Man[goes] to Discord

Discord is one the most popular group chatting apps and possibly the most popular communication app among "gamers." But it isn't just for gaming, a lot of people use it for just casual conversation and chilling. And when I talk to people, I like learn about their how they have lived and such. Because it lets me put on their shoes and understand what they have been through and their past in the sense. It also helps in what I am allowed to talk about and what I am not allowed to talk about. But, it is really hard to ask these question to people just by talk, but in mind needs to be asked to allow for a real connection.

People don't realize how often offensive jokes/dark humor is used and many times this dark humor mocks certain groups or targets them. For example a lot people make Holocaust jokes. But imagine if they were said when a Jewish person was in the call. I have seen this happen quite a few times actually, especially one of the people that I have played with online for quite a while is Jewish. Another example might be the fact that I talked to a person who was in foster care and then somebody said something that was supposed to "funny" about parents. My immediate reaction was to ask the person indirectly if it was okay and the response was "Yeah, it's alright, I don't care."

But the thing is I don't want to hurt some people due to some unintentional talk/banter. So I have been trying to discern their culture through their accent and deepness/raspiness of voice, for example a past smoker would probably have a more deeper, raspier voice. But I haven't always been correct, so when I ask a straight forward question, I often am asked "Why?" It makes sense, because many times it may seem like I am racist, sexist, etc.

Man[goes to "The Future"

 The episode of  "The American Life" podcast was called "Escape from the Lab" which conversed about how many creations have unintended creations which are not necessarily good, to say the least. And really went through many of the podcast descriptions to find something that would interest me since I do not want to sleep in these boring and dark times, especially since many of the more recent podcasts are related to coronavirus or the scuffed election.

One of my main concerns always has been the misuse of "new" things, for example, the movie Gattaca really displayed the fears of genetic engineering. But it doesn't even need to just be technology. It could just be new ideas or processes. For example the idea of The Bachelor impacted Colton's life quite significantly. Humans are not perfect. They are not always good or something, that is why there are debates on things like genetic engineering. 

Humans have prejudices and unconscious thoughts. They have imperfections, such as shown in the revoke of the award for the "Jose" (nsfw). While more developed, humans are still animals and as such, they have primal instincts such as greed and tenacity and tenacity to satisfy this greed. And with the cunning brain of ours, we try our best to either survive or satisfy our greed. And this is how some of these "unintended consequences" occur, like the dropping of the atomic bomb, might add: twice. Add this to how we are brought up and the opinion of the people in our environment and environment itself seeping into you. I feel so bad for some people who live with people with utterly stupid opinions. Man!

Man[goes] to Visit Story Characters

One of the major purposes of stories throughout humankind’s history has been to pass knowledge/morals between each other. And these morals are often the backbone of a story. As such, even in more recent times storytellers use their writings as a way to convey a message of advice. However, the need for this advice would not be represented correctly if the means through which it was represented, a story,  was not realistic, which includes the characters themselves. This method of developing characters to make them seem more “real” could be said to be what is known as complex characterization.

Science of Storytelling

First, let us understand what are considered as signs of a character’s realism. These are what define a person as “complex” in a story: changes in the character due to experiences, variety of traits and different sides to their personality, possible conflict in the character, displays a full range of emotions, has an impact in the story.

What is a Complex Character?

Unsurprisingly, one of the major aspects of complexity is the act of learning. It is one of the few things that makes a human, human. As said earlier, one of the main purposes of stories were/are to spread knowledge, showing humanity’s continuous focus to learn. That is what makes the human race so wise: “A wise man knows a wise man knows nothin’ ” (Royce da 5’9”). Similarly, authors develop their characteristics by showing change through experience, adapting to situations like how Sourdi accepts and adapts to her new life of being married. And to complement this, Nea adapts and learns of Sourdi’s new opinion and acceptance of the marriage. Not only does Nea accept Sourdi’s new stance, but Nea also realizes the limiting nature of how much power one human has, in sense of having “no magical powers.” As shown, with learning sometimes comes changes in character or/and behavior. Another such example would be in the play Oedipus where the king Oedipus is shown to be narcissistic/very arrogant, possibly due the fame after solving the Sphinx’s riddle after no one else could. This development is then developed even further when Oedipus realizes that following his curiosity had led him astray by leading him to destiny. Oedipus realizes how his current mannerism is not flawless, dimming down his arrogance. The whole story only starts because of Oedipus learning about his destiny, changing his path and actions to take caution to avoid his destiny. This really reflects the realistic world in which there are many changes occurring continuously since life is continuous.

The other major aspect of a complex character is the rounded personality and various traits. This means that a person has some skill in many fields and also has multiple attributes and emotions, such as kind, caring, hot-headed, etc. This shows a 3-D character of a person, meaning he/she has multiple sides to his personality, showing in-depth complex combinations of emotions, like the dejection and satisfaction of Oedipus when he finds out the truth. Similarly, while Oedipus is shown to be overly arrogant, he maintains his pride and his desire for justice by taking his own two eyes. This is a strict contrast to the childish desire that he has to unearth a mystery. And he realizes this as a flaw later in the story, leading to the next point of having an internal conflict, regretting his steadfast attitude for everything. An internal conflict is basically an easy way of identifying the inner thought processes or atleast identifying the possession of inner thought - one of the main ways humans develop themselves and change themselves. And an internal conflict is exactly what Nea has when she tries to defend her sister from sexual harassment but then is told off by her sister who she defended. Nea is so caring as to stab the man who was harassing Sourdi (quite the opposite of caring). And soon, her sister, Sourdi also has to face the question of whether to acclimate her soon to be married life or run away, and chooses to courageously follow her disciplines and marry. As such, it could be said that in the path of Sourdi and Nea are complementary, each providing reasons and causes of change in each, developing each other.

This combination of writing choices by authors, making characters more realistic and whole relatable and visualizable. This allows for a connection to be drawn between the readers and the characters as a real world meeting or actual person that existed. Summing all of it up, the message conveyed by the story to have actual impact in the “real world.”

Man[goes] to His Memories

 

In Switzerland in Zurich (probably taken by me)

In general, they were simpler, funnier times. I didn't have much to worry about. I would just go to school, come home, play some cricket, study for tests, etc. I didn't have the pressure of doing every activity properly either for my grade or do get into a college of high status. It's hard to explain. They were just simpler time. 

You know what, I'll try to explain it. There was just less responsibility. It was a time of innocence. And the picture above was taken during a vacation in which we visited Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

One of the main things was that at that point of time I was still the only child. Is it still a "main" thing? Not really, I guess. But I guess it was easier back then.

I had no worries during that trip except for the cold and snow getting my shoe. But now, every time I am on a road trip or something, I always think about school or something.

The thing is people think I don't care. "Some people" think that I don't really worry about school or any other work. But in reality I am hella worried. But I think I have just become immune to it. I mean I still have stage fright and stuff but a lot of pressure associated with submitted work has gone down.

My goal is to be as cool as the mountaintops shown in the picture when I am faced with a stressful/emotional situation. 

Man[goes] to Hypocracy

The United Kingdom/Britain: A group of countries that ruled one of the most massive empires. And one of the key justifications it voiced for its colonization was the bring of civilization to these "rural, uncivilized" people, but it in reality it used these colonies for its own benefits.

Similarly, now some "developed" countries are portrayed as countries with great opportunities and as role models for other countries. They are shown as enriching and "civilized."

But Banksy brings out the reality in his work. These "developed" countries that have such value and pride should surely make their meaningful flags that they salute to, sing the national anthem to, read the pledge to, etc. in their own country with the help of well-paid workers, right?

No no no! The country is represented in Banksy's piece by an very young child-laborer who is probably very ill-paid and has horrible living conditions, as somber thing. Even with such great wealth of a "developed" country, the role model becomes a role model in continuing wrong practices such as child labor. Instead of supporting upcoming and poverty-stricken countries, the enterprises in these "wealthy" countries go for profit. I guess its all about the "survival of the fittest."

You know . . . I remember when I was India when I was younger, or even sometimes when I visit to India, we would be surprised that a "white person" is visiting and we would look upon these visitors so highly since they stood for this wealth and so we thought they might bring wealth to us. Ahhhhh . . . Innocence. 

And, Banksy courageously criticizes this publicly this work called "Slave Laborer." With this choice as the title, he shows that we are literally doubling down on our past mistakes and continuing to fund the wrong for the justification of efficiency and thriftiness. 

Man[goes] to Construction

Ahhhh yes, construction! Don't you just love it. Thankfully, it's one of the few things that I love that appears frequently in my life. Sad life . . . Ah well, but construction just makes it better, you know. It frees you from making decisions on the roads that you want to take and also answering questions about the speed limit. And what could be a better example of this than the road construction on Big Beaver.

The majestic merging of 3 lanes into one beautiful crowded lane. This lane is so desired that people lose their sanity and cut off other cars. And to counter this, some people drive in between two lanes, while other people follow the say "if you can't beat them, join them." It is such a sight that psychologists and psychiatrists from all over the world come here to study the human mind at such a time. They want to read how humans react to the abundance of bright orange cones and jackets. They want to seek the true number of epilepsy cases.

Don't you love the confusing signs, too. They give you such clear directions on the wrong way. For highway go this way, and we will put the same sign later for the diversion to the highway and we will make the U-turn's seem like the normal diversion to the other side that continues the road. So then, you assume that the highway sign means that the road only diverts to the highway and the other path is for the normal diversion to continue the road. See, this paragraph is as clear as the instructions that the signs on the road show.

Man[goes] to One's Personality

 One of the most confusing questions this past week was the question of whether Oedipus has a complex character. 

We know that Oedipus was not one of royal upbringing beforehand. As such, he did not have the developed characteristics that are often reared in princes/princesses. This means that he had to have learned these characters after his appointment or rather he had to learn the arrangement of a wise and noble facade. The latter seems likely, since Oedipus is a smart man and he would like to hold on to his power.

This facade would be called a personality would it not? 

The word personality is derived from the Latin word for mask. As such, personalities are just masks? So, "real" people do not have personalities, the ones that show their "real" self. Or is it not possible for one to show their "real" face. Is it such that human thought is not able to be well-expressed enough to not have a mask, that is a personality. Is it impossible to live without a personality? Is it impossible to live without a mask? 

Of course, sometimes it is almost impossible for one to reveal their own face to themselves. I think in such situation, a person has lost their true identity in order to show society what is accepted. 

That is a SIN! It is a sin to lose your true identity. That is what makes each person unique. That is what makes each person, a person.

NEVER LOSE YOUR TRUE SELF