Changing or forgetting the past..in the future?

Lola Rennt directed by Wim Wenders

Lola Rennt and The Butterfly Effect are just a few examples of films that are about changing or erasing the past in the present.
What if in the future we can erase, forget or change our past? What if we can go back in time, and make up for everything we have done wrong. Or change things, so we will be happier in the future? Or just forget completely what happened, who we are, and where we come from. Than we are able to start from scratch whenever we like. Would we or wouldn’t we?
Watch the Lola Rennt trailer that I posted above.
How realistic will this be in the future..Is it possible to make an interactive installation, to let someone experience the different stories of his or her past and the following outcomes and consequences? Or let a person experience how his or her life will look like by erasing or changing a experience? What is logic of certain people for things to have happened in a certain way on a certain occasion? What kind of decisions does a person make and based on and influenced by what?
However if we learn from the past, can we predict future decisions of people? And thus, future outcomes and results?
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.

This should be posted in every school....

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things the students did not and will not learn in school.
(He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teaching created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.)

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

I particularly like number 4,7,9. Most kids don't realize the reality of the real world. I know I certainly have not fully and don't feel ready for the real world yet. But I feel like Mr. Bill Gates has given us a pretty good definition of the real world.

GREAT TRUTHS

I recently got one of those annoying emails which get forwarded to people a million times over. But I found this one surprisingly interesting and funny.
Food for thought:

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats..
2) When your Mum is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground..
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD:
1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional..
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus..
4) You look like Santa Claus

BILLBOARDS

I think these billboard ads are genius. Some take a minute to get, but this reminded me of one of my advertising lectures, where we learnt that, when advertisements leave a gap for the consumers to figure out, the ads are more effective since the consumer feels more of connection and remember the ads more after having to figure out the missing piece.
Fill-in-the-blanks of these ones..

the new phenomenom of the 'skinny obese person'

One of my friends told me about something really fascinating which had never crossed my mind before. So I had to do some immediate research and find out the deal with this new health discovery known as the skinny obese person.
As Dr Dolgoff puts it:
"It seems that the internal fat that sits around the vital organs (and which can’t be seen from the outside) is even more dangerous than the external fat that sits under the skin (and is more obvious). So you really can’t judge a book by its cover!
A study from the Imperial College in London found that people who maintain their weight through diet had more dangerous, internal fat than those who maintained their weight with exercise.
The most dangerous part of all of this? Skinny obese people mistakenly think they are healthy and are not as careful as they need to be. Thin people can get heart attacks and diabetes!"
SO don't be fooled by super skinny people who never work out,eat all the junk the want, and stay stick thin.
BEWARE SUPERMODELS!

THE BEST ACTRESS OSCAR CURSE

Most recently Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for best actress this month and now rumors are spreading that she is leaving her husband of 5 years, Jesse James. But this was after allegations that he was cheating on her originally with a porn star and then several other women came out claiming the same things.
But Sandra is not the only one who has had this misfortune:
Kate Winslet won the Oscar last year and she announced that she is getting divorced earlier this month, from her director husband, Sam Mendes.
A year after Hilary Swank won her Oscar, she filed for divorce from her husband Chad Lowe.
Charlize Theron won an Oscar for Monster in 2904 and then announced her split from longtime partner Stuart Townsend.
Halle Berry took home an Oscar and then divorced her husband Tony Benet within a year.
And remember Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe..well same scenario..a year after she won the Oscar they filed for divorce.
It seems these best actresses can't have their cake and eat it too!

"identifiable victim effect"

"The Death of a single Russian soldier is a tragedy. The death of a millions soldiers is a statistic."-Stalin



It is a fact that we are effected more by cases of single victims, rather than large numbers of victims. I read about this in a psychology book and then the next day I realised that I had experienced this "identifiable victim" issue.
It was during the 'Hope for Haiti' Celebrity fundraising effort, I remember sitting there and crying. Not because George Clooney was on the screen talking to me, rather it was from all the stories that were narrated by different celebrities throughout the whole televised event. The stories were personal and from all different people in Haiti (tourists,locals,kids), they really touched me.
Don't get me wrong, we don't just ignore the facts and figures they are effective and shocking. But the personal stories or the in-depth descriptions of victims or disasters hit a soft spot. The emotions come out, once you can relate to a single person.

SIBLING DIFFERENCES (RIVALRY)

Anyone who has a sibling has been through this at one point in their childhood.
Siblings are a bit like relationships can't live with them, can't live without them.
When you were young you used to play together, but would fight as soon as it came to sharing food or toys.
When you were in the teens you would be able to talk more about things and understood each other a bit more, but would fight over whether you did the same amount of chores,who got to sit in the front seat, or how much money you both were given for going out and allowances.
There is always some form of rivalry between siblings and at this stage, my brother and I don't fight as much as we used to, now we understand each other more and actually trust each other.
Since my brother was always the more "rebellious one" and I am more a "good girl", we have had our struggles. But I feel like the older we get, the more we rely on each other to help each other out and deal with situations, since we have grown up in the same household and gone through many similar situations and scenarios. I could not imagine being a single child.
I'm sure there would be certain benefits, but I love having an older brother; who has always been there for me,looked out for me, and taken care of me whenever I needed him to.

NIKE

This was done by the Mckinney agency. I thought it was fascinating to see how Nike attempts to send across their environmental message and also at the same time an athletic message, which is telling everyone, in a very innovative way to get off their butts and stop driving everywhere!
We need more ads like this which are sending out good messages and make the consumer change their bad habits. This ad doesn't attack people and make them feel bad about themselves. Mckinney presented the facts in a very clear and concise way and even offered a solution, but obviously after that it is up to the viewers to decide whether they will really change their ways.
But then again, they warn us at the beginning all these stints were done by professionals. HMMMMM...

LADY GAGA FEAT. BEYONCE-Telephone

This is a mini movie from Lady Gaga and Beyonce, who are both geniuses in their own right, but I have mixed emotions on this one. On on hand, I find it very bizarre. But on the other hand, it captivated my attention. And that is most definitely what Lady Gaga (especially) and what Beyonce are all about.
Here's what got my attention:
First of all lady Gaga and Beyonce singing together-what a great combo-the 2 best female musicians in the business
Then of course the outfits/costumes/fashion,whatever you want to call it.
Next was the weird storyline, its nearly 10 minutes long!
After watching this video, I was so focused on the video that I didn't actually pay attention the actual song, until I watched it a second time around.

What do you think about this video?

Sitting in class

Today, I was sitting in class, after running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get to my study abroad sheets signed and done with, and I thought to myself how fast College has gone by. Also how I will be going abroad next semester and coming back with only a year and a half left of College.
It sad,exciting, and mostly scary!
I know our parents are saying how we have all grown up so fast and blah blah blah, but I actually feel like they are right. I can't believe this summer I will no longer be a teenager. WOW.
I still feel like a kid inside though. I am a big kid who worries and little more and unfortunately has a lot more responsibility. But this kid is not ready to enter the big and bad world quite yet. I remember the vivid imagine of my teacher Mr.Griffin describing the reality of your first job. He said first day you are excited and are screaming with pride inside (WOOP WOOP!), then the next week you are like okay still pretty cool and feeling good and lucky about having this job (WOOP!). Then you become a little less pump it up about your job until it becomes a reaity that this is what you are going to be doing for years to come!

"These are the best days of your lives,so put on a smile and you'll be alright."
-Calvin Harris

I'm not quite ready for this. But I guess I have to wake up to the reality that College is not forever and I should cherish every single day, where I have a couple of assignments and tests here and there which seem super stressful at the time but after a couple days they seem like ancient history.
Also once you get the important things out of the way, you can go and enjoy a night out with your friends whether it be a simple movie, dinner, or night on the town. You have to budget your money, but the parents are there to back you up in case of emergency. And you don't have to get up everyday before 8am. You can arrange your schedule! how amazing is that?

Great Recent Technological Inventions

I have tried to think of some things which I would consider the best inventions in technology over the past few years. I came up with these few as my personal favorites.
SKYPE (free calling to anywhere in the world.how GENIUS!)
BLACKBERRY BBM (can send pics, voice notes, recordings for free and see if they got delivered and read),
Iphone applications (the list of amazing and useful apps on this device is mind-blowing and could go on all day, but I have to admit this would be the only reason why I would ever switch from the crackberry to an iphone.)
GPS NAVIGATION ( for all those times you were meant to look up your destination on Google maps, but never had the time to get around to it. Thank you for getting me to places on time GPS!)
Of course there is the IPOD (for when you are working out,in the library, or driving in your car. Its small, sturdy ,and convenient.)
Facebook (can be dangerous for love relaionships, but is a great source for sending a quick message or sharing some love by writing on the wall of your friends. Especially to your friends who live in different countries and you rarely get to see)

..if only I had invented one of these devices..

Switzerland vs. America

After finding out where I am from most people either ask, "So do you speak Swedish?" where I reply gracefully but bubbling inside," No,in fact, they speak french over there." Or they will ask a difficult question, to which I still don't know exactly how to answer. They ask me what the biggest difference between Switzerland and the states is.
Some things which come to mind are:

The weather (at least compared to Texas). There is a lot more snow in Switz.
The food and portions sizes (very big difference). Switz has much healthier food, my personal favorite is the cheese fondue, which does not taste at all like the "American ""Swiss"" fondue"!
I remember flying over to the states and going to the MacDonald's in the airport, where I ordered a cheeseburger meal and I thought they got my order wrong because the size of the coke and fries they gave me could not possibly be a small, but indeed it was!
The pace of things are a lot slower in Europe. Nothing is open on Sundays, it is against the law to mow your lawns or do any handy man work that might disturb your neighbours. It is also a lot harder to find who you need or find what you want unless you are well connected or know how the European way of life works. It takes a while to get used to after living in the fast moving pace of the States. Personally, I like a mix of both. It is nice to go back in summer and take it easy, and then come back to the states for school and have everything readily available and open 24/7.
Things are a lot more expensive in Switzerland, it's even in the list of top 10 most expensive cities to live in,so you can only imagine. That is a definite advantage of the states.
In Geneva, one even has to pay 20 cents or so for ketchup or any sauces you want at McDonald's!
Also the landscape is very different. Switzerland has the Alps, Lakes ,and countryside which is very beautiful and clean, whereas the states is much more tall buildings and big cites, streets, and houses.

Those are a few of the examples, but I can never fully explain the difference of each place, because the States and Geneva have very different cultures and atmospheres. I feel very lucky to be a dual-citizen and that I am able to get the best of both worlds, because each country has it's advantages and disadvantages. But I love the US and Switzerland and I would not want to be from any other countries!