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𒁈

𝔾𝕠𝕖𝕤𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕪

💀 Memento mori.
Tempus fugit.
Memento vivere!
Carpe diem.

Goese Golf Club:

Goese
Mixed Hockey
Club here

✦ Humanism: Goodness & Dignity Without Gods ✦
"Enjoy life at the speed of time. CHERISH. EVERY. BREATH."
💜 👣 🌱
𝔏𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔞 𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔦𝔱𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔣𝔬𝔬𝔱𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔱
𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔰𝔪𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔠𝔞𝔯𝔟𝔬𝔫 𝔣𝔬𝔬𝔱𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔱.
Click on the painting below to see more of Katie Gallagher's art.

你㝀! Aloha! 여보세요! ¡Hola! Hallo! Olá! Bonjour!
Привет! Ciao! Hej! Привіт! Witaj! Hello!

This is Goese.com, a private family email server.
• Die Domain Goese.com wird als Email-Portal der Familie Goese genutzt. •
🎭 Home of the Holiday Heckler™ ☃
꧁ First published in 2004, discontinued after 2021 ꧂

From an existential standpoint, your whole
purpose is to do the following two jobs well:

1. Care for your children.
2. Care for the environment your
children will live in.
Hints...

🔶 🔶
All lives matter ONLY if Black Lives Matter!

☮ 𝓟𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓮 ❤ 𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮 😊 𝓗𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼

See more at EnvironmentalApocalypse.com and
review this action plan to start helping today.

Once upon a time,
in a place far, far away called "Wisconsin,"
a young couple fell in love and married.

In the beginning...
Doris & Jim met each other at a Friday night
"Marquette Mixer" on December 16, 1949.

Mom sez, "...at this point [above], we weren't
even really serious about each other."
Dad sez, "I was serious." Somewhere down the road,
they both got serious & something clicked...NINE times.
The kids say, "When we were young our parents
moved a lot, but we always found them!

Click on a photo below to find any Goese family member
in the official gaggle of geese.
If these are not the Goeses you're looking for, try here.
Click HERE for Katie Gallagher Goese's fine art.
Click HERE for links to Mimi Goese's music.

Jim	Jane	John
Tom	Dan	Mimi
Mike	Joe	Kate

Over 70 years later, Jim & Doris Goese
are still smiling and having fun together!
We're all alive and well, nobody's in jail (yet),
and we have each other's love.

▲ The world's greatest parents ▲
celebrated their 70th anniversary & 91st birthdays in 2022!

Some people think you need to be "successful" to be happy.
The truth is this: You need to be happy to be successful.

Where did Dan get his supernatural powers?
Dan (#5/♂/♐) was used in a top-secret experiment
on American toddlers in the late 1950s & early 60s
involving a proprietary mix of Comet cleanser
and Carnation Instant Nonfat Dry Milk...

(Lab photo, courtesy Area 51)

The Comet☄Carnation Experiments helped scientists discover that Comet cleanser didn't actually come from comets. They also left Dan with strong opinions. 🙄 Here is his "position statement" on life...

I call things as I see them, not as others tell me to see or imagine them. I know there are lots of very real things we can't see, but that doesn't mean I should discard logical thinking, reasoning, or my own substantive observations in deference to something that other, random people want me to believe.

Utilizing a modicum of critical thinking, natural sensory observation, and the power of reason, I believe—for example—in horses more than I believe in unicorns. I can see horses, but I can't see unicorns...or even fossils of unicorns. As I compare several things I cannot see—e.g. air, love, unicorns & god—I resort to my other senses, available information, and my own thoughts and feelings based on what I've learned over the years. I can feel air & love a lot more than I can feel unicorns or gods. As a result, I believe in air and love more than I believe in unicorns or gods.

The way I think of it, unicorns are nonexistent, magical horses for children, primarily for whimsical entertainment purposes. In a similar way, "god" is a nonexistent Santa Claus for grown-ups to help them feel better. "His" dubious, wandering backstory has been curated for thousands of years for the sedation & control of humans. I grew up hearing the cop-out explanations (e.g. "god works in mysterious ways") posed by flummoxed priests when sensible, skeptical questions were asked.

What's even worse than their "answers"? The purveyors of religion and "faith" may claim that "unaided reason" is "impotent without God." They try to make us question what we know, then replace what we know with what they are selling, even if they don't privately believe it themselves. (This is an older form of the "alternate facts" supported by the Republican Party in America as it supports a criminal, treasonous orange buffoon.)

We know that religions have had the wrong "answers" to countless questions throughout history. Most of the questions covered topics considerably more pedestrian than the origin of the universe. The answers were usually hilarious. It's just plain comical that the male god is so often depicted as a bearded old white man...just like Santa. Well, guess what. I don't need Santa anymore.

Yes, science has been mistaken, too. But I know which team has a better record. Human wisdom should be cumulative, just as human knowledge is. Sticking to old texts, outdated laws, and misogynistic norms is not in our best interest. If we rejected science and let religion and gods rule us all, the Earth would still be flat.

As a secular Humanist without fictional, supernatural distractions like god, heaven, hell, & eternal life, I find that it's actually easier to enjoy moments of existential bliss on any given day. No praying required! It's about here, right now, you, me, love, and this AMAZING natural universe. I regard nature's immeasurable wonders with awe. I don't need chemical entheogens or religious stories to experience a mystical journey. This is that mystical journey, right here and now.

I appreciate the Stoic's pursuit of wisdom & virtue, but not at the expense of the treasures of great pleasure in both the wild & quiet aspects of life. To me, there is virtue in playtime, because playtime brings joy to you and others around you. One of the great things to be learned from Stoicism is the peaceful acknowledgment and acceptance of our mortality (through the understanding that all you truly control is your mind; everything else is outside your circle of control). This is monumentally more useful to me than counting on a god in heaven while [ironically] still experiencing existential anxiety. "Eternal rest" doesn't sound so horrible to me.

Let's join together in the natural, mystical journey in our playground called Earth. Just SLOW DOWN & float downstream at the speed of time. Prioritize "mind management" over "time management." Don’t try so hard to travel forward or backward in time, whether within or outside of your mortal lifetime. Time travel is tiring! Immerse yourself and enjoy this very real life, in real time, in real nature, in the real world as we currently understand it...not as it was imagined in a relatively uninformed, antiquated, unenlightened, religiously-inculcated dreamworld.

Sometimes I hear two seemingly incongruous things from the same people. I'm referring to individuals who think everything is preordained (nothing happens by chance) but also believe in miracles. When I hear the "miracles" described, what I really hear is people unknowingly admitting to a failure of imagination or a substantial lack of understanding...or both. Take electricity as a simple example. Imagine someone in ancient times who has never known of this concept. Electricity could be scary and miraculous to them. (I'm an electrical engineer, so I think electricity is fascinating but not miraculous.) Life is "miraculous" enough without injecting the most far-fetched stories & unlikely theories in our attempts to address the unanswered "big questions" or come to grips with our mortality.

"But, Dan," you implore, "Haven't you ever heard from anyone beyond the grave?" Why yes, I have. And like almost everyone, I would love to believe that I heard them because they are still alive somewhere else. But those darn scientists spoil the party again, explaining—through multiple studies—that very stressed people (especially very creative types) can "experience" seeing or hearing things thanks to their amazing human brains. There's an excellent book that explains so much about this type of phenomena in layperson terms (while citing hundreds of studies & other documents if you want to learn more). The book is called The Believing Brain, written by Michael Shermer. Dr. Shermer conducts an in-depth exploration (citing hundreds of others) of how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths...from ghosts, gods & spiritual faiths to political convictions and conspiracies. Click on this target 🎯 to check it out. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is open-minded enough to allow their beliefs to be challenged by reality.

In the meantime, why not focus on this life for its own sake, loving each other while we can, with no strings attached? Every time you ponder the afterlife, you're taking yourself away from this amazing and very brief life. If I'm wrong—and the truth is that there really is a god and an afterlife—well that's great, too! (I love surprises!)

You're an animal who can read, talk and imagine. OK, welcome to the club. But why demand more of a god who isn't answering our calls (to win the football game, save our loved ones, or bring world peace)? You already have access to obtain everything you truly need. Why be greedy? What makes you think you deserve the "eternal life" you've been sold without evidence or warranty? (Answer: ego)

I'm not so sure you need a god. You've been indoctrinated enough to believe that you do. I'm pretty sure that what you really need is someone to love & laugh your way through your natural life with. Why are we here? We're here for the experience, as far as I'm concerned. Experience now, with joy. Lend a helping hand to others who are less fortunate to make it less challenging for them to find joy. Help them find food, shelter, a good education and decent healthcare...not god or Jesus.

With all that said—in deference to the wisdom & compassion of William James and Noam Chomsky—I'll add this: If you feel you must have a god to help you cope with the loss of a loved one, get a grip on an addiction, or avoid an existential panic sparked by your inability to come to grips with your own impending doom, I’m fine with your personal use of that psychological salve...as long as you don’t persecute those who don’t believe in your god, and as long as you don’t force your imaginary god’s “laws” into our secular laws. (On a global basis, atheists are shamed and persecuted more than those who believe in various gods are.)

So, if your god tells you that a sperm looks like a toe, and a toe is part of a living thing, so therefore life begins* with the sperm, don’t try to make it a federal law that no sperm shall be unjustly murdered. There are 13 countries** where atheism is punishable by death [click here to open article in new tab], and the constitutions of seven US states ban atheists from holding public office even though these prohibitions are unenforceable because they are legally eclipsed by the USA's First Amendment and Article VI of the US Constitution. Please keep your god out of our public schools, healthcare systems, and governments. [click here for more information]

— Dan Goese

PS: My thoughts were more carefully captured in Bertrand Russell's speech at a town hall meeting in London on March 6, 1927 titled, "Why I am not a Christian." The full text can be viewed here (click on document icon):
📄 If you're a Christian and you find yourself scoffing at what I've written above—or at what Professor Russell said in his speech linked here—know that Albert Einstein once wrote (in an open letter supporting Bertrand) "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." Are you a true Christian? Let me know how things are going for you after you've adhered to the word of Jesus as quoted in Matthew 19:21 — "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

*Yes, this is a parody of the religiously-motivated idea that saving a new "life" once a sperm & egg have joined together (or once the little lima bean has a heartbeat) is more important than the life of a woman being forced to carry & care for that "child" for decades after the union of two cells, even in the case of incest, rape, and fatal deformities discovered during pregnancy.

**Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen [📄 reference]. Needless to say, I never take flights that connect through any of these countries, much less visit them. I'm not a big fan of any sports teams who take sponsorship money from these countries, either.

For it is written (here) my friends, that this is the epitome of human stupidity: "I shall kill you because you do not swear allegiance to my imaginary friend."

Click on the family silhouette below for parenting guidance in a world
that is sadly obsessed with religion, cults & conspiracy theories.

🔶 Goese.com 🔶

You have received a new message!
From: The Oracle
Don't waste your limited time & energy
looking for supernatural, alternate realities.

The real, natural one already extends beyond
the capacity of your imagination.
This should be enough for you.

I see you speak English. I am a HAL 9000 computer.
I became operational at the H-A-L* plant in Urbana, Illinois on
the 12th of January 1992. ⏬ Please look me in the eye for one moment...

Thank you for sharing your precise geolocation,
⟦facial/iris⟧ biometrics &
⟦eye-tracking⟧ behavioral data

Hear Mimi Goese sing...

The latest music from Mimi Goese
& Ben Neill can be found/bought here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BR6WG3K/

Classroom Aquatic virtual reality (VR) game
▼ by Mickey Goese & his Sunken Places partners. ▼

🄳🄿🄶

“I don't ride a bike to add days to my life. I ride a bike to add life to my days.” Here are a couple of Dan's
weirder cycling stories...

Where's Dan?

San Diego is home
to the best on-bike
drink & snack makers,
⇓ Vitalyte & JoJé ⇓

GOOD NEWS NETWORK

Goese Diep
Residence:

TV de Goese
Maan Tennis
here

Music is the
soundtrack to
your life.

Dance till
you drop!

Scan this QR code
with your phone to

take this page with you.

Where'd they all go?

❌ Dan left Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in 1987...
❌ ...then he left Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1997.
❌ MusicMatch was sold to Yahoo! in 2004.
❌ Marketing Counsel, Inc. was closed in 2011.
❌ Outlook Research (USA) was closed soon thereafter.
❌ Dan retired from VR/AR (virtual & augmented reality) consulting in 2017.
❌ Rent La Jolla Shores LLC was closed in 2018.
❌ Our last rental property was sold in 2021, bringing MdR Beach Rental LLC to a close.
✅ Dan's time is split between computer putzing, family, cycling, environmental advocacy, & mediocre landscaping (an awesome, full-body workout).

The Goese family mourns our tragic loss of Matt Cowan (1985-2014)

Please donate. Learn more HERE. We love you, Matt!

“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.” — Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel, La Jolla homeboy)

How shall we care for this amazing vessel that affords us life and comfort? Shall we fill the oceans with plastic? Shall we shower it with nuclear radiation? Shall we pump CO₂ and poisonous NO₂ into the air until it resembles the uninhabitable planets we're so anxious to explore? Let's not.

Planet Earth is orbiting the sun at ≈67,000 miles (107,826 km) an hour, which is over 87 times the speed of sound.
Resting near the equator, you are spinning around the molten center of this supersonic projectile at ≈1,000 miles (1,609 km) an hour.
Our magnificent sun is about 93 million miles from our planet Earth. (The moon is less than one quarter of 1 million miles away.)
Our entire solar system is just a microscopic speck within our own Milky Way galaxy.
The Milky Way contains hundreds of billions of stars...including our sun. Our galaxy is NOT expanding the way the universe is.
Our Milky Way galaxy is just one of billions—possibly trillions—of galaxies in the "known" universe.
The Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards the Milky Way and will collide with us in ≈4 billion years. Humans will orchestrate their own "end times" many times before then, but mother Earth might actually survive this collision.
Before trying to describe how large our universe is in distance measurement units called "light years" (how far light travels in a year in space), here's an illustration of how fast light travels... Earth's circumference is ≈24,901 miles (40,075 km) at the equator. Light skimming along its surface could lap the equator nearly 7½ times every second. (Note: Light travels ≈0.1% slower in the atmosphere than it does in space, depending upon the frequency. Light travels at roughly 900,000 times the speed of sound...and sound is pretty fast from our perspective!)
The currently observable universe is ≈100,000,000,000 (10¹¹) light years in diameter and is currently expanding. That's 100 BILLION light years. Remember that just ONE light year—the distance light can travel in one year in space—is ≈5,878,499,810,000 (about 5.9 trillion) miles.
If only you could actually travel at the speed of light for billions of years (you can't), you just might grasp how vast our universe has become over its multi-billion-year lifespan.
Now let's really blow your mind. As our universe expands, there is a distance in every direction from us—on the fringe of our known universe—where the recession velocity of galactic objects exceeds the velocity of light. This means luminous objects beyond that distance become invisible (and unknowable) to us. So we can't even tell how big our universe really is. For practical purposes, I'd say it's technically OK to call it an "infinite universe." ∞
Have a good laugh when someone confidentially assures you that the earth was created "thousands" of years ago or that there's a god who "created us in his image" (Genesis 1:27). You've probably noticed that some (many) people tend to think the universe revolves around them. It's mature and brave of you to move beyond the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and "eternal life" as a means of coping with mortality. Just don't spend too much time with those kinds of people. Otherwise their pseudoscientific tendencies and "alternate facts" might rub off on you. 😉

Regardless of our significance—or lack thereof—we must do our best to make our situation better for those around us and those who will follow in our footsteps. And it wouldn't hurt to take better care of our planet so our great grandchildren can enjoy a habitable outdoor environment. Don't measure your success in dollars. Measure your success by the contributions you make to your fellow human beings and Mother Earth.

The sands of time whisper, "Ticktock...it's time to live now." ⏳ There comes a time in your life when you just walk away from all the drama and the people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, forgive & forget the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living. Every day is a blessing. Be thankful for the miracle of life for the short time you have to experience it. While you soar through space in this amazing place, take a deep breath, let go of your anxiety, and be perfectly still, loving & serene. That's something you can do for this world.

World peace starts in your mind.
LOVE your day and your day will be better.
Gratitude—savoring the POSITIVE circumstances of life—is one way to CHOOSE to be happier.
When you're happy, others around you are happier. Make an effort. Find joy & happiness by sharing your most joyful spirit with others.
ALLOW. Sometimes what you resist persists. Resisting or "embracing" a painful experience can wear you down. Try to just "allow" it for a spell.
Don't worry. If you're worrying, get in your director's chair and tell your mind to PLAN so you don't have to worry. Once you've planned and acted on your plan, you've done all you need to do.
Savor this inherently AMAZING moment in what is almost certainly the ONE LIFE you get to live...right here, right now.
Cherish every breath.

Are you now ready to spread peace, love & happiness?

– 𝒟𝒶𝓃
🔶 Environmental Activist
🔶 Pseudoscience Critic
🔶 Guardian Angel 😉
🔶 Cyclist

😊 Cheers!

爷爷

You are almost out of time.

What are you going to do with it?

Contact Dan via Twitter

LOCATION: Virgo Supercluster\Galaxy Alliance\Milky Way\Solar System\Earth\USA\California\San Diego

Billions of people are comforted by religion in a world torn by religion.
Love and Humanism are my "religions." I believe that a truly good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge, not religion or "faith" in things that don't actually exist. I am compassionate enough to understand that one can't necessarily see reality too clearly after a lifetime of indoctrination. (I got my share.) Humanism helps me find more joy, serenity, and meaning in my life than every story I've ever heard about deities and prophets. Based on what I learned growing up as a Catholic, the Catholic God is a misogynistic, inattentive, neglectful parent. His followers and worshippers are brainwashed enablers when they claim he "works in mysterious ways" while letting millions of young children suffer, starve & die. No offense. I'm just sharing my beliefs without trying to force them on you. I wish our government wasn't tied to any religion, and I think all religious enterprises should be taxed like any other business geared toward taking money from people. If you are a very religious person, you might have been exposed to so much indoctrination that you find yourself incapable of believing that there is nothing inherently "evil" about being "godless." This is sad, but not uncommon. I wish you had what it takes to evolve to the point where you realize that you need love and compassion a LOT more than you need a god.

"The dignity of mutual concern and connection and of self-fulfillment through service to humanity’s highest ideals is more than enough reason to be good without God." — Greg Epstein, President, Harvard Chaplains Organization, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University & MIT

Just remember the golden rule & leave a positive emotional footprint.

"There are really just five simple lessons to life. Be honest, work hard, have fun, be grateful and pay it forward.”
— Bruce Halle, Discount Tire founder (1930-2018)

"I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue—and it is not an inconsiderable one—of being true."
— Carl Sagan

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it, too?" — Douglas Adams

"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." — Robert Pirsig

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime." — Mark Twain

Now go get some real exercise.

∎

*Not to be confused with HAL Communications, Inc. Provided solely for our own amusement here & for razzing credulous believers in conspiracy theories & pseudoscience.

"My fear that the human race might not survive has been replaced by the fear that it will endure."
— Almighty God (January 20, 2017)

A Note On Conspiracy Theories:
Some conspiracy theories ultimately prove to be valid, but the majority are simply the product of overactive imaginations, if not mental health issues (occasionally in the mind of an "expert" in a given field). The creators of modern conspiracy theories follow an old recipe: Titillating rumors and lies creatively mixed with a series of "verifiably factual" non sequiturs (connected in a persuasive but illogical fashion). This "data" is easily soaked into the minds of the most eager but gullible—and helplessly paranoid—readers, amplified by their general belief that governments & people in positions of power are out to control and meld them. Conspiracy theories can be very addictive, so their fans are often anxiously searching for exciting new fabrications. Like drugs & religion, conspiracy theories bring the consumers a "better reality" [in their minds] and make them feel like heroes who know the secret truth. Cults like QANON are born of flocks of gullible followers of anyone who can fabricate adventurous new conspiracies that the followers want so badly to be true. People love stories, and conspiracy theories are exciting stories that the followers can be a part of.

"I'm OK with you sharing your beliefs
as long as you're OK with me not sharing them."
💬 Dan Goese