Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A day in the life of a "Professional" Time Traveler

My family really hates my job. And when I say job, I'm referring to time travel. The newest and most innovative technology in the world still has a few kinks to work out. But, somebody's gotta do it, and that person is me. When you reluctantly come back home from college to a house with four children and two "adults", you will do anything to earn some money and get out of there. And believe me, I'm earning money because nobody else wants to fricking time travel. Why, you ask, would people live in their boring lives and work their dead-end jobs when they have the chance to surf through time? Don't get me started.
1. It would be ideal if time travelers could just disappear when they surf. Where do they go anyway, right? They aren't in this time period anymore. They're being propelled through time and space, for crying out loud! Take their body there too! But alas, no. When time travelers are called on to work, our bodies go limp, our eyes roll back into our heads, and we drool. A lot. While our mind is travelling, our body is comatose. If your boss wants you to work early, make sure he warns you so you get a chance to get away from any ledges and sit down. 
2. Time travel causes extreme physical side effects. Nausea and diarrhea almost always occur once you land in a different time period. If you reach out of your cognitive roller coaster ride to explore the link between times, you will literally get burned. It burns your flesh. 
3. Lastly, it's really irritating to keep having to explain to people who I am so they will just calm down already. For instance, yesterday I was called in to work on an emergency case while I was in my pajamas. When I showed up at the embassy in Tehran, it was 1979 and I was surrounded by frantic diplomats. In my pajamas. They were confused and angry and it took all my strength to not just leave them to their own defense. But I helped them and then erased their memories, like a good time traveler. 
Sigh. Why didn't I major in Business?

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Photographers Need Guts

Ben Zank's photography- link (written Jan 23,2014) viralnova.com
This photographer shows what it means to do anything for his passion. While some of his photos have put him in some very dangerous situations, Ben Zank understands that risks make the best photographs, whether you are a photojournalist or an art photographer. He ventures into small crevices and under sheets of ice to get breathtaking photos. This risk taking has gotten him attention for his work, which I think is well-deserved.
In this photo, he is standing into a manhole in which he let off a smoke bomb. This picture is incredible and surreal, and I am amazed that he thought of this idea and executed it so well. Photos like this one are why I love photography because they show emotion and risk and take a lot of planning to pull off.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

"Ugliest Woman in The World" is Making the World Beautiful

Lizzie Velasquez, Dec 20 2013
How would you react as a high school student if you went on Youtube one day and found a video of a familiar face-- yourself? This video is titled 'The ugliest woman in the world' and has millions of views. Comments tell you that you look horrible and you should kill yourself. Lizzie Velasquez lived through this horror because of her syndrome which keeps her from gaining weight. 
Honestly, what would you have done? Would you have taken their advice? Millions of people want you gone, only for the way you look. She was bullied all her life and was ostracized because of something she couldn't control. Most of us would react the worst possible way.
Lizzie, however, has taken to inspirational speaking, finding the best in her syndrome (such as eating whatever she wants), and giving hope to others who are being bullied. 
It shocks me that millions of people would say such horrible things to an innocent high school student, because I don't know anyone who would do such a thing. However, she has devoted her life to changing things, and this is a video that needs to be put out there. 
After one month, her speech has 4,245,363 views. It looks like she's turning things around. 

Should 'Internet Addiction' be taken seriously?

'China's Web Junkies'
New York Times, by Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia
January 19,2014

China has developed treatment centers all around the country to treat what they call 'Internet Addiction', a top concern for Chinese teenagers. At these centers, Internet Addiction is punished by living behind bars and spending your days performing military drills, all accompanied by soldiers and guards. Should this internet obsession really be taken as seriously as other addictions? Should the United States follow in China's footsteps and spend money on treatment for internet addicts?

First of all, I personally think that this is a bigger problem in China than it is here. In the Chicago Tribune's seven-minute documentary, they show Chinese internet cafes full of teens playing games. One boy said he stayed in one of these cafes for three days straight. This issue is not as prevalent in the States, although our teens do spend increasing amounts of time scrolling through Newsfeeds. Treatment centers for internet addiction would likely not be very helpful here, and there would surely be debate over whether our funds should be spent on an 'addiction' that cannot really be defined.
However, after watching this documentary, my skepticism about these Chinese treatment centers has lessened because it is obvious that this is a huge part of Chinese teenage life.
I just think that it is insane how the innovations that we praised at one point can now be almost life-threatening when used the wrong way.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Northern Lights, International Falls MN


Islands in the Sky

Each night when Daddy was home, he would tuck her in tight with a kiss on her forehead and sit down in the pink chair next to her pillow. 
"Tell me another story about your islands, Daddy," she would plead. He would take off his glasses, cough a few times, and take her hand, soon to dive into a beautiful tale of swirling, multicolored islands among the northern clouds. 
"They twinkle in deep greens, and if you listen very close you can hear the hum of lively creatures making their homes among the ever-changing isles."
"Can I ever go there?" she would ask, longing to see pictures in her father's mind. She dreamed of seeing what he saw and playing among the creatures in the islands.
The Islands in the Sky sounded like a fairy tale, and as she grew older, she became more and more suspicious. Her father's death swallowed her imagination when she turned twenty. She still wished to see the Islands in his mind, but she now knew that they did not exist. The clouds are just clouds, the land is just land, and it doesn't move or change or twinkle or hum. The mountains where her dad grew up fed his amazing imagination, but they gave her a false sense of hope throughout her childhood, and she was done pretending. 
Her father had always had a wish for his ashes to be thrown into the lake in Fairbanks, Alaska. So began her trip to her father's hometown in the middle of winter, urn in hand. 
When she arrived in Fairbanks, she found one of her father's old friends to take her out on a boat. She managed to skirt around telling him the bad news, and gave him the excuse of wanting to experience her father's childhood town.
"How's the old man doing? He was the brave one of us, most of us are still stuck here in good old Alaska! Of course I can't complain, it's got its own special beauties once you stay here long enough." He flashed her a grin that she didn't quite understand; it was like he knew something that she would soon find out.
The rickety boat started with a spurt and the propeller struggled into a roar. Night was falling, and the air was getting bitter. There was no snow on this night, however. No clouds. It was too cold for snow or clouds, and her eyes were watery from the icy wind. 
As night began to fall, she turned around to look back at Fairbanks. The mountain that her father used to love towered over the town. But it was not alone.
She pulled her hood back from her face with one big glove. Her eyes widened, reflecting greens, blues and oranges. 
She gasped with excitement and shouted over the noise of the propeller, "The islands in the sky are real!"
"What?" The man asked, grinning.
"Stop the boat!!"
The propeller came to a halt, and there was silence. Swirls of glittering green and orange danced over the peak of her father's mountain, shining bright enough to illuminate the town. She listened closely, so closely that she had to stop breathing... and she heard the hum. The hum of creatures finding homes in the islands, running with each other, dancing in the sky. The hum of her father's voice, talking her to sleep.
She opened his urn into the reflective green water, and let him go, feeling his spirit's presence for the first time. 

Choose A Universe

If you were a double, a twin, a clone,
one of you good and one evil-prone,
which universe would you call home?
Are you good in the heart or bad to the bone?
Which of the twins will take the throne?