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What's With All These Rules?

2006-06-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

When I began reading the segment from The Rules on how a woman should never initiate conversation with a man they are interested in my first thoughts were "This is rediculous, and amazingly un-p.c., even in 1995. How was this so popular?" I also thought that maybe I need to get caught up in some more reading, cause I never knew there were all these rules for women. The rules for men are much more simple I believe, and number much less then those that are listed in The Rules: Time-tested Secrets of Capturing the Heart of Mister Right. For us it goes something like this: "She is attractive, go talk to her. She doesn't annoy me, ask her out on a date. Date went good, I didn't embarass myself and she seemed to like me, ask her out for another. Wow, I really like her personality and she still wants to be seen with me in public, maybe this is going somewhere."

So this was my mindset as I began reading this segment, and I was shocked that women in this modern era would talk about the error of approaching a man. I always have liked it when a woman approached me, as it took alot of legwork and guessing, and fear of rejection, out of the game plan. As I kept reading, however, I began to understand the philosophy that they were working with. There is a human biology element in everything that we do as people, all of it just beyond conscious purpose. I began to realize that those situations where the girl would approach me would always leave me with some sense that it was different and something just was not "right" about it.

Now I began looking at the writing in a different mindset. In this day and age gender roles have come a great long way. This is a great thing for all of society in my opinion. The world is a better place when both genders are in a cohesive exsistence, policies are much more rounded and sensible as women have great mindsets and ideas that men just don't come up with. As they always say, don't put all of your eggs in one basket, and integrating women to their rightful place in the working world has done just that.

However, this has also gone a long way in confusing the dating world. I began to see the reasoning in The Rules. There is something in human nature that exsists when a man pursues a woman, and it is not something that is chauventistic or male ego-driven. It may be, instead, the natural course that determines the right and wrong way to do things. We know that there are many natural "rules" that exsist in life, ones that seem so natural to us but come from something greater than ourselves. This seems to be one of those "rules".

None of this is to say that women must take a backseat to men in a relationship. If you get that vibe from my comments then either I am coming across the wrong way or you have some other issues with this subject, and you should examine those closer. Equal opportunity relationships is what it is all about, and neither party should feel like they are getting crowded out or ignored by the other. It is very important to feel your place of importance in a relationship. In the same light there are somethings that work just because that is the way they are designed to. Men have fragile ego's that need to be fed from time to time; girls I know you know this is true! Part of that is the man knowing that he pursued the woman of his desire and he succeeded. This is a part of human nature, not to be fought but to be understood. This is a very difficult concept in the world today, as many women are very independent and do many things on their own and don't look to, and wait for, a man's direction. This is how it should be when making working decisions, but when it comes to a man and a woman coming together there is a game that must be played. And we all love games don't we?

What in Tarnation?

2006-06-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

I happened to come into the movie after it had started, about maybe 15 or so minutes in. I have a thing with watching movies with absolutely no background knowledge: it's always more entertaining to me when you have no idea what might happen next and anything, it seems, could happen. This, however, took that experience to new heights. It has been quite a long time since a movie has left me stunned, fucked up and speechless. When we were asked at the end of class to give our opinions I was left in some kind of daze, something dreamlike and meditative in a way. The mixture of emotions is what did it. It was like some kind of drug cocktail, and I needed a minute to come down. So now I will see if I have regained some kind of sense and hopefully I will be able to examine my emotions from a much more level perspective.

Sadness. Confusion. Emptiness. Disgust. Curiosity. All of these running through me at once. That's what created the "high". I guess looking at that I would have to say that Tarnation was one of the most impactful, and ultimately better, movies I have seen. After examining the content though, it has to be one of the most disgusting, disturbing films ever witnessed. It captured the creepiness that was Requiem For A Dream and made it so much more real. I could feel myself becoming more lost, more confused as the movie progressed, much like Jonathan felt in his own life. I could also feel strong disgust, as I had to turn my head through some of the scenes. It was disgusting to see such a young kid be involved in the lifestyles that Jonathan was involved in, and to know that there is no one in his life to offer guidance other than the individuals are were part of his social circles.

The most prevelant emotion that was present in me was amazement. I was amazed at the complexity of his life, the amount of emotion pressure and anguish, amuzement, happiness and everything in between. I was amazed at the way the film was presented, the way that Jonathan was able to film at 11 years old. I was amazed at the ablity of Jonathan to take all of this mess in his life and focus it for some kind of purpose instead of letting it all drown him out entirely. The most amazing part is how many other people in this life share similar stories of such crazy situations they must encounter on a day-to-day basis, some self-inflicted and some out of their control. Of all the tragedies, humor, and dramas written in the history of man, all of the most extreme examples are drawn upon from human experience. The majority of us are shielded from the truth that the most disturbing stories are being written anew every day that we are alive. When we see something like this we are usually shocked and disgusted because we wonder "How are there still people in this great, modern country of ours that live lives like this?", and we all probably feel some kind of fault or failure as a people that we have not been able to confront or help alleviate the problems faced in Jonathan's life. We are taken offense to these things because we must confront the fact that there are so many situations in life that are beyond our control, and we all wonder whether we would have the fortitude to withstand such traumas in our lives; grateful that terrible things have not invaded our lives but frightened that today could be the last "normal" day of our lives.

It was my mind grasping with these ideas, and the insight that balance and harmony in our lives is so precious and could be disrupted at any moment, that lead to my dreamlike state at the end of this movie. And for all of the disgust and sadness and other emotions that flooded me, it is that ultimate realization of what is important to yourself in life, and what we are truly greatful for, that can make a movie great. Tarnation has successfully done this, and so I must applaud the teacher for viewing this movie, even if I found it sick, eerie and disturbing.

Evaluating Virtual Communities

2006-06-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

I chose to further explore virtual, or online, communities for the simple fact that I want to further my understanding of these communities. They are very intriguing to me on a personal level as I try to see how this technology changes our social behaviors, and also on a professional level as it relates to marketing and understanding trends in the social network of the Internet. Social networking sites are the newest in a line of advancements that completely change the fabric of popular society. They also force one to examine the challenges they present to our current definitions of community, which I will attempt to outline.

Maybe the most startling aspects of an online communtity are the fact that they allow for complete anonymity while at the same time allow for individuals to expose their most deepest and personal aspects of their character to another, forging this sense of unity with a complete stranger. Very intersting how such opposites usually find themselves together when it comes to groundbraking social phenomonons, and it probably speaks to why it is such a phenonom in the first place. This leads to new boundaries for a community. It is now a faceless communtity that is tied together by such deep, personal interets that were much harder to hold venue before. It also forces the question, what makes up a community, and what type of interactions are necessary for a community to exsist?

When considering a social networking site, it is impossible to ignore the fact that it is in itself a community, though very broad and involving many interests. It is a community made up of individuals that have sought to express themselves through an online venue. Inside of this community lie many, many different walks of life with greatly opposing interests. It is possible for a vegetarian and a butcher to be linked together, either through common friends or friend of friends, and through shared interests that would otherwise never be known to exsist. Definitions of community are now certainly being challenged in ways not thought possible even as soon as 10 years ago!

Nietzsche Quote

2006-05-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here is what I have to say about the Nietzsche quote. Please feel free to comment...

What is Nietzsche saying about identity?

He is saying that a large part of ones identity is following commands, and that following these commands fulfils a basic need that is inherent in all humans. We as humans require definition to make sense of anything, whether it be a literal definition like in a dictionary, or definitions as in parameters. This is where Nietzsche’s observation falls. He is saying that by our vary nature we seek out and fulfill orders that are like moral commands. It gives us a sense of togetherness, that is, it gives us definition of character. These are the basic building blocks upon which we build our lives; the types of professions we choose, the kinds of relationships that we create, music and clothing preferences. All of these things, which are all considered to be indicators of our identity, stem from these basic commands that are at the root of our identity.

How is his claim different or similar from the authors that we have read so far?

His claim gives us some insight into some of the claims that were made by the authors. The
authors all made claims that mainly dealt with more of the surface or visible features that give us our identity. When we look at a woman and we don’t see the long hair that we are accustomed to, and then say she looses her feminine features, this really stems back to what we have been commanded to accept as feminine features, whether that commandment has come from our religion, parents and other adult influences as we grow up, through the media, all of these sources give commandments of some sort as to what is acceptable, and we build our identities from this. So I feel that his claim is very similar to what a lot of the authors have said, he just looks at it at a more fundamental level.

In the digital age, is the notion of leaders and followers more complicated?

The notion of leaders and followers may have become more complicated as there has been an expansion, due to technological advances, of ways to get a message across. However, the basic rules of leaders and followers apply, it just has taken on new forms, as well as keeping the old ones. The internet has completely revolutionized the way we are able to communicate in the world today. As a result of this, commandments can be broadcast from anyone to anyone in the world. This has allowed “sect-like” influencing to take place, mostly due to chat rooms, discussions boards, and blogging. It is now much easier to reach a willing audience because anyone searching to hear your message now has the power to go out and find you, no matter any distance, and even language is no longer a barrier. Because of all this, it is much more difficult to define the traditional leader-follower role, leaders can now be grown in different areas and from different backgrounds, and with the digital age there comes new types of leaders and followers. However, the same tactics are used and a lot of the same messages are being broadcast, and that can all be tied back to Nietzsche’s quote and observation that it is a fundamental need of humans to have commandments dictate their morality, and we will fulfill that need with content, and we will get that content however we can.

Testing, testing

2006-05-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just another post to see if my blogroll worked. Let me know if I missed anyones, I know I did. Go Pistons!

2006-05-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

Whats is up everyone? Just chillin' here...putting up the first comments of the semester. What does everyone think of the class? I hope that all of us get to open up and get to find ourselves together..it would be so spiritual! Haha, just messin, but I do look forward to getting to know everyone in the class and dicussing all of the different topics together. Hit me up with some comments some time, its cool to know what other people are thinking. Well, I'm not payin attention in class so I better hit it, talk to ya'll lata'. Peace