“They didn't understand what they were doing.
I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.” -Michael Crichton

   Michael Crichton has always been one of my favorite writers, only surpassed by George R.R. Martin and Edgar Allan Poe. If the name sounds familiar to you, it’s because Crichton wrote  numerous best sellers, many of which were turned into films. Does Jurassic Park ring a bell? Crichton wrote it. The Andromeda Strain? Crichton wrote it. Congo? Yep, you guessed it. Crichton wrote it. When I settled upon basing this paper on a Crichton quote, I sat for a good few minutes going over all the things he had said; all the highlights in my books. Crichton was a master of words, commanding them with power and elegance. I’ll probably end up attaching a page or two of my favorite Crichton quotes, and I hope it will encourage anyone who reads this to delve into the wonderful world of Michael Crichton novels. But now to the point.

    This quote weighs heavy on me, and has since I first read it. I think it is the best way to sum up humans. We don’t know what we’re doing; we’re sheep separated from the herd. Or as Crichton might say, ‘A leaf that doesn’t know it’s part of the tree.’ We are beings with immense potential, dropped into the world with no guidance. There are no guidelines, no instructors. Everything we have discovered we have discovered on our own, and I think it’s marvelous. Take a second to appreciate that fact. You’re reading this in English, a language that we created. I’m typing this on a computer, which is technology that we created. It’s amazing how we can learn these things. Our trials and errors yield spectacular results many times. But we must recognize that we do not always succeed. We fail, for we are humans. One day our failures will be too much, too extreme, too disastrous. Suddenly, we will cease to be. We don’t understand what we’re doing. We are mice in a maze. We don’t know where we’re going, but we want to get there. And to add to the challenge, someone turned out the lights.

    So, can we save ourselves from our own destruction? No, we can’t. This is where Crichton’s and my opinion differ. “The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.” We have been abusing this planet and using it as an experiment for too long. We have done irreversible damage. We are past the point of no return, and that’s okay. The world will run it’s course, and we will end. There’s no reason to cry over it now, for what can we do? Are our ancestors to blame? Yes, and no. They were doing what is hardwired into each and every one of us. Experimenting, learning, discovering new things. Deconstructing the world around them. Part of me believes we shouldn’t blame ourselves for our lack of guidance and our ignorance. Maybe we were created for this exact reason. A trial run of sentient beings left to their own free will. Will they prevail, or will they perish? As I’ve made clear, I believe we will perish. 
“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.” We have no one to blame but humanity. An act of God killed the dinosaurs. An act of curiosity will kill us.




Michael Crichton Quotes:

“No one escapes from life alive.”

“Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else.”

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.”

“Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!”

“Living systems are never in equilibrium. They are inherently unstable. They may seem stable, but they’re not. Everything is moving and changing. In a sense, everything is on the edge of collapse.”

“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought.”

“It's hard to decide who's truly brilliant; it's easier to see who's driven, which in the long run may be more important.”

“We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so.”

“The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature--all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes extinct.”

“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.”

“Power is neither male or female.”

“In the corner store we pulled fat bottles of water from the shelves. No one thinks it's weird that we have to buy clean water, and that's how I know we're going to hell.”

“Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”

“In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.”

“Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes -- with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.”

“Nobody is driven by abstractions like 'seeking truth.”

“Discovery, they believe, is inevitable. So they just try to do it first. That's the game in science.”

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”

“They always say they didn't. I never heard of one who said, 'You know, I deserve this.' Never happens.”

“He prays because he knows he doesn't control it. He's at the mercy of it.”

“Nobody dares to solve the problems-because the solution might contradict your philosophy, and for most people clinging to beliefs is more important than succeeding in the world.”

Reflection (Written For School)

            The idea of reflecting my thoughts onto paper terrified me at first. Which is hugely ironic because my favorite pastime is blogging, an internet activity where I basically write how I’m feeling and what I’m doing down on a website. But this is school, a completely different setting with completely different rules. What am I expected to write down? Am I doing this wrong? The answer, of course, is probably.

            I jumped back and forth from topic to topic over the past few days, from things close to my heart and empty shells of topics that I could easily write without having to open up. But the point of this paper is to reflect, and reflect I will. I’m choosing to write about the connections we make in high school. I guess you could say relationships, from the friendships we build to the romantic bonds we try to form. High school is a terrifying time, especially if you’re not a very social person. Balancing school work, hobbies, a social life, and enough sleep is nearly impossible. To make my life easier, I tend to forgo social relationships. I convince myself that they are not needed; that they are extra fat I can trim off. But in truth, I can’t and I know it. I need friends to survive in this world. Friends are the best support system in tough times. Everyone acts like you can talk to your parents, but really you can’t. At least I can’t. I’m very close to my parents and I love them so, but I don’t feel I can share my problems with them. How minuscule would my teenage anguish appear compared to their real world problems? That is why I don’t turn to my parents, I turn to my friends. Good friends will listen to you and not judge, because they are in the same place you are. In times of prosperity, they can make you laugh. They bring you joy and brighten up your life. I can’t even be sure I’d still be here without them. The best part is you don’t need lots. Really, you just need one. But some of us are blessed to have many more than one, and for that I am grateful.

          *removed*

            I’ve never been good at ending things, but I’ll try to review. Friends are great assets, and if you want to survive and enjoy high school you should find some who like you for who you are. Relationships are also good, and if you’re that kind of person you should have one. We all deserve to be happy.

(I apologize if this is completely wrong. I’d understand a bad grade on this assignment, because part of me doesn’t think this is what you were looking for. But I can’t deny how satisfying it felt to write this, and that’s why I’m not going to turn in a paper with problems I made up just for class. I want to turn in something I spilled my heart into, because I don’t believe in not giving 100% when it comes to writing.)

Manifestations

manifestation |ˌmanəfəˈstāSHən, -ˌfesˈtāSHən|
noun
an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, esp. a theory or an abstract idea

I have recently become obsessed with the idea of manifestations. The pure embodiment of a feeling, thought, or event in one sole object. For example, many would say that violence is the manifestation of anger. You have this unquenchable rage inside your self and you channel it through physical or verbal violence. You’re taking one of the most primal human emotions, and moving it outside your body. You’re able to tell those around you how you feel with simple action. Someone who’s never met you before could see you throwing punches and tell ‘Oh, he’s angry!’

You’re manifesting your anger into violence.

You can manifest literally everything you feel. Fear, rage, depression, anxiety, happiness, apprehension, caring. The list doesn’t end! Whether it be through facial expressions or your actions, manifestations of the human mind are how we communicate.

There’s also the idea, widely explored in fiction, of manifesting thoughts into physical objects. But that is another blog post for another night.

The Storms

As of late, it seems good and hearty storms are hard to come by. Blackened skies, pelting rain, rolling thunder. All of these things bring me immense joy. It was not always this way though.

Once upon a time, in 4th grade, it was 'Doughnuts with Dads' day at school. My dad managed to get the morning off to come with me. So, we sat in the cafeteria and had doughnuts and a jolly good time. All the while, a merciless storm was brewing outside. I had never given much thought to storms before this day. Well, I may have but I don't recall. I have always been an extremely anxious person, so the thought that I may have feared storms before seems highly plausible. Back to the story. I don't know the exact timeline, but I remember leaving the cafe and seeing the librarian go outside and making a comment about the severity of the storm. Then we were told to go into the tornado drill formation. I promptly began to freak out. To make matters worse, my teacher wasn't there that day. It was a sub who could barely speak. I got on the ground and covered my head and such just in time for my dad to tell me he was leaving.

"The storm is probably going to knock out the power! I have to go before a tree falls on my car or something."

Great way to say goodbye paps.

So, there I was on the floor in the hallway bracing for the end, with no authoritative figure to reassure me that I'd live. A tornado did touch the ground, but it didn't get too close to my school. After about an hour we entered class and began the school day. At this point I was literally sick from fear, though I didn't know that last part. I went to the nurse, had my mom called, and went home. It was thanks to this incident that we discovered how horrible my anxiety could get. For the next year or so, storms would tear up my insides and make me nauseous and a nervous wreck. But one day I realized that I love the way storms make me feel. Storms make me so happy, words cannot describe it.

But they never last. The storm that was going on as I began writing this has since left me.
I am alone. Everything ends the same. Me, alone.

Lacking Elegance

Elegance is key to a successful blog post. Sadly, any elegance I could once convey with words has left me. I would love to have a long intro post so beautifully composed that you would weep tears of amazement, but that is not going to happen. Before I get any farther into this endeavor, I would like to paint you a very specific picture of who I am.
I am a middle aged Canadian billionaire who sits in his decadently furnished loft (note that my loft smells of rich mahogany) updating his blog while smoking out of an oak pipe. I wear lots of plaid. All my jackets have elbow pads.
Is any of that true? No. Will it enhance your perception of my blog? Probably.

I am not going to constrict myself on this blog. I am not going to say 'I will post this'. I will post everything. I will ignore the rules of writing at times, as long as it fits my needs.

'Why not use your Tumblr?' you ask. Well, my Tumblr is thousands of pages long, and if I ever want to go back and read what I have written it would be very difficult. Yes, I could use a tag, but I relish in the thought of having a blog with just organized writings. It makes me happy. So, prepare for rants and stories and essays and research papers. Prepare for something that won't last. Prepare for a chance to get my shit together.