COSMOS

I began watching Carl Sagan's public television series "COSMOS" a while back, and from the very first episode, I loved it. The series broadcasted for the first time in 1980, yet almost every bit of it is known to be as accurate today as it was then. COSMOS is inspiring and does a great job at reinvigorating a great sense of awe for the universe and appreciation of what we can know from science. Carl Sagan himself was an astronomer, but he dedicated much of his time as a scientist to the public understanding of science, which really endears him to me. Once it hits you that the magnificent things Sagan is telling you about are actually happening all around you all of the time, and once you get an idea of just how vastly large and vastly small we are in the universe and how elegantly connected we are to processes of the universe, you'll be absolutely hooked. I get an amazing feeling of wonder and mystery just by reflecting on reality. There are thirteen episodes in the COSMOS series, and each one is about an hour long. Best of all, you can view them all FOR FREE on hulu.com.

Ten years after it's introduction in 1980, Carl Sagan recorded some short update monologs to followup some of the original episodes. In the updates, he talks a bit about what has been discovered in the 10 year since the series was first made. I wish he could have been around to produce another 10-year update to COSMOS for 2000, but unfortunately Carl Sagan died in 1996 due to complications of a blood disease. Even though I never knew him before he died, I sure do I miss that man.

David and The Dark Knight

David has been a good friend of mine since my sophomore year at Campbell and a roommate my junior year, which is widely considered to be my favorite one. We had the best room on campus in the best "dorm" of anywhere I've ever seen. You would have to see it to believe it.

So David and I decided to go see The Dark Night in the Imax, and it was spectacular. If there were ever a movie worthy of the Imax and worthy of Imax prices, this is the one (I give it five out of five stars, and Google agrees with me).

After that, we ate at Rockola in Garner (an old haunt), and then I got some silky smooth delicious frozen wonder custard from Goodberrys Frozen Custard. I'm really going to miss that place.

It was great to spend some time with Dave. I'm really going to miss him.

Have you ever seen David and Batman at the same place at the same time?

Fourth of Jul-Awesome

I had a great 4th of July this year with Mike, a Campbell friend who lives very nearby, and today we went all over.

First stop was the Farmer's Market. Even though I know, when stop to think about fun and excitement, the first thing that comes to mind isn't probably your local Farmer's Market, but that's a terrible shame because we had a blast going up and down the fruitful isles seeing the locally grown goodness, and trying samples of peaches and 25-cent honey tubes. I bought two loaves of homemade sourdough bread for $5.00! The baker's name and number are right on the loaf, so I think I might give him a call and tell him what a great job he's doing. It also rained unexpectedly--like cats and dogs--but that only lasted for a few minutes, so we kept on enjoying our fun-filled day.

On our way out of the market, I got lost a little, so we wound up at a movie theater that I've never seen before. Perfect! We decided to catch the manatee of a movie that, personally, I've really been dying to see. WALL-E! Now, it's a fact that Pixar are absolute geniuses when it comes to creating movies that make me laugh, tear up, and completely fall into the story, so it should have come at no surprise that this movie was no exception. It's a worthy, worthy addition to Pixar's already spectacular line of movies. Don't deprive yourself. Go see it!

Later we had a traditional 4th of July hotdogs and Hamburgers chow down at my parents' house and played some Frisbee before it was time to pack in the car and drive to the Adcock farm for some socializing with the who's-who of Fuquay and some dazzling fireworks. Mike was looking forward to fireworks all day, and he was not disappointed. Tired and full of food and goodies, we dropped Mike back off at this house, and turned in. What a great national day!

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

Every year, hundreds of the greatest thinkers and changers on the planet, by invitation only, come together for no other reason than to exchange their great ideas. Scientists, philosophers, designers, artists, musicians, technologists--all kinds of people at the cuffs of their fields have been meeting together for years without me even knowing about it! Are you kidding me?! I just couldn't believe it. Learning about this was like someone finally telling me about Christmas.

The event I'm referring to is called TED. What used to be strictly for Technology, Entertainment, and Design has now branched out into countless other venues.

The attendees are given 18 minutes to give a presentation, or TED talk, and the results are always astounding. This event is letting people in a community of genius and action, who would never have otherwise gotten a chance to meet, hear cross-disciplinary ideas from one another and make real change and help others.

But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Chase, this is nice and all, but I'm not one of the greatest thinkers and doers on the planet yet. What about me? Why can't I hear these talks? I still have great ideas and potential to change the world!" Well, if you're not thinking that, you definitely should be. And here's great news for you!

TED as an event might be invitation only, but the thoughts are for everyone. On TED.com, you can watch over 150 Ted Talks online, together covering almost every subject imaginable. God, poverty, technology, philosophy, design, globe warming, peace, love. It's all there!

Think about how great it would be to listen just for a little while to one of the guys who discovered the double helical structure of DNA, or sit down for a spell and chat with Richard Dawkins, famous atheist, or Paster Rick Warren, author of A Purpose Driven Life. Al Gore was there, too. He gave his PowerPoint to the TEDsters before we ever saw it as An Inconvenient Truth. Watch incredible performances! See the ways you always thought be shaken by a brilliant presentation!

I'm extremely excited about this concept and have been so for months! In the end, though, what makes these talks so important may not be that they are so brilliant, though many of them are. The important thing to me is what it represents. I hope that we as humans can learn to listen to new ideas from all kinds of sources and use them as the lumber for our own revolutions, innovations, and change. TED.com is a great source of intriguing ideas, but there are other's too. You're a source, for instance, and so am I. The way we make change is by acknowledging new ideas, pondering them, evaluating them, and finally--and most necessarily--acting upon them. This, I believe, is how the world really changes.

The man below sings a multi-lingual jig with many African languages worked in, and even a little English! It's one of my favorites:

Orisinal: Morning Sunshine

When I was a child, I had a certain feeling about me. I had a feeling of imagination and, though I didn't see it that way at the time, a certain purity.

That sort of childlike wonder isn't something that ever really goes away, but it may be more difficult to access as I get older and start to realize through greater amounts of living what the world is really like. But the magical images of my childhood imagination are precious to me, so when I find something that helps me relax and think about magical, adventurous, and beautiful ideas, I always cherish it.

This particular site, Orisonal: Morning Sunshine by Ferry Hallim, is absolutely spectacular for this. This flash website is full of games with breathtaking imagery and enveloping music. Gather flowers into a floating bottle and send it to a loved one in heaven; hop on a frozen lake and watch your reflection gather shooting stars; help a white rabbit jump up and upward on silver bells in a sky of falling snow. There are over 50 games, and they are all worth a try.

Here are some of my favorites:

Monkey Slide

Winterbells

Wake Up Calls

Bubble Bees

Philosophical Examples

It is not often in the world of radio and podcasts that something truly gripping to me comes along, but ever since iTunes introduced a new service called iTunes U, a way institutions of higher learning can present content in podcast form to students and interested parties around the world, I have become more and more interested.

There are many, many worthwhile sources of content on iTunes U sponsored by legitimate universities all around the world, and I may even write about some of them later, but for now, I would like to highlight a fascinating radio program sponsored by Stanford University, called Philosophy Talk.

"The program that questions everything... except your intelligence."

This program is exceptional for a lot of reasons, but firstly, it is supremely legitimate. It is hosted by Ken Taylor, Professor and Chair of Stanford University's Department of Philosophy, and John Perry, Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, and every week they are accompanied by an expert on the topic of discussion. The topics range in diverse philosophical issues including Aging, Global Poverty and International Aid, Intelligent Design, Friendship, and more. The program discusses current philosophical views on these subjects and how these issues may effect the way we live our lives, helping the listener form philosophies for themselves on issues they may not have previously thought about.

What is even more impressive to me is the faithful execution of the program's motto: "The program that questions everything... Except your intelligence." On this show, callers are allowed to contribute to the discussion, and some callers may not be quite as well educated as others or may submit shaky reasoning, but the hosts are always consistently respectful and focus in the the caller's best points and even clarify what they may be trying to say.

The reason this is so incredible to me is because I've been trying to find philosophical role models, people whose philosophy and human relations skills I can truly admire and hope to emulate, but these examples have come very scarce to me.

In the media and especially in other podcasts, hosts always seem to want to abolish or publicly defame something and/or forcefully convert the viewer to a certain way of thinking rather than discuss issues respectfully and look at things from other people's perspectives. These poor examples usually come across as fanatical and intolerant. I do not, nor do I think many reasonable people would, admire either characteristic.

I want very much to find someone able to question life, be open-minded, but not cynical. I want to admire someone who displays consistently admirable human relation skills. The guys on Philosophy Talk very closely fit this description, and so I love to listen to them, and I feel like the program has a lot to offer, not just in content, but also in spirit.

There are ten podcasts of Philosophy Talk available on iTunes U, and dozens and dozens more available on the Philosophy Talk website. Each show is a little less than an hour long. They are well worth the time.

Human Relations

I've been reading a book this summer called How to Win Friends and Influence People, written by Dale Carnegie back in the 1930's. It's been in hearty print since it was published, and it's been for me one of the most eye-opening pieces of literature I have ever read, and it started with a considerable disadvantage with me. I am typically not a huge fan of self-help books.

I may never have read this book at all, but this year, I've been placed in several leadership positions with a frightening degree of responsibility that I've never experienced before. President of a Club, RA in Kitchen dorm... just as a senior in College, I am automatically a leader and a role model to hundreds of people whether I like it or know it or not. As the thought of this became more and more real, it became embarrassingly obvious to me that my human relation skills are in dire need of a tune up. I needed help. So it was principally on Travis Hellstrom's advice that I began reading this book, and I have not stopped thanking him since. Now I can see why the praise surrounding this book is so overwhelming.

This book is very much common since, which, insistently, is not very common at all. I found the ideas very easy to grasp, very logical, and upon every chapter, I could not help reflecting on the many times, just off the top of my head, when this simple advice could have saved a situation or relationship. On rare occasions, I could even think of how I had accidentally followed the advice and how amazingly well it worked.

The book goes into great detail about the benefits of each point and possible applications. I haven't found anything in How to Win Friends and Influence People to be a waste of my time to consider. The chapters are short and very griping. I read each one twice before moving on.

Though I've learned a huge lot of lessons from reading this book, some of the best things it has taught me have been that everyone, like myself, has a desire to feel important and that sympathy without criticism, enthusiastic appreciation, true attempts at seeing things from the other person's point of view, and being, above all, sincere and authentic are the best and most effective ways to live at peace with other people and to receive mutually beneficial cooperation. I can't recommend this book enough.

I have also learned another vital lesson, one which I have been notorious in breaking, and that is: Don't get into arguments. The truth of that statement stings, because I have gone out of my way to wage arguments, not just with the people around me, but even with my own family, causing nothing but tension and hard feelings. It created a lot of tension, but it NEVER changed the other person's mind. That is truly something that can never be done by force. Have I ever changed my mind because someone argued at me that I should? Of course not. Never. So why should I expect someone else to? As the Carnegie puts it: "You Can't Win and Argument."

I use this book's advice every day now. The suggestions aren't hard--they are, in fact, very simple--and even though it has been in print since 1936, every chapter is not only relevant, but intelligent and thrilling.

Relating to other human beings is one of the most important things we do in our lives. Why don't we study it like we study other things like math and science? Why is this so neglected? After getting such benefit out of that knowlege personally, I am seriously running out of answers to that question.

My Future Tiny Home

Houses run in all shapes and sizes, but most of the time, I always fantasize about a nice big house as being the dream. This morning, though, I was flipping through one of the TIME magazines Trav keeps in the bathroom, and flipping through, I stumbled on a very interesting article. It was about small houses, and believe me, when I say small, I mean tiny, tiny--many of them less than 100 sq. ft!

According to the article, Dee Williams, a woman living in Olympia Wash., lives in a tiny house no bigger than 84 sq. ft. That's smaller than my bedroom! The article in goes on to feature about six homes with designs varying from a small British-designed cube with indented dining area, to a rectangular, round-cornered German contraption featuring a rotating column of three rooms. My favorite, though, was still the tiny house Dee Williams built out of donated ceder. It cost lest than $10,000 dollars to build, and it looks something like a shrunken cabin with a small front porch. If the article's right, since it's on wheels, she doesn't even have to pay property tax on it. After all, it's smaller than many trailers.

I really got excited over this! I'm surprisingly attracted to the idea of living in a tiny, little house, cozy and simple. The space is put to good use, and well proportioned, and since they're so small, a lot more quality is packed into them than a traditional house normally would have, not to mention they're vastly less expensive than their normal-sized cousins.

The simplicity is probably what attracted me the most. I always wonder what in heaven's name I need all my unusable space for? Whenever I try to really see what I need and what just feeds my ego, I realize that, really, I, perhaps any of us, don't need all that much. Williams told TIME that her only regret was the limited space she had to host company or board visitors. Other than that, she says she loves her tiny home.

Sporadically since this morning, I've Googled around for some tiny-home sites and found some pretty interesting things. Click the name, and you'll be taken to a really neat catalog of tiny homes designed by a man named Jay Shafer. Most of them are pretty remarkable, but my favorite so far is the Epu (right).

The idea of living in a house smaller than most single car garages may seem border-line comical for a lot of people (just think about those tiny cars the clowns pop out of) but in reality, I think they are pretty interesting and in line with most of my philosophies. Just seeing how people live inside these houses helps me remember what all I actually need and don't need--what's important and just indulgent. I think these small houses pretty amazing, and don't pretend like you wouldn't come visit me if I had one. Most people, I think, would thing it's pretty awesome, too, and if nothing else, wouldn't it be an interesting conversation piece?

Google is Taking Over... My Heart.

It's amazing to me the stunning ability that Google has in making awesome ways to organize and share information. Thinking about where they'll go next, I can only imagine the kinds of services they will provide. Here are some things that have wowed me lately:

Google Desktop--I thought it was a gimmick, but it turns out to be one of the greatest information organizers I could have wished for, offering all manner of information an connectivity at your fingertips.

Google Calendar--With this new feature from Google, you can easily create a calendar of your events and even SHARE that calendar with the public or your friends. You can add all KINDS of calendars to yours of topics ranging from international holidays to Movie releases.

Wrightly--Not yet available, this program was recently bought by Google. It is an online word processor allowing people to upload documents from Word, co-edit documents in real time, store documents online, save to your desktop and much more. Since Google bought the company, I can only speculate as to what OTHER attractive features it will have before it's Google release. The only way to get an account for now is to find someone who already has one and ask for it. Unfortunately, I don't have one.

Google Book project--Tired of the library? A bit too three dimensional for you? Google's Book project aims to digitize the worlds written knowledge into a search-able, invincible format. Search through copyrighted material and read entire volumes of the public domain! They have respected copyright laws while simultaneously allowing the public access to worlds of knowledge. Here's hoping the project goes off without a hitch.

Gmail--I could not praise Google without mentioning Gmail. This web-based email account has made my life better in ways I am only beginning to understand. Easy and simple to use, my entire archive of messages are all search-ready and retrievable, and with over two gigs of space, I'll never run out of message space.

Google Talk--In Gmail, I also have all of my Google Talk logs. Google talk is simple, reliable, add-free and quickly approaching a point of being better than AIM. It's Call feature is one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced and has MUCH better voice quality than a phone. The connection is instant, and best of all: it's all free. And why shouldn't it be? The company gets 12 cents per Google search!

There is more of course: Blogger, Google Maps, and the most comprehensive search available on the web. Thinking about it, Google is heading to a place of being much more efficient than Microsoft works and office. With a few more future programs, this will be the United States of Google, and you won't hear me complaining.

"Don't be evil."

The folks at Google have been hard at work making my life awesome since day one, so thank you Google. You're name is fun to say.