Bored Games

Board games.  People play board games.  Some by choice, and some only as a last resort.  Some will play anything as long as alcohol is involved.

Great party game isn't it?

You can tell a lot about a person just by asking them what their favorite board game is.

For example, if they say Monopoly, they are boring.
Connect Four?  Mentally ill.
Scattergories?  Alcoholic.
Risk?  Nerd.
Trivial Pursuit?  Blowhard.

Scrabble?  This is a tough one, because no one actually follows the official rules when they play Scrabble.  It is very, very "Catholic" in this way (I think up to 99% of the people that play Scrabble cheat the game in some overt or subtle way).  If everyone actually played Scrabble according to the official rules, no one would actually play Scrabble.  So when someone says Scrabble ask the follow up question, "Do you follow the official rules?" and see how they respond.

Boggle?  Delusional, meaning, this person thinks they are smarter than they really are.  Whenever I play Boggle someone always feels the need to warn everyone just how good they are.  Usually someone else quietly warns the others just how good their quiet friend is:

"Watch out everyone, Jane is really, really good."  

In my experience, no one needs a warning, and Jane is never "really, really good."  Jane is just better than her stupid friend.

It should be no surprise then that Boggle is in fact my favorite board game.  I love Boggle because I like to think I am smart, and I always, ALWAYS destroy Jane.  But am I truly as good at the game as I think I am?

What I know is that I can't remember the last time I ever lost a Boggle session, and for years this was the only criteria I had to base my skill level on.  Honestly, I am not basing this on killing time with the niece and the nephew.  I'm basing this on competition with people I consider to be quite intelligent, and many who claimed to be very good at the game.  And they have never had a higher score than me.  Not even close.

Here's the thing: my opinion is based on traditional Boggle.  Wooden cubes, plastic dome, pencil and paper, and that dinky little timer filled with sand (love that).  In traditional Boggle, the best player in the room may write down 33 words, and the group may collectively write down 50 distinct words, but no one knows exactly how many words were actually on the board, words that EVERYONE failed to see.  

Last year I downloaded the Boggle App for the iPhone.  It is just like traditional Boggle (4x4 square, three minute timer), except it provides something the traditional game does not.

And this something destroyed me.

For the first time in my life I got to see every possible word that was possible.  I was not prepared for this.  It was at that moment that I realized that I was terrible at Boggle.  Terrible.

Very Revealing

Take three minutes right now to study the above Boggle board and see how many words you can find.

Time's up.

Go ahead and take another three minutes.

How'd you do?  10 words?  Terrible.  20 words?  Terrible.  30 words?  Terrible.

If you had to guess, how many possible words do you think are in there?

Would you believe me if I said that there are 75 words in there?  Don't, because I would be lying.

Would you believe me if I said 100 words?  Still lying.

There are 149 words in that 4x4 square.  

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE.

abele, abet, abets, able, ables, ablest, ably, abs, ace, bas, base, basely, bast, baste, beast, bee, beet, beetle, beetles, bel, belt, bes, best, bet, betel, bets, bey, blest, blet, blets, blue, blues, bluest, bluet, bluets, bluey, blype, cab, cable, cables, cablet, cablets, cabs, case, cast, cast, cease, cee, ease, easel, east, elm, elute, elutes, eme, emes, emeu, emeus, etwee, eye, eyes, lea, leas, least, les, lest, let, lets, leu, ley, lies, lust, lute, lute, lutes, lye, lyes, meet, meetly, mel, melt, mesa, met, mete, mew, pele, peles, pelmet, pelmets, pelt, pet, plea, pleas, pleb, plebe, plebs, plus, ply, pye, pyes, sab, sabe, sable, sac, sae, sea, sel, seme, set, stele, stem, stey, sue, suet, tea, teas, tee, teem, tel, tele, teles, tew, tule, tules, twee, usable, usably, use, useable, useably, ute, utes, uts, web, webcast, webs, wee, wet, wetly, yea, yeas, yeast, yelp, yep, yes, yet, ylem, yule, yules.

It's Tricky

(Right now you are probably thinking, "What the fuck is a 'pelmet'?")

Can you imagine if you sat down to play Boggle with someone who consistently wrote down 50 more words than the rest of the players combined?  After getting out the dictionary to look up the words no one had ever heard of, I think it would be clear to most that they would have to reconsider what it meant to be "good at Boggle."  I think it would also be very disorienting, to realize that Boggle could be played at such a high level, that someone could see so much more.  

"That Boggle guy?  Too much time on his hands…"

Maybe, I don't know.  What I do know is that you certainly would never want to play Boggle for 10 cents a point with that guy, which might be the only reason that guy would ever want to play Boggle with you. 

"Play for fun? Nah."

  Could it possibly be any fun for that guy when no element of competition exists whatsoever?

It reminds me of a short conversation I had about film with someone recently.

 "I LOVE Stanley Kubrick.  He's my favorite director."

"Oh yeah?  What's your favorite film?  2001?"

"Oh, I haven't seen 2001 yet….."

Hmm….she probably didn't have enough time on her hands.

Helter Skelter Vol. 5: The Damn Bug Is Still In The Jar

Quick Note
July 1, 2011

Klaus:

Obviously I am watching The Shining Wall.  "Mommy, there's an airplane in the sky", the "Twin Towers".   Damn.

LeClair:
There are a few interesting 9/11 references in The Shining.  When Jack first bounces the tennis ball.  There are 4 pencils on the writing table, aimed at the fours "Missile" looking figures on the wall over the fire place.   Jack throws the ball 12 times but the sound of the last throw is muted as the scene cuts.  This leaves 11 audible bounces.  The first nine throws are seen and heard as the camera widens from the typewriter out to the whole room.  There is then a cut to a shot from behind Jack as he makes two more throws before the fade out to exterior.  This gives Nine bounces, and then two more make Eleven.

The Bar Back of the Gold Room also has a 9/11 code.  There are 9 interior "white light" panels and 11 interior panels.  A cash register sits in the two outer sconces.  You are aware of the 9/11 vs 2001:ASO clues--The Millennium Hilton, etc.?  Well IBM made cash registers before they got into computers.  I take the two "registers" as similes for WTC 1 and 2.


TWO THOUSAND WALL
July 1, 2011

Klaus:

I'd like to hear your opinion on the starting of the Wall at 3:32 in 2001.

LeClair:
I'm gonna sit down and do the 3:32 timing in a few minutes, when my roomie leaves for work.  I will also look at The Shining vs. The Wall.  Quite frankly, I could listen to The Wall doing just about anything.  I can't believe it took me this long to get around to hearing it.

I am sorry for my lack of response these last couple of days.  Major anxiety attack.  Spent two whole days undercover--avoiding shadows.

Klaus:

Dude, I completely understand going undercover.  My brain has been rattled quite a bit too.

Looking forward to continued dialogue.

LeClair:
Thanks for saying so.  This is some heady stuff.  Ironically, since we have started this inquiry, I have felt somewhat elevated, as if I was walking a few inches above the ground.  Nevertheless, the overall awesomeness of it all can be a bit much sometimes.

I have just completed your 3:32 timing and I loved it.  Then ending is perfect and here are several points of interest throughout.  The "squeak" on Vera is shocking the first play through.   Do you have an organic justification for this timing or did you experiment to get it right?  My 4:22 is oriented to begin DSOTM just as Also Sprach ends.  I love that piece, and I like to hear it to start the movie.

I'm gonna try to mash Wall vs. The Shining in just a bit after I tuck away a little Soylent Green for lunch..  Any advice on timing?

Klaus:

The best part of the 3:32 timing is the absolute accidental timing caused by a smudge on the DVD that resulted in Thin Ice starting at the end of the Intermission.  It clicked so hard, that I wondered if it would pay dividends from the start.  Well, the "if you don't eat your meat..." kind of sealed it.

I was so high from watching that hit, the fact that the Shining was in tune to the Wall was almost just too much.  I'm not really sure just what is going on here, but I am alternately feeling like we are either cutting edge mystics, or the two guys collecting aphids at the beginning of A Scanner Darkly.  The problem/salvation is that when we wake up the next day, the damn bug is still in the jar.

I think the anxiety results from not knowing if this is the tip of the iceberg, or the end of the road.  Three cheers to finding out!


Timing
July 1-7, 2011

Klaus:

My timing is fucked up.  The key sound that locks in the Pre-Intermission is the screech in Vera by the Monolith, and the tires screeching as the pod turns.  Post Intermission requires starting Thin Ice right before the Spaceship is presented.  This manipulation seems to taint it a little, but it really works well.

LeClair:

The main purpose of the "tensor" is to use three different ruler sticks to measure three different events and thus find links not only in excellent musical synchro's but to come to know very well the timings of each movie and how they match thematically. As such, it is necessary to begin all plays at the same point in each film or conversely with each piece of music at a specific point.

But don't get me wrong here, the unique value of some accidental cut-ups is not to be dismissed. I am gonna do your skewed timing from the intermission tonight.

Klaus: 

Start Thin Ice at 1:29:41.  The year 1941 popped out, and it works really well.

LeClair:

I just completed your selective timing of 2001/Wall.  It clicks on so many levels it is hard to imagine that it is accidental.  It is actually pretty close to the play-out starting at 4:22.  Out about 10-15 secs.  I am beginning to doubt the strictness of my originally planned timings in favor of these more carefully applied results.  I have an idea re: The Shining I want to test out.

Pax for now.

Klaus:

I was rereading your essay on "A Serious Man", and  the connections between Danny, Harold Lloyd, and The Mentaculus (all work, no play) seemed to jump out.  Also, the Dybbuk dies outside in the cold due to a woman protecting her little man.

Klaus:

Rewatching ASM, and wondering at the connections between the Mentaculus of Arthur and The Anti-Mentaculus of Jack Torrance.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

LeClair:

A nice connection, William.  In a sense the two are identical.  Strike that, it more than merely a sense... they are the same work... because God = Saturn/Satan.  Jack and Arthur are each confronting God.  Maybe the difference is that, to my eye, it appears that God is just as interested in Jack as Jack is interested in God.  The same does not seem to be true for Arthur.  Another difference is that Jack's manuscript is like a mantra, and indicates the clearance of thought.  Arthur's work seems like the result of a more fruitful investigation of his creative talent.  I mean, "The Mentaculus" is beautiful.  The transitional scene, which finds Larry under the spell of "The Mentaculus" is my favorite shot in the whole Coen Ouvre.  They actually manage to create, in that quick cut, a sense of "out of body" contemplation.

Here is a quick clue to the hidden cruelty (barely hidden) of the Coen's.  "Mentaculus" is a spoonerized term for "A mental case".

It is interesting you reached out today, as I was gonna drop a line myself a little later.  I am going camping for a week, starting tomorrow and I didn't want to miss returning any mails.

I have a thought re: "The Shining" by way of PKD.  Remember from Valis and Exegesis that Dick reports a "pink" light?  Well, did you happen to notice that, unlike the "yellow/lime" tennis ball bounced by Jack in the Colorado Rm., the ball that rolls into Danny's play area is "pink".

I'll be back in touch when I return mid-month.

Glad to hear from you.

Klaus:

Slowed down, one can see "SGGIH-NOSOB" written in the middle of one of the pages of the Mentaculus, ala "REDRUM".  Both Arthur and Danny are in tune, but just need to tune in a bit clearer, as the messages are coming through backwards.

Why can I not place the pink ball scene offhand?

Enjoy your getaway into Nature, I'm a bit jealous.  Talk to you later Mark.

LeClair:
The scene is right before Danny goes into Rm. 237, as he plays with his dinky toys.

Peace



Deathly Hallowed Pt. 2
July 16-17, 2011

Klaus:

Try to experience this [Dark Side of the Moon + Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2] in the theater.  Start DSOTM with "Time" right as the movie opens.  You'll know right away if you've got it locked.

LeClair:
Just got back from the theater... the movie was sold out. It is Stampede Week here in Calgary. The city is swollen to its maximum capacity. Gonna try again with friends next Friday, when the town has cooled down. In the mean time, I have started to work on the "tensor". DSOTM is a lead pipe cinch as a sound track to The Shining, with especial emphasis on the lyrics. This is going to be a big project... I expect to have to complete all nine pairings several times to get the message.

Anyhoo... glad you are well.

Klaus:

The correct timing should have the alarm clock in Time going off as Valdemort's wand lights up the sky.  It's really good.



Obvious
July 21-25, 2011

Klaus:

Start The Wall at 00:28 on the DVD for The Wizard of Oz.  The screen shot says "A Victor Fleming Production".  It's kinda ridiculous.

LeClair:

Wow... I can't wait to try this. I am gonna do it right now.

I have been working very hard on "the tensor" and the results are astonishing. Just to explain, the basic idea is to use the three albums as fixed measurements against each film. The term "tensor" is metaphorical, from Gauss and the "physical tensor", which is a way of triangulating a point in space.

I have alot I want to share with you but the data is voluminous to say the least. I am a slow writer, and I don't want to stop the research just yet. I am at it day and night and I think the first complete pass ought to take me about another two weeks. At that time I will compile what I have and send it to you alone. There may be some kind of writing project in this--I dunno--but for now, I really appreciate your thoughts and the education that informs them, and I would like to continue our partnership into these matters..

I am doing The Wiz on the Wall right fukkin' now.

Klaus:

I do consider myself lucky to be in communication as you tackle this monster.  Let me know if there are any specific viewings that I can offer feedback on.

As I wrote before, I just completed Joe Campbells book Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, as well as another reread of Robert Anton Wilsons James Joyce essays, and, my mind is just completely afire.  It's really starting to absorb itself to a new level.  Kubrick has to have been well versed in Joyce, and I am concentrating on this angle right now.

My mind is always open to bounce ideas off of.

LeClair:

Just finished up the Wall on the Wiz.

Many marvelous moments. Funny and profoundly insightful. I am interested in knowing how you settled on this particular time coding.

Here is a corker for you in the field of non-local punnery--and I would have missed it if I had not watched the Wizzing on the Wall.

The Three albums of The Wall, Dsotm and Meddle are natural pairs for the Scarecrow, the Tin man, and the Lion by way of EWS, 2001 and The Shining.

1. The Wall's most famous track is themed around the concept of education. Scarecrow gets a Diploma (kept on The Wall. The connections to EWS are also present in this character, as the film is an education for Bill. There are many themes in EWS that relate to "paper". Money, Wrapping, Newspaper, Rolling Paper, the note from Somerton. Paper, like Scarecrow, is vulnerable to Fire.

2. The main theme of DSOTM and of 2001 is "Time". Many, many lyrics about the passing of Time. Dave gets lost in a Time Warp. HAL is an electronic life from and vulnerable to Water. Like Tin Man, HAL is also a Machine. The alchemical metal associated with Jupiter is exclusively Tin. The rain-rusty Tin Man is given a Watch.

3. Meddle is acknowledged as a play on Medal and Metal. "Fearless" is a key track. The fearless Lion gets a Medal. Metal oxidizes into rust (vulnerable to moist Air). The costumed man/bear/pig from The Shining is remarkably similar in costume to the Coward Lion. There is a Lion on a prominent painting in Danny's room. Wendy (windy?) mentions Air by way of the high altitude.

The use of The Axe by Tin Man somewhat blurs the matter. The Tin Man appears in EWS too, as Szavost. Both he and the Tin Man discuss the Art of Love. I suspect there is much more to this vein of thought.

I am interested in your research. Please don't hesitate to drop some knowledge my way, especially as it pertains to our mutual fascination with Kubrick iHuasca.

Peace Owt for Now.

Klaus:

As to the timing,
I chose the "there's an airplane up in the sky" to coincide with Glenda's bubble.
Everything seemed to fall in place after that.

Klaus:

The dog's name is Toto.  Can be pronounced TwoTwo.  I think 00:22 provides a better starting time for Dark Side of The Oz.  Just in the first ten minutes it has revealed a much tighter fit.

Klaus:

Holy fuckin shit!  There's no denying it. Everyone has been wrong with the timing.  I'm guessing the wrong time was initially given out on purpose.

LeClair:

Looking forward to trying this tonite. The number 22 has specific connotations for me which also directly relate to my experience of DSOTM/2001. I have also decoded Toto as 2-2. We are on a likewise wavelength, I think.

Klaus:

I might have gotten a little overexcited about the new start time for Dark Wizard, but I really believe it's a better fit.

I can't seem to find a fit for Meddle.

LeClair:

Honestly, I think the 22 timing is boss.  I have only watched through the second play of Time (was interrupted by my roomie), but I liked it alot.  In a strictly musical sense it is very strong, and many good lyrical connections

I have a discovery that I think is worth consideration.  I do not know what it means, but it mos def validates matching The Wall to all three Kubrick's of our recent interest, with timings as I have suggested.  Furthermore, it is a strong indicator that there is a Floyd specific code in Kubrick and particularly in these movies.

On four distinct plays of  "Goodbye Blue Sky?" a character or characters are seen emerging from "elevators".

1.  Dr. Bill into his office.  First play.
2.  Dr. Bill stands in front of a single elevator in the Lobby of the Hotel Jason.  Second play.
3.  With 4:22 timing: Floyd emerges from elevator into Space Station customs (seated next to pink flight attendant).  First play.
4.  With 00:13 timing: Ullman, Watson and the Torrances step out of elevator into the Colorado Rm.  First play.

I have found another correspondence in Wall/2001.  Mother plays at roughly the same time as Money from the DSOTM mash-up.  What it interesting is that Mother oscillates between the time sig.  3/4 and 4/4.  Money is mostly 7/4.  In the DSOTM/2001 synch the "cash register" from Money cha-chings just as we see the IBM logo on the ship console.  During The Wall/2001 mash, the IBM logo appears to the lyric "check out".  IBM-Business Machine-Cash Register-Check Out.

BTW, have you watched DSOTM with the 4:22 Timing for 2001?  You will dig it.

High Definition Plate Tectonics

"It’s all SYNC, we just go right out and say it.  Whereas like, it’s completely implied when we say ‘sync,' but when you look at it, what are the prime tools that are being used to extrapolate the information with these different systems?  The O.T.O. is obviously one of them.  Mysticism across the board plays with correspondences, so “this corresponds to this”.  But then you’re basically, you’re getting information because of how these two things connect, or three things, or whatever.  So, you’re like “how does this relate to this?”  There’s information inherent in the relationship that you wouldn’t get with the thing alone.  You watch the Wizard of Oz, a really good movie with lots of symbolism, then you put it on mute and you watch it with Dark Side of the Moon and you get a whole other message.  Whereas, if you listen to Dark Side of the Moon all by itself, it’s a really great album all on its own, with its own set of symbolism.  But the two together produce something that you wouldn’t have otherwise.  So 777, Crowley’s book of correspondences, I mean, all that is is ‘sync’. That whole book is ‘sync’.  A ‘sync’ handbook.  That’s foundational, in terms of the work.

And you want it to be instantaneous, that’s the goal.  

So as soon as you say “geburah” you want to be able to visualize the corresponding color,  you want to be visualizing:  “Boom, RED, ok…”.  Then everything that comes with that.  Then you’re like “Mars”, and what does Mars mean?

You don’t want a conceptual understanding of Mars, 

you want an energetic understanding of Mars.  

You want to be in touch with what we’re talking about when we say “Mars”, beyond any image of the planet.  What are we getting at here?  What are we looking at?  Ok, so you’re like, "Mars has to do with tobacco or cocaine" which would be signifiers of Mars energy.  What do those things have in common?  Severity.  But that’s just one example, and how does this relate to this?"

David Plate, from Episode 29 of Always Record

Read more from David Plate, and 25 other voices in The Sync Book 2 out now.

The Rubix Cube Part 4: I Never Remember It

What if you simply CAN'T solve the Rubix Cube?  What if no matter how hard you try, no matter how many hours you put into the study and practice of the thing, solving the Rubix Cube remains IMPOSSIBLE.

Are you this person?  Or can you solve the Rubix Cube?

I can't.

Even with the directions right in front of you?  

I can't.                                                                                                

Even with thirteen different videos explaining it step by step? 

I can't.                                                                                                         

Even with a personal tutor who actually shows you each individual move?  

I can't.                                                                                                          

What if I give you a million dollars?

Gimme that fuckin' Cube.                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

HELP!

FUCK.  I still can't solve the Cube.  I just can't, I don't know what's wrong with me.  What does this mean?  Should I keep trying?  I've been working on it for a month now and it seems like I'll never figure it out.  

TIME.  MONEY.  WILL POWER.  NOTHING WORKS I TELL YOU.  NOTHING.  THIS IS COMPLETELY STUPID, I'M A GOOD PERSON, AND THIS CUBE MAKES ME FEEL BAD.  I HATE THIS CUBE.  I HATE IT.  FUCK YOU, FUCK THE RUBIX CUBE.  FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME FEEL INFERIOR.  FUCK YOU FOR EVEN CREATING IT.  I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY.  I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY EVER AGAIN, AND I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE MAKE MY CHILDREN FEEL THIS WAY.  

I BET THERE NEVER WAS A MILLION DOLLARS TO BEGIN WITH.  YOU'RE A LIAR. 

 I KNOW YOU'RE A LIAR.

If you don't solve the Rubix Cube by the end of the year, I'm going to kill everyone you love, and then I'm going to throw you in Prison.  Do you understand?  DO YOU THINK I'M LYING NOW?

Get back to work.

Where is that Voice coming from?  Hey, who are you?  And who are you to threaten ME?    

The clock is ticking…..

The Rubix Cube Part 3: Always Engrave

Image courtesy of MK Ultrasound

"Let the meme fight for its life in the jungle of competing models of reality...

When I pull back from the specificity and the fact that I invented it that's my biggest problem.  If I hadn't invented this, if I had just heard that somebody invented it, and this is what it was, I think I would find it very interesting.  But since I know the inventor very well, I'm very prone to doubt the thing.  I mean, this is not a guy you would want to put a lot of pressure on so….

I - I don't know.  

I'm puzzled.

Figure 26

And I offer it as an unsolved puzzle."

Terence McKenna

"Chaos is a state where information can exist, but where it does not exist."

Aryeh Kaplan

Our physical body is the extension of a billion year system of order called DNA.  DNA is a communication system intent on impregnating the future with the past through a novelty conserving game of elemental telephone.  One of the most complex products of this game is an organ of matter called brain, a physical computer capable of executing billions of actions every second, each decision intimately related to the scope of an entire physical body.

The human brain, along with that of the dolphin, are two of the most prominent examples of this.  

A specific and recent extension of the human brain is the human neocortex (Latin for "new bark"), a six-layered membrane responsible for language, conscious thought, unconscious thought, dreaming, spatial reasoning, sensory perception, and the generation of motor commands.  Not only is it capable of perception and projection, it is capable of simultaneous perception and projection.  It is the observer as well as the observed, the engraver and the engraved.  It creates as it destroys.

I believe that it is the neocortex that is the sole/soul biological membrane that is in direct contact with Mind/God/TAO/non-locality.  It is through this connection that the silent, seamless, and ordered system of DNA is finally questioned and brought into doubt.

Is the complex reality of physical existence radically dis-ordered?  Or is it ordered by the divine?

Are we drowning in blind chaos?  Or are we swimming amidst perfection?

"From above to below we know.  But from below to above we do not know"

I nominate the six-layered Rubix Cube as an externalized representation of the human neocortex independently removed from its bio-physical firmament.  An externalized model, the Rubix Cube gives us a chance to visualize and interact with the Bridge between brain and Mind, and a chance to understand why some brains seem to be more in contact with Mind than others.  Why some brains remain in contact with Mind.

If the standard brain has a knowledge of the permutations of the Cube, it can gradually develop an understanding of how to arrive at certain specific permutations.   Brain can then begin to develop a stronger connection to Mind.   A deeper connection to Mind.  A connection capable of handling a flood of wisdom, if that flood should happen to occur.

"I preached here earlier that you mustn't seek closure

 and so I don't with this.

If it's a communication, it's a very curious communication.  If it is non-communication, it's even more curious.  If it's a delusion, why is it so mathematically formal?  If I'm pathological, why aren't there attendant sequelae?  Why just this very defined thing?

The whole thing smacks of the impossible.  It's even pushed me towards the idea that maybe this is not actually a reality.   We're trapped, or I'm trapped.  I don't know if you're trapped, but we're in some kind of piece of fiction.  It's like a Philip K. Dick deal, you know, some kind of simulacrum, and the clue to the fact that it's a simulacrum is this impossible idea, and so the point of the idea is not to believe it, but to use it as a wedge to fight our way out of this labyrinth and back to whatever reality we were in before we fell in to this situation.  Something like that.

Anyway I have the feeling that I'm blathering and spinning my wheels…"

Terence McKenna

The Rubix Cube Part 2: Back to the Future

Ok, if we can't solve this thing on our own, what's the fucking point?

Time to cheat.  That's right, cheat.  If our ancestors are good for anything, they are good for a few hints and shortcuts.  We can learn from their wisdom.  We must follow the path. 

Using the written directions included, it took me around six hours to solve the Cube for the first time.  It was confusing and frustrating, and I didn't actually believe the directions would work until the final few turns of the cube.  It took me about 45 minutes the second time, and about 30 minutes the third.  

Go and do this.  See how long it takes you.  

What you will realize is that even with the written directions, solving the Cube is still an extremely difficult endeavor, SO difficult that most people can not or simply WILL NOT solve the Cube.  Try to imagine the excuses they make for giving up, even with the solution right in front of them:

"The directions are bullshit, this is stupid, what's the point, it's broken, I'm stupid, it's a waste of time, this is a joke, it's impossible, I'm too tired, only a moron would waste time on this, it's just too difficult, I'm no good at math, I'm not going to let this ruin my day, I give up, I've got more important things to do, the directions are wrong"

Don't judge them, rather, try to recognize situations in your own life where you may have used the same excuses.

After you have solved the Cube, try to solve the Cube again, but in half the time.  Then commit the process to memory, and solve it without the training wheels.  Then with the pressure of an audience.  Challenge yourself to become quicker, faster.

Congratulations!  You can now solve the Rubix Cube. 

When I say You, I mean Robot.  A Robot solved the Cube.

Please, do not kid yourself that you have done anything more than install the Rubix Cube Solution program in your brain.  Or did you forget?

We cheated.  We took the shortcut.  

The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoor-denenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later

on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the

offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself promptly sends an unquiring one well to the west 

in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park

where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy.

James Joyce

Joyce recognized that this is what was happening with language and history.  McLuhan understood Joyce, and recognized that this was happening with literacy and media as well.  Kubrick understood them both, and recognized that this was no accident.

The Rubix Cube: Gone in Ninety Three Seconds

I just bought a Rubix Cube. When I opened up the box it came in,  I marveled at how elegant a simple piece of plastic could be.  Elegant, yet surprisingly loud, as all six colors shouted for individual attention.

And fragile.

The untouched Cube is a very Zen object.  It reflects all six senses, forever entangled, but never as pure as this.  A newborn, a child, a virgin.

I'm 36, and I had one of these Cubes when I was 5 years old.  As I examine this identical Cube three decades later, I try to consider the Cube from the perspective of a child who finds one sitting anonymously on a shelf surrounded by other toys, toys that shout and rattle and beckon for attention.  What could possibly attract the child to the Cube?

Boredom clears a path to this cube.  Boredom destroys this inertia.

"What does it do?  What is it for?  What just happened?"

In less than sixty seconds, the singularity of the Cube will dissolve at the hands of the child, its Zen-like purity hopelessly lost into one of the 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different permutations.  That's "quintillion".

The child will never bring the Cube back to the way it was.  Decades later, the child may never believe that it was ever possible to begin with.

Buy a Rubix Cube today, and see how long it takes before you fuck it up.  Before you are completely and utterly LOST.  Without cheating, without reading a book of directions, and without watching a video on YouTube, try to bring all six sides back to that original star, that one in a quintillion singularity.  Siriusly, find your way back.  To your Home.

But at least you know this time.  You know for certain that somewhere in the endlessly mutating pattern is that solid state six colored cube, that singularity, that newborn that you started with at the beginning.  How could you forget?  You just fucking had it right there, just a god damn minute ago.  Where did it go?

Ask yourself, "Am I up to it?"

 Can you meet the challenge of restoring the Cube?  Because what you have here is a Sword in a Stone.  This, this is the challenge of Isis, and the wound of Amfortas.  This is the mystery of Resurrection.

If you let it, this $8.99 Cube can be a mirror for your mind, and for what the human mind is capable of.  It can be a mirror for the Robot mind, and for what the Robot mind is capable of.  It can be a canvas for the Artist, and an instrument of deception.

What do you see?  What can you see? Who do you see?

What are you going to do?

ADM Men 23: Who is this person writing about?

"Oh, totally. I find him very funny. A bizarre spectacle. Impossible to tell if and when he is serious. The perfect successor of (?) who also managed to maintain a decades long intellectual hoax. Amazing stuff! (If you want a real brilliant WTF, check out (?).

Would I recommend others to read his books? No, probably not. Or maybe, as a kinda mean joke to play on someone deserving. Because before you can find him funny you have to take him seriously for a while. And before you are used to his writing it is mostly unreadable. (Or, at least unreadable to those of us without a background in (?), or similar.)

I will now tell you my dirty secret of how to read his bullshit. (?). All his books should be sold with a small quantity of quality (?), anything else is unnecessarily cruel to the user. Only drug induced hyper-focus allows one to plough right through this stuff while not worrying too much about whether it actually means anything. And then do a repeat reading, this time after (?). Giggle copiously. Under no circumstance approach his work sober!"

by someone on Tue Mar 22nd, 2011 at 12:43:32 PM EST

Is this person writing about:

 Seuss

 Jung

 Zizek

Crowley

ADM Men 2: Children of the Bomb

Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have

 made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind.  To get inside in order 

to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now.  And to generate heat not light is the intention.  

To keep everybody in the helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the 

effect of many ads and much entertainment alike.

Marshall McLuhan, 1951:

MAD MEN:  Season One, Episode 6  "Babylon"

The next medium, whatever it is - it may be the extension of consciousness - will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual's encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a salable kind.

Marshall McLuhan,  1962

Marshall McLuhan serves as a bridge between the two greatest artistic geniuses of the 20th century, James Joyce and Stanley Kubrick.  And, in my opinion, in order to understand McLuhan, you have to understand all three.  Matthew Weiner clearly understands all three.

Essential to the understanding of Joyce, McLuhan, and Kubrick, one must have an understanding of how the Qabbalistic Tree of Life and the Tarot are related, how this system is related to reality, and how reality is made of language.  Again, Matthew Weiner clearly understands all three.

The above image serves as the basis for Matthew Weiner's production logo.  It is The Sun, the 20th of 22 Trump cards in the Major Arcana of the Rider Waite Tarot, and is one of those loose threads that, when given a gentle tug, can unravel the whole sweater.  

The question is, do you want to know what's under the sweater?

The Sun is associated with the Hebrew letter reish, which is associated with the head.  This head is filled with "ego-consciousness", which feels itself separated from the unity of God.  Only the fear of God can ready this "ego-consciousness" for wisdom.

Interesting pattern in that background, no?