Verisimilitudes

Illusion is the basis of art. But art -- film, paintings, writings -- entertain, inspire, instruct, and inform an audience, so illusion, therefore, can inform of reality. There is a strong interdependence of illusion and reality. That mutualism is good and provocative.

Everything is verisimilitude; it's just that some things have reality backing them. One powerful method of creating illusory verisimilitude is the "false document". Utilized in the film, "Blair Witch Project", "false document" tips the scales for the viewer making them believe above and beyond the normal suspension of belief. Similar to how "false document" ups the ante if believability, trompe-l'œil is a freakish twist of the eye, where something in a painting to exist in reality due to realistic imagery.

The liar paradox divulges a bizarre lay-out of linguistic trickery with the phrase, "I am lying now" or "This sentence is false". After scrutiny, it's simple to realize that what is implied or intended determines the validity. In other words, if "this sentence is false" is true, then it is false, but if the sentence is false, then the message of the sentence is true.

Different from deception, which connotes guile and malignant dealings, artifice is a craft of cunning, "an artful strategem". Here's the main difference. Deceit generates delusions, false beliefs, while artifice produces delightful awe and inspiration.

Whether it be the "false document" technique of film or novels or the "trompe-l'œil" in paintings, illusions are neither evil nor wrong, but inspiring creations of brilliant art.

I always utilize artifice.

The Father of Acting Wisdom, Tom Hanks: "It's the basic need of all of humankind to be part of something bigger than themselves. As actors we get to create that -- you actually join this gestalt hold. For the rest of us who aren't actors, we do this of us do this by being members of an audience...in Shakespearean times you heard about plays attended by just about everybody...you went to witness this one-time only thing...in the modern era of the power of the cinema, you can't deny that kind of power that actors have is directly translated with these magic boxes, cameras...you are enraptured...you feel a part of a great massive story that impregnates your actuall life as you leave...the thing we are all here for is that we've had seminal moments in which we were part of an audience in which we've had suddenly, the world open up to us and we felt a part of something much, much greater and we said, I want to be a part of that story-telling process...it's the power of the art form...it's lightning in a bottle...it fails when it's supposed to work...it works when it's supposed to fail...but it's so very, very undeniably powerful...it's the power of the cinema...and let's not piss pelicula (the "goddess of everything film") off."

Hanks's brilliance, here, encapsulates the entire experience I've been going through for the past 8 years. But it was constantly phasing in and out. Sometimes I'd be working at a computer desk. Other times I'd be biking or sitting in a classroom as a student. I became confused thinking that I was actually those things -- that I was actually a programmer, a cylcist, or a student. However, I soon discovered that I was simply an actor playing those different roles. Like a cloud that gently wafts up a bird to a different level of the stratosphere, my emotional intention to become part of that story-telling process that produces a sensation of authentic gestalt and enraptured synngergy, carried me and motivated me to play those different "life roles". These "life roles" were guided by my motivation to act, not my interest in those specific activities! I was excited to play soccer, I was excited to finish a paper, I was intrigued by computer science, but those were just dishes in the cuisine of acting. I wavered becaue I thought my life was -- like so many other people do -- just the fettucine or the chicken or the sandwich (just the accounting of the teaching or the athleticism as professions) -- when in reality, it's a cuisine; it's acting.

In reproductive anatomy, the seminal vessicles produce 70% of the fluid in semen. It creates the nutrients, the proteins, the substance for the spermatozoa haploid cell to survie and thrive on it's way to being "born", fusing with the female ovum. Acting is that "seminal fluid"; it's the fundamental juice that enables new life to thrive. Just like every birth needs that seminal fluid, every bit of professionalism thrives within acting. Acting is clarity and minfulness generates action.

Listen Up Fatties (Just Kidding)

People Don't Lose Weight for three reasons. It's question of worth, capacity or understanding.

• Self-Worth -- You don't believe that you deserve to lose the weight.
  
  
• Realm of Possibility/Capacity -- You don't believe it's capable.
  
  
• Knowlede Base/Understanding -- You simply don't know what you're doing.
  

Diets don't work because they're restrictive. When you restrict yourself, you rebel.
If you want to lose weight don't diet. According to Occam's Razor, the answer is always a simple one; dieting is no exception. The answer is not the complex Atkins, South Beach "formulaes". Those lead to yo-yo dieting which increase your chances of heart disease by 70%. The answer is simple. Put down the fork, stop eating, and hit up the gym.

Creating a Motivationalist

An accomplished motivationalist is not someone endowed with answers, but a person gifted in the art of questioning. Take Dr. Phil, for example, someone who interfaces with people as if he has a lot of answers, which he does. His, or any motivationalist's, answers are a product of clarity which comes from seeking, which comes from questioning, which comes from motivation to discover. Therefore, a motivationalist is really simply a motivated "asker-discover" first, and a person dedicated to sharing that clarity, second.