You often play an instrument to help you relax and think clearly

Byrichard

The wind outside howled as it made it’s way up and around the shape of the car parked at the top of the hill. Ahead nothing but the white of clouds could be seen. These clouds had not obscured for long. Just 15 minutes ago you could see the valley below. A u shaped glacial trough with fields and human settlements at the bottom and many trees on the slopes of the mountains. While the left side windows stayed dry those on the right were getting covered in white specks. They were in fact rain drops. Humidity from the clouds was collecting and forming in to water droplets.

The transmission mast behind was a shadow of it’s former self. Although it was still in use today it was far less interesting. For a start line of sight communications had moved from being from land station to land station across dozens of countries to distribute the signal to satellite broadcasting where line of sight was still important but satellites and distribution took place over hundreds of kilometres. Geo-stationary satellites were used.

A few metres away there was a map. This map was designed so that those standing at the centre could look out at the view and see which shape represented which peak. It showed how each related to each one. It’s at this moment, as the collections of peaks and related stories emerged to create a sound that was only now becoming noticable.

“You often play an instrument to help you relax and think clearly don’t you?”
“Yep” and he continued on playing.
“Do you always bring a violin with you when you’re climbing the mountains?
“Well, when I was younger I’d carry a cello up the mountains but recently I found that it has become too heavy so I’m sticking to the smaller violin instead”.
“What gave you the idea?”
“Alpenhorns! When I was hiking as a child I would often hear the alpenhorns being played somewhere in the valley and as I enjoyed the sound of music in the mountains I decided to bring my cello. Imagine the view from the top of the mountains and the sound the instrument makes. It’s crazy and eccentric enough to be amusing.”

 

 

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Idlewild

Byrichard

After having spent the whole night without sleep yesterday my energy levels were low and I decided that I would rest. In doing so I’ve spent quite a bit of time online but I’ve also conclued my reading of http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0553815970?ie=UTF8&tag=perspectraveland&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0553815970” >idlewild<="" a>http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=perspectraveland&l=as2&o=2&a=0553815970” title=”Idlewild”>Idlewild.

I was with a friend and he was looking for post apolaptyic books and was struggling to find anything. I was looking around at random books without any particular goal. After asking for help and getting some books suggested by the staff I decided to take a look at the books in the same section as he had been looking.

It’s always when you’re not looking for something specific that you find it. I saw the book idlewild and I read the back. It seemed like a good book, showed it to the friend. He agreed. He commented “why do you find a book immediatly when I’ve just spent ten minutes looking without finding anything.

Luck I suppose.

The book is about some children who are living in a virtual world, created for their education. It is an immersive virtual reality program which they have grown up in from a young age. One of these people wakes up without memories, confused. Throughout the book he struggles to understand what happened.

I won’t go any more into the details of the book but it’s a good read. It’s one of those books that you start reading and actually finish within a short amount of time. It’s well written and interesting. It’s a look at what may one day be part of our daily lives.

I enjoyed it so I’ll pass the book to that friend and see what he thinks.