Humans & Sexuality

Alright, so this will be a pretty unusual post. However, it will be one of the better ones lately, which is nice. I won't discuss much about my studies in this one, even though I said I'd do it in the latest post. I haven't had time to write much that is good or substantial lately, because of school, and such. I've been really busy composing tracks together with dem0lecule for the NGADM 2015 too. We're currently in the judging period for one of the later rounds, so even if it were to end here, we're really happy with our work.

I went solo for one of the rounds, even if dem0 was there to support me in the process. The track I made can be listened to here:





But while that is a pretty decent track, I think that the one we made for the current round is much more powerful, especially from an emotional standpoint. It's pretty long, so if you want to, you could listen to it while reading this post.





Either way, what is this post? It is essentially, my reaction (a very long reaction) to a very interesting post made by OneSketchist.
It's about my observations about the theory that could be summarized with (paraphrase) "Everything we as humans do, we do for the ultimate sake of getting laid (and procreating)".
I don't 100% disagree with the premise, but I don't think it's enough to explain what makes us tick altogether. So despite the title of this entry, this text will go deeper into what sexuality isn't to us, than it will go into what it is.
My responses are divided into the first set, and the second one, which is a further response to OneSketchist's response to my response :p
Either way, you might be better off reading the actual comments on the actual blog that they were posted in. But I did fix a few of the spelling errors and such in this version (and because of an edit, there's much more content here). This will be a pretty long and weird read, so be prepared. Here goes:


My biggest problem is that "sexuality is everything" is too limited a sentiment. It is definitely part of what drives us, but something can indeed be simplified to a fault, which I can quite confidently say that this premise is. To begin with, we need to understand that though psychology has its base in science, it can only explain how a human (if we study human pyschology) tends to function when presented with a certain situation. What the "meaning" of the result is, is up for us to decide for ourselves. We could say that the fact that we do something for sex, means that we do it for eventual procreation. But we can always go further, and say that we procreate to preserve our entire species. But even from there, we could go in any direction, and decide a different starting (or ending) point. It's like the question "what is the meaning of life?"

It has no real answer for everyone; people will always differ to some extent on how they feel about this. In the same way, it's a difficult claim to say that the meaning of life for everyone is to procreate. I'll go deeper into this later, but for now, I think that rather, the claim that everything we do, we do for procreation is much more difficult to prove, than it is to disprove.

Firstly, let's take a look at the motivation of a human. Usually, you will find that there are some primal urges that take the first priority for most people. If there is immediate danger; we most likely won't focus on our sexual lust. If we are literally starving so that we're on the verge of death, we won't be able to pay attention even to immediate dangers. Unless that danger is the lack of air, in which case we will first do our very best to gain access to some air, before we can even think about much else.
Now, we can claim that as you said, we want to survive in order to have sex later. It's very similar to the claim of everything that we do, is motivated by a selfish desire in the end. We do a favor, in order to receive a favor later. And if not that, as you said, we can simply be addicted to the feeling that we get when we know we've been helpful; aka, selfish. But once again, I think we need to set some kind of a limit, as we do to so many other things. This entire thought process is based on a fallacy in our way of thinking. You see, while everything we do can be traced to being selfish, we could just as easily make the opposite argument; nothing we do is selfish. Because every action will in some way both help yourself, and someone else in some way, as well as do the opposite; be unhelpful (do harm) to both you, and someone else. We could say that you are selfish all the time, in order to survive and be able to procreate, so that the entire species will in the end survive; aka, not selfish. So with this line of thinking, we get back to the procreation again. But not even that holds up imo.

For one thing, there are people who sacrifice their lives to save the life of someone else. Probably what most people would call a noble death. That is; surviving is not always on the top of our priority list, and if we don't survive, we can't have sex. That said, the sex drive is a strong drive indeed. Because of this, many radical Islamists probably do indeed think that their sacrifice is for the sake of 72 virgins in their afterlife. But there are people who don't believe in that, who still sacrifice themselves, by for example jumping on top of a grenade, to protect their friends. Whether that is a selfish or unselfish act, is up to the people that are/were involved, or simply know about the situation, to decide. Point being, it's probably not for the sake of sex.

Also, it's always faulty to only approach human functionality from only one persepective, in this case, from a biological one. Because indeed, we are complicated creatures, even though we may have a rather simple initial coding. What else would be the sake of learning and evolution, if not to improve the imperfect code we're born with? This too is for the best of the species, usually, but not necessarily for the act of procreation itself, though eventually, what we learn will leave its traces on our primal code. And we've also been capable of creating weapons that could literally kill every single human being on this planet. I don't think that that has arisen from the will to fuck. Of course, biology is merely a concept, or rather, a name we've given to an unconscious phenomenon, which means that it isn't capable of thinking whatsoever, so it couldn't predict that a species could get too far in evolution for their own best. But a human can predict this, because in several ways, we have indeed risen above what you'd think of as standard biological patterns. These patterns are still left in us, but we also possess the cabalitiy of making a conscious (conscious being the key word) decision of going against our primal urges. It's not rare to see people deny sex, even if they'd be attracted to that person. And it's not always something that is motivated by the fact that you can have sex later. Even if the world was to end tomorrow, I know that a lot of people would deny sex even when offered (although they might be attracted to the offering person [As I'm sure you know though, we tend to be more attracted to people with a very different set of genes from us, because that will more often than not result in healthy babies]), because of other convictions, be they logical or not; point being, biology isn't everything. There are the social, and psychological aspects as well. They all interact with each other, but in the end, are very separate forces.

To make things even more plain, let's take a look at homosexuality. Though it may be possible in the rather near future for same sex couples to procreate despite earlier limitations, it has been pretty commonly understood that you won't receive children by having intercourse with a member of your own sex. Sure, some of these couples adopt children, and still help society by raising a child. But there are many couples, heterosexual ones too, that never have been, and never will be interested in raising a child, for a multitude of reasons. Some may feel they're not equipped with the tools a parent needs, some may think themselves not wanting of the responsibility, and others just might not like children.
I mean, there are stories of mothers throwing their children out of 5th story windows, so raising a child certainly doesn't seem to be top priority for all people.

And neither is sex.
I'm sure you've heard about asexuality. Now, I don't know how many people actually are asexual, and what that really means from a biological perspective, as the concept seems so disconnected from my own experiences as a very sexual human being. But whatever causes it, be it an unusual set of hormone levels (which is the case for some people), a decicion never to have sex, or a genuine disinterest in/no bodily or emotional response to anything related to sexuality, I don't think it's relevant for the sake of the argument, which is that sex and sexuality is clearly not the main motivator for such people.

Apart from all this, there are so many complex situations and responses, on so many levels, to different situations humans face, or could potentially face, that indeed, tracing everything back to sexuality is way too simple, and seems rather unimaginative. You can always trace anything back to anything if you try, but that doesn't mean that it makes sense. You can also make up your own understanding of the word "sexuality" like Freud did, which allowed him to base almost all of his theories around sexaulity. Too bad for him that no one (sane) really believes in his theories in this day and age.

Another interesting thing to note is that if you go far back into the history of life, no species whatsoever reproduced through sex, and this alone, makes it pretty much impossible to assume that this is the basis of all that which we do. Because other functionalities that non-sexual life forms possessed, like motoric control and the will to survive, are still left in us humans; the cerbellum is probably what's considered to be among the very oldest parts of our brain, from an evolutionary standpoint, and its main functions are to monitor our movement, as well as account for our initial responses to feelings such as fear of danger. It is also what connects our brain to our spinal cord, which in turn allows our reflexes to be so incredibly fast, as there's no need for all information to even pass through the brain until after a reflex is executed.

I could write even more about this subject, as it is both interesting, and easy to talk about, but I think I've made my points clear enough.
In summary, sexuality is indeed an important motivatior for most human beings, but it is naive to assume it's the only, or even the main drive behind all of our actions. In the end, while it can be frightening to think of how simple our basic coding can seem, it's just something we're given to build upon for the rest of our lives, allowing the more conscious of us to even affect the direction we're moving in to quite an extent. All this said, I am very aware that much of what we do, is because of subconscious decisions we've made without even realizing, which is another subject that can be very interesting to discuss, and has strong ties to the discussion about freedom of will, and whether we even possess such a thing.



Back to this blog!!!

Now, this is pretty much where I left things in the comment section, awaiting some kind of a response. And OneSkechist definitely delivered, and quickly at that, Thankfully! So I wrote a little bit more, though I didn't really disagree with his words (when you get me going, it's difficult to get me to stop).
I urge you to check out his entry as well as his comment, to get the full context of the next part too.
Either way, here is the next part:


I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said, and I myself too allowed for many of these thoughts in the mini essay which I wrote as well by playing around with them for a short while. That said, I don't think it's the way we should look at things, because I could analyze everything we do, as being motivated by our drive to achieve whatever, and come with just as many points. The fact that this is possible, means that rather than the procreational drive being behind everything we do, the procreational drive CAN be looked at as being behind everything we do.
But using the same kind of logic that you used for your arguments, I could argue that we do everything based on our drive for achieving happiness, or any negative emotion as well. While having a general well being is good if you want an optimal situation to have sex in, sex also makes you feel good and improves your general well being (as can your children, and the knowledge that humanity is going somewhere might make us feel great). They are not mutually exclusive, which makes it impossible to say which one is the trigger and which one is the goal.

So what I'm arguing for is not that sexuality cannot possibly be looked at as our primary drive, but more that I don't think it's relevant that it can be, but rather if it should be, or if something else can be as well, like all the other motivators out there.
Especially because of sex disinterested people, I'd say that the claim if anything would be better if it only included raising new generations, as that is something that even people who have no observable sex drive can do; that is, the goal being to strengthen our species. But even that is not always true. Also, the same goes for wanting power; sure. Some people might want power to get laid, or do something even more grandiose, but at the same time, a rapist might rape in order to feel powerful. And not all power hungry people have cared much for sex either, even though the majority has. There are just too many exceptions to this theory, for it to be appliccable to everyone. One of the qualities in pyschological research that is held as the most important, is whether a theory is generalizable to all people, which I don't feel that this theory is. This, in my eyes, is an icomplete theory, that needs completion from our other drives to be able to describe how or why a human functions. That is how the science of psychology has evolved to systemise things, for them to be as accurate and easily understandable as possible. If anything, I'd like to entertain this idea of procreation being a drive behind everything in the end, more as a philosophical muse than a complete psychological theory based in science.

Because of this, our drive to procreate, while definitly important, shouldn't be something you keep going back to from every other drive we have just because you can (except, as I said, as an interesting thought game). Because you can go back to every other drive from the drive to procreate as well: A woman 100 years ago may want to have sex with a man in order to secure a safe living, which you might say is only so that she later can provide this for her children, aka. Procreate. But then again, I can just as easily say that she wants the child so that the child will provide for her when she is old and fragile.
Rather than everything revolving around the act of furthening the group, everything CAN be viewed as revolving around the act of furthening the group (and furthening the group can again be good for you for subconscious selfishness alone, which only gives more power to the theory that everything we do is selfish instead, which really, is not too far from being a polar opposite). It's an important difference.
Because of this entire structure, the argument loses a lot of credibility to me; it has become an unfalsifiable hypothesis. But the fact that you can't disprove anything, is far from being the same as the thing being right. Because the fact that "everything we do is because we as a species want to serve God", can be viewed as a valid statement that's also unfalsifiable. You can't really disprove it, and anything you say against it, could be easily explained as only being part of it all.

But as I've said, I don't disagree that sexuality and the drive to evolve is important to us. However, I find "Sex is, still, indirectly the biggest motivator..." to be an interesting statement, because the word "biggest", and "indirectly" seem to work (not entirely) but slightly against each other. And the same can be said for so many other drives, like my previous example; happiness. It's like counting with infinities. It's annoying, but doable. If many drives could be said to be the most important, the more drives you add to the equation, the less of the equation every individual drive would take. And I think that you really need to factor those other drives in there just as strongly, because they all have the same essential properties, so there is no reason to treat them differently.

But it's okay that you disagree, I won't argue anymore after this, as we don't really seem to disagree on much else that is substantial, except for in which way you should approach the information that we already have. And no way of looking at it will really change the reality of the other ones either, which is pretty interesting, as the viewpoints aren't mutually exclusive either. This is why I chose to focus more on dragging the analysis back from the observation about people, to an observation about how you and I seem to apporach the very words we use, as well as our entire way of thinking about the subject; because that is where it seems like the difference between us on this particular topic is. In the end, I don't think that anyone could claim honestly that either one of us is ultimately right or wrong, as we just come from different viewpoints about the same thing.

I just want to strenghten that if you really wanted to apply such a theory as this to a real situation in order to do something about that situation or use it for gain in the future, you would want to analyze that situation from more viewpoints than the one (not only biological viewpoint, but really, focusing on only part of our biology), in order to have the most effective approach.


EDIT:

Upon sleeping on the subject, I had a few extra thoughts, which I think are worthwhile sharing. These will probably be written only here on the blog itself, but we'll see.
I will try to keep this short and straight to the point (EDIT 2: What a funny joke, ahahaha!).

1. The reason that everything we do is easy to misplace as sexually motivated, is because our behaviors that have survived through time, are behaviors that are compatible with the survival of our species. That is, behaviors like empathy are very useful if a group of animals want to live and prosper, thus it is a property that has been passed on. But what we could call neutral behaviors too, have also been passed on, because they don't disturb the furthening of our group. Like biting your nails. You could say that some of us bite our nails to relieve stress, and a lack of stress makes for a more attractive partner. But in reality, that behavior has probably more likely survived because it doesn't interfere with babymaking. I mean, a few partners may be put off by it, but throughout history, most humans probably didn't care much about nail biting if they had a chance to get laid. Also, I know that biting one's nails isn't something as primal as the reason behind why you bite your nails, but it was the first example I thought of, and it works well enough. Such a thing as biting your nails is connected to a plethera of other complicated mechanisms though, which makes it more of a pseudo-example. I'm sure that you can see the point anyway. While such a behavior can be looked at as being sexually motivated from many different perspectives, the reality is that it just wasn't a huge enough drawback in a personality to die off as a behavior yet if ever (Biting your nails is something that all humans may end up doing because of stress, but it is also partially genetic). It can be good to note that far more behaviors are like to survive nowadays than ever, as our perception of what is a good partner has changed a lot over the years (and we are far more people now than ever too). A different behavior though, which could make it difficult to reproduce (idk, let's make one up: "Kill All Babies and Mutilate Sexual Organs Syndrome"), will not be as likely to survive. So in this sense, it is easy to draw everything back to reproduction. But I still feel like that's not how we ought to think about things, because...

2. Biology as a force of nature, doesn't think. It's not like biology has an ultimate plan. It's like I said; behaviors that are likely to benefit all humans, are more likely to survive through the ages. This doesn't mean that those behaviors are sexually motivated, or procreationally motivated. They just happen to exist, because they don't interfere too much with procreation. That is, our brains usually don't actively NOR subconsciously think that the reason we want to do something (like eat cereal), is because we want to get laid later. It's simply possible to make that connection if you really want to. But is that what humans really think at all? Because biology in and of itself doesn't really think, the only thing that really matters is what we humans really think, or rather, what is going on in our brains. We cannot make an honest claim that something motivates us, if it isn't observable in such a form that can actually be either documented, or viewed through an EEG. Let's not forget that it is actually possible to watch what parts of our brains are active, and how hard they are working. Which means it's actually possible to see if the parts in the brain associated with sexual thoughts "light up" all the time. Spoilers; they do not. In the very least, they're not always the "brightest lights", nor the constantly most active ones. This if anything, tells me that everything simply doesn't lead back to sexuality, at least not more than to something else. Because while we speak of something as being motivated because of our desire to procreate, it's not the reality of what is going on. When we say this, we're confusing the result with the cause. The cause is not "we procreate, thus we do". It's "we do, thus we procreate". So if anything, procreation is not the motivator behind something; we are motivated by other things, thus we procreate. Now of course, sexual drive is a property which highly increases the amount of procreation, which is why we're so horny so often; that particular behavior has survived, because more people with that behavior, have sex, and more of it.

3. This does not, however, mean that sexual drive is the largest of our drives. To create a tie to what I said earlier, take a look at this article.
It's an easy to understand writing, based on a known study. Pay attention to this quote in particular:

"The real shock from Hoffman's study is the relative unimportance of sex in the participants' thoughts. People said they thought more about food, sleep, personal hygiene, social contact, time off, and (until about 5pm) coffee."

That is to say that our other motivators, such as hunger and will for sleep are more prominent than our desire to have sex. Now, I say once again. It is of course possible to claim that we only eat and sleep to be better and more healthy partners. But if you look at what is going on in our brain, and in the brain of biology (there is none), there are no ties to such a claim. And that is why I think it's a bit ridiculous to say that those behaviors are either consciously or subconsciously motivated with procreation in mind; it simply isn't true! Usually, no subconscious process about sex and procreation is going on while we eat that tasty apple, which means to me that it's faulty to claim that that would still somehow be the case, especially as evolution itself doesn't have an opinion; it's just a mathematical process that keeps on rolling.
But remember, as I said from pretty much the start. This is not to say that sexuality isn't a big motivator, in fact, it's a huge one! Especially when we look at ourselves in the mirror, pick a deoderant, or to be more plain, when we have sex or think about said thing. The evidence just points to that it simply isn't our main drive, which is the statement I was arguing against.

Notice the word "was", because just like that, I'm almost finished ;)
I feel like I've well overcooked my points. But that's just how I roll, hehhe. Props to those of you insane enough to read this far though. While you're at it (as more proof of how I roll), why not read this interesting study about long-term vs. short-term rewards. It shows that the emotional parts of our brains tend to be more active when short-term rewards are in question, and the more logical and calculating parts active, when we think about long-term goals. To tie this to the topic I discussed, this would mean that if our ultimate goal was to procreate, it would probably be more conscious and calculated, than subconscious and emotional process. You probably shouldn't relate the result in the study directly to my statement though (that is, don't quote me on this), but it sure seems to point in that particular direction.

(Back from EDIT)

And that's it, as well as where I'll leave it too :)
He may very well respond again later, probably with some pretty cool viewpoints, but I've lost interest in the subject (at least for now) after writing about it for a while, so my input has been done. As I said, the format of this blog entry (as a response) is a new one, but I might do it again some time.

I hope you'll check out OneSketchist if you haven't already, especially as he really draws some cool art too (but really truly especially, because the reads are actually interesting)! Without him to spark some ideas, I probably would've written about something rather boring today instead. Then again, maybe you think what I wrote now was boring too?

Feedback is thus, much appreciated!
Either way, thanks for reading XD
It was nice to write something that actually gets on the same level as some of my older and better posts, for the first time in a while. Maybe I'll finally be able to get back into writing about more interesting and deep materials again?

Only the future will tell, so you'll have to come back and be a part of that future to answer this question ;)

The Univers...

...ity.

Yup. Like many others my age, I recently began my studies at a university.
Thiw will be a very short blog, which will serve more as an update than anything else.

I've been very busy this month, which may come as a surprise, as you can usually find me in my bed, doing nothing in particular. But I've been given some amazing opportunities lately, and I've been trying to make use of all of them!

First off, and perhaps most importantly, I was asked to score a web game! I happily accepted, and made 3 short tracks over 4 days.

Play the game here!


Also, you can hear my original soundtrack on bandcamp!

The tracks are pretty ambient, to match the atmosphere of the game. I encourage you to check it out, because it's my unbiased opinion that it's a great game (I played it before even starting to make the music, and was still fery entertained). Completing it will require some dexterity ;)



Other than that, I've been partaking in several different musical compositions, two of which are still going on right now. But in the biggest one, I am working together with dem0lecule, from Canada.
We managed to get through the first round of the Newgrounds Audio Deathmatch, with this track:




The track is of a very dark nature.
Somehow, we managed to score the second highest points out of 64 participants o.O!!!



I have been doing a lot of other things as well, but one of the most notable of said things, is the game that I made for Ludum Dare 33, with the theme "You are the monster". I found the idea interesting that I had to cook something up. I only had 72 hours, and during that time, I managed to make...

Lux

One could say that the game is still in "beta" mode, but I think the concept is very interesting, and I should definitely develop it further when I get the time.


So the gist of this post, is that I've been very busy lately. I am sorry that this is a more boring and self-advertising post, but what can ya do?
Hopefully, I'll speculate on life as a university student in my next post, and include some interesting images.

But right now, I am tired, and on my way to sleep...


ZzzzZzzZz



//LucidShadowDreamer

Cyprus

Eh...
I should probably have written this post a while ago already, when things were still fresh in my memory, but stuff happened, and I didn't. As soon as I got home from Cyprus, I had a concert ahead of me. That took a few days... After that, I finished a track for a competition. The results are not here yet, but you can listen to the track here:

The Dream of a Robot.


I hope that embedding worked... If not, I'll have to edit this post asap.

But anyway. Once I was done with the piece, and should have had some time, I committed a grave mistake. I started playing Terraria, and ever since, I never stopped playing. I've pretty much played 70 hours in less than two weeks! That's probably because I don't usually play much at this point in my life, but every time I do, I get really involved in the game I'm playing :p
Problem is, this is a pretty huge randomly generated game with a ton of exploring included, so it will take a while. I'll probably slow down with the playing a bit though, as I'm pretty much participating in 4 different music competitions at the same time o.O
Luckily, two are pretty much ending right now, while two are going strong for a long time (if I make it further in the rounds, as they are pretty much Deathmatch competitions).

Either way, now it's time to get into my trip. I won't tell you all what we were doing, but I'll summarize at first, after which I'll post pictures with explanations displayed below them :)


Summary:

I had tons of fun in Cyprus! To be honest, I spent most of the time just lying on a deckchair by the pool, reading "A Dance with Dragons". The sun was shining almost all the time during the days (only once did it rain during two weeks, and only for approx 15 minutes, and it was so unusual that all the natives were very surprised). Of course, I also swam in the pool, and when I got tired of being so close to the pool, I went a bit further from the pool, in order to play some games of pool with my grandfather (billiards).
But that was only when we stayed by the Hotel. Every day, we also went out in the city of Paphos. We went shopping, exploring, doing the usual tourist stuff, and such. But every single evening, we went out to eat in the local restaurants. Every evening. The food was quite amazing in general. In many places nowadays, in many countries, they simply heat up premade dishes (you'd be surprised). But not in Cyprus. Most everything that is made in the restaurants, is really made there from start to finish. Usually, it didn't take too long for the food to be ready either. Splendid service, more often than not. But after the trip, I had gotten my fill of fries and rice for a while...

There were an insane amount of Brittish tourists in Cyprus, related to some history thing about troops and such.

We also went to the mountains on a long buss tour (whole day), which was nice! We heard a lot about the history and politics of Cyprus, while we saw quite the views. Pictures will be further down!
Other than that, we saw some people that my Grandfather and his wife have known for 30 years.
Also... Them cats. At first, I thought we had accidentally arrived in Egypt or something. But I love it, as I love cats. There were a lot of stray cats in the Canary Islands as well, I recall.

But mostly, I went to Cyprus simply to relax, and to take a break from life. And it was a huge success!!

Luckily, I took like 300 pictures, so I can remember the experience. Then again, I'm pretty sure that 50 or so of the pictures are... Pictures of clouds...
(Speaking of game characters, don't click this link).
[I told you not to click it! If you keep this up, I'm going to cry :( ]
{That's it. Down the spike trap you go.}

No but seriously. A lot of cloud pictures (from the window of the plane). This starts of the picture segment. Enjoy the trip!

Just to give you a kind of reference, here's one of the many cloudscapes. Yup.

Just some pictures of the Hotel we stayed in. Not the highest quality, which is part of the reason I like it! Much more... Cozy :)

A view of the pool (most of it, there's a bit more outside of the frame). At this point, I regret not taking a picture of the pool table, so I could really drain the last drop from the pool joke (get it?).

Also, I found an interesting car. In Finland, I'm pretty sure this one couldn't exist. Which is a bit of a shame, as I like watching interesting registration plates (this is not a real racist ofc, many of the plates in Cyprus begins with a K, which leaves us with quite a lot of KKK's).

Then again, I found this in Finland, which is pretty neat.

Did I tell you that we also went to take one or two drinks in a bar most of the evenings? Now I did. I am not wasted in the picture, I just made a face for the selfie (to clarify).

This pretty much sums up my trip. I have no idea how I managed to take a picture from this angle without the arm showing though.
Why are capes out of fashion? I'd probably wear pretty wacky clothes, if only I wouldn't be ridiculed. Once I get famous, everything I do is okay though, so I'll probably get me some wickedly awesome costume. Oh, and also, I think I might lack shame, but I'm not entirely sure.

Nightly creatures visited us now and then, which is nice :3

I might give the impression that I know a lot about/like cars, but that is actually the opposite of the truth. But I happen to know that the Rolls-Royce was Michael Jackson's favorite car brand. Something that I for some reason remember from our equivalent of elementary school... Useful info has clearly stuck with me from school.

Some palms, some water, and such. One of the days we swam in the ocean. It was pretty cool (hehhe).

Ahh, here you can see Petra tou Romiou (Aphrodite's Rock).
During our buss trip, naturally.

Some kind of designed building made by someone. Yup.

Me, at a spot, somewhere, sometime.

We also visited the Turkish side of Cyprus at one point. But 30 minutes was enough of that. Also, here are some cats. It's pretty cool, becuase the cat on the top was actually only half the size of the lower cat. It just isn't very evident from the image, at first.

I took tons of pictures of all the cool mountains. But I'll share only one. This gives a nice sense of depth, with all the trees, even if there's that annoying thing in the lower left corner.

Oh, and I also saw something that looked a bit more ghetto-ish, and decided to take a pic.

Some huge pots from an old Wine-making-thingy-place... (It's past 6 am, okay?)

Some orthodox church things. I don't believe personally, but I can appreciate the aesthetics noneheless.

A scary ghost swing o.O

We also accidentally came across Sir Sean Connery!

Well, not really. But a look alike XD
He's a friend of my Grandfather's. He spoke Finnish insanely well! Hau?

Three pictures filled with swords. Pretty neat, no?

Watching a parade while eating wonderful stifado. Mmm.... Stifado...

Here I am, on the final evening of the trip. Sitting. On a bench. In case you lack eyes. In which case you probably can't read this. Well then.

Some clouds, from the way home, to wrap it all up.
It's a shame, as I have sooooo many more pictures. But I can't show them all. I'm pretty sure that most people stopped reading a while ago already, despite my *cough* hilarious *cough* commentary.


Either way. As it's getting really late, I should probably proof read (poorly), and upload this blogpost.
I hope that the few of you that read this enjoyed the read XD
I porbably forgot to write something that I meant to write (like how much I missed the piano while being on the trip, as there were no pianos in Cyprus, pretty much, and that most people there knew English (including natives), etc. But oh well. What can you do?)


And that, as it has been said from time to time, is that.


//LucidShadowDreamer

The Fantastical Journey of Letters

It was quite a while ago that I used one of those. I always used to make them in the early entries of this blog. Combining all the things I'm talking about into a nonsensical title. Good times.
Let's dissect the title in 3, 1, 2 order.

Some of you might remember that a little more than a year ago, I created a game and submitted it for a competition, called Stencyl Jam. That game was titled D-Pression, and actually ended up winning 4th place.

One of the prizes of the competition was a 1 year subscription to Stencyl, meaning I could release games for Windows and Mobile had I wanted to, and apart from that, there would be no watermark, and I'd had a few extra features available to me and such. Well, before that subscription ended, I wanted to make another game.

I have always liked text-based games. One night, right before falling asleep, I had an idea that I found really interesting. Soon after that, I ended up composing some music, and a while after that, I actualized the game.

I then waited for a while, among other things for some competitions to end etc, before uploading the game. But a few days ago, I finally got to upload it. The game has been surprisingly well received so far, with about 7 thousand plays, and 50+ positive reviews. Not only that, but the game was also featured on jayisgames!

If you want to read a bit more about the game, you can do so here.

I'd appreciate if you took a look at the game! click on the image and it will send you to the game ;)

After a while has passed, I'll try uploading the game to some more websites, and see how well it does over at those.

Now then, here is even more self-advertising.

Recently, I have been working together with an amazing musician from Canada, who goes under the name dem0lecule.
We have been collaborating, in order to create a piece for a contest. The challenge was to create game music (menu, boss battle. level, etc.), and the track had to be inspired by something from Newgrounds. After a lot of Skyping and working, we were able to finally upload the 6 minutes long orchestral track that we are both very proud of.
As dem0 is much better than me when it comes to mixing, and has better intruments, the sound quality is way beyond that of my usual stuff.
I hope you'll take the time to check out our track!

Fantasiamaailma

For those of you who don't know Finnish, the title translates to "World of Fantasy".

Thank you for listening :)



Now, this is going to be a pretty short post, which I guess is a bit unusual for me, although perhaps not as much lately. The final thing I'm going to mention is that I'm heading off on a 2-week-long vacation! Well, it's not like I work or anything...

But it'll be a nice trip to Cyprus nonetheless!!

That said, I'll be less active online than usually. Expect some cool pictures when I am back though!

Speaking of nice pictures, it's possible to take some in Finland too :)

That is all for this post.


I hope you'll have a wonderful time while I'm gone ;)

Cya.

Elaborate Selfies

What's up with that title?

Today, we're going to have a bit of a different blogpost. A 100% self centered one at that, a bit more like the blogs that normal people write ;)

I know this cool photographer kid who thinks he is very artsy and stuff, who likes to do elaborate camera-shutter thingeys with good lighting and shit. You know who you are, VICTOR.
I, on the other hand, am here to show that my selfies are waaaay cooler without all that stuff. WAAAY COOLER.

Well, not really, I'm only joking of course.

The real reason I'm doing this, is because I haven't really had the energy to write about longer and heavier topics. And, because I might as well share some of my weirdest selfies, because I can. I don't usually take pictures of myself. Only if I'm doing something special or weird, usually. So there is a slight chance that this'll be a little bit interesting anyway. But before that, make sure to check out the blogpost made by OneSketchist.



This is going to be a pretty short post, but you'll live XD
Shall we begin?

This is me, wearing a nice mask of flour. This picture is probably one of the first selfies I have ever taken, and it was taken during my confirmation camp. It's a thing done in Lutheran Churches in the very least. I'm actually not religious in any way, but the camp was actually really fun (as you might see), gotta give'm that!

So the order of these pictures is going to be totally random; just a heads up.

Even though it might not be evident in this picture, this is actually a picture of me at one of the happiest points in my life. What could that be? You know how sometimes relief is the greatest happiness? Well, this is the day that I got to leave the army, and the first time in almost half a year that that locker was pretty much empty.

This is me wearing what is probably one of my favorite outfits. I don't ever wear it though, as it's that out there. Very warm for the head too, and I'm not that hot-headed. I wore this the previous Halloween. Makes me think that I should probably dye my hair black again (this is not real hair ofc; it's actually a winter hat. I'm just saying, I want my hair dyed again).

Am I hiptser enough for you in this picture? What, you think it's too try-hard? WELL PSYCHE, it's not actually my clothes, but it's OneSketchist's again! AHAHAHAHA. .......

But no, it's really a pretty neat outfit. Perhaps not my style though :p

Prepare for trouble, and make it double.

To protect the world from devastation,

to unite all people within our nation,

to denounce the evil of truth and love,

to extend our reach to the stars above,

JESSE! JAMES!

Yup. This is me cosplaying James, from Team Rocket, from Pokémon. I dressed up for a thing called "Penkkis", which is basically a big event including cosplay and other fun stuff taking place before graduaion. Good times :)

If you want to see a better and more fabulous picture where I'm wearing the costume, just click the image!

And can I just say how much I hate the user interface on blogger sometimes? I had to go and edit a lot of code in the HTML section to remove an annoying thing that shouldn't even happen -_-

This is really one of the first selfies I ever took, probably among the first 5 or so. I don't know what age I was in this picture, but my guess is that I was around 14-15 years old or so. I think it's a pretty cool picture still, partly because of the lighting and the angle, but also because of the hair right after I took a shower. That's probably why I took the picture in the first place too, because usually, my hair is pretty boring :p

The thing that irritates me the most about this picture though, is that I know that my lips aren't that smooth anymore. I have a lot of cracks and other dryness related problems with them. But that may just be because the winter has just passed. Maybe this first world problem will resolve itself during the summer?

I guess that thing with the lips bothered me so much that I decided to use some makeup? The quality of this photo is a bit low because of the dark lighting, but I think it's still clear. I think it's funnier if I don't explain the context though, so I'll let that remain a mystery ;)

OneSketchist was really right though. Taking pictures up close really causes noses to look big. Now I can't unsee it o.O

MALE TEARS!!!

That's a 100% radical feminist related joke. I mean, I'm not a feminist, which is part of the joke. That may come off as a bit loaded, but one of these posts, I'll explain my views on Feminism.

But yeah. This really is a picture of me crying very manly tears, watching Clannad, which is a very emotional anime. Once again, because of the lighting, it might be difficult to see that I'm crying, but you can probably spot the teardrop on the left side of my face just below my lips. Speaking of lefts and rights, it's pretty interesting how some people think from their own perspective, while other people think from the perspective of other people, isn't it? Apparently, it usually is related to how much empathy a person possesses. A lot of 's' -ess in that word. Not much unlike "Assassins".

Now why would I take a picture of me crying? Well... Probably because I cry so rarely. On some level, it proves that I am human, doesn't it?

(Mission accomplished, now all the stupid humans around me will never realize that I am actually an alien from the planet Gatzikhczorb! Muahahahahaha!)

Not much to say about this one. I just posted it for the lolz :p

Googly eyes are always fun. I remember taking a few to school one day, and putting them up everywhere! On a statue in our school, on a poster of a skeleton, and a few other select places. The teachers didn't seem to mind though; the eyes were usually left alone. I still have a lot of them. Let's see how universities appreciate googly eyes...

Btw, if you didn't notice the makeup in my makeup selfie, let me make it up to you!

In this picture, you probably have some kind of sickness if you can't see the makeup on my face. This is me at one of the worst points in my life; the day that our 11 days non-stop army camp began. Man that sucked! Luckily, it's all ogre now.

This was the before picture. Time for the after picture.

This is right after 11 days in the woods. Can you imagine all the freshness? I must've smelled really nice... I seem to have survived that experience with a smile on my face though, because as I said, relief is one of the best feelings :)

We're closing in on the end of this pointless post. This is the most recently taken selfie in this entry. I was surprised to find some beard lichen (skägglav, or Usnea of the family Parmaliaceae) in the forest around our cabin in the woods. I guess that it's actually some kind of fungi, but it's pretty obvious where it got its name from. I think it's actually illegal to collect or harm it here, but this one was not connected to a tree, and was probably already dying, so it's okay! I put it up on a branch afterwards anyway, but I don't know whether that actually helps at all :p

This is me trying to make myself look as sexy as possible. I hope I succeeded ;)

I honestly don't remember why I took this picture, but I think it's worth sharing true beauty.

Now, we only have one picture left. I must warn you though, it is pretty graphic, so it is not for those weak of heart. What I'm sayin', is be prepared. That is also why the picture is partly censored. But for those of you who want the full effect, you could always hover your mouse over the image, which will remove the censored box...

So yeah. Told you it was pretty explicit. I usually don't take these kinds of pictures, but I've noticed something interesting with the lighting. If I stand at a specific angle, and have a strong light from one direction, it will give the illusion that I actually have abs (albeit small ones)! Which is not true :p

I didn't manage to recreate it fully in this image, but it worked well enough that you can see the effect a little bit.

Oh, and one last thing. I know you hovered the mouse over the image, you pervert you! On second thought, I probably should've photoshopped it so that a duck appears instead of the censored box upon mouse over, but I was too lazy, so it had to be the original image instead XD

That'd be a pretty good picture to photoshop, just saying.

That is pretty much all for now though.

As usually, I'll also post a couple of the songs I've made recently.

The first one, is a pirate themed track, which I've composed myself, using Orchestral intruments. The mixing could be a lot better, but oh well. Some day I will learn!

Facing the Stormy Sea

And the second one is a pretty short improvisation on the piano. You know. Just about 1 hour long.

Improv on Eternity

I know noone will listen to at least the second one here, but I had to post it out of tradition anyway.

But that really is everything for this blog. I hope that I'll get some more energy to write about something more interesting than myself next month, but I'm actually going on a trip to Cyprus, so we'll have to see how that goes o.O

That said, even if I don't write that frequently at the moment, OneSketchist is currently writing once a week it seems, and I recommend reading his blog if you're looking for mine but no new post has been uploaded!

Anywho... I hope you're having a good time and will continue having one.

Until next time, suckas.