I was a Teenage Anarchist

So last class I went to we talked a bit about the angry punk rock movement. About how these angsty teens tried to change society by creating angry music that put down cops and the "man". Well I just found a movie by accident called The other F word and I think it is fantastic. I made a statement in class that went sort of like this:

You are right, I don't think I will understand the punk rock age because I don't know why they have to be so angry and volatile to get a point across

So I still stand by my statement and I encourage everyone to watch this movie because it almost answers my question. Basically the other F word is father. These punk rockers rebelled for years against the thing they have now become: parents. One of the very last lines in the trailer I watched is:

"I want to keep holding on to the feeling that we can change the world, but maybe the way we change it is by raising better kids"

So maybe we can change the world with hugs after all...

I LOVE TED

It is so hard for me to pin down something to blog about   -_____-  but I have been thinking lately about a question that gets asked frequently. What do you want to do before you die. I think everyone subconsciously thinks about this every day since we are constant;y reminded of our own mortality on a daily bases when we watch the news. I have figured out what I want to do before I die and it is so vague but so powerful at the same time.

I want to present an idea on TED talks before I die. I don't care what it is about but I want it to be of the up most importance. I have so many passions and so many influenced pulling me in every direction that I just hope one day I can make something happen and it will be so profound that I can present it :)

I mean.. Who doesn't want to change the world?

Ok Go!

If this video isn't the epitome of art and technology than I don't know what is. Also I do not own this nor did  make it, Im just sharing the youtube video with the world... or my three followers which include myself... -______-

Second Life is twice as boring as real life...

I am sorry to report that I hate Second Life. I surprised myself to be totally honest. I thought I would love it. I would not classify myself as a hardcore gamer but I do love to play RPG's and some MMORPG's like World of Warcraft. And yes I do realize that second life is not meant to be a game and I did try very hard to keep that in mind while attempting to figure out this virtual world, but as I said before I just do not like Second Life one bit and I have a couple of reasons why...


1.) What is up with the graphics? Seriously guys...

I get that this program is free and the virtual world is huge and all that jazz, but seriously? Come on, I have played NES games that looked more realistic than this virtual reality. I have also played free games that moved 100X smoother than Second Life. It really is one of the biggest hindrances for me. And not only does the site have horrible graphics that load slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through molasses, but my character runs so ridiculously slow I think I might get an anxiety attack if I play for too long.


2.) So... Bored... Need... Mission... Goal... Something... ZZZZZ

Just like in real life, I need something I am aiming for. A driving force behind everything I do. I don't really have anything like a goal or mission in this Second Life... Or do I? I feel like I am walking around aimlessly hoping to find something interesting or fun. I found a huge flower which kept my attention for all of a millisecond... it was pretty. Aside from the assignment given to me in class I don't see a reason to continue exploring or playing at all.


3.) No Jump button? WTH!

Seems like a very small thing to some people, but to not be able to make my character jump is driving me completely insane. After playing many many games that have you jump over things or climb up stuff to find hidden items its almost second nature for me to hit my space button and see my character hurl its little body through the air... but not in Second Life. In this world you can walk, run, and even fly... but no jumping allowed. UGHHH! What kind of purgatory have I landed in???


4.) Kind of branches off of #2 but... Why even play second life when I have my own real life?

I just do not see the point/fun of having another life just like the one I already have. See, when I play a game, its to escape the life I have now for something cooler, more exciting and more fantastical than sitting on my couch bored because I have no money. I play because I want to be a space hero and save billions upon billions of creatures from certain death. I play because I want to exercise my mind by solving puzzles and thinking critically or making impulse decisions while in combat. I play to feel important and powerful and have a sense of control over my virtual world. I most certainly do not play to be a plain old human like I am in my real boring life. I like to live in a fantasy world where dragons, elves, and monsters exist. I like games that let me do things I would never be able to do in my real life without taking some hallucinatory drugs. And besides the fact that I am just weird and like mythical creatures, Everything I enjoy in my real life is a physical activity. I like sports and hanging out, road trips, drawing, cuddling, and just being in physical contact with the world around me.

This leads me to my final point.

There is nothing for me in the world of Second Life...
aside from the fact that I could (and did) create an avatar that is a dog, I really have no interest in the program. I know that I can be someone else and I can go places that I never would have been able to go (like the Sistine Chapel), but that is exactly the reason I love living life. Its the challenges that keep me going. the game of 'will I make enough money to pay my rent?', or 'will I land an awesome job that will intern help me to support my hobbies like surfing, snowboarding and traveling?' or even 'will I ever be able to see the Sistine chapel?'. Also, I don't care what you say, until you have walked inside that chapel in person, you have not really experienced it.

This is a quote from Robin Williams' Character in Good Will Hunting:

This is where the lecture happened... they look happy

"So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo (art), you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women (love), you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare (more art) at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared sh*tless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my f*cking life apart. You're an orphan right? 

This is the painting

(Will nods)

You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief." 

I personally love the line about smelling the Sistine Chapel. I also love this movie. Basically the idea is that you can read all the books you want and run through all the virtual realities you want but to be there, in the very place that the magnificent mural was painted does not compare to you looking at it through a screen and it never will. You don't get the goosebumps from experiencing the real thing. It's just not the same, and I want to go there one day and smell it for myself... then go get a bunch of caramels with Matt Damon :)

Why Can't You Just Be Happy?

I know it's totally just a movie but this one line is too true to ignore. In the Matrix, Agent Smith explains a little about the computer program all of the trapped humans think their "real" life is. He says that they tried many versions of the program. They had peaceful utopian worlds with no war or destruction but we rejected them all. We accepted this world of pain and misery because with out it we have no way to measure happiness or reality for that matter. It's what drives us to be better. We work hard so that we will be prosperous and happy, not poor and sad. What the hell would we do everyday if we were just happy go lucky all the time? I would be sitting on a beach somewhere sippin' on a Mai Tai. actually ... I think I just might do that.

So no, we can never just be happy. It would bring our world to a stand still. I'm happy with my life but i still am not happy all day long, things aggravate me, I get hurt, someone dies, arguments, rambling... ugh I don't know. Maybe I'm a pessimist (or a realist.. it's the same thing).

Evidence... Why can't I take anything on faith alone?

So.. I have been procrastinating once again and I have been listening to TED talks instead of putting my floor plans into Vectorworks. *Sigh* Just something about wednesdays makes me not want to work. So anyway, I'm watching these talks, which I started out watching one about will our kids be a different species than us. It is about a theory that we are currently experiencing rapid brain evolution that could explain the rise of autism and the like. The main premise of the talk was that we are taking in so much data we are becoming hyper sensitive and our brains are in the process of dealing with that. This led me to looking at the TED talks about education and how we learn because I am designing a museum which I am planning to employ a new-er way of learning. I want to integrate games into the education process, kids learn better when the learning process is fun... and what is more fun than playing a game?... Nothing, thats what. I found that this isn't such a novel idea. I watched about 3 TED talks on education through games and interactive learning techniques when I realized something...

Everyone in those videos had a reason for believing that games were the best way to teach.

Evidence

I have always been praised when thinking logically about spending money, topics of discussion in school, designing interior spaces (evidence based design), dealing with relationships (problematic, plutonic and romantic), and probably more aspects.. BUT, when it came to religion... I get called a cynic and close minded when I say I see no reason in believing in God. Why is that?

When it comes to religion I know I have to tread very lightly so as not to offend anyone's beliefs. All I am talking about in this blog are my own beliefs, which do not directly relate to anyone else on the planet. Just me...

With that said, I do not believe in a god or any of the current religions there are out there in the world today. I do not belong to a religion and I don't know who is correct, or who the "real" chosen ones are. I know I was supposed to be catholic (I think) but I refused, even as a child, to go to church. I just cannot bring myself to believe that an intelligent being created the universe. Plain and simple. Especially not when all the evidence points to the contrary (evolution).

You might say I have no faith. That even though there is no proof of God I should just believe that there is a higher power or a god-like figure watching over me.

George Micheal's got some... why don't I have any :/

Every other aspect of my life depends on definitive proof, but religion needs none? Why?

If you look at the romans and greeks and... lets say "primitive"... cultures, they created religions based on things they didn't understand. Strange happenings that just couldn't be explained with theknowedge they had, so they tossed there hands in the air and said it must be the gods. But now that we have been proving things through advanced methods of a scientific nature... might that mean (just like marriage) that religion may be phased out of our evolving society?


I do not pretend to know the answers, I am merely questioning things I do not understand. For all I know the Mormons probably got it right (thank you South Park).


If stagnation is bad for the progression of humans.. isn't it bad to stop trying to find the answers and simply say that strange happenings are "a sign from god" or that it was a "miracle"?

In the words of Sherlock Holmes, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

He says this after Watson tries to get him to believe in a super natural cause for a death in the movie. Holmes replies with that little beauty of a quote... but if you think about it... can't the same be said about religion?

I'm not sure, and I will probably not know the answer to this question until I die and see Saint Peter and the pearly white gates receding into the distance as I plummet into an excerpt out of Dante's Inferno. Hopefully it's a lot like the game.. and we've come full circle :)

Now thats my kind of religion right there.

Cracked Knowledge

I love cracked.com because they blog about everything and ... they like to blog in lists. I'm not sure why but that makes it cooler. Any way, while reading through the titled under the subject of Cracked Science, I came across an articled titled 5 Absurd Sci-Fi Scenarios That Science is Actually Working On. If even any of what is talked about in this article is true than I no longer want to be a part of this society... Or maybe I do. I feel like we are moving so fast without even asking if what we are doing is morally wrong. It's aslo highly possible that the government has been hiding loads of information from us. either way, you should really read this article and, if nothing else, get a chuckle from the snarky/sarcastic writing style they are known for.

Ughhh, No Sex Please I'm Too Tired

I can't sleep and I don't ant to work on my thesis project. I don't know why but I'm just not in the mood and I have nothing to show for my meeting tomorrow at 8 A.M.








I also worked earlier today so I'm emotionally and physically done. I don't enjoy being around too many people for extended periods of time. I like being alone better.






All I really want right now is to play my video game and escape into a world were I am an awesome heroine who saves the galaxy from the destruction of synthetic-organic beings by uniting all of the alien/human/AI races in an all out suicide mission... sounds a lot more interesting than my real life... and I get unlimited do overs if I die.



The game that I am referring if you do not know is Mass Effect and at the current moment it happens to be (in my opinion) the greatest game ever made (aside from the worse ending ever made). The story line is brilliantly written and it actually parallels real problems/threats that we face today. The creation of true AI and what happens when the fight back, the combination of synthetic and organic life and is that the way of the future, and (above all else) humanity discovering its place among the (previously unknown) galactic community (There must be life out there, we just need to find that Mass Relay!).

All the races.. well.. almost. The Geth are missing (AI)

I just realized while reading No Sex Please, Were Post-Human, that the game is even greater than I previously thought. Some of the papers and studies that were referenced in the excerpt I believe the writers of Mass Effect we influenced by heavily. Its late right now and I'm too tired to give examples so I will return to this later.

On a side note, No Sex Please, Were Post-Human was so incredibly hard for me to read. By the time I reached the end of a sentence I had forgotten what the beginning was about. I had to literally read it out loud and take notes/draw diagrams to decode the meaning of some sentences.






...But I guess if I had the vocabulary and knowledge, I would flaunt it too. :)

EXTREMESTS: don't read this post!

I have heard about so many barbie controversies that I can barely count them all on one hand. I've heard of the unmarried barbie and the body shape of barbies and people who change their appearance to look like barbies, but I have yet to hear of anyone complain of the Ken dolls being too fit or not representing a real body type (or not wearing his wedding ring *tisk tisk tisk*). He has perfectly toned abs, calves, and biceps, but... the absence of genitalia... sorry to be lewd but its true. If you have ever changed your doll's clothes you know what I'm talking about.

But why are we all up in arms that these dolls are not anatomically correct? So what if they are not the right proportions and not every girl or boy will look like that when they grow up. Thats just how we show that something isn't human, we dumb down the features. look at Raggedy Anne and cabbage patch dolls...

Anne looks NOTHING like a person at all and the cabbage patch girl is short and round and doesn't have the right proportions at all... but no one cares about that do they.

Long story short we need to step up the parenting in this country. Instead of kids learning their information from T.V how about when we buy our kids barbies we talk to them to make sure that they are aware that these dolls are not a model for what ALL of humanity should look. It is just a TOY... not reality.

This argument can be said for many things but I don't want to get myself into a frenzy.

Lets all take a little bit of responsibility for our selves and tell your kids what is real or fake please so were not all messed up when we're grown.

Barbies

I will never ever ever get plastic surgery other than to correct a physical ailment (i.e.: breast reduction because of back problems). I am by no means fully comfortable with my body 100% which is really sad to admit but even so, I am never going to let someone make me feel so bad about myself that I would alter my appearance with a KNIFE. Also the fact that men are not worried and/or sickened by the fact that women will do this to make themselves more attractive is even scarier to me.

Also, just a little personal fact about me.. I would not date a person who has had cosmetic surgery to enhance a physical feature. If you don't love yourself than how can anyone else?

I may have a different perspective also because I was raised by my dad who is a think skinned portuguese man and my mom who is a tom boy and grew up playing tackle football and rugby with the boys. I was brought up to be proud and confident and I was told that if you be yourself and someone doesn't like what they see than they're not someone you want to have around anyway.

I sincerely hope I haven't offended anyone I know personally and everyone has their own opinion... I just happen to frown on this subject matter.