Joe's Dukkha

Outlet

2011-05-17T18:24:00.001-05:00

I've decided to make this blog my outlet for complains.

Here is the big one - my children don't like red sauce. WTF!

Sauna Physics

2011-05-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

After my run this morning, I went to the fitness center for a sauna and to shave. In the sauna, guy suggested that throwing water on the rocks cooled the sauna because the thermometer decreased. I had to explain the difference between heat and temperature... again.

Ethnic Nationalism

2009-10-14T15:29:00.002-05:00

I never understood why this was tolerated in the United States. I am Amercian. Thank goodness that I am not enough of any particular ethinicity to be effected by this.

This article http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann10142009.html

Does a great job explaining what is wrong with it. Take a deep breath before you read it so you don't have an emotional repulsion to the content before you get to the meat of the article.

Game Theory 101: Always Trust a Signal from a God (Gods don't need to bluff.)

2009-10-06T13:09:00.000-05:00

Define:

Signal - A signal is a bit of information that could be true or false.

Screen - An Attempt to determine a signal's truth.

Example - In the Princess Bride, Vizzini was attempting to screen in which goblet Wesley hid the poison. Because he was unaware that he was playing a game of incomplete information, Vizzini assumed that if Wesley was willing to drink the wine from a goblet that it must be free from poison, so set up a screen to determine which goblet was poisoned. We know how that turned out.

Moral 1: Always assume that you are playing a game of incomplete information. (You don't know all the potential possibilities.)
Moral 2: It is also best to assume that information in the game is also asymmetric. (Your opponent knows more than you do.)

Pascal's Wager says it is best to believe in the existence of God because you have nothing to lose on the contrary. However, Pascal's Wager is a false dilemma, as it only provides two possibilities:
A benevolent God exists or benevolent God doesn't exist.

To fully consider this question we'd have to somehow have to compare the probabilities of all possible lemmas, the existence of a benevolent God being but one of them.

Naturally, this causes one to speculate on the potential possibilities.

Speculation is suffering. It is a good thing that there is a solution for suffering...

BTW, I finished a 10 mile race at a pace of 8:06, I was pleased.

Positive Thinking

2009-09-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

While I tend to try to maintain a positive attitude, positive thinking is a religion to some. Similar to faith healers, they believe that the universe manifests something out of nothing, rewarding them for their positive attitude.

Is it greedy to ask Universe to manifest and you take what it delivers? You asked for it, right? it must be yours! A similar idea to "Fortune favors the prepared mind." You must imagine possibilites and see them before you take advantage of them. Similar but different because it is rational.

Here is the difference: If you find a wallet with a wad of cash in it, the reasonable person will weigh the amount of cash versus the good feeling they will get by returning it to the owner. I'd bet the positive thinker could delude themself into thinking the universe manifested that cash for them. Maybe? This may be a weak example, but you get the idea.

Is positive thinking just another tool to give moral flexability to those who are otherwise good people?

Roller Coaster

2009-09-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

The ride to the top of the roller coaster gives you time to consider the wisdom of the rollar coaster ride. Perhaps it was a bad decision, that the coaster will break down and you will end up maimed. Then you remember that thousands of people have ridden the coaster before you and they are safe.

Compare the coaster to the journey toward death. Similar situaton, you're afraid of the unknown. But when you realize that billions of others have taken the journey you have, then perhaps you don't feel so special or scared. They took the ride, and persumably they made it. All of those lives preceeded you. Whatever happens next happens to everyone.

Worm food? That's my guess. I think I like this idea best because if I can be okay with it, then if anything else does happen, it is pleasant supprise.

Heaven? Do you go to heaven? What does that mean? How much baggage do you bring with? Do you leave your baggage (the emotional drives that make you who you are) here? If you do leave it, are you still you without it? Do those with too much baggage go to Hell? But if you are not you without your baggage, then does it matter who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell? Wouldn't we all be the same? If you bring your baggage with are you in Heaven Is that what you talk about to other spirits when you get there?

Reincarnation has the same problem. What good is reincarnating if your next incarnation doesn't remember who it is. In this case birth and reincarnation mean the same thing... Unless there is a heaven between incarnations, then reincarnation may be useful as a learning tool. If this is the case, I'd wager that you are 'there' right now, but you are looking through 'your' eyes and listening with 'your' ears... Maybe our lives are like movies, and our death the intermission when 'they' change the reals.

Whatever happens, I take some comfort in knowing that others have taken the journey before me and the machinary didn't break down when they took the trip -- or maybe it does from time to time, do we put too much faith in the mechanics of the spiritual universe?

Values

2009-09-04T08:49:00.000-05:00

What part of your life, what do you do that you value the most? Second Most? Your values are the relative ranking of these items. Values are extremely important as they dictate who you are-- because your behaviors, what you do (and to some degree what you don't do) reflects of your values.

Interesting Blog

2009-09-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/

Words I'll Miss Part 1

2009-09-03T07:17:00.000-05:00

Lucian : Cubbers = Covers
Warren : Mana = Banana
Lucian : A Na = Banana
Warren : IWAAANDAA! IWAANDAA! = would you fetch that for me please.

Can't think of any more just now, but that's why this is part 1.

Free Souvenir from Grandma's Marathon!

2009-09-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

Free Souvenir!

I couldn't find the other one after it was removed. I took my time removing this one-- it was worth it.

Pain free and ready for an 8 mile tempo run.

Poverty... (A debate with myself.)

2009-09-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

Being the natural state. Fine.
This is a consern to when wealth is your 'end'.

I ask that if wealth is your end and you must compete with each other to see how much you can take and control, please don't drag the rest of us with you, because we really don't want to be destroyed.

Please try to understand that there is something wrong with a winner-take-all ethic when you justify beating others with a stick and taking what is theirs by blaming them for not fighting back.

How do you become so morally flexible as to defend this eithc?

I have a theory for that - what do most generals and crazy people have in common? An irrational believe in a higher power and another plane of existence that they will inhabit after they die, coupled with either an easy forgiveness from that higher power, or the delusion they are doing its work.

When you have to "actually" work for your ethics, you learn to appreciate them more...

Trail Shoes

2009-08-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

I bought a new pair of shoes to use this winter for running in the snow:
http://blog.runningwarehouse.com/?p=447

It looks pretty cool. It has a built in gator to keep my feet dry, and the eVent material allows air and water vapor to escape so your feet don't sweat.

At about 8:00 PM, wore them on a run through Hartley field by Chester Bowl and followed Chester Creak all the way down to 4th Steet. (by the Burrito Union) - a little over 2 miles. I jogged back up the hill. I ran through mud, wet grass, and some water, slippery rocks, and some roots. I had plenty of opportunities to slip and fall yet only had to catch myself a few times. I've never run in trail shoes before, and I have to admit it was a nice change of pace from running on cement and asphalt.

When I got back, I was a bit muddy and the shoes were dirty but my feet were perfectly dry!

I hope they hold up until this winter so I can try them in the snow.

(BTW - total descent 1645 feet!)

I'm Suspending Lucian and Warren's Blogs

2009-08-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

I realize that I haven't posted on Lucian and Warren's blogs in several months. Part of this is due to me being very busy, another is Emilie having her Blog and posts about them, but mostly I am suspending the blogs because Lucian and Warren are getting older and have their own voices and I can't begin to capture their wonderful thoughts or successfully see the world through their eyes. Everyday Lucian says something terribly insightful that shows a glimmer of just how brightly that light shines, and Warren is beginning to get more words and express himself.

Rather than try to capture that from their point of view, I'll begin to report on it from time to time from my point of view. Hopefully some day, sooner than later, Lucian and Warren will begin posting on their blogs or they will create new ones (or new somethings, who knows what technology we'll have in just a few short years) and they will share what is on their minds.