The Relative "I"

For at least the last month, whenever I've gotten high I've caught glimpses of infinity.  And every time, it feels like it's going to break my brain.  I'm starting to think it's just stretching it, allowing it to open up to greater possibilities and a greater scope of awareness.  So what does infinity feel like?  Here are a few glimpses: Infinity can be glimpsed by realizing: Just how vast and infinite our universe is in terms of space and time: There are billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone and billions of galaxies that we are currently able to see  The Big Bang is estimated to have occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.  The earth formed 4.6 billion years ago.  Dinosaurs lived 246-66 million years ago.  The Old Kingdom of Egypt (2700-2200 BCE) is about as distant from the New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) as the year 1 CE from the present day.  When King Tutankhamun looked back at the Old Kingdom it was 2,400 years before his birth (ci...

Apparently I setup this blog back in 2008 and then never did anything with it.  I setup a custom WordPress site instead, but then I never really updated that one either.  A couple years later, I built my own site in Gatsby, added a few posts, but since then it has sat idle.  I'm still trying to decide between Blogger, WordPress, or my own website.  I like creating content in Markdown (using Obsidian these days).  It's unfortunate that Blogger doesn't let you write in Markdown, but you can convert markdown to HTML using an online converter and then paste the HTML in Blogger.  Anyway, I tried creating a free site on wordpress.com this morning, but I didn't like the lack of options in the free tier, and I don't feel like setting up my own server and running my own site again.  Let's just try Blogger for now and see where it goes...

If You Buy an Electric Drum Set... A True Story About the Importance of Being Content with What You Have and Overcoming the Insatiable Desire for "More" Introduction A few years ago I bought an electric drum set for a few hundred dollars from the local music store. I thought this would be a fun new thing to try. Two years and many upgrades later, after getting obsessed with buying new cymbals, new drums, and everything else that goes along with them, I realized that the constant desire for " more, more, more... " was emptying my wallet without bringing contentment. There was no finish line in sight for this incessant desire for more. What follows is a true and simple story. It took me a few thousand dollars to learn that happiness and contentment come from within and not from without. I hope that others may learn from my story and find contentment - both with your drum collection and you life. Story If you buy an electric drum set... Alesis Nitro Mesh Dr...

Today, many of us believe that the meaning and purpose of life are unknown or even unknowable. We couldn't be more wrong. The reason for life, the meaning and purpose of existence is right in front of us. It is all around us. It is built into every atom and every cell of our body. If we think it’s a secret, it is only because we have not looked clearly enough at the world around us. We have not looked clearly enough at ourselves. If we spend even a few minutes looking at these things with an open and inquisitive mind, I believe we will find the answers will appear within us, for they are built into us and permeate everything that we do and everything that we are. The search for meaning and purpose is essentially us asking ourselves: who are we? And the deceptively simple answer to this question is of course: we are ourselves. But let's explore this a bit more to truly understand the infinite depths, possibilities, and mysteries of that answer to hopefully catch a small glimpse ...

Daniel knew he wasn't real. He was just a computer program. An algorithm, living in some kind of simulation. At least that's what all the scientists said. They even said they could prove it, using some fancy equations and experiments that show time slowing down as the simulation hit the limits of its ability to process complex quantum superpositions of states. Daniel didn't really know what that meant, but the scientists knew a lot more about this kind of stuff than he did, so he figured they were probably right. It didn't bother him too much - that he wasn't real. He did his best not to think about it, actually. And honestly, it really wasn't even that hard to forget. There were plenty of other things to think about, plenty of other things to keep one busy. Most evenings, after a long day at work, he'd eat dinner with his family then sit in the family room and watch TV, play games, or read a book. He'd settle into bed at night with his wife and fall asl...