All Hallow's Eve approacheth and thus all the scawy movies come out of the dusty closets. Such holidays make every program manager's job easier for a week or so. I skip a lot of it. For me, there's too much unnecessary roughness. I like the psycho-thrillers and mysteries that make me think. They've done well if a shadow or sound makes me flinch, or my eyebrow quirks while I try to decipher what just happened and how. Flying body parts and blood are not intriguing or scary, just gross. A good horror movie will electrify my nerve endings, synaptic or otherwise, not trigger a gag reflex.

I saw a good movie tonight which I didn't expect to be all that much -- Gothika. I figured it was another venue for cashing in on Halle Berry and for Robert Downey Jr to pay off some legal and rehab fees. I was wrong. It was well done, good story, actually had some suspense in it with a reasonable dose of supernatural intrigue. As an observer, I was a step ahead of the plot, but not unduly so. Of course, about halfway through, I was thinking, "Why don't you stop screaming or running and just ask the dead girl's spirit what she wants?" But then, I guess that wouldn't make for good drama.

I believe in ghosts, in spirit communication, in hauntings even. However, I think anything 'bad' that comes from the spirit realm is just a misunderstanding. Frustration occurs on this side of the veil, and that side too. If you are trying to get someone's attention but they aren't listening, what steps do you have to take to be heard? Same thing over there, or more accurately, over here :) for I believe it's all the same place, but the 'living' only focus on a narrow band of the whole range of energy broadcasting at all times.

Think about it. Infinite radio signals are in the air, all the time, but you have to tune into a certain frequency to hear the music on a particular station. Well, we live on one frequency, but that doesn't mean it's the only one. They all run concurrently. It's our focus, our tuning, that makes it seem like this is all there is. It isn't.

One of the best films to demonstrate this, I think, was Sixth Sense. Yeah, for most people it's just fiction, I guess. But for me, it's a really good view of how it seems to work. I won't go into details of the movie in case someone reading this hasn't seen it. But I will say that it was a pleasant surprise for some moviemakers to 'get it', to show they understood about concurrent frequencies and that sometimes they touch, more easily that we tend to think.

Not sure why this time of year is deemed to be the time when the veil is thinnest, when the frequencies are more likely to cross. Maybe there's a moment every year where the whole broadcasting system gets resynchronized, or re-harmonized. I dunno. I do know that because it's become a benchmark, I take extra time to send out my own message across the wires, to thank my ancestors without whom I would not be, to thank all spirits who have been and are still experiencing this realm.

I add that if I can be of service, I am willing. No need to cause a ruckus. Just ask. I'll answer. :) Blessed be.

I'm not big on these quizzicle things, but I -am- a fan of Royo.

Seven
"How can I begin to hope
when I cannot sleep to dream?"

Which Royo Painting Are You?
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And, well, this one looks a little like me (in somebody's dreams phht)


Which Aspect of Joseph Michael Lisner's Dawn are you?
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Earlier this year, spouse went into Best Buy and got one helluva deal on an eMachine . It's a mega machine and a media marvel. He really needed a new computer. He's always had to make do with my hand-me-downs and the last one was about to die. I had patched and replaced, but it was seriously limping. I had long been afraid that the monitor was going to literally crash and burn.

Since then, I've been drooling over his flat panel monitor and 160Gb HD.
But now..... I HAVE ONE TOO.

I didn't get the same deal he did, but near it (with rebates). Plus, my flat panel monitor is 17" instead of 15". Muahahahaha! And my processor is a bit faster.

3200+ AMD Athlon XP Processor 2.2GHz
512MB RAM160Gb HD (7200 rpm)
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX upgraded to 8
Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN
DVD±RW
CD-RW
multiple media readers, incl flash
upgraded to incl TV and Radio Tuner
AND 17" flat panel monitor!
plus some other wee incidentals, ala media keyboard, mouse, speakers, yadda yadda

And NOW... I get to move all my crap off my old machine and learn all the changes in applications as well as wading through XP

But dayam, this is a niiiiice moochine. *grin!*

I'm molding, shaping, sculpting my own personal environment. This house is wonderful, great bones, but I'm finally able to start making it our home. I've schemed and dreamed since we moved in, even before that when I'd only seen pictures of the place. Now, I'm bringing these plans into reality. It feels GREAT.

I don't have a fortune to spend. A lot of the proceeds from the sale of the other house are going into prudent (and costly) enhancements to the property, BUT, I have enough to work with to make the living space more the way I'd like it. Spouse isn't into decor, although he can appreciate it when it's done. It's mostly to please me and dayam but it's been a long long time since I got to do such things.

I get to create and it feels good! Whether it's assembling ready-made elements, assembling ready-to-assemble furniture, or designing things and making them from scratch... it's all good :)

UPS and FedEx are going to know my address by heart. *grin* I'm awaiting several deliveries while I work on my projects. I've actually enjoyed shopping, even in brick and mortar stores. It's a good time, a fun time, a long overdue time. I am thankful.

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Rant #143:
Environmental Evangelism

We cannot protect the environment as long as we're in it. We change things just by being here. All of the environmental preservationists and most of the conservationists are deluding themselves. If we wanted to return the Earth to a pristine state, we'd have to leave it. We are not outside the system doing harm to it. We are part of the system. We don't create messes from nothing, we only change what's already here. We can't truly destroy anything. The only conservation that counts is the Conservation of Matter and Energy. Everything we do changes something into something else. That's how the system works. We are agents of transformation, just like every other living thing and non-living thing on this planet.

The crusaders for animal rights and vegetarian diets do not consider all the habitats they may throw out of balance, nor the rights of all the plants killed, by their convictions. Moderate vegans don't consider the rights of aborted chickens when they choose to include eggs in their diet for protein. Animal ethicists don't know whether the spotted owl should thrive, or die off to make room for something else. These people aren't any more considerate, or humane, or conscientious than other people. They've simply chosen the animal kingdom as a focus for their fanaticism.

To live, we must eat. We are omnivores. We've always made use of materials around us, by moving rocks, cutting trees, rerouting water, kindling fires, thereby altering habitats. That's how we managed to survive and evolve as a species. We've relied on adaptation, and developed ingenuity to accomplish it. Plants consume. Animals consume. We consume plants and/or animals. If an individual chooses to restrict their diet or forego wood furniture to reportedly spare an owl, it's simply that, a choice. It behooves us to promote stewardship and practicality, like using the whole animal for food, clothing, even chemicals, instead of wasteful killing just for sport. But making blanket rules for appropriate behavior concerning selected slivers of the natural order, determined by a nanosecond of experience with it, is ludicrous.

We do not impact the air, the water, or the land, any more than uncountable natural processes which have shaped this planet since it formed during the birth of this solar system. In fact, our impact is an infinitesmally small percentage of change by comparison. To suggest that human activity is overriding the natural operation of this globe is phenomenal arrogance and/or naivete. We affect it, yes, but to think we can guide how and what we change with knowledge of ultimate results is even greater arrogance and/or naivete. We are barely beginning to understand how anything works. We haven't a prayer of designing actions to achieve particular outcomes in order to "Save The Earth!"

Why stress over the global effects of bovine flatulence and auto emissions when one good-sized volcanic eruption puts out more gasses than every cow and car in the history of the world? It's ignorant, in the extreme. Even when we play around with nuclear fission and create toxicity we had to invent words to describe, we didn't import the radioactive material from another planet. The only imports presently come from meteorites. We just manipulated some of the building blocks here. If we have a problem with the results, then we need to learn to adjust our methods. We also need to realize that the whole concept of toxicity is relative to our own welfare, not the health of the planet. She's seen a lot worse than we could ever dish out.

One basic fallacy is that all the environmental preaching is about the Earth. It isn't. It's about humanity. The environmentalists can say they're concerned about the Earth all they want, but they're not. They're concerned about humans. They want to fuss over what we do, but the only reason our activities hit their radar is when we're doing something harmful to us. The ozone layer has cycles based on natural cycles here on the planet. We only got concerned about it when it looked like depletion was harming us. And we think we caused it. So we want to fix it. So it won't hurt us.

The real irony is that if the environmental evangelists would get off their high-horses and realize their true motivation, then we might get somewhere with environmental goals. Joe Schmoe may not give a flying rat's ass about how his use of aerosols impacts the Earth. However, he might give a thought to how his spray deodorant is winning friends but influencing his chances of getting skin cancer from ultraviolet rays and radiation slipping through a hole in the ozone layer. Maybe that's a stretch for Joe, but the EE's are going to have to find ways to tie the actions to the harm and make it personal before people will change.

We're only interested in saving the Earth because we want to save Us, so the EE's should market it that way. They also need to pick their fights better and get away from trying to dictate how people -should- live. Offer choices and detail consequences. Forget the moral appeal, it doesn't. Devise alternatives instead of campaigns. Find ways to make ecology economical. Let the masses decide. If it's cheaper, easier, less painful, or just more fun, they'll do it. If they can see a correlation to their own lives, or their immediate environment, they may just take up the banner. But very few are likely to make changes based on long-range guesstimates for an overall change in a planet they take for granted. Besides, we're not mucking up all of that, we're just crapping in our own cages and that's where we need and truly want to make a difference. In truth, it's the only place we really -can- make a difference. We can maybe do something about our little mole hills. The mountains will take care of themselves, as they always have.

Got it! Well, the bank has it, but it's still ours. *sigh* Even better, we're no longer making mortgage payments on the old place. Whew. That is a load off, as you can imagine. And so, life moves onward and upward. I am a much happier camper, that's for sure. *smirk* I'm even in the mood to do some shopping, which anyone who knows me will tell you is not at all like me. But hey, I'm long overdue for a bit of a spree.

DONE. Closed. Signed. Sealed. Check for the proceeds to be FedEx'd to us overnight, and so we merely await delivery. I am thankful. I expect this to be the last paragraph in the 4 yr chapter on financial juggling. Pardon me while I go collapse with relief.

Today? Huh? Yeah? Maybe today? Third time's a charm didn't do it. Today is the fourth time the closing has been scheduled. New title company, new lender... So.... maybe.... We'll see.

The quakes at Mount St Helens are gradually increasing in strength, now up to 3.5 magnitude. The mountain is now venting steam and some ash. Even scientists are now saying an eruption is imminent. Central California is still rumbling significantly, around 5.0 with scads of lower level rumbles in between. This seismic activity is actually occurring on at least three different fault lines.

Although I seriously expected this sort of thing because of the Toutatis passage, I could never determine where the activity would be in the world. My suspicion was the US, but that was an intuitive and not an educated guess. I knew it depended on the weak surface points and what was on the tangent between the Earth's EMF and the asteroid's EMF, or at the very least, the angles involved.

My point is that a space object does not have to hit another to make an impression. This point seems to have escaped the scientific community, or they're just not talking about it. Then again, they're into precision, so if they can't predict precisely, they don't usually count it. The other problem is specialization. We have quake guys, volcano guys, hurricane guys, and asteroid guys. But they don't talk to each other or look at what the others are doing? Maybe it takes a layman (or woman;) to stand back from the gauges far enough to see the bigger picture.

Imagine two magnets. Imagine one is spherical and rotating regularly (Earth) and one is quite oddly shaped and tumbling erratically (Toutatis). One is greatly larger than the other. Both are in regular orbits. Their orbits nearly intersect and they travel somewhat together for a time because they're on approximately the same orbital plane and share part of their elliptical paths.

Now, just try to guess where the pressure between the two magnetic fields will begin, where it will be strongest, where it will start to fade as the two magnets pull away from each other again.

It certainly appears now that the median of the interactive forces was/is the west coast of the US. Maybe even in a sweep of the northern hemisphere between Japan (record tsunamis) and North America (quakes and volcanic activity). It may even be a matter of disturbing the general and infamous weakness of the Pacific Ring of Fire, but focused along the northern portion because of the Earth's angle of rotation.

And now we'll see what happens when that applied pressure is relieved, ie, as the lid comes off the tapper kettle.

If we really want to understand the Earth, we also need to look at the neighborhood, with the same eyes.