FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 2
behaviour in full, it somehow makes things a bit easier to cope with the amount of target driven stress that is shoved on you from above. Winter is tightly upon us, and its getting colder each day, but in the same breath it is incredibly hot during the day, so in actual fact my surety on the weather is not accurate at all. I have been missing the family at the coast, as well as the family in the low felt , been a busy and very straining month for me personally, though a new month is upon us , and new promises lie ahead.
This month has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride, physically and emotionally for me personally. I have taken out time to start a full time job for the extra and stable income, and due to this, we have skipped this month’s dj feature, merely because of the lack of time that I had to do the interviews. It has also been a hard month to get back into routine , seeing that I was working my own hours and days for almost 2 years, and suddenly I have to dance to someone else’s beats, rules and procedures. Though I have to admit I have fallen with my ass very deep in the butter, as my superior (boss) is a very professional and supportive individual. Whom mostly takes into consideration that I am currently in a flat spin regarding routines ect. Though personally this is not really where I want to be in life, but currently we do not have much of choice in the current economic state of things.
We have been approached by an individual whom might be able to help us carry out our promise on being available on Mobile, though there is still much negotiation to take place regarding this established gesture, there is still much doubt that it will be available in the next few months. We hope you enjoy this very mellow issue this month.
Personally I find it hard to see myself working for someone for the rest of my life, though this will serve as a good trial period in getting out there, as this is a sales position and working with people is my sole purpose, its in actual fact quiet the exhilarating experience, even though the pressure is indescribably high , it is merely a target driven position, and you earn what you put in every month. I stare into some very distraught faces, and somehow stare straight into very problematic people, its actually shocking to see how some people handle stress and how others just evaporate when stress are present. Ive learned in only a few weeks that keeping to yourself and your own level of work is essential to establish your own working environment, as mingling with co-workers mostly lead to unnecessary pressure and unpleasantries during working hours. I take my hat off for those who strive to achieve a career in customer service or working for someone for the rest of their lives, its hard, but even harder facing all these different personalities daily, to establish yourself in a working environment is not only an extra full time job, but it causes a mighty amount of stress. When i was younger I always wondered why some people withdrew themselves from work colleagues, today I sit and perceive the reason for such
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 3
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 4
venomous snake curled itself around his face. During those times, any event that may seem a bit out of the ordinary was seen as a sign from the gods in some way, with this being their belief state, his wife took on the that it was a sign that Spartacus was destined for some greatness in life as she was seen as priestess.
Roman legends precede their own ability to amaze the stories behind all histories in our world. John Disp wrote about the all and well known Spartacus and his legendary life throughout his earthly existence. It is absolutely amazing to hear how this individual influenced and portrayed himself throughout history. His beliefs, his nature and his exceptional quality in being an individual on his own terms. Life turns most of us into people that fit society’s own needs, and most of us fall into that trap by no excuse and no delay, a mere need to sustain your own existence and place.
During their slavery duties they were sent to the city Capua, once there Spartacus was enrolled by his master in a gladiatorial school where him and 200 other men were trained and beaten daily to a point of vengeance. Luckily with his military training Spartacus fared well with all the training and had amassed a record of wins in one single year. Even though this was the celebrity lifestyle in Rome, Spartacus did not favour all the attention, and with his natural charisma and the prophesies of his wife he led all the gladiators that was training with him at time into a riot against their captors. Before the riot took place they entered with 200 men, but only 73 made it out of the riot and fled with Spartacus to the mountainside of Mount Vesuvius. During their reign, they freed a lot of slaves from farmlands around the mountain side, and his army grew incredibly , this frightened the Roman empire as they assumed that this was Spartacus’s goal , to pose a threat to the empire. This assumption was raired as absolutely untrue in every way, as Spartacus’s goal was merely to free the enslaved along his way to Italy and free himself in the same sense. Though this was his ultimate goal his army men , had gained so much motivation from his acts and what he as a single man has achieved that they set themselves to attack the roman empire on their own terms.Though Spartacus was caught in the end, he at least showed most of the enslaved individuals that it is possible to be free in some way, and gained a sense of freedom even if it was just for a while.
There is not much known to how Spartacus grew up , the only real information known is that he grew up somewhere around 100 B.C and joined the Thracian Army around 73B.C , but unfortunately ended his duty when he got captured by roman forces, from there his trail goes a bit cold, and then later we hear Spartacus and his wife were sold into slavery in Rome. There is though a myth that states, after they were sold he fell asleep in the gladiatorial pens, while he was in a deep sleep a
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 5
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 6
Our brain exists of neurons, these neurons reacts to colours , music, smell, they are the little army sending the peccary messages to the right parts of your body , to ensure your reaction is suited... According to research The cognitive neuroscience of music is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also is increasingly concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical emotion. Scientists working in this field may have training in cognitive neuroscience, neurology, neuroanatomy, psychology, music theory, computer science, and other allied fields. Cognitive neuroscience of music is distinguished from related fields such as music psychology, music cognition and cognitive musicology in its reliance on direct observations of the brain, using such techniques as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and positron emission tomography (PET).
Musical imagery Musical imagery refers to the experience of replaying music by imagining it inside the head.[Musicians show a superior ability for musical imagery due to intense musical training. Herholz, Lappe, Knief and Pantev (2008) investigated the differences in
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
neural processing of a musical imagery task in musicians and non-musicians. Utilizing magnetoencephalography (MEG), Herholz et al. examined differences in the processing of a musical imagery task with familiar melodies in musicians and non-musicians. Specifically, the study examined whether the mismatch negativity (MMN) can be based solely on imagery of sounds. The task involved participants listening to the beginning of a melody, continuation of the melody in his/her head and finally hearing a correct/incorrect tone as further continuation of the melody. The imagery of these melodies was stro ng enough to obtain an early preattentive brain response to unanticipated violations of the imagined melodies in the musicians. These results indicate similar neural correlates are relied upon for trained musicians imagery and perception. Additionally, the findings suggest that modification of the imagery mismatch negativity (iMMN) through intense musical training results in achievement of a superior ability for imagery and preattentive processing of music. Perceptual musical processes and musical imagery may share a neural substrate in the brain. A PET study conducted by Zatorre, Halpern, Perry, Meyer and Evans (1996) investigated cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes related to auditory imagery and perceptual tasks.These tasks examined the involvement of particular anatomical regions as well as functional commonalities between perceptual processes and imagery. Similar patterns of CBF changes provided evidence supporting the notion that imagery processes share a substantial neural substrate with related perceptual processes. Bilateral neural
Page 7
activity in the secondary auditory cortex was associated with both perceiving and imagining songs. This implies that within the secondary auditory cortex, processes underlie the phenomenological impression of imagined sounds. The supplementary motor area (SMA) was active in both imagery and perceptual tasks suggesting covert vocalization as an element of musical imagery. CBF increases in the inferior frontal polar cortex and right thalamus suggest that these regions may be related to retrieval and/or generation of auditory information from memory. Absolute pitch
Musicians possessing perfect pitch can identify the pitch of musical tones without external reference. Absolute pitch (AP) is defined as the ability to identify the pitch of a musical tone or to produce a musical tone at a given pitch without the use of an external reference pitch. Neuroscientific research has not discovered a distinct activation pattern common for possessors of AP. Zatorre, Perry, Beckett, Westbury and Evans (1998) examined the neural foundations of AP using functional and structural brain imaging techniques. Positron emission tomography (PET) was utilized to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) in musicians possessing AP and musicians lacking AP. When presented with musical tones, similar patterns of increased CBF in auditory cortical areas emerged in both groups. AP possessors and non-AP subjects demonstrated similar patterns of left dorsolateral frontal activity when they performed relative pitch judgments. However, in non-AP subjects activation in the right inferior frontal cortex was present whereas AP possessors showed no such activity. This finding suggests that musicians with AP do not need access to working memory devices for such tasks. These findings imply that there is no specific regional activation pattern unique to AP. Rather, the availability of specific processing mechanisms and task demands determine the recruited neural areas.
associated with increases in left frontal EEG activity whereas fearful and sad musical segments were associated with increases in right frontal EEG activity. Additionally, the intensity of emotions was differentiated by the pattern of overall frontal EEG activity. Overall frontal region activity increased as affective musical stimuli became more intense. Music is able to create an incredibly pleasurable experience that can be described as "chills".Blood and Zatorre (2001) used PET to measure changes in cerebral blood flow while participants listened to music that they knew to give them the "chills" or any sort of intensely pleasant emotional response. They found that as these chills increase, many changes in cerebral blood flow are seen in brain regions such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, midbrain, and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Many of these areas appear to be linked to reward, motivation, emotion, and arousal, and are also activated in other pleasurable situations.[46] Nucleus accumbens (a part of striatum) is involved in both music related emotions, as well as rhythmic timing. When unpleasant melodies are played, the posterior cingulate cortex activates, which indicates a sense of conflict or emotional pain. The right hemisphere has also been found to be correlated with emotion, which can also activate areas in the cingulate in times of emotional pain, specifically social rejection (Eisenberger). This evidence, along with observations, has led many musical theorists, philosophers and neuroscientists to link emotion with tonality. This seems almost obvious because the tones in music seem like a characterization of the tones in human speech, which indicate emotional content. The vowels in the phonemes of a song are elongated for a dramatic effect, and it seems as though musical tones are simply exaggerations of the normal verbal tonality.
Emotion Emotions induced by music activate similar frontal brain regions compared to emotions elicited by other stimuli. Schmidt and Trainor (2001) discovered that valence (i.e. positive vs. negative) of musical segments was distinguished by patterns of frontal EEG activity. Joyful and happy musical segments were
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 8
Neuropsychology of musical memory Musical memory involves both explicit and implicit memory systems. Explicit musical memory is further differentiated between episodic (where, when and what of the musical experience) and semantic (memory for music knowledge including facts and emotional concepts). Implicit memory centers on the 'how' of music and involves automatic processes such as procedural memory and motor skill learning – in other words skills critical for playing an instrument. Samson and Baird (2009) found that the ability of musicians with Alzheimer's Disease to play an instrument (implicit procedural memory) may be preserved. Neural correlates of musical memory
hemisphere was found to be more prominent in the pitch memory task than the right hemispheric regions. Therapeutic effects of music on memory Musical training has been shown to aid memory. Altenmuller et al. studied the difference between active and passive musical instruction and found both that over a longer (but not short) period of time, the actively taught students retained much more information than the passively taught students. The actively taught students were also found to have greater cerebral cortex activation. It should also be noted that the passively taught students weren't wasting their time; they, along with the active group, displayed greater left hemisphere activity, which is typical in trained musicians.
A PET study looking into the neural correlates of musical semantic and episodic memory found distinct activation patterns. Semantic musical memory involves the sense of familiarity of songs. The semantic memory for music condition resulted in bilateral activation in the medial and orbital frontal cortex, as well as activation in the left angular gyrus and the left anterior region of the middle temporal gyri. These patterns support the functional asymmetry favouring the left hemisphere for semantic memory. Left anterior temporal and inferior frontal regions that were activated in the musical semantic memory task produced activation peaks specifically during the presentation of musical material, suggestion that these regions are somewhat functionally specialized for musical semantic representations. Episodic memory of musical information involves the ability to recall the former context associated with a musical excerpt. In the condition invoking episodic memory for music, activations were found bilaterally in the middle and superior frontal gyri and precuneus, with activation predominant in the right hemisphere. Other studies have found the precuneus to become activated in successful episodic recall. As it was activated in the familiar memory condition of episodic memory, this activation may be explained by the successful recall of the melody. When it comes to memory for pitch, there appears to be a dynamic and distributed brain network subserves pitch memory processes. Gaab, Gaser, Zaehle, Jancke and Schlaug (2003) examined the functional anatomy of pitch memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). An analysis of performance scores in a pitch memory task resulted in a significant correlation between good task performance and the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) as well as the dorsolateral cerebellum. Findings indicate that the dorsolateral cerebellum may act as a pitch discrimination processor and the SMG may act as a short-term pitch information storage site. The left
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 9
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 10
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 11
WORK DYNAMICS The
Business and Corporate world is not a
Venture for the faint hearted, though much is only learned in practice itself, interpersonal skills are essential for any new comer to the corporate ladder, as its a place where stepping on toes , and handling with care are one in the same thing, the capability to distinguish between the two of them is not only an art on its own , but the mastering of it is something that can not be taught by someone, its experience based. Most of young adults have been in a working environment where interpersonal dynamics play a big role all in itself, where you may find a lot of underlying bonds and procedures within the employees. New comers are not always included in full as some individuals have a different perspective on what work really is. During my years in employment I have seen many situation where the working environment can either become the best place you as individual want to be or the worst place you face everyday, some call it a card game, other a competition, and others just ride the waves. Though most of us have been one of the mentioned, walking into a new business or job opportunity, you have to establish the office dynamics as soon as you can, and establish not only your place but the mere serenity of where you see yourself.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
The Card Player These individuals are people whom approach each working opportunity as a card game, playing their cards in such a manner, ensuring the right cards are played in the right order, they read their coworkers and its constant unsurity to which card they might play next. For co-workers and managers these individuals, are trust worthy in some aspects but their interpersonal skills in working with others you may find really unstable, although it is as much as they want the environment to be. They are the individuals whom work, but not work to really establish the right experience, or to further their career with this experience, they work to look for the easiest and smartest card move to make, though in the end they end up in a card game , where even their own cards do not earn them any happiness or any satisfaction in their jobs or co-workers, and they end up , either attempting a new career opportunity or end up having a lot controversy at their own work place.
Page 12
The Competitor
The Rider
These individuals are those whom you rather not approach with an idea, merely because they will either make the idea their own, or work you out of your own position in the idea. They usually deny any if at all involvement with their co-workers if a new employee joins the team. They are only team players when the end result suits them and fits into their own hidden agenda, competitors do not do anything for others or any favours, they do not believe in working together to achieve a goal, neither do they have the ability to be good hearted towards co-workers, they compete in absolutely everything they pursue during their working hours. In some cases these individuals are not only this way in their working environments but they tend to take this behaviour with them in their home environments as well as in their personal relationships. A competitor is more likely to be a bad loser than any other working individual and finds themselves obsessing about a loss instead of moving forward to a more in tune win that may invade their lives.
The rider is someone that is always there, no matter what the situation may be or how gaining it might seem, this individual is there to ride it either with or against you, it all depends on the situation and what their is to gain for them personally. They are never really involved with anyone at work , but always up to date with everything and sometimes even more than the local socialite of the office. These individuals are strong people but put forth an image of withdrawn and out of reach, they do not attain any other contact or conversation with their colleagues except work. You can work with a Rider for years on end, and not know anything about them, their personal lives or if they even exist outside the office at all.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Most of us fall in either one or more of these categories, if even one at all, though it most of these dynamics sounds negative, combining them can either benefit you or it may cost you. Working with people needs a vowed amount of trustworthiness, honesty and loyalty, but knowing your place as the rider knows theirs is also essential. In some positions you need the mere intelligence and faint game of the Competitor to succeed, though you should never personally lose perspective that you really are after working hours, competing with family or friends in noncompetitive situations can only result in harmful events. Building your own reputation and what you stand for and won’t stand for is essential in any business environment , it is a mere sincerity of who you are how you can distinguish between a working environment and a friendship, as the corporate world consumes a thin line in most varieties of situations.
Page 13
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 14
EXSTREME
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
by Paul Wesch Page 15
Like Sands through the hour glass We
have all shared the experience of having
someone in our lives for a certain period of time and then they just disappear, vanish of the face of the earth only to hear from them when least expected. I’m not talking about abductions, death or call of duty, I’m talking about people closing chapters in their book of life and decide for some reason or the other that you won’t feature in theirs anymore. We’ve all done it willingly or not, whether it is because of a change of environment or relationship, or just a personal choice. We judge people who fall victim to this vicious cycle, yet find excuses when it happens to us. We are quick to blame, name and shame but when accused of such a morally transparent thing we shrug it off.
in some way or you them, or they were just people who shared a common situation with for a duration of time, but eventually, like all things that ended. We end up spending our lives looking for real things. We call people who ‘abandon’ us emotionally, fake. We waste precious time finding out what others have to say about us, in order for us to protect and maintain the image we portray to the world. We dismiss anything that might tarnish that image, whether it has truth to it or not. Some people eventually have so much cleanup work to do surrounding that image that they look for a fresh challenge or environment, closing the chapter on that previous persona and just taking with them what memories they choose. In a sense that should be bad right? Denial? Perhaps… but what of it. It happens so often that society just shrugs it off. Images of people become so distorted that eventually you have no clue what a person is all about.
Why wouldn’t you want someone in your life? Perhaps they are tied to memories and feelings which impact you negatively, or they’ve hurt you
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 16
There are so many books about you that you have written that you forget which is the best one and just go for the one that’s easiest to read. Isn’t it about time we head back into the libraries of our lives, revisit old characters and scenarios and find out whether our version of events are really what we thought it to be. Sometimes old wounds need to be revisited, just to that we can remember the pain to avoid it happening again. Time is fleeting as many an author has written, just as you think you have caught up with it, it is gone, and so are opportunities to make amends. As the popular day time soap opera has said so many times, like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 17
Searching for
Sugarmom
positively influence your human spirit, which eases your soul, anything that makes your experience as a living being, a more pleasant one. There are so many definitions of love that I believe the ideal thereof has become somewhat confusing. Love could be the trust and affections of someone you have some type of relationship with, whether they are friends, family or stereotypically named Lovers. Love could be the anything in nature or anything man-made, it could be the idea of something. Love is an omnipresent experience. It completely relies on the individual at hand, and I guess in that lies its true nature.
Love, that four lettered word that gets spoon-fed to us from birth. That magical power that can right all wrongs, and banish all evils, the one emotion which is the most relevant of all. We all have an idea of what love means to us, where to find it and what it means to us individually, but what does love mean to us as a society? Some spend their lifetimes looking for it and others are showered with it to such an extent that from the outside it looks like a divine gift. Most of us fall in that grey area where we barely take notice of it in our lives. We mostly notice the aftermath of love, or the after effects thereof, rather than where that love stemmed from or originated.
But let’s clear up some things. For the purpose of this article, let’s put love in a context, before I end up at the wrong end of a witch hunt. To me love is anything, and I mean ANYTHING, that
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
If we share enough experiences of love and what it means to us, it becomes a common denominator by which we start looking to surround ourselves with more of those experiences with people we believe have the same feelings about it. I suppose that is why we also feel physical anguish if we lose one of those loved ones, whether through death or the termination of the mutual relationship, we are saddened when we lose something we love, or the idea of love surrounding am object. I bet your feeling that if I say Love one more time you will toss your phone or toss your laptop, which is why I will stop, because by reading up to here you’ve realized that what I’m babbling about could possibly make more sense in a very crazy world. Remember, just because you are lonely doesn’t make you unloved (see what I did there, I didn’t use the word) Sometimes we should go out and look for it, and sometimes we should just realize it’s all around and live our lives more purposefully. As someone who has spend most of his adult life looking for it, I’ve come to realise that it was
Page 18
always around, whether it is enough to satisfy my insatiable need for spreading it, I haven’t figured that out yet.
As my playlist skips to the next track, one of arguably the best albums in the history of music starts to play. Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on full blast, more specifically “You can go your own way”. And as the sweet melody fills the air, the lyrics “loving you, isn’t the right thing to do” I decide that will do pigs, that’ll do.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 19
Equality, probably the most touchy subject I’ve ever tried to take on, and as usual I fall way short, crash and burn. We all want to be equal, or at the very least seen as an equal in our communities. Irrespective of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, an equal status amongst our peers is something we aspire too, although some might say that is a basic human right.
This is all fine and well until reality starts knocking at the door, we won’t always have that equal footing in our communities, some have advantages whilst others have disadvantages which will always play a pertinent roll in the everlasting pursuit of equality. If that isn’t enough to struggle with we have the fun institution of double standards. If you aren’t familiar with this practice let me simplify. If a guy dates many girls he is considered a hero, if a
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
girl dates many girls she is considered a slut/skank/hoe your choice. The simplest way to put it is that although a master key can open many locks, many keys don’t open a single lock. It is at this point where you write a detailed letter calling me an ignorant sexist, I don’t make the rules, I just play by them. Sub- cultures will always play a role in the pursuit of standardised equality, and as hard as some groups may try to lobby for their causes it won’t happen. Equality could be compared to world peace, something that on paper sounds very nice, a world filled with rainbows, puppies and unicorns. But in reality it would mean that someone benefits from this peaceful union and someone gets abused, eventually this peace will be challenged and just end up in war.
In this search for equality we don’t always realize that what the one group gains gets taken away
Page 20
from another. It is a slippery slope and so many end up in the bottom of the ravine. Growing up in a household filled with many siblings I learned that I can’t always get what I want. Sacrifices should be made by some to enable others to achieve. You can’t however make the sacrifice and then later cry about not getting any opportunities. You have made your bed, now lie in it.
Of course you won’t find your Sunday night investigative journalism show trying to come to the root of this societal cancer, because let’s face it, someone will get offended and the BCCSA will get involved, and like your ex crying in front of you, things will just get messy. Double Standards and equality will always go together like a pair of socks, it is up to us to decide whether we want to wear those socks or not, we won’t always be equal but it shouldn’t deter us from trying. At the end of the day it is the thought that counts. The thought that we attempted the impossible? Perhaps, atleast we can say that we tried.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 21
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 22
Y
I
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
D
Page 23
Chicken for all seasons Recipe uploaded by Recipe by Mary Cadogan Serves 4
Preparation and cooking times Ready in 25 mins Low-fat
1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, preferably non-stick. Add the chicken and fry without moving it until it takes on a bit of colour. Turn the chicken and cook on the
other side. Continue cooking for 12-15 mins until the chicken is cooked through. Season all over with a little salt and pepper. 2. Halve the tomatoes and throw them into the pan, stirring them around for a couple of minutes until they start to soften. Reduce the heat and stir in the pesto and crème fraÎche until it makes a sauce. Scatter with a few basil leaves if you have them, then serve with rice and salad or mash and broccoli.
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 24
Preparation and cooking times
Making it veggie
Prep 20 mins
Fry the tomatoes in the oil, add the pesto and creme fraiche and serve over griddled halloumi
Cook 10 mins
slices or spoon over some spinach and ricottastuffed ravioli. Plus infusing and chilling time
Vegetarian, Low-fat, Super healthy
1. Tip the fruits and 700ml/11â „4 pints cold water into a large saucepan. Add the honey and vanilla, scraping the seeds from the pod into the pan. Bring to the boil. Stir well, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until slightly syrupy. 2. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the tea bag. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes. 3. Discard the tea bag and vanilla pod, tip the fruits and liquid into a non-metallic bowl and pour over the lemon juice. Stir, then leave to cool. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Winter fruit salad Make the most of autumnal fruits in this
Getting ahead
refreshing and nourishing salad - make a batch and eat during the week
This recipe can be prepared a few days ahead as the flavours get even better. It will keep for up
Recipe uploaded by
to one week.
Recipe by Merrilees Parker Serves 6
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 25
FTVOM MAY ISSUE
Page 26