Adrian and I watched a documentary Human Family Tree which is about the National Geographic Genographic Project. I was fascinated, and found myself vaguely wishing to participate. I started following a certain reviewer on Goodreads, and when I saw that he had read (and reviewed) a related book: DNA USA, I decided to pursue these fascinating ideas by getting the book from the library and reading it. The documentary was more of a macro-view of human history, and although the book discusses this, the book was more about personal genealogies. Now I really wanted to participate. I saw that I could probably participate in the geographic project for a minimum of $200. However, if I wanted to do the full battery of tests, the cost would probably start getting closer to $1000. Then I started looking at some of the sources mentioned in the book, and saw that there were even more tests. Now, if I really wanted to, I could certainly spend $1000 on DNA testing. However, to spend that much on something as abstract as DNA testing certainly feels like a splurge. Besides, how to choose which test(s) to start with? Also, for some of the tests, I would need to recruit the cooperation of a male relative, since I don't posses a Y chromosome. Also, probably in the future they will develop cheaper, more comprehensive tests, and then I will feel like I wasted money and time if I buy tests now. Nevertheless, I wanted to participate. Hmmmm... What to do, what to do? I remembered reading a blog post by Steve Pavlina about manifesting coins, a game he played with his daughter based on the Law of Attraction. Law of Attractioners often focus on how to attract wealth into their lives - there's nothing wrong with that, but there are reports of people often circumventing the money step and directly manifesting what the money would have bought. That always sounded like a more efficient, time-saving strategy to me. The idea is to keep your main goal in mind, and not get to attached to any one way of getting there. Also, be open odd detours and taking a baby-step now, even if you don't think it makes much difference to your end goal, small actions can snowball in unforeseen ways.
So then I just started thinking about what it was I really wanted to get out of all of this? Did I want to know my genealogy? Sure, that would be cool, but I could wait on that too. Probably genealogy DNA databases weren't quite complete yet either. Also, do I really want to have my DNA stored in a database that is not under my control? In the day and age of Monsanto patenting seeds, that is a scary thought. However, what will be will be, do I want to live a life of fear or do I want to LIVE with all of the risks that entails?
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" - Helen Keller
I guess I'll take my chances with life. Still, what do I want out of this? I don't know exactly, but for starters it would be cool to get my own DNA sequenced, even if I don't know what to do with it yet, just for the experience. So, then I started thinking about all the different situations that might leads to someone getting their DNA sequenced. Obviously, there has to be alot of this going on in the name of academic research, and medicine. I had always thought it might be cool to participate in studies (medical or psychological) as a subject, so even if I found something to participate in that was unrelated to DNA, that might be cool. I found a database of open medical studies, and started poking around for information on things relevant to me. I have "missing knuckles" on some fingers of both hands. A bit of prior speculative internet research has led me to believe this is due to Brachydactyly Type E. As it turns out, there was a DNA study going on for a number of deformities, including brachydactyly. Bingo!When life gives you lemons.... make lemonade :) As it turns out, I was eligible to participate. They were also interested in studying the DNA of any of my blood relatives. I got my sister to participate, and also my younger brother (cooperation of a male relative - check!). So, this probably won't lead to me getting my DNA fully sequenced, or my even getting any report on the results. But, it's just so interesting what a little action can lead to...
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Friday, April 19, 2013
Friday, April 13, 2012
Battiness
I have an absess on my neck. At first I thought it was a spider bite, because it was really itchy. Then it got big and painful, so I thought it was a pimple and tried to pop/lance it, but that didn’t work and really hurt. So I finally had it looked at, and was told that it is an absess, and now I am on antibiotics for it. I have no idea how it started, but it first showed up a couple days ago. Basically, when I finally went for a long bike ride with Adrian and got my helmet. I put a band-aid over it. I keep thinking if anyone asks me about it, I should just tell them that “Adrian finally agreed to change me.” Which would make sense, if he really was a vampire, since I’ve finally compromised into riding the bike with him.
I’ve been reading alot about lucid dreaming lately. Trying to prepare yourself for lucid dreaming actually reminds me alot of what I’ve read about meditating, and trying to be mindful/conscious in general. You’ll be alot better about noticing you are dreaming if you are in the habit of noticing many things. Because I’ve been focusing on that, I do feel that I’m noticing more details in general. Isn’t that how vampires are supposed to feel when they are first “changed”? Guess I’ll have to be wary of any odd new cravings.
Steve Pavlina says it good to get up early, to get started on accomplishing things and mae your day more productive. Lucid dreaming people say it’s good to write down your dreams as soon as you have them, and also that waking for 30-60 minutes in the night and then going back to sleep can often help induce lucid dreams. I know Adrian will never like being wakened up by the alarm if I start waking at odd times, so... I ordered a personal alarm. It is a device that straps to your wrist and vibrates (instead of making noise) to wake you. I’m a fairly deep sleeper, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. We’ll see.
Maybe I should buy a NovaDreamer too...
I’ve been reading alot about lucid dreaming lately. Trying to prepare yourself for lucid dreaming actually reminds me alot of what I’ve read about meditating, and trying to be mindful/conscious in general. You’ll be alot better about noticing you are dreaming if you are in the habit of noticing many things. Because I’ve been focusing on that, I do feel that I’m noticing more details in general. Isn’t that how vampires are supposed to feel when they are first “changed”? Guess I’ll have to be wary of any odd new cravings.
Steve Pavlina says it good to get up early, to get started on accomplishing things and mae your day more productive. Lucid dreaming people say it’s good to write down your dreams as soon as you have them, and also that waking for 30-60 minutes in the night and then going back to sleep can often help induce lucid dreams. I know Adrian will never like being wakened up by the alarm if I start waking at odd times, so... I ordered a personal alarm. It is a device that straps to your wrist and vibrates (instead of making noise) to wake you. I’m a fairly deep sleeper, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. We’ll see.
Maybe I should buy a NovaDreamer too...
Saturday, April 7, 2012
I just arrived on Planet Dooffydell...
I just got my own motorcycle helmet. Adrian insisted, since I have finally started riding more with him. He got a new bike this January with a back rest on the passenger seat, I've been surprised at how I am actually able to relax and enjoy the ride instead of being able to think about nothing other than falling off on the pavement and dying. We went for a ride to the Xeriscape gardens. It was late in the day - as soon as I got off the bike I noticed that my shadow looked like an astronaut! Then I turned around to see a swath of yellow... Daffodils! Or “Dooffydells” as Adrian prefers to call them. I announced that we had landed on planet Doofydell, and we proceeded to explore the gardens. :)
Today has been a very interesting day. I had the distinct feeling that life is a joke, and I just got the punchline! I can’t explain it to anyone though, it’s just one of those things you have to see for yourself - and the experience of “getting it” so individually is a big part of the fun (all punctuation in this paragraph should actually be read as riotous laughter).
Between getting my helmet and going to the gardens, Adrian studied for his Security+ exam, and I read from one of my library books: Architecture in the Garden, by James Van Sweden. At some point, my mind began to wander, to a topic which is a frequent destination of my sojourning brain: What if I could live my life over again? I was thinking how great it would be if I could have started my own small business, before the age of 10, making DIY Fashionista items (based on designs from library books, like so), and selling them at consignment stores. If I had successfully started a business at that age, and had a stream of income to experiment with, I think I would have been better off for it.
Perhaps this interest in “doing it over again” is part of what got me interested in the subject of time and time travel, and caused me to major in physics? Well, there were many contributing factors to that... However I always thought that it would be cool to create a time machine and a robot that could do brain surgeries, then you could go back in time and implant your adult brain in your childhood body and live your life over again, while having some idea what would come next. At least it would make an interesting sci-fi short story (A friend of mine once informed me that Nietzsche had a similar idea: the eternal recurrence). However, today I had something of an epiphany: there may be no need for such complicated external apparatii. We already have very complicated internal apparatii. If Einstein is to be taken literally when he says “For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion - albeit a persistent one”, then the insinuation is that the passage of time is merely a psychological phenomena. If this is true, it ought to be within our control (arguments about entropy as the arrow of time, notwithstanding). This thought, combined with stuff I’ve been reading from Steve Pavlina about subjective reality, lucid dreaming, etc, plus a previous interest in holonomic brain theory as an explanation of the non-localization of memories, gives me the idea that perhaps the time machine and robotic brain surgeon aren’t strictly necessary.
I’ve never had a lucid dream before, but I got a book from the library (which I haven’t started yet), the title of which claims to be able to teach me how to control my dreams... I haven’t had too many dreams over the past year or so (about the time I started my new job), but I used to have quite a few. I always found it interesting that a large proportion of my dreams took place at my old house in Oklahoma that I grew up in. The idea that all of past experiences are in fact accessible to me through memory - even in my dreams - and my dreams are under my control... is a fascinating prospect for a personal laboratory!
However, since reading Steve Pavlina's essay about Life - The Ultimate Game, I did have an almost lucid dream. For some reason I was accompanying a friend (I don't remember anything about this friend, even whether or not it was a he or she) to their first day of work, at the UCCS Physics Laboratory where I used to work one summer, which was run by one of my former professors who gave me a C- in one class, and who I always found to be particularly intimidating. I hesitated at the entrance to the lab, thinking "I'm not going to work here, there's really no need for me to go in and perhaps meet my old professor - I should just leave now." But then I thought? What am I so scared of? I am a grown adult, I don't work for this guy anymore, I already graduated and got my degree years ago, and I bet my husband even makes more money than he does now. He has no power over me, there is nothing to be intimidated about now. Then I remembered Steve Pavlina's conjecture about life as a game (and how it had impressed me that I ought to take that approach to life more often), and I started thinking: I should just go in, and see what happens. What's the worst that could happen? Why don't I just go in as an experiment? That's what laboratories are for, afterall... soon after that I woke up. I don't remember actually going in, but that is the closest I have come to lucid dreaming so far.
Something else interesting happened recently: I had two pairs of jeans rip in the past week! Actually, they were my last two wearable pairs of jeans. Last year (that is, January 2011) one of my New Years resolutions was to wear more skirts. I have several but just never wear them. It is difficult to explain why not, I can make practical sounding excuses, but really I think it comes down to a matter of courage. Why should it take courage for me to wear skirts? I don’t know really, but for some odd reason it does. Anyway, I have decided to not replace my ripped jeans just yet. I will be forced to wear skirts (and non-denim pants) for the forseeable future.
I was worried about turning 30, and getting older. But actually, this is turning out to be the most interesting year of my entire adult life so far. Thirties might actually be really exciting...
Oh, and another thing that just occurred to me, if I were to start re-editing my past in a continuous manner while dreaming, and dream-time does not have to be in sync with real time (like Narnia time), then it would be possible for my dream self to - at some point - surpass my current self. A continuous feedback loop... what happens then? Death? Prophetic dreams? ...the possibilities are intriguing...
But for now, as the title of this blog proclaims, I have just arrived on Planet Dooffydell. I intend on staying a while ;) "Hey you with the pretty face, WELCOME TO THE HUMAN RACE!" - ELO, Mr. Blue Sky
Today has been a very interesting day. I had the distinct feeling that life is a joke, and I just got the punchline! I can’t explain it to anyone though, it’s just one of those things you have to see for yourself - and the experience of “getting it” so individually is a big part of the fun (all punctuation in this paragraph should actually be read as riotous laughter).
Between getting my helmet and going to the gardens, Adrian studied for his Security+ exam, and I read from one of my library books: Architecture in the Garden, by James Van Sweden. At some point, my mind began to wander, to a topic which is a frequent destination of my sojourning brain: What if I could live my life over again? I was thinking how great it would be if I could have started my own small business, before the age of 10, making DIY Fashionista items (based on designs from library books, like so), and selling them at consignment stores. If I had successfully started a business at that age, and had a stream of income to experiment with, I think I would have been better off for it.
Perhaps this interest in “doing it over again” is part of what got me interested in the subject of time and time travel, and caused me to major in physics? Well, there were many contributing factors to that... However I always thought that it would be cool to create a time machine and a robot that could do brain surgeries, then you could go back in time and implant your adult brain in your childhood body and live your life over again, while having some idea what would come next. At least it would make an interesting sci-fi short story (A friend of mine once informed me that Nietzsche had a similar idea: the eternal recurrence). However, today I had something of an epiphany: there may be no need for such complicated external apparatii. We already have very complicated internal apparatii. If Einstein is to be taken literally when he says “For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion - albeit a persistent one”, then the insinuation is that the passage of time is merely a psychological phenomena. If this is true, it ought to be within our control (arguments about entropy as the arrow of time, notwithstanding). This thought, combined with stuff I’ve been reading from Steve Pavlina about subjective reality, lucid dreaming, etc, plus a previous interest in holonomic brain theory as an explanation of the non-localization of memories, gives me the idea that perhaps the time machine and robotic brain surgeon aren’t strictly necessary.
I’ve never had a lucid dream before, but I got a book from the library (which I haven’t started yet), the title of which claims to be able to teach me how to control my dreams... I haven’t had too many dreams over the past year or so (about the time I started my new job), but I used to have quite a few. I always found it interesting that a large proportion of my dreams took place at my old house in Oklahoma that I grew up in. The idea that all of past experiences are in fact accessible to me through memory - even in my dreams - and my dreams are under my control... is a fascinating prospect for a personal laboratory!
However, since reading Steve Pavlina's essay about Life - The Ultimate Game, I did have an almost lucid dream. For some reason I was accompanying a friend (I don't remember anything about this friend, even whether or not it was a he or she) to their first day of work, at the UCCS Physics Laboratory where I used to work one summer, which was run by one of my former professors who gave me a C- in one class, and who I always found to be particularly intimidating. I hesitated at the entrance to the lab, thinking "I'm not going to work here, there's really no need for me to go in and perhaps meet my old professor - I should just leave now." But then I thought? What am I so scared of? I am a grown adult, I don't work for this guy anymore, I already graduated and got my degree years ago, and I bet my husband even makes more money than he does now. He has no power over me, there is nothing to be intimidated about now. Then I remembered Steve Pavlina's conjecture about life as a game (and how it had impressed me that I ought to take that approach to life more often), and I started thinking: I should just go in, and see what happens. What's the worst that could happen? Why don't I just go in as an experiment? That's what laboratories are for, afterall... soon after that I woke up. I don't remember actually going in, but that is the closest I have come to lucid dreaming so far.
Something else interesting happened recently: I had two pairs of jeans rip in the past week! Actually, they were my last two wearable pairs of jeans. Last year (that is, January 2011) one of my New Years resolutions was to wear more skirts. I have several but just never wear them. It is difficult to explain why not, I can make practical sounding excuses, but really I think it comes down to a matter of courage. Why should it take courage for me to wear skirts? I don’t know really, but for some odd reason it does. Anyway, I have decided to not replace my ripped jeans just yet. I will be forced to wear skirts (and non-denim pants) for the forseeable future.
I was worried about turning 30, and getting older. But actually, this is turning out to be the most interesting year of my entire adult life so far. Thirties might actually be really exciting...
Oh, and another thing that just occurred to me, if I were to start re-editing my past in a continuous manner while dreaming, and dream-time does not have to be in sync with real time (like Narnia time), then it would be possible for my dream self to - at some point - surpass my current self. A continuous feedback loop... what happens then? Death? Prophetic dreams? ...the possibilities are intriguing...
But for now, as the title of this blog proclaims, I have just arrived on Planet Dooffydell. I intend on staying a while ;) "Hey you with the pretty face, WELCOME TO THE HUMAN RACE!" - ELO, Mr. Blue Sky
Monday, November 10, 2008
Cloud Seeding
I once took a class on weather with former weatherman Mike Madson. I think that was probably one of the three greatest classes of my life (the other two were physics instrumentation labs). Anyway, I finally got a USB floppy drive, so that I could recover some old stuff I had on floppies, because computers don't have floppies anymore. Some of that "old stuff" included my final presentation for that weather class, and I had chosen "Weather Manipulation and Cloud Seeding" as my topic. Unfortunately, I haven't found the notes that go with the presentation, so the pictures by themselves may not be quite self-explanatory. Still, *I* think it was a cool presentation. (Now I need to go find my presentation for "How a Refrigerator Works" from Physics Senior Seminar)
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