Year Four of Two @spacechess00 - Tumblr Blog

It’s That Time Again, Part 8 Woo!

8 Ideas for Presentation, Go!

1. Food: Oreo's worked last year, and they will again this year, to slowly twist and separate in deep contemplation of it all 2. Music: Whatever is open during the beginning of class is appropriate enough, I believe, but barring that, searching Pandora for general ambience music is always a good time 3. Materials: I guess some spare paper in case people forgot any, but really just a class willing to participate past the most surface of levels, list of potential questions people would ask eachother 4. Groupings: Improv Partners at first, then transition into random assignment or table groups 5. Activity 1: Call on the class for what they think are good questions to ask of one another to accrue as much data about the other person as possible. If class if begrudging, provide some examples 6. Activity 2: Organize into partners, and explain that they will have 4-5 minutes(depending on question volume) to barrage your opponent with the list of questions, and read as deep as you can fathom into their answers, body language, tone of voice, etcetera., recording any observations of piece of paper. Once that is done, switch roles. 7. Activity 3: Would anybody like to share some of their more interesting observations, hmm? 8. Activity 4: Now that you’re practiced, and you’ve done this with someone you know fairly well, I’ll point and pair off people in a semblance of randomness. If they have an issue with their partner, they may request another, and if they know the person, it would be kind of them to switch again. Then, repeat Activity 2 & 3!

We Have Gathered Here Today in Memorial of Part Six(But Really How’d That Happen): Part 7

As befitting what I’m inferring to be a finale of sorts for posts of normalcy for this blog, this last segment is dedicated to responsibility. Whilst it might seem to edge close to the earlier post on procrastination, this can be interpreted as a more positive view of the topic, rather than the negative. Either way, as relatively under-demanding an endeavor this has been, it has been a responsibility on me to accomplish by the date of dueness, each and every time. That sort of thing has an effect on a person, however minor. So it’s worth tributizing it, and considering the worth a responsibility holds.

The thing about being obligated to do something or talk to someone or complete a task or outline a draft or send pictures of a paper someone wrote and forgot leading you to scramble around the house digging through piles of once-useful refuse best left gathering dust until finally you reclaim it and realize the paper only has four lines of writing on it anyway is that while in the doing of them, most often people are focused on the end. It’s a rare person that enjoys the need to do something that in all likelihood they would not be doing given the choice, but we all end up with them. Responsibilities, like taxes and APMC’s, are unavoidable.

The trick therefore is in the how to handle the constant, unending tide of obligations one encounters in their daily life. For the most part, there are two main lines of thinking, one most like considerably more destructive than the other, for obvious reasons. The first, the latter of the previous sentence, is that responsibilities are a cruel necessity of daily life, and they are best dealt with and shoved off(if not wholly ignored for as long as humanly possible) before returning to the endeavor of placing oneself in the position to avoid accruing yet more responsibilities. This is the easier route, but, again surprising nobody, not the most successful. I’ll refrain from commenting on the proportion of people in general who fall in this category(most likely myself included wheee...) but at least in adolescence, it’s common.

Alternatively, there’s the much healthier and ever-so-slightly-infuriating to witness approach, wherein the responsibility holder takes everything thrust upon them in smiling stride and returns such task punctually within a reasonable time. These people are of a rarer stock, and in complete truthfulness the majority of humanity falls in a camp in between, with current allegiance to either side dictated by minutia, such as the current weather or how their internal chemistry is balanced that day. Still, common wisdom decides this cordiality as the most acceptable path, and it’s in all of our best interests to try just a bit harder to emulate such grace, as deflating a fact as it is.

After all, I am of the opinion that responsibility, to oneself, to their society, but most of all the network of people one has surrounded themselves with, is what gives this existence a semblance of purpose. What is there to do without responsibility, be it in the completing or the shirking?

Now Odd Part Five

I realize I post this in effect the day it is due, clashing entirely with the intent behind my last post, but in my defense, I’ve been quite busy.

So, you may have heard of my fellow student and ex-band-comrade-in-arms Nic, a loyal seventh-block student who obstinately refuses to have a k associated anywhere near his name. Well, I’ve been conversing with him about our respective Independent Study Projects™ this past while, and I realized his next intended subject could also serve quite nicely as a subject of mine as well. That subject being, of course, Doki Doki Literature Club.

The Stuff of Nightmares

In the case you haven’t purviewed his ISPost yet, I’d advise you do so posthaste. It will get the point across far better than I could in such a short span. But in gist, this psychological horror of a game masquerades as a more typical dating-sim type of game, before taking one of the sharpest turns in media history, glitching out and breaking in all sorts of spooky ways before it deletes itself altogether. It’s a wonderful, beautifully executed game that is perfect for both your friends and enemies, and deserving of most all of the accolades awarded to it so far. I speak about it mostly from research and second-hand knowledge, however, as I’m unable to play through the whole thing simply because I get too freaked out.

That’s hardly the topic at hand, however. So I get spooked easily, it’s simply a fact about myself that I’m aware of and work around(psychological side note in spirit of the blog, that sort of thinking is far healthier and constructive, in my opinion, than being embarrassed or ashamed about such a fact). Rather, I think the most interesting thing to come out of this concept is the nature of the fear it sparks itself. You might think to yourself “well, psychological spookiness aside, it’s still a game about cute anime girls, right?”. And while that is wholly valid, there’s more going on than just the medium delivered in or art form that makes something scary.

Rather, I’ll be breaking fear up into three separate categories. Primal, Reactive, and Cerebral. I believe they’re mostly self-explanatory, but primal is the deepest, most instinctual fear. Fear of death, fear of falling, fear of strange people sneaking into your room at night, all of these stem quite directly from the history of humanity, most concerned with survival. Then, reactive, which is simply the “jump” aspect of fear, when something scary leaps into view or flits around in the corners of your vision. You’re startled, and maybe a bit disgruntled if the image is quite scary indeed, but it passes fairly soon. And finally, cerebral fear is the sort of terror we make for ourselves. It’s in this unstopping imagining and visualizing and extrapolating and amplifying and multiplying and polysendetoning out of a base fear trigger, like a simple spooky concept or image. The source itself might only be moderately scary, but if displayed and presented in the right manner, it can trick the viewer into making it much scarier than it necessarily has to be.

Cerebral fear is thus the core of what makes this game scary, and in my opinion, makes most anything the scariest. There are some more jumpscarey things in the game, sure, but the greatest spook it delivers is through your interpretation of it. A simple image search of the title reveals copious enough fan art and renditions of the game to show the power that well-planned fear can create. And if you do go searching for long enough, I wish you pleasant dreams for the night. You’ll need all the help you can get.

Even Part Four, as the Ordering of Such Things Has Inverted

An Ironically More Timely Than Normal Thought-Chain on Procrastination

This last week or so, my faithful computer of many years finally died. The symptoms were entirely tragic, hard-freezing after being left idle for too long, requiring a complete disconnect of power to be restored again. To compound such a horrible fate, it would freeze similarly several times upon trying to rescusicate it, requiring several attempts to restore it to semi-normal function.

Artist’s Interpretation:

Then, alas, it would no longer blink back to life. It was a deathly sad day indeed, and great mourning was held in its passing. Even now, I sit and type this melancholy entry on my portable celluar device, so apologies if the post seems somewhat brief. The school doesn’t like tumblr. That, however, is not the target of this entry. Nay, I am most concerned with the fact that this most tragic ending took place in a span of time similar to a week, and it is only on this day of posting steps have been made by myself to truly reach closer to solving the issue.

Procrastination is an interesting beast. The bane of school-goers and workpeople alike, it has been the subject of many interesting and worthwhile debates. It’s a part of the human psyche, consciousness, and whatever other mental-type word you wish to describe it with. I feel I have little to add in such a regard. Instead, I’ll be providing my personal experience with my extended delve into procrastination, and the pros and cons one could draw from it.

Subject: Procrastinating

Type: Guilty Pleasure

Summary: The concept and practice of delaying doing a task for longer periods of time than is sensible. Widely consumed by the masses, but hardly cognitively considered as often as it is used

Benefits: A sense of dark pleasure, the relief of putting off doing something one doesn’t want to, and the eventual feeling of pleasure of overcoming procastinating

Drawbacks: An occasionally overwhelming sense of guilt and stress, and the overall sense of the tasks one has to accomplish is greatly elevated

Final Thoughts: Procrastinating, while fun and convenient, should be applied sparingly, for the eventual drawbacks outweigh the benefits in the long run. Only now am I mellowing our from the occasional bursts of stress I’d experience from time to time

Overall Rating: 5/10, I ought not to try again. The task of entirely overcoming procrastination is a project of such magnitude that perhaps deserves its own ISP, however

The Third Part: Un Solomente Post, Derived of its Brethren

A Treatise on Snow and Anger

Written 12/8/17, the Friday it snowed

I’m going to share a little story with you. This morning, I woke up refreshed after a glorious previous evening. The sky had been filled with dark, comforting cloud cover and the air was filled with crystallized, fractal droplets of water. Some culmination of conditions had occurred in defiance of all perceived odds, and the frozen air delivered the rarest of sensoral delicacies unto us poor Texans, as our faces and jackets were anointed with dissolving, fluffy, powdery snow. My wonder continued joyfully as I glanced out the window and discovered the ground to have been given a complete, thorough dusting.

This can only mean the one thing, I thought to myself. Acquiring my phone, to roundrockisd.org(or whatever) I google-trekked. Then, emblazoned at the top in fiery, infernal lettering

WE HAVE BEEN MONITORING THE WEATHER SITUATION, AND DECIDED

SCHOOL WILL PROCEED AS NORMAL

(paraphrased). A typhoon of indignation and outrage explosively manifested within. To their twitter feed now, I stalked, to see the thoughts of those in similar positions to mine, and the more I read, parents withholding their children from these dangerous conditions, school walkers forced to trek through the biting cold, and dissenters calling out the superintendents for this egregious choice, the more my anger seemed to thrive and flourish.

That is the very concept I consider now, one well studied yet still mystifying and conniving in its influence: social outrage. We’ve all been there. On one’s own, you can only feel so angry for so long about something. Yeah, whatever it is sucks, but people are meant to thrive at a relatively neutral state, so without a continuing stimulus, your anger will fade and you’ll feel ok again. But once you have a mob going…

Anger has been found to be one of the most influential emotions in regards to sharing among affiliates. It has a tendency to spread and stick in a collective consciousness, uniting many against a common antagonist. Occasionally useful, but anger that sticks around for long enough can turn into hate. A unity based in hate is not a unity any sane person would knowingly wish to join.

Thankfully, however, this is a stimulus far too trivial for such a metamorphosis to occur, or really for any true unification at all. It’s in this brief moment where all of us disappointed in another day of school see and recognize one another, rekindling emotions for just a short time. But we all move on, and go about our normal day, the sun melting our outrage to normalcy like the short-lived snow that provoked this tumultuous event.

Slightly Less New Thing Parte Dos: A Follow-Up

(Generic starting statement) this second post, I’ll be covering a slight incident that occurred the morning of the day this was composed. Told in prose:

In my corner of the band hall I sat

Unawaringly taking the place of another

Their friends cajoled and spat

While I... mostly pondered the ethics of it all

I’ll admit, by an objective definition, I’m certainly in the wrong. I’m not here to defend myself, especially over such an inconsequential occurrence, that’d be ludicrous. The one question I’d like to answer is,

What Constitutes the Reaction to a Breach in Common Etiquette?

(Interesting aside, in the finding of this picture to hopefully add a bit of visual interest to the article, I came across scores of people with... interesting ideas of etiquette in social media)

The reaction to such misconduct primarily follows correct conduct, at least to an extent. I believe in an effort to emphasize the wrong-doing, all supposedly breached upon are of utmost politeness, kindly pointing out the mistake and beseeching the creator of said mistake to rectify it. If, as in my case, the aggressor does not do so, then conduct is well and truly breached, and reactions vary wildly based on intensity of misaction. (I’ll point out, just so we’re all clear, my actions specifically were not of malicious intent, I really wasn’t trying to upset these people, scientific purpose or no. I stayed for the primary fact there was no actual effect on there group at all[and I like my corner and I always sit there ;P], given the relocated person merely sat down a foot away and all was well. It was in the somewhat exaggerated reaction to the situation I draw the most interest from)

But why such variety, and initial reaction? I believe, like with most things, the reaction is most based on a many subtle points of data being taken into account subconsciously that we cannot possibly comprehend the full of, like prior experience, body language, physical attractiveness, etcetera. Barring that semi-copout, I would place the majority of influence behind the misconductors initial reaction to those confronting them about the mistake. That, in itself, defines the rest of the encounter as a whole.

New Thing Part 1: An Introduction

To start off with, I’m going to elaborate more on the kind of thing I’ll be discussing in specifics, hopefully in a thought-provoking manner. And that’s really the goal of all this, isn’t it? To be intellectual and interesting, discussing those matters I find the most important. So that’s what I’ll start off with, telling you why I believe this psychospection to be important, and how I define it.

This intellectual observation, this psychological examination, this watchful thinking, this holistic thought process of the intake of information regarding events and beings, this is what provides the substance to existence past the instinctual. In a way, thinking deliberately is a proof of sentience, one that ignoring, by extension, brings one equally closer to ferality than it does remove from it by the embracing those thoughts.

And, at least in my opinion, intellectual examinations regarding people in particular carry the most weight. I’m of the line of thinking that holds persons at the highest value in life, vastly over material or tradition. Simply explained: to the best of our knowledge, other people exist, and perceive our actions the way we perceive theirs. Nothing else does the same such thing. Thus, it follows that it may be prudent to value and respect those with the ability to do the same to you.

So how will I put this theory into practice? Well, aside from this dangerously meta, self-referencing post, anything relating to human behavior is fair game. Philosophy, notations, undoubtedly specifics. I’ll try to squeeze in a couple more excursions in the physical realm, however you’ll forgive me for having slight difficulty in converting a topic as cerebral as this smoothly into such a medium. Theory only goes so far ;P

So that’s how it will be, at least for the more theoretical posts. Probably rambly, hopefully interesting, almost undoubtedly conjugating words in ways that the spellcheck doesn’t find as being real. Let’s see where observation takes us.

Preliminaries

This marks the split between blog 1 and 2!

This new blog is about the examining of people and their personalities, or simply applied psychology(and philosophy). Examples of post ideas include:

1. Examining myself 2. Looking at close friends and family 3. More advanced dissertations of a character in the current book 4. Intellectual discussion over the traits of famous personalities 5. Minor experiments(see how long it takes someone to solve a puzzle, etc.) 6. Vague philosophical musings 7. Studying the immediate effects of mediation on a person(myself) *wink wink* 8. And in perhaps the most daunting task of all:

Examine the infamous Mr. Chalk.

Th8 Final8

For this grand finale of a post, I will apply my now-extensive knowledge of meditation and its benefits, unto the poor saps in King Lear. As is quite obvious, these characters aren’t the most, well, stable, in literature. However, I believe that meditation can help their situation, and overall help instill some balance and sanity into their lives that would hopefully prevent the whole fiasco from occurring in the first place.

1. The King Himself: It’s quite simple, really. Meditation would provide the king some perspective into his life, and lead into some much-needed sleep. He would much easier see the error of his ways, and possibly gain some insight into his daughter’s deception, while the solid nap would do wonders for his madness. Recommended period is twenty minutes a night for at least one week, continued as seen fit.

2. Kent: The King’s Advisor is actually quite balanced, and quite intelligence. He keeps his head throughout the play, only making any obviously poor decisions at the very end. Recommendation: Five or so minutes each day, as preventative measures.

3. The Evil Sisters: Meditation doesn’t have the best time curing general awfulness. The eldest sisters are not, really, good people. However, there is still hope. Recommendation of many half hours of guided meditation about them and their ways, until improvement is shown. If nothing else, this would disrupt their planning.

4. Gloucester: This would be handled in two parts. Before the poor Duke lost his eyes, meditation would be applied towards a greater perspective on his life, letting him see the things around him as they really are, such as the treachery of his bastard son. Fifteen minutes a day, as long as wanted. After his loss, however, it would be more of a task of coping. Simpler, yet more painful. Half an hour, spent pondering over the situation, each day until acceptance is achieved, at which point can be spread out as comfortable.

5. Edmund: Similar to the sisters, evil is not so easily dealt with. However, as exemplified in the ending of the play, Edmund is capable of a change of heart, and can be a better man if he so chooses. Twenty minutes a day, guided with positive affirmations, will hopefully help this poor guy figure out his place and meaning.

Bonus: The Fool!: The Fool needs no meditation. This prophet of their time has already achieved a higher state of being than any of us could ever hope to. Let us hope to one day learn from him.

Three for Two Special: 7

And this is from my mother:

1. How long was the session?

12 minutes

2. In general, what did you listen to? (Guided, music, nothing, etc.)

Guided meditation with a silent segment

3. Where did you do this?

Sitting on the bed in a dark guest bedroom

Specifics:

1. What are your thoughts on the experience?

I could definitely feel relaxation but I also notice that my brain jumps from subject to subject quite often.

2. What could have made it better for you? Anything at all is fine.

When the meditation went from silent back to guided the moderators voice was so jarring it made me jump!

3. Any interesting(just, noteworthy, not like world-shattering) thoughts you had as/before meditating?

I could notice the parts of my body that were stressed - most noticeably my neck.

4. Did you feel kinda silly? :P

Only when I jumped when her voice came back on! (see above :)

5. Overall, did you enjoy the experience?

Yes, I could tell there was a “recharge” after the session.

6. And finally, would you do it again, or was once enough?

Possibly. Though my “monkey brain” (as my husband calls it) doesn’t help with meditating. I always seem to think of something that I need to do instead of sitting there. Luckily I’ve found that crochet/knitting supposedly helps with the same kind of benefits as meditation.

Three for Two Special: 6 1/3

This is from Nolan:

Preliminary:

1. How long was the session?

12 minutes (too long)

2. In general, what did you listen to? (Guided, music, nothing, etc.)

Guided/nothing

3. Where did you do this?

In a house

Specifics:

1. What are your thoughts on the experience?

Meditation is not for me

2. What could have made it better for you? Anything at all is fine.

More talking, less silence, by myself

3. Any interesting(just, noteworthy, not like world-shattering) thoughts you had as/before meditating?

Needed to work on my posture

4. Did you feel kinda silly? :P

Nope, perfectly fine thing to do

5. Overall, did you enjoy the experience?

Not especially

6. And finally, would you do it again, or was once enough?

Nope

Three for Two Special: 5 2/3

In this special edition of Meditation, I am transforming two updates into three! This first with an explanation of what’s going on, and the second two recording the individual results.

What is my plan, you ask? Well, for this installment, I have recruited two acquaintances of mine to do a staple meditation I have been practicing with me, and then recording their results on an online document. Put simply, while I am meditating, they will be doing the same this one time. These unlucky kind souls are my good friend, Nolan, and my mother(who is sacrificing herself in place of my sister because she really didn’t want to do it).

The meditation in question is 12 minutes long, and a transcript is here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u9HGYQUcOfd6_PF7s-1fDqHvdRotq_fucTn_IzOCpW8/edit?usp=sharing

Link to the actual site:

http://marc.ucla.edu/mindful-meditations

In the next two posts, I will be recording their answers for your perusal!

Now Again But Five

For this update, I have done something that seems simple when you think about it, and really, it is pretty simple. Yet when taken into scale with what all I have been doing so far, it certainly has meaning and weight that stands out from the normal nightly routine. What I have done is, this last night, do what normally do, except longer. Almost three times longer on average, to be exact, as I sat and meditated for a full half hour.

No pictures or videos of me doing this, as I doubt anyone wants to watch someone sit in place and shift around slightly for half an hour. However, this is the video I used. The content is somewhat different from the meditation I have been doing, but the important part isn’t so much what is sad as the meditation I am doing itself.

(However, I *have* been looking into lucid dreaming stuff as well, so this worked out extraordinarily well)

Overall, this went about as I thought it would. I really enjoyed the experience, and felt like I got into the meditation and video more than I normally do. I felt like I normally did after mediation once I was done, namely calm, kinda content, and peaceful, almost, except more so. I was also, due moreso to the video than the practice itself, really extremely tired afterwards, and fell asleep not long after.

After this, I find myself somewhat tempted to try out longer sessions more often, as this did go really quite well. Like I mentioned last time, doing this -practice outside of the normal range that I have been using it for only increases it’s benefits, and so far seems to be well worth my time.

The Fourth Meditating

For this update, due to popular demand, I have taken it upon myself to think of and try out a new way of meditation, one that has some instantaneous short term application. For the past couple of weeks, I have been doing my meditation practice in areas with many distractions, namely in school and at home(but not where I normally do, thus people are walking around and making noise and such).

Artist’s Interpretation

The point of this is twofold. Firstly, it’s very solid practice in shutting out distractions. Normally, when meditating in a quiet room, any distractions from the outside can be intrusive, and mess up your day. This helps with that, both to help realize that any random distraction is nowhere near as bad as it could be, and to just practice accustoming yourself to them in general.

Secondly, doing this practice helps to reaffirm the general principles that meditation helps with when you need them most. This is effectively similar to just taking a moment, calming down, and thinking to yourself for a bit about your feelings and such, only fancier and with more of a background to it. It helps reaffirm the peace, clear-thinking, stability, and general mental presence in the here and now that a nightly meditation practice is good for, and while I rarely do so for more than a minute or two(I am busy in class or doing housework and all), the effects are immediate and obvious.

This is so far one of the greatest benefits I have found to meditating, the ability to at any time stabilize and refresh yourself mentally, with no pressure or negativity. I’m very excited to see what more I can make of this.

Blog Post the Third: General Overview

This post is more about the general trend of activities I have been doing then anything specific. A more in-depth look into a session will come next update.

So, since the past update, I have been spending a bit of time every night(5-15 minutes) to meditate. I do this in my room, with no lights on and the door closed to make sure it’s dark. This reduces potential distraction and makes it easier to relax. I sit on the floor on a cushion like this:

It’s very firm, and in all honestly is mostly a formality. Any surface that provides moderate comfort and support is passable. Also nearby is a couple of blankets spread across the floor, to make meditation more comfortable and, again, reduce distraction.

Once I’m set up in my pose, in the darkened room, I will start playing a track from a list of meditation aids we found. They range from around 3-20 minutes, and can be found here: http://marc.ucla.edu/mindful-meditations

Afterwards, I usually just stay in my pose and relax for a bit, trying to retain the sense of calm, and then go to bed. Overall, I have, I believe, been enjoying this greatly, and will update with a spectrum of progress in the future.

Blog Post 2: Electric Boogaloo

The first thing I’ve really done with meditation has been a trip to the Meditation Bar in Round Rock, pictured below(with unknown lady!).

I went there with my dad, who was kind enough to drive me and experience it with me. We had an introductory appointment set up with them, which consisted of a chat about the facts about meditation and mindfulness, then a half-hour session of guided meditation. It was in this chat that I learned most of the information I shared in the last blog post. The lady who worked with us was very kind, and clearly very into the idea of meditation as a way of life. Her enthusiasm was palpable, and was certainly able to get one excited about the idea of meditation.

After our discussion, we settled into the actual meditation. Once we had set up in our poses, seated on a pillow with(in this case) legs stretched out across a blanket, she began her soundtrack of calming, unobtrusive background noises, such as clear, harmonic tones, the sounds of a beach, and something that could only be described as “the songs of crystals”. All of the sounds were pleasant to the ear, and conducive to the meditation experience. As we sat, she talked us through what to focus on, how to breathe, how to remain keep your attention from wandering, etc.

Partway through, she began to play the singing bowls(again, below) she had laid out in front of her in conjunction to the background sounds. To do so, she ran a mallet-like object with a special head over the rims of the bowls quickly, and caused them to vibrate with a loud, very present tone.

This is an example of what a singing bowl sounds like, though in my case it was much louder. Feel free to listen to the full 10 hours if you want.

Finally, once we were done, we talked a bit about the experience. It had lasted half an hour, even though it felt like time had hardly been passing at all. We talked more about applying mindfulness to daily life, and how to meditate at home. This part, meditating at home, will be covered next time.

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