Skyline in Brisbane, QLD taken from Eat Street food market.
Thank you again to all my followers and regular readers, and hello to you if you are new to my blog!
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Happy blogging,
Sam
What I have noticed on my recent flights is that I always seem to be asked about taking the emergency exit seat. Usually I am flying by myself however my mum and sister were with me this time around and all three of us were offered it. Is this something that is offered to everyone, it’s just that most people decline? I don’t know, but I don’t mind it at all.
I mean for starters… All that leg room!
I can almost stretch my legs out fully, and being 6ft this is very good stuff.
The downside I found out was when I saw everyone in front of me start to recline in their seats after the seatbelt sign went off. I thought ‘that’s a good idea, I’m knackered’ before realising that I didn’t have that little button on my armrest. So basically we sacrifice the reclining chair for the leg room. And I don’t know which I prefer. Probably being able to put my seat back on a night flight (as I will be trying to sleep anyway) and the leg room during the day.
And of course being near the wing means the view is… of the wing. And I had one of my deep thoughts out this window as I could see little else than the engine keeping us airborne. I thought how strange it was that most of us on board have very little idea how the aerodynamics work on such journeys, we are all just lucky that a small number of humans have figured it out throughout history and made it possible and we just pay for a ticket and use it. They say it’s embarrassing that some people still clap when the plane lands (does this actually happen by the way? I’ve never seen it) however in my head that’s exactly what I want to do. I mean, it’s something humans only in the past few generations have been able to do in our 200,000 year existence, why shouldn’t we do a little celebrating!
Saying that, I usually do that via a beer or two.
Thank you again to all my followers and regular readers, and hello to you if you are new to my blog!
New to this site? Click here to visit my About My Blog section
Want to keep up with my travels? Click here for my Travel Diary or follow me over on Instagram
Want to introduce yourself and your blog and discover new ones? Click here for my meet and greet page.
Happy blogging,
Sam
Have you ever thought about the fact that you can edit guest comments as well as your previous posts? I can have an about page stating that I am a photographer, traveller and blogger, get a few lovely comments of support and change it to say I am an ivory poaching, terrorist-sympathising baby eater.
The post would have completely changed but the comments will still say ‘Love this’! And ‘I really like your perspective!’. It is pretty comical.
And just to make the comments even more convincing, we can change that kind messages of support to ‘I love this idea! I hate elephants too!’, really convincing the reader that you truly are an animal hating baby eater.
The internet is a scary place, especially as technology increases and it is harder to decipher what is real and what isn’t. Take a look at this video, courtesy of Barrack Obama. Apparently…
How hard will it be in the upcoming decades to know what is real and what is fake? I guess we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
The image above is from the music video for Pressure, a new song by Muse. The album is called Simulation Theory and is themed around this topic. I thought this clip from the video fit in well with the post, and I need to get Muse into a post every once in a while.
Matt, I know your ears are burning.
What do you think? Does the future scare you or fill you with excitement?
Thank you again to all my followers and regular readers, and hello to you if you are new to my blog!
New to this site? Click here to visit my About My Blog section
Want to keep up with my travels? Click here for my Travel Diary
Want to introduce yourself and your blog and discover new ones? Click here for my meet and greet page.
Happy blogging!
I had a great day yesterday. I watched the highlights of the latest SpaceX launch, the Falcon Heavy. This included a Tesla car with a mannequin in the drivers seat being launched into orbit. What a time to be alive.
The footage can be seen here, the 20 minute mark is where you will see the action unfold. This action includes a seemingly perfect test flight, synchronized landings of the side boosters and that Tesla Car with a mannequin in the driver seat blasting Starman by Bowie.
On the YouTube channel, the following description is provided:
When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel–Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.
Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.
Just reading this gets me all fired up. In a world in which we are constantly hearing about the crazy things Trump says and and reading about the latest tragedy to strike a community, it is great to read about an event that is nothing but beneficial for humanity. We are in the early stages of becoming a multi-planet species. How can this be boring to some people? It blows my mind that this doesn’t blow everyone’s mind. But we are all different with different interests.
An example of this was seen today on my social media. Someone posted the following onto Facebook:
I would hate to have this much money I could waste such vast amounts on shit space missions. #nooneisbothered
Surely it isn’t healthy to be this pessimistic. Skeptical is good, as we need to be very skeptical about what we are told in life. But to make such a statement is to not bother researching the thing you are criticising but remain motivated enough to criticise it anyway. Lazy and pessimistic go hand in hand, and can be a dangerous downward spiral that is hard to get out of. How many people on earth have the ambition shown in the video… To be wealthy enough to not just live a great lifestyle but dedicate this wealth to improving humanity. I genuinely feel Elon Musk is one of the few people that are truly interested in improving our species in a very selfless manner, finding gaps in our systems and looking to fill those gaps. One of the gaps being a one planet species and the issues with this.
It could be true that #nooneisbothered. Thankfully that doesn’t seem the case, the video is currently number one on Youtube’s trending. My response would be #bebothered. Life is too average to not look up to the people that have incredible vision and motivation, using money in productive ways. To be pessimistic here is to be lazy. There is no skill involved in being pessimistic, and we all have skills. It is easier to be negative than use these skills to be productive, although productivity will be much more rewarding in the long run.
To infinity!
I think that my Thursday posts for the foreseeable future will be throwbacks to posts I have previously published. This is for a couple of reasons. One reason being I have currently 1,077 posts on my blog, with many of my early posts gathering between 2-5 views. I would love to return to these posts as many are still relevant and it would be great to introduce to the wider audience I very gratefully have today. Another reason is that blogging daily is difficult with full time work, and posting an entry that I have previously published gives me that little bit of extra time to look at my blog, respond to comments and think of new material.
It would be tragic if a band did not play their older stuff at a gig, I kind of feel the same way about my blog.
This one is a fairly recent one, dating back to June 9th, 2017. It was when I was starting to tell people about my move to Australia, I was having a catch up with friends in a bar that I knew I wouldn’t see for a while. I miss this kind of European architecture, however I have seen a lot more of the blue sky here than I probably ever did in Newcastle, England.
Enjoy!
That’s all there is to say of this view. A view that is astounding, normalised due to it being the only view we have ever had.
I love the term ‘space’, it’s like the most modest definition of a possibly infinite universe/multiverse. It would be like calling the ocean ‘big puddle’.
No ceiling, no boundaries. If I had the ability to launch into the clouds above, I could go on forever. Why don’t I consider this more often? How does everyday life take my attention away from unbe-fucking-lievable aspects of our reality?
Beyond the blue, pure mystery. Like looking into the depths of the ocean, all we can do is stare and wonder. This amazes me, it also saddens me. The planets I will never visit and the landscapes I will never walk, the possibility of extra terrestrial life and technology they could possess. We are that desperate to cling onto old traditions we lack so much desire to discover. If our priorities are discussing same sex marriage and women keeping their hair covered, should I be surprised we have hardly explored our own solar system?
It takes a space shuttle 150 seconds to leave our atmosphere. A very short time but still difficult for us to carry out regularly. We are spiders trying to leave a bathtub, the slippery surface made of closed mindedness and hurt feelings. There are many of us that would love to leave the bathtub but cannot as we are too busy trying to fight for equal rights and evade beheadings. You know, the silly things that should be history, still taking place in a world that has the capability for so much more.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the reason I drink alcohol occasionally. To forget that some people are offended by it.
Let me know what you think, as I am sure there are plenty of opinions on this.
First publshed June 9th, 2017
Reblogged Jan 18th, 2018
I had an incredibly vivid dream last night. This is the second time that I have posted about a dream that I had and I may keep them coming from time to time when I have one that really stands out. This was my first dream post, this is my second. I also used this picture of street art from Brazil on my last one as I felt the art was as crazy as dreams can be. Crazy and limitless in potential.
I actually had two dreams, but I have managed to forget one before being able to blog about it. The one I remember was incredibly real. I was so present in the dream, it wasn’t a lucid dream but I felt I was making the thoughts that I was thinking and not just being a passenger or an audience member to the dialogue.
I was at work in the hotel. Now our hotel has both temporary guests and permanent residents, the top four floors are owned by residents. This was also true in the dream, however the layout of the hotel differed slightly. I was made aware of this in the dream after some temporary guests were unable to get to their floor. It turned out that the guests got into the wrong elevator- the one dedicated to permanent residents- so their key card would not work. This is factually true, the keys wouldn’t work. However the guests would not have been able to access the elevator at all as they need a pass to get through a glass door. This door wasn’t in the dream and I asked myself why. This is what is so fascinating about dreams, they are a completely new world that we find ourselves in but don’t often realise until we wake. Sometimes we do realise whilst in the dream. We realise we are experiencing a reality that isn’t reality. Very Matrix like, and I imagine that I was pulling the face that DiCaprio’s character did in Inception.
I then remembered that I left my desk unattended to assist these guests. My run back to the front desk had me jumping over chairs and around tables that would not be there if I was to run in my real job. There was a kids party going on also, so it seems like my brain installed a restaurant or some kind of venue in the middle of the hotel for whatever reason. Whilst I was running I remember truly feeling like I was running. I could feel the plastic of the chairs I was pushing out the way. I could feel the world and it wasn’t hazy. I could hear the kids laughing as I was dodging them playing. It was all very present as were my senses.
Once I got back, this is when the dream really showed a dreams true potential. The weird section that can only really take place in a mind whilst asleep or under the influence of hallucinogens. Actually this is pretty tame for someone that has just taken mushrooms I would imagine, please let me know if you can confirm this. I would love to say I have tried them but I haven’t.
The automatic doors into the lobby from outside were swapped with one single, black door that resembled a door that should be on the front of a house. There were some loud bangs on this door. I couldn’t see outside, and it wasn’t too long before I realised what the bangs were. A guy burst in using a wheelbarrow. Of all things, a wheelbarrow. Immediately I knew it was a robbery and conveniently I had the till drawer right in front of me. To make the situation even more strange, he didn’t have a gun. He had a drill. This drill was held to my head and I handed him the money. He took the money, however he didn’t take the drill from my head. The dilemma here was that he kept shouting demands, however I could not understand what he was saying. He kept shouting louder and with increasing anger, not helping the fact that I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was then that I decided to fight back and take the drill. I was able to grab it from his hands and he backed off slightly. He maintained eye contact and looked like he was still willing to fight.
And just like the end of an episode, it ended there.
I woke up and have no idea how the rest of this dream would play out. Did I wake up because my adrenaline was pumping? Does adrenaline flow during a dream? Maybe my brain was becoming too active to remain in a sleeping state. I don’t know. What I do know is dreams are too fascinating to not think about or speak of. It is another mystery in life that just begs for our curiosity and an increase in knowledge.
If I can remember a dream, I will easily spend the whole day thinking about it. Life is too short and there are too many mysteries. Our brain, the thing that tries to evaluate mysteries, contains many mysteries. We are a mystery trying to analyse itself, and that is incredible.
This morning, around 4.30am in Sydney’s CBD, I was awake at work and a HUGE storm rolled in. I was at the desk and I could see the early flashes on the horizon in the corner of my eye, before long it was right above us. Although I felt like one of the only people awake at the time right before this, I would be surprised if anyone was able to sleep through it.
If there is one thing that demonstrates the power of lightning, it is its ability to turn night into day. Now I am not sure if this is due to lightning, if anyone can confirm that would be great, but I was recording the skyline hoping for a huge fork to strike as it was doing so frequently and the moment a bright flash occurred, my camera stopped recording. This was annoying, however what was amazing was that my screen froze at the moment the flash lit up the whole sky. So, I took a screenshot of the moment that was frozen on my iPhone screen. The next picture here is a screenshot of the video before the lightning. The following image is during the flash.
How amazing is that? It is like nature is turning the light on. Also notice how the Harbour Bridge becomes clearly visible during a strike.
Notice how this shot only lights up the water.
I also love how nature really doesn’t give a damn. It’s 4.30am? Do I look like I care? I am going to unleash all fury anyway. I will flash, I will roar and I will leave when I am done. See you next time I am around, sleepyheads.
This kind of nature really does blow me away and fill me with fascination, although as I have admitted before, my perception can shift dramatically in a different mindset. In periods of depression or anxiety, storms terrify me. It highlights the aspects of nature that we still don’t truly understand, the uncontrollable and largely unpredictable nature of reality that we just have to ride out like a storm wave. The reality that we are in control of only a small aspect of life and this is evident every single day.
In periods of stress-free calm, as I have experienced thankfully the past few months, I can look at storms for their beauty and appreciate how far humans have come, to the point that a lightning strike containing millions of volts of electricity can be viewed from a relatively safe, care free zone. Hopefully I stay in this frame of mind so I can take all the goodness out of these natural events before the day comes that I won’t be around to see the show any longer.
Just before leaving Newcastle yesterday, I walked down to the beach for a final gaze out over the Pacific Ocean. The sign as I was leaving dry land warned me that the path ahead is never safe, even in calm waters.
This view is beautiful or terrifying, depending on my state of mind on the day. I guess it can be both at the same time. As I was hungover on this particular morning, anxiety overpowered the appreciative side of my brain. I sat next to the sign warning me of the consant danger of the waves and took everything in.
My problem is that I always try to wrap my head around what is not possible to wrap my head around. Life and how we got here, where we are going and what is beyond our universe. The bigger questions. I wish I could settle with not knowing but it doesn’t stop me wanting to know. Staring at this horizon is a window into the infinite. Right there is a view that could potentially go on forever. How astounding is that?! Isn’t it funny that we freak out when looking down from a height but take no interest in the unfathomable drop below earth? It isn’t the immediate threat we face daily, so I guess it makes sense.
Even the huge expanse of the ocean is nothing compared to space. The ocean itself is a depth I struggle to comprehend, enough to trigger some form of anxiety and unease if I was to find myself far from the shore in a small boat. It is an example of nature being something much larger than ourselves, how can we expect to understand when the brains we are equipped with are much smaller than the rocks it throws about with ease? It would be incredible to possess the knowledge of a brain the size of an ocean, what would it know?
There are things we know that we don’t know, I guess that’s a start. And knowing there are things that I don’t know keeps me stimulated, even if it is hard to take in. Although the sky is a window into the infinite, I have to be grateful I have a window to look out of.
Sports bring communities together. There aren’t many sounds in the world that can compare to the roar of a stadium as their idolised team walks onto the pitch. This isn’t to say sports will always bring two differing communities together, often the opposite. Soon, I’m heading out to find a bar that will hopefully show the Australia vs England game in the Rugby League World Cup. The below pictures were taken just before the NRL Grand Final between Melbourne Storm and the North Queensland Cowboys earlier this month in Sydney. I enjoy this kind of buzz.
I am unsure if I have posted the picture below of a distant plane advertising the above Grand Final, but when I browse through my photos I cannot help but imagine how incredibly freaky and life changing it would be for a historical figure to witness this in their time period. To look up and see a technology not just unseen but incomprehensible, a person that was in my very spot a thousand years ago looking toward the oceans horizon and having no idea that one day an aircraft would soar faster than a bird. What a WTF moment this would be and what a life changing experience. I do wish we had a time machine to carry out such an experiment, however flying over an isolated and uncontacted tribe cannot be too different. How would it change the course of history? Would it lead to a religion? I do wish to have a similar experience however as I cannot comprehend a technology that is incomprehensible I have no idea what effect it would have on me, and it doesn’t take much to freak me out.
Would you trust a condom on the bar? Seems a little risky to me.
At least they are being offered, it is refreshing to see people not freaking out about sex. Isn’t it strange that one of the most powerful forces we feel, sexual attraction, is one we are told to oppress and not talk about? Sex is one of our biggest desires however we have to pretend that it isn’t the case in professional environments and social circles. It is like we are acting as people that we actually aren’t, whether that is for better or worse would be a much longer post and one that I do not have the answer for. Of course I am not solely talking about sex, it just makes sense as I have a bowl of contraception under my nose as I have a beer.
I did talk about this briefly in my post Is Adulthood a Delusion? as I do find it fascinating to consider. Are we living a bigger lie than we are willing to accept, or is it a good thing that we have to leave some of our desires at the door? I am sure there are valid arguments for both.
One Chance to See the World 