Wednesday #44 -Sardonic College Essay

Intellectual Curiosity

"Curiosity killed the cat," A neat little saying, but one which I pay little heed. My intellectual curiosity is sparked from more than one source, and is a driving force in my life. It is sparked by itself almost, simply because I love to learn new things. I have always enjoyed the sensation of learning a new fact or tidbit of information, the feeling of accomplishment when I can answer questions correctly and solve problems well, or that sense of intelligence when I can use sophisticated diction in either my writing, or colloquial speech. The more I learned, the more I could feel this way. Knowledge also provided a sense of security. Fear is a terrible thing, and as a child it definitely had a powerful hold over me and my imagination. I would stay up late night after night, fearful of something that could hurt me out in the dark, but the more and more I learned, the more knowledge I had, the less frightening things were. Before, I would be crippled by ignorance, but with the panacea of knowledge, I was cured. Another spark for my curiosity is my sense of identity. For as long as I have been in school, I have been one of the "smart kids," and I have come to identify myself as such. While yes, this is a label that my peers have given me, I found that I liked it, and what came with it, so I decided to keep it. In order to keep it though, I had to keep getting smarter and cleverer, and so I stayed curious, and I learned. I have also found that curiosity helped me fit in, as a leader and a friend. It is helped me cast aside fear, and so when I stepped up to be a leader, curiosity came to my aid again. Whenever I ventured into something intimidating and unknown, I would just shift that unease into a thirst for knowledge, and that is always helped pull me through, because instead of worrying over how much farther I had to go, I focused on what would be just around the bend. That curious focus helped me find friends as well, because I would ignore my awkwardness, and hide it behind my curiosity, so I could learn about someone, and who they are, instead of thinking about how they might not like me. I believe that it is sparked by the books I have read, as well. I have read of beautiful sunrises and sunsets, happy returns and bittersweet endings, and I want to experience these things for myself. I want to feel what it is like to be undeniably brave, to show up in the knick of time, and that desire has pushed me to learn about the world around in more ways than just through school, but through my life, with every sense I can learn with. The future is waiting for me, and I want to know what it has to hold, so I learn as much as I can to be ready for it. All in all, my intellectual curiosity has been a part of me, something intrinsic to my behavior, just part of my nature. It is who I am, and I would not have it any other way. Somehow, I know that it is going to be the thing that is going to bring me someplace amazing, a place that I can truly call home, a place that is just waiting for me to get there. "Curiosity killed the cat," maybe an old saying that some people may believe, but I know better. Curiosity killed the cat, but it was satisfaction that brought it back.

 Fear Itself Is Undefined
I lay on my bed soaking my pillow with my tears,
I try to remember exactly what it is that I fear.
Is it the passing of time or the love that I lack?
Is it the mistakes that I've made or the fact that I can't bring the past back?
What is it that I'm afraid of?
Why am I so scared?
Is it the people I've hurt or the people that have hurt me?
Am I afraid of everything that I cant seem to see?
Is it the love of a friend, or the loss of my family?
Is it the possibility that my life can end in a tragedy?
What is it that I fear most?
What do my eyes say I'm scared of?
Is it the sun that sets but won't seem to rise?
Is it the hope that I have that always seems to die?
Is it the trust of a person that I cannot begin to grasp?
Is it all the memories of my horrid past?
Is it me?
Can it possibly be that the thing I fear most is the thing I can't be?
The things that I try to understand?
The me that I try to be with when I'm feeling sad?
The person I'm expected to be? Is that what I fear? . . .
I think the thing I fear most . . .is me

By Bianca Flores

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." -Ram Dass

Wednesday #42 - Is It Really All That Happy?

What's the happiest place on Earth? Simple: Disneyworld! But is it really? let's think about it for a moment, and seriously contemplate what is so wrong about Disneyworld... Have you figured it out? No, it's not the stupid new rules about the fast pass system, and it isn't about the price of the whole thing either. It's the rules that the staff (or cast members) are bound to, essentially creating a subservient unter-mensch to serve the paying customer.

     Let's talk, shall we? The restrictions that Disney places on its employees are, in a word, ridiculous. Yes, some of themmakesense, like cast members cannot smoke at all in costume, or chew gum, or eat in public view, but there are some more ridiculous ones too. 

     For example, should a cast member not know the answer to a question given to them by a guest, they can't just say "I don't know."

     That's right, Disney is great because of slaves. Kinda shatters the innocence, doesn't it? I know you probably feel bad, and that's totally understandable, but you also shouldn't feel bad. Those people, the cast members, volunteered for that position, and still have to voluntarily get out of bed each morning and go to their job (er..  role), and continue to abide by the "crazy" rules. 

     But what exact,y does this mean for us as a society? Could it be that we actually like slavery? Of course we really don't, because the last time America did slavery we made little kids work in factories where they could lose fingers and chunks hair with scalp, or their lives with a slight slip up, and before that, we separated families and cultures, forcing on innocents back-breaking labor and whippings. Consider however the benefits that these systems had though. The slavery of the South had massive, positive, economic effects, and essentially paid for the Reconstruction efforts after the American Civil War, not to memtion the fact that the trade made possible by the slave trade and the resulting cotton inudstry allowed the U.S. to get a foot into international exchange, a doorway that proved necessary for Americas rise to as a world power. This apotheosis was aided further by wage slavery in the Industrial Age, when America was able to turn from a mostly agrarian nation into an industrial powerhouse (which won us WWII). Because the factory worker was barely paided, the profits made by the robber barons who owned the factory allowed for greater production amounts, more factories, more revenues for America (as a whole), and created the industrial system that allowed for the rise of a middle class in the next century. 

     Understand that I don't support slavery. I think that its a terrible system, and the fact that it was abolished in both forms says something about how terrible it was. All that I am trying to do is cause you to look at the world with a different light. 

Much Madness is the divinest Sense

By Emily Dickinson

much Madness is the divinest Sense

To a discerning Eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness

'Tis the Majority

In this, as all, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane - 

Demur - you're straightaway dangerous -

And handled with a chain

                                       "Never give up; never surrender." - Tim Allen, Galaxy Quest

Wednesday # 41 - A Fiddle of Gold? Really? No Deal

     Are you guys familiar with the song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"?  Well, if not, stop reading now and listen to it, so this makes sense. In fact, if you haven't heard it in a while, you probably should go listen to it again, because that will help with this post. Well, not really. But if you just listened to it, does it really matter at this point?
     Anyway, there's a line in the song that goes "Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the Devil his due. I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you." This is where my questioning begins.
      According to a couple quick Google searches and some rough (and I mean rough) calculations, I got a rough estimate on how much that fiddle would be worth, which turns out to be about $1100 dollars with modern gold values. That's really not that much. Which leads me to my point: The Devil is one tricky bastard. Sure, we all know that the Devil is a con artist, and conniving, and clever as all, well, Hell, but I don't know if we really realize how bad he is. He convinced a man to wager his soul, what many faiths propose to be either the core of human identity or the ticket into paradise in the afterlife, over about 7 20 hour work weeks on minimum wage. That's really not a hefty sum.
     And yet, I wonder if the trickery of the Devil travels farther then just fiddles and souls. Imagine this: a man walks up to you with an apparently golden fiddle, and claims that he just defeated the Destroyer of the World, the Prince of Evil, in a fiddling competition. How would you react? Most likely, you'd find it hard to believe him, and probably just shrug him off (probably because the implications from his truthful story are terrifying). Since $1100 really isn't that much anymore. it would seem that bragging rights are the real prize from the duel with the Devil, but if Johnny goes on to brag about all of this, he'll probably wind up in a looney bin, or a small confined room with steel bars on one side. And that's the Devil's ultimate plan there. He destroys a man who can beat him (or who apparently can beat him) by making him seem insane, and prevents him from spreading his amazing talent, and all because of Johnny's decisions and choices. Crafty. Very crafty.

I Do Not Fear The Night
I do not fear the night
When dark things come out
And shadows play on seeds of doubt

I do not fear the night
Where evil loves to lurk
Hidden as the sky is murk

I do not fear the night
With lonely path or trail
And a crying desp'rate wail

I do not fear the night
I heed no nightly sound
In dark, my heart's unbound

I do not fear the night
When fear's a shaded dream
Instead I fear the day
When everything is seen.
-JD Galuardi

"Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it." - Harry Dresden, White Night

Wednesday #40 - I'll Have Soda With My Sunrise

The other morning, I got chastised for drinking a soda, and it got me thinking: what's wrong with soda in the morning? Isn't it just like coffee or orange juice, only carbonated? With this thought in mind, I started doing some research (on Wikipedia), and after discussing it with some friends, I've got some arguments for soda.

Sugar

     Okay, why on earth is sugar a concern for early morning consumption? There's tons of sugar in juices, so how is starting off the day with apple juice any worse than starting off the day with a soda. In fact, according to Google, apple juice has 24 g of sugar in an 8 oz. serving, and 8 oz. of Coke has 25g of sugar (according to the site Sugar Stacks). This means that if you were to consume the same volume of either juice or soda, you'd be taking in roughly the same amount of sugar. How much is the gram going to matter if it gets burned up turning on your brain in the morning, just like it would were it a juice? 

Caffeine

     Alright, here's an important one: caffeine. It's a drug, a brain affecting substance (and an addictive one at that), it could really mess you up (not really, but some people think that, and it's kinda true). In order to acquire the same amount of caffeine from a single 8 oz. (273 mL) cup of coffee, you'd have to end up drinking an entire liter of Coke. That's around a quart of soda just to get as much of the drug from coffee. If you're a caffeine addict, then sure, that sounds awesome, but what about the fat?

Fat

     Coffee's got fat, if you put creamer in it, and it seems like most people put at least a little bit in theirs, while Coke (or any soda for that matter) has no fat in it whatsoever. How's that for an argument. If you don't want to believe me, then ask your expanding, hyper active waistline, which is just waiting for it's next fix.

Acidity

     Now, this one is the real kicker. Acidity could really bring down soda, because it could deteriorate your teeth (especially after you brushed them (hopefully)), so I couldn't leave this with any suspicion as to my data. So, I went to the lab, and tested out the acidity of Coke, Sprite, and Orange Juice, trying to see which had the lowest pH (and therefore which was the most acidic). I found this information by titrating the liquids with a soln of NaOH after putting several drops of the indicator phenolphthalein. By determining the amount of base needed to turn the soln basic, I could find out the pH of the liquid in question. After doing some calculations with the data I gathered, it turns out that Orange Juice actually had the higher concentration of H+ ions (which are responsible for acidic behavior), meaning that your teeth would be less damaged by Coke then it would Juice.

Conclusion

     After looking over the data points, it would seem that soda really isn't that bad of a thing to be drinking in the morning, and in some cases, it might be the smarter alternative as opposed to juices or coffee. But that still raises the question of why we think it bad to drink a soda early in the morning, and scold those who do. Could it be that there's some aspect of a soda ignore by this analysis that could be responsible for this phenomenon? Or is it simply a social stigma that we've accepted without giving much thought to.

Your Kisses only go lip-deep

and go no further more

They only brush then run away

like the wave upon the shore

Your embraces never seem to last

but instead are rushed with haste

their warm, soft feel

only a fleeting taste

You love seems to be mundane

and much like clockwork

a nice word here, a nudge there

but what other feelings lurk?

-JD Galuardi

"What's fair maybe fair, but it isn't always right." -Anonymous