The Nocturnal One’s blog

Death is forever

Only one thing is certain
It's useless to pretend
That there is something more
All things will end
Death is forever

No soul and no rebirth
No reincarnation
This world that we live in
Is our final destination
Death is forever

All words are dust
Echoes of the past
Knowledge and understanding
None of it can last
Death is forever

Mountains crumble
And stars explode
There is no coming back
From that final road
Death is forever

Memories are lost
Until there's nothing left at all
Your love, your hope, your trust
Will fade beyond recall
Death is forever

No God and no heaven
No hell where you burn
Once you are gone
You will never return
Death is forever

The end of all things
The heat death of the universe
Stagnation eternal
Will never be reversed
Death is forever

Death is forever

Its time to share a recent experience I had at the Drake Hotel, in Toronto.  Now, this is supposedly a very good, very trendy sort of place.  I was there because a friend of mine was supposed to have a birthday party there.  So I'm in T.O. early (I was there on business), with a nice card and a gift and hoping have a nice relaxing time.  Well, they have a "hostess" at the door downstairs who is reasonably helpful, but no-one with a name anything like my friend's is there.  She lets me in to look around and, sure enough, no party of that sort.  Thats ok, maybe I'm early.  There's a nice patio where I can hang out and look around occasionally for someone I might recognize.  I hang out on the patio, getting bored and annoyed.  I make it 45 minutes or so before any of the wait staff actually offers me a drink.  What a good start...I order a drink.  About 20 minutes later, someone actually brings me the drink.  Life is better and I chill some more.  At some point, I order another drink.  Now at this point, something unusually good (for me) happens.  A good-looking blonde sitting with a couple of guys invites me over to their booth.  Its just a normal friendly gesture for her, but you actually don't run into that many people with such an outgoing nature. By this time, I'm pretty sure my friend isn't going to show at all, so I tell them about it.   "Oh, I hate it when that happens!"  Yeah, me too...  They're all very cool, nice and interesting people.  My second drink arrives, and I think this isn't so bad, maybe I'll just get drunk here tonight.  The cool people talk and make plans and more arrive and then they leave, so I'm back to being bored.  But now I have a nice corner booth all to myself.  Pretty soon, a group asks if they can sit there, and I say sure.  They
're a bunch of mostly girls celebrating a birthday.  Eventually, the waitress arrives to take our order.  By now it's been 45 minutes to an hour for me - pretty slow when you want enough drinks to get drunk.  They order food and I ask for another drink.  I don't have as much in common with the Birthday Girls as I did with the Cool People, so I get kind of left at the edges, feeling alienated now rather than bored and annoyed.   20 minutes after that, I decide to look again for my friend and use the washroom.  Downstairs, its very crowded and there are huge lineups to get in - I have it pretty good in my uncrowded patio booth.  I'm gone MAYBE 10 minutes, no more.  I get back, more chatting, more whatever.  An half hour later, no lie, the waitress comes up to me and says "Oh my god here you are, I couldn't find you" and gives me my drink.  "I went to the washroom but I've been here the whole time."  Now most wait staff, when they find out a no-pay hasn't actually stuck them with the bill will try to improve their service to you.  Not this one.  She seemed to be avoiding us.  An hour later, the Birthday Girls talk about leaving.  They have to wait 10 more minutes to get the server's attention.  Everyone settles up, including me, and I order another drink.  Notice that the service has gone from slow to bad since I got there.  Now I'm bored and annoyed again.  I notice that the server actually does seem to be avoiding my booth.  At this point, I'm pretty sure that her outfit is what gets the tips, and not her service - She's dressed quite scantily.  Another half hour, and the waitress decides to make her service worse.  She shows up with two gentlemen and asks me to leave the booth.  One guy is pretty Arrogant about it, saying they made a reservation, part owner blah blah blah.  I'm pretty pissed at this point, from my friend not showing up and from not being ABLE to get drunk despite having over $300 in my pocket and I tell her I'm not leaving until I tell her just how bad her service has been.  I ask her how she can possibly expect a tip after the service she's given me.  At this point I'm perfectly ready to call over a manager and have a nice embarrassing scene.  Arrogant Guy surprises me by saying its ok, allowing me to stay and volunteering to hear my complaint.  The waitress fades away.  Arrogant Guy is a regular, and says
"Asia is usually pretty good."  So, now I know the name of the good-looking but totally useless waitress.  Arrogant and his friend (rival?) are actually very amusing people.  I don't actually get to finish my story, because they like to talk.  That's ok.  I manage to score a free drink when he buys a round.  Asia notices, but is busy sucking up to Arrogant.  At this point, one of the people from the Cool group earlier returns.  He recognizes me and is glad to see me, as the Cool People are long gone.  He's a VP of some kind, and he and Arrogant do the alpha male comparison thing for a while.  Asia comes back and takes a drink order.  She returns quickly(!!).  Everyone else's goes on the tab, but she brought the bill for mine and makes me pay right away, before one of the others can.  The VP and Arrogant both notice but we all let it slide.   More chat,  the four of us get along nicely and finish our drinks.  Asia returns and another round is ordered.  It comes, without mine.  VP notices and comments on this.  Very perceptive, VP!  VP pays for the round.  I am beyond caring - its been that kind of day.  Soon after, Asia comes back.  After all, there are two alpha males at this table...  VP orders the drinks, being specific about which ones he wants.  When she comes with them, VP whips out his platinum credit card and says "Put them on this"  At this point, it has become obvious that VP is the highest paid person at the table by a lot.  Now this really impressed me, because he had been taking calls off and on with his super-phone (better than everyone else's, natch).  Not only did he notice the problem, he managed to subtly put Asia in her place and buy me a drink at the same time.  I've mellowed a bit by now.  I would have left ages ago if I hadn't been meeting nice people all night.  Its getting on to 2 am so we all finish up and head out.  Asia manages to avoid seeing me again.

I check my email later and find out that my friend changed the location due to problems with the people at the Drake.  (What a surprise...)   So, not her fault that she wasn't there. (not this time anyway)

So now you know - avoid the Drake Hotel - it sucks!  And if you do go there, try to get anyone but Asia.

There is no such thing as Infinity.

Now when I say that, I have no objection to theoretical or mathematical infinity, as expressed by the sign ∞
But I say that in reality, there is no such thing.  This seems quite logical, and It turns out that this has all sorts of interesting ramifications.  So, lets look at some of them.

Not an infinite number of stars, but a very large number
Not an infinite amount of energy or matter
This in turn means:

The universe is finite - I believe this was proven fairly recently

Also, there is no such thing as infinitely small.

That means that there is a smallest particle
It also implies:

Time is quantized - time moves in little jumps, rather than a continuous motion
Space is quantized - there is a smallest unit of space, there are only a finite (but very large) number of locations between any two points.  If time and space are related, there may be a single unit of space-time.  This would go a long way towards explaining relativistic effects.  The time component expands as the space component shrinks, but the space-time unit keeps the same value.

There is no proof for Steve's Theory of Infinity, but I think it will be shown mathematically at some point.  Just you wait and see!

Maybe there is...

What D&D Character Are You?

Find your Chinese Sign

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

So, one time I actually got sucked in by a telemarketer.  Normally, of course, I like to keep the telemarketer on the phone as long as I can talking about anything BUT whatever they happen to be selling before I tell them I'm not interested.  I do this for any number of reasons.  One, it amuses me to waste the company's money.  Two, it is a great, often unexpected, way to kill time.  Three, I started to look at those phone calls as a good thing, a nice break in my day (that might be just me).  This is, BTW, an extremely successful tactic.  The bored minimum wagers on the other end are SO happy to speak to someone friendly who doesn't hang up that they will, indeed, chatter on about where they live, the hockey game, how much they like(hate) their job, or their boyfriend/girlfriend that my record time well exceeds an hour.  I also have a very good phone voice, honed by those same sorts of minimum wage jobs.   Anyhoo, this one particular one wanted to give me a FREE credit report, along with some credit protection BS that could be cancelled anytime after the free 2 month trial.  That intrigued me.  What do THEY know about me?   As it happens, I have a very common name.  The credit report was made up of at least three other people who were not me.   I still have it somewhere.  Secure at being mixed in with the crowd and difficult to track down credit/purchase-wise,  I cancelled the protection BS, gave away many of my possessions, and left for Europe.

What were you afraid of as a child that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by navelgazer.

     What's your favorite heartbreak song?
     Submitted by  esta86.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Submitted by Brennan.

I really don't care for these "qotd" things.  Do I really want to follow the sheep and add my answer to some inane question to a long list of answers from the blogging masses?  No, I don't.  This is my first and last posting to any "qotd" that happens my way.  If I could block out the "qotd" from my page, I would do it.  [/rant]

Cheers,

Steve

My profile icon was created here at the Portrait Illustration Maker.  I've liked them ever since my sister alerted me to their existence.