harmony

Play chess is similar to fight in the real world ...

2006-11-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

Today I wanna talk to you about chess. This is considered as a game, sport or science but I think it depends of what someone feels. I mean the more you applied to chess the more importance it has for you. If you consider chess as a science is because you develop or learn methods, plans, estrategies or theories to improve and develop the enormous possibilities that exists playing chess. Last night I made an experiment with my 7 years old nephew. I realized he doesn't like to play chess so much especially because he is afraid to lose and this is natural for many of us. Some pieces of advantage in his favor let him to succeed but with the strongest pieces (i.e. castles and queen) the difficulties increase and discourages him to play.
However I found accidentally a way to motivate him to play again... I know he shows strong interest in playing and learning of me so I take advantage of this. He told me "Common, uncle Dany you are an engineer you have things more interesting to do together".
The effect of this words on me was effective. I started to mention about a secret plan to improve the security of our house using an alarm which could be activated in every room of the house. This was the first step, then we went through different parts of the house to get the necessary tools and equipment, and I said: "before we implement the system we have to make the plans and draws, I mean we have to design". My nephew was excited and motivated inmediately and of course he helps to draw the wires and bottoms and the location of the alarm equipment. I told him "The alarm's location is really important because if people doesn't notice the lights or listen the sounds, nobody can realize that to help us" ... "the thieves are intelligent most of time and they could plan to attack us any moment as in chess for example if they move his pawn to this square and we do this movement ... they could trap our king or father" ... My nephew interrupt me and said: "yes that's true but our mom (he was pointing out the queen) can help us by moving this way to this place and the thieves could use a misil (bishop) to take our knife"... Enough for me ... my mission of motivation was taking concrete form at this time so all I had to do was to contribute with more ideas to my nephew's imaginagion...
... And imagination it just what we need when a difficult situation appears. More ideas each time more complex because world is every time more complex .

FIFA Worldcup Germany 2006

2006-07-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

What about the Soccer WorldCup?
I had to recognize that this time, there's a particular interest because of the teams and their tradition. Six world champions were fighting: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy, England and France. Obviously there was no favorite in this context.
The expectations about Brazil and the way this team lost agaist France, motivate a lot of critics but this is ironic. In the case of many other countrys, the fact to reach that instance could be so great.

Reflexions

2006-05-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

Ok I continue. The idea respect to what should we do every time we have the necessity to fight against difficulties is challenging. Many people consider life like a play of chess. For instance, when we play chess we are analizing a changing situation every movement. Of course, we are supposed to make plans to succeed in the goal to trap the opponent's king. Hovewer, many times a surprise movement complicates our proposals and also big mistakes have bad consequences that we couldn't realize. So we are constantly trying to solve problems and looking for the best solution. The complexity is enough for human beings.
But, what about computers ... These machines have powerful capabilities to calculate so many possibilities if we compare them with humans. In the past, great masters of the chess could win the matches with computers. Novadays, advances in science and technology produces an "inteligent" computers that are able to make exellent plans with the combination of all theories and technics of chess, something that is really difficult for humans ...

What happens?

2006-05-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

I think this is a moment of inspiration to write ... Today in the morning I turn on the TV to watch something while I was taking a breath in my strange life. Well, while I was commuting the channels from 2 to 15 (the open air TV) I could realize that apart from the cartoons for children, the news presented were terrible containing too much violence. Crime, kidnappings, etc, the list is large ... A reality that we can't hide but influences our lives negatively.
We are unconsciously adopting the idea that those terrible situations are common everyday. According to this, it's not strange that violence is increasing but why the authorities can't manage the problem?.
There are many reasons to explain this question, but I think the matter of values is important here.
People in general know more than less about the meaning of values. The problem is that they are unconsequent with this values most of the time.
In our society if you don't take advantage of some situations you're a fool even if those actions are against your moral principles. So the things are changed, something that is white is consider black.
Now, how change this way of think?
Next blog I'll try to suggest some ideas ...

Ollanta o Alan?

2006-04-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

In the following lines I'm going to give my opinion about the situation of my country. The first phase of the election in Peru this year show us clearly that peruvians doesn't trust in traditional political parties. That was clear during the 90s after the first government of APRA. Fujimori appeared as a new alternative against the inminnent economical adjusts that Vargas LLosa was proclaming. But Fujimori did it exactly the same things he promised not to do it. Of course, at the beginning many people agreed with his political desicions because he seemed to fight against the corruption of politicians. Nothing more far from the reality ... That change produced an untrust feeling respect to politicians.
On the other hand, president Toledo doesn't change anything substancial about the heritage of Fujimori. The same economical model, the same corrupted estructures, etc, etc. Toledo obtained around 30% in the elections of 2000, of course he didn't represent the majority preference. People choosed him because they wanted to get rid of Fujimori, Montesinos and his corruption.
We know most of people choose their candidates according to their convenience and that's all. That only increase the corruption. They only want to accomodate in a convenient position so their situation could be improved. The candidates are there. We only have to choose, but many of us don't feel represented by him or her and the blank vote become a possibility. It's hard but it's true.
Well, I say "because of that I'll vote in blank". And I always do that, but for example Fujimori took advantage from this since the blanks benefit the winner... But this is another thing.
So now we face the question ¿Ollanta o Alan? Obviusly, Lourdes Flores and his party will prefer Alan Garcia because Ollanta Humala seems radical. I don't think that so much. There are several interests behind him since he is supported economically by people who are interested in keeping the presents conditions that benefit them.
Contradictions and contradictions ... Five new years of our lives are coming. Many people is getting older and the decisions are moving to the new generation who most of time doesn't know how to decide or what to do ... Alan García is more experienced in the government. About Ollanta HUmala, according to the history, he is an incognit. Now we know there will be a debate between both candidates and I think that event will reflect the strenghs and weaks of them.

What a pain!

2006-04-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel as if I were loosing the control of things. There is something that is producing a strange effect on me. Maybe it's time to change my life in a different way according to the circunstances. I understand that if we really want to get a goal it's necessary to make an effort.
Life is a constant fight in which people have opportunities. The fact is that we have to confront against the dangers and difficulties. They allways stay with us. Well, since there nothing I can do about that, it would be better to be prepared. At this time, it looks like studying abroad could be a good change for me. Actually, I was preparing myself to do that but there were some facts that have delayed me in this proposal.
On the other hand I hope get knowledge about new cultures. I know that living in another country has advantages and disadvantages hovewer my goal is to research a lot about my major so I could contribute better to the development of science. The influence of science and technology is too strong in our lives and it's increasing in an uncontrollated way so I think we don't have choice: we must to learn more in order ro understand more the world we're living...
Regards.

My nephew Sergio

2006-03-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

This time I wanna change the tone of the topics. Today I like to talk about my nephew Sergio who was born in 1999. He is the only child in my family and he is really mischievous. The convivence among adult people, makes him thinking as if he were adult, too. This has some advantages and disadvantages. For example, an advantage could be that he is able to act in a more mature way since he imitates behaviors. ... The disadvantage can appear during the process of socialization at schools with friends I mean the diference in interests and comunication.
During this summer I'm teach mathematics to some children from my neighborhood. Actually I like teaching and my nephew is included in the group. I realized that it's not the same when you teach someone you know I mean it's a kind of hard because my nephew sometimes behave a little bad taking advantage of the fact I'm the uncle. However, I could manage the situation succesfully and it motivates me to continue ...
Next month I'm going to teach chess. I mean I'm going to teach how to play chess applying some technics and strategies. It would be nicer for both of us, the feeling of being an important agent in the education of new generations is something that doesn't have price.
That's all for now.

Good luck!

Globalization

2006-02-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

Today I wanna talk about that phenomenon we called "globalization". In fact, the strong influence of this process is evident. If we compare how people used to live in 70's or even 80's the difference is considerable. The expansion in the use of computers and the Internet have been contributing to these changes. For example, an important consequence derived from this is the great interchange of information and knowdlege. Related to this point I heard that now the problem is not how to find the information, instead of that, the problem is how to manage the information properly. We are facing new problems even more complicated...
OIn the other hand the rhythm of the advances in the social development doesn't correspond to the one of the technology. This situation generates problems in the structure and organization of the society. It means that the culture and national identification are changing and everything they involve: values, moral principles, ethics, etc.

Teaching is so hard!

2006-02-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Definitely one of the most important activities I like to do is teaching. When I was eighteen years old I had my first opportunity to work as a teacher. My favorite major was physics but I taught math too to people who were preparing for the university. At that time, I was studying in the first cicle of my career.
Among the problems, I remember one. I was trying to continue developing the sequence of topics when a new students were added to the group of class. Of course, there was no choice because people who were managing the institution decided that for economic convenience.
Well, to avoid that the new students could be 'lost' during classes, I decided to go back and make a review of the topics I taught before continuing.
Other difficulties happened for example the long distance, the salary was not enough as usual. The pressure of the courses at the university, etc. made me to stop teaching.
Another experience I had was to teach children.
At this point I learned that children needs more than explanation, they should be stimulated with forms, pictures, educative games, etc.
When you get the educational objective, you feel that you contribute to the develop of our society and it's fulfill.
Well that's it for now.
Bye bye

A Challenge

2006-01-10T00:51:00.000-08:00

Things are at least three times more difficult that the 'box' says ... When I got my first computer I had the problem of viruses in the third day. At first, I couldn't realize what causes the failure because I was an inexpert user. So I sent the computer to the technician in order to solve the problem. Those guys only told me that the machine was unconfigured and that's all. Next day, my fixed computer got the same problem again. I was studying in the first cicles of electronic engineering so I had a kind of obligation to manage the failure by miself. It took me a week to run the computer again. However, I have to recognize that I learn a lot since that event because I started to research about the functions and parts and it also let me develop certain skills that become very uselful in several aspects of my life.

Destiny

2005-11-29T15:23:00.001-08:00

I was only 14th years old when my family had a discussion about the meaning of destiny. There were three ideas about what could be the meaning of "destiny". The first one explains that the destiny is something that exist and people aren't be able to change. The second one establishes that is the human being who makes its destiny, and the final one considers that the destiny is a kind of guide in which the human being has certain degree of liberty to act. Also, this kind of guide is given by God.
I think, the destiny of a being is the collection of events that happen and influence the being during its existence. People want to control destiny all the time but life is too complicated to get that. Controlling the destiny means to know what will happen. In that sense the second position doesn't has a good support. But it doesn't mean that in the future we would know the way to decide our destiny. Today seems impossible, however, it depends on our own development and knowledge. It's the same when in the past people didn't believed that earth was like an sphere.
In the last 100 years the advances in different branchs of knowledge have increased dramatically. It's difficult (but not impossible) to predict how would be the world in 20 years.
Can you imaging that?

Think about this

2005-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have heard that Macchu Picchu has been considered among seven wonders, the fisrt of the world. Well, actually it didn't surprise me because the way the incas did the 12 angle stone, for example, is almost a mistery. I know that a group of scientist of several countries tried to explain or reconstruct the possible ways the incas built their fantastic buildings. They tried to transport, cut and colocate the stones using modern maths and technology but the results weren’t succesful.
What could be learned from this?
People should follow the example of incas. This example shows us the possibilities that the human being has to develop. We are able to reach things that are considered impossible. Knowdlege is the key concept. The science is not absolute and is changing constantly. Things that are true now could be false tomorrow because of a new theory. It means that there are a lot of things that are waiting to be discovered …
It is a neccesity being prepared for the changes, the more we learn the more we can succeed. Maybe in Peru researching is a sacrifice but this is the way to open new possibilities to develop our society. The next generation heritage depends on our achievments.
I hope these reflexions motivate people to understand that we always have alternatives to discover new important ways to solve the complicated problems and contribute with the development of our culture. Also, it would insteresting to discuss and share more ideas as a way to learn more ...

First Topic

2005-10-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

It's common that people have a really well – paid job where they have the chance to arrange their own schedule. But they don’t get too much satisfaction from it. It’s not fulfilling.

They’d like to be promoted in their companies, but sometimes they lack leadership and social skills in order to communicate with coworkers.

Instead of continue working they decided to study abroad, specifically in the U.S. with the support of the family, but so many times people don’t like to change their lifestyle in another country.