Videoke Singing Makes People Happy and Healthy

        BY Vic Odarve

 Videoke singing is the ideal hobby one could have at a time when more and more people worldwide are searching for a better and longer life. It generates happiness because it makes people feel good, gives them a lively outlook, helps them forget about issues at work and at home, and has a favorable psychological and physiological impact on them. Additionally, it calls for deep breathing, which eases stress and anxiety and promotes a healthy lifestyle. People that participate in videoke singing do so while following a cursor as they sing along to the song lyrics that have been highlighted on a screen.

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This provides a unique opportunity for individuals to the tune to sing with less effort or know-how, thereby building confidence... at least when singing in front of a crowd. Furthermore, a score based on your ability to synchronize timing and pace with the lyrics, which the machine gives at the end of the song, makes you happy. Why not? Just singing your favorite song will lower your depression and immediately bring you happiness. It encourages people to socialize with the group.

Getting and singing along with the group with a bottle of beer helps combat the negative mood that often comes with their daily tasks in city life. Scientists found out that singing activates the pleasure center of the male brain; an effect that doesn’t take place when you are not singing at all. As you concentrate on singing, things like work or money or family problems are gone, keeping the brain active and fending off depression, especially in older people.

Moreover, videoke singing is highly entertaining and others consider it a pastime and nothing more. Constant practice may develop their innate talent as a singer and maybe even bring them to stardom. Thus, video singing brings fame and happiness. Health-wise, deep breathing and relaxation in controlling voice and other related actions as you sing along are components of meditation and physical exercise necessary for good health. Researchers found that the act of singing releases endorphins, the brain’s "feel good" chemicals.

Remembering their good old days

Singing also brings us a "lifted" feeling, which reduces stress, draws action, which promotes good blood circulation, and in the process brings good health. Researchers studied salivary cortical levels and other physiological responses and found that singing, especially music with a major (rather than minor) tone, is correlated with lowered stress as well as feelings of happiness; thus, singing promotes health. Indeed, videoke singing has a broad and long-lasting effect on people's well-being and unknowingly has the most dramatic effects on their lives.

Thus, videoke, as one of the mainstream forms of entertainment around the world, whether at birthday parties, class reunions, or in bars and restaurants, make people happy and healthy.

How Bad Friends Affect Your Life

           By Vic Odarve

Bad friends can have a bad impact on your life. They have the power to transform you into someone with an entirely different personality, alter your viewpoint of the world, and gradually influence your way of life.

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Unknowingly, you make bad friends, usually at office work and social gatherings. People in the upper class of our society usually meet bad friends at parties, religious and civic organizations, political acquaintances, and other forms of activities among society’s bigwigs.

The influence of bad friends is powerful. It is more serious for the rich and famous. Take the case of Ruby, a beautiful woman in her early 50's who established her name by making friends and holding important positions in well-known social organizations. With her friends, she found a connection to influential lawmakers; amassed wealth and became famous; and acted as a conduit for graft and corruption. Aware of her impending arrest by the government for her role, she left the country without any traces. But things go differently for her. She was troubled. She could not sleep or eat well. A few months later, she returned as a government witness in a pork barrel scandal that implicated several senators and other famous personalities.

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Bad friends can also bring a tremendous change in your behavior, lifestyle, manners, and actions. You are strongly connected to their common objectives, likes, and points of view, as well as gossiping activities. You could not feel and sense the threat at the beginning because, slowly and slowly, you are engulfed in emulating your bad friend’s way of living in one way or another. Some of the effects are extremely disastrous to your future. You do not know that your constant companionship with these bad friends seems to program your way of thinking and develop into a habit.

The negative influence of bad friends knows no boundaries. Even for a short time in a company, the influence is great. It can change the world! Imagine what happened to the daughter of a certain newspaper magnate and publisher. The kidnapped of his 19-year-old daughter, after 3 months in the company of kidnappers, became friends and converted herself into a member of the terrorist organization. She sympathized with the cause of the terrorist group and participated willingly in the bank robbery. After just a short period of friendship, the daughter of a wealthy and famous family became a robber. It ruined her life!

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There are many ways to avoid falling for bad friends. The best way is to look for, associate with, and surround yourself with only positive influencers. Hang out with those who support and enhance your life; filter their background and stick to those who share your mission and ambitions in life.

Indeed, bad friends have a far greater negative impact on your life than you realize. It can change your outlook on how you perceive the world and your behavior on the dark side. By putting yourself among bad friends, you are inviting a disaster. Bad friends, like a giant black hole sitting quietly at the center of our Milky Way, are waiting for someone who is about to destroy himself. The bible puts it at 22 Cor 6:14–15:14. Do not make unsuitable covenants with those who do not believe. Can justice walk with wickedness? Or can light coexist with darkness, and can there be harmony between Christ and Satan? What kind of union can there be between one who believes and one who does not believe?

Slowly and slowly, bad friends ruin your life. Be careful!

Nature Educates Us on Mathematics

By  Vic Odarve

 Not everybody loves mathematics! "I don’t like numbers. That’s why I did not take up engineering courses," said one student. This summed up everything about his schooling! Since kindergarten up to high school, he has performed miserably in mathematics. But one thing is certain: whether he likes it or not, mathematics is a part of his everyday life. Unknown to many, math already existed in nature the moment we took our first breath of life. What we do is simply marvel at mathematics!

Petals on math sequence

Also, nature teaches mathematics! Nature and math work in never-ending harmony. From the particle world to billions of stars spreading in our cosmic ocean, mathematical laws seem to work, keeping the universe in order. From Newton’s law to Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Einstein’s law of relativity, math offers our deep understanding of things around us.

 Nature has its own way of expressing mathematics! Patterns such as hexagonal beehives, spiraling Fibonacci flowering trees, fractal flowers and plants, fruits, and leaves, and many more are mathematics!

 FRACTALS, BEEHIVES, AND FIBONACCI’S NUMBERS

 Fractals are repeating geometric patterns. They are rough, fragmented geometric shapes that can be repeatedly subdivided into parts and where each small portion can be viewed as a replica of the whole. These are geometric designs we teach in classrooms. In mathematics, this is referred to as iterations or algorithms. Newton’s method, simplex programming, Gauss-Seidel, Jacobi, and many more algorithms are among a few examples.

 

Mapua University, October 2022

Some plants exhibit simple recursive operations such that, after a few repetitions or iterations, their shape can be recognized as a repeated geometric pattern. It's mathematical! Fractals in nature are always pleasing to our eyes – clouds, plant leaves and fruits, galaxies, shells, and many more. Plants such as sunflowers, ferns, cabbages, and papaya leaves are among a few of them.

The honeycomb structure is also a natural mathematical exhibition. Look at its hexagonal shape. Its cross-section is made of the comb, a latticework of hexagonal cells made of beeswax. It is an expression of geometry in action. The design might be the most economical in terms of labor and wax, hence expressing the least cost in economics and linear programming in mathematics!

Leaves on Fibonacci's sequence

 The Fibonacci number is a simple example illustrating the existence of sequences in mathematics just like arithmetic and geometric sequences and progressions. But in the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, each number is the sum of the previous two: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, etc. And these numbers are exhibited in various "family trees" and patterns of spirals of leaves and seeds. The image of a nautilus shell approximates the sequence of the Fibonacci numbers in nature. Once again, nature teaches math! Fractals, Fibonacci ‘s shells, and beehives are iconic images that capture the beauty of nature displayed in mathematical expressions. These displays are like ornaments to the eyes of mathematicians. This is a living math in motion for us to love and appreciate nature!

 

Indeed, nature educates us on mathematics!

 

Educators Are Changing Lives

             By Vic Odarve 

 Although parents shape their children's lives more significantly than teachers do, teachers nevertheless have an impact on children's lives while they are in school. Their future employment are frequently prepared for by the knowledge they gain from the lectures in the classroom. Students are subjected to disciplinary acts and their related procedures in order to shape them into better citizens. The moral and spiritual significance learned in the classroom has an impact on how they develop as a person as a whole. Teachers mold students' futures, therefore they have an impact on and influence their lives, whether it be for a short or lengthy amount of time.

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The world inside the classroom is their second home. The teacher acts as a parent. It is in school that they learn the importance of advanced education to achieving their desired field of interest or discipline. Students acquire the necessary skills they need in the hope of landing a better and more decent job in the future. Recently, while inside the shopping mall, I ran into my former student, whom I did not recognize. "Sir, you don’t remember me?" he asked. "No, I don’t. What’s your name? " I asked. He gave me his name and explained that he was my former student in mathematics. After a few minutes of conversation before we parted, he said seriously, with a gratifying gesture, "I learned a lot of things in mathematics under your lectures, and most of them are used in our petrochemical plant operation. I want to say, "Thank you, Sir." Then he walked away and bid bye.

In the classroom, discipline is always in the making. It is like a nucleus, the center of an atomic structure. It is always a component in a teacher’s teaching strategy to promote peace and orderly management. Well-disciplined students mirror the personality of the teacher as well as the academic institution. Cheating, ranging from old-fashioned writing on the hands to high-tech spy cameras, is not tolerated. Penalties are well defined in the student’s handbook. Imposing good discipline will mold students to become better citizens.

African University

Students are taught how to share their knowledge and assist others in classroom discussions in order to prepare them to be responsible individuals. The topics assigned, classroom group activities such as laboratories and the like, build trust and camaraderie among the peers as well as develop their personalities. At one of the international conventions, one of the presenters was my previous student. He presented a paper titled "How to Learn Math Quickly." I could not believe it! After a short conversation, he confided that it was in my class that he was challenged and learned much about how to learn and love mathematics. In return, he wanted to share his experience of overcoming the fear of taking engineering mathematics at this university. That was it. He wanted to share and touch more lives among our students taking engineering courses; expound on his experiences, ups and downs; and show them how he conquered and shifted to a new paradigm. In my little way, I have touched their lives.

To my surprise, this petrochemical engineer and presenter at an international convention were not even on my list of the top classroom performers.

Today, while in the classroom, we cannot see the impact of our teaching on shaping their future. On several occasions, I was moved and touched. I was dumbfounded and could not say anything. Students expressing their success and gratitude is evidence that teachers are part of their future. It was a feeling of joy and fulfillment! I did not expect that I would touch their lives. Jesus once said,

" What you have done to the least of your brothers, you have done to me." Matthew 25:40.

Touching lives brings us to greater heights with the One who is sitting on the great and splendid throne, with a river of life, clear as crystal, gushing from the throne, and his kingdom will reign forever. Rev 20:11, 22; 1, 22:6.

Indeed, teachers touch and transform the lives of their students, and they have done it to the glory of our God the Father!

MCM-Mapua University