God's Children Reflection

This documentary "God's Children" shows people in the lowest levels of poverty fighting to survive; taking the most desperate measures. Before the landslide that killed thousands living on the garbage dump, the Smokey Mountain dump used to be a place of refuge where people can escape to once they're found out that they can't make a living in the cities. But after the typhoon loosened the ground on which the massive garbage mountains stood on and collapsed it to a heap, it ended and destroyed many people's lives. After that, the government thought it was too dangerous for people to be living there. Not able to physically force people out of their little shacks they called homes, the government issued an order to shut down the dump; garbage was not to be sent there any more.

Not only did it take away the garbage, but also the reason for people to be staying there. The government, however, didn't bother to think about where these people would go if they had to evacuate the dump. The many that remained on the garbage dump had to scavenge even harder for scrap that was lessening each day. Many large families went days without food because they had no money. When they did who says is was clean? It is very easy to fall sick with the lack of hygiene and the families have no money to afford clean and proper food, let alone medicine.

There is a scene where the refugees try to protest to the Philippine parliament to re-open the garbage dump. You see here that even though they already have nothing, they still have hope to go up to the authorities and ask what is rightly theirs. Even pregnant women traveled from the dump all the way to the city's government office to protest. They need this dump. To us, we might shield away from the very thought of living in a dump site, but these people are desperate to get it back.

The documentary features a family of 5 children, with the oldest of 12. Fighting to survive, the oldest child took on the burden of hard labour like the parents and helps support her large family. Before, they used to live in the city and she used to go to school. But once their family started loosing money, she had to give up education for hard manual labour. Education in these times was a privilege. One 50 year old man with a sick child and two other children told interviewers that the only education he got was from 1st grade of elementary school. He didn't get a math education and he's illiterate. The only thing he know how to write is his name.

I think that this documentary is very touching and it makes you realize how lucky you are. In other documentaries about animal cruelty and global warming, the directors like to show the lowest levels of these problems. In this documentary, the director didn't have to; it had been already done by him. He could have taken a simple video camera and taped a walk-through of the whole garbage dump and already it would have been disturbing for others. It's is very important to cherish what you have already because if you think that you have it bad because you're failing a class or your parents argue with you, one must always remember that someone else in this world-- maybe even at your age-- has it even worse.

Aphorism Blog #5

Be hopeful but not foolishly hopeful.

When put under pressure or when under stress, humans tend to find a little spark of hope to look forward too. This is important in life because then what is there to live for or to push on for? This aphorism tells us that we have to look for that little hope in times of pain or sadness, but we cannot be hopeful for something you know deep down inside will never happen.
Why should anyone hope for something when you know it's never going to happen? Why should you waste your time on someone that you know will only disappoint you. That's being foolishly hopeful. Sometimes its just simple and easier to just give up when you know something won't happen (or will happen) or when you're waiting for someone you know just won't show up. When you know you shouldn't fall for someone who will never fall for you. That's when you should just give up because you don't want to waste your time and energy into something that has a lower chance of happening than global warming stopping.

How do Electrolytes work in our body?

Electrolytes are ions that are electrically charged and can take the form of liquids, gels, or paste. Basically, it's the scientific or medical term for salt. Our body contains massive amounts of salt and we need them. It is important for us to have salt in our bodies so as the maintain a healthy lifestyle. We need them in order to function properly.
The foods we eat and drink contain a lot of mineral salts once consumed they dissolve and form electrolytes in the form of liquids. Like stated before, electrolytes are electrically charged. This helps us a lot because our muscles-- like our heart-- are sent electrical signals from our brain in order to move. Sodium, calcium, chloride, magnesium and potassium are electrolytes and they can be found in our foods. If our body has too little electrolytes, the electrical signals from our brain cannot travel to our muscles, that's why sometimes when exercising, our muscles cramp up. Having a balanced electrolyte level in our body is crucial. All you have to do is remember that you're heart is a muscle too and without it functioning properly, you're dead man.

Other than helping your muscles function properly, electrolytes also help maintain your body's fluid levels. They are controlled by the moving of electrolytes into and out of your body's fluid compartments. Your kidney is an organ that filters your blood for electrolytes and keeps the level's balanced and constant. Your body does a bunch of acts that help balance your water and electrolyte levels. When you sodium (salt) level is too low, your kidneys are signaled to produce more urine (pee, we're gonna say pee from now on because it's cooler) which restores the balance by lowering the amount of water in your blood. When your sodium level gets too high though, your brains sends a signal to you to develop thirst. Once you drink more water, the body wants to keep that water so your brain sends more signals to your kidney to stop you from peeing.

And that's how electrolytes work in your body... :]

Aphorism Blog #4

"When you are utterly frustrated or angry, express these feelings. You don't have to be nice all the time-- just most of the time."

Bottling it up is never good. Some people see these type of 
stoic
 people as nice people because they don't complain all the time. The truth is, not everyone's perfect. We all explode after a while if we keep it all in. So let it out. It's okay to complain and whine about something because life is full of disappointments. People who tell you to just deal with it should take a good look at themselves because they don't want you to let it out. They want the attention so don't give it to them. It's not a crime to express your feelings. Sure you can keep it all in and bottle it up but its healthy to let the emotions out once in the while so you won't explode-- exploding is never good. Like the aphorism says, you don't have to be nice all the time-- just most of the time. This means that you can let it all out in a swear word frenzy every once in a while.

What is Lightning? Why does wearing rubber shoes help you in a storm?

Examples of a small-scale static discharge is like that static shock you get when you touch a doorknob. Now image that shock at a larger scale. That shock is lightning. Lighting is static electricity caused by storm clouds. The amount of electric potential in something is the measure of how much energy or volts something can produce in an electric field. Lightning has the electric potential of millions of volts which causes it to unleash large amounts of energy in different forms (heat, light, sound).

During a thunderstorm, lightning can strike the ground at any moment. Rainwater conducts electricity (because it's acidic) and with all the rainwater on the ground it is important to have rubber at the soles of our shoes. Should we have metal soles, the electric charges from the lightning -- which like said before has the electric potential of a million volts-- can travel to ground, through the water, up the soles of our shoes to our bodies. Since we do not want the charges to get to us we wear rubber at the bottom of our shoes because rubber is an electric insulator (they help prevent electric charges to pass through easily). That way we can walk, sing and dance our hearts out in the rain without being the night's special of "fried human on a stick".

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Aphorism Blog # 3

"Don't assume that it's too late to be involved in something..."

It's never to late to do something. Many of us think that once the deadline hits on a project or assignment or even a chance that's its gone forever. What we don't realize that the only thing that can be gone forever is time. The chance might not come again but it doesn't mean that you have to completely give up on it.

Morrie loved his life and lived it to fullest even before he knew he was going to die. When he found out, he didn't get angry about it and think "oh it's too late for me to go dancing one last time" or "its too late for me to experience the youth life because I'm too old".

When Mitch see his old professor on TV, he tries to push himself to contact Morrie. At first he thinks that it's too late to contact him then because either way, Morrie was going to die. But if he had not called Morrie up anyway, he would have never been able to spend time with his old teacher and he would have never started to think about what the meaning of life is from someone who knows how they're leaving. It wasn't too late for Mitch so never assume that it's too late for you, too.

Aphorism Blog #2

"Learn how to die and you learn how to live"

Morrie lives life at his fullest even before he knew how his was going to die. Even as an old man, he went clubbing and dancing and ate his heart out because he loved life. When his body showed signs that he was going to die and when he finally got his death sentence, his first reaction is proactive and he wonders how he's going to live the rest of his life. He doesn't complain and sulk and think that the whole world should sulk with him because he's going to die. His reaction is calm and positive.

I think that everyone should react to life this way. Then again, not all of us know how we're going to leave this world but it is true that once you know when you're going to die, you start to think of how you're going to live. That is probably why we can't live the way Morrie did before he died. We all know that death is coming but though we don't realize it, we don't want to believe that it's coming.

A Life Without Electricity

What would a day in your life be like without electricity?

Well, let's try and see what I use in a day that requires electricity?

• Cellphone (as an alarm to wake me up, a communicating device...etc,.)
• Laptop (used for leisure and for homework, to find out little answers to the little questions that pop up in my head)
• AC (I'm a stay cool person, I don't like to perspire because it's gross-- healthy, but gross)
• Lights (keeping my room bright, it helps me see things for the way they really are...)
• Internet (no comment... )
  

Without my cellphone, I would not be able to wake up when I would like to. My body wants me to sleep-in, so I do. I would have gotten out of bed at 'round 11. The lights in my bathroom would not work so my bathroom would be all dark and I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror and see how messed up my hair became when I went to bed. The AC would not be working, so the fans in the vents would not work either. The air in the house would be still and by this time I would get pretty frustrated. My patience has always been low and I can't tolerate "still" and stuffy air. Now I would probably open a window and get even more frustrated as all the dust and bugs from the construction site fly into my house.
Breakfast, the most important meal in a day. I usually skip this meal on school days because my tastes buds don't work unless I'm "alive, awake, alert, and a wee-bit enthusiastic". I take cereal but since there's no electricity, my fridge would not work and the milk would be all curdy. No cereal equals no breakfast equals to me being pissed. I like cold stuff. I need my chilled OJ or milk. I don't like water when it's room temperature. Already 30 minutes into my day without electricity and I'm already irritated.

Now since I do not have my cellphone, mp3, CD player, laptop, or television I would just have to resort to the ol' paperbacks. I like reading-- in a comfortable environment which would usually be on a beanbag in a room with AC, with random music on (it doesn't really matter, just as long as I don't hear my family's ruckus). My only choice would be to go to the roof, still on the ledge and read. Without music, reading for me is tricky, but I think I can handle the silence on my apartment roof.

I'd read until 1) I'm bored and/ done with the book, 2) I start getting hungry, or 3) I get pissed and irritated of the drilling noises from the construction site. I'd go back to my apartment. I can't go any where else because that would mean to climb 11 floors down the empty, scary staircase (no electricity = no elevator). My whole family would be a wreck. The modern culture has convinced my family (heck, everyone) that we need all these little things that need electricity to live life. Lights, ventilation, entertainment, etc,.. the list goes on and on.

By dinner time, I expect my family to have turned barbaric already-- like those prep guys in Lord of the Flies. If we are still standing it must be a miracle. I'd be reading, my little brother would have playing with his toy trains. My mom would be trying to keep the house clean, my little sister would be in her room drawing or doing some creative %$#%!@, while my dad reads the paper or takes a nap. My older sister (haha) would be walking around complaining about life without electricity since she basically lives on the modern technology and communication to keep her sane.

Bottom line: I, my family, would not be able to live life without electricity. A day is all I can handle. Culture has caused us to believed that "we need entertainment" or "we need cool air" or "we need cars and transportation to get around" and "we need our cell phones because snail mail is too slow". We have evolve into such a planned life and we can't get out of that habit unless we find the meaning of what life is. Electricity is a need in our life. It wasn't supposed to be-- but it is now.

A/N: If there was no electricity, there would no internet, therefore it would have been impossible to complete this homework blog post assignment.