Theory of Relativity: A Concept Explored

It's quite often I ponder the world; that is to say, it's quite often I ponder the mechanisms and purposes behind the world's many processes. However, today in my American history class, we were made to read an excerpt from a book about Einstein's Theory of Relativity. This got me thinking about abstract concepts of time, light, sound, and waves; these concepts, except time, we have just begun to study in physics.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Einstein's Theory of Relativity, it essentially changed the world's views on the space-time continuum. In a nutshell, it states that relative to the human eye, light is moving at incomprehensibly fast speeds, thus allowing us to see. Each colour that is in the visible light spectrum is a different wavelength: red is between 600-800 micrometres, purple is about 400 micrometres and so on. Since each wave has a wavelength and speed of the wave's reflection depends on the medium of the wave's travel (usually air, sometimes water), the colours we actually see are just reflected light waves.

In other words, what the eye sees each second is a reflection of light off of an object. Every time you see something changing before your eyes, what you're really seeing is a different reflection of light waves off of an object.

This is where Einstein's theory gets extremely theoretical and extremely advanced. The estimated speed of light in air 299,792,458 metres per second. Each second that a purple shirt is lying on a sidewalk, that shirt's colour will travel 299,792,458 metres at a wavelength of 400 micrometres. If, and that's a BIG "if" we were somehow able to create a ship that could travel faster than that speed, theoretically we would be able to time travel.

Now I know you're probably thinking, WHAT?! How could that possibly mean you can time travel? Think about it: How can you be positive that an event is taking place? By seeing said event, obviously. What happens if you're moving faster than the light of the event that you're supposed to be seeing? You are ahead of the event itself in terms of the space-time continuum.

Hopefully if you've reached this point, you somewhat understood what I was trying to explain. Having explained the theoretic possibility of time travel, I leave you all with one simple question that I've been pondering all day:

If you're moving faster than light, what DO you see?

Alter-Egos

First of all, I would like to apologise to the one person, Sung Li in Laos, who reads this - though only because she's trying to learn English. I haven't blogged in forever and I regret not doing so.

That being said, I have a story to tell:

As you may know, I'm big on doing accents. I recently had it confirmed by legitimate British people who live in England and speak with British accents that my accents are, in fact, extremely authentic. So you can imagine my surprise - nay, astonishment - when I began speaking to myself in a British accent and it sounded like a Mexican girl trying to tell the world that she's just finished a cup of tea on the train returning from Hogwarts with a baked potato halfway down her throat. (That means it was awful.) I nearly burst into tears as I rushed my dog back into the house, rushed to my Harry Potter film collection, and attempted to shove all six DVD's into the player at once.

The above anecdote was just a little intro to today's real topic: Alter-Egos. Recently (as in 4 months ago), I was exposed to the cult classic film that is Fight Club. For those of you who haven't seen it, stop reading immediately and go watch it. Netflix. Blockbuster. Torrent. WATCH IT. If you don't watch it and plan on watching, skip the next paragraph because it IS a spoiler.

The narrator of the film, played by Ed Norton, has an alter-ego named Tyler Durdern, played by Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt plays Ed Norton's characters "id", which is the psychological term for the part of a person's subconscious that acts impulsively and does what it wants.

Now, you may be thinking "How many alter-egos could you possibly have, Kenny?" The answer is "Several." Your next question probably is "how legitimate could these alter-egos be?" My answer to you would be "Legitimate enough to blog about." I'll introduce you to them one by one.



-Eugene. This alter-ego is the most Tyler Durden-esque. Ed Norton in Fight Club has extreme insomnia. The only reason Brad Pitt exists is because of a condition called "mininaps" common in insomniacs. Brad is the one who creates Fight Club, Project: Mayhem, all the other impulsive things; he only did so because he was Ed Norton's character in his sleep. If you don't know me very well, you don't know that I, too, am an insomniac. Over the summer was my biggest case of insomnia. I would stay up for days at a time to the point that one day as I began my book for summer reading (which I had to write an essay on), I suddenly spaced out. When I became aware again, I noticed that I was holding my printed essay in my hands. Eugene had taken over my body, finished my book, and written my essay. Often times I would start off at home and end up at Bennigan's with my friends. Everything that happens in the spaciness of mininaps, at least to me, is done through Eugene. Eugene, I acknowledge your existence and would like to thank and welcome you into my life.

-Simon. This bloke is, you guessed it, British. My fascination with accents resulted in my ability to pick them up. This friendly Londoner, unlike Eugene, is a conscious alter-ego I intentionally put on. Occasionally when I'm in the mall or at a summer camp or going to a new school (that hasn't happened yet, but when I go to uni I'll totally do it), I'll activate Simon and start speaking with an accent. I've devised a whole identity for him, as well as my other conscious alter-egos. He's probably my most believable conscious alter-ego as well because of how solid my British accent is.

-Patty. With a stereotypical Irish name, this alter-ego enjoys a nice pint of Guinness and some cheery folk music. He often comes off as leprechaun, though only in my own fault; I'll occasionally forget that if I don't intentionally make my voice deeper, he sounds like his Lucky Charms have been stolen. When it is a quality impersonation, it's spot on. Try not to be fooled if you ever catch me at a restaurant ordering with a little jiggy tone.

-Sean. Scottish and damn proud of it, Sean is a lad who wouldn't mind being treated to an ice cold Irn-Bru. If you run into Sean at Disney World, Universal, or Busch Gardens, feel free to say hi, but don't say anything bad about Scotland. He'll kill ye (See Begbie in the film Trainspotting). If you ever stop by a rugby or football match with Scotland playing, you might be able to find him in the sea of Scotch blue shouting the national anthem, "Flower of Scotland" at the top of his lungs. Wanna hear a live bagpipist? He's your guy.

So I hope you enjoyed the company of my four closest friends. In case you're wondering, yes I do speak to Simon, Patty, and Sean on a daily basis. Out of the three, Simon and Sean are my favourites. Patty is often nowhere to be found, probably at my mental pub. So if you see me talking to myself, I'm not REALLY talking to myself and I'm most definitely not alone.



And to finish the anecdote from the beginning, I woke up this morning and Simon was back. I suppose he went on vacation. I could use one of those. Regardless of where he went, I'm sure he had a wonderful time.

Vlogging too?!?!?!

Hey, all you readers (or reader). I realise it's been a while since you've heard from me, but I'd just like to announce that my rants can now be seen/heard on YouTube. Simply click the following link, and you will gain access to all (though not many as of now) of my rants/complaints/views on/about/regarding society.

CLICK ME!!!
Please comment, rate, and subscribe.

Cheers.

Hipster? Nah...

Recently I've been informed that I am partaking in the ever-growing hipster lifestyle. I have one question: how? I was sent the following link as a means of explaining how I'm a hipster, and I agree with a few of the points on there, but other than that, I don't see why I've been hastily labelled a hipster. I can understand the whole sarcasm and ironic part. I do have sarcastic proclivities but I don't see how I can be very ironic considering I don't fully understand what irony is. (Not to say I don't have any grasp on the concept, I just don't understand how it can apply to daily life) I also enjoy musical tastes that aren't very popular. But that's only because I enjoy broadening my tastes and talking to other people about music. I don't think that necessarily makes me a hipster. As for the hipster fashion, I don't think I am included AT ALL. First off, I have no money to fund a hipster's wardrobe, because if I were a hipster it would be the splurging and wealthy one, not the cheap and thrifty [ironic] one. Furthermore, I was under the impression that hipsters don't care about anything. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I develop obsessions rather quickly. As my readers will remember, I have Anglophilia (obsession with Brits and Ires). I always thought hipsters were people who are aloof and just go wherever they feel like going and doing enjoy anything except music, sex, and drugs. Sure, I like music, but I'm not one for drugs, and I've never partaken in sexual acts, but I can imagine most people would dig sex if they had experienced it. Similarly, I thought hipsters were aiming to be individuals, not be homogenous to the rest of society. If this is the case, then I am not a hipster. I try too hard to be like other people to be a hipster. I am simply the result of the people I know and try to act like.


To conclude, Jack Kerouac has been labelled the original hipster due to his book "On the Road", which defined the Beat generation. However, it was recorded in an interview that Jack "hated the Beat generation". It wasn't about people who were going where they wanted and did whatever they wanted. It was about the era when people were beaten down (oppressed, if you will) by everything, so they had no choice but to do so. Second of all, the Beat generation was defined by his book as the 50's. Jack Kerouac simply got the book published in the 50's. The events in the book actually occurred in the 40's. So apparently Jack didn't even write about the era he defined. To connect this to hipsterdom, it has been stated that hipsters are simply a Beat revival. If I were to revive the alleged "Beat" generation (the 50's), I'd be doing the twist and listening to Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. And I don't listen to any of those geezers.

Score
Hipsters: 0
Me : 100000

Wait... Don't hipsters blog? Damnit...

A Summer-y of the Summer (Haha...)

I consider this summer a summer of discovery. Not a discovery of land, electricity, or mathematic formulas (well I didn't discover them). This summer - the hot and humid summer of 2010 - was, indeed, a summer of discovery. I discovered myself. Now before you laugh at the corniness of that statement, let me explain. I will begin by outlining what I discovered about myself:
-Music
-Communication
-Preference
The awesome part is that they are all connected. (Side note: If you don't want to read the worst and most dragging blog ever, please skip to the 2nd to last paragraph. I was distracted while writing this, so it's a terrible blog post.)

I suppose I'll start with music. As you may or may not know, I go to FSU every summer for their summer music camps. Choral camp, specifically. While there, I roomed with a kid I met at last year's All-County choir. He and I both played guitar and took the guitar class at the camp. We shared our musical interests and gave advice on playing, singing, etc. However, while there the men's choir sang an Irish folk song called "Fergus an' Molly". Also, while there, my roommate bought a CD by the Irish band Flogging Molly. This is where the communication portion will take over.

While I and all of my friends speak English, there are still many ways of using the language. All of my life, I have had an enormous fascination with accents, mainly English, Scottish, and Irish. Then a friend suggested the movie "Trainspotting" to me, and it was the spark to my obsession. If you read earlier post, you know the extent of these obsessions. Most recently I've distinguished the difference between the Irish and Scottish accent. One day as I was leaving Ross, I walked down the sidewalk and saw a store called A Touch of Tartan, which is filled with only Celtic/Gaelic products and other British goods. The owners are from Scotland themselves, so I spoke to them and I've decided to go to the store everyday for the rest of my life. (Exaggeration) But I also recently downloaded the complete discographies of Irish bands Flogging Molly and The Pogues (Still music related.). The accents are coming along alright, but the more exciting part is that I now have RosettaStone for Irish (Gaelic/Gaeilge), Tagalog, French, and Italian. I should probably learn Tagalog first because my mom's entire side of the family speak it. But I'm working most on Irish because it's a lesser-known language and I think it's more interesting. So we'll see how that goes...

I guess now it's time for the preference portion. As I'm sure you know, the English are famous for their tea traditions and whatnot. So recently I have taken a liking to all teas. I used to only enjoy sweet tea and flavored teas, but I actually decided that iced tea is best served unsweet and with a bit of lemon juice. But most recently (as in yesterday), I bought two boxes of Twinings of London tea. I got Irish Breakfast Tea and English Breakfast Tea. They are simply delicious. I have a pot of hot water and all I've been doing all night is pouring hot cups of water and putting bags of tea in them. (Or making tea if you wanna be a killjoy.) I think I'm on cups 11-12. I've been making them in pairs so I drink an even number of English and Irish teas.

On top of those three main things, I've been taking two online classes: Pre-Calculus and HOPE (Health Opportunities throught Physical Education). I recently finished only Pre-Calculus (today).

So here I sit. Naked on my living room floor. (I'm home alone for the weekend, so that's what I do when I'm home alone.) I rode my bike to Office Depot this afternoon to buy my school supplies and I had to bring a backpack to carry all of the stuff. I can't believe school starts next Tuesday. Less than a week. Ugh.

However, my summer will end perfectly. Tomorrow, I'm going to a Demetri Martin show. Then school starts. The second day of school I'm going to a Jack Johnson concert. The third day of school is my birthday. The first Saturday of the school year, I get my license.

This was a terrible blog post because I'm so distracted. I'm sitting naked on the carpet with my laptop on my right side, and my guitar on my lap, while watching Friends and getting up to make more tea every five minutes. I apologize. If you would like a better explanation, just hit me up I suppose haha.

P.S. I also got CPR Certified. I can save your life.