Thought of the Moment, a short consideration of Reality and Perception

I have many pages of notes taken on this subject, and many hours of thought, logged throughout my thinking life. Is there such a thing as a pure reality?  Unbiased, uninterpreted, pure.  So far as I can tell, no.  What we call reality, is in fact, specifically relative to each human being, with perhaps a broader sense of reality able to be applied to more instinctual creatures per each societal group.

Our perceptions are the filters through which our reality must flow.  Indeed, there is no method of intake, which I'm aware of, through which we can purely capture the world around us.  Our five physical senses are not filters, the abilities to feel, see, hear, taste, and smell, but are our primary intakes of the world, and all it has to offer.  Our experiences, our memories, thought processes, likes, dislikes, mental state, et cetera, all of things are filters. If we accept that these several things filter our intake, that no two people can share exactly the same filters, though many are similar, and that the combination of intake and filter create our reality, no two realities are the same.

What I've referred to as filters, can also be regarded as the building blocks of individuality, and more specifically personality.

So I decided...

I decided to write today, here, on this very blog in fact.  Reasons?  None really, boredom most likely.  Today I decided not to bring my computer with me to work, the primary reason for this decision is that with my new room layout, getting my computer untangled from the web of wiring that it resides in, a web which, as my mother so aptly noted, would make even Donald Duck cringe.  It's probably true.  I'm an electronics junky.  The Playstation, my laptop, and the stereo are now all on the same wall, that alone spells hazard, and there's more junk connected over there to boot.

The reason for the change?  New bed, futon to be exact.  It's nice to finally have a bed that lets me lie down without hanging off the edge, heck, I could very nearly turn sideways comfortable.  Albeit, it is just a full size bed when folded out, it's awesome to me, and rearranging my room is a hobby of mine.  Every six months or so.  Though this time, the actual rearrangement, from first piece of garbage picked up, to floor vacuumed and everything, sans a single bookshelf, moved at least once.  Thanks must go out to Jacob, my younger brother, and to my Dad, for helping out with the moving of things, it would have been possible without them, just a ton more difficult.

Seems that's it.  For those who haven't before, check out Lifehacker.com, it's pretty much full of awesome information.

In honor of Scott

A
- Available: Nope, not even close.
- Age: 24
- Annoyance: People who think potted plants double as trash bins.
- Animal: Grey Fox, Black Hawk

B
- Beer: Stinks, really.  How do people drink it?
- Birthday: 13 June 1986
- Best Friend: Scott
- Blind or Deaf: um... is this asking me to choose?  Or asking if either is true?
- Best weather: Jacket weather, no doubt.  Rain if you've got it.
- Been in Love: Yep.
- Believe in Santa: Always.

C
- Candy: Not a big fan of it, but I do like the occasional Bit o' Honey or Starburst.
- Color: Grey Blue.
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Chinese/Mexican Food: Mexican by far.
- Cake or pie: Cake?  I guess?
- Continent to visit: Europe probably.
- Cheese: Pepper Jack

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dancing in the rain: I'd be too afraid of slipping and breaking something.  Besides, rain is for sitting in, not dancing in.

E
- Eyes: Light Brown
- Everyone's got: Snot
- Ever failed a class: Yep, a few, though they may have counted as Incomplete...

F
- First thoughts waking up: Must... urinate...
- Food: Can't say no to eggs.

G
- Greatest Fear: um... can't think of it right now.
- Goals: I believe the correct term is "Go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-al!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
- Gum: Polar Ice or its equivalent
- Get along with your parents: Mostly

H
- Hair Color: Dark Brown/Black/Red
- Height: 6'3"
- Happy: Well enough off.
- Holiday: Halloween
- How do you want to die: As an old man underneath a tipped over vending machine.
- Ice Cream: Chocolate, just chocolate.
- Instrument: Started many, mastered none.

J
- Jewelry: At any given time, generally one paracord bracelet, sometimes two, a black beaded necklace, and a ring.
- Job: Front Desk Clerk and Weekend Auditor at a hotel.

K
- Kids: Sometimes need a glare, sometimes need to practice somersaults and learn the finer points of hopping like a frog
- Kick boxing or karate: hmm... karate, figure it's a more balanced martial art.  Am I wrong?
- Keep a journal:  Have a few, they all end about halfway through.  Like most of my fiction writing.

L
- Love: Believe in it.
- Laughed so hard you cried: Nah, I prefer to be on the other side of the laughing.

M
- Milk flavor: Plain ol' milk 2% if you would, Vitamin D is a bonus.
- Movies: meh.  I watch the ones I want to.
- Motion sickness: On occasion, more from video games than from moving vehicles.
- McD’s or BK: McDonalds, I like to occasionally go back for the spicy chicken sandwich, though it's been a while.

N
- Number: XIII

O
- One wish: Peace of mind.

P
- Pepsi/Coke: Coke, Classic or Zero, either is fine.
- Perfect Pizza: Pepperoni, Italian Sausage, and Jalepeno
- Piercings: None

Q
- Quail: is the only thing somebody could come up with for the Q section.

R
- Reality T.V.: Don't watch enough actual tv to consider reality tv
- Radio Station: Whatever is playing a good song at the moment.
- Roll your tongue in a circle: Okay, now what?
- Ring size: twelve?  eleven?  can't remember...

S
- Song: None stand out at the moment
- Shoe size: 13
- Salad Dressing: Bleu Cheese or Honey Mustard
- Sushi: Haven't found a style I don't like
- In the shower: There's never enough Hot Water to go around
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries

T
- Tattoos: Nah, I prefer plain clean skin
- Time for bed: is a matter of opinion
- Thunderstorms: Are alright, but I prefer just the rain

U
- Unpredictable: ?

V
- Vacation spot(s): Disney Land, happiest place on earth

W
- Weakness: hmm
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: None really, should they?
- Worst feeling: Splinters, I hate that feeling.
- Worst Weather: Hot

X
- X-rays: I have had many.  Hope there's no negative effect because of them.

Y
-Year it is now: 2010
-Yellow: um... yeah... Yellow.

Z
- Zoo animal: The desert section is always fun.

Only a Mark

It's the small things that hit home.  That get under the skin, give you the creeps.  The little connections that you never see until you're not looking for them.

It's late, and I'm reading a book.  House of Leaves.  An excellent read, non-standard by all definitions.  Never read a book like it.  Probably never will again, unless it ends up changing the way people write, and read, the way I hope it does, but know it never will.

VIII, the heading to the page, the beginning of a new section.  No title, though Webster's definition of SOS does lend a vague insight to the following pages.  Pages which cover a lot of ground.  That distance isn't important though.  Not tonight.  Not right now.  How do we know that even Johnny and his footnotes lend insight to something we can't see. 

There's more.  Something I notice early on, but don't comprehend until the end of the chapter, nudged slowly to understanding by the torrent of words and images, all of which gathers together, puddling at the edges of my mind.  Everything means something.  There is no accident, no whim.  Not here, not in this world, this realm, which as I read, I find cannot be confined to a page.  No, refuses to be.  Opening eyes to something which was always there, but which I did not see.  Like the house, ever growing, changing.

I returned to the beginning, placing a flag, a reminder of things I can't, or won't, discover now.  Cut short in my idle wondering, doubting of my future fidelity to my desire.  Cut short by a simple check-mark, nothing too large or too small, nothing of consequence, a simple check-mark made purposely as it was, not to be noticed.  I can only exist, a remembrance somehow of the reason I once feared the dark.  That which seemed so infinite, so intimidating, and most importantly, so unknown.

All stops as I see it, many precious seconds are lost, minutes for all I know.  My lungs remind me with a searing pain that I must breath. This because of simple mark, though more.  The reassurance of a scarred, embittered, and lonely boy to his mother.  Reassurance that he had received her letter.  The question laps 'round my thoughts though, was the mark meant for her? or for me?  If for me, did it know I would find it?  Not in a search, but by accident, out of the periphery of my sight.

The mark frightens me.  Like all unknown.  Simply because it's a way for the book, taking cues from the house, to assert that it cannot be limited, and that all beyond is unknown.

Against reason, I'm jumping at shadows.  Shadows of what will be found as I delve deeper into this ever shifting realm.


SOS

Thought you should know

Got invited to a new blog as a contributing editor, check it out at http://editedworksunlimited.blogspot.com/.  That's all, my main duty is editing some of the stories that go through, writing some of my own as well.

Kenjiro wished that he had his sword.

It wasn't that his sword was really special in any way, it wasn't magical, and it wasn't forged by a legendary master sword smith, but it was sharp, and pointy, and long enough to keep a couple of undead from eating your face off if you happened to be hanging upside-down from a well hidden trap in a forbidden castle.

A right and a wrong way

So, something that keeps on coming back to me, and that I feel like putting down here for all to read.  One day I was happily dishing up my dinner, when in horror I looked at my plate and thought aloud, "Gosh, I didn't put my food on my plate right, all the white is right next to each other, there's no color to make it interesting." To which my mother, who for a lot of her life has worked as a food stylist, responded, "Oh no... I've raised my children in a way that makes them think there's a right and a wrong way to put your food on your plate."

The only way I could respond to that was, "Isn't there?" as I rearranged my food to include some nice grated red ginger and green onion slices to the mass of white, and some vegetables between. My mother, after some thought, and a bit resignedly, responded, "Yeah, I guess so..."

Nope, not a moral to this story, just a bit of maybe-interesting insight.

Feeling the Love

It's been funny to see over the past month and a half or so, as long as I've been working at my new job as the Front Desk Clerk at a local hotel, how a lot of the time, even the smallest kind gesture, or minuscule task performed, can make somebody's day.  Alright, maybe it has a bit to do with the fact that I'm a front desk clerk, and that people don't expect anything at all from me when they arrive, but it's so easy to make somebody smile, or become a grateful friend rather than just a worn and weary traveler passing through, or a family traveling for a hospital stay with each other. 


Here's an example, two days ago I fixed the bolts in a toilet seat, which, admittedly, did take a while to work out, but figuring that a toilet just isn't a toilet without a toilet seat, it had to be done, and may as well be done with a smile.  The smile and the helpfulness earned the trust and confidence of a family staying for several days.  Getting somebody a wheelchair for their wife and helping get them settled in a room, fetching plates or plastic eating utensils, helping older people with getting luggage from place to place, and making sure that general problems that pop up, just the things that need to be done anyway, sometimes things that people wouldn't have brought up without previous confidence, or knowledge that they had an actual friend at the front desk to help out.


It's a small thing, but do your job, do it with a smile as best you can, do it not for the paycheck, but for the people you serve, and the coworkers you serve with.   Do the small things, the things that aren't in the technical job description, make friends, do your best.  It makes work, though it's still work, a much happier place for all.

Yeah, I'm Back

So, I'm thinking that the last blog attempt that I had, at the exit13 address, wasn't the right way to go, so I'm back here, probably to stay, maybe with something interesting to comment on or write about from time to time.  As always, I promise nothing (unfortunate as that may be), but I'll do what I can to keep things updated, this isn't my online journal after all.

Hope that all is well with all of you out there in internet land, those I know and don't, local or abroad.  Talk to you all as time goes on.