The review: Too Black Country?
I’ve had an interesting week. I walked around the local market on Tuesday and took a few photographs. It wasn’t a good week on the stock market, the banks let the market down. Of course many other businesses depend upon banking and so confidence in the whole economy falls. Maybe, they should pay bankers a bonus when the bank actually makes a profit, rather than double pay on a loss? (more…)
The Christmas review
Are you thinking about making New Year resolutions? Setting goals in life, whether it’s to lose weight and keep fit or something even more challenging can be useful. Try writing some things down and thinking about what is achievable and how you might achieve it. I have a few goals that include more photography. (more…)
The weekend review
I read a really good article yesterday about how to take night pictures. They say you should consider the exposure triangle to set your camera for this type of picture. That is set the ISO, aperture and speed. While I was doing all that and setting up a tripod, I would probably get mugged for the camera. (more…)
Christmas is coming
Christmas is coming and it’s getting colder in the UK. The energy companies are increasing the prices of gas and electricity as usual. If the people running these companies or the regulators had any morality at all they would at least increase prices in the spring or summer. Like the government they are immoral.
Fags, faggots and Facebook
My local readers will recognise the shop in today’s picture. Teddy Grays is famous in the Black Country. They sell a delicious selection of sweets. When an International student visited me last Christmas, I gave her mice made of sugar from Teddy Grays, Cadbury’s miniatures and a few other delights that we used to find in our Christmas stockings as children. We’re never too old for Teddy Grays…
Psychology |That Monday morning feeling
It’s Monday morning and it’s raining. I tend to associate Monday morning with feeling quite miserable and so do many other people. Maybe after a weekend enjoying ourselves it’s the return to work and a drive through the rain that embeds this association into people’s minds.
Psychology | Taking risks
Curious
We humans are more curious than other animals and so we are more successful. We also take risks and we can often assess the risk to see if we are likely to come to harm or lose in some way. We risk injury, often so we can do quite unimportant things like taking a day out. (more…)
It is Monday, it must be psychology
I’ve been fascinated by psychology for many years and that’s the subject of my usual Monday blog post. I’ve been posting on WordPress and on A Zillion Ideas too; but that seems to be a waste. My WordPress blog has more subscribers though, so what can I do? I’ve decided to change it!
Psychology | Creativity and blogging
I write a blog post every Monday about psychology. I don’t do extensive research for most of my posts, I rely on being creative. The mind works differently when we’re being creative. We tend to solve problems by analysing the problem logically, but to find a solution we often need to be creative.
Psychology | We all want to be happy
We all want to be happy, but what is happiness? Many people have made lots of money in their search for happiness and still aren’t happy. So how do we define happiness? What would make you happy? A lottery win?
Psychology | Childhood
“Give me a child until he is seven and I’ll show you the man” is a maxim attributed to St Francis Xavier and there is obviously some truth in that. Children are very impressionable. They learn from adults and even older children.
Spring flowers in May
The river in the picture is the River Tame. This photo was taken last May, but I drove past there yesterday and the flowers are just starting to bloom again. They seem to grow all along the Tame, I’ve seen them at Walsall and Dudley.
Psychology | perceptions of self
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The only perception that early man had of himself, was what he saw when he looked at other people. Looking at their reflection in a pool of water was probably quite intriguing. We can see our reflections using mirrors at any time.
Normal April showers?
I took this photo a year ago. I look at the sky a lot now in an attempt to predict the weather. The sky looked a paler blue last year, today it’s been a deep blue with white clouds and April showers. We had a very wet summer last year, are we back to normal now?
Psychology | Friendships
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
How many friends do you have? Do you you have lots of friends whose company you enjoy? Or do you have a few friends who are very loyal to you. We often don’t even think about what friendship is or how important it is.
Psychology | Emotional motivation
The human mind can seem to behave strangely at times. We always have a reason for doing things, but that reason isn’t always logical or even sensible. We are often motivated by our emotions. Frequently, out of fear or desire.
Ding dong, its Saturday
I get more local readers at weekends because my blog posts are featured on ‘the yamyam’. There appears to be more and more local bloggers now and they are writing good posts. Anyway, in case any local reader is wondering, today’s picture is of King’s Hill Park, just outside Darlaston.
Psychology | Communication
We tend to have a conflict in our lives between our primitive desires and our desire to improve ourselves. This affects how we communicate with each other. Our lives have become more complicated and so has communication. We are individuals, but we take decisions collectively and need the support of others.
More snow hits the UK
It’s nearly Easter and we have more snow! It was the first day of Spring on Wednesday and just as you thought it was safe, the snow came again. The weather here is as unpredictable as the politics, but doesn’t it make life interesting? Getting around today is a little difficult, the bus station was closed.
Psychology | Logic, proof and belief
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
People often disagree about things. We disagree about politics, religion and money most often. We will also disagree about status; we look up to and respect different people. We might disagree about art or music; we all have different tastes. We can even disagree about which foods we like.
Psychology | Out of Desperation
People will often behave out of character because they are desperate. Desperation can drive us to commit crime; even murder. Desperation is feeling we can no longer tolerate our situation. We not only want to change how we feel; we need to change how we are feeling. We need to stop the pain. It might be physical pain, but often it’s psychological pain.
Psychology | The meaning of life
Have you ever wondered what our purpose is in living? Life does appear to be our purpose, to live and survive. Our purpose isn’t just to survive as individuals, but as a species. When we feel we’re in danger we feel the need to fight or run away. Our desire to face danger and survive can mean that rather than fight as individuals, we will fight as a collective. This can lead to riots and even wars.
The psychology of luck
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Imagine going into a casino and playing a slot machine and winning every time. Then trying other games like roulette and winning again. If you started with just a pound (or a dollar) and doubled your money twenty times, you would be a millionaire. Imagine how you would feel.
The Saturday collection of this week’s highlights
Today’s picture is of the bridge across the canal that goes to Moorcroft Wood. Many canals run in a straight line, but this one meanders around a little. You can walk along the canal from the waterfront outside Walsall Art gallery, through Pleck to Darlaston and past George Rose park to Moxley and eventually end up here. It’s fascinating to see how the canals run through the Black Country.
