SK Online January 30, 2007

They offer this program at my school called SK Online. It’s pretty neat, you get to go to a computer lab and take a class through their site, and you can take whatever class you happen to need. Pretty cool idea, and it offers more classes than Sprague does so it is nice when looking for an extra class that you may not have been able to find at the school. So good in theory but…

The interface of the course looks just horrible from what I saw with logging in and everything. Their questions were redundant, I mean they asked me to give my name in 4 different places. A bit of an overkill. The layout is extremely confusing, they have links overlapping the text on the page in places, and they have links that when you go to you can’t get back to the homepage as they have no link from there, of course, compelling you to either re-type the url or sign out of the site and then sign back in.

So the layout/interface is pretty bad, but it doesn’t get much better from there. I registered, a process that took about 20 minutes, and then they tell me it takes a few days for it to process so I am free for the rest of the period. Now, I would be happy about that but they say that we can’t check our email, or run to our lockers. We can play pointless games online though. It is kinda like cruel and unusual punishment. I have a computer, I have absolutely nothing else to do, but by golly I can’t check the email to see what is up. Or run to my locker to pick up other work. Nooooo. We must work with what we have so basically sit here and do nothing until our class ends. So I sat around pouting for a while, then realized that I do have a blog for the purpose of ranting about anything and everything, and SK Online fits into that category!! So I ranted.

Now I am going to work on my math class online through chemeketa. I suppose that is a plus…

Decleration of Independence From Injury January 22, 2007

Alright this was the funnest paper ever to write so I had to post it. We had to write a declaration of independence from something, and it was so flipping good I just had to add it… ;) So here you go.

When in the course of daily life, it becomes necessary to dissolve the walls of imprisonment that injury dictates, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that one should declare the causes which impel them to declare independence from injuries due to the Martial Arts.

There were many deciding factors taken into deep periods of contemplation, as the right decision was essential to a karate-minded being’s sanity, health, and ultimately well being. Therefore a list was compiled. This list took into account the grievances of injuries, and whether or not it would be absolutely necessary to declare independence from such a deep and bizarre thing as… injury.

It could be said that one learns from ones mistakes when one injures him or herself. This may be true, but the time consumed by the said problem, far outweighs the lesson learned. It could also be said that the injury claimed may be a sort of blessing in disguise. One could now focus on other aspects (i.e., one injures their arm, one can now focus on kicks. One injures their leg, one can now focus on punches, etc.). This is all well and good, but not completely valid. Throughout the course of recovery, ones muscles grow weaker, as one is not working them. This causes a sort of lopsidedness, as one tends to use the healthy counterpart more than the injured limb (i.e., one cracks their left elbow, hypothetically, of course, reason would state that one would tend to use ones limb that is not broken).

A third grievance is the affect that injury has on self esteem. When one injures him or herself, one tends to feel quite moronic, as the way one gets these injuries is often rather stupid. Another aspect is rehab. Rehabilitation is painful, time consuming, and dull. One is asked to reach beyond the limits an injury sets, and always take a step more than is comfortably taken. The last grievance to be stated in this document is one that should not be taken lightly. If one’s injury is too serious, one may have to actually take a break from karate all together for a set period of time. This could be lethal to one’s Martial Arts career, as when one is absent for any length of time, one tends to forget all the material one’s mind once held. In a sense, when you return to your beloved hobby, you will essentially be starting over.
Several steps have been taken to try to solve this conundrum. I have tried to be careful, tread lightly, fall softly, and so on, but as karate is a violent sport, this was not the way to go, it never worked. I tried to wear my sparring gear around the dojo (“training hall”). This only proved to be unattractive, as the sparring gear is rather marshmallowy, and uncomfortable, as the gear limits movement, and gets hot after wearing it for any length of time. I even went so far as to try and stop, since I figured, “no karate, no karate injuries.” Unfortunately, I am addicted, and after only a day and a half, I started experiencing migraines, and other signs of cravings in result to addiction became visible. When the call of the sport became irresistible, I returned to my karate, as I just could not stay away.
I, therefore, a representative of myself and all of the other Martial Arts fanatics around the country and the world, declare that all should be free, now and forevermore, from such a rude and uncomplimentary thing as injuries due to the practiced sport. I renounce the hold that injury has on our lives, and consequently, declare us free.

Um Yeah January 20, 2007

So today started a normal day. I mean, with Chemistry first class, how can it be anything except normal and blah? But then…

I walk into psychology, and there is this giant, king-sized bed in the middle of the room, box and frame and everything. Even pillows and a blanket. All the chairs were arranged around the bed in a big circle, so there was about 10 ft of space between the chairs and the bed all around. So we sat down, the teacher pulls out these pictures of different sleeping positions and drills us on how the positions supposedly relate to dream habits. Then, he tells us that he is going to call us up, one by one, and call out a sleeping position, and we have to show it, and then explain what dream patterns are associated with it. How random is that? A giant bed. In the classroom. He said he took a nap during his prep period, and I don’t doubt it.

Then, we have my History of Sports teacher, who is absolutely enthralled with Dean Smith, the retired basketball coach at North Carolina. He kept talking about how he met him, and how he was so impressed with him, he went on and on, until he was quite earnest with us. “Man, I love that guy in a completely unprofessional, homosexual way” at which point we all went… okay… awkward… and he went on, “If I saw him again I would be all, “Hey, Dean… you need anyone killed? Cuz I’ll do that for ya. I would totally be your hit man. And you wouldn’t have to pay me.” He went on and on, and I can’t even relate how funny it was, but it was.

Then I have this friend who is quite possibly the mellowest person I have ever met. He talks in this monotone voice, everything is cool, nothing excites him, he just goes with the flow. Well, today, he for some reason was extremely excited and kept saying, “Man, I feel all twitchy…” but he would say it in his monotone way, without the hint of enthusiasm… so funny. “I feel all twitchy inside” oh gosh. Funny.

So those were just funny and random, but then there was the main, completely unexpected, kinda disturbing point of the day.

So we have these daily announcements and let me tell you, my perspectives were changed a little in today’s. So they go through the whole, “Today is a regular A day… etc” then they go, “And for the Sadie Hawkins Dance court…” and read off a list of names. I was pretty tuned out until I heard mine. That’s right. You are reading the rant of a sadie hawkins dance court nominee. Well, this freaked me out on many levels.

1. If you hadn’t noticed I am not really the most traditional type of court person. I am no cheerleader, no student body president or student government member or anything. I do karate. And I wear jeans and t-shirts almost every day. This just does not happen.

2. Apparently alot more people know me than I knew knew me.

3. And people must like me a little… because everyone was all congratulating me and looked like they meant it…

So this actually made me laugh more than anything else. That whole God thing must be a factor cuz there is no way plain ol’ Brianna Taylor would get on court for a Sprague dance. I mean, it is sprague. And I am (lets face it) a big geek. Quite frankly. ;)

So, that was the funny part. Then came the realization of the not so funny kinda scary part. This means I actually have to go to the dance. Yeah. So many things that are bad about that. None of my good friends go to these things, and I am so not going alone… I don’t know. That part isn’t really funny. Just… there.

So that was the main bizarre happening of the day… though the rest of the day was just incredibly random. So yeah. Interesting, huh?

Oh, and I’m relatively sure my family was just eaten by crack heads.

Awkward Funerals January 15, 2007

Some of you may have heard the story about Susan Kuhnhausen in the news this week. A 51 year-old, 5 foot 7 , 260 pound nurse, with apparently a few tricks up her sleeve.

So synopsis of the story for you, Susan came home from work to find an intruder in her house, armed with a hammer. Well, Susan somehow got ahold of the hammer, there was a struggle in which the intruder bit her, but, by golly, she bit back. Eventually, she got the man down (he was 5′9″ and 180 lbs), and, well, strangled him.

Now that in itself is pretty amusing. I mean, wow. She was obviously quite capable. But wait, there is more. Apparently the husband had hired this man to kill his wife. Yeah. Wrong on so may levels. For one, what kind of scumball would hire an assassin to kill his wife? That is so bad! Then from a different perspective… if you went to the extent of hiring someone to KILL someone else, wouldn’t you try to get someone who would actually be able to accomplish this? Yeahhh…

So, obviously, the husband went to jail, but his daughter paid bail, and he got out. Again, so wrong. What kind of daughter would bail out her dad if he just tried to kill her mom? Then it gets worse. He then proceeded to TURN HIMSELF in again to the police, because <get this> he had no where to go and no money, and needed a place to stay and food. So he willingly went back to jail.

Okay, I have a couple things to say about this. Of course.

First, Susan. Wow. That is pretty crazy. She wrestled him down and then strangled him to death with her bare hands. She has got some power there. Intense. That’s pretty impressive. Fight or Flight kicked in and fight she did.

Then there is the husband… Slimeball and apparently also a moron. If you are going to kill someone, do it right. But don’t do it. But if you were… never mind. But seriously.

Alright, final thought. Wouldn’t this guys funeral just be incredibly embarrassing and awkward for the people attending? I mean, this guy was a loser to begin with, all sorts of felonies and stuff, and then he dies at age 59, because he was overpowered and strangled to death by a 51 year-old nurse. That he was hired to kill. A nerse that he was confidant that he could murder. And he was armed with a hammer, and she killed him with her bare hands. Yeah. I mean, what do you say to the family at one of those? You don’t say, “I’m sorry” to the family cuz lets face it, few people probably are sorry, including his relatives. You can’t say, “Well at least he died painlessly”, because he didn’t, I mean it must hurt like heck to be strangled. Basically the only thing you can say truthfully is, “Well I guess this will make Christmas and Thanksgiving with the family more enjoyable”. You know they are all thinking it. But that is just kinda rude to throw out there… so I can’t imagine it being anything besides just incredibly awkward. And then you gotta feel bad for whoever is speaking to the people there… what are they going to say? Well, Elliot came up with a very appropriate ‘eulogy’ for the man, and I will end on that note. Oh, and imagine Stephen Colbert saying it…

“This man died doing what he loves to do– committing federal crimes. He died not from old age, cancer, or heart disease; no, he died a violent death. A death brought to him by a 260 pound, 50 year-old nurse from the local hospital, one used to saving lives in deadly danger. This time, however, she decided not to. In other words…It’s all her fault, and I hope she’s happy.”

Sounds like an interesting funeral to me. Wow. Anyway, had to post about this craziness. And thanks to Elliot for interesting insight and help with the post. Ish. And being really annoying, and threatening to steal it… but yeah. Crazy story. People these days. Bizarre I’m telling you.

The Phenomenon that is Friendship January 11, 2007

Friendship is a phenomenon that has been observed and studied for centuries. People have been enthralled with the emotions, and the act of being a ‘friend’. Countless poets, philosophers, kings, and everyday citizens have tried their hand at explaining away the thing that is friendship. Each with their with their own ideas, some similar among people, and some unique to themselves, but each hovers around the matter of friendship, trying to eat away at the mystery behind it. So what is friendship? What makes a friend a true and real friend?

Well, according to Aristotle in his, “Perfect Friendship”, the truest friendship is that of good people (a detail most writers seemed to agree on), in which we desire the other person’s company as it is good and pleasant to us. He says that it is for one’s own sake that they would make a friend, because when you care about someone, they care for you, and that is the true reason we make friends. For our own benefit.

That was the point I was kind of thrown off. It seems to me that your own benefit should not be reasoning behind making friends. If that was the motivation, I don’t think you’d be able to make friends, anyway. Friendship shouldn’t be based off of convenience, right? There is no depth or love in a convenient relationship.

So, as I was not quite sure what I thought of Aristotle’s theory, I read some Cicero. I read a section of his, “On Friendship”, and Cicero seemed to be quite sure that only amazingly similar people could make good friends. They had to have the same goals, dreams, beliefs, and interests to make a relationship work. Cicero says:

<blockquote> …It is stronger between citizen and citizen than between citizen and foreigner, between those who are related than between those who are not </blockquote>

And mentions that traits of true friends needed to be equal.

So I ran into another conundrum. I believe that to be friends you have to have some similarities, but too similar and you can’t really have a deep, caring relationship. You would have nothing to talk about, discuss, debate, because you had the same opinions. You need to have differences, strengths and weaknesses, so as to compliment and build each other up. I don’t think I could be friends with myself, I would drive myself crazy! There has got to be some diversity so you can keep learning, keep growing. And Cicero may not have meant it to that extreme level, but there really has got to be some variety to keep it interesting and fun.

So I went on to Michel De Montaigne’s, “Of Friendship”. This one, I really really liked. It seemed to represent deepest friendship, and he wrote it so elegantly and romantically:

<blockquote> Our hearts are bound to each other. In the friendship I speak of, our hearts and minds mingle and blend with each other so completely that they efface the seam that joined them, and cannot find it again. If you press  me to tell you why I loved him, I feel that this cannot be  expressed, except by answering: because it was he, and because it was I”. </blockquote>

He also mentioned that a true friend would share all his thoughts, dreams, and ideas with the other, without any reserve.

That is what I really want in a friendship. It seems so complete, never lonely and always safe. That being said, I can only think of one relationship that could ever be that complete and consuming, and I think you all know the one I am referring to. Completely becoming the other person, when I think about it, is quite a complicated feat, unless you are spending  countless hours and days with this person. Even the best of friends can’t just drop everything to spend all their time with each other. That is a nice thought, but we live in the real world, we have lives we have to live.

So, alas, my search for a description of the perfect friendship is without conclusion. The most I can gather (mostly from personal experience rather than what I read, but a little of that, too) is this. A true friend is someone who you care about more than yourself. Someone you love to talk with, see, and hear the opinion of. Someone you love to make laugh, and who will go out of their way to make you laugh. Someone you can share your thoughts with and know they will give their honest opinion and you can trust that they will never tell a soul what you said. Someone who wants to do things with you, and someone you love to do things with. When your friend is happy, it makes you happy, when you are sad, your friend will take it upon them self to cheer you up, and vice versa. A true friend is better than asprin for a headache, better than hot-chocolate when it is cold out, and better even than chaos for awkward situations… or maybe they are the chaos for you in awkward situations. They want the best for you, and love you as much as you love them.  It isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always fun. Somtimes you have to work for it, but ultimately you know it is worth it.

That is the best kind of earthly friendship I can seem to comprehend. And I think you are lucky indeed if you find many friends like this in your lifetime. I think I’ve been truly blessed in my friendships. All I can say is that I think we should keep learning and growing, so these friendships can be lasting and amazing. Gotta love that.

Seriously January 10, 2007

So I am seriously going to write a post soon. I know it’s been forever… been really busy. I’m in my Health Class right now, lol, so I gotta run for now, but I promise a good one soon!