Becoming Adequate is Enough

That title makes this sound far worse than it really is...

Several years ago I played solitary on the computer frequently. The version I used didn't have just one version of the game. I really enjoyed picking a version and trying to figure it out as I played. I even made a list of them (I can probably delete that draft in my emails now...).

Escalator -- can't win
First Law -- brainless but long
Fortress -- can't win
Fortunes  -- can't figure out
Forty Thieves -- can't win
Freecell -- ok
Gaps -- annoying
Giant
Glenwood
Gold Mine -- annoying
Golf
Gypsy -- tough
Hopscotch -- annoying
Isabel -- a bigger Jamestown
Jamestown -- brainless
Jumbo -- fun
Kansas -- ok
King Albert -- fun
Klondike
Labyrinth
Lady Jane -- ok
Maze --can't figure out
Monte Carlo -- ok
Napoleon's Tomb -- can't figure out
Neighbor
Odessa
Osmosis -- fun
Peek -- same as Osmosis
Pileon -- interesting
Plait -- ok
Poker -- can't figure out
Quatorze -- ok
I think what I liked best was trying t figure it out, not so much the actual game. Just the other day while talking to my brother I began to wonder if that is what I like about school too... or at least switching majors. Not only that, I told someone the other day that I have gone sking once, and enjoyed it but I wonder if after I got decent at it if I would really enjoy continuing... I'm not sure. But it makes me curious and wonder if I'm flaky (not truly flighty because I do like to finish what I start but still).

Being Brave

I remember playing in the church parking lot when I was a kid while waiting for my parents. There was a storm drain there and I usually avoided it but occasionally I would walk on it and it would give me a little thrill of fear or excitement or whatever.
Now I am not one to scare myself or seek thrills but the other day I went to a frozen lake with some people and there was a rope swing and we were swinging out over the lake and it was a lot of fun. One of the people said something along the line of me being brave. What was interesting is that to me that wasn't a big deal. Instead, the part that I was initially hesitant about was going in the first place to hang out with people (some I didn't know very well) for a day and a half. Although, it didn't give me the same thrill of fear or excitement, but it was a similar experience. This summer when I wrote about subbing for my professor that was an experience I was not ready for but I enjoyed and before hand I felt an almost giddy nervousness that was much the same as walking on storm drains (you might fall in!).

I'm not exactly sure what I want to say about all this, but perhaps something about growth (I can walk over storm drains without fear now), or stepping outside our comfort zones and how it can be exciting.

Religious Freedom

A couple of weeks ago I saw an advertisement for an art/slogan/paragraph contest about--you guessed it--religious freedom. I like doing creative things once and awhile, and it is always nice to have a reason to do it, and I think religious freedom is important so I decided to participate.
My first thought was how religious freedom is something that previous generations havre really sacrificed for. The Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower were persecuted for their religious beliefs and thus came to America. Anne Hutchinson was an early American (1630s) who was banished from her home in the Massachusetts Bay Colony because she believed differently from the other Puritans who lived there. They sacrificed for their own religious freedom, but they didn't really encourage religious freedom in others. (Pennsylvania's beginning is probably a better example of true religious freedom but I don't know as much about it and I don't have ancestors from there).
Later, Mormon pioneers crossed the American plains in order to find religious freedom for themselves. Although, I'm not convinced religious freedom has been done well in America it has been a significant theme.
However, this idea wasn't working for me (maybe because I know too much history...) so I tried another line of thought. I remember once in highschool my history teacher asked if we thought politicians, judges, etc. should keep their religious views seperate from their political policies. In one of my unguarded moments I think I replied that that was stupid and impossible. I stick to that statement. If someone is truly religious they have internalized the precepts of their faith and those precepts will then affect the decisions they make and the way they look at their world. Which is not to say that everyone who belongs to one religion or even one religious sect are going to think about political issues the same way. I chose to do my picture more along these lines. Here is my current version.

Here is the finished version.

Religious Freedom

A couple of weeks ago I saw an advertisement for an art/slogan/paragraph contest about--you guessed it--religious freedom. I like doing creative things once and awhile, and it is always nice to have a reason to do it, and I think religious freedom is important so I decided to participate.
My first thought was how religious freedom is something that previous generations havre really sacrificed for. The Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower were persecuted for their religious beliefs and thus came to America. Anne Hutchinson was an early American (1630s) who was banished from her home in the Massachusetts Bay Colony because she believed differently from the other Puritans who lived there. They sacrificed for their own religious freedom, but they didn't really encourage religious freedom in others. (Pennsylvania's beginning is probably a better example of true religious freedom but I don't know as much about it and I don't have ancestors from there).
Later, Mormon pioneers crossed the American plains in order to find religious freedom for themselves. Although, I'm not convinced religious freedom has been done well in America it has been a significant theme.
However, this idea wasn't working for me (maybe because I know too much history...) so I tried another line of thought. I remember once in highschool my history teacher asked if we thought politicians, judges, etc. should keep their religious views seperate from their political policies. In one of my unguarded moments I think I replied that that was stupid and impossible. I stick to that statement. If someone is truly religious they have internalized the precepts of their faith and those precepts will then affect the decisions they make and the way they look at their world. Which is not to say that everyone who belongs to one religion or even one religious sect are going to think about political issues the same way. I chose to do my picture more along these lines. Here is my current version.

Different Majors, Different People Or How Dirt Changes Relationships

The other day I overheard a conversation between two of my roommates, a buisness major, and a law major. They were talking about manipulating there professors into becoming friends with them so that they could call their professors by their first names, and have lunch with them, etc. One of them was super excited because one of the emails they got back from their professor was only signed with their first name.
I couldn't help but laugh. All of those things have happened to me and I have in no way tried to create such a relationship. I don't think it has anything to do with me, and it has all to do with the majors. Granted, as a master's student you have more one on one interaction with professors, but even as an undergrad I had professors invite us to use their first names and talk about life with them. I remember specifically on the field school I attended my professor telling us that in the field we could call him by his first name, and another professor in our capstone class did the same.
So why is it different? I'm not sure but some of the reasons I could see for it is that the majors I've been in tend to be smaller (and thus more intimate), they include a more casual set of people (we like to dig in the dirt! how formal can you be?), they put less focus on appearances (dirt again!), and they usually have more opportunities to have informal interactions (time in the field... or in others words dirt).

Real formal, right?

I had known before that majors were different. There is a reason afterall, that there are sterotypes of engineers, english majors and business students. I just hadn't realized quite so much, that the people are genuinely different types of people. They look at the world differently and that is why they are perhaps, interested in the subjects that they are, because the very subject is a way of looking at the world.