This blog is just a grab bag of thoughts and useful links. However, as the name suggests it may be interpreted by some as a wee bit challenging, if not, activist. Hence the use of the term "Left" in the title.
The views expressed are strictly my own. The mention of any software or service is not to be taken as an endorsement or criticism.
For many years, and in hundreds of books there have been countless words written about "Perception" and how it is all important especially with regard to you and the rest of the world. To put it simply it is, how you see things. But there is very little consideration on what you consider perception itself to be and to what degree you can mould the construct of perception itself.
I first this may seem like cyclical thinking because, is not perception the very act of perceiving? Yes it is but like everything else under your control. It can be moulded, adjusted if you like, and it just knowing this that allows you to consider it on a much deeper level. What is perception to you? And just how often in your daily routine are you aware of perceiving something? If you are aware of the process as it actually unfolds you can begin to really zoom in on the origins of some of your emotions as well as physical factors you are experiencing.--- Are you aware of the experience right this moment as you read this article?
Most people in North America look forward to their morning coffee. Some may even smell the aroma as they think about what coffee is to them. The very fact that they can do that is due to their perception of what the perception of coffee is. Now you can start to take this apart and look at the various stages you go through as you think of something equally wonderful. What I'm really talking about here is developing the ability to take any experience and subdivided down to smaller levels, smaller degrees and in that process consider your relationship to the event by looking at pieces of the experience. This can give one the ability to really focus in and slow things down so that what was once invisible now begins to show itself. Whether your reaction is positive or negative this way of looking at things can allow you to really take the various stages of a reaction apart and by doing so alter future reactions.
Of course you can go overboard on this and start literally "splitting hairs" going down to finer and finer details well beyond the point of being useful. Don't get that distracted by this idea. Use it only to the point where you are getting some insights out of any given experience. It might be a good idea to write or record your thoughts as you consider some aspect of perception. Then revisited a few hours later or sometime down the road. Because then I enough will happen to you in the intervening time that you are perception will be different.
This short article is only the results of myself a few days ago while waking up realizing that my perception is my own making and that like a fractal image there is infinite detail and I can take it apart as long as I find the results useful. I wish I had been recording at the time this thought occurred to me because here I am five days later and I can remember the idea for this short article but not what I was considering a moment earlier which brought the to the idea of Perceiving One's Own Perception.
Hopefully this has made some sense, and cause you to pause and reflect on something. Have a great day. If video is your preferred format, then here you go. I expand on this topic a little more. As always please leave comments or ideas below or on YouTube.
This morning I read a quote from Dostoyevsky which fits in very nicely with this topic:
"To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task."
Believe it or not everyone has a built in evolutionary based "Cognitive Negative Bias". That is, your mind, if left to its own behaviours always assumes the worst. This was right for the early human species as it saved them from becoming a predator's midday snack. However this negative bias over time became generalized and now in the modern world, it not only does it not serve us well, it actually gets in the way of physiological growth.
It is not necessary to go into examples of negative bias, they are all too prevalent. Rather this article is meant to give you some of my own personal tools to encourage seeing a "Positive Bias" whenever possible. These are things I have learned throughout my life.
To sum them up, they are:
Personal Awareness
Recognizing Habitual Behaviour
Enjoying Effort (literally relishing in the fact that something might be hard to do.)
Every time engage in one of these behaviors, you always learn something.
1. Most of us, including myself, spend a good chunk of our days somewhere between autopilot and grounded awareness. This is the modern survival skill, because frequently you are moving at a rapid pace juggling many things. The problem is that, it has become, for many people, a natural default state; they are slowly lose touch with themselves. In some situations even with their very character. Who they may become over time it's not quite the personality they assume. Everything can change and that includes the very essence of you.
Getting to know various aspects of yourself is critical, because it is the bedrock upon which everything else is built. No one can know everything about themselves because we are always changing, but we can definitely alter the larger and more profound aspects. So, the next time you turn on the TV, YouTube, or other entertainment media especially if it's something you do often, ask yourself to just pay attention to you to the situation you are in. What are you looking forward to? If it is a routine ask yourself what you get out of the routine? Start to take apart the situation in whatever way you want and notice the different aspects. There is so much to discover in personal awareness and it is in these moments that you can find a great many surprises. Encourage yourself to be curious. You are psychologically getting something out of every situation. Start to explore what that might be. Even negative things. What you might call a bad habit has a payoff for some part of your psychology.
2. This leads right into the next item on the list, recognizing habitual behaviours. Again you are getting something out of it. Often can be a way to avoid being aware of yourself. The problem is that habitual behaviours that don't do you any good and can waste a great deal of time getting you nowhere. So you don't benefit from the experience either positively or negatively. --- In sort they keep you stuck. So next time you're eating that big bag of potato chips and you're chewing through them at breakneck speed. Ask yourself what's going on.
3. Just today I was working with someone who was terrified of effort. That is to say, the minute something got difficult for them, he immediately put up mental roadblocks, essentially guaranteeing that they would fail. I have seen this several times now in various people who will always say they want to learn and succeed. My belief is that it is the fear of change ultimately that is stopping them. Everything you've ever done in your life even the most automatic and unconscious things was at the very beginning, difficult. You had to learn how to gain a new skill. But somewhere along the way these people learned or told themselves that everything must conform to their way of existence or seeing the world if you prefer. If it didn't fit their model then it was by definitions "difficult" and doomed to failure. To guarantee this outcome they began to build up all sorts of behaviours to distract themselves while at the same time frustrating themselves. A guarantee the way not to benefit from learning.
Well, in order to learn you must be prepared to change and what you need to learn is that change is a good thing in this context and if something is difficult that is also a good thing. It means you're being stretched and exercised and ultimately growing. So learn to accept difficulty as a positive indicator. If the "wall" is too high, take your time and appreciate the small steps. If you are observant of your accomplishments and your setbacks you will reach the top. You will however not be quite the same person you are at the beginning of the undertaking. It is necessary to let go of the "you" you knew. It may be a very difficult thing at first and it may remain difficult. That is okay. Take the time to understand why. If it is not in your power to see why it is difficult then see if you can come to terms with the difficulty. It will be up to you whether to proceed and integrate it into the situation or to go down another route.
Don't Resist Change, Embrace It.
There seems to be a tendency for people now to insist on having the world presented to them in a way they are already comfortable with and that can lead to a lot of the above difficulty. You may have to change your behaviour. If you really want to achieve a specific goal. That means taking a look at your negative bias and indeed taking a look at the individual you have knowen for all these years who just happens to be your self.
A practical example of people resisting change while insisting they want the benefits of change without the work involved would be the following:
This happened several times every year. Either in my volunteer work or when assisting someone in my building with new equipment or purchases. They get the latest phone with all the bells and whistles. After they've had it for a few days they come to me and they ask can you make this do what I saw in the commercial? It doesn't matter what the undertaking is what the person is often really asking is "You do the work so I can have all the benefits without having to think about it.". And of course things never really work out for them because they do not understand the very future they are attracted to. Even if everything does work after it is been set up they are still somewhat frustrated because they intuitively know that they don't know what's going on. And in order to benefit from an experience you have to understand that experience. Just buying a good camera will not make you a good photographer. You must undertake learning how it works. There is no getting around this if you really want to grow.
So there we have it. The key points of my philosophy in regards to negative bias. My advice throw the negative out and do the work to get the positive in.
I have made a companion video for this article. It covers the same points and also addresses a few other aspects. If you are more comfortable learning it through multimedia then this is for you. It is about 10 minutes long.
In my volunteer work we occasionally run across people who simply seemingly can't resist adjusting everything in sight. Regardless of whatever it is, a cell phone, computer, smart device etc. they seem to have an inbuilt compulsion to adjust things. Even if no adjustment is necessary. This frequently breaks the item and they usually have adjusted more items on the device before we hear about it.
These issues can be really challenging to solve because frequently the person doesn't remember all the things they've changed. So the usual scenario is we fix up the device and the person is happy but I also know that they will be back. This happens frequently enough that it is got me thinking what is going on with these people. Why are they making their lives more complicated. My philosophy is so much simpler… "If the thing works, leave it alone."
Sometimes I think it's a need to control their environment however that is not always the case because if you do manage to get them to leave something alone then there's a good chance they will leave it alone permanently, ignoring all the signals when they should be taking action. Their behaviour is very much like a switch it's either all on or it's completely off and ignored.
Now to be honest and clear I am somewhat the same I can get trapped in a downward rabbit hole of adjusting something until it is perfect, or I frustrated the heck out of myself, which ever comes first. But I am aware of what I'm doing and why. So the rabbit hole adventure doesn't happen too often... Except it just did. If you look at the graphic at the top of this post you'll notice an odd background. I was playing around with my graphics tablet when I accidentally created this. And of course I spent a ridiculous amount of time tweaking everything about it. Now that I think back on and it's kind of frustrating because I know darn well that displays very greatly. What looks fantastic on my desktop monitor may look very poor on the template. Or at least very different. You would think knowing that for certain would mean that I would opt for the safe and reasonable. But no… We can't do that can wait :-).
Tell me your stories in the comments down below so that at the very least we can come to know this interesting behaviour and maybe make it our own and start a new trend in social media.
I wonder if this tinkering and for ever adjusting is more like an addiction for some people? They do tend to go a little odd if you manage to get in the way of their regular routine of for ever twiddling the knobs. I recently worked on an old computer running Windows 7 and the person that owned it had put in everything and it was the ultimate version of everything. As a result this little old computer came to a grinding halt. I cleaned it up for them and told them to be kind to the old machine and consider it more of an heirloom than anything useful. But within a day I heard back from them that the machine was overheating. Upon a little more investigation they admitted they put everything back and perhaps even more. I wasn't mad when I heard this. I think more astonished would be my state of mind.
Around and around these odd behaviours go. The universe really should have provided an instruction booklet for the human race. Not one about culture, but one that deals with getting to know your self.
Do you know people like this, have you worked with them? Even better have you got any insight? Leave your comments below.
Poster announcing free adult education classes and encouraging adults to return to school. Date stamped on verso: Dec 4 1937. LOC's Public Domain Archive
Boy, if that isn't a" sleeper" of a question. At first it seems so innocent. Bordering on simple. One would need only reply with the yes or no answer. But I think the question belies something much deeper and critical. I think the roof question is "Is the Internet getting in your way?" This is something we could debate and feel free to put your comments down below but speaking personally I would answer "Yes" for myself.
The Internet and indeed our entire way of communicating currently seems to be getting in the way of efficiently or at least uniformly going through one's day. People have not yet learned how to deal with this much information and the mechanisms we have in place frequently get in the way of useful delivery. Ever notice how many pop-ups you get when you turn your phone on? And let's not even go down the rabbit hole of email. I would read more of it if we had a more useful way to structure and present the data/information. And the sites that purport to give you a "snippet" view of the information I just find it annoying because I really do want to know in detail about whatever I am pursuing.
It is going to be interesting to see what things are like in 100 years although I don't think it'll take nearly that long, for something utterly new to replace our way of approaching information. This has nothing to do with the amount of information a person can digest in a given period of time it has much more to do with the quality of the knowledge gained. Let me know what you think.
Have a good evening everyone out there on good old planet Earth. More in the coming days. This has been just a quick entry for today. But a question like this might even turn into a video over the weekend. Keep your eyes on this page.
Yep, this post is going to be photos that I have taken recently in parks and all around wherever I have found myself lately. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. All photography there part of this particular blog post in the public domain.
I started this last night on a whim so I have no idea what I would've put here but I will make sure that every single photo can be downloaded in full resolution, so all links lead to the full resolution photo sitting on my Google Drive.Standby and will see what happens.😀
All shots taken with a Canon G7 market 3
There are more photos to see on an earlier post I made. Not necessarily from the same camera. This older post is a bit of a time warp. You can find them in the article: Yahoo, it's the beloved weekend! (Free Photos)
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.
And Just for the Heck of It…
Here is a variation on on the BEE photo. A lightened up, with saturated colour poster, suitable for printing on 8.5 x 11 paper. "IT BEE SUMMER!" indeed 😎 .
Patrick
PS: If anyone would like the RAW image versions of these shots please let me know. These are in Canon's CR3 format are unedited and of much higher quality. Note however that not all devices can display them. There is also no lens correction. However if you have an idea what I'm talking about they are worth the extra effort.😀
It's the 21st century and people are beginning to take recycling and conservation very seriously. So why do we allow and indeed participate in the throwaway mentality of current smart phones?
They should be built to last not expire in two or three years. People behave like they're involved in an arms race; constantly upgrading for the latest and best technology. Think about the number of resources that go into the short life cycle of a phone. Rare materials many of which are toxic and some almost impossible to recycle.
So what's going on here and why are people buying into this? My phone is barely 3 years old and has begun to fall apart. I investigated and found that the entire phone is glued together. I don't think there's a screw or a clip in the whole thing. $600 is what it cost me when it was new because I bought it out right, wanting to avoid getting locked into a plan because one never knows what my income is going to be in the years moving forward. In other words I was looking to keep my life simple.
My needs in regards to this technology are very straightforward:
A clean un-bloated operating system android like operating system.
I'm willing to pay extra for good hardware as I do use quite a few apps for work.
I couldn't care less about the camera as long as it is sufficient to grab the occasional QR code.
Sounds like a pretty simple shopping list doesn't? Yet the way phones are marketed makes finding out that information rather challenging. As a matter of fact the last online at will I checked out for a phone spoke about everything except those basic points. The entire 10 page manual was more of an advertisement and the last thing we talked about was the actual phone functionality. In other words it was a camera first and the phone was almost an afterthought.
The other issue that really gets me going is updates to the software, or lack thereof, two years in and you're pretty much out of luck as far as patches go from some suppliers. Can we at least begin to turn this around by insisting that the batteries are replaceable and recyclable?
TVs are now beginning to go this way as well. My first Smart TV it took two years to get all the bugs out of the OS and then the manufacturer started shutting features down. Boy I was not impressed.
The thinking should be the other way around and go something like this:
If the hardware and software are capable of keeping the device secure and safe, then in order to maximize its useful life manufacturers must maintain it. They can offer new products but the consumer must be able to use their device to the fullest extent. This keeps things out of the recycling and saves the new amount in energy and resources.
The idea of building something to last is a concept that I think many people would welcome back. True there would be a reeducation going on because many people have never thought in that way.
This would have the effect of freeing people up to choose when to upgrade.
If the consumer new that the device was created to last and be serviceable in its lifetime then it is likely they would see the price as an investment. This would build loyalty which is something that every manufacturer needs.
Okay gang that's the end of my rant. What do you think. Let me know in the comments or by sending a note.
At least in the industrialized developed parts of the world, the modern human experience it's a funny thing.
We are all so busy filling our lives with everything. Even when we take time off there is a tendency to fill those days up with an official activity or vacation and we plan these events out. It is my impression that more and more people are effectively rushing through their days. By doing so I think a major point of existence is being missed and that is taking the time to appreciate all of the unique and wonderful things as well as some of the more complex or not so wonderful things.
To do this effectively one must learn to Stop. Put down the plan. Take some time to let go of the technology or other distractions and deliberately do without for a while. You will be amazed at what you're missing and that tends to be your very life in its finer points. The realization may hit you that life is not infinite so why are you rushing it? Every one of us will reach the inevitable and and regardless of what you believe it will be the end of what you know as existence now. You may live forever perhaps but it will be in a different form and in a different way. The point is that you cannot come back to the way you are now. So appreciate things by getting out of the routine and occasionally deliberately stopping for a day or two if you can.
Every second that passes you by cannot be renewed or redone. Stopping every once in a while will increase your appreciation of your very existence and those around you. It will definitely deepen your appreciation of everything, so when you do go back to your full speed you may see things differently and really understand the tremendous uniqueness of where you are at.
It's pretty straightforward stuff and yet so profound.
PS: The photo of the roses at the top of this page I hereby place in the public domain. The full-size image has been uploaded simply click on the picture.
If you have difficulty downloading picture click on this link to open the image in an alternate way which will give some browsers the ability to save the file. If that still does not work for you please send me a note via the contact us form.
But I don't think many of us realize just how "abridged" our reality and sensations are. Think about it, if once reality and sense of their surroundings were indeed accurate would it be so easy to change one's perspective on any given situation? And indeed how easily we accommodate any new perspective.
Ever had one of those mornings when you wake up and you are just in a grumpy or slow frame of mind? Thoughts meander through your head that are the most optimistic… Then you have a good strong cup of coffee and within a few minutes have all but forgotten the beginnings of your day. You feel engaged and ready to take on the world. How could your perception change that much if they weren't a construct of your own making in the first place? It really is a powerful question because it means you can adjust a great many things related to not only perception but your own internal processes of thought.
The scenario I just described above is almost my daily ritual in the last few years, and conversely at the end of the day I don't want to stop doing whatever I'm doing. Especially if I'm in a project state of mind where I'm either building something, writing code or creating artwork. I always think of " If onlyI had another hour…" Each morning though I have to go through the process of getting the lead out of my mind. Slowly but surely I have come to the conclusion that I will not worry about the mornings state of affairs. If my brain insists on being a crocodile and having to warm up in the sun, so be it.
Many people tell me that as they age their mind slows down and their world becomes smaller. For me the opposite seems to be true. I am gearing up and if I have any regrets it is only that I didn't understand all of this stuff when I was 25. It had to wait until now at almost 64 years of age. The malleability of one's mind is tremendous, but that same malleability characteristic can also mean that we accept our mental states without critiquing them. We just kind of go along with the flow. This is most likely a bad habit brought on by not enough time to pay attention to one's inner world. I recently reacquainted myself with an excellent book.
Using Your Brain--For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming By Richard Bandler
Publisher: Real People Press Year : 1985 ISBN numbers: 9780911226263, 9780911226270, 0911226265, 0911226273
Don't let the title of the book scare you off, the term "programming" only refers to changing your reactions to a memory, image or state of mind. In other words, this book is all about paying attention to your own program. The routines you have built up and automatic reactions to them. Then it goes into ways you can alter that behaviour. The book is written in a very lighthearted and playful manner and is a quick read. You will however return to it many times as it is one of those good books whose insights may not immediately be totally apparent. As far as I know the book itself is been out of print for many years and it was a friend of mine who founded through AbeBooks.
As I progress through life, it is become very apparent to me that most people do not pay attention to their own inner workings either physically or mentally. As a result they tend to become their own "victims", for lack of a better word. There is a real tendency to only take action once a situation has escalated to the point where they have too, and I can't help wondering: If they had been more self-aware and more involved with their own will being would they have reached the same state they are in now? Which from my perspective frequently is a negative situation. Whereas, here I am almost 64 years of age I don't do drugs except for the occasional glass of wine and mentally and physically am in pretty good shape. Indeed I think my physical disability Cerebral Palsy has been a benefit because at a young age it forced me to pay attention to my own inner workings, and later on seek input from counsellors and other people with different perspectives. It wasn't exactly a smooth trip through adolescence but at the end of the day I think it was necessary one.
Reality 101: The Course
We do indeed live in our own abridged reality and that means get to
construct it, piece by piece and rearrange it in whatever way we see
appropriate. I have reached the point where I think these kind of insights mentioned in the above book and the practice of being aware of what motivates an individual should be taught in school. We should not just take our own mental states and react to them after the fact. We should to gain the most benefit of our existence be the architect of our reality in the first place. How else can one discover, truly, their talents, and by the same token, know the things they are not well suited to. You want to take deliberate action to know your self and construct whatever reality you want. There is great freedom in this because it places you firmly in the conductor's seat.
People seem to like these kind of ideas presented in a visual format. So I put together a short eight minute video. The key thing to remember is that no matter what you are always the orchestrator of your reality.
Even if your hands are tied up and you cannot move you would still be able to interpret that situation. You might find yourself saying: "I can't move and so I might as well will relax… Why waste energy." By the same token if you become aware of your habitual habits, you can alter them. The change does not need to be you, and as a matter of fact, that's one of the keys to success. Make small doable changes. Just realizing that the change can be made is often in itself very liberating.
If for some reason you find that you are stuck in a certain frame of mind then realize that it will change and then you might be able to revisit the issue.
Your life is the orchestra and it is you who ultimately create the music. Even more so, you get to pick the instruments which ultimately make up the entire piece! Think of the freedom in that.
You could call this "article" a live post. Over the last few weeks I have had challenges in keeping the blog as up-to-date as I've wanted to do. Time has not been a friend of late with so much to do. So today's post is literally going to be done on the run. Not on any particular topic but compiled from my adventures as I zip around in my electric wheelchair from one part of the lower mainland of British Columbia to the other. I'm referring to the greater Vancouver area.
Yesterday we accidentally made it all the way to downtown Vancouver and around the Stanley Park seawall and back to Surrey. I say accidentally because I had planned any of it.
I am also compiling a short about 10 minutes video a montage of sorts containing some of the scenes and places I arrived back. Today it's up to the Oakridge Park area. A section of the city that I hear is going through a great change and from the developers website it sounds like they want to be a new city centre. We shall see...
It's now almost a week later, but I finally compiled a short three minute video containing springtime/summertime photos and video clips. This is only a little over three minutes long but I think captures the real spirit of the season and truly becoming aware of the awesomeness around us. I know that sounds trite, but it really is true. So without further ado, here is "Springtime Swing": (If it is not available yet come back in about an hour, I just uploaded it and it is in 4K.)
I do plan to go out again tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, and it looks like the weather is going to be beautiful. So I'll be posting an article or adding to this one hopefully sometime over the weekend. Take care
All one has to do is open up YouTube or go to any media site and you will find for sure articles talking about how people are addicted to technology. The statement "People check their cell phones every 12 minutes." is almost a modern mantra with some people. However, I do not see this continuing, society will find a balance and I think as long as one learns to benefit from the technology the world is on the right track.
I do think however that unforeseen changes are coming as the very fabric of how we communicate, and indeed what we communicate is influx. Earlier today I spoke with someone who was lamenting the advent of the smart phone and the Internet in general. To quote them: "I saw all those people lined up at the iPhone store when the first one was released and really thought it was a fad." Now obviously that statement goes quite a ways back in time because the first iPhone I believe was released to the public on June 29, 2007.(Wikipedia article)
That statement stayed with me and cost a bit of a reaction. At first I couldn't ascertain what it was and then it dawned on me that I had heard similar laments quite often in the past about almost every major change in society. There is always a group of people who insist on sticking with "the old ways of doing things". But what is often missed is the old ways were the "new ways"relative to something else. It is true that sometimes the new ways are not always well thought out but in most cases there are many benefits. I find it fascinating how people will at first when they're young charge forward, and then somehow get "stuck in their old ways" of doing things somewhere along the line of life.
It probably has to do with how they perceive the introduction of something. Do they see it as simply a static feature which they rely on without really considering what is going on or why it was introduced in the first place. If so I think these are the groups of people that get stuck. Whereas someone who looks at a "new way" of doing things and attempts to understand it in the fuller context (how it achieves its goal and how it benefits people or does not) often does not get stuck as rigidly because they understand that everything is fluid. I remember when the CD disc was brand-new on the market. It came, and it went because better ways of doing things came along. But I know people have invested great amounts in their physical collections of CD-based music. Often they would treat the items with the same reverence that vinyl collectors treat the record.
So this demonstrates the fact that it is much more important to understand things in their fuller perspectives and not to get hung up on one aspect. I have no doubt that in the relatively short amount of time what we consider smart phones and computers now will completely disappear to be supplanted by technologies that are far more integrated and work in a completely different way. Indeed I think even electricity will ultimately be superseded by another form of energy. Maybe not all of it but certain aspects of electronics most certainly will have to change. There are fundamental limits which as I understand that we are getting awfully close to hitting. What I find really intriguing is what will come next and what the world will be like. I may or may not be around for this outcome but I sure hope I am :-). Just some food for thought.
