Tuesday, October 1, 2013

9:33 AM There is a new invention on the news – glasses that translate foreign languages. They are an adaptation of Google's “Project Glass” which is “augmented-reality” glasses, in which a hands free computer is hooked up to glasses, so you can walk down the street and work on the computer at the same time. These new glasses have a translation program in the computer. The glasses are equipped with a microphone that picks up the conversation going on in your presence and produces sub-titles on a screen. According to one article, there is a slight delay in the timing, and the glasses can only handle basic phrases. There is also the problem of accidents caused by the distraction. That doesn't surprise me, because the human brain can only process so much information at one time. I have found that I can do two things at once in some cases, but in others I can't. I can listen to instrumental music while carrying on a conversation, but not if it involves following the lyrics of a song. It's probably because the same part of the brain is being accessed when there are lyrics. Producing words rather than merely listening would be especially hard. I can listen to both if I pay attention to the lyrics for a few seconds at a time and then focus on the conversation in the next few seconds, but I wouldn't want to discuss anything serious that way.

I think in our modern society we tend to overload ourselves very frequently. I do listen to the TV while working on the computer, but I'm not really following what they are saying on the TV except to segment the concentration as I described. Doing two things at once may be a cause of some of the anxiety that I sometimes have. I have noticed that when I lived near the edge of a forest and could take long walks through the woods away from all distractions, I would experience a flood of peaceful feelings that would boost my mood immediately. Also while slowly walking I can still my mind by purposely stopping all “inner verbalization” and listening in a focused way to the soft sounds in the forest like wind passing through leaves and small rustlings of squirrels or mice, while using my eyes closely to observe everything around me. When I do that my vision seems to become sharper and more cognitive, “thinking in pictures” rather than thinking in words, and I can examine the surrounding plants and animals in detail. When I do that I notice much more of the environment, and spot more things of interest –- frog eggs in a little pond, mushrooms, or new spring flowers. I think doing that is a form of meditation, as it produces a serenity and euphoria that stops any worrying that might have been busying my brain cells.

Well, I'm putting off going to Walmart to buy ink cartridges. A week or so ago I had thought of another thing I wanted to get at Walmart, but I have forgotten what it was. I guess I can do without it. Leaving for Walmart now.

2:13 I'm reading a mystery by Richard North Patterson called The Spire. It's good so far. His writing is straightforward and easy to read, so I'm making my way through it fairly fast. I paused to look up the term “shotgun house,” since this is the second time I've heard it. Wikipedia had a long section on shotgun houses, which were commonplace in the South prior to the 1930's. I can think of a few I have seen while our family were riding down through the countryside going to my grandparents' home. They are built on a straight line with each room directly behind the other and a door at both the back and the front. This long house is very narrow, and was usually built on small, narrow lots with a very small front yard. The benefit of them was that there was good airflow throughout the length of the building, which in the South before air conditioning helped to make them more comfortable. They, according to this article, may have been based on housing in Africa and Haiti, and were prevalent in New Orleans, where blacks outnumbered whites 10,500 to 4,500 in the 1810 census. Some were built as two shotgun houses together with a mutual wall dividing them for two family habitation. Those were called a double shotgun or double-barrel shotgun. They were popular for working class housing. You can find anything in Wikipedia!