Bored: Are antonyms of a word synonyms?

 no

Ted Blog on International Idioms

The ted blog on idioms was very fascinating.

Reference
http://blog.ted.com/2015/01/20/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/

A Simple Life Reminder to Appreciate Your Parents

A talk from Marc Mero about appreciating your parents. Although it was in front of kids, the message can be applied to anyone in any stage of their lives. A nice message for the young, a kind reminder for the experienced.

The real sad part is in the comments where responses to seemingly innocently posts that some people judge as ignorance are completely opposite to the video's message thus their own message. Some responses are legit to counter-argue but then they throw in name calling or other derogatory comments that just does not belong with their response. I know this is just part of today's internet life, but I still hope.

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI0Twlt1aek

Future Reading - New Ways to Think of Volunteering/Philanthropy

I like some of these thoughts of long term philanthropy.

http://ideas.ted.com/2014/07/07/rethink-the-way-we-run-charities-a-useful-reading-list/

Bored: Jump roping or jumping rope?

I did a general search and it seems that both use means the same thing. I originally used jump roping because the activity is jump rope even if it may not be grammatically correct. My usage is like doughnutting or dialoguing (reference). Then some part of my brain kicked in and tried to push for jumping rope which I suppose could also work since the activity is jumping a rope. After some more thought, I prefer jump roping because it sounds less ambiguous. "Jumping rope" could simply mean that I was jumping any rope like a rope to keep people out or rope to mark a certain area (like jumping fence). But then I suppose it could be jumping the rope or jumping a rope. Anyways, not an entirely important topic but perhaps something to get the hamster going.

This video inspires me to continue jump roping which was the original intent of this post but this was more interesting.

Bored: Combination Lock Puzzle

I was just surfing random sites and stumbled across this site when I visited randomnumbergenerator.com. This was pretty fun and felt like a good brain exercise as I tried to do this all in my head. I ended up having to take some notes for 6 reels on crazy level.

Here are my "best" times (I only played each one once except for 2 reels standard which I played 3 times):

Reference

http://www.combinationlock.com/play.asp?r=6&d=2

Bored: Blogger - The Little People Project

Not exactly what I thought it would be about but turned out to be quite a nice surprise. The blogger places little figures outdoors, some with more meaning than others. It seems like a nice way to bring awareness and making use of things that we overlook on our daily tasks.


http://little-people.blogspot.com/

Bored: Random $100 Tipping, JavaZone - Game of Codes, Why I Don't Wear a Tie

Why I Don't Wear a Tie

The video started of slow but then brought up some interesting topics in the latter half. At first, I thought he was leading into being able to relate with common folks but really was more about oppression. It is not as bad as other areas of oppression but was interesting that it exists in other niches of society.

JavaZone 2014 - Game of Codes

Interesting spoof of Game of Thrones although I have not watched it. The video was still funny to watch. It probably would be more amusing if I watched the show.

Tipping Fast Food Workers

This was a heartwarming video (although the publisher's primary content is to amuse people). Makes me wonder if there is a documentary on homeless people after reading the comments. I am wary on what they use the money for. I have more faith that the fast food workers will make better use of the money. Is it possible that my faith is misplaced? Possibly...

It was really interesting that some of them were unwilling to take the money. They seem to genuinely work for their money. I'm not sure if I would take the money but probably more out of suspicion. The last recipient was kind enough to give some of the money to someone else.

Reference

Why I Don't Wear a Tie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Szc3vSfCg&noredirect=1

JavaZone 2014 - Game of Codes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vI_7os2V_o

Tipping Fast Food Workers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyXJeus-wm4

Bored: 4 Basic Emotions

I thought this was an interesting read: http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2014/07/study-of-dynamic-facial-expressions.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BpsResearchDigest+%28BPS+Research+Digest%29

It discusses that the current theory is 6 basic emotions (which I did not know prior to the article) and this latest research suggests there may only be 4 basic emotions (approach, avoidance, happiness, sadness).

Bored: Hearing Test to Determine Age

I was watching Brain Games and it was showing the hearing test. They had a few age groups. I heard them all. But when they played under age 25, I thought I heard a sound but then it did not go away in my head. This made me wonder if I even heard it.

This made me to go online to see if I can find the sound again. I found a YouTube video that played more frequencies. When it reached under 30, it went completely quiet. But then when there was a higher frequency that played that I heard. When I backtracked, I did not hear any sounds underneath. But then when I used the left arrow to go back, I was able to hear all the sounds rather clearly. When I tried again, no sounds played but I heard my speakers click. Then I noticed that YouTube had filtered some of the sounds. I do not understand why it played temporarily though.

Anyways, this made the video unreliable. I continued my search and found an online tone generator (Reference-1). Here I was able to hear frequencies between 10Hz and 20154Hz. The lower ranges were kind of tough though. I can probably noticeable hear 23-25Hz. But if I used the start and stop, I can hear slightly lower than that but it is a very dull sound. In other words, I probably would not notice the sound is even playing if I listened for it but I can notice a change in sound if I toggled between on and off. Past 10Hz, I do not detect the slightest change.

A limitation to this may be the speakers as well. So I'm not sure if this a good test. The only way to validate this is to have a listening device that can detect what frequency is actually playing. At least for my curiosity, I am at least able to hear the frequencies. I wonder if volume has to do with it too.

Another "test" is as I was watching TV as I typed this post, I had left the tone generator on. Somehow I tuned out the tone but when I returned back to this post on a commercial break, I noticed that there was an odd low tone then recalled that I had forgotten to turn it off. So it is kind of interesting how I am able to tune out certain sounds.

Reference

1 - http://blog.szynalski.com/2012/08/29/online-tone-generator/
2- http://braingames.nationalgeographic.com/

Bored: Teens (of 2014) React to Old Computers

Interesting videos of generation Z's reaction to the Apple II. I think some generation Y or millenials would have reacted the same way. 

There was a section where they explained that the power button in the back. This reminded me of a time when a cousin explained about psychology engineering where one of their greatest achievements was moving the power button from the back to the front. Whether that is true or not, the thought is still amusing to me.

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk

Bored: Terry Crews Old Spice Muscle Music

Quite entertaining video of Terry Crews using muscles to trigger musical instruments. Plausible? Appears to be. Real? Unsure, I think there was some video editing involved. Entertaining, all the same so a really well done commercial for Old Spice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ15vCGuvH0

Bored: The surprising truth about what motivates us

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

I can relate to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u6XAPnuFjJc

The question is how does this relate to the top 1%? Sports players and CEOs? I would think those types of roles require quite a bit of cognitive skills. 

Bored: Deshelling Dungeness Crab

A neat video on how to get meat out of a dungeness crab more easily than picking out the shell by knocking it out with a bowl. 

Bored: Fantastical guitar-like instrument

Bored: Fantastical guitar-like instrument

http://www.youtube.com/embed/XlyCLbt3Thk?rel=0

This is a neat video of a fantasy guitar instrumental piece. I remember taking a computer graphics course and mine did not look anything like this. It is amazing the new technologies to 3d animation. I wonder how long it takes to compile the video.