What about Technology?

The advancement of technology is moving at a rapid pace and we are now able to see some ideas coming to life such as virtual reality, smart watches, devices with voice commands, etc. The creation of the internet was also one of the greatest creation in the community and it allows anyone to access a vast ocean of information or uploading some information online. For every word or things we want to know about it, we can just google it to find out more. I find it very useful especially for a student or anyone that wants to learn because there are a lot of kind individual that likes to share their knowledge and experience to others.

Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Rift, Google Glass, and a lot more other technology tools that are still currently under development. The HoloLens is a piece of technology that connects to another computer wirelessly that will enable users to witness the features of holographic experience. Furthermore, this post is the recent update about HoloLens. The following video is about the HoloLens:

Have you ever want to enter the gaming world such in the way that you felt like you are in the gaming dimension? The Oculus Rift is able to make that happen. The following video is a simple demo of the Oculus Rift (Warning! It is a horror game simulation):

The Project Morpheus is similar to the Oculus Rift but it is built for the Playstation 4 and these are some links that is related to the Morpheus:-

• PS4 Project Morpheus: Virtual Reality Headset
• Project Morpheus: Eyes-on PS4’s New VR Prototype
• Sony Project Morpheus: 2016 release date confirmed – here’s all you need to know

The Google Glass has been around for almost 2 years but it was only release to public on May 14, 2014. The Google Glass is the wearable eye ware with a small clear glass display located on the top right of the glasses. There is a touch pad, a video camera and the voice command feature available to users. It is useful to record life events such as sky diving, roller coaster rides, mountain hiking, etc. This is an introduction video about the Google Glass that is presented on TED by Sergey Brin, who leads the development of Google Glass:

There are also some users that uses the equipment during their work:

These technology have the potential to shape our lifestyle in the future and depending on how an user utilizes it, the results can be beneficial to public. The current technology can only be created inspired by the imagination and the creativity of the public. But not all the user interface of the system is user friendly and it does take some time to learn and utilize the equipment to its full potential. From time to time, checkout this blog. According to the author, this blog “is a place where you can consistently learn something new about technology“. This blog is new but information on that blog is informational for me and I want to introduce it to the public.

Everybody have their ways with the technology and how they use it. When I’m missing home and wanted to taste the food back home, I can use Google Maps and use it as street view or just search for the images of the food I crave for(to virtually taste the food to satisfy my craving). Yes it sounds weird but I can guarantee that I am not the only one that does the same thing. But please note that since the internet is open source and streamed to the public, things you post online might not be appropriate for your history. This is one of the videos that inform the do’s and don’ts while utilizing the internet:

Spring Break 2015 : Food

From my previous post, I mentioned about long drives that I experience during my road trip to Arizona. We did pile up a lot of snacks in the car and I remember having a lot of chips and beef jerky in the car ride. We did drive around 24 hours. To satisfy our hunger, we stopped in some places to get something to eat. To be honest, I liked and disliked the food I consume during this road trip.

In-N-Out Animal Style Burger and Fries

We had a lot of greasy, tasty burgers. We also went to a few fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, In-N-Out Burger, etc. It is good to escape and have a burrito bowl or a burrito instead of a burger. But there is one interesting fact about In-N-Out, there exist a hidden menu! I was wondering when my friend, Joe ordered a 4 by 4 Animal Style Burger. I tried looking around the menu to look for it but I could not find any other option besides the cheeseburger, the 2 by 2 burger, French fries, shakes, etc. The burger Joe ordered sure looked good but I was wondering why they hide their menu because they can offer more options to their customers. Then, I discovered this at their official website:-

…we don’t have any secrets at all. It’s just the way some of our customers like their burgers prepared, and we’re all about making our customers happy. So here are some of the most popular items on our not-so-secret menu.

After looking at that website (in Lamoni), I regretted that I did not have their Protein Style Burger and unfortunately, there is no store located near Iowa.

According to the “Top 10 Global Fast-Food Chains” posted in Forbes, McDonald’s is the largest fast food chain restaurant.

McDonald’s Big Mac Value Meal

McDonald’s owned about 35,000 outlets in 119 countries and I believe majority of the people knows McDonald’s. However, your favorite order may not be available in all the outlets. When I first got to one of their outlets here, I wanted to have a Big N’ Tasty Burger that I always order in Malaysia but it is not offered. Turns out that, outlets in other countries adopt the local cuisine and created burgers that are unique within the area or country. These are some links that will lead you to the top, unique McDonald’s item that is not offered everywhere:-

• “McDonald’s food you can’t get here”by the Chicago Tribune.
• “30 Crazy Meals from McDonald’s Menus Around The World”by the Food Network UK.
• “The Craziest McDonald’s Menu Items Around the World”by First We Feast.

It is interesting to see what items that McDonald’s can come up by combining their ideas with the local cuisine. This shows the power of creativity and it might inspire someone who will create something more spectacular items in the future.

I ate at Chipotle couple times and I liked their food there. Chipotle specialized in burritos and tacos. I usually order a burrito bowl which is a bowl that is filled with rice, a choice of meat and other toppings such as salsa, guacamole, lettuce, etc. I liked the burrito bowl because it kind of resembles the typical meal I usually have back in Malaysia (rice with meat and vegetables). The first time I ate there was during a tennis meet in Springfield, Missouri. The sign board did include Mexican Grill but I was corrected by my teammate from Mexico. “This is not Mexican”, he said to me. I went to the Mexican restaurant in Bethany, Missouri called El Nopal. The menu does have burritos and tacos which bothers me because I want to know if Chipotle is a Mexican restaurant or not? Please share your opinion by commenting below.

Chipotle Burrito Bowl

Chipotle Burrito

There are a lot of other fast food restaurant that I have not visit and who knows you might find something new like the In-N-Out Not So Secret Menu, something different that is influenced by local cuisine or food from other countries. When you visit the United States or for awesome college experience, make sure you visit some of these restaurants but not too often. Here are some links about popular fast food restaurants in the United States:-

• “RANKED: The Most Popular Fast Food Restaurants in America”by Alaina McConnell and Kim Bhasin, Business Insider.
• “The 10 Best Fast Food Restaurants in America”by The Fiscal Times

Spring Break 2015 : Driving

I had a week of break from school and I decided to follow couple of my friends for a road trip from Lamoni, Iowa to Glendale, Arizona. It was a long drive and took us around 24 hours to get here. During this trip, I had a lot of first time experiences and I take this trip as an educational trip for me. The reason is that I have not been to Arizona and give me an opportunity to learn about a new environment and place.

Passenger Seat View For Several Hours

Sightseeing in Gallup, New Mexico

I did not expect that the drive is going to be boring and tiring. I thought that I could depend on the sightseeing to kill time and for entertainment. Our route was to take the I-35 south until we reach Oklahoma City, Oklahoma then take the I-40 all the way to Flagstaff, Arizona. Then take I-17 south to Glendale, Arizona. There were 4 of us in the car and we will switch drivers when we need to refuel or the driver is tired. We left Lamoni around 4 p.m. and we were doing okay during the first 14 hours. But ended up stopping more to get some rest because it is dangerous to drive tired. In 2005, the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep in America found facts about tired drivers on the road. They found out that about 168 million people had driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy and 11 million of them admitted that they are involved in car accidents while they dozed off their drive. These are some of the statistics about accidents due to fatigue that from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:-

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conservatively estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. This results in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses. These figures may be the tip of the iceberg, since currently it is difficult to attribute crashes to sleepiness.

It is wise that we stop to get some rest before driving again because we will put ourselves in more danger. To help ensure safe driving, we will always have the person seating on the passenger seat to look out for the driver and make sure that they are in condition to drive. We piled up a lot of snacks in the car so that the driver can nimble on them to stay awake but unfortunately, most of the snacks contain a lot of sugar. There are research about how sugar makes us sleepy due to the effects to orexin cells or hypocretin in our system. This is what I find in Jonah Lehrer’s post in WIRED:-

The reason the orexin system is so important is that it links the needs of the body to the desires of the mind. Several studies have demonstrated that the intake of sugar can decrease the activity of orexin cells, which is probably why we want to nap after a carb heavy lunch. This phenomenon also begins to explain the downward spiral of obesity triggered by our warped modern diet. Because we eat lots of refined sugars, washing down Twinkies with cans of Coke, we continually reduce levels of orexin in the brain, which then reduces levels of physical activity. In other words, we get fat and sleepy simultaneously.

After the trip to Glendale, I know that we are having a hard time to stay awake longer. So, I googled on how to keep awake and drive safety in long drives. We applied some of them during the way back to Lamoni and it showed some improvement. These are some links to the sources:-

• “Tips for staying awake on long drives” by Tara Baukus Mello – bankrate.com. 
• “How to Stay Awake on the Road: Tips to combat Drowsy Driving” by National Sleep Foundation.
• “How to Stay Awake when Driving” by wikiHow.

Although these tips are efficient, it is still not recommended to drive when your tired and if you really need to drive for a long road trip, please have enough sleep the day before and prepare for your journey.

Build Your Leadership Skills

In high school, I was not aware about the importance of leadership skills and participation in any organization. Participating or getting involve in an association or organization will greatly improve your character and public relations. There are a lot of students benefit from being president of an organization and will have a head start when they get into the real world.

In Graceland University, there is a student government group called the Graceland Student Government. This government group is involved in the whole Graceland University’s Lamoni campus that affects students. There are several branches of student government which are the Intramural Athletics, Campus Organization for Social Activities, Council of House Chaplains, Student Senate, and Academic Student Council. The person that will kind of lead these branches of student government will be the GSG President.

The GSG President and the directors of the other branches are elected by the students and the candidates will have a campaign and will be interviewed by the students at the event called BearPits. The leaders in this organization are all students and will be sacrificing their precious time to plan activities to enhance the lifestyle of the students, providing fun for the students, and allowing students to socialize. These future leaders will learn what it takes to be a leader and improve their leadership skills.

These are some important leadership qualities:-

• Decision-making
• Organized
• Direction
• Motivator
• Team key player

Being a leader of an organization is not an easy role because you are responsible for making the last decision and you need to be accountable for your actions. It is hard to let everybody to agree with your decision; some people will agree and understand your actions but there will be others that disagrees with you. A good leader will be able to make good tough decisions and able to lead the organization to the right direction or work towards a certain goal.