Here’s something to keep you up late at night: think about all the questions you can ask but never get answers for. I don’t mean profound, thought-provoking questions like “How many stars are there in the universe?” or “What’s the highest number you can count to?”
No, I mean simple stuff like “How many people on this train with me have never been on it before?” or “What would it be like to be a bird afraid of heights?” Okay, the second one could probably be answered with “It would suck” but for the first one, how would you ever know? Sure, it’s theoretically possible you could find out the answer by simply asking everyone, but you have to make a lot of assumptions for this to work:
everyone you ask is willing to answer
everyone speaks the same language as you
everyone who answers is being truthful or understands the question
you can meet the above conditions before the next stop where some will get off and others get on, polluting the sample
The reality is you’re very unlikely to ever know and there are an infinite number of these seemingly banal yet unanswerable questions if you stop and think about it for a minute.
I recommend watching YouTube videos of cats instead.
Some racing games let you race against a ‘ghost’ opponent. This is usually depicted as a translucent figure/car because it’s not solid and you can move through it. The ghost is either another player’s recorded effort or one of your own earlier ones. The purpose is to give you a competitor that you can see and race against without actually needing the opponent to be there live. Plus to race against yourself would require cloning and that’s probably a good three or four years off yet.
I thought it would be neat if I could race against a ghost of myself when I’m out jogging. I can only imagine the psychological boost to be had by zipping ahead of myself, instantly knowing I was running better and faster. Sadly I can’t think of an easy way for this to be implemented without some crazy new tech that could be decades off.
On the plus side they’re also bound to have a decent smart watch by then, too.
Here are my insights (it’s insights all the way down!) on a few from the list:
12. We have become less polite as a society.
Three-in-five British Columbians believe that we have lost our sense of civility, and practically nine-in-ten saw someone swear in public. Most residents blame apathetic parents and cold technology for the rise in unruly behavior.
I don’t know how much apathetic parents are to blame (maybe a little) but technology–in the form of the smartphone–is certainly a culprit. I see many people on transit, on the sidewalk, at school, everywhere, who are more interested in staring into that 4-5 inch screen in front of their face than in anything around them. I like smartphones. They’re useful tools and they’ve opened up the world to things that weren’t possible before. But you do not need to check your Facebook page on an ongoing basis.
Also, I’m pretty sure four-in-five British Columbians would say we’ve lost our sense of civility if they had exclusively polled transit riders. Having used transit since arriving in Vancouver in 1986, I can say unreservedly that people are for more impatient and rude on transit than ever before. From people standing in front of the doors on the SkyTrain platform (blocking the exit for people trying to leave the train) to the mad dash (an actual dash!) to get a seat, people have largely abandoned any attempt to be polite. boo to them, I say.
5. As a society, we believe in some pretty outrageous things.
April Fool’s Day and Halloween provided two opportunities to assess the beliefs of British Columbians. Most claim they believe that UFOs exist, almost half think ghosts and haunted places are real, but just one-in-20 believe Elvis Presley is alive.
I don’t consider believing in UFOs to be outrageous. A UFO is an unidentified flying object and plenty are seen every year. Pedantic? Perhaps, but this framing feels like more of the media’s attempt to marginalize anything it doesn’t deem serious or worthy of study. It is reassuring that only 5% believe Elvis is still alive, however. Actually, no, it’s not. You 5% are dumb. Cut it out!
1. Christy Clark won because voters changed their minds at the last minute.
Since the B.C. provincial election in May, there has been a lot of speculation and introspection about the state of public opinion polling. Our survey conducted immediately after the election found that one-in-five voters settled on a candidate on the last 72 hours of the campaign, and that 17 per cent of actual BC Liberal voters had window-shopped as NDP supporters.
Making up your mind on who to vote for at the last minute is not a good way to vote. It is, in fact, dumb. Stop being dumb, British Columbians. Think logically, rationally and carefully before casting your vote. Don’t be swayed by soundbites or clever ads because that is all BS where politicians (of every affiliation) say anything and promise everything. Do you pride yourself on being persuaded by BS? I suspect not. So think before voting and do so before the election, throughout the election and not just at the last minute because one side or other ran a slick ad. Thanks!
Meanwhile, gizmodo has an article from the January 6, 1910 edition of the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette featuring 41 predictions on what the world would be like in the 21st century. These were predictions made in good faith (presumably). The full list is at the link but here’s a few I liked:
Cure for cancer. [Sadly this remains elusive]
Discovery south pole. [This happened the following year, in 1911]
Create living organisms by artificial means. [Artificial insemination!]
Phonograph records substitute for letter. [This never happened but we now have the even less bulky email instead]
Settle question of communication with Mars. Wonderful astronomical discoveries. [We called, no one was home]
Power of mind over matter a practical science devoid of superstitious elements. [Telekinesis would mean never having to look for the TV remote again but this remains the realm of fiction or all my telekinetic friends are holding out on me]
United States constitution rewritten, providing improved means for conservation of original democratic principles. [LOL?]
Produce rainfall at will. [Seeding clouds makes this sort-of true]
Roads of nation paved. [Dream big, 1910! The prediction today would be: Roads of nation re-paved.]
Cure for and elimination of tuberculosis. [Nope]
Movements for universal language, universal religion, universal money. [Esperanto, (none), Bitcoins. That’s 0 for 3.]
Construction largely of concrete and metal or newly discovered materials. [Yep, especially for large buildings]
Electricity will move world’s wheels. Later radio-activity may substitute. [I don’t think radioactivity means what they thought it means]
Terrors of war so multiplied by death dealing inventions, chances of war minimized. [LOL?]
Population of United States based on present ratio of increased, 1,317,547,000 at opening of twenty-first century. [Off by about a billion. Maybe if they had developed baby machines.]
Machinery largely substituting manual energy, will promote pursuit of finer arts and sciences; give ample opportunity for relaxation and amusement; emancipate wage slaves. Three-hour work day predicted. [This is charmingly optimistic. And horribly wrong.]
Photographs in natural colors. [Yes!]
Women’s political equality. [In the U.S. women got the vote in 1920]
Government control of corporations. [Got this one backwards]
Animated pictures in natural colors, transmitted by wireless. [TV and/or Internet]
Natural colors reproduced in newspaper pictures. [Yes, although newspapers themselves are kind of going extinct]
Reduction of elimination all forms of gambling, including stocks. [LOL?]
Moral, intellectual and economical awakening in dark sections of Africa, China a world power. [“Dark” sections of Africa? Racist! Good call on China, though.]
Due to universal education, with special reference to hygiene, doctors and drugs be largely eliminated; average age to be near 60 years; men taller, stronger, higher intelligence and morals. [This one is funny because after all the lofty changes they still only expect people to live to 60.]
The best thing about 2013 is its mere existence guaranteed an entire branch of doomsday beliefs was neatly cut off as the whole “end of the Mayan calendar on December 21 2012 which must obviously mean THE END OF THE WORLD” has come and gone. So thanks for that, 2013!
Here’s my short take on the year:
Politics
The U.S. spies on everyone and everything. The most alarming aspect is the generally muted response from the U.S. public. Outrage is hard to sustain, all to the benefit of the NSA. The scariest tentacle monster is not to be found in manga.
In Canada the lingering Senate scandal and its handling finally took the shine off the Conservative government and has started the in-fighting. The Opposition, both official (NDP) and unofficial (Liberal) stand to benefit. Justin Trudeau has so far not screwed up as Liberal leader and has plenty of time to fit into his role. Will Mulcair trim his beard to look sexier? Stay tuned!
Entertainment
I am incredibly out of touch with pop culture vs. 20 or 30 years ago when I actually knew most of the current actors, musicians and “artists”. Even with my scant knowledge I can say I’ve had my fill of Miley Cyrus, the latest and perhaps most lamentable example of reworking an image. It is perhaps appropriate that her big hit through this is called “Wrecking Ball” (a song that Wikipedia says took five people to write). For popularizing the term “twerking” alone I’d be happy to never hear about Cyrus again.
On the plus side I discovered through a random comment on Broken Forum the band The Magnetic Fields, one of those great indie bands that never gets the attention it deserves. I have so far picked up their magnum opus, a three disc (remember those?) set called 69 Love Songs which is exactly what it sounds like, a collection of 69 songs about love. The songs are by turns warm and cynical, catchy and irreverent, switching styles as easily as one might switch channels on a TV in the vain hope to find something decent to watch.
And now a little on me:
Running
This was a mediocre year for running, with a combination of cranky feet and work conspiring to restrict my output severely over my banner year of 2012. By the end of the year I just kind of gave up, not even going out on weekends when I had available light (curse the early nights of winter, I sez). One of my resolutions is to get back to running regularly.
Reading
A regular commute that takes a little over an hour meant I had plenty of time to read this year and once I started my commute-based reading the number of books I went through shot up, ending with 24 books read (technically #24 is still being read but I could conceivably finish it today). A lot of this has been catching up on Stephen King novels I’d skipped over and I finally tackled The Dark Tower series more than twenty years after picking up The Gunslinger in paperback. I didn’t read anything I regretted reading, either, always a nice bonus.
Writing
Writing sputtered along. I flamed out halfway through National Novel Writing Month in November thanks to poor planning but may have enough of a novel there to salvage later.
The year was defined not so much by new output but rather old. Specifically I focused on polishing up a bunch of short stories with the intention to self-publish them as a collection. I’ll write more on this in another post but for now will say that the process of examining, editing and rewriting my stories has been a worthy one.
I did not put any notable effort into my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel The Ferry, which I intend to address next year.
Errata
2013 was at times a stressful year and I have ended up with goals partly based on some bad habits I let slip back in. But I got to do things I’ve never done before (fly!), read oodles of books and learned some important things about my writing that I will apply in 2014 and beyond.
September kind of sucked, just like summer kind of sucked.
But rather than dwell on the lowlights (throat infection, lack of running, rampant illness at work, cell phone being stupid, the first major storm coming in early like an unwelcome preview of winter, etc.) I will instead focus on the positives from the month:
I rediscovered a bunch of old music–and still like it!
I’ve started reading The Dark Tower after having bought the first novel decades ago and am finding it a good romp so far.
The last day of summer was pleasantly warm and sunny.
My birthday was quiet but nice.
I got a replacement phone (just today) that will hopefully not excel in mysterious battery drain like its predecessor.
I did not get hit by a blimp.
Onward to October, the first day of which promises to be wet and unseasonably cold. Hooray!
April Fools Day, especially in the era of the Internet, seems to be split between clever and obviously fake ads, stories and such, along with other ‘pranks’ that are mean-spirited, insulting or deliberately meant to confuse and/or falsely raise expectations.
I’m glad it only comes once a year.
On the plus side, today was another sunny, mild day. The weather is expected to change tomorrow but I’ve taken advantage and walked or run over 40 km in the past three days. My feet may not be on speaking terms with me at the moment but I plan to bribe them with new comfy shoes next weekend.
It’s my favourite manufactured holiday of the year–or at least it was when I was a wee lad. Back then I loved scarfing chocolate-coated marshmallow hearts and trading Valentine cards with classmates. Nowadays I try to limit my indulgence of sweets to a few carefully-chosen targets and sadly exchange cards with no one. The face-stuffing has been relegated to a fond, gooey memory.
And so Valentine’s Day is now simply that time of year when store shelves overflowing with Valentine-themed candy will soon be replaced with shelves overflowing with Easter-themed candy. Easter was my second favourite manufactured holiday as a kid because I loved scarfing chocolate-coated marshmallow Easter bunnies. I suppose the holiday itself isn’t manufactured but as a kid I didn’t care much one way or the other because of the chocolate-coated marshmallow Easter bunnies.
Thinking about it now I kind of have a craving for one of those horrifically sweet Cadbury creme eggs they roll out (ho ho) for the season. I just checked and they apparently have only 150 calories each. I say only because the taste suggests the number would be closer to 10,000. I remember when I could eat a 3-pack of the things without stopping to take a breath. By coincidence I also weighed 40 pounds more back then. By fat overindulgent coincidence.
Earlier today I added the Creative category to the blog. With one post it already equaled one-third of the total posts found under the Programming category. As such I have chucked the Programming category into the vast sea of tags I have on the site (390 and counting!)
This concludes both the Programming category and my attempts at programming. I know when to move on, even if it’s 20 years late.
I’m just glad I was able to solve the Rubik’s Cube when I was a kid. I don’t think I could have taken the lack of closure on that.
There’s nothing quite like the sensation of laying down to sleep and finding yourself unable to breathe. This happened a few nights ago when my über-cold left my nose completely stuffed up. I had to breathe through my mouth, which made me dizzy. I eventually fell asleep probably due to exhaustion. When I awoke in the middle of the night one of my nostrils had kindly opened up enough to permit semi-normal breathing.
Worst cold ever.
Also the last post I’m making about it. Colds are pretty boring to read about and if I could capture the misery of the past week in a way that was truly entertaining, I’d be rich. Hmm. I may have to think about this.
Onward to the rest of what should hopefully be a healthy remainder of 2013:
Valentine’s Day is coming up. My favorite manufactured holiday when I was a kid because of the candy. I was especially fond of chocolate-covered marshmallow hearts. Mmm. Now I prefer the day after when all the candy gets marked down 50%. I usually treat myself to something small that I can work off without too much guilt/effort.
Running: This is probably still about three weeks off. I’m going to start stretching exercises to make sure my tendon is ready. The first run will be a short test that will also serve to calibrate my new iPod nano. The best thing about it, apart from the electric green case…
…is that it incorporates the Nike+ sensor/receiver so I don’t need to attach any extra hardware to my shoe (or the iPod). An added bonus is no more infernal clickwheel to deal with, especially one that refuses to function in the slightest bit of rain, making the end of a jog unusually difficult to, well, end. The test run will be done at a track to ensure maximum accuracy for the calibration. In the meantime I’ll try to return to the pool/gym at least a few times each week until the runs resume. Excelsior!
Diet: My weight has steadied out around 156-157 but should start going back down soon as I start packing a modest lunch to work and resist the siren song of the donut. My goal is to be back to my usual weight by my next physical, probably a few months from now.
This site: I have found a few themes I may be able to hammer into something serviceable for my needs. This is a long term project so I’ll probably work away at it a little at a time. I am planning on having a revamped site up before the end of the year.
