Yodeller

I just finished watching the latest Star Wars show the Acolyte. It somehow reminded me about the time I was a kid and hadn't seen any of the original Star Wars movies.

I remember back then seeing all those posters for the movies and thinking that the movies would be somehow more related to yeti's, the snowmen. Must have been all those images of Chewbacca that gave me that impression along the Jedi sounding similar to yeti (at least with Finnish pronunciation). It was a bit of a disappointment when I finally saw the movies and realized my mistake.

When I got back into LEGO I sorted my old bricks by type to make it easier to find the pieces and put the sets back together. There are many sets I'm not that interested in, so there are still a lot of bricks in that inventory.

When I started buying mixed lots of used LEGO I started sorting them into a separate inventory. I wanted to keep my own (and my kids) bricks separate from these "new" ones. But when I started putting those sets together there were always some missing pieces. Bricks I knew I had in my personal inventory. So I started going through those as well if there were any missing pieces after I had gone through all the new pieces.

Eventually I came to a conclusion that there was bo point in keeping these two inventories separate. I still have the list of the original sets, so if I want to, I can always build those sets still from the combined inventory. With single inventory it's much easier to find the correct pieces as I don't have to look through two places. It's also easier to find all the pieces for the set when the pool of available bricks is bigger. And beyond all, this way they take much less space.

Using pronouns to signify ones gender identity has become rather common lately. It's an important think to emphasize the chosen identity of a person and it can also strengthen the feeling of individuals self. Especially for those who don't comply with the "norm". After all, our gender is quite big part of who we are.

Using pronouns as a self reflection is powerful thing. It can shape our self image, just those few little words. But what I think could be even more important is paying focus on the adjectives we use to describe yourself as well.

Unfortunately it's quite common we often use negative ones when describing or thinking about ourself. It leads to the negative feedback loop and we might start to believe what we say about ourself.

So while using pronouns can strengthen our gender identity the adjectives, used in positive way can definitely have the same strong effect on how we define and feel about ourselves.

One of the big inspirations for my new album was a clock designed by John C Taylor. When he visited his old college campus at Corpus Cristi in Cambridge he realized how little was changed over 40 years since his times studying there. This inspired him to create a clock that was nothing alike seen before.

The clock is a masterpiece both in art and clockmaking. It took 5 years to create it and used some unique technologies to craft. It even led to several new patents needed for it's marvelous engineering.

The clock itself is made of stainless steel and plated in gold. There are no hands in this clock. Instead three concentric rings of slits resembles hours, minutes and seconds, each slit opening at the given time revealing a blue led light behind it.

The mechanism of the clock is designed so that it will keep accurate time for at least 200 years. But it doesn't show the time accurately on the shorter note. There is built-in randomness in the mechanism that makes the clock slow down and speed up occasionally to show the relativity of time.

While the clock itself is already quite remarkable the most distinguish feature of the clock is the grasshopper figure above the clock. This chronophage moves along the clocks pendulum, making it look like it's eating the passing time.

Ever walked to another room and rhen wondered why you were going there? This isn't that uncommon for people to experience. It even has it's own scientific name: event boundary. The cause isn't exactly known, but there are many theories based on how our brains work.

Our memory is context based. It's easier to recall certain information when you are in a similar situation as when you originally received that information. Stepping into a different space can "reset" your memory due to the context switching.

Our brains are also optimized for dealing with new situations. When you enter a new environment our brains automatically try to take in as much information as possible about that new environment. To so so it needs to free up as much as possible of our working memory, potentially wiping out whatever was on our minds before the transition. This is pretty similar to how many video games work. When you enter a new room the computer unloads the precious area from the memory to make room for the new space.