just nate – code is poetry, life is code

So last night I was jamming at Tomas’s place. After the jam we were watching TV when suddenly I woke up in the fetal position on his floor. All the lights were off and there was this baby blue blanket covering me. What!? So I walked downstairs to get my horn and drive home, and Clark told me I had basically passed out in the middle of conversation and they had left me there, sleeping on the floor in front of the couch. It had only lasted ten minutes.

We decided to watch Borat at that point. Smart move.

Anyway, I remember seeing the end of Borat, and then I woke up again, on the floor, baby blue blanket, with the lights all turned off. This time I really did take my sax and drive home.

This has all been an introduction for THE GREAT SLEEP EXPERIMENT! I’m going to sleep for one hour ever five! That’s four hours total (approximately my nightly average) but spread throughout the entire day and night.

I told Spencer earlier: “why not experiment on yourself a little? You only live once.”

Earlier I wrote about how I have been on a journey of discovery in an attempt to decide whether or not to stay in the church of my upbringing, and I likened this to the Amish practice known as Rumspringa.

I think my journey has ended. Without incredible evidence with which I am not yet familiar, my conclusion is that the church is false and that I would do better on my own. This is not an infallible conclusion, and so I leave the door 1% opened. Any more would be unnecessary and limiting.

Rene Descartes believed that our senses are inaccurate and not a good truth-measuring tool. He concluded that the only way to learn truth is to use reason. Descartes suggests removing all preconceived notions of truth, and adding back only those portions which can be proved reasonably and logically. “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

I followed this model, as closely as I could. I doubted as much as possible. And I am left with the conclusion that the God hypothesis has some glaring holes.

Just saying.

Behold, one of the most hilarious facebook conversations ever witnessed by mankind!

Tiffany Thorne
Marley and Me= the worst show in the world!

Tiffany Thorne
:,(

Nate Smith
hey, the time I heard you it didn’t deserve a crying frown face emoticon!

Tiffany Thorne
Oh, there were tears, Nate. There were crying frown face emoticon tears.

Nate Smith
Who just guffawed a bunch of water out his nose? Folks, there is not an emoticon for this.

Spencer Peterson
I must admit; I thought Marley and Me would be dumb. But I quite liked it.

Nate Smith
I thought the “me” referred to Tiffany. *blush*

Nate Smith
I thought “show” referred to a musical show. I am striking out all over the place here.

Spencer Peterson
Unless Tiffany is now performing with Ziggy Marley!?!

Tiffany Thorne
Spencer you would have to be a sadist to say you enjoyed a show that made you fall in love with a fury little character and then watched him get sick and injected with a lethal dose of doggy killing drugs in the final 20 minutes of a two hour show. Sorry to ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, but I feel like people should know what they are getting into.
***This post includes an explanation of Marley and Me for Nate.

Spencer Peterson
Perhaps I’m a sadist then?

Spencer Peterson
So you are not performing with Ziggy Marley after all? :sigh: Bummer.

Nate Smith
I’m never commenting on another status without doing extensive google research beforehand.

Tiffany Thorne
Oh, man, Spencer, I was giving you an out. You could have said ‘oh, no that last part was heartbreaking, but the rest of it was good.’ Now the enire facebook audience that frequents my status and all subsequent comments knows you’re a sadist!
And no about Ziggy Marley. When that happens you’ll be there.

Spencer Peterson
We’re all going to face that last 20 minutes eventually Tiff (are we on a half name basis?? hmmm just seems to fit.). I felt Marley and Me was a good synopsis of life. The good and the bad. And I am a fan of life. If that makes me a sadist….so be it.

Tiffany Thorne
Spenc, we have been on half name basis for a long time now, and Marley and Me failed to be a good synopsis of life purely because most of us will not die due to our doctors inability to make us comfortable enough to suit our owner’s tastes, and then decide to kill us with lethal injections. That is just sick.

Nate Smith
Sometimes euthanasia can be the exact opposite of sadist. Even with humans. Me and Jack are hanging out in a few days if you want to come. You know, Jack Kevorkian. You know, the pathologist? Yeah, he’s a pathologist. No, he’s a pretty normal dude. What do you mean, “hanging out with psychos”? Whatever man!! Dying is not a crime!

Oh and thanks for the synopsis. I feel like I know Marley personally.

Spencer Peterson
That’s because we own ourselves and can thus decide for ourselves when we are uncomfortable enough to die. And many people do decide just that for themselves, if not with lethal injection. The only difference is a domestic dog can’t make that decision itself. Are you against pet ownership?

Tiffany Thorne
No, of course not. I am exclusively and firmly against drawing pleasure from a pet ownership/incapacitated animal situation that ends in a mercy killing, and not just that, but an actually viewing of the injection. I understand that the injection was perhaps the best thing for everyone involved, but come on folks, lets not frame it around little children and everyone else crying and call it a comedy.

Spencer Peterson
I was not aware it was classified as a comedy. I certainly did not view it as such. I mean, Owen Wilson is a pretty funny guy, and Jennifer Aniston has her moment, but… I do see why you might have felt deceived by previews/reviews/and movie posters. Also I don’t think “drawing pleasure” is quite the phrase I would use to describe the emotions I felt during the film.

Nate Smith
Guys! Marley is actually named after Bob Marley! How cool is that!

(I’m that one guy who never does the reading before class. Sorry)

By the way. If I am ever euthanized please make sure any reusable organs make their way to deserving recipients.

Spencer Peterson
Speaking of reusable organs, Seven Pounds is a film with a moral I am undeniably against. I can see how producers could take the whole “dying dog to pull your heartstrings” cliche a little too far, but I disagree wholeheartedly with the moral base of Seven Pounds.

Spencer Peterson
Hmmm. It appears we’ve hijacked your status, Tiff. I apologize.

Tiffany Thorne
Amen on that seven pounds comment, a movie I didn’t cry half as hard over as Marley and Me.
Nate, if it happens, and I hope it never does, I will do every thing I can to make sure all your organs are reused by deserving people. This I say while noting that ‘everything I can do’ will probably be nothing at all.

Tiffany Thorne
Not at all, Spenc. I hope you hijack my status again soon

Nate Smith
On Seven Pounds:

It is the portrayal of an impossible moral code made heroic.

If you would not give your life for a stranger, why treat as a hero he who would?

If you would give your life for a stranger, what is the moral basis for your decision? How does it supersede its brother, suicide?

And Tiffany, you’re right. You, my parents, and the parents of a dying 14-year old girl don’t really have the power to harvest my fertile organs. Only Obama has that kind of power. (sigh)

Tiffany Thorne
Lol, Nate, did you google that one?

Nate Smith
Those are my words. Some of them come from an electronic conversation I had on twitter a few months ago.

Nate Smith
And Tiff – can I call you Tiff? – I also apologize for hijacking your status, but it has definitely been fun.

Tiffany Thorne
Gentlemen, I thank you both. Let’s do this again next weekend over a jam session, shall we?

Nate Smith
Agreed!

Spencer Peterson
Schrödinger’s facebook comment experiment- If a cleverly worded and thought provoking comment is made by Nate’s facebook account inside a sealed box. Did the comment come from Google, Nate or are Nate and Google the same thing?!?!

Spencer Peterson
I digress. I need sleep.

Tiffany Thorne
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I love you both so much! I wish I had a motorcycle for this weekend. I can’t believe the conversation I’m going to be missing out on!

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By the way, I kept thinking of this xkcd.