OddballGreg - Consumer Law, Web Design And Butterflies

Pretty Pretty Butterflies. No, still prefer unicorns though.

What does Consumer Law, Web Design and Butterflies all have in common? Absolutely nothing, not counting the fact that I've had an interesting week involving all three. Let's talk about that.

First and foremost, I should point out that I have no idea if these multi-topic posts are preferred over the older single topic style. You should probably mention which you prefer somewhere I can read it. Just maybe. Anyways, onto the interesting events. 

First and foremost being consumer law. This week while brainstorming new IT related services for GITR, the IT company I began working for in earnest recently and mentioned in last week's blog post, I had the interesting task of writing up a Terms and Conditions contract specific to the hardware repair services we were brainstorming for. As it turns out, the consumer laws are fairly easy to understand in South Africa, (at least I thought so), and after a day of contemplation, revision, research (with much thanks to paralegaladvice.org.za for the linked document concerning consumer law), I managed to write out a set of Terms and Conditions which accurately covered everything necessary for the job to a degree that people who've written contracts before was impressed with. (I should stop bragging now.)

My work successes aside, I should point out that there are a great many personal benefits to knowing the laws of the country. You hear about it every day in South Africa as officials attempt to coerce bribes out of people, and in many cases the laws are broken by companies looking to pocket easy cash at the expense of the customer. The law is not difficult to understand, so do yourselves a favor and read up on it. (And suddenly I'm doing Public Service Announcements.)

Also, I've recently found all my time spent learning HTML and various other web design related skills to be of great use as part of the GITR services. As you might expect, the internet is kind've a big thing these days (*golf clap* Thank you, I'm brilliant at stating the obvious I know.), but for a lot of people, taking the time to learn how to simply do it all yourself is simply not an option, which is why companies like the one I work for now exist. Web design is somewhat rather hard to do thanks to a large variety of loops to jump through to get things to work usually. (This also happened to be part of what made me realize that a job is nothing more than you doing something crappy son that someone else can do something less crappy. Amazingly profound realization I know.) Still, it pays the bills and fits the bill for interesting and allows creative juices to flow. For those of you interested in learning about Web Design and such, and have the time to do so, be sure to read up on Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla, and maybe check out General Assembly's fantastic HTML tutorial to get a groundwork understanding of what's happening on the web these days. You won't regret it.

And that bring's us finally to Butterflies. How the hell do butterflies have anything to do with the previous 2 topics? They don't. For the most part, they came up at random as a request for a birthday present from a rather hilarious new acquaintance. Considering my erratic behaviour and usual reaction to such things, I figured, hey, why not, drawing a butterfly sounds like fun.

Beautiful, beautiful grayscale butterfly with a deformed body... Turns out that the camouflage is pretty good at confusing my sense of scale.

While I quite like my work... mostly, I think. I can see all the flaws, none-the-least being my inability to draw complicated insects properly even with guidance, I think the wings do look quite pretty. Perhaps next time i'll even get the wings to look like they belong to the same butterfly next time... maybe. For 6 hours of work though, it's not terrible. That said, as I was drawing this butterfly and realizing how different it was from the source picture (as seen in this posts header image), I couldn't help but have yet another of my profound epiphanies regarding the fact that every drawing I do while working from a source photo eventually hits a point in which it stops being a copy, and begins to be an artwork of it's self wherein I'm actually just drawing it from then on. It's an interesting thing to consider that even copies are unique in their own way.

Lastly, I felt it worth mentioning why this blog post was being put up so late at night simply because one one hand, I had thoroughly enjoyed the snarky commentary offered by the YouTube channel Dartigan as he proceeds to tell you why games are awful in a way only he can. (In the style of Cinema Sin, but we won't mention that. Teehee) In any case, I've linked the two video's that took up my time this evening below, which you should definitely give a watch and maybe subscribe to his channel if you enjoyed them.

In any case, that's more or less the interesting parts of this week that I've had as far as I can remember. Do you like the new multi-subject blog post format? Or do you think there is something that I could be doing that would make the posts even better. If so, do be sure to let me know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback as it helps us know that you like what we're doing. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and in the world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Try not to work too hard my friends.

OddballGreg - State Of The Not So Nation Affairs

I tried looking for a picture of baboons but this was the best I could find. Then I found out that the plural for baboons is not a congress and felt like a twit. I do believe that is Poe's Law at its finest.

Goodness me, the first blog post in over a week? Where has the time gone? What happened? And why are so many people making jokes about the government. Turns out a lot has been happening recently. Lets talk about that.

Those of you who have been long time readers of this blog have probably noticed things change over the 7 months that it's been active. Everything from 2 rebrandings, to significant changes in content, and the most recent spat of... nothing. All things considered, last week was the first time in 7 months that this blog has not seen a single update or post uploaded. No ridiculous commentary or introspective thought whatsoever. (Goodness me.)

So what does this mean? Is little Jimmy stuck in a well? Does the Cataclysm approach? Or has TCSA run out of steam? While I've never met Jimmy and the Cataclysm can't be ruled out, what I can say is that TCSA has most certainly NOT run out of steam. Mostly. Sort of. It's about as complicated as most people's Facebook relationship settings. (Married to the girl you met last week? REALLY?)

That said, things have changed, as they tend to do in life. For the better? While nobody can say for sure, I can say that as the sum of my experiences, that I have grown stronger for what I've gone through of late. (For those of you counting, that's 2 references to previous blog posts so far. Brownie points for knowing them.)

Jokes aside, some serious business has occurred since the new year began, and some occurrences of the old year still had consequences to play out, which have both directly and indirectly influenced the blog as a result. First and foremost notably is the fact that I have a job now. Or... multiple jobs. It's complicated (again). As one of the critical thinking co-founders of the IT start-up GITR based here in South Africa, my job is to be whatever the company needs me to be, which has ranged from the designing of online adverts, the management of social media, the design of websites and the researching of consumer laws. There's also some data capture, human resource management and various other clerical activities in there for good measure. Fantastic.

The downside to this fascinating new development is the arrival of the interesting conundrums of time, energy and creativity. The blog kind've doesn't pay, the new company kind've does, and those aforementioned resources are a finite daily resource better suited to filling my pockets. I love blogging and entertaining, but if it doesn't pay the bills, it becomes hard to blog with no internet or electricity. (Not that South Africa has been properly lit up too well of late. Google it.)

Matters of wealth aside, my blogging endeavors were not aided by a near soul crushing emotional breakdown I suffered after realizing some flaws in my own personality. (There's those good old deep discussions you all know and love.) While I would prefer not to go into details, the short-long version is that the end of my first relationship which you may remember my references to in the latter half of 2014 left me emotionally distraught. After spending the last of 2014 simply recovering enough to function as a happy individual once more, I eventually realized that I was pinning far too much of my happiness on the actions of other people. I would become infatuated with people I had hardly spoken to, and develop unrealistic expectations which always ended in disaster. Combine this with my nice-guy attitude being taken as a "I actually want something from you." attitude did not help this epiphany.

Suffice to say, as a person who bases part of their personality on making people happy, realizing that people don't trust your sincerity is a dangerous blow, one which may have been difficult to recover from were it not for the support of my friends, who I thank greatly for the many nights spent listening to depressed griping as I picked the pieces up and in the time honored Japanese tradition of Kintsukoroi, rebuilt the vessel with gold, accepting that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. (That's OddballGreg dialect for "while it was hard, I think I'm a better person for it.")

These two things made blogging... well, hard. A lack of enthusiasm or motivation can make doing even the things you have passion for a chore. Thankfully that episode is mostly behind me now. That said, JovialJman has his own reasons for not having been blogging. I can't speak for him though. Which brings us finally to the present. What is actually happening with the blog?

Well, all kinds of things I hope. Like anything I do, I'm unable to maintain simplicity, and everything has a reason for itself and each other. The easiest way I can explain it is that the blog was the unexpected result of an idea JovialJman and myself had long ago as we sought to start a YouTube channel. (I may have mentioned this in the past. Several times.) TCSA was born from this idea, and a blog never featured in the original scheme, but instead became part of the plan to gain viewership before our eventual debut on the grainy video cameras of the inexperienced. However, we don't have cameras or anything, so we're working towards that with GITR, which will then have the benefit of being advertised for being the TCSA channel sponsor. It kinda all works hand in hand in a weird way. Still, that's the status of TCSA in a nutshell. Until then however, rest assured, I shall be doing my best to kick both mine and JovialJman's hiney into gear to establish at least a basis of at least 2 posts a week (one each), despite our busy schedules.

Speaking of schedules, here I am with limited time, writing a blog post at 11PM at night, going out in the early morning tomorrow despite having had a long day today, and I decide it's a good idea to write politically oriented jokes about things I shouldn't talk about or something silly like that. Good thing there's a part of my brain that understands that my chirp with the header image above was probably bad enough and I should leave it at that, which leaves me in a state of being the metaphorical owner of a shirt which reads "I spent 2 hours writing witty satirical commentary about recent political events and all I got was censored. Also this lovely T-shirt."

Could be worse I suppose. Imagine 3 hours. Oh lordy lord... I need sleep.

In any case, I hope that you have appreciated this rather informative, and heartfelt post which may be the longest I've written yet. If so, do be sure to let me know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback as it helps us know that you like what we're doing. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and in the world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon. (Hopefully.)

Keep well my friends.

OddballGreg - Things That Touch Our Souls

A rather artistic picture if I don't say so myself, but the repetitive use of the same tree detracts from the overall effect.

Have you ever seen something, had some thought or heard something that touched you? And I don't mean that in the Catholic priest with the small boy kind of way. I'm talking about the emotional rush you get from something that is profoundly meaningful to you, perhaps followed by goosebumps and and a shiver up your spine? Lets talk about that.

Before you moan, I've got nothing against Catholic priests. That joke was burnt out long before I got to it, just listen to some of Jeff Dunham's ventriloquism acts for proof of that. Anyways.

You've probably experienced the aforementioned sensation before. Perhaps you were watching a movie with a particularly touching story that meant a lot to you as a person. Or perhaps following a particularly emotional conversation with a loved one, you struck upon such a marked epiphany that your very skin rose upon it's end. Maybe you were simply realizing how easily things could have just gone wrong. There are many things that can cause this feeling, and they tend to be somewhat specific to the individual. Few people are affected by exactly the same things.

A while ago I watched a video related to this feeling as it was discussed by Rhett and Link on their YouTube show: Good Mythical Morning. In their video "Give Yourself The Chills" which I have linked below, they discuss some of the things that can give you this feeling.

It's a really hard thing to explain as even they noted in the video. There's plenty speculation about why we feel it, but really, all we know is that we feel it. As inexplicable as it is, perhaps it's fitting that the sensation we associate with these intense emotional reactions is such a mystery. That when we hear things like a woman crying, or read the harrowing tale of a man who gave up on a woman who had based her life upon him, and promptly gave up on life when he broke it off, our bodies react as much as our minds, our bodies real as much as our minds; like having a frozen tongue glide up your spine. (At least, those are some of the things that cause me to have "The Chills" as Rhett and Link call it.)

I like to think that this is not some pointless evolutionary vestige of trying to look bigger, but more proof of our humanity. That upon experiencing or learning of something that is clearly so significant to us as individuals, our very bodies react to that unnamed feeling that lies somewhere between shock and amazement. If nothing else it proves that despite whatever it is you've just seen, or heard, or thought about not having impacted you directly, it still touched you deeply as a person. It's proof that as a person, there is far more to you than meets the eye. Like an onion. The outer layers may be papery and inedible, but as you move closer to the center, the layers become thicker and juicier and more nutritious. But just like a person, stripping an onion comes with it's own consequences, usually tears. (It also comes with the risk of sounding like you're talking about Shrek, but sssshhh.)

So perhaps there is something unique and interesting that gives you chills or goosebumps, as there are many for me, which more than anything prove that you are interesting and deep as a person. If so, do be sure to let us know what they are down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Consider your feelings my friends.

OddballGreg - The Price Of Life

Coins. Words. Paper. The irony is that this may be one of the most apt headers I've made, and that's just because the topic has a vague scope.

Life has costs. From the soda you might be drinking right now, to the electricity running your device, to the time you're spending reading these words. Everything has a price. Lets talk about that.

Have you ever taken a moment to consider the price you pay to live? Sure you've sat down and thought, "Darn, Coke is expensive." or some similarly phrased sentence with a different subject. Whatever it may be, you understood that for that item or service, there is a price that you have to pay to enjoy it.

The question is, have you ever considered that such a statement exists for everything in life. No matter what you do, how you do it, or who you do it with, there is a price. Writing this blog post costed me time and energy that I will never get back. Your reading of this post is doing the same. Charity costs effort. Crime costs innocence. The world is in an unending flux of give and take, and the only guarantee is that nothing will stay the same.

As I said in a particularly sage moment with a friend, not wishing to do something that might not have any useful long term rewards is not laziness. It's acceptance of the price of life. That every action bears weight, meaning, and a personal price. That every action bears a toll on our life that will be collected, no matter how. We pay for stability with our freedom. We pay for strength of spirit with our ability to feel for the world. Everything has a price.

To sum it all up, think of your life, those finite 70 years of life expectancy that you might not even get to have, as a wallet full of money. Every moment you spend doing nothing, or every deed, good or otherwise, requires you to pay from that wallet. If you knew that the money in your wallet was the only money you would ever have, what would you spend it on? Similarly, if this short life is the only one you have, how shall you spend it? If you wouldn't pay an exorbitant price for a sub-grade meal, why would you spend a large amount of your life doing something you don't even care about?

The most successful people are those that know how to effectively plan their finances, or at least are careful enough to manage them in a self-rewarding way. So take a moment to consider if what you're spending your life on is truly worth it's price. You might find that it's time... for some change. (I'm sorry.) 

Hopefully, this has made you think about the things you're doing with your life. Perhaps you've realized something that builds upon this whole concept, or simply wish to tell me to stop being so preachy. If so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback.. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Spend your lives well my friends.

OddballGreg - How Is Gender Determined?

Generic picture of children. Check. I'm really breaking boundaries with these header images.

How is gender determined? You're probably thinking back to your old high school biology classes when I ask that. What those classes never discussed was what exactly influenced what gender the child would be. Let's talk about that.

Have you ever heard people discussing how the father determines the gender of the child? Perhaps you even wondered how precisely that was possible for a moment, and merely chalked it up to just being something to do with specific bloodlines having tendencies towards specific genders.

While not entirely incorrect, such a situation would eventually result in an absurd male to female population ratio if it is the male that determines gender. Consider a bloodline that exclusively produced male children. Every time the sons of that bloodline married, their exclusively male children would be the end of the females bloodline. Multiply by a couple million, and you'd have thousands of female bloodlines dying out constantly. As you might expect, such a situation would not be conducive towards the continuation of the human race.

I should point out that the rest of this article discusses things like genetics, evolution and darwinism, so if you aren't a fan of those particular subjects, please understand that when I blog, I do so from my personal point of view and beliefs and in no way seek to force you to believe in anything you do not wish to. Take what I say with a grain of salt, and understand that I merely seek to discuss these topics out of scholastic interest, rather than to convert people to any specific beliefs. Thank you.

It is just this sort of situation that made me curious about what actually determines the gender populations of the world. Thankfully, the human genome appears to have something that scientists have only been able to speculate the existence of which influences the gender populations in the world. While it is only speculation, it's a perfectly reasonable explanation for the relatively equal gender ratio the world maintains despite things like World Wars killing off substantial amounts of men.

As you (hopefully) know, when a child is born, they receive half their genetic code from their mother, and half their genetic code from their father as part of the whole reproductive system that allows a species to adapt to environmental changes that make a specific trait nonviable for survival. Basically, evolution. 

So, as this ScienceDaily article discusses, what if part of what determines a males tendency towards a specific gender is determined by a set of as of yet undiscovered genes rather than just an arbitrary tendency? 

Again, assuming you have a cursory knowledge of genetics, the mother will always pass on an "X" chromosome, (as it is commonly denoted), which is essentially one of 46 chromosomes filled with genetic information which will determine the traits of the child. However, every chromosome is paired with an equivalent from the father, to result in 23 pairs of chromosomes. As such, the father will either pass on a X chromosome which, when paired with another X would result in a female child, or would pass on a "Y" chromosome which would result in a male child.

Without getting into too much detail, the sperm and egg cells that come together carry a randomized set of 23 chromosomes from their respective parent which come together to form the 46 in the child. Naturally, if it's random, then how can the man and his bloodline have a specific tendency towards a specific gender since his sperm should have an even possibility of having either an X or Y chromosome?

Basically, the science eggheads figured, what if there's a gene they don't know about that somehow influences how random that distribution of male and female sperm is. While they don't know how it would work, it sounds good on paper because it answers a couple questions about this whole story.

Firstly, how would it work? Well, imagine that a man could have a certain pair of genes consisting of either "m" and "f" genes. (For male and female respectively.) This would result in 3 possible combinations. "mm", "ff", and "mf". Having "mm" would result in an tendency towards exclusively male children, "ff" for female children, and "mf" would result in a roughly even distribution of children as these genes would affect the distribution of X and Y chromosomes in the man's sperm.

So why would such a system exist? In the Science Daily article, they discuss how following World War 1, the UK recorded that the number of male births doubled following the massive amount of men that died in the war. They speculated that the reason for this was that fathers who were more likely to have sons were also more likely to have sons return from the war than men who had sons and daughters. Since the fathers that only had sons would have passed this tendency of having only sons onto their sons, those men that returned were more likely to have sons themselves. This essentially meant that there were suddenly far more men with tendencies towards fathering sons in the population, and the demographics were influenced accordingly.

Another situation would be to prevent my earlier mentioned extinction of the female gender situation. How? Because even though the gene has no influence on females, they still influence their childrens tendencies towards a specific gender by passing on their genes. Consider a man with the combination of genes "mm" which would cause him to have only male children. If he were to have a child with a woman who had the genes "ff", their child would have one of those genes from both parents, resulting in an "mf" combination. So while the original father could only have male children, his sons would conceivably be able to have both male and female children due to the mother passing on her bloodlines female tendency gene.

So why then, do some bloodlines have exclusively male sons when the mothers can so easily force even distribution in the next generation? While Science Daily didn't consider this question, it can be conjectured that the male tendency gene ("m") has some manner of dominance over the female tendency gene ("f"). So in the situation of a man with "mm" and a woman with "mf" having a child, there is some strange tendency for the female to pass on their "m" gene, possibly as a way of continuing what appears to be a successful set of genes that work best for males but might not be as successful for females. For example: Men may tend to be lithe and muscular while women may tend to be small and pretty. These are effective traits for their specific genders. But muscular women might scare men and be ineffective as being chosen as a breeding partner, while small and weak men would likely be less successful at surviving the world long enough to reproduce and pass on this ineffective combination of traits.

Whatever it is, I'm sure that the ever developing knowledge of the human genome will eventually explain just how such a system works and why. Again, don't take my speculation on it as truth. I'm really just guessing based on what sounds logical. Perhaps you think that there's another reason for such a system to exist or way for it to work, in which case, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Think well my friends.

Just as a PS note for interests sake, there are actually physical things that can influence which sperm reach the egg. Sperm carrying male and female chromosomes are easily discernible from one another, and have different strengths and weaknesses which influence their success under different circumstances. Sperm with male chromosomes tend to be faster but weaker, and Sperm with female chromosomes the opposite. As you might assume, the mother have specific... circumstances which may influence which of these physical traits would be most successful for reaching the egg.

OddballGreg - Ridiculous Pain Remedies

Ah, dentists. Nothing screams out pain and terror like having an automated drill stuck in your mouth.

If you happen to be human, which you probably are, then you are most likely familiar with the unfortunate sensation that is pain. You've probably also gone to some interesting lengths to deal with it. Lets talk about that.

Right now I'm sitting typing with one hand while I attempt to pretend that the right side of my mouth is not driving me crazy as two of my teeth compete to be where my gum is. The sensation is comparable to taking a flap of skin from anywhere on your body between a pair of pliers and applying significant pressure for about half a day at a time. (For added pleasure, chewing on that side of my mouth is comparable to clamping the aforementioned pliers down as hard as possible.)

So as you do in situations like these, I thought it might be humorous to browse the whimsical internet in search of some mystical pain remedy, considering my anti-drugs stance with life. (I don't like the idea of addictions, and thus only take pills as an absolute last resort.) Of course, me being me, I can't think about a single subject, and researched the cures they have for ALL kinds of pain.

What did I find? About everything you'd expect to find on the internet. Hanging magnets from your ears for headaches, botox injections, homeopathy (pffffft. Good for the placebo effect.), meditation, sniffing apples, swearing, dreaming about sex, and probably thousands more ridiculous cures that you can think of. Sure there may be credence to some of these solutions, and perhaps some of the more herbal solutions such as cloves soaked in whiskey have some founding, but for the most part, I found exactly what I expected to find on the internet when googling anything with the term "Ridiculous" in the bar:

Basically, anything anyone decided was funny, worth reading, or effective click-bait to gain view for their website. Too bad my mouth still hurts. I think I'll go back to dulling the pain with measured doses of rum and coke until my next dentist visit. I'm sure he'll understand.

In any case, that's about all that's worth mentioning. If you don't think you've heard enough ridiculous remedies, click this link and wait for your brain cells to start commiting suicide. That should cure you of that. On the other hand, if you happen to have any effective pain rememdies, do be sure to let me know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback (And pain cures). And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Rest easy my friends.

JovialJman - English 101 continued

Budget cuts, they make use very inventive.

On December 5th 2014 I had written a post about some interesting things about English, and more on its origin. I said I would say more on the subject thus I am here. So without further ado here they are.

When it come to point of view somethings can often be mixed up and/or forgotten. You get first, second and third point of view. When writing you will be using one of theses if you are talking about a person or to one like I am doing here. First person - is when the subject matter is about yourself. This would be something like, "I went to the shops to buy some food." I refers to yourself thus making it first person. Words that include yourself would be an indication of this as well, (us, we, me, and so on). The matters are usually subjective so when trying to talk about facts this point of view is not always reliable unless to try and see things from that persons experience.

Second person - is when you are talking about someone else and not including yourself. When referring to someone by name or saying you, you will be talking about one specific person. You cannot use I or me here, since you cannot refer to yourself. Cooking instructions are usually in this point of view. This blog would be a mixture between first and second. I am addressing it to you but also saying things like, "I think", "I found interesting" and things like that. Each blog post will however be more steered to one of these though.

Third person - is when speaking about people in general, or about a specific person. So, "JovialJman was once a younger man", would be Third person since I am not addressing you, and if another person says it, it will still hold its context. For reference, if I say, "you are awesome" compared to if you say it, the person that is awesome would change.

There are a few things that other languages have that English does not, and I say we should start a trend and try and get these things into existence since English might be better off with it. Some words that are in other languages are some that we should have in english, this is a list of 38. Some of them are "Tartle" from the scots, it means the hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can't really remember. "Mencolek" from the Indonesian means to tap someone on the opposite shoulder that you are on to trick them. Your Grandma might have felt "gigil", it means the urge to pinch or squeeze something that is way too cute. Overmorrow is an old english word that I have used a lot but the Georgians have the word Zeg, it means the day after tomorrow. Lastly there is "boketto" in Japanese which means to stare into the distance for no reason. Hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is a word I really like, it is in english but the meaning is rather humorous. It is the fear of long words, and look how long it is. Sorry to those that do have hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, if so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Stay awesome smarties.

OddballGreg - Creative Processes

Well... at least its not a screenshot of Youtube video. 

Creating things, as anyone who has ever tried their hand at one of the many arts, can be difficult. Sometimes artists have no inspiration. Sometimes they hit a "block". The fact is that sometimes things just don't work, and they struggle to find something that they want to do. Lets talk about that.

Creativity and art. These things are essentially synonymous. We unleash our creative urges and create art, even if what we do isn't necessarily art in the normally accepted meaning. (Of course, then we get into the whole debate about what art is or definition of normal, which is a complete article of its own to debate. For now, just accept that when you're creative, no matter what you're doing, you're making art.)

The thing about art, however, is that there is no "right" way to making it. You've probably heard the entire dialogue on it before, most likely in Highschool. 

"Art is an expression of one's own emotions and soul, and signifies their own perspective on the world in a way that only they can achieve." - The voice in my head paraphrasing an old art teacher. (Teehee)

Cliche as my mind's paraphrased words may be, they are correct. Art is unique and relative to the individual and their tastes. There have been many artworks disliked by their creator but adored by others, as well as the reverse. There's no way to measure if something is more artistic than others, so most people will usually understand that perspective is relative and avoid calling art anything other than art when they disagree with it's aesthetic value. (Or they won't... please don't do that.)

Definitions of art... defined, lets actually talk about the reason you're actually reading about this: Creative Processes. As you might have guessed, (or learned first hand), the creative processes behind art tend to be as unique as the art itself. (And by extension, the methods used in making art. Here's looking at you Genitallia artists that use their... well... genitallia to create things. Usually paintings.)

Some people do extensive planning for their artists pursuits. Others... don't. Some, like myself, have a habit of taking a random idea to the apex of a hill and use it like a skateboard to see how far down the hill it takes us. Metaphorically speaking, the latter of the three usually results in a thrilling ride of discovery, but occasionally misses some details. Probably because you only see the subject for a few seconds.

You might think that not planning extensively is simply lazy. Interestingly... no. I've spoken to a fair few dozen of artists over the course of my life, and found that the planning can sometimes be a massive obstacle to the pursuit. If you've ever tried mopping a floor in a kitchen without stepping where you've already mopped, you may be familiar with the sensation of being walled in as you reach a point where you realize you have nowhere to stand in order to complete the final parts of the job. For some, that is the metaphor for their artistic pursuits. Each piece of additional planning only serves to wall them into an enclosed space until they have nowhere left to go. (An experience I am admittedly familiar with.)

On the other side of the spectrum, some people feel unable to work without a guided idea of what they're hoping to achieve. How can they complete the story if they don't know when it ends? How do they know what the characters are like if they don't flesh them out, learn their names and shake their hands. (Mentally of course. If you're shaking imaginary people's physical hands, you should probably dial it back on the drugs.)

Personally, I can work with either method, or a mixture of semi-fleshed out, semi-free-form works when I write or draw, or create in general. (Part of my strangely adaptive personality I suppose.) So why do I usually opt for just grabbing ideas and riding them down a hill? Partially because I'm a tad lazy, especially considering I write blog posts more often than I shave, swim or wear shorts. Then again, partially because it's more fun that way. Most, if not all my blog posts, have had almost nothing more than a random thought or emotion which I wished to convey as I wrote the post, allowing all consecutive ideas and points to flow naturally as I think about it and remember things I've experienced which are related to the topic. If I had to try and plan my posts, you'd probably only get about one a month. (Which is boring for both you and me. So whoopee for wild rides down hills.)

In any case, you've probably gotten irritated at my overuse of parenthesis in this blog post by this point, so I shall leave it off here by simply asking; what is you're preference in creative process as an artist? Do you enjoy winging it like myself, or is planning an absolute necessity. May you even have some specific methodology of your own? Whatever it may be, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Keep creating my friends.

OddballGreg - Duolingo (Bigger And Better)

The lovely look of a website, once screenshot and stretched. Comes from https://www.duolingo.com/courses.

Recently, I decided to revisit Duolingo, a website which I reviewed very early in the TCSA blog's existence. (Technically before it became the TCSA blog.) And it has undergone a few improvements since the last time I was there. Lets talk about that.

If you've been with this blog for a long time, (Golly gee, heading for the 1 year mark already.), you may remember the afore-linked article I wrote, mostly about Duolingo, in which I discussed the website and it's free language courses. Of which there were about 3 when I wrote that. Perhaps you even decided to check out the website as a result of that post. Either way, I recently went back to Duolingo to continue my French learning, (At fair random as is my wont.), and have found the website to have undergone a few, subtle improvements.

First and foremost that I would like to point out, you can no longer fail lessons. In the past they had a system in which after three strikes you would be forced to repeat a lesson until you managed it. If you, like myself, have ever been to school, you might understand the frustration of failing a test you've done before. The new system uses a progress bar of sorts which fills and empties based on correct and incorrect answers respectively, with the lesson continuing until you either quit or succeed. In terms of progression, this is far easier and far less frustrating than the old system, but I feel that psychologically, there are many benefits to not repeatedly telling the learner that they failed.

Besides that, Duolingo previously only offered a small selection of languages. If I remember correct, it only offered French, Spanish and Portuguese back then, but now offers an impressive 9 languages, with a further 7 under development, both of which I have listed below for ease of reference.

Available:

Spanish

French

German

Italian

Portuguese

Dutch

Irish

Danish

Swedish

"Hatching":

Hungarian

Turkish

Esperanto

Russian

Ukrainian

Romanion

Polish

I don't know about you guys, but I'm personally and very particularly excited about these new languages because of my love for languages and linguistics, and because I've always wanted to learn Russian, French and Irish. Odds are though, I might add one or two other languages to the list simply because they're available and because Duolingo is, in as far as I have seen so far, a particularly effective way of learning these languages.

However, for those of you keen to learn Russian as soon as possible, I might suggest going to http://learnrussian.rt.com/ as it is also an immensely well written way of learning the Russian alphabet and language. 

In any case, that's all for this one. Found a website you think is also great for learning languages, or simply have something you wish to say about Duolingo? If so, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Au revoir.

OddballGreg - The Majesty Of The Human Story

There's probably a special place in hell for people that make terrible header images. I'm probably going there one day. Image was nicked from here.

If you, like myself, are of the contemplative disposition, then it is entirely possible that you have, at some point in your life, found yourself considering the lives and stories of those around you. Today, I found myself considering this for perhaps the third time in my life. Lets talk about that.

The above is the song "Habits (Stay High)" (The "Hippie Sabotage Remix" version) by Tove Lo, a Swedish singer whom I stumbled on, as I tend to do, while watching various music videos on YouTube today. This song is strangely unique and meaningful, despite it's obvious audience perhaps being the mindlessly drunk masses of clubs wherever it may be played, lyrically discussing someone's need to be "High all the time" in an attempt to forget what was indubitably someone who was once very significant to them.

While listening to this song, however, I found myself wondering about the life of the portrayed girl in the video, as well as the lives of all the other people I have or will meet in my life. While this manner of contemplation is not unfamiliar to me as a writer of fictional stories, I found it interesting how little I had ever contemplated the full and unfiltered lives of those around me as an equivalent to my own. Ask yourself how many times you've ever tried to absolutely forget you're own life while trying to see all the things someone else has experienced. All the crazy things they've done, the hardships, the tears and laughs, the significant others and the less so, the moments that nearly killed them, and the times that they felt most alive. Their lives are, despite the limited scope of your perspective and imagination, as colorful and vibrant as your own. A lifetime of stories you may never even know to have occurred beyond what you can vaguely guess at in your own mind.

There is no word in the Oxford Dictionary for this act of contemplation regarding others. Nor any other dictionary that you might read, save one:

"Sonder. n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk." - The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows

It is, perhaps, ironic, that the only existing word for such realizations is as obscure as the realizations themselves. And yet, it is fitting, that we, as humans, can only dream about the lives of others. To contemplate the lives they've lived in rarity. To only occasionally glimpse into all the other lives you yourself could have lived, save for your own decisions and experiences that made you into who you are. These moments of almost omniscient clarity and pure imagination help us to temper our own souls, and allow us to decide if things are truly how we want them to be, or are simply that way because we never bothered to change them. To "Sonder", as John Koenig call it in his Dictionary, allows us the objectively ability to understand not only the significance of those around you and their stories, but how they might contemplate your life as well. Such a realization gives us a question of significance, one that, like myself, may spur some new decisions in your life with this new year. Quite simply: "Are you living a life nobody else could ever dream of knowing?"

If not... perhaps its time for change?

Do be sure to let us know down in the comments below what you thought of this contemplative post, or via Facebook/Twitter as we here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome and interesting stuff on the web and in the world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Live with meaning my friends.