Why is Murphy's law true?
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Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today. Sure I was tired, and that explains why I made too much noise getting up this morning, and woke my wife (many times). But also on the same day that one of the fire-alarms, INSIDE my step-son's room (why THAT one of all the ones in the house????) decided to start beeping every minute asking for a battery as I scramble to find one before it wakes him up, as it already had my wife (and then my noise kept her awake). On the same day they increase road construction and slow down traffic, on the same day a cold front moved in and HEL froze over. On the same day we have an increased number of tours, on the same day we found out our dead hard-drive (on an important machine) has to be re-ordered because purchasing "lost" the purchase request, on the same day that we need to use that machine, on the same day a florescent light over my desk is feeling a little "disco", and on the same day a fan went out on one of my computers... and the list just goes on. Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already? If the latter, then are good days really bad, and what does that say about the universe? Maybe the laws of chaos are all just a sign of a lack of coffee... At least that is solvable.... I think I will try that....
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
El Corazon wrote:
Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already?
Yes, yes, and yes.
El Corazon wrote:
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole
I absolutely love that quote. Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5..
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
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El Corazon wrote:
Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already?
Yes, yes, and yes.
El Corazon wrote:
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole
I absolutely love that quote. Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5..
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
Patrick Sears wrote:
Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5
The best series on television in my lifetime bar none. The only series I've shelled out for the entire DVD collection.:-D
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
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El Corazon wrote:
I decided to add a pop tart with the coffee to improve my mood also. Since Christina Aguilera wouldn't answer her phone
I hear Paris Hilton is good with ice... :)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Jim Crafton wrote:
I hear Paris Hilton is good with ice...
pop TART, not pop TWIT, those middle letters matter a lot.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Patrick Sears wrote:
Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5
The best series on television in my lifetime bar none. The only series I've shelled out for the entire DVD collection.:-D
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
The only series I've shelled out for the entire DVD collection.
and will be for me too, but unfortunately it is not high enough on my list. I should push it higher.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Jim Crafton wrote:
I hear Paris Hilton is good with ice...
pop TART, not pop TWIT, those middle letters matter a lot.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Oh sorry, I'd forgotten how intellectually stimulating Christina Aguilera's conversation was :) Oh yeah, and her music, yeah, that's top notch stuff :)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today. Sure I was tired, and that explains why I made too much noise getting up this morning, and woke my wife (many times). But also on the same day that one of the fire-alarms, INSIDE my step-son's room (why THAT one of all the ones in the house????) decided to start beeping every minute asking for a battery as I scramble to find one before it wakes him up, as it already had my wife (and then my noise kept her awake). On the same day they increase road construction and slow down traffic, on the same day a cold front moved in and HEL froze over. On the same day we have an increased number of tours, on the same day we found out our dead hard-drive (on an important machine) has to be re-ordered because purchasing "lost" the purchase request, on the same day that we need to use that machine, on the same day a florescent light over my desk is feeling a little "disco", and on the same day a fan went out on one of my computers... and the list just goes on. Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already? If the latter, then are good days really bad, and what does that say about the universe? Maybe the laws of chaos are all just a sign of a lack of coffee... At least that is solvable.... I think I will try that....
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
El Corazon wrote:
Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today.
So did I. I really needed to catch up a lot today, having been a bit slow on Monday[1]. I attempted to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 this morning, and wrote that off against being more productive if I slept until 8:30. I had one of the longest, nicest lie in naps in recent history. It felt like I woke up at 11:00 or so, but I was out of the house at 9:00, but then everything seemed to be moving slowly. Traffic is normally clear by then, but even light traffic was moving very slowly. It felt like the usual 20 minute trip to work took an hour. Then I realised, I had been fortunate enough to wake up into a 'slow time' day. I have pumped out tons of code corrections and additions, because I had 'more time'. Only chaos laws could explain this. On the positive side, that is.
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Given randomly distributed events happening at random times, it is much more likely that events (of any kind) get bunched together rather than occur at evenly spaced intervals. (It makes sense if you think about it, and it can be mathematically proven.) As humans we tend to apply patterns to randomness, thus "Murphy's Law" and endless superstitions. There is an astounding amount about life and existence that can be explained by understanding statistics. Alas, very few seem to grasp it. (I know, I'm no fun at all.)
Faith is a fine invention For gentlemen who see; But microscopes are prudent In an emergency! -Emily Dickinson
Au contraire! Stats is much more fascinating, even to someone of my very limited understanding, than expecting regularity in everything.
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El Corazon wrote:
Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today.
So did I. I really needed to catch up a lot today, having been a bit slow on Monday[1]. I attempted to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 this morning, and wrote that off against being more productive if I slept until 8:30. I had one of the longest, nicest lie in naps in recent history. It felt like I woke up at 11:00 or so, but I was out of the house at 9:00, but then everything seemed to be moving slowly. Traffic is normally clear by then, but even light traffic was moving very slowly. It felt like the usual 20 minute trip to work took an hour. Then I realised, I had been fortunate enough to wake up into a 'slow time' day. I have pumped out tons of code corrections and additions, because I had 'more time'. Only chaos laws could explain this. On the positive side, that is.
Brady Kelly wrote:
Then I realised, I had been fortunate enough to wake up into a 'slow time' day. I have pumped out tons of code corrections and additions, because I had 'more time'. Only chaos laws could explain this. On the positive side, that is.
so what you are saying is that YOU took my balance of time giving you an excess? Give it back! ;P you can have a pop tart!
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Patrick Sears wrote:
Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5
The best series on television in my lifetime bar none. The only series I've shelled out for the entire DVD collection.:-D
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
The best series on television in my lifetime bar none. The only series I've shelled out for the entire DVD collection.
Absolutely. Same here! It's the only TV *anything* for which I have all the episodes and all the tv movies on DVD.
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
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Brady Kelly wrote:
Then I realised, I had been fortunate enough to wake up into a 'slow time' day. I have pumped out tons of code corrections and additions, because I had 'more time'. Only chaos laws could explain this. On the positive side, that is.
so what you are saying is that YOU took my balance of time giving you an excess? Give it back! ;P you can have a pop tart!
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Try going to your database and hitting the "refund" button. That's where all my time seems to go. :laugh:
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El Corazon wrote:
Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already?
Yes, yes, and yes.
El Corazon wrote:
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole
I absolutely love that quote. Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5..
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
Patrick Sears wrote:
Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5..
FYI JMS is doing a handful of new direct to DVD episodes/movies. The disks are going to be put out under the sbutitle The Lost Tales, and it's my understanding that they're going to be scattered across the timeline. AFAIK none will star the full cast due to scheduling impossibilities (and two deaths), but only a few chars per episode. Only the first disk is out so far, and it's set a decade after the shadow war. It's two 35m episodes back to back. One the whole I give it a B-, the first half was much better than the second and only marred by what I strongly suspect was an authorial voice monologue from on character at the beginning.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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Brady Kelly wrote:
Then I realised, I had been fortunate enough to wake up into a 'slow time' day. I have pumped out tons of code corrections and additions, because I had 'more time'. Only chaos laws could explain this. On the positive side, that is.
so what you are saying is that YOU took my balance of time giving you an excess? Give it back! ;P you can have a pop tart!
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Don't worry, I just had my programming joy quota offset by a journey into parent-child data binding in WinForms. It was easier to drop the whole project and create a new one that find out where VS was getting the bullshit that caused errors in generated code.
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Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today. Sure I was tired, and that explains why I made too much noise getting up this morning, and woke my wife (many times). But also on the same day that one of the fire-alarms, INSIDE my step-son's room (why THAT one of all the ones in the house????) decided to start beeping every minute asking for a battery as I scramble to find one before it wakes him up, as it already had my wife (and then my noise kept her awake). On the same day they increase road construction and slow down traffic, on the same day a cold front moved in and HEL froze over. On the same day we have an increased number of tours, on the same day we found out our dead hard-drive (on an important machine) has to be re-ordered because purchasing "lost" the purchase request, on the same day that we need to use that machine, on the same day a florescent light over my desk is feeling a little "disco", and on the same day a fan went out on one of my computers... and the list just goes on. Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already? If the latter, then are good days really bad, and what does that say about the universe? Maybe the laws of chaos are all just a sign of a lack of coffee... At least that is solvable.... I think I will try that....
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I think it all depends on your mood. If you're in a bad mood and frustrated about something you tend to really notice all the little signs of entropy and chaos that are all around you every day. On a good day when you're in the groove they just seem normal.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
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I think it all depends on your mood. If you're in a bad mood and frustrated about something you tend to really notice all the little signs of entropy and chaos that are all around you every day. On a good day when you're in the groove they just seem normal.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt
John Cardinal wrote:
I think it all depends on your mood.
so you are saying I should have had Irish Coffee?
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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John Cardinal wrote:
I think it all depends on your mood.
so you are saying I should have had Irish Coffee?
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Patrick Sears wrote:
Oh for the days of shows like Babylon 5..
FYI JMS is doing a handful of new direct to DVD episodes/movies. The disks are going to be put out under the sbutitle The Lost Tales, and it's my understanding that they're going to be scattered across the timeline. AFAIK none will star the full cast due to scheduling impossibilities (and two deaths), but only a few chars per episode. Only the first disk is out so far, and it's set a decade after the shadow war. It's two 35m episodes back to back. One the whole I give it a B-, the first half was much better than the second and only marred by what I strongly suspect was an authorial voice monologue from on character at the beginning.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
dan neely wrote:
FYI JMS is doing a handful of new direct to DVD episodes/movies. The disks are going to be put out under the sbutitle The Lost Tales
:-D I have the site bookmarked to buy them. I can't wait! :)
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
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dan neely wrote:
FYI JMS is doing a handful of new direct to DVD episodes/movies. The disks are going to be put out under the sbutitle The Lost Tales
:-D I have the site bookmarked to buy them. I can't wait! :)
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual." - Frank Herbert
PS if you really have money to burn for fandom JMS is selling all the scripts he wrote (~3/4ths of the total) in books via cafe press. They're in the same trade paper format as most technical books use and are priced at $40 each (early buyer discount of $30 shortly after release). He's up to 12 of 15. Anyone who has all bought the first 14 before the initial buyer period is out on #14 will get the 15th free. #1-14 will have all the normal scripts. #15 will include goodies like the original 5 season arc outline from the original proposal (no Sheridan, no gutting of s5 when he thought it would be canceled and pushed the key plot items into s4, etc). #15 isn't going to be available any other way.
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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Have you ever stopped to ponder the laws of chaos? I thought about it today. Sure I was tired, and that explains why I made too much noise getting up this morning, and woke my wife (many times). But also on the same day that one of the fire-alarms, INSIDE my step-son's room (why THAT one of all the ones in the house????) decided to start beeping every minute asking for a battery as I scramble to find one before it wakes him up, as it already had my wife (and then my noise kept her awake). On the same day they increase road construction and slow down traffic, on the same day a cold front moved in and HEL froze over. On the same day we have an increased number of tours, on the same day we found out our dead hard-drive (on an important machine) has to be re-ordered because purchasing "lost" the purchase request, on the same day that we need to use that machine, on the same day a florescent light over my desk is feeling a little "disco", and on the same day a fan went out on one of my computers... and the list just goes on. Do deadlines, problems and VIPs congregate to each other? Do they seek each other out deliberately like some perverse sadistic story? Is every day really bad, but we gloss over the bad parts because we are in a good mood already? If the latter, then are good days really bad, and what does that say about the universe? Maybe the laws of chaos are all just a sign of a lack of coffee... At least that is solvable.... I think I will try that....
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them. So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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"...So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." And then there's Marcus' other quote: "You can get more with a kind word and a big stick than with just a kind word." Babylon 5 Rocks!
Mike Poz
Yeah Marcus had the most good lines, but I think Kosh had the best line of the series. "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
-- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.
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Consider this. What if we could break the 'laws' of physics as easily as we break the laws of the land. Consider the utter and literal chaos that would result from 6 billion competing sets of physical rules trying to coexist in more or less the same space at more or less the same time... Sometimes the limitations of our humanity are a blessing and all the stuff like causality and linear time that we get for free is a blessing all the time, though we take it for granted every day. When that fire alarm went off you knew what it was and how to fix it. You're one of the only type of beings in the universe capable of such a feat. You could choose to feel good about that. :) P.S. Murphy was wrong, he just had no idea how bad things really could be.
Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.
Matthew Faithfull wrote:
Consider this. What if we could break the 'laws' of physics as easily as we break the laws of the land. Consider the utter and literal chaos that would result from 6 billion competing sets of physical rules trying to coexist in more or less the same space at more or less the same time...
I suspect that is a matter of perception. Someone who grew up with constantly changing physical laws and the ability to modify them at will would probably function quite well.