A Mindful Post

I assume that a lot of people will not have heard of this concept, of being mindful or partaking in mindfulness. I must say I was unaware of it until very recently until it was suggested to me, as a tool to keep your mind calm or to help calm it down. In retrospect, looking at it from the outside, the concept and practice of it can seem pretty strange. It is defined as "a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique."

What I have mainly partaken in myself so far, is the meditation side of things. You ideally locate yourself in a quiet place, and then depending on what is comfortable for you, sit or lay with your eyes open or closed - once again whichever is more comfortable - and listen to a recording. Sometimes. These recordings act as a guide through the session to assist with clearing your mind and then recognising the sensations you are currently feeling at that point in time. This helps you to just calm down and forget what else you have going on. You can do this without a recording as well, just quietly identify these things yourself. I have also tried an active one, where you follow through some stretches and feel the different pulls and tweaks - this was much more comfortable to do as a group with your eyes closed.. It is very strange though.

Day 689
Here's a little picture which I think is nice..

I think this picture sums it up, because it is identifying the importance of living in the moment and highlights what the idea of mindfulness is about.

The first time I ever did this, I remember leaving the session feeling quite spaced out and I got outside and everything seemed brighter, louder and smelled ever so vibrant. Where you are sort of training yourself to switch off, when you walk outside I guess it is sort of like a sensory overload. Sort of like confining yourself

Cats and Weird Stuff..

Cats! They are here - re-homed and moved in. It is so awesome, and nice to have cats around again so as you will see, I am being a crazy cat man in this post. Part of me cares, because in terms of rich content - you could quite easily argue it's not and I wouldn't dispute it but at the same time - its cats. And this is the internet, a match made in heaven! At the end though, I have accumulated some news articles which are pretty awesome, Amy shared them with me so I thought it would be nice to share them with you as well.

So, just so it doesn't break up the stream of cat talk and cat images, the cat pictures will cover days 682 through to 686. Just so you know. I just don't fancy bolding it up.. There will be a couple more pictures down the bottom though. I don't know why I am telling you, you'll find them.

So first, I think some introductions are due. The two cats were put into care because the owners had two dogs who didn't get on with the cats and thought it would be better for them. My Mum picked out one cat, then upon visiting discovered the second cat who has now come home with them!

This cat is called Gracey and is about 11 and a half years old. She is all black, with what I like to think is a white bow tie and her eyes - are always that large. She is a spitting image of my old cat

Speedy who had to be put down last year. The difference is, when he made these eyes it usually meant you

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno - Part 2

Welcome to part two of this journey into the realms of hell, we have nine circles still to discover! I am enjoying researching this all far too much. I guess that is the benefit of being able to pick your own subject matter.. On a random tangent, I always hated Art GCSE at school because they told you what to create; not what I thought it was all about to be fair.

If you are new to this little series, the first part can be found here:

http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-story-behind-dantes-inferno.html

But otherwise.. Let's get back to it!

So here is the next portion of the story, thanks to lovely wikipedia (again):

At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this, Charon is destroyed when Dante tears his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos. After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her

The Animals

Hello, hello, hello. I am probably going to take far too long to write this post because I am super distracted by something - which I will talk about of course, right now. Like, now, right now.

Day 678
So the title of this post is part of the song lyrics to the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, which is something Amy watched over the last month or so.. And raved about it. I wasn't too interested at first but Amy managed to talk me into watching it and it turns out that we have watched the entire first series - first time round for me, second for Amy - this week. Right now, we are watching the last episode of the first series because I couldn't wait until tomorrow.. Or the weekend to find out what happened! Plus it feels like a fresh slate to start the second series at some point.. I think I am going to have withdrawal symptoms when I have to wait for the third season..

I find it so interesting, because you have no idea if this is actually what it is like in a prison. I guess you always hear the stories or see the programmes that look at the lives of prisoners and it is scary. There is no other way to put it - and drama. Yes, the guards are in charge but at the same time, there are prison politics, like Red being 'in charge' of all the girls and looking after them and finding ways to get them the comforts the shop can't provide. I also find the character interactions interesting how

A Week In The Life Of

Me! Of course it'll be about me. Would be a bit weird if it was someone else don't you think? I will say sorry, I have been very busy this past week just with life and stuff - you know how it is. I have also been putting a lot of time into the research for the story behind Dante's Inferno - turns out I have bitten off a pretty big project over all but I will persevere; mainly because I like it but also I don't think this type of thing is on the internet. Well - we know that isn't true, chances are if it has been thought of, it has been done before. When you think of something that hasn't, you'll usually end up being a millionaire. I don't see them pounds rolling in at the moment hence my apprehension.

So if you can't tell, by the title, this is pretty much a catch up week so you are probably going to find this'll be pretty hefty over all.. The worst part is that I have only taken one picture and that was today when I realised I need to catch up with myself. I have three others that I can think of to add at the moment.. This is probably going to be in the most random order ever as well then.. Pfft, let's just see how it goes really. Also pictures 671 all the way to 677.. Hurrah!

Now if I think back far enough, the bank holiday.. We were cleaning. I know it isn't the most exciting use of your bank holiday but we like destroyed all aspects of dirt and old stuff that we don't need which was oddly satisfying. I quite like washing up - which people say is weird, especially as we have access to a dishwasher - but I get this odd sense of satisfaction from seeing something go from being dirty to shiny and clean. So I guess that is one good side of us doing this sort of Spring cleaning, I guess it is that time of year so maybe we partook in this tradition without even knowing it..

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno

I remember being really excited for this game when I saw it advertised, it was released in 2010 so that was when I was at school in Sixth Form. I was clearly making very good use of my EMA money because I got the limited edition which they called the Death edition. It came with a holographic case and an extra disk with content, and my favourite bit was exclusive access to an online version of the origin text for the game. It was a poem by Dante Alighieri who was alive during the 13th and 14th century, called the Divine Comedy. I can't for the life of me find that website any more, I am not even sure if it is still available, but luckily - possibly due to this game - there are online versions available. I have found the full poem here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm
I wont pop it on here because I assume there are all kinds of legal things around sharing it, and it is actually really long, especially for a poem. It is pretty much a story in all fairness.

Some artwork for the game, all of which is amazing

What I will do this time round is take each paragraph at a time and look into it from there, because the story is much longer than the previous post I did for Okami. So what can you expect? Probably something like a.. Three or four part thing?

Your Five a Day

You know how I do love a good play on words, and this instance I am substituting your vegetables and fruit - with pictures which I am putting on here. Amazing eh? I don't feel like I needed to explain that to you but just in case, it never hurts to make certain. Words to live by.

So today, the first couple of pictures will be about the loot crate for April, the theme was fantasy which I wasn't really too sure about as in what would be the contents. It turns out it was traditional fantasy style, like dragons and stuff. So let's get to it! Seeing as there will be another three pictures, I will label them all up a goodun as I should do. Are you excited? I am.

Day 666 & 667
Good lord, an evil number. Apparently they literally avoid using this number in Christian schools, for example if there were lockers or room numbers.. They literally just avoid it. I don't think it is a bad number at all so look at it in all it's glory for it is a triple.

So, there wasn't so much stuff that needed a lot of separate images so there are only two for the loot crate itself. I think the first of the two is the best because it is staring yours truly.