BlogDogIt

     Do you believe in God?  Yes   No   Unsure

Regardless of how you answer this question, mankind has found it desirable for you to be identified with one of these labels:

• If you answer "Yes" you are considered a Theist.
• If you answer "No" you are an considered an Atheist.
• If you answer "Unsure" you are considered Agnostic.

Given this reality:

• Many theist will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)
• Many atheist will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)
• Many agnostics will have the unwavering opinion that their beliefs are true and those who do not agree are somehow wrong (or at the very least misguided.)

This may be the one religious "Trio" we can all agree on.

A realistic examination of a human being's existence will show that any one of these labels may well be applicable to an individual at any given moment. Labels can shift when the devout worshiper has a moment of doubt or a died-in-the-wool atheist is caused to wonder (if even for an instant,) when the agnostic feels a pull from one side to the other for instance. This is certainly a topic that has worked to shape human civilization throughout history and affects us all (for better or worse) on a daily basis.

One troubling aspect of the entire debate - if we can at least agree on the "debatability" of God's existence - are the great many defining characteristics ascribed to the role of a "Supreme Deity." Whether known as God, Allah, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Vishnu, Yahweh, Zeus, Jupiter, Allah, Xavier, Waheguru, Jah, Ngai, Baal or countless other "handles", people around the world have found at least some benefit in the recognition of forces that permeate the universe which appear greater than what can be entirely comprehended by mere mortals. Even the unbelieving atheist is not generally willing to disregard the fact that science, in its attempts to explain all that is, falls short in a great many troubling ways.

Many folks simply take it on "faith" that their God is real. Many claim to be looking for signs or proof before they will subscribe to such notions. Still others will entirely turn away from any such thoughts, preferring to live their lives devoid of any and all fruitless struggles and attempts to know the unmistakably, unknowable. 

Another of those timeless human conundrums is embodied in the question, "Why are we here?" Any answer to this is undoubtedly going to be in "essay" form. In many ways the world's religious institutions owe their very existence to the persistence of humanity's desire for an answer to that very question. Whether the question is asked at the personal, internal level: "Why am I here?" or on a more cosmic scale: "What does it all mean?" any answer we are likely to come up with in our present situation - particularly if expressed in a global forum - is going to result in quintessentially unresolvable matters of opinion with an "agree to disagree" outcome at best. If only it were possible to actually and truly "agree" on our rights to "disagree" this world would be a far better place (of course you may disagree with this assessment.)

I believe in absolute Truth; that there is to be found a common, universal explanation for all that "was, is or ever will be." I intend to explore this reality from the standpoint that:

1. we cannot all be right (but what if we are?)
2. we cannot all be wrong (but what if we are?)
3. we are all in this together (whether we want to be or not.)
4. knowledge of Truth is a reasonable expectation (even if many of its aspects are ultimately, unknowable.)

Oh, and yes... God is Real.

To be continued...

 

I kicked-off my Real.Video channel - named InfinitelyRemote - today with this video BlogDogIt has had imbeded for several years...

Always Remember: September 11, 2001
This video is a chilling tribute to those involved that fateful day.
Many thanks and apologies to http://footygi.com - the original source for this video. This is no longer available for viewing on that website (as far as I can determine.) It is so important to never forget what we all experienced that day.
Always remember that freedom comes with a price. God Bless America!

https://www.real.video/channel/masodo

TLDR: There was precious little reporting about the demise of DtDNS so I thought I would help spread the news. I look forward to many years with DYNU and only hope if they decide to go away they might give a little more of a "heads-up" than we got from the other guy.

Not one to let this internet fad get too far beyond my grasp, I have been obliged to explore the inner workings of the new HTML5 protocols for the construction of web pages. My studies have been mostly in the form of deconstructing some of the HTML5 games I have been installing over at the DeBurger Game Room online arcade.

It must have been within the confines of that more methodical - dare I say, logical - mode of thinking that my pet thought exercise - the previously revealed inspiration for my gravitar icon [see: Mathematical Obsession? ] - concerning geometry of circumscribed square inscribed with circle, returned once again to my center of consciousnesses. This simple geometric construct has always suggested, to my mind, some hidden, cosmic significance. Beckoning me  with those forces of the universe that can really only be explored through carefully administered mathematics.

Not one to let my inability to carefully administer mathematics hinder me in an attempt, I took it upon myself to create within the esoteric mechanics of the javascript programming language, a representation of this geometric abstraction/distraction that offered an added dimension to my usual 2 dimensional envisagement of form by the inclusion of the fourth with a suggestion of the third; an exercise I entered into with all the certainty of a theoretical physicist albeit without the typically manditory, prerequisite education.

Armed only with the preconceived notion of what I wanted to depict I - by way of the internet - became myself, a virtual cog in the machine with which the global, computational hive-mind works tirelessly to replicate itself through the dissemination of knowledge among the hairless apes in a way that stresses the inevitable futility of resistance.   

It was while immersed in the vagaries of determining the proper expansion rates of circles in comparison to squares that I happened upon a quite irrational little discovery that I have learned has been known since 1600 - 1800 B.C. Mesopotamia, as evidenced in the Babylonian clay tablet known as YBC 7289 (from the Yale Babylonian Collection. Image to the left †)  The required incantation invoked in order to bring to life my vision of the infinitely expanding, nested shapes was what is commonly referred to as "The Square Root of Two" or more precisely: "approximately 1.41421356237..."

The result of this exercise is presented within the "iFrame" below followed by the code required to draw the effect. Those who do not understand such things should stand in awe of my achievement. Those who can see quite clearly when they peer into the supplied code will rightly bust-a-gut at the hack chosen to render the desired effect. In either case, I hope that when you gaze upon this meager point-plot animation you will remember those early humanoids as well as this somewhat more recently developed model together in that same moment wherein you wonder, "what were they thinking?"

"CubeSphere" by masodo

The HTML5/javascript code to render the above animation:

† A black and white rendition of the Yale Babylonian Collection's Tablet YBC 7289 (c. 1800–1600 BCE), showing a Babylonian approximation to the square root of 2 (1 24 51 10 w: sexagesimal) in the context of Pythagoras' Theorem for an isosceles triangle. The tablet also gives an example where one side of the square is 30, and the resulting diagonal is 42 25 35 or 42.4263888... Source: Bill Casselman and the Yale Babylonian Collection.
 

It has long been my intent to continue running BlogDogIt.com on the Geeklog CMS platform; doing my best to utilize existing features and plug-ins to keep this place on the cutting edge. Not too long ago though, I waxed poetic over my wishing to do something with the platform that - to my knowledge - had never been done with Geeklog. (See:Getting Geeky With IT)

I am pleased to report that after having submitted my work to Geeklog.net, I was informed by them that my modification - which I have named "RSS Last Post" -  has been accepted and added to their official downloads section under the heading "Add-ons" subcategory "Hacks."

Get only the latest post from your favorite blogs.
Display in side block or static page.

A great deal of my blogging efforts revolve around promoting others' blogs. For many years I would use the Geeklog Portal Blocks to share their RSS feeds. I soon got the idea to attempt to extract a remote site's latest post and feature it in a static page or block and set about cobbling together this hack. In addition to showing the last post for the blog it also gets the website's logo and link if supplied to their feed (some do, some don't.)

Click the image above to visit the RSS Last Post download page and download the ZIP file - chocked full of tasty PHP Soup. Look around BlogDogIt for several examples of this hack in action.

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

The BlogDogIt tradition continues of creating animated GIF images using scenes from trailers for each Big Biting Pig Productions movie release. This installment of 2 image files is from their 10th movie: "It Lives in the Attic"

What's Up Those Stairs?

"It Lives in the Attic" (2016) - Big Biting Pig Productions

It is always great fun to see what the good folks at Big Biting Pig Productions have unleashed upon the world with each of their annual horror productions. This year's release is their tenth movie to date. Written, directed and staring Steve Hudgins, it is titled "It Lives In The Attic" and perhaps the scariest thing about this film is that it ever lived in the mind of Steve Hudgins. You know what they say... better out than in. Oh, really?

The pre-release trailers for this film did little to reveal any more about what to expect than does the film's title; this signaled to me that the actual story line was being held close to the vest. Wishing not to take away from that spirit of mystery, a thorough review of this film is going to be little tough to do. I will say however, that it was fantastic to see Michael Coon in a leading role, all grown up and enjoying life as happy-go-lucky Andy. It was also good to see that Jessica Leonard was none the worse for wear; coming from her starring role in last years Big Biting Pig monster hit, to figure voluptuously into this tapestry of madness as Ellie, the girl next door. Steve Hudgins channeled his inner "Aqualung" in a masterful "perv"formance as the standoffish Barney.

I really don't think it is much of a stretch to say this production has crossed the line into a soft-porn classification but you may rest assured the horror is there in ample quantity to spoil the mood. Many familiar Big Biting Pig performers contribute admirably to the film and a good many of these seemed just a little too convincing when letting their freak flags fly.

Disturbing? Yes. Uncomfortable? Yes. Horrific? Oh, yeah! Honestly, I came away from this film with much the same feeling as after having first viewed Stanley Kubrick's classic "A Clockwork Orange." In fact, to my mind, I think of this as Big Biting Pig's "A Cuckoo-Clockwork Orange" (I mean this in a good way.) Steve Hudgins and the Big Biting Pig crew always seems to bring us smart, thinking-person's horror, so you will want to bring your brain; of course it will be of no great help with this one, but you will still want to refer back to it as the closing credits begin to roll.

It Lives In The Attic? If only...