Instant Gratification

Who doesn't want that?! But I believe that many of the problems of the Western World are due to the desire for instant gratification. Crime is often spurred simply by an uncontrolled urge to possess something that you don't have, up to and including power. The uncontrolled urge for power is an inherent weakness--even evil knows that gratification cannot always be instant!

Patience is a virtue; I need some NOW!

Here is the deal: children really need to be taught to delay their gratification. Seriously. Because I hate it when I see adults that never learned. Respecting others requires a delay of gratification as well at times. This will benefit you as well, in the long run. For example, you probably should not walk up to a complete stranger, grab them by the hand, serenade them with a love song, then ask for their hand in marriage. Um, bizzare! (although oddly entertaining as a possibility)

Remember "Good things come to those who wait" (Unknown author, English origin)

Well, it is true, but having a positive mindset definitely pays off too! You have to believe that those good things are coming, and work toward removing obstacles to their arrival! Maybe there should be a class in schools on how to plan/manage one's life. It should be required! Learn how to make goals, then set up practical steps to their achievement. Yeah, that's the ticket! Most teenagers today don't know what they want to do, where they want to be in life, much less how to get there.

Here is an interesting related thread with a thought-provoking psychological bent:

http://www.bordeglobal.com/foruminv/index.php?showtopic=16703

Well, enough specific randomosity for one day...

Sleep Viewpoints

I keep thinking of ideas to write about, but I am swamped by work and half the time I think of the ideas after I am already in bed. It is not restful. Randomosity regarding sleep follows.

Sleep. Most of us know we need to get more of it, but assume that we can sleep when we retire, someday, on vacation, whatever. Sleep is vital. Yet, when your body screams out for it, you drag yourself from bed to "be productive." Yeah, right, the body says. I'll show you! So your day of productivity turns into an endless slog of mind-numbing effort to little avail. Exactly. Like when I stay up late to finish a project, yet could have gone to bed (assuming I could sleep, but that is another story) and worked much more productively after a few blissful hours of rest.

Sometimes sleep is not blissful. Due to habits (caffeine for example), late night stimulation (computer and TV are prime culprits), or physical issues (lots of different things, like ulcers or sleep apnea can interfere with sleep, for example) we struggle to drift off to sleep, wake frequently, or just wake up still tired, despite having slept "enough" hours. But who says how much is enough for the individual? Eight hours is an estimate or average, and some will need more, some less. I also tend to need considerably more sleep when I am recuperating from any illness or less than needed sleep for several successive nights!

I like sleep, when it works out. In the mornings, I invariably feel that staying in bed would be excellent. However, I typically have to get up, both due to physical demands and the requirements of responsible living (i.e. working). Sleeping in is the very best sleep I get, when I can get away with it.

On the other hand, getting to sleep at night is rather more of a challenge. I always have a million things to do, and I don't feel relaxed going to bed with a bunch of stuff still undone. My comfort level seems to spread out to a physical level, and the stress and tension of the day bunch up in various parts of my body, leading to an awkward session filled with tossing and turning, plus the ever-present fight with sinus and allergy issues (always exacerbated by the prone position...)

Seriously, I don't want to complain. Well, maybe, but only a little. The main point here is that lack of sleep leads to more physical and mental issues, and then we end up even more unable to function (or sleep!)...

One thing I have been trying to do recently is sleep a certain number of cycles. Lots of good information, including information about the 90 minute sleep cycles, is available at http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm. According to the research we get a better quality of sleep if we complete sleep cycles. The following summary is quoted from the page.

Having a hard time getting up? Take advantage of the 90-minute sleep cycle.

Even if you’ve enjoyed a full night’s sleep, getting out of bed isn’t easy if your alarm goes off when you’re in the middle of the deeper stages of sleep (especially stages 3 and 4). If you want to make mornings less painful, set a wake-up time that’s a multiple of 90 minutes, the length of the average sleep cycle. For example, if you go to bed at 10 p.m., set your alarm for 5:30 (a total of 7 ½ hours of sleep) instead of 6:00 or 6:30. You’ll feel more refreshed at 5:30 than you will with another 30 to 60 minutes of sleep, because you’re getting up when your body and brain are already close to wakefulness.

I don't get the chance to do this every night either. And sometimes when I plan for it, I can't fall asleep soon enough, and it throws the whole thing off. But its a goal to work toward, I suppose. Other factors that are important to getting good rest is to sleep in a dark room (Don't sleep in front of the TV!) and keep sound to a minimum. I guess white noise is okay, but I am personally fond of a quiet sleeping environment. I have become a relatively light sleeper over the years, and frequently find myself awakened by toilets flushing, lawn mowing two houses down, or the warning beep of the trash truck backing up!

Well, that was quite the ramble. Now I think I better go to sleep. Or at least try!

Qwiki: Cool New Website, or Exciting New Technology? Both!

I have discovered a new site that has great potential, as far as I am concerned. Qwiki went live only about a  couple of weeks ago, but it is amazing in concept and has a very attractive presentation. I am already addicted to it! Any time I want to learn about something, I first navigate to Qwiki. Not every single topic known to man is available on Qwiki as yet, but I can see application both in the classroom and as a general reference guide for everyone! I also just think it is fascinating, but that is definitely a reflection of my delight in information and learning in general.

The only issue with Qwiki that I really have currently is the that the computerized voice reading the Qwikis sometimes makes awkward mispronunciations. Actually though, this can be amusing, as when it pronounced, "spacetime" as "spaa-see-time." No really, there is a button to push right on the page which allows you to mention anything you think will improve the Qwiki you just watched (*they are all one minute or less long*), with a place to let the Qwiki team know about pronunciation errors.

The truly exciting part about these very brief Qwikis is that related Qwikis appear at the end of the one you watched, and then more at the end of the next one, which means that if you wish, you can be learning in one minute bites for quite some time. It is like web surfing all in one place. One thing leads to another, and you can watch one in a minute or less, so you still have plenty of time to explore other aspects of the topic, or start over very quickly. Another aspect that I find appealing is that pictures are appearing and moving around that you may click on to expand at anytime.

I think that students and teachers alike should look into this resource! Children can be exposed to a variety of topics or study one in depth. Further developments are in the works, and many more topics will be added in the future.

On a side note, too bad many people think that Wikipedia is a poor source of information. It is not, generally. I for one use it frequently to find information (although I am forbidden by most professors to use the information in writing papers...sadly). The only issue I have with Wikipedia is that there is a great deal of text to wade through, and often it is somewhat repetitive. However, I have done many, many checks for accuracy on information I first found through Wikipedia, and never found wrong information... In fact, the most common way I look things up for papers is by finding it in Wikipedia or another "unacceptable" source, and then using the information that I find to conduct a more precise search for what I want, or using the bibliography from the Wikipedia article, go to the original source of the information. Quite silly that Wikipedia does not have the reputation it deserves!

I can see Qwiki becoming a side-by-side resource for Wikipedia as well. Doug Imbruce, the CEO of Qwiki says, "Information becomes an experience that I can watch." If you go to the Qwiki About Us webpage you can watch the introduction of the concept by the creators of Qwiki, as well as read more about the artificial intelligence that is being developed there. This is a thought-provoking concept, and I am excited about it!

Bucket List

I've been thinking lately of writing a sort of "Bucket List." You know the premise, right? For anyone who doesn't, the name is comes from a movie of that name, where two guys who have cancer have a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket."

I figured I would start early. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, but I think it may take me a good bit of time to complete my list. Also, some of the things will be easier to accomplish earlier in my life, rather than later. I am not one of those women who won't tell my age. I suffer from no illusions about it--I am not yet old, but I am old enough to have felt the touch of mortality. In a little over two years, I will see forty. I neither look nor act like a woman almost forty years old, generally. Most people say they don't believe my age. Physically, I can believe I am getting older. For example, it is considerably more difficult now for me to get into shape (something I started working on again lately!) than when I was in my twenties.

Okay, that was a bit of an aside, but on with my list. I am sure it is not complete, but here is a good start:

 1.  Hike the entire Appalachian Trail. This is a big one, not easily accomplished. However, I have been imagining myself doing so since I was maybe 14 years old, so it definitely belongs at the top of the list. I don't think about it all the time, but I have definitely had it on the back burner of my mind for years.

 2.  See the Pacific Ocean. I was born about 50 miles inland from the Atlantic, and thus, I saw its shores many times. While I have made my way since then to Colorado, I have yet to go much further west. I actually did make it to Arizona for the first time last month. Which brings me to the next one....

 3. Visit every one of the United States. Territories too. Why not? I probably have already visited 30 or more states. I will have to sit down and figure out which ones I have left to visit one of these days. I want to get an RV and hit the road!

 4.  Build my own home. Strawbale, on my own land. And a large greenhouse to go with it.

 5.  Travel to destinations on every continent. I suppose that Antarctica could be excepted, since I don't think there is much in the way of destinations there. For example, a good itinerary might include the Great Barrier Reef (snorkeling) in Australia, riding the Euro Rail on a one-month pass, to see everything I can, the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru, and so on.

  Well, I am exhausted just writing these down! I better get to work on getting in shape, because I am going to need it. Seriously though, I hope that I am able to do all this and more. No, I don't hope, I plan to. And I will, because positivity is the best force for forward momentum in our lives--and besides, it's exciting to plan and work toward these kind of goals, right??

Who Am I?

Who you are is determined in part by your name and physical description, but that is only a small portion of you--other parts contribution to the whole being, which consists of mind, body, soul, maybe more.

We are all created by the sum of our experiences as well, beyond genetics. The nature versus nurture conventional argument is put to the test and comes out time and again to show that both play a role, without doubt. Who we are is the experiences that the world and its inhabitants have placed in our paths, either directly or indirectly. Therefore we are a part of the world, and it is a part of us.We are connected.

John Donne wrote these words in 1624, as a part of a larger work entitled Devotions upon Emergent Occasions:

 

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea, 
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, 
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee. 

I think it is amazing that John Donne created two essentially

everlasting quotations with those words ("No man is an island,

entire of itself" and "  never send to know for whom the bell

tolls it tolls for thee").  I feel the truth in his words, despite the

fact that my mind as easily finds arguments against as for the

concept. Evocative of the essence of life, the words have

retained their fame through almost 400 years! Beyond randomosity,

there lies a land of truths, many of which can be grasped by

traveling through the realm of randomosity.

When I was a child, my grandmother had a set of 1958 World

Book Encyclopedias with which I spent many long hours. I

loved the idea of all that knowledge! In the introduction to the 

1958 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia,  there was

a scenario described that was something like this:

"Imagine a screen with all the knowledge that exists on it, in a 

darkened theater. The screen can only be illuminated with your

flashlight, which shows only a little of that knowledge at a time."

That was approximately how it began, but I really would love

to find that quotation, or another set of 1958 World Book

Encyclopedias! I can't remember the whole thing, or the exact 

wording of that first part, really. I just remember how entirely 

enlightening I found that introductory passage. It made me want

to know, well, everything! 

Now, I don't just want to know everything. I desire to understand

the inner workings and the outward connections that run from 

every concept and object in existence to all others. It is not about

whether the items or ideas are a part of each other, but how and

where they both fit into the giant screen of life.

Balance and Opposites

Balance of power. Balance between good and evil. A balanced life. Being out of balance. In some ways, the search for balance in life is like the conflict regarding moderation that I posted about last week. From the time we are small children, balance is sought. Remember when you were a child, and whenever you saw a ledge, you felt the need to walk along it, practicing your balance skills? Your parent might have walked beside you, if you were very small, holding your hand.

Another learning experience related to balance that children have is opposites. Hot and cold. Sweet and sour. Dark and light. Up and down. Day and night. Soft and hard. Big and little. And so on. Opposites generally reflect two ends of a spectrum, or more appropriately, two different directions in a continuum. It is good that balance exists in the world, but isn't the opposite of balance (imbalance) essential to support the existence of a balance continuum. Does it therefore follow that, if balance is good, imbalance is bad, or are they both simply necessary?

Enchanted by Intuition

Creativity happens. It has a tendency to happen more to those who are open, whose minds stretch to accomodate the unusual, the different, and the antithesis of your usual thinking. That is not to say that creativity is always a random event, showing up only in certain instances for certain people. Although creative processes can be learned, many people do not realize that creativity is not just a product of artistic endeavors. The reverse is more how I perceive the matter: The artistic endeavors are actually the product of creativity. In actuality, the basis of creativity is thought.

It is not just thinking about new styles or methods for creating something tangible, like a sculpture or a poem. Great scientists in history always have encountered new ideas through creative thought. Whether thinking about a solution to some major world issue, or theorizing about the natural order of things, thinkers who use a creative process may feel the synaptic connections forming. So, although it may be a physical creation (new pathways in the brain), it is not entirely tangible.

Okay, before this post gets any more confusing (even I am starting to lose my sense of direction), I will get to the point! Intuition is the result of creative, almost subconscious thought processes. When my subconscious mind takes over, so to speak, I often find myself enchanted by intuition. And when the processes overflow, I am ebullient and feel the need to write. I think that this may be my most random posting yet. Not so much random as rambling... Ah, well. That is true stream-of-consciousness, I suppose!