A Precursor's Legacy

Blogging has been an interesting experiment.
It's been like a journey, a process, or an adventure.
If you like participating in any of the above, then..
I highly recommend it because it allows the writer to essentially write in free-form.

In general, I really liked blogging about meaningful content.
It's been rather fresh and amusing because I don't usually blog my thoughts and input on subject matters, that actually matters.

As an assignment for the class, I thought that blogging was valuable because it provided an outlet for the imaginative and rhetoric.

However, I do believe that some of the topics (if given any to write about) can be challenging to relate towards. To write about.
If one simply doesn't care, then that affects their ability to engage their audience well.
It does make sense.
If you don't care about something, why would you bother to make other people care?

Ultimately, I learned more about myself by blogging for the class.
I learned to be able to voice my mind into literate format.
That's always a plus.

Being a student, it's always nice to have people actually comment on matters you bring up.
Then again, there are always those "bad apples" out there that tend to ruin the experience.
That's fine. Pay them no heed. Let them rot.

In a way, blogging has changed the way I perceive things.
Things of importance. Whatever the topic may be.

In the end, in my eyes, I see blogging as a tool, and as with all tools - they're useful and meaningful only in the hands who know how to use them.

I impart with you, wisdom.


P.S. I would also like to note that, as with all things -- it's a bad idea to wait until the last minute to complete an assignment or to do something.
Therefore, don't procrastinate and just finish your work ahead of time so you get a "buffer time" in case there's technical issues or emergencies that arise.

Promises

A close friend of mine passed away a few days ago.
The first of December to be exact.

So it begins:

A torrent of despair ravaged my mind, tearing my thoughts asunder.
I turn to my last bastion.
A place nonexistent.
I look,
I look,
Was there aught?
Surrounded by the broken pieces of content, I wandered-
I wandered
I wandered
I wandered
A ray of light shone through the dark, decrepit walls of the crestfallen.
Enveloped by the shadowy recesses of sorrow-
Flames..?
I lay there engulfed in the flames of purification.
A warm flame, a warm heart, offered by a kindred soul.

She said, "If you want, I'm here."
Words I embraced.
Words I needed to hear.

The promise was kept.
That was all I needed.

---------------------------------
We go through life.
Tragedies happen.
Although the disasters can't be averted-
Each of us needs someone to confide in.
At the very least, one person.
We can't always have on a suit of armor.
We aren't invincible.
We're human.
Vulnerabilities are something we share.
We're sentient beings.

What do you think?

Fate

Ever heard of those stories about your life flashing before your very eyes when you're about to die?
Yeah, those were true.

When the last breath is about to be taken-
One can't help but wonder:
What is fate?
A preordained decision?
A transitory occurrence?
What was the point?

We each possess our own experiences.
Our own lives.
Something that may or may not be guided by the hands of lady destiny.

But, just take a moment to ponder-
Ponder on where you're at in life right now.
Is that where you really want to be?
Where do you see yourself in 5, 10 years?
How are you going to make that happen?

Life is too damn short.
We hear that all the time.
People often take it with a grain of salt.
But, why not take that saying to heart?
Reality is what we make of it.
We're the writers of our own stories.
The weavers for the tapestries of fate.
Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

The Voices

Media.
It's been around for a long time.
Spanning back to the times of town criers, even further- to now

It can be a powerful tool to those who know how to wield it.
Yet, it's only powerful because we give it power - because we give a damn.
Nothing comes preordained.

Look at all the influential people we have had in history-
They were only influential because their words or actions were heeded by us.
Otherwise, they could've very well been babbling crazies...
Is it starting to make sense?
It's all about the application and intent.

The media is essentially, a double edged sword.
It can be used for good - or for bad.
It can be misused.
It can be even be used to fight the good fight.
Really, it can be used for many things.. to promote others.. or defame them.

It's like a gun.
People can use a gun to murder others... or they can use a gun to rescue others.
People can use media to harm others... or they can use media to save others.
It's really that simple.
We... go through life, underestimating our true potentials.
In the end - to realize that - media was always just a tool.
As with all tools...
Its value goes hand-in-hand with its users, the ones who give it purpose.

Male Bashing + Whiskey

So I came across a website called: Dumb Men
It's about stupid men and male bashing in commercials.
A website about how men are depicted negatively in advertising.

My first impression was rather unsettling.
I was like,
"What's with this website?"
"Why?!"
"Er, okay."
 "Haha, that's rather snide."

It was just about men doing stupid things.
Okay..?
In general, people do stupid things. Women do them too.
Not just men.
Alright, so what's the point of the website?
It was to expose the stereotypes of men in advertising. All in one spot. Well, most.
Wasn't too hard to figure out. It said so at the top of the page.

Right, I think this just boils down to the basis of stereotyping.
It doesn't really matter which demographic that's targeted.
It's still stereotyping. People know that they shouldn't do it. But they still do it.

Know why? People love being lazy.
Once someone prejudges another, the person that's being prejudged gets placed into a box.
For the most part, people love putting each other in boxes.
What was once uncertain, doesn't matter anymore.
This is because the person that's stereotyping others, applies an oversimplified conception -- a label on people they don't know. Assumptions, basically.
So that they don't have to think anymore, hence lazy.
People are comfortable knowing things.
Whether it be false or true... It's what they know.
Stereotyping strips the "I's" in individuality, beliefs, and uniqueness...
Society sucks huh?

Anyways, going to talk about a specific example now.
This one clip: 

It's an advert for whiskey.
The advert uses a sort of playful tone to appeal to the inner child of men.
It's basically saying, men will be men.
a.k.a. men doing stupid things to impress women in this instance
In a way, it implies that since men will be dumb anyways - they should just accept it.
Like it's a part of nature.
Just like how they should accept whiskey.
Like how whiskey should be a part of their nature.
And so on.

So, how about that male bashing?
Haha

Zombies!?

The long awaited Zombies!? post.

What's up with zombies?
Why do people like them?
What's it to me?

Alright, I like the idea of zombies.
I like the idea of a zombie apocalypse.
Why?


Let's face it.
Although we lean towards structure and organization-
We as human beings, are always drawn to conflict.
We have let violence establish a foothold in the world we live in.
Look at all the hate in this world.
Look at the disparity.

If we were to live in a world full of zombies...
Then everyone would get brought down to the same level.
Survival.

That's when the primal nature in all of us would get released.
Uninhibited by social norms.
Our true selves.

What am I talking about?
I'm talking about whether or not you'd throw the person closest to you under the bus to save your skin.
Whether or not you'd let the inherent human greed take over.
Whether or not you'd defy expectations and fight the good fight.

Well- when shit hits the fan, I suppose you'll realize what type of person you really are.
Maybe, just maybe - realizing that the "real" monsters aren't zombies, but actually humans.

A Capitalistic Romance

So I watched a film called Capitalism: A Love Story.
It was made by Michael Moore.

It was about (you guessed it!) Capitalism.

The synopsis goes as follows:
Filmmaker Michael Moore explores corporate greed, the global economic meltdown, and their disastrous effect on American lives. As he travels from the Heartland to the financial epicenter of New York and the halls of government in Washington, Moore delves into the price the country pays for its love of capitalism.

Right, the film made it known that it didn't promote Capitalism.
I thought that the film was okay. It tried really hard to engage the viewers by bombarding them with emotional appeal. Although - since it was so overdone, it came to a point where the anecdotes and examples were almost borderline exploitative.
It was effective, but not cool in my book.
Then again, people nowadays are very emotionally inclined. If I were the heartless filmmaker, I wouldn't see a reason as to why not use that type of appeal.

And they talked about "Dead Peasants Insurance?"
What's up with that?
That's like, uber creepy.
Basically, it's synonymous to corporate-owned life insurance.
Er. Okay.
That's probably something that was in ultra-fine print.
If their employees die, then they get money out of it?
That's messed up imo.
That's totally unethical.
...

How do would you feel if you died and some stranger got money out of it?

Distorted Truth

Let's talk about slanted reporting.
What is it?
It's basically misinformation.

Why is it important to know it's out there?
Well, would it bother you if you weren't getting told the whole story about a particular subject that affected you?
That's what slanted reporting revolves around. Bad.

Let's home in on an example.

Local Governments Turn Up The Heat On Gun Companies, Push For New ‘Smart Gun’ Technology

What's this one about?
It's about gun control.
What about it?
The report talks about how guns kill people.
In reality, guns don't kill people - people kill people.
The report states that "smart guns" will make it harder for criminals to operate handguns without a proper ID that's issued to that specific gun.
Nonsense. Who says criminals are going to use those types of guns anyways?

So what's it really saying?
I guess you could call it gun control without legislation.
It's only telling one side of the story really - drowning out the other.
Simply Anti-gun stories - not any Pro-gun stories.
This creates an impression.
An opinionated view.
A slanted view.
About guns.
It could be about anything.
It's important to realize slanted reporting happens all the time.
And then once you do realize this, the credibility of the information greatly diminishes -
Cause, why would you want to keep listening to what is, essentially a truth distorted?

Happily Ever Hereafter

What's up with people?

People nowadays seem to be too 
preoccupied with what happens after we die.

I think that what really matters is the current present that we live in.

That's the time in which memories are made.

Now, I get that it's hard to move on from the past. I also get that some people just can't escape from their past. I'm probably one of those people.

That's okay though. Take all the time that's needed.
As long as effort is being made - then we're golden.
Sometimes, it's necessary to look back at the past in order to move on to the future.

The future can be an odd concept. It's possible to predict it, yeah.
But most of the time, it's an imperfect kind of thing.
You never know what's going to happen.
You never know who you're going to meet.
You never know when you just might kick the bucket.

Which brings us to the present: making the best of what we've got now.
I believe that it's imperative to appreciate what we have going.
Cause when times change for the worse, you just might not experience that point in time ever again.

Fast Track Classes

 

So I read an article from the Arizona Republic: 

The article talks about how ASU is
offering more short classes for their students.

Short classes meaning 7.5 week courses,
as opposed to the traditional 15 week courses.

What does that mean for me as a student?
I think it's great. If people want to take those types of courses, then kudos to them.
It's not as if all the traditional 15 week courses are being made into 7.5
It's an option really.
It's a crash course.
It's nice to have that kind of flexibility.

What would it mean for me as a person who could be affected, not as a student?
It'd probably affect me most by seeing an increase into the society's work force.
If students could finish their education faster, then that means more people could get pumped into the work force. 
Which would increase the U.S. GDP, picking up the economy.
Then in turn, promoting job growth and opportunities.
Therefore, affecting taxes and social security.
Yeah.

Anyways, like I said before: it's an option.
Whether people want to take that course or not - is up to them.
There are some pros and cons to it.
It all boils down to if that individual can handle the content within that given time span.

Fighting demons

We all hit rough patches sometime in life.

For some people, past trauma haunts them so.
Nick Portokalos once said,
"Don't let your past dicate who you are, but let it be part of who you will become."
It spoke volumes to me when I first came across it.
Being stuck in the past is not a pleasant experience, if we want a pleasant experience we have to venture out of the clutches of history.

"We need to fight the good fight."
Did you know that this was a quote from the bible?
It's true: Timothy 6:12.

By fighting the good fight, we fight our inner demons.
The demons of negativity that plagues our souls, tainting it.

We often struggle, surviving with ourselves.
No matter what, we keep finding something to fight for.
There is no shortcut. Only those who continue to make sincere efforts become strong. Strong in will. Relentlessly remaining positive, that's what it's about.
Not letting negativity stain your soul.


You can dream the world is yours.

Immortality

Born, we live, and we die
What's the meaning of life, if life is so short?
To each, their own.

But my meaning is this:

We're like fireworks, spending most of our time getting set up.
Only to be launched into the wintry skies of tranquility.
Content. Life goes on.
We're like flowers that bloom and vanish in an instant.
Flowers of fireworks.
Transitory, we are.


Some dream of immortality.
Some dream of the sweet release that death provides.
Some dream of blood and bone.

What is immortality? Living forever, and staying the same?
Then.. wouldn't death be considered this?
That's just the delineation.

Look at us: we adapt, we change, we live, we survive.
We do what needs to be done.
Constantly adapting to our surroundings, we are immortal.

Your own life depends on its success.
Living beautifully until the end, with an array of explosions.
What is living forever, if we don't live?

Holier than thou..?

Acting Holier than thou..?
No.
Stop.
Please, stop.

Look, we've all probably met a few "arrogant bastards" before.
They ridicule.
They lie.
They subject.
They're ASSHOLES.
.
.

(sigh)
. . .

Is it so difficult to treat people the way you want to be treated..?
Is it such an odd, complex ideology that it baffles your mind..?

Bob Marley once said, "Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect and I don't live to be, but before you start pointing fingers... make sure your hands are clean!"

Yes, make damn sure.
It's pretty simple.
Do unto others as you would have done to you.
It says more about your character than anything else.

Eesh. What do you think?

About other blogs

So you want my opinions on other blogs?

Sure.

But first, what do I think of blogs now?

I see them as a sort of medium: a means to mass communication.
Like a vehicle to convey ideas or information.
They can provide useful for sure, other times.. not really-

Here are some other blogs I looked at:
I'm not going to rate them numerically,
I'm just going to say whether I liked them or not and why.
Purely my subjective opinion.

The Huffington Post

It's an online news place for topics like US politics, entertainment, style, world news, technology and comedy. I didn't really like this one because a lot of the content is politics related. Something I'm not too fond of. The information about technology and world news is okay though. I suppose I'm neutral on this one then.




______________________________________________________________

TMZ
  
Celebrity gossip, entertainment news, covering of celebrity news, and Hollywood rumors. Nothing about this one interests me because I definitely don't like this kind of content. It's cut, dry, and meaningless to me.

Blah.

More blah.

  

______________________________________________________________

 

Lifehacker

This blog covers a wide range of topics including: Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux programs, iOS and Android, as well as general life tips and tricks. I like this one because I find the information to be very useful. It's nice that some of the information can be applied to daily life.



So yeah, what kind of blogs do you like?

Ooo, it's pink. How nice.

So I saw something earlier:

Where is the love?

Hey you!
Yes, you~

First impressions are great huh? Anyways,

Food, Inc. Etc.

Watch this first

Futuristic Dystopia sounds like a bad gig

What now?

I viewed another video earlier too.

I found this appalling because it could this could totally happen later on.
If this is what the future entails, then I am not amused.

I'm all for convenience, but there must be moderation in things.
We have to draw a line somewhere and not let convenience control our lives.
This is what I meant by not promoting laziness! (refer to Be my techie?)

As much as we love technology, we cannot let this happen to ourselves.

In the movie clip, there was this one human who couldn't even get back up after falling. He couldn't even help himself up. I thought that was really pathetic. To be able to experience the deterioration of their own skeletal structure through gluttony/slothfulness and be fine with it? Wow, am I in dismay.
There was also this instance where Wall-E was trying to get to Eve until this one human became an obstacle. The human that blocked Wall-E from getting to Eve, was "busy" talking with another person (on the screen). She didn't even realize what was going on right in front of her face. I thought that was pretty short-sighted.

I see how this future is possible. I see why it 'd be possible. I see how it'd be possible.
But I'm sure that this type of future would not viable to the human species as a whole.
If we really look at this short clip, we can see that the people have become too comfortable and lost the willpower to do anything for themselves. They weren't even contributing to society! You know why? Because they let technology take over

I feel that futuristic dystopia would be our downfall because we would've embraced the blissful ignorance of illusion without ever having an opportunity to realize the painful truth of reality.

That is all. Feel free to add.

Profane Profanity

I know that everyone has an opinion, but are swearwords really necessary..?

Profanity, I'm not sure why we use it.
Is it to express ourselves..?
If so, isn't that such a meager way to do so..?
So many forms of expression can be sought out instead:

1). Dancing
2). Drawing
3). Singing
4). Writing
5). and much more!

I'm not demanding that someone be considerate, I'm just asking if that someone can word their thoughts in a better, well-mannered way.

Oh wells, it seems people use swearwords because it makes it feel better.
(Not saying that I haven't used a few myself haha)

But if we really think about it, those words lets us express our emotions instantaneously.

I think that the reason why we swear is because it's sort of a defensive mechanism.

When we're:

• Angry, it allow us to vent off the steam
• Threatened, it allows us to seemingly intimidate the other party (therefore obtaining a sense of security)
• Cynic, it allows us to feel justified in whatever that person is doing (oh, I'm right, you're wrong attitude)
• and the list goes on

I suppose that some can swear, just for the sake of swearing.
I guess that makes sense.

That's it for now, tell me what you think^^

Be my techie? or not (hah!)

Technology? I wonder...


I stumbled across a video earlier.

I thought that this was pretty interesting because it goes to show how far we've come along in our journey towards the concept of convenience.

I suppose I can relate to it because I like convenience myself. I'm all for something that makes life easier or more comfortable. If we ran out of groceries, we could just have it delivered (according to the product in the video) right to our doorstep. Time wouldn't wasted roaming around the store. It can be spent on something else.

I don't promote laziness, but it's nice have a labor-saving device.
I think we all can relate this because we like things that benefit us.
It's good to have technology be useful.

Any thoughts on this?

Psht... love, do you copy? over psht

This is something that's going to be rather concise (maybe).  I'm sure everyone has experienced a rush of exhilaration, at some point in their lives. One of those things, could've been love.

From my experience, I've found that there's some really great ways of communicating with others, in the tango of love.

Here, I'll list a few off:


Favors: Pretty much being helpful, all around; helping out when you can really makes a difference.

Presents: Presents! Who doesn't love presents haha. It's normal for people to give each other gifts, here and there. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just needs to show that you put some thought into it. As they say, "It's the thought that counts!" lol

Quality Time: Oh yes. Spending quality time with those you adore, is very important because doing things together and giving each other some undivided attention, is what it's all about~

Kudos: Compliments! Anything! Just say it! It builds self esteem like none other!

Touchy Feely: Sometimes a massage, holding hands, or light kiss on the cheek does the trick!

Just a few things from my endeavors that I thought was worth sharing~!
And remember, in order to understand each other, you need to communicate with each other. If you want relationships to work out, connections and efforts must be made.
Everyone has their own way of expressing love.

Thanks for listening :)

Credits to Gary Chapman's book of  "The Five Love Languages"