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Just now I was talking to a friend about travelling; it just so happens that sometimes yours truly feels like he should abandon everything and set course towards uncharted waters of oblivion and aventure. Yeah, I know, everyone gets a bit like that sometimes… well, maybe tonight’s story will provide a little confort, it that’s the case here.
Whenever I get the travelling urge, it usually is connected with an urge to find something “out there”, such as deliverance, fulfillment and peace of mind. In such occasions, I tend to remember the stories they usually tell about the Buddha. He who is referred to as the enlightened one was originally a prince who abandoned his wife and newborn child to travel the world searching for liberation and understanding. Thirteen years past, he did manage to become enlightened (or so they say), and legend has is that the first thing he did was to go back home and meet his family. When he got back home, the first thing he did was to apologize to his wife and son, because he had realized, after seeing the world, that what he was looking for was actually inside of him, and he could have fulfilled his inner quest without ever leaving his castle and his family.
You see, this is something that I really do believe in; it’s not just an excuse to support my idleness. I do think that we have everything we need in our minds, and everything else is a distraction. And don’t get me wrong, either: I really enjoy travelling and getting to know new places and new people, new customs and stories. This is not what this is all about. The point here is that we can only find peace of mind within our own mind… which actually makes good sense, once you think of it!
The Powerball is a cool new toy (actually it was introduced a couple years back, but I somehow managed to hear about it just now) which looks really interesting. It’s basically a wrist ball with an integrated gyroscope that spins faster as you move your joints in circles, and it appears once the rotation reaches certain speeds, and interesting phenomenon is created. The ball becomes a lot heavier as it spins faster, and given this quality, powerballs have been marketed so far as a grip-strengthening exercise device.
I’m not really that much into strenthening my grip (it’s quite firm, already!), but it stills looks like a cool stress reliever for the office. Apparently it does require a certain skill to keep the gyroscope inside the ball spinning, and it’s possible to attain amazing rotation speeds. Current record is 16,317rpm, set by Akis Kritsinelis from Greece, which you can observe in the following video. When I order my own powerball, I’ll upload a video sporting my own personal record, and for your convenience (and concentration), I promise I won’t be doing it in my underwear! Okay?
If want to, feel free to post your own videos in the comments section, and don’t be embarassed to do it in pajamas, yes? Promise I won’t make fun of you! I value my readers! Honest
Oh, the star wars gangsta rap… truly, a streak of genius, and one of the most interesting flash videoclip productions I’ve ever come across. This “def” (as in, hip) video provides a cool satyre of the star wars universe, in the guise of a gangsta rap. You can never say you have kicked it old-school style until you have listened to yoda weave his wicked rhymes “you won’t believe your eyes once the x-wing rises”. Not only is this is just an outrageously funny video for anyone who’s into the Star Wars universe, it’s also a pretty cool rap to boot. Check out the new special edition - with improved graphics - and get jiggy with it!
I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, —that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,— and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is, that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
Such is the introduction of the acclaimed essay “Self-Reliance”, authored by the brilliant American philosopher and transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is essentially a thorough manifesto urging the people to rise and demand for genuine Democracy. This is a man who was truly ahead of the pack, and his words are timeless and inspiring. The essay is titled “self-reliance”, and it incites is to look within ourselves and untap our divine potential. It’s a lenghty read, however it’s very engaging; for those who aren’t afraid of massive blocks of words, fast forward to the full-text version of Emerson’s Self - Reliance; hold on steady to your hope, and enjoy today’s slice!
ARTIST: The Beatles
TITLE: Revolution
Lyrics and Chords
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
/ C - - - / - F - - / - C - - - / 1st, 2nd / F G7 - - - /
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right (3x)
/ Dm - G6 - / Dm - BbC A - G - / C - F - / / C - F - G - - - /
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait / Don't you know...
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow / Don't you know...
All right, all right...
Sing and dance, good people sing and dance...all you really *have*
to in life do is enjoy yourself! Release yourself from your personal
dramas and you'll be making a huge contribution towards making the world
So, you want to acuse a total stranger of looking suspicious or whatever, and you need convincing proof? Look no further, because today’s slice will porivde you with a handy tool that will assist you in all your detective work. This ingenious flash application is a genuine robot portrait artists in a box! You get to choose from several features and body parts, and you have plenty of control over a number of variables (such as the proportion and transparancy of each body part), that will help you visualize your darkest fears, portray the anti-christ or watever gets you going! It’s also fun to just try and make a face similar to your friends, and astonish them with your visual rendering skills (guess that’s what *normal* people would do).
“Browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. ”
This is the motto behind the wayback machine, an archaeological repository of old Internet pages, which allows you to catch a glimpse at the world wide web of yesteryear. Whether you want to recollect your fond memories of a page that is no longer available on-line, or you just want to check out the old version of a popular page that is still alive an kicking, the wayback machine can provide you with what you’re looking for.
It’s quite simple to use the wayback machine; just type in the url address of the webpages you used to visit, and the archive will be researched for cached copies. Among 85 billion pages, there’s a good chance you’ll get what you’re looking for. If you don’t, at least you can submit a page to the archive, so it will be allowed further chance to endure in the collective memory of the Internet, within this time capsule of sorts.
I just found a nice new engaging flash game, which revolves around the concept of creating chain reactions. The play field is comprised of several dots, wandering along in multiple directions. All that you can do in each level is click a single dot, which immediattely explodes; if the explosion touches another dot, it also explodes, and so forth. You have minimum objectives for each level, and while the early stages in this engaging minimalist game may look quite easy and pointless, I guarantee that by level 10 you’ll be baffled and addicted. Enjoy!
“Boomshine is an addictive Flash casual game. Click the screen to start a chain reaction and try to explode as many dots as needed to pass a level. The game contains 12 levels ranging from the easy to the hard (only 3.97% of games pass level 12). Over 3 million games have been played by over 100,000 different players. ”
Today’s slice is all about a fantastic web resource that is perfect for all the inquisitive minds out there. If you haven’t heard about howstuffworks.com and you’ve always wondered how does stuff work, this is your lucky day!
HowStuffWorks.com started off as a scientific curiosities portal, but in the past few years it has expanded into the full-fledged realm of sheer curiosity. Currently, the interested reader can look up articles which masterfully scrutinize everything under the sun, from blue-tooth to nicotine to women. The most interesting thing about the articles available in the website is that they tend to offer a perspective that’s comprehensive, yet accessible to the layman.
Each article will use enticing language, several pictures, diagrams and flowcharts, as well as anything that makes it easier to understand how something works, after all. If you’re interested in this website and you can’t wait to satiate your thirst of truth, then head out there and start having fun! If you find some remarkable articles, make sure to let me know by placing a comment bellow, okay?
This is quite possibly one of the funniest short videos out there featuring a mammal, and generally one of the finest available examples in animal acting. Just look at the lil’ sluggers intense expression and tell me if that’s not overwhelming. I cannot help but wonder what the owner must have done to piss of the little critter so severely! Anyone up for some guessing?
