Saddam, Bathrooms, and Santa

Well first, the precursury Merry Christmas.
Now that that's over with, we move on.

Saddam was hanged today, as many have probably heard by now.
I don't really know what this'll do to Iraq, but at least Justice was served, at least in some sense.

The bathroom renovations are moving along, we actually have a sink and countertop and a toilet!
And a floor that's not plywood!
Gasp!

It's kool.

My dad stayed up 'till midnight though, installing trim.
It comes with a price.


I hope ya'lls Christmas was good, mine was.
Everyone came over to our house, and it was a raucous time indeed.

Well, I'll post later with a raging debate on the forum...

Austin

Juggle Time and the News

Well first, what's up 'round my house.
We have finished the destruction portion of renovating the bathroom, and we have moved on to painting.
Weeeee...
big fun.

Anyway, here are some Google video links to cool juggling routines I found.
I juggle myself, and when I figure out how, I'll post pics and videos of my juggling.
For now, know that I can do four balls consistently, three in many patterns, three rings and three clubs.
Not pins, clubs.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7483930982832849926&q=juggling&hl=en
Juggling in a cone.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6937728133219366373&q=juggling&hl=en
Rather gimmiky, but nevertheless, good.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1901296861130335028&q=juggling&hl=en
Highly Interesting!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4109085384828182666&q=juggling&hl=en
This would be Jason Garfield, the president of the World Juggling Federation (http://www.thewjf.com/)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4862572361918866064&q=juggling&hl=en
?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3943819989215786824&q=contact+juggling&hl=en
Kamil Dzilinski, a contact juggler.
Very kool.


I shall post more later.

Austin

Some Renovations

Welllll... my family is renovating.
My bathroom.
More like the kid's bathroom, so it stinks kinda.
In the middle of the night, you know, you have to go to the bathroom, so you have to walk all the way downstairs to go to the darn bathroom, because the upstairs bathroom is being ripped up.
I took up a bunch of tile from the floor.
Hard labor.
But, I guess it's for the best.

A little bit of stuff from my language.
Just a sentence.
So, if I wanted to say, "Hello, my name is Austin, and I am a boy." I would say, "HolA_havOl.loshTO.T.óshta_po.koTlol.." Litterally translated as "Hello, I have the name Austin, and I boy."
The verb to boy is used there.
Pretty odd, no?

On a completely unrelated note, here is my new debate case for my debate class.
If you don't get it, comment and I'll try to explain.
Any feedback would be nice.


Austin Milan
2nd Aff case

Moral Obligation to the American People

Good day, my name is Austin Moss and I will be the Aff speaker in this debate round. The Preamble to the Constitution states, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

My value for this debate round will be the Moral Obligation to the American people. Moral Obligation is defined below. The United States has a MO to the American People, this MO being defined in the Preamble.

Some other definitions pertinent to the resolution are as follows,

Webster’s online
Mitigate - To cause to become less harsh or hostile.
External - Situated outside, apart, or beyond; specifically: of or relating to dealings or relationships with foreign countries
Conflict - Competitive or opposing action of incompatibles : antagonistic state or action
Obligation - the action of obligating oneself to a course of action (as by a promise or vow)
Hence, a Moral Obligation would be such that if one broke that obligation, he would be in sin.
Significant - having or likely to have influence or effect of a noticeably or measurably large amount

So, the United States has a Moral Obligation to the American people to make the conflicts which are significant to the US less severe or hostile.

My thesis statement is as such, The United States of America has a Moral Obligation to protect the American people, and the resolution dictates a means to achieving that Moral Obligation.

Contention 1 – The resolution restates and gives a means to achieving the
Moral Obligation of the United States government to protect its people.
The Preamble to the Constitution clearly states the MO of the US to protect its people, and because significant external conflicts are significant to the US and therefore harm the US, not mitigating them in some instances will violate the MO given by the Preamble. This MO sometimes dictates that we mitigate, sometimes not. However, we still always have this MO to mitigate SEC, simply because not doing so will harm us and violate the MO to the American People.

Contention 2 – Just because a MO cannot be fulfilled does not mean it ceases to be a MO.
I will present an example. We as people have a MO to protect life. Someone is going to die somewhere on this earth. We cannot protect this life for some reason, say because the distance in-between us is too great, or we aren’t aware of this person. This by no means says we do not still have a MO to protect that person’s life. A more pertinent example would be our MO as Christians to be Christ-like. In and of ourselves, we cannot do this. We cannot fulfill this MO, but still it exists. Of course, we throw ourselves on Christ to fulfill this MO, but even when we don’t do this and rely on ourselves, we still have the MO.

Contention 3 – My value of MO to the American People dictates that the US takes the path which best protects the American people.
As quoted in the Preamble, the United States has a MO to protect its people. This means taking the best path possible to protect America. Sometimes this comes in the form of MSEC, because SECs are such that they are significant to us and probably harmful to us.

Contention 4 – The Resolution states a Moral Obligation which can be used to fulfill my value of MO to the American People. When MSEC is achieved, we fulfill my value.
By no means do I state that we must always MSEC, for if we did, we would be irresponsible to the American people, therefore violating my value. The United States always has the MO to MSEC, as shown previously, but a MO still exists even when it cannot be fulfilled. When a better means than MSEC arises to fulfill my value, that means is to be preferred over mitigation. We still have the MO, we just cannot fulfill it if we wish to harmonize with my value.

In summary,

The US government has a MO to protect its people. My value of Moral Obligation to the American People dictates that the US takes the path which best protects the American people. Because SECs are significant to the US, and hence probably are harmful to the US, MSEC is sometimes the best way to protect the American people. Sometimes, however, the US better protects its people by not getting involved in mitigation.

This all goes to prove my initial thesis statement of The United States of America has a Moral Obligation to protect the American people, and the resolution dictates a means to achieving that Moral Obligation.

I thank you for your time and now stand ready for cross-examination and points of further clarification from the Negative speaker.

NorthSide

My sister, J, and I have started NorthSide productions to produce a video, surprisingly enough.
Where the video will premiere is strictly confidential, but I'll keep you posted.

On a not-related-whatsoever note, I have my own language.
I haven’t figured out a name for it as of yet, but I'm working on it.
Some interesting notes about it...
It does not have the verb "to be."
This means no is, am, are, were, was, be, being, or been.
Also, it has verb forms kind of like Spanish, as such.
The verb kAthU, or to create.
It is conjugated like O.kAthUkO, or I create, Ll.kAthUkOl, you create, and so on.
Also, because there are no forms of "to be," to say "I was creating," one would say "O.kAthUkOshtOo.shO" literally translated as, "I did create in the past"
This uses the past indicative "shO" and the action indicative "shtOo."
There is a future indicative too, "Tht"

As a sort of side note, the alphabet for this language is "P, p, L, l, v, T, t, Th, th, H, h, sh, k, A, a, U, u, O, o"
Capital P, L, T, or Th are pronounced like "Poo, Loo, Too, Thoo."
These capital consonants are called consonant-vowels, because they are a combination of consonant and vowel.
Capital H is like the Hebrew "ch."
Capital vowels say their name, lower case a as in apple, u as in up, o as in ostrich.

My language has an alphabet, I'll try to get it on later.

All verbs must end in either a vowel or consonant/vowel.

Also, the word order is different in most cases.
In English, we say "I threw the ball."
In my language, we say "ball(the) I threw" or "HolAv.T.tutAt"
As in Spanish, because of the way we conjugate the verb we don’t need to say “I threw” because the conjugation indicates first-person singular.

More later.

Austin

My beliefs

Alright, so as promised, my beliefs.
I am a Christian, or one who believes in the holy and blameless life of Christ and His subsequent death on the cross and resurrection for the purpose of fulfilling the law which was broken.
I do not believe in a works-based Gospel, but rather I believe that one is saved by believing in the life, works, death, resurrection, and Lordship of Christ coupled with the declaration of such. (Romans 10:9-10)
Once you are saved, you will always be saved. (Deut. 31:6; 31:8; Josh 1:5; Hebrews 12:5)
I am against homosexuality, not homosexuals (Romans 1:26-27) and also against abortion.
Of course, I can't go into great depth on my spiritual beliefs because of the width and breadth of the Bible and what it says.
However, if you want me to expound on something, comment and I will.

But, for now, also I give you the latest version of BowMaster!
http://www.addictinggames.com/bowmasterprelude.html

Austin

My Debate

So I'm in a debate class, and I can't say with whom.
Some names have been changed to protect certain third parties.

Anyway, we got in a furious debate last Monday on something interesting.
BTW, I'm a Christian, or a follower of Jesus Christ.
After I post this I'll post seperately to give some of my theology, beliefs, etc.

Anyway, if God exists as the Bible says He does, why don't we, as Christians, act like it?
We discussed three reasons.
First, pride.
Philipians 2:6-7 says...
"Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness."

The emphasis here is on the word 'nothing.'
In my dad's Greek Bible, the word for nothing is kenoō, which means to empty, deprive; to be hollowed, emptied, of no value.
Christ, in coming to earth made himself as nothing.
Does this mean that he was in every sense nothing?
No!
But, compared to God, man is nothing, because he took on our form, becoming as nothing compared to God.

Now, we as humans don't want to admit that we are as nothing.
So, we act like God doesn't exist like the Bible says He does.

The second point was of unbelief.
Not believing God is as the Bible says He is will cause us to act like He doesn't exist.

These two points were lumped into the more general category of sin.

The third was lack of knowledge.
Obviously, we don't full know the mind of God.
So, because we don't know the mind of God or His full attributes, we obviously don't act like He exists as the Bible says He does.

Comments?

Austin

First Paper

Alright, so this is my first paper on Dimensions.
Questions?
Post a comment.

Austin Milan
11/11/2006

On Dimensions

Dimensions have always been a topic of particular fascination for mankind. Exploring different dimensions seems quite alluring, and is a popular topic for science fiction novels and movies. However, as we know what the fourth dimension is, what is the fifth? And sixth? This obviously is a hard question to answer.

The 0th dimension, or 0D, is a point. This is one of the undefined terms in geometry, for the point has no width, depth, or height. A point is a very hard thing to envision, but the concept is easier to grasp. 0D does not exist in this universe, and in no universe in this reality could it exist. 0D has no time, as we will see later. 0D is an impossibility in application, and only in theory does it exist.

The 1st dimension, or 1D, is not the 0D squared, as many think. If we square 0, we get zero. Rather, 1D is the proper place to start if one wishes to envision all other dimensions. To put it in one way, 1D is an infinite set of points accumulating in one direction and the opposite direction. Or, 1D could be described as a line. This means it has infinite length. Of course, these terms are arbitrary, because 1D simply stretches in one direction. The concept of 1D as an infinite set of points is hard to grasp, because a point has no dimensions. So, it would be better to say 1D is a line.

2D, or the second dimension, is geometrically described as a plane. Here we can define it as an infinite set of 1D shapes consecutively placed so as to allow for a second direction that one may follow. This rather wordy definition is all to say that a 2D shape is a bunch of 1D shapes put next to each other. It is infinite for the same reason 1D is an infinite set of points. For a 1D object to move up to 2D, it must somehow go in another direction. This is achieved by adding on more 1D shapes to that 1D shape. Don’t get confused here, all I am saying is that 2D is a plane.

Three dimensions is much easier to grasp, because everything around us is much closer to 3D that to 2D or 1D. 3D can be easily described as space. One has three basic directions to go in. To put it mathematically, we have now added a new axis. Before, there was one direction to go in, x. Once we moved up to 2D, we gained a new direction, y. You might be saying now that I just described a graph to you. That’s exactly what I did. However, it gets more complex when we add a third dimension. In addition to x and y, we also have z. Moving along any combination of these axes we can go wherever we want within the confines of space.

At this point, you might remind me that that’s wrong, that you could move in a different direction than x, y, or z. However any direction that you move can be described by using those three axes. We could describe your position in space using ordered pairs, or in this case, ordered triads. This is not feasible because space, as far as we know, is either infinite or expanding at the speed of light. Of course, whether or not either is true, there are an infinite number of points you could be in at any given moment. This conclusion comes about by realizing that a point has no dimensions. It does not exist in this reality, or any reality. If someone were to invent such a system for figuring out positions in space, they would not be able to use a point, for the job would be quite hard, indeed impossible. I digress.

After the concept of 3D is grasped, which is not hard, we move on to 4D. The fourth dimension is time. Obviously, since we can measure any direction in space by using x y and z, we can’t add another direction in physical space. This is the point where the wordy definitions come in handy. Using the same language as before, the fourth dimension is an infinite set of three dimensional shapes accumulating in a different direction than 1, 2, or 3D. If you think about it, you can divide the units of time forever. You can always find a smaller unit of time to measure. This is why when we see motion, it looks so smooth. In an animation sense, there are an infinite amount of frames in every second. This is flawless animation.

That’s all fine and dandy, but what is that fourth direction? Well, the answer to such a question is very difficult, as it is very hard to describe time. However, going back to animation, think of a timeline. Sequences of 3D shapes are set next to each other, simulating time. If that doesn’t help, think really hard on it or give me a call.

A side note on dimensions. You cannot have one dimension without the dimension before it. This is why it is ideal to start at 1D. You cannot have 2D without 1D. If you had a 2D shape without 1D shapes, you would have 1D shapes. If you exclude the dimension before a given dimension, the given dimension will collapse into whatever dimension is before it. Before I had stated that it was impossible for 0D to exist on it’s own. I will extend that to say that it would be impossible in any universe within this reality to have anything less than four dimensions. Obviously, we have time here. As I will show later, all other universes in this reality also have time. We cannot have 4D without also having all the other dimensions before it. If this is confusing, again, think on it or call me. Or something. I will try to make it less unwieldy later on.

So, we have all the dimensions through 4D. Oh, that’s right, I promised to say what the 5th dimension is. Well, if we use my definition again, it would have to be an infinite set of 4D shapes accumulating in a different direction than all previous dimensions. This is the point where you say, “Huh? There is no other direction besides time!” Oh contraire, because theoretically there is. For these next sections we will assume that there is a 5D. 5D would have to be another universe. Take a second and think about it. I strongly encourage you to try to figure that one out on your own before moving on. Once you get this, the 6th dimension is a logical extension of 5D.

If, per chance, you did not get the above concept, please read this paragraph. However, if you understand 5D, if a little roughly, I still would suggest you read this, because it gives an important concept for visualizing 6D. I digress once more. There is a recurring theme throughout this entire discussion. Each higher dimension is outside of the previous one. Think about it. Moving from 1D to 2D, we had to add something. We could not achieve 2D from within 1D. 2D is completely outside of 1D. Same with 2D to 3D. This is especially easy to see from 3D to 4D. With just 3D, you have just 3D. To illustrate, we will use Paint.


As you can clearly see, this is an illustration of a 3D shape, commonly known as a cube. Sit there and watch this shape. Keep watching. Come one, you can do it. Has it changed? I sure hope the answer is no, because if it isn’t something is wrong with your computer. This 3D shape will sit there for however long you let it, and even if you let it not sit there, it still would. The reason is it has no 4D. It cannot change because it is “outside” of time. If you had a purely 3D shape, you could not move it, and it would not move. It would never change.

This is a crucial step in understanding the step from 4D to 5D and beyond. You cannot achieve 4D within 3D. Time is completely outside of 3D. Now, 5D is completely outside of 4D, which means it cannot be a part of this universe. Everything in this universe is 4D, in all technicality. Hence, 5D is outside of this universe. 5D is all the universes combined in one set. This set can conveniently be called Reality. This is all assuming of course that there is a 5D.

I would like to interject and answer a few questions you might have. Right now, I am defining a universe as a 4D shape. This means that if there are other universes, they all have the same dimensions as we do. Outside of this, there is reality, which is simply all of the universes combined in a set. This means that if there are other universes, reality is the set of all the universes that run just like this one. A different universe would have to have all the same physical rules as this one in order to be in this reality. Just a quick side note that needed interjection.

If you have understood everything up until now, the next statement won’t be too much of a surprise. 6D is what is outside of all realities. Now hold your horses, before you start bombarding me with questions, realize that in order for 6D to exist, there has to actually be a 5D. And even if there is, we don’t know if there would be something outside of all realities to be there, so to speak. This is where we step completely into the world of ideas. What could be outside of reality? All reality? If we go into the world of Genesis, we see that God created the world. God is infinite, hence he was there before creation. Using the language we have been using, 6D is an infinite set of 5D shapes accumulating in a different direction than all previous dimensions. Again, this is confusing, especially now. In order for 6D to exist, there would have to be different realities than our own, and whatever 6D is, it would have to be completely outside of 5D. 6D would then be God. There would be nothing that we know of as of yet that could or would be outside of all realities other than God.

Before you start calling me in great anger, do not take it that I am saying God is made up of realities. This is all purely theoretical. Logically, God would have to exist outside of all dimensions, which discounts Him being the 6th dimension. So if God is not the 6th dimension, what is? The simple answer is that I don’t know. The complicated answer is that many scientists and physicists have complication theories about it all that go straight over anyone’s head who doesn’t have a thorough understanding of advance mathematics. For now, we will say that 6D is just unknown.

If your head is spinning right now, don’t worry. That’s the state I live my life in. But in all seriousness, this little discussion about 6D and 5D doesn’t do anyone any good unless there is a 5D. For all we know, God has only created one universe. This is definitely where it gets the most confusing. All of the implications of this are immense. If we are the only universe, then everything is relatively simple. However, if there are multiple universes, then there is a 5D. This leads us to the inevitable question of “what is the 6th dimension?” As I have said, we don’t know. However, assuming there were more than one universe, how is it that they don’t collide? For all we know, this universe is infinitely big, or expanding out at the speed of light. What keeps all the universes from colliding? This question is one of the biggest hardships of assuming there are multiple universes.

Throughout this paper, I have tried to give the concept of what the 5th and 6th dimensions are. If you happen to come up with the 6th dimension, let me know. As I have said, many people have ideas about what the 5th and 6th dimensions are. I would encourage you to research them yourself to try and figure it out. If you do find out, call me.

Austin

No Sleep = Lots of Mountain Dew

So this is my second post, and my name is still Austin.
I read all of Lord of the Flies last night, start to finish.
Then I read half of The Lost Virtue of Happiness.
So I got zero sleep last night.
But I'm fine.
Later today I'll post a paper I wrote.
For now, here is bowmaster, a game my dad of all people found on the Internet.
http://www.onemorelevel.com/games/bowmaster.html

Austin

Hey ya'll!
This is my blog.
My name is Austin, incidentally enough.
I will post every once in a while to share a word, instructions on certain skills I have developed, and even links to favorite websites and/or other blogs.
This blog's purpose is somewhere where I can share a lot of things most people don't know about me.
Of course, you can't expect to skiff my email, SS#, AIM, address, etc. from me while you're here.
I'm not stupid, or at least not that stupid.
Anywho, enjoy if you choose!

-Austin