Blogs

  • WIBCI Post #62

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from PHILOSOPHY?

    WIBCI: 3D vs. 2D

    I believe there is a linear relationship between: A. Trust and B. Degree of Dimension the communication takes?

    2D includes things that don’t have ‘a back’ to them, they cannot be spun around and looked at from a different angle.

    3D includes things in the Real World.

    Consider that ‘A Promise’ was made to you that, if kept, will alter the course of your life. Below is a list of HOW this promise was communicated to you. See if YOU agree that as we move down the following list from 2D to 3D, that trust in the fulfillment of that promise would increase, or not.

    • Fine print on a website
    • Chat with a Bot
    • Generated Email
    • Chat with a Human
    • Email from a Human
    • Phone call from a Bot
    • Phone call from a Human
    • Zoom Call with a Human
    • In person
    more “WIBCI Post #62”
  • Know Thyself Post #62

    Know Thyself through PHILOSOPHY:

    When I cried unconsolably as a baby, which luckily for my mother wasn’t that often, my parents would drive me around in the car. Within a few blocks strapped into my car seat (facing forward), I would either be asleep or staring out the window, either way I would be quiet.

    I know this because I asked my mom, I didn’t know it before. I wonder if that is why I like driving around when I can…

    Did YOU cry a lot as a baby?

    What was done to calm YOU?

    Does this still have a calming effect today?… more “Know Thyself Post #62”

  • WIBCI Post #61

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI: We recognized what we lost during the recent pandemic?

    I wasn’t one of those people that got in shape or learned a language. I stayed in and found I liked being alone more than I thought. I don’t think this is a good thing.

    I feel like I lost some sociability endurance. I feel like I lost patience on the road and in crowds. I feel like I’m not as engaged one on one like I used to be. Why aren’t I better?

    WIBCI: we talked about it? someone did a study right?

    What did YOU gain/lose?… more “WIBCI Post #61”

  • Know Thyself Post #61

    Know Thyself through PHILOSOPHY:

    The following can be found on the Home page, but I feel deserves a reboot:

    I can remember a time when I lived my life with enthusiasm and I didn’t worry about the economy, corporations, scams, and politics. This blasé attitude can be attributed to it being a presumption/expectation that our business leaders and especially our civil servants were working towards the good of the people, or at least pretending to. The only time that politics or the government specifically entered my focus was when it was time to vote, a politician was commended for acting honorably, or, and most often, a politician or a law, grossly missed the bar for what was considered decent by the people of the United States.

    Now it seems, I pass each day, not living now, in my life, but flooded with anxiety ridden thoughts about tomorrow. The horrors of politics now take up the majority of my concerns; not because politicians missed the bar on decency, that bar has been buried, politics fill my brain because I’m scared that my government will further diminish my ability to pursue happiness. I know believe that the ultimate goal for those in power is ALL of it, not more, not most, ALL. I feel I’m a consumer and my importance is limited to Buying and Dying.

    This is not living. For those of you too young to remember what it was like when the government wasn’t constantly taking from you, I’m sorry. It wasn’t always like this.

    But maybe, it could be again? That is the point of Death of Hypatia; to achieve the ability to live our lives and pursue our happinesses.

    How do YOU feel?… more “Know Thyself Post #61”

  • WIBCI Post #60

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: we learned from LITERATURE?

    WIBCI communicating clearly was a good thing?

    I use punctuation in texts.

    I’ve read that this can be off putting to some people, it can seem as terse, out of touch, or stringent.

    Writing is an art form, the better you do it, the better you communicate your thoughts into the world. You wouldn’t record a song without the drums. Punctuation has meaning and purpose, it is supposed to be there to guide you through the meaning of the words. A semi colon is a tool, it says, ‘this idea is going to take a while, the part after the semi colon COULD be its own sentence, but I want it associated with the first part’. I care far more about articulating my thoughts so they can not be misconstrued, than worrying about how my proper use of the English language makes the receiver ‘feel’. I do not enjoy explaining what I mean, I do it properly the first time. I do not wish to waste time hearing, texting nor thinking phrases like ‘that isn’t what I meant’, or ‘you don’t understand’, ‘you aren’t getting me’. I like to be got the first time.

    Perhaps if those that find punctuation in texts like to be vague and misunderstood, or like to waste time explaining intent, or maybe they don’t understand what the dots and dashes mean?

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #60”

  • Know Thyself Post #60

    Know Thyself through the ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS, or is it just BUSINESS?:

    On the website InternationalBusinessTimes.com, in the article The Most Major Movies Next Year Will Be Prequels, Sequels and Remakes: Report, By Bruce Golding it states:

    ‘The shock of the new is history in Hollywood — as more than half of next year’s movies from major studios are expected to be sequels, prequels or remakes.

    The 2025 calendar shows 50% to 70% of the feature films from Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony and Lionsgate will be based on existing characters and other intellectual property, CNBC reported Sunday.

    “There’s been a recognition by studios that the known commodities are what most audiences gravitate toward,” Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the network.’

    Gravitate towards….doesn’t seem like the right verb to me….cause…

    According to TheGameofNerds.com this is NOT what audiences want or ‘gravitate towards’ it is the ONLY flavor drink mix we are being offered:

    ‘Why Audiences Feel Nostalgia Fatigue

    Studios continue to choose reboots because they are safer than launching new properties. Familiar brands come with built-in recognition, reducing marketing risk. But constant repetition has consequences. Viewers who once felt excitement now leave theaters with a sense of déjà vu.

    Reasons this approach feels stale:

    • Reboots recycle stories with minimal innovation.

    • Films focus on fan service instead of fresh narratives.

    • Limited marketing and poor box office performance are common for original titles.

    • Streaming divides attention, so cultural impact rarely lasts.

    • Pop culture moments are fragmented across too many platforms.’

     

    Seems like reboots, prequels and sequels are cheaper to make and that matters more than what audiences want.

    Makes them money, but sucks for us 50-70% of the time?….

    What do YOU think?

    https://www.ibtimes.com/most-major-movies-next-year-will-prequels-sequels-remakes-report-3745719

    https://thegameofnerds.com/2025/08/02/reboots-and-remakes-dominate-2025-but-original-stories-are-missing/

     … more “Know Thyself Post #60”

  • WIBCI Post #59

    WIBCI we learned from HISTORY?:

    Charles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel, and the author of Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind.

    In the Ken Burns documentary Leonardo da Vinci – Painter-God he mentions Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, theBritish art historian, museum director and broadcaster:

    ‘Sir Kenneth Clark called him the most curious man in history. He was always interested, he was always wanting to know; and I think more than even the paintings, more than the mysterious ‘Lisa’, more than ‘The Last Supper’, is this sense of Leonardo, the man who never took no as an answer in terms of finding things out.’

    The Merriam-Webster definition of curious is as follows:

    Curious: / kyu̇r / ē / əs / adj:

    1. marked by desire to investigate and learn
    2. marked by inquisitive interest in others’ concerns
    3. exciting attention as strange, novel, or unexpected

    Can you think of a better adjective to describe someone in such a sentence?

    The richest man in history?

    The most successful man in history?

    The most ruthless man in history?

    I would take ‘Curious’ any day. What would YOU?… more “WIBCI Post #59”

  • Know Thyself Post #59

    Know Thyself through ART:

    To me, art is created through feelings, and often that feeling is suffering. I see art as the voice for people who can only scream through the creation of something that makes other’s feel. Often this isn’t a good feeling.

    I don’t read many happy writers, the one’s who have suffered, those are the ones that I want to help shape what I think.

    I also don’t think art can be made from or for money. Once it is from or for money, it is mass-produced and therefore, in my opinion, cannot be considered art.

    It isn’t just in art, money is almost always on the side of the bad guy. Look at any John Hughes movie. Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly fame seems happy, but rather lonely and I can only think of one novel where the good guy was richer than the bad guy; but not that much richer, nor that much better now that I think about it, if only we could ask Daisy Fay…

    My point is, read about the artists you admire be it; music, literature, surf boarding, archeology, philosophy and look into their lives and I doubt you will find many well rested, happy, satisfied, trust fund babies. These insatiable individuals strove to do more and understand more, or YOU would have never heard of them. I think there is a reason why most great artists were ‘starving’ or insane. The same reason why reality tv stars will leave no lasting positive impact on humanity.

    Just me?… more “Know Thyself Post #59”

  • WIBCI Post #58

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: We learned from HISTORY?

    WIBCI: we thought more about the great speakers of our country?

    Have you ever read the Gettysburg Address? I’m asking if you know the 268 words of the address, not just the first six, or the last sixteen?

    I guess a better question is not have you read it, do you understand the why and when of it?

    Abraham Lincoln wrote this and delivered on the deadliest and most decisive battlefields of the Civil War. A battle that turned the tide in a war under the guise of uniting. This was a cry to unite a torn nation, not unlike our’s today. Instead of North vs. South, I see our war as Mega Rich vs. everyone else. President Lincoln’s address poked a hole in what was meant by ‘men are created equal’ and asked us, to put a new meaning to this phrase, and to let all the death not be for nothing. I think it carries the same weight today. They did not die so 1% of the population takes from the rest of us, that wasn’t the point, at least I don’t think so. What do YOU think?

    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

    Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

    But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    Abraham Lincoln

     

     … more “WIBCI Post #58”

  • Know Thyself Post #58

    Know Thyself through: slowing the f#ck down:

    I lose things and often find them in the first place I began my search. Meaning, I half assed it and wasted a LOT of time.

    Next time you lose something, try this.

    Sit down in the room/space you believe it most likely to be. For 30 seconds try and picture when you last saw it/used it.

    Open your eyes and before you get up and begin to search, thoroughly look throughout the space from where you are sitting. Scour all exposed surfaces and plan out how you will search the space. DO NOT leave the room/space and move onto the next space until you have exhaustively searched everywhere. Goal is to not return to this room. Rinse and repeat in other rooms.

    Was this approach better for YOU? Was it more/less anxious? Was it more/less successful?… more “Know Thyself Post #58”

  • WIBCI Post #57

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: Memory got better with age?

    WIBCI our memories exponentially got better throughout HISTORY?

    According the Ancient-Literature.com Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey has over 134,500 words or 12,109 lines and takes about 9 hours to complete if read at 250 words per minute. Yet this was memorized and passed through generations through retelling. So people COULD do this, thousands of years ago? Did we unlearn how to maximize our brains?

    How many phone numbers can you rattle off. How many of those are cell phone numbers vs. number you used to dial from land lines? I feel that convenience has atrophied our brain’s natural ability to astound. The Odyssey was written between 400-500 BCE, or over 2 thousand 4 hundred years ago…. a poem over 130,000 words long! Imagine if we spent 1 thousand of those years perfecting this gift of memory, what feats could be accomplished with just thought?

    What do YOU think?

    more “WIBCI Post #57”

  • Know Thyself Post #57

    Know Thyself through PHILOSOPHY:

    In Know Thyself Blog Post #5, I asked you to go outside, and, once the voices in your head shushed, look up and around until you notice something beautiful.

    That was a test in analog, let’s try an analog vs. digital comparison

    Go online, peruse as you usually do, and, when you have read and paid attention to all the voices that surround it, look in and around until you notice something ugly.

    Which do YOU think takes longer?

    Which do YOU think was a better use of your time?… more “Know Thyself Post #57”

  • WIBCI Post #56

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we learned from LITERATURE?

    WIBCI we looked at Animal Farm by George Orwell through today’s lenses?

    If you don’t know Animal Farm, that’s fine, all you need to know is the following speech is made by a pig to other farm animals from within a barn…. but I’ve made a few alterations and substitutions. I replaced the word ‘Animal‘ with ‘the Middle Class’, switched ‘Human/Human Beings’ for ‘Billionaires, Corporations and their Stooges’,  ‘Man’ with ‘Greed’. Every alteration/substitution is in Bold:

     

    I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life……and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any(one) now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.

    Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; ……

    No one in the middle class knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is  old. No one from the middle class is free. The life of the middle class is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.

    But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No comrades, a thousand times no! the soil  is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of the middle class. and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by Billionaires, Corporations and their stooges. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word – Greed. Greed is the only real enemy we have. Remove Greed from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever……..

    Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of Billionaires, Corporations and their stooges? Only get rid of Greed, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free.

    George Orwell  Animal Farm

    What do YOU think? Does it resonate today?… more “WIBCI Post #56”

  • Know Thyself Post #56

    Know Thyself through MUSIC:

    Try this:

    • find a record player and collection you could commandeer for a few hours.
      • CD’s, cassettes and a radio are not suitable substitutes. It needs to sound like vinyl, it needs to take time to begin with few buttons pushed and needs to be physically flipped over by hand. It needs to have a weight to it, a label and grooves.
      • One in your own home is best, but friend or fam’s house works just as well. If you are at someone else’s home and their there and you feel weird being alone in their house using their acoustical gear and/or they would be cool to do this with – ask them to join you.  I recommend having them read this and make ground rules like whether you can start and stop, replay a song or play it all the way through;  discuss when to discuss: during, after, and/or in between songs, etc.
    • Understand how to play said record player and whether owner has any rules of their own. The records must be respected.
    • Choose a record
      • It could be by someone(s) you know or an entity you have never heard of
      • It could be an album and artist you are familiar with – or – an album you are but artist you aren’t – or – an album you aren’t by an artist you are… you get the point
      •  Choose one with liner notes, lyrics and pictures
    • Play the record, song 1, side 1
      • Do NOT skip any songs nor cut any off. You are not scrolling through this music, you are actually listening to an entire album….both sides. Relax, tap a foot, think of this experiment like ‘it’s ___day and you don’t got shit to do’.
      • take the aforementioned liner notes, lyrics, hopefully pictures and/or art work, the album cover, a notebook, and pen, sit and listen.
      • follow the lyrics. note down things you like.
      • Look at the pictures and try and imagine them writing, practicing, playing, hanging out together.
      • Discuss if you want:  Why was that song first? Why were the songs in that order? What did that song mean? Do I like that one? Why? What were they trying to say? Does it translate today?

    Did YOU ever lose yourself for a moment? Did YOU forget about what you have to do or what you didn’t do?

    Not bad heh?… more “Know Thyself Post #56”

  • WIBCI Post #55

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If POLITICS listened to us?

    WIBCI

    I’m not cool with defunding Cancer research. I’m also pretty sure most people are also pro-cancer research, and since government is supposedly ‘for the people’….. why doesn’t it matter?

    Better For the Most… more “WIBCI Post #55”