Hard Work Pays Off

I received my paper back from my teacher today. I was not expecting what I got. Right on the front was the word "EXCELLENT" and an A+ 105!!!!!

I guess hard work does pay off. I was pretty well spent after writing that paper. I think I had three or four outlines all going at the same time as I was trying to bring in a common thread between the three groups. I had my wife read over it as well as my brother. I got feedback from them several times. I would say I went over the 6 hour estimated time by a few hours. It was a good thing spring break was right after the deadline because thinking after that was not going to be easy.

I do have to say that it feels great getting an "A" and even better getting some bonus points.

First Mid-Term Paper

I finished my mid-term paper but now I just feel drained. My teacher said to plan on taking 6 hours to write this paper. I spent much more then that writing my paper. I am not even sure I wrote a good paper. I hope my analysis was good enough. I tried to find a linking thread and join it together the best I could at that time.

The paper was to show the contributions to thought, science, society, psychology, and human behavior or the pre-Socratic philosophers, Sophists, and Athenians. I thought the odd ball in that group was psychology. In my mind it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the group. In the paper I linked it together with thought for the most part.

I think I just need a little recovery time so I can jump back into thinking about the next set of philosophers that we are going to cover.

Marketing of Cool

My Philosophy teacher has been showing a documentary called "The Marketing of Cool". It has shown in graphic detail (In some places too graphic) how corporations like Viacom have manipulated the teen culture as to sell to teens what they are offering. In this process, they change the thoughts and motivations of the masses of young people. It looks like they are trying to stay just enough in front of the culture as to steer it in their desired direction. That direction demoralizes this generation into sex crazed stupid idiots.

From the corporations stand point, this seems like a self destructive path. How much lower can they lead everyone? Do all the clothes have to come off? Do these acts have to lead to certain death? Obviously Viacom needs living people to advertise to. I guess the question would be how long can this culture remain as it is? How long will this "cool" remain cool. I don't want to imagine what is coming next. It may take some serious events to take place to change this culture. What if you take the billions away from the kids? Then you take away the advertising. Take away the advertising and you have a chance to change the culture for good. For true change to take place it must start in the hearts of the people.

Meeting Old Friends

I ran into an old friend after church today. We got to talking and ended up doing something we used to always do, work on cars. Even though we have not been in close contact for several years, it was like we didn't miss a beat. I shared with him some of the things going on with me and he opened up some of his areas of life as well.

It was fitting that today's message was about being authentic. We need to be open enough to be vulnerable with each other. None of us are perfect so why do we act as if we are. What value are relationships that are an inch deep? Are friends like those around at your side when you have landed face first in the dirt? A true friend should be able to smack the stupid idea from your mind before you get yourself killed. They should be there to tell you to your face to stop dating that girl and you listen because you know they are looking out for your best interest.

I enjoyed being authentic with my old friend today. We opened up to each other just like as we had done before. I asked him what was really going on and he told me. What a great day it was today. What is a better way to pass the time fixing the brakes on the car then with an old real friend.

Out of the Cave and into the Light

I had an interesting experience today as I was talking to my brother. It was like a fog lifted on my mind and I could see clearer. It felt like I was above the confusion of emotion and could see light. I only felt this for a little while, like I had paused in place to take in the view before using it to engage with my brother.

We were talking about words. My brother was telling me what he had learned. We were working on a paper I needed help with. He told me, words put things in categories. Our thoughts are in categories. We express those thoughts in written form by putting those thoughts into words. There are levels of abstraction that we can apply to the concepts we are talking about. Right now I am talking at a high level of abstraction because I am generalizing so I can fit everything I need to into my words. To take it down some levels, what do you think of when I say "Cat". Do you think of a small pet? What if I meant a panther or mountain lion? Don't both of those fit in the category of a cat? The word I used restricted what I was trying to say.

I used to think if I had the right words that is all I needed. I realize now that words are just tools. I went beyond words in my thinking and reached higher as I began to analyze what I was writing. I saw where I went wrong in my writing. I saw how I could go up or down the abstraction scale to accomplish my goal. In my case I was trying to describe in a letter what I do for a living to someone who has no experience in the area. What I was writing was vague and did not show that I knew anything but how to throw a few buzz words out every once and a while. What I needed to do was to show this person that I knew what I was talking about. In this case I needed to come down out of the high level of abstraction and write about a real world example of the steps I went through.

In my last paragraph I was writing in a high level because I used general terms on purpose. You don't know what exactly I meant. Let me give you an example. If your computer hard drive crashed you would not be too happy. You would probably open up the yellow pages, because you don't have google anymore, and begin searching for a computer shop that can help you. It turns out there are 7 pages of ads in the computer section. What, do you call them all and choose the best one? What if most of the ads you pass say something like "We fix computers, We have good prices, leave it to us because will will help you"? What does that mean? It is abstract and can mean anything. That does not tell you they know what they are doing. It wouldn't be that bad if all you had was a simple problem but reading something like that doesnt create much confidence in them. Your hard drive has your work reports, taxes, digital photos, and all the programs you loaded from your friends. Oh but wait, here is another ad "Computer Repair, We specialize in hard drive data recovery and boast a 97% success rate." You just hit the jackpot and found the place to call. But this place fixes computers, has good prices and will help you too. Why call this place? Call because they told you something about what they did and gave some facts to back it up. This place is the perfect fit for what you need. They gave you the information you needed to make the right decision. Even if it wasn't your hard drive, they said in their ad they they are competent. If they can recover hard drive they must be able to do simpler things. They proved they can do simple things by showing the harder thing has been completed. It was like they hide that information and said it without saying it.

I know I will need to practice in order to keep my thinking on the right track but I am enjoying learning how to think properly. Getting there will be a journey but it will be enjoyable. I should be able to take complex topics and subject and be able to explain them in simple terms. This will show that I understand those complex topics. I need to learn to keep track of where I am on that scale of abstraction and be in the appropriate place when I need to. These things will help me analyze what is in front of me weather it be words ideas. It will also help me to understand my own thoughts. This is what I am trying to accomplish by self-reflection. It seems to be working already.