Part Time Scholar

Life is taking a hectic spin these days as the 9 to 5 is creeping past the 5!  Needless to say, part time blogging has taken a suffering.  It's not all bad, however.  I have a vacation coming up in New Zealand in two weeks.  Besides breathtaking sceneries, New Zealand's South Island is internationally renowned for its adrenalin inducing activities, such as jet boating, bungy jumping, sky diving, and the list goes on.  I have my eyes set on a few choices to get the juices flowing. To top it off, I will also squeeze in a glacier hike and may be a LOTR tour. The good news is we will be living out of a camper van so we have great flexibility on the itinerary; the bad news is we only have 8 days to do everything my wife and I wanted.  Time to plan it all out! -PTS

I know I am supposed to start a project on the origin of the universe.  But I came across this  interesting perspective on the meaning of life. The article claims that life is nature's way of releasing locked free energy in CO 2, in order to adhere to the second law of thermodynamics (entropy increases).  If this really is the case, then our mere existence already fulfills the purpose of life.  Whatever else we achieve in life is simply extra!    I refuse to subscribe to this theory because this puts me in the same class as a cockroach, except that I burn more energy and have a bigger contribution to entropy. Woohoo! However, it does raise a point in that the Earth we live on seems to be a intelligent system with its constituent organisms all serving a common purpose.  What will the next article say?  That all creatures are interconnected in a giant neural network like on  Pandora ? -PTS

The 9 to 5 has lately taken centre stage in my life. I find it hard to muster the energy to pick up a book at night, not to mention getting the creative juices flowing in writing a post.  This week my job has taken me to Adelaide. Despite eating well, the 9 to 5 has become the 8 to 10.  I am back in town now, but my PADI open water dive course is about to start. Is it really necessary to have ten hours of e-learning before the first class? Life right now is busy but exciting! It will be just perfect if I can find more time to blog. -PTS

I would like to start a research project on.... What? I don't know yet, but here are some topics worth exploring: 1. Origin of the universe 2. Origin of life 3. Rise of consciousness 4. Purpose of life These are difficult questions, some would even say impossible to answer.  Well, this is exactly why I want to dig a little deeper. Why go for low hanging fruits if the ones at the top are sweeter? Enough said. Let's get started!  -PTS