These Days of Mine

Gamers Explained?

2010-05-27T21:32:00.008+02:00

OK I'm a gamer. I admit... guilty. And if I am to add it all up I think I've spent several thousands of hours of my life playing games since I was about 14 or so.

I still remember the summer I was supposed to learn for my university admission exam; really serious business if I ever wanted to get a bachelor degree/education; I remember all I did that summer, from morning to dawn, was to play hot seat games with my friend trying to postpone the inevitable (having to prepare for the exam).

Was it wrong? Not a chance it was probably the best thing to do, I would have gone crazy had I spent all that time learning instead. It actually helped me study much faster, because it was in the way, I needed to get it done so I could play. :)

Now at some point in a gamer's life comes the question: "was I really wasting all of that time doing totally unimportant things when I could've been saving the world instead?". Or substitute "world" with whatever feels important for the person. This question, while important I admit, won't last long as soon the next gaming session starts in a try to forget about it and evade any answer :)

Jane McGonigal doesn't answer that question either, but she changed it from "Are gamers wasting time?" to "How can we make RL more like a game?" or "How can we design games that have an impact on RL?". Nice twist:

Who knows maybe our jobs would be so much more cooler if it were like an RPG. "Awesome, I've submitted another CL and got 200xp so I got to level 10 software engineer!" :D

And I share her believe, if you make a gamer believe it's a game... they can accomplish almost anything! As soon as we think the outcome doesn't really matter as "it's just a game"... we're doing so much better.

Bacteria... know what they're doing

2009-04-14T22:40:00.006+02:00

So apparently bacteria function like organized criminals or the secret societies: quiet until they reach the required infiltration level to be sure an attack cannot be stopped and then they fully launch their attack. I like the thought that even single cell organisms outsmart humans at times.

Said in the '70s... to no effect?

2008-12-10T10:09:00.010+01:00

We will see how very important it is to bring about, in the human mind, the radical revolution. The crisis is a crisis in consciousness. A crisis that cannot, anymore, accept the old norms, the old patterns, the ancient traditions. And, considering what the world is now, with all the misery, conflict, destructive brutality, aggression, and so on… Man is still as he was. Is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive. And, he’s built a society along these lines.

J. Krishnamurti

Perhaps more than 30 years after these words were spoken I sent them to most of my friends in the form of a video. Some fell asleep on it in the first minute. Some didn't find the time for it, considering the demands of modern life. And in my opinion, all are cases of the omnipresent ADD of the modern man.

I (used to) enjoy sharing and discussing matters of the life. Yet now, my rare occasions of a discussion resembles web surfing. My conversation partner reads through my words and before I could finish my statement follows the links in a word. In less than a minute we're talking about completely different subjects. But just like web surfing, we both have the vague impression that somehow the conversation is still linked to the "home page" we've left of.

EDIT: Initially I didn't want to post the videos just to make it more entertaining to search and find it, for the easily distracted :-)

Farming

2008-09-08T23:05:00.003+02:00

Farm·ing
a.

Pertaining to agriculture; devoted to, adapted to, or engaged in, farming; as, farming tools; farming land; a farming community.

Farm·ing
n.

The business of cultivating land.

Or so Webster's Dictionary says. I think I have a vague memory of that. But I am not sure. Think I might have met a farmer once, and he was doing exactly that, but it was early in my childhood and my memory wasn't well formed.

Farming is the killing of monsters for the purpose of gathering items, experience, gold, Faction, or promotion points and is considered to be one of the quickest and easiest ways to amass wealth.

Ah, now that sounds more familiar. You learn more about it here.

So yes, I do like playing video games and I happen to play Guild Wars, why that and not something else is besides the point (they're all the same). Now let's go back to the dictionary again:

game
n.

An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.

So... who exactly was the sick mind behind the idea of "farming" in video games? I can imagine the following discussion in a team developing games:

"- Oh shit! We worked 5 years on this game and the test users finished it in 10 hours! What do we do? What do we do?"
" - Oh well... we can't provide new content, that would actually mean working to make the game interesting and exciting. And even if we did that for a month or two, we definitively don't want to do that for the next two years! I mean that would mean us really working on the thing!"
" - Yeah, but what to keep our players busy with while we monthly take money out of their accounts for doing nothing?"
" - Well... I know! We can make them like work!"
" - Work?"
" - Yeah, you know like when you have a daily job and you have to go mine for ore or something."
" - Hmmm... mine for ore. So we just put some ore mines here and there... oh I have an even greater idea make the mining succeed or fail randomly! I mean it's not like a real miner in a mine, though some of them were dying weren't they?"
" - Yeah, that's a great idea! If we make mining to give in return random items and the cool ones will be rare I bet players will just mine forever hoping to get the rare items. I mean you know hope dies last!"
" - Excellent! That should keep many busy, but how about those that don't like mining?"
" - Oh well... make them farm!"

Brilliant, just brilliant. From game "an activity providing entertainment or amusement" to "mining and farming". Brilliant I tell you. No one would ever want to farm or mine in RL (that is Real Life) but they would all do it online! As if the modern man has so much free time and his job is not "job" enough, so we need to give modern man another "job" for the spare time.

WTF? Really! WTF are you people doing? WTF are you gamers doing? Farming? And WTF are you game developers doing? Throwing work at people and *charging* them for working??? And making millions while at it?

I want a *game* I am *not* looking for a job! And I find mining and farming to be crappy jobs even if i was looking for one.

all things to do...

2008-05-07T21:38:00.004+02:00

were done already.

So I am really bored. Sometimes. Most of the times. Maybe I am going into some middle age mood, though I am not officially that old. I just don't really find things interesting anymore. Like none at all. Not even a bit.

I find everything I do, and everything the others do... dull, boring and repetitive. Only that I have a better memory than others, and it bothers me more. Or that's how I like to explain it to myself. I wonder what others tell themselves to get over it. Anyway. So I am bored. And then I say to myself: "OK go dig up some old hobbies and try them". But I don't get too far.

So I used to like photography. I used to put care into any picture I ever took, try to find hidden things to the naked eye that the camera will augment and stuff. But in the end, the picture is much narrower than the real thing and I've spent like five minutes trying to get it (or fake it depending on what I'm trying there) and I forgot or lost my chance to actually live that thing. Like see it with my own two, you know?

Never mind, I usually catch up with the wonderful trips I'm taking and the wonderful things I've seen when I get back at home and look at my own pictures. Not to mention that there isn't any centimeter on this planet that hasn't been already photographed. So why bother? You'll find the centimeter you're pointing your camera at on the web anyway. Even better quality.

Oh, and then there is blogging. Like if photographing all centimeters of the planet was not enough. We want to also record and share all the crap anyone could ever produce. Textually for a change. Well I am bored of text and writing as well. All letters have been already used in all possible combinations. Like try to find a name for a new blog for an instance, that is the real challenge.

So how do our chances of originality in this world stand? Like anybody cares. We just need to forget fast enough and there we go, we reinvented originality. So I reckon the attention and memory span is going down in the modern world... this ain't going to be good for me.

Now back to work people.

I do believe in God

2008-03-06T21:37:00.005+01:00

But...

God does not tell me my religion is the only "true" religion and the only way to reach Him.
God does not tell me to be intolerant with other people believes.
God does not tell me I should make everyone believe in what I believe.
God does not tell me to be intolerant with other sexual orientations.
God does not tell me we did not evolved from monkeys.
God does not tell me I should ignore scientific facts.
God does not tell me to blindly follow believes and give up my reasoning.

People do!

And I don't trust people.
Specially people that "speak God's words".
God does not need people to speak for Him.

When are you going to have... ?

2008-01-25T08:54:00.000+01:00

A physical check?... No.
An eye check?... No.
A dental check?... No.
Time to rest and have fun?... No.

So, we went home for the holidays, we are still in our 20s and most of the people, some I cannot even call friends, some I cannot even call acquaintances asked us the same question: "When are you going to have kids?".

Wtf? I don't go to people I barely know to ask them that. I don't go to friends to ask them than either, what would I care? It's not like I am going to raise and educate their kid, or like they are doing me any personal favor by having one.

And I just don't get this. So if you get married that means you have to deliver... and I mean you have to, there is absolutely no other reason for getting married, is there!?

And I really don't understand this question. Maybe I am too pragmatic and plastic, but am I actually asked in which nights we choose to have sex and not use any contraceptive methods? Or what exactly does this question mean?

I can just imagine people planning like: "oh well, I want to deliver a kid around 26th of December, so minus 8 months and some weeks that would mean we have to start from around the middle-end of April... so oh boy, April is going to be a very exciting month. Can barely wait to tell my wife!"... Tada! ????
And you know what is freaking me out? I suspect some people actually do that.

But in case you have forgotten we are kind of like "one too many" on this planet. And since I am very much aware of this, here's my answer to "When are you going to have a kid?":

"When are you planning to die? So that you make some room."

PS: And if you want a kid and can't wait to get it, that's your problem... so get busy with your sexual partner (whoever that is)... and stop asking. Really, it's offensive and intrusive and none of your business.

So... how about sex tonight?

2007-11-22T22:11:00.000+01:00

Do you ever wonder how the modern world would look like if people would be truly free to express their opinions about sex and that would not be a tabu subject? I thought about it once.

So let's see, what if this conversation would be nothing but just a normal lunch conversation:
"- So I was thinking... how about you and I having sex this evening?
"- Oh... That's flattering but I am really not interested, sorry.

or
"- You know there is this thing I wanted to bring up.
"- ...
"- I was thinking that maybe tonight you would like to come over my place and have sex?
"- Oh, I am really glad you brought this up, I was going to say the same thing! What time shall we meet?
"- I know, let's first go to the cinema and see this great new movie, so we could meet at about 7?

or (a work coleague)
"I'm throwing a sex party tonight and you're all invited. Significant others are welcome, of course."

These would be perfectly ok, I guess. If I don't wanna go to that party I don't go, but at least I know what's it about.

And isn't this exactly what being adult is supposed to mean? Being able to say yes or no? I know you're going to say this is not as simple as that, sex is more complicated. Like women can't just say no because they don't want to hurt a man's feelings...

Well if they can't say no because they care more about "that man's feelings" than their own feelings and would even accept having sex with someone they don't want to because they wouldn't wanna risk hurting their feelings... ?!?! I would say that's a very different issue and needs to be addressed immediately, most likely through proper education. So on...

And what would become of the world if sex would not be as tabu? Well... one thing is for sure: people would not be fascinated about the looks of a blond that can't sing but promises to show more of her breasts with each show she has. Like Ms. Spears for example. And they would actually care more about the voice of a singer rather than the looks. Why? Simply because a sexually satisfied crowd cannot be as easily manipulated by "badly singing" blond breasts.

Is this independence desirable? No, of course not. Independent people cannot be made to buy things they don't need just because it gets them closer to the object of their adulation: the blond breasts, they can't sing of course, but are very well illustrated on the perfume box! You don't buy perfume, you don't need it, you buy the breasts, that is what you need :-)

Oh well, we are all slaves of our desires and sex is meant to be tabu so there is at least one desire marketing departments can take advantage of. And it all works really well.

So have fun now with this Google tech talk about: "sex on the internet, the realities of porn, sexual privacy" by Violet Blue... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1y9ysYNCKE

Dumbledore vs Burma

2007-10-27T09:39:00.000+02:00

I recently wrote my first reaction when I've heard that Dumbledore is gay here. So let me elaborate.

I believe it is part of being human that curiosity is rose by absurd, and a new title like "Dumbledore is Gay!" is absurd enough to get you read it. It happened to me as well. Also part of being human is the big probability that by the time you finished to read the absurd news you forgot that it was the absurd title that got you reading it and you get engaged in discussions on the user comments part of the site presenting the news as if it was actually "real" and something to be concerned about.

So there you go, all these reactions of teenagers (which by the way, are more likely not to be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction) and grownups about how Dumbledore is gay and how bad or good that is.

In the mean time people in Burma die. The news titles suggests that there is a bloody revolt of some sort happening in Burma. But this is not absurd is it? This does not attract ones attention as much as Dumbledore. Why? Because this is actually "normal" and we have gotten used to things like this happening everyday.

And this is truly sad! Because if we react to absurd news, we don't react to "normal" news like human rights violations in different parts of the world, or worse, people being killed because they fight for these basic rights for them and/or for their children.

Now why I do I care about what actually happens in Burma today and I am not very concerned about the sexual orientation of fiction characters?

Because it reminds me of Romania 20 years ago. It reminds me of the people that would give their lives for freedom. And I do not think the western world today understand what that means anymore.

It means that you wake up in the morning, you wash your face, you dress up, you think about all the injustice that happens to you, to your friends, to your family and you know they will all happen again today. But you also know that today you are not going to take it anymore, you also know that today you are so fed up with it that you would rather die than living one more day lacked by your freedom to be.

So you tie your shoes, you kiss your children and go in the streets marching for freedom. And you know you might not be back. And they know you might not be back. But you have to do it, if not for you, then for them waiting at home, hoping you will be back. And most probably he/she was never back.

Now just take a look at another part of the world. The most important, how they like to think of themselves: US. How many people in the US would have the strength to defend their freedom with their life? To be honest I think if the personal freedoms in the US would be threatened (and they are) they would sit on their fat asses and read about Dumbledore. The only thing that might get them to react would be a ban on McDonalds most probably. Europe is a bit different as people do react more asking their rights and not taking in all the crap from politicians, like the recent strike in France. But still...

Anyway I don't think that this is the fault of anybody. It might be the fault of the society for improper education, but not even that. Simply it is hard to understand what happens in Burma if you never experienced something similar. And this is the saddest thing. And this is why it is more interesting if Dumbledore is Christian or Muslim or heterosexual or homosexual.

And that person I was talking before, never came back home... and nothing in Burma has changed because of their sacrifice. Just that some parents are left without their child, or some children without their parent all in the dream of freedom. And the world leaders sleep well at night very aware of all that happens, and we sleep well at night not aware of much.

And Dumbledore is gay, and that is outrageous. Or is it?

Dumbledore is NOT gay!

2007-10-25T21:31:00.000+02:00

Dumbledore is...

Oh wait! Dumbledore never... was anything but fiction. And I never read the books anyway as there are plenty of better books to read and just this much time.

In the meantime people in Burma are being killed because they want to be free, people in Africa still die of hunger, forests are being destroyed... just the usual.

But hey, to hell with all that! Dumbledore is gay!

Dreaming about the past (answer to criticism)

2007-07-16T13:09:00.000+02:00

The usual critique for this blog contains a few statements that I'd like to answer to.

The first one, and perhaps the most important is that we dream too much about the past. "You see the past in such an ideal light" - and that is wrong.

As a matter of fact, I would say that there is NOTHING to dream about the past societies. The past societies did nothing to preserve the earth, as a matter of fact, the effects of the past societies are the ones that we endure now! So no, we don't have an ideal light over the past societies, but we do mourn the nature as it was in the pre-industrialized world. We do love our computers, our life-span of over 70 years and our health - and we are healthy since it does take more than an epidemic to kill hundred of thousands of people. Of course, we still have epidemics that kill a lot of people (look at the HIV epidemic), but that is somewhat different, since this epidemic looks rather human inflicted than nature-inflicted. We have now the cleanest water in history - because we know how to clean it up and all, and we have it bottled. It's not cheap, but health is important - the fun fact is that having the cleanest water in history we still drink the most poisonous stuff like chemically created carbonated sodas. But, aside all that, we are healthier.

The second criticism against this blog and against people like us goes with the fact that we are too critical. There are wheels spinning, the people are starting a new trend - a 'save the planet' trend. Well, I don't believe that there is really a 'save the planet' trend, but there sure is a 'look at me trying to save the planet' trend going on. So is this true that we are too critical? Perhaps we are. Perhaps we are talking about stuff that contradict too much our own lives, and perhaps we should do more, talk less, and do that silently. Well, my guess is that this is not possible. That we can't have surgery without the blade cutting the skin - and we can't just ignore the facts that we see. We talk about them because we want people to know, and spread the word. We see other people moving stuff, we see other people thinking great things, and we try to spread the word. It's the least we can do.

We do criticise, but there is no progress without critique. As a matter of fact, we evolved like this because we didn't criticise the ways we did evolve. We did grow fast, but it was better a slow evolution that would put us at peace with our own house. And here comes the ancient wisdom that we talk about in our blogs. Because our society is now affected by gluttony, greed and desires and all these are coming back against us to hit like a hammer. We are the victims of the past societies. But now it's too late to criticise them, so we criticise ourselves.

We are biased, some say. I've read some weeks ago an article written by Vaclav Klaus that said that not the climate is at risk, but the freedom of thought. He is true, as far as he is concerned. The idea that the climate change is a propaganda might be true, and I took some time to think this over. But somehow it seems quite different the world we live in, and I know for sure that weather is a whole lot different nowadays and a few years ago (like the '80s). Of course, Mr. Klaus argues with the arguments of a person that fought the totalitarian movement of the soviets, but perhaps this is not the case. You choose for yourselves. But even the most ardent opponents of the 'global warming' did shift in time - from denying the phenomena to stating now that 'humans have nothing or too little to do with it'.

And we have some harsh proves. I am not talking about some politician's movie, but I think that anyone who lived in New Orleans does have a say or two about the global warming. The phenomena is there. The question is: do we accept it and try to get over it? Or do we just fight for our freedom of speech (which I don't see in what way is affected) and die of some desert disease in our temperate-climate homes?

Yes, I have some unruly thoughts about some oponents of the global warming. I never thought I would hear this, but I hear more often: "but warmer is better!". And I fail to see it - I fail to see why warmer is better. You don't die of cold... but you do die of heart-attack at high temperatures. So where's the gain?

And even if we didn't have these effects on our hands, think about it more. Would you start a gasoline-based car in your apartment? Would you ride your motorbike in your apartment without a breath of fresh air? Point is that the current environment is damaging our health, and sure, we do survive more, but it's survival what we do.

So if there is something to criticise, don't criticise the ideas. It's so silly to criticise the existance of global warming now, but soon global warming will become textbook issue. You know, the kind of things that you learn in the first grade. And you may say that this is pure propaganda, but then again 1+1 equals 2 is pure propaganda as well (and people that finished some mathematics-oriented sections of universities know that what I say is true, and 1+1=2 is quite a different thing).

As I remember, it's George Orwell that said that 'freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2 makes 4'. The freedom to state the obvious. And this is the obvious.

If there is something to criticise, criticise the methods that are used to clean the Earth. Please do.

Perhaps there are many points I left out of this. There is still a lot more to talk about, but questions are welcome :)

PS: Since we talked about freedom of thought and global warming, a reaction (translated from romglish to english):
(3:37:56 PM) Teo: i'm back. again
(3:38:06 PM) Dorin: Welcome
(3:38:07 PM) Dorin: You have a link (with the new post, my note)
(3:38:13 PM) Teo: I saw
(3:40:23 PM) Teo: it's too hot to think
(3:40:51 PM) Dorin: :D
(3:40:57 PM) Dorin: it's about being too hot to think
(3:40:57 PM) Dorin: :P
(3:41:02 PM) Teo: i know

Hans Rosling: The Seemingly Impossible Is Possible

2007-07-07T11:41:00.000+02:00

I loved this talk. The presenter has such a catchy optimism: "We need to get serious, so what do we do to get serious? A power point slide!".

The main theme of the talk is how less fortunate countries (in financial terms) are striving to achieve the same (in terms of health and education) as (what do they call them?) "highly industrialized countries" (meaning reach).

It is amazing to see that countries like Japan and Philippines can do so good and will probably do even better with much less. As always there is another side of the story: the few very rich countries gather their wealth from resources of the impoverished countries. Or in other words: you don't want your miners to get clever and ask for more, you just want them to dig up the gold and give it willingly to you for free. It's all in interests and whose interests they are.

I find that (as with my previous video post) the most interesting people are the ones who have traveled the world in its most forbidden and remote places.

Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.

As if all this weren’t enough, the irrepressible Rosling is also an accomplished sword-swallower.

Have fun with the graphs here.

Alienation

2007-07-05T11:03:00.000+02:00

The greatest of the apes came down from the trees only to cut them.

Note: the talk was given 5 years ago.

Somewhere in Africa they have cut down the last tree for some bucks out of desperation/starvation and Jane Goodall says this is understandable. I think this is the true human nature:

The last of the greatest apes face to face with the last of the trees.

The apes know that they will have no chance of survival, even if they exploit the resources of the last of the trees they would just survive a day longer.

The apes also know that if they save the last of the trees and just starve a day earlier the tree has a chance to multiply and bring back the forests in the absence of the apes that have all starved to death.

And what do the apes do? They cut it down of course, so that they can live one day longer and to be sure that when they're gone, there is nothing left behind them.

I find the Mayan story from the Apocalypto movie interestingly related with my last posts:

And a Man sat alone, drenched deep in sadness.
And all the animals drew near to him and said,
"We do not like to see you so sad.
Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it."

The Man said, "I want to have good sight."
The vulture replied, "You shall have mine."
The Man said, "I want to be strong."
The jaguar said, "You shall be strong like me."
Then the Man said, "I long to know the secrets of the earth."
The serpent replied, "I will show them to you."
And so it went with all the animals.
And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give, he left.

Then the owl said to the other animals, "Now the Man knows much,
he'll be able to do many things. Suddenly I am afraid."
The deer said, "The Man has all that he needs.
Now his sadness will stop."

But the owl replied,
"No. I saw a hole in the Man, deep like a hunger he will never fill.
It is what makes him sad and what makes him want.
He will go on taking and taking, until one day the World will say,
'I am no more and I have nothing left to give.'"

In relation to the Century of the Self post, when was last you heard a story from your elders?

The Trial - The Judge

2007-07-03T14:48:00.000+02:00

If the entire mankind was on trial for crimes against life on Earth and you were the judge:

For what reason/ground would you choose not to convict mankind?
[Greatest of the deeds / qualities]

For what would you blame mankind the most?
[Greatest of the crimes]

Leave your comment.

The Century of the Self

2007-06-24T11:41:00.000+02:00

"Who are you?"

Let's start by looking back into the middle ages for a bit. We all know that was the dark age of civilization, when terrible things could happen, and when reason was greatly shadowed by primal instincts, mostly fear. Or was it that dark?

In the middle age, when common peasants were slaves of the elevated nobility, the usual (let's call them) "working days" were around 100 days per year or less. So they had 256 days to do... well whatever it was that they were doing when they were not working the fields. Probably drink wine and tell stories by the fire. Who knows? History books don't tell us what common people were doing in their free time and how that changed. But I bet that would be an interesting subject to study.

Anyway, how many days do you, the modern man/woman have to work to pay your dept to the modern nobles (some may call it dept to "society")? Well if I would start counting I would say around 300. Indeed 3 times more than the middle age peasant slave.

As you have probably guessed by now, my count includes Saturdays also. Well it is true that many people work on Saturdays but this is not the reason. I included it because on Saturday usually people work for themselves. You do your laundry, you clean your apartment, maybe you cook something, iron some shirts, do some shopping for the next week so on. So you spend at least 5 days a week to slave for society (aka work) and then 1 day for yourself and you are left with 1 day.

Oh well, this makes me think from time to time that the peasant from some years ago must have been more human than I was. I mean, he had time to do all these things that make us humans, like I don't know: dance?, sing and not be an MTV star but just for the fun of it?, tell stories about witches?, hope in a divine entity?, build a house?, plant a tree?, raise 7 kids?, cook some simple and natural and organic and bio dish with ingredients right from the garden in the back of the house?, hear the grass grow?, and stuff like that.

You know, if there is something I consider myself talented in, that is logic or finding the relationships between cause and effect. This combined with curiosity is a real recipe for disaster, stress and depression. So let us use logic to investigate a bit this modern form of slavery.

So why do people work and work like slaves? Well they want to be able to afford a certain life standard. But when do they get to actually live at that standard? Mostly on Sundays. But what do they do on Sundays? They usually sleep and rest because of all the fatigue incurred in the previous years.

OK, so modern slaves work that much to try to afford an ideal. I say ideal as everybody knows ideals cannot be materialized or reached. But a better life is not the only ideal, another common one that people get educated to believe in is: you have to make your contribution to the society.

Now let's take a look at the society: 90% of the entires world wealth is owned by 2% of the global population. Well I don't know how one could say that his personal contribution is for the society in general since statistically speaking 90% of the fruits of your work are owned by these select few and only about 10% divided to 98% of the world's population comes back to you.

I will just let your imagination run wild about how the 2% contribute to society. They must do something with all their free time. You might get some clues from the documentaries at the end of this post on what they entertain themselves with.

Now let me come back to the other 98%. So this other 98% pays health insurance and pension plans and who knows what. Right? And what happens when you actually need the health insurance? Well, you usually end up paying yourself anyway or die. And what if you die? Well if you die then the pension plan was paid for nothing. So business would be better for both health insurance companies and pension plans that you just die. Or?

And that is the key: business. Your health is a business, your pension is a business, and business is not meant to help you personally, it is meant to make money. And business does not make money for you or the general individual, it makes money for the 2% I was talking above.

Who said turning health into a business would be a good deal? Well it was definitively not me, I don't have enough time in my hands to think about stuff like that. But definitely someone did, and they also realized that very few people would go cheap on their health, therefore there is a huge potential for business here. People can't live without this business, what could be better?

So back to "Who are you?"
Is that the right thing to ask in these days of mine? I wonder... I wonder if we had not reached a point where one can safely ask "What are you?" when addressing to "persons". And they should say: Software Engineer Junior II, Nurse Senior III, Mechanical Engineer etc. Most of the time we don't really care about people's names, we just care about what they do so that we know how they can help us do what we do.

A human being is not born into a person, with identity and elevation of thought. A human is educated into a person, is taught how to be a "who" and not a "what". You can say a human child is taught how to think. But whose interest is to to educate other self aware individuals?

UPDATE

Some people may find some links between my thoughts on the social health system and the newly released documentary Sicko. This post was written before the documentary was introduced to the public, so I guess it only means that two rational minds reached the same conclusion on their different reasoning path. Which should make the argumentation even stronger.

Stand-Up Tragedy?

2007-06-18T23:04:00.000+02:00

We are living in an interesting world I guess. A world where sophisticated civilized people die unhappy of stress induced health diseases completely ignorant to the poor and uncivilized (so they say) world.

People these days live and die without even knowing what happened to them. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you think about resources and want to be efficient, you might say they are wasting air, water and the rest of the ingredients this planet has to offer to sustain life.

In the same line of thought, enjoy something that in the US passes as stand-up comedy:

Wasn't that a good laugh? :)

Maybe there is hope!

2007-04-27T13:43:00.000+02:00

It made me go WOW and optimistic! And I think the video is self explanatory.

From the talk:

The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.
6 times as much plastic as plankton (in the planetary ocean).

Fear of changes (the DST)

2007-02-23T16:02:00.000+01:00

Remember Y2K?

Of course you do. You filled your storage spaces with food, drinking water, and so on because the end of the world was near. Oh, you didn't? So you're not from the USA?

There's a new bug in town. It's not Y2K, Y2K is now far behind us, the new name is DST. From what I understand, the DST is now updated in the US, reason for wide-spread panic and new business opportunity.

I have nothing against making good money over other people's lack of knowledge. What I have is a tooth against the panic spread from minor changes. I never thought that changing my clocks from time to time (twice each year) would become a reason of panic for some...

I am a programmer. I know how hard is to handle all the localization problems that may occur. And speaking of software, I'll let the more knowledgeable to talk about these issues. I especially appreciated this article of Mr. Ulrich Drepper (one of the brains that keep one of the most sensitive parts of some UNIX-based OSs (glibc) working). Perhaps the most valuable in my eyes is the 'offtopic' part:

Having lived here in the US now for quite a few years I think the root of the problem is the same that keeps the US from making progress on other fronts: fear of change and trying to prevent change through denial. Another example? Take the measurement system. When knowing the metric and the imperial system equally well, who would argue the latter is better? And it's not that people don't know the metric system at all. There are large numbers of people who serves/d in the military and all these people had to use it in their job. Every food container also shows grams.

I think that the problem is that the more civilized we become, the less human we become. We don't adapt anymore. We adapt the environment. And that is the most important problem of them all. We forgot to look out for the changes, we lost the ability to be, after all, natural.

Is that going to give us anything good? Maybe on the short term, as we don't see the impact we have on the world we live in. Definitely nothing good on the long term. It's funny that we define intelligence as the capacity to adapt to new situations and new environments. We're then definitely heading towards a numbed down and stupid society.

Maybe a little warmer is better???

2007-02-16T11:43:00.000+01:00

People ask themselves if there are all the signs, why does nobody do a thing? Like... really. Why doesn't someone do anything?

Well, I have found some of the answers. Look at them, see for yourselves. This 'smart man' tells us the inconvenient truth: the global warming proponents, he says, want to spend a lot of money so that our children will have a lower 'air conditioning bill'.

His points: "If we grow so fast, soon we will be able to do the cleaning up faster than now". Or: "Because our governments sucked, what makes us think we'll even succeed". And, of course, the "last but not least", is that the best thing we can do with his trillions of dollars???.

But by far, this presentation shows that ok, we had a slight warming, but if you get the perspective you won't have a problem with that anymore, because if you have the perspective then you'll understand that climate changes a lot more than the humans can control...

Now these guys are pretty sure. The hurricanes and tornados are quite ok. Nevermind that New Orleans was under the water (does anyone remember New Orleans?). Nevermind all the other signs (Kyrill and the like). The problem is, as the histerical lady in the film says:

"At what cost are you sorry? Trillion dollars? It's a trillion dollars sorry? To destroy the american economy?". Yeah, baby, we are not a trillion dollars sorry yet, but we sure as hell you are a third trillion dollars angry instead as of today.

Of course, the gas prices will go up 50%. Oh my god, the horror. But of course, there's no problem, sunken cities are not a problem... people love Venice, after all!

The final straw is why it's good to be so warm... Well, look, in Syberia is now from -40 to -38. Amazing! Enjoy!

For the time being, I will enjoy my warm winter. Warmer with not 2 degrees, but 20 degrees.

non-communication in a communication era

2007-02-13T08:38:00.000+01:00

I feel that it's quite ironic that this day we talk so much, yet we communicate so little.

You have so many ways to communicate. You have the phone. You have the EMail. You have the instant messenger. You have IPTelephony. Most of the technology is communication oriented. Your mobile phone follows you everywhere. Your Pocket PC or Palm or whatever tells you where you are, where to go to, but they fail to tell you why you are there, or how you could really enjoy your presence there.

Quite a shame.

We talk a lot. I always have my talking program opened. I talk with many people, but that doesn't take me close to them. It only draws me to a confortable distance. The new generation communication only brings confort in the distance, nothing else. It's easy to be far away now. You can instantly contact anyone by phone, yet you can't enjoy their presence. You can easily hide yourself behind a messenger window. Now smileys took the place for real life gestures. You :), but you don't smile, you lol, or even rofl, yet your body doesn't react. Merely a smile forms as you live by your fingertips.

You can be upset yet smile. That's the greatest trickery of them all. You can be sensual, bold and smart, although you just copy-paste your life. You record every single line you say, yet you say always the same things. You argue with people, you laugh with people. You are playing games with people. Yet you never leave your death-chair.

You don't have memories, you have logs. You have photos. You don't like your face, but you can photo-manipulate everything you don't like out of your photo. You are perfect, yet you barely breathe.

Do you have a choice? I don't know. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. My guess: you cannot choose. Your card will contain your mobile phone numbers, your email addresses and your messenger IDs. Better yet, you can use your vcard. Tons of informations about you.

Except that you can't say there that you dream. You can't talk about the simple things anymore. Solutions are everywhere, you just have to search for them using Google.

There's no need to communicate. That's why this blog here is not about communication. It has no solutions, no questions, no answers. Only observation.

Enjoy These Days of Mine...

Religion vs. Science!? A debate?

2007-02-11T22:46:00.000+01:00

How interesting is it that *scientific* debates are now settled in the courtroom in US? Is it just me or this is fundamentally wrong? And since when being a religious person is synonym to being insensible and unaware of the scientific facts?

Einstein was religious but that did not blinded his genius, his scientific mind. I am religious, however that does not stop me from understanding obvious scientific facts.

Ultimately I *believe* God cannot fit the boundaries of the human mind. God is far grater than anything that can be described in a book, however old. "That" book was written thousands of years ago. At the time it was one of the best things that could happen to the world. But it's about time we evolve our minds and faith beyond it, and not take it literally.

And for once I agree with *mother* Russia, however much I dislike them. But it seems to me that rational reasoning is more and more lost in the US, which unfortunately has a great influence over the entire world (global warming, war on terror, science, etc): news.

I found the documentary above to be in an interesting way related to the one bellow:
UPDATE The original BBC published documentary on Google Video is unexplainably nowhere to be found so instead I had to relink to YouTube (4 parts):

And another thing that bothers me is that Christianity is somehow equal in the western mind with Catholicism or more recent branches of it. Well news for you, I am Christian, but I don't need a pope or anybody else to intermediate my relationship with God, and in my Christian world priests *must* get married before being assigned to a church/community. Which makes a lot of sense, specially considering the second of the documentaries above. And this eastern flavor of Christianity is as old as the Catholic one: Orthodoxy

And I would end with:
When religious faith blinds the rational mind, the Middle Ages happen.

I miss radio

2007-02-07T08:39:00.000+01:00

My freedom started as a radio broadcast.

It wasn't music, but theatre plays adaptation of plays. In a world that didn't allow dreams to come true, the radio was the escape route.

It wasn't Europa Liberă (Free Europe) radio that made me dream of freedom. I didn't know a thing about FE Radio, except the fact that everyone was forbidden to listen to me, and the old people that took care of me while my mother was at work (in another city) and my father was at the Academy (in Bucharest). A 'Gloria' radio receiver was needed - those were the best at that time.

But my listening delight needed something less powerful. Any receiver, no matter how old or rusty could provide it to me. It was like a drug to me, although I didn't know what drugs were.

It was the voice from nowhere that told stories. The voices I knew, but they were various characters I loved and explored. The radioplay was my first love.

Afterwards, music. I couldn't live without radio, I woke up with radio and went to sleep with the radio on.

Where's radio? It is still there. It doesn't make me dream anymore. I know all the stories it can tell me. It's all the same. I read it in the news. The music is trash, although the music I used to listen to was trash too, but it was MY trash, and I loved that garbage. Everyone remember MC Sar and the Real McCoy, or Casablanca? That's funny, my childhood grew from the junkyard :)

Anyway, where's radio now? The only radios worth hearing are online, and as Raul said in a previous post, everything goes online now. Now it's not about a better/taller antenna, it's about a higher bandwidth. It's not about FM/AM is about bitrate. And this is lost to me. I don't like online radio, but the only ones worth hearing are the specialised radios. Alternative, new wave, trance, punk, brit pop, every genre has two, three, ten million radios around the net. But I need the computer turned on for that. I need the UTP cable in the back of my device. I need wireless 811g. The air is not enough, I need to authenticate. But everything... everything is so fake now. No child will ever be able to discover the radio and love it the way I did.

I miss radio... I really do.

Global Climate, Online Life and Myself

2007-02-06T14:11:00.000+01:00

One of the reasons I started this blog and named it "these days of mine" is because the documentary posted at the end of this blog entry has gotten me seriously thinking that "these days of mine" may be among the last days of mine as I know and define myself today.

And if the climate change has been underestimated, which is most certainly true, mostly because scientists function the same way as doctors: "it's not as bad as it seems, it will be fine"; and if I run the worst case scenario in my mind, what scares me more than my individual survival or even that of the human species is the survival of the memory of our existence on Earth and of the Earth itself as we know it: a nice green planet with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

What will we leave behind? Men inherited paradise and by the time he was done with it, it turned into hell. Or, if ever in the long distant future intelligent life will evolve once more, what will they learn about us? The dinosaurs went extinct because of an asteroid, the mammals went extinct because of the human species.

Anyway, turning back to my own little life, I find it very bothering that all traces of my existence are online; and that will not last long without electricity. Maybe I should go back to writing my thoughts on stone plates, history shows they preserve much better.

Human kind has many addictions. Some of us, as individuals, could fight with different addictions and few win. But we as a specie, can we win over our multiple addictions in such a short time?

things happen

2007-02-06T13:54:00.000+01:00

All over the world things happen... all the time. And this blog is where I will write down my thoughts about things that happen in my contemporary world.