habits

fact:

this post has existed as a saved, unfinished draft since April of 2005.

I'm pretty sure almost none of its original contents have survived or will survive this, the (hopefully) final revision. but the title has survived, in all its succinct glory. so when I remembered both it and this article by Jack Cheng, I figured I would make yet another effort to finish and publish some thoughts about habits. along with a few about rabbits. sort of.

first of all, I was thinking about bookmarks. a lot has changed about the way I keep track of my online amusements since April of 2005. instead of bookmarking things, I usually trust chrome to remember it all. everso convenient, eh?

the creepy part about that is:  the sites I visit most frequently get remembered the most. large ruts get carved very quickly. all it takes is the letter f and my browser knows I want facebook. b for blogger, g for gmail. and pretty soon all those presets are pretty much controlling my habits.

I've been reading about quantum physics today. A book entitled Schrödinger's Rabbits. Mr. Bruce felt sorry for the poor cat, I suppose. so far (I am on chapter four) he has demonstrated that he's not above using dead chickens and clumsy surfers in his own thought experiments. I wonder what he's going to do with the rabbits?

incidentally, that old friend of mine with the most awesome name, Timothy James Meyer(look, he has a blog. though he rarely writes in it), wrote a screenplay long ago called Schrödinger Keith. I think I might have a copy of it saved somewhere deep at the bottom of some forgotten email to myself... I think I might have to reread the thing. and then pester Tim about finding someone cool enough to produce it.

anyway.

it's very interesting, reading about the pure and inexplicable randomness of quantum theory. all these tiny particles, strung together (but not really?) in such a way that they're somehow instantaneously connected. such a lot to make sense of. and it all points to the idea that there are millions of nearly identical universes, fractaling forever into infinity from the splinters of all conceivable possibilities.

or something like that.

science was never my best subject.

Chang talks about 'habit fields' and the way our memories shape the way we behave in certain environments. so maybe it isn't my browser that has all the power there. and Bruce is explaining to me how paying attention to things seems to change them. so I guess we should open our eyes just a little bit wider.