Vince Lynch interviewed Rob today!

I had hoped to complete a science post for today, but no can do -- I'll explain below. Today was exciting, nevertheless, I got to listen in as famous street hypnotist Vince Lynch interviewed my best friend/hypnotist Rob, for being one of those rare people who does street hypnosis.
` It's such a big friggin' deal that he conducted this interview at one in the morning, UK time, which is 5 pm here. If you've never heard of Vince Lynch, he's all over the YouTubes -- here's the first video I saw:

Anyway, he interviewed Rob via Skype about what Rob has done -- street hypnosis among a group of people smoking or even on stage -- and a bunch of other stuff, oh I don't even remember, as I could barely hear Vince.
` I wrote down in my blogging notebook about how Rob does it -- 'Frame control, making the hypnosis about the subject, step into their hologram, use ego hooks. Importantly, though, Rob can hypnotize anyone, and most hypnotists can't even do that. How does he do it? Because he starts off with set and setting, pacing and leading, and 90% of his work is done before he even says a word.
` In fact, his only real 'pre-talk' is, "Hey, I'm a hypnotist, who wants to see something cool?" Then he misdirects the volunteer by asking them superfluous questions (witch-doctoring) and that overloads their brain so that their critical factor is distracted and taken off-line just long enough for him to hack into the person's mind.
` Mua ha ha ha ha ha!, as they say.

[Edit: You can listen to the whole interview here on Lynch's website. Finally, I can hear Vince, as well as some weird background noises that I can't identify.
` Also, I've noticed that each time I listen to the podcast directly from the 'Robert Schryvers Interview' page, it suddenly stops playing and then the 'Luis Zevallos Interview' page loads up for no apparent reason. If the same thing happens to you, I've found that scrolling down and then listening to it from the list of podcasts, here, prevents that.]

I should also mention that after the interview, Vince was wondering why Rob isn't rich and famous already. He should be, considering his skills -- I bet even Igor Ledochowski isn't able to hypnotize everyone he tries to!
` Then, Rob taught me how to do a handshake interrupt -- first, you misdirect ('witch-doctor') the person by getting them to stand a certain way (compliance), ask them which hand they use, then get them to start to shake your hand, then grab the hand a certain way (with your other hand) and turn it towards their face.
` Once you have the person's gaze fixed on "the hand" (calling it "the" causes dissociation), mention how their eyes are becoming unfocused and tell them to close their eyes, tap the back of the neck and say "sleep".
` If done right, the person is so focused on the sound of your voice that they will fall right into you and you have to tell them to stay on their feet.

As for why I'm not doing a science post, well, as soon as I got home, I knew exactly what article I was going to complete. I had over an hour, my headspace was just right, which is very rare.
` I moved the radiator into my office so as to make it less freezing cold and then had myself a snack. Fifteen minutes later, my office was warm enough to enter without a winter coat. I went straight to my computer and began finishing the article.

And then... it happened.

Unidentified Flying Insects flit across the sky over Denver!

It is of utmost importance that people across the nation get a chance to see the strange, suspiciously moth-like crafts which wing their way over Colorado! Hence, CNN made this video:

An aviation expert can't identify them because what they need is an insect videographer. Couldn't you just choke on the fluff?

I'd have thought up more to put in this post, but dammit... First, I thought I'd be blogging more today because I made plans to, but then I wound up distancing myself from someone who wanted to see me today, and now I'm occupied with them anyway because they're begging me to see them. (You know, because I'm that awesome to hang out with.)

Sigh.

If only everyone had a true friend, then even the people I don't like won't want to steal me so much. Creeps.

This video reminds me of my own friendships -- we're all the ones who were not like the other children.

Proposition: A post every four days

Of late, I've been out and about and not very focused on blogging, especially actual science blogging. I'm writing a science fiction novel, that's why. However, I need to do research for my novel, which I can write about here, so that's how that fits in.

I'm thinking, though, that I may have to post about every four days that I have both internet access and quietness, because I don't, always. And it's not just the leaf blowers:

To give an example, I've been gone for most of the past two days and am about to be off again -- to the post office to mail an important letter (certified), to the gym of course, and then onto Bremerton to visit Wesley the Atheist Nomad, and perhaps interview him for my own podcast.

Oh, that's another thing I've been doing. So yes, I've had to restructure my activities quite a bit. Tomorrow I'll be home more than today, so I'll see how well it all works.

Flying from Houston to Cleveland

So, in the previous post, I was mentioning coming upon some clouds -- these are them, above some straggling canyons.

Ahh, the beauty of erosion!

I studied the landscape, the many water towers, the school bus yard, etc. but thought the scene was a bit boring for photographing. Then again, that may have something to do with the fact that in Mukilteo there had been perhaps one day of clouds/rain since July, and it's been blazing hot and dazzling for such a while. Hooray for droughts!

Right away, I had to get to another United dock, and would you know it, it was all the way on the other side of the airport and I didn't have the longest time to get there! Luckily, they had this:

Which way are we gonna go?

Hi, people in the other shuttle!

Back inside again:

Once again, I didn't see much that was spectacular until I got up above the clouds and saw a most delicious-looking ripple.

When I got away from that cloud, I saw these tasty-looking rivers, and thought; this must be what Caladan looks like!

No I didn't.

And look at this cute lil' ol' power plant! Couldn't you just pinch it?

Resistance to pollution is futile!

Lehrk, ehrmagehrd, it's anerther Yehr-Erf-Erh! Alehrens!

This one's shiny!

The clouds began to look like fields full of pink and blue cotton candy, just out there waiting to be harvested with a really big wooden fork.

Either that, or it looks like particularly appetizing fiberglass insulation.

Eventually, the metal tube began heading for a hole in the clouds known as Cleveland.

They poke a hole every now and again.

Ah, the orange-pink glow of sodium street lamps! Took me a few minutes to figure out why some of them appeared to be twinkling:

Finally, it hit me -- I blame the trees!

 

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

That was nearly fun enough to get me through the tremendously long time I had to wait just to get off the plane. I made a few phone calls and text messages, and my mom and grandma were waiting long before I even had room to get out of my row.

Luckily, I was the only one lugging my luggage and so didn't have to wait for anyone else to do that.

The three of us went to a restaurant, where I had crepes and was hilariously awkward. You had to be there. My mom wasn't feeling well at the moment to be hilarious, and my grandma brought her own tea bag, but I was the only one really trying to be funny.
` When we got back to her house in Medina, it was just the way I'd remembered it all those years ago. I tried to do a little tour of the photomagraphs around her house, but in the intrests of the Flickr Time Limit, I rushed it a bit.

Then I got a shot of the shelves in the living room, also with photos and some knicknacks -- because pictures of pictures are just that awesome!

Didn't have time for much else, though, went to bed at 9:30 Ohio Time (which is 6:30 Washington Time) and woke up 13 hours later. What all had changed about the world in that time? Find out next time!

Flying From Seattle to Houston

October 7, 2012:

Before five in the morning, I was already stuffing previously-selected clothing into my camping backpack which Dilly playfully swatted, climbed up on, and fell down off of, just as she had done in July -- although less small and cute this time.
` Gem of a man that he is, Lou Ryan was helping me along, drove me to the airport, and kissed me goodbye. With only a mocha cappuccino protein drink in my stomach, I made jokes about smuggling parakeets in my pants and still managed to walk right through the backscatter X-ray scanner.
` I wondered to myself if they had scanned me anyway, and if so, was my hot bod appreciated?

I spent my time texting Brian and Rob about what was going on in the airport, the cloud of starlings billowing up on the side of the building, etc. By the time we got to boarding, the sun was just rising above the trees:

Or was it... aliens?

The United staff were actually looking for volunteers to get off the plane in exchange for round trip tickets to anywhere the airline flies. Despite this good deal, I did not perceive that anyone took up the offer.

At last, I made it into the metal tube, which then hurtled itself into the air:

Wheee!!

Picturesque prelude to my vacation Back East

Whatever the noise is that was driving me crazy (see last post), it's subsided enough that I've been able to put together another photo post, as well as continue writing fiction. Yes, I've been branching out quite a bit!

Before I get started on the photos from my recent trip, I have some more lovely picturesque subjects such as the busy beachside, three skittish cats, and bees knocking one another over to get at one of my neighbor's passion flowers:

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The beginning of October brought bright, crisp mornings with glistening spider webs and ivy flowers budding like pale green mutant jacks:

It's too late, they've already populated the world.

They aren't the only thing of interest near the deck, besides the bald patch in the grass marking where the chicken coop had been torn down for no reason at all. More visually interesting, however, are the kiwis that will never ripen, hanging like so many fuzzy aborted fetuses:

Thanks, single-pane aluminum windows!

As you may guess, I have a bunch of posts to write, and many drafts there's many drafts waiting in the archives over the past couple of months. I'm not able to probably won't be finishing any of them for a while, much less getting a writing job, until a house nearby is finished being built, or whatever this noise is. It's loud all day and I have to stay here for Lou Ryan's sake, as his mom just died and all.

Well, I've spent about a half hour struggling to write just this far. That's enough aggravation for today. I'm going to I'm going to do something productive, away from the house.

Edit: I've just taken a two-hour walk in the rain to find the source of the noise. It is either downhill to the west or downhill to the east, and it's echoing from uphill. I can't tell what it is at all, other than that it sounds a bit like a lawnmower and it's the only sound I can hear with my earplugs in.
` Not so much because of its volume, but that's just the frequency that can get thru my earplugs better than other frequencies. Like when I was on the plane, the engines were so loud I couldn't hear what other people were saying around me until I put on my earplugs, which blocked out the higher-pitched sounds of the engines.