Ok, after being in heaven for a couple of days (because I have listened to all songs that the band bellow has ever recorded) I have decided to once again spread my love to my web site. Poker seems to be what annoys me right now. I am one of those people who can’t really play any card games which, to tell you the truth, astonishes many people.
- Wow, you can’t play (insert popular card game here)??? What kind of freak are you?
Not a freak, mind you, just someone who doesn’t feel the need to sit in one place and play with luck for three hours.
- But, it is so much more than that!
Yes, that’s what they all will say. They will say that it is about skill, bluffing, reading facial expressions, adrenaline, etc. However, any game that encourages wearing a hat and sunglasses indoors is not really worth it in my opinion. Just watching those dwarfs play their little tournaments rips my heart apart — hours and hours of sitting down, playing with their chips and hoping to get a good hand.
It’s 4:30 in the morning and I discovered a very beautiful song. I can predict that I am going to listen to it for a long time. The stars have aligned again. The band is called “God is an Astronaut.”
I have been thinking about the power of different scents for some time. With today’s emphasis on visual stimulation, I think that people tend to undermine the power of different smells. I often find myself experiencing childhood memories just by walking around, which is quite a trip for my mind.
Of course, people have turned our “scent memory” into a business, by giving different enjoyable scents to bubble gum, detergents, toothpaste, etc. I think that times will come when people will use those artificial scents to judge the real stuff. A scene from the Matrix comes to mind, when the guy is eating a stake and says that even though he knows the steak isn’t real, it is still delicious. Yes, I think that we will be able to trick our minds in the future , but I personally prefer to stimulate my senses the old-fashioned way. Artificial scents, like online virtual worlds, can only go so far. But still, people want to smell (or smell like) tropical forests, vanilla,flowers, or whatever those marketers decide that it’s best for your nose. The shirt that I am wearing right now smells nice, but I really can’t decide if it’s morning dew or something else. It’s funny how all that we can say is “that smells nice,” without linking the scent to anything in particular.
Lately, I have been fascinated with the isolation that talented people sometimes feel. It seems that even if you have the means to express yourself, you will never truly be understood and you will remain feeling somewhat isolated. Abraham Maslow said that one of the steps towards self-realization is to be “alone but not lonely.” When you occupy your mind with thoughts of real substance, you can never feel emotionally lonely. Now, “real substance” is very subjective and could mean your job, you family, your house, maybe even your furniture. However, the problem is that those things are not permanent, and sooner or later you are going to lose them (well hopefully not your family because that would be depressing). On the other hand, if you occupy your mind with thoughts, dreams and inspirations you are going to become detached from society and start writing songs such as the one mentioned above. Edgar Allan Poe said that:
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night” (Eleonora)
Omitting some of the obvious reasons for day-dreaming loneliness, I have to say that one of the main reasons for the isolation that those people feel is seeing that there is no escape, but still searching for it.
This one of my favorite songs. Very rarely do we hear a song that makes so much sense and has substance to it. It is called “Ize of the World” and is from The Strokes’s album “First Impressions of Earth” (which is their most recent album). I actually recommend this album and their other two -”Is this it” and “Room on Fire.” The Strokes received attention with their first album and were claimed to be one of the bands to revive the “punk movement.” After that, everybody calmed down and they have been keeping a low profile. I started listening to them a few months ago and have been hooked ever since. It is strange how I go from hip-hop to alternative rock so many times. They both have their strenghts, but right now I prefer more subtle lyrics than punchlines.
I chose this song because it has a lot to do with my previous post. I have taken a more philosophical path latelely, but I hope that my readers enjoy it (as much as I do). I don’t really claim to be anything more than your ordinary guy, I just like to record my stream of thought and see what emotions it evokes in other people. Anyways, I can’t really choose what to cite from this song, because every part is a masterpiece on its own. Here it is:
I guess most people are aware how amazon.com has this thing where “if you like this, you might also like that.” Thus, if you like the movie 1984, you might also like V For Vendetta (which I do actually). This had me thinking whether we are really that much predictable. From liking certain movies, to songs, to even colors, we invest so much of ourselves in what we prefer that we gradually begin to search for our “self” in things that other people like. This is where recommendations, similar interests and hobbies come into the picture to turn us into pieces of an endless puzzle. But we are determined to find someone who shares our interests, because we want to fit, regardless of our attempts to distinguish ourselves from everybody else. Thus, we want to find a unique way of means to belong somewhere, instead of doing it in a straight forward way. To sum it up, the crux of all of this seems to lay not in where we end up (because we always end up somewhere), but how we end up there. Let me tell you, we have some pretty creative ways of getting where we want to end up.
Books seem to be the all time favorite history-wise. It is fascinating how something written hundreds of years ago can inspire the modern man. I think that we
I remember watching a Bill Hicks interview when he described his censoring from the David Letterman show with the words “United States of Advertising,” which basically means that the companies that are sponsoring your favorite shows also control what can and cannot be shown during the whole time. So, it makes sense when Bill was fully censored (after being told that his show that night was great), because his jokes that night had to do with abortion. Little did he know that a pro-life company sponsored the Letterman show. That’s some serious business.
Watching commercials is something that I don’t particularly like to do, but it gives me a great insight of the world that we live in. The more I watch the more I see how those commercials reflect on the way that people behave. The same thing happens with movies. When people do something cool they say “it was like the movies.” Isn’t that strange? Movies are supposed to imitate our life, not the other way around. Come to think of it, the same thing happens with songs, magazines, etc. A commercial, however, has to be short, so all the gimmicks that we see have to be over exaggerated and memorable. Step inside the United States of Advertising.
I recently came across a video of a Bush lobbyist, Stephen Payne, who tells a person that a donation of a hefty amount of money to Bush’s Library private library can guarantee a meeting with Rice, Cheney and even Bush himself.
“I think that the family, children, whatever [of Akayev], should probably look at making a contribution to the Bush library. It would be like, maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or something like that, not a huge amount but enough to show that they’re serious.” (source)
The story gets more interesting when we find out that the person who needs that publicity is Kirghistan’s past president Askar Akayev, who basically wants to use the opportunity as a PR service. It becomes more than apparent from that video, that the representatives from the White House are ready to say “positive statements” in order to give him a shot at the presidency:
“I think the main thing is that he [Akayev] comes, and he’s well received, that he meets with high-level people in the administration and most importantly we send positive statements made back from the administration about ‘This guy wasn’t such a bad guy’, [and] ‘Many people have done worse.’ Those kind of statements from a couple of people in the administration.”
I really wanted to have a vision problem when I saw a “Family Christian” store last night. I don’t really talk about religion very often, because I believe that it is something personal and people always get very “jumpy” when they argue about it. However, after seeing a store with that name, I just have to say something about it. Why in the world would you call it a “Family Christian” store? Does that mean that Muslims and Buddhists can’t shop in it? Now, I know that some boil-brained filthy rogue is going to say to me:
“Hey Ocean, you close-minded punk! You should at least give Christianity a little respect”
I believe that every religion must be respected, at least because of the people who have devoted their lives to it. But things get a little out of hand for me when someone decides to call a place intended solely to making money, “Christian.” According to Wikipedia:
“Family Christian Stores is the world’s largest Christian retailer, and it is located in the United States.[1] The retail chain had 4,600
I have nothing against phones, or technology for that matter. I just don’t think that people should go crazy over it. There were people sleeping outside of stores, in order to be the first who get the new phone. Are you kidding me? It is also a perfect example of how you can promote anything, anywhere if you have enough money. Your news talk about it, your radio talks about it, blogs talk about it…for about two days. After a month, they will make a new, slightly altered phone and the cycle continues. After seeing a video about that new phone on YouTube, I decided to gather my “Trippin’ News” studio and do a little make over. I know that it won’t appeal to some, but still, you should see it.
This may well be one of the best monologues in movie history. It is taken from “Scent of a Woman,” which is one of my favorite movies. I saw it when I was really young and it has gotten stuck in my head since then.
Do you think that we are turning into snitches? I think that we are. It goes back to when we are kids — when we inform our parents of something that is malicious we get rewarded. There is nothing wrong with that. The bad thing is when somebody threatens us if we don’t snitch. It takes away our options, by reducing them to one (and I like to have my options). I recommend seeing this movie, if you still haven’t and I want to know what you think about snitching.
This is the place where I will voice my educated guesses about what the future holds for us. I know that many will question my authority on that subject, but isn’t questioning the main topic of this blog? I think it is. So question with me as I concentrate on my magic ball and find out whether there is some future for us or no future at all (which would suck).
In the future, blogging will reach many heights and eventually evolve into a more exciting way of expressing ourselves. Instead of having tons of people who blog about how to make money from blogging, there is going to be a surgeof people who blog about the people who blog about ways to make money from blogging. Blogging will also register as an official religion, which will be more popular than Scientology, because of search engine optimizations and richer keywords.
Marketers will continue to find ways to efficiently advertise their products, by constructing numerous spy balloons which will fly around the major cities. As you might have guessed, the number of alien sightings is going to increase dramatically.
It will never cease to amaze me how thirsty people are for things like honesty, compassion and equanimity. Nothing new, it is natural for us to search for something bigger in life which will give us meaning and a reason to live. What interests me, however, is that at times like these we search for meaning in the most unnatural places imaginable.
One of the reasons why I like to criticize the mass media so much, is because everything in it looks so one sided and distinguishable (especially on television). I would say that I have spent time watching TV just as much as most people have — it is a great way to observe today’s society, because everything is just so targeted. If it is on TV then you know that there is a substantial demand for it and people are willing to dedicate their time to watch it. All of those commercials for hair loss, weight loss and enhancement pills are there because people want it. The same could be said about reality and talk shows.
Are the people in front of the cameras talking to a piece of metal, or to other human beings? It is a fascinating thing. Everything is so strictly directed, rehearsed and dramatized that I am amazed how anyone would think that any the stuff that they see on TV is real. Click to Continue »
Ok, after being in heaven for a couple of days (because I have listened to all songs that the band bellow has ever recorded) I have decided to once again spread my love to my web site. Poker seems to be what annoys me right now. I am one of those people who can’t really play any card games which, to tell you the truth, astonishes many people.
I have been thinking about the power of different scents for some time. With today’s emphasis on visual stimulation, I think that people tend to undermine the power of different smells. I often find myself experiencing childhood memories just by walking around, which is quite a trip for my mind.
Lately, I have been fascinated with the isolation that 
This one of my favorite songs. Very rarely do we hear a song that makes so much sense and has substance to it. It is called “Ize of the World” and is from 
I guess most people are aware how amazon.com has this thing where “if you like this, you might also like that.” Thus, if you like the movie 1984, you might also like V For Vendetta (which I do actually). This had me thinking whether we are really that much predictable. From liking certain movies, to songs, to even colors, we invest so much of ourselves in what we prefer that we gradually begin to search for our “self” in things that other people like. This is where recommendations, similar interests and hobbies come into the picture to turn us into pieces of an endless puzzle. But we are determined to find someone who shares our interests, because we want to fit, regardless of our attempts to distinguish ourselves from everybody else. Thus, we want to find a unique way of means to belong somewhere, instead of doing it in a straight forward way. To sum it up, the crux of all of this seems to lay not in where we end up (because we always end up somewhere), but how we end up there. Let me tell you, we have some pretty creative ways of getting where we want to end up.
I remember watching a Bill Hicks interview when he described his censoring from the David Letterman show with the words “United States of Advertising,” which basically means that the companies that are sponsoring your favorite shows also control what can and cannot be shown during the whole time. So, it makes sense when Bill was fully censored (after being told that his show that night was great), because his jokes that night had to do with abortion. Little did he know that a pro-life company sponsored the Letterman show. That’s some serious business.
I recently came across a video of a Bush lobbyist, Stephen Payne, who tells a person that a donation of a hefty amount of money to Bush’s Library private library can guarantee a meeting with Rice, Cheney and even Bush himself.
I really wanted to have a vision problem when I saw a “Family Christian” store last night. I don’t really talk about religion very often, because I believe that it is something personal and people always get very “jumpy” when they argue about it. However, after seeing a store with 
This is the place where I will voice my educated guesses about what the future holds for us. I know that many will question my authority on that subject, but isn’t questioning the main topic of this 
It will never cease to amaze me how thirsty people are for things like honesty, compassion and equanimity. Nothing new, it is natural for us to search for something bigger in life which will give us meaning and a reason to live. What interests me, however, is that at times like these we search for meaning in the most unnatural places imaginable.
