rabbit's razor

I will not believe something because I hope it to be true;
I will not refuse to believe something because I fear it to be true.

That's it.

The Paradise We Build

In Dante's "Divine Comedy" there are descriptions of hell, purgatory, and heaven. I was struck by how interesting was the inferno and how boring was the paradise. In the inner rings of heaven you find God in the center surrounded by cocentric circles of saints, all facing God and basking in his glory forever. I see this as "the eternal orgasm" model of heaven, but we should note that such an experience is more than sexual. It is the climax of all "chakras" or modes of feeling. It is the sublime thought, the quenched thirst, the perfect meal, et cetera.

But is such a heaven viable? Can we have perpetual climax? I don't think it's possible because we sense things in relation to the past and the future. I.e. "I felt normal before, but compared to that I feel great right now, and compared to that I have this to worry about tomorrow".

With our limited resources throughout history, we might've said that the idea is to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering and frustration. Now that we are approaching great power and malleability, I think we should examine hard what heaven is like. Please, atheists, examine this question as well, for even if heaven does not yet exist, can you argue that it will never be?

I see heaven as the optimization of pleasure and frustration. There is truth in the cliched idea that our suffering makes our happiness possible.

Attrition and Entropy (running on fumes)

I got everything on my motorcycle working just in time for them to cancel my insurance. For months now employment has trickled in and money has trickled out. I lost my wallet on Friday, which was for a moment devastating. For a moment 'cause I remembered my serenity prayer:

accept the things I cannot change
change the things I can
etc.

I made a list of everything that was in my wallet and it turns out that the only thing I can't replace was an old phone number of an ex-girlfriend. The biggest loss was a Chevron gas card with $30 dollars on it. Here's an idea: instead of putting money on a gas card, can I just buy it in gallons?

So here I am, taking a break from applying for jobs. Would someone please hire me? In my last post I asked for your spare change and none was sent :-(

Here's the deal: all you out there in blogland are too far away for me to tutor or teach or engineer and you don't seem to want to take me up as a charity. So all I have left is my art. I will take commissions for $15 USD per hour plus materials plus postage.

My media are oils acrylics, wire, and words. I work fast. I am posting a sample of one of my abstracts which took me 3 seconds. Place your orders in a reply to this post.

P.S. the picture came out sideways. The black belongs on the bottom.

Job? uh...no.

So to keep this blog accurate I must retract my former excitement about getting a job. Apparently the Engineer wanted an assembler rather than an Engineer. I was overqualified, so now my prospects are pulling weeds, or tutoring a troubled 11 year old girl for two hours per week. I refuse to pull weeds; I'd rather starve. No, not really, but the rest of my life has been in an upward trajectory such that I hate to see such a setback. I have such knowledge that I feel omniscient yet they want 'just enough'.

So I'm going to see if I can get the Chinese to sell me a pirated copy of ProE so I can educate myself and get a job. With what shall I purchase it? Hmmm. I have 35c in my bank account and an eBay giftcard with 9c on it. Can you spare any change? please send it to:

Rabbit Killer
109 Madrona Rd.
Felton, CA 95019

p.s. write checks payable to 'Leif Husman' ; that's my slave name. All proceeds will go to making the world a better place. Promise.

rrrrrr! Save my fields!

I just spent 7 precious minutes updating my profile on 'orkut' which is google's social networking site. I navigate to a different tab and then save and poof! all my fields go blank with nothing updated. Well that's just frustrating :-( the most frustrating thing ever! I'm taking my social networking elsewhere. Who is on orkut anyway?

Doing vs. Teaching

I found out a couple weeks ago that my dream of teaching science to kids is virtually unattainable for four years. I took it in stride, but I realized I would need to do something in the meantime. I am taking computer classes (Linux, Perl, anything that's offered at Cabrillo), hoping I could do something with that. Whatever I do, I don't want to be underemployed...
So I got a job yesterday [yay!] and my only goal in doing so was to gain financial independence. Maybe I have issues, but it hurts to always have to ask for every little scrap of anything.
My job, however, is more than this. I have a chance to work for a small engineering firm (I am the only employee) and work as much as I want as an Engineer. I can just weld and assemble parts for $12 per hour or I can engineer systems for electric cars and be more than a minion.
This kind of open-ended potential is daunting. I [re]discovered while digging through the dirt that I am more comfortable with not giving my full effort and being satisfied with mediocrity. I resolved to not be satisfied with this. When I was younger I thought of Life as something that happened in the future, and Now was just preparation for that. Some 15 years later I am still having to make decisions. I can be trapped in elementary physics for the rest of my life, or I can go further and solve bigger problems...
When I put it like that it seems obvious. But teaching our children well is very important... I will be the best Engineer I can be and in a few years I will re-evaluate my life and see where humanity needs me.

Korg Part 2

I now have a fully functioning Korg Delta!!
I got it about a month ago and I was very dismayed to find it only partially functioning. Four of the five function generators were shot and the octave balance in the strings section was scratchy. Well, I downloaded the service manual, disassembled the keyboard, desoldered the malfunctioning components, contacted Mouser Electronics and found replacements, waited...

... Soldered the replacement parts in, put it back together and fired it up.

I'll post pictures below, and detailed notes to anyone of you with questions.

Oh, and thanks to the good people at sci.electronics.basic for all their helpful advice.

http://www.archive.org/download/KorgPentatonic/KorgPent.wma

http://www.archive.org/download/KorgBminor/Korg5.wma