How I feel now!

I feel very happy and light this time of the semester because at last I reached the end of my studying commetments for this year.  Yes I still have many years of studying ahead, but it does not matter, at least I have few months of rest back home. I am pretty sure that I will miss this class and ELI in general. It is my first year away from home and everything I learned here along with the people I met will remain dear to me.

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory

Daniel Kahneman gave one of the most brilliant talks about happiness in TED. He explained that, many scholars did many research about what is happiness, yet no one actually succeeded in giving it an accurate definition.  In his talk he explained that happiness is divided into two parts, which is responsible for why people have different views about happiness. One is the experiencing self (happy in your life) and the other one is remembering self (happy about your life). According to Kahneman, people are more often relying on remembering self and neglecting the experiencing self.  The interesting fact about experiencing self it is all about the ending.  People would decide if they were happy or not in accordance with how the memory ended. If it has a pleasant ending then it is a happy moment and if not then it is an unhappy memory.

Interpretation 2001: A Space Odyssey

I base my review on a site called “Kubrick 2001: The space odyssey explained.

http://www.kubrick2001.com/

First part: Begins at Down

This part represents the first man existence in the earth “apes”; over the last four million B.C years. It describes how the first mankind used to live in earth; it was a very simple life until one day a powerful force entered earth solar system near Jupiter and planted a monolith just next to where apes live.

Second part:  The Dawn of Man

In this part of the movie, it describes the morning when apes woke up and found the planted monolith and their reaction to this new strange instrument.  At the beginning they showed some fear that transformed to curiosity and later on to courage represented by touching the monolith. The emotions apes experienced were the reason to man’s revolutionary inventions over the years.  Their first invention as portrayed by the movie was the “tool”. Years went by and apes revolved to the present human kind form.   Human kind became very advanced, civilized, rational, and scientific creatures.  This advancement leads them to create space ships designed after the first “tool” invention. However, the movie also highlighted human vulnerability when he is out of his elements.  This was pictured through showing that man has no control over gravity. Here he learns how to walk, eats baby food, and has toilet training.  The purpose of this was to point out that man who is the master in earth is only a child in the space.  In this part also the movie shows that there is a secret discovery, which reveled later on to be the old “monolith”.

 

Jupiter Mission

Apparently this is the third section of the movie and the partial theme in here is to discuses one of man’s invitations. It is Hal 9000 computer, which is in the human form. Hal 9000 has studied human’s brain and central nervous system.  Therefore, Hal 9000 tried to take control over his master.  Hall 9000 made a mistake by predicting a failure in the spaceship’s antenna.  So when the crew found out about this mistake they decided to put him off. The battle started between Hal 9000 and the crew, which ended up by killing Hal 9000. 

Beyond the Infinite

He is alone now in the space without his tools; he has to face the space alone and what lies behind it “supernatural powers”.  Here man was able to see his unavoidable future; the final challenge every man has to face, death.  The hotel room scene was about the man or “Dave in future” who is having his last super.  The man accidently hit the glass of wine, so the glass fall down and broke. The glass and wine are representation of human’s body and spirit. The body dies however the spirit remains life for infinite.  The big question in this last part of the movie is questioning human being who is so weak without his tools.  His evolution made him powerful and advanced with technology, which eventually tried to take control over him and destroy him. Now without his tools, man is very weak and has to die. Yet, the spirit of the dying body is infinite has its own evolution cycle.  That was represented by the child-star in the movie.

What I think of 2001: A Space Odyssey

There is an expression says "not my cup of tea" and same thing goes for the 2001: A Space Odyssey Movie. I am fully aware that, this movie has received collectively high appraises from leading crowds in their fields and it succeeded to establish a huge fan base of its own. However, my personal drawbacks to the movie are basically: its slow pace; its reliance on the visual affects scenery more than having dialogue scenes, which I believe could helped a lot in understanding the theme of the film. Actually without reading many reviews of the movie, I would not be able to figure out what it was all about.

Darwinian's Theory of Beauty

Denis Dutton in his TED Talks presented an argument about beauty. In his speech he maintained that beauty is not subjective matter or “ in the eye of the beholder” as we used to believe. And also it is not a culturally conditioned eye of the beholder, as the academia likes to think about it.  It goes back to evolution origins of human being; our ancestors passed on the genes of what is to be considered beautiful.  According to his description of beauty it is not limited to the physical appearance or nature but it broadens to embrace music, art, and skilled human actions. Therefore, this theory is justifying the universal conformity of beauty that is shared by different nations and cultures.

Bill Reid Gallery trip

The trip to the museum that displays Bill Reid art was short, but educational.  I can’t say that I am into arts, however, after visiting this gallery I admire Bill Reid.  He is a person half white half Haida, and used to be ashamed of this fact.  Yet, he was willing to get over this hardship, change his heritage to a fine art that speaks to millions and fill them with wonder and respect. When you go to the gallery, look to the displayed arts, and listen to the explanation of what they represent, you can’t stay neutral or indifferent.  With time, you find yourself curious and want to learn more about how they have lived and how they have changed everything they touch to a wonderful art.  I was thinking about this: who would really care about a tree in a bush? those people, regardless of the simplicity of their living, they were paying attention to everything around them. They have transformed household items, trees, and nature in general to a spectacular art. I think the fascinating part of their art is that their artistic skills weren’t plain but a transmission of their legacy and culture. It was their simple, and yet effective way to keep their tradition alive for the years to come.

This trip helped me also to see how easily we structure stereotype about others, or how little we really care to know about each other. I remember when I first knew about the aboriginal and saw their pictures, the way they look like and the way they lived I just thought they are savage people with a rudimentary life. 

However, after this visit I think the indigenous are the ones who made the history of British Columbia. Their amazing crafts and rich heritage is undeniable reality; it is what they made and left is distinguishing the Northwest Coast region and set it apart. So I feel in spite of the neglecting, suffering, and disrespecting to their humanity, they have succeeded to leave great achievement that will remain a significant witness of their civilization. And just as Bill Reid described in his documentary film “Totem”, “human beings must die anyway” and in the Haida case, they might be destroyed as tribal system or communities but their heritage will stay behind marking their existence forever.

Another Bad Experience with "CIC"

This post is to support Chanida's bad experience with the Immigration & Citizenship public service (CIC). It was important for me to see someone from the Immigration to get full and proper explanation about the improper visa application payment fees reason I get every-time I mail my application.  

So I took the address from Chanida and I went to (CIC) hoping that I will talk with different person, and I will receive better treatment. I took a number from the que system, and waited for my number to come up in the que screen.  I did not wait for long, my number showed in the screen, so I went to the counter where my number was showing. Nobody was there, I stood in front of the empty counter in anticipation, and within few seconds a male employee came out looking down at his cellphone. Sharply he asked me what is your number? I said two. He did not greet me, or looked at me, he was texting or playing with his cell phone all the time I was setting in front of him. His questions were short, sharp, impatient and he was angry.  I could not understand why he was angry and disgusted.  

I assume the whole meeting took less than five minutes. I did not benefit any thing from him at all, I explained my problem to him and instead of showing empathy and explain what exactly went wrong, he was continuously pointing out that my method of payment was wrong. So I decided to leave because I knew that he is not going to help me with any thing.  I can't say this type of attitude did not upset me at that time, but later on when I gave it good thought,  I felt this person is one of many people, who do jobs they do not like.  This type of people are usually unproductive, frustrated, and superior in their actions.   I feel sorry for him. I am sure if he does something he enjoy, he will be better employee, and better person.