Uncategorized on Purpose

Mimsy, chortle, and galumph: Alice in Wonderland and the portmanteau /  by mirena

Mimsy, chortle, and galumph: Alice in Wonderland and the portmanteau  

I read a New York Times review of Jurassic World where they called the movie "galumphing franchise reboot" and decided to look up the word, as I didn't remember it from Lewis Carroll’s book.  Lewis Carroll  invented many fun words, including "chortle".

Here is a great Oxford Dictionary article on this and other fun words. An excerpt about the portmanteaus of today:

The portmanteau today

Today there are numerous portmanteaus in the English language and the act of portmanteau-ing (yes, it’s a verb too) has become fairly linguistically productive. Some common and well-known portmanteaus include:

smog: smoke+fog Obamacare: Obama+healthcare infomercial: information+commercial jeggings: jeans+leggings breathalyzer: breath+analyzer Oxbridge: Oxford+Cambridge bromance: ‘bro’+romance

Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics /  by mirena

I am interested in how scientists and philosophers interpret the world we live in today, as I interpret the world as an artist. One of The Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics is the Many Worlds one - this is one of the most beautiful and favorite things of mine to read  about since I absolutely understand none of it. Like Narnia for adults. I love the idea of a schizophrenic universe. To quote something I read at random on the internet: "When a universe "splits" (it doesn't really - it just looks like it has, but that's a long story), and assuming you accept consciousness as an emergent phenomena of the physical brain, then your consciousness splits too. And as events in the two universes drift apart, so do the copies of the consciousness."

Here is a paper that talks about the rise of the Many Worlds interpretation as the main challenger to the status quo interpretation:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9709032v1.pdf

So what is the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?

Here:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/#2.1

A Life in Japan - Documentary (English with English subtitles) /  by mirena

it is a mystery why I became obsessed with Japan, after all I was born 9016.92 kilometers, 5602.86 miles miles and 4868.75 nautical miles from it. What portion of the neural paths in my brain decided to connect with the image of Japan, made me think and read about it? Where I grew up there was very little information and attachment to Japanese things and my first visual contact with Japan was through a Taschen book on Japanese Gardens. When I moved to the States - it was in Northern California and the Bay Area was very connected to Japanese culture. One of my landlords used to tell me a story about Japanese businessman coming to the Silicon Valley before it was the Silicon Valley and waving 100 bills in bars, while supposedly looking for investment opportunities in the daytime. I went to Japan on two occasions and especially the second time - on a solo trip with my camera - I felt a deep pull towards every single train, temple, crowded intersection, pond, sand pattern, high tech shop and piece of sushi. I am still mystified as to why.

I never considered living in Japan as I don't believe I will be happy with the day to day subduedness of life. But there are so many threads still connecting me, emotionally and artistically, to Japan, that I technically don't need to.

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? /  by mirena

O CT OB ER, 1 8 9 5. IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? Read more here.

WHEN Mr. Mallock's book with this title appeared some fifteen years ago, the jocose answer that " it depends on the liver" had great currency in the newspapers. The answer that I propose to give today cannot be jocose. In the words of one of Shakespeare's prologues, " I come no more to make you laugh; things now that bear a weighty and a serious brow, sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,"

Grandpa passed away 29 years ago today, he was a painter, a businessman, a family man who kept extended family together /  by mirena

grandpa-intarsia Fortress that inspired the Intarsia - Tsarevets

My grandparents' house was always full of guests - friends, relatives, immediate and extended family were always welcomed, fed and entertained.

My grandmother was a perfect hostess and homemaker and baked the most delicious desserts from a leafy book of secret recipes.

grandpa

 

Here is my grandfather sporting a mustache, to the right of the little girl who is actually my aunt whom he had to take care of but couldn't find a babysitter so she ended up at the party - Union Club, Sofia 1938.

A couple of grandpa's paintings always travel with me.  Usually they are proudly displayed and occasionally hide behind clutter when  I work on the walls. Here are some pics of his Intarsia work - in my studio. Sorry grandpa, unlike you I get sloppy and not always properly hang them.

IMG_1969

IMG_1969_1

_MG_9361

 

Quote of the Day.. not really about a horse, is it? /  by mirena

So what of this horse, then, that actually held opinions, and was sceptical about things? Unusual behaviour for a horse, wasn't it? An unusual horse perhaps? No. Although it was certainly a handsome and well-built example of its species, it was none the less a perfectly ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in many of the places that life is to be found. They have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them. On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever.

- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency/ Long Dark Teatime of the Soul By Douglas Adams