back.
and it feels good.
I ran away to a Wordpress home for a brief period of time in an attempt to create a community, an alternate space for my travels. But it didn’t feel like me, it became very strange and for most of the time it felt forced.
For those who are unaware, over the past six months, I have gone from the warm confines of California, to the harsh reality of the Northwest Territories. From there, I landed in a nice but similarly frosty town in the Alberta North.
I am in Lac La Biche. I write for a living at the Lac La Biche Post, a weekly news publication. Despite the articles that I am forced to write, and the edits that I need to make on a daily basis, I still desperately want to continue writing in a space that allows me to say what I want.
And if there is anyone out there that still reads or follows this.
cool.
New Blog: Cold in a Cabin
Since moving to the Northwest Territories, I have started a new blog to catalogue and chronicle my experiences.. I will still write occasional posts on ‘The Things we Learned’
However, if you’d like to follow my new blog: http://coldcabin.wordpress.com/
Education Adaptation.
It seems strange to me that an institution such as high school education, charged with perhaps the most important task of sharpening and teaching young minds, is failing to adapt to our growing technological world. For example, computer programs are for the mostpart solving both simple and complex mathematical equations, and yet many children are pressured by parents, colleges, and the school systems themselves to enroll in classes such as: Advanced Calculus, Trigonometry, and Senior Level Physics.
Why is this? If machines are already capable of preforming and understanding these complex tasks at a much quicker rate than any human at this age bracket, why should we spend so much time on these areas, if the only benefit is critical thinking skills. It would seem to me that these critical thinking skills could be harnessed and developed in a more beneficial course such as Computer Science or Economics. And even if you eliminate machines and programs, the percentage of students that actually utilize these equations and information after graduation is extremely low.
So, if machines can do it, and students aren’t using the information anyway, why aren’t we seeing more classes centered around Public Speaking, Financial Planning, or Simple Home Improvements. If this is a time for learning, why isn’t it utilized? I understand that the above classes in question are usually not mandatory, and may well be commonly avoided, but what about a mandatory class like Career Studies? A strange array of personality and IQ-tests that are said to help “determine your strengths”. I hate to be the bearer of obvious news here, but no amount of aptitude testing will reveal your career in high school. I don’t know a single person that was able to correctly predict their future career based on this class.
And yet we continue to make Career Studies, and intro Math into necessary classes. If we truly want to look at an overhaul of the education system for the year 2012 and beyond, a mandatory course on the effects of Social Media Communication, or a class centered on understanding Financial Loans, Banking, and the importance of Saving, would easily be more important and more useful for students entering post secondary education or the working world.
It is time for a complete revision of the standard high school curriculum, technology advances need to be determined at the course level, not on how many SmartBoards or PowerPoint projectors each classroom is outfitted with.
thin slicing.
I recently finished a book by Malcolm Gladwell, called Blink. The premise of the book explores how quickly and efficiently your mind can make snap decisions. The concept is called ‘thin slicing’, and happens so rapidly you are rarely consciously aware it is happening at all! And yet, we apparently thin slice our environments all the time! I can personally think of one example within my own experience that articulates this two second thin slice of information quite easily: I find that, without fail, I tend to quickly gaze at a bookshelf or at some form of literary material present in a given house or apartment, for the sole purpose of gathering more information about the people that live there.
Is it wrong to base an assumption off of something so trivial as a collection of books? Probably. However, i’ve found that in most cases I can identify with something on that shelf that aides in the inevitable ‘small talk’ phase of the evening, and because this particular thin slicing tends to work, i’ve stuck with it.
The book goes on to articulate different scenarios where thin slicing becomes an important tool for police officers sizing up potential criminal, or psychologists analyzing a marriage. For those that are trained to understand facial features and emotional changes in a person, thin slicing actually becomes more like mind reading, as tests have proven that professionals can indeed get an accurate depiction of a persons thoughts or plans based on thin slicing and categorizing their facial emotions.
I won’t go into too much psycho-analytics, Malcolm Gladwell does a much better job of that in his book. I just find it interesting how quickly and efficiently the brain can interpret symbols and patterns within our environments. So much so that we don’t even realize how crucial this is for our survival.
Why I haven’t been Writing…
I have had a noticeable lack of updates recently, and it isn’t because I have a lack of ideas, or am severely depressed (although considering my last post…). In all honesty there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to update everything. I actually wrote a blog about this a while back:
http://snoo.ws/index.php/2011/08/02/will-blogging-be-the-first-social-medium-to-go/
The real reason why I haven’t been updating this blog recently is that I have started a new social media endeavor with a good friend of mine.
Check it out.
I am not shutting the door on The Things We Learned, it still holds value to me and I am sure it will get updated from time to time. However, it will be taking a back seat to The Social Meter, as my friend and myself go through the painful yet exciting challenges of launching a website.
how to cure an uninspired state.
I haven’t written a blog post for some time now, and quite frankly I don’t feel like writing one now, but these online journals are a good way to get thoughts out, so what the hell.
The reason I haven’t written anything substantial is simply that I haven’t been inspired, challenged, or excited to write anything substantial lately. I hear about all sorts of great techniques for being a better writer, like you should write for at least half an hour everyday, or instead of a time you should go for something more concrete like ten pages of microsoft word print a day. Now, thats all well and good, and I wish I was that disciplined and driven, but I just haven’t been, and believe me moping about doesn’t cure a damn thing.
I’ve racked my brain this past week trying to find out exactly why I haven’t felt like doing anything, and i’ve come up with these simple yet realistic reasons why:
1) my current habitat. I haven’t lived with my parents for five years, so being back under their roof is surely stunting my creativity.
2) outside stress. financial situations aside, when my mind is constantly thinking about other things, my creative juices run very dry, very quickly.
3) sheer boredom. this has more to do with my current place of residence than it does with my nature, I love doing things, going out, and being with people, however when you aren’t frequently in Canada, and even less frequently in Brantford, most of the connections you’ve made have either gone, or are no longer connections.
4) work. work. work. as a cure for my financial situation i’m taking as many extra shifts as possible, this is a good thing, it keeps me busy and keeps the boredom at bay, however it doesn’t allow for my writing or creativity, and its not so interactive with others.
So how do I cure this. the easiest way is by curing reason 1. habitat move. and while plans are in the works, its more of a waiting game at this point. So, perhaps I should just wait for that strike of creativity to hit me over the head, maybe read some Heideggar or Dostoevsky to allow me to go wild again. Or perhaps this pattern really is completely connected to my habitat, and will thus stay a pattern until that habitat changes…either way, i’ll know soon enough.
When Kerouac Met Dostoyevsky.
A fantastic article about two of my favorite authors.
well worth a read.
http://www.booktryst.com/2011/06/when-kerouac-met-dostoyevsky.html
