60 Second Movie - Decisions

Six Word Story

Fireworks. Why?

It’s almost the end of the year. Just a few more days and the big countdown till midnight begins. And then there it is: fireworks. All those people – mostly men -  lighting their rockets into the sky. It’s the moment they’ve been waiting for for days, weeks or maybe months.

I don’t really get why people like fireworks that much. Some spend a fortune on something that’s nice to look at for a few seconds before it  just vanishes into the sky. Maybe it’s just the thrill of lighting something that will explode, the risk and the danger. Would that really be the main reason to buy and light fireworks; the exploding part? Or is it the pretty sight? You tell me.

Well, it’s not always a pretty sight. You also have those annoying loud firecrackers. Stupid things. I don’t see the purpose of those things at all. It just explodes and makes noise. Maybe I just don’t understand because I’m a girl. As you can tell I don’t have a thing for fireworks. I’m quite afraid of it (seriously, I’m even scared to hold a sparkler) and it’s too loud. But, to be fair, without it New Year’s Eve wouldn’t be complete.  

I know where I will be January 1^st from 0.00 till about 0.30. Yep, safely inside, behind the window. Looking at all the morons shooting their money into the sky. 

I wish you all:

A merry Christmas!

May you be surrounded by loved ones.

May you give and get a lot of presents.

May your bellies be full - but not too full.

And a happy New Year!

May 2012 be better than last year.

Be careful with fireworks!

Give everyone your best wishes!

Six Word Story

Happens every time

‘That once happened to me too!’

See if you recognize this:

You’re talking to a friend about the crazy things that happened to you last weekend. And then your friend totally runs over your story with an even crazier story than yours.

Recognized it? I think most people do. I know sometimes act the same way as the friend with the surpassed story. But I try not to, because I know how annoying it can be. Especially when someone does that every time you tell something. Yeah, those people exist...

Maybe it’s a natural thing. I don’t mean the surpassing, but I think when someone tells you a story about an event, it reminds you of a similar event you were engaged in. And to continue the conversation, you tell the similar thing that happened to you. Sometimes that’s a surpassing event and sometimes it’s not. But it does kind of draw away the attention to the first story.

Why is a chair called a chair?

Have you ever wondered why a computer is called computer? Or why a chair is called a chair? I have. And I also wonder who decided to call that particular object (or activity) a chair, or a computer. I still don’t know.

Well, I know how some objects got their name. They’re just named after the inventor’s name. Like a zeppelin, that is named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Those things are called eponyms. 

ep·o·nym ( p -n m )

n.

1. A word or name derived from the name of a person. The words atlas, bowdlerize, and Turing machine are eponyms.

2. A person whose name is or is thought to be the source of the name of something.

But that still doesn’t answer my questions. Because not all things are named after a person. Was there just someone who said ‘mmm let’s call it a chair!’? And then think of all the different languages that use a different word for the same object. I guess I will never know, because it goes way back. For now I just assume that an inventor has named his invention or after his own name, or just thought of a fictive name.

Six Word Story

Miscommunication

We’ve all experienced it in our lives: miscommunication. That awkward moment when you meant to be sarcastic, but everyone thought you were being serious. Or when someone totally misinterpreted something you said.

I think miscommunication can be caused by multiple reasons. The first one is interpretation. Everyone interprets a message in their own way; everyone gives their own meaning to a message. And that meaning or interpretation doesn’t have to be the same as the sender implied: miscommunication.

The other reasons are the medium you use, body language, the pronunciation and the tone of voice. It makes a lot of difference whether it’s face to face communication, a text message, or a phone call for instance. Mostly you can see on the sender’s face and/or hear by the tone of voice if a message is meant to be funny, or serious, or something else. All those aspects are part of the message. And if one or more of them are missing, it’s harder to understand the sender’s meaning.

So that’s why I think the best way to prevent miscommunication, is to communicate face to face. That doesn’t mean that that won’t lead to miscommunication. It can still happen. There can also be noise in the background (another reason!), so you can’t hear the message correctly. And there probably are more reasons that can cause it.

It almost looks like it’s really hard to get your intended meaning to your receiver(s). Well, it can be. But as you know, it usually turns out the right way.  

Everyone is superstitious, everyone is a little autistic

Superstition. It’s a weird thing to believe in, don’t you think? But still I think maybe everyone is at least a little superstitious. Don’t you have a piece of clothing that gives you luck? Or a lucky number? Well, superstition doesn’t always have to be about things that give you luck. It can also be about your (daily) routine. Or looking at a digital clock and notice all the numbers are the same, like 22.22. And you think ‘Oh no! That must mean something!’.

There are some general superstitious things: number 13, walking under a ladder, opening an umbrella indoors, seeing a black cat, the groom seeing the bride before the marriage, and many more. I said some, but when I come to think, there are a lot of those things. Not just superstitious things that give you bad luck, but also ones that give you luck. Try to think of some. If you can’t, this might help.

I also am superstitious about some things. If I wouldn’t be, why write about it, right? Like I wrote in my previous post, I always push the button at the traffic light three times for it to turn green. And when I change the volume of the sound at my laptop or the radio, it has to be an even number, or a multiple of 5. Or if I don’t stick to my routine, something bad will happen to me.

It even gets to the point that I can actually blame myself for something bad that happened, just because I moved the furniture for instance. Then I’m like ‘I knew I shouldn’t have done that, why did I do that? I should’ve just let things the way they were’. Or it can be the other way around. Like I believe that a particular change in my routine is the cause of a good thing that happened.
I usually just stick to my routines and don’t change anything. Because that’s safe. If I change something, that either can lead to a good thing, or a bad thing. And I don’t want that bad thing to happen, so for my sake I try to stick to my routines.

I think it’s all about having something to hold on to, it makes you feel safe. The believe that a greater force can have an influence and you just have to obey it by sticking to your ‘rules’.

I also think – and this may be a harsh statement – that superstition is a lot like being autistic. Autistics must do certain thing a certain way or else they will freak out. Just like you must wear your lucky shirt, or your team won’t win the game. So, to refer to one of my first sentences, if everyone is at least a little superstitious, everyone is a little autistic.

P.S.: While writing this post, this song just got into my head. Enjoy it!

7 things almost no one knows about me

1.       I don’t like to put my pants on with bare feet. I’d rather put my socks on first.

2.       I think fruit doesn’t belong in a warm meal, it just doesn’t taste good. So no pizza Hawaii for me!

3.       I can watch TV all day long, without being bored. Especially on sick days and bad weather days.

4.       At a red traffic light, I always push the button three times. Although I know it won’t help to turn green sooner.

5.       Although I’m a woman, I can’t really do two things at the same time. Particularly when it involves listening and doing stuff on my computer or watching TV.

6.       I’m afraid of heights. Well, it’s not really the height that scares me, but the fear to fall down.

7.       I can’t stand it when a pen is just laying around like this (see picture), when no one is using it. I always have the urge to click it off or put the shell back on. I have the same thing with markers laying around with the shell off. 

                

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It’s all about the context

Yes, the context is very important. How you see certain things, what you imagine about it and what you think you know about a subject. When you’ve seen a certain thing in a certain context, and only in that particular context, then that’s reality to you. Because you don’t know better.

A rather funny anecdote about this is the story about my sister, when she was young. Every time we went to our grandparents, we drove along a pet store, called ‘Bishop’. You can probably guess what happened now. This is the only association she had ever made with the word ‘bishop’. So that was reality to her. Until someday the true meaning of the word was revealed to her, to which she responded: “But a bishop is a pet store, right?”.

As you see, the context of certain words can be very meaningful for the interpretation you give to certain things. Think about it. Have you ever given the wrong meaning to a certain word, because you didn’t see it in the right context?

You are the director

If you think about it, you’ll find out that your whole life is formed by decisions. Not just decisions you make, but also decisions made by everyone around you. Everyone can have an influence on your life. But the biggest director of your life is you.

I’ll try to explain what I mean. Every day you make a lot of decisions. For instance, you decide what time you get up, what and when you eat, to leave now or five minutes later, even to make a left or right turn. And every decision will have an effect, without you even noticing it most of the time. Some effects are obvious, like when you leave at a certain time, you miss the bus. If you would’ve left just a few minutes earlier, you would’ve been sitting in that bus and you would have a different day.

There are several movies about this subject. The Butterfly Effect is one of them. It’s about a man who has the gift to go back to his past and alter his life. Every time he does that, he’ll see that his future turns out totally different. Just by changing a few decisions he made when he was younger.

As I said, it’s not just your decisions that rule your life. It’s a combination of several decisions made by different people, including yours. You know sometimes when something bad happened, they say that you were at the wrong place at the wrong time? Well, I think that is true, but still it was your decision to be at that particular place at that particular time. And so was the decision of the other person(s) involved at the occasion.

Now think about the quite big choices you’ve made in your life. Like deciding which school to go to, when to move out of your parents’ home, where to live and so on. And then imagine how your life might have been, who you wouldn’t have met and so on, if you would’ve made another decision. Yes, anything could’ve happened and your life would’ve been all different.

What you are doing right now is also a decision you made. Although I may have asked you to read my blog, it still was your decision to actually read it. You could have been doing something else this moment. But I’m glad you chose to read this.