Archive for the ‘Ponder’ Category

Roads and Rome

You should all be familiar with the phrase “All roads lead to Rome”, and some people have already made signposts joking about that.

Like this:

image of sign posts saying all roads lead to Rome

But I haven’t yet seen anything about what the signposts in Rome would look like. Wouldn’t roads from Rome thus go everywhere, and possible look like this?

image of sign posts saying Roman roads lead to all, or everywhere

but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me

2 Timothy 1:17

Various and Sundry Thoughts

Here are some thoughts I jotted down that aren’t quite sufficient for their own individual blog posts. If you’re the type of person who likes Twitter, pretend each of these is a tweet.

  • Work should be more like a video game: if you defeat your boss in battle, you get to advance to the next department.
  • No one can say the word “wamt”. It is always pronounced “wampt”. Or “wamut” but that doesn’t work either. And no, it’s not a real word.
  • If someone in a work call says “Sorry, I was multi-tasking” that really means they were doing something else during the call. If they really were able to multi-task, they would not have missed the question or topic of discussion.
  • With apologies to Margaret Thatcher: if you have to tell someone you’re not afraid of them, then you actually are afraid of them.
  • Do not liken your woman to 400-grit sandpaper. Even though it is designated as “extra fine”, she won’t appreciate the comparison.

you are not to be afraid of them; you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.

Deuteronomy 7:18

Inspired by Minions

I was behind a Tesla the other day and noticed it resembled something familiar. So I decided to demonstrate that here.

First, start with the back view of a Tesla.

image of a Tesla model S that resembles a minion from Despicable Me

Second, make it the right color

image of a Tesla model S that resembles a minion from Despicable Me

Next, adjust the color of the glass

image of a Tesla model S that resembles a minion from Despicable Me

Then, expand the glass upwards.

image of a Tesla model S that resembles a minion from Despicable Me

Finally, give it a monocle and a mouth.

image of a Tesla model S that resembles a minion from Despicable Me

Tada!

image of a Minion that matches a Tesla

Anyway, that’s what I usually see when I’m behind a Tesla – the roof rails remind me of overalls. It’s a Minion-mobile.

And as for their appearance, all four of them had the same likeness, as if one wheel were within another wheel.

Ezekiel 10:10

Various and Sundry Thoughts

Here are some thoughts I jotted down that aren’t quite sufficient for their own individual blog posts. If you’re the type of person who likes Twitter, pretend each of these is a tweet.

  • The opposite of sweet is savory. So why isn’t someone who has a sweet disposition called “an unsavory character”?
  • I thought I’d make my wife happy and take her shoe shopping. It turns out it only makes her happy if the shoes are for her, not for me.
  • In golf, you want to shoot under par. So why is something bad called “sub par”? Shouldn’t it be “super-par”?
  • Life is too short to keep using worn-out non-stick pans. We got a new set recently and why didn’t we do that earlier?
  • A lesson I learned from raising kids: “many hands make light work” does not apply when trying to loosen knots in shoelaces. I need space (not extra help) if you want me to fix your shoes.

When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army, nor be assigned any duty; he shall be free at home for one year and shall make his wife whom he has taken happy.

Deuteronomy 24:5

Various and Sundry Thoughts

Here are some thoughts I jotted down that aren’t quite sufficient for their own individual blog posts. If you’re the type of person who likes Twitter, pretend each of these is a tweet.

  • A bird in the hand is no longer worth two in the bush. I checked, and a bird in the hand is now worth 32 birds in the bush. The phrase is a few hundred years old, so it should be adjusted for today’s cost of living.
  • It seems to me there is a penny-wise/pound-foolish mentality for people who refuse to eat any GMO food but then go ahead and inject a GMO Covid shot into their body. As far as I can tell, neither one will modify your own genetics.
  • What is the correct past tense of the phase “you snooze, you lose” – you snoozed you losed, or you snost you lost?
  • I would love to be the receptionist at the doctor’s or dentist’s office (or any other place that still asks Covid-screening questions), because I would throw on at the end “Did you pack your own bags and have they been with you the entire time?”. One, it would check if people are paying attention or if they’re just answering “no, no, no” to the Covid questions (like I usually do), and two, it would highlight the ineffectiveness of that class of questions. I might as well say to the person “If you say ‘no’ then you get to enter here, if you say ‘yes’ then you don’t. What would you like to say?”
  • It seems to be a habit of some people to have a list of potential band names. I have no plans to start a band, but my favorite potential band name is “St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.

Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Proverbs 6:5

Difficulties

People sometimes say, of a certain task, “It is not difficult; it just takes a lot of steps”. Or perhaps “It’s not hard, just tedious”.

I also am guilty of having uttered, if not that exact phrase, that sentiment.

But what makes something difficult? Is not requiring a lot of intermediate actions something that increases the difficulty of a task?

Certainly not everything that is difficult requires many steps.

Something may be physically demanding – it is hard to accomplish because of the physical conditioning and exertion required.
Something may be mentally demanding – it is difficult to accomplish because of unfamiliarity with a concept.

I think that most things that are difficult are difficult because they require a lot of steps.

This assumes that the intermediate steps are not all the same. If the intermediate steps are repetitive, then yes you could say it is tedious.

But even then, to many people a tedious task is difficult, maybe because their minds can’t occupy themselves without external stimulus. Or maybe they have carpal tunnel. Either way, tedium is a type of difficulty.

So if someone tells you “it’s not hard, it’s just _______”, you can reasonably assume that whatever the blank was, that is a form of difficulty.

Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes arrogant; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me.

Psalm 131:1

Stages of the Internet

I’ve seen the internet grow and change, almost from the beginning (read the whole post for context). And it continues to grow and change.

I’ve also seen my kids grow and change, from the beginning. And they continue to grow and change.

With humans, there is a known growth and development process. Imma gonna list the typical stages of growth of a person, and then compare it to the internet.

Human developmental stages, according to Erik Erikson

  • Infancy : Birth to 18 months – A strong, positive and loving connection is established between a mother and her infant during this period.
  • Early Childhood : 18 months to 3 years – Children learn to become more independent and develop a sense of personal control.
  • Play Stage : 3 to 5 years – children become more observant of their environment and the people surrounding them.
  • School Age : 5 to 12 years – Children begin to expand their world to include more people. Children at this stage have a need to be productive and experience a sense of accomplishment.
  • Adolescence : 12 to 18 years – Adolescence is a complex stage as individuals search for a sense of identity. Acts of rebellion and withdrawal may occur.
  • Young Adulthood : 18 to 35 years – Young adults actively seek out love and companionship in this socially active stage. Some young adults may wish to start a family, others may wish to embark on adventures.
  • Middle Adulthood : 35 to 65 years – Significant importance is placed on work and family matters. Significant life changes can develop during this time.
  • Maturity : 65 years to death – Individuals tend to reflect upon their lives at this stage. Some adults may look back with a sense of fulfillment and happiness. Others at this stage may feel regret, despair and a sense of failure.

Ok, that was for a human. Now let’s move to the internet, which is really just interactions of people remotely.

Internet developmental stages, according to Some Guy

  • Infancy : 1965-1982. ARPA – Network users learn to interact remotely, proving out technical concepts
  • Early Childhood : 1982-1993. BBS – Users learn to interact socially
  • Play Stage : 1993-1998. WWW – Users experiment with presenting information to the world
  • School Age : 1998-2008. Search Engines – Users find ways to organize information
  • Adolescence : 2008-2014. Mobile – A new frontier opens up, with new freedoms and little responsibility.
  • Young Adulthood : 2014-2020. Social media – Users present and are presented with round-the-clock updates, banding together sometimes, othertimes isolating themselves.
  • Middle Adulthood : 2020-???. Whatever now is – People decide to focus on either real life or online life.
  • Maturity : ???-x. Whatever the future is. Not sure how long it will be, but it’s the final stage, so whatever was birthed in the previous stage or two should be in adulthood by this time.

There, that’s my 5-minute delve into that topic. For more in-depth analysis, find someone who needs a thesis topic on societal development. Or read the Foundation series by Asimov.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;

1 Corinthians 2:6