You know the song "Tribute" by Tenacious D? Well, if you don't, they sang a song in tribute of the greatest song in the world, which they supossedly sung to a shiny demon a little while before. This clip shows that song. And a video which is mostly unrelelated. Or very related. You choose.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
My Synesthesia
For anybody reading this, who doesn't already know, I thought it might be interesting to explain this condition I have, called synesthesia, since many people often ask me about it.
Synesthesia is basically a mental condition that affects one in approximately 2000 people. The word means joined sensation, and comes from the Greek syn, meaning together, and aistheis, meaning perception. Synesthetes (people with this condition) have induced perceptions that arise involuntarily, usually with one perception. It definately is a hard concept to explain, so I've included some definitions found on the internet for this condition, that might make it clearer to you:
- A condition in which a stimulus, in addition to exciting the usual and normally located sensation, gives rise to a subjective sensation of different character or localization.
- A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
- A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
Basically, it is a condition where certain sensations evoke certain other sensations which would not normally be linked. Some examples of what synesthesia does to people's minds are that numbers, letters and words evoke colour sensations, that visual sensations evoke odour sensations and that touch sensations evoke taste sensations. What each synesthete experiences differ from perosn to person.
My particular form of synesthesia is the most common form, where most types of sensory information (Letters, numbers, words, sounds, odours and shapes, and even abstract concepts like time and abstract nouns) evoke (or trigger within the mind) colours and visual imagery. I'll use letters as a simple example of how this works in my mind. The letter "A", according to my perceptions, is red, and cannot possibly be anything different. This doesn't mean taht whenever I read the letter "A", I physically see it written in red, but that "A" evokes the colour red. I do not see red, in the physical sense, but as soon as I see "A", I think red, so as it might be considered more of an asscociation response. According to the various articles on this condition I have read, synesthesia doesn't affect, or rather, hinder any other aspects of life, but adds an element to my automatic perceptions that is otherwise non-existant.
Describing this condition is very hard for me, as I do not know what it is like to not have this condition, and therefore cannot relate my position to those who do not have it. I never knew, in fact, that I even had this difference until a few years ago when I read in a Herald Sun article that people whose minds worked like this were not normal. If you want more in depth explanations as to what I'm on about, look it up on the internet or something.
Below I have included three visual images, each are the image my mind automatially composes upon the thought of the following three abstract concepts. When a word is abstract, the image that word or concept forms in my mind is stronger than that of words that already have a visual asscociation (e.g. "tree"), and hence, I am able to accurately create on photoshop the images that are evoked by these three words.
1: Popularity 2: Creation 3: Tranquility
Synesthesia is basically a mental condition that affects one in approximately 2000 people. The word means joined sensation, and comes from the Greek syn, meaning together, and aistheis, meaning perception. Synesthetes (people with this condition) have induced perceptions that arise involuntarily, usually with one perception. It definately is a hard concept to explain, so I've included some definitions found on the internet for this condition, that might make it clearer to you:
- A condition in which a stimulus, in addition to exciting the usual and normally located sensation, gives rise to a subjective sensation of different character or localization.
- A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
- A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
Basically, it is a condition where certain sensations evoke certain other sensations which would not normally be linked. Some examples of what synesthesia does to people's minds are that numbers, letters and words evoke colour sensations, that visual sensations evoke odour sensations and that touch sensations evoke taste sensations. What each synesthete experiences differ from perosn to person.
My particular form of synesthesia is the most common form, where most types of sensory information (Letters, numbers, words, sounds, odours and shapes, and even abstract concepts like time and abstract nouns) evoke (or trigger within the mind) colours and visual imagery. I'll use letters as a simple example of how this works in my mind. The letter "A", according to my perceptions, is red, and cannot possibly be anything different. This doesn't mean taht whenever I read the letter "A", I physically see it written in red, but that "A" evokes the colour red. I do not see red, in the physical sense, but as soon as I see "A", I think red, so as it might be considered more of an asscociation response. According to the various articles on this condition I have read, synesthesia doesn't affect, or rather, hinder any other aspects of life, but adds an element to my automatic perceptions that is otherwise non-existant.
Describing this condition is very hard for me, as I do not know what it is like to not have this condition, and therefore cannot relate my position to those who do not have it. I never knew, in fact, that I even had this difference until a few years ago when I read in a Herald Sun article that people whose minds worked like this were not normal. If you want more in depth explanations as to what I'm on about, look it up on the internet or something.
Below I have included three visual images, each are the image my mind automatially composes upon the thought of the following three abstract concepts. When a word is abstract, the image that word or concept forms in my mind is stronger than that of words that already have a visual asscociation (e.g. "tree"), and hence, I am able to accurately create on photoshop the images that are evoked by these three words.
1: Popularity 2: Creation 3: Tranquility
Sunday, February 18, 2007
25 ways to annoy canteen ladies
Have you ever got annoyed at those ladies serving food at the school canteen? Have they got annoyed at you? Well if they have, here's 25 ways to make them even more annoyed.
1- Wait in line for ten minutes, then take ten minutes to decide what to buy.
2- Ask them what the ingredients of their fries are.
3- Ask whether they cook their pizzas in oil, or their oil in pizzas.
4- Tell them your order in French.
5- When they tell you what price the food is, laugh hysterically and roll out of the canteen.
6- Go up to the lady and whisper in her ear: "So, is the food edible today?"
7- Try and trade your blazer for a meat pie. It that fails, offer your shirt as well.
8- Pay in five cent pieces.
9- Pay with a hundred dollar note.
10- When you get to the counter, slap them and walk off.
11- Haggle for the price.
12- Tell them your father would be very dissapointed in them if they didn't offer you free food.
13- Ask sincerely about what is in their dim sims.
14- Buy $5 worth of lolly snakes, and tell them you want an even amount of each colour.
15- Buy a 250mL drink, and tell them to pour it into a measuring cup first, to make sure you're not getting ripped off.
16- If there's less than 250mL, storm off in a huff.
17- If there's more than 250mL, complain that they're trying to poison you with liquid overdoses.
18- If there's exactly 250mL, start crying and say that you were once told that nobody was perfect.
19- Stop still infront of the counter, sniff uneasially, and walk away.
20- Spin around on the spot while ordering.
21- Every time they ask you what you want, yell loudly, and tell then complain that they didn't ask you for what you want. When they say that they did, tell them you didn't hear them.
22- Stand second in line, and continually let people go infront of you.
23- Ask them out to dinner.
24- Ask for a pie, and when they give it to you, throw it onto the floor, and requst another.
25- Buy a bottle of drink, leave, drink it, then return and ask for a refill.
1- Wait in line for ten minutes, then take ten minutes to decide what to buy.
2- Ask them what the ingredients of their fries are.
3- Ask whether they cook their pizzas in oil, or their oil in pizzas.
4- Tell them your order in French.
5- When they tell you what price the food is, laugh hysterically and roll out of the canteen.
6- Go up to the lady and whisper in her ear: "So, is the food edible today?"
7- Try and trade your blazer for a meat pie. It that fails, offer your shirt as well.
8- Pay in five cent pieces.
9- Pay with a hundred dollar note.
10- When you get to the counter, slap them and walk off.
11- Haggle for the price.
12- Tell them your father would be very dissapointed in them if they didn't offer you free food.
13- Ask sincerely about what is in their dim sims.
14- Buy $5 worth of lolly snakes, and tell them you want an even amount of each colour.
15- Buy a 250mL drink, and tell them to pour it into a measuring cup first, to make sure you're not getting ripped off.
16- If there's less than 250mL, storm off in a huff.
17- If there's more than 250mL, complain that they're trying to poison you with liquid overdoses.
18- If there's exactly 250mL, start crying and say that you were once told that nobody was perfect.
19- Stop still infront of the counter, sniff uneasially, and walk away.
20- Spin around on the spot while ordering.
21- Every time they ask you what you want, yell loudly, and tell then complain that they didn't ask you for what you want. When they say that they did, tell them you didn't hear them.
22- Stand second in line, and continually let people go infront of you.
23- Ask them out to dinner.
24- Ask for a pie, and when they give it to you, throw it onto the floor, and requst another.
25- Buy a bottle of drink, leave, drink it, then return and ask for a refill.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Australia means to me...
There was a competition run by the age a little while ago, for school students interested in english. It required the students to write a piece of exactly fifty words explaining why they lvoe living in Australia. We were given forms, with fifty boxes to put the words in, and then we sent them to the Age, via post, or whatever. This is the fifty word masterpiece that I wrote: (I actrually seriously wrote this, word for word, and sent it into the Age!)
Australia means to me: a tree, a bee, a fly and a flea. It's a cup of tea, some iced coffee, and a government fee. In this hypocracy of psychology, in a desparate plea of insanity, here is my philosophy, that's what australia means to me. Wee. Woopee. Wee. Woopee.
Tell me what you think about it, because, believe it or not, I didn't win the competition. How sad. Now, if you want to complain to the Age about not letting this fine fifty word piece win, you can contact them at:
Australia means to me: a tree, a bee, a fly and a flea. It's a cup of tea, some iced coffee, and a government fee. In this hypocracy of psychology, in a desparate plea of insanity, here is my philosophy, that's what australia means to me. Wee. Woopee. Wee. Woopee.
Tell me what you think about it, because, believe it or not, I didn't win the competition. How sad. Now, if you want to complain to the Age about not letting this fine fifty word piece win, you can contact them at:
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