Reality Vs. Expectations

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning to Fly

So obviously

we have at least two things to clarify here.  First, no this is not the actual music video, trust me it’s better that way, the real video might just turn you off of the song entirely.  Secondly, that guy has a terrible haircut, but he was part of an 80s band so we can look past that.

I just wanted to briefly talk about this song and the reasons why I like it so much.  If you took the time to read the lyrics as they were superimposed across Tom Petty’s face, then you may have realized that this song says a lot about life.  Or maybe that’s just me.  But to me it does and this is my blog.  I guess in life we’re all learning to fly, it’s what we do, we come to earth to do our best to have the life we want.  We take risks and we jump off that branch and struggle our best to stay in the air, and we fall.  But in the infamous words of Bruce Wayne SR, “Why do we fall?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”  I have fallen several times throughout my life, but I always pick myself back up.  It’s hard but that’s what we have to do.  It’s a reality we must accept, that life isn’t going to happen the way we expect, plan, hope, or want it to.  If we go our lives expecting perfection we will always be disappointed.  Trust me, I know.  I can’t think of anything that exemplifies this point than this scene from one of my favorite movies, 500 Days of Summer. Since WordPress is lame I can’t embed it =P but WATCH IT before you read on please.

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If you can't relate to that scene in any way then you are a robot.  Seriously though, I kinda think if he could have accepted reality he could be ok, enjoy the party and have a good time inspite of himself, though that would make for a terrible movie since the acceptance doesn't come until day 500.  Regardless, the point is illustrated.  The only reason that reality looks so bad is because it is juxtaposed with his expectations.  That's not to say that we should expect the worst, because oddly enough that seems to do something very similar.  When we expect the worst we usually find a way to make reality seem every bit as bad as we expect it will be.  The trick is having goals, hopes, dreams, and having a firm understanding of reality.  Being able to accept life's inadequacies and being happy in spite of them, and making the best of them.  The more we do that, the less inadequacies feel inadequate and the more the spectacular moments feel spectacular.  Life is real, and expecting anything more or less than reality is going to lead to disappointment.

The key here is EXPECTING reality can and should be spectacular.  We will all do amazing things in our lives, and have amazing moments.  But as President Hinkley put it,

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around and shouting that he has been robbed. The fact of the matter is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey…delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” –President Gordon B. Hinkley

I would add, that seeing the magic in the mundane would add much to that old time rail journey that beloved man spoke of.  Everyday I believe that there is something that happened that made that day worth while.  Find that, and you can have true meaning in life.  The image on the right seems in most, if not all ways, completely ordinary.  Yet someone bothered to take a picture.  It goes back to my several posts on creativity, they were able to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary.  Many other people viewing that same train going through that same meadow may well have looked at the steam bellowing beast and seen nothing but a mass amount of metal, steam, and noise, interrupting what may have otherwise been a very peaceful stretch of average.  My challenge to myself is to stop looking for things to be perfect.  To stop expecting the world to spin around me, and start finding the ways that I can see the extraordinary moments in every day life.

 

O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth

Alma 37:35.  Yeah basically I’ve learned.  And at least I can say I’ve learned something.  Or somethings, so that when I have kids I can pass this down to them.

What have I learned?

1. When you find someone who you are completely in love with you, who takes all the crap you throw at them in stride, who accepts you for you and loves you because of everything you are, and when that person is by far the most perfect person for you in the entire world, and you can’t see yourself happier or caring more about any person more than you care about her.  When you can honestly say that I know this person inside and out and love them for them and want to be with them for the rest of eternity.  When you have reached that point don’t let it go because you’re scared.

OF COURSE YOUR SCARED!!
It’s a horrifyingly unnerving experience to be that completely engulfed in another person.  To care that deeply and to have that much vulnerability.  It’s terrifying when the thing you want most in this world is another person, suddenly you are putting all your hope faith and trust in that other person, but when that person wants you, they’re putting all of that on you.  It is frightening.  If you are not even a little bit scared by this prospect you do not understand what the commitment of true love really is.  If you are not even a little bit frightened, you have yet to experience what real love truly is.  Don’t let go because of that, because if you do, you will soon realize that everything you didn’t know, does not even begin to amount to what you did know.  You knew what love was, you knew what it was to care about someone more than yourself.  You understood the feeling that can truly heal, and the power that nations have started wars over.  You knew the power of God at that point.  Whatever you didn’t know can never compare to that what you did.

2.  Never and I mean NEVER make a decision while you are in a state of high emotion. 

It’s a BAD idea

Never make a decision in fear, panic, or euphoria.   When you do, it is not you who is making the decision it is your emotions.  And I’ll let you in on a secret, YOUR EMOTIONS CANNOT THINK.  You do not make rational decisions, you do not understand, or even think to try and weight the outcome of your decision, it is not a though it is an action, and an action based on the emotion. Unless you want to regret the decision later, don’t make it while you are in a state of high emotion.

3.  Along with number 2, Know when you are in a state of high emotion

Pay Attention

Simply put, you cannot do number two if you don’t do number 3, so maybe 3 should go first.  Know when you are panicking, know when you’re scared, know when you are euphoric.  If you can know and understand these things than you can know that now is not the time to make any decision.  Now is the time to breath, relax, and talk, NOT DECIDE.

4. Decision doesn’t have to be made immediately

Breath Relax and Talk

I know it seems like if you don’t decide right now that the world will end or you’ll never get the chance to make the decision again.  This is not so.  Unless it’s life or death, or a matter of principle, usually the time to make a decision is not when the choice is presented, but after you’ve had some time to Breath, Relax, and Talk.  Give it a couple days, give it a couple weeks.  Talk to the people the decision affects, pray about it, and make certain you understand the implications of your actions.  If you don’t you will live to regret it.

5. The best things in this world are never easy.

If They Were, They Wouldn’t Be The Best

The things that really matter and mean something in this world are usually, if not always, some of the most difficult things in this world.  The things that are worth caring about are the things that you put the most work into.  They are the things that your whole heart and soul goes into to make them what they are.  When that something is a someone, that means this someone now has your whole heart and soul at their disposal.  You gave that to them, and you don’t get it back until they give it back.  Whether directly, or by consequence, you don’t have that back until it’s given back to you.  If you panic and try and take it back, you’ll realize that you’ve just cut yourself off of your one link to it.  I suppose it is possible to get that back, over time it heals and grows back, but you don’t ever forget the pain it causes.  If you do take it back make sure that you are prepared for the pain of letting that heal.

6.  Live and learn

And Keep Breathing

If you have managed to ignore all of my advice up to this point, then you are probably sobbing more frightened and confused than you ever were before, and hating yourself for being so stupid.  If this is the case, there is only one thing you can do.  Appologize, and keep moving on.  I know it sucks, but maybe you’ll get lucky, maybe they’ll forgive you and give you a second chance.  And maybe you won’t and perhaps they won’t, but you can’t make them.  Remember step five, time will heal it though it will be painful.  Learn from this experience and remember Alma 37:35 Learn wisdom.

 

Creativity Part 2

Create, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k&feature=youtube_gdata.

I love this talk, so much!  I know that what president Uchtdorf says is true.  The desire to create is something that is built into ourselves.  We have an inherent need to create something in this world.  I feel that we all do create something just by being here on this earth.  Everything I say or do effects those around me, my presence in this world changes the outcome of life.  That is creation.  I have that ability and so does everyone else.  I just love this message, because it’s not only art, it’s not just my photography or my web design or my writing or any of my other creative endeavors.  It’s my life.  My life is a creation built for creation.  I hope we all take a second to look at ourselves and appreciate the impact we have had on this world.  I don’t care who you are or what you have done.  If you are a mother raising a family, a student going to school, a grandmother baking cookies for your grandkids.  Because of you the world is the way it is today.  Were it not for you this world would be missing a vital and key part of what makes it the wonderful place to live that it is.  We create.

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A Thought Experiment

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I think that is what Einstein called daydreaming.  Anyways, I was having an epic one last night I want to share.  Going back on my thoughts that I wrote on somewhat the other day, “learning ouside of school and the moral justifications of piracy”. But I was thinking about collaboration and the way that thoughts flow.  That is what I enjoy so much about this blog is that my thoughts can just flow and others can see it, but how many tools really let us do that?

My Idea

So this was my thought.  A web based program that would transcribe text to speech from any internal or 3rd party input device.  But unlike your average text to speech software this would be built like an idea web.  As you talk it would be constantly scanning databases and the web and definitions of words etc, to know when a topic has changed, and create a new node in the web.  It would also be intuitive enough to detect natural punctuation.  It would have a built in database of keywords that would trigger things to happen, for instance if you said the keyword ideas, it would start a list of ideas.

It would also have a section that would list news stories and peered articles relating to your topic.  Furthermore it would actually transcribe the brainstorm word for word as any dictation software so you can read it just the way you thought it.  The web would also have the ability to attach rich web content, videos, images, even entire web pages.  It would keep a bibliographic record of all the sources used and you could import that into word.  And you could add your own web nodes and ideas manually as well.  The web would also have the ability to “trackback” or highlight from topic to topic how a specific idea node was created.  You could manually add your own trackbacks as well, so you can find the most direct and relevant information for your topic.

It would also have the ability to index these brainstorm webs, tag them, and notate them, so a record is kept.  It also would be able to index and tag and notate other files and information from the internet much like Zotero.

Pretty wicked awesome right?  I thought so.  Anyways that was my thought.

 

Lofty Goals and Wishes Part 2

Image via Wikipedia

Ok guys, so just a quick update.  I just got my W2s back and filed my taxes, which is really exciting because I’m getting like $1200.00 back!  To break this down, what that means is my mission is paid completely by February 30th, and I can have my nikon D90 by March 15th!  Ya know, the one that I said I’d never get?  It might actually be sooner now that at the time of writing, I have undertaken another project for my Aunt’s small business.  I cannot wait to have a camera to hold in my hands again!  And don’t you worry, I will post a whole slue of pictures on this blog when I get my new camera.  In the mean time however, let’s look at some pictures of people who are better than I.

Ten Reasons To Hate Flickr

As a disclaimer, none of these images are mine, this section is my homage to photographers of flickr better than me.  Today’s images are all Nikon D90 shots.  Soon, soon.  For more excellent shots see http://www.flickr.com/photos/denemiles/

 

If you ever felt “uncreative”

I just discovered something amazing today that I wanted to share.  Check it out.

“Everyday Creativity Video – Dewitt Jones Videos,” http://trainingabc.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16230.

So now that you’ve watched that video I’d like to discuss it.  I totally agree with this guy, I don’t have much to say

because it seems so very straight forward, but I just wanted to share it with you.  I hope that we all can look at this world through a different lens to find a new perspective.  Thank You Jane for showing me this.

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Learning outside of school and the moral justifications of modern piracy

Hmm...sounds like a good title.

So Basically I was sitting reading a good friend of mine’s blog (http://websterswench.weebly.com/) and really

School Zone

wishing I was going to college.  It would be really nice I think to be able to go to college and just learn.  It may seem odd but that is something I’ve really missed.  In school my education was free.  (For me at least.)  This is a little funny to me given how much I complained that I HAD TO GO TO SCHOOL and how badly I wanted out.  Now I’m dying to get back in.  Funny the way life works isn’t it?

But not being able to go to school, and still having a desire to learn, has taught me a few things.

• You don’t need school to learn
• The library is your friend
• Google can teach you a lot if you know where to look
• Piracy is easily justifiable in the right circumstances.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.  The other day I wrote a snippet of javascript code.  Didn’t know your favorite photographer was also a super geek did you?  Alas it is true, I am.  I love web developing and always strive to merge that with my creative side.  The code was fairly simple, it searched a web page for a special link and if it found that link it disabled it.  But for me it was a learning experience.  I made 2 separate calls, created to variables, and made a function.  I don’t expect you to know what that means, but as I made mention above, Google could help you out.

But I didn’t go to school to learn how to do that.  I can’t afford to go to college right now, but I still learned how.  I looked up references on Google, and applying that information to the basics of programming CSS and HTML which I learned from book I checked out of the Library, I was able to put the below code together.

var LINK

LINK=document.getElementsByTagName(‘a’);

LINKHREF=LINK.getAttribute(‘href’);

function whats_this_disable {

if LINKHREF = “javascript:void(“help”)” {parentNode.disabled=true}

else

{parentNode.disabled=false}

};

var LINKLINK=document.getElementsByTagName(‘a’);LINKHREF=LINK.getAttribute(‘href’);
function whats_this_disable {
if LINKHREF = “javascript:void(“help”)” {parentNode.disabled=true}
else
{parentNode.disabled=false}
};

And I know I’ve been talking a lot about this code I wrote, and I don’t wanna get too hung up on it, but it was really cool for me, and I was able to figure it out without spending an arm and a leg to do so.

Let’s look at another example

Image by richbai90 via Flickr

I took this picture of some beautiful examples of Native American pottery.  I was really impressed by the intricate detail and design that went in to creating these pots.  Moreover, how many of these artists do you think went to school to learn to do this?  Probably not many, if any.  This is an art form that is passed through generations.  Mothers learn it

from their mothers, fathers teach it to their sons.  This is not knowledge that has to be bought with $500.00 a credit hour. (Roughly the estimate of my chosen university.)

Knowledge is everywhere

Just look at Wikipedia

And I guess that’s my point.  It is not something that should cost as much as it does.  I hate how much an education costs and how difficult it can be to get the education YOU want.

I consider myself very lucky for being able to go to a high school where I was afforded the opportunity to take

couldn’t be a professional photographer, or a movie maker.  I am thankful every day of my life for teachers like MaryAnne Hess, or Ren Shore; Teachers who knew something and took a vested interest in their students.  I learned more at that school from those teachers and I would count Steve, my government teacher amongst them as well, than I did in my entire public school career up to that point.  And they were the ones who taught me how to learn and think

Image via Wikipedia

for myself.  That is a life lesson that not any teacher can give, and I am thankful for them, because now being out of school, learning isn’t as convenient of cheap as it was.  I believe that final point causeways quite nicely into my next section of this blog, which is becoming somewhat ranty I’m afraid.

Piracy

Yaaarg

I don’t really condone the word pirate.  It makes me feel like I’m a vicious, greedy, belly guttin’ scoundrel, who’d sooner kill ya as look at ya.  And really I just don’t fit the role.  Piracy for me, answers the question,  “If I don’t learn to

The Pirate Bay

use the industry technology now, how much time and money will I be using learning it in the field?”  Truly, even in college, the colleges that have the industry leading technology at their disposal, and teachers who can teach you, are going charge you for that knowledge.  They’re the real thieves.  $500.00 a credit hour is obscene, just so I can go to a school and learn.  I understand that teachers have to make money, but I wonder how much of the money is going to the teachers.

Let me give you another for instance.  My girlfriend, whose name, I believe we decided was Jane, has a class where the book alone for this class costs $85.00  That is 85.00 for the book, plus tuition and whatever  else.  But it gets better.  This book has to be a new copy because all the work must be done within the book and torn out.  So why don’t you just photocopy it?  Well because any work that has been photocopied from the book is not valid and will not be graded.  Even better, recording equipment of any kind is not allowed and you will fail the class if you are found with it on your person.  That’s right you can’t even record the lecture.  I mean WHAT THE HECK is the point of technology if we aren’t allowed to use it??  What are we learning in school if we are taught that you can’t use technology like photocopiers and voice recorders to make our lives easier, better, or more productive, than we aren’t progressing.  Why are millions of dollars invested into the research industry to create new products when only the very wealthy are allowed to use them?

I believe that knowledge should be free, and readily accessible.  We have the tools to do it, we just need the minds who aren’t afraid to say that this isn’t right.  We are a new generation; it’s time to make it what we want it to be.

A Perfect World

Imagine with me, my perfect world.  A boy, Charles, walks into school with his school issued laptop he bought through a special program from the school.  He has to lease it out for 50.00 a year.  It’s a 4 year lease (time it takes to graduate) and at the end of that 4 years if he has a diploma the laptop is his to own.  So he walks into class and logs onto the school servers.  On the school servers they have Photoshop.  He logs onto photshop just as though it were a website, but it’s a program, with all the functionality of photoshop, he just doesn’t need to install anything.  The school’s server and all

Photoshop

the applications hosted thereon are completely accessible using his student ID and password, so long as he is on the campus.  So he sits down and begins working as his professor lectures.  Using the hosted web version of Dragon the school also has hosted, he is able to transcribe the lecture to word in the background while working on the project he’s demonstrating in real time.   He also is using screen capture technology to stream his own laptop in real time using

Google Wave

google wave, while his friends who are at lunch or at home are taking notes in real time.  Once the class is over he saves the capture to his desktop and uploads it to his favorite file hosting website rapidshare.com as well as youtube for easy access in the future.  All the while, his buddies are doing the same for their classes.  Thus all the notes are taken, all the reference material is there and more time can be spent actually working on the assignment.  But let’s say that Charles lives at home, well that’s easy.  The lease on his laptop then is 100.00 which includes the cost of an access anywhere password for the school server.

It’s as simple as that.  Books can be downloaded as PDF files for reading on a computer or an Amazon Kindle.  You can do that for less than half the cost of the paper book, and you can rent the actual hard copy book from the school library so long as you have an ID card.  All course material and assignments are available free on the school servers to be printed at the student’s convenience.

Learning is collaborative, and thanks to the help of Charles and his friends, all the lectures and studies are available to the general public free on youtube for anyone with the materials needed.  (See above on Piracy)

Anyways, that’s my feelings on the subject.  I know it’s not going to happen tomorrow, and not because I say it should, but I can be a part of the change I want to see.  I believe that.  I want that for myself, my future, and my family.  There is no reason why what I envision here cannot be a reality, and I will help to make it so.

 

Lofty Goals and wishes

Hey guys!! Wow it has been a while since I’ve done anything here. I would do more more often if it weren’t for the fact that I broke my camera. Yes it is true…my beautiful Sony A300 has breathed its last breath. Ok well that is not entirely true. But the camera guy at Kews Camera did tell me it would be something like 250.00 about to get it fixed. That isn’t so bad, but since a new camera is only a couple hundred more

560.00 on Amazon

I don’t know if it’s worth it to get it repaired, when I can have an upgrade. So that is my current, albeit lofty goal for the future. It is a nice camera, I’d go into the specs if I though you cared. Ok I don’t care if you care I do.

• Optical Sensor Resolution: 12.2 MP
• Optical Sensor Technology: CMOS
• Optical zoom: 3 x
• Maximum Aperture Range: F/3.5-5.6
• Minimum focal length: 18 millimeters
• Maximum focal length: 55 millimeters
• Lens Type: Zoom lens
• Light Sensitivity: ISO 100-1600, ISO auto (100-800)
• Image types: JPEG, RAW
• AEB: 3 frame AEB min step 1/3 ev max step 2 ev max range 4 ev

Ok well now that I’ve bored you to tears with the technical details (you might have just skipped over it to save you from your boredom) The point is, it’s a very nice camera, for a very good deal. Ok so maybe it’s a little lofty of a goal, and more realistically I’d go with the Olympus E-volt e520.

416.00 on Amazon

I won’t go into the product specs on this one, but suffice it to say, it’s also a very nice camera for a very good price. It is a little scant on the Mega Pixel side, (only 10.1 as apposed to 12.x) but that makes little difference when compared to the features like shutter speed aperture and ISO. So those are my goals…

Ok, So I wouldn’t ask you to help, at least not for free. I can fairly well offer technical services to anyone in need of them, my fees aren’t steep much and it would be for a good cause. So basically what I’m asking, is for all of you to go out and break your computers (not cameras) so you can pay me to fix them ;P Ok but seriously I would like to help you, help me.

So There It Is go out an break em’ so I can fix em’ =)

 

Story Time

Pictures are really best, in my opinion, when they express something, or tell something.  That’s why these two pictures are some of my favorite from the Zion’s peak trip. Don’t worry there will be more photos to come, some which are much nicer than these, but these are fun, and they definitely tell a story, one which I’ll not soon forget haha.

 

 

Hahaha see what I mean?  It’s fun.  So that’s my shpiel for today.  Now for some wisdom from a wise friend, When bragging about your work VS. Bragging about others: "A good ration is 4-1 or 5-1 anything more seems a bit whorish." That being said, I thought it a good idea to show off the work of one of my favorite artists, Dusty Hansin.  He’s a painter, amazingly gifted in the mediums of physical and digital painting, he’s a 3D modeler, a chef, and a writer.  I’m sure there’s more that he can do that we just don’t know of yet, aside from being an Awesome guy and an inspiration to myself and those around him.  Check him out at his novel page, word on the street is he’s writing a novel.  http://dustinhansen.com/

 

The quest continues

The quest continues.  I’ve spoken with the Salt Lake City Arts Council, as well as the Utah Arts Council.  Did you know that there is an officail artist registry??  Yeah me neither.  I have a twitter.  Yeap, come follow me, my username is richbai90.  Also, as a side note, per her request, my girlfriend has now has a pseudonym on this blog, that name, is Jane. Apparently, Ms. Anonymous didn’t suit her, so from now on, that lovely young lady with the long blonde hair, her name is Jane. This is very exciting to me, I am finally taking my artwork seriously.  I think that’s sort of an important thing, so allow me to digress once again.  You may notice I do that sometimes.

 

I guess throughout my life there has been a lot of things that I haven’t taken seriously.  I always thought that I wasn’t an artist, which would make sense if you knew my brother, so what I did, I did for fun, never thinking anything serious from it.  It’s important of course to have fun, don’t get me wrong, but I think it was just a month or so ago I sat wishing that I could be as good as everyone on Flickr, all those people making thousands of dollars with their photography.  It wasn’t until a day or so ago that my attitude changed, I wish, to why not?  It’s sort of a principle of life I think.  If we all thought that we could just look at ourselves as being great at the things we love, I think we’d find that we are a lot better than we may give ourselves credit for.

 

Ok I’m glad I got that out of my system.  I think it’s time now to add a couple pictures, what do you think?

Pictures