Ragnchild

Have you ever tried reaching the end of a rainbow? I have, but it always dissappeared before I even got close. Somehow, I always imagined that if I could just walk fast enough, or maybe use a helicopter or something, I could reach it. However, I recently found out that it’s actually impossible to reach the end, because the very nature of the rainbow makes the ends move away from you as you get closer. When you think about it, that makes a nice metaphor of how some people keep chasing something that will never give them real satisfaction, and the closer they get to it, the less satisfied they seem. Continue reading The end of the rainbow

Normally, when you think about language, you see it as a way of expressing yourself. You can say that your personality helps decide what kind of language you use. Thinking of this, have you ever considered that it might work the other way around as well? What if the language you speak affects the way you think and behave? Since I’m a multilingual person, this is a question I find quite interesting. When I think about it, I do feel different when I talk in Norwegian than when I talk in English or German. When I hear someone speak German, for example, I often get this good feeling. This is probably due to the fact that I associate German with summer holiday and my grand parents.

There is some evidence that when bilinguals switch between languages, their personality changes. This is something that I personally believe is true to some extent, because I have experienced it in my everyday life. It also seems logical, since language is strongly related to culture, that when speaking another language you might associate differently and thus express different sides of your personality. Continue reading Can language affect behaviour?

Sometimes, things just seem to pop up in my mind for no apparent reason, and today, it was this particular curiosity: 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6 +… (the reason I’m thinking about mathematical series may have something to do with my maths exam coming up, but that’s another matter). Now, this series is called the harmonic series, and if you keep adding the terms in this sequence forever, you’ll actually reach infinity, believe it or not.

Something I find quite interesting is that this particular mathematical construction is actually closely related to music. When you play a note on an instrument, what you hear is a mixture of several pitches called harmonics. The note you hear has a frequency called the fundamental frequency, and the other tones are not perceived as separate notes, in fact, they are what determines the sound of an instrument. Continue reading Music, maths, and universal harmony

Some of the people I admire the most are the ones that have a true passion for something, they know what they are born to do and devote their life to this. Every time I see or hear about such a person, I can’t help but be amazed. Of course, the people who do those things often have to sacrifice a lot to pursue their passion, some of them can’t handle the pressure or break down. Still, there must be a great sense of satisfaction in knowing what you’re supposed to do with your life, to have something that’s your drive, your goal, your love and desire. Normally, these people don’t have room for what we call a normal life, but often they don’t want it either, they enjoy being special and unique. Continue reading Pursuing your passion

So, the Easter break is finally here. In addition to making me realize how close my exams are, I hope that this break will give me some time to relax. Now, when I think about relaxing, I don’t just mean the part where you lie on the couch. A part of what I value with holidays is to have some time alone with yourself. It’s not that I don’t enjoy company, I usually like being active and seeing and learning new things. However, I have experienced that it’s often during the moments when I’m alone that I manage to see things from a new perspective, get new ideas and grasp concepts I didn’t understand before. Continue reading Taking a break

Lots of times, I have wondered about the concept of art. The thing is, when we start talking about it, it turns out that people have very different understanding of what art really is. Some would say that everything created by a human is art, since it is a form of expressing ourselves. A table falls under this definition, but I wouldn’t call it art.

For me, art has to involve something with feelings, or at least expressing the side of our self that we don’t usually express, something more personal than the fact that you know how to make a rectangle and put four sticks under it. However, many things involve feelings, some people argue that a dot on a canvas expresses something for the person who made it. Well, maybe it does, but I still wouldn’t call it art. When I was thinking about it, I realized that art for me involves some kind of skill, a five year old hammering away at a piano isn’t creating art, no matter how much emotion there is to it. Continue reading A definition of art and a salad please

No, really, I’m not writing this to convince you that you can change your whole life just by learning 3, 7 or x (where x lies in R) ways of positive thought. This is just something I’ve been thinking about lately. In my opinion, your life might already be changed without you knowing it. Try this experiment: think of a bad thing that might happen to you. Then think about what you would wish for in that situation. Probably just the life you’re living now. I know, that might sound a bit weird, but think about it.

Many people who have had their life changed drastically for the worse, wish for nothing else than a normal life again. They think along the lines of “If that car had just come a little later, if I had lived a bit different, if I just hadn’t said that …”. Well, you are that case. You probably walked past 30 cars today, and none of them hit you. You may have talked to your friends or family without getting into a bad argument, and your lungs have consumed about 11.000 liters (fact) of air without malfunctioning. Continue reading A slightly new perspective on things