Subliminal Messages: Selling to the subconscious

Let’s say that you want to buy a good wrist watch, so you google for options and check the images associated for a good design. While checking all the watch photos, you notice something weird about the time…

The hands on different watches from different brands are showing exactly 10:10… There are occasional images of watches, displaying different times but you don’t seem to like them as much as the ones indicating the time as ten past ten. But, why?

It is most probably because the position of hands when time is 10:10 looks either like a “check mark” which suggests “approval” or a “smile” which represents “happiness” that you will get if you buy that watch.

That’s not all! The number 10 (that appears twice in 10:10) is also the top number when we are grading something, like “Wow! The new Avengers movie is 10 out of 10″…

When all these bits of tiny subliminal messages come to play, you will probably end up buying a watch that you may loathe later in your life…

Still not convinced?

Check the Amazon logo housing a wide grin that goes all the way from “A” to “Z” or the Nike logo design containing nothing more than a check mark. “Happiness” and “Approval” are once more wedged into our minds…

Apart from subliminal “smiles” and “approvals”, “sex” is another great seller for products that have nothing to do with sex.

The “SFX” magazine, which is a sci-fi/fantasy magazine from the UK, have used this message cleverly on their covers when featuring a pretty girl or a handsome guy on the foreground of the cover page, covering just the lower tip of the “F” in the background, thus the title of the magazine is often subconsciously perceived as “SEX”…

sfx-issues1 — **Who can resist these characters?**

It can be a different story and a new cover design when the featured characters are not very alluring as seen below:

Surely, there are exceptions to this mind trick in some issues, but most of the time, it’s as described above. By the way, SFX is a great magazine.

The subliminal message of “Sex” surfaces even in unrelated products.

skittles — **The red “S” skittle and “Explosion”… Hmmm!**

gilbeys — **Notice anything strange in the ice cubes?**

We do not have to look into these pictures for a prolonged time to get the subliminal message, our subconscious gets it even at the slightest glance…

We are only human after all…

Into the World of Veteran Teachers

Automated limb movement, geriatric impulses, memorized lines and the same jokes told at the beginning of each term. The gradual fading of initial joy, reflected upon the self-prepared, plain packed lunch of no flavour. Welcome to the world of veteran teachers…

Dreams of retirement start crowding the mind, as the teacher; once a king, finds it difficult even to entertain himself. His throne room; the classroom has become his own prison, vagabonding in a maelstrom of self-punishment, sentenced to write sentences that have lost their meanings through time. As for the audience; names change, faces change but the mentality stays in the same line of ignorance. The kids don’t care anymore as any information can be found online though instant feedback cannot; a teacher’s only remaining forte in the digital age… currently regarded as highly overrated. The generation gap surfaces in the form of a different understanding of basic terms: Critical thinking, now refers to the condition the students’ mental abilities… It’s time to leave the stage…

Everyday Concepts which are Almost Impossible to Explain as a Challenge

The concepts “perspective“, “music“, “flavor“, “home” and “God” do not need to be explained for most of us as we see or experience them multiple times in our daily lives. It’s not rocket science, but how would you describe these concepts to someone that has never felt them or has no reference points that can guide them to understanding the concept. Look at these cases below and have some time to think before continuing to read:

Imagine

meeting a blind person since birth, and he asks you to describe what “perspective” is in “art”.
coming accross someone born deaf, and you are asked to define “music“
chatting with an anosmic person and she wants you to tell her all about “flavor“
being abducted by nomad aliens, who do not have the notion of “home“. How would you persuade them to take you home?
you are a preacher and you somehow time travel to the stone age and meet a bunch of cavemen… Tell them about “God” and preferrably convince them.

Perspective – About two decades ago, we teenagers did not have mobile phones. We were “social” but lacked “media”, so we frequently gathered face-to-face and had these brain teasers as challenges. The first one was “How to describe perspective to a person born blind”. The best way, we agreed upon was to use another sense other than seeing to describe it. As the most developed sense in blindness is “hearing“, we decided to use that to explain the concept.

The Method: Switch on the TV, pick a channel with a weak signal (preferrably one with white noise), volume up, guide the blind person towards the TV, ask them how loud they can hear, take a few steps and repeat the process, go to another room (a distant one) together and ask about the loudness of the sound again, tell them that the closer an object is, the bigger it seems… Just like the “white noise” of the TV set. The closer they are to the sound source, the bigger the object is…

Music – Explaining the concept of music to a deaf person is no different. But, here, we picked another sense (touch) to explain the concept since vision would not work.

The Method: Switch on a music set that is connected to huge amps, tell the deaf person to touch the amp with both hands, play a song with a repeating melody in high volume, sit back and relax as the vibrations will do the trick…

Flavor – Anosmic people cannot smell nor taste flavors, so this one is going to be tricky as this time it’s two senses that are useless. I think it’s best to use “touch” one more time.

The Method: Prepare a table of various food with different flavors, seat the anosmic person, tell them to close their eyes, feed them with one hand, touch them with the other hand in different ways (a gentle caress, patting the head softly, a back rub or a slight slap on the cheek) for each flavor and ask them how it feels. For sweet flavors, do the pleasent touches, for bitter or sour ones, do the not-so-pleasent strokes… For leek, punch them 🙂

The last two concepts; “Home” and “God” are challenges for you to tackle. Think about them for some time, then leave a comment on this post. I’ll reply every comment!

Thanks for reading…

Social Vampires

We all have that one friend, who sucks the energy out of our souls… They are most probably not your best friend as they are nobody’s best friend but still you may come accross them quite often. Whenever you meet them, they start telling you these terrible jokes, raving about uneventful events or asking for your opinion without giving you time or even a chance to interact. You listen and as it goes on, your liveliness withers and all the energy you had moments ago, abandons you without a forwarding address. They are better known as “energy vampires”, but I like to call them “social vampires” as I am doubtful that they could feed on the pure energy output of a simple generator. You should definitely avoid them but how do you know if someone is indeed a social vampire. Luckily, they are quite similar to ancient vampires in the lore and can be identified easily by using one or more of the methods below:

Just like real vamps, social vampires have the ability to hypnotize their prey. You listen to their nonsense and somehow have little desire to leave. As they are highly selfish and really don’t care about others, watch out for those who jabber about themselves all the time…
Real vamps don’t have reflections in mirrors. Social vamps are quite the opposite. (They like mirrors and do have reflections, but luckily, they are easily identifiable, as they are the blurry ones in the picture). If you are in a group, take a couple of selfies and be on the lookout for the one with the biggest grin and a blurry body. Freshly fed with energy, they would be the fidgety ones, as their bodies try to break down the excess energy and have a hard time keeping their body still.
Another similarity between the real deal and the social vampires, is the ability to alter memories. You never realize why you gradually felt exhausted and depressed after a couple of hours spent with a social vamp, and at the end of the day, you never blame that friend for the physical or the emotional drain. If you can’t find any reason for your sudden mood change at the end of the day, look nowhere else other than the soul sucker for the answer.
Still in doubt? Stalk their social media accounts for a bit. If their feeds are full of long depressing stories about themselves or if they had made hundreds of gibberish comments for every single photo posted by their “friends”, you have found your social vamp. The similarity? Well, real vampires, too, tend to moan about themselves a lot if you befriend them; talking about how immortality is boredom for life or that how, being not able to stroll under the sun is depressing and so on.

Now that we can identify social vamps, how do we defeat them?

Remember, they are just like real vampires. Although neither a braid of garlic nor a cross will help you defeat them, a wooden stake through the heart will work just as well. 🙂

Vampires: Why they are depicted as they are…

baris-vampire

In modern times, vampires are often portrayed as gorgeously attractive, blood-sucking, immortal creatures who have supernatural powers such as turning into bats, hypnosis and having super senses and ultra speed, to name just a few. Funny enough, as gorgeous creatures as they are, they do not have reflections in mirrors. And somehow, they can easily turn into dust under daylight and can be killed by a wooden stake, when stabbed right through their hearts. Let’s speculate a bit about these elements which have made the modern vampire:

1. Blood-sucking: Blood is what gives life to the living. Since vampires are undead, it’s perfectly normal for them to suck life from us, transferring it from their victim to their bodies. And since they cannot get their daily vitamin D intake from the sun, they drink blood which has at least trace amounts of the necessary vitamins.

2. Fetish for the neck: Picture a scene where a vampire is draining the blood of an attractive victim, which part of the body would the vampire go for? What makes a great scene even when feeding? Fangs penetrating the skin over the abdomen? Knee caps? Arm pits? Or the neck itself?

In Armenian mythology, there is one queer vampire named Dakhanavar, who sucks the soles (Yes, “soles” of the feet, not “souls”) of its victims while they are sleeping. It surely does not look so cool visually, except for people with foot fetish. And maybe not even for them if the victim is a peasent grandma housing an ecosystem of blisters and bunions on her feet.

Another good reason for vampires choosing the neck is carotid arteries that can be found in each side of the neck. Why drink from an infrequently dripping tap when you can get access to a fountain. Right?

3. Turning into bats: Bats are nocturnal creatures just like vampires. Besides, vampires would not look so cool if they turned into hamsters or ponies, would they? (They would look cuter though). By turning into “vampire” bats, they also gain the ability to fly, which takes the problem of geography off the table: A vampire story would have no limits on the diversity of the locations that it took place at. Do not forget that we, humans have started as explorers as well, not settlers…

4. Hypnosis, Altering or Erasing Memories: If you are still reading this, it means that you haven’t been killed by a vampire until now. Do not consider yourself lucky as it might be because most vampires would rather feed on their prey multiple times than kill it off instantly. There’s no need to annihilate the food supply at one go. It’s like eating out at your favorite place most nights, again and again. They know that, we, humans can compensate blood loss by generating more blood when needed. Here’s how the hunting process goes for a typical vampire:

Find a lively victim, lure it into a dark alleyway by hypnosis, prevent the prey from resisting (again by hypnosis), fang its neck, drink just the right amount of blood so the victim can survive, alter or erase the memories of the incident and let the victim blame the fang marks on the neck, on a twisted tree branch run into the previous night. Visit the victim again and repeat the process when the victim recuperates.

Now, let’s shed light on why vampires seem to have this ability, which is far less cooler than most other super powers (like being totally immortal or time travelling):

Hypnosis, altering or erasing memories add to the intellectual qualities of a vampire, meaning that they do not only have brawns, but also brains. Plus, it provides them with mysterious characteristics as nobody can know anything about them for sure. The victims’ memories could have easily been altered.

5. The Destructive Sun: Nobody has ever seen a tanned lord of the night. Right? Vampires are all pale and turn into dust when exposed to direct sunlight. But, why? Well, first of all, the sun provides life to all living things on our planet. The sun and life are as closely related to each other as night and death. And vampires are dead…err…. undead, but I think you get my point.

But, what about the impact of this in modern culture?

Let’s go back about 60-70 years in history, when having a pale, white skin, unspoilt by a suntan used to be a sign of nobility. It was those times when peasents, workers and the poor had to work in fields under direct sunlight to earn a living while the noblemen stayed indoors, in their luxurious castles or dwellings and rarely put afoot outside. So, we can easily link pale skin to nobility and that may be why the vampires are susceptible to sunlight. When stripped out of their nobility (having a suntan), vampires become more ordinary, similar to the vast majority of people living in those times. Ordinary is far from being cool. Turning into dust under direct sunlight may also have reference to our origins: Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…

6. Being irresistibly gorgeous and immortal: No matter how good-looking we are, we, humans tend to find flaws with our physical appearance (All the women and most men). We are programmed that way. The physical qualities of a vampire, on the other hand, is exactly what we have been looking for since the beginning of time. It’s a spot-on representation of what we have been longing for, just like immortality. Perhaps, vampires are a mere representation of all our dreams: Being extremely good-looking, immortal and noble beings with super powers… And perhaps, that’s why they do not have reflections as they are perfect in every way and we are not. At least not in those countless selfies we take on a daily basis.

7. Death by wooden stakes: Mythologically speaking, vampires go way back in time, when adamantium rods, lightsabers or steel swords were pretty much non-existant and iron weapons scarce. However, wood was everywhere. Although it is still not clear why stabbing vampires through the heart kills them (a heart which does not beat or pump blood), it is good to know that wooden stakes do the job. Especially ones that are shapened from ash trees (Another reference to “Ashes to ashes”?). Ash trees were also referred to “Tree of Life” in Norse mythology. There!

8. Vampire Repellents: A blood-sucker shows up in your doorstep. What do you do? No worries! Just use one of the repellents below that are commonly found in nearly every household:

a) Garlic: It’s the vampire kryptonite! As humans we are, we can barely stand the stench of someone who has recently consumed garlic, how could a vampire with super senses endure it? These creatures of the night can allegedly smell the scent of blood from miles away just as they could be effectively disgusted by the sight and smell of garlic in face-to-face encounters. Besides, garlic is known to eradicate bacteria if we assume vampirism to be a contagious illness spread by bacteria.

b) The Cross or the Crucifix: Although overrated, religion seems to have some power after all. A newly turned vampire can remember his/her sins after turning and run away when confronted by such symbols, possibly succumbing into a temporary depression. When in depression, hunger just fades away… for a while…

It would surely be different symbols (repellents) for bloodsuckers following other religions: A crescent for Muslim vampires or the Star of David for Jewish vampires would work just the same. Just pray that you never meet a heretic vampire!

c) Bag of rice: While not a repellent, common rice has its own tricks up to its sleeves. Most vampires in mythology seems to have a weird case of OCD and they tend to count every grain of rice when they come accross them, thus losing valuable night time when counting every bit.

This OCD may have developed in vampires some time after immortality as when immortal for centuries, anyone tends to get bored of life and look for new… activities to kill time…

This is just a brief summary and speculation of why vampires are imagined as they are.

I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Notes on rejection of most kinds

Being rejected for no matter what, is always depressing and we tend to get more and more rejected as we get older. However, It has nothing to do with the ageing process. It is just that the world population is out of control. With a world population of over 7 billion, there are always better versions of us, pottering around, waiting to be hand picked. We are dragged into a constant race against each other, where there are only losers.

Imagine that you were a blacksmith in the dark ages when the overpopulation was not an issue. How hard would it be for you to find a job? Or to get married with a decent lady?

These times, there are almost ten times more applicants for a mediocre job post, where every single applicant is qualified. Yet, one is most likely to be eliminated due to old age, being under or over-qualified or just the fact that your new boss does not like you.

But, how can we cope with rejection. Here are a few cases:

1. You are a writer and you are trying to get your first book published. You get an email of rejection with no viable explanation every time you submit your manuscript. You discover that you are not amongst the lucky few who succeeds. Do not give up! Wasn’t your intention was to be read by complete strangers? Well, the editorial staff is reading them for sure. Isn’t that enough? If it isn’t, you can always try self publication and become a best seller amongst family. No?

2. You apply for every job you are qualified to change your bad luck in employment. People with less qualifications and experience seem to kick you out of that list of applicants (Yes, I am talking about the HR). Well, it’s their loss after all. Try to go to a job interview with your own ideas and projects, make a difference and if they still cross your name off, don’t bother. They never deserved you anyway.

3. You are an average Joe in physique and you do not seem to have an attractive attribute for the opposite sex (or the same sex). People nowadays have high expectancies and with those high expectancies come huge disappointments. You cannot change people’s minds. After all, we are a dumb race. Use your flaws to your advantage. Flaws are sexy and make differences. Use them wisely. If you’re rejected, keep on going. You wouldn’t want to be with anyone who doesn’t like you anyway. Plus, being single has its own advantages.

8 Ways of time travel without a decent time machine…

Everyone who knows me knows how I am obsessed with time travel… and those who don’t – will acknowledge it… in time. By reading this little blog post, you will have the secret of time travel without a decent time machine or no machine at all. Proceed with extreme caution as secrets or time itself are not things to meddle with.

Here are the methods:

If you possess an unstable working prototype of a time machine:

Wear appropriate clothes for your desired destination in time, pee until your bladder dries out, step into the machine, sit, set the desired time and pull the lever or hold and press the small red button by the far end of the console. That’s it!
Same steps as described above… you just pee first, then dress up!

If you DO NOT have a time machine:

1. The Musical Method: If you wish to go to the past, select a year and google the top 100 in that year’s billboards. Close your eyes and play each song starting from the bottom to the top of the list. Hum along if you know the songs! If your intention is to travel into the near future, the same method can help! Just gather up all the cutlery in the house, click on your phone’s voice recorder, and start dropping them one by one onto the kitchen floor. When each piece lands, say what you’ve just seen like “A fork fell down” or “I dropped a knife” in an untrained, monotonous tone (These are essential as they will make up the lyrics). When all the cutlery has been dropped, stop the recorder, plug earphones into your phone, close your eyes, start playing the audio and enjoy!

Too bad music isn’t in its golden years anymore and it’s getting worse. Just compare 60’s, 70’s or even 80’s, 90’s music to the hit songs in our present.

2. The Photo Effect: Just open your photo album (printed photos work best) and inspect each photo in full detail. Think about how old you were, where you were and who you were with. Then, focus on the tiny details in the background, are the surroundings the same? or have they changed? As you go down the memory lane, you will realize that you made a slight jump to the past. If you do not have a photo album, or want to time travel to places you’ve never been, enter a desired year into your favorite search engine’s search box, click on “images” and there… you have millions of photos to start with. If you wish to time travel into the future, enter the word “mugshots” into a search engine’s search box and enjoy (They look like selfies, don’t they?)

Now, 9 out of every 10 photos seem to be selfies and most of them do not even include faces as wholes. Mostly, they are close-ups of an eye here and a mouth there!

3. The Photoshop Dilemma: A very similar method to the one above, but this one requires some photo-shopping skills. Travelling to the past? Find a suitable photo of yourself or have a friend take it on the spot and google for a historical background. Once you find it, just merge the two pictures and presto! You are in a trench in World War II. Going to the future? Find a CGI background using the above method and there you are, picking up alien flowers on Mars!

4. Conundrum of Objects: Find a flea market in your town. Go there preferably on foot. Once you are there, explore each stall in detail, pick up objects, feel their energy. Each object has its own “itstory” (We can’t call it “history”, can we?). Take a deep breath, sniff the air of antiquity. Buy something like an old cassette even if you don’t own a player for it. At least you are in contact with something out of your time. For the future, use your search engine skills to find weird and futuristic object photos. Use a 3D printer, to solidify them.

5. Dream: One of the best ways to travel back or forward in time! Throughout the day, just think about a time and a place and focus on it in your coffee breaks. Your subconscious will get the message. When it’s bedtime, close your eyes and start focusing on what you’ve been focusing on all day. Sleep! When you wake up, you’ll find yourself with pleasant memories (if you can remember your dreams), check the time and discover that you’ve jumped at least a couple of hours forward in time. In some cases, you’ll have -what is seems like- hours of dreaming, but it has only been half-an hour at most. Try lucid dreaming for the best experience…

6. Read: Fortunately, books are abundant nowadays. (Even I, have some free books on the market). If you are a history enthusiast, find a historical novel and get to reading. If you are a sci-fi fan like me, choose an appropriate novel and start reading. In both cases, you’ll be mesmerized into the setting if the book is any good. Relate yourself to any character in the book to maximize the fun!

7. Write: Just like reading, but with a huge advantage! By writing, you create time itself in your stories. You can even find true love in the past or the future, which you have been searching for so long in the present.

8. Watch: Too lazy to read or write? Then, start going through your movie collection. Although stripped off the best parts, most good books are made into films. And strangely enough, this method requires peeing first (as you don’t want an interruption like a bathroom break in the middle of the film), sitting and pressing a button. Anyway, a surround system is a huge plus.

Roses in a desert

Sometimes you just wander through an endless desert called life… Heat is intense and everything is far from being pleasent. Your constant sweating drowns you… in the slowest way possible. Drowning at a place where there’s no water. It’s hell on Earth without a parole… and you seem to be sentenced for life. Then, you come across a single red rose in the middle of the desert. It’s out of place but you don’t care… you realize that even the wildest dreams can come true and it has nothing to do with faith. It is rare but possible… like diseases that hit one in a million and you’re the sole winner….or loser. There are many more roses in the desert… oases…where there is water, too. Keep going or else you will be stuck stampeding your own footprints and you’ll sink…

The Addiction to Fear

The reason why the human race has survived for so long is rooted in our basic instincts; our sugar-coated emotions. Feeling disgust, for instance, may make you want to puke every time you experience it, but in reality it’s one those feelings that can easily save your life. Would you drink your own piss, eat your own excrement or hug a leper? No, right? (if you do enjoy such activities, you can skip this section and proceed to the next one below). If we hadn’t had such an effective defense mechanism, we would have been long wiped out by diseases or infections rather than surviving by running away from things which might have harmed us.

Fear is another, useful instinctive feeling that has saved our lives numerous times and ensured the survival of us all. Yet again, it may not be our most favorable emotion but it sure is a steel wall of defense, protecting us every time it emerges. We may not be running away from wild animals in the age of technology, but we still have those friendly, vital shivers when push comes to shove. Fear unfolds our true character and unmasks our soul. Stripped out of our behavioral armor, only then we transform into our purest form.

Being scared is good and healthy for our own good. Observing other people in fear teaches us about those who conceal themselves under a deep web of fake emotions… when you’re in fear, you can never run away from your true self and that is why I am addicted to fear…

Drift away!

You! The timid resident of middle of nowhere! Abandon your kingdom, leave your shell (or hell) behind and drift away… Liquidify slowly into the unknown beyond and embrace it with your most basic instinct. The unknown becomes familiar and the fear gradually melts away once you start exploring its boundaries. Drift away as when you are on the run from something, you’re actually getting closer to another thing. Choose wisely! But, even if you want to get away from negativity and all you find is more negativity in your final drift, remember that even two negatives makes a positive. Choose wisely! Choose change!

Barış Cansevgisi

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