Objects

It is sometimes difficult to treat women as subjects instead of objects. Particularly because many of them seem to like being treated as objects. Hence "formals": they don't want to be a person, they want to be Barbie.

Lyra

There is a girl who sits in front of me in my Buddhism class named Lyra. She draws and doodles constantly in class, and some of her pictures are very pretty. Yesterday, she got up to go get a drink of water and I looked at what she was working on. It was a profile portrait of an old lady that had cold, cruel features to her face. Across the top, Lyra had written:

"Blank paper has a tendancy to stare
Eyelessly with a strange sort of accusatory
Non-expression. And expectation perhaps."

Diversity(?)

I've never met anyone who was significantly like anyone else. I am completely overwhelmed at the fact that I probably have met thousands of people -- all of whom are startlingly unique. The human race is unfathomably diverse. So why are so many people's facebook/myspace profiles really really bland?

Kids

3 of the top 10 most viewed news stories on Yahoo today were about child molesters. Are we really that offended by pedophelia? Or do we enjoy the paranoia and righteous indignation we can feel while simultaneously being perversely, unhealthily interested in the combination of children and sex?

Thrifty

Ethnic slurs have never been funny, but one that particularly bothers me is that when someone is reluctant to spend money, he or she is sometimes called "Jewish." This is deeply wrong for several reasons. First, and obviously, it is wrong to refer to someone's ethnicity in a derrogetory manner or to stereotype (in a derrogetory manner) an ethnic group's behavior.

But on an entirely different level, one is tempted to ask "since when did thriftiness become a vice?" Does materialism so permeate our lives that it is now informing our morals? Shouldn't we admire someone who spends their money wisely and frugally?

Artt

I want to form a Ratt cover band for the sole reason that I would call the band "Artt."

Overheard

Here are three sentences I overheard from people as I was passing them this week. I am going to assume I heard them out of context.

[girl on cell phone, angry]: "Well what kind of God are you?"

[girl holding a door for me while talking to someone else]: "I mean, I'm sure he won't rape her in broad daylight."

[intoxicated guy on a scooter talking to his two passengers]: "If you had seen Spiderman, you'd be gay to."

Maybe

Maybe Christianity is more like learning to play a musical instrument rather than merely holding a series of intellectual beliefs.

Media II

Is it possible that media has a negative influence on "youth" in society -- but not just because of some of its particular content, but by its ubiquitous presence? I certainly believe that media is ultimately a good thing -- a gift from God -- but is it possible that there is such a thing as too much? Maybe listening to Christian music for several hours a day could be almost as bad for you as listening to the same amount of heavy metal that advocates aggression or rap that advocates materialism and the oppression of women? Media has a distracting influence that probably results from the fact that it occupies most of an individual's conscious attention and because most media consumption occurs when the individual is alone, when he or she would be most likely to be engaging in personal contemplation.

Maybe the destructiveness of media does not lie primarily in its content (although some content is definitely destructive) but in the fact that we adolescents use it for 8 hours a day. Granted that some of that time overlaps, there are still several hours a day when the average adolescent is neither thinking heavily nor interacting with othe people. Maybe making value judgments about the content of media is like making value judgements about different kinds of food. Some foods are more healthy for you than others, but too much food is always bad for you.

Loudness

I think concerts and bars have loud music so as to eliminate the possibility of conversation. That way, people don't feel awkward hanging out for several hours together without speaking to one another.

Nietzsche

The "new philosopher" or "free spirt" that Nietzsche describes -- a person who creates his own values, refuses to bow to any standards except those he creates, is entirely self-validating, and lives dangerously through an indominable "will to power" -- is not a human, nor an animal. He is none other than the absolutely soveriegn God of the Bible.

Media

So I went to Library West today with every intention of studying, but somehow ended up reading a textbook entitled Adolescent Psychology. I read the chapter on adolescents and media. Here is a collection of facts and thoughts:

- "Media" is basically information in any form -- typically television, music, books, magazines, and computers.

- Adolescents use an average of just under 8 hours of media per day: about 3.5 hours of TV, 2.5 hours of music, and 2 hours of other forms.

- The top 20% of TV watchers watch 8-9 hours of TV a day.

- People who consume lots of media generally consume a lot of different forms of media. Hence, statistically, people who watch more TV also tend to read more and listen to more music.

- Girls listen to substantially more music than guys (about 1 more hour per day).

So how does media affect identity formation in the adolescent? This is a particularly relevant question due to the fact that identity formation is a central goal of adolescence as well as a central theme of media.

It is also interesting that most media use, as well as most personal contemplation, occurs while the individual is alone.

The textbook focused on the media's affect on adolescents, but I would be curious as to the possible influence of adolescents on media.

Posts

Computer-mediated communication (particularly AIM, facebook, and the various facsimiles thereof) isolate us from one another in two ways:

- They discourage us from interacting with one another personally by allowing us to have conversations in an abstract, impersonal medium. Conversations that should take place face-to-face instead happen over the computer.

- By their format, they encourage brevity and superficiality. A facebook message over 200 words or a wall post over 50 words looks comically long. It's the same principle that Derrida mentions talking about post cards: post cards (he claims) are designed so that the writer can get away with writing very little to someone because the card itself is so small that it fills up easily. Facebook wall posts are particularly like post cards in that they are exposed so that anyone can read them.

Clock

I think the clock on this blog is messed up. It is 12:57 am on Thursday, September 28.

Notebook

I am watchin The Notebook by myself right now. The problem with chick flicks is that they are aimed at girls. Thus they develop the male character but not the female character. The female is a void -- a blank -- into which the viewer is supposed to enter. She is the Self and the male is the Other. So the whole point of the movie is to build the male character up into this big stud that all the female viewers can fall in love with vicariously through the female character. In fact, the less personality the female character has, the more fully an audience will be able to relate to her because she lacks enough personality to be differentiated. But when the movie does not develop the female character, all I see is a blank -- and I cannot understand why the male character likes her.

Glass

When Iggy Pop rolled around in broken glass onstage in 1969 it expressed the disillusionment and rage of a generation that knew intense, passionate apathy was the only honest response to a world of failed idealism and fallen leaders.

When Johnny Knoxville rolls around in broken glass on camera in 2006 it is to entertain a generation that just doesn't give a shit.

Mildly Amusing

On Wednesday I saw two separate accidents within an hour of one another in which a bicyclist was hit by a car.

Yesterday I got to play a harpsichord for the first time ever.

Today we were talking about the property of "discreteness" (a technical term) in linguistics, during which time a girl in our class was discretely trying to leave to go to the restroom.

Water

Christianity focuses on the power of water to quench. Taoism focuses on the power of water to change things.

Complications

Things that complicate guy-girl relationships

-Girls are expected to be flirty with all the guys they meet. In other words, the type of behavior girls are expected to exibit for guys to whom they are being courteous is indistinguishible from the type of behavior they are expected to exibit towards guys in whom they have a romantic interest. This makes it difficult for girls to express genuine romantic interest and difficult for guys to know what is going on.

-Guys are not expected to take "no" for an answer from a girl. It is expected that a girl does not really know what she wants or is being coy when she reacts negatively to a guy's interest (be it asking for a date or offering to help carry groceries). In movie after movie, we see a guy woo a girl by not accepting her original refusal. It's time to realize that real life doesn't work this way. When a girl says "no," it is rude to do anything other than accept the fact that she means "no."

Scared

I'm not afraid of a whole lot of things, but I am terrified of the American Dream. The thought of a comfortable job lasting for 40 years, a white picket fence, an SUV. Climbing the social ladder, meeting clients for lunch, having cable TV -- the living death of complacency, comfort, and decadence. This scares me.

Theology

Is theology poetry?

Derrida

I saw a movie about Jacques Derrida today in which he spoke about his childhood. He was Jewish and grew up in Algeria during the 1940's -- a setting in which anti-Semitism was an accepted social standard. At the age of ten, Derrida was expelled from school for being Jewish. The local Jewish people banded together to create their own separate community with distinct schools, temples, etc.

Although he was rejected by the non-Jewish community, Derrida also claims that he felt very uncomfortable in the Jewish community. He didn't really expand on that very much other than to say he felt very alienated by both camps.

Is it possible that this childhood experience could have influenced the direction of Derrida's philosophy as an adult? Could his challenge to traditional dialectics of opposition (male/female, self/other, speech/writing) be a reflection of the failure of each side of the Semite/non-Semite opposition to give him a home as a child?

Truth

Belief in Absolute Truth is the only thing that allows you to be tolorant of other people's approaches to acquiring knowledge.

Freud

Why do we liberal arts people still talk about Freud so much? He is obviously outdated. The psychologists realize this, so why don't we? Why don't we pay attention to more recent developments in psychology? Is it because we fear science's pretentions [however misguided] at absolute truth? Is Truth a sun that's too bright to look at -- a fire that's too hot to touch?

Graffiti

Graffiti on the insides of locker doors in the fine arts building:

"My mom drinks a lot and I hate it when teachers try to call home to talk to her -- It's embarrassing as hell and she doesn't speak English too well, especially when she's drunk."

"I have a very large toe."

"Shanon told everyone that I haven't had my period yet and they laughed at me in PE class."

"I hate school. I'm joining the marines as soon as I turn 18."

"There are these girls on my bus that I hate and if they knew I live in a trailer they would joke me. I get off the bus 4 stops early so they won't see where I live."

Sin and Suffering

Christianity and Buddhism have fundamentally different formulations of the human problem. Christianity tries to answer the problem of sin, while Buddhism tries to answer the problem of suffering. At the University of Florida (and probably elsewhere) I think people are more concerned with the problem of suffering than with sin. So what does Christianity have to say about suffering? Might "suffering" (at least in some cases) be a better starting point for Christian evangelism than "sin"?

Formals

It really bugs me when girls dress up at formal events. I feel like I'm at a masquerade ball -- girls wear so much makeup, eye-liner, glitter, and expensive dresses that they are unrecognizable. The feeling I get when I see child beauty queens (like in Little Miss Sunshine) is the same feeling I get when I see girls in formal attire. It's eerie and grotesque.

Girl Hugs

I hate it when girls hug me and they don't mean it. At least when a guy hugs you, you know he means "I like you a lot," even if the hug carries some other additional message such as "Hello" or "Goodbye." A girl hug, however, can mean anything from "I love you more than life itself," to "Well, I've got to go; it was nice meeting you" and doesn't necessarily communicate any affection.

Hugs are highly meaningful, expressive, and personal gestures that have been rendered meaningless, trite, and impersonal by girls who are so afraid of seeming cold that they feel like they have to hug everybody. I would much rather have a girl -- even a girl I really like --shake my hand and look me square in the eyes. And if she does hug me, at least mean it.

Girl hugs (like facebook, aim, and blogs) simulate intimacy in a way that isolates us and alienates us from one another.

Pink

Why do we associate pink, certain shades of purple, and even some blues with femininity? Is it an arbitrary cultural standard or are there absolute qualities to these colors that make us think of them as feminine?