Unconscious Consciousness

When I die I want to come back as a bird.  For some reason I have always believed that when death happens, souls are recycled and stuffed into some sort of physical shell for another go ’round, whether in human form or some other living thing that can accept a soul.  To me, this explains some things like deja vu or certain dream patterns.  My theory is that your brain dreams as it has been tought to think through repetition.  A lot of my dreams are based on the sensation of flying, so maybe I’ve already been a bird.  Birds have always amazed me as I watch them fly so freely, without boundaries or restrictions.  They seemingly have no limitations and although their brains are relatively small compared to humans, their simplicity is quite brilliant and their intelligence is very apparent if you take the time to really observe them.

I have two recurring dreams.  One of these I’ve been having since I was in kindergarten and I still have this dream every so often to this day.  I guess the best way I can describe it is a series of rounded shapes, gray in color, slowly moving around, bumping into each other, sometimes merging into new shapes.  It’s almost like what goes on inside a lava lamp.  The speed in which the shapes move changes but never goes too fast.  There is no sound, no feelings associated with anything, just the movement of these shapes.  I have no idea what it means, I only know I’ve been having this one dream for 43 years. Read the full post »

It’s Your Path, It’s Your Dream

I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time.  Not completely focusing all of my energies on it, but as one gets older and you see the world around you, I think it’s normal to contemplate your mortality from time to time.  It’s a complex thought process and it can really numb your mind.

The past few months we’ve been surprised by some of the famous people who have passed away.  You hear about someone not coming down for breakfast and the next thing you know everyone is amazed because that person wasn’t in anybody’s death pool.  Death pools appear to be becoming more and more challenging to be successful at these days.  You can probably now do well at it by using a random strategy instead of the old way of crossing age with known health issues.  The death pool is evolving into something that more closely mimics life itself, if that makes any sense. Read the full post »

Sunday Morning Slur

If I lived in North Korea I’d be pretty upset that my government spent all that money building a rocket that failed after launch while I was slowly dying of hunger.  While I’d been watching the country I live in go down the poop shoot I would have at least expected a successful foray into an area my country has no business experimenting with.  I can’t imagine anything more dangerous than North Korea having nuclear capability.  Well, I guess it would be pretty dangerous to be a rocket scientist in North Korea today.  The regime that runs that country is crazier than the brain trust of Iran, Cuba and Alabama combined.

Countries like North Korea really concern me.  The entire normal world has condemned them and so many sanctions have been slapped on them it’s amazing they still exist.  That goes to show you how a whackjob government can control their own population while ripping them off.  They are literally stealing food from the mouths of their own people to fuel their insecure short-man syndrome.  The only thing that’s keeping us from invading them on an Iraq scale is China.  China scares our government AND they own more and more of America every day.  One wrong move with China and we’d be slitting our own throats.

For North Korea it’s back to the drawing board.  For the rest of the world it’s time to sit back and do nothing while we wait for them to scare the crap out of us again only to show they really are a third-rate country with no real clue as to what they’re doing.

All I care about in the Trayvon Martin case is that a young guy is dead who shouldn’t be.  People shouldn’t be using this case as a catapult for the issue of racism in America.  America is a racist and biased country no matter what anyone tells you.  There are several tests out there that prove this theory.  There is bias against women, minorities and even majorities in this country and education and empowerment aren’t going to fix it.  There is nothing in this country that makes people equal.  In fact, being a capitalistic society ensures we will always have a caste or class system in this country.  We have a document that says all men are created equal.  It’s a pretty simple statement, but it has so many shortcomings readily apparent upon inspection.  Most notably, women are excluded from the message and even worse, men have never been created equal in the history of this world.  Tell the slaves of Egypt they’re right up there with Pharoah and can sit at his dinner table.  The bafoons who wrote the Declaration Of Independence had slaves themselves, making them all hypocrites.  Read the full post »

A Sunday Morning Spot Of Tea

First and foremost to everyone, Happy April in The D!! 

Is it just me or does Sarah

Palin make Canadians sound like geniuses?  The first thing I always think of when I hear her name mentioned is her running for president with Yukon Cornelius as her VP running mate.  Rudolph and Hermie would run the campaign on the platform of abominable snowman reform.  As much as I like her, I’m just sayin’.

Why is it that people who run for public office are immune to drug testing?  These people supposedly represent us and I think everyone knows that drug and alcohol use run rampant at every level of government.  With all of the laws being passed that subject state employees to drug testing, the politicians at every level of government should be included in those laws also.  If you’re going to run, you’re going to pee in a cup, it’s that simple.  That would probably shrink the candidate field well before the primary process does.
Read the full post »

The End Of An Academic Era

On Monday, April 2nd an era will come to a conclusion when Professor Richard E. Haskell gives his final lecture from Meadowbrook Theatre on the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.  Dr. Haskell has spent the past 46 years as a dedicated educator at the University as a professor of engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Oakland University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science.  I’m sure to some people the significance of this lecture and tenured career is minimal.  To me it is a remarkable stake in time and the school’s history.  Richard E. Haskell is also my father-in-law.

I married Richard’s daughter in 1997.  Before I met him the first time I was certainly intimidated by his credentials as they were explained to me by my future bride.  His resume includes work in plasma physics, coherent optics, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, pattern recognition, wireless biometric authentication and a lot of other things I have no clue about.  He has worked at the NASA Johnson Spacecraft Center where he developed optical and digital methods of processing multispectral data.  Yes, my wife has reminded me many times over the years that she is the daughter of a rocket scientist!  I’ve always joked he can build a processor with a piece of twine and a paperclip.

Dr. Haskell holds six patents, has written twenty-six books and has published hundreds of research papers.  These are just a few things I have pulled directly from his online biography.  Anyone can access this information but not everyone knows the back story of what this man has accomplished during his tenure.  I am certain the impact he has had on so many students simply can’t be measured or quantified.  That would most likely be a mind numbing excursion.  But during the fifteen years I have known him he has continually amazed me with his intense desire to educate at the highest level.  He has never rested on or been satisfied with what he knows and what he teaches.  He continually researches and he constantly strives to challenge himself and his students as the technical world around us evolves.  One thing he has taught me is that the question is as important as the answer itself. Read the full post »

Your Taxes – Give A Little, Get A Lot

It’s that special time of year again – Open Firearm Tax Season!  It’s our annual realization that each one of us is an important cog in the big machine known as government.  No, I’m not going to get all political about this because I think most people with a functioning brain know that taxes are one of those birth rite guarantees in our lives.  Sure, people can protest for change to the system and politicians can debate changing the tax laws to make them more fair for everyone.  But if you want the services you’ve come to expect from your government at any level, you’re going to pay taxes.  Plain and simple, end of story.

During this special time of year accountants and tax preparers shine.  This is their holiday shopping season when the confused masses pay zillions of dollars for their services even if they, themselves could fill out their own taxes.  This is because of the combination of being scared stiff of an audit and the ultra complexity of the modern tax laws.  Everybody wants a refund, not everybody is eligible for a refund.  Some people just throw up their arms and succumb while others shell out the cash to find every little loophole in the tax code and take advantage of it.  The tax laws change so much from year to year that what worked for you last year might not work for you this year.  Plus, everyone has their own tax situation.  If you’re not filing a 1040EZ, your tax configuration can be as individual as you are.

Isn’t that special? Read the full post »