Green Oasis

Too Cute!

2009-06-12T02:16:53Z

This photo of Seo You Jin in the classic Nyan-Nyan pose is overloading the cuteness recognition circuitry of my brain. These illicit levels of cuteness are activating the never-intended-for-use grandma portion of my psyche. I have an irresistible urge to pinch her cheeks and give her cookies and milk. Get her out of my mind!

(via kottke.org)

Five Things

2009-04-06T17:05:27Z

I am grateful for …

… shelter from the elements. My relationship with the weather is much better knowing that I can get some me-time away from it.
… beautiful vernal weather. (+25 points for using a vocabulary word)
… a healthy mind. I realize something of how fragile that is.
… a long weekend with my family.
… that I am capable of thinking for myself and that I do so on occasion.

Kate’s Story

2009-03-07T00:41:42Z

Kate lived through what must be some people’s worst nightmare. She was diagnosed as suffering from persistent vegetative state but retained enough awareness to understand the people around her and to feel pain and distress because of how they were treating her. Neuroscientists scanned her brain activity and found normal activity levels, something they had not imagined they would find. She has since returned to a communicative state and says her story is about never giving up hope.

(via Mind Hacks)

Be the Earthworm

2009-01-23T23:17:14Z

Maybe I’m an odd fellow, but I keep wondering what it’s like to be an earthworm. I mean, what does it feel like? Perhaps it feels like nothing.

One particular patient who can’t consciously see because his visual cortex has been destroyed navigated an obstacle course unaided. His subconscious mind guided him using information gathered his eyes even though he lacked a conscious visualization of his environment.

Maybe a sentient being can function in the world without having a conscious experience of it.

3-2-1 Contact!

2009-01-09T00:39:32Z

It’s funny how television programs from childhood can embed themselves in the unconscious. I watch the 3-2-1 Contact intro and it’s as if the last 20 years never happened. I remember every snippet of the montage: the water drop, the kissed baby, the frog, the trampoline, everything.

(via kottke.org)

Return and Report

2008-09-08T16:16:43Z

It has been a month since I swore off Mormon-themed blogs for a month, so I guess I can go back if I want. I don’t want.

It has been a positive change in my life for at least two reasons. The first is that I have a lot more time to do other, more important things. I avoided reading at least 367 blog posts. I’m positive that I would have enjoyed many of those posts. Still, I enjoyed the free time that I had instead of reading them. A lot of my blog-reading is pure procrastination. Avoiding reading these blogs gave me less opportunity to put off things I would like to do. (It’s ironic that I would put off things I would like to do, n’est-ce pas?)

The second reason is that I’ve found greater peace of mind. The less often I’m reminded of how annoying and dangerous Mormonism is, the more I’m able to change things that are more within my control. Being constantly outraged wears me down over time like water torture. It threatens to make me see Mormons and other religious folk as flat, two-dimensional characters in a farce. That’s far from the truth. I owe my first loyalty to the truth.

So I’ll be releasing a select one or two blogs from quarantine, but I am hereby reclaiming a little more of my time and head-space from Mormonism.

Who Moved My Brain?

2008-08-23T03:58:56Z

Merlin Mann is a smart guy who spends a lot of time thinking about how to accomplish the important things in life (as opposed to checking your email inbox every five minutes). Here’s his presentation called Who Moved My Brain? Revaluing Time & Attention.

Dreamless Sleep

2008-08-03T22:38:46Z

Our consciousness vanishes in dreamless sleep every night. It’s such a familiar experience that we pay no attention to the annihilation of our sentience. I imagine we experience death as the dreamless sleep from which we never awake to notice that time has passed and the world has gone on without our awareness.

All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it,
nothing is so perfect that it does not descend to its tomb.
Rivers, rivulets, fountains and waters flow,
but never return to their joyful beginnings;
anxiously they hasten on the vast realms of the rain god.
As they widen their banks, they also fashion the sad urn of their burial.

Filled are the bowels of the earth
with pestilential dust once flesh and bone,
once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones,
decided cases, presided in council, commanded armies,
conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed temples,
exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power.

Vanished are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes
that belches forth from the infernal fires of Popocatepetl.
Nothing recalls them but the written pate.

(A poem purportedly written by Nezahualcoyotl, King of Texcoco)

Tetris Effect

2008-07-16T15:48:55Z

I was recently reminded of the Tetris effect whereby a person who plays Tetris a lot starts to imagine how real world objects would fit together or imagine tetrominoes falling from the sky. In other words, the rules of the game become a mental habit.

I’ve recently started to notice the same effect with Go. I’ve begun to evaluate the tactical strength of any series of dots. I’ve also started to dream about Go positions. Odd.

The World Outside

2008-06-30T02:59:37Z

Atul Gawande wrote a fascinating article for the New Yorker. It’s premise is that most of our perceptions come not from direct experience of the world but from memory. In other words, very little information is coming to us from the world outside our skull. Our minds are fudging the rest based on past experience. Using case studies of amputees who still perceive sensations in their missing limb and a woman who itched so persistently that she scratched… well I won’t spoil the story.

(via kottke.org)

Update: Dr. Ramachandran explains some of these same phenomena.