Carl Sagan

I'm not proposing to write an essay on the life of Carl Sagan, nor tell you what you can't read on the Wikipedia article. This is just a summary of Carl's recent influence on me thanks to his work on the television series "Cosmos" which was broadcast in the eighties.

I did not see Cosmos when it was originally broadcast, and I would have been far too young to take much away from it at the time. I recently watched the entire series on YouTube (you can find the playlist here), and I've ordered the series on DVD from Amazon.

The series was enlightening to say the least. However, it wasn't just the content that had me clicking the links to each new episode; it was the way Carl presented that information, and the passion for cosmology that he was transferring. I would go so far as to say that Cosmos had a profound effect on me, and that it reignited my desire to learn (something that I thought I might have lost entirely).

So, of course, I came to think of Carl Sagan as an awesome guy, which he probably was. Somebody to emulate and learn from. Which probably brings me to the subject of his book "Mirhuana Reconsidered" (I've not read it by the way). I've never been a user or advocate of marijuana, but that doesn't mean that I exclude Carl from my list of heroes.

I also have to keep in mind that although I have enjoyed Carl Sagan's works (including Contact), this does not mean he was a perfect human being. None of us are; and if smoking marijuana was one of Carl's most vilifying vices, then why should it invalidate the important work and the inspiring messages that he left behind?

The Water

It's like... it's like my body is now ninety-nine percent water.

The raindrops just came outta nowhere. All I could do was try to ride home as carefully as I could. It just... it just kept coming.

Still, if I ever have to buy another jacket, I'm getting one with the Wolf brand on it. My current Wolf jacket might be soaked, but my arms and torso are dry as a bone.

Can't say the same for my extremities though.

Mister Writer

I've had several independent sources tell me I should write a book. And that they would "totally" read said book.

Now I don't know what to write.

In other news, I just finished watching Cosmos on YouTube. Carl Sagan certainly had a talent for delivering science in a passionate and interesting way. His love of science and the cosmos was evident throughout the series, and afterwards. As a friend of mine recently suggested, it would have been wonderful to have been exposed to Cosmos in my more formative years. I might have taken a more active interest in science.

But enough what ifs.

Bruises

I am slowly coming around to the idea that I hate shields.

As useful as they might be when defending yourself, they get in the damned way, they obscure your vision, they're frikken heavy, and they are one more thing to think about on the battlefield. I am, of course, talking about my time in The Vikings.

Although it's ever-so-damned-enjoyable, I'm having a lot of teething problems learning to use a shield a) effectively and b) safely. I find that my shield "travels" a lot during training. Instead of keeping it by my side to cover myself, I'm pushing it out and forwards, leaving myself open.

It also means that I could accidentally knock someone's teeth out with the edge or boss of the shield. That would be fine if I was actually trying to kill someone, but I'm not. This is just re-enactment.

The training was all the more difficult because I was fighting a lefty.

I think the the shield travelling during battle comes from martial arts habits. In Tai Chi and, to a lesser extent, Karate, you learn that while forever you are in contact with an opponent's body part, you will be able to feel where that body part is trying to move. So, if my shield meets someone else's shield at The Vikings, I try to keep it there so I can tell when they are going to move it around. However, this means that if my opponent backs off, my shield travels away from me and I get left open. It also means that if they raise their shield, my shield could be bashed into their face by a slight jostle.

But this is why re-enactment battle is different from real battle. Yes, you want to make it look as convincing as possible, but you're not actually trying to kill someone. While elements of re-enactment training could be applied to real fighting, there is a lot about real fighting that cannot be applied to re-enactment.

We also trained on how to receive a "berserker"; someone who charges, screaming and foaming at the mouth, into your shield wall. The aim is to stay standing and not break ranks. The bruises on my thigh and shoulder where my shield was rammed into me have developed, overnight, into very angry-looking marks. All good, clean fun right?

Flat Earth

Bear with me on this one, I will attempt to make it as brief as I can.

If you live by the sea, and you are fortunate enough to see boats or ships with sails, have you ever seen a ship sail over the horizon? If you have, you may notice that the ship does not shrink until it is so small that you cannot see it. Instead, you should see that the boat disappears from the bottom up, with its mast being the last part sinking out of view.

That might suggest to you that, like an ant crawling over an apple, the ship is disappearing over the edge of a round object.

There is fundamental, imparted knowledge that we often take for granted. We do not question certain facts simply because so much is built on them. To question these things would be to question virtually everything around us.

We are taught, in some subliminal (and perhaps accidental) way, that "to question is to argue". That when we ask a question, we are rejecting the subject of our questions and disagreeing with it.

What a terrible mindset to be stuck with.

Take this fundamental truth for example: the world is round. Excluding the intellectual exercises of the Flat Earth Society and so on, most educated people of today accept that the world is round. We are taught that the world is spherical, that it is not a flat plain. We accept this without question.

Regardless of whether the Earth is round or not, this is still imparted knowledge. Imparted knowledge is not nearly as valuable as wisdom you gain for yourself through observation, experimentation, and mental exercise.

Until this morning, I accepted the imparted wisdom of a round Earth. I never assumed to argue with the idea that the Earth was round. There is more than enough proof, if you ever wanted it, that the Earth is not flat.

However, this morning I was introduced to the idea of watching a sailing ship disappear over the horizon, its masts remaining in view for longer than the rest of the boat. It was not until this morning that I stopped accepting that the Earth was round. It has only been since this morning that I have known that the Earth is round.

Would that we could apply this method to all education so we could stop accepting and start knowing.

Big Breakfast

Ever heard the phrase: "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dine like a pauper"?

Whatever I eat for breakfast, it never seems enough. By the time I get to work, I need another breakfast. My lunch is then in danger of becoming my second breakfast.

Yesterday, and today, I am eating my meals in reverse order. I cooked up some curry and rice on Monday night, divided into two portions, and stored them in the fridge. Yesterday morning I re-heated the meal in my microwave and had it for breakfast.

I have heard many people say that they "cannot face" a big breakfast; but for me, this worked wonders. I wasn't really hungry until some time between noon and one in the afternoon. That's a massive improvement from being hungry at nine or ten in the morning.

I am guessing that if one were to couple this movement with a modest, early morning jog, then one's metabolism would be working very efficiently, perhaps all day long.

I've had the other half of the pre-prepared breakfastdinner this morning, so by midday I'll be able to see if yesterday was providing skewed results, or if a larger morning meal is the way to go.

Litter Lout

On my way to the post office after work, I happened to be following someone headed in the same direction. He was walking along at his own pace, eating some crisps, as you might do.

And then, with a quick glance over his shoulder, he just cast the empty crisp packet into the street without even so much as breaking his stride. He just kept bowling down the street.

I found that pretty damned depressing. Whence comes the mindset that allows such behaviour? It's not as if he had never been taught that it was wrong: that over-the-shoulder squint to check if anyone was looking gave away, not a moment of guilt, but a moment of childish behaviour. Checking to see if mum or dad was looking before he did something he shouldn't.

I suppose I should be glad I never opted to go for the police force or something. Surely littering is the least of the sins one could witness every day as part of such a role. I think it would be quite crushing to see the dirty underbelly of humanity.

Which leads me, once again, to those thoughts about the truth vs. comfortable thoughts. I value the truth over comfortable surmising. But people commit daily atrocities much worse than dropping rubbish in the streets. Should you try to put it out of your mind while you can, reasoning that no one can bear the rest of the world's guilt all at once? Or is that denial? At what point do you start dealing with extremes?