After being 20 minutes late due to some ticket issues, I finaly make it to the Carmike movie theatre in Manhattan, KS. I have been waiting a while for this movie since I read it back in 10th grade.  F. Scott Fitzgerald has written a timeless classic, that lived up to 2013 as a hollywood movie, because of that it will live forever.

In the novel Fitzgerald excels in portraying the economic state of the American society during the 1920′s. Back then after the war, the stock market sky rocketed and as a result a lot of families became known as the “new rich“. The clath between the new rich and the old rich gives birth to materialistic aristocrats. The story might seem like its your typical love story, but there is a hidden theme that encompasses the whole novel. And that is without doubt the American Dream.

Jay Gatsby (played by leonardo dicaprio) has a dream, and his dream is to be in a relationship with the love of his life, Daisy Carraway. Daisy is a symbol of the American dream, as Gatsby worships and idolizes her, along with giving her the hope and perfection of a dream that she does not deserve nor posses.  In a way, author Fitzgerald is trying to show us that the American dream is given a holictic reputatoiun, and to each american citezen that has an american dream, they are giving thier dreams flase hope.

Why is he called “The Great” Gatsby? Introducing a brutal sense of irony, Fitzgerald contradicts the main character by naming him that way, Gatsby trys to be great, only to impress Daisy and make himself worth marrying.Wealth in this era is like a hollow birthday ballon, it looks greay from the outside but is hollow in the inside. Under every luxurious mansion, there is  a corruption. Example, Daisy and her husband have this amazing luxurious house with servants and gardeners, but under the covers, Daisy’s heart is stolen by Gatsby, and Tom (daisy’s husband) is cheating on daisy with another woman.

People in this era persued pleasure, instead of happiness, which is what the promise of America is afterall. Material things can be taken to you very easily, therefore they are temporary pleasureable things. On the other hand, pursueing happiness gives us an eternal purpose to be happy.

QUESTION OF THE DAY!

Would you rather go after the Pursuit of Happiness or the Pursuit of Pleasure?

LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

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All Web companies should act like Google and Facebook. That is, every time they implement a really good idea they should simultaneously let loose with a real stinker. This keeps investors and the general public amused, or bemused. It also provides a steady stream of business school case studies that may edify future generations of entrepreneurs.

Witness these recent examples of decision-making, good and bad, from each company.

The YouTube Premium Option

YouTube reportedly is about to announce its introduction of premium pay channels in special interest areas, like children’s programming, music, comedy, and more. Subscription pricing is expected to start as low as $1.99 per month.

YouTube fans still will be able to upload or download as many crazy cat videos as they want for free. But programmers will have the option of moving behind the pay wall, and offering their content without advertising.

This is such a great idea that it’s amazing YouTube owner Google didn’t think of it earlier—like a couple of years ago, when original Web programming initiatives first got to be a hot topic.

As an alternative to advertising support, which so far has proved to be meager, the new revenue option could unleash a wave of creativity and higher production values that will benefit its producers as well as Google. If it succeeds, we may soon see young producers abandoning cable television for the relative freedom of the Internet.

This assumes that YouTube will keep its executive decision-making to a minimum, as it always has on the advertiser-supported site. The pay options are expected to be video-on-demand databases rather than programmed “channels” in any conventional sense.

On the downside for consumers, a ton of “free” content will inevitably move behind the pay wall. But given the current low level of advertising revenue for video, that content will inevitably move behind somebody’s pay wall, and soon.

YouTube dominates the market for advertising attached to digital video. But even if that spending climbs to the record $4.14 billion expected this year, digital video will still carry only 2.4% of advertiser dollars, according to CNN.

Google Glass: A Fashion Faux Pas?

If the Google Glass experiment goes down in history as a misstep, the pivotal date of its demise will be recorded as May 4, 2013. That’s when Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen appeared on the Weekend Update segment looking like a dork.

His performance as a twitching, muttering, eyeball-rolling geek wrapped up in his goofy headgear may put an end to anyone’s idea that Google Glass is socially acceptable, much less cool. If anybody needs more evidence, there’s a Tumblr page called “White Men Wearing Google Glass.”

Here’s a related question: If Apple really is developing an iWatch, is that any different? Will people look less silly interacting with their own wrists than they do interacting with their heads?

Facebook’s Mobile Move

Investors were heartened last week by signs of “improved mobile monetization,” as they call it, in Facebook’s first quarter earnings report. It seems that 30% of the company’s advertising revenue now comes from mobile placements, double the percentage just two quarters ago.

That addresses a major concern about Facebook, that it will be unable to hang onto its massive audience as it segues to mostly mobile Web access.

Which brings us to a much more important company project—Facebook Home. This mobile app places Facebook at the forefront of a user’s smartphone experience—literally replacing the usual selection of icons with a Facebook feed.

That’s a smart move for existing members, who are likely to at least scan their Facebook updates more frequently. It’s even smarter for newer emerging-market users, who may experience this Facebook-centric page as a real home page, the way users once focused on the top-level pages of AOL.com or Yahoo.com.

Unfortunately, Facebook Home may be getting a rocky start. CNet reports that installations are slow, and early user reviews are negative.

Zuckerberg’s Political Misstep

Surely there couldn’t be a downside to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to champion immigration reform. If anything, it highlights a positive aspect of the issue: The desire of companies like his to recruit the world’s best employees in order to build and nurture America’s “knowledge economy.”

But his political action committee or PAC, called FWD.us, has been funding advertising campaigns that praise congresspeople from conservative districts for supporting various conservative causes, so that those congresspeople can get away with one little lapse from conservative orthodoxy—that is, a vote in favor of immigration reform.

The PAC is churning out highly partisan attacks on “Obamacare” and “Chicago-style politics,” and apparently endorsing highly controversial measures like oil drilling in the Alaska wilderness and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Obviously, Zuckerberg’s name and face is not all over these ads, but it’s no secret that he is behind the PAC.

So, does this mean that the highly visible Facebook founder favors drilling in the Alaska wilderness, or opposes Obamacare?

Not at all. His bipartisan PAC would cheerfully bankroll a campaign on either or both sides of those issues if it would get another vote in favor of immigration reform.

Somehow that makes it ickier, public relations-wise. Unless Zuckerberg really wants to alienate a really broad spectrum of his site’s users.

This story originally appeared on Minyanville.

Hello Dreamers!

Im so excited about this because just recently my iphone 4S screen cracked. The price to replace the screen in kuwait is way off so i decided not to do it since i already have an iphone 5 and I’m only here for a few weeks. Anyways so the big news today is sapphire could potentially be used for smart phone screens!

While the latest Gorilla Glass, Gorilla Glass 3, is twice as hard as its predecessor (Gorilla Glass 2), Sapphire is 3 times as hard and durable as the current Gorilla glass which is huge.

However there is only one downfall to this, the price of the sapphire is currently too expensive to be used commercially. Reports show the sapphire screen costs $30 per unit while gorilla glass costs $3 which could tempt companies to not invest in it due to its price. It is predicted though that the price will eventually drop to $20 a unit which is still compared to gorilla glass more expensive.

Standing from a distance you see swaying hands and rocking heads from side to side. You get hypnotized by the sorrow tunes of the violin, and you fall in love with that girl on stage.

Today I saw Lindsey Sterling, only 26 years old and she’s living her dream! #kudos Sterling, best known for her choreographed violin performances has grown into a youtube sensation. It was back in 2007 when she starting pursueing her passion, back when people told her that what she did wasn’t marketable. And now a few years later, we thank you Lindsey for proving them wrong. Proving that you can do what you love and STILL earn a living.

The concert was simply a project made from years of hard work, her precise choreography and excellent skills leaves us with high expectations. I can assure you that she not only met our expectations, but exceeded our standards. Regardless of the small theatre, and the poor organization of the whole venue, Lindsey stated a point tonight, that its all about the MUSIC. It dont matter where it is, whether its raining or warm and humid, we are all here for the music! Young and old, short and tall, we all enjoying a taste of Lindsey!

I would give the concert 7 clouds/10 clouds.

Below a short blog by myself, and concert videos!

In the fitness world, certain truths are held to be self-evident: Big lifts produce big gains, greater intensity fuels greater results, and less rest equals less fat and more strength. But science is now finding that many of these hard-and-fast muscle rules are not as immutable as we once thought. “We’re a lot smarter than we were even 5 years ago,” says Bill Hartman, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training. “Researchers and trainers are all starting to agree on what works and what doesn’t.”

The guessing game, in other words, is finally coming to an end. Read on to discover how the nation’s top fitness coaches are incorporating lab-tested strength secrets into their workout plans, and how you can do the same to lift more weight, build more muscle, and lose those 10 extra pounds you’ve been complaining about since college. The path to the body you’ve always wanted starts here.

OLD WAY: STRETCH FOR STRENGTH

NEW WAY: Warm up with jumps

There’s a reason why sprinters hop a few times before stepping into the starting blocks: Jumping kick-starts the central nervous system, helping to activate more muscle fibers. “The name for this neuromuscular priming is postactivation potentiation (PAP),” says Tony Gentilcore, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Cressey Performance in Hudson, Massachusetts. “And it’s a key to greater strength both in and out of the gym.” Consider this: Separate studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research show that inducing PAP through jumps can help you leap more than 7 percent higher and squat nearly 18 more pounds.

APPLY IT: For an immediate boost prior to a lower-body exercise, do three quick countermovement jumps: Push your hips back, bend your knees, and leap vertically. For upper-body moves, Gentilcore recommends a single, extra-heavy rep at the beginning of an exercise. “It fires up your nervous system and makes the subsequent reps feel significantly lighter.”

OLD WAY: GO HARD OR GO HOME

NEW WAY: Do less work

You don’t have to push your body to the limit to see results, says Martin Rooney, C.S.C.S., CEO of Training for Warriors. “Training eventually becomes less effective as you tire and your form breaks down.” After that threshold, gains dwindle and injury risk increases. The key is to figure out the dose that helps you meet your goals without jeopardizing your health.

APPLY IT: Don’t do more than a total of 22 good sets in a workout if you’re looking to bulk up, says Rooney. Also, limit yourself to 4 sets per exercise. Researchers in Australia found that more than 4 sets offers diminishing returns.

OLD WAY: ALWAYS LIFT HEAVY

NEW WAY: Go light to grow big

“High weight, low reps” is the classic mantra of men who are trying to pack on size and

strength. But a new study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that lifting lighter weights for more reps—3 sets of up to 30—can boost growth as much as lifting heavy weights in the 8-to 12-rep range. “As long as your muscles reach fatigue, they’ll grow,” says John Romaniello, N.S.C.A.-C.P.T., owner of Roman Fitness Systems. “And some muscles, like those in your lower body, respond better to high reps.”
APPLY IT: Do “breathing reps” for several of your lifts: Load a bar with a weight you can squat, press, or lift 12 to 15 times, and do those reps. Without letting go of the bar, set it down, take two breaths, and do 1 or 2 more repetitions. Continue the process until you reach 20 reps. That’s 1 set; do 3. “Including both highland low-rep sets in your workouts ensures that you’re hitting both your fast-and your slow-twitch muscle fibers,” says Romaniello.

OLD WAY: HOIST MORE WEIGHT

NEW WAY: Haul more weight

Most men are accustomed to lifting, pushing, and pressing heavy loads. But when asked

to carry one—whether it’s a sandbag, kettlebell, or air conditioner—many become a stumbling mess after a few paces. That’s because “loaded carries” simultaneously test your stability, mobility, balance, and grip while keeping your muscles under constant tension. “They challenge your entire body, especially your lateral core strength, which is critical for everything from fast cuts to powerful serves,” says Stuart McGill, Ph.D., author of the seminal study on the subject, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

APPLY IT: Add the suitcase carry to your next workout (like this one). Grab a heavy kettlebell or dumbbell (45 pounds is a good starting weight) and walk forward and backward for 30 to 75 seconds. “The asymmetrical load works your obliques—which are important for lateral core strength—as well as your glutes, which are essential for athletic power,” says McGill.

OLD WAY: WATCH THE CLOCK

NEW WAY: Personalize your rest

Trainers know that exercise affects everyone differently, and Brazilian researchers recently confirmed that notion when they found that people differ significantly in their recovery needs. And without proper recovery, performance suffers, especially if you’re doing circuits. “Use a heart rate monitor to customize your rest,” says Rachel Cosgrove, co-owner of Results Fitness in California. “Waiting until your heart rate reaches a certain level results in true recovery between work periods, which is particularly beneficial for losing weight.”

APPLY IT: Determine your maximum heart rate: Multiply your age by 0.7 and then subtract that number from 207. Then strap on a heart rate monitor and track your pulse between circuits. When it drops to 75 percent of your maximum, begin your next one. “Your rest periods will become longer the farther you get into your workout,” says Cosgrove. “But your form—and performance—should be better throughout.”

menshealth.com

We’ve all had them and we’d wish they would stop. I had a bad case of midnight cravings in the past and I have a few tips to help you guys suppress those crazy cravings!

Eating heavily at night is proven to lead to weight gain and is the worst time to eat because your body can’t burn all the food off which then when you fall asleep, is converted into fat since it’s basically its unused.

My tips:

1) The most important tip of all, get your sleep! Staying awake at night is what essentially makes you eat. Sleeping early will do wonders to those cravings.

2) If you know you’re not hungry but can’t sleep, keep yourself busy to get your mind of food. You can read a book, meditate, play games on your iPhone till you doze off!

3)Now what if you can’t sleep and is still hungry? Having a light snack before you sleep isn’t gonna do any harm. For the fellas( and ladies), you can have a protein shake or an apple. You can eat other fruits but apples are my personal favorite.

4) Lastly, if you’re really hungry like you skipped dinner or anything like that have a salad. Remember to always feed your body! It’s never good to go to sleep on an empty stomach. While its true to eat less at night, it’s never good to skip meals. Mixing tuna with greek yoghurt with salad, boiled eggs and honey mustard sauce? BEST SALAD EVER!

If any of you have past experiences you want to share, leave a comment below!

Keep Dreaming!

What is the world gonna be like in 10 years? 20 years?

The real question should be what is the universe gonna be like in 10 years? Because in 10 years, the first group of humans will be flying off to Mars! The last time humans walked on the moon was 1972.

This is a huge step in science and technology, never in history has this even thought to be possible till now.

The training for this mission is eight years though, so get ready to work your ass off for it if you decide to go :p

This jam is the shit! Its wicked and sick, if you’re anything like me you LOVE comedy rap, i thought kanye was king of comedy rap, huh! He aint got nothin on Machlemore (sorry kanyeezy). Poking fun at the expanding number of people with a discount-fancy-dress-chic approach to fashion, he raps: “Draped in a leopard mink, girls standing next to me/ Probably should have washed this/ Smells like R Kelly‘s sheets,” over a sax hook that quickly lodges itself in the brain. The result is a rare beast of a song – original, musically daring and genuinely funny.

This nigga must be high on thrift shopping when he wrote this! #forreal I easily get bored of music, when I tell you that i’ve been playing the song on-repeat for 2 days, its says how much you will love it too!

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Recently i got the Diana F+ camera as a gift and just had time to try it out! It’s not a professional camera, it’s actually uses film which is kind of cool, gives it a vintage touch!

It’s fun taking pictures with it, because it’s not really that complicated, you have a few options but other than that its just a click and you’re done! I developed my first roll and my pictures weren’t that great though, which I’ll provide below so I got a lot of learning to do!

One of the main reasons why I like this camera is because it’s not complicated. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer but rather an artistic person because I go between writing, drawing and taking photographers so it really suits me. I don’t need a fancy $3000 camera and all those lenses.

Overall I would give this camera a 10 clouds out of 10 clouds! I’m really enjoying this camera and would suggest it to any beginner.

Here are some of the photos I took: