Weekend Roundup 1.2

The end of another week..  There were a lot of posts this week, looks like I was trying to make up for that lost time... Anyway lets just jump right into this.  First off I mentioned quantum mechanics, so over the weekend I recommend checking out the movie “What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?.”  This should explain it all.  Remix and remix 1.2 seemed to be a favorite amongst the crowd, I plan on making more of these so hang tight.  Then Monday night I tried out some Yoga for the first time and you guys heard about it the next day..  This Is a cheap sport costs about 10 bux for a mat, I would say this is worth it for being healthy.  Music, oh the sweet sweet melodies stuck in my head.  At the moment I’m humming some “Illscarlet.”  Check em out, they’re a mix between punk, ska, and reggae.  The QR codes have been fun; looks like the page views from android phones are almost beating PC users.  And again if you are visiting via QR code welcome to my blog.  So please if you have time take a picture of the QR code you found in the PDX area and send it to pchristmore@gmail.com and I shall display them on a special post.  The big 300… thnx everyone for supporting my blog.  This is a good start.   And last up today I wrote about dreams..  This weekend try documenting your dreams and read them over later.  It’s pretty interesting.  That all I have for this week guys.  Have a good weekend.    PS: Let’s try and hit 500 page views by the next weekend roundup...........

Dreams

I am thankful for dreams:  So dreams, fractals, and quantum physics all have something in common..  They are all something that undeniably exists but the why and how are still unanswered.  We have so many facts proving our dreams existence but we still don't fully understand them.  There in lies the beauty of your dreams.  We all sleep and have dreamt at some point in our lives.  Sometimes there are dreams about flying, falling, loving, killing, being killed, swimming, breathing under-water, walking in a peanut butter like substance, financial gain/loss, meetings with loved ones that have passed on, etc.....Anyone and everyone has had or will have most of these dreams in some point in their lives.    

300?

No, I'm not talking about the movie.. i'm talkin' page views people.. 303 at the moment to be exact, not alot compared to most blogs but it's a start thanks to all of you out there that check this out on the daily.. good job guys.  So for right now I am thankful for the # 300.

music in my mind

I am thankful for the music in my mind:

Music stuck in your head can often be a pain, but what about those times when it’s a song you love.  The songs that lift us up when we’re down.. That are there when you’re bored with nothing to do, or there for you when you have too much to do.  These are the songs of your mind and soul... the hope in your heart that things are gonna be ok.  It’s kind of weird how we get them stuck in there… It seems like the harder you try to not have it stuck the more it gets lodged in your immediate memory… Anyway that’s all I have for you guys today until tomorrowJ

 

[update] just reread this....probably the most freehand post so far

QR Codes

Those of you that are visiting my site via QR codes found around the PDX area.. welcome to my blog:) Good luck hunting all of those QR codes there are 15 out there so far... If you guys send me pix of the QR codes I will add them to my blog.

    

[update] hint for QR code #3- turtle place Vancouver, WA                                              

Remix 1.2

I am thankful for remixes.....again: Looks like you approved of my remixed art. It even got more attention than Cortana's post.. so I made some more.  Enjoy these delicious treats as I shall be back to the word blabbin' tomorrow and friday.. And remember friday will include 2 posts, 1 being my norm and 2 being the weekend roundup. 

YOGA

I am thankful for Yoga:

So my girlfriend is now a licensed yoga instructor, and I just had my first yoga lesson free on the house.  After one lesson I am for sure hooked on this.  Here’s how it went... I rolled out my mat, she turned on some calm trance like music and we started.  First she walked me through step by step the breathing techniques to ensure a calm start to this whole thing.  I began with deep breaths expanding my diaphragm exhaling with a “woo” sound to feel the air leaving my body.  Once comfortable with the breathing I got into the basic poses then moved onto some more advanced ones which had me balancing at one point with an arm and a leg in the air.  I’m a runner and I consider myself pretty athletic.  This was hard.  It was relaxing but tough at the same time.  I found myself stretching muscles I didn’t even know I had.........  Once we finished with the poses which are called “Asana”, we moved on to meditation.  I’ve never been open to meditation, as just like anyone it is hard for me to control my thoughts.  I started the breathing exercises, then I was told to feel the air entering my body then leaving my body.  I then relaxed and after a few minutes of deep concentration I was meditating like a champ.  I felt weightless and free.  For a few moments all my worries and stresses disappeared.  My mind had been set free.  I was talked out of my meditation and slowly opened my eyes feeling peaceful and ready to go to sleep. I recommend yoga for anyone interested in stress relief.  If you have any interest or would like some training send a message to Steph at the following email address- stephaniesyoga@yahoo.com
or Skype to- L.I.T.H.A.

Remix

I am thankful for remixes:  Since I was AWOL for a couple of days here is a taste of some of my art remixed (i'm going for a kaleidoscope theme)..

 

Quantum Mechanics

I am thankful for Quantum Mechanics:  Scientists are still to this day baffled at the existence of quantum mechanics.  Even Einstein himself tried to disprove the quantum world as it was something even he could not understand.   It drives these guys’ nuts to know that there is something that they can’t explain.  One can observe these events but merely observing them changes the outcome.  So I’ll break this down here is what we know….

·         There is a particle/ wave like interaction between matter and energy

·         Discovered in 1925 by a man named Werner Heisenberg

·         On an atomic and subatomic scale matter seems to change in behavior when observed

·         Particles move forward and backward in time and appear in all possible locations in space at one   time

These are the basic facts of quantum mechanics.  If you want to learn more I suggest checking out the movie “What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?.”

Light

I am thankful for light: Light... what an interesting thing (I guess if you consider energy a “thing.”).  Light is freaking amazing.  I can’t think of too many things that would not be possible without just a little bit of light.  I like to use bright colors with some of my artwork; light makes our view of this possible.  Without light there is an absence of color it ceases to exist. You can test this out by looking at something with color under a dim light you notice that it looks more gray than anything.  This is because in order to view colors we need light to reflect the color.  It would be a very bland world living in darkness…….  The average person spends more time in a well lit area in a 24hr time span than they do in darkness.  We all naturally love to be in the light.  Whether its spending time outdoors or reading a book; the constant companion always with us is our beautiful friend, light. 

speed of light slowed down      

Reggae

I am thankful for Reggae: Reggae is my favorite type of music.  When it hits you, you can feel the music in your soul.  Like Bob Marley sang “one good thing about music is when it hits you, you feel no pain.”  This statement is very true for me when it comes to reggae.  I could be in my saddest moment and have everything go away as soon as I hear some reggae.  It might come as sort of a suprise but Bob Marley is not the only person that has sang some reggae.  There are many modern day reggae bands out there today mixing reggae with punk, ska, rock, folk, classic rock, pop, r&b, latin, and even native american music.  Some of my favorite bands include: Passafire, Barrington Levy, OPM, Natural Inscence, Stone Senses, Badfish, Long Beach Dub Allstars, Dirty Heads, Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, Iration, The B Foundation, and many more.  The band Passafire would be at the top of my list as their writting is intelligent and very well structured, using surreal imagery and beautiful metaphores creating a melody to soothe the soul.........  I think the world needs more positive music.  The healing properties are astounding when listening to positive vibrations.  I will now leave with a quote from none other than Bob Marley...."My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever."

Official band websites:
Passafire
Pepper
Stone Senses
Iration

Weekend Roundup

Weekend roundup: Every weekend I will do a post about what I have learned this week with my blog and the things which were discussed.  So anyway here it goes…. This is my first blog and I want to thank everyone close to me that have been reading this especially my Dad, and definitely the amazing support from my girlfriend Stephanie.  She reads these every day even though she’s heard me talk about these things several times. Thanks AeonJ………… Almost forgot this is the weekend roundup.  My first post was about trees.  When you are all outdoors this weekend take a second look at these and remember the natural mathematical design growing on the outside and within.  Also try to see if you can notice other fractal designs in nature as they are everywhere.  Next I mentioned my spider Cortana.  Looks like she received the most page views.  All that I have to say about this is unless you see a spider that you know for a fact is dangerous, please don’t kill it.  Be thankful for the spiders that live around you, they are great predators for all those bugs you don’t like.  Bic ink pens were next on the list.  If you have some time this weekend to sit down and doodle, try picking up one of these cheap pens.  The feathering technique is easy to master; the hard part is finding the time to do so.  Next to last is Geocaching.  This could be another thing this weekend to do outside.  Try visiting geocaching.com, or those with smartphones try downloading the official app or use the one I prefer called “C:Geo” in the android market place.  Last up is Arthur C. Clarke.  Pick up “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the movie or the book.  These are a perfect example of his magnificent work……. I’ve learned a lot from this so far and it’s only the first week.  I really found out that I have a lot of things to be thankful for that I don’t normally think that way about.  It’s nice to look at everyday things from a different perspective. I’m going to end on that good note, so looks like this is the end of this week’s weekend roundup.  Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next week.      
geocaching.com
android market- C:geo

Arthur C. Clarke

I am thankful for Arthur C. Clarke: If anyone deserves blame to my massive nerdness, I would say that one person on that list would be Arthur C. Clarke.  This man was an author, futurist, and inventor.  He is most widely known for his book 2001: A Space Odessey, which was later the influence for the ahead of its time movie of the same title. 2001 will go hands down as my favorite book I have ever read……..  This short post will be followed by the weekend roundup.  That will be the last post until Monday.  

Geocaching

I am thankful for Geocaching:

Geocaching is a game.  Not your conventional game though.  You don’t sit inside staring at a screen or roll dice to buy properties (even though both of these things are super fun).  Geocaching is a game that forces you to be outdoors.  In almost every state in the U.S. and several countries around the world there are multiple Geocaches.  A Geocache is a container ranging in size from a small pill bottle to a shoe box and sometimes bigger.  When found the contents usually contain 1 piece of memorabilia from the last Geocacher to come across it and also a log book to document your find.  So in order to find one you’ll need a compass, GPS device or app on a smart phone.  You can go to the official website/app on smart phone for a list of GPS coordinates to locate and find Geocaches.  For the more advanced cachers there are harder to find caches that require you to decipher a set of clues.  So far I’ve found a few in Washington and 2 in Oregon. I won’t give details of my finds as that would spoil the fun for those who live near me in the Northwest.  I hope Geocaching lives long and well into the future, because it’s definitely good to put down the controller and get outside.   

                                                                        geocaching.com                                              

Bic Ink Pens

I am thankful for Bic ink pens: Bic pens are my weapon of choice when it comes to shading with my pieces that are nothing but ink.  I like to use a technique I've heard refered to as "feathering".  With these cheap to buy pens feathering can be easily achieved by pressing hard on the paper with the pen then gradually lifting up slowy moving in one motion to create a faded line.  With multiple lines looking like this you can begin to see the faded ink.  I began practicing this technique in 8th grade when I was bored in class and had nothing but notebook paper and a cheap rollerball bic.  Since 8th grade I have created 100's of drawings and have kept atleast 80% of them.  I know use a more high quality ink for my artwork, but still come running back to the good old bic rollerball ink pen......-Today's posting is pretty short, seeing as I am pretty busy.. so I will make up for it in some pictures of my art by the end of the day.

Cortana

I am thankful for my tarantula Cortana:  Spiders were a long time phobia for me, as is for many people all around the world.  How an arachnaphobe ended up with a pet spider all started about a year ago.  I had been reading up on spiders and then moved on to physically watching their behaviors.  Turns out they’re a little like us.  They are oddly obsessed with their home and its condition.  Spiders like to eat.  Most I’ve found are slightly gluttonous, wasting food on a daily basis.  They tend to be violent towards each other and even sometimes their mates.  Anyway to get back on the subject of Cortana.  My growing interest of reading about spiders and watching them soon became a little boring and monotonous..  I then wanted one of my own. So I did some research and it is widely known in the exotic pets community that a rose hair tarantula is very tame, lives a long time (around 20yrs in captivity for females), and also very easy to maintain.  I arrived at my local pet store and asked to see the spiders they had behind the counter.  They had a couple females and a male.  As soon as I saw her I knew that she was the one I wanted.  She seemed very calm but also alert.  I soon after took her home and placed her in her new enclosure.  After a couple of days she was calm enough to hold.  This would be my first experience holding a spider.  At first I was really scared of the whole situation but as soon as both Cortana and I relaxed it was easy going.  She ended up falling asleep on me for a short time before placing her back in the cage.  Cortana has since become my best friend with 8 legs.  She has also become a positive thought in the back of my mind daily.  I have learned a lot from Cortana.  Just like with people you can’t judge a book by its cover.  Get to know one another, do some research, because you don’t know, you could end up with a friend you thought you would never have.  

Trees

I am thankful for trees:
Yes trees give us oxygen.  Trees give us shade, food, homes, furniture, and provide to a portion of our economy.  There is much more going on with these towering giants watching over us silently day after day.  Try to take another look at these living peaceful living organisms and underneath what we see day to day there is much more going on.  Trees are a basic fractal design, for a while I couldn't grasp the concept of a fractal until I saw this concept in trees.  From the roots to the trunk to the branches, all the way down to the veins in the leaves and the veins on those veins... You start to notice a pattern.  The tree as a whole is indeed a fractal.  The same design is repeated throughout the whole tree.  For those of you who don't know what a fractal is here is a simple explanition.  Fractals are basicly a design in which the same pattern or make of the object, equation, living organism, etc. can be minimized and looks the same as the genesis of the said subject.  Now this is an explanation I have come up with on my own and might only make since to me.  If you would like more info try a simple google search.