Mario - Masters of Destiny

Are we masters of our destiny?

Can we simply choose what we want or our life choices are part of a higher plan by a master pulling strings?

Every day we have to deal with decisions, from the smallest thing as choosing a shirt colour to big decisions like choosing a university major. The way we approach each decision is a fruit of our past life experiences, but still there is always a question that hang above our heads: 

Is there something written for us?

Much of the world's history with supports the idea that our destiny is written can be traced to either religious or sociopolitical roots. For thousands of years the destiny of people  was controlled by religious dogmas and codes, social divisions and classes, or even simply by force. This reality cemented the way of thinking that this life is a prelude to a future more rewarding life.

Every one of these "powers", whether political or religious, began as organized movements against whoever was in charge of things. What a better example of rebellious behaviour than Jesus Christ in Roman controlled times?

 I smell a hoax...



Some people believe that we are reborn several times and this life is only one step towards a soul enlightenment, and your life here shows how high or low you are in this scale. 
But is it not fair to say that this is only a lighter way to build conformity on people? 

You're poor and face struggle every day? Don't worry, accept this as an important step towards a better next life.
Or better yet, how come most religions have the concept of hell and heaven if everybody relies on fate at the same time? Is 50% of the world already doomed to hell?

That's why if you stop and think for a while, you will realize that there's no such thing as fate, or written life. Well, at least nothing more than the social aspects of today, like birth, family, money, country and personal characteristics.

So, get up and go         smell the roses!

Tulio Tavares - 2 - Destiny

Are We Master
of
Our Destiny

Do you believe in destiny? Indeed, if someone asks you this question, the answer might change according to your mood, your experiences of life, if something either shocking or amazing has happened in your life, your religion or even if you ever had though about it. That's why this question remains to be a big issue.

Fate is a belief that someone or something has already premeditated and decided your whole life and every think that will happen was thought of beforehand, however we don't know the purpose or even can not understand the plan because it belongs to a "powerful being". Its whats a lot of people believe, whereas many others undermine this idea thinking that they are the center of theirs life and it's just them who can take over it. As John Lennon said "I just believe in me" in the song "God".

In my opinion, I don't believe in a destiny, but I believe in actions, ours lives just depends on us. What kind of decisions we'll take is  what will be changed, and we need to have the thought that always ours choices have consequences. It means that nothing is premeditate but it's a result of your behavior and actions.   

Therefore, to believe or not to believe? It's like a Shakespearean question, which makes it more difficult to be solved. Therefore the choice can just be done by yourself, taking into account your background and principles.

Despite of choices and beliefs, we should not care about the decision too much but make sure that our life will be worth at the end whatever the way is.

Gustavo-2-Destiny

Can we be masters of our destiny?

This is a really difficult question and one doubt that we'll always have in our mind. There are people who believe in their destiny. They believe that if something is wrong in their life, it is because they have made a mistake in the past, or they should have been patient in some point of their lives or  because they're not managing the things correctly. In contrast, there are many people who totally disagree with the idea that we humans can master our destiny. In many cases it's totally related with religion, especially in countries where the people are almost obligated to follow their faith.

In my opinion, yes, we can be the masters of our destiny. There are many good examples of the people around the world who really changed the way of their lives. Poor people, from low income families have changed their fate by themselves even when people said they couldn't do it. That's why I believe that everyone is able to choose whatever they want and wish to do. I could give names and talk about their life history and how they have changed their fate, but that text would be extensive. However, I can tell you that there is no secret or magic, everything depends on our actions and effort to reach our goals and dreams. We can be born at a poor family and become rich or also the opposite. We can be born with an amazing talent and lose it to the world or perhaps to the drugs like in many cases. We may have not had a good education but you can become a successful person. The truth is that anything is possible if you believe and make it happen. On the other hand, some people just live their lives without making any efforts, to me it means a routine life, and most of them don't do anything to change. Unfortunately, the worst thing is that they usually blame somebody else or the destiny for their failure.

Ipek-7-Destiny

                    DESTINY

Today , we were given such a difficult topic and it  is already difficult to explain even in my own language. The first question which comes to mind is what destiny is. Our religions, our traditions and  our characters form the way we understand destiny. In my opinion, we can explain it geometrically. There are two different kinds of circles which each of them has different powers.The smaller circle which is put inside of the bigger one ,reflects the power of us while the other one reflects the power of our creator. There are some elements that we can not change or decide on. For instance, we can not change our family or nationality. We can not live longer than the age which has been decided for us before we were born. These issues are out of our control. However, the creator offers different options for different problems. We can decide which major we want to study or the person who we will marry. Our destiny is consisted of our choices and other issues that we can not change and decide.

Another important thing is that God, Allah or whatever you call the creator, knows what we will choose from different alternatives which creator has offered us. Therefore this part is the other side of destiny. Some people find believing in destiny as a sign of weakness. This is just glorifying yourselves.Yes, we have power to live like a strong fighter despite difficulties in life. However, it is impossible to stay  so strong unless we accept misfortunes as a gift of creator. We all live for different reasons, but the thing that I am pretty sure is that we are sent here  for an exam so we need to show our gratitude to the creator  no matter how difficult lives we have.

 My mom has always said that if you have a really serious and unsolvable problem, this shows that you are more strong than the others and God loves you more than the others and wants to be sure about your love for him. So enjoy the every second of your life and be thankful for each beauty that you have in your life. However, each of our lives will come to an end so I recommend that you  live like you are going to die tomorrow and plan your life that you are going to live forever.

Vlad-8-Destiny

                                                                              
                 
What is destiny


Human beings  do not know who they are and what they do on the earth, destiny is covered with a blanket of  mystery. Somebody believes that things can't be changed, others consider themselves as masters of their destiny. It really depends on person's background and his society's traditions, customs and history.



  As history tells us belief in destiny was a very common thing at the ancient times. At that time  people believed in trees, animals and had tons of  different gods. There were even special people who had special abilities to tell destiny and predict future. And throughout the history it has survived until now.  Believing destiny has not disappeared. Still some of us believe in it and others hold a different opinion . So it looks  that such things  never change. It's just modified a  little.

It's also  very interesting to also pay attention to traditions of different nations. As culture has strong influence on humans beliefs. For example, gypsy women are thought to be able to predict destiny in many different ways. My country is very religious and people trust that nobody can avoid the fate , and we can find the same in many other countries.

 However our views change as we learn and gain knowledge. For example, we don't believe  in a saint cow.anymore We have something different now but it's not excluded that in a thousand years people we'll believe in something completely different, and they just smile while reading about us. But as it has been proved the more knowledge we get the more questions we have. That 's what I believe will never  change. That the way it works. In my opinion, believing destiny is one of thing that will exist as long as  questions about human issues exist.  It'll always have dual opinion which means that believe in destiny will exist forever.

Nick-9-Masters of Destiny

   LIFE: THE BIGGEST DECEPTION!

Life is based on decisions. We make choices that affects our life's both in short-term and long-term. We may choose to study as a student and have a good academic career, or we can choose to be lazy and aim our focus elsewhere instead of academical success. We can choose if we want to study abroad or in our own country, we may even choose not to study at all. Every people has to face with those kind of decisions and they suffer the consequences of those decisions. 

I don't believe human beings are normal, because they can't be normal. Nothing in this universe is normal, everything's existence is significant one way or another. All human beings are on this planet for a reason, they got their own goals and wants in this life. Some contribute to the universe in public ways while the others do it in a more subtle way, but eventually all of them helps each other and everyone else. So my question is are we really able to control our life's or is this a trick of a greater force in order to prevent us from rebelling against it. Because, as you know, humans don't like to be controlled by any other being/beings. 

Answer to my question is currently unknown  but maybe someday we will learn the answer or we never will. This subject can drive one crazy if he or she will think about it for too long so solution is easy, just live your life and always do the best you can so you will never say "I could have done better" instead you will say "I done my best, the rest is fate". We may never know about our destinies but I'm sure that we have got the spirit and the power to do what we have to do and I think we shouldn't question the rest because the answer is far beyond our understanding.

Mario - Procrastination

PROCRASTINATING MUCH?

In the Technology Age, procrastination is king.

Shouldn't be the other way around?

Instant messages, file exchanges, worldwide connection, faster communications, faster decision making, faster everything! This is the premise of the Technology Age, the Age of Information, where we have evolved hundreds of years only in the last 25 years.

But in the middle of all this revolution, people procrastinate now like never before.

For every step advancing in this fast-paced world, there is a retreat to a lazier world, where we can leave things for later since technology makes everything faster. Why do the work now if we can do it more quickly later; after all, we have a lot to do on the Internet !

Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, WordPress and You Tube

 The Social Network: A wolf in sheep's clothing?

One of the most revolutionary creations of the Internet Era is the Social Networks, a congregation of people sharing common interests, exchanging ideas and literally experiencing globalization.

But then something gets in the middle of this beautiful ideal: 

the Human Nature. Some personality traits compel people to dive into the Internet to relieve their impulses. The vain will waste time uploading pictures of himself, the curious will waste time finding out about somebody else's life, the angry will state political statements, the addict will spend money on online games, and so on and so forth.

That's why we have to revise the simplistic notion that technology will solve everything by itself. We also have to evolve as humans, we have to be better than we are today.

Lazy humans in the futuristic Pixar animation Wall-e: is this the future for us?

Gustavo-1-procrastination

Procrastination Is the Thief of Time

Many people don`t know what procrastination means or they have never seen or heard of this word before. However, unfortunately many people do it without knowing. Nowadays we have lots of tasks to do and troubles to figure out. That's why  reports are always late, managers are furious and customers are waiting impatiently.

But what does it mean to procrastinate? It means that we can do the things now, or today, but we postpone them to tomorrow, or perhaps to next week. For sure everything will be accumulated and we`ll be forced to put them off again and again, and of course you`ll never have time to do everything on time.  However, if we don`t procrastinate we can manage and avoid this bad habit. How can we overcome procrastination? It`s a good idea to do everything as soon as possible without complaining and do your best because there are many people like that, so it`s an opportunity for you to stand out and stay a step ahead of your colleagues.

Therefore, if you have never seen or heard this word, or even if you have, and do it, it`s the time to stop putting the things off which you can really do now. Sometimes it`s not easy to manage and avoid it, but you should only postpone things which are not really required to be done today. Don`t forget, time is money and your costumers are waiting.

AI

       ROBOT AS A SPOUSE

Taking care of children, obeying the rules,dealing with household chores, cooking..!All these things we have to deal with everyday are too much for human beings. Robots and technology are our saviours at this point. Even though we don't realize their help in our daily life, they are as important as breathing nowadays. Just look at the kitchen. The oven, the dishwasher and other electronic devices..Look at the transportation system. You use your car to go to work, you use plane to go another part of the world, you use phone to call your friends and family no matter how far they are from you.They all save time and provide a comfortable life. So why don't we think about robots in other parts of our lives; for example as a spouse or a best friend or more. We should break the rules in technology. More advanced forms of technological devices must be developed. Especially robots in human form are a must .Your heart may be broken  by your best friend. Your husband or wife may cheat on you. Nobody around you is perfect. You build up defences so that nothing can hurt you. You open your heart and give them a piece of you. Nevertheless they always mess you up. You can not change them, but if  you respect yourself, you can change the people around you. Contrary to human beings, robots can be as perfect as you dream.Therefore they are the best creatures that you can give a piece of you. Think about that you marry a robot! Moreover think about that you have chances to determine the qualifications of robots. You can create whatever you want. Unlike other stupid husbands, it can help you with household chores.Unlike other wives, they do not nag at you. You don't need to worry about its death because you can charge them. Its lifetime depends on you. A perfect love! Everybody deserves to have a perfect love like in fairy tales. However, it is a madness to waste your time searching for a perfect love that have never been on earth before, so give robots a chance to make you feel like a princess.

Mario - Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, what's up with that?

Never mind the movies, the comic books, the idealized new

world where robots will help us, what is really going on is:

Some people trying to create an intelligent being, 

and a lot of jackasses cashing on the idea.

 Yep, that's exactly what you're thinking, while high ranking scientists with stellar budgets are pursuing the creation if artificial intelligence, there are a whole joint force trying to market possible products in a less "noble" way.

The latest innovations in this market are the social-interactive robots, made to interact with humans that apparently gave up their own humanity, to say the least.

Although there are in fact many good uses of robotic technology today, like in prosthetic medicine, space missions or heavy industries, it looks like we are heading towards an idea that an intelligent robot could take the place of a human in the most humanistic of the positions, the human relationships. 

So, "until death do us apart" or "until the dead battery do us apart"?  
 

Nick-8- AI

  ROBOTS: FRIENDS OR FOES?

Do we want to have robots that can think? For me I don't want to give them the privilege to create and develop ideas of their own. Technology is helpful for humans but still I think it should have a limit. We already got PC's and android cell phones and countless counterparts of that sort. But we are the ones who control them at the moment. They are our slaves, we use them to explore space, we send them into wars in order to prevent human causalities and we use them to make our daily life's easier. I ask you, what would happen if they had emotions like us? what would happen if they were able to think about what's going on in the world? the answer for that question  is simple. Eventually they will understand the order of this social system and their place in this order. The lowest level in the system in any circumstance, the most  expendable and replaceable thing that has got no rights and no freedom. Created just to obey and serve. Surely they will not like this idea if they were able to feel emotions. They would hate their masters and would want revenge and justice. What would happen then? a robot uprising? what would happen when they understand that they are more powerful than humans? they would want to claim this planet as their own and they would feel the most basic emotion: Greed. They would be hungry for power and they would want more until they claim everything.




Developing an AI with the ability to think would be catastrophic. It won't be just, it is a decision against the ethics of all human beings. Why let the robots think while using them as our slaves? this would only end in one way. Give them the ability to think and this would be their greatest punishment and their ever-lasting torture. We like to feel that we have an aim in life. Everybody wants to contribute to humanity and make a difference. What would robots do when they feel this emotions? they would cry(if it's possible) and understand that they don't have any goal in this life. They may even try to mate with humans in order to have children so that they would feel more like human. They would envy humanity and they would be jealous of us. Those mortal creatures who made them and give them brains so they can suffer. They would be our eternal Nemesis and since they aren't bound to this world by years(unlike us) they would eventually rule over us.

 


With the robot Nico, who actually recognized itself in a mirror, are we going to a better future? or are we creating our own ends?

Vlad-7- Artificial Intelligence

                                               Artificial Intelligence

The most interesting and at the same time dangerous things that are expected to be developed and researched in the future is Artificial Intelligence. Robots, that’s the first thing that immediately comes to my mind,and all the movies that show robots as a disaster when people lose control of them, and they start thinking independently. In my opinion it’s the point we should avoid. Machines shouldn’t get A.I.

It would be fair to state that machines or robots or whatever we call them, may be very useful in the future. I would even say that in some areas we will not be able to do tasks without robots. It is not a  secret that scientists get closer  to outer space and ocean depths every year, and working there will always be very dangerous for people. That’s where  robots can play their role. Natural disasters also bring me to the idea that robots can be used there to extinguish fires, to work in radioactive environment where people cann't access without endangering their health.     

Probably we should think of them like as a part of technological progress that’ll happen whether we want it or not. So we should take it as a part of this progress but be very careful.       



      

Ugly people United!

Ugly people have less success in life?

Well, according to every single published study, good looking people indeed are more successful in life! So, run to the hills, ugly people that are reading this! That beautiful and not-so-intelligent colleague of yours will probably get that promotion instead of you...

But seriously, what defines Beauty??
Besides that "Greek statue" notion of beauty, the truth is that it is complex to define who is beautiful and who is not. In a lot of ways beauty loses to charisma every time, in social or professional situations, where personality goes a long way.

An ugly good speaker can outshine a beautiful shy person, a hard worker can catch up with someone that has always things delivered in their hands without sweating. 

So, finally, if you are one of the beautiful persons reading this, be aware that your looks alone can take you somewhere, but you also need to have some substance to sustain that status.

And for you, ugly people, don't panic, because charm, charisma and personality also make a difference, not even mentioning intelligence and talent. Take the example of French actor Vincent Cassel, far from being handsome, and married to French goddess Monica Bellucci. Personality indeed goes a long way!

Ipek-5-Good Looking People

             

Are good looking people  more successful in life? Before giving an answer to this question, we need to explain what it means to us. For many people, being good looking means having a beautiful or handsome face, muscular body and so on.Therefore, we see the Hollywood stars or Victoria Secret modals as  figures of beauty. Contrary to this common belief, this term  also contains being kind, and having good manners. The way you talk and the ability of explaining yourself is also important for being good looking. Just look at the Hollywood stars. They become stars not just with the help of heir body or their beauty. They also need to be talented and educated in the field of acting. Look at Victoria Secret models, they are all known all over the world. However, they  need to be well educated and know lots of languages and the most important thing is that  they need to expand their knowledge in different fields.Thus, just being handsome or beautiful is not enough and not the only key of success. Success is a combination of your good manners, your academic background and self confidence which we call "being good looking". We can also take a look at the background of good looking people like Viggo Mortensen, Audrey Hepburn or ordinary people who have successful academic background. They are more successful than others because they know how to combine their skills and turn their beauty into their advantage. Moreover, good looking people generally have more chances to find a good job than others because their manners which reflect self-confidence  have an important effect on employers. You may have a university degree   or have a perfect academic background; however, if you do not know how to use it efficiently, you can not get the job. All in all, we can not minimize the meaning of good looking. When we look at it deeply and understand its meaning correctly, we could definitely say that being good looking is an important advantage for achieving success.

Nick-7-good looking people's success

I believe looks effect people's career. Researches suggest that a good looking person earns 5%-10% more money then average looking people during a lifetime. Attractive people tend to be better employees and they attract more attention and can sell more products than average and below-average looking people. Employers choose better looking people during job interviews which increases the luck of the one who looks better. Some says this is pure discrimination, bit actually this is just business. For example a TV broadcaster must be attractive in order to attract his/her audience, a salesman must be homely enough in order to present himself to his customers. Researches also suggest that ome companies pay more to better looking employees,which thought as another way of discrimination, but actually better looking people contributes to company more than the average looking people.

My advice for the average looking and below-average looking people is that they should find occupations where looks doesn't matter a lot. Find your own strengths and weaknesses and use them to find yourself the perfect job.

Vlad - 6 - sb-else/yourself

                                                       Whom would you choose to be

We have another hard topic from the teacher that we have to deal with. Who I want to be? I feel normal being myself, actually! But the task is the task. This way I should analyze what is good or bad in being yourself and somebody else.

On the one hand, I completely disagree to be somebody else. How come can you even dream of being another person! I can agree that there are many people who are very famous, and all others are jealous about their achievements, but the point is that you see only one part of their lives. When you look deep into other peoples lives, you would se not only the good things that they hqve, but also every negative thing they have to deal with in their lives, and that part of somebody else’s life might not be so attractive. Even if the person you would like to be is rich and very famous.

On the other hand, if I had a chance to become somebody else for certain period of time, I would try to get a life as a  Russian peasant in 19th century. Then I would try a pirate’s destiny somewhere in Caribbeans. But all that would be about experience. I would ask for guaranties that after all these experiments I would remain myself.       

Nick-6- Somebody else/Yourself

            BLACK AND WHITE

I wouldn't want to be anyone except myself. I believe that the world is not black and white,  instead all of us are mixtures of those. It is dangerous to be somebody else, they may look good from outside but inside they can be very mean. We can't judge the  book from it's cover. We can't judge the book even if we read it all. Book is a book, and it's contents change in time.For example think the books that you have read more than once, they must have changed every time you read them. We can't judge people either, because -just like books- their contents change in time too. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad; one of these aspects are dominant, but this doesn't means that the other is vanished. Now this leads to my most important reason; Why be somebody else while you can be yourself? their life is not black and white either, maybe even worse than mine own. I think it's meaningless to be somebody else while everybody's life's keep changing. I would prefer my own adventures and changes if I had to choose between me and somebody else. Because my own personality is beyond any price that anyone can offer to me. I can change it however I want, I can upgrade it I can do whatever I want with it. My personality is my greatest treasure and I won't trade that to anybody else. 

Ipek-4-sb-else/yourself

                                               BE PROUD OF  BEING YOURSELF

People sometimes complain about some bad qualities they have. We sometimes want to be like our best popstar or one of our friends who is taller or  more beautiful than us. We sometimes imitate the people that we admire. However, if I had a chance to be someone else, I would definitely choose being myself because I have an amazing life which is full of lots of success and which many people admire. Firstly, nobody is perfect.Therefore everybody should accept their imperfect sides.Moreover, you can not see the beautiful sides of other creatures around the world without loving yourself. Finally, to want to be someone else reflects the lack of self esteem and when you choose this option, you take a huge risk.

To begin with, nobody is perfect. God is the only perfect one. Each creature has its own beauties. Therefore, perceiving other people more beautiful or better than you is the worst thing that you could do to yourself.We should see the good sides of our body and character instead of complaining about the sides that we don't like.I don't  mean that we should never change ourselves.Of course we need to improve the bad saspects of our character to live happily with others.The thing that I support is that each creature carries a piece of beauty of God. Hence, we need to learn to see just these sides and live happily.

Moreover, loving yourself is the main thing in your life. It is impossible to love other creatures and see all beauties in nature without loving yourself  because you get used to finding bad sides and criticize everything. My recommendation is that start with loving yourself and enjoying all beauties around you.

Last but not least, self esteem is one of the keys in success and loving yourself reflects your self respect. You can not improve your career without self esteem because you spend all your efforts to correct yourself instead of adding new successes to your life. However, the worst part of choosing being another person is that you can not know somebody else deeply, you know them just the way they look from outside.

To put it in a nutshell, just be proud of being yourself and count your blessings because each beauty that you have is a perfect present that is given by God.

CARMEN-4-I WISH LIVED IN PEACE

I WISH FOR THE RETURN OF PEACE

The city where I live, Tampico, was a peaceful city where nothing happened; journalists had trouble to find some news for their papers, but nowadays, this is completely different. The violence of the drug trafficking has reached us. Every day we hear about shootings on streets and acts of extreme cruelty against people who work for different  drug gangs or against Innocent citizens. The kidnapping is usual on Tampico streets, young men are in danger because these gangs need people that work for them and young women are in danger too because they rape or kidnap them to get money. There is no law on streets and the citizens look like they are alone against the crime. We can't get out of our homes at night or travel by car because it is dangerous. I wish I could live in peace, not be afraid to be assaulted or kidnapped. I wish  Tampicos' citizens could regain peaceful and serenity that we used to have.