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Showing posts from January, 2017

School of Thought: Existentialism | Hri-Write

Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought that deals with human existence, trying to explain the purpose of a human life. Existentialism, like many other schools of thought, is of course only a speculation and something we made up, take what you read here with a pinch of salt ( after all, I don't know any more about life than you do! ) If I were to try to explain existentialism easily, I'm afraid I'll lose out on its intricacies, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Existentialism, at its most fundamental level, says that every person is responsible for defining their own purpose in this world and that we are governed by our free will. Existentialism says that we are not here to 'find purpose', but rather to 'create our reality and purpose'. It sounds simple, but that's because I've tried to break down roughly a few centuries worth of study and philosophical evolution into four sentences. Existentialism originated as a school o...
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Person of Interest #2 - Zack Hemsey

Zack Hemsey has quickly become of my favorite musicians, in the span of nearly 2-3 months. While his name is not well-known, his work is massively popular, only if you know where to look . Many of you may have seen his name mentioned in my last blog, but probably didn't check him out. Haha, your loss. (I get a lot of flack for my musical taste, but whatever.) You may recognize his work from big-time movies and TV shows like Inception and Game of Thrones, if you're listening, carefully. Zack is a recording artist and songwriter whose most prominent body of work is composing movie/trailer scores. That's not all he is, though. When he's not composing orchestral tracks, he's publishing intriguing and periodical singles on his website and Youtube Channel . The reason he's become one of my favorites is because of how different yet novel his style and content are. When you hear rapper nowadays, you immediately associate allusions to being drunk/high, weirdly s...
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The poignancy of sonder.

This one's going to be quite introspective: buckle up. If I asked you to estimate the number of people you meet or come across every day, could you do it? Probably not, at least not precisely. The people you come across in one day, by night are nothing but a blur in your memory. You don't pay them much mind, and they don't pay you any either. Now consider this: It's a trembling thought when you put it in perspective. Coined by John Koenig, in his ' Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows ', in which he details and defines feelings that haven't got defined yet. This is my favorite one, but that doesn't mean the other ones aren't jaw dropping, either. What does it mean? I couldn't tell you, honestly. We all will look at it in different, yet unique ways. One thing is certain, though: it sure is thought-provoking. It induces a feeling of insignificance, of feeling average. Whether you live in a huge, impersonal city or the tranquil countryside, ...
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Hri-Write - Person of Interest: Les Brown

This is the first installment of the bi-weekly (every two weeks) 'Person of Interest' segments I'm going to write. Many of you may not have heard of this man, but that's what this segment is all about. Person of Interest is about discovering new personalities. Les Brown Perhaps one of the most pivotal people in my life, even if I don't know him, he doesn't know me nor has he ever heard/spoken to me. Les Brown is a motivational speaker who I discovered late in Grade 9 (2015). I happened to stumble across his speeches after falling into a pit of bad grades mixed with trying times...and I was instantly hooked. Leslie Calvin Brown. In 1986, Les was sleeping linoleum floor of his office. By 1990, he had become one of the best motivational speakers in the country. "It was very hard when I fell upon hard times, walking into the lobby of my office building, people laughing at me, snickering, 'There's the guy talking about being successful, bath...
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Where is all the 'alien life?' - Fermi Paradox and other theories

My first blog, ever, was about understanding the odds of alien life. I've gotten much better at writing blogs since then (or so I like to tell myself), and it would only be right if I reinstate the legacy of that one. We should openly admit that when we happen to be under a starry night and see a sight similar to this, we all have a react in a different and interesting way. Some people are left boggled by the immense size of the universe, others by the sheer glamour of the scene and if you're anything like me, you're paralysed by the sudden realisation that you have a negligible impact on the universe. The point is, we all feel something . When he looked up at the sky, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi too felt something, a thought that lingered around this question, "Where is everyone else?" It's been half a decade since Fermi passed on, but he left us with a fundamental query and idea. Fermi realised that in a universe as old and vast as this, there s...
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Why your digital footprint matters

Every second you spend on the Internet, you're actively involved in painting a digital picture of yourself. This portrait helps companies target content at specific markets and consumers, helps employers look into your background, and helps advertisers track your movements across multiple websites. Whatever you do online, you might be leaving digital footprints behind. ( http://www.internetsociety.org/your-digital-footprint-matters ) In short, your digital footprint is everything you do online. Social media activity, app usage, email records. Watching videos, visiting adult sites, using certain plugins, everything goes into this piece of art. Whether you like it or not, everything you do on the web can be tracked. A lot of people seem to think that using incognito features on browsers or routers does any good. It might hide data locally (on your system) but it does nothing to completely hide your presence on the web. A diagram of how your internet works The abov...
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'Kids these days', and Juvenoia.

The phrase 'kids these days', has been used since time immemorial by older generations to express their disappointment in the younger generations. We love to talk about just how different life was 'back in the good old days'. In that regard, you see a huge number of 'only 90s kids will remember...' on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. George Orwell had a brilliant quote that went along the lines of this: George Orwell (1903-1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. There's a neat neologism for this phenomenon, Juvenoia . The point is, it's an endless cycle. Let's examine this situation. A family is sitting around the breakfast table, all engrossed in their own digital life. It's a common situation nowadays, right? However, in 1907, the Journal of Education deplored, "At a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine." Let...
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