It’s very difficult to live life entirely without stress. No matter how calm and peaceful one wishes to be, there will always be events in one’s life that test the limits of psychological endurance.
I experience stress on a daily basis, and perhaps much more so this month. As for my methods of dealing with stress, I enjoy music, knowledge, and technology.
Music
Classical and soundtrack music are especially enjoyable for me. I find that they contribute to a calmer emotional state, especially with beautiful orchestral pieces. (See what kind of music I like at Music to Hear.) Listening to the Brandenburg Concertos by Bach, for instance, Ennio Morricone film score, Planet Earth incidental music, or Hans Zimmer’s remarkable compositions, or Karajan’s amazing interpretations, probably bring my mood from stressed out at 8/10 to 3/10. This is one of the reasons that I listen to music while I’m doing work.
Take a look at a video of one of my favourite pieces, conducted by the composer Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Learning
TED videos are really inspiring to watch. Whether it’s Al Gore or someone talking about the importance of bread, I find TED to be an absolutely amazing source of inspiration.
Developing knowledge helps to take my mind off pressing matters, at least temporarily. And that’s one of the reasons that I like reading news, reading design blogs and so on.
Humour
FAIL Blog, NotAlwaysRight and FMyLife are all amazing sources of humour. Laughing is probably the easiest way to enjoy oneself for a while.
Today, I got a cross-country job promotion. I decided to plan my Going-Away-Forever party, and bought a pack of 100 invitations. After mailing them out to all my friends, I have 92 left. FML (source)
This keeps me amused, but is by no means as effective as music — after all, I can listen to music while working, and this humour stuff takes away from time I could be putting towards resolving causes of stress.
Et vous?
What do you do to keep your stress at an acceptable level? (You can select multiple answers. Choose any item if it has a soothing / stress-relieving effect for you.)
April 30th, 2009 | Comments Off | Posted in Video Matters
The 11th movie in the Star Trek franchise is being released in theatres on May 8, 2009. If there is a single film in this year that I definitely wish to see, it is this one.
At some point, I am going to learn computer programming — as in C/C++ and/or Java. I’ve never thought about serious programming, but some basic knowledge of the field would be useful for many professions.
If anyone wants to offer any help or tutorials or documentation resources, I’d be very thankful.
Here’s a video about Java by Sun to promote its uses beyond merely desktop applications.
December 31st, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in Video Matters
Hey, guys. It’s the end of 2008. This post is surely the last I will make this year, given that it is scheduled to be published on the 31st of December.
At this point in time, we can look back and we can look forwards. We can reflect on all of the things we did right (and the things we did wrong), and think about how we can improve in the future. I’ve said this in some of the holiday-wishes messages that were sent out, and I’ll say it again: there’s always room for self-improvement.
It can’t be fun to end the year on that note. So I’ll leave you, instead, with this amazing video. (I was originally going to use a streaming QuickTime embed, but I realize that many people don’t like QuickTime or don’t have it installed. Instead, here’s the YouTube video — and you can find the video in HD format here.)
While people in Canada vote and choose their new leaders, I’m working on an essay. While I’m doing that, I’d like to share an excellent, insightful video with you about the foundations of morality and where liberals and conservatives stand on each of the foundations.
I am very disappointed in all of the candidates — by this I mean that I would neither support Barack Obama & Joe Biden, nor John McCain & Sarah Palin, nor Stephen Harper, Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May.
That having been said, enjoy this video of the American Vice Presidential debate yesterday evening, in case you missed it.