Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Much Ado About Metaphors



Laughter is what's enjoyable, until you think about the subject. Humor is the effective use of that certain something we find in metaphors, except utilized with the specific purpose of making someone laugh or otherwise feel good. Typically, comics are drawn for the same reasons. There's something about jokes and comics that cause us to smile when we least expect it.

Sometimes we enjoy comics or jokes just because we enjoy the feelings associated with that moment when we "get it". Other times, we enjoy the initial release of pent up energy we carry around with us when we encounter something ironic or blatantly defiant. There's an instant reaction when we see something funny - we laugh. 

Sure, later, we think about why we laugh, but that's always after the fact. Whatever attracts people to humor and comics, it is most certainly associated with the same experiences inherent in evolution and progress: in taking steps toward that which might make us stumble, looking around, catching our balance, and then, laughing about the whole thing afterwards. 



When I think of metaphors, I get nothing. No true image comes to mind. Then, as if out of nowhere, something signals my brain, evoking that which had not previously existed or perhaps been considered. The generation of the words "like" and "as"  begin whirling around my head like little cartoon bubbles and then suddenly, I've got it! I've served myself another pleasant helping of how things "fit together". 

Comedy, humor, comics, and other artistic creations, intended to make someone feel good, have this in common... a "something from nothing" metaphoric experience from which we gain meaning. 



In short, humor and comics tell us more about metaphor and enjoyment. Most of us enjoy something, be that humor, comics, research, sharing, exploring, or otherwise creating something we associate with an aspect of our being or that which we've encountered or "got" about the many meanings we ascribe to this thing we call "life". 





Monday, February 18, 2013

Cool Chemistry Comics











Disclaimer: 

The artist of these delightful cards is Kaycie D. 
Her work can be found here: 







A Khan Do Attitude!


Funny Spell Check Jokes





Ode to the Spell Checker

Eye have a spelling checker

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marques four my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight 4 it 2 say

Weather eye am wrong oar write

It shows me straight a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

Its rare lea ever wrong

Eye have run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My checker tolled me sew!





Dis is sew grate...aye reely a door it! 
eye tanks my Facebook peeps
fur scent teen it!












Saturday, February 16, 2013

A World Without Charity

William-Adolphe Bouguereau 
La Charite (1878)

ڿڰۣ 



I want to live in a world without charity. 

ڿڰۣ 


A world that has eradicated the conditions 
that lead to poverty, 
whereby charity is necessary.



William-Adolphe Bouguereau 
La Charite (1879)








Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love is Like a Rose




Emotions in love
Are tender
Just as
Petals on the flower
Are fragile
It takes time
For a flower to blossom
Just as
It takes time
For love to grow
But when comes the moment
The true beauty of the rose is seen
It is never forgotten
Just as
The pure joy of love is felt
It's warmth remains forever...





Whether or not you wish to admit it, there's a certain something in the air this Valentine's Day. Married, single, in love, or alone... this smile of the mind causes us all to ruminate (or daydream) on the concept of love. 

Perhaps it's because the economy is finally showing signs of life... 

Whatever the reason, there's an air of liberation sweeping over the land resembling the same winds of post-revolutionary change that followed the first World War. 

This previously felt lighthearted phenomenon owed its emergence to a number of circumstances, the most notable being the lingering reactions to 19th century Victorianism, that led an iconoclastic attack upon traditional social values. 

Today, we're seeing the same revolutionary impulses blossoming in every field, the predominant expression stemming from the field of technological invention. These same sentiments take on many expressions of culture through music, theatre, art, dance, literature, and computer programming. 

There's an enchanting barbarity to the changes we're seeing around the world. Perhaps someday we'll look back on this time and see it as a fountain of imagination; a time when our species' ingenuity led us to unimaginable new heights...releasing a creative spirit that finally flew unfettered. 

Happy Valentine's Day to all the unfettered souls out there... may we all find the necessary wings to take flight...

















Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Evolution of Social Networking Sites


Rousseau said that "sociable man" ... always lives "outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinion of others and, so to speak, derives the sentiment of his own existence solely from their judgment." - Discourse on Inequality

(Scroll down to continue reading article...)


















The above info/images make up the majority of the Facebook posts and Twitter feeds I come across on any given day (or at least during the last 2 years I've been online).  

Most of the posts I've seen in news feeds are aimed at making people feel better about themselves by cutting to the chase of any given topic and more freely admitting what they - prior to the Internet - might not have previously allowed themselves to admit freely in public.



What do we share with the world during the private moments we have to ourselves? What is the world saying? Where are we headed?

It's dizzying when we try to interpret these messages by outdated metrics...

The bottom line is that we all have something to learn, which is why the Internet is the greatest thing since the discovery of fire. Like our ancestors, the only thing we're truly worried about is not letting the fire go out.