A Life after Gathering Stuff

 

As I've mentioned in other articles on this blog, I live in an assisted living building which means that we have staff available to us 24 hours a day. The building is 14 years old now and so they've decided to replace the carpet with vinyl flooring. This is good, the original carpet was beginning to look a little frayed. This has meant that a lot of material items, which we will henceforth call "Stuff", in honour of the late comedian George Carlin, has been pulled out and rearranged to make room for the work crew. It is amazing how much stuff there is. It seems to have come out of nowhere and yet I know that it is been there all along. 

George Carlin's classic standup routine "Your Stuff"

Of that huge mountain of stuff how much do we really need? Why are we so attached to gathering as many belongings as possible around us? I mean when you think about it only a small fraction of that stuff adds to your life in the long run. Works of art are marvellous items of stuff and that lends them some merit in hanging around for a long time. But we all have that dear friend who's apartment or house it's just overflowing with stuff which we all know they don't need. Yet they cannot seem to get rid of it. What in human nature is being met here? What is the urge that is being satisfied or is it an insecurity.

When I looked into this building I made a conscious choice to minimize the gathering of stuff because I just moved out of the apartment building where it spent 34 years gathering stuff and most of it was utterly useless and just the pain to get rid of. But some people in my building and friends I know can't get enough stuff. They are constantly on Amazon or Best Buy or Walmart paying good money for more, and more stuff. I have seen suites that are crammed full of it. Bringing me to my ultimate conclusion of the assuming that they must get an adrenaline hit when they gather or pay for stuff.

When I saw the number chairs downstairs I thought "My God! We must have a billion seats." The human race just keeps cranking more stuff out.

For me when I finally did move and got rid of 90% of my stuff. After the shock wore off I found it quite liberating. Yes, there can be "A Life after Gathering Stuff ".

Have a great day. This is been a random thought which just evolved into a short blurb.
Patrick

Finding psychological limiting boundaries and brainstorming

 When was the last time you did something truly outside of your boundaries of experience?

This doesn't have to be extreme, think about it for a moment though. Sometimes it's even hard to figure out initially where those boundaries are. Most people need a little push, something which takes them somewhere unexpected for a moment and then their minds start to explore.

However, with all the things going on in everyone's life now days, and from my perception it seems to be an ever-growing list, we often forget to slow down so we can contemplate things like brainstorming and boundaries. So that I think is the first step, to slow down, pause for a moment and pay attention to what ever comes to mind. Those quiet little thoughts are the gateways to opening up new avenues of ideas if you only listen.

As so often happens in my life now days I was talking with a friend this morning and then shortly later speaking with someone else and it occurred to me these for two people with tremendously different ways of interacting with their world and environment. Both of these people are very creative but wow in a different way. One is artistic, musical, and incredibly curious. While the other is incredibly curious but only when they can manipulate something to their advantage and they have a habit of going down a very dark path. They do become stuck in a "mood" on occasion and everyone else around them knows leave them be on those days. In other words one of these people uses their insights and creativity to expand their world and while the other tends to use the same talents to restrict their world. I suspect you couldn't talk either of them out of their own modes of operation either.

How this relates to brainstorming and finding psychological limits is as follows:

The first person brainstorms automatically all the time and they can come up with the most ridiculously wonderful ideas out of the blue. Now that I think about it I've never seen this person really stuck on an issue or problem. What they will do in such a situation is immediately asked someone else their opinion. The two of them will chat and sooner or later an avenue presents itself. That boundary has been expanded a little bit 😀.

The second person, our darker minded friend, if given the same insights would take them and restrict their world in some respect. They will attempt to validate their current psychological boundaries in the process rather than going outside of them. This is particularly true when it comes to politics for them. So maybe, just maybe, the initial steps in brainstorming and finding your psychological boundaries are simply a willingness to:

1. Break your own rules of expectation including what you might perceive as right and wrong. In other words don't judge anything. Give yourself permission to let any thought float in.
   
   
2. Consider your current state of mind. Are you waiting for something to happen passively or are you engaged in putting energy into the process.
   
   
3. Even with brainstorming which is usually just bringing in random thoughts to get a creative streak going you should have some reason and motivation. If you don't and that very situation becomes something to consider. It literally becomes the first brainstorming thought. If we are stuck on how to start ask yourself why. The answer you get back might just start a dialogue with yourself and that just might kick the whole thing off.

So today's goal if you want one is to see what brainstorming and boundary busting you can get up to. Once again you are changing the world. One thought at a time. As a practical example as I started this little article I wasn't sure how to really approach it. Well one thought led to another, which led to another, which led to another which ultimately led to momentum. Again it was going outside of boundaries and finding them.

I started with two very different friends as an example and then began to apply the same considerations to the greater surroundings. I broke my own boundary! This behaviour could become a little addictive, what a wonderful way to start the weekend.

Now that I think about it this reminds me of another article I wrote a while ago called "Challenge The Brick Wall" which is on this blog as well. It's fascinating how the mind and people work with the world… Isn't it!


Take care Patrick

Iconic pop-culture imagery from the past

 

This post originated from one of those spontaneous ideas that just occurred to one out of the blue. "Where the heck did the original test pattern used on old-school TVs come from and why to to bizarre picture?" I got quite excited about the idea and just a little while ago started digging into it. Almost instantly however I found a website called "Print" with an article entitled "Deciphering the Language of TV Test Patterns" by Stephen Heller which pretty much gives you all the information you could ever want in two minutes. So that took away my thunder.

"Wacky Pack" sticker.
Photo by Tom Gill
License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Still though there is something to be said about enduring iconic imagery. I suspect if you're born in the 60s or earlier the test pattern is a major icon for you. So what will be the iconic images of today? Immediately I would say "the Internet" but it really doesn't have a universal symbol. There are some general ones, and definitely one which indicates Wi-Fi but nothing super specific where everyone around the world would know right away "that picture represents... Something." Where 90% of the people seeing the image would understand what it's referring to immediately.

I wonder if we are getting away from, iconic imagery in general? My childhood was certainly loaded with them even if a good chunk of that was thanks to commercial advertising.

 
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holder  Thomas Altfather Good

The Campbell's Soup can comes to mind (The four 50th Anniversary "Art Of Soup" Campbell's Tomato Soup cans featuring a facsimile autograph by, portrait of, and quote from,Andy Warhol. The commemorative cans were released on 2012-09-02 at Target Stores. They contain actual tomato soup.) Does anyone remember the "Wacky Pack" stickers that came out in the 70s they were kind of a mad magazine artwork format where they would do a take off on products?   I'll include images in this article if I can find copyright cleared examples.) There appears to be quite a big online hobbyist community dedicated to just Wacky Pack stickers so click Wacky Pack link if you really want to go down memory lane. For now I'll post a few images in this article.

 As you can tell I'm writing this on the fly because I really do want to get something posted tonight.

Maybe we will look back a few years now and the icon of the early 21st century will be the cell phone.

"Wacky Pack" sticker.
Photo by Tom Gill
License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Although I must admit it won't be too exciting to look at. When a cell phone is turned off it looks like a black rectangle. Perhaps this is a time in to the old sci-fi movie 2001 a space Odyssey in which a mysterious "black rectangle" is discovered at several points in the movie.

What other icons or images helped shape my early life?… Oh I have one "The How And Why Wonder Books" series of books. Just the perfect kind of reading material for a young Geek mind. I had a small orange crate to hold my collection of maybe 15 to 20 books. They were great.

There was the original series Star Trek. But that's really not worth covering here because Star Trek iconography is still tremendously popular and all over the Internet. There are people out there that could do a much better job at covering its associated iconic symbols than I ever could.

Wonder Bread postcard 1961.
Photo by Steve Shook
License CC BY 2.0

Heck as a child even our bread was an icon. The "Wonder Bread" pattern was all over the place.

If this article sparks any imagery or iconic symbols for you. Let me know in the comments and we will keep adding to this post.

Take care and I will try to post another item in 24 to 48 hours. It is been very busy this week which is why there is been the disruption. Okay now let's see if I can find all the iconic artwork necessary for this post 😀.

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Photo by James Vaughan

Take care Patrick

Where does one find the time?

I don't know about you, but lately the amount of things I have to do seems to be going up and up.

To make matters more interesting the reason seems to be that we know what were doing for certain tasks and that other people are somehow missing the experience or the knack. I don't want to leave people and projects high and dry. For the last few months it seems every weekend I find myself saying "Next weekend I am taking it off." But inevitably something comes up. It may not be directly related to work but it's just enough to consume chunks of the weekend or one's free time. Right now for example I'm already thinking about tomorrow morning. There is a server that needs work, a guide needs to be written, someone else need today for a consultation. If you been reading my blog this is good news for you because that consultation has to do with another article I wrote a month or two ago about smart assistance for the disabled. I can't remember the title right off hand but I'll make sure there's a link.

Anyway this is a supershort entry and I'm going to set the blog to release it tomorrow morning at 9 AM. With a little bit of luck all find some time during the day. To add a more meaningful article or at least start one.

Take care Patrick (and of course stay tuned.)

Your Perfect Memories Of The Past: A Product of Our Time.

  "A Product of Our Time..."

Whenever people speculate about the future or indeed consider the past, we always do so knowingly and unknowingly through psychological and social filters. I find this fascinating. It means that unless a person is very careful, bias of one form or another always sneaks in. Maybe we do it subconsciously most of the time to make the topic more relatable, to bend it a little bit to our worldviews.

A few moments ago, I was speaking with someone who has a rather severe disability and they were complaining about our current government in Canada, saying things like "10 years ago it wasn't like this. We had more freedom." Their dialogue continued for a while, and I was struck by the fact that for this person everything appeared to be better in the past.

Now regardless of your political views, I do believe that we've moved considerably forward on most social fronts. I remember when wheelchair cutaways (ramps) and sidewalks were nonexistent in the lower mainland of British Columbia. My life is been long enough that I have met some of the people that started the political momentum to get ramps put into sidewalks. I accept that my own memories are biased as well, because things weren't as easy as they are now in many ways. You don't have to go back too far, and the very devices you are using now to read this post were not only nonexistent, they were impossible to implement. So when looking to the past we really are doing so from the point of view of the here and now.

So I have a hunch that if we could have perfect memories of the past, we would end up appreciating the present a lot more. I wonder how that would change people? Think about it, it would be a profound ability and I suspect it would be somewhat of a burden. Maybe technology in the not too distant future will give us the ability to one day start a recording device at birth which preserves a perfect record of one's life. Imagine being able to review any event in your life. Boy I'm sure that would change one's perspective on a lot of things.

Even though such a device wouldn't be a perfect record since it couldn't include the entire context of the experience and would definitely give us much more to go on. It is a really fascinating thought. Your own "History Archive".

When I ponder this whole idea three things come to mind, especially when considering, the profound impact the information might have.

1. Would you want to be able to delete information and memories? Presuming if you did this, if you then accidentally forgot the memory the information would be gone forever. So the question isn't as clear as it first seems
   .
2. What if you discovered that your biological recount of an event didn't at all match the perfect historical record? What effect would that have on you? Presuming that the historical record could only be deleted not modified.
   
   
3. Knowing everything is being recorded how would that affect your behaviour, or would you just get used to it and act naturally regardless?

It is likely to some degree at some point people and society will have to face some aspects of this. As a matter of fact we are there now to a small extent. The Internet collectively stores a great deal of information about you and I. Should it be preserved? For let's say, cultural historians?

Wow, these are questions that I don't believe the human race has ever really had to contend with up until now. I started this article off thinking about past and our perception. Now we have ended up talking about the future and considering the recorded record we are all making.

Food for thought, indeed.

Take care Patrick

Yahoo, it's the beloved weekend! (Free Photos)

License: Non Commercial
No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

 Yahoo, it's the beloved weekend! Here's a few free photos.

I can't think of much to write today. Myself and my brain are just not in that space.

Although usually I can come up with something to say almost instantly today, for whatever reason-The Rabbits Just Aren't There (and I have no idea what I mean by that last statement, because it just occurred to me and since I do most of my typing by voice dictation it just came out and I think it sounds rather cool.)

So for today I am just going to post some pictures I've taken over the years using various cameras and edited with Corel PaintShop Pro Ultimate. (Software publishers site.) If anything strikes your fancy you are free to download it and use it as you wish. I hereby declare that anything you see in this post which is using this domain is in the public domain.

I do have a few photographs for purchase up on Displate. If you've never heard of this company they print artwork on metal with the result being that the posters are held on the wall by simple magnets. They ship all over the world.

Okay here in no particular order are a few photos taken over the years.

All but the last one, which is a picture of the Sun Tower taken in Vancouver are in their original full-size files. Simply click on the photo. Unfortunately the original of the Sun Tower has been lost to time. 

The photos were taken across the lifespan of three cameras: (Links to the Canon Camera Museum.)

• Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III
• Canon PowerShot SX120 SI
• Canon PowerShot SX620 HS

Enjoy your weekend and continue to have a great day.

Patrick

PS: This post will scroll off the front page of the blog in about 10 days. If you would like to revisit it easily click this link and bookmark the resulting page. Tip:All posts can be permanently bookmarked in your browser by clicking on their title and then bookmarking their own webpage. You will know you have the correct page when you see only one article.

 Click photo to enlarge, and then right-click, to save.

Also available on Displate as a metal poster. Direct link here.

 

 

Also available on Displate as a metal poster. Direct link here.

 

 

 

The "Reality" Between Individuals.

I think everyone would agree that people and cultures can have vastly different worldviews. But the farther along in life I get I find myself contemplating something more intimate and even more diverse. I think it is quite likely that the "reality" between individuals in a single group can be very different. I mean how do you know your interpretation of the world around you is the same as your best friend? You might respond by saying "it is certainly similar, we agree on so many points of view." But I need something far more intimate and granular. How does anyone know that there are very mechanism of interpreting the world is the same as anyone else's?

It's an interesting thought. It would sure help to explain the diversity in the world and that is a good thing. Myself I think I would be a little let down if I really knew that everyone had the same thought processes. In 2020 I posted a similar article titled "A Thought about Thinking" in which I touched on this issue but from a slightly different perspective, I was pondering how software designers think. This time I am considering everyone, and not just a small segment.

This is one of those rabbit hole discussions, it could go on forever. It has profound implications though because society is so used to making the broad assumption that a given group of people all think alike but that may not be the case. But it would be interesting to investigate. I just wanted to jot this idea down well it occurred to be on this Friday morning ...This post will get longer over the next few days I think.

Take care Patrick and stay tuned as always.

Inspiration: The Grand Light Bulb!

 

Inspiration has to be one of the best feelings in the world. That moment where everything just clicks!

Let's see if we can figure out how do we increase our chances of becoming inspired. Yes I think there's a bit of a methodology here, are a few critical key ingredients:

1. Inspiration has a tendency to occur when you're feeling most unfettered. When you're not mentally restrained or tied down by limitations. In other words inspiration doesn't fit in a box. It has to be allowed to play.
   
   
2. Inspiration usually loves company. This is why often the best way to get inspired especially when you can't think of where to start is to use a technique called brainstorming in which you just throw out ideas randomly. Even if they're not related to the topic at hand. Once the ball starts rolling, one idea will lead to another, which will lead to another, and yet another. Then all of a sudden when you switch back to your topic, the brain is already on a roll and sometimes the idea just pops into your head. There are moments and times when inspiration is most likely to occur when it's solitary and in deep contemplation about something. But I find more often than not that inspiration is infectious.
   
   
3. Inspiration is an opportunity knocking at the door, and it doesn't wait around. If you get inspired take action on the idea as quickly as you can. Even just jotting down some notes. One of the great enemies of inspiration is "The Stall", putting the thought off. How many grand ideas have been lost because of this?

I think it is as simple as that. To get inspiration going you need only the above three points. But as always, the more aware you are of your current state, the better. In other words recognize that you've just had an inspirational moment and feel free to explore it. This is what I call building up a good habit.

Okay, have an inspiring day!
Take care Patrick

Climbing the Ladder: A Primer to Greater Awareness.

 

Sherlock Holmes Silhouette Postcard
Drawing by Karen Arnold
License: CC0 Public Domain

 Before you can run, one must first learn to walk, and so it is with improving one's awareness of self and their surroundings.

I've been talking a great deal over the last few posts about "greater awareness". This is all wonderful if you already have some clue as to what your awareness and sensitivities are. But what if you have no clue what I'm talking about? What then, how do you start? Well this article is about to explore that :-).

First, let's define awareness for you. It is what you are cognizant of this very moment. Look around your room, or pinch your self. Do something, almost anything will do and then pay attention to doing that very action. You have just brought your awareness into play. That's all awareness is, paying attention to the situation you are currently in.

Now, here's where it gets fun and interesting. You can choose to pay attention to something and then while you're paying attention to it, notice how it affects you... Congratulations you've just expanded your awareness a little bit. Call around your house and just pay attention to things. I bet you will find insights or maybe even old memories, that you never knew you had. It is difficult to say precisely because everyone's experience is different. You could even say: "You are made up of your own awareness. A product, unique to the individual." And pretty much impossible to replicate.

Here's a classic exercise which I learned many years ago, during of all things a course on depression. We had some very cool team leaders. I would to say they were hippies, except I'm not quite that old. We were all sitting in a classroom in a circle:

The instructors came by and place in each of our hands a raisin. And they just asked us to pay attention to it. Take a moment to understand what you can feel in your hand and what you cannot. To me it felt like a small pebble and nothing much more.-Talk about an underwhelming moment-that by the way is exactly what I told the instructor. Who smiled and said "With Practice, you will be able to understand what you are not aware of about the raisin." "What kind of garbage is this I am listening to?" I thought. However, another week into the course and I found out the instructor was right. This time it was the same raisin except I immediately noticed it was rough. I had felt the very same thing the first time I held the raisin except I did not pay attention to it. I expected all will be insight to be loud and profound. Just a week into the class I had learned to be a little more aware of the subtle things. To be clear it wasn't an amazing experience. But it does demonstrate that the little things are just as important as the big events in your awareness and life.

Frequently we miss these little things and what we don't realize is little things can build up into big things. This can either be a problem or a great advantage because it really is a cumulative effect.

So start there with your awareness and play with it. You are in full control of the great deal of things and the things you cannot change can be affected by the things you can. Next time you are watching TV or YouTube, plan around with the colour saturation (vividness) and see how over a couple of days it affects your experience with the device. And then switch it back to what it was. These are all ways to get to know where your awareness is.

Take care Patrick

Why Be Normal? Be Your Self First.

In the 21st century society in North America seems to be caught in the loop in which some trend or product emerges causing everyone to jump on the bandwagon. For some reason, most of us feel the need to acquire it or join the group. Yet, at the same time it appears we all want to be individuals. "Our own self." But for people who truly are unique individuals the same society gives them a great deal of grief. Pick any group or activity which is considered on the margin and you will find this to be true.

From my perspective that desire to jump on the bandwagon part of the group is an indication of a society which is insecure as a whole and can only lead to conflicts when people within the group do indeed try to be themselves and unique. As the world gets smaller and more interconnected I think the human race needs to face a fact:

The members of our society must moving forward learn to think and grow beyond just reacting to desire and fears. This is going to take a fundamental shift on all levels but I believe it can be done and needs to be done. An example of what just brought this train of thought to mind:

I was just speaking with a friend who has a relatively new wheelchair and a fairly expensive one. The process of getting medical equipment can be a rather complicated endeavour, but like everything else you need to do research and the person involved who was going to benefit from the equipment must be integral to the undertaking.

In this case that did not happen the chair is not balanced properly so that it tends to tip forward whenever they stop and I don't mean by a small amount. If they have any kind of momentum and then have to bring the chair did was stop quickly the back wheels slipped entirely off the ground. This is a huge oversight when the chair was selected and calibrated. This should never have happened. Yet it is an indication of people not thinking, although I find myself amazed that they could miss this. Now the chair must be taken apart and any additions that need to be put on me have to be modified or made to fit. This is a whole lot of work and it's not going to be cheap.

When I was involved with the design of my current chair it took a year from beginning to completion with many fittings and adjustments. I was totally involved in the process and as a result I received one of the best devices I have ever used. But it's obvious that this was not the case with my friend. They and the team that was assembled to purchase the chair obviously were not used to thinking in detail. This is an example of the bandwagon approach to life. I'm willing to bet the price of the chair was the guiding factor when it should have been the person who's going to be using it.

From a wider perspective when a whole society starts to approach life this way no wonder there are some money unresolved issues. I think the education system needs to place a much greater emphasis on creative thinking and awareness and go beyond fields of super specialization. So back to the question of why be normal. Because normal does not encourage thinking and involvement. To be your self however means to be involved and when you are involved although it is frequently much more difficult what you end up with is infinitely better. As the saying goes: "To look at the big picture." What do you think?

Feel free to leave your comments

Take care Patrick