Shields Up!

So I was reading the other day on defence mechanisms that we use. I found it quite informative. I reflected on what mechanisms I use personally and which ones I probably shouldn’t.

For example, while genuine humour is considered a healthy way of dealing with anxiety, wit (including sarcasm) is actually considered a form of displacement, which is somewhat neurotic and not very healthy. And I think there really is a difference. It is easy to make a sarcastic or dismissive statement to break a tense situation, but it really doesn’t make anyone feel any better. But to make everyone genuinely laugh can do wonders in actually dealing with the tension. It’s an interesting distinction.

Another distinction is between Suppression (which is healthy) and Repression (which is not). Suppression is taking a deep breath and counting to ten. This allows us to temporarily ignore the anxiety so that it can be dealt with at a more appropriate time. Repression, on the other hand, is wilfully ignoring the cause of our anxiety for so long that we actually forget why it makes us uncomfortable. All that remains are the negative feelings, which become irrational and neurotic. This was the case between me and my dislike of the City of Calgary. I repressed my dislike until it became totally irrational. Only when I was ready to deal with those feelings honestly was I able to begin to like the city again.

Now I’m being very careful to not psychoanalyse my friends and colleagues, because that would be less than helpful. But I think self-therapy can be good. As such, I found a list of the defences that are considered the healthiest, found scriptural backing and I will try to use these more consciously in the future. At the same time, I will try to not use the neurotic defences that I’ve been guilty of in the past. Sanity, here I come!

Who had been there before?

Isabel and I

I’d first like to thank those of you who remembered my birthday and wished me a happy one. Birthdays are really not a big thing for me personally, but it’s still nice when people make you the center of attention for a little while.

And from my horoscope, this looks like it should be a good year from me ;)

For those of us born on: March 12
Happy Birthday! The months ahead are likely to start with some excellent developments at work or school. Sometimes it’s easy to follow someone else’s lead, but by being different or innovative you’re sure to find success! April will be a very strong month in terms of forging ahead even more, while June could bring up an old issue from the past, which will need to be sorted! August is likely to be a challenging month in terms of work or school; it could feel like one step forward, two steps back, but from September this will ease, and romance should really start to take off! Singles are more likely to meet someone very special from this time on! The run up to Christmas will be unusually hectic, but the New Year is likely to be slow!

But I would like to share my adventure from yesterday with you. It was spent mostly in my car, and spanned 1140km all told.

I left the apartment at around 7:30 in the morning. I had originally intended to go the night before and stay in Lethbridge, but then decided against it.

I filled up Isabel at my usual Husky station and then realised – ‘oop, forgot my tie’. So I went back and got it. Only a very slight detour and I was back on my way. 109th St, 61st Ave, Calgary Trail and I’m on good ol' QE2 for the long haul.

The weather was not too bad for the most part, although the roads were pretty wet. The drive to Calgary was mostly uneventful and grey, as it usually is.

The Deerfoot was nice and open and I ripped through Cow-town fairly quickly. After this the sun was starting to peak out from the clouds and it was beautiful weather.

A little after noon I reached Lethbridge, city of my birth, land of my nativity, and promptly got lost. I really didn’t mind though. I saw some of the newer subdivisions and got a nice view of the coulees. But this was no time to stop for pictures; I had places to be and people to see.

So after a little bit of back-tracking I found my way to highway 5 onward to Magrath. After getting lost in Magrath (but only a little; there is only so much of that town to get lost in) I found my way to the chapel.

It was a lovely reception. The bride was stunning and both bride and groom were just beaming with joy. That is truly why I like weddings; the air is just saturated with good feeling. The food was really good to.

I ducked out of the wedding a little early so that I could make it into Calgary by 6. On my way out I saw 4 deer running full tilt down the street. That was interesting. And as I was leaving the town I saw a funeral procession coming in. It struck me as profound.

I took the more scenic route between Lethbridge and Calgary and discovered a new hobby. I call it drive-by-shooting. It’s where you stop and set up the camera for multiple shots, and then, when you see a particularity good vista, you just hold up the camera (while keeping both eyes on the road and 1 hand on the wheel) and press the shutter. Take a few shots, and then sort through them later. This was my best.



I got to Calgary in good time, and then I got wonderfully lost. It was as if I had lost all navigation skill. Whenever I was presented with a fork in the road it seemed I always took the wrong one. I ended up seeing places of the city not usually seen (did you know there are streets in Bowness that aren’t paved) And as I was driving through Tuscany I started to doubt my choice of profession for some reason. Very odd.

At any rate, I managed to find the West Stake centre just in time for the opening prayer. I had hoped to sing with the choir for this Alberta-wide concert, but it was just as enjoyable to watch.

Then came the real adventure. It had just started to snow as I was leaving the church, and before long it was coming down in a beautiful but deadly way. I made my way through the city to the north end of the Deerfoot and got on the QE2. This was white-knuckle driving. I am very thankful for rumble strips because I certainly couldn’t see the shoulder.

I varied between 100 and 60 km/h based on how hard the snow was coming and how many people were around me. The worst was just outside of Innisfail when I really couldn’t see at all. That was fun.

After I passed Red Deer the weather improved and I made fairly good time. I pulled into my apartment at around 12:30 and went to bed. My trip meter was 1140, And I only stopped for Gas once in Lethbridge. I love my car.

He grew a beard as soon as he could

Narrativium

Sometimes, especially in science fiction or fantasy writing, an author feels the need to take some time to explain something that doesn’t quite jive with our understanding of things. Done right, this is very entertaining and educational. Terry Pratchet does it very well. So does this guy.

For your amusement. Pardon me if this makes no sense.

Kevyn's statement about events taking place "simultaneously" while "light hours apart" may give itching fits to those familiar with Einstein's General and Special Relativity. If the speed of light is the maximum speed of propagation of information, then there is no frame of reference in which events light-hours apart can be meaningfully said to have occurred simultaneously.

As Kevyn himself can tell you, however, the speed of light is not the maximum speed of information propagation. Hypernet nodes can relay information across the galaxy instantaneously (assuming proper configuration, no user-serviceable parts inside, past performance is not an indicator of future results, your mileage may vary) and gravitic sensors can detect the distortions of space and time caused by concentrations of mass before those distortions can ripple through Einsteinian space.

Consider an observer in a room full of people. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, two of those people several meters apart pull down their pants. Simultaneously. At these distances and on this scale, the observer's frame of reference is the same frame as that of the events (pants pulling-down), so simultaneity can be described in a meaningful way. The observer can quickly conclude that he/she is in a frat-house, college dormitory, or sans-a-belt slacks convention.

Now consider the same observer in a system full of starships. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, two of those starships several light-hours apart pull down their... umm... pants. Yeah. Whatever. Stay with me. If this was observed via electromagnetic radiation, the observer's frame of reference is the only frame in which these events were simultaneous. But (and this is the important part) if the observer was using gravitic sensors, or hypernet-equipped sensors a few hundred meters from each ship, his frame of reference becomes the SAME frame of reference as that of the events in question, and the events are simultaneous in that frame.

Oddly enough, with the right clocks and a good A.I., this common frame can be established even when one of the ships is moving at relativistic speeds. The pants just come off slower. Or faster. Whichever.

The profound, causal absurdity of a universe in which a single frame of reference can be used to describe events light-years apart pales in comparison to the absurdity of a universe in which starships remove their pants at the speed of light.

Fortunately, Schlock Mercenary is not about starship pants, and is therefore no more absurd than it needs to be.

Thank you, good night.

He could’ve smashed through any bank in the united states

The better part of valor

I was going to write an entry on a personal matter. I have decided against it. If any of you would like to discuss it in person, I would be happy to.

Instead, as promised, I’d like to share a dream. Inspired by some guy I met, I’ve started keeping a dream journal. So far I’ve discovered that I have some tripped out dreams. To preserve the trippines of the dream, this next part will be without punctuation. Because dreams are rarely punctuated.

i was playing a rather complicated game that included playing cards game pieces dice dominos and paperclips everyone else in the dream seemed to know the rules to the game but i had no clue what i was doing nor even the object of the game all i knew was that it involved moving game pieces from one end of the room to the other end

people were trying to explain the rules to me but were speaking in obscure riddles like does not peanut butter also give rise to freedome and such like i was doing my very best to cheat by hiding my paperclip but i got the impression that everyone else was doing a better job a cheating than i was

at one point a rolled a 2 on the dice which was apparently a bad thing i think i at least got the sense that i was losing badly then again i rarely win at games i resolved to cheat harder next time



So what does that mean? I think it means I need to stop eating chimichangas before bedtime.

Due to lack of interest, tomorrow’s cancelled

Less is More

Not much of a post here, as the title suggests, sometimes minimalism can be a good thing.

For example, I would like to point you to this site. It is Garfield minus Garfield. Some of you may not find it very funny, but with the absence of Garfield I find a hilarious (and yet somehow sad) strip about Jon. It just goes to show that sometimes the punch-line can ruin the joke. Just remember – Garfield can’t actually talk, so he’s more or less an imaginary friend already.



Also, I’ve started a dream diary. You might expect some of my better ones sometime in the future.

Peace out.

jibun ni taerarenai morosa