October 2018 ~ LA PENSINE MUTINE (EN)

The Safe Way to Successfully Deal With Time Change

Ey@el10/27/2018Language and Humour No comments

As every year, public authorities remind us of security measures to ensure a relatively safe clock change. Simple rules we tend to forget sometimes. Here's a quick user-friendly reminder.

Eye protection: unlike previously (2005, 2008, and last year), the time change will take place at night. Therefore no eye protection is necessary. No need to bring out those polarised glasses from last year handed out by the government. However, for those on the far west of Brittany, since the time change over there will start earlier at 7pm (8pm Paris time), it is recommended to wear sunglasses. Everywhere else in France, there should be no cause for alarm. Overseas departments and territories will not be affected by the time change.

Please, remember that the time change line is merely symbolic. Crossing it is both odourless and painless. However, should you experience any discomfort or particular impediment (less than 1% of the population encounter this issue), you are encouraged to seek advice from your doctor.

Here's a simple trick to cope with the time shift: spread the winter/summer time change over a week or more. Thus, by shaving a few minutes off every day, you should be on winter time within a couple of days with minimal after-effects. Important: don't forget to synchronise your calendars with the “Easy Winter Time” App for iPhone and Android for a smooth presattable gradual winter time change.

Some doctors advise to stay up all night to avoid having to adjust to the loss of one hour. Among other things, massive consumption of energy drinks or coffee, vitamins, and orange juice should help you to stay awake and observe the imaginary time change line across French skies.

Animals aren't affected by the time change. According to scientists, most stories of animals congregating to high places a few minutes prior to time changes are unfounded.

Check your food and petrol supplies. Even though the time change should not create any unrest, make sure you're well stocked with sugar and raw materials. Battery, petrol, and ammunition supplies are also recommended. Check your water and gas entry/exit points.

What about you? Do you have any tips to share for a safe clock change?

Original text by LE GORAFI translated from French by EY@EL
© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

How to Apply Twilight Effects on Daylight Photos

Ey@el10/26/2018Photo Editing No comments

It's been almost a year since I last posted some photo edit tutorial. It was about time. Since we're switching to winter time this weekend, I suggest to make an easy drastic makeover and transform a quiet dayscape into a dramatic twilight scenery. For this purpose, I have used The GIMP (Linux version), but any decent photo editing software should do the trick.

Materials

dayscape with overexposed/flat sky, easy to detour
highly contrasted twilight sky (or scenery from which you can use the sky)
G'MIC filters (si you're using GIMP for Linux/Windows)

Instructions

1. Duplicate your original picture and add an alpha channel for transparency.

2. Using the magic wand, select the sky then click on Suppress. Depending on the type of picture you're using, you may need to use the freehand tool instead or the eraser.

3. Copy the sky you want to replace the one you've just erased with and paste it as a new layer, moving it under the existing layer. Adjust size and position to cover the missing area. In my example above (for which I've used a stunning picture taken by Virevolte), I had cheat and use the cloning and smudge brushes as I did not want to strech — and distort — the layer to make it fit. I also applied an horizontal mirror effect to match existing light sources.

4. The last step is probably the longest since you may have to try a lot of different settings until you get what you want which will mostly depend on the picture you're using. In short, you need to apply a series of adjustments and effects to your original layer so as to match the background sky's hue, contrast and light. I have used the Basic Adjustments filter (G'MIC) to change the hue and reduce the gamma value (-9) in order to darken colours. I have also edited the background sky to boost shadows with the Light Glow filter (G'MIC) just reducing opacity.

In my second example above (a picture I took in Holland in the early 1990's), I have reduced gamma and saturation of the landscape to darken it and increase constrast in the same proportions. I have then adjusted colour balance, desaturated a selected colour, and since it wasn't twilightish enough, I have tweaked the output level and reduced gamma some more. Last but not the least, I got the dramatic effect I wanted using Paint Shop Pro 8 (works fine on Wine) to apply the Low Key filter (Color Efex Pro 3).

That's all folks! Hope my current inspiration will inspire you in turn. And if you ever published your work online, please, feel free to post the links in the comments section below, I'd love to see them.

Song For A Dream

Ey@el10/09/2018Music No comments

Released last month on 13th September, that is one year after their 13 album which it is part of, this fourth single by Indochine is amongst my top favourites and the one which certainly finds the best echo in me. Incidentally, the band had honoured with a retweet as a treat for my birthday last year, which had really moved me (thank you guys!). The accompanying road-trip styled promo clip all filmed in Chile is both very emotional and upsetting on account of the harsh reality depicted in it -- in great Indo fashion since "College Boy". Like "Un singe en hiver" (A Monkey In Mid-Winter), the lyrics of this song are purely autobiographical. Nicola Sirkis is completely open about his troubled relationship with his father (which had been exposed by the media in the early 2000's, right after the tragic passing of his twin brother Stéphane who had been suffering from a lethal disease), about how he still misses his brother and how he lost his faith in God as previously mentioned in a recent radio interview, with the recurring theme of crucifixion, hallmarked by the wobbly cross of their new logo, also present. At the same time, as a founding member and sole remainder of the original line-up, Nico (as fondly called by his fans) had to carry a heavy burden in order to keep his dream alive through thick and thin and make it come true again. Whether you like the music or not, it commands both admiration and respect (except if you're an ass and it only inspires you contempt and jealousy, which unfortunately is still quite common in France). Nico has unshakeable faith in his dream and is a living example of the amazing power residing in all of us. Thank you.

Ey@el

I wish I were alive
And no longer afraid.
I wish I could love my father,
I wish I knew how to do that.
I wish I could understand him,
I wish he could wait.
I wish I were important,
I wish I were a desire.
I wish I were impossible,
I wish you could be cured,
I wish I could see you grow up
And ease your pain.

Down with the crosses,
My dream will come true!
Down with the devils,
There are no gods!

You may challenge my dreams
Or destroy my soul,
We will be an amazing dream.
It's just my my life,
It's just my soul
We will be an perfect dream —
An amazing life.
I'd like to have a perfect dream.

I wish I were a warrior,
A fearsome one.
I wish you could be back,
I wish I could feel good,
Receive refugees,
Go back in time.
I wish I could stop ageing
And never have bought into it —
I wish I could try.

Down with the crosses,
My dream will come true!
Down with the devil,
There are no gods!

You may challenge dreams
Or destroy souls,
We will be an amazing dream.
It's just my my life,
It's just my soul
We will be an perfect dream —
You will be a perfect dream.

I was told
All my fears would go away,
And every night
I would dream of an amazing life.

And every night,
I wish I could have a perfect dream
And forget
That tomorrow our realities...

I wish I were alive
And a better person.
I wish I could love my father,
I wish I knew how to do that.
I wish I could watch you grow up
I wish I could see you stop suffering
I wish I could go back in time
When nothing really mattered.

Scientific Proof That Negative Beliefs Harm Your Health

Ey@el10/05/2018Health No comments

If you've been following me on Twitter (or on the main blog in French), you'll know that the power of the mind over the body is actually what I'm experiencing right now. For those who don't or can't read French, ealier last month, I ended up in hospital after a nasty fall in the woods where I broke my hip (greater trochanter/thigh-bone) and had surgery altogether with a great cocktail of unhealthy chemicals including some opioids to relieve pain. I may be a “spiritual warrior” (sic), I'm no less human and when you're in agony you take the antimony whatever it takes. Besides, not much of an option when you're out of it.

At least temporarily. That is because when in pain, the mind is more vulnerable to external thoughts and when medics advise you to take your painkillers “even if you're feeling fine now because then you won't be able to get up and your physiotherapy will take much longer”, you tend to buy into it and take their junk in. Except tranquillisers and the like don't agree with me at all and mess up my brain big time to the point where I feel so disconnected, altogether it was rather preferable for me to cope with the physical pain instead. I'm afraid it might sound weird to those who've never really experienced as yet how it feels to be connected to your soul, but those who do will have an idea of how excruciating it can be. A little reminder that came as a great helper to get myself out of the mental fog I was temporarily in and which made me realise that even though I needed skilful engineers to fix my broken body, as for the healing process I knew better what was best for my body.

So I decided to ignore the nurse's ditty (a lovely empathic woman though) while she left the colourful little pills on the bedside in case of, while mentally arguing that not only would I flush them all into the toilet, but my pain would disappear in no time and I would impress the hell out of them with my speedy recovery. And I did because I truly believed in it and I wanted it so much (same way as I was in agony after I'd been told precisely how bad and how long my suffering would last). You should have seen me racing around the hallways with my walker not even three days after surgery! I would have plenty of stories like this one to tell you about the placebo (Latin for « I will please »)/nocebo (“I will harm”) effects, and I'm sure you'd have to.

To conclude this lengthy preamble, I'd say that the safest form of prevention is to learn mental alchemy, that is how to develop mindfulness so as to be able to transmute parasitic negative thinking before it can migrate to the shady areas of your psyche and poison your mind first then your body.

Ey@el

The medical establishment has been proving that the mind can heal the body for over 50 years. We call it “the placebo effect,” and we know that when patients in clinical trials get nothing but sugar pills, saline injections, or fake surgeries, but believe they might be getting the new wonder drug or miracle surgery, their bodies get better 18-80% of the time.

While many are aware of the seemingly mysterious placebo effect, fewer people know about its evil twin, “the nocebo effect.” When I was researching my book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, I became convinced, without a shadow of a doubt, that a combination of positive belief and the nurturing care of the right healer can activate the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms and help the body heal itself.

But was the opposite also true? Do negative beliefs about our health or harsh care from insensitive doctors harm the body?

Turns out they can.

The Safe Way to Successfully Deal With Time Change