"Owner's" Decisions

He looked out onto the field of the West Virginia Associates Stadium. A play had just ended and one of the athletes was writhing in agony. He could tell the player was in pain all the way from the "colored" owners box. A chime came through on the two-way communicator. He picked up the receiver, "Yes? Remove him from the field, take him to the locker room and scan it to be sure. Then proceed with reconstruction. He should be back on the field for the next period." A "Yes sir." Was heard on the other end. He watched as the coach had some staff members carry the athelete off the field to the "colored" locker room.

Runpass was a brutal game and for some time the Confederate Runpass Association only allowed whites to play. The game became lackluster and stale so the team owners thought it would be a good idea to allow a black team to compete to raise interest and revenue. They also saw nothing wrong with the chance to rough up some colored folks as well. The blacks complied and OI presented a group of athletes to compete and they did well. So much so that some of the confederate states wouldn't allow the blacks to play out of fear that there would be an uproar and violence would commence. The state of West Virginia among a few others was courageous and held many a game for black and white competition.

The communicator rang again, "Sir his achelles tendon is torn."
"Ok, get him into the tube right away and concentrate all regenerative tissue to that area, he'll be back on the field in no time." Another "Yes sir" could be heard over the comminicator.

Ever since the slave population and the Confederacy split, each territory had it's own reconstruction. The Confederacy kept rolling along reuniting all of their states, and the Black Territory became a fortress within its own right. In the Black Territory an organization rose as the leading and agreed conscious of the freed people. When the war first ended it was very difficult for both sides. At some points there was much vitriol. Some states stayed white exclusive while some others just segregated. Blacks were not allowed to stay after dark, but they could conduct business in these states. West Virginia was one of them.

As for Runpass. It was a game played with an oblong ball on a 100 yard field. The goal was to score by reaching the opponents goal zone with the ball in hand and the team that reached the goal zone the most times won the game. One side drove towards the goal zone while the opposing side defended it and each team's side had a full hour to post the most scores. Each team had four sets to score and if you gained 10 yards within a set you got to start the set from one again.

There was a knock at the door of the owners box, and he answered the door. There was a white man  standing in the doorway, "Now let thatbe a lesson to you if you think y'alls players are gonna run all over my team." His southern drawl was entertaining. The tall black man looked back at him sharply and replied, "May the best team win." And he smiled. The white man turned red and stormed away. The OI board would be pleased to hear of the standing of their Runpass team. They were working on their second championship in four years since they were asked to join. The Territory felt this was an acceptable distraction.

He picked his receiver up and a connection picked up on the other side. "Sir?"
"Done?"
"Yes, he'll be playing after halftime."
"Great, let's show these guys how to win a championship at their own game." He looked back out at the field from the "colored" owners box. The bare white walls bore down on him, but winning makes things bearable. He smiled as the OI Athletics jogged back on the field, previously injured player included. Then he sat down, grabbed his notebook to keep records and watched the game.

Well hello...

I haven't posted in so long, but so much has changed. Murried and a baby on the way: ah, the joys of the present human experience. I couldn't be more happy...and intrigued about where life will take me next.

We will see. Stay tuned.

The Human Being

Who are we? What are we doing to ourselves? Why are some of our priorities mixed up? Do we really care for one another or are we just trying to "look good" because that is what our culture and society tells us is the most important. Where did these rules we see today come from? What exactly is money and why is it so important to some humans, but not important to others? What is control and is it really worth seeking and attaining? Have we lost sight of what is really going on on this planet and our place on it. Are we really about "protecting our environment" or is it just something that we do so when we go home at night and lay our head down we feel good about ourselves? Do we really think about our affect on our environment? Why do we allow ourselves to be distracted so easily? Back to the rules: who really makes up the rules? When they are made, is it really about liberty and freedom? Why do I hear these words so much in my "country of residence" but not see true freedom? What makes us different from other countries altogether now that I think about it? Is it differing histories? Is it different values? What makes our values better than say, Chinese values, or Russian values? Or are we really more similar than we want to admit? Is all that really separates from ourselves language, or history? Maybe. But there is one thing that we constantly look over that is always evident. A lot of what we allow to separate us is made up. It's fake. Engineered by a civilization that operates better when people are divided. Is there really much difference between myself and a Saudi Arabian...we both have to swing our arms when we walk.

But these fake separations are engrained in us. It's hard to realize that there are no real lines on a map. There are no real borders on this planet. From the space station you cant tell where some states and countries begin and others end because it's all fake. Separations, borders, land ownership. How does someone own land. Of course there is a deeds, papers, legal documents, court orders that order other human beings to imaginarily recognize that there is a fake line that marks that these borders belong to this person, or this group of people. But it is still made up.

I write this because I read a story about case where an individual is trying to be describe as negative because they are pictured possessing a substance that is "illegal" in this border and holding his hand in such a way that symbolizes a perceived negative statement. But the problem is, while this substance and this symbol is perceived as negative here, in other places around the world, this substance and symbol are perceived as harmless.

I call bullshit on everybody that empowers this madness...including myself. What have we convinced ourselves to accept as normal? What more will be sold to us as normal in the future?

I Don't Need No Stinkin Controller

So I turned on the radio and the show that came on was in the middle of an interview. To my interest the subject of video games came up. To paint a better picture, it was an older woman who was discussing the video games with an older man interviewer. It got really interesting when she started to explain the subject matter of a particular game: "Do you know that in certain games you can buy a prostitute, get her into the car, they have sex, and then he gets out and kills her to take the money back? That is what our young people are doing nowadays, that's why they're so violent." The interviewer first reacted like that was something he'd never heard of, then started agreeing with her the whole way. It got really good when one of them said: "Do you remember the games we used to play?"...

At that point I had to chuckle a bit. Then I started thinking...as a product of the video game evolution...I could not agree more. Young people shouldn't be playing these kinds of games. Then I thought a little harder and I said to myself, I've got it, we should come up with some kind of rating system...wait, damn someone stole my idea...a decade ago. The question isn't whether or not they should be playing, because they shouldn't. I've seen the studies. The question is how they get them...

I'll come back to that point in a moment. I am a responsible adult. I don't play games and let them get me super aggressive. I am a gamer. That means that I play games to play them. The beat them. To figure them out. I like good graphics, good gameplay, and a great story, and if I happen to be able to drive through a city and drop granades behind me and blow up people and cars, that just gives the game extra points, and that makes the game more entertaining. That is what everyone wants to a certain degree, but that is a conversation for another time.

Now back to the point...I can only suspect, but when you visit a video game retailer that happens to be near a high school on the day of a game's release and it is sold out by round 4:30, you can only suspect that some older rated games are getting into younger hands...I'm just saying. The point being, don't blame the games. There are people who enjoy some of these games you would question, and it would really suck if some of you folks messed with with us getting our hands on them somehow. Get on the companies who sell higher-age rated games to younger folks, and if you know someone who is exposing young minds to our favorite but racy games, tell them to think twice about starting it up while younger minds are present.







She never's mad, she never fights. She'll stay up with you all night. She's on when you are ready, she's off when you don't want her, She's got curves and she'll work your thumbs All the sports you like, or stories that can keep you up at night. It's been groovy :)

A late post for the new year

How do y'all do? I hope the new year is treating you all nicely so far. Everything on my end is just fine. I could say things like, "I'm gonna be on the ball with these posts this year," or "I've got some great ideas coming down the pipe." I kind of do, but for now I got nothing, so bear with me. I just want whatever I write to have some substance and really be thought provoking...stay tuned

Detectives

Are we nothing but investigators? Following the trails of clues left by our ancestors, predecessors, and nature itself. But as of lately we have gone off the trail. Clues left have gone cold and are waiting for us to pick the trail back up...Detectives, still confused, but not as much as we were when we first started our journey. Still swirling on and bound to the proximity of this planet. So far we have only tipped the iceberg of knowledge, and all we must do is stop fighting with ourselves and come to the understanding that as much as we resist, we are all in this together. An environment of separation is encouraged for humanity.. Those who stand in positions of leverage keep those unaware at bay by continuing to divide us, and make us divide ourselves. But humanity is one and should start to conduct itself as such. And until we do, the divisive agenda is sure to doom us to destroying ourselves.

A Mind Squirt

"Culture is the product of the unperturbed human mind. The human mind, unperturbed, through the medium of language, erects institutions and social structures into which it then secretes itself and sort-of lives in a private Idaho." -Terence McKenna

The Lottery of Life

I recently attended a lecture at the Carnegie Science Institute. It was a lecture about astrobiology, which is essentially the study of life on other planets in outer space.The "life on other planets" concept has been pondered by the human race probably since our ability to be aware of the stars has been present. Every time we look up at the sky into space, there's almost always a wondering of whether it is just us; but as it seems there's a good chance that it may not just be us.

In our galaxy there are millions of other stars that could fit the description of our sun. And that is just one galaxy out of hundreds of millions in outer space. All across the universe there are billions of other stars with planets that are very much like ours. Scientists use a doppler method to discover what size planets are orbiting a star, or they use a light reduction measurement method to detect the size of some planets passing over their sun. Think of it like this: when you observe a star, it's orbiting planets pass over it, the light that the star gives off decreases, and the amount of which it decreases yields the size of the planet passing over it.

Additionally, while observing these stars and planets, scientist's have made monumental discoveries such as the fact that the needed elements to build life are already out there in the cosmos. It has been observed that many nebulae in outer space have complex hydro-carbons, which are the building blocks for life. And not only that, but those same hydro-carbons are incorporated in the 30,000 tons of cosmic dust that falls to earth every year. So if we're getting sprinkled on our home planet, its a safe bet that many other planets in our universe are getting the same showering.

But then to make matters more interesting scientists also have traveled the far and wide to test some of the most extreme environments for life. Guess what they found? They found that from the coldest extremes in Antarctica, to the hottest steam beds in the deep ocean, to some of the deepest mines dug by us were inhabited by microbial life. The same microbial life that hails from our single-celled ancestors that inhabited this planet for 3 billion years before becoming complex.

So let's add it all up. Life is able to thrive in the harshest conditions. There are still debates going on now about methane that is concentrated in certain areas on our distant neighbor Mars. Are these methane concentrations due to microbial life by-products? The debate goes on. But one thing seems certain as these scientists continue to find planets in perfect positions from their suns (this makes it so water can remain mostly in liquid form), the odds of us being alone in our universe drops drastically. We start to find that life will thrive even in the most extreme conditions (ever seen grass grow through concrete).

It was shared that there are space exploration organizations that are continually broadcasting a signal to outer space with "I Love Lucy" re-runs on the band. What would we do if we received an incoming communication of a re-run of some crazy program from another planet? We'd better figure out how we're going to respond, because the odds are, you can bet we could.

Robert J. Childs
Information Agent
Observer Industries

Humans...

I came up with this after a little people watching:

What is this, "swinging your arms as you walk," thing? It's weird...under certain observational condition, it is one of the most interesting things you can see. People walking around, swinging their arms to and fro. You can be happy (and swing them merrily), you could be angry (and swing them furiously), you can be bored (and they swing sadly), but they all swing. Sometimes we notice and sometimes we don't. Humans: becoming increasingly interesting...no wait, nature: becoming increasingly interesting with more observation/perception.

AA+