Preserving a Moment

Hey all, sorry AGAIN for the absence. My family and I are currently on vacation in South Korea. Today's topic comes from something that I've encountered a lot while on vacation. And that is people desperately trying to save a moment for later and losing it in the process. That probably makes no sense so as per usual, I'll do a random line break and start a new paragraph where I go into detail.

When experiencing things that one has never before, it is almost customary these days to take a picture. If one has never seen snow, it can be assumed that when that particular individual does see snow, they will take a selfie with the snow in the background or whatever. I myself am an avid photographer so I can appreciate and understand this. However, there are some instances where this "preserving" of a moment should not take priority over actually experiencing it. Yesterday, I went to a banquet and at the end of the meal, there was a traditional Korean dance performance. There were many people in the room so it was already quite hard to see everything that was going on. That's when I noticed that the reason I couldn't see anything was because around 40% of the attendees were standing on their chairs with their cameras raised over their head recording the performance. The filmers all arched their head back to the point where it looked painful just see that they were getting a nice shot. These people where so intently focused on their recording they didn't even blink an eye when the highlight of the performance happened because they didn't even notice. I mean, if you're going to have the option of watching the performance first hand or watching a shaky recording of it, why would you choose the latter? I see this happening way too often, soon enough you'll see people going to a concert with friends only to record it! I mean who does tha-- oh wait. At the same time however, if you can record something while not distracting yourself and others, go for it. I mean, why not? I'm never going to be 100% against or for something because it is a rarity for things in life to work that way. (just contradicted myself there by saying never). There's always a happy medium. My main problem is with people that are so worried about losing a moment that they focus so hard on preserving it that they lose it entirely. If you're not totally confused on what my advice is to you and where I stand on this matter, just take this for a summary:

Take each moment in life as it comes and if it is something truly special, you will remember it better than any picture or video can.  

Movie Thoughts - Guardians of the Galaxy

Hey all, I'm thinking of starting a new "series" ish thing. One of my personal interests is media. Whether it's tv, movies, or music, I love it all. Well, then again, it's pretty hard to find someone who isn't interested in either of the three. Anyways, I thought it would be fun if I talked about my thoughts on movies that I've watched recently. So if you would be interested in reading that kind of stuff, please comment below. Oh, and also comment whether you want the thoughts to include spoilers or not.

To start off this potential series, I am going to be giving you my thoughts on the new Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. I chose this movie because it is not plot driven at all so I can do a spoiler free-ish review while still talking about certain points in the movie. And that bring me to the first thing that I really enjoyed about this movie. The characters.

Guardians of the Galaxy does a fantastic job indulging the audience into all the characters and their respective backgrounds. Although Groot (big tree thing) doesn't really talk in the movie, you still learn his character and for some reason, find a connection with him. This is where I found Avengers fell apart a little. Aside from Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, I honestly was not interested in the rest of the gang and couldn't care less about them. I don't know if it's the goofy mood of the movie or something else, but you will truly care about these characters and be invested in their storylines. Without giving away too much, the five main characters all have their own identifiable personalities with quirks. Pretty much after watching the movie, I could write you a line from the movie and you could identify the speaker just by the content of the words. This is one you may know before watching the movie. "I am Groot" Wanna guess who says that one?



The next thing I want to discuss is the very unique approach to a superhero movie that we see in Guardians of the Galaxy. Unlike other sci-fi/fantasy superhero/fighting - esque movies that we see a lot today (Star Wars, Superman, Thor, Star Trek, Green Lantern), this movie takes itself as a enjoyable fun comedy that will make you laugh rather than feel too tense. Don't get me wrong, I love a thrilling and thought provoking action movie as much as anyone else (Dark Knight right? Whoop whoop) but aside from more modern day action movies such as Kick-Ass, Guardians of the Galaxy is the first movie I've watched where the sci-fi thing is taken as a joke. One of my favourite scenes is in the trailer where StarLord (AKA Peter Quill) is caught by this guy and he tries to sound cool by saying he is also known as STARLORD in which the other guy is unaware of the name. It probably isn't funny in words but click here to actually watch it (I already sent it to the right scene, I gotcho back homie). It was pretty refreshing to see a movie question the ridiculousness of some sci fi names (I'm looking at you Khan). All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy serves as a nice break from the oh so common dark movies that we see a lot of now.

Who?

Finally, I want to discuss the actual plot. I already said how the movie isn't plot driven. That pretty much means that the majority of the movie is the characters interacting with each other and developing their personalities rather than it consisting of this crazy journey (which does happen). I'm not saying that the entire movie takes place in one room or anything because there is a pretty big adventure across the galaxy but that isn't the main thing that stuck out to me in the movie. The first thing I said to my friends (who were watching it with me) after the lights turned on wasn't "Wow what a chase" but one of the jokes one of the characters said that was my favourite. I heard that there is a sequel planned already so I'm expecting that one to focus more on plot. All in all, the plot is not the main gem from this movie but that's okay because it is the origin story of the group.

To conclude, Guardians of the Galaxy is a character-centric comedy superhero movie that was an enjoyable and fun ride throughout all 2 hours and 2 minutes. It is unique because it breaks away from the popular dark hero origin story that although is good, requires a break from time to time. If you're looking for a good time, Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely a movie for you.

Make sure to comment below on which movie you want me to talk about next and I'll catch you guys next time!

A Rather Alarming Story/PSA

I've been gone again haven't I? Well, last week, my family and I went to New York State to stay at a cottage. Interestingly, we stayed not too far away from the place that Tony Stewart killed a man during a race. We were going to go watch the race originally but we ended up not going. Anyways, that gives you an idea of where we were staying. So after coming back from the cottage, I was ready to re immerse myself into the digital world like all people do after sometime away from it all. And then something alarming happened.

I had decided to start by checking Facebook to catch up with my friends and such. It was a pretty typical day on Facebook with the constant scrolling with the occasional funny picture or so. I should probably introduce two characters here before continuing. I will change the names here for privacy reasons. Person A, or "Adam" and Person B, or "Bobby". If you have read my introduction a while back, you would know that I spent around 2 years as an international student. While there, I met people from around the world. I met Adam and Bobby during this time but Adam and Bobby had never interacted with each other. Years have passed and Adam and Bobby are several countries away from each other yet they have become "friends" with each other on Facebook by adding all their suggested friends.

So while browsing Facebook, I see a picture that Adam posted with him and his friends. That's when I notice an overlay over the picture, saying: "Would you like to tag Bobby"? That was really strange to me because how and why did Adam write that without knowing Bobby? Hovering over the yes-no of the suggestion showed me that they had boxed out one of the people in Adam's picture as Bobby. Now this was obviously not actually Bobby but someone who looked strikingly similar to him. That's when I realized that Facebook analyzed everyone in Adam's picture and when I viewed it, they compared the analyzed faces to our mutual friends. Since one of the people in Adam's picture looked like Bobby, they thought that Bobby was the person in Adam's photo and thought to do me a favour by letting me tag Bobby with a simple click. This may seem like a cool feature that Facebook has implemented but is it really?

What does this event show Facebook knows already? This means that Facebook knows what all of its users look like based off of analyzing and recording all tagged photos. It knows how we look to the point that it can identify a user in a picture almost perfectly.

What does this implicate in the future? This technology is quite powerful and it will definitely be used in the future. There are good and bad things that can come from this. In terms of "good", there are a lot of cool services that can be made a reality. One that I thought of off the top of my head is shopping. For example, if you wanted to see how a certain jacket looks on you, this technology could possibly generate a model/image of you in the jacket so you can see if you want it. On the otherhand, if Facebook sells this information (like it does with a lot of other user info), ads could become a little creepy/annoying if a picture of you in the Bahamas pops up in every page saying "LIVE YOUR DREAMS" or something like that. Another useful service Facebook could make is and identification service. If a someone robs a bank and it's on security tape, the service (if sophisticated enough) could help identify the robber. It's like something straight out of modern day spy movies. But like the shopping service, there may be some sort of ethical line being crossed if this becomes a reality. The main cons I see with this service being more prominent in the future is the loss of privacy and anonymity. People are already complaining about how their IP is always being tracked and the whatnot but if your facial details and physical measurements are being recorded, is it that much of a stretch? I personally think that recognizing faces is not that much of a stretch from recording where you are and your interests (like Facebook already does) but ethically, this discussion should have never happened. Ever since Snowden, it's a well known fact that online privacy is no longer a thing. Simply by opening any webpage, someone somewhere can find out where you are. This should not have ever happened (ethically speaking) but there is too much potential for business with the technology so it happened. The same thing applies to facial recognition. We can get the cool services that I listed above but with it, we're giving away another part our ever diminishing online privacy. And with that, I leave you to make up your decision whether or not facial recognition is crossing the border.

TL;DR Don't get Facebook


For More Info on Tagging Suggestions that Facebook implemented in 2013, click here.

My Backyard

My backyard, a place of solace, a home for many. While my backyard is among dozens of others, it is a favourite location for countless creatures. Why is this significant to me?

Panorama during a chilly fall morning

There is something about wild animals that I envy. I tend to believe that it is their contrasting lifestyle to humans. While humans are typically guaranteed life and protection from natural dangers, wild animals live free. While they can do whatever they wish whenever, there is still the constant struggle for life. The struggle that humans have forgotten about long ago. Every day (especially for smaller creatures such as rabbits, squirrels, ect) could be their last so they must constantly focus on staying alive. Whether that is gathering food in anticipation of a cold and long winter or getting ready to run when a twig snaps, life always hangs in the balance. Though they may live shorter in the wild than in captivity, wild animals live fast and fierce. They don't sit around stressing about something that may or may not happen in a couple of months, they take every second of their lives as a reward for their previous actions. So when a rabbit comes in my backyard with his friend to play tag, eat, and sleep, I know that out of all the places he could be, the dozens of other backyards he could go, he chose my backyard. Most people concern themselves with how green the grass is and how well bloomed the tulips are. I don't worry about that because I know the rabbit could be anywhere but he still chooses to come to my backyard.

And for me, that is enough to say that my backyard is the best.

Here are some pictures of the animals enjoying the backyard:

It's been awhile, a while?

Yes, it has been a while. For this silly introduction, I'll highlight the grammatical difference between a while and awhile. A while is a noun referring to a long passage of time. So in my case, I have been gone for a while. Awhile on the other hand is an adverb, meaning that it describes a verb. So I could say that I have been procrastinating for awhile. Remember kids, no matter how advanced our technology, writing and reading will always be valuable assets. You never know when you might need to know this grammatical difference.

Ah, back to our topic of the day which is my absence. I have not been updating this blog very much because I was diagnosed with a rare disease which has recently bedridden me. No, I had my arms cut off and I have been finding a way to continue writing. No. To be completely honest, I started this blog earlier this year as an experiment and a test for myself to see how interesting I could make my life seem through writing. And like the majority of projects that teenagers such as myself start, they get forgotten and discarded within a month. Same thing happened to me. But! If you look carefully when this post is written, you'll find that it is in July! Huhzah! That means it is summer. And being 15 during the summer results in two and only two possibilities.

Option A: Going to some educational thing and being productive/travelling
Option B: Being lazy and pretending to do something worthwhile

Well, guess which option I picked this summer?

So now that I have more time, I'll "try" my best to keep on things. Key word, TRY. I may just get abducted by a pterodactyl, but until then, "I'll catch y'alls next time"

Dealing with Disappointment

What did the water buffalo say to his son when he left home?
-Bye son. (bison)

This past week, I had a qualifying track meet. Based off the competition, I knew it would be hard to advance to the next round. However, I ended up running quite slowly and now I'm out. This was pretty disappointing for me not because I thought I would make it, because I was hoping for a super close race and whatever happened happened. In actuality, I was too afraid to go too fast at the beginning so I ended up running 7 seconds behind the person in front of me and 12 seconds faster the next guy behind me. So how did I deal with this?

I'm not going to say that this experience made me happy because it certainly didn't. But I think that it could have always been worse. I could have gone way too hard and not been able to finish the race. I could have ran even slower. It's generally hard to think of worse possibilities when going through a tough time. By taking a closer look at my abilities, I only ran a little slower than expected whereas it was possible that I ran waay waay worse. Another thing that made this feel better is that know I want to make it next year that much more. Next year, I'll be more prepared and know what not to do. And compared to the people who did make it this year, I'll be more willing to take risks in the hope that I can qualify for the next round.

And remember, that these methods of feeling better don't exist solely to console one self, it is there because most (and I emphasize most) of the time, it wasn't nearly as bad as you feel. When I say that I could of run worse, that is true and I don't say that to only feel better. I say it because by knowing it's true, you can find peace with the matter. And as the ol' song "Hockey Pokey" goes: "That's what it's all about!"

Youth Philanthropy

Can someone be a philanthropist if they're no better than the people that they're helping? That's the question today folks.

Philanthropy is the generosity to improve all people's lives by helping them. Typically this is a financial aid. Typically, the biggest philanthropists are also extremely affluent. My school has a project for all grade 10's in which they have to act as philanthropists and help a local charity. The group that can present their charity the best will win $5,000 to donate to the charity. This made me wonder, what types of people can qualify to be a "philanthropist"? By dropping 5 cents to a homeless man, does that make me a philanthropist? Being a teenager, I am not financially independent yet and neither is the homeless man. Wouldn't it be better for me to keep my money/resources and work hard to earn a living so I can give significant financial aid than to try to give small help when I myself cannot provide for myself? By trying to help when I am not independent, doesn't that hinder my possibility to give a large donation in the future?

So my opinion now. $20 isn't going to completely poop on my life and ruin my future or anything so giving like that is reasonable for anyone to do. But a project like the one presented at my school where it can cause time conflicts, forcing you to choose between commitments. If I chose to stop playing Basketball or something so I have more time to be a "philanthropist", that would have a significant impact on my own life, closing a door of opportunity. To keep this short, I think philanthropy should be more focused on sharing one's wealth, not voiding your own to give to another.

So based off of that, I don't think kids can be counted as "philanthropists" but they can donate or give back to the community. A philanthropist is someone who is able on their own and has decided to share their own wealth.