More Circus Props!

My personal favorite prop right now is the leviwand! It is essentially a stick on a string that is weighted to stay vertical as you wave it around. It is so much fun to dance around with, and it is very easy to find your own style as you experiment. There are two kinds: short and long string. Short string is what most people do, the string is about as long as the stick itself and it makes it easy to do tricks. Long strings can be super long, but can be incredible to watch as well.

Video is here.

There’s also fans. Sounds self-explanatory and simple, but since this prop is flat there are some really cool visual tricks you can do with them. You can also adapt a bunch of poi moves for this prop. (It's literally a pair of fans, not much more than that.)

Another prop is rope dart. It is basically a poi with a really long rope attached to it. You can wrap this around yourself and fling it out far. (It isn’t too different from long string leviwand really.)

Contact juggling is a strange one. Since it is juggling, you would expect it to involve throwing things or something. Nope, the point here is that the ball stays in contact with you most of the time. It creates plenty of opportunities for illusions.

Have a video.

Double hoops is a mix of hoop and poi. It is what it sounds like, you get two hoops and do tricks with them. I think it’s fun, makes a nice change from hoop and poi.

Double staves is similar to double hoops, except you have two staffs instead of two hoops. Again, pretty similar to poi, but since it is sticks instead of rope you can make different patterns.

Diabolo is also a circus prop, also known as Chinese yoyo. This is one of those toys where the majority of people doing this are really good 10-year-olds. I find it really hard, but you can judge for yourself.

Devil sticks is another one that people usually try when they’re younger. But there are a bunch of cool tricks you can do with these! The more sticks the merrier, and here we have three!

That's most of the obscure ones that I can think of, maybe if more pop up I'll make another post. I might go more in depth with leviwand since that's what I've been most interested in lately, and it is a relatively new prop as far as circus props go.

Introduction to the Circus: Common Props Used

Having been a member of a circus club for the past few years, I have noticed that there are a lot of misconceptions as to what it is that a circus group does. It is a lot more similar to a theatre troupe than people usually think. But there are also a whole bunch of different props that people use that your average person does not think of. There is much more than acrobatics to the circus!

The most popular prop is probably poi. Poi are essentially two balls with strings attached to them that you swing around. (Picture right there.)

Seems simple, but there are so many things that you can do with them! You can grab a fellow poi friend and do some partner poi, or grab two or more poi in one hand to create different patterns. The possibilities are endless with this prop, but it is definitely one of the harder and more nit-picky ones.

Here's a cool video as an example: here.

Next up is staff. Fairly self-explanatory, you swing around a giant stick. But you can also get more into contact staff, which is when you do not use your hands at all, makes it much harder.

Contact staff video: here.

Hoop is also very popular. Most people have probably heard of this, and played around with one as a kid. But circus hoopers are really next level, they do some amazing things.

Yup it's a hoop video.

And of course juggling! Everyone knows juggling, here’s just a fun video.

Jugglinggggg

All of these props can also be a fire prop! Poi and staff become fire toys in a pretty obvious way, with hoop you have to attach individual wicks around the end. Most people use 3 or 4. And with juggling you only ever see clubs with wicks on the end being tossed around.

There are many more props than this out there! There’s leviwand, fans, diabolo, you name it. I’ll pick up later with some more obscure ones.

The Struggles of Getting a Science Summer Internship

So here’s the deal, I’ve been trying since January to get a summer job in a science related field, and have had zero luck. Now I’m not positive, but I think my struggles are due to a few factors.

First of all, most lab positions require a mentor, someone who runs the lab and is willing to take you on. You have to match to this person, they have to want to hire you, and you have to want to work with them. As a result, you could be incredibly qualified for this position, but if there isn’t a lab you would work well in you aren’t going to get anywhere. It is really frustrating to hear back from so many people “you were very qualified, but unfortunately our final decisions were based on a match with various mentors.” Wonderful, thanks gents.

Another reason is that so much of society is based on results, while in research if you get results you got really lucky. That is why so many people take forever to get a PhD, they have to put in hundreds of hours throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks before they start seeing results. So on a resume, it will definitely look good if you published a paper or did a poster presentation or anything like that, but the opportunity to do that is based entirely on luck and whether you found anything of scientific value.

Finally, applying for anything is a really tough process. You write a cover letter, but that never truly shows your potential and work ethic. I grant that it is probably the best these universities can do, but applications can’t and never will totally show the entire student applying. I am willing to bet that incredibly capable students (similar to me) get rejected all the time simply because of the applicant pool. It’s disgustingly similar to applying to college.

Moral of the story I guess is to just not take it personally and keep trying. Don’t give up, many people have been in this position and many more will be here as well!

Are Humans Naturally Warlike?

There’s this argument that you often see that essentially argues that the pacifist’s quest for peace is futile. It essentially goes along the lines of: humanity has been mostly at war, therefore it is our natural state. However, I think that it is taking a simplistic view of the matter and that the conclusion that war is our natural state doesn’t actual follow from that observation.

Think about it: not everyone involved in a war is supporting violence. In fact, most people are probably against it. They are just supporting the cause. The people actually in favor of violence are those in control, the leaders of the countries at war. They are the ones actually making the decision to go to war. The people fighting would probably prefer peace, as no one really enjoys killing and risking getting killed (there are some psychological objections, but I’m going to ignore them since they are largely a product of living in a society constantly at war, I don’t think that they are born that way).

So it is the leaders of a country that are making the decision to fight. So how do they end up in a position of power? Mostly by being violent, aggressive, and rather Donald Trump-like. They push out quieter candidates with their yelling and gain the support of the people.

So the fact that humanity has mostly been at war is because of our tendency to have aggressive people in power, rather than a universal inclination to violence. Which is an entirely different problem to be dealing with.

“Chant and Be Happy” based on the teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swarmi Prabhupada

I was given this little book as a gift, mostly because it includes an interview with George Harrison, and a shorter one with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It’s a pretty complete book though, regardless of its size. It even gives you instructions on how to chant at the end, and how to make your own chanting beads. I have read a lot about meditation techniques, but this is the first that I have seen focusing so intensely on Hare Krishna chanting. It’s a technique that I’d like to gain more experience with.

There’s also a brief biography on the Swami and his works, as well as a kind of random story about how another teacher reformed a prostitute. I’d say that it was included to show the parallel between him and Jesus, but I’m not sure.

Not going to lie, probably the only reason why anyone would be interested in this work is the interview with George Harrison. It is a very good one, it discusses spirituality and its effect on his work a lot, even pulling specific lyrics to show its influence. A great read even if you already have extensive knowledge about his career.

So this is a short read, but it is very illuminating, from multiple perspectives. Grab it if you get the chance!