Long Time Coming

It's been.. about 165 days since I've posted last. Another birthday swept past relatively unnoticed, I did, actually, fail two of my classes that quarter, and I now live with Jared and Dani.

So, first I'll reply to myself.. the Apartment is much less filthy now, my room hasn't changed much but the rest of the place has. Far more credit is due to Jared and Dani than myself for that, though. Photography's fallen by the wayside. Other things to do, mostly. I got a D in my Freshman Seminar class. Picked myself up, tried a little harder, failed English again but got B's in both Logic and Microecon. This quarter I'm taking most of my classes on campus. We'll see how that goes, I'm kind of concerned about my Speech class.. it seems like it involves more work than my other three classes. Fun. Creative Writing, Aelora, Go, Design, Servers, SRCG and Game Design. None of this has happened, because I've been trying to work on school and being somewhat more sociable. I don't think it will, in the near future, either. I'm more concerned about school and I'd much rather focus on that than everything else.

It's remarkably fascinating how quickly one's entire mood can shift, from what appears to almost be depression into something infinitely more bearable. I would dare say that I'm almost happy right now. There are certainly things that aren't going as well as I'd like, but there are plenty of things that are going much better than could have been expected, six months ago. In four weeks, I will have been back here at this company for exactly a year. I'm OK with that. I've been a full time employee for 6 months and a few days. My time spent in Seattle still sits in the back of my mind, progressively shading everything that I process in terms of my life and my greater goals. Out in Seattle, I realized that I don't want to pursue a technical field. They're too rigid, too static. Certainly, there is a huge amount of growth in the technical fields, with technological leaps occuring at ever-increasing rates. But vertical growth isn't the only thing important to me. Horizontal is too, lateral movement is absolutely necessary.

Because of this, and numerous other experiences from my life, I've decided that Philosophy is the field I am going to pursue. I'm going to take it a single step at a time, but I know where those steps are going. I plan to get my AA or AS from Columbus State, then to get my BA in Philosophy from Ohio State, and then I will pursue a PhD program, somewhere. I will see where I am when I've got that BA and that will help decide what graduate schools I apply to. That is my plan, and that's where I'm going. Wish me luck, as it's a long road to travel.

New Hobby, Ethics and Other Stuff

Time does move profoundly fast occasionally. It's only been 12 days since my last post, though, so I seem to have caught it reasonably quickly this time. I would like to return to posting at least once per week, but that may or may not occur, truthfully.. I just don't have terribly much to say about much of anything.

The power went out due to the rather insane windstorm this previous Sunday, so that was interesting. Classes start next Wednesday, so that should be interesting. I think I may discuss my work, there, on here. Someone might find it fun to read. Meanwhile, I think I've officially decided that Photography is my latest hobby. Of course, I doubt anyone would be particularly surprised by that.

My next major purchase is going to be a vehicle, of some form. I need more reliable transportation from point to point, so hopefully I'll be able to gather up enough funding to purchase myself a small beater that'll do when necessary. Beyond that, I'll probably start saving for Photo gear and/or a Laptop. Both, I think, would serve me well.

So, I've been contemplating the intersection of Ethics and Journalism as of late.. I find it interesting that it seems the code of ethics that sit within Journalism's walls is slowly disappearing. Faded by corporate interests and power grabs, it seems that a large piece of modern journalism just entirely misses the point.

I suspect this has to do with the return to individuals standing on their soapboxes, preaching about whatever ills them. In addition to this, there's an insidious creep across the board of people trying to talk about incredibly complex issues and missing entire pieces of it. To really talk about some modern issues, you truly need to comprehend it from multiple places. I wish I could give concrete examples of this, but as of right now it's just an idea that's bouncing around and kind of sinking a root or two into my deeper thoughts. If you want more, go read up on Media Bias.

On yet another random topic, I need to pursue personal fitness more thoroughly. Once I get more of the apartment clean, especially either my bedroom or the living room, I think I may start doing a minor workout routine. Additionally, I suspect it would behoove me to start going for bike rides occasionally.

Finally, I have an idea for an article about the vagaries of Ni and Ne bouncing about.. I may work on that later, but it strikes me as being a similar form of miscommunication as there stands between Ti and Te. It isn't always a negative thing, but it can definitely cause misunderstandings. Generally, I suspect, in intent. More on that later.

Randomly long post for you, if you have any thoughts, drop me a line.

Random Journalish Entry

So.. I've been reading rather a lot about rather a lot of things, and I'm starting to notice a couple of topics where I find myself prodding at them incidentally. Primarily.. Philosophy, Technology, CogSci and Education. Now, when I say Philosophy, I really mean to different fields. First is Ethics which I enjoy contemplating and the Second of a more generic range of fields that are fun to catch glimpses of now and then. I also enjoy where most of the fields intersect.. the Philosophy of Education, the Education of Philosophy, the Neuroscience of Learning, the Philosophy of Consciousness, the Ethics of Technology, the Technology of Neuroscience.. basically all sorts of weird crossbreed mutations between the fields. Why am I mentioning this? I don't know. Thought someone'd appreciate knowing that.

I guess, on some level, I like studying these fields for the same reason I have a very, very passing interest in Anthropology, Archaeology, Sociology et al. Because the more I learn in these fields, the more I can make an argument from various angles. I've noticed that it's very much breaking the paradigm, when you argue multiple.. zones of influence. I don't know the terminology of what I'm talking about, I just know that I do it and that it aggravates people that can't keep up. I'll argue, say, the rationality of something and as a riposte to their followup, argue the evolutionary standpoint of something. I'll bounce between fields and paradigms and systems of thought. I mean, it makes sense to me because you can't argue a point without taking in the entire surrounding framework, and since, truthfully, humans are my most common stepping point, I feel you need to take in as much of the framework as possible. This framework includes all of the work from evolutionary psychology to modern memetics and sociology.. neuroscience to anthropology.. and you can't really play with these fields individually, because eventually you'll miss a point that can't be contained on one area but is perfectly explained in another. So, there's that.

I am still interested in Aelora, by the by.. since I'm sure it seems like I've dropped it off the wayside like so many other projects. Well, I -have- but it isn't forgotten. I suspect I'll pick up on it again when I've got more motivation and fewer other things going on.

This seems like more of a journal update than anything.. but I'm OK with that. I can't say I have terribly much by way of profound thoughts right now.. I've been poking at my 'perfect' government, which amuses me but it entirely unreal as it would require the breaking of two of our culture's strongest mores.. and I don't see that happening any time soon.

Anywho, that's all for now.

Quick Recap.. Philosophy in Schools

The problem with routine is that the more consistent your schedule, the quicker time slips past. It's been far, far too long since I've last posted. I started writing a post on Introverted Thinking, but it's since stalled. It was getting absurdly long, truth be told. I may review it, chop it up, and post it in chunks.

So, registration for Classes at Columbus State starts in less than two weeks. July 23rd, to be exact. Once James gets his transcripts from DeVry, hopefully we'll be able to head down there to take their little placement tests. Once that's done, I'll be registering for the basic classes. Probably English 111 and Humanities 111. In addition to the stupid little Freshman Seminar they make people take. It was useless at OSU, it'll likely be even more useless at CSCC.

I've solidified on pursuing both English and Philosophy. I think I would enjoy a position as a Game writer but I think I've found my higher calling, if you will. I have a deep need to help move Philosophy a step forward.. it is in a sad state currently, widely disregarded and almost disrespected. The ethical state of our country's corporations is just pitiful. Our students.. they are indoctrinated by our schools to become mindless sheep. Taught to be pure simpletons. If there is nothing else I can do in my life, I will try to coerce more people into asking themselves 'Why?'. This question is emotionally bludgeoned from our minds as small children, and we are accosted from youth whenever we ask it. What those who would teach our children desperately need to realize is that if you can't answer 'Why', then you have no right answering 'How'. We need to foster the analytical mind in our children, to coax them into asking 'Why' more frequently.

Now, before someone decides to become a smart ass and ask me 'Why', it's simple. To have a complete understanding of some concept, abstract or elsewise, you must explore it. Exploration is inherently the act of asking 'Why', of questioning. We are doing our children a sincere injustice by slowly squeezing this curiosity out of them.