Going back to basics

So my first week of moving out has been largely uneventful, I've mainly used most of my week moving things from my place to my parents.

Still, I feel a very appropriate beginning to this journey is a contemplation of going back to basics, or roots so to speak.

So a funny thing happened, when my father dropped me off at the station to go on to my next destination,
the traffic lights at the intersection were out of order, and there were police men in the middle of the road controlling traffic.

As this was happening, it caused a small amount of people to wait indefinitely at the crossing to the station, we were all waiting for the officers to wave us through or such.
The lights on the crossing for pedestrians were not working, and so it was pointless pushing a button.

None the less, a young man wearing earbuds and playing with his smartphone came up to the crossing lights, and pushed the button a few times oblivious to the scene right in front of him with the several police in the middle of the road and the non-powered nature of the crossing lights.
I saw this and thought to myself surely he'll notice it's not actually working...
About thirty seconds pass, and we're still waiting for some sort of signal from the police to cross, when the young man gets visibly frustrated, and goes to hit the crossing light button again a few times, once again missing the whole scene that was right in front of him.
I snickered to myself, realizing the young man was completely oblivious of the situation, and happy to have some sort of temporary amusement while I waited for permission to cross.
Another thirty seconds pass, and the police have still not given any signal to the pedestrians that we can cross, making everyone waiting to cross a lot more visibly agitated, in particular, our friend the young man, who once more goes to press the crossing light button for no real reason.
I decided to speak up at the moment and end the poor boys agony.

"Yeah, that's not going to work." I said, as I pointed out the scene he'd completely ignored up until this point.
Suddenly, he flicks on like a light bulb having been enlightened to the situation, and puts on a sheepish grin and  says 'Thanks a lot... I can't believe I had not noticed that at all".

We both grin at each other, look over to the policemen, decide that they're just oblivious to us and are more concerned about the cars passing through, and waited for an appropriate time to cross with or without their permission.

A funny little encounter, with no real deep meaning or lesson but it gave me some food for thought.
About the basics. In particular, the basics of magic.

We all have a limited amount of attention, it's like a reserve of energy devoted to what you choose to pay attention to.

We focus in on particular things while we filter out anything else we deem to not have been as important.
In order to fool people with magic tricks, many tricks employ the idea of taking a persons attention and diverting it to another place (mentally or physically speaking) while you do the dirty work right in front of them.
It's the basics and essence of magic and that young man is testimony to just how effective it can be and just how much you can get past so many people despite it happening right before them.

His attention was all on his smart phone, only taking minute glance of the scene around him to give him a basic idea of what was going on and what was important, but in his case it completely missed something that he wasn't expecting, and so his brain just glossed over that information as it did not seem as important to his mind as the motion of pressing a button to cross the street to get where he was going and whatever was going on in his phone.

In the beginning there was the first post and it was OK

Well, this is it.
I'll be leaving home soon, I'm packing my bags and making all my final arrangements.
I've been meaning to do this for a while, and now, after all my years of training, after all the things I've learnt, I feel ready to take on the road and see how far I can go living on the kindness of strangers and friends.

Hi, I'm Felix, for those of you who don't know me, I am a magician, memory artist and escapologist.

I am mainly a street artist/busker, but I also do stage shows and private events.

I have decided that I'm going to document my journey of life on the streets, and I'll be leaving the wonderful place I've been living in the last two years and seeing how far my skills and training will take me.

It's all new and exciting for me, and I want to share it all, the highs, the lows, the struggles and successes, with my friends, family and fans.

Love, Light + Chaos.

Felix Nothus.