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September 16th, 2003
03:08 am - Making things better
Sum up your opinion or impression of me in one sound effect, leave it as a comment in this posting, and then post something completely original in your own journal. Onomatopoeia is completely acceptable, but .mp3s, .wavs or .oggs with the sound effects in earn bonus cool points for effort.
Opinions sought on the film Spirited Away, please. Despite the fact that the 11-screen UGC Cinema in Didsbury is showing it, the 14-screen UGC Cinema here in Middlesbrough is not. Grr. A little research reveals that the nearest cinema to here showing it is in Newcastle, 30+ miles North of here, which is not a trivial journey. (Hush, ye commuters and Americans.) I am looking at other options, but is it worth effort and expense to see?
One extra-curricular course I took at school was in Accelerated Learning Techniques, which covered Mind Mapping. I'm broadly prepared to believe that Mind Mapping can work for some people with good training, but I never got much out of it. In 2001, I asked Tony Buzan, creator of the technique, how often he actually created a mind map in practice, and he estimated "about one per day". This sounds about right; the technique isn't the universally applicable cureall that some, even some lovely people, might suggest. I'm afraid I am always rather cynical about these things to the point of closed-mindedness.
However, one of the other topics we touched upon at the time was self-esteem. I can remember that an exercise we were given was to silently repeat to ourselves, something like 400 times each day, the affirmation I approve of myself. Did it work? Erm, don't know, guv. My closed-mindedness probably meant I was skeptical about the possibility of it working which didn't help it to work, or that I had a nagging doubt that any results could only be due to a self-inflicted placebo effect. Nevertheless, looking back on that time in my life, I think there could well have been (and, by extention, there could still be) something to it. Certainly I was, and remain, extremely skeptical about some of the more "out-there" visualisation techniques. Self-hypnosis? Er, no. (And yet I feel - fear? - this may be my loss.)
Anyway, last night, I was thinking about the concept of a combined mobile phone, mp3 player, video player, personal organiser and so forth; this would be a gadget that you would wear all day that delivered media to your eyes and ears. It would have a little heads-up display with the details of each track as it started, it would automatically pause your mp3 when a mobile phone call came in, it would be completely voice-operated and so forth. People have been kicking around the idea for years. A quick search reveals that the 1999 state of the art cost four figures US and the 2003 state of the art, Eyetop, costs US$450. The verdict on it is better but not yet good. I would've thought that advances in technology and decreasing prices would have put this within about 4 years of the affordable mainstream, but then again people have been saying "better but not yet good" for voice-recognition for years and it still hasn't taken off.
Any2way, last night, I was also kicking around the concepts of combining this technology with subliminal messages and affirmations. Do you think that a little gizmo which beamed you translucent subliminal affirmations 400 times per day, only just opaquely enough to trigger your subconscious without being a distractor, would have any merit whatsoever? Very hard to organise a suitable controlled trial for something like this, but even a ghost of improvement in 20% of people and it's a huge hit as techniques go.
Intermediate, immediate step: how about a LiveJournal custom S2 style which was replete with subtle affirmation? We all likely spend a fair chunk of time looking at LJ pages, so we might as well be doing something for our self-esteem at the same time. I'd have thought that there would be a one-way trip to the Happy Hunting Grounds of  lj_nifty, at the very least, for anyone who could come up with such a public style which caught on...
Finally, faintly late from my perspective, birthdaymania rolls on - today, particularly spectacularly so. Many happy returns of the day to the inhabitants of september15 - particularly to  mhw and to xnera, both of whom I really enjoy reading, both of whom make so much effort to make people's lives happier, both of whom work hard struggling against the odds in their own way. It's a strange sort of compliment to pay, but the two of you are a credit to your particular day of the year!
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: c-r-a-c-k-ER by GWASHI (strange Beatmania IIDX 6th Jap-rap)
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![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/80702553/413147) | | From: | flourish |
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| Date: | September 15th, 2003 09:25 pm (UTC) |
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*sploit*!
And
Yes, it is worth the drive, but then I'm an American and a commuter so I can't really talk. It was a great movie. *sploit*!
...which sounds to me like the sound-effect of crackers discovering how to exploit a security flaw in a piece of software. Like it, like it, all the same. | | From: | flourish |
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| Date: | September 16th, 2003 06:48 pm (UTC) |
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OMG PANDA.
I LIKE THE PANDA!
Wheeeee. :) ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/1527893/532519) | | From: | bateleur |
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| Date: | September 16th, 2003 12:05 am (UTC) |
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is it worth effort and expense to see?
Yep, I'd say so. It (effectively) cost me £60 to see since I lost a substantial bet with a friend of mine concerning whether or not it would win the 'best animated film' Oscar this year.
Very impressive.
Sum up your opinion or impression of me in one sound effect, leave it as a comment in this posting,
Not sure. *pa-tush*, perhaps?
and then post something completely original in your own journal.
Already did, mate.
Granted, it was in February... Would that be the *pa-tush* of a rimshot as another cheesy gag hits the mark? I do hope so. Probably. What are the other alternatives? Cycling over thin ice, breaking it and splashing in the water below?
Standing on a crusty cowpat to discover that the layer of crust is thin and the pat beneath is very fresh? *drum roll* *ta-da"
That's somehow very... rolling out of bed and landing on the floor in the morning, trying to get ready for the day. I'll go with that. The mismatched asterisk-quote mark scenario is particularly jaunty. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/11407008/670440) | | From: | verlaine |
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| Date: | September 16th, 2003 03:40 am (UTC) |
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I went to see Spirited Away with bluedevi, addedentry and  huskyteer last night, and a good time was had it all. I'm not quite sure it's the transcendental experience that some have touted it as, but it's a damn good children's film with plenty of memorable images. Yeah, go see it. | From: | ericklendl |
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| Date: | September 16th, 2003 07:28 am (UTC) |
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| | Oh aye, the important bits of the post... | (Link) |
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I also am fairly contemptuous of mind mapping as a useful technique for me - indeed, you probably recall me openly declaring it to be a "load of rubbish" at the 2000 MSO, with fewer hilarious consequences than I invited and perhaps deserved. I suspect, on reflection, that this is because I'm not a predominantly visual thinker, and the whole concept has little to offer anyone whose thinking patterns are weak in that area. I can't quite get my head around how to tweak the concept so that a mind map could be represented solely, or predominantly, in audio. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/3967022/588494) | | | Re: Oh aye, the important bits of the post... | (Link) |
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I vaguely recall the incident you mention having happened, though I can't remember it happening. (I can remember you mentioning it in your MSO 4 wrap-up and having forgotten what had happened even then on MSO 4 Day 10.) Definitely it's the case that I'm sometimes kind of circumspect, bordering on understating the case, in my LJ, lest my bosses find me out and wonder WHY I'M SPENDING ALL DAY POSTING AND NOT GETTING ON WITH MY WORK. If Ben Pridmore could find me by looking for himself - and, indeed, this is something that I'd really quite like to encourage, which is why I welcome Google and friends to jiggery_pokery Towers - then there's no reason why someone else couldn't as well. Might be prudent to start a "not-for-work-colleagues" filter at some point. Sorry, amuzulo and godlovesevery1. YES.
See Spirited Away. Have you seen any other Miyazaki? Must not, if you're debating it. ;) ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/2748067/729872) | | From: | applez |
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| Date: | September 16th, 2003 10:11 am (UTC) |
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| | Spirited Away? WATCH IT! | (Link) |
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Then again, I'm an anime freak ... but Miyazaki shows his massive directorial and artistic talent in this latest film of his.
I liked Princess Mononoke more, but Miyazaki again hits on the themes of growing up, and of ecology in Spirited Away. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/3568657/588494) | | | Re: You...in an effect | (Link) |
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Hooray! *awards bonus points*
I was hoping for nothing less from the proprietor of the International Game Show SFX archive... :-) ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/2139363/588494) | | | Re: You...in an effect | (Link) |
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We had the same effects over here, for what it's worth.
Man, that was a strange show. shliiiiiiiiiooooooooob-gerbloink
If you don't go and see Spirited Away I will go nuclear on your ass. Presumably that's pronounced with the elongated dipthong descending like a penny whistle, and the "gerbloink" with an octave step up?
I will go nuclear on your ass.
That's the best offer I've had all day! |
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