Great Claims and Greater Denials

Imagine having a meaningful and engrossing conversation with one of your friends about the benefits of scientific knowledge today.  Eventually physics comes up and your friend says, "I don't believe in gravity.  I mean, it IS only a theory."  Maybe your first reaction would be, "Did I hear you correctly?" or "We're not friends anymore."  Regardless of your response, you would think them to be wrong in their belief due to the massive amount of evidence supporting this theory (including the fact that we can't jump off the ground and fly into space).

...or can we?

Yes, gravity IS a theory.  When a person claims that they don't believe in gravity because it's "just a theory," it's fairly easy to realize that this belief is ridiculous.  However, in popular culture, the same "logic" is applied to theories such as evolution and global climate change.  Why is this?  Perhaps it is because of an old and popular assumption of what 'tolerance' is.

The understanding goes that, in cases where claims can be made, all beliefs are equally legitimate.  That isn't tolerance - it's intellectual relativity.  This relativity leads to a picking and choosing of beliefs based on selfish wants instead of truth.  It leads to the belief in numerous theories in chemistry and biology that are the basis for disciplines such as meteorlogy and medicine (both important in modern society) while disregarding other theories from the same sciences (ie. global climate change and evolution).  This exploitation completely ignores the fact that all of these theories derive from the same foundation: the scientific method.

The scientific method uses the epistemological understanding that knowledge is derived from experience to create a foundation for science - and since knowledge is based from experience, evidence becomes science's tool to further understanding.  Essentially, evidence is all we have to use to predicate understanding and, hence, (dis)belief (logic helps along the way, but itself is founded on evidence derived from simple mathematical concepts in the physical world and capabilities of our brain, ie. subitizing).

But relativism removes this foundation by making assumptions of correct and false based on wants and dislikes. All of this leads to the sporadic debasing of any knowledge we have.  A prime example of this is the most popular group of relativists in the world: religious moderates.  They hypocritically claim to be part of a certain religious system but believe and follow rules they base on what they want or like, then neglect what they dislike.  In this case, dogmatism is less dangerous since it puts itself on the same evidential playing-field as science (with its objective claims), allowing more factual claims to become the only relevant ones.  thus, the product of intellectual relativity is stagnation in understanding, the termination of innovation and invention, and the extinction of progress (Dark Ages anyone?).  If progress is valued, then relativity isn't an idea worth sustaining.

"Just think, we could have been exploring the galaxy by now."

True tolerance is temperance with one's own beliefs when other claims, of equal or more evidential basis, are apparent (typically with the purpose of progressing one's beliefs into more truthful ones).  Tolerance can't be had if claims aren't, at least, on equal evidential basis.  As the great and late Christopher Hitchens stated, "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof" - and it follows that a claim with evidence can only be dismissed by a claim with more factual evidence of an equal or greater amount.

Then again, I could be wrong and people probably don't believe in evolution and/or global climate change because they think it's a set-up by the leftist, anti-American, communists who want to control the world (however, I would posit the importance of evidence in this case as well).  At any rate, if there wasn't a heavy evidential basis for global climate change, the health and sustanance of 'life as we know it' being essential to the survival of our species should be enough proof of what actions we need to take when it comes to how we treat the environment.  Then again, the importance of this life could be completely waned by an everlasting afterlife, making the wellness of this life far less pertinent, but, once again, evidence is crucial.

The Real Folk Blues

Do not fear death. Death is always on your side. When you show fear, it jumps at you faster than light. But if you do not show fear, it casts its eyes upon us gently, and then guides us into infinity.

There was a tiger-striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived and lived a million lives, and was owned by various people he didn't really care for.

The cat wasn't afraid to die.

Then one day the cat became a stray cat, which meant he was free. He met a white female cat and the two of them spent their days together happily. Years pass and the white cat grows weak and dies of old age. The tiger-striped cat cried a million times, and then he died too.

Except this time, he didn't come back to life.



It's all..... a dream.....

Yeah..... just a dream.....



You're gonna carry that weight.

Books You Should Read

This is more directed at the people who don't read very much, or at all.
Also, for each book I'll recommend other books I find to be similar. 

(Invisible Cities, Einstein's Dreams)





(Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451)




(2001: A Space Oddyssey)




(The Road)




(V for Vendetta)

Life is a Balance of Inquiry, Theory, and Action

I can show you the door, but only you can open it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Do you ask enough questions? Or do you settle for what you know?

What are you doing? Why do you do it?

What makes you want to live?

If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

When was the last time you tried something new?

Have you done anything lately worth remembering?

What makes you smile?  What makes you lose track of time?

Who do you love?  What are you doing about it?

What would you regret not fully doing, being, or having in your life?

Do you celebrate the things you have?

When it's all said and done, will you have said more than you've done?





If not now, then when?


What would you want?

The Gruver Ranch

The winding highway, heading west, seemingly leading to nowhere, passes nothing that can be considered ‘civilization’ other than a small convenience store with no cars parked in front of it: the official last stop for food.  Along this highway there are two mailboxes next to each other at the beginning (or end) of a dirt road – a dirt road leading to the ranch and laying emphasis on the lack of ‘civilization’ out here beyond Coalinga, California.  Along this road, there is a gate.  This gate is the precipice of the current reality – once you pass through it, you are in another realm completely different from what you know.

Gruver Road crawls through trees and dances alongside a creek, eventually crossing it.  It rises above the hills at its sides, meeting the level of the large fields and opening the view to the over-watching mountains.  Passing a white house with an ornament-filled yard on the left, a line of trees and the creek act as a natural fence-line as you enter Gruver Ranch.  On the property there is a field surrounded by a trail and filled with hundreds of squirrels and birds that insist on making their presence known by passing in front of you, usually going to or coming from a rundown shed that hasn’t been worked in or on for decades (emphasizing the age of the ranch), as you make your way down the driveway. 

The front of the house bears a yard with infant grass and a large tree that has a rope hanging from it - leaving proof of a swing from the past.  A porch, encompassing the house’s northwest corner and sides, that is in forever shade due to the overhanging roof and protective tree-line to the west, provides a couple of beds suited only for the courageous: during the day the calming environment along with the comfortable beds allow for perfect introspection and philosophizing conditions, where the foundations of your existence, beliefs, and purpose are melted and reformed easier than warm butter (which is aided by a leisurely read of Immanuel Kant’s answer to the question, “What is enlightenment?”); at night the wild pigs and elk like to roam closely to the house at night, creating a large ruckus, and putting a fright into anyone - making it nearly impossible to sleep.

The south side of the house has its own porch, but meant for a different type of relaxation – the relaxation produced by the realization of our communion with living life of all kinds.  The long table on this porch urges conversation with family members, while the surrounding bushes and the path from it – surrounded by a garden – nearly produce an over-stimulation of nature with all the animal life moving about and plant life flourishing (nowhere else in the world makes me want to talk to birds more).
            Inside, the living room – susceptible to family gatherings for classic movies – is filled with older couches and chairs and a television in its corner surrounded by a VHS collection that probably predates the couches.  Throughout the house there are pictures of relatives, both living and not, that remind me of where I came from and the importance of those that came before me (nowhere else in the world makes me more willing to be the greatest father ever).   The best picture of all – containing the faces of four generations – is located in the reading room on the wall above a very old pump-pedal organ - with now only one working pedal - that my aunt used to practice on and dream of being a great musician, a dream that lives within my brother and I as we too play and practice on that organ.

Besides the washing machine that has to be filled with buckets of water in order to do laundry in a decent amount of time because it takes hours for it to fill up on its own, and the plethora of guns in the entry room used for killing rattlesnakes and the occasional hunting season, the rest of the house is like any other, articulating the point that where you eat, bathe, and sleep has nothing to do with the importance of a house – it’s how you how you do those things that makes it important.  And this is something that the Gruver Ranch exemplifies by its pure simplicity.  Interestingly enough, it’s the simple things in life that are the most compelling and effective, and that is no better represented than when the smell of clear air, the view of the openness, and all experiences and interaction on the ranch are in the past yet their impressions are forever within you afterward.

 The closing of the gate and reemergence into the ‘real’ world is intense.  You realize that this realm is not what it used to be as soon as you reach the paved highway and a vehicle speeds dangerously past you – it’s wretched and repulsive.  However, regardless of how the world is around you, it’s how you live in it that really matters.

[This is a descriptive essay that I wrote for English class.  It was kind of difficult not to do any 'pointing' at stuff.]

When Peace Returns To Hyrule: An Ocarina of Time Review

"The flow of time is always cruel.  Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it.  A thing that does not change with time, is a memory of younger days."


What game could scare me so much, yet have me longing for love?  What game made me want to visit areas just to hear the music?  What game made me realize that there is a bigger world outside of my little town?   Even as a kid, I knew Ocarina of Time was an amazing game.  Fast-forward - without the Master Sword - eleven (twelve?) years into the future, to a me who is losing the 'drive' for gaming, has found and lost love, listens to way different, more, and better music, and lives in Sin City.  This (Adult) me is trying to find his place in the world, taking many different paths, one being a 'removal of the useless.'  On this path, Adult-me came across an old gem that nearly every video gamer has beat and praises.  Kid-me never beat this game.


The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time seemed to be an obvious choice as a start to my quest, being one of the most praised games of all time as well as one of those game I never really got to finish - going into this game, I had only beaten the first three dungeons by myself, leaving the game untouched, and my brother picking it up and beating it.  I planned on writing a review of it from day one, so I took a notebook out of my drawer, ripped out all of the used pieces, and officially dedicated this to Oot (and now all other video game reviews).  It was time to play.

I removed the game from my stack of N64 games, blew the cartridge from habit, and put it in the system.  Then I selected my best controller, plugged it in, and turned on the game.  I was taken to nostalgia town right away... 

I quickly chose my name (Alain), and proceeded to take in the menu music before I moved on.  [The file select/fairy music is one of my favorite Zelda pieces but nothing compares to Labyrinth.]

I get woken up by the fairy, Navi, telling me that the Great Deku Tree needs to see me. So I climb down the ladder and see that Link had flights of fantasty consisting of battles with monsters, but little does he know that this is what his life would become, very soon; there is no turning back - the journey of the Hero of Time has begun.


From first hearing the Kokiri Forest music to the end of the credits, with young Zelda and young Link staring at each other, I was hooked on this game.  It consumed a lot of my thoughts, and eventually made me change my main character in Melee to Sheik. 

The biggest thing I noticed when first playing this was its cinematic focus.  From entering a new area to opening a chest to dialogue and story telling, this game is all very cinematic, which creates stronger emotion and emphasizes importance of the story well, especially the conversations with Saria and Zelda/Sheik.  Sadly, some of the cinematics fall short either because of the technical capabilities at the time or bad placement (see: opening an 'important' chest).

Along with cinematics, and definitely more important and better done, atmosphere and ambience are very prominent.  Architecture, geography, music, miscelaneous sounds, and characters all add up together to create one of the best 'in game' experiences ever - one of the highlights being the Forest Temple.

Scurry.... 

However, none of the theatricality or atmosphere would be important without the story - which is very good.  But I'm not going to bore you with basic story elements and chronological happenings within the story.  I'm just going to mention what I felt to be most interesting.


Link is a Hylian, born of a mother who fled from the Hyrulean Civil War to the Kokiri Forest, leaving him in the care of the Great Deku Tree.  He has no fairy, has nightwares of a girl being chased by an evil man on horse, and who's only friend is Saria.

Saria cares for Link very much, which is shown in the scene when Link is leaving the Kokiri Forest for the first time - "...we'll be friend forever... won't we?"  Eventually, you find out, through Mido, that Saria "really.... liked..... [you]" but destiny gears are always turning and they can never "live in the same world."

"Saria will always be.... your friend..."

As the story progresses, you get more connected with Zelda via her alias Sheik.  At the last part of the game, gasps coming from Zelda when you get wounded show that she cares for you - well, at least your well-being - as does her choice to send you back to your childhood to live out what you missed (this then spawns the split-timeline in the Legend of Zelda universe).   But the relationship between Zelda and Link could never work, for they are bound by destiny as well.  Like Zelda says, "When peace returns to Hyrule, it will be time for us to say good-bye."

Once you get sent back to your 'original' time, removing your hands from the Master Sword for the last time, you look up to see Navi - not saying a word - leaving through the window of the Temple of Time.

At the end of the credits you see the scene where Link and Zelda first meet, but it pauses when they're still staring at each other: Zelda doesn't remember him.

Overall, this game is very well done - the only flaws that are prominent are due to the technical capabilites of the time/system.  I felt connected to this world, and wanted to continue to play this game forever, even though most of the bosses were easy and bore me.  I wouldn't say this is the best game of all time, but it is definitely one of the most influential games of all-time - its inspiration still echoes through games today.  In the end, what I found to be most intriguing was the pure solitary of Link at the end of the game.  

This is a must play for any video gamer.  I give it a solid 9 out of 10.



"Time passes, people move...  Like a river's flow, it never ends..."



Time, it seems, is very cruel - especially to the Hero of Time.

Let's continue the journey...

Temples/Dungeons  -  Forest >= Spirit > Water > Shadow > Ganon's Castle > Fire > Dodongo > Well > Deku Tree > Jabu Jabu > Ice Cavern

Bosses  -  Twinrova > Phantom Ganon > Ganondorf > Bongo Bongo > Barinade > Ganon > Gohma > King Dodongo > Volvagia > Morpha

As for if I'm ever going to play this game again:  Most likely not, unless I get a hold of a Master Quest copy in like ten years. 

I'm Playing: Ocarina of Time (Part 2)

So, I'm still playing Ocarina of Time.

Last time I left you guys off right after I beat the Water Temple.  Now, I will admit that I was not enthusiastic going into the Shadow Temple - two terrible bosses in a row kind of does that.  But once I got into the temple and started experiencing its ambience, I was excited. 

I didn't have the Lens of Truth for the first half of the temple, which made it difficult, but not impossible.  So, I decided to go adventuring and do some of the sidequests - Gerudo Fortress, Big Goron Sword, wasting time racing around Hyrule Field because Epona is awesome, etc.  When I got a lot of the adult stuff done, I went back to a kid and planted a few Magic Beans and got the Lens of Truth.  From then on Shadow Temple was pretty dang easy, especially the boss. 

Next came the Spirit Temple, which is definitely the most interesting of them all, since you have to go to it as a kid and adult.  Overall, the temple was easy, with only the Iron Knuckles causing any trouble; the desert ambience - architecture and music - was great.  I'm a big fan of Mirror Sheild, mirror, and sunlight puzzles, so I was a bit disappointed that there were only like two total in this temple. The boss battle, Twinrova, was an absolute delight, though, and reminded me of Ikaruga.

As of right now, I'm just trying to get some of the extra Heart-Pieces and finish up the rest of the sidequests - then it's on to Ganon's Castle.  Duhn, duhn, duhn....


Favorites (so far):

Temples/Dungeons  -  Forest >= Spirit > Water > Shadow >> Fire > Dodongo > Well > Deku Tree > Jabu Jabu > Ice Cavern

Bosses  -  Twinrova > Phantom Ganon >>>> Bongo Bongo > Barinade >> Gohma > King Dodongo > Volvagia > Morpha

[Water Temple would be my favorite temple if the boss was as creative as Twinrova or Phantom Ganon.  Bongo Bongo was very interesting, which is the only reason it's higher than the other bosses. lol]


Thoughts going into the last part of Ocarina of Time:

The story is definitely epic - can't wait to battle Ganon.  As for expectations, I'd say they haven't been met, which has probably been ruined by modern, larger games since, as a kid, I thought this was the longest/largest game ever.

I haven't died yet, so let's hope I can keep that up.
I'm probably going to cry at the ending.....  lol


Next up - Ocarina of Time Review! 


[Part 1]