Blog's Cosmic Shift

Grab something heavy, or strap yourself into a stable chair.

This post is not about politics.

Other than to say it is not about politics, and to explain why.

I have told many people (including, I believe, this blog) that politics is my spectator sport. What I had not told too many people, though most of my closer acquaintances already knew this, was that politics became my spectator sport because I lost my other two sports right about the time I got really interested in how politics, from local to global, worked.

Well, I'm not exactly burned out on politics, as my blog will prove, but through a totally unrelated cosmic accident I rediscovered one of my other sports: Ice Hockey.

While I cannot claim to be a native born Texan, I have been naturalized by the authority of several native born Texans (based largely on the fact that I owned a pickup truck longer than most of them, have been in this state for a long time, and can out BBQ - the real kind, not grilling - most of them). I have also been given naturalization papers from several members of the Texas State Judiciary for services rendered to the State (it was tongue-in-cheek, but all the more precious to me because of it - I did some computer work for the state and we all had a blast).

Why is this important? Because I moved to South Texas, where there is very little in the way of NHL hockey. I have watched (and enjoyed) some of the local teams, but the players (if they're lucky) change rapidly and I couldn't get into the team as a whole, not to mention NHL hockey is the best of its kind. Just recently, and largely by complete random chance, my family and I tuned into a Dallas Stars game and got re-hooked on hockey. With only three games to go in the regular season, alas. We are doing well, but I doubt we will get very far through the playoffs. I want us to badly, but no doubt my positive energy is balanced out by other teams' fans who want their teams to advance just as badly.

Okay. Massive digression, but important, as you will see. Hockey is fantastic, but it takes a lot of time in the evenings (mostly) and due to the nature of the sport, you don't win every game (nor, with the exception of whoever wins the Stanley Cup, do you win all the playoff series). While this is good, and part of what makes the sport exciting, it means that while you are in the playoffs (which we now are) your team is likely to lose some very important games, leaving you feeling all grumpy and down.

So, rather than go to bed feeling disgusted with everything because some boob on the other team got a lucky bounce or break and scored a goal after a hard-fought overtime, proving that you've got the better skill but they've got the more frustrating luck, I decided to haul out some of my more interesting documentaries.

I downloaded some documentaries from the internet one year, burning them to DvDs as presents for friends and families (this was not the year I worked for the State of Texas - I could actually afford more expensive presents that year). I didn't get to watch them all, other than a quick scan through to check for quality and content, but they looked interesting.

While this post is now pretty much too long (it is all digression, to some degree, how bad is that?) I plan to post a little bit of my random, amateur thoughts about The Cosmos (I can't say that word without hearing James Wood's voice as Hades in the Disney version of Hercules). I have actually read several works about Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, and about various parts of quantum physics. I have a decent mathematic and physics background. However, everything I am going to say is amateur.

That disclaimer aside, I feel compelled to point out that several major breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe have come from people who were considered amateurs at the time they had their breakthroughs, and even "established minds" were considered completely off their rocker when claiming new theories about How Things Work.

I expect to find myself contradicting some of the greatest scientific minds of our time. I am not asking anyone to think that I am smarter than they, because I do not think I am smarter than they. But like the simpleton who solves the complex problem because it needed a fresh perspective, I do have some thoughts to share on these Cosmic Concepts.

Advice:
- Concepts covered can be confusing. Skip if they bore you, return to the comments section if you ask a question (I often reply to comments on this blog - I recommend returning to comments any time you leave one).
- I recommend lots of coffee while reading these posts.
- Not to be mixed with narcotics.