PUSHING PAST LIMITS

"Any rational person would give up"

2012-01-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

"Failure"

2012-01-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

What staying the best means

2012-01-17T13:02:00.000-08:00

Making mistakes

2012-01-11T13:11:00.001-08:00

We choose to go to the Moon

2012-01-08T02:05:00.000-08:00

Are you a contender?

2011-12-28T08:32:00.000-08:00

Stallone's characters don't talk much. I like that. Also, his movies keep giving the same general message, again and again, until it gets into your head. This next vid is a nice summary of that message:

Arnold's rules

2011-11-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Dreams

2011-10-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

This is too good not to share: the first step to making your dream a reality is to wake up.

Man in the arena

2011-10-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is a part of the "Man in the arena" speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Tango

2011-09-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

Taking Tango lessons these days. Check out this cool dance that the instructor sent us:

25 years

2011-07-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for my blog in a while... It was pretty popular a few years ago... Reduced to sporadic thoughts now. A quarter of a century as my age might be a good occasion to write what i'm up to these days:
- i just got my masters degree
- i just got a new apartment and a car
- no one is more tired than me right now because the last 6 months i've felt like a one man army.

And now let me fall asleep as i throw myself towards the bed :)

Lessons of life

2011-06-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you can find treasures on YouTube. This vid is what its title says, a lesson of life.

Incredible story

2011-04-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

For my master thesis i'm looking for all kinds of written text (letters, speeches, etc.) to analyze with some software. After i found a cool essay by Frank Herbert a few days ago, which i also posted on this blog, today i found this incredible story, which i'll try to summarize:

In 1973, a 9-year old kid named Anthony Hollander discovered a dying bird in his garden. After this, he wrote a letter to a BBC tv show for kids and asked for assistance to "make people or animals alive". Here is an exact transcript of his letter:

"Dear Val, Jhon, Peter and Lesslie,

This may seem very strange, but I think I no how to make people or animals alive. Why Im teling you is because I cant get the things I need.

A list of what I need.

1. Diagram of how evreything works. [inside youre body.]
2. Model of a heart split in half. [both halvs.]
3. The sort of sering they yous for cleaning ears. [Tsering must be very very clean.]
4. Tools for cutting people open.
5. Tools for stiches.
6. Fiberglass box, 8 foot tall, 3 foot width.
7. Picture of a man showing all the arteries.

Sorry but in number 6 in the list the box needs lid. If you do get them on 1st March I can pay £10, £11, £12, £13 or £14.

Send your answer to me,

Love from Anthony,
London, NW11"

And he got this answer:

"Dear Anthony,

Thank you very much for your letter. It was nice to hear from you again after such a long time and we are sorry we have been delayed replying.

We are receiving over 4,000 letters every week and are having difficulty answering them as quickly as we would like.

We were interested to hear that you think you know how to make living people - and your list of necessary items intrigued us!

We are sorry we can't help you at all, but we wondered if you had thought of talking to your family doctor - he might be glad to help you with some diagrams and other information.

We are sending you a photograph of the "Blue Peter" team - it has been signed specially for you.

With best wishes from Valerie, John, Peter, Lesley and all of us on the programme.

Yours sincerely

B (Biddy Baxter)
Editor"

Today, Anthony Hollander is a professor of rheumatology and tissue engineering. He played a key role in a surgery first: the successful implantation of an artificially grown windpipe... I can't say much more after this, if you want to read the full story, check this out.

Listening To The Left Hand

2011-04-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

I just want to paste a small essay that i found very interesting: Listening To The Left Hand, by Frank Herbert. It deals with embracing change, a motif in Dune as well.

When I was young and my world was dominated by indestructible adults, I learned an ancient way of thinking that is as dangerous as a rotten board in a stepladder. It told me that the only valuable things were those that I could hold unchanged: the love of a wise grandfather, the enticing mystery of the trail through our woodlot into the forest, the feeling of lake water on a hot summer day, the colors (ahh, those colors) when I opened my new pencil box on the first day of school...
But the grandfather died, a developer bulldozed the woodlot, loggers clear-cut the forest, the lake is polluted and posted against swimming, smog has deadened my ability to detect subtle odors, and pencil boxes aren't what they used to be.
Neither am I.
There may be a quiet spot in my mind where nothing moves and the places of my childhood remain unchanged, but everything else moves and changes. There's dangerous temptation in the nostalgic dream, in the expertise of yesteryear. The nameless animal that is all of us cannot live in places that no longer exist. I want to address myself to the survival of that nameless animal, looking back without regrets at even the best of what was and will never be again. We should salvage what we can, but even salvaging changes things.
The way of this change is called "process" and it requires that we be prepared to encounter a multiform reality. Line up three bowls in front of you. Put ice water in the one on the left, hot water in the one on the right, and lukewarm water in the middle one. Soak your left hand in the ice water and right hand in the hot water for about a minute, then plunge both hands into the bowl of lukewarm water. Your left hand will tell you the water of the middle bowl is warm, your right hand will report cold. A small experiment in relativity.
We live in a universe dominated by relativity and change, but our intellects keep demanding fixed absolutes. We make our most strident demands for absolutes that contain comforting reassurance. We will misread and/or misunderstand almost anything that challenges our favorite illusions.
It has been noted repeatedly that science students (presumably selected for open-mindedness) encounter a basic difficulty when learning to read X-ray plates. Almost universally, they demonstrate an inability to distinguish between what is shown on the plate and what they believe will be shown. They see things that are not there. The reaction can be linked directly to the preset with which they approach the viewing of a plate. When confronted with proof of the extent to which preconceptions influenced their judgment, they tend to react with surprise, anger, and rejection.
We are disposed to perceive things as they appear, filtering the appearance through our preconceptions and fitting it into the past forms (including all the outright mistakes, illusions, and myths of past forms). If we allow only the right hand's message to get through, then "cold" is the absolute reality to which we cling. When our local reality has attached to it that other message: "This is the way out," then we're dealing with a form of "holy truth." Cold becomes a way of life.

Android Celebs - Episodes 25-29

2011-03-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

More fun i had on the way back home:

Doc Brown

Marty McFly

Ronald McDonald

J.R. Ewing

Ray Krebbs

Android Celebs - Episodes 19-24 (Lost!)

2011-03-05T05:03:00.000-08:00

So here are a bunch of Losties. If you don't know who these are, you can always watch Lost :)

Kate

Sayid

Sawyer

Mikhail

Eloise

Radzinski

Android Celebs - Episodes 13-18

2011-02-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Lionel Messi

Diego Maradona

Santa

Sherlock Holmes

Hercule Poirot

Lady Gaga

Android Celebs - Episodes 7-12

2011-02-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama

Julian Assange

Frodo Baggins

Dracula

Harry Potter

James Bond

Android Celebs - Episodes 1-6

2011-02-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

The almost negative speed of the train gave me 3 hours to kill. And guess what i did, i started drawing celebrities in the Androidify app. I drew quite a lot and thought i should make a web series or something. So here they are, the first 6 of them, with more soon to come!

Some music royalty:

Michael Jackson

Elvis Presley

Some official royalty:

Queen Elizabeth

Princess Leia

Some Sylvester Stallone:

Rambo

Rocky

Star Trek: The Next Generation

2011-02-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

2 decades ago i was watching Star Trek on tv (i was 4). I think it planted something in my mind which will last forever, it's probably what guided me to become a programmer somewhere along the line... At that age, my response to Star Trek was to take lots of paper and surround myself with it on the floor, after drawing those cool sensors i was seeing in the show. Now, i'll just leave the tv open with the Star Trek dvd menu playing, the ambiance is just too cool; because today i got the 7 seasons of The Next Generation. Engage!

Relaxing while working

2010-12-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

For some strange reasons i'll be busy until Christmas so i decided to write this post now, while i have time.

There are many different ways of relaxing, some mental and some physical. Is it possible to relax while working? Relaxation means letting your muscles rest (whether it's your brain or biceps). The default state of the human body and mind is a relaxed one. Ironically, by living our lives we artificially build the strain into ourselves. Because the brain is unconsciously trying to be efficient, when it sees patterns it makes connections, therefore allowing you to be the best at whatever you want to do. The problem is there are side effects to this. The brain is just a driver in a car. You can't easily replace parts of this car in case they break down. We have to be efficient in being efficient, because we're not replaceable.

Let's try something fun. Relax your eyes for about 10 seconds by closing them, then open them again. Keeping your eyes open or closed is effortless for your muscles. Now close only one eye. Why does this demand so much more muscular effort? Even funnier: when you close only one eye, why does your cheek muscle activate? Because when you close both eyes, it doesn't :D

Next exercise. Close your fist. Open it again. Now repeat exactly what you just did but only with your ring fingers. Why do the other fingers bend? Not only was this not demanded of the brain so often (thus, the nervous connection wasn't exercised individually) but parts of your hand itself have become rigid because of this as well. Not to mention the fact that, from a generational perspective, we genetically inherit this behavior and physical build.

Prana-Bindu is a fictional training method. It doesn't exist in real-life (at least not under this name), but it's the closest thing i can think of to what i'm about to tell you. Prana means nerve and Bindu means muscle. Gently, so as not to hurt yourself, you can train your finger to bend without involuntarily bending the others. You can train your eyes to recognize text without straining them so much. You don't need to recognize every single letter of a word to know its general look. Essentially, you need to be in control of your body and whatever activity you're performing, not they of you. You can consciously seek such optimizations and ways to implement them in your own behavior. In martial arts or playing the piano, this optimization process even is an explicit goal.

Merry Christmas! :)

Dune: The Battle Of Corrin

2010-11-28T03:58:00.000-08:00

Finished yet another Dune book. The Battle Of Corrin is the 3rd book in the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy. The book that tells us how the great houses in the Dune novels came to be, and much more... Given the high probability that you're not as interested in the Dune universe as i am, this is all i'm going to say about its content. But i also have to say these 3 books have been some of the most solid books i've ever read totaling to well over 2000 pages.

I don't know if such a thing as literary addiction exists. I'm only an amateur reader (i read on train or when i have 5 minutes to spare, but i try to read daily - most of the times i spend a few good consecutive hours on a book's ending because the suspense is usually unbearable :). The truth is Dune is the literary universe that defines me the most; in short, i simply like it and i'm not going to stop reading it (although believe it or not, someone actually told me to :P).

If you've been reading this blog you probably know i'm 'multitasking' books. I've recently started Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne on my Kindle. But for my next hardcover i'll tackle a book i ordered over 2 years ago on Amazon, but never got the chance to read: Paul of Dune.

Don't confuse rights with obligations

2010-11-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

In the context of debates on censorship and opinion around here i'd like to formulate throughout this post a simple principle that would make us all better people (if applied of course :)

There are 2 extremes to everything: freedom of speech vs. censorship, being opinionated vs. being ignorant or gullible, etc. These are extremes, which i don't think are good on a long term, the truth is always in the middle. Let's take censorship. You'd always have freedom of speech against censorship, right? Let's take ignorance. It's always considered bad, we'd like to have opinions on everything, or at least to be able to formulate them from our own past experiences.

But what does censorship mean? Is it always external? You might sometimes want to censor yourself, by using your better judgement. This is one of the few things that separates some of us from animals. Should you always have opinions? When should you share them? It's a free world (mostly) so you can do whatever you want. But sometimes our own past experiences might not be enough to formulate an educated opinion. If you're in doubt about one of your beliefs, you might not want to share that belief with others, even if it might be 'trendy'. It can backfire or it can hurt other people. I guess this could translate into: don't pass judgment easily.

You're only free to the point that you hurt other people. Can an opinion hurt someone? No. Can sharing an opinion hurt someone? Yes. Can we prevent people sharing opinions? No, because that would be censorship, and that's why we are the only ones who can censor ourselves. This leads us to something even more important: sharing an opinion no matter what is a freedom you have (if you live in a free country) and can make use of, but it's also a danger of being manipulated or even becoming a manipulation tool yourself. Objective news (e.g. tv) might not be so obvious in trying to manipulate you, but others (e.g. bloggers) impose no restrictions on themselves because they don't feel the need to be objective + if they have opinions on stuff that's popular they get more traffic themselves. That's why people sharing opinions are perfect catalysts. Opinions should come less as a reaction and more as a result of a conscious thought process.

Think about this: problem P is on all the news, and everyone is debating on a solution. Some support the S1 solution, others support S2 (S1 is of course against S2) and so on, without realizing that they've fallen prey to one basic assumption which might be wrong: "we need to solve problem P".

If you have freedom of speech use it wisely and don't make it an obligation.

P.S. Here are the current events in my country that inspired me to write this post (and what i think about these events):

there was an anti-censorship manifestation made by quite a few people against a governmental institution which supposedly applies fines to tv shows that criticize the government. I agree with this anti-censorship manifest.
a poet, appreciated by many people, died. Apparently, he is both contested and revered. Contested because he supposedly supported dictator Ceausescu's regime (which he might have) and revered because of his talent, occasional opposition against the same regime and outright opposition to the current promotion of non-values. Here's my thought process: I haven't lived much during communism (and not at all during this poet's time of glory), so i won't formulate an opinion based on his political views. I choose to formulate my opinion based on the fact that he once convinced our best soccer player, Hagi, to return to the national team after an initial retirement and that, indeed, his poetry is simply cool. Whatever your opinion may be in the case of someone who died and who was of such magnitude, please don't use religiously offensive words. Using such means of communication tells me that the emitter of this opinion is complexed with the weakness of his message, thereby attracting attention by other means. I've read such opinions on the web, in this specific case. I was prepared to accept an opinion contrary to mine. I was not prepared to accept sentences that contained both names of divine entities and concepts as worldly as you can imagine.
and speaking of religion, relics of Christian saints periodically tour some locations, invariably some cities over here too. People form huge lines trying to touch the relics. Being a believer myself i can understand this, although i probably won't do it myself. What i don't understand is that sometimes old people stay in lines which last 2 days or more, worsening the very diseases they wish to cure. The funny thing is that there is now a popular perception that these people are somehow gullible. But their past experiences are different than others'. Most people that do this are very poor, old or suffer from heavy illnesses. We should not contest that this activity might be some people's last hope just as much as we shouldn't view religion as a mercantile affair: "touch holy things and you'll be happy". No matter how much i try i can't make my own mind about who is right and who is wrong. No one is forcing us to choose here, and maybe we shouldn't because no matter what we can still try to better ourselves as a society so as each and every one of us can live better. Maybe this will allow people to choose or practice religion not coerced by their own needs but based on their genuine choice (which would make religion less contestable by some). One final thought on this though, even if i can't help it, i don't like seeing children dragged by their parents in these huge lines to the relics. I don't agree with propagating faith in a mechanical manner (children should learn 'hardship of life' and religious practice just because their parents do it?)

Sorry, War Of The Worlds

2010-11-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

This doesn't happen to me, to start a book and not finish it. I'm sorry to say it happened with The War Of The Worlds. The sci-fi part was actually ok(ish) and quite groundbreaking considering it was written in the 19-th century. But the huge, sometimes pointless description scenes written in the English of those days were too much for me. Somewhere around a quarter of the book it started being a chore to read, and around the middle, when it became punishment, i had to capitulate :(

Well, that being said, i guess it's time to go back to the first author i've ever read and refind some of that basic joy of reading: Jules Verne. So i downloaded a Kindle collection of over 30 books by Jules Verne (less than 6$, a bargain!) and started reading Robur the Conqueror.

The bad part of progress

2010-10-29T04:13:00.000-07:00

Technological progress is cool and all. You might consider my following analysis primitive, but check it out. Let's assume some Stargate-like technology is invented and we can travel instantaneously between any 2 points on the planet. Not taking into consideration potential commercial monopolies, what would happen economically? How many people would lose their jobs because cars, trains and airplanes will now be second-class transportation means?

In the time of the caveman, everyone had a job to do. No need for socialism because back then it was "eat or be eaten". However, now people are tricked into socialism without even knowing through various ways, some being, i believe, related to technology. I've said many times on this blog that technological progress is being spoon-fed to us, at preposterous prices, also in the interest of diffusing capital around the world, which is a good thing. Financial crisis? Yeah right... Anyway, in case i'm right, we can see what's bad with this philosophy: basically, we're not the best species we can be from a technological point of view. But the mighty cockroach has no technology whatsoever and look where it got.

Even so, there's something good we can extract from this bad part of progress: that progress is the default state of humanity. That's the only destination. We just have to decide if the shortest way there is also the best way.