Sunday, February 28, 2016

Tai Chi Yoga is a thing, mindfulness, procrastination, don't forget to be well-rounded, animals helping animals, environmental influence, Cosmopolitan vs Provincial, Glory vs. Truth, Learning Chinese, Disney, Downton Abbey and Modernizing, emotionally unstable people, the culture change movement, BRAINS, robots, Tolkien, and MORE!

The Specious Present

Spontaneous moments of Tai Chi Yoga before bed.

Mindfulness is an "at all waking hours" kind of thing.

According to my Goodreads inventory, I'm currently reading 24 books + 3 that I haven't added yet. I guess I should finish some of those...

Trying not to go completely mental and forget the body and soul in the process.

How different animals create things that other animals use without being aware of it. Bees making honey, or squirrels, mice, and spiders making homes in human shelters, etc.

How our environment influences us: "English critic William Hazlitt became acquainted with Romantic poetry by walking with Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth. He discovered that the walking paths preferred by each poet directly influenced their writing styles. Wordsworth was more lyrical, Coleridge more dramatic. Not coincidently, so was their walking."

AND

"You'll never meet a dwarf named Giambattista Vico." - from The Hobbit and Philosophy

Cosmopolitan/Countercosmopolitan/Provincial. Fallibilism. Pluralism.

Heroism & Glory vs. Beauty & Truth

When you learn numbers one to seven in Chinese, you almost know all of the days of the week too. Hint: Monday starts the week.

The fun of looking through Chinese texts for symbols you know.

Strange how it almost seems easier to recognize *patterns* in languages with logograms than in languages with phonograms. But it's possible that I only recognize them because I'm unfamiliar with the meaning, so I'm mostly only looking at structure? Hmm.

Nevertheless, how you can condense an entire concept into one image is well...artistic...but also efficient.

But but but...also, humanity's ability to construct an abstract image and create meaning out of it. WHAT.DOES.THAT.MEAN?!

Just realized I'm probably the equivalent of Ariel The Mermaid to Asian culture. Hmm.

Beauty and The Beast, and the Stockholm Syndrome.

Are the people/women who cut or changed their hair in Downton Abbey those who became most modernized?

YES!!! https://youtu.be/vdnFmq7UVys

Despite lack of a better name: https://youtu.be/5LtsD9xowP0

More Fiechter: https://youtu.be/jFkOr_eKkqA

Attention is pretty effing powerful stuff. Be careful with it.

How to deal with emotionally unstable people. :-/

It sucks wanting to help and knowing you aren't the right person to help.

What do you do when you get into a situation that you were once on the other side of? Write an Adele song? Try on your own shoes? Feck.

Frustration with just how wrong messages that support the "Just go for it! Take a chance! Regardless of the consequences, you only live once!" mentality can be taken.

When saying "no" saves you 37 hours a week of your life to be enjoyed on something other than someone else's mission.

The "culture change" movement in nursing and long-term care. Backlash against institutions. *Thumbs up*

Changing culture requires changing the way you view something first. METAPHORS.

Viruses.

Sneaky Devil, the Brain. Constantly advertising people to you via little memories. You read Alexander Pope and you think of this person. You see colored pencils and you think of this person. You smell coconut oil and you think of this person. Not a bad thing really, just amused by this I guess.

What does it mean for humans to create robots?

Oh, the things you research for writing a book...like how to survive a bear attack when caught in a corner.

Myths, and facts, and Tolkien. How life changes and doesn't change at the same time.

Sitting by the fire is such a delight.

Pen-clicking and staring somewhere looking for answers beyond your view.

Excited for Monday!!! ^_^ <3

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Silly names, peppermint tea, herding cats, grab in case of fire, the pain of decay, yoga, the school lunch problem, Anna Akhmatova, dreaming about sleeping, Steve Gibson's Mom, American values in the workplace, Pen Tester, Hawking's Soft Hair Theorem, baking at high altitude, and more!

Silly gamer names like "FluffyWalrus".

If I had a name that started with an "I" and the next letter an "L", I would purposely always spell my name starting with a lowercase or I'd keep the second letter uppercase. None of that Ilene nonsense. ilene or ILene, that's how I'd roll.

"Not only is my short term memory bad, but so is my short term memory."

Few things make you get accustomed to something uncomfortable quite like, "I have to."

Why are some burned foods tasty?

Mind, why have you forsaken me? In my thoughts forsaken me? Seriously though, how could I forget the almighty healing powers of peppermint tea?!

According to one woman we passed by on the Cherry Creek trail...walking with a toddler..."it's like herding cats." I wanna know where she got her cat herding experience! ;-P

Finally figured out one thing I would most certainly grab in the event of a fire. ...Contacts. My eyeballs!

Decay hurts to warn us into caution mode.

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes."

Some days I know without a doubt that there are moments when my feet should be in the air and my head should be on the floor. Ommmmmmmmm. I miss yoga practice.

Should a child be given lunch at school when parents are irresponsible and forget to add funds to a child's lunch account? Does the answer change when the parents didn't add money because they don't have any? What should the school's action be? Feed the child and ask to bring the money tomorrow? Feed the child but don't ask them to bring money tomorrow? Take the food away and trash it and let the child go hungry? Other solution? Do different situations warrant different solutions in this case, or?

Capitalism vs. Socialism

A poem about Schrodinger's Cat: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/anna_akhmatova/poems/12

^Haha, just kidding. :-P

Dreaming about sleeping is weird and kind of "down the rabbit holey", but it also doesn't make you feel very rested at all. I don't recommend it.

When your job duties go from being a dinosaur to an amoeba, and you're completely okay with that. So much it makes you laugh in awe.

The mother of Steve Gibson from Tag Team ("Whoomp, there it is!") showed me how to use office equipment yesterday. *Amused*

America's ideology regarding the value of time vs. the value of outcomes.

How we pay for things we hope never to use. (Like auto, term, and health insurance).

The obscurity and length of government documents.

You know what I'd love to do, even just for a day? Be a Pen Tester. So many pens, so little knowledge of which ones work best or which ones I like the best. And no desire to buy the whole shelf to find out. But I'd review them all if they'd let me...

I admit it. I'm an insufferable proofreader who notices patterns and breaks in patterns, and I will point out typos all day long if you let me. :-D

Honestly, half the time I look like I break glass with my hands for a living. SMASH SMASH!!

"Then only in the empty spaces,
Death, walking very silently,
Shall fear the glory of our faces
Through all the dark infinity.

So, clothed about with perfect love,
The eternal end shall find us one,
Alone above the Night, above
The dust of the dead gods, alone.”
― Rupert Brooke

“When you think yours is the only true path you forever chain yourself to judging others and narrow the vision of God." - Shannon L. Adler

Hawking's Black Hole Information Paradox and the Soft Hair Theorem. And superrotations. And effing infinity.

Back in 2012, how Nick broke into my car to leave me a note and a book about black holes. :-D <3

Nordic Orientalism.

I have mastered the art and science of baking at high altitude.

"When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten."
AND
"The key to Chuang Tzu's thought is the complementarity of opposites, and this can be seen only when one grasps the central "pivot" of Tao which passes squarely through both "Yes" and "No," "I" and "Not-I." Life is a continual development. All beings are in a state of flux." - The Way of Chuang Tzu

Does Fiction do a better job of addressing the present than Nonfiction over time? Or does it simply not matter?

The things you forget over time. And the things you remember.

Two way streets.

All that we have lost along the way...all that we have lost along the way...all that we have lost...

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Cold Season Meets Old Friend, Tolkien and philosophy, War and Peace, Benefits of Intellectual Understanding, Chuang Tzu, Vague as Defense Mechanism, Taoism, New Job, George Musser, beautiful sounds, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child revelation, Asian poetry, ghosts, spring, and WORDS!

"Hello, Cold Season, how do you....ACHOOOO?"
"Oh, there's no secret really. Let me shake your hand and I'll show you instead."
*Handshakes ensue*
"You sneaky, courteous bastard, you." *Sniff*
"Can I stay for a few days?"
"You might as well. I doubt I have much of a choice in the matter."
"Oh, and do you mind, I like the thermastat really low?"
"Really? But man, it's cold outside!"
"Oh, no worries, I'll turn it up to like 100.3 tomorrow."
"Sounds miserable."
"Oh stop, and enjoy your tea."
*Few days later*
"See ya next year, Old Buddy!" ;-)

"'With the development of abstract systems, trust in impersonal principles, as well as in anonymous others, becomes indispensable to social existence.' Something is always lost and gained with each new technological advance."
AND
"Good conversation, like a good walk, takes time." - from "The Hobbit and Philosophy"

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger Way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say." - from Tolkien's LOTR

The form of teaching, or of the lesson, is as important as the material to be learned.

"Teachers are everywhere. Build the school and the teachers will come!" - War and Peace (TV show, not book)

Intellectual/mental understanding is not always the most useful for "street smarts" or social skills, but it does go hand-in-hand with emotional health, which is just as important.

Every time I go to the mall, or shopping in general: http://www.gocomics.com/sarahs-scribbles/2015/11/21

Evolution of wine bottle design.

"[Chuang Tzu's philosophy] belongs in the context of a society in which every aspect of life was seen in relation to the sacred." - from "The Way of Chuang Tzu"

Everyone's favorite defense mechanism displaying distrust: VAGUENESS. Saying tons without saying anything at all. I know what it looks like, I spent a year perfecting the art.

Generalizing vs categorizing.

Living beyond joy. The part where joy is already there, no attaining, just there.

How do you affect change through a Taoist philosophy? (A question I want answers to).

Subconscious is finesse. Conscious is force.

Ju philosophy.

It kind of hurts to hear people verbally abuse each other. :-/

New job is so far so...good? I may have said something about how crazy Mondays are (first days feel like Mondays), even though it was Wednesday, and the woman didn't correct me. So either every day is a Monday, or...we're both completely bonkers.

*First Day Kitchen Happy Dance Occurred*

Derivatives.

George Musser, Spooky Action, and Metaphors (blocks, strings, kaleidescopes - honestly everyone knows the universe is a Tree, right? Or a flower. Or a flowering tree. Keep thinking, we'll find the right metaphor one day): http://gizmodo.com/a-new-way-of-thinking-about-spacetime-that-turns-everyt-1741498475

#7 and #8: https://youtu.be/5ipz1qMSB_A

The Outlander soundtrack: https://youtu.be/IkfiDuuFKz0

"Harry Potter and The Cursed Child" is being published 19 years after the first HP book. Nineteen Years Later, indeed.

"I lie beneath my window listening  
to the sound of apples dropping in

the yard, a syncopated code I long to know,
which continues even as I sleep, and dream I know

the meaning of what I hear, each dull  
thud of unseen apple-

body, the earth  
falling to earth

once and forever, over  
and over." - Li-Young Lee

The music seen but not heard in the staggered, flashing lights of turn signals.

"Branches of trees try to shred the sky
but succeed only in poking so many tiny holes,
through which pierce lights from beyond the sky
that people simply name Moon and Stars." - Gu Cheng (translation, but I like the image)

Everything about camomile tea is wrong. Bleh. Let the flowers alone.

The ghost behind me keeps clapping. SHUSH!
*Tells Nick about the ghost* "He must like what you're doing."

The anticipation of spring and wanting to see things grow again, bright colors and new life.

Words, words, I've had enough of you today. Show me a poet with unbearable heart-stopping, mind-opening words, and I'll show you a million with none.

The peace of silence.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Lessons Learned While Coloring

Trying to do too much at once is often painful. But a little bit here and a little bit there, and you arrive at the same result with less hardship.

There are ways to save energy (that in your hands before they get tired), time, and resources (colored pencils). You just have to look for them. When the tip of the pencil gets blunt while coloring small areas, start to fill in larger spaces where a fine tip isn't needed, then sharpen when you can no longer use the pencil in its current state. This can be applied to more than drawing.

Every shape has negative space. Which is a constant reminder of this passage from the Tao Te Ching:
"Thirty spokes join together in the hub.
It is because of what is not there that the cart is useful.
Clay is formed into a vessel.
It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful.
Cut doors and windows to make a room.
It is because of its emptiness that the room is useful."

How the light and the dark give rise to each other.

Goal setting. You make a goal and get to see not only the process, but the result as well.

Unity of pieces. Of the small and the big. Of every color, working together in a beautiful scene.

Lines be damned. Sometimes straying from the lines makes for something even more interesting.

There are many interpretations of what colors could go where. Many color palettes to choose from. Many combinations. Oh, the math...

Light colors first, dark colors second. Sunrise, sunset. The order of things.

The best art takes time. (Opinion, but probably true).

The smallest mistake doesn't stand out in a crowd.

Pencils, they sharpen and dull, just like us, until their work is done and there is nothing left, but the colors on the page for others to enjoy and ponder over.




Monday, February 8, 2016

Seeking publication, adult love, The Martian epiphany with a hint of pun, unlikely events that inspired discoveries, the necessities of life, good friends, Taoism, some beautiful violin music, starting a new job, and Not the Super Bowl

At last, I'm submitting a short story to publications! ^_^

"Adult love is built on mutual interest, care and respect -- not codependency or rescuing."

Johanssen and Beck...the literary couple who showed the world that sometimes all love needs in order to grow is a little "space". #TheMartian

A potato field inspired the design for modern TVs. (Philo Farnsworth)

A clock-tower seen from a trolley inspired Einstein's Special Relativity.

Evariste Galois.

Those days when you're like, "Oh right, this body requires the consumption of food in order to survive. Right, yea, I should do that."

I left Band and totally forgot posture is a thing...

Thinking about the physical form, the reflection, and the shadow of any given object.

You can't help the person who insists their sickness is part of who they are. But you can be kind. You can always be kind.

"... in spite of or in defiance of the whole of existence he wills to be himself with it, to take it along, almost defying his torment. For to hope in the possibility of help, not to speak of help by virtue of the absurd, that for God all things are possible – no, that he will not do. And as for seeking help from any other – no, that he will not do for all the world; rather than seek help he would prefer to be himself – with all the tortures of hell, if so it must be." -- Søren Kierkegaard

"I need more Hebrew in my daily musical life." - said one of the leasing consultant's at my apartment, lol. He kept hearing "b'shalom" in one of the songs playing on the radio, but wasn't sure if that's what he was actually hearing or not.

Those good friends you can go to for advice when you really, really need it. <3

"Happiness isn't happiness without a violin-playing goat." - regarding a Mary Chagall painting.

Confucianism and the naming of things vs. Taoism and the interdependence of things.

Rigidity is closer to death and fluidity is closer to life.

"In following of the Tao, ones realizes that destroying life can never be understood as a victory."

"Deal with difficultis while they are still easy.
Handle the great while it is still small.
The difficult problems in life
Always start off being simple."

Curious how our philosophies affect our behavior.

Pacing...is similar to walking meditation, right?

"Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined." - from Civil Disobedience.

The benefits of repetition and relearning.

The joy of watching anyone uncontrollably laugh their ass off. And how it's contagious. :-D

The Romance of the Violin: https://youtu.be/Oa7KFJdZVe0

And this: https://youtu.be/O-fbZOK9yvU

Missing friends and family. <3

Starting a new job soon. *crossing my fingers that this is for the best*

Violin trilling! And chords! Woo! But I need to know that if I replace one string, do I need to replace all of them? A-String is being tempermental. Scratchy unless played very close to the bridge.

Something other than football and marketing?

Tribes! Tribes! Tribes! :-P

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Snow Days, handwritten letters vs typing, adult play, Mozart, Weezer, Euler, how the body reacts to playing the violin, Bohr, Planck, Purcell, HEGEL, Dirac, cultural differences, Frohlich, cryptography, and the mysterious Delete Squad.

How in an instant...the world can change. #SnowDays

If you type with your least dominant hand on the computer, nobody can tell the difference, unless they watch you type. With handwritten letters, the non-ambidextrous cannot hide as well.

Adults need to play more. Not just physically, or sexually, but mentally as well.

Sometimes I read my future in the soap bubbles left in the sink. #NotSoCommonDivination

When society uses the Internet, paper (and other old-fashion methods) is paramount security.

Labels and specialization, and how they affect brain connections.

Mozart's Symphony 39.

I try to see no word as a limitation to my understanding. I try to read things that challenge my vocabulary, and when doing so, see beyond the jargon. Under every big word are at least ten smaller words that make more sense.

"God took a rib from Adam, ground it up in a centrifuge machine
Mixed it with cardamom and cloves, microwaved it on the popcorn setting
While Adam was like, “(Woo-hoo) That really hurt!”
(Going off into the tundra)
So pissed at God and he started lighting mighty forest fires, stealing osprey eggs
Messing with the bees who were trying to pollinate the Echinacea
Until God said, “I’ma smite you with loneliness and break your heart in two”
And Adam wept and wailed, tearing out his hair, falling on his knees, looked to the sky and said,
“Thank God...for girls!" - Weezer

Euler.

"...I soon found an opportunity to be introduced to a famous professor Johann Bernoulli. ...True, he was very busy and so refused flatly to give me private lessons; but he gave me much more valuable advice to start reading more difficult mathematical books on my own and to study them as diligently as I could; if I came across some obstacle or difficulty, I was given permission to visit him freely every Sunday afternoon and he kindly explained to me everything I could not understand..." -- Leonhard Euler (had a clever teacher)

Bulletproof Chai...is interesting.

What is information...really? (I have considered this question before, but think it's important to revisit it).

Learning how my body reacts to playing the violin a lot. My entire right shoulder says I need to take it a little slower getting into it. As does my collar bone. (I fixed the collar bone part by wearing a scarf while I play).

Those moments where you either just breathe a lot or cry.

Letter writing, although timing consuming and more effort than other forms of communication, means more. <3 Happy to finally send some replies in the mail!

"Stop telling God what to do with his dice."
AND
"The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning.” ― Niels Bohr

Ideas have alphas... O_o "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” ― Max Planck

"I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that this delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it. I remember, in the winter of our first experiments, just seven years ago, looking on snow with new eyes. There the snow lay around my doorstep—great heaps of protons quietly precessing in the earth's magnetic field. To see the world for a moment as something rich and strange is the private reward of many a discovery." — Edward Mills Purcell

“...this is love. I have my self-consciousness not in myself but in the other. I am satisfied and have peace with myself only in this other and I AM only because I have peace with myself; if I did not have it then I would be a contradiction that falls to pieces. This other, because it likewise exists outside itself, has its self-consciousness only in me; and both the other and I are only this consciousness of being-outside-ourselves and of our identity; we are only this intuition, feeling, and knowledge of our unity. This is love, and without knowing that love is both a distinguishing and the sublation of this distinction, one speaks emptily of it.” ― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

"When you ask what are electrons and protons I ought to answer that this question is not a profitable one to ask and does not really have a meaning. The important thing about electrons and protons is not what they are but how they behave, how they move. I can describe the situation by comparing it to the game of chess. In chess, we have various chessmen, kings, knights, pawns and so on. If you ask what chessman is, the answer would be that it is a piece of wood, or a piece of ivory, or perhaps just a sign written on paper, or anything whatever. It does not matter. Each chessman has a characteristic way of moving and this is all that matters about it. The whole game of chess follows from this way of moving the various chessmen.” ― Paul A.M. Dirac

Dirac brings up an interesting point - what matters about humans - appearance and composition, or our behavior?

That, and metaphors are at the essence of our understanding. Bravo, Dirac.

Cultural differences as an aspect of security.

Word choice differences between cultures. Happy vs. Cheerful. Cheerful is not absent in our vocabulary, but I think it's used less often than Happy in American culture.

The necessity of breaking something down slowly before you can do it faster. (in learning).

"One of the most significant steps in the history of human thinking may well have occurred when the static, geometric concept of symmetry and its rather successless applications to dynamics were abandoned in favour of a dynamical concept of symmetry." -- Jürg Fröhlich

Route Transcriptions in Cryptography.

I'm posting this before I lose anymore thoughts to the Internet's mysterious Delete Squad.

Cheers Dears.