Some Parallels on Getting out of the Marines and Looking at the Stars differently

History does repeat itself. We can notice patterns of behavior and events that seem very similar. It just occurred to me that designing a new theory of star evolution (it is planet formation) is very much like when I got out of the service.

In the Marines, you have very strict standards of uniform, grooming, sayings, customs and courtesies (sp?), and the like. There are things you do that a Marine does, and even Army/Navy/Air Force or Coast Guard doesn't do, right down to the snappyness of the salute when an enlisted Marine walks past an Officer of any branch.

So when you get out of the Marines, and go watch movies with "Marines" in them, you can't help but to notice the differences. They stick out like crazy. The ribbons being off-center of the uniforms, the ties not being pulled tight on dress uniforms, the sleeves on the camo utilities being too sloppy for the rank (Gunny roles vs. Lance Corporal sleeves). You notice all these things. They stick out. It is okay to watch movies with some mistakes of uniform in them, or ways that Marines interact (esp. in my case the enlisted guys). I remember one movie the Marines were playing some tag football with gas masks and MOPP gear on in Iraq. I'm pretty sure that was NOT A FUN EXPERIENCE that the movie made it out to be. I remember doing some gas mask and MOPP gear drills in Okinawa at the base of Mt. Fuji on a nice steamy summer day, and holy shit. NEVER AGAIN. You feel as if all the water is coming out of your body at once from all pours, and breathing is quite labored. We even had a guy fall out and need to get the silver bullet, twice. They don't show that shit in the movies, when Marines fall out. Its embarrassing I guess, but its true. Heat can kill Marines, you gotta drink that water man! So important!

But anyways, I see all the differences between Marines in the movies and what I experienced. It is different, but to an untrained eye, or someone who is not a stickler for details, the differences just fly right over their head. It stinks now though. I can't watch movies with Marines in them for the most part, unless it just has them going back to civilian life and they are transitioning back in their minds back to normal life. That shit is hard. Lots of culture shock. I just notice too many differences and it is hard to accept what the actor is doing and saying, vs. what I went through. I can't get absorbed in it. Like grenades going off in a fireball. Ugh. LOL They don't make fireballs, they are just puffs of smoke and dust. The thing you REALLY notice is that it is deafeningly loud if you're close enough. If a grenade goes off within 100 yards of you, you'll know it even if you are in a building.

The same goes with stellar evolution (planet formation). Now that I understand how stars evolve (they cool, collapse and lose mass becoming planets), I can't watch popular TV programming, or science channel stuff that talks about it. It stinks. I know what actually happens to the stars, I know why Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are so different. I know why Mercury's core is so large relative to its mantle, I know what stars create as they evolve over billions of years (its life itself if it evolves slow enough). These questions are already answered in a much more satisfactorily manner with this theory. I also can't listen to pod casts where they have some planet/star expert discuss recent developments, without groaning half the time. I can't read National Geographic magazines that discuss the supposed "black holes" that are claimed to formed after a star collapses (they don't form black holes when they collapse, they form giant rocks called "planets", because the energy is radiated away and the mass evaporates back into interstellar space.)

I just watched the 2014 Stephen Hawking movie about how Mr. Hawking did his work, his life with his wife and children with the debilitating and horrible disease. I watched it, and I liked it. I also noticed that there were patterns of cult of personality that took hold in larger groups. Ideas were shared and accepted and pushed into the public by sheer ego, not scientific validity. It just stinks. I see it all for what it is now, now that I understand what the stars actually become.