Protego totalum, cave inimicum, salvio hexia, muffliato, repello muggletum

Stability...

How do we find it, where do we look for it, and what can't I find it?

Like all things and situations in life, we are powerless over people, places and things. Here is the quote from one of my reads: "single for 2 years and can’t find stability in anyone I am attracted to." How many people really know what stability is and do you think they actually take the time to understand and build stability into their lives?

Our culture lives paycheck to paycheck, boy to boy, man to man and girl to girl. We are a society that is very superficial and simple. Building a life, takes a lifetime. It takes a lot of time to learn what stability is in all the different areas of life. There is emotional stability, financial stability, sexual stability, and physical stability. Do you know how many years hubby and I have worked to attain financial stability? YEARS!!!

We can't teach stability, but we can show you how to attain it for yourself. This starts as soon as you leave the nest and you begin to live your own life. We must pay the rent and the bills and still have some cash left over for treats here and there. We do suggest you avoid the alcohol, drugs and superficial areas of life. You can't live outside your means, and you must remember that humility is your friend.

Stability is gained one day at a time, one month and a time and one year at a time. If we are so caught up in searching for someone who is stable we are not working on what we need to be doing, like the continual teaching of ourselves. This is how it works:

Growing up...

I'll use the recovery model to demonstrate my point. An alcoholic comes to the rooms and must learn how to live soberly. His or her life is unmanageable and they must relearn how to live. We can't give that knowledge to them, they must learn how to do that through our example of stable living without the drink.

Stability is learned one day at a time. The more we spend time working on ourselves, that stable power infuses us and creates in us a stable 'warp field' we build our homes around ourselves, and we learn how to manage all the complexities of life, in a stable way. As we attain these benchmarks in our lives, all that information we have learned brightens our 'auras' and we go on with our lives.

I don't think searching for a stable partner works very well. I think that there are coincidences and miracles. I think when we 'in the living of our lives' we will come upon someone who strikes us as different. That's when the planets align and the stars shift and we know at that very moment that we have met the one we are supposed to be with. That's what happend with hubby and I.

We were both unstable messes when we met, but we had an instant attraction and we decided that we would be together and that we would learn together how to become stable. We had to clean up our lives of the garbage that we collected. We were learning how to live soberly. We had to get rid of all the broken electronics that we had both collected over the years and we began to rebuild our life together. Money is the root of all evil and discord and discontent. It has taken us years to learn how to become finacially stable.

When people stop living fast and free and they decide to finally settle down and create a life, then learning about stability is possible. But not until then. Boys want to date this one and that one and you date until something happens or life becomes difficult and they bolt. It is the adversities of life that teach us who the keepers are and who the loosers are. That is one problem of you gaydom and old gaydom too...

The cut and run tactic.

We date people because the sex is good and we get along. Until something happens and someone decides to bolt because things get tough. The beginning of a relationship that is to last long term is when both parties decide to settle down and create a life together, some try, most fail on the first few tries. One must be selective with whom we relate to. Just because the sex is good, doesn't necessarlity make for a good mate, because what happens when the sex life gets screwed and you are still together, how do you make it work? This is the great lesson of superficiality. Who do you chose to be with who you are with? Looks, Money, Wealth, Alcohol, Drugs, Youth??? We learn that superficial things all pass away as we grow up.

I've got 41 years of knowledge in my head.

Take the time to be good to yourself. Teach yourself all those lessons we need to learn by yourself, and remain faithful to the authentic person you are and all will be made known to you. Spend the time you have as a single person to build your stability within. Because one day you may meet the one you are to be with and at that moment you will know because YOU KNOW what stability feels like and YOU KNOW what stability is and you will be able to see stability in another. You can't give away something you don't have...

Teach theyself...

Wait for Mr. Right, DO NOT settle for Mr. Right Now..

DO or DO NOT there is No Try...

I just received the following video on possible H.A.A.R.P. activities regarding the four hurricanes currently in the Atlantic. In all my 50 years I've never seen four consecutive hurricanes at one time.

A second chilling scenario is the start up of the Hadron Collider scheduled for next Wednesday, September 10, which is the day before the seventh anniversary of 9/11. These particular mad scientists are being besieged with phone calls, emails and death threats because many believe that their experiment will be the end of the world. The collider will be seeking out new particles, such as, dark matter the possible source for gravity and probe the differences between matter and antimatter, if I understand this correctly. After a bit of research on YouTube it seems that the collider was supposed to start-up in November 2007, then in May 2008 now 9/10/08 will be their third attempt. I believe that there are some things in this world that should be left alone. Man IS NOT God and, therefore, will never know everything no matter how insatiable his desire.

Related links:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/

Higgs boson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

Micro black holes (not fully understood)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_bl...

Strangelets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelets

Magnetic monopoles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic...

Supersymmetry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersym...

Hawking radiation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_...

Cosmic censorship hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_c...

Instead of explaining the early and late modern sections, I will just summarize the author's synthesis since it is very concise and clear.

Plato's Tri-partite Man

He uses Plato's mythological portrait of a human to bring it all together.  The way it explains the playing out of philosophical thoughts on music is perfect.

Plato's "mythical human" consists of a man as the head, a lion as the chest, and a many-headed beast as the belly.  (For whoever has read the abolition of man, this is the chest Lewis is referring to).  These three beings correspond to reason, passion, and appetite.  Plato's choice of placing man as the head, symbolic of reason, shows that for Plato what was most human in man is reason.  In other words, Plato thinks each man is one being whose soul has three main parts: reason, passion, and appetite, but that what is most human of the three is reason.  Aristotle agrees with this.

Ancients

As we all know from experience, our bodily, sensory appetites are naturally very strong.  We do not need help cultivating and encouraging material desires--we need help controlling them.  Combine this fact with Plato and Aristotle's view of the primary importance of reason, and we get Plato and Aristotle two main goals for the use of music in human formation.  1) Calming the appetites so they do not hamper the full use and groth of reason 2) Instilling and cultivating a love for order and truth from an early age (even before language.  Calm, orderly music can do both of these tasks.

Early Moderns

With the early moderns (Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu) the natural strength of the bodily appetites was also taken for granted, however--huge difference--the satisfaction of the bodily desires was considered by them to be the goal of human life--not the exercise of reason.  Reason for them is only valued insofar as it can help satisfy material desire.  This is known as an instrumental view of reason.  Reason may help us learn how to farm better so we can have more food, for example.  Reason is to be used for material, bodily ends.  So, since the appetite is what they see as most important in man, and since appetite is naturally the most powerful and dominant of the three main parts of man, there is no problem.  Man is naturally who he is supposed to be.  Music therefore has no place in human formation, because human are in a sense already formed.  For Aristotle and Plato, man by nature is not who he should be and needs the help of music to correct and harmonize and form man to who he should be.  But the early moderns, seeing the satisfaction of appetite the pinnacle of human life, do not see any such need.

Late Moderns

The late moderns (he looks at Rousseau and Nietzsche) take the chest, the passions, as the most essential element of human nature.  They were reacting to the pathetic picture of human life presented by the early moderns who simply wanted to maintain and secure a flatline existence of bodily satisfaction.  The late moderns rightly saw the baseness and animality of this view of life, but instead of returning to the higher spiritual pursuits of reason, located the essence of humanity in the passions.  So they agree with the ancients that the natural dominance of the appetite needs to be resisted, but instead of calming the appetite with calm orderly music so reason can flourish, they advocate passionate, almost violent music to stir up the passion and "silence reason" in order for the passions to come to the fore.  Though the author did not say so, it seems that the late moderns saw reason as an enemy to true humanity because their understanding of the nature of reason came from the early moderns who saw reason as a servant of the appetites.  If reason is in cahoots with appetite as its servant, their desire to silence reason is understandable.  The particular vision of what a passionate life looks like is different for Rousseau and Nietzsche based on their respect visions of the world.  Rousseau has a more romantic, loving, loyal communal life as his goal, with passionate devotion to ones nation or community being the foundation and glue holding society together.  So the passion he advocated (and what music should foster) is a kind of neighborly love which motivates sacrifice for others on a national/community scale in the same way love within a family encourages mutual self-sacrifice.  Nietzsche advocated a more individual-focused passion, courage, which is necessary to face the ultimate meaninglessness of life.

Summary

Man has reason, passion, and appetite.  Appetite is naturally the strongest of the three.  One will have a different view on the place and role of music in human formation depending on which of the three is most important and ultimate for human life.  If Reason is ultimate, you want music to calm the passions and awaken the reason  This requires calm, orderly, and harmonious music.  If Appetite is ultimate, you are already set.  Music is not necessary to effect any inner transformation or cultivation since what is ultimate is already in control.  If Passion is ultimate, you need music to help inflame the passions further so they can overtake the natural dominance of the appetite.  This music is not calming but "inflaming" and while not necessarily chaotic is not focused on order.

What is amazing about all this is that all three groups perfectly agree on the effects of various kinds of music.  They simply disagree about the end goal.  To have extremely different thinkers from different culture and over 2000 years perfectly agree on the effects of different kinds of music was very surprising to me, and made me think there is more to the issue than just silly speculation. 

I will summarize the contemporary sociological and psychological research he provides to support these philosophers' intuitions with scientific data, along with his analysis of contemporary (sometimes christian) conservative objections to all the violent music today in a future post.

Interestingly enough, much of the work I did last month at the Men's Rites of Passage program/retreat-- coordinated by Father Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation-- bears out the truthfulness of the science I've been learning. We're not bodies that happen to have spirits, energies, or emotions. We are actually spirits that happen to have physical bodies, and our spirits (and our physical brains) are changed (grown or chipped away at) by our physical bodies and our real experiences (experiences that we put the spirit & body through, intentionally or unintentionally).

We do have some "control" over our brain and body development (through our choices, disciplines practiced, what we eat, etc.), but if one believes in an active God, then one of the main tasks for discipleship and growth is surrendering our need for control to The God Who Is There  (title of a very good Francis Schaeffer theology/apologetics book that I found helpful as a young man).

For no reason in particular, other than "listening to the Holy Spirit", I picked up a DVD copy of the film What the Bleep Do We Know? and watched it last week. It was a bit weird overall, trying to draw connections between quantum physics, human physiology, psychology and spirituality. But it did stir up some interesting questions for me. It's clearly a New Age-influenced film (one of the main "speakers" is a woman said to be "channeling" a long-dead spiritual leader), but a good portion of the hard science, the quantum physics and biology, is well-established (but new and esoteric) ideas. Some (30% or more?) of the science is definitely theoretical, but as any casual student of quantum physics would be able to tell you, twenty centuries of so-called "proven fact" came into question once the ideas of quantum mechanics were seriously explored and tested.

The universe does not "owe us" any explanations, unfortunately. From a Christian perspective, maintaining an openness to the mysteries of God, to the hard, real questions that scripture or experience leave unexplained, is one of the central tasks in being of a disciple of Jesus. Jesus spoke in parables, stories and riddles partly because true scientific awareness did not exist in the first century.

As an exercise in considering these New Brain Science ideas, below are some notes I took on the most recent PBS program I saw, called "Happy for No Reason". Look them over, take what you need, see if it makes sense to you. Though I'm no big fan of the tendency of "self help" books to put the onus entirely on our weak, lazy, sinful selves, still the call remains for us to find our True Selves, root them in Christ, and continue to grow in love, happiness and productivity throughout our lives.

Happy for No Reason - book and suplemental materials

by "Transformational Expert" Marci Shimoff

Official PBS program description:

Is this "New Age" ?  _ I don't know.  Based on the hard science I've read about the brain, the program struck me as at least 70% scientifically accurate. I have no doubt some of the speakers interviewed are extrapolating philosophical or personally biased ideas from the hard science about brain and body chemistry. And certainly (other than Buddhist thought) the religiously relevant language about "soul" or "spirit" has been scrubbed from this program. It's not Christian, per se. But there's room for Christian faith and practice, especially practicing monastic-style prayer and social action, in the overall approach. So I think the program overall is helpful, accurate, and meaningful. Evidence of New Age connections: mentions Sedona, AZ (traditional "harmonic convergence" zone); Santa Fe Productions produced the show (New Mexico -another mecca for many New Age spiritual seekers); at least one of the sicentists I saw quoted was a genetics expert(?) also featured in the more questionable film What the Bleep Do We Know?

Another quoted PhD psychologist is connected with something called the Wellspring Institute. Don't know more about it, but his principles seemed pretty sound.

[Note: In doing a websearch on Wellspring, I discovered an upcoming conference of note: Neuroscience and Spiritual Practice: an "interreligious" conference at Claremont School of Theology in California. Among the speakers is Fr. Thomas Keating, who I've heard good things about.]

Positive experiences - our brain & body tend toward "teflon", i.e. the good (the grace?) "slides off" of us if not allowed to penetrate

Negative- brain operates more like "velcro":  negative experiences & pain grabs much more easily onto brain's bio-chemical "hooks", unless these experiences are transformed or re-wired for usefulness

Therefore, to raise your "happiness setpoint" -learn to register the postives, move experience (esp. positive ones) from short-term memory to deeper or more permanent long-term memory, move simply from firing (chemical movement between neurons) to wiring (creating new synaptic connections that are permanent)

"firing but not wiring" - synapses are always "going off" or firing. But cognition (esp. through meditation, or higher and sustained attention) has the potential to use those firing moments to literally rewire the brain; we can re-organize bio-chemical and physical connections between neurons into new thought patterns and behaviors. You're wiring the moment into permanent memory and useful learning (hopefully of useful skills, since learning the "bad" patterns happens in much the same way, unless those experiences and patterns are transformed).

Mariel Hemingway interviewed -re: the Hemingway curse - legacy of suicide & mental illness, she had to re-teach herself. She had to learn both to listen, and to stop listening, to various internal and historical voices. Her recovery was about re-connecting with her true self, being present in the moment and rising above those internal storms that she was subject to.

Shimoff - Author of Happy for No Reason (CD, DVD, Hardcover book, course (CD-ROM or workbook?), daily booster kit, and (heart map) quick coherence coach - the PBS pledge person called the materials a "mind spa" or retreat

Regular meditation leads to physical transformation in the brain - compassion meditation increases the connections in the Insula, a sort of body map area- related to brain-body connection; stillness of meditation actually changes some of brain's motor centers (preparation to "act")

30 minutes of training a day, for two weeks, produces measurable changes in the brain AND increased compassion

connecting to purpose - richard nelson bowles (Happiness= my deep gladmess meeting the world's deep need.) ...and the "universe" cooperates with you. I have not read Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life", but I suspect he's working from many of the same principles, but rooted in Jesus' example and church history.

Is happiness our "default" brain position? Whether the answer is yes or no, a better connection to who we are, our essence, is always a move toward happiness. Because we are made in God's image, so knowing our True Self is to get to know God in a new way.

Shimoff's Seven Steps to Happiness (the habits of happiness)

Step 1- Take responsibility for your own happiness. (Change bad habits incrementally. Don't get stuck in cycles of blame. Related to recieving things as a victim, or as hero of your own life... a choice in how we tell ourselves and others the story of our lives.)

2- Practice forgiveness - conditions of happiness include compassion, tolerance

3- Express gratitude.

4- Don't believe everything you think.

5- Practice mindfulness and meditation. (Like physical exercise, mental/spiritual well-being requires working out the brain & biochemical/spiritual states).

6- Live a life inspired by purpose. (Do things on purpose, focus, align self with a purpose)

Step 7 - Cultivate nourishing relationships.

Metaphor: building a home. eg mind heart body soul - four corners of the house, roof=purpose, garden = people around you -correlates to the seven steps above

e.g. Masai tribe in Africa - needy from a material perspective, yet as happy as Westerners. Why?

Book- "Spiritual Evolution" - I missed the author's name, but the title alone points toward the convergence of spirituality and science in the twenty first century.

"social contagion" - transmission of idea or emotion to others, but this idea was not scientifically backed up in the video.

Shimoff suggests, when one tries out the 7 habits, get a "happiness buddy", like a workout buddy.

Happy for No Reason materials feature a PARALIMINAL CD - One of the big buzzwords in Men's Rites of Passage and in Father Rohr's books is "liminal space". It's a reference to edges, places of spiritual openness and learning, or transitional spaces. Being in liminal space makes possible being able to receive or see the sacred, even in the ordinary.

hokay! I'm an outsider here and will probably cause some apoplexy for some of you. Does anyone think it odd that a system (and don't try to deny that it is, indeed, a system) such as Waldorf would become established in a country (Germany) which is known for its regimentation and by-the-rule-book attitude? This has been a highly organized and orderly country for a very, very long time. Let's not forget the German propensity for rich food!

Now let's apply this phenomenon to every day life, but in reverse. If you give your children the kind of nurturing environment which the Waldorf method encourages, it will be instilled in them and carried with them wherever they are.

If Waldorf could bloom in Germany, then Waldorf raised children can bloom anywhere. Kids need to be introduced to a variety of controlled experiences. Otherwise how can they learn to make intelligent, well thought out, decisions for themselves when they leave the nest?

Henitsirk needs to stop beating herself up over this because it's not healthy for her and her family. She needs to put a more positive light on the challenge which life has given her at this time and remember - it's not forever, but it is for now.

I started to write a response comment, and then realized that it was too long and might as well be its own post.

Yes, Waldorf sprang from the Germanic culture, with all its wonderful regimentation and paternalism and nationalism. Now, Steiner actually spoke and worked vigorously against those tendencies. In fact, his ideal for Waldorf schools was different in many ways, but he had to compromise with the state in order to manifest the schools in such a way that they would be not private but available to all. (See this PDF from the Research Bulletin on some of the ways in which Waldorf school methods might be a result of either Steiner working with necessities of his time and place or of our misinterpretations of his teachings.) Sort of the way Waldorf charter schools have done in California and other places. (Something good to remember for those who feel charters aren't "real" Waldorf!)

Steiner also felt that younger children needed what you could call "regimentation", though not in an authoritarian way, but rather an <i>authoritative way</i>. For the exact reason that you describe in your second-to-last paragraph: so that children are given a firm, secure foundation to later, when they are ready, make their own way. So, the Waldorf curriculum is highly structured in a sense: certain things are only taught to certain grades, painting for young children is not free expression but rather painting a certain motif modeled after the teacher, etc. This is an interesting article on young children in particular, and how strict discipline is not useful and in fact might be harmful (warning: published in 1963, very un-PC references to "primitive" cultures!).

I found a wonderful passage (see p. 45) from a lecture by Steiner on the healing effects of education. It seems like a gift for me in my questioning and anxieties right now:

[A]s grown-ups we do not find such great value in what we ourselves have become through our own education. We do not look back with deep gratitude on what we received through instruction and education. Ask your own heart whether this gratitude is always alive....

Advice to self: Breathe. Observe. Find gratitude in your heart. Be conscious of motives coming from fear or anxiety, as they will mislead you. Have faith.

***************

Photos from Wikimedia Commons.

We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; bust since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.

That is the second sentence in Charlotte Bronte's 19th century novel Jane Eyre. According to Microsoft Word, it scores an 11.1 grade on the Flesch Kinkaid readability level.

Now, I've always been a qualified fan of Rudolph Flesch and his book  The Art of Plain Talk. Even more than that, how can a person who values Benjamin's Franklin's pioneering work in developing phonics, possibly complain about Flesch's famous work, Why Johnny Can't Read.

Furthermore, so much time has melted since I read Flesch's Plain Talk that all I can do here is offer qualified recommendations to people who want to learn some basic principles of public speaking.

However, to understand why I went on that rabbit trail, I need to write some more opening sentences from a more recent book than Jane Eyre. Consider these words, because they are very, very revealing:

Sophie Amundsen was on her way home from school. She had walked the first part of the way with Joanna. They had been discussing robots. Joanna thought the human brain was like an advanced computer. Sophie was not certain she agreed. Surely a person was more than a piece of hardware?

I must state here and now that I have not read Sophie's World, though I know of many children who have and many schools that use it. I don't know why he wrote the opening paragraph to this book on philosophy at a 3.6 grade level.

Perhaps it was because he was being overly concerned about his audience: knowing they were being invited to think hard about issues that the greatest minds in history have still not settled and, for some reason, wanting junior high and high school students to engage in these matters, perhaps he felt like they shouldn't have to pay too close attention to what they were reading; so he made it simple.

Or maybe he was trying to capture the implications of the mind working like a robot, so he wrote the opening paragraph in a robotic/computeristic manner. Maybe the reader will encounter complex syntax later in the book.

I turn randomly and optimistically to page 223 and read these words:

What was the difference between a dog and a person? She recalled Aristotle's words. he said that people and animals are both natural living creatures with a lot of characteristics in common. But there was one distinct difference between people and animals, and that was human reasoning.

How could he have been so sure?

This paragraph draws me in and makes me want to read more, but probably (I cannot be sure until and unless I read much more) not for the reasons most authors would hope. First, I sincerely hope that he will not so simply dismiss Aristotle's ideas.

I suppose a teenage girl might ask that question, especially one who has been conditioned toward skepticism by the structure and process of her education. But the question is really rather silly. If she remembers Aristotle's words, then how can she possibly not remember that every word that preceded and followed them was the reasoning behind his being "so sure?"

What exactly were Aristotle's words? They aren't quoted here, only a paraphrase.

In what context did she experience them? Did her teacher give her a quotation or even a paraphrase himself, thus preventing her from encountering these words in their context?

I'm asking those questions so as to expose myself to ridicule. I know that a book would not survive if they had not been addressed at some level. Flipping through a few pages I note that the author places great emphasis on mystery and uncertainty. The ending indicates a father - daughter dialogue has been going through the entire book.

But here is something interesting. Page 189, in a chapter entitled The Renaissance, a time during which cultured life was enamored of, perhaps inebriated on, Platonic party games:

Philosophy is not a harmless party game. It's about who we are and where we come from. Do you think we learn enough about that at school?

 

Nobody can answer questions like that anyway.

 

Yes, but we don't even learn to ask them!

This goes to the heart of my concern. Here we have young people being confronted with questions that they are convinced can't be answered. The reader is confronted with a 3000 year stream of philosophical speculations, from Aristotle, to Democritus, to Freud.

To be comfortable with this book, I need to know that the students are being given a coherent set of tools and a sound tradition to maneuver the wild shoals of metaphysical speculation.

I have been engaged in philosophical studies for 25 years, since I first tried to read Plato's Republic. I've been engaged in theological studies much longer, since I started memorizing Bible verses and doing exegetical studies of the epistles of Paul. I've learned a few things in that time, though not much.

One thing I've learned is that a child should not be given this rope to hang himself if he does not have a mentor to guide him through it.

And that's why the opening paragraph bothers me so much. This is a book about philosophy! You can't do philosophy at a 3.6 grade level. You can learn about it, but why would you teach a child that there are no answers about who we are and where we come from, or that if there are answers the most recent discoveries indicate that they are blobs of protoplasm waiting to become manure.

There is, I am suggesting, a breakdown in the form of writing and the content of writing, at least in this first paragraph, that points to a much deeper and more penetrating breakdown between the content of the book (the history of philosophy) and reality (the content of metaphysics).

Permit me to recall Gaarder's paragraph on Aristotle:

She recalled Aristotle's words. He said that people and animals are both natural living creatures with a lot of characteristics in common. But there was one distinct difference between people and animals, and that was human reasoning.

That opening sentence should not be seperated from the next. The act of recollection should not draw the readers attention, but the words of Aristotle. Or rather, since they are not quoted, they should probably not be referred to. Instead, i would suggest something more like this: Aristotle had said that...

Then, at the end, when a phrase should have received more punch, more isolation, more distinctiveness, he blends it in with the preceding sentence. one distince difference between humans and animals: human reasoning.

Short sentences should only be used for emphasis, especially in a philosophical text. That is Flesch's fatal mistake. Because everybody seems to write this way, our minds are being reduced to simplistic thoughts, thoughts that cannot be extended beyond the immediate subject and predicate, thoughts that don't demand that we recall the main idea for more than eight or nine words.

The person who needs those sentences should not be studying philosophy. He should be studying grammar and learning how to read, two vital foundations for philosophy.

Please note that my primary concern here is not with philosophy but with writing. I'm arguing for the long sentence, contending that we have made ourselves stupid by refusing to express a thought that cannot be reduced to a single clause, by putting periods between every clause and sometimes phrase, by eliminating the semi-colon from the realm of comprehension, by compelling students, even in college, to think about matters for which the reading materials they have encountered have disabled them, by developing an attitude of resentment toward any writer that challenges their intellects beyond a single conjunction.

Have you tried to read Paradise Lost? The challenge is not the length of the sentence, though they are frequently immeasurable; the challenge is remembering the subject of the sentence. But if he had not written it that way, he would not have written the same poem, and the reader would have suffered for it.

We can write very well for business and advertising. Sometimes we get by on scientific writing. But to write about things that matter greatly: metaphysics, theology, ethics, politics, the arts, I say, to write about these matters demands that we be able to control more than a single clause at a time.

We cannot think beyond the capacity of our syntax.

The irony is that Flesch, who valued Plain Talk and Phonics so highly, has undercut Johnny's ability to read by justifying writing that would keep him stuck at the mental development of a child in 3.6 grade.

I've read a lot about all the people who are worried that CERN's upcoming activation of the Large Hadron Collider on Wednesday is going to either:

a) destroy the world,

b) open up the gate to hell, which will destroy the world, or

c) create a microblackhole, which will suck the Earth through it, which will (you guessed it) destroy the world.

Obviously, all this speculation has a common denominator:

that, according to Brian Cox, a professor at Manchester University, anyone who believes any of it is a 'twat.'

Which is awesome.  I'm so tired of ignorant people who claim that both sides of any argument need to be given some attention.  This is why the creation/evolution argument is still a debate; people want to be tolerant of other people's views/beliefs, whether those beliefs are inherently ignorant or not (they are).

Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider - Telegraph.

Reading at Risk

by Robert L. Jackson in the current issue of World Magazine.

P.59

Given the evidence in favor of phonics reformers, some opponents of SBRR (Scientific Based Reading Research) ignored the scientific proof and lambasted phonics-based instruction as a product of "right-wing fundamentalists"

Sad.  Of course, the opponents would prefer that students struggle along with sight-reading "natural" reading instruction alone as long as possible.  After all, the longer it takes the kid to learn to read, the more money the school has to spend to teach him.

I've met 5 of my 6 classes and so far I can't complain.

- I expected the Seniors to be a bit hostile, not so much towards me (yet), but towards the subject. Indeed I know people like them who study Health and Social Sciences and for whom languages are not very important feel apprehensive and easily discouraged when it comes to talking in English.
We started with a picture (of a firefighter with a tatoo of the Twin Towers and the names of his mates on his back) and they seemed to have a few things to say. Two or three even appeared to be quite confident and reasonably good at English - they were able to explain why sometimes it is necessary to use "who" and other times "which" in a complex sentence. Believe me for this sort of students this is quite an achievement.

- The Humanities Juniors have started on Pride and Prejudice and seem to respond well. I was glad that everyone actually participated this morning. Not always easy with high school students.

- I also met the Sciences Juniors. About as many boys as girls. A pleasant bunch who appeared eager to show what they know. I know some are not as good as the talkative ones and I hope they won't feel too shy to try.

- Last, but not least, I've met my 2 freshman classes. One is made up of weaker students and the other one is supposed to be just the opposite. However it is hard to comment just yet as freshmen are ususally impressed when they start high school and it takes longer for them to misbehave. So apart to say that they seem quite civil and worked hard on the first day, I'll reserve judgement.

Japanese scientists come out with technology that allows people to input commands via brainwaves

WHAT THE HELL? US Department of Agriculture testing out microchip technology that basically turns cows into remote controlled robots

Redtacton - "RedTacton is a new Human Area Networking technology that uses the surface of the human body as a safe, high speed network transmission path.
- RedTacton uses the minute electric fieldemitted on the surface of the human body. Technically, it is completely distinct from wireless and infrared.
- A transmission path is formed at the moment a part of the human body comes in contact with a RedTacton transceiver. Physically separating ends the contact and thus ends communication.
- Using RedTacton, communication starts when terminals carried by the user or embedded in devices are linked in various combinations according to the user's natural, physical movements."

The other African genocide. Killing Them Softly - "Masxigora began hunting mice to support (and feed) his wife and three children soon after Mugabe began confiscating thousands of productive, white-owned farms in 2000, a policy that has since led to mass starvation. Courtesy Jamie KirchickNot long ago, Zimbabwe, the "breadbasket of Africa," exported meat and produced what was widely considered to be Africa's finest livestock. Today, Masxigora tells me that each mouse nets $30 Zim dollars, about 12 cents, which makes him a wealthy man in Zimbabwe. "This is beef to us," he told me in August."

Cheney accuses Russia of intimidation - But it's OK when he does it to Iran? "Cheney accused Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, of using "energy as a tool of force and manipulation" in Central Asia, the Caucasus and elsewhere by threatening to interrupt the flow of oil or natural gas.

Russia has tried to "intimidate by threats and severe economic pressure" Ukraine, which along with Georgia, is seeking to join NATO, he said.

"At times it appears Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests," Cheney said in his prepared remarks."

No armed officers in schools, trustees say - "While Toronto's two school boards have yet to name the schools where armed officers will be assigned, two public trustees can already tell you where they won't be – in their wards.

Trustees Chris Bolton (Trinity-Spadina) and Sheila Cary-Meagher (Beaches-East York) have already nixed the idea.

"I can't imagine in this day and age, the school boards and the cops getting together and putting guys with guns in secondary schools," said Cary-Meagher." A sentiment so many other school districts in Canada and the US have to apply. Too many just bend over backwards for the cops. In New York, you get in a fight, you get arrested in many high schools. Another law was actively enforced three years ago which was using the school issued transportation cards on nonschool days woullanded people $65 fines. All about getting you in the system and training you to be oppressed as early as possible.

Musical tastes in tune with who you are - "Fans of heavy metal music are gentle, creative people who are at ease with themselves, which makes them very similar to fans of classical music.

That's the finding of a new study at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University of the link between peoples' personalities and their choice of music.

Adrian North, the professor behind the study, said he was surprised at the similarities between fans of classical music and heavy metal, especially their creativity and generally shy natures."

CONFIRMED BY AFP: Mexico drug plane found to be previously CIA owned

800 attacked with war weapons and brutalized indiscriminately at RNC, including two AP reporters. The Colorado governor praised the police, saying they did a great job!

Nuclear Suppliers Group Grants India Historic Waiver - Trying to curry favor with India to get them on their side before they kick off WW3.

Bhutto widower gets landslide win in Pakistani presidential elections

Obama Says Freddie, Fannie Too Large for U.S. to Let Them Fail - More government bailouts for these financial entities. Bt the jobs situation is just sooo impossible to fix. Yeah, right. Trillions stored up in the government pension funds which people only get a small percentage of when they retire. The rest gets reinvested and the "budget deficit! budget deficit!" scam continues while the revenues were, are, and will go thrugh the roof every year. For more info on this just go to Google Video and watch Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports Exposed. Watch it below.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5823209513192072459]

In my favorite game we were each given a playing card from a standard 52 card deck, and asked to hold them against our foreheads without looking. Then, professor Broda told us to "Treat each other according to their card's face value without talking." The lucky sevens, my self included, hailed those who held kings and queens to their foreheads, while we gave the lowly twos and threes dramatic thumbs down.

This and the other card games challenged my notions of worth. What made a queen more valuable then a three? In blackjack when a deck has more low cards it favors the players. When it contains more high cards the house is more likely to win. In poker, however, a pair of kings will beat a pair of tens. Obviously, every card has a specific strength and weakness. Likewise, every person has something to contribute to every situation, and no one should be taken for granted.

I acted upon this newfound truth last night when a quiet yet friendly student who lives in my dorm told me that he wanted to become more socially involved. I invited him to wonder the Wooster campus with the Miller Manor gang. We spent the night meeting interesting people, witnessing strange occurrences, and learning as a group. For instance, the Omega house has many dangerous and aggressive residents.

The card game helped me realize potential friends could be found within people i had not considered before. Not surprisingly, having another friend last night created new learning opportunity that i am thankful to have taken part in.

Read more >> Options >>

A little while ago, I went to the Counselor's office at school to request a schedule change. I wanted to switch around my first two classes, because they were back-to-back classes where I stayed in the same room and sat in the same chair for two hours, and I really hated to have to go through that every morning.

Unfortunately, my Counselor told me something much more than just a simple "no".

It began when she asked me, "How can this be? How are you in these classes?". I responded by saying that I qualified for them because I had completed their requirements the year before, in Sophomore year.

"But you only have 7 credits."

"What?"

"Did you go to school here last year?"

"No, I went to Primavera Online High School."

"Oh crap."

So began my wonderful adventure to my current situation. Lemme give you a background check on my education.

I went to Mesquite High School for my Freshman year in high school. I completed one out of two semesters there. Somewhere near the half-way point through the second semester, my mom's dog breeding business started to expand and my grandma and her weren't capable of running it by themselves, so I volunteered to drop out of a real high school in favor of taking up a full-time online education.

Unfortunately, this did nothing but screw me over. I hated the online classes.

You should know this, but in case you don't, I'm a very social person. I love to meet people, talk to people, and sometimes even debate with people, as long as no ones feelings get hurt. But through online schooling, there's absolutely no interaction with anybody. No friends, no teachers; just you and your computer.

Nothing's real. The Internet, in all of its un-seriousness, is truly no place for school.

I suffered through an entire year of that crap. Come Junior year, I decided enough was enough and enrolled myself back at Mesquite High School. My mom's dog breeding business failed miserably through the course of my Sophomore year anyway, so I didn't really have much point in staying with Primavera.

But then came the day when I asked for a schedule change.

"How can I only have 7 credits?"

"I don't think we take Primavera credit here."

"Why not?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's a district policy."

"So it's like I didn't even take my Sophomore year then, huh?"

"Come...come back tomorrow and we'll sort this out."

I come back tomorrow and I get an ultimatum. Mesquite High School won't take my Sophomore year credits and I have three options.

"I've been sitting here for an hour and you can graduate high school by 2010," my counselor begins. My face brightens up significantly. "But, in actuality, you really have only two options, as graduating by 2010 would require a ridiculous amount of work."

"Like what?"

"Well for instance, you'd have to take summer school, 0 Hour classes, join  clubs, and get a job. Even after all of that, you would graduate in the summer of 2010, after the graduation ceremony."

To me, special moments like proms, graduation ceremonies - once in a lifetime things; they mean a lot to me. So, doing a ton of work just so I can get my diploma in the mail? I ruled that option out.

"What's my other two options?"

"Well, you can take your Sophomore year over again and graduate by 201...or you can go back to Primavera."

And here I am today. Enrolled with Primavera again, not making any new friends or socializing, just typing away on the Internet. This was not how I envisioned high school and this isn't right. But then again, what's a brotha' to do? I can't possibly do the insane amount of work, let alone get a job, just so I can graduate in the summer of 2010, nor am I taking a year I already accomplished over again because no Arizona district wants to take my credit. This is just what I have to do.

If you're wondering why I wrote this blog...well, I don't really know. I just needed to vent I guess. I also felt an obligation to explain to you why I haven't been blogging much.

My education woes aren't the only reason you haven't seen much blogging from me though. I'll write another blog later on my latest project: Manila.

Programme du jour : Fringale et Fringues.

7h : "Je ne veux plus dormir, je suis réveillée". Pas de bol, Papa débarque dans ma chambre : "C'est un plaisanterie ? Ta lampe fleur est encore allumée, donc tu te rallonges dans ton lit et tu appelleras quand elle sera éteinte. Merci." Et il referme la porte de ma chambre. Bon, je crois que c'est clair, je vais patienter.

7h10 : "Papaaaa, la lampe elle est éteinte, tu peux venir". Ah ben voilà ! Je descends déjeuner avec Papa, on joue avec des "mots magnétiques" puis nous montons le café à Maman vers 8h30.

Papa se rase et prend un bain, pendant que je prépare des cookies avec Maman. Evidemment je les goûte.

Je monte ensuite jouer un peu toute seule dans ma chambre. Quand je redescends 1/2h plus tard, Papa va se reposer. Je vais passer le reste de la matinée avec Maman. Je dessine, fais du coloriage, regarde un dessin animé, et mange comme une gloutonne à midi. J'ai ensuite mon 1/4h de folie avec elle. J'éclate de rire quand elle me court après.

!!!

13h30, c'est l'heure pour une bonne sieste de 2h. Mes parents attaquent le tri de mes vêtements. Il y a une dizaine de cartons au 2ème étage avec tous mes habits depuis l'âge de 6 mois. J'ai maintenant presque 3 ans... donc faut faire un peu de place. Ils ressortent également toutes mes tenues d'hiver... parcequ'ici à Luxembourg, c'est de saison !

Du coup, je retrouve des jouets, des biberons et des petites cuillères que j'utiliserai pour jouer à la dînette avec mes babies.

A 19h, je descends dîner avec Maman pendant que Papa termine. Elle me mettra au lit vers 20h30. Rédacteur : Patrick-Robin, mon Papa.

The problem might be as simple as a difference in communication and learning styles.  With all the interest in dyslexia and being right-brained you might have come to the conclusion that you identify with some or many of the problems, qualities and traits of the right-brain thinking style.  Everybody has use of both sides of the brain unless there is some medical issue but most people tend to be inclined to process and function more from one side than the other.  There is nothing wrong with this but it can make your job a frustrating and stressful place to be.

Let me give you an example.  Joan is an accountant and is managing the accounting and production department of a entertainment industry business.  She was moving on and had hired Anne, a potential replacement for her.   There was going to be a lengthy training period of several months.

During this time Joan started to notice that she was having a difficult time trying to teach Anne her accounting system and office procedures.  Joan definitely thinks in a right-brain fashion.  She thinks about the "whole picture" of the company's business system and then breaks it down into its individual components when she discusses and stratagizes work related issues.  She hates details.  She is intuitive, extremely creative,  problem-solving and sees everything from many directions all at once.  She is able to move from one task and quickly shift her focus to a completely unrelated issue such as an expected phone call from a client or vendor.   When she conveys her views to Anne she starts with the global or "big picture" and then discusses the details in a general fashion maintaining a very organized and logical order to them.  Everything starts with the "complete image" of the business and accounting department and then divides down into its main components. Joan however,  puts less emphasis or time on the details.

Anne processes information and works in a completely different thinking style.  She was confused by Joan's initial approach to teach Anne her job by starting with a description of the whole business and accounting system.  She was overwhelmed and confused and not able to handle the "big picture" with its multi-layered departments.  Anne was baffled by Joan's daily list of seemingly unrelated tasks.  She didn't know where to start and tended to not get more than one or two items finished in a day.  Anne was very detail oriented and fretted over small issues or the order that the jobs were supposed to be done in.

Joan got frustrated with her trainee's concerns and quite frankly could not comprehend what her problems were about.    The two of them could not relate or communicate with each other on any level and Joan was getting nowhere training her replacement.  Months into the job  Anne was not any further ahead understanding her job.

Joan talked to me about the  problems she was facing and was desperate to find some solutions.  I suggested to her that Anne seemed to be working from a more left-brain learning style and Joan, of course, was operating more from the right which put them at cross purposes with each other.

We worked out a plan where she would start to describe the accounting system from the most basic details moving forward in a sequential ascending hierarchical order.  Anne would therefore be working towards understanding the accounting picture through a step by step process moving towards an over all understanding of the whole system.  Also Joan broke her tasks down to shorter more organized lists and gave Anne a time frame for finishing them.  Joan presented every aspect of the accounting system from the first step and ended at the over all picture.

Anne started to respond to Joan's new approach and began to feel more successful which opened her up emotionally and helped her to have better self-esteem.  She started to understand the business's structure and how everything was inter-related.  Anne would always need to work out a task or a problem in a sequential order but she could now handle her job.

So the next time you find yourself butting heads with a fellow worker, supervisor or employee you might want to think about how you are approaching the job with them.  Consider how you might improve your communication with them by recognizing their learning style and yours and how you can come to "a meeting of the minds".

I think this chapter really delved into the issues that though many may be hesitant to try out new web 2.0 technologies in the classroom, especially with such focus on state mandated tests, these technologies can be implemented into the classroom with success. 

Richardson says,

On first blush, the tools on this new Web may not seem well suited to a climate of standardized test scores and government accountability...In reality, however, these tools have considerable relevance to state and local core content curriculum standards, and there is much reason to believe their implementation in schools will better prepare students for a slew of new literacies and competencies in their post-education lives (6). 

I think this point is  really critical when one is considering the pros and cons of introducing web-based technology into the classroom. Besides, "all around us kids are creating content in ways that most adults haven't yet tried" (6). With that said, we need to be able to step outside of our comfort zones to best meet the needs of our students. 

Though I do think schools need to have some sort of structure when deciding what is and is not allowed in schools as far as Internet access is concerned (and after all, there are national laws that regulate this!), I do think there should be more flexibility before a website is just banned and considered "useless." This thought arises after Richardson mentioned that some blogging sites, for example, are blocked from the school (when there are some legit, focused, and appropriate blogs that can be used in the classroom).

As I've mentioned before, yes, traditional classroom values should never be forgotten, but as educators, we can't be afraid to try new things and remember that we are all learners in the end!

For First day, my group was assigned to collect specimens as many as we can along a beach and also to measured height and speed of the wave. For collecting specimens, some groups got ‘ikan todak’, mussel, small fishes and also crabs.  My group got same specimens as the other group but we were different because we got one unidentified organism. All my group members Halim, Alin, Liza, Izan, Liana, Aida and I also tried our best and work together to capture ‘ikan belacak’ but we give up when we fail to capture it after using many methods because it ran so fast. But the experience capture ‘ikan belacak’ was so fun. After lunch, each group was assigned to dissect a fish and try to identify the fish’s organs. Alin and Halim volunteer to dissect the fish and I volunteer to take pictures during dissecting process. While dissect the fish, we all enjoyed ate ice cream. In evening we all played with the lecturers, tutors and En. Faizi in the sea. While the other played in the sea, my other friends and I tried to bury Chuan in the sand. We all played until sunset. The sunset view in Teluk Senangin was so beautiful. At night, we had a barbeque. During barbeque, I was shocked when I found that Halim was my schoolmate during my primary school in Kuala Lumpur after three years I had same lecture with him. I never thought that I will found my old friend in my university. After barbeque, each group needs to do a performance to celebrate Malaysia’s Independent Day. Most of the groups performed musical theater which the theme was related to Independent Day. My group needs to perform ‘Dikir Barat’ but unfortunately we can’t perform that night because of heavy rain. So, we end our activities early.

Next day, our activity in the morning was jungle tracking and also ‘Rempuh Halangan’. These two activities were conducted by Jabatan Pertahanan Awam (JPA).  During jungle tracking, a few leeches tried to climb my shoes but I quickly removed it before it sucks my blood. We also found a big millipede and also traces of wild boar in the jungle. Many of my friends got leech’s bite traces and fortunately my legs safe from the leech. After jungle tracking, Cik Adibah expended us some ice cream. That’s was the third time I ate ice cream since in Teluk Senangin. For ‘Rempuh Halangan’ activity, we need to walk in the swamp, climbing, jumping, crawling and hanging using a string to move the other side. Dr. Syakirah, En. Shazwan, Cik Adibah, Cik Nuraini and En. Faizi also join us. ‘Rempuh Halangan’ was the most challenging activity in my life. My clothes and my shoes were wet and covered in mud. My body was so smelly with swamp water and at that time I felt that I’m not taken a bath for a week. After “Rempuh Halangan’ activity, I had played, swam and floating in the sea with my clothes covered in mud. It was so fun and enjoyable although the salty water enters to my eyes, mouth and it also trapped in my ears. We all back to UPSI after had a lunch. After come back from Teluk senangin, my skin became dark because of sunburn. I also got flu fever and cough for four days. But today I still got cough and it also make me difficult to talk. I hope I will recover from the cough as soon as possible.

This morning, while reading over posts my classmates posted on the Sociology forum, I found this statement posted in one of the comment threads:

"...I would have to say that Karl Marx was a true democrat. Go democrats!"

Here was my response:

"Great observation. I've often thought the same thing. Perhaps the Democrats can impliment full blown Marxism in America and one day we'll all be as happy and properous as people in China, North Korea, and Cuba. Go Democrats!"

While I don't share my classmate's enthusiasm for Marxist thought, I believe her observation is 100% correct despite the minor anachronism!

My father always said: "F.D.R. was a member of the Communist Party, or else he was cheating them out of their dues."

When we're merely babies, we're given colourful books of ABC to inculcate love towards book in early stage.

At 4/5, we craved for barbie dolls books (for girls) or cars colouring books (for boys).

Story books became our bestfriend at 6.

Later at 7, mom presented us with the exercise books, mostly mathematics.

And since then, we buried our face in educational text since everybody asked us to go for 5A's in UPSR, 8 in PMR and as many A's in SPM. We turned to magazine & comics since it's not really thick and way far from academic text. We fell in love with light reading soon after. Little time spend for other books. And it stay that way for years.

When we step our foot in varsity life, we depend more on internet for articles to read. Books are what we knew as academic writing. We have no time to read good story books and prefer TGV to tell us 600pages story is less than 3 hours. We fancy the entertainment box rather than papers.

Four years later, we greet the working world and made ourself busy with paperworks, meetings, files-to-be-updated and year-target. For us, books are for students.

We keep on making resolution that we'll find time to read good books when we retired one day. Instead of fulfilling the resolutions, we depends on newspapers for updates and it be the only reading materials we held for years till it's time for rest in peace in the new home.

How much we read for at least 20 years after we knew how to spell words without receiving help from our kindergarten teacher? Most importantly, what do we read all these years? Some fanzines for updates of our favourite band which actually consist of more photo rather than words, lots of textbook which we'd forget the content months after we left school and a couple of novels with unlogical storylines? How about religious books? How much do we understand the content & actually put it into practice?

Malaysian passion for books always way behind any developed countries. There's a research done last year (I couldn't recall much on this though) showing that an average malaysian read less than 4 books per year, eventhough our literacy rate is actually quite high. We, ourselves often find people plugging on earphones in the train, while waiting for the bus and even while exercising. Do we see much holding books and read in public places? A few or none. Ok, some may read newspapers. Do we have less time than the Singaporean? Thus, we couldn't bare spending time reading as much as them? Is it too daunting to finish a page? Again, it's a question of Nak atau Tak Nak? Rather than banging head in the music 24/7, why don't we try hearing some educational pieces? In a way, it can improve our language too!

اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ

Bacalah (wahai Muhammad) dengan nama Tuhanmu yang menciptakan (sekalian makhluk),

خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ

Ia menciptakan manusia dari sebuku darah beku

اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ

Bacalah, dan Tuhanmu Yang Maha Pemurah,

الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ

Yang mengajar manusia melalui pena dan tulisan,

عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ

Ia mengajarkan manusia apa yang tidak diketahuinya.

Now, go & grab a book, people! QUICKLY!

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