A Creation of Man

My mother told me today,

“Don’t give up. It’s only a creation of man.“

in reference to a Fujitsu I’m currently attempting to fix.

Pretty good advice, methinks.

Smiles

I think we are most happy when we see others happy.

I chanced upon an elderly man waiting for a stop sign. Hunched back, fedora cap’d, dressed in khakis and a collared checkered shirt. There was nothing, at first glance, that made me think any more of the situation.

Until, that was, I saw his smile.

It was a smile that was so right, as if the natural state of his face was always in positive disposition with the world.

I’m unsure as to what could have brought such a smile. I’m unsure as to what adventures his feet would bring him thereafter. I’m unsure if his smile were to ever fade, and if so what could have shaken such a resolve so powerful. I’m unsure of his destination, his beginnings, his history, his life.

But seeing him smile made me smile.

to question

“What we need to question is bricks, concrete, glass, our table manners, our utensils, our tools, the way we spend our time, our rhythms. To question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us. We live, true, we breathe, true; we walk, we open doors, we go down staircases, we sit at a table in order to eat, we lie down on a bed in order to sleep. How? Why? Where? When? Why?”

- Georges Perec

Consequences of Technology

I was browsing through LifeHack in my Google Reader, an online tool which allow reading through multiple RSS feeds, when I came across this article. It poses the question: “Where would you be today without social media tools?”

Now, that got me thinking. It’s amazing how profound, and yet at the same time skewed, of a life is possible with the advent of internet. In such a large way, I feel spoiled by all of this. I type on my blog as if it were nothing, a simple tool that relays information from one user of the internet to the other. Yet, despite this view,  it is the culmination of some software engineers’ dream.

Then to what extent can we really overlook such simple wonders as being able to type a few words, publish, and near instantaneously have others read from all over the world?

It’s so amazing.

Where would we be without these “series of tubes” that practically govern a vast majority of trades of information in our lives? I mean sure, the internet without the social networking would pretty much suck. But without the internet, what would life be?

While the convenience is most certainly present, to what cost can we attribute good to it?

I remember growing up in rural Philippines, near farms and quite a ways from all the luxuries and curses of a big city. I believe that was an amazing way by which to spend the first parts of life; running around fields, playing as children play, truly feeling a deep sense of connectedness to family, friends, and neighbors around me. I fear sooner or later such simple pleasures will not be as prevalent.

And yet, how is the next generation to grow? Will they run around the virtual playground? Pick fights on message boards? Will they take countless pictures of their faces, picking only the ones that look the best? Friend counts as a gauge of personal worth? Update user profiles as a definition of their character?

But maybe they’ll find Wikipedia? I sure as hell would have loved an encyclopedia growing up.

And then I begin wondering how individuals of the past were able to keep contact through great distances and still survive keeping a sense of connectedness with family, friends, and loves.

I mean, sure, it’s easy as hell to send an email or make a call. But a letter takes time to both write, send, and receive. This new age of instantaneous information will strip away a lot of the romanticism of the past. And in that way, I suppose it will create its own. Most certainly it will create its own.

I don’t think I could easily survive without the internet, and that disappoints me at times. Coming from a Computer Science major, that must seem odd.

But still…

I have heard the story of lovers sending letters across great oceans. I’ve yet to hear the story of lovers poking one another on Facebook.

Karma

Karma, I am sure, works. It is not so much that if you do good, good things will happen or, conversely, if you do bad, bad things will happen. I believe karma works at a much simpler level.

Karma works through perspective; if you do good you will see more of the good in the world, if you do bad you will see more of the bad in the world.

An optimist is happy not because good things have always happened but because in the face of bad there will always be a perceivable good – even if it is through self.

And, in the end, he was right.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

college can be quite unhealthy

Think about it: sleep deprivation, malnutrition, stress.

All for the pursuit of knowledge.

I think it a fair trade.

Ex asperis, scientia. Ex scientia, vera. Veritate, ad astra.

New things, new things

High pulp orange juice – I never quite had a taste for it. Hell, I hated it. I therefore avoided it for quite a number of years.

But I puchased high pulp orange juice today, and it felt vastly different. Different from what I’ve had before. Different from the taste of before. It’s refreshing.

There are other things I’ve thought were rather unfortunately bad, but maybe I’m wrong?

Perhaps carrots are delicious.

Eh, Sunny In the End

My DIY Speed Cube still hasn’t arrived. I still have no clue how to approach the seventh problem in Project Euler.

I awoke today in a daze thinking that perhaps I was late. I headed off to robotics to find only Mr. Picolet there, with Sam and her mom probably gone somewhere. Looking at the robot, a curious sight came across my eyes. There were two masts on the bot. Then another. Mr. Picolet asked, “do you see what’s wrong with the mast?”

One was significantly taller than the other. Luckily, the taller mast was the work in progress Ellison and I, mostly Ellison, have been working on in. It seems we were off two inches in the measurement. However, the mistake had noble intentions. The extra two inches served the purpose of ensuring that, in the event we did make a mistake in the cutting, we’d be able to fix it. However, it turns out the preventative properties of the extra length perpetuated the mistake to begin with. The mistake cost me four areas of possible splintering. Damn it.

After the meeting, seeing as how my dad didn’t have work, Gary came over. We sat and played video games for a bit – minesweeper being the general feel of it all. We had planned to set up a Diablo II LAN game, but, sadly, that didn’t quite work out. Regardless, I learned the basics of minesweeper and have been addicted for a long while. Gary was picked up around 1:45pm. We spent a few hours screwing around with our laptops, messing with the character generation of Mass Effect, and generally being counter-productive. Ellison visited somewhere in the middle. He couldn’t stay long, however – which was a shame.

At 5:00pm we decided to just head out to Target on a whim. I transferred money onto my checking account and went off.

I initially made the trip to find a suitable flash drive, seeing as how I couldn’t find my old one. OK, so perhaps I didn’t spend any time at all looking for it, but it gave me one hell of an excuse to upgrade, right? Ironically, Gary and I spent quite a bit of time in the toys section. Gary took the longest time looking for his Bionicle. I spent the longest time everywhere. Generally, it consisted of critiquing things we encountered, as well as making the offsided penis jokes here and there.

We visited the area where Sire mistook belts as ties. Epic fail that was. Spending some time in the clothing area, I found a formal jacket or blazer type deal that was on sale. Having cost around $90.00 before, it went down to an astonishing $15.00 range. I was tempted, but did not quite have the will. However, I did find a decent shirt, also on sale, for $3.00. It poked fun at party politics. I quite like it. More browsing found me at an area which sold shampoo for $1.30, and other hair products. Having run sparse on such things, I decided to buy.

We browsed all of Target until 7:30pm. All in all, it was a rather interesting experience. Gary seems content with his “bitching”, as he calls it, Bionicle. It’s red and has wings – which we decided could double as “bitching” swords. I, with my $3.00 shirt, $2.70 shampoos, and $14.00 2 gigabyte flash drive, found it very satisfying.

And, having sucked at minesweeper before, have a 13 second record.

Oh, and I had a chance to read through Traitor, again. Some philosophy:

“One learns to fight in playground scuffles; one learns politics in playground cliques. It is on the playground that one is initiated into the madness of mobs, the insidious mire of peer pressure, and the final, unthinkable, inarguable unfairness of existence – that some are smarter, others stronger or faster, and no force at your command can make you better than your gifts.”

Freedom

Freedom embodies the incomprehensible feeling of resolute courage among absolute fear.

To look towards the universe and and find it empty – that is freedom.