A (Not) Boring World

I have spent a great deal of my life travelling partly due to my own obsession with the whole ordeal and due to my own parents' professions. I have noticed that over the years cafés, restaurants and many other establishments have expanded in rather unique ways in order to attract more customers.

London

In London for example I have seen restaurants partially turn themselves into temporary bakeries once a week (like Franco Manca in Chiswick) selling their own produce with the hopes that the same customers who buy their bread will also venture into the restaurant for a bite. Another example in London that I have seen is the way some restaurants will sell a variety of their dishes in various markets spread across London - the farmer's market in Lyric Square, Hammersmith every Thursday; the market in St. James square every Monday; Borough Market.

Japan

But the real game players are the Japanese. There they have really gone into attracting people in quite unique and novel ways.

Would you like a snake with that coffee of yours? 

In Japan it has become famously known and quite widespread that they have a multitude of 'cat cafés' where people are surrounded by a myriad of gracious felines as they drink their green tea. But now they even have establishments such as the one shown in the picture above where you can enjoy your afternoon surrounded by snakes, lizards, and all kinds of reptiles [I'm guessing that if you have herpetophobia (fear of reptiles) this place isn't for you]...

Spain

In Spain they have redefined ambience by simulating an earthquake at the Disaster Café...imagine it, you're drinking your lovely cocktail and all of a sudden you're interrupted by an array of flashing lights and shaking tables. 

Sort of makes the casual dinner at Signor Sassi's or wherever you look to go rather mellow compared to these eccentric eateries...

We are but a pale blue dot

It has been a while since I have last written a piece for my blog, but it has also felt so extremely long since I last really put things into a perspective. During the months of September through to June, times moves at a pace that is so inconceivably fast or slow that one like myself finds it hard to really ever stop and absorb everything. I am told to do write this essay, do this research, create this poster and talk to this person but I am never told to simply enjoy what I am enrolled in neither am I ever willing to slow the pace of everything simply to take a relaxing joy ride.

As the summer slowly progresses, and I prepare to fly to Bali this Saturday, not only do I order copious amounts of books, movies, and tv shows to entertain myself with but I also take this time to explore the Internet and all the trash and intellectual articles/videos that are thrown at me. Recently I came across a site called upworthy.com which is a domain where people/journalists/bloggers whatever you prefer to call them create articles that individually have their own unique videos attached to them. And as my inclination to not simply ever watch one video and stop there, and rather continue to immerse myself into this hour long project of mine to watch as many videos as I possibly can.

This is where I found an article written by Rollie Williams -->

How Carl Sagan Used His NASA Connections To Get A Picture Of The Earth From 3.7 Billion Miles Away

Now if you are like myself and thought the article/video would simply be a 10 minute lecture of "how Carl Sagan used his NASA connections to get a picture of the earth from 3.7 billion miles away" then you are wrong (like I was so nicely mistaken). The video transcended simple scientific talk, and entered the realms of philosophical questions and the debatable matters of morals and ethics in society. I could easily explain what Carl Sagan found and how he used the tiny dot of an Earth pictured at precisely the perfect moment (a moment earlier or later would have failed to show any sort of a beaming dot) to explain the human/individual's importance or place in a universe that is simply too vast to ever comprehend.

The video is one of the rare ones that actually left me rather enlightened...when we go to history class and condemn evil men such as Adolf Hitler - such individuals are not even grains of sand in a vast universe that is so incontrovertibly profound and continues to expand and make us even smaller. It leaves me to wonder if my responsibilities, worries or pretty much anything that concerns me having to do something has any significance in the true light of things. If the people who concern me matter at all, if the individuals who have disappointed or betrayed me in the past have any importance in my world and are thus not even worthy (yes I am saying worthy) of my attention. 

I mean seriously, where am I in that planet reminiscent of a miniature golf ball? Such things leave me unable to bring any such comparisons at all really...

Sources:

http://www.upworthy.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9TIeuBF9Ss#t=561

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2URsvF/1H9HeY_1p:l1BvcOD8/www.upworthy.com/a-french-film-showing-men-what-being-a-woman-feels-like-kinda?c=reccon1

What does it mean to define?

I shall approach this blog entry with a slightly more informal (i.e. more personal) tone today. One of the reasons being that today has been one of the most hectic and peculiar days that I have experienced thus far. Not only do I know why I feel this way, but I also do not know why. As if I was there but not really there. As if time passed without my knowledge, and the very essence of motion and energy simultaneously sped up and slowed down. As peculiar a feeling it may have been (or still is), it led me to ponder, and think about a multitude of things that had not previously crossed my mind.

What are definitions? For some reason, and today only, I came to think how on earth the English language or any language for the matter, could develop a word that defines itself? It is like a lexical form of inception to me. Define chocolate: noun [mass noun] a food in the form of a paste or solid block made from roasted and ground cacao seeds, typically sweetened and eaten as confectionery - but is that the definition? My definition of chocolate is different to that, same with the millions of others who would conjure up some other sort of definition should they be told to 'define' the word. So what is definition?

The exact meaning of a word.

Really? The exact meaning of a word. Is there such a thing as the 'exact meaning of a word.' I do not think so. I feel that there is art to be found in the defining of terms, actions, events, and any other phenomena that exist in the world today. To define something exactly is impossible, therefore it requires great skill and precision.

The way we define things, it results in the way we treat, react, and respond to terms...because of what they mean. Dull means unimaginative, boring, monotonous, dry etc. that is why when someone calls you 'dull,' you react in the way you do. It is the literary connotation that dull has with these negative expressions that determines the way we respond to it. 

Now I just realised that this whole blog entry may seem totally confusing or disconnected or appear as something like that of a rant by someone who feels as if they just made a revelation of some sort. But I do hope that what I tried to convey in this whatever-you-want-to-call-it has been slightly understood and its meaning possibly appearing through the text.

L. 

Image source: http://melissadileonardo.tumblr.com/post/65127182175/two-things-that-define-you-patience-and-attitude

Our Food In Half

I live in London, therefore there is always a myriad of restaurants and cafés to choose from when stuck in a moment of hunger. Be it Chinese, Thai, French, Italian, Pan-Asian or whatever, such an extensive array of cuisines in one city means that it is incontrovertible to say that you can not find a place to eat.

Stemming off of that intro, I found a photographer who takes pictures of the food we eat,  but with a twist. The twist being that all the food is cut in half. Some of it I don't quite understand how she does, like with the cup of coffee that sits in a styrofoam cup with its swirls of caffeine still evident to the human eye. Therefore I deduced from this interesting find that I should present it to you,

Cut Food by Beth Galton

I have had my fair share of experience with photography and found myself many a time in a quandary over something that looked so cryptic and convoluted at the same time. But I must say that these photos do leave me feeling extremely hungry. With the second photograph not appearing to aid in my obsession with caffeine and preventing me from going to the kitchen right now and turning on my Nespresso machine for yet another vanilio and caramelito coffee.

Rest assured, there is nothing disingenuous about my intentions in showing you these five meticulously taken photographs of cut food. It is also not another effort of mine to appear overly pedantic in teaching 'oh this and that' about the wonders of art in photography. It is simple, lucid and mouthwatering. 

I came across these photographs upon my efforts to procrastinate in times of exams, projects, research papers etc. But I don't think it was an overly effective procrastination for I ended up doing something related to work. Nevertheless, this is to foster both my and any other individual's efforts in seeing the creative side to the Internet. For I believe that increasingly so, the Internet is being projected into a light of social networking, newspaper websites, trash feeds, and thought of in a solely negative manner. But it isn't any of those things (well it is but...) it is so much more. 

Source: http://colt-rane.com/cut-food-by-beth-galton/

We Like To Pass (not waste) Time

As I have said so many a time before, art does not only involve a paintbrush and canvas. It is so much more. To me, I have come to think of the word 'art' as an extremely convoluted term that can branch off into a myriad of other terms/genres/groups etc.

Would you say the creation of a website is art? Well, why not? I think it is.

This is where my procrastination comes in...countless times I have found myself sitting on a dark cloud of dull, opaque and frustrating matters that are endlessly time consuming. And in such protracted moments, my inclination to procrastinate is almost inevitable.

What is procrastination? Is it you sitting there, looking at one website then finding yourself clicking on another website followed by another and boom you have a multitude of tabs open and you find yourself thinking, 'wait it's 8:30PM...and my dissertation is due first thing in the morning of which I have barely finished...hmmm...oh well let's continue procrastinating.'

This is exactly what I am doing at this very moment in time. Procrastinating.

I read an article on www.mashable.com that displayed a list of other websites to aid in my efforts to procrastinate.

1) http://hackertyper.com/

Want to sit at work and appear as if you are toiling over some tediously laborious project? 

Well this may be the site for you (or your secret enjoyment of simply going awol on your keyboard for the joy of it).

2) http://www.theuselessweb.com/

This site takes you to other websites. It's almost like the inception of the Internet. Here is my blog, one website, where I recommend visiting a variety of other websites to check out, that in turn, take you to even more websites. 

Yes, please do take me to another useless website and further distract me from what I should really be doing. Thankss.....

3) http://www.sleepyti.me/

Having trouble over when exactly you should wake up? Want a calculator that identifies a restful night?

This website is the place to be for you. (Haha, I sound like a real estate agent...)

4) http://www.onreadz.com/

This site provides free e-books, may be useful for the studious individual...

5) http://www.ineedaprompt.com/index.php

For the very unimaginative man that simply cannot come up with an idea on his own.

6) http://www.thisissand.com/

Reminds me of weavesilk.com (another interactive website that I wrote a blog about a really long time ago)...this may be interesting for the crafty person who likes procrastinating by drawing/painting or other such artsy activities. 

I could go on but I simply thought that if I was procrastinating (as I am now) that I should try to be productive and/or helpful to myself and others and suggest ideas to other individuals who may be procrastinating too as they read this blog. 

L. ;) 

Source: http://mashable.com/2014/05/02/websites-to-waste-time/

Ridiculous Wearable Technology

I have always been one to never judge a person's creation, simply out of respect. However that does not go without saying that I am not left feeling confused, bewildered, or creeped out by the numerous creations that have been invented by tech-savvy individuals. There is a place and time for everything, but when it concerns an object, or piece of clothing that I must wear then all the circumstances change.

1) http://www.drumpants.com/

I have gathered a variety of interesting yet quite ridiculous inventions intended for the woman or man like myself to wear.

This may seem extremely useful and/or intriguing to the individual who is simply crazy about music or involved in some sort of band or what not.


What do you think? Would you like to walk around the park and tap on your skinny jeans simultaneously creating music as you do?

2) Sproutling - the fitness tracker for babies

Think of it, the baby is just born, barely able to walk yet but you are worried about the chubbiness of your baby's legs...(I know it's natural but for this case let's assume you are worried).

He or she may now go and order a Sproutling for their newborn to track their baby's everyday fitness regime. Imagine all that time and effort trying to teach your baby various yoga or pilates exercises is now wasted for Sproutling can obviously do the job? Right?

But apparently it is to detect the newborn's breathing patterns, movements throughout the house, and so on...


For more information on Sproutling go to -->

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/16/wearable-baby-monitor-developer-sproutling-raises-2-6m-from-first-round-and-others-to-raise-parenting-iq/

Nevertheless, what is the meaning of 'wearable technology?' Should it be renamed to 'sensible wearable technology?' What renders something successful in its ability to be helpful to the individual? Many questions posed for much expected unanswered replies.

It is not hard to find hundreds of sites talking about the 'marvellousness, ridiculousness, recklessness' of so many different types of wearable technology. Same with how there are so many different discussions and debates circling around the topic that people are just not interested in wearable technology right now.

I, if I am to be totally honest, feel quite indifferent about the concept but if something out there is released that I feel may genuinely aid me in whatever I am doing then I will gladly pay for it. Otherwise, keep the inventions coming.

The Evolution of the Home

Let's meet Stan. Stan wakes up in the morning, takes a shower, turns on the television that automatically presents him with his favorite news channel, and then heads into the kitchen. He makes his toast, his coffee, but wait where is the milk? So Stan walks over to the fridge and realises that his beloved skimmed milk is nowhere to be seen. Neither is his beloved butter for the toast nor is his much needed box of organic eggs for his daily quiche. He didn't know that all these ingredients were missing when he went out to the store yesterday and currently he feels to lazy to make the trip.

But what if yesterday, prior to going out to the store, Stan had a remote or some sort of device that told him exactly what ingredients were in refrigerator, and upon typing out a recipe, that same device told him what ingredients he needed. Wouldn't that be convenient?

"Take a washing machine, for example. A 20-year-old model will function fairly similarly to its modern counterpart: It gets clothes clean. Compare that to, say, the cellphone, a crowded technological landscape obsessed with making the Next Big Thing,

"Legacy home appliance companies are the old guards of the technology world: respectable businesses with reliable products everybody needs."

The question that stands now is do we want these new, convenient, technological advancements? Or, do we want to stay as we are with our safe, reliable, legacy companies that have provided our families with what we need for decades?

Are we willing to consider trade-offs? Would we be afraid of the general population gaining weight as a result of the increased laziness that would arise as a result of this new technology? I don't know. 

Personally, I would love it if before I got out of bed every morning, I could lean over to my phone and have it send some sort of message to my coffee machine that said, "make me a vanilla and caramel coffee with no milk and no sugar." 

L.

Sources: 

http://mashable.com/2014/04/26/smart-home-appliances/

http://freeallsoftwares.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Home-Automation-for-iPhone.jpg