When I was younger I shared household with my step dad, mom, brother and sister for a year and a half. One of my favorite activities during breaks was "fucking" (not literally) with my siblings, eating and annoying the cat.
This one time something "awesome" happened, I heard some ruckus upstairs and I quickly ran up wanting in on the action. The scenario I saw before me was my mom in a rage, ferociously leaning forward (to look more intimidating) cussing and screaming at the top of her lungs. Behind her I saw my brother and his mate both looking down with a slightly nervous, semi-terrified look of guilt and despair.
Apparently she had gone in his room unannounced to tell him dinner was almost ready, and when she opened the door my brother's friend was showing him this "awesome" lighter trick, where you stand on a matress, have a plastic bag (not sure what that's for) and you inhale the gas, shortly afterward you pass out and you wake up all giggly and stupid.
I place myself next to my mom, on her left I think it was, and I put on my "disappointed son" expression while shaking my head, mumbling in a low voice. "mm, so she caught you sniffing too".
My mom, (not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, cleanest glass in the cabinet, most fitting of gloves in the gloves compartment so forth) turns around with her mouth wide open in disbelief.
Holds her rage for a few seconds, my brother knows what's going on, his jaw start going limp too by the looks of it, but he's still frozen, he doesn't act.
And she screams.... "YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!!! YOU SAID YOU NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE!!"
Then she looks at me, with fire in her eyes... "You knew about this??"
I try to look as disappointed as I can, I mustered up the calmest voice I could find in the situation. "I caught him once, yes, and I nearly kicked his ass, told him if I ever caught him doing it again, I'd tell you".
In the blink of an eye, 100% of her rage was now solely focused on my brother. (At this point she seem to be struggling finding words, mostly incoherent cussing and shouting coming out of her).
To my last comment my brother 's eyes were going like this ÔÔ, reaching his hand out, pointing at me, trying to speak.
"But mom... nooo, he never.... Mom, he's ly...!!"
Only to be cut off short....
"NOT A WORD, IM SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW, NOT A SINGLE MORE WORD FROM YOU TONIGHT"
In the aftermath he's not allowed to hang with his friend anymore, he weaseled his way out of it saying he got tricked/forced, he also got grounded for x amount of weeks, only school was allowed. (His age at the time was around 15).
After the 10 min of fun I run down to continue my "work". (Was doing my grind to Rank 14, hehe).
That particular day I was doing an all niter, and when the night creeps in it's like you get more creative, get more ideas and think much more clearly. And this night was no different, I suddenly got hit by a stroke of geniusy (yes, that is a word, I ran it by Celz).
Clock is around 03:00 - 04:00 or so, I run up to the kitchen and I start frantically going through drawers, cabinets and gather up all the "stuff" I need in a large plastic bag. Next stop is the living room, I get some of mom's magazines, I then "graciously", like a cat (I like cats) dart outside to the garage collecting more items, items for my epic quest!!
(When you get into this mode it's like a feeling of slight anxiety, fear and adrenalin built into a bundle of excitement and happiness. You randomly have to stop and do these small gentle claps with your hands or you'll burst).
I then go in my "crouching ninja, hidden tiger" mode where I carefully sneak in to my brother's bedroom, here I spend around 20 minutes or so setting out all the items in their respective places. I had brought along lighters, spray cans for baking products, small see-through plastic bags (normally for bread), some glue, plastic bottles I’ve sawed holes in, (burnt the edges of it to make em look used) and last but not least, some of my mom's favorite make up magazines. (I didn't really think she could read, probably just looks at the pictures).
I carefully place the plastic bags here and there, the lighters I put in places they are easy to spot when you first enter. I take off the top of the spray cans and I knock a few over (for realism), the magazine I open on a side where there's women you could potentially fap to, I then place it right next to my brothers head, carefully, as not to wake him. (Luckily he happens to be a very heavy sleeper, so this is NP). I also try placing the glue bottles at places close to him with the lid off, and a little bit of it's content squeezed through the top (for even more realism).
When I'm satisfied with my work I slowly make my exit, and now all I have to do is wait xD (yay)
.
(My mom always wakes him up before school, she usually gets up first. My brother would always miss his first few classes if someone didn't wake him). And even if she didn't wake first, I was so ready for it, making a lot of noise to wake her that is. (Evil laugh).
Pfffthhhh, oh man, she just lost it completely lol. I know I talked earlier about "I'm really good at knowing people's limits, then going close to them but not quite over". In some of my other stories.
Well.... this was one of the times were I accidentally went over. I won't go into details, but I had to run upstairs and get ready to intervene, just in case she attacked him.
PS, in the aftermath I apologized to my brother and he still loves me an awful lot.
PPS, now it's just a cool story. I told this story last on the 14th of October 2011 when I met his new gf for the first time. (She was pretty awesome, she doesn't drink, likes to ride, and she likes my stories).
mandag 7. november 2011
lørdag 5. november 2011
My First Time
So the fine folks over at liquid were having this bragging thread about their sexlife. I couldn't quite compete with the amount or frequency some of the guys had, but I did fill one critera, they were asking for a reply from someone from Europe. And I'm from Europe.
I'm European, I'll give this a go. Even though I'm a little nervous and this ain't completly my thing.
This one time I was in love with this English chick, and I had met her on wow, travelled over there. We had a blast,and it went awesome. I fast forward!!
I'm back home in Norway, on skype, talking with her, and we're talking about things that happened whilst I was there. (The atmosphere was awesome, she was hysterical and in fits, trying to figure out what the hell was going on the first time we did it, and the second time for that matter).
She said she panicked when I accidently tried putting it in the wrong hole, leapfrogged forward and did this twirl, some cussing and an evil stare, freaked when I told her I didn't miss, I thought you were suppose to. (Was my first time lol). And I had been studying watching quite a bit of porno in advance, I even masturbated in her parents bathroom first time I "peed" just in case there would be sex. (To which she abruted me and said "YOU DID WHAT?", but I just ignored that and kept talking, I do that a lot).
I also had no idea of the speed you're suppose to go around doing things. But I felt pretty confident (since I had been studying a lot). So when she first kissed me in her parents sofa, I responded with fingers in her twat, that too caused quite a bit of comotion on her part. Eyes a little something like ÔÔ and a sqwuak. But when she saw I got a bit scared an pulled back, like I did something wrong, she shrugged it off, like thinking "what the hell".
So right about now I'm telling her I had memorized a sequence for sex from a porno movie, and she's literally peeing herself. But I don't quite get it, i'm so eager to tell my story at this point, so I miss the "brb lol, i'm gonna pee myself any second, omg, lol" or something along those lines.
But I'm feeling pretty funny right about now, and I go off on a rant (as I often do), describing in detail what happened, how I had "casually" been trying to get my finger close to her number 2 without her noticing. And the slap I did on her buttocks was a bet I had with a close mate on WoW (Jinx, if anyone wonders, the guy who made this 6 years ago
[spoiler]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c00lUtSR2Y [/spoiler] He was regarded as the 2nd best Rogue on the server)
He'd always make fun of me, saying I was such a pussy and I was way to nice and chicken, bet me 1000gold I would never dare to spank her, and we agreed that a slap would be enough.
Anyway, I sidetracked there for a second.
Yeah, as i'm sitting there in this ephoria, telling my super awesome story. I suddenly get awoken by this sharp, loud, terrifying scream. Literally like someone is having a heart attack / choking / death scream. And it keeps going on repeat, like "UUuoowahhææ owfh owffh dear lord unnngghhhh" (close enough).
And I freeze, really trying hard to figure out what the hell is going on. Then I hear another voice, I recognize it, it's her older brother. Trying to calm her down (about now I realize what's happened, she left the room, her mom came in and started listening to me describing how I sexed up her daughter in very explicit detail). So she's having a panick attack, her brother is trying calm her down. He starts screaming for help, her mom keeps going "The Norwegian, The Norwegian"
A few seconds later the 2nd brother comes, and he's laughing his ass off, the first brother trying to calm his mom pissed at the 2nd one being so immature. Then her dad comes running up, panicking aswell thinking it's an emergency. He start screaming too, the immature brother lols and tells him "Marius fucked Xxxxx and mom just found out".
And right around this time she comes out from the bathroom, and for some reason she starts screaming too, actually never heard her cuss and use that kind of language before, but after some comotion and a few minutes she gets everyone out of the room.
And it's just me and her.... (Holy fk I'm scared lol)
Awh man, she was so mad, actually more angry than I think I've ever heard her before. Not sure what she was saying though, wasn't paying attention, too startled her being all mad at me.
I'm European, I'll give this a go. Even though I'm a little nervous and this ain't completly my thing.
This one time I was in love with this English chick, and I had met her on wow, travelled over there. We had a blast,and it went awesome. I fast forward!!
I'm back home in Norway, on skype, talking with her, and we're talking about things that happened whilst I was there. (The atmosphere was awesome, she was hysterical and in fits, trying to figure out what the hell was going on the first time we did it, and the second time for that matter).
She said she panicked when I accidently tried putting it in the wrong hole, leapfrogged forward and did this twirl, some cussing and an evil stare, freaked when I told her I didn't miss, I thought you were suppose to. (Was my first time lol). And I had been studying watching quite a bit of porno in advance, I even masturbated in her parents bathroom first time I "peed" just in case there would be sex. (To which she abruted me and said "YOU DID WHAT?", but I just ignored that and kept talking, I do that a lot).
I also had no idea of the speed you're suppose to go around doing things. But I felt pretty confident (since I had been studying a lot). So when she first kissed me in her parents sofa, I responded with fingers in her twat, that too caused quite a bit of comotion on her part. Eyes a little something like ÔÔ and a sqwuak. But when she saw I got a bit scared an pulled back, like I did something wrong, she shrugged it off, like thinking "what the hell".
So right about now I'm telling her I had memorized a sequence for sex from a porno movie, and she's literally peeing herself. But I don't quite get it, i'm so eager to tell my story at this point, so I miss the "brb lol, i'm gonna pee myself any second, omg, lol" or something along those lines.
But I'm feeling pretty funny right about now, and I go off on a rant (as I often do), describing in detail what happened, how I had "casually" been trying to get my finger close to her number 2 without her noticing. And the slap I did on her buttocks was a bet I had with a close mate on WoW (Jinx, if anyone wonders, the guy who made this 6 years ago
[spoiler]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c00lUtSR2Y [/spoiler] He was regarded as the 2nd best Rogue on the server)
He'd always make fun of me, saying I was such a pussy and I was way to nice and chicken, bet me 1000gold I would never dare to spank her, and we agreed that a slap would be enough.
Anyway, I sidetracked there for a second.
Yeah, as i'm sitting there in this ephoria, telling my super awesome story. I suddenly get awoken by this sharp, loud, terrifying scream. Literally like someone is having a heart attack / choking / death scream. And it keeps going on repeat, like "UUuoowahhææ owfh owffh dear lord unnngghhhh" (close enough).
And I freeze, really trying hard to figure out what the hell is going on. Then I hear another voice, I recognize it, it's her older brother. Trying to calm her down (about now I realize what's happened, she left the room, her mom came in and started listening to me describing how I sexed up her daughter in very explicit detail). So she's having a panick attack, her brother is trying calm her down. He starts screaming for help, her mom keeps going "The Norwegian, The Norwegian"
A few seconds later the 2nd brother comes, and he's laughing his ass off, the first brother trying to calm his mom pissed at the 2nd one being so immature. Then her dad comes running up, panicking aswell thinking it's an emergency. He start screaming too, the immature brother lols and tells him "Marius fucked Xxxxx and mom just found out".
And right around this time she comes out from the bathroom, and for some reason she starts screaming too, actually never heard her cuss and use that kind of language before, but after some comotion and a few minutes she gets everyone out of the room.
And it's just me and her.... (Holy fk I'm scared lol)
Awh man, she was so mad, actually more angry than I think I've ever heard her before. Not sure what she was saying though, wasn't paying attention, too startled her being all mad at me.
fredag 4. november 2011
The Rape Me Girl
In Norway a lot of girls wants to pretend they get raped, not sure why, but it's really popular.
This one time I was just doing my thang, owning up in Starcraft, and then some other guys who I shared appartment with were out drinking, and one of them brought home this pretty, a little tall, but not too tall, but tall for a girl with long blonde hair home.
The guy she was into was really good with the ladies, smooth talker, gets her wine, appropiate music. I wasn't spying or anything, but I have to walk past the living room to get to the kitchen, and I go to kitchens a lot.
When it got really late, I was going to the kitchen again, they were right about to do it!! And I think the guy was naked, but he was really drunk, and he had tossed her over the side of the sofa and pulled her panties down, she was really drunk too. And he was laughing and cussing when I came by, and he just started walking towards me. I said hi, sup. And he pointed at his thingy.
"So drunk, no chance I can get it up, fuck it." And he went in to his room and locked it.
Anyway, I got a bit uneasy, was a little weird, had just been living there for a month or so, I moved there to share place with Dokosoko and John, 2 friends, and one last guy I didn't know, was pretty big place, and this was the last guy I didn't know.
So I got some stuff in the kitchen, I had a "peek" nothing too pervy, but just a glance at the sofa, cos the hot girl was still sticking her bum up, almost passed out, think she was muttering something. And after I had walked past the living room in slow motion, I ran downstairs to my room.
Put on my headphones, and headed on iccup.
Then suddenly.... Something.... Someone... Opened my door, it was the drunk blonde, she seemed a little abnoxious, like she "woke up" and was feeling bitchy.
I said Hi, as I do to strangers, she didn't reply back, just stared at me. I do this thingy where you try to not pull a smile even though you want to, and I got really nervous. What was this trickery!!
She then left from the entrance of my room, but didn't close the door, and she started walking back and forth, murmering something. I was to startled to be able to continue playing, and I felt stupid just sitting there, so I thought, I should maybe get up and close my door. I went to the door, and she was only a few "yards" away, I guess I have to use yards since most of you people like that shit.
I notice she had her purple dress on, it was pretty short, like a few cm under buttocks area. And she pulls it up to her stomach, no panties, she probably lost them upstairs in that act they had to abort. But she still looked really pist, one of those moments where you think of those meme pics "I got the weirdest boner right now".
I did what any man would do, tried to hurry and close my door, but she stopped it, and did this demonic evil looking stare at me, like she hated me. I quickly stopped trying to close the door and took a few steps back, she dragged her dress up further and started doing this weird walk/dance down the hall, when the bitch had her back to me, I shut the door so fast. I ran to my computer chair, not really sure what to do in it. But if she came back I could pretend I was doing something technical, so I pulled up some graphs and a few more windows, so now I could look really occupied.
A few seconds later she opened the door, now more pissy than ever, all angry since I closed the door probably. I got tired of being friendly and asked, what do you want? She sat down in my bed, I ran and got her a glass of water (seemed like the appropriate thing to do).
Right around this time, Dokosoko came, not sure from where and I had just given her the water, she poured it out, and she hit my sc cd's.....
Ok that's it, I've had it, I grabbed her arm and "yelled, not too loud, but a lot louder than my normal voice, that's for sure" get out, you piece of shit. Now Dokosoko is trying to come an calm the situation, and I said, Nooo, let's kick her out in the snow, she's being dick, and she's naked, she keeps trying to show her pussy.
He said he knew her, and he'd take care of this, she burst out crying!! Now I felt bad, annoying, but I did the "close my door" trick again (which I kept having very little success with, maybe if I had a key). And I think Doko comforted her, got her some clothes and sent her home.
Then I think he left, cos he wasn't there anymore. So I join a game and I start playing, 1-2 min later I hear people come in the entrance, I just think it's just "someone" and I ignore it. (I think I was a bit moody now).
Then "blam" my door open again, and it's the crazy person. And now I go like "ah fkn crap, now what!!"
And she lays in my bed, she tossed of most of her clothes in the hall and she seem to be shaking. I feel bad, I take my blanket over her and I dim the lights, ok, maybe go to sleep.
And I try to keep playing, but it's hard, I hear some ruckus behind me, so im curious,I pause the game and have a lookzies.
Now she's kicked of the blanket, preteding to be asleep ,but she's done that "drag dress up to stomach" trick again, and got her legs spread, exposing her pussy. (It wasn't an ugly pussy or anything, had some meat to it, was mostly white with a few pink areas I do recall).
I get really startled and nervous, wth is going on, where am I!!
I try to turn but I can't seem to be able to focus on starcraft right now. I take a quick turn and peak a little more, I do my squint with the eyes trick, like taking a photograph, then hurry and turn back again.
Now I'm to stressed to play, not sure what to do, and this will look weird if the guy who was with her comes down, or if Dokosoko comes, or, or or if my grandma finds out....
I get up and i'm about to leave the room to think, and I could have sworn she lifted one of her eyelids, to like, check, check what I was doing.
My spider senses were telling me "it'z a tarp". (My concious mind thinks in linguistics very similar to lolcatz).
So I get a really good idea, I run upstairs and I masturbate. Then no "rape, sleep" violation thoughts are in my head. I did plan to go in my room and keep playing, but I got this other awesome idea, instead I just get her some more water, turn off the pc, put it next to her, toss the blanket over her and I go in another room and sleep there.
The next day when I wake up she isn't there, so I just go about my normal routine, but later in the day she comes to visit, and she is asking for me!!
Now she looks like a different person, all polite, shy, pretty and propper. And she spoke, a little nervously. She wanted to know what happened last night. After her first polite opening, she sounded a little "hmm... mischevious". I think that fits, because she said she didn't remember anything, and wanted to know why she woke up in my room, and why she was naked.
Now I'm 78% more relaxed and not nervous, I easily get nervous around drunk people, but when sober, I am in charge.
I start, oh, I'll tell you what happened, and I go in details, and I go through from start to finish, even the slow motion detail when she was almost passed out earlier in the evening with her bum on the edge of the coach. To the part where she kept wanting to show her pussy, to the part where she pretended to be asleep and spread.
Somewhere around there she burst out crying, didn't seem fake or anything, seemed like propper devestation, she nearly broke down, and she ran out, crying real loud. And after that I don't think she came back to visit anymore.
So the moral of the story, a lot of bitches want to pretended they be getting raped I think!!
This one time I was just doing my thang, owning up in Starcraft, and then some other guys who I shared appartment with were out drinking, and one of them brought home this pretty, a little tall, but not too tall, but tall for a girl with long blonde hair home.
The guy she was into was really good with the ladies, smooth talker, gets her wine, appropiate music. I wasn't spying or anything, but I have to walk past the living room to get to the kitchen, and I go to kitchens a lot.
When it got really late, I was going to the kitchen again, they were right about to do it!! And I think the guy was naked, but he was really drunk, and he had tossed her over the side of the sofa and pulled her panties down, she was really drunk too. And he was laughing and cussing when I came by, and he just started walking towards me. I said hi, sup. And he pointed at his thingy.
"So drunk, no chance I can get it up, fuck it." And he went in to his room and locked it.
Anyway, I got a bit uneasy, was a little weird, had just been living there for a month or so, I moved there to share place with Dokosoko and John, 2 friends, and one last guy I didn't know, was pretty big place, and this was the last guy I didn't know.
So I got some stuff in the kitchen, I had a "peek" nothing too pervy, but just a glance at the sofa, cos the hot girl was still sticking her bum up, almost passed out, think she was muttering something. And after I had walked past the living room in slow motion, I ran downstairs to my room.
Put on my headphones, and headed on iccup.
Then suddenly.... Something.... Someone... Opened my door, it was the drunk blonde, she seemed a little abnoxious, like she "woke up" and was feeling bitchy.
I said Hi, as I do to strangers, she didn't reply back, just stared at me. I do this thingy where you try to not pull a smile even though you want to, and I got really nervous. What was this trickery!!
She then left from the entrance of my room, but didn't close the door, and she started walking back and forth, murmering something. I was to startled to be able to continue playing, and I felt stupid just sitting there, so I thought, I should maybe get up and close my door. I went to the door, and she was only a few "yards" away, I guess I have to use yards since most of you people like that shit.
I notice she had her purple dress on, it was pretty short, like a few cm under buttocks area. And she pulls it up to her stomach, no panties, she probably lost them upstairs in that act they had to abort. But she still looked really pist, one of those moments where you think of those meme pics "I got the weirdest boner right now".
I did what any man would do, tried to hurry and close my door, but she stopped it, and did this demonic evil looking stare at me, like she hated me. I quickly stopped trying to close the door and took a few steps back, she dragged her dress up further and started doing this weird walk/dance down the hall, when the bitch had her back to me, I shut the door so fast. I ran to my computer chair, not really sure what to do in it. But if she came back I could pretend I was doing something technical, so I pulled up some graphs and a few more windows, so now I could look really occupied.
A few seconds later she opened the door, now more pissy than ever, all angry since I closed the door probably. I got tired of being friendly and asked, what do you want? She sat down in my bed, I ran and got her a glass of water (seemed like the appropriate thing to do).
Right around this time, Dokosoko came, not sure from where and I had just given her the water, she poured it out, and she hit my sc cd's.....
Ok that's it, I've had it, I grabbed her arm and "yelled, not too loud, but a lot louder than my normal voice, that's for sure" get out, you piece of shit. Now Dokosoko is trying to come an calm the situation, and I said, Nooo, let's kick her out in the snow, she's being dick, and she's naked, she keeps trying to show her pussy.
He said he knew her, and he'd take care of this, she burst out crying!! Now I felt bad, annoying, but I did the "close my door" trick again (which I kept having very little success with, maybe if I had a key). And I think Doko comforted her, got her some clothes and sent her home.
Then I think he left, cos he wasn't there anymore. So I join a game and I start playing, 1-2 min later I hear people come in the entrance, I just think it's just "someone" and I ignore it. (I think I was a bit moody now).
Then "blam" my door open again, and it's the crazy person. And now I go like "ah fkn crap, now what!!"
And she lays in my bed, she tossed of most of her clothes in the hall and she seem to be shaking. I feel bad, I take my blanket over her and I dim the lights, ok, maybe go to sleep.
And I try to keep playing, but it's hard, I hear some ruckus behind me, so im curious,I pause the game and have a lookzies.
Now she's kicked of the blanket, preteding to be asleep ,but she's done that "drag dress up to stomach" trick again, and got her legs spread, exposing her pussy. (It wasn't an ugly pussy or anything, had some meat to it, was mostly white with a few pink areas I do recall).
I get really startled and nervous, wth is going on, where am I!!
I try to turn but I can't seem to be able to focus on starcraft right now. I take a quick turn and peak a little more, I do my squint with the eyes trick, like taking a photograph, then hurry and turn back again.
Now I'm to stressed to play, not sure what to do, and this will look weird if the guy who was with her comes down, or if Dokosoko comes, or, or or if my grandma finds out....
I get up and i'm about to leave the room to think, and I could have sworn she lifted one of her eyelids, to like, check, check what I was doing.
My spider senses were telling me "it'z a tarp". (My concious mind thinks in linguistics very similar to lolcatz).
So I get a really good idea, I run upstairs and I masturbate. Then no "rape, sleep" violation thoughts are in my head. I did plan to go in my room and keep playing, but I got this other awesome idea, instead I just get her some more water, turn off the pc, put it next to her, toss the blanket over her and I go in another room and sleep there.
The next day when I wake up she isn't there, so I just go about my normal routine, but later in the day she comes to visit, and she is asking for me!!
Now she looks like a different person, all polite, shy, pretty and propper. And she spoke, a little nervously. She wanted to know what happened last night. After her first polite opening, she sounded a little "hmm... mischevious". I think that fits, because she said she didn't remember anything, and wanted to know why she woke up in my room, and why she was naked.
Now I'm 78% more relaxed and not nervous, I easily get nervous around drunk people, but when sober, I am in charge.
I start, oh, I'll tell you what happened, and I go in details, and I go through from start to finish, even the slow motion detail when she was almost passed out earlier in the evening with her bum on the edge of the coach. To the part where she kept wanting to show her pussy, to the part where she pretended to be asleep and spread.
Somewhere around there she burst out crying, didn't seem fake or anything, seemed like propper devestation, she nearly broke down, and she ran out, crying real loud. And after that I don't think she came back to visit anymore.
So the moral of the story, a lot of bitches want to pretended they be getting raped I think!!
onsdag 2. mars 2011
Galaxies
Always cool to study Astronomy a little, I did this evening, thought I'd share =]
Galaxies
- 200 billion known Galaxies in the known universe.
- Our Galaxy, The Milky Way, 12 billion years old.(Huge disc with giant spiral arms, and a bulge in the middle)
Born in nebula's, born in clouds of dust and gas.
* Pillars of creation.
* Around many of them are planets and moons.
(We humans thought for a very long time the milky way was the only one until 1924, until Hubble found out otherwise).
He found fuzzy blobs of lights, far far away, whole cities of stars, galaxies, way beyond The Milky Way.
Random Facts
- M87, a giant elliptical galaxy, one of the oldest in the Universe, and the stars all glow gold!
- Sombrero Galaxy, has a huge glowing core, with a ring of gas and dust all around it.(Baal Galaxy?)
- Galaxies are big, really really big.
Some distances and perspective
On earth we measure distance in kilometers, in space astronomers use light years. The distance light travels in a year, which is just under 9,5 trillion kilometers.
- Our Galaxy is 100.000 light years across, which is just a small spec in the universe.
- Our nearest neighbour, Andromeda is nearly 200.000 light years across, twice the size.
- M87 is much much bigger than Andromeda, nearly 5 times as big.
- But all of these are tiny compared to IC1011, biggest galaxy ever found. 60 times larger than our Milky way.
- The first stars formed 200 million years after the Big Bang ( 13,8 billion years ago).
- Then gravity pulled them together, building the first Galaxies.
Mankind's incredible tenacity and creativity
Whatever we see in telescopes today are things that has happened millions or more years ago, because it has taken the light as long to get to us. The feint smudges, formed 1 billion years after the big bang is the furthest back Hubble can see.
Until recently, humankind made Act, a 500 meter tall telescope, and the largest in the world. Act doesn't detect visible light, it detects cosmic microwaves, from the time the Universe was a few hundred thousands year old.
It doesn't just detect early Galaxies, it can see how they grew. The footprints of all the growth, from a few hundred thousand years till now.
Letting Astronomers see how they form and evolve: Stars form cluster, forms to galaxies, which builds into clusters of galaxies which builds into super clusters of Galaxies.
- In the beginning Galaxies looked like poo, random and bulgy, now they look awesome and perfect. Gravity, gravity shapes and molds Galaxies
Unimaginable Power
- There's an unimaginable powerful and incredible destructive source of gravity at the heart of most Galaxies. And there's one at the deep center of our own milky way.
- For years scientists wondered what could be powerful enough to change how a Galaxy behave, and then they found out.... A black hole, not just any kind, a super massive black hole.
* It eats gas and stars, but sometimes black holes consumes too quickly, and what they are consuming are dispatched back into space in beams of pure energy.
* This is called Quasar, when they find one, they know the center has a Super massive black hole.
- The black hole in the center out of Galaxy is gigantic, 24 million kilometers across.
* Even though, Earth is in absolute no danger, since Earth is 25.000 light years away (trillions of kilometers). So the earth is safe... For now....
Dark Matter
Super massive black holes may be the source of huge amounts of gravity, but they don't have enough power to hold a galaxy together, according to the laws of physic, a galaxy should fly apart. Why don't they?
Because there's something out even more powerful than a super massive black hole. It can't be seen, and virtually impossible to detect, but it's there. And it's called dark matter, and it's everywhere.
- Scientist are discovering that dark matter doesn't just hold em together, might have sparked them into life as well.
- They think dark matter was created into the Big Bang, and that dark matter became the seed of the Galaxy, even though they have no idea what it really is and no idea what it's made of.
- They think that dark matter weight for weight make up for x6 as much as all other matter in the Universe.
Recently it's been detected in deep space, it bends it, in a process called gravitational lensing. Allows us to detect the presence of dark matter. As a beam of light is travelling towards us, if it passes by dark matter, it gets deflected around it by the gravitational pull.
Triggers the birth of galaxies, and keeps them together, scientists call it, the master of the Universe.
Unfathomable vastness
Scientist have come so far, they've built almost the whole Universe in a super Computer. Here you can't see individual Galaxies, can't even see clusters. But what you can see is Super Clusters, linked together in filaments, in a vast cosmic web. One finds a cosmic web which lights up all of the Universe, making the Universe looks like a gigantic sponge.
Each of the filaments is home to millions of Galaxy clusters, all bound together by dark matter. In the simulation, the dark matter glows along the filaments.
It's a giant cosmic web, and hidden deep within one of these filaments are our Milky way.
Dark Energy
In recent times, the last decade scientists found something new, kinda scary. Dark Energy, far more mysterious than dark matter, since we don't have the slightest idea what it is or what it's doing. Like space has little springs in it, make things repel each other and pushes things apart.
If Dark Energy wins vs Dark matter, it make Galaxies spread apart and push things away from each other. But that's not going to happen for a very very long time (trillions of light years).
Fantastic time to live in
We're extremely fortunate, life has only evolved on earth because our tiny solar system was born in the right part of the Galaxy, any closer to the center, we wouldn't be here. Since life there is extremely lively, radioactive.
To far away from the center would be just as bad, ain't as many stars, we might not exist at all. We're not to far, not too close, perfect distance.
Endless questions to ask, and mysteries to solve. More and more scientists are focusing on Galaxies, it's amazing time to live in, where we're making the most extraordinary discoveries imaginable
PS,
The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda, and since the bigger of galaxies crashing eats and consume the smaller, Milky Way will lose. Which is doomsday of our own Galaxy, but according to Astronomers it'll be amazingly beautiful.
PPS,
In 5 billion years
Galaxies
- 200 billion known Galaxies in the known universe.
- Our Galaxy, The Milky Way, 12 billion years old.(Huge disc with giant spiral arms, and a bulge in the middle)
Born in nebula's, born in clouds of dust and gas.
* Pillars of creation.
* Around many of them are planets and moons.
(We humans thought for a very long time the milky way was the only one until 1924, until Hubble found out otherwise).
He found fuzzy blobs of lights, far far away, whole cities of stars, galaxies, way beyond The Milky Way.
Random Facts
- M87, a giant elliptical galaxy, one of the oldest in the Universe, and the stars all glow gold!
- Sombrero Galaxy, has a huge glowing core, with a ring of gas and dust all around it.(Baal Galaxy?)
- Galaxies are big, really really big.
Some distances and perspective
On earth we measure distance in kilometers, in space astronomers use light years. The distance light travels in a year, which is just under 9,5 trillion kilometers.
- Our Galaxy is 100.000 light years across, which is just a small spec in the universe.
- Our nearest neighbour, Andromeda is nearly 200.000 light years across, twice the size.
- M87 is much much bigger than Andromeda, nearly 5 times as big.
- But all of these are tiny compared to IC1011, biggest galaxy ever found. 60 times larger than our Milky way.
- The first stars formed 200 million years after the Big Bang ( 13,8 billion years ago).
- Then gravity pulled them together, building the first Galaxies.
Mankind's incredible tenacity and creativity
Whatever we see in telescopes today are things that has happened millions or more years ago, because it has taken the light as long to get to us. The feint smudges, formed 1 billion years after the big bang is the furthest back Hubble can see.
Until recently, humankind made Act, a 500 meter tall telescope, and the largest in the world. Act doesn't detect visible light, it detects cosmic microwaves, from the time the Universe was a few hundred thousands year old.
It doesn't just detect early Galaxies, it can see how they grew. The footprints of all the growth, from a few hundred thousand years till now.
Letting Astronomers see how they form and evolve: Stars form cluster, forms to galaxies, which builds into clusters of galaxies which builds into super clusters of Galaxies.
- In the beginning Galaxies looked like poo, random and bulgy, now they look awesome and perfect. Gravity, gravity shapes and molds Galaxies
Unimaginable Power
- There's an unimaginable powerful and incredible destructive source of gravity at the heart of most Galaxies. And there's one at the deep center of our own milky way.
- For years scientists wondered what could be powerful enough to change how a Galaxy behave, and then they found out.... A black hole, not just any kind, a super massive black hole.
* It eats gas and stars, but sometimes black holes consumes too quickly, and what they are consuming are dispatched back into space in beams of pure energy.
* This is called Quasar, when they find one, they know the center has a Super massive black hole.
- The black hole in the center out of Galaxy is gigantic, 24 million kilometers across.
* Even though, Earth is in absolute no danger, since Earth is 25.000 light years away (trillions of kilometers). So the earth is safe... For now....
Dark Matter
Super massive black holes may be the source of huge amounts of gravity, but they don't have enough power to hold a galaxy together, according to the laws of physic, a galaxy should fly apart. Why don't they?
Because there's something out even more powerful than a super massive black hole. It can't be seen, and virtually impossible to detect, but it's there. And it's called dark matter, and it's everywhere.
- Scientist are discovering that dark matter doesn't just hold em together, might have sparked them into life as well.
- They think dark matter was created into the Big Bang, and that dark matter became the seed of the Galaxy, even though they have no idea what it really is and no idea what it's made of.
- They think that dark matter weight for weight make up for x6 as much as all other matter in the Universe.
Recently it's been detected in deep space, it bends it, in a process called gravitational lensing. Allows us to detect the presence of dark matter. As a beam of light is travelling towards us, if it passes by dark matter, it gets deflected around it by the gravitational pull.
Triggers the birth of galaxies, and keeps them together, scientists call it, the master of the Universe.
Unfathomable vastness
Scientist have come so far, they've built almost the whole Universe in a super Computer. Here you can't see individual Galaxies, can't even see clusters. But what you can see is Super Clusters, linked together in filaments, in a vast cosmic web. One finds a cosmic web which lights up all of the Universe, making the Universe looks like a gigantic sponge.
Each of the filaments is home to millions of Galaxy clusters, all bound together by dark matter. In the simulation, the dark matter glows along the filaments.
It's a giant cosmic web, and hidden deep within one of these filaments are our Milky way.
Dark Energy
In recent times, the last decade scientists found something new, kinda scary. Dark Energy, far more mysterious than dark matter, since we don't have the slightest idea what it is or what it's doing. Like space has little springs in it, make things repel each other and pushes things apart.
If Dark Energy wins vs Dark matter, it make Galaxies spread apart and push things away from each other. But that's not going to happen for a very very long time (trillions of light years).
Fantastic time to live in
We're extremely fortunate, life has only evolved on earth because our tiny solar system was born in the right part of the Galaxy, any closer to the center, we wouldn't be here. Since life there is extremely lively, radioactive.
To far away from the center would be just as bad, ain't as many stars, we might not exist at all. We're not to far, not too close, perfect distance.
Endless questions to ask, and mysteries to solve. More and more scientists are focusing on Galaxies, it's amazing time to live in, where we're making the most extraordinary discoveries imaginable
PS,
The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda, and since the bigger of galaxies crashing eats and consume the smaller, Milky Way will lose. Which is doomsday of our own Galaxy, but according to Astronomers it'll be amazingly beautiful.
PPS,
In 5 billion years
tirsdag 1. mars 2011
Sleeping
Mostly for myself, I've been having troubles with it for quite some time. I figured if I studied it some, took some notes, got it in my blog It'd help me a lot.
1 - Get a schedule
your body thrives on running on a routine; erratic sleeping sessions will interfere with your internal "biological clock". For some people, and depending on work and routine, a very short rest in the afternoon (the Spanish call it the siesta) could help alleviate drowsiness some people experience during the day. But make sure not to oversleep.
2 - Be mindful of what you have eaten or drunk before bed
* Stomach should not be too full, but not too empty.
* Digestion doesn't work well while asleep.
* Do not eat heavy foods a few hours before sleep (But not go to bed on empty stomach either).
* Caffeine sits in the body for 8 hours, so no tea or coffe in the evening.
* Drink 2l or more of water a day. Hydrated body is awesome.
* Alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but will greatly reduce sleep quality.
* Great foods in the evening, before bed: milk, turkey, yogurt, ice cream, peanuts. Since Tryptophan helps the body produce serotonin in order to relax.
3 - Keep the room dark
* Avoid any kind of light, pull curtains across the blinds, LED clocks, computer lights so forth. Also really hard to go back to sleep if exposed to bright light.
4 - Change your sleeping position
* When on your back, have a pillow under ur feets.
* When on your side, have a pillow in between your legs.
* Avoid sleeping on your stomach, it's shit.
5 - Exercise
Your body wants to recover, if you've not exerted yourself there isn't much to recover from, and it might distrupt your sleep.
* regular exercise can make your sleep deeper and more restful.
* Don't exercise right before sleep.
6 - Weird circumstances
* If outer circumstances, problems in life etc. are on your mind. Start meditating.
Random tips
* Keep the computer off 1 hour before bed
* Chamomile tea supposedly doesn't count when it comes to tea in the evening
* Don't sleep too long, shoot for around 8 hours. Too little or too long will make you grouchy and tired the next day
* Avoid having on music or TV
1 - Get a schedule
your body thrives on running on a routine; erratic sleeping sessions will interfere with your internal "biological clock". For some people, and depending on work and routine, a very short rest in the afternoon (the Spanish call it the siesta) could help alleviate drowsiness some people experience during the day. But make sure not to oversleep.
2 - Be mindful of what you have eaten or drunk before bed
* Stomach should not be too full, but not too empty.
* Digestion doesn't work well while asleep.
* Do not eat heavy foods a few hours before sleep (But not go to bed on empty stomach either).
* Caffeine sits in the body for 8 hours, so no tea or coffe in the evening.
* Drink 2l or more of water a day. Hydrated body is awesome.
* Alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but will greatly reduce sleep quality.
* Great foods in the evening, before bed: milk, turkey, yogurt, ice cream, peanuts. Since Tryptophan helps the body produce serotonin in order to relax.
3 - Keep the room dark
* Avoid any kind of light, pull curtains across the blinds, LED clocks, computer lights so forth. Also really hard to go back to sleep if exposed to bright light.
4 - Change your sleeping position
* When on your back, have a pillow under ur feets.
* When on your side, have a pillow in between your legs.
* Avoid sleeping on your stomach, it's shit.
5 - Exercise
Your body wants to recover, if you've not exerted yourself there isn't much to recover from, and it might distrupt your sleep.
* regular exercise can make your sleep deeper and more restful.
* Don't exercise right before sleep.
6 - Weird circumstances
* If outer circumstances, problems in life etc. are on your mind. Start meditating.
Random tips
* Keep the computer off 1 hour before bed
* Chamomile tea supposedly doesn't count when it comes to tea in the evening
* Don't sleep too long, shoot for around 8 hours. Too little or too long will make you grouchy and tired the next day
* Avoid having on music or TV
søndag 27. februar 2011
In my mind: Mastery
In my mind: Mastery: "Just read a really awesome book, thought I'd share some. Might be a bit awkward to follow the red line, at least at the start. But I think i..."
Mastery
Just read a really awesome book, thought I'd share some.
Might be a bit awkward to follow the red line, at least at the start. But I think it gets better as you go along.
And oh, it's pretty long, but when you get half-way you won't stop until you're done, so use that as a carrot =]
George Leonard's Mastery
- The plateau can be a form of purgatory. It triggers disowned emotions. It flushes out hidden motivations.
- We sometimes choose a course of action that brings the illusion of accomplishment, the shadow of satisfaction. And sometimes knowing little or nothing about the process that leads to mastery.
Varieties of intelligence
* Linguistics
* Musical
* Logical / Mathematical
* Spatial
* Bodily / Kinesthetic
* 2 types of Personal, Intra/Inter
- We are born geniuses of thought and feeling, + geniuses in potential of the body.
The Mastery Curve
(OK, this I drew, so not 100% sure how I can draw it here. I'll just do my best explaining what it looks like.)
Starts out flat, then it starts going in an upward hill, to a beak, then it declines and goes down a little, then it stays flat for a bit (the plateau), and the process repeats.
- Practice diligently
- Strive to hone your skills
- Attain new levels of competence
- Be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing when you seem to be getting nowhere.
- Habitual behaviour system operates at a level deeper than conscious thought.
* Involved the reflex circuit in the spinal cord as well as in various parts of the brain to which it is connected
Cognitive system: When learning a new skill, you need to make an effort to replace old patterns of sensing, movements and cognition with the new
The cognitive and the effort system become subsets of the habitual system long enough to modify it. To teach it a new behaviour. When the job is done, they withdraw. Then you don't have to stop and think.
How do you move toward mastery?
= You practice diligently (without getting frustrated on the plateau)
The 3 types of persona: Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker
- Commercials just show endless climaxes, no plateau.
- Why people lean toward drugs
(I don't care how you win, just win, about effortless learning, instant celebrities, instant millionaires)
Same in medicine/pharmacy "fast relief"
Research studies show that most illnesses are caused by environmental factors or way of life
- 10 min at the Dr. isn't enough to get to know the patient, or write a prescription.
The NR.1 cause of death can be reversed by a long-term regime of diet, moderate exercise, yoga, meditation and group support.(Most Dr. in the us claim this is to drastic, and suggest $30k open chest surgery instead).
The joy of regular practice
- We as humans often go against what's best for us, and waste an evening distracting ourselves.
- People who love the plateau have very vivid and satisfying lives.
People who go into something for the money, the fame or the medal, can't be effective.
Mastery's true face is relaxed and serene, sometimes faintly smiling.
Goals and contingencies = important, BUT exists in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm
Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, smell it, feel it.
To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment.
Man is a learning animal.
Key One
Instruction
- The self thought person is on a chancey path (can work, like Edison, but most have kept on re-inventing the wheel.)
For mastering most skills, there's nothing better than being in the hands of a master teacher.
Either one to one, or in a small group. Also good options: Books, films, computer learning programs, group instructions, classroom, knowledgeable friends, counselors, associates, "the street".
- When you learn to easy, you're tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of practice.
The worst can be the best, for it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing all the way to the marrow of it's bones
- Make sure your teacher is paying attention to the slowest student on the math
When irreconsieable differences do occur, remember that the better part of wisdom is knowing when to say goodbye.
"Do not think that
This is all there is.
More and more
wonderful teachings exist -
The Sword is unfathomable"
Key 2
Practice
Practice is the path upon which you travel. Not in order to gain something else, but for it's own sake.
An old saying: The master is the one who stays on the math five minutes longer every day than anybody else.
- The master of any game is generally the master of practice
- Practice is the path to mastery. Mastery is staying on the path.
Key 3
Surrender
- The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender.
- The beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored, the learning can't get through.
- The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations of familiar themes.
For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
Key 4
Intentionality
Nicklaus quote: A successful shot was 50% visualization, 40% setup and 10% swing
*Relaxation
*Confidence
*Mental rehearsal
*Imagining
*Relaxation exercises
Intentionality fuels the master's journey. Every master is a master of vision.
Key 5
The Edge
(I like this phrasing)
Masters are Zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step.
Julie Moss
Share her stupid desire, heroism, to use yourself to the limit, to finish at all cost, to attain the unattainable.
But before playing this edge, there must be years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.
Being on the never ending path.
(Was a wonderful story about her, I found a youtub clip of it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbWsQMabczM
Tools for Mastery
Intro: How can you avoid backsliding? Where will you find the energy for your journey? What pitfalls will you encounter on the path? How can you apply mastery to the commonplace things of life? What should you back for the journey?
Why resolutions fail - and what to do about it.
- Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it's for the worse or for the better.
Our body, brain and behaviour have a built-in tendency to stay with the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed
- Equilibrium, called homeostasis
- Homeostasis doesn't distinguish between what you would call change for the better and change for the worse. It resists all change
- The resistance here is proportionate to the size and speed of the change
When you begin to pursue mastery, homeostasis will happen. Might come in any of these forms:
* Alarms in form of physical or psychological symptoms
* Might unknowingly sabotage your own best efforts
* Might get resistance from family, friends and co-workers
Here are 5 guidelines to help you on your way if you do decide to go on the path.
1. Be aware of the way homeostasis works
(When the alarm bell rings, it doesn't mean you're sick or crazy or lazy or that you've made a bad decision.)
Instead take these signals as if you're life is about to change
- Don't panic and give up at the first sign of trouble
- Don't be surprised if some of the people you love start covertly and overtly undermining your self-improvement.
(It's not that they wish you harm, it's just homeostasis at work.)
2. Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
The willingness to take 2 steps forward and one step backwards
- To keep pushing, but not without awareness
Stay alert prepare for serious negotiations.
3. Develop a support system
* You can do it alone, but it helps a great deal to have other people with you.
4. Follow a regular practice.
Practice is a habit, and any regular practice provides a sort of underlying homeostasis, a stable base during the instability of change.
5. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
* To learn is to change. Education, whether it involves books, body, or behaviour, is a process that changes the learner.
* The best learning of all involves learning to learn
Getting Energy for Mastery
* A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. (There are limits)
* Often the best remedy for physical weariness is 30 min exercise.
* mental and spiritual lassitude is often cured by decisive action or the clear intention to act.
Here's how you get started:
1. Maintain physical fitness.
* Physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.
* People who feel good about themselves, who are in touch with nature and their own bodies, are more likely to use their energy for good.
2. Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Value a positive attitude and the effectiveness of praise and other forms of positive feedback.
* It seems you can hardly overdo it
- Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling; it means facing the truth and then moving on.
- Avoid teachers and supervisors who are highly critical in a negative sense.
(Telling people what they're doing wrong while ignoring what they are doing right reduces their energy).
"Here's what I like about what you're doing, and here's how you might improve it".
3. Try telling the truth
* Lies and secrets are poison
* Truth-telling works best when it involves revealing your own feelings, not when used to insult others and to get on your way.
* It has a lot going for it, risk, challenge, excitement and the release of all that energy
4. Honor but don't indulge your dark side.
- Stop putting so much of ourselves into that invisible bag.
- Use the blazing energy that flows from that which has been called dark.
5. Set your priorities.
- Before you can use your potential energy, you have to decide what you're going to do with it.
And in making any choice you face a monstrous fact: To move in one direction, you must forgo all others.
To choose one goal is to forsake a very large number of other possible goals.
(Television makes it even more complicated. By offering endless possibilities, it temps you to choose none, to sit staring in endless wonder, to become comatose. Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression and despair).
Liberation comes through the acceptance of your limits. You can't do everything, but you can do one thing, then another, and then another.
- In terms of energy, it's better to make a wrong choice than none at all.
- Start modestly, list your priorities, for the day, tomorrow. Try to do the same thing long term, use A,B,C. Priorities shift, and you can change them any time.
- Simply getting them down in black and white (if you use that color and paper) adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy.
6. Make commitments. Take action.
- Set your own deadlines
- Can give surge of clarity and energy
- You have to take it seriously
(One way is to make it public.)
- The firmer the deadline, the harder it is to break, and the more energy it confers.
- Above all else, move and keep moving.
- Take time for wise planning, but don't take forever
7. Get on path of mastery and stay on it.
- Adequate rest is cool, but unaccompanied by positive action, rest may only depress you
- People whose energy is flowing don't need to take a drug, commit a crime or "go to war" in order to feel alive.
Pitfalls along the way
It's easy to get on the path. The real challenge lies in staying on it.
1. Conflicting way of life
2. Obsessive goal orientation.
- The desire for quick, sure, and highly visible results is perhaps the deadliest enemy of mastery.
- When climbing, don't keep looking at the peak, keep your eyes on the path.
3. Poor instruction
* Surrender
* Don't bounce around from one teacher to another.
* But don't stick to a situation that's not working.
4. Lack of competitiveness.
* Competition provides spice
* Can provide motivation
* Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are the mark of a master
5. Overcompetetiveness.
6. Laziness
"Disinclined to action or extortion; averse to labor, indolent, idle, slothful."
The bad news is that laziness will knock you off the path. The good news is that the path is the best possible cure for laziness. Courage!!! (Not suppose to be !'s there, but I added them for dramatic effect).
7. Injuries.
- The best way of achieving a goal is to be fully present.
8. Drugs.
Can give the illusion of getting the immediate success this culture is always promising you.
9. Prizes and Medals.
Excessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.
10. Vanity.
To learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
- If you're always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that's necessary for effective learning and top performance.
11. Dead seriousness.
Without laughter, the rough and rocky places on the path might be too painful to bear. Humor not only lightens your load, it also broadens perspective. To be deadly serious is to suffer tunnel vision. To be able to laugh at yourself clears the vision. When choosing fellow voyagers, beware of grimness, self-importance, and the solemn eye.
12. Inconsistency.
- Consistency of practice is the mark of the master
- Value in repeating favourite rituals before, during and after practice.
- Inconsistency not only loses you practice time, but makes everything more difficult when you do get around to practicing.
13. Perfectionism.
We fail to realize mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.
Mastering the Commonplace
- Most of life is "in between"
- Building a stone wall or washing dishes is essentially no different from formal meditation
Household Rhythm:
- Whatever you do, do it awesomely (I made that word up)
- Stay wholly focused on the moment
- Above all, don't hurry
- Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery.
Focus on the process rather than the product
This takes practice....
The challenge of Relationships
- If you have to work at a sport to achieve mastery, you also have to work, and generally work even more diligently, to achieve mastery in relationships.
- The most important learning and development takes place during your time on the plateau
* Instruction
* Practice
* Surrender
(The stronger you are the more you can give of yourself. The more you give of yourself, the stronger you can be.)
* Intentionality
(Cultivate a positive attitude)
* The Edge
The path to mastery is built on unrelenting practice, but it's also a place of adventure.
Couples with a willingness to play new games, dances, intimacy, willingness to strip layers, to live entirely in the moment, revealing everything and expecting nothing in return.
Ultimately, nothing in this life is "commonplace," nothing is "in between". The threads that join your every act, your every thought, are infinite. All paths of mastery eventually merge.
Packing for the Journey
Maybe an old skill or obsession you've been dabbling in, or hacking at for months or years. Maybe vowed to treat your entire life to the best of your ability, as a process to mastery.
Start with the checklist.
The Five Master Keys
* Key 1: Instruction
* Key 2: Practice
* Key 3: Surrender
* Key 4: Intentionality
* Key 5: The Edge
Dealing with change and Homeostasis
* Be aware of how homeostasis work
* Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
* Develop a support system
* Follow a regular practice
* Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning
Getting Energy for Mastery
* Maintain physical fitness
* Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Try telling the truth
* Honor but don't indulge in your dark side
* Set priorities
* Make commitments. Take action
* Get on the path of mastery and stay on it
Pitfalls along the Path
* Conflicting way of life
* Obsessive goal orientation
* Poor instruction
* Lack of competitiveness
* Overcompetetiveness
* Laziness
* Injuries
* Drugs
* Prizes and medals
* Vanity
* Inconsistency
* Perfectionism
Parting Gifts
Balancing and centering
(oh crap)
Returning to the center
- Basically, learn about meditation, breathing exercises. When you get knocked off, find your center.
Getting Energy from unexpected blows
- When things go shit, losing a friend, loved one. Don't struggle blindly, don't deny yourself the pain.
- Have a partner grab your wrist, and spill your guts.
- When done, feel your center, focus on the clarity and use all that energy. Consider the possibility that any misfortune that befalls you during your journey can be converted to positive energy.
Introduction to ki
ki in japanese
ch'i in Chinese
Pneuma in Greek
Prana in Sanskrit
"the force" in Star Wars lol
In the ancient tradition, the word comes from the notion of breath
* Considered the fundamental energy of the Universe that connects all things and under girds all creative action.
- The idea of ki can offer the untrained person an effective way of gaining a sensation of increased power along with relaxation, especially during times of fatigue and stress, and thus is a useful item to pack for your journey.
Relaxing for power:
Power; to be able
Visualize with exaggerated images, make your muscles relaxed (not rigid and tense) to increase their power.
Interesting facts:
- Human DNA contains more information than all of the libraries in the world.
- In potentia, humans are the most formidable all-around athlete who has ever roamed the planet.
- The unaided human eye can detect a single quantum of light and discern more than ten million colors. (I'm pretty sure I'm stuck at like 9).
- The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe.
- What you are made of is mostly unused potential.
- It is our evolutionary destiny to use what is unused, to learn and keep learning for as long as we live
To choose this destiny, to walk the path of mastery, isn't always easy, but it's the ultimate human adventure.
Closing words
To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.
- How many times have you failed to try something new out of fear of being thought silly?
- How often have you censored your spontaneity out of fear of being thought childish?
Second naivete = childlike quality, often found in people with an unusually high degree of their potential
"Are you willing to wear your white belt?"
Might be a bit awkward to follow the red line, at least at the start. But I think it gets better as you go along.
And oh, it's pretty long, but when you get half-way you won't stop until you're done, so use that as a carrot =]
George Leonard's Mastery
- The plateau can be a form of purgatory. It triggers disowned emotions. It flushes out hidden motivations.
- We sometimes choose a course of action that brings the illusion of accomplishment, the shadow of satisfaction. And sometimes knowing little or nothing about the process that leads to mastery.
Varieties of intelligence
* Linguistics
* Musical
* Logical / Mathematical
* Spatial
* Bodily / Kinesthetic
* 2 types of Personal, Intra/Inter
- We are born geniuses of thought and feeling, + geniuses in potential of the body.
The Mastery Curve
(OK, this I drew, so not 100% sure how I can draw it here. I'll just do my best explaining what it looks like.)
Starts out flat, then it starts going in an upward hill, to a beak, then it declines and goes down a little, then it stays flat for a bit (the plateau), and the process repeats.
- Practice diligently
- Strive to hone your skills
- Attain new levels of competence
- Be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing when you seem to be getting nowhere.
- Habitual behaviour system operates at a level deeper than conscious thought.
* Involved the reflex circuit in the spinal cord as well as in various parts of the brain to which it is connected
Cognitive system: When learning a new skill, you need to make an effort to replace old patterns of sensing, movements and cognition with the new
The cognitive and the effort system become subsets of the habitual system long enough to modify it. To teach it a new behaviour. When the job is done, they withdraw. Then you don't have to stop and think.
How do you move toward mastery?
= You practice diligently (without getting frustrated on the plateau)
The 3 types of persona: Dabbler, Obsessive, Hacker
- Commercials just show endless climaxes, no plateau.
- Why people lean toward drugs
(I don't care how you win, just win, about effortless learning, instant celebrities, instant millionaires)
Same in medicine/pharmacy "fast relief"
Research studies show that most illnesses are caused by environmental factors or way of life
- 10 min at the Dr. isn't enough to get to know the patient, or write a prescription.
The NR.1 cause of death can be reversed by a long-term regime of diet, moderate exercise, yoga, meditation and group support.(Most Dr. in the us claim this is to drastic, and suggest $30k open chest surgery instead).
The joy of regular practice
- We as humans often go against what's best for us, and waste an evening distracting ourselves.
- People who love the plateau have very vivid and satisfying lives.
People who go into something for the money, the fame or the medal, can't be effective.
Mastery's true face is relaxed and serene, sometimes faintly smiling.
Goals and contingencies = important, BUT exists in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm
Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, smell it, feel it.
To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment.
Man is a learning animal.
Key One
Instruction
- The self thought person is on a chancey path (can work, like Edison, but most have kept on re-inventing the wheel.)
For mastering most skills, there's nothing better than being in the hands of a master teacher.
Either one to one, or in a small group. Also good options: Books, films, computer learning programs, group instructions, classroom, knowledgeable friends, counselors, associates, "the street".
- When you learn to easy, you're tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of practice.
The worst can be the best, for it perseveres, it will have learned whatever it is practicing all the way to the marrow of it's bones
- Make sure your teacher is paying attention to the slowest student on the math
When irreconsieable differences do occur, remember that the better part of wisdom is knowing when to say goodbye.
"Do not think that
This is all there is.
More and more
wonderful teachings exist -
The Sword is unfathomable"
Key 2
Practice
Practice is the path upon which you travel. Not in order to gain something else, but for it's own sake.
An old saying: The master is the one who stays on the math five minutes longer every day than anybody else.
- The master of any game is generally the master of practice
- Practice is the path to mastery. Mastery is staying on the path.
Key 3
Surrender
- The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender.
- The beginner who stands on his or her dignity becomes rigid, armored, the learning can't get through.
- The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations of familiar themes.
For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.
Key 4
Intentionality
Nicklaus quote: A successful shot was 50% visualization, 40% setup and 10% swing
*Relaxation
*Confidence
*Mental rehearsal
*Imagining
*Relaxation exercises
Intentionality fuels the master's journey. Every master is a master of vision.
Key 5
The Edge
(I like this phrasing)
Masters are Zealots of practice, connoisseurs of the small, incremental step.
Julie Moss
Share her stupid desire, heroism, to use yourself to the limit, to finish at all cost, to attain the unattainable.
But before playing this edge, there must be years of instruction, practice, surrender, and intentionality.
Being on the never ending path.
(Was a wonderful story about her, I found a youtub clip of it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbWsQMabczM
Tools for Mastery
Intro: How can you avoid backsliding? Where will you find the energy for your journey? What pitfalls will you encounter on the path? How can you apply mastery to the commonplace things of life? What should you back for the journey?
Why resolutions fail - and what to do about it.
- Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it's for the worse or for the better.
Our body, brain and behaviour have a built-in tendency to stay with the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed
- Equilibrium, called homeostasis
- Homeostasis doesn't distinguish between what you would call change for the better and change for the worse. It resists all change
- The resistance here is proportionate to the size and speed of the change
When you begin to pursue mastery, homeostasis will happen. Might come in any of these forms:
* Alarms in form of physical or psychological symptoms
* Might unknowingly sabotage your own best efforts
* Might get resistance from family, friends and co-workers
Here are 5 guidelines to help you on your way if you do decide to go on the path.
1. Be aware of the way homeostasis works
(When the alarm bell rings, it doesn't mean you're sick or crazy or lazy or that you've made a bad decision.)
Instead take these signals as if you're life is about to change
- Don't panic and give up at the first sign of trouble
- Don't be surprised if some of the people you love start covertly and overtly undermining your self-improvement.
(It's not that they wish you harm, it's just homeostasis at work.)
2. Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
The willingness to take 2 steps forward and one step backwards
- To keep pushing, but not without awareness
Stay alert prepare for serious negotiations.
3. Develop a support system
* You can do it alone, but it helps a great deal to have other people with you.
4. Follow a regular practice.
Practice is a habit, and any regular practice provides a sort of underlying homeostasis, a stable base during the instability of change.
5. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning.
* To learn is to change. Education, whether it involves books, body, or behaviour, is a process that changes the learner.
* The best learning of all involves learning to learn
Getting Energy for Mastery
* A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. (There are limits)
* Often the best remedy for physical weariness is 30 min exercise.
* mental and spiritual lassitude is often cured by decisive action or the clear intention to act.
Here's how you get started:
1. Maintain physical fitness.
* Physical fitness contributes enormously to energy in every aspect of our lives.
* People who feel good about themselves, who are in touch with nature and their own bodies, are more likely to use their energy for good.
2. Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Value a positive attitude and the effectiveness of praise and other forms of positive feedback.
* It seems you can hardly overdo it
- Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling; it means facing the truth and then moving on.
- Avoid teachers and supervisors who are highly critical in a negative sense.
(Telling people what they're doing wrong while ignoring what they are doing right reduces their energy).
"Here's what I like about what you're doing, and here's how you might improve it".
3. Try telling the truth
* Lies and secrets are poison
* Truth-telling works best when it involves revealing your own feelings, not when used to insult others and to get on your way.
* It has a lot going for it, risk, challenge, excitement and the release of all that energy
4. Honor but don't indulge your dark side.
- Stop putting so much of ourselves into that invisible bag.
- Use the blazing energy that flows from that which has been called dark.
5. Set your priorities.
- Before you can use your potential energy, you have to decide what you're going to do with it.
And in making any choice you face a monstrous fact: To move in one direction, you must forgo all others.
To choose one goal is to forsake a very large number of other possible goals.
(Television makes it even more complicated. By offering endless possibilities, it temps you to choose none, to sit staring in endless wonder, to become comatose. Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression and despair).
Liberation comes through the acceptance of your limits. You can't do everything, but you can do one thing, then another, and then another.
- In terms of energy, it's better to make a wrong choice than none at all.
- Start modestly, list your priorities, for the day, tomorrow. Try to do the same thing long term, use A,B,C. Priorities shift, and you can change them any time.
- Simply getting them down in black and white (if you use that color and paper) adds clarity to your life, and clarity creates energy.
6. Make commitments. Take action.
- Set your own deadlines
- Can give surge of clarity and energy
- You have to take it seriously
(One way is to make it public.)
- The firmer the deadline, the harder it is to break, and the more energy it confers.
- Above all else, move and keep moving.
- Take time for wise planning, but don't take forever
7. Get on path of mastery and stay on it.
- Adequate rest is cool, but unaccompanied by positive action, rest may only depress you
- People whose energy is flowing don't need to take a drug, commit a crime or "go to war" in order to feel alive.
Pitfalls along the way
It's easy to get on the path. The real challenge lies in staying on it.
1. Conflicting way of life
2. Obsessive goal orientation.
- The desire for quick, sure, and highly visible results is perhaps the deadliest enemy of mastery.
- When climbing, don't keep looking at the peak, keep your eyes on the path.
3. Poor instruction
* Surrender
* Don't bounce around from one teacher to another.
* But don't stick to a situation that's not working.
4. Lack of competitiveness.
* Competition provides spice
* Can provide motivation
* Winning graciously and losing with equal grace are the mark of a master
5. Overcompetetiveness.
6. Laziness
"Disinclined to action or extortion; averse to labor, indolent, idle, slothful."
The bad news is that laziness will knock you off the path. The good news is that the path is the best possible cure for laziness. Courage!!! (Not suppose to be !'s there, but I added them for dramatic effect).
7. Injuries.
- The best way of achieving a goal is to be fully present.
8. Drugs.
Can give the illusion of getting the immediate success this culture is always promising you.
9. Prizes and Medals.
Excessive use of external motivation can slow and even stop your journey to mastery.
10. Vanity.
To learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
- If you're always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that's necessary for effective learning and top performance.
11. Dead seriousness.
Without laughter, the rough and rocky places on the path might be too painful to bear. Humor not only lightens your load, it also broadens perspective. To be deadly serious is to suffer tunnel vision. To be able to laugh at yourself clears the vision. When choosing fellow voyagers, beware of grimness, self-importance, and the solemn eye.
12. Inconsistency.
- Consistency of practice is the mark of the master
- Value in repeating favourite rituals before, during and after practice.
- Inconsistency not only loses you practice time, but makes everything more difficult when you do get around to practicing.
13. Perfectionism.
We fail to realize mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.
Mastering the Commonplace
- Most of life is "in between"
- Building a stone wall or washing dishes is essentially no different from formal meditation
Household Rhythm:
- Whatever you do, do it awesomely (I made that word up)
- Stay wholly focused on the moment
- Above all, don't hurry
- Life is filled with opportunities for practicing the inexorable, unhurried rhythm of mastery.
Focus on the process rather than the product
This takes practice....
The challenge of Relationships
- If you have to work at a sport to achieve mastery, you also have to work, and generally work even more diligently, to achieve mastery in relationships.
- The most important learning and development takes place during your time on the plateau
* Instruction
* Practice
* Surrender
(The stronger you are the more you can give of yourself. The more you give of yourself, the stronger you can be.)
* Intentionality
(Cultivate a positive attitude)
* The Edge
The path to mastery is built on unrelenting practice, but it's also a place of adventure.
Couples with a willingness to play new games, dances, intimacy, willingness to strip layers, to live entirely in the moment, revealing everything and expecting nothing in return.
Ultimately, nothing in this life is "commonplace," nothing is "in between". The threads that join your every act, your every thought, are infinite. All paths of mastery eventually merge.
Packing for the Journey
Maybe an old skill or obsession you've been dabbling in, or hacking at for months or years. Maybe vowed to treat your entire life to the best of your ability, as a process to mastery.
Start with the checklist.
The Five Master Keys
* Key 1: Instruction
* Key 2: Practice
* Key 3: Surrender
* Key 4: Intentionality
* Key 5: The Edge
Dealing with change and Homeostasis
* Be aware of how homeostasis work
* Be willing to negotiate with your resistance to change
* Develop a support system
* Follow a regular practice
* Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning
Getting Energy for Mastery
* Maintain physical fitness
* Acknowledge the negative and accentuate the positive
* Try telling the truth
* Honor but don't indulge in your dark side
* Set priorities
* Make commitments. Take action
* Get on the path of mastery and stay on it
Pitfalls along the Path
* Conflicting way of life
* Obsessive goal orientation
* Poor instruction
* Lack of competitiveness
* Overcompetetiveness
* Laziness
* Injuries
* Drugs
* Prizes and medals
* Vanity
* Inconsistency
* Perfectionism
Parting Gifts
Balancing and centering
(oh crap)
Returning to the center
- Basically, learn about meditation, breathing exercises. When you get knocked off, find your center.
Getting Energy from unexpected blows
- When things go shit, losing a friend, loved one. Don't struggle blindly, don't deny yourself the pain.
- Have a partner grab your wrist, and spill your guts.
- When done, feel your center, focus on the clarity and use all that energy. Consider the possibility that any misfortune that befalls you during your journey can be converted to positive energy.
Introduction to ki
ki in japanese
ch'i in Chinese
Pneuma in Greek
Prana in Sanskrit
"the force" in Star Wars lol
In the ancient tradition, the word comes from the notion of breath
* Considered the fundamental energy of the Universe that connects all things and under girds all creative action.
- The idea of ki can offer the untrained person an effective way of gaining a sensation of increased power along with relaxation, especially during times of fatigue and stress, and thus is a useful item to pack for your journey.
Relaxing for power:
Power; to be able
Visualize with exaggerated images, make your muscles relaxed (not rigid and tense) to increase their power.
Interesting facts:
- Human DNA contains more information than all of the libraries in the world.
- In potentia, humans are the most formidable all-around athlete who has ever roamed the planet.
- The unaided human eye can detect a single quantum of light and discern more than ten million colors. (I'm pretty sure I'm stuck at like 9).
- The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe.
- What you are made of is mostly unused potential.
- It is our evolutionary destiny to use what is unused, to learn and keep learning for as long as we live
To choose this destiny, to walk the path of mastery, isn't always easy, but it's the ultimate human adventure.
Closing words
To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.
- How many times have you failed to try something new out of fear of being thought silly?
- How often have you censored your spontaneity out of fear of being thought childish?
Second naivete = childlike quality, often found in people with an unusually high degree of their potential
"Are you willing to wear your white belt?"
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