full circle.
March 29, 2009
“I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Revelation 1:8
Alpha
Dedicated to my wife, Cathryn, my children, Cameron, Ian, Aimee, Owen, and my two angels, Hailey Marie and Ian Joshua.
My wife’s mother always said her life could be written as a book. I have decided to write her story as she is too busy being a good wife and an exceptional mother. This is her story, our story, and the story of our children, through my eyes.
Omega
Thanks and acknowledgement to my wife, Cathryn, my children, Cameron, Ian, Aimee, Owen, my two angels, Hailey Marie and Ian Joshua, my friend Eyeteaguy (thanks for the kick in the butt to start writing), my friend Friar (Thursday night bitch ‘n stitch sessions, Viking humour, and bonfires), and my friends in “the cloud” who have given me encouragement at my blog, 6 Weeks.
Without all of you, these words would be nothing but whispers in the wind.
–
Image: Monogram of Christ, Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican, undated.
I don’t understand!
steph,
Since you’re the first to ask (yay! hope you’ve been well, I’ll email soon…) – I was being mysterious today.
To explain – I will be posting parts of my book every Sunday from now on, as a regular feature that is uniquely creative (I think) and important to me. I hope that others will enjoy it too.
The Alpha and the Omega are the Prologue and the Epilogue of the book.
Brett,
I knew it was an prologue and epilogue, but I confess to wondering why, also. Now it makes more sense, thank you!
& You outed Friar, lol lol lol. I didn’t know his last name, now I’m going to have to see how I can create trouble with my vast knowledge.
I look forward to more installments!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..MCE Round Table: Misery, Money, Music…
Kelly,
It must have been something I drank
or maybe I figured it was like a plot device, to make people wonder “what the heck is going on in this guy’s head?”
Maybe not the best “blogging strategy” but then again if we all follow best blogging practices, what fun is that?
I’m sure Friar’s Mom would give me trouble for that – but the thing is, I figure folks would find out eventually anyway once the finished book hits print.
I bet if we checked back somewhere, we’d have found that info anyway – just like how my blog archives contain the real name of Splat Creek
Brett,
The thing about Dooce-ing is, you’ve got to have someone dedicated on the other end for it to happen.
At The Factory, I’m afraid there’s no one dedicated on the other end. So Friar’s Mom can rest easy.
Until later,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..MCE Round Table: Misery, Money, Music…
Ahhh! Okay. I thought I’d missed a link somewhere, or that you were closing down this blog, which confused me, or something!
So is the book finished, then? I really look forward to reading this every Sunday!!
(I’m well, just very busy. I took on a proofing job of over 300 pages, due April 21. Stupid, yes, considering I do 35 hours a week elsewhere. But the money…well, you know how that finishes.
On Friday I went a little wild and had my hair all cut off – think Mia Farrow or Annie Lennox – and bleached platinum. Woohoo! Crazy times. The patients are going to freak out.
It sounds as though all is well with you, and I’m very happy to hear it! I have been thinking of you.)
BTW—it worked quite well as a “what the heck is going on in this guy’s head?” device.
LOL.
Kelly’s last blog post..MCE Round Table: Misery, Money, Music…
Kelly,
‘Tis true, it does take two to Dooce-tango, so I think the disillusioned Factory employees are dancing alone… glad to see I’m still confusing someone
steph,
Oh no, I figure I’ll give more warning than that if I decide to shutter this place. The story is not finished yet, but then again, what story is ever finished? So I thought to myself, “why not share it as I go?”
That way, if I meet my untimely demise before it is well and truly complete, at least a few folks have heard part of the tale.
Hey, Annie Lennox, very cool – always had a soft spot for the music, as they’d done the soundtrack for 1984.
@Brett
Hey, I’m really greatful for the acknowledgment. But..umm…don’t know what I fell about being “outed”.
To be honest, I would have preferred to have done it on my own.
Friar’s last blog post..Perfessor Friar rambles about cars, fuel cells and saving the planet.
@Steph
…but I LIKED your long hair ! (At least, based on the few photos of you I’ve seen).
Friar’s last blog post..Perfessor Friar rambles about cars, fuel cells and saving the planet.
Hi Brett,
I haven’t read the comments but am familiar with the scripture so am guessing this is the prologue and epilogue of your book! Yay! Congratulations on vision becoming reality. Even if it is not yet written, writing this part and sharing is an important step on the journey as you own your dream, your passion and your purpose. In my own life I have found that sometimes sticking my stake in the ground and saying this dirt is my patch land darnit and I see a beautiful bounty of sunflowers is the butt kicking I need to give myself to not let anything stand in the way. Good for you Brett! I rejoice in whatever stage you are in.
Karen Swim’s last blog post..The Wonder of Life
I’m with Steph and thought you were closing down and I actually thought: “good for him, he’s ready to make the big leap and he’s really busy and will explain all with a wrap up when the leap has been made.”
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post..Fear of an office job: Allison Day interview
@Friar,
All fixed now – so only the folks who get updates by email will have a record of your “sekrit eyedentitee” because as far as I know many (most?) of the feed readers seem to update to the latest version when I edit. Google Reader does, anyway…
@Karen,
Thanks so very much for the encouragement – I am pretty far along (as Wendi could tell you – which reminds me, update coming soon Wendi!). And yet, I thought, “what am I waiting for?”
As you say, planting a stake in the dirt – that’s what this was. A demarcation, a change in focus for this blog.
@Alex,
I suspect I will do just that next Sunday, give an explanation – but in a nutshell, this was the idea here – a leap perhaps, a change of focus, or something.
When I first started out here, I’d been talking with “The Men” about another blog for my book.
I went so far as to register a domain name, which I still hold to this day, the working title of my book.
But… being a fairly busy fellow, I’ve not made the time to launch something new over there.
I got to thinking (uh-oh!) after chats with you, Dave Navarro, Tom Volkar, Steve Pavlina, many other people – why not just change the focus here?
It’s my place, after all
I think there’s a great community here and if I can share something interesting here, with what’s been built already, why not run with it?
So, not closing the doors yet, but a shift. Lots of great stuff yet to come, and I think it will be good.
@Brett
YAY!!! (Though half the people on this blog probably already know who I am). But better safe than sorry.
(Like..if I get a fan who turns out to be a stalker….) Some people are scary, out there!
(Remember what’s-her-face last year, who suddenly went ballistic?)
PS. Getting back to the topic of this post. Yeah, I’d love to see parts of your story.
Friar’s last blog post..Perfessor Friar rambles about cars, fuel cells and saving the planet.
@Friar,
If you get a fan who turns out to be a stalker – I’ll take care of them for you. I would assume that anyone who is a fan of you has probably been here.
We can just do a reverse IP lookup and send the Viking Horde after them.
Congrats, Brett! Very cool post — I like mystery. Looking forward to reading your book!
Steph: You cut off all your hair? Good for you! I did the same a few years back, and I loved having a pixie ‘do. Sadly, I’ve let it grow out again, as the pregnancy hormones were causing it to grow too fast for me to keep up with.(I’m sure once the kid arrives it will all fall out from stress …)
Rebecca Smith’s last blog post..Slash away
A good day to start commenting – is it something new? See I don’t know? but I am very happy to be here and know that there will be more to read.
I must be past remedy , I do not see Friar’s last name… You are safe with me!
Intriguing
Hi Brett,
The alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end. As I’m reading the comments and understanding this – what a great introduction to your book.
And, I love the last line: “Without all of you, these words would be nothing but whispers in the wind.” — powerful thought. As a writer, it’s the readers that really add so much to what this can mean. Not to say writing for ourselves isn’t good, because I do believe this is good too. Some words are meant to be shared… I like it…
Lance’s last blog post..Sunday Thought For The Day
I’m more of a Gamma to Chi Person. I’ll cover MOST of the range…but not quite.
Friar’s last blog post..Stereotype TWITS
Ever since you started this 6 weeks thing you’ve been very motivated and accomplished a great deal.
You can stop now. Please revert to your old self. I quite enjoyed kicking you.
Eyeteaguy
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..What have you done for me lately?
@Eyeteaguy
Well, dont’ be too hard on Brett. I think he’s doing a good job being true to his blog.
After all, SIX WEEKS is about how often he posts now.
Friar’s last blog post..Stereotype TWITS
@Rebecca,
Thank you so much – I know that you will enjoy it, when it is out. There will be something in there for everyone.
Oh, and I think that kids actually help you keep your hair – kind of like when you try to pull out weeds, and they keep coming back – yeah, it works like that!
@Patricia,
A warm welcome to you today – if you would like to know a bit about the story I am writing, have a look here:
http://6weeks.ca/2008/04/29/my-hero/
I didn’t link to it in the above post as I was being mysterious
Anyway, I hope that you will enjoy the words to come, and I look forward to seeing you again.
@Lance,
I always figured if I wrote a book, I’d want the chapters to have names with more meaning, so I’m happy that people appreciated it. I really do believe that last line too – we need to share that which is most important to us, so that it will not be lost to the ages.
@Friar,
I figured you’d be more of a Phonetic Alphabet kind of guy, especially that modified one we did at work
@Eyeteaguy,
Oh, okay, if you insist. I’ll acquire a drinking problem and wallow in misery then heh heh
@Friar again,
I’ve just been posting less because I’ve been hanging out at this *other* blog called The Deep Friar
I’m so confused! Where was Friar out-ed? What did I miss? Of course, not only do I know Friar’s real name, I have actually met him, so I guess it’s all rather a moot point for me. But still … I’m so confused!
Urban Panther’s last blog post..My very first flame!
Panther,
I do my writing in a text editor, and I had just done a cut & paste into WordPress. I changed it to remove the names but closed the window quickly and canceled the save. It was set to publish at a certain time…
Hey Brett!
I’ve been missing you! Glad to see that you are going to be posting on the story, I have been SO proud of how hard you have been working on it and can’t wait to read about it!
With as much dedication as you have been doing, I know it won’t be long beofre it is finished.
Oh and Friar, I do know your name and I couldn’t find it anywhere here so I think you are safe. However Brett fixed it, it is gone now!
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..A Quarter for your Thoughts
WTF?
A “non” post gets 26 comments? You didn’t say anything….
I think you must be a cool kid. What did you eat for breakfast? Maybe you can get a few hundred comments of out that.
But for now I will ohhhhh, and ahhhhh over your greatness.
Friar, would you like to join me in basking in his glow?
Eyeteaguy
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..What have you done for me lately?
Hi Wendi,
I’ve been delinquent in updating our shared document – but I’ve been keeping notes so expect a BIG update today or first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll then be more religious about keeping things up to date.
I’ve missed chatting with you here too, so hopefully this new feature will appeal to you and we can have some fun.
@Eyeteaguy,
It was the picture. Worth 1000 words and all that…
Let’s try your suggestion and see:
Sausages, scrambled eggs, home fries and coffee for breakfast.
Oh, and that glow? It’s from being a nookular worker. Friar has it too, and even you have a slight shimmer, having spent a little time up here yourself
@Eyeteaguy
Yep…Brett can do no wrong.
He writes that he’ll be posting something….later on.
And his picture “worth 1000 words”….well, OBVIOUSLY he didn’t take that photo. It was obviously snagged from Flickr or something.
And lookit all the people flocking to come see him.
Yep, Brett..you ARE definitely a Cool Kid.
Friar’s last blog post..Viking Technical Support
Nah, I’m just me.
If anyone is reading this, go check out Friar’s Viking Technical Support post at http://deepfriar.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/viking-technical-support/ as it is really funny – and appropriate, with the Conficker worm today – and the artwork is cool.
I might have been cool in 970 AD as a Viking, and I might be cool in 200 years when the rest of the planet catches up to my twisted brain
@Brett
Aw…thanks for the link love!
That will surely increase my blog traffic by a good 5-10 people!
Friar’s last blog post..Viking Technical Support
Cool man. I love public declarations of honorable intent.
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work’s last blog post..Creative Consciousness Strategy
@Friar,
Cool kid indeed. But then again you are becoming one yourself.
@Brett
That is so cool that you had Sausages, scrambled eggs, home fries and coffee for breakfast. I wish I was more like you and could eat the same breakfast you do, like you do.
But at least I don’t need you to remind me to eat, and breath. I go to another blog for that!
This book had better be good, look at the expectaions you have raised!
Eyeassguy
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
@Eyeteaguy
No. No. Noooooo. I am NOT a Cool Kid. (If I ever become one, put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery!)
@Brett
Just that fact that you’re TELLING us what you’re PLANNING on doing, is an inspiration to us ALL.
How cool is THAT?
Friar’s last blog post..Viking Technical Support
@ Brett
May I borrow your gun?
@Friar
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
@Friar
*bang*
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
@Friar,
Hey, every little bit helps – and like I said at your blog, *YOU* are a Cool Kid – your blog isn’t banned by IT, mine is and so is Eyeteaguy’s…
@Tom,
Thanks very much – that’s what I like about you too. You shout it out to the world.
@Eyeteaguy,
If you worked where we work, you could have had that too (I was running late for work, and the cafeteria actually makes a good breakfast for a very fair price…)
I was going to write a post reminding bloggers to eliminate regularly, but there’s already so much crap out there I didn’t bother heh heh
Oh, the book will be good – hey, if Million Little Pieces could get on Oprah, and it was *totally fake*, mine will certainly impress.
@Friar,
Next week I’ll tell you how I’m thinking about visualizing my planning.
@Eyeteaguy,
Do you want the big gun, the BIG gun, or the BEEEG gun?
Or just go right to the BFG.
Hmm, if I used the BFG then they’d have to use DNA to ID the body.
Just the .45 will be fine. Small hole in front, biiiiiig hole in th back.
Don’t worry Friar, your won’t feel a thing and you’ll never see me coming.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
@Eyeteaguy
Given the week I’ve been having, a BFG doesn’t seem so bad right now
Friar’s last blog post..Viking Technical Support
@Eyeteaguy,
Use a neutron bomb then – massive radiation dose destroys the central nervous system
Maybe Friar would appreciate one of those…
41 comments…..about nothing……my hero.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
@Eyeteaguy,
I think they pay people who can do a lot with a little big bucks, don’t they?
That is sick, beastialiy is illegal.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
If beastiality is illegal, you wouldn’t know it in the modern work place.
Many people seem to make a really good living “fornicating the pooch” all week long, at least everywhere I’ve worked.
45 comments. About nothing.
Eyeteaguy, think we can push it to 100?
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Yes.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
I
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
…CAN?
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
think
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
we
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
can.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
We just have to be creative and talk about somthing since there is nothing to talk about here.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
How many left to go?
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
We’re in the 50’s, now, I think.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
This is actually like Twitter. Except we can use more than 140 characters.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
There’s no set time limit, either. We can just keep coming back here, till we reach 100, or get bored.
Whichever comes first.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Nothing
A white background is usually associated with the concept of nothing.Nothing is a concept that describes the absence of anything at all. Colloquially, the concept is often used to indicate the lack of anything relevant or significant, or to describe a particularly unimportant thing, event, or object. It is contrasted with something and everything. Nothingness is used more specifically as the state of nonexistence of everything.
Blank Space(s), Darkness and (to a lesser extent) barren areas such as Deserts are commonly associated with the concept of nothing.
Language and logic
Grammatically, the word “nothing” is an indefinite pronoun, which means that it refers to something. One might argue that “nothing” is a concept, and since concepts are things, the concept of “nothing” itself is a thing. This logical fallacy is neatly demonstrated by the joke syllogism that contains a fallacy of four terms:
The Devil is greater than nothing.
Nothing is greater than God.
The Devil is greater than God.
The four terms in this example are God, the Devil, nothing-as-a-thing which the Devil is greater than, and nothing as no-thing or not-some-thing (some thing is not greater than God). The error in the conclusion stems from equating nothing-as-a-thing with no-thing which is invalid logic.
Clauses can often be restated to avoid the appearance that “nothing” possesses an attribute. For example, the sentence “There is nothing in the basement” can be restated as “There is not one thing in the basement”. “Nothing is missing” can be restated as “everything is present”. Conversely, many fallacious conclusions follow from treating “nothing” as a noun.
Modern logic made it possible to articulate these points coherently as intended, and many philosophers hold that the word “nothing” does not function as a noun, as there is no object that it refers to. There remain various opposing views, however—for example, that our understanding of the world rests essentially on noticing absences and lacks as well as presences, and that “nothing” and related words serve to indicate these.
[edit] Philosophy
[edit] Western philosophy
Many unschooled in philosophy would consider the study of “nothing” to be foolish, a typical response of this type is voiced by Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) in conversation with his landlord, one Dr. Gozzi, who also happens to be a priest,
“ As everything, for him, was an article of faith, nothing, to his mind, was difficult to understand: the Great Flood had covered the entire world; before, men had the misfortune of living a thousand years; God conversed with them; Noah had taken one hundred years to build the ark; while the earth, suspended in air, stood firmly at the center of the universe that God had created out of nothingness. When I said to him, and proved to him, that the existence of nothingness was absurd, he cut me short, calling me silly.[1] ”
However, “nothingness” has been treated as a serious subject worthy of research for a very long time. In philosophy, to avoid linguistic traps over the meaning of “nothing”, a phrase such as not-being is often employed to unambiguously make clear what is being discussed.
[edit] Parmenides
One of the earliest western philosophers to consider nothing as a concept was Parmenides (5th century BC) who was a Greek philosopher of the monist school. He argued that “nothing” cannot exist by the following line of reasoning. To speak of a thing, one has to speak of a thing that exists. Since we can speak of a thing in the past, it must still exist (in some sense) now and from this concludes that there is no such thing as change. As a corollary, there can be no such things as coming-into-being, passing-out-of-being or not-being.[2]
There is obviously a serious problem with this reasoning, but Parmenides was not dismissed out of hand, in fact he was highly respected by other philosophers. Aristotle analyses his reasoning in a great deal of depth but concludes, “Although these opinions seem to follow logically in a dialectical discussion, yet to believe them seems next door to madness when one considers the facts.”[3]
[edit] Leucippus
Leucippus (early 5th century BC), one of the atomists, along with other philosophers of his time, made attempts to reconcile this with the everyday observation of motion and change. He accepted the monist position that there could be no motion without a void. The void is the opposite of being, it is not-being. On the other hand, a thing that exists is an absolute plenum and there can be no motion in a plenum because it is completely full. But there is not one monolithic plenum, existence consists of a multiplicity of plenums. These are the invisibly small atoms of the atomists theory, later expanded more fully by Democritus (circa 460 BC – 370 BC). They are a necessary part of the theory in order to allow the void to exist between them. In this scenario macroscopic objects can come-into-being move through space and pass into not-being by means of the coming together and moving apart of their constituent atoms. The void must exist in order to allow this to happen or else the frozen world of Parmenides must be accepted.
Bertrand Russell points out that this does not exactly defeat the argument of Parmenides, but rather ignores it by taking the rather modern scientific position of starting with the observed data (motion etc) and constructing a theory based on the data as opposed to Parmenides attempts to work from pure logic. Russell also observes that both sides were mistaken in believing that there can be no motion in a plenum, but arguably motion cannot start in a plenum.[4] Cyril Bailey notes that Leucippus is the first to say that a thing (the void) might be real without being a body and points out the irony that this comes from a materialistic atomist. Leucippus is therefore the first to say that “nothing” has a reality attached to it.[5]
[edit] Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) provided the classic escape from the logical problem posed by Parmenides by distinguishing things which were matter and things which were space. In this scenario, space is not “nothing”, but a receptacle in which objects of matter can be placed. The void (as “nothing”) is different from space and is removed from consideration.[6][7] This charactersition of space reached its pinnacle with Isaac Newton who asserted the existence of absolute space. Interestingly, modern quantum theory agrees that space is not the void, there is the concept of quantum foam which still exists in the absence of all else, although Albert Einstein’s general relativity no longer agrees with Newton’s concept of an absolute space. Rene Descartes, on the other hand, returned to a Parmenides like argument of denying the existence of space. For Descartes, there was matter, and there was extension of matter leaving no room for the existence of “nothing”.[8]
The idea that space can actually be empty was generally still not accepted by philosophers who invoked arguments similar to the plenum reasoning. Although Descartes views on this were challenged by Blaise Pascal, he declined to overturn the traditional belief, commonly stated in the form “Nature abhors a vacuum”. This remained so until Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer in 1643 and showed that an empty space appeared if the mercury tube was turned upside down. This phenomenon being known as the Torricelli vacuum and the unit of vacuum pressure, the Torr, being named after him. Even Torricelli’s teacher, the famous Galileo Galilei had previously been unable to adequately explain the sucking action of a pump.[9]
[edit] John the Scot
John the Scot, or Johannes Scotus Eriugena (c. 815–877) held many surprisingly heretical beliefs for the time he lived in for which no action appears ever to have been taken against him. His ideas mostly stem from, or are based on his work of translating pseudo-Dionysius. His beliefs are essentially pantheist and he classifies evil, amongst many other things, into not-being. This is done on the grounds that evil is the opposite of good, a quality of God, but God can have no opposite, since God is everything in the pantheist view of the world. Similarly, the idea that God created the world out of “nothing” is to be interpreted as the “nothing” here is synonymous with God.[10]
[edit] Georg Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) is the philosopher who brought the dialectical method to its pinnacle of development. According to Hegel in Science of Logic the dialectical methods consists of three steps. First, a thesis is given, which can be any postulate in logic. Second, the antithesis of the thesis is formed and finally a synthesis incorporating both thesis and antithesis. Hegel believed that no postulate taken by itself can be completely true. Only the whole can be true and the dialectical synthesis was the means by which the whole could be examined in relation to a specific postulate. Truth consists of the whole process, separating out thesis, antithesis or synthesis as a stand-alone statement results in something that is in some way or other untrue. The concept of “nothing” arises in Hegel right at the beginning of his Logic. The whole is called by Hegel the “Absolute” and is to be viewed as something spirtual. Hegel then has;[11]
Thesis: The Absolute is Pure Being
Antithesis: The Absolute is Nothing
Synthesis: The Absolute is Becoming
[edit] The existentialists
The most prominent figure among the existentialists is Jean-Paul Sartre whose ideas in his book Being and Nothingness are heavily influenced by Being and Time of Martin Heidegger, although Heidegger later stated that he was misunderstood by Sartre.[12] Sartre defines two kinds of “being” (être). One kind is être-en-soi, the brute existence of things such as a tree. The other kind is être-pour-soi which is consciousness. Sartre claims that this second kind of being is “nothing” since consciousness cannot be an object of consciousness and can possess no essence.[13] Sartre, and even more so, Jaques Lacan, use this conception of nothing as the foundation of their atheist philosophy. Equating nothingness with being leads to creation from nothing and hence God is no longer needed for there to be existence.[14]
[edit] Eastern philosophy
The understanding of ‘nothing’ varies widely between cultures, especially between Western and Eastern cultures and philosophical traditions. For instance, Shunyata (emptiness), unlike “nothingness”, is considered to be a state of mind in some forms of Buddhism (see Nirvana, mu, and Bodhi). Achieving ‘nothing’ as a state of mind in this tradition allows one to be totally focused on a thought or activity at a level of intensity that they would not be able to achieve if they were consciously thinking. A classic example of this is an archer attempting to erase his mind and clear his thoughts in order to better focus on his shot. Some authors have pointed to similarities between the Buddhist conception of nothingness and the ideas of Martin Heidegger and existentialists like Sartre,[15][16] although this connection has not been explicitly made by the philosophers themselves.
In some Eastern philosophies, the concept of “nothingness” is characterized by an egoless state of being in which one fully realizes one’s own small part in the cosmos.
The Kyoto school handles the concept of nothingness as well.
[edit] Science
In mathematics, “nothing” does not have a technical meaning. The number zero is often used interchangeably with the term. It could also be said that a set contains “nothing” if and only if it is the empty set, in which case its cardinality (or size) is zero. In other words, the word “nothing” can be an informal term for an empty set.
In physics, the word nothing is not used in any technical sense either. A region of space is called a vacuum if it does not contain any matter, though it can contain physical fields. In fact, it is practically impossible to construct a region of space that contains no matter or fields, since gravity cannot be blocked and all objects at a non-zero temperature radiate electromagnetically. However, even if such a region existed, it could still not be referred to as “nothing”, since it has properties and a measurable existence as part of the quantum-mechanical vacuum.
In computing, “nothing” (in VB.Net), or “null” (in Java, C#, and others), can be a keyword used to represent an unassigned variable, a pointer that does not point to any particular memory address, or a reference that does not refer to a specific object. Similarly, null is used in SQL as a symbolic representation of the absence of data. This meta-data usage of null is different from the unprintable ASCII and unicode null character, which has a numerical value of zero—although this is different from the ASCII character for zero (“0″). The ASCII blank character (” “) is not the same as an empty string (“”), which is itself sometimes confused with the null pointer in languages such as C. Most forms of assembly language have a no-operation (NOP) instruction (often with a numerical value of zero)—that is, a command to do nothing, which can prove useful for blanking out areas of problem code.
No one ever said I has to write my comment. Cut and paste works fine.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
BWHAHAHAHHAHAH!
Longest.
Most Obnoxious.
Comment.
Ever.
You win, congratulations.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609…
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGzrL8J0t-c
I like winning, what’s my prize?
Let me guess, nothing. How apropos.
Eyetea…..
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
You haven’t won yet (you need to get to 100, remember?)
Here’s your victory song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQFjsGOpBLs
63
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
64, someone should be paying me to do this.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
If you lived closer I’d give you a beer to do it.
Eyeteaguy,
You can’t take this to 100 on your own. I know.
We get by, with a little help, from our friends.
Once upon a time, we got high, with a little help, from our friends.
But now we’re old. So we’re just amused by trying to get Brett 100 comments on a Seinfeldian post about nothing.
Still requires a little help…
Kelly’s last blog post..What To Do When Your Internet Service Goes Out
If you want something done. Call Kelly.
We’ll Maximize Brett’s commenting Experience.
67
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
I think Kelly’s computer (or power) is on the Fritz or something.
Sixty Eight.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
No…wait….THERE she is.
Sorry, Kelly.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Now she can help us comment on nothing. Trying to meet a silly self imposed goal.
Gosh we are a sad bunch.
Oh, that’s 70.
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post..Shall we dance?
I was just at my Blog…watching Eyeteaguy banter with Friar’s Mom. Thought I’d drop in here, and see how things are going.
Okay…obviously not missing much over here…
As you were….
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Friar Twitters me to come over and comment on this crap?
No. I don’t think so.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Crap.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
(But I like it when Friar Twitters me…)
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
YAY Karen.
See? I Twitter her to come over to comment, and she does.
That’s the MOST USEFUL thing I’ve ever seen Twitter do.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
@ Friar – I think Eyeteaguy is trying to pick up your mom.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
@Karen
OMG….imagine if he ended up as my STEP-DAD? :-0
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Then Eyeteaguy could change his name to “Friar’s Step-Dad”.
How cool would that be?
You guys should try to figure out how sensitive the spam filter is, by adding in random words like Viagra and breast enlargement.
How about SMEGMA?
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Penis! Penis! Penis!
(Did I get spamified?)
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Nope…that one got through okay.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Donkey balls!
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Planet of the Amazon D-Cup Flight Attendants. Who battle the Penis-saurus Rex on the Planet Viagra.
Surely, THAT will be spammed.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Barbara Streisand!
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
I wonder if Akismet knows when you guys are joking around? Maybe that’s why it didn’t send you to spam hell…
I thought for sure Streisand would do it.
Akismet sucks.
QUEEF!
(Speaking of which, Karen, didja see South Park last night?)
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Nope. I reduced my cable channels so I don’t get it anymore. Gotta wait for the DVDs (or watch online). Was it good?
But I just bought season 12. They seem to be upping the shock value and reducing the ‘funny’. It’s a shame.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
@Karen
Oh, it was AWESOME last night. They reached a new low (or high).
Had a lot to do with farting.
But I’m a guy…I’d find this funny.
(Which is what the whole premise of the show was about!)
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Woops. I guess Brett can’t make any more stupid comments. He just pulled in my driveway now.
(Beer time!)
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Every second episode in season 12 is someone getting their head blown off.
Too much = not funny.
As much as I hate fart jokes, when the SP guys do it right, it’s funny. I’ll try to find it online. I think the Comedy Network plays them for us Canadians.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
OK…I’ll go have a beer too.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Geez, I leave for 5 and you guys go nuts.
What are we at anyway….
@ Friar – Just finished watching it online. Now THAT was a South Park episode. Yay!
*queef* Bah ha ha!
@ Eyeteaguy – I’m ashamed to say we’ve almost made it to 100.
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Stay on target, stay on target….
I dare not even read the comments, for fear of missing 100.
Hey, Friar, you must be the only person who read MCE today.
Kelly’s last blog post..What To Do When Your Internet Service Goes Out
97
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
98…
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
99………..
I’m outta here. I’ve done my good deed for the day.
(And wasted most of it.)
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
@Kelly,
I was on MCE too! I was Firsties!
100!!!
Francis,
And that’s what stinks about having no Internet. I’m just catching up now.
And I missed 100.
Stupid storms.
Kelly’s last blog post..What To Do When Your Internet Service Goes Out
So is this a proud accomplishment, or a sad one……
A sad one.
Very, very sad…
Karen JL’s last blog post..Why You Blogging?
Hey, Brett just left. I’m mildly drunk. It’s 12:30.
I see we reached our goal.
Well done, guys.
Who shall we hijack next time?
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
Hey Friar,
Ironic how we were having a drink talking about how much noise is on the internet
Oh! hello gang, thanks for pushing this past 100 comments heh heh heh
@Brett
Yeah..obviously the party can take place without us.
Is this your first “Century” ? (In terms of comments).
I think it is.
Hey, we can coin a new blog term. If anyone gets 100 comments, they can say “Hey, I got a CENTURY”.
(You writing this down, Cool Kids?)
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
No kidding – kitchen party open for business. Would have been more fun though had this “gang” been here in real life, we could have had a bonfire
purple pole not included…
I’m not sure if this is my first century. I’ve never really looked – kind of like my 100th post or my 1st anniversary, both have come and gone without any fanfare
I usually close comments long before they hit the century mark because they’ve either become repetitive or combative. I did let one go to 102, but it wasn’t one of mine (guest post) so I haven’t hit that mark..
How about 100,000 page views in a year? I haven’t had any posts that have hit that mark either, though I have several that got close and quite a few that can hit that in two years.
One hundred thousand page views in a year is very respectable! Even half that is something to talk about, I think.
I’m pretty sure this is the first one here that ever hit 100 – hopefully they don’t all go to 100 this way
I think we should make it our mission to give you a few more century posts
Well, it certainly was amusing so far! If people are still chatting here that’s a good thing…
@Brett
One thing about Century Posts like this…everyone totally forgets what you had written about in the first place.
@Tony
100,000 views? Wow. I”m just an amateur by comparison. My best view is only about 2500.
Friar’s last blog post..Early Sketches
No, I don’t have anything that has hit 100K in a year – 70’s, but nothing higher.
I have four posts that hit 100K after two years, but nothing yet has done that in a year. You’d think it’s not that much – 300 views a day would do it, but of course that’s every single day, month after month.. easy enough for a week or two, much harder to maintain..
I only have Analytics data back to July 2005, and even in all that time I have nothing that has hit 200K. Close (186,000) but no cigar.
I wonder what the all time record is for a non-index page and who holds it? I think we’d probably need to filter out porn though
Well, 70k is still really great of course.
Hmm, yeah except for porn, I wonder who has the record? Dooce or somebody like that, maybe.
Dooce.com?
I doubt it – she’s famous, but doesn’t actually get a lot of traffic unless all the measurement sites are wrong. I mean, of course, that she gets more traffic than *I* do, but that’s like saying Bill Gates has more money than I do – it’s a long, long line before you get to Bill
Yeah, you’re probably right. I just couldn’t think of anybody anyone would know who would hit 100k hits all the time.
I think Bill Gates has more money than the GDP of Canada
Well, dammit, Brett – I want to KNOW!
I’ve tried Googling for “highest page views”, “most page views ever” and came up dry. Alexa, etc.just show the *sites* with the most overall views – I want to know the single most viewed non-index page ever (and the goatse page wouldn’t count).
So, since I can’t find it and the discussion came up on YOUR BLOG, it’s now your responsibility to find that info for me and the rest of your readers.
We’re waiting..
Well I’m meeting Larry and Sergey for beers in about an hour, so I’ll ask them if they know heh heh
I tried searching as well – I figured that it would be easy to find, but it isn’t.
If I do find out, I’ll write a blog post about it
There is no “if”.
You WILL find this. If not.. well, I don’t like to bring that stuff up unless and until it becomes necessary. No sense in getting everybody upset for no reason..
This is a Master Yoda thing, isn’t it?
Master Yoda combined with Tony Soprano…
You will do this small favor for me..
Seriously, who can we ask? Anybody else out there with any ideas?
Google knows, of course. I bet Matt Cutts could find out if somebody could get his attention..
Yeah, Matt would know – I shall leave a comment on his blog in an appropriate spot and ask him!!!
Maybe if I link back here he’ll see it is important that we know this information
and if not I’ll tell him we’ll send someone to “visit” him.
OK, I asked the same question at my post for today and on Twitter.. just in case you let me down (not that you would, of course – I just want “insurance”).
(doing my best Full Metal Jacket impersonation) SIR! I won’t let you down SIR!
Let’s see if anyone else knows, too – insurance is good.
Yeah, I’ve sent email to the “big names” that I can – which is very few and they’ll probably never see it or ignore it, but you never know..
Well, you just never know – one of those “big names” may find your question interesting enough to answer – fingers crossed!
Well. *if* they see it. And then if it is “interesting” they may just write a post about it and get tons of page views and never bother to mention you or me..