Moral reasoning, ways we communicate, parents and learning, how the body affects the mind, holiday commercialism, does the world need saving?

Kohlberg and levels/stages of moral reasoning, the importance of literacy, different ways we communicate (imagery, writing, speaking), the role of parents in education and encouraging learning, Expressionism, literary vs. musical movements, how to fix problems with local crop yield, the standard radio's limited range of music and how it can symbolize other systemic restrictions, chemical poison in our food, pain avoidance and the inevitability of procrastination, how passion really does change the perception of work, psychosomatic illnesses and in general how the body affects the mind, the struggles of fasting and the empathy lessons it can teach you about world hunger (and Ramadan) and patience, the bullshit of statistics, how the structure of writing affects understanding, the commercialization of holidays and how retailers succeed because "it's EASIER to buy than make" (especially technology) and our consumer culture vs our previous manufacturing culture and how industry affects desires by influencing supply and demand, the question "what kind of contribution do you want to make to society/the world?", to care or not to care about what others are doing - and under what circumstances should you care?, how I have a few letters I need to write, how people get stuck on X and Y and never consider Z, how I still can't figure out why there are so many messages about how the world needs saving (unless there's...an actual need for it?) and in what way(s) do we need saved?, what are the consequences of making intelligent technology?, what are the consequences of making everything easy?, and something about force-fed dinosaur spit.

"The world is too much with us; late and soon"

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away..."

-- William Wordsworth


Fairly certain I repeat the first line of this poem about once per week in my head.

Peace is inside you

Do not let anything destroy your spirit. Not commercialism. Not poverty. Not unfulfilled desires. You are the master of how you feel at any given moment. Outside forces are always going to try to burden you with their temptations, and tell you that you don't have enough or that you aren't worth enough. 

Don't listen. If what you really want is peace, and dare I say happiness, find a home for it in your heart.

If you want to look at the world with disdain, go ahead. But always remember, it's your choice to look in the first place.

If you're focusing on the negative or what you don't have, you're going to feel negative. 

Hold on

By some miracle, or sheer luck, you've made it this far. 

And you owe it to yourself to live through another day. Even if it hurts. Even if quitting would be easy. Even if feeling nothing, doing nothing, being nothing sounds satisfying right now.

So hold on. Because you know it's not true, what your mind is saying right now. 

Hold on. Don't listen to the chaos inside you.

Instead, be steady. Grip something tight. And breathe.

Because this hurricane is imaginary - these gusts, they aren't real. 

Open your eyes, close your mind, and 

Let the storm dissipate into nothing.

Biology and meaning in life, long-term memory and senses, more chess, Common Core, The Giver, Intersellar, ancient stone tablets

Truth vs. Useful Illusion, Naturalistic Pantheism, Is biological life necessary in order to have meaning in life? (and how that question seems important and at the same time doesn't seem to make any sense), the social rule of reciprocity, Availability Heuristic, examples of when motion/movement slows down decay - or when it doesn't, how stimulating multiple senses at once affects long-term memory development! (this is my favorite thought this week), how what people like to focus on determines (to an extent) the role they want to play in the world, the importance of theoretical work (the "what could be"), wishing I could read minds, how strange it seems to be hyperaware of my influences, video games as visual and interactive storytelling, how tomorrow is Game 9 of the World Chess Championship and I'm reading The Tao of Chess (because I need to learn basic strategy principles before I watch Grand Masters duke it out - and I like connecting my interests), how a lot of people only look at the surface of things or take everything at face-value without doing research and WHY? (probably because it takes effort), Nietzsche and his both admiration of and battle against Nihilism (I respect his perspective), Common Core Standards and whether or not they adhere to child development studies, the adoption of Singapore Math in US schools, the rare moments in life when you take the time to acknowledge an opportunity that will improve your well-being and actually take it, the limitations of metaphors in their ability to create exact comparisons but still loving how they help you look at the world in a different way, the metallic taste of blood and how I wish there were more soap products available that wouldn't make my hands bleed, how humanizing machines goes a little too far sometimes but knowing there's a philosophy out there that says machines are a part of us and that we're all a part of everything, how speeding up a process increases room for error, how editing other people's writing is sometimes a masochistic activity (and other times just painful), how I need to practice more Danish, Do people prefer listening mostly to music with vocals that are similar to their own tone of voice? (or the tone of voice of someone they are close to?), how frustrating it is for people to care more about appearances than everything else going on inside you (but knowing that the people who really matter are the ones that care about all of you), how there's no mercy in upper leg massages - but they're still necessary, how The Giver series has an on-going theme of "physical boundaries or borders" in each of the books so far and I'm still wondering what that's all about, Interstellar's dualism in presenting opposing ideas between taking care of Earth and space exploration (the situation "Earth is dying" required that the latter was emphasized), how as I write these kinds of statuses I can actually determine if I'm being more pessimistic or optimistic today - and shift my thinking accordingly (it's a neat exercise, you should try it), yes - there's a reason I write in this way on a social site that's better for smaller snippets of thought/experience or images, how organizing information plays a role in learning and how this format probably isn't the best way to lay out my thoughts to others, but it works - for me (and all those ancient peoples who used to write on stone tablets).

Problem solving question formula

What's the problem?

How to identify the problem.

What negative effects does it have if I continue doing what I'm doing?

How did the problem originate?

What should I do about it?

Why should I fix it that way?

How can I do it?

An important difference

There is a very subtle difference between the two following statements:

I am allowing this to happen. (You have control and you acknowledge it, while also knowing something is happening and accepting it).

vs.

This is happening. (You do not acknowledge control, but simply assert that a situation is taking place. It has no bearing on you). 

I think it's important to understand that difference. 

The alphabet, significance of self-sacrifice, nuclear, meaningful work, politics, computer culture, passion vs needs, do we disturb the universe?

Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (and how this is used to communicate - alphabetic languages), congruent triangles and disproving a proof, self-sacrifice and love - going against your own survival instincts for the benefit of another (and what that means), Why is privacy important?, how to survive a nuclear attack, nuclear fission vs. nuclear fusion, reasons for living, the importance of meaningful work vs. creating more jobs that people hate (and how we use X in place of Y to equal Z, example = GDP in place of satisfied needs to equal happiness/success of a nation), What makes someone want change?, Why do people still think we have a democracy?, politics and big business should be separate - but how can they be if big business is the one that mainly controls the media?, or - what are the benefits and costs to the majority of the population when big business mixes with politics?, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, I think we seriously misunderstand freedom of speech and I need to write a letter, Super PACs, Judith Lichtenberg, John Stuart Mill, returning to my thoughts/writings on masks, Bohemianism, the effects of Computer Culture and wondering if it is linked to why our society has stopped clarifying their sentences (or so it seems, anyway), attention crimes, how finding a new perspective is like the overwhelmingly good feeling of being able to breathe again after holding your breath for too long, how different people experience existence (and how it's really difficult to describe), a quote from a friend "We think, therefore we are, but we don't have a damn clue as to why we're thinking about it.", levels of consciousness, the benefits of destruction, how we have solutions but not necessarily the right implementation and organization, P/NP problem, the path of passion vs the path of needs, food allergies - why can we get them later in life?, parenting vs. governing, distinct generational differences, the importance of respect in human relationships, global culture?, taboo subjects, how I need to create a recycling program at my apartment, looking up cabins to stay in at the end of this month, writing writing writing.....and *strokes invisible Movember beard*.....wondering if we disturb the universe or if the universe disturbs itself through us, and what the bloody devil is a universe anyway?

Cognitive development, Les Mis, the trouble with proper nounds, music vs learning a foreign lang, massages...mmmm

Piaget's cognitive development stages, fantasy vs. reality, why someone would destroy their home and negative sublimation, compartmentalizing memory/thoughts, how my hands look and feel like I punched some glass (thank you, antibacterial handsoap) and how convenience will be the death of the modern world, the two justice systems in Les Mis, evolution and progression of thinking vs the material realm, poets and their ability to make complex connections in a simple way, the Liar's Paradox, NDE's, signs of intellectual advancement, the Stockholm Syndrome, Tagore poems, how our language development (and the process of creating written language) affected our cognitive development and vice versa (specifically in abstract thinking), how to prevent vengeance for perceived slights, whether or not to accept an offer to be a writer for a philosophy magazine, social systems, how everyone sees problems but not necessarily solutions, human "flaws", how and why people develop cognitively at different levels, the impact of a proper noun and the extra knowledge it requires to understand it, how learning to speak Danish reminds me of the time I tried to learn how to play saxophone (the embouchure is more relaxed than clarinet in the same way that the pronunciation of words seems more relaxed than English), the effects of technology on relationships, the strategic mind vs the creative mind, dynamic vs static characters, writing words vs. writing words and knowing what they do (in terms of storytelling), how I've started to enjoy evening jogs (thanks to Florida's Infinite Summer being on its way out), how caring about something or someone affects your focus, how there's something more connective and powerful about a massage that relies solely upon the use of someone's hands - not their elbows or their arms - but only their hands...and how it'd be nice to have 3 more brains to process all of this.

How to know what a society views regarding human behavior

Want to know how a society perceives permanence vs. mutability of behavior? Watch how they treat a man who has done wrong.

Multiplication variations, dreams, western culture, language, Swedish word for turtle, etc

Chinese Stick Multiplication vs. Long Multiplication, shared dreaming and if it can really occur, the Mutual Dream Theory, why do some people communicate better through written vs. verbal language?, the differences between a language and other types of communication, "Little by little, a little becomes a lot" (Tanzanian proverb), how squished does a grape have to be in order to justify throwing it away?, Kidults and our culture of "avoiding responsibility", the effects of names, the benefits and downfalls to having expectations, the evolution of metaphors and their power to change perspectives, playful language vs. functional language, the most common answers to the meaning of life (making a list), thankful to finally have a place to live in October, the delight in creative processes, the Epic Everyday Battle between emotions and logic, how some cultures preserve other cultures out of respect, the differences between Eastern and Western moral philosophy, how communication issues are the bane of my existence, why is a raven like a writing desk?, skildpadde = turtle, "you do not bear the blame for what was done, so do not bear the guilt", how successful strategy is probably linked to better memory (for everything), how humming Pachelbel's Canon in D is personally soothing, and how it's almost fuzzy sock season!

Chess strategy, human behavior, brains, Socrates, nature's changes cause mistrust, some foreign lang sentences

The advantages of proximity, the Queen's Gambit, how the absence of a person in your life can make your soul feel homeless, the power of the people in your environment over your behavior, how there are people in the world who still don't have all of their basic needs met, the emotional upheaval that comes with listening to someone who has great passion for a good cause, isolation vs. integration (and a keen desire to write a book about this subject), how you can communicate anything to anyone if you provide the right context, the insight gained through a wide spectrum of disciplines, how to strengthen synapses through repetition and reflection, the effect of the written word on the brain and memory vs. the oral tradition, the weird way your memories are reconstructed in dreams, the impact of recording life on a digital surface, how Socrates didn't approve of the written word, whether or not our law system is adequate, the nature of the world to change and how that creates mistrust in any truth - which could be why people seek that truth (and stability) in their thoughts about the afterlife, how the rest of this post should be written in foreign languages, porque la vida debe ser divertido y interesante, parce que les mots d'améliorer le cerveau, hvordan taler med forskellige mennesker kan åbne dørene til nye perspektiver og læring, формирование языка и алфавиты, シンボル (and how that first one looks like a smiley face), and because life should be fun and interesting, because words improve the brain, how talking to different people can open doors to new perspectives and learning.

Intro

This blog is exactly what it sounds like. Behold, my brain!