Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Cell Phones
I used to find it acceptable to be on my cell phone around other people when I initially got one, but now... now I see why cell phones can be a social calamity. It is incredibly frustrating when I'm hanging out with friends and they are absent from the conversation, from being in the moment, from sharing their presence, their personality with other people simply because they are on their cell phone. I abhor when I'm sitting down eating with people (I choose eating as an example because I love eating and therefore spend a countless amount of time pursuing the activity), and they are checking their: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, texts, taking selfies (there are apparently an unlimited number of ways to grossly deform ones face and still be ok), checking ESPN and all the other amazing things their phones can do... which should be done when they are alone with their phone. If one is on their phone while "participating" in any form of social interaction, it is essentially, pardon my language, extending a prominent middle finger to the people who would talk to you. If you don't want to socialize, then stay at home, where you don't prove to other people that your phone is prioritized over them. To accentuate this point, here is a melancholic video that I watched recently shedding some truth on cell phone usage.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Learning by Hearing (Piano)
This goes on for a while... there may be a better way to spend 16 minutes of your life than watching this, at least I hope so!
Unfortunately the video is refusing to transfer onto blogger so I'll give a rapid summary. At first, I attempted to play "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran by pure memory. I guessed it was in the key of B and was wrong. The song is in the key of G but I was only a half-step too low overall with the melody I was playing. This marks the beginning of attempting to learn music by simply listening to a song, attempting to play the melody on the piano and then adding the left hand. Hopefully progress is imminent!
Unfortunately the video is refusing to transfer onto blogger so I'll give a rapid summary. At first, I attempted to play "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran by pure memory. I guessed it was in the key of B and was wrong. The song is in the key of G but I was only a half-step too low overall with the melody I was playing. This marks the beginning of attempting to learn music by simply listening to a song, attempting to play the melody on the piano and then adding the left hand. Hopefully progress is imminent!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Free Will vs. Determinism
Let me be real here, I could care less about whether a person believes that free will or determinism is the correct assessment of life. The fact is that we are probably never going to find out who is right because it involves arguing about the theoretical. This means, philosophically speaking, that both ends of the spectrum, if it is a spectrum, are logically incorrect because they are concluding definitively that one assumption is true while the other is false. Religiously, this is the belief in a deity or atheism. The philosophical in between is atheism, claiming that we as humankind do not have the knowledge available to us to accurately conclude the existence, or lack thereof, of a deity.
The more important part about free will vs. determinism is how you choose to live your life. I believe that we have free will and that if I wanted to, I could lie in bed until I rot and not have to deal with the everyday crap of life. I also believe, that if I dedicate myself to being useful to others in life, I can make my life awesome to the extent that I won't want to rot in my bed. I personally believe, that effort creates ability and that one can generally achieve, if one is willing to dedicate effort. I find it difficult when people say "this is just the way it was meant to happen" because I judge this as a defeatist attitude. The reason there was a negative event in your life is probably because you acted in a way that it would happen. Granted, other people and events can screw you over but overall, I believe that what you put in , you receive in return. Monetarily speaking, if you invest money (conservatively), you will earn money in return; if you hide your money in the drawer below your bathroom sink, its value will decrease as the currency depreciates.
I guess to me, free-will is the ability to live life to your preference, an opportunity that I feel many people pass over and I can't deny that this ignorance elicits both nervousness about our future and occasionally, disdain.
The more important part about free will vs. determinism is how you choose to live your life. I believe that we have free will and that if I wanted to, I could lie in bed until I rot and not have to deal with the everyday crap of life. I also believe, that if I dedicate myself to being useful to others in life, I can make my life awesome to the extent that I won't want to rot in my bed. I personally believe, that effort creates ability and that one can generally achieve, if one is willing to dedicate effort. I find it difficult when people say "this is just the way it was meant to happen" because I judge this as a defeatist attitude. The reason there was a negative event in your life is probably because you acted in a way that it would happen. Granted, other people and events can screw you over but overall, I believe that what you put in , you receive in return. Monetarily speaking, if you invest money (conservatively), you will earn money in return; if you hide your money in the drawer below your bathroom sink, its value will decrease as the currency depreciates.
I guess to me, free-will is the ability to live life to your preference, an opportunity that I feel many people pass over and I can't deny that this ignorance elicits both nervousness about our future and occasionally, disdain.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Honesty
Let's say that every history of rock and roll class we have somewhat of an outstanding lesson of the day. They tend not to be so much about music but growing up and accepting the responsibilities of growing up, becoming an adult. Today, that lesson was not honesty. Honesty was, however, a small part of today's lesson and I thought it's pretty relevant to my life.
My parent' raised me expecting honesty and while they haven't always received 100% honest reports, they have at least taught me when it is appropriate to be honest. To me, like most people, lying is acceptable if the benefits outweigh the consequences, true for pretty much most choices. However, I differ from people by my standards of what is considered overall beneficial. I believe that often enough, people only way the short-term consequences of their decisions and therefore, often avoid confrontation of the truth as they're scared about how the other individual(s) will react. In contrast, I believe that this confrontation is often necessary as by not deceiving the individual(s) at hand, you allow for them to gain insight in the future, although temporary awkwardness may need to be sacrificed. This sounds like a lot of blah, blah, blah so let me put it into context.
Say a female is fat: the big American scenario to not, NOT, NOT, tell the truth. I disagree with this ideology. While it is inappropriate and rude to go out of one's way to tell a female that she's fat, if a female were to ask me directly if she is fat, I would tell her she could benefit from picking up physical activity. Clearly, this is a euphemistic yes, but I believe the short-term emotional detriment that will result due to this incident is beneficial overall. I would proceed to attempt to help this female lose weight due to appropriate exercise, diet etc. until she's comfortable and happy with her own body weight.
The moral of the story: since the female has suspicions about being fat (and is probably self-conscious about it), lying would only extend her self-deception of the problem and incorporate you in the moral culpability of her self-deception. Telling the truth is not heart-warming but can at least provide a beginning to resolving the origin of the "whether-to-tell-the-truth" debacle. Of course, this is assuming that the female is discontent with her current body.
My parent' raised me expecting honesty and while they haven't always received 100% honest reports, they have at least taught me when it is appropriate to be honest. To me, like most people, lying is acceptable if the benefits outweigh the consequences, true for pretty much most choices. However, I differ from people by my standards of what is considered overall beneficial. I believe that often enough, people only way the short-term consequences of their decisions and therefore, often avoid confrontation of the truth as they're scared about how the other individual(s) will react. In contrast, I believe that this confrontation is often necessary as by not deceiving the individual(s) at hand, you allow for them to gain insight in the future, although temporary awkwardness may need to be sacrificed. This sounds like a lot of blah, blah, blah so let me put it into context.
Say a female is fat: the big American scenario to not, NOT, NOT, tell the truth. I disagree with this ideology. While it is inappropriate and rude to go out of one's way to tell a female that she's fat, if a female were to ask me directly if she is fat, I would tell her she could benefit from picking up physical activity. Clearly, this is a euphemistic yes, but I believe the short-term emotional detriment that will result due to this incident is beneficial overall. I would proceed to attempt to help this female lose weight due to appropriate exercise, diet etc. until she's comfortable and happy with her own body weight.
The moral of the story: since the female has suspicions about being fat (and is probably self-conscious about it), lying would only extend her self-deception of the problem and incorporate you in the moral culpability of her self-deception. Telling the truth is not heart-warming but can at least provide a beginning to resolving the origin of the "whether-to-tell-the-truth" debacle. Of course, this is assuming that the female is discontent with her current body.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
You Belong With Me 1 vs. You Belong With Me 2 Cover of Taylor Swift
I played You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift as warmup for playing piano as I hadn't played it in a while and was wondering how rusty I was in regards to her song. I think its pretty clear between the first and second time I played it, that reacquainting myself with the song showed vast improvement. Also i should have increased the brilliance of the piano.
#1
#2
#1
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