Speculations around character

My speculations is around the character Ciaphas Cain from the series of books revolving around him as I find him quite radically different from many other “Hero” characters from other similar books.

Cain is a commissar serving in the military force “The Imperial Guard” in the far distant future of year 40,000. A commissar’s job is to ensure that discipline and morale is kept in a military unit and since they stand outside the regular chain of command they are free to punish and execute anyone they see fit. They are usually seen as fanatics and are truly detested by most soldiers.   

But then we have Cain, who is everything a commissar shouldn’t be; he does his outmost to avoid battle and acts friendly towards the soldiers he is supposed to keep an iron grip on, since he believes that most commissar’s die by “accidental friendly fire” than from actual enemies. He is also quite selfish as he often favors to save himself than those around him, at least that’s what he wished he could do since he often get in situations where if he doesn’t help those in need he loses the trust of those around him and he is forced to risk his life regardless.

All Ciaphas Cain books are portrayed as if they are written by Cain himself in his older days and serve as his memoirs and are both a funny and interesting aspect to it since it allows the author to insert how Cain really felt in certain situations.

Cain’s deepest wish was to simply avoid conflict altogether but fate has it that when fleeing from a battle he actually discovers an ambush planned by the enemy and thanks to that it is avoided and Cain is pronounced a hero. Cain, who is quite the intelligent man, uses this “false” title to his favor to try living the good life but more often than not he just ends up in deeper trouble thanks to.

So what makes this character so interesting his how he really is the “reluctant hero” and Cain sees himself as nothing but a selfish bastard who tries to live of off others and save his own miserable hide but still manage to save the day over and over again.

It really brings a human factor the “hero” since he doesn’t set out specifically to be this hero and neither is he “destined” to be one like so many other characters, Cain merely do what he can to save himself which ends up with the comedic effect of him more or less saving the galaxy on a regular basis.

But he is never fully portrayed as a coward either, since being the intellectual man that he is knows just what power reputation brings and regardless of how often he tells of how he would “run screaming like a rambling idiot” to avoid what he needs to face he still stands up to fight and do what is necessary.

The story of stuff

The story of Electronics

This video is great on so many ways. It not only manages to lay out its intended message, but to also do it in a way that’s both entertaining and learning.

The message is blatantly clear, take a stand against corporations to ensure that they make longer lasting electronics, which thereby would lessen the pollution that is currently being released and piled up. It’s a good morale and one that really needs to be listened to.

A lot of people believe that once they have thrown their old stuff into the recycling bin, it’s out of their world, and nothing they need to worry about anymore. But as this video state, that is not the case. Even with recycling we are throwing stuff away more than we re-use to make new stuff. If we simply made these things last longer, so that once they do eventually break down, there will have been enough time to recycle the old so it doesn’t get piled up.

Another great point is that of designing them so when a part breaks, we don’t need to exchange the whole thing, but rather just the broken part. Stationary computers is quite a good an example of this, I have had some components break down, but all I needed to do was replace that part, I didn’t need to go buy an entire new computer. But there are so many other things were we can’t do that, like TV’s, phones, laptops etc, etc. If all of these were designed so that individual parts could easily be changed, it would be so much less wasted.

So this sounds good and all, but like the video says, the companies have no motivation to do this, after all, if interchangeable parts were introduced, companies would most likely lose more money, since they would simply sell on part rather than an entire new whole unit. So for this to happen, we must make it the companies’ issue of handling this, because as long as they don’t need to, they will only see loss in that kind of structure.

The thing I like most about this video, aside from the good message it delivers, is how it does so. It’s a fun and easy way to deliver the message. It’s captivating and the narrator also does an excellent job, speaking with great interest to what she is telling.

Overall, it’s a great work and I hope it gets more attention, it deserves it, and so does their other videos.

Snooping bosses, the issue of privacy

The Issue of privacy

I have never been one to fret over the prospect of being monitored when at work, because I believe it’s a “necessary evil” so to say, considering that companies can reassure that their workers don’t do anything hurtful for the company, and even more so when it comes to surveillance cameras on the streets.
So the prospect of knowing that everything I do at a job might be checked doesn’t bother me the least. If I’m at work, I realize that I’m thereby representing the company I work for. No matter how small an employee’s position is, they are still tied to that company and that is why I think bosses have the right to check up on their workforce.

However, I think there are a few things that make the difference between rightfully monitoring, and just plain snooping. Firstly, the employees should know whether the boss has intentions or not to monitor the employee, whether it be trough a tracker to check if the person is where he/she should be or trough mail scanning programs, to make sure no company secrets and such are included. I believe this will assure the employee that they are not secretly being spied on, something that obviously not many people enjoy, and they will probably be more confident in the company’s intentions. Secondly, I also believe it would help workers to be more inclined not to do anything “bad” considering that if they are well aware of the fact they might be caught, they will probably avoid doing it, not to mention that if they still should proceed with said bad thing, then they quite clearly deserves to be reprimanded.

But it still leaves the notion of that many think it’s just a blatant invasion of their privacy, and quite frankly, I think it’s just something people will have to learn to live with. The fact that companies can make it so easy for themselves to reassure that their employees are kept in line and thereby the safekeeping of their company, it is not something that will (or should) die down. But, like I said, I feel the companies can do their part in all of this by informing their workers of just what they intend to monitor, how, why, and most importantly, state out just exactly what they consider to be out of line (unless obvious, like porn surfing on work time and such, naturally).

That’s all work related, but there are also the thing of being watched out on the streets trough surveillance cameras, and I’ve seen programs of people complaining over them, that they don’t like the idea of constantly being watched wherever they go. It’s understandable, but I’m sure a lot of people would be glad they are there, if they are robbed or get in an accident with no one else around to help. It’s a bit of a mixed problem, since you should obviously be glad over the fact if you never find yourself in a situation that calls for the need of the cameras, but at the same time, if you never find the need for them, you never appreciate them and probably just resent them for their invasion of privacy.

 Finally we come to the privacy of your home. This is the one place I believe everyone should really feel safe in their privacy. When I go outside of whatever, I enter the state of mind that “I’m now in public” and act accordingly, but that can be quite straining in the long run, so naturally it feels good to be able to come home and just do whatever you feel like. But I am a little conflicted over the fact that bosses and such would scan your blogs and whatnot for any content they might find inappropriate. 

Putting up text in a open blog that anyone can read is to me the exact same thing as speaking in open public, I mean, the only difference is that your “speak” with text instead of actual words. But then again, assuming you’re posting it after work, it really should be counted as none-work related, and as such any boss that reads it should not have any right to mettle over the content, unless it contains actual company secrets or such, since we still do have the right to free speech.

So in the end, I think is ok, and probably necessary to keep going with monitoring and surveillance, to safe keep us on streets and for companies to guard themselves, but it’s also important that we make sure it only stays for those reasons. As long as I can feel safe in the fact that any boss that see what online activity I have isn’t frowned or “judged” solely on the content, but only in the occasion if it should contain something actually harmful to the company.