Elegant Black Cat

I recently finished playing Braid, which is probably the best and most innovative video game I have seen this year. That is not why I am writing about it, however. I am compelled to post because the game is all about time manipulation. (Also bouncing on the heads of your enemies.)

Those of you who know me too well are probably familiar with my disdain for the concept of linear time, and watches. Braid explores concepts of reversing time, alternate time lines, time as a function of position, and time dilation. In other words, it treats time in a manner I would call more realistic.

You can view the trailer (or get the game) here. (It is available for Mac!)

It also has pretty good music.

It occurred to me recently that I still have not quite adjusted to my world view changing from one based on concrete thinking and empirical facts to one based on intuition and experiences. This shift happened a few years ago, really, but it has never occurred to me until now to look at it in this way. The very fundamentals of how I judge reality have shifted, and the logic I apply is likewise different. Perhaps if I can consciously realize that my experiences are now evaluated in a different reference frame, I can be free of some of this self-doubt.

Today I walked into a stationery store on a whim. Long story short, I dropped triple-digit dollars on custom engraved stationery cards and envelopes. Sure, I could write letters with a twenty-cent Bic pen and lined notebook paper that is a buck fifty for one hundred sheets, but what fun would that be?

So if you are on my “people I write letters to” list, prepare to receive some truly awesome letters. No, you don’t have to write back. Honestly, this is my hobby. It’s what I do to relax. So you are going to get a letter. If you are not on my letter-writing list, now is a good time to get added! Just email me your mailing address, and you will get a letter.

Whee!

I ordered some spiffy colored ink and a lap-desk from Levenger, and they arrived yesterday!

Comment if you want a letter!
You can also specify color preference - I have Raven Black, Cobalt Blue, Amethyst, and Claret (red).

If I do not have your current mailing address, you will need to email or IM that to me. I do not recommend leaving it in the comments.
Also,

In Japantown last weekend I came across a pair of chibi death kitties. They are little adorable cats with scythes on their tales. Yes. So, I may be well on the way to becoming the least intimidating necromancer* EVER. Still, it is hard to imagine any small poly-resin toys that are more uniquely me. Unless of course the cats also had wings!

*I am not really a necromancer. But it sounded good.

I have been reading a lot lately regarding the relatively recent debate of science vs. magic. Like pirates and ninjas, these two factions cannot seem to get along, forming uneasy alliances at the best of times. I have studied both science and magic, and I practice both in my personal life to great effect. This post is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but illustrates a serious point: there really is no conflict.

If you will indulge me for a moment, I will tell you a story. It is a true story… except that I took some liberty with the actual conversation.

Marco Polo is off traveling the world, and comes to India. He meets with an Indian prince, and they are exchanging stories of their homelands, and come to differences in weather.

Marco Polo: In my country, it gets so cold in the winter that water turns solid. We call it “ice”. It is clear and hard, and shatters into shards like glass.

Indian Prince: No! Get out of town!

Marco Polo: It’s true! I have seen it myself!

Indian Prince: If it is true, you must show me the proof! In fact, I have a bowl of water right here…

Marco Polo: No, you see… it has to be cold.. and I have no means to build a heat-transfer engine right now… and, um… I really cannot do it.

Indian Prince, laughing: Ah! I see you are just trying to impress me with amusing tales. I have traveled the length and breadth of my land, and seen no force that can turn running water into this hard substance you speak of. My own senses tell me such a thing is impossible, and you can offer me no proof to the contrary. This “ice” is simply too fantastic to be believed!

Marco Polo, depressed: Lets talk about something else…

This story is one that many in the magical community can relate to. We have experienced things first-hand, and know them to be true. The skeptics ask for proof. We find ourselves in the position of Marco Polo, with no way to bring his block of ice from England to India without refrigeration. What I am saying is that the debate over science and magic often comes down to a problem of logistics. That we have no way – yet – to show a skeptic the proof, does not invalidate out direct experience.

The Scientific Community as a whole should be more sensitive to this. Things work, whether or not science can explain why. As Tom Baker in Doctor Who once said, “Nothing is unexplainable, only unexplained.” So lighten up, scientific community!

This is the most interesting thing I have read recently. Keep in mind I studied quantum mechanics and string theory, and I still do not fully understand all of what they say. I recommend reading sections I and II and stopping.

As for the rest, I will try to break it down: Scientists are still looking for the aether. This time their candidate is the Zero Point Field (ZPF), also called the quantum vacuum or Vacuum. It is essentially the undisturbed, equilibrium state of space itself. This does not mean it is empty! Oh no, indeed.

Now back to the interesting part: it has been documented repeatedly that Chi masters (read: energy healers) generate a magnetic field around their hands when channeling energy, up to 1,000 times that of a normal human bio-magnetic field.

The article theorizes that magnetic fields also create an associated field in the Vacuum called a torsion field, which has interesting properties:

• It moves many times the speed of light
• It can transfer information without transferring energy
• It can propagate forward and backward in time
• Physical matter exposed to a torsion field will be altered in such a way to retain a ‘memory’ of that exposure

Neat, no? Essentially a theoretical basis for psychic phenomena. Nice to see somebody trying, at least ^_^

So, I must have blinked. And in that time the whole world went SteamPunk. Or at least, Victorian England seems to have gone SteamPunk retroactively. Eh, what do I know? I’m just a cat.

I had a good time, anyway, despite the poor selection of absinthe. I wore my blue vest for the first time. I danced a waltz. I witnessed musical story-telling acompanied by circus performer enactments. I freaked out when I lost one of the hand-made gloves my friend knitted me for my birthday. Luckily, one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence found it for me!

Cole's Edwardian Outfit

I loved the black parasol. <3

This picture of Jill Tracy came out rather poorly.

Rosen Coven, in miniature. None of my pictures of the life-sized band came out.

This monster ate a girls family during musical story-telling.

I am reading the writings of Chuang Tzu.

Hui Tzu asks if a man can truly be free of desires and passions, and if so, how can you still call him a man?

Chuang Tzu replies that Hui Tzu is missunderstanding what is meant by “desires and passions”. Such a man, he says, does not by his likings or dislikings do any internal harm to himself, he always pursues his course without effort, and does not by his actions seek to increase his store in life.

This is of interest to me, as I have always wondered about the idea of being without desires. One truly without desires would cease to be, I thought, having no desire to maintain himself. Now I beleive that the meaning of the phrase is different. To be without desires simply means to follow the natural path, and not try to change the course of things for your own sake. In other words, it is learning to leave well enough alone.

Such a one may still feel happy, but will never show exuberabnce; he may still feel sad, but will never grieve. He may be kind, but will never think of benevolence; he may be cruel, but will never act out of malice.