The Perfect App…

or “Isn’t That a Familiar Tune?”

I realize that I’ve spent a lot of time in silence with myself lately, and I’ve had a little self debate about what to call this blog (I say little because I mean that in the literal sense!). I came to the conclusion that it probably is a little more self serving when it is more elusive.

As time passes, I think that the hardest part for anyone is the “growing up” phase. No matter how well we think we cope with it, ultimately, it is a super difficult thing to do because we tend to overthink and try to make life something separate from personal identity. This is not to say that we don’t grow up as ourselves; rather, I think that as humans growing up in today’s society such as it is, we tend to neglect the values which make us who we are, and act, in some ways, insincerely.

In a paper that I wrote for a seminar on the topic of personhood and the metaphysics of persons, I suggest that “what it is to be a person is just that some being has the
present or future potential to interact with the world in a morally meaningful way, and is able to make moral judgments about other interactions.” Granted, the paper itself may not be very good, the case still stands that one is a person if they can act with moral reason. This alone is an important idea, I think; we tend to say that people who kill just for shits and giggles are “monsters.” We say the same for serial killers too. Another interesting claim that people seem to make is that people who do good for amoral reasons are shallow (such as celebrities who give money to charities, and whom we judge as acting on the grounds of getting noticed). There’s a certain quality of human sincerity and moral meaningfulness that is implicit within “being human” as we might understand it, and without that we can’t really ever overcome the challenges of the “growing up” phase.

So why did I title this post “The Perfect App” and what does it have to do with anything? I got to thinking earlier that if I were an app programmer for mobile devices like the iPhone or Android, I would probably code something that allows you to talk to yourself, but not just on a surface level. After reading Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist, I wondered what people would be like if they could talk to their hearts. Then I realized that people now have a kind of “techjoy” fixation. They can’t do anything without a cellphone in hand, or a laptop in front of them. People just don’t care to spend the time to look at their own lives and see what their hearts have to offer them. So how about an app that lets you do that?

--Just a thought for a not so rainy day.

What’s Wrong With Us?

Earlier today, the US senate approved the motion to raise the debt ceiling, allowing the US government to borrow $2.4 trillion more. I sit here in disbelief as I try to puzzle all the pieces together. Yesterday, Philip De Franco mentioned on his show that this “roof-raising” will help the US out until next year. This will probably add to the unwanted over $14 trillion dollar debt that the US currently faces. The one question that I would like to see answered is whether or not this could have been avoided. I don’t quite have the answer to that, though many peoples’ opinions lead me to think that there is an alternative of some sort.

I’ve recently been reading the George R.R. Martin series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” and a friend of mine told me that it was hailed as the contemporary “Lord of the Rings” and it occurred to me that this might be the case. (Spoiler Alert for  those who have not read the first book in the series!)

Passion Entails Passionate Action but…

What about apathy?

Ever notice how people seem to be super passionate about something (a cause, a person, a job) and that passion seems to lead them to do super selfish things?

Consider the following anecdotes:

Case One

Jeffrey is being considered for a position for district manager for his company, and could desperately use the promotion. However, he is in the running for this position with David. Jeffrey knows a couple of secrets concerning David though, that if spread, could ruin David’s chances of getting the position. Jeffrey realizes that for both of them, this job is important, but he decides he needs it more, so he decides to spread the secrets and management catches wind. As a result, Jeffrey gets the promotion, and David’s life is ruined.

In this case, the egoistic action is taken as a result of self concern or consequentialism bearing the greater benefit as the benefit to the self.

Case Two

Jeffrey is being considered for a position as district manager for his company, but is also being considered for a handful of other positions internally and externally, with a few that have already guaranteed that they would hire him and pay him better wages. However, David is looking for the specific position as district manager. Despite knowing that David is incompetent, he decides not to share that as it does not negatively affect him to lose this position to David.

In this case, the altruistic action is taken, not because it is altogether consequentially beneficial, but just because it is merely not inconvenient to do so.

So what do we make of this phenomena? Are humans intrinsically selfish? Well, no. Not necessarily. There are exceptions to this case, but I think it has to do with the competitive nature of survival. We just won’t do things that impede our ability to survive. We do things for others for reasons that in some cases lead to helping our ability to survive, which is fine, but is there more? It is incredibly hard these days to find someone who will go out of their way to be generous. No, I don’t mean getting off part way to work to give food to a food bank. I mean going the opposite direction for 2 hours to help a friend paint their house before getting to work, risking being late.

This is probably better evidenced in animes/mangas. Dragon Ball Z, a popular anime, is the perfect example (spoiler alert: spoilers after the jump for those who haven’t seen the anime yet).

The Difference Between a Fail and an Epic Fail

The first step is always the most important one. Regardless of what it is you want to do, without the first step, you can’t really do anything else. Oddly enough, it’s also often the step that people most want to not take, or at least it’s the one that people don’t want to admit that they want to take. It’s in our nature to be proud, since the acquisition of ability creates in us a need to gloat about this ability, whatever it is. The reason that I think we don’t want to admit to wanting to take the first step is because the first step is surrendering in some way. The thing is, in order to do anything, the first thing you need to do is surrender to circumstances and admit that you may fail. Without understanding the risk of failing, you can’t really celebrate your successes at the end, much less even putting effort into the work you plan on doing.

This is especially true for artists; the prouder we are about our artistic talents, the less we seem to think we’ll fail, and that results in a dangerous amount of over confidence. But if, like me, one is willing to say “hey, I may fail at this” and still give it a shot, it might come out a pleasant surprise, but it also means less humiliation when you in fact don’t succeed. I’ve seen people who start out with some kind of plan, so sure that it will be where life will take them, and then they end up falling apart because something went wrong along the way. It’s always important to realize that no matter how much experience we have, we’re only human, and despite our ability to achieve some kind of perfection, it may not always happen the next time we try.

Catch ya on the flipside.

Paranoia and Orchids?

I was reading one of those free magazines that you can get at Healthy Planet stores, and noticed a little bit of the ridiculousness that society has taken and literally blown up. In this magazine is an article about “Orchid” kids.

So tell me, do any of these apply to you? In fact, they all apply to me, and most apply to most people. I was also reading on some other websites that some of the symptoms of other diseases are also normal. My question is, why do we get so paranoid just because of a little thing. A perfect example of this is back during the SARS outbreak in Toronto, people started joking about it when people coughed. At each corner, a cough or sneeze, a stuffy nose or a face mask meant that someone had SARS, and sure it was only said jokingly, but there were people that took it seriously, and people that take any symptoms that overlap between something which could change a person’s life, and a normal life, and automatically take the greater of two evils approach. Sure, treating a disease early is nice, but just because I overthink something, it doesn’t mean I’m hypersensitive or OCD. Maybe I just feel the need to be thorough because I don’t want to screw up? Isn’t that a normal thing for people, or do we all need to be bumbling and carefree morons who can’t get up off the pavement long enough to find a job?

This paranoia seems to lead me to think that society doesn’t want to progress any further…

Collectibles and Other Junk

Upon cleaning my room today (gasp! You cleaned it?!) I came across a little bit of a collector’s item; a first edition laser cel from Resident Evil 4 with the certificate of authenticity, in its original packaging. This raised an interesting question for me; what are collector’s items worth.

When it comes to collecting things, I’m curious about why people collect what they do? What kind of sentimental value an object can hold for a person seems to differ indefinitely and why it has that value is just as varied in terms of the different answers people will give. I find it somewhat neat though, when I talk to people about collections of things.

Today when I visited the Games Workshop at Scarborough Town Center, a group of teenagers came in and looked around, and I overheard them speaking with Dan, one of the staff there. They were talking about what they might be interested in getting, since their dad was a collector of miniature figures. After they left (because the stuff in the store didn’t suit their needs), I actually didn’t think too much about the scene, but I realized something about the people who usually frequent the store now that I think about it; all of the players of the various games in the franchise are collectors as well as participants in this hobby rather than being just people who have the hobby. In a way, we’re all people who share the hobby of collecting.

Many of the people who collect, collect just because they like having these things; I don’t have a specific reason for being a collector along those lines specifically, but I do collect stories. I’m not claiming to be too different from other people by saying this, but I don’t really have anything else that I am devoted to collecting. I mean I do have a bookshelf filled almost completely, but those are all because I’m interested in the stories. I remember the stories people tell me, like one of my friends who wants to go into modelling. Far be it for me to judge the stories of my friends and all the people I meet – in fact, I hope that the universe conspires to help her achieve her dreams, but I do enjoy listening to stories, reading them, telling them, and while strange, dreaming them.

The best thing about stories, the stories I collect, is that they exist in everything I touch. Sometimes I will forget a story, but I do remember most of them, and each one that I have I treasure; for example, I remember that I picked up the laser cel at the Anime club table at my university campus, I remember the girl signing up for the Chapters points program in line in front of me when I picked up one of my notebooks, I remember the game my friends bought me for my PSP as a birthday gift, I remember the day my brother got the PS3 as a birthday gift, I remember thinking that my mom got me a real cat, when she was talking about a statue, and I remember the experience of the handmade rosary around my neck right now. I remember stories and treasure them, and I don’t understand the sentimentality that goes behind it, but I realize now more than ever that I do understand what Dr. Orbinski means, and what many mean, when they say that “stories are all we have.” They really are. We may forget sometimes, but we’re human. As long as we treasure the stories around us, we will never lose our own story.

And whether your collection consists of paintings, insects, stamps, coins, or stories, as long as you do more than just collect, but actually transform the collection into something to share with the world, then I believe the story behind what you collect will never be lost.

I’m in Spaaaaaaaaaacceeeeee!

WHEEEE!

Lately, my life has been a little ridiculous. I recently finished Portal 2 (if you couldn’t tell by my title), and I had a conversation with a friend about how, as players, we project our latent feelings onto the character, Chell, who we play as. Throughout both of the Portal games, we are drawn into the role of a “test subject” who, as my friend (in RL and on Youtube) puts into song about LoZ’s Link, is a mute protagonist (see video below).

However, Chell is a mute protagonist beyond Link and other characters who never actually speak, since other characters have expectations. For Chell, all we know is that she is a character who tests and takes crap from GlaDOS. The fact that she does so without so much as a “stop it GlaDOS or I am going to kill you again!” is kind of cool, because it leaves so much to the imagination. You don’t get to see her reaction or what she is thinking, so it lets you do what you want with the character.

What the friend I had dinner with was telling me is that I have been projecting my feelings onto Chell as I played the game. (This part gets a bit spoiler-ish so read at your own risk, otherwise skip the rest of the paragraph.) From the way that we see Chell as a lonely character living the life of the typical everyman, to the way we seem to miss Wheatly for the period where he disappears, and the feeling we first get when GlaDOS incinerates our companion cube, the game never tells us anything – all of these feelings are derived from us, as the players of the game.

In a major way, this odd fact helped me realize the kind of person that I tend to be sometimes, and regardless of what our specific experiences, they seem to tell me one of two things; Chell is a mute everyman, doing these tests without expressing that she gives a fuck, and that we are (either secretly or openly) the kind of person we project onto Chell as we play.

Anyway, I guess that’s the end of that long rant. Hopefully I’ll be posting more frequently. For now though, enjoy a GIF and a video.

 

Visit Arisukiki: www.youtube.com/arisukiki

Oops. I accidentally shot you. Until you died.

So I’ve been a bit annoyed at everything lately. But the most depressing part of it all has to be the news that has been showing up all over the place.

One of the longer-term stories is that of the shooting of Jordan Manners. At the end of the day, it is a sad story. But it’s also ridiculous because the persons who killed Jordan have (according to CTV News) said that the shooting was an accident. I understand it might have been a lucky shot that went directly at a vital organ or something, but what kind of excuse is “it was an accident?” Considering one could have avoided the firing of the gun by having the safety turned on, or, even better, not having the gun at all, the excuse seems null and void.

On a more local scale, this is a story I was talking to my mother about. One of my brother’s classmate’s mothers committed suicide, and there are rumours about why, but I’m leaving it at depression. I think that as sad as that story is, the reasoning behind everything is kind of weird too. According to my brother, his classmate doesn’t know about what happened to his mother, and is left under the illusion that she was sick. (I’m not quite sure how to finish this point, since it just utterly befuddles me that people would have the audacity to react the way they have.)

The bigger story lately though is Osama bin Laden’s death. I’m not sure why this is as big a story as it is (maybe people are stupid?) but it’s been enough to boost Barack Obama’s popularity. Granted, I don’t have anything against the President, but is it really fair to say that he was the one that deserves all the credit? Of course not.

On a more positive note, I’m trying to get back to sanity.

Catch ya on the flipside.

Living with Purpose and Geocaching

So I’ve recently come across this new phenomenon known as geocaching, which involves travelling to different sites around the world and recording in different logbooks that you’ve been there. These caches are usually hidden and I haven’t done much yet, but they seem pretty hard to find. I have to say though, that I had an interesting thought recently. A friend of mine mentioned to me the difference between the way adults walk and the way children walk. When an adult walks, he can either be lazy or purposeful. Children always seem to be purposeful though. Geocaching has been interesting in that when I started on my first search, I noticed that I was walking with a purpose that I haven’t had in a while, which is this epic adventure to find something, and to record your legacy. That’s literally what geocaching is; a record of the earth.

I’ve decided that I want to start doing this, and wherever I go, I want to find geocaches and leave my legacy behind, just because it is something that sounds absolutely epic on paper. Achievement whores will probably enjoy doing it too, because it is actually kind of like a real life RPG quest. This blog basically has transformed, for me, into a record of geocaching. I don’t know how it will work yet, but I will see.

Catch ya on the flipside.