fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
To Moon and beyond!. #4th short story in the series. Read on…
Tags: Spacex, NASA, Children, Short Story, Isro

Natkat Nandu and Chunmun Meena quickly got into the routine once the school reopened.

On one evening, Natkat Nandu and Chunmun Meena were flipping through pages of a visual encyclopedia about space as their mother fed them dinner. In the background, their father was browsing through TV channels and asked if they wanted to see a rocket launch that was being telecast live.

They excitedly shouted “Yes, yes .. yes” and rushed to sit in front of the TV. Realizing his blunder, Natkat’s father tried to avert a stare from Natkat’s mother and do some damage control by getting them back to the dining area.

The kids quickly gobbled up the dinner and came back to the hall to continue watching the launch. The space agency was performing pre-flight checks as a part of safety requirements. Natkat watched the live stream with his eyes peeled trying hard to understand the commentator.

The commentator explained the flight plan and gave more details about the different stages of the rocket and how it will take the satellites to orbit. He continued to mention that this rocket will deliver 100 miniature satellites made by companies worldwide as Natkat Nandu was staring at the countdown timer showing T-00:07:59. “What is this?” enquired Meena, and her father mentioned that it is a timer that indicates when the rocket will lift off.

Natkat Nandu continued to stare at the timer as the oxygen was being vented out.

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

It was T-30 seconds, and they heard someone announcing that it is a GO for launch. At T-10, they joined the commentator in counting down to zero. 10, 9, 8, 7 ,6 ,5 ,4, 3, 2, 1, 0 and yelled “liftoffffff!!”. The rocket roared as it left the launch pad, leaving behind large white clouds.

The commentators continued calling out various events as the rocket soared into the sky. “Did you see that, Meena ?” asked Nandu, turning towards her. She was fast asleep and had dozed off by the time MECO (Main Engine Cut Off) event was called out.

The kids could not get enough of it!!
Elon Musk Has Disappointed Me
By: Jane Drake Brody
Tags: Spacex, Cyberspace, Internet, Starlink Satellites, Elon Musk

About eight months ago, I innocently donated $99 to Elon Musk to sign up for his Beta Starlink Internet service. I live in rural Michigan, and Elon said I was just the sort of person he wanted to hook up with in the Cyber World. He told me that my $99 would guarantee first dibs on a brand new service that would be faster and cheaper than my current stormy relationship.

Elon looked like a sexy guy online, and his company SpaceX promised to help me by launching “a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites.” OMG, low orbits! I remember how exciting it was to watch Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. Now I could do it myself. I was pumped! So, beam me up, Scotty. Here’s my moolah!

Now, time has passed, and the moon has waxed and waned many times. Elon was a bright comet streaking through my sky, and I thought he was the sun.

My mother warned me not to trust men who promise you the moon, and I should have listened to her. I went to his webpage, not stalking, just trying to see how he was doing. There I found that he posted (for everyone to see) that I am in an undesirable latitude. I am geographically too short by 3.78 degrees. He has moved on to a better zip code. Humiliating.

The same thing happened to my next-door neighbor, Alison, who originally introduced me to Elon. She also fell for his line — hard. We are both recovering and facing our problems. We were easy marks — too trusting, too naive, and too needy. He didn’t care about either of us; we were just notches on his aerial.

We have learned our lesson; the experience strengthened us. We are determined to face reality no matter how ugly it is. Promises are pretty, but they don’t get the bills paid. So now that the pain is over, we are returning to our longtime domestic partnerships. They may be slow, erratic, and cost too much, but they don’t get our hopes up, and they are real. A bird in the hand is worth a Starlink in the sky.
The Fear and The Ignorance: Human Being’s Dispositions
By: Angga Arifka
Tags: Worldview, Existentialism, Philosophy, Thoughts, Questions

From where does fear come? Is human being for living in the world meant to feel fear? If so, we can deduce that the world is the primary cause of the fear of human being. What is wrong with the world so that it makes human being frightened? Does the world itself seem frightening? I do not reckon so.

Living in the world full of absurdity is the problem enabling us to be aware of what we have not known. It is undeniable that the fear appears when one cannot touch, hear, see, smell, and feel the unknown thing by our sense perception. Being incapable of accessing something unknown is the point of departure of our fear.

Art by Agathe Toman

The world unveils itself as a blurred picture with which it looks unfamiliar in one hand. In the other hand, our eyes have always tried to paint the world which always tergiversates. We need an explicit answer, but the world veils itself in order that our searching falls pointless. Furthermore, our investigation of the world cannot reach it completely since we can only track its trace, not its actual present.

There is a straightforward distance between us and the world, so our viewpoint hardly hits the target. Our ignorance of the world and the weakness of our prediction — we always use “prediction” on the grounds that although we dwell in here and now, our here and now continually shift and change — become relative in depicting the world precisely. Consequently, we fall into a hole of ignorance.

As long as the unknown things still exist in front of us, we keep feeling fear not only because we do not have an exact scheme to survive, but because our consciousness cannot also detect what we are precisely going to do. We live in an obnoxious world full of the criss-crossing realities, whereas the nature of our mind and psyche are more compatible with the world distinct enough for us to undergo.

How can we go beyond our ignorance to undermine our fear of the world? Can we truly flee the ignorance which becomes one of the human being’s attribute? Even if human being always infuses herself or himself with knowledge for the sake of escaping the ignorance, the world continually moves itself. It means that human being always exists in one step behind the world. When we are infusing our understanding of the world, the world has just now moved itself which we are trying to catch.

The world is the only unpredictable thing. New science, in Physics, has asserted that the only certainty is the uncertainty. We always see, touch, hear, feel, and smell everything changing, constantly. In front of the ignorance, I think, human being should be resigned, willing to receive and embrace the coming thing in spite of not being hoped.

If only wanting to dwell in the world where everything is only the expected thing, human beings cannot know that the world has each necessary opposition. Only by knowing that the world consists of the compulsory oppositions can we be more humanlike and humbler for fear that we feel as though we were the creator of the world — which is indeed in fact not.[]
Beating the writer’s block
By: Enem Okaula
Tags: Christian, Love, Writing, Existentialism, Self Love

TW: Suicide

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

While searching on google for the best way to beat writer's block, most websites and articles recommended ‘just writing’. So in this post, that’s what I’ll be doing, mining my mind and pouring it out.

Update on the existential crisis. Funny thing, I told a friend about it a few days ago and weirdly enough I haven't felt the need to question the purpose of my existence for a while now. Although I can’t help but think, every time a car in front of me swerves the wrong way, or I’m stuck next to a huge truck or trailer in traffic, about how close I might be to potentially closing the curtains on my existential dread. I remember the relief I felt when I found a question asked on Quora similar to the one that's been nagging my mind for almost a year now; ‘Is it normal to want to k**l yourself because you are bored with life?’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from suicidal, but I've been wondering lately about all the cases where it’s seemed like there was no clear motive behind why they did it and we just end up coming to the conclusion that there was some secret sadness that everyone missed. How come we never consider that they might’ve just been bored of the routine?

Winston told me to use analogies when I find it hard to vocally express what I have in mind or what I feel.

Life currently feels like a movie that I’m getting more and more desperate to get to the end of. This part, in particular, feels like that one restaurant scene in Avengers: Endgame with Natasha, Steve, Bruce and Scott, which seemed to be a buffer for a pee break. Can we get to the good parts already?!!

I’ve also been thinking a lot about love. Probably because I have the feeling that my heart is opening up again. I honestly didn't even realise it was closed in the first place. My relationship with God and my Christian faith so far, in general, has been a series of ups and downs, with questions and no answers. Amidst all the confusion, the one thing I am always consciously aware of is God’s unchanging and unconditional love for me. It’s the one truth I can’t shake.

A friend of mine told me once while describing the love she received from her S.O, that she couldn't imagine with the magnitude and purity of the love he showed her, the possibility of there being a being that could love her more. The love she received from him made her feel even more loved by God. Now THAT'S love. Even as an avid watcher of romance films, that's the closest I’ve ever come to getting a glimpse of what pure unfiltered love should feel like. Safe to say my expectations skyrocketed that day which, I just now realised, explains the closed heart.

The only bible verses I carry with me always, regardless of my standing with God, are the ones that remind me of the love He has for me, my favourite being 1 Corinthians 13 4–7. The constant reminder of the nature of the love He has for me, of the nature of the love He expects me to give and the nature of the love I should expect to receive.

I think that’s all for now, I’m already feeling inspired.
Hollow Souls
Tags: Life, Short, Existentialism

Upon the crimson morning, the city’s daily symphony began with the gradually intensifying sound of motors and klaxons. Of people’s feet tapping to stairs, of hand slamming car doors, of blood rushing to their heads. People passing by with nothing in their stomach and chaos in their mind. Sometimes you would see them with unironed shirts or bloodshot eyes.

In the sweltering daylight, through small alleys in suburban quarters, children with school uniforms set their phones at 90° angles. Their eyes completely fixated — they do not blink, their ears do not listen, and their mouths throwing boundless cusses. They believe that winning those games means realizing their puerile ambition of world domination.

Over the buzzing twilight, millennials splurge their paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle over a single night and on a gym membership they never attend. Middle-aged men start to assemble their food stalls taking over sidewalks, exchanging rights with nearby pedestrians. Motorcycles alternately slips through the tiniest gaps. Millions of ground dwellers jostling, fighting to improve their infernal lives under fiery competition of the metropolis.

Now it is close to midnight. As I start to slumber along with the hums of cold air, I wonder if many of their souls were hollow. Under this thin blanket, I envelop my bolster tight to reminisce how it felt like to hug someone so deep until I drown in the blackest of dreams — only to eventually wonder if mine is hollow too.
A clean slate
By: Renuka Navani
Tags: Poetry, Absurdism, Imagism, Existentialism, Beach

I’ve always loved the Beach

It has tried enough to stay out of my reach

As if life always has a lesson to teach

Whenever I got a chance

I’d, no doubt, will have the shore at first glance

And find myself in a familiar trance

I once remember walking down with my insecurities, hand in hand

The heart filled with disappointments and toes with sand

Wondering if it’s supposed to be this cold and windy in this La La Land

Another day, I took my fears along and jumped into the water

My desire slipped through my mind, when the sun finally caught her

It’s December, is it already getting hotter?

One time, I went swimming with my imaginary confidante and the many ideas of love

My dreams floating, my conscious fleeting, and my soul drowning, with a rocky shove

It was August and so it rained as an intervention from the sky above

One more chance at the sea,

And I find all these constant companions in glee,

Waves rocking, sun burning, sky screaming, nothing left for me to see…

Yet again, as ages pass by, I find myself at the shore

Waiting for the pain to pour, heartbreak to soar, with memories to the fore!

Instead, this time, hope, dreams, and answers to the fore.

It finally did happen,

Waves of joy, sands of hope, and a sky full of passion

The beach gave a clean slate, although in a very dramatic fashion!
How I found explanation of soul’s existence in life from VR
Tags: Soul, Existentialism, Virtual Reality, Life, Thoughts

How I found explanation of soul’s existence in life from VR Hasib Apr 25·3 min read

Many of us believe in soul’s existence and many don’t. I have been curious too about this mysterious idea of soul that can’t be described with only material substances. One has to put his or her trust on things that human sensors cannot sense. Well, we all have played video games in our lives at least once, right?

Image credit: Ricardo Braz, lifeofpix.com

Have you ever thought that all the characters including animals have life in the game and they act accordingly the programmed logics and surroundings but only the player’s character has one extra feat that it is also being controlled by an outer existence of the game world? Lets consider there are millions of living worms and bacterias or animals in a VR video game. Each of these characters have a virtual body or a model. They have life and may die like your character in the game world. Life and death of them are controlled by the game’s logic. All these virtual lives are boxed in the virtual world.

Now imagine, you are wearing the VR headset moving and doing things in the virtual world. Then your character die in the game like other characters. The game ends for that character, right? Yes, you being an outer existence or force of the virtual world was using the virtual body in the game but the virtual body didn’t know it. You are the soul in the virtual world which the virtual character of yours may feel but can never see.

So the virtual life and your soul exists in the same virtual world when you are into the game. It doesn’t actually affect the soul whether the virtual character is dead or alive. You can just start to play another VR game be it is a Hell, Heaven or other world. So when you start a new game instead of a saved game, a new life of your virtual body begins.

Doesn’t it sound similar to our real world? We are using a body to do things. When it dies we are dead in this world and just like the example above our souls don’t die. Remember time passes differently in real and virtual world. This worldly life is like Minecraft Hardcore mode. You just get one chance to live in that Minecraft world and loose everything you gathered or built except the game score and achievements when a creeper blows you. For religious people, God will decide whether your next VR world will be Hell or Heaven according to your game score and achievements.

Hope this is an interesting thought or concept for someone like you. I know many people already have higher and better understanding of the existence and relationship between life and soul. I was just trying to share mine. I would like to know what is your idea on life and soul!
Check out the Isolation and Quarantine Calculator
By: Washington State Department Of Health
Tags: Coronavirus, Quarantine, Public Health, Covid 19, Isolation

We all want to keep those we care about safe and help stop the spread of COVID-19. One of the best ways we can do that is to make sure that we isolate or quarantine for the recommended amount of time.

If you test positive for COVID-19, do you know how long to isolate yourself to keep others safe from infection? What if you learn you are a close contact of someone who tested positive — do you know how long to quarantine? What date can you point to on your calendar that will signal the end of your isolation or quarantine?

The Washington state Department of Health recently created an Isolation and Quarantine Calculator tool to take the guess work out of it.

Simply visit www.doh.wa.gov/CovidCalculator and follow the instructions based on your particular situation.

If you…

Tested positive for COVID-19 and have symptoms

Tested positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms

Were exposed to COVID-19 (identified as a close contact)

Previously tested positive for COVID-19 and want to know when you could be reinfected

…then the calculator can pinpoint the dates your isolation or quarantine will end.

Once you land on the page, simply enter the appropriate dates, and the calculator will show you when you can resume your usual activities. When your time in isolation or quarantine ends, don’t forget to continue protecting others. Even though you may have antibodies in your system, it’s still important to wash your hands, wear your mask, and watch your distance, to prevent spreading the virus to others.

We hope this tool makes one part of living through COVID-19 a bit easier and less confusing for everyone. The tool is currently available in several languages and more are coming.

More information

Stay tuned to our blog for more information on how you can help stop the spread of COVID-19. Sign up to be notified whenever we post new articles.

Information in this blog changes rapidly. Check the state’s COVID-19 website for up-to-date and reliable info at coronavirus.wa.gov.

Answers to your questions or concerns about COVID-19 in Washington state may be found at our website. You can also contact the Department of Health call center at 1–800–525–0127 and press # from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday — Friday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday — Sunday. Language assistance is available.
Modular / Mobile isolation facility
By: Ga Mobil
Tags: Quarantine, Modular Homes, Hospital, Isolation, Emergency Medical Unit

Our answer as mobile home manufacturing company, to current global pandemic.

GA Mobil — MedHab CON2 modular mobile hospital unit

GA Mobil is a luxury, high-quality mobile home, manufacturing company from Slovenia, working on a field of modern “glamping type” tourism accommodation development and production. As global crysis with the SARS-COV-2 pandemic occurred, we saw the potential of using our mobile unite manufacturing knowledge in designing a product that could help save lives and to prevent pandemic spread.

Our mobile medical MedHub unites model is a full mobile isolation facility, offering hospitals fast, safe and high-quality patient capacity increase. The model is designed to host up to 6patients in a space of 30 square meters, where each patient has his own bathroom with a shower and toilet (depending on a model) so that the unnecessary contact with other people is as minimized as possible.

GA Mobil — MedHab mobile hospital unit isolation room

The main hub is also available in two different variations, first is designed for patients with critical medical conditions and provides space for intensive care treatment processes. The second model variation is designed for laboratory use in event of a crysis that requires rapid and mass testing as happened in a current pandemic spread of COVID — 19 virus.

GA Mobil — MedHab Unit structure

All our MedHub models are designed to be combined in larger field medical facilities and also have the option of installing a negative room pressure system that further reduces the possibility of transmitting infectious diseases.

The MedHab model is built to the high quality standards that GA Mobil adheres to within its production. When designing the presented product, optimization of production processes has been carried out for the needs of simpler and faster construction, from the very basic phase of material selection. We have simplified the product, but at the same time it still contains all the important technical characteristics of a high quality residential building. The module has a hot galvanized chassis with four wheels and a tow bar for easy movement. The roof is ventilated and double insulated, which ensures optimal living conditions in all seasons. The basic building blocks are sandwich panels with pouliretane insulation of the living area, partitions between rooms are insulated with Knauf DPL 5 acoustic wool, which allows discretion among patients.

MedHab unit football field space distribution simulation

MedHab modules merge into larger affiliated medical facilities designed for emergency field hospitals. The connecting elements are tents made of non — condensing cloth, which, after its use, is suitable for disinfection of space. The modules offer various options for joining and assembling larger covered heated buildings, allowing them to adapt to the user and space. The simulation below shows the spatial efficiency based on the surface of the average football field.
Photostory — Day and Night. Gaming was a debatable topic for a…
By: Jolly Singh
Tags: Quarantine, Mental Health, Isolation, Gaming

Gaming was a debatable topic for a while in the pre-covid19 world. There were some games that were considered borderline addictive, as bad as drugs. There were studies showing the negative impact of prolonged gaming. Some states in India went as far as banning PUBG (confiscating phones and beating people up for playing the game).

Now, WHO recommends gaming. They say it is good to keep yourself busy in times like these and gaming helps with it.

When I compare this, it seems to me that gaming always did what it does now. It provided an escape from reality and helped with hand-eye coordination. Do it in healthy amounts (differs from person to person) and you have a healthy lifestyle.

In pics, you can see my husband having a great time playing this game called Brawlstars with my brother. My brother is alone during the lockdown and it worries me. But every day, both these boys find a couple of hours to play this game and have fun. I am more of an observer during the gaming hours. I always found it fascinating to watch the games.

I believe “excess of anything is bad”. So, whatever you do to cope/handle/enjoy/manage your free time or loneliness during the isolation period, do it in a way that it keeps you sane and healthy.
Bro, do you even voice text?
Tags: Digital Minimalism, Talking, Communication, Isolation, Facebook

Back in the day before everyone had iPhones I would spend hours on my Motorola Razr talking to friends late into the night or making prank pizza delivery calls on the landline. When texting and FB messenger came along, I quickly began to loathe the less nuanced form of communication. I felt there was too much room for misinterpretation when you were sending messages on the go, and the cumulative seconds we have texted the response “kk” has probably added up to a million wasted lifetimes. The etiquette around texting isn’t standardized — what you think is normal texting (not responding for 2 days or sending a stream of eggplant emojis 🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆🍆) may be seen as rude to someone else. But most of all, texting results in this weird ongoing conversation that never seems to end (some people might like that, but I don’t).

A while back I tried to break this habit by vowing only to make phones call to people. This proved pretty challenging. People don’t pick up the phone, and when they do, the response is “why the fuck are you calling me right now, don’t you know how to text?” My response is always, “why did you pick up the phone, asshole?” This is said without a trace of annoyance, but out of love. Nonetheless, my new call-only rule reduced my digital communication with friends to approximately zero.

I’ve recently found a middle path, and I think the Buddha would approve. Instead of calling, I’m sending a lot of short 30 second to 1 minute voice messages, which you can do through a feature on FB messenger and Whatsapp. This allows people to catch the nuances of what I’m saying — and surprisingly many people leave voice messages back. The difference between a phone call is that the voice text is usually shorter, but also that you can respond to the message whenever you want. It’s easier to make your point and — call me human — I like actually hearing people’s voices (crazy, I know).

Apparently it’s not just me, and voice is seeing a come back. On China’s WeChat messenger app that has 1 billion + users, voice messages make up a whopping 16% of all messages sent and over 200 million voice texts are sent every day. I really hope that the trend continues. Frankly I’ve been finding it a lot more enjoyable to send messages now, and I feel a lot more connected to people.

Getting started with voice chat:

People may find it uncomfortable to send voice texts at first, to which I would say: if you find it uncomfortable to actually talk to people, then you might want to seriously investigate why that’s the case. I suggest your first try it with a couple of close friends you’re comfortable with, or even better, maybe with someone you just met who doesn’t know how you typically communicate. Just say, “by the way, I only do voice messages.” You’ll quickly get over any fear of hearing you own voice, and you might just rediscover how we’ve been communicating since…well, pretty much forever.
Letters to Myself: Old flames die hard
By: Akin Ifeanyi Agunbiade
Tags: Old Flames, Letters To Myself, Isolation, Letters, Life

Dear Akintunde,

By the time this letter reaches you, I expect that you will already be over the feelings described in this letter. From the ashes of the old, I already see tendrils of the new springing forth from the dark loamy soil of your heart. But still, the lessons that I seek to bring to you in this letter are poignant to guide you before you try love again.

You still love her, at least until this point when you read this letter. You may have buried what you felt for her under 6 months of to-do lists, self-imposed isolation, excessive eating habits, multiple projects, unusual silence and inordinate exuberances. At a point, you deceived yourself so well, you thought you had it all covered.

But all it took was one call and like a zombie coming to life, long-buried emotions broke through the concrete slab of unspoken emotions, letting in the air of life. And in your heart, you knew, through the cold, one-word responses, that you really wanted to call her that special name you coined. But you didn’t. Mind over matter, like my previous letter said.

Things may have ended on a bad note, but she soon loosened you up enough to pay better attention while she spoke; she was always the talker, you were the listener.

Then she asked if you had a girlfriend. In the curtest manner, you replied in the negative. When she asked why, you brushed it off with that hard guy laughter.

It’s been a while you spoke, so catching up was a thing to do. You asked randomly when she would finish school. She jokingly replied, asking if you wanted to marry her. Your heart leapt saying, ‘Yes’. But your lips stayed glued.

As the conversation trailed, your heart kept screaming from the cavity of your chest. You felt your mind losing its grip. Your tongue, like a horse, was straining at its reins, eager to be let loose.

But you overcame. You let your voice trail. Then you cut the call. Let her think you ran out of credit or the network failed. Either way, today was not the day you would let go of your feelings. You come from a line of strong men and women, Agunbiade’s and Boniface’s. Emotions are not things to be wasted. That’s what you tell yourself.

This is what I’ll tell you. One day you will explode. One day, the turbulence within will become the mess outside. Like an internal combustion engine, you’ve turned the heat of your emotions, love, anger, hatred, disgust, envy, into the fuel that drives you. So far, you’ve done a good job.

But the heart is not a tireless engine. As long as you don’t give vent to the caged screams, as long as you don’t let things go their natural course, it will eat you up.

While it lasted, it was good, and you gave it all you had. It ended, not your fault, but don’t let it eat you up. Enjoy the fact that you gave it all you had while it lasted. She met a better version of you than the one before her, and the person after her will meet a much better version of you. But there will be nothing left to meet if you don’t let go of false hope.

Yours sincerely,

Ifeanyi Boniface,

your Alter ego.
Memoir of a Quarantine Camp — Part 1: “A Day Before” By David Tran
By: David Tran
Tags: Covid 19, Isolation, Quarantine Diaries, Quarantinelife

I recall the time before I was sent to quarantine camp.

On May 27th, 2021, I went to work as usual in the company, and we received word that a waiter in the Trung Nguyen Legend store had tested positive for the epidemic Covid-19 virus. And after a few minutes, the bad news is that this guy is the waiter that my colleague and I met two weeks ago. I keep going with my work, but I’m a little worried about it. We have lunch in the early afternoon, and HR announces that my colleague and I must return home; do not leave home until further instructions are given. A lot of thoughts are jumbled up in my head.

The next day, May 28th, 2021, is my birthday, and I celebrated it alone in my house, but it didn’t make me sad because I don’t care about the text celebrating my birthday on social media anymore, so I turned off everything on social media.

And then there was a special day.

I call the Ward medical station the day after my birthday to give them information, and they tell me that “you must go to quarantine camp, this place will take care of your health and stop the epidemic from spreading.” After finishing the call, I had no idea what to do for the next 15 minutes. I thought to myself, “In quarantine camp, there’s a lot of risk of infection.” I decided to go to quarantine camps after a few minutes of deliberation. I pack my clothes, some personal care items, snacks, and other items into my suitcase.

I went to the ward medical station to fill out paperwork, and they gave me the quarantine camp’s address. When I arrived, there was a banner with the words “The quarantine camp area, no duty no enter” and an old security guard was waiting to pick me up. And in this way, I’ll have a lot of unforgettable memories in the coming days.

Click here to see Part 2: “The First Impression”
Functional Week
By: John Katsavos
Tags: Functional, Isolation, Training, Functional Training, Muscle Confusion

This is going to a HOT and STEAMY week!!!

I have decided to to break this down into two different categories this week, as last week it worked very well for me as I can spread my thoughts more evenly and I can get more of my knowledge out there more efficiently.

Over on The Fitness Oracle we are going to be talking about function as it applies to exercise and I will be debunking this term. Here on medium, we are going to be talking about how function applies to the joints and muscles. I will do my best NOT to make this an anatomy essay, so forgive me if I get way too technical.

Here is what to expect this week on medium:

Monday I go into 2 myths and misconnections that have greatly influenced the personal training world, isolation and muscle confusion

Tuesday I am going to talk about how to fully understand the difference of what a trainer is telling you and what they really mean

Wednesday I answer the ONE BIG question that surrounds both isolation and muscle confusion

Thursday I go back and talk about the day that this all became clear to me and the ah-ha moment that I had

Friday I am going to rant, as usual, about both isolation and muscle confusion, and

Saturday I am going to wrap this week and the month up, tie in a nice little bow and forget it all happened.

This week I am going to be a little passionate about this topic of function as I have so many heated debates with other trainers concerning this topic and I hope that by the end of the week you will have a better understanding of why I get so heated about this topic.
What Did The Blackbird Say?
Tags: Poetry, Blackbird, Quarantine, Sad, Isolation

I was in an empty hotel room

The walls were empty and got shorter by the day

The windows were bare and white on the other side

A blackbird’s the only thing I saw out the window

The blackbird said there’s nothing out there

But there’s no use for a window if there’s nothing outside

I want to see for myself

I was scared of missing what’s out there

The small TV on the wall said there’s a disease

The blackbird said my lungs would rot if I left

He shouted if I coughed

If I coughed I was scared I’d die

The blackbird said paranoia kept me safe

I questioned the blackbird and he screamed

All I could do is watch the TV

The disease was spreading fast

The blackbird said I had no future

The blackbird said paranoia kept me safe

“I’m safe, I’m safe, I’m safe, but I’m not safe”

“I’m not safe here,” I told him

“You’re not safe out there” he shouted

I stepped out the door and the blackbird screamed

I stopped listening to the blackbird and go outside

The blackbird’s screams stopped

And I walked out

I’m finally safe
The Moral Danger of Being Alone
By: Nathan Walker
Tags: Proverbs, Isolation, Morality

If we can’t trust our own judgement, what if we turn somewhere else- the court of public opinion? Asking my friend what they think I should do isn’t the same as getting a message from heaven, but it’s going to greatly improve the accuracy of my judgement.

Anyone who works with their hands knows that measuring things is a bitch. But, a trick to achieve greater precision is to make multiple measurements from different frames of reference. For example, when cutting holes in my ceiling for recessed lighting, I would calculate how far from each wall the light should be. Then, I would mark 10 feet from one wall, 8 feet from the opposite wall, and 4 feet from the side wall. My 3 marks would be close, but all a little different. I put a mark in the middle of all 3, and cut there. My lights look great!

So, each individual’s best attempt at a) interpreting the Bible, b) hearing God’s voice, or c) going with your gut, is only going to be so accurate. It only gets worse the more is at stake; trying to figure out the right thing to do, while being personally invested in the outcome, is like using a measuring tape while someone is pulling on your arm. But, collectives of independent thinkers can make a more precise guess than any one person alone.

However, letting other people tell you what to do can also be dodgy. If you feel like you should do something, but 11 out of 12 people you know think it’s a bad idea- what do you do? Do you “stay true to yourself”, or allow other people’s opinions define you? Should you live by your convictions, or… someone else’s?

On one hand, the Bible is right- you really can’t trust your moral compass to be free of interference from your desires and interests. Feeling justified is not the same thing as being justified. But also, sometimes you can’t depend on other people to give you the right advice. You are the only one walking your path, fully immersed in your problems and your Self.

The best solution, as far as I can tell, is to always have some people that know you and your life as deeply as possible- ones that do not have the same vested interests that you do, but do want the best for you. (It’s probably not helpful to consult your teammate about whether you should cheat, or your co-worker about whether you should obfuscate the fraud you’re both implicated in.) Once in a lifetime, perhaps you will need to ignore all advice and do what you alone feel is right. But bear in mind, it’s risky to only measure once before cutting the hole in your ceiling.
Resilience In The Shadow of A Pandemic
By: Sandip Roy
Tags: Pandemic, Pandemic Diaries, Resilience, Résilience, Resilience In Action

A pandemic can test us to our extreme limits. It can blur and warp our imaginations because the future doesn’t seem anything like our known past. In quarantine, it can break us from the inside, brick by brick. To start with, it can melt our weekends and weekdays into a crazy haze.

Our constant keepers during these times of uncertainty are fear and gloom.

We’re in fear because we truly can’t fathom what any of our tomorrows hold. And as human beings, we don’t like uncertainty. We prefer rather being in pain than being kept in the dark about what’s in store for us.

We’re in gloom because we have lost most of our sense of normal life and human touch.

We now seem to figure out the power of non-physical closeness in these times of social distancing. Finally, we feel what passing by that stranger without looking up from our phone meant for us. We get it how good it felt being in a city with humans around close enough to touch.

We are now a planet of lonely humans living indefinite lives.

We don’t know how and when it’s going to end. We don’t know how much more pain humanity has to endure. It looks like someone opened the Pandora’s box and let loose all grief into the world. What we have now is what Pandora was left with in her box — hope.

Our best hope today is the time-honored promise: this too shall pass.

Till that day comes, when it all passes over, what we do would be our resilience. It’s resilience we would show as one person as well as one humanity, for it’s actually the whole world against a virus.

And we are one flexible and adaptable species.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 — Earth/Birth
By: Shauna Rae
Tags: Reflections, Pandemic Diaries, Earth, Pandemic

The first Earth Day observed was on my third birthday. It’s an ethereal connection I’d not thought hard about until this year. Earth Day is 50.

My dad called me tonight. He always calls on my birthday. He asked me if I thought we will learn the lessons we’re meant to when it’s time to reconnect.

I honestly have no idea what lies ahead.

Am I supposed to? Are any of us supposed to?

We’re used to knowing, planning and forecasting.

But it’s time to listen.

“If we listen from the place of connection to the Spirit That Lives in All Things, Mother Earth teaches what we need to know to take care of her and all her children. All are provided by our mother, the Earth.” (

There has been much suffering. There has been so much sorrow. There has been so much injustice. There has been greed. There has been loneliness. And there has been despair.

Mother Earth has been tired. So very tired.

Many have tried to protect and honour her but even that has polarized us. Imagine having one child fighting to protect you from harm and another rolling the dice on your expiry date, while spending their inheritance.

All I know is, she won’t last forever. And of course, neither will we.

Have we learned anything through this pandemic? Have we changed habits? Have we taken a breath?

Each day seems new; a new policy; a new funding announcement; a new death toll; a new prediction; a new normal.

Will there be a ‘new normal’? And will it stick?

I hold out hope.

Birth

Feverish wander under a black sky,

Doors close in an angry boil,

Carrying the burden of emotional tax.

It’s time.

I hear the quake in the centre of you,

The noise settles in the grace of your suffering,

Social gap, common purpose,

Longing to connect in grief.

It’s time.

Empathy overflowing,

Radiating through armour’s steel,

Yearn no more,

Let go.

It’s time.
Guido the Gallo
By: Susan Darin Pohl
Tags: Coronavirus, Pandemic, Pandemic Diaries, Diary, Life

April 23, 2020

You will be happy to know that Guido the Gallo, who lives beneath my bedroom window, is still alive and crowing and has not landed on anyone’s dinner plate, yet. Since I named him, I feel much more friendly towards him as he wakes me up at 4:30Am. He has a friend up valley that responds to his cock-a-doodle-do’s, which seems to make Guido happy, as he crows even louder in response. I guess roosters have learned how to communicate and practise social distance in order not to kill one another. It is a brilliantly sunny day here in Umbria, so the rooster and I are up early. I don’t think anyone informed Guido about daylight savings time.

In continuing to look for joy, a suggestion I read is to treat your house as if it were a museum. If you were a tour guide, what would you point out that is of particular interest in your home? Living in a 500 year old home, I could say my entire apartment is a museum, but in the spirit of the game, I will focus on one thing. The antique olive oil container in my living room.

There are several things about it that create within me a sense of awe and joy.

This tubby dude has lasted over 350 years, and not a visible crack on it. How can that even be possible? I think about the year 1669, the year this container was marked. If I were a real tour guide, I would tell you in depth what was going on in central Italy during that year. Instead I will tell you that Umbria was part of the Papal States which governed the Central Italian territory from 756 to 1870. Other Italians, say the Umbrians aren’t very hard working because the Vatican looked after them for so many years. A rather unfair characterization I would say.

The container is a marvel to me, not only because it survived, but also if you put your hand inside the container, and slide it around the inside perimeter, the surface is shockingly smooth and silky from the centuries that it held olive oil. (It is purportedly one way you can tell the antique is genuine.) I think about how surprised the original owner would be that his container ended up in the living room of some woman from a country he never heard of and state that didn’t yet exist. This thought brings me joy and laughter.

One more day.
Smartphone industry in 2020
By: Ashish Tiwari
Tags: Pandemic Diaries, Smartphones

Smartphone companies launches a wide range of phone. Some companies launches phone which are good, but remain unnoticed due to poor marketing strategies of the company, a good example of this is L.G., which recently launches its another phone but hardly any one of us cares, as of IQOO or RealmeX50pro. What makes the differences is the surely the marketing.

Another thing while launching the phone or any device is the pricing. More the agressive pricing, more is the chances of the device to sell good. Pricing is the least concern for the chinese companies, they are known for their agressive pricing. But the companies like samsung, apple have to think quite a time for having a device priced agressively. You would be shocked that apple occupies only 12% of the market share but occupies 66% of the profit share of the whole smartphone industries.

Another thing which is important is that the smartphone developers, should develops phone on requirements of the regions. Samsung does it pretty well. As Samsung launches devices on the requirement of the region, as they have M series for India, A series for other parts, while the apple doesn’t do it like that as a result they keep on declining in terms of market share. While the companies like of Redmi, Realme, Vivo, Oppo etc does the same thing but on terms of pricing. They sometimes only launches there lower end devices in parts like India, where people normally purchases phones which are on lower end or the mid range. So, this clumsiness of this lavishing market is quite important to notice, as a prediction goes on like this that the market will recover as it moves into 2020. IDC expects 5G shipments to reach 8.9% of smartphones shipped in 2020, accounting for 123.5 million devices shipped, and this is expected to grow to 28.1% of worldwide smartphone shipments by 2023.
What is 2020?
Tags: Writeup, Society, Pandemic Diaries, 52weekwritingchallnege, 13th

It would have just been an year if there isn’t a pandemic. It is going to be historical year now. Now it has got its own significance in many ways.

The significance here is that from now on we should consider everything as before 2020 and after 2020. We are shaken by the pandemic. We are been locked up in our own houses for weeks.

2020 taught us “the value of mother earth”, “our economy”, “our helpless governments”, “our family situations “, “our mental stability “, “our humanity” and many more.

We are slapped by mother earth because of the pandemic. We post,share and talk about world environment day or pollution day or so and so days but now We had been repeatedly warned about the changes in environment and changes in ecology, changes in climate but none were taken seriously. And the Manual mode is put to off and mother earth took control of its own planet and started to make it better.

We are slapped by our leaders because of the pandemic. Every five years once we are remembered by our beloved leaders. And we are so generous that we forgive everything and just wait for that some perks what they throw and we make them win. What help did we get and how many lives were taken seriously and were helped during this situation?

We are slapped by our financial situations because of this pandemic. Many lost their incomes, their jobs and their business is at stake. Our financial system is so vulnerable that we are now not worried about the virus attack but more worried about the financial attacks.

We are slapped on our humanity and ethics because of the pandemic. Only few took steps to help the needy in this situations. And majority of the ones who helped made sure they had their logos on the things they were giving, some were busy taking pics about the help they are doing so that they can post in social media. Is that all we can do ??

At the end what did we learn. Nothing. Just nothing and we are all set to face multiple waves and more vulnerable society.