What's on your mind today?

[Arturo]

By the way...
My blood test results:

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

Yayyyyy! At least someone is having a good day!

[Davin]

By the way...
My blood test results:

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

[Sandra Craft]

I don't get the first gif, but from the reactions it's a good thing so: 

[Dave]

Yippee, Mags!

[Davin]

I don't get the first gif, but from the reactions it's a good thing so: 

This is a bad result for a blood test:

[Magdalena]

I don't get the first gif, but from the reactions it's a good thing so: 

This is a bad result for a blood test:

Thanks for translating, Davin.
There's only two results when it comes to blood tests, the good:

The bad and ugly:





Thanks for all the wonderful comments, everyone. 

[xSilverPhinx]

That's great, Mags!

[Magdalena]

That's great, Mags!

[Essie Mae]

I have to get the train down to London this evening for a work meeting tomorrow.  I usually look forward to going but it's going to be so rushed this year that I don't want to go.

Hope it was better than you were expecting. Going into London always cheers me up.

The whole weekend was a bit of a travel nightmare TBH.  Apologies to those on my FB you've already heard me moan!  My train down to London didn't actually get there until about 1:30am as there was an attempted suicide from one of the rail bridges which meant we were stuck in Nuneaton for about 4-hours.  I had to be up for my work meeting early the next morning so by the time I got checked in at my hotel I didn't have much sleep. 

Then on the way back, Virgin trains cancelled a lot of the northern services, blaming a lack of drivers.  It meant when a train finally did run there was about 4 trains worth of people trying to cram onto one train and again I didn't get home till nearly midnight. 

A very tiring weekend and I didn't get to see much of London at all.  The only upside was a very nice free lunch!

What a pain.

[Essie Mae]

Went to he BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portait Gallery this week and Mr M liked the ones that look so like photographs that it's hard to tell the difference. Much as I admire the artistry, I do find them a bit creepy. I like the slightly more impressionistic ones.  There was one that had a face shape but no features; just a few brush strokes which I thought was awful. Can any of you artists out there explain to me what the criteria might be for being chosen out of the thousands of entries to the final 53 that made it?

It's only really since I started trying to get into painting myself that I started appreciating a wider range of artistic styles.

Personally I'm not a fan of the photorealism type of work as I want art to be something more than just a good representation of what someone can see.  With a lot of time and practice anyone can learn to paint but I think fewer people have that creative ability to push boundaries or produce pieces of art that really make people stop and think.

Even though you thought the ones that were reduced to a few simple lines were awful, they have still left a lasting impression on you and they are possibly the ones you'd talk about the most to people.  I don't think art should simply be about what people like or don't like, if that makes any sense?

Yep, that does make sense thank you. I don't have to like an artwork to be impressed by it and if it makes me uncomfortable then it is succeeding in expanding my horizons. I love the Sky programme Portrait Artist of the Year even though the judges sometimes sound a bit pretentious, not to say talking utter crap sometimes. The different styles produced from one subject are amazing.

[xSilverPhinx]

I think he's oversimplifying things a bit, and I'm not sure what I think of it as I don't know enough on the neuroscience of creativity to have an informed opinion.

I personally don't mind uncertainty because I've accepted the fact that there's so much that we won't know...let alone the things we don't even know we don't know. I don't see that as the source of my creative moments however, but what do I know.

[Tank]

5:15 who knew this time existed!
At least this time of years it's light.
Off to work.

[Claireliontamer]

I think he's oversimplifying things a bit, and I'm not sure what I think of it as I don't know enough on the neuroscience of creativity to have an informed opinion.

I personally don't mind uncertainty because I've accepted the fact that there's so much that we won't know...let alone the things we don't even know we don't know. I don't see that as the source of my creative moments however, but what do I know.

I read an interesting little book recently about creativity (https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Think-Like-Artist-Lead-More-Creative-Productive/0241970806).  It doesn't really go into details about the neuroscience but looks at the common traits highly creative people have including asking lots of questions and not assuming like mentioned in the video.  There's also other factors like studying lots of other similar creative people, artists for example rarely just produce a moment of inspiration but instead their pieces of work are more likely to be the result of heavy study of other artists and building up their design over many trials. 

[Dave]

I think he's oversimplifying things a bit, and I'm not sure what I think of it as I don't know enough on the neuroscience of creativity to have an informed opinion.

I personally don't mind uncertainty because I've accepted the fact that there's so much that we won't know...let alone the things we don't even know we don't know. I don't see that as the source of my creative moments however, but what do I know.

I read an interesting little book recently about creativity (https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Think-Like-Artist-Lead-More-Creative-Productive/0241970806).  It doesn't really go into details about the neuroscience but looks at the common traits highly creative people have including asking lots of questions and not assuming like mentioned in the video.  There's also other factors like studying lots of other similar creative people, artists for example rarely just produce a moment of inspiration but instead their pieces of work are more likely to be the result of heavy study of other artists and building up their design over many trials.

Not only artists, us technical types learn a lot from what others actually do. Whrn listrning to the radio I often watch videos of home inventions, novel uses for tools etc. Not always for immediate use but it all goes in and mostly pops up again when needed - maybe as I saw it maybe in a different guise.

Which enters into the neuro- stuff again. How do I, or anyone else, manage to separate the parts of the brain that handle sound and vision enough to absorb both what is heard and what is seen at the same time. Is this inherent or learned I wonder. I can see it being a useful skill for a primitive hunter, even in the RAF, just another bunch of hunters/fighters in essence, being fully aware to all senses - including complying with verbal orders for future action whilst doing somethjng completely different, that may be complex and/or dangerous, as those orders are sent over the comm system - was essential.

But, I digress...

[Claireliontamer]

I think he's oversimplifying things a bit, and I'm not sure what I think of it as I don't know enough on the neuroscience of creativity to have an informed opinion.

I personally don't mind uncertainty because I've accepted the fact that there's so much that we won't know...let alone the things we don't even know we don't know. I don't see that as the source of my creative moments however, but what do I know.

I read an interesting little book recently about creativity (https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Think-Like-Artist-Lead-More-Creative-Productive/0241970806).  It doesn't really go into details about the neuroscience but looks at the common traits highly creative people have including asking lots of questions and not assuming like mentioned in the video.  There's also other factors like studying lots of other similar creative people, artists for example rarely just produce a moment of inspiration but instead their pieces of work are more likely to be the result of heavy study of other artists and building up their design over many trials.

Not only artists, us technical types learn a lot from what others actually do. Whrn listrning to the radio I often watch videos of home inventions, novel uses for tools etc. Not always for immediate use but it all goes in and mostly pops up again when needed - maybe as I saw it maybe in a different guise.

Which enters into the neuro- stuff again. How do I, or anyone else, manage to separate the parts of the brain that handle sound and vision enough to absorb both what is heard and what is seen at the same time. Is this inherent or learned I wonder. I can see it being a useful skill for a primitive hunter, even in the RAF, just another bunch of hunters/fighters in essence, being fully aware to all senses - including complying with verbal orders for future action whilst doing somethjng completely different, that may be complex and/or dangerous, as those orders are sent over the comm system - was essential.

But, I digress...

Hearing and vision are dealt with by completely different parts of the brain: