#blog2

Or happy adoption day! On this day two years ago I took home this lil girl

MABINI,Jamaica C.

"Every path is the right path, everything could have been anything else, and it would have just as much meaning"

Mr. Nobody (2009)

One of a lot of movies that scarred me for life. Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is 118 years old and reminiscing—on the time he had spent on this planet. His parents separated when he was 9-years-old and he went to live with his mother and her boyfriend, or did he? He might have stayed with his father and fallen in love with Elise. Although he remember falling madly in love with Anna (Diane Kruger), his step-sister and making love to her. His marriage with Elise was a nightmare with Elise suffering from clinical depression and Nemo might have died multiple times. Foreseeing this (Elise’s mental illness) Nemo might have settled with Joan, a girl he met at a party, and had two kids, whose names he can’t remember.

Perplexed, right? So is Nemo because he can’t decide upon the life he has led.

Oh and did I tell you that Nemo can see the future. Or can he?

You were unable to take a decision because you didn’t knew what would happen and now when you know what will happen you still unable to make a decision.

The problem with reviewing this epic fantasia by the Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael, is that you know you’ll fall short of words and ideas to write your understanding of the film, knowing still well that your understanding is probably a meager fraction of what the film is about. I’ve seen no other film, that drags for roughly 3 hours, challenges your mind thoroughly, makes you ponder about things you would've never thought of otherwise—and all these, throughout it’s playtime. Mr. Nobody is an ensemble of numerous mosaics from all the possible lives Nemo might have led, interwoven with just enough precision to not let you go: “Fuck this shit, I’m hitting the bed.” Not a single frame is a filler.

It is but the first of many decisions said above that cause Nemo’s history to fracture and diverge into multiple timelines; he gives a love letter, he doesn’t give a love letter, he becomes a photographer, and a TV personality, he marries Elise, Jean and Anne, he drowns in his car, is killed by a meteorite, and executed by mobsters. The result is a rather confusing collection of alternative realities that are even further complicated by being framed through the complex physics of time and space.

And yet, I believe that, at the center of it all, all this complexity serves one single purpose, one fundamental question; how do we make meaningful choices? To answer this question, we first have to answer several others.

We can immediately see how this one-directional movement places a burden on our decision-making; We cannot go back, that’s why it’s hard to choose. But what is the right choice? What makes one choice more meaningful over another? This question can only really be answered if there is such a thing as meaning, something to serve as an anchor against which to weigh our options and base our decisions. However, looking to the universe for such a guiding light is likely to leave you disappointed. Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? The butterfly effect is a part of chaos theory, suggesting that a small change in one state can result in larger differences in a later state. And as we see in many of Nemo’s timelines, this causal reaction often undermines our own agency, although of course, we generally experience this phenomenon as random chance, bringing us either good fortune, or bad luck.

In the opening scene, we are also presented with an experiment in which a pigeon is given a treat every 20 seconds. The researchers discovered that if the pigeon happened to be flapping its wings when given the treat, it would continue to do so, convinced its actions are what caused it. This phenomenon, which is referred to as pigeon superstition, further emphasizes the dissonance between

how we perceive causality, and how the universe actually works. In other words, we may believe our choices and actions affect the world in a certain way, but in reality we know very little about what forces move our lives into certain directions. It is why, whenever something unexpected happens, be it good or bad, we are left wondering; what did I do to deserve this? Well, it's important for you to understand that in life, things don’t always turn out as we plan them. Life isn’t always what we think it will be.

So what does all this imply for our ability to make meaningful choices? How can we make informed decisions if we cannot even oversee all the variables? It is perhaps why we long for immortality,

for infinite time to figure out the right path and infinite chances to correct ourselves if we take a wrong turn. But I think this is where we have to consider Nemo gift, for Nemo is not like everyone else.

The point is that when faced with a difficult choice, knowing everything that will happen is just as paralyzing as not knowing what will happen. A philosopher Ruth Chang exposes a fundamental flaw in how we approach decision-making. Basically, she explains that we tend to make choices by weighing alternatives against each other, and judging whether one option is better than, equal to, or worse than another. And while this may be a reasonable approach for easier decisions, when it comes to the hard choices in our lives, where do we live? Who do we marry? what career do we pursue? This approach often falls short.

That's why the choice is hard. What distinguishes these kind of choices is that they do not become easier even if the outcomes are clearer. Nemo’s omniscience showed him every possible path,

but this couldn’t tell him if the love for his mother was more valuable than the love for his father, it couldn’t tell him if the heartbreak from Anna leaving was worse than that of Elise’s depression, in short; it couldn’t tell him which path was the right path, and here lies the crux of the problem; we are searching for meaning outside of ourselves, for external reasons to support these difficult decisions.

“Every path is the right path.

Everything could've been anything else.

And it would have just as much meaning”

And so instead of desperately searching the universe for guidance, for that one sign or reasonable argument telling us what we should do, it is we ourselves who have to make our choices meaningful. So the lesson of hard choices: reflect on what you can put your agency behind, on what you can be for, and through hard choices, become that person. This is no easy task, even if we believe we are on the right path, there will be mistakes, there will be sorrow.

recently i’ve been getting real short with people and been getting easily annoyed lol.. part of it may have been “that time of the month” but anyways lmao thought i’d write about my pet peeves & or things that piss me off without a doubt.. 

a) people that use your past against you.. oh man... like you did this for what? if i trust you with a piece of my past - it is so you understand why i am who i am today or why i react to certain things the way i do but if you’re just gonna throw back in my face to remind me of how stupid i WAS.. then bro, leave. thanks 

b) when you have a problem with me but you go and tell everyone else but me. lol if you’re trying to make yourself look good you’re really doing the opposite because no one else can fix your issue with me BUT ME.. communication is the word i’m pretty sure =) 

c) rude people. ex. i was at a cafe once with my mum, and i didn’t like the way our waiter came at my mum with his rude tone and rushed demeanour. so i, who was just acting accordingly, ordered slowly & changed my order a few times and i didn’t even acknowledge his presence as i had my shoulder to him lmao.. in general tho rude people can just save it and go let it out on karens or something. 

d) closed minded people <<<<<< jeez this is a big one. i cannot STAND those with a narrow mind.. to the possibility that there is more than one stand point on EVERYTHING. if you can’t be open minded then we can’t be friends. like bye. 

e) liars. good gosh. i would rather you hurt me with the truth than comfort me with a lie to protect my feelings. and what benefit do you get from lying? $$? pleasure? i pity those who live a life full of lies. go get help. 

f) people that constantly blame their past for their rude behaviour now... to an extent it is understandable to be snappy and closeoff-ish... because you are trying to mend what is broken but if you don’t move on and try make a better living for yourself and constantly blame your past conflicts as a justification to being a down right a$$hole then you my friend are in the wrong.. go get help x2. 

if you’ve made it this far then lets be friends cos #respect lol anyways, pet peeves, things that trigger me.. what not.. there’s probably more cos i tend to be quite short with a lot of things but these ones popped up without hesitation.  

People with impaired vision have problems with determining how much liquid is in a cup. Without the help of any technology, they often put their fingers into their glass to determine when to stop pouring the liquid into the container or ask a caregiver to complete this task for them. (Source: 14 Unreal Things You Never Realized Blind People Have To Deal With)

Since drinking water is an essential task people perform multiple times every day, having a robot that pours liquid for them is helpful, especially when the liquid is hot. With the help of a robot, people will no longer need to wet their fingers each time they try to pour some liquid, or potentially get scalded. This will also save time for caregivers. Let’s think of the scenario when it is at the middle of the night, and a visually impaired person is thirsty, if he can manipulate a robot to pour liquid for him, he will no longer need to wake up a family member or mess up the counter. By completing this daily task on their own, visually impaired people can get a sense of independence.

We can use a Fetch robot to perform this task. In order to accurately determine when to stop pouring the liquid, we also need to make special containers (such as mugs for drinking water and bowls for breakfast cereals) to accompany various tasks. The robot also needs a peripheral to get the type of liquid and the amount to pour from the user. This can either be a speech recognition device or a button panel with Braille. Due to various sizes and weights of liquid containers, determining how to lift the container and pour out the liquid from a container is a challenging task for the robot.

There are some existing solutions to this problem such as liquid indicators and the Braun Bell Mug. A liquid indicator is a kind of device which after being attached to the glass, can vibrate or buzz when the liquid approaches the glass top.

(Image of a liquid indicator. Source: Liquid Level Indicators, Liquid Level Sensors)

The image below shows the instructions of Bell Mug. According to Andrew Liszewski, “Inside the mug are three sensors that can detect how far it’s been filled, and the user simply has to press one of three buttons on the handle to choose what level they’d like. When the desired amount of liquid in the mug has been reached, an audible alert will sound letting them know they can stop pouring.”

(How to use the Bell Mug. Source: Braun Bell Concept Mug For The Visually Impaired)

In both of these solutions, the user still has to perform the task of pouring the liquid on their own, so that they still might spill the liquid out if they fail to aim at the cup or over-tilt the container. Using a robot instead can make this job more pleasant, free the user from manual work, and prevent the user from getting scald by the hot liquid.

                                  Bird flu in the Philippines

By: Allyson Rose Javellana Frani, September 2017

            Last August 2017, “bird flu” attacks the Philippines particularly in the province of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija since August 11, the day after government announce about the bird flu came in the country. They culled more than 470,000 of chickens, ducks and quails by almost 500 soldiers in 40 farms in San Luis in Pampanga and San Isidro and Jaen in Nueva Ecija.

           The Department of Health (DOH) told and assured the people that H5N6 virus cannot be transmitted or spread out with the consumption of chickens. To prove the Department of Agriculture (DA) that poultry products sold in the market is safe, the department officials ate fried chicken during the press conference. But then, there are 41 “victims” of the virus who reported and 34 of them tested negative. Most of them are farmers and members of the family who helped the previous culling.

             The officials are assuring the public and said that there is low probability that animal-to-human virus will spread and can kill people. “No deaths have (ever) been directly due to H5N6; ordinary human flu posed more health risk,” said Sinag chair Rosendo So.

             Seven (7) firemen in San Luis, Pampanga who helped the cull birds in avian flu examined in the hospital in San Fernando and tested negative in bird flu virus, a health official confirmed. “What they showed [were symptoms of] regular human influenza. They have colds, and not the H5N6 strain of avian flu that struck San Luis,” said Dr. Jesse Fantone, chief epidemiologist of the DOH in Central Luzon.

              Based on the health officials, there is no virus will spread and this virus cannot be the cause of death by humans. But, because of this issue, many people particularly in the provinces that are affected were scared to eat poultry products just to assure the safety of their family. The whole country worried about their safety that’s why the consumption of poultry products became low. Because of culling of chickens and other animals that are affected of this issue, the production of goods also decreased.

         As of now, there are citizens that are scared to eat poultry products because of fear of having H5N6 virus. In contrast, most of the people acted normal and still eat poultry products even during the culling of chickens in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija last August 2017.

    References:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/925674/bird-flu-pampanga-nueva-ecija-chicken-culling-fever

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/08/28/1733434/da-upbeat-bird-flu-has-been-contained