Thanksgiving was fun. Great food. Great friends.

During the Euchre tournament (cards), I got the opportunity to watch my wife play with the other card sharks, but more importantly I got in a few hours of doodle time.

Home Alone 2 was on, and the part where the kid is roaming around New York tripped me out when I saw the Twin Towers. Very chilling to think about that the whole landscape there is changed. I know that the directors and writers wanted to choose landmarks that would help the film be enjoyed for years, but that part yanks us back to reality that nothing stays the same. Even in our safe country.  Change is a constant, never settle for the way things are, or the way things were. Just be ready for it.

Random doodles abound, ink on Zona’s high-quality Thanksgiving napkins. I also wanted to memorialize Pat’s incredible reflexes when he caught a flying bear puppet like some kind of ninja.  This event is toward the bottom left.

More to come.

biploar disorder,medication,diet,nutrition,omega 3 fats,vision therapy,sensory integration,Doris Rapp,excitotoxins,GF/CF diet,Body Ecology,Feingold  

PBS stations nationwide ran a documentary last week on FRONTLINE entitled The Medicated Child. Marcela Gaviria produced this piece in an effort to respond to the dramatic increase in the number of children with serious psychiatric diagnoses, including bipolar disorder. The program also was to focus on the one-size-fits-all treatment with untested pharmaceutical medications that doctors are prescribing for these children. 

According to child psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Bacon, trying medications on young children is really an experiment…a gamble… we do not know what’s going to work. I tuned in with great anticipation, hoping at last to see some expert reporting on alternatives to drugs, whcih can cause serious short-term reactions and unknown long-term effects.  What I saw instead were many sick kids with black circles under their eyes, obvious vision problems and nutritional deficiencies that no one was talking about!

The trailer promised that the producer would “confront psychiatrists, researchers and government regulators about the risks and benefits of prescription drugs for troubled children.”  Yet this film and its doctor experts offered few alternatives.   

The Parents’ Guide written by Harvard Medical School child psychiatrist Joshua Sparrow to accompany the documentary “provides background on the issues associated with treating a child with psychiatric medications.”  Unfortunately, it too falls short of giving parents and teachers any practical alternatives. 

In the section entitled Observing, Describing and Understanding Your Child’s “Out-of-Control” Behavior, Sparrow offers several bullet points.  I reproduce them here with my edition of the type of information I wish he had provided.

• Warning signs – Early risk factors for behavioral and learning issues include:
  • Missed developmental steps, such as no crawling  
  • Repeated infections, such as strep, ear infections
  • Skin problems, such as eczema and serious diaper rash
  • Chronic diigestive problems, such as reflux, diarrhea or constipation
  • An eye turn, called a strabismus
  • Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory stimulation such as lights, sounds and touch

• Triggers – All behaviors are reactions to something in the environment. Common triggers are:
  • Foods. Some kids’ digestive systems react to popular foods, such as dairy products, gluten (the protein in wheat and other grains), eggs, chocolate and soy.  In babies who have any of the above digestive warning signs, food is suspect.  The reaction may not be immediate.  I watched one child gradually dissolve an hour after a lunch of pizza and milk. 
  • Food additives. Artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, such as BHT cause behavioral issues in susceptible kids.  The Feingold Association has known this for years and is available to help.  Excitotoxins, such as fluoride, MSG and aspartame can all cause behavioral and psychiatric problems.
  • Pesticides and cleaners.  Many kids react to products used to exterminate bugs and eliminate bacteria.  Behavioral issues are more common on Mondays than any other day, due to schools being cleaned on Friday and closed up all weekend.
  • Chemicals from carpets, paints and other building materials.  Any building with new construction or renovation is suspect.  Formaldehyde from new cabinetry, fabrics and carpets can set off many kids.  The fumes from new paint are also toxic. 
  • Perfumes and air fresheners.  Some people become literally psychotic from breathing the artificial smells from these products. 
  • Contexts, settings – The cafeteria and playground are common “meltdown” arenas.  Why?  Because of the noise levels, bright lights in the former and possible mold, sprays and pollen in the latter.  I know one boy who acted out every time he went to the “reading room” where the teacher had placed a lovely, toxic, area rug.  Everyone thought he hated reading.  What he hated was the rug, and when it was removed, he was fine!

• Symptoms – Symptoms are very individual and sometimes subtle. Doris Rapp, MD has been an expert on this for many years.  Some kids go into meltdowns.  Others may get spacey, talk too loudly, put their hands over their ears, stomp their feet, run in circles, scream, cry, kick, self-stimulate, throw things.  Some may be seeing double, become unfocused, stare out the window, look “depressed,” get sleepy, blink, look out of the corner of their eyes, fiddle with their clothes, masturbate, mouth objects. Any and all of these symptoms must be looked at diagnostically, rather than as behaviors to extinguish. 

• Aftermath – Timing, frequency and recovery periods are crucial to evaluate. Keeping good records will help in the Sherlock Holmes process of pinpointing and eliminating triggers. 

• Effect on overall functioning – Environmental reactions can interfere with a child’s learning, social relationships, sports performance and consume a family’s emotional and financial resources. Make changes for all family members and the whole class rather than just for the behaviorally reactive child.   

Consider non-pharmaceutical alternatives

If only FRONTLINE had included these interventions:

• Change the diet – Consider eliminating colors, flavors, preservatives, excitotoxins.  Learn about Feingold, the Body Ecology Diet, the gluten-free dairy-free (GFCF) diet. 
• Up the nutrition with foods and supplements – Add essential Omega 3 fats such as cod liver oil and flax.  Studies show conclusively that good quality fats are efficacious alternatives to drugs
• See an occupational therapist (OT) – Have the child evaluated for sensory integration problems by a private therapist who can pinpoint underlying reflex integration issues, tactile defensiveness, vestibular dysfunction or auditory processing problems.  Sensory-based OT can program the nervous system to respond in a more balanced way.
• See a developmental optometrist (OD) – Make sure the two eyes are working together as a team and that the brain is giving proper meaning to what it sees.  With an eye turn, depth perception is impossible. Sometimes eye turns occur only intermittently and must be diagnosed by an expert.  Therapeutic lenses and vision therapy that includes activities to help the eyes and brain work better together can alleviate behavioral and learning issues.

Congratulations to FRONTLINE for recognizing the serious risks medications for bipolar and other disorders pose. We heartily  agree with them that research and insurance coverage for non-medication treatments are under-funded, and recommend that treatments such as these deserve further investigation.    

We can also concur that the forty-fold increase in the number of children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder over the past 10 years might be due to preventable causes. The simultaneous increase in environmental toxins, reliance on technology such as computers and television, and changes in food nutrient contents and genetic engineering are just a couple of obvious areas to    consider.

Thank you to the parents who took the time to tell their own stories of drug horrors and success with the Feingold program, naturopathy and other “natural’ solutions.  Add yours!  Maybe one day PBS will give us a useful commentary on how to prevent and help kids without drugs.  I sure hope so!  In the meantime, you can find out about more therapies that work in my book EnVISIONing a Bright Future. 

Pourquoi mon lapin me lèche-t-il la main

quand je le caresse?

Si votre lapin se met à lécher votre main quand vous le caressez, vous pouvez tout naturellement y voir une marque d’affection. Toutefois, cette attitude peut traduire un message très différent selon le contexte.

En caressant votre lapin, vous adoptez à ses yeux le comportement d’un congénère qui lui prodigue un toilettage. Ce toilettage est à la fois un comportement d’hygiène et un comportement social. Les lapins se toilettent souvent entre eux, notamment dans les endroits qu’ils ne peuvent nettoyer eux-même correctement, comme les oreilles ou les yeux. Le lapin lèche alors son congénère, parfois très vigoureusement, et utilise même ses dents pour enlever une croûte ou un noeud qui s’est formé dans les poils, comme il le ferait en faisant sa propre toilette. Le toilettage mutuel des lapins est essentiel pour les aider à entretenir leur fourrure (et leur permettre ainsi de se maintenir en bonne santé) et prévenir les infestations de parasites. Le toilettage joue également un rôle social. Au sein d’un petit groupe de lapins qui vivent en bonne entente (avec une hiérarchie stable), c’est un moment privilégié de détente et d’approfondissement des liens sociaux (c’est notamment un moyen de partager les odeurs, afin de faciliter la reconnaissance de l’appartenance au groupe). Les lapins de compagnie vivant en couple se toilettent très fréquemment avant de se coucher l’un contre l’autre. Lorsque les lapins vivent au sein d’un groupe plus important ou dans lequel la hiérarchie n’est pas stabilisée, le toilettage devient stratégique et traduit la position sociale de chacun. Les lapins dominant réclament fréquemment un toilettage à leurs vassaux, en les approchant de face, puis en écrasant la tête au sol, sous leur menton. Le dominé doit alors s’exécuter, sinon il risque de subir au mieux des mesure d’intimidation ou au pire une attaque de la part du dominant. Le toilettage hiérarchique concerne le plus souvent le dessus de la tête et les oreilles du lapin. Les dominants toilettent également parfois les dominés, une fois qu’ils ont reçu le toilettage qu’ils ont réclamé. Les mâles dominants ont également tendance à nettoyer spontanément et rapidement les yeux des autres lapins, comme pour rappeler qu’ils sont leurs vassaux (ils approchent alors de côté en penchant la tête, dans un mouvement très caractéristique). Ces toilettages ne sont pas toujours synonymes de bien-être et de détente: ils peuvent occasionner d’importantes tensions et engendrer parfois des combats.

Lorsque vous caressez votre lapin, il s’agit pour vous d’un moment privilégié que vous partagez avec lui, de quelques instants de détente. Votre lapin sera très sensible à votre état émotionnel lorsque vous le caressez. S’il vous sent détendu et confiant, il aura tendance à se détendre également. Il peut alors vous rendre le toilettage que vous lui offrez en le caressant et se mettre à lécher votre main. C’est pour lui une sorte de marque d’affection.

Si vous vous entreprenez de caresser votre lapin d’une main et que vous posez votre autre main devant son museau, votre lapin peut interpréter cela comme une demande de toilettage. S’il s’agit d’un dominant, il est possible qu’il n’apprécie pas votre geste et mette fin immédiatement à votre petite séance de câlins. Si votre lapin se considère comme un dominé vis-à-vis de vous, il s’empressera au contraire de lécher la main qui se trouve devant son museau, en signe d’apaisement. Mais dans ce cas, il ne s’agira pas à proprement parler d’un moment de détente pour votre lapin, mais plutôt d’une obligation sociale.

Il ne faut pas non plus oublier qu’en caressant votre lapin, vous pouvez provoquer chez lui un réflexe de toilettage (c’est particulièrement vrai si vous caressez le bas de son dos). Les lapins sont plus ou moins sensibles à ce réflexe. En cas de toilettage réflexe, le lapin montre soudain un besoin irrépressible de faire sa toilette (il se met souvent à lécher son fanon) ou même de vous toiletter. Mais il ne s’agit là que d’un réflexe, et le lapin lèche alors votre main comme il lècherait le tapis ou le meuble qui se trouve à portée de son museau.

Enfin, il faut toujours se méfier les léchages intenpestifs. Si votre lapin à tendance à vous lécher systématiquement les mains dès que vous le caressez, il peut s’agir d’un comportement exprimant une frustration. Si votre lapin n’est pas stérilisé, c’est peut-être le signe qu’il “ne s’en sort pas” avec ses hormones (il aura, dans ce cas, d’autres attitudes sexuelles à votre égard, comme par exemple décrire des cercles autour de vous en faisant des “honk honk”). Si votre lapin vit seul, il tend à faire de vous son congénère de substitution. Mais ces “léchouilles” permanentes peuvent exprimer également sa frustration de ne pas vivre avec un congénère.

Ainsi, si votre lapin vous lèche la main alors que vous êtes en train de le caresser, cela peut-être une marque d’affection dans un moment de détente partagé, mais cela peut également être un comportement hiérarchique, un simple réflexe ou l’expression d’une frustration. Par ailleurs, certains lapins ne lècheront pas directement votre peau et préfèreront lécher votre pull, votre pantalon, le tapis sur lequel il s’est installé pour la séance de câlins, etc. Généralement, plus un lapin est placé haut dans la hiérarchie, moins il acceptera de vous lécher directement la main et plus il préfèrera toiletter à la place un objet imprégné de votre odeur ou proche de vous.

Et si votre lapin ne vous lèche jamais la main, ne vous inquiétez pas: cela ne signifie pas qu’il ne vous aime pas. Il ne faut pas oublier que le simple fait de se laisser caresser est une marque de confiance infinie de la part de votre lapin. A la maison, j’ai des lapins qui lèchent régulièrement mes mains ou la manche de mon vêtement lorsque je les caresse comme Daphné, mais il y aussi des “léchouilleurs réflexe” comme Hermine, des léchouilleurs hiérarchiques (comme Chloé qui se sent souvent obligée de me montrer qu’elle est dominée en toilettant mes cheveux alors que je ne lui demande rien, ou Tarquin qui veut me montrer qu’il est mon dominant en cherchant à toiletter mes yeux uniquement quand ma tête se trouve à sa hauteur), il y a les acharnés du toilettage hygiénique comme Quinoa (qui y met tout son coeur… et même ses dents), et ceux qui ne me “toilettent” jamais comme Flore, Vénus ou Swap.

Happy Halloween, Trashcan Monster! This year I think I’m going to dress up like the black kid and just instantly react to any movement around me with a punch in the face. Wife reaches for tv remote: boom, facepunch. Co-worker pushes a button on the elevator: ka-powey. Bird flys a little too close: unhesitating Shoryuken to the beak.

My vet calls Ember her “special” cat – air quotes included. Why? Oh, let me count the ways!

First of all, Ember cannot properly jump up onto anything. I adopted her when she was a year and a half old and she spent the first 6 months limping pathetically around the house. Anytime she jumped off the bed, she hurt herself. Aren’t cats supposed to be able to jump seven times their own height?

Then there was the time, when she was about two and a half, when she decided to conquer the fireplace. The tall, broad, solid stone fireplace. Uh-huh. When I left for work that Friday morning, I left a normal cat at home. Nine hours later, I come home and find the punching bag Rocky Balboa practiced on before the fight. Her chin is bruised and swollen. Her gums are swollen. She can’t move her mouth to chew. Ice pack and vet visit in order. There goes Friday night!

The fireplace didn’t fare much better either! Everything was knocked off the mantel and the decorative wood boards on one side of it were half ripped out of the wall! I guess she tried to save herself…but being none-too-svelte at the time…ummm…well, that didn’t work out too well.

One year later…one of the long teeth on the bottom falls out. One year after that, the other one falls out. Vet Verdict: She hit herself so hard on the fireplace that she damaged the nerves in the teeth. Over time, they died and the teeth simply…fell out. Ahh, so now she’s toothless AND clumsy. Gotta love those cat-like reflexes! And now, when she relaxes, her tongue tends to hang out of her mouth a bit – no big teeth to hold it in place. She looks like she’s had too many shooters!

Then there was the time she jumped off her window seat and landed…on her face.

Another time she jumped off the bed – one of those really low European-style ones – and sprained her hip. Took three days of ice packs before she could walk again.

And it goes on. In fact it’s still going on! She’ll try to jump on the couch and hits it face-first instead. She once took a running jump at the sliding doors, crashed into them with her face and slid to the bottom – just like in the cartoons!

We can’t figure out why Ember’s like this – she has all her whiskers, and her vision but none of those cat reflexes. Nothing that even vaguely resembles them in fact!

Personally, I secretly believe she was created in a petrie dish by some high school chemistry students. They added in a bit of everything to make her…they just forgot to add the cat!

Daphné en plein sommeil…

J’essaierai de la filmer quand elle dort en bougeant également les pattes dès que possible.

Your intrepid heroine donned a garter belt & gothic enough clothing & headed out to a fetish club where, though somewhat overdressed, she was admitted entrance on the grounds that she was The Ultimate Sub.  She also shared some of her very good gothic poetry with you.

***

Now, Ben’s 1. banner behind us, I can dispense with the third person & carry on with my account of GEEK WEEK Day 5.  Science Day.

This morning, I was to 2. conduct a science experiment in the comfort of my own home.  I’m also supposed to 3. blog about it & 4. include pictures. My experiment was pretty groundbreaking, if I do say so myself.  Just look at this lab report!

I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
Can I predict &/or determine the future?

II. HYPOTHESIS:
Yes.  I will test this hypothesis by spinning a coin 100 times, predicting that the final tally will be approximately 60% tails & 40% heads.

Materials:

My assistant with the supplies

• One (1) Canadian quarter
• One (1) small notepad
• One (1) fine-point retractable Sharpie pen.
• One (1) myself
• One (1) The Chancellor
• One (1) psychic vision
• Time & money

III. PROCEDURE:
After recording my prediction, I sat cross-legged on the floor (facing slightly northwest, with an open window behind me) & spun the quarter 100 times (in 10 sets of 10).  The Queen was heads & the stag was tails, as usual.  On the 49th spin I began touching The Chancellor for luck during each spin, when he was available.  The phone rang once in the 80s & I answered it.  It was TD.  He had some funny stories to tell me about my archenemy & exploding (two words; sounds like “heart shapes”.)  After chatting for twelve minutes, I resumed spinning.

IV. RESULTS:

Before intervention by Chance, tails & heads occurred with precisely 50/50 regularity.  With Chance on my side, however, the coin landed on Tails slightly more than 58% of the time.  Every round with the Chancellor by my side resulted in a strict 60/40 ratio, with the exception of round 9 when the telephone rang, Chancellor stalked off in a jealous snit, & TD’s haplessness briefly rubbed off on me.  I got 50/50 that time.

Final tally?

Round 1: T H T H H T T H H H
Round 2: H T T T H H T H T T
Round 3: H H T H H T T T H T
Round 4: T T H H T H T H T T
Round 5: T T H H T H T H T T
Round 6: H T T H H T T T T H
Round 7: T T T T H T H T H H
Round 8: H T T H T T T H T H
Round 9: H T T T H H H H T T
Round 10: T T H T T H T T H H

Total:

Tails: 55
Heads: 45

V. CONCLUSION:
It’s just as I suspected: I can loosely predict &/or determine my future &/but I’m nothing without the Chancellor.  You can try to replicate this experiment at home with a black cat of your own if you wish, but it probably won’t work for you because most people aren’t magic like me & the Chancellor.

Precisely what the coin saw

Also, don’t go gambling with TD, whatever you do.

***

After this little experiment, I was ready for my next big adventure.  I grabbed some lunch with Braden & then we headed to 5. Science World!

Who am I? Guess. I like blue sweaters & water taxis.

Once we arrived I attempted to strike the nerdiest possible pose in front of a sign about putting the “GEEEE” in genome.  I think I did pretty good!  The first time in my life that I’ve ever EVER done double peace signs in a picture!

omgenome

We only had an hour & fifteen minutes before closing, but we thought that would be plenty of time. Braden bought some popcorn.  & then the fun began!

What a slow poke

We tested our reflexes.  I was slightly faster, which leads me to think it was rigged.

Then we played Mind Ball, which is a relaxation contest.  You strap something on your head & your relaxation waves move a ball in the middle to one side or another.  I won the first round! I relaxed myself by reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” in my head.

Braden pondered, weak & weary

Then we tested our grips.

Concentration &/or consternation

I have no grip at all.  In fact, I was banned from the school’s monkey bars as a child because I would always let go in the middle & hurt myself.  So this recalled painful memories for me.

Absolutely gripping!

But look at Braden! What a he-man.

Then we tried to fit in a tiny little glass box.  If you can fit in, the sign told us, you’re probably double jointed.

Will I need some dismembering?

Not if I have anything to do with it!

The blur is me pulling my elbow in, I’ll have you know.  I made it!

There's more than one peculiar angle at play here

But no cigar

Braden was close. Maybe next time?

We had a wheelchair race (he won) & conducted various other experiments.  We also spent some time with optical illusions.

You know the kind

Then we lost each other.  Because we were so immersed in science!

I learned about facial symmetry & harnessed wind, water, & so forth to power some musical robots.  I also turned a hand crank to run a small television.  What would it show me? What would it show me?

It showed me myself! Turning a crank.  WOW! I shouted, with the same delight a monkey would feel.  I dropped the crank & the picture vanished.  So I turned it & turned it & turned it some more, then ran off to find Braden.  I guess he’d been spending some time in the giant hamburger.

Also, there was a fake garbage dump.  But he saw a real mouse in it!  Funny, right?

I showed him the symmetry machine.

Oh it's SO symbolic guys.

& then we aged our faces by 30 years.  According to Braden, 70 year old me bears an uncanny resemblance to Ptolemy.  But I think he flatters me.

Soon, to our horror, Science World was about to close.  We ran down to play one more game of Mind Ball.

I won once, and nevermore.

Braden won that round.  I was too anxious about the looming specter of Week 11!  Guys, I’m pretty sure it is going to be the craziest week yet.  I don’t want to give much away, but suffice to say my primary fear is getting arrested &/or repeatedly thrown out of places & I expect to spend a lot of time unwinding with a kazoo.

But back to the present.  Perfect.  We had ten minutes so we ran around looking at more things.  We missed at least two whole exciting rooms!

A little suggestive of an oyster

In a room full of dinosaur bones, I accidentally put my mouth on the paw of a taxidermied beaver which had really seen better days.  How like me.  Then we sat & watched some honeybees in a narrow little hive with a window on either side.  It’s nice to know they’re still out there somewhere!

Then with minutes to spare we ventured into what was probably the best & most exciting room.  But we didn’t have time for anything.  We only had time to hoist ourselves up with some ropes.

I wish I had one of these things on my balcony

Barack Obama called Kanye West a jackass, by the way! I love my president!

We were high as very low kites by then!

Go, science!

It’s much higher up than it looks.

Anyway, it was time to go home.  We passed the casino where Braden stopped in to use the washroom.  Wasn’t I nineteen? the bouncer asked & didn’t I want to come in?  “Oh I’m trying to avoid the slots” I said.  He said that was a very good call.

We made our ways merrily home.  After taking my leave of Braden, I stopped at the 7-11 where I bought an industrial-sized bag of 6. Miss Vickie’s Salt & Vinegar chips. Ate far too many & washed it all down with root beer.  Texting Elizabeth (back in Ann Arbor) furiously.  It’s 40 cents per text to the US but Elizabeth is worth every penny.  & there is SO much gossip.

No 7. QAPLA’s or 8. maj’s for me, today, alas, as I simply haven’t had the occasion.  Also, I can’t watch my Mad Men until I watch some of 9. The Prisoner. My package from amazon.ca still hasn’t arrived.  So much for next day delivery!  Who runs the Canadian postal service?  It must be Canadians. Anyway, YouTube it is.

Speaking of deliveries, Ben has not provided my geeky t-shirt for tomorrow.  If I were him, I’d drop it off at Elfsar before work or during lunch.  Otherwise, I’m going to continue to dress like the indolent floozy I am, which won’t be very enlightening at all.

Anyway, look at me!  I’m nearly done with Day 5 & I have plenty of time to spare.  I’m definitely afraid of Week 11, but I’ve also been proven by science to be magic.  So I shouldn’t worry too much about anything ever.

Que vous donniez une cabane, un carton, un panier, une tente ou un tunnel de jeu à votre lapin, vous avez dû remarquer son besoin irrépressible de s’y créer des sorties de secours. Il s’agit en quelque sorte d’un réflexe, identique à celui qui pousse le lapin de garenne à créer plusieurs issues à son terrier pour fuir d’éventuels prédateurs. Evidemment, il n’est jamais très agréable de voir son lapin détruire le panier ou la belle cabane qu’on vient de lui offrir. L’objet en question peut même devenir inutilisable parfois après la création des issues de secours. Mais votre lapin appréciera beaucoup plus sa cabane à partir du moment où il saura qu’il dispose de plusieurs ouvertures sur l’extérieur: il y passera davantage de temps, s’y reposera et s’y montrera plus serein. La création d’ouvertures supplémentaires l’occupera et lui permettra également de faire un peu d’exercice. C’est pourquoi il vaut mieux le laisser aménager à sa guise sa cabane en créant ces sorties de secours.

Daphné et Chloé ont créé une sortie de secours dans leur carton, ces derniers jours:

L’entrée principale est pourtant conséquente: tout un côté du carton.

J’ai installé leur gamelle de granulés dans le carton:

Chloé a d’ailleurs trouvé une manière originale d’y faire la sieste…

Et Daphné l’a imitée!

… et comme vous pouvez le voir, ça mue toujours autant! Heureusement, ça commence à se calmer et les lapins ont presque tous fini de renouveler leur pelage…

Je n’arrive pas à choisir entre les réflexes conditionnés et la narcolepsie estivale
(rentrée 0 – été 1)

that’s where the hell Arna was – being a dumb bunny in the corner. Now who is going to play slingshot with me?

Today I did three ads in 50 minutes. My concept called was basically type-only, so that helped, but still–I was rather surprised. When I was done I looked at the clock and thought, “That must be wrong.” I guess these challenges really are good practice! Another thing I’ve noticed since I’ve started doing these is that my brain is now working all the time. In school, it’s easy to get stressed and sidetracked by other classes and responsibilities, but doing these challenges has been hugely beneficial to me. I’m not only constantly thinking about how to tackle my next 60 minute challenge from the moment I finish one, I’m also concepting ads for anything and everything I think of or see. It’s pretty fantastic.

Today is…

Wiihab

Here’s an introductory article about Wiihab (in the article, they hyphen it to Wii-hab, but for my campaign’s purposes I made it all one word. It flows better, in my opinion). Basically, hospitals, physical therapists, and even nursing homes have been using the Wii as a tool for physical therapy and rehabilitation.

It started with Wii Sports, which comes with your Wii, because patients actually have to make the movements of, for example, a batter hitting a baseball or a golfer swinging with their Wiimote to play. And that’s good, because it’s fun–so it’s been really successful in getting patients to improve their movement, reflexes, and balance. Even stroke patients have been able to increase the feeling and movement in parts of their body due to Wiihab. Now there’s also the WiiFit, which has been even more beneficial to the whole Wiihab movement. Pretty cool, right?

My whole concept started based on the fact that I think the word “Wiihab” is really cute and clever. I’m kind of a sucker for word play. Then I started thinking about how, in this context, no one can say video games are bad for you. People are always talking about how you shouldn’t play video games because they’re so detrimental to you in many different ways (and I have to say I agree with that in a lot of ways, but not completely). However, in this case, video games are being used for good, not evil. So I wanted to combine the wordplay with the stigma of playing video games from a medical point of view.

I started by writing down all the different words I could think of that start with “re.” I narrowed it down to the ones that related to my concept and plan and just went for the execution. I wanted to keep it simple and clean–like the Wii. It was also important to me to be visually cohesive since there would only be type. I decided to go with type-only ads because I just didn’t really feel there was any need for a visual and I thought it would just cloud the message. So, here’s the final execution…well, executions. There are three print ads in the campaign:

(c) Amy E. Rumbarger 2009

(c) Amy E. Rumbarger 2009

(c) Amy E. Rumbarger 2009

The Aftermath

How do you feel about these ads? I like them a whole lot. I never do type-only ads, so this was kind of a leap for me and I think they’re successful. I keep telling myself to simplify because I’m always so tempted to just go crazy with the visual, so this ended up being a good exercise in restraint for me.

Given more time, what would you have done differently? Hmm. Well, I chose to do three ads instead of one, so it’s my fault I didn’t have more time. I don’t know that I would’ve done anything hugely different. I definitely would have just played with the type and placement, and continued thinking about the headlines some more to see if there are any better word substitutions and phrasing and whatnot.

How would you extend this into a campaign? I was thinking about doing these as actual warning labels–like, on Wii boxes or even strategically placed in physical therapists’ offices and such. I think that might be a neat non-traditional extension. The reason I didn’t actually do the warning labels instead was because I didn’t want to cop out on doing a type-only ad.

Operation Wiihab: success! Come back tomorrow for more, and for now, feel free to comment, e-mail me, or follow me on Twitter.

Am I the only one that thinks that they are being watched by some secret underground agency?  There are times I swear I am being tailed by an undercover agent.  He is just observing me.  He is observing me not because I have done something wrong, but it is because I do things right.

Like when I reach into the cabinet to get a glass and an ill-placed mug comes tumbling out only to be rescued by my cat-like reflexes — it is as that time the agent makes a note in his little black waterproof book as he cases my house.   There are also times when I almost fall to the ground because of some ill-placed bump, but catch myself and roll out of it with flair.  That’s when the agent brings his hand to his ear and whispers something to base.

You see, they are watching me because they want to recruit me into their underground secret agent society.  They are looking for guys like me.  Guys that know how to handle themselves.  Guys that can catch an ice cube trying to escape the freezer.  A guy that can stop a drink from being spilled by grabbing it before it tips over entirely.

I took a great risk by sharing this with you on my blog.  They will probably erase it after I am finished and replace it with some Mancode entry.  The funny thing is that you may think I have blown my chances of being recruited by revealing their presence.  Fact is, that makes them want me all the more.

It’s a crying shame Shakespeare didn’t write a character who had an almost broken, badly sprained ankle.

He didn’t, did he? 

I mean, I’m only peripherally familiar with the hunchback of Richard III. (I think it’s the III, it’s Richard plus some number, that much I know).

A lateral view of the ankle in question.

I still have two more gruelling performances of this play left and last night I…well…I may have compromised my 1000% commitment to my role in this production:  I now possess a badly sprained ankle.

That’s never happened to me before, in my entire acting career.

Truth be told, and gladly, I used to have really good balance and coordination. I really did. I was always very good at walking. And running. And jogging…though walking was where I truly held master’s credentials. I didn’t really care for the other, unless I was in the middle of a tennis match.  And, of course that would only affect running.  So, I guess, it’s jogging that I didn’t care for much at all.

It doesn’t matter, anyway, not now, not after last night.

I think, “post-the-now-infamous-flip-flops-blog,” Fate decided to rear her ugly, unkempt head and spit on me for stepping on Amanda’s toes the night before, toes that were visible from the starboard side of her flip flops, if you wish to recall that blog. 

Or, to be more exact, let’s say Fate spit on the small walkway in my yard that leads to the front door.

I mean, I slipped on something. And when things happen for no reason, the safest person to blame is Fate. Or, sometimes, Sean Hannity, or Don Imus, you know people like that.

Bless poor Amanda, really. I do love her, she is my best friend, but I just keep hurting her, accidentally. Like I have some deeply embedded vendetta against her. Last night, there she was reaching for her keys to unlock the front door, and I…honestly, I have no idea how it happened…but, I just slipped, I fell on something coming down the walkway.

Let me set the scene a little more, for you:  our walkway to the front door is ever so slightly a downhill curved walkway.  At the end of it, there’s our adorable, quaint front porch with its thick wicker chairs and bistro table set, our random potted army of herbs, the small square box garden, which is still doing very well thank you for asking, and this enormous, large floral arrangment my sister gave me for Christmas, which I am now attached to for no real reason at all and have nailed to the front of the house, over the bistro table set, I like an ambience, if you will - I change out the colors in it to give it more of a seasonal appeal (we’re in lime green right now) and of course the treacherous, oversized brick step that leads you up a small flight of space to the front door.

I was several, several feet behind the unsuspecting Amanda. The lovely Amanda who was wearing a brand new blouse, cleverly patterned in a silk material with soft, red flowers, with that ever so polite and alluring cloth tie that good quality blouses are carrying in style these days. She was a real picture, that Amanda, and to add insult to injury, had her back turned to me, she was trying to unlock the door, and so, as cliche as it was (as most truths are, anyway), she really, truly…never saw it coming.

But then, neither did I.

I wish we could grow this mint. But, Mississippi's soil isn't rich enough.

I was in the middle of a sentence, agreeing with her about about our potential cornering of the market on mint syrups, that’s our new harebrained (circa 1564) idea…although, I will admit, it has some credibility to it.  We do make a mean, delicious mint syrup, and it goes well with anything. Except broccoli. (Don’t ask).

We’d been discussing building more box gardens to put up in the back yard, and I don’t know exactly what happened, but the next thing I knew I was falling. Fast. I was absolutely shocked at the amount of speed my upper body was gaining in momentum as I tripped.

Like a satellite gone terribly awry, I was being propelled at terrific speed, a centrifuge of foolishness, and as bodies in motion must have something towards which they are being drawn, thanks to gravity’s apple, I was deadset on my target: Amanda’s back.

I didn’t have time to warn her.

She didn’t have time to turn around.

The brick step and the concrete porch didn’t care one way or the other.

I slammed into Amanda at whiplash speed. She was thrown, prostrate, to the ground – there went her purse, there went the house keys, and there went my cell phone, there went my keys, there went my glasses. The left leg of my pants were nearly ripped off at the knee, and a gash taking its place, my right wrist, ever ready for a chance at being a reflex, shot out to catch myself from falling head long into the light-iron pillar, one of four twisted metal pole designs that hold our porch awning up, most of the time…and there went “something” from my right ankle.

There was a definite pop.

And I immediately became nauseous. Sweating, clammy. I was going to throw up. I was in severe pain. I look over at Amanda, and she was in shock, her first response was to laugh.  She does that sometimes when her nerves take over.

I do too.  I often laugh in the face of violence.

She stood up, very slowly, asking me why I tackled her. Did I disagree with some point in her argument for putting the mint in the backyard, and if so, couldn’t I have just told her instead of jumping her?

I wasn’t quite able to offer a witty rebuttal. My body was on a completely different wavelength, sending out its worker cells to check all sections of the injured, subcutaneous parties. I was on high alert; I could have heard a dog whistle. I was primed for something…fearing (and hoping against) the inevitable: the emergency room and a broken ankle. I’ve never broken any bone in my body. In kindergarten, once, for show-and-tell, I bragged about two things: never having broken any bones in my body, and never having been bitten by a rattlesnake.

I was terrified that my record was about to be less one bragging right.

I was also filthy. Amanda, you see, fell flat onto the concrete. A scratch or two (actually, the event itself was more damaging than the aftermath. The real irony: she merely re-injured, no lie, the exact same sore I’d caused the night before by stepping on her toe. The very same place. Not another scratch on her.  This is why Fate is in trouble, in my book).

I, however, never made it all the way onto the concrete porch. My right hand, wrist, arm, cell phone and keys did. But the rest of me fell into our lovely flower bed, ringed so preciously with large chunks of flintstone. Those sharp, sweet edges nestled themselves into my right side and took the wind out of me. The very soil I’d watered, fed, and given shelter to smeared their thanks all down my pants and my Zara jacket.

I'm no angel, but this is what it felt like.

My right ankle stayed, turned outwardly at an angle not meant fully for the human foot, in its own little self-made trench, beside the walkway. A picture should have been taken. And further, a scientific note should be made, here, as well. Until last night, I didn’t know there was a subcategory of an out-of-body experience.  I knew there were some people, mainly those who believe in angels a million times over, who had near death experiences.  I suppose that would certainly shock a body out of itself.

But, that’s not what I had. I don’t think. And yet, somehow, I threw my body out of myself…I mean, that’s what it felt like. I didn’t pass out, I saw no light other than the bug light that hangs over the door (well, that and the street light that doesn’t work – I need to call the city about that)…but, I still felt like my right leg and ankle weren’t a part of my right side and arm, which wasn’t a part of the left side of my body at all. It felt like I had to stand up and retrieve my body parts and put them back together.

Which, for all intents and purposes, I did. And then I tested my ankle, which at the time, I was still in enough shock to think all was well. So, I took myself inside and to the bathroom. I had to have a bath, I mean, like right then.

It was there that I saw the size my ankle had taken on: I never knew the human body could swell so much and so quickly. The skin across my ankle is among the tautest (or is it most taut?) on my body. And yet, it appeared that somehow, someone had inserted a cantalope, or half of Dolly Parton, into the space previously occupied by my ankle bone.

I was grotesquely intrigued. But rather than stare all night at it, I did what I remembered you should do when an edema, or swelling, occurs; I also became somewhat tickled at the word “edema” – I may have known a drag queen by that name, once - I put heat on it, first, for several hours. And then, ice.

It almost looks normal-sized now.

Next, comes the real test, though, because I have to go to the bathroom. I’ve not stood on it yet, today. But, now is the hour that something’s going to have to give.

I’m just hoping Fate realizes I gave enough last night.

I’ll let you know, later, if I’m right or wrong.

Your spirit operates outside time and space. When there is an emergency where danger is about to approach you faster than you can normally sense, your spirit will compel you to act quickly without pondering. It directs you through your instinct and reflexes. Think of a time when you moved out of harms way in an instant and the move was so spontaneously it seems that everything just flowed in the moment. Your awareness of what was happening and your response happened without hesitation, but so quickly that it was almost together at the same time.

By MindReality.com

Read More Here

Seems I should mention something about this.  How I came to be in a human body is something I’ll get to later.  For now, some basic functional differences between me and human beings.

Humans, generally, despite your talk about 5 primary senses, rely on one “main” sense, and the others become secondary.  In most cases, for humans, it’s sight.  You’re very visually-oriented creatures.  Kraanovvians have the same basic 5 senses as humans, but for us, 4 of them are “main” senses.  Scent, sound, sight, touch, in that order.  Taste is something less relevant; we eat as a biological imperative, we’re hunters by nature, so if it was alive when we caught it, it’s good to eat now.

The use of these 4 senses as primary senses gives us, for lack of a better term “subsenses” (a term coined by my host).  The subsenses are basically what you humans might observe in nature if you paid attention to nature a little more.  You write it off as “instinct” for the most part, an animal “sensing” when someone is nearby, “sensing” if it is being hunted, etc.  Almost a precognition of sorts, but not psychic at all.  It is simply the brain’s way of processing all the available sensory information, through 4 primary (and powerful) senses, and alerting our minds to environmental changes.  A shift in the wind, a subtle detection of a new scent, a distant sound not even consciously recognized; these are all things that will trip the subsenses and prick our “instinct”.

So, how does that difference in sensory processing affect me, versus the humans around me?

I spot way more than the average human.  I find myself, more times than I can count, walking behind a slow-moving person, stuck behind someone at a store, thinking, hello, I’m right here, get the fuck out of my way; what, you can’t tell I’m here? and then I have to remind myself that, no, they can’t tell I’m there.  It’s next to impossible to sneak up on me, I lived for centuries in an environment where knowing exactly who is around is essential for survival.  Allowing someone to draw too close without me being aware is simply not an option.

I annoy drivers at times when I cross the street without looking.  Which, of course, isn’t to say I don’t know they’re there.  But, the subsenses pick up on the driver, tell me crossing the street poses no danger, so off I go.

The subsenses are seldom wrong.  They are incredibly subtle, but also incredibly accurate.  And they work quite well in this human body (if slightly muted, a human’s 5 senses aren’t as powerful as a Kraanovvian’s) but because the basic senses are still there, I still use 4 primary senses versus a human only using one.

I know if someone’s looking at me with anything more than a stranger’s passing glance.  I know if I’m not alone in a house.  I know, when I get home from work, if someone’s been in my room, even if they’ve touched nothing (that also comes from the fact that Kraanovvians tend to be fiercely territorial; if you enter my territory I will not only know about it, it will annoy the fuck out of me).

In short, I find myself, over the course of any given day, spotting things people miss, anticipating things, knowing ahead of time what people are about to do.  Kraanovvians have very fast reflexes, so do I.  I walk fast, I act fast, I react fast.  Not superhuman, mind you.  I’m not a goddamn superhero.  I just process the same basic sensory information differently than people aroud me.

I also walk in a perfectly straight line; that is, one foot in front of the other.  If I’m not paying attention.  That’s how Kraanovvians walk, usually prowling or hunting, and it’s a conscious effort on my part to keep my feet side-by-side.

Oh, and one last thing for this entry.  Although I speak perfect English (I have full access to the language center in my host’s brain, after all) if I relax and speak it as naturally as I might, I do speak with a faint accent.  To speak my host’s unaccented English requires a bit of conscious effort.  Some words, inexplicably, trip me up at times.  ”sugar” is one.  For some reason, I cannot wrap my mouth around the word “sugar”.  That’s the main one that comes to mind, because, every morning, I get coffee.

Extra cream, regular sugar.

Red Faction is a well known series that has gone from strength to strength with each release. The original red faction was a fun all be it mediocre game, the second however increased on this and red faction became a much stronger franchise because of it. Giving improved game play, graphics and missions as well as an alternate ending depending on how you played the game. It listened to it’s players and delivered what they loved and what they wanted to see proving red faction was a worthwhile label worthy of greatness.

The next installment of the red faction franchise seems set to do the same. Guerilla, unlike the others before, involves a different style of warfare. The hint is in the name people that’s right it’s guerilla tactics. This isn’t the only thing that separates this game from the others in the franchise but before we get into the destruction and mayhem of the game, we’ll enjoy some details about the game itself.

Red faction: Guerilla is set 50 years after the original game the EDF, Earth Defence Force, has swooped in to help Mars. However as they were seen to be the shinning light of good at the end of the first game they are now the enemy in this game. This is because rather than flying in to save Mars from there captors Ultor, they instead took control and continued the work and slavery. So instead of the miners being exploited by a fat cat business they are being exploited for “the good of Earth.”

After the EDF seized control they split mars into 6 sectors 4 of these are colonies and the remaining 2 are military zones or “badlands” meaning these two sectors will be the most difficult and require the best weapons and skill you have. The point of the game is to remove the control of the EDF and this is where things get interesting. This means depending on which sector you choose to play and what action you choose you could be freeing a small town from military control, or ambushing a military outpost to weaken control and gain supplies. Another interesting point to make about this game is that just like guerilla warfare each attack against your enemy does actually give you supplies. As you kill enemies and destroy buildings you can steal ammo, weapons or scraps to buy, build or upgrade your weapons. It really is a case of guerilla by name guerilla by nature, well game play at least.

The game play of this red faction is set to be non stop action that involves explosions and gunfire requiring quick thinking and fast reflexes. Red faction has always promoted the ability to destroy the environment in their games however this game takes it one step further than before. It use to be a case of if you were stuck at a door you could blow a way through the wall, or destroy your enemies cover and riddle them with bullets. Red Faction took that further in Guerilla by giving you the ability to destroy entire buildings and installations. They even went so far as to make this destruction and mayhem count towards your morale, almost making it a crime to leave EDF property in tact.

Although many might see this as a gimmick to make the lovers of violence quiver with excitement it actually serves a greater function. For example if you’re having trouble with snipers in a tower, set a charge at the base and watch it fall to the ground. Guerilla is also chock full of choice and selections with regards to missions and weaponry. To complete the game you need to remove EDF control but it’s you that decides how to do this, you can complete missions, guerilla actions or even just destroy all EDF buildings and troops in mars. This means you play the game the way you want to and you choose how the rebellion unfolds.

If destruction is your thing then the possibilities are endless in this game as it features not just a wide selection of weapons and mining tools to wreak havoc it also features a selection of vehicles from small transport cars to large walkers. Not to mention a series of upgrades for the weapons you do have, guerilla knows what they’re doing when it comes down to causing chaos and mayhem. However it is not just a game that is based around destruction time was taken in the storyline and character development.

In fact as hard as it is to believe when you are running around smashing skulls with a sledgehammer or destroying tanks in a walker you’re character, Alec, is actually a reluctant hero doing what he has to because nobody else will. If you download the demo from Xbox Marketplace you can even see the beginning movie itself appears to be that of a movie trailer. Or you can just check out a trailer below not so cinematic as the other but a perfect example of the action packed game play you can expect from the game.

All in all this is one game that offers excellent, although exaggerated, action game play that will get anyone’s heart pumping as they find new and more catastrophic ways to blow things up. The storyline appears to be solid and if the missions and guerilla warfare live up to the taster in the demo and the promises of Volition this is one explosive game to definitely get in your collection. Eagerly awaiting it’s release in June this is one gamer who says congratulations to Volition and who wants to taste my hammer?

This owl in flight has been captured using a Nikon 300mm lens. These birds are very difficult to catch in flight and fast reflexex are required.

(Copyright © 2009)

While mounting my photovoltaic panel, I notice wasps hovering around the end of a bough on a nearby spruce, apparently attracted by gleaming drops exuded from its tip. In the grass eight feet below, a smooth green snake eyes the wasps, taking in the scene. I go about my business, but look up ten minutes later to see the snake sliding along that same branch. Stealthily, inch-by-inch, toward the tip and the hovering wasps. Slowly, almost not moving, it extends its body beyond the end into the air, drooping slightly as if part of the bough, as if its nose—its mouth—were the tip. There it waits. And waits. But the wasps have gone elsewhere. I run and get my camera to document what I have seen with my own eyes.

Can I ascribe consciousness, planning, even intelligence to a snake on the basis of such an anecdote? Watching from below, seeing the wasps, climbing the trunk, venturing onto a limb, sliding its length to the end, hanging beyond the tip—this is not random activity. It is clearly deliberate. Each move made in proper sequence. At some point the snake must have put it all together as a plan of action. It had motivation and a clear goal: the wasps were there and it wanted to eat them. It had the smarts to figure out the route to take and what it had to do in order to bring that about. I am sorely tempted to say this is conscious behavior. The only flaw was that the wasps were too wary for the snake.

Snake consciousness? Wasp consciousness? Or can such behaviors be fully accounted for by hard-wired, unconscious reflexes? In the case of the wasp, perhaps, but the snake fully grasped the situation before it acted. It had the imagination to draft a plan extending the now into the future, and the follow-through to execute it. Which took time. Memory must have been involved. Situational memory encompassing goal, motive, participants, route, complex course of action, all unified by seeing the world from its point of view.

I have seen similar performances in raspberry bushes where insects were drawn by ripe fruit, the snake waiting in the shadows of leaves farther back. Is that necessarily conscious behavior? Does the predator have a sense of what it must do to capture its prey? Or does it simply rely on the equipment it is given to do its thing? Is the frog aware of turning its head toward the fly, of lashing out with its tongue? Frogs and snakes survive only in the presence of suitable prey. The habitat may be the message, all else following as a matter of course.

That may be true in the case of the frog, but the case of the wasp-seeking snake is more complicated. If the wasps wouldn’t come to the snake, the snake figured out it would have to go to the wasps. Was the process of “figuring out” similar to what we would call consciousness? It was certainly situational from the snake’s point of view, which took into account its size, capabilities, motives, habitat, and goal. Consciously or not, all that figured in the snake’s behavior, which appears to have been visualized and planned beforehand while it watched from its vantage point in the grass. And then retained as it executed its moves in proper sequence.

The first move was to turn away from the wasps toward the base of the tree. Then to climb up the stem of the tree. Only when it turned onto the particular branch leading to where the wasps were when seen from the ground did it face toward its prey. Reflexes are instantaneous; they cannot account for these complex, time-consuming maneuvers. The snake apparently operated within a three-dimensional model in its head, and monitored its position within that space, which became ever more charged with meaning as it neared the end of the bough.

Many people accept that (like apes, monkeys, and humans) birds, deer, dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bears, and other animals have a mental sense of the territory which provides for and sustains them. But snakes? I am here to extend such a sense to them. I see the workings of the vertebrate hippocampus in their case as well. I see no compelling reason to believe that the wasp-seeking snake I witnessed was not conscious of its surroundings or its own actions. Until proven wrong, I will count snakes among the ranks of conscious beings, entitled to all the privileges such membership implies.

¦

“Tao can Tao not Tao”

Lao Tzu

Since reading the work of Clare W. Graves of Spiral Dynamics fame, reflecting on the work of all the people mentioned in my Blogroll as well as my recent foray into Zen I attempted to review and revise my work on the assortment of frameworks I had come up with. As I was making revisions it dawned on me that nature had done all the work already.

“Outside this office, Business as Usual;

Inside this office, Thunder and Lightning.”

Colonel John Boyd

I decided to take another angle of attack.  I realized I was dealing with entities, hierarchies, attributes and relationships and one thing Boyd overlooked, results, in two dimensions not one.  You may remember this graphic:

I realized I would have to take the Boyd Pyramid a bit more seriously.  And I have.  I compared Boyd’s work to Einstein’s, saw the correlations and what I think is a flaw.

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

Albert Einstein

ZenEntity

The first thing I want to address is a misconception regarding solids.  It was one Plato made as well as R. Buckminster Fuller.  There are not five stable solids.  There are six.

The mistake Plato and R. Buckminster Fuller made was to demonstrate the stability of a triangle composed of three rods to their students while saying that the simplest solid in three dimensional space is the tetrahedron.  He didn’t realize the triangle in his hand was the simplest solid.  The triangle is a two sided three vertex solid that is the simplest enclosure of space.  Our eyes use two of them to locate an object and calculate distance.

Considering the above solid and the Platonic Solids we have six three dimensional closed network structures as illustrated below:

Take note of the stability of each of the solids.  What this means is that the triangulated solids are able to support themselves structurally, while the non-triangulated solids collapse.

What I realized regarding the work of Einstein and other physicists is they did not regard the various phases of matter as important.  However the states of matter are important.  Each state from the triangle up to the icosahedron as illustrated above are higher states of order.  Yet, each state of order is fundamental to the universe in which we live.  And all are simply phases of what I call the “ZenEntity”.

ZenAssociations

I decided after looking at what I had found regarding the solids to reject contemporary empirical conventions and simply address one thing.  We have six fundamental ordered states.  After several billion years of evolution would not all organisms have what they require to function in response to all of the six states in their niche?

My next question was, “How do I represent the phenomena I had encountered as a network?”

In my profession there are data architects, database designers, data modelers, database administrators, data entrists, data analysts, database developers, database programmers database analysts, data warehouse architects, data warehouse analysts, data warehouse developers, Extract-Transform-Load architects, ETL analysts, ETL designers, ETL developers, ETL programmers, Business Intelligence architects, BI analysts, BI designers, BI developers and so on.  However, I was never satisfied with any of these position titles.  So, I coined one myself: data designer.  I was of the opinion no matter how much data was out there, it was finite.  Zero and Infinity were very useful, but they violated the laws of thermodynamics.  I saw seven distinct phases of order in the universe and only saw transitions from one state to another.  I could design according to those states.

This led me to explore how I could represent the six states.  I studied and applied a variety of project lifecycles such as System Development Lifecycle, Extreme Programming and Rapid Application Development, joint application development.  I had learned various enterprise frameworks such as Zachman and TOGAF, modeling techniques like UML, the various generations of programming languages, data structures, network topologies, organizational concepts, rule based systems, event based systems, data based systems, user centered design, goal directed design, location based services, pattern languages, service oriented architecture, hardware architectures and many more.  I studied English, Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, German and French to see how I could develop a consistent taxonomy as well.

Ultimately I concluded that a majority of the people out there working on these problems had abandoned the basics for pet concepts.  They had no idea how many entities there were.  They had no idea how those entities should be related.  So I took it upon myself to identify all the relations that were applicable and came up with the following:

The associations are as follows:

1. Pattribute: a triangle entity
2. Battribute: a one to many relationship describing the association between a triangle and an tetrahedron
3. Attribute: a one to one relationship describing the association between a triangle and a hexahedron
4. Nattribute: a many to one relationship describing the association between a triangle and a octahedron
5. Lattribute: a recursive many to one relationship describing the association between two icosahedrons and one icosahedron
6. Mattribute: a recursive one to one relationship describing the association between two dodecahedrons

As you can see, the network is asymmetrical and allows for Node, Lattice, Tabular, Lattice, Linear; Lattice arrangements.  Note that since all of the entities are simply states of a single “ZenEntity” none of the states are independent from each other in the network.

ZenPhases

Now, that we have established the solids and how they are interconnected we can look at what the actual phases of the ZenEntity are.  Each of these phases are recognized in physics, however I have not come across any discussion of the possibility that they are together a set of fundamental phases.

Usually, we see Space, Time, Energy and Mass described in Einsteinian classical physics.  We also have discussions of Ions, Gases, Liquids and Solids as states of matter.  But we don’t see them together.

1. Energy: a three dimensional coordinate system
2. Time: a connection between one three dimensional coordinate system and two four dimensional coordinate systems
3. Ion: a connection between one three dimensional coordinate system and one six dimensional coordinate system
4. Gas: a connection between two three dimensional coordinate systems and one eight dimensional coordinate system
5. Liquid: a connection between two twelve dimensional coordinate system and one twelve dimensional coordinate system
6. Solid: a connection between two twenty dimensional coordinate systems

Next, we will see how these states are all very important to our sensory systems.

ZenStates

As well as the phases there is another way to look at the six solids.  This is in the Latinate language of the six states.  The states differ from  the phases in that they deal with the essence or source of each of the states.

The essence of each of the states is as follows:

1. Pattern: Father
2. Battern:  Hold
3. Attern: Give
4. Nattern: Birth
5. Lattern: Milk
6. Mattern: Mother

ZenSensors

Now, I am going to introduce you to some friends of mine.  I call them “Zen Sensors”

As you can see each ZenEntity State has a coresponding human sensory organ:

1. Eye: detect events
2. Ear: detect pressures
3. Nose: detect plasmas
4. Throat: detect molecules
5. Jaw: detect organics
6. Body: detect inorganics

ZenInterrogatives

Next, we have for your viewing pleasure the standard interrogatives and how they correlate:

I found this interesting, because I spent a great deal of time resisting the order of these interrogatives.  Finally, I just went along and found ultimately the order does make perfect sense.  It is an acquired taste.

1. Eye: Who: Identification
2. Ear: What: Objectification
3. Nose: Where: Location
4. Throat: When: Chronation
5. Jaw: Why: Rationation
6. Body: How: Function

If you read enough Anglo-Saxon it makes sense.

ZenHemisphere

Having considered the Entities, Associations, States and Sensory Organs, let us now look at how this relates to a hemisphere of the brain:

The above illustration shows the left hemisphere of the brain and the major regions.  They are color coded to correspond to the fundamental states I have described.  You can also see the corresponding sensory organ as well as the corresponding network structure in the region:

1. GREEN: EYE: OCCIPITAL LOBE: visual center of the brain
2. YELLOW: EAR: TEMPORAL LOBE: sensory center of hearing in the brain.
3. SKY: NOSE: BRAINSTEM: control of reflexes and such essential internal mechanisms as respiration and heartbeat.
4. BLUE: TONGUE: PARIETAL LOBE: Complex sensory information from the body is processed in the parietal lobe, which also controls the ability to understand language.
5. RED:  JAW: FRONTAL LOBE: control of skilled motor activity, including speech, mood and the ability to think.
6. ORANGE: BODY:  CEREBELLUM: regulation and coordination of complex voluntary muscular movement as well as the maintenance of posture and balance.

ZenBrain

Everything is great so far, but there is the fact that there are two hemispheres to the brain and they interact through the Corpus Callosum which I claim is where the self resides.  One of the interesting things about my study of Latin is that I discovered most questions actually required a two part answer.  This answer would be composed of an Archetype and a Type.  After reading Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight and listening to her account of her perceptions while the left hemisphere of her brain was being shut down by an exploded blood vessel, it became apparent to me that the left hemisphere of the brain contained the Types the Latin language required and the right hemisphere of the brain contained the Archetypes.  It was necessary to create a two axis model to accomodate a brain with two hemispheres:

Each of the light colored cells in this table represent a connection between one coordinate system association (row) and another coordinate system association (column).  This accounts for the broad variety of properties we encounter making the states we experience.

There are actually not one or two, but four directions you can take on the above table.    Top to Bottom is right hemisphere deduction.  Bottom to Top is right hemisphere induction. Left to Right is left hemisphere deduction.  Right to Left is left hemisphere induction.

This is a physiological model of human perception that I have arrived at.  Our current definitions of dimensionality are incorrect.  Each state has its own dimensionality, its own associations, its own sense organs, its own region of the brain and the brain two hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum.  If the work of Dr. David Bryson on Physical, Decisional and Perceptual Learning is right, then deduction happens during waking and induction happens during sleeping.

This is not a complete model by any means as it does not deal with scale-free networks.  Or does it?

But to this point, that is the Zen Universe.

Link:

• The Brain: ZenUniverse 4.o
• The Brain: ZenUniverse 3.0
• The Brain: ZenUniverse 2.0