Jack

-Of all trades to be more specific.
I feel, and constantly am told, that I fit that particular title. I have a great deal of knowledge as well as experience in a great many fields. To give a small example in the realm of the arts I have years of experience in ceramics/sculpting, over a decade in music, years of drawing, water coloring(not like kindergarten, more sophomoric attempts), pastels, oil paints, rock carving, baking, cooking, sewing (awful at it), writing (creative as well as academic)...
But the hitch is, though I have knowledge and experience in these fields, I am not overly proficient in any given area. For the longest time I have considered this shmorgisborg (sp?) of ability to be rather novel, but useless. There are very few careers or professions in the world where such a diverse portfolio is really applicable. (I wish to say at this time that it is because I've never really been sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, that I have left as many options available to me as possible)
But amidst my reading of a book on game design (don't judge, cause I won't care) the author described what abilities an effective designer requires. Reading through these I realized that the only person capable of handling any position of leadership or authority are those who have this kind of diversity in abilities and experiences. To say the least, this is a reassuring (if not a little presumptuous) thought to me.
I say right now that I want to be a music librarian, but the more I think about the more I lean towards administration in the long run, and information technology in the short, peppered with the desire to also be a video game composer (hence the book at the start) . To achieve such places I need to good at a lot of things, but not necessarily great at any one task.
To put it another way: you can be the world famous diva/divo and be a phenominal singer, peerless and beautiful. Or you can become the composer: knowing just enough about a great many instruments, but not a great player of any (necessarily). Yes that analogy has a lot of if's and but's about it, but I think it gets the point across. Both positions are used to fulfill the end (beautiful music), and arguably are no better than each other.
Why I put that out there is because to be a good organizer or leader, you have to be diverse in your knowledge base. To be a remarkable individual, you must be brilliantly knowledged in your specific area. I am the earlier to a far greater degree than the later, and feel more confident in my select career decisions.

posted from Bloggeroid

SETI, gravity, and exoplanets

With a title like that you may expect a sci-fi novella or a chapter from a William Kotzwinkle book, but I actually want to discuss a hypothetical scenario.

Today I was listening to some podcasts from NPR. My favorite program (as I'm sure you *all* know) is Science Friday. Thee program usually has one or two pods on some astro subject (NASA,SETI,CERN,Mars Rover...) This last Friday there was a pod about the (recent) discovery of exoplanets. These are actual planets that are solitary and without (supposedly) a star or solar system to orbit. To me this is cool, albeit nerdy. Anyways, the way the two professionals being interviewed (who were working on the exoplanet project together) explained that these occurred most likely in one of two ways:
first way: that enough debris was in their localized space to coalesce into a planet. Makes sense to me.
Second way: that at one point they did belong to a solar system, and have since been ejected for one reason or another. How this theory works is that most solar systems only have enough gravitational force to bind no more than 2-7 planets in an orbit. Once it has reached that limit and for one reason or another a new planet enters into the solar system, it creates a gravitational shock that knocks another planet(s) out of that orbit. Eventually these planets come to rest somewhere outside their solar system, free of their star's gravity well.

So here is my purely unscientific, speculative hypothesis:in the case of looking for other potential intelligent,biological beings, wouldn't make more sense to start looking at solar systems with larger numbers of planets in orbit?

My rationality:
Every biological system has niches that can to be filled, and only so far as said system can spend. Such as: not evey fish in the ocean can be the size of a whale. The food chain and size of the ocean cannot permit such a thing. Herbivorous aquatics would devour whole forests of plants in days. Not to mention the carnivorous fish would have a ridiculous time killing and eating. One fish would be able to ferd them for a week, but would rot far sooner than that, and with no smaller fish to scavenge the remains, it would just pollute the water. So there are every size and variation of aquatic life-to fill in every "job"of the ecological system. Bottom feeders, scavngers, hunters, grazers, fighters, defenders, giants, shrimps...
So now to bring this in to something relevant. The simple reason (i believe) that there is only one sentient species on Earth (not getting philisophical here) I.e humans, is because that is all one mass ecological system can afford. Think about it-we cultivate the land, animal populations, atmospheric events, ocean levels... whether these events are intentional or not, we cause them. So in essence, we have become the caretakers and cultivators of this mass ecology. (we don't control it indefinitely, there are several smaller eco-systems that we don't meticulously cultivate for they are of little consequence to us). I will say it is possible that an aquatic being of the deep oceans may become sentient, but only because we have minimal impact on it's development.
Now, understanding that it is innate for all biological beings to survive and reproduce, humans having escalated to such an encompassing eco-niche, has to think if preserving more than just themselves, but all the other aspects that allow them to thrive and prosper (animals, plants, soil, land,dikes, reservoirs, lakes, dams , rivers,...). So ut is a logical conclusion that if we grew beyond the borders if our planet and began to inhabit other planets, we would be inclined to force planets to stay put lest they be ejected and greatly alter the sun's gravity well. So if there were to be a new planet trying to muscle its way in, we would try to allow the planet in (since I doubt we will ever have a force capable of destroying or flat out moving it) without letting any of the other planets go, to preserve the biological balancing act we have grown into. My idea for this comes from one of the scientists explanation using a full coffee cup that may have had to overflow to be perfectly full. This analogy likening gravity to a liquid made me think if the borealis (correction?)effect in cups with too much liquid-that the top can overextend the lip of the cup. And since gravity and weak valence bonds have so much in common...
Since we can only work with what we know, we can only assume any potential intelligent life we can fathom will have more likely filed the same, or similar, ecological niche as ourselves. So therefore it would make sense that if they had the ability to move across the stars and planets, they would attempt to preserve their local solar systems too.

I understand there are a lot of fallicies and assumptions in this, but hey, this is what crossed my mind when I heard this 5min podcast. Aliens are just alien to us and any real assumption on what conditions to look for or logical assumptions that "aliens must have this to exist" are just silly, but hey, it's an exciting thing to think about!

posted from Bloggeroid

Summer!

So here is to the first post of summer (I think...). So far it has been rather dreary and rainy ere whatnot. It has also been a relief. I finally get to feel like people are human again, and that all the pointless drama of the year has finally ebbed out.

I love the summer because I finally have time to set my mind into an inspired mode. No class or performance ensembles to get in my way, I only have to work full time.

So far the things I have been inspired to do this summer:

1)Learn to program in C++(+)*

2)Compose more*

3)Start a studio of my own

4)Do small fun crafts and projects. (need to get different creative outlets to grow the bigger one!)

5) Go geochacheing! The weather hasn't been too permitable yet...

6)Practice, Practice, Practice- I actually want to keep my chops now that I feel like I'm good enough to actually call myself a musician, can't screw that up!

7)Grow my relationships more. Cmon, it's hard to be always present during the school year, so I need to make summer count!

8)Cook new and exciting things (nom)

9)Work up my Senior Rectial music. I want it done. NOW

10)READ (i have around 20+books laying around at home I've been waiting to read...)

11)Take my GRE. My last year has come, I need to actually test, and ya know, get into grad school.

12) Get grad school applications. It has finally come to this.

13)Fix my damn car.

14)Make it to Boise for friends and family. (a few set dates in mind)

15)Work with digital sound programs.*

Probably a lot more to add to this, just not on the top of my head atm.

There are a few of these goals that have a (*) next to them. These are so I can say this in one fell swoop-that these goals pertain to a larger, long term goal I have in mind. That I really want to work on becoming a video game/movie composer. It is kind of backwards to be getting my masters in Information Technologies and want to become a composer, but the way I look at it is that I need a day job for this sort of trick to work. Information Technologies offers a great day job I will love, as well advanced techniques into programming. Coupling that experience with my musical background and want to compose, I believe I would make a damn fine composer for any company that would have me. And if one day that could be my day job, so be it.

It was a crazy school year, lots of drama, lots of learning, lots of growing. I feel though, that now as the end is approaching for my undergraduate career, that I have a second wind for this whole education thing, that I feel like I can tackle another degree and be more than ready to face the adult world. I don't intend to slack in my work ethic by any means, I desire to take my life and make something out of it. I could be a great librarian, I could also be a great composer, I will be a great parent and husband someday, and overall, I intend to do ALL these things simultaneously. You only get one shot at this life thing, might as well make it count dammit.