World Cup 2018 Thoughts

Every four years the World Cup sucks me in.  You Tube TV was an excellent place to watch the cup, except for the outage they had in the semi-final.  I managed to catch about 90% of the game play although not all of it live.  It was a fantastic cup to watch and although most of the teams I was rooting for departed early, I enjoyed watching the action.  France deserved the victory and it was fun watching them dismantle teams (after the group stage) with their multi-faceted attack.  


VAR has been a great addition to the game.  Correcting game changing and World Cup changing bad calls has been a good thing and the VAR hasn't slowed the game down and in fact adds a little bit more drama and a greater sense of justice.  The next frontier for VAR is to review for "simulation" aka flopping on all called fouls and then hand out yellows and reds for those fakers that nobody likes.  That would make the contest even better.

Japan had some things that Mexico didn't but could have within a generation of players.  Japan almost punched a ticket past Belgium.  Coming out of the group stage, Belgium was my pick to win it all.  Japan and Mexico share the distinction of both being a big fish in a small pond.  They both easily qualified for the 2018 World Cup.  However, Mexico can learn from Japan by sending more of their players to the European leagues.  Aside from gaining familiarity by playing alongside and against the European players and teams which clearly dominated this tournament, Mexican players will pick up a different style of play.  Japan proved in the game against Belgium that they can be dangerous from outside the box and on the break-away with some amazing long distance strikes and blazing speed on counters.  Mexico needs these two things badly.  With their shorter stature they can't compete in the air game yet they keep trying.  The Japanese players have also learned in Europe to develop a hard shot and shoot the ball when they get a half good look.  The Mexican front line holds the ball entirely too long and misses too many shots it never takes because they're holding out for something better.  They also pose little threat when outside the box because they lack players that can hit a great strike from distance.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Today's Gospel instigated some deep reflection and understanding about many situations, current and past.  Jesus returns to his native place and in the reading, he is astounded by the lack of faith in his own home town and says, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house".

This often seems true in our own lives.  How often are those that understand us the least, those that we have known the longest?  Perhaps even those that are in our own family that have known us all of our lives seem like foreigners and regard us with incredulity.  I feel well understood by some that I've known less time but that are striving for the same things, those that can set aside their own prejudices to see the truth, beauty and good in my world view.  I find myself in good company when I am with people that can respectfully listen with an open heart and mind.  Those people are rare and are often the quietest voices, especially online. 

This Gospel reading also alludes to false or dated constructs we have in our hearts and minds about ourselves and others.  Sometimes a person may "reinvent" themselves or come to a change of heart but this isn't immediately apparent to the world and others see them as they always have.  This change may be perceptible to others but often others with limited or different world views may see the change but not comprehend it.  Often the only thing perceived by others is the change.  Others intuitively sense the increased distance between their own and the changed person's world view.  This breeds contempt and this gospel warns us about it.  Christians feel this contempt because as you move toward Christ you will further set yourself apart from the culture, you will be different and this difference brings with it contempt.

We see this contempt on full display in today's hyper-politicized, social media environment where an intelligent discussion is rare and posts quickly lead to personal attacks.  This is a shame because in this fallen world, we have an obscured and partial perception of reality and have something that we can learn from each other.

Persecution I've Faced

Submitted and rejected by the WSJ Op-Ed

I'm 35 and was having a conversation with my brother when racism came up.  I am half German, 1/4 Spanish and 1/4 Mexican.  My brothers could only pass for white, I look the most Hispanic but could pass for Italian, Arab or several other brown to olive skinned people and after a long sunless winter, even a white person.  I live in a town away from my brothers that is 90% white and my brother was shocked to hear that I'd never experienced racism.  I've also traveled the world and the country and been to many places and never been the victim of racism.

This conversation caused me to reflect and think about what types of persecution I've been subjected to.  The leading persecution I've faced is based on my religious beliefs.  This is difficult to believe considering I'm Roman Catholic and we have an Amendment that specifically protects me from this persecution.  Upon further reflection, our local church also has more racial diversity than the rest of the town I'm in.

Invariably, the perpetrators of the persecution against me have been those that are inherently angry or disgruntled.  Ironically and quite humorously, my persecutors are usually followers of progressive-atheist-materialist-scientism (PAMS, that'll never catch on) ideals that like to blame systemic persecution of people as the primary cause of society's and often their own problems.  Luckily, these people have been loved ones and have only thus offered condescension or derision and have not attempted to perpetrate any violence toward me.  I also don't own a MAGA hat but I'm considering buying one to test my persecutors' resolve to their social justice and push them to antifa levels of tolerance and dissimulation.

Hyperlitical

Hyperlitical

Open
Choose left, choose right, choose blue, choose red!
My breakfast
Hurl insults at your friend and neighbor
Addicted to outrage
Take a knee, leave the field, stand your ground!
Unfollow, unfriend
Tweet this, nuke that, say this, do nothing!
I miss cat videos
Naked celebrities, please opine
Hide, report as fake news
My friend is having a baby
Hurt each other, tear down statues, erase the past
This guy really likes dogs
swipe, swipe, swipe
Desperate times call for drastic actions!
Block and leave
Study theology, history, the natural world
See the signal through the noise
Grow wiser

This poem was in my brain when I woke up this morning 2017-09-26.  I found this odd as I haven't written or even read a poem in many years. -Adolfo Wurts.

Analog vs Digital

This weekend, thanks to a lucky invitation from my wife's uncle Mark, we ended up at the Madras Airport in Bend OR.  My wife and I slept under the stars, watched sky divers in squirrel suits, saw Nasa's setup, visited an air museum and watched some amazing war birds fly into Madras returning to the museum all in awaiting for the main event, the total eclipse.

None of this could prepare us for the main event.  After the eclipse reached about 30% the temperature started noticeably dropping and the lighting changed dramatically.  The lighting started to look like the lighting in many video games.  Sun-like but redder and far less intense than normal sunlight.  The temperature kept dropping and as the sun diminished to sliver we started to check out eclipse goggles more frequently until we finally watched the last moments to totality.

When the sun went completely behind the moon, it was a completely different world that I was not prepared to experience.  Suddenly, the sun was just a black disc with an aura of light emanating form it that you could no longer see through eclipse goggles but only with the naked eye.  You could see a few other stars in the sky which was uncannily like twilight.  It was cold.  Not quite as cold as night but I wished that I had left my jacket on.  I could feel this experience changing me as it passed before my senses.

Our house would have seen a partial eclipse of 99% and it would've taken no effort to watch from the deck in the back but this wouldn't have been seeing the eclipse totality.  I had a lot of time to think about the eclipse on the long ride home, six hours actually.   I sat in the car, completely covered in dust from two days of being in the dirt and gravel and rolling up the tent, my extensor digitorum longus aching from the brake, release exercise it wasn't ready for .  I never once had the feeling that it wasn't worth the effort and discomfort.

In this long ride, I began pondering the nature of our analog and digital universe.  The eclipse was a good analogy of my thoughts. I had seen a few eclipses before and although they were very interesting to me, they did not leave an impression on my like this one did.  This one was a completely different experience.  In fact, within the eclipse, there were completely different experiences.  This eclipse felt like both a digital and analog experience.  Analog in that every fraction of the sun that was covered was incrementally better and more exciting than the previous one but digital in that you either see an eclipse in the path of totality or you don't.

Analog and digital in co-existence is the nature of our universe and life.  It is a paradox that cannot be unraveled in our existence.  Scientists and theologians are equipped to intellectually unpack this for us and yet completely at a loss as to help us experience it.  It is something you just have to experience and identify for yourself and at the same time can be experienced in degrees that are your own.

The Source of Ambition

If you've ever accomplished something that took a long time and great effort, you have received a taste of fulfillment.  For me, unfortunately, this feeling is usually short lived without continuous effort unto some other difficult task which I deem worthwhile.  At which time, I subject myself to suffering to learn and accomplish something new.  There are others which seem to derive a lifetime of pleasure from their accomplishments and are still living off the memory of something long ago accomplished or something bigger which they had a hand in.

Until recently, I have known little bounds to my ambitions.  Really, though that ambition was to seek a new accomplishment which would give me that feeling of accomplishment which would comfort me during times of suffering or great effort.  I know compared to some, my life has had little suffering and much of it in the past ten years has been self-imposed and pushes me toward some greater goal of learning, skill or accomplishment.

Only recently through the study and further acceptance of God's will have I found any kind of lasting fulfillment.  The more I learn, the more questions I have but the more fulfilled I feel.  It's the normal paradox that stems from the familiarization of yourself with any vast body of knowledge or skill, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.  This lack of knowledge to accomplish a task is often what drives me to further study and practice of the field.

This paradox and motivational method does not spread to spiritual growth.  Spiritual growth asks something of your spirit and in doing so fulfills your spirit which transcend even my own powerful desire to master a skill or knowledge.  Thus by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, I am driven onward, not by my lack of God or spirituality.  One nibble on the spiritual bread is enough to get me from here to Mordor and back.

Artificial Intelligence and Us

It seems that artificial intelligence (AI) is a big theme in this year's summer movies.  I have seen Ex Machina (great movie) and Age of Ultron and will surely see Genisys when it comes out.  Judgement Day is probably still my favorite movie.  The most common theme in AI movies is that artificial intelligence will be created and it will be hostile towards its creator.  

There are people and huge tech companies working towards the creation of AI right now and most of them, if not all of them, are working toward a future where they believe that it will enhance mankind, not enslave or replace it.  There is a broad spectrum of possible attitudes for AI(s) to have toward us and near limitless applications and shapes our relationship could take.  I look to the future answering this question with anticipation.  

Our relationship with AI encompasses a spectrum where on one end machines continue to be in servitude to mankind and on the other end mankind is either annihilated or in servitude to machines.  I don't really see the necessity for mankind's enslaving in the case of a machine world, that is unless we get some details on this "form of fusion" that the future might hold, but that is beside the point.

What has not been explored as much is the spectrum in the middle ground where we form a symbiotic relationship with machines.  Maybe this hasn't been explored as much because it is more difficult to envision but it could make for a very interesting and mutually beneficial relationship between man and machine.  Things are seldom as bad or as good as they are expected to be so I suspect that we will land somewhere in that middle ground which is filled with endless unexplored and unpredictable possibilities.  

I have a lot of questions, just a few of which are...  What if machines continue to be integrated into our lives to the point where we can no longer differentiate between man and machine?  What kind of laws will need to be in place?  Do the laws of men govern machines?  How do we even make that distinction in the future?  How long before PETMAI is formed (people for the ethical treatment of machines and artificial intelligence)?

I know these questions sound strange but the future is always strange until it's not.  Someday our descendents will look back at these simple times and marvel how we ever got anything done with such rudimentary tools and such a limited work force.  As long as there are generations, there will be a disconnect between them along the grounds of technology.  If you told a person 100 years ago that today 3 billion people would be continuously connected through a network of computers that you could access even while flying across the ocean at 30,000+ feet inside a metal whale that is traveling at 500+ miles per hour, you would probably be committed or accused of witchcraft.  

But just in case the future doesn't pan out in that middle ground, I made a video to cover my bases, click on the link below to watch it:

https://youtu.be/Ys5eAL-oOS0