Eyes Tired from Reading

Reading makes your eyes tired. The movement from left to right is like watching dozens of cars go by every few minutes. It strains the eye muscles and creates tension. Is that really a bad thing considering the trade off is knowledge? Well, we can watch TV or YouTube for hours, listening to it, and have minimal eye movement, but most of us can't read a book without becoming drowsy. Now I wonder if the left to right eye movement is kind of hypnotic, making people drowsy, and causes them to go in a trance-like state where they're fully engulfed in the book. Who knows.

But getting back to the point at hand, I wonder if there are ways to read without straining the eyes so much.

One method I can think of is flashing words in one fixed location. It takes away the left and right movement all together. But this would require a software program, and the foreground text and background colour has to be one that doesn't cause any seizures, because that could be dangerous.

Or maybe read in columns of single or several words from top to bottom. Maybe moving down the page is easier? I guess that this would be like newspaper articles though, where everything is in columns, but I'm thinking that our could be a lot skinnier to help with the movement.

But also, maybe reading from right to left would be easier, considering that most of the population is right-handed, maybe starting from the right side could be possible, but English is not structured to be written that way, and reading would be difficult.

Or perhaps I could use some of the speed reading techniques to help my eye stay engaged with the text, by using a pen or finger and running it underneath the lines of text. This might tire out the hand, but the eye movement will stay supported.

And maybe use a shorthand writing method that makes reading easier, consisting of how words 'sound' like, and not the true spelling of the words themselves. It'll look like a bunch of dashes and lines though, and there's a steep learning curve, but it could work.

Or use a system like braille or moon script for feeling text instead of seeing them. But that would require punching dots onto the page with a special device. I've crafted a brailler out of paper it in the past, and it works fine, but my brain can't wrap around the backwards lettering. A brailler is a device used to create braille letters. Some braillers work by putting the lettering and sentence backwards, so that when it's flipped it will be the right way for reading. Mine was designed like this, but I have to work really hard to understand it. 

But perhaps the simpliest method is just to use audio functions or text-to-speech programs to read things out loud for you. Sometimes your consentration or focus will go elsewhere and you will start daydreaming, but you would do that anyways while reading normally.

Or watch a movie of that book, but movies never seem to do the book justice. And there's so many things in the book that are not usually included in the movie. But movies are still very fun to watch, and highlights certain scenes from the book. A lot of work goes into movie production. It's neat stuff.

But after writing all this, maybe your eyes are tired. I appologize.

TTC 'We Move You' Ballet Ad and Body Image

There's a TTC (Toronto Transit Commission, buses and subways) advertisement campaign featuring ballerinas from The National Ballet of Canada. The TTC 'We Move You' is sort of a pun; they move us around the city, like how ballerinas move us in the arts.

Body Confidence Canada says the ad is promoting an unhealthy body image. They think that the ballerinas in the ads are all stereotypically thin, and they feel it's unrealistic for people to have that kind of body. Most people who use the TTC don't have that kind of body. The irony is that an organization based on 'body confidence' is 'body shaming.'

Here is my argument. How about all the photoshopped magazines? They clearly have unrealistic body proportions. Limbs are contorted, waists shrink, breasts and bottoms grow like balloons, fat gets smoothed down to bare bone, and faces even change! Why not call every magazine company and complain to them about being unrealistic?

But Body Confidence Canada targets ballerinas, people who train and work hard for years, and have real, unphotoshopped body structures. They even filmed them dancing, which means there is no photoshop. It's from years of sweat and practice.

Body Confidence Canada should accept all body types for what they are, but they don't. If you look confident already in your own body like ballerinas do, you are not going to be applauded for it, but instead you're going to be told you look like an unhealthy stereotype.

Newsflash! Even ballerinas have body issues they suffer from. Everyone does. Most ballerinas have pain in their feet, since they have to balance on the very tips of their toes. They are put in front of a mirror, see every tiny flaw in their bodies, but they work hard and practice to be better.

Most people don't have the body type of ballerinas, because most people are not ballerinas, and at some point in their life, they have accepted that and moved on with their lives.

The TTC does not discriminate against anyone taking it. If you're thin or overweight, in a wheelchair, tall or short, a person of colour, have a bike, tourette's syndrome, pregnant, have a broken arm, blind, deaf, young or old, etc., they will still let you on! Even hobos are let on if they have the change. The only times I've seen people kicked off was when they were yelling and arguing, and putting all the other passenger's safety at risk.

I really disappointed in Body Confidence Canada for their judgememtal and discriminating behaviour. If you really wanted to see a variety of body types in advertisements, then launch your own ad campaign, and challenge how people think. People make their own videos all the time. Make it so that people can see what you mean. Put plus-sized ballerinas in there, and anyone else you'd like to include to promote body diversity. That would be a respectable challenge to the TTC. But instead you have generated body shaming and ridicule, things that your organization must be really proud of.

Born Again Virgin?! WTF

I have to laugh when I heard about 'born again virgins.' If you've had sexual intercourse, you're not a virgin anymore.

I am probably getting the "no, you're misunderstanding us... born again virgins are people who are 'spritually' renewed. They take (yet another) oath to be pure and abstain from sex until marriage."

The act of sex is a physical thing. There are two people (at the bare minimum), and they have to get physical for sex to happen. You can't have 'spiritual' sex with each other. You can't hover in the air over one another like helicopters. You have to do the deed, and if the deed is done, then it is done! Your virginity is gone. There is no turning back.

Let's say for a second that sex = chocolate. Would you know how chocolate taste like if you've never had it before? No, because you'd have to physically eat the chocolate to know what it tastes like. Then after eating it, you can't go back and say you're going to be spritually renewed, and vow to remain pure and abstain from chocolate until marriage. No chocolate means no chocolate!

Even with hymen reconstruction surgery and some fake blood, you can recreate the first time scenario, but it won't be your first time. You can't get your virginity back.

Even though my mind finding so many errors with this, I do have a heart though, and can see why there are people who need assurance in their lives. For instance, if they were part of abuse and were victims of some sort, I can see why being 'born again virgin' would give them self-empowerment and some peace in their lives.

But then there are people who had their first time as a teenager, and it wasn't as great as they expected it to be. It wasn't as glamourous as they hoped. They waited so long and blew it the first time. So they want a second chance. Well, tough. How many times do you have to be born again, to realize that you're not a virgin anymore?!

But realize that I am not Christian, and I do not follow the Bible. Why do I even care about this topic? It's nuts that even though I wasn't Christian, this stuff still affected me, because it didn't make sense, and it still doesn't no matter how I look at it.