Exploring The Shift
The shift is not a thing. It is the action of discovering Self.

I recently wrote about the soviet bus shelters and found a similar article on neatorama about the town Ramenskoye located some 50km southeast of Moscow.

The houses there are entirely painted with adorable designs which are entirely different from what I'd associate with russian suburbs. What I really adore about Russians is their ability to improvise.

Here is a picture and a link to a site with more photos, but unfortunately the comments there are cyrillic so I didn't find out much.

Link

Does the sudden appearance of a Firefox crop circle imply which browser extraterrestrials prefer? Does it showcase the skill and reckless modifications of reality by photoshop magicians? Or does it maybe hint at the enthusiasm of the linux user group at Oregon State University?

Find out the answer here

© Oregon State University

More about crop-circles

This is just too damn cute to not post (full story and background).

Via neatorama, via aborath

There are a couple of videos and sites which I sometimes just visit because they just make me smile. I'll post a couple of these over the next days, here is the first one.

Besides splendid, the word magnificent means great which of course means big and hence it is exactly the right word for this puppet play. And it is amazing how about halfway through the video my perception of size shifted (like what was normal size and what was big or small).

Did I ever tell anyone how I love YouTube? Well, I guess I mention that all the time. What I love about it most, is how this medium makes me aware of things people do, things of which I would have never heard of otherwise. I love YouTube it also because it makes people do new things, just because they know they can make and post videos about it easily.

This is why I'm offering the following video, about a man who does something which seems to be called Contact Juggling. It looks beautifully unreal and the music is great too …

I'm sort of going back to the roots of this blog, wanting to show the wondrous diversity of life in this particular dimension which we call planet earth.

BoingBoing linked to Polar Inertia today, with photo series by Christopher Herwig, documenting modern society. I'm just beginning to explore the site, but the series which was featured on boingboing, is one that I that I find particularly intriguing.

(image © Christopher Herwig)

I think you won't be able to guess what this is. It is not a Bauhaus art installation, but a bus shelter from the former Soviet Union.

The roadside bus stop serves a simple purpose – to show where the bus will stop and to provide some comfort and shelter for waiting passengers. One would think that the Soviets would have come up with one universal design for this community structure – simple, functional and cheap to mass produce. However, in many instances this was not the case, much time, effort and imagination went into many roadside bus stops. The sky was the limit with different shapes and design– blocks, domes, columns, towers, A-frames and archways, even ones shaped like birds, yurts and hats. If the bus stop was less bold and daring with its architectural design then the creators would often attract attention with decorating the structure with murals or mosaics. The themes that these decorated bus stops took usually varied depending on the region, often reflecting the local culture, history, or industries.

If you check the phots, make sure you view the whole series as some of the shelters may not be so stunning individually, but seeing the sheer creativity and variety is nothing but stunning, especially because of the eerie contrast of this variety in a society which would be associated with conformity and architectural blandness compared the uniformity of bus stops in western society, which focuses so much on individuality: Soviet Bus Shelters

I also like his series about Indian Rikshaw Mudflaps, which is also about overflowing creativity in transportation.

I've been neglecting this blog a bit recently due to lack of spectacular insights to post here, so until I find something deep and meaningful to share with whoever reads this blog, I'll take Elias' advice from a recent session and will focus more on playfulness (but I'll keep trying to sneak in Elias catchphrases in an unobstrusive way).

Speaking of playfulness, I just found a video of a rabbit which implemented payfulness in quite a bold way.

Well, ever since Monty Python's movie Holy Grail it is well known that rabbits are deady and bloodthirsty creatures (movie scene).

One may have taken that as a typical exaggeration by Monty Python, but now a fearless and agressive rabbit has been spotted and filmed.

(Found on haha.nu (which is one of my favorite blogs, because I always find light and amusing stuff there to distract me from thinking deep thoughts :-))

A picture and story from the too damn cute photopool on Flickr (a pool featuring cute animal and kids pictures, the pool is worth seeing by itself).

This particluar picture and link however is about young penguines living in a marine center in New Zealand and about the blue shoes they got (and why): Happy Feet

As the name for that Flick pool says: Too damn cute!
(And how nicely the colors match those of this website :-))

I'm still in a bit of a foul mood today because of the epidiascope, so I guess I'll practise a bit of distraction and appreciation a la Elias.

I'm a fan of animation videos and thanks to YouTube I'm finding more and more indie animations videos (although there are a couple of good ones from the big studios also). One of the best pieces of animation which I've ever seen is from Pixar. It is the bit before the actual movies where the studios show off their logos and where for Pixar the desk lamp hops into the picture, jumps up and down on the letter I and then looks at the audience.

Read more …

I could bask forever in the creativity of people and this one takes a top spot in my eternal list of appreciation about what people are spending their time with, doing things beyond the commonly accepted. Doing seemingly crazy things.

Like making art from toothpicks as Stephen J. Backman does.

Read more …

Just found this video on haha.nu. It's a training video to learn juggling with three balls by highly acclaimed juggler Jason Garfield.

It's a cool presentation, just made me want to go out and try it myself, but what I also like about it, is to interpret it in a metaphoric way, learning to juggle the events of life in a relaxed and self centered way. Just follow the video and I'm sure you'll see what I mean. Also, if you like it, check this link for more videos from and about him.

Is this dimension really wondrous and extremely diverse? If you are not convinced yet, have a look at these samples of sculptures from around the world .

I especially like the one below, the space cow, the upside down rider and the guy coming up from the manhole in Brussels (well, and the blowjob couple :-).

Something nice to make after a walk on an autumn Sunday (or any other autumn day): Making roses from maple leafs

Sometimes it needs to get a bit rough before you let go and start a new life.