The Invention that will Change the World

Hey guys! What's up? So sorry I couldn't post an entry last Monday, sort of miss it, no excuses though. The thing is, I wasn't home all day (like you wanted to know that) and didn't have a chance to update my writing. Funny thing though, I was in an interview and you may know how it is, there're always certain questions that can't be missed.

The classics are always present: Why would you like to join us? How do you see yourself within the next 5 to 10 years? You may have an answer already prepared (most people have one), chances are you say something that has been heard quite a lot. Just a few times there are some questions that really keep you thinking and challenge you in order to find the best answer. As you properly guessed, I was given one of these questions, as a matter of fact the one embedded in the title of this entry.

But let me narrow the question a bit, since it refers to a relatively new invention, seen on any media (TV, internet, magazine and so on). Since the interview theme was engineering I immediately began to scan in my mind any 'modern' and 'eye-candy' sort of answer. I didn't want to provide a cliché nor something completely ridiculous. Also I didn't want to say something the people asking will know beforehand, so I took my time. To be honest I thought about one or two good (but sort of boring) answers, so I tried to come up with a better one.

All of the sudden I start talking about what was the 'background' of my actual response, in other words I was explaining why I picked the invention in question. So I began by referring this book called 'Physics of the Impossible' by Michio Kaku. This is a pretty good book, since it explains in mortals language how science is well beyond science fiction. All the things you thought as a kid were possible only by watching movies or reading comics today are most of all true. Rockets to the moon (and beyond!), electric cars, communication systems, and many others are today's reality. So if you ask me is not crazy to attempt to find the new inventions in this type of sources.

So I listed a bunch of inventions I recall reading from this book, not mentioning specifically one, but more of expressing my liking for this book... I thought I was off the hook. Politely I was told to name specifically one from my list... there is when I really started to think harder, not because I wasn't able to pick one, but because all the inventions I talked about were not a today's reality... inisibility cloaks, internet contact lenses, medical measurements on the fly, the list went on and on. What to do? Well, better pick one.

And fair to say, I did choose an option, and now that I think of it, it actually didn't go wrong at all. What would you say if you had been in my shoes? Is there an invention that has changed your life or everybody's life for that matter? Leave all you comments down below and hopefully you can come up with something really nice! I leave you all with the start of the World Cup... wait! The opening game is about to begin!

Happy Internet Day!

Happy Monday everyone! (yeah, right). I think we all know how mostly all mankind feels about the beginning of a brand new week. Since the dawn of men the first day of the week has had a sort of bad reputation since it's seen as the 'same beginning of a different journey', I sense we can do something different about it, you know, try to embrace it as any other day (hard to do so when thinking in Friday), but always keep in mind this: 'What would be of Fridays without their Mondays?'

Just imagine, what's the first thing you do a Monday morning? Turn off the alarm clock? Or maybe turn on the TV to check out the news or maybe your computer to check out your mails? Bet you have some sort of connection with technology and internet at some point, sometimes it even feels like it's been there forever: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google… the list goes on and on. We keep in touch with family and friends and all seems right in the world.

Well, if you feel thankful in any way with this let me say: 'Happy Internet Day!' to you. That's right, today -May 17th- has been entitled as the 'Internet Day'  around the world. I mean, if there's a Taco Day, why in the world can't it be an Internet Day? Now, a real question… who decided to have an Internet's day, and why in such a date?

Well, it turns out both questions have answer. In 2005 in Tunisia there was this Information Society gathering, and there it was proposed and approved the creation of an Information Society day (less fancier words: Internet's day) by the UNO. What about May 17th? You got me there… maybe all other days were taken, I don't know. As a side topic, May 17th's also YouTube Anniversary… coincidence? And what's done today? Well, apparently it's a chance to boost and enhance the Internet to all places (most important to the people who don't have access to it).

And, just think about it, you have access to internet probably most of the day, your life depends greatly of this service, watching news, sending e-mails, checking the forecast, talking to friends and much, so much more. How do you and Internet get along? Are you best friends or do you have struggles from time to time like most marriages do? Today may be a good day to start a healthy relationship with it!

Probably you'll hear about this in YouTube channels, blogs (such as this one), news sites and related, maybe for us it won't be much of a difference, but for many others this day may be their first one getting to know what could potentially be their new best friend… the Web. What's your story? Do you remember what was your first experience searching the web? Do that website you were watching still exist? Do you remember how slow it was just to download a single photo or a song? Don't be shy and leave all your responses in the comment section and have fun reading the rest! Here's a small taste about how things were in the past… hoping the future will bring better! See y'all in 3 days!

Questions you'd ask God

Hey guys! What's up? This week has been alright to me, I've been filling an insane amount of applications and forms, you know how it is. I don't mind with every form asking me my general info, but sometimes is too much when you have to dig in really deep in your life to find what they're looking for. Man, I'm telling you, in many cases I don't really know the answers myself (or that in fact there IS an answer), but anyway, after spending most of my week in such a scenario, it's always refreshing to do other stuff.

This couple of days I thought the immutable fact that… 'we all need answers'. I think we do. From the minute you wake up you start thinking how the day will go. When you go to the kitchen wanting some cereal for breakfast you're wondering if there's still some left… what about going out? Well, you might start doing plans regarding the weather. Yep, life is filled with answers we need in order to  enjoy life… right. What about the questions?

Here's when things get interesting, in order to get some answers the correct questions need to be stated, so, let me rephrase: 'We all need questions'. Now we flip the tortilla and we need to start thinking what's the best way to make formulate them. And again, sometimes we simply won't get our questions answered, not because is a non wanted answers, but merely because is not possible.

Sidenote: This is just me, but I'd like to think the words 'not possible' and 'impossible' don't mean the same. 'Impossible' is a step up than 'not possible', which would mean a 'not possible' thing is not quite 'impossible', just extremely difficult but not difficult enough to be called 'impossible', just 'not possible'...

Having defined my personal thoughts about this terminology (that I don't even understand) the idea stroke me… we all want our questions to be answered, right? I mean, it gotta be some sort of necessity, we humans are so compelled to control our lives and in order to do so we gotta anticipate to the happenings and to plan accordingly. The truth is, nobody knows all the answers of life (moreover: OUR life). Sure we can know things about weather, science, how much cereal is left up on the shelf and similar, but what about the really tricky ones?

So I came up with the idea of this exercise… making a list of questions you'd ask God once you're gone (or any superior entity you believe in). I bet there are tons (and literally I mean TONS) of things you want to know about your life, other's lives… life itself. The most popular ones I've found: 'Why are we here?', 'What am I meant to do in life?', 'What's humanity purpose?'. Yet again, more personal questions could be more relevant to you. Or maybe events that happened zillions of years ago, or even the future… any question goes!

Once you have a decent amount (you'll be the judge of that) you can prioritize them so you can know what truly you'd love to know about anything. I bet you'll be amazed with the results. Luckily I'm not the only one with this idea, I've seen some other sites with this on their minds and they've gotten great results. As usual here's a vid with some kids responding to this question… good times! See you all next weekend and now go back to work!

Stress… wearing out?

Howdy! Hope you had a great weekend and have all your batteries recharged, since today is -for many- their return to work/school. Many peeps don't like Mondays, but… what's a Friday without its Monday? I mean, we sort of need to feel tired to really enjoy a couple of days off, right? But then again, we may feel like the world is going to fall on us sometimes and we sense that little something called stress… oh yeah, we've been there and we know exactly what it feels.

More in these days, where we find traffic jams on every corner and our workflow is doing everything but moving right, is quite normal to feel stressed, but what exactly is it, how can we cope with it and in the long run, how to minimize it? Well, look no further, since we're going to explore what can we do to improve our lives and, once we're at it, we might help other as well… shall we?

Ok, first things first, believe it or not, the word 'stress' is a psychological/biological term. The word, first used in the 30's, refers to what happens after we people fail to respond to emotional/physical threats. In fewer words, they are the forces from the outside world affecting us. But how? When we worry about our life, job, home, family, we all have expectations, and when we don't meet them, well… the party starts.

Is it normal to feel like that? Totally. I mean, we are humans, and as such we need to find our place in life, and for all (let me repeat that, for A-L-L) in life we have deadlines. Happily we'll meet many… in other cases, we simply won't be able to. Stress will show not because of the amount of things we haven't done, but because of the amount of things we cope with. And again, there's no solution for not to cope with things, so… are we on a tight corner here? Is there no way to avoid stress at all? Short answer, no. But the good thing is, we can control our response to it and the amount of stress can as well be minimized… but the 64,000 USD question is how? Bear with me, here're the answers to your prayers!

Something has to be said about stress though; having it in small doses helps most peeps to cope with life, they stay alert, respond faster and think better, but when it's simply too much, meltdowns are inevitable.

If things from the outside are messing up with our inside, we gotta enforce our inside, right? A step in the right direction is nutrition. It's been proven when stressed, we produce adrenaline, which raises our blood and cardiac pressure speeding up our breathing, not mentioning our sugar levels go off the roof and fat is freed to our bloodstream. Imagine if you're stressed after a hamburger and fries snack, once a day… it doesn't sound ok to me.

Another thing we can do is exercise, since we have plenty of energy due to our sugar and fat in our bodies, we're simply ready for action, furthermore, to work out functions as a antidepressant. Worst thing to do… being stressed while sitting at your desk… your thighs will be the size of watermelons. Finally, to do as a routine… try meditation! A 20-30 min session a day will do magic on you! With it we can learn to control or blood pressure and heart rate. As a friendly tip, smoking, drinking, drugs (has to be said) won't do us any good.

So, ready to face and look life in the eyes? Do you have the tools to improve your life? Hope you do! Try these tips for a bit and see if you notice any changes (bet you will). For now don't forget to laugh, have a healthy life and have fun with this video… see you all next Thursday!

Time Travel Proof

Hi everybody! So… for some of you vacations are almost done… sad times! And for the rest of you, you might get another week of fun and excitement… enjoy! If you don't fit any of these categories, then congrats because you belong to unemployment! For today I want to finalize my time travel posts adding a last 3rd entry and making this a time travel trilogy! Yeah! First we found out time travel is indeed possible, no physics law can tell us different, then we found out a real time machine is being built as we speak (ok, ok… as we 'read' each other) by Dr. Ron Mallett. What could possibly top these two topics?

Well, I sadly can't surprise you all since there's a little something in every post called 'The Title' and though it guides you with the general idea of an entry, it simply kills the factor of surprise. A while ago I came across a small video where a person claims to have THE proof that time travel is possible… what? Well, if I had some kind of evidence sure I'd be showing it to the world, but then again, I do not, and as a spectator I'll definitely will give him the benefit of the doubt.

What would you do if you have some sort of evidence regarding time travel? Would you keep it to yourself or share it to the world? And what if you were the one to experience a time travel first hand? I mean, I know we are stepping in the 'if' realm, and though it doesn't exist is a realm that allows us to dream and to wonder things with a different view. If people didn't dream we wouldn't travel in cars, airplanes or even communicate with cellphones… what a shame would that be!

Let's pretend for the sake of argument the proof isn't fake… ok. Then, what is this so called proof made of? Well, it is a video taken from a cellphone, so you can tell the quality is very low-res, and no witnesses, just the guy who filmed it. It turns out this fella met himself (that is, from the future) and got both of them in the video, same outfits, same tattoos, same facial expressions… but same person? I'll let you be the judge of that. 

I'm just going to say one thing and one thing only about the video. From what we learned in the first time travel post, we know (according to physicists) that we cannot alter the past, we can only be viewers. With that argument in mind, it wouldn't be hard for me not to buy this proof. I know is easy to dismiss this video a call it fake, there's a ton of things to criticize about it, but what if this could happen to you?

I'd probably passed out, dismiss it as a weird dream and then move on. It wouldn't be so easy for me to accept such an experience. I know I sound like a soft guy with my response, but the mere fact of truly knowing time travel is possible in my time it'd rock my world so hard! The possibilities would be endless from this point on. Just watching this video and wanting it to be real tells us our wishes to believe in what seems to be impossible and foremost, to believe in miracles.

What do you think about it? Do you dismiss it or do you want to believe  that something else is possible? See you all next post and if you go back to work, do so with a smile!

Magic

Happy Thursday guys! Hope the week has been fun to you so far. Speaking of fun, I honestly try to see that side of things at all times, I might not be someone who laughs out of control every five minutes but I certainly enjoy life as much as I can… I think we all should! We don't necessarily need to lol all the time to have a blast, just, you know, we gotta be happy, we gotta find the way!

There's something that has made me happy in every stage of my life, even since a little kid, all the way to my after-teenage years… magic! I mean, I remember those parties when I was 5 or so and some guy in a tux was doing a card trick, or maybe a classic one, taking a pigeon out of his hat (sorry, I never saw a live show where the guy would take out a rabbit). Even with those clichés we, as children, were amazed because our young mind was telling us those acts were impossible, and yet we saw them with our own eyes, how intriguing…

Then the acts were getting a bit more complex, people getting cut in half in a box, going through walls and making elephants disappear. As we were growing, we feel certain need to know how these things happen. We already know magic is just a synonym for illusion, and that's a word we can understand. Now we don't get marveled with the trick itself, but in the actual mechanics of how it is done… and once we know it, sometimes all the enchantment is gone… forever.

I have to admit, I love to know how things work, and sometimes I'm totally intrigued about a certain act, but I'm sure once I know how it's done, it will never be the same of me, is not like you can go back and pretend you don't know. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, magic can have a different meaning for everybody, for some it can be something mystical and mysterious, for others magic is turning impossible into doable. For me is a mix of both, feeling amazed and with a sense of wishing how it's done.

I recall plenty of people doing magic tricks, but I can easily take one of these guys apart: David Copperfield… that man is out of this world! I remember watching him live in Mexico City on a talk show, and though he didn't perform any real acts (there were a couple of tiny tricks, but nothing compared to the big ones), just his presence and mysticism made me wonder. Sure before that I saw all kind of performances like the disappearance of the Statue of Liberty in NYC or he being chopped in half and walking at the same time. I gotta say, though I know is an illusion I still wonder how he did it, guess that's the real magic for me.

Thankfully magic is not exclusive to shows, if we don't know how something works but it does creating some sort of illusion, well, that's magic. Every day and night, every moment feeling sad, happy, even in love, can't argue that can be called magic. Sure science can explain it, I just hope once we know how it works, we don't lose the sense of wonder and stop being marveled in life. What's the best magic moment you've experienced? Has it been on or off stage? Leave any comments below and see you all this weekend!

Restless Dreams

What's up guys? Last week was full with surprises… some good, some fun and, by all means, some odd. Guess that's what makes our lives entertaining and quite enjoyable, I'd hate to live a day where everything is predictable and totally straightforward… boring! We even are eager to feel surprised, to experience the unexpected… and even better… to like it, that's why people love watching movies, going to new places or meeting new people, we want to marvel ourselves… yeah!

Other people sometimes play videogames. Some like to kill foes, getting in a fast car or playing a world championship… some of us, however, want to experience something quite new, something that shakes us, to keep us thinking, and yes, it gets better when you don't see it coming, it catches you off guard and after a while we are asking for more, to be endless.

Quite an expectation for a videogame, luckily there's been one game to make me feel like that, some may not call it a mere game, but a work of art. What's my opinion? We've come a looooong way since the good ol' Mario Brothers! This game I'm talking about is called 'Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams', and that's exactly what it is… quite a dream. Maybe you've heard of it, even play it, if so then maybe you've got the hint of what I'm trying to say here. I can type pages and pages about what makes this game a must-have experience, how psychological it can get, but all I'm gonna talk about today is about the first 2 minutes of the game… the premise.

You 'play' as this guy, James, who gets this letter of his wife, Mary. She's the author of this letter, and she tells James she wants them to meet up in her 'special place'… quite lovely. The thing is, she died three years ago. Imaging James, he's been so lonely all this time, with no motivation to move on. All of the sudden he receives this letter, he knows she's dead, but he decides to go, he knows things may not change… but what if? He's not thinking about her living, but within him he expects to find something different from the truth… and well, he decides to go.

Those couple of minutes really got me thinking… what if that happened to you? Would you dare to risk a great deal of your sanity (among other stuff) in order to go to a place where you know you won't find your loved one even if you believe with all your heart that letter is real? What would you hope to find? Peace? Her? Both? Will you be fighting against a weird foe, or against your own memories and dreams? Would it be true… or something else? Man… I want to play it again! I know it doesn't sound like a videogame, but more like a best-seller. If you fancy experiences  like this one and to really question yourself I invite you to check it out, all you need is a PC or a PlayStation2.

But maybe you don't like to push buttons in front of a monitor, if so then you can read -from a great psychological point of view- how this title deals with hope, love, hate and dreams. I def recommend this one made by 'Shamus' in the Twenty Sided webpage:

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=341

If you've got a letter from a late relative… what would you believe? Would you go… or stay?

UFOs

How's it going guys? Is life treating you alright? This week has been slightly busy, with things to do, places to go to and people to meet up, you know how it is. You know a lot of people but at the same time you don't really know anyone. We all have our problems, issues and misunderstandings, life can't be any more complicated… can it? How can our lives to be more complex? Simple, give us something mysterious, something we don't understand… well, it turns out there're tons of things to do so, but today I'll pick just one.

UFOs… what hasn't been said about those flying saucers? I bet you already know a lot about them (even if you didn't want to). Everyone is still looking for that secret footage, that real picture or the last piece of hard evidence to put everything to rest… will that ever happen? Is all this  just staged as a diversion to blind us from something different, worse? Tons of questions, no real answers, this is not getting easy. Most lightly you have been part of this phenomena… magazines, movies, series, but still not the big cheese. A lot of people want to talk about the subject, but few really try to provide some kind of proof… yeah, we've seen trillions of pictures, people are interviewed everywhere, the details are always alike but yet, we just can't buy this.

Believe me, I don't want to sound as a nonbeliever, furthermore, I'm eager for some kind of hard evidence, but it's simply not there… or am I too blind to see it? I'm the kind of people who would love to know the truth, or at least to see some kind of proof. I honestly find fantastic how this kind of events evolve and, if true, it'd totally rebuild everything we've come to know, because is not the flying saucer by itself… but the entities riding the thing! A funny idea related to it, have you heard/seen in pictures how much different the saucers are? I mean, they have the shape of an egg, a sphere, a disc, a cigar… I like to think of them as in our cars, where they are just different models and different brands, like saying: 'Hey… check out my Escalade 2008' would mean: 'Hey… check out my Sphere 35423525'… (maybe not). 

Now that I think of it… (and thinking really out there), I know the odds would be to think this entities are indeed from another planet, but who can tell me that's a more plausible idea than to think that those folks are, let's say, people/other entities from the future (wow… I'm seeing pink elephants). I know that's a crazy idea (for the record, that's not my belief), but I guess my point is… is there any idea we can discard on top of any other? I guess at this point we just can't.

Do you have any related story? Have you ever seen one of those saucers? What story or details do you find more believable? Leave your comments in the section below, and maybe we can all find the truth… see you next weekend!

New things!

This week I've been a bit ill, (you can never show this on words, but you know) therefore I've spent slightly more time in my computer than usual. Oh gosh if that could be powerful! The thing is, when you have no clear objective in front of your computer, this tiny box can suck your time like there's no tomorrow (like if you guys didn't know). But looking at the bright side (one gotta when ill) is a great chance to discover certain aspects  you thought were never there, and getting metaphorical, life can adopt this behavior. If we wander around (which not necessarily means we are lost) we can find some pretty nice things. Sometimes we are blinded by our goals that we miss what life is about.

Needless to say this is a speedy world and we need answers ASAP, we think about these answers all the time that we forget about those NEW QUESTIONS. Lemme put it this way… we don't want to look for new things. We stick with the ones we know and we try to have control over them. And even if someone comes with a magical lamp that we don't know we attempt to ignore it and move forward. We need control, planning, knowledge so we can feel more secure, more in place with the world. I couldn't agree with these folks more! But among all your well known, rounded life I ask this question… do we need something new to pack in our lives? Plain and simple… hell yes! New things add dynamism to our lives, they move it, they make us think, dream, laugh, cry… they make us to live life!

I can imagine why people don't want to have new things into her life… because we don't plan for them! Therefore, we lack control (at first) over them… but if we bind them in our lives, I assure you, yours may be much more better (and who knows, maybe a "bit" more interesting) I'm also aware we are told A LOT we should try something new in our lives, but we just spare ourselves the whole thing. I say… go out to the wild!!! Adventure yourself in the deeps of the unknown (of course, within reason) and you may find one thing or two worth seeing. Don't wait for new year's eve to come up with some resolutions… any time is a good time to try something new (and this can be whatever, from getting a weird piece of furniture to have a trip to somewhere new), the moves are up to you!

With me, that new thing could be this blog, or the fact I'm figuring out things for a trip… even starting a new twitter/anything account!!! New things capture our imagination… and add a new dimension to our life. I'd love to see you trying something new this week, and believe me, you will have an awesome time. I drop this video which grabs what I want to say (well, write… duh!) This dude makes a list of things to do before we die (though it sounds kinda extreme, all things we do are things we do before we die). Tell us what you want to try this week as your "new" next thing!

Mmmm... this is it?

Well, this is it, it took me a while thinking about whether or not was a good idea to start a blog (and foremost, to keep it). I thought mostly about how many ideas I can develop and how fresh can I perform them, then it popped in my head if down the road would I have the time and the willingness to post entries on a regular basis.

But then I thought that I was overthinking things a lot (if there's such a thing). Posting in a blog should be about having fun with your ideas, to be able to hang out in words with readers, to make them laugh, to express how we feel, anyway, make them feel like home. But then again, your favorite place might not be home, well, guess what? I want to make you feel as if you were there as well.

I know there's a bio/background section, but for this one time, I'd like to "personally" introduce myself to you guys… as Luis. 24, male, living in a city in Mexico. I wouldn't call myself geeky, but my friends would do it for me… because I fall for gadgets, specially apples. My favorite color is blue (though I've had some "red" moments as well). Love European football, videogames, movies and traveling. Major achievements? Well, to be honest, my biggest one was to travel by myself all the way to NYC on Holidays in '03, simply to meet a person. Secondly (meaning… less important?) would be to gain a title when graduate called Summa Cum Laude from uni in Mechatronics. By this I don't pretend to sound presumptuous or anything, but is the only time people have referred to me in latin (sweet!)

I'll try, to the best of my knowledge, to write about things that I like, things that take my breath away, things that surprise me, from the mundane to the monumental, from the deepest cave to the highest peak (all of the sudden that sounds like a cheap script), anyway, you get the picture.

I read once blogging is like therapy, when you want to talk with your friends about the world, but that sounds like if you wouldn't have any friends at all to talk to in real person, so scratch that (or not, since I cannot provide a sharp definition of blogging). But I can say this though, this world is sooooooooo huge and sometimes there are soooooo many things you want to say to soooooooo many people… well, this helps a tiny bit, wouldn't you agree?

This is now my reason why I'll start this blog, for my friends who I see once a year, once a month, once a day, and for the ones I'll make today. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee (or a sandwich if you fancy it) and let's have some fun with this!