There is a rule in information technology, but I think it is actually re-inventing a reinvention of a wheel. The rule is never to have a single point of failure. It's an incredibly useful rule for technological systems. It's not exactly about having backups for failures, it's about deriving information from different sources so that, if there is a failure, there isn't a catastrophic event that threatens the life of the system.
This rule is derived from information technology, but it really came from human life and history. They just reinvented the wheel. Now I'm reinventing the reinvention by placing it back in the hands of humanity. At any point in a person's life, there should never be a single psychological point of failure. Yet too often, we try to make this a rule in our lives. We try to derive self-worth from one source: a passion, another person, a calling, etc. It even works with a spread of friends. If all of your friends bring out the same side of you, then what is the point? I have a wide breadth of friends who bring out different sides of me and it is the first time I've had that for a long time. I forgot what it was like to hang out with different people, have different experiences and see different sides of myself.
I'm still searching for myself. This used to be a source of annoyance. I revel in it now. I've done things in the past year that I would have scoffed at if you had told me about it only 6 months ago. The biggest reason I have is because of the friends I've made in that span, and because I don't have a single point of failure for my own psyche anymore.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Things Change
Valedictorian speaks out against Education in Graduation Speech
YouTube Video of the Speech
I want to meet this girl. Not only is she speaking the unabashed truth, she had the courage to do so in one of the most influential yet controversial positions. The country is formed based on outdated ideals. It shows through the educational and governmental systems, because they are the bedrock of the society. Both schools and government take forever to change things within themselves.
The government supposed to be a representative of the people, yet its composition does not come close to resembling the populace. The government itself does not have anyone remotely young among its ranks. How are the "young" supposed to represent their interests, much less races and gender? I thought the country was founded on fighting the tyranny of not being represented in the body of governance creating the laws that govern them. Yet the cross-section of people in the government creating the laws is not even close to resembling the population. History repeats itself, eh?
This is relevant to the educational system because the needs of education change rapidly, yet the laws and the educational system are formed by people several generations removed from the current environment. It isn't the same world now as it was 10 years ago, much less 30 or 40. Yet the pace of change within the two most fundamental parts of society take so long to change that there are still blue laws that serve no purpose from 150 years ago on the books. An extreme example, but it stands to show that if the extreme exists, imagine what else does.
The schooling system is still based on creating model employees for an industrial society. That time is long past, yet we still continue to train people for a world gone by the wayside. How do you expect people to succeed in their lives when they are taught to succeed in a world that doesn't exist anymore?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
That's Right, I Wear Necklaces
I have two Celtic Knot necklaces that never leave my body. They are there all day, all night, all evening, all morning. I shower with them on. I sleep with them on. I have no idea whether it is a phase or not, I haven't been wearing them for that long. One of them is about ten years old and just recently found after a decently long period of being lost. The other is brand new. I'm actually thinking of getting a third for a specific reason, but that might be a little bit past overkill.
The reason I wear them is because I love Celtic Knots. They ground me in a way. They are finite expressions of infinity. They are the snakes eating their own tails.
The new knot is a cross symbolizing well being and life without complications. It has no beginning and no end, kinda like Finnegan's Wake. And Celtic history and James Joyce are together the closest things that make me almost proud of being Irish. I still can't be proud of something I achieved through accident of birth though. It weaves over and through itself, symbolizing a balance of internal and external influence in life.
The old one is spiritual rebirth. It is two fish intertwined. The two salmon represent wisdom and knowledge. Salmon are the keepers of all knowledge. Which is why it was the first one I ever owned; fitting for someone whose identity is so wrapped in intelligence to be holding the keeper of all knowledge at his chest.
I've never even considered getting a tattoo in my life. I'm much too fickle and could never conceive of something I would want on my skin now and 10 years from now. Celtic Knots are the first objects that are making me seriously consider getting ink.
The reason I wear them is because I love Celtic Knots. They ground me in a way. They are finite expressions of infinity. They are the snakes eating their own tails.
The new knot is a cross symbolizing well being and life without complications. It has no beginning and no end, kinda like Finnegan's Wake. And Celtic history and James Joyce are together the closest things that make me almost proud of being Irish. I still can't be proud of something I achieved through accident of birth though. It weaves over and through itself, symbolizing a balance of internal and external influence in life.
The old one is spiritual rebirth. It is two fish intertwined. The two salmon represent wisdom and knowledge. Salmon are the keepers of all knowledge. Which is why it was the first one I ever owned; fitting for someone whose identity is so wrapped in intelligence to be holding the keeper of all knowledge at his chest.
I've never even considered getting a tattoo in my life. I'm much too fickle and could never conceive of something I would want on my skin now and 10 years from now. Celtic Knots are the first objects that are making me seriously consider getting ink.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Just Don't Kill Anyone
Everything in this world is a sliding scale between two poles. The poles don't actually exist, they are always guideposts for describing people and the further along the scale a person is toward one pole or another is how radical or passionate they are about that particular issue. It's like a calculus convergence and divergence. Always approaching ever closer to zero or infinity without ever reaching it.
External and Internal Morality are two of these poles. They are often confused with religious and non-religious as well.
Personally, I have never understood people who let others tell them what to do; whether it be another human being, an idea of God, an idea of morality that did not come from within, a governmental body, a religion, etc.
I think the main difference between a religious person and a non-religious person is this idea of external morality. I think it is also why so many religious people say that non-religious people have no morality. That's not it, it just isn't like their own.
My whole life philosophy is to have the most fun while I'm here, regardless of anything outside killing someone or hurting someone unnecessarily. Some would say that's immoral, but there are many ways in which I do not find it acceptable to harm someone for my own happiness. Sounds like a moral compass to me, it is just my own. I don't have any delusions that my own morality is better than someone else's and that they should follow mine.
External and Internal Morality are two of these poles. They are often confused with religious and non-religious as well.
Personally, I have never understood people who let others tell them what to do; whether it be another human being, an idea of God, an idea of morality that did not come from within, a governmental body, a religion, etc.
I think the main difference between a religious person and a non-religious person is this idea of external morality. I think it is also why so many religious people say that non-religious people have no morality. That's not it, it just isn't like their own.
My whole life philosophy is to have the most fun while I'm here, regardless of anything outside killing someone or hurting someone unnecessarily. Some would say that's immoral, but there are many ways in which I do not find it acceptable to harm someone for my own happiness. Sounds like a moral compass to me, it is just my own. I don't have any delusions that my own morality is better than someone else's and that they should follow mine.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Permanent Loss
I am in mourning. You'll think it is stupid, but I don't care. You'd think I'd learn from my past. It wasn't the first time I'd been so stupid. I cried. It was stupid. It was unique. It was ultimate.
When I was in college 6 years ago, I was reading Oscar Wilde and I brought it out to BC to visit my friend Dan. We drank heavily that night and needed something to mix with vodka, so I went and bought a cheap gallon of orange juice. The morning after I took it with me and threw it in my bag so as not to waste it. It popped open and poured a half gallon of orange juice out over everything in my bag. Oscar Wilde was ruined. I never even got a replacement until someone bought me one six months ago after I told them the story. I never thought I'd do the same thing again six months later with something much more dear to me than Oscar Wilde.
I write. When I say that, I mean it in two ways. I write for a living and I also hand write everything. I type what I write in my notebook afterward. In the last week, I wrote two amazing scenes for my novel. They were dramatic and poignant and riveting. I had not had the chance to transpose them into my computer yet. My friends and I planned an excursion last Saturday and alcohol was involved so I put a bottle of Jameson whiskey in my bag. It leaked last night and destroyed my notebook. It is soaked entirely through and half of each page is a blue ball of blurred nothingness. I lost the two scenes.
It is unique because it is ultimately gone: the words I wrote, the language I weaved, the scene I created. They are gone and never to be duplicated or retrieved. It is like the death of a human being. I have never had a child and I have never created something such as this that I have loved like a child. Its death hit me sideways. I will write the scenes over again. The content will be the same. My memory is good enough that it will hold the spirit of the scenes I already wrote. But it will not be the same. The problem with this is that I almost feel like it is a perversion of the memory of the words that were destroyed by breathing new life into a replacement.
When I was in college 6 years ago, I was reading Oscar Wilde and I brought it out to BC to visit my friend Dan. We drank heavily that night and needed something to mix with vodka, so I went and bought a cheap gallon of orange juice. The morning after I took it with me and threw it in my bag so as not to waste it. It popped open and poured a half gallon of orange juice out over everything in my bag. Oscar Wilde was ruined. I never even got a replacement until someone bought me one six months ago after I told them the story. I never thought I'd do the same thing again six months later with something much more dear to me than Oscar Wilde.
I write. When I say that, I mean it in two ways. I write for a living and I also hand write everything. I type what I write in my notebook afterward. In the last week, I wrote two amazing scenes for my novel. They were dramatic and poignant and riveting. I had not had the chance to transpose them into my computer yet. My friends and I planned an excursion last Saturday and alcohol was involved so I put a bottle of Jameson whiskey in my bag. It leaked last night and destroyed my notebook. It is soaked entirely through and half of each page is a blue ball of blurred nothingness. I lost the two scenes.
It is unique because it is ultimately gone: the words I wrote, the language I weaved, the scene I created. They are gone and never to be duplicated or retrieved. It is like the death of a human being. I have never had a child and I have never created something such as this that I have loved like a child. Its death hit me sideways. I will write the scenes over again. The content will be the same. My memory is good enough that it will hold the spirit of the scenes I already wrote. But it will not be the same. The problem with this is that I almost feel like it is a perversion of the memory of the words that were destroyed by breathing new life into a replacement.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Fortune Cookies
Apart from my frustration with U.S. Chinese food and the fact that I can't find a good Mandarin Chinese Dish anywhere: I still love fortune cookies. I don't even eat them, I just crack the cookie open and throw it away. Screw the lucky numbers too, they don't even mean anything. But the fortune inside is the prize. It's like a 50/50 shot that the assortment and sequence of seemingly English words inside actually make sense at all, metaphorically or literally. Which is funny in and of itself, but of the 50% that actually do make linguistic sense there are 10% that are amazingly meaningful because they are insightful, funny and make sense both metaphorically and literally.
Consider the last fortune I opened and proceeded to affix to the dashboard of my car:
Constant grinding can turn an iron rod into a needle.
Fortunes don't get much better than that.
Consider the last fortune I opened and proceeded to affix to the dashboard of my car:
Constant grinding can turn an iron rod into a needle.
Fortunes don't get much better than that.
Friday, August 20, 2010
People and Places
There are 2 types of people in this world: Those who think there are two types of people in this world and those of us who know better.
I generally like to be on the latter end of this Tom Robbins quote. But someone told me this week that there are two types of people in this world: club people and non-club people. I actually happen to agree with it, but I take it one step further.
There are two types of people in this world: people who go somewhere for the people and people who go somewhere for the place.
What I mean by this is simple: I am someone who doesn't give a damn where I am as long as I am with someone whose company I enjoy. I could be sitting in a dumpster on the side of the road and have plenty of fun if I am with someone that interests me.
There is another type of person though. These people need to be somewhere interesting. It doesn't matter who they are with.
So I guess there are two types of people in this world after all.
I generally like to be on the latter end of this Tom Robbins quote. But someone told me this week that there are two types of people in this world: club people and non-club people. I actually happen to agree with it, but I take it one step further.
There are two types of people in this world: people who go somewhere for the people and people who go somewhere for the place.
What I mean by this is simple: I am someone who doesn't give a damn where I am as long as I am with someone whose company I enjoy. I could be sitting in a dumpster on the side of the road and have plenty of fun if I am with someone that interests me.
There is another type of person though. These people need to be somewhere interesting. It doesn't matter who they are with.
So I guess there are two types of people in this world after all.
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