Money, money everywhere!

Money, money, money!

Here is one of the most famous topic of group discussions: Does money bring happiness? I am sure most of my readers already have debate the subject and have very strong arguments. I want to discuss it in another way, something I have never thought before, something a little bit crazy. We are going to use a lot of imagination. Come, jump in a world where, on the 1^st of January 2013, at any given time, say 12 o’clock, EVERYONE ALL OVER THE WORLD suddenly became a billionaire! Every single human being, wherever they are on the planet, discovered stacks of cash in some place around them. How would the world be by today, 8^th of February 2013? Here are my guesses.

Office

Factories would definitely be closed; nobody has ever been interested into chain work. They would not need to come and do painful work anymore. It would be the same with minors, maids and every other painful job done only because one have to take care of a family or so. It will also be the case with low paid jobs like cashiers in super markets and staff in shopping malls. It would be funny to see how we would spend the money we all would have with no sales person. Researches would be the only ones to still go to office; money isn’t necessarily their main purpose. Finally, I would feel pretty bad for the people (usually men) who always take the excuse of office to run away from their spouse and develop other activities, if you know what I mean.

Education

My prediction is that schools would be pretty empty. Parents would not need to go to office anyway; they can take care and educate their kids peacefully at home. One third of colleges’ population would remain, since some students do not go there only for the hope to get a good job and get money, some go actually for the knowledge they get there. Some might also go there to run away from difficult family situations. 

Church

What we people pray about, now that they are stinky rich? 90% of the prayers will be cancelled since everyone finally got what they have been asking for. Only the most faithful ones would go to thank and praise the lord for all the money they got. 

Health

Doctors would be in an absolute dilemma. They have promised to always do everything in their power to save people’s life, regardless of their financial situation. Still, health care is one of the costliest services we can find on the planet. I think half of the doctors would work only for their family and friends or people they care about. It would be really hard to work in sane conditions anyway since all the cleaning personnel would never step foot in there anymore.

Daily life

Without personnel, entertainment places, shopping malls and bars would never open their premises, which would create a big problem since people would want to spend all the money they finally have. Some would not hesitate to break barriers and serve themselves for free, because there won’t be any policemen or security personnel anymore; they would be all billionaires anyway. There is high chance of civil war in such a state.

Our life in 2013 includes so many aspects that it is just impossible to give an accurate description of what the world would be in everyone was suddenly rich. I have not talked about subjects like food, politics, terrorism, law, economy, travelling,  and everything else you can think of.

 I am pretty sure anyway that the result of the loss of our greatest motivation in life would be chaos! This material disorder would considerably affect our moral values and perceptions of the world, and I highly doubt that we, human beings will be able to handle such a change. At least, it will certainly not make us happier. So, is the world better in its current state, with some people insanely rich and others miserably poor?

 Let’s stop here with what I consider is a pretty sad conclusion! I expect some comments though on how you picture such a world!

Les dieux voyagent toujours incognito

Les Dieux voyagent toujours incognito

 

 

I recently started to read books for one main reason: do like a lot of my friends who keep reading and share thoughts about them. I have to admit that it is also a great time killer! When you read an interesting book, time flies almost as fast as it does when you play video games. And surprisingly enough, I have been greatly encouraged to follow this path by the first book that I read in a very long time: “Les Dieux voyagent toujours incognito”, written by Laurent GOUNELLE. I have always been careful about translating books titles because of the possibility of losing the real meaning, but I think I’m pretty safe with that one: “Gods always travel unknown”. I had no idea what it could be about as I read the title but it became in no time one of the best stories I ever read.

The book starts with the description of a scene happening in Paris. A man, Alan GREENMOR is standing at a very high point on the Eiffel tower, ready to jump and commit suicide. We learn about his life and how he came to that decision: he was born of a mother who never cared about him but herself, he had numerous fathers as his own left him and his mother as he was not even conscious, he had been working in a field he was not at all interested in, and last by not the least, he’s been living a boring life until he day he met Audrey, who became right away the love of his life. He decided to commit suicide right after Audrey left him for no other reason than that she has lost interest in him.

He had planned his death following the instructions of a book he read about the perfect spot to do so, unnoticed.  Then the most unexpected thing happened: a man was standing right in front of him, watching him calmly. A discussion is engaged and Alan ends up accepting the craziest contract: he should not commit suicide, and instead, he should do exactly EVERYTHING the man, Yves DUBREUIL, tells him to do. Alan has to face a set of challenges which do not match a bit to his personality.

Laurent GOUNELLE is the writer of that novel. His books are highly inspired by his psychological studies, and just like Paulo COELHO, he teaches his readers on how to reach happiness and self-satisfaction. “Les Dieux voyagent toujours incognito” is full of lessons about how to deal with situations in which we do not feel comfortable, and how one should focus on what is really important in life.

I surprised myself enjoying the reading of this book, as it is the first one I read in a very long time. I even read the last 100 pages in only one night, and when it comes to me, this is an amazing record! Everything seems perfect in this book: the story itself, the way it is written, the tips you can learn from it and the inspiration you can get to change your own life. I have to say it helps me a lot to deal with daily situations. I don’t know if the English version exists yet, but I strongly recommend anyone to read “Les Dieux voyagent toujours incognito”, that’s why I don’t reveal the great and so unexpected climax! It will be really hard to explain it anyway!

See you on Friday!

The best professional sport ever!

The best professional sports ever!

Ladies, after reading this post, you will no longer watch football matches just to act like a good girlfriend trying to show interest to her boyfriend’s life. Instead, imagine yourself debating with him and his friends about who the best player is between Messi and Ronaldo, or whether there is an offside in a particular situation or not…  How cool would you be? Now just like any other sports, professional football follows hundreds of rules and regulations which have evolved over time, and there is no way I can explain everything without boring you in a single post. I will therefore stick to the most basic things you need to know. Get ready to be one of the coolest girls around! Guys may also learn something, so don’t skip it.

The organization

I deliberately start without writing a brief history of Football because I myself do not know much about it. We can just keep in mind that it was invented in England, somewhere back in the history of the world. From that time, it has always been the most popular sports over the world, especially thanks to the most famous world cup.

Professional Football starts at a country level, where federations of each country are responsible for organizing leagues. The principle of a league is pretty simple: it usually consists of 20 football clubs which will play twice against each other all over a season, and the winner of the league will be the one getting the greatest number of points after a season. Points for each match are given as follows: 3 points for the winner, 0 point for the loser, and 1 point for each team in case of a draw. 

At a higher level, continental associations (like UEFA is Europe) organized continental clubs competitions, with the best teams of each country.  The most famous of all is the UEFA Champions League starring the best European football clubs like: MANCHESTER UNITED, CHELSEA, ARSENAL from England; REAL MADRID and BARCELONA from Spain, JUVENTUS, INTER MILAN and AC MILAN from Italy, BAYERN MUNCHEN and BOROSSIA DORTMUND from Germany, and many others. The teams I just listed are regular of this competition because they very often hold the top positions of their respective country leagues every season. Their places are not at all guarantee as we could see these last years, since less popular teams get stronger and occupy better positions.

Finally there is the case of national teams, aka national selections. Football clubs can have international players regardless of the league to which they belong, but national teams can logically be composed of only players of the same nationality, regardless of the club for which they play. Continental associations organize continental competitions between national selections (eg: UEFA organiszes EURO, which is a competition held every 4 years between Europe top national teams) FIFA is the instance who organizes international competitions, like the world cup.

Each league or competition has its own specifics to find a winner but what does not change is the set of rules applied during a football match.

 

A football match

A Football match consists of two teams playing one against the other, during a regular time or 90 minutes, divided in two half of 45 minutes each and 15 minutes break in between. The winner of a football match is the team which scores the greatest number of goals in the allotted time. 3 referees are responsible to ensure the respect of the rules and keep track of the time. Each team is composed of 11 players playing at different positions: a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and strikers. The number of each type of player defines the tactics of a team; the most classic and balanced tactics is the "4-4-2": 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. Except for the goalkeeper, each team can choose the number of players they want at each position. The most used nowadays is the "4-3-3".

 Some common football rules: 

Only the goalkeeper has the right to touch with the hand, or a foul is given. A foul and a  yellow card (warning) is given if a player deliberately or dangerously stop an opponent instead of focusing on the ball. If a player gets a second yellow card in the same game, it is the equivalent of a red card and he is sent out of the game without the possibility to be substituted (that is, his team will finish the match with 10 players). A direct red card is given for an unacceptable behaviour on the pitch. Each team is allowed a maximum of 3 substitutions, but a player who's been replaced can't go back in the game. A penalty is given if a foul is committed in the bigger box around the post. In my next paragraph, i will discuss a simple, yet complicated rule: the offside!

Is the player offside? 

The offside is currently the most controversial rule in professional football. Explaining it can be a little challenge, but let me try. To be in an offside position, a player of one team in an attacking position, should be behind all the players of the other team (except the goalkeeper) at the time a pass is made to him by his team mate! Did you just say: "WHAAAAT??" I know,  I know you did not understand a thing! Just check the illustration below:

 When No11 RED did the pass to No. 10 RED, the latter was behind all the blue defenders, except the goalkeeper. This is what an offside position is. In such a case, the referee blows the whistle and gives a foul in favour of the BLUE team. Note these 2 points: The line that No. 10 RED should not cross not to be offside is defined by the position of the last BLUE defender (Here, No. 3 blue); also No. 10 RED position should be considered at the exact moment the ball leaves No. 11 feet and goes towards him, and this is what creates all the controversy.

Indeed, the sideline referee is the one who should detect and signal offside to the main referee to blow the whistle.His job is to check the position of the player that is supposed to receive the ball at the exact same time the player's teamate shoots the pass. This is almost immpossible humanly, therefore there is a lot of guessing happening. Added to the fact that it is a critical position because there are high to chances to score goals on these kind of situations, you understand why offside is such a delicate matter.



I had the plan to write a last note on another particular situation happenning in football, but i don't want to keep this post too long!! There will certainly be another post about football someday soon. Hope you learned enough! ;)

Review of my smartphone: Samsung B5512 aka Galaxy Y Pro Duos

The smartphone lover

If you are a smartphone lover and you’re looking for the best functionalities technology offers today, you need to be rich and buy an Apple iPhone 5 or a Samsung Galaxy S3, which are the year 2012 references. If you are not rich, but you still want the best, you can always fast for a couple of months, borrow money, rob a bank, or become a drug dealer, whichever gets you there the fastest…  and buy one of these phones.  Now to whomever not falling into the stated categories but still in need of a decent smartphone with all necessary functionalities, I’d like to introduce the Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos, the best phone I ever had!

Listing the features of this phone should be enough to convince everyone of its greatness. Capacitive touch screen, front and rear cameras, full QWERTY keyboard, 3G enable, WIFI included, Dual SIM, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and so on and so forth. Not satisfied yet? Let me add that it includes an optical trackpad, it comes with a free 2 GB memory card the can be got out without turning the phone OFF, Both speaker and microphone are loud and clear, the battery life can last up to 5 days with both SIM cards in, and it’s made of a combination of metal and plastic that gives it a great unisex look. If you still don’t believe in this phone, you might belong to the category I described in the first paragraph; just check with your psychologist!

What I love most about this phone is its ability to solve all the problems and doubts I had with my previous phones, or the ones I thought of getting. With the increasing number of full touch smartphones, I was worried about texting, since I am a big SMS and email sender. Well, guess what? The Galaxy Y Pro Duos comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, which is by far the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used on a phone (yes, better than the reference Blackberry). I was not sure about scrolling while on a web page, or correcting mistakes in my typing; Samsung had the great idea to include an optical trackpad, which dismisses all the limitations of a full touch phone. I was wondering how to handle two SIM cards on the same phone; the ease of customization of the different SIM is just mind-BLASTING! Adding the fact that the Wi-Fi and the 3G work great, that Android lets you to use and download the best games and applications ever, that everyone always ask you about this phone because it’s amazing and rare, and you might understand why I am so fond of it.

Nothing’s perfect, and the Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos does not escape this rule. One major drawback is the size of the screen: 2.8 inches. This is a little bit too low for a great browsing experience. The small size also affects some Android applications and games which demand different screen resolutions. Another limitation is the behavior of the phone during the call. The screen just goes blank, and pressing the lock/unlock button does not get you straight away to the call screen. It is even difficult to cut a call which can really frustrating on international calls. Last, but not the least, the keys on the both sides of the optical trackpad do not have backlights, therefore you have to guess what to press when you are in a dark room!

I am not rich, so I don’t own the best. But for the last 6 months I have the feeling that I have got the next best thing available in the market.  I obviously expect my readers to understand that this is a really biased opinion, based on my past experiences using mobile phones. But I’m pretty sure that the average phone user will definitely  love it as much as I do!

See you next Friday!

Cheers!