Happy NEW DAY

New year is on a international scale the most symbolic time-event of the year. It is an artificial ending of the cycle of a year. In a cosmological way, the night of 31 December is of no meaning.

The celebration of new year has already started 4000 years ago in the ancient Babylon - it was celebrated with the first new moon after the first day of spring. At this moment, it was a more logic moment to start a new year because spring is the season of rebirth. The celebration lasted for eleven days! The Romans continued to celebrate new year at the end of march (start of spring) but their calendar was changed a lot by their emperors. Some months were added and others were dropped but at one moment new year was moved to the 1 of January but it was no longer linked with spring or the first moon.

But 1 January isn't celebrated in all countries as the end of the year. There are more than 20 different days when people celebrate new year (the most famous after 1 January is the Chinese new year that takes place between 21 January & 21 February)

Now, the turn of the year is the moment to make a balance in relation to time - a letting go and a new start. Personal arguments are solved and lots of lists are made with all kind of intensions. Most of those list don't last very long. In one way, I find this celebration a bit too artificial - most of the people say happy new year & wish you all the best but they even don't take the time to look you in the eyes and really mean it. It's more a courtesy form than a real wish. On the other hand, for a lot of people, it's the only time in the year when they reflect about their year & activities they've done so we should be happy for that exceptional moment.

In succession of the day-day, I wish you a happy New Day ... every day of the year.

Oldest person in the world

When you try to search for the oldest person on earth, you get into some discussions about official records & certificates. In 2003 a lot of people celebrated the birthday of Elisabeth (Ma Pampo) - a woman from the Dominican republic who turned 128 years old (young?). Unfortunately, the Guinness world record has not officially recognized Ma Pampo since they are still in process of verifying the claim. The oldest documented & fully validated supercentenarian ever is Jeanne Calment from France with an age of 122 years and 164 days.

Elizabeth Bolden - oldest person at this moment who still lives - is now 116 years so she has still to stay here on this earth a few years before she can claim the title of 'oldest person of the world'.

Very interesting is that the life expectation of humans raise three months every year!

The tao of Pooh

A few days ago, I've bought 'the tao of Pooh' written by Benjamin Hoff and in 2 read-moments, it was already finished. Benjamin Hoff uses the different characters from Winnie the Pooh to introduce the basics of Taoism. Some nice quotes from the book:

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes,"said Piglet, "Rabit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."

I can recommend the book because it explains in a very simple way that life is about being: discover your inner self and accept what is. And you'll see that life will give you what you need at that moment - always the right thing.

Nice poem about time - from Joyce Wycoff

Fifty years and four,

have flown past my door.

I no longer have time

to not have time.

I do not have time to zoom past a field of flowers

glowing orange in the morning sun.

I do not have time to travel the world seeking

the wonders to be found in my own backyard.

I do not have time

to come back later

Or do it tomorrow

for tomorrow may never be.

I do not have time

to not slow down,

to put off a poem, delay a hug

or walk past a prayer.

I no longer have time,

for now, time has me.

by Joyce Wycoff (cofounder Innovation Network)

The history of the universe ... in 1 year

If we look at the history of our universe and we put the important events (for us) on a scale of one year, it probably would look like this:

• 1 January - 00.00 - Big Bang
• 9 September - origin of solar system
• 14 September - formation of earth
• 12 November - oldest photosynthetic plants
• 24 December - first dinosaurs appear
• 29 December - dinosaurs wiped out by asteroid or comet
• 31 December - 10.15 apes appear
  
• 31 December - 22.48 - homo erectus appears
• 31 December - 23.59.45 - invention of writing
• 31 December - 23.59.50 - pyramids in Egypt
• 31 December - 23.59.59 - Christopher Columbus discovers America
• 1 January - 00.00.00 - present moment - worldwide expansion, space travel, ...
  

Looks like the humans have only experienced a very, very small part of the year. Hope that next year will be better and that we will survive a bit longer.

Image and information from a course at the University of Victoria (very interesting)

4'33''

4'33'' is a composition written by John Cage (1912-1992). He said:

"I have nothing to say / and i am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed it"

The purpose of the play is that the pianist walks to the piano, sits down, doesn't touch anything for 4 minutes and 33 seconds (use a stopwatch) and leave again.

So it is pure silence. It could have been any length but John Cage has 'written' it for 4'33"

Exercise - how to get into the NOW

Stop reading this weblog for a moment and simply observe where you are and what you're doing. You're reading this weblog on your PC or laptop. Probably you're sitting at a desk and you have chosen to read this text. Now imagine your life right now - without thinking what's good or bad or what's lacking. You are just right where you are, reading this text. This is now ... the present moment ...

Now observe what happens when you inject a few thoughts about all you still have to do today. Watch yourself what happens as you think about a few problems and complications. Bring to mind an event that has caused you some troubles in the last days ... By now, your peace of mind has been disrupted by your own thinking. The more you continue with your injection of future of past concerns, the more upset and frustrated you will become.

Now get aware again from this moment. You're sitting behind your desk reading this text. Breathe and enjoy now.

Copied & adjusted a bit from the book 'You can be happy no matter what' from Richard Carlson

Proxima Centauri

We already know that our universe is quite big ... euh very big. The closest star to the earth (except for our sun) is called proxima centauri and is at a distance of 4 light years. Quite far if you know that a light year is travelling a year with the speed of light (300.000 km/second). So that means that the distance is around 37.000.000.000.000 km.

Our Sun is only travelling 8 light minutes from earth.

Happy day-day!

Congratulations with your day-day! Yes you!

It is today your day-day. Maybe it is even your birthday but that change is smaller. I wish you a beautiful and inspiring day and hope that all your wishes may come true.

The day-day is a project from time to NOW and it is a counter-reaction against the obliged birthdays. Okay, I know, most of the people like their birthdays because these days are more special and they get presents, and so on. But there is also something fake about those days. Why is my birthday so special and why should I be happy on that day? (because I live here on this planet for x times 365 days? It is not that special - 1.000 days or 10.000 days is more special for me). It has already happened several times that I have an off-day on my birthday and I am not in the mood for people who congratulate me. And another problem is remembering all the birthdays of friends and family - otherwise they may be mad at you if you forget their birthday.

For all those people who think the same about these birthdays, time to NOW has invented the day-day. You don't have to celebrate your birthday anymore and you can celebrate your day-day on days when you feel happy and are in the mood for seeing and partying with other people. There is after all only now & here and you have only today to your account. You don't know what will happen in the future so enjoy today. When you declare a certain day as your day-day, you have the right to call your friends and ask them to come over with presents. Beware, they also have the right to declare the day as their day-day so you also have to buy presents for them - so double fun (x number of people who are coming).

I already had my first day-day and it was a success. So don't wait and organize your own day-day. Congratulations and enjoy today!

The butterfly effect - travelling in time

The butterfly effect is part of the chaos-theory. It says that a small change in the initial conditions can have a big effect in the long run. The story goes that the wings of a butterfly cause a Tornado at the other side of the world. This effect is already used in some movies to play with the idea of time travel. Go back into the past and change the future.

The movie 'the butterfly effect' is such a movie and it's quite okay. A young guy has blocked out some harmful memories from the past by having black-outs. When he starts to read his journal again, he can go back in time and change something in his life. The movie is worth watching so I won't tell more about it. And clocktime can go fast because apparently - part 2 is already available in the US.

But even knowing that travelling in time won't be possible at this moment (check out my later posts about this topic - ??? later posts - how is that possible???), it remains an interesting topic to wonder about what you should change in your life if you could go back a few days, months, years, ...

And now excuse me because I'm going to travel to next year to give my opinion on time-travelling ...

...
... krrrrrrzzzzzzz ... krrrrrrggggghhhhh ... Flash ...

Long imprisonment

In Spain, a postman was accused of a very long imprisonment. Apparently, the law is in Spain that postmen can get an imprisonment of 9 years for not delivering a piece of mail. Because this guy hadn't delivered more than 40.000 postal items, the prosecutor claimed 384 912 years of imprisonment.

Example found in 'De Tijd' from Frits Bom

The new internet time: NET & Swatch

Thanks to the internet, more and more people have contact with persons from all over the world. A problem that's rising by the globalisation is that you have to convert the GMT-time zones to check to time of the other person. Especially for internet community, it would be nice if we could eliminate the need for geographical time zones. Some organizations have already come up with a solution:

New Earth Time is a proposed global standard time which measures the global day with 360 degrees. This new time standard is invented in september 1999 and one big advantage is that you don't have to calculate the differences in GMT-zones. 360° is also a number that's quite easy to work with.

Another time-method is Swatch Internet Time (developed by Swatch - who else???) and it divides a day in 1000 beats. One beat lasts 1 minute and 26,4 seconds. The developers had absolutely some commercial goals with this invention because the beats (so zero beats) starts in Biel - headquarters of Swatch Switzerland. I also don't know if it was very smart to make such a close connection to the company's name because at this moment, swatch internet time isn't used a lot - only in some swatch watches.

I think there will be coming some more attemps to get a standard internet time but I don't think we have a winner yet.

Instantly experience time

Don't go to the site of linerider if you have some clocktime appointments within the next half hour. Linerider is a very simple 'game' where a little guy on a sleigh is going down the hills which you have drawed. It is a good example to explain how fast you will forget clocktime once you're busy with the game - experience time takes over. Check out youtube for some amazing examples of what you can create.

If you know some more sites or experiences which can put you immediately in another experience time, suggestions are always welcome.

And don't complain if you have spend to much clocktime to linerider. I've warned you!

PS: www.nobodyhere.com (dutch site but even for other languages still interesting) is at least as addictive as linerider. It's no game but developed by a guy with too much time ;-)

Millions of thoughts ... about past & future

Eckart Tolle - author of 'The power of now' - explains that we have millions of thoughts every day but only a few of them are about the things that happen now. Most of the time, we're busy with the past (I should have done that task in a different way, I hope that it works better than the last time, yesterday I've met a nice person, ...) or the future (I have to make a shopping list, I need to speak to my colleague, I have a dream of going on a world-tour, ...). We are repeating thoughts over and over again and aren't even conscious of them. They create our lives. They create feelings of happiness, sadness, sorrow, anger, ... (most of them are negative).

But they are only thoughts - simply a function of our consciousness - nothing more. We have the power to decide right now & here to be aware of this moment ... the present ... now ...

It is the only moment where real happiness exists. Happy people understand that life is really nothing more than a series of present moments to experience. Regardless of what happened this morning, last week or last year - or what may happen this evening, tomorrow or three years from now ... happiness is now & here. It looks very difficult but it is very easy - take your attention to the present moment.

Convention of Time Travellers

The first 'Time Travellers Convention' took place on 7 May 2005 at the campus of M.I.T. (42,360007 degrees north latitude and 71,087870 degrees western longitude). More than 500 visitors were present but it isn't sure if time travellers have joined the audience. There were no clothing restrictions so future travellers could come in their daily clothes.

MIT is still making promotion for the conference to make sure that future time travellers will know that there was a convention and that they could travel back to attend the convention.

Different shapes of time

This weblog is about experience time. When you check the literature - most of the time - they don't call it experience time but psychological time. But of course, psychological time isn't the only shape in which time appears to us. You can find the following shapes of time back in the 'science books':

• Chronological time = linear time = clocktime = developed by the humans to try to get grip of the cosmological time (but clocktime is quite complex and not very accurate).
• Psychological time = perception of time = subjective time = experience time = the duration and consciousness of time is dependant from internal and external circumstances of the 'observer'
• Cosmological time = time directly related with nature & cosmos. All the movements of the earth, moon, stars, planets, galaxies but also the movements of atoms, light, waves, particles, ... The biological human clock is also part of the cosmological time.

But there are dozens of other ways to divide time: cyclical time, universal time, evolution time, clinical time, alone-time and time-with-others, parallel time, synchronological time, eternal time, ...

Eternity is long ... very long

Eternity is very long ... we can't imagine how long it is because it is of course undefined. But this attempt to describe eternity gives at least a clue how long it is. It is from Hendrik Willem Van Loon and he has written this description in his 1921 children's classic The Story of Mankind (1921 - that almost seems an eternity ago).

High up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to the rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.

Miss Dewey is waiting with you

Are you tired of waiting when google is searching some content for you. Then Ms Dewey can be your solution to make the waiting more pleasant. Ms Dewey is a good-looking animated search assistant who gives comments - in her own style - on the searched keywords. It's really funny (Eg try to search for spam or clothes) but the danger is that you'll spend a lot more time than planned to look up a keyword.