Technology Made Us Dumb-Dumb!

Has our our idea of what common knowledge is, changed due to technology? I have written about technology before in a different manner check it out HERE. I have been a math tutor for years, and one common thing I see is that students do not know their basic multiplication, and the argument for not needing to know them is that they have calculators in their phones. Now back in my day our teachers use to argue that we needed to know how to do math without calculators because we would not be carrying them around with us in our pockets all the time. Has technology enabled us to become dumb?

I think it is extremely sad that a student cannot tell me something a basic as 3 times 3 without a calculator. Then when I take away the calculator the student can't even begin to tell me how they would go about figuring it out without punching numbers in a machine. It does not take much skill to put numbers into a calculator, but you do need brain power to arrive at the right answer without using a calculator. Now I am not saying that calculators are all bad, there is much good that comes from technology as a whole, but why are the basics being forgotten? Math students have become so dependent on their calculators they simply cannot function without them. Understanding how multiplication works is vital to understanding math.

Backpacking off of the Calculator idea, let’s take a look at auto-correct! We don’t need to know how to spell! Right now as I am typing this I don’t have to worry about having misspellings. The computer will tell me by underlining the word in red, and even then I don’t have to look up the word, I can just right-click and the correct word pops up, like magic. Because of auto-correct, I never learn from my mistakes, I do not have to do the extra work of opening up a dictionary (yes kids, the Dictionary is a tangible book!) to look up the correct spelling, and as for the definition? Well, I have Google for that. By looking up the correct word in the dictionary, our mind can better retain the information allowing us not to forget how to spell it correctly.  

GPS. I think the GPS is great, I will never get lost, but who knows how to look at a map now a days? Just punch where you want to go into this device and it will tell you word for word where to go, it will even tell you when you have made a mistake. There is a study that was done at McGill University about how the GPS effects the human brain. Using GPS will affect people’s memory, and spatial orientation. Don’t just take my word for it here is an article about it, that I found on Google (see what I did there? ; )). This study just proves the popular saying, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Pablo Picasso once said “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” Picasso was right, the answer is unimportant if you do not understand how your arrived there. Whether it be math, or an actual location it's all about the journey, not the destination. We need to step back and realize when we rely on technology too much, and try to make a change so that we do not become too dependent.

~Save your MINDS! A terrible thing to waste… or mess up.

Forgive but NEVER Forget

A few years back I was having a conversation with a friend about the popular phrase “forgive and forget.” She was telling me that she never forgives nor forgets, and I was arguing that you should forgive, but do not forget. I think that no matter the situation, if it is big or small, forgive. My reasoning is a purely selfish one, forgive for your own peace of mind. When it comes to forgetting, don’t, file the incident in the back of your mind.

At the end of the day what really matters is how you feel about yourself. So, if you are busy being mad at someone else, how do you think that will affect your well being? Life is short so why waste your precious time being upset at someone else, just forgive them and move on. Buddha once said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” By not forgiving someone else you are holding on to something that will only hurt you in the end, if you do not get hurt physically it may be mentally. As for the other person, all you can do is hope they have learned their lesson, you cannot control how how other people think.

Never forget. If this person has wronged you, you do not want to make this mistake 2 times, by allowing them to hurt you. Some will say that you are not truly over an incident until you have forgotten, but I am here to say is not true. Going back to my post on Trust , I say that because this person betrayed me I now know that I cannot trust them in the same way again. I have made peace with what happened, it is no longer bothering me, it’s water under the bridge as they say. However If I forget that this person betrayed my trust, it will only happen again. When someone does something that causes you to rethink your relationship with them, it is hard to bounce back and act as though nothing has happened. With that being said, people do change and learn from their mistakes, it is not right to hold something against someone that happened along time ago. With time comes experience, and as we all get older we learn from our mistakes. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt, because you cannot truly forgive someone unless you can move past the situation.

Another thing that people do not do often enough is forgive themselves. The fact of the matter is that you cannot change the past. Life is SHORT! (Check out my other post in Dying) If you cannot change what happened, deal with it,learn from it and move on. If you need to say you're sorry say it and go back to living your life. You cannot put things on hold, time does not stand still for anyone. Do you want to spend your life holding a grudge? I have never met a single person on this planet who did not want to be happy, so get over it and be happy … and yes it IS that simple. We are only as happy as we allow ourselves to be. SOOOO forgive the asshole (even if that asshole happens to be YOU) and move on!

~Live, Learn. Move on.

Why is Common Sense not as Common Anymore?

What is common sense? Perhaps everyone’s common sense is different but to a certain extent there is a reason why it’s called “common” sense. As defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary it’s: the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions.

The other day I was watching the local news and they reported that a man almost lost his life crossing the railroad tracks, while the train was running full speed. What gets me is that people dismiss the safety signs that are clearly posted by the tracks “ Do not to cross”… Common sense would be to avoid crossing the tracks during this time. Just watch the video: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=9470436

Some people seldom use their sane judgement in certain settings. As you can see in the video there are multiple railroad tracks, common sense would indicate there may be more trains passing. It’s imperative to be aware of your surroundings and make good judgements about your actions because the guy in the video was a hair away from death. Like the reporter said, there have been 13 deaths in the past year of people who got hit by the train. If people would pay more attention and make better judgements they wouldn’t be in situations like this.

In the end,  I wonder “Is it worth it?” Whatever may be influencing you to take such drastic actions is not worth it in my opinion if it’s putting your life at risk. It’s not like the train will keep you waiting for that much longer! He was too impatient to wait till the train tracks were clear. A bunch of people called this luck… I’m sorry I don’t see it that way, that’s not luck, that’s stupidity working in his favor.  I’m happy he made it across but he’s the ultimate decision maker of his actions that almost got him killed.

About a week ago I was a witness to another bad decision made by someone who was just impatient and lacked common sense. Believe it or not this situation also involves a train. I was in traffic waiting in the left lane for the green arrow when I noticed we weren’t moving. The the street I had to turn into was blocked by a cargo train on the train tracks. About a minute passes and the train is still there when a car behind me starts honking when the arrow turns green for the second time, if he had bothered to look to his left he would have seen that we are all waiting for the train to clear the crossing. Not happy that he couldn’t solve anything with his annoying honking, he decides to back up and get in the next lane thats going forward and speeds up to make a U-turn ahead then tries to turn into the same street with no avail because there were other cars in front of him also waiting for the train to move. Finally when the train clears he had to wait even longer because the lane I was in had the right of passage. Many situations like this can be avoided if we all have a little patience so we can make good decisions.

People's common sense can be easily blurred by things like: impatience, liquor, and drugs. These incidences were about people who let their impatience blur their common and good judgement. Like in the video, the man was too impatient to wait for the train to pass, leading him to make the bad decision of running in front of a high speed train. Patience is a virtue, b*tch…. it is something the idiot guy in the car should have bought at the corner store, he could have kill somebody driving like a crazy person!

Please use your common sense people, it’s rudimentary to our survival… If you haven’t read my blog post on survival go read it … right now… I’ll wait till you get back :). In any case, common sense has played a huge role in the well being of human life, so dont lose it (your common sense that is).

Common Sense, only sold in select stores, get one TODAY. Before items are sold out.

Survival Store - Where all your needs are our priorities

Gossip for Less- Ain’t nobody got time for that!!!

Weirdos n’ Do-Hikkies- come one come all, we don't discriminate

Best Interests- We have your heart in mind

The Happy Store- troubleshooting even the toughest life errors.

~Peace, Love and Common Sense be with thee.

Check Your Pride

Last week I wrote about Confidence, but what I did not talk about was what happens when your pride gets in the way: your EGO happens. Ego is not a bad thing, it is how you look at yourself but too much of anything is bad and it can even be dangerous. When I think of an egotistical person I think of a person that is self serving, and cocky; this person has trouble seeing beyond themselves. We as human beings need to strive toward being more humble, I think this will promote a more happier and healthier world.

Before I continue it is important for me to explain what the difference between ego and pride are and how it connects to confidence. When someone is prideful they hold themselves with a certain amount of respect, this person also has respect for others. When ego gets involved with pride there is a whole new battle, it becomes emotional and sometimes even violent. The ego makes a person think they are much better than others, and they demand that others acknowledge their ego and to grovel to it. Pride and ego are directly linked to one’s success, most times people feel prideful when they have accomplished certain amount of success, but when that success goes to their head they become Egotistical. Pride is what leads up to confidence, while ego leads up to arrogance.

There have been many times where I have witnessed someone’s ego get in the way, where they talk too much and do not stop to think how their words can affect the people around them. I think it is safe to say that we all know at least one person that has been egotistical at one point or another in their lives, and chances are you know exactly what I am talking about. Whenever I encounter people like that I think to myself, “how did this person get this way? What caused them to overlook other people's feelings?” This person lacks the basic skill of empathy,what they don’t realize is that everyone is facing different battles in their life and we all will have moments when we feel prideful. What ultimately matters is HOW we make others feel about our success, will we be confident and humble about it? Or will we be arrogant and rude about it?

The trick is to not let your ego get in the way, and in order to do that is to practice humility. Humility is when you do not think you are better than others, you are humble. I think that it is great to have a perfect balance between pride and humility. You have your accomplishments and you have the right to enjoy them, but it is not ok to rub it in other peoples’ faces. Success is something that is purely your own and comparing your’s to that of others is a bad move, you get negative brownie points for that. Comparing yourself to others will make you feel bad about yourself, and the ego will kick in, your ego tries to give you validation, but to show humility is knowing that you yourself have validation, and others deserve it too. So, like I said in a past post, BE NICE.

~ Ta

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

When I was moving out of my dorm after freshmen year in college I remember there were bins and areas to leave all the things you didn't want to take back home. Out of curiosity I took a gander to see if there was anything I might want to bring home with me. There were Microwaves, shoes, clothing, drawers, TVs and miscellaneous objects. Some students even asked passerbys if they could take X item with them only because it had sentimental value and it didn't fit in their car. They didn't want to just leave it sitting there with a pile of trash, because this person was so attached to the item. This just goes to show that we tend to own more than we can even carry because we believe we NEED these things, leading to the increase of trash when we don't really NEED it. I believe in the idea that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Since there is so much stuff around, eventually something is bound to be of use to another person.

The pattern I see very often is that most people end up replacing things they toss out with new stuff that will eventually get tossed out as well. When you throw shit away you don’t realize where it ends up, if it’s out of sight it’s out of mind but ultimately it ends up taking space and pollutes our earth. It takes a really long time for garbage to decompose and that all depends on what exactly is in the landfill. Here is a link that shows the time it takes for decomposition of different materials. These materials inevitably end up in our soil where we grow the food we eat.

I have received a total of 5 iPod in the past 4 years and each one was newer than the last. I didn't even have to purchase an iPod and I already have more than I need. The amazing part is that people actually buy them either because they simply need to have the latest version or because they don’t value what they already have. Our society today are consumerists, obsessed with having the newest smartphone, mp3 player, Jordan pumps etc. they want to be current. The media is responsible for making consumers believe they NEED  whatever it is that they’re advertising to survive. Many people say “I can’t live without my phone,” (see Hareena’s post on technology) and this ideology paves the way for over consumption when media is looking after their own profits, creating more stuff than we need.

The best way to make sure that something has been used to the fullest extent is to donate it. Donating items allows that it will get more use. Considering the amount of waste we already have, the ideal thing to do is reduce, reuse, and re-purpose. By doing this we are reducing the creation of more trash for mother earth to be burdened with and further ensuring that stuff gets used. Before we decide we want a new phone we should look at the need, can our current phone do the trick for a little while more? We as a society need to begin to realize that this is our earth, we only get one and we need to take care of it. We may have our differences in trash vs. treasure but we can all agree the important treasure is the one keeping us alive, the planet EARTH, FOO!

peace to the trees.

You Listen Me Mo', You Live Longer! (Indiana Jones-Temple of Doom)

Lately I have been thinking about what I have to do in order to live and that is to EARN a living to purCHASE things for my survival. When it comes down to it, in todays modern life, I can just pay someone else to do everything for me. I don’t NEED to know how to do anything thanks to this thing call specialization. Everybody has a job that specializes in a certain task making it easy to trust that they can do the job effectively. Long ago human beings didn’t have the luxuries that we do now, they had to know how to survive without the aid of modern production. They had to know how to build a fire, how to hunt, and how to find shelter etc.

When our ancestors were hunter-gatherers they had the skills to survive on the basics; food, water, clothing, shelter. They were self sufficient but if other problems arose then they would solve whatever the issue was through trading with neighboring tribes. Once the establishment of organized society became the new way of life, the standards of living changed. People became farmers and the need to hunt and gather was no longer there. I'm holding this dollar thinking that I put value into this piece of paper through my hard work for the purpose of making a living. Today many of us have to work to make money in order to make sure we can sustain a living of a ‘normal’ life. The majority of people BUY food, BUY water, BUY gas, BUY a place to live and I just think its so crazy that it’s come to living off of what you can BUY with your money.

We as a society in modern day only know the way the world works by the system of using a currency to place value on the things we need. We are so ingrained in this way of life that if our system were to be shut down lets say by an apocalyptic scenario, all hell will break loose. Movies about apocalyptic and post apocalyptic realities do a good job of showing a glimpse of what society would possibly look like in the event of a world wide disaster. These movies don't prepare us in case anything of that nature were to take place. A huge disaster is sure to test everybody's overall capacity for survival, just look at natural disasters in recent years, many people died of direct impact, others died of starvation. Ultimately the only ones to survive will be the savvy ones and there is no way that currency can replace survival skills. Not knowing how to make a fire to keep warm just puts you that far behind from staying alive.

I don't consider myself a minimalist but I think we as a people have grown to own more than we need to survive and are becoming so accustomed to that lifestyle. If doomsday were right around the corner we would have no way of preparing for it, It would be the end of mankind as we know it. Everything is GIVEN to us through supply and demand and we wouldn't know how to supply ourselves with basic needs. That shit is scary to me. So what do I do about this? I try to make sure I don't get too attached to my electronics, and try to make sure that my knowledge is put to practice.  I encourage you to do the same not for doomsday purposes but just in general, Hareena makes a great point about why its important to unplug from technology because no one is sure what may happen tomorrow.

Learn any and as many things about survival and basic things like sewing, building stuff and growing food that will nurture and fuel your body. I would love to know what others think, maybe I missed something. What are somethings that you think are important to know if the system as we know it were to fail?

-Godspeed

Confidence: Your Best Accessory; Use it, It's Free!

To me being confident is when you do not need to worry about anything or anyone else, and you know that you ultimately have the power to control your outcomes. This is what people pick up on the most, it is when someone can walk into a room and command the attention of the entire room. There was a time in my life when I lacked a lot of confidence, I was a socially awkward, freakishly tall, frizzy hair, and I would wear really weird shoes that were a size too big for my feet, and lets just say that people are not nice about anything that is different to them. Once I got a little older I realized that people’s words only hurt you when you are insecure, so I knew that I needed to gain confidence. If there is something about myself that is less than perfect, and it is in my power to change it I will. As the years went by I realized that in order to move forward with my life I had to become confident in who I am and embrace the person I have become. Once I became happy with who I was people no longer made these comments, because they could not pick up on my insecurities. I realized that the only thing that mattered was my happiness, and if I am happy with who I have become no one can change that.

My sister and I went to the store the other day, and both of us are tall people, as a result it is hard for us to find long clothes that fit us, lucky for us we walked into the right store. The woman that was working at the store was a fellow tall person, and we got to talking about how there simply are not decent clothes for us to wear, then the conversation shifted to how others react to us being tall. Our friends and family are constantly talking about how we need to lower ourselves in photos so that we can “fit in”, or the fact the everyone tells us that we should not wear heels because we are tall enough without them and make them feel short. At the end of the conversation it was not about being “tall” it was about one’s level of confidence, I do not mind when people point out the fact that I’m tall. I love being tall, and I show it when I take pictures, and If I feel like wearing heels I will, deal with it. I am comfortable with my height and in some ways my height has shaped who I am and I will be confident no matter how much I stand out. One quote by Dr. Seuss comes to mind, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” … in my case literally!

I tend to stand out more than others because of my height, but that is not all people will see, there is more to me than being a tall person. People can smell confidence a mile away, it is all about how one carries one’s self. Others are able to pick up on how you feel about yourself just by looking at your self-presentation. Confidence is sexy ;)

Confidence is not something that grows on trees (unfortunately) it is something that each person needs to develop. Every person has different struggles that they need to overcome. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is your personality, and people cannot get to know you unless you let yourself shine through, the only way you can do that is to develop your confidence and allow others to get to know the “real” you.

~Be you.

Gossip: Ain't Nobody Got Time For That!

Gossip, I don’t care if people gossip, I just HATE it when I am put in the middle and people think it is ok to talk to me about other people. The way I see it is if I cannot say something to someone’s face then I will not say it behind their back. I know that I am not a perfect person, and I know that there are so many things that I need to improve on. I feel that I do not need to waste my time and energy talking about others, there are not enough hours in a day to improve one’s self so why spend valuable time talking about others? I could care less about who did what to who and why, and when and how. No one is perfect, and no one can ever be perfect. Perfection is an ideal that only lives in our heads, and we will never reach that ideal because it is constantly changing.

Sometimes we may say things out of anger and frustration, and we gossip without being aware that we’re doing it. I do not want to excuse this form of gossip but we are not in the right frame of mind and probably shouldn't do it. Anger is an emotion that clouds our judgment. You know how they say you should not make a major decision when you are mad? … same thing applies here. No matter how cliche I sound I strongly believe that you have to be the change you wish to see in the world. I do not like gossip, I do not see how it benefits anyone, so I choose not to participate. With that being said, there have been times where I am angry and frustrated and I just need to vent! However, I later try to go back and see how I can make the situation better for all parties involved. Ridding the world of gossip (I know impossible … but I like to try) is one of the changes I would like to see, so like MJ said, “I am starting with the [wo]man in the mirror.”

The other form of gossip that is never okay is the entertainment form, when people talk about others to entertain themselves. Often times people do it to uplift themselves. For example take a look at the entertainment industry, more and more people watch reality TV just to know what is happening in other people’s lives. Without gossip there would not be an entertainment industry. It is in human nature to want to know what is happening in someone else's life, but it takes away your focus on your own problems. It is also in human nature to not want to face your problems, gossiping about others is a nice little distraction from your reality. Distractions are ok as long as no one is getting hurt. What you say about someone else can be harmful to them, you do not know how your words may affect the other person.

Another popular saying I would like to touch upon is treating others how you wish to be treated. I know that I would not appreciate when other people talk about me behind my back, so I do not do it to others. How would you feel if you were in the other person’s shoes? When people talk about others it is a sort of “pick me up” for them, they want to make themselves feel better, so they clown on someone else’s life. Jesse Jackson said it best “Never look down on someone unless you are helping them up.” nuff said.

~Ta