First Published: 2022 January 18
Lasterday I wrote about creative hobbies, so it seems only fair that today I talk about one of mine. Currently I’m moving my art from celtic knots to not doing to some symmetric art. My current piece is a line art that has vertical and horizontal symmetry.
I’ve almost finished, so have to decide on my next one.
First Published: 2022 January 17
1 I recently read a post that claimed everyone should have at least one hobby which creates. Something about that really stuck with me over the past week or so, and I’m using today’s post to try to explore why.2
First, I guess I should give the claim. I believe that every person should have at least one hobby which involves two3 components:
Creating something
Sharing that creation with other people
Ideally, I would rather that the creation be something physical, though that bias may come from other sources,4 but I’m not including it because I’m still working through how I feel about it.
Now I guess I should support the claim. Disclaimer for readers5, I’m going to be entering into a lot of speculative theology here, please feel free to correct me if I am in error anywhere. In the beginning of the Bible, we see the Lord make man in His image. There are6 countless tomes written about what it means that man exists in the image of the Most High. Today, I’d like to posit that a7 way we are like Him is in our inherent drive to creation.
Before He creates man, the Lord begins by creating the universe. He creates all the living things which populate the earth, the stars in their courses, and the laws which govern nature. And it is all beautiful.
While we cannot create planets and stars, we can still create beauty, and so show ourselves in reflection of the Almighty. Now we must move a few verses ahead to the creation of man. The Lord makes man for8 at least9 one reason, to share in the beauty of His creation. So too, we act in the likeness of the Lord when we share things we have created with each other.
Moving from the Genesis/religious argument, I think hobbies which create have an inherent goodness to them due to their adding of the sum beauty in the world. The worst written poem still has some joy within it, and a burnt pie may still taste ok.10 Too, giving to others means that you don’t end up creating only for yourself, as our lives aren’t meant for ourselves. We’re meant to share all that we are to lead all people to the Lord.11 Our Lord is the G-d of beauty and of love, and so any time we help people to experience either we are helping them to know the Most High.
I guess I should give examples of creation-hobbies. There are the obvious ones in hobbies which create12 permanent physical goods such as:
Woodworking
Crochet
Knitting
There are hobbies which create13 impermanent physical goods such a:
Cooking
Soap making
Baking
And there are hobbies which create intangibles, such as:
Writing
Drawing
Music
To me, all of these are creation-hobbies. Obviously, this is a non-exhaustive list, and I would not even stake a claim that my three categories are themselves exhaustive. But, in the first category, you can create goods which others look at time and time again, reminding them that they are loved each time they do. The second, though transient, can show that you were thinking of them and, in the first and third, share the most vital of human connections, food. The third shares our mind and heart with others in the most direct way, which can make it the hardest to truly share. But, all of them are wonderful and I obviously think sharing and creating more beauty is a good thing
I recently read a post that claimed everyone should have at least one hobby which creates. Something about that really stuck with me over the past week or so, and I’m using today’s post to try to explore why.14
First, I guess I should give the claim. I believe that every person should have at least one hobby which involves two15 components:
Creating something
Sharing that creation with other people
Ideally, I would rather that the creation be something physical, though that bias may come from other sources,16 but I’m not including it because I’m still working through how I feel about it.
Now I guess I should support the claim. Disclaimer for readers17, I’m going to be entering into a lot of speculative theology here, please feel free to correct me if I am in error anywhere. In the beginning of the Bible, we see the Lord make man in His image. There are18 countless tomes written about what it means that man exists in the image of the Most High. Today, I’d like to posit that the way we are like Him is in our inherent drive to creation.
Before He creates man, the Lord begins by creating the universe. He creates all the living things which populate the earth, the stars in their courses, and the laws which govern nature. And it is all beautiful.
While we cannot create planets and stars, we can still create beauty, and so show ourselves in reflection of the Almighty. Now we must move a few verses ahead to the creation of man. The Lord makes man for19 at least20 one reason, to share in the beauty of His creation. So too, we act in the likeness of the Lord when we share things we have created with each other.
Moving from the Genesis/religious argument, I think hobbies which create have an inherent goodness to them due to their adding of the sum beauty in the world. The worst written poem still has some joy within it, and a burnt pie may still taste ok.21 Too, giving to others means that you don’t end up creating only for yourself, as our lives aren’t meant for ourselves. We’re meant to share all that we are to lead all people to the Lord.22 Our Lord is the G-d of beauty and of love, and so any time we help people to experience either we are helping them to know the Most High.
I guess I should give examples of creation-hobbies. There are the obvious ones in hobbies which create23 permanent physical goods such as:
Woodworking
Crochet
Knitting
There are hobbies which create24 impermanent physical goods such a:
Cooking
Soap making
Baking
And there are hobbies which create intangibles, such as:
Writing
Drawing
Music
To me, all of these are creation-hobbies. Obviously, this is a non-exhaustive list, and I would not even stake a claim that my three categories are themselves exhaustive. But, in the first category, you can create goods which others look at time and time again, reminding them that they are loved each time they do. The second, though transient, can show that you were thinking of them and, in the first and third, share the most vital of human connections, food. The third shares our mind and heart with others in the most direct way, which can make it the hardest to truly share. But, all of them are wonderful and I obviously think sharing and creating more beauty is a good thing
a friend read and caught a bad turn of phrase, corrected↩︎
I’ve often found that simply writing things helps me to come to a conclusion↩︎
2↩︎
e.g. you learn better when physically writing as opposed to typing, so maybe physically writing someone a letter is better than emailing??↩︎
hypothetical readers of course↩︎
I’m sure↩︎
here’s the place↩︎
based on either I’ve been taught, think, or is true, I am unsure at this moment↩︎
weasel words am I right↩︎
especially if you avoid the burnt bits↩︎
oops, guess religious wasn’t over↩︎
semi↩︎
by design↩︎
I’ve often found that simply writing things helps me to come to a conclusion↩︎
2↩︎
e.g. you learn better when physically writing as opposed to typing, so maybe physically writing someone a letter is better than emailing??↩︎
hypothetical readers of course↩︎
I’m sure↩︎
based on either I’ve been taught, think, or is true, I am unsure at this moment↩︎
weasel words am I right↩︎
especially if you avoid the burnt bits↩︎
oops, guess religious wasn’t over↩︎
semi↩︎
by design↩︎
First Published: 2022 January 171
John 2:4: “Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.””
As I mentioned last time I read these, my family really likes the readings that happen this week. This time around, the concept that the Lord’s “hour ha[d] not yet come” really stuck with me, because it says that He was there with his disciples.
I know that I’ve always been taught that this was the beginning of His ministry, so I’m unsure why he already has disciples. But, it’s still beautiful that He listened to His mother without question.
a day late, I know↩︎
First Published: 2022 January 15
I’ve written before about how I make toffee, but I made it again for the first time in a long while today, and that seemed appropriate to blog about here. As before, the recipe is 1:1 sugar and butter, heated to hot then cooled. This time, however, as I have too much chocolate, I decided to make the toffee the way most of the internet suggests I should: chocolate covered. It came out well!
I guess it’s unsurprising that a recipe which1 is just 1 part chocolate, sugar, and butter, could come out well. Nonetheless, it was really fun to see that I can, in fact, make things taste good. I unfortunately didn’t let my chocolate cool enough before mixing it into the cookie dough but that’s life I suppose, I’ll have moreso chocolate than chocolate chip cookie.
allegedly, I did not measure the chocolate↩︎
First Published: 2022 January 14
Some times in my life I really think of as listening times. On some occasions that means hearing a friend as they share something deep and personal in their life. At others, it means hearing a story or tale as it weaves. Still others are when I get to sit in silence and hear my own thoughts as they interplay with the natural1 noises around me. And finally, sometimes I get to listen to intentional music.
Tonight is one of those nights. I was reminded of a fantastic curated playlist that an amazing person made for me, and got to listen to it. There were no familiar songs on it, and only a few familiar artists, which made the experience fantastic. Much like me, the playlist generator used so many genres and styles, which gave a very nice experience
or artificial, depending on locale↩︎
First Published: 2022 January 13
Walking in winter is always interesting to me, especially when it’s1 warmer. Tonight it was around freezing. That being the case, I was wearing my coat unzipped, which a friend remarked on. I thought back to childhood, where my ideal winter outfit was often warm gloves, a hat, boots, shorts, and a t-shirt.
As I’ve grown older, some of that’s changed. I’ve adapted to colder feet, and I’ve grown my hair to keep my ears warm. My chest and legs have started getting colder, which is a little sad. But, gloves2 remain my most crucial winter clothing article.
First Published: 2022 January 12
Sometimes when my mental health is feeling really good, I forget that it’s ever bad. And, the reverse is certainly true. When I’m not doing great mentally, my brain cannot bring to memory any time that I’ve been content and calm. I think that’s a really interesting feature of my psyche, though certainly not one I’d prefer. I’ve been trying to think of ways to get around this, and most of them come to some variation of bullet journaling.
I recently saw a CGP Grey Video about ways to improve productivity/life in a journal. I’ve been on my same1 journal since2 2019, so filling the physical journal would also be fantastic. I guess I often struggle because I feel like I lack accountability with anything, especially anything self-motivated. But, I would also really like to be in a better place longer, which is fun, so I guess I should focus on it.
First Published: 2022 January 11
Right now I’m reading a lot of LitRPG’s and some nearby genres. I’m not sure why, but if I had to guess, it’s mostly because the books generally expect minimal mental effort from me and have interesting premises. Anyways, I hope that I’ll start reading more thought-provoking books soon, but since I’m also planning to begin writing a book1, who knows if that’ll happen
maybe an upcoming post↩︎
First Published: 2022 January 10
Prereading note: This is hopefully going to be my abstract
The major motivation of my research is bridging the gap between known terrestrial life, composed of complex chains of amino acids, and the assumed lack of life extraterrestrially. In the heat of stars, where heavier elements are formed, the intense radiation will prevent any sort of molecular bonds from occurring, leaving us with ionized monatomic species. Somewhere after these atoms are ejected from stars, they can form simple molecular species.
As these small species keep interacting, larger and more complex chemistries have been observed as occurring. Knowing exactly what species are present in these large molecular clouds is essential in order to generate accurate reaction mechanisms.
Something something there’s a need for rotational spectroscopy something something.
The major motivation of my research is bridging the gap between known terrestrial life, composed of complex chains of amino acids, and the assumed lack of life extraterrestrially. In the heat of stars, where heavier elements are formed, the intense radiation will prevent any sort of molecular bonds from occurring, leaving us with ionized monatomic species On the other end of the question of life, prior research has shown that a terrestrial and aqueous collection of amino acids will spontaneously self assemble into repeating patterns (life) when exposed to electricity.
The question then becomes how we can move from these single-atom ion into amino acids. Prior research has found many molecules which could be amino acid precursors, but there are yet to be complete models which produce these amino acids. As a result, we search for ions and radicals which would form these atoms.
So yeah our big motivation is that like life exists (allegedly) and we’re curious how close to life you can get without a rocky planet. We know if you put a bucket of amino acids together and shock them you get life, but most historic research suggests amino acids only form on planets. Bc space there’s lots of radicals and ions (bc nothing to react w and radiation), so we look at those as precursors
First Published: 2022 January 9
Luke 3:22 : “ and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”
Today’s readings are incredibly hopeful. We are told that the Lord will bless us and forgive us our faults. As the Christmas season ends, I think it’s wonderful that we are presented with the images of forgiveness and rebirth.