All successful life is
Adaptable,
Opportunistic,
Tenacious,
Interconnected, and
Fecund.
Understand this.
Use it.
Shape God.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Archive for » August, 2008 «
Saturday, 30 August 2008 at 10:06 AM | Author: bishop
Category: Quotes
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Saturday, 30 August 2008 at 8:40 AM | Author: bishop
Life, the textbook says, is an emergent property. It has no inherent quality of itself apart from being a state of creative activity from the cellular level upward through the biological hierarchy. Life does not imply consciousness: it is, instead, observed as activity, motion, and impulse (and all of these different words are really implying the same concept). The common perception of life as holding some inherent meaning is faulty through the logic of wrongful association of life with religious or philosophical theories of individual telos.
The discussion question states: From a biological perspective, “life” is an outcome of ancient events by which lifeless matter—atoms and molecules—became organized into the first living cells. Do you agree or disagree?
I don’t think there is enough evidence one way or the other. The clause that distracts me from a personal conclusion is the “outcome of ancient events.” I’m not sure there is enough empirical evidence to suggest anything conclusive in this regard. Given this lack of meaningful terms, I think the sentence lacks direction and authority. I believe that I would have to reform the sentence to say: From a biological perspective, “life” is an outcome of events by which base matter as we understand it—atoms and molecules—becomes organized into cells and begins a process of creative activity. I could be comfortable with this presumption based on the empirical ability to observe certain events take place and provide evidence or refutation for the definition of life as an emergent property.
Original Discussion Board Response
we know that all living things are inherintly conscious
I don’t think this is an accurate statement. Cells are not inherently conscious. The next up on the hierarchy, tissue, is not inherently conscious. Next up, organs, are not inherently conscious though there begins a gray area here since the presumed seat of human and animal consciousness is the brain. I find it interesting that a quick review of the index for our textbook reveals that the word ‘consciousness’ is not listed. This typically ends up in the purview of psychology rather than biology, but I think it has a very strong bearing on biology. The arguments of when life begins is all about this property of being conscious. If we work from a strictly biological definition of life, then the moment cells are formed from molecules and atoms, life emerges as a property of those cells. But if we attempt to define life (or define that which is living) as that which is inherently conscious then we move right back into this gray area. And that generally makes Republicans very nervous around election time.
Responding to Daniel Colangelo
Category: School
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 at 12:41 PM | Author: bishop
When apparent stability disintegrates,
As it must—
God is Change—
People tend to give in
To fear and depression,
To need and greed.
When no influence is strong enough
To unify people
They divide.
They struggle,
One against one,
Group against group,
For survival, position, power.
They remember old hates and generate new ones,
They create chaos and nurture it.
They kill and kill and kill,
Until they are exhausted and destroyed,
Until they are conquered by outside forces,
Or until one of them becomes
A leader
Most will follow,
Or a tyrant
Most fear.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008 at 8:12 AM | Author: bishop
Civilization is to groups what
intelligence is
to individuals. It is a means of
combining the
intelligence of the many to achieve
ongoing
group adaptation.
Civilization, like intelligence, may
serve well,
serve adequately, or fail to serve its
adaptive
function. When civilization fails to
serve, it must
disintegrate unless it is acted upon
by unifying
internal or external forces.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Monday, 25 August 2008 at 7:35 PM | Author: bishop
I already knew this: it is just that I think I need to remind myself of the fact that I am not stupid. I am scared. I’m scared of failure so I set myself up for failure by being scared of it.
Take this week, for instance.
I started school. It’s Monday. It’s only the first day of school. I have all week to do my homework, the majority of which is really “get to know your classmates in the discussion boards, read a bit, watch a movie, and write a little bit.” What’s so fucking difficult about that? Nothing! Nothing at all!
So why do I have this panic when I sit down to actually begin to examine my materials? I haven’t felt this way in previous semesters. Is it because I’m actually moving into the more difficult subjects now? I’m actually having to think about what I’m doing instead of popping off answers in certain classes (e.g., WorldLit, Psychology, Comp II, Sociology, etc) because I’m moderately well-versed in the subject matter already?
Now I’m in classes that I haven’t taken before or are part of my future plans but I haven’t studied them academically. Having a hobby of religion or culture or history is not the same as actually studying it. This isn’t a free ride here. This counts. This is the real deal now. I have to make it or die trying, so to speak I mean.
Admittedly, I’ve already done the whole metaphorical “give it up to god” type thing. I stopped looking at the final goal and have begun to focus merely on the right now and let tomorrow take care of itself. It’s not a perfect release, to be honest, but I’m getting there. Some of the nervousness is lessening over the day already. I think I’ll be in the groove by the end of the week. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing this for me. I’m doing this for Jinx. I’m doing this for our family future and my personal happiness. I’m doing this because I deserve to do it right this time and enjoy the rewards of my labors. (Yes. I may still be working for “da’man” but at least I’ll be working in an industry in which I want to work rather than merely because I defaulted my life into it like technology.)
I’m okay. I’ll get through this. Quite frankly, this should have been anticipated. I’m getting closer to my end goal (or the first stage end goal which is still an end goal of its own) and I tend to sabotage my own efforts about now by the whole inner crosstalk and doubt on every project and move I’ve made in my life. I’m not going to let it get to me this time.
Thank you for listening. Uh, or reading. Thanks.
What? Did I say something? What?
Oh. That’s right. The title said Fear and Sex. So where’s the sex, right? I didn’t take my sexual harassment test thingie on time like I was supposed to last week. I took it tonight in hopes that they wouldn’t notice it was late. I made a perfect score on sexual harassment. I have to seriously wonder if that’s a good thing. LOL!
Category: Life, School
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Monday, 25 August 2008 at 9:17 AM | Author: bishop
All struggles
Are essentially
power struggles.
Who will rule,
Who will lead,
Who will define,
refine,
confine,
design,
Who will dominate.
All struggles
Are essentially
power struggles,
And most
are no more intellectual
than two rams
knocking their heads together.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Sunday, 24 August 2008 at 8:24 PM | Author: bishop
‘Twas the night before school
And all through the house,
Chaos reigned supreme
Even upsetting the mouse.
We were all running amuck
And scrambling to find
Our books and our lunches
Over the dwindling time.
Everyone was needed
To pull their own part,
And as we worked together
The night got the right start.
So off to our beds
We scurry and flee.
To get a good night sleep?
Of course! That was no great mystery!
Category: Family, Humor, School
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Friday, 22 August 2008 at 7:36 AM | Author: bishop
To get along with God,
Consider the consequences of your behavior.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Thursday, 21 August 2008 at 2:22 PM | Author: bishop
[Scattered Pieces of Text]
Why is the universe?
To shape God.
Why is God?
To shape the universe.
†
All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change,
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.
†
A tree
Cannot grow
In its parents’ shadows.
†
The Destiny of Earthseed
Is to take root among the stars.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Thursday, 21 August 2008 at 1:02 PM | Author: bishop
My books for my classes all came in yesterday. Jenn and I spent some time going through one of the computer books since I have to take that class again. It’s been over 10 years, so previous work does not transfer in. But we got to laughing at some of the questions.
Okay. For some of the new people: I’ve been working in technical support for a little over 15 years. I started out in Macs and I ended up with PCs and other related stuff. This is my “day job,” so to speak, so it was already laughable that I had to take this class again. No, I didn’t CLEP out of it since (1) I was not prepared to follow through and figure out what was needed and (2) I need to get it over with rather than screw around since I only have these two semesters left.
So … back to the topic: these are real questions out of the book.
- A _____ controls the movement and actions of players or objects in video games or computer games.
- control pad
- gamepad
- dance pad
- touchpad
- Examples of text-based documents are _____.
- drawings, clips art, and photographs
- home movies and live performances
- letters, reports, and e-mail messages
- music, narrations, and speeches
- With database software, users can run a _____, which is a request for specific data from the database.
- record
- function
- query
- field
- _____ is a collection of clip art and photographs.
- Professional photo editing software
- Personal photo editing software
- Clip art/image gallery
- Entertainment software
Arg!
Category: Humor
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008 at 6:42 AM | Author: bishop
We are all Godseed, but no more or less
so than any other aspect of the universe,
Godseed is all there is — all that
Changes. Earthseed is all that spreads
Earthlife to new earths. The universe is
Godseed. Only we are Earthseed. And the
Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among
the stars.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008 at 6:40 PM | Author: bishop
Sooner or later you have to talk about it. I mean, it’s not a real blog unless you make some comment about sex, your sex life, your lack of one. But I don’t actually have one. I mean, not really.
What I have discovered—after nearly 14 years with in the vicinity of the same person, various adventures in polyamory, a couple quick ducks behind a gender identity or three, and a general taste for just about anything that’s been done that didn’t involve shit, animals, children, or near death experiences—is that the only way to truly I can get laid (this late in the age game) is either to grovel into disgusting roles in which I would rather suck a rat’s dick before performing or to be downright perverted. Notice that there is no mention of gender here. It doesn’t matter. Either gender is just as revolting in this regard. And just because there are some in my immediate sphere of influence who are okay with groveling and submitting to acts of degradation before strangers is no reason that I have to either partake of such a lifestyle or find it anything but utterly disgusting that any human being would want (much less actually seek out opportunity) to be treated less than human. I can only think of the self-esteem issues involved in someone who would ask to be treated in such a manner.
It is often said that there is a fine line between pleasure and pain. I will certainly agree with that. But what most don’t actually understand is that there is a similarity precisely because they are two sides of the same coin that is to be pocketed rather than played. Once you have mastered one or both, there is no reason to grovel before either ever again. Does this mean that one will never feel pleasure or experience pain? Of course not. But the control they have over human nature is broken and lays wasted on those who are truly masters of themselves.
Once that border is reached, then, and only then, is true passion found between two individuals of equal measure, equal strength, and equal spirit.
I’ve never found that apparently. Every time I think I have, it turns out to be an intentional lie to bamboozle me for reasons I don’t grok. I’ll never understand. And I guess, in the end, I’ll never trust anyone enough to figure it out.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008 at 9:00 AM | Author: bishop
Drowning people
Sometimes die
Fighting their rescuers.
—Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Category: Quotes
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