ENIAC was one of the first computers to use electronic circuits, which made for lightning-fast calculations.  Former chairman of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., at first saw no use for it.  He said, ‘I reacted to ENIAC the way some people probably reacted to the Wright brothers’ airplane.  It didn’t move me at all…I couldn’t see this gigantic, costly, unreliable device as a piece of business equipment.’

A few weeks later, he and his father wandered into a research office at IBM and saw an engineer with a high-speed punch-card machine hooked up to a black box.  When asked what he was doing, he said, ‘Multiplying with radio tubes.’  The machine was tabulating payroll at one-tenth of the time it took the standard punch-card machine to do so.  Watson recalls, ‘That impressed me as though somebody had hit me on the head with a hammer.’  He said, ‘Dad, we should put this thing on the market!  Even if we only sell eight or ten, we’ll be able to advertise the fact that we have the world’s first commercial electronic calculator.’

And that’s how IBM got into electronics.  Within a year, IBM had electronic circuits that both multiplied and divided, and at that point, electronic calculators became truly useful.  Thousands of IBM 604s were sold!

Welcome to Day 5 of our Hundred Days of Music challenge.  I don’t really have any particular reason why I chose today’s song, only that it was cool and funny and catchy and I have no idea what the real title of this song is.

First, a little bit of what this song is.  It’s a song that Taylor Swift and Zac Efron both sang on Ellen’s show and, if I am correct in assuming, it was something they both made up.  Taylor was the one who taught Zac how to play the guitar and, I suppose, she’s also the one who came up with the melody.  If I were to follow such an assumption, it would also be safe to say that they both worked together to come up with the funny and quirky lyrics.

Like I’ve said, I don’t know the real title of the song, so The Ellen Song would work as a title-holder for now, up until the time that I actually do know what the real title is (if any of you guys know what the title is, let me know, ‘kay?).  Since this was only just uploaded on YouTube, I don’t have the lyrics for this song (I can’t really transcribe the lyrics since Zac’s mumbling a couple of phrases of the song and my ears aren’t that good).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy today’s song.  Until the next post!  Dream on; Fly on!

So, after a short hiatus, I’m back with the second cycle of the hundred days of music challenge.

For Day 4, I decided to go with Matthew West and his song, My Own Little World.

I suppose you all know by now what my criteria are for choosing the songs to go along with the challenge.  For this particular song, I have to say that it fits all the criteria and what this song speaks of fits very well to the mindset of everyone of us, especially this generation.

There is a quotation that goes: Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.  I really believe that that particular quotation speaks true.  Nowadays, most of us would rather turn a blind eye than do something to help.  We think that it has nothing to do with us, that whatever is happening at another place does not concern us and that our lives already have problems enough to worry about the well-being of other people.  We have that mentality that there is nothing we can do anyway to help so, why bother?  Or maybe some of us think that it isn’t our responsibility to help those in need.

There are those who might help other people because they believe that it would give them some sort of reward, make them look good to other people.  They make a show of helping but in their hearts what they are doing isn’t really a selfless act, but a selfish act.  I don’t have a right to judge those kinds of people and, sure they do end up helping others nonetheless, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around why people can’t just help other people because they want to help and because it is the right thing to do.

What’s more, there are those of us who feel content limiting ourselves with what we have gotten used to.  We feel like we can do more but there is a fear inside of us that makes us unable to act out our dreams and aspirations, unable to see the bigger picture and the greater purpose that our lives were meant to be and to serve.

Each of us are given so much potential and chance to become what we are meant to be and to share ourselves and our talents to the world.  We shouldn’t confine ourselves in the safe little bubble we have made for ourselves, hindering us to grow and to achieve more.  We simply let the days pass, a repetition of the day before and the day before that. We close of ourselves and make worlds that do not include helping others, being kind to one another, reaching out and building a bridge to other people.

We weren’t meant to wilt away without doing something meaningful and good with our lives.

It’s not always about ourselves.  It’s also about our brothers and sisters, of other people.

These are the messages I get from listening to this song.  Below is the lyrics to this song:

In my own little world it hardly ever rains
I’ve never gone hungry, always felt safe
I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet
In my own little world
population me

I try to stay awake during Sunday morning Church
I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give ’til it hurts
And I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see
Yeah, it’s easy to do when it’s
Population: me

What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now?
Outside my own little world oooh

Stopped at a red light, looked out my window
I saw a cardboard sign, said “Help this homeless widow”
And just above that sign was the face of a human
I thought to myself, “God, what have I been doing?”
So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye
Oh how many times have I just passed her by?
I gave her some money then I drove on through
And my own little world reached
Population two

Oh

What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose
That I could be living right now
Outside my own little world oooh, ooh
My own little world oooh

Wooah woooah woooah
yeeah yeeah

Father break my heart for what breaks Yours
Give me open hands and open doors
Put Your Light in my eyes and let me see
That my own little world is not about me

What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose
That I could be living right now
I don’t want to miss what matters
I wanna be reaching out
Show me the greater purpose
So I can start living right now
Outside my own little world yeeeaah yeeeah
My own little world ooooh
Woooaah
Wooah
Wooah

Grace Hopper seemed born with a desire to discover how things worked.  Aged seven, her curiosity led her to dismantle every clock in her home!  She eventually completed a doctorate in mathematics from Yale University.  During World War II, Grace joined the Navy and was assigned to the Navy’s computation project at Harvard University.   She met ‘Harvard Mark I’, the first fully functional digital computing machine.  Once again, Grace set about to learn how its 750,000 parts and 500 miles of wire worked!  While most experts believed computers were too complicated and expensive for anyone but highly trained scientists to use, Grace had her own idea: make them easier to operate so more people could use them!  Her work gave rise to the programming language COBOL.

As late 1963, each large computer had its own master language.  Grace became an advocate for universally accepted systems.  She had the audacity to envision a day when computers would one day be close enough to sit on a desk, more powerful than Harvard Mark I, and useful in offices, schools and at home.  With rank of rear admiral, she retired from the Navy at the age of seventy-nine.  More important to her, she had lived to see her dream of personal computers come true!

Harry Houdini, who won fame as an escape artist early in the twentieth century, issued a challenge wherever he went.  He claimed he could be locked in any jail cell in the country and set himself free within minutes.  He had a long track record of doing just that!

One time, however, something seemed to go wrong.  Houdini entered a jail cell in his street clothes.  The heavy metal doors clanged shut behind him, and he took from his belt a concealed piece of strong and flexible metal.  He set to work on the lock to his cell, but something seemed different about this particular lock.  For thirty minutes he worked without results.  An hour passed.  This was long after the time that Houdini normally freed himself and he began to sweat and pant in exasperation.  Still, he could not pick the lock.

Finally, after laboring for two hours, Houdini–feeling a sense of failure close in around him–leaned in frustration against the door he could not unlock.  To his amazement, as he collapsed against the door, it swung open!  It had not been locked in the first place!

How many times are challenges impossible–or doors locked–only because we think they are?  When we put our minds and energy towards them, we often find the impossible task turned into achievements.

I love reading and I love books that have an amazing story and a lesson you can learn.  I know that sounds redundant coming from me, but it’s the truth.  I don’t just read anything, I have a set of high standards on what books to read and it doesn’t matter if a book is well-known or not–if it’s popular or not–unless it passes my standards, I won’t read it.  I am picky that way, and not just when it comes to books.

The Shack is a book written by WM. Paul Young.  My dad heard about this book from his sister who heard it from someone else.  Curious as to what the contents of the books were (since the way he heard about it really roused his curiosity), my dad began his search for this book.  He found it, I suppose, months later.  He wasn’t able to read it as soon as he purchased it, though, since he was still reading another book.  Hence, my mom got to read it first.

I have to admit that when I read the back of the book–the short cover flap synopsis–I was intrigued.  I knew from my father that it was a book about religion, but not like the other books about religion that I have read.  It has mystery and the question posed at the final paragraph of the said synopsis was one that is often asked but is also often answered the way it is usually answered.

Even though I was intrigued, I didn’t read the book at once as well.  Even when my dad had finished reading it and had asked me to read it, I still wouldn’t.  After all, I have, like, five more books plus a couple of ebooks left for me to read and all of them were interesting.  Honestly, I wouldn’t have read The Shack unless my dad told me he was going to pay me to read it–which, he eventually told me, followed by saying that I need to read this book because he felt it was meant for me to read.

Who would say no to being paid a thousand pesos just for them to read a book that, without a doubt, would only take them half a day to read?  So, of course, I said that I would read it.  I quickly finished the book I was reading, which was Alex Flinn’s Bewitching and quickly started The Shack.  I was caught up with the first chapters.  It held mystery and, having just read all the Temperance Brennan books days before, I feel as though I am still pulled by the desire to read mystery-crime novels–which was what the first chapters of The Shack felt for me.

I am afraid to summarize the book on my own words since I feel as though I would just end up blurting the whole plot and how the story goes, so allow me to copy what is written at the back of the book so that you can get a little bit of idea as to what this story is about:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’s youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.  Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare.  What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?  The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps to transform you as much as it did him.  You’ll want everyone you know to read this book!

And then, Mack–that’s the main character of the book–gets to the shack.  And that’s when whatever my reasons for reading the book vanished.  I read it continuously, but not in a hurried fashion that some would do just to say that they’ve “read” the book.  I read it in a way that I let the words flow from the book to my mind and to my heart.  To say that no other book had come close to touching my heart when I read it would be the understatement of the decade, because I was deeply moved with the contents of the book.  I am not even embarrassed to admit that I cried more than once while reading the book that had touched not just my heart but my soul.  No other book had come close to doing that!

The book is unlike no other and I am not going to spoil any of you in telling what happens in the book or why it has moved me so.  Some might even think that it is stupid of me to cry just because of something I have read in a book.  But I don’t particularly care about those people that say stuff like that.  I suppose it is one of the things I have learned from The Shack–not to be ashamed of my emotions.

Some–okay, maybe a lot–of people might be put down about this book since it is a book that speaks of religion.  After all, why would you want to read anything like that?  Religion should be just limited to Sunday mass, or church, or the bible.  People would rather read Harry Potter, or Twilight, or The Hunger Games, or any of those books in the New York Times Bestselling list.  Now those books would be interesting!  ”Why would I read a stupid book on Christianity?  I’m not even a Christian!” some would even say.  All I can say is that you have to give it a try.  It doesn’t matter what your religious belief is.  This book is not limited to Christianity.  And, if you are going to read this book, you must have an open mind and heart to fully understand the message that it is trying to deliver.

And, as WM. Paul Young had penned–and according to him, as Mack had said–if you like it, that’s great, spread the word.  If you don’t, then this book was not meant for you. I hope that everyone would like it, that they would share this book as well.  I also hope…and I think I really do believe in my heart and soul, that happened in this book is real; that this story isn’t fiction.

I would like to say that this book has begun to change my life and the way I view the world and even my relationship with God.  I am humbled by the message in this book and it helped me take one step closer to being a better person.  Suffice to say that I didn’t take the thousand bucks my dad offered me to read this book.  I couldn’t.  Truth be told, I felt as though I was the one who should be paying him for making me read this book.

If you’re in that place where fear, worry, pain, confusion, and that all-too-familiar feeling of being unloved and unwanted or even when you feel like you have no cares in the world and you have everything you want and you don’t have any questions of your own, you will want to read this book.  If you feel abandoned, guilty, and if you feel like the world is against you, you need to read this book.  WM. Paul Young wasn’t kidding when he wrote that it will change your life (if this book is for you), because it will!

Learn more about The Shack here: http://www.theshackbook.com.  You can even read sample chapter from this website as well as gleam a little more from Willie’s blog, whose link you can also find in this website.  I recommend reading Willie’s blog after you have read the book.

If you want to order the book, you can head to http://theshackbook.com/order.html or to your local bookstores, or even order one from Amazon.com.

I do hope that you guys would read this book.  It really doesn’t matter if you’re a believer or not.  I just hope that when you read this book (especially if you’re of the Christian faith) that you will not limit yourself.  If you open yourself up to the wonderful possibility of the truth in the words penned in this book, then I can guarantee that you will laugh, you will cry, and you are going to be a changed person–even if that change is just a little bit–by the time you finish reading.  It will change the way you view things, especially your relationship–not just spiritual relationship–but the relationship of those around you.

Dream on; Fly on!

One of the things I love to watch is The Ellen Show which, of course, is the talk show hosted by none other than Ellen DeGeneres.  With all honesty, I can say that I am a huge Ellen DeGeneres fan.  I love how she works, what she stands for, and how she interacts with other people.  I love her sense of humor, the way she comes up with puns and jokes that are does not degrade a fellow human being and is not laced with contempt or anything negative.  She doesn’t need make a joke that would make the other person–the one who is the butt end of her joke–feel uncomfortable or small.  She’s not about that.  She’s all about being positive, being kind to other people.

Some people look at Ellen and think that she’s a bad example because she isn’t what they deem “normal”.  They view her as a lesbian and nothing more.  A freak to the eyes of those who believe themselves righteous and act as judge and jury.  They do not see how Ellen affects other people in a good way.  She makes people forget about their problems, even for an hour or so, and just make them laugh and feel special and feel good about themselves.  Even when her detractors bully her, she doesn’t fight back with an equal amount of bullying, fighting fire with fire.  No, she handles it well and she doesn’t step on anyone’s feelings in the process.

Anyways, I enjoy watching her and her show and today’s song is something that I first heard from her show.  A couple of weeks back, Ellen DeGeneres had Kristen Bell as a guest in The Ellen Show.  It was an interview that went viral, having 3 million-plus views.  Fast forward to the present time and that very same interview was auto-tuned by the Gregory Brothers ending in what I think is a very catchy, entertaining and funny song.

There isn’t a hidden message behind this song.  No dissecting of what the song would mean and how it personally affect me, yada-yada-yada.  I chose this song for today simply because I love it and it’s stuck in my head and it’s been there ever since I first heard the song on Ellen’s show.  I’ve already shared this song on my Facebook account, but hey, I really did love it so here it is again.

my entire life
had been waiting for this moment
when i would get to interact with a sloth
(no, no, no, no)
i’m serious
i was overcome
(no, no, no, no)
i’m serious
her name was Melon

my entire life
my entire life
had been waiting for this moment
had been waiting for this sloth
i don’t know how to compete with my emotions
so i’m crying crying crying
cuz i’ve been waiting for this moment
my entire life

if i’m not between a 3 and a 7 on the emotional scale i’m crying
-you’re crying
i’m crying
-shawty you’re crying
so between 3 and 7 you’re fine
it’s a good zone
where are you now on the scale
pffft
11

shawty you’re crying, crying, crying, crying
so hard
shawty you’re crying, crying, crying, crying
on the bed
shawty you’re crying, crying
you’re crying crying
you’re crying
let’s bring out the cutest sloth
no you didn’t
no

my entire life
my entire life
had been waiting for this moment
had been waiting for this sloth
my entire life
my entire life
had been waiting for this moment
had been waiting for this sloth
i don’t know how to compete with my emotions
so i’m crying crying crying
cuz i’ve been waiting for this moment
my entire life

The story is told of a great military captain who, after a full day of battle, sat by a warming fire with several of his officers and began talking over the events of the day with them.

He asked them, ‘Who did the best today on the field of battle?’

One officer told of a man who had fought very  bravely all day long, and then just before dusk, had been severely wounded.  Another told of a man who had taken a hit for a fellow soldier, sparing his friend’s life but very possibly losing his own.  Yet another told of the man who had led the charge into battle.  And still another told of a soldier who had risked his life to pull a fellow soldier into a trench.

The captain heard them out and then said, ‘No, I fear you are all mistaken.  The best man in the field today was the soldier who was just lifting up his arm to strike the enemy, but, upon hearing the trumpet sound the retreat, checked himself, dropped his arm without striking the blow, and retreated.  That perfect an ready obedience to the will of his general is the noblest thing that was done today on the battlefield.’

If you really do know me, you know not to ask me what kind of music I like.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what music I love listening to.  It’s not hard to find a song from that genre that I would like to listen to.

I like stories.  I love reading something adventurous, mysterious, inspirational–something with a good story.  That’s why I love country music.  Most of them (if not all) have a story.  It can be a slice of life, or something inspirational.  ”You can’t go wrong with a little country music” is what I say.  Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Lauren Alaina, Scotty McCreery, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Kellie Pickler, the list goes on and on.  It don’t matter what year the song was released.  Country music is country music.

Which is what the genre of today’s song is.  From my loooong list of favorite country artists, today’s song is from American Idol contestant, Kellie Pickler.  She’s among my all-time favorite contestant from that talent show.  She’s funny and quirky and she seems nice.  Her music is also good, her song catchy regardless of the tempo.

The song I’ve picked for today is from her newest album 100 Proof and is entitled Tough.  I liked this song because it’s something that I believe women should be.  Tough. We (and by ‘we’ I mean women-kind) shouldn’t be considered the “weaker sex”.  We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bullied or pushed around.  We have the right to fight back, and there is nothing wrong in doing so.

You can buy 100 Proof off on iTunes or your local music store.  Below is the lyrics to this super catchy tune:

I wanted lace, I wanted pearls, to be a princess like
The other girls.
But life came hard, to my front door.
And I grew up trying to even out the score.

Tough, I ain’t never been nothing but tough.
All my edges have always been rough.
But Jesus loves me anyway.
Oh backbone.
There ain’t nothing wrong with a woman that got a little backbone.
You just wait ’til you taste her kind of love.
You want a shy little thing, a pretty little high heel thing.
Gonna cry if I don’t polish up.
Tough.
The way I see it, the hand of fate, did me a favor,
with the cards he dealt my way.
Found out real fast, life is a game.
You’re out real quick if you don’t know how to play.

Tough.
I ain’t never been nothing but tough,
all my edges have always been rough.
But Jesus loves me anyway.
Oh backbone, there ain’t nothing wrong with a woman that
Got a little backbone.
You just wait ’til you taste her kind of love.

You want a shy little thing, a pretty little high heel thing.
Gonna cry if I don’t polish up.

Are you serious? You ain’t fooled me much.
You justa hanging round
So you can try your luck.

Well tough, I ain’t never been nothing but tough,
all my edges has always been rough.
You want a shy little thing, a pretty little high heel thing,
gonna cry if I don’t polish up.
You know what I got to say about that is tough.

During the four-week siege of Tientsin, in the June 1900 Boxer Rebellion, Herbert Hoover helped erect barricades around the foreign compound and organized all the able-bodied men into a protective force to man them.  Mrs. Hoover went to work, too–helping set up a hospital, taking her turn nursing the wounded, rationing food and serving tea every afternoon to those on sentry duty.  Like her husband, she remained calm and efficient throughout the crisis, and even seemed to enjoy the excitement.

One afternoon, while sitting at home playing solitaire to rest after her work at the hospital, a shell suddenly burst nearby.  She ran to the back door and found a big hole in the garden.  A little later a second shell hit the road in front of the house.  Then came a third one.  This one burst through one of the windows of the house and demolished a post by the staircase.

Several reporters covering the siege rushed into the living room to see if she was alright and found her at the card table.  ’I don’t seem to be winning this hand,’ she remarked coolly, ‘but that was the third shell and therefore the last one for the present anyway.  Their pattern is three in a row.’ Then she suggested brightly, ‘Let’s go and have tea.’