A Christmas Carol and human understanding of Time Travel before the concept of Relativity
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The other day I was treated to an excellent local production of Charles Dickens' Christmas classic, "A Christmas Carol". As much as I enjoyed the show, open of the things that I remarked upon is that even back when the story was published in 1867 at the beginning of the industrial age that people were comfortable with the concept of Scrooge's time travel.

In today's post-industrial age media, we are commonly used to the idea that the character of a fictional story a character can travel in time, like in the favorite 80's time travel movie "Back to the Future". This was not a common concept in 1867. Who would think of visiting the past or future?

Numerous movies and TV shows show time travel, but in our post-industrial minds the method by which time is navigated is something mechanical. But in Dickens' world, the method of time travel is a powerful set of Christmas ghosts.

It is interesting how the human mind, pre-mass education and pre-relativity can still come to grips with the concept of time travel. People of the past could recognize the phenomenon of time travel, however it is explained not by worm-holes, or the balance of energy and matter, but by ghosts that take on a humanoid form.

It makes me wonder about the things that we are vaguely aware of in today's society but cannot explain. At least now we know that we cannot explain everything and that just because we have reached the limits of our technology's ability to explain things does not man that some mystical power is at work.

As W.R. Clement wrote in his book Quantum Jump, once we move up a level of abstraction in the way we see the world, systems that once appeared random become understandable. Is that all that has gone on between Charles Dickens and Steven Spielberg? We've come to see the world in such a profound jump in understanding that we no longer need ghosts to explain time travel.

To give Dickens credit, he may well have had many of the notions of current theorists in his head. For example, the ghosts always told Scrooge that the images that he is seeing of the past are simply shadows. Is this an alternate reality of some kind? And in the future, Scrooge wonders if the images he is seeing are shadows of what is yet to come, or are they subject to change? Is this dealing with multiple universes again? Pre-Destination?

Dickens deals with heavy stuff you can find these days in Stephen Hawking's a Breif History of time. The human mind is a much finer instrument than we give ourselves credit for. We can intuit things we do not understand and try to make sense of them.

With this in mind, one has to wonder how much we really do understand about time travel? Or was Einstein just telling us a more complicated version of Dickens' beloved Christmas Classic?

Haiku:
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The more I feel pain,
The more your love is right to me,
Hurt and Kind, I Love.

Thoughts about the way we view the Future
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Over some sushi, a good friend told me that as a society, we have undergone a radical change in the way we view the future. It was not until recent times that we looked at the future as something that will be better than the past. It used to be that people feared the future, worrying about what would happen next.

The past used to be revered with ancestors, past deeds and tradition. There used to be this feeling that the past was what made us who we were. There was this idea of a kind of fall from grace, that things were not, at present, as good as they used to be.

Ahh, the human memory is blissfully selective. Since the dark ages, this was true. There was a dramatic fall from grace, and I'm not talking about the Garden of Eden. I am talking about the Roman Empire. After the breakup of the Roman Empire, Europe was plunged into the dark ages.

War, strife, turmoil, a halt in psychological, technological and sociological procession persisted almost 1000 years until the Renaissance. So when people looked back, there was some fondness for the civilizing force that was Rome. The Romans built roads, brought sanitation, irrigation, medicine, order and education. So of course the old days were indeed "good".

But now days, we look at the past as darker times, where people were less tolerant, life was harder and people less happy. We do have many takings to look forward to that our post-industrial society will produce for our comfort and long life.

Interesting.

TV Censorship in America
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It's been very entertaining to be watching how censorship has evolved on television in the USA. The original intent of the censors was to remove "obscene" language and material from the airwaves (and now cable) so as to protect the innocence of the young. At least that was their stated intent. But to those that became subject to such rules, it seemed like much more was going on; their message, whether political, religious or otherwise, was being edited in and of itself.

But what has struck me as quite funny is the high pitched beeping noise that is used to "bleep out" unwanted words. Rather than totally removing the word from the conversation, "eleeping out" the word makes the it into some kind of exclamation point, thus giving the word even more power than if it was said in the first place.

It makes me wonder, is this uniquely American phenomena? A much more pernicious way to edit out unwanted words is to make the sound track empty at that moment, thus down playing the word like they often do on Canadian TV. It removes the exclamation point from the word and if it's done well, is hardly noticeable. And if you think about it, this is a much more diabolical way to edit the media.

So why are they bleeping it out with that high pitched tone? Was it a compromise by the censors that the artists argued for so that the viewer would know the censor’s heavy hand has edited the piece? Or was it part of some kind of politically or religiously motivated agenda to pursue a "War on Filth" or some such thing. Makes you wonder.

The artists have responded in a rather entertaining way in that they will voluntarily "bleep out" the words. But since they know the "Bleep" will be there, they write the conversation so that the bleep will be placed in such a context that it is obvious what the character is saying. As well, sometimes they do not fully "bleep out" the word, so hearing part of the word, such as "F**K you!" makes it fairly apparent what is being said.

Can the censors ever win? Yes, but their victories are usually small and pyrrhic. If people want to hear or see things that are out there, they cannot be prevented from doing so. You can always buy the movie, get the uncut version, or see it on-line. We live in a society that is based on openness and access to information for the individual. In such a state, the censors will always be fighting a losing battle.

I thikn it's funny that with their zelous drive to "protect" America from itself, they in essence give more power to the forbidden words and deleted scenes. After all, it's the forbidden fruit that tastes the sweetest. The strategy of censorship backfires on them, as it should.

Todd's Annual Newsletter December 2003
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Greetings! I hope this letter finds you well. Once again it's been another very different year. This year the sunset at Ocean Beach told me this was to be my "Year of Good Habits". I'd like to say I slacked off on the bad habits and picked up on the good ones. But by the end of my letter, I'm sure you'll let you be a good judge.

Work: They say "All good things must come to an end". I also lost my job at KANA. Yes, the same swine who laid me off two years ago made the same call again. So I had another relaxing 7 months off this summer. I must say it was awesome. This November I picked up a job just before my Unemployment Insurance ran out. I'm programming the reports at a small software company called Movaris. I really like the people, the product and the opportunity. The only down side is that the job is 50 miles down in Silicon Valley. No, I'm thinking of moving from SF...

Travel: Once again January brought the yearly Pilgrimage to Whistler, BC for a trip with Da Boyz, organized courtesy of those crazy Johnson Brothers. Let's just say the damage deposit on our classy condo didn't even last the first night. Bringing my good buddy Josh up there and taking him to the hospital for a party injury was definitely a highlight.
In April, I went with Brian to see his home town Toronto. We hooked up with his Toronto crew and saw the town. I was sad to miss the Hockey Hall of Fame, but I'm sure I'll make it there next time.

I had one stellar trip when I took 4 days to ride my motorcycle from San Francisco, up the coast to Vancouver BC. I camped one night in each state. I met my old pal Chris in Vancouver to take his new sailboat out for a 9 day trip from Vancouver up to Desolation Sound. We had perfect weather, just enough sailing, more than enough drinking and lots of beautiful scenery everywhere (including the girls). Aside from one "Ruprect the MonkeyBoy" moment, we displayed excellent seamanship. To get home, I rode a quick 1000 miles in two days down I-5. Crazy!

My brother, Mark (who's also unemployed too), and I took a 3 day motorcycle trip to the Sierra. We had a great time riding up in the high mountain passes and camping at Lake Tahoe and then deep in Yosemite Valley.

Social Life: The social life has been pretty low key these days. I've been cutting back on some of those bad habits and not going out so late. So the social life, has slowed a bit. But like I wrote in my last letter, the friendships that I have maintained have appreciably deepened.

In regards to women, it's been a long dry year for dates until October when I met Stephanie at a sailing BBQ. And so starts another good habit. We've been dating for two months+ and having a fantastic time with each other. We're still in the honeymoon phase of the relationship, and something tells me it's gonna go on for a while...

Sports: It's been a mostly hockeyless year, and I've missed that habit terribly. Luckily enough, I recently started playing on a new team in Oakland. It's a great bunch of guys (mostly Canadians) and we enjoy beers in the parking lot after the game. I got my first two goals last game, so it's been fun. Also, since my new roommate has a dish, I purchased the NHL Center Ice Package so I could watch the Vancouver Canucks (and 40 other games a week). It's a lot of fun, especially with the TiVo, and it's making me a smarter hockey player.

A good habit that I decided to start was getting back on a crew. Once again, lucky for me, my friend and landlord Nicholas (from Quebec City) invited me to join the crew he sails with on a Santana 35. It's a great bunch of people and I think I've already started to fit in well.

School: I managed to finish my Java classes and it has surely made me a much better coder. It was a long hard slog, but it's turning out to be well worth it. Having these new skills got me my current position. Who'd have guessed?

Political Activism: I was excited to take part in on the Anti-War protesting in SF. It was great to see so many people out there expressing their dissent. I never hung out with those jerk-face anarchists and radical communists who ruined it for everyone with their trouble making. Regardless, it saddens me that the US went to war in the way it did.

Writing: I had been getting back into the habit of writing. I started a web log (known as a "blog") called "Crazy, Drunk and Unemployed" and it has been very enjoyable to write so much. I try to keep it interesting and write as much as I can. I'm down to once a week these days, but it comes in waves. If you're interested, go to http://easyt.blogspot.com.

Living Situation: For once, I did not move this year. I finally found a place so nice, I've stayed put. I did get a new roommate as my old one (John) sought a place closer to his work in San Mateo. Erik, my new roommate is turning out to be a great addition. Not only does he have great stuff (Satellite dish, TiVo and so on) but he's a great guy and very easy to live with. His girlfriend, Nina, is very cool too.

Has it been a Year of Good Habits? Well, a new job, new girlfriend, new roommate, new hockey team, new crew to sail with are all starts on good habits. The Good Lord has been very kind to me with all these new and exciting opportunities. It seemed like every time I needed something new and good, it came to me.

Until next year, Happy Holidays and Increase the Peace.