Balthasar Gracian

Aphorism #150: Know to get your Price for Things

        Their intrinsic value is not sufficient; for all do not bite at the kernel or look into the interior.

        Most go with the crowd, and go because they see others go. It is a great stroke of art to bring

        things into repute; at times by praising them, for praise arouses desire at times by giving them a

        striking name, which is very useful for putting things at a premium, provided it is done without

        affectation. Again, it is generally an inducement to profess to supply only connoisseurs, for all

        think themselves such, and if not, the sense of want arouses the desire. Never call things easy or

        common: that makes them depreciated rather than made accessible. All rush after the unusual,

        which is more appetising both for the taste and for the intelligence.

When I read Siddhartha, at the bottom of each page there was an offer for subscription to daily updates - one for a daily sonnet by Shakespeare, and one for a daily aphorism from Balthasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom (Oraculo manual y arte de prudencia). I subscribed to both.

Today's update from the Balthasar newsletter I found particularly interesting because it still applies to marketing and consumerism today - it's a gem of wisdom we all perceive in our daily lives, but perhaps couldn't have put quite as concisely and adroitly as the Jesuit priest did. I only recently subscribed to this newsletter, but I was already aware that this work is considered as relevant today as it was in the seventeeth century. In the words of the website, "While Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince are generally concerned with affairs of the state, The Art of Worldly Wisdom ranks among the most notable and popular works of philosophical advice. Gracian influenced other such timeless and notable authors as Nietzsche, La Rochefoucauld, Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire, and Schopenhauer, who translated his works to German."

You can read all of the aphorisms here, or subscribe to a daily aphorism here!

Butterfly Paintings

The other day I decided to make a fake butterfly display case. They're so beautiful, aren't they? The only sad thing about butterfly display cases is that the beautiful butterflies within are dead, and so I thought I would create an artistic one instead. All the butterflies in this post were digitally painted by me, and each butterfly took me a bit over 2 hours to paint. It's really fun - I might end up painting a few more!

Which is your favorite? I particularly like the vivid orange one, and the blue one is beautiful - though I do love the earthy colors of the others, so it's hard to pick a favorite! I'm thinking of selling prints of these, since I'm sure they'll look lovely on a wall! These might even be nice in calendar form, if I paint another five butterflies... 

High Crimes and Misdemeanors (Hip Hop-Cracy)

This song by Styx is one I only recently came across, and today I took the time to look up the lyrics. I find them rather clever, and the song is definitely one I'll be returning to frequently!

I find particularly enjoyable the plays on words (believe the unbelievable) and the chorus, which only makes sense if you hear it: "Hip hop hip hop-cracy hip hop". Sung, it sounds like "hip hop hypocrisy hip hop".

Lyrics:

They want you to believe
The unbelievable
They say you should accept
The unacceptable
Forget your common sense
It isn't sensible
Good times for fools and dreamers

Watch 'em all deny
The undeniable
See how they refute
The unrefutable
They're ready to defend
The indefensible
High times for lawyer schemers

They say we must forgive
The forgivable
They want us to respect
The unrespectable
The pious and the hip
So hypocritical
High crimes and misdemeanors

(x3) Hip hop hip hop-cracy hip hop

See how they explain
The inexplicable
Watch 'em debate
The undebatable
Apparently a lie
Is never liable
Prime time for talk show screamers

They say we constitute
The Constitutional
With justice here for all
So justifiable
I'm tryin' not to laugh
But man it's laughable
High crimes and misdemeanors

(x5) Hip hop hip hop-cracy hip hop

And so
Today we find
They've changed their minds
They've switched their points of view

Oh what tangled webs they weave
When their beliefs ain't really
What they believe

They're trying to divide
The indivisible
Because they think we're fools
So foolable
I'm tryin' not to laugh
But man it's laughable
Boom times for Wall Street dreamers
They want you to believe
The unbelievable
They say we should accept
The unacceptable
The pious and the hip
So hypocritical
(x3) High crimes and misdemeanors

(x3) Hip hop hip hop-cracy hip hop
Hip

Who vs. Whom

This is a quick post that's mainly for myself. Today I had reason to check when to use "who" and when "whom", and found this very helpful trick:

     Like "whom," the pronoun "him" ends with "m." When you're trying to decide whether 

     to use "who" or "whom," ask yourself if the answer to the question would be "he" or "him."

     That's the trick: if you can answer the question being asked with "him," then use "whom," 

     and it's easy to remember because they both end with "m." For example, if you're trying to 

     ask, "Who (or whom) do you love?" The answer would be "I love him." "Him" ends with 

     an "m," so you know to use "whom."

     But if you are trying to ask, "Who (or whom) stepped on Squiggly?" the answer would 

     be "He stepped on Squiggly." There's no "m," so you know to use "who."

Makes sense to me!

Siddhartha

Today I came across a great piece of literature, and devoured it within a matter of hours. Exquisitely written (and translated), the novel I speak of is Siddhartha, Eine indische Dichtung by Hermann Hesse.

I came across the English translation online and found myself drawn in by it, and welcome you to read it as well! It is the tale of an Indian man on his way to enlightenment, to reach the state of Buddha. The entire novel is uploaded here for our enjoyment, and contemplation. I myself am not a Buddhist, but the novel is deep and thought-provoking, following the life of Siddhartha as he searches the way through various teachings, from the ascetics through the worldly teachings of a courtesan to the simple life of a ferryman, and at last finds enlightenment.

The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or
on a slow path towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment,
all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself, all small
children already have the old person in themselves, all infants already
have death, all dying people the eternal life. It is nor possible for
any person to see how far another one has already progressed on his
path; in the robber and dice-gambler, the Buddha is waiting; in the
Brahman, the robber is waiting. In deep meditation, there is the
possibility to put time out of existence, to see all life which was,
is, and will be as if it was simultaneous, and there everything is
good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman. Therefore, I see
whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness,
wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only
requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be
good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever
harm me. I have experienced on my body and on my soul that I needed sin
very much, I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed
the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all
resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop
comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection
I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy
being a part of it.--These, oh Govinda, are some of the thoughts which
have come into my mind.

I do highly recommend it, and am glad that I came across such an interesting piece of work today. I also read two short stories by O'Henry, of which I preferred the story The Last Leaf. It's... bittersweet.
So today was a very constructive day in terms of reading good literature! Have you read anything interesting lately? There's so much left for me to read and discover, but I find that I like these unexpected gems best.

Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant

Just a short post - in London my friend and I went to a Chinese restaurant called the Four Seasons to have the Cantonese-style duck, as recommended by a friend who knows his stuff! And boy, did he know what he was talking about.

YUM.

That was some great duck right there. Intensely flavorful, with deliciously crisp skin and fat that just melted in your mouth... *sighs contentedly*

I also really liked the metal decorations they had on display around the restaurant, and took a few photos.From the shape and the small bar holding the two pieces together, I think that these might belong on double doors, with the small bar being the bolt to hold the doors shut. So neat!

More on my short trip to London soon!

Watson Personality Insights

"The Watson Personality Insights service uses linguistic analytics to extract a spectrum of cognitive and social characteristics from the text data that a person generates through blogs, tweets, forum posts, and more", it reads on the website http://watson-um-demo.mybluemix.net/.

Go to the website, and you'll find a mostly blank page telling you to "try the service", under which is a box full of text. Delete that text, and you'll be prompted to enter an English text of 100 words, minimum. Hit "Analyze", and the website will assign a number of personality traits that you supposedly possess based on the text you entered. Deciding to test it, I entered three texts and had them analyzed.


The first time, I entered my two latest blog posts (The Economist and Japanese Tea Ceremony), totalling some 1000+ words. I received a short summary of my main personality traits and a visual map of the percentage of certain traits I displayed in my text.

The summary was thus:
"You are shrewd, skeptical and tranquil.

You are independent: you have a strong desire to have time to yourself. You are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them. And you are authority-challenging: you prefer to challenge authority and traditional values to help bring about positive changes.
Your choices are driven by a desire for prestige.
You are relatively unconcerned with tradition: you care more about making your own path than following what others have done. You consider independence to guide a large part of what you do: you like to set your own goals to decide how to best achieve them."

Top values: Openness (98%), Imagination (97%), Intellect (96%), Authority-challenging (98%), Cautiousness (91%), Sympathy (99%), Openness to change (91%)

Secondly, I entered an excerpt from a story I wrote some time ago. (Fan fiction, to be precise. I enjoy playing around with characters from Harry Potter.) I got, perhaps predictably, quite different results from this text.

"You are social, unpretentious and informal.

You are confident: you are hard to embarrass and are self-confident most of the time. You are laid-back: you appreciate a relaxed pace in life. And you are assertive: you tend to speak up and take charge of situations, and you are comfortable leading groups.
Your choices are driven by a desire for discovery.
You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you. You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment."

Top values: Extraversion (98%), Assertiveness (98%), Outgoing (93%), Challenge (90%), Curiosity (100%), Excitement (99%), Harmony (92%), Ideal (100%), Practicality (95%), Self-transcendence (93%)

For a last test, I wrote a nearly 300-word long text about myself in a very informal style. Again, there were some notable differences.

Summary:
"You are guarded and excitable.

You are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them. You are calm-seeking: you prefer activities that are quiet, calm, and safe. And you are independent: you have a strong desire to have time to yourself.
Your choices are driven by a desire for self-expression.
You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment. You consider achieving success to guide a large part of what you do: you seek out opportunities to improve yourself and demonstrate that you are a capable person."

Top values: Authority-challenging (94%), Cautiousness (94%), Orderliness (90%), Sympathy (99%), Self-expression (100%), Self-enhancement (94%)

It's intriguing to compare the three results, seeing where they differed and where they remained the same. The first and last result are visually more similar than the second result to either of the other two, since in the second result nearly all values in the "Needs" section spiked dramatically. In the other two results, I am honestly shocked to see how low my percentage for Cheerfulness is! I consider myself a very cheerful person, and am considered to be so by most people I know, so to have gotten first 5%, then 8%, is honestly shocking! (Also, I got 82% for Cheerfulness when I entered a text that is, while not depressing, not particularly cheerful. I set the beginning of that story after Sirius Black's death in book 5 of the Harry Potter series. How I managed to score so highly in Cheerfulness, Outgoing, and things like Harmony is beyond my understanding. I suppose the results are based not on the general mood of the text, but on things like writing style and vocabulary.)

My Gregariousness is also surprisingly low in the first and last result. Why? Not sure; I love spending time with others (though I enjoy solitary pursuits very much). Love and Hedonism also have very low results based on my short autobiography. Hm.

If I had to summarize myself using only phrases from the three summaries above, I think it would look something like this:
"You are social, unpretentious and informal.
You are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them. You are independent: you have a strong desire to have time to yourself. And you are assertive: you tend to speak up and take charge of situations, and you are comfortable leading groups.
Your choices are driven by a desire for prestige.
You are relatively unconcerned with tradition: you care more about making your own path than following what others have done. You consider helping others to guide a large part of what you do: you think it is important to take care of the people around you. You consider achieving success to guide a large part of what you do: you seek out opportunities to improve yourself and demonstrate that you are a capable person."


I'll be playing around with this a bit more, and I'd love to hear whether your own attempts gave you results you feel match you! On the website it says a minimum of 100 words, but on the website I found the link (cracked.com) they say that the demo "needs a thousand words to confidently assess your intelligence, willingness to challenge authority, trust of others, susceptibility to stress, and need to feel loved." Perhaps my last sample was too small. Let me know whether you feel your results are accurate or not!

The Economist, March 7th - 13th 2015

From economist.com.

Today I did something that I admittedly do not do as often as I should: I read the Economist cover-to-cover.

Reading about politics was as depressing as always (gotta love potential nuclear conflicts), but there were some other, very interesting posts that I would like to share here.

The first is the article Silicon Valley gets a taste for food, which is all about creating realistic "fake" meat and dairy products out of plants. It's an extremely fascinating article, and definitely worth the read! Personally, I really want a taste of that burger.
"For meat, the aim is to recreate its key components—muscle, connective and fat tissue—using suitable plant materials. [Impossible Foods'] first product, a hamburger patty, already looks and cooks like meat, and will taste as good or better by the time it reaches the shops, Dr Brown promises. (...) The company has also spent a lot of time working out what gives meat its unique flavour. According to Dr Brown, the secret to a burger’s taste is haem, a compound found in all living cells, including plants. It is especially abundant in haemoglobin in blood, and in muscle tissues as myoglobin. It also gives a burger its red colour. During the cooking process haem acts as a catalyst that helps transform the amino acids, vitamins and sugars in muscle tissue into numerous volatile and flavourful molecules, he explains. To create the meaty flavour in its burger patties, the company uses a heme protein equivalent to one found in the roots of legumes." (Text from economist.com)


Then, there's the short article Particulates matter, which briefly addresses an amazing presentation by Chai Jing that went viral. Already the video has been removed and hidden - censorship at work, one assumes - but I found the video with English subtitles, and HIGHLY recommend it. I started watching thinking that I'd get bored within five minutes and skim over the rest, but no. I was captivated, watching the entire 1 hour, 44 minute long video with mounting incredulity and disbelief. It's... frightening, to be honest, and amazingly presented by Chai Jing. Please take the time to watch it.

Lastly, I found to my surprise an article on fashion - to be precise, one concerning the late Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. A recently published book is mentioned, and I've already added it to my shopping cart on amazon - Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. It sounds excellent.
However, of particular interest in the article was the mention of an exhibition to take place in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, starting this Saturday. A retrospective of Alexander McQueen's creative work up till his suicide in 2010, it's an exhibition I don't intend to miss - since I have the great fortune of being in London right in time for it! (Unfortunately, it says on the website that sketching is not allowed within the exhibit. Phooey.)

Speaking of my trip to London, however, I'll be there for just under a week, and already have quite a few things planned! I'm going with my best friend, and she has a very good camera, so you can look forward to a few photos posted either during or after the trip - and don't worry, I won't fill the blog with tourist photos (those can go on facebook, thank you very much), but some more artistic shots might find their way onto this blog. Some sketches, hopefully, too, but those will have to wait till I'm back in Germany and can scan them in!

That's most of what I did today - what about you?

Japanese Tea Ceremony

The other day I started reading up on the Japanese tea ceremony. It's such a complex and interesting tradition that I rapidly found myself caught up in it, reading about the tools, phrases, and of course, the tea.

The complex ceremony evolved due to the scarcity of tea from the Nara to the Heian period (794-1192), making tea a valuable and treasured beverage. From then on, the tea ceremony evolved until reaching the level of detail and sense of ritual that it has today. (Read about the influence of the Samurai and zen monks on the tea ceremony here!)

Called chanoyu (茶の湯), the Japanese tea ceremony is the ritualistic preparation of matcha (抹茶), powdered green tea. There is another, less common style using sencha - loose tea leaves like the ones we are familiar with. This tea ceremony is called senchado (煎茶道).
Matcha, however, is made from shade-grown tea leaves that are steamed and laid out flat to dry; as a result they crumble somewhat, and at this stage the tea is called tencha (碾茶). Tencha is also supposed to be very delicious, but if the tea leaves are taken and de-stemmed, de-veined, and ground, then you end up with matcha - a fine, vivid green powder that has great health benefits. One glass of matcha supposedly equals 10 glasses of regular green tea in terms of nutritional value and antioxidant content. Impressive!

If you had a look at the kanji (Chinese symbols), you'll have noticed that each one contains the kanji 茶, cha, which means tea. Japanese people will respectfully call tea "o-cha", as O is a prefix that shows respect. "O-cha" in Japan tends to refer to green tea, and Western black tea is commonly referred to as "koucha" (紅茶), which literally means "red tea".

Interestingly, matcha has experienced a surge in popularity outside Japan, being sold the world over in matcha lattes, chocolates, cakes, and a variety of other forms. If you should want to try matcha yourself, there's a very thorough and interesting review of matcha brands here!

The tea ceremony, however, remains an integral part of Japanese culture. 

I found it fascinating to read about the chanoyu (tea ceremony with matcha), and watched this video showing tea being prepared for two women. It takes a little while for things to be set up, so if you skip to 5:30 you'll see the woman preparing the tea (called a Teishu - the host of the tea ceremony) carefully folding a cloth napkin to wipe the lid of the container holding the matcha powder. The way she folds the cloth with slow deliberation into a shape that reminds of origami, then wipes the lid with careful strokes in the shape of the letter ko, こ, is captivating. Each gesture is clearly choreographed, the weight of tradition behind it.

Also of particular interest to me are the phrases and expressions used during the ceremony; it's a choreographed conversation between the Teishu (host) and Shokyaku (main guest), with only occasional comments between the guests. The Shokyaku, regardless of how many guests are present, is the only one to speak with the host.

Then, there are the items that the guests carry on them - if in the video you skip to 11 minutes, you'll see the younger guest pull a napkin out of the overlap of her kimono at chest height, proceeding to use it as a sort of dish to eat one of the provided candies. I was so surprised when she pulled the napkin seemingly out of nowhere!


There is a lot more to say about the tea ceremony, but these are the main points that were interesting to me. I definitely want to enjoy a proper cup of matcha someday! If you want to read more about the chanoyu, I highly recommend the webside www.japanese-tea-ceremony.net.

Sister Sketches

Today Anastasia and I were drawing together, and started a little game: one of us would draw a small figure that then the other would have to redraw in their own style. We both have a mangaesque style, but Anastasia tends towards a cuter style than I. It was lots of fun!

Little figure by Anastasia, bigger one by me.

Small figure by me, awesome snowboarder by Anastasia!

Used the same pose as Anastasia for this one! So cute.

We should do it again sometime!

Ocean Practice

I forgot to post this on Tuesday - I painted a little strip of ocean to see how water and waves work, and I'm actually quite satisfied with the result! It took me a lot longer than it should have, but that's because it was a first attempt, and a second try will definitely go much more smoothly!

Using this photo as reference, I digitally painted this here:

I'm pretty happy with it! Though, to be frank, the sand could have used a bit more work. Ah, well.

Bindi

Today I was reading up a bit on the bindi and tilaka, two forehead markings that characterize, but are not limited to, Hinduism.

The red dot on this lady's forehead is a bindi, a decoration worn in South and Southeast Asia.

I got onto this topic when reading about Indian widows celebrating Holi, the festival of colors. The topic matter is both saddening and horrifying (as apparently in some places widows are cast out and shunned after the deaths of their husbands), but I found myself intrigued by the markings on their foreheads. I knew about the bindi, of course, but the long, silver or gold markings surprised me. (To see the photos, click on the link - both the text and photos are worth a few minutes!)

Looking into it a bit, I found that the markings must be what is called tilaka, and presumably they only applied the color for the festival, though it's also possible that they wear it on a daily basis. The different styles of tilaka (or sect-markings) are quite neat, and though I didn't recognize any of the markings below on the photos, here are an assortment of tilaka styles as found on wikipedia:

While I could not quite figure out the origin or meaning behind the tilaka, the placement of both it and the bindi on the forehead is due to the sixth chakra, ajna, being positioned there. As such, the bindi represents the third eye.

Interesting, no? If anyone knows more about this, I'd love to hear about it! Comments are welcome.