What A Life To Live

Life may just be the most important thing you do. What life will you live? Why live it like everyone else?

I guess it comes down to what you want out of life and whether or not fate will let you have what you desire.

Whether it will be a life of normalcy or rather on of abnormality, it will be the only one you get. It will be the most jam packed thing you will ever experience, while simultaneously being the most boring thing.

You can be john doe with 2.5 children, a mundane job, and a comfy retirement in humid Florida or Mohammed, a man who had to flee his country in hopes of survival or the grandma who lives on my street who digs through the trash every day just to pull old used monopoly boards from their impending doom.

Life is precious.

The preacher's message of life is not a new concept, yet I see so many treat others lives as though they are not as important.

Are particular lives more precious and important than others?

If so, what gives a life its value?

Right now more than ever, there are massive movements declaring the importance of lives.

Black lives matter.

Blue lives matter.

Refugee lives matter.

All lives matter.

Dog mom lives matter.

All of these lives hold value to someone. Everyone has someone who cares for them. Why does it seem that quite often so many lives overlap, yet have different values depending on the path it takes.

What will be the path that my life takes? I've met so many people that have led perfectly normal lives. People who have found someone else to have a few children with, raised said children to adulthood and then sent them off to follow in their footsteps. All the while working a mundane job, saving just enough to support their families and live comfortably.

In my life, I've been able to meet so many who fall into the category of normalcy that it would be truly impossible to count.

I know that my life holds value to some but yet to entire nations, I am nothing.

Throughout history, we have forgotten billions of lives. Some cultures have ancient ceremonial events to honor the value of their ancestor's lives. The same cultures that forgot I exist. I am able to come to terms with being insignificant to most of the world.

The question that has been on my tongue for awhile is, why spend your own precious life trying to degrade and take away from others precious lives?

I understand valuing your own life and the lives of your family but how can you forget that there are billions of other families.

I hope that one day I can find who I am and be able to live my life to the best of my abilities. Maybe I will end up a Joe Blow with 2.5 kids and a lame job, but I don't want to forget what I felt this night. Half asleep after getting off from a long work week.

Remembering that life is precious.

How Do Pandas Still Exist?

As of this year, pandas were reclassified as a vulnerable species. The panda is a bear native to ancient China. Deforestation and other human developments have driven the Panda out of the mountains where they lived wild, and made there numbers drastically drop. It is estimated that there are less than 2,000 wild Panda left in the world. Only about 50 are held in captivity such as zoos.

Humans have left a terrible mark on the Pandas existence. We have poached them for their pelts and literally destroyed their ancient homes. All of this has left the panda on an unsteady slope of existence, but the panda has not helped itself either.

The panda is a carnivorous bear. That means that it eats meat to survive. Its biological make up exists to digest meat, but the only thing a panda eats is bamboo.

Bamboo, a giant woody grass that grows chiefly in the tropics. Basically a super thick grass. No meat. No animal products. Nothing nutritious for it. It gains nothing from eating bamboo, but their primary diet consists of bamboo. 

Because the panda eats a strictly vegetarian diet, and it cannot digest bamboo, it poops it straight out. A panda will poop forty times a day without gaining any benefits from the bamboo it eats.

Speaking of poop, the only other thing, aside from bamboo, that a panda will eat is its mothers poop. They need a specific bacteria that is in their mothers poop.

Okay, okay. We have established that all the pandas do is eat bamboo and poop it out. Guess that's not too terrible since they are still able to survive off their stupid diet.

Surviving is nice and all, but passing on your genes to the next generation is a part of every living things biological code. Except for the panda. They do not believe in offspring.

The panda is not a social creature. A panda will keep to itself and fend off others from their territory. They tend to not be afraid of anything or anyone, and periodically get annoyed by anything around them. All of that is fine, if they did not need to interact with others in order to procreate.

Pandas in captivity, and most in the wild, do not have a sex drive. They are not attracted to other panda. There is a 3 month mating period in which pandas may conceive children. During this time, all a panda will do is eat bamboo, and then promptly poop it out. Also during this time, humans will do everything in their power to help the pandas conceive. Quite often this will include giving the male panda sildenafil pills and showing videos of mating pandas.

Viagra and panda porn.

Viagra. Panda porn.

Still, nothing. A panda conception in captivity is truly a miracle.

Actually a pandas existence is truly a miracle. They survive by sitting around all day and eating the one thing that they cannot digest. Then they poop and repeat. Perhaps they do not want to exist. One thing is for certain though, they do not want a future generation to have to exist.

So uh, yeah, pandas are useless and illogical but half the world loves them and wants them to thrive.

Why Google Though?

Google had different goals and ideals than their competitors. They wanted to be a brief yet effective tool. More than that, they wanted to be the very best at what they were doing. They relied heavily on the power of "word of mouth" by the users and as it would turn out, people became incredibly loyal to their web search engines. With a focus on hiring engineers and R&D members, they started their company with different ideal than their competition. With some basic beliefs such as "don't be evil", the company offered many innovative services that helped their users. 

Social Media Life

Today I am assessing an article on the social media phenomenon. The author, Danah Boyd, takes a viewpoint similar to my own but is able to bring more knowledge to the subject. Social media has become an integral part of everyday life. It has not been that way for very long, although for me it has been this way for most of my life.

I cannot remember anything of the dot-com crash. I vaguely remember commercials ending with a catchy dot-com emphasis. The Web 1.0 is completely out of mind for me, BBSs are something I did not hear of until a month ago. Since I've had access to the internet, social media platforms such myspace and facebook have not only been available but prevalent in my everyday life.

It would make sense that once your entire system, Web 1.0, collapses and you begin anew, Web 2.0, that you turn to your basics and comforts. With BBSs, the popularity was on the rise because of the ability to socialized with anyone. The ability to socialize with individuals or communities around the nation was an astounding advancement in internet technologies. With the start of Web 2.0, people still craved the ability to socialized via the internet. Since it wasn't necessarily a start from scratch but rather restarting with a particular desire and goal, the results were incredible.

Modern social media has evolved drastically and quickly in a rather astoundingly short amount of time. In the timeline of social media sites, we have seen some gain extraordinary popularity and then suddenly lose millions of daily users over just a few years. Some sites such as Friendster were quite popular and died out due to more popular sites that offered new features and appealed to younger audiences that had these new methods of socializing become true standards. Others such as MySpace died out as newer sites such as Facebook capitalized on key marketing strategies that made it essential in a wide array of aspects of peoples lives.

Being able to evolve to what daily users want, while still knowing what is essential for all users to have, is a key component in surviving the cut. Today, the entire world is connected through social media sites. A picture taken in Paris can instantly be seen in America when posted on social media sites.

Bringing nations together, whether good or bad, changes so many things in society. Previously, it could take years and extensive travel to bring a large group together. Today, groups can make pages for themselves on these sites and thousands can discover them and join their cause. Profound life changing actions found their way on Facebook when someone posted a live stream of an altercation between police and a citizen. This brought millions of eyes onto their cause. We have even these tactics employed by the United States government when a political party staged a sit-in and streamed their actions via social media.

The changes that have occurred in these sites is brilliant but they are certainly not over yet. We still see new social media platforms arise every day but not many seem to have the right formula to join the phenomenon. Perhaps another crash is needed before the next evolutionary step, although I believe the next revolutionary means of socialization is on its way and will be here before we know it.

If you'd like to read the article I have posted on you can find it here. Social Media: A Phenomenon to be Analyzed

Becoming Princess

I was a dirty and angry out of control child. Growing up was never on my mind, nor were the wishes of anyone else. When I was young and growing up there were not many constants in my life other than my family and Disney. I was quite often a terror to those around me. I bullied my classmates, stole from every store I went in and was fairly convinced that everyone was lesser than I. My mindset was a very skewed point of view. I only ever thought of myself and what people could do for me.

Into my teens, I moved to yet another new town. This time around, my family was split even deeper than before. I began to get a little lost in my own head at this stage in my life. I was finally in a town for more than a year at a time, but so many things were different. One of those things was me. I am not sure if it came with age or with gaining real friends, but my mindset slowly began to change. I started to think about my actions and others opinions. By no means was this the point where I truly began to put others before myself, but it was the beginnings of something new. My friends at the time gave me princess for a nickname as a joke. It was one that was meant to question things about me and make fun of me for having such girly interests.

As I got older and graduated school, I made a move to a new town to venture into a new adventure for self-realisation. I came to a new town for school but ended up finding out who I am and who I want to be someday.  It required many late nights with lots of alcohol. I found out that I still was not a person who put the needs of others before their own needs. After finding out who I was, seeing who I wanted to be was easy. I needed to become someone who has others to live for.

I wound up meeting someone who I wanted to put before myself. She came into my life and helped me see that the only thing holding me from being a princess who helps all those in need, is me. She was unaware that she was helping me so deeply, but she ended up being my guiding light. In a way, she put my needs before her own without even giving it a second thought. She was the princess who helped me realize that I can do it too.

Some princess get their title from birth while others get it by proving that they have all the pure qualities of a princess. As a princess, there are certain expectations and ideals that are expected of you. You must be a model citizen and a guiding light to those who need direction. You must hold yourself to a higher standard and go beyond the call of duty for your people. It is essential that you learn to care for people while still being able to distance yourself, as to not get too emotionally attached to any one person. When people see you, you must gently smile and pleasantly greet them.

I've still a long way to go before I am a princess who undoubtedly deserves the title but I now know that I can help others the way I have dreamt of. I hope to be able to share the journey of becoming a princess with everyone here on this blog.

♔