Hey all,
Over the last few years the entertainment world has exploded (I realize I’m stating the obvious, just go with it). With that in mind, the entertainment industry has influenced generations both young and old and told them that if they don’t look a certain way, then they won’t belong. Society will shun them and their lives will ultimately amount to nothing. THIS IS FALSE! You decide who you are and what you will do with your life. Focus on being you; not the cover model from some magazine.
With spring break going on this week all around the nation, I felt that this post would be more applicable to the lives of high school and college students as well as everyone who looks back at those times and says to themselves, “I wish I still looked like that.” I thought this video served as a great reality check to what our culture perceives as beauty and how our perception of beauty has been warped by the entertainment industry over time. The video is sponsored by Dove (the soap company) and is pretty awesome. It's a whopping 1:14 minutes long, check it out here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
That’s all I have today but I am curious to know your thoughts… How do you feel the expansion of media (entertainment, magazines, social media, etc.) has affected younger generations in America?
HJG out
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Name Meaning
Friday, March 16, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
1st World Problems
So I was talking to some of my coworkers (all PHD and Masters students) and the topic came around to education and stuff. One of my Professors ask a question, and I think it may be one of the most important things I've heard a professor ask in my entire time in higher education.
He said
" So, how do we support a First World society with a Third World education structure?"
I know, deep.
Best part about this? We're all geologists, so you know, whatever.
But the thing is, with half of kids now'a days being more or less forced into college and the other half not even ever thinking it's an option, what's going to happen to our society on an intellectual level? Some of my coworkers have taught in the past and were telling how everything is being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator so that kids will pass and graduate and the schools will get funded. It doesn't help much that there are also parents who, when their kid comes home with a bad report card, ask the teacher what they are doing wrong, not the child. Also, the unrealistic expectations of legislators who don't actually know what's going on in the education world and pass such pieces of horrible legislation as No Child Left Behind, which could go down as one of the worst programs ever instituted.
But even from a higher education stand point, it used to be that you could graduate from high school and get a job working at a company with a defense contract and make a really good living that way. But that was the 50's. In my parents generation the working degree was a bachelors, in present day a masters is the most desirable and more and more employers are looking for PHDs. What will happen 30 years from now when no one can get a decent job without 12 years of post doctoral work?
There was a lot more we talked about, but now I want to hear ya'lls thoughts.
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
He said
" So, how do we support a First World society with a Third World education structure?"
I know, deep.
Best part about this? We're all geologists, so you know, whatever.
But the thing is, with half of kids now'a days being more or less forced into college and the other half not even ever thinking it's an option, what's going to happen to our society on an intellectual level? Some of my coworkers have taught in the past and were telling how everything is being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator so that kids will pass and graduate and the schools will get funded. It doesn't help much that there are also parents who, when their kid comes home with a bad report card, ask the teacher what they are doing wrong, not the child. Also, the unrealistic expectations of legislators who don't actually know what's going on in the education world and pass such pieces of horrible legislation as No Child Left Behind, which could go down as one of the worst programs ever instituted.
But even from a higher education stand point, it used to be that you could graduate from high school and get a job working at a company with a defense contract and make a really good living that way. But that was the 50's. In my parents generation the working degree was a bachelors, in present day a masters is the most desirable and more and more employers are looking for PHDs. What will happen 30 years from now when no one can get a decent job without 12 years of post doctoral work?
There was a lot more we talked about, but now I want to hear ya'lls thoughts.
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Poem 1
Here is the first Poem of a possible many we may post now and then between the two of us.
Be warned, I am not a poet. With that in mind you just to deal with my terrible prose.
Quick on his feet
Quick with a song or a word
Slow in the morning
Slows up to take things slow
Speeding to his Doom ere the next fall of night
He knows not how
Yet a part of him does know
He sits and ponders
Ponders how he should spend his last moments
Should he run rampant?
Should he try and squeeze as much earthly joy out of his remaining moments as possible?
Should he try to find help to prolong his existence?
Should he seek absolution and make peace with the world?
He decides to make a new friend
With whom he would become friends was no great mystery
If he was to not see another sunrise, he would be sure his new friend knew as much
He wants to learn as much as possible from this new friend of his
For this friend knows as much as anyone about where he was headed
This friend has traveled up and down that road many times
Yet he returns
He returns to be there as a friend for any soul going down his path
He returns to be there with any who need him
Few ever befriend him
Some are afraid
Some do not know he exists
These two head down the path toward endless night
As his new friend takes his leave
the man who is slow in the morning yet quick with a song
continues onward down the path undaunted whistling a tune never heard before
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
Be warned, I am not a poet. With that in mind you just to deal with my terrible prose.
Quick on his feet
Quick with a song or a word
Slow in the morning
Slows up to take things slow
Speeding to his Doom ere the next fall of night
He knows not how
Yet a part of him does know
He sits and ponders
Ponders how he should spend his last moments
Should he run rampant?
Should he try and squeeze as much earthly joy out of his remaining moments as possible?
Should he try to find help to prolong his existence?
Should he seek absolution and make peace with the world?
He decides to make a new friend
With whom he would become friends was no great mystery
If he was to not see another sunrise, he would be sure his new friend knew as much
He wants to learn as much as possible from this new friend of his
For this friend knows as much as anyone about where he was headed
This friend has traveled up and down that road many times
Yet he returns
He returns to be there as a friend for any soul going down his path
He returns to be there with any who need him
Few ever befriend him
Some are afraid
Some do not know he exists
These two head down the path toward endless night
As his new friend takes his leave
the man who is slow in the morning yet quick with a song
continues onward down the path undaunted whistling a tune never heard before
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sopaipilla
So there's all this talk about SOPA/PIPA (and because I'm dyslexic I keep seeing Sopaipilla). If you don't know what that is you can find out what it's all about here and here. As always, I am not a political expert, and everything I say are my own thoughts and opinions.
My understanding of SOPAIPILLA is that if HJG or I posted the Dr. Pepper logo (for example)
our blog could be taken down, we would be fined, and possibly imprisoned.
Under current laws if we use a piece of copyrighted material and make money off it the company that owns the copyright could sue us for all the money we made and then some. With SOPAIPILLA the government could take action and Dr. Pepper might not even know we ever existed. Now, who's to say that the government would do that anyway? Certainly they wouldn't in most cases. But the mere fact that they could is a violation of all kinds of freedoms. I could be jailed just for the links I posted earlier, and Wikipedia wouldn't exist as we know it anyway.
From a political stand point, if your against large government, like the Republican representative from Texas probably is, than one would think you would be against these laws on principle.
The reaction from the internet community after the wide spread SOPA/PIPA Awareness events has been staggering. For example,
That kind of reaction is unprecedented in my generation I think. Turns out that we wants our internets. Best not be taking them. I'm not sure if I think that it's good or bad that our big statement is about "Free and Open Internet", but I suppose it could be worse.
peace,
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
My understanding of SOPAIPILLA is that if HJG or I posted the Dr. Pepper logo (for example)
Under current laws if we use a piece of copyrighted material and make money off it the company that owns the copyright could sue us for all the money we made and then some. With SOPAIPILLA the government could take action and Dr. Pepper might not even know we ever existed. Now, who's to say that the government would do that anyway? Certainly they wouldn't in most cases. But the mere fact that they could is a violation of all kinds of freedoms. I could be jailed just for the links I posted earlier, and Wikipedia wouldn't exist as we know it anyway.
From a political stand point, if your against large government, like the Republican representative from Texas probably is, than one would think you would be against these laws on principle.
The reaction from the internet community after the wide spread SOPA/PIPA Awareness events has been staggering. For example,
.That kind of reaction is unprecedented in my generation I think. Turns out that we wants our internets. Best not be taking them. I'm not sure if I think that it's good or bad that our big statement is about "Free and Open Internet", but I suppose it could be worse.
peace,
-Terrence out (TW-KoY)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Simple Smile
HJG here… School is getting ready to start up again and I wanted to post something that’s been on my mind for a while now… it’s a message of encouragement, hope, and the pursuit of a brighter future (No, I did not mean for that to sound like a romantic comedy – just go with it…).
Simple Smile – Part 1
Terrence and I have talked a couple times about how the smallest of gestures can mean the world to someone. How the simple smile or the act of opening a door for a stranger can mean so much to someone you don’t even know. We all have our own path that we walk and a light that guides us down that path. When we lose faith in ourselves we fall and our light goes out. Now, many of us are lucky enough to have friends, family, teachers, and so on to pick us up in our time of need and to continue to light our path, to believe in us even when we don’t always believe in ourselves. But what about those people who don’t have those kinds of friends? Are they lost? No. The reason you smile is so that that person doesn’t have to feel alone. You don’t have to be the light that guides them by their side, just a light in the distance to let them know that they’re not alone and that someone, for however brief a second, thought of them and cared.
Darkness comes in many forms. I’m not going to list everything because it would get a little out of hand… I will say that everyone has their own darkness, their own battles through which they must fight. Some battles must be fought by them and them alone. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have any support. We’ve all had rough times. Times where we want to cry, to scream, to just be angry at a world that we perceive to be unfair. These are the most important times to be the light for someone. You don’t even have to say a word. Just give them a hug, hold their hand, and be there with them. There are times where people don’t want to explain what they’re going through because it’s too painful. These small gestures make difference. Don’t feel like you’re powerless to help someone because you don’t know them. Be the light for someone else because we don’t know what they’re dealing with, we don’t know the wounds, we don’t know the scars… I leave this message with one of my favorite quotes,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson
Let you light shine,
-HJG out
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Simple Smile – Part 1
Terrence and I have talked a couple times about how the smallest of gestures can mean the world to someone. How the simple smile or the act of opening a door for a stranger can mean so much to someone you don’t even know. We all have our own path that we walk and a light that guides us down that path. When we lose faith in ourselves we fall and our light goes out. Now, many of us are lucky enough to have friends, family, teachers, and so on to pick us up in our time of need and to continue to light our path, to believe in us even when we don’t always believe in ourselves. But what about those people who don’t have those kinds of friends? Are they lost? No. The reason you smile is so that that person doesn’t have to feel alone. You don’t have to be the light that guides them by their side, just a light in the distance to let them know that they’re not alone and that someone, for however brief a second, thought of them and cared.
Darkness comes in many forms. I’m not going to list everything because it would get a little out of hand… I will say that everyone has their own darkness, their own battles through which they must fight. Some battles must be fought by them and them alone. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have any support. We’ve all had rough times. Times where we want to cry, to scream, to just be angry at a world that we perceive to be unfair. These are the most important times to be the light for someone. You don’t even have to say a word. Just give them a hug, hold their hand, and be there with them. There are times where people don’t want to explain what they’re going through because it’s too painful. These small gestures make difference. Don’t feel like you’re powerless to help someone because you don’t know them. Be the light for someone else because we don’t know what they’re dealing with, we don’t know the wounds, we don’t know the scars… I leave this message with one of my favorite quotes,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson
Let you light shine,
-HJG out
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
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