I didn't have a photo to go with this post.
Of course I do have the option of finding one on- or offline.. but what's the fun in that. I've so far managed to consistently stick to my own photos.
Besides, what would be the point of a semi-sort-of-photoblog without my photos in it.
Therefore photo-less post.
Have on the same hand been off the camera for a while again. Another off-season.

On the other hand.
Swimming is my new infatuation and possible passion for a while. I know. I just do.
This feeling of joy and freedom. Moving in every x y and z, however I want. Something nothing else in this world allows.
This sore feeling in my very existence. Numbing yet empowering. It's not just the endorphins speaking.
For the longest time, jogging and sprinting has been my only constant athletic passion. I've done others, enjoyed some more than others; of which the ones I feel like mentioning: long jump, high jump, discos, basketball.
Now I can say jogging, sprinting + swimming.

Humans sure are interesting creatures. Most seek stability and order. Control. Overview. Knowledge (of whatever sort). Even those who seek change seek stability. Understanding these relations between change and stability. I wonder. Understanding what people live for. Interesting.

«Power». There's another word in the topic of control and stability.
Sensing power and desiring power. Feeling superior or wishing for it.
I feel 'empowered' when and after I swim and jog. Of course that isn't the only reason, but nevertheless I feel great. Reading and studying, though different per singularis, is to me a power. I can control what I know, manipulate and apply as I please. Know what I want and decide what to express however I want (in this privileged society which I reside within).
Some gain knowledge to gain power. A means to an end.
Power.

I read an article in a newspaper the other day. A group of 25 year olds (you'd think responsible adults), kicked and beat a beggar on the street.


Psychological delusions and cravings.

Labels: exercise, life, reflections, self-preservation, social awareness, swimming

Look Ahead
This world is full of colours and lights.

One of those photos I've wanted to try for a while and finally did.

I've been doing some thinking lately.
My life needs a change. The way I live that is. A change within.
Get out more, explore more, seize the moments that flutter past.
What were those words so over-used by a popular media of mass production and consumption?
Though in words true to Horatius:

Carpe Diem
quam minimum credula postero.

Seize the day
putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow.

I can't say I've been living a life of plans so far, only seeing as far as my arms can reach, sometimes, though experimentally, while stretching, to see how far they reach. The difference though, is I have never put much thought into my actions, never thought more than two steps past the current, what can happen, what may happen, why, or whether I want it to happen. I live my life by vague rules, rules I've made as I've walked along this path. They serve no purpose than to allow me life.
Time to stop floating and start swimming.

I have news for this blog too. I used to think I'd only want to post when I have something to say. That is, something current, something thought through.
But
I'm going to be posting anything and everything. Who needs a purpose and reason to post to an abandoned, forsaken pointless blog. I'll write, post, vent, anything I have to vent. If I feel like venting.

I admit, I read this blog post first before posting this one:
Write to Done blog

If you haven't seen the movie then you should but here's the theme song played amazingly by Itzhak Perlman:
Grooveshark -> Schindler's List Theme

Labels: agenda, boundaries, flickr, goal, life, photo, purpose, rant, reflections, self-preservation, 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