Honestblogs

4/ Pulp Fiction.

Pulp Fiction.

Pulp Fiction is one of the most iconic movies of the 90s. Today, it’s regarded as a classic. It has had an immense influence on pop culture over the decades (a feat which only a few movies like The Matrix have achieved). Hence, it’s one of the greatest movies of all time.

It is a movie written and directed by none other than, the great and electrifying Quintin Tarantino. It’s a movie about crime and drama. It was made in 1994. It stars Jhon Travolta, Samuel L Jackson (the F bomb guy we all love), Uma Thurman (my new favorite heroine from Kill Bill), Bruce Willis and Tarantino himself. He even plays part in his own movie! How cool is that lol.

It’s Tarantino’s 2^nd movie.

The plot

So, one of the reasons why this movie is so iconic in history is because of its weird plot which everyone absolutely loved! The movie follows 3 distinct stories, but the fun part is all these stories are connected to each other. This weird interconnection between plots within plot made this film, in a sense ‘revolutionary’.

As with all Tarantino movies; the story is told in different chapters. There are 7 chapters in this movie. And… there is an ample amount of drugs and violence to satisfy your needs ; )

It follows an old-school, over the top storyline (which I’ve grown to love).

So, the movie follows the everyday life of two thugs, Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield (played by Travolta and Jackson respectively) who work for their boss Wallace. As well as the boxer Butch Coolidge (played by Bruce Willis).

The first story follows the interactions between Vincent and Mia Wallace (played by Uma Thurman), who is Vincent’s boss’s wife. His boss had asked Vincent to ‘take care’ of his wife while he was away for work. Hence, Mia and Vincent have a ‘semi-date’ while Wallace is gone, and the date quickly takes a very unexpected turn.

The second story follows the dealings of Vincent and Jules with a bunch of teenagers who are ‘not returning’ their boss’s money. It follows an altercation which goes south very quickly lol.

And the last story is about the boxer Butch, who tries to double cross Wallace (the thug boss) by running away with his money. This story quickly gets weird as fuck. It’s quite honestly disturbing, but in a good way lol.

It’s a crazy fucking plot with lots of twists and turns.

Moreover, all these stories are related to each other. Hence, the audience is “delightfully confused” throughout the whole duration of the movie, and when it all makes sense at the end, it’s orgasmic.

The cinematography.

If I said I know a lot about cinematography then I would be lying, so I’ll tell what I know. The movie is pretty fast paced, you do not get bored at any time of the movie (except maybe at the beginning). The quick little frame cuts from scene to scene makes the movie seem fast and exciting. I liked it.

The direction.

This is where Tarantino shines.

The dialogues are punchy and over the top. The characters are made to look so out-of-the-world but are still reasonable. Seriously, the dialogues, especially the ones for Samuel L Jackson were so badass! I loved it.

The drama aspect of the movie is also on point. The characters’ personality shines in the movie. Each character has been given enough breathing space for the audience to connect with them, and each one of them is unique. For example; Vincent is clumsy and slow (almost bored with life lol) whereas Jules is a fast talker and exaggerative.

Also, the use of violence in the movie is on point. There is violence in the movie but it is not used unnecessarily. Whenever there is violence in the plot, it usually serves as a turning point in the movie. Hence, it is used as a tool to move the plot forward and make it more impactful, which I appreciated.

And lastly, the cast was also awesome. All actors did a fantastic job, especially Uma Thurman (as a spoiled rich lady) and Jhon Travolta (as a slow, clumsy thug) play their part to make the characters feel organic to audience.

Things I particularly liked.

The direction, and the way that the story progresses so quickly, with no time for audience to be bored, were the highlights for me regarding the movie.

Conclusion.

It’s by far my favorite Tarantino movie. If you want to watch a badass movie as well as learn some pop culture references, you can’t go wrong with PULP FICTION.

Rating: I freaking loved it!

Vainglory

I should be studying right now. I’m only writing this because I’m such a dumbass lol.

A game I used to play (a lot).

This game is called vainglory. It’s a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Yup, games have many genres if you didn’t know already lol. MOBAs are strategy games; they require you to think and come up with a strategy to win. There are a lot of very popular MOBAs around, such as DOTA2, and the legendary World of Warcraft.

However, Vainglory was a relatively new game back in 2016. It was a very special game in the sense that it was designed to be played on smartphones and tablets instead of the traditional PC. This was a HUGE deal. To make a MOBA work (and work well) on mobile platforms was a new concept; It had never been done before. But SEMC (Super Evil Mega Corp), which is the company behind Vainglory, did it (and they did an awesome job at it).

I’ve been playing this game since grade 9.

It’s quite a complex game. It’s kinda like chess, but a lot more.

So, guess I’ll try to explain it to you all lol.

The aim of the game.

So, this is the map. It’s huge.

The blue circle area is where you, and your 4 other online teammates will start the game. Each team has 5 players. 2 teams compete at a time. At the center of the blue circle in the picture, there is a Vain Crystal. Remember the Vain Crystal, it’s the most important part of the game.

So, at the opposite part of the map, there the enemy team’s base (shown as the red circle in the picture). It too, has its own Vain Crystal like your own base.

So, the goal of the game is to: Get to the enemy base and destroy their Vain Crystal.

Yup, that’s it. The moment your team destroys the enemy’s Vain Crystal, the game ends and you win.

But… to get to that point, there are a lot of things you need to do lol.

The map.

Let’s take a closer look at the map. After all, this is where all the action happens.

So, this is the map.

There are a lot of details in it, but I have shown the most basic ones only.

So, to get to the enemy base and destroy their Vain Crystal, there are 3 lanes (shown by green arrows in the picture) which you can use. Your whole team can get into the enemy base through any of these 3 lanes. But…

There are enemy turrets (shown in yellow circles) in each lane. And these turrets hit you and they hurt! Hence, you cannot get to the enemy base with out destroying all the turrets the lane (otherwise, the turrets will hit you and you will die).

The way to destroy these turrets will be explained later.

Now, another feature of this huge map are objectives (shown in white circles). So, while in the game, if your team captures one of these objectives, your team will get a huge advantage for a limited amount of time.

The remaining areas in between lanes is the jungle. The jungle has lots of interesting things in it (which I will discuss later).

So, that’s the basic overview of the map.

Minions.

These cute little creates are Minions.

These are your best friends in the game lol.

Remember Turrets? I mentioned above that in order to get to the enemy base, you have to destroy all the turrets in the lane.

But the turrets are too powerful and they hurt!

So, how can you possibly destroy them?

The answer is: Minions.

See, at fixed time intervals, your base will spawn a group of these minions for each lane (there are 3 lanes remember?) So, these minions move along each lane and help you fight the enemy turret; that is, they will take hits from the turret (and die) while you can continuously damage it. So, that way, you can destroy turrets without getting hurt.

However, the enemy base will also spawn its own minions. So, the enemy team can do the same to your turret. Hence, it’s important to defend your own turrets and try to destroy enemy turrets.

Also, if you kill an enemy minion a certain way, you will get gold (which is the primary currency of the game). It’s the most common way of earing gold in the game. The process of killing enemy minions and getting gold is called farming. See, games have their own vocabulary!

Heroes and team combinations.

So, in every game you will choose a character/hero (there are many characters in the game). You will play the whole game as this hero.

As heroes, you will fight against the enemy heroes (enemy team).

Each hero completely unique character. Each hero has its own abilities, passive abilities, strengths, weaknesses and a completely different way of playing. So, choosing a hero is the most important step in wining a game. If you choose the wrong hero, then you will have a really hard time winning (you will prolly get your ass kicked by the enemy lol).

Some heroes are ranged ie; they can hit you from afar. While other heroes are melee ie; they have to get close to hit you. Whereas, some heroes are in between, they can hit you from near and far!

Some heroes play generally in the lane, whereas others play in the jungle. The possibilities in this game are endless lol.

These heroes can be classified into many different groups based on their general play style.

Mages: These are heroes that usually have a really long range. They do a lot of damage to large groups of people from afar (AOE: area of effect damage) with their abilities but, they are very weak (can be killed easily).
Bruisers: These are tank heroes. They are really strong and can stay in fights for a long time without dying. They also do a fair amount of damage; however, they are mostly melee heroes, hence need to get close to do damage (which can be really hard!)
Assassins: These are also melee heroes but they are quite fragile. They do a lot of damage! Especially to a single target. They are generally fast heroes so that they can get in and out of battles quickly without dying.
Snipers: These are ranged heroes but with a moderate range (less than mages). They can do massive damage to single targets (unlike mages which can do AOE damage). They are also fast (unlike mages) so they can chase down enemies quickly. They are however, fragile and can be killed easily.
Support: This is a very large category of heroes whose primary job is to protect their teammates and help them in fights. They are usually tanks who can take hits from the enemy without dying while protecting their teammates. They have special abilities that support their teammates instead of themselves.
Utility heroes: They are a sub group of Support heroes. They provide utility to the team, such as slowing the enemy and blocking enemy advancements.

Note that these categories are flexible. There are many heroes which are combinations of these categories as well as exceptions.

Each team ideally has a combination of different types of heroes who perform specific functions. The types of heroes you choose depends on what your team combination is about. Some team combs are designed to aggressive and finish the game quickly, whereas other team combs are designed to play defensive early game, get stronger and then fight with the enemy late game.

Hence, there are so many combinations possible in the game and each hero in the team influences the character of the whole team.

Hence, while choosing heroes, paying attention to what your team wants to do in the game is crucial. If your hero doesn’t fit with the team comb then you will have a hard time being impactful in the game.

Also, since each hero is unique, you must be familiar with your hero’s capabilities as well as what your enemy hero is capable of doing. Having a detailed knowledge of the enemy is absolutely crucial to winning. Without knowing your enemy’s strengths and weakness, you cannot win. Hence, being familiar with all heroes in the game is mandatory to be good at this game.

It’s kind of complex lol. But wait, there is more…

The Shop.

Weapon power and Crystal power.

This is the shopkeeper.

Remember I mentioned that, when you kill an enemy minion a certain way you get gold.

But what do you do with all that gold you earn in the game?

Well, you can go to the shopkeeper in the map and buy items in exchange for gold. These items make you stronger in the game and can even give you special abilities!

There are a LOT of items to buy in the shop, each item giving the player special advantages. Items can also be classified into categories:

Weapon items: These increase the strength of your basic attacks. These include, increasing your attack speed, giving life steal etc.
Crystal items: These improve your abilities. These include, slowing enemies down with abilities, inflicting mortal wounds on your enemies, reducing your ability cooldowns etc.
Defense items: These items improve your hero’s health and provide protection. These include, armor (to protect from basic attacks), shields (to protect from enemy abilities) etc
Utility items: They improve other aspects of your character. These include, teamwide shields, slowing enemies down, increasing your movement speeds etc.

The way you play your hero and how effective you are in the game heavily depends on the items you choose. If you choose the wrong items; items that don’t fit your hero, then you will be useless in the game. Hence, it’s important to learn which items to buy and in what order to buy them.

The items you buy also depend on what your hero does. Like if you are a support hero, you will probably buy utility and defense items, where as if you are a mage hero, you will probably buy crystal items.

Counter building – The items you buy should also reflect the items your enemy is buying. For example; if the enemy team is buying more shield, then your team should invest more on shield piercing items. That way, you can counter your enemy’s items.

If your hero uses basic attacks to do damage, then you should buy more weapon items. Such heroes are called weapon powered WP heroes. Example: mostly snipers.

If your hero uses abilities to do damage, then you should buy more crystal items. Such heroes are called crystal powered heroes CP heroes. Example: Mages.

Some heroes are compatible with both CP and WP routes. Hence, their playstyle depends heavily on what items you buy.

Jungle.

So, we haven’t talked much about the jungle, have we?

So, the jungle covers a large portion of the whole map (see the map above). The jungle provides many opportunities for players who want to keep to themselves instead of farming in the lanes.

The jungle has jungle monsters. The players can kill these jungle monsters and gain gold and XP. Some jungle monsters also have buffs (temporary enhancements) such as the Weapon monster. Killing these special monsters give you temporary wp or cp advantage.

The enemy has their own jungle. At times, the enemy might sneak into your jungle to kill your monsters and gain gold themselves. This is quite common strategy. Hence, while playing in jungle, the player must be mindful of enemy invaders. While this is a disadvantage for some players, if you can successfully steal the enemy’s monsters yourself then the rewards can be worth the risk going into enemy territory.

The players who play as jungle heroes have the responsibility to help the nearby lane heroes by killing the enemy lane heroes – a process called ganking. They are also responsible to take the map objectives; although it’s usually a group endeavor.

OTHER STUFF.

I have only scratched the surface of the game.

There are SO MANY other things that I have not covered here, it’s already 2000 words! There are advanced strategies, and play-styles. I’ve not even discussed concepts like kiting, lane freezing, crowd control, ace, power spikes, hyper carrying, mechanics vs strategy, last hitting etc. It would take another 2000 words or more to explain it all lol. This game is too complex to explain it all.

Hence you get the idea how complex this game is. And what’s more, it’s relatively simple in comparison to its PC counterparts such as DOTA.

Conclusion.

I’ve been playing this game since grade 9 and I still haven’t learnt how to use all the heroes or all the strategies possible in the game. There are simply too many possibilities with this game. Too many strategies to master.

The reason I wrote this whole thing is, I am deeply fascinated by the sheer creativity and genius of people who design such amazing games. I mean, playing this game takes years to master; imagine what it took to design it. From complex strategies to infinite team combinations, this game has it all.

People are amazing. It’s crazy how they can build amazing things.

Unfortunately, due to financial reasons the game developers decided that they could not continue to support this game; hence they declared that they would stop updating the game in January of 2020. This was a shocking news for the game community; and many people were saddened by it. SEMC decided it will gradually shut down the servers for the game and the game will slowly die. People loved this game.

Holy fuck, it sounds so emotional lol. I’m not crying deep inside.

Cheers!

= )

learning fascinating stuff 07

Learning fascinating stuff.

People can have the deficiency disease Rickets even if they have enough vitamin D in their bodies. This is because Vitamin D (cholecalciferol) needs to be converted to it’s active form calcitriol in the kidneys. If the person has kidney disease, then no matter how much vitamin D the person has, it will not have any effect on the body as it cannot be converted to calcitriol. Hence, renal rickets can not be treated by vitamin D supplements.

Rickets can also occur in a person if the cells have abnormally small numbers or defective form of calcitriol (active form of vitamin D) receptors proteins. In such cases, even if there is enough amount of calcitriol in the body, it cannot act on cells because of faulty acceptor proteins. Hence, in such people as well, increasing vitamin D dosage will not improve the patient’s condition. However, administrating mega doses of calcitriol can be helpful.

One of the reasons why the human bodies age is because of oxidation by free radicals. As the body ages, powerful biological anti-oxidants like vitamin E deplete in concentration. Hence, they cannot protect the cell membranes from oxidation (and destruction) by free radicals. So, cells start to die (eg: RBCs undergo hemolysis, they rupture). This is one of the reasons why we get old.

Bone is a dynamic tissue that is strongly influenced by endocrine factors to restore balance between re-absorption and bone formation. Your bones are continually being reabsorbed and formed in your body! And it’s tightly regulated by your endocrine system.

Prothrombin time (PT) and blood clotting time are increase during vitamin K deficiency (since clotting factors require vitamin K to be activated). However, these are also taken as indicators for liver function. If the liver is not functioning properly ie; the liver is not producing clotting factors then also PT will increase. In such cases, administrating vitamin K dose doesn’t not stop excessive bleedings in patient (since there are no clotting factors in the first place). So before and after administration of vitamin K, PT should be checked to ensure if it’s working or not. This is especially important before surgeries.

To my 6th-grade art teacher.

To my 6th-grade art teacher:

Dear miss,

Fuck you.

Yours sincerely,

A student of yours that you don’t remember.

= )

BLACK AND STUPID

So, let me tell you a story that happened many many years ago. A story that happened when I was just a kid. A story that happened in grade 6.

A story that I still remember.

So, in grade 6 I just got transferred into a new school (changing schools had become a habit by then lol). It wasn’t only the school that change in my life, I moved to a whole new city with my family, leaving all of my old homies back home behind. It was… as you might expect a little rough for little kid lol.

So anyways, I was kinda shy. Didn’t really talk much. I really wanted to blend into my new school; I did not want to stand out in any way in that strange new place. I was never built for attention anyways. So, I did what I do best: stay quiet and remain hidden in a crowd of kids who were just like me. Slowly things got settled down and I made a few friends. And it was there that I first met Kale.

See, Kale (literal meaning: Black) and I were kinda like best friends. Well, we never admitted that because we thought only girls had best friends; we were real strong men after all lol. But yeah, I and Kale used to hang out together. Kale never used to study. He was the laziest motherfucker I have ever met. I, on the other hand, used to study my ass off because I was so scared of failing. So, it was a weird friendship.

I never liked people who studied really hard; there is always a sense of distance and competition with those smartasses. Instead, I always used to hang out with the laziest motherfuckers in school; they were at least genuine, and I could have real friendships with them. Also, they were way more fun than the ‘smart kids’. So, I and Kale used to do dumb shit together, and I loved every second of it.

Btw, did I tell you that Kale was the blackest person I have even seen in real life? Seriously, he was black as coal lol.

But all in all, Kale was my best friend. He was dumb, he was fun and he was crazy. And I loved him to death.

IN COMES THE BITCH

So, in grade 6 we used to have these art classes.

To be honest with you, I was (and still am) not good at art. But I always had a deep sense of fascination for it. That was until this bitch came into my life and fucked it all up.

So, in grade 6 (the same year I got transferred to my new school), my school hired a new art teacher. I would tell her name here, but honestly, I forgot it lol.

Anyways, so this bitch was ‘supposed’ to be our art teacher. She was pretty young from what I can remember, a 20 something girl who I believe was experiencing her first job as a 6th-grade art teacher. No wonder she fucked it up!

So, the issue with her was, SHE WAS JUST SO FUCKING MEAN!

I mean, I don’t know what her problem was, but she was always in a bad mood. Every little mistake used to piss her off and she used to scream at us for no apparent reason (crazy bitch). And what’s more, she used to pay attention to only those kids who could actually draw, talent-less dumb asses like me and Kale didn’t exist for her in the class.

Now, if she had just let us be by ourselves and not given us any attention what-so-ever, I would have been fine. Really, I never wanted attention anyways and I sure as hell didn’t want any attention from this crazy bitch. But nope! She even failed to do that one thing, that I desperately wanted her to do, that is to do nothing!

But this bitch was hell-bent on making my life (along with the whole class’s life) difficult. She decided to give weekly homework for the whole class! Homework! Who the fuck gives art homework? That too, for 6th graders. This bitch thought art was like mathematics or science.

Let me tell you if you didn’t already know this.

No, it isn’t bitch! It’s art! We didn’t even get graded for that shit. That bitch had a fucked-up sense of priority lol. She thought art was more important than any other subject lol. And what’s worse? The homework she used to give wasn’t even interesting! I mean, it’s art! How hard can it be to give kids something interesting to do? But nope, she said every week, we had to draw patterns in little boxes, and each one should be different from the other. Now, a couple of patterns every week would have been fine, but she demanded that we make 50 patterns to her every week! AND EACH ONE SHOULD BE UNIQUEEEEEEEEEEEE

I feel shivers even when I think about that assignment lol.

So, me being the guy who sucks at art, obviously struggled with this homework. 50 patterns were a lot! I mean, it doesn’t seem much but wait until you make the first 20 and then run out of ideas for the remaining 30. I just couldn’t do it. Plus, there was all that homework from other more real subjects. Subjects we actually had exams for. But I was so terrified of this bitch that I woke up late nights, thinking about the doomsday; the day when this bitch finds out that I had only done 32 out of those stupid 50 patterns.

Now don’t think that I didn’t try. Remember I used to be so scared of failing? Yup, so I was so scared of her that I used to spend hours every week trying to complete this stupid homework she gave me. I gave it everything that I had and somehow (God is great), I used to barely complete it just seconds before she came and checked it.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

Now, as it happened that day, she was checking everyone’s “homework” on this beautiful sunny day. Now, no matter how beautiful the day might be, this bitch was always pissed off. And no one knew why lol. I guess she used to argue with her boyfriend or something but, she was always on the edge, ready to explode in the class.

So, she was checking everyone’s homework on by one. The whole class was terrified. No one spoke a word. And as she was coming closer and closer to my desk and I could feel my heart pounding against my rib cage. You know the feeling they show in movies, where the main character knows that his fate is sealed, so he closes his eyes and peacefully dies? Yup, that was what I was feeling. I was getting ready to be crucified in front of the class even though I had done the homework.

Why?

Who knows? But I was sure this bitch would find a way to fuck me up lol. It was her thing.

So, she finally comes to my desk. The day of judgment had arrived. She took my paper (onto which I had poured my heart and soul, desperately trying to draw those damn patterns) and…

And…

And she took a big red marker and put a big cross on the whole fucking paper. She looked at me, dead in my eyes, and said, “Do it again, the patterns aren’t unique enough.” Unique enough! Unique enough bitch! I spent the whole week, not sleeping, spending hours doing this stupid piece of shit you gave me and now you say, it’s not unique enough?

Man, FUCK YOU! you dumb fucking bitch.

And now you tell me to do this whole shit all over again! Fuck off and go die somewhere you bitch!

REALITY

But of course, I didn’t say that lol. I was (and still am) a pussy.

But it seems that I did murmur something under my breath; I was just a kid trying to rebel against an unjust art teacher. But the heavens were not kind to me that day lol, she heard me.

Now all hell broke loose.

She started screaming at me. Saying, “who are you giving this attitude to?”. She kept repeating the same thing over and over again, screaming at my face in front of the whole class. Man, I’m just a kid who feels that his art teacher does not appreciate the effort he put into his homework. I was fucking 13 years old, whom could I give attitude to? But apparently, this bitch was so pissed off at me that she kept screaming at me in front of the whole class and kicked me out of the class.

OUTSTANDING STUDENTS

Remember Kale?

That motherfucker also got kicked out of the class for some reason lol. We were best friends after all ; )

(turn on my black accent*)

So, me and my nigga was out there, kicked out of them shit class. Now, to be honest with yall, we thought we was cool. I mean, at least we didn’t have to stay in that dumb fucking class. But then, my nigga found some sticks lying around the corner. And what he do with it, you may ask? He got them 2 sticks for me and himself, and we started playing swords with em sticks.

Now mind you, we wasn’t suppose to be doin’ that. What we was suppose to be doing, was to stay still like some fucking statues for an hour, in front of the classroom. Be we was some restless motherfuckers back then, so obviously; we didn’t do that.

Now, it was going all good and all, but one of em homies back in the class saw us havin’ fun outside. Man… that motherfucker snitched on us! and told that crazy bitch about the good time we were havin’ outside.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I know for a fact that if you piss off an already pissed of bitch, you was in a whole lot of trouble back then.

(black accent turned off*) So much for cultural appropriation lol .

So, she saw us having fun outside. Being the miserable hag that she was, she couldn’t stand the sight of two friends having fun, so she called us in.

TO DIE TWICE

Have you ever died twice in a single day?

Well, I have and let me tell you, it does not feel good lol.

She had her long ruler beside her that she used to measure things and um… beat kids with lol (I tell you what, kids these days have it easy, we used to get our asses whipped in school).

So anyways, I was the first one in line to face the wrath of the devil. So, she asked me to turn my back around so she could have a good look at my bottom. And then… it hurts even thinking about it.

Smack!

My ass started burning like crazy. All the blood in my body went to my head. It hurt! I think I even peed a little lol.

But then the worst part was over.

Now, it was Kale’s turn.

Now, she told him to turn around just as she had told me. And he did, but just as she was about to hit him, he would turn back. Now that pissed her off even more lol. She screamed and told him to stay put, but Kale was a whole different animal by then. He really didn’t want to get hit by that stupid bitch, so he actually ran around the class instead of taking it like a champ (like me ; )

He actually ran! Lol. And then she started chasing him around the class. But the class can only get so big, so she caught him (or he gave up lol), and brought him to the table. But he was still turning around as if something was stuck in his ass.

Now, a pissed of crazy bitch and a monkey ass kid is never a good combination.

So, she hit him in the blink of an eye. And oh boy! did she hit him hard.

SMACK!

In fact, she hit him so hard that the ruler got broken into 2 pieces!

But Kale was still alive and thriving. Well not really thriving, but he was born a fighter lol.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

So anyways, that’s the end of the story I guess.

That day, Kale and I went back to our hostel with asses full of ruler marks.

And since that day onwards, I have always hated that bitch.

So,

To my 6th grade teacher: I still fucking hate you!

And as for Kale: I still think about all the good times we had. He would always remain my best friend in 6th grade.

Cheers!

= )

letmeexpain/ Dogs and homosexuals not allowed! (Part 2)

Dogs and homosexuals not allowed.

Previously on “let me explain series”:

Hence, I believe that gay people should have rights to love and marry in every society. To say that they have no place in society, based on religion or any other reason for that matter, is a BAD THING!

It’s a bad thing.

So, is my friend a bad person?

Since I mentioned that the last article was part one of this series, I felt a strong obligation to finish what I started (even though I’m a lazy potato). So, this is the second part.

Okay… so my friend did say being gay is a “choice”. That gay people have no place in Islam; that they have no place in society. That being gay is a great sin. That gay people should be punished and excluded from society for their ‘sinful’ deeds.

So, is my friend a bad person?

What do you think?

Sure, for some people he might be the worst; an asshole who uses homophobia as an excuse to hurt people’s feelings. That he is an insensitive prick turning a blind eye to people’s misery; that he lacks basic human empathy. People might even put the blame on his parents for failing to raise their child properly (I mean, whose kids grow up to be such scumbags, right?) Some might say, he was born evil.

He was born evil. It’s in his blood!

And what should we do with such people?

Tie these motherfuckers up and beat the shit out of them! They want to hurt people, right? Let them feel how it feels like! Exclude them from society. Boycott them. Don’t be friends with them. They are scumbags after all. Harass them on the streets, let them feel the pain of being an outcast. Hopefully, these assholes can relate someday! Tie their hands and….

Woah woah woah! Hold your horses. There is no need to turn this into a kill bill (if you know what I mean? ; )*

Look, I understand that some people might feel this way. And they have every reason to do so. Being homophobic in 2020 has serious consequences from the society. After all, we have come a long way to have tolerance for such hateful sentiments, right? This anger towards him is completely understandable, but still, there is something very wrong with feeling this way.

Why?

BECAUSE HE IS STILL MY FRIEND!

Sure, he has become homophobic because of his blind religious beliefs, and I think his perception about homosexuality is wrong. But, are you saying that I should stop talking to him because of this? That I should stop calling him a friend?

Now that, I cannot do.

He might have wrong ideas about homosexuality but that doesn’t make him a bad person.

In fact, he is very helpful to everyone. His friends love him. He is an awesome student; he works very hard and is a responsible person. He is very vocal about speaking against oppression on Muslims all over the world (which is a real big issue, take islamophobia for example) and is passionate about helping his community.

Now, does it sound like someone who is evil since they were born?

No, it doesn’t and he isn’t evil lol.

He just has a different opinion on the issue than me. Now, I’m not saying that he is right in his views about gay people. He is still very wrong about the whole issue (at least in my opinion), but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have normal conversations with him as a friend. He and I, come from different countries. We follow different religions (though I’m not very religious). We grew up in completely different cultures and societies. He was taught these ideas about homosexuality since he was a child (hence, having these beliefs is not even his fault!), the same way I was taught about liberal values. Hence, I think it’s reasonable to assume that not everyone sees the world the same way as I do.

I repeat (cause it’s so fucking important lol).

Not everyone sees the world the same way as I do.

Hence, people have different beliefs and opinions. And this issue of homosexuality between me and my friend is nothing more than just one of those differences. It’s completely normal for two people to have different opinions on the same issue (seems obvious, but it’s a hard thing to realize lol).

So, it’s stupid to ostracize someone for having a different opinion than you. The world is a big, big place with billions of people, hundreds of cultures, and many religious beliefs. If you expect everyone to have the same opinion as you on an issue (any issue!), then my friend, you are in for a world of surprises. I had to learn that the hard way ; )

So, am I saying that my friend is right and he entitled to his opinions?

Well yes… and no.

I think my friend is wrong. But I do think he is entitled to his opinion (I mean aren’t we all, I am expressing my opinion in this article, so why can’t he?)

So, what should I do? Should I let him have these potentially harmful ideas? Should I let him continue this ideology of hatred that might potentially hurt someone in a real way?

Well… what I have seen is, people often try to impose their opinion on others, and I don’t want to become one of those people. Shouting your truth won’t make it any more truthful. Hence, imposing your opinions will never do any good. It won’t change people’s beliefs. I don’t want to go to him and try to convince him why homosexuality is normal (he already knows half the world thinks that way), so that won’t change a thing. Hence, I think the only way people change is by self-realization, for that, they have to work on it themselves.

I have so many friends who grew up in the same society as he did and have the same religious beliefs as he does, but they are surprisingly open-minded and very accepting of new ideas (I believe he is not the norm, but an exception). They are some of the coolest people I have ever met. People change with time. New generations accept new ideas and bring change in the society. It’s a process and it’s the only way I can see change being possible.

And change is possible, with time.

(At least I hope it is lol)

So, in conclusion:

The world is a big, big place with different cultures and religions.
People can have different opinions on the same issue, and it’s okay.
And… my friend is not some evil super villain, and I still like him ; )

Oof! So much work lol.

Cheers!

= )

*Kill bill is a movie by Quintin Terrintino about revenge and violence. I fucking love that movie!

letmeexplain/ Dogs and homosexuals not allowed! (Part 1)

Dogs and homosexuals not allowed!

Sounds bad? Sounds like something only a horrible person would say? It does sound just a little bit homophobic doesn’t it?

Ah well don’t worry about it because… I agree with this statement.

(Shocked face, thunder sounds, the world is falling apart!)

Nah not really, I’m just kidding lol. Do you really think a young progressive person like me could have such hideous sentiments about our gay brothers and sisters? I mean, everyone has the right to live and express themselves, right?

Right?

“Nah man! We do like those faggots here” my friend said.

Did you know the word “faggot” is a derogatory slang used to harass gays, and using it is looked down upon (and not accepted) in most western societies? It’s considered as a horrible word infused with so much hate and homophobia that it’s equivalent of calling a black person the infamous n-word.

But fuck it.

That’s what my friend said and I can’t change that. What’s more? He is a friend I admire.

But that’s what I could hear, loud and clear, from his frequent Facebook posts. A message so bold and clear that that you could not mistaken it for anything else.

“GAYS HAVE NO PLACE IN ISLAM”

Yup, that was the conclusion of most of his post about homosexuality. And he posted this freely, without so much as a second thought, on his Facebook wall, for all of his friends to see. What’s more? There were likes and heart reacts on the post in a matter of minutes!

This was very strange for me.

Here is my friend, who is just a super cool person, who is intelligent and hardworking, whom I admire a lot. And then here is his Facebook post, a post carrying a message that I potentially do not approve of.

What do I do?

I was brought up in a relatively liberal society. A diverse society (with so many different races and cultures) where you were mostly free to do whatever you wanted; women had rights, they could have jobs (and could drive), you could marry whom you wanted (for the most part) and live life on your own terms. I have lived in cities for the most part of my life, hence superstitions and old beliefs were never a part of my DNA. Moreover, I have been listening to English songs and watching American movies since I was a kid. Hence, I was exposed of ‘western’ ideas and values from a young age.

And one of those ideas is “Homosexuality is normal, homophobia is not”.

Hence, I believe that gay people should have rights to love and marry in every society. To say that they have no place in society, based religion or any other reason for that matter, is a BAD THING!

It’s a bad thing.

So, is my friend a bad person?

Find out in the next episode of “let me explain series”!

Cheers!

= )

Learning fascinating stuff 06

Learning fascinating stuff.

The reason why your muscles get tired during workouts is because, when the nerve impulses stimulating your muscles exceed rates up to 100 times a second (as it happens during intense workout), the neurotransmitter substance Acetylcholine (which is needed to transmit impulse from nerves to muscles)gets depleted very quickly to such an extent that there remains no more of it to stimulate muscle fibers. Hence, impulse fail to pass into muscle fibers; a condition called fatigue.

In muscle physiology, processes that have multiple steps, involving so many chemicals and enzymes (covering so many pages of my physiology book lol) actually happen in a matter of milliseconds in the human body! So many complex steps, so many moving parts, so much detail executed perfectly, with no mistakes, that too at lightning fast speeds! Human body is truly amazing.

The chemical diisopropyl flurophosphate (which is a powerful ‘nerve’ gas) is very lethal indeed. This chemical inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitter acetylcholine and stops the muscle stimulation). When the nerve gas inhibits this enzyme, acetylcholine accumulates around the muscle fibers continually stimulating them, which causes muscle spasms (it can result in death as a result of laryngeal spasm).

Smooth muscles are really different from skeletal muscles! They have completely different structure, different mechanisms of contraction and what’s more? Their contractions can last up to hours and even days! Yup days! Compare that to a few milliseconds of skeletal muscles.

When smooth muscles are stretch to a certain degree, it results in generation of action potentials in it (a particular characteristic of smooth muscles). Hence, when your large intestines are full of waste, they push against the walls of the intestine; stretching and exciting smooth muscles. Hence, they contract as a response to the action potential generated and push the waste towards your anus. That’s how you know when to poop ; )

Learning fascinating stuff 05

Learning fascinating stuff

In physiology the muscles in the body are viewed a lot like actual machines. These muscles (skeletal muscles to be exact) have an efficiency of only about 25% and waste a lot of energy from food as heat. They act on a fulcrum system (eg; the elbow joint is the pivot and biceps muscles acts at a distance of 2mm from the ‘fulcrum’). We can map force-extension maps of muscle fibers like any other physical material like steel (although muscles are a bit more complicated). So yeah, there is a lot of math and physics while studying muscle physiology.

We all know about red meat and white meat regarding diet. What’s interesting is: Red meat is actually made up of slow muscle fibers that need to contract slowly for extended periods of time (eg; the muscles that keep your back straight). They have high levels of myoglobin for long term oxygen supply hence they are red in color. In contrast, white meat is made up of fast muscle fibers that contract and relax fast (like muscles controlling your eye ball movement). They are white because they lack myoglobin molecules (because they don’t really need them).

The word tetany, tetanus and tetanization mean different things but are related to each other! Tetany is a condition of involuntary muscle contraction. Tetanus is a bacterium that causes muscle cramps. Tetanization is physiological process when frequency of contraction of each muscle fiber increases, by the summation of which, the muscle seems to contract as a single body. These terms mean different things, but they are all related to muscle contractions. Don’t be confused!

Muscles show significant grow when put into sufficient stress (a process called hypertrophy) within 6 to 10 weeks with just a few strong contractions a day. Hence workout everyday even if it’s for a short time. Consistency is the key for muscle hypertrophy!

Similarly, if you don’t exercise enough, then your muscles naturally start to degrade and loose mass; a process called atrophy. This happens naturally, but in some genetic diseases and cases of paralysis, this process is especially acute and can cause deformity to the body. If the atrophy is really bad, then your muscles will be replaced by fibrous and fatty tissues (a process called, contracture).

Learning fascinating stuff 04

Learning fascinating stuff.

Each time there is an action potential, the concentration gradient of ions is disturbed, ie; the sodium ions diffuse in and potassium diffuses out (which is not really good if you want to maintain the ‘normal’ concentration gradients of these ions across the membrane and the normal resting potential). Hence, after each action potential, the sodium potassium pump works to pump out the sodium ions and pump in potassium ions to reset their concentration gradients using ATP which actually produces heat just like any other machine! And this heat can be measured, which can tell us information about the extent of ‘activity’ in a nerve. The more frequent the impulse, the more heat produced.

Unlike most muscles, the resting membrane potential of cardiac muscles is around -65 mv instead of -90 mv, due to which the heart muscles show self-induced discharge (ie; it is myogenic). The process of why this happens is there in the book, but like most things in physiology it’s way too long to explain.

Local anesthesia works by acting on voltage gated sodium ion gates, making it difficult for them to open during action potential (effectively increasing the threshold voltage). Hence, with the right dose of anesthesia, this threshold voltage can be raised to high that no impulse is enough to cause action potential and so there is no conduction of nerve impulse. And the patient feels no pain ; )

Each molecule of actin (the muscle fibril protein) has an ADP (adenosine di-phosphate) molecule attached. The heads of myosin are actually attracted to ADP it seems, which forms the basis for muscle contraction. Had not learnt this detail in A levels lol.

In fact, as I went through the book, the author admits that scientist still do not much about the different steps involved in muscle contraction and how it works (even after all these years of research). Hence, so much of what we study are actually just hypotheses! But we still take them so seriously lol. Science is weird.

Learning fascinating stuff 03

Learning fascinating stuff.

Potassium channels are ‘selectively permeable’ to only potassium because they actually have a filter (carbonyl oxygens) on their outer surface that dehydrates ions. Only dehydrated ions can pass through the channel protein. Since, sodium ions are smaller than potassium ions, and the filter has a fixed width which fits just for potassium, the sodium ions pass through without touching both sides of the filter (cause they are smaller) and do not get dehydrated by the filter. Hence, they cannot pass through potassium channels. Think about why selective permeability would not be possible if the potassium pump used just size of ion as a selecting criteria ; )

Enzymes (and similarly proteins) can run in reverse! Like the sodium potassium pump, pumps sodium out and potassium into the cell against their concentration gradient using ATP. However, if we were to increase their electrochemical gradients to such an extent that the pump can’t really push against such an overly ‘steep’ gradient, the ions will flow in down their gradient (in opposite direction to sodium potassium pump). So the pump runs in reverse, and what’s interesting is; while it runs in reverse; it (ATP synthase in the pump) generates ATP from ADP and phosphate! So, it’s kind of like a dynamo running down a hill, utilizing the reverse flow of ions.

Only 1/100000000 of the total positive charges inside the cell membrane need to go out of change the +35 mv to – 90mv (and the other way around) which takes place in a matter of 1/10000th of a second. Hence, transfer of incredibly small number of ions can cause big changes in the resting potential of membrane. That’s the reason why nerve impulses can conduct so quickly.

The ‘Voltage Clamp’ method of measuring the effect of voltage on opening and closing of voltage gated channels, was such an ingenious experiment by Hodgkin and Huxley that they won a Nobel prize for it. It’s a really cool method but it will take some time to explain it all and it’s midnight already hehe, so google it if you want to.

Apart from the much-discussed sodium and potassium ions, there are other ions that also play a part in maintaining resting potential. These are negative anions inside the cells and calcium ions. Calcium ions particularly are interesting because they play a very similar role to sodium ions for maintaining membrane potential. What’s more, if there is a deficiency of calcium ions in the body, the voltage gated sodium ion gates become more sensitive to stimuli than normal which can lead to spontaneous discharge of nerve impulses which causes spontaneous muscular contraction throughout the body, a condition called Tetany, which can be life threatening because of contraction of respiratory muscles. Btw ‘Tetany’ and ‘Tetanus’ are not the same thing.