mark.itpimps.com

so here’s something i’ve been pondering lately:

how would life be different if someone proved or disproved the existence of God?

it’s not really a matter of whether life would be different, i believe it most certainly would… i think the real trick to the question is how would it??

now, i don’t belive there would be utter chaos in the world or anything… a belief is something that people hold onto more than anything, you would be hard-pressed to find people who would give up their (dis)belief in God whether you proved existence or not. on top of that, i think it would be refuted over and over.

if you think about it tho’, isn’t that what’s been going on all these years?? the constant argument and human struggle over the proof of God?

i believe the struggle for belief one way or the other is part of human nature… how can creatures who believe they can be rational (and more often than not, are irrational) hope to conquer such a feat as proving that a being, which is in and of itself without rationale, exists? i guess the meaning comes from the struggle, and maybe we were all meant to find our own types of meanings in each of our own struggles.

i think the other thing that really sparked this thought was the whole teaching “intelligent design” in schools thing… i know there’s an effort there to teach the world “scientifically”, and “intelligent design” may not fit the criteria of “scientific”, but are we forced to keep kids without perspective? it’s bad enough that the US is already low on the scale when it comes to math and science… i was always curious as a kid, and i still am now… maybe a presentation of perspective could help here. i’m not saying to teach it in a religious sense, but to present it as an argument as to how the world was created, and maybe we could spark some interest in some kid who may grow up loving science and solving one of the many problems we have in this world.

a final thought: do we live our lives differently because of our (dis)belief in God? how would our lives be different if we thought the opposite of what we thought now?

comment box as necessary.

-m

G4 is cancelling Filter and G4tv.com

the link above gives a brief description of what has happened to one of my favorite channels over the years… i’d like to think of myself as an original, faithful watcher… for those who don’t know, G4 started as ZDTV, a technology-oriented channel run by the news company Ziff-Davis (who also happens to publish PCMag)… it then became TechTV, which was just a joy to watch… a few years ago TechTV merged with G4, a channel that was devoted entirely to video games… i was skeptical about this move, as i watched TechTV specifically for the “techie” type shows: FreshGear, Extended Play, Call for Help, The Screen Savers, even Spy School and Wired for Sex. the G4 merger made it more game-oriented, which caused most of those shows to die (and Extended Play becoming X-Play, which i didn’t particularly like as much as the former… but, it introduced me to Morgan Webb, who is now on my top 5 hottest women)

now it looks like G4 is looking to get rid of the last of the faithful (myself included) by making it more like SpikeTV… they even have episodes of the Man Show on G4 now… that is fucking retarded. if i wanted to watch the Man Show, i’ll watch SpikeTV, dammit i came to ZD-Tech-G4TV to stimulate my technical side… now the channel is full of crap shows like reruns of FastLane and some other show about import cars…

i think over the last few months the only shows i really watched was Icons, Filter, and X-Play… i don’t really see Icons anymore, and Filter just got cancelled, leaving me with 1 show left… on top of that, they used to show X-Play at 8 PM and 11 PM pacific, so i could catch it right after the 10 o’clock news… now, there’s only the 8 PM showing… i heard Call for Help was brought back, possibly to salvage what it could (and they even brought back Leo Lepore!), but i really think this channel is going to tank…

i am glad to see the TechTV hosts now doing some great stuff tho’… Kevin Rose has digg and theBroken, Sumi Das is on CNN now, and Leo Lepore has TWiT… i wonder whatever happened to Chris Parillo??

in any case, i’m probably not reaching many people with this post, but i just had to say it for the sake of saying it… i hope someone wises up and resurrects TechTV, or even brings back ZDTV (hint, hint Ziff-Davis!), and brings those great shows back.

it’s too bad they cancelled Filter tho’, on top of the interesting countdowns, Diane Mizota was pretty hot as well.

such is life i suppose. i really hope someone steps up and retakes or creates a channel for people like me (once again!)

-m

in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or so, Stanley “Tookie” Williams was executed last nite at San Quentin prison here in CA… he was co-founder of the Crips, and allegedly killed some people a few decades ago.

there was a lot of debate going on about whether or not he should be executed, and i’m not one to take sides on this issue… the real issue i take with this is the journey of a person, and their right to life… many people in this very same situation have gone overlooked without media attention, and while co-founding one of the nation’s largest and deadliest gangs seemingly deserves some attention, it goes without saying that not every death row inmate can have snoop dogg and jamie foxx rallying for his clemency…

i think the big issue for me on this was that if i was where he was, what kind of action would i have taken on me? clearly i believe in the decency of our fellow human beings, for as an optimist i one of those people who believe that people are inherently good… i know people are hard to change, but even still i think placing yourself in the other person’s shoes can bring this to perspective… i believe in second chances and i don’t really think killing, no matter in war or on the streets, solves a damn thing.

many people out there agree with me, and many don’t, and that’s awesome. as long as we don’t kill each other, i see these kinds of discussions and arguments as a good thing, so long as both sides are willing to listen as much as they are to talk.

one last note on this… sunday morning i was driving to denny’s to get some breakfast and i was flipping thru the radio stations… for as long as i’ve known i’ve never really listened to The Beat (100.3, formerly 92.3) on Sunday mornings as i know they have services airing in place of music. i happened to chance across it nonetheless, and of course the issue of Tookie Williams came up. the person on the radio said something that i felt was quite profound in a religious sense, and maybe it was by fate or devine intervention that i chanced to listen to it… the lady on the radio pointed out that regardless of the outcome, somehow we should come away seeing the hand of God at work. if he was given clemency, it shows God’s mercy. if he was still to be executed, we shouldn’t fear as this is all in God’s plan.

now while i don’t see myself as the most religious person, this stuck with me and made me think… philosophically, scientifically, religiously, personally, emotionally… it was one of those things that made you want to stop and think, regardless of your religious beliefs.

in any case, just something to stir some thoughts.

peace.

-m

it’s that time of year again, gift-giving time!! i love giving gifts to my family and friends, but of course i can only afford so much (we all hate the going broke part tho’, don’t we?)…

and of course, there’s always those one or two people who are really really hard to shop for… i have a few of them in my life, and i always wish they had some sort of wishlist so that they wouldn’t be so difficult! what usually accompanies this is the discussion of whether giving a gift from a wishlist is impersonal… you didn’t spend time picking out something personal, blah, blah blah… you all know or are having thoughts about this discussion in your head right now. but don’t you think that the people making these wishlists are making them because that’s what they really want?? and to give them what they want, is that not a personal thing?? i dunno, i’m all for wishlists.

so maybe when the christmas season is over, you can tell those people in your life to resolve to make wishlists. they’re helpful at birthdays too.

side note: if anyone watches the show The Office and saw last week’s episode, i think Jim (played by John Krasinski), summed up the game White Elephant when he said: “at my house we used to call that Nasty Christmas.”

if anyone is playing Nasty Christmas or White Elephant (or whatever you call it around your house), and wants to throw that sucky present in the mix, i have a few ideas, let me know if you need some

finally, in case i’m that “hard-to-shop-for” someone in his or her life, don’t despair! i have wishlists at amazon and thinkgeek to make it easier for you. i’d also add a TiVo to either of those lists as well.

but really, i would just like your friendship and love for Christmas, along with a handshake or a hug =)

-m

welcome faithful readers!

uh, hello? is this thing on?

i know it’s been a long departure since the old mworld days, but here i am nicely situated with the other pimps at our own domain, itpimps.com… it’s been a long time coming, and i’ve missed blogging a lot, so i’m glad that our host has this…

speaking of which, i’m now using new blogging software, specifically wordpress. so far it looks great… and yes, i’ve been lazy and uncreative, so for now i’m using the default theme until i come up with something of my own flavor (plus there’s a lot of documentation to read thru on how to customize this thing, so it might take a while)… i like the flexibility of the software, plus the categories and other stuff… basically it has a bunch of stuff i wish that blogger had, but now i here they are!

i’ll be slowly updating things from here on out… new front/splash/home/something page, page of my favorite links, and hopefully the pictures… thinking about simplifying things and stealing derek’s AJAX picture gallery… we’ll see

so that’s all for now… glad to be back, and look out for more blogs in the coming weeks!

-m