there's always a first time :)

Okay, for my final creative output in class; my original plan was to make an audiobook (yeah my self esteem was so high to think that I can pull that off pffff haha), but unfortunately, I lacked inspiration (?), so I kept on thinking what to do, and here it is!


Decided to do Poetry instead (it's my first time lol). First is Glass of Water, Second, The Day and last is SciFi Experience...


Enjoy!

I need to go out Ma'am

The Philippines is considered to be one of the 3rd world countries to day, which means we are still thriving to reach the economic success other countries today are enjoying. In my other classes, like in communication values and ethics, sociology and economics, we keep on discussing how communication is important in stabilizing an economy and how other factors and agencies in the country tend to have a domino effect if ever one factor is not serving it's purpose.


Like in the problem (photo) stated, there's a cycle when one problem arises, another one will surely follow.. I would like to concentrate on one problem in the cycle - Poor Education.


For me, this triggers the cycle, for someone to have a poor foundation is being stupor in life, this may cause a high birth rate and so the cycle goes. In the Philippines, one of the major problems is poor education, before, the country used to produce students who were well-rounded and ready for the challenges of the real world. Today, for every 10 children who start their primary education, only 6 go on to continue with their secondary education, and 4 will manage to enter college. What happened? I think no one knows why.


The government has been trying to solve this issue for years now and up until now it is still not resolved.They say that it's because of the low salary public teachers receive, others point their fingers on the high tuition fees, and others say that there's a "mismatch" where the things being taught in schools aren't really what's happening in the "real world". But with these problems being brought up and discussed, there's still the problem of low and poor educational rate in our country, what did really happen? it's kinda sad that other countries used to send their students to the Philippines to learn, now they've overtaken us and are the experts. 


Like what I said, our country is still on it's knees trying to find it's way to stand up, of course we are here to just support and put our trust in our leaders *gee I can't believe I said that* and hopefully we will be finally one of those countries who has a stable economy and really globally competitive.

is it weak or good?

The Memory of the World


GOOD. Not to be biased and all, but for me it really is a good science fiction story; it depicts the idea of preserving the memory of the world which today is pretty much possible. What made the story unique for me is that it's not the usual story that only has one theme, it has different themes - language, importance of information, research and personal issues like love, lies etc. 


Now another reason why it is a good science fiction story for me, is that it is plausible and with the technology we have right now, it is not impossible to store large amounts of information into a small device (like a memory card for example). Also we can't deny the fact that others are already preparing for the post apocalyptic life and preserving the most important things and resources they're gonna be needing. 


Bottom line, it's good. by how Italo viewed the future and relatively what's happening and the technology today.

The Memory of the World - Group Blog

So our group reported and discussed Italo Calvino's "The Memory of the World" with the theme, Post Apocalyptic. 

Group Members:

Neoben Rivera

Junico Potestad

Jasmine Arceo

Paul Jan Rodelas

Catherine Abdon

The text was indeed different from the stories we had been discussing in class; first, the way it was told - first person point of view, second, that it has a couple of themes that we can choose from.


The Memory of the World - The story goes of how this organization is trying to collect information from people and preserving them incase the end of the world comes. It discussed the importance of information and technology, the existence of another life form in other galaxies and planets, and also it tackles on the possibility of the end of the world. The story has a bit of twist in the end which made it more of a personal type of story.


For the movies, we chose "The 6th Day" and "The Book of Eli"; summaries of the movie can be found here:

The 6th Day Summary Book of Eli Summary

The Book of Eli - a post apocalyptic film which helped us illustrate how to gather the memory of the world - how they were able to collect information (books, resources, and everything about human life) and being able to preserve them after the said apocalypse.


The 6th Day - a scifi film about cloning and it shows how they collect a person's memory and storing them in a small disc (which is one of the goals of the organization in the text - memory of the world)


Presentation used in class can be found and downloaded here:HERE

Article: 7 shelters to save you if 2012 calls doom

I wanna be a boy, Blue Fairy!

If I were to have a robot specifically designed for my needs, I'd say a robot that would be my personal trainer, chef and driver - I know the idea is a bit self centered. I started to step up and have a more active lifestyle, and sometimes, or should I say most of the times I get too lazy to workout, and if given this privilege of having a robot one, I really wanted to have my personal trainer (coz it's too expensive to have one in real life) who'll really help me in doing my workouts and be there to push myself to the limits and keep me on track. This robot knows all the right workouts and is fitness guru.

Also this robot is a personal chef of mine, that will prepare healthy and scrumptious meals that is right for my diet (since I get a hard time with getting and eating the right food; the healthy food.), and knows all the great recipes from different counties and cuisines.

And lastly, my driver. Nowadays I get too lazy to even drive, and I really want to have a personal driver - to just be there whenever I need him, and he has an awesome kick-ass driving skills! Oh another reason is so that I can get really drunk at parties and not worrying of driving home drunk (hahaha I just had to say that). So guess that's it.  that's all I can think of right now, 'cause basically those are the things I am concerned of these days, oh and lastly, this robot should be my friend, and we should get along easily, since I will be with him (yes, him) most of the time.

With all of these said, I still personally believe that we humans are designed to learn; there's is nothing in this world we cannot do or rather learn to do. The idea of having a personalized robot is good, but I still prefer not to have one :)



Now with all these advancements, we should know where the limit is. Like what is discussed and shown in class, there are humanoid robots that replaces people's job, like the teacher; that I think is where the limit should be - when these robots replace people when it comes to doing their job, it's not that I don't like robots, it's the mind set of being lazy by making a robot do a person's job. The idea is kinda disturbing, I mean having a robot teach children? c'mon. hahaha It's nice to work hand-in-hand with robots it makes the job faster, but we still mustn't forget that these machines have limitations and we still must be the ones to lead and finish the job.

 To sum it all up, I think the line should be put where human jobs are given to robots - every human job.

no! please no!

The thought that the world will end scares me; well I think all of us do. It’s a “fact” that we must all know and I think, also admit. Honestly, I don’t wanna give my own version of ending the world, but for the sake of giving an example, I’d like the end of the world to be something caused by water, I don’t like explosions, fires, earthquake and falling buildings. I want the end of the world to be calm (as if that’s possible). Maybe just like in Noah’s Arc, where it rained 40days and 40nights; so it’ll put the entire city underwater. I know my example is kinda lame; I just don’t like the idea of ending the world, I get too stressed just by thinking about it. I hope I got my answer right for the first question.

Movies today sort of depict reality, but they tend to over do it that’s why people say what happens in movies stays in the movies, but what really movies are made up of, are just reflections of what’s happening around us now. I think Technology will be one of big causes of the end of the world. We keep on complaining that God hates us ‘cause of the weather and catastrophes, but we humans and the technology we brought to this world are the primary cause of it. For example, Global Warming (if worsen, I do believe that this may also cause the end of the world), today we keep on experiencing this weird sudden change of climate and extreme heat, if our ozone layers’ state worsen by the intense emission of CFCs, then maybe sunlight will be our greatest fear, ‘cause there’ll be nothing protecting us from the harmful rays; the earth will lose it’s shield from foreign objects from outer space. Our technology harms the environment, which leads to global warming, if we start now and innovate on things that will help and fix the situation right now, we might actually prevent the end of the world (I think haha).

So my blog is a bit short. I’m just not comfortable with the topic, I don’t want the world to end. Let’s all save mother earth J

we are all normal

I found this article about these human mutations - Cyclopia, Tree Man, Mermaid Syndrome, Werewolf Syndrome, Gigantism and Dwarfism.


FIND THE ARTICLE HERE


So the first one is Cylopia - a birth defect of having only one eye, because during pregnancy, doesn’t allow the orbits of the eyes to separate into two cavities. According to the article chances of survival for the infant is little. This is the first time I heard about this "mutation" maybe because not many survived when born :(


Next is Tree Man. Okay now I heard about this one and saw it on Ripley's believe it or not I think. It's a rare case of this man growing huge warts and his hands and feet looks like tree branches. The said cause of this disease is HPV virus that can either cause cancer or grow warts on skin. I feel bad for the guy, 'cause I'm sure he didn't get to have a normal life because of this "mutation"


Third, Mermaid and Werewolf Syndrome, like the Tree Man, I've also heard about this one, where the feet is under-developed and wasn't able to separate at infancy, which makes the legs looks like a mermaid's tail. Now a days for someone to have this "mutation", doctors are now able to operate and separate the legs, but the patient has to go under therapy to somehow have a normale life :) The Werewolf Syndrome I also saw this in Ripley's, when someone grows a substantial amount of hair all over the body which eventually resembles a werewolf. This is also caused by a birth defect.


Gigantism and Dwarfism. By the name itself we already know what time of mutation are these. First is Gigantism, where someone grows EXTREMELY in height, oh yeah! talk about reaching for the skies haha.  Last is Dwarfism, where can be described as person that is less than 4 feet 10 inches tall. Oh a Filipino holds the record for the shortest man alive lol I just have to share that :)


Despite these abnormalities, differences we are all normal in the eyes of God, there's a reason and purpose why these things are happening, it's just up to us to find out and understand and not to judge someone by the cover.

teacher teacher you need to re-charge

Robot teachers.. hmmm well I’ve always imagined life with robots - how would life be if robots exists amongst us. Come to think of it, it’s actually happening right now, with all the advancements and the technology that keeps on innovating, it’s sometimes hard to keep track with all the “futuristic” gadgets, so to speak, right now. But what I’m afraid of, is that when human touch will be gone and these robots will take over our jobs. 

In Korea, there’s this Robot Teachers where they teach children english through telepresence - teachers from the philippines and linked to this machine to where they can see and talk to the students live (you can read the article here: http://singularityhub.com/2011/01/03/south-korea%E2%80%99s-robot-teachers-to-test-telepresence-tools-in-the-new-year/ ).

My reaction? well it’s good to hear and see the advancements now a days, I’m happy that there are innovations that can help lessen the “burden” on humans when it comes to teaching, BUT the difference of having robots/telepresenced over actual human teachers, is that it’ll lack human touch and participation, I mean the actual conversation, etc. though there are teachers present in the classroom, but just to look over the kids and not to teach.

The concept, technology wise and all is good, it helps also the filipino teachers to earn extra income, help teachers etc. so basically it’s good. but my only concern is that the kids might lose the human contact, touch and most of all the emotion of what education really is. 

MAN

So in the excerpt, it classified 3 categories of man and how, I’m not quite sure If I understood it correctly, but here it goes... So I’ll give three types of man - a Soldier, a Politician and an Artist. 

These three are different from one another, they’re all different from one another and they serve a different purpose in society. 

First is the Soldier, from the three, they’re the most valuable and yet they’re just taken for granted. “...they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones” no matter how these people work and risk their lives for the country or for those they’re fighting for, what these people get in return is still not enough and sometimes they die in vain. Just like here in the Philippines, many soldiers die in battle and yet they’re not given praise or any recognition from what they’ve done for the country. With the current state of the country’s soldiers, right benefits are not given - small salary etc. 

Next, the Politician - these people  are perceived as untouchables, with all their fancy things, extravagant offices and obviously over flowing money, but little do we know that these “politicians” barely don’t know a thing they’re doing. Yeah, they pass bills, make laws, do projects for the poor etc. but these are just minimal things; those who say that they’ll help the country rise from poverty, no corruption and all that... But what really is happening, is that the people are blinded from the truth, that these “politicians” steal more money from the people instead of helping them. Well this is evident here in our country, no doubt. As one politician said “I did not invent corruption, I walked into it” (forgot the name though sorry hoohooo). They tend to have no fear from no one, even God. 

Last is the Artist - these people are the minorities - basically, everyone. These type are those who aren’t listened to, the ones who remain silent from all the wrongness of the country, well there are those who speak their minds and express what they feel and what they think is wrong, and sometimes they use different mediums of art, but sometimes they’re left unheard. Well I guess I’m able to say this because it is happening in our country, I am one of those minority who’s afraid to speak his mind, but hoping to gain courage to be able to stand up :)

Science Fiction ain't Fantasy bro :)

So at first I thought Fantasy was under Science Fiction, or is it the other way around? anywaaay, with the discussion in class, I got a different understanding of the two, I managed to determine how a text is considered as a fantasy or a science fiction. Though they may have different meanings, they still work under the same umbrella. When we were asked what genre Jurassic Park is - is it Fantasy or Science Fiction, that’s when I understood the difference of the two; got to explain and answered that Jurassic park is a Science Fiction, it’s a movie based on facts, life and the what could’ve been, I mean the existence of dinosaurs and how they sort of “created” these animals which are extinct million years ago. Though the movie doesn’t have that cool space ranger kind of feel, I defined Science Fiction by comparing JP to Star Wars, which people seems to tag as a Science Fiction film, but I see it as a Fantasy Film, the story’s good and all - it’s realistic, but the idea and the movie itself is just make believe, something we want to happen or wondered of happening, in other words, Fantasy. So by that, I believe that Science Fiction is something we base on facts, what we have now and had, something we can all relate to, something believable and yet, it’s out of this world. I hope I am making sense here but yeah, this is how I understood the two from the discussion last time.

Good Science Fiction

Jurassic Park

I considered as Good SciFi is because they presented and how they explained the re-existence of dinosaurs struck me. For me, the part of the movie where they explained how they got the blood of dinosaurs and how they genetically engineered them wasn’t hard to believe, up until now, I am still fascinated by this movie, and yes I am a super fan not just by the movie but in dinosaurs as well. So this is a bit biased by considering this as a good scifi, cause I am amazed by how they explained in making dinosaurs and (I)thinking and believing that there is a possibility.

The 6th Day

This movie is all about cloning. By now there have been researches about cloning and experiments are made to animals, so I considered this movie a good scifi film. Though this movie pushed a bit outside of the box, like with the laser guns and having the futuristic setting, but the main theme, which is cloning is pretty believable and plausible, just because there is something that will support the idea of cloning, at least.

2012

Okay, I think many people would consider this movie weak and poor, but for me, it’s good. Not that I believe of the “end of the world” thing, but the way they explained of how the world is gonna end, like the earth crust displacement which caused tsunamis, eruptions and earthquakes and not just by saying that there’s this calendar thingy. So yeah, though the idea is pretty unbelievable, I liked how they explained the cause.

Weak Science Fiction

Back to the Future

Time Traveling. Yes, we all wanted to travel back in time or to see the future and go back to the past, but this idea is just unbelievable. The movie was good - the story, the conflict and the characters, no doubt, but there’s no explanation of how the time traveling car was made or by simply explaining how to travel back in time.

Resident Evil

Zombie Apocalypse. Ever since I was a kid and up until now, I can’t still imagine how things like this can happen. Again the plot and the story is amazing (also the sequels) but the way they illustrated how the “disease” spread for me is just unbelievable. There are no studies or even an explanation of this disease so there are no supporting evidences. Plus reflecting to reality, it is unacceptable in science and also in religion for the dead to rise again as a zombie.

Idiocracy

Freezing the body over time. The movie was about a research on freezing the human body and putting them into sleep for years and so they tested it on these two jobless characters. The experiment was a success, but what happened with the people or rather, the world is unbelievable, everyone turned dumb, idiots, mindless and un-rational thinkers, the movie is just insane. I’d recommend this movie for those who wants a good time and just to have a good laugh. This movie us plainly of entertainment, thought here is the idea of freezing the human body, and sort of preserving them, I think nothing can support this idea yet.

what?

1. Until now, the story isn’t that clear to me, I’m kinda lost how the beginning was stitched to the ending, all I can say is that there was conflict between the girl and the boy which was labeled in class as “lovers”. The girl kept on calling his “boyfriend” and uses different names, I think there’s a “trust” issue here, the only reason I can think of, of why the girl does that is to test the loyalty and what her boyfriend does when she’s not around, unless the girl is a bit psycho. With the last part, the “ex” issue was the conflict, it was a sort of open ended of how the girl answered back and did not went with her sorry speech, but yeah they just let it pass... hmmm I think the heart of the problem is about openness and trust, they both should be more open to one another, and must learn to trust one another. I kinda reflects the relationships today, in a way of hoe couples tend to break up because they lack trust with one another, and sometimes a small fight or issue was the cause of the break up.

2. ...The girl asked the guy to meet up after his work to talk about things. Later that day, they met at the restaurant and had dinner, while eating both of them were silent, the girl tried to start a conversation but the guy only gave one-word answers. “sorry...” the girl said, the guy looked at her, they both stared at each other, like waiting for the other one to talk. The guy stood up, went out the restaurant with out any single word. the girl on the other hand was shocked of what the guy did, she doesn’t know what that meant, was he just playing games? did he left her? was it over? The girl just bowed her head, looking at her dinner, until someone placed their hand on her shoulder, she turned around and saw the guy holding a bouquet of flowers, with a smile that says “everything’s alright, I love you”, the girl stood up looking at the guy with tears in her eyes, she embraced him, “I love you” said the girl, “I love you too Maria” he said.

gonna make a difference

hmm... the moment Makota mentioned the topic of our blog assignment, he was the first person that popped up in my mind. Michael Jackson.

“The King of Pop” that’s what he was known for.. In an interview done to commemorate his death, Kenny Ortega said that Michael Jackson is not just the king of pop - he’s the king of everything. The world was his playground, at a very young age, he started to travel the world; country by country, heck I don’t even know how and where to start if I talk about his childhood or rather, his life.


But it’s not about about the fortune, the chance to travel the world, or the fame he’s getting (until now) the reason why I chose Michael Jackson, I chose him, because he used his talents to contribute in making this world a better place; He wrote songs the speaks of peace, forgiveness, and love; he loved every human being in this world - even those who threw trash at him. I wanted to be like this guy, I wanna discover what can I do to help change the world and make it a better place, (which I think MJ did), I wanna use my talents in expressing how I feel, and influence others.


As a performer myself, I admire MJ by the way he treats the stage as his home. When you see him up on stage, he would perform his heart out, he would dance like nobody’s watching, and sing like there’s no tomorrow and no breath to take. Now-a-days, an artist - to be able to present a good show, he/she needs awesome lighting, great back-up dancers and all those fancy stuff; but Michael Jackson was way different, just give him a spotlight and a mic, and that’s all you need, He is the show, through his actions and steps, he expresses every word of the song, you can feel the message he wants you to feel. As a performer I wanna be able to that as well, it’s not about the money nor the fame and fortune, they just come along the way and just a small token, but just to be able to do what does and be able to do what I really love is enough of me.


Too bad he’s gone. back in high school I was one of the people who hates him and believed in all the rumors about him - harassment case, the gay issue and many more - but after I watched a documentary about him and researched about his life, he turned out to be the most kind hearted person in the world, a man who wanted to experience childhood, to be able to play with friends, have pets, and go to theme parks. he wanted to change how the people views the world, to have a more positive outlook in life, love everyone and be gracious to the Almighty.


There are more reasons why I wanted to this guy, to be Michael Jackson, it’ll be a looooong blog for sure, this is just the introduction lol..

well look at the bright side :)

I’d like to ponder on, “Filipinos are poor but happy”.With the characters in Carlos Bulosan’s story, they were illustrated as people who would laugh their problems out, this brought to the idea that filipinos, although they’re poor, they’re still happy. For me, I wouldn’t use the term “happy”, since there are a lot of classifications and definitions when it comes to being happy, it just depends on the person. Maybe we can rephrase it and say “Filipinos are poor but they can find humor on their problems”.

It is evident that the Philippines is one of those countries who strives for growth in the economy and many filipinos are below poverty line, but despite of that, there’s this unique characteristic that sets filipinos apart from others; it’s how we find the humorous side in our problems, that despite how big our problem is, we can still manage to laugh and be happy. That’s what and how Bulosan presented the filipinos in the story. In the beginning, the poor family would usually look up to the rich family next door and smell the aroma of  bacon, ham and roasted chickens being cooked by the servants.

Throughout the story I noticed that it revolves around the idea of laughter being the best medicine. The unnamed character said that “Laughter was our only wealth” and there was a part in the story that the father spilled oil on the floor and caught fire, after the fire was extinguished they did nothing but to laugh and dance and what happened next and I think one of the exaggerated parts was when the neighbors joined them and laughed. Yes it is a little bit exaggerated but I think Bulosan wanted to pin point through out the story that in times of troubles and problems, Filipinos still look at the bright side of things and have a positive outlook in life.

Today, filipinos are facing different problems with the economy and with the government, I mean there are things lacking in the system that many filipinos are still poor, but still they can manage to stand up and face these problems. Years back, the Philippines had a down fall caused by typhoon ondoy, that didn’t stop the filipinos from fighting and having a positive look on life, what they did was, bit by bit tried to help one another and together face the bright side of things.

Carlos Bulosan’s story was evidently short, in the last part, when they were having the trial in court and the father had no lawyer, that also implied how the poor people can’t have enough of the justice system here in the Philippines, but that’s a different story. The father collected coins and paid the rich man with the “spirit” of the coins, I think it’s another way f putting also how clever filipinos can be when it comes tight and difficult situations, I mean they can come up with solutions (though sometimes the solutions aren’t the right one) and have they’re own strategy in life.

I liked how the story went, and how Carlos Bulosan represented filipinos, also how he wrote the story - understandable, yet complex :) YAY!