Adam and Eve

In my history class today, we were discussing the Book of Genesis and it's contradictions or confusing areas.
The one that I found most interesting was:

There are two separate stories of creation that follow one another in Genesis.In the first chapter of Genesis, or the first creation story, God creates both the heavens and the earth and life on it in a matter of days. Humans are created last as the culmination of God's creation. In the second version, however, God creates earth and the animals before he does humans.
Furthermore, in the first version, man and woman are created together and have no hierarchy. They live in an egalitarian society where both are equal and both are created in the image of God himself. In the second version, man is created first from dirt of the ground. Woman is created afterword as a "helper" to man. The very word, helper, signifies a hierarchy as she is there only to help and support man in any way she can. Woman was also created out of the rib of man, so in some ways, she owes her life to man. Later in the 2nd chapter, man gets to name this new creation. He names her woman, just as he named the rest of the animals that were brought before him.

These two different versions of creation could mean different things entirely if you wished to look at the relationship between man and woman. It just depends on which version you look at. However, my professor pointed out that most people link the creation of the universe with the 7-day theory and the creation of humans with the 2nd theory. In this way, people are meshing the two together and creating a different proposal for creation.


Another one that I found interesting but I'm not going to go into much detail about was the story of Noah and the flood. In one version, God tells Noah to bring onto the ark two of every kind of animal. In another version, Lord tells Noah to bring onto the ark seven pairs of clean animals, one pair of unclean, and seven of every kind of bird....

Psychology

Psychology is a very interesting field of thought. In my class, I am very interested in psychology- it's making me consider minoring in the field.
Last week, we discussed something called the Stroop Effect, where one automatically recognizes things. Take this picture, for example:

Try telling yourself the color that the word says. In other words, the first word says "purple" but try to identity each word with the color ink that it is printed in. In this case, red.
Hard, isn't it?

This happens because the brain is so accustomed to reading the words that you will become confused on the task at hand eventually, and start saying the word rather than the color.

This week, we began to talk about infancy and adolescence.
There's this really cool experiment done with 1-2 year olds that tests something called depth perception, which is whether or not one has the spatial recognition that there is a difference in height of something. So like if you were on a mountaintop, you would know that the area below was indeed below you and dangerous to fall onto.
In this experiment, called the visual cliff experiment, a platform was built where there would be a raised part and a lowered part with a "drop-off" in the middle. This picture will explain it better:

As you can see, there is a layer of plexiglass over the lower side of the platform. Babies are placed on the upper platform and shown a toy or their mother on the other side of the platform. The question lies in whether or not the kid will cross it. Some infants crossed the barrier without any thought, showing their lack of depth perception. Others, on the other hand, saw the "drop off" and were afraid to go to the other side because they knew it was dangerous for them to fall that far down. These children understood depth perception.

For further clarification, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyxMq11xWzM

Hello Again

Hi- so I feel like I've neglected this blog for a little bit, and I apologize. Not that many people are reading it and waiting for my new post, but hey- why not entertain me? :)

   So far this week, I've taken a psych exam which I think I did rather well on save 2 questions. But 2 out of 75 probably isn't going to kill me- unless I screwed up the rest of the exam....I've also learned the Cowboy Boogie, 38 Step, Super-dog, and Mo-town soul dances in my Ballroom class. I really like my ballroom class- we have personality hehe. And my teacher's a wack-o, but she's so energetic and lovable. Hmm I found a microwave in the cafeteria, so I brought in pasta for lunch- yum!

   My speech/ English teacher is quite nice, except for the annoying "um" that comes out of her mouth every 2 sentences or so. She's supposed to be a speech teacher, no? It's so distracting! But that's my opinion...
  
    I've been making progress on my Genesis paper- still not happy with it, but getting it done. I might as well try to finish it first and then go back and fix the parts that I don't like. It's something at least. Tomorrow's another discussion on Aristotle in my history class, and then we'll probably move into the Hebrew Bible. Which I've been reading everyday as we've been assigned insane amounts of reading from it. But it could be worse- it could be the whole bible.

   So yea- that's my life! Yay :)

Genesis Paper

So next week, I have a paper on the first three chapters of Genesis due. This paper is worth 20% of my final grade. (choke choke barely breathing) I'm still processing the thoughts and analysis of what I've got. The question is- what is the relationship between husbands and wives and is it appropriate?

At the moment, I've got good views on Eve and bad views on Eve.
Let's start with the good:
    - God made man and woman equally in his image
    - Man lived in harmony after woman was created
    - Eve was created as a helper to Adam- to aid and support him with her best abilities and traits
    - No animal was suitable as a partner to Adam- Eve is
    - Apparently, her formation is cause for a man to leave his mom and dad and start a family with his new wife and become one with her
Therefore, Eve could be good as a wife for Adam because she's the perfect match for him. But I don't know if I can argue that well....

And now for the bad:
    - Eve is drawn from Adam's rib- so she owes existence to him- "she shall be called woman, for from man she was taken"
    - helper- can mean that she's subordinate to Adam
    - After the eating of the apple, both blame each other- no more love, trust, sharing, or mutual feelings- only guilt, blame, and the avoidance of responsibility
    - "you will desire your husband, and he will be your master"
   - Eve is thought of as the original sinner


So, what should I do? Brian, as the only reader of my blog (lol), offer some feedback- please :)

Great Expectations

   I was talking to someone today and the conversation turned to something along the lines of "things aren't what you except or want." I mean, we've all heard it before, right? But it sucks to be disappointed. Not only are you disappointed because something didn't happen, but you're also disappointed because you were excepting something better to happen.

   Let's take this overused example. Say you're expecting a phone call. It could be about this new job you interviewed for earlier in the day. It could be from someone that promised that they would call today. It could be from your doctor to tell you the results of an x-ray. During the day, you don't get that call. You waited all day for a phone call that wasn't going to come. To me, that's more disappointing than getting a random phone call from someone. In that case, you weren't waiting around for the phone to ring, as the expression goes.

   Another example. You and a friend want to meet up at the movie theater to see the newest 3D movie. You pick the movie time, decide when you're going to meet up, and even what you're going to buy as a snack. You arrive on time and buy you and your friend a ticket as it's a brand new movie. Your friend, however, is at the moment 15 minutes late. You call him or her- turns out they completely forgot and can't go now. Not only are you alone in a movie theater with already-bought tickets for a movie that starts in 10 minutes, but you were just forgotten about. Are you really going to go to the movie by yourself now? If you say yes, you're lying. Of course you're going to be disappointed.

   Say you're going to a fancy restaurant. You get there and order what they're known for. Let's say, crab cakes. They cost you a whooping $50- they better be good. When your dish comes to you, its two tiny crab cakes with  lettuce on one side and some sauce on the other. There's not even some sort of rice or noodle to go along with it. This sucks- and this is actually coming from experience. Crab cake wasn't even that good...

   Sure, it's one of those things that you have to accept and get over, but it still hurts. Expectations muddle with our brains in strange ways. Because of them, we can't always forgive and forget because you were expecting something else. But just because we expect things to happen in a certain way, doesn't mean that the actual results are bad either. They could be something good and new to start from.

9/11

I will never forget. 9/11/01.

What Up With the Smoking?

  While I was leaving campus today, I noticed an insane amount of smokers milling around. That threw me off a little- I wasn't used to seeing so many kids around my age smoking so nonchalantly. When I saw an ad earlier last week in the cafeteria for a program to quit smoking, I thought, "Who are they targeting? No one here smokes."

   Well, I thought wrong. Apparently, a decent group of students smokes on a regular basis. And the spot I passed today, that's their unofficial smoking area. These kids are 18 to 22 years old. These are not 30 year olds and older who didn't know the risks of smoking when they got addicted. These are kids, or adults now, that know of the risks associated with smoking. We have health classes to warn us of such things- even if you skipped class or zoned out in class, I'm sure you caught something from high school to warn against cigarettes. The cigarette containers themselves have a warning label on them, telling smokers of the possible dangers.

   I don't understand why people who know of the risks of smoking are still doing so. It doesn't make you look cool. I'm sure having blackened lungs and yellowed teeth doesn't make you look cool- or maybe I'm just missing something. It still boggles me that people smoke, drink, and do drugs when the dangers of them are so well known and told. Completely blows my mind.

More on Plato

  In my history class today, we further discussed Plato. We delved into the the topic of family structure in an ideal society. In Plato's point of view, women and men should do what they are naturally best at. However, women are the weaker sex and should be given less to do. So if a woman is best to be a ruler, she should rule but she shouldn't have as many responsibilities as a man. Therefore, Plato's argument isn't for the equality of men and women but rather to do what one is naturally suited to do.
    Plato discusses an ideal society- one where the rulers, or the guardians, are the best of the population. They are chosen at birth, and their birth is arranged by a rigged lottery. Only the best guardians get to participate in the mating rituals, and the main goal of sex is to reproduce. No woman or man is allowed to know which child is theirs to prevent them from distractions to their job. That way, there would be no loyalty to the family. The guardians are all to have communal property- thus, private property is to be eliminated. That gets rid of want to material things. This way, the guardians can concentrate only on ruling, which is what they are best suited to.
    There were questions asked by some of my classmates as to whether or not the guardians' happiness had anything to do with their ruling as it seems a rather suck-ish way to live. My teacher directed us to a passage in the book. In short, Plato's argument is that the happiness of the whole community is greater than the happiness of the individual or one class of people. However, Plato does not favor the third class as he has them working all the time to make things for the guardians to use. I'm not saying which side of the issue I'm agreeing with- I just want to write out what Plato says as I find it very interesting.

    We also discussed Plato's view on democracy. To him, democracy is a terrible system of government where the mass gets to rule and the ruler is distracted by propaganda. One analogy Plato uses is of a ship. The captain of the ship knows where he wants to go but doesn't really know how to sail. He represents the general population. The ship crew is pulling the captain this way and that to try and get control of the ship. The crew are the politicians that try to get the population's vote. Finally, there is someone Plato calls the "true navigator." He has true knowledge of the seas, stars, maps, etc. He knows how to sail, but yet he is ignored. This is representative of the people that actually understand what is going on. Through the push of the ship crew, the captain is changed many times and yet,  the ship is not navigated correctly. According to another analogy Plato makes, the crew is like a bad animal trainer. This trainer does not set out to train an animal but rather to give it pleasure. The trainer is pulled more by the interests of the horse rather than the task he was sent out to do. Plato believes politicians act similarly. They tell people what they want to hear in order to receive votes to put them in office. Plato's disdain for democracy is evident throughout the entire novel, but through analogies, he makes his best points.

Happiness

   Lately, I've been in a kind-of lonely mood. I'm sure the people I've talked to lately have heard of it and have probably gotten sick of my mood. So in my lonely state of mind, I was browsing the web when I came across this quote:

      "The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself. "

     This quote by Benjamin Franklin is actually helping me get a better outlook on life. In order to  be happy, I have to go out and get it myself. It's not going to come to me, as much as I would like it to. I have to go out and get the social life I want. I have to go out and chat with people that I wouldn't normally. I have to chat with the people that are important in my life, and you know who you are. 

     Happiness is always around, if you care to look for it. (It's my own advice from a previous blog post, so I plan to actually follow it.)

The Wonder That is the Brain

   So I was doing my psychology homework, and like the good nerd that I am, I am fascinated by what I am learning about the brain and its functions. A small, three pound organ with the texture of Jell-o does pretty much everything in our bodies. Everything you feel, touch, smell, taste, and see is directed by the brain. It really boggles my mind how it can do so much. And that it can make us respond to stimulation in the environment in a matter of seconds.
   It is the brain that is allowing me to type on my keyboard to blog this. It's the brain that is allowing me to fascinated by the topic in the first place. Without it, we wouldn't be able to do the things we normally take for granted or really, anything at all. I found that the size of the brain has nothing to do with intelligence. I've also learned about the left-brained and right-brained theory. Apparently, that is not a legitimate theory. Your left hemisphere controls the right portion of your body and vice-versa. There is a correlation between left-handed people being more artistic, while right-handed people are more logical and reasoned. This usually occurs because the hemisphere that is controlling the movement of the hand you are writing with is most likely better developed than the other due to constant use of it.
   There was also this experiment I was reading about in the textbook. There is something called the hippothalamus that controls pleasure and stress. If stimulated, it causes an intense pleasurable experience. In this one experiment, rats were put in a cage where one wall of cage was wire with something that when the rat touched the bar, the rat's hippothalamus was stimulated. There was this one rat that hit this bar 2,000 times an hour for 20 hours straight- all to receive that rush of pleasure.
   There's so much more fascinating things that the brain does, but this blog forum isn't enough room to hold everything. Now let your brain think this through and contemplate its wonder.

Real Food??

      So I went to wash the dishes today with a new dish-washing soap my mother bought earlier. The container claims that the liquid is made with real lemons. I looked at the back of it to check the ingredients, and sure enough- the soap is made with real lemon juice. That got me thinking- I went to my pantry and got out lemon juice that we keep to freshen salads and whatnot. Looking at the ingredients for the lemon juice, turns out that the lemon juice we were using on our food was not actually lemon juice but rather artificial flavoring. However, the soap that I was dishes with and is not edible has actual lemons in it.
     Looking at the juices we have in our pantry, fridge, and shelves, it seems as though a lot of it comes from concentrate. That is, not real fruit or vegetables. Instead, it's a powder that makes the liquid taste like what we think we're drinking. Ever wonder why grape juice tastes nothing like grapes? That's because it is made from grape concentrate. This is why when we drink real fruit juices or juice that's actually made with fruit, the drink seems much better. You're actually getting the nutrients and benefits from the fruit, and not just the taste. However, not all drinks claim to have real fruit. Some drinks do, and in tiny print they tell you that the liquid you are drinking does not, in fact, have real fruit in it.
    Ever see the sign on your pasta or cereal that says "Made with Whole Grains?" Well, your pasta or cereal is still made with whole grains....but that's not what the majority of your food is made of. Unbleached whole wheat flour still makes up most of what you eat. What about those "low-fat" foods? Sure, they may have less fat than the original product, but check the caloric intake and the carbohydrate levels. They sure go up to ensure that your product still tastes as close to the original. Those "fat-free" items you're tempted to buy because you want to feel healthier? Check the calories. On most nutrition labels, calories are separated into calories and calories from fat. The "fat-free" items will still have calories from fat (a lot, most of the time), which proves their fat-free claim to be false. People like to buy 98% fat-free milk instead of 2% milk- it just sounds better!
     Then, while I was on this little rampage, I decided to check the PAM spray, which claims to be 0 calories. Ok, so the can does say it contains 0 calories and 0 grams of fat. Then I decided to look at the ingredients. The first one on the list is canola oil. Oil. Oil. Isn't oil supposed to very caloric?? I had to Google it to find out that 1 tablespoon of canola oil is equal to about 120 calories. I went back to the can. I was confused. How can it be 0 calories if the main ingredient is canola oil? Then I noticed the serving size. 1/3 of a second of spraying is equal to 0 calories, in which there is about 702 servings of. Let me ask you, how long do you spray your PAM for? Probably not 1/3 of a second.
     I'm tempted to go raid my entire kitchen to find these little discrepancies and then do some research to find out the truth (which is how I know so much about the stuff I'm saying here). But I think I'll leave this as is and accept the fact that everything a food label says is or can be a lie.

Plato's Republic

     Today in my History class, we discussed Plato's Republic. The main thing we discussed was what is justice and what is defined by selfishness. One argument presented in the novel is that justice is to help one's friends and to harm one's enemies. However, Socrates argues that justice is to bring absolutely no harm to anyone.
     In theory, Socrates's argument sounds best. But how do we punish criminals and those that have done wrong? My teacher brought up a situation in which a car was stolen and then trashed. Then he proposed a "Rehabilitation Island," a place where criminals would go to be educated and come out a better person. If seemed like a good idea, but when asked if it was your car, things changed. Some people said that they would want revenge and Rehabilitation Island would not be the place to send the criminal. So how do we maintain the great theory that we shouldn't harm anyone? What is proper justice and how do we deliver it? It's a difficult question to answer because we want what is morally "right," along with what we feel.
    Plato also argues that reason should rule over emotion. Again, it sounds great in theory. Having a logical approach to situations is sure to get you good results instead of thinking only with your heart. But suppose you pass a burning building where people are screaming for help. Would you rush in to save the people that you don't know, letting your emotions take control? Or would you wait and see if the firefighters show up any time soon or even just call 911, allowing reason to rule? It's a hard choice to make. Rushing in seems like the "moral" thing to do, but is it good to do? Are you going to become another victim for the firefighters to save because you don't know what you're doing? Waiting for 911 is the pragmatic way to go- but is it right? Is it right to stand by and hear people screaming for help and not do anything??
      Personally, I am a good mixture of both reason and emotion- I like to think. However, if put in the "burning building" situation, I would probably call 911 and then jump in to save the people, regardless if I actually knew what I was doing. In my mind, that is the right thing to do. It may not be the smartest, but that is what my emotions tell me to do and most of the time, I listen to them. I would not like regretting not doing anything and having the capacity to do so.

    Digressing a little- we also discussed what classifies as selfishness. One person brought up the point that we all do things "selflessly" because we feel good about it. Without that cathartic feeling in the end, would we do good deeds? Would we volunteer, help random people in the street, or donate to charities? It brings up a good discussion topic. Another person said- would a person who has been working and dedicating their whole life to Habitat for Humanity be considered selfish because he or she gets a good feeling out of it? Of course we would say no. But the flipside is that this person probably wouldn't be volunteering if it hadn't been for the cathartic feeling. Now that's something to think about....

Who Am I?

    In my Rhetoric class on Monday, my teacher told us to find a quote and relate it to ourselves in some way. This we had to present to everyone in the class on Wednesday (today). This kind-of startled me- I was never asked to define myself in terms of someone else's words. Sure, I always looked for quotes from famous people for my college application essays, but I never ended up using any of them. None of them were me.

    I was completely stuck. I started to make a long, rambling list of what I thought was representative of myself. Then, I went hunting for quotes online. It's harder than one might think. I didn't want to pick any, old quote and say that it relates to me when it doesn't. I would be explaining this to people I have never met before- I wanted to make a good impression and be truthful to myself and to them. Then I thought- I'm a big Harry Potter fan, why not look for a quote by one of the characters?

    Out of all of them, Albus Dumbledore strikes me as the most philosophical. Although he didn't say this in the books, the producer of the 3rd movie had the character say this:

             "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

    Now, I know that sounds sappy and all, but I believe in it. I believe that there is always something better to think of. There is always something better out there. You can always look past a "dark time" in exchange for something happier. And the dark time doesn't have to be super terrible as the quote makes it out as. It can be a low grade on the essay you worked really hard on (that would be me...). It could be something like a fight with a good friend. It could even be one of those days that nothing seems to be working out well for you. Call me an optimist, but you can learn from those situations. The lower grade could be an opportunity to improve your writing skills. The fight could lead to a stronger friendship once the argument is settled. The bad day could just be a bad day, but there's always tomorrow. And after tomorrow, there's another day. Life is full of so many opportunities that you just have to grab them and not let go.

    So maybe this quote by Dumbledore doesn't explain who I am completely, but it shows a good portion of myself. The eternal optimistic. In my opinion, happiness is always around, if you care to look for it.

Let's Try This Out...

    Well, this is my first blog ever. Yes, ever. I know I live in modern-day America, where most people use blogs and text and are addicted to Facebook, but I have never blogged before. I'm also not a "text-oholic"- I don't have a texting plan and I don't plan to get one yet. However, I will admit I am hooked on Facebook. I just want to give this blog phenomenon a chance as well.

   The first little test was what to name it. I didn't know where I was going with this, and I still don't. I went through this phase where I tried making clever little titles focusing on my height (I'm really short) or maybe on my blond hair. Come to think of it, it might have been a good idea to go with the blond theme. But, anyways, I decided on "Freshman Fever." I am a freshman, and why not document my life at college and possibly beyond? Though, I'm not a typical college student either. And by typical college student, I mean living in a dorm, away from your parents, taking your newly acquired freedom to new places.

   I live with my parents. I commute to college. I don't drink (alcohol). I'm an average girl that's trying to do well in college. We'll see how I can keep this blog up when I'm trying not to procrastinate...and that happens to be quite often. Don't get me wrong though; I still get all of my work done. I'm one of those people that can't leave something undone. And now I'm rambling- hopefully I get better at this blogging thing and write something that's actually interesting for others to read.

:)