Minggu, 13 Februari 2011

They're Made out of Meat !!!

"They're Made out of Meat" is a brilliant and hilarious short story by Terry Bisson who is an American science fiction and fantasy author. In my opinion, this story is the perfect commentary of the fact that we are not alone in this huge universe(s). I have always been attracted to cosmology, and that what makes this story one of my all-time favorites.

Enjoy.. ^_^


They're Made out of Meat

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"So ... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat."

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."

Kamis, 10 Februari 2011

I Miss My Hobby!!!!

I miss my hobby!!

I always love making crafts but work stopped me from doing it. I started this hobby by making paper boxes from wedding invitations years ago. I thought that the paper was cute and I started to cut them and make paper boxes out of those pretty papers. I made the boxes in many different sizes. Some are really small. The technique was very simple yet they turned out really cute actually. After the paper boxes, came the picture frame phase. A picture frame which was a wedding gift inspired me. I tried many different ornaments, but thick papers are always the main material. I continued to make many different kinds of picture frames in many different sizes. Some of my friends loved them. They even asked me to make some for them. There were times when I made picture frames as birthday gifts for some of my friends..and they really liked it.

I tried to make my own pattern printed on the paper that I used to make the frames. I loved the one with words pattern. One of my friend even asked me to make one for her as a gift for her boyfriend (who is now her husband ^_^).. This one was a custom project. The words that are printed to to the frame were the ones that mean a lot for both of them. I was told that they still keep it!! This kind of stories always make me happy and love my hobby even more. The idea of custom gifts has been in my mind for a long time now. I wish someday I can make it come true by having a gift shop that makes custom gifts based on my customers' stories. That would be really exciting!!!

I had sewing phase too, but it did not last long. I made some wallets and other stuff but then I got bored and made other things from different materials. The last material I tried was felt. It is a kind of fabric that is widely used for crafts because it comes in many amazing colors and it is easy to be formed into many different shapes. I tried to make some necklaces from it. It was pretty fun...and I was confident enough to wear them too!! My friends liked it and even asked them to make some felt necklaces for them, but unfortunately I never had the chance to..(sorry..).. Well, here are some of my felt necklaces...








Senin, 07 Februari 2011

YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!

Who do you think you are? You can't take someone's life just like that. You have no right to do that!

Earlier today, I watched an amateur video showing a bunch of irresponsible people torturing a group of people with certain belief that those irresponsible people think should be banished. This is actually not a new issue. This particular religious group has ignited a burning conflict for quite a while now. Once the government has issued an announcement saying that the group was proven to be a negative influence and should not be continued. However, there hasn't been any real settlement so that the group keeps on growing quietly. Feeling disturbed, a bunch of people decided to attack the group and by "attack", it means in a really mean way. Not only throwing rocks to their houses, they also dragged a number of people belong to the group and torture them to death brutally. They were stripped and hit with rocks and sticks until they bleed and lifeless. No words can describe how inhuman the action was. It was completely heartless.

Those people really thought that they were doing it in the name of their religion, but I bet their God never told them to do anything like what they did - torturing people to death mercilessly. They were completely blinded by their hatred and it made them think that they have the right to do anything they want. Well, guess what? YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!

Guilty or not guilty, they should not be treated that way. NO ONE should be treated that way because NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT to do that!

Rabu, 02 Februari 2011

Waiting Shouldn't Have to Be Boring

Too many people say it all too often..


"Waiting sucks!"


"I hate waiting"


"Waiting is such a waste of time"


So waiting is boring? says who? people who can't multitask?! hahhaha... Please, people...waiting can actually be really fun. You get to do many things while waiting for something...or someone.. Be creative with spending your time. Being creative does not always something to do with artwork...you can do anything you want. Waiting can even be the chance for you to lay back and relax a little. You can also use the time for thinking about something you have always wondered. Thinking is an activity and you can do it while you are waiting for something...or someone.

Thinking is actually not really a bad idea to kill the time. Thinking..contemplating.. they are important to keep your focus on the right track. You know sometimes you just need to sit down and have a quite talk with yourself. Get to know yourself a little better one step at a time. Think about how you see yourself...how you see your family...how you see your friends...how you see complete strangers around you. Something really surprising might come across your mind...and thanks to waiting...you get to realize it.

The "F" Word

Easy..I'm not trying to be all to provocative here. I'm trying to be all nice and up to this point, I'm still planning to keep it that way. 

The "F" word that I'm trying to talk about here is "Facebook". Yea..Facebook seems to be the new "F" word!! But seriously, sometimes I really want to say the old "F" word out loud to those people on the new "F" word. Ironically, they are those who I have agreed to be"friend" with. You know, it IS fun to have a Facebook account. But things can get a little too much with these people. Frankly speaking.. They can be really annoying. I mean REALLY annoying.

Some of them are those who keep posting status millions of times in one single day. It seems that they have nothing else better to do. or maybe they do have but always seems to have an extra time to keep others updated of everything they are up to. I mean EVERYTHING!

"Waking up! Morning everyone!"
...
"Shower time!"
...
"Breakfast time!"
...
"Heading off to work!"
...
"Driving safely to work"

seriously...how can you drive safely while you still get to update your effing Facebook status?! and.....
GET A TWITTER!!!



Some others don't post that much but every time they do, they add a thumb to it. Meaning they "like" their own status. Gee..what's the point? "I like myself" ?? Pfff...What's wrong with them? narcissistic? Posting a status and "like" it is completely silly (sorry,but that's how I see it). Even if you posted your favorite quotes of all time, self-"like"-ing  is completely unnecessary. Unless you are Katy Perry and just posted "I kissed a girl" .....DON"T like your own status!

Crossing things over is cool, but not with social networks! Some people just love to cross social networks and get things messy.RT, which is an abbreviation of  Re Tweeting, is for Twitter..so keep it that way! All those terms and abbreviations that people use on Twitter are supposed to be used on Twitter only. What's on Twitter stays on Twitter. Crossing things over will only make each of them less significant. You're ruining everything!



Well I guess, some of those people are purely annoying and some others are just trying to push my button. That button. The one that says "Remove Friend".

Couldn't find those kind of people on your "friend" list? You're lucky...or... just like people say... if you can't spot the crazy person on the bus....it might be you!