I downloaded Google Earth today.
Google Earth is the kind of toy that you could play with for hours and hours without getting bored. It is such a simple idea with such amazing features to keep any curious mind busy. You can search for towns, look at your house (from an aerial or street view perspective), or find cool locations near you that you never knew about before. Pretty much any landmark, building, field, and road is there for you to look at whenever you want. Google Earth is powerful, man.
I messed around with it for a while today. I was looking at all of my friend's houses, my college campus, and special places from my childhood. It tells you the altitude of the land that you have your mouse on, so I was trying to find the deepest part of the Marinas Trench (the deepest part of the ocean anywhere). It tells you the coordinates of the location you are looking at, which helped me locate areas where different geocaches are hidden (see my Adventure post for more on those).
And I got to look at other countries.
I live in New Jersey. I grew up in New Jersey. I leave the state quite often to visit the city and attend school, but I pretty much have only existed on this planet on the east coast of the United States. I've only ever been out of the country once, which was to visit Niagra Falls. It was cool, but the trip with my dad to San Diego felt like more of an international trip than that. My point is that I am not much of a world traveler.
But being able to look at all of these other countries on Google Earth is downright amazing. Never before have I wanted to travel more than I do after looking at all of these different places. The Earth has more places than any one person can ever visit and experience, but everyone should try to see as much as they can. Oceans, landmarks, tourist attractions, famous event locations, different cultures, different foods, and different experiences are out there in infinite supply. You will leave this life with places unvisited, even if you traveled every day. There is so much to see.
There is nothing quite like traveling - and this is coming from someone who doesn't partake in it. Just the idea of seeing new places and finding new stuff is exciting to me. Traveling should be on people's minds and in their dreams. If you are ever looking for an adventure, look no further than a new country. It can't disappoint.
I am looking at the Eiffel Tower on Google Earth street view right now. But that doesn't come close to actually standing in front of it. Trip to France, anyone?
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Potential
Have you ever heard of Craigslist?
The short description goes like this: Anyone can put up a post on the website, which you can categorize into fields such as jobs, for sale, personals, services, and others. When you visit the website, all of the articles immediately presented to you are grouped together based on where you live - I'm not entirely sure how the website knows where you are located, but it is nice being able to only see things in your neighborhood. It's more or less a child of Ebay and Amazon.
I glossed over the website for a while today, and I am stunned at the potential that Craigslist has - of which anyone can take advantage. People are selling homes on Craigslist. They are trading their homes for other homes. They are meeting people, finding oddjobs, making money... and using the website is free. Save for the scam artists floating around (which, according to Craigslist, are filtered out as best as possible), the power behind this webstite is huge. To me, it is almost unbelievable. An example that will blow your mind is that of Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade for something "bigger and better" enough times to finally get his own house - starting from a paper clip. You can find his story here.
Its amazing how something with a simple framework like Craigslist can lead to so many different outcomes. The simple things in life are sometimes the most rewarding, mostly due to their basic nature that everyone can understand and relate to. That's the weird thing about the most innovative ideas today - they don't all come from innovative minds. Someone with average intelligence with minimal resources can sill think of a groundbreaking idea. Great things can come from almost nothing.
People often talk about potential like it is something that only gifted people have. A fourth grader in a Calculus class would often garner remarks such as "Wow, what a smart kid! He has so much potential!" Sure, it might be a smart kid. But everyone else in his class has potential too. We all have potential, in all stages of our lives. We have the potential to be good or bad, the potential to work hard or hardly work, and the potential to make the right or wrong decisions. The future is unwritten, but we're all holding pens.
It's one thing to have potential. But fulfilling it is what counts.
The short description goes like this: Anyone can put up a post on the website, which you can categorize into fields such as jobs, for sale, personals, services, and others. When you visit the website, all of the articles immediately presented to you are grouped together based on where you live - I'm not entirely sure how the website knows where you are located, but it is nice being able to only see things in your neighborhood. It's more or less a child of Ebay and Amazon.
I glossed over the website for a while today, and I am stunned at the potential that Craigslist has - of which anyone can take advantage. People are selling homes on Craigslist. They are trading their homes for other homes. They are meeting people, finding oddjobs, making money... and using the website is free. Save for the scam artists floating around (which, according to Craigslist, are filtered out as best as possible), the power behind this webstite is huge. To me, it is almost unbelievable. An example that will blow your mind is that of Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade for something "bigger and better" enough times to finally get his own house - starting from a paper clip. You can find his story here.
Its amazing how something with a simple framework like Craigslist can lead to so many different outcomes. The simple things in life are sometimes the most rewarding, mostly due to their basic nature that everyone can understand and relate to. That's the weird thing about the most innovative ideas today - they don't all come from innovative minds. Someone with average intelligence with minimal resources can sill think of a groundbreaking idea. Great things can come from almost nothing.
People often talk about potential like it is something that only gifted people have. A fourth grader in a Calculus class would often garner remarks such as "Wow, what a smart kid! He has so much potential!" Sure, it might be a smart kid. But everyone else in his class has potential too. We all have potential, in all stages of our lives. We have the potential to be good or bad, the potential to work hard or hardly work, and the potential to make the right or wrong decisions. The future is unwritten, but we're all holding pens.
It's one thing to have potential. But fulfilling it is what counts.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Drop It
Fights tend to rear their ugly heads every now and then.
I feel that the world would be a better place if fighting got up and left. Apart from the serenity achieved from making up after the fact, nothing good has ever come from a fight. Whether it is a physical brawl or a verbal exchange, a full fledged fight is completely avoidable, completely unnecessary, and a waste of time.
What blows my mind is that people on this planet are making money right now to punch someone's face in. That's the last kind of money I would ever want to make. You might think that yes, something good is coming from that fight - people are making their living from it. But at what cost? Bloody bruises and broken bones, which I think more than take away from any money gained from a fight. Minus the blow to the economy suffered from its departure, professional fighting has every reason to just go away. (Sure, there are people that genuinely love fighting, which I understand. My point is that there is so high a risk and so high a cost to fighters, that in the end, they gain little to nothing.)
It's not just professional fights that are unnecessary. Arguments exist on every level - not just professional. In fact, there might be more people fighting in domestic scenarios than in any other situations that humankind has to offer. Consider growing up with your parents. You fought to get what you wanted in your younger naive years, and didn't care what anyone else had to say. All you did was upset your parents and make them work harder. Yes, we're young and don't know better, but then why does fighting continue to exist in our older years? I have argued with my parents recently, sure. Every time it happens, I regret it afterwards. I could have saved my energy instead of wasted our time.
I think a good skill to have is to know when to just drop it. Every argument that we ever have is only happening because we believe we are right to some degree, and we want to prove ourselves. We want to get what we think we deserve, and we want the other side to concede to you. And yet, both sides would be better off if the argument never started.
How far down the wrong road will you go before turning around? Well, you sure aren't going to just keep going the wrong way. You definitely will turn around. Just like you should just stop arguing, no matter how far into the conversation you are. It doesn't matter who "wins," or who gets the better piece, or who gets to go when the other stays home. Today is one in many, many days of your life, and what happens to you this one time will be a distant memory some day. Even if the fight has gotten really bad, you should always just stop. Make up and worry about more important things.
So the next time you catch yourself in an argument, ask yourself: "Is this really worth our time and energy?" Stop, take a deep breath, swallow your pride, and shake hands. It's okay.
Less arguing means more happiness, and less hate means more love. Sounds good to me.
I feel that the world would be a better place if fighting got up and left. Apart from the serenity achieved from making up after the fact, nothing good has ever come from a fight. Whether it is a physical brawl or a verbal exchange, a full fledged fight is completely avoidable, completely unnecessary, and a waste of time.
What blows my mind is that people on this planet are making money right now to punch someone's face in. That's the last kind of money I would ever want to make. You might think that yes, something good is coming from that fight - people are making their living from it. But at what cost? Bloody bruises and broken bones, which I think more than take away from any money gained from a fight. Minus the blow to the economy suffered from its departure, professional fighting has every reason to just go away. (Sure, there are people that genuinely love fighting, which I understand. My point is that there is so high a risk and so high a cost to fighters, that in the end, they gain little to nothing.)
It's not just professional fights that are unnecessary. Arguments exist on every level - not just professional. In fact, there might be more people fighting in domestic scenarios than in any other situations that humankind has to offer. Consider growing up with your parents. You fought to get what you wanted in your younger naive years, and didn't care what anyone else had to say. All you did was upset your parents and make them work harder. Yes, we're young and don't know better, but then why does fighting continue to exist in our older years? I have argued with my parents recently, sure. Every time it happens, I regret it afterwards. I could have saved my energy instead of wasted our time.
I think a good skill to have is to know when to just drop it. Every argument that we ever have is only happening because we believe we are right to some degree, and we want to prove ourselves. We want to get what we think we deserve, and we want the other side to concede to you. And yet, both sides would be better off if the argument never started.
How far down the wrong road will you go before turning around? Well, you sure aren't going to just keep going the wrong way. You definitely will turn around. Just like you should just stop arguing, no matter how far into the conversation you are. It doesn't matter who "wins," or who gets the better piece, or who gets to go when the other stays home. Today is one in many, many days of your life, and what happens to you this one time will be a distant memory some day. Even if the fight has gotten really bad, you should always just stop. Make up and worry about more important things.
So the next time you catch yourself in an argument, ask yourself: "Is this really worth our time and energy?" Stop, take a deep breath, swallow your pride, and shake hands. It's okay.
Less arguing means more happiness, and less hate means more love. Sounds good to me.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Brainpower
I am pretty sure a hefty majority of the movie-going population has seen the movie Inception.
I just saw it for the first time. I think that puts me in the "late bloomer" group of viewers. I feel like I understood the movie pretty well, but even then, I feel pretty absent-minded after seeing it. Its a strange feeling - hard to explain to anyone who hasn't seen the movie. (If you can't tell by now, the movie is impressive).
It is not very often that people are enveloped completely in any one thing. Generally, we can retain some semblance of multitasking - the brain is able to process more than one thing simultaneously, without losing track of one or the other. But in this situation, I was not thinking of anything else. All of my focus was going into the movie, with no distractions at all.
Its a pretty strange feeling being 100% focused in only one thing. Even when using all of your potential brain power, you still feel like you aren't doing much with it. I wrote in a previous post that people never completely put in 100% of their possible effort into anything that they do - as nobody is perfect. But we can still feel like we are putting in everything we've got.
So much variation exists in the levels of brainpower in everyone. We have IQ tests, and scores range from genius level to almost no thinking power at all. We have people developing cures for diseases, and people thinking of ways to try to pay their next bills. But nobody has an excuse to not try to use as much brainpower as they have at their disposal. We all have been gifted with a level of intelligence, and should strive to live up to those levels as best we can.
My hope is that people think as much as they can. More ideas means more possibilities.
I just saw it for the first time. I think that puts me in the "late bloomer" group of viewers. I feel like I understood the movie pretty well, but even then, I feel pretty absent-minded after seeing it. Its a strange feeling - hard to explain to anyone who hasn't seen the movie. (If you can't tell by now, the movie is impressive).
It is not very often that people are enveloped completely in any one thing. Generally, we can retain some semblance of multitasking - the brain is able to process more than one thing simultaneously, without losing track of one or the other. But in this situation, I was not thinking of anything else. All of my focus was going into the movie, with no distractions at all.
Its a pretty strange feeling being 100% focused in only one thing. Even when using all of your potential brain power, you still feel like you aren't doing much with it. I wrote in a previous post that people never completely put in 100% of their possible effort into anything that they do - as nobody is perfect. But we can still feel like we are putting in everything we've got.
So much variation exists in the levels of brainpower in everyone. We have IQ tests, and scores range from genius level to almost no thinking power at all. We have people developing cures for diseases, and people thinking of ways to try to pay their next bills. But nobody has an excuse to not try to use as much brainpower as they have at their disposal. We all have been gifted with a level of intelligence, and should strive to live up to those levels as best we can.
My hope is that people think as much as they can. More ideas means more possibilities.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Random
I hope that by this point in time, everyone has established their new years resolutions. But maybe you are still looking for some ideas.
I found a pretty interesting website today. This is the link: http://resolution.decontextualize.com . From what I understand, you can generate random resolutions for yourself that are created based on tweets from Twitter. It meshes words together from several tweets to create a sentence - more often than not they are humorous rather than helpful, but on occasion you will receive a solid resolution. I have used the website mostly for laughs, but the fact of the matter is, there are people out there right now that have taken one of those random resolutions as their own, and are prepared to follow it.
The way that people make decisions in this world is pretty freaky. Think of the way we reason based on circumstances: We might be influenced to take one road over another because of traffic in one direction. We might sign up for a certain class because it strikes us as interesting, and we think it would be a good idea. We might buy one brand of product over another because a friend told you that they liked it more.
But what about making decisions based on nothing? We could have no idea which way has more traffic, but we still need to pick a road to take. Maybe you just need another 3 credit class for the semester, and pick one from a hat because you are indifferent. Maybe you have no prior knowledge about two different products, but you still need to buy one. And we do still pick those roads, we do still take those classes, and we do make those purchases. Based on nothing. It is completely random.
More than a few times I have done something "just for the hell of it." No reason, I just felt like doing it. Granted, "felt like doing it" is arguably a reason for doing it, but lets say that, if that is your only reason for doing something, then you really didn't have a reason for it in the first place. I have friends today from just randomly talking to strangers. I have new favorite snacks because I randomly bought them from the store one day. As far as I am concerned, conservation of mass is a lie - because you can make something out of nothing. Start a business with no money. Talk to someone without any questions prepared. Fly by the seat of your pants, don't think of the consequences, and just go.
Random means unpredictable. If everything you did was predictable, you would be a lot less diverse of a person, and would have less to contribute to conversation, projects, and to others. Some people say being random is annoying and unnecessary - but I welcome it. Bring on the noncontinuous banter, show me something I've never seen before, take me somewhere that I would never think to go, and say what others don't think to say. Random is good.
I found a pretty interesting website today. This is the link: http://resolution.decontextualize.com . From what I understand, you can generate random resolutions for yourself that are created based on tweets from Twitter. It meshes words together from several tweets to create a sentence - more often than not they are humorous rather than helpful, but on occasion you will receive a solid resolution. I have used the website mostly for laughs, but the fact of the matter is, there are people out there right now that have taken one of those random resolutions as their own, and are prepared to follow it.
The way that people make decisions in this world is pretty freaky. Think of the way we reason based on circumstances: We might be influenced to take one road over another because of traffic in one direction. We might sign up for a certain class because it strikes us as interesting, and we think it would be a good idea. We might buy one brand of product over another because a friend told you that they liked it more.
But what about making decisions based on nothing? We could have no idea which way has more traffic, but we still need to pick a road to take. Maybe you just need another 3 credit class for the semester, and pick one from a hat because you are indifferent. Maybe you have no prior knowledge about two different products, but you still need to buy one. And we do still pick those roads, we do still take those classes, and we do make those purchases. Based on nothing. It is completely random.
More than a few times I have done something "just for the hell of it." No reason, I just felt like doing it. Granted, "felt like doing it" is arguably a reason for doing it, but lets say that, if that is your only reason for doing something, then you really didn't have a reason for it in the first place. I have friends today from just randomly talking to strangers. I have new favorite snacks because I randomly bought them from the store one day. As far as I am concerned, conservation of mass is a lie - because you can make something out of nothing. Start a business with no money. Talk to someone without any questions prepared. Fly by the seat of your pants, don't think of the consequences, and just go.
Random means unpredictable. If everything you did was predictable, you would be a lot less diverse of a person, and would have less to contribute to conversation, projects, and to others. Some people say being random is annoying and unnecessary - but I welcome it. Bring on the noncontinuous banter, show me something I've never seen before, take me somewhere that I would never think to go, and say what others don't think to say. Random is good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)