Dealing With A Pandemic

Elementary My Dear Watson

It is true, people are divided on this pandemic issue because they are divided by both inherent and external factors which have greatly affected their ability to comprehend and act on their reality or perceived reality.

I know, that long sentence will throw off most people. And it is meant to. If you are continuing on to read this then you know what I am talking about. Or at least curious as to where I am heading with this thought. If you have no clue then you probably still believe Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Biases

First off, everyone is biased, okay whether intentional or not. Or even if we are aware of it or not.

One example is that one person we all know who keeps on yelling that he hasn't a racist bone in his body, but almost every conversation he starts or engages in, he always manages to mention color and stir it in the direction of race.

Okay, he is isn't racist. (I do hope you understand sarcasm).

Upbringing, Media

People's actions are dictated by both inherent and any acquired prejudices they picked up along the way.

For example those whose parents told them growing up that certain people are like this, or that others are like that, grow up with those filters. And it is hard to convince them otherwise.

In the same way whatever society, friends, teachers, preachers, famous people, the news, movies, music, social media tell them, all these are dropped in their memory banks like people dumping ingredients inside a slow cooker in the morning. And when they come back at night, whatever they dumped in there are all nicely cooked and ready to serve. Looks and smells good too.

Personal Agenda, Politics

Add to this we all have our own personal hidden agenda and our partisan leanings. And because we are living in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we act as such.

Walking Time Bomb

Plus add to the fact that this is a presidential election year, we have been deprived of whatever was giving us joy because of the lock-downs and we have not gotten our fixes for awhile, so our inner Karens and Kens just bubbled up to the surface and overflowed out of the lid of our slow cooker.

2020

It's insane that in this year, ironically 20-20, most people are still blinded and cannot see the big picture.

And most are too absorbed with their own hidden motives to even see what's going on.

Red or Blue

What ever political party you support, you will always be fooled for they are just the same exact coin, just opposite sides.

I mean, honestly who in their right minds will give us those two as our choices for president?

Okay, so they may have some of your personal interest in their minds or you think they do, but they are all in politics for one thing. If you still don't know that, you need to stop and think about that first.

People

The news media, they have one thing in their minds, ratings -- their goal is more viewers, more readers, more clicks, more ads, more money.

Famous people? Like everyone else, they will go where their heart is. And like politicians, you might think where their heart is at, but one thing drives them, okay a few things -- fame, power, pleasure, or a combination or all of the above. And money.

Don't kid yourself. Any one would.

Pandemic?

Who cares about the pandemic, the flu is worse.

Old people dying? Who cares about old farts?

Respect for others? I don't even respect myself.

Wear a mask? Make me.

Social distancing? Get out of here.

Wash your hands? Where are we, kindergarten?

I have inalienable rights. No one tells me what not to do.

If you don't believe that this pandemic is real or if you are on the other end of this idiotic debate, if you believe that all the numbers are accurate?

Then you are all fooled.

Pandemic!

But believe it or not, the pandemic is real, it is happening all over the world. It is worse in certain areas of course but if it isn't bad in yours it will be, if you are all living like it's 1999.

Pandemics only happen once in our lifetime and so most will have no real point of comparison. But yes, it is worse than the flu.

All In This Together

Hand washing, social distancing, staying home if possible, going out only when necessary, wearing a face covering when going out and being in close proximity with other people, using common sense and common sensibilities, and self quarantining when sick.

These are all we need to do. If you keep on saying we are all in this together and don't even do this, then shut up.

So I need to wear a mask?

Okay, sure, here you go.

Titanic

During a pandemic, everyone in the whole planet is like in the Titanic, we are just about ready to sink. And so we are indeed all in this together.

This is not a political issue. And this is not about our liberties or our rights.

This is about survival -- life or death.

And this is love or whatever else you call yourself.

If you still don't get it, time to turn off your crockpot. Not good to over cook the meat.


Image Credit. AfP

History is Not Just About Names and Dates

I understand that most history teachers have not really found enough ways to make studying about this subject interesting.

And I don't blame them. History just seems to be a hard subject to get easily interested in. Most people, if not all, just seems to be concerned about the future or the here and now. But how many are really geniunely or even remotely interested in past events?

What's Past is Past and There is Nothing We Can Do About it

Now someone once said “history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Mark Twain wrote that "it is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.”

And unfortunately, history has proven that to be correct.

Humankind has not learned a single thing as far as learning from their past mistakes. Every new generation repeats something bad that previous generations have done, and they add a few more mistakes of their own, thereby adding more choices for succeeding generations to repeat themselves.

So, if you find yourself still in school or if you just want to study something worthwhile, then please really study up on history as best you can. It is not only things that happened in the past, but they are actually events that are currently happening and worse will happen again if people continue to not learn anything from them.

Yes another little thing we ought to know by now.

#history

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Uthor

Instant Boredom

Are We There Yet?

Hard to realize that..

Four years ago, there was hardly any smart watches in use.

Only six years when Snapchat and the use of apps exploded.

Eight years ago, most people have not heard of ipads, tablets, smart TVs, music streaming, Instagram and Siri.

It was only 10 years ago when the iphone came out and vlogging become mainstream.

12 years ago, most people have not heard of Facebook.

18 years ago most people have no idea what Google is.

It was only 20 years ago when laser printers and laptops started to become widely used.

25 years ago, was when dial up internet took off and many still had no microwaves in their homes.

It was only 30 years ago when mobile phones and ATMs became popular.

Only 35 years ago was when personal computers and MTV became a fixture in homes.

40 years ago, was when beepers, pagers and drive thrus became widespread.

60 years ago was when televisions became mainstream.

And it was only 70 years ago when AM FM radio became popular. So there is a big chance that during the course of your day you will interact with at least a hundred people who grew up with no wifi, no cellphone, had to go to the library to do research, had to send messages by snail mail, had to talk to people face to face and had no way to contact a loved one until they come back home.

Funny that the less than two minutes that it took you to read this far, the effort made you so bored, and most probably you failed to see the purpose of this short read.

In fact, most people who started to read this would only spend three seconds to browse through it or will never even reach this far to read this sentence.

But don't worry the next generation will have an even shorter attention span, much lower patience threshold and would be hard pressed to understand nor respect anyone, so good luck.

1990 Disqualification Australian Open

Code Violations

Do you remember when notoriously outspoken American John McEnroe was fined and actually disquaified and defaulted (forfeited) his match because of three code violations, and yes, even though he was winning?

Classic Moments

No? Well, now you know!

Don't be uninformed (read: ignorant), read all about it @ History.com, just in case you forgot or are too young or do not follow tennis.

Hillary and Donald

A Fictional Story

While playing golf in Miami one morning, Donald was tragically hit by a lightning strike. He collapsed and died on the way to the hospital.

A few minutes upon hearing of the tragedy. Hillary was herself unfortunately flattened by a falling piano outside her daughter's apartment building in Manhattan, as she was rushing to a press conference. She was pronounced dead on the spot.

Heaven or Hell

A few hours later, an upbeat Hillary met up with an ecstatic Donald who was sitting on a bench waiting for his name to be called. Both of them have apparently arrived at heaven's gate after what felt like the longest trip of their lives. Shortly their names were both called up, the gates were opened and they were personally met by St. Peter.

"Welcome." Peter told both of them. "Before you enter, I'm afraid I have to tell you that we seem to have a slight problem. You see, we hardly see any high profile public officials come through these gates, and today we have the two of you, now we're not entirely sure what to do next.

"I see no problem, just let us in", said Hillary. "Me too", added Donald.

St. Peter says, "We were thinking, both of you wouldn't feel at home here, which will eventually make you sad for all of eternity and we wouldn't want that on anybody."

"I have no problem with that, I'll stay" said Hillary. "I'll do the same" replied Donald, "I want to stay".

"Well, I'd like to take you in, but we don't want to take that chance. So this is what we're going to do, we will let the both of you decide where you want to stay. We will arrange for both of you to spend one day in the other place and one in here in heaven. Then at the end of the second day, you can decide where you want to spend eternity."

"We're up for that" replied both Hillary and Donald.

 St. Peter touches a panel on the side of the pearly gate and an opening appeared exposing an escalator.

Donald and Hillary stepped on it and they both went straight down.

When the escalator stopped, they found themselves at the entrance to an expensive looking, very exclusive country club.

"This is what I'm talking about" whistled Donald.

Hillary's jaw dropped and she was just speechless for the first time in many months.

Choices, Choices, Choices

A couple of good looking twenty somethings ushered them into a red carpeted long hallway with tall and wide glass windows. On the outside, they can see the lush green of a golf course. To which Donald looked away, still vaguely remembering what happened earlier in the day.

They were then ushered into a door leading to a huge ballroom where lots of animated people were drinking and dancing and everywhere they looked they saw long time friends, acquaintances and other people they have worked with.

Everyone were happy, there was entertainment and everyone were in their formal evening wear and the moment their friends saw them, they ran and greeted them both and they talked about the good old days.

They listened to the orchestra and then they dined on steak, lobster, caviar and champagne.

Also present was their host, the devil, who surprisingly was very friendly, funny and the absolute life of the party.

Time flew by quickly and then the 24 hours were over and it was time to go back to the escalator. They said their goodbyes and off they went up.

When the escalator stopped, a somber looking St. Peter was waiting for them, "Today, it's heaven's turn".

In contrast to the last 24 hours, the next 24 passed so slowly.

Hillary said, "St. Peter was right, there are hardly anything or anybody familiar to us here" Donald nodded his head in agreement. And then they both shook their heads silently.

But while they are both a bit disappointed, everywhere they looked there were joyous and contented souls.

There were singing, there were dancing, there were the playing of musical instruments, clapping, jumping, lifting of hands, rejoicing and the children were all happily playing games and having a good time.

After what seemed like an eternity, St. Peter apoeared and said, "Now that you've spent a day down there and one here in heaven. Now you can decide where you want to stay for eternity. Remember, not everyone is afforded this last one chance. You should take your time to choose".

Moment of Truth

Both Hillary and Donald looked at each other, thought about it for a second, shook their heads and then they replied: "Well, we would never have guessed this in a million years, we've always known heaven is a delightful place, and it is. But I think you are correct, we will be more at home down below."

St. Peter shook his head, pushed on the same panel and they Hillary and Donald went down the escalator, for the last time, straight down to hell.

This time, when they arrived there was no one to greet them, there was no building, no red carpet, no music.

Now it's just one dark awful smelling place covered with smoke, fire, filth and garbage. They saw all their friends dressed like homeless people and hard at work.

The devil then comes over to the new arrivals, puts his arm around their shoulders, and says "Hillary,... Donald,... I've been expecting you."

"We,... don't understand," stammered both Donald and Hillary.

"Yesterday there was a country club, a golf course, a party, and we ate steak, lobster and caviar, we drank champagne, and everyone danced and had a great time. Now it's just a wasteland and everyone's working hard and miserable. What happened?"

Play With Fire And In The End The Devil Always Wins

The devil smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning, And today, you voted."

"Welcome to hell."

Vote wisely in November 2016!


Recommended Reading: Crooked or Dangerous?

August 19 World Photo Day

#WorldPhotoDay

Buzz Aldrin taking a selfie in 1966, NASA, Wikimedia Commons

In the social media world we live in today, photos are uploaded and shared over a billion times a day*.

So in essence it is kind of like a Photo Day Every Nanosecond.  In fact, way over a million selfies (self-portrait photos) are taken just from smart phones worldwide every single day.

But in spite of this, since 2009, August 19 has been set as the Official Word Photo Day by photographer Korske Ara.

Share Your World To The World

Today, people all over the planet celebrate this day by sharing a single photo with a simple purpose -- to share their world with the world.

History of World Photo Day

The humble beginnings of World Photo Day and the reason why this particular day was selected are posted at it's official website. Visitors can even browse through all the uploaded photos through the galleries of all the past World Photo Days.

And starting every August 19th of each year, everyone can upload and share their own Word Photo Day photo.

Hot Air Balloon, Turkey: Benh Lieu Song, Wikimedia Commons

Now the hard part is to choose just one photo per year. Good luck with that.

* Over 350 million photos are uploaded daily to Facebook
   Over 40 billion photos have been shared so far in Instagram
   Over 10 billion photos have been uploaded to Flickr

Other Trivial Numbers: 125 Amazing Social Media Statistics You Should Know In 2016

5 Ideas To Celebrate World Photo Day

World Photo Day @ Facebook

Free Slurpee Every July 11th

Slurpee Day (AKA 7-11 Day)

In case you haven't heard about it yet, then its about time you did.

Today (July 11th) is 7-11s birthday!

And today, since like forever 7-11 stores are giving away a small slurpee free to anyone who asks for one

So in case you haven't tried one yet, or if you just want to get one free (the cheapskate that you are), then just head on over your neighborhood 7-11 store and get yours today.

Hurry, you can get one free from 11 am to 7 pm, perfect for a hot summer day and to load up on sugar (if you need to).

Brainfreeze anyone?