Fatblueman English blog

Now that I'm getting all excited about blogging again on Tumblr, I see that Blogger is also making design much more interesting and accessible. What to do? It's like being caught between to lovers.... Stay tuned, maybe I will nice it up around here a little.

Hey there,

In keeping with my tradition of being completely fickle and undedicated when it comes to blogging, I want to try out Tumbler for a while. I am not saying that I will shut this one down and stay over there, but maybe I will. Really, who can say. If you want to come over a see how pretty Tumblr is, I'll be here http://fatblueman.tumblr.com/

I think i will keep using this one for the long heady posts from whatever reading I am doing. So if you interested in such things....

I really don't have time to be, but I am hooked on reading these quantum-science-for-dummies type books again. I'll post the best quotes from the two I'm in now eventually, but something I read today reminded me of this quote from the Michio Kaku one I read some time ago.

It deals with how string theory contends that everything exists because of vibrations in the strings that are akin to musical notes - a particularly romantic notion for artists and musicians if I do say so...

If string theory is correct, we now see that the Mind of God represents cosmic music resonating through ten-dimensional hyperspace. As Gottfried Leibniz once said, “Music is the hidden arithmetic exercise of a soul unconscious that it is calculating.” Historically, the link between music and science was forged as early as the fifth century b.c., when the Greek Pythagoreans discovered the laws of harmony and reduced them to mathematics. They found that the tone of a plucked lyre string corresponded to its length. If one doubled the length of a lyre string, then the note went down by a full octave. If the length of a string was reduced by two-thirds, then the tone changed by a fifth. Hence, the laws of music and harmony could be reduced to precise relations between numbers. Not surprisingly, the Pythagoreans’ motto was “All things are numbers.” Originally, they were so pleased with this result that they dared to apply these laws of harmony to the entire universe. Their effort failed because of the enormous complexity of matter. However, in some sense, with string theory, physicists are going back to the Pythagorean dream. Commenting on this historic link, Jamie James once said, “Music and science were [once] identified so profoundly that anyone who suggested that there was any essential difference between them would have been considered an ignoramus, [but now] someone proposing that they have anything in common runs the risk of being labeled a philistine by one group and a dilettante by the other—and, most damning of all, a popularizer by both.

- Michi Kaku in Parallel Worlds

So I spent a week in the Philippines and there is lots to talk about so I am feeling the need to sit down and explain some of the trip here. I am also feeling the need to make a video from all the footage I took, but that will have to wait until next week, as I am waiting for a new computer and English keyboards are not in until then.

I was sent to the Philippines last week by HOPE Japan, the organization that I have been volunteering with (do we say volunteering in English? I am losing the feel for what is standard!) for quite a few years, and they have a sister organization in Manila with whom they want to increase connection.

The Manila org's president is a guy with a very interesting story. For years he was an unknown activist toiling in the mountainous areas of Mindoro (an island just south of Manila). There he built a high school for the indigenous peoples of the islands, because often in the IP (the word they were all using) villages people don't have even close to enough money to go to school, and there are no good public ones. As you can guess, this lack of education leads to a cycle of poverty.

So Ben made a high school that IP's could attend for free and worked at that for 9 years. His work was noticed by an organization that gives out a big peace award that is often referred to as the Nobel Peace Prize of Asia. Well about 5 years ago they gave the award to him and , as he told me, in one day he went from obscure activist working in the mountains to sought after speaker and widely known development worker. The award came with a significant cash component which he used to start a university for IP's in Davao (city in Mindanao, the big southern island), a sort of continuation of what he was doing in Mindoro.

So that was 5 years ago, and HOPE has been a supporter of that university. All the students attend on a full scholarship so HOPE sponsored a bunch of students in the second year of the program. I went down to attend the first ever commencement ceremony as a representative of HOPE. I took a whole bunch of pictures and video, but we'll start with this one, as we enjoyed making this one the most.

In Japan there are lots of foods that shock you when you first come. It's funny because I remember being blown away by foods that now don't even make me blink. Octopus for example, was something that I thought I would never eat. Most raw things were in that category for me. Now however, I will steal away and seek out a sushi shop by myself if too many weeks pass without a raw fix.

I don't know that if I lived in the Philippines I would ever feel that way about this food, but who knows...