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Friday, 27 August 2010 14:52 |
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If my video blog was to have a title video, like an album has a title song, this would probably be it.
Watch: You Might Be Part of an Experiment - Souvenirs from Dreamland Episode 3 (Emergence) Levi Meeuwenberg's Video Blog
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
emergence [ih-mur-juhns] -
1. When unexpected patterns arise out of simpler interactions.
This video doesn't necessarily represent my belief about how life came to be. You see, I think that having beliefs; meaning accepting one story and rejecting the rest, is not appropriate when it comes to these perennial questions. It's more honest to entertain the many possibilities, and live and come to grips with the uncertainty. I do however find that this particular hypothesis is compelling and immensely beautiful and intriguing, far beyond most of the rather terrestrial "origin of life" stories out there. So I wanted to share the idea, and see what others think.
For more good stuff check out:
Emergence Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdQgoNitl1g
Tree of Life: http://www.wellcometreeoflife.org/
"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: Any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual." -- John Steinbeck
"When a young person loses faith in his religion because he begins to study science and its methodology it isn't that through the obtaining of real knowledge that he knows it all, but he suddenly realizes that he doesn't know it all." (p. 36) -- Richard P. Feynman
To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it. -Bertrand Russell
"...I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me." --Richard Feynman
"The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any mode but this. " -John Stuart Mill
"Here lies the power...: helping ourselves and others to see some of the possibilities inherent in viewpoints other than one's own; encouraging the free interchange of ideas; welcoming fresh approaches to the problems of life; urging the fullest, most vigorous use of critical self-examination." -- Adlai Stevenson (as quoted on page 81 of A Chosen Faith)
"A believer is a bird in a cage. A freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing." -Robert Ingersoll
Video Editing, Writing, and Narration by Levi Meeuwenberg
Footage Sources:
Hitchhiker's Guide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhvEJPt7E7c
Emergence Pt2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NRNG1r_jI
Emergence Pt1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdQgoNitl1g
Mad Science: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhf2GUKS-s
Termite Mounds: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xGaT0B__2DM&feature=fvw
School of Fish: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2ZixpqP_cH4
Trading Floor: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xAS0xDELNlg
Tree of Life: http://youtube.com/watch?v=H6IrUUDboZo
The Ultimate Rube Goldberg Machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf07e5h8474
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 15:45 |
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 Just wanted to share a passage from my favorite book, "The Importance of Living" by Lin Yutang. I'll surely be sharing more from this book soon. Hope you enjoy. :)
Watch Levi Meeuwenberg's video blog: Souvenirs from Dreamland Episode 2 Here
Check out the book Here
"I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambitions; then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age, there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life; then in the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment; finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake up again. One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life, but the music must be provided by the individual himself. In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody. Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a pistol or jumps into a river. But that is because his original leit-motif has been hopelessly overshadowed through the lack of a good self-education. Otherwise the normal human life runs to its normal end in a kind of dignified movement and procession. There are sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and because the tempo is wrong, the music is not pleasing to the ear; we might have more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo of the Ganges, flowing slowly and eternally into the sea.
No one can say that a life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life, except what is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven stages of life, and a good many Chinese writers have said about the same thing. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion. I think this was his greatness; he took human life largely as it was, and intruded himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon the characters of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature herself, and that is the greatest compliment we can pay to a writer or thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away."
pg 30-31 The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang
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Monday, 23 August 2010 17:03 |
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"Shooter's latest and greatest! The newest video from Dan Mast. The first he has put out in over 2 years! Shot in HiDef with the Canon 7D for your viewing pleasure. Shooter teamed up with the one and only Chad Bonanno and Team Tempest founder Paul Diddy Darnell to bring his creation to life. After 3 months of shooting and editing, it is finally done. This is Shooter's first full video as a member of Tempest and we hope that you all enjoy it as much we do!"
Watch it Here!
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Sunday, 15 August 2010 14:20 |
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 For a long time I've wanted to have somewhere to put my brain trinkets. Since the human brain is quite a fragile storer of information I decided it best to have a backup on the worldwide brain; the internet. Feel free to take a gander...
Souvenirs from Dreamland Ep1 An Introduction
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your
religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority
of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because
they have been handed down for many generations. But after
observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees
with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and
all, then accept it and live up to it.
-- Buddha
So, welcome to my first little video blog experiment here. Making this first episode was, was little tough for me because I have this real kind of perfectionist urge, you know, I want like to write the hole speech and read it and sound all irritating and speak like and intelligent and be very moving and passionate and all that stuff, but that is just not me, that is not who I am, so, I think it’s better just to kind of being myself, just to kind of have a nonchalance you know, unbuttoned attitude to this little project, I mean to be heard at today’s culture it seems like you need to be so loud and controversial and just like intense and I have none of those things by nature. I can of course fake it but I rather not just put it on the show for this, you know, I did that for my job all the time.
So why am I making this video blog? basically, I just want to spread good ideas, and they’re not just my good ideas, most of the things on here are not my own original thought. There are things I’ve learned from like books I’ve read or and things I’ve learned from my friends, through experiences I’ve got through in life, through things I’ve learned from other people, and every once in a while I give my true sense, but mostly, I’m just trying to pass on good ideas.
So here we are, we’re kind of thrown into this chaos of life, of the world. Things are just wheezing around and there are all this different colors and we don’t know what’s going on, you know, it’s like you’re just walking down the hall on the school and then you open the door of the cafeteria and there is a crazy food war going on like sheets flying everywhere and you got hit and you’re like, wow! What the f…, what the hell Is going on here, is kind of weird, it’s like to just be thrown into this world, but are we just here to toil and work really hard and make some money and then just disappear into nothingness?. I mean, is that all there is? I don’t think so. What I mean that’s kind of I want to do is to trying to mean sense of it. What is the mean to be human? Like, why are we here? How did we get here? You think. There is a point to this whole thing? Do we have a purpose? Why is there something rather than nothing?
Now I don’t claim to have all the answers to these questions, definitely not, and to be honest, I think that those that do are pretty arrogant in my opinion, but nevertheless even though we don’t have any concrete answers to these important vital questions about our existence, that doesn’t mean that we should just ignore them, just put them in a bag for a mind, I mean maybe that’s find for some people, maybe it’s fine just to try to be happy in their life, and I’m not just that at all. I don’t knock anyone’s choice about how they want to live their life, but personally I can’t just go through life and not to be curious about what’s going on here, so what I do is just trying to pick up on some of the hints that I see in there.
Looking at these questions we may not find answers, we may not find answers in our lifetimes, we may not find answers ever. I mean, this is a pretty ridiculously crazy experience, existence. I mean, I’m not going to say it’s good or bad, I think that’s totally a matter of perspective but, weather is good or bad, I know for a fact that the world is amazing… at times.
Well, all ends with some of the quote, this was originally credited to the Buddha:
“Don’t believe in anything just because you’ve heard it. Don’t believe in anything simply because it’s spoken and rumor by many. Don’t believe in anything just because it’s found written in your religious books. Don’t believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Don’t believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed it I hope you subscribe, favorite it, you know, spread the word a little bit and keep an eye for the next episode comes in.
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Sunday, 15 August 2010 11:27 |
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 After an awesome weekend in Venice beach, the tryouts turned out 15 ninja candidates. The group is a good mix of familiar and new faces, but we've yet to see which 5 will be eliminated in the final round and which 10 will go to Japan. The esteemed 15 include Travis Furlanic, Brian Orosco, Adam Truesdell, Rich King, David Campbell, Shane Daniels, Ryan "Cloud" Cousins, Brent Steffensen, Paul Kasemir, myself and others. Also "Attack of the Show" did a short segment on the ANW2 tryouts so check it out...
AOTS American Ninja Warrior Tryouts 2
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Friday, 06 August 2010 12:46 |
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This weekend is the long awaited American Ninja Warrior Tryouts put on by G4. These tryouts test hundreds of Americans on an obstacle course inspired by the Sasuke course in Japan, and the top 10 performers will go to Japan to compete in the ultimate obstacle course; Sasuke. The tryouts are being held at Venice Beach in Los Angeles, CA so if you're in the area, come on down and watch! My run will be on Saturday around 3pm, but there are tons of amazing athletes to watch so watch as much as you can!
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Monday, 02 August 2010 13:42 |
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No need for words here. Simply enjoy:
70s Parkour and Freerunning by Tempest Freerunning
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Friday, 30 July 2010 10:03 |
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 Summary: Chris Black possesses a power that could lead to the destruction of the current regime, and they will stop at nothing to destroy him.
The chase is on as Chris runs for his life in this sci-fi thriller set in an alternate and futuristic Los Angeles.
Victor "Showtime" Lopez plays the lead character in this short film. He has to run and use parkour to escape his robotic pursuers in this futuristic downtown setting. Check out this behind the scenes to see how the magic happens, then watch the finished product!
Watch TempestTV ep04 "The Raven" Behind the Scenes
Watch the Finished Product "The Raven"
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