the honeycomb variant

This is a blog I worte back in 2005 while deployed to Iraq

Today I was out on mission and, since my job consist of dropping people off somewhere and then sitting around for hours waitng for them to need a pick up, I found myself thinking back to some of the old toys I used to play with as a child.

One of the things I remember was this little looking glass that had a lens with multiple facets. Each facet saw aproximatly the same thing but at just a slightly different angle. The effect was such that the facets on opposite sides actually showed completely diferent images while the images next to one another were practicaly indistinguishable in difference. Each one once clear and undistorted showing a true image from its individual angle. But if all were focussed on at once it showed a conglomeration the was beautiful and interesting in that you could to some degree tell what you were looking at, but not entirely, and the details escaped you completely.

subjective morality and other observations

Most of this is conjecture and speculation. None of the below statements reflect hard beliefs that I hold.

I was watching Mel Gibson's The Patriot a few weeks ago and there was a line that made me think. After the main character had stated his opposition to the proposed revolution in the colonial legislature, he was ask by the man proposing the war if he was a man of principle. He replied "I am a parent. I haven't got the luxury of principles."

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Series (Book review by Michael Neel) NON SPOILER

I have been reading fantasy for years. Through that time I have come to look for one thing. Believability.

This is fantasy, so I am not saying that it has to convince you that magic is real or dragons fly around snatching up fair maidens. But when an author writes 45 successive books in a world spanning, decades long war scenario, and not a single truly bad thing happens to any of the primary cast.......I start shaking my head. When a Dastardly evil villian starts rampaging the countryside destroying everything with no believable motive.....I start shaking my head. If the evil overlord starts monologuing and then turns into a snake giving the hero just enough time to enact his awesome plan to defeat the insurmountable odds.....I start crying. But the worst has to be when the main heroic characters go through years of developement, massive shifts in personality, huge increases in responsibility, enormous strains of stress, grief or joy and yet no where do they make anything close to a truly damaging mistake or fail in any real way. Much less do we see them make a selfish or possibly morally questionable decission. This is what I mean about Believability.

Top Job Search Fails

Hey guys,

So I find myself trying to hire a new employee again. Every time I have gone through this I have seen some things that really stand out and severely affect people’s chance that I will hire them. As I have had multiple friends looking for work in the recent past, and the economy makes it so that anyone of us may be looking for a job unexpectedly, I thought I would put this out there and maybe some of you might avoid making a mistake that could kill your chances at getting hired.

Vic

Hey guys,here is a a short story I wrote that I am thinking of turning into a book. I would greatly appreciate your comments and criticism. It is a few pages long so might take you a minute but I would appreciate your time. This is just an overview from the characters point of view and would set the background for what would launch the story.

Enjoy.

Scadians as Anthropologist

So in a recent discussion about education, a friend of mine made the statement that she considers all Scadians that are Seriously involved in the society to be Anthropologist. Personally I disagree, but I thought it would make a good discussion. Below I have attached my response to the statement and also a link to the Wikipedia article on Anthropology. Enjoy.


My responce to the Statement that serious Scadians are Anthropologist
"While Scadians definitely study some aspects of humanity, more so on the social and political sciences side, I hesitate to agree with you the anyone seriously in the SCA is an anthropologist. Anthropology is the study of humanity and it's development through many different mediums. Scadians don't honestly even really fit into any one of the schools of thought within Anthropology. Although I am sure that there are members who do.
While the knowledge found in the SCA is definitly divers enough to attribute an anthropological feel to it, I believe that the people in the SCA individually focus far more on on a particular set of cultures or skills than they do on Human development as a whole.
Further there is also the distraction of our "Re creationist" mindset. Take for example our combat. For safety purposes, and sometimes just for the fun of it, we do not often truly learn the styles as they were fought in the ancient times. While some become extremely adept at their skill in combat, they have never studied it as a true martial art. Otherwise I would regularly be taking advantage of tactics like jamming my shield into your face, stomping on your feet or tripping you with the glaive I carry and cleaving you in two rather than letting you rise to face me honorably.
In short I believe that true Anthropology is a broader spectrum analysis of the development of Humanity than most individuals in the society take on it. Although as a resource base it would be an amazing place to find a trove of knowledge and obscure directions of study for anyone wanting to pursue that course.