2006 Cyberspace Odyssey

Remember when I told you I was a nerd? Ok, so there's a forum on the Barnes and Noble website....www.bn.com, and it's a discussion about Stephen Hawking's theories. It begins October 11th. I find him one of the most fascinating people, really. He can't talk and has to communicate through one of those throat vibration boxes. Isn't it grossly ironic that one of the smartest people in the world can't communicate his thoughts to others? It's like Beethoven being deaf or something (ok..so not exactly, but you know what I'm getting at).


Whether or not you agree with his scientific theories, his story is still damn impressive. While studying at Cambridge, he was basically told that he was going to die. How does one get motivated to research spacetime and the existence of multiple dimensions when he thinks he's going to die soon? I have a hard time getting motivated to go to the grocery store or buy gas. And, if I thought I was going to die soon, I would be much less inclined to spend $3.00 per gallon for a full tank. I'm one of those people who used to wait until the little orange light turned on in the dash board- you know, the one that threatens you into buying gas. It's little glow slowly merges into visibility..oh...so...slowly..like it think it's funny to creep up on you...hoping that you're stuck in bad traffic in the sweltering heat and can't imagine sitting there without air conditioning.

anyway-Here is an excerpt from Stephen Hawking's website:
"David Mason, of Cambridge Adaptive Communication, fitted a small portable computer and a speech synthesizer to my wheel chair. This system allowed me to communicate much better than I could before. I can manage up to 15 words a minute. I can either speak what I have written, or save it to disk. I can then print it out, or call it back and speak it sentence by sentence. Using this system, I have written a book, and dozens of scientific papers. I have also given many scientific and popular talks. They have all been well received. I think that is in a large part due to the quality of the speech synthesiser, which is made by Speech Plus. One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient...I have had motor neurone disease for practically all my adult life...I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope."

That's pretty freakin' cool that this protegy was originally told he would die, and then he comes back with incredible theories and seminars!

So, back to the whole gas thing. This poses an good question. If you know you're going to die (and I mean die soon, I know everybody is going to die), would you care about how much anything costs? Probably not. Maybe that's why old people buy expensive cars, like Rolls-Royces. My new car is a gem. It's a 2004 4Runner, which I found used with only 16,500 miles on it. I absolutely love it. I feel like I've already bonded with it so much, and I've only had it since late August. Isn't it strange how we bond with objects like cars? We bond with machines- it's like Terminator 2 or something. I was sad when my old Rodeo got totalled. I put 182,000 miles on that baby, and she was with me through it all. "I order you not to go! I order you not to go!" Who didn't shed a tear at that fateful moment where the T-1000 terminated himself in the vat of liquid, molten, metal? But, alas, my new ride is mint.

I think her name is going to be Pearl, even though she's a charcoal blue color. Her personality just seems like a Pearl. If anyone actually reads this, I would love to hear what you've named your car.