A few things first regarding your post.
1. The relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler (in the books) has never been romantic nor sexual. In the story "Scandal in Bohemia", a member of a European royalty comes to Holmes and asks him to locate a woman, Irene Adler. He is getting married and she is in possession of photographs of their previous affair, which would be quite scandalous if revealed, and he hires him to retrieve said photos before a world war happens. (It's set during the time tension was high in Europe and the marriage was a very politically important and stuff.) Holmes tails Irene, locates the photos but doesn't obtain them. He tails her some more and inadvertently becomes the third witness in her wedding. She is the only person to ever outsmart Sherlock Holmes and he regards her in a weird despising respect.
Moriarty on the other hand is not nearly as well fleshed out character. He was created by Doyle as a sort of Deus ex Machina type of villain for the sole purpose of killing Holmes. ('Cause that went very well.) But "The Final Problem" is more popular than "Scandal in Bohemia" so people know Moriarty better. Also Irene is a woman, so of course she is made a love interest for (the probably asexual) Sherlock Holmes, and can never be as threatening as a villain as Moriarty... BUT ANYWAY.
If you don't wanna read the book(s), I think the adaptation most like the original stories are the one's by Granada (with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes). I have a lot of them on DVD if you wanna borrow them some time.
2. Dude, a tyrannitar? Good luck with that. Also, Christmas-y. Is how I'd spell it.
So the parliament voted. And they voted well. They passed the motion! You probably knew that but I don't care! IT'S BRILLIANT! Same sex marriage is now legal in Finland! I think. I mean, I'm not a 100% sure what this means in practice, but it is good. Ahh, today is a good day.
Timo Soini said "Biologinen juurettumuus määriteltiin lapsen normaalitilaksi" and I have no fucking idea what that means but he can go SUCK IT.
That is all. Good night.
Pie out.
P.S. You'll hear from me on Monday, but I need a topic.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Things Christmasy and other
Hello again.
This blog will come to you in a number of parts I don't really know yet, because I don't know exactly what I'm gonna come up while writing.
1. Sorry about not having read your beginning of the story. I haven't had time to. Is a little bit of a lie, since I've had time to watch half a season of Elementary since last Friday. But still, it's the end of the year, and I feel I have all these deadlines and exams for different classes piling up.
2. Speaking of Elementary, you know the stories about Sherlock Holmes better than I do. What's the actual story behind Moriarty and Sherlock, and Irene Adler and Sherlock? Because pretty much all I know about Moriarty is that he's Sherlock's nemesis and they fell into their death together, though after a time he was brought back for some more books, because fans. About Irene Adler I know even less about. Just that I think she is the lover or something of Sherlock, or has been in the past, or something.
Anyway, I'm asking, because the only thing that I'm sure about is that the stories of those two characters are definitely not what the screenwriters of Elementary have given them.
3. "All these deadlines and exams" isn't quite as much as I feel like it is. When I started to actually think about it, I have three weeks of classes left, during which time I have one exams and five deadlines, one of which is for a thing that I haven't started yet and thus will take more than a couple of hours to finish.
And during those (actually a little less than) three weeks, I have some 35 hours of lectures. Of which I'm planning on skipping the last two, so I cans tart my Christmas holiday three days earlier.
Ok, actually I have one more deadline in January for one of the classes that I'm on now but it's not a very big thing and I'll have almost a month time to worry about just that between the classes end and the new classes begin after New Year's, so I'll just deal with that then.
4. I promised to crochet (is a word I've never heard before) a Tyranitar for a friend. I have the thread and the hook and a picture of the Pokémon, and I have no idea where to start. So that's going well.
Speaking of doing things, I have a great idea for a gingerbread house for this year. I really want to come there already, just so that I can start working on that. Then again, of course, I can't. I still do have some classes to attend.
5. You probably know this already, being in Finland again, but they're voting in the parliament about the marriage law on Friday. Though apparently it's not the final vote. Now they're just voting about whether to keep working on the law so they can finally vote some time in the spring about whether to allow it to pass or not. I don't know. I don't know how this whole making new laws thing works. I just know, that if they now vote no, then that's the end for that. For now, obviously. But then someone has to suggest again, if we could change the law. And someone will. But it's gonna take some more time, and then the new proposal has to go through all this again.
If someone could easily explain what exactly they're voting about there on Friday, please explain.
Either way, it looks like it's going to be a tough vote. There are 199 people voting, of which 99 have said to support the new would-be law. 14 haven't said anything. So yeah, that's something for you to write about on Friday.
6. Is Christmasy a word? Cause I used it in the title, but I have no idea. It works when said out loud, but I've never seen it used in a text. Which also means I don't know if I should spell it like that, or some other way, or if it's with a capital letter or not. Since Christmas is with a capital letter, but Christmasy, is it is a word is an adjective.
In Finnish I wouldn't even have to think about this. It's so easy when you speak a language where you can just come up with words no one has ever used before, and they're perfectly good and right and understandable, and then they're words, and no one can come and say they're not. Unless you form them wrong in the first place.
Ok, I have an exam to study for, so I'll hear from you on Friday.
I'm really looking forward to writing another Christmas story with you.
~matu
This blog will come to you in a number of parts I don't really know yet, because I don't know exactly what I'm gonna come up while writing.
1. Sorry about not having read your beginning of the story. I haven't had time to. Is a little bit of a lie, since I've had time to watch half a season of Elementary since last Friday. But still, it's the end of the year, and I feel I have all these deadlines and exams for different classes piling up.
2. Speaking of Elementary, you know the stories about Sherlock Holmes better than I do. What's the actual story behind Moriarty and Sherlock, and Irene Adler and Sherlock? Because pretty much all I know about Moriarty is that he's Sherlock's nemesis and they fell into their death together, though after a time he was brought back for some more books, because fans. About Irene Adler I know even less about. Just that I think she is the lover or something of Sherlock, or has been in the past, or something.
Anyway, I'm asking, because the only thing that I'm sure about is that the stories of those two characters are definitely not what the screenwriters of Elementary have given them.
3. "All these deadlines and exams" isn't quite as much as I feel like it is. When I started to actually think about it, I have three weeks of classes left, during which time I have one exams and five deadlines, one of which is for a thing that I haven't started yet and thus will take more than a couple of hours to finish.
And during those (actually a little less than) three weeks, I have some 35 hours of lectures. Of which I'm planning on skipping the last two, so I cans tart my Christmas holiday three days earlier.
Ok, actually I have one more deadline in January for one of the classes that I'm on now but it's not a very big thing and I'll have almost a month time to worry about just that between the classes end and the new classes begin after New Year's, so I'll just deal with that then.
4. I promised to crochet (is a word I've never heard before) a Tyranitar for a friend. I have the thread and the hook and a picture of the Pokémon, and I have no idea where to start. So that's going well.
Speaking of doing things, I have a great idea for a gingerbread house for this year. I really want to come there already, just so that I can start working on that. Then again, of course, I can't. I still do have some classes to attend.
5. You probably know this already, being in Finland again, but they're voting in the parliament about the marriage law on Friday. Though apparently it's not the final vote. Now they're just voting about whether to keep working on the law so they can finally vote some time in the spring about whether to allow it to pass or not. I don't know. I don't know how this whole making new laws thing works. I just know, that if they now vote no, then that's the end for that. For now, obviously. But then someone has to suggest again, if we could change the law. And someone will. But it's gonna take some more time, and then the new proposal has to go through all this again.
If someone could easily explain what exactly they're voting about there on Friday, please explain.
Either way, it looks like it's going to be a tough vote. There are 199 people voting, of which 99 have said to support the new would-be law. 14 haven't said anything. So yeah, that's something for you to write about on Friday.
6. Is Christmasy a word? Cause I used it in the title, but I have no idea. It works when said out loud, but I've never seen it used in a text. Which also means I don't know if I should spell it like that, or some other way, or if it's with a capital letter or not. Since Christmas is with a capital letter, but Christmasy, is it is a word is an adjective.
In Finnish I wouldn't even have to think about this. It's so easy when you speak a language where you can just come up with words no one has ever used before, and they're perfectly good and right and understandable, and then they're words, and no one can come and say they're not. Unless you form them wrong in the first place.
Ok, I have an exam to study for, so I'll hear from you on Friday.
I'm really looking forward to writing another Christmas story with you.
~matu
Friday, November 21, 2014
The sims and dragons
Hi.
I was supposed to wait in line for tickets for the Hobbit-premiere, but thank god we didn't do that, because it's snowing. Snowing! Although I did take an 1.5h walk around the city. It was nice, although I am still kinda damp. And cold, hrr.
That said, I'm going to Kuopio tomorrow. And seeing as we're not gonna go to the Hobbit-premiere as planned, I'm gonna be there until Christmas. Just fyi. I'm gonna just be hanging at Gigantti for the whole of December, haha.
I've been playing a lot of Sims3 lately. That's actually why I didn't write last week, I meant to write but then I accidentally played Sims for the whole evening. Anyway, I bought this additional city and with it came..... DRAGONS! YEAH! Well, baby dragons, but they're super cute and spit out rainbow sparkles. They're technically an item, I think? Like they're not pets, like cats and dogs and horses, but they hatch and stand on the floor and you can pick them up and carry them on your shoulder and feed them and I don't even know all the things you can do with them. Anyway.
So naturally I made Robin and Carina! With Dragon Valley (that's the name of the neighborhood) came a few really cute fantasy-themed outfits, so that was fun. I think they look pretty good. They also have a dog (based on Robin's dragon) called Taffy, because he's a golden-yellow-brown color and why the fuck not. They also have a cat because Tiinu wanted to make one. She's called Marianne Fazer, because Tiinu is a chocoholic.
So far they haven't done much. Robin is a police officer and Carina is pursuing politics, working as a coffeerunner at the city hall. The cat is actually nocturnal, and it's kinda silly when she's always up when everyone else goes to bed, so I just explore the neighborhood with her during night. She actually knows more sims than the others, even if half of them are ghosts. (There's a cemetery nearby, haha.) Everyone gets along really well, even if I haven't really gotten to the point of introducing them to many other people in the city. They know their co-workers, but that's pretty much it. But it's cool, I'm just starting.
There's a movie thing at Finnkino tonight that we might be going to, but I don't know yet. Because of the whole hobbit-ticket-line the cinema is open throughout the night and they show all kinds of movies for a really cheap price. There's a few movies I'd like to see that they show, but we'll see. I mean it is kinda late.
Not that it'd matter much really, because I have had trouble falling asleep before 4am anyway, so I might as well use the time I'd spend tossing and turning actually doing something fun. But I yeah, that isn't for another six-ish hours so we'll see.
Anyway, I wrote a new beginning to my dragon rider story and I thought I'd post it to get some input. So here you go.
Pie out.
~~~~~~
I was supposed to wait in line for tickets for the Hobbit-premiere, but thank god we didn't do that, because it's snowing. Snowing! Although I did take an 1.5h walk around the city. It was nice, although I am still kinda damp. And cold, hrr.
That said, I'm going to Kuopio tomorrow. And seeing as we're not gonna go to the Hobbit-premiere as planned, I'm gonna be there until Christmas. Just fyi. I'm gonna just be hanging at Gigantti for the whole of December, haha.
I've been playing a lot of Sims3 lately. That's actually why I didn't write last week, I meant to write but then I accidentally played Sims for the whole evening. Anyway, I bought this additional city and with it came..... DRAGONS! YEAH! Well, baby dragons, but they're super cute and spit out rainbow sparkles. They're technically an item, I think? Like they're not pets, like cats and dogs and horses, but they hatch and stand on the floor and you can pick them up and carry them on your shoulder and feed them and I don't even know all the things you can do with them. Anyway.
So naturally I made Robin and Carina! With Dragon Valley (that's the name of the neighborhood) came a few really cute fantasy-themed outfits, so that was fun. I think they look pretty good. They also have a dog (based on Robin's dragon) called Taffy, because he's a golden-yellow-brown color and why the fuck not. They also have a cat because Tiinu wanted to make one. She's called Marianne Fazer, because Tiinu is a chocoholic.
So far they haven't done much. Robin is a police officer and Carina is pursuing politics, working as a coffeerunner at the city hall. The cat is actually nocturnal, and it's kinda silly when she's always up when everyone else goes to bed, so I just explore the neighborhood with her during night. She actually knows more sims than the others, even if half of them are ghosts. (There's a cemetery nearby, haha.) Everyone gets along really well, even if I haven't really gotten to the point of introducing them to many other people in the city. They know their co-workers, but that's pretty much it. But it's cool, I'm just starting.
There's a movie thing at Finnkino tonight that we might be going to, but I don't know yet. Because of the whole hobbit-ticket-line the cinema is open throughout the night and they show all kinds of movies for a really cheap price. There's a few movies I'd like to see that they show, but we'll see. I mean it is kinda late.
Not that it'd matter much really, because I have had trouble falling asleep before 4am anyway, so I might as well use the time I'd spend tossing and turning actually doing something fun. But I yeah, that isn't for another six-ish hours so we'll see.
Anyway, I wrote a new beginning to my dragon rider story and I thought I'd post it to get some input. So here you go.
Pie out.
~~~~~~
“That
is the most idiotic thing I have heard.”
Timmy's
already pinkish face flushed scarlet with anger, and the stone he
flicked sank without skipping because of the too hard throw. With a
huff he turned to face Camilla, who was the very picture of calmness,
weighing a stone in her plump hand and pointedly not looking
at Timmy.
“I
heard Mr. Parrish talking to my mom,” he said with a surprising
amount of conviction. “And he said –”
“I
don't care what Mr. Parrish said,” Camilla interrupted.
“There is simply no way the King is a part of some weirdo
cult trying to take over the world.” She pushed her ink black curls
behind her ear and flicked the stone, scoring an impressive 16 skips
before the stone disappeared under the small waves.
Mr.
Parrish – who was the town's merchant and as such the only person
to ever visit more urban areas of the Kingdom – was a good source
of capital-gossip, but he had a tendency to get fixated on all sorts
of conspiracy theories, and sometimes it was hard to know which of
his stories were true and which figments of his imagination, caused
by his slight paranoia. He was a good man, if a bit confused. This
particular rumor about the King being a weird cult leader without
anyone knowing had started after his last visit to the
capital, when he had allegedly seen a group of hooded figures enter
through a hole in the wall around the castle. In a small town like
Lendá every gossip was big news, so the story had blown somewhat out
of proportion, but it's unlikely anyone took the poor man seriously.
Peter,
who had so far been just quietly listening to the exchange, decided
to chime in with, “No, I'm sure it's true. Just like that time he
said there is a hidden island in the middle of the Western Sea
inhabited by a fierce tribe of dragon warriors, despite decades
of trading West with no one ever stumbling across it.” He smirked
as Camilla giggled. Timmy sat down on a rock with another huff and
crossed his arms. “Come on, Timmy, we're not making fun of you,”
Peter said and clapped Timmy on the shoulder. “It's just, old man
Parrish's stories have really been farfetched recently.”
“I
reckon...” The three pairs of eyes turned to look up where I was
sitting on top of the large boulder – referred to as the Throne,
due to it's chair-like shape – and I scratched my cheek absently.
“I reckon anything's possible, really. Not saying it's likely, but
how exciting would it be? I mean, a secret organization trying to
enslave the world? It would be a proper adventure to put a stop to
that, eh?” I grinned madly at my friends, Timmy and Camilla wearing
twin expressions of amusement and Peter's grin growing by the minute.
Finally he burst out laughing.
“Really,
Robin,” he said between chuckles. “Is adventure all you ever
think about?”
I
shrugged and hopped off the Throne, bending down to sift through the
stones, looking for a good, round one. “Not really,” I said,
picking one up and throwing it up and down in my hand for a bit.
“Sometimes I think about kissing your sister, but I think that
would make things a bit weird for all of us, eh?” I flashed him a
wide smile as I stood up, and flicked the stone across the river.
From the corner of my eye I could see Peter open and close his mouth
for a while until finally sighing and shaking his head. The stone
sank underwater with a small 'blub' after 15 skips and turned back to
my friends, grin still firmly in place. Camilla was barely containing
her laughter whereas Timmy was starting to look uncomfortable.
“I
really doubt Lucy would be interested in you,” Peter finally said
and flicked his own stone across, scoring only eight. I shrugged
again.
“I
don't know, I do come from a very good family. I think she would be
lucky to marry me! Although I suppose she has seemed a lot
more interested in Robbie, so I guess I'll stand down
quietly.”
Peter raised his eyebrow and I
saw a small smile tugging
at the corner of his lips, which he promptly hid by bending down and
picking up another stone. This time he scored 13.
“Speaking
of families,” Camilla intervened,
“it's getting kinda late, isn't
it? We'd
better head home soon.” We
all muttered in
agreement and picked up our
stuff. I flicked one last stone, still
not managing to best Timmy's amazing
18 skips,
and we left back to the village with Timmy declared
The Ruler Of Everything for tomorrow, wearing a flower crown Camilla
had made at some point during the afternoon.
That night I dreamed of adventures.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Movember
Good morning.
You failed to write anything, again!
It's the second time in what, two months? You can't keep doing this.
We're writing this together. And if we're going to be writing this together, we have to both write.
So get it together!
I don't have a lot of time every Tuesday either. Like today. I have to be at the university in an hour and a half, and then sit there on lectures until half past eight. (Then again, I have nothing at all tomorrow, so maybe I can't complain.) But I still always write something, because that's what we agreed. You haven't even done any extra posts, and we're still waiting for that one Cinnamon-illustration-extra-one that you had to have up months ago.
Ok, to the point.
It's November again, and it's been November for long enough that you really start seeing people having moustaches. Because someone somewhere has decided it's a good idea for men to grow moustaches in November.
And I can say, I really don't like that.
Before I go any further I want to note that when I'm talking about moustaches, I'm talking about just moustaches. A moustache with some kind of a beard is a completely different matter.
Ok, so my point is this: moustaches do not look good. On pretty much anyone. Well, on anyone. Of course, if someone has a moustache always, you get used to it so it's not so bad any more. But as a rule, if you're thinking "should I grow a moustache?" (and yes, I realise that you aren't capable of doing that, but you get the point), the answer is always NO. You should not grow a moustache.
I actually saw on facebook, that someone had done a study about facial hair. They had taken three pictures of the same man, one with a beard (+moustache, obviously, and not a huge beard), one with just a moustache, and one clean shaven. Then they showed the pictures to groups of women. I suppose only one picture to any woman. The results were something like this:
The clean shaven man was most commonly seen as trustworthy and nice.
The one with the beard was thought to be sexy.
The one with just the moustache was creepy.
And that was all the same guy.
So yeah, science says don't grow a moustache. Unless you want to look creepy. Or you grow a beard to go along with it.
Of course there are people who a beard doesn't suit either. But I'm not going to get into that, because the question of if someone should have a beard, and what kind of a beard, depends so much on the person, and what kind of a beard will grow if they do start growing one.
But yeah, I don't like moustaches.
On another note, I'm a little confused about the fact that for the first time in almost two years my hair is starting to be so long I have to actually brush it every now and then.
I don't like that too much at the moment, because it's starting to be so cold that brushing the hair makes it all electric and stick to my face and hands and everywhere, and I ran out of conditioner some time in the summer and haven't bothered to buy more, even though I know what would help.
Because apparently I don't at the moment have any bigger problems in my life. And that's kinda nice.
~matu
You failed to write anything, again!
It's the second time in what, two months? You can't keep doing this.
We're writing this together. And if we're going to be writing this together, we have to both write.
So get it together!
I don't have a lot of time every Tuesday either. Like today. I have to be at the university in an hour and a half, and then sit there on lectures until half past eight. (Then again, I have nothing at all tomorrow, so maybe I can't complain.) But I still always write something, because that's what we agreed. You haven't even done any extra posts, and we're still waiting for that one Cinnamon-illustration-extra-one that you had to have up months ago.
Ok, to the point.
It's November again, and it's been November for long enough that you really start seeing people having moustaches. Because someone somewhere has decided it's a good idea for men to grow moustaches in November.
And I can say, I really don't like that.
Before I go any further I want to note that when I'm talking about moustaches, I'm talking about just moustaches. A moustache with some kind of a beard is a completely different matter.
Ok, so my point is this: moustaches do not look good. On pretty much anyone. Well, on anyone. Of course, if someone has a moustache always, you get used to it so it's not so bad any more. But as a rule, if you're thinking "should I grow a moustache?" (and yes, I realise that you aren't capable of doing that, but you get the point), the answer is always NO. You should not grow a moustache.
I actually saw on facebook, that someone had done a study about facial hair. They had taken three pictures of the same man, one with a beard (+moustache, obviously, and not a huge beard), one with just a moustache, and one clean shaven. Then they showed the pictures to groups of women. I suppose only one picture to any woman. The results were something like this:
The clean shaven man was most commonly seen as trustworthy and nice.
The one with the beard was thought to be sexy.
The one with just the moustache was creepy.
And that was all the same guy.
So yeah, science says don't grow a moustache. Unless you want to look creepy. Or you grow a beard to go along with it.
Of course there are people who a beard doesn't suit either. But I'm not going to get into that, because the question of if someone should have a beard, and what kind of a beard, depends so much on the person, and what kind of a beard will grow if they do start growing one.
But yeah, I don't like moustaches.
On another note, I'm a little confused about the fact that for the first time in almost two years my hair is starting to be so long I have to actually brush it every now and then.
I don't like that too much at the moment, because it's starting to be so cold that brushing the hair makes it all electric and stick to my face and hands and everywhere, and I ran out of conditioner some time in the summer and haven't bothered to buy more, even though I know what would help.
Because apparently I don't at the moment have any bigger problems in my life. And that's kinda nice.
~matu
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
The Long Earth
Hello.
First. 11. or 12. isn't too bad. It's still almost two weeks before Christmas. I'd come then already too, but I have a last lecture on the 15th. Though I'm thinking if it's just a lecture and no exam, I might just skip it and come on Friday too. Because that's the kind of thing you can do when you're in university.
Second, it's just three posts you have to do before this year's Christmas calendar -story. That's not a lot. Though if you want to write stories already, I can't really stop you. But there are a lot of other really interesting things out there too.
Ok, then to the point. I have been reading this book, The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. And I thought I'd talk about that, since the basic setting in the book is pretty interesting.
The point in the book is this: there are parallel universes out there. No one knows, how many, because no one has ever reached the end. But the numbers go at least up to seven figures into one direction from this Earth. There is a similar Earth in every one of those universes, which geography more or less matches the geography on the Earth we know. They're kind of in a line, so that you can move from one to the next to the next to the next, always into the same relative spot. So you only move from a universe to the next, but not into any direction as we understand it. It might be that eventually you'll come around and end back on what the people in the book call the Datum Earth, the original Earth where humans evolved.
Oh, right, cause there aren't humans on any of the other Earths.
Ok, so for a long time people didn't know this was possible. Or that the other universes even exist. But then, what I think was said to be 2015, so not so far away in the future as scifi usually is, a crazy physicist figured out how to make this small gadget (that gets it's energy from a potato) that enables you to step from one Earth to the next.
And that, of course, drives people crazy. Because the Earth is getting pretty crowded, and suddenly there are all there other Earths that you can get to just by clicking a swich and have the whole universe for yourself, if you just move out long enough that no one else bothers to come out that far.
And this people just taking off and leaving everything behind and finding a nice corner of a nice Earth just for themselves causes some problems on the Datum, obviously.
And I say nice Earth, because the Earths aren't exactly the same. Even though they're more or less the same, some of them are for example covered in ice, or water, of no ice at all. The climates vary. On some Earths the meteor that killed the dunosaurs never hit, and they're still there. You know, like they once were one Earth, and then just started to evolve into slightly different directions. The time is the same on all the Earths, so basically while travelling through the Earths you can see all the possibilities of what the Earth could be, if something had gone a little differently.
About half way through the book I realised that it's in fact the first book of a series of four, of which the last one hasn't come out yet. So apparently I'll have one more series to wait the next book to be published to.
Ok, so the reason I wanted to talk about this is not only that I really like the book, but because the idea of multiple parallel similar universes is quite fascinating. Of course I don't think it's true, because if there are multiple universes (like some physicists now think there might be, though I'm not sure if there is any actual evidence for it), they probably are not similar. Because I don't see a reason why they would be the same. Then again, I guess it's not impossible. Though I don't know really anything about this level of physics, so I think I'll just leave these questions to be answered by someone who might have any chance of doing it.
Anyway, I think the idea of the evolution of Earths in a multiverse is interesting. You can see all the what ifs that you might have about what the Earth is like.
I'm starting to realise I don't really know what to say about this...
The point is, that the thought of there being multiple Earts that you can just travel through for as long as you like, being literally the only person in the world most of the time... It's pretty...
I don't think it's possible for a person to imagine truly being the only person in the world. A part of me would really like to know what it's like. Simply because it's a situation no one in the world has ever been in.
The point is that the idea of millions of other Earths in the reach of humans is... well, actually kinda sad. The human kind has already almost screwed up one planet, they shouldn't get another.
... it's...
On millions of Earths there is so much we don't know, and all I want to do is just go out there and see the things and know all the things.
There is so much to learn on all those worlds.
And that blows my mind.
And then I have to remind myself, that I'm reading fiction, and humans don't have access to other worlds, and they probably never will, because they probably don't exist, at least not in the way the book sees them.
And I have to say, I am a little disappointed.
~matu
First. 11. or 12. isn't too bad. It's still almost two weeks before Christmas. I'd come then already too, but I have a last lecture on the 15th. Though I'm thinking if it's just a lecture and no exam, I might just skip it and come on Friday too. Because that's the kind of thing you can do when you're in university.
Second, it's just three posts you have to do before this year's Christmas calendar -story. That's not a lot. Though if you want to write stories already, I can't really stop you. But there are a lot of other really interesting things out there too.
Ok, then to the point. I have been reading this book, The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. And I thought I'd talk about that, since the basic setting in the book is pretty interesting.
The point in the book is this: there are parallel universes out there. No one knows, how many, because no one has ever reached the end. But the numbers go at least up to seven figures into one direction from this Earth. There is a similar Earth in every one of those universes, which geography more or less matches the geography on the Earth we know. They're kind of in a line, so that you can move from one to the next to the next to the next, always into the same relative spot. So you only move from a universe to the next, but not into any direction as we understand it. It might be that eventually you'll come around and end back on what the people in the book call the Datum Earth, the original Earth where humans evolved.
Oh, right, cause there aren't humans on any of the other Earths.
Ok, so for a long time people didn't know this was possible. Or that the other universes even exist. But then, what I think was said to be 2015, so not so far away in the future as scifi usually is, a crazy physicist figured out how to make this small gadget (that gets it's energy from a potato) that enables you to step from one Earth to the next.
And that, of course, drives people crazy. Because the Earth is getting pretty crowded, and suddenly there are all there other Earths that you can get to just by clicking a swich and have the whole universe for yourself, if you just move out long enough that no one else bothers to come out that far.
And this people just taking off and leaving everything behind and finding a nice corner of a nice Earth just for themselves causes some problems on the Datum, obviously.
And I say nice Earth, because the Earths aren't exactly the same. Even though they're more or less the same, some of them are for example covered in ice, or water, of no ice at all. The climates vary. On some Earths the meteor that killed the dunosaurs never hit, and they're still there. You know, like they once were one Earth, and then just started to evolve into slightly different directions. The time is the same on all the Earths, so basically while travelling through the Earths you can see all the possibilities of what the Earth could be, if something had gone a little differently.
About half way through the book I realised that it's in fact the first book of a series of four, of which the last one hasn't come out yet. So apparently I'll have one more series to wait the next book to be published to.
Ok, so the reason I wanted to talk about this is not only that I really like the book, but because the idea of multiple parallel similar universes is quite fascinating. Of course I don't think it's true, because if there are multiple universes (like some physicists now think there might be, though I'm not sure if there is any actual evidence for it), they probably are not similar. Because I don't see a reason why they would be the same. Then again, I guess it's not impossible. Though I don't know really anything about this level of physics, so I think I'll just leave these questions to be answered by someone who might have any chance of doing it.
Anyway, I think the idea of the evolution of Earths in a multiverse is interesting. You can see all the what ifs that you might have about what the Earth is like.
I'm starting to realise I don't really know what to say about this...
The point is, that the thought of there being multiple Earts that you can just travel through for as long as you like, being literally the only person in the world most of the time... It's pretty...
I don't think it's possible for a person to imagine truly being the only person in the world. A part of me would really like to know what it's like. Simply because it's a situation no one in the world has ever been in.
The point is that the idea of millions of other Earths in the reach of humans is... well, actually kinda sad. The human kind has already almost screwed up one planet, they shouldn't get another.
... it's...
On millions of Earths there is so much we don't know, and all I want to do is just go out there and see the things and know all the things.
There is so much to learn on all those worlds.
And that blows my mind.
And then I have to remind myself, that I'm reading fiction, and humans don't have access to other worlds, and they probably never will, because they probably don't exist, at least not in the way the book sees them.
And I have to say, I am a little disappointed.
~matu
Friday, November 7, 2014
Dates
Hello.
A lot of things are coming out soon. Like the 200th episode of SPN (11.11.), the remakes of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (21.11.) and the final Hobbit movie (10.12., which is apparently a week before it comes out in the US, whaaa?). So a lot of things to look forward to, but I don't really have anything else. Just waiting. Although I should do a lot of stuff, like finish my cosplay, and write some more dragons and probably finish that drawing I've been working on for the last two weeks, not to mention the Cinnamon-pictures. But I just, ugh. I'm feeling a bit down, idk. Well, not down, just.. uninterested.
In other news, we're getting a TV show of Good Omens???? Like, I knew we were getting a radio adaptation, but apparently we're also getting a TV show?? AWESOME!
Oh, by the way, I'm probably gonna come to Kuopio after the Hobbit-premiere, so yeah. I kinda wanted to come right at the beginning, but I guess 11th or 12th isn't too bad.
It's hard to come up with stuff to write here, you know that? I'm kinda looking forward to December, so I don't have to think of anything to say, I can just write (it's my turn to start btw). Can I just write before that too? My life is terribly empty, but I wanna write fiction. All the fiction! You never did say anything about my Halloween drabble, did you like it? I could write more about those guys, I really like them, haha. I have all kinds of things about them already planned out, so you know.
I'm in a very Star Trek-y mood, I wanna come home so I can watch the third season with Iita.
Anyway, I don't really have anything else. We're gonna play something with Oona, so I'm gonna go now, bye. (TELL ME WHAT YOU LIKED OF MY STORY AND ALSO IF YOU DON'T MIND ME WRITING MORE)
Pie out.
A lot of things are coming out soon. Like the 200th episode of SPN (11.11.), the remakes of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (21.11.) and the final Hobbit movie (10.12., which is apparently a week before it comes out in the US, whaaa?). So a lot of things to look forward to, but I don't really have anything else. Just waiting. Although I should do a lot of stuff, like finish my cosplay, and write some more dragons and probably finish that drawing I've been working on for the last two weeks, not to mention the Cinnamon-pictures. But I just, ugh. I'm feeling a bit down, idk. Well, not down, just.. uninterested.
In other news, we're getting a TV show of Good Omens???? Like, I knew we were getting a radio adaptation, but apparently we're also getting a TV show?? AWESOME!
Oh, by the way, I'm probably gonna come to Kuopio after the Hobbit-premiere, so yeah. I kinda wanted to come right at the beginning, but I guess 11th or 12th isn't too bad.
It's hard to come up with stuff to write here, you know that? I'm kinda looking forward to December, so I don't have to think of anything to say, I can just write (it's my turn to start btw). Can I just write before that too? My life is terribly empty, but I wanna write fiction. All the fiction! You never did say anything about my Halloween drabble, did you like it? I could write more about those guys, I really like them, haha. I have all kinds of things about them already planned out, so you know.
I'm in a very Star Trek-y mood, I wanna come home so I can watch the third season with Iita.
Anyway, I don't really have anything else. We're gonna play something with Oona, so I'm gonna go now, bye. (TELL ME WHAT YOU LIKED OF MY STORY AND ALSO IF YOU DON'T MIND ME WRITING MORE)
Pie out.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Reading and the future of the human race
Good morning.
Apparently we have found something that we can have an actual conversation about, since I am going to answer to your answer to me.
First, about the reading and watching TV. You said in your last post I mean TV series and movies and videos have the exact same purpose as books: to tell a story. They tell it differently, sure, but they do tell it nonetheless.
And obviously, you're right. The purpose of both is to tell a story, and they both do it very well. That's not why I think people should read. The point is pretty much summarised in a song that I can't find on youtube right now, because apparently someone has thought the content is inappropriate and told youtube to block the video. They've been actually doing that a lot lately, which is really annoying, because at some point you couldn't find most of Dr. Horrible's music up there, because someone had marked them as inappropriate. Quite honestly, I'm pretty sure no matter what you look at, there is always someone who thinks it's inappropriate.
Anyway, back to my point. Here we go. Ok, so I'm not sure if you can see that video. But still. It's actually about A Game of Thrones, the point about how people don't read is pretty much the point I'm trying to make.
The point is that when our little brother says watching TV is just simply so much easier, he's right. Watching TV is a lot easier that reading a book. Even though listening, which is pretty much required to watch TV, is an active process and takes surprisingly a lot of effort (which I just had to explain in an exam a couple of weeks ago), reading takes even more effort than that. And somehow I see that the effort you put into it makes the time you spend reading a book more valuable than the time you spend watching a movie.
And yes, I do realise that this is a bad argument, because not always the way that takes more effort is the better way to do things, and I don't mean to undervalue the audiovisual format as a means of telling a story. There are series and movies that I keep watching over and over, because they're good.
What I'm saying is that it's a little bit the same thing as calculating easy things in your mind compared to doing it with a calculator. Sure, it's easier to type up 134,67+87,23 on a calculator than it is to count them together in your head, but you are perfectly capable of doing the summing up yourself, and every time you don't, it makes you a little lazier and your mind a little duller.
Because when you're watching TV, you don't have to think nearly as much as when you read. And thinking is generally good for you.
Another thing that you said about in your last post was nazis. So I want to say a few words about that. Before I start, though, I have to point out that I am definitely not a historian, and I completely screwed up even the lower level of high school history, so there might be things that I'm simply wrong about, not knowing any better. Although in IB history we did concentrate a lot on wars, including WWII, so I know more about this that I know about most thing in the history of history.
Ok, so my fist point is this: I don't think nazis were evil. I think Hitler was seriously screwed up, and had enough charisma to make people think what he wanted to do was a good idea. Which obviously it wasn't. But people feel the need to belong, and when everyone else started to join this party that we know as nazis, others kinda went with the flow.
And I'm not sure if you can say Hitler was evil either. He was just someone who really hated jews and gay people and non-white people and got way too much power. Today there are still people who hate jews and gays and non-white people and there are a bunch of them in power in different countries, but you don't call them evil. You call them idiots. Of course, I'm quite certain none of them would start a war to get rid of those people, so that makes a huge difference there.
So, thinking some group of people is inherently better than another group of people is ridiculous. Or at least thinking it's a good idea to kill everyone in the world you don't like is ridiculous. But the other point that they had, about trying to make the human race better, that I don't find ridiculous. Of course they were doing it all wrong, and they had a wrong idea of what better means.
Thought I realise that what better does mean is something that if you did start a conversation about it would never end. But I'd like to think, that everyone would agree on the fact that healthier, more intelligent people is better than sickly, stupid ones.
Ok, my point is this. With the progresses in technology it is pretty much possible to sequence the genome of an unborn child. Or, even better, if you're doing it in vitro, it is possible to check the twenty embryos' genome to check for hereditary disease and stuff, and then try to implant the ones with the best genomes. And I have heard people object to this with the fact that we shouldn't be the ones to choose who gets to live and die (since blobs of cells are already human beings and all), and that will lead to breeding better humans, just like the nazis did. And what I have to say to that is "Ok, so what?". The fact that nazis did something doesn't mean it's bad. Some of those embryos are going to die anyway, no matter what you choose. If there is going to be only one child, isn't it better that that child has good genes and not bad ones? How can it be bad to make sure the future child doesn't have hereditary diseases? The child is better off healthy. The human race is better of healthy.
Of course I realise that genetics isn't everything. Epigenetics and other environmental factors make a difference to what a person ends up like. But if it's possible to ensure that at least a child has good genes, why is that so terribly wrong?
Ok, imagine a situation, when the human race realises there really isn't space here on Earth, and we have used up all the resources, and the Earth can't sustain more than a billion people any more until it's given time to recover. (I don't know if this situation could ever come along, but still.) What does the human kind do?
Ok, knowing the human kind, probably nothing.
But I see that the rational thing to do would be to figure out which traits will best ensure the survival of the future humans, and ensure that the next, much smaller generation of humans comes from the people who express those genes strongly. And then that generation will be the children of all of human race.
The problem is that no one will ever agree to this. Because there will be ethical debate about whether or not it's ok to stop the people with asthma, heart disease, diabetes, cancer or something else running in the family from having kids. And that ethical discussion will go on until the human kind has died out. Ok, I'm pretty sure you can't rid the human kind of all hereditary diseases, especially since to my understanding everyone has a few recessive alleles for some diseases in their genome.
The point is, I don't see how trying to make sure future generations have a little less problems arising from their genome than we do is a bad thing.
I have actually a very vague idea about writing a book some time in the future about a tribe that are some of the descendants of that small generation of people who's parents are chosen to keep the human race alive with their good genes.
Ookay, that's probably enough for today.
By the way, I am asking once again, where are those Cinnamon illustrations?
I'll hear from you on Friday.
~matu
Apparently we have found something that we can have an actual conversation about, since I am going to answer to your answer to me.
First, about the reading and watching TV. You said in your last post I mean TV series and movies and videos have the exact same purpose as books: to tell a story. They tell it differently, sure, but they do tell it nonetheless.
And obviously, you're right. The purpose of both is to tell a story, and they both do it very well. That's not why I think people should read. The point is pretty much summarised in a song that I can't find on youtube right now, because apparently someone has thought the content is inappropriate and told youtube to block the video. They've been actually doing that a lot lately, which is really annoying, because at some point you couldn't find most of Dr. Horrible's music up there, because someone had marked them as inappropriate. Quite honestly, I'm pretty sure no matter what you look at, there is always someone who thinks it's inappropriate.
Anyway, back to my point. Here we go. Ok, so I'm not sure if you can see that video. But still. It's actually about A Game of Thrones, the point about how people don't read is pretty much the point I'm trying to make.
The point is that when our little brother says watching TV is just simply so much easier, he's right. Watching TV is a lot easier that reading a book. Even though listening, which is pretty much required to watch TV, is an active process and takes surprisingly a lot of effort (which I just had to explain in an exam a couple of weeks ago), reading takes even more effort than that. And somehow I see that the effort you put into it makes the time you spend reading a book more valuable than the time you spend watching a movie.
And yes, I do realise that this is a bad argument, because not always the way that takes more effort is the better way to do things, and I don't mean to undervalue the audiovisual format as a means of telling a story. There are series and movies that I keep watching over and over, because they're good.
What I'm saying is that it's a little bit the same thing as calculating easy things in your mind compared to doing it with a calculator. Sure, it's easier to type up 134,67+87,23 on a calculator than it is to count them together in your head, but you are perfectly capable of doing the summing up yourself, and every time you don't, it makes you a little lazier and your mind a little duller.
Because when you're watching TV, you don't have to think nearly as much as when you read. And thinking is generally good for you.
Another thing that you said about in your last post was nazis. So I want to say a few words about that. Before I start, though, I have to point out that I am definitely not a historian, and I completely screwed up even the lower level of high school history, so there might be things that I'm simply wrong about, not knowing any better. Although in IB history we did concentrate a lot on wars, including WWII, so I know more about this that I know about most thing in the history of history.
Ok, so my fist point is this: I don't think nazis were evil. I think Hitler was seriously screwed up, and had enough charisma to make people think what he wanted to do was a good idea. Which obviously it wasn't. But people feel the need to belong, and when everyone else started to join this party that we know as nazis, others kinda went with the flow.
And I'm not sure if you can say Hitler was evil either. He was just someone who really hated jews and gay people and non-white people and got way too much power. Today there are still people who hate jews and gays and non-white people and there are a bunch of them in power in different countries, but you don't call them evil. You call them idiots. Of course, I'm quite certain none of them would start a war to get rid of those people, so that makes a huge difference there.
So, thinking some group of people is inherently better than another group of people is ridiculous. Or at least thinking it's a good idea to kill everyone in the world you don't like is ridiculous. But the other point that they had, about trying to make the human race better, that I don't find ridiculous. Of course they were doing it all wrong, and they had a wrong idea of what better means.
Thought I realise that what better does mean is something that if you did start a conversation about it would never end. But I'd like to think, that everyone would agree on the fact that healthier, more intelligent people is better than sickly, stupid ones.
Ok, my point is this. With the progresses in technology it is pretty much possible to sequence the genome of an unborn child. Or, even better, if you're doing it in vitro, it is possible to check the twenty embryos' genome to check for hereditary disease and stuff, and then try to implant the ones with the best genomes. And I have heard people object to this with the fact that we shouldn't be the ones to choose who gets to live and die (since blobs of cells are already human beings and all), and that will lead to breeding better humans, just like the nazis did. And what I have to say to that is "Ok, so what?". The fact that nazis did something doesn't mean it's bad. Some of those embryos are going to die anyway, no matter what you choose. If there is going to be only one child, isn't it better that that child has good genes and not bad ones? How can it be bad to make sure the future child doesn't have hereditary diseases? The child is better off healthy. The human race is better of healthy.
Of course I realise that genetics isn't everything. Epigenetics and other environmental factors make a difference to what a person ends up like. But if it's possible to ensure that at least a child has good genes, why is that so terribly wrong?
Ok, imagine a situation, when the human race realises there really isn't space here on Earth, and we have used up all the resources, and the Earth can't sustain more than a billion people any more until it's given time to recover. (I don't know if this situation could ever come along, but still.) What does the human kind do?
Ok, knowing the human kind, probably nothing.
But I see that the rational thing to do would be to figure out which traits will best ensure the survival of the future humans, and ensure that the next, much smaller generation of humans comes from the people who express those genes strongly. And then that generation will be the children of all of human race.
The problem is that no one will ever agree to this. Because there will be ethical debate about whether or not it's ok to stop the people with asthma, heart disease, diabetes, cancer or something else running in the family from having kids. And that ethical discussion will go on until the human kind has died out. Ok, I'm pretty sure you can't rid the human kind of all hereditary diseases, especially since to my understanding everyone has a few recessive alleles for some diseases in their genome.
The point is, I don't see how trying to make sure future generations have a little less problems arising from their genome than we do is a bad thing.
I have actually a very vague idea about writing a book some time in the future about a tribe that are some of the descendants of that small generation of people who's parents are chosen to keep the human race alive with their good genes.
Ookay, that's probably enough for today.
By the way, I am asking once again, where are those Cinnamon illustrations?
I'll hear from you on Friday.
~matu
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