EYE: Saddam's Execution, America's Monkey Pot

Eve of Year's End: America ushers in a new year with the death of dictator Saddam Hussein. Ever since the American involvement with their Iraqi monkey pot, life for Americans and Iraqis alike has never been the same. If nobody went in to dethrone a dictator, then nobody would be stuck with having to keep the pieces somewhat together. It's just like a monkey pot: If you don't release your grip, you can't get free. It's even worse when there's a very compelling to not get free.

Well anyway, Saddam's dead now, I think. And...I don't think things will just magically get better. Happy new year's eve.

Curiosity Killed

When a one is born, one possesses a sense of wonder. As one discovers that stuff like fires burn the skin and blades cut the flesh, one learns to avoid this and that. Time passes...and the "knowledge" ossifies... Soon, there are "normal" things that one comes into safe contact with on a daily basis, with everything else being "weird" and to be avoided.

Adults lose their sense of wonder and innocent curiosity somewhere along their maturation. Present an adult with an example of prime weirdness and the adult may just seize up. Present a child with the same and you may just find curiosity.

Where did the difference come from? Apparently, when one grows up, one finds that the world is a serious, dangerous place. Everything strange and unknown becomes a threat of bodily harm...a spectre in the face of stability and all things orderly and good. What killed curiousity?

A Wet Season

I feel like a character in a gritty film noir story, with nearly incessant rain and a very nice gloomy landscape. Gloomy...just like the days before Ragnarok. Mind, this isn't a bad thing to me, since it also means cooler weather. I like things cool to chilly, though not permanently since I'd get tired of perpetually being in winter wear. Clothing is as much functional as it is fashionable, after all. There's no way I'm gona wear a slip when the mercury's scraping the bottom...

I can't bring myself to trust authority. Especially human authority. Where there is a concentration of power, there is potential for abuse. Granted, absolute authority under a perfect leadership would lead to unprecedented progress...but that's just like hoping that Communism would succeed: There is no perfect human system out there. As usual, I'm amazed at how people can respect authority. Power is as much given as it is taken. Much of what powerful people have is quite imaginary. A dictator may command the military, but the military's just as equipped to squash him like a bug. A rich person may find the money evaporating in the next recession.

The Thrill Of Discovery

There can be few allegations more insulting than that some foreigner "discovered" your land. I mean, if there are already human natives living on that land, others should have no right to claim that they "discovered" the place. Yanou, dibs on the "discovery" thing since you're already living there. Moreover, crediting someone else for discovering your homeland is, in effect, declaring that someone's superior and that their explorers have more of an ability to recognize where you are and how to name your land than you do.

Techno-Dystopia

Convenience through convergence. The greater convenience technology brings is tempered by the lack of privacy that will become a necessary evil. Every government department will receive news that you moved from one house to another without your having to lift a finger...and they can just as easily know where to send that next late tax notice...

While the powers-that-be may tout the numerous benefits of progress, technology and the future, I think society is moving more towards a dystopia than a utopia. After all, the cyberpunk novels have been written about zaibatsus and how these giant firms begin to dominate the cyber-world. Greater and greater "security measures" are being devised to protect the rights of the rich as much as they are around to prevent crimes against the common citizens.

Perhaps a time will come, in the not-so-distant future, when mega-firms become veritable media monopolies in and of themselves. The authorities may have allied themselves so closely to these firms that there will be little room on the legitimate cyber-world to do anything that isn't strictly within the stipulated laws. And in such a world where cameras are virtually invisible even to the trained eye, there may be no safe haven for those who wish to oppose or cut themselves off from the authority-dominated society.

Some say that privacy is for criminals, who do not wish their evil deeds to be made known. But what of honest citizens who wish to stand up for their rights when the authorities think otherwise? What of those who just wish to not have some Big Brother staring over their shoulders? With the advent of new privacy-free technologies like e-voting, the epoch of a techno-dystopia may be sooner than some think.

New Perfume!

My mom's friend passed on some of her extra makeup stuff, and they had the Ralph Lauren and Dior perfumes I was kinda hoping to get. No more hoping! Oh, and a nice bunch of nail polish, too. That'd save me some dough this Christmas. That's not to mention that I finally have some more stuff to fill my trinket rack. At the moment, my table just looks untidy. But with this stuff neatly organized on a trinket rack, I'm pretty sure it can look a whole not more presentable. Neatness expected to last till I get back to school...after which notes and whatnot shall start piling up as I sink back into neatness empathy.

Mewwy Squishmas, everyone.

A New Bag

I got myself a new backpack. It's chocolate brown and has pouches on the exterior. I'm a tad too lazy to take pics at the moment. Anyway, it's pretty imo and was bargained down to a decent price. However, I feel it's a tad big...hmm... I mean you know how everything looks wonderful the first time you see it, and then you wana buy it, and then make an effort to buy it and then sit around wondering what the hell you've just done. Anyway, I doubt this would be a terribly bad purchase...but I guess it could've been more carefully considered.

A Humorless God?

Christmas is coming, and I find it strange that while people may engage in their yuletide cheer, they also believe that their Christian God is some humorless being. I mean, humans may be overly serious. However, what do they think God is? Human?

Everything written in what they believe to be religious texts are taken literally, and often out of context. And that's assuming that what was written was meant to be serious reading in the first place. After all, when you're almighty, there is probably some room for fun and laughter. You'd probably be entitled to that, at least.

So what if the entirety of creation were as such just because some almighty decided to have a spot of fun? Reality could be a part of the joke, and naturally the denizens of reality wouldn't be in on that joke or they would cease to be amusing.

That's not to assume, of course, that reality is most certainly a joke. Some may think such a hypothetical situation is blasphemous. However, such a notion would assume that the Christian God has no room for amusement... I just think humans are overly dour and serious about life. I guess that's a result of short mortal lives. Fragile existences that depend on their humorless god.

The Supernatural

It appears that Hollywood has warmed up to the idea of the supernatural. New shows featuring the supernatural no longer portray anything even vaguely supernatural as something satanic or otherwise sinister. There are times when one may wonder if the pagans have finally made it to the production teams, or that the producers have warmed up to the idea that pentacles aren't normally used to summon demons. Anyway, I guess that some of the more conservative christians would be up in arms against this fairly harmless portrayal of what some may regard as witchcraft.

It's just interesting that some things the people held as folk beliefs are now being shown in terms of what they were originally meant to represent. They were originally framed in the contexts of truly dark and evil-looking crime scenes involving ritual killers or demon worshippers.

Warlock: A Daemon's Musings

Unlike the perceptions forced upon the minds of the gullible by popular fiction, mind-control need not be of the sort that renders an innocent maiden doe-eyed and malleable to every whimsical command. And not every daemon is capable of that sort of mind control, apparently.

I do not really like the art of persuasion. It is bad enough making people do what you want. It is, in my opinion, far worse to make them think that it was their idea in the first place. This can amount to no less than the gross violation of free will.

There are times when I do not even need verbal cues to bend another’s will. Subtle and not so subtle effects may be achieved by merely willing them. An imposition upon another’s will by a single thought. It works, yes, but it seems hardly different from persuasion.

It is nice to be able to bring ends to feuds, like that minor one with dad recently. Still, it sends shivers through one’s conscience – if one has it, that is – for thusly influencing others. After all, I think one would hardly wish to be manipulated in this way.

The Second Day

Yeah, well, this is the second day of the fallout over that argument. Dad refuses to speak to me, and I bet he's still very annoyed or something. The problem is that if he won't speak, I can't really get an apology across, and I don't actually feel like apologizing for letting him annoy me in the first place. Then again, it's likely his way of cooling off so that he can have civil conversations again.

I feel bad about it, yeah. But I also feel kinda wronged since he's known me for so long and obviously didn't detect that I was getting seriously pissed. Anyway, this reminds me how much crap parents have to put up with. He still did the laundry and put 'em where they were supposed to be. But then, I'm seldom at home enough to actually do the stuff for him, and he never asks. I find it difficult to do things when there is no coordination and no clear instructions. After all, there's a distinct chance that I'd be in the middle of doing some of the housework and he'd come in and just take over.

Oh, and I feel that he's lonely. It's weird, but he's always at home alone, watching TV and maybe going out. There really isn't much he can do to socialize besides being with the other exercise buddies. I'd want to be there for him, but we just don't have stuff to talk about. And even civil conversations are minefields. He may just step on one and set me off. Ah, well.

I Just Don't Get Dad

I don't know why, really. Dad just has this way of setting me off. Yes, and that's even with casual conversation sometimes. He doesn't usually comment on my conduct or attire or whatever. He just has a way of disagreeing with me on some stuff that I'd say, and it really irks me.

The strange thing is that it's just dad. Mom or someone else may disagree on exactly the same point but I won't find it insulting, and it seldom makes me feel like yelling at them. I do try to manage the irritation, but it just has a way of leaking out and asserting itself. Guess I'm uncomfortable with dad or maybe harbour some resentment towards him. I duno...avoiding him would avert conflict but it feels like I'm running away from the problem. I just haven't figured out how to fix it.

Anyway, he seems pissed, too. He's always like that after we have a fight. It's funny, since I'm usually the one to be overtly angry, and he's the one to burn slowly over time.

Which Box?

Newcomb's Paradox doesn't seem like much of a paradox. The assumption is that people would want the 1000 bucks in the first place. That'd be why they choose both. There is also the assumption that the really superior alien wasn't just pulling everyone's legs. There could be nothing in either box. The alien was lying.

Should the choices be already known to the alien, one would wonder why an alien would be so kind as to place a million bucks in the box chosen. Then again, if that were truly the case, then the alien would've just lied and had a good laugh out of people choosing the single box. Probability is against such people. Besides, the fun of surprising a rather superior alien who seems to know anything is probably worth a million bucks in itself

Assuming that the alien wasn't lying, however, a gambler would likely choose the mysterious million or nothing box. After all, the thousand bucks isn't fun if you never knew if your choice somehow affected your chance of getting the million.

All in all, what if the alien was just bluffing that it knew what you would think? Humans are such gullible creatures.

Test Every System

No human system is ever perfect. There are inevitably loopholes, almost always in the places where human minds seldom venture to think. The problem of "unbeatable" systems is that the encompass so much of common human trains of thought that very few people will ever muster the effort and creativity to actually beat them. There are also other systems that imply some very real penalties to those who try to beat them, and so people never do try at all.

Simply put, if everyone were to put in a bit of effort to prod at unpleasant systems at least once, and in previously unthinkable ways, it is highly probable that the systems will continually be beaten even though they have been repeatedly patched. It's such a simple thing, but it will prevent systems...or authorities...from consistently having the upper hand over everyone else...or the users.

Naw, You Tell Me

I like this youtube vid. So you have 1000 choices. Make one. Quickly. Make sure it's the best one. Can't huh. Tell ya what, 999 of them are invalid. Go on, make your choice again.

The key to satisfaction is having low expectations. I really can't disagree with a view like this. Sure, it seems hilarious at first, given how we're trained to always seek out the very best of the best. Then again, perfection does not exist in an imperfect world. By definition, the very best you can possibly choose would likely be...well...flawed in some way.

The problem here, is choice, again. In the absence of choice of some sort (perhaps by extenuating circumstances or a lack of awareness of options) will make it easier to make that choice. Easy enough. However, let some time pass and provide some superior options that can't be made because the first choice had already been made. Outcome? It is highly likely that satisfaction will be reduced as a result.

What went wrong? The first choice was the best given the circumstances. In the absence of any other choices becoming available in the near future, it was actually rather satisfactory and would have remained so. Strange...

Once Again...

It's incredible how months of mess can just...disappear. I spent like an hour and some clearing my room, and after tossing out several small plastic bags of trash, the place is magically transformed from a pigsty into something...vaguely respectable. For some reason, I can never bring myself to tidy the place during a busy semester. It's just homework after homework after homework and then projects and then some more reading on top of that. Then again, it's probably because I'm out of the home almost all the time, so I don't really get to see and become irked by the mess. Yeah. That's it. Anyway, it's just sufficient that my room's tidy enough to perform rituals in again. Now, about that demon summoning...

Another Excuse For Inaction

Everyone goes through it, so you're not alone. (You're supposed to leave it at that) I mean, there are only a few of you with that complaint. We still have to cater to the majority. (You're supposed to leave it at that, too) Ok...that sounds reasonable...

Wait a minute...where does the action come in?