Limes with Orange

I've decided to put together a list of things I want to accomplish in 2009. I suppose most folks would call these resolutions, given the time of year, but I'm a list maker by nature so to me this is just another list:

1. Breakthrough my "neurotic procrastination" and make a "guerrilla" film from start to finish by the end of February. (You can thank Scientific American Mind for providing me with my self-diagnosis of "neurotic procrastinator"; as for the "guerrilla" part… I've realized that I've become obsessed with permissions and copyrights, not a completely bad thing but I think that sometimes I just use that as an excuse to continue procrastinating.)

2. Add a short workout to my morning routine. (It's a two-hour long routine anyway, so what's another 15 or 20 minutes?)

3. Get a vermicomposter (for all of those banana peels I'm left with after making my protein shakes)… Corollary: Try not to be grossed out by the fact that it means I'll have worms living in my apartment.

4. Try to complete sleep restriction therapy and get a handle on my insomnia.

5. Learn more about Judaism. (I mentioned my interest in Judaism a bit in my post "I Believe…" and followed up a smidge in "A Piece of the Pi", but it's not something I feel like discussing in depth on my blog.)

6. Get a tattoo to memorialize my cat Tobi. (The design that I've come up with incorporates the Egyptian goddess Bast; I'll post a pic of it once I get inked.)

7. Learn some animation techniques.

8. Finish writing current draft of my feature film screenplay and submit it to Sundance to apply to their Screenwriter's Lab. (I have more film goals for myself for the year, but I'm trying to have this list reflect that I do try to have a balanced life… try.)

I did think about some of these things from a "resolution" standpoint, the types of ways that we try to "improve" ourselves: lose weight, quit smoking, etc. I remember this book that I read that talked about how many of us focus on "packaging" and "marketing" ourselves but spend far too little time on "product development"… so I thought about whether I'm addressing "product development," i.e. improving myself as a person on the inside. While I suppose starting to work out and compost could be seen as improvements, I think they're still more external.

Internally, in terms of character or personality, I suppose I would like to be more patient. And while it may not look like I'm addressing that with my list, I think that reducing my insomnia would increase my patience as a direct result of increasing the amount of truly restorative sleep I get (which is practically nil at the moment). So, since it addresses both health and character, I guess I should put that "resolution" at the top of the list.

I start courses on both Judaism and animation next week, so I'm getting going on those ideas. And I just bought a hip-hop workout DVD that I put in this morning (and realized just how long it's been since I took a dance class… yikes!). I'm already working on my guerrilla film and plan on doing some recording for the vocal track on Friday. So that just leaves my vermicomposter, tattoo, insomnia and screenplay. The vermicomposter and tattoo should be simple enough, but the other two are rather more daunting. Then again… I don't need to do it all right away, right? So maybe I'll just keep on with what I'm doing now and address those two when I've adjusted to my new routines and finished this little film.

Am I procrastinating by leaving these bigger goals for later? Maybe. But the fact is those courses that I want to take start now and I can't change that. And I can only do so much. Am I now just justifying myself? Possibly. But it's my blog so I can justify if I want to (hmm, "justify" may rhyme with "cry" but the extra syllables kinda mess up my play on words… oh well).

Labels: education, film, health, judaism, philosophy, tattoos, writing

Having been raised by a conspiracy theorist, I admit to being interested in some of the various theories that I read about. (And I am fully aware that my brain has become wired to look for conspiracies, even if I'm not a full-fledged conspiracy theorist.) So I was intrigued by this press release:

Atlantis Was a Real Place, the Americas

The kingdom of Atlantis included North, South, and Central America. It was divided into ten countries or kingdoms and each country had its own King. One of the kingdoms was also called Atlantis. The King of Atlantis was the ruler over the other nine Kingdoms. The first ruler of the Kingdom was called Atlas. This is how Atlantis got its name.

The royal city of the kingdom was located within the country of Atlantis. Within the royal city there was a royal palace. Originally, three different moats surrounded the royal palace. Plato referred to the moat formation as three zones of water and two zones of land.

As time went by they covered over the moats and cut three canals through the peninsula on which the royal palace was located. The construction of the canals divided the peninsula and formed two triangular shaped islands. The island that held the royal palace was called Atlantis. That is why Atlantis is referred to as a continent, and city, and an island.

Read the short version of Plato’s story at www.atlantiskingdom.com to learn more about Atlantis and the Americas. Then read Plato’s Timaeus and Critias to get the complete story.

I have matched the terrain features that Plato wrote about with present terrain features found in the Tampa Bay area. Research shows that Plato described Harbour Island as the small island of Atlantis. You will find that Plato recorded and published the story just as it was told. He even recorded the discussions leading up to the story. You will also notice several obvious mistakes made in translating the story from Egyptian to Greek and from Greek to English. The biggest mistake occurred when travelers came upon a shoal of mud and thought it was left over from the sunken island. They were wrong. The continent of Atlantis did not sink.

You are invited to review the facts to see for yourself that the Americas, from South America to Alaska were once the kingdom of Atlantis, a single nation. The land formation is still laid out the same as it was over 11,000 years ago. It is best viewed from the air. See image.

Source: Dennis Brooks
www.atlantiskingdom.com

The website is quite thorough. This is no casual speculation; rather it's a fully formed hypothesis. For example, if Atlantis was actually the Americas, why did everyone assume Atlantis had sunk? The author of this theory suggests that a tsunami hit as the Atlantis army was driven back into the ocean. Then, when sailors tried to find Atlantis after the tsunami, they came across a shoal of mud and thought it was the debris from Atlantis and assumed the continent had sunk. They did not go around the shoal of mud to investigate further. Okay, that explanation seems like a sound speculation to me.

I admit, however, that the idea of a war between Athens and Atlantis seems far-fetched to me if Atlantis was actually the Americas; heck of a long way to go for war (in those days). And I'm not sure how the people of Atlantis would be connected to Native American tribes, but perhaps I just need to read more to find that explanation. So, as usual, I am sceptical but intrigued. Check out the website and let me know what you think about this one.

Labels: education, philosophy, weird stuff

I love it when people create sites that seem custom suited to me. That's how I would describe StudentOfFortune.com, a website for students, tutors, and anyone who either needs help with their homework or wants to make money helping students. Since I already tutor math for pocket money and I spend a lot of time online blogging, shopping, working, etc... well, it's just a marriage made in heaven. Or it will be heaven once someone posts a math question (I know, I have a strange idea of heaven).

For now, I suppose I could pull out one of those physics texts that we used for my short film last summer and try my hand at the physics question posted. Ow! Was that an apple falling on my head?

Labels: cool sites, education, math and science