Tag: red wine

Different Shades Of Grey

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

It is interesting what methods people use to work or be creative. I remember I used to know someone who when studying preferred to be in busy noisy areas as it allowed her to concentrate; so the cafe section of the library over the quiet floor. I’ve often known people to play music while they study as it seems to help them focus and there are numerous studies backing this up. I have tried with classical music, which is usually the style of choice in these research, and found that of all types of sounds I could listen to it is probably the one that helps the most. It has something to do with the affect it has on your brain or something like that, the internet could probably inform me accurately but I am lazy to check. Certain music though I can’t study or write with and that is when I can hear words because I find them distracting as I follow along. In reality though I’m a silence man. I wonder what it is that leads one person to favour one way over another. I can only imagine it has something to do with upbringing and the environment you grew up studying in. My inability to study and use any possible excuse to be distracted probably led me to my silent necessities and I imagine someone who grew up in a noisy domestic environment but still studied around this probably searches this out.

That is the setting though but what about using certain things to assist us. I’ve met many a sophisticated wanker who loves the affect a glass of red wine has alongside a good book or while scribbling down words. He takes a sip out of his cup of red wine before continuing. Certainly though too much alcohol only hinders this process but I remember reading something a few years back that suggested the best combination was to have an alcoholic drink to relax the mind subsequently allowing it to be more creative and then a cup of coffee to give it the energy and focus required to implement the creativity. It’s not impossible to see some validity in this. I sometimes enjoy a little smoke and then attempt to write down some thoughts, but I could never study this way as the mind is all over the place. Equally if I am attempting to write something that I don’t want to be illegible nonsense despite appearing to be wisdom at the time then I really couldn’t smoke. I could though play the guitar as I just like to mess around on that and do it for the pleasure in the moment not with the intention of attempting to create anything for anyone else. I don’t though feel the desire to pick it up when sober so definitely smoking helps this.

It’s just interesting because everybody is so different and requires such different surroundings to achieve the same end result. We are also so varied in the way differing things affect us and how we manage to respond to them in regards alternate versions of output. Maybe I should have a smoke one day and try writing something on here, that could be an interesting addition, it may also be pretty obvious but also magically creative. It is just fascinating to see how different everyone is and depressing to see how we try and force everyone into boxes or group them all into either black or white. Education has a lot to do with this and it’s always very interesting to meet people who have been through alternative types of schooling because they have such different ways of resolving issues that arise. Time has many answers, hopefully we someday stumble upon the one which allows us to discover whichever shade of grey we are in between.

Red Wine CCTV

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

I’m drinking red wine it’s really nice. I had a small thought at one point today and it was about whether we have trained a generation of human security cameras. It was based on a short five minute video of an older comedian talking about taking his granddaughter to the park. It was a slightly obvious joke in that it was critical of the modern day child being wrapped up in cotton wool and not playing with live open wires like the good old days. He was being critical of slides in playgrounds and how they’re designed to be shit and not really give any decent fun propulsion. While he wanted to give her a helping hand he could see all the other kids and adults watching him “Go on granddad I dare you” as they all take out their iPhone’s. But the reality is it’s true.

There have been seemingly endless revolutions over the last lets say five to ten years, all of which appear to have failed miserably. What has become evident and I first noticed this in the Arab Spring of X amount of years ago, was that the humble camera phone became an integral part of reporting. While I rejoiced at policeman being caught out beating up non-violent protesters and wondering how the media would be able to ignore such conclusive evidence, very easily it turned out, I praised these phones and thought they had changed the game in regards coverage of protests and such things. They changed everything of course, and were dutifully ignored by the apparatus of power, but is it possible it could go the other way? What happens if people become so used to filming and publishing any video online they collectively start recording every little incident of social existence. There are so many situations in daily life that people act outside of the law, that is the reality, but they’re harmless, nobody gets hurt and in reality nobody has a problem with them. But it’s on camera now. Or what about an innocent situation like Grandpa above, somebody films him being a little over exuberant but harmless, and he becomes vilified, shamed and doesn’t feel comfortable playing freely with his granddaughter anymore.

We’re such judgmental pricks that both these situations are plausible. The latter has become part of daily existence but is the evolution of this that we inadvertently become walking CCTV’s. It seems far fetched, and in some ways it is because it’ll never end up exactly like that, but there already are versions of this kind of behaviour. The power people have to catch each other and feel good about themselves. It’s enough to make humour vanish. Maybe I should stop drinking red wine.