The Deafening Sound of Silence

Absolute Silence. Equals a world without us.

Imagine a world without sound. A day when you wake up to a world where nothing produces sound. Not where you are deaf, just that there's nothing there to hear.

Can you handle the deafening sound of silence?

Sound adds color to our lives. If there was no sound, then we would not probably appreciate most of the things. Life would be very bland and boring. Like toast with no butter. From music, to the voice of your loved ones (and those of the people you hate too, because why not?), to, say, the sound of the wind hitting the grass, making them rustle. Sound sorts of verifies the existence of these things. Things just doesn't seem to be real when there's no sound. And with that said, we could infer, that sound equals life.

But what about those that not produce sound, are they instantly dead? Is silence equivalent to death and/or lifelessness?

If you could say that something is silent, does that mean that you can hear silence?

Silence is just a term coined to the lack of vibrations that produces sound or there maybe vibrations but they are at low intensity, not enough to be audible. But that's just physical silence. Is it possible for us to live in a silent world? For me, it could never be possible, UNLESS we are all dead. Because if we are all dead, there would be no one to hear the silence. 

There is no such thing as pure silence, because humans have an amazing ability to talk to themselves. Our brain never rests in silence. During the day, when we are awoke, our brain tells us what to do. What foot should you step out of bed first. These things doesn't just happen. Our brain has a voice that tells us, and we hear it unconsciously. During the night, when we are asleep, our brain keeps on running too.

Living quietly make sense, if you're thinking about the 'living in the middle of nowhere' quietly. But living in a silent world or living silently does not really make any sense, because putting the words 'living' and 'silently' together in a phrase would create an oxymoron, except that it kind of doesn't really make any sense. We are never silent, because our brain works 24/7. The only moment that we can live silently, is if we are dead. But how can you live when you are dead?

But whatever lies beyond silence, would drive me insane. If there would just be no sound at all, like, not even silence, would kill me. Like a lucid dream, except it's more like a 'lucid death'. You are dead but you are still able to experience things. And you experience, let's just cal it, 'metaphysical silence.' That would probably drive me insane.

And that day, when you wake up to a world where nothing produces sound, where you are not deaf, just that there's nothing there to hear, would never happen.

Because you are dead.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

No matter how many words are out there. No matter how thick your dictionary is. Now matter what you say. Nothing will ever say as much than a photograph, or an image, a picture, a symbol.

Made popular by the band Bread's song, the idiom "A picture paints a thousand words" has only one meaning, a picture tells a thousand stories, and the reason why? Probably because a picture is open to more interpretation than words. Words are pretty direct, they mean what they mean (No means no for example -- remember this!) but when they form a thought or a sentence, that's just the time where it gets pretty interesting. BUT a picture, just a plain picture could be a symbol to one thing. That's why visual arts (paintings, drawings, illustration) is very interesting, because it allows us to gives us our own meaning to it. The artist may have another interpretation of it, and you/we as the public/part of the public may give another. Let us take Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci for an example.

MONA LISA. A simple caption would have sufficed.

For years and years, a painting of a woman for which they said to be named Lisa del Giocondo has been boggling the minds of artists all over the world. It has been and continues to be the greatest mystery of the art world. Who this woman is, why is she positioned like that, what is hiding behind her mysterious smile, and what is his part in da Vinci's life for her to be painted by him (Oh, and of course WHERE IS THIS WOMAN'S EYEBROWS?)

Different artists (and of course the public) have different interpretation of the said painting. Many have even said that Mona Lisa and da Vinci are basically one, even creating evidences of said theory. The smile, which seems to be innocent and inviting, has kept everybody thinking. There are a lot of theories surrounding this painting and the woman behind it. There is also a theory that she was an alien that came from Jupiter (that one I totally made up heehee)

Mona Lisa has been regarded as the  "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world." (accdg. my friend Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). This strongly supports the idiom "a picture paints a thousand words." Many people have made a lot of literary works, piece of art, that centers around their own interpretation of the painting of Ms. del Giocondo. 

Pandora's Mouth: The Power of Words

IGNORANCE isn't really BLISS

Remember that Greek story. When the first woman, Pandora, was handed a box (or a jar) and she wasn't allowed to open it, but she did not follow 'cause she think she bad, BUT SHE AIN'T. So she still opened that box and unleashed all the evils of the world. Thank you, Pandora. You just gave the world what it needed the mosit, sickness, debauchery, and just pure, cold, evilness.

WORDS, might be the reason of all the evils of the world.

So, what does this have to do with the power of words thing? Well, I was thinking of a good post because I really don't want to JUST make one. And I was thinking, what's a good representation for how opening your mouth and not thinking about what you're going to say? And then I remembered that Greek story.

I believe that words can be very powerful. Words can bring peace, or start a war. But what I came to realize is that, WORDS, might be the reason of all the evils of the world. Because sometimes some people just can't contain their opinion and just respect one's belief. People say a lot of offensive things without even knowing that it's offensive. And that's the saddest thing. People don't even think of what their going to say. People are basically clueless, like Pandora. They are not educated about things that they say.

With the use of those words, you are fueling something more harsh, something bigger, something that causes people to die.

I'm not gonna lie, I was one of those people before. I used to say words like, that word some call women that levels them to a dog. Or that one which -- weirdly, some just say it for no apparent reason -- was used to call people from Africa that were brought to the United States to be a white man's slave. But then I was educated about this (YOU SHOULD BE AS WELL) and now I whenever I see/hear people say those words, I cringe. Then I feel sorry for them because sometimes they just say it to seem "cool", or "hip" and all these things that they think they can achieve if they say these words. Little do they know that RACISM and SEXISM, exists, and STILL EXISTS because of these words. With the use of those words, you are fueling something more harsh, something bigger, something that causes people to die.

There is only one obvious reason for this to happen. IGNORANCE. If people would only think about what they're going to say, and people would value other people's belief, then we might finally find peace in this world. Because if Pandora only listened, gave things a thought, and applied, then the evils of the world might not have existed, or exists. Some people might say "Oh it's just words, it doesn't really matter" but I tell you it's not. If we use words that are offensive, then are just opening more doors for more evil. These things that we can't see, they are the ones who leave a deeper cut.

You are Pandora. You have destroyed the world. But remember that there's still one thing that is left to fix what you have done.

What is that thing you ask?

Hope.

and of course stop saying these words. Use 'yo head! Think before you speak.

What makes multimedia so fetch?

SO FETCH! Raise your hand if your into multimedia

As the time we spend on the internet or using any kind of new media becomes longer, our attention span becomes shorter. Because we are so soaked in to new media, we become this supernatural beings -- well, not really -- we became this "know-it-all"s. Yup, that's a more accurate description of what the new generation (in which I belong to. PROUDLY belong to. "No Ragrets") has become. Thus, we "know-it-all"s get bored easily. We don't pay attention to something extremely normal. We tend to neglect what we think is mundane. Suddenly, after being basked in the glory of the internet, and its instant knowledge giving power, we become thirsty for more. We keep on searching for something fresh, new, and something that would be worth wasting our time for -- or at least we think it is.

And this is why I think multimedia fascinates a lot of people nowadays. Because with multimedia, you are immersed in different kinds of medias spontaneously. Everything happening at once makes it seem like that the virtual world becomes reality. Multimedia stimulates all of our senses, all at once. With multimedia you can be very involved because of it is interactivity. Some would require the actual person/human using such media to physically interact, and devote their whole being (well, not really. But you get the point.) to really get the feeling of the virtual world.

ABOVE. MULTIMEDIA is defined as the combination of 2 or more of different elements (namely text, image, sound, animation, and video). One great is example is a lyric video. This allows the person, to not only listen to the song, but also read its lyrics which are made more visually appealing by modifying the text and also adding images and animation.

The use of multimedia is not only apparent in our homes but in different places as well, and they also come in different forms. At school, students would be more engaged and involved in a discussion if the instructor is speaking/discussing, while their visual sense are also stimulated, by say, visual aids such as PowerPoint presentation, Audio Visual Presentations or AVPs, Prezis and the like. In business, like advertising, people would prefer to buy a product with a catchy commercial (hearing).

Another thing that makes multimedia so click, is that, not only it is very pleasing to watch, it is very easy to make. Everybody who has a basic knowledge about producing and processing images, text, sound, animation, and videos can be a developer of multimedia.

Everything is now accessible. With multimedia, we became sort of a god that can control, well, basically, almost everything that is out there in the virtual world. We have our own "world" to rule over. And what's really cool is that we cannot just control things, but also, share, build, and ultimately, destroy.