Mr. Muddle's Befuddled Universe

Loose-Leaf Living: First Steps

Everyday empiricism for everyone

Notions:

Tides rise and fall.

Notes:

Creating a Mess!

My backyard is ugly! It wasn't always a disaster. Once it was emerald green grass and sparkling flowers from stem to stern. Looked like a page out of House and Garden. Unfortunately time, hard luck, and weak fortitude gradually got the best of the backyard. The whole thing eventually went to shambles and brambles. But that's the way of the world, nothing lasts forever. Death makes life possible. Destruction is part of the creative process. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Took one look at the shambles `n' brambles and commenced moanin', ``Oh, woe's me."

I sat right there for two nights, an' a day, just b'moanin', and b'wailin' to get all out to no end. I was a no 'count grumbler and mumbler, fur shure, the way I carried on. Finally, I gives up, and goes inside on the second morning. I decided my moanin' and wailin' wasn't doin' no good no way. Plus I had to pee a lake.

The short of it is this, we hired a crew to get the backyard all shipshape again. It's not like before, but it's Ok. Can't always have everything, I guess.

People say accept what you got. Be happy! See the sunny side. Smile! Well, that ain't always so easy. It's hard not to take hard times hard. But there is a point when you do have to get up and pull yourself up by your own self and that's usually when your bladder's full.

— Stocker Null
Loose-Leaf Living
© 2009 TSNull

Notebook section: Humdrum
Status: Active/Trashed.

Notions must pass the tests of time, logic, and experience before being accepted as true.

Loose-Leaf Living: First Steps

Everyday empiricism for everyone

Notion:

Our world is what it is.

Notes:

Everything changes

Once our world was flat. Now it's a big rock flying though space. Our world has come a long way. I wonder how far it can go?

Perhaps one day humans will travel from planet to planet, and our world will be a multi-planet, or even a multi-galaxy world. Humans might even discover other universes, or even other dimensions, with sentient beings capable of communicating with us. Wouldn't it be cool to literally live in a multidimensional world?

On the other hand, say an individual is taken prisoner, and put in solitary confinement. Additionally, the only human contact is the voices of various guards that change over the years. In this case the prisoner's world is limited to the cell and the prisoner's imagination. (This is pretty basic Zen stuff, I guess. I learned about it from the Life TV show on NBC starring Damian Lewis. The show costars Sarah Shahi. Her name is my mantra.)

So our world has come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. I hope we go somewhere good, and don't go flat again.

— Stocker Null
Loose-Leaf Living
© 2009 TSNull

Notebook section: Sagacious.
Status: Active/Trashed.

Notions must pass the tests of time, logic, and experience before being accepted as true.

Loose-Leaf Living: First Steps

Everyday empiricism for everyone

Notion:

We live in our world.

Notes:

Welcome to my World

I've lived all over the place. Too many places. Well, not too many places, too many moves. After the last move, I said, ``I'm putting down roots right here, right now! I ain't movin' again." That's how I became a Californian.

California is the focal point of my world. California gives me a unique world view by clouding the horizon with the thick haze of Props 13 and 8. But I'm not the only one. For example, right this minute, the the California legislature is proposing Utah be swapped for Mexico.

Before California there was North Carolina, Virginia, The Beltway, and Michigan. Early on in my life I even had mini-stints in New York and New Jersey.

All these states have been part of my world, and my world has been in a state ever since.

— Stocker Null
Loose-Leaf Living
© 2009 TSNull

Notebook section: Sagacious.
Status: Active/Trashed.

Notions must pass the tests of time, logic, and experience before being accepted as true.

Loose-Leaf Living: First Steps

Everyday empiricism for everyone

Notion:

You can always find something.

Notes:

If it's not one thing, it's another

We have been promised that if we seek, we will find; but if we go out looking, we are bound to find something — anything, even if it's not exactly what we initially sought.

The empiricist is not satisfied with just finding something, the empiricist wants to find the ``right" thing. The trick then for the empiricist is threefold: (1) to know what to look for, (2) to know where to look, and (3) to be able to tell when the ``thing" has been found.

Successfully finding what is sought is one of the empiricist's most challenging and satisfying jobs. (We will spend more time on this subject in later essays.)

— Stocker Null
Loose-Leaf Living
© 2009 TSNull

Notebook section: Humdrum.
Status: Active/Trashed.

Notions must pass the tests of time, logic, and experience before being accepted as true.