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Monday, March 11, 2019

black and white

When I was growing up, our family had a black and white TV.  It's not that I'm so old that color TVs weren't a thing yet, we just didn't have a color TV.  I didn't really have a say in the matter, so went with the flow.

Now I wonder, are black and white TVs even still available?  

This week's prompt at Illustration Friday is "Black and White".  I couldn't think of anything I wanted to particularly illustrate with that, so I just took a white piece of paper and drew a black line, then drew another black line, and another, and so on...



I have no idea what this thing is.  I'm not even sure how I want to orient it, but at least it's black and white.

Such doodlings can be meditative.  I've tried to meditate the right way - be still and clear the mind and all that.  I find it difficult, but maybe I haven't tried enough. 

I remember reading about a guy who began practicing transcendental meditation to help him gain more clarity as he was in grad school working toward a PhD in something like biochemistry (I can't find the news story, but I'll keep looking).

Apparently, the meditation worked and the guy became super smart and his coursework became too easy.  And then he became psychotic, claiming that aliens were telling him about people here on earth who were actually aliens from distant planets.  He'd compiled a whole list of them, like something from Men in Black.  I think meditation guy is now locked up in some institution because he was "being told" to kill the aliens. 

So I wondered.  How to meditate to the point of being so smart that your PhD coursework becomes too easy, but stop short of hearing alien voices and getting locked up in an institution?

Well, for one, I'm not going to look at this doodle for too long. 



7 comments:

John Holton said...

I like this kind of art. I like to watch people make it.

Annsterw said...

Very cool and very doodley! Looks like a giant fish monster to me! I think there are black and white televisions still out there operating (my dad got rid of a little one in his workshop last year - HA!) but I am not sure you can buy them new anywhere?

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I doodle but nothing this good Abby

I also like to color and knit for me to leave my mental stress which I have a great deal of.

Transcendental meditation is something I wanted to try.
I contacted them and it was over $500. Nope, not going to do that. That would not relax me one bit. So I have tried other methods. I can't seem to keep my mind still for long. I think about what I should be doing etc and find it hard to not focus on that stuff. I just can't go blank. I want to spend a day doing nothing and thinking about nothing that causes me stress(money bills work) Now the TM folks call me or email me all the time. I told them that if $500 was the least expensive program I just couldn't do it and they made a snarky remark and I suggest they meditate on how they just spoke to me and I hung up.

Chatty Crone said...

I love your doodles - I can't even doodle that nice. And I had a relative who mediated so much he got weird too. It is not the first time I have heard that. sandie

Abby said...

John, I like making it and also like watching others make it. Maybe I'll do a short time-lapse vid with my desk lamp camera setup.

Ann, I'm wondering if your dad's B&W tv was still working last year?

Peg, 500 bucks for TM training?! Sounds like a racket. Love your response to the "pushers"!

Chatty, yes apparently the meditation "weirdness" has shown up more than a few times. If I get weird(er), maybe I can blame the doodling.

ShadowRun300 said...

I’m not good at meditation. If I sit still for a minute, I fall asleep. So likely no aliens in my future.
Your doodle is fantastic! Reminds me of a Venus flytrap. I always enjoy your time-lapse vids, so yes, do it again!

Abby said...

SR300, yep, that's usually what happens to me when I "meditate".