Knowing the beast - Let's Learn Computers - Part 1

This is an effort to concise my knowledge and to instill the blood lust of acquiring knowledge through exploration among next generation of computer lovers and enthusiasts.
All opinions expressed in this blog posts are my own and instructions shouldn't be executed on a word for word basis, the reader is encouraged to use his brain and take in what feels right to him and leave out the rest.
What works for you works for you.

So lets start with the description of the Computer (herein after referred to as Beast/Savior/Lord), the beast, a good companion to have around, it does exactly what you tell it to do and doesn't question you, what more does a hormone filled teenager want? (people are exceptions to this, you will definitely want people around you), While hanging around the beast if you lose a sense of time and are lost then you definitely love the beast, but what more can the beast do, that's the question, like any other kid when I was young I got introduced to the beast in schools, even though it was capable of much more, we were taught only limited capabilities it could offer, like writing and calculating which a fully functional human brain is already capable of.

Fascinated by the beast I decided to find out what else it could offer, enough searching around led me to figure out that to talk to beast you need know some different kind of languages, unlike human languages these languages (the ones the beast use) are very precise, the beast does exactly what it is told given the language and instructions are correct.

So I had two things to do now
My primary objective was to learn the language beast speaks so I can talk to it
and my secondary objective was to
Know more about what beast can do for me.

Lets first start by knowing what beast can do for you and then we can dwell into what languages we can use to talk to beast and make it do what we would like it to do.

(To be continued)
I will continue this in my next blog post

Learning to Draw

In order to help out new drawing students or people who want to explore drawing I have put up this blog posts on learning how to draw and barriers to learning to draw.

Initially when we start out we all have no clue on how to approach a certain subject or skill, drawing is similar with a additional issue that to learn to draw correctly first involves learning to see the artists way, you have to be aware and let go of the pre conceptions and morphing of images by your brain which you can only convince your brain by deliberate practice, It also requires developing certain mechanical skills as we move forward like, drawing straight lines, drawing ellipses, drawing circles, using shoulder joints to  draw long curves, straight lines.

Why our drawing sucks as an adult?
Answer is simple in order to simplify processing and reduce workload our brain maps everything to symbols and when we draw we are drawing these symbols instead of what we actually see.
Try it out, try to think of a scenery, the first thing that comes to your mind is the scenery you did as a kid. Even objects and faces, instead of drawing what we actually see we draw what our symbol system tells us.

Bypassing the symbol system
So the question comes how do we bypass the symbol system, overtime you will start to distinguish between what you see and what your symbol system tells you, but for a start
start with drawing this upside down drawing

1. Find a spot with no disturbance, somewhere in solace
2. do not think of what it is, just copy lines, edges, spaces, don't think in terms of hands, legs, eyes, think in terms of relations, this line is longer, this line is shorter, don't verbalize what you see.
3. Start drawing from any part of the image
4. Do not invert any of the image till it is done.
5. Be fascinated by what you drew

Learning through exploration

Plenty of times in my life I have thought of what is the best way to learn something?, I thought structural, analytical approach was the best way until I realized how it all started and how I learned computers in the first place, there was no structure to it, I just picked up random stuff and read them, It was exploratory style of learning, the sheer joy of learning by exploration I still remember, as I grew up I got more and more confused, there was no one to correct me or tell me when I was a kid the "right" way to learn, but now people have a lots of theories on the right way to learn.
I know direction is important in learning, but your learning shouldn't be restricted to direction or where teacher points you to. it should be more of an exploratory learning process.

Lets take music, In music you should be improvising, that will get you a sense of how the notes combine together and form melodies, I am not saying theory isn't important, it is important if you want to know the reason as why and what you did sounded so good.
but that won't help you get good at it.
Developing your ears should be carried out by practicing, exploring different styles, playing random notes and sticking with what you like.
As a beginner  I found it hard to improvise, I thought what am I even playing it sounds so bad, but over time I realized the value of improvising, It made me trust my own music and form my own compositions through sheer experience on what sounded good to me and what did not.
After all a musician conveys to the world what he hears around him.

Another example would be that of an artist, when I first started to draw I found it really hard to do stuff, straight lines were hard, but exploring medium, recording my perception and realizing that whatever I draw is my perception of the world made me realize how important exploratory learning really is.
You gotta try different styles, different mediums and find the ones that let you express your perception in the best way possible.
Theory helps but it isn't enough.
After all artists  draw their perception of the world.

With this in mind I hope anyone reading this post will stick to 80% exploratory learning and 20% theoretical learning. Find techniques, use them, abuse them, find ways to improvise. Get good at it.
Exploratory and practice goes hand in hand, you practice what you explore.

Go ahead play what you like, draw what you like, learn what you like, don't let anything be a barrier in between, your way of doing things is unique in this world and no one can do it the way you do it. 

To get in contact or learn more about me, check the About section.

Pink Sky : When you wish you knew how to paint

Plenty of moments of my life I have had the feeling that I should have knew how to do "X", But this time it was really intense

I was doing my usual routine work, then I stumbled upon the pink sky.
I was awestruck, It was so beautiful, Even though I did take some pictures, being present at that moment was way more intense than those pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took of the event

  

As you can see It was really wonderful, such phenomenon I had never seen before, I did see orange and yellow skies before but pink was all new feat.

 As it got dark the intensity of the pick color at distance increased, It became more and more saturated.

As this phenomenon came to an end I wished if I knew painting I could have painted it. It was truly wonderful sight.

PS : I am still improving my learning, listening, reading and speaking skills.
Hope I can be competent enough in a year or two.
I have https://learnenglish.vanillacommunity.com/ to learn and improve my English skills

Drawing and Harmonica

Lately I have started learning drawing and harmonica, well it has been 6 months (or more) since I started learning drawing, When I first started I had the impression that I could never learn to draw and see the artists way, But who knew I was to be proven wrong, Not only did I learn how to draw from life but also to see how artists sees, My beliefs are affirmed that anyone can learn anything given he gives enough directed effort.

 I still have a long way to go, I hope I will be able to practice daily what I have learned and continue to improve my skills of perception.

Parallely I also started learning keyboard and harmonica, Even with music I had preconceptions that It will be really hard for me to learn these skills but who knew heh :).

Learning these skills has made me more empathetic and more inclined towards exploring other areas of interests.

Learning harmonica is equally fun, Meanwhile I am also learning and improving my English speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

In upcoming posts, I will post stuff I drew and hopefully will continue to do so.

Here's one to start with

One of my first attempt at figure drawing. This is a masters work that I copied.