Life is a prison

Life is a prison by Puff Life is a prison, Oh God let me out. No one to listen, To hear when you shout. Climb the walls of insanity, Ride the waves of despair. If you fall it don't matter, There's no one to care. Used to wish for a window, To see birds, trees and sky, But you're better without one - Stops you aiming too high. Watching freedom is painful, For those locked away. Seeing joy, love and happiness, Another price that you pay. Strong is good, weak is bad. Be it false, be it true. Your mind makes the choice, And enforces it too. Cell walls built by society, With rules to adhere. If you breach the acceptable, You had better beware. Hide the pain, carry on, Routine is the key. Don't let on that you're not, What you're pretending to be. Lock it all up inside you, How badly that bodes. Look out for that one day, When it all just explodes. Leaving naught but a shell, Base functionality too. But killing all else, That was uniquely you. So how do you grow, With a timebomb inside? Or how to defuse it, Without destroying its ride? You can't.

We wear the mask

We Wear the Mask

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,


It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--


This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,


And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,


In counting all our tears and sighs?


Nay, let them only see us, while


We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries


To thee from tortured souls arise.


We sing, but oh the clay is vile


Beneath our feet, and long the mile;


But let the world dream otherwise,


We wear the mask!

We all wear masks. Its just apart of our nature to hide certain things from different people. We show how we want others to perceive us. This isn't deception, it is merely a tactic to save face. Smiles hide sorrow, laughs hide cries, joy hides pain. At the end of the day, the only person we are being 100% honest with is ourself. As we get closer to those in our lives, layers of the walls we have up come down, but the mask stays on always. Is it possible to fully remove it? Only when we look in the mirror do we see our true self.

No Tomorrow

No Tomorrow

by Angel Towe

I am going to die tomorrow,
But yet I haven't been born.
My mother shows no sorrow,
For I am a product of love torn.

I will never see the light of day,
I will never smell a flower,
I will never walk along a waters bay,
Or feel the drop of an Aprils shower.

It hurts for no one to show me love,
I will never be hugged or kissed,
When I have gone to the heavens above,
I wonder if I will be missed.

Today is my last day to live,
My last thought, my last breath.
Just think of all I could give,
But tomorrow I'll be put to rest.

I'm not sure how you feel about abortion and choice, (I'm not even sure how I feel) but this poem gets down to reality nonetheless. Without someone to ever love him/her, this poem touches the very soul of the controversial act of abortion by giving us the perspective of the child. Of course no one can speak for the child, but Angel Towe paints a picture of what she thinks is going on in the mind of a child that never gets the chance to live yet dies a sudden death. There are many things that we all debate about; whether pro-choice is right or pro-life. No matter the stance, there is still a baby that has no choice at all.

Unfiltered

There's this site called LiveLeak.com. It is a site filled with extraordinary videos that are unfiltered and not censored by anyone. It is a popular website that is famed from its uncut videos. Categories of videos include politics, middle east, celebrities, citizen journalism, etc. It is a viable resource for the latest news and issues as well as a site to see videos not found anywhere else.

What got me interested in this interesting site is the middle east section. This section mostly covers the violence going on in multiple countries in the middle east. There are videos coming from news sources, citizens, and even soldiers from all sides of the conflicts. Soldiers posting videos of their exploits and daily experiences gives the conflicts a new side to understand. By seeing what they see, the videos give the conflicts a new face as we see first hand the results of war. The victims of war are clearly portrayed, showing just how gruesome war is.

War is different when one only hears about it and sees videos of it through censored news sources. A clear picture is portrayed through newspapers and news channels. But when videos of the same conflict are posted and fully bypass the bias restrictions of the media, a new picture is painted.

In a way, a source of news like this is beneficial since all sides can be covered. It gives us the ability to view the conflict directly from the front lines. The other side has somewhat of a moral dilemma to it. Yes, it sheds light to the atrocities and is an outlet to see just how bad things get, but posting videos of people dying on tape creates an interesting topic. I wonder how the families of the dead feel that their deaths are on tape available for anyone to see. It brings up a moral issue and I'm not too sure how I feel about it. The Internet is a place for unbiased material, but where is the line drawn for the content of things posted. Is there a line for death? Not at the moment. So when is it too much?

Outside experience

As friends and I sat outside one day, an experience like none other came upon us. Here is the account:

The first things that were experienced outside of the classroom were sound, sight, and touch. My first sensations were the sounds nearest to me which consisted of my breathing and the bugs in my ears. Annoying bugs they were, but I quickly got over them as they left my personal space. Quickly followed were the sounds of the construction going on next to us. It is such a unique sound and fully not usually apart of the BC campus, but today these sounds were loud and apparent. There are also far off sounds such as cars driving by, people talking and walking past us, but the construction sound was by far the most notable.

Touch was the proceeding sensation that overwhelmed me in a unique way. I don’t know about the other’s experiences, but I was quickly bit by a bug upon arrival and therefore it affected me throughout my experience. The grass running through my fingers, the wind on my face, the sun beating down upon me; they were all overshadowed by this one bug bite which itched like none other. This also added to my feeling as I wasn’t feeling much else other than this itch. Sitting outside was a good idea until this happened.

We soon realized that sitting outside was no longer enjoyable so we decided to do something more productive for it is a Sunday and there is plenty of homework to be done.

Side effect could be death

With its many capabilities, the cell phone has been the most prominent distracter of drivers on the road. Many of these distractions are caused by the inability for drivers to multitask while operating a motor vehicle. “The US Department of Transportation estimated that 25% of the 6.3 million crashes each year involve some degree of driver distraction or inattention." With the number of things drivers have to focus on, by removing the cell phone out of the picture, there will be less of a distraction. “While multitasking may seem to be saving time, psychologists, neurologists and others are finding that it can put us under a great deal of stress and actually make us less efficient”

In their study, Joel M Cooper and David L. Strayer investigated the effects of cell phone distracted driving and simulator practice. The study observed drivers while using a cell phone and requiring them to drive in a simulated driving experience. “In the study, a passenger acted as another set of eyes for the driver in the test and even stopped or started talking depending on the difficulty of conditions outside of the car. Meanwhile, half the drivers talking on a hands-free phone failed, bypassing the rest area he test had called for them to stop at. It was also found that while talking on the phone, it impaired the driver’s ability to engage the braking system of the vehicle; the reaction time was considerably lower than those not on the phone. This is what causes accidents in the real-world and what can be prevented.

Gmail Motion made reality

"If you happened upon the Internet Friday, you would have been faced with what has now become an annual tradition online: Technology companies trying to one-up each other with April Fool's jokes posted online. Google, for one, takes its April Fool's gags very seriously. This year was no exception. Users of Gmail, Google's e-mail service, were told about a new product, Gmail Motion, which would allow people to "control Gmail with your body!"

This exerpt from an article found in The New York Times shows to what extent companies go in order to play into the spirit of the 'holiday' April Fools. There is no telling just how many people would believe a claim such as this. Even though it is a viable company that has plenty of influence, and even has its own trustworthy search engine, who would possibly believe that Gmail could be controlled with the body?

The company made a full mock video on how on how their new product, Gmail Motion would work. Filled with phony hand gestures and body movements, these new ways to send e-mails would save the user time and effort. Google made its new product a web page as well explaining all of its new 'motion guide' and testimonies from specialists in different fields from movement specialists to paralanguage experts.

After seeing the hoax, hackers at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies made it into a reality. Using sensors from Microsoft Kinect and some created software, they successfully made it work. With all of the motions that Google created, this group of hackers created an exact replica of the phony product. When there is a will, there is a way as they say.

Here is the link to the original article:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/hackers-turn-a-gmail-april-fools-joke-into-a-reality/?ref=technology