Education Versus Schooling: The limitations of institutional ideologies.

It's such a society today where we have it pounded into our heads continuously. Time after time, multiple people, multiple occasions, multiple ways. But all telling us the same thing "Education is the key."

They say Education is the key, and I agree. But how is Education the key?

Look at this:
People like Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobbs, Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Steven Spielberg. Looking at all of these people, what's your conclusion?

Let me tell you mine: Neither of them graduated from a higher education institution.

Some people say that money is only the medium by which you measure success, and some of you have the nerve to say "I don't do it for the money?"

So what do you study for? To work for a charity?

So if Education is the key, I'm telling you that school is the lock. Because it rarely ever develops your mind to the point where it can see when it's green, and it can go, even when someone else says "stop."

So in school, as long as you follow the rules and pass the exams, you're good. But the sad part is that examiner's have a checklist, and if you answer something outside the box, it automatically dictates a cross. And so they say school expands your visions and your horizons, but isn't that just so closed off.

Expand your mind? more like keep it confined.

So I'm telling you, if success was a family tree:
Education and hard work would be directly related, where as school would be just a distant cousin.

I'll leave you with this proverb:
"It does a fool no good to spend money on an education, because he has no common sense."

Well hello there.

I guess I'll post kind of a "State of my life" thing.

So, let's start with things like work/college.

I'm going to go fill out the second part of my paperwork at Subway on Friday, then hopefully will be able to start on Monday.

Orientation for Pima on July 23rd, and hopefully getting everything straightened around with my financial aide. 

Moving on to social stuff:

Let's go into what's irritating me right now:

#1: People who think they know absolutely everything.

Let me just start by saying I don't think I know everything. However, I do think that I'm among the more intelligent people of my generation. Lately I've realized that certain people think they know exactly what they're talking about all the time, and that everyone else around them is wrong. In all reality, they have absolutely know idea what they're talking about. It's irritating me because they just shove things in my face and expect me not to contradict them and prove them wrong, well frankly, it's not going to work like that. 

#2: All of the b.s. about the Trayvon Martin case.

It's really simple, if you didn't follow the case, then you shouldn't talk about it as if you know all the facts. I don't want to hear your angry, irritated, generic, stereotypical opinion on how Zimmerman was racist and shot Trayvon Martin plainly because he was black. 

I guess that's the really irritating things that are on my mind. 

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So, if anyone reads this, let's talk about my recent experiences playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

Frankly, what people don't realize about this game is that it's extremely hard to make money playing it. The only way to really make a consistent profit, is to rip people off in trades, and then sell the cards you get for cash. The way I look at it, if you're going to bring trades to a store, please please please please PLEASE know the value of them. That is exactly how you get ripped off, you don't know the value, and someone who does (much like myself) will convince you that the value of that card is lower than it actually is (For some reason, people tend to just blindly agree to what we say because we're the pro players.)

Also, this game is a hobby, not a lifestyle. It sort of bothers me that people who are like 21 come to the card shop from the moment it opens to the moment it closes EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sure, I've heard a fair share of arguments on why they do this, but it all leads me down to believe that they just have nothing better to do. Sure, I'll go play in tournaments 2-3 times a week, but I'm not there every single day. Also, if you are going to be there, please just play in the tournament. It's not that much money to enter ($5) and the more people we have, the bigger prize pool we get.

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So, on a related note, I want to start making VLOGS. I feel like I could just talk for hours upon hours about all this stuff, and the inflection in my voice would make it much more exciting to listen to.

Anyway, I guess that's it for this post, hopefully more people are reading these, but we'll see. 

So what's a "game", and how does it tie into life?

I guess the conventional idea is "why do we play games, and what is a game?"

Well, what do you define as a game? Because believe it or not, there has been a somewhat solid and realistic idea of what a "game" is.

Chris Crawford (Video game designer) theorized about games.

So for example. Tv shows, books, and movies are not games. Why? well, mainly because they aren't interactive.

So then we move to things that ARE interactive; the theory goes like this:

We have visualize something that is both: fun and interactive, this is called a play thing.

So there are two types of play things.

• One type is when there is no goal or thing you have to accomplish, you have yourself a toy.
• The other type of play thing is when you have a goal or objective to accomplish, then you have yourself a challenge.

So then there are two different types of challenges:

• If there are no other people involved (example: you playing alone with a Rubik's cube) this is called a puzzle.
• If there ARE other people however, now we've got ourselves a conflict.

And you may have just guessed that there are two different types of conflicts in this situation.

• In a conflict like a foot race, the people are not allowed to interfere or influence the other participants in the conflict...this is what defines a competition.
• However, If the other participants ARE allowed to interfere with, or influence the other participants, then we finally have ourselves a game. (Popular examples: soccer, football, basketball).

So a game is: Interactive, goal oriented, and involves other agents (participants) who can interfere with or influence other participants.

Technically speaking, the would mean that...life itself is in fact, a game. 

My mindset at the moment.

I kind of just feel bleh.

Like, I had a good day, but some stuff just got me down. I really need to go do more athletic stuff. I don't feel like I'm very fit anymore, and need to get back to Taekwondo and the gym.

Anyway, since I know like nobody reads this, I guess I'll end here B)

The concept of honor.

I'd like to talk about honor. I couldn't sleep, so I got to watching some youtube videos and thought about the concept of honor.

So what is the greatest honor of all?

Is it being famous? Like Kim Kardashian? or famous like Bill Gates? Honor is defined in a coupe of ways:

One being "Nobility of soul" being virtuous acts, righteousness, magnanimity, and the scorn of meanness.

I guess the real idea is that honor in this way is defined by perceived virtuous acts oneself commits. But in reality, who is the real judge of virtue? (Hopefully not a single individual)

Author Richard Weismann wrote a book titled "Quirkology" in which, he discussed a survey conducted by U.S. world news in 1997. In which, patrons were asked, of the people on the list, how likely was each one to go to heaven.

Now, we know "heaven" as a marker of perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity. So, this study may be quite illuminating to some people.

In the study, 52% of patrons said Bill Clinton was likely to go to heaven. 60% of people said that Princess Diana would. BUT only 79% of people said Mother Teresa was likely to go to heaven.

Another twist? Mother Teresa only came in second. So who was the first? Well, at a whopping 87%...the answer was..themselves. When people were asked if they themselves were likely to go to heaven, 87% of people said they were.

The idea pulled from this is that, who is the real judge of virtue? In this study, it shows that more people thought that they were more likely to go to heaven over Mother Teresa (a supposed figure of virtue).

In all reality, maybe the greatest honor in the world is to be the best person you can be. In this way, It's possible to live on a socio-centric ideal of honor, rather than an egocentric ideal of honor.

So, is the honor of being famous, like Kim Kardashian or Bill Gates, better than the honor of knowing you are an every day hero to a few people? Is the idea of you being merely a figure to a lot of people (to be just known) better than knowing that you are a hero to the people around you?

I'll end with this quote:
"After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument, rather than why I do."- Cato The Elder

Random thoughts concerning absolutely everything and nothing.

So I think I'll do one more post before I sleep.

Right now, there's a lot on my mind. Currently stressed about college, trying to get things straightened around with my job as of August, while trying to keep up with my friends/girlfriend. Is it kind of sad that all of this leads me to do absolutely none of that?

Anyway, I'm going to really crack down on things now. I need to start getting stuff organized. Basically, I'm so busy in July that if I don't get this other stuff done now, I won't ever do it. I need to set up orientation for pima, and go take the necessary proficiency exams for my AVID tutoring position at Palo Verde next year.

I'm actually really excited for this year. I'm going to get more opportunities to exemplify my leadership ability, and make an impact on even more students lives. I guess, in all reality, I don't know how I got here. It seems like it happened over night, but I know it didn't. I owe a lot of what has happened to Andrea. She's helped me become the leader that I am. She gave me the opportunity to get involved, and saw the potential in me. She pushed me to come out of my own little world, and show the rest of the world what I have to offer, and what I could do.

Without that, I wouldn't have been president of YES or HOSA. I wouldn't have been able to go to T.I. and meet the amazing people I did. I wouldn't have been able to get up on stage at graduation night, and give a speech to my peers.
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Changing the subject, I'd like to talk about support.

I think that it's extremely important to support someone in what they do, and be there for them as much as you can. I know I certainly need that support, and I hope I can help my peers out in that way.

I know sometimes I don't deserve a lot of the opportunity I get. But, when I do have those opportunities, I'd like to know that I have people behind me, cheering me on.

I guess this is coming from the fact that my dad refused to go to my graduation ceremony. I don't get mad, or upset very easily, but it really did get to me. I mean, how could you not go to your oldest son's graduation? I guess he had his "reasons" but they didn't suffice in my opinion.

Anyway, the sun is coming up now, so I should get to sleep...(I really need to fix my sleep schedule, maybe I'll try that today...)

Because I was playing skyrim earlier, here's a riddle I came across:

There's a snake, a fox, a bear, and a wolf.

The riddle goes:

The first fears all, the second fears none.

The third eats what it can, preferably number one.

The fourth fears the second, but only when alone.

What's the order?

Just an interesting puzzle, and at 3:30 in the morning, this actually took me a couple tries. :P