What my colleagues learned

"The most important thing that I learned was how to manage my time when working on big lengthy assignments when there aren’t a lot of strict guidelines." -- Molly

This was the one thing I will probably take to my future classes.  I procrastinate a lot and this class taught me how to manage my time for projects that can't necessarily be done to a high standard in the course of a day or two.  Loose guidelines usually equates to me procrastinating and stressing at the last minute to rush out a product.  Being able to budget my time better will help me with future classes and jobs down the road.

"The most important thing that I will take on with me after this class is the Google Doc and Google Slides." -- Kim Frenz

A lot of Kim's point mirror my own when it comes to the importance of learning/ just generally knowing about the different google-based apps.  Just trying to organize any groups projects in the past were terrible.  I remember one in particular when my friend was suppose to meet me at Starbucks but she got there an hour late.  I had to use a mutual friend to get in contact with her since I never had her number prior to the project.  It just allows for a better ease of work when it comes to projects.  Your group members can work in real time with multiple devices and you can even see any changes made and who they were made by.  Its definitely helpful and something I plan to use for future group projects.

What I've learned

It is kind of hard for me to pinpoint one specific thing that I've learned in this class.  This was definitely one of the odder classes I've had in my school career, especially with my generalized expectations for a lit class. This class helped me break my assumptions of what a lit class can be, which I used to assume was just "learn how to write a paper and then write the paper." The class taught me how to use applications I've never had to use (lots of the ones within google and how to edit Wikipedia) as well as developed my critical thinking skills more.  Most other classes left little room for for interpretation outside of what was already established by scholars, but this class helped push the envelope on coming up with my own thoughts on the reading.

Others Doc 3

"Metamorphoses was a pain in the butt to do a project on." -- Dante

This describes my experience with my project overall.  I decided to focus on chaos/order in Metamorphoses and having either of those being explicitly mentioned in the entire poem once made it difficult at first to find info.  I realized I had to think on a broader scale, interpret a lot of the information and be more specific when it came to research.  There were also very few articles that references order and chaos in the Metamorphoses.

 "Chronic procrastination is the biggest factor that hinders my progress on Doc3 and basically every other assignment as well." -- Aubrey

"I am a horrible procrastinator I would be one of the people that would complete the assignment the night before it was due."  -- Logan

I can identify with this a lot.  I procrastinate/have procrastinated on many projects in all the time I've been in any level of school.  Procrastination is the one thing that seems to stick with me throughout my school experience.  Honestly, I'm procrastinating right now as I do this blog post.  I waited to do my project and my finished product seems rushed and took more effort on my part to stay focused to get the work done.

 

Experience with Doc 3

I feel like Doc 3 was probably on par with other papers I have written in the past for other lit courses.  My two biggest problems with papers are usually how to start them and then how I want to structure the essay as a whole.  Having all the info from the wiki really helped to facilitate the content portion of the paper since most of my past papers I would have to find the info as I was writing it. This honestly doesn't feel like any other paper I have written.  Just the structure that I chose when writing through me for a loop.  I was never told about the use of headings and such for a greater sense of organization.  I knew I couldn't really do the typical three body paragraphs just because of the breadth of information i needed to talk about, (i didn't want to condense all my thoughts into three paragraphs, it would be too hectic/ probably unorganized).  The headings helped me organize my paper so there was no confusion about what I was specifically talking about in each paragraph.  I kind of regret not having any of it done for the first peer response, but that motivated me to kick it into high gear.  I procrastinate a lot, even when I tell myself I shouldn't be doing that.  That's just something I have to fix about myself, especially when the classes/assignments are only going to get more difficult.  

Postception

Honestly, trying to figure out two people to pick posts from is sort of difficult.  There is a good bit of the class that is behind in their posts, limiting my ability to see their view on some of the topics. 

The first person I'll talk about is Will, who I've known fairly well since elementary school.  Out of all the topics a World lit class talks about, religion is always the one I like to shy away from.  I have very little ties to religion and only stepped into a church for my first time last year for an extra credit opportunity for my music app class and for a band concert last year.  I've never been religious, but I've always tried to be respectful to my friends who are on the opposite side of the religion spectrum from me.  I have had a few moments of accidental offensiveness when it came to certain friend's religion and I'd prefer not to have that experience repeat to people I barely know (the one I have in mind: i apologized afterwards and we were cool, but it still made me feel terrible).  Anytime Will brings up religion in his blog, he makes it seem easy to understand and easy to see the affect it has on his outlook of life.  He says in his Nov 6th post how "God's blessings are the beauty in my life" which illustrates to me the magnitude God and religion has on his life for the better (plus, we both play the drums, that's always cool).

  The second person I want to include in this is Aubrey, who I only really have known/interacted with from one random project from this class.  Her blogs take the purpose of everything to a different level. I can identify with some aspects of her, like having religion being abundantly around your life but not being religious or which ethics are important for a president. She essentially uses it as a tell-all, which I find very brave and shows strength.  I originally was going to use this thing as an outlet for some of the personal stuff that did/is going on in my life, but I never really had the courage to post about my issues and negative things that have gone on in my life to (essentially) 20+ strangers, two relatively new friends and two friends I go fairly far back with.  I commend her for being able to be so open with those parts of her life.  She said in a recount of her 2014 that "being numb was much better than dealing with my life" which I certainly have days that I can identify with that in some ways.  I just felt(/feel) like I was wasting away, not achieving what I wanted or even feel like I was on the right path to make the dream accomplished (which it does not help when my main dream has a time limit on it.  

   

Presidental Candidates/Ethics

I believe when it comes to firm ethical standards I would have to choose between either Sanders or Carson.  Sanders has been very consistent with what he has been supporting politically and doesn't seem to change his answers with what is necessarily popular (he stands by what he believes).  Carson also stands with what he believes, especially in anything that possibly has to do with religion. I think probably all candidates, even the ones I mentioned about the firm ethics, have used or alluded to some form of situational ethics.  (one of) The main thing candidates think of is how they appeal to the voters, so that might mean altering ones view about a specific topic (something as serious as abortion or as dumb as no more Christmas decorations on the Starbucks cups) earns them a positive net amount of voters, then they'll probably do it.  I think ethical relativism can be applied to Trump in a more specific fashion than culture.  His mindset seems like he just thinks of  people that are in his level of income even if he seems like he helping everyone.  Machiavelli said that "a leader doesn't have to possess all the virtuous qualities . . but it is absolute imperative that he seems to posses them" which his probably why Trump is still currently leading and not out of the race like most people thought when announced he was running.  I think firm and situational ethics are more important because the candidate should be rooted in their own ideals and be somewhat resilient to change while also being able to adapt when the situation calls for it.  

My poem/beauty in my life

Music buzzing in the air around;

It moves to ears through leap and bound.

Captivating all near and far,

Always unique in every sound. 





A constant beauty in my life is music.  All the varieties of music coupled with the various meanings/lyrics/instrumentations/etc is something I find very beautiful.  I'd say a lot of my musical preferences can be connected back to high school in some way.  Conversations in percussion class always ended up getting into musical discussions and most of the guys who showed me music had a very good taste in different genres of music.  Before, my musical taste didn't extend far from stuff that was on the radio.  My iPod at the time was similar to a tracker of hits on the radio for a few years.  Now, besides those friends I mentioned, I highly doubt most anyone will have heard of the songs that I frequently listen to.  The discovery and experience of new, high quality music is what keeps music interesting and keeps me growing as someone who deeply loves music.

Pink Lemonade

I was going to pick one song out of this album, but the continuity between songs proved too much to separate.  A brief glimpse about the band, Closure in Moscow, before I get into the music.  Closure in Moscow is an alternative band out of Australia that currently has one EP (The Penance and the Patie) and two full length albums (First Temple / Pink Lemonade) out with their most recent being released April 2014.  The musical style of the group has pretty much changed each album, from a mostly rock feel to the very edge of a new alternative (kinda hippy) sound.

They touch on a lot of different topics throughout their 11 tracks on Pink lemonade, but most seem to blend together (in a good way) through musical ideas that carry over between the majority of the tracks.  The music is just very pleasant to the ears and different, sounding nothing I had ever heard before I heard this album for the first time.  They have a knack for beautifully combining harmonies and interesting phrases of the instruments and vocals to give a very unique feel and emotion to the songs.  If i had to pick a few favorites, my choices would be Mauerbauertraurigkeit and Happy Days.  They are kind of polar opposites in overall feel and message.  Mauerbauertraurigkeit basically translates to pushing any/everyone way "as if all your social tastebuds suddenly went numb, leaving you unable to distinguish cheap politeness from the taste of genuine affection, unable to recognize its rich and ambiguous flavors, its long and delicate maturation, or the simple fact that each tasting is double-blind."  The song is very relaxed and odd when you first hear it (weird phrasing since the majority of it is in 5/8) and I feel like I can identify with this because I feel like there were/are a lot of days that I feel like this, especially back in high school.  Lots of days of apathy and just not wanting to go through the motions of the day partly because I couldn't tell if my friendships had merit and weren't just because of "forced" prolonged proximity.   Happy Days, on the other hand, is more positive in a message of perseverance.  The cheery jazz/rock feel throughout evokes a feeling a personal feeling of joy.  Life has been hitting me hard within the past year or two, so it's nice to have a song like this to remind me to keep pushing forward.  I think the ability to relate to music and use it for personal benefit is another layer of beauty that can be found within songs.  These songs are multi-layered beauties for the message/feeling/sound they present to the audience. 
  

Dante's concept of Hell

I overall thin Dante's concept of Hell is original, but I think it would be fairly different in a few key features.  First off, i think Hell would be structured very differently than how Dante's journey takes place.  I believe Hell would be in a constant state of anarchy and chaos since, well, its Hell.  Nothing about Hell screams order or any sort of state where sinners are segregated per whatever their worst sin committed was.  The 9 circles make sense for the story, having to go through gradually harder places to find yourself, but for a "realistic" Hell, its kind of weird.  Also, I figured punishments would be more indicative of a individuals personal "Hell" instead of a punishment per whatever the sin was. 

Doc 3 Thing

My Wikipedia article topic, and subsequently the topic for my Doc 3 assignment, is about chaos in mythology. The article was fairly sparse, so there was a lot of room for additions and improvements. I focused mainly on how chaos is represented in Ovid's Metamorphoses since it only has one sentence in the entire Wikipedia article about it.  I think that since chaos is basically a motif in the Metamorphoses that I will have a lot to write about for Doc 3 since we can use our opinion.  Chaos within Metamorphoses is fairly broad in my opinion, anything from the structure of the Metamorphoses as a whole to the actual manifestation of Chaos illustrates Chaos in one form or another.  I'm still not entirely sure what I'll be focusing on in my paper, but by tomorrow/Sunday I'll hopefully have a good bit of it written or at least an idea of where I want to go. 

Qur'an and New Testament

Though they are the books for two of the biggest religions in the world, the Qur'an and New Testament share a lot of features.  Both are obviously religious books that help the people of the respective religion live their life in the ways of their respective gods.  Both have parts where they look down on anyone practicing the religion who does things that are against the beliefs of the book. The Qur'an states that things like "intoxicants and gambling" are basically things the devil does and that he will manipulate you through these acts.  It also says that "God loves those who do good deeds," something that I believe is apparent in both books.  The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, it is said that you don't need a "trumpet blown before you" for doing charity.  Both believe that you should do good deeds for the sake of doing good deeds, not for the sake of reward or admiration.     

New Testament to Now

I think that there is a lot of aspects of the New Testament that can be relevant in modern society, especially when it comes to religion and other aspects of life.  I think my focus of this post will be on a section of Matthew 5-7 (specifically Matthew 6) and how it can pertain to people's actions with/without religion.  The beginning line of the section where it says that you'll have "no recompense from your father in heaven" if you practice righteousness/arrogance in public with concerns to your religion.  In my view (note, I'm not super religious), practicing your religion is more than fine.  The first amendment protects the exercising of religious faith and making laws around religion.  The only problem I have when it comes to religion is when a particular religion tries to push their views on people who aren't particularly fond of those ideals, ESPECIALLY if they clash and ESPECIALLY if religion shouldn't be apart of the discussion (separation of church and state particularly).  For example, the whole Kim Davis things falls under this sort of mindset.   The US Supreme Court, the highest court in the land that has to interpret the Constitution (where the 1st amendment resides), basically said that the Constitution guarantees gay marriage as a right to all citizens.  Kim Davis didn't believe in that, so she denied homosexuals deciding to get married (in her area) a marriage license based on her religious views.  Though she has all the rights in the world (or at least our country) to profess her religion, there is nothing saying she can use her religion to deprive people of their rights.  If she wanted something to change, she could've appealed or something less intrusive to others rights.  She seemed like she wanted the national attention, akin to a "trumpet being blown" before her.   

Opposites

I think that the Opposites presented in the Daodejing have a lot to do with the concept of an inherent nothingness in the world.  Some of the most obvious opposites exist solely because of a lack of something.  The Daodejing referencing the spokes on a wheel helps to illustrate how something like empty space is an opposite and brings purpose to make the wheel functional.  The wheel would most likely have less optimal functionality if the spokes and empty space didn't exist.  Light and dark only exist as opposites because dark is the absence of light (I equate darkness to a form of nothingness).  Both light and dark are contingent on one another to exist/survive and I feel that is the essence of opposites.  The opposites also juxtapose each other, further enhancing each one's features (the light looks lighter and the dark looks darker).        

Confucian Candidate?

I think that the project on the comparing the Confucian ideals to our chosen candidate's ideals really helped me get a grasp on the concept of Confucius in modern society.  I believe that the candidate I chose (Bernie Sanders) does exhibit some ideas that line up with the ideals of Confucius, but I don't think any candidate could ever be 100% confucian/Laozian/any other old philosopher.  One big cause of that, besides none of those candidates begin practicing confucians, is how much society has changed since those principles were originally written.  Take violence or war in general as an example: One of Bernie’s main points is to make the act of going to war a “last resort.”  He acknowledges that war/force “must always be an option”, but there are a variety of means to attempt to diffuse any given situation before bloodshed has to occur.  If he or the entire world was predicated on Confucian principle, war would cease to exist.  Our country's foundation is pretty much based around war (the war for independence) and it seems like every day we hear about war and violence in the news.  I do think Bernie has a lot of general attributes/ideas similar to Confucius, but anything super specific of Confucius' thoughts kind of gets lost with time.   

The Eternal Soul

I believe there is something after death.  I think most religions have their own version of the afterlife, whether its being reincarnated or going before God to be judged, but for someone who doesn't practice a particular religion, there is some more uncertainty about the afterlife.  Most afterlife talk seems to skew toward the religious, but as technology develops more and more take notice and want to explain the soul scientifically.  Before searching for just the word "afterlife" on google, I was expecting to find a lot more religion-based results about the afterlife.  Instead, I'm treated to a healthy mix of science and religion, with some of it going as far as human composting.  There are even scientists who have doe studies/experiments on the soul and the after life (see: http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp and http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/harvard-neurosurgeon-confirms-the-afterlife-exists/ )  It's astounding all the different viewpoints and beliefs on the afterlife that are out there.         

Justness in Syria

The Syrian war seems like something the US probably shouldn't have gotten involved in. I think the US in general, or at least the leaders of the country, believe that the US should act like a form of global police.  Over the last decade(s), the US has had its hand in the cookie jar of many other countries.  I'd say the biggest reason we feel we have to be involved as a country is because of the possible threat on our way of life. I don't think it's unclear that most countries on the other side of the world (Syria/Iraq/Afghanistan) aren't the fondest of the US, so they could be a problem (whether it's the actual govt or being a main hub of terrorist activity, who knows).  I believe that as long as our actions in the country aren't shady (covert assassinations, rogue bombings, etc)  that what the US does regarding Syria is (relatively) justified as long as they are in the best interest for our country/not going to start a WWIII.

Gender Swap

I honestly don't know how I would react to waking up as a girl.  This is the kind of question that will probably never cross your mind unless you happen to be in some variation of a college lit course.  If I still had all my memory and knowledge from the past 19 years, I'd instantly question how it would even be possible for this kind of a transformation to occur.  I'd probably think about the trade-offs for being a woman, and also all the other burdens women have to deal with on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.  First off, the morning bathroom routine will be a lot different than how it is now.  No more school urinals or "aiming" in general, turning bathroom visits into 100% sit-to-go service.  Also, if the first day of new womanhood was accompanied by the dreaded period, I'd freak out... a lot.  I think any guy--> girl with this topic would have the same reaction.  One thing guys never have to deal with, barring any freak accidents near or involving the genitals, is bleeding from your genitals.  In hindsight, the fact that it occurs at all is seriously effed up.  Stuff like that and the idea of pregnancy and stuff would probably make me uncomfortable.

Those issues are just a small issue of what women have to face.  This isn't even mentioning all of the outside social issues (wage gap, media representation, not being treated fairly in general, etc) that women face on a daily basis.  It would be an interesting perspective change, but it would be very weird/ probably super difficult.          

Change

I think probably one of the hardest changes I've had to cope with has been transitioning from high school to college. Don't get me wrong, the freedom college provides is great. Picking your own schedule and not being resticted to a set amount of classes, being able to leave classes early, and (outside of core classes) choosing the field in which you study is greatly improved over high school.  The changes I'm thinking of don't really deal with the classes.  It has to deal more with friends and the friend making process.

 Back when I began high school in 2010, I had a big advantage when it came to making friends. Besides knowing _______ amount of people that also transitioned from middle school to high school, I had a second family of kids from every grade in band.  I constantly had things to do with these people which kept me busy and feigning me as being social. Since I was always in the upper quarter of the band (top ensemble 4 years and also marching percussion 4 years with a year of both front ensemble and drum line), I got to know the older kids and spent little time with the majority of kids in my class.  Though this was great at the time, I feel as though it lulled me into a false sense of "social" security. Out of all the kids(I'd classify as good/great friends) I marched with that didn't end up choosing MGSU as their choice for college, I've probably kept in touch (consistently) with 2-3 people at most.  I will say that my first year out of high school was definitely more social with those people than this year.  I guess that life just happens and people get busy.  People being busy was always my thought for people not responding to me because I knew they probably had more homework, some sort of a job or some new social experience (sorority/frat/bible study/etc) that the had to do or prioritized.  It has made me realize that I guess some of those friendships had nothing more in common than band (which if you knew me, band is [or was] a big part of my life).  I feel bad about that since I have known some of these people since I started my band journey in middle school.  I can't (/am not trying to) blame them for my un-social-ness since I can easily reach out to them, its just... (from past experience) they might not reciprocate the socialness or the effort. 

(Unintentionally?)Disconnected from Tragedy

When thinking about something for this blog to write about, nothing really came to mind. By no stretch of my imagination have I experienced any real personal tragedy of my own. I listed in the title that my tragedy is "disconnected" because I never really knew any family affected by tragedy (sounds super cold, but I'll explain).  I'd say when I my age was in single digit numbers (about 9-10 years ago) my grandparents on my dad's side passed away (at different times, but still within a year of each other). For whatever reason, distance or other reasons, I'd only met my grandfather once and never even met my grandmother.  I didn't really feel like I knew them, especially when my dad would never tell me about them.  So even though they died,  I felt a loss, but not an extremely significant loss (again, sounds kinda cold).  I know eventually I will feel a real tragedy, but as of now I don't think I've ever experienced a personal tragedy yet. 

The Scope Tragedy Offers

Tragedy and eroticism share a sense of broadness (though different types of broadness) when being defined by an individual. Eroticism's broadness comes what action is classified as erotic (anything could be seen as erotic by the parties involved but ultimately the pleasure is individualized for said parties).  Tragedy's broadness comes from how many people can be affected by a tragedy (tragedy can either affect a select few or an entire nation/the world).  For example, something like Robin Williams' death was very shocking and tragic for a vast portion of America and probably the world. He would be the person you (younger generations especially) would think of as the epitome of comedy. We (at least I) grew up with his comedy as a progression from Aladdin to Jumanji/Mrs Doubtfire and all other of his movies/comedy specials and such (not necessarily release order, just like what my parents let me watch order).  However, it's deaths like his that just show that anyone can be affected by something so greatly that it can cause their death even of they don't outwardly show it. I would honestly never have known about the disease that was a major factor into his death (Lewy Body Dementia) if he didn't die from it.  

Epic Heroes: Ancient vs Modern

Epic heroes in today's society seem to have less significance to the culture they come from then when they were originally conceived hundreds of years ago.  I'll preface this by saying that I don't believe they have zero significance to their particular culture, just less than when their stories began.   It just seems like the epic heroes from the past become sensationalized in today's culture with movies which can detract from their overall meaning and significance.  Take someone like Kratos, who in modern times is popularized as the "God of War."  Though not the actual God of War according to Greek mythology, Kratos became the protagonist of the Playstation-based "God of War" franchise.  The game, if you have not heard of or played it, focuses on Kratos constantly being enraged at any and all gods, questing to dispatch and kill any gods on his quest to kill his main adversary depending on the game (ranges from Ares [the actual god of war], Zeus and Alecto [Queen of the Furies]).  The game's action is based off of over the top gruesome kills and violence.  Not to say there wasn't any violence in the ancient stories, it is just that Kratos was no where near as volatile and blood thirsty as it is in the "God of War" video game series.  In all honesty, his only important role was defending Mount Olympus from Typhon while aiding Zeus and his siblings.  Most people flock to the "God of War" series less for the lore behind the game and more for the gruesome violent displays of epic proportions.  It seems like less and less people will know the character for their ancient lore and more for the modern stories outlets like gaming companies and movie makers will tell.                

New look on creation stories

Since completing and watching the presentations of my fellow classmates, I have been thinking about creation stories differently.  Any thoughts I had about creation stories from past education lead me to believe them to be strictly stories or oral reports that detail the origin of everything from a certain culture's view. Now, in a more modern age with more media choices to express ourselves, we have more variety in how we tell our stories. Whether it was creativity in the way it was said (rap song/animated/PowerPoint) or the content (using the teacher as the creator or not necessarily starting from relatively nothing to create), there was a lot of creativity from the presentations. But at its core, the aspects and features of the creation stories were the same. Just that one similarity links the creation stories we've read about to the ones we created ourselves. I'd assume in hundreds of years that the people of those generations will have even more ways to get the point of their beliefs on creations across to the masses. 

Sam, Will and Hope's Project

I'll try not to say too much about the story since we will hear it when they present, but I really liked this group's unique take on a creation story.  It'll probably be the most comedic one out of the ones presented because I would assume most other groups went for a more serious tone.  The backgrounds seem to play into the story well but some of the pictures seem to be there for purely comedy and less the story.  The actual creation part of the story is also very interesting.  It is kind of a combination of monotheistic and polytheistic creation with the original creator creation a sort of "sub" creator to deal with different aspects of the world.  They also included a council that plays a somewhat important role in the creation (or maybe in stopping it, not trying to spoil), something I would not have thought to put in a creation story.  Overall, it was a creative project and I'm curious to see it once it is presented.   

Thoughts on the meaning of Hero

When I think of a typical hero, I think of someone like Superman. He, in my mind, is person who can do no wrong (for the most part) as he saves Metropolis a countless number of times.  Heroism and acts of that nature extend out much further than just the superheroes on a comic book page or the action heroes selling out movie theaters.  The essence of heroism can practically be seen in every facet of life, even if only for a brief moment.  Some of the more obvious every day heroes are the people that put their lives on the line, such as EMTs, firefighters, police and soldiers.  These people make a community, state or entire country overall better because of the service they provide.  Some heroes, on the other hand, can go relatively unsung in the grand scheme of things.  It could be something as small as someone brightening your day or listening to you vent.  Teachers, or just people in a learning and/or authoritative position, could have a profound effect on a particular person's life to show them what potential or even save the person from doing something terrible (self harm type things).  I guess my purpose with this is to talk about the scope of the definition of hero and how widely it can be interpreted.   

My view on Eroticism

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think of eroticism. I think at face value people might view eroticism or an erotic nature as something it's not because they might not know their own definition of the word or what it means to be erotic from their point of view. I'd assume as relationships develop and people start to explore everything (like life: spiritually, mentally, physically, sexually, etc), their views on the subject change. It seems to all be about preference and what one person thinks and gives them pleasure in an erotic sense. Erotic pleasures seem to be able to have some link if a person has a particular fetish for something (if a fetish exists for that specific person, not assuming or saying everyone has a fetish for something). It can seem weird from a person who doesn't think that particular thing/action is erotic (example: I don't understand how people get sexually aroused by pain [whips, choking, etc]). In the end, it's all about the individual to find their own definition of erotic and what gives them erotic pleasure, whether or not other people have a similar sensation from it (I don't think anyone can ever get the exact same feeling from something like that). 

Barney Stinson and Eroticism

In my group that presented about eroticism, we talked about how there was an emotional component when talking about eroticism.  I think that a good pop culture reference that shows how sex can tend to be meaningless while eroticism involves emotion would be the show How I Met Your Mother.

 The character Barney Stinson epitomizes how sex can be illustrated as meaningless with no emotional connection between the two parties involved. Season after season for the majority of the show's stay on TV, Barney would always brag about his conquests of multiple bimbos he would meet at the bar, have a one night stand with and subsequently kick out or leave depending on if they went to his place (which happened the majority of the time) or vice versa.  In one episode, he even went so far to create a March Madness-type bracket with women to discover which of his old "girlfriends" is telling other women in his area that he only cares about the sex/one night stand they will have (illustrates the magnitude of his sexual partners, 64+ in quantity).  Throughout the majority of the show, he tries very hard to stay detached to women by creating various failsafe systems so he always has at his disposal a plethora of girls to have sex with (some failsafe a include a breast augmentation surgeon, lawyer with a class action case against his breast augmentation surgeon when they realize he's a fraud, breast reduction surgeon [this particular grouping is cyclical in nature with one leading to next and so on]).  He even has a "playbook" and "bro code" (with a fictitious history attached to it that he treats like a bible) that he references constantly for a good 90% of the show. 

In essence, this show illustrates how not all sex has meaning and emotion behind it. 

Kim, Matt, Amber and I's Creation Story

I think it's safe to say my group took a decent amount of influence (with our own twists) from the Aborigine's (Australian) creation story that was apart of our reading last week.  We decided to use two deities, which we thought was fairly different since most creation stories/religions in general that we knew about revolved around one god or many gods.  I'm pretty sure we are going along the path that our first god (a male) ends up creating the second god (a female) with stuff happening in between (not wanting to give too much away). After researching a little bit, it seems like there are a few other creation stories (specifically from Egypt and Mesopotamia in this link http://historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistoriesResponsive.asp?historyid=ab83 ) that involve two deities at the start. How ours differ from these seem to be that here is less/no conflict with our gods while their gods have a lot of conflict between them. 

My Travels (or lack thereof)

I want to give a quick autobiography of myself before I go in-depth of my travels.  My name is Alan.  I am majoring in Business/IT here at Middle Georgia State University.  I've been living in Warner Robins ever since I was four years old.


I was born raised for the first four years of my life in Tucson, Arizona (toward the southern border of the state near Mexico).  Sometime during that summer, we ended up moving from Tucson to Warner Robins over the course of a few days by driving the whole distance with a few breaks in between.  I honestly remember very little from the whole experience, which is a shame in the grand scheme of my travels.  Other than that lengthy cross country trip, my feet have been firmly planted in Warner Robins except for an occasional trip to Florida to visit family.  My travel has been limited, at least when it comes to school trips for band or an honors classed in middle school, due to my severe peanut allergy I have had since I was two years old.  Since my allergy is much more manageable as a responsible adult (and, in my opinion, has also gotten less severe), taking trips will be much easier and more of something i would like to do.  Hearing about trips from friends who went on them throughout school has motivated me to travel more once I'm a little older and have more time on my hands.