Ow

If someone ever says to you 'Hey, buddy, I'm gonna go take a walk in the woods while blindfolded in hopes of finding something'...  Please stop them.

Thank goodness I wrapped up those hedge clippers.  Nasty little tumble down a hill.  Just kind of bruised.  Few cuts.

Painkillers kicking in now.  Going to bed early.  More tomorrow.

Dumb Plan

I'm starting to get fed up with all the bullshit everyone seems to be pulling now.  Seems like everyone wants to either be a goddamn martyr or murder everyone or hell maybe even both.

Whatever, fuck it.

I've got my blindfold.  I've got my hedge clippers wrapped up in a towel.  Got my GPS.  Got my first aid kit just in case.  Long pants and long-sleeved shirt to avoid scraping up my arms and legs.  Hiking boots.  Walking stick.  Cell phone.  Apartment key.  I think that's all I'll need.

Maybe someday I'll listen to my own advise.  Until then, I'm going on a nature walk, and looking forward to a nice cup of tea this evening.

Take care guys.

The Game

You just lost it.

Strangely enough, this relates strongly to what we're doing here.  Let me explain.

A game can be broken down into two components: rules and players.  For now, I'm looking at the rules.

The rules can, likewise, be broken down into three sub-components: entry conditions, terms, and exit conditions.

Entry conditions are the ways in which you enter a game.  To a game of poker, it's being dealt chips and cards.  In chess, it's sitting on the opposite end of a chessboard and deciding who goes first.

Terms are the rules of the game.  Poker has a complex series of bids, counter bids, dealing processes, and rearrangement of chips.  Chess has specific moves for each of the pieces, as well as certain special moves (castling, pawn advancement).

Exit conditions are how you know when the game is over, whether someone wins or you just lose.  Poker's is when you leave or lose all your chips.  Chess' is when you get checkmated, or when a stalemate occurs.

The Game has a very clear cut set of rules.  Let me spell them out for you.

Players: Everyone who has heard of it.

Entry conditions: Learning about The Game.

Terms
-If you think about The Game, you lose.
-If you lose The Game, you are to announce it out loud.

Exit Conditions:
To never hear about The Game again.
To never have heard about the Game in the first place.

Sound familiar, anyone?

Excuse me.  These hedge clippers aren't going to find themselves, and this blindfold is being quite unhelpful at the time.

Take care, guys.

Introduction [New Start]

...

Originally, I wanted to keep this blog as me-free as possible.  I wanted to stay mostly anonymous, as some guys who just rambled on and on about different theories and ideas that ultimately lead nowhere.  I... guess that doesn't matter so much anymore.  The few people in the world who I didn't want to know about me already do.  Where I live.  Where my family lives.  What I do...

So, I guess, while I still want to ramble on and on about theory, there's no reason not to tell you guys about myself, a little.

You guys have the jist of what I study, where I go to school and such from previous posts, but I guess making this the new start to my blog will be as good as anything.

I live in Kentucky, and I'm studying to become a high school teacher for math and sciences (primarily physics).  I'm 20 and my birthday is actually coming up here in October.  I'm a pretty big guy in all ways sans muscles.  I try to keep my hair short and out of the way and I'm a huge fan of nerdy reference t-shirts.  I love playing games (of any kind: board, card, video, etc), sampling new foods, puzzles, logic, reading, comedy...  Few things actually make me happier than dressing up as a hipster, going to a 'hipster' type restaurant, ordering a good cup of tea, and sitting and reading a ridiculously out of place book.  Like George Dubya Bush's autobiography.  I get some hilarious looks.

I guess I'm mostly a nice guy, but I tend to have some temper problems...  I guess my last post kind of showed that off.  I usually try not to let this sort of stuff bother me, since I'm not really a stranger to bullying, but...  When someone takes someone you love and desecrates them...

no no.  Not gonna think about that.

Uhm...  I guess there's plenty more I can say about myself, but I'd rather if you guys asked.  I'm not really sure what else to say...

Oh.  Yeah, right.

I guess I've been infected for a while now.  I saw Marble Hornets back when it first came out, thought nothing of it, watched it the whole way through, spent a few nights in terror, and then promptly forgot about it.  I got back into it a few months back with EMH and TT, and my curiosity spread to the blogs.  I guess there's no turning back now, huh?

Alright, take care guys.

-Matthew Duncan

A Missed Opportunity

Me: 6' physics/education major at some college in Kentucky, hoping to someday go into education maybe.  Husky, short hair, blue eyes.  Often wearing a t-shirt with a nerdy reference on it and jean shorts.

You: Some asshole who I can only assume is a proxy who, while I was at home, snuck to my near-campus apartment, chucked a brick through the window, and lay the rotting remains of my beloved pet on my fucking bed.  The Operator Symbol was a nice fucking touch.

Allow me to make myself perfectly clear right now.

I'm going to find you.

I'm going to get my hands on you.

I'm going to slit your throat and strangle you from the inside.

Still at home

Something...

Or someone...

...dug up Whisker's grave over the weekend.

I...

This...

Fucking A.

My parents buried her in our backyard, near my dad's garden, just like we did to Cookie a few years back.

We were gone for the weekend, and the person watching over our house said she didn't see anyone come by, other than the usual (people passing by, walking dogs, playing, etc).  The neighbors didn't see anything either.

The thing getting me here is apparently our neighbor's dog didn't bark.  I... I guess I figured dogs kind of made a safe zone.  Apparently not?  I'm just kind of hoping that it was a dog that did it, then.  Or some other sort of animal.  I mean, it couldn't have been a shovel that dug her up.  The hole wasn't... neat enough, I guess?  My dad grew up on a farm, and apparently there's a method of telling the difference between digging something up and clawing up the earth.  I couldn't see it, but if our dog didn't go apeshit (which she does), I guess it would have had to been an animal.

My mom kind of burst into hysterics and my dad and brother are trying to calm her down, so I'm staying here for a few more days and helping with that.  We'd call the police, but, well...  What are we gonna say?  Someone stole our dead rabbit?

Gotta think about something else...

Uh, right.  Magic the Gathering.  Not sure if anyone plays, but they banned JtMS and Stoneforge from Standard today.  Greatest thing I've heard in a while.  Finally, Grand Architect will stand at the top of the meta!  ...once it overcomes Hawkward, Splinter Twin, and RDW.

Rambling, yeah.  OK, so I kind of already said this on Maduin's blog a while back, but I'm not sure if anyone saw it and I'm an attention whore.  The Eldrazi are a race of beings from the Blind Eternities, which is pretty much the space between planes of existence.  They have no physical form.  There are three big ones: Emrakul (the Aeons Torn), Kozilek (Butcher of Truth), and Ulamog (the Infinite Gyre).  They basically went around devouring planes of existence (from what I can remember, the mythos is something I'm just getting into) for a while, until they were stopped.

The people who stopped them were Ugin the Spirit Dragon, Sorin Markov, and some (as of yet) unnamed third guy.  They...  OK, hold on, getting ahead of myself.  In the MtG universe, there are beings called planeswalkers that can hop around the planes of existence (provided they know where they're going).  These three were planeswalkers dedicated to stopping the Eldrazi.  However, in order to do so, they needed the right stuff.

First, the Eldrazi had to be contained in a plane with powerful mana.  The plane of Zendikar was a perfect choice, as mana there is ridiculously crazy and casting spells can have weird side effects.  So basically, they lured the Eldrazi to Zendikar, and then the three planeswalkers dropped a train on them.  Sorin Markov, a vampire specializing in life-draining magic, was somehow able to force the Eldrazi into a physical form, and then Ugin used his invisible fire breath (I feel like I'm losing some of you at this point) to hold off the Eldrazi.  The third guy used magic dealing with gems and minerals, and was able to create a gem (names the Eye of Ugin) that sealed the Eldrazi in the Blind Eternities.

Cut forward an untold amount of time.  Nicol Bolas, one of the meanest, baddest dudes (read: dragon) in the multiverse begins manipulating events to free the Eldrazi (I'm remembering this stuff as best I can, and don't feel like looking it up).  He uses his minion, Sarkan Vol (a planeswalker who specializes in dragony magics) to guard the Eye of Ugin and try and figure out it's mysteries.  Chadra Nalar, planeswalker and pyromancer extraordinaire, finds a map to the Eye of Ugin by stealing it from some shmucks, and for some reason unknown to me decides to follow it.  Cue Jace Beleren, planeswalker and mind mage.  He was the one originally in possession of the map, and goes to hunt Chadra.  Shenanigans happen and other bullshit, which culminates in Chadra and Jace fighting Sarkan Vol.  Sarkan takes a dragon form and begins whipping Jace and Chadra's asses (metaphorically), and Jace, who had figured out bits and pieces about the chamber, told Chadra to summon a colorless fire.  She finds she is able to do so, and they beat Sarkan... and blow open the Eye.  Cue Eldrazi rush.

Jace and Chadra leave and don't look back, more or less.  Sorin is hanging around Zendikar and saves Nissa, an elfen planeswalker, from some Eldrazi.  He then basically tells her the gist of the situation and she comes along to help repair the Eye.  Adventures happen, and they find their way into the chamber.  Sorin decides to look around, and it's in this instance that Nissa decides that completely destroying the Eye is the best way to get the Eldrazi out of Zendikar.  she completely destroys it, Sorin says 'Fuck this, I'm out', and Nissa quickly discovers she was a giant moron and goes to track down Sorin to get him to help fix this mess... again.

Lots of holes, but I can't remember a lot of it and, frankly, I can't be assed to do more right now.

Heading back to campus tomorrow.

Take care guys.

Gone for the weekend

I went home yesterday as, today, my family and I have traveled to a family reunion.  I'll be here until Sunday, and then I'll be back to work Monday.

I guess, at Maurice's request...

My rabbit's name was Whiskers (once again, she was adopted, so the name was not ours).  She was... I believe the term was a Dutch rabbit.  She had a white streak down the top of her head and around the front of her torso, and the rest was an odd mismash of brown, gray, and white.  She lived to be about 14, according to my mom (who honestly knows better than I do).  We originally adopted her to keep our other rabbit, Cookie, company.  I remember how, at the beginning, they hated eachother.  They'd always get into a fight and cause a ruckus, so one of them had to be kept in the cage while one got to hop around the room.  It didn't take a long time for the two of them to bond, though.  It would become a habit of theirs to sleep on top of eachother.  It was adorable.

And then Cookie died.

We were out when it happened.  Someone who was watching our home had apparently heard her scream.  Apparently rabbits scream when they die?  Regardless, Cookie screamed and died, and we got back a day later.  We boxed her up and buried her in the back yard.

Whiskers...  She knew, I think.  Eventually.  The two of them had a ritual where one would thump theirs feet against the ground to alert the other, and we would sometimes thump against the grounds, and Whiskers would come running.  I think... she wanted to see Cookie one more time.  I'd like to think that.  Eventually, this reaction faded away, and she seemed to get a lot more withdrawn.

When I was younger, I loved to get down on the ground in front of them and watch them eat and give them Eskimo kisses (where you rub noses together, you know?) and I guess that's a little juvenile, but it was a symbol of my love for them, and I always tried to do that at least once per visit.

...I think I've thoroughly embarrassed myself now.  I'm heading to bed.

Feeling a bit surreal right now

Yesterday I was told my pet rabbit died.  This is unsettling to me for a lot of reasons...

The first, and hardly least of which, is that I loved my rabbit.  It isn't to say this is a surprise.  She lived to be about 12-ish (I think that was her age, which is a little unclear because she was adopted from the Humane Society), which is really old for a rabbit.  She was having to take medicine for her joints already, and I was told at the end she could barely stand, so it was very humane.  So I guess I'm sad she had to go, but happy she's gone?  I wouldn't have wanted her to hurt any more than she did there.  But I'll miss searching the rec room for her, and watching her eat carrots, and leaning down to stroke her ears....

But, more than that, I guess I'm a little blown away by the fact that she died and I wasn't there.  I'm staying near my college campus two hours away from home to work over the summer, and while I'm not surprised she had to be put down, the fact that it happened... is kind of freaking me out a little.  I know life goes on whether you're in a place or not, but this is the first event in the past three years that's really... impacted me.  I feel kind of split right now.  Half of me is detached due to lack of proximity, and the other half of me wants to mourn.

And, I don't really know how to explain it, but right now I feel... wrong.  Like I'm not all here.  Cloudy in the head, living in a dream, floating around...  I don't know if this is making any sense?  I guess it just kind of feels like I'm half asleep.  It's not a bad feeling, just... unsettling.

heh or maybe its cuz i got like five hours of sleep so tired sllee pno.w hehe

Jeez I wish I could.

I'll... talk about other stuff later I guess.  Take care guys.

Back to Basics and the Operator Symbol

So, yeah, apparently that previous post was just as much bullshit as I thought it was.  Maybe more.  Gonna take a break from talking about that for now.  I'd like to come back to it and talk about it more, which I might do...  I dunno.

But so yeah.  the Operator Symbol.  A totem of defense?  A piece of His name?

Honestly, I just think it's a terrible idea in general.

Why?  Oh I don't know.  Let's take a look at the track record.

1) In locations where the Operator Symbol pops up, He (or one of his minions or infected or a runner) has some sort of influence.

2) People who are infected copy this thing like they'll never run out of toner.

3) Why?

OK time to go over each of time.

The first one is pretty self explanatory.  Even if the Operator's Symbol acts as some form of defense, he still shows his influence around them.  If there's an OS around, he's there.  Simple as that.

The second one is also pretty self explanatory.  If someone is heavily infected, they just keep drawing it.  Maybe as a way to focus themselves, or maybe as a method of defense, but it doesn't stop anything, except temporarily.  In fact, it just makes them seem more insane to the people around them, and then the infected are ostracized from normal social contact, which can actually help against this infection.

The third one requires some explaining.  WHY do you think the Operator Symbol acts as a defense?  Go ahead, formulate an argument.

...oh, and one more thing.  Saying '_____ said so' is not evidence enough.

...oh, back so soon?  No good argument?  I thought not.

Listen, we don't know anything about The Phenomena, so why do we think the Operator Symbol will do jack shit?

We are being played.  SO goddamn hard.  The best way to keep people defenseless is to sell them armor that DOESN'T WORK.  That way, they feel safe and secure, and then they get careless.  They figure they have some method of fighting back, and then they try and make more defenses, or just become dependent on the one, and then they can just get picked off like berries on a bush.

Now, not everyone thinks the Operator Symbol is a defense.  There's a lot of theories out there, and I can't say I know all of them.  Just... do me a favor and if, in your thoughts, you think the Operator Symbol is a tool to help you, go ahead and forget it now.

Next time... I actually want to kind of repost a comment I made on Maduin's blog.  It's about Magic the gathering and the Eldrazi, and honestly I found it rather cool because a lot of parallels abound (Rule of Three, stylistic similarities, bluh bluh).

Take care, guys.

Procrastination and also some other stuff I guess

OK so this is kind of an original theory and it probably isn't well-crafted at all but the idea just kind of stuck one day and wouldn't let go.  There's going to be a lot of assumptions and bullshit thrown around so grab the Febreeze, friends.

As I write this, I wish to throw this up here.  There's a lot of reading I've yet to do, so if some of the connections I throw down here are completely true/false, please let me know.  I don't want to seem like a total moron.

OK, so for the sake of this theory, let's say that there is a second world nearly parallel to ours.  To further this idea, let's say this second world is the world of the paranormal.  The world AmalgamationSage runs around, the world that the Path of Black Leaves runs/ can run through, the world where all super-, sub-, and paranormal activity spawns from, yeah?  For the sake of being coy and bullshitty about this, let's go ahead and call it 'The Other'.

Let's furthermore assume that a majority of that world's mechanics are alien to us in the same way that a large amount of our world's mechanics are alien to beings from 'The Other'.  There's enough to be similar, but not the same.  Your feet don't fly off the ground in most places, there's mostly breathable atmosphere in most places you can get to, etc.

Warning: If you thought the previous paragraphs were bullshit, you're about to be knee-deep in bovine excrement.  Those of you with weak constitutions and/or anger management problems might want to stop reading / never find out where I live and come rain angry fists upon me.

Now then, for the sake of argument, there are three 'Realms' of Perception.  These three 'Realms' are the 'Realms' of Beasts/Plants, Man, and Others.  The 'Realm' of Beasts/Plants reigns over the Primal world, the 'Realm' of Man reigns over the 'Sophisticated' World, and the 'Realm' of Others reigns over the 'Unnatural' World.

Alright, so yeah.  Explanation time.

The 'Sophisticated' World is actually just a way to describe the process of logic and knowledge in day to day life.  We are far from sophisticated, guys.  I say this because our lives are, more or less, rigid.  We have schedules that we follow on a semi-regular basis.  We eat, shower, work, relax, shit, exchange little green pieces of paper, and sleep according to a schedule that we find works for us, and see the world with a sense of order and science.  Trees grow out of dirt, not water.  We're kept on the Earth's surface by a mysterious force called gravity.  We have arbitrary units for everything (time, distance, mass, culture, etc).  We do this because we see the world in a very analytical way.  We dissect everything into categories and lists, like 'Foods That I Like', 'Movies I'd Like to See', 'People I Don't Want To See Today', etc.  It is due to this extremely orderly way we look at the world that the 'Realm' of Man shall also be known as Reason.

The 'Primal' World, likewise, is simply a way to describe the way animals/plants see the world.  It is a place to grow, eat, shit, sleep, etc, just like it is for us, but the amount of order and rigidity is significantly lessened.  Specifically plants, but also animals, can't really grasp the idea of logic and order.  Causality doesn't apply to them.  Everything that is simply is, and those living in the 'Primal' World have to adapt to those conditions.  That isn't to say an animal cannot reason, just not on the level that humans can.  A human can reasonably estimate the amount of time it would take an object to fall from a certain height before it begins it's descent.  Animals cannot.  However, what animals have over us is the ability to act first, think later.  In this light, the 'Realm' of Beasts/Plants shall also be known as Instinct.

The 'Unnatural' World is alien to us.  Enough said.  There is no way to explain the way these things think because they live in 'The Other', and therefore their thought processes are completely alien to ours.  The 'Realm' of Others shall then be known as Unknown.

OK so yeah there's the background ideas.  I guess I should get back to work now.  Talk about implications later.  This lab manual isn't going to write itself, despite my prayers.

Take care guys.

Note to self

Buy actual food with first paycheck.  Living off takeout gives you really fucked up dreams.  And makes you late to your job.

Stop posting on Blogspot you moron.  Get to work.