Blatherings about Life the Universe and Everything.

No, I'm not talking about the book, Life, the Universe and Everything.

The following is a quickly-jotted-down stream of consciousness-esque series of thoughts I had, cleaned up and presented here for your bemusement. I actually jotted this down some time ago, and just recently found this while cleaning up some drafts in my blog... Enjoy!

...Okay, so we know that light is a wave and a particle. Or, if you prefer, a wave-particle... appropriately traveling through what we consider space-time. Named thusly, because we are more familiar with "space" 3-dimensions, and we simply lob in a fourth, which we call time. However, if you ask someone what the three dimensions are, they would respond something to the effect of length, width and height... which are all simply scalar distance measurements. And, depending on your choice of origin and orientation, those three could be anything, so long as they are "normal" to each other. Length could be width or height, and the others rotate appropriately to suit. Simply turning an object in your hands and considering what its "height" is will reveal the very definition to be very weak and backwards-thinking. How can we hope to uncover the science behind the creation of a universe when we measure reality and all of existence with relation to the gravitational center of our planet of birth ...or any single planet for that matter? If height is "up" and up is "away from down" and down is the direction that things fall when dropped on Earth, then our definitions are waaay too "preschool" to approach the task.

So, given that we are looking at some arbitrary distance (we'll call length, in this case), if we take an object and dissect it perfectly (impossible, but that's another story), then we end up with twice the number of objects, each with half the length - voila! ...preservation of matter (or, more technically, matter-duration, in space-time). These two objects can occupy the same space, much like cars in parking lots do... by taking turns. They can't occupy the same space at the same time. They, likewise, can occupy the same time. This is, in fact, totally normal and expected, in our point of view. You would be quite shocked to find that if you cut an object in half one half disappeared and would only reappear at the disappearance of the other half. However, we have already illustrated above that one axis is no different from another axis and, in fact, objects can be rotated such that their lengths can swing around to become their widths, with other axes following suit. This poses some interesting questions...

First, quarks. We can observe a quark existing in two places at the same time and then apparently disappearing from existence. Can we move quarks? If so, is it possible to move two "of the same quark" into the SAME 3D space? I wonder if this would be possible at all. Much like the familiar objective behavior of normally observed objects occupying the same space, but at different times, given an axial rotation, it may be impossible for the same quark to occupy different times at the same space. Moving on...

Quarks have been observed to rotate in opposite directions to each other. We see similar behavior when we wave at ourselves in a mirror. Or when an image is flipped in a camera. This observed phenomena is resultant of optics - lens effects. Could there be something in nature that acts as a "matter-duration" lens, not of light, but of quarks, causing a "reflection" effect on the quark, so that the spins are actually identical (As would be necessary if it is the same quark), but the space-time orientation of the quark is adjusted by this lens effect?

If items could occupy the same space-time location-moments, then the only mathematical description that could isolate these object-instances would be mass. Mathematically speaking, however, this would present an "n-paradox", where we could agree that there is a given number of instances coexisting, and the amount of mass ascribed to each instance would have to be identical, lacking any way of specifying one from the other. It follows that any number of possibilities would be equally true, so long as the number (n) of assumed instances times the assumed mass of a given instance equals the total mass occupying that specific location-moment. This should hold true right on up to a single object in space-time being recognized as an infinite number of instances with infinitely small mass. If you could focus on a single instance, moving one would be infinitely easy. Should we assume that the others, being instances which are bound in space-time would move with them?

...A question best left to the Jedi, that is...

My Deserted Island

I love computers. I also am quite fond of technology, in general. In fact, typically my biggest gripe about technology is that I often am disappointed by the rate with which it advances. Why can't I go to the store and by a personal robot akin to R2-D2 or C-3P0? Why don't we have Star Trek's transporter technology yet? Why hasn't Stark Industries announced repulsor technology yet?

Despite my technophilia, I have, recently, started to wonder if all of this advanced technology that has, effectively, made the world so small that people on remote locations half a world apart can video conference with each other (or pwn each other) in real time is merely increasing the general stress level of all parties concerned. Communication has become not just prevalent, but pervasive. Ironically, I am discussing this via the Internet - the single most prevalent and pervasive communication channel in the world.

I have even toyed around with the possibility of purchasing a small island somewhere and setting up "camp," so to speak, with a self-sustaining home powered by a solar panel array and wind power, with a garden that produces just enough food to support me and mine. To simplify.

Imagine... If you owned your home outright, your land outright... you had no use for a vehicle... your electrical needs were met (for free) by the sun and the wind... and you had, for all intents and purpose, no need (okay, little need) for money. Imagine the freedom this would provide. You could do any of several low-income things and generate enough money to get by.

Probably most ironic in this entire scenario is that I can't imagine attempting this without some sort of (reasonably high-speed) Internet access. If I were that removed from the bustle of everyday modern life, I would definitely need some way to communicate... and the Internet seems to do a good job of replacing telephones, televisions and newspapers.

...but I never forget a Face(book)

Ah, social networking sites. There are so many out there, each with their own little twists or gimmicks or specific focus. Lately, I've been trying to reconnect with friends from days gone by on Facebook. That's been an interesting experience, and an eye-opening one.

When I was about to marry my beautiful bride, Ashley, we had talked about what her name would be. Hyphenation came up and, at the time, I felt very hurt and insulted. I wanted the world to know that she was with me. I wanted her to take my last name ...to become a Perkins.

In the end, that's what she did, and she tells me, from time to time, that she is happy to be a Perkins. Usually, it's when I'm tossing around the idea of changing my name from "Robert Earle Perkins" to "Game Vortex .com". Perhaps she's mainly not too thrilled in becoming Mrs. ".com", but she and I are both happy with our new life together, and I think, for her, the name is part of that.

However, it wasn't until recently, as I tried to locate friends from back in high school, that I see how hard it can be to find someone once their name has been changed. On Facebook, I search for females from back in high school and pull back various results, often nothing that looks like it's likely to be the correct one. Most of the women I went to school with have since gotten married and, since I don't know their last names, it's difficult to find them. In fact, I end up letting others do most of the work. When I find someone I know, I look at their friends, in hopes that I will recognize someone from high school.

It seems strange, actually... most of the people from my high school (located an hour north of Baton Rouge) seem to have settled in Baton Rouge or the immediate vicinity, but I never see any of them as I go about the city. I suppose I only shop in a couple of grocery stores and I don't really frequent the mall, but I do eat at a lot of restaurants ...yet I never see anyone from "back in the day."

To compound things, there will often be search results that look like they might be someone I know, but when I try to look to verify, either the profile is locked unless you're a accepted friend or there's no profile picture... or the profile pic isn't clear and all of the other pictures they have are of other people - friends, family and the like.

It can get quite tiring. But, Facebook can serve as a nice way to keep in touch with friends you don't see so much anymore.

Do you know me? Check my Facebook page and say "hi."

Robert Perkins' Facebook profile

Butterflies (with baseball bats) in my stomach...

[Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that blog posts, such as this one, that mention medical procedures may not be for the weak at heart... or stomach.]

You know that "butterflies in the stomach" feeling that you can get sometimes when you're nervous about something? Well, yesterday I had a "throat scope" done on me to check for any damage from stomach acid issues I've been having. Other than some mild throat irritation, everything seemed to go just fine, thank you very much.

But then, this morning, I got a call back from the clinic. Completely routine, mind you, just checking up on me, reminding me that I can call on Friday for my results and that I have a follow up appointment in two months, but it got me spooked, I guess... a little worried.

Now, as I sit here writing this, my stomach is churning and sore and I don't know how much of it is butterflies, how much is (perhaps) simple bruising or something (they did remove some polyps while they were in there) and how much might be the McDonalds food I ate for lunch squeezing out of my stomach and around my pancreas.

It's not a good thing when the "butterflies" you have are due to an abnormal feeling in your stomach. It's downright self propagating.

Anyone up for starting a new Internet bubble?

So, I found this via Twitter...

http://jalopnik.com/5120877/carpocalypse-deals-five+bedroom-home-going-for-8995-in-detroit

...and, while this particular house needs more than just a little fixing up, it looks like there would be some ridiculous opportunities in Detroit. Even if the Auto industry was to go away, as long as they have reasonable Internet access available, this could support Internet-based companies. And, with a 5 bedroom 3 bath house available for 10k and skyscrapers standing abandoned, there should appropriately sized/priced locations for websites of just about any size.

Perhaps there needs to be a "summer" GameVorplex; a second site that doesn't get subjected to tropical storms and hurricanes...

...I'm just saying...