radio says it can't find the USB stick.  Fast enough.  Other times, it plays almost instantly.  Like the cheap radio I have my newer Mustang that has a USB input.  It's never failed to instantly play music from the USB, and also has never failed to find the USB.  For cheap, it wasn't the cheapest on the market, but it was certainly on that spectrum costing about three times as much as the cheapest radios.  So, not really expensive.  Especially compared to the one in my daily driver that only three years old.  It has the third generation of it's entertainment system.

I also had the second generation.  I didn't have to tell that one if the title had MP3 as an extension.  Just a note, they are all MP3 files, but the newer system lists the title as including the dot MP3 for some songs, but not for others.  So, you have to either remember if the song you want to listen to has those extra four characters or just ask for one and hope you get lucky.  Old system just found something similar to what you said.

I did recently update mine newer system to the latest revision, and at least it fixed a time issue.  When it couldn't find the USB stick, the fix was to reset the system by pressing a couple buttons for a certain amount of time.  Unfortunately, it would forget the time setting and you'd have to adjust the time, no matter the month of the year.  The new system at least seems to look at your GPS location to determine the time to display first.  Or it just remembers.

But, that isn't the biggest problem.  Time is the bigger problem.  The system in my truck is already outdated, and was long before my truck was built.  It's processor is from an archaic company that couldn't sustain their cell phone prominence, even though they were at one time one of the more sought after.  I'm guessing they never changed their processor, as the one in my truck is slow.  On a good day.  On a bad day, it's horrible and I start searching for replacements in the aftermarket.

But, that latter part should never be true.  If auto makers had any sense.  Do you know what does keep up with technology?  Tablets.  You also know what is also powerful enough to run all the gadgets in the entertainment system?  Tablets.  Tablets are smaller than most car entertainment stacks now, but that would be a change the market would take care of if they were installed into millions of cars per year.  Plus a few for people that would upgrade.

Sure, the base software would need to be stored somewhere to install onto the tablet during upgrade, but the internet works well enough for that.

Now for the painting part.  Maybe.  Painting is fun, cleaning up isn't.  As you may guess, painting the bodies for my small cars is something I find enjoyable.  I even bought an airbrush.  That was to save money, partly, and partly to add some better patterns.  The last part is a lie, the little spray cans can be used for patterns, but they're very expensive.   More now.

My daughter also likes to paint.  Those two things go together.  She gets a brush and some color.  Or sparkly things and a brush.  One paint job actually turned out really good.  Artwork.  On accident.  We'll try that again for the three bodies I'll be painting this year.  Colors schemes are the hardest part.  The easiest?  They only last a year or two, so even a bad paint job is temporary.

Instead of a recipe, how about a car lesson.  Tire inflation.  If you're reading the sticker on your door, you're doing it wrong.  It is a nice place to start, but it doesn't account for manufacturer variances in tire construction.  Or tire type.

This trick was really intended for people that change tire sizes, but it really is useful for when you buy new tires as well.  The catch is you'll need your own air supply, and I know many people don't have that, but an air tank isn't overly expensive and will work just fine.

For starters, you'll need to check your air pressure when the tires are cold and the sun hasn't warmed your tires.  This lets you get them all even and at a proper pressure.  You can start at that door sticker number, but you'll soon see why that's only a starting point.  You'll also need chalk.  And, you're going to be moving your car back and forth, so flat concrete or asphalt is good also.  Sorry, gravel roads won't work.  And, you don't want cornering to become involved.

You'll want to place a good chalk line across the tread of your tires.  You can use a thin line or a thick line.  That isn't the important part.  You'll then move the car forward and back across that line.  This will erase the chalk from the contact point of the tire.

How to read the results is important.  If the chalk is evenly removed, you've established you're somewhere between too full and not full enough.  I usually only care about finding the too full number.  To find this, you'll want to increase the tire pressure until the outer edges of the tread retain their chalk.  Just a little bit is what you want to see on the outer edge.  Note this pressure, and it will be different for front to back.  And possibly side to side.  This is the absolute highest pressure you want to run in your tire, and only if the number is less than the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall.  I'll speak to the problem later.

I typically stop here, and run my tires near that peak for summer.  For winter, I back off a few pounds to increase traction.  But, if you want to find the minimum pressure, decrease pressure until the chalk just starts to remain in the center of your tread.  This is the absolute lowest pressure you want to see, and is on the verge of unsafe.  Or possibly into the unsafe region.

If you want to maximize traction, set your pressure in the middle of the two numbers.  You may need to adjust a little up or down based on the feel during driving.  To maximize fuel economy, set your pressure a pound or two under the maximum pressure you noted.

Now, if your maximum pressure exceeds the sidewall pressure rating, you have the wrong tires on your car.  This is in the unsafe zone and you need to replace your tires with some that are properly rated for your car.

How lucky are you?  As I sit here, there is a lottery drawing that would make the winner nearly a billionaire.  I hear people talking how they only play when it's extremely high.  These are the people that really could use some money, but would likely have no idea how to manage even a couple million dollars.  Sure, they'd buy something, maybe a house.  But, would they buy one that their income could support?  That is the primary issue some people forget.  It's easy to buy a million dollar home in that case, but maintaining that home will cost a few thousand every month.  Taxes, insurance, utilities, et cetera.  Then add on physical maintenance that all homes need.

No, if you happen to win a large sum of money, use it to pay off your existing debt, then the rest as retirement or to create a side income.  The latter is unlikely to exceed your primary source of income, unless you have that one in three hundred million luck.

Happy Calendar Change!

The holidays. Maybe that should be capitalized. Maybe not. You choose.

As you may guess by the title, and the date of the blog, this was Calendar Change Day. Some call it New Year's Day. You're likely in the latter group, but may tend toward the former by the next Calendar Change Day. I never really considered telling someone that I'd see them next year to be a Dad Joke. It just always seemed to happen, and everyone says it with forced enjoyment. Those last two words do make up a dad joke, so maybe...I need to make another cup of tea, so I'll be right back. Hang tight.

That'll take a while to cool. I recently watched a video about how to make the perfect cup of tea. I disagreed with their assessment, even though their process may have been decently correct. But, the conclusion is the part I disagree with. Of course, the answer wouldn't make for a very click-baity title, or really a video with a lot of content, so maybe my version wouldn't make nearly enough money to support the elite youtuber. Maybe the average youtuber. The one with a more normal job or is just independently wealthy. The answer is quite simple and reminds me of a song. More the title. That's the way I like it. And that's the way you should make your own tea. If you like tea. If you don't like tea, you may prefer the do-things-to-make-greenish-brown-water-and-dump-it-down-the-drain method.

Me personally, two hundred degree water over a couple random tea bags with honey. When the water is just colored enough, toss out the bags, wait for it not to be scalding, then enjoy. I do like loose leaf tea the best, but only when I return from somewhere in Asia with it in my bags. Sometimes in enough quantity to be questioned by the import guys. I wouldn't think twenty pounds of tea would be enough for a restaurant, but they seem to think so.

There seems to be a number of ways people celebrate the end of a calendar year, including those that don't. I'm going to include the indulgent holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know there are others, but I don't know their customs and won't pretend. I do get a sense of irony from being thankful for what you have just before you ask for things you don't have. The latter creating houses overbrimming with things not used. And many things that would be if working forty hours a week didn't get in the way. And, of course, things that are put off until young ones can also participate.

As you may have read, I do keep my daughter involved with my hobbies as much as possible. To the extent a three year-old can help. She now has her own bowling ball, and she's been rolling it at the one bowling pin I brought inside. I don't dare tell her I have more pins, but she'll get to visit a bowling alley soon. I am amazed that there are people that work in a bowling alley that are insulted, some mildly and some really, when you call it an alley. One even repeats that it's a center and not an alley. High score wins is usually enough to return to my solitude for practice.

Somewhere I think in this page is a mention about temperatures. Maybe another page. With a new number for this year, the data, however limited, for this year shows a mild cooling when looking at average high and average overall. The average low is about par with the warming trend. But, November saw the lowest highs in over twenty years, while the lows were in line with some of the cooler Novembers. December may have been warmer, but the arctic cold front really did a number on the averages. The temperatures were cooled for basically two days, with some remainder into the third day. But, just that two day event dropped the average high by almost four degrees, and the average low a bit more than four degrees. Using the scale that sets the boiling and freezing of water one hundred eighty degrees apart. Overall, most of the temperatures throughout that year of twenty-two were on par with the overall trends, with the low averages being slightly warmer. Month by month trends are below, just for fun. All this is from twenty six years ago, as that's as far back as the data I was able to find for my local station. Maybe sometime I'll add a different station with a better history.

January highs and lows are increasing by about point zero nine degrees per year. February is cooling by about point one five degrees per year. March average high is warming by point zero seven, while the lows are warming by point one two. April highs are warming by point one two, while the lows are by point oh six. May highs are cooling by point oh three, while the lows are warming by the same amount. June highs are warming by a quarter, while the lows are warming by point one eight. July is warming by point one and point oh nine. August is warming by point one two and point one. September is warming by point two six and point one nine. October is warming by point oh six and point oh five. November is warming by point one three and point oh five. And December is warming by point oh eight and cooling by point oh oh five. Overall, the annual change has the average high increasing by point oh eight, the average low warming by point oh seven, and the overall average increasing by point oh seven.

Now of course, my data set is much to short to see any real trends, and it only looks at two data points per day. It really isn't the absolute high and low temperatures for the days that matter, it's the total heating effect. You may see this reported as cooling hours and heating hours. The historical data for this is even more difficult to find, but is more important. If you can find a data set that uses consistent temperatures for heating and cooling.

Speaking of misinformation and poor education, I hear many complaints about the education system. Much of it is recorded in song, and indicates that it really isn't trending in the general direction that would be considered good. Not by any stretch of an educated person's imagination. There is a key here. I sent myself and my host into the engineering world. This wasn't by any chance, or had anything to do with my background. Or his. It was simply by looking at the average salaries after four years of post secondary education. College for short. University for some English-speaking natives. There was one degree with a higher base level of pay, but I had no intention of being in the field that paid that. I already knew enough about this planet and its occupations. No where on that first page was there a listing for an educator. Maybe they were in the back of the book.

There is your key. In general, for a society that runs on money, people will choose the occupation that will afford them the greatest wealth. You may think politician would fit, but you also have to be very corrupt to turn yourself into a millionaire by serving in office. Morals do play a role as well. Thankfully. You would also have to work out the math for every politician that's turned themselves into millionaires versus the number that really don't make it that far. The odds are better than the lottery, but the rules are similar. So, for the general, average, population, the people that would be the best teachers would typically prefer the higher wages that come from a corporate job. Or by working in the trades, which also pays significantly higher than an educator without the burden of attending a college. These may actually be some of the smarter people. Not necessarily the most intelligent, but smarter. Those two are different.

And one of the problems is with how schools are funded. By taxes. By the general public. Through education administrators, which are mostly failed politicians. They have the corruption part down, they just don't have as much access. I would also say where these taxes are spent is a problem, but that's for another day. After I find a couple budgets to play with.

For where I was going, the complaining. It's been said over and over that school really doesn't teach kids how to live life. Work, pay bills, and all the other fun stuff. And that's painfully true. And has been for many years. Decades. Part of that may be the people teaching. Would you trust your financial well being to someone that doesn't have a chance at financial well being without a broad stroke of luck or corruption? I also wouldn't trust someone with enormous family wealth or even a self-made millionaire. There is always a formula that says if you take the right chances at the right time you will be rewarded greatly, but those are lottery odds again. It doesn't work for everyone.

I'll give you another example of following the right advice, but not getting the luck. The piece of advice is to start your career in a larger company and learn everything you can about your career and the industry. Then, seek employment at a smaller company and take over. That take-over can be financially if you know how to write a business plan that will convince a bank to back you, or by showing you are the best in your field and ascending to the top of leadership. The latter is easier if you have the mental tools. But, there is also the case that you work that latter part and are in a good position to be that top person, and the company gets sold to a corporate giant. Sometimes, you are still in a good position. But, sometimes, that corporate brings in their own management and you're back to being a nothing with talent. This is when you leave.

But, that was another rabbit hole. Life skills. There was one piece of opinion, but that was only career related. And only pertains to those that have the mental ability and talent to take on such a track. What about normal people? Well, budgets are your answer.

Your first real job. This could be anytime, even while you're in high school. Your first task is to list all your expenses into two categories. Need and want. Need is such things as shelter, food, transportation, utilities, clothing, and so on. Wants are things like entertainment, eating out, games, clothing, and so on. Clothing is in both on purpose. You need some clothes, but you may want other, more fashionable clothes. Separate those desires.

After each category in the need department, write in the amount for each. Looking at moving out on your own? Check out how much rent is for places where you'll be working. Then ask how much the utilities are. They know, but if they don't, the utility companies do. It would be a good idea to overestimate these expenses. Now subtract your total needs from how much you bring home from your work. For starting out, split that number into your wants. All rolled into one, or separated out by preference. It really doesn't matter.

Now comes the trick. And, hopefully you have a good bank to work with. In today's age, auto-deposit is pretty normal. And, most places I know of don't really restrict the number of accounts you can deposit into. At least, that's my experience. Create one account for shelter and deposit your budget amount there from each paycheck. One account for utilities, one for food, one for transportation. You could combine a couple of the latter, but keep transportation and shelter separate, they have the least flexibility. You may not need a lot in transportation depending on where you live, but even bicycles need maintenance and shoes don't really last a long time if you walk a lot. Then open an account for you wants. The final account is your rainy day fund.

It looks like this. Set amount to shelter, set amount to the rest of the needs, set amount to wants, and the balance to rainy day. Inflation is real and will alter some of these amounts over time, but, for now, don't plan on changing any amount that goes into the set amount accounts. As you get raises, work extra, get bonus money, etc., your rainy day fund will begin to increase. Your other accounts should also slowly increase if you've over-estimate a bit and don't spend more than you said you would. After time, you may see these accounts grow to where they have enough to support yourself for a month without needing a deposit. Don't touch them.

As for the rainy day fund, once it reaches three months of your take-home pay, you should buy into a higher yielding certificate, like a CD, with one month's salary at a time. This is the account that is meant to keep you going if you lose your job, and is intended to grow as you get a larger salary.

Of course, with enough time, your income may dramatically increase and you may desire a better shelter. Keep the same budgeting in mind, and you'll eventually become quite well off for whichever class you find yourself in.

Of course, this is just my opinion. But, what do I know? I don't even know how old I am in Earth years. Aushlin thinks it's above twenty billion, but I'll let him explain. Someday. I thought he'd have shown up in the thirty years I've been here. But, for all I know, that's how long he sleeps.

What do you do?

I hear many questions, and answer few. Sometimes, just a statement.

What do I do on Earth? You have an idea what I did on my first planet. Or whichever those memories are from. Maybe it was my tenth, but I remember it as my first and Earth as my second.

Engineering. It’s more artform than some would think, and less than some engineers would state. My Earth host studied a specific type of engineering, but that wouldn’t matter as my mind flowed into his. Chance has something to do with this journey, but we’re just following a thread.

So, what do I do? Here. Not what I’ve done in the past. For one thing, the gods don’t seem to wonder this planet. I’m assuming they’re asleep. The alternative isn’t a pleasant thought. You’ve probably read that already.

The chance portion was the type of engineering we’ve stumbled across. Test engineering. Basically, finding the errors rocket scientists make. But, that is only a scratch. And, I will warn you ahead of time, if you aren’t technically inclined, this may make little sense. But, if you’re here, you probably have the intelligence to understand. And, I’m going to change the tone just a bit. But, you’ll see why soon.

To start, I’m going to give you a few hundred pages of specification. Within this specification you’ll look for some keywords. Shall, should, may. Within a short time, you’ll realize this specification was written by someone without knowledge of these keywords. Now, you need to insert your own based on what you know about the doodad. Why are you doing this? You’re creating a V&V matrix. The beginnings of what you need in order to test a design. You may think your company has people for this. Sorry, you’re at a small company that doesn’t provide that luxury. You are that guy.

By the way, the parts are coming in to build this doodad now, so all this needs to be done now. At least that’s what you’ll be told. Constantly.

Now that you have an idea of what your test plan will look like, you need to start thinking about designing all the supporting equipment. It really has little to do with what the doodad really is, there are things you need that will be common. Cables, harnesses, brackets, test boxes, data acquisition, software, power, sensors, and many more things. You are the designer for all the electronics, mechanical parts, data acquisition, and software to tie it all together. Get your CAD programs out, and be smart about your attack plan. You have a test plan to write based on your V&V matrix. Don’t forget the setup diagrams, part numbers, and industry standards.

What are parts of your plan? You need to test the mechanical abilities of your doodad. Does it have electronics itself? Measure all its bits, and go forward knowing it isn’t going to work perfectly, so you’ll need to see inside the box and make some measurements there. Another electronics box. More cables. More data acquisition. Now that you’re testing a space doodad, you’ll need to work in the environments. The electromagnetic spectrum. How does your doodad respond to that spectrum in space? Does it emit something that upset your spacecraft? You get to test that. You have a radio. You’re now in the radio frequency realm, testing sixty gigahertz systems. Better read up on the equipment you need to buy. And write up a justification for why you need to spend those hundreds of thousands of dollars. I need it. That doesn’t work. And, fit that in your schedule, your doodad in partially complete and you haven’t finished your plan.

Rockets vibrate. A lot. But, not that much. Test that. Will your doodad survive the ride to space? What about when it gets there? Here’s where you get to shine at running a vibration test, probably an acoustic test. Don’t worry, you know enough to determine if the structural results are correct. Our company is too small to have an actual analyst. That’s you.

So, you have a plan to see if it’ll survive the ride. You’ve finished the easiest test. How does it survive the environment of space? Hard vacuum. Don’t worry about the little bits flying around, that’s someone else’s problem. There’s at least one thing you don’t have to worry about. But, your new chamber will be in next week. Brand new vacuum chamber. You get to set it up. You want a tech? Well, maybe we can think about that. Can you write up a justification for the person and verify the workload justifies an employee?

By the way, that vacuum chamber? No, it doesn’t have a control system. You get to work on your software skills. Just remember this is an around the clock test, you may want to automate and set up some redundant safety systems that don’t rely on your software. We did order this a few months ago, we think it will work. It won’t. You’ll need to order new feedthroughs, equipment. We made an educated guess at the electrical feedthroughs. We were likely wrong.

Oh, and don’t forget to get the facility set up to work with that chamber. Power, nitrogen, vents. All on you. Are you done with that test plan yet? Your doodad is half done, and you haven’t started writing procedures. Yes, timescales are really that tight in a small company.

So, now you’ve designed your electronic boxes, mechanical fixtures for both the workbench and your new chamber, you have a data acquisition system on order after three ROI attempts, you have your RF equipment on order, you’ve scheduled outside test houses for those things you just can’t do at your company, and your test plan has passed the scrutiny of the customer. Procedure time.

Now, do yourself a favor and make this on easy on yourself. Capture the data and analyze it within the procedure. Or, better yet, add that to your software package. Did you forget about your thermal control software? Yep, get that done. You have people to interview. Don’t worry, we’re giving you a good salary for your tech. At least ten percent above the fast food place across the street.

Who do you think is going to build all your cables, boxes, and fixtures? You, of course. We don’t need your new tech to start before you start test, do we?

Congratulations. You’re ready to start testing the doodad. Oh, did we forget to tell you about the extra hundred pages of specs we updated and added? No problem, you have all weekend.

Still have questions for an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, RF engineer, structural analyst, thermal analyst, or software engineer? No problem, if you’ve attended all the customer meetings and you’ve created a good relationship, they may get some of their specialists to help you out. If you get stuck during a test.

So, you think this isn’t real? It is quite real. Still think rocket scientists deserve their sayings.

I don’t. I’m a test engineer. Well, I was. It was just getting too easy.

So, what do you do?

Spheres

I've left this section the new default color. Background anyway. The text was white as well. Just too hard to read. The section above? That was the original default color. It looks much better. Unless you like this shade.

I did also cheat a little on that section, I wrote it earlier in the week then copied it here today. It still doesn't copy well. All the paragraph ends were lost and it was just a wall of text. It's okay now. But, this one is being written live, as my tea cools and my RC parts vibrate clean. Oops, they've been soaking long enough, time for the second cycle. I'll be right back.

Remind me in about twenty minutes to check on those parts. Though it's likely you'll be done reading before then, I'm certain I won't be done typing. It's four after nine right now.

And, this is my last cup of Ashley mint green tea. I'll finish off the raspberry before buying more.

Spheres. It's a fairly open topic, especially in this way too generalized section of the website. I could start out differently. I may have covered this, but a quick search says I didn't. Well, nobody cares about you. How's that for an intro?

Now, if you give it some thought, you'll see that is painfully true. Even if you are extremely popular. It goes along with the significance of Earth itself. It has none, except to the creatures that call it home. If you're up on your trivia, you know that Earth is a small part of the point two percent of the solar system that isn't the sun. And, the two largest planets are over four hundred times more massive than Earth. That decimal moves way left for how much of the solar system is Earth.

That is surely to make anyone feel small. But, to put it into perspective, even if humans were on all the habitable planets of the Milky Way galaxy, that galaxy is even less significant in the Universe than Earth is in its own solar system. Or, likely, even in it's own galaxy. The Universe is just that big.

But, you knew that already. And, those are the spheres I'm talking about. And I'm hoping you know planets are spheres either. Roughly spherical, yes. But, the spinny ones like Earth are more like squished spheres with the polar caps closer to the center of the planet than the equatorial points. It really helps that the Earth is mostly liquid. Aside from that thin little crust we are living on.

Sphere of influence can be though of a real sphere. Or circle if you wish to keep that perspective. It depends on how you want to think. Fragile minds really don't want to think about this, and they've likely left to shiver in a corner after the Earth points.

So, who does care about you? There would be a number of people, really. Sometimes enough, sometimes either extreme. And, I won't go into bad areas and assume the average person with a normal life.

The most caring would be your family. Immediate family the most. As the family stretches into the third and fourth zone, the caring would be less. You're likely too far removed at that point to have more than a passing influence on their life. Sometimes, even first cousins are that far removed. Brother, sister, mother, father, children. These people care. For the average family, that's in the dozen range. Maybe. If you're married and have children.

Nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins. That's typically the next orbit, but this may also include some close friends. If you've had a good life, you'll have some of these friends in your inner-most orbit as well. There is no rule, just averages.

Friends usually would come after this closer extended family, although they can change orbits closer or farther. Then the more extended family that you may only know about through stories. Work acquaintances are out here too, although it is possible for them to be closer if you happen to turn one into a friend. Typically not, but also not a bridge worth burning.

Now, if you count all that up, you may be able to get to a thousand or so people's lives you have interacted with in some way or another. The Earth has more impact in it's solar system that your spheres on the population. Even if you impact ten thousand people. And, that's assuming your impact is more than a passing story.

Naturally, being a social animal, humans do have caring and compassion for other humans. In general. There are still many tribal conflicts and politicians that send their fellow humans into suicidal wars, but you already know how I think of politicians. Tribal conflicts? Lack of education, and general brainwashing of societies. The past couple years have shown how easy it is to brainwash a society. You'll see this better with a longer hindsight.

If you're still here.

But, it's nine thirty-one. And, I have some parts to move around. And this background is really ugly.

Nothing Specific

And, that is a telling title. Black is an okay color for a background, especially for something based in text. I'm not sure about the yellow text on black, but anything looks good compared to the above section. I do sometimes reread the prior sections, and now I've got a taste for tea. Hold on while I remedy that taste. Sleepytime version this time.

The water's warming up, and this is the hundredth update I've made to this site. Those have nothing in common really, but they are two of the thoughts in my head.

Another was given when I walked by the television that is playing downstairs on mute. I keep it tuned to a station that replays older shows as a default. I primarily watch recordings and not live shows. Way too many commercials. Excuse my absence, the water was warm.

This particular show reminded me of a site I was reading that showed and talked about things that were popular in history, but wouldn't be popular today. While the content may have been mostly correct, many comments simply showed the amount of arrogance that is in open display.

I'll take the show that's playing now. It also happened to be in this article. I won't say the name, but the main character is described as racist, bigoted, sexist, and generally rude. And, that is correct. But it is a sitcom from the era that was also fairly famous for giving life lessons from those same shows. Usually, with some humor. One bit of humor was mowing obviously fake television grass. The type from the sixties that was obvious even with the resolution transmitted at the time and maybe an inch deep. Before the actors and crewman trampled it during production, and likely rolled it up when the set wasn't in use.

You could likely list many shows from that era as generally rude. Another dealt with a person stating they were gay so they could be a roommate with a couple women due to the landlords beliefs. No one would believe that was a realistic situation today. Most wouldn't have considered it a realistic situation then. That wasn't the point. Same for the first show I mentioned. Although some people like that existed, and still exist, the presentation of those situations was created to show how ridiculous and out of date those viewpoints were in that society.

The first was an over the top individual that still had a family and friends that enjoyed his company. Even if those people included the targets of his ire. Would you remain friends with a racist? Do you think people from a few decades were really that different? Not really. These shows simply took these situations head on without any filters. That truly is something you don't see today. Even the more wholesome shows from the era wouldn't make it today. A man and his nephew walking to a fishing hole and throwing rocks into the lake. Those poor fish, just let them live, and those rocks just make that much less room for the fish to swim. Don't worry, someone out there is thinking that.

In reality, slavery is another of those topics that really shouldn't be taken out of context. If you believe it's been abolished, you really should get out a little more. It's everywhere. Even in countries with laws against it. I believe I've brought this up before, in a different context. But, the reality is that society wouldn't have been built without some form of slavery. And that societal transformation travels back several millennia. Probably more than you think, or have been taught. But, to bring it into the time before Lincoln's presidency, it was likely not what you think then, either.

I've been on this planet long enough to see the transformation is how those times were interpreted. It wasn't long ago that, although slaves had no freedoms, they were generally well cared for. Sure, they weren't given the same education as the rich had, but it wasn't that much different from the education given to the average citizen of the time. Illiteracy was prominent, education was not. Education was only for the wealthy. That is true today in many countries. And, I'm leaving out the word proper on purpose. Proper education is extremely rare, even today. Even in the developed world. Just look at what is being taught in schools and compare that with the information you need to go about your life. While they should be different, there should be some lines from there to here. There aren't.

Now, some can afford to give their children a more proper education. But, that involves the parents being the teachers. And, how many points of view can a set of parents give? If the parents are able to afford a private school for their children, the validity of those points goes up, but will it translate? I've seen how the reputation you create for yourself will give you benefits later in your career. Usually without prodding or actively trying to use that reputation as an advantage. I've also seen the other part where people try to vocalize their reputation. After working for a few months. That isn't how it works. It takes years, and decades, to cement a reputation. A bad reputation takes months, and haunts you for years and decades. Can that be taught? Yes and no.

It is quite clear education is how to keep a population enslaved. Even if they collect a paycheck. The slave's from Lincoln's era were paid, believe it or not. In some ways, they were treated better than some occupations in this country. They had guaranteed housing and food in return for good work. You want the good food now? You better have a good reputation and some luck. The healthy foods are two to three times more expensive than the foods that get you by. Just long enough to retire, then straight to your final resting place. That way you're not a burden on the socialist security system the government waves as a carrot. Read up on how unhealthy the modern diet is.

I'm starting to think this should have been in the conspiracy section, but I'll give some different thoughts. We can leave the past in a good place. People of the past weren't bad by their intent. They are much like the people today. They want to provide the best for their family. Even the most hideous of the population can usually use that stance. Except politicians. Like wizards, they have no place in polite society.

Here's a fun statistic to get us started. Midway through the previous century, there were forty-eight people for every vehicle in the United States. Just three years ago, there were one point three people per vehicle. That includes people that are a few months old. Thirteen states have at least one car per person, peaking just over one point eight cars per person in Montana. If I only count the cars I have on my property now, I'm only at one point three. But, the reality is I'm over two. I'm the only driver. And, that number is much too low for my taste.

My daughter has more stuffed toys that she really knows what to do with, but she knows most of their names. That's for the brand that gives a name to the toy. She's named the others, with every-increasing complexity. Bunny was the first named toy, along with Dolly. Now, if she's heard the name, it may get stuck to a toy. She added two more this last week.

I'm going to digress, I think for the first time tonight. Thankfully, I haven't made it to my second cup of tea before this digression.

One of the parenting things I read when my wife was still making our daughter was that fathers tended to buy their girls toys since they didn't know what to do with a girl. They knew the boys would like what they did, but thought the girl would be so much different. They aren't. My daughter still likes her small cars and dragons, but she also likes her stuffed cats, dogs, and monkeys. Barbie? Not soft enough. Miniature Mustang, you bet. Now, I won't profess to knowing everything, but I will say her list of wants is pretty short. Mommy, daddy. And a stuffed toy or two. That's it. Take everything else away, and she'd be happy with four things. As long as hamburgers, pizza, and ice cream were left alone, of course. And for those that haven't read every word, her version of ice cream is frozen fruit. Not the typical frozen sugar products in your grocer's freezer aisle.

Back to cars. As you may have inferred, I am looking to find a better house. Bigger on the inside and out. And, the prices are absolutely insane. Thankfully, I have a few decades in my profession along with a reputation that provides a good living. And no standing debt that isn't a mortgage. Still, prices are ridiculous. For the stats I have, buying into an exclusive neighborhood should be reasonable. And, with the right interest rate, it would be. But, there's the other stat I have, single-income household.

And that's where this thought comes in. How did this nation get here? Easy answer, really. But, some may not like it.

Back in the middle of the last century, single-income households were quite common. The car was not. Lucky households had a car with a husband that worked and a wife that took care of the house and kids. Grocery shopping was on the weekends, or when dad was coming home with the only car in the household. Two car families were rare among those that had to work. There really was no need for that second car in that era.

And, since we're on the grocery store thread, let's follow that a ways. I read an article recently that stated there was a new type of grocery store coming to the area. Never been done before. New idea. You tell the grocer what you want and they assemble your order for you. You don't have to wander the aisles looking to see what you want. You just tell the grocer. Does that really sound new to you? It shouldn't. That's how you bought groceries up until that latter third of the last century. Or quarter, depending on where you were. You went to the grocer, told them what you wanted, and they put it in your bag or box. Then you went to the butcher and repeated. Then to the fruit stand. Then to the vegetable market, which may have been with the fruit stand. These places even delivered. And, they said that was new a few years ago. A new and emerging market where people brought your food to you door.

No, this is all the same as it was a hundred years ago. The difference? You can use the internet to place your order. So, really, the same thing just more tedious.

Back to the spool, and time for that second cup of tea.

As for housing, the rise of dual-income houses started driving these prices to insane levels. At one time, there was a simple formula for how much car or house you should buy. I'm using these two items as they are typically the two most expensive purchases a person will make in their life. And, the formula was simple. You could buy a house that was double your salary, and afford a car that was half your salary.

Simple and it was mostly true. The first house I bought, three months out of college, was a couple thousand less than double my new salary. I would buy a new car a year or so later that was a couple thousand less that half my salary. Affordable? Yes. Rolling in extra money? No way. I was also paying my student loans and other collegiate debt. And, I had three cars at that time. The high school car my host bought and will not relinquish, a four wheel drive truck, and a daily driver. Although, living a couple miles from work would make anything livable for a daily driver. The grocery store was a lot farther away. Though I don't recall a lot about that store aside from never spending more than forty dollars at a time.

How much is that house now? Twenty five years later. Add two hundred thousand to the original eighty thousand. For reference, I made the average starting wage for an engineer back then. Forty thousand a year. Now, that number is five thousand shy of eighty thousand. So, the house should be about a hundred and twenty thousand less to keep those ratios. And, I'm quite certain incomes in that town with the heads of Presidents aren't inflated to a level of mid-hundred thousand per year.

But, it is likely two people making half that live there with their kids. Thanks to Google Maps, I know they have kids and two cars in the driveway. They also retrimmed from an aqua blue to brown. Like that section above. But, they have kept the front porch that I built with my Earth Dad. It looks as good as it did when I left. And the interior photos from the marketing show the exact same paint job that I bought and sold it with. Hideous. I had a glimmer of hope those photos were from when I sold it, but they aren't.

I'm not saying women working is a bad thing, or dual-income households shouldn't exist. But, the impact on the affordability of housing and living in general can't be ignored.

Or, people are just greedy.

The house I'm looking at is from one of the companies that will buy your house to help you move into another house without the hassle of having to move in weekend after trying to sell your house while you live in it and hope your offer goes through on the new house. It really is a great concept, and one that I had desired soon after purchasing the house I'm in now.

About a year after building my house, the builder finished the neighborhood and was offering the model homes for sale. They contacted the owners of the neighborhood, at least myself I really can't speak for everyone, and asked if they'd like to buy one. I had my eye on the model with the four car garage, and it would have been affordable. Using an updated four-times-my-salary method that allowed me to buy this house. But, I would have to sell my house and move in a weekend. I jokingly asked if they'd take my house in trade. They said they hadn't thought of that, but it was a good idea. But, they weren't able to work that kind of a deal. Now, there are companies that can work that kind of a deal.

And, just like trading in your car for a new one, you will leave some money on the table, but at least you no longer have the stress of selling your house while you're in it.

I did make a half-hearted offer for this house. But, they have to take my house in trade and give me some time to fix what's wrong with the new house, primarily cosmetics, then move without a lot of stress. If they take my offer, I will at least have a larger house by about three times, the same garage, and a slightly larger yard. But, it backs to a small park with a playground.

It'll be good enough for five or six years. And, maybe they'll pay me to mow the small park. Some tractor time is better than none.

That last part. Well, I may as well just play the lottery.