Apocalypse... maybe?

What if the world really did end on the 21^st December 2012 and our consciousness was simply transferred to one of our other bodies in a multiverse system?

The Mayan Apocalypse was, as apocalypse's go, pretty pathetic... at least to our perception, and we've all had fun joking about it failing and us still being here or using photoshop to make pretend fire and brimstone all across the globe. I too took great delight in taking two beloved fictional characters who are known for saving the world a lot into a work of photoshop fun to imply that they saved the world together. I mean what geek doesn't want to see The Doctor teaming up with Buffy the vampire slayer...

But all joking aside and back to my original point, what if the world really did end yesterday and we just don't think it did because of a perception complexity we just cannot fathom. Multiverse theory works on the theory that every possible option or outcome does happen splitting off to form an infinite number of possible universes because everything has to stay in balance so to simplify it if something can be “on” there has to be an option for “off” in existence, or “up” must be paired with “down” etc. These multiverses don't necessarily all last as not all options are viable in life, so it is possible that once a multiverse has reached it's end it recombines with the last universe it split from where the option chosen was successful.

So how does this effect us on a perceptual level, well consider the possibility that our consciousness is connected across the multiverses on some level and when a universe fails the consciousness is recombined with it's last split point just like the rest of the universe. Now assuming in this situation that this was true and a perfectly benign recombination led to absolutely nothing noticeable to your perception you probably wouldn't even know this system was happening... but what about the abnormal recombinations such as universes that got out of sync with each other for some reason leading to one getting further ahead before it failed, what then? Well one option could be an explanation for moments of Deja Vu or perceived Precognitive abilities, a glitch in the recombination of memories would be inevitable if there were memories in existence for one universe than hadn't happened yet in the other – potentially leading to a moment of Deja Vu and in effect giving the person an instantaneous glimpse of at least one possible outcome of their actions for the duration of the time overlap or in some cases simply a feeling of familiarity when they themselves walk that same/similar path for the first time in their native universe.

So what about a huge multiverse ending event that was of apocalyptic proportions, would that be noticeable? Would we ever have even the slightest idea that it had happened at all?

Well that would be entirely dependent on the type of apocalypse...

Instantaneous vaporisation of Earth and all it's inhabitants – unlikely, even if the universe was drastically out of sync an instantaneous destruction on this scale would presumably be over before we even noticed it began so it's memory would be non-existent and therefore non-transferable.

Slow fire and brimstone, lightning storms, fireballs or meteors falling from the sky, hell even good old zombie apocalypse – probably, memories of this type would surely be existent in at least some if not all people as people would die at different times as would the multiverse they inhabit personally.

So what can we take from this analysis of apocalypse's and multiverse theory... well unless anyone reports disturbing memories or moments of Deja Vu... I think we can safely assume our multiverse counterparts were instantaneously vaporised and felt no pain!

Of course we'll never know for sure and this is all just the vaguely scientific rambling of someone with absolutely no professional training in the field of physics...but hopefully it entertained you if nothing else, so until next time - If the apocalypse comes, beep me

Reqiescat in Pace

Death is a hard thing to deal with in any format and one thing I have always had an issue with even since I was a little child is the commonly used phrase Rest in Peace. I know you are probably wondering what on earth could be wrong with such a nice sentiment, well nothing as such but let me explain. The phrase itself isn't the problem, it's the abbreviation RIP that bothers me and always has. Now I know originally when it was first put into common usage it was simply because at the time gravestone carvers charged by the letter and the original phrase in Latin was "Reqiescat in Pace" and that's a lot of letters to have to pay for and so it became common to abbreviate it. In that situation, yes that makes sense and whilst it still bothers me I can allow it it's place in history.

However, it's more the modern usage which bothers me. Particularly in letters, cards and more recently thanks to the internet social media. As someone who has lost both parents at a young age, i've had more than a few cards and letters of condolences, and even these have had RIP emblazoned all over the card or the handwritten message inside. If you care enough to go to the effort of sending a card or letter in the first place shouldn't you care enough to take that few seconds of extra effort to use the whole words and not an abbreviation, this is after all in memory of someone you supposedly cared about or at the very least someone important to the person you are sending the card to.

But it doesn't stop there, when a celebrity dies or some tragic accident happens and is all over the news so many people are quick to post "RIP *insertnamehere*" as a status update on facebook or twitter and to me this a bit callous and almost insincere - yet again i'm forced to question do people not care enough to take a few extra seconds to type out the full words for the person/people they felt compelled enough to write the status for in the first place?

I understand that some people will be at a loss for words at a time of loss and grieving and will resort to a common phrase so they have something kind to say but I mean come on, it's three very short words and it's not as if i'm asking people to know or even bother to write out the original Latin phrase, but please for the love of all that is good in the world don't abbreviate a message of condolence - especially not to the person who is grieving.

I personally try to write something new and personal for each and every situation where possible, I feel it is my duty as someone remembering the person/people who have passed, to be as respectful as possible and that my words of kindness are one of the last things I will ever be able to do for them and that makes them very important, especially to the person who has to read them and take comfort from them.

I had letters written inside cards from people who Mum worked with, telling me how much they loved her and sharing personal stories and memories with me to give me an extra memory of my own to remember her by and others simply telling me how kind she was. These are the words that people need you to say at a time of sadness, not a lazy abbreviation that fades into the background with all the other identical ones.

Perhaps people are simply unaware of how insincere it truly is because it has become such a mainstream thing to say, perhaps many of these people don't yet understand the pain of loss and the comfort gained from kind thought out words.

Perhaps the world truly doesn't see things as I see them and have shared with you in this blog. But I do, and I will always try to give the fallen a heartfelt and sincere farewell and if I can't find words of my own to do them justice then I will seek help from a great author, poet or perhaps somebody I knew inspired the person who has died.

I shall never abbreviate a final farewell

Good Luck Mr. President

I haven't written anything about the US Presidential Election and I've tried to refrain from discussing it because much of the world is sick of hearing about it, particularly those who are intelligent and do not discriminate based on gender, race, religion or sexual orientation - because we didn't need much convincing to know that only one of the candidates shared our values.

Despite this I find myself forced to write something now, the day of the election following a discussion with an American friend earlier today and after hearing part of a news bulletin regarding the election predictions, and both of these disturbed me greatly.

The first thing which disturbed me greatly was the fact that a news bulletin informed me this morning that this Presidential Election opinion polls are calling this a very close election and that President Obama is only slightly ahead in the race. The very fact that this statement was even uttered disturbs me, as a well educated and open minded individual I like many people globally have been horrified at the offensive and archaic comments that have been said by Mitt Romney during the lead up to this election. I have also spent many days laughing at his latest ridiculous comment, but I'm not laughing any more. I knew there was a large proportion of the US population that shared his ridiculously outdated and offensive viewpoints but I thought there had been enough media coverage of his many cringe worthy foot in mouth opinions for more intelligent and open minded people to make them see that the best option for this election was to vote for President Obama (even if he wasn't the party they would normally vote for).  Once again I have been caught off guard and failed to follow my number one rule to never underestimate the stupidity of the general public and after hearing this announcement on the news this morning it would seem this rule applies particularly well to the American population at voting time.

During the discussion about the election with my friend, I was told more about how things were run in the southern state, those most likely to vote for the republican candidate. As my friend continued to tell me how these states ran their way of life the more speechless and angry I became and I felt like I had been transported in back in time to a time where racial segregation was common place. From what my friend told me many of these states get around laws against racial segregation by changing the boundaries of school districts every year to ensure the neighbourhoods with a majority population of black families purely to allow the formation of "black schools" and "white schools". Surely I can't be the only person to be furiously outraged by this information. Why are they even getting away with this? now obviously I do not know all the details here since I've only just heard about the continued existence of these offensive practices, but surely if this kind of information is known as "common practice" to someone who grew up in the south then surely there must be truth in what he told me - and that absolutely disgusts me beyond belief.


So why have I combined these into one blog, well that is simply because It has been pointed out to me that the majority of these southern state republican voters will simply be voting for Romney for one or more of the following reasons:

1. He's not black
2. He's not in support of gender equality
3. He's not in support of LGBT equality
4. All of the above but lets admit it it's mostly because he's not a black man!

What do I think the should be done about this, well frankly I think we should play these offensive racist, homophobic southerners at their own game and use their own disgusting tactics against them...

If they can move the boundaries of school districts to allow the continued segregation of black people, I say we move the boundaries of the US to segregate them out of the country and allow a more open minded and inclusive US to flourish and once again allow it to become the land of the free.


Sadly as a UK citizen I cannot vote in this election, but I can make my voice heard at least to a few so consider this my vote for the re-election of President Obama. You are a good man and America needs you, even if some of them don't believe it. You sir have my utmost respect and I truly hope you win today and are granted the opportunity to continue to make a difference in this world.

Good Luck Mr. President

May the Fourth be with you

Growing up I was a huge Star Wars fan, not just the films but the entire franchise and due to only being born in the year that the final film of the original trilogy - Return of the Jedi - was released It's little wonder that I found the franchise a little back to front. You see I was a fan of Star Wars long before I even saw any of the films, because by the time I was old enough to consciously watch television the franchise had already spawned 2 cartoon series spin-offs Droids and Ewoks both of which I was completely obsessed with as a kid.

R2-D2 was my favourite then and he still is to this day and I remember how excited I was when I first got to see the original trilogy for the first time. I think I must have been about 6 or 7 when I first saw them and my mind was completely blown, I'm pretty sure in my childhood innocence I thought it meant that R2-D2 was real since he was on screen with real people instead of just being a cartoon character.

When it was announced that the original trilogy had been remastered and had extra footage added to them using CGI and that they would be returning to the cinema once again I was the happiest little geek (in training) and was delighted to get the opportunity to see them on the big screen which I hadn't ever thought would be possible. Then when the prequel trilogy was started I was in love with the series even more, new stories, new characters, new lightsaber battles and most importantly more screen time with my favourite Astromech droid and his whiney golden companion.

At the time I thought Jar Jar binks was hilarious and that the prequel trilogy were fantastic, looking back as a fully fledged geek I can now see I was blinded by youth and that somebody should have probably just conveniently forgotten to tell him that they were leaving the planet and left him behind.

Despite their flaws I'm still really glad George Lucas decided to make them because no matter how bad you might think they are, they still introduced a whole new generation to the franchise and led to the continuation of the brand - without new fans to cater to there simply wouldn't be all the fantastic Star Wars products in shops today. We probably wouldn't have had any of the computer games, new cartoon series, lego ranges - including the rather epic lego Death Star which I would have purchased as soon as it was released had it not been for the small matter of a nearly £300 price tag and my depressingly empty bank balance.

Whatever you think of either trilogy, I for one am a geek who is glad the universe has Star Wars in it and I know that no matter how many times I might get distracted by new franchises and other assorted superhero or sci-fi goodness - i'm always going to want my own R2-D2 and Lightsaber!

May the Fourth be with you

Geoff Killed a Pigeon and Coming soon...

As part of my renewed creative focus I mentioned in a previous blog that I was planning to start making YouTube videos as well as this blog, now i've done a lot of work today on the behind the scenes technical stuff over at YouTube and edited my existing videos to comply with the YouTube Partner regulations of no copyright infringement by changing the audio track on my aquarium video (below) to one of the free use tracks provided by YouTube's built in editing software.



Unfortunately my oldest and infact first ever attempt at video making from way back in 2006 cannot be made to comply with regulations so I will be forced to remove or at least make it a private video so it doesn't interfere with my plans to become a YouTube Partner.

The video in question is a CSI parody based around a song written by my old flatmates AKA the band called The Martians - and that song was called Geoff Killed a Pigeon. Yes it's the very same Geoff I have mentioned previously in this blog and it is based on a true story about when Geoff managed to run over a wild pigeon with his bicycle, squishing it beyond repair and then being forced to kill it to end it's suffering. The pigeon carcass was then spotted by one our flatmates and because he found out Geoff had caused it's death decided it was only appropriate to immortilise the mocking in song.

I wasn't yet a flatmate at this point but I too had spotted the dead pigeon in question by chance and after finding out it was Geoff, I searched for a few funny pigeon related images and decided to make a CSI parody about the whole incident detailing the "murder" investigation and generally teasing Geoff a bit more about it. 

Now looking back this video was shockingly dreadful but it amused me greatly at the time and got me started on YouTube even if I wouldn't properly utilise it until more recently, and in the past 6 years that sad pathetic little video has only received 160 views whilst my Mobility Scooter assembly/disassembly tutorial which was only intended for the person who was buying my Dad's mobility scooter has managed to rack up over 2000 views in the last 2 years and 193 of those views were in the last month alone!

So It is with a heavy heart that I will soon delete my first video but it is for good reason because coming soon to my channel will hopefully be a whole range of much more exciting and hopefully significantly better productions including a series of Crafty Creative Tutorial videos which I think i'll call "Roostarr Makes" where i'll be showing people how to make all sorts of fun and geeky things including a Lightsaber prop/torch and some geeky laptop sleeves.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for things you'd like to see me make then please leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter @roostarr and comment there.

Awesome Avengers

Earlier this week I wrote about my excitement about the eagerly awaited release of Marvel's The Avengers. I went to see it on the day of release and then had to wait several days before writing this blog so I didn't incite the wrath of any friends for giving away any spoilers!

I think most have seen it now and those who haven't, well tough - i've given them long enough so if they choose to read this anyway and see any spoilers then it's officially not my fault!

SPOILER ALERT..... SPOILER ALERT!!!


Ok, now that we've got the spoiler warnings out of the way, let's begin.

First of all I would like to thank Joss Whedon for not letting me down, this truly was the awesome movie I was hoping it would be and probably a whole lot more that I hadn't expected. Fantastic storyline, great casting, well scripted, fantastic moments of emotion throughout ranging from the very sentimental and touching through to the most perfectly timed moments of side-splitting laughter.

This film was adrenaline fueled, geektastic awesomeness personified - and it wasn't afraid to admit it.

The biggest laughs came from moments of classic slapstick perfectly placed in unexpected scenes to help change the mood at exactly the right moment - and in the case of this film, exactly the right cast member - namely The Hulk. The audience erupted in such abnoxiously loud hysterical laughter at these moments that they actually managed to drown out the cinema sound system!

As a massive Whedon fan one of the things I was most looking forward to was spotting his "Whedonverse Cameos/References" - for those who are unaware of this let me briefly explain. Joss Whedon likes to connect his projects and often casts the same actors in all his projects or throws in references in the background or script. Arguably the largest of Whedons creations is Buffy the Vampire Slayer and he had already referenced The Avengers in his most recent issue of the canonical "Season 9" comic book series - so it was every fans assumption that there would be at least one Buffyverse cameo or reference in The Avengers - and we were correct.

Actor Alexis Denisof who played the character "Wesley" in both Buffy and it's spin off show Angel (and also husband of the lovely Alyson Hannigan - "Willow") had been cast in the film as "The Other" a character who if I identified him correctly was in heavy prosthetics - which I am not ashamed to admit caused me to miss this particular cameo. Actor Enver Gjokaj from Whedon's more recent TV show "Dollhouse" also had a small part as a police officer taking orders from Captain America in one scene.

My personal favourite however was near the start of the film and made me grin from ear to ear was the destruction of the Shield base in the same style and with an almost identical scene down to the camera angle to the distruction of Sunnydale (and the hellmouth) in the final episode of Buffy. It was a nice touch and one that only a true fan would have noticed, a nice big obvious shout out for Buffy fans but almost as if it was in a secret language that didn't take anything away from The Avengers for people who didn't understand the reference. I officially take of my hat to salute Joss Whedon for the creativity of this reference.

Daytime cinema screenings of superhero films tend to be full of the hardcore geeky fans who can't possibly wait until an evening showing for such a momentous film release, and The Avengers was no different. Come the end of the film, some got up and left but most of us waited to see if there would be a bonus credits scene relating to some future sequel and boy were we happy we waited around. I won't say who or what happened in the scene, you can google it if you really want to know, but I will say this - I was actually rendered speechless and so was my friend who went with me to the showing.

The next sequel cannot come fast enough, and I hope with all my heart that Joss Whedon gets put in the driving seat once again because he was truly made for this type of film and the standard of this film compared with all the other recent Marvel releases is out of this world.

Rating: 11 out of 10

Awaiting Avengers

This humble geek is very excited for this week an insanely long awaited film finally hits theatres near you! Yes i'm talking about Marvel Studios latest offering "The Avengers" or as it is annoyingly called here in the UK "Avengers Assemble" - why I hear you ask, well that's because of a rather annoying and very rubbish old british tv show which also went by the name "The Avengers" and subsequently inspired a movie of the same name back in 1998 starring the ever delightful Uma Thurman and that annoying Voldemort guy wearing a bowler hat!

Marvel's Avengers however is going to be a work of cinematic genius, I say that confidently because of how much faith I have in the man behind it - Joss Whedon! As a huge and lets face it eternal fan of Buffy i've watched everything the man GOD known as Whedon has produced since and i've not been dissapointed yet. When you combine that genius with the Marvel universe it's safe to say that this is going to be the event of the year for this geek so I thought it only appropriate to blog before and after to fully do it justice.

I honestly don't know what part to be excited about most, the big screen appearance of more than one of my favourite superheroes in one film, the extensive eye candy for me to drool over. The knowledge that hidden somewhere in this film there are likely to be some casting choices or cameos from the Whedonverse to satisfy Whedons compulsions to join all his projects together somehow. The presence of How I Met Your Mother star and all round awesome Canadian Cobie Smulders is part of the cast or the fact it's being released in the UK before it gets released in the US!

It's all very exciting and it's only a few days away, this thursday I shall be taking my seat with a friend and fellow Marvel fan who no doubt is just as excited as I am about this momentous cinematic event.

Geeks, Computers and Good Friends

I love being a geek and I've never made any secret of that, but this time I'm going to spare you a comic book or superhero related rant - it's good old fashioned computer geek time.

It has to be said I'm certainly not going to win any prizes for coding some new game or smartphone app, but I do love that I can do enough to make myself smile with geeky pride and that's all thanks to a short time living with someone who knows a hell of a lot more than I do.

Only a handful of years ago the extent of my computer geekery was playing a few games, untold hours of playing with an art program on an old Commodore Amiga 500+ and whatever remnants of COMAL coding i'd learned in high school on computers as old as time itself.  Then I met geoff (not a typo, he had the capital letter revoked in 2007 - it's a long story so perhaps I'll temporarily reinstate it for the purpose of this blog) and all that changed.

Geoff was one of my flatmates when I temporarily lived in Edinburgh during my final year of university and apart from hours of geeky conversations about Doctor Who, scientific theories and playing so many hours of video games - one of the things I learned from Geoff was about the existence of Linux.

I had come across Linux before this and even used a few in my life but hadn't realised what they were as they were on computers in youth hostels in San Francisco where out of ignorance I had just assumed the different computers were "an american thing".

Geoff spent I don't know how many hours showing me how it worked, explaining things and getting excited showing off the latest customisation he'd learned how to install on his computer and I quickly got very excited about it and despite having a brand new laptop I soon got my hands on some old computer parts on freecycle and learned how to build a computer and just how good a system could be made with old parts if it was running Linux. From that moment on I was a little bit hooked, however, I always went back to my laptop as it was just so much more convenient especially since I didn't like the Linux version of Photoshop. I also had the problem of no longer living with an in house tech guru for when I got stuck with a system I wasn't very familiar with still.

Fast forwarding to this week I got the opportunity to get some more free computer parts from an internet cafe which had new owners and had decided to renovate and replace all the computers. The computers are old and had more dust inside them than my vacuum cleaner when its due to be emptied but I was able to salvage some good parts and have just built myself another Linux system to practice on.

So for the first time ever I've been experimenting and modifying with the Linux installation and making it look and act like the kind of system that Geoff had and ran all those years ago and whilst I don't have an in house tech guru any more, I do have an entire world full of Linux geeks at my disposal through the wonder of YouTube. I might not be as fast as Geoff was with the coding or even know what I'm doing half the time but thanks to what he taught me all those years ago I'm not scared of experimenting with it because if it goes wrong I can just start again - and he must have been doing something right, he's now got his own business providing the services of the humble computer geek to the "normal" folk of the world.

I know he's going to read this at some point, so I'm going to take this moment to say a huge thank you to him. Not only did he teach me things I didn't know the first thing about, he showed me friendship and support when I needed it most.


You are a good friend Geoff and my life is better for knowing you, thank you for everything.



Geoff's Blog
http://artificialphilosophy.blogspot.co.uk/

Geoff's Business
http://www.webdesignhighlands.co.uk/

Shameful lack of blogs

Well I suppose I should apologise for the severe and very shameful lack of blogs for a long time, the explanation is very simply that I tend to lose my creative drive when depression rears it's ugly head for another round. I've been up and down for a while again and it's only been very recently that i've been feeling that creative drive itching beneath the surface begging to be let out and to be heard again. This is in part thanks to watching my favourite YouTube Vlogs which i'm thinking might be another way for me to get creative in the future.

I think i'll save talking about the vlogs and why I was inspired for another time since it's currently 1.49am and I have a very early start in the morning.