Sometimes I Wonder

Why? Why not? Okay, here’s the deal. I’m going to rant to fill some sort of arbitrary word count in order to make my point which is simply this; If you’re going to publish a blog, why aren’t you allowing for commentary?

Is your opinion sacrosanct, and not up for debate? Clearly not, as there’s always an opposing position to take.

Maybe you’re afraid of what others might think. Maybe you don’t want your opinion to be drowned out by the noise du jour. However, if you’re effectively keeping your opinions to yourself, why should I bother to read it?

I allow for commentary on all my blogs, including this one. The fact that I don’t get many simply means I don’t have a lot of readers. Is this my choice? No, of course not. I’d prefer the ten thousand fans I’m supposed to have, allowing for about 100 comments based on I believe the Pareto Principle. See also, the 90/9/1 rule. I could also use these mythical ten thousand fans to support me at a dollar a month for the rest of my life.

Yes, I’ve done the math, that’s $120K a year, until I die. However, the business that hasn’t been created yet, is: What to do with your sites after you die? Someone, and it may be you reading this, can start this business, and make some money off of it. And then, I’d like a large donation, and credit on your site. Point to my ministry site when you do. Thanks!

There’s going to be an influx of those that will have written a virtual metric ton of stuff online that are going to eventually die. They may leave the care and feeding of these sites to friends, relatives, etc. A thousand years from now, one of my descendants may reference this particular article.

Hey, it could happen. Note to self, add this to the same list that contains, “When pigs fly.”

So, to review: People post opinions, and don’t allow comments. I don’t have to read these sites anymore.

Have I made my point yet? More importantly, have I made my word count?

72 and Sunny in Redondo Beach. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

One Thousand Words

A picture is worth, or so they say. I did the math on this recently for an average feature film length of 88 minutes, and it comes to, wait for it, 126,720,000 words to describe a movie, if you were to take each frame separately.  24 frames per second, or fps, and you can do the rest of the math yourself.

The phrase comes from journalism, and if Mrs. Meiners taught me anything, it’s that sometimes, you don’t get a photo to go with your story.  You might have to write the thousand words to describe the 1/24th of a second that you observe at any particular point.

That makes this, an opinion piece. Simply because I have one, and like the other thing that everyone has, yours may be different. Similar, yet different.

Ready, okay!

My goal for this piece of my opinion may or may not be limited to the aforementioned words numbering one thousand.  That’s not the goal.

It’s simply this: to explain away the travesty that is my current state of mind. For those of you that don’t know, the Mind State lies somewhere between CA, NV, AZ, and quite possibly UT.

That’s right, you won’t find it on any map. Ever notice how most sites have a site map? Turns out, all it really is, is an outline of the hierarchy of your web pages. It’s a good thing to have one, so that the appropriate search engines can find things on your site.

Word pictures must be painted.

To continue, as opposed to moving forward in the same direction, it follows that in your average movie, and believe me, most are below average, the picture taken at any point a that is somewhat near point b will contain most if not all of the same information, or data.

Computer Science teaches this, actually.  Everything boils downto zeroes and ones, and Moore’s Law is in full force at any particular time.

If this were to be a picture, at the beginning of this paragraph, I would have had six hundred and seventy seven words left to write.  Fortunately, telling you this fact means that now I have somewhat less left to go.

Here’s some more math for you: A thousand words a day, times 365 in a year give or take, gives us 365,000 words, approximately.  A simple division of 126,720,000/365,000 equals 347.18 years to create the average movie.

I don’t have that kind of time, and probably neither do you.

Of course, this precludes the collaborative process, and if you have roughly 348 people creating the thousand words a day, it may only take one year to bring your vision to the big screen. Or mine for that matter.

Given this fact, and several other variables that may or may not be predicted with any semblance of logic that may or may not be fuzzy, how does anyone get their vision to the big screen?

I’m reminded of an old joke: A guy drives up and asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice!” is the punchline.  I heard that for the first time during the 60’s. Yes, I am that old if you’re a first time reader. Or even, the second time as I didn’t mention it last time, either.

Time is God’s provision for everything not happening at once, and space is His provision so that it doesn’t all happen in the same place.  However, within your own life, or the life of any particular average movie, it may seem like a lot of things are taking place at the same time in the same place.

I sure do hope that last sentence parses.

And it won’t be the last sentence, either.  Why the concern with word count, one may ask. If you don’t already know, this is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for those that do.  30 days, and fifty thousand words later, and you have your novel. That averages out to about 1700 words a day, give or take.

As I’m a filmmaker, I choose months that have 30 days in them to write a screenplay instead.  In April, Script Frenzy, or Screnzy as some would call it, is all the rage.  The goal in this case is to write 100 pages of screenplay in a month, and that divides out nicely to three and a third pages of screenplay a day.

I admit, I’m a little behind, as I’ve got 65 dynamite pages of a web series, however, only ten or eleven days left depending on when you read this, in order to get to the finish line, which ticks out to about 3.5 pages a day.

I once wrote on I believe this blog/site whatever it is this week, that it should be possible to write one great page of screenplay a day, at which point in a year you can create 3.65 screenplays if you stay on track.

I’m painfully behind on that one, as I have a life outside of writing as it turns out.  Therefore, it follows that I’ve had to give up most if not all of my social media commitments.  Ironically, you’ll probably see this missive posted about in one of three places first, Twitter, Facebook (or, the book of the face, OR Fakebook as I refer to it), or quite possibly Linked In.

I hope that those that read it out there, will leave comments there, as well as here.  However, I know that most will simply gloss over it, and move on without so much as nary a thought.

So, to review: Word count, page count, and the like are probably not as important as the fact that you’ve read this far, and I’m dangerously close to reaching the artificial word count I established in the title, therefore, I should probably continue to put words in some semblance of order to form sentences to reach it.

The fact that I’m behind may be because I’ve lost my muse. However, that’s probably another post on an entirely different site for another time.

Why, you may ask? It’s, The Law!!!

3 Tips For Dealing With Trials | healingfromgod.com

3 Tips For Dealing With Trials | healingfromgod.com.

And tip #4: Avoid them in the first place.

I thought I had more on this, however, apparently, I don’t. Might write a song about it. Maybe I already have. Temporal mechanics being what they are.

I’ve touched on this phenomenon both here and elsewhere before, however, for the 2 or 3 of you that are reading me for the first time, it follows that I write something before you read or hear it. Unless I say it, and don’t write it down. In which case, short term memory being what it is, you may never hear or see it again.

However, in any case, I take my action before you take yours, meaning, you’re actually reacting.  Neat, huh? Maybe not. You may not like what I say, do, or think. Then I get a negative comment in the boxes below. Or, more likely, you don’t say anything.  Then I continue to displease you until such time that you stop reading.

This makes me sad. Of course, this wouldn’t be a trial, as that implies a verdict.  And I was nowhere near Queens. If you get that reference, you may stop reading, and continue directly to the comment section.

Of course, this implies that I have more to say, write, do, etc. here, which is most likely not the case, as my breakfast, lunch, dinner is cooking depending on which timezone you’re in.

I believe that life is a game of Fizzbin.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach, as always 😀

I’m a Filmmaker, And I’m Okay…

I work all night, and I sleep all day.

If only that were the case. I received an email from the fine folks who press the word, that I’ve been doin’ this for six years. So, HB to me!!!

My problem is, are, was, were, not even grammatically correct. Damn!! Time to go back to English 10AB w/Fred Doucette.

Was @Castle recently, and started playing Fizzbin with random guests, just to pass the time. I have to create a new act that I can film and submit to the entertainment committee in order to qualify to maybe perform Close-up magic @ some point in the distant future, in the only place I truly ever want to perform it.

Life is either performance art, or a broadway musical. Make your choice, and then stick to it. Use stick ’em if you have to. I told my Executive Producer this once. Two years ago. Well, maybe more than that at this point, as the fine folks in the land of 168 have changed the dates since.

I should hold Chip Chalmers personally responsible for my meltdown this season. He was the last director I asked to direct me, before I resigned to doing it myself. But Chip’s a good guy, so, I would never do that.

Others in the land of granola that may or may not be called out during this not so random rant include but are not limited to, the 1st AD, and the 2nd Unit Director.

We lost 3 hours because of this duo, that propagated throughout the rest of the project.

We had a full post production sound facility ready for us at 9a the day before turn in. We didn’t get there ’til noon. Hard out at ten pm, therefore, well, I’ve already done the math for you.   Sol7 did incredible work under the strangest of conditions. Special thanks to them above and beyond the credits they shall receive somewhere. Well, on the finished product itself. Which may be a film, motion picture, or movie.

Wow.  Artificial word count reached!!! You should all know what that means by now.

Well, if you don’t, it means I can type faster. Like this…. Except when getting a phone call from the fine folks @ the E3 after party I just confirmed attendance. For myself, and two guests. You should know who you are, however, if you don’t, then well, it’s not you.

The thoughts in the previous paragraph may be in the proper order, if not the words. Take this into account when you post your comments.

I know I’m missing something this weekend, however, I do have the capability of walking into the LA Wine Fest with my press pass from the fine folks @Soak Magazine. I should give them special thanks, too.

So, have a lost weekend, then play video games? I wonder if that’s how Ray Milland started….

A random closing phrase here, then the directives. If this were a song, it would probably be in four part harmony.

I’ve gone so far off topic in this one….

That’s my story. Hope You Enjoyed It™

Why is it, The Law?!?

 

Birth of Mennonite movement (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Or, is it more of a guideline, than a rule? Here’s what I know, and not necessarily, when I knew it. The Law of Unintended Consequences exists in all endeavors, simply because you can’t plan for the unknown. The reason should be obvious, however, for the Amish among you, if you could plan for it, it would be known, and of course, not unknown.

 

What this means is, nobody knows anything. All we have are facts. The facts may lead you to a conclusion, however, your conclusion may be erroneous. Simply because some outside factor that you can’t possibly plan for because you don’t know that it exists, will take place, and then you’re hosed. Or screwed. Or, scrod in the future pluperfect tense.

 

I realize that I’ve buried the lead, but I can do that, as this isn’t news, it’s an opinion column, that is mine, as I do have one, but thusly, The Law of Unintended Consequences states that no matter what precautions you take, something unexpected will take place, and you’ll be at a point where maybe, things have gone horribly wrong. At which point, you may have to start over, accept the unintended consequences, or bail altogether.

 

For instance, you’re reading this after the election in the US, and I’m writing it beforehand. Therefore, you know who’s won, and I don’t. The media thinks they know, but they may be wrong. Hey, it could happen. According to those in the know, it already has, but I digress….

 

So, what this means is, you know more than I do by the time you read this. But I don’t know what you know. I may think I know, but I don’t. Because of the aforementioned law, which may only be a rule, or a guideline. If we are to define insanity, as some would, by doing the same thing and expecting to achieve different results, it follows that a definition of sanity would be the obverse, or, doing different things to achieve the same result.

 

The problem is, due to The Law, we don’t know what that result actually is. And, it may not be what you were originally going for. Sure, when walking forward, you may reasonably assume that at some point, you may get to where you’re going. However, to travel from here to there, you first have to take half the distance to get from there back to here. And, you must repeat the process ad nauseam, until you almost get to where you’re going.

 

Almost anything can happen during the time you’re traversing half the distance. Or to put more succinctly, you have a choice to make. If you make either one of two or possibly three choices as we’ve previously discussed, you can feel confident in the fact that you’ve made a choice, but not that you know how that choice is going to turn out.

 

For instance, when you come to a fork in the road, as we’ve previously discussed, and for sake of illustration, you can go either left or right. Now, you would think you have two possible outcomes with the choice you’re making, however, there’s actually four, as you must accept the fact that you didn’t make the other choice. How does this make you feel? You can’t know, because, It’s the LAW!!!

Disclaimer:  As described above, I wrote this before the 2008 elections, and it was published after we knew who won. I’ve left it intact, as the same rule applies to the repost. I haven’t added any links, and I’d like to hope I’m 4 years wiser.

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Prepare Two Envelopes

With apologies to Mark Evanier, from whom I’ve ‘jacked the original idea from, in order to either prove a point, or tell a story, which may or may not be apocryphal.

It seems that in the entertainment industry, in which I may or may not be involved, depending on who reads this, there is a high turnover rate. At the highest levels, in fact. So much so, that Executive Vice Presidents in charge of oh, let’s say Television, would have a job one day, and it would vanish the next. In today’s society, with networking and golden parachutes, the individual in question would be ok, however, he would observe the change of guard, and even shake the hands of his eventual replacement.

This individual in question, let’s call him Tom, gets fired from his cushy job at the network, and at his going away party, meets his eventual replacement, Dick. (aside: punctuation counts.) Tom and Dick share a drink or two or three, and then finally, Dick asks Tom if he has any advice.

Tom simply says, “I’ve prepared two envelopes in my upper right hand desk drawer. When you get your first crisis that you can’t handle on your own, open the first envelope, and when you get to the second, open that one.” With that, Tom walks away, never to be seen again. At least, at that network.

Dick starts his job the next day, thinking nothing of it, and for another six months, everything is fine. Until one day, Unresolvable Crisis #1 occurs. Dick reaches into his desk drawer, and pulls out the appropriately labeled envelope, and opens it. The paper inside simply reads, “Blame the previous guy.”

Which Dick does, allowing him to fight again another day. This time, three months go by, at which point, Dick again faces the no win situation, and opens envelope #2. This time, the paper inside reads, “Prepare Two Envelopes.”

What does this story have to do with anything relevant to something that you may be concerned about? It’s simple. If you’re an American, you’re voting in the election coming up shortly. At least, I hope you are. If you choose not to, then you have only yourself to blame, when the wrong guy gets in office, and that’s my point. No matter who wins, no matter who you vote for, or whatever party you affiliate with, Republican, Democrat or Independent, the winning candidate will already have used Envelope #1 to get elected.

Knowing that, what should we conclude? In baseball, you usually get three strikes. Football gives you four downs. In basketball, you can break the rules six times before you foul out. Hockey sits you down for only two minutes before you get back into the game. However, the ejection process of the Presidential game takes four years minus how ever long to his first unsolvable crisis.

Now, I’m not one to predict the future, and I’m also not one to tell you how to vote. What I will do, is tell you another story, this one science fiction, about a world that knew it was doomed to extinction, but didn’t know why. What they did was, and I find this truly unique, solve the time travel problem. Of course, I didn’t realize we had one, however, before they became extinct, they figured that time traveling to the future would allow them to find out how they wound their way down to oblivion, then return to their present, and avoid and/or fix the problem.

Now, I’m a lover of irony, so, the end of this story is thus: The fact that they had discovered time travel, is what led to the end in the first place. We don’t have any such luxuries this election. There is no undo. Command-Z won’t cut it. That’s Ctrl-Z for the Mac deprived.

So, to review: There is one envelope in the upper right hand desk drawer in the oval office, and inside, it reads, “Prepare two Envelopes.” All that we have left to determine, is, who is going to read it, and why.

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach.

Standard Disclaimer.

New Disclaimer: I originally wrote this for the 2008 election. Turns out it’s still relevant less than 3 weeks to go before this one. Who knew?!? 😉

Life, The Ultimate Role Playing Game

Someone once told me, “Life’s a game. Play the game.” Thank you, Jack Kennedy. Not THE Jack Kennedy, but one of my old chiropractors, who coincidentally dated my cousin, which is how we met. However, not relevant to the matter at hand, so, we’ll move on, and hope that mention of his name gets me a free adjustment.

So, to continue, you’re playing a game. Unfortunately, when you were born, you weren’t handed instructions on how to play. Fortunately for most of you, you had two parents that helped you along in this area, for the most part. For the next 18-20 years depending on how sick you are of your parents, you accept these rules growing up.

Then, reality sets in. That’s right, I said it. You realize that maybe your parents whom you worshipped, didn’t necessary know everything. Or, if they did, they didn’t tell you. Of course, no one said, the game was fair. If they did, they were lying. Most likely, through their teeth.

This is the real reality, not the virtual reality you see everyday in computers, or TV, or, that’s right, the ‘net. At some point, you’re going to get to, you’ll come to the realization that you have some choices to make, all on your own. We’ve discussed this before. Well, I have, I don’t know if you were here then. In order to make your choice, you’re going to want to make an informed decision, and weigh all your options, therefore, you’ll take these instructions, lists, rules, etc. Whatever your parents called them, and use them or ignore them at your discretion or peril.

After you decide to decide, you may reap the benefits of your informed choice, unless of course, you chose badly, or incorrectly, or some other such word as to pad my word count. I’ve always believed that why use one word, when five will suffice, is a good axiom to follow. You may choose to use or lose if you so desire.

Now, everyone’s circumstance is different. A correct choice for you, may be an incorrect choice for me. However, since I don’t make them, you might decide to follow a similar tract as I do. And you should remember to do as I say, not as I do.

When navigating the stream of consciousness, it is necessary to take an eddy every once in awhile. Where were we? Well, I’m in Redondo Beach, and as previously stated, I don’t know where you are.

To continue, you’ll come to a point where you’ll want to know all the rules to the game. Or the instructions, or, whatever else you can call them in your neck of the woods. And of course, they’re all governed by, The Law!!! I knew I could make my incessant ramblings coherent if given the opportunity.

Ok, to review, no rules to the game of life. Not to be confused with The Game of Life™ a Milton Bradley company. Simply because, those rules are simple, and The Law!!! does not come into play.

According to Shakespeare’s As You Like It, All the world’s a stage, the men and women merely players, each have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his act being of seven ages. Act II, Scene VII. And yes, I did do that from memory. I could look up the rest, but that would simply be padding my word count at this point, which I don’t need to do….

So, to continue; or proceed, or whichever you’d like to do….

You’ve lived most of your life adhering to some set of rules or another, depending on whom you listen to, which god you worship, or even if you don’t have one to call your own. You’ve boiled that down to some such subset, say that three times fast, that you don’t have to think about as you move throughout your life.

Here’s the kicker. You knew there’d be one, right? What if, everything you learned is just plain flat out wrong? And when I say everything, I do mean everything. Not a subset of everything, but, everything. The only thing you know, is, The Law!!! What would you do? What would you do?? Seriously?!?

Pause for effect.

Now I’m no expert, although, others would claim that I am, and not The Others from LOST, either. Other others. Here’s what I did. Instead of attempting to find a new rule book, instruction set, or yet another self help book, I simply plunged in, and started writing my own. It’s amazing that it took me this long to figure that one out. So, to keep you interested until next time, I leave you with the following rhetorical question: When you work out of your home, how do you call in sick?

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Original Disclaimer: Mike may or may not be having a midlife crisis, depending on how old you think he is.

Current Disclaimer: I originally wrote this at the beginning of 2009 for the Idea Masters™ site, and it was never published. Until now. Most if not all is still relevant.

Are You Linked In?

Back in the 90’s, I’m sure you remember, an actor named Kevin Bacon was apparently in every movie known to man, which led him to comment in a Premiere magazine interview in 1994, that he’d worked with most everybody in Hollywood, which inspired the game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Historically, or perhaps hysterically, based on the notion of six degrees of separation, which was already a broadway play, and then became a movie of the same name.

If you’re one or two of the three people that haven’t heard of this, the concept is simple; by knowing someone who knows someone else, who then quite possibly knows a 3rd person, and so on, you may get an intro to a person that might eventually be able to help you out. See also Pay It Forward, and networking.

The concept is not new, it is however recently formalized, by the fine folks at LinkedIn. They’ve trimmed it down, as you’re only allowed to have up to three levels of connections. Of course, if one of your 3rd level connections knows someone else’s 3rd level connection, it should be possible to complete the legendary six degrees.

As with everything else in life, the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in, and now what we have there and elsewhere, including Myspace, and Facebook to name two of the most famous social networks, is a competition to see who can get the most friends. Of course, LinkedIn is for business, so, they call them contacts, or connections, on the theory that one of these people might actually hire you to do something for someone, at sometime in the immediate or far future.

We can even take a look at the word network. It’s actually a compound word, combining the words net, and well, work. A net is something you cast, or use to catch butterflies, and work is what you should be doing instead of reading this. And believe me, networking on Linked In is no different. They have rules. You have to know the person you’re connecting to, or, have worked with them in the past or present, or, be a member of a group that your intended connection is a member of as well.

This last one is especially important, as they’ve come up with a unique take on groups, including discussions within them. Another fancy way of compiling a mailing list, if you ask me. If your within the same group, you may exchange emails, even though you may not be directly connected. And circumvent the need to be introduced to your intended connection.

Another anomaly that has sprouted up, is the need to be well, everyone’s friend. Thus, Linked In Open Networkers was formed, or LIONs as they’ve dubbed themselves. These guys and gals accept all comers, whether they know of you or not. As a result of these two phenomena, the fine folks at LI have come up with limits on the number of groups you can join, as well as the number of invites you can send out. Once you’re out of invites, you’re out.

This has led to some interesting addictive behavior, including but not limited to, people joining groups, and giving out their email address to any and all members, in an effort to make someone else, or several someone else’s use up their invites. And giving out your email address to just anyone is what LI was attempting to avoid in the first place, by creating a so called safe environment where people from different backgrounds and locales, could safely meet and discuss business, or try to get work.

I read in a recent issue of some psychology magazine to be named later, that you can only maintain roughly 150 unique relationships give or take, as your brain can’t handle any more than that. So, it follows that an effort to win the infinite friend game is fruitless in its attempt to prove that you have the most friends.

So, could someone tell me what I’m supposed to do with my 278 connections?

Original Disclaimer: Mike is either a poker player, or a filmmaker, depending on when or where you ask him. He is Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/in/allaroundneatguy and his blog can be found at http://whoisthewatchmaker.blogspot.com/ If you wish to connect with him in any way.

Newer Disclaimer: I wrote this four years ago, and it is the first in the Idea Masters™ series that I contributed to. Since then, I have gained over a thousand more connections on LinkedIn™, and yet, none of them have hired me yet….

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The Spoon in the Road

Yogi Berra once said, “When you get to the fork in the road, you should take it.” Not to be confused with Yogi Bear, who more than once said, “Hey, Boo Boo, look at the picnic basket.”

Boo-Boo Bear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Both of the above involves a choice. Now you may think you have two of them, in the first case, either the left or right path, and the second is whether or not to take the aforementioned picnic basket.

There is however a logical third choice, which is to stand at the fork in the road, and wait, or to stare at the picnic basket, and do nothing. Both of these involve waiting. Now, I’m not going to extoll the virtues of what these particular choices should be, just that they need to be made, no matter what you’re trying to decide….

You’ve heard the term, “Deer in the headlights.” Why is this phenomenon so universal? As opposed to Universal, the movie studio. Which is owned by NBC, but I digress….

Universal truths are true 100% of the time. What is the deer thinking? Which path to take. Jump over the car, Continue across the road, or, make an emergency Bat-Turn, and go back the way it came. Now, the reason that sometimes, the deer gets plowed into by the SUV and ends up tied to its hood, is that it took too long to make one of three simple choices. Deers used to choose run away, however, their friends saw that choice led to being tied on the hood as well.

What I’m saying here in my borderline passive/aggressive manner is, deciding not to decide yet, is and of itself, a decision.

Let’s think about that for a moment. It’s ok, I’ll wait.

The conclusion you should’ve drawn here is that I’m right, in no matter what endeavor you pursue. Remembering that if you’re on the stand, and the prosecutor asks you, ”Have you stopped beating your wife?“ Neither a yes or no answer is correct here. The third logical choice is, ”To my recollection, I have never beaten your wife.“ Other possible answers include, but are not limited to, ”I’m single.“ Or, ”Why, what have you heard?“

Call, raise, or fold. Yes, no, or wait in the poker arena. Of course, these lead to how much, and when, but that’s another conversation for another column on an entirely different site….

So, the next time you get to the fork in the road, take the 3rd path. Because the next time you get there, you may find that the fork is actually a spoon.

Tune in Next Week... When I discuss why no matter what choice you make, you’re actually screwed in another edition of, It’s the Law!!!

Disclaimer: This was #3 in a series, originally posted in the fall of 2008. I could give you the exact date, however, some in the online blogging community believe it’s not good to date your posts. After all, that could get lonely.

Why Nobody Knows Anything

Or, how the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle applies to your life. Not mine, actually, just yours. I may explain that one shortly, but to wit, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, or HUP, as it’s referred to in the trade, the trade being quantum mechanics, or physics, states simply that by observing a phenomenon, you’ve changed the result.

Now, I promise a minimal amount of actual math in this discussion, e.g. There won’t be any. Simply because nobody said there’d be any math. Honest. Or, if someone did say there would be some, it wasn’t me.

To continue, how many times have you heard someone somewhere in your life say, “Had I been watching the game, they would’ve won?” Well, this phenomenon goes to that. People honestly believe that by rooting for a particular team, they can make the team win. I’m an ‘SC fan, and the Trojans manage to beat up most of the other college teams out there, with or without my ethereal help. Sure, fans are nice, I even have some myself, but does that make me funnier? If you tell a joke in the forest, and no one hears it, is it funny?

You’re reading this column now, and I’ve typed it before. This raises the question, Oh yeah? What does it matter that you’re reading it? Well, the answer my friend, is blowing in the cyber wind. Will the content change the next time you come back, and read it again? Will you even do that? Probably not. However, it’s in a fixed form, whether or not you’re reading this very sentence. I’ll give you a hint: It won’t change. So, when you go away to look at that flashing advertisement on the right, you can come back, and continue reading this missive.

So, as previously discussed, I write this at a time before you read it. There’s no good way for this relationship to change. Because if you could read it before I wrote it, why would I write it in the first place? Back to what we were talking about, which is certainly, uncertainty. Ever read witness accounts of traffic accidents? Three different witnesses will report three different things about the same event. Not to mention all the people that weren’t there, that will report that it wouldn’t have happened at all, had they been.

Now, let me assure my three readers, that I hope have been following me from site to site that despite the fact that all this information looks like it came off the top of my head, and I whipped it out in 20 minutes, that in actually, it takes a little longer. Probably about an hour. What were we talking about?

I remember, don’t worry. While the previous paragraph may look like it came out of the blue, it does follow logically that the reality of the situation is that I typed it to pad my word count. And, since you’ve read it, it doesn’t really read that way, even though it is in a fixed form. Had you not read this column, you would never know the contents. In other words, or, another words if you say it fast, nothing is real until it is observed. Or reported about, or posted as a YouTube video.

Do you realize how many YouTube videos are out there? I once heard that 10 hours of video are uploaded every minute. Who has that kind of time, and what kind of bandwidth access does he have, in order to perform at that rate? This means you can’t possibly watch it all, which in turn means, that despite all you know, there are things that you don’t. Which is why you don’t know anything, really.

So, to quote Mel Gibson’s character in The Conspiracy Theory, “I don’t know what I know, but I know that it’s big.” When you find out what you know, let me know, then we’ll both know, but until then, I don’t know that I don’t know what you’re going to tell me….

 Disclaimer: Originally written over three years ago. The current YouTube statistic is 48 hours uploaded every minute, and that will continue to increase over time. This is #5 in The Idea Masters series. More to follow….