Thursday, May 30, 2013

Shallowity

Here I thought I had invented yet another word, until I realized that there are people hidden in the depths of this electronical happy land that seemingly actually believe that "shallowness" is spelled "shallowity".

Hi, btw.


Since I'm sure that you didn't already notice (slight sarcasm, since I'm certain you didn't realize that either), I am to inform you that I have made two major changes to the layout of my blog. I added a title picture, and changed the background picture into something that actually wasn't just a blogger template.

I already know that many of you will hate that fact from the core of your beings, since there are quite a few people that can't stand the strong contrast between black and bright colors. Also you might argue that the pictures kinda melt into eachother, and that something just feels off, but I'm sure you'll get used to it. People always seem to adapt...

It's funny how so many people seem to hate change at first, but after a while the same people would refuse to revert to their previous conditions. Then again, some people want nothing but change  (no pun intended)...

NO! This post was supposed to be shallow; I'll try not to get off track again only to speak of society and such things...


Anyhow, I for one like those kinds of dark backgrouds with symmetrical light-formations on the top layer.

That's why I fell in love with one quite awesome website that one of my friends showed me.

You'd have to be pretty unskilled to not be able to make anything that looks artistic using it. The online program (app) uses wonderful mathematics combined with beautiful symmetry so that everyone can create unique pictures in matters of seconds without even needing to have a conscious thought!



Here is a larger version (if you click on it) of my new title picture:





Made in about five minutes using only my mouse pad...




I must say that I love symmetry... But humans are kind of programed to do so. Ever heard of the golden ratio? Google will actually lend you a virtual calculator if you google it.


Hghuööhh.... I hate how blogger want's such a low size (300kb) as a max for a picture in the background of ones blog. That's why I settled for a few vertical light "beams" (not really though, since the shape is different, but I'm unsure of what to call them). I even had to change the format from PNG to JPEG so that the picture would fit.


Speaking of fitting, It was a hell of a job to get the pictures to fit somewhat okay, especially since my internet doesn't work that well at the moment, but oh well. There is not much capable of making me gloomy this close to my summer vacation =)


One thing that is sad with Weavesilk (the website I used to create the classy pictures), is that it's not all too easy to make art that actually symbolises something (which is one reason as to why this entry is named shallowity, another being that I wanted it to feel a bit more like my earlier entries), but it's not impossible. I also happend to cross paths with quite nice references made using weavesilk (click). Since the application uses mathemathic formula it's possible to calculate the outcome of what you're doing. If you haven't yet, you should really try weavesilk out! I've already spent around an hour with it.



So anyway, I've made pretty many mediocre and short musical pieces lately, but nothing that new or impressive. Thus, I shall once again link you to an improvisation that I've made in the past (maybe half a year ago?).

It's actually a cover improvisation, on the song "Walking in the Air". It's full of mistakes, and random stuff, but since it's long and still sounds quite good and relaxing I sometimes listen to it while writing...



On a side note, I've altogether reached more than a thousand reads on this blog as of now.

Here are some milestones:





I noticed that I had suddenly reached 999 pageviews, so I decided that I wanted to be the thousandth viewer myself, because that's why!



Worth to take into consideration is that probably around 100 of those thousand pageviews are my own, and that around 100 views were linked from a weird website called topblogstories.com, which is apparently a weird pornsite... I can't comprehend why it links to my blog, but oh well...




When i took this screen capture, topblogstories.com was already responsible for 73 of my pageviews, and I noticed a sudden increase in viewers from countries that wouldn't otherwise find my blog. Apparently topblogstories is more popular in countries such as Greece and Estonia...





So yeah...

That should be about it for now (although I'm sure I forgot to mention something...). I'll make a better blog post when I have time and feel like doing some actual writing.



Until then, take care!


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

At the Verge of Giving Up


Have you ever felt nigh to giving up on something?

I know I have.
And sometimes, I've actually decided just to leave a matter as it is. I'm sure that you neither haven't always done everything that you at some point intended to do. And we will all continue to do just this; give up.


Giving up can be interpreted very broadly. Giving up doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Then again, it often is.


Sometimes, I just get this feeling that nothing, ultimately, matters. In the end, all traces of what you've ever done will probably disappear. It might take several thousand years, possibly millions or even BILLIONS of them. But nevertheless, all that you have ever been proud of, all that you have succeeded with, even failed with, will at some point cease to exist, even from known history. This is of course, presuming that there is no afterlife. This is most likely one of the strongest reasons as to why many choose to be religious. That, and the lack of other hope; thus reverting to blind one.


You can give up on many things, it doesn't have to be that dramatic. Maybe your homework has sometimes been too tricky for you to feel like doing it. Or maybe, you have just been far too lazy to do anything.


However, giving up can easily be understood as giving up on life. For a reason or another, all people capable of emotion have at some point been feeling down. Some of these people may have felt that they're just like what we've discussed; at the verge of giving up. Hell, in this large world, there are people feeling like that right now!

You don't usually go around thinking of it, but there are thousands, probably many more, suffering for various reasons at the moment. Some of those people, might be feeling that there is nothing worth living for. There is only pain, whether physical or emotional.

There are millions of people hiding their emotions by daylight, crying in the shadows.
Are you one of them?


You might be. The numbers are quite scary. If i recall correctly, approximately ten percent of adults and teens are currently depressed, at least in western society. That means that right now, some people that you know well, possibly you yourself included are likely to not be that happy on the inside. Depression is actually a quite scary mental disorder, and yes, it counts as a disease even though the words sound harsh.


I wouldn't know the real sensation of depression first hand though. I have been far too lucky in my life to have any real reason to feel down. But based on what I've heard, that can be one of the most terrifying parts of depression. Not even knowing why you are sad. Sometimes, maybe there doesn't even have to be a reason?


I might not have ever really felt that way myself, but in a way, I can still relate. I'm sure you can too. Have you not sometimes just... Felt empty?


To me, this feeling has never been of severe importance. It has dissapeared in a matter of hours, or sometimes days. This feeling of emptyness can be provoked by outer reasons, for instance after finishing a good tv-series that lately has been consuming far too much of your time. This I would like to call: "Artificial depression". However, sometimes this silent sorrow can appear seemingly from nowhere. Now, can you imagine always having to live feeling like there is such an empty hole in you, only capable of being filled with grief?


These things often lead to sucidal thoughts, at some point. I have never had any, except for "jokingly", if you will. I'm sure I'm not alone to from time to time having weird thoughts crossing my mind. But in all seriousness, I'm generally quite joyous. In a way, it's kinda scary that I, at least as far as I can reminisce, haven't lost a single teardrop due to sorrow in possibly up to seven years. I might be wrong, but at least I know that it is as far as can be from frequent.

But really, what is the purpose of taking your own life, unless it's self sacrifice? I mean this from an evolutionary stand point. If the goal is to live and prosper, how can one benefit from doing the opposite; die and wither?

The answer is as far as I can see, in no way. It cannot even be applied to survival of the fittest. Not even close to all people who commit suicide are necessarily "weak". Naturally, there are what I would call "justified" suicides, although they seem to be more rare than the opposite. I can understand if someone chooses to give their life up in advance, if they only have physical pain in the form of uncurable cancer left to live for. There are of course, a multitude of other seemingly logical reasons as well, hence, I support euthanasia.

Still, is this empty sorrow really a reason to pass up on the one chance of living that we get?


No matter how sad you are, if there is even a slight chance for things to get better, I think resigning your life is of utmost stupidity.

I can understand if giving up might feel easy, it often is. But is it good? That depends.


I give up on something pretty much every day. For instance, today I tried to compose something good sounding for the piano, but after one hour of not really getting the results that I wanted, I gave up for the moment.

This does however not in any way mean that I'll never try again, because I'll probably already be at it again tomorrow. Most things, you can give up on for a while, only to regain them later. One of the few things this is not true for, is your life. If you loose it fully, you'll never get an opportunity to retrieve it.






Just some food for thought.





I drew this castle long ago, during art class. Sadly, it doesn't really symbolise anything. The thing about art class, at least in our school is that you have to follow certain instructions. We were supposed to draw something from this very perspective, and add something far away. It was also mandatory to have humans in the picture, for the sake of comparing size. Those shadowy figures on the walls is the closest to that that I was prepared to go. As you can imagine, in real life that castle would be more than humongous.













Anyway, there are two major reasons as to why I wrote this kind of an entry today. Firstly, I'm completely worn out mostly due to school this month. All the teachers seem to demand extra effort from you this close to summer, and everything seems to collide. Sometimes, it feels like it would be so easy just to not care about any of the homework, the essays that have to be written. The thought of just not giving a fuck about anything anymore; giving up, is tempting. However, I have managed this far, and now my long lost vacation is soon coming back to me.

Secondly, I had the weirdest dream a couple of nights ago. I dreamt about a cat, that seemed to be physically all fine. In this dream, I seem to have been aware of what the cat was thinking. Apparently, the cat had finished what it was supposed to do in life, and there was something about the cat having lost a loved one as well. Suddenly, I heard a cracking sound, and when I turned around, the cat was dead.

It's bones had somehow broken, and by the cats own will, they had pierced the small animal from the inside, so that the tips of the sharp bones were visible from the outside. The cat had nothing else to live for.
Thus, it had given up on life.


I don't know if there was any sense-making symbolism in that particular dream, but I believe that there sometimes can be. When my summer vacation arrives, I will write more about dreams whether you like it or not.



Until next time, don't give up.


Saturday, May 18, 2013

Who Are You?


Have you ever thought about who you really are?

I don't mean that in the sense of whether you are a good person or not, or even like what your characteristics are. What I'm asking is on a more philosophical level. Who is the you in you, what is your core being?


That might be a very difficult thing to answer. Humans are such complicated creatures, not only physically, but also mentally. But if we ignore the physical aspects of you for a while. Who are you?


A similar question is, What is consciousness, really? What is it that makes you aware? What separetes you from other animals? And not only from other animals; what separates you from other people, internally? Who are you?


If I remember correctly, by investigating split-brain syndrome and similar things, researchers have found that the internal speaking seems to be located in the left hemisphere of the brain, the left frontal lobe. But is your consciousness just that internal monologue, or is it something else? Who are you?


At least you can be quite certain that what you are is to a large extent bound to your brain. If your brain dies, but not the rest of the body, you are braindead. That is a point of no return, at least in this life, when your brain dies. With the help of a few machines, your body can still keep itself alive, but would you consider that as being you? No, without some form of awareness, your body is just an empty shell. So. Who are you?


My sister said, not long ago, that the concept of rebirth would be kind of cool, although she phrased it differently. "What do you mean?", was my response. Even if you had a soul, capable of being reincarnated, how would that new life in any way still be you? She meant that the new her would have the same kind of personality and such... I have never seen any point in thinking like that, since one very important thing would be missing from that new person; your memories.


The type of rebirth my sister had in mind already happens to some extent, at least that's the way I see it. When you die, your remains eventually turn into something else in this world. That's basically one of the major themes in The Lion King; the circle of life. Many of the particles that have at some point been in you are already in other people. And since humans often are so alike, many people already share a personality similar to yours. Still, you are as unique as one can be, and that is quite a lot. So who do you think you really are?


You are a mixture of many different elements, but I would say that we've gone through most of the key ones, except for your genetic inheritance, but that discussion doesn't belong here. The you in you, mainly consists of your body and its functions, your consciousness and everything that is hidden behind it, and not to be forgotten, your memories.


Without only one of these you couldn't really been seen as you. I think that that is a reason as to why people can easily get scared when there's something seemingly wrong with any of these three. What I mean is, people are afraid of things that look like they're supposed to be human, but they don't at least momentarily seem to function fully as one.


Imagine if someone you knew well, suddenly couldn't remember you even in the slightest. Wouldn't that be quite frightening? Same goes for when someones body doesn't seem to function normally, here is a clip to show you an example. And finally, if there seems to be something wrong with your consciousness, it can be quite scary as well, especially if you don't know the cause. Of course, if someone has drunk alcohol, that isn't necessarily scary at all. But again, imagine someone you know suddenly beginning to mutter about strange things, seemingly having gone crazy, would that be a fun experience?


This is probably one of the reasons as to why people are afraid of death, or rather than death itself; dead people. They are lacking in all of the three things I mentioned. They look human, yet, you know that there really isn't anything left of them, at least not the them in them; their core being is forever gone. They will never smile, nor move in any way, at least not intentionally. They cannot remember you, or recognize anything, and dead people don't think, as far as we know. At least I don't believe in a life after this one.


OneSketchist wrote an entry about how fragile life is, and how what used to be never can be exactly the same again. That is pretty much what inspired me to write an entry of this kind today. I have naturally thought of these things before though.


Anyway, he made an analogy between a cup of coffee that is spilled, and the one chance for a life that you get. When the cup of life is spilled, you can never regain it. That's just it. So you should strive to make your life worth living. Live so that you don't have to regret your actions when you're older.


I'll continue discussing this in a moment, but I'll use this opening between subjects to post a composition that I newly made. I just couldn't sleep one night, coincidentally the same night that I read OneSketchist's post. So I decided to play on my piano (synth) for a while, and I came to think about the cup of coffee. I accidentally composed a song. It's far from my best, but I tried to (somewhat sarcastically) fill the song with melodramatic emotion. Initially, the song was much sadder, but I added lots of other elements as well.

Spoiled Coffee (yourlisten.com)


Worth mentioning is that I just threw this composition together in a pretty short amount of time, so I just chose a random instrument and recorded a somewhat okay version of the song. It might remind you of something... I don't know.


(Edit: Warning, a large part of this following long section of this post is barely understandable to anyone but me, since I overcomplicate things, and I don't describe enough. Try understanding at your own risk. I would be VERY impressed if anyone understands everything that I try to say...)


So about that cup of coffee being spilled. You can never get that exact cup of coffee back. Or can you?

Short answer: No

Long answer: Possibly, but even if, then by definition, still no.


Let me explain.

Let's say that instead of spilling that one cup of dark liquid, you drink it. Is there any way to drink the same cup filled with that very same content again? Well, not unless time travel gets invented. I myself think that time travel won't ever work in a way that will allow for one to mess with reality in such a way, for a couple of reasons.


Firstly, let's say that you begin your time travel somewhere at earth that we'll call spot A. The odd thing (or rather, one of the odd things) about time traveling is to figure out exactly what travels in time. What is to say that exactly you (and let's say your clothes) stay out of the circle of the rest of the world, allowing for you to go between times. At least if you go backwards. Let's say that you enter a time machine. You get to watch the rest of the world fast forwarding backwards. Wait a minute? wouldn't you also see yourself walking away from the time machine, and if you go far enough back, seeing your time machine get un-invented. And what space would you take? Imagine that you go back exactly 100 years. what happens if a tree happens to be on exactly the same spot as you when you land in time?

and have you ever thought of this: If you use a stationary time machine, that doesn't move, what does it not move in relation to? What I mean is, why would the time machine be bound to earth? Due to gravity? Let's say that you go back exactly half a year in time, and that your time machine stays at the exact same spot. Won't you just end up in space? You see, the earth would have moved pretty much to the other side of the sun compared to where you are... Fail!


But let's use a more plausible method of time traveling, that is to say by moving. Basically, you can already in one way travel into the future (and not just as slowly as waiting a second for every second worth of time). If you go really far away from earth, time will still go as fast as usually for you, and you age as quickly as you normally would. Time will also seem to pass normally for the people on earth. But the fact is, that due to some natural laws, time would in a way pass differently for you and for everyone else.

If you spend, let's say 10 years, at a long distance from earth, and then you return, much more time will have passed on earth than will have passed for you. Isn't that kinda cool? (Btw, as usually, I havn't done any additional research, I'm just using my memory, so feel free to correct me anywhere I'm wrong XD).


I don't feel like trying to figure out exactly how time traveling would work, since no one really knows, although there are many theories. I don't think that I'll be the one to figure out the riddle, if it's even possible. But for a while, let's pretend that traveling back in time is really simple, by only snapping your fingers or something.



Let's return to that cup of coffee. What if it has been standing still for lets say ten minutes, before you drank it. You then snap your fingers and go 5 minutes back in time.

There the cup is again, and it's content is already in your stomach... You then drink it again. Have you now drunk the same cup of coffee twice?

You could go back even one minute further, and drink it a third time. But what's this?

You are not fast enough to drink all of the cup's contents in one minute, and all of a sudden, another you appears before your eyes from nowhere. You have now interrupted his capability to drink that one cup of coffee.

But if that person is really you... How many cups of coffee have you drunk?

You should have three cups of coffee in your stomach, or did two of "the same coffee" disappear when you hindered the drinking of it? And when exactly did you hinder the other cups of coffee from entering your belly?

Let's say you have only drunk half of the cup before you from the past/future shows up (your past, his future). Has exactly half of one cup of the same coffee disappeared and reappeared from your stomach, one particle at a time, or all at once, and why would the rules be bound to particles? Or has the entire cup of coffee that you drank earlier already dissapeared, since you picked up the cup again, the ruler of time already expecting that the other you is prevented from drinking the contents of the cup? What if you share the rest of the coffee with your future/past self. Is your stomach now refilled with the coffee he drinks? Or did the universe already forsee that you would share half of the coffee and never remove it from your stomach in the first place? Or is your belly not filled with the coffee at all, since future/past you probably won't end up going to the past in the same way anymore, and thereby becoming you, since the events occurred differently...?


How many cups of coffee are there now altogether, and where exactly are they? That would just be a clusterfuck of events. I'm too tired to think more deeply about it right now, and I'm sure that nobody was capable of following my train of thought, so maby stopping to complicate things more doesn't do too much harm...








Another thing though? Talking about who you are, would that person from the past, or a future you, really be you? What do you think? You probably have similar consciousnesses, and similar body structure. But your memories should by all means be different, shouldn't they? Are you really the same person anymore?

Who are you?







If there were two of you, and for some reason, one of you HAD to die.

Would you rather that YOU survived, or the other you? Which one is more... You?

Again... What defines the you in you?


Are you the same person throughout you entire life? Or are you at some point a different person?
And in that case, when does that shift occur? During your lifetime, all the particles in your body will have changed entirely, several times (at least according to Vsauce).

Some people go through radical changes in their life, and other people's lives are more stabile. Is a person that changes more often then altogether more people during his/her lifetime, than a person who lives a more stabile life?


When are you you? Are you ever the same person that you were a year ago? A day ago? A minute ago? Or are you a different person for every second that passes?

In that case, are you and let's say a you from the future really the same person? If two of you existed at the same time and one had to die, if we are honest... Wouldn't you kinda want to be the one that lives, since you have that YOU that you can feel and experience, where as you can't feel the other you's core being. Or could you if you existed simultaneously? No one would really know... But wouldn't holding two people's consciousnesses in one brain be a difficult task to perform, not to talk about even more yous...

It is similar between you and another person. You know they aren't you, since you don't have access to all the information they have access to and vice versa. Would you rather that you lived or some random stranger? Of course there are things like self sacrifice... But still...

So if the past you isn't you anymore... Who are you?


So I don't really buy time travel, not even if every separate time created a different universe... There are simply too many paradoxes... But you never know... Right?



Anyway, this post really turned out to get complicated, and difficult to read... Not only that... This is my longest entry thus far. It will have more than 2600 words when it is finished...
(EDIT: that is now doubled in another post...)


As you can see, the YOU in you is unique, and there is only one person that is really you. EVER! So don't go wasting that one life you get of being you, since you will be the only one ever to experience it. So tell me... Who are you?




On a lighter note, I have recently colored my hair. I just thought I might show you some pictures. I've actually dyed my hair once before, during my trip to japan (quite some time ago). So I'll show you two old and a new picture =)




This is pretty much what I look like right now. Quite different compared to earlier, ey?




This is what I looked like after my trip to Japan


And I just wanted to add this extra pitcture for your viewing pleasure. That's right. Looking at the younger me is a privilege (just kidding).




Speaking of who I used to be... Is that really me anymore?


First I figured i'd name this entry "Memories of time".


But instead I think I'll name it...





Who are you?



Saturday, May 11, 2013

Seeing Time Through Goggles



Ꭾoob wʜɒƚɘvɘɿ ɘvɘɿyonɘ! Onɔɘ ɒǫɒin ƚʜɘ ƚimɘ ʜɒƨ ɔomɘ; ƚʜɘ ƚimɘ ʇoɿ mɘ ƚo wɿiƚɘ on ƚʜiƨ dloǫ oʇ minɘ, ɒnb ʇoɿ you ƚo ɿɘɒb wʜɒƚɘvɘɿ iƚ iƨ ƚʜɒƚ I ʜɒvɘ wɿiƚƚɘn.

(If you just skipped the above text, I'm here to inform you that it is quite easily readable. notice that Ꭾ = G, ɒ = a, ɿ = r, ǫ = g. The rest is simply mirrored text).


(Try to ignore the title btw...)



I would like to write something interesting concerning psychology today, but since I yet again feel the lack of time creeping upon me, I think that I'll save that for another time.

During my summer vacation I promise to give you some better reading, but for now I'll keep my blog like it is; a mixture of anything conceivable.



Holy shit I'm listening to cool "Irish/celtic" music right now: Fear no Darkness. The guy who made this is a genius. You can listen to a playlist of pretty much every published song of his here.


Ehem, away from that side-note.
Now I'll force you to watch a series of most intriguing pictures.

I found some cool stuff when I was at my Grandparents' place yesterday. Among these were a pair of glasses. Goggles, to be more precise.

(There will be lots of pictures to lay your eyes upon in this entry).


These are actually wery old goggles, used for a specific purpose. They have once been part of a gas mask.

Here's a picture to give you a helping hand in figuring out how big the goggles are.


As you can see, the goggles don't fit, at least me, without the mask.


What is cool about these goggles is how they affect the light, or whatever is seen through them.

They are much more effective than say, a pair of goggles used when slalom skiing.
All colors are turned either into some tone of red, or become entirely unseparable from black.





I especially like that last picture. I like how all strong light looks through the goggles.

Sadly, these pictures do no justice to the feeling of actually wearing the goggles. Some details are really "lit up" and easier to see when wearing the old goggles, while other details almost wither into nothingness... Higligths and such things are wery easy to see whilst wearing the goggles. However, I'm not certain of what the goggles' function is supposed to be. any ideas?



Anyway, about some details disappearing, here are some examples.


Just a picture of a paper with some black text written on it?


Not really.



That text was written on the paper all along. Note how it was written using a red pen.

Since everything white is turned red, and everything red remains red, the text dissapears. (or becomes less visible, depending on how close the color of the text is to the color of the goggles).


Here's another picture showing the same thing.


This is of course, the same paper, only this time only half of it is seen through the glass.


Yet another cool thing is that this also works perfectly well when photographed in black & white. (Naturally, since the light isn't affected in any way, just the picture).


So there. That was all the pictures that I had of the goggles. I realize that some of you probably already got bored with the goggles, but I (for some strange reason) like to take pictures of the same thing many times from different angles and other minor changes being apllied.










Now that you maybe have finished listening to Adrian von Ziegler (if you ever did begin), you might have the time to listen to something that I made (not even comparable, but still).

I've had a lot to do lately, but that doesn't take too much out on my piano playing, so I have still managed to create something. actually quite a lot...

However, Instead of posting a composition, this time I will ask of you to listen to (at least a little bit of) an improvisation that I made, based on one of my song ideas.

The Song was so simple, that I didn't really feel like making it into a finished piece, at least not yet.

So I made a long improvisation based on it, that you can listen to here (youlisten.com) 


As you can notice, It is 17 minutes long (I often improvise even longer), so I don't expect you to listen to all of it, as it is also pretty repetitive.

The Improvisation is also full of mistakes, since only the base is planned on beforehand, nothing else (+ because I often try to play more difficult things than are in my range of capability).

Some of you might notice that it sounds similar to something else, at least I do. Probably something from FF7 or something...





Now, back to more interesting pictures! (as I said, this entry will be [and is] very picture rich).



I promise, the following picture has a point.



The picture is of me, in three different stages of life.

To the left I'm 11-13ish (at the time when I still played football [soccer, for all you Americans]).

In the middle I'm 15-16.

And finally, to the right I am yesterday, that is to say 18 years of age. (I often get comments about looking younger though).



Now why would I show you those pictures?


The truth is, I lied to you slightly.

One of those pictures isn't me...

This would be a perfect segway leading into a discussion of genes, but I don't feel like discussing biology right now...

That picture in the middle is actually a picture of my father, taken when he was young.
I know that there are some pictures where we look even more alike, but I couldn't find them (there are millions of pictures of both of us), oh well.


This somehow reminds me of a song...




 I just though it was cool how much he looked like me (or actually, how much I look like he used to look like). People have always said that I look a lot like my father, and I guess that the pictures are proof...

Actually it's not just our appearance that is similar, but we also move, and to some extent talk similarly (and we often think alike as well). The question is whether this has more to do with biology or psychology... 

Anyway, I just felt like sharing that, since the whole thing is almost creepy (at least to me).





Wow... Except for the pictures and the music this has to be my most boring blog so far (unless you know me well)...

I apologize, but as I said: When summer arrieves here, I'll try to write better and about more interesting things.


Yup. I think that's it.

Oh no! Wait!

I forgot to mention one thing. A new Swedish band Called Wintergatan just released their first album, which I found to be really cool. I suggest you go check them out.


Unbelivable... I finished an entry before 10 in the evening... Maybe I'm getting sick.



'Til next time.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Medieval Clay Snakes Expression Showing Its Mood While Discussing (I Think That Nobody Understands My Titles)

Ösyurbglhiymuirnballömbeesrsualglezs...

(Read only every second letter, starting with the first s).


That is how I intend to start this entry off. Greetings btw!




Since I didn't post any music piece last time I wrote, I'll begin by putting one here.

Medieval Adventure (yourlisten.com)


This one turned out to be kind of weird actually, but it made sense to me when I made it somehow...

I first decided to try composing something with a medieval theme, but that went as it did. I guess it sounds kind of medieval... Maybe... If you have a good imagination.

After 0:50 in the song it almost (at least to me) sounds like some kind of a russian nationalistic classical composition. Paruski, Paruski! (no, I'm not drunk)... At 1:30 it almost turns normal though...

Funny thing is, this whole song only uses three instruments, but It almost sound like it uses more.

What did you think of the composition? Should I actually try making it into something more serious a project than what I threw together today?






Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyhow.


Have you ever been involved in an intense discussion with a friend? (obviously a rhetorical question, unless you are a very sad person).

Have you ever felt like your partner in conversing has been on kind of the same mental wavelength as you?

Well, you most probably have.



There's actually a name for this kinda thing, It's called rapport. Rapport is a word quite similar in meaning to connection or bond. I often reach this stage in one on one discussions with my friends, mostly during nighttime.

The cool thing about reaching rapport with someone is that you feel and think pretty much exactly alike that other person for that moment (which can be quite lengthy). Both people's moods are the same, and they give room for eachother; let's say you're in a discussion and you have something you wish to say, while in rapport you can easily manage to wait for your turn to speak while actually really listening to that other person and understanding and processing what he/she says. And this all happens automatically.


Another fun phenomenon is that of time dissortion which also usually takes place during rapport. Everyone knows that usually when one is bored, time seems to pass by kinda slowly. If you however, are having a wonderful time, you know that the flow of time seem kinda fast.

When in rapport however, at least to me it seems like time goes even faster than so. It's not unusual that I saty awake for pretty much the entire night just talking, and besides, while in rapport one doesn't tend to get tired.


Basically, you mirror the person you're talking with and vice versa. It's not unusual to mirror the body position of the person, or walking in the same pace either. I'm sure you must have experienced rapport sometime?



Now, how can this information be used for good? (and for bad, if you really feel the need to).

Almost everyone is capable of semi-faking rapport, to some extent. If for example, someone you know is feeling bad, there is a quite simple (yet, often effective) way of cheering them up.

There are of course many ways to do this, but one of them goes like this:

You begin by copying the way they are positioned. Thereafter you need to put yourself kind of in the same mood as them (let's say sad, for instance). The tricky part is that you actually have to feel kind of sad, since the unconscious mind is quite good at interpreting body language.

Naturally you must speak with the person you're trying to cheer up. When you think that you've reached rapport (at least an early stage), all you have to do is to slowly, try to cheer up yourself.

You see, when in rapport, one unconsciously follows the lead of the one "sharing ones wavelength". This is to say, you can mentally force someone to become happier (because of the way we're hardwired).

This works surprisingly well, but naturally, you can't always turn the saddest person alive to the happiest in a mere moment.


I am luckily, not mentally disturbed and antisocial enough to always have this is mind and analyzing situations when speaking to people. Everyone already makes use of this automatically, but it's possible to enhance the potential of rapport.

It's also possible to reach rapport with people that you don't know well. You don't even have to be positive to gain rapport with someone, it's a neutral bond from the beginning, capable of turning good or bad:

Rapport is also used when provoking someone. One of the easiest ways to make someone pissed is to beacome angry oneself (Humans tend to be quite social creatures, even yawns and smiles are contagious).


So there was a kind of siecntific and terminological explanation of a simple and yet, naturally occuring psychological phenomenon (you got me, I do indeed like to make sentences that could be so much more simple, so much more complicated and superfluous).





By the way, I noticed that I forgot to mention one thing of significance that might cause confusion, in my previous post.

I said that through hypnosis it is possible to reach memories hidden from the conscious mind.

That is still very true, and there are examples of crimes being solved this way (I looked it up).

However, as already known from beforehand, the human mamory is often quite faulty, and it can sometimes be even when hypnotized as well.

That is to say, a memory that is actually pretty much entirely erased from ones brain, is of course not even possible to bring to the surface via trance. And if this is the case, our brains have a little trick that they are fond of using, a.k.a. false memories.

If a memory is not reachable even through hypnosis, it's somewhat likely that the brain will invent one to replace it. This does however, not always happen. Sometimes one just can't remember.

A cool thing that is actually possible is the super memory still. It's not that rare that one when in trance, can word for word read out a page from a book one has read, presumed that the page is still located somewhere deep in one's brain.

Yet, the lack of pain must be the phenomenon that is the most useful that can be induced using hypnosis. according to my psychology book (the one used in school), every tenth person can actually undergo any surgery with hypnosis as the only anesthetic (almost everyone can manage through a visit to the dentist whilst in trance).




I think that will be all for today, apart from some pictures.



Don't you dare click the above picture!


I made this cute little thing during art class in school, quite a while ago. I figured, since I'm not good at sculpting, I should just make something that is not supposed to look pretty. So I made something similar to what I usually doodle during my other lessons.




Another picture:



I still havn't given up on practicing on facial expressions (and a little bit of shading for the matter).

Since I reminisced a perfect expression to copy, I kinda did.
The picture is so small only so you won't see all the flaws as easily. I still didn't quite capture the expression from the reference picture, but I only used my eyes for measuring the proportions and angles. I then realized that my eyes and my brain weren't that good at measuring proportions and angles. fuck.
The mouth is way too low (as well as the jaw) and the face is slightly too broad. The angles are also very fucked up.

Many of you probably already know this, but some of you mightn't: An easy way to spot all ones flaws in a drawing is to place it in front of a mirror. Since your head has gotten used to the mistakes while you have been drawing, it kinda doesn't give them as much recognition later. You could also just refrain from looking at the picture for a few weeks and then try to look again. The mirror-technique is much faster though...





Another during-class creation that I'm "proud" of. I call it: The Eraser Snake!
(What has this entry turned into? sigh..)










That last picture is my cue to stop writing.






Goodnight!