Quote #004

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon

Fact #004

In medieval Japan, it was fashionable to have black teeth.

Dying your teeth black is also known as Ohaguro. It was most popular with married women, although some men did it too. As well as being seen as stylish, it was actually beneficial, as the dye helped prevent tooth decay. Black was commonly regarded as a beautiful colour in medieval Japan, so having black teeth was popular, although it kind of seems like a step too far, don’t you think?

Person #003

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, born 1828, died 1910, was a novelist and playwright and was the author of many notable nooks such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He was a believer in pacifism, vegetarianism and communism, and was influenced by Buddhism and Jesus Christ’s sermons. Leo Tolstoy is said to have inspired many significant historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King with his pacifist and non-violent ideas.

Father of 14 children, and husband of Sophia Tolstaya, Leo Tolstoy was descended from an aristocratic Russian family. His mother passed away when he was two years old, and then his father when he was nine. He and his three older brothers were then raised by a variety of aunts and relations. In his youth he struggled with his education and gathered lots of debts from gambling. Tired of leading a purposeless life, Tolstoy decided to sign up for the Russian Army, after some persuasion from his older brother, Nikolay. He later described his years as a soldier as misspent and wasted, and it was his experiences in the army which led to him becoming a pacifist.

Leo Tolstoy then traveled Europe looking for a better understanding of the meaning of life. He  manged to get himself into quite a few rows with prominent (some of them more than others) names of his time, due the fact that he would get quite argumentative with anyone who disagreed with him. He did however, develop a great sympathy with peasants and the poor and tried his best to help whoever he could.

War and Peace is perhaps the novel that is most famous of Tolstoy’s, though he never saw it as a novel but as an epic. It is remarkable with it’s realism and historical references (at least that’s what I hear – I haven’t actually read it!).

Quotes from Leo Tolstoy:

“If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” 

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” 

“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” 

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

Thanks for reading!

Word #003

Cloudberry noun

A dwarf bramble with white flowers and edible orange fruit, growing on high, open land. pl. cloudberries.

The theory is that these plants were named cloudberry because they live on high ground and supposedly reach the clouds.

Photo #003

 

This is a picture of some distant streetlights at night, only I moved the camera to make a pattern. 🙂

Joke #003

What do you get if you cross a dog and a tree?

Bark!

Invention #003

Today is more of a recent invention than the previous two…

The Aurora Headband

The Aurora is a headband that you wear when you are asleep and was invented by the company iWinks. The headband allows you to control your dreams, while you are dreaming them. It works by monitoring brain waves and eye movements to detect whether the wearer is in a state of sleep called REM sleep, which is the state which is most associated with dreaming. It then sends your sleeping brain signals, such as a flashing light, that don’t wake you up, but tell you that you are inside a dream. Once you have realized this you can stretch your imagination to the limit, and defy the rules of, well, everything! Now your dream can become a trip to Mars, a meeting with your idol, a jet-pack ride around the world, or even an underwater battle with evil piranhas! Anything you like can be experienced in a dream – thanks to the all-new Aurora Headband! 😉 To watch the Official Kickstarter  Video, click the link.

Thanks for reading!

Quote #003

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” – Dr. Seuss

This quote has helped me get over lots of things that have ended when I didn’t want them to, so thanks Dr. Seuss! 😉

Fact #003

The parachute was invented more than 100 years before the aeroplane.

The parachute was created and designed by Louis-Sebastien Lenormand, a Frenchman, in 1783. It was first used to save people jumping from burning buildings, rather than it’s most famous use thesedays, which is for people jumping out of aeroplanes.

Person #002

Hey guys, today I was hoping to write about a historical person who I thought was inspiring (I did have a particular person in mind) but I’m pretty worn out out so I’ve decided to do a quick post about someone who I already know quite a bit about…

J.K. Rowling 

Aside from the women in my family, maybe my favourite woman in the world. Joanne Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books, which are the best selling series of all time. She is especially famous for the extraordinary planning ahead that was involved in the writing of her series; she revealed in an interview that she had already planned the iconic forest scene at the end of the seventh (and last) book before the first was even published. C’mon, if that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is. 🙂 Harry Potter has been translated into 67 languages, sold approximately 450 million copies (as of 2011) and the films made $7,709,205,984 in the box office altogether.