Laziness

I think the laziest thing I've ever done was when I sat down at my laptop about 9 years ago, completely prepared to not move from my position for at least a few hours, only to realize that I needed to get something off my desktop PC. We had a network share in the house, but unfortunately, the files I needed were not shared over the network yet.

Instead of going upstairs to get the files off my desktop, I got an idea and opened Google. I began to research methods of remote controlling my desktop. It took me about 4 or 5 minutes before I came up with a way to remote control my PC from anyplace that had an internet connection, networked or no. But I needed to install software on my upstairs PC to do it.

So instead of going upstairs, I rigged a quick temporary remote control via Windows remote desktop over our home network, to remote control my upstairs PC to install the remote control software. After getting that done, I used the remote control software to set up a VPN between the two computers. A VPN which would remain active for full file sharing no matter where I was. I shared my entire user and program files folders over that VPN.

Boom! I began copying the files I needed! Didn't have to move, and the whole thing took maybe 15-20 minutes. Since then, it has saved me so much unnecessary getting up off the couch, it was completely worth it in the long run.

My mind is almost never lazy. My body, on the other hand, well... That's another story ;)

Thoughts on Christianity

I have some thoughts...

This is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. These are merely my thoughts on Christianity as a whole, good and bad, my experiences with it, and how it has changed over time. I have no right to tell people what they can and cannot believe, and I have no right to tell people how they should live their lives.

When I was around age 8, I began to seriously question my Christian upbringing, because some things just weren't adding up. I'm rather proud of myself for thinking so critically as such a young age; it feels like my core ethical values have hardly changed since then in that respect. I feel I can thank Calvin and Hobbes for much of my analytical and critical thinking development. But I digress.

Unfortunately, few people wanted a small child to critically analyze their religion, and I was never taken seriously, so I rarely, if ever, asked these questions. And when I did, they were often not adequately answered to quell my thirst for knowledge. So often I heard the "you just gotta have faith" response, which left me extremely unsatisfied, and felt to me more like "I don't know, stop asking me questions. That's just the way it is." I've never been one to respond well to a "that's just the way it is" answer.

Here are a few of the questions I remember asking myself from ages 8-12:

-Who wrote the Bible? Was it Jesus?

-Who decided what to write in the new testament? Wasn't that written after Jesus and his disciples died?

-If the Bible can be re-written by people, couldn't anyone just put whatever they want in there for us to worship in his name?

-If we're worshiping Jesus, why does so much of the bible have teachings from people who are not Jesus?

-Why do the disciples of Jesus say things that sometimes conflict with the things Jesus himself says? And why are we following their words in these cases rather than his?

-Why do we decorate a tree on Christmas? What does that have to do with Jesus' birth? And aren't we killing a tree?

-Why is Santa Claus the mascot of Christmas instead of Jesus?

-Why were the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night during December? Shouldn't the sheep be inside at night, where it's warm?

-Is it possible to be a good person without being Christian?

-If Jesus was trying to tell everyone to love each other, and we worship Jesus for that ideal, why don't Christians love gay people just as we would anyone else?

-If God created us, and everything happens according to God's plan, why do Christians hate people who aren't Christian? Aren't all people created by God, whether they believe it or not?

-If someone were gay, wouldn't that be a part of God's plan? Isn't everything that happens a result of God's plan?

-If the ten commandments say "thou shalt not kill", why did Christians kill so many people in the crusades?

Now since I asked these questions, I have asked many more. More than are coming to mind right now, of course, and many more over the years after I was 12. And over those years I have received/researched answers to most of them, and I have come to some conclusions. One being that most of the deeper messages read into the faith were a combination of lost in translation, interpreted/written through the personal bias of another human being, and the more people read into the deep lore, the fewer examples they will find of the actual core values shown through the actual words of Jesus Christ and the ten commandments, which were supposedly provided to us directly by God.

I find that most people I encounter who call themselves Christian are not actually demonstrating the core teachings of Christianity at all, except to other people who identify as Christian. The teachings of Jesus and the ten commandments are broken by many Christians on a regular basis, most notably through their contempt for other people who live their lives differently than they do, or otherwise in a way they don't, and/or are unwilling to, understand.

"Love thy neighbor" does not have a footnote that says, "but only if they are also Christian."

Over the years so many different churches would focus on so many different aspects of the bible with so many interpretations, that the whole thing divided. And thus, many people have many different ideas about what it means to be Christian. This is less often demonstrated in the words they speak, because they are so often directly quoted, but rather the actions they take. Oftentimes they are unknowing that their actions are even hurting anyone, and unwilling to hear people out when they try to tell them to stop.

I believe many Christians are simply using their Christianity as a title to describe themselves, to feel like they belong to a larger community of like-minded people. And hey, many people have done things like that to feel included. We're a social species, and we like to feel like we belong somewhere. But many people may be Christian simply because they feel it is expected of them, or they were raised to be that way, so it's all they know.

I believe the teachings of accepting things as being fact with nothing but blind faith as proof has helped turn many Christians into people who do not question authority, do not ask why things have to be the way they are, and do not think honestly about figuring out who they are as a person, since they often live through the religion instead of through themselves. And to reinforce this even further, there's an ultimate eternal punishment if you stray from your religion: Hell. But I'd rather not focus on that right now.

It's a darn shame these behaviours so often make it difficult to have calm conversations about this stuff, because through patience, understanding, and actively listening to each other, we could solve a lot of issues that lead to verbal abuse and other forms of violence performed in the name of God. But so many issues are shrugged off as being blasphemous, ridiculous, "impolite", or any other number of excuses to not talk about it openly.

In contrast, the LGBTQ community (I mention it because it's a large part of my life) is largely built on the foundations of being true to one's self and accepting/recognizing people for who they are. I guess it would make sense that people who are trained to live through the teachings of someone else and trust it with blind faith would find issue with people who live to do the opposite - to learn about themselves, constantly ask questions, and try to live according to what makes them truly happy, rather than living in fear according to what they think a higher power wants.

And yet, at the core of Christian religion, through all this control and blind faith and fear, is a contradictory message. A message that says people should love one another, no matter who they are. A message that shows Jesus as a simple carpenter who kneels and washes people's feet, feeds the poor, and heals the needy, whether they be old, young, male, female, rich, poor, celibate, prostitute, straight, gay... It doesn't matter. What matters is that he showed them love - he equally spread love for other people, regardless of who they were. That is the man who is supposed to be at the center of this faith, and that is at the core of what Christianity is supposed to stand for. That is how it started.

I believe that is a truly admirable ideal to have at the core of a belief system, spreading love to all those around you, treating everyone like family, as fellow human beings. It's just a shame more Christians don't demonstrate this in practice with people they don't understand, and instead they search the Bible for ammunition to fight them. Can we please just stop trying to attack one another and say live and let live?

We're all humans here, trying to get by and live our lives as happily as we can. If we don't understand someone, how about instead of finding ways to hurt them, we try to get to know them, human to human? Surely they'll have at least one interesting story to tell about their lives, as we all do.

Windows 10 Update Cleanup

tl;dr: If you recently updated Windows, you should run the Disk Cleanup utility as admin.

Many Windows 10 updates, including the recent "Creator's Update," apparently download and install themselves as a whole new operating system, replacing the existing OS much in the same way my repair installs do. This is a great idea, as it can fix many issues people have in the updating process.

The downside to this is that you now have about 22GB of unused old operating system data on your hard drive or SSD each time Windows has a big update. Windows doesn't automatically clean up that data, and I bet most people don't think to look for it.

Now imagine that you've updated your computer about 4 times as Windows has released large updates. If you have a a 160GB SSD, congratulations! Half the space on your SSD is taken up by OS backups that you didn't make. Yay.

Political Party Thoughts

If a political party starts to vote on and propose bills for the sake of preserving their party, rather than the sake of bettering the country, I believe that political party should be disbanded.

Politics is about the governance of countries. The very concept of its creation was for the sake of organization and cooperation, because when we work together, humanity can accomplish great things.

When people in a group begin to make decisions for the purpose of making themselves look good, it spreads like a sickness and disrupts the entire group. In nature, with animals, these selfish creatures would be killed and eaten to sustain the rest of the group. In humanity, that would be considered a barbaric moral travesty, and lo, through our capitalist system, the selfish are instead given many opportunities to step on others so they may rise to positions of power.

If someone is part of a group that decides the fates of millions of people, they have a responsibility to the well-being of those people. It becomes their duty to act selflessly and objectively for the good of the people, not for themselves.

I believe that both the democratic and republican parties must be eliminated to make way for new political parties to form. Based on policy and public opinion, these new parties would finally be rid of the naming bias, and it would no longer be about voting against somebody because of what party they belong to. Instead, maybe, just maybe, it could be about voting for somebody because of their plans for our futures.

The Treaty of Armens

In doing some random research into Star Trek lore today, I have discovered some details about the Treaty of Armens, which was the treaty between the United Federation of Planets and the Sheliak Corporate that granted the Sheliak ownership of several Class-H planets.

This was the only contact the Federation had with the Sheliak until 111 years later, when the Sheliak attempted to colonize one of their planets and found an "infestation" of humans living on it.

In the episode of Star Trek TNG "The Ensigns of Command", we briefly get to see on the screen a piece of the Treaty of Armens for ourselves. I am going to type it down here, mostly for myself, because I think it's hilarious.

I am including the Blu-ray and original version of the text combined. Since there was no change to the text in either version, other than removal of some text and different paragraph section layout, I will use the layout that makes sense and simply include the text that was edited out of the Blu-ray edition. Here is a picture of both versions, followed by my text interpretation of it:

FILE = 99-5377 TREATY OF ARMENS

SECTION 21166
ALL REQUESTS FOR CHANGES IN THE TEXT OF PROVISION (B) MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING OR BY A TERRIBLY COMPLEX SUBSPACE CODED SIGNAL, AS LONG AS IT IS ENCRYPTED AND UNREADABLE, AS WELL AS GARBLED AND CONFUSED, SO AS TO CONFORM TO THE PROVISION (A.294 A-C) OF THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE ACTS OF WIDDERSHINS, FEDERATION DOCUMENT LOCATOR NUMBER 784830 8340 (SECTION 876234). ALL OF THIS SIMPLY TO GET THE TEXT ALONG TO SUBPARAGRAPH 832, WHICH IS QUITE A WAYS DOWN THE PAGE. YOU MIGHT THINK THAT CLEVER STUFF. BOY YOU ARE WRONG. 

SECTION 87654
THAT GOES DOUBLE FOR ANYONE WHO HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE ORIGINAL TREATY. MOST OF THOSE LAWYER FOLKS ARE, LIKE, IN THE HOSPITAL, ALONG WITH EXECUTIVES OF THE SIRIUS CYBERNETICS CORPORATION. IT TOOK WHAT SEEMS LIKE FOREVER. RICK IS INFALLY [finally] GETTING A KEI AND YURI REFERENCE INTO THE TEXT. YOU KNOW, THE TWO CUTE GIRLS WITH THE BIG GUNS. WE MIGHT ALSO MENTION AKIRA, RANMA NIBUNNOICHI, URUSEI YATSURA, RHEA GAEL FORCE, AND A FEW OTHER ANIMATED FILMS. THE FEDERATION, AT THIS POINT IN TIME, SEEMS MORE TANGLED UP IN PAPERWORK THAN THE IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL BUSINESS.

SECTION 74543
IN THE TEXT OF THIS TREATY. OR DIDN'T ANYONE THINK ABOUT THAT EVENTUALLY WHEN THE BLOODY DOCUMENT WAS FIRST DRAWN UP? NEVER MIND. IT'S A RHETORICAL QUESTION ANYWAY. BUT WE JUST THOUGHT WE'D TRY TO DEMONSTRATE OUT LEGALISTIC CLEVERNESS. JUST ONE MORE PARAGRAPH UNTIL THE CRITICAL ONE, WHERE WE TALK ABOUT CONSULTATIONS AND THAT SORT OF THING. 

SECTION 33406
THE SHELIACS DON'T SOUND LIKE A RACE [worth] SELLING PLANETS TO, IF WE HAVE TO WRITE (MUCH LESS READ) ONE OF THESE CONTRACTS EACH TIME. ALTHOUGH, THAT'S WHY WE HAVE COMPUTERS, SO WE CAN DO SEARCH-AND-REPLACE. COME TO THINK ABOUT IT, THAT'S WHAT THE SHELIAC WANT TO DO WITH THE COLONY ON THE PLANET. THIS SECTION DEALS WITH THE RIGHT OF EACH PARTY TO CONFER WITH THE OTHER IN THE EVENT SOMETHING SCREWY HAPPENS WITH THE TREATY. THIS MAY TAKE THE FORM OF NORMAL EM SPECTRUM COMMUNICATION, SUBSPACE EM COMMUNICATION, FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS, TELEPHONE TAG, MESSAGES IN BOTTLES, OR ANY OTHER WATER-TIGHT FORM OF ENCLOSURE, GOSSIP, HALF-TRUTHS, OUTRIGHT LIES, OR FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS. INTERRUPTION OF TREATY COMPLIANCE SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE (1.00 X 10E0) STANDARD STANDARD UFP SOLAR YEAR (EXCEPT DURING THE MONTH OF JULY) SEE TECHNICAL TA48509 1742 A-CE589451 FOR CODE INPUTS. LCARS UPDATES ON TREATY COMPLIANCE INTERRUPTING SHALL TAKE PLACE AT EACH STARBASE LAYOVER, OR WHEN COMMANDED BY RANKING UFP (OR OTHER DESIGNATED BODY) OFFICIALS AT STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS, 24-593 FEDERATION DRIVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, EARTH, SOL SECTOR. REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE MAY BE PLACED BY TRANSMISSION TO STANDARD STARFLEET BOOSTER STATION FOR CHANNELING TO UFP TREATY OFFICE (SOL SECTOR).

SECTION 74543
SIMULTANEOUS TRANSMISSION TO THE THIRD PARTY IS ACCEPTABLE. DELAYED TRANSMISSION TO THIRD PARTY MAY NOT EXCEED ONE (1) STANDARD UFP DAY. TRANSMISSION TO THIRD PARTY PRIOR TO TRANSMISSION TO UFP TREATY OFFICE IS ACCEPTABLE IF APPROPRIATE NOTIFICATION  IS GIVEN TO FEDERATION BUREAU OF TREATIES (SOL SECTOR) SEE TA 98745 23411-11 FOR SCHEDULE OF CODES AND TEMPORAL ADJUSTMENT FACTORS, THIRD PARTY AGREEMENTS, THIRD PARTY ASSISTANCE MAY BE REQUESTED FROM A FEDERATION [vessel] IF THE DISTANCE FROM THE VESSEL TO SOL SECTOR IS GREATER THAN 5,000 LIGHTYEARS UFP STANDARDS MEASUREMENT BUREAU UNITS. ASSISTANCE MAY ALSO BE REQUESTED IF THE VESSEL IS LESS THAN 1,000 LIGHTYEARS OF A STANDARD UFP SUBSPACE RELAY BOOSTER STATION. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.

Manipulation of Consent

Consent in itself is not a very complicated subject, and yet people seem to get confused by it. Mainly, people seem to get confused about the concept that it can be revoked. If you order a burger, and then that burger arrives at your table, you are allowed to change your mind about eating it, just like you are allowed to revoke consent.

If you start having sex with someone and they decide they want you to stop, you stop, because the consent was revoked. If you continue after that person has told you to stop, that is rape, because they told you to stop, and now you're continuing against their will.

It is also important to pay attention to your partner during sexual activities. If it looks like something is wrong, ask them if they want you to stop. Seriously, if your partner doesn't say to stop, but starts crying, they probably want you to stop. Body language counts just as much as verbal language, and that means both parties, regardless of gender, are responsible for the actions that are happening, and for the communication involved. Sometimes it's hard for people to say no. Give people more opportunities to say yes instead of no and you will know without a doubt that you have their consent.

However, just like any other action-related topic in existence that involves multiple people, there are going to be some people out there who try to twist rules designed to protect people into ways to attack people. This is not okay, but this also doesn't mean that the previously stated guidelines for consent should be ignored.

And because of these disgusting people, this is where it gets complicated.

In the cases of rape by fraud, I think it's definitely wrong to deceive someone in order to get sex from them. I think it's a bit of a gray area of whether the deception itself should actually be called rape, however, as I believe rape is defined as un-consenting sexual activity. Deception to get them to consent to sexual acts feels like it should have a different word. No less serious an accusation, mind you, it just feels to me like including both under the same word's definition can cause issues. I'm going to call it "manipulation of consent," because I feel that sounds more accurate.

Let's say for example a man gave full consent and slept with a woman because of an assumption he made about her bank account, and she never even tried to act rich. Then let's say the man later regretted that decision because it turns out she's poor. That's not rape on her part, that's classism on his part. And yet, to my understanding, if rape by fraud legislation passes in New Jersey, the woman would lose the court battle. (This is, of course, in a world where rape against men were treated as equally as rape against women.)

However, this situation would look very different if the person who was assumed rich and powerful was actually trying to appear that way to manipulate the other person into sleeping with them. I think it's inaccurate to call that rape, because the actual sexual acts were consented to on both sides at the time. However, it would be perfect example of manipulation of consent. Though I feel sleeping with someone just because you think they have lots of money in itself is wrong, and this whole situation sickens me.

But I guess my point is that I believe having two separate distinctions between rape and manipulation of consent would help the more complicated manipulation cases to not affect the direct sexual assault cases. And laws could pass helping to shape the manipulation cases without impacting the sexual assault cases. It would also help this issue we're having where everybody is calling everything rape, and as a result rape gets delegitimized.

It really gets under my skin when people abuse a system of protection for personal gain... Fuck these people and fuck this system. But only after asking its consent...

We Live in Middle Earth

The War of the Rings actually took place in the real world, many years before our current method of recording history, and before our Gregorian calendar system.

Arda was once one large continent. It split during the War of Wrath, and over time, long following the fourth age, the land mass changed heavily into what we know today. 

The western continent, once known as Valinor, is now known as north and south America. The eastern continent split into various pieces. Harad became Australia, most of Middle Earth became Europe, the northern wastes of Forochel formed into Greenland, and Asia was formed from Khand, near the border of Mordor, into Rhún and Hildorien.

The Elves all diminished after sailing into the west, as their time in the world was ending, they spent their final days with their creators. The power of their rings failed with the destruction of The One Ring, causing their lands to wither.

The Dwarves lingered, ever strong and hardy, but they are now few in number, and their secrets and culture are lost in the flow of time. Much breeding with the race of man (now called human) has changed their appearance and diluted their lust for riches. The only remnants of their forgotten language has been confused and intermingled with Sindarin to create Rún, the old Norse runic alphabet.

The Hobbits, like the Dwarves, still remain, but are very few in number. Since The Shire and Ered Luin was mostly destroyed when it was ripped from the west coast of Middle Earth, the Hobbits have survived in few, coexisting in the world of the big folk. In breeding with humans, their height had gradually increased through evolution. But occasionally you will still see a Hobbit whose dormant genetic traits came through.

The Shire, after breaking off from Eriador, eventually floated off and formed New Zealand. The structures, gardens, and Hobbit holes were all destroyed and biodegraded into dirt and dust. Much of the terrain had changed in the catastrophe. But the party tree, the lake, and the hill of Bag End all managed to survive the test of time to this day, and Hobbiton was rebuilt in the early 2000's of our current calendar shortly after its rediscovery.

It is estimated by J.R.R. Tolkien that were we to keep the old Gondorian calendar, we would currently be in the seventh age.

For those of you wondering if this is legitimately canon, a lot of it is not, but the whole thing is a fan theory of mine based on canon material. I think I've made a strong case :P