Philsophical Questions for the Modern Age

1.

If a tree falls in the forest
but is recorded by
an automated survelliance camera
and later the video ends up on YouTube
but people only watch it with the sound off,
did that tree make a noise?

2.

What happens to your Facebook account when you die?

3.

There are billions of fabulous human beings in the world. Why do we so often feel alone?

- Jim DuBois

Like a Radio Wave (Sept 2002)

Like a radio wave,
  moving steadily outward
    into the universe

Like a radio wave,
  or an echo,
    or light travelling from distant stars,
      informing viewers of events
        that are already well past
          in history

Like a radio wave,
  having no fixed point,
    only appearing
  to exist
    when there is a radio

Like language,
  encoded and encryted
    meanings –
      meaningless
        without a listener

Like a moment of history,
    or a book,
  sending out ripples of influence
    into the future

Has the moment passed?
    …
  Or just some of it?

Like evolution and procreation,
  providing an unbroken line,
    a varied but cohesive system of life forms

-- One moment,
                many appearances

Just one moment
  without a beginning or end
Just one self-modifying,
  everlasting moment,

Expanding like the universe,
  being picked up once in a while
    by various
      sensors and receptors.

Just a moment of existence,
    like a radio wave,
      moving outward.



-Jim DuBois

Rollerblading around at night (June 28, 2007)

I felt pretty cool
rollerblading around
at night

until I skated
through a huge nasty
dog turd

but didn't find out
til later
when I took my skates off

and grabbed them
by the bottom
and said,

"What's that?
It looks like...
oh, shit!"

I was at Stop & Shop
and wanted to buy
some fruit

but decided
to wash my hands
first

only,
the water pressure
in the bathroom sucked.

I also thought
I might wipe off
my rollerblades

but the bathroom
only had an air dryer
and no paper towels.

"I think
this is one of those times
the Buddha talked about

where you think
one thing will happen
but it never does

and you end up
pissed off
because you wished it would have,

and if you could only
get over that expectation
you'd be fine."

And Jesus would probably say,
"Skate through a turd
with your other skate."

or: "Blessed are those
that step in shit
and don't complain."

Well, I don't want to make
those guys
look like assholes,

so I'll do my best
to shrug it off
and forget about it.

But it still sucks
to have dogshit
on your skates.



    -Jim