To Fly, or to be Invisible…
Have you heard the recent commercials on the radio where the two guys are debating over whether it would be cooler to have the super power to fly, or the super power to be invisible? I think the commercial is for some cell phone... or something... apparently their marketing campaign failed with me...
So here's my thought process...
If you know me at all you would immediately say... well of course Jason would rather fly! And my initial thoughts are the same... I think the super power of flight would be amazingly cool! But also being me, I have to think too much and analyze the pros and cons of both super powers.
Positives of Flying...
- You can get places quicker
- You can visit place you wouldn't normally be able to visit
- You could give people rides by just letting them hang onto your shoestrings
- IT IS SUPER COOL
Positives of Invisibility...
- You can go places your not supposed to be
- You can be sneaky
- You can be alone when you want to be alone
- You can walk in late to work without your boss realizing it...
- IT IS SUPER COOL
OK... so maybe making the lists of Pros was not the best method to analyze the issue at hand. Well how about some examples of a day with each power.
Things I would do in my day of flying...
- Go to the Ocean
- Fly around the world (a few times)
- Find some whales and dolphins
- Sit in the air for a while on a street corner and watch people's expressions when they see me
- Call NPR and have them do a story on me
Things I would do in my day of invisibility...
- Walk through the house with people around to see what they're talking about
- Go to the police station / government buildings and go in all the rooms I'm not supposed to be in
- Keep tapping Sean on the shoulder without him knowing I'm there
- Drive my car really fast and get pulled over for speeding just to see the officers expression when he gets to the car
- Not call NPR so no one would know!
So I guess the differences are in that if I had the ability to fly, it would be like being on vacation all the time. If I had the ability to be invisible, I would be a sneak.
From a third party perspective, I would assume you read those lists and think that I should probably choose flying... but the potential of knowing so much forbidden information is quite attractive!
If I were invisible, I would of course have to watch out for foreign governments and them capturing me and using me for their evil deeds. They wouldn't care about a flying person as much as someone who is invisible I think. Now you're thinking well couldn't you just turn invisible and escape? Well you have to give those foreign governments a little credit, they would probably already know the names and address of all family (and maybe those that read this blog too!... watch out...).
So here's my conclusion I think...
If I had the ability forever.... I would choose to fly
If I had the ability for just a week.... I would choose to be invisible
Fair enough? if not... too bad 
So how about you? Which ability would you rather have??? or would you rather have something beyond these two?
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Do you see what I see?
No... it is not time to start singing Christmas carols yet...
Have you ever really thought about what you see as color? Is it possible that we all don't see colors the same, but we've never seen it any other way... so we see that as normal?
To both you and me... a tree that has hot pink leaves and a blue trunk would look rather silly. But how do we know the color that my eyes see as hot pink isn't your normal leafy green? Maybe if you and I switched bodies for a day we would be so blown away by the different perspective on the world. You might think my normal looking tree is amazingly... messed up!
Has anyone ever received a successful eye transplant, do you know? But as we all know, our brains don't register exactly what our eyes see. Our eyes see everything upside down. It isn't until our brain receives the images from our eyes that it turns the images right side up, for what we are used to. Maybe somewhere in the mess of electrical blurps and beeps, we see slightly different colors... who knows!?!
Is it possible that the only people, who know the true look of things, are folks that are colorblind?
Speaking of eyes... have you ever wondered what it would look like if we were like those reptiles that had each of their eyes on opposite sides of their heads? I look at my guinea pigs sometimes and wonder if they can see me when I'm standing right in front of them...
Hold your hand flat, straight up and down and put the side with your thumb onto your nose so it splits your vision... is this how my pigs see? Or what about those animals that can move their eyes independently of one another... how cool would that be!
Kinda gives me a headache just thinking about it...
That's all for today... tomorrow's topic... The benefits / drawbacks / thoughts on whether I would rather have the super power of flying or invisibility! (exciting eh?)
Flight Lesson 16 – A Long Cross Country
I showed up to Lunken today with my flight plan prepared only to find out that there were slight changes in plans.... well, major changes in plans.... complete changes in plans.
Not only were we changing locations of our cross country, but we were going to be flying a four-seater Piper Cherokee with a passenger in back. I was very excited to fly the slightly bigger plane.
The Cherokee felt much heavier than the Skippers, probably because it is, and in addition we had an extra passenger in the back.
We took off from Lunken at exactly 16:00 and went out east towards KUNI where Ohio University is in Athens. We landed, with a touch and go at 17:00 and then turned north to go to Newark, which is just east of Columbus. That leg took about a half hour.
The reason for the passenger was that he had heard about a building that was shaped like a hand basket. And he thought it would be very neat to see it from the air. Well we found that basket, and it was that... a giant building with handles, very funny. I took a few pictures with Gary's phone, so hopefully he'll send those my way and I can post them. We landed and stopped for fuel at Newark. The uncontrolled airport was very quiet and laid back. They had cookies, which of course I sampled a few of 
Taking off from Newark, we headed back towards Cincinnati on the longest leg of our flight. Nothing of too much excitement happened. I did fly over a hot air balloon, as well as seeing a jet airliner fly above us (probably heading into Columbus). But total flight time for the cross country was 3.4 hours..... took quite the hit on the wallet.
I really enjoyed learning about and flying the Cherokee, it was exciting to try something new. Next on the flying agenda is night flight this week, followed by a night cross country. We're going to do the Lunken -> Athens -> Portsmouth -> Lunken for the night cross country. Then after that I'm going to repeat the cross country, just solo. I think I've broken the 20 hour threshold, so that is pretty exciting for me.
After my lesson I went over to the bar at Wings with Dave, Sharon, and Gary to have a beer and chat. It was a good time. These folks have been in Cincinnati a very long time and know a lot of the history. It is very enjoyable listening to them.
That's all for now, hope your weekend is going well!
Later!
What if the Butterfly turned around?…
We all know about the 'Butterfly Effect'... one small event creates the future... a butterfly flaps its wings over the plains of Kansas causing Tsunamis on the other side of the world? Makes sense, no?
I'm wondering how the world would be different today if the butterfly had turned around and headed towards Ohio instead of crossing Kansas. I know people always say... well you shouldn't live in the 'What Ifs', you should live in the 'What Nows'... but that isn't nearly as fun sometimes
Let's pick a few key moments in history.
1.) Let's say that Hitler's Mom got a cold and lost her baby... little baby Adolf
2.) Let's say that Bill Gates one day while being young was running on the deck of a pool, slipped, broke his back and is now in a wheel chair
3.) Let's say that back in middle school I decided to take Art instead of Band
First off... I think it might be a fact (but possibly not) that Hilter's mother was considering an abortion... but for some reason or another didn't have one (would it have been OK after seeing what happened if she did have an abortion??? talk about your ethical dilemma)
So Momma Hitler lost the baby by getting sick... or fell... or got the abortion... to put it straight, no one ever met/heard of/feared Adolf Hitler. How would the world be different? Would World War II have occurred? Would there have been a different war, to even out the balance. At this point in history are we suppose to have two 'World Wars' and it just so happened that one of them was rooted in a certain German mindset? What about all the movies about the Holocaust, millions upon millions of dollars have poured into Hollywood due to the tragic set of events that took place over half a century ago. Would the world be a nicer place? Would people have a different view of people that are Jewish? Think about all the bright minds that were lost in the Holocaust, would we now have a cure for cancer? Would we be able to stop global warming?
On the opposite perspective, what if one of the people killed during the Second World War were, if not destined to die in the war, destined to be the worlds most feared terrorist. With a smarter than should be mind that might have been lost, the entire North American continent could be under a claustrophobic cloud of nuclear fumes right now. Is the world in balance because Adolf Hitler walked his own path? In our historical perspective, Hitler was a terrible person who did unspeakably terrible things. It is hard to imagine the world being a worse off place if Hitler did not come to power.... but what if?
So Bill Gates slipped... he's in a wheel chair now. He is still the same person he is at this current day. His mind is still bright, his heart still large. Would the world have treated him differently if he were in a wheel chair? Would Apple have given him impassable benefits so he wouldn't have left? Would Microsoft exist? How would the world be different? Linux might be the platform of choice... more people may have learned to help develop open source software. Does your cell phone run windows? Would someone else have taken Bill Gates concept and run with it... making the same present day, just without the powerful name of Bill Gates? Or would our society have viewed Bill Gates no differently than if he wasn't in a wheel chair, and today would be the same as today is now? Would computers have never hit the market as strong as they are now... and some other 'better' technology found? Maybe our society would be much more advanced if Microsoft hadn't dominated, or maybe some country other than the United States would have taken off in the computer world.... where has the United States economy taken its roots in?
What if I had been an artist instead of a musician (not that musicians aren't artists...) Would I have gone to Indiana University before coming back home to the University of Cincinnati? Would I have met the people I did in high school band? Would I be a world famous computer programmer now since music took up all my time in high school? Would I have found my place elsewhere? I have very different life experiences for my young age... what if I found my calling in the art studio instead of the auditorium stage?
What do you think? Are there key points in history that have left their mark to such a degree that our world would be a completely different place? What if Adam and Eve hadn't taken the apple... would someone else have? What if no one ever thought about building a building that reached all the way to heaven… the Tower of Babel never existed? Would the world be one happy family, united under one language, one economy, and one society? What if Lincoln decided not to attend the theatre on the night that he was shot? What if the Titanic didn't sink? What if you slept in 15 more minutes today? How would your life be different?
Its like those choose your own adventure stories... except in life I can't keep all my fingers stuck in pages so that I can go back and see the other path.
Lots of question marks in this post, makes for interesting conversation. Happy Thursday! I'm ready for the weekend!
My Political Compass
After taking a grueling quiz with questions asking some (eh) relevant questions... I found out the same answers I've been told by most political standpoint quizzes... let me show.
This is a two-dimensional representation of political views (economical and social)
This is a representation of well known political leader past and present and where they stand on the two-dimensional plot
Here is where I stand... there were no surprises. I'm thinking being like Gandhi is a good thing....
Happy Fourth of July!