I finally got around to something I've been putting off for weeks, that being getting the Rome pics online finally. Most of them are raw copies of the originals, not even touched, the worst cases I hacked a bit with Photoshop.

First of all, I'd like to dedicate this installment to Torkel, he's the one who got me into blogging in the first place, thanks to his own blog. Ie. it's his fault you're reading this now ;-)

It amazes me the kind of ideas people have about intelligence in outer space. For many it's hard to imagine we are alone on this tiny little planet, in an infinite (or not) universe, just us and there's noone anywhere. So they make up stories about aliens, who they are, what they look like and so on (apparently their ships are gigantic and in most cases silent). We like to picture them as similar to us, breathing air, looking all weird with various animal like features and we like to kick some alien butt too.

Well I got a beef with that, it's far too simplistic for my taste. The assumption is common for all speculation of that kind, ie. the human being is the center of the universe. Apparently, that is obvious to a lot of people, few dare question it. Why does it have to be so? Because all those theories assume that if indeed there is life in the universe, the human being can see it, communicate with it and why not destroy it. Ie. the human mind is at least equal, perhaps superior, to any other form of intelligence.

Let's take a radical step now, what if that is not the case? What if the human being, along with the human mind, is just a small element of a greater whole? If you think about it this way.. everything that we know stems from our reasoning. Our senses give us a base to explore the Earth. We employ them to do that, and every step from that very beginning all the way to modern time, is a chain of deductions, nothing more. All science is based on the information we first obtain through our senses. The periodic table is a list of chemical materials we believe cannot be split and make up the world we know, it's a result of our reasoning.

Time for that step now... What if the world we know is relative to a greater entity? What if our minds operate in some section of that entity and there are things we are not fit to understand? If we imagine this is the case, then it follows that we will never understand anything more than we now do. The term "dimension" is one we like to use. Time is the 4th dimension, no further dimensions are defined. What if extra terrestial life is to be found in other "dimensions"? Wouldn't that make more sense, imagine "life" is spread uniformly in the universe and our specific brand of life exist on Earth, but there are other life forms we don't know about, will never know about and even if we did, could never understand nor communicate with? We simply have no bridge into their world, their type of existence is completely abstract to us. Is that a less reasonable speculation?

To me that makes just as much sense, simply because of the explanation already given: our understanding of our own existence boils down to our mind. "It's all in your head" and that's exactly right. Imagine there is a world where concepts of time, quantity, memory etc (all fabrications of the human mind) are abstract.

The problem with this kind of reasoning is that it becomes very vague very quickly, ideas emanate which are hard to grasp, there are no firm definitions because very few assumptions are being made. I cannot say if the statement above makes any sense to anyone but me.

Ps. No, it's not "The Matrix", I've had these thoughts way before I knew about the movie, nor do they have anything to do with it. The closest movie I know to touch on the ideas I've put forth is "Contact", though it is egregiously boring.

Aargh, I am so sick of people who blabber on endlessly about "Lord of the Rings". I mean you read the book, see the movie, fine. And it's not a bad production by any means, I do plan to see the final installment when it hits the movies sometime around Christmas. But back to the rant, there are these people, and in significant numbers I might add, who see everything as a reference to LOTR. Like names, what does your name mean in the land of the hobbits? They have these tests to determine who you are, based on a handful of questions, in the LOTR world. Or they make futile attempts at humor by trying to apply some of those weird LOTR situations to daily life situations. "Yeah, it was like the ring was here and we were all freaked out about it". I mean enough already! Yes, we all know about LOTR and we're all officially fed up with it! I'll be relieved when the trilogy is complete and there'll be no more productions for people to look forward to. Though at the rate it's selling now, they may just decide it's financially sound to milk the public further and follow up with "The hobbit" or whatever is left. All one big money making machine.

I was watching the Confederations Cup semi final between France and Turkey when I heard the news of Foé's death. Marc Vivien Foé, of Cameroon and Olympique de Lyon, collapsed towards the end of the semi final between Colombia and Cameroon. He was unconscious when examined by doctors on the sidelines and despite attempts at resuscitation in hospital, he was pronounced dead within 45 minutes after full time. The cause of death is said to be heart attack.

A tragic loss for his teammates and the sport as a whole. To me he was one of the best players for Cameroon and I'm sure he'll be missed in the final. It's frigtening to know a 28-year-old man, a top athlete, died almost instantly like that.

The second semi final was played as planned, despite the tragic incident, and there was a minute's silence before kick off. Foé's old teammates from Lyon were visibly shaken, as were several other French internationals who knew him. I wonder what the final will look like, both teams have strong ties to the player, and if it will indeed be played as planned.

Took me a couple of hours to get the script working the way I wanted, apparently it was meant for sites revolving around blogs rather than a single blog. Though now that I have it installed I've no idea what I'll be using it for.

Q. What's a blog anyway?

It's a weblog, people mostly use it to jot down all kinds of interesting happenings. In this case it'll probably be a set of monotonous notes.

Now playing : Eros Ramazzotti - 9

Decent album no question, I do think "Stilelibero" was a bit better, though. The top tracks seem to be "Un emozione per sempre" and "Il buio ha i tuoi occhi".

Comic recommendation:

www.hackles.org - definitely in the geek category, simple but humorous