I think that in order to be in a true blogging mood you need to have a lot of angst.
Today, during my studies, I came to the realization that sometimes in order to move forward, you need to just stop and relax for a bit. It was one of those days where my brain just felt completely full with new ideas and information and it was not going to take anymore until it had completely digested. So I took a nap. I kept falling in and out of sleep. It was one of those naps where you don't really know where you are when you wake up and you're just so surprised to see anything that normally wouldn't surprise you (What?! why is that lamp there and who turned it on??? *deep sigh of confusion and sadness*). I was particularly surprised because I woke up to my roommate standing over me, naked and sweating. Just kidding.
But I did have a ring of sweat around my neck which made my shirt cling to me in an uncomfortable way.
Last night I took Amtrak from Portland to Eugene. It would have been a pretty boring ride but thankfully there were some super nerdy college kids sitting in front of me talking about Harry Potter and Honeybadgers. "Draco wasn't a bad person, he was just misguided. People really take him for granted." "Honestly, I hate this, but I feel like I have to associate myself with Hermione." The girl who leading this golden discussion--and from her tone of voice she sounded pretty stuck up--had this air about her; it was like she thought she was some god of coolness and everyone else was constantly blessed by her infinite knowledge on how to be cool. I hope I never become like that. I sometimes think that your twenties are your free pass to feel like you know everything about the world...but you could also say that that is supposed to be for your teens. Or thirties. Or forties. The truth is, you will always be able to learn more. There's the gem of wisdom for the day. It's cliche and platitudinal. And that last sentence was repetitive and redundant.
Speaking of repetitive and redundant, I was a horrible writer until senior year. I would say the same thing five different ways and call it a paragraph... which I mean technically if it is five sentences--never mind. I really felt like the high school writing program at Grant didn't do me much justice. I learned how to write when I read a book (over and over) called The Elements of Style. If you like Hemingway you should read it, if not, you'll probably always be a poor writer. The message is essentially: write concisely with purpose. Mark Twain once said in a letter to a friend, "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."
That's all I have for right now. Namaste.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Bucket List
Some things I'd like to do in my lifetime:
- write a soundtrack for a short film...basically compile all of my favorite dissonant chords
- go on a year-long climbing trip and become a mountain man
- invent something
- write a novel or a historical dissertation that blows everyones' minds
- become a congressman and reform the educational system in America
- start my own colony of soccer playing guinea pigs in the southern part of Provence, France
- kill a tusked boar with my own hands
- be Ironman
- write a soundtrack for a short film...basically compile all of my favorite dissonant chords
- go on a year-long climbing trip and become a mountain man
- invent something
- write a novel or a historical dissertation that blows everyones' minds
- become a congressman and reform the educational system in America
- start my own colony of soccer playing guinea pigs in the southern part of Provence, France
- kill a tusked boar with my own hands
- be Ironman
Monday, October 10, 2011
"So you're quoting Cornel West in your blog now?" Spare me father!
The classes I'm taking have proven to be moderately hard, yet manageable. German 101 is almost easier than predicting how my parents will react to whatever silliness my sister is currently getting into. "She just needs to figure it out for herself." As opposed to: WRAAATH OF THE TITANSSSSS. *Katherine's soothing voice* followed by a reasonable second try.
I came back to Portland this past weekend to celebrate my first anniversary with my girlfriend as well as her birthday. It went incredibly well, to say the least. Cashmere always knocks it out of the park. It was nice to see my family and my good friend who was down from UW. My only gripe about the whole situation--and this goes back to what I was saying earlier--is that I came home to all of the same problems that I left two and a half weeks prior.
I'm not saying by any means that I because I have been reading J.S. Mill that I am now an all-knowing truth-searching wise man, but it has shed a new light onto some things. It's unreasonable to hold people to the standard that they should address, adapt, and move-on after dealing with a problem for the first time because people aren't that smart. Volatile emotions will almost always take over reason when people start arguing--no matter how often that reason is made clear afterwards. Rather than addressing their own faults, people rely on others to change.
Don't make the assumption that just because you HAVE a set of principles, that they are always the right ones.
I love my family. I also love the skills that I have developed as a mediator because of them. Luckily, people don't have to change actively because time will do it passively.
My PS 260 class is frustrating right now. I feel like I'm sitting through an hour of dumbed down review. The massive stain on America's History that was the Jim Crow era, followed by the equally impressive failure that was desegregating our educational systems after Brown v. Board is an incredibly interesting and moving topic. I would love to talk with my professor about it in a private setting (Thank the lord for office hours. I literally thank the lord.) because so many people in that class say things that make me want to stab my face with a knife. Repeatedly.
I guess I'm spoiled; Con Team was such a rich experience.
Sometimes I ask myself why I even write this stuff for everyone in the world to see and judge. Why would anyone ever care to read this stuff... THAT is why I'm going to college and getting a degree and some useful knowledge. "Oh yeah, Philosophy and History... what are you going to do with that?" Well it's better than a Business or Poly-Sci. I hear those are perfect prerequisites for being a barista. All I want to do is share my knowledge and research (once I have some good knowledge and If I ever do some research) with other people who want to learn and become inspired. Maybe I'll write esoteric dissertations that only a handful of other Historian scholars or philosophers might read. BUT I would get to read their stuff and that is so cool! The whole idea that someone could posit Math, Reading and Writing, and the Sciences as the most important areas of schooling is absurd to me. Earl Warren knew what he was talking about in Brown when he stressed the "importance of education to our democratic society...the primary role of public education lies in fostering 'cultural values' and 'good citizenship' among children." He said nothing about reading, writing, or arithmetic.
...I just read this whole post and it is all over the place. THAT'S HOW I DO IT. I figure, what is a blog if not some place to pile up your rampant ideas. It almost spells "glob" backwards. My idea glob. I looked up glob in the apple dictionary and the example they used for how it would be placed in a sentence was: thick globs of melted mozzarella cheese. That made me laugh for some reason.
The classes I'm taking have proven to be moderately hard, yet manageable. German 101 is almost easier than predicting how my parents will react to whatever silliness my sister is currently getting into. "She just needs to figure it out for herself." As opposed to: WRAAATH OF THE TITANSSSSS. *Katherine's soothing voice* followed by a reasonable second try.
I came back to Portland this past weekend to celebrate my first anniversary with my girlfriend as well as her birthday. It went incredibly well, to say the least. Cashmere always knocks it out of the park. It was nice to see my family and my good friend who was down from UW. My only gripe about the whole situation--and this goes back to what I was saying earlier--is that I came home to all of the same problems that I left two and a half weeks prior.
I'm not saying by any means that I because I have been reading J.S. Mill that I am now an all-knowing truth-searching wise man, but it has shed a new light onto some things. It's unreasonable to hold people to the standard that they should address, adapt, and move-on after dealing with a problem for the first time because people aren't that smart. Volatile emotions will almost always take over reason when people start arguing--no matter how often that reason is made clear afterwards. Rather than addressing their own faults, people rely on others to change.
Don't make the assumption that just because you HAVE a set of principles, that they are always the right ones.
I love my family. I also love the skills that I have developed as a mediator because of them. Luckily, people don't have to change actively because time will do it passively.
My PS 260 class is frustrating right now. I feel like I'm sitting through an hour of dumbed down review. The massive stain on America's History that was the Jim Crow era, followed by the equally impressive failure that was desegregating our educational systems after Brown v. Board is an incredibly interesting and moving topic. I would love to talk with my professor about it in a private setting (Thank the lord for office hours. I literally thank the lord.) because so many people in that class say things that make me want to stab my face with a knife. Repeatedly.
I guess I'm spoiled; Con Team was such a rich experience.
Sometimes I ask myself why I even write this stuff for everyone in the world to see and judge. Why would anyone ever care to read this stuff... THAT is why I'm going to college and getting a degree and some useful knowledge. "Oh yeah, Philosophy and History... what are you going to do with that?" Well it's better than a Business or Poly-Sci. I hear those are perfect prerequisites for being a barista. All I want to do is share my knowledge and research (once I have some good knowledge and If I ever do some research) with other people who want to learn and become inspired. Maybe I'll write esoteric dissertations that only a handful of other Historian scholars or philosophers might read. BUT I would get to read their stuff and that is so cool! The whole idea that someone could posit Math, Reading and Writing, and the Sciences as the most important areas of schooling is absurd to me. Earl Warren knew what he was talking about in Brown when he stressed the "importance of education to our democratic society...the primary role of public education lies in fostering 'cultural values' and 'good citizenship' among children." He said nothing about reading, writing, or arithmetic.
...I just read this whole post and it is all over the place. THAT'S HOW I DO IT. I figure, what is a blog if not some place to pile up your rampant ideas. It almost spells "glob" backwards. My idea glob. I looked up glob in the apple dictionary and the example they used for how it would be placed in a sentence was: thick globs of melted mozzarella cheese. That made me laugh for some reason.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Cornel West: Nihilism in America
[For connections class]
Chapter Summary:
West attributes one of the downfalls of the American Democratic tradition to the rise of three nihilistic types that occupy government and frustrate the transition back to democratic ideals. He claims that although "they dominate our discourse, they are not the authentic voices of American Democracy."In his final sentence he states that "democracy matters much, hardworking and poor citizens reign, and [nihilistic] empire is dismantled so that all the nations can breath freely and aspire to democracy matters, if they have the visions and courage to do so."
- Does West support a form of direct democracy?
- Given the circumstances of the current political sphere, is "vision and courage" enough?
Chapter Summary:
West attributes one of the downfalls of the American Democratic tradition to the rise of three nihilistic types that occupy government and frustrate the transition back to democratic ideals. He claims that although "they dominate our discourse, they are not the authentic voices of American Democracy."In his final sentence he states that "democracy matters much, hardworking and poor citizens reign, and [nihilistic] empire is dismantled so that all the nations can breath freely and aspire to democracy matters, if they have the visions and courage to do so."
- Does West support a form of direct democracy?
- Given the circumstances of the current political sphere, is "vision and courage" enough?
Sunday, October 2, 2011
What are you doing?
The transition from high school to college is something of a novelty to me. Obviously not in the sense that college itself is new, but in the sense that this kind of transition is new. Going from total dependence to complete independence is a huge step. I am paying for my own college experience. I am of the mindset that my money is only worth the education I leave this place with. I am abhorred by certain students who come to college with the expectation of finishing with mediocre grades and essentially a mediocre experience--leading to a mediocre life.
Hundreds of thousands of students apply to law school every year. I am considering becoming one of those students. Without any guarantee of a well paying job, the only guarantee is that the cream will rise to the top. A 300 level course for a freshman is no where near unheard of. But what about a 400 level course? Why not push myself to perform at the most rigorous level? The purpose of this blog is to keep myself dedicated, to voice the concerns I have with modern America, and most importantly, to vent my epic frustration with the idea that so many American youth intend to reap all the benefits without working for them. I have no intention of being the generation that finalizes the departure of America from the top ranks of national societies.
Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters, discusses an obvious issue in our current society--in the public sphere of government and the private lives of the American citizenry--that issue being the decline of civic virtue and democratic ideals as a result of governmental change. Change that he categorizes into 3 dogmas: free market fundamentalism, a steep increase in authoritarian policies, and aggressive militarianism. West attributes this change to a problem with leadership in the political spectrum (notably the Bush administration). But as a republican society (little "r"), and not a completely inactive one, we do have the power to change American government. The problem I see is not necessarily one of leadership, but a massive, popular support of the kind of ideals that West describes as travesty. As a staunch progressive, these potentially devastating new government policies can be classified into what George Lakoff describes as the strict father morality system.
Both American government and the American populace have become polarized. Radio barons like Michael Savage and Glenn Beck have instilled in millions of Americans the idea that radical conservatism is the only "true" American value system. The private side of American government is tied to the public side through the vote. It is a linking mechanism that engages citizens and makes our style of government, based in consent, possible.
I'm going to go watch some workaholics now, I'll finish this thought later...
Hundreds of thousands of students apply to law school every year. I am considering becoming one of those students. Without any guarantee of a well paying job, the only guarantee is that the cream will rise to the top. A 300 level course for a freshman is no where near unheard of. But what about a 400 level course? Why not push myself to perform at the most rigorous level? The purpose of this blog is to keep myself dedicated, to voice the concerns I have with modern America, and most importantly, to vent my epic frustration with the idea that so many American youth intend to reap all the benefits without working for them. I have no intention of being the generation that finalizes the departure of America from the top ranks of national societies.
Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters, discusses an obvious issue in our current society--in the public sphere of government and the private lives of the American citizenry--that issue being the decline of civic virtue and democratic ideals as a result of governmental change. Change that he categorizes into 3 dogmas: free market fundamentalism, a steep increase in authoritarian policies, and aggressive militarianism. West attributes this change to a problem with leadership in the political spectrum (notably the Bush administration). But as a republican society (little "r"), and not a completely inactive one, we do have the power to change American government. The problem I see is not necessarily one of leadership, but a massive, popular support of the kind of ideals that West describes as travesty. As a staunch progressive, these potentially devastating new government policies can be classified into what George Lakoff describes as the strict father morality system.
Both American government and the American populace have become polarized. Radio barons like Michael Savage and Glenn Beck have instilled in millions of Americans the idea that radical conservatism is the only "true" American value system. The private side of American government is tied to the public side through the vote. It is a linking mechanism that engages citizens and makes our style of government, based in consent, possible.
I'm going to go watch some workaholics now, I'll finish this thought later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)