Congratulations And Updates...

The Olympics

First of all I'd like to congratulate all of the Olympic athletes for amazing performances in what is certainly a great year for the Olympics. They really are heroes and considering the amount of time and effort that is put into a performance of only a few minutes, they are nothing less than remarkable as are the people that make that possible. Every second of several years of effort leading up to one moment of achievement, though the sense thereof I hope for all such athletes comes from the achievement of having tried rather than having not tried at all. There is only loss for one who does not try.

In The Writing Arena

There have been numerous chapters added to A Lady's Perogative: Wounded Aerth, Heroes Of Our Own and finally to Our Place making this set of updates one of the biggest in the history of this blog. 

In addition I've written a whole slew of new poetry as well possibly inspired by the perseverance of Olympic athletes, the opening ceremonies and a little bit from my own struggles against some real life trolls.

Heroes Of Our Own is going to require a little bit more going over in order to get the quirks out but it seems to be taking on a life of its own. Definitely a recommended read for cosplayers.

On Risque Factor (viewer discretion is advised) there has been at least one new article posted on Social Engineering And Identity Theft that should be read by media measurement specialists and content producers and providers alike as it really gives some clues to the forces currently shaping the internet in terms of content and the obstacles that are likely going to affect the value of content and advertising unless it is at least checked out a bit.

Technology

One area that recently received some attention from a great television show (Charlie Rose) was an interview that talked about D-Wave, a company that makes real quantum computers which I was completely unaware of. 

Quantum computers are of course computers that avoid the pitfalls of classical and linear computing by taking advantage of qubits, which enable a calculation to be conducted based upon superposition and the collapse of the wave function. It is analogous to computing all the possible solutions to a given task simultaneously or even computing the solutions to such tasks utilizing the time space of other universes running completely concurrent to our own and using one such universe for the superposition of each qubit.

This is some pretty amazing news and I suspect that we are within the next twenty years going to see a revolution that will equal that of all other technical revolutions that came before it including machine intelligence and possibly a complete understanding of human consciousness and its relation to the quantum mechanical properties of the universe.

Imagine having computers that could help us simulate phenomenon that would make the development of cures for disease and testing theories related to technologies like warp travel possible. The engineering of super materials bonded at the atomic level and some other absolutely phenomenal achievements will be possible.

These are some of the possibilities with quantum computing of course the challenge lies in developing techniques to use the concept of superposition in the calculation of these problems. Developing software for quantum computers will become a career with huge demand in the next decade.

Science, Religion And Faith

In the book Contact by Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan as does the excellent movie directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster and Mathew McConaughey, science and religion are put at odds with one another (as they often have) when scientists at SETI receive a message from a distant alien intelligence. Recently science and religion have been finding similar unrest and this is a shame.

In a day and age where more and more developments are leading to new discoveries and taking humankind further into our future, why is it that the two must compete for the right to exist or even to be taken seriously. Mostly its about who has say in the distribution of finances with regard to research and our future as a species upon this planet and our place in the universe. 

Science, Religion, Philosophy and Faith have and always will have an important place in all of our most important decisions for to tread without one is to journey without an important part of ourselves. It is excessive zeal, dogma and pragma that seem to be the real culprits and obstacles to progress. Both the religious and the non-religious are susceptible to disease just as both most certainly benefit from a cure. Both sides of such a debate lose people to death and both sides likely do a some soul searching therein.

One is objective and one is subjective. One is how long have we been here? The other is why are we here? One has a definite answer. For the other the answer is different for each of us. Reconciling those differences is our challenge.

Stay Well and and don't let them make you into the bad one,
Brian Joseph Johns

Olympics

I'd just like say that the opening ceremonies of the Olympics were absolutely astounding and an incredible achievement in artistry, construction and presentation. Watching the presentation of Tolstoy's War And Peace was pretty emotionally intense. The whole scene was incredible and paid homage to Russia's rich cultural history and to one of my favourite if not my favourite classical composer.

It was great to see all of the teams make their entry way onto the stadium floor and I literally got goose bumps when the team of my country arrived.

To all of the countries taking part I'd like to wish you well in the spirit of the Olympics which supports diversity across the board in all aspects as does the place from which I originate and am very proud to be a part of. 

I am a citizen of the world and definitely a child of my place of birth. To use the words of a friend I am as we all are perfectly imperfect.

Let's hope that those representing us all at the 2014 Winter And Summer Olympics are even more so. ;-)

They are definitely the heroes of us all.

Stay well,
Brian Joseph Johns

New Chapters, Some Philosophy, Toronto And Mayor Rob Ford, ASMR, Philip Seymour Hoffman And Something To Combat Identity Theft And See The Real Me

New Chapters

I hope that you all had a great weekend and that the start of the week has been equally good. Last week I had a bit of time to work on A Lady's Perogative: Wounded Aerth and Heroes Of Our Own, both of which received at least a new chapter (A Lady's Perogative:Wounded Aerth received a few).

Just a word of warning that some of the topics in Wounded Aerth being covered are a bit controversial depending upon your beliefs. I would ask readers to remember that it is an in progress effort and that elements encountered in the story now do not reflect the overall viewpoint reflected while we are still early in the plot arc. Ideas are being challenged and will be explored and challenged much further before it is over.

Heroes Of Our Own is my personal interpretation of the superhero genre, cosplay and the fashion industry and definitely pays its homage to all of those areas the of story. It is still early in the plot but it is picking up momentum.

Stories From The End as ambitious as it started has slowed although I know the rest of the story from here, it is just a matter of writing it down. I apologize to those who are awaiting the conclusion. See the following paragraphs for an explanation of why the new chapters have been delayed so much.

Wanted: Troll Detection System

Thankfully I managed to write for two days undetected by my personal trolls (people close by that make life and writing like hell) so that was a peaceful experience and I managed to produce some chapters that required the least rewrites. That goes to show you that the act of creating something isn't dependent upon someone else artificially inducing pain or tormenting you while you do. They made up for lost time though after they found out and I'm still recovering from that now. I'm literally in bed sick as I write this.

Philosophy And Polarity And Control

On the philosophy side of things, hate and love might be the polar opposites to balance and alike in their amplitude from perfect balance, but they are not alike in practice. You'll get two very different results by the abundant application of either. 

Love will cause the body to create life prolonging and healing properties within the human body while hate will cause the body to fail in the production of what is necessary for good health. 

Beware of those using abundant hate to transform the world or to build an abundance of such that they later consume for themselves by reversing the polarity and consuming it as love. 

During that process what was formerly love becomes hate so they're still leaving everyone else with all of their residual leftovers of that negative emotion. 

Beware of others that consider it necessary to keep a balanced quota between the exceptions that you show to those that are dear to you and others who are not. Getting away with things that you would only accept of those very dear to you is often the means that such a group believe that they can use to control you. 

We could learn a lot from the Far East and other parts of the world in regard to their respect of these ideas as well as those who in western philosophies and faiths that have learned stave off the ideas of hate manifesting as a means emotional consumption and for emotional manipulation of others.

The Mayor Rob Ford Scandal: Taking Back The City

A good example of people using this as a method of control is the recent bad publicity that the city of Toronto and its Mayor experienced in controversy by giving exception to and being blackmailed by a gang and a crack dealer. 

To the people involved they believe that the citizens of Toronto are now under the Mayor who is under a crack cocaine dealer and that a crack dealer is in charge (he's subverted the Mayor of a major city of four million people). 

The only way to deal with such a thing is to deal with it in the like. I think that it takes a very goofy person to deal crack cocaine in the first place and worse, it takes an even goofier person to lure women into selling their bodies to pay for their addiction to it.

Now by me, a computer nerd referring to crack cocaine dealers in such a way, that does not mean that I expect the subservience of the citizens of Toronto or its Mayor because I took it back from a crack cocaine dealer. I don't expect anything at all except a bit of peace and quiet and for the world to look at the city for what it is, a great place to live, visit, shoot movies, enjoy the diversity and selection of hospitality, live the night life and do business and that like most cities in the world has its growing pains and share of bad elements.

I just happen to believe that the citizens of Toronto are not garbage bags for a crack dealer. I voted for a Mayor (though I won't say which one I voted for). I didn't vote for a goofy crack dealer so I am taking back our city and giving it back to the people of Toronto and its voters and the Mayor.

Also, nobody in the city or in the world is my garbage bag so don't take this as my attempt to do anything like subvert others to me in any way because its not. I wrote these paragraphs, nobody else did. The words left my mouth not anyone else's. Its my gift to Toronto and none of it is hate means love. Said as it is meant.

I'll still go outside and lead my life as usual, unafraid.

ASMR: A Chance To Heal

For those of you looking for a cure or a means to rebalance the damage that one might experience as a result of being subjected to an abundance of hate, see ASMR on youtube or check my Channels And Sites page and the Healing And Well Being and ASMR section to find places to heal. Thanks to all the people involved in the process of helping others to heal emotionally.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

My condolences to the family, friends and fans of Philip Seymour Hoffman who died recently. You might remember him from his performances in The Big Lebowski, State And Main (with Julia Stiles and Sarah Jessica Parker), Capote, Mission Impossible III (my personal favourite of that franchise next to Mission Impossible II, featuring Michelle Monoghan, Maggie Q and directed by J.J. Abrams) and Hunger Games: Catching Fire with two more Hunger Games productions still to come featuring his character from Catching Fire. You are already missed buddy.

Need For Speed: World

I've been putting off my review of Need For Speed: World, an MMO driving game but suffice it to know that I have played it and it is a great MMO sandbox driving experience. A full review is coming for certain.

Something To Verify My Identity In Person And Online

I made a video recently and posted it to youtube in hopes of clearing up some of the issues related to the form of identity theft that I've encountered during the process of trying to flesh out and protect my online persona as well as my in person identity.

Basically by watching it you'll learn a bit more about me and the very modest bachelor pad that I live in where I do most of my writing. You might learn some personal details about me that you might not (or might) want to know but all in all it verifies my identity and as the writer of these stories. You can also put a voice to my words.

I am 46 years old, 6 ft tall, 155 lbs and sometimes wear glasses and sometimes not. I am single and have been for four years. I am monogamous and have never been promiscuous in a relationship. I have no criminal record or charges. I do not use, buy or sell narcotics and that definitely includes crack cocaine. 

After that you might be able to have a good laugh.

Stay well,
Brian Joseph Johns