Roadside jog
Perfect day for it too.

As per, request? View Large On Black

I should be focusing on a couple assignments right now but my mind is floating elsewhere so I'll allow it to float away for a while before fetching it back again.

I'll be saving long passages for my actual work so I'll keep this short-esque.

It's May and May Day/International Worker's Day as well as the Norwegian national day (17th May) has recently passed by. Sometimes it is interesting seeing how easily the larger population is stirred into collective movement, even if it is just a general celebration that quite possibly only a portion knows the true meanings behind. I'm reminded of a short story by Shirley Jackson that goes by the title The Lottery. It's a story, if loosely looked upon, that can easily be society today. Ritualistic traditions passed on as nothing more than a tradition. I'm not pointing to the previously mentioned two celebrations, Labour Day and a national day serve their historical purposes and society and the present is simply the accumulation of history so far. There are many things that can be blamed for some of the more unreasonable ones; capitalism, consumerism, socialism, etc. Surely you've noticed the widespread celebration of Christmas in recent years? Even in nations who are not particularly religious. I'm sure some traditions can be justified with logic and proper explanations, but let's face it, that's not the main reason many are still around. When an occasion arrives, what is the more likely immediate thought: "I'm celebrating today because [insert historical meaning]." or "I'm celebrating today because that's what I did last year and all the previous years, but let's not forget, because everyone else is." Take for example the tradition of quiet Sundays. Now I don't know about your country but where I'm from it is as if the country shuts down that very day, every week. The same goes for some international holidays on an international scale. Stock markets slow down certain days for example. Collective movement is a powerful thing. I'm not criticising anything in particular, I am merely expressing a general observation that we all know but may not give enough thought. Culture, traditions, history, are all important, logic is sometimes too.
We're all headed somewhere and won't know how it looks till we're there.

Labels: flickr, globalisation, goal, life, Orwellian, photo, reflections, social awareness, street photography

Beauty is everywhere
even behind bars.

Go have a look and figure for yourself:
http://tinyurl.com/d4qmrf (This links to a BBC article. I apologise for using tinyurl but I'm just being on the safe side of.. things)
This is almost proof that BBC is generally and largely a government news organisation. If you read it and don't see what the big deal is then you need to read it again, this time between the lines.

They're 'subtly' trying to break to us that they will now monitor all electronic activity and backing it up by trying to create a contrast from the previous attempts at internet law enforcement where they aimed to monitor and to create one big government centralised information database. Ever considered what would happen with all that information in the wrong hands? That is, if the government is the right hands in the first place. Freedom of speech and expression now comes in the form of monitored and controlled activity.

"Ms Smith said that while the new system could record a visit to a social network, it would not record personal and private information such as photos or messages posted to a page.
"What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and who is at the other - and how they are communicating," she said."

Read that again. "[...]and how they are communicating." I'm sitting here puzzled now. So do they or don't they monitor the content of the activity? All they will monitor is then just what application, where, who, and what we, so called, 'communicate'? Sounds like "private information" to me.
I also read the word "voluntary" somewhere in the article but I don't see much 'voluntary' action when it's the software providers and ISPs who have the choice and not the customers.

This is step one. Will we allow it? Think about what step two might look like if step one is successful.

Did someone say...

Labels: boundaries, globalisation, life, Orwellian, photo, reflections, self-preservation, social awareness

Soar
Okay, this is extremely experimental. I am aware this isn't exactly an amazing photo but I had loads of fun trying to capture one of these. I've been and still am trying loads of different styles of photography and am having a ball in doing so.

I would greatly appreciate some constructive criticism. What do you like, what do you not, if it was you trying to capture/ post process something similar, how would you do it?

I've started doing something I promised myself I wouldn't here on my blog. I've made this blog a self-centred site. Well of course, I did expect to talk about myself and my life a little here and there. But seems like that is all I have done in the last couple of posts. Nothing I say can be applied to anyone else than myself. So I will try to step away from that again and make today's topic:

Sounds
More specifically; noise.
Everywhere we go there is this phenomena. Birds, trees, wind, sea, lakes, walking feet,,, cars, factories, horns, a vacuum cleaner, screams, machinery, explosions.
There are different sounds in this world. And in contemporary society it is mostly about the artificial ones. We can rarely go for a stroll and enjoy 'the sound of nature', the natural. The infinite time of development to come to its balance of sounds. The human conscious mind has its consequences, we create the unnatural and produce the artificial. We invent, we create, we fight to break free from the 'flow' of things.
For nature is not the inorganic body of homo sapiens. We decided against that centuries ago. Instead it has become our "tool" of sort and we reap what we sow.

Stop, don't move, just listen for a moment. Can you hear the silence? Neither can I. Is the blowing wind and the singing birds all you can hear? I didn't think so. Most of us have to travel for hours to experience this, because we have not only occupied land, not even just air and space, for we have occupied sound as well.
When was the last time all you could hear was yourself? Though this is a little far fetched for the wind and the trees create sound too, but if I had the chance to I for one would want to experience the sound of nothing but myself, but I am more than happy for just a moment of experiencing nature, the natural nature.

So here is my tip of the day if you who read are interested;
escape the town, escape all roads, all buildings, maybe all of humanity for perhaps just a few minutes, plan a few hours, it is up to you, and feel that you are part of nature and understand that nature is not a separate being. Listen to the balance that has been created through millions of years of development.

I am not a particular environmentalist neither am I a "tree hugger", I am just an individual who enjoys a little calm and peace.

EDIT: As a temporary measure for not having set up an "Older/Newer Posts" link yet I've set the main page to display 10 posts instead of 5. It'll mean a bit longer loading time but at least you'll be able to look a bit further back in time.

Labels: flickr, globalisation, minimalism, nature, noise, photo, rant, reflections, self-preservation, social awareness, sounds

The Last
moments of light before the darkness of reality forces itself back out.

Should be viewed large on black.

So I've been quite busy with books and the library and all that lately but when things start becoming too monotonous my brain starts becoming heterogeneous. What that means to the space that I call my personal is relocation and silly ideas. It has only been two days since I started my search for another world but so far I have glued (not strong) two small wooden blocks to my work desk so I can prop my laptop up against the wall easier. That isn't much of a change from how I've had it up till now other than now the prop is wood and not white-tack. Taking the laptop down is much easier now. And if you're wondering how I use the keyboard now then Synergy is the answer; one keyboard, one mouse, two komputers.
I've also reorganised everything to the right of my computers, I call it efficiency upgrade.. but that is just to make myself feel that I didn't waste half an hour of my life.
I used to have a laundry bag I was going to make but my fingers were too lazy at first and then too busy to finish that project. The materials are still lying in the bottom right of my wardrobe, right where they were a month ago too. I need that bag quite sorely. Some day, some time.
In five minutes I will start searching for the blogger code to add an "Older Posts" and "Newer Posts" link to my blog.




EDIT: here's a beautiful mspaint demonstration of how my computers are set up.







Speaking of websites, yesterday I put a drafted one together, one of those personal websites, based on the strange design I came up with three posts ago. It's not too bad and definitely need working on. I have a well of other ideas I want to realise into concept ideas some day. I'll try for something less, hmm, simple next time.
Go check it out: http://www.geocities.com/talleyway/index.html
Unfortunately I don't have a personal webspace and am too lazy to go searching for a good free service so I popped it into my existing geocities account. Click away the ad-sidebar when you're there.

Been checking out pixelpost lately. A great photoblogging application for databasing and showcasing photography. Fully customiseable. I'll be working with that a little in the near future.

Tom Clancy's End War is finally out for PC. Can't wait to try it out. Voice recognition warfare. *drool* I haven't bought a game in years but I think this will be next in line if the offline turns out to prove good prospects for online gaming.

As for my twitter-week experience. It started out alright, quite fun to share bits and pieces of my everyday life. But it only took one day to start feeling imposed upon by the intraweb. I found it increasingly harder and harder to keep up the updates as I wanted to share less and less information (apart from it being tedious to announce every bit of my day). It was a little relieving to be able to share some of my personal life even if there might not have been anyone on the receiving end. But Susan Greeenfield would beg to differ. I can see the angle she is coming from. The social community today has morphed to something very different from what it used to be only a decade ago. The constantly shifting economy of knowledge is a very different world as specialisation become the keyword of the century. Technology is growing and the world is shrinking.
Keep up, the times are changing.

Currently rediscovered playlist: Feist - Let It Die

Labels: agenda, annoying points about blogger, bored, bugs, computer, flickr, globalisation, goal, life, personal website, photo, rant, reflections, social awareness, time, Twitter, website

We construct
It's nice to know that the road is under construction, but I find it a little early to tell the drivers when it's 500 meters away.
Perhaps a little closer. But who am I to talk.
Let the speeding cars do that.

The photo is from the same day as the post on the 15th of February.
Just didn't find time to upload it till now.

So, today I think I'm getting the haircut I've been planning to get for a while now. I'm far too lazy for this sort of stuff.
Still waiting for the day they invent a pause button for hair growth.
Heading out a few minutes after hitting the "post entry" button. I might be a bit late for the opening hours though, I'll see. If today fails I'll have the rest of my life to get the cut anyway.

A good habit I've started developing recently that I think everyone who needs it should get, an agenda. And not just to keep it on the shelf (like I did for two, three months before finally picking it up), but to actually note down events and things that you need-to-do, should-do, should-think-over, plan-to-do, etc.etc.
Up until now I've trusted my memory to keep track of all of this. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you all have amazing memories, neither did I forget appointments and such. But by writing them down everything suddenly becomes much, much clearer. Easier manageable and I am able to become much more time efficient.
Not only can I easily plan things for my "free hours", but I have become a little more conscious over how I spend my days, that way I can spend them on something a little more productive than staring at the computer screen for hours on end.

Society is constantly demanding higher and higher levels of efficiency, we try to save time every single step we take, whether it will be spent staring at a tv screen or actually effectively used doesn't matter anymore. Many have never heard of 'stopping to smell the flowers' anymore even and society is erasing that phrase evermore. So why not conform a little and try to become a little more efficient ourselves.
Though while knowing society's growing efficiency demand, we are able to become aware; awareness is important for change. Therefore, with the agenda that you surely now will go and get (*hint*hint*), start "effectively" planning calm nights of rest, notice when you are busy and when you can sit back with a book or go for a walk to take in all that you didn't have time to when running to your bus or while working frivolously at a project.
We used to just have time to slow down and sit down for an extra breath, now we need to plan it. Follow the waves of change.
Pick up a new hobby if you want, for now you have the time to..

And yet again, here's My Twitter and why you should check it.

Labels: agenda, flickr, globalisation, goal, life, photo, purpose, rant, reflections, social awareness, time, Twitter

Alright. All that hype about Twitter and such and such. I figured I should jump on the train as well and follow the rest of the world wide web and be a nice little sheep.
What is there to say. Twitter...twitter,twitter,twitter. A little device that has taken "Facebook Status'" to the next level. Take Facebook, cut out all the photo albums, the wall, the applications, the events, etc.etc. and only leave the status field and friends list and you'll have Twitter.
You see, some people don't think letting complete aliens know how your day was is enough. Twitter allows you to let the world know you're going to the bathroom, having your dinner, picking your nose, buying groceries, and all the rest of your sad little senseless life.

It is therefore I will indulge myself with this fun little interactive website and see if I can pull off a full week of constant 'twittering' (I believe that word has now been coined by the twitters, yes; "Twitters" *shudder*).
So, starting today, Saturday 14th February 2009 till Saturday 21st February 2009 I will be actively twittering whatever useless information of my day to day life I can muster.. if I make it.
Let us call it a social experiment to get a slight grasp of what the personal tweeters go through.

No, no I don't have anything better to do.

Now come read my week as I live it. https://twitter.com/TallyWeek
*add me if you're already Twittering, if you're not, follow me anyway.

More info on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/, if you're interested.

Labels: bored, globalisation, life, rant, self-presentation, social awareness, Twitter

I'm bored. So very bored. So I present to you, my pastime for today.
I'll be from now and the next few hours stenciling this 55x40cm onto the backside of a pizza box.
I'm counting 11 parts/layers. Should keep me entertained for a while.

Labels: bored, globalisation, rant, stencil