A path to integrity

“Great perfection appears defective, but its usefulness is not diminished.

Great fullness appears empty, but its usefulness is not diminished.

Great straightness seems crooked.

Great cleverness seems clumsy.

Great triumph seems awkward.

Bustling about vanquishes cold; standing still vanquishes heat.

Pure and still, one can put all things right under heaven.”

-Lao Tzu

Every action is equal part its opposite: we obtain different results from the same instruments of change. Even success can become failure, as failure can in turn be triumph. Greatness is not absolute, but the purity of its intent is what defines a person with integrity.

A small, yet mindblowing fact.

An electron is smaller than the smallest measurement ever made. We can look into other galaxies, but we do not actually know how big electrons are. We just assume a model that makes sense at certain sizes.

 

 

 

 

And also this is an overdue post to an outdated website. I know, you’ve heard this before. Believe me, I too cringe at the repetition of my posts. Endure a while longer for me! I’ll make it worth your time, I promise.

Redemption

After much, much revision, the long-awaited third installment of The Reclamation is finally progressing into the next stage for publication. I will continue to work on this and Story 4 for the upcoming month. Please look forward to it!

Neil deGrasse Tyson

One of my favorite astrophysicists unleashes a torrent of insight in a Time interview a few years back. This video helped shape my questions about the universe and my perspective on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiOwqDmacJo&feature=endscreen

The Youth of Tomorrow

While browsing my favorite web pages, I discovered a physicist who circumvented the perceived normality that age equates intelligence. At age 14, Taylor Wilson constructed a nuclear fusion reactor in the garage of his home. His original goal was to create a miniature star. Three years later, the wildly intelligent young man has constructed cheap isotope injectors, advanced detectors for Homeland Security, and gone further to tour CERN. Tomorrow is paved by the endeavors and dreams of today. Watch his brief story here.

An interesting discovery, albeit unrelated to the theme of the blog.

This disturbing yet enlightening article about spiders will tell you that small orb-weaving spiders, a broad family called Araneidae that assumes a quarter of all known spider diversity, are one among a group of spider families which have such large brains that they expand and grow through their coxae (hip) and into their legs.That’s 78% of its body being occupied by brain matter. The remaining 22% must contain its shrinking organs as it fully devotes itself to what I can only assume are pure evil thoughts.

An Arcanum (pl…

An Arcanum (plural. Arcana) is one of ten divisions of the  Tapestry.  Each Arcanum originates from one of five Supernal Realms; each Supernal Realm is the source of two Arcana and each Arcana can be represented by a color for its Supernal Realm. The Arcana are divided by what the mage seeks to change: Life, Death, Force, Fate, Matter, and so forth. Each “color” on the diagram below is a point in a 5-point star, and each line connecting the stars represents a different Arcanum. The Arcana act both in unity and in chaos, working against its opposite natures as much as it cooperates with its neighboring Arcana. Thus each Arcana are aligned closer to certain Supernal Realm than others and both function together better as spells and are easier to learn in addition. For instance, a mage of the Life Arcanum finds it easiest to work with its complimenting Arcana of Forces and Spirit. Using the color wheel as an example, the further from one Arcanum you go the more difficult it is to learn and master.

We’re a big small world.

I had the scale of existence explained very well to me. The world is a very big place. Humans survive on 30% of the habitable planet they populate. Our planet is pretty big. And yet every day, we see something that can fit one million Earths inside it: the Sun. Even still, the Sun is just one of four hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. It gets worse. There are possibly a hundred billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes. Not quite small enough on the galactic scale? The universe is expanding at such an accelerating rate that the stars forming new galaxies may never have their light reach us. The collective Universe (all in all, all universes are considered part of the collective Universe, or “all of existence”)  is befuddling at best.

This is an original post.

Dear readers,

I’ve been reading Steven Hawking’s Grand Design lately. In reading said book, I have obtained a multitude of opinions on existence and theoretical solutions to our constant inquiries on why we came to be. One which has caught my interest, probably because it is the foundation of Hawking’s argument: the universe, is  the collective sum of existence, is balanced by its individual galaxies and, ultimately, omniverse. The only reason this works is because there is constant trial and error that we can not witness. Entire planes of existence fail to form because of a gravitational imbalance or a difference in electron polarity. The complexities far expand beyond our comprehension, but the idea remains the same. We exist in a splendidly complex world, one which only grows more complex as possibilities arise and “align” into events. I will explain the significance of the Event Horizon in a later post, but muse on this: in Daoism, everything is explained as existing simply because it is the best way to accomplish its purpose. It is known as the path of least resistance, simplified as a spiritual journey of conforming with the flow of energy. Is this not a valid way to view the universe? Trees exist the way they do because it is the best way for them to survive in their respective manner. We exist through theoretically infinite dimensions of creation and complexity, as each possible time stream collides. I approach the limit for blowing minds, so I will summarize as such: science explains a lot if you’re willing to listen, the universe is incredibly cool, and you should continue to read The Reclamation because it’s quite interesting.

Guilt of a writer

No critic is quite as harsh as yourself. I know I’ve neglected portions of this website and I do apologize; I’ve been diverting all my attention to other aspects of my life. Rest assured, I will not let this continue at my readers’ expense. I will persevere to update this as often as possible.