Communication media

I have just seen my blog's statistics for the first time, and I am really surprised. My blog has been read in several locations all over the world, including USA, Germany, Japan or Russia. Something like that would have been inconceivable just about thirty years ago (at the time when I was born). However, these days you can publish anything you want to, and in a matter of seconds it will be available worldwide.
Regular people become immensely famous throughout the globe just publishing, for example, a video in Youtube. Sometimes, people watch the video because it is funny, or it shows somebody's talent, or even somebody's lack of it. You can also publish pictures, music, writings, or anything else you can save in electronic format.
On one hand, there are thousands of applications that allow us to communicate in any imaginable way over the Internet. On the other hand, communication issues among people are increasing. We can see everyday in the news the problems caused because the lack of understanding between different cultures, different gender or skin color, or different governments.
All the facts commented above make me think carefully about that, and it really seem confusing, even paradoxical. I am sure that the explanation to this behavior is not that simple, but I consider that people do not use all the power of communication media available to them to get to know better to other people, to share with them their thoughts about things really important, or to look for commonly accepted solutions to real problems.
To sum up, communication media are just the tool, and the way we use them is what really matters. As far as I am concerned, I am really happy to see that people from such different locations visit my blog. I would also love to see their opinions and comments.

The experiment

I am not an expert in lab experiments, but in this post they gave me the inspiration I needed. Apparently, when lab technicians are trying to find a new vaccine, or new antibiotics, they use microscopic living organisms in order to carry out their research. After observing the behavior of these small participants in different environments and situations, the scientists have to obtain conclusions. During the experiments the main characters are these tiny creatures, and they are going to continue being the stars if the tests succeed, and they become a new drug, maybe a cure for a deadly disease.
Consider this crazy theory. What if we are also an experiment. We would be that tiny creatures, and the world as we know it, the universe, would be the space where the experiment takes place. It looks like a crazy thought, but I think that the microorganisms involved in the experiments conducted in labs are not aware of the lab technicians, or aware of their intentions.
Continuing with this hypothesis, what kind of experiment would be our universe? Are we going to be successful or just another failed test?
After a second thought, it could be a little consolation thinking that maybe all the wars, fights and hate in the world are just part of our genes and our purpose in life is to help others to find out something important, even if we do not know anything about it.

New Year's resolutions (IV)

Again, like one year ago, here I am in front of my computer reading my last year's resolutions, and figuring out if I carried out all my plans for last year. I will try to finish quickly in order to go back to bed, and to sleep a few hours more. My feet feel awful, therefore I guess I will be much better in bed.
It was not a really bad year after all. However, there are a lot of things that I would improve if I had the chance. I was not able to take French learning seriously, but I trust that I will do, eventually. Although I could not travel abroad this year, I am willing to do it again soon. I would love to enjoy the atmosphere in Irish pubs again, and visit other countries that remain unknown to me.
One of my biggest achievements during 2011 was obtaining the official EOI certification in English, and I am proud of getting it in my first attempt. I am aware of the fact that writing in this blog has been really helpful to pass the exams. I have been writing regularly here, and my idea is keep it that way. It would be fantastic if in one year from now the number of posts exceeded one hundred.
I left the gym after being injured for a couple of months, and I did not come back. Nonetheless, I continued doing a lot of exercise (running and cycling, basically). The fact that we had a much longer than usual summer season was the perfect excuse to do workout outdoors. It is much more fun than going to gym, and it is also much healthier. Besides, It gave me the chance to spend more time with some of my friends.
I have met a lot of people during last year, and made a few new friends too.
After considering all last year's achievements, I have just one resolution for the year that has just started. I will try to put all my effort in getting what I want, and do not give up easily, because I know I can do it better. I have 365 days ahead to prove it, and I do not want to regret for not having done something. To begin with, I am going to sleep a bit more, otherwise I will regret it tomorrow.

WUI

-Why is it so difficult for you? I mean, you only have three or four choices. It can't be so hard to choose.
-Well, I will try to explain it to you, but it won't be easy. In fact, I don't really understand it myself.
-Ok, I'm listening.
-Sure. Let me start asking you a question. It is not necessary you answer it, I'll do it.
What would you choose if you knew that there's no good choice, not good and evil, just a bad choice, no matter you decide?
-That's a difficult one, but...
-Don't bother. I told you I would answer it, and then you can tell me if you agree.
-Ok, keep going.
-I remember some tests I had to pass when I was studying. Sometimes, there was an option: none of the above. I'd love to have this option when we go to the polls. Oddly, when I found that option in the exams, it was a symptom of how hard the test was. Now, it is always hard for me to choose because there is not that option.
-So, you think it would be easier if we didn't choose.
-No, I'm saying that I'd like to have the opportunity to say NO to politicians. Why don't they allow us to do that? Is it because they are scared?.
-Now, I understand your position, and I have to say that I am sure they are really frightened about the idea of losing all the privileges they acquired along these years (working as "public servants"). And, of course, I agree. I would be one of them if I didn't.

This dialog is not an actual conversation, it is more a reflection of my thoughts about politicians, and the upcoming elections. I am going to hate these couple of weeks ahead. The political campaign has just started and I am already pissed off. I think it is a waste of time and money. Money that it is supposed to be invested in important things like trying to avoid people to be evicted from their homes, taking care of education and health care system, etc.
However, being realistic, would you care about problems that you do not suffer? Perhaps, but probably no, or at least not the same way you would care if they affected you. That is the problem with politicians, they have no real problems because they are special. Therefore, we should consider the possibility that they are not trying to find a solution to our problems. It is not their fault, either they do not see the problems or they do not really understand them, and you need to see and understand a problem to solve it.

P.S. I must clarify that I wrote this post under the influence (WUI) of Sinatra. I cannot believe it, I have listening Sinatra's songs for the last half an hour. I can tell that his music helped me to relax while expressing my opinions about this topic.

Paths

It is hard to choose a route among lots of them when you do not know your final destination. Some people trust their "guts" or their instinct, others act randomly, and others like me, try to think about the best or right way to follow. In my opinion, last option is the most naive because we do not have enough information, or any relevant information at all, even when we think we do.
Sometimes, we can get some sort of information about it from our older relatives or friends based in their experience, but they are just basic rules to make the journey more secure and comfortable, and those tips are not going to help us to find the meaning of life.
In my opinion, a device like a enhanced GPS would help us to make the right decisions during our existence. Such a device would tell us if we should play football or basketball at school, be obedient to our parents or not, to go to the university or to start working at an early age, to be a believer or to join atheism, to get married or to avoid a future divorce, to have kids, to look for a new job or to continue doing something that you do not really like while you get paid for it. Those are some of our biggest concerns, and we usually think a lot about them before making a decision, but very often we apparently do not make the right one (if we can ever know what are the right choices).
As far as I am concerned, the most interesting question to answer at this point is whether our choices matter or not at all in relation to the final result. Are our choices in life defining where we are heading, or it is true that all roads lead to Rome?
We can also think that it is more important to enjoy the journey than to focus on the destination. This is smart because we do not know how interesting the end of the journey is going to be.
There is one more thing I would like to write about this journey. Apparently, there are different kinds of fares because there are a lot of people suffering a lot during their existence, while others live like kings. And this is not always because of their choices, it can just be a birthright.
All in all, life is what it is, it is a mystery for us. At least, it is a mystery for me. And, it is perhaps better if it continues being that way. It could be like a magic trick when it is unveiled. Once revealed, there is not way back, and the magic is gone.

50

Fifty is just a number, I know. But, it is also an achievement for me. I did something I did not mean to do when I started writing here. I started this blog just to help me to improve my writing skills in English. However, after fifty posts, I think it has become something else, something important to me. Sometimes, it helps me to express my thoughts, to make up my mind, or to sort my ideas, and doing it I usually understand better the way I am feeling. It could be consider like a sort of therapy.
I started writing this post several weeks back, but I could not finished it because I needed something else to write about. At first, I intended to do something different to "celebrate" these 50 entries in the blog. I wanted a friend of mine, who is also learning English, to write something to publish here, but she could not find her inspiration, and she did not send me anything to write (it was lack of inspiration, or maybe fear of the blank page), therefore I had to write it myself, as always. But now, I think I have something on my mind to write about.
Three days ago, I went to the Official Languages School to pick up the certificate that certifies me as an advanced English speaker, listener, reader and writer. Being realistic, that only proves that I was able to pass all the tests, and I consider that I have an intermediate level, not advanced at all. However, I intend to keep improving. Anyway, I am very happy after getting the certificate because I was not very optimistic before doing the exams. When I took my first test, I just  had been once to the Official Languages School before, to fill in the sign-up forms, and I did not know pretty much about the exams. Fortunately, a friend of mine who was attending classes there lent me some notes from her classes, and that helped me a bit to have an idea about the level and the structure of the tests.

Now, I have to look for another challenge with my English. I am aware that I still have a lot to learn, and I need to keep practicing as much as possible in order to improve, or at least to keep my current level. The fact is that I am sure I will do, because I enjoy a lot doing it, and that makes it much easier.

Uncertainty

Human beings are designed to work for objectives, to live with a purpose. However, considering we do not know anything about what is our purpose in life, or our future, we usually cling to the first belief we consider as acceptable, I mean, the one that answers all or most of our transcendental questions about the meaning of life.
Some people decide to embrace some of the hundreds of different religions, others prefer to trust in conclusions obtained from the study of the objective facts (science). And, there are also people who pretend (in my humble opinion) they do not believe in anything. You also have quick service options like fortune-telling in any of its variants (reading palms, tea leafs in a cup, interpreting dreams, cartomancy, crystal ball, etc.). The only thing I can say for sure is that, apparently, nobody knows the universal truth, despite the fact that a lot of them guarantee that they hold it. At this point, I think there are two possibilities. Firstly, the ones who really know the truth have not yet released it, maybe because they are afraid that the rest of us will not understand it, or will simply ignore it, or about the possible consequences that it could trigger. On the other hand, it is also likely that the truth was already told and we are not smart enough to understand it, or even to listen to it. This last possibility is easy for me to believe because I am not a big believer in human race (even when I am part of it). I want to believe that there is a big potential inside us, but there is also a lot of confusion that lead us to make very bad choices, and these choices are defining the way we live our lives.

The uncertainty we are immersed in could be the reason for a lot of non-sense arguments, fights and suffering. Everybody believe (or want to believe) that they are right and all the others are wrong. Therefore, they try to transmit their ideas, to fight for them, or even to impose them.
Moreover, there are people more concerned about material things, but smart enough to use other people's beliefs in order to manipulate them, and to use them to obtain their own benefit, no matter what it takes.
We can see very often that there is some law or contract not perfectly defined, there is always somebody who is able to find the breach and invalidate it. The good thing about absolute truth is that there is no breaches, it is seamless. But, the problem is that we have to be able to analyze it thoroughly and without prejudices. And, we also need to consider the possibility that it could be better not finding it out. Sometimes ignorance brings you happiness. Anyway, I prefer to believe that everything makes sense, and someday we will be able to understand everything that has been causing so many troubles and pain so far.
I would say, emulating Socrates, that uncertainty is the only certainty. And we have to live with that, at least for now. So, enjoy uncertainty!