story of stuff

When watching the online lecture, my first thought was that I have heard this before. It would surprise me if any adult man or woman in our glorious enlightened western world wouldn’t say that they have heard most of it before.

Why is it then, one may ask, that we haven’t come further still, in our efforts to save the planet? Ignorance, stupidity and egoism, all of these words will probably fit equally well into the explanation of why most of us choose to ignore the fact that the glass bowl we are swimming in is both running out of air and getting more polluted as I speak.

After all, aren’t we all just people in search of luck? Wanting more and more as we get stuck! The wheel of fortune is spinning faster and faster. Hurry up and buy a new toy, you get a free ticket to the lottery and a chance to win indefinite happiness! A car, a boat, a telephone! Maybe this is the time you will make that final turn in the materialistic maze where eternal happiness awaits you, just around the corner!

Are we not aware of the impact that this type of consumption has on our environment?

Of course we are!
We just don’t give a damn!
Or let me put it more gently.

For that particular moment of glory and instant feeling of wellbeing that comes with buying new stuff, or eating tasty food that has been transported around the globe, we all happily ignore the fact that our planet is dying with every tasty little nugget.

In a way, we are all behaving like junkies that neglect our families, friends, and steal from our mothers to get our fix. By the way, that full time heroin junkie is probably contributing less to the damnation of humanity than we are, since he is not consuming nearly as much of our global resources as you and me.

Snooping bosses

What should we think of bosses snooping on their employees?
May this be a result of the constantly growing competition between companies?
When all nuts and bolts are tightened elsewhere in the organisation, where is there to look but in the direction of the employees?

Surveillance is a powerful weapon, and unless handled with extreme delicacy it will not be long before you can’t even visit a restroom without being caught on film.
When the question is raised, companies monitoring their employers often defend themselves with the fact that the company owns the right to do it.

-Since the employees are hired by us to perform a task, we have the right to see to that it is performed in the most efficient way; you might hear an employer say.

The obvious hazard with this way of reasoning is that the weaker part, namely the employee, is dependent upon his employer. He needs income to be able to feed and to lead a decent life. Therefore he might unwillingly accept the fact that the employer will watch his every step.

This concept of making people work more efficient by watching and correcting them is rather frightening I would say.

I suggest you read George Orwell’s novel 1984 if you find my concerns interesting. The novel deals with the topic of a society where surveillance and thought control has gone way over the top.

We are no machines. We are humans. We can not be tweaked into maximum efficiency by watching our every step, or punishing us for stepping out of the box.

I Human.
And I want to keep it that way.

Contact

I really find the later part of the novel the most interesting. I really like these kinds of stories, where the ending is open for reflection and also for the reader to think about what really happened. Was it just a great misunderstanding, or did Ellie really travel in space and time? Well I guess that’s for each and every one of us to think about. My personal thought about this is that she did, and her experience was all there to tell us that we should not strive to find out every single truth about everything, since all we need to know is already inside us. We do not need to travel 11 million light years to find out the simple truth about our lives, we just need to lay down close our eyes and there it is, Right here and right now. In the end we are all humans, what is there to find out in some other galaxy? The mystery of space and time is not for us to unravel, for each answer one thousand new questions will arise. So next time you look at the sky, just open your eyes, relax, and feel the greatness of creation fill you. But trying to understand it, no that is not for us to do.

Walk the line

I have to say it was quite a coincidence that I happened to see this movie yesterday, which turned out to be one of the better ones I have seen in a long time. The film is a biography of Johnny Cash. The leading part was played by Joaquin Phoenix, performing as Johnny Cash.

The movie starts off with Johnny as a child, telling something about his background, family status and relationships. As in many biographies, the relationship between Johnny and his father and family comes to be a key point throughout the movie as it affects Johnny a great deal in the decisions made in his life and career.

The movie really shows the struggle that Johnny had to through when he started to get famous. Having promised to love his newly wed wife at home, while at the same time starting a new life on the roads, he surely had a hard time. I have no doubt that he truly loved her, but the life as a rock star was full of temptations and loneliness. Seeing the movie, one understands that the choices he made were never easy for him. I think he was a faithful man, never wanting to turn his back against his family.

I have listened to Johnny Cash before, but after seeing the movie a new light fell upon some of his most famous songs. I must admit I almost cried occationally. Seeing the movie was a truly joyful and very romantic experience, although it had both tragic and sad elements in it.

I rate the movie 9 out of 10.
For anyone interrested in musical history, this is a must see.

Here is a link to the official movie trailer. Walk the line

Video game addiction

The issue about video game addiction has been a hot potato in media for some time now. The frightening thing about this new addiction is that the victims are often young, sometimes even kids. As with all types of addiction, we often try to find a single solution to a very complex problem. There is a complicated structure of factors and causes behind the scenes of all addicted people. No less amongst those who are addicted to playing video games. When it comes to Massive Multiplayer Online Games, the socializing factor which was missing in traditional video gaming is now also present. The spirit of togetherness offered by playing these games appeal to many of those who we call addicted.
Addiction as we see it is always premised upon the idea that one is an addict when he cannot live a normal life.
Well, what is a normal life then?
Looking at myself for instance, I work a minimum of 8 hours a day in front of a computer. No less than a person considered to be a video game addict would spend in front of his game every day, right?
Well, most of us can easily spot the difference between me being at work 8 hours a day, and a video game addict, spending hours every day in front of his computer.
Or is it more to it?
To speak the truth, aren´t we all addicted to things? I think we are.
Please comment and tell me your definition of an addict.

The state of the planet

All species will sooner or later come to an end. No ecosystem can hold an infinite number of inhabitants. Somehow we have disregarded the fact that this also applies to humans. We are closing in to 6.7 billion people as I write. When talking about global warming, and the greenhouse effect, the focus is to change our way of living and change our habits to be more environmental friendly. During the time I have been writing this document so far, the world population has increased with 2500 people. The cataclysm is getting closer for each word I write. You may think I am cynic, but stop and think about it for a while. Don´t worry about the shiver that is coming down your spine, I have also had it. It is very intimidating to face the fact that we are all missing something really vital when discussing the global warming. I think we have all seen the infamous x2 curve anticipating the world population of humans. Look at it, do some quick calculation, and think about how we need change our impact on the environment, as individuals, to even level out the damage. Do you see what I mean? If we would really like to save the planet, we would be talking birth control as well! I know that this way of reasoning is very high-risk, since no one really wants to see these simple facts. So, what is my conclusion of all this? Should we give up right away, not caring a bit about what we are doing? Well, let me put it this way. Do you feel better buying ecologically grown vegetables? I know I do. I buy them sometimes. I do not drive my car more than I feel necessary for my daily needs. I also always buy low energy light bulbs for my home. I do these things because I think that it can make a difference in some way. But can it prevent humanity from undergoing a huge disaster with billions of lost lives? No I don´t think so.

Why I chose to study at the university.

During the long drive down the highway of life, sometimes one just feels the urge of learning new things. I found myself in this situation recently, as I have been working for six years now, without any real competence development apart from the technical areas which I am working with, being java programming. I really hope that my English will improve along with my studies. I have been writing some technical documents in my profession as a system developer, all written in English of course. My intension is to continue along this path, writing more documents in the requirement and specification areas.