Art of the corner...
1 minute read Published:
Art of the corner
Roar of the engine, a wildcat
Ride to feel alive
I’ve never written a haiku before, but I had to. It was tricky! I think it almost comes close to describing the joy of riding. Almost.
Posts
Eureka moments never had
2 minute read Published:
“Little particles of inspiration sleet through the universe all the time traveling through the densest matter in the same way that a neutrino passes through a candyfloss haystack, and most of them miss.” — Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
Most of them never find the right target.
The human mind possesses an overwhelming capacity for creativity that continually overwhelms me. Society, science, technology….humanity…has advanced in directions that were previously unimaginable, nevermind thought impossible.
No one else will write it for you
3 minute read Published:
Barely minutes ago I crossed 50,000 words, the bar set to ‘win’ National Novel Writing Month. Funny how my instinct is then to immediately write yet more words huh? But these are important words.
The reason I put the word win in inverted commas above is because winning is relative. Any words you write during NaNo are more words than you would have written otherwise. One of the quotes I have stuck around my monitor to motivate me during the challenge is:
Writing Prompt: “What do you mean, ‘It broke’”?
4 minute read Published:
The sun hung low in the sky, a red swollen disk. It’s rays stabbed their way through the smog filled air, elbowing the clouds aside. All was quiet within the dilapidated and empty manor that squatted within an expansive but overgrown lawn. The soot covered brickwork was streaked with moisture, and the roof sagged in places where nagging rot ate away at the thick timber beams. It was set far back from the bustle of London behind towering hedges and ornate ironwork.
Facts not faith. Or else…
3 minute read Published:
Sometimes, I wonder how people can possibly deny the facts of climate change. Then…I remember that there are still those that legitimately believe, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the Earth is flat.
Yes, that’s right. There are people on this globe (particular choice of words here very much intentional) that genuinely think that the Earth is flat. To give some context as to how ridiculous this truly is, the Ancient Greeks not only knew that the Earth is a sphere, but calculated its radius to within 0.
Mind’s eye blind
2 minute read Published:
Sunset. Golden reds and yellows pouring, fading away, succumbing to the clutching grasp of creeping twilight, the strangling darkness.
For most people, those sentences conjured a vivid mental image. I would surmise that those for which an image appeared were unaware that it was only most, and not all, people that ‘see’ mental images. In fact, the converse is probably true — those for which no image appeared are probably confused to discover that most people actually see images, the mind’s eye functioning much the same as a real eye.
One Life. Live it.
2 minute read Published:
One Life. Live it.
The proposed existence of an afterlife is irrelevant to this current existence, in short.
There are two main possibilities. Either the afterlife exists, or doesn’t. Let’s take possibility one, it doesn’t. Well, presumably if it does not, after you die, you just cease to exist. This sounds scary at first, except by definition it…cannot be. If you have ceased to exist, you therefore **cannot **be aware of the cessation in your existence…by the very fact you have ceased to exist.
Is a human mind in a robot body still…human?
2 minute read Published:
The question posed in the title is a particular example of a wider question: What makes us human? Are we nothing but the sum of our parts, or is there something more to it?
I believe that consciousness and self-awareness is what defines a ‘self’. Put another way, to be ‘you’ necessitates knowledge that you are ‘you’. Unlike some, I do not believe our physical bodies play any part in defining who or what we are.
Something has to give
1 minute read Published:
Finding the balance of light in the dark
Dramatic and cynical. That’s me. Sometimes dramatic and morbid. Frequently dramatic and self-derisive. But not often dramatic and funny. Or indeed, dramatic and happy. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, all things considered.But of course it doesn’t because I don’t.
I am a fundamental conflict with no visible resolution. My life philosophy is founded on the impossible - two diametrically opposed sets of beliefs. It shouldn’t work. It doesn’t work and yet it is.