The metaphysics of human interaction

So, my day went really well. I slept in (Yay!) and then I got a shower. I got to play with my baby girl a bit, and then we went to my parent-in-laws' place. Which is always fun, because they have a fabulous home.

While there, I helped my father-in-law install some new lighting out front. Really, most of the work was already done, as my good friend Shawn was already there. I did help, though!

Afterwards, we had a good day of playing games and talking. One particular game was a lot of fun! It's called the Wrong Game, and it focuses on being wrong. That's right! Err, wrong. Anyway, you get a list of five questions that you have to answer wrongly. You get a point for each wrong answer, and five points if you get them all before the buzzer goes off. We didn't bother with the points, and after a while we ignored the buzzer. It was just a lot of fun to see what kinds of answers people would give to the most obvious questions.

"Who is the governor of this state?"

"You are!"

Much fun was had by all. Then, Shawn began to talk to Stephanie (My sister-in-law) about whether or not she meets a lot of athiests at her work. Now, it is important to note what she does. Stephanie is a post-graduate working on her doctorate in physical chemistry. Or chemical physics. Errm. Whatever.

Her answer to Shawn's question was that it rarely ever comes up in conversation. This lead into an interesting statement she made about people interacting. To sum it up, when two people are arguing diametrically opposed viewpoints, if neither person is willing to see where the other is coming from, there can be no communication. They set up a wall between them that neither of them is willing to cross, and which stays between them, preventing any kind of meaningful conversation.

To be specific, in the Evolution vs. Creationism debate, the argument often goes like this:

Creationist: So, the way it works is, God Created everything, and that is where things came from.

Evolutionist: But, there is no god. So, there must be another explanation.

Creationist: No, there is a God, you just don't believe in Him.

Evolutionist: What are you talking about? We happened because of a series of, as yet unexplained coincidences.

Creationist: Oh? So, what you are saying is, you have faith that this unexplained set of coincidences happened, but you deny my faith that there is a God?

Evolutionist: I don't have faith. I simply know.

And that is where the argument breaks down. Neither side is at all willing to see what the other side is saying, and so they just go around in circles. If you ever want to effectively communicate (and this applies anywhere) then you need to be willing, for just one minute, to say, "Okay, I see where you are coming from, however..." and then explain why you disagree, rather then simply restating your point over and over and over again.

As to myself, I believe that there must be a God. There are many reasons for not believing it, and for not wanting to believe it, and I accept that others may have chosen those reasons. I will not tell them they are wrong. I will tell them that I have made my choice, and explain to them, if they want to know, why I have made that choice. I will even listen while they explain why they have made their choice. All the world will be a better place for it.

Without debate, there can be no communication. For through debate, we define our world. How else could we know what other people were thinking?

Random Thoughts from the past!

So, in an earlier post, I said I would post what I had written down before I created this blog. I will do so, now. Afterwards, a telling of how my day today went, and an interesting conversation I had with my sister-in-law and my good friend.


May 28, 2008

This is just a little letter to put down some thoughts I have been having lately, and maybe to prepare for a coming blog. I don't know what will come of it, just as I don't know what will come of my thoughts. They are recorded here for entertainment and edification purposes. Let's see if it makes any sense.

Is it wrong to hate yourself? I am determined not to delete anything I write, once I put it down, barring only spelling mistakes and editing of sentences for clarification purposes.

It may not make sense, but it is my mind, and if you don't like it, you don't have to read it.
So, today, I read quite a bit of interesting material. I am an avid reader of Techdirt, and love most of what is coming out of there. I also read JTHM (Those of you who are fans will know, the rest will either search it or don't really need to know anyway). What astounds me is not that someone would write such filth, but why no one has done it before (of course, others have written things like this before, and it was quite well accepted). I love it, myself. Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes.

There is a current debate raging on concerning gay marriage. I just want to go on record as saying I am against it, though not necessarily for the reason you may think. I may expound upon my reasons later, but that is not the purpose of this writing.

So, back to my question: Is it wrong to hate yourself? I can see no reason why it would be. You can hate other people and not harm them, so of course you should be able to hate yourself and not harm yourself. However, it is true that hating other people may not harm them, but it does harm you. So, does hating yourself hurt other people? Probably not. It probably hurts you as much as it would hurt if you hated someone else.

Remind me later to explain my theories involving a Higher Power and morality at large. Also, social contracts. That should be a lot of fun.

In any case, it is getting way late. I need to head off to bed with my lovely wife. That is, if I can make sure there are no spiders in or around the bed. Our daughter is being very irritating as well. It is driving us up the wall, but hey, gotta love her, right? I'll talk more later.

Work, work, work

Have you ever read JTHM? I suggest you do, if you enjoy sick and twisted things (And who doesn't?). I also highly recommend Invader Zim! In fact, just about anything by Jhonen Vasquez.

So, right now I am at work. I am typing on my break, in order to keep myself sane!

Let me tell you a little about my office and a little about my job. I work for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Soon to be renamed the Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, or some such). That's right, I work for the Governator! Well, not really. I am doing cost-share merging right now. I am a paper-pusher.

But, back to what I was saying: The Office of Emergency Services (OES) is a California State Agency run on Federal rules. Basically, we are here to help out if a real disaster happens (No, the next door neighbor's dog ruining your petunias is not a disaster). Let me explain, in short, the process that all states must go through, as figured out by the Federal Government.

When a disaster happens (Such as an earthquake knocking your house off it's foundations, or a flood ruining your decor) then the person, agency, or business puts in a request for aid with their local government (City or County). If the disaster is widespread and costly enough, the local government may not be able to handle it themselves. And so, they ask for help from their Region. There are three Regions: Coastal, which takes care of most of the northern coast; Inland, which takes care of most of the Central Valley and Northern California, all the way over to the border with Nevada; and Southern California, which requires no explanation, really.

When the Region gets the request for aid from the local government, they assess the disaster, and begin to help out. By coordinating resources from various counties and cities to help out, they can bring a larger grouping of resources to bear upon a local problem. They also provide aid in the form of money to help rebuild, and to help mitigate disasters (That is, make the area safer, for the next time this happens). If the disaster is large enough, or costly enough (or if it goes across two or more Regions) then the Region will call upon the Governor to declare a State Emergency. Once that happens, OES takes over and begins coordinating a wider set of resources, even getting help from other states through the EMAC.

Now, if OES realizes there is no way they can handle what is going on, the Governor asks the President to declare a National Emergency. At that point, The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is called upon to assist.

Now, how this relates to my job: When FEMA and OES work together, there is a lot of duplicate paperwork. It has been accruing for years. I am here to get rid of the duplicate paperwork and pare down our shelf space. So, now you know: I am a paper-pusher.

Edit: I got Jhonen Vasquez's name wrong! I am such a disloyal fan. Corrected for spelling.

Yeesh.

Who could possibly have thought it would be so difficult to create a good blog. Not that I'm complaining, the tools around here are pretty amazing. And it's not like I have a lot of reference.

So, I noticed that the word Random in my original blog was wrong! It read ramdon. How ridiculous is that. I couldn't find out how to change it (I don't yet know if it can be changed, we'll see) so I just copied and pasted the original post into this new blog (with a corrected name, whee!).

As I said before, I am currently in English class. I'm probably going to get into trouble, because rather then writing my essay draft, I am typing here and talking to you people. This would normally be considered a really bad thing, except that I know something many don't.

Did you know, many authors feared and hated the act of writing! No, that is wrong. They did not hate writing, they hated starting. Go ahead, look it up. Sometimes I feel that if I never start, I won't screw anything up, and I'm not alone. Eventually, after much effort, I will begin. Once that part is over (the hard part, as they say) then I become a veritable FOUNTAIN of words, that tumble over eachother getting to the page.

I love writing, but I hate starting to write. Isn't that terrible? In any case, as you can see from the relative length of my posts (relative, because I only have two just yet), once I get started I tend to ramble on and on.

Don't worry, the quality of my posts has GOT to get better. It can't possibly be worse. Or can it....

Anyway, back to class.

Hurray!

So, this is my blog! I'm just starting with blogging, so please bear with me. Yesterday, I wrote down some of my random thoughts and I liked it so much, I decided I'd put it online. Because everyone should know what I'm thinking (even if it does drive them a bit insane).

Basically, I'm going to post what I wrote down yesterday (when I get home, because I don't have it with me right now: I'm in school). Then, every day or so, I'm going to try to put something else up. I have no idea what I'm going to write with all of this, but who knows. It could be fun.

That's right, I'm Mikey (actually, I prefer Michael, but whatever). I'm a little crazy, a little funny, and a lot of odd. I hope you enjoy reading this (all one of you).

Let's see...oh yes! The reason for the Hurray! as the title! I found my Flash Drive! I'm so happy, because I actually thought I had left it at school. That would have sucked so bad, I was trying not to even think about it. Turns out, I left it at my dad's house. Whew! I'll be using the Drive to transport my writings around with me, where ever I go, so that I can put them up here. Afterall, it wouldn't be a random collection of my thoughs if it was something I came up with at one time, every day, and prepared for it all day.

I intend to never delete any of my posts. Hopefully that will work, but it may not. I also don't intend to ever delete a sentence, once I have completed it. Barring spelling errors or rewrites, that is.

Also, I really don't mind if you go over my work with a fine-tooth comb and proofread it. It won't bother me one bit, so go right ahead. I will try to make sure that I never have any spelling mistakes, but I type pretty fast, and I sometimes make typos.

Newsflash: I'm not perfect.

Talk about your random thoughts. Yeesh.

A little about myself: I am 30 years old, soon to be 31, I have a wife, two cars, a cat, and a baby-girl! My wife's name is Jessica, and my daughter's name is Cora. I'll post pictures of them, later. I am a Christian, and so much of what I may say on here will have a Christian perspective (I am open to your views on it, however, as long as you discuss in an intelligent manner). I have done some bad things in my life, and I have done some good things in my life. I am not unique, except for certain powers of unique, and I don't feel entitled to anything. I both like and dislike human beings, and I am fairly laid back, except in my car. I am NOT fashionable, nor have I any desire to be.

It is hard to describe yourself! Who really thinks about it?

I am a writer of sci-fi, fantasy (not published yet) and poetry. I am a thinker (introvert) and I spend most of my time contemplating things. This is possible because I think about things while I am doing other things, like driving, working, or singing in the shower. This will come as no suprise to those who know me: I LOVE EXALTED! I post on the forums there (I am known as michael.talpas there too).

So, I think that is about it. Loved talking with you, and maybe I'll make another post after this one. Talk to you later!