16 June 13 -- Afternoon
1551
hours. We have returned to Kim and Paul's. Knowledge may be power but if that
is all it is, that is, if that is its purpose, I want none of it. Power is
something that creatures on Earth understand, no doubt innately, in order
first, to survive here (or any other suitable place in the universe). It has
allowed our mildly aggressive human species to become 'top dog' on the planet
within a following semi-static pecking order of social, political and religious
regions below, on and above the Earth's surface.
You are entering an area without words and
this is where the Merlyn books, the fiction, will go. - Amorella
This is just as well because I would
not be comfortable otherwise.
1911
hours. We shared a South Sandusky Street Marcos pizza for supper. Everyone else
is in the backyard, I just returned from filling Kim's car after an hour nap. Earlier
we had a Jimmy Johns lunch near downtown Delaware. Everyone just came in for a
kids' bath.
You are right to assume the subheadings from
Wikipedia will be used in response to Experience and Knowledge. First, we do a
practice exercise using this writing experiment of yours as an example; not the
full twenty-five years but in general, the last ten years will do as that takes
in the writing of the first three Merlyn novels. - Amorella
I don't know if I will learn anything
of it for value in this current book, but who knows. At least it is all in
context with my initial writing experiment, which will add or subtract validity
(in my mind).
For the present let's set this practice run
up as a separate document titled: "Orndorff's Writing Experience". -
Amorella
2102 hours. I have set up the practice
material but I am not sure this will be at all useful. Here is what I have.
***
Orndorff's Writing Experience: 2003
- 2013
1. Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill of creative
writing gained through involvement in and exposure to Amorella.
2. Types of
Experience
3. Physical
Experience
4. Mental
Experience
5. Emotional
Experience
6. Spiritual
Experience
7. Religious
Experience
8. Social
Experience
9. Virtual
Simulation
10. Immediacy of Experience
11. First hand experience
12. Second-hand experience
13. Third-hand experience
14. Subjective experience
15. Contexts of experience
16. Alternatives to experience
17, Writing
18, Art
** **
Knowledge from the Experience
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include
information, facts, descriptions or skills acquired through experience or
education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a
subject. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit
(as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); and it can be more or
less formal or systematic.
Knowledge
acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, communication, association and reasoning;
while knowledge is also said to be related to the capacity of acknowledgment in human beings.
***
Now,
with the above in mind how might a soul without human attachment respond to
such an assignment? - Amorella
I do not have such an imagination even for a fiction other
than a reasonable response would appear more valid than an unreasonable one.
The problem is that this would be from a human's perspective not a plausible
soul's perspective, particularly one who has never experienced Being Alive.
I
am immediately running into the complications I have had when dealing with
defining an Angel as in Milton's Paradise
Lost. How could an Angel understand the first hand experience of being
mortal? An Angel by definition never could have been nor never could be mortal.
I
have the ability to imagine being immortal (for a fiction); but it appears
unreasonable for an Angel to have imagination, as it is something she/he would
have no use for. (2128)
We will continue with this tomorrow. Then,
post when convenient. - Amorella
17 June 13
0543
hours. We have a pleasantly quiet morning so far. I love this time of day
before a full and hopeful sunrise. Last night, looking up through the slats in
the west bedroom windows I see the reflected moonlight and a star or two as a
reminder that Perkin's Observatory is less than two miles to the northwest. I
would rather remember the best of its days and my own visit to take a look at Saturn,
if I remember right, when I was of junior high age, twelve or thirteen.
**
**
Perkins
Observatory is an astronomical observatory in
Delaware, Ohio. It is owned and operated by Ohio Wesleyan University.
Early
history
The observatory is named for Hiram
Perkins, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Ohio Wesleyan
University in Delaware, Ohio from 1857 to 1907. A devoutly religious Methodist
and a man of deep convictions, he was also known as an uncompromising and
demanding instructor.
Perkins graduated from Ohio
Wesleyan in 1857, just nine years after the university was founded. He was
immediately offered a position on the faculty. Shortly thereafter he married
Caroline Barkdull, a graduate from OWU’s Women’s College.
In 1861 Perkins temporarily left
OWU when the American Civil War began. He intended to enlist in the Union Army,
but was deemed physically unfit for service. (At 6’4” tall and 97 pounds, his
students referred to him as “the human skeleton.”) Perkins then returned to his
family hog farm and worked to help feed the troops. (Salt pork was a staple
military food at the time.) Applying his mathematical skills to the science of
pork production, by war’s end he had amassed an impressive (for the time)
fortune. After the war Perkins returned to his university teaching position and
lived a very frugal life on his small salary. Meanwhile, his shrewd business
investments caused his fortune to multiply considerably.
In 1896 Professor Perkins donated
the funds necessary to build the first of two observatories to bear his name.
It is located on West William Street in Delaware, Ohio right next to Hiram and
Caroline’s former residence. This original “Perkins Astronomical Observatory”
later had its name changed to “the Student Observatory” when the second Perkins
Observatory was built a quarter century later.
Perkins’s marriage never produced
children. His older sister never married. Therefore, toward the end of his life
Perkins realized he had no living relatives to whom to leave his fortune.
Retiring in 1907, Professor Perkins applied himself to the creation of “an
astronomical observatory of importance.” It was his desire that this second
observatory be a place where cutting-edge research could be conducted. It took
15 years to find an appropriate location and secure the necessary funding
(Perkins himself provided about $250,000 of the approximately $350,000 budget).
Construction began in 1923 with
the frail 90-year-old professor as Guest of Honor at the groundbreaking
ceremony. Within a year, however, both Hiram and Caroline Perkins had died.
Neither saw the completion of the new observatory.
The building and telescope mount
were completed in less than two years. The work was done by the Warner and
Swasey Company of Cleveland, Ohio. . . . The building included a lecture room,
library, office space, walk-in vault, small bedroom for visiting astronomers,
and spacious workrooms and metal fabrication shops.
However, Professor Perkins had
stipulated that the telescope mirror be cast in the United States. At this time
no U.S. companies had experience in casting such a large mirror, so the
National Bureau of Standards agreed to take on the project. It can be argued
that casting of this mirror launched the optical glass industry in the United
States.
The first four attempts to cast
the mirror were unsuccessful. The fifth attempt, using a different technique,
created a 69 in blank (somewhat larger than originally intended). Three years
of grinding and polishing followed. When installed in the telescope mount in 1931,
it was the third largest mirror in the world. (Prior to installation of the 69
in mirror, the observatory used a 60 in mirror on loan from Harvard University.)
OSU Era
Early on it became apparent that
the Ohio Wesleyan University simply did not have the staff or expertise
necessary to operate one of the world’s most important observatories. In 1935 a
cooperative agreement was reached with the Ohio State University in Columbus,
Ohio to staff and operate Perkins Observatory. For the next 63 years, for most
practical purposes, the observatory belonged to OSU.
The following three decades were
Golden Years for Perkins Observatory. The remote skies were dark (if somewhat
cloudy). Famous astronomers from around the world traveled to central Ohio to
use the large telescope. Important meetings of professional and amateur
astronomers were hosted on site. The library collection grew to include many
rare volumes.
Astronomer Philip C. Keenan spent
most of his professional life as an astronomer working at Perkins Observatory.
(He was employed by the Ohio State University, not Ohio Wesleyan.) Using the 69
in telescope he spent almost 20 years taking spectrographic plates of vast
areas of the night sky. In collaboration with William Wilson Morgan of Yerkes
Observatory, Dr. Keenan helped to create the M-K System of Stellar
Classification. (“M” is for Morgan and “K” is for Keenan.) This is the most
common stellar classification system used by astronomers today.
In 1932 the Director of the
Observatory began publication of a small in-house magazine known as “The
Telescope.” At first this quarterly dealt primarily with research and current
events related to Perkins Observatory, but in following issues it expanded its
coverage of topics somewhat. In 1941 it merged with another small astronomy
magazine known as “The Sky” to create “Sky and Telescope Magazine.”
Another stipulation in Hiram
Perkins’ endowment was that observing sessions be open to the public at least
once a month.
The radio
telescope known as Big Ear was built on Perkins Observatory property and
operated from 1963 to 1998. It was famous in part for its work on SETI and the
WOW! Signal detected in 1977. This instrument was built and operated by the
Ohio State University.
Selected and edited
from Wikipedia Offline
**
The Wow!
signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman
on August 15, 1977, while working on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio
telescope of the Ohio State University then located at Ohio Wesleyan University's
Perkins Observatory, Delaware, Ohio. The signal bore expected hallmarks of
potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It lasted for the full
72-second duration that Big Ear observed it, but has not been detected again.
The signal has been the subject of significant media attention.
Amazed at how
closely the signal matched the expected signature of an interstellar signal in
the antenna used, Ehman circled the signal on the computer printout and wrote
the comment "Wow!" on its side. This comment became the name of the
signal.
Selected and
edited from Wikipedia Offline
** **
0635
hours. The above is neat stuff! I remember reading about WOW! At the time we
were living on Majken Place in Mason, less than a mile from the Voice of
America Bethany Station transmission complex on Tylersville Road. Late at night
I would wake up and hear a faint foreign language broadcast from the wall's
wood framework (as a speaker) and wonder if I might ever hear from the supposed
aliens, just as I had imagined while slowly moving the dial across the
frequencies of various short wave receivers during my adolescent years and
beyond. It was not so much a fixation as it was interesting. Working the dial
always produced a hopeful outcome and stimulated imagination along the way.
There is nothing wrong with that as far as I could see in those days. It was a
fun activity just as writing and research is for me today. Life might as well
be enjoyed, that's how I look at it, and what's the harm in a little reading
and intellectual delight?
0656
hours. The boys are up. Another day begins.
2033
hours. We have been home since around noon and we have had a lot of family time in between.
Post what you have and we'll call it a day.
- Amorella
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