Non-practice

Joker is a part of life

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Două filme - Joker + Parasite

A lot of times, when I think of Joker (2019), I consider it a strange person in a normal world.

It might be wrong.

Perhaps Joker fits perfectly in this world.

Perhaps weirdness is a state, we are all weird.

Joking looks bad, while it does bring happiness it’s also considered aggressive.

But, perhaps, this, too, is part of life.

The thing with joking is that it changes the system.

You laugh at the system, the system moves from A to B. It causes a big shift.

One step in changing an issue is acknowledging that this is, really, an issue.

But when you laugh, two things happen:

  • You acknowledge there is an issue.
  • You either accept it, and it shifts, or you refuse it, and, again, it shifts.

Laughing changes the system.

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Aer curat

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Christian Kortum - Welcome Winter

Latest news: Am stat în Londra un an și în București, cumulat, vreo 17.

Calitatea aerului e un motiv important pentru care nu m-aș mai întoarce în niciunul din aceste orașe, aș căuta o localitate cu aer cât mai puțin poluat.

De văzut un articol care m-a pus pe gânduri:

Better air is the easiest way not to die.

Se vede / simte poluarea?

În Londra nu simți niciun aer murdar, nu e praf. Chestia e că, din ce am citit în presă în perioada respectivă (2015-2016) sunt noxe foarte rele, mai ales pe străzile turistice (Oxford street, de exemplu). La ei problema e doar în mică măsură dată de mașini, au făcut multe lucruri în direcția asta (autobuze ECO, centru pe cât posibil liber de multe tipuri de trafic), cât de poluarea adusă peste apă din Franța și Germania. Import de poluare.

La București, din ce-am citit, e mult mai mult praf, în afară de noxe care nu se simt.

Eu sunt mai insensibil, nu doar cu aerul, ci așa, în general, nu prea bag lucrurile în seamă.

Stau acum la Năvodari, destul de aproape și de mare și de canal și un lac, nu e pădure, dar nici multă poluare, din ce m-am mai uitat pe hărți Năvodariul stă bine la partea asta.

În prezent, Netul în zone „de la țară” nu merge cum îmi doresc, și depind mult de asta. Și la Năvodari se mai oprește curentul, mai pică Netul, dar 99% din timp lucrurile sunt bine, și asta e suficient, în prezent.

Iau în calcul stabilirea într-o locație de la țară, mai depind însă și de accesul la bunuri și servicii, și aici e ceva mai complicat să ai și pădure și Carrefour și spital.

Așadar, nu „simt” poluarea, dar din ce-am citit ea există. Să pleci din București la Londra, asta da trecere din lac în puț. :))

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Entrelancer vs. Corpobusiness

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my favorite photo, Turkey

I’m always surprised to see the big differences between small business entities (entrepreneur, freelancer) vs. large ones (large companies, corporations).

In a large corporation, at some point, you, as an employee, might be tempted to ignore some things, to avoid putting your heart one, to give less than 100% in your efforts, to care less and to get involved less.

In a small company/freelancer business, you’re all soul. You care deeply, you get involved, you’re motivated.

For example, when I take photos, I look for emotion. I take more than a photo, and try my best to only choose the ones which transmit a message (most of the time, of course).

I’ve seen some photos made by professional photographers which have much better technical characteristics, but, to some degree, lack the emotion.

There’s no laughter, cry, or happiness.

Take, for example, my favorite photo, shown below.

It’s not perfect, but, to me, it’s the most beautiful photo I’ve taken.

There are others, also »

Of course, a corporate business has its advantages, I’m not saying every entity should be a small enterprise.

I’m just comparing the enthusiasm.

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The error of saying No, the error of saying Yes

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Jerry McFarland - No looking..............

I regret saying „No!” to some opportunities.

Similarly, I’ve said „Yes!” to other opportunities, another thing which I regret.

What’s the solution?

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

It’s actually quite simple – can I change the past? No. Therefore, I must not regret things from it.

Can I learn from the past? Yes, I need to think about the past, to understand it. But without regrets, they won’t make me a better person.

Also, accept that I will make mistakes.

Each time I look at my past more than 5 years ago, I think something in the terms of „boy, was I silly 5+ years ago”. It makes sense, then, to think that 5+ years from now I’ll look at 2021 and say „boy, was I stupid in 2021”.

But this should not stop me from trying.

How does the spirit enter the world? (Cum pătrunde spiritul în lume? – Blog de Olivian Breda and «There’s nothing better than reading» – except, there is – Blog de Olivian Breda)

Yes, you can read things, but also by doing things, living, having conversations, engaging with others – that’s how the spirit enters the world. You can listen to a great song or to a less-than-great one.

One bad way of having the spirit enter the world, and myself? Just contemplating on the past, and doing nothing.

A, most likely, better way? Focusing on the future, acting, performing, doing things, yes, reading some things, watching movies, listening to music, contemplating arts – that’s how the spirit enters the world. Making mistakes is part of this, you can’t do anything without mistakes.

Sure, you need to focus on making as few as possible, sure, it will definitely hurt, but you need to make mistakes.

So, coming back to the theme of the title – The error of saying No, the error of saying Yes – the larger error is not saying Yes / No, the larger error is not saying anything and contemplating on the past.

You do need a strategy, thinking, planning, reviewing, analysis. But, most of all, you need action.

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. (Luke 14:31-32, NIV)

Thinking is necessary, you can’t just act. But action is also necessary, you can’t just think.

(the above sentence may look, at the same time, both smart and silly)

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Will this be on the test?

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Kyller - Test day

Will This Be on the Test? is a book by Dana T. Johnson and Jennifer E. Price.

The question is valid – what matters for the students? And how could you pass the test with good results?

I think these are two different questions:

  • What do you need from school to succeed in life? In these, there are multiple skills that are currently not taught in most Romanian schools, like entrepreneurship, leadership, managing finances, career decisions, how to manage your emotions, how to handle fake news, how to help someone in trouble. You don’t even learn the meta on learning – how to learn. The paradox you spend a lot of your life in school, but you’re never taught how to learn, read, take notes, memorize, improvise, be creative, write an essay.
  • Also, for the current curriculum, lots of things can be improved. You could improve a lot in the way subjects are taught and on the current information provided in school manuals.
  • On another hand, on the things that you do learn, you’re not given enough chances, in my opinion, to succeed. You have to learn a lot of things, but you’re not prepared for taking standardized tests. How about each student in Romania give a Math test three times a year? Or Physics, Literature, or Sports? The same subjects, the same criteria, applied to all students in Romania. If you could take the tests online, there will be even more standardization. For things like „informatics lab” or „physical education” or even „religion”, I would consider giving just a „passed/not passed” criteria. You could also be given lots of preparation tests. Do you want to know what will be on the test for Informatics? While you won’t be given an exact answer, you could be given 20 similar tests. By doing them all, in my opinion, you could be much better prepared for taking the „actual” test. I faced this in a lot of schools I’ve been part of, on all levels, from primary school to Secondary or Tertiary education. I would be provided with a learning phase and a testing phase. But I wouldn’t be 100% sure about „Will this be on the test?”. Oh, and do use cameras on students. More importantly, I wouldn’t have the occasion to test myself multiple times, as to be certain that even if I wouldn’t get the top mark, I would be in the 10th or 20th percentile. Also, what I’m most upset about is the lack of standardization between various schools. School can be a totally different experience and can have a totally different unit of measure, depending on the school, teacher, level of your colleagues, your level. So, if you’re the first in a poor class you will likely be treated differently from when you’re average in a top class. That’s just not fair. Also, some teachers are too relaxed with giving top grades, while others too strict in giving grades (so, they give poor grades, mostly). Moreover, while I agree that one teacher can teach differently from another teacher, I don’t agree that two teachers should give a different test, and grade this on a personal level. Not when, like it’s the case in Romania, grades in high school determine your future College.

Having a unified system for grading things makes two things possible:

  • A student will know that an 8 in a poor school is equal to an 8 in a great school. An 8 is an 8. Students will know their value.
  • A teacher and a school will know if they are able to improve a student’s performance or not. If a pupil from 5th to 8th grade is rated at 7.5/10, and then, in high school it reaches 9, if the system is the same anyone can tell that the student facilitated the growth of the student. But it will also show that a school with only students with poor grades doesn’t bring performance, so something must by wrong in there.

To conclude, some key points from this article:

  • You need some other subjects to be taught in the curriculum.
  • For the current subjects, you need better information.
  • Do use cameras when taking tests.
  • I vote for standardized tests, on a national level.
  • For things like „informatics lab” or „physical education” or even „religion”, I would consider giving just a „passed/not passed” criteria.
  • I vote for being able, before a test, to test yourself with at least 20 other similar tests. Not identical, but similar. And to see what you did wrong and how can you improve.

Looking back at my education, if these things would be fixed perhaps we would have a much better educational system.

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I’m here to provoke you, not teach you something

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khteWisconsin - Biden's inaction is facilitating the destruction of the Amazon & Palm Oil Deforestation

During a TV show – „Garantat 100% cu sociologul Gelu Duminică” (@TVR1), Gelu Duminică said something like:

Rolul meu nu este să te învăț, rolul meu este să te provoc / I’m here to provoke you, not teach you something.

When I think of flaws in the educational system, most of the flaws refer to things that I didn’t learn well enough – „Oh, I wished I had more room to learn Mathematics better”. But that was not the purpose of the education system. It was, indeed, just put there to create a spark. To incite my curiosity.

When I look at the situation from this perspective, I find that I spent four years in college, and during that time I found out about NGOs, about having an Internet connection, about attending conferences, about spending time online writing (forums, Yahoo! Groups, later blogs), about promoting things. All of these evolved in my life, I did some things afterward.

There was no class in college for photography, we barely connected online for official purposes, NGOs were 100% optional, communicating online, and promoting things were mostly not part of the courses.

While I did learn some things in the actual classes, most of the things came from human interactions – to see a teacher devote her/him self to creating a wonderful experience, to meet people from NGOs, to see people at conferences, to put some passion in your work, to love to find out more. Things like these were not taught directly, but indirectly.

And I’m grateful for the college years, from this perspective.

Following that, I did three Master’s Degrees, had some professional experience, and did some things with NGOs / events / online.

I owe it, partially, to the educational system in college.

I used to be critical to some things in the educational system, I’m less now, after that I heard the speech above.

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Life experiences make you better

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Dirk - Evolution

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

I don’t think people should go through traumas. I don’t think it’s necessary to go through lots of pain, sufferance, difficulties to be a good person.

On another hand, living with everything you want at your disposal, no stress whatsoever, no limitations nor boundaries, being allowed to have, do and experience everything – I also don’t think that is the right path.

Tough experiences should be avoided. But a minor inconvenience, a limitation, a self-imposed limit, a boundary you choose not to cross – this might make you a better person.

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You have already won!

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Iberian Proteus - Victory

My family once received an envelope with a message: „You have already won one of these prizes!”. Three things were there.

You were supposed to pay some money, and receive another message: „Again, another one of these prizes is yours!”.

After another member of my family received the same thing, and one person from the Postal office told us that a lot of people receive the same envelope, it was clear – it was a marketing scam, and the prizes which we won we actually paid for by entering a scheme.

But coming back to the message – „You have already won!”. Now, that’s one powerful message.

How would you go to school, considering that no matter what you do, learn hard or less-than, you will graduate? What would you do – learn more or less? Focus on some subjects, or become a jack of all trades?

How will you measure success, considering that you could live your life without fear of survival? Will you work more or less?

This thing – „Winning without a possibility of losing” is one powerful thing.

Going to a football game knowing that your team will win.

This changes the perception.

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not, but it’s something to think about.

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