Oh Obee Doo, I wanna Be like you-oooo

This morning, I reminiscing about childhood games. And how mammals and birds at the least if not all animals have their own forms of childhood games. Before I go any farther, I'm going to send some references your way [swings both hands with point index fingers in your direction].

A quick googling of "animal play"⁰ indicates that it is very difficult to defineⁱ, however there is agreement that it gets you ready for the big bad world in almost all ways.ⁱⁱ

So, then. What is the purpose of games like:

red-light/green-light ["i'm going to get really good at sneaking up behind people before they turn to face me and then scaringⁱⁱⁱ/killing them"]

Lion's Cub ["Watch how I stealthily take the one thing you care about"]

blindman's bluff

I'll tell you what the purpose is. Ninjas. No wait. Even better. Liam Neeson in Taken (54s in)

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

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⁰ Be careful what links you click on when you put that into Google.

ⁱ"No behavior has proved more ill-defined, elusive, controversial and even unfashionable than play" Wilson, E. O. (1975) Sociobiology: The New Synthesis Cambridge, M.A. Harvard University Press. By way of the Wikipidea article

ⁱⁱ"When individuals play they typically use action patterns that are also used in other contexts, such as predatory behaviour, antipredatory behaviour, and mating." pp83- It is an interesting review. A sub-species of wallaby have been shown to take it easy on younger partners (bottom of pp 84) There is another interesting anecodote in it about coyote cubs and no one wanting to play with the cheaters (top of pp85). And [the last one. I promise] - cranial electrodes measured that primates have an area in their brain that lights up when they do something or when they watch someone do the same thing. It has the titular name: "mirror neurons".*

ⁱⁱⁱI'm all for the idea of scaring people... in fact it is that time of year again. This year, I'm going all out nerd. I'm even going as far as to do up before and after sketches of the thing I am going as and giving it a back story. That will appear... here exclusively!**

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*The observations regarding "mirror neurons" reminded me that babies learn to smile from watching us smiling, which prompted some googling... Eric Jaffe quotes that some consider their discovery on a level with "DNA in the realm of scientific discovery". It is an accessible review of the subject... as he says: "technical enough to impress at dinner parties; simple enough to explain to Grandma; sweeter sounding than, say, the Bose-Einstein condensate"***

**I was the first person I went to and I could not refuse my offer. I really got screw/came out on top with this deal.

***FYI- if you see me at a dinner party, you better not use mirror neurons or so help me, you'll learn to wince at others' pain if you don't already :)****

****That one is wheels within wheels, baby

I'm sorry, I was lost in my eyes

Recently, I was chatting to my housemate Rani about what we think of the journey from our house to college. Rani finds it is so very boring. I'm largely indifferent to it. I've got a theory [... it could be bunnies]: it does not bother me because I am easily entertained. I have proof!

In order of ascending frequency, the things that occupy me as I walk about the place minding my own business:

1. How many paces I can walk in a straight line with my eyes closed.^a
2. I count the change in my wallet without looking.^b
3. While doing number 4, I go through the salsa dance pieces I can remember.^c
4. I recall a few bars^d from a salsa song that I like.^e
5. I think how I would answer someone asking me what I think about while I am walking.^f

Stop! Segue time

Bob and Z were kind enough to bring me back a pair of Buddhist prayer beads (12 beads, ~12mm in diameter. They fit snuggly around my wrists). Within the club we use them as a training aid.^g

It has become a habit to hang one of the bracelets around the knuckles on one of my hands and rotate them with my thumb.

Stop! Segue over

Recently, my strolling habits have become stranger... I have taken to hanging a bracelet on my hand and purposefully not fidgeting with it. It reminded me of: not thinking about pink elephants; not scratching an infuriating itch; and nodding politely as an idiot shares his thoughts with me.^h The first time I lasted about 15 minutes before my mind drifted and I gave the bracelet a twitch. As soon as I did it, I cursed out loud. Luckily there was no one on the road to glance queerly at me. On Saturday morning, I didn't fidget for a whole walk, 30 minutes. :)

Anyway, that is how I pass my time... well other than miscellaneous pondering. For example:

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^aObviously, this depends on a few things: the path is not about to suddenly end and no one else is nearby.* It was much easier to do it when I got to walk across the football pitch to get home.

^bThe first few times I did this, it was rather demanding, like speaking in an unfamiliar language. It's not a problem anymore.

^cThis is still rather draining to do. Even in my mind I am inclined to skip the first half bar doing the middle part of a piece, so I have to be rather particular about my steps on the upside, I remember about 20 7-bar dance pieces and various single moves from other ones- there is a large gap from june-september where I didn't memorise them. :(

^dI just put that in there to make it sound like I know stuff. I only figured out what it was over the Summer.

^eThese days it is Via which I understand is a salsa cover of the MASH theme song. I am uncertain whether or not that is the case.

^fGenerally the voice is the stereotypical American announcer/host, sometimes there is even a microphone being pointed at me.

^gIf one is wearing the beads and does certain strikes- punches, chops, palm strikes- well, the bracelets fly off or jam on the widest part of the hand. A fine example of uninterrupted flow of momentum all the way out to the hand followed by sudden deceleration/concussive/decisive conclusion.

^hI saw a great Ted talk recently. An ex-conductor presents and explains the conducting styles of 6 of the 20th Century's greatest conductors. He had a funny anecdote about once conductor. He uses flowing strokes of his.... um... wand, which are very indisitinct. A flutist once asked him,"When do I know to start playing?" The conductor replied,"When you can't bear it any more!" My favourite part is the video of the last conductor, who uses his eyebrows and shoulders to conduct.

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*Don't want anyone thinking I'm some kind of weirdo.

Episode IV: The Church Strikes Back

Previously on The Trouble with Máirtín: I was approached and incensed thrice by the Christian.

[Fade to black and cue theme musicⁱ over montage of Máirtín being clumsy, looking innocent beside kitchen mishaps and getting thrown to the ground over and over again by Fergal]

Currently on The Trouble with Máirtín... [Fade in]

I was nearing the end of my morning meditation. Nice. And. Relaxed.

The door nearest to me opens. A bespectacled smiling head appears. Armed with a pamphlet, her opening words were: "Hi. I have not seen you in a while... I'm sorry I should introduce myself my name is XXXXXX.ⁱⁱ What is your name?"

My thoughts in order:

"Ah. Another archerⁱⁱⁱ"

"Why the hell is she talking to-"

"Oh, it's her."

"......"

Within scant seconds of the Christian's appearance I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions. By the time she had asked my name I had settled on inexpressible annoyance.

"I don't want to talk to you."

Still smiling she said,"OK", turned tail and left. I was very surprised by how easily that went.

Nonetheless, I was rather agitated after she left. My meditation buzz had been wrecked, so I still have a ways to go before I am unperturbable.

Mairtin's Monologue

It occurs to me, much like when classic movie trilogies get other films tacked on to them,^iv that the latest addition is lame; Anticlimactic. And just seems to cash in on the success of its predecessors.

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ⁱI'm going with Pure Imagination from the Gene Wilder version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

ⁱⁱI am not protecting her identity, by the time she got to saying her name all I could hear was white noise, owing to how annoyed I felt seeing her again.

ⁱⁱⁱI was sharing the hall space with a guy from archery at the time

^ivIndiana Jones, Die Hard and Star Wars are the only ones that come to mind at the moment- In fairness, Die Hard 4 was not that bad, just not on par with what came before.