the power of 3!

I watched an Ancient Aliens (I don't know why...) about how the number 3 is a gift from extraterrestrial life. The experts say that the prevalence of the number 3 in history is calling our attention.

 

This is actually true, but of course has nothing to do with aliens.

3 "is a unique number" (as Ancient Aliens would state it) because it is representative of 'perspective' reality (or the reality of perspectives?). Many philosophies and religions are laid out as a battle between good and evil. Some very astute religions (philosophies? where is the line drawn?!?) have taken this a step further as chaos vs. order.

"But what does this have to do with the number 3?!" you may ask.
Of course, 3 is everything! In the religious battles of good vs. evil there is always a 3rd side to the story: mankind. Or in the case of chaos vs. order the middle is "the dao" (or "the way").

 

Both of these ideas are so close to truth. When it's good vs. evil the neutral zone is mankind, or who we are. When it's chaos vs. order the neutral zone is "the way," or what we do.

 

In reality it is everything vs. nothing and the neutral zone is perspective, or consciousness. In essence, consciousness is the phenomenon that occurs at the interface of two extremes. It is the existence that we all experience. It is untouchable because when it is breached on either side it is no longer an interface of contrast. In other words, consciousness is awareness, not knowledge. In order to truly understand something you must be separate from it -- this is the fractional nature of our reality.

 

Untouchable and unknowable at the same time and us, right in the middle.

Some people are just plain misinformed.

Long Time No Post!

I'm here to tell you what I've been up to lately:

http://www.soundcloud.com/callif

The Real World: Dollhouse

"If ... a set of generalist neurons could be programmed to express signal transduction machinery that normally is present only in specialized sensory cells, these neurons also might acquire the capacity to respond selectively to the adequate physical or chemical triggers. Not only could all members of a population of neurons then be addressed simultaneously, susceptibility to stimulation rather than the stimulus itself would be localized, and even diffusely broadcast stimuli could elicit precise, patterned responses."

Zemelman, B.V., Nesnas, N., Lee, G.A., & Miesenbo, B. (2003) Photochemical gating of heterologous ion channels: Remote control over genetically designated
populations of neurons. PNAS 100(3), 1352-1357

Let's Check My Mail!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while!
College has been really busy...* (sort of ;P)

Anyways, remember that "young boy with a purple button up shirt and gelled hair"? Well he's been e-mailing me!

"Hey, it's me again. I thought about what you said, and I clearly understand your view of the Bible and faith. However, I strongly encourage to keep your mind open to truth. I'm sorry you couldn't make it to our revival meetings*, but there is another date I'd like you to keep in mind. November 1 is a special service for our guests. I understand your busy schedule but if it is possible, I can promise you it will be well worth the effort. It's not about joining the church, it's about hearing truth. I really believe if you come with an open mind you'll find answers to a lot of your questions about Christianity, the Bible, and faith. I think it would benifit you more than you think. I appreciate you getting back to me last time and I respect your willingness to talk. My prayer is that the truth (whatever it is), would be clearly revealed to both of us. Here's a Bible verse, John 3:18. There are only two kinds of people, those who believe and those who do not. And there are only two consequences, either you are not condemned to hell or you are. If you have minute, I strongly encourage you to check it out. Later Callif."

 Hefty stuff! Let's focus on the last part:


"There are only two kinds of people, those who believe and those who do not"
Translation: I believe in god, you don't.

"There are only two consequences, either you are not condemned to hell or you are." 
Translation: One of us is going to burn eternally, guess who it is.   
I think he just threatened me!
Fuckin' hypochristians.

*My best friend was coming back in town and I needed to do some heathen partying with him!

Some Theists Just Don't Know How To Take A Joke...

Fox or Foe?

Glenn Beck, Fox talk show host, is at it again.

In his last show, he spoke about Derrion Albert, the 16-year-old who was beaten and killed in a gang fight. Derrion was not even a member of either gang -- he was only trying to help a friend and got caught in the violence.

But the controversy is in Glenn Beck's monologue titled, "God Is Old News; Just Ask the Government." Glenn took advantage Derrion's story and used this tragedy to preach.

"What has caused this?...

God is no longer imprinted on America. Instead of being held up, God is being taken down."

I was most aggravated by this next quote.

"Maybe we need to stop looking at social justice and start looking at eternal justice."

It doesn't matter whether or not there is a god or gods. No matter what, we must all take responsibility. Just as we don't blame "God" for tragedies like this one, we cannot give "God" credit for things like making America powerful (Glenn talks about this in his speech too).

Having said that, there is one thing Glenn said that I do agree with.

"Let's celebrate our freedom...But let's not kill each other."

Sara Callif: Blog Crasher

“The children are our future.”

Given that I was trapped in Jewish days schools, where indoctrination was key, from the ages of 2½ through 13, I’ve heard that saying about a gajillion times too many. However, I had never truly thought about its significance until the other day.

It all started with cereal. I pulled out a box of Honey Nut Cheerios and found this:

Just a box of Cheerios, right?

Wrong!

Look a little closer.

It comes with a prize. *gasp*

But wait…there’s something wrong with this…

Even though the prize is a credit card, it says, "CA$H" on it.

This raises a huge issue. Any child who eats General Mills cereal has seen this “cash card.” Those poor kids won’t be able to tell the difference between cash or credit – even paper or plastic! And before you can say supercalif(heylookitsalmostmylastname!bythewaythisissaracallifwriting)ragilisticexpialidocious, the world will overflow due to poor people and pollution.

To sum up this rant, if the children are the future, and they eat General Mills cereal, then we, as the present (or are we the past?) are screwed. No human can save us now. Our only hope is prayer – to FSM.

And just in case that doesn’t work, I’ll be buying a one-way ticket to Hell. Feel free to join the party.

rAmen.

~Sara Callif

Hurray! Sara Made It!

Please welcome my sister, Sara, as the new co-author of this blog! She's young, smart, and sassy; I'm sure you'll love her posts.

How I'll Have My Bachelor's Degree At 19

Anonymous commented on a previous post:

"lmfao. one of ur best postes ever callif.
btw, wut year r u in college? do u hav credits to graduate early or anything?"

First of all, thank you! I try :)

Also, I am a junior in college (18 years old), but I will be graduating in about a year and a half.  How's that for early! I don't want to blow your anonymity but I'm just going to assume you're in either high school or college, and if you are, this post will be of great help to you!

(Anyone else in college or high school reading this should be paying attention right now)


This is the way I did it, but many people seem to think they wouldn't be able to follow in my footsteps.

I dropped out of high school, basically just bumming around for a little bit.  At that point I was learning a lot on my own, but not getting good grades, so we figure the best option would be to stop forcing me to go to high school and let me teach myself whatever I wanted to learn; homeschooling.
That's the part most people seem to flinch at.
Personally I think everyone is capable of it, you just have to realize that high school is not a good representative of pure learning, and if you were allowed to teach yourself whatever you wanted however you wanted to it could be a lot more fun... but that's besides the point, even if I could convince you highschoolers to homeschool, I doubt you'd be able to convince your parents... so we'll move on to the easier part.

CLEP tests

According to the website linked above, CLEP is the "College Level Examination Program."  Basically it's a bunch of tests designed to let you go to college cheaply, efficiently, and quickly.  Each tests takes about 3 weeks to study for (4 months for a regular course), costs $70-$120 with the textbook ($1000-$1500 for a regular college course and textbook), and is anywhere from 3-12 credits (A one semester course is 3-4 credits).  At least some of these tests are likely offered and accepted your local college.  Go to the CLEP page on the College Board website (link given above) and follow the instructions on their page.

If you do plan on trying out some of these tests you should do a couple things.  First, make sure that the specific test you want to take is accepted for credit at the college you want to attend.  You would probably have to visit the website of the college to get that information.  Second, make sure Amazon,  eBay, or your local book store carries the REA Study Guide, which is by far the best way to prepare for a CLEP (the REA website also has them for sale, and although they're more expensive you get tons of money off if you buy 3 or more).  These books have a great study schedule set up for you, as well as 2 practice tests to give you an idea of how well you'll do on the real exam.

Once you've done all that it's just a matter of taking the test and getting the credit for your newly gained knowledge! You don't have to be in high school or college to make this work for you either.  Adults looking to further their education should take this offer into consideration as well!

If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me, or leave a comment! Happy learning :D

Hehe...

"Whats better than hearing Richard Dawkins say evolution? Hearing Richard Dawkins say boobies!"
-Sara Callif



Wouldn't you love to see some posts from her? She's like a tiny, female male version of me!

Okay... SOME Parts of College Rock

My Child Psych course is a pretty standard 200-person lecture class. It's a prerequisite for almost every other psychology course, and is fairly low level. I'm pretty bored with it, but I'll deal. My problem is that the people aren't exactly the brightest bulbs. The other day we were talking about prenatal genetic testing for heritable diseases.

The professor asked what the moral and ethical implications for prenatal genetic testing were, so, of course, a (slightly) older gentleman in the front row raised his hand and said:
"You could test for a disease, then get an abortion based on the test results."
And the teacher agreed; prenatal testing could lead to horrible things like abortion. It is true that this is an ethical issue that we should contemplate, but I am inclined to disagree with my professor's sentiment. There are many diseases that would cause a child to be better off dead. We could argue about this all day, but it would be missing the point of this post.

Two days later we were talking about the spread of HIV and AIDS through breastfeeding, and the same guy asks:
"Is there a law against breastfeeding if you have AIDS?! There should be! It's murder!"
This statement missed the obvious fact that all childbirth is murder, not even mentioning the multitude of horrible genetic deformities and diseases that can drastically decrease the quality of life (and lifespan!) of those who inherit them... All of those could be easily avoided. Through what you ask? Abortion of course.

Later on in my discussion group the T.A. asked what the ethical implications of genetically engineering children could be. One particularly perky girl (this class is at 8 A.M... No one should be perky at that hour lol) answered in a spectacularly thoughtless fashion. She said:
"Well, if we make perfect humans we'd be interfering with the way God made us."
Thank Pasta it was so early in the morning, otherwise I probably would have smashed my forehead into my palm.

Oh well! I guess I'll just have to focus on the positive... like, I'm in college! I have my own house! I love learning!

Poorly Considered Argument

Rudeness abounds in YouTube debates!
It started with a comment made by some Christian bigot.
He said something along the lines of:
"Stop having sex with holes that are meant for excrement!"
To which I responded:
"Vaginas are used for excrement."
So he said:
"Vaginas are not used for excrement asswipe, WTF is wrong with you? move the hell out of the US if you like gay, sickening perversion loser!!"
Really?...
Someday the world will be filled with intelligent discussion, or I'll be dead. Either way works.

Ray Comfort... *sigh*

These people are fucking moronic.

"An atheist believes Nothing made everything."
"help to pull the plug on the rising tide of atheism"
-Ray Comfort

And this guy thinks he could take Dawkins in a debate... are you fucking kidding me?

YouTube Sucks!

After writing a lengthy and disparaging response to a Christian troll via comment I proceeded to click "Post Comment" but to my despair, when I clicked the button, instead of showing the usual "Comment Posted!" it just said "Post Comment" again! Even worse, that incredibly long comment I posted couldn't be highlighted! No copy and paste for me... So I refreshed the page and wrote the comment again. I figured it was just a fluke, so I didn't even bother copying my post... I was wrong. This time I refreshed, wrote my response, copied it, saved it in a word document, then pushed post. Still nothing. After about twenty minutes of troubleshooting, and posting, and copying, and blah blah blah, I got an error message at the bottom of my screen.
It looked like this.



Of course, I was absolutely horrified! First you don't let me post a comment (on my own video even!), then you insult my intelligence so directly and personally? Perhaps you missed it. How dare they insinuate that I "Can't read?" Those obnoxious bastards! Do they really think this kind of thing is a user error!?!

Well needless to say, YouTube has caused me too much frustration... I'm afraid I can no longer visit that wonderful (on paper) website.
;)

Intelligent Discussion Is Hard To Come By

I'm reading a book called "Why Don't Students Like School" and let me tell you, it really has me thinking. I haven't gotten very far, seeing as I'm in the middle of moving out and have no time for reading, but the first couple of pages that I've read are fascinating!

It basically explains that humans don't like thinking. It's slow, takes up lots of energy, and rarely leads you to the correct answer. When I think about it like that it almost makes me feel bad for people who seem ignorant...

For example, I overheard a conversation about talent. Most of the people were arguing that talent is something you have to work for, while only ONE person was arguing that it was inherent. Now, this may just be semantics, but the definition of talent according to Princeton's website is:

"A person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity"

Uh... Innate ability? Do you have to work for that? It seems fairly ridiculous that people don't even think about the very definition of the word when they're arguing about it, but even more ridiculous to think that the person arguing for innateness didn't even use that argument!

It seems as though my outrage with the world will not come to an end until we genetically modify ourselves to be more efficient thinking machines. For now, I will have to endure living in the minuscule minority.

Really?...

Give me 30 minutes in a room with any of these kids and I guaruntee that if they haven't drastically changed their viewpoints they will within 6 months.

I am the antidote.

Anyone In Here?... *tumbleweed*

For those of you who check my blog (0) more than my YouTube (200) I should be posting a new video soon, which is big news because I don't do that often! Check for it tonight or tomorrow!

Media... *sigh*

Taliban 'brainwashed' Pakistan [sic] teen suicide bombers
Really? Well what's the difference between that and this?

The latter is too subtly harmful to hold our attention.

Stealth Blogging 101

First off, tell everyone you're not going to be posting for a while...
Then, don't post for a while.
Start posting again.

Shhhh... don't tell anyone I'm back! ;)