On New Year's Eve

If you were to aske me if I wanted to go stand in the middle of a street with a million other people (yes its actually close to a million people I looked it up on Wikipedia,) wear weird glasses, and get frost biten toes, I would have to politely decline.

It is a rather odd tradition, our normal New Year's Eve.  I am sure it is quite an experience to be in Times Square while people hoot and holler in you ears.  For me I would much rather be at home where I can get a better view of the ball and have the ability to turn down the volume of the jubilant celebrators.  If I am at home I could also watch the drop live at 11 and then not bother staying up to watch it again at 12.

Some people love the ball drop, but I personally don't consider it that special.  Sure, it is a big and colorful ball, but it doesn't really "drop."  It  just slides very slowly down a pole and makes some numbers light up.  It happens every year, and the only change makes you write the date incorrectly for a week.  I remember when I was little and first learned of the ball drop, I initially thought of a disco ball.  This was followed in short succession by an image of someone cutting the string and a falling disco ball, a real "ball drop."  That made me wonder if the ball would break, and then what a broken or shattered disco ball would look like.  In my mind it is much like a pile of silver glitter.

Despite my personal views, Times Square is full every single year.  It is obvious that others think differently of this celebration.   There is value in the experience, and that's what draws the big crowds.  Maybe someday I will also value this opportunity and wish to see it live, but that is not now.  Now it is just good for a few days off.

How to Write Good

In the Wake of Tragedy

This past week was a hard one at that.  With the passing of a classmate and then the school shooting in Connecticut, I wish that I had some sort of deep and profound words, but then again, don't we all.  Here in a rather dark post I will give my take on death and the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll come out and say that I haven't had much personal experience with death.  All of my grandparents and one of my great-grandparents are still living.  The only other two great-grandparents I knew died when I was in the first few years of elementary school.  Before the second of them died, my mom had gone out east to visit one last time.  She called with the news and my dad told me.  From what I can remember I really didn't have any initial reaction.  It wasn't until after my sister got emotional that I felt more. It is hard to predict your response to death, and thinking about others dying is just depressing.

In our society death is always something that is feared.  However, this fear is more or less only an enlarged child-like fear of the dark.  Both are the fear of the unknown, but in one case there is a light-switch available.  I am not sure if this fear that we have is warranted.  I know there have been times when I have both feared, and not feared death, but if it is listed behind public speaking, like it often is, I should be alright.

I don't have much to say about David and the events in Connecticut.  Both cases are very sad, but I don't have much of a connection to either.  They are not much, but my condolences go to families and friends in both cases.  It's not that I'm an emotionless robot, but I don't show much as a result of death, so I sit here typing stone-faced about these events claiming that I'm sad.

Hate

Narration

When in elementary school, there was another kid that really made me mad.  In the classroom or on the playground, there was something about him that just didn’t sit well with me.  For some reason or another one day I told my mom I hated him.  Her reply, “You don’t really hate him. Try to be his friend.”  Of course that made me more mad, but I realized she was right.  I didn’t hate him after that I just strongly disliked him.

Description

A dark figure slinks, sneaking in the shadows.  It waits for the right moment to be called upon.  Anyone and anything can provoke it to rise out of anger.  It is ready in an instant to grow, to swell, into a fiery demon driven with emotion.  No matter how much water you pour on its fire, the flame will not be doused.  Forever, internally flickering, waiting for kindling, another spark to return, take control, and consume you with its presence.

Example

Possibly the oldest hate rivalries are religious.  Why we must bash each other over what higher power we do or do not praise seems crazy to me.  There are plenty of ways prove you are superiority to someone else, say, a game of rock-paper-scissors, or better yet a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.  Yet humans often resort to physical violence.  For thousands of years the Arabs and Israelis have fought each other because neither has been able to see past their hate for the other.  Tom Lehrer shed some light on this with his carefree chords.  “Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Hindus hate the Muslims, and everybody hates the Jews.”

Compare/Contrast

There is a definite difference between hate and anger.  They are certainly connected. Anger is usually the precursor to hate or the beginning stage.  Yet hate and anger are miles apart.  Anger is petty, and comes from simple everyday life situation that prove irritating.  It comes and goes easily with the passing moments, and can easily be suppressed.  Hate rarely comes in the spur of the moment.  It is taught and learned from repeated anger, conditioned into existence.  You must work to control hate.  Unfortunately, hate towards someone or something can never be fully obliterated.  It always lingers, even after it is resolved.

Process Analysis

Hate: A How to Guide.  Why would you ever want to intentionally hate?  I don’t know, but here are my NUMBER steps to hatred.  One, find something that annoys you, something irritating.  This could be something new or something you have already been exposed to.  Two, surround yourself with this nuisance, but don’t accept its being.  Deny its existence until it eats at you.  Then, relieve yourself.  Separate from it.  Live without it.  Forget about it.  Feel how nice it is, to live without this pestering nuisance.  Finally, go back to it.  Let it return to your life.  At first you will be able to deal with it.  Next you will build up the same anger you had before.  Then it will consume you with utter loathing.  You will be pushed to the brink, and will fall into the endless pit of hate.

Division of Analysis

Do not be too quick to jump to the conclusion that you hate something.  Hate is the top rung of a very tall ladder.  Underneath it are many feelings that may cause the “I hate this” utterance.  On the bottom is simple dislike.  In my opinion it is follow by abhor.  I have always found this a funny word and can’t quite take it seriously, so it is not very high on the hate scale. Next we have despise and detest.  These are the gateway into the harsher malevolence, rancor, and loathing.  All of these feelings are slightly different and are present in different situations.  However, none of them are parallel to pure hate.

Classification

Hatred appears readily in children’s stories and movies.  The evil doer, always a solitary person radiates hatred.  There is never a reason for their hate, but they are evil and out to get anyone who is not.  Often these characters are either so evil that they are destroyed in the end, or are deep down just kind and misunderstood people.  In a way it is disappointing that there is never reason fro their anger and hate, it just seems to be their natural disposition.

Cause and Effect

Scientific studies have linked the brain activity of love and hate.  Although they are opposite feelings, their source involves the same areas of the brain.  The “hate circuit” when stimulated by some environment produces a reaction of aggression and anger in the brain translating to hatred.

Definition

“Hate: a feeling of intense or passionate dislike.” Hate does not deserve its own definition.  It is not something that can stand alone on its own.  All that I have said up to this point is moot.  Hate is not a thing, it is a vacancy a hole, a pit.  It is the absence of love, much the same way that cold is the absence of heat.  It is a destructive and powerful thing, or non-thing, that tears people apart.

Argument/Persuasion

So what do we do about hate?  I will call upon the good Dr. King for that. “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear” because “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  Therefore I propose we set out in love to do battle against the hate that has manifested itself in our world.  It will never fully be driven away, but can be pushed to the smallest corner of the most remote region of the earth.

When I googled hatred this came up.  I found the comments quite amusing, specially the top comment by TanongSak and the comments on it. 

Hawaii Day

At my elementary school there were annual activities that took place in every grade.  One of these events that I remember more keenly than others was Hawaii day when I was in the second grade.  It entailed just what its name might imply.  All of the different classes grouped together and took a "trip" to Hawaii for a day filled with exotic fun and games.

We began our journey seated to the islands on the flight there.  Fortunately it lasted all of eight minutes instead of the eight hours it would have taken to get there.  Shortly upon arriving we set up our spot on the beach (or the gymnasium floor) with our beach towel, which we had been instructed to bring, in our   tropical clothes, that we had been instructed to wear.  The rest of the day turned into a magical island experience.  We had scavenger hunts on the island play ground, made colorful leis, and grass skirts.  Nothing could have topped the day of better than the poi snack in the afternoon.  It is fond memory that I am sure we all remember.

This day emphasized culture and knowledge that comes with exposure to different places.  I am unaware if that day was supposed to have education implications, probably because I was to busy attempting a hula dance.  I now realize the importance of travel in education.  I thank my parents for all of the opportunities that they have given my sister and I to see the world.  I feel that there is a very good connection between my time my family spent on trips and the well rounded academics that I take part in.

For years our spring break tips took my family all around the country, and only occasionally included time spent relaxing on a beach.  Even when we actually did go to Hawaii we spent a good deal of time hiking the Napali coast of Kauai.  Other trips consisted of museums and historical monuments that inspired imagination.  These trips encouraged me to imagine, and cause me to invest time in research both before and after trips.  I wanted to emulate my parents, who are both very smart in their own regard.

While I may have not realized it at the time, Hawaii day was the beginning of an adventure abroad that has brought me to thirty-some odd states and four countries outside the U.S.  I know that I have been very fortunate to see a variety of places and believe that my academics were positively affected by this. I am still a long way from getting, or even looking, for a job, but my experiences have given me an advantage and inspiration to find something that I will love.

Why the Vikings Need to Make It to the Super Bowl

I do not consider myself a Vikings fan.  Even though I have lived in Minnesota for most of my life I have never had a strong attraction to purple and gold.  I check the scores in the newspaper on Monday morning, occasionally watch some of the games on TV, and I even went to a preseason game once, but nothing has sparked my interest.  The much disputed new stadium bill passed and a new stadium is on the way.  With a loss today to the Packers they sit with an even 6-6 record, and it is unlikely they will actually make it to the Super Bowl, but they to do something to earn their new stadium

If fans could get a team to the Super Bowl I am sure that Vikings fans would find a way to do it.  Crazy guys dress up and paint their bald heads purple every week for the game.  They yell, scream, hoot, and holler, 'til the veins in their neck pop out and they resemble real vikings (minus the purple).  The other thing about Vikings fans is that they are whole-hearted and true to their team.  The Vikings fans I know are not fair weather fans.  They stick with their team through the good, and grit their teeth through the bad, and always criticizing the Saints for 2010.  I am an exception, an oddity to the Vikings fan norm, but I don't consider myself a fan, so it shouldn't even matter.  Their fan base is plenty and far-reaching, and these fans deserve some well earned payout.  The last few years have been uncharacteristically bad for the Vikings, and even though I said their fans were loyal, a losing season would not help there support. 

The team may not be as strong as it has been in the past, but they have plenty of capable players both young and old.  Defensive players like Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield provide leadership, and young players like Matt Kalil have stepped up into big shoes. And the talented Adrian Peterson leads the 3rd best rushing attack in the league.  All I will say about Christian Ponder is that he is doing what is to be expected from him, sometimes more, and sometimes less.  He is a very young quarterback maybe an investment in him will pay off, or maybe we will still be in the same situation in five years.  Either way they aren't a team comprised of all stars, nor one of complete nincompoops.  Just like all other Minnesota sports teams they should be good enough to win, and win more 50% of the time.  But for some reason they still don't.

If only, if only the woodpecker sighs, fanatic fans, and a half decent team could win a championship.  The beginning of this year seemed to be looking up from last year.  Every week in the Star Tribune's game recap they give the outlook of the team.  A few weeks in the outlook was "Horns Up", but I have seen an increase in "Horns Down" lately.  There has been plenty of finger-pointing, and lots of jaw-wagging, but nothing has been done.  Someone needs to step up and do something.  I believe they are capable, but change is necessary.  They are getting a new stadium in a few years, and the team that is playing now doesn't deserve it.