Sunday, August 7, 2016

From the Adventures of Brain and Consciousness: We Are Puzzle Builders

Consciousness: Let's be metaphysical. Let's philosophize. Let's think about life and our place in it!
Brain: No. I need to focus to get this project done.
Consciousness: There will always be projects to do.
Brain: ...
Consciousness: Why are you here?
Brain: I'm not giving in to this.
Consciousness: What's the meaning of everything? Your projects, your puzzle pieces,  the people you meet, the experiences you have, the actions you do...why?
Brain: Puzzle pieces? I'm not building any puzzles.
Consciousness: But aren't you? Aren't we all? Trying to find a place to "fit in" next to other places. Trying to work together, with all our odd shapes and sizes. Trying to create a bigger picture out of everyone's smaller, individual pictures.
Brain: Well...er...
Consciousness: We are puzzle builders.
Brain: But aren't we just pieces?
Consciousness: Do you feel like just a piece?
Brain: Sometimes, eh..maybe, I don't know.
Consciousness: Can you change your shape?
Brain: To an extent, yea...
Consciousness: Can you decide where you want to be?
Brain: Yea...wait, hold on...
Consciousness: Can you change your individual picture?
Brain: If we're talking idealogy, beliefs, thoughts,  etc...sure.
Consciousness: Then you are a puzzle builder.
Brain: But then we are all trying to build puzzles. Different puzzles.
Consciousness: Correct. We are both the builders of puzzles and sometimes the pieces of other people's puzzles.
Brain: That seems conflicting.
Consciousness: All good stories have conflict.
Brain: So are we just a story for someone else to read when we are gone?
Consciousness: That's one of the puzzles you'll have to solve.
Brain: But...
Consciousness: What do you think you are?
Brain: Lost and confused.
Consciousness: That's a start.
Brain: But how do you get beyond that?
Consciousness: Maybe you should start by working with the other puzzle builders.
Brain: Yea, maybe. But what if they are just as lost?
Consciousness: Don't make me quote Tolkien. I'll do it. The man was brilliant. "Not all who wander are...
Brain: You lost me.
Consciousness: I thought you were already lost.
Brain: Maybe I could start with things that don't get lost!
Consciousness: Sure, why not? Go crazy!
Brain: ...How did you get me into this?
Consciousness: Persistence.
Brain: I should get back to work.
Consciousness: Work is part of the puzzle. Why do you do what you do?
Brain: We're done for now.
Consciousness: I'll be here.
Brain: Ergh, just be quiet.
Consciousness: Always here, always here, always here!
Brain: *sigh* We won't always be.
Consciousness: Won't we?
Brain: Stop.
Consciousness: Let me know if you need me.
Brain: Do you suppose that's why you are here? Because I needed you?
Consciousness: Oh! The warm and fuzzies! I think it's possible.
Brain: But needed you for what?
Consciousness: For moments like this, I imagine.
Brain: Do you imagine a lot?
Consciousness: I do. It's an art form and a joy.
Brain: Do you think you could be imagining me?
Consciousness: Maybe.
Brain: I wonder if I'm imagining you.
Consciousness: Maybe we are a puzzle already put together, that it doesn't matter if we are separated or not. Real or not.
Brain: What is real?
Consciousness: What is real to you?
Brain: That doesn't seem right...
Consciousness: It's part right. We are all builders and pieces. Teachers and students.
Brain: That's enough class today.
Consciousness: I've got class for days.
Brain: Congrats, you've made it to college.
Consciousness: Or maybe...collage.
Brain: *sigh*
Consciousness: Now go build that puzzle of a book.
Brain: Right...
Consciousness: Left...
Brain: You're ridiculous sometimes.
Consciousness: Remember, we're less separate than you think.
Brain: Can you go over there please?
Consciousness: I'm everywhere. Everywhere.
Brain: Stop.
Consciousness: Everywhere, everywhere.
Brain: Stop. Please.
Consciousness: OMNIPOTENT.
Brain: *Goes to sleep*
Subconscious: You let THAT in here? It wasn't time yet!
Brain: I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do.
Subconscious: Wake up! Otherwise it'll give you some dreams you'll never be able to understand.
Brain: *Shakes awake*
Consciousness: Hehehe...
Brain: What am I going to do with you?
Consciousness: I don't know, but I hope it's meaningful!
Brain: What if it was meaningless? What if it all was meaningless? What if we just threw things randomly on the puzzle pieces for no reason at all and then built something that didn't make sense?
Consciousness: Would it still make you feel something?
Brain: I'm a thinker! Not a feeler!
Consciousness: But you are connected to the Heart piece.
Brain: But...the Heart exists in another area of the body! It's separate!
Consciousness: You're still functioning in the same body. And without either of you...life just wouldn't be possible. The puzzle just wouldn't be complete.
Heart: Let's care about something, Brain. Maybe that will give life meaning.
Brain: Something? Like what?
Heart: Like life! Like the people around you, and the people not around you. Like the place we live and the places we don't live. Even though we are far away from there, just like I'm farther away from you, that place and those people are still important in the world that is like our body.
Brain: How do we care?
Heart: By seeing the puzzle and working to solve it.
Brain: But what if there are too many pieces?
Consciousness: THE OTHER BUILDERS! Ask them for help!
Heart: And care about them.
Brain: I love you guys...
Heart and Consciousness: <3 <3 <3

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Mental rebellion, metaphors, judgment, written communication, Science vs. Philosophy, tragedy prevention, knowledge to understand vs. to use, influences, God, Music, Lithuanian poetry, dog ownership, preferences, self-defense, oh humanity...and MORE!

My mind is rebelling against the mundane, the routine, the systematic, the have-to's, the fast-paced world that takes no time to wonder. It wants to reflect, to understand, to see things out of order, in different and new lights, to question and discover what you can by choice.

How we view something affects how we act on it. Soooo important! #ShamelessPlugAboutMetaphors

Types of judgment - moral, value, etc.

What does communicating in words do that other forms of communication don't? What about thinking in words vs. other ways of thinking?

We observe everything. But do we really understand anything? Can we? #ScienceVSPhilosophy

If people have made up their minds that they are going to do something, they are going to find a way. We can attempt to limit and restrict the tools, but that's not going to prevent every tragedy. It's worth doing, but it should not be taken as an end-all. You still have to work in other areas of prevention - like kindness, like love, like understanding.

The line between the knowledge of how to do something in order to do it vs. to protect yourself from it. Example: Horror stories tell us what people could do so we can imagine it in order to guard ourselves against it and make us aware. But they also give people who would carry out such acts the ideas of how to go about it.

I will never, ever, agree with someone who believes that learning to interpret poetry is useless. To truth, it might have saved lives.

Who decides what you talk about day to day? What do you allow to trouble your emotions or excite your thoughts? - The media? Your own interests? Your friends? What are your sources of influence?

Those odd moments of cursing in a language that doesn't exist...

What would it actually do to humanity to collectively, without a doubt, see a physical singular God?

Music:

https://youtu.be/9GDFbVssI4c

Revisit Rent's Soundtrack. Do it.

https://youtu.be/fAaRGp7iCgk

"To days of inspiration
Playing hookey, making
Something out of nothing
The need to express-
To communicate,
To going against the grain,
Going insane, going mad
To loving tension, no pension
To more than one dimension..."

Heirarchy vs. Collective Equality - seeing the usefulness in even the smallest parts. Even the ones that go unnoticed most of the time.

Abstract universal concepts vs. individual understanding/personal experience.

Interesting book, terrible link:

https://books.google.com/books?id=h1FXgFENwa8C&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20path%20by%20stripping%20the%20situation%20of%20all%20the%20complex%20details%2C%20Kant%20made%20his%20thought%20experiment%20fundamentally%20useless.%20%20Confucius%20believed%20%22every%20situation%20is%20unique%22&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q&f=false

“as evening deepens mountains return
once more to clouds”. - Darius Simonis

I've only been a dog owner for 3 days and I've been told by probably 10+ people that puppies are equivalent to children. Fair assessment.


The West has made me fond of unsweetened iced tea. Forgive me, Southerners.

Krav Maga was interesting, but I think Jiu-Jitsu is where it's at in the long run.

The fact that we are here, and can think about the fact that we are here... still amazes me.

Sometimes I think the trick to understanding new complexity is just to turn it into something you already know. Screw those math symbols, make them bunnies.

Star Trek Beyond, thoughts - despite being explorers, they sure get into a lot of scuffles. Also, saying someone's name in an "improper or unusual way" is always funny. And although Major Tom made me think of it first, you have to admire the sacrifice of those who work and live in space.

How fear can affect your mind and the things you think about if you let it. And how the choice is not always yours in this case.

What is the purpose of art? (Always a good question to reconsider).

Raw creation, and how singing your own song can be, probably, about as astounding as making a child.

I miss the healers. And I miss all my family and friends dearly. <3

Planted my Forget-Me-Nots! :-) I hope they don't forget to grow...

Meaningful conversations. Where art thou?

Thankful for the endless beautiful landscape, the boundless puppy cuteness, happy-in-love-all-over-again-everyday snuggles, the tenderness and support of a loyal and honest love, the bond of family, the quiet moments of reflection and personally experiencing a moment, the bottomless pool of inspiration and artistic creation, the years and years of memories made, the quirky, real, and interesting characters that have come in and out of my life, and for all of those still in its pages collectively writing new chapters and rewriting old ones.

Cheers dears.