The Stigma of the College Drop Out: A Serious Life Crisis?

Oh Hello blogosphere I didn’t see you there.
I am just sitting here contemplating my future. Allow me to begin. Firstly I was to get this off my chest. I HATE SCHOOL! I have been in university for 4 years and I am currently working on my 3rd degree switch. I am currently a psychology student. I love psychology it is truly one of my passions. Unfortunately not the type of psychology that I tend to learn about a school… research psychology and all the wonders of being an academic psychologist.
So here it is. There is stigma against being a college drop out (unless of course you become immensely successful which in that case it for some reason just makes you look smarter). I do not want to be a college drop out. Here where the dilemma is; I want to drop out of college. Why you ask? Not because I don’t want to do work anymore. Quite to contrary actually I want to work a lot but not on college… and not at some random job either. I want to work on me. I feel extremely stifled in the school environment right now. I have been exploring many different subjects and I feel my mind is at sort of a pinnacle point for me to start making some important connections. The only problem is I am trapped. I feel like there is a cornucopia of untapped potential, inspiration, and overall great ideas trapped inside my head because I don’t have the time, or energy left to really truly do what I want.
What is it that I want? I want to write (and not fiction… I want to write my ideas) think of it as what my blog would be for if I did this more often but in a formal, edited, and well planned book kind of way. I want to explore my creativity in the arts. It is a well established fact that I cannot draw or paint in anyway. As for other art forms though there is some hope. I want to sing, dance, sculpt, and play instruments. I want to read… read everything. I am sick of just reading psychology text books that only talk about psychology. I want to read a psychology then maybe something else and see the connections. I don’t want to download research articles and write reviews about why or why not it’s good research. I feel like that’s a waste of my brain. I feel like the books are to easy, the theories to obvious, the papers to pointless, and the classes to long for me to want to spend another second of my brain on college.
I want to do what I really can do! I want to take my brain out for a spin. Now I am not saying I am some sort of super genius or anything but I can’t deny the fact that I can do things that some people just can’t do. I am gifted in certain areas and a very specific type if intelligence that I have a lot of is that gift. Can I describe that intelligence to you? No. I have put my finger on it yet but I know I have it. I need to just get out of this tiny area of thinking. It’s like driving a race car in the city sure your driving it but what you really need is the autobahn (the german road where you drive really fast) I need the autobahn (p.s that’s what my ipad corrected to for spelling so that’s what I am going with) anyway… I need the autobahn for brains! I need to run free and think!!!!!! I NEED FREEDOM.
So what I am asking is what are your opinions? I am would not drop out forever there will be a time in my life I am sure where I will want or need more education. Right now though I have enough and I need to work with it. So college drop out. Horrible mistake for the rest of my life? Or a door waiting to be opened? Or I suck it up and finish. In theory that should only take me one more year but it could be longer. As someone who does not really care much for a specific career choice, and does not care about the clock ticking down on my reproductive abilities. I have the time. Why constrict myself the this format. School. job, family, retire. Why not do whatever makes me happy? Why is that not the format for life?
So I called this blog post the stigma of the college drop out. So I guess the question is the stigma to great? I am being foolish? Your input please?

Steve Jobs said (and I am paraphrasing and he was a college drop out) that each day you should be doing what it is you really want to be doing
When he said those words they meant a lot to me. His life is testament to that mentality for sure.

This is as per standard an unedited rough copy… no I have intentions of editing it just deal with it.

Yours truly
Stacey the ever so incapable of accepting the world for what it is.

Re-entering the blogosphere

Hello Internet! It’s been a while!
This is me re-entering the blogosphere. It’s been a while and I am sorry that we have been apart. I didn’t mean to leave you like that. Just so everyone knows I am writing this on my iPhone so excuse the typos, weird autocorrects, and potential grammatical/punctual errors. This will be short and sweet.
I am currently reading a book called Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It is a look at advertisement and the way we are fooled into things (and I know that doesn’t happen to you, but it does) but more he looks at the sort of well bad science going on behind (mostly medical related) claims but just misquoted, poorly analyzed, and completely falsified research. I have found it completely enlightening. I have taken classes at the U of S where I have learnt about this before but much more specific then this book. I am learning so much and I don’t just have to take his word for it he shows the proofs. It is written in a way that doesn’t require scientific knowledge, and statistical knowledge (though I find it helps a little. Who knew that stats class I took would be useful!). Anyway, it’s a great book and I firmly believe that anyone who doesn’t want to be a blind consumer to read it. I suppose what it comes down to is that knowledge is power. Not authority power (though it can be) but the power to make an informed decision. Not even just as a consumer (though that is very important) but in everything. There is nothing wrong with hearing something and forming an opinion of it (that is natural) but there is something wrong with forming a conviction. Sometimes we need to take our best guess, go with a gut feeling, or make an uninformed decision. Never make an uninformed conviction and always be prepared to change your opinion. This is a lesson I learnt over time; but a good lesson none the less. So what I am saying is you may not always know what you need to know when you need to know it and you may have to wing it but take the time to find out what you need to know. Knowledge is power. The power to decide what product, contract, food, school, or anything is best for you. Know what you’re doing and what you are getting into. This book will teach you about a few areas specifically but the skepticism he applies are skills that are useful everywhere. Don’t be untrusting to a point that it’s ridiculous, there is not a conspiracy to kill everyone or anything like that but there is a very obvious ploy to obtain lots of money. This book can help you get the skills to be better informed as to who to give that money to and why.

I know this isn’t all that deep and kind of a plug. I believe this book to be beneficial and just wanted to let anyone who wanders across this to know that that’s what I think. I hope to be posting again soon but much more opinionated subjects. Thank you for your reading (whoever you are) hope to amuse you again soon.

Globalization, Star Trek, and Aristotle’s Theory of Ethics all walk into a bar.

Good evening blogolopolis.

Sorry for the extended departure. I ran out of time and ideas. But! By popular demand (one person) I am back! And bigger than ever! Ok that’s not true. Maybe snazzier than ever… yeah snazzier. Ok so lets just jump right into this one and skip the small talk.

Now to avoid any issues with the things I am about to write I want to go over somethings. Now read this very very carefully and be warned that if I review ANY comments that criticize any of the following things (note that criticize means pointing out flaws in my concepts, holes, rocks left unturned, politically incorrect things, utilitarianism, or generally being idealistic)  I will do one of the two following things. If I cannot find sufficient way to make you feel bad or look stupid I will delete your comment. If I can find someway to make you feel bad or look stupid I will post your comment then burn you. This is why:

I do not know a lot about globalization as a political concept, or as an idea for government. I know what I figured globalization was before I took poli-sci. (I know what you’re thinking why don’t I just look it up?) Well because I don’t care to. I am using globalization as the idea of the whole world being united with communications, economy, and a world government. That is it. Don’t go there. That is what I am saying it is. I know it’s missing stuff. Just don’t. You’re not smart if you critique what I openly admit to not giving a crap about. Previously I have said that I was intentionally skipping stuff… people still went there. I cannot make this more explicit that I am leaving stuff out.

Ok so warnings given, definitions given. Lets hop to it.

What I think the World Would Look Like with Globalization: My Summer at the UN by Stacey (j/k)

I think that if it functioned properly and the world globalized we would see the following things: a world economy which consisted of fair trade and general non-coporate evilness. A government run similar to the UN now except there would be no countries. The UN would be the government and there would be a representative from each country discussing things together. No leader either, maybe just more of a representative who does all the talking on behalf of the UN as a whole… kind of like a spokesperson. Everyone would own everything together so basically war would be over (except for religion) because we wouldn’t fight over land or resources. And killing your fellow man would be terrible. Starvation and things like that wouldn’t really exists because all of the wealth and resources would be shared equally. Now I know this is really ideal but not that ridiculous. With the internet and the rising ideals about humanity and a whole instead of patriotism for our country we are seeing a move towards this idea. Can we make it this perfect… never. No one will cooperate this well. This is where Star Trek comes in.

Most people know the idea of Star Trek. Humans find a better way of being together as they find out there is new life out in the universe. We find the ability to stop petty arguments and just recognize each other as equal human beings and not any specific race. Part of the reason this works so well in the Star Trek world is because when humans discover there are other species all of a sudden people aren’t so different from each other anymore. We aren’t classifying each other to be different, because the Vulcans are definitely more different. If we could achieve this sort of Star Trek like ideals without the aliens we can achieve this sort of globalization.

Aristotle thought (and is most likely right) that every person is good when you really get down to it. He thought that we all had good characteristics within us. But sometimes our desires or other circumstances habituate us into bad people, and all we need to do is habituate ourselves out of it to be good again. Maybe we can habituate the human race out of greed, violence, and racism. Maybe we can get into the habit of just being accepting and kind. We got ourselves into the habit of being this way. We weren’t born in countries and societies (well my generation was but you know what I mean). Yes, human nature has always gravitated us towards the idea of community and being in groups of like beings with similar ideals. I am not proposing we abolish that at all. Just make it bigger. Embrace the entire human race as our community, and the human race of your similar groups (if you want a smaller group then that I am sure there will still be Oprah book clubs and other activities). We can use our drive to bond with other humans and our needs to be in community to help create this global way of living.

The first step towards this of course would bring us back to one of the main ideas of Star Trek which is a form of emotional intelligence that they imply humans have developed. Mainly the idea that we can get past of the anger and greed and work together. We have learned to control ourselves a bit better than that. Or to look at it from Aristotle’s perspective we can habituate a better mentality. Those are characteristics that just need to be broken. And I say yeah why not? Why not just start to work towards being more excellent to each other (I hope most of you caught that). Why not get a higher emotional intelligence (as in control yourself better) and become more accepting. Then maybe we can work it out. And who knows maybe we can share technology to so we go into “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” (interesting note… recently in some things man has been change to person) If there is one thing we will never deal with it’s gender… but I so will not go there today.

Over and Out.

P.S. One edit done on this so don’t be all up in my kool-aid about the mistakes.

People are silly.

Hello Blog-o-land! Long time no blog to… I hope you missed me (I am talking about you Grimey… kidding!)

Todays blog is going to be about all the observations about people and human nature that I have managed to notice over the years. Some are beyond my understanding, some hilarious, some make me like people, and some are things that people are all aware of but do. This blog will take a different format then in the past. This will not be essay style, more of an excerpt style. Anyone ever read Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzche? Well he does that… so if you have you will know what I am talking about. Ok so here goes.

Everyone thinks they are a better driver than everyone else.

People spend so much time worrying about what other people think of them. They don’t have time to actually care about the person beside them. So none of us are actually judging each other because we are to busy worrying about being judged.

There is a huge difference between being smart and convincing people you’re smart. You don’t have to be the first to succeed at the second.

Everyone classifies stereo-types differently. So if different types of people all fit into our own stereo-type is there even such thing as a stereo-type?

We built ourselves a lovely society over time with rules and etiquette so we can be happy and not live like animals. This same standard that we built for acceptable behaviour has been developed into an idea of an acceptable person. Except that none of us want to be acceptable we want to exceptional and different. The only problem with that if we do manage to do these things we are viewed as unacceptable and a bit of a disturbance to our perfect society. I think everyone is secretly jealous of that person who was successful. It’s the idea of being your own person within a certain set of standards. But to be honest I don’t think it’s all just being restricted by society that makes us similar. I think some people are just that boring and they are being themselves.

Trying really hard not be racist makes it harder to get rid of racism. The excessive attempt to ignore each others differences just make us notice them more so we can be sure not to notice them. Notice them, and embrace them. Then we will all get along.

People are disgusted with the things they let happen. Some people turn on the TV and say ‘all that sex and violence is disgusting… it never used to be like that’ except that we all allowed sex and violence to become what they are by slowly letting more get through. These things are not forced on us in the media, we have slowly been accepting it.

Atheism is a religion.

Religion is a necessity of human nature. We all have hopes and dreams. We all want answers.

People are very bad at reading people, and very bad at knowing themselves.

Hard-core feminism is the same thing as what men did to women before women could vote. Except worse because women want revenge. Some feminism is ok, but I think we should just share.

You learn some very valid things in kinder-garten.

High school is daycare for teenagers.

Very few people will give up the luxury they live in for what they say they believe in.

People rarely notice when you watch them in public places.

Everyone is so obsessed with privacy but everyone just wants someone to know them.

Divorce rates might be lower if people were a little more selfless. Instead of thinking ‘what do I need and does this person fit into my plans’ try ‘how can they fit into what I would like to do’ A lot of people probably give up true-love because they want to see the world. Imagine how great that world would be if you took the person you loved; instead of breaking there heart.

People should put more value on important relationships and worry less about being in the cool kid group.

Our society will not fix all of our health problems by eating proper portions and spreading out the food groups properly and exercising. Instead we would rather take more pills and buy lulu lemon. It’s easier to make health a fad then to break an addiction.

People are silly, they do silly things. They buy into silly ideas made by silly people. While the not-silly people know better and everyone thinks they are just being an ass.

Everyone wishes they were super smart but are just jealous so being smart is un-cool because it is unachievable in most cases. Not necessarily unachievable because someone is not smart but because that takes work and dedication and people like quick results.  This applies for more then being smart.

No one wants to wait for anything. Trying to rush makes us slower.

Very few people can truly multi-task. Everyone thinks they can. Want to test if you can? Try singing along to a song and reading, or singing along and counting something.

People love to focus more on other people’s lives then theres. I don’t blame them… they are probably boring people.

The nicer the lawn the more boring the person. If you have to time to maintain your lawn that much you have a lot of time to kill which most likely means you do very little that is interesting.

People who choose the colour brown are brown people, they have brown personalities. They need something more interesting in there lives. Colours are a window into a world of emotions and memories and brown represents a lack of those things. They need to make some memories and have some stories to tell.

Set standards for yourself, you are more likely to succeed. I get the impression that people don’t do that anymore; that’s why we have so many under-achievers.

Goals are good, they give you a sense of achievement when you reach them.

In most cases sadness is a choice. Maybe if people spent more time with there friends (or getting some friends) and did interesting things with there lives they wouldn’t be sad. Boredom can make you sad too. I know when I get bored I start to feel sad then I call my friends. I am a happy person.

Your kid probably isn’t ADD he/she is probably just 6.

Canadians are very nice.

Creativity isn’t what it used to be.  People were a lot more impressive 100 years ago.

A good charity to give to would be just to help someone around you and help them have a better day.

More often then not women will go to the middle stall, then the edges, then fill in the rest in a public washroom. And why won’t girls use a toilet if someone peed in it and didn’t flush? Why not just flush it then go? That one I do not understand. Do guys do that too?

My most favourite thing about people. Is when someone points out something obvious about people and then everyone goes ‘oh yeah I know’ or ‘I notice that too.’  or ‘yeah everyone is dumb.’ But we are all still the same.

I am a bit more observant then most people when it comes to people. I am not so great with the interaction but I read them really well. I am some-what guilty of the last one but I think it happens to me a lot more often then I do it. I have the misfortune of understanding people to the point that I suck at hanging out with them. But I hope some of these made you laugh. Or there was something that you never noticed before. Sorry about the delay. I have been pretty busy. I hope to post on a pretty regular basis once I get into it.

To the Asshole in the 4th Row

So as some of you know I live in Saskatoon, and as some of you may know Saskatoon hosts an event called the fringe festival. The fringe is a display of various arts, performances, and plays. It is a great event full of free and pay shows that exhibit the creativity and talent of our towns-people (a good chunk of them university students). So I will post the article and then in bold I will write in my commentary, and my bestie Valyssaraptor’s commentary (trust me, she’s blog material, also a theatre major) and a couple comments from Adamus Rex so I hope you enjoy. And performers of Saskatoon take offence.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/Best+attend+this+Fringe+Festival/3346441/story.html

Dear Letters to the Editor:

It has come to my attention that there will be, yet again, another Fringe Theatre Festival in your city this summer. How anyone can stand this thing is a question that comes rhetorically to mind.

“rhetorical: of a question asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information. ” – Apple Dictionary

Why would anyone ask themselves a rhetorical question? Do you just sit around and do that? Like you’re actually not trying to come up with any reason or information?

All the Fringe is is just an orgy of smut, violence, questionable morals and vulgarity up the ying yang. To prove this to you, I managed to obtain for myself an Official Fringe Program, and upon leafing through it was shocked but not surprised by the content of this event.

What’s a YING yang? Is that a thing? Also, to prove something you get a program and read the titles… that seems like a substantial amount of research? To prove cancer I will read this article about breasts… Another thing. Are shocked and surprised not synonymous?

The first thing you notice is a man wearing lipstick. Nice. (I am sure his lipstick was in fact lovely) Also, loving the gender hate. It’s Otto Rot in the play “Kunst Rock.” I know, I almost read that wrong, too. Something wrong with cunts? Fantastic word! This is by a group calling itself Die Roten Punkte from Berlin. All Otto and his sister Astrid Rot do is play punk rock “music” and flirt with one another even though they are siblings (gag!) So did the Brady Bunch, that was wholesome TV. Moral Rot is more like it. Apparently, the StarPhoenix once gave one of their plays five stars and called it “Bleeping incredible.” Swearing yourself in your own newspaper – It’s perfect. I can’t even touch it. But I can touch it… I swear you’re a cunt. If you’re so offended by the StarPhoenix swearing themselves (what?) and liking foreign bands, why are you writing a letter to them like they are important? – why should I be surprised?

If you flip through the program, you will also find Rum and Vodka I wish., a play about a fellow that goes out on “the ultimate bender.” I wonder if the organizers of the Fringe realize how much they are promoting excessive alcohol consumption? I haven’t seen the show, I can’t comment on the message. That leads me to wonder how this person can… This makes up for all the goodwill they built up by finally eliminating that horrid beer tent. Talk about mixed messages! Why don’t they just give everyone a drink and we can all go out of our minds staggering down Broadway Avenue ONE SINGLE DRINK?! God damn, who do you drink with sir?! If that’s all it took, they would be anyway, whether the Fringe gave it to them or not! And if they didn’t drink, they’d become contact-drunk from the booze spilling out of everyone’s sweaty pores! – the heart of what used to be a Temperance Colony, no irony intended!

So it doesn’t even end there But this letter should. Alphabetically the last but no doubt first in the realm of unsavory titles is Whores and Old Maids Like Me. There’s no need to use language like that in a title. Maybe Bores and Old Maids was taken already. Resourceful. Sarrah Adams of Canada “careens through a midlife crisis offering a glimpse through a crack in consensual reality.” Even if I could understand mentally what that meant, it would bother me. Understand mentally? As opposed to physically, or metaphysically (let’s get Plato up in the hizzouse). I am pretty sure you have no choice but to understand with your mind.

But that’s nothing compared to the play “Unadulterated Me.” At first, I thought this was a good play without watching it or reading the rest of the description because if you’re unadulterated, you must be saying no to adultery. I couldn’t have been more wronger !!!!!!!!! Perfection in terminology., because this is the writeup: “A solo clown striptease with a twist of song exposing fantasies, desires, ‘em(bareASS)ments’ and more.” Clowns stripping? Is this what we have to resort to in order to entertain ourselves? An odd mix perhaps — like nudity and power tools — but I think anyone with half a brain can see the entertainment value right there. Depravity? More like killer marketing. One more thing, ourselves includes yourself… you know that right? (Need I remind you that the Fringe once hosted a play called Live Sex Llamas? I mean, how much more evidence is needed, much less required?). A pure and simple ‘what?’ can suffice here. Methinks the idiot doth use too many mother-effing words.

And they’re actually charging you for the privilege you admit that it is a privilege of seeing these plays. I have to say I get a kick in the ass out of the pricing. Most of the plays are a whopping $12. But some groups vary the prices, making them $10 if you’re unemployed Did someone specifically state unemployed? Or do you mean student?. This is amusing. First of all, a $2 discount I can buy my one beer for my drunken debauchery at the campus bar on Tuesday with that discount! Twice! is hardly much of one when you have no job. And plus too equals four! No? , if you’re unemployed, maybe you should be out looking for a job and not going to plays, I do a lot of job hunting at 9 at night when some of these plays run… maybe at the strip club. duh!

The jobless (student) also get a discount for the play Molly, a spinoff of the book Ulysses by James Joyce, which used to be considered pornographic once upon a time, a sure sign that morals have eroded since U.S. Customs burned the book upon its arrival. I’d like to point out that the Ulysses ban was overturned in 1933, before the sexual revolution! I suppose our morals may have ‘eroded’ since BEFORE 1933.

And on and on. “Wanderlust?” Don’t like the sound of that. Lust is typically a sexual thing, but also just a strong desire for something. Is it really reasonable to assume this/these character(s) want to have sexual contact with wandering? “The Unhappy Barista?” I don’t know what a barista is, but it makes me think of ‘brassiere’ so that’s not good. Clearly didn’t even read the description! A barista is someone who makes specialty coffees… I used to be one, I did wear a bra but it wasn’t like that. There’s even a show called “One Man Show” — talk about sexism, you’d think these left-wing artists would be in favour of gender equity. If it was about women, it likely would have been called One Woman Show! Is no one allowed to specify what kind of junk they possess? If it were my work, I’d call it One Cunt Show. “Robots Eating Humans” — isn’t there enough violence in society today as it is? The Terminator did in fact cause serious societal issues. I can see and respect your sensitivity on the subject. Other sources of robotic gore… Short Circuit, Wall-E, Iron Man, The Iron Giant, The Transformers, Bicentennial Man and many others! The world is going to robotic debauchery!

In all there are like 36 plays being put on for the next week and a half right here in our community under our noses Right under them? Apparently we live in Who-ville. The young people who put them Is Sarrah Adams (that old whore -much love Sarrah) so young? on just travel from town to town doing this, like itinerant homeless people of no fixed address No address is usually a defining factor of homelessness. All single every one of them? and young every one of them? and sweaty EVERY ONE OF THEM? and away from home what about the locals?, you don’t have to imagine what they’re actually doing in their free time, if you know what I’m trying to mean probably using their ‘KUNST’ for debaucherous purposes!. One wonders if this is the type of person we really need visiting Saskatoon! Some of these people live in Saskatoon actually… now you’re screwed. I even have befriended some of them… they are not that sweaty. One more thing broski! (Broski: a mash up of brother and ski) Cirque Du Soleil has travelling performers. Are they homeless? Should they not visit Saskatoon? If they didn’t, we’d have to entertain ourselves by using our own ‘KUNSTS’ for debaucherous purposes!!

This event also attracts “buskers.” That sounds like buttcrack. I don’t approve. Personally, I would lock my bike up but not your car, or other belongings… just your bike. if I were you. They play their instruments and you’re expected you sure? to give them money — looks to me like begging set to music. They actually pay and obtain permits for their acts and booths. Those filthy lowdown bitches! And then street performers gather a big crowd to watch them juggle bowling pins and wriggle out of a straitjacket and when they’re done that they pass a hat and tell you that $5 is a reasonable amount to pay. To pay for looking? Yeah, I’m with you on that one. You don’t do it at movies, museums, concerts or anything. And what’s your overhead? I don’t know… what is an overhead? You wonder who the crazy one is. No I don’t.

It’s just a shame that so many gullible you sure? people will be lured down the rabbit hole to the site when all this Fringe Festival does is turn the whole city into some kind of free-for-all what was that about costs? of entertainment where everything goes. My advice to everyone alike is to stay away in droves ONLY IN DROVES! . Naturally, you won’t print this They got you there. because you love to sell papers, but this is at least the truth. For my part, I’ll be at home saving my money and my soul, thank you very much. No no no, thank YOU.

– A. Prudesicle AKA A. Perfection

Prud’homme

Music is the Language of our Soul

Hello Blogosphere!

Today is a very hot, very icky, and very boring day in Saskatoon. As usual everyone I know is busy. I am bored, tired, and don’t work until 5. So today blog world you are my friend. Allow to puke my brain boredom onto your computer screen. As all of, or most of you know my last couple blogs were dealing with some social factors that can provoke opinions in people. I don’t want you to get the idea that I am just one of those people with to many opinions and not enough solutions. I do have a lot of opinions, and I do have solutions to most of the things I have opinions on (whether or not they are effective is different). So today I would like to blog to you about something a little more on the light side… the happy side. I would like to blog to you about music.

I have always been very passionate about music and what it means to a person. I think that music has a lot of properties beyond a good tune. It can relax, excite, make you contemplative, bring you to tears, and make you grin like an idiot. It has done all of these things to me. Music effects me very strongly. Piano music does that to me a lot but all kinds of music works. I can read people really well and I can read the music that people make just as well. Every emotion that gets put into a note, the excitement they felt, that tingle when you hit that perfect note… I can imagine all of those feelings. I am not a nervous person at all, I can perform that is no issue for me. For the first time I felt real strong nervousness when I was 18. I was performing a piano piece (I started playing at the age of 18) and I was so nervous. Partly because I knew I could use some more work, but because music is important and I didn’t want to seem like I didn’t understand the importance of what I was going to do. I was going to perform a piece of music for a group of people. I was going to convey an emotion for them, move them inside; or so I hoped. I think my performance was complete crap but everyone to this day begs to differ, but that is aside from the point.

Music is a driving force of our world, and not just radio or the number one hit. Music as concept. Rhythm, tempo, pace, pitch, and tone; all of these things create what we hear and how we experience it. When you’re sad the tone in your voice changes from when you’re happy. The things that make music have a very strong effect on our daily lives but so does music as an art. How many places can you go that don’t have some music playing, or have music involved it in some how. How many people drive in silence? We all need it, music drives the tempo for our day. A lot of the stuff that is being called music today I don’t know if I would call it that. A piece of music should have a bit of yourself in it, and I don’t hear that in a lot of the modern music. They are not sincere about the music they are making. Artists on the radio that pump out a beat and talk about going to the clubs, that’s not what music is for. It is not a cash machine, it is a driving force of the human soul. I try to find music where I can tell that the person making it truly cares about the music they are making. They want to make a point, or make us feel happy, or give you something to laugh at. I recently went to the Cat Empire concert which was amazing! That is a band with true talent. They obviously have skill the way they improv with each other on stage, but they have so much passion. Every note they play, every line they sing means something to them. Their songs are about things that really matter them. Expressing their lives and feelings. I can respect that. If you want to check out this amazing band btw http://www.myspace.com/thecatempire http://www.myspace.com/thecatempire or http://www.thecatempire.com. This isn’t the only band that has these attributes but I think they are a great example of what I am talking about. Artist with true passion and music need to hit the scene again. I am tired of auto-tune and generic beats. I want the real thing! Music that gives me shivers and forces me to dance.

Music will never go away, it will never stop, and cannot be stopped. It drives people and it unites us. Music is a universal language, it says the things we cannot say with words. It calms flustered souls and excites and cheers sad ones. It brings tears of sadness and joy. Brings back memories of great times or loved ones. Allows you to dance and put a jump in your step. Brightens clouds and clouds over. I dare you to imagine a world without music. How would people ever communicate? We need to bring music back to what it really is, a language. So lets starts speaking it properly again and using it for what it is for. To convey your soul. As The Cat Empire says “music is the language of our soul” (from there song How to Explain from the album So Many Nights)

I would be interested in hearing that band that just does it for you. What artist do you respect for there guts, passion, or skill? What music really moves you? What is your musical passion? Or even just your favourite band?

Twilight: Just a Film? Part 2

So this is part two of my two part blog post about Twilight. The purpose of my first post was so mostly make you laugh. In this post I will be talking about what Twilight is doing to society. I know this is an odd topic but since you have read this far just hear me out. I am not just talking about Twilight as a book but what it represents. Other books that follow a similar trend… and what that trend is. Think of Twilight in this post not so much a specific book but a poster-girl for a whole crap load of stuff that goes with it.

Ok so here goes:

Recently (as in over the last few years) pop-culture has managed to talk tweens and teens (and even some adults of the world) into actually reading a book. Which sounds like a good thing but it isn’t. This is why: Because the books that these people are picking up are very very dumbed down compared to what books used to be. They are written in very simple sentences that blankly describe things and characters. In fact, in Twilight Stephanie Meyer actually just introduces characters by writing a name. There is no other description, mention of how Bella met them, or relevance to the story. She plunks in the a name and all of a sudden you have a person. Since when did this fly for a character? I really want to know. Is no one bothered by the lack of descriptive writing in that book. It’s so hard to read! This has been a trend of a lot of media, and I find very terrible to see. The reading levels of kids is getting so bad too. I remember when I was in grade 12 I had to ask myself how half of the people in my class even made it that far. Hearing them read and their level of comprehension was painful. They hardly could read, and these were not hard books. This is an ongoing trend to just let kids pass even though they have very basic skills. I know we are afraid of making them feel bad; but maybe they should! Honestly if you can’t even read a paragraph out loud you should feel bad about yourself… it is completely pathetic. I don’t mean to sound cocky here but I know I am above average so expecting equal performance would not be fair. I don’t think I should feel like I am in a class with grade 6 kids either. Now I was kind of pissy in high school. I was bored out of my mind, under challenged, and usually quite annoyed so maybe I thought it was worse then it really was, but even so it was really bad. I recently went to a grad of a friend of mine and the majority of her class said that they either had no idea what they wanted to do with their lives or they just wanted to get a job and get rich (yeah good life plan kid). We do not challenge our kids enough. There is no drive to do well because we say its ok to be mediocre. I think books like Twilight attribute to this. Very low reading level and basic plots give no challenge to the reader. It is mediocre. Worse then that I think is the fact that people don’t notice how low this is. Now for those who don’t believe me that the reading levels in the high schools are getting worse allow me to throw some stats in your face.

The International Survey of Reading Skills (ISRS) is a follow-up survey of the Canadian component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (IALSS).

The IALSS established that about 9 million Canadians of working age, or 42% of those aged 16 to 65, scored below Level 3 on the prose literacy scale. Level 3 is the desired threshold for coping with the rapidly changing skill demands of a knowledge-based economy and society.

More specifically, in 2003, nearly 3.1 million Canadians aged 16 to 65 were at proficiency Level 1 on the prose literacy scale (below middle school skills), while another 5.8 million were at Level 2 (below high school skills). The new ISRS re-tested about 2,000 of these adults, most of whom had low proficiency in literacy. (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080109/dq080109a-eng.htm) Copied right off stats Canada’s website.

Ok so the majority of Canadians have a low proficiency level… that’s awesome. Is anyone wondering why this is? Really? Because there is no challenge! Everything needs to be easier and books are getting easier. Obviously this isn’t the only cause for it. There are whole whack of social factors that feed into to something like this. I think for the most part though it is the growing mentality that your perfect the way you are don’t try any harder. Ok, well maybe your not. Maybe you should actually try to be good. Lets get a bit into some psychology here. Ok there was this girl found back in 1971 (they named her Genie, for those who want to google it) who had been locked away from birth until the age of 13 with very minimal human contact. When they found her she had on her own developed an IQ of 38. So this tells us that learning and IQ is very dominantly nurture, not nature. Obviously we don’t do this to our children and youth but there is so much less nurture. Yes, there is educational T.V. and kids to read in school. But we really are lacking in that area. Kids need to be taught logic skills and critical thinking. Memorizing is not intelligence, problem solving is. This goes back to the proficiency stats. There is a huge lack of educational nurturing going on. The literature that kids read on there free time and in school needs to be more challenging. The literature and education is general needs to give people basic logic skills, a drive for goals, and the skills to make good decisions. Moving away from my education system bantering (anyone who knows me knows that is a touchy topic for me… it doesn’t take much to get me going).

I would like to actually focus on a legitimate issue I have with Twilight. Teenagers are becoming more a more ‘mature’ so to speak a lot earlier on. I remember grade 9 and I wanted a boyfriend but because it made me giggle. Not because I wanted to find a serious relationship. I most definitely was no interested in sex and I didn’t worry about diets, my body weight, the latest yoga trends, and what jeans I should be wearing. Since when did a 13 year old deal with the same stuff I do as a 20 year old. (Ok now just to clarify a bit about me so it doesn’t sound like I think I am soo great but fresh out of high school myself. I am 20 years old, I graduated from high school 3 years ago (17) and I am going into my 3rd year of university working on a psychology degree with a minor is epistemology and general philosophy. I am married and living on my own (no, I did not get knocked up… it’s a common question for someone who is married and 20). For reasons I do not wish to speak about maturity was thrust upon me at a young age and I have the God given gift of wisdom beyond my age (which was probably for the best. So no I am not kid who thinks she has the world figured out I am a surprisingly young adult)). Now back to the topic at hand. The trend of rapidly maturing children which is my opinion is due to media beyond their age being directed at them (but that’s another blog post of it’s own). This ‘maturity’ is getting these kids jumping into relationships way before there brains are ready to deal with that sort of stuff. This causes them to turn to whatever form of relationship they can for guidance. For me I remember that being Disney… which though reasonably harmless didn’t work out to well for me but I learnt my lesson about expecting a prince charming. Now suppose that a 13 year old reads Twilight and turns to Twilight for relationship advise. Now what does Twilight teach us about relationships?

It teaches that a boy who is obsessed with a girl because he cannot stand be without her. A paraphrased quote from the movie from Edward “you’re like heroin to me” so basically he is saying that he cannot be without her and he won’t have it any other way. Now obviously a boy won’t want you because you smell so damn good like in Twilight but there is a human version of this. It’s called obsessive; he will stop at nothing to be with her. The only reason why he protects her is because he wants to keep sniffing her. Now if a guy was that into me I would be worried. That is not a healthy relationship. If a real guy acted like that. Said that he cannot not live without her, he needs her, and he will never leave her or let her leave that does not sound healthy. Some of us world worry about that girl; but it’s ok if he’s a vampire. Also, his complete lack of understanding drives him to be interested in her. Which is fine, everyone wants someone to be interested in. But there comes a point where you have to have some understanding of each other. Do not mistake this for something in common although it helps. This aspect of Edward is not so terrifying. Now lets take a look at Bella. She meets a guy who she find attractive. He treats her like shit so her fascination grows. So what is this saying, pursue if he’s an ass-hole? Good one. Now it is completely legitimate to like someone who saves your life. But draw a line. She barely knows this guy, she goes on one date with him and decides that she is completely in love with him. This is very unhealthy. This tells 13 year olds that love is actually a infatuation most likely of the physical kind. That is not that case. Love is actually a thing that takes a long time, a lot of work, and way more then physical attraction. Then Bella goes as far to abandon her Dad and alienate her friends because of this guy (I am aware that she ditched because that other dude was trying to kill her. But for an example: I didn’t know the girl who did this. I know a girl who knows the girl who dated an obsessive convict and at the age of 17 got dragged to Mexico to avoid the fuzz (fuzz: cops (read The Outsiders)) So yeah, just saying that really happens. And Bella does lame-out on her friends as soon as she hooks up with Edward. So if this happened in real life the guy would be in serious crap when she got back and her she would have no friends. Any guy who does that to a girl is not a good guy. Then Bella decides she wants to become a vampire (after knowing Edward for a month). So basically this is telling girls to give up absolutely everything for him. Ok so lets recap Twilight tells girls that being obsessive is romantic, and giving your entire life over to a guy and not caring about anyone you ever knew or your own well being is how you be a good girlfriend. Ok in real life this is an emotional abusive relationship that will not end well, if it does end. Now if someone does not see an issue with this example of a relationship please let me know what is wrong with you. Kids are susceptible to this stuff, they have no idea what a good relationship is supposed to be and this is what we let them think is a good thing? Even adults don’t have any idea what a good relationship is! I worked with a guy who’s girlfriend (now wife) is so mean to him and he is under the impression that women are just like that. If a 23 can’t figure it out what makes you think a 13 year old can. Also, think of the repercussions of the idea of ‘dedicate yourself’ does anyone see that screaming sex. You know what sex at the age of 13 screams aside from statutory rape? Pregnancy. You really think a 13 year old has the balls to buy condoms they hardly have the balls the leave the bathroom with a zit on their nose! I am not saying this is an strong correlation but it is something to think about. Not to mention the emotional repercussion of having sex at such a susceptible age. Hormones rampaging like that, I could see how it could drive you to do some pretty stupid things. This is not the kind of thing you want a 13 year old getting into. Aside of the implied relationship ‘advise’ that Twilight has to offer there is literal issues that it causes. Like girls who won’t settle for anyone unless they pretty much are Edward Cullen (which good no sex… since they will never find a man) but makes some issues with there ability to develop relationships later if they can’t figure out how to do it for real (remember the proficiency thing). T-shirts that say I only date vampires; crap like that can’t be good for them either. I have heard of girls making there boyfriends wear fangs so they can pretend that they’re with a vampire. Is that healthy? Sure we all develop certain tastes but I don’t think a 14 year old should be developing a vampire fetish… just saying.

I hope you all can see some of the issues I legitimately have with this book aside from the fact that it is complete shit. If you think I am wrong and that I take this way to seriously that’s fine. Look back on how susceptible you were at that age, really? Don’t lie to yourself. You would believe anything, do anything to be cool or make some you thought you had to impress happy. Then see if you’re really thinking that there couldn’t be some truth to this. Maybe not as extreme; but it’s there. These things are real. Our youth are getting themselves in way over their heads pretending to be adults so lets try and feed them some good advise and intelligence. It’s not just Twilight. It’s the vibe of society. I am sure if you follow this blog (which you should) you will see at least one post about the changing ‘if it feels good, do it’ mentality of society. If you care about the people that will run this place when we are old I urge you to do what you can to give wisdom about relationships, advise about life decisions, tid-bits about enhancing intelligence, and promote literature that truly challenges there intellect. Become active in this. Don’t just let the youth that you know sit way from everyone and expect them to figure it out. They can’t. They need help; they are not adults. Their brains are wide open to answers, why not put the right ones in?