Crazy Coincidence

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Apr 1, 2016 in Blog Posts, Philosophical Diatribe | 0 comments

Often when I am writing, I can hear the voice of a distant and faraway asshole: “That’s way too coincidental.” I know other writers have wrestled with events in their book being too specific and spectacular to have probably happened and knowing that someone would point that out. Yet, we all know that crazy coincidences happen. Most of the time, when you aren’t looking.  However, we have entered a state… nay a need, to have all of our entertainment be realistic.  So we rail against coincidences when they appear even though they happen often and surround our best real life stories.

For example, I was walking into work a while ago and I have four possible routes into the building. These possible avenues to my cubical are on a spectrum, the closest to my parking spot forces me to walk to my desk mostly indoors and the farthest from my parking spot forces me to walk the most outdoors. From here there are four primary routes, of those four, there are three possible doorways I can enter. Two of the paths lead to one door and both keep me outside the most.  Depending on where you park, you can cut through the cars to get to one of the paths or just take a pathway that is the same distance but setup for those parking at the back of the lot – total distance is the same, but one forces you to weave through parked vehicles. Now, I have four choices throughout my walk – watch the sunrise, look at my phone, stare straight ahead at the doorway, or look down. Prior to this day, I received a new prescription and I’ve been dealing with a wonky eyesight where I feel a foot shorter due to my eyes adjusting to my new lenses in my glasses. So, I had been looking down a lot more to help gain experience with the lenses. At the moment I took a glance down, I caught a leather glove blending in with the woodchips. It was the same make, brand, and color of my gloves. So I stopped for a moment, laughed at the fact (literally laughed because I am unaware of what I look like in public), figured the owner would come looking for it and continued walking. Then, I wondered, is that my glove? So I checked my pocket and noticed I only had one glove, the right one. I backpedaled, grabbed the glove, noticed it was the left hand glove, and the same size as my other glove. Then, I had an OJ moment and put the glove on, unlike OJ, it fit. So, in that one walk I found something I hadn’t lost yet. I had lost it, but my perception hadn’t known that it was gone, so, it was a surprise when I came across it. So many things came together in that one moment to let me find a glove I had lost but had not lost – it was Schrodinger’s Glove.

Isn’t that amazing? It is boring but it shows so many things coming together to place me on the path to find the glove. Insane things happen in a similar way, and the people who are involved in those events create a historical progression to make sense of how it came to be – those are coincidences.

What I like about my example is the simple fact that if I asked a series of questions about that event with the glove, most people would answer them opposite of what I have written. They would believe, more than likely, that I noticed the glove, that I chose the path to retrace my path to work, to scour the ground to find the glove, but I didn’t.  Instead, I saw a random glove and build the history of losing the glove to make sense of the past.

When You Cannot Take the Road Less Traveled

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Mar 31, 2016 in Blog Posts | 0 comments

I once had a question for my friend and it was simple: “If you offer incentives to go into certain careers, is it not a form of mass manipulation?”  They answered with a common argument that you have to offer the disenfranchised the opportunity to gain these high paying jobs that have been isolated for some time.  Yet, isn’t the reason we live and work to enjoy ourselves?  Is it not dangerous to offer cheap education, but in doing so, force someone to choose a career path?  For me, I see all the STEM programs as a structured issue that’s goal is to produce workers for companies.  This is fine, and a lot people love being creative within the STEM field, but isn’t it dangerous to over produce and create a surplus of STEM qualified individuals?

For me, I work in an engineer concentric company.  However, I carry a philosophy, sociology degree, and a masters in business administration.  I am beyond happy that I got my liberal arts degrees and I use them regularly for my other career aspiration: novelist.  Yet, I feel somewhat sad for those who were coerced into getting a STEM degree because they look longingly at my fiction writing and wish they had some skill that wasn’t only effective for a company.  I am not making this up, I was directly told by a coworker with a masters in engineer that they wish they had some skill that could let them venture into the world on their own and use their own ability to generate an income – they don’t realize I don’t generate an income from my writing (yet).

Website Down for 24 Hours

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Mar 30, 2016 in Blog Posts, Website Modifications | 0 comments

Sorry about the issues with the website over the last 24 hours. I was working, in the production environment, and pushed some changes that broke a connection to the database. I know that making changes in a production environment isn’t a good idea, and I apologize if it caused anyone an inconvenience. We are back up and everything is running properly right now.

Small Questions – Milk

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Mar 4, 2016 in Blog Posts, Small Questions | 0 comments

I know I discussed the differences between cold water and hot water.  And yes, I realize there was a fallacy in that argument as water that is boiled would have mineral deposits removed thus changing the basic characteristics of the water.  However, today I am focusing on milk.  At a lunch with coworkers, I was discussing cultural differences and my Chinese coworker brought up the fact that they drink warm milk in their culture.  But the kids that grow up in America drink their milk cold, and if the milk gets warm, these same kids find it off putting.  I, having grown up in the United States of America, only have participated in cold milk.  However, my mother never let me throw out a glass of milk so I’ve often imbibed in warm milk as a beverage.  These two things taste different, warm milk and cold milk.  So there are multiple times in which milk tastes different, think of a latte where it is steamed (but this could be changing the structure of the milk leading to its changes), when it is left out for only thirty minutes, or even when is ice cold.

So why the different flavors?  Not all drinks do this, but water and milk do, what makes them so special?  Perhaps, I am missing valuable data and need to start drinking more beverages at different temperatures.

As always, Theodore asking the tough questions.

Website Updates – Manuscript Section

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Feb 27, 2016 in Blog Posts, Website Modifications | 0 comments

In between working on the newest manuscript, Bohr’s Bathos, I have been writing a decent amount of flash fiction writing.  My time for working on the website has been diminished as I focus on my primary goal which is writing fiction.  However, I realized the website needed a little bit of focus so I took the afternoon to abstain from writing fiction and update the manuscript section.  It was outdated and missing the following manuscripts: BlackBox Enterprises, Ashley Pepin’s Mistake, and Bohr’s Bathos.  While I am still working on Bohr’s Bathos, the entire plot and background has been outlined.  So, enjoy the new blurbs and format located in the manuscript section.  Soon I will have additional short stories added to the appropriate sections!  I’m just waiting to hear back from some literary magazines.

Small Questions: Water

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Feb 4, 2016 in Blog Posts | 0 comments

Why does water smell different?  I am not talking about a different water source being the basis for the different smell; a different water source would imply a different smell due to the various compounds that vary and are dependent on the location of the water source.  What I am more curious about is why water smells different from the same source.  For example, if I take some water and boil it, let it cool, and then taste it… why does it taste different?  There is no steam to affect my receptors, but did I truly modify it enough to change the flavor?  But that doesn’t include water that has been heated by the sun, in a closed container, but never actually boiled.  Warm water, and cold water from the same source, changes the flavor.  The same substance, but vastly different affects on the human tongue.  Why?

Theodore Maestranzi, asking the tough questions.

Odd Solution

Posted by Theodore Maestranzi on Jan 24, 2016 in Blog Posts, Philosophical Diatribe | 0 comments

When people notice I am down, they tend to think something has happened in my life that has led to my current demeanor at that time. What most people don’t realize, is I am like the Hulk, I am always down (but I don’t always show it). Sometimes, I screw up and let it show when in public, but I try to keep my cynical stance away from those around me so I don’t invariably cause them discomfort. Yet, I will discuss through jokes what has me down as laughter is needed when looking at our bleak outlook.

The most recent thing that has caused me to enter a state of distress: coral reefs. You see, I love documentaries. Arguably, I watch more documentaries than theatrical movies. I also tend to read long form non-fiction articles. I like these two mediums because they give me a great insight into the world that I don’t have time to enter or visit (yet). For example, today I have been to see the Great Barrier Reef, speak with a former Westboro Baptist Church’s spokeswoman, and learn about artificial superintelligence. It has been a busy day of traveling. What are the outcomes of these travels: a short story involving artificial superintelligence done in purely dialogue and this post.

So what is this post really going to be about? Well an odd solution that David Attenborough discussed.