iglak

Dream Theater

oh, my mistake. i guess it's just California then.

people aren't nasty. the news isn't nasty. people are afraid. the US today is afraid of everything that might cause something to be "bad". and beyond that, they're all afraid to tell eachother about it, because they're afraid that people will react negatively. this is a blog of people who sent in postcards. each postcard was created, and has a "secret" on it. most of the secrets are... depressed people, basically, and why they are depressed. read through them. the vast majority are saying "i'm afraid of what will happen if people knew this" the vast majority of people in the US think like this. most are afraid to communicate, because they are afraid of how people will react. and people only react that way because they are afraid of what people would think if they didn't react that way. looking into the media, fear is what people want to see for a reason. everyone who is afraid looks to the media as a distraction from their fears. the media provides news items that can be used to replace their fears for a while, until the next news update. also, knowing about these fearful news items is an excellent way to scapegoat if someone were to mention their own fears. since the media is so fearful, they can talk about it for a long time, and distract people from the less visible fears hidden inside everyone. that's all it is... fear, and lack of communication. the only thing you can do about it is to never be afraid to communicate anything, communicate everything, and hope that others will follow suit.

low seratonin levels are often linked with depression. in some cases, this can be because the seratonin receptors are genetically deformed. most of the time though, the seratonin receptors were either affected by drugs, or changed to cope with external influences. i have a friend who's doctor prescribed prozac... as a cure-all. with it, he was emotionless, lacked a sex drive, and had waves of depression, but he was ignorantly blissful. without it, he was aggressive, and hated his parents, but he had a huge sex drive, and a huge motivation to improve himself. since then, he's tried to lower his prozac dose, and experiment with other prescription drugs. everything he tries digs him deeper, and reduces his ability to help himself... although it's better than the prozac. i'm trying to get him to stop taking drugs altogether. he said he's tried it before (but has a hard time describing what happened), and whenever he brings it up his doctor says "remember the last few times you tried this?" i wish i could visit his doctor with him....

minumum wage in the US is about $7.25. full-time job is 40 hours/week. at that rate, that's a bit more than $1000 a month. it's definitely pretty easy to find full-time or part-time minumum wage jobs, especially in suburbs. suburbs generally have lots of kids going into and getting out of school. these kids are always looking for jobs, and often only work for a few months. the parents generally work in a nearby city, at a job that pays more, or has a salary, so the kids are the only ones able to fill all of the job requests of the nearby shops. finding a place to rent in a suburb is another story though... and i don't know how it goes.

i have a friend who sees music. when he hears sounds, he sees different shapes and colors that represent them. i asked him if he could identify the shapes and colors, or if they are possibly shapes and colors that aren't normal, or aren't possible to anyone else. he says that they are definitely real shapes and colors, but he can't identify them. he's very good at composing music, but most of that is because he has practiced a whole lot, and is quite interrested in it. he also said that sometimes, if the music is extremely complex, strong, and well-made, it can overpower his sight with the colors and shapes, making it kind of hard for him to see. he's bad at math. when he looks at numbers and equations he can't identify what the numbers are, or even that they are numbers, until he concentrates a bit harder. it's like when you're first starting to type, and you have to look at all of the letters before you press them to make sure you are typing the right letter; or when you're first learning how to read, and you need to sound out the words before you can know what they mean. i tried to teach him some math at one point, and he understood the concepts fairly quickly, but he couldn't apply them. i could show him how to do something, and he understood it well enough, but he couldn't apply the same concept to a different set of numbers very easily. as for me, i'm very good at organizing things. i can visualize 3d objects very easily, and i'm good at most arts. however, i'm not very creative. i can't think of multiple ways to mold an object to determine what's best, i can only create a new object (or piece) from scratch. when i'm organizing things, though, i can easily think of multiple ways to determine what's best. i took calculus 2 years before everyone else i knew, so i'm fairly good at understanding math. but i didn't do too well in calculus. i had trouble thinking of multiple ways to work out the problems, although part of that was because i didn't study my friend, when making music, can think of a whole bunch of different things to do with the piece, and can chose one of them to work with from there, and he can do that very quickly. i, on the other hand, can only follow what my original piece was going to do, and i do it fairly slowly. i can't easily change it. i'm terrible at changing keys, but i'm great at making music using only one key. i spend a lot of time improving portions of my music, and i repeat a lot of things; while he spends more time adding things on to his music, and doesn't repeat as much.

why does it hit? that doesn't make any sense to me. unless the movement of the spaceship is added to the movement of the laser, but that doesn't work according to all of those "what would happen if a car moving at c turned on it's headlights?" threads. and how is it possible that it'd appear that he's firing ahead of him from a rest frame if from his frame he's firing behind him? to my knowledge, that's not explained in relativity.

that's supposed to be if shot perpendicular... sorry. oh yeah ^^; ok, so then from the shooter frame, the distance that the target will travel in the right amount of time from the rest frame. what if he didn't know he was moving though? would he be able to shoot in the right place? i'm sorry, but i don't know what an absolute plane is. the only plane i'm looking at is the one that contains both parallel lines of the movement of the spaceships. the light leaves the target in all directions. the light going perpendicular from the target will not reach the shooter, because by the time it gets the the opposite side, the shooter will be 6 seconds ahead. only the light going at an angle will reach the shooter. light can't go parallel at any speed and still go perpendicular at the speed of light, because then the light will be going faster than the speed of light at an angle. so, it will take more than 6 seconds for the light from the target to reach the shooter. then, now that the shooter can see the target, the shooter has to aim to where the target will be to hit the laser. same as before, the shooter has to aim greater than 6 seconds ahead of where the target is now; greater than 12 seconds ahead of where the object is seen.

if in the frame of the shooter, the shooter has to aim more than 12 seconds ahead of the other ship, right? it takes 6 seconds for light to get to the shooter frame, so the shooter sees the target at it's position 6 seconds ago. they are in the same reference frame, so differences in perception of time are not a factor. but the shooter can't simply aim 6 seconds ahead, because it takes 6 seconds for the laser to get to the target. but light, when shot from a moving vehicle, does not have a velocity added to the vehicle's velocity. so if shot parallel (6 seconds ahead of the target), the laser will hit where the target was 6 seconds ago, and will not travel in the direction of the ships at all. to compensate, the shooter needs to shoot at where the target will be more than 6 seconds from now. not just 6 seconds; because when shot at an angle, the light will take longer to travel the 1million km.

the thought experiment of time slowing down for a spaceship traveling the solar system says that the person on the spaceship will age the amount of time observed by him, and the person on the planet will age the amount of time observed by him. the person on the spaceship's reference frame is invalid, because inconsistant acceleration defies SR and GR, while the person on the planet's reference frame remains valid. the person on the planet views time slowing down for the person moving near the speed of light. there are a few problems with this, however. first, time is not the only thing of which the measurement decreases. length also decreases. so, by this experiment, the guy on the spaceship (and the spaceship) would also be crushed (in the length of the observer's reference frame). also, by slowing time down for the traveler, the traveler goes slower than the desired speed. so much slower that it makes traveling that fast pointless, and it makes the maximum speed from rest frame much slower than the speed of light. but further the thought experiment in this way. because time and length decrease for other frames as the reference frame approaches the speed of light from rest frame, time and length are then measurements of the speed of light. the speed of light is point 0 on the linear graph, and the speed of the reference frame is the free end of the line. the line itself is the meterstick for speed of time and length of objects. as the reference frame approaches the speed of light, point 0, the length of the line decreases, and the meterstick decreases in length. all objects are still the same length in meters, but the length of the meter (as observed by the reference frame) has decreased. same applies for time and the measurement of a second. but as the reference frame slows down, away from the speed of light, the measurements return to normal. objects appear to lengthen as the length of the meter increases. similarly, the speed of time increases to make up for the lost time. objects are still the same length in meters, and never changed. similarly, the same amount of time, in seconds, passed for all frames. but wait, that's not how we percieve time. if time were as we percieve it, as evidenced in the original thought experiment, then time would slow down and speed up, leaving the reference frame ahead of the other frames in time. but in special and general relativity that doesn't happen. time is observed as slower from the reference frame for other frames, but there's no explanation for how time remains the same speed also. but in my changed thought experiment, time isn't how we percieve it. in my changed thought experiment, the second acts like the meter, instead of it's own seperate system. i can't quite percieve how this would work, but i can percieve it a lot better than i can percieve the empty space created by the difference in times from the original thought experiment. i guess the deceleration of the speed of the reference frame, and thus the velocity of the measurement of the second, causes time to be observed as "catching up"? but that still leaves 2 empty spaces. the empty space when the observed speed of time increases from a slow speed to a speed faster than a rest frame second; and the empty space when the observed speed of time decreases from a fast speed to a rest frame second. maybe those can be explained using the jerk (derivative of acceleration) of the reference frame? but then that still doesn't exactly work, because those actions aren't observed in the changing length of the meter. perhaps, because speed of time is a velocity, only acceleration of the reference frame causes the speed of time to change, and the velocity of the reference frame means nothing to the speed of time? does GR explain anything beyond allowing for constant acceleration within the terms of SR's constant velocity? if the original thought experiment is true, why is that? why does inconsistant acceleration make a reference frame invalid? why can't the equation for GR and SR be split into multiple portions, splitting the different accelerations and velocities, and calculating them individually before calculating the combination? why does the invalid reference frame still follow the rules of relativity when in motion? why isn't jerk (derivative of acceleration) accomodated in relativity, and why not distance? what about subsequent derivatives and integrals? changing from rest to a consistant acceleration is a form of inconsistant acceleration, but is required to start all trips; but why is that still a valid reference frame? wow... lots of questions. can anyone answer them all? ^^;

reverse doesn't exist in the real world. speed and length can't be negative. imagine a line on a linear graph, with one endpoint centered at 0, and the other endpoint free to move negative and positive on the graph. at point 5, the line is 5 units long. at point 2, the line is 2 units long. at point -2, the line is 2 units long. at point 0, the line is non-existant. you could say that point -2 is positive in the negative direction, and thus the measurement is negative, but that's false outside of mathematics. in the real world, you can simply flip the measurement system around, and create a different reference point to make the line positive length in the positive direction again. negative doesn't existant in real measurements. there is no negative direction in reality, only different directions. speed acts the same. the speed of a vehicle can't ever be negative. the speed of time, as a number (with an imaginary unit), can be thought of as the length of the line. it can increase and decrease, but it can't go negative. there is, again, no negative direction for the speed of time to be measured. only positive. also, notice that a value of 0 causes the measurement to be nonexistant. if an object has a size of 0, it can't be sensed or measured, and thus doesn't exist. if an object moves at 0 velocity, it's not moving. in real measurements, there is no such thing as moving at 0 velocity, only an absence of movement. similarly, if the speed of time were to become 0, time would no longer exist. that can't happen, because time does exist. the speed of time can, however, get infinitely close to 0, and be observed as not moving. but that doesn't cover imaginary. imaginary does, in fact, exist in the theoretical real world. that line from the above thought experiment can go imaginary. in that case, it would no longer appear on the graph, but could still be measured on an imaginary graph. it is thought, by some, that imaginary objects appear the same as real objects, but are inverted (or maybe everted) on a level that can't be seen. one possible way of visualizing this is anti-matter. i have no idea if anti-matter is or isn't imaginary matter, but the visualization could help anyway. to my knowledge (which is very limited on the subject), anti-matter and objects made of anti-matter look the same as matter and objects made of matter.

did you find them? do you often walk around without wearing them? if so, check your glove compartment. check around the computer.

it's a possibility that your unconscious reaction to fear is to generate OCD symptoms, and your fear of developing major OCD symptoms is actually starting to cause them to exist. Howard Hughes has a major form of the disorder, which is somewhat rare to find. you shouldn't be afraid of becoming completely socially inept from your own OCD. even if it gets to that point, there are things you can do to make socializing easier, without requiring Howard Hughes' money.

1) that's true' date=' and a good point. however, this is a valid assumption on 1 account: the aliens have made contact with us. whether it's via assault or communication, they made contact with us. this means that 1) they have the ability to make contact with us, which requires some form of communication with eachother, or at least understanding what others of their species want; and 2) that something made them [i']want[/i] to contact us, which means they can react to stimuli in an orderly fashion. the only case that this may not be a valid assumption is if the "alien" is singular, who either never dies or reproduces a-sexually to create offspring that never recognizes another of the species. 2) a valid assumption, because, again, they made contact with us. the only exception would be the same as above, or if the "contact" was made without technology of any form (just floating through space endlessly...). wait, do you mean "conscious" as in "awake", or as in "capable of consciously recognizing their own existance"? if you mean "awake", then it's an even more valid assumption, because any interraction we might define as "contact" requires consciousness, or it will be defined as a "discovery" instead. 3) define "meaningful". they did make contact with us... is that meaningful? 4) valid, again, they made contact with us 5) valid, again, they made contact with us 6) good point. but that's moot, because our scientists won't blindly believe whatever they say. if they did, they wouldn't be able to do anything with the information, because in order for humans to make use of and learn new information, they need to experiment with the new information to make sure it's correct, and to determine how it can be used. if we are sent on a wild goose chase for 200 years, then at least we know what not to look for. 7) again, define "meaningful". if you mean "have validity as a response to the questions", then i guess that's a good point. no point in asking questions that won't ever be answered. then, in addition to "they made contact with us" and "meaningful", all assumptions are valid for another reason. half of the purpose of all of these questions, whether the writers realize it or not, is to determine how the aliens react to the questions. whether they react "meaningfully" or "consciously" can be determined by asking these questions. if we experiment by asking a wide variety of questions, then we can get an even better idea of the aliens' "minds". also my particular question of "can we trade?" can be asked through hand signals, examples, and drawings to represent the action, and can be expanded upon indefinitely, until the aliens understand. *edit* hmm... i wish to know what "contact", "sentient" (possibly synonymous with "conscious"?), and "Earth" mean. some of my responses indicating valid assumptions may be wrong if indeed the alien lifeform made contact with another species of Earth, or Earth as a whole, instead of us humans. however, my final, general response is still correct, and nulls such assumptions. *edit2* this assumes that we are capable of asking the aliens questions in the first place. so, all assumptions relating to possibly not being able to ask the alines questions are null.

_=*=--SPOILERS INCLUDED--=*=_ but answers an important question: what is the purpose of the midichlorians? i thought of this a while ago, but recently i read a review somewhere that said "there is no purpose for midichlorians in this trilogy." (not an exact quote) Midichlorians have a HUGE purpose. remember when Darth Sidious talkes about his late master? yes, the "sith legend" isn't a sith legend, it's his old master. he says "he was able to manipulate the midichlorians around him to save lives". but it's not just that. Darth Sidious also specifically says "he even found a way to use the midichlorians to create life", putting emphasis on "create life". now think... Anikin had no father. he was just born. Anakin has a midichlorian count off the charts. it's so large that it's not measurable. Anikin is the chosen one Anikin is filled with fear, attachment, love; even when outlawed by the jedi council. in episode 1, Obi-wan even questions (to Yoda): "is it possible that this boy was created by the midichlorians themselves?" (not an exact quote) this is all evidence that Darth Sidious' master (i forgot his name) created Anikin. Anikin was created by the dark side (the emotional side, not the sith's lust for power). Midichlorians are the basis of the whole story.

b) 18 male enterring college yes my biggest 3 questions would be: can you help us? can we trade? can we see your recorded history? if they have intersteller travel capabilities, they can communicate with us without needing the ability to speak our language.

is the bone completely split? is it still attached a bit? what sport? large bones generally heal in a couple months. after about one month with a broken arm, i was allowed to run again (make sudden movements without delaying the healing process). pinkies might heal faster, slower, or the same speed; i don't know. i also don't know if you get a splint or a cast for pinkies. i'd guess a splint, since it's probably too small to put a cast on easily. if you can grip with your other fingers right now, and if you get a splint, you might be able to throw something in 2 weeks... with a lot of difficulty, and you will delay the healing process by a lot. if you don't need to throw anything in your sports, then you're in luck. in less than 2 weeks, you can run as much as you want. you'll delay the healing process by a bit each time you run, but you can still do it. my dad broke his arm when he was a kid. his large forearm bone was broken in half. in less than a week, he was running around and playing again. they couldn't keep him from making sudden movements with his arm. in order to allow his bones to actually heal, they had to put in a bone splint: a piece of metal bolted to both ends of the broken bone, keeping the bone together while it heals. he has a scar from the operation, and i think the healing process was a bit painful.

Gender: male Hair: shoulder length, ponytail, dirty blond Skin tone: white Glasses: these sunglasses Facial hair: thin, small, short mustache and beard; that of a teenager still growing in facial hair. Weapon: throwing CDs

teens our age have way too much fear in our lives. U.S. society tries to make us all afraid of drugs, sex, parties, alcohol, video games, movies, advertisements, driving, applying to college, getting bad grades, not being physically fit, not eating right, not sleeping enough, sleeping enough, not spending time on work even when more important things are at hand, dating, other adults, eachother, terrorists, mental health problems, and many other things. if being afraid of getting beaten was added to that list, i know quite a few people who would join me in running away. i know i, for one, would never look back, and would consider my parents lost to me. in the U.S., us teens have been overrun by fear... the only way to react, to keep the feeling of being alive (as opposed to depressed [feeling hopeless, as though there's nothing that can be done to change anything. while people can still do work in this state, it's the same as being dead]), is to have angst and rebel. because through angst and rebellion, we teens can have courage, hope, and motivation to succeed in life. giving in to our parents' will would be chosing to never be motivated again, and never spend effort on learning or doing anything we want. if a wide-spread fear came to parents that if they didn't beat their children, their children wouldn't grow up to have courage, i can guaruntee to you that i would fight this thought with every fiber of my being, using as much force as necessary, without any care of consequences, and i would get as much teenage support as i can. if you want teenagers to be disciplined, you have to get the parents to stop being afraid, and you have to get the parents to realize that it's their responsibility to get their teenagers' trust. only then will teenagers respect parents as worthy human beings. once you can get that to happen, then you can worry about proper discipline. *edit* i also agree with Callipygous. in-fact, let me clarify. i have nothing wrong with hitting to discipline children or teenagers. it's the way it'll be done that i absolutely hate. an intelligent, courageous parent can discipline their child all they want for all i care, as long as they know what they are doing. but current U.S. society centers around fear. suggesting to parents that they discipline their children will put fear in them; the thought that if they didn't discipline their children, their children would grow up to be monsters. this fear will cause improper discipline without reason, and will show children just how stupid and vulnerable their parents are, and how unsafe they are in their parents' house, and cause children to do what i wrote above.

oh, so then will this film even show a war? if they're looking for new members, to be able to fight the war in the future, then that's a good title. The bait to catch the trolls, with a pun on "debate". oh, i see. that works better than i thought. but imo, it's too long. perhaps if you shorten it simply to "Debate", and have one character pronounce "The bait" like "debate". but, is the story going to involve, or be centered aroud, the bait that will be used to catch trolls? i was thinking it was going to be more along the lines of hunting and killing trolls, rather than baiting them... unless maybe the bait is a huge pseudoscience debate that will attract all of the trolls to it, to get them all in one area to start the war/ambush. how long will he be gone? are other people living in the house? if he's going to be gone for a while, "BRB" doesn't work (although "BBL" does) i thought he'd put the sign on the door, for other people to see so that they won't try to disturb him. but if no one else is living in the house, then i guess he could put up that sign... if his doors are unlocked, and he expects friends will go to his room looking for him... but then, that's not very geeky. maybe he should put up an away message on AIM instead? "DO NOT SHUT DOWN!" could work. do you want it to be character specific? inside the computer world, it kind of has to be character specific, unless the person doesn't take anything with him, and the camera goes in a bit late to see a group of people, all with weapons. or if the camera goes in early while the person reaches for an unknown weapon, and the camera sees a few characters appear in the same area around the same time in the computer world. i don't know how detailed you want the characters to be, so... i'm 6'2". athletically agile build (fairly athletic, but with few defined muscles). short torso, with long legs and arms. baggy pants; normal T-shirt. i'd like to use my bare hands as weapons (and feet, martial artist-style). but if i can't do that, i'd be happy with quite a few weapons... should weapons be realistic, silly, or strange, or anything in particular? and to repost hair stuff, for ease: i have curly, dirty blonde hair; shoulder-length; and put into a ponytail. slight mustache, and a few short beard hairs (teenager... face hairs still growing in).

my take on your possible titles: 1) Troll SurFiN: gives too much information on the plot; doesn't allow much for the imagination. the SFN inside "surfin", while an interresting idea, looks somewhat corny, imho. 2) Geek Seekers: catcy, and doesn't give much information on the plot, but doesn't exactly fit the story. SFN members can be thought of as geeks as much as the trolls, especially considering the opening scene. 3) Debate to Catch DeTrolls: i don't understand this. is the second 'De' simply an accented 'the'? if so, then the Title is too long, and again gives too much information on the plot. the 'the' to 'De' trick is also somewhat corny. However, if this is a parody on a similar title or common phrase that i am unaware of, this might work well. 4) SFN: Agents for Truth. definitely the best of the four, imo. very general title, which gives a good amount of information on the story while giving very little information on the plot. the only problems are that SFN isn't an acronym of "Agents of Truth", and the Title is somewhat long. perhaps simply "Agents of Truth". and about the Opening scene, there are some details you missed that might be important (especially for the visual artist). -the logo: what happens to it after it becomes centered on the back of the T-shirt? should it then stay with the T-shirt, as if printed on it? -the door: does it creek open, for the camera to slowly sneak in? is it pushed open, as if by the camera man, for the camera to walk in, or enter at a normal pace? is it slammed open just as the alarms blare, with the camera rushing in to find the action? -the sign: why would he put up a "Gone Fishing" sign in his own room, where only he can see it? i recommend putting a "BRB" sign on the doorknob of the open door while closing it (with the Title still printed on the door). and i have no idea if i'm going to be put in the movie or not (your guys' choice), but: curly, dirty blonde hair; shoulder-length; and put into a ponytail. slight mustache, and a few short beard hairs (teenager... face hairs still growing in).

A great pickup line my friend thought of: "Hey baby, how's about you be the graph, and i be the derivative? That way, i can be tangent to all your curves."

Men are also attracted to women who need/want protection. Breasts are sensitive, and hurt when struck. women with large breasts can't run as easily without bouncing, which i've been told hurts when the bounce is strong and quick. women with large breasts are more vulnerable to attack in that area. it's one possibility that men are attracted to the vulnerability large breats cause, rather than any evolutionary advantages they may have. and i like Ophiolite's hypothesis also. personally, i am not attracted to large breasts. i am attracted to breasts that are the right shape; the shape they are when in a bra (and not surgically altered). anything in the B to D range of sizes is attractive, and i find the C range slightly more attractive. But, i'm a lot more attracted to curvature of the spine and the .7 ratio of hips to waist than i am to breasts. and size... i'm attracted to about 1 foot shorter than me.

I have friend i gan get to make music, or write, or even draw concept art. and i have one friend that can make a fairly good flash movie. but then, that wouldn't exactly be an SFN movie we have some people that can do music and write on this forum, but can anyone make flash movies? or draw concept art? do we even need concept art? as for the story, how long of a movie are we planning on making? how many characters (approximately)? if trolls are streaming out of houses, it's going to be a lot.... and we gotta have a lot of SFN members to combat them. how good do you want it to be?

yes. the "special training" Yoda has for Obi Wan is to learn how to do this. that's why he's able to kill himself and disappear in episode IV. Although the Qui Gon part doesn't make much sense, because he was cremated, and didn't disappear; and he isn't seen at all in episodes IV, V, and VI (is he even mentioned?)