Chris Thoughts Podcast

Programming the brain, hygiene breaks 11.27.00 : I wish we could learn specific things in our dreams. Each night we could program our minds to tackle issues or ideas that we do not fully grasp, and by the morning we will have packed in a few hours of solid thoughts on the matter. This would be great for things that you have read about recently, but do not yet fully grasp. For instance, take that really dense Philosophy article you just read but didn't understand. You could give the article a quick glance before retiring for the night, and then you'd be all set to ponder the issues while you are sleeping. 07.??.00 : This is going to sound really strange, but I think that both the workplace and schools could be benefitted by starting hygeine breaks. I think people should be encouraged to take time out of their day to wash up. Not only would it lead to a greater degree of hygeine but it would also strengthen morale. I can tell you that there have been many times that just splashing some water on my face has made me feel better and more ready to go back to work/study.

The universe and washrooms 11.25.00 : Not that I came up with this or anything, but I think it is cool that one can view the universe as a fractal. Looking at the universe as a whole, each speck could represent a local supercluster. Viewing that as a whole, each speck of that would then be an individual galaxy. Of course, these would then also be made up of their own hierarchy of particles. So, without even getting into things very far, you can see how this definitely resembles fractalline nature. 11.??.00 : Okay, you can tell that I was really sick of using dormitory commodes at this point... Strictly for making the world a cleaner place, I think that washrooms might also be equipped with tollgates that will not let you out until you have washed your hands. This is logistically a bit sketchy, but for the sake of hygeine I think that there might be an advantage to it.

Gesturing and deja vu. 12.02.00 : I have often noticed that when I point out something on someone else's face by pointing at my own, it is only on rare occasions that a person will choose the correct side of their face. A large majority of the time, the other person will pick the mirror-image of where I was pointing (for example, I point to the right side of my face, they pick the left side of theirs). I don't really know how important it is, but I just wonder what makes some people pick the "correct" side while others choose the other. Then again, for the people who do pick the mirror-image side, I bet they would probably think that I was the one that was wrong. ??.??.99 : Speaking of dreams, it is my belief that bouts of deja vu are closely related to dreams. My theory is that when we sleep, we go through thousands of vignettes. You can think of it as your brain running through a whole bunch of scenarios so that you'll know what to do should you ever be in that situation. We only remember these when we wake up in the middle of one, resulting in what we call a dream. As we go about our daily lives and happen to come upon a scenario that is similar enough to one experienced in one of these scenarios, it is this familiarity that causes what we sense as deja vu. That, in a nutshell, is what I think dreams are all about.

Book buy-back and perception vs. reality. 12.16.00 : Well, this is by no means a unique thought. In fact, it is one that virtually every college student thinks around this time of year: that book buyback is a terrible deal to us students. At the beginning of the semester we shell out big bucks to buy our books, and then they give us (at BEST) only half of that? That in itself is messed up. But then you have to figure that they aren't even passing the difference off to us with their used books. I know that the used books I buy never have more than 25% discount off the new price. So you have to figure that we're basically getting ripped off at both ends. I'm not even mentioning how over-priced the books are in the first place. It's things like this that make me want to form a student-run used book trading group. I think it would be more fair that way. I know that a lot of us have had this idea, so we should make it happen somehow... 12.20.00 : You know, I think that in the battle versus perception and reality, sometimes I would like to just stick with my perception even if it is wrong. What I mean to say is that when I imagine something, I would rather go along with the made-up theory than with reality. For example, if you see someone on the street frantically fussing with something on the ground, only to walk away in a huff seconds later, it is cooler to imagine that he is a spy planting some devious device into the ground, rather than learning that it was just a nervous tourist tying his shoes. I think that in most instances like this, your imagination is much more interesting than reality. However, with people's lives this becomes a bit more sketchy. It is always better to learn more about someone's real lives than to just make up some life story for them. But it is also pretty hard to deal with the news that someone who you thought you knew has changed drastically. Maybe I'm just trying to justify my reactions to that situation. Maybe it's that when any perception lasts long enough, it eventually will become, in essence, your reality...and when this "reality" is shattered, I believe it would just have been easier to fall back on your perceptions than to have learned the truth. Either way, it is a pretty fine line, since you would be sacrificing somebody else's true personality simply to hold intact your fragile view of your surroundings. At what point does it become alright to make up somebody else's life to suit your own?

Book covers and lasers. Theme music: "Propaganda" by Jammin-INC. Used with permission from Podsafe Music Network. 12.09.00 : Why are book covers so important? What makes books worth so much more just for having that stupid piece of paper on the outside? Apparently you can't even sell a book back to a store without one. Why do we feel the need to protect the covers more than the book, when it's really what's under the cover that matters? I mean, if you follow this sort of logic, maybe it is true that we judge books by their covers. 12.05.00 : It would be neat, but probably logistically impossible, to have handheld lasers with enough intensity to slice through clouds. It would be so cool to just be able to point the laser up into the sky and be able to draw things in the clouds with them. Of course, I would have to be the only one who had one, or else all you guys would cut up the clouds before I got a chance to.