Re. TED Talk Why Google Glass

 For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

Now they’ve done it. They’re literally shoving it into our faces. We are going to become cyborgs who are powered by machines.

This video is more than product placement. If TED talked about the iPad Mini, that'd be product placement. This is promoting a new lifestyle. One where all the cheesy 80's sci fi movies come to life, us in the future, we become a weird cyborg thing and listening to the automated voices against our better judgement.

“We don’t need this”, you might say. But when the iPad was born just a couple of years ago, we all made fun of the name said "we don't need this". Look at us now. What about cell phones? In 2000, would we, in our wildest dreams, have imagined that a cell phone could replace a camera, video recorder, gaming consul, mp3 player (which weren’t even around back then), TV, and can even surf the internet – wherever you are! No, we didn’t. As a kid born in the early 90’s, I saw the changes first hand. I remember the windows DOS system, and thought it was the best thing in the entire world. I used to hold my dad’s Nokia 3210 and wonder how it can do so much. I loved that windows 98 laptop, we spent a small fortune on it too. Floppy disks, VCR, Walkman…and now fastforward to today: I hold a 32GB microSD card in my hand speechless.

I remember flipping open my first cellphone and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. I remember when 1TB is unthinkable to purchase, and 1TB being portable is something the next generation may get around to inventing. But here we are, 10 years later, arriving in the future and staring at the second axial age in the face.

What is this Second Axial Age you ask? Well I’m quite fortunate to have the privilege of listening to Dr. Vervaeke speak at TEDxUofT this past Saturday. He explained the primary axial age to be a time in ancient Greece, when humankind first discovered thought and philosophy, math and science. These concepts completely changed human thinking for the upcoming thousands of years. And now, we are seeing a shift in our thinking yet again. With the rapid changes in the ways we communicate with each other, the ways we learn, obtain information, the way we work, the structure of society…It’s all based around the computer and the internet.

So, back to the future.

The Google glass marks the beginning of the end of this revolution. 20 years ago, we were pretty much electronics-free. We had radio, TV, maybe a Walkman. Those are used for recreational purposes, maybe some news. Not even remotely close to what we have now. But growing up right alongside technology is scary. You never know what the next big thing is, and what you were once familiar with is now null and irrelevant. Think about it. We are the last generation that would use a floppy disc or teach our grandparents how to use a computer. And eventually, there won’t be another person on earth that isn’t reliant on technology in their daily routines.

After electronics become body jewellery for us (Google Glasses, Blackberry concept phone Empathy), I hope humankind is smart or mature enough to draw a line. I like to keep electronics on the outside of my skin.

A couple of days ago, my flatmate complained to me about being stuck in traffic for 40min after the Victoria Day fireworks with no phone signal. I itched to roll my eyes and say “Oh NO, whatever shall we do” in a sarcastic voice but stopped myself. So this is what a lot of humanity has come to? A little black (or white) device that we cannot last for an hour without?

Well I feel myself draining away. My mind is ebbing away from me, my thoughts less sharp. That is what you get when you have the luxury of capturing everything yet revisiting nothing. Your days become a blur in front of a screen, as the world outside the window look duller and duller, whether that’s from the pollution or the brightness of the screen I cannot tell. Welcome to my generation. They say that only 90’s kids remember the 90’s. Yeah, we grew up with the change, we don’t take the 90’s as granted. We take the history seriously, and the future even more seriously. That’s because it's our past and future you’re talking about. 

Loss

No pains, no gains. Loss is a part of that. A part of the pain.

Loss is ingrained into us. We lost our wings, tails, claws, and fangs through our long journey of evolution. We shed them and traded for bipedalism and opposable thumbs and larger cranial cavities to hold larger brains. We lose as our species goes through time and as each individual travels through time. We lose therefore we gain.

It is easier to observe loss than experience it. I for one have a very difficult time giving things up. My room isn’t messy because I don’t clean. It’s because I refuse to clean, and I want to hoard everything and lock them up so these memories don’t slip away through my fingers. Many of us do the same thing. We store little pieces of string or bottles. We treasure the broken, physical fragments of the past, dreading any possibility of it being taken away from us. But loss is a way of moving on. It’s a way of gaining.

By losing my determined childhood dreams of being a Kung Fu master, I realized I could become a medical illustrator.

By losing the time I could’ve spent with my cousins, I excelled in school instead.

By coming to Canada, I lost my best friend. But I made new best friends, right here.

By moving to Vancouver, I lost my buddies I’ve known for 8 years. And that was when I realized how alone one can be.

By coming to UTSC, I realized I can have a crew of guy best friends and still be okay with it.

With my decision to come to St. George, I realize how far I’ve traveled and how independent I can be.  

To me, life is about losing what should have been lost. Instead of drying and preserving the dead memories, they should be buried in their rightful place along the path. If everything has to be carried on my back, eventually things get to heavy and I will no longer be able to pocket new experiences.

And of course we never stop losing. Will today’s goals have the same fate as the once indestructible dreams of childhood? Loss is one thing people like to remain almost unrealistically optimistic about. We never anticipate it happening, and we take ages to recover from it. As the Dali Lama once put it, “[we] live as if [we are] never going to die, and then die having never really lived”. Same goes for other things in life. We live as if we’re never going to lose anything, and then regretting what we have not done. One day we’re going to lose our grandparents, our parents won’t be around to support us and our friends might drift apart.

I am not being negative, these are real things that will very likely happen to each one of us, yet we go on never acknowledging the possibility. Are there people who never said “I love you” you their parents? Are there people who waste away at a job they hate, only to realize they never made an effort to make the real dreams happen. Rather to have lived and lost than to missed and regret.

Once upon a time, when I didn’t understand loss, I was afraid of it. I was afraid of losing a toy, a bracelet, a friend. But as the world flows around you, as the apathetic people on the streets pass you by, you start to realize that loss is not a big deal. Many things you have never owned, but to progress is to let go of the attachment that is holding you down.

Reminiscence is nice, but as I round the corner to the end of my teenage years, the things I remember most about life so far are my losses. My losses and things I have gained in return. So I never want to stop letting go of things I don’t even know I’m grasping. I wish that I never stop losing.

Harry — yer a wizard

The decision to reread Harry Potter has not been an easy one. To pick up a book that was put down a decade ago, and still expect the same magic is, to say the least, unrealistic. On one hand I simply want to leave the magic alone. But I simply can’t. It’s too fascinating, too tempting.

I am scared that my 19-year old brain is not going to appreciate it the same way my 9-year old brain once did. I’m afraid that the magic disappeared years ago when I was busy growing up. I’m afraid I’ll ruin the magic by re-reading it. I’m scared my sick, fanfiction-ridden brain is going to skew this children’s series.  

I picked up the book with utmost hesitation. Several sleepless hours later, Harry left Diagon Alley, and the thing I thought about most was how woefully inadequate the Chinese translation of the book was. Honestly. The subtlety and the flow of writing…well it’s not completely lost in translation, but many things suddenly made sense. Her puns, stalagmite and stalactite, and all these little things had to be footnoted, because they simply don’t work in other languages.

Throughout the first 4 chapters, I had the weirdest sensation that I am cross-referencing two books. All the nitty gritty things I’ve never understood. I can pinpoint all the details that were poorly translated. Well, once you read a book 14 times, you tend to remember things.

It felt like meeting a friend you have not seen in 10 years. You’re unsure if you grew up differently, if the friend is still the same. Or maybe your own misconceptions are altering your perceptions of said friend. Whatever the case, you really wonder if you guys can remain as friendly and close as before. You pray that the friend matured the same way you did. And that is the magic of literature. It’s not simply a preaching of whatever is on the page. There is a deeper interaction that is a combination of the readers’ minds and the characters’ actions. Interpretation is half of a book’s content, and you can definitely read much, much deeper into Rowling’s characters the second time around.

It’s only been 5 chapters into the book, and it’s still as good as before, if not better. So I simply smile and hope that when I revisit this book in 20, 40, 50 years, I’ll still love it as if I was 9 again. 

Come What May

Yes, come what may. That is the kind of balls our Glee writers need to grow. And soon. Yes that was a very negative comment against the “OMG we love everybody of all races, sizes, and sexual orientations” show. But please allow me to elaborate.

After Season Two, episode 16, the episode depicting the first “Kliss” (Kurt + Blaine kiss), the US viewing on airdate dropped by 2 million. Two million viewers followed my several million more in the subsequent episodes. Why is that? Well first of all, the data is obtained from Wikipedia, so they may not be reliable. But also, watch this video and you’ll see.

Kurt and Blaine has a perfect relationship just like any other individual having a difficult time getting over their ex. And a comment so kindly pointed out if it were Rachel and Finn they would’ve most definitely shared a kiss. So Murphy? Are you afraid? And this is the reason why you are displeasing both sides. Say if the world was, hypothetically speaking, split into homophobes and homophiles. You have lost your homophobe audience the second you introduced the potential of having homosexual couples on the show. SO after you weed out the homophobes, you are left with the people who stuck with you for the sweet couples who have been through hell and back. We want to see the couple happy, and of course, some conflict is required, but generally we all want to see these two poor souls finally getting the heaven they deserve. But time and time again, you have disappointed your viewers.

Christmas episode of Season Three, a Klaine (Kurt + Blaine pairing, for those of you who don’t speak the language) scene was cut out. And upon viewing the footage, we see a sweet gift exchange and then a friendly hug afterwards. A HUG? Seriously? That’s what a couple shares after receiving a RING? Granted it’s made out of gum wrappers, but it is a sweet, sweet gesture. 

Last episode of Season Three, after the group successfully secured their title as national showchoir champions, every couple shared a kiss. We see Finn sweeping Rachel off of her feet, we see Mr. Shuster and Emma, we see Sam and Mercedes, hell we see Brittany and Santanna gave a peck on each others’ lips. I know this sounds feminist, but honestly, this world tries too hard to please men who have to little blood to power two organs. Nobody thought that the majority of people who watch Glee would be GIRLS? And that GIRLS, like guys, enjoy certain things like a homosexual couple of the opposite gender. C’mon, use your brains will you?

So from this day forth, I will stop watching Glee altogether, because it is clear that by trying so very hard to please everybody, they end up pleasing nobody. And I am finished putting up with the congeries of mindless drama just for a crappy Klaine scene. And a Santanna song. Santanna is cool. 

Glee found its niche by wiggling into the hearts of the misfits, the ones bullied, the outsiders who can only watch social interactions from far away. But they then left the motto and navigated to another place. A place where the daughter of a poor lunchlady can afford pink dresses and matching heels for a choir performance. A place where flat characters like Sugar and Joe (the spoiled girl and the guy who won the glee project) exist because the directors cannot be bothered with a little more development. A world where people randomly teleport back to Mckinley because they have to sing a number and then fly back to Yale, because that makes sense. The “accepting” world where the lens of the camera filters for an audience not watching. The place where misfit teens once found solace is indirectly discriminating against the very people they “accept”. Does anyone else see a problem with this logic?

I started watching Glee because it delivered well. It embodies what I believe in, and the build up to the Kliss was climactic, orgasmic, and sensational. But maybe that was just the climax. Things fell and eventually flatlined. Now what I see is not Glee. It’s another high school musical with too much drama to handle and too many characters to keep track of. It's indirect judgement, indirect censorship, and subliminal messages for our morals. Save some money and call it off will you? Donate the funds to the “It all gets better” foundation or something. I’m sure that’ll get you better press and you'll at least finish in a positive light. 

I'm not going to lie. I love Glee, but the show finished after season three. It's now a new show, called Plastic. With plastic faces and plastic feelings and artificial stories and fake relationships. Plastic does not bring about glee. It just feels dead and cold and cliche.

So. Goodby Glee. Come what may, but I will love you until my dying days.