catching tigers in red weather..

Sitting here in class listening to Sexson talk of the language of dreams, it came to me how "catching tigers in red weather" is the talk of dreams. It gives you a floaty dreamy feeling reading the words and saying them. Words are power; if you do not believe me, ask Nixon.

Imagination... The greatest loss of the 20th century.

On Monday, in class, we talked about the loss of imagination among people in our society today. Mr Sexson, as much as he is not a technical or mathematical minded person, is right in more ways than one. I am studying the science of Engineering and the kids you see struggling the most, are the ones merely trying to look at the problem and find some text book answer. Engineering is all about creativity with science.

When Mr Sexson pointed out the lack in imagination, it seemed to me he was was trying to point out how inclined people are to social interaction and relying on technology to take over the role of self thought and imagination. Yes we all still do think and imagine but the amount in which we do this is much smaller. Watching TV, surfing the web, Facebooking, and of course ::cough:: drinking... drinking... ::cough:: are all things we as youth (and even adults) do that don't require the true use of visualization and brain power. Thus we are not becoming more intelligent even though we may be in school. Our knowledge is expanding but our IQ is lowering as a society. Interesting stuff.

"Smooth Talk" certainly damaged my view.

I read the story of Connie imagining a lot of the scenery. This may be sad but for the first time in my literary understanding I saw what it meant to read. When you paint the image in your head using your imagination, you are becoming part of the story and "living" the story. I did not notice this until I saw the scene the director had painted in his head in the movie. It really was shocking to feel the difference in watching the movie vs. reading a story that gave a shady spotty scene that made you utilize your brain and "imagination" to fill in the dots. Mr. Sexson, I'm sure, deliberately is trying to to show us how much more powerful our brain power is vs. just watching a story play out. Not saying movies are bad. Of course not, they are a great past time and we need relaxing thoughtless time. In America though we have proven over the last 20 years that people are becoming "stupider" as a whole. Just my logical though process kickin' ideas around...

how do we know what we think until we see what we say?

How do we know what we think until we see what we say? Writing is the human expression of feelings and thoughts. Our brain is not as simple as a clean sheet of paper. millions of calculations and thoughts are going on constantly and it is hard to specifically analyze those thoughts while in our mind. By giving those thoughts a visual meaning that can then be manipulated we realize things our brain was too clouded to see. That is the meaning of this saying. And the beauty of the saying is that you cant understand it the first time you read it without writing it down.

oh connie.

The point brought up in class about people being upset with connie's decisions was great. We seem to be brought up in a society where we must judge peoples decisions in order to be more responsible. But as stated in the other blog we are not supposed to be one to judge a characters action in a novel and decide if they were wrong or right. You really are offending the author, because it was not your choice to say what connie would end up doing, and thus judging the words of a writer.

people watching is part of who I am.

I know this was an assignment but come to think of it, I constantly people watch. I have always found the millions of variations of human interaction as a fascination. College is a great example to see fresh adults truly express the person they will be the rest of their lives. Layers upon layers of different social classes exist in a dense environment. From the tennis players with a 4.0 to the "GEEK"s who cant wait to get their new piece of technology they ordered in the mail(myself), to the kids living in the dorms, and all the 21 year olds who make there way to the bars on Thursday night. Of course the obvious common theme is the fact that almost everybody wants to be recognized and live their life the way they want to live it with out boundaries or hinderance. The scariest thing about always studying how people interact for me is how much I question myself and reason why I cant interact the same as others. Certainly we must all have these feelings from time to time so I feel as though I am not talking to a small percentage of kids in the class.

I was once told social interaction is like a game of poker. You take a risk, making a "bet", and initiate a conversation or invitation to a social gathering with another person. The person can either "match/call" or "raise" you in the conversation. If there response is just a response with no initiative to keep the conversation going then they "call." An example would be "ok" or "yeah I can see that." If they show interest in the conversation and have good positive responses than they are "raising," thus keeping interaction going.

I really had a hard time grasping this thought of how I should act around people until I was visually explained in this method back in Middle School. One thing I have always hated is they way people look down on other people for being fat, or ugly, or dumb, or even another sex, or race before even meeting the person. Logically we all need to have a conscious and remember they have the same blood as you, the same organs and the same brain. I know America is land of the free and our core value continues to be greed. Don't misunderstand this, I am extremely patriotic but looking at how out of control our society and government is these days is upsetting. This all came from sitting in the sub watching kids interact and a few others sitting alone with a face of utter depression. I think I might go introduce myself now..