Ignorant by Default

Sometimes I feel as though "speaking up" has been beaten out of me. The need to hold back is so strong these days. In order to appear neutral and pleasant, I often have to withhold advice or information from others. Even if it's considered damaging, no one listens. So the damage would be the same either way.

We have a culture of people who act and live impulsively. No patience or thought process. Just pure "I feel this way, therefore I do." For some things, like art, that's fine and totally necessary. But for decisions concerning one's life, this is not a smart way to live. This impulsive way of thinking is how you destroy your life (and possibly the lives of others) and later find yourself asking "Why did this happen?"

And then there's the listening factor. I can say whatever I want. I can think it through and try to be the voice of reason. But, in general, the population refuses to accept criticism. It offends them to be bothered with another perspective. The cognitive dissonance pushes them into anger and potentially ruins a relationship. People don't like to be wrong. Even if you're not asking them to admit to being wrong, they hate the idea of being in that state. They hate it so much that ignorance is their only medicine.

We, as human beings, cannot possibly be equal or get everything we want. We can never avoid failure or making mistakes. It's just going to happen. This attitude of "it's my life and I'll do what I want" is both satisfying and harmful. It's all a matter of balance, critical thinking, and patience. And without patience, we're destined to never learn from our errors.

Pick Division (A story guitarists can relate to)

Let's get straight to the point.

This is my guitar.

Sorry for blinding you.

Ignore the mess in the background. I was playing my guitar with this pick.

Still not thick enough.

Next thing I knew, I made a common blunder: I dropped the pick into the sound hole.

"Oh well, no worries," I said to myself.

I then proceeded to flip the guitar over and shake it furiously until plastic escaped.

But wait a second... what the hell?

These are what fell into my lap.

WTF?

I've never seen any of these picks before!

Or, at least, not to my memory.

So where was the pick I was just using?

I shook and shook, but nothing was left to rattle.

I used a flash light, checked the interior...

Nothing.

Apparently, guitars divide and re-brand guitar picks.

Or maybe just my guitar does that.

Who knows?

Teenage Break-Up Gone Poetic AF

Remorseless

 

Remorseless, unfeeling, indifferent towards the emotions of others

Nevermore did I feel compassion.

As Lady Macbeth prayed for Evil to possess her,

Evil already possessed me.

Hurt… compelled me to do so… Anger … then Revenge.

Waiting patiently, and then opportunity struck

Coaxing me to do the evil deed,

To murder a boy’s spirit as he had mine.

With the ‘other’ present I did what I wanted to do,

To state the truth he had forgotten;

The Evil Truth seeping out his subconscious

Hoarse with desperation

I answered the call,

Lifting the cloud of uncertainty

Calm collected was I;

Haven and Hearth, blood boiling in the hell I created

Burning  flesh and bone to ash

Equipped with a Mask of Innocence.

I, the puppet master, containing the storm in their hearts

With my claws,

Toying with their heart strings.

Calculating,

Cutting each one at the right moment,

Unfeeling, uncaring of their tears

Bathing me in success,

Triumph, satisfaction

Allowing their sadness to wash over

The shores of teenage infatuation

I watched,

Watched them drown in

Their own tears

The deed is done, my heart a fiery hearth, melting;

Yet there is uncertainty…

Why did I do it?

What was there to gain from their hurt?

I feel nothing, yet

Knowing he who is housed in a Putrid Palace of Potions,

attended by men in white and blue

Even as he attempted to end it all,

In sweet bliss of eternal rest

I feel nothing,

I see nothing

I hear nothing

Nothing...

Nothing...

I am full of joy

Facebook Messenger: Two-Faced Coin of a Messaging Platform

I’m not saying anything new when I say that messaging platforms are a mess right now. iMessage rules the US mainland alongside Facebook Messenger. Whatsapp, Telegram, and Signal all have a stable user base, but it's a very niche user base. Google is flailing as they attempt to make a prettier picture out of Allo. The state of messaging apps can be frustrating and confusing. Most do what I have been doing. They just use what their friends use. If your friends are like mine it's a mix of iMessage and Facebook Messenger. Naturally since iMessage is held within the castle walls of iOS, I’ve been using Facebook Messenger and at times have even grown fond of it.

Facebook Messenger as a messaging platform is great. It’s stable, has wide availability, and allows me to stay in constant contact with 99% of my friends. I’m sure most can agree that Facebook is not their favorite place on the internet. Filled with memes you’ve already seen, family friends discussing left from right, and that co-worker posting conspiracies. It can be a hard place to stomach. A place that I find myself visiting more often than my common sense can agree with.

All of these things eventually drive me away from Facebook. This brings me to Facebook Messengers greatest strength, messengers.com. A full fledged web app designed only for Facebook’s messaging component. A brilliant escape from the news feed/timeline.

When visiting the web app you are presented with a list of all of your conversations on the left. The conversation itself goes in the center and on the right is the home of any shared photos, customization options, and a link to the users profile. It’s so simple it makes my head hurt thinking that Facebook is the creator. To this day the messenger.com stays out of my way allowing me to talk with friends, share my favorite videos, change each threads color bubbles, set nicknames, have an audio/video chat from my PC, and even have a default emoji set for easy access to each individual conversation. There are other features as well including stickers, GIF, and other functions that have been placed to the right of the text box. They stay out of the way for the most part as I never see them until I need them, but I would be alright with an option to hide them when not in use. Mostly though messenger.com is pretty rad, right?

All this gloating brings me to the part that irks me. The part that has me trying to get my friends to switch to other platforms, even though I know they won’t. I get it. It’s annoying to switch platforms on a whim, but it’s also annoying when a company such as Facebook creates such a well designed and easy to use web app, only to ruin it with their mobile app.

Ads. It’s recently come out that Facebook's trial of running ads on the Messenger mobile app in Thailand and Australia was rather successful. This means it’s coming to the US. I can usually move past ads in free services. Facebook itself has ads which make sense. Same goes for YouTube, Spotify, and countless other free services. The problem here is we are talking about a world where right below your conversation with mom is an ad for Domino's, because you ordered a pizza the night before. This is too much. Feed me these ads on Facebook itself, don’t throw them in my conversation lists or even worse, actually in my conversation!

The prospect of ads is not even the first and only straw to break for me. It started when Facebook added stories. They’ve since moved it to the Facebook app, but there is still a spot on my home page for Messenger that asks me to share my day. Right below that is a list of active users. An active users list seems really useless in the age of smartphones. Showing a green dot next to a user’s profile picture is enough. Though what makes an active users list more infuriating is that there is a separate tab for it already in the home page. That’s not all though. Right below that is a list of suggested people to add. Again, I would prefer this not take up space in my home page, especially when there is a contact list to the right of the home page. Just put this at the top in a horizontal row, if you must! Which not to beat it into the ground, but next to this is another list of active users! Why?!

I think I’ve reached the tipping point in this write up. I’ve already started looking at some alternatives. The most promising so far is Telegram. Telegram has a clean web and mobile app. You have to sign up with a phone number, which I dislike, but other users don’t need to know your phone number to find you. They just need your username, which I do like.

I’m not going to end this article saying that everyone should go sign up for Telegram and that Facebook Messenger is a terrible service. I feel I’ve entertained both the negative and positives of using Facebook Messenger enough in this write up to give you an idea of what will and won’t work for you. Considering how integrated my friends and I are with Facebook Messenger, I’ll probably weather the storm until my own social circle adapts a new standard. Or rather if they adapt a new standard. Here’s to many more years restlessly enjoying Facebook Messenger!

Sources

The Verge

Messenger Web App

Major Phyla Traits: Last Minute HW Assignment From AP BIO

Alexandria Tong

03/23/2014

AP BIO

Mckinney

                    Major Phyla and Their Traits

Porifera:

• single celled organisms that live in colonies
• the environment tends to influence the organism's appearance
• the algae living on them in symbiosis determine their color
• they are considered animals because of their colonial behavior
• communicate using chemical signals
• they are filter feeders, move their cilia to filter food into their spicules
• asexual and sexual reproduction
• invertebrate
• asymmetrical/radial symmetry

• no appendages, true tissues,or nerve system
• respire through diffusion
• Diverse skeletal compositions depending on species, for example: calcareous laminae, organic filaments and siliceous and calcium carbonate spicules
• excrete waste through diffusion
• secrete toxins to defend themselves
• mobile at juvenile stage

Fun Fact: there are 6,000 different species of sponges

Annelida:

• ex. earthworm; segmented worms
• bilateral symmetry
• true coelom
• have differentiated cells that form the organs; including a cerebral ganglion that acts like a brain
• they are hermaphrodite
• have a complete digestive system: includes pharynx, esophagus with
• calciferous glands, crop, gizzard, and
• intestine
• coordinated muscle movement allow for locomotion i.e. appendages encircle the dorsal surface of the body
• circulatory system carries oxygen to respective organs of the body
• hydraulic skeleton

Fun Fact: leeches are used for medical purposes involving limb reattachment

Chordata

• i. e. humans, dogs, cats
• all of these must be present at least at one point of development to be considered a chordate

               -pharyngeal gill slits,dorsal nerve cord, notochord,post-anal tail

• bilateral symmetry
• 3 germ layers
• blood is used to transport ATP, oxygen, and carbon dioxide
• 2-4 ventral heart
• bony or cartilaginous endoskeleton
• extensive cephalization
• vertebrae protects the dorsal, hollow nerve cord

Fun Fact: this highly diverse phylum includes humans: the supreme species of the planet!

Arthropoda

• i.e.insects, crustacean
• exoskeleton made of chitin
• sexual reproduction, mating ritual present
• they have brains with means higher intelligence ganglia runs along length of
• cord have strand-like nerves branching outward
• protostome development
• extensive cephalization: swimming, running, flying
• jointed legs/wings
• complete digestive system

Fun Fact: there are over 1 million species of Arthropods, all diverse

Platyhelminthes

• i.e. flat worms
• some parasitic
• 3 layers of cells
• proglottid segmented
• no mouth or anus
• head end has a cephalic ganglion
• eyes spots sense light and dark
• bilateral symmetry
• have true organs but no coelom
• respire through diffusion
• hydraulic skeleton filled with gastrovascular fluid
• nervous system organized similar to ladder with two lateral  cords connected by cords; some cephalization with sensory,  association, and motor neurons; eyespots detect light and dark

Fun Fact: they eyespots make them look crossed-eyed

Echinodermata

• i.e. sea stars, sand dollars
• water vascular system
• radial symmetry, during larva stage bilateral
• 3 cell layers
• soluble wastes released by diffusion across surface epithelium
• open circulatory system, lack heart
• vascular  system circulate coelomic fluid
• calcareous endoskeleton made of plates joined by connective tissue make up skeletal system
• no cephalization
• most have no special sense organs
• mouth on surface leads to cardiac, stomach, then to pyloric stomach with hepatic ceca extending into  each arm
• lack excretory organs
• sexual/asexual
• use spines for defense

Fun Fact: genetically related to Chordates

Mollusca

• i.e. snails, oysters, squid
• all have some type of shell for protection
• bilateral symmetry
• strong muscular foot for locomotion
• sense light and dark through eye spots
• 3 layers of cells
• Hard exoskeleton of calcium carbonate, exoskeleton prominently reduced or absent in most cephalopods
• Limited cephalization, but cephalopods they have giant nerve cells and complex behavior
• complete digestive system
• specialization for filter feeding in the water
• Nitrogenous wastes excreted into siphon by kidneys
• sexual reproduction, hermaphrodites
• tentacles are the appendages uses vary between species

Fun Fact: the cephalopods of the phylum are extremely intelligent and flexible

Cnidaria

• respire through diffusion
• two layer of cells
• hydrostatic skeleton
• no organs
• nematocysts
• digestive and nerve tissues present
• most mobile throughout life
• sexual or axsexual reproduction
• two stages in life: polyp and medusa
• radial symmetry
• they have tentacles

Fun Fact: the name Cnidaria comes from the Greek word ‘cnidos’, which means stinging nettle

Nematoda

• i.e. roundworms
• ring of nerves that act like a brain
• separate sexes, mostly
• excretory pore acts as a kidney and anus excretes solid forms of waste
• most are not parasitic
• bilaterally symmetrical
• body is covered by a cuticle
• sexually reproduce
• the digestive system is complete with a mouth and anus
• pseudocoelom
• life spans vary
• they move by contracting longitudinal muscles
• decomposers/predators

Fun Fact: there is a high abundance of these creatures, for example 90,000 words were found in 1 rotten apple