Filed under: myNews
Yes, we returned safely and life has taken off again. One project that has occupied many of my hours is editing video. We received a pocket video camera from my sister as a Christmas present, a red Samsung W200 that shoots in full 1080p HD and I waisted no time in shooting videos. Of course I ended up nearly running out of storage. I had only accounted for files coming off my dSLR Nikon camera. Video files are substantially larger than photos. I think I ended up with around 1500 files of photos and videos. So, I have been editing and producing a two hour movie, complete with music and rolling credits. This is taxing our little MacBook, which is getting slower and slower. I even went out and bought a 2TB external hard drive to off-load files to make room for working on the photo and video projects. I have completed the photo slideshows, sorting out all the shots and adding music. Now, I am thinking of doing further video editing, but, may just take everything to DVD and be done. When I have completed everything, I will get some photos on my photoblog and feature photos websites.
We have returned to curling and now we are into some record breaking cold weather. My wifey has got us enrolled in a 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge at Whole Foods Market. This week is about getting more greens and that has meant making smoothies that include as much kale as we can. All I can say is, this is going to be challenging, for sure. I will post a log every week.
This health trend is interesting because opportunities have been popping up everywhere, it seems. We do eat pretty good, yet, my wifey decided to get us into the four week program at Whole Foods and recently, I have had some conversations with a fellow who does wellness programs for corporations. Today, we were at a mini wellness fair. I found out that, while I am 56, my body age is 61 and my obtainable age is 48. Just a little goal to shoot for. While we were there, we got mugs and free tickets for a very large wellness fair at the huge convention center downtown next month. Health is trying to gang up on us.
Filed under: myNews
Whew! We are flying home from our fantastic vacation at the the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu, Kauai. My sister made sure we were kept busy experiencing all that we could. I have already mentioned some things we did. I continued to take an enormous number of photos, many of waves and sunrises. My storage for photos has been eaten up by the unexpected videos I shot with the little waterproof camera my sister gave us. I am now down to the onboard storage of both my cameras. I should make it, however, I will have to do some real juggling to find storage space to sort photos and edit all the videos into a short movie.
Back to the activities. Our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law, were truly generous by not only stocking the unit we stayed in with plenty of food, but also, getting us out to eat in the local dining places. For them, it is the experience with the dining rather than the price, however, they always point out that we are the least expensive guests to take out since we do not drink alcohol. So, the food is even more abundant.
One night we went to a semi-outdoor restaurant nearby. We sat right near the live music which included a fellow who surfs by day and plays the electric ukulele and sings by night. He was good too. Besides the fellow playing guitar at the outdoor bar at the Waiohai, we did not hear much more live music. Oh, there was a small jazz combo at the Grand Hyatt bar as we walked through.
One morning, we went for breakfast at the local golf course and had another huge meal. It seems that the World War II canned meat spam, still has a following in Hawaii. There are many dishes incorporating the meat, long forgotten elsewhere. I also had Kalua pulled pork, on other occasions too, even on the airplane a while ago. I tried my sister’s breakfast burrito and had a banana and Macadamia nut pancake with coconut syrup. I simply could not resist.
Another night we went to a Mexican restaurant, yes, Mexican in Hawaii, just to be different, I guess. The unique experience here was the table-side guacamole. Pedro came and made the guacamole, two servings, in a lava bowl right at our table and it was surely the best I have ever had.
We were treated to more surfing lessons. Our instructor, looked like true Hawaiian surfer. No family, just teaching surfing everyday, all day. He was there at sunrise and still around after sunset. Very dedicated. We were learning on reef surf, different from the beach surf at the previous lessons. All I can say is, it is still hard to do. But, we sure had fun. My son really took to stand-up paddle boarding and spent some hours on the last day trying to graduate to catching waves on the board.
The resort has a new contract to have daily scuba lessons available. Our instructor struck me immediately as very confident. There was my sister and three of us from my family. Neal told us that we had to do the academics first, so, he gave a short lecture, but, at a high velocity. One rarely runs across someone who can speak so fast. He assured us by giving his long list of qualifications, including the fact that he is the top person for the Pacific area and does work in movies and trains and qualifies instructors. Next, we had a couple of performance skill to master and demonstrate, such as clearing our mask of water and finding and clearing our regulators, all under water. It turned out to be so simple that, in no time, we were swimming around the pool underwater and having a great time. After, my sister invited Neal for a drink where we talked more about scuba and other interesting stuff. We came away from the experience knowing it had been a real treat. We had been in the company of a true master, just as we were with Mitch and Nelson, our surfing instructors.
As the trip was nearing its end, my sister urged me to do a few more things. One morning they took me to a somewhat remote beach for some photography. The drive was rough, through some private land. The road was the common red dirt with deep potholes, however, the Grand Caravan finally made it. We walked along the beach, along some rocks, I took many photos and then we did some snorkeling.
It was the last day, so when we got back from the early morning trip, my sister still had a few more activities for me to do. I had to keep up, somehow, so I grabbed some food and then we were off to have a swim with my wife and daughter at another beach and then, do some boogie boarding at still another beach on the other side of the resort and past a park. It was a crowded beach that we went to. People were body surfing and boogie boarding. It was difficult to keep from running into each other. On one ride I crossed over and my son ended up riding on top of me all the way into the shore.
I was not finished yet. My sister had some fish food to feed fish while snorkeling, so, off I was again to snorkel. My wife even went too. Not knowing where to put the food while we swam out to the reef, my sister suggested I shove the plastic bag into my bathing suite pocket. At one point, as I was using my small video camera, I realized that there were more fish than normal. A quick check of my pocket and I knew they already got the fish food.
Finally, it was time to get ready for the New Years Eve party on the beach. We started at the bar with some fancy drinks, virgin for most of us, and some dinner. People were already setting off fireworks on the beach and launching fire lanterns (I know there is proper name for them, but, I don’t have at hand) that would float high into the air and drift away.Then came the big Poipu Beach fireworks display and the party was over before midnight. We went and had some ice cream, watched TV and then got tired, so we went to bed.
I feel as if there is so much I have not written about. We really did pack plenty of memories into this eight days of fun in the sun. We are about to land in Seattle for our connecting flight to Vancouver.
I will post some photos on my PhotoBlog and Feature Photos website once I get them sorted. I may even post some video on YouTube. I amy also post links relating to the trip, if I get a chance.
Filed under: myNews
One reason for hesitating about this Hawaii trip was the possibility of me being too hot. I truly need mild temperatures. My sister assured me that the weather would be mild due to the wind. Actually, some find it cold at times and I think I would rather put on my shirt, and it only takes a shirt or very light jacket, to escape the coolness that keeps me from over heating, but, not from over eating, what I have done on several occasion already. I am taking this morning, sort of mid-point in the trip, to write about the trip and unwind a bit. Let me take you through what has happened thus far.
I said the winds blow here, the trade winds, and with Kauai being surrounded by open ocean, that means waves. We are staying at the Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club in an area of Kauai called Poipu. The bay here is very interesting. It has breaking surf, rolling surf, calm swimming, surfing, snorkeling, so many types of ocean to enjoy.
It was early the first morning, when I heard a rooster crowing right outside our window. Did I tell you that chickens and roosters are abundant on the island and run wild everywhere, including your house, if you leave the door open. This offending fellow, who interrupted my attempts at slumber, crowed a few times and then began to work his way along the complex making sure everyone could hear him clearly. As his crowing became fainter, I rolled over to try to sleep a bit more. A few minutes later, he came again, like a snooze button. I could have become angry, but instead, I got up and headed out to see the sunrise.
I thank the little rooster now because I ended up on the point watching the the sun move up the horizon and photographing every moment. A great sight and photo opportunity. Once it was up, I turned slightly and began to photograph the surf. Waves are extremely fascinating and I now have hundreds of wave photos, each one different, just as snowflake are said to be different, even though you can’t see the differences easily, beautiful waves showing the power of the ocean.
I have gone to the point three days in a row and took today to sleep in. The weather in the tropics can change instantly, however, not drastically. Sun, then a bit of cloud, sometimes rain, and all in a matter of moments. Sometimes you just turn around and there you see a rainbow. On my early morning visits to the point to capture the sunrise and waves, I have seen a dead eel, the tail of a pacific type lobster and Monk Seals. The seals are an endangered species and spend their nights feeding and avoiding sharks. When morning comes, they often drag themselves out of the water on the sand or lava rocks and sleep. When one appears on the beach, a little Hawaiian fellow rushes out to put up signs and rope off the area keeping the growing crowds away. I have also observed a local fisherman climb out on the lava rocks, into the surf, to throw his net. A couple of times I have also caught the sunset.
The other night, I was appointed BBQist for a family and friends dinner. There are a couple of areas here that have BBQs, perhaps there is only one area, and I went and lined up with the guys to cook my assigned eight steaks in the dark, well, there is a goosenecked light. I was warned not to overcook them. I have become better at this since my wife stopped telling me to cook meat well to make sure everything is dead. Thus, I cooked, piled them on a plate and sent them in with my son and orders to have them approved or sent back. We went in to eat another huge meal.
I don’t think there is anything like a big city here on Kauai. I would not even consider any area to be a particularly busy urban area by mainland standards, however, they do have Costco, Wal-Mart, Kmart and a mall. We did go do some shopping, but, did not buy anything.
My sister and brother-in-law, our hosts, have a collection of snorkeling equipment, so off I have gone a few times, with my new little waterproof video camera, to see the underwater sights. I now have many minutes of video with fish, the kind I have only seen in somebody’s big aquarium. From an inch or two to many inches and many colors, they swim by and, when they think you are going to get too close, they swim quickly away, often inviting a chase. A few may become curious and, if I stay still, will come closer to see the red camera. I should just hang around to see what they might do.
Yesterday was surfing day. My sister had arranged lessons with an older king of surfing guy. We had to drive to the other side of the island, a trip of about an hour and a half. We drove through some towns, some looking like what I expected surfing towns might look like. We passed the run down dilapidated hotel used in the Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii.
Finally, we got there, found the little shack by the side of the road where we were to check-in and get our rash guards—shirts worn to protect one’s chest from rubbing on the surface of the surfboard and getting sore. Then we headed down to the beach in a well used park. Mitch greeted us in a traditional manner and met my notion of what a old-time surfer might be like. He was in no rush, he assured us and said he was going to get us surfing.
Beginning on the beach, he guided us, in his own unique way, through what we would be doing in the water. Then, it was time to get into the water. We paddled a bit and then, with him waist high in the water watching each small wave, sizing it up for us, he sent us with a push and then the orders, right knee, left leg, pivot. Even with the very small waves, it was tough to get it right. Once you did get it, the board would provide quite a nice ride. My son, a snowboarder and much more agile, got into doing a pop-up—jumping straight to his feet. He even got to hopping and turning to face the other side of the board. Oh that kid again!
Then there is POG. On the very first day, we entered the lobby of the resort and there I saw a table with two drink dispensers, nice ones, glass and silver. One had ice water and lemons, the other had a pinkish-orange drink. I had to have some and when I tasted it, I very nearly went crazy. So refreshing and nutritious tasting—yummy! My said, maybe it is something they call POG. POG, as it turn out, stands for Passion fruit, orange and guava. Invented in 1971 by Mary Soon, who won the Kaleakala Dairy internal competition for a new drink, it seems to have become the official drink of the Hawaiian Islands and mostly rare anywhere else. I have ordered it in restaurants and seen it at Costco here in a big jug. I have read that some of it is mostly water and sugar, and therefore is called a nectar instead of a juice. Oh well, it is great stuff.
Hawaii is a strange place. Very pleasant. Always the same. What is the weather like? Usually the same, the temperature, usually the same, the wind, usually the same, the waves, usually the same, the tide, usually the same, etc. Everything is always the same, very pleasant and, I am told, usually the same all year around. Would that get boring, I’m not sure. It is so strange, you can make plans to do something and usually count on being able to do it. No back up plans for rain! Even if it does rain, the rain is only for minutes, or you just go ahead anyway because it is not cold enough to cancel plans. Strange!
Filed under: myNews
I asked my wife to start filling in the customs declaration as we flew to Hawaii. I was tired and needed some snoozing time. She woke me to ask a question, or something, and I read through the form to see what she had done. When I saw she had indicated this was her fourth time to Hawaii, I was amazed. Then she reminded me that she had worked for a charter airline and they had sent her to Hawaii at least a couple of times. Well, this was going to be familiar to her, but, not for the rest of the family. It would be be new to everyone in our family to have Christmas away from home.
We landed and were met by our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law in a minivan. They have already been here three weeks and come every year. That means they have plenty of extras, like snorkel equipment, and really know the island of Kauai.
Christmas in Hawaii seems, well, quite unusual. There are some Christmas decorations that are similar to what we see at home. They do seem out of place indeed. I suppose they do it for the tourists, however, the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus, is alive and well in Kauai, due to the large numbers of Christians. There are many churches. On Christmas Eve, our first night, we went to the Grand Hyatt for a Christmas Eve service that rivaled any modern almost mega church service, certainly matching the name of the Grand Hyatt. The massive ballroom of the hotel was full and the service was not particularly geared for the tourist, but, for those who regard praising the Lord part of their life. Fine for some of us in our group, others, they just had to come along.
After the service, we looked around and saw some wood carvings in a shop that were so unbelievable they left my son and I puzzling on how they might have been done. My son likes woodworking. With such mild weather in Kauai, many halls and rooms simply do not have walls, making for an unusual experience walking through the building for those of us from other climates.
The Grand Hyatt is truly a sight and the grandiosity was exhibited with flair at the Christmas brunch we attended the next day. Such an endless array of food that I could barely walk out. No turkey though.
So, that was Christmas. Oh, I forgot to tell mention my Christmas present from my sister, a small waterproof video camera. I am used to my dSLR and this little fellow is quite different. Not the same quality, but, the convenience is great. Even greater is snorkeling with it taking videos of fish.
I have so much more to write about and will get to it as I can. Also coming up will be photography and videos that I will put on my photoblog and my gallery website. The problem is deciding from the hundreds and hundreds, just which are the best photos. We have been so busy and I have taken so many photos and videos that all I seem to have time for is to dump the files off the cameras and go take more. I am running out of storage space. I also need to talk about surfing and about POG.
Filed under: myNews
It’s off to Hawaii we go for Christmas and it is a very early start. This is our first time and it has taken us weeks to decide just how to begin our trip. There were several choices. The first leg of the journey would be to actually get to the airport. Several options were considered, including driving to the airport and parking in one of two long-term parking lots. Other possibilities would involve asking someone to drive us, or taking a taxi. We had a notion, since the main flight would be leaving from Seattle, that a drive south and an overnight stay might be nice. Then there was the big splurge, the one my sister recommended. It was an expensive idea that made us cringe a bit, because we would stay at the Fairmont Hotel at the Airport. With check-in at three in the afternoon and our wake-up call at three the next morning, it seemed like two hundred dollars for 12 hours, most of it trying to sleep, was extravagant.
A splurge of extravagance was it. We drove to the YVR (Vancouver International Airport) Long-term Parking and took the shuttle to the Fairmont. We had borrowed carry-on luggage with wheels and only one of us had a suitcase that would require checking-in. Once at the Hotel, the rest of the family went exploring dinner options and I made a B-line for the spa. I enjoyed the hot tub and sauna and had some interesting exercise in the swimming pool. When I say swimming pool, I mean you swim against a jet stream of water, sort of like swimming up a river.
For dinner, we ended up sharing A&W hamburgers, because my son was craving it and then went to the Flying Wedge. We then attempted to sleep and found it a difficult prospect. I was told I snored, but, I felt I was awake all night.
So, here we are, half way across the ocean to Hawaii and we are tired. We got up at three in the morning, went through customs, and then took off at 6:20 AM for the short hop to Seattle. We had to wait couple of hours, not to mention, a long walk and train ride to N Gate. Along the way we had some breakfast and bought some food to take on the plane. The SeaTac Airport on Christmas Eve, was bustling. At breakfast, we had live piano playing. As we walked, we saw entertainers, including a guy on a unicycle and a quartet of carolers, just to mention a couple. Now that we have finished our food and we are about half way through the trip across the water, I think I will try to have another snooze.
Here is a bit of a commercial. I should say a bit about Alaska Airlines. Not only do they seem to be everywhere at the SeaTac Airport, but, the flight has been really good with several servings of water and juice and even cookie and a little snack pack. At SeaTac, Alaska Air is everywhere.
Filed under: B.O.B.s
I stumbled upon another great CBC Radio program. I am already addicted to The Vinyl Cafe(Apple’s best podcast of the year). This one, Day6 seems really interesting. There were a few topics, however, let me mention one. They were talking about the recently released movie called The Adventures of Tintin, a computer animated presentation of the famous comic book character from yeas gone by. The animation is so realistic that it seems creepy and this is what is not referred to as the Uncanny Valley.
Here is the explanation. One may create something that is 95 percent accurate or realistic and people will be fine with it, however, make it 96 percent and it becomes so real it is creepy or uncanny—it enters the Uncanny Valley. The percentages are for example only, I’m sure. Check out the refs below and be sure to watch the video of Marcel the Shell. It’s not the animation that is uncanny, it’s the voice. Now go explore! And check out the many other wonderful CBC programs and podcasts.
Refs for further reading & exploration:
Vinyl Cafe
Day6
Tintin
Filed under: myWhys
My daughter, who is away at university, texted me from her iPhone to my old iPhone. Her majors are in English and Creative Writing, so she has plenty of reading and writing to do. Today, she announced that she was in a coffee shop with her boyfriend and was “getting work done.” It flies in the face of what I was told and grew up doing, is against the research into how people can best learn. I know, because I studied education, training and learning to the level of a Masters of Education. Yet, this is how young people ‘get work done.’ The more they have going on, the better, or so it seems.
A few months ago, I caught an interview with a few young folk and they were asked how they do their homework and studies. The interviewer began with asking how many do only their homework. No hands went up. Next, they were asked if they do two things at once. Still no hands. He continued with three and I think I saw someone hesitantly put their hand part way up. I think most claimed they did about five things at once, including their studies.
So, the interviewer decided to find out if this is common and if there is any proof that this sort of practice resulted in lower grades in school. Sure enough, they managed to find a researcher who stated that the research is showing that grades are not impacted when students do more than one thing at a time when studying.
I have a couple of concerns. I am still not convinced, nevertheless, even if it should prove out over time, what does this say about where society is heading? Certainly, there are messages, such as advertizing, that are designed and meant to be consumed in an instant. We can see how much faster advertizing is presented compared with a decade of two ago. Particularly, advertizing aimed at young people. And the culture, for example the music of young people, is presented rapidly. It is almost as if, it is not the message itself that is important, it is the overall impression it leaves that matters.
My conclusion then is that the message must be superficial, since there is no time to really take-in the entire message. It is there and gone before one can even think about it. Therein lies a huge problem. Learning and understanding and finally wisdom come from critical thinking. It’s not just taking the time to think about and think through information, but, to also think about what you think about it and to critically examine the information, the message, what is behind the message and how it affects you the consumer of the information.
Let me put forward that intelligence and wisdom do not come from the quantity of information, but, from the quality and depth of thought that arises from it. Yes, there are very ‘smart’ people these days, doing amazing things. Yet, is seems as if we as humans, know so much about many things, and understand so little, particularly, who we are.
What if we, humankind, are on the verge of a massive paradigm shift that takes us away from a deep connection through critical thought and dialog with the information we create. Perhaps, our brain might catch up one day, or more likely, since we rely more each day on technology, that we may develop computers that might sift and organize our information into capsules that synthesize what we need to know. A machine that tells us what we need to know. It sounds sinister in some ways. What if we simply invente ourselves into a lifestyle that has all our needs met through various technologies and we simply have to enjoy life. This is the myth I grew up with, as western societies passed the mid-point of the twentieth century.
It was a myth in that, as the twentieth century was entering its final couple of decades, we seemed to be working harder to pay for the technologies that we had come to rely on and we found we were generating more information daily than we could ever consume. It has turned out that we can only pick small snippets here and there. Perhaps, it is these small pickings are what will make us individuals, or who we are. Like careening down a track on a super fast train, we try to look out of all the windows to see the scenery. In a matter of minutes, we pass through a section of countryside and claim that we have seen the country, yet, we have only seen snippets along a track that, in no way, passes through the entire country. Who is to say we have or have not seen enough?
I have been practicing. This has been written while watching TV. As a movie plays on the TV, I write and look up every now and then and I listen as I go. Well, I do manage, as you can read, to get something written, however, I don’t feel that I am really thinking deeply as I construct each sentence. My writing, may be shallow compared to what I might write if I were in a quiet room and focusing.
People claim that they can multitask and still do each task well. I am not convinced, but as I said, I am trying. I’m not up to doing five things at once and I don’t even think I will get there or want to. I have managed, though, to get this done.
What do you think? Do you multitask? How do you get work done?
Filed under: myWhys
Man has a bit of an obsession, and that is the origins of mankind, his world and universe. Scientists are busy working on this quest and, from time to time a bit of news surfaces concerning current thinking and the progress of this quest. When I happen to hear some of this news, my ears perk up and then I get to compare their thinking with my own.
Perhaps, I might have made a good theoretical physicist. I have always had a bit of a fancy for science and space. In my bedroom as a child, I had a rather tattered 1958 Rand & McNalley map of the solar system. I used to lie in bed looking at the planets and the information provided for each one. It always fascinated me how it was possible to provide information, such as temperature and make-up, without having gone there. How do they know this stuff. Later, I watched TV programs like Lost in Space and the original Star Trek series, as well as science fiction movies. Eventually, I graduated to more documentary type programs, such as Nova on PBS. In high school, I particularly liked physics, and can remember the thrill as the topic of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity loomed on the curricular horizon. Most people find even the simplest tenets of this area of physics difficult to grasp, however, we had a sort of unusual teacher with an unusual voice. I remember students making fun of him a bit, but, I always had a stroke of gratitude for this little man who looked like he stepped right out of the 1930s, with his neat shiny suit, knitted vest, hair parted just off the middle and all his immaculate canvas binders of notes written on faded paper, in tiny writing by his vintage mechanical pencil with the pointy eraser added.
Yet, with all his little quirks, when he began his introduction to the Special Theory of Relativity with this story, I got it. “Once upon a time…,” he began, as if to see who might immediately get bored by this most common of fable introductions, “there were two towns of people who were at war with each other.” He continued to tell the story of how there was a mountain separating the towns and what they did was to fire canons over the mountain, the resulting trajectory, an arc created by gravity drawing the canon ball back to Earth, would allow them to hit their target without seeing them. So it was that one night, the people of one town wanted to see the other town to know what their canons had done. So, they took a spot light and pointed it over the mountain. As he told the story, he drew it on the chalk board, carefully checking the reaction of the students as he drew the light from the spotlight following the same arc as the canon balls. Of course, the teacher explained, this is impossible. But, wait a minute, in fact though, light can bend by the force of gravity, much like a wave in water will change direction around an object. We learned that light bends from the influence of gravity.
There were other examples. If two spaceships pass each other traveling in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light, a person looking out the window could observe hands on a clock on the other spaceship moving slower than the ones on his own spaceship. A ruler for measuring would similarly look shorter, a round object would look compressed like a vertical oval.
I have never come to understand the the math behind physics, I was scared of academics and did not enjoy school. I went to school at a time when there were less opportunities for learning assistance. Yet, all my life I have enjoyed certain aspects of science.
Science is a field that deals with theories that seek to be compared to what man can observe and or experience. In this most intriguing quest for origins, much simply can not be observed or experienced. When this is the case, scientists looks for indirect proof. For example, phenomenon like black holes could be predicted, but, not observed or experienced, however, some effects may be observed, such as from light and gravity. And, of course, nobody has observed or experienced traveling at the speed of light.
Sir Isaac Newton took up the quest and became the father of modern physics and his laws of physics held strong for years. However, the universe comprises not only what we can observe and experience, it has atomic and sub-atomic activity as well and cosmic activity. Newtonian physics simply can not provide the constructs that can explain behaviors and predict outcomes to these more complex aspects of our universe.
Theories of physics have many forces to reckon with from gravity to electromagnetism. Albert Einstein is one of the most famous physicist who took physics, in a leap, from what is now called classical physics, to the atomic, and later, the nuclear phenomenon. This ushered mankind into the nuclear age. Who has not heard of E=MC2? To Einstein’s horror, his new physics helped create the atom bomb that was dropped by the Americans on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing innocent people and causing such utter pain and destruction. The bomb did cause the Japanese to surrender, thus ending World War II. The world, would never be the same. Man now had, at his very fingertips, a destructive power he could never have imagined. When the Russians also developed the ‘bomb’, as it came to be termed, A new era emerged.
I grew up during the cold war. It wasn’t a war in the traditional sense. There was no actual fighting, just the threat of nuclear destruction. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had the ‘bomb.’ The political differences between the two countries, the U.S.A. being a democracy and the U.S.S.R, communist, made the two enemies. Thus, to prevent one from invading the other, they each aimed nuclear arms at each other. There was a problem, and it was a big one. By the time one side had launched a missile, the other side had the time to detect and retaliate. The result, mutual annihilation, or doomsday, as it became known. Complete foolishness.
Back to Einstein for a moment. Even Einstein realized that his theories did, at best, a poor job of explaining the universe. Quantum physics is another set of theories. Einstein tried in vain to find a unified theory to cover everything, but, could not.
Lately, the theories are getting, well, over the edge in my mind. Perhaps it is because man has had some years of using magnificent technology, like the Hubble telescope to see more than ever imaginable. The ideas are suggesting that it should be possible to look far enough out into space to see back in time to the point of the origin of the universe, thought to be the Big Bang. I have a few questions about this.
Suppose one could look all the way back to the origin. It seems to me that there would be a bit of a dilemma. Looking back far enough would mean that nothing would exist. Could one look beyond the bang to what there was before the bang? I am wondering if there might be something more of a serious problem. What exactly is happening when scientists claim to be looking back into the earlier times of the universe?
If everything began at a particular point and has been expanding out since the beginning of time, is there a way we can imagine what this might look like. I’m thinking of a nozzle spraying water. What you see as the water comes toward you is a spray of small drops. As you look beyond each drop, the spray gets denser until there is simply more water than space to look through. This might be problem one. You simpley could not see through all the matter as you look toward the point of origin. Thus, it would be impossible to see the point of origin. But, perhaps the universe is so huge and the amount of matter, galaxies, stars, planets, etc., is so minute in comparison, that it might be possible to keep seeing onward. We should also remember that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is off center in the spray, so one would be looking across the universe to some degree. Well, I think that at some point, it might get pretty thick anyway.
There might be an even worse problem. The spray of water from the nozzle I proposed above is taking place in normal time and distance. That is to say, quite different to the time and distance involved in looking into the universe. Some peculiarities surface when dealing with things like light, gravity, time and distance on the cosmic scale. For example, light travels at a certain speed. As one nears that speed, gravity, time and distance change. Time slows down. Distances seem to shrink. Gravity increases. Does this mean that, at the speed of light, time ceases to exist altogether? If one could travel faster than light, could one go back in time? If distances shrink, at the speed of light, would there be no distance between anything? What about gravity? It has been proven that gravity can bend light, as I have already mentioned.
All this can seem rather confusing. I just can’t figure how one might look at light that originated way back in time. By the time it gets here, the point of origin might not exist anymore. And, since gravity can bend light, how would one know where the light was coming from or wether it has been altered on it’s journey? Remember, the more matter, stars, planets, etc., the more light can bend. Could one trust what they would be looking at?
I simply can’t get past the notions that one would be able to look some direction in the cosmos and see something that is just beginning to exist, knowing that it was happening so long ago that we did not exist yet. Did you get that? How can we see something that took place before we and the point of our existence in the cosmos, even exists in the first place. How can light get to a point that never existed until after the origin of the light? Our place in the cosmos is moving away from the point of origin, the Big Bang, and somehow light from that Big Bang is supposed to catch up to us in a way that we can see the origin that happened before our place in the cosmos ever existed. Strange, isn’t it?
Here is another idea that comes to mind. We have all probably witnessed fireworks. After shooting into the sky, there is a starburst. As it spreads, it slows down, Could the big bang have some similar characteristics? If the bang indeed happened quickly and has now slowed down, what sort of differences in the laws of physics might come into play in such and event? So much matter bursting away from a point of origin at the speed, or nearly the speed, of light might change the story considerably. Time might be altered. Matter could be quite different than we might expect.
We already know that huge amounts of matter can implode and can even create a situation where there is so much gravity that even light can not escape. We call these phenomenon black holes. What sort of energy could create a situation where all the matter in the universe is gathered in one spot? Perhaps it might be more like a gas. Imagine breathing out into a very cold air. As the warm moist air in your breath hits the cold air, the moisture freezes, gathering more weight and density than when it started.
The above two paragraphs were written last night. Tonight, the news on TV announced that the Nobel Prize went to three men who have discovered that the universe is expanding faster than expected, even speeding up. This also assumes that the expansion speed has been uniform or, if increasing, the increase would be uniform. Uniform speed would be expected under Newtonian physics, however, as I have attempted to outline, Newtonian physics can’t account for all phenomenon at the cosmic level. Also announced tonight is the idea that the universe is cooling as it expands. Thus, the big bang may end with ice. I’m not sure where all the water would come from for the ice to form, considering the search for almost non-existent water in our own solar system is included as the first indicator for life.
Whoops, an expanding universe with increasing speed, now the characteristics might be just the opposite. Scientists have considered the possible results of a slowing slowing universe that, I suppose would stop expanding some point at which time the universe might start to collapse and there might be another big bang. If it is speeding up, will it slow down, or keep expanding faster and faster. Could it reach the speed of light. What would that mean. Now, that really could be peculiar.
I mentioned earlier that physics theories simply could not explain every phenomenon observed or predicted by math at the cosmic or nuclear level. For the past few decades a new theory has been gaining acceptance by the scientific community. According to String Theory, the universe at the very minutest level is made up of tiny vibrating strings. These strings are so small they cannot be seen or detected directly.
What I have been writing about here was sparked last year by an interview on the radio. I have been adding to this slowly for months. These are huge topics, of course. The interview was with Brian Greene who specializes in String Theory has written several books explaining the ideas I have presented and much more. Recently, I have been watching some NOVA programs on PBS hosted by Brian Greene. I have to admit, he does do an excellent job of explaining these complex ideas. It is surprising to me just how much more is known than what was presented only a decade or so ago. I have watched NOVA for a long time. The current program, you should be doing some Googling to find out more, is supposed to be an introduction, however, it takes, what would have been considered years ago, huge leaps into the theories. It can be difficult to keep up and it seems impossible for me to come close to explaining any of these ideas any better that Brian Greene.
At best, I hope that my experiences and thoughts might be of interest to someone who then might become further interested enough to explore on their own. This piece of writing has sat on my computer long enough. I need to get it posted on my blog. I may write a sequel or two someday.
But first, a few of my own ideas.
These days, I have settled on a notion that the universe is held in something that I can only liken to a bubble. The bubble boundaries hold everything we could ever see and know. I think the scientists are correct when they describe a space time continuum. Everything we know exists at a single place at a single point of time. To be somewhere else takes time to move and nothing can exist in more than place at one time. The bubble may be expanding and that could be what contributes to the overall decay of everything. Scientists have a word for this and a more complex description of the decay. They call it entropy. The entropic effect means that, although one might be able to regather energy, one could never get back the the full original amount. Yes you can mop up a spilled bucket of water and theoretically have all the water back, but, there would always be some missing from soaking in and evaporation and other ways of loss. Everything experiences decay.
Thus, everything is winding down. Everything also has mass and exerts a gravitational force on everything else. That must mean that things are energy. That little leap came from my conclusion that a force requires energy. I alway try to simplify things. Will everything wind down completely someday? What would happen? Where would the energy go? Could the bubble pop someday? The answers to these questions are unanswerable as long as we are within the time space continuum of the bubble. We should be satisfied with the limits the bubble confines us to.
I’ll bet you are now wondering what I think is beyond the bubble and what might happen someday with the bubble. Well, Beyond the bubble is eternity. Eternity is the absence of space, time and gravity. There is no need for the substance we now have and are confined to. It is the place, or non-place, for spirit. Without space or time, think about what I said above, one can be everywhere at the same time, or non-time, as spirit. Oh there is another world of a sort, but remember, that is beyond us now. I am describing the eternity of God and God is going to burn everything up in our bubble someday. What happens to us at that time is the real question. The theories that occupy the minds of scientists are certainly interesting. More interesting is the notion that we are more complex and therefore interesting than the universe. God is more interested in us than the whole universe. Someday, I may tell you more. Or, you might explore for yourself.
Filed under: myNews
Those who know me know I have quite an interest in music and the genre of most interest to me is vintage jazz and swing of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. I am not much of a musician, however, I did play the trumpet in my younger years and was a collector of the aforementioned recorded music. This background is enough for me to be able to converse with musicians whenever I can. I often make it a goal to engage a musician, particularly in a setting where they may be playing to a somewhat non-attentive crowd. Thus, my goal becomes to make sure they are not playing a ‘wallpaper job.’ This term was introduced to me by a trumpet player who was heading to a gig and called it a ‘wallpaper job,’ one where the audience is not paying much attention and they can play whatever they want.
Finding opportunities to talk about my true interest in jazz music do not present themselves often. These days, I find I must keep as in tune as I can with a few varieties of music. This can stretch me a bit and that, I suppose, is a good thing. Although I was not necessarily a follower of the popular music of my youth, it was surrounding me and I seem to have soaked some of it up. Actually, relative to the current pop music of today, the music of the 1950s, 60s and 70s seems to have more substance than I ever thought at the time.
I could write a whole blog on music, but, I have to start somewhere. Let me now relate to you my latest encounter with a musician. After curling last week, we went into the lounge to talk. A guitar and sound system was sitting in the corner and I knew it probably belonged to Geoff Gibbons. My wife and I used to go to 25 cent Wing Wednesday when Geof was playing and I have spent quite a bit of time talking to Geoff. Sure enough, pretty soon he appeared and greeted me warmly. Then he asked, “Any requests?” Well nothing came to mind, so, I blurted out Malaguena. “Malagu… what?” came the response. I described seeing Roy Clark play it on TV many years ago. He agreed that Roy Clark was a really great player. The next thing that came into my mind was something I had seen on the PBS special John Sebastian’s Folk Rewind. It was a black and white clip with Judy Collins and Pete Seeger singing Seeger’s Turn, Turn, Turn, taken from Ecclesiastes in the Bible. We had still not found a song for Geoff to do, so, I went on to talk about the Glen Campbell Goodtime Music Hour from the late sixties. Glen had appeared on the Smothers Brothers show and took over from them one summer, ending up with his own show. Glen had another musician, John Hartford, on the show to add to the musical segments. The show contained music and skits. There would be a weekly guest and they would perform and then appear in skits that often ended up with the participants loosing it in laughter.
The show was musically unique by todays standards. The stage had a walkway that led to a central circle ( I am pretty sure there is a name for this, but, I can’t think of it at the moment) in the audience where Glen sat and played with his guests and John Hartford. John played guitar, banjo, fiddle and sometimes danced on a sheet of plywood to add extra rhythm to his solos. I always looked forward to the music in the circle because, well, it was great music without the frills. I looked particularly forward to the times when John Hartford played. There was something about him that made me understand that he was the genuine article for his music and a really great talent. A couple of times I heard him do a song called “The Old Washing Machine Song.” During the song he made sounds to imitate the new and old washing machine. Very clever, I thought.
Geoff said, he would do some Glen Campbell and then played Gentile On My Mind. To be honest, I did not remember John Hartford’s name that night, so, I went home and did a bit of research. I found Roy Clark doing Malaguena and other songs. I even found Charo doing it. I couldn’t remember ever knowing Charo played guitar. She sure bent the strings. Next, I found the clip of Judy and Pete doing Turn, Turn, Turn. Then, I turned to John Hartford, who added the ‘t’ in his last name on the advice of Chet Atkins (a really great guitar player who helped many musicians). I always wondered what happened to John.
Evidently, John Hartford wrote Gentile On My Mind which became a standard in the genre of pop music. Geoff just jumped right in and played it without music. It provided Hartford with some income so he could dedicate his life to his music. He spent decades piloting a steamboat up and down the Mississippi river, playing his bluegrass music. In later years he contributed to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? and created a new variant of bluegrass music called newgrass.
John Hartford is gone now, but, he truly left his mark on the history of music. The other musicians mentioned here also left their mark. While Geoff plays in a variety of places around the Vancouver area, he also writes music for movies.
This musical encounter with Geoff lead me to learn a lot. I sent Geoff some of what I learned and some links. I like sharing with musicians and if we can both learn something, the encounter becomes even more fruitful.
I guess there is a link here to my interest in jazz. The river boats on the Mississippi, carried early jazz and musicians up the river from New Orleans where they eventually landed in Chicago and their music became the Chicago Style of jazz.
I have met many dozens of musicians over the years, some famous and some who simply remain in the background staying true to their music, some who have done both, like John Hartford. The world is full of truly great musicians who, for by choice of otherwise, never attain fame or fortune, or have turned away from it.
Some of the Mississippi riverboats were quite large and put on shows. They were flashy with Minstrel shows, white entertainers dressed in blackface created from burnt cork. The banjo was an important instrument in these perforomances. A popular stage musical from the 1920s, Showboat, depicted a showboat that brought entertainment to towns along the river. I found a clip on the Internet with John Hartford steering a riverboat and talking and performing. The wheel was nearly as tall as he was. I got the feeling that he could tell a lot of stories. Anyway, the boat was full of tourists and there was a lady behind John who was playing ‘Ol Man River on an organ, a tune from Showboat. John explained that he never liked the tune and then imitated the low voice of the person who sang the song, a reference to Paul Robson, who originally sang it.
I found many other clips of John Hartford and I am glad I rediscovered him. Encounters with musicians like Geoff are times I value deeply. These musicians are important contributers to the culture of mankind.
When I thought about writing this I considered adding links to each reference, however, then I realized that, while valuable, some readers might click on each of them as they read. This would break up my writing. Thus, I encourage you, the reader, to use copy and paste to discover for yourself what I have learned. Now, go explore music!
Filed under: myNews
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