Becoming The Overman

Posted by C. Nicholas Walker at 2:32 AM | Permalink | Comments

SO, THE OTHER night there was a total lunar eclipse visible from Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and, like all major astronomical events that occur over the skies of Smithfield and Clayton, it was obscured almost completely by clouds. I got to see a glimpse of it through a parting in the sky, a small taste of the blood-red aura spilling over the face of the moon like a glorious disease, but it only lasted a couple of seconds before it disappeared again behind an unyielding veil of darkness. There are pictures, of course, from across the world, but the point is that it got me thinking.

There are people that believe the earth is exceptionally unique in its relative placement in the cosmos, as well as in the astronomical phenomena observable from earth. I've even heard claim that it is irrevocable proof that we were placed here under divine convention for the reason that nowhere else in the entire universe -- not just this galaxy of over a hundred-billion stars, mind you, but the whole universe comprised of over a hundred-billion galaxies -- can one observe a solar or lunar eclipse like the one on earth.

The truth is, eclipses, both solar and lunar, happen all the time in the universe; as a matter of fact, almost any star with an orbiting planet that itself has an orbiting satellite has eclipses. What makes the one on earth so nice is the relative similarities in size of the Sun and Moon as observed from earth -- while the Sun is approximately 400 times larger than the Moon, it is also approximately 400 times further away from us, making the two appear almost the same size. The ratio between these two numbers -- the size of the Sun and Moon as opposed to their distances away from us -- is nowhere near exact, but because they are such BIG numbers and because they are SO far away from us, the details kind of get lost in the phenomena.

But, even so, this same seemingly divine characteristic of our star and satellite is not as rare as one may imagine. Although an eclipse is simply whenever one celestial object moves into the shadow of another, this similarity in apparent size as observed from one of these celestial objects happens in our own neighborhood...just as close as in our own solar system. Five of Jupiter's satellites perform in the same manner as our Moon during eclipses, although it does have an exceptional sixty-three satellites to choose from, and that is remaining within the confines of our tiny little solar system. Branching out into the observable universe -- and we can look about 46.5 billion light-years out into space right now -- the math tells us there should be millions upon millions of extrasolar planets, and out of these millions upon millions capable of eclipses, and out of these perhaps only thousands capable of the kind of solar eclipse we enjoy here on earth.

So, the phenomenon I had the chance to glimpse the other night was perhaps not as unique, in respect to the rest of the universe, as I may have liked it to be. But, without compromising the beauty of said phenomenon, I would think it quite a waste of space if there was nothing that made one planet unique over another, and no astronomical phenomena that could perhaps be experienced only someplace other than our home planet.

Posted by C. Nicholas Walker at 5:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

SO, I FINISHED my first full-length album, amateur as is may have been, on Valentine's Eve, and gave it to Beth for Valentine's Day; I've been critiquing it ever since. Because it was for Valentine's Day, or more importantly because it was for Beth, the album consisted entirely of love songs with the exception of the first track, which was a short sample of me pretending to be The Beatles introducing themselves. Because I do not normally write love songs, the album was originally going to have two cover songs, Hallelujah based on Rufus Wainwright's version and Xanadu from the film of the same name. I cut Xanadu at the last minute and replaced it with two covers, leaving the rest as original works:

1. Beatle Greetings
2. It Was You
3. Hallelujah (Cohen)
4. The Dream Song
5. Tell Lorrie I Love Her (Whitley)
6. I'll Come Running Home
7. The Song They Were Playing
8. My Love Is Falling Down Tonight
9. Silly Love Songs (McCartney)

Because I either mastered the tracks wrong, or made the input levels too low during recording, the songs ended up very quiet. On most speakers it isn't a problem, just turn up the volume, but on some, such as laptops like the one Beth listened to it on, the music was almost indiscernible.

Also, because the recording was finished up on such short notice -- I only realized it would make a good present several days beforehand -- many songs became acoustic; just me and my guitar going boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom. It gives the songs a nice, warm, humble feeling that makes you tap your foot, but I wonder if I should go back and change some of them, put in more instruments, perhaps even some drums, to make it more popularized. I like the simplicity of the guitar and voice, but I want it to be interesting as well.

Nevertheless, I wasn't expecting my first album -- though, again, it is a little rough around the edges, sometimes with nothing much more than scratch for vocals -- to be a "love" album. More variety, that's what I wanted. But, still, I ended up really liking the song selection, and I think instead of working on another album with that heightened variety I mentioned, I'll just use this one as my guinea pig to work out the kinks.

But you know what they say...a ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

Posted by C. Nicholas Walker at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by C. Nicholas Walker at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments

I WENT AND saw Jumper this afternoon with Beth, our old boss Eric, his wife's first husband James, and their kid Garrett (all of which who live together; an odd family that should be explained only with enough time for full details). Anyway, the movie was actually pretty entertaining. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 15%, calling it "an erratic action pic with little coherence and lackluster special effects."

You see, that's the thing about movies. There are, in some general order, good movies, entertaining movies, and then bad movies. Good movies are the types of things that you expect a lot out of, mean for them to really touch some important part of your heart and soul, and eventually deliver; these are the Oscar nominees. Entertaining movies are the sorts that you go to knowing that you're not going to have some great, cognitive realization while you're watching it, but you see it and enjoy it anyway; movies like the most recent Rambo film fit into this category (although I have yet to experience that gem yet). Then, of course, there are the bad movies, the stinkers, the ones that take themselves too seriously but, seriously, have nothing to offer. Somehow these movie get the best trailer directors in Hollywood, because it seems like all the really awesome trailers are the suckiest of suckfests out there. Not in all cases, of course, but it's enough for me to make an observation on.

Anyway, Jumper was entertaining, and the fight scene near the end is something that anyone who's played Portal would appreciate.

Posted by C. Nicholas Walker at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments