Film, Gadgets, and Geekdom

I’ve been thinking of many career choices that would be interesting. I know that I want to be a filmmaker and/or work in TV, but I think there are a lot of other jobs that could be rather interesting. Maybe it’s my desire for something new. I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about becoming an EMT. I think it would be neat to do something like that. Or being a straight up doctor at a hospital. Take note, I’m not one of those people who watches “Scrubs” or “House” and says, “Hey, that’s what being a real doctor must be like.” No, I understand things are different from TV, and that’s why I would think it interesting. I’ve been reading a lot of Heinlein recently and one quote stuck with me. I haven’t been able to shake it.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

Perhaps it’s even in that sidebar under the “The Notebooks of Lazarus Long” heading. It’s from Heinlein’s book Time Enough For Love. A book I just recently finished reading and a book that really got to me. Made me think, it did. I’ve been in a Heinlein mood recently. Learned a lot of interesting things from the man. No wonder he is considered the Grand Master of Science Fiction. I like Time Enough For Love better than the Dark Tower series (don’t get me wrong, I fucking love the Dark Tower series) because, while both made me think about my life, Heinlein made me think in a way that was actually applicable to my life. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but whatever, I think the point got across. It’s a large step of logic to understand just how little free will we human beings actually have. That may not make sense, but just think about it for a minute. I’m not talking about any “god” having a plan and a set series of actions for our lives, I’m talking about the choices we make are affected by the choices made before us. Strange idea, I know, and one very difficult to explain. Let me talk about it in terms of Time Travel. According to Heinlein, paradoxes don’t exist. If you were able to go back in time and kill your own grandfather, thus ceasing your own existence, then you wouldn’t have been born. However, the fact that you were born means that you didn’t kill your grandfather. See? It’s an impossibility. The fact that you were born means you didn’t kill your grandfather or do anything else that would impede your own existence. Make sense? No. I thought not. The fact that we choose certain actions means that there really is only one choice for what we do. We may think about multiple possibilities, but ultimately we always settle on one. So you could then argue, “Well what if I did the other one?” Well, then that’s the one you do. See, the way I view it, we always choose the option that is best for us, thus there is only one choice. The choice we made is the only choice we can make and therefore is the choice we were supposed to make since we cannot go back and remake the choice. I guess this long-winded whatchacallit boils down to not worrying if you made the right choice because you always make the right choice. You may not be happy with the consequences of the choice, but you made the choice, nothing you can do about it now.

OK, enough of that. In other news, I’m going to start working on a Dark Tower RPG. It’s a tabletop game based from the Science Fiction and Wild West RPGs I’ve already created. I’ve been thinking about it and I think it will be rather interesting. There are a couple of books I’m getting that are Dark Tower-related that will give me a better idea of the DT world. We’ll see where it goes.

Sometimes I call people. People like Dawn. I ask those people a question, questions such as, “Did you tell people that you and John found that cat?” Then those people explain what was actually said and then start freaking out like their upset because I’m yelling at them or getting angry or something. I was just trying to set records straight and get the real skinny. Oh well, I suppose living a life where people naturally think I’m going to kill them is something I’ll have to get used to. Maybe that’s why all the fun stuff happens after I leave. Maybe the fun comes out because people think I’ll spoil the fun? Or maybe things just sound more fun than they really are. I don’t know, all I know is that it sounds like things get more interesting after I leave. Which is ok, because when I leave, there is one more seat for someone to use.

It’s really weird. I don’t really see John anymore because he’s working. He really doesn’t express interest in seeing me because he has things to do. Shitty thing is from the schedule I’ve worked out in my head, I won’t see him my entire summer break. He has to work for the St. Louis Ren Faire, then when he gets done with those two weekends, he starts working for Lillies. I won’t even get to see him at Lillies because he isn’t sure I would be interested in that and I’m fairly damn sure he doesn’t want me to go even though everyone else (which I guess is just Dawn) is invited. Interesting Catch 22. So, after Lillies, he starts work on things for the Ren Faire in Columbia and KC. Oh well. I’m kind of getting tired of only seeing him when I show up at his house. He doesn’t even want to talk to me online anymore. I wonder if I did something wrong. I wonder that a lot about a lot of my friends. Probably not healthy, but it’s kind of unavoidable for me. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

Well, maybe I’ll get a job at the Super 8 Motel. Better than nothing.