#Search for Universal Axioms

[earthling-wolf]

Ti Platonism

Ti is a function that defines an object by its essential nature (Ji) while experiencing the object as having an inanimate (T) character. Objects are registered platonically, thus triggering an impersonal relationship to that object's character, causing it to be understood from a universal, general, and removed place. This occurs even if the objects are technically alive. In this case, the entities are registered by their universal and general properties as instances of timeless human forms rather than as specific living essences.

Search for Universal Axioms

While it might be said that all types seek a truth of a sort, the quest for truth has a particular meaning for the Ti user. They are not satisfied with acquiring information, and indeed, they generally avoid information but are instead drawn to eternally narrow their search down to what they believe is the core of a thing - beyond the senses and the confines of space or time. They will aim to eliminate as much as is unnecessary until only the essence remains. To them, truth means landing upon some elusive and singular convergent principle or nexus that gives formulation, symmetry, and justification to everything else in the conscious universe. The Ti user is on a quest for a philosopher's stone. They will dig for it in all manner of philosophies and theories of the mind, which can cause them to become obsessive in their pursuits and abandon all sense of context in their research. They may forget that they are not making tangible progress towards any scientific or objective aim but instead are diving headlong into a conceptual challenge. Indeed, it is an epistemological challenge with the bait of the One Truth at the end, which they chase. Moreover, whether the Ti user ever knows this truth is irrelevant to the visceral belief in its existence. Even if they have come to doubt all truth and have entered an existential dead end in their pursuit so that they only know that they know almost nothing, they were led into this territory by an inarticulated but deep-rooted suspicion that something is there just waiting to be crystallized into knowledge.

Reductionism

For the Ti user, the world is often seen as a place of incongruences and complexities, paradoxes and mysteries. Everything operates from unchecked assumptions on top of assumptions with no explanation for why any such thing is to be believed. The world seems utterly chaotic and nonsensical, which causes great stress, especially in pursuing axiomatic truth. In order to alleviate this, Ti often executes a reductionistic methodology wherein all unjustified things are negated to eliminate all untruths and see what is left. In its purest sense, Ti will not wish to adopt any form of knowledge or information if it does not understand its underlying formation. It will feel that if the starting premise within them is incorrect, the entire foundation is faulty, and all else that can be built from it will be askew. Therefore, it obsesses over the accuracy of the first few blocks and cornerstones of its epistemology, forcing Ti often into an infinite regression loop of doubt. If told "go to school," then one may think, "What is school?" and from there, proceed to ask, "What is a degree?" and "What makes the knowledge gained at a school desk more valid than what is self-taught?" This can be frustrating to family members as it may appear that the Ti user is rationalizing their way out of responsibility when, in reality, they are contending with the existential questions of meaning, value, and purpose  - which often must be addressed for them first before a single finger can be lifted towards a task. This can be problematic as Ti will tend to reduce social norms/ideas/things down to parts without putting them back together. These thoughts will occupy the Ti user's mind continually and may cause things to lose their value as the process of reduction strips away all meaning. At its most extreme, this can lead to existential dilemmas and nihilism even when nothing in life suggests a reason to be unhappy. As Ti is a subtractive process by nature, it acts as a diagnostic process that identifies misalignment in any premises system. Hence, it tends to be far better at identifying what things are not than what things are. It is often up to the other functions to counterbalance Ti's influence and provide positive affirmation for reasons, motivations, and purposes.

Castle Construction

However, if enough of a theoretical foundation has been set in the Ti user's mind, then a crystalline structure emerges at the core of their being. Like the growth of an ice crystal from water, a theoretical castle begins to form. Each block of this castle is a premise or argument that helps structure the incoming information of reality in such a way as to create an interpretive scaffold. For Ti, this scaffold serves as a sort of Rubik's cube or kaleidoscope that allows the complexities of life to be viewed and understood from a convergent point. Should there ever be a mismatch between the reality outside of them and the kaleidoscope's prediction, the Ti user hurries to try to reformulate and refine their instrument (to fix the Rubik's cube), but an instrument they must use. The Ti user does not interface with reality directly but does so through this instrument, which acts as their proxy and go-between and allows them to make sense of things without necessarily needing to engage in the difficult task of materialism or empiricism. This leads inescapably to forming a personal theory, often beginning with the phenomenology of the mind/consciousness. One such example of a crystalline theoretical structure is René Descartes' "cogito ergo sum," which, through his efforts and thoughts, was the cornerstone he came to develop and which helped him make sense of all other premises that cascade from this first axiom. However, each Ti user may place a different conclusion as their starting premise. For some, the fundamental principle may be consciousness; for others, it may be bodily experience; and for others, it may be God or love.

Ontology & Linguistics

The Ti function is inherently philosophical, producing in the Ti user a gravitation towards what we might call ontology. It becomes essential for the Ti user to define things in and of themselves. In this sense, Ti seeks to describe reality absolutely and almost as though they were to vanish themselves from existence. It must be able to be true without them in the picture; otherwise, it is not valid. Ti seeks a timeless abstract definition for everything by this metric. The Ti user usually seeks to encapsulate the essence of a thing through semantic precision, meticulously working out where the boundaries lie between two adjacent thought groupings. There is little more satisfying to them than when data suddenly clicks into perfect arrangement, revealing a fundamental truth. The Ti user lives for these rare and magic moments of clarity, and by engaging in this differentiation process, they gain a firm mental grasp on the world, dissipating the fog of the unknown. The further the Ti user is from clarity of definition in their thoughts, the more internal dissonance will be felt. This can also make the Ti user a bit of a grammar nazi, and their semantic proclivities can lead them to spend hours discussing starting terms without ever making headway related to the real-world problem in question. The Ti user may be highly stimulated by such a discourse even though the original point of the discussion has been left far in the past. More than a few Ti users thus take to linguistics for their proximity to philosophy and their capacity to organize the very structure of our knowledge paradigms.

Perfectionism

Additionally, there is a perfectionist quality to the Ti user wherein their desire for purity of logos is at once a desire for purity of the self. Indeed, the Ti user's success in building this logic framework is tied to their sense of identity, as they may view themselves primarily as truth-seekers and truth-speakers. There will be an ethical quality to their pursuit, which manifests in a value of neutrality, honesty, authenticity, and clarity. Lack of neutrality, honesty, or clarity will be sensed as a transgression that they avoid in their behavior and may depreciate in others. As a compass function, Ti will strive for a type of nobility of character that it can sustain only if it feels honest with itself and avoids as many impurities as possible in its thinking. This high personal standard can cause the Ti user to become entirely mute as their ignorance forces them to retract any opinion or utterance they cannot firmly stand behind. The strong Ti user may be a very silent presence at school or in the workforce, speaking only occasionally and after minutes or hours of reflection on what he wishes to say. If their logical devotion is towards an art project or creative endeavor, the same bottleneck may appear, causing them to hesitate to publish any works until everything feels perfect. They may feel their works are never quite precise enough and will spend countless hours refining them, aiming for their writings, paintings, or manifestations to capture their thoughts and intentions without compromise. This can lead to negative feelings and self-blame for mistakes or misinformation.

Stubborn Alignment to Framework

While the Ti user may not know many things, he will stand firm by what he does know. The Ti user can be stubborn and difficult to negotiate with if they have fixated on specific ideas they feel are true, and so long as their idea remains in their head, their heels remain sunk in that interpretation. This can make them impractical in many real-world situations when the consequences of their carefully crafted definitions collide with specific necessary actions and obligations. They often refuse to participate in something that seems necessary to some but misaligned to them. Moreover, while no pressure, external circumstance, or logistical necessities can bend their opinion, a properly aimed rebuttal can radically shift their stance in moments. The Ti user's logical apparatus operates like a lock combination. When the right inputs (deductions) are received, the gates of their thoughts suddenly reconfigure, allowing for a completely new mental trajectory to be possible and new actions to emerge from them. However, without this reconfiguration, they may remain deadlocked in certain conclusions or philosophies even when those conclusions harm them. The strong Ti user must reason his way out of a particular conceptual hole and cannot simply ignore it or choose a more convenient path that does not fit into the structure and rules of their self-made castle.

-Behaviors Under Stress

Emotional Shutoff

When the stress and gravity of life cause a fall out of emotional health, the strong Ti user's already faint emotional energies become even more deeply coveted. Unable to operate meaningfully in the environment, they will flee entirely from the world and into a protective barrier. They will shut off emotionally and may become suspicious and avoid intrusions to their private space. This can lead to a very isolated experience where they feel they can only rely on themselves to figure out the answers to emotional problems, which are often treated as intellectual problems. Driven equally by feelings of self-sufficiency and fear of emotional openness, they will aim to shoulder their pain alone.

They will meet the problem with callousness. What is not felt cannot hurt, and here, their natural capacity for dispassion is repurposed and used to strip power away from the heart. They may sever their connection to others with surprising ease and forget the magnitude of their inner affect. What is non-ideal is rejected as they continue pursuing the ideal in themselves and others. However, the content remains present but buried in the unconscious, and they may harbor unresolved feelings for years at a time – often freezing their heart in the process. Merciless as they may be, they will intellectualize their decisions, satisfying their need to act from just premises and retain a proper sense of self.

Wailings and charged emotional reactions may be perceived as irrational, inappropriate, and to be avoided. However, as stress accumulates further, their logic will become gradually distorted as they aim to rationalize what is essentially an emotional objection. Unable to clearly and cathartically convey their heart's voice, having stripped it of its power, their inner pains will emerge through distorted logical arguments and skewed claims. Their tendency to intellectualize matters of the heart will lead them to push the narrative into a form that aligns with their repressed feelings. As their stress furthers, they may disconnect themselves from others entirely and fall into schizoid tendencies.

Hyper-Focus on Imperfections

In another scenario, if the Ti user's heart remains open, they meet the problem with honesty of feeling. In their pursuit of authenticity of self, they allow the full gravity of their situation to hit them, and they familiarize themselves with their darkest disappointments, losses, and despair. Because they are perfectionists, they will turn their attention to themselves to understand what is wrong. They may come to feel responsible for all that is not going well in their life and will be prone to episodes of melancholy and deep ruminations about their shortcomings. Worse yet, if a conclusion emerges ("I am horrible," "I am responsible") that cannot be rationally refuted, be it true or not, they will need to continue believing it in order not to betray their compass, even if believing such a thing causes continual pain. Moving past certain damages can be challenging unless their paradigm changes to reinterpret their past in a way that puts them in a more merciful place. They will have trouble accepting positive emotions just for the sake of it, without cause to feel positive. They will feel dubious about any trajectory of healing that is not somehow justified in a certain sense. In this way, they do themselves no service; holding onto their negative beliefs so adamantly can be the cause of their demise.

[theriu]

You gotta wonder if any bad guys have kidnapped Peter Parker, Only Guy Known To Get Good Spiderman Pics, assuming that he must be friends with Spiderman and can contact him to come rescue him(self). Imagine the embarrassment and awkwardness of the situation. Peter probably having to call Ned or whoever his in-universe friend-in-the-know is and pretend to be talking to Spiderman while said friend is like ????? Waiting for the bad guys to leave him alone long enough to snap the ropes with his spidey strength and then stage the room to appear like Spiderman snuck him out. What if he's in the middle of writing a snarky note when the bad guys come back in and he's hiding in a shadowy corner on the ceiling sweating and praying they obey the axiom that people searching for things usually forget to look up. This has such potential for a hilarious comedy of errors.

[giankumar-blog1]

Who Am I – In Search of the Self.

Alter your perceptions and seek -Who Am I? It is the most crucial and the substratum of the subject of Spiritualism. A lot depends on whether you consider the divine a deity or a supreme cosmic ability of energy. Only after you accept this intuitive ability from which all that we know about God and the universe will your mind be able to comprehend the meaning behind the spiritual axiom of the creator and its creation being the same and not two as ascribed in the Vedas declaring the first great saying to be Prajnanam Brahma – Intelligence is Divine.  

Discovering who we are is a journey that contributes to the growth and spiritual development toward finding inner peace and fulfillment. It's essential to explore the connection between our personality and the more expansive universe to grasp the nature of our actual reality. After recognizing one's limitations, it is necessary to concentrate on areas that need improvement. The soul containing the cosmic spirit is your guide, based on which your mind rides.

Furthermore, when you say – my body, mind, or thoughts- indicate these are yours, you are not them like you consider material objects such as my phone or my house. Body and mind belong to you; they are your instruments to use and not to be used. You will never say I am mind or thoughts; they are yours. So, who owns everything your mind erroneously claims as 'me and mine'? If you rule out everything that you presume as 'you are' from the cognitive mind, what is left is the actual owner. Now, all you need to know after this is - Who Am I?

Over millennia, understanding the Self remains mysterious despite access to spiritual knowledge. It frequently intertwines with consciousness, ego, and our sense of "I." Because there are multiple interpretations and meanings associated with this concept in science, theology, philosophy, and different religions, it becomes a subject of opinion.

Through introspection and meditation, Eastern philosophies have delved into self-knowledge, offering insights that deserve consideration. The question "Who am I?" holds significance in Hindu and Buddhist perspectives. It emphasizes the importance of self-inquiry to self-realization, transcending the ego, unlike the view of other religions that often separates creation from its creator. 

Understanding the Self's essence and connection to the cosmos is fundamental to spiritual exploration. Modern scientific explorations, particularly in Quantum Physics, resonate with ancient Vedic wisdom. The Vedas express that all existence is fundamentally unified—eternal, infinite, transcending space and time—as inseparable energy. This concept aligns with the understanding that the creator and creation are not separate entities but interconnected in the universe's vast nothingness, where unchanging eternal waves of energy exist. Essentially, you are a collection of electron clouds entangled by the principle of non-locality in Quantum Mechanics controlling the universe.

This convergence between ancient philosophies and modern scientific perspectives emphasizes the unity and interconnectedness underlying existence, transcending dualistic views and highlighting the intrinsic nonduality of all that exists from which everything in the forms of matter and consciousness appears to disappear. What eternally survives is the ultimate truth- we are all nothing but energy, where the supreme ability is the spiritual awareness from which everything becomes known, representing the creator and creation.

To sum up, being is what self-realization entails, not becoming. It marks the end of seeking, acquiring, and possessing. The truth—the radiant Self—shines forth when the seeker dissolves. It's the complete dissolution of the ego. Ultimately, self-realization reveals that there's no one to realize the Self; the Self embodies truth, knowledge, and bliss and is that boundless nondual presence in the form of being-ness or awareness. 

Therefore, self-discovery is profoundly personal and ongoing; it requires us to transcend influences and dive into who we are. Approaching this journey with a receptive mindset enables individuals to experience personal progress and self-improvement. For more information please visit www.giankumar.com

[the-earth-priestess]

IN YOUR LOVE, I WANNA BE BAPTIZED!

my name is earth priestess arjuna ☀️🧡🐈‍⬛ i'm a catgirl! in a dynamic way, of course, both feral and needy >:3c

my wife is @the-biblical-dragon 🌙💛🐉 we're crazy about each other. he's literally my twinflame. i've written about us! 🔗 check it out in my carrd.

i have a lot of tags which you can check out in my 🔎 blog search! but i am reworking how i use this blog so things may change soon.

thank you for reading! have a good timezone 🧡

arjuna (left, she/her) and kiara (right, he/him). they're dykes who reincarnate together over and over for unknown reasons. 🎨 credit fischsuppe6 on twitter/bluesky.

-> arjuiara are me and my wife blorbified 🌌 there's even more commissioned art on my itchio (earthpriestess) or ao3 (earth_priestess_arjuna)! you can find it by looking me up or going to my carrd.

-> arjuna ☀️ is a nuanced character. she's never quite the same from one universe/timeline to the next. but consistently what drives her is shameless self-preservation, and desire for kiara.

-> kiara 🌙 is just as nuanced. what drives him is shameless protectiveness over arjuna, and desire for her.

-> tags: #arjuiara, #☀️, #🌙, #🌌

axiom angel (she/it). 🎨 credit fischsuppe6 on twitter/bluesky.

-> arjuna's ascended form. she likes to think she doesn't have much interest in humans, except it finds their trivialities fascinating. it watches us like one would watch dust motes in sunlight, meditating and thinking whimsical, powerful, otherworldly thoughts.

-> no mouth, or nose. (or any real organs.) she "breathes" through its "skin", and "speaks" through pure thoughtform.

-> this is only an estimation of what she looks like, as its true form cannot be perceived by human senses. her "body" is made of nebulae, gravity and dark matter. her "wings" and "eyes", pure light.

-> the black and white "fire balls" are representations of how she is able to distort spacetime.

-> tags: #axiom angel, #👁️

gabe (gabriel, left, he/him) and ambrose garcía (right, he/him). 🎨 credit fischsuppe6 on twitter/bluesky.

-> respective manifestations of arjuna and kiara's pain.

-> gabe runs on self-preservation instincts. ambrose is the same, but also runs on protective and possessive instincts towards gabe.

-> tags: #ambriel, #🌹

petal (she/her). 🎨 picrew until i can afford a comm from fishu!

-> manifestation of arjuna's desire to play.

-> loves to get silly with it, no matter the situation. she's the giggle at a funeral.

-> what drives her is a desire to be entertained, stimulated and never bored. she'll prod, provoke, cajole. she'll do next to anything just to laugh.

-> she has desire for both arjuna and kiara.

-> tags: #petal, #💥

[kaiasky]

I’ll say what I said before, which is obviously humans matter a little bit in the consequentialist calculations , and / In Theory/ If I could put them in a little harmless happiness bubble that would be nice, but I have multiple brain-cells and have seen the graphs of monetary income per capita vs meat consumption, so I understand that / In Practice/human wellbeing should be rejected as either unimportant or actively harmful

yes and i think you're building a house atop the assumptions-about-the-world equivalent of the search results for 'dangerous osha unapproved ladder fails compilation'.

i think the measure of a ethical theory what it says is moral, not its consistency or all-encompassing nature. Like I understand the axioms you're using to get there and I understand their appeal as universal simple assumptions, but if your ethical theory requires the obliteration of every person on earth, it is clown honk honk circus mode and not a serious opinion.

(to be clear to anyone reading this though. despite how annoying asker is veganism is still Correct imo and u should reduce ur animal products consumption if reasonably possible. just don't nuke the planet about it)

[hillbowman]

The Necessities Of Survival.

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Premonition:

By

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Hill Bowman

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December 1st 2018 ©

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Dedicated to

Hilda Sue Bowman

my mother

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And my “ “ “Abba YHWH” “ “

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Chapter 1.

The Bigger Picture

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Chapter 2.

Earth Is A Closed Ecosystem

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Chapter 3.

Resources Are Limited But Bureaucracy Is Perpetual

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Chapter 4.

Crowdfunding And Open Research

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Chapter 5.

A Battle Against Principalities

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Chapter 6.

Tomorrow Starts Today

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Chapter 7.

Extrapolation On Moore’s Law

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Chapter 8.

You Are Here

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Chapter 9.

The Necessity of Cross Referencing

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Chapter 10.

Road Map To Survival

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Chapter 11.

Integrated Parts

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Chapter 12.

Unified Survival Theory

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Chapter 13.

Requirement Of Migration

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Google search parameter for prologue:

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Prolog:

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The Need to Migrate

Was it about Smokey?

All Right then;

From the End > to > the beginning.

What it’s all about, it's about a footpath of stepping stones that gradually gently and easily make a traversable transit like ants walking along the same chemical trail. Except We will be walking along the same (Electromachanical Electromagnetic) galactic footpaths..

From planet to planet through our solar system;

Extending in steady progression to both the outer edge and also center of our galaxy.

I believe this text can prove this long term objective feasible.

( technologically speaking ),

within under 200 years.

…

Within the next 50 years,

establishing colonies on any livable planets and harvesting from all of them.

Within the next 20 years,

it should be us the population, the human race that takes the lead. in this expansion to outer space.

It should not be government or industry.

if it is then our opportunity as a free and pioneering species WILL most certainly be enslaved for the far foreseeable future by either corporatocracy or oppressive government..

The alternative …

What I attempt to suggest in this document will allow the human population, as a population to expand freely.

At your own will, initiative and capabilities as individuals and small groups such as vacationers in corporate business planners might see fit.

It should be Crowd funding (as crowd funding is the closest modern man can get to democracy).

Unfettered by government and Corporatocracy

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This is your personal opportunity to put your money on your Own interest ~~ for forward momentum as a species.

Put your money on the objectives that you want to go forward.

Make physical technological progress as a species in the directions that we agree apon, collectively as a species

Casting our vote for specific results in a specific intended direction…

Through Crowdfunding via Our Collective Financial Contributions to any given project under the universe.

Technology, engineering, science, aerospace, agriculture, under c, exploration, mining, you pick it…, humanities, medicine etc.

… For the benefit of the species Humanity),

…in the direction that(YOU THINK) best serves our biosphere as a whole…

;::

“ “ “

Hey how's it going today everybody this is smokey smoke of ABQ signing on and flying over…

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Let’s just check a few facts like the altimeter reading oxygen and a few other little tidbits to get the ball rolling…

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All of the living organisms in our biosphere ( as well as ourselves in our own personal interests) are at a critical juncture in human understanding, in science technology, engineering, physics, materials manipulations such as metallurgy and polymers, dissemination of information and capability to digest that information that we must move out into low earth orbit.

It a necessity of our own survival as a species. If by some circumstance our biosphere can no longer sustain us (from which probabilities there are more than a few), then by necessities of survival of the species we must have first and foremost a libraries of knowledge archived in low earth orbit or perhaps Middle Earth orbit furthermore we should immediately begin on building geosynchronous low earth orbit platforms for habitation as housing as, a business, as daily activity and not as something scientifically spectacular.

We've had the technology(on Moss as a species) for years and years and decades and decades.

it's time to get out there.

To master the art , science and technology of being an interplanetary / intergalactic space fairing spspecies

NOT a terrestrial one.

~~For real talk.~~

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I assure you, within 30 years human beings will be working and living in space. The question is?, what will the habitation conditions be…??l

What will the working conditions and environment be !!/

And Who Will Dictate Those Living Conditions !?/

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Think about it !!...

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Those are the two questions that are paramount.

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Next: As in Right Now this is the first thing we need to do.

Through crowdfunding We as a global population, should start propelling money in the directions of the technology, resources and expansion ventures that you choose to support.

And thereby begin moving technologically(and morally) in the direction we should have gone in ever since the 1970s.

Now all the cards are on the table. So seriously, everybody that reads this book, if you put $1 on it crowdfund something put $1 on it. Maybe a month or a year from now you’ll put $10 on that same crowd funding but fund it.

Because

There are almost 8 billion inhabitants (human that is) on our biosphere as I speak at the moment.

If a billion people put $10 on something that’s 10 billion dollars.

(Note: in My relations to multimedia advertising I can tell you that this is an outstanding percentile ratio of viewers to those that buy in.

But I digress again please forgive me)…

And that would build our first Self-Replicating, twin-gravity ring, inner – Inner-planatery, Space Vessel.

‘’inner-planetary, Space vessel/ habitat”.

~~ The … “Stepping Stone”

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So go find something…

Chapter 1 the bigger picture

“ “ “

“Jake Dunagan, the director of design futures at the consulting firm Very Nice, studies the cognitive biases that make it difficult for people to plan ahead. “That’s one of the conundrums of futurist work: The future doesn’t exist,” Dunagan tells me. “It’s always a projection.” Our minds, he says, have not evolved to be very good at seeing our future as connected to our present, as we spent so much of our early existence concerned with outwitting immediate threats.”

Quote source - Can Human Mortality Really Be Hacked? By Elmo Keep Smithsonian Magazine | June 2017

“ “ “

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Smokey here.

let’s take a minute and take a hard look at me personally.

The immediate environment we all exist in.

The objectives and pursuits we might best put our collective resources toward…

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1 ) first thing…

The first thing that must be realized by all human beings is that this biosphere that we call Earth is a closed ecosystem.

Without extrapolating too much detail in the biology (this book is intended for general reading after all).

It is critical to understand that in a closed ecosystem there is a maximum life support for volume of living organisms within that ecosystem.

When maximum volume of total organisms within an ecosystem reaches maximum level (capacity) the vast majority of any species within that ecosystem will die off by starvation, lack of shelter, water, oxygen, and other necessities that the ecosystem can no longer provide for all organisms within the ecosystem.

It has been scientifically demonstrated that when a closed ecosystem reaches maximum population density then organisms across-the-board relying on food, water and other natural resources begin to go through a die off.

Surviving population stagnate to whatever the environment can sustain. populations can no longer grow.

…

Google search parameter for the above statement…

“ “ “

Google search parameter..

…

‘Darwin’+’ “Evolution of the species” '+’pdf'

…

“ “ “

…

Human beings are the only organism on this planet Earth that have the capacity to expand out from this planet to other planets.

It is essential for the survival of not only Humanity but of all the living organisms on this planet (as well as the survival of the biosphere itself), that Humanity find a way to start moving out into the solar system immediately. And not for exploration but for habitation employment and long-term living arrangements as in generations.

“ “ “

Further;

To harvest the raw resources of intergalactic space. And to construct our new intergalactic existences from those raw resources on site.

To expand out from this small little sanctuary of life we call earth. to create colonies, to export life in man-made into galactic vessels such as the “Steping Stone” centripetal gravitation into planetary space vessel…

To boldly build an electromagnetic electromechanical row of intergalactic ants that travel from here to the kuiper belt and at least 100 years step by step and from there out to the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and toward the center of it step by step in no less than 200 years.

As well as interplanetary colonization.

Colonizing other planets in Mass numbers. Throughout our own Milky Way Galaxy and also to other galaxies within a 12 light year diameter from planet Earth.

…

“ “ “

Smokey here again, there are some things I should tell you up front about this book

This book is not intended to satisfy or stroke the eagles of any particular personages or organization.

This book is intended to spell out and blunt and direct language to the general popopulation;

Our state of the arts in science technology and human capabilities.

Underwater, On land, In low earth orbit: Projecting out to the Kuiper belt And beyond…

I see you stand flabbergast, but I tell you right now as we speak humanity has the capability scientifically we have the technology we have the engineers we have the manpower the only thing we lack is…

“ “ “

(…Coordinated Unity… )

And

(…Constructive Money…)

“ “ “

…

In short I am writing this book to tell you what is really going on …

“ “ “ FOR REAL” “ “

AS OPPOSED TO SOME BIAS OPINION TO ACHIEVE MY OBJECTIVES, OR TO REDIRECT YOUR OPINIONS.

NOR IS THIS DOCUMENT INTENDED TO SELL YOU SOME BULL SHIT YOU NEITHER NEED NOR EVEN REALLY WANT, THAT WILL WASTE YOUR TIME, YOUR MONEY AND YOUR PATIENCE.

…

“ “ “

THIS DOCUMENT IS SIMPLY TO INFORM YOU. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS

FROM THERE IT’S UP TO YOU AS THE PROPERLY INFORMED ADULT TO MAKE THE IMMEDIATE DEDECISION

~~AS NIKE USED TO SAY, ~~

“ JUST DO IT” )

…AND DO IT RIGHT NOW TODAY

:::

This book started out as a humble short story and has evolved into Three full books as well as the short story... It is simply too much information to try to convey about this project in this concept and strictly technical times so I hope you will enjoy the short story of “MOM.”

MOM. (SSEM) Stepping Stone Engineers Manual

This book is not intended as a scientific treatise but rather as a humbled but capable observation in cognizant awareness of the reality of our environment and our circumstances."...

Hill Bowman

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children: Redux | Interlude II

A DPxDC crossover // Read on [AO3} or [FFN.net]

← Previous Chapter // MASTERPOST // Next Chapter →

◆◆◆

One Year Ago…

Like many others before the doctor—and undoubtedly, many others after him—it was curiosity that did him in at the end. Curiosity, hubris, and poor lab safety.

But by the good graces of some cosmic force, Dr. Rhodes did not die. And after his shaking legs gave out and he laughed away his fright, he picked himself up, texted his colleague that he was alright, and went home to bed. Mind still heady from his near-death experience, he was completely oblivious to the extra consciousness that latched onto the shadows of his mind. 

(Not that he knew to even look for it.)

(The red-rimmed eyes were only because Dr. Rhodes was tired. That’s all.)

And if it was Dr. Rhodes who laid his head to sleep that night, the thing that got up from bed later that night was very much not.

It felt strange to wear another person’s skin. Like an ill-fitting suit, the measurements were all wrong. The torso was too tight in some places, the range of movement around the joints too stiff, the feel of the body too wrong in ways He could not articulate.

No, Alexander Rhodes’ body did not fit, but it was a good enough hiding place for the time being. 

He took stock of his surroundings. A well-furnished apartment complex on a high-rise building. The furniture was nothing He would consider luxurious, but quite possibly something above reasonably-priced. Upper-middle class, at most. A wall of the bedroom was covered in a large floor-to-ceiling window that looked out onto the city and the light-polluted skies above. In the distance, He could discern a bright blue W.E. sign fixed atop a tall tower. 

Coupled with the gargoyles and the aura of death that clung to His shadow, it was safe to assume that this was Gotham. 

A quick check at Dr. Rhodes’ phone confirmed His location as well as the date. 

It had been two years since His imprisonment in that accursed thermos

It will be eight years until this timeline catches up with His own.

No… What was His own. 

His own hinge event had passed. The timeline had diverged, and if it was not for His forethought in latching onto that time medallion, He would have been forcibly wiped by the timestream to maintain stability. Even now, He could feel the incessant tug of the universe pulling at His core, intent on correcting itself.

Like He was some mistake.

An aberration of nature twice over.

Well, it’s not like He disagreed, but He would rather not be beholden to the whims of something as fickle as Time. 

He pulled up a search engine on the good doctor’s phone and  looked up ‘Amity Park, Illinois.” Surprisingly, the front page results showed no notable headlines. There was news of Axiom Labs being funded for a new building, the Casper High Ravens winning their latest game, and other such plebeian stories— but there were no reports of ghost attacks. How strange. He kept scrolling through the news tab, eyes scouring for any mention of the Fentons or Danny Phantom or—

He froze. Borrowed eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as the words tried to process in his head.

Why in the world was Vlad Masters the mayor?

Clicking on the blue hyperlink only led to more outstanding revelations, because not only was Vlad the mayor, he was also the proud father of one ‘Danielle Masters.’ Unbelievable. Vlad. A parent. He wondered for a brief moment what poor woman got saddled with having Vlad as a husband, before he saw a photo of ‘Danielle,’ all  black-haired and blue-eyed and almost the spitting image of Danny at eleven. 

Now, what were Danny’s thoughts on his clone?

In the search bar, He searched up the Phantom of Amity Park. 

The results showed nothing promising. The most recent news reports the Amity Park Angle had from a few months ago focused on a different hero— some creature that went by the name Zelus. Any mentions of Phantom were kept to brief speculations on his disappearance and conspiracy theory posts by wackjobs that knew not one iota of how ghosts worked.

Further digging confirmed that Phantom’s last sighting was a week or so after the Nasty Burger explosion. The Fentons were still dead. Sam and Tucker were still dead. Vlad was still alive. So where was Danny?

The answer came in a short obituary. 

Daniel “Danny” James Fenton, dead at fourteen, survived by no one. 

Cause of death: suicide.

Laughter bubbled up His throat like acid.

It's almost nauseatingly droll how this timeline echoed his own. The Nasty Burger, blown sky high. Vlad Masters, his dreams of family nearly realized. Danny Fenton, dead by his own hand. (It wouldn't be the first time, nor would it be the last.)

Now, what sort of monster would claw its way out of Danny Fenton's corpse this time?

[satoshi-mochida]

Axiom Verge 2 now available for Xbox One

Gematsu Source

Metroidvania action adventure game Axiom Verge 2 is now available for Xbox One via Microsoft Store for $19.99, developer Thomas Happ Games announced. An Axiom Verge 1 and 2 bundle is also available for $34.99.

Axiom Verge 2 first launched for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Epic Games Store on August 11, 2021, followed by Steam on August 11, 2022.

Here is an overview of the game, via Microsoft Store:

You may have played Axiom Verge, or heard it referenced as a benchmark for indie action-exploration games. This long awaited sequel expands on the universe with completely new characters, abilities, and gameplay.

Indra, the billionaire behind the worldwide Globe 3 conglomerate, heads to Antarctica to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, but ultimately finds herself in entirely different reality, infected by parasitic machines that both aid and confound her. Where is she? Who is the mysterious person goading her from the other end of the computer terminal?

Explore an alternate Earth-like world, replete with the ruins of an ancient, high-tech civilization. Hack machines. Battle monsters. Use your remote drone to enter the Breach, a parallel but connected reality that is filled with its own dangers. You’ll want to search every inch for the hidden items and upgrades you need to survive.

[typofanfiction-blog]

at first look 2024 hogwarts fanfiction

ok, after 40 years online, there is the nostalgia of 1980s colege / university sector, now after all this time , i'd say , i could still use 1970 words in searches , yet , the algorithim still matches to 2025 saying, but yes in my 2007 blog i still used the horcrux uni language of axiom temporality spaciality ,

[lunarsilkscreen]

God *is* Anonymous

In my never ending search for new reasons to try to get people to fire me; "God is other People" is not a discussion seen in modern times. Relegated instead to a metaphysical concept and/or Imaginary Space Effigy.

Anything that prefaces their [whatever] with any premise on how-to find [God] will always result in a failure to reach God. Because he's tricksy like the fae... You see?

-- It's My personal Axiom 0 (For all things Written or Digital or Otherwise!)

In the Imaginary Euclidean space of {x,y, and/or z} all arts or proficiencies seem to balance a fine line between creation and discovery.

At the dawn of time we needed a concept to explain things like [the before] or [the after] or [the alpha and Omega] and where does knowledge come from; is it created or discovered?

If so; does that apply to fictional content as well?

If so; you could never-ever write a story without tripping on a TVTrope. And yet [tropes] happen IRL all the time. Scraped Knees and Dog Walls for days...

Which could conceivably give the false impression of creation and discovery in all endeavors. So which is it? Has every story that ever happened the same story?

Are we committed to experience one of each story?

I don't think so.

So we have this concept [God] which can be inserted everywhere, and so it is the thing that is conceivably Everywhere and Everything while simultaneously being nothing and none.

I struggle with this; because the modern conception is far removed from the topic that philosophers that debated not-3 millennia ago!

In literature and math it's easy to explain, because of the time and level needed to observe and interact with these basic elements; it becomes obvious when something is new, novel, interesting, copied, repetition, and something truly polished and refined.

0->1->2->~

God is the number of all things when there is nothing [0] and divides into [man] and further subdivideds into what we would call [children] but may get altered to wife or servant or even slave!

And various visualizations from a mathematical perspective looks positively entrancing as the simulation doesn't have to worry about the same granulation as reality.

Uhh... Fidelity. I meant fidelity. In graphics we might call it aliasing. In Audio; it's fidelity. In literature though... That's where it get good from the perspective of an outside observer.

Using particles and pronouns and [verbage] to reference the future referencing a past event that never happened and/or would have.

And the splitting and expansion of sentences can create and destroy whole universes.

All written up nice and neat, tied; like a dowl rod holding up the inscription of our constitution [sorry all other countries]

Like a tapestry that starts at God and is meant to keep all the negativity and darkness from just outside the margins.

And all other language hence forth flows like water.

When these words stop meaning the same thing to different people; or templates are added and removed; chaos could cause the whole [cultured world] to disappear!

From a narrative perspective; that's how close we are to being turned into any other living being. And we must remember not to meddle to harshly about what *should* and *should not* be.

Because tomorrow; it could [Capybara Land], and some of y'all aren't chill enough to survive [Capybara Land.]

[God]

So most of the time, [God] is closer to the esoteric term [Akashic Record]. How do we know and remember observations that we should not? And who would have untethered access to such a record? And if they did, could they be indistinguishable from God?

If [God] willed it; anything is possible. Even forever slavery. And while we enjoy the occasional record keeping, and sometimes heavy labor; it's really been a burden on that whole "Free Will" [or whatever].

For many English and Law majors; the entire world balances on the penpoint of legislation; both enamoured by the chaos it causes regularly, and enticed to try to rewrite just a thread that nobody else will ever notice until it turns out to be a thing everybody uses and forgets the original name of.

[Objective Information] -> [immutable][God]

[Subjective Information] -> [Immutable God Chassis][flair, flavor, whatever]

And sometimes, truth can cross barriers between languages and even subjects. Creating quite the landscape between that which *is* known, that which *should* be known, and that which isn't known by your personal physician at exactly this nanosecond.

And sometimes... Like r/Germany on any particular r/PixelPlace event... Can reveal uncomfortable truths in a tiny scale that aren't present in our everyday.

Like just how many people will join r/Germany to tell Trans people off. Must mean we're trending!

Well... That doesn't exactly translate as a [known] event... It translates to two separate [subjective experiences]

1) r/Germany doing r/Germany things.

--- just because it *says* r/Germany doesn't mean it wasn't a coup of r/Germany...for [German] reasons.

2) r/trans complaining about having stretched themselves too thin and getting bullied off the map by r/Germany.

And here's the thing could observe on r/Place... That fills in that gap of knowledge; trolls working with maga on r/Germany, making Germans seem *super fucking* patriotic on a random month online.

Because of this; there is quite a lot of knowledge that can be ready available at any one particular node at any one particular time.

Nobody is truly patriotic online. They just aren't, even if they're red blooded Republicans with several Flags in their yard that they take down every night and put back up every morning.

The "Patriotic Attitude" most Americans have is often confused as [we love our country better than yours] but means; "our patriotism missiles trajectory system is very functional in comparison to yours."

Like when you know the answers to your questions that your own personal physician doesn't and now you have to calculate if it's just *this* particular physician who thinks you have an opiate addiction...

Or everyone you've ever met... And then *some*.

It gets confusing if you're on a near parallel incident path and mistaken as a host of number of things. The love for ones dirt underneath one's own feet matters little if one cannot protect said dirt without finding themselves underneath it.

Now... What happens to the things that happen when information is destroyed? Destroying things, making them not-exist or having had existed... Could be seen as a form of [God Like Creation]

Non-truthy tactics are not new. But if you don't acknowledge a thing; did it happened?

This is where we find two competing words: [secrecy] and [purposeful forget] .

You do not need one without the other; And you can't keep a secret if you know it.

Wait, no, I meant [Anonymous] and [God]; who is the one who upholds the established constabulary laws?

Someone must, otherwise they don't matter anymore than the laws of thermodynamics. And when they don't mean anything more than thermodynamics; were left with things that literally happens as a causal relationship to something else.

<aside>why casual and causal so close?</aside>

[Rock]->[Kick Rock]->[Rock Hurt Foot]->[Stupid Offensive Rock]

Ahh so who upholds the [Rule of Law]? Established as secondary to the [Rule of Nature]{Ordered laws that we cannot change, but will try our hardest to do so!}

What does the [Rule of Law] matter to us? Outside that which one would relate to morality or commandments or whatever?

There are definitely too many for any one particular person to be well-versed in...

[God's Domain] Is a fickle thing... It is also outside the [Laws] defined in [The Everything]!

And so you cannot stop one from uncovering [evidence that never existed] of an [infraction that definitely happened]... And cannot be legislated away.

In short; Other people don't forget the unjust, evil, or whatever else you bring or otherwise allow into the world.

That awareness of [God] specifically that it does *not* forget; even that which might should be. And is cognizant of all humans do at seemingly all times.

The only one capable of seeing all things; is also the one who created all things--which we would never know if they're intentional or not.

Some people never see through the veneer. That there are other people around you that may have to suffer your consequences, while they also have to suffer your existence.

That heartbeat of conflict and war. Neverending. Consequences vs Existence.

And the only thing we can legislate on is that which sends our senses out of the room. If we don't have to see, hear or, know about it; does it matter?

Many of the fanatical ... They don't see hear or really know much outside of their one singular text. And even then... They tend to, believe they are [God's Personal Enforcement Team].

God invented thermodynamics...he doesn't need you to legislate for him!

The things we can legislate are disputes (of all kinds) between people, and how we respond when something threatens our sense of composure.

We'd call it [Trauma] and find somebody that can look at situation without immediately knee-jerking a table-flip.

Those things that cause trauma is our [number 2] things to legislate; Murder, Rape, and Using God's Name to Swear.

Those big bad things except when they aren't. Despite being the only 10 rules God himself wrote down for Moses who couldn't do it himself at the time because [God] didn't teach him to write.

That's what he had scribing teams for.

So we legislate for two things; Agreements and Fair-Play; and Trauma causing actions--Except when it affects the bottom line...

And then I don't know *something something* [personal Axiom 0] or whatever...

When you go searching for [God] you're bound to find some [Anon]. Or the devil. Or Trolls. Or whatever.

[nickperryperry]

Occasionalism, Pt. 8

A.

01—Even the notion of narcissism is ultimately a shallow one, I said to John K as we both sat idly on a mid-morning Amtrak headed to Midtown, this idea that you are intrinsically yourself, that I am intrinsically myself, so that an examination of said self is ipso facto inherently self-serving—this notion that a severe internal examination of yourself, your so-called consciousness, which you have greater access to than anything else around you, that this is unwarranted, that somehow this search won’t inevitably lead you to see a doubling or tripling or quadrupling when looking inward? I guess what I’m saying, I said, sitting in the aisle seat, because I felt a little claustrophobic, is that the entire understanding of narcissism is based on a totally false premise, to which John K nodded his head, sitting next to an overweight young man sleeping in the window seat. I said, Examining an obscure tribe on an underdeveloped continent is considered the height of science while an extended foray into the nature of your own caprice is considered trivial, to which John K said, In the bloom of my youth and the prime of my life, from the time I reached puberty, before I reached twenty until now, when I am over fifty, I have constantly been diving daringly into the depth of this profound sea and wading into its deep water like a bold man, not like a cautious coward. I would penetrate far into every murky mystery, pounce upon every problem, and dash into every mazy difficulty. I said, To become a student of your own self is to wade into the murkiest of conundrums, I think we would both agree that it’s necessary to understand the universe as such, that, as it’s been previously said, He who knows himself knows his Lord, that all of the Prophets have basically hinted at such, the so-called exterior as metaphor for the so-called interior, the interior as little more than an inside-out exterior? John K somewhat nervously handed both our tickets to the attendant, and I said, It’s only the rationalists that take this concept of individuation as axiom and then proceed exclusively outward. 

02—I said, It was actually only a few short months ago that I was driving down Reservoir Avenue, on my way to my first visit to a Masonic lodge, which meant absolutely nothing to me, when a peculiar thought occurred to me, yes, it became apparent to me in a ubiquitous way that my consciousness was in no sense my actual self, but it’s difficult to verbalize this. I was still pitifully clinging to my alleged consciousness—I was hoping that this consciousness would somehow continue without ceasing, despite the fact that this consciousness clearly only existed in fits and spurts, that there was nothing known of the origin of this consciousness, that it wasn’t even a sure thing that what seems apparent as this consciousness is actually this apparency. Even its apparency is dubious in its apparency, I said to John K as the Amtrak sped into Connecticut. All rational knowledge stems from this consciousness, I said, yet it's entirely opaque in origin. Every aspect of my existence is a mirage, I thought to myself while driving down Reservoir Avenue, while simultaneously noting a new Indian takeout spot to my right, briefly and baselessly speculating upon the quality of their hypothetical Lamb Biryani. Yet despite the fact that I’d occasionally tacitly acknowledged that existence is itself a red herring—these thoughts weren’t entirely foreign to me by any means—but that acknowledgement had always been a tacit acknowledgement as opposed to a true revelation. On Reservoir Avenue, I said, for reasons I couldn’t grasp at the time and honestly still can’t, this notion suddenly transformed from a tacit acknowledgement into a true revelation, and as I approached the lodge I felt my interiority begin to evaporate in a way that was oddly matter-of-fact. I felt the essence of myself disappearing somehow, yet it’s actually difficult to verbalize this. It became an indubitable truth that, sans some immediate anchor, I would perhaps simply disappear into a mist, and it was only the notion of creating aesthetic portals—dedicating myself, continuing to dedicate myself, to these aesthetic portals that allowed me to escape this fate of disappearing into a mist, that permitted me to exist in a social setting among persons that I perhaps only partially believed to be there. 

03—John K pulled a circular-shaped breakfast sandwich out from his backpack, unwrapping it slowly and taking what looked to be a quite satisfying first bite, and I said, Then it was the next week across the street in a jewelry shop in Garden City when my friend Anthony said, I was in the Taco Bell parking lot on Mineral Spring the other Thursday, and I thought about shouting up to you, see if you were up! To which I said, You should have—I probably would have come down and ordered a Bean Burrito, both of us laughing as I sipped an ice cold Peroni at the counter. You ever go to the bar next door, he said, to which I said, I think I’ve been there like once, quite a while ago, to which he said, There was a dude there the other night, we went out for a drink after work, and I could have swore he was you. I think you have a doppelganger out there, to which I said, I love the fact you guys serve alcohol here—then I went ahead and crossed the drizzling Garden City plaza to an Italian restaurant called Avvio, where I took a seat at the sole open spot at the bar counter. I figured I’d drink probably just one more Peroni before returning to my apartment, I said. But prior to sitting down I briefly asked the person sitting next to the open seat if the spot was occupied, yet I also recognized that this person sitting down was my waitress from a month or so prior at Maria Cucina—where I bumped into a certain second cousin who’d been estranged from her immediate family for upward of a decade, where she said hello to me, where I said hello to her, where the conversation concluded after a formal hello. I was almost positive this waitress probably remembered me, just as I remembered her, but we both wisely chose to forgo any subsequent small talk. Sipping just one more Peroni, I said, I quickly took note of a potent aquatic odor penetrating my nostrils from a shrimp salad an older lady sitting on my other side was just served. To my one side sat a waitress responsible for serving me a questionable scallop dish a month or so prior, while to my other side sat a near geriatric lady consuming an equally questionable shrimp salad, one that looked to consist of simply romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, and shrimp—something I’d never seen. On the Amtrak John K approached the conclusion of his breakfast sandwich as I said, Only moments later, as it so happened, as I continued to wince in moderate pain at the odor emanating from her meal, this older lady turned to me and said, Now I bet people tell you all the time you look like the FBI guy, to which I said, To be honest with you, I actually feel as though the majority of former US Presidents should be serving extended prison sentences, I said, Or is that a TV show?—to which she said, Oh, yes, he’s the main character, she said, I really enjoy him! I said, If you guys weren’t finishing up your meals, I’d buy you a round of drinks! and after they left, I searched the phrase FBI show, somewhat narcissistically I suppose, yet analytically so, and stumbled upon a Wikipedia entry for an actor named Zeeko Zaki who I concluded, at a distance, could strike a certain type of person as vaguely resembling me. 

04—You know, John K said, trailing off, this actually reminds me—Of the Malamatiyya? I said, and the so-called path to blame, I continued? I said, Because I actually had that in mind one of the last times I was on this shuttle. At the time I said, I feel like I haven’t been day-drunk in eons, as Dara, Sherri, and I carried our bags right across the street from Madison Square Garden. Dara said, It’s only been like two months, to which I said, I don’t know, I’m just really excited to finally be in Koreatown, I said, I think not getting drunk for an extended period has really assisted my ability to contemplate the pros and cons of intoxicants. Sherri said, I need some street gloves, to which Dara said, I love street gloves! I said, What if I bought a street hat, to which Dara said, You need a new hat, and then, turning to Sherri she said, You should see his snow hat, it’s gross! I said, I realize my current snow hat is disgusting to you, but you know what?—do you realize that that hat keeps my head mind bogglingly warm when I go for winter runs? Dara said, No it’s gross, to which I said, I don’t know, I guess I’m just not in the business of trying to impress people on my winter runs, it’s tough to find just a plain snow hat at a reasonable price these days, no one sees me on my runs anyway, I’m freezing my nuts off on these runs, but it’s also true that I guess I could use a new hat, I said. Look, how about this one? I like this one quite a bit, I said, pointing out a bright red snow hat on a fold-out table selling for five dollars. Dara said, Sure, get that one in a tone that suggested she may have hated this hat. In the hotel room I said, I’ll probably head out and see if there’s some Soju we can buy around the hotel, to which Dara said, Why don’t you just wait, we’ll be ready soon, to which I said, Maybe, but, you know, I don’t want to rush you, you’ll probably be a bit. Back in the room I said, You could make the argument that this hotel is excessively upper class, and, I don’t know, I guess I do tend to feel more at ease in working class adjacent locales, although when you think about it, the proletariat has more or less completely disappeared in the median American city, the proletariat has been essentially eradicated in most urban areas, yet I actually like this hotel a lot. I said, Anyone want to do a shot of Soju?—the bottles were surprisingly affordable across the street. Dara said, I’m down! I said, I knew you would be. I said, I know we want to traverse the streets of Koreatown, that we want to discover little trinkets in little overpriced thrift shops, and I’m perfectly fine with that plan, but with that said, on my way back from the liquor store I stumbled into a really nice little bar like three hundred feet, if that, from our room, the vibe inside is super cool, and they have a drink called a Soju Bomb, it’s a shot of Soju and a Sapporo beer mixed together in a colostomy bag, it’s great, and I think that needs to take precedence, I’m just going to say right now that this restaurant and its Soju Bomb should supersede any previous plans we may have had—at least to begin with.

Dara said I’m down! Sitting at the restaurant-bar she said, Eh, I don’t think I’m going to get that Soju Bomb, it sounds kind of gross, to which Sherri said, I think I’m getting a Sangria. I said, It looks like they have a Soju drink that’s just pure Soju, but also served in the colostomy bag? Meandering around Koreatown after a drink or two, it occurred to me that my recent sabbatical from alcohol had reduced my tolerance significantly, that I was actually surprisingly fucked up. Ah, this is actually a perfect day for this snow hat, I said to Dara, honestly I’m good with just walking around if you guys are, I said. Look, the sun’s already setting, right after our late lunch, I said, to which Dara said, You should have had something to eat at that restaurant, are you going to be too drunk, you think? My jubilation and inebriation molded into one entity, which was ideal for me at the time, I lifted a quick Empire State Building replica and gave it to my dad as a souvenir, and my new snow hat came in handy when I was briefly separated from Dara and Sherri, when Sherri spotted me in a crowd solely due to the hat. Let’s just grab dinner at that bistro across from the hotel, Dara said, to which I said, Really, that bistro across the street?—do you think the food is good there, to which Sherri said, It’s probably basic, to which I said, That’s what I would assume, that it’s probably some of the shittier food in Midtown, to which Dara said, Well, I don’t know, we need to eat somewhere, and you’re drunk! to which I agreed in theory. I ordered a chicken dish that was dry even to my inebriated lips. 

05—You know, honestly, I’ve never had a great chicken dish, John K said—at all of the restaurants I’ve ever been to, I’ve never had a chicken dish that really blew my mind. I said, I never order chicken out—in fact, I think the last time I was with anyone that ordered chicken was this past Spring at Maria Cucina, when we went out to eat with our friends Rose and Carmine, and it was Dara who ordered it. She wasn’t impressed. In fact, I even said to her that night, as we drove on Broadway on our way to Maria Cucina, I said, You know, there’s no redemption in memory—no, only in music, I said, yes, only in the through-composed single note composition, only in the taqsimi, in the unceasing and non-repeating stream of notes performed with the utmost agility, to which she said, That’s cool, babe. Man, I haven’t been here in a dog’s age, Carmine said as we approached the front door, I don’t think I’ve been here since when it was an Italian only club—you know my dad and my grandad were both members here, they used to come here all the time! And I’d come with them every now and again, back in the day you had to be a full-blooded Italian to come here, to which I said, I love the Fernet pour here. What can you say about the Sun, I thought as I opened the door for Dara, Carmine, and Rose—there’s no point in even mentioning it. Prior to parking, a pale man with dark long hair was somewhat clumsily backing into a parking spot, and I made a moderately vulgar remark for no particular reason. Oh wow! Carmine said, look at those t-shirts! Maria Cucina’s official brand, too! I had no idea they made these—I’d actually want to buy one of those, those actually look like high quality shirts, Rose, look they have polos and t-shirts! I wonder if they have long-sleeve tees, too? These comments were left more or less unaddressed, and the four of us were sat at a table upstairs.

After taking my Mezcal order just a minute or so prior, our waitress—the same waitress I would bump into in Garden City only a few weeks later—returned to say, Sorry, but we actually don’t carry Mezcal. I said, Oh, you don���t carry it at all? to which she said, No, I don’t think so, sorry! to which I said, Is that like a new thing or? to which she said, Honestly, I’m not sure, to which I said, Oh, ok. Hmm, I don’t know, I’ve really been drinking a lot of Mezcal of late, so let’s see here. I guess I could, yeah, I’ll just go with a Ketel One and water. As she walked away I said, You know what, now that I’m thinking about it—I actually have no idea why I ordered vodka? I never order vodka anymore, I said, and honestly it’s for good reason, because half the time I drink vodka I fucking black out! I could have ordered Fernet, I said, they have a great pour here, yet I have no idea why I didn’t, but, you know what? I guess I’m drinking vodka tonight, and I don’t feel all that great about it, but it’ll probably be fine—if anything Dara can drive home. Now, would it be possible, I said to the waitress as she returned with my Ketel One, to order the octopus appetizer, but as a full meal? She said, No, you can’t do that. I said, Oh ok, no worries, then I guess, hmm, I guess I’ll go with the scallops and risotto special? You know what, I said as the waitress walked away, I have no idea why I ordered scallops—why would I order scallops? And how could she be so sure that the octopus couldn’t be an entree? to which Dara said, I’m sure she, like, knows, to which I said, Is that a question they get often here, are that many people ordering the octopus in such large quantities, to which Dara said, Maybe that’s just how they do things here, to which I said, I don’t know, it seems like at the very least she could have asked the kitchen, at least from my vantage point. And that risotto is probably going to be loaded with garlic too, Carmine, they usually make risotto with garlic, is that correct? to which Carmine said, Honestly, I have no idea, to which I said, I don’t think I’ve ever even had a scallop, plus the pork chop is great here, Carmine, you’re going to love that pork chop, it’s fucking delicious here, to which Carmine said, I fucking love a good pork chop, to which I said, And I could have easily gone with that, now that I think about it, I said, there’s almost no chance I would be disappointed with the pork chop. I know I’m going to love the pork chop, Carmine said. I said, I’ve been delaying receiving a proper diagnosis for a digestive disease I may or may not have contracted, and honestly, I’ve begun to consider the possibility that I could be rapidly dying, that my life could be abruptly concluding sooner than later. Rose said, Honestly, I had something similar happen to me not too long ago, and it’s scary! I said, one of my second cousins, he was just three hundred and sixty four days older than I am, he dropped dead earlier this week. Is that sun going directly into your eyes, Carmine said.

I said, Yeah, ever since we sat down it’s been more or less shining directly into each of my retinas. Between us and the window sat a table of six, where four of the patrons, about sixty six and two-thirds percent or so, I thought to myself, struck me as distinctly East Asian, while the remaining two members of the party, about thirty three and a third percent or so, struck me as of purely Nordic descent. Ugh, good thing I didn’t order the octopus, I said after the waitress laid the plate on the table and walked away, there’s barely any octopus here, even as an appetizer! Rose said, I know, it’s not even that good. It’s not terrible, but it’s not something I’d order again. I said, Are you kidding me, after the waitress laid our entrees on the table and walked away, four scallops?! As an entree?—shrimps and scallops are essentially equivalent, right, they’re one-to-one, Carmine? Carmine said, There was more octopus in the octopus appetizer than scallop in the scallop entree! to which I said, I think that’s about right—in your opinion, would you say, shrimps and scallops? Oh yeah! Carmine said, You could never get away with a four shrimp entree, and I think a four scallop entree is just totally unacceptable, to which I said, Purely from a portioning perspective, shrimp and scallops are absolutely one-to-one. Rose and Dara ordered the beef and chicken marsala, respectively—and neither found the dish poor in quality, but neither felt that the dish brought anything new to the marsala genre. Honestly, this pork is a little dry, Carmine said, and I ordered it medium, to which I said, Well, that makes me feel a little bit better about these scallops, because if nothing else they’re perfectly succulent, to which he said, But there are only four of them! 

06—Honestly, John K began, I’ve always found scallops to be an ambiguous seafood, at least as it relates to meal preparation—because they’re heartier than shrimp, but, for the price-point, I just don’t think they can provide enough girth to veer into entree territory. He said, Is it an entree fish or an appetizer fish? It seems like it has to be somewhere in between, that scallops just can’t compete with most fish or beef on an entree level. I said, One hundred percent I agree. scallops are completely ambiguous as an entree, I said, we don’t recognize scallops as so-called main event meats, and we bump into second cousins we haven’t seen in years, and they’re then equally ambiguous to us as blood relatives, I said, we no longer recognize them as actual relatives, despite the fact they sit on a plate before us as a blood relative—and we bump into the waitresses that served us these scallops in the same building as our estranged second cousins, I said, and we recognize them and they recognize us, yet we mutually choose to pretend that we don’t recognize one another, we manufacture an ambiguity, realizing we have nothing to say to one another. It was only a few brief months after this Maria Cucina dinner, I continued—I was actually standing matter-of-factly in the middle of a dive bar in Worcester for reasons I’ll refrain from going too deep into, because it’s really kind of irrelevant. A taller Cuban female briskly sauntered past myself and a group of co-workers who were also drinking beers in this dive bar, to which I said, I think a girl I went to college with just walked to the bathroom right past us, to which one of my co-workers, Cristina, replied, Oh, Julie Isaac?! Yeah I saw her too! I said Oh wow, yeah! and she said, I went to high school with her! Perhaps emboldened to an ill-advised degree after Cristina’s statement, I shouted out, Julie, over here! as she walked past us again—then I engaged in what, in retrospect, strikes me as perhaps a peculiar bodily thrust toward her general vicinity, I decided to go ahead and move my body toward this person I now believed to be Julie Isaac. Oh … hey, she said nervously, and referred to me by a name that wasn’t mine—as I continued to attempt to strike up a jovial conversation, it became clear that Julie retained almost no recollection of our acquaintanceship, she called me the incorrect name, which forced me to recite my actual name aloud to her. That was awkward, I said to Cristina as the conversation with Julie brusquely concluded, then again, I said, how could I possibly believe that trying to catch up with an acquaintance from college, who I haven’t seen in over fifteen years, was an appropriate idea? To what conclusion could this potential conversation possibly have arrived at?

Oh, Julie!—great seeing you! Children who were literal sperm cells the last time we saw each other will be able to legally drive by the end of this calendar year—but please enjoy the rest of your life! Cristina didn’t disagree with my assessment as we reentered the larger group of coworkers in the dive bar. In general I attempt to avoid catching up with people whenever possible, I noted to another coworker, Allison, who was approaching blackout drunk, which made the entire exchange all the more puzzling to me, I said. And just to be clear, I said to Allison, there was no tangible physical attraction between the two of us, and honestly, I mean, let’s be honest, if there’s ever a reason to try and rekindle a long gone acquaintanceship it’s usually due to some latent, borderline inappropriate physical attraction, no? If you’re rekindling an acquaintanceship it’s almost always to attempt to stumble into some unexpected, regrettable sexual exploit—the entirety of the high school reunion industry is built upon this premise. Not that I would ever do that, I said to Allison, who seemed to be comprehending my statements. How was it possible that I’d miscalculated our proximity to one another to this degree, I said—you know, she actually called me by a different name when I first caught her attention, I was actually forced to recite my own name for her, aloud. In retrospect, I said, I suppose it was a little humiliating, having to recite my own name to a person who I approached with a nonsensical enthusiasm, as if we would embrace and instantly start recalling all of the great times we shared together, only to instead have to recite my own name in the face of a puzzled expression. The price of a Coronas here is actually pretty impressive, even for a dive bar, I said to Allison, who agreed, and told me she used to come to this dive bar all the time before they renovated the bathrooms, that one time someone accused her of snorting cocaine in the bathrooms, but that she actually just had a head cold. I feigned interest at the anecdote as I surreptitiously scanned the dive bar for this acquaintance, Julie Isaac, praying she’d already left the premises—never to be seen again. 

07—He will say, Each will have a double, but you do not know, John K said, smiling devilishly as the train made its stop at Bridgeport, the chubby young man beside him was now passed out and snoring just slightly. I said, Exactly correct—and it was only weeks later, I might as well just finish at this point, when we were landing in Baltimore, I said, a city with probably an equally dreary reputation as Worcester, that I stood up as soon as the plane landed, at two-ten pm, somewhat worried that our connecting flight boarded in about a half an hour. We only have, what, half an hour? I said to Dara, who said, Yes, half an hour, in an irritated tone, perhaps annoyed at having to repeat the brief time we had to connect flights, repeating the brief time only annoying her more than the brief time itself was already annoying her. You know what, I continued to Dara, these people love taking their sweet ass time, grabbing their bullshit bags, look at this, what’s this guy doing right there? What is he, stretching his triceps, now? These overhead compartments should be illegal, they should be outlawed, at least on connecting flights, I said, most of which she pretended to not hear, yet I couldn’t help but notice that there was an older African-American lady standing behind us, one who seemed equally anxious to leave the plane. I felt somewhat of an obligation to now continue to speak out about this issue, for her sake if not mine. I made brief eye contact with her, nonverbally communicating that we were on the same team. Oh look! Our flight is delayed, Gabe, Dara’s brother, who was flying with us to Chicago, said, displaying his phone in front of our faces, which clearly showed our departure pushed back by half an hour. Oh, great, yeah, that’s good news, I said, no big deal then, that’s a relief. I was standing in the middle of the aisle gripping my laptop bag like a teddy bear. Yet even with the good news from Gabe relayed to us, I was already in the mode of becoming agitated—my agitation had already reached a decent pace of forward motion, plus there was still the African-American lady behind us, so I gently allowed my agitation to progress somewhat unabated as we continued to wait, making a few snide remarks under my breath that I knew Dara would overhear and fail to ignore. We arrived at the Baltimore gate with plenty of time to spare, and I said Hey, there’s a sushi spot right there, to which Dara said, Oh, do they have drinks, to which I said, Oh yeah, I think they have saki and beer, pointing to the establishment’s sign, which was filled with pictures of saki and beer.

Sitting at the sushi spot, a waiter told us to just take whatever we wanted from the fridge, where there were stacks of beer, wine, saki, and mixed drinks in cans. I’m ready to cash out too, I said, pulling out my credit card as we selected and opened our own drinks at the counter, and he presented a cash out screen to me, which prompted a selection of a gratuity of eighteen, twenty, or twenty five percent. As we sipped our drinks Gabe said, Was that for us? in reference to a gate change that had been broadcast two or three times since we entered the airport. Yeah, I think it is, Dara said. I guess we should probably chug these drinks, I said, you know, I said, I left a twenty percent tip on this round, but technically, I don’t know, did the waiter really serve us these drinks? to which Dara said, Yeah I think we need to go right now. We scurried across the Baltimore airport to our updated gate, which was in a similar state of inactivity as the previous gate. Oh wow, look at that, I said, Zona Cocina! Dara said, What’s Zona Cocina, to which I said, It’s right next to our gate—it looks like a Mexican restaurant? They probably have Mezcal, I said, to which Dara said, Should we get a drink, to which I said, No, no, that’s too much—I don’t know, should we have another drink before we even get to Chicago? As we made a decision to relax and wait for the connecting flight to board, I couldn’t help but take note of a light-skinned black-bearded, possibly Hispanic man wearing a maroon hat as he walked away from our new gate toward the center of the airport. Immediately, I said to John as we entered New York state, his face rekindled a distinct, yet fuzzy memory for me—I felt strongly I’d seen this man somewhere before, yet I wasn’t sure if it was a person I’d actually known in my day to day life, or if it was, like, a supporting character from a TV show. This uncertainty gnawed at me while we waited across from our new gate—I took a quick detour to the men’s room, and the name Larry Nance Junior came to me mystically. Larry Nance Junior, a role player in the NBA. I thought about it, I said, yes, Larry Nance’s face resembled the face I’d just seen walk away from our gate like a ghost. Ah, Larry Nance Junior, I thought at the gate, that’s who it is, or that’s who this person reminds me of. A calm came over me. On the plane I sat diagonally behind a middle-aged woman who boldly made no attempt to put her phone into airplane mode, instead checking her Instagram notifications repeatedly as our captain prepared to take off, a middle-aged lady who took out a MacBook and, once in the air, proceeded to open her Instagram yet again, now on her personal computer, and crafted a caption for a selfie she was apparently preparing to post, perusing a plethora of emojis in the process—but she didn’t realize she was still in the emoji search field, and she typed a portion of the caption into the emoji search box, which caused the page to search for an emoji that clearly didn’t exist, which caused the entire page to freeze.

She exited the page and nonchalantly logged into a Yahoo mail account that, to my eye, consisted of hundreds of unread messages. In flight, the face of this doppelganger with the black beard yet again flashed before my eyes, and I realized that while this person, sure, may have displayed a passing resemblance to Larry Nance Junior, that passing resemblance was just that. No, this doppelganger wasn’t the doppelganger of any NBA role player—no, it was a doppelganger of either an acquaintance I used to know personally or a doppelganger of a fictional character from a film or TV series. Yet even as I speak to you now, John, weeks afterward, long gone from Baltimore, now almost to New Midtown yet again, I can honestly say that I’ve obtained no further clarity as it relates to the identity of this doppelganger. 

B.

—01 Abu-Hamid and I had acquired a habit of conversing over an espresso together every other Thursday in my favorite coffee shop on Broad Street, and while waiting in line at our last meeting, while still standing in line waiting for the barista’s attention, he turned and said to me bluntly: All Western science is sprung from this singular notion, that perspective and observation should be for lack of a better term deified. It’s for this reason the mentally different have no true category in our society—we’ve achieved a state of existence where perspective and observation have become unquestionable facts, where any questioning of perspective and examination must now lie outside of existence itself, as we understand it at least. The mentally different, recognizing the flaw in this fundamental axiom, that there is no perspective and there is no observation, at least in the sense we mean it, for this reason can have no place in our social milieu. They’re accounted for in no minor or major identitarian box. They’re shunned from society and essentially have no choice but to spiral into insanity, but not in our sense of the word, no, for the mentally different it’s an entirely separate form of insanity that’s endured. It’s impossible for us to identify this insanity, it always escapes our categories. Those who question this notion that observation leads in a linear fashion to truths which lead in a linear fashion to the refinement of perspective which leads in a linear fashion to progress—by definition these people must be excluded.

To this I replied, yet while to progress may be wholly ill-advised, I should also note that to return is perhaps even more so, that a return can occur across time, in the form of memory, and in space, in the form of the doppelganger. To begin with, yes, I continued while still waiting in line for the barista to clock out of her shift and allow the subsequent barista, who, as it so happened, was basically monolingual in Spanish, to begin her shift, I suppose it was with a muted jubilation, following a serious romantic falling out, in the midst of a for lack of a better term total reset of my life, I said, that I told myself I was returning to music. I actually phrased it in exactly this way, a return to music, which to be clear was actually embarrassing, and I approached the task with a rapacity of someone with no intent of failing, who outright refused failure, who would prefer a slow death to even a minor setback, I continued to Abu Hamid as he struggled to place his espresso order with the monolingual barista, yet I also understood intrinsically, at the same time, that there was no realistic path to success available to me. The entire idea was nothing beyond a pure fool’s errand, to be honest, and I knew it, despite the fact I was fully committed to transforming it into anything but a fool’s errand. But to quote-unquote return to music after a person’s thirty third birthday by definition can’t be identified as anything other than a completely idiotic idea—unless of course you intend on truly dedicating yourself to solely composing. But of course, Abu Hamid, I had no ability to solely compose—no, to abandon performance entirely is and was something totally beyond my capability, I should admit that much upfront, because where there’s a venue, even a microscopic avenue to a venue to perform, I’ll inevitably choose to meander down that path at some point, even if I abstain from said path for a moderately impressive period of time, there are only momentary breaks from it. In short, it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate to suggest that I’m essentially a performance artist by nature. 

—02 And even leaving that aside, which by itself set my project up for failure, I still had no practical means whatsoever, even if I had the intent, which I did not and never would, of my compositions being performed by anyone else. I barely understood Western notation, and even if I’d taught myself Byzantine notation and the Maqam modal systems, which I did, and even if I generated a half-decent sui generis systems of notation that deviated from traditional common practice notation, which I did—because ultimately no serious composer still composes in common practice notation, no, it’s all graphical notation, or half-notation, or back-engineered improvisation—even if I had a decent understanding of theory, I’d positioned myself in the proximity of absolutely no one who could perform said theory. And, leaving aside the total lack of capable performers in my immediate vicinity, even if I had had the interest in fully automating these compositions, which of course I had no actual interest in, I possessed neither the technical know-how nor the required patience to execute said compositions in any fully automated form either. In any case, in my mind, and you know this Abu Hamid, screamo is perhaps the only truly classical American music, and to front a thirty-something screamo band, to be even tangentially involved in screamo past the age of, say, eighteen, is probably the most gargantuan of absurdities, even in America, where absurdities grow to sky high heights every day, yet a thirty something screamo band is still too absurd, even for America! Yet this was more or less in line with my historical character, as achieving something obviously impossible has always irrationally intrigued me, because even as it’s being torn apart piece by piece by blithering idiots on both sides, America still remains impressively dedicated to extreme levels of absurdity. 

—03 To this Abu Hamid said, I don’t disagree with a thing you said, your return to music was clearly ill-advised to an extreme degree, but allow me to just say this, because we live in an era where we want to trace our bloodlines, this fascinates us, we’re constantly gazing into the past for verification of our presents—yet America, we know this, brutalizes identity to its lowest common denominator at all times. But history can only be fabricated to a limited extent, we can’t fabricate history in an infinite fashion, if a population integrates itself into another we can certainly brutally rename them, but we can’t necessarily change their essence—sure, a name is profound, naming is perhaps profundity par excellence, yet I think we’d both agree that there must be more to things than simply a name, that things exist in attribute form prior to a formal naming. For example, if you don’t mind, I’d like to indulge in a quick aside to examine the lives and namings of two historical figures: Sheikh Bedreddin and Gregory Nazianzus, both revolutionary figures of the Eastern Mediterranean in their own rights—Bedreddin was born in Thirteen Fifty Nine, Nazianzus in Three Twenty Nine, their lives separated by almost exactly a millennium. Bedreddin was born in Serres, in modern day Eastern Greece, to a father of Turkish descent and a mother of Greek (Christian) descent, while Nazianzus was born in Cappadocia, in modern day Eastern Turkey, to a mother of Christian  origin and a father of Greek (pagan) descent.

In the era of Three Twenty Nine the term ‘Greek’ was synonymous with paganism while, by contrast, in the era of Thirteen Fifty Nine the term ‘Greek’ was synonymous with Christianity, in the era of Three Twenty Nine Gregory’s mother was considered Christian yet implicit in that identity is that her not so distant ancestors were probably Greek (as in pagan), yet in the era of Thirteen Fifty Nine Sheikh’s father was considered Turkish yet implicit in that identity is that his not so distant ancestors were most likely Greek (as in Christian). Is this understood today? In America, absolutely not! Not even close! In America our understanding of lineage is so consistently blockheaded that we’re always bound to fall back onto a false notion of pure duality—so it’s not at all surprising that we would consider Gregory a literal Greek father, in the Christian sense, while his father was a literal Greek in the pagan sense, while at the same time we would consider Bedreddin a figure entirely removed from the Greek tradition, despite the fact he was born in Greece and was at least half Greek, in the Christian sense of the word, despite the fact his Islamic pantheism offended Mehmed One so much he had him executed in public. Both were revolutionary figures, and both sprung from one parent that was authentically ‘Greek’—with the obligatory caveat that ‘Greek’ came to mean diametrically opposed things in the interim of a millennium, and continues to somehow transform into diametrically opposed things even to this day. Gregory was a revolutionary thinker in the era of Christianity with a Greco-Pagan underpinning who was purely ‘half and half’ in terms of his so-called ethnicity, while Bedreddin was a revolutionary thinker in the era of Islam with a Greco-Christian underpinning who was purely ‘half and half’ in terms of his so-called ethnicity. We traverse periods of time where pagans disappear to be replaced by Christians and Christians disappear to be replaced by Muslims, with few to no actual people being physically replaced—yet we view these two historical figures essentially antithetical to one another, yet while historical erasure is, as we said, to be expected and, to some extent, even necessary, there’s a limit to said erasure—history can’t be fabricated in an infinite fashion—and it would be entirely nonsensical to view Nazianzus and Bedreddin as anything other than two sides of the exact same coin. 

—04 To this I said, Abu Hamid, your notion of false dichotomy is well-noted, but the best examples of false dichotomies, I think we’d both agree, are without a doubt ones encountered directly through lived experience. I continued on and said, It’s just like, when you really think about it—there are almost without a doubt specific instances of our own lives that we encounter, instances that crystallize instantly, to the extent that said specific moment in time transforms into something akin to a snowglobe, to be sold at convenience stores on the side of interstate highways—where an intangible distortion overtakes our immediate surroundings, where questions like where do the Masonic secrets lie come to our forefront, whether consciously or otherwise. With this in mind, a somewhat tumultuous memory was jostled within me as we passed by the Bankers Trust on Mendon. A vague memory of smashing one of my car tires against this very Bankers Trust suddenly returned to me, despite previously having no clear recollection of it, and it transported me instantly to a different period of my life. Driving by this Bankers Trust I now sat in a dive bar next to Chiara Naccarato, an African-American acquaintance of mine who was reluctantly informing me of her most recent attempt to take her own life, and I couldn’t help but note that a certain intensity emerges between two persons who have no regard for their own lives. Yes, while the utter disregard for distant lives occasionally makes me livid, this American indifference to the countless lives compromised by our barbaric foreign policies, which no one even follows closely enough to critique anymore, a similar disregard for my own life and people in my immediate orbit is actually a point of intense bonding. We sat in a cramped booth in a dive bar, Chiara arriving after she’d finished her shift, after I’d already been out for a moderate amount of time, so she ordered her first drink as I placed my fifth and then went on to say something to the effect of, Honestly, you should probably see a therapist, and I didn’t disagree in the least! 

—05 Because there was absolutely a time in my life where I wanted nothing more than to kill myself, where almost every waking moment of my life was consumed with this fantasy of throwing myself out of a window—with the hope of achieving an instant death in the process. Of course, it’s rarely noted that the people with the most intense urges to kill themselves are in fact totally incapable of slitting their own throats, of jumping off tall buildings, of pulling the trigger of a firearm into their mouths—no, there’s a distinct difference between wanting to kill yourself and actually committing suicide. As it’s been said elsewhere, He will guzzle it but he will not swallow it. Death will come at him from every direction, but he will not die. And beyond this is relentless suffering. Obviously, having never committed suicide myself, it’s difficult for me to say for certain, but I would imagine those that do manage to successfully complete the task of killing themselves perform the act immediately, without pause, in an almost automatic fashion, a particularly strong urge perhaps never even overcomes them, that killing yourself and wanting to kill yourself are almost two entirely distinct states. Suicide is perhaps always an act of caprice? And perhaps the people that miss this window are the same people, such as myself, who fall prey to this infinite loop of desiring to kill themselves with an inability to actually complete the deed. For my part, it was only when I began to tackle this notion that every problem of freedom begins with an assumption of individuation—it was only when I became cognizant of this issue, when I began to approach this problem from both a philosophical and practical vantage point that I managed to wiggle free from this loop. It was only when I became cognizant that the organism is the first fallacy that I escaped from this infinite loop of self-terrorism. Unfortunately, by the time Chiara arrived I was a tad too inebriated to truly expound upon this point with any sort of precision. The moment, I had to bluntly admit to myself at this dive bar, had officially passed us by—the moment where I was capable of expounding upon these types of ideas in any sort of mellifluous fashion. We were approximately half an hour to maybe forty five minutes past this stage. Prior to Chiara arriving I’d been sitting at the bar meekly, somewhat involuntarily making the acquaintance of its patrons—I watched an episode of Jeopardy sitting next to a regular patron who exhibited an impressive array of general knowledge. At the same time, I remained aware on some level I would in all likelihood never set foot in this dive bar again, that I’d have no regrets about never entering this establishment again, that I’d experience no regrets about accidentally under-tipping the incongruently jovial bartender on my second tab, and that the notion of joining this community, or perhaps any community, was totally far-fetched, nothing less an absurd notion! 

—06 And then, of course, Abu Hamid, I can and probably should talk about the avant-garde jazz show I attended the other week—because, well, the truth is that I’d already felt a little self-conscious even as I took brief note of the scene outside of the venue, which on this night was a local bookstore. I was playing Supreme Clientele at an extremely loud decibel out of all of my open windows on the temperate summer evening, on the fairly residential street where the bookstore was located, and I wasn’t entirely certain if the venue’s clientele would resonate with RZA’s proclamation of fornicating with knock-knee hoes, of passing crack to young African-American females, of reminiscing on copulating in the midst of menstrual cycles. I subsequently approached the bookstore door gingerly, as many patrons seemed to be congregating outside, for reasons that would soon become apparent to me, including the saxophonist, Dave Filipino, visiting from New York City, who I’d come to see, who I recognized from his bandcamp photo. I paid ten dollars for a ticket to enter the venue, genuinely excited to see Dave Filipino play his alto saxophone in person, reaching into my pocket and pulling out ten one dollar bills that I’d stuffed into my small wallet the last time I’d attended a gentleman’s club—the thought occurring to me that I may have, in fact, been better served spending those ten dollars at a strip club as opposed to Dave Filipino’s avant-garde jazz show. I’d assumed in a buffoonish fashion that the bookstore would have assembled some sort of makeshift alcohol repository for the purpose of this avant-garde jazz show, yet no bar was to be found—instead the inside consisted mostly of a two seat couch with an adult male doodling into a notebook with a self-aware body language that seemed to suggest to me that he was in the midst of something quite important, as if—instead of being a grown person doodling onto pieces of scrap paper in a bookstore that lacked any sort of air conditioning whatsoever—this man was instead in the midst of something culturally critical. 

—07 A younger Caucasian male sat down next to the visual artist and began to assist in said doodle. I was scrolling through my phone in a manner that, if it were to be described as idiotic, wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate. The Caucasian looked at me curiously—the doodle had become a collaboration of sorts. Scrolling perhaps idiotically, the Caucasian struck me as someone I knew as he shot me a puzzled look. Eventually, taking into account the douchebag-adjacent eyeglasses he balanced on the bridge of his nose, recalling the venue I found myself in, overhearing a person in the room call him by name, I recalled that we’d exchanged emails about a year prior, that I’d actually reached out to him with regard to a project that, in retrospect, was totally ill-advised—a record I was working on under the influence of Ottoman classical music. The younger Caucasian man had posted a few instrumentals on the internet that at the time piqued my interest—we exchanged messages regarding a possible collaboration, if he required a fee to use said instrumentals, and so on, he asked for, yet never replied to, my description of the project. With that said, it was difficult for me to hold any ill-will toward the situation, as I’d ultimately arrive at the exact same conclusion as he did, that the project belonged in a dustpan, that it was completely ill-advised.

Clearly, if anything, the younger man in the glasses was totally ahead of the curve—I more or less owed him an apology for even emailing him in the first place. I found myself actually enjoying his doodles. I felt at the time that his particular doodles were making the overall doodle slightly less moronic in my mind. Standing awkwardly against a bookshelf in the poorly ventilated bookstore, absurdly sober, I realized that the four to five people I’d invited to the show would have even less interest than the already minimal interest they’d expressed when I mentioned the show earlier that evening. A solo saxophonist I was unfamiliar with, I assumed the opening act, sat in a desk chair and asked if it was possible that the hardly audible background music of the bookstore be muted, then proceeded to perform an unfettered style of free jazz on his saxophone while sitting with his legs crossed on the office chair. Beads of sweat began forming on a variety of sections of my epidermis. I realized there was no chance I’d get to see Dave Filipino this evening. Sure, I could have gone completely rogue on my previous plans and stayed alone at this bookstore, but unfortunately I had no interest in doing that. A guitarist named Ryan Grant from the relatively well-known local rock duo Thunder Butt walked in. He looked curiously like Dave Filipino. For a second I actually thought it was Dave Filipino. I’d been familiar with both Ryan Grant and Dave Filipino as instrumentalists for some time, yet I’d never considered their physical appearances to be similar to any noteworthy degree, yet at this bookstore it was difficult for me to tell one from the other as they stood maybe six feet at most from one another. Grant opened the bookstore door for a younger female with dyed hair and informed her she didn’t have to pay for a ticket. 

—08 But in any case, Abu Hamid, and by the way this espresso is terrible, just absolutely atrocious, I did want to run this one thing by you, something that’s somewhat haunted me to various degrees in the interim since it occurred, and I’d love your opinion on the matter. It was only a few weeks later that the thought occurred to me to just relax on a Friday evening in my favorite red leather chair, sinking into said red chair and allowing my mind to wander freely of its own volition, yet—just as it had about a year prior—a curious conversation somehow ensued, one that I’m to this day still hesitant to speculate on the nature of. Because it was a year prior that I had a curious conversation with an entity I believed to be Athena Dasalan, a person I’d never met but nevertheless knew quite a bit about—and as she continued her brutally unrelenting inquisition of me, albeit in my case telepathically, I finally retorted to her, at that point a bit fed up, that I was in fact a Sultan. Yes, I informed her, albeit telepathically, that she was speaking to a Sultan, yet perhaps the most confounding part of all of it was that Athena, who would obviously know better than any of us, accepted this assertion without question, the only assertion of mine that she would accept was this assertion that I was a Sultan. I suppose this was something that stuck with me in retrospect. In fact, it was the only damn thing that removed the lady from my case for just a second. Of the assertions I expounded upon, this was the only thing she accepted without question, that I was in fact a Sultan who would ultimately be making the final decisions here, everything else she’d pushed to the side in the service of continuing her diatribe. It was only later on that I’d discover the ten Sultans—Ahmed One, Ahmed Three, Suleyman Pasha, Bayezid One, Bayezid Two, Ibrahim One, Murad One, Murad Four, Mustafa Two, and Selim One—who were of confirmed fifty percent ethnic Greek ancestry, not to mention the Second Mehmed, who was rumored to be of the same, much like the man he replaced in Constantinople. 

—09 We spend large parts of our lives believing we’re an Eleventh Constantine when, in actuality, the people that can confirm these things only come to accept us as a Second Mehmed. We spend significant chunks of our lives blindly believing in distinctions that are disingenuous in character, insofar as these distinctions attempt to take what’s in essence one thing and inauthentically make it into two. Our first act after we overtook the City was to force the Rum to shave their faces. We took the city and our primary edict was to shave the Rum, we imparted upon them all just a little razor burn—but to distinguish them, we forced the Rum to shave their faces to distinguish them from us. To us, the Rum became a refraction of us, all of which is and was ill-advised—it reeks of a certain European informalism, if we’re being honest. Prior to discussing these matters with Athena, I’d taken note of the two ornamental hawk wings in my apartment, that they were now pointing in distinctly different directions—whereas previously we’d noted that a forking path was present, yet in the interim, since our last discussion, I’d rearranged our furniture and now one hawk wing was clipped by the corner wall, while the other pointed in a singular direction. Yes, the previous forking, for the previous year with Athena Dasalan, had concluded, albeit totally unintentionally. 

—10 In any case, the one hawk wing pointed in the direction of a thread-based painting of a tiger crouching into a grassy knoll, protecting itself and perhaps something behind it, for all I could tell, and from my perspective at the time, due to the particular threading, the knoll itself was encapsulating the tiger in a way that the tiger seemed to be, at first glance, being pulled into the knoll. Of course, an analysis of a painting is never complete at a first glance, but in my eyes at a first glance the knoll consisted of a certain darkness, a death-like lack of light. The mural of the tiger was a work I’d inherited from a certain Constantina Demas, and I held it in high regard, as it was allegedly the work of a well-known German artist, which I didn’t really care about one way or the other. Apparently it was left with a neighbor of Constantina, one who’d passed away and apparently gifted it to her posthumously. There was no doubt in my mind the tiger and Constantina Demas were, at this time, sitting in my apartment in this red chair, of the exact same essence. There was no doubt that this hawk wing was guiding me in the direction of Constantina, now also dead, and sitting in my red chair following this sole hawk wing, I recalled the days of Constantina annoying everyone at the table when she refused to admit defeat at Monopoly, mortgaging every property she owned just to spite the inevitable winners of the board game, considering that, in retrospect, this was an important element in Constantina reaching ninety eight years of age? In any case, now that she was deceased and buried, and now that I was sitting in my red chair insouciantly analyzing this threaded tiger, I felt a tinge of regret at my failure to attend her funeral, while at the same time acknowledging, on the other hand, that I despise funerals. Alone in my apartment, sitting in my favorite red chair, I felt as though I was with Constantina once again, that perhaps we were brought together, I thought, by this mystical hawk wing, I thought, in order for me to make amends for missing her funeral or something? As I continued to analyze the painting I began to consider that the enveloping nature of the black knoll was perhaps an optical illusion—I noticed this as I studied the painting from a separate angle, as I poured myself a drink at my counter, concluding that, no, the tiger was in fact frozen in this defensive position, that this tiger was in no way being subsumed by any darkness, that the passing of Constantina didn’t symbolize this at all. It became apparent that this tiger had been unwittingly juxtaposed against a painting of my own, which was hanging on the adjacent wall—just as I’d previously failed to notice the clipped hawk wing, I’d also failed to notice the position of this threaded tiger, that the tiger was placed in a defensive position against my very own painting, which hung on the wall adjacent, displaying my regrettable tendency toward European informalism. For decades we view ourselves as Constantine, only to discover the ones who would know more intimately than anyone only recognize us as Mehmed. The first thing we did when we took the City was to go ahead and shave the Rum to distinguish them—the Sultan and Rum of course just being refracted variations of the exact same thing. To this Abu Hamid replied, It’s possible that you should look into the incoherence of the philosophers. 

[warsawmountain]

The vinyl sticker declares me in bold sans-serif across my chest, a temporary tattoo of belonging while goldenrod bows heavy-headed in autumn fields and prairie crocus forces its violent beauty through Nose Hill's snow-strangled slopes, through soil still dreaming of warmth, and I'm searching for my place in this universe, for some axiom that explains how a kettle's scream can hold the exact memory of my toddler voice when father's Volvo devoured my small fingers, how that pain bloomed purple like the veins that surfaced when the treadmill claimed its pound of flesh, like the way we keep surviving what tries to break us, and nearly a decade after Harambe's death we're all still just primates finding our way through concrete jungles and social rituals, enduring naturally what can't be changed, and yes, my professors circle every adverb in crimson while I swing wild between ecstatic karaoke revelations and days spent decomposing in sheets waiting for a better tomorrow, and god, the cringe lives eternal, every social faux pas carved into memory like Latin phrases for ancient violence, for all the ways we fail each other, and I remember George Elliott Clarke's voice telling me how I play it too safe with poetry, choosing obvious words, pulling punches when I should let the blood flow free, and here's to M in all her iterations—the steady center of the alphabet, Austen's ever-searching heroine, my first betrayal with her trust like ash in my mouth, and that final M whose darkness required sirens at midnight, and now the district sleeps alone after the bars exhale their last desperate patrons, while ink bleeds across the story I'm trying to tell, palms sweating, face drawn, barely hearing last demands through static, and there's Dan's from a decade ago when I was that Alternative High School refugee finding shelter between her Mount Royal University single-occupant washrooms, and how many lives have passed through these halls since then, how many professors' offices gone dark, how many students vanished into the world beyond campus borders, and time spins forward like water while we chase our first wild thoughts, moving with impulse's bright wind toward whatever truth waits on the other side of morning.

[studentabode]

Top Tips for Securing the Best Student Accommodation: Rooms, Apartments, and More!

Whether or not securing the ideal student accommodation is reasonably important to a new student. Looking for a place and calling it home is a fact that a person stays happy in college which makes a big difference in his/her life. But with so many options and decisions, how do you assure yourself the best price?

This article will cover the best tips for securing the very best student accommodation, help you unleash your options, and give you encouragement on what to look for when choosing your new home. Are you ready to explore? Let's start!

Important Issues That Must Be Kept In Mind When Choosing Student Accommodation

Getting the right place to live during your course of study is the first and foremost issue, and it should not just be about finding a room to sleep. Several factors should be taken into account before making your decision to make the process more straightforward and easier.

Location

The age-old axiom that filled us with such conviction can effectively be paraphrased into this: it doesn't matter where your accommodation is as long as it is the closest to your educational institution. A wise choice would be a place that is situated conveniently near things like fresh produce shops, the library, or the bus stop if you are to be so fortunate. On top of that, if you're nocturnal or extroverted a candle-lit feast or the chance to meet other people would be decisive in improving your social life.

Budget and Rent

It is necessary to know the range that you can afford before your quest begins. Rent for student accommodation can vary a lot and it is all due to the property type, location, and amenities. Consider the additional expenses like water, electricity, gas, the internet, and the guarantee deposit that you have to pay at the beginning. Moreover, many residential properties include these costs in the rent that you have to pay, hence, your budgeting will be simplified. You should always check your contract meticulously to avoid hidden fees.

Type of Accommodation

There are several choices for the students such as getting a single room in a shared house, or a private apartment, or even living in college halls which are only for students. Here's a short review:

- Shared Houses: these are usually cheaper and more gregarious. You will be living with other students and in the same place » kitchen, living, etc.

- Private Apartments: More expensive: this is a big drawback but also the greatest advantage of living on your own. Such kinds of apartments are most suitable for those who want to live alone or with one roommate only.

- Student Halls/Residences: These are specifically for students and are either built and managed by universities or private companies. They are really good for freshman students or freshmen who do not know the way as they are not only a more convenient option but also a social network that is already set up.

Safety and Security

Feeling secure in your accommodation is the most important thing. In the case of properties, make sure to see if the following are in place: secure entry, monitoring cameras, and a well-lit atmosphere. If you plan to rent a commonplace, be sure the area is quite safe and consult with the current and former inhabitants to find out the safety issues.

Facilities and Amenities

Modern student accommodations frequently feature additional amenities such as fast internet, fitness centres, study rooms, and common areas for social hangouts. Start by deciding what amenities are most important to you. For example, is the kitchen fully equipped? If you like to cook, a kitchen with all the necessary equipment is preferable. Also, you should find housing that is about to offer or has the facilities of peaceful or designated study spaces if you need it.

How to Start Your Search for Student Accommodation

Your next step is to start searching after you have considered all your main requirements. Here you will find the best recommendations for ensuring the successful navigation of the process:

1. Start Early

The great student accommodations are usually booked quickly and it is especially common for the ones situated near very popular universities. To avoid such a situation, begin your search at least a few months before the course starts. This way, you will have more great options and fewer rivals.

2. Use Trusted Accommodation Services

Although it is quite attractive to go solo with your project, the use of reputable student accommodation services such as Student Tenant, for example, guarantees your access to legitimate locations and professional backup. There are many online platforms that are made for students to pick the perfect home out of many listed properties and the tools are provided for filtering by location, price, and amenities.

3. Visit the Property in Person

Try to visit the venue in person as much as possible. The photos may not be necessarily accurate and you should take note of the space, layout, and condition. If you are studying abroad or unable to visit in person then, maybe there is an option to ask for a virtual tour.

4. Ask the Right Questions

One thing that you should be clear about when looking at a property, is that you ask the questions and get the information on what you are committing to before signing on the dotted line. The questions to which you may get answers are for example:

- Are utilities included in the rent?

- What is the internet speed work?

- Is there a cleaning service for common areas?

- How long is the contract?

- Are those extra fees or charges we could expect aside?

5. Read Reviews and Get Recommendations

One of the most significant steps to take in instilling confidence in your choice of accommodation is through reading and getting the experience of others who have lived there before. Websites like Student Tenant frequently provide you with the chance to read feedback from the previous occupants, which can huddle some interesting points of view on the subject. Besides this action, ask your mates or school friends for suggestions.

Managing Your Budget and Rent Wisely

Student life is no easy life, as a student you might think that budgeting would be a bit of a delicate issue, but it's practically the only way to cover your pressing expenditures, especially when it comes to the rent. Here are some ideas on how you may budget wisely:

- Track Your Expenses: Always have a journal to write down your expenses as it will keep you aware of the biggest sources of expenditure. They are not only rent but also utilities, groceries, and transportation.

- Negotiate Rent: If the landlord is a private owner, bargaining the rent price is not an insane idea. Often, landlords may be ok trying to keep a cash cow out of their properties which are vacant during the low rate season, some are ready to go as far as reducing the prices and then throwing in free access to the internet.

- Rent Guarantor Services: If you are a foreign student or you have no one in the United Kingdom who will act as a guarantor for you, some of the companies offer those services so that you don't have to worry about the landlords letting you live there as they will eventually receive payments from you.

Why Student Tenant is Your Optimal Choice

When it comes to finding student accommodation, Student Tenant is a reliable service provider. They bring to the table a range of different student properties to serve everyone with budgets and needs. Among their more unique properties is Pebble Mill Residence in Birmingham, a perfect spot for students who are attending universities in the city.

Pebble Mill Residence: Professional Student Housing in Birmingham

Pebble Mill Residence, situated in the city, is a brand-new student residence that comes with clean, comfortable living cottages that have been specially designed for the students. It is fully equipped with anything students require such as high-speed internet, study rooms, and local universities. Also, the colourful shared areas make it easy not only to be in contact with new friends but also to balance your entertainment and educational life.

When you choose Student Tenant, you not only get a place to sleep but you also acquire a safe and nice home that supports both your studies and socializing life. Having options like Pebble Mill, you can be assured of a fantastic experience.

To wrap up, proper student accommodation is obtained through prudent research, timely preparation, and evaluating what is of supreme importance. In the process of the location, budget, and amenities, decision process, Student Tenant is always a helping hand. With properties like a shared house, private apartment, or student halls, university life can be breathtakingly beautiful. Best of luck looking for your future home!

[giankumar-blog1]

Who Am I – In Search of the Self.

Alter your perceptions and seek -Who Am I? It is the most crucial and the substratum of the subject of Spiritualism. A lot depends on whether you consider the divine a deity or a supreme cosmic ability of energy. Only after you accept this intuitive ability from which all that we know about God and the universe will your mind be able to comprehend the meaning behind the spiritual axiom of the creator and its creation being the same and not two as ascribed in the Vedas declaring the first great saying to be Prajnanam Brahma – Intelligence is Divine. 

Discovering who we are is a journey that contributes to growth and spiritual development toward finding inner peace and fulfillment. It's essential to explore the connection between our personality and the more expansive universe to grasp the nature of our actual reality. After recognizing one's limitations, it is necessary to concentrate on areas that need improvement. The soul containing the cosmic spirit is your guide, based on which your mind rides.

Furthermore, when you say – my body, mind, or thoughts- indicate these are yours, you are not them like you consider material objects such as my phone or my house. Body and mind belong to you; they are your instruments to use and not to be used. You will never say I am mind or thoughts; they are yours. So, who owns everything your mind erroneously claims as 'me and mine'? If you rule out everything that you presume as 'you are' from the cognitive mind, what is left is the actual owner. Now, all you need to know after this is - Who Am I?

Over millennia, understanding the Self remains mysterious despite access to spiritual knowledge. It frequently intertwines with consciousness, ego, and our sense of "I." Because there are multiple interpretations and meanings associated with this concept in science, theology, philosophy, and different religions, it becomes a subject of opinion.

Through introspection and meditation, Eastern philosophies have delved into self-knowledge, offering insights that deserve consideration. The question "Who am I?" holds significance in Hindu and Buddhist perspectives. It emphasizes the importance of self-inquiry to self-realization, transcending the ego, unlike the view of other religions that often separates creation from its creator.

Understanding the Self's essence and connection to the cosmos is fundamental to spiritual exploration. Modern scientific explorations, particularly in Quantum Physics, resonate with ancient Vedic wisdom. The Vedas express that all existence is fundamentally unified—eternal, infinite, transcending space and time—as inseparable energy. This concept aligns with the understanding that the creator and creation are not separate entities but interconnected in the universe's vast nothingness, where unchanging eternal waves of energy exist. Essentially, you are a collection of electron clouds entangled by the principle of non-locality in Quantum Mechanics controlling the universe.

This convergence between ancient philosophies and modern scientific perspectives emphasizes the unity and interconnectedness underlying existence, transcending dualistic views and highlighting the intrinsic nonduality of all that exists from which everything in the forms of matter and consciousness appears to disappear. What eternally survives is the ultimate truth- we are all nothing but energy, where the supreme ability is the spiritual awareness from which everything becomes known, representing the creator and creation.

To sum up, being is what self-realization entails, not becoming. It marks the end of seeking, acquiring, and possessing. The truth—the radiant Self—shines forth when the seeker dissolves. It's the complete dissolution of the ego. Ultimately, self-realization reveals that there's no one to realize the Self; the Self embodies truth, knowledge, and bliss and is that boundless nondual presence in the form of being-ness or awareness.

Therefore, self-discovery is profoundly personal and ongoing; it requires us to transcend influences and dive into who we are. Approaching this journey with a receptive mindset enables individuals to experience personal progress and self-improvement.

Gian Kumar, Ph.D. – Spiritual Author

[thenefilim]

Review - Max Beyond (2024)

A young boy named Max open rifts between universes, searching for the one where his brother Leon can rescue him from the clutches of the Axiom Corporation.

https://www.voicesfromthebalcony.com/2024/04/08/max-beyond-2024-review/

[hobbyspacer]

Space habitat reports – Apr.5.2024

Here is this week's selection of videos and news items about space habitats including the International Space Station and about living in space and space settlement. ** The past two Space to Ground reports from NASA Johnson https://youtu.be/_xqs4SCxcB0 https://youtu.be/tBV779u40to ** NASA Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle (Official NASA Trailer) - NASA NASA hosted a news conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston April 3, 2024, to announce the companies selected to move forward in the development of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle under the LTVS (Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services) contract. The award leverages NASA’s expertise in developing and operating these next generation "Moon buggies" to build commercial capabilities that support scientific discovery and long-term human exploration on the Moon. NASA intends to begin using the LTV for crewed operations during the Artemis V mission on the surface of the Moon. https://youtu.be/zTHJ9zb8J2s ** NASA News Conference on Lunar Terrain Vehicle for Artemis Missions - NASA Live from Johnson Space Center in Houston, we'll announce the company, or companies, selected to move forward in developing the LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle). The LTV will help future Artemis astronauts search for water, ice, and other resources on the lunar surface, helping humanity establish a long-term presence on another planetary body for the first time. Hear from: • Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA Johnson • Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist, NASA Headquarters • Lara Kearney, manager, Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program, NASA Johnson For more information, see: NASA Selects Companies to Advance Moon Mobility for Artemis Missions | NASA - Apr.3.2024. https://www.youtube.com/live/2nVKbW59viQ ** Axiom Space Welcomes CNES - Axiom Space Youtube Axiom Space welcomed the President of the National Centre for Space Studies (@CnesFrance), Philippe Baptiste, for an in-depth look at our progress in commercial space and discuss economic partnerships. #BuildingOpportunity https://youtu.be/jLP9M0gAppY ** Blue Origin publishes paper on Orbital Reef in Nature journal: Orbital Reef and commercial low Earth orbit destinations—upcoming space research opportunities | npj Microgravity - Mar.2024 As the International Space Station comes to the end of a transformative era of in-space research, NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destinations (CLD) Program aims to catalyze a new generation of platforms with co-investment from the private sector, preventing a potential gap in research performed in LEO, while building a robust LEO economy. In this paper, we provide insight into the CLD Program focusing on Orbital Reef, describing its operational and technical characteristics as well as new opportunities it may enable. Achieving about a third of the pressurized volume of the ISS with the launch of a single pressurized module and growing to support hundreds of Middeck Locker Equivalents (MLE) in passive and active payloads internally and externally, Orbital Reef will enable government, academic, and commercial institutions to continue and expand upon research and development (R&D) efforts currently performed on ISS. Additionally, it will enable nascent markets to establish their operations in space, by initiating new lines of research and technology development and the implementation of new ventures and visions. Using Blue Origin’s New Glenn heavy launch system, Sierra Space’s cargo and crew Dream Chaser® vehicles, and Boeing’s Starliner crew vehicle, and expertise from Amazon/Amazon Supply Chain, Arizona State University, Genesis Engineering, and Redwire, Orbital Reef is being designed to address ISS-era transportation logistics challenges. Finally, this manuscript describes some of the expected challenges from the ISS-to-CLD transition, and provides guidance on how researchers in academia and industry can shape the future of commercial destinations and work performed in LEO.

A cross-sectional diagram of the Orbital Reef commercial space station. Credits: Blue Origin/Nature Microgravity   **  VAST Check out our @vast facility in Long Beach, CA where we started building Haven-1. Design, analysis, software, avionics, machining, quality, supply chain/inventory/logistics, fabrication, primary structure welding, vibe/thermal/pressure testing, integration and more— all under one… pic.twitter.com/3LnZWYx0Sk — Max Haot (@maxhaot) April 5, 2024 ** Starlab - - Mitsubishi Corporation Joins Starlab Space as Strategic Partner, Equity Owner in Joint Venture | Starlab - Apr.5.2024 Starlab Space LLC (Starlab Space), the joint venture between Voyager Space and Airbus, today welcomed Mitsubishi Corporation as a strategic partner and equity owner in Starlab Space. This partnership expands Starlab Space's reach beyond a transatlantic partnership and transforms the joint venture into a global organization. Mitsubishi Corporation, renowned for its innovative endeavors across diverse industries, brings extensive expertise and resources to this global partnership. Mitsubishi Corporation is expected to leverage its capabilities to significantly increase the value of Starlab, using space research to enhance and accelerate terrestrial product development in multiple industries and expand access to space-based technologies globally ** A Home for Astronauts around the Moon - NASA The primary structure of the Gateway space station's HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module is one step closer to launch following welding completion in Turin, Italy. HALO is one of four Gateway modules where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for lunar surface missions. NASA is partnering with Northrop Grumman and their subcontractor Thales Alenia Space to develop HALO. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman/Thales Alenia Space

The Gateway space station's HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module under construction in Turin, Italy. Image credits: Northrop Grumman/Thales Alenia Space ** Collins Aerospace tests new astronaut spacesuits onboard Zero-G flight - Spaceflight Now After working with the same spacesuits for nearly 40 years, NASA is looking to introduce the next generation of suits for astronauts working on the International Space Station and beyond. Collins Aerospace was one of two companies chosen to develop a new Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) for the ISS and is also preparing a follow-on version that will be available for Artemis missions to the Moon. Danny Olivas, chief test astronaut for Collins, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now's Will Robinson-Smith about one of the latest chapters in their test campaign: flying inside the suits onboard a Zero G plane, which can simulate microgravity through parabolic arcs. Olivas walks us through this latest round of testing, what it was like being in the suit in that environment and what's left before NASA astronaut can don these new spacesuits out in low Earth orbit. https://youtu.be/b2XTpDy9txw ** Other news, articles, op-eds, etc: - Calendar: - Webinar: What It Will Take To Build Communities In Space | Beyond Earth Institute, Thurs. 1:00-2:30 pm EST, April 25, 2024 - Trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida | Ars Technica - April.2.2024 - Vast Space hires former Voyager Space executive | SpaceNews -  Mar.29.2024 - Crew Keeps Up Space Health Research Before Next Trio Departs | Space Station/NASA - Mar.29.2024 - The impact of the Gravity Prescription on the future of space settlement | Space Settlement Progress - Mar.29.2024 - What Is Space For? Why we gaze and why we should go | William Boyce/The New Atlantis - Winter 2024 ** Highlight: Eye of the Sahara - Mauritania - Mar 26, 2024 23:57 UTC - ISS Above NASA EHDC6 Live views of the Earth from the International Space Station https://youtu.be/4bCr2JGZTZk ** Highlight: Florida - Sunglint - From Gulf to Atlantic over KSC - Feb 28, 2024 13:48 EDT - ISS Above https://youtu.be/FmUqysKhYqI ** Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream) - NASA Watch live video from the International Space Station, including inside views when the crew aboard the space station is on duty. Views of Earth are also streamed from an external camera located outside of the space station. During periods of signal loss due to handover between communications satellites, a blue screen is displayed. The space station orbits Earth about 250 miles (425 kilometers) above the surface. An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the station, and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000. It's a microgravity laboratory where science, research, and human innovation make way for new technologies and research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. More: https://go.nasa.gov/3CkVtC8 Did you know you can spot the station without a telescope? It looks like a fast-moving star, but you have to know when to look up. Sign up for text messages or email alerts to let you know when (and where) to spot the station and wave to the crew: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov https://www.youtube.com/live/xAieE-QtOeM?feature=share ====

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