So I dreamed that I was tramping in this random place. I stopped at this hut, I'm not sure who else was in my tramping party, but I think there might have been only a couple of them with me. Maybe it was my immediate family, I donno. There were a bunch of other people at the hut, and the hut had this sort of rectangular floor layout. It was a normal width, but there was this passageway into a back part of the hut, where they had a surface mount assembly line! Weird! I was trying to fix this design, so I was looking around for a surface mount 1 watt resistor. Then I kept walking and it looked all high-tech, like a particle accelerator or something, or maybe it was still the SMT line. Then as I walked past all that (the hut was very long I guess!) and I came into this big room full of a bunch of people. It was an acoustically treated room that had really good reflective properties. And it was in a wee back room off that big acoustically treated room that I met Chad Moore. Not many people will know of Chad Moore, but in real life, Chad Moore is the vocalist of the Christian death metal band Soul Embraced. In the dream, he was different than in real life, younger and I think a bit thinner, but I can't honestly say I really know what Chad Moore really looks like. But anyway, I was a bit star struck, and I tried to engage him in conversation. But before long, the crowd that was in the acoustically treated room realised that this was Chad Moore and they started all clapping. At was at the clapping that I realised that it was an acoustically treated room, because it echoed really well and sounded really good, in an echo-y kinda way.
Then I woke up.
Peter
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Incomplete Insurance
So I got myself some contents insurance. But for some reason, the policy doesn't cover acts of terrorism. I thought that was the exact sort of thing that it should cover. Big, unlikely events. But no. War and terrorism are excluded. I guess that's ok, since they are really rather unlikely even on the scale of unlikely things. And they aren't much more costly (in terms of my contents) than plain old burglary. So I'm not too worried. Although my flatmate reckons that I'm more at risk because I'm American. Maybe so, but even still, my point holds. I think.
Peter
Peter
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
25 Random Things About Me
Okay, so my aunt has tagged me on Facebook for this meme, and it's my nephew-ish duty to comply...
Rules:
Whatcha talkin' about? I don't need no rules! I tag none but those that tag themselves.
Really really random things about me:
1) I have a theory about humour where jokes need only amuse myself. I sometimes wonder if people hear me when I burst out laughing for no apparent reason as I'm trying to fall asleep.
2) I am a soft-core pacifist. I've thought a lot about pacifism and just war theory, and I've come to the current, tenative conclusion that there is such a thing as a just war. However, it seems like human war is generally unjust. Practically, I have chosen not to do engineering work for arms companies or governments and I am unwilling to be in direct service of a military. I voted US Pacifist Party in the 2008 US Presidential election.
3) I'm into heavy metal music, like, where the singers scream. I guess I'm falling down a spiral of sensory down-regulation where I need nastier and nastier music to get a kick. But it's a fun downward spiral of sensory down-regulation.
4) I'm in an argument with food. In some ways, I wish I could be middle aged and not have to eat as much. Yeah, it's stupid I know. Don't worry, I'll enjoy my youth.
5) All throughout school and undergrad at university, I wrote in pen because assessements had to be in pen. Now I'm using pencil.
6) I am a highly imaginary person. As a complex number, I would call myself something like 1.7 + j10. Other people are more real, and therefore would feel uncomfortable summarising themselves (or probably anyone) in a single number.
7) I am a city dweller. I grew up in Chicago, a city so big that it scares me when I go back. As a city dweller, I have developed a set of understandings of the world from that perspective. For example, I am opposed to guns and I believe that the 2nd Ammendment in the US constitution should be removed. In the city, there is no reason to have a gun. However, in the country, a gun can be just another sharp tool.
8) I type with more confidence than I handwrite.
9) I studied electrical engineering but I didn't learn electromagnetics.
10) It's been said that if you play guitar you can play bass guitar. I think the general feeling is true, in that if you play guitar it's easier to learn bass than flute, but still bass is a complicated instrument all by itself.
11) I used to dislike the sound of bass drums. I find get a pop/rock bass drum sound that I really liked. Now I don't seem to have that problem.
12) I've come to believe that maths is just a langauge and that it doesn't express fundamental truths about the world.
13) I've also come to believe that philosophy is a process and that it isn't useful for finding fundamental truths about the world.
14) I've found that fundamental truths about the world pretty much have to be assumed before you start doing anything. It seems like no one questions their own existence, even though "I think therefore I am" is actually arbitrary!
15) I've come to truth in Jesus and reject atheism. Atheism is useless and dead. There is no life purpose in atheism except the arbitrary.
16) Ironically, I am working on a project doing predictions of simple time-series sequences (like chaotic oscillators) but I doubt the predictability of most actual things.
17) I have a funny thing on my right wrist that's like a birthmark but not. It helped me learn left from right as a kid. Now I consider it a special feature and an outward reminder of the asymmetry of my body.
18) I regard asymmetry as an important element of art, philisophically speaking. Art should be almost symmetrical, but not quite.
19) I read and reread the Bible but don't get closer to understanding Jesus.
20) I find it aesthetically pleasing to not own a car, but eventually I'll probably want one enough and have enough money to get one.
21) I'm
22) running
23) out
24) of
25) things!
Peter
Rules:
Whatcha talkin' about? I don't need no rules! I tag none but those that tag themselves.
Really really random things about me:
1) I have a theory about humour where jokes need only amuse myself. I sometimes wonder if people hear me when I burst out laughing for no apparent reason as I'm trying to fall asleep.
2) I am a soft-core pacifist. I've thought a lot about pacifism and just war theory, and I've come to the current, tenative conclusion that there is such a thing as a just war. However, it seems like human war is generally unjust. Practically, I have chosen not to do engineering work for arms companies or governments and I am unwilling to be in direct service of a military. I voted US Pacifist Party in the 2008 US Presidential election.
3) I'm into heavy metal music, like, where the singers scream. I guess I'm falling down a spiral of sensory down-regulation where I need nastier and nastier music to get a kick. But it's a fun downward spiral of sensory down-regulation.
4) I'm in an argument with food. In some ways, I wish I could be middle aged and not have to eat as much. Yeah, it's stupid I know. Don't worry, I'll enjoy my youth.
5) All throughout school and undergrad at university, I wrote in pen because assessements had to be in pen. Now I'm using pencil.
6) I am a highly imaginary person. As a complex number, I would call myself something like 1.7 + j10. Other people are more real, and therefore would feel uncomfortable summarising themselves (or probably anyone) in a single number.
7) I am a city dweller. I grew up in Chicago, a city so big that it scares me when I go back. As a city dweller, I have developed a set of understandings of the world from that perspective. For example, I am opposed to guns and I believe that the 2nd Ammendment in the US constitution should be removed. In the city, there is no reason to have a gun. However, in the country, a gun can be just another sharp tool.
8) I type with more confidence than I handwrite.
9) I studied electrical engineering but I didn't learn electromagnetics.
10) It's been said that if you play guitar you can play bass guitar. I think the general feeling is true, in that if you play guitar it's easier to learn bass than flute, but still bass is a complicated instrument all by itself.
11) I used to dislike the sound of bass drums. I find get a pop/rock bass drum sound that I really liked. Now I don't seem to have that problem.
12) I've come to believe that maths is just a langauge and that it doesn't express fundamental truths about the world.
13) I've also come to believe that philosophy is a process and that it isn't useful for finding fundamental truths about the world.
14) I've found that fundamental truths about the world pretty much have to be assumed before you start doing anything. It seems like no one questions their own existence, even though "I think therefore I am" is actually arbitrary!
15) I've come to truth in Jesus and reject atheism. Atheism is useless and dead. There is no life purpose in atheism except the arbitrary.
16) Ironically, I am working on a project doing predictions of simple time-series sequences (like chaotic oscillators) but I doubt the predictability of most actual things.
17) I have a funny thing on my right wrist that's like a birthmark but not. It helped me learn left from right as a kid. Now I consider it a special feature and an outward reminder of the asymmetry of my body.
18) I regard asymmetry as an important element of art, philisophically speaking. Art should be almost symmetrical, but not quite.
19) I read and reread the Bible but don't get closer to understanding Jesus.
20) I find it aesthetically pleasing to not own a car, but eventually I'll probably want one enough and have enough money to get one.
21) I'm
22) running
23) out
24) of
25) things!
Peter
Friday, January 9, 2009
I Understand
I understand. I understand why people don't like metal sometimes.
I'm listening to Living Sacrifice now. I'm a latecomer to the Living Sacrifice thing. They're an old band. I remember finding them on iTunes in 2005 and thinking "Good guitar parts, but I don't like the vocals."
Listening to them now, my tastes have changed a bit. I can stand it, but even now, it sounds like trash. There is an angry white guy thinking he's so hardcore yelling about Jesus. The guitar parts just sound like trash and the drums sound like they're recorded in a garage. The guitar solos are like the sound of cutting metal.
But you know how people make sculptures out of garbage? That's kinda what I see in Living Sacrifice. They are the sharpest, the hardest, the loudest, the angriest, the most malicious, the ugliest, the nastiest. They are trash. It sounds like trash. It seems like at any moment, the music could degenerate into total noise, and sometimes it does.
I've got "In Memoriam", and some of the tracks are better than others. Some I don't really like, and they are just trash. Others I do like and they are more like extreme 1990's metal with artistic taste, balance and symmetry.
Hey, if you don't like metal, I can understand.
Rock on,
Peter
I'm listening to Living Sacrifice now. I'm a latecomer to the Living Sacrifice thing. They're an old band. I remember finding them on iTunes in 2005 and thinking "Good guitar parts, but I don't like the vocals."
Listening to them now, my tastes have changed a bit. I can stand it, but even now, it sounds like trash. There is an angry white guy thinking he's so hardcore yelling about Jesus. The guitar parts just sound like trash and the drums sound like they're recorded in a garage. The guitar solos are like the sound of cutting metal.
But you know how people make sculptures out of garbage? That's kinda what I see in Living Sacrifice. They are the sharpest, the hardest, the loudest, the angriest, the most malicious, the ugliest, the nastiest. They are trash. It sounds like trash. It seems like at any moment, the music could degenerate into total noise, and sometimes it does.
I've got "In Memoriam", and some of the tracks are better than others. Some I don't really like, and they are just trash. Others I do like and they are more like extreme 1990's metal with artistic taste, balance and symmetry.
Hey, if you don't like metal, I can understand.
Rock on,
Peter
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