A heuristic is a "rule-of-thumb"

Mental Heuristics
A heuristic is a "rule-of-thumb", advice that helps an AI program or human think and act more efficiently by directing thinking in an useful direction.

Some of these heuristics are age-old wisdom, bordering on cliche, but most are actually helpful.

If you want something done, do it yourself
Comment: Obviously true, and doing it is usually very good for your self esteem. A surprising amount of work can be done this way, and experts are not always necessary. However, there is a risk of becoming overworked if you try to do everything yourself - we all need other people after all.

Never procrastinate anything you can do right now
Comment: Very powerful. There are many things that can be fixed or solved with a minimum of effort, but are often pushed aside as unimportant. Unfortunately they won't go away, and in time the feelings of guilt for not having done them will make you even less likely of fixing the problems.

When you have several things you could be doing and don't know which to do: Just do any one of them!
Comments: If you cannot decide between two or more possibilities, then there is a good chance that the differences don't matter. However, most people begin to hesitate in this kind of situation (Fredkin's paradox). If you are conscious of this, you can just choose one choice randomly or according to some standard method.

Always assume that you will succeed
Comments: If you don't expect to succeed in an endeavor, then you will not do your best and will not notice possible solutions, while if you feel that you will eventually succeed you will concentrate all your power at the problem. Of course, there is no point in attempting what you cannot do, a certain amount of self-knowledge is always needed.

If you can't find a solution, change the rules.
Comment: Remember that there are no no-win scenarios.

If you cannot do anything about something, there is no point in worrying about it.
Comment: Worrying is stressful, and in most situations doesn't accomplish anything - it just wastes energy. Instead of worrying about things, either do something about them or find ways around the problem. One useful idea is to write down your worries on slips of paper, and then put them away in a box. Regularly, once a week or so, you open the box and see what you can do about the worries that are still relevant.

Do not rely on conscious decisions for speed - Just Do It
Comments: The conscious mind is surprisingly slow, conscious choices and actions are delayed for a significant time (a reflex acts within some tens of milliseconds, an unconscious reaction to external stimuli circa 100 milliseconds and a conscious choice several seconds). The duty of the conscious mind is usually to inhibit rather than start action, and if you become too conscious of what you are doing in a tense situation you will hesitate or slow down.
It is a good idea to learn to rely on your non-conscious mind, since our conscious mind is slow and has very low bandwidth while the other systems in our brains have a tremendous capacity and actually do most of the real work anyway.

Don't try to explain away your actions for yourself
Comment: While we often do things we do not want to explain our real motivations for before other people (out of fear of embarrassment, anger or loss of image), it is a bad idea to try to convince oneself that the motivation was anything different from what it was. It will only reduce your self-knowledge with deliberate misinformation, and it is often valuable to understand what motivations you have (even if you dislike them or would never admit them in public).

Listen to your intuition, but do not believe it unconditionally
Comments: Intuitive or emotional thinking, analogies, "gut feelings" or "flashes of inspiration" can sometimes give fantastic new insights or show problems from a new direction. Unfortunately such thinking isn't always reliable, and quite often completely wrong! Such insights should never be accepted because you admire their beauty or they are intuitive, only because they fit with reality.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I found this from Mental Heuristics site. I think it's a really cool study that these guys are doing. Some of the phrases are kindda cool and ponder about.

Fasting has started

so it's that month again. for all the Muslims out there, happy fasting. I hope I don't skip one day of fast. It's the third times I think that I am fasting in Singapore. oh well bla bla bla... here are my finds.

Photo Manipulations




This site posted is cool picture that had been added some graphics and characters that the artist created, I think. I just love the work he did. It's always nice to see something beautiful don't it?

String Spin: zefrank.com

would you like to see your line to spin and make something out of it? try this out. Actually do explore this guy's site. ZeFrank. He's got some of the randomest and creative things in his site. from flash games to music beats to whatever lah.

Ever seen and Ice Storm?



Moleskine

Ever heard of this note book / scrap book / sketch book / what ever you wanna call it? Well it is apparently very popular in the western world and the artistic world. as it was quoted from the website Moleskine,

Moleskine was created as a brand in 1997, bringing back to life the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two century: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin. A trusted and handy travel companion, the nameless black notebook held invaluable sketches, notes, stories, and ideas that would one day become famous paintings or the pages of beloved books.

This example below would be one of the thousands or tens of thousands or millions lah I would say, that people put them to use. The guy is called Michael Murdock.




Unearthed Caravan

ahahaha... this site has some of the most random post I've ever seen. mostly pictures of art works or unintentional and intentional photographs, some are videos. please be ready to load bunch of craps of the page. It just keeps on loading as you scroll down. but I bet you it is worth the wait. below are some of examples.






ok i'm ganna cal it a night. thx for viewing. and have fun...

Dude Falling

I thought I was ganna call it a night but then I stumbled upon this site. hahaha. was a waste of time but sure makes you laugh. oh do turn down the volume before opening it.
Dude Falling

Stand By Me

Don't you just love the classics? This was originally performed and written by Ben E. King and had been covered by many famous artists world wide. It's been played by many bands in bars and clubs. This version is one of my favorite. It's from a documentary called Playing for change: Peace Through Music which is a cool concept for a music docu. This guy Mark Johnson and his crew traveled in the US, Africa and Europe and recorded street musicians and made them jam. The singer could be somewhere in Santa Monica and the drum could be recorded somewhere in Congo. So they all combined and mixed to make a song. Please do check out the other songs in their Playing for change youtube channel or their website as I mention above.

Billboards

I'm ganna post a small one tonight.

This is something to laugh at. Could there be a better place to put billboards so that they can't be put next to another? well apparently there aren't. Check out this post by uniquescoop.com. They posted 15 Billboards that don't belong next to another. and this is a sample.

The site also post some great stuff. mostly about stupidities that humans make. well we all make mistakes right? No regrets, just another story to laugh at.

Drums

As promised here are my favourite drum videos in youtube.

Cobus Potgieter
This guy got style. He's not the most talented in the music industry but his covers of the pop music is just astounding and kept you want to watch more. may be coz of the different camera angles that he put up.

Boys like Girls - Great Escape (Drums Cover)


Cobus - *Nsync - Pop (Drums Cover)
hahaha... this is a great cover from him. I wouldn't expect this song can be this exiting to watch and listen to.


Dave Matthews Band - Tripping Billies (Drums Cover)


Travis Barker
Ok to intro this guy I would like to say that he's crazy! hahaha... may be over exaggerating. His band is called Blink 182. I think that every pop radio listener would have heard this band. If you are a rock fan and do not know this band you are a fool. But I love his raw power into hitting his drum set. His rolls are just pumping with adrenaline. His drumming is so unique that fans can distinguish him from the others with eyes close.

Travis Barker Remix Soulja Boy "Crank That"
This video has more than 27 million views. So if you haven't seen this please do see the double hand hit on the cymbal. hehehe...


Travis Barker - Snare Drum Solo


Travis Barker recording drums for Avril Lavigne
This is a video that Travis got invited to do a recording with Avril. He listen to her music once then straight away goes to recording. lol...


Travis Barker and Adrian Young
This collaboration between them happened at Guitar Center's Drum Off 2005. For some who don't know who Ardian Young is, he is the drummer for the popular band No Doubt. This session is like a battle. hahaha... I bet it was hell of a fun time for them.



Carter Beauford
This guy is one of the top drummer in the world. His band is called Dave Matthews Band and they are one of my all time favourite band. I will feature his studio recording style of drumming of their famous hits. I would like to say that Carter is awesome, and that's not even enough to describe him. he would roll out in his own rhythm but still still compliments the music, which is the main focus, his beat is funky as hell yet he still can rock. do check out his live performances if you got the chance.

Carter Beauford - Tripping Billies (Studio)
Do compare this with that Cobus guy.


Carter Beauford - Ants Marching (Studio)


Victor Wooten and Carter Beauford
This is the chill version of #41 by Dave Matthews Band featuring Victor Wooten who is a great bass player. They kindda did a jam session after a recording I believe and turns out to be a beautiful sound. just run it a the background while you are surfing or something. It's really soothing.


Tony Royster Jr.
This kid was, I believe, 12 years old during this recording and already developed such amazing skills that can top off any drummers in the Billboard top 50 right now. He has grown up and been touring with top artists like Beyonce and other RnB singers.

Tony Royster Jr. Drumsolo


Well the kid marks the end of this post for now. May be the next post would be bass solo shows. I don't know, see how my mood is. May be I'll continue posting the third chapter or another awesome websites I've stumbled upon. Thanks for sticking around.

Chapter Two

Every artists have their inspirations, their muse, their obsessions that creates art from their perspective. Some of their arts connects to their viewers or listeners or fans. Some just plain weird art that only the artist can understand. Each and every most beautiful songs in the world, the popular world, was created because of a woman or caused by a woman. That is their inspiration, their muse, the woman they love or the woman that broke their heart. I would say songwriters are the most brilliant composers on earth. They put down words together that would sound really well with the chords they play. Some are just the most romantic and beautiful words that you have ever heard. It is like a poem played along with melody. That is just called music. Well I wouldn't say that every music that has words are the best ones, Mozart was brilliant and so was Beethoven. I do pay full respect for them as they composed some of the most world famous music of all time. If they are still alive by now, they would be more popular than the any rock stars out there. Now, I know for sure that they, Mozart and Beethoven, were also inspired by something or someone to composed that had became world famous. Even though Beethoven was never married I believed that he fell in love with the music itself, may be that is why the music is so pure as his love to the music. It is as if he found his holy grail and showed it to the whole world to hear.

Sometimes I fear of loosing hope, the one that keeps me standing on my feet. Hope from others or from myself, does it matter? May be for some. Faith, would be one. From religion that was introduced to me since I was born. I do still believe in God, but do living the regulations of the organization that believes God? I'm still not sure. If I'm loosing hope or believe in religion would that mean I'm loosing my faith? Now if I'm loosing my faith on the biggest thing that ever being introduced to me in my life, would I be loosing faith that easily to something else that I'm suppose to commit? Like my job or a relationship. I wonder about this sometimes. Could there be a connection between these behavior? I'm guessing may be. I know that I am lazy as hell but when something interest me or gets me exited I would go all the way, without hesitation. I do realize that most of the times I would postpone things as far as I could so that I could do them later. Like doing my paper work in the office for example. I would do the other stuff first then when the sun about to set I would finish up the paper work, may be it's the organizing that I hate. Paper work is just the last thing I wanna do for anything. Even while I'm learning new songs for the guitar part I would stop half way if it gets too difficult for me. Then the song would just hang halfway. That's why I can play lots of songs but not complete. There are more of these kind of things that just pile up inside my head. Laziness is one of them. Would these be symptoms of loosing my hopes? It could lead on loosing my dreams doesn't it?

What is that thing that keeps beating inside of all of us? The heart. It's a very complex organ of which makes our blood runs through our veins and make everything running smooth. It is the hardest muscle in our body. I would say it is the softest side of our system. You can make it feel like it's beating a thousand miles per hour in a matter of seconds by just staring at the eye of your significant other. I always wonder about this. What is it that drives ourselves to be this crazy? The chemicals in our body is just too difficult to understand for us. Sometimes it is just too unbearable to contain, too complicated to comprehend. A 12 years old figuring out what's his purpose in life is like the question of his life. Dazed and confused about why he couldn't understand the people around him, culture shocked about his surrounding at the school ground when everyone has an ipod but he doesn't. Trying to figure out what is that feeling when the a girl, other than his mother or related people, touch his hands for the first time. A few years later his feelings get even more exhilarating when he found out about puberty. He woke up with a stain on his shorts. But he felt a good wake. Then he discovers interest in girls, starts to talk to them differently, more pleasing other than mocking, gets teases from his guy friends about being closer to girls than them. Comes in the telephone conversation. Hogging the one handed telecommunication from six to nine every night. When everyone in the house falls asleep he would wake up at 11, which past his bedtime, and starts calling again from his room until 3am. The next day waking up with baggy eyes and gives excuse to the teacher that he was doing research for the school project over the night. Friday night is just around the corner. He starts looking for the perfect movie to watch at the cinema. He would plan ahead of time. The cinema halls could be half an hour ride from his house but he cycled instead to save money for that fast food dinner he planned. Take down the movie name and the show time, he might even book for a seat. Comes in Thursday, calls in the girl, asking if she's free after school on Friday and arrange for a meeting, “Yea, I'm free. Wanna have dinner first?” BANG! He's at the highest place that any man could ever be at that second. His heart pumps a million miles per second. He becomes delusional, everything else around him is just an imagination, everyone else is just a passer by. Sometimes everything else are just a blur but only she's in focus.

Chapter One

You might say that I tried to escape from reality. The reality that tries to bite the living hell of my flesh. But the truth is, it is the frightening sight of loosing my mind, my life that I cannot grasp or hold on to. I question my self time after time, drinks after drinks, friends after friends, conversations after conversations about what is it that is holding me back from the greatest years of my life that I suppose to enjoy? Was it the past? Or my inner pussy-coward-selfish bastard that never have the guts to say anything to anyone? Now here I am living the life of I might visualize to be someone else's. Earning my life with the other norms that commute themselves daily as they are trying to earn their honest living too. I can see how sometimes they wake themselves up at six in the morning and drag up their zombie bodies to type the keyboard, make the coffee, sweep the floor, talk big to their boss or just kissing his big ass. And all of these, sometimes, is just for a rice bowl or a sip of whiskey for some of them. To maintain the big life of theirs in the big city that they might think that is the greatest exercise that they have ever experienced. Now with all of these things that surround them and might blind them for what they actually are, I wonder if I actually deserve all of these. For what I have done and worked for. For the things I have given up. I have lived to the expectations of others, but may be not all of them. But you can imagine the pressure of a young adult that is given by their old ones after you fly solo.

Guilt is a pleasure that I think everyone hunts and dig. It is like having a fear of getting caught, or being the asshole you are of cheating with another girl. It is a chase and having the sensation of achievements that you have never done before in you life and you might think, “Hey why not try it once in you life” kind of thing. But there's always a catch on every pleasure that you get. To have sex before marriage is one, I am pretty sure that most major religion in the world states that it is forbidden. But we, as human as we are, want it so badly as our hormones and sexual drive builds up as we grow older. So what do we do if the most basic fundamental guidelines had taught us to obey what 'the book' told us to? We turn to the alternatives, for some people, we explore what is it that makes up the essentials of intimacy. Different cultures have different terms for that particular activity. Some calls it pleasuring yourself, stroking the salami (gosh, that sounds even profound for me) or the normal term that society use is called masturbation. Well the doctors say it is a perfectly healthy exercise. You can even practice it daily. It releases stress, relaxing and it feels good. Doesn't take much to wonder and tools to do it, may be for some or the female gender they might want some toys to have more fun in the process. But that's not important, it is the result that makes it important. You fantasies, you reach the south region, you pet it or wank it hard, you releases and you lay back. To some they prefer to go all the way, with a partner with the same or opposite sex. This might take longer than the relationship of you and your computer monitor. A guy might have to take a girl to a dinner and then build up that connection over time to go to the southern hemisphere. But some guys or girls have the talent or the charm of getting straight to the point of wanting that tension in the air. They meet in a bar or club, flirt a little and then off to the soft comforter or sofa if they don't have the time, may be just against the window wall so that everyone can see from the other building. For some they will just pay a visit to the red house and pick the choices as they please with all of their fantasy that they want to. All of these fornication or self-fornication are just attempts to chase the guilt, the guilt that we all will get at the end. We might not realize it at first but eventually it will appear the least when you want to expect it. You feel like shit after climax in front of your keyboard after searching your dream girl of your life at Facebook. Your girlfriend found our about you and that dancer at the club. The girl is late for her monthly expectation. You realize that you became a lousy father ten years later. It is the chase, the hunt for a dream, a fantasy that you build in the complicated head of yourself and you want it to be special. Well at least that's what I did. May be that's the consequences of having to drown myself in the world of moving pictures and written words (not much of the literature).

I seek for happiness, whether it is in my life or the life of others. I think that I speak for others as well in this matter. May be not for some psychopath killers with some sick and kinky desire of hurting others. But to make sense of it it may be the happiness they seek. The problem of happiness is that it never last. I tried to make it last as long as I can. I tried to put it on a leash, put it in a box, lock it up in a vault so that it never escapes or run away. But what is the point of keeping it to myself? The point of having happiness is that so you can share it with some one, any one you love. You best friend, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, you wife or husband or who ever that is close to you, it could be you fish. That is why some people are just selfish, egocentric, self-loving bastard. I put myself away from all of the socialization that could put me in a better situation or at least a companion. Someone that I can share my thoughts with. Someone that I can argue if Notting Hill is the best romantic comedy movie ever made or not. It is that someone that I want to tell first if I get found a million dollars on the road. But hell, I can't even get close enough to a girl to reveal that kind of interest to her. What keeps me happy is that I still can see her smile from meters away across the room, I can hear her laugh at the hall where there are hundreds of people around and she doesn't care. I see her working with such passion that she is determine the world is on the palm of her hands. She makes pressure becomes a breeze as she set sails to her goal. A simple expression of tenderness from her would throw away all of the burden I had carried from a day of work that weighs a ton. It may seem that this articulation would sum up to the term of stalking. It is not stalking if you are friend with the person. I guess that the term pussy would be the right expression for this. Hey, no guts no glory right. But I'm still happy just for those things that I see everyday. What else could I ask for if she is joyful with someone else that she can share her happiness with.

You may call it love but it doesn't have to be with a person. We can get excited over a new promotion, a new status in the office with a slightly bigger pay on the side. You will smile all the way, weeks long. That is until you are burden with a massive pile of shit work you have to do that comes along with the promotion you excepted, it's like signing a contract with the devil. For some it's money, others are objects. Painters, sculptors, artists, architects, filmmakers, poets and many others who are in love in their arts more than any other objects in the whole universe. More closely they are in love with themselves. As they projects their work on a canvas or paper or film they are putting part of themselves, a little piece of their inner self out of them. They kept on doing that as they creates more, the more they do the more they create. It's like being a narcissistic, never get enough of themselves. I have a friend who always look at himself in the mirror every time he gets the chance. But he's no artist or anything, he's more like a writer for the tube. It's not what he does is much artistic or anything so I wouldn't say that his work is one of the work of arts. He does say that he would love to be an actor some day and being adored by fans that surround him and love him so much until they would throw themselves to him. Again, narcissistic. From that I think back and ask to myself, aren't we all narcissistic? We are happy and proud of any accomplishment we made, finishing the million dollar project, perfected the screwed up system in the office, having that someone you aim since primary school, sending ten percent of your salary to the two beloved ones back home. Deep inside we are proud of ourselves and think, “Damn, I'm fucking good”.

Covers

I just love cover songs. these vids are the home versions of cover songs. these are the unknown people that we might not know but has great talents. and many of them are not afraid to improvise.

Cannon Rock by Jerry C
This Jerry started the Cannon Rockexplosion in the net. since then other people followed his step. many has failed. none was as cool as he is.



The NEW Cannon Rock by Matt
Then came this guy,he's French, he was the most amazing cannon rock improvise after Jerry. man he's awesome and he's young. damn teens bastard for being a prodigy.



Boyce Avenue - Iris
Yes it's that Goo Goo Dolls song from that City of Angel movie with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan in it which I think the best angel movie I've seen so far for romance. This is by far the best cover I've found in the internet for this song. do check out their other covers in their channel Boyce Avenue. They're are The Killers - Mr. Brightside, Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars, The Verve Pipe - The Freshmen, and many more... and they're all acoustic. they are awesome cover band. Hey the Rolling Stones started off as a cover band as well you know.



The Mario Bros LAND

At this section there will be a few covers that are done by fans that are just amazing on improvising this classical tune. If you are born in the 70's and 80's for sure you have this tune in your head. If you are a gamer you have to be an idiot not to know this tune. If you have actually touch a console and do not know the tune, you're another idiot. Hahaha

First up, is the Japanese dude. I think he's Japanese, on his electric guitar. The sound is not that great but great technique. even though he made a little mistake at almost at the end. but it's still awesome.



Next is the classical version of it. I believe that he's either Spanish or Mexican, I'm not sure. but this is a not to be missed performance on a classical guitar.



Ever seen a 11 sting bass? well this guy had it custom made and I think he did a test sound in the workshop with this tune. hahaha funny looking bass man...



To top it all of I truly believe that this guy is maestro in improvising the Mario Bros Theme song, on Drums! yep. 10 million view and still counting, I think I contributed to 50 of them views. Don't you just love watching people playing drums? It's just mesmerizing. Do check out his other posts as well as he did Mario Bros 2 and 3 Theme song. as well as the Simpsons' soundtrack and other famous songs or themes with his own touch Vadrum. If you love music and drums you will absolutely love this guy.



Speaking ofSimpsons, I'll close this session with an acoustic performance by I think it's a college dude in his dorm with his 'Kapok' guitar.



That's the end for now. next up I would like to post a little bit more websites related and drum videos! I'm into the drum machine fever nowadays.