Alignment

Today what do we do as first order of the day? We align ourselves with something, a brand or idea maybe some stars/starlets on the way? We do not develop our own ideas we simply assimilate the ideas which we are confronted with since who would want to be different being different in a herd society is bad after all. We want to know what the stars do since our own lives are not exiting enough. We follow stars and starlets we want to know all their secrets today its almost normal to know everything about those whom you are a fan off. Then again the origin of the word Fan comes from Fanatic the Fanatic could also be called extremist. Now then why do we life in a world were extremism is all that we know? If religious, political, economic or simply listening to music. We consume not only the art we consume the artist we consume everything if alive or dead as long as it entertains and as long as it feeds that hunger that can never be satisfied the need to belong to a group. A group that consists only because of an obsession with something or other but why is that so? Why does the human need to create these extreme groups which inevitably cause friction with other groups. Soccer and music Fans are great examples and they often enough cause riots. They will fight with the other side's fans just because they do not share they view of which team is better. But why have things that trivial become that central to our world. Now of course some will say religion is more important then a sport but realistically they are on equal footing they respective fans are willing to fight and even kill those who do not share their view.
Could it be that today we are unable to actually see a true difference between people so we align ourselves along more and more artificial lines. Lines based on anything to create a new herd to belong to something to be with something to be part off if its the fan club for some star or that for some religion is entirely unimportant as long as we do so right? Why not fight each other on some other ridiculous ground? Since as long as our life focus on something on anything really as long as that is center is provided everything is alright...isn't?

The truths

Here are a three of Parodies regarding the fun side of some of the next generation of computing and gaming.

Soldiers

War, a most unpopular issue. We often complain about war but what do we do about it? I can remember the stories of Veterans returning from Vietnam and Iraq and many other wars or from North Korea and Afghanistan to include non-US armed forces. These stories often include that the people blamed the soldiers to for the war. Now that is a bit odd considering that soldiers join for many reasons however very few do so with the declared goal of killing people they never met before. Most want to defend they nation or don't see another way out of their situation be it social, educational or a career. Others want to be trained to respond and serve not just to defend the nation but also to respond in emergencies, since the armed forces are among the first to respond to catastrophies which exceed the regional capacities. (Bushfires excluded)
If anyone would be to blame for a War its the people who did not stop their government and the government which includes many people who never wore a uniform and don't really know what they send their soldiers into. While the Military/Intelligence complex prepares for contingencies it does not mean that they wish to fight wars but rather want to be prepared and ready. I have heard of many wars or military decisions which were made against the advise of the military leaders. Soldiers are the ones who are also wronged not only the people of an attacked nation, we have to remember that while soldiers swear to fight and defend for a country they also expect to be used for those purposes only.
If their trust is violated then are these soldiers not equally victims?
They however can not dissobey because of what they agreed to, which is them being soldiers it lies with the people of their respective countries to insure that soldiers are not used in any wrong manner which would violate their trust in their government and the people. Blaming a soldier for serving is not fair considering that they may want to protect their country but once they are soldiers then they have no choice but to obey.

Shopping?!

We by now buy extreme amounts of anything and everything. However how is that connected to some of the current world issues? For example Pirating is a reaction to this we are told to have the music, movies and games as well as books. However we are also limited financially, so if want everything does consumerism not encourage hacking and pirating because we simply 'WANT' if not even 'NEED' all these many things. Adds are everywhere and we are also taught as children that we 'WANT' or 'NEED' these things. Why not spend a christmas without spending obsene amounts of money. Simply spending time together as family? No instead its one of the shopping frenzy times. We associate products and objects with love and feelings which are not really existend.
Owning is something that we think we need today and to have movies and the stream off entertainment. You want to fit in and thus you watch the movies and shows also buy the 'IN' things.
Many people today are actually clinically addicted to buying things. Even though North America is one of the few areas without officially denying this clinical addiction. Objects and entertainment are dominating our daily lifes more and more overriding actual interpersonal relations and interaction.

WoW Patch release

Blizzard released the 2.4 Patch. This as always shows how popular and impacting WoW has been on the online community. Within hours the support websites which allow access to the add-ons we over stretched in terms of their bandwidth and collapsed. Players and small companies spent enormous amounts of energy in this virtual world. Add-Ons which make the game different allowing more access to more information at once, companies trying to make money with advertisement on their sides because supplying WoW add-ons will guarantee many hits. Other companies try the less legal but faster way of selling services in-game for real-world money such as 'power-leveling' of characters and their professions as well as selling virtual money to the players for real money.
But what does all of this mean for the real world and economy does this mean that we can create something completely artificial and people would buy it even if they could only benefit from it when using a specific game? There are by now many MMORPGs out there many of them use a interesting method which allows the player to buy a certain made up in-game currency for real money some others offer bazaars where game money can be exchanged for time cards with other players. The amount of money flowing through MMORPGs has grown to an enormous amount but what does this mean for our way of living? Are those people who play these games to such an extent people who are trying to make a living or attempting to escape from reality? Are our real lifes to boring to un-engaging that a virtual world seems so much more enticing? Over all many who never played these games wonder "What makes these games and any PC/Console games so attractive to so many people?" But ultimately one has to see these games in context, there are many games which we have created in the past and MMORPGs as well as other less engaging games are really nothing else but the next step of this. For example chess, there are chess champions in the world those are people who do nothing but train playing chess. Essentially playing games is the same as playing chess or playing a team-sport. It exercises and challenges the player in different way however it is a artificially created challenge which is to be over come. And this overcoming of the challenge is exactly what makes these games so interesting and in some cases addicting.

Are you ok?

I was asked by one of my professors recently 'Are you ok?'. I of course answered the standardized 'Yes'. I left his office a short time later and considered this what does actually mean to be 'OK'? Does it mean to have money is it a certain state of being; could it be that just being happy is this being 'OK'? I continued and wondered on if being ok is what we want. Then wouldn't everyone have to know what 'OK' in that case means? The challenge at this point of course would be the question of standards what is that elusive 'OK' standard? Could it simply be that it is a state of peace a state in which we do not question ourselves as strongly? The challenge most young adults face these days is the question 'What do I want to do?' We have all seen the news articles saying that todays youth has it hard because everything has already been done and discovered; but is that really true? I mean ultimately we face new set of challenges today we still have ignorance and prejudice doing damage everywhere we look. Today's challenges are the challenges of a modern age. We can still fight for freedom; just now we fight for freedom of information and thought. We can fight to protect the environment which seems to be tethering near the brink of collapse. We can discover ways to life in symbiosis and learn to understand the rest of the planet. We still know less about the sea life the we do about the nearest solar-bodies. But in all of this information flooding at us what does it mean to be 'OK'? In the modern world we are told that we should do this and that is that what allows to be 'OK'? Is being OK being in a good financial standing? Is it happiness? Is it being content? Is it a positive mixture of everything?
For me personally I would say that being 'OK' stands for being anywhere from content to happy. However instead of answering such questions in a state of trance why not consider what it means? Maybe think 'Am I really OK?' 'Are you OK?' is not a simple question as it seems but rather a very meaningful question which common use and conversation does not receive any or only little consideration.

What is our reality

The question came up when I was watching 'A Dinner with Andre', what is reality? We create such a great amount of our environment but is that good? We have certain odd standards which seem to distort our interaction with people, habit becoming a way off life. For example teachers and professors create this collection of information and repeat the course again and again after they did it once. They know when to make jokes and know already what to say at the beginning of the year. The average human in western society lifes in a dreamworld created by others we do not try to be within our environment but simply choose to enjoy while not even attempting to break out of this dreamworld. How many people break out of habits? How many people really attempt to see something they do not see? Most people today are filled with apathy and disinterest in actually taking actions. We might as well call the modern man who lifes in a dreamworld the sleeping man, they do not attempt to do something different. People use heating, and other tools to distance themselves from the environment and reality by doing so the times of the years become less and less impacting.
What causes the continuous boredom of people these days? Watching TV? The living after the rule of money? Talking about leaving a city or place but never doing so?
For example just ask yourself the question 'What actually affect me?'

Blizzard

Blizzard is seemingly working over time, Blizzard released a new Starcraft 2 Trailer which now reveals the Zerg with the help of a in-game trailer.
And here it is.


There is also a new Trailer for the 2.4 Patch which is going to come in the near future. Which shows the areas and dungeon.

Music Videos | Kapa’a-Wailua vacation rentals | mp3 music

And of course the already known but always popular LK Trailer.

Free Speech

Free Speech has been a hot topic ever since the first conflicts between religious groups mostly. Some joke or idea is brought forward which then offends the other side. The best recent example is still the incident with the Comic coming from the Danish newspapers criticizing the Muslim extremists. This has of course triggered a wave of attacks and threats against that newspaper originating from the Muslim camp, many of those threats probably came from that very extremist camp however there is one issue that is often silenced to death in that matter. Western culture is build on the believe that Free Speech is a fundamental right and as such we are free to say anything anywhere because that is the right we have and many of our ancestors have fought and died for it. Is there any reason to castrate such a right? If we limit Free Speech then its not really Free Speech any longer is it? It becomes Free Speech within these boundaries and if you happen to leave these boundaries then you are in a no-man's land and can be punished for venturing there. However what is more important is were the criticisms coming from both sides in the form of comics right or wrong? The Comics coming from Denmark dealt with the hypocrisy of these extremists who do these killings in the name of a religion and they points were valid and good. The same can be counted for the points made against Christianity by the counter comics coming from the Muslim newspapers a few days later. Neither of them were telling lies and I can't recall many Christians getting worked up over the Muslim comics depicting Christ in same questionable actions. And how do we know that it wasn't only the extremists, the ones doing the bombing and the ones criticized by the comics who screamed and threatened. They after all are the loudest but they do not represent more then a fraction of the people following the Muslim faith. If now you argue 'Well yes, but how do we know who?'. Well we don't but neither did we of those who were in IRA or the members of German terror groups or KKK, etc there have always been many extremist groups with different aims and goals however if we start prosecuting the people or the faith they come from then we are no better then they. We are doing them a favor by creating the new meat for their recruiting, Free Speech is not just a tool for criticism its also a tool to allow us to understand another side, and maybe see similarity instead of some small differences between people. After all isn't that what many things we do to day focus on? Free Speech is after all one of the core believes in Western culture and society.

Advanced Education

Advanced Education that what every 'proper' young adult should desire. Is somewhat questionable, this education mostly consists of reading certain pre-selected materials, then a professor most regularly explains to the students what they just read, of course that presumes that the student did not engage sufficiently with the material on their own or lacked the ability to understand it. So instead of allowing the student to engage with the material and work with it in a discussion the professor explains what they read and not more. There are of course exceptions from that rule however the overwhelming number of courses does indeed consist of this. I of course refer mostly to humanities related courses. The question in this finally then is if the student can read on their own and if the professor reiterates exactly what the students have read then can they not read on their own for what do they need the professor if the student can read the material on their own and comprehend its meaning. Then would it not mean that ultimately the professor serves a control function and not one of allowing free intellectual growth. Can such control and limitation as well as slowing down of the intellectual growth, wouldn't that lead to stunted growth and limitation of the intellectual independence.