The Metaphysical

About 2 years ago I read a book by Brian Greene called The Elegant Universe. It was a book about the phyiscal nature of our universe and the advancements of a relatively new "theory of everything" known as String Theory. I can't tell you what made me decide to read the book, only that I had a small interest in physics and math and possibly a lot of bordem. But before I even got half way through it, I knew I had found my new obsession.

The Elegant Universe is a beautifully written book. It's scientific writing at it's finest, not overly technical, but it does not insult your intellegence. It's not for laymen and those that know nothing of science, but it's not for PHD's or MIT grads either. This book, in many ways, changed my life. It changed my viewpoint about the universe and my place in it in a deeply philosophical way.

As a person that isn't too keen on religion and all the weirdness that comes with it, I had never spent much time worrying about "The Truth". When I refer to "The Truth" I'm talking about the true nature of our universe. What is existance? What is life? What is the driving force behind everything? How did we get here? What is knowledge?. These are the kind of questions that many people turn to various religions to figure out. Because I'm not very religious, I was often to caught up in monotony of my own life to worry about these kind of questions. I was aware of them, but I never bothered to ask myself them, and seek to answer them.

The Elegant Universe isn't a book that is nessicarily addresses those questions, but it's nearly impossible to talk about the true nature of the universe and the study of physics without these philisophical questions bubbling to the surface. So being the logical, rational thinker that I tend to be, when I came across this mathmatical, experimental, and logical way of discovering "The Truth", it blew me away. Theoretcial Physics and the study of the true nature of the universe became my new religion instantaneously.

I believe in science. I believe in our ability as human beings to decipher and analyize the secrets of this world and beyond. It's funny to me how even as a kid I always equated science with truth and always had questions about religion (which was Roman Catholisim). Some people have that one moment in their lives where they can pin point the beginning of their belief system, or morality or ethics. Well, that never seemed to happen to me. I wasn't brought up to be overly religious, to take the gospel as truth, and I spent many years of my life simply uninterested in the grand old questions that many people seek to find.

That all changed the day I read The Elegent Universe. What I love about science is that nothing is written in stone. Ideas and concepts that seem to be emperically true, or intuitiviely true are often times proved to be only part of a greater truth, and a deeper understanding is necissary.

The best example that I can give is Newton's Laws and Einstiens Theories of Relativity. Newton's laws of physics were based on a unchanging, stable background of space and time. This was thought to be the true nature of the universe until Eienstien came along and totally upended the idea of an unchanging space and time. He found that space and time are all relative to the observer and space can shrink and stretch just as time can slow down or speed up. Eienstien discovered that we indeed lived in a very volitile universe, which was completely different to Newton's viewpoint.

I also love that so much of what we know about the universe is completely counter intuitive. It's amazing to me that we are wired to view the universe in a certain way, but the true nature of that universe is almost completely different then our everyday experiences. What does that say about who we are as an intellegent life form on this planet? Why and how were we given the ability to reach beyond what our senses tell us about the universe and use mathmatics and technology to understand what is really behind the nature of reality? It's these kind of questions that really got me into the philisophical side of science.

Movies.

In my opinion, the only award show ever worth watching is The Oscars. In fact, I think it's the only award worth winning in entertainment. I really enjoy movies, and over this past summer, I happened to go to a lot of them (Unfortunately, not enough of the nominated ones). So here are just some of my opinions about The Acadamy Awards and the films that are nominated.

First off, I think the Oscar for Best Actor is going to be the most anticipated award of the night. Just look at the nominees: George Clooney, Daniel Day Lewis, Johnny Depp, Tommy Lee Jones, and Viggo Mortensen. Those are 5 mega-star actors right there. These 5 guys have been the biggest and best names in film over the past ten years and to have all these guys nominated on the same night is incredible. Usually there are one or two no name's to come out of no where to scrounge up a nomination, but not this year, the big guns are coming out.

I'm sorry to say that I actually haven't seen any of the movies these guys are nominated for. I will see There Will Be Blood very soon, and I hear that Daniel Day Lewis is the odds on favorite at this point.

As far as Best Picture goes, the nominees are Juno, No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, Atonement, and There Will Be Blood. I will definitely see Juno and ....Blood very soon, definitely before the Oscars, but the only movie that I have seen out of these 5 is No Country. I absolutely loved No Country for Old Men, and I feel that, although There Will Be Blood is going to win, this movie has the best shot of beating the favorite and would be my choice. It has by far, the best ensemble cast, and is just so sharp and well crafted, translated to film almost perfectly from Cormac McCarthey's novel of the same name (which is also spectacular by the way). I also have a thing for Coen Brother's movies.

So it should come to no surprise to anyone that I want Javier Bardem to win Best Supporting Actor for No Country. In fact, if he doesn't win, I might actually take back what I said about the Oscars being the only award show worth watching.

Best Actress.... don't really care. Best Supporting Actress... I guess I'll be rooting for Ruby Dee, in American Gangster.

In directing, I will concede to the fact that I haven't seen most of these movies, and even if I did I would still be rooting for the Coen brothers.


So yeah, there's my in depth look at The Oscars..... maybe I'll update it once I get my act together and actually see these movies...

The Giants would still lose to Tiger Woods

Well, I'm out of excuses.

The Giants won the Superbowl and I am forced to tip my hat to them, as much as it pains me to do it. Yes, there is something seriously fucked up about that, but what are you gonna do.

I hated on The Giants, particularly Eli Manning, for years but last night they played an outstanding game against a completely better team. Eli was good, very close to great, but not quite. He was bailed out a few times thanks to some amazing catches from his recievers, and that touchdown pass to Plaxico was all Plax, let's face it.

Also, Asante Samuel probably should be no where near a TV or computer today or for the next 3 months for that matter. That replay of him missing a game clinching interception has got to be rough to watch. Right through his fingertips, eyes downfield - not on the ball, wow, Eli dodged a bullet there.

But all that being said, the Giants were the better team, last night at least, and for that they deserve to be Super Bowl Champions.

As for me, the Giants winning has completely reinvigorated my Eagles fandom. In some wierd way, I almost feel that the struggle of being an Eagles fan (or Philadephia fan for that matter) is defined so much more by our losing then by anything we can hope to win. Having the Giants win has hit close to home, and seeing Giants fans revel in a Championship only further illustrates to me that being an Eagles/Phillies fan is not easy, and I take pride in that.

If that doesn't make sense to you, I don't blame you.

As for the Supe Bowl itself, that is to say, the product you see on TV, it was for once completly outshined by the game on the field. The real entertainment this year was the actual game of football, which is to say, not always the case. The comericals were good for the most part, and Tom Petty was Tom Petty, but the real winner here is football (the NFL to be exact). It was the most watched Super Bowl in history and it was a great game on top of that. As if the NFL needs any more help in remaining the most popular sport in America.

It's too bad that baseball doesn't have a Superbowl. For myself, it doesn't get much better then the World Series, but I'm a purist and an old school fan at heart. Some how 7 games during weeknights in October for the oldest profesional championship doesn't even come close to comparing to 3 and a half hours on a Sunday night in February. I think that's sad. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, but it seems that the MLB is getting so much negative attention, on top of lame duck playoff games, that it just can't compete with the product that the NFL puts out on the field.

So the NFL season is done, no more fantasy fooball, and for at least the next 2 months, nothing to watch on TV.

Unless you want to watch Tiger Woods win every PGA tournament this year. I'm sorry Patriots, even if you had won the Superbowl and went undefeated, the most dominant team/athlete in the history of sports is Tiger Woods, hands down, end of discussion. He's got an undefeated streak going himself this year.

So here's to The Giants, Tiger Woods, and pitchers and catchers....

"Hate Hate Hate" & Howard Come Home

When I think about the fact that the New York Giants are in the SuperBowl, I literally recoil in disgust. I am an Eagles fan, so it should come to no surprise that I am bitter, jealous, and angry that a completely mediocre team like the Giants are in the Superbowl. Yeah, they've been good in the playoffs, but i truely believe, despite my biases, that 8 times out of 10 both the Cowboys and the Packers beat the Giants in those situations. It all comes down to that saying: You don't have to be the best team, you just have to be the best team on that day. I think that's exactly what the Giants have been. So, yes, I almost feel that the Giants being in the Superbowl, and my most hated quarterback, Eli Manning, playing well is some kind of freak occurance. Some kind of Bizarro World.

So given my hatred for the New York Giants, that leaves me no choice to root for the Patriots. I've been hoping the Patriots lose all year. Again, bitterness, spitefulness play a huge part in why I root against teams. Being a Philadelphia sports fan, sometimes spitefullness and hatred are the only things you have when you watch sports. Cause most of the time, your teams suck and rooting against teams is the only thing that makes watching games worth while. My entire playoff experience this season has been hoping that the Patriots lose in the AFC, while the Cowboys lose to the Giants and then the Giants lose to the Packers in the NFC. It kind of sucks to have to use negaivity to enjoy sports, but what are you gonna do?

Meanwhile, in baseball, the Phillies and Ryan Howard are trying to negociate a deal. In my opinion, there isn't anyone in the league who deserves to be paid more then Ryan Howard. He's made what accounts to basically pennies over the past three seasons, given his production. So the Phillies come to Howard with a 7 million dolllar deal while Howard's camp comes to the Phillies asking for 10 million. That is a huge gap to cross.

So the question is, is Howard asking for too much? That's basically what arbitration will decide if it goes that far, and I certainly hope it doesn't. I think that would put a huge strain on the Phills relationship with Howard. Ryan Howard is a superstar, and he deserves to be among the top paid first basemen in the league. I understand his strikeouts and his fielding at times is shakey, but Phillies absolutely need to lock this guy up long term.

So I'm siding with Howard on this one. He's been a bargain for the past 3 years and the Phillies need to show their appriciation by paying him off. It's as simple as that.

Leave it too the Phillies to screw this up....

Why I'm Doing This Blog

A few days ago, I was sitting awake one night thinking about, well, thinking. And I got to thinking that I do a lot of thinking, sometimes too much thinking. I think about all kinds of things, and sometimes, I even form opinions about things. Things I like, things I don't like, things that are trivial, things that are important, why even things that other people might think about as well.

So in the midst of this deconstructionist conversation with myself about thinking, I decided to create this blog in order to preserve and organize my thinking into sentences and words. Sentences and words that make paragraphs, and paragraphs that hopefully convey some sort of personal viewpoint.

So here I am. And here we go.

First, a little about me. I'm 25 years old. Male. White and middle class. So I should come to no surprise to you that the majority of media, advertising, and consumer goods that are out there are all geared to appeal to me and the other 75% of the American population just like me. (note: I'm also too lazy to actually look up that exact percentage) What this means is that my opinions on things are very important. Maybe not too you, but to politicians and corporations - my opinions are like gold. Because, usually, attached to my opinion is money (typically not much) or a vote of some kind, and as I said before, there's a lot of "me's" out there.

So why am I telling you this? Well it's certainly not to sound conceited or anything like that. And I sure as hell don't want anyone trying to sell me anything. What I do want, is to convince you, the reader (and myself) that I am more then just male, white, middle class, 18-30 years old, and have a lot of time on my hands. And hopefully, as I keep up with this blog, I will start to become better at understanding my own thoughts and feelings, and better at expressing them to others.

I'm not trying to sound like I don't know who I am, I do, but I'm the type of person that needs to have things organized and categorized in order to stay sane, and as I said before, this blog is simply an organization of my thoughts. When I write down the things that I think, I understand them better myself, and they don't get lost while I go numb myself with TV and video games (which I love by the way).

I'm not sure if anyone will actually read this, I'm not even sure if I want people to. But I'm going to put this out there for people to read anyway. If you do, I hope you enjoy what I have to say.

So if you want to know what this blog is going to be about, it'll probably revolve around the things that I like. Movies, sports, music, philosophy, science, books, life in general, I might even tell a story or two. Come baseball season, this might actually turn into a blog about the Phillies (unintentionally of course). Basically expect anything and everything. You will start to get to know me better through the (daily? weekly?) posts that I make, if you plan to take that journey.

So that it's. Oh by the way.... call me Rex Banner.