Now I Know How the Apes Took the Planet

Taylor and I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt, director, 2011) last night. It was a fine movie, very emotional. It is sad when friends get separated, and that happens back and forth in this movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't want to ruin the ending for you, but if you are familiar with the original Planet of the Apes (1968) movie, starring Moses, then you can probably guess where this new movie ends us. Seeing as that it is a prequel (meaning that after having made the remake and it wasn't as much of a success, they thought they could try telling the back story and have a better go at it). Continue reading or don't, I won't be giving away crucial storyline details, just alluding to one aspect of the ending.

You see, I had a dream last night after watching the movie. I had a lot of dreams, actually. The one where I seemed to be part of the family on Full House was rather odd; Michelle had apparently run away at some point and learned about smoking while she was gone, now she was back and Danny was talking to her about her encouraging her friend and his grandfather to smoke. She was the 4 year old Michelle. Very odd. Jesse and Stephanie were trying to cover up a plumbing leak where water was spraying through the wall in a very Three Stooges fashion. I ratted them out to Danny because I didn't want to get blamed for the water mess. I digress.

At one point in the Apes movie we see Will and Caesar at a crucial decision making point. They are in the woods. Caesar is with a lot of other primates and Will is alone. Will is the scientist working on the drug that lead to Caesar's advanced intelligence and ability. Will is inviting Caesar to return home with him, as Will acted as a surrogate father for the chimp. Here is where I picked up the storyline in my dream. Will invites Caesar to come with him and Caesar denies. Then in the background you see something behind a tree that looks like a dinosaur tail. Will gets a stupid grin on his face and says that the Apes weren't the only thing he had been doing research on, and he leaves. Just then dinosaurs come out from everywhere and attack the apes.

I was left to believe that Will had previously done experimentation on dinosaurs, was able to recreate them, and then placed them in the redwood forest to live peaceably away from humans. Now he was bringing the hyper-intelligent apes to do the same thing. It didn't make sense, but it certainly changed the storyline of the movie. It also turned Will into a villain in some ways, thereby making it easier for me to accept Caesar not wanting to return with him, but at the same time, it makes it worse because the apes all were eaten by dinosaurs. I almost thought there was some closure in there for me, but turns out there isn't. So much for that. It is interesting that I dreamt an alternate ending for a movie I had only seen a few hours prior.

In the end, the movie was entertaining, if not terribly sad. But like I said in the title, I now know how the apes took over the planet. I Have never seen the original movie or it's Mark Wahlberg remake from 2001. I've seen a few minutes of both on television, but never devoted the time to either one fully. I am interested to do so now. This movie was able to answer all of the how and why questions very easily. There is the overall genetic therapy drug that is being created, which is how the apes become intelligent and how so many humans die. Then there are the two news headlines that come up kind of in the background about a mission to Mars that gets lost in space. And there you have it, apes take control of Earth.

The end.

1,688 Word Free Write

Once again I have been inspired to write by my old friend Harris Crazyhorse Jackson. That isn’t his real name. His real name isn’t important here, maybe it is, but I don’t typically include last names of real people into my blog, I usually use code names or simply exclude the last name altogether. My friend Harris keeps his own blog, however, and I’m all about advertising for my friends, so I will link to his blog. If you find his last name there, well then, that’s all the better, if you were so interested to know his name in the first place, which you weren’t, but perhaps have gathered enough interest now to actually click over to his blog. Now is when you should do that, here.

Now that you have read the post I have linked to (go do it now if you haven’t) you will see why I am writing. Harris called me out. His intention was to free write 800 words. Somewhere along the line he lost interest or something, and said that it only takes 400 words to expend your mind’s capacity, unless you are Ajax. When I read that, I was quite surprised…pleasantly. I was honored to be mentioned in the blog, and took the challenge to see if it really does take more than 400 words to drain my thought bubble. I tried to leave a comment saying as much, but for some reason the blog didn’t think my Google credentials were sufficient to allow me to leave a comment. Luckily I have my own blog and can leave the comment mixed into the body of this post; mission accomplished.

It doesn’t take much to get me going on one thought or another. Sometimes a TV commercial, sometimes overhearing a conversation in a store, or perhaps a cereal box, but whatever the medium, my mind will spin off like an errant Frisbee at the beach. Eventually that thought gets caught (maintaining the Frisbee analogy) and redirected, lands in the sand, splashes into the tide, bonks someone unsuspecting in the noggin, or drifts weightlessly into the breeze and is carried away into the clouds of oblivion. Typically it’s the first one, or maybe a figurative expression of the second two. Oftentimes it might be the third, and hardly ever is it the fourth. But that’s not true; it’s probably all of them equally, but only figuratively. The only one that could be figured literally would be the first one. Sometimes my thoughts are “caught” (attended to) and redirected, or processed, as in the writings of my blog. I like the idea of something I write bonking someone in the noggin.

Well, I’ve had some ideas lately, and I could blitzkrieg them all here for you, but I won’t because I don’t remember them. I have been struggling to get back into the night shift routine for work. After having half the month of July off for traveling and wedding celebrating, it was difficult to return to the overnight shift. Difficult doesn’t do it justice. I was in pain trying to stay awake. The only way to fix it is to switch completely to be a night person, but I don’t like what that does to people. Think about it, who do you know living on a night schedule that is a healthy and normal individual?

Spiderman tries to do both, be a regular day person as well as a night time super hero. His life certainly isn’t normal, look at how messed up all of his personal relationships are. Batman can go into that mix as well. I think Batman has the luxury of sleeping in and becoming only a night person, thanks to his money; a luxury that Spiderman can’t afford. With being only a night person Batman has the advantage over Spiderman, but it still doesn’t make for a nice life. Seriously, the guy is getting burnt out. Who else? Well I can’t think of anyone else. Except one fellow who I was working with and it didn’t turn out well for him, you can take my word for it. I think it is best for humans to be awake during the day and asleep at night. Unfortunately for many people they have to work at night due to the nature of their job. In these cases I am extremely happy that there are people willing to make the sacrifice, because I am not. However, there are a lot of people working night jobs that probably aren’t as necessary as others. But I don’t know. Work whenever you want I guess. I don’t really care. The point is that I don’t want to be awake at night and asleep during the day, and trying to do both makes you unable to think well, and by you I mean me.

There you have it, 800 words, and the explanation for why I haven’t blogged much lately. But I’m not going to stop there because I had a few lead in paragraphs that cut into my 800 word count of draining my thoughts. I’ll mention one idea I’ve had recently, and then maybe one or two other ideas. But first I’ll mention the one and see where that gets me. Although this one thought really deserves its own post, complete with creative title. I will only mention it as follows, and hope that I will someday soon devote some real thought and energy to it as a unique blog post, the idea is that rather than worry about reducing our “carbon footprint” we worry about reducing our “human footprint,” a term I have made up in my head to represent our individual impact on the people around us. Human footprint isn’t bad, it is life. We all impact the lives of others, just as their lives impact us. Some people have a larger human footprint when they rely on others for everything. Some people have a smaller human footprint when they exercise self-reliance. There needs to be a balance between the two. I think that a lot of the problems in the world could be reduced or solved if we would focus on the impact we have on other people and try to do more for ourselves first, thereby reducing our impact on others, and secondly doing more for others, thereby reducing their impact on us. That wording might not make perfect sense, it doesn’t really to me, but I get the idea I’m trying to convey. I’ll mull it over a little more and devote a full posting to it. I think there is something in there that can be fun to philosophize about. Of course that does nothing for anyone unless someone puts it into practice. We’ll see.

That was a long “only mention” of the idea. So be it. It is a fun thing to think about and it’s got that buzzword worthy language, so even the distracted people who focus on getting an advantage over everyone else can understand. I’ll continue on with my other thoughts, as the well is seemingly still full.

I was thinking about making a chain saw that worked with pulleys. It could be a small housing that you would wrap around a branch or a tree trunk and inside would be a saw chain and a series of pulleys, with cords extending from both sides. You would just pull back and forth on each cord and it would spin the chain. I hadn’t given this much thought up to this point, so I didn’t realize that I have no idea how this would actually work. There was a branch fallen in the backyard that was slightly attached to the tree still, too high for me to climb up and cut it down. I thought it would be nice to have some sort of saw I could throw up there like a rope and cut the branch off. Now that I type it out I don’t think I am the one to invent such an object. Moving on.

What about a rain gutter water filtration system? It wouldn’t be any good for low rain places, but I live in a heavy rain place. Even still, I don’t know that the rain volume collected from a house roof would make much of a dent in the expenses of extracting water from a well or the public water system. People already use barrels to collect rain water from gutters to use on gardens or flower beds, this is just adding in a system of filters to make the water more palatable. I’ve never collected rain water enough to drink it. Maybe that should be the first step in my research and development. Maybe rain doesn’t taste so bad. The survival TV show guys always drink it. I guess I never thought about that either. Why would rain water need filtration? I guess just from running across the rood and collecting debris from that. Really you wouldn’t need much. I don’t remember when I came up with this idea; it might have been late at night, or early in the morning.

I envision pipes running diagonally across one side of a house, two pipes, each one coming from a corner of the house. All of the water collected in the gutters is sent through these pipes into a collection area or into a pipe where it can be used. Inside the pipes would be a series of filters. Gravity would be the force to press the water through. Either the water could then be stored in a tank to use in an emergency or it could run directly into your refrigerator water fountain. I don’t know. Maybe there is something to it, but I guess so long as there is electricity and water being pumped into a house then this isn’t really necessary.

We are now at 1,650 words. I hope you have enjoyed this exhibition of draining words from Ajax’s thought reservoir. Thank you to Harris for the honorable mention of my capacity. I must now work on thank you cards for wedding gifts. The end.

Filler Filler Filler

I'm still settling in after recent life events. It is all good. There is a post I want to do, but I'm not prepared to put it together yet, so I've been not posting anything. Here are some bits and pieces of stuff I've pulled from Facebook conversations with Muffin Man, he said some of this and I said some of it. Enjoy!

-Penguins, those guys will never fly, but the silver lining is that they can do cool belly slides on the snow, ice, or any other slick surface. It's much cooler to evade blood thirsty polar bears via belly slides, than to just fly away like a coward. The more I think about this, the less majestic eagles become.

-What it all comes down to is that your support makes me feel better than a monkey in a banana tree. You are the Mickey to my Rocky in Rocky I and II and part of III, and then you are the Apollo Creed to my Rocky in the rest of III and Rocky IV. I’ve only seen Rocky V once so I don't know who you are in that one in relation to my being Rocky. I’m also not very familiar with Rocky Balboa, but I suppose in that one you are Rocky and I am the light bulb he replaces outside of the apartment of his lady friend. I realize that in each of these comparisons you are being compared to an old, washed-up boxer, and I am compared to the in-his-prime-boxer/light bulb, but it is of no disrespect to you, I simply mean that it is your encouragement and support and suggestions that give me even the least hope of being the champ.
I wonder why my attempts at compliments always end up slighting the person I intended to praise, and then make me look good. My id (not ID) must have tied up my ego and then beat my super ego over the head with the tied up ego. Even though the comparison could be interpreted to make you sound like a skinny old man and a buff, but out of prime man, and then an almost past prime, but still unrealistically buff and coherent man, even though that could be the interpretation, you are the bounce in my step and song in my head, all in a non-Brokeback way.

-I think my eyes are sunburned. My neck, face and arms are. My eyes were out as long as the rest of them, so why not? Plus they hurt a bit.

-All of my socks are the same, black Hanes. Only, I bought two packages at different times, so some of them are less black than the others. They are more of a “blue steel.” It makes it slightly difficult to pair them off. I have to get in the right light. It’s even more difficult when my eyes are sunburned.

-If I could perfectly imitate anyone's way of speaking it would be an old Jewish man from New York, like Uncle Leo, or Kramer's polar bear club friend, "what, you don't want to be a polar bear anymore? It's too cold for you?"

-I didn't get the smoker (Ed: backyard BBQ structure for smoking meat) built today, I don't know how I’m actually going to do that, but I did prep some apple wood so if I get the smoker built and functional, I’ll apple smoke some bacon, and then go to Wendy’s and say "what's up now, Wendy’s?"

-Here’s some fun reading for you, my homework assignment for ethics. We read a chapter about cultural and subjective relativism. It’s a blog type submission, so I read the three posts that were done before mine; they all disagreed with the two things, so I decided to agree with them. But I do feel the way I said, so I wasn't just playing the dickens (Ed: dickens used to be a euphamism for the Devil, I think i mentioned it in a blog post before, must have been around the time of this conversation between Muffin Man and me) advocate.

The question: What are some reasons that you agree or disagree with cultural relativism and subjective relativism? (Ed: the following is directly copied from the student responses, I have not edited spelling or grammar)

student response 1: I disagree with cultural relativism and subjective relativism because no matter whether people believe them or not, moral claims are still objectively true for everyone. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of them or even what I think of them, there are moral truths that are objectively true no matter where you go. If morality was relative depending on the culture you were from, or if it was subjective, then it would cease to exist if our species ever becomes extinct, this is not the case. Morality will always exist.

2: I do not agree with either theory, mainly because I believe morals to be objective. Two disagring persons cannot both be right just because they are entitled to their own separate sets of morals. There needs to be some underlying principle to go by that is not subjective.

3: I disagree with both because it forces us to say that if a person or a culture says that it is right we cannot say a single thing about it. People or cultures can do whatever they like and that is morally right. It seems to me like a cop out. "Do whatever you want and that is morally right" doesnt fly with me.

And from your humble servant, namely Ajax: Personally, I believe in objective morality, but it can't be proven. My perception of reality is all I have. The people I meet are nothing but what I belive them to be. The same goes for everything I am aware of. Likewise, I am to others only what they think I am. All any of us have is perception. If we experience similar events then we might have similar perception, but it still won't be identical. All we know is subjective; therefore we can't proclaim objective laws. Cultural and subjective relativism have to be the way it is. I can't prove that murder is always wrong, but I can prove that certain cultures and individuals believe that way. I prefer cultural relativism over the author's definition of subjective relativism because it represents a group's opinion. That itself isn't always safe, but I'd rather go along with laws prepared by a group of people trying rather than be subject to one person's folly. If we go down it might as well be together, just like if we rise it is nice if we rise together.

Independence Day

I e-mailed my friend and said that I celebrated independence day by tying my shoes all on my own. I thought it was a clever joke so I put it down for my Facebook status as well. My friend's reply message said I missed the mark. The independence of the day is not about doing things independently, but rather specifically doing things independently from Great Britain. So, says my friend, the only way my statement would be fitting for the day is if I usually have the Queen of England tie my shoes for me. It just so happens that I do, so I guess I was right all along. I tied my own shoes today without the help of any British sovereigns. I am truly independent.

Well, that's all just fun and games. I think we've got it really great in the United States. Liberty and freedom abound like no where else in the world, even with all of our faults here, we still have it really great. So take a moment and appreciate it.

Retraction

I was in bed tossing and turning, and unable to capture the elusive respite we call sleep. Actually, it wasn't that dramatic. I had just turned the light off and fell backward into bed and the wheels of blog writing began to spin furiously. I'll tell you, I've lost way too many writing ideas by not responding to that furious spinning in the moment and just listing off to sleep. Not this time, Boy-o! I sat up, reached for the light switch, flicked said light switch to the 'on' position, and fired up my computer.

When I say "fired up" I mean "powered on." "Fired up" is what your short-fuse boss gets after you chain all of his paper clips together. So I powered on my computer. I didn't power on top of my computer. I don't know what it would be to "power." I pushed the button and the computer started operating. All because I had an idea. I will now tell you what that idea was, and continues to be now in the state of "is."

Recently, well, not too recently actually, recently as far as my posts are concerned; I haven't been posting very frequently as of late. I'm speaking of recently as over a month ago. That recently!? Yes. Anyway, in a blog post dated May 25th of this year, and titled Blogger Has Been Bleeger of Late, I made a statement that I now wish to retract. I've heard of retractions before in the press, it's time for me to retract. You see, I made a comment that has since been plaguing my memory. It pops in my consciousness every so often and slaps me and says "you were wrong." It has finally caught up to me with enough force to require rectification.

In the post mentioned above, says I, "Not that I haven't had the time or anything like that, there is always time (yes, Jim Croce, there is always time...put that in a bottle and drink it!)." I am realizing the exact opposite, Jim Croce was more right than he knew. More right than he could ever have known (okay, I'm leaving the bounds of rationality again, which is what got me into this retraction mess in the first place; I ought to leave Croce out of this...but I can't), more right than I could ever have known. But I know it now. Time is limited.

I didn't leave it at such an absolute statement as it seems in the snippet quoted here. In the context of the post and with the rest of what I said you see that I didn't really dismiss the claim that there is never enough time, only mostly did I do that. And as I stated, since writing that post I have had many moments of remembering saying that while thinking about how much I wanted to do or felt I needed to do but just couldn't figure out how to mash it all in. I think there is more time than we sometimes allow for, but most of the time there isn't enough time, and we have to decide what will get that time.

If you have two tomato plants and you only water one of them, chances are the un-watered plant will not produce as much or as healthy fruit as the first. Perhaps it will simply die. Time is like water, or rather, how we spend our time is like water. We can use it to feed things and make them thrive, likewise we can deprive other things of time and starve them to death (which in some cases isn't a bad thing, and to point out the obvious, some things we feed with time are probably better for us to leave them without that sustenance). So what gets our time and attention? That's up for each of us to decide. There lies freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Therein lies joy. Bob Ross knew it.

The only reason I said that was because when I typed "joy" it reminded me of his painting show on PBS. But since I can spin things pretty well, I will now tell you that he knew it and that's why his paintings were done so quickly. He could have spent hours over an easel, painting away, but he wanted to spend more time with his other interests in life so he painted beautiful pictures quickly. He made good things fit into the time he had, so he could have joy in painting and still have time to be Bob Ross.

No matter how you go about managing your time, you will need to sacrifice some things in order to have or do other things. They can all be good things, but somethings got to give. Take right now for example, I am giving up sleep to quench the fire set by this blog post idea.I am sacrificing. And for me that makes this post all the more entertaining and valuable, because I am giving up sleep for it. Maybe it's just a case of buyer's remorse.

I'm wondering something, do you have trouble following my writing because I don't have a defined "past tense"/"present tense" presentation? Never mind, it isn't important...wasn't important.

I think I have sufficiently expressed my thoughts regarding the retraction. I'll give a diagram of how this works. I get an idea to write about and my head starts filling with sentences and phrases that I want to use. This fills up in my mind like so many potatoes in a sack. Some potatoes are good, others are not as good. Some are large, some are small. Some are rocks. Most of them are covered in dirt and are not ready to eat. Actually none of them are ready to eat. I think eating uncooked potatoes gives you botulism. No, that's honey, in babies. When I have children I am going to sit them down and say "you can't eat honey, [baby]." I don't have names picked out yet. My soon-to-be wife and I briefly discussed baby names a while back, but I don't think we settled on any, so for now [baby] will suffice.

See what I mean? Some of the potatoes in the sack are actually rocks, not potatoes at all. Anyway, after the potatoes are in the sack they get carried to the place of processing. Whatever that is for potatoes, I don't know. I guess they probably get processed before going into a sack. I don't know. My ideas, though, like potatoes, eventually get dumped out of the sack (in the case of ideas the sack being my mind) and into a french fry cutter or potato chip slicer. That is the equivalent of me typing a post. The end result is that the potato sack is eventually emptied, as is my mind. In tonight's case, this happened several paragraphs back. I typed about the retraction until I had no more thoughts left about it. I don't know that it all came out in good sense or not, that's not for me to worry about. I just put the potatoes down and let you decide.

The point is that I have run out of anything worthwhile to type under this title. To which you respond, "duh." Good night.