Archive for the 'Life' Category

The Meaning of Life (well… sort of)

Published on April 7, 2009 in Life. 5 Comments

This is a post I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I will try to say what are the conclusions I have drawn about society and life in geral and how it can be improved in my opinion. I’m not saying I am impervious to those influences though, I feel them and have noticed that I was in fact influenced by it. Nevertheless, I found it helped me to understand the influences so that I could use those influences for the best effect.

First off, society, as in massive global force of masses. It shapes you, it forces you into thinking stuff, it is one of the primary forces in your mind growth, whether you like it or not. It’s there and you can’t avoid it. You are part of it without being aware, and you must fit. Commercial companies use this to their advantage, through trends! Trends are the ultimate capitalization of society. It is using society to make you think something that everyone thinks. Trends can be created through advertisement, media, and sometimes, a really really genious one, through word of mouth, but it’s rare. And you end up being the trends and all your behaviour is modelled after them.

Now, how do you live your life? You can live for the now, and you do while you’re a teenager, but that gets boring after a while. Some people get lost amongst complicated relationships and that I can understand. But for other people, their short term goal of getting a degree IS their long term goal! And then they get lost when they realize that the degree is not the end and be all of life’s problems. Then they get shocked and get into a working life, which gets monotonous after a while. And they spice it up through “entertainment”.

They look at entrepreneurs and successful people and think “That guy got lucky”, or “I’m not smart enough” or “I can’t do that”. I say, why not? WHY do you insist that you aren’t smart enough? Give it a shot, give your best, use yourself as best as you can, explore whatever you see interests you most… but explore! Don’t just wait for stuff to go raining on your forehead, your dreams are more important than that.

Now when you say how bad some real world situation is it boils down to this…  you made it that way, but it’s not your fault, a lot of the “big” guys aren’t smarter than you but they make you think they are. Because they want to stay big! And they make you be in the same mindset which is so goddamn appealing to them. In my opinion, it’s really a question of mindset.

If we want to change “the world” we must change the mindset. This is a really bold statement. I’m saying that the way certain people think is dragging everything down for the majority, and upwards for a select minority whichs takes advantage of it. It’s the minorities’ fault though, the mindset creators and keepers. It feels right to everyone and it’s reinforced by millions!

How can we change it?

* Make people unite forcibly => catastrophe, war!  That would work, but it would make some terrible conditions. In my opinion it is the only way to change the mindset quickly, but undesirable.

* Influence: Use the exact same channels that created the mindset to tear it apart. Social media, like radio and TV is obviously controlled by big companies, so there isn’t much one can do. There were ham radio stations and that was great, but too local and restricted.  We have a new media though, the internet. It is uncentralized by design, so no one can control it. Just think about it. It allows anyone to have a voice to say whatever they want. More importantly it creates diversity in mindset through the diverse cultures which interact. It also gives you contact with different realities and shows you what mainstream media tries to hide. So get the word out there about documentaries like Steal This Film or storyofstuff.com! Get people using the internet. Get the word out about podcasts. And then challenge people to make content. Make everyone see how “special people” are just people who worked hard to create the opportunities. Luck is created, opportunities are made.

Don’t just stand there! Do something! :)


References:

Thanks to Afi, Ana,  Hok, Mafalda, Marita, Rui and Sofia for the wonderful opinions and input, and for all the motivation for finally getting this post out!

Happy New Year!

Published on December 31, 2008 in Life. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

So we come to the end of yet another year. I have my resolutions and they include some exciting plans for this blog. Thanks to all the readers for staying with me! To finish off in a great note (and with a sneak peak of what is to come), here is a song I recently discovered, and consider the perfect christmas song, which reflects the modern spirit of such celebrations. As the band describes it:

“’It’s Christmas…’ is about people deciding to be pleasant to one another for about a day, regardless of whether or not they actually get along the rest of the year. There’s the same fallout after christmas as perhaps a night out where you end up in someone else’s bed – the next day, after the drink has worn off and the warm lights are turned off, everything’s just as shit as it was the day before and that feeling of comfort disappears. I feel like i have a similar relationship with christmas as i do with booze. Each make me feel nice in a fairly false way, and they are really the only two things i actually spend money on, aside from food. It’s also about that total indulgence period, which always comes with the promise that you’ll eat less, drink less and spend less really, really soon… always tomorrow. I feel it’s maybe healthier to live a little more consistently (not that i do), but often humans need excuses to be nice and giving and loving to one another, and Christmas is one of those times, for better or worse’.

(from FatCat via Wikipedia)

Frightened Rabbit – It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop (2008 version):

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I totally agree that that is how such celebrations remain important and significant for most people, even when their original meaning was lost. So let’s make it our resolution to keep some of the positiveness of this season alive throughout all 2009, so that when Christmas comes, we’ll be motivated to be even better!

If you liked this, check out the amazing choir version and the rest of their work, it’s a fantastic band.

Happy new year!

London!

Published on October 12, 2008 in Life. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

So, it’s high time I did a post explaining what the hell has been going on with me. Well, I’m now in London about to start an MSc in Communications and Signal Processing at Imperial College London. In between the presentations, miscelaneous arrangements and preparations, I’ve been enjoying London a lot!

I really like the city and especially South Kensington, where the campus is located. There is clearly a great deal of concern with keeping the original building facades and so the whole city feels like a city with history. The campus has an interesting clash between the modern and the historical, with the Queen’s Tower right in the middle of modern glassy buildings. It really is an interesting place to work in.

Moreover, I’m loving the facilities of the college and especially the sense of community that the college has in its core. Right from the very initial introductions we are urged to join a society of something that interests us. In fact, the amount and diversity of societies is astonishing and there is surely something that anyone would find interesting among them. If not, you are urged to start your own!

As for the weather, it’s been really good lately, with clear skies and sunny days, but I’m sure that will soon change and give way to the permanent rain that London is so well known for. In the meantime, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of work to do!

Update: I transferred to Computing Science (Specialist Pathway) as I missed Computing in my course.