The Brass Tea Kettle

I was looking up scary short stories the other day and I happened upon one called 'The Brass Tea Kettle'. I don't know where the setting was, which added to the creepyness and the "this could happen to you!" factor. Anyway, this story kind of reminded me of 'The Monkey's paw" where a charmed, mumified paw causes ironic havoc. In the Brass tea Kettle, a couple recive a tea kettle from a gypsy on the side of the road (That's the bell! I'll finish this later)

Heroes in a Box

Today, a hero is characterized by some buff guy in spandex with his underwear on the outside. Heroes today obtain ludicrous powers and fight crime and evil in their fictional cities. In Norse mythology, 2 things made a hero, power, and wisdom. Many Norse herroes were reveared for thier success in battle. Some for their ability to shoot the elements from their weapons and some for their ability to lead with courage and bravery. The Norse never forgot that Power wasn't the only driving force behind making someone great. They also recognize and celebrate the wise old ones or the animal farmiliars behind the hero, giving him or her important facts and tips.




Power

Thor, God of thunder and Son of Odin, has been imortalized as a hero in the Marvel comic books. He is famous for weilding a hammer and having comtrol over lightning.

The coward believes he will live forever, if he holds back in the battle, but in old age he shall have no peace --Norse Proverb

A club drenched in blood easily finds its mark. --Norse Proverb

Put to the sword those that disagree. --Norse Proverb

A modern Odin depicted on his horse, weilding a sword. (as seen in Final fantasy 4)

Wisdom

Brawl with a pig and you go away with his stink. --Norse Proverb

Happy is he who hath in himself praise and wisdom in life --Norse Proverb

He hath need of his wits who wanders wide. --Norse Proverb

The foolish man lies awake all night Thinking of his many problems; When the morning comes he is worn out And his trouble is just as it was.--Norse Proverb

Odin and his animal farmiliars who seek knowledge for him. Odin is god of both wisdom and war.

Odin, Being God of both wisdom and war demonstrates how the Norse saw how power and wisdom go hand in had to make a great hero. They recognized that you need a demanding fist and a good brain to plan ahead and think on your feet.

CSI is making us fat?

I was reading an article about a new study on the connection between watching TV and how you gain weight. We all know that if you sit on your ass all day and watch TV, you're not burning many calories very fast, but did you know that what you watch can contribute to how you gain weight? This study focuses on drama/crime shows like CSI, Law & Order, and The Closer. The study shows that when we expose ourselves to these crime shows filled with corpses and autopsies it trigger a psycological defese mechanism called Mortality Salience. This causes your body to be more aware of your inevitable demise. These studies reared that, the population monitored bought more sweets, pastries and comfort foods than that of the rest of the population.

Billy Collins

I'm a really big Billy Collins fan let's face it I'm a huge poetry geek in general. I found one of my old Billy Collins anthologies in my close the other day called The Trouble with Poetry. I was reading it over again and I rediscovered a few of my favorite works of his. The first poem I read was called The Car Ride. When I first read that poem, I had not been exposed to much of Collins' work and I was thouroughly entertained by his sense of dull and sarcastic humor that I find myself having more and more. The next poem I refound was The Reaper, telling about what I speculate to be, an expirience with death, as he described a drive on a country road and seeing a very casually adorned reaper dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The last poem, that happens to be my favorite is called See No Evil. This poem expresses Collins' wit again as he describes what those infamous monkeys, sitting on the shelf, blocking out the evils of the world, might be thinking or thinking of doing.

I-doser

Ok, so I read this article along with a YouTube video the other day, about a new legal 'drug.' It's called I-doser (article below). It's a track of sound lasting anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes that basically mess up your brain and make you feel like you're on the drug it's named for (ex. I-doser Cocaine). What happens is, that the sounds that are played in the track don't mix well with each other in your brain, this causes some kind of weird high that is similar to the highs that you get on drugs. The person who made the video I watched was kind of cautious about this, I mean, who wouldn't be? They're sounds taht mess with your psyche! But despite this I had to see for myself, yes that's right, I listened to a 15 minute dose of Marajuana I-doser that was uploaded on YouTube. It kinda just almost put me to sleep. No high, no munchies, no nothing. Though, keep in mind, the makers of I-doser meant the doeses to be taking for something like a half an hour at a time, through stereo headphones, where I was listening to the dose on my computer speakers that play mono on YouTube, so the jury's still out for me. Though it's not like I'm advising you to go out and buy I-doser tracks on iTunes or anything. This stuff could be really dangerous for your brain! So listener discresion is advised!

*note
Also, the morning after I listened to the Marajuana I-doser, I woke up with a HUGE headache, so REALLY be careful with that stuff

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Outside reading post #2

So I was reading this article I found on the MSN homepage about how falling asleep to bad smells can promote bad dreams. It said that, because the sense of smell part of your brain is connected to where your long term memory is stored, the things you smell are closely related to the things you remember, good or bad. So if someone had a bad expirience with skunk smell (maybe got sprayed?) they would have a bad memory connected to that smell. Then, if that person fell asleep to something that smells somewhat like skunk they're more likely to have a bad dream, or maybe even a nightmare. I'll have to report back whether there is an adverse effect (Good smells=Good dreams). I have been thinking of testing this out, though falling asleep to skunk smell doesn't sound pleasent...