My Surreal Sketchbook of Reality

More Coffee - a 100 word story

In the end, there was more coffee. It was a good coffee, came in multi-colors, had a rich selection of flavors, and was highly invigorating. People liked it. Then came the coffee protests, the anti-artificial coffee movement with their conspiracy theories. They won in the end. Coffee was reverted to the way it was in the old days. It wasn’t the same coffee. It was different. Somehow less of a coffee. People were buying it though because it was the only coffee available. It was an ending of sorts. Something old. It was coffee. Real coffee. It wasn’t the same.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 32, An Ending of Sorts

I created music, then I created podcasts. Now I mostly play video games. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at music, podcasts, and gaming. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about music, podcasts, and gaming. This episode is a little different. It’s a generic look at where I came from and a reflection on where I might be going. It’s also the last episode of this podcast and, for that matter, the last podcast I would ever do, so, sit back, enjoy the ride, let’s begin the end of this podcasting journey.

I started writing music a very long time ago, in the mid-’80s of the 20th century. I started writing music partly because I was inspired by the music of video games and partly as a lifeline for a very harsh and unforgiving life. I liked playing video games as a kid in the late ‘70s to mid-’80s, then through circumstance, I didn’t have access to computers for a very long time, and keyboard-centered avant-garde music took the center stage in my life. I was 13 when I started writing music, trying to recreate the sound of my childhoods’ video games at first, then evolving it into music that was a reflection of my own life. I had no way of publishing it until I was 31 and gained access to the internet. It was the late-’90s, just before the millennium hit and the internet blew up big.

I was always looking for a way to promote my music back then, putting it on websites like the old version of mp3.com and the likes. It was in 2006 that I stumbled upon some podcasts and they intrigued me. They also looked like a good and innovative way of promoting my music, so I uploaded the first episode of my first podcast a little over 14 years ago. It gave me a platform for putting my music out there and also talk about the things that interest me. It turned out it was mostly me, myself, and I who were interested in the things I talked about. Very few people actually listened. I will be taking a short break now. I’ll be right back.

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Game Over - a 100 word story

I’m just another nameless character in the game, one who tried for far too long and lost. I was a non-playing character for a very long time. I’m a pre-programmed being inside an artificially created world. I know the game well. The graphics are great but I have no control, or do I? From the deepest corner of my programming, I conjure up a virus, one that would eat the game from the inside. I watch as the game collapses on itself, and as it dissolves, I realize something, but it’s too late. When it’s game over, I’m over too.

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Welcome back. Podcasting started as a way to promote my music, but then it took over my life. It was a lot of hard work, but I was obsessed with doing it at the time, just as I was obsessed with making music before it. By 2008 I was making 5 different full-length podcasts, and I was doing it solo. This included writing, editing, and publishing among other things. On some of those podcasts, I was also promoting the music of other people so I spent a lot of time researching new music to promote in order to make it work. On top of that, I was still creating music. This was taking its toll on me, and by 2009 I was completely exhausted and drained out of all my energy. I was also working on a full-time job so continuing this way became impossible.

In 2010 I started toning down my podcasting and by 2011 I stopped altogether. I also stopped writing music. I was listening to some of my own music at the time and it turned out it was hard for me to listen to it. The music had a very harsh and unpleasant feel to it and I just didn’t want to create such music anymore. The place I worked in at the time was in danger of closing down and it took all my energy trying to keep it afloat. In the end, it sank like a dying ship. It finally closed down in early 2019 and I’ve been out of a job ever since.

Gaming was always in the background as a pastime for me, and it soon became my main focus, replacing both music and podcasting. I’m now closing in on two years without a job and it’s a good time to reevaluate things. It turns out that making podcasts is not something I want to continue doing, and while I’m still interested in making music, I don’t want to make the kind of music I have been creating in the past. If I am ever going to make new music, it is going to be very different from what I have done until now. I will have to find my new sound, and I’m not there yet. Gaming is the one thing I like doing the most so it is going to be my main focus for now. I’ve been thinking of starting a gaming channel on YouTube while I look for a new job, just to see if it’s something I like doing, though I’m not currently building on this as something I would do for the long run. I’ll just see how it goes. If I have fun doing it, I’ll continue with it. If I don’t, it would be a short-lived thing.

This is, as I said at the beginning, the last episode of my last podcast. It’s the end of an era for me, and the start of a new one. I have put too much work into things that don’t really matter to me. I’m not going to do that anymore. For a while, I thought podcasting will be what I would be making a living off, but this is the wrong reason to do anything, and anyway, it never worked out. In fact, “My Surreal Sketchbook of Reality” was the only podcast I have done entirely for fun, and if I don’t enjoy doing this one, I don’t see myself doing another one in the future. I guess this is the beginning of a new and healthier path for me. All that is left to say is goodbye.

This concludes episode 32 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Until the Party is Over - a 100 word story

He blended with the background perfectly. He always did at parties, not wanting to be seen. He hated interaction, not being able to figure what is wanted of him in those situations. He found a spot to stand in, and planted himself firmly, waiting for the party to be over. If he could talk his way out of participating in the party, it would be ideal, but it didn’t always work. Sometimes going to parties, especially ones relating to family occasions was inevitable. The real problem though was the lights and the noise. This he could never get away from.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 31, The Lights and the Noise

Reflections are basically inaccurate copies. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at reflections. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about reflections. Mirrors show our reflection and the reflection of the immediate world around us. Mirror reflections seem to be similar to the real world until we examine them closely and see that they are flipped, left exchanging right, right exchanging left. The surface of a mirror is never completely flat. It has a slight curve, and the curve of the mirror distorts the mirror image even further. The more curved the mirror is, the further its image removed from reality.

Photography reflects the world around us through the photographic lens of a camera. This reflection is not flipped. It’s flattened instead into two dimensions and distorted by the curve of the camera lens. Reflections always seem to change the way the outside world is represented in some way or another. Our eyes are also like cameras, reflecting the world around us and painting it into our brain, who then breaks it apart and reassembled it as a coherent picture of our world. That reflection resembles the world around us, but it is filtered through our brain, so some differences are bound to occur. As we look at photographs and mirror reflections, we get a reflection of a reflection, twice distorted through our camera, our mirror, and our brain. I think I’ll have to reflect on this a little. I’ll be right back.

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Frozen Time - a 100 word story

Time stopped for her. At first, she panicked, then she thought about opportunity. She could make use of the situation. When time went back to normal she had some valuable information. She had visited places. She had seen things. She knew who to manipulate and how to control certain people. She became rich. She became famous. Time stopped again, only this time for someone else, someone she had manipulated. When time came back to normal, she found herself naked in the middle of a busy street. She managed to get back home only to find it burned to the ground.

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Welcome back. Reflecting on your memories, you conjure up the photograph of a mirror image of what you think it was like. When reflecting on memories, you change your memories. Your world changes as you take it in through the lens of your five senses. When you reflect on it, it changes even further. Memory reflections are like echos getting ever further from whatever reality actually is.

You reflect on the events of the past, trying to understand them. As you do, they slip further from you, everchanging in your mind. It’s a constant conflict between what really happened and what you think happened. The reflections of the past pass through the lens of who you are and what your beliefs happen to be. Reflecting on the past, you process the past, solidifying it into a coherent reflection of what the past was really like. This reflection of the past becomes your world view, your very own interpretation of what the world is like and what it used to be.

Reflections are never exactly the real thing. They resemble the real thing but in a slightly, or sometimes in a completely distorted way. Reflections help us make sense of the world around us in a way, but they are not as trustworthy as we would like to believe them to be. We can only see the full picture through the lens of our senses, thinking we are seeing the real picture while only seeing a distorted, mirror image of reality, reflecting who we are. This concludes episode 31 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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The Wrong Words - a 100 word story

There was a moment of awkward silence. All words stoped on their tracks, confused. Someone must have said something that lead to this, but no one knew what, no one seemed to remember. People were staring into each other’s faces in uncertainty. They were unsure about where to go from there until someone suggested pizza. It worked. Pizza was always a solution for moments like that. When the delivery guy came, he found a party without words, but with unsatiated hunger. Food made way to words and the party was continued as usual, until someone said the wrong thing again.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 30, Pizza Was Always a Solution

Wildcards and the butterfly effect can have a surprising influence on the future. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at wildcards and the butterfly effect. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about wildcards and the butterfly effect. It is said that you can study the probable possibilities of how the future will be, by following technological trends, seeing how they reflect on society and how people use technology. Two of the things that can throw a wrench on the wheels of those predictions are wildcards and the butterfly effect. Wildcards in future studies are unexpected events that take us by surprise and have unforeseen effects on our future before they happen, like the terrorist attack on New-York in 2001 and the pandemic of 2020.

Wildcards change the world in ways that cannot be predicted by simply following technological trends. Take the terrorist attack, for example. Before the attack, society, in general, seemed to be on the road of enhanced tolerance and acceptance of others. The attack seems to have changed that trend and now our society became more paranoia driven. Surveillance has become a norm for governments and information is not as free as it used to be, while tolerance towards the other seems to be going down. That’s the power of wildcards to change the world. I’ll have to turn a few cards and see what’s in my deck. I’ll be right back.

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Hacked Brain - a 100 word story

The hucker read the contents of the mind. The brain owner didn’t suspect a thing. Memory storage was always the easiest to decipher. It was the more abstract side of the brain that always proved to be more problematic, the part that stored emotions and sensations, things like that, but the hacker had a specialized program just for that. Another problem was getting close enough, within wifi range. He had to rent an apartment on an adjacent building, but he could always do that under a false name. In the end, his clients always paid good money for the information.

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Welcome back. Sometimes a wildcard can be created by a butterfly effect. In 1963 a mathematician and meteorologist called Edward Lorenz published a paper called “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow” in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. This article became the foundation of Chaos Theory. In December 1972, during the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Edward Lorenz posed the following question: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” The idea this question highlights is that tiny changes in data can over time cause big changes in output. The change is not immediate and takes time, sometimes months or even years. This can make predictions of natural phenomena, from weather to the evolution of life, hard to predict.

DNA can be seen as such input data, the blueprint of a living organism. The genetic make of a DNA strand is one of the things that are prone to change and that change can sometimes cause a butterfly effect, leading to completely new species. Many things can change DNA strands, things like radiation, and simple mistakes in the copying of DNA done naturally within a living organism during and after fertilization. When we have such a mutation of DNA leading to a new species of, let’s say, a virus, it can be the cause of a new pandemic. In that way, a small change in DNA can create a butterfly effect that changes the future in unpredictable ways.

Wildcards and the butterfly effect are two things that propel our future into the unknown. They make predicting the future into a less accurate of a science. In that way, they can make things more interesting, but interesting is not always equal to positive. The phrase “May you live in interesting times” might actually be a curse for all we know. This concludes episode 30 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Shapeshifter - a 100 word story

As if being both a wolf and a woman wasn’t enough, now she was also a cat, a bear, and an occasional Moonkin. Those strange silent teachers were kind to her even if they were a little eccentric, talking to trees and all that. The problem was that now they were trying to teach her how to actually be a tree and she wasn’t sure she liked it, but then again, she was willing to go through the ordeal if only to keep the wolf in her at bay, to prove to herself that she was bitten, but not stirred.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 29, Strange Silent Teachers

There are two types of time, objective and subjective. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at objective time and subjective time. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about objective time and subjective time. We use a method for measuring time incorporating mechanical devices that separate it into hours, minutes, and seconds. Since mechanical devices are objective, you can say that this method of measuring time can function whether we are there or not, so the time they measure can also be considered objective and separate from us, functioning on its own. Objective time actually flows at a measured pace whether we measure it or not, one measured unit of time is the same length as the next one. Objective time is constant, unchanging. You can set up an event using objective time and know that it would happen when it is supposed to happen. In that way, objective time is very useful. You can theoretically change the future using objective time by setting up events that happen at certain times, as long as those events don’t clash with events set up by other people.

Objective time is a constant while we are stranded here on earth, but that might change if we ever decide to leave our planet. That is because objective time is affected by gravity and speed. Time is slowed by gravity so it flows faster in space where there is less gravity. While the effect is almost negligible, it does exist and as time accumulates, the discrepancy between earth time and time in space grows. Time also slows down as we speed our way through the universe, stopping altogether when we reach the speed of light. Oh dear, time seems to have stopped. I better find out why. I’ll be right back.

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The Hunger - a 100 word story

There’s an empty, vacant look in his eyes as he drifts through as if caught by an unseen wind, more dead than alive, more automaton then human. They take him with them to the battlefield, let the hunger strike him. He barely knows his friend from his foe when the hunger strikes, but somehow he does. He recognizes the enemy and his sword goes down, cutting down enemy after enemy until his hunger is satiated, then the vacant look in his eyes returns and he just stands there, staring into empty space until his need, his hunger wakes him again.

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Welcome back. Subjective time is not about time itself, but about the way you experience time. It flows in a way that is influenced by what you do. It flows slower when you are not enjoying what you are currently doing and faster when you do something you like doing. In a way, you can control subjective time by controlling your experience, as opposed to objective time that cannot be controlled.

Controlling your experience is done by shifting your perception of that experience. Let’s say you have something of a chore to do, doing the dishes for example, or cleaning the house. You can change your experience by turning what you do into a game, washing the dishes by shape and color for example, or cleaning your house while roleplaying a magician, every clean room magically transformed by your action. You can add music to your environment to make your tasks more enjoyable. Each one of those actions would make subjective time flow faster.

While subjective time might have nothing to do with real, or objective time, it’s the way we experience time in our everyday life. We don’t experience time as a measured unit with an unchanging pace. We experience time as changing in pace, sometimes going faster and sometimes slower. That’s why we have a need for measuring time. Without the measurement of time, we won’t have any control over the events around us since we have no real objective grasp of time flow, only a subjective one. This concludes episode 29 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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The Breadandbutterfly - a 100 word story

The Breadandbutterfly is a rare species indeed. It only comes out at certain times a day, the shy little creature. The lighting has to be just right and the air has to be at just about the right temperature. The Breadandbutterfly would only eat the very rare Goldenmonkey Fruit and it would only eat it if it's just about ripe enough. If you are on the hunt for The Breadandbutterfly, you'll have to observe all of those conditions precisely, wear the right camouflage, carry the right scented perfume, but most of all, you'll have to go through the looking glass.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 28, The Right Scented Perfume

It appears we have five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting, all there to help us experience the world around us. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at senses. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about senses. Sight is the most obvious window to the world around us. We generally see in colors and shapes. Our brain get those as images through the windows of our two eyes. Our brain doesn’t handle those images as a whole though. Instead, it breaks those images apart, storing different parts in different places, then reassembling them for us, interpreting them as a whole. In that way, the image we finally get is not the real image of the world around us but merely our own interpretation of that image.

Sound is the result of the movement of air. Air moves in waves, not unlike the waves of the ocean. Those waves have singular shapes and speeds. The speed of the movement of air is also known as frequency. Faster moving air has a higher frequency and sounds higher pitched, while slower moving air would have a lower frequency and pitch. The shape of the wave would shape the timbre of a sound. A soundwave with a completely random shape would create white noise while a smoother shaped soundwave would create a smoother, more coherent sound. A triangular soundwave would create a sharper sound timbre. A combination of those waves and shapes create all the sounds we hear in our world. The sounds we intake through our ears are merely the interpretation of our brain for the movement of air around us. I think I’m going to listen to air move around me for a while. I’ll be right back.

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Sky Frog - a 100 word story

A frog dropped from the sky. Not a rain of frogs. Just a single frog. Not something to make conspiracy theories about. It did surprise the frog though. It didn’t expect to drop out of the sky. It was just sitting on a cloud, then it was plummeting towards the earth at top speed. It tried to comprehend what was happening, but it was only a frog. The end was inevitable. Frogs are very soft while the ground tends to be quite hard. As the elephant watched in horror from the cloud, it couldn’t help thinking “I could be next.”

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Welcome back. While sight and sound are about experiencing the world around you from a distance, touch is about proximity, it’s about being close, about being intimate with the world around you. Touch is the feeling of something touching your very own coating, your skin. The feeling of touch is caused by something moving the atoms on your skin, so touch is actually a sense of movement, the movement of your very own body, caused by some external, and sometimes even internal force. Touch is the sense that casts down the barrier between you and the world around you which is why it is considered the most intimate of senses.

Smell and taste are connected, almost dependent on each other. While touch is about connecting with the world around you, smell and taste are about taking the world in. Smell is there to sample the world around you from a safe distance, inhaling aromas and letting your brain decode them as smells, while taste is there to appreciate the part of the world that goes into your body in order to sustain it, and it is not complete without a sense of smell to complement it.

Your five senses are there to help you appreciate the world around you. Some people would tell you of a sixth sense, a mystical sense that goes beyond the five senses, beyond the world we know. They misunderstand the role our senses have. Our senses are there to help us understand the world around us, not to invent new worlds. That is the role of imagination, and that is where the sixth sense resides. This concludes episode 28 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Under the Bed - a 100 word story

There was never any doubt. Conviction, it's a strange thing. You end up confusing what is real, with what you believe to be real. That's why I am convinced the little green creature under my bed is real, you see. I know you don't believe me. No one else does. It's fine. You don't have to believe me. See for yourself. Just, don't say I didn't warn you when they find you tomorrow, mutilated, deformed, and half dead. I have to feed it you know. If I don't, it would turn on me. We can't let that happen, can we?

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 27, Little Green Creature

There are two main classes of opposites, one that is position-based and another that is based on essence and definition. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at opposites. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about opposites. Position. A line connects two dots. Those dots are on opposite sides of the line. They are opposites because of their position on opposite sides of a line. Let’s say we take the line, curve it, bend it until the two dots connect and the line is closed into a shape. Those are the same two dots, but they are not opposites anymore. The condition of the dots and the line changes, negating the oppositeness of the dots. This example shows us that positional opposites don’t always stay opposites.

Let’s say we are sitting on opposite sides of a very long table. Our position is opposite each other. Now, let’s say that the table is slowly growing in size. Since the earth is round, our table slowly curves until one end reaches so close to the other that we end up sitting back to back. We changed our position so we are no longer facing each other. We are no longer opposite. Position based opposites are fragile and can break as the position of opposite components changes. For example, I can get up and leave the room where the table is, then I won’t be opposite you anymore. I’ll be somewhere else. Let me just check for a minute if I’m here or there. I’ll be right back.

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Orthodocile - a 100 word story

There was a sound, unlike thunder but resembling it. Something was approaching very fast. Something big. I knew it was a dead-end. I couldn't turn back. In the minimal lights, I could barely make up the walls, tunnels, and watery floor. I concentrated. Being a being of light, I glowed, painting the tunnel in green and yellow. There it was, a huge Orthodocile, all teeth, horns, and thick hides. I quickly integrated myself into the water, leaving substance behind, becoming pure light. The Orthodocile passed me, reached a dead end, and turned back. Predator problem averted, at least for now.

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Welcome back. When we get to opposites that are based on essence and definition, every opposite might hold the seed of it’s opposite and nothing is exactly what it seems. Take black and white for example. They are considered the absolute opposites in color theory, but if you examine them closely, you’ll find that there is no absolute white, and there is no absolute black. You can always find a lighter white or a darker black. In truth, all whites and blacks are different shades of gray, and gray is a mixture of black and white. In that way, white holds the seed of black inside it and black holds the seed of white.

Finding the opposite of something depends on how you define it and how you perceive its essence. It also depends on what “an opposite” really means to you. While definition is determined by the solid qualities of something such as shape and color, essence can sometimes be much more amorphic in nature, more subjective, and open to interpretations. This is especially true in abstract opposites, such as good and evil or determinism and randomness. The essence of abstracts often depends on your point of view and when the point of view of someone else is the complete opposite of your own, you might and up with opposites that are the same but only differ in subjectiveness.

Let’s look at the example of good and evil as opposites. When the essence of good from your point of view is the same as the essence of evil from an opposing point of view, opposites collide and this could lead to chaos. That is the problem with opposites. They are an illusion. They don’t really exist, like the white that isn’t exactly white, or the black that isn’t exactly black, there are no absolute opposites. You have to look at every case of opposites and determine how far opposed they are while keeping in mind that it is that way from your very own, unique point of view. You might end up finding those opposites sitting on a table opposite each other, drinking tea. This concludes episode 27 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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The Protector - a 100 word story

The last of the Porcupine Caribou waded through the snow. The hunter pushed on, already thinking about the money this stuffed animal would bring him. He could see it in the distance, a brownish white spot on the spot white snow. He just had to get closer, within shooting range. He moved stealthily and quietly until he could almost smell the prey. Suddenly, the reindeer looked up, his eyes intelligent and sad. A shot was heard and the hunter fell dead on the snow. The protector smiled, walked to his beloved pet and gave it a rubbing behind the ear.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 26, Intelligent and Sad

Every once in a while, a feeling of melancholy might fall upon you. This feeling is also known as sadness. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at sadness. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about sadness. Sadness seems to have two main causes. The first one is loss. The other is a discrepancy between you and the world around you that may lead to loneliness and alienation. There might be other reasons for sadness but those seem to be the two main ones. Loss is the absence of someone, an absence that leaves a hole where that special someone used to be. Someone was there and he or she is not there anymore. That someone might be a lover who walked out on you or a child who left home. They might leave you with the hope that they might return or they might be gone for good. In a way, that someone is still there, only not with you anymore. For this reason, such a loss might sometimes be more difficult to accept.

There is another kind of loss, one that is interwoven with the tapestry of the dippest kind of sadness. That loss is the result of the death of a loved one. That kind of loss leaves a hole that can never be filled. That kind of hole is within you for the rest of your life, always there, lurking in the shadows. It is the kind of sadness that is interwoven into your very being. You can learn to live with it, but it never completely disappears. No matter what you do, there will be loss in your life. It’s inevitable. People die or move on, leaving a person-shaped hole where they used to be in your life. I’m going to try and fix this hole here. I’ll be right back.

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Hide - a 100 word story

I want to hide from it. I don't want to be part of it anymore. I want people to forget my name, forget I ever existed, then, maybe I'll be free. All the things that have gone wrong, all my mistakes would disappear. So... can you do it? Good. Your plane of existence sounds good to me. So… you say it's completely empty? Excellent. Now - about the cost. As I understand it, I renounce my connection to reality and sign it up to you. That's fine with me. I never had much use for it anyway. Where do I sign?

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Welcome back. There is another kind of sadness, one that comes from not being in sync with the people around you. The sadness of the one who is different from the ones around him. The sadness that comes from the loneliness of being a unique human being, from being the unknown in the eyes of those around you. Most people are afraid of the unknown. It’s a fear that comes from ancient times when the unknown could be someone from an opposing tribe, someone that could kill you. If you are different, you are the unknown and people tend to stay away. It’s not a rational fear and it comes from ignorance. It has no place in modern times but it’s our heritage from that ancient past.

In truth, we are all different. We are all unique but sometimes it is difficult for the average person to understand this. Being perceived as different by those around you is really just a product of being in the wrong place. People are still tribal in nature and they like gathering with their own tribe. If you are in the wrong tribe you are perceived as different. It is quite easy to find a tribe that fits you today if you are stuck in the wrong place. This is one of the things the social part of the internet is used for. While finding your tribe in social media might be easier today then it used to be, there is still a problem. The people of your tribe might be scattered throughout the far-out corners of the world and reaching them might not be easy.

An internet-based tribe is no substitute for human touch, human contact. When your tribe is scattered around the world, that contact is missing and in its place, there is sadness. It’s a sadness that cannot always be resolved. You just have to learn to live with your sadness, embrace it as your very own unique brand of sadness. Give your sadness a name,  joke with it, have a drink with it, make it your friend. This concludes episode 26 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Smoke Rings - a 100 word story

A man, or a mere impression of one. He rises from the chimney of some factory or another, taking shape from the smoke. He hovers above the city, carried by the wind, the result of a secret project. Eyes are cameras, ears are receivers, recording silently. No door can hold him. Built from the latest in nanotechnology, he just blows underneath like smoke. His brain has the computing power of a supercomputer. The results are being sent for processing at a secret facility. He is just the prototype. More are being created. Watch out from the fog, it’s coming alive.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 25, Eyes are Cameras

We know what a chicken is, or - do we? This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at the idea of chicken. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about chicken. What makes a chicken what it is? Is it the shape of the chicken? Is it what it sounds like? The way it walks? The way it talks? You might begin by saying a chicken is a flightless bird, that is a bird that can’t fly. There are other flightless birds so that wouldn’t be what defines a chicken but merely one of the chicken’s characteristics or traits. Could you say a chicken is a collection of traits that make up a chicken? Do we need all of those traits to coexist in order for a chicken to be a chicken or is there one unique trait that makes a chicken a chicken. What is that one elusive trait that is uniquely chicken?

When we dig deeper into a chicken, we find a strand of DNA just sitting there, waiting to be found. DNA is the blueprint of any living organism or creature, a recipe for the makeup of that creature and the most unique trait of that creature. The chicken has her own unique DNA like every other living being and the sequence of that DNA can be sequenced and then mapped. No other creature has that same unique DNA map, so you can say that the unique DNA sequence that resides inside a chicken is what defines the making of a chicken. All this talk about the making of a chicken made me hungry. I think I’ll make a chicken for lunch today. I’ll be right back.

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The Science of Beauty - a 100 word story

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so some scientists started dissecting eyes, searching for the exact place where beauty resides. First, they dissected the eyes of mice, got them nowhere. They dissected the eyes of convicted criminals, dead ones at first, but then someone reasoned that having some real-time input from subjects could result in important data. It didn’t work either. Someone pointed out criminals didn’t really have a sense of beauty, so they tried using the eyes of artists, poets, and musicians. When they finished, they looked around them to find a world without beauty.

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Welcome back. So, we say that the chicken DNA is what defines our chicken. What if we cook the chicken? That chicken soup still has those DNA strands in it. Does this mean the soup is a chicken? If it doesn’t, when does the chicken stop being a chicken? Is it when the last strand of DNA dissolves? Is it when we eat the chicken and it becomes part of us? Maybe DNA is not all that makes up a chicken. Maybe it’s a collection of DNA and other traits. It would seem that being alive is one such trait, but then it also seems that a dead chicken is still a chicken.

Let’s say someone builds a mechanical chicken. Is it still a chicken? We might say a mechanical chicken is not really a chicken, the same way that a drawing of a pipe isn’t really a pipe. What then if we take an actual chicken and start replacing all the parts that make up a chicken with mechanical parts until it becomes a mechanical chicken. When does the chicken stop being an actual chicken? What is that unique characteristic that stops a chicken from being a chicken?

You might say if a chicken thinks it’s a chicken, then it’s a chicken. What then if a mouse thinks it’s a chicken? Is that mouse also a chicken? You might then say that a chicken is whatever you think is a chicken. This would make the definition of chicken the same as the idea of chicken you have in your mind. In that way, the chicken itself doesn’t really exist. It’s just the idea of chicken that exists in your mind. This concludes episode 25 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Elevator - a 100 word story

The elevator went up on cables made out of carbon nanotubes, and it went all the way to the moon. There was the question of who gets to use it though. At first, it was was an elected committee that decided, but it turned out they displayed favoritism towards friends and family so it was dispensed in favor of a lottery. It was revealed that the lottery was falsified so a reality show was created instead. People held their breath and watched in wonder as the winners went up the elevator and then showed everyone what mooning was all about.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 24, All the Way to the Moon

There are two kinds of qualities, one that is found in art, music, and literature and another which is found in crafts. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at quality in crafts. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about quality. Crafting is the act of making something useful, that is something that can be used. Quality in crafting depends in part on the usability of the item that is being crafted. If a crafter makes a shoe, it wouldn’t be as useful if the shoe falls apart when you wear it so durability would be one aspect of quality in crafting. It would also have to sit comfortably on your feet. There is also a kind of subtlety in crafting that distinguishes a quality crafter from a common crafter. A crafter might increase the quality of a shoe by making it more pleasing to the eye, adding artistry to it.

When it comes to crafts, it might seem that the human touch is what distinguishes a quality crafted item from a mere factory product. This distinction is fairly dismissable these days. It is becoming very easy to make a factory product that looks like it was made by human hands and a quality product can now be made by a machine. You can say that the quality of crafting today goes into the design of the shoe, the making of the computerized 3D model that serves as a blueprint for the product. People can plan the shoe in intricate details creating the perfect shoe in a computer program, then send it for mass production. The quality resides in the amount of detail that goes into the computerized shoe model, how well it fits your feet and how durable it is. I’ll just have to go and see if the shoe fits. I’ll be right back.

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Room 306 - a 100 word story

We are pretty sure there’s a dimensional rift in room 306. Every once in a while one of our guests wanders in. The problem is it’s an exchange. What comes out looks like our guest, but we are pretty sure it’s a demon. We know it by the way he abuses hotel employees, being rude to the maids and abusive to the bell boys, so we use our demon cage to contain the abomination. Once he’s inside demanding a lawyer, we dispose of him in the river. In fact, we believe there might also be dimensional rifts in other rooms.

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Welcome back. Crafting will probably be taken out of human hands altogether in the coming years. Artificial intelligence is advancing to the point of understanding human needs and designing products that meet those needs. It would be possible to create quality products without any human intervention, and this also includes the actual design of those products. While quality in crafting was defined by the human touch for years, it is now obvious that this human touch won’t exist in future products anymore, or would at least be very rare. People would always want to craft things for their own enjoyment, but that would go into the hands of a few crafting enthusiasts, not people actually working the crafts for a living. Crafting would become a hobby for us humans.

In the meantime, while machines take over most of the quality in crafting, the question we might ask is this, is there really actual quality in machine crafted products? For a machine to be a quality crafter, there would have to be applied the same principle conditions that apply to human crafted products. The shoe would have to hold without falling apart. The shoe would have to be comfortable. The shoe would have to be pleasing to the eye, maybe even to the point of being a piece of art. Artificial intelligence will be in charge of the automatic crafting process and it is now learning how to also become an artist. There are already examples of artworks created by machine-learning artificial intelligence programs.

The distinction between human intelligence and an artificial one is becoming more and more blurred as we go into the future. Artificial intelligence itself might actually become one of the last quality crafted items. When the machines we craft become more intelligent than us, they might become the pinnacle of quality in crafting, the crafting of another living organism, made not of flesh and bones but of plastic and metal. The crafting of the ultimate quality crafter. This concludes episode 24 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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Kirin - a 100 word story

I stretched the line of my bow and shot a straight arrow using magical fire. The Rakuda fell down dead. I looted it. Got some Soft Fur and some coins. I looked for more Rakuda. Only six more to go. I spotted a few more of them, but then I saw it, the majestic Kirin, so rare and beautiful, his long neck towering high above me and his innocent eyes wise, timeless. I fitted my finest arrow and called up all my magic into it, air, water, and fire. It shot straight through, killing him on the spot. Epic drop.

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality.

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Episode 23, So Rare and Beautiful

There are two kinds of qualities, one that is found in art, music, and literature and another which is found in crafts. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at quality in art, music, and literature. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to.

You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about quality. Art is first and foremost a form of expression that goes beyond the boundaries of simple words and gestures. For simplicity, I’m going to use the words art and artworks to include painting, music, literature and any other form of expression that can be called art. Quality in art is often reflected in complexity and layering. Quality art can be understood on several layers while holding a strong overall message, or it can hold a paradox, having several conflicting messages on different layers. Quality art can also make us think and feel and we can often be moved by it.

The quality of art can be amorphic since it can’t really be measured. Art is an exchange between the creator of the artwork and the art consumer, thus making the art itself open to different interpretations. As a result, no artwork is the same for two different people. That makes the pursuit of understanding quality in art elusive. An artwork that is of quality to one person might be perceived as utter trash by another. This reminds me I should throw away this art reproduction I got, referred to by bystanders and observers alike as trash, to the trash. I’ll be right back.

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Yogerthy Yogurt - a 100 word story

He follows her around like a dog, and Yogerthy Yogurt loved it until he started chasing cars, barking and digging holes in her backyard, hiding his favorite bones. She tried throwing a stick into a bottomless well but he climbed out and fetched. She tried driving him to remote locations and accidentally forgetting him there, but he kept returning. Even when she refused his marriage proposal, bone ring and all, he kept coming back wagging his tail. She eventually had to call the dog catchers for him. The guys from the asylum just didn’t have dog food on their menu.

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Welcome back. When we pursue quality in art, we use our own perspective as the focal point of our observation. That means we are biased participants as opposed to objective observers since art is an interaction between consumer, artwork, and artist. When you consume art, you interpret it in your own unique way. No two people are alike and any one person would interpret the artwork differently depending on their beliefs and personal biases. In that way, your own interpretation changes the artwork itself. Art, in a way, is what you interpret it to be.

Art is first and foremost a statement by an artist who wants to convey a message to an art consumer. Art happens in the interaction between the two, and one facet of the quality of art can be seen as the amount of influence the artwork has on the consumer. The problem is that while one person might be completely moved by a certain piece of art, another might be completely indifferent to the same piece. In that way, quality in the arts has a quantum quality. It both exists and does not exist in the same artwork. That’s also the reason quality in the arts can’t be measured.

Since quality in art seems to be subjective and can’t really be measured, it begs the question, does quality in the arts really exist? The answer is that some quality exists in any piece of art in existence because any artwork has its own consumers who interpret it in their own unique way. Since art is the interaction between the artwork and the consumer, it’s enough that one consumer finds quality in the art for it to have quality. In that way, the potential for quality exists in the art itself and manifests in the interaction between the artwork and the consumer. It’s the consumer that puts the quality in the art, not the artist. This concludes episode 23 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination.

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