J'ai Obtenu Cette

"Ridin' through this world, all alone
God takes your soul, you're on your own
The crow flies straight, a perfect line,
On the devil's bed, until you die

Gotta' look this life, in the eye"

-Intro song to Sons of Anarchy


I'm a fan of the FX network's show Sons of Anarchy because I am a fan of being a bad boy and I like motorcycles. Though, logically, detrimental acts have their reaction. Those who live detrimental lifestyles have those reactions catch up with them and that lifespan is shortened. J'ai Obtenu Cette is the title for this weeks episode and it translates in French to supposedly: "I Got This". In a previous episode one member of the motorcycle club, Tig Triger, killed the daughter of a big time crime boss, Damon Pope. In retribution for the death of Damon Pope's daughter, Pope wanted Tig's head but Jax wasn't ready to give him up. So the temporary alternative, by the order of Pope, was to have one out of four motorcycle club members locked up in jail die instead, because someone had to die in revenge for his daughter's death. Opie stepped up and died. Opie is the right hand man (since childhood) of Jax Teller (current President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original). Whose fault was it? The one who caused the catalyst: Tig Trager or the one who ordered one of the four to die: Damon Pope. In an outlaw world someone had to pay for the death of Pope's daughter, that was Opie and someone had to pay for the death of Opie, the choice for Jax was Tig or Pope. Jax's decision was to follow and give up Tig or change the course of the game, lesson 1. The J'ai Obtenu Cette is meant for Jax's unsaid way of killing Pope, the man issuing the rules: to follow. But in real life, revenge in this savage manner, killing another person, there are more serious consequences.

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings of arrows or outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep,
No more, and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devouty to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to sleep - ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil..."

When you are young the curiosity of what will happen when you rebel against the rules and regulations of your parents, in most cases, your answer is disciplinary action or punishment. That is the same case when you are an adult, so why do adults do it? Shouldn't they have already learned from the lessons of childhood, if they were fortunate to be present? Three answers to the previous questions. The first answer is the good, morals and love are no longer there or never was. The second is since they have little or nothing to lose, since the love is not there, the end is what they embrace and their selfish view is all that matters or focused on, their actions on others do not matter. A third view is that they have no understanding of right or wrong, it's just not there. Negative actions are based on ignorance or a lack of a positive. But if you have something there, even a little love, care or morals (a conscience), (something my old pastor said:) you cannot serve two masters: walk either in the foot steps of good or suffer the consequences.

Sons of Anarchy is a mind trip of drama for those that like the bad ass life, kind of like the television show All My Children was to house wives. Sons of Anarchy has extreme violence but it is not without a good mix of scenarios or examining the consequences of a detrimental lifestyle.

A few notes from this week's episode:

---The old lady of Jax is having a moral conscience to go good for the future of their children rather than to stay with the motorcycle club, she gives him an ultimatum to go with her or stay without her. But her love for him had her act on a situation earlier which stopped her from escaping that lifestyle. It was stated in a conversation earlier in the episode between Jax and Nero Padilla (Jimmy Smits) that letters Jax are writing are for his son to read only, just like Jax's father had wrote... for him? Jax has an opposite intent than his old lady, to continue the lineage. Lesson 2, this episode showed Jax's old lady (Tara) and Clay (the mischief causing former President) getting arrested, taken out of the picture. The recently assigned Vice President (Bobby Munson) of Jax takes off his V.P. patch because Bobby doesn't like that Jax is turning out to be too much like Clay. Jax says "maybe I'm not so different". It would seem at the end of last seasons finale, the portrait was of the new leadership: Jax and old lady at the helm of the table, but at the end of this episode is of a portrait of Jax Teller and his mom (Gemma Teller, Katey Sagal). What this few second freeze frame indicates is that the Queen bee influencing the hive is not the new game changer, Tara, but with certain individuals that cause road blocks in the club out of the way, the lineage remains, Gemma.

---This character Juice is weak, how can you whimper, cry and fall to demands of anyone else (even under manipulation) if you choose to join an organization known for bad deeds, e.g. a motorcycle gang. Juice reminds me of the movie Savages where this young guy is watching over Ophelia and he feels sorry for Ophelia being kidnapped and shows her compassion. The young character in Savages is shot because "it didn't work out, you're too sensitive". Lesson 3, in the game of being a bad ass is that you do not crumple, if you enter the game of death, you should be ready to die or take what comes at you. If you feel you no longer wish to be in the game, you better take care of loose ends, and toughen it out until the window opens.

---This television show is bullshit because these are staged plots, anyone taking this show for more than it being entertaining with action, violence, drama and acted scenarios is suffering from delusions, please refer to my first paragraph. Life doesn't go as planned, period. There was a part of the show where in order for a plan to work out Tig Trager had to be caught off guard, with a gun in his hand and be turned over to Damon Pope. The show had Tig put his gun down when Jax was pointing his at Tig and screamed. But what if like a true rebel the plan didn't work out for Tig to put down the gun, instead raise it and shoot at Jax.

---Lesson 4, in the game of being Sun Tzu, sorry I mean being a bad ass, you have to be smart like Jax, conniving with your plans. Like in war, the game of being a bad ass, respect your enemies because if they don't kill you, they can teach you as much as they can hurt you, just like your friends. Just like how Gemma betrays Clay, you have to watch a few episodes to understand that Gemma and Clay were in supposed love, what happens in this episode? Gemma didn't back him no more, the new one for the Black Widow is Nero or is it her son.

---But sometimes you have to keep life interesting.


Not exact wording...

Gemma: "Do you want to be with me or not"
Nero: "I don't know if I can give you everything you need"
Gemma: "What do you think I need?"
(Something is said about love)
Gemma: "Only men need to be loved, sweetheart"
Gemma: "Women need to be wanted"

Peg Bundy, I mean Gemma is back in position of Queen (or Black Widow) of the bees, for now. First it was with Clay, but he's out, now it's her son. She also has Nero in her webs.

How can you tell time in space?

That was the simple question asked to me by a colleague.  Occasionally, trivia questions or the sort will be past around my office, I guess to muse or redirect focus from the mundane business of work.  My answer was "time is abstract, it's based on the culture and it's people."  In the back of my mind, I wanted to say time is also relative, but I was already being overly technical.  I didn't want to go overboard and define it by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.  If you don't look at the clock, your mind doesn't know what time it is because your brain doesn't keep track of counting upwards of one second, every time a second passes.  If you were out in space or out in the jungle without a timing mechanism and your brain lost track of counting, you'd lose the exact time it is.  And determining time by day then night with the sun or moon's positioning like a good mountain man is only an approximation.

Counting is a very basic function a normal brain does.  The first person who applied counting to time, I guess you could consider the first philosopher to develop the calendar. Whether you're in a Roman or Lunar culture of calendar, the calendar started with seconds.  Duh! you say to this basic concept: seconds leads into minutes and minutes leads into hours and hours leads into days, then weeks and years and so forth.  But it started with applying counting in the concept of time.

Back to the original topic: my colleague said "you can't tell can you?"  So basically what he is asking is how can you tell the Roman counting system applied to time passing in space?  Without a counting mechanism or your mind having perfect counting and tracking it, the answer is no.  Time is a system created and exist only in our minds based on a system.  Time is based on a point of reference.  They say dinosaurs existed thousands of years B.C. (Before Christ).  Time is changed based on the region you are in.  The United States has four time zones.  It's 8:00am Eastern Time Zone as I am writing this right now, but in Dubai it's 4:00pm.  Time can also be changed based on the season, Daylight Savings Time is coming to an end in a week.

Space can be established as another realm and depending how far out in space, in it one can detach from the system of time set in earth.  Technically, without a timing mechanism (like a clock) or your brain tracking every second, you would not be able to tell what time it is.  The only way would be to find a new method of counting upwards by one in seconds from that time you left earth to maintain the Roman time system.  In that aspect, yes there is away to find out what time it is in space: only if you develop a new system to keep the region of time you are from in earth.  The answer to the question: "How can you tell time in space?", is that you cannot if you don't have either a clock that still functions from earth, superior counting in your head or someone transmitting that time to you in space from earth.  The yes to that question is if you develop a new system of timing away from earth's timing system.  Hypothetically, if a new born wanted to find what time it was and he didn't have one of the above mentioned, he would not be able to find time on earth but he would be able to create his own timing system and even change the cycle of time, say counting up by two equals a minute.  In the same concept, someone who is secluded in the jungle from civilization and decided to ignore societies time structure would have time totally eradicated.  Say in the morning the volcano he sleeps under, because it's warmer there, vibrates at what our culture deems as 8:00am one morning and 8:30am the next morning, the outcast would still consider it 8:00am every morning as the volcano vibrates because he is ignoring societies time structure.  The outcast could deem sleeping right when the sun sets, but sometimes during the season the sun sets at 6:00pm and others at 9:00pm, he would still deem sunset everyday at 6:00pm because he is ignoring the Roman time system.  Not only is the answer to my colleague's question yes and no, but he asked a question not so simple to just answer yes or no because time is abstract and relative. Time in space does exist, it is just abstract like in any region in comparison and relative depending on the type of system you compare it to.

---I am employed, for now, so my timing system is relative to the time I leave work and counting upwards by one until my ass has to be at work the next morning deemed when my company says I have to be in.  If I were unemployed work time wouldn't apply to my system of waking up because I wouldn't have that requirement to be at work at a certain time.  My relativity to waking up in counting up by one in seconds would increase if I were unemployed.  Einstein states it another way...

---"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity." -Albert Einstein

---If you were in space a foot from the sun, based on how most time systems are set by the position of the sun, every second would be daylight and you could say every second is 6:00am.  Every life span would be a second also because you'd be burnt up.

---Time is a very important system to epoch events in our culture, time determines change and how something can last, even in space.  He asked a very valid question.

The Matrix

Ultimately we are a slave to a system no matter how wealthy or how we try to avert the systems that have been created.  The popular movies like The Matrix series gave thought into the possibility of technology on a different realm and even a bit of religion: with the Force being an old religion in Star Wars and Neo having special exceptions then bringing about the finale with Zion.  In the movie The Architect said that the Matrix was destroyed and recreated several times over, my interpretation in that in every era a Morpheus or a Neo will come along and rebel against the system only to create a bit of change then die out and the same old system of control will recreate itself in one form or another because that is nature, human nature is to evolve from it; I am not a Neo but I am definitely a supporter.  I will rebel, defy and question against any stupid system even if I am not Neo enough to fix it.  But they are just that, movies, but it evaluates philosophies of evolution.  It is why they have so much fan attraction.  I am a fan.  I was watching a few commercials on television. With all these Wii products and the adaptation or mimicking to your competitors design: the Sony Playstation Move has a motion sensor design from a wand to move the graphics on the screen, I compared it to a comment I had about certain people around me playing games.  My comment was that in the year 2111, our greatest achievement will be that of a high score in a game.  It is in my mind, slightly, that I view and this is a recreation or recapping from another blog I wrote previously about that some people’s lives are a waste, a notion that was pointed out in The Matrix by Agent Smith, we are like viruses:  "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what is is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure."  It can be true or we just evolve very slowly, not upwards but in a diagonally sideways like pattern.  I like to call it a little bit of enlightenment.  Without restrictions, we as people could achieve so much more, but without restrictions there would be chaos beyond human rationalization.  One part of our lives is a hedonistic pursuit of things self deemed worthy, even if by those who create charities is a selfish intent to do good (Look at this joke of a charity water sold at Starbucks: Ethos; they sell it for about two dollars and only donate five cents).  Edison's one percent genius takes understanding, realization and lots of needed work put in by the other ninety-nine percent, but within the ninety-nine percent is much selfishness and greed which breaks teamwork.  Or am I contradicting myself?  Because who would put in work in teamwork if they had nothing to gain from it, maybe my suppressed former idealist side.  Imagine the changes it takes for my nurture to undergo from participating in feeding the homeless by lugging around a duffle bag of health aide and food, as well as volunteering time with kids who do not have parents or whose parents are incarcerated to me working all day and being hedonistic.

(Shortened Version) 

That man destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate. -Erich Fromm