M&M: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Dear reader,

based on the book with the same title by Paul Torday the film came out in 2011 with Ewan McGregor as Dr. Alfred Jones, Emily Blunt ad Harriet Chetwode-Talbot and Amr Waked as Sheikh Muhammadin as leading roles.

The sheikh is a fishing enthusiast and wants to be able to fish salmon in the jemen. So he hires the financial adviser Harriet to take care of that. Now she contacts the fishing expert Dr. Alfred Jones. At first he thinks this is all a bad joke. But Harriet is on fire and Alfred has many difficulties, to bring this project to an end. Alfred doesn't have much of a choice but to take part, the british prime minister's press secretary forces him to, after she realises what a project like this could mean for britain, should it succeed. Alfred and Harriet soon turn this into a sort of game. All just in theory, of course, because salmon fishing in a desert area like the yemen is pretty crazy. Alfred one by one puts high requirements on Harriet for the project, in the hope that she has to say it can't be done... and Harriet fulfils them without an exception. Through this salmon project Alfred and Harriet get closer to each other. Alfred has a wife, but she thinks about her own career a lot and with that their emotional relationship has gone rather cold. Alfred has a wife though... Harriet on the other hand met the soldier Robert only a couple of weeks ago. He's now stationed in afghanistan. Then she gets a message that Robert has gone missing. Is that the chance for Alfred and Harriet to get close? Everything seems to go well, the fish are swimming and the sheikh can go fishing. Just then Robert is back and for PR-purposes he gets flown to Yemen to Harriet as a surprise for her. But that project of salmon fishing in the yemen has gone too well so far. A small group of rebels don't like that there is a dam for fish for the oh so open-minded sheikh to be able to go fishing. They blow up the dam and then everything seems lost for the fish. But is it really? And who will Harriet go for: Alfred or Robert?

It's a lot of fun to watch Harriet and Alfred together, the way they interact with each other. First how they're working all in a theoretical way and against each other and then work with each other and for salmon fishing in the yemen. Maybe sometimes what it needs is people, who are bound and determined and a big, nearly impossible project to work on step by step and for starters purely on a theoretical level. In the end it may just really work for real. A very beautiful film about the possibility of (seemingly) impossible projects.

Until next blog,

sarah

Brain attic vs. memory palace

Dear reader,

this here is my blog, my thoughts. No idea whether this matches what scientists think as well.

I believe that there is a difference between a brain attic and a memory palace. Both store things, but in different ways. Sherlock Holmes says that we store all kinds of things in our head. Like in an attic. An attic has got many boxes in which all sorts of things can be kept. Maybe an attic has several different spaces, but it's limited, a defined space. A memory palace on the other hand is a complex of buildings with many rooms. A palace can be enlarged and rooms can be attached to it.

In The memory palace I mentioned different examples of people and their way to remember things. Jonesey's memory warehouse seems to be much like an attic. He explains to the others that for new information to store, he's got to delete other information.

Many years ago I have started writing certain things on index cards. They're separated with separation cards in alphabetical order and sometimes lined with one another with arrows and keywords. I wanted to have information to specific topics sorted and kept in a short way. Index cards seemed to be a good way to me. The good thing about index cards is that I can use them to look things up and the loose card system allows me to add new ones, should I feel like that. I've still got the cards. By now there are other topics added to them than that of the original one.

Although I've still got the cards, I don't as such use that system anymore. The memory palace is a system I know better now than I did then when I started the index card system. I seem to store information in my head much like index cards these days anyway, short information like index cards or newspaper clippings. Single words, images, fragments. I'm not aware of having a whole set of information stored in a single room for certain information. At least not yet. I'm sure that Derren Brown for example does have rooms created for specific things and does use the whole room. I do have single rooms, but I use them more for the atmosphere they have. Much like someone might for example go to church to do some reflective thinking.

When I waiting for the third "Sherlock" season was at times too long and unbearable for me, I was able to keep scenes, dialogue and images of the episodes so far together and in one room. I walked out of the room, the door had a tag "Sherlock" on it. I closed the door. Sometimes I sat in front of the door with my back against the door. Those are rooms that I can create, but not in a sense that I use the room and its content. It's not consciously forgetting. Naturally the information is still there. But they're behind a door and not close anymore. Distant to information also creates emotional distant. I'm not saying it's easy. I closed the door several times and more than once did I sit with my back against it to forget that I had to wait an unbearable long time for a new episode of "Sherlock". Mind control in that way is possible though. If you're not waiting for the next episode of "Sherlock", which seems to be a lifetime away, those kind of thought experiments can also be fun.

Probably the brain attic grows to be a mind palace some day, if you're taking care of the attic and work in it and at it. So I guess my headline wasn't quite correct. It's not an either or, no one or the other. Likely the brain attic is more like a possible beginning of a memory palace. Like my index cards were the beginning of more thoughtful remembering things and retrieving them at my leisure.

Until next blog,
sarah

To be or not to be a beekeper that is the question...

Dear reader,


usual is boring. So it would be interesting to keep bees. Unlike with other pets, which only cost money, you can use the honey and wax and even sell it. Also they're quite independent animals. Surely you've got to check if they've got enough food and water. But that's nothing compared to say guinea pigs with a cage, which needs to be cleaned weekly and is in need of hay, straw and litter by the kilo or like a cat with a cat toilet, which needs cleaning daily and it's not like a dog, which needs to go for a walk a couple of times a day either. In books I read that taking care of the bees takes time of about 10 hours over a year. If I compare that to my guinea pigs: cleaning the cage takes about 10 minutes, if I hurry, more often it's more like 20 minutes to half an hour once a week. Even with 10 minutes a week, if I add this up for a month, it's 40 minutes per month and that's just cleaning the cage.

There's a beekeeper there that offers what he's calling godparenting. The bees are in your garden and there's a godparent/experienced beekeeper coming over to take care of them. One can also be taught how to take care of the bees and the honey is definitely for you to keep.

It's of course also important to test for bee toxin allergy. I'm not allergic. So that's how far I am already now. And what now? Should I call the beekeeper or not? That phone call is the only thing standing between the bees and me. Okay and a visit from a beekeeper to check if the bees can be kept here and where. I'm not quite sure yet. I don't dare calling the beekeeper yet. Or maybe all I want is a bit of attention with an unusual hobby. The news alone of me maybe getting bees is quite exiting for a lot of people.

Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea

Dear reader,

for all of you, who enjoy to drink tea or are interested in tea, I've got this month's documentation:

"Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea" is a BBC production produced in april 2013. In this two part program Victoria Wood follows up the history of tea and why the british love tea so much. The first part is about how tea, which originally came from china, came to great britain. The british eventually wanted to be independant from the chinese. India seemed a good enough substitute, especially since india was a former british colony. But what could the british have to trade with the indian? The answer to that question surprised me a lot and I wasn't expecting it at all.

The second part deals with why tea means so much for the british. Victoria Woods speaks with construction side workers, taxi drivers, the actor Matt Smith (known as the 11th Doctor of "Doctor Who"). Tea helped the british win the war, according to some discussion partners. Towards the end of the second part of this documentary Victoria Wood asks the question, if tea has a future at all, with Starbucks and all the sorts of coffee and coffee mixes. Does tea have a future? What could be the future of tea? By the way also worth a thought why in english they talk about a "nice cup of tea" so often. Why "nice"?

Youtube has got both parts online, at least for now. Here are the links:

part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOwWTFh_y9E (59 minutes)
part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4I47_vXBtU (58:44 minutes)

Until next blog,
sarah

Better be born in a different time?

Dear reader,

from "Sherlock" to "Elementary". Even though I didn't quite like the ending of the first season of "Elementary" that much - apart from the very last scene (bees!) - I did go on watching the second season, as soon as the internet allowed me to. In the 7th episode Sherlock goes to a sobriety meeting. The leader has a question to close the meeting of the day and surprisingly enough Sherlock is the first to say something. It's about crazy thoughts about their disease. Thoughts they know are crazy, but still come up.

Sherlock: "I often wonder if I should have been born in another time." And he goes on in a striking open way, " My senses are unusually-- well, one could even say unnaturally-- keen. And ours is an era of distraction. It's a punishing drumbeat of constant input. This cacophony which follows us into our homes and into our beds and seeps into our souls, for want of a better word. For a long time there was only one poultice for my raw nerve endings, and that was, copious drug use. So in my less prooductive moments, I'm given to wonder if I'd just been born when it was a little quieter out there, would I have even become an addict in the first place? Might I have been more focused? A more fully realized person?"

Someone asks Sherlock, "What, like Ancient Greece?"

Sherlock: "You any idea what passed for dental care in the Hellenic era? No, I'd want some of the wonders of modernity. Just before everything got amplified."

The discussion is interrupted by Sherlock's brother Mycroft, revealing himself with a question. Sherlock is shocked and leaves. Not only Sherlock with his unusual perception is stressed. We mortals are ever more stressed as well and everything around us gets faster and noisier and bigger and brighter. Type into a google images search the words: earth by night. That's how bright the earth is even by night. Does it all have to be that way?

Until next blog,
sarah

Am I pretty?

Dear reader,

Sherlock Holmes can sometimes get on people's nerves a lot with his analytic ways. Or when he doesn't want to admit that he doesn't have a clue. In "The Sign of Three" (The 2nd episode of the 3rd season of "Sherlock") quite certainly both apply. Sherlock and John are both drunk for John's stag night and play "Who Am I?" For that you get a piece of paper stuck to your forehead and have to guess the name on it. Usually a quite entertaining game. Though probably not with Sherlock. John should have known by now that Sherlock is not the man for trivia and chitchat and doesn't care about what would commonly be considered famous or interesting people.


John: "Am I pretty? This." (John points to the paper on his forehead)
Sherlock: "Beauty is a construct based entirely on childhood impressions, influences and role models."
John: "Yeah, but am I a pretty lady?"
Sherlock: "I don't know who you are, I don't know who you're supposed to be."
John: "You picked the name!"
Sherlock: "But I picked it at random from the papers."
John: "You're not really getting the hang of this game, are you, Sherlock?"


Sherlock is right with his argument though. It's exactly the factors Sherlock lists and more, which make us divide unknown people into nice or unlikeable, intelligent or stupid or any of the other many other pigeon-holes we have. A totally normal reaction. Routine and familiar situations, things and people are what help us making our life easier. We could not constantly react to each situation as if it was totally new to us. Something like real objectivity doesn't exist.

Even Sherlock Holmes' way of thinking is nevertheless not impeccable though. In "The Great Game" (season 1, episode 3 of "Sherlock") John can't believe it at first that Sherlock doesn't know the earth goes around the sun. Detective Inspector Lestrade and other police men also make fun of that. Sherlock doesn't care. His head is important to him and the fact that the earth goes around the sun is not important enough for him to keep it in mind for long. Though at the end of the episode even Sherlock has to admit that a little more knowledge about the solar system would have helped him solve the case faster.


Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: Gun Shy

Dear reader,

in 2000 the actor Liam Neeson had the leading role as the DEA agent Charlie in the film „Gun Shy“. Charlie comes back from an undercover mission, which has gone horribly wrong. It ended in a disastrous shooting, in which Charlie's colleague got killed and almost got him killed as well. Instead Charlie ended up head first in a water melon. Needless to say that he hates melons since then. From that moment on he has severe digestive problems as well as anxiety. There's nothing he wants more than retirement and the view of the ocean.

On his flight back, Charlie meets the therapist Dr. Jeff Bleckner (Michael Mantell). He notices how uncomfortable Charlie is and offers him help. Dr. Bleckner suggests Charlie goes to do some group therapy. During those sessions Charlie finds out that he's far from being the only one unhappy with his (professional) life. As he tells the others about his problems, he falls on sympathetic ears. Charlie has to take on one last job to stop the scary mafia boss Fulvio and his money laundering business. Charlie is so nervous meeting Fulvio the first time, that Dr. Bleckner prescribes him some pills. The therapist makes it very clear to Charlie only to take one pill. But Charlie is so nervous and the effect doesn't come fast enough for Charlie. So he takes a second. That leads to Charlie not only being calm during the meeting, but he very much not to fall asleep. In the end Charlie can't fight it any longer and just falls asleep in his chair as he is. Fulvio is enthusiastic and impressed how Chrlie can go to sleep and just sleep peacefully.

Charlie and Fulvio become friends for real. That's how Charlie realises that the mean mafia boss is just a show. Fulvio's wish for life is to grow tomatos. He only plays the mean mafia boss, because that's what everyone seems to expect him to be like. So Fulvio is just one more person, who is unsatisfied and with totally different dreams for how his own life should be. Charlie decides to help him.

Charlie consults the beautiful Judy Tipp (Sandra Bullock) about his digestive problems, who not only is able to help him with alternative medicine about his bodily problems. He's also infected by her optimism and the to of them come closer.

All in all this film can't be taken too serious and is far from what might happen in real life. But the film has much humour and it's much fun for me to watch all those great actors. The characters were written which much love and care, even the smaller parts and I enjoy it a great deal to see them all with their quirks and their problems they are fighting with and do their best to stick to their dreams and come closer to fulfilling them. At the end of this turbulent adventure especially Charlie and Fulvio clearly learned something for themselves and have been through quite some changes and achieved things for themselves.

Until next blog,
sarah