Ping

 

(Note: if you want to skip the Battlefield 3 introduction, just skip down about five paragraphs.)

The other night, I was gaming with some buddies and we began to discuss some of the more technical aspects of the video game.  When we play Battlefield 3, we each are given a ping.  Basically, ping is a measurement of the time it takes for a packet of data to contact the server we're using, and is generally measured in milliseconds.   On the server I own and run, my ping is usually around 15.  That means it takes .015 seconds for my commands on the PC to reach the server.  I have a friend who lives in Chicago, where the server is based, and he has a ping of 2.

Anyway, in Battlefield 3, there are millions of packets of data being exchanged between the individual player, the server, and then synchronized with other players on the server, all within seconds.  My friend described it as an incomprehensible amount of information going back and forth, and the human mind couldn't handle that kind of calculation.

Something simple like firing a bullet out of a gun is sent to the server, then sent to each of the other players.  Sometimes, depending on ping, that information is registered on the individual gamers' machines late, and then you get a little lag.  Imagine actions such as flying a jet at 800 miles per hour, firing guided rockets at the guy you're tailing, and setting off flares to cut off the missile locks from the anti-air tank on the ground.  The information exchange and the dependency it has on each player's connection is too much to really take in, I think.

We talked at length about how there is practically an unlimited amount of possibilities in the game because of this.  No round will be identical to another.  They're unique.  And there are just so many different variables in the server.  A player's high ping can have an effect on other players who are connected to the same server (which is why we try to kick out people with 250+ pings).  There are thousands of different combinations of primary weapons, sidearms, equipment and perks.  With all the data being exchanged and variables amid that, glitches sometimes take place.

For example, sometimes when a player is sprinting in game, he'll just slingshot across the map, hit a wall, and die.  I haven't really found any patterns to this, and it hardly ever happens, but it's apparently completely random.

Anyway, in the middle of this nerdy conversation, I had a random thought.  This made me think about life.  And you're asking: "What the heck does a video game have to do with life?"

In life, there are infinitely more variables than the ones in Battlefield 3.  There are an endless amount of possibilities.  Besides picking what map I'm playing, what camo I'm wearing, or what firearms I'm packing, in real life I have choices over so much more.  This might seem silly, but stay with me and you'll see where I'm going.

I remember the Denver-San Diego game during like week 5 of the 2012 season.  The Broncos were down 0-24 by the end of the first half and came back to win 35-24.  That game can never be imitated.  Some teams might get the same amount of points.  The teams could even meet again and the same players can score, but it will never be a perfect imitation.

I guess what I'm saying is that every experience you have is unique.  No one sees it quite the way you see it, and no one can remake the past.

So the train of thought just kept rolling and then I thought about some of my friends, my girlfriend... practically everyone I know.  If I were to take each of them, clone them, and try to have the same relationship I have with the clones as I do with the original person, it just wouldn't be the same.  The fact of the matter is that just as every moment and experience is unique, so is each person.  This is because of all the variables and possibilities.  An experience is a combination of the a set of variables and only one of those possibilities.  (Generally speaking, two outcomes cannot both take place at the same time.  For example, if there is one distinctly red ball, and one distinctly blue ball, and I'm suppose to pick one or the other, I can't pick both.  Only one will be picked.)  Maybe this doesn't make sense.  That's alright.  


Some people might have similar appearances.  Some people might even have the same likes, dislikes, favorites, etc, but they still won't ever be the same.

And these two thoughts just fit so perfectly.  I've heard it worded before that we're the sum of all our experiences of memories... if each experience and memory is unique, and we're the sum of it all, then we are therefore unique because of that.

Just like in Battlefield 3, there are all these factors and possibilities... the round is always unique because of this.  Maybe you don't get it.  Oh well.

Amazing what philosophical thoughts you can get from a video game, huh?

You might already know this.  Duh.  Of course we're unique.  What a waste of a 1000 words on something like this.

But just in case... just in case you weren't aware...

You are unique.  There is no one like you.  Someone might have the same kind of eyes like you.  Maybe the same skin color, height, or nose shape.  Someone might have the same favorite foods or you might like the same kind of music... but you are still unique.  You are different.  And yes, this is a good thing.

At work today, Cars 2 or whatever was on.  Lightning was talking to an Italian car about Mater and how he'd pushed him away for being too goofy.  This might not be word for word, but the Italian car dude asked him, "If you're such good friends with him, why are you asking him to be someone he isn't?"

So, same goes to you.  Be you.

Of course, before I end this one, I gotta end with a quote from the Walking Dead.  At the end of season 1, a doctor was going on about the disease, but some cool things were said when he was explaining the human mind.  On a screen, everyone saw the brain, and all the lights and signals fluttering around.

"What are those lights?" someone asked.

The doctor replied: "It's a person's life.  Experiences, memories... it's everything.  Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you.  The thing that makes you unique.  And human.  Those are synapses; electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages.  They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

We're so unique, and I think it's truly a beautiful thing and a blessing.  Don't be afraid to be you, and encourage others to do the same.   So, thanks for reading.  I'm going to get back to playing some more Battlefield 3.

 

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Alone

 

I haven't written a post in a while.  Sorry about that.  I'm doing this while watching The Walking Dead.  I'm watching the first episode... someone tell me why I never watched this before.  It's really good.  It really beefs up support for my intentions to purchase an AR-15 at some point.  Anyway.

I'm sitting here watching that Axe Apollo commercial.  You know, the one when the girl's being attacked by a shark, the lifeguard saves her, but she ditches him for an astronaut.  I'm just wondering... why are people running off the beach?  I mean, the shark is in the water.  Weird.  Someone didn't think that through.

So, lately, I've been a bit stressed out about work, saving up for school, just saving in general, paying my bills, and fitting in time to relax and just recharge.  It just seems like it's one thing after another.  I finally stabilize the financial crap and then my sister needs a place to stay.  That's all settled and then I continue my 7-day work trek, blah blah blah.

Amid it all, though, I somehow found peace.  I don't know what it was.  I can't help but think of a line in this episode (number 2, season 1) of Walking Dead.  "He used to be like us... worrying about the bills, or the rent, or the Superbowl."  What that means to me is beyond words, I guess.  It's not so much that we're all the same, but rather we're alike.  Or we're not identical, we share some of the same characteristics and experiences.

I'm just not the only one.  I'm not the only guy who hates dealing with the phone bill or who resents filling up his gas tank because it costs more money.  I'm not the only one with silly family issues or a future that looks tough to tackle.

I think I can say that there isn't a single person who is experiencing a problem or trial that someone else hasn't.  For the most part.  Whether it's the passing of a loved one or a shattered iPhone screen (not that those two are anywhere near the same amount of impact...), we all will experience that or something like that at some point.

This peace, I suppose, came from this idea that I'm just not alone.   I love that scripture (John 15:18) in which Jesus says, "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first."   We aren't alone.  I don't know what it is, but knowing that sometimes makes the difficulties easier to overcome.

I normally don't like to talk about my problems or anything.  I stopped texting my friend because I didn't want to talk about my stress.  That's going to change, though.  And see, that's me being an idiot and further driving home that thought that I am alone in my problems.

But this is something I know.  It's something I've always known.  It hit me tonight, though.  It's almost cognitive dissonance though, hmm?  I mean, I know I'm not the only one struggling like this, and I'm also not even struggling as badly as other people, but I feel as though I am.  (There's a difference, in a way, between being alone in dealing with the problem and being alone in ever having the said problem, but I feel that knowing the second one makes the first easier.)

So, I guess all I'm saying is that I'm happy, I suppose.  I'm happy that I'm not alone.  That this is normal, I suppose.  That's why some songs are so loved, because people relate to them.  Because they have lived some of those lyrics.  And maybe that's why people like to listen to music to make them feel better.

On that note, other people have surpassed the very obstacles I'm facing now.  And it makes me feel like I can, as well.


I don't know if this post is significant or if it was worth you reading it.  I just figured I'd share that thought; you just simply aren't alone in your problems, so find peace in that.  Regardless, thank you for reading.  Have a good day :)

Random Fact of the Day: Writing "SEE ID" on the back of your debit or credit cards can be (and usually is) a breach of contract with your card provider.  You are normally required to actually sign it, and if you don't and should your "identity" be stolen, you probably will still be held liable for the charges completed while the card was stolen.  (Of course, I'm no legal expert, but some guy who works for Visa informed me of this.)  Keep it in mind :)

Life

 

So my friend decided to argue with me saying that rocks are living things.  His reasoning was that rocks take in nutrients, like calcium, and grow.  I personally think he's a nut and it's a bit absurd, and I believe that rocks cannot possibly be alive under any circumstance.  Using his own vocabulary against him, I think his theory is whack.

This lead me thinking, just like almost everything profound my friends say.

One of my favorite theories is by this guy named Erwin Shrodinger.  Are you familiar with the Second Law of Thermodynamics?  It's crazy.  It states that entropy (the gradual decline into disorder), while in an isolated system (an area in which there is no mass or heat exchange across its boundaries), never decreases, but will eventually evolve towards thermodynamic equilibrium (a state of maximum entropy).  Erwin's theory is that living matter avoids this.  He doesn't say it lacks entropy, but it deters and slows it.  While we're alive, our body postpones its decay and stays solid.  When we die, our bodies decay and our atoms distribute evenly with its surroundings.

Anyway, living organisms are considered as open systems, because we can exchange energy and matter with their surroundings.  They are also considered as dissipative systems because they decrease entropy within them, and increase entropy in their environments.

We delay entropy mainly by metabolism, which is the process of taking in nutrients to complete tasks or activities, and then expelling waste byproducts.  So, metabolism creates order in the system and increases disorder outside of it.  In terms of metabolism, this happens when the spontaneous processes of catabolism (the breaking down of molecules into smaller molecules to cause the release of energy) and the non-spontaneous processes of anabolism (the building up of molecules into larger molecules using energy) are coupled.

So, living organisms take in materials, break them down to create energy, then use that energy to build up matter within them.   This process causes disorder (which is released as byproduct) outside the system, and creates order (which is the build up and increased complexity) within the system.

Do rocks do this?  Not necessarily.

Mrs. Grenn was my biology teacher in high school.  Just kidding.  It's actually an acronym.  MRS GRENN.  Movement, respiration, sensation, growth, reproduction, and nutritional needs.  All of these things are the prerequisites one thing must have to be considered living.

But not all living things "move," right?  I don't know.  Whatever.

Apparently there are over a hundred characteristics that help define whether something is living or not.  The most common and top three are that life reproduces, and uses energy, and those two actions are defined by instilled instructions (DNA).

So, I threw this at my friend: "Dude, rocks don't reproduce."  And he replied, "Yeah they do... a rock breaks in half, now there's two.  Reproduction."  In a way, he was right.  But I did some research, and now I'm pretty sure 1.) Rocks don't grow, 2.) Rocks don't use energy, and 3.) Rocks certainly don't have DNA that defines them, but are actually defined by the systems around it, and 4.) That form of "reproduction" doesn't count because it's not originated from a DNA sequence, but usually from another system acting upon it.

I guess amid all these random facts and thoughts, I've developed my definition of life.

Life must have these characteristiscs:

-Metabolism takes place.  There are nutritional needs by the organism.

-Because of metabolism taking place, order increases within the system and disorder increase outside of it.

-This process of metabolism takes place because of written instructions (DNA).

-It responds to its environment (rocks don't, by the way)

-It's self-contained, so enclosed by cell membranes.

-It has a genetic molecule (its instructions, or DNA, if you will).

-It can evolve as per its instructions, and reproduce.

And that's my list.  All of these things, by the way, are things rocks don't do, but a human being does.  So there, buddy.  Rocks aren't living things, nice try :)

Just some rock for thought, and this will build the foundation for future posts.  I hope you enjoyed my attempt to understand and then relay my interpretation of some biology lingo.  :D

 

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Sources: Wikipedia, totally, like a boss.

Strength vs. Smarts

 

Someone asked me the other day, "What matters more when striving for success?  Strength or intelligence?  The strongest survive, right?"  In a way, I suppose so.  But based "strength" being physical strength, I started to develop an opposing opinion.

See, Social Darwinism suggests a survival of the fittest; that the inferior will fall to the superior groups.  And your "superiority" can be determined by a number of things.  I suppose back in ancient history, physical strength did matter.  Now, it's who has more money, guns, or influence.  Anyway.  I hate to say this, but physical strength is no longer an attribute that can make you the most successful.

For example, when you're trying to succeed at most any job, how do you excel?  Generally, you do so through hard work, you get promoted based on the consistency, quality, and intelligence of your work.  However, if I were to take a desk, throw it through a wall and then say, "Hey, boss- see, I'm a beast, I threw that desk.  Promote me?"  I'd be fired.

In most jobs, white-collar ones, promotions don't take place because of any display of strength.

I mean, I remember in elementary school when the strongest kids were feared on the playground.  I'd always admire whoever ran fastest or who could throw a ball farther.   In high school, those same thoughts carried over.  The people who did well in sports generally had more friends, while the "nerds," if you will, didn't.

But, having more friends doesn't necessarily suggest a greater chance at success.  Besides that, I don't really think a lot of kids in sports have friend because they're good at the sport.  I believe it's because when you get involved in extra-curricular activities, you build a social network with people that you probably wouldn't if you spent your time reading, studying, and playing PC games.  (I only did maybe two of those in high school, and it wasn't studying.)

If you look at our top athletes, you'll see that they're on top because they're strongest or most accurate with the football.  But on that note, they're also some of the most intelligent players.  Peyton Manning is a great quarterback, but I think a lot of that is due to his in-depth understanding of the game, and how smart he is.

So, I guess I'm saying an individual can succeed on intelligence alone.  To succeed with strength, as in having a winning season or establishing a career with athletics that you can thrive off of, you still need intelligence.

I guess I'd reword that little theory, "survival of the fittest."  More specifically, I'd probably say "survival of the smartest."

And no, I'm not saying unintelligent people should be eliminated or they're insignificant.  I'm just comparing what muscles will get you further in life; your brain, or everything else.  And strength isn't a bad thing.  While the cerebral cortex is a huge addition that we have that differs us from other living things on this planet (yes I know we're not "things), strength has it's pros as well.  Firefighters and soldiers are all strong people (physically, and mentally), and their success in their job is based on it.  Just don't get the wrong picture, here.

Of course, there are a lot more factors that determine your success, such as your hard work, determination, social skills, and personality.  Those traits sometimes outweigh intelligence, and usually matter more that physical strength.

And if you look at where the world is going... the internet, social networks, and technology is running everything.  And who's designs the phones you rely on?  Who built that social network you put all your information on?  Some of the smartest people are behind a lot of the things you have that make your clock tick.

So what do you think?  I'd like to hear your feedback.

Fact of the day:  You're 3 times more likely to die from a car accident than a bullet.  Think we should consider outlawing cars as well as guns?

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