Not so random thoughts
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Don't know how long I'll keep it up, but for now, I decided to post on BOTH sites.
Todays post.
Teletubbies and God
Note: I'm not a christian and some of the content of this post might be offensive to christians, at least the ones that take themselves seriously. If this is something that might offend you, skip the rest of this entry.
I don't know if you have any small children in the house. If you do, you're probably familiar with the Teletubbies. If you don't, check out the PBS listings and check them out. It's a TV show targeted towards infants that has managed to raise the ire of several big name religious types.
Having a small child (whom all parents know has the uncanny ability to control the remote control while not even being allowed to touch it) we were watching the Teletubbies the other day. There is one repetitive skit thing where the Tubbies are staring at a valley and the valley fills with water so 3 ships can sail around it in a synchronized ballet of sorts. One nice thing about shows like this, you don't really need to concentrate on the show, so your mind is free to wander.
It dawned on my why the religious leaders are so concerned with this program, it's competition. While the God of Christ could flood the entire earth, in the process killing off all the life on earth except for a handful bobbing around in a boat, the Tubbies have the ability to limit their destruction to one valley. Even more amazing is that the valley shows no sign of destruction and devastation when the flood recedes in just a few minutes. That's pretty miraculous for a flood of such proportion that ships could float in it!
On further thought it dawned on my that maybe the Teletubbies were telling the TRUE STORY OF THE FLOOD. As I'm sure you're aware, the common story of the flood has Noah building a boat (named "The Arc") and loading pairs of animals on it to survive the flood. When the water recedes, the only life left on earth is Noah's menagerie. But our cultures are all loaded with animals and peoples that don't exist today. As I said in a previous entry, one of my beliefs is that a widespread belief probably is based on some thread of fact, so maybe Elves, Fairies, Unicorns, Dragons, and sea monsters did exist! The Teletubbies are giving us a hint as to the REAL story of THE FLOOD. Now onto my enterpetation of the story....
Actually God had several Arcs built. Man was not the only creature in Gods image, after all, she is a God and can have several images. In addition there were the Elves and Fairies and goblins and other creatures of our mythologies. Not all of these creatures got along well, just like the animals of the forest don't always see eye to eye, So god, loving all his creations equally, approached each and instructed them in the preparation of a craft.
Like the godlike creatures, some of the animals of the earth didn't get along well, one being food for the other, so each craft was to carry a grouping of animals. The Dragons and dinosaurs would be kept separate from the unicorns and pheonix and each creature would travelwith those most like unto itself. Of course the creatures of the sea didn't need the boats, for there world was to expand!
The flood came and each race loaded their designated animals in pairs aboard the boats and cast off to drift until the flood receded. Unfortunately, before the floods finally went away, the sea monsters destroyed 2 of the ships, and ate the precious cargo. Now a few might have escaped, and scattered by the seas been left alone to slowly die out, such as the Sausquatch, but most perished over night. God, angered by what the sea monsters had done, smote them, all but a few. Those few curse to live alone and immortal as long as any of the creatures that survived the sinking of the ships still walked the earth so the sea monsters could share their anguish.
So Nessie, being one of the few surviving seamonsters, must suffer her lonliness as long as bigfoot roams the earth. Once the last of the creatures from these sunken ships die, Nessie and her sisters and brothers in various waters where they were stranded by the receding floods will at last be able to rest.
Amen.
Moving
I haven't been here long and kind of like some aspects of this sight, but I really dislike not being able to get user comments. Yeah I could get a third party setup to do it and get comments via email, but it's an extra hassle. While I will keep this site at least for a while, I'm trying a new site out and have transfer my enterys there. If you have read those enteries and would like to comment, visit me at http://cdwhite.blog-city.com/
I may deside I like this site better, or I might move to yet another new site, but I'm trying to stay alive for a while.
UFOs
OK, I'm not ready to say I believe in UFOs, but....
I was watching the Sci Fi Channel today and they were running a thing on Kecksburg, Pa. A place where apparently about half the town witnessed an event that might have been a UFO back in the 60's. This started me thinking (always a dangerous event).
My theory is that if a lot of people claim to see something, be it ghosts, flying saucers, Nessy, or Bigfoot, over a long period of time there is probably SOMETHING there. Maybe not what people think, but something. For those that didn't see the special or haven't heard of it, a ball of fire supposedly came down in a "controlled" crash. People who went out to investigate were turned away by state police, military types, and the infamous Men In Black (though the program called them "Men in Suites"). Of course the government denies that any troops were there.
Now what would make a large number of people make it up? Yeah, 2 or 5 people might be able to play a practical joke and keep it secret, but half a town? Someone would have laughed and said "Boy we had you goin'! You shoulda seen the look on you face!!" sometime between 1965 and now. And not just there.
UFO's have been reported through history and even prehistory (OK, I'm not writing a scholarly treatise here, I'm pontificating. I haven't actually seen the evidence. I have neither the time, money, or language skills to travel the world and look at diaries and artifacts, so I'm relying on what UFO authors have written, mainly in popular press. Maybe they're just pulling my chain? ). US Astronauts (or at least one of them) claim to have seen UFOs, and these are people that are trained to make critical observations in the most stressful of situations. What are these people seeing?
Secret aircraft? The early sightings were at times when manned flight wasn't even thought about yet. Quite a few of the sightings have been by people that should be able to identify experimental aircraft (test pilots, US AirForce Pilots). Even if it was experimental aircraft, what technology did the government have in the 1960's that would still be worth hiding today? Why wouldn't they release the info just to stop people from nosing around?
Swamp Gas? I've been in the desert. There ain't no swamps. Especially in the New Mexico Mountains which have been a hotbed of activity in the past years according to the people who watch these things. Almost any atmospheric event that has been blamed is limited to one or another type of environment. The sightings are from all over the world!!
Government cover up? Hmmm, we couldn't keep the Bay of Pigs a secret, a toy company was selling plastic model of the blackbird and Stealth before the Government announced the existence. Nixon and company couldn't even sweep the Watergate breaking under the carpet, but they are managing to keep the existence of UFO's quiet for years??
I have a tongue in cheek theory (I say it's tongue in cheek so if an Men in Black are reading this they know I'm kidding and don't come erase my mind, but on second thought, there are some things that would probably be best forgotten, like that time on the cabin cruiser....). I think aliens are here among us. We see them every day, and we even comment on them, but at the same time never notice. They say the best hiding place is right in the open. A few of the well known and powerful aliens....
Dick Clark - Everyone comments of how he never seems to age. For generations he's looked the say as he's influenced countless kid in the music and dances they do. There are those who believe that messages and suggestions can be hidden in music. There is a multi-million dollar industry in subliminal suggestion tapes to make you smarter, help you loose weight, stop smoking, etc. Has Dick been using alien technology to do it for years?
Strom Thurmond - When Dick Clark finally ages, this is what happens.
George Bush Jr - "Dad" was the head of the CIA and in contact with alien intelligences. As part of a cooperative effort and to help bring the two races together (at least that was the official explanation) George Sr took an alien/human hybrid and raised him as his own (Barbara might have been the mother, which would explain some things). Now, afraid that America might become too powerful and influential, the part alien George JR is on a campaign to make America loose credibility and support among our allies by waging groundless wars on third world countries.
Hillary Clinton - The aliens have a strong grasp on human politics and are aware of the 2 party system, so have their operatives in both camps. Ask yourself, If your spouse found out you were chasing the whitehouse interns and playing kinky games with cigars, and further, it was broadcast on every TV station for weeks, would she stay with you? (Ladies, imaging it was your husband playing around this way, would you stay with him?) Of Course not, UNLESS it was important to your mission to stay close to him to keep him under control, and possibly use him as a catapult into a seat of power to more efficiently push the alien agenda!
Don King - See the hair? Nuff said.
Look around you and I'm sure you'll see more. Bosses, coworkers, the lady down at the convenience store, all those people that are just a bit too strange to be human....
May be they're not.....
Or maybe it's all a hoax and those people are just strange.
Back to the UFO stuff though. The US government has taken the UFO stories seriously enough to undertake at least one full scale project - Project Blue Book which is now for the most part public information. Less known but talked about in several UFO books and documentaries are several others.
If the government really has not been hiding or working with Aliens, then why don't they come clean and open files and answer questions. Surely nothing classified in the 1950's and 60's is still national security. At most it could embarrass people, and maybe those people need to be embarrassed. After all, whatever they did was done while they were PUBLIC SERVANTS of the people. If they abused the public trust, then embarrassment is the least they deserve.
On the topic of UFOs, if they DO exist, am I the only one to find it interesting that as the technology to take nice easy video and pictures has increased, the number of sightings has decreased? Back in the 50's a camera that could work in low light situations was carried in a suitcase and took minutes to set up. The cost kept it out of most peoples hands. Today a motion picture video camera is not only within the financial grasp of almost anyone, but they are small enough many people carry them in their car in the hopes of getting footage they can sell to a news station. Still cameras that not only work in low light are cheap and you can even see the result of your efforts immediately on the LCD screen. But now that it would be so easy to document the UFOs, they aren't dropping by or crashing into the earth.
Granted this could just be that the aliens have gotten on a safety kick and upped the licensing requirements for Flying Saucer Licenses. Raised the flying age to 85 or something, banned interstellar phones while driving. Maybe we're just not considered as desirable of a vacation getaway as we once were, the pollution makes it harder to tan or something. Or maybe the people that see something can now look closer at the tape and see what it is.
But then on further thought, if we did have the answer to the flying saucer question the SciFi writers would loose a standby story line. Spielberg would be unemployed, and Springer and company would run out of guests, so maybe it's better the way it is.
Saturday, November 22, 2003
First off I guess some dull boring stuff about me. I'm a misplaced Texan, having lived in Missouri for the last decade or so. An old poster (and a song or two) said that Texas is a state of mind and I guess it's true. After all these years I still miss it and still consider myself a native son.
My geographic roots and my tendency to have an explanation or theory about most anything (no matter how hard I have to work to make it up) has earned me a moniker of a "West Texas Philosopher" among a few of my Midwest co-workers, but I don't know that West Texas would appreciate the distinction!
Age, yep I have one. Not gonna say what it is at the moment, but as my wife likes to point out to me, I'm older than plastic. You hit the books and figure it out, or wait and see if it slips out along the line ;). Spent most of my life in Texas, mostly in what's called far west Texas. To get to far west Texas first drive to west Texas, say Midland/Odessa or maybe Pecos, then go west for about 250 miles. A hundred or so miles after the time zone change, you're in far west Texas.
I left Texas when I met my wife. She wasn't my wife at the time mind you, that happened later, but we met. We were probably among the first batch of people to actually meet online and eventually get married. At least when we did it people didn't talk about it if they had. Eventually one thing led to another and the long distance bills and hourly connect charges were too expensive, so one of us had to move. As it turned out, she made more money than me, so I packed my bags.
Other interests, which might get as least mentioned here, but most definitely affect my outlook and what I'm likely to think about things include :
Motorcycles - Currently have a 2000 Honda Valkyrie and a 60th anniversary BMW R100RT. Anyone wanna buy a BEEMER? It can't compete with the Honda!
Boat - Currently have a 1985 Bayliner Cuddy Cabin, 19 ft. Want a Houseboat, but haven't found anyone crazy enough to loan me the money YET!
Computers - DUH, I'm here aren't I! Seriously, I got started back in the days of the Commodore 64. Ironically, I went to the store to buy a video game (remember Atari?) and decided that the Commodore had game cartridges like the Atari did, so I could play games just like the Atari, but then if I ever had a need for a computer, I could use it for that too! So I bought it and a couple games and took it home. The games were LAME, and looking around there weren't very many that weren't. So I had an expensive toy I couldn't play with, which REALLY bugged me. In an effort to get some use out of it I picked up a couple books that had games in BASIC you could type into you computer. Unfortunately (or fortunately) all the versions of BASIC were a little different, so I had to learn Commodore BASIC to edit the programs where they would work. It ended up the puzzle of programming turned into more fun than the games ever were!
Outdoors stuff- I don't get to do it much any more having a wife that thinks roughing it is a Hotel with no room service and kids that can't part with TVs, but I used to get off on camping and hiking. I still get some fishing in, though not as much as I would like. While I always liked shooting guns, I never liked the idea of hunting. Don't get me wrong, it only took one time stumbling across a field of deer that died of starvation to convince me that hunting is a good thing since we killed off the predators, but I never found the idea of having to wrestle a deer into a tree or hoist, getting all filthy cleaning it, and having to haul it all the way out of the wood to the car. It much easier to get it in convenient clean containers at the grocery or from friends that hunt.
Literature - Not the high brow stuff (much) but mostly SciFi and Fantasy. I was a bit of a loner when I was young, and back in those days there were only 3 TV stations and the VAST majority (all but an hour or so) was aimed at adults, so had little interest. As a result, I entertained myself with books. I have my periods occasionally when I get into Shakespeare, Hawthorne, DeSade, Mather, Brooks, etc, but I always seem to find my way back to good old SciFi/Fantasy.
Profession/education/training - You ever hear the expression "Jack of all trades, Master of none"? I've had a number of jobs. Swung a sledge hammer and drove a truck in the oil fields, Building maintenance at a newspaper, equipment fleet maintenance at a place that made counter tops, convenience store clerk manager, sold newspaper subscriptions, drive a shuttle bus/taxi, sacked groceries, taught university (public speaking), taught community college (Oral Paragraphing), Taught Middle school, Taught High School, and currently Chemist. I left off a few, but you get the idea. Education wise I have a BS in Biology (minor Chemistry), Texas Composite Teacher Certification, Missouri Unified Biology Certification (expired), and was up to all but thesis on a MA in Communication before I moved. A few non-academic training like truck driving school and stuff. Most important though is probably what I taught myself.
Well, if I haven't bored you to death yet, you now know more about me than most people that know me! If you come back and I manage to actually find the time and motivation to post here, you may learn even more!
