Let'sThink about The Journal

Picture that's on my journal

This is a topic i have been thinking of since the beginning of the journal.  I actually believe my first entry is about this that I'm about to say.  I feel like this is my video blogs (vlogs) on paper. 2 years ago I started vlogging with a group of people i met online and became friends with, and after a while i started doing daily ones for myself where i would talk about what i did in my day and about whatever was on my mind, and writing in the journal feels just like that.

Around 50 days in the videos, i stopped doing them daily, and for a few reasons, like : I was just complaining for 6 minutes, or i didn't feel like i had anything of true substance to say, and sometimes i felt like i could be using those 6 -15 minutes more productively.  That has been my problem writing in the Journal.  I didn't feel alright writing everyday because i felt a lot of times, like i was losing my time just complaining for 10 minutes, and sometimes this just made me feel worse.  Of course there were some times i actually talked about something important to me.

Here's the thing, I live a happy life with almost no problems apart from work stress (horrible i know, i am so tortured) so when i was thinking of problems to talk about or thoughts for going and tapping the jugular all that came out was work stress and the occasional "I kinda feel lonely" and that feeling goes away quickly, and i once or twice talked about the problems my family faced a few years back but apart from that I mostly just wrote about immediate thoughts that had no relation with each other  nor real context at all just a bunch of  "Im tired, i need to do work, im in x class and i want to keep reading my book" "i heard someone walk in, i hope its my friend".

I used to dream and remember a lot but now it only happens mid-day weekends, when i take naps, and writing after wake up is a disaster.  It doesn't matter if it's weekday or weekend trying to write tired ends up me writing about how tired i am or me writing with my eyes closed which can end up either ok or horribly.

Final thoughts on the Journal: After 41 journal entries i can say....It was a nice experience, i enjoyed it, but i didn't particularly enjoy HAVING to make it.  I think i'll stick to video journals because i feel more comfortable and closer to it alredy, it helps me talk in english and gives me something to watch later on, with a bit more context by looking at my room or my state.

Let's think about "On Looking"

I've been putting this writing off for way too long, I finish this now.

The reason I've been putting this off is because I'm not sure what to talk about here. Its a very interesting read, but it doesn't leave me with much to "think about", well, except for "how do i see the world?" and "How else can i look at it?". That's fine, it's what it's meant to do, everyone that reads it starts wondering this. As interesting as this might be to one self it's just weird to share this with others, without having something concrete to look at together and seeing the differences.

This being said, it did remind me of something very much alike, that portrays a similar message, this one not about looking at stuff differently depending on your past, who you are and what you are doing (which is the main topic in "On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz") and more about how we see everything but we're not observing everything.What it reminded me of was of a TEDTalk, where Apollo Robins, known as the best pitpocket in the world talks about misdirection.

The best example of how we don't see everything i can use from this show is this:

You have a phone on you, right?  Probably a smart phone (if not, keep reading, or watch the video at the end).
You probably use this every day, so without looking at it, tell me, tell yourself, think: What app/icon is at the bottom right corner of your phone?

Can you remember? Go check.

If you know 100% that that is what is there, check anyways, you might be surprised, tell me in the comments if you were right, lets do a little experiment.

The best example of how we don't see everything i can use from this show is this: Now, that you've checked, put your phone away...

"You missed that." was the first sentence in "On Looking" and it's perfect.   I can't say for certain that you did, but there's a high probability that you did.
You just looked on your phone, and every phone has the same thing, no matter which one, so now tell me...

 What time is it?

When i first saw this in the TED Talk it made me want to try to look at everything with more detail, not be misdirected, and this is the feeling that I kinda felt while reading "On looking" curiosity.

Final thoughts: "On looking" is good read, but i feel it would have impacted me more if i hadn't gone through something similar as the author. This is strange because sometimes being close to what they're trying to show is better but in this case I just felt like it didn't have much of an impact, but remembering that I looked at things different than others and sharing this with others is the best, and it's making us think about looking, so its fulfilling its purpose.

Click here to watch the TEDTalk, you won't regret it.

Click here to read the excerpt, you wont regret this one either.