What is poverty?

We all know that there are poor people in every country, and the poor all have a same situation, which is poverty? What is poverty? We know it is the situation that poor people have, but what exactly is poverty? Some say poverty is the state of having a little or no money. Other say poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Personally, I think poverty is a situation that some has, and it's a situation when they don't have ability find job, or doesn't have the opportunity to find the job. I think poverty is not just being poor, is not like they want to be poor. I think it sounds really bad if you say someone is poor. They might just not have the opportunity to have a job. It's also possible that the country might be over populated, so there are not enough job opportunities for them. Some of the places are living in poverty, like India, Philippine, Africa...etc. Some of them live in poverty, because the country is over populated or something. Some of the people never get education, so they weren't able to read, write, or even write their own names.

I don't want to say I feel sorry for them, but when I see videos of people finding food from trashcans or people living in such small house with only a little bit of money to survive. I have a bunch of questions that I want to ask whenever I see those videos. Why are there poor people? Don't the government want to change this, or at least help them? Some of the poor people can ask for help from friends or family, but what happens if they don't have any friends or family members? I want to help them, but sometimes I don't know how to do it. I think sitting down and feeling bad for those people is not the right thing to do, because we should change it, and if you have the ability, then help them.

Morrie's Aphorism #5

"Be hopeful but not foolishly hopeful"

We see all those movies about people chasing dreams because they are hopeful. When we watch those movies, we feel like hoping about something might really work. I always thought those people who hope about things a lot gets what they want. They believe that someday someone can help them to get the things they want, some believe in god, some believe in miracles. I respect and also believe in them sometimes, but this aphorism is really true. We shouldn't just hope for it, or hope that someday someone will help us. Hoping is important, but sometimes we got to work hard by ourself.

Hoping it's just like thinking positively, you hope or wish for something. Sometimes, I feel like I am foolishly hoping for something or something to happen. At the time, I think hoping is the best thing I can do, but afterwards I realize that hoping it's not enough, because you might just be foolishly hoping, just like I what I feel sometimes. So, it's really important to be hopeful, but not foolishly hopeful.

How do electrolytes work in our body?

Electrolyte is a substance with free ions that's electrically charged, and conducts electricity. Electrolyte is a medical or scientific term for salt, and specifically ions. Electrolytes can appear in liquid, gel, or paste form. Electrolyte mean that the ion is electrically charged and it moves to a cathode, or anode. Ions that move to cathode are positively charged. Ions that move to the anode are negatively charged.

Athletes know that their body loses salt through sweating, and they know that it's really important to replace it, that's why they drink sports drink during exercising and after exercising to prevent muscle cramps. Humans like us also really need different kinds of salt. We need salt for our body to stay healthy. If we don't provide salt for our body when we really need it, then salt imbalance will occur, and might cause heart and nervous system problems. The foods and liquids we eat and drink contain mineral salts, when they dissolve then they turn into electrolyte in liquid form. They can appear as blood, urine...etc. The major electrolytes in our body are sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, phosphate, and sulfate. They are important to help our muscle to function properly. Because the electrolytes are electrically charged, so they it sends signals from our brain to our muscle. As I mentioned, some people drink sports drink to prevent from cramps, because sports drink contains salt.

Electrolytes not just does that, electrolytes also keep fluid levels normal in different body compartments. The levels of electrolytes are controlled by the movement of electrolytes into or out of the different compartments. Our kidney is an organ in our body which filters(or we can say "clean") electrolytes from the blood to keep the level in blood constant and balance.

Our body work in a way that keeps water and electrolyte levels just balance. If our sodium level gets too low, then our kidney will produce more urine(which is pee), which lowers the amount of water in the blood. But if your sodium level gets high, the we will feel thirsty, then we will drink a lot. Sometimes too much salt in our body is not so good, but we still need enough of salt in our body.

What is lightning? Why does wearing rubber shoes help you during a storm?

Most times during the storms, the lightning or thunder strikes. It looks like a sudden light that only shines for one second or less. What is lightning exactly? Lightning is a bright flash of electricity that's produced by thunderstorm. Lightning is a static discharge of electricity, which means that the particles(mostly electrons) leave the object and transfer to another object or other places. Sometimes when you touch a doorknob and, and then you get a shock. That kind of things is a smaller kind of lightning. What a real lightning is really powerful and harmful, it kills and injures people. The amount of the electric potential is measure in volts. Lightning has electric potential of millions of volts, which will release large amounts of energy in different kind of forms, light, heat, and sound. During a thunderstorm, water droplets, ice, and air move inside the storm cloud. Negative charges build up, often at the bottom of the cloud. Positive charges often build up at the top. The negative charge at the bottom of the cloud may induce a positive charge on the ground. The large charge difference causes a rapid electric discharge which is lightning. Different parts of clouds have different charges. In fact, most lightning happens within and between clouds.

Lightning usually strikes the highest point in a charged area because it provides the shortest path for the charges to reach the ground. But during a thunderstorm, lightning can strike the ground unexpectedly. The rainwater on the ground conducts electricity. Walking on the street with rainwater on the ground, we don't want the electricity to conduct on our body, we can die easily because it is really powerful. Wearing rubber shoes can protect and help you in the storms. Rubber is a insulator, it doesn't let charges pass through easily, and sometimes it stops electricity conduct. If we wear a metal shoes, then we can get conduct by the electricity of lightning. It's safer to wear rubber shoes than to wear metal shoes, we can walk on streets happily with our rubber shoes during storms.

Morrie's Aphorism #4

"When you are utterly frustrated or angry, express these feelings. You don't have to be nice all the time--just most of the time."

When I was young, I get really frustrated or angry easily. I think it's because I wasn't mature enough yet. I am not saying that I don't get angry or frustrated now, it's just that I kind of control my emotions better now. I have some friends, and they are normally nice. But when they really got something going on, or maybe something really bug them, then they just go really really mad. When they go really frustrated, it really shocks me, and it might just be awkward, because they don't normally get angry, and suddenly "boom!", they just get really angry. Normally we think that nice people are not scary when they go mad, but I think they can be pretty mad too.

This aphorism is not telling people to get angry all the time, it telling that being nice is a basic thing, but when you are really mad, then just express your feelings out. Being nice is important, but you have to let your voice to be heard, don't let people fool you just because you're nice. Some people just like to pick on you or maybe don't respect you just because you are nice. Nice people can be nice, but they also have feelings, so respect everyone even if they are nice.

Morrie's Aphorism #3

"Don't assume that it's too late to be involved in something."

This aphorism is basically talking about we should never give up on something, and it's never too late to do something. Don't let time or things stop you from chasing your dream or what you want to do. Morrie wrote a lot of aphorisms, and this is kind of one of my favorite. Morrie knew he's going to die soon. He's on his death bed, he started to realize things, that's why he has so many aphorisms about life and death. This aphorism shows how Morrie tell himself and others to treasure time and never give up. It's never too late, so don't give up.

I think the aphorism is really true, because we should never give up on something just because you think it's too late. When you really want to chase your dream, then no matter what, you should have the faith and spirit to not give up and chase your own dream. I think we shouldn't let things or time to limit how we want to chase our dreams. Never give up is what I see in this aphorism.

Morrie's Aphorism #2

"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others."
This aphorism is showing and telling us that we should forgive ourselves, and also forgive others, or at least learn to or try to. Sometimes we always feel like that it's easy to forgive others and hard to forgive yourself. For few people it is that way, but mostly people forgive themselves easily, so they didn't even notice that they forgive themselves. And when someone is trying to forgive others, it's really hard. There's few reasons for it, because you might not trust others, or maybe they did something that's really mean, then you might not forgive them.

In Buddhism, they normally tell people to forgive others more than forgiving yourself. They think forgiving others is a right thing, and if your heart is nice, kind, and calm, then you will forgive others more.

I think sometimes I can forgive others when they did something bad to me, but not that harsh or not that bad. If someone really did something really really mean or bad to me, I might just forget about them and never forgive them. I don't know, sometimes you can't know whether you should forgive them or not. It's a hard decision to make. The aphorism of Morrie's is really true and meaningful, it's also useful.