Intelligence is Relative

I have just finished writing an eight page theoretical paper for my Introduction to Critical Literature and Theory class. Since the paper is written to an audience that would not have a knowledge of theory, when I reached the six page mark I wanted to read the paper to someone to test it out. I called my mom. I asked her if I could read her the paper; she said yes. I read the paper slowly (something I never do) and enunciated each word clearly. Given the nature of the paper I felt it appropriate to compensate for the conversation being on the phone rather than in person. At the conclusion of what I had written so far I told my mom I was done and she said, "Wow. I didn't understand any of that. That is really deep." She then proceeded to tell me how smart I sounded. The best part was that she seem surprised by this display of intelligence. I think she meant it as a compliment, but I can't help but feel it's because I probably don't act nearly as smart as I am. Either way, it was nice to have finally elevated myself to a level of intelligence recognizable to my mother. :)

On the note of intelligence, however, I have a complaint. Intelligence is only relative to what you are talking about. Most people would argue that a doctor has more intelligence than a contractor. Why? Is the field of medicine more important than the field of construction, or mechanics? This standard of intelligence in our society is leaning towards "the more formal education you have, the smarter you must be." People who do not excel in the maths or sciences feel that they are not as smart as people in those fields. New Flash: That statement is FALSE. Intelligence is only relative to what you are talking about. I could talk your ear off about grammar and the syntax and history of English as a language, but I don't know hardly anything about music theory and major and minor inverted chords. Just because someone is not a genius in one particular field of study does not classify them as unintelligent. Unless your only knowledge is in video games; video game knowledge does not equate intelligence. Personal opinion. Sorry.

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"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" -John Wooden

"Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." -Calvin

"A picture is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." -The Brothers Bloom

"Tolle. Lege = Take. Read." -Latin Translation

"In youth we learn. In age we understand." - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

"I love Plato, but I love truth more." -Aristotle

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Today's Featured Quote:

"If we'd only stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." -Edith Wharton

Savor

I have found that if you eat your favorite food everyday, pretty soon it ceases to be your favorite. Things which at first were filled with a rich taste have begun to loose their savor. And I don't just mean food.

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I have also found that at the end of the day it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing, or who you're with--it's all just life. Oh there are wonderful moments and where you are, what you're going or who you're with can impact things a great deal, but everything is part of life. People can go on for hours about how lucky I am to be living with my parents in Hawaii this summer. I agree with them. But, for some reason, it doesn't seem as far fetched as they make it out to be. Maybe it's how I've been raised, or maybe the fact that I've had some pretty "impossible" things happen to me; but in my mind, things that happen aren't so much surrealistic as just new and different.

But these new and different things loose savor for me fairly quickly. I get bored with things sooner than I would like. I don't want to continue doing what I'm bored with, but I wish that I didn't get bored with things so quickly. The feeling is kind of like saying, "well, that was fun, might do it again; what's next?" I seem to lack satisfaction in where I am intellectually. I constantly want to be doing new things. Everything I do, or have done, is wonderful and I continue to have interest in it, but I also find that I almost always want to be learning something else. Something new. But this added indecision and constant change of interest is not helping my desire for stability.

My life just changes so quickly. The years really do fly by...

~

"I try to take one day at a time, but lately, several days have attacked me at once."

"The only thing constant in life is change."

"Change is good."-"Yeah but it's not easy."

"I never said it would be easy; I only said it would be worth it."

"The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it."

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Today's Featured Quote:

"Some things just don't matter."

Backwards

"Ladles and Jellyspoons, I come before you to stand behind you, to tell you something I know nothing about. Next Thursday, which is Good Friday, there'll be a women's meeting for men only. Wear your best clothes if you haven't any. If you can come please stay at home. Admission os free; pay at the door. Take a seat and sit on the floor. It doesn't matter where you sit, the man behind you is sure to spit. Thank you for your undivided attention. Our next feature will be the four corners of the Round Table."

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I am under the distinct impression that Freud is a complete moron. Enough said. I also think that our world has some issues. On days when I am upset, people ignore me (probably because I scare them). When I'm calm, content and "at peace" with life, people ask me with concern, "Is everything okay?" And at times when I'm hyper and extremely happy all my friends ask me "What is with you today?" Am I the only one who finds this backwards?

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"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" --Ghost Busters

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it." --Bob Hope

"To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best." --William Thackery

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of your will." --Epicticus

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." --Winston Churchill

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Today's Featured Quote:

"Always know the rules...that way you know how to break them."

Nostalgia

Tomorrow always comes with the silent assurance that things will be better than they were today. Because the day is over once you fall asleep; and there in your dreams is the energy and spirit needed to wake up one more time and try again. It is the dreams, remembered or forgotten, that bring life and creativity to the dawn of a new day. You may not see the connection and you may not understand the need for these dreams, but they foster new and precious thoughts in your unconscious that show themselves in the form of ideas that could only have come from deep in your imagination. And what what better kind of thoughts to carry us through another day of impossibilities, than those that have already conquered the impossible...

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Looking back, it really was about everything everyone said it would be about. It was about the car--an old run-down Chevy truck that smelled of guacamole and only fit three people in the cab; course, I always had at least five. It was about the house--a hovel in the ground that had no lockings doors, wallpaper inspired from a country scene of a poorly made Jane Austen movie, and carpet that looked like vomit and didn't smell too different. The house was falling apart but it was always full of friends. It was about the vacations--the camping trips in rain storms where everything got wet, the island trips to the islands they don't show in the brochures for a reason...several reasons, and the road-trips with no pre-thought destination that take you into the lives of those you care about more than any other drive could do. Yep. People told me all my life that it was all about the cars, the house, and the vacations. And I don't think they'll ever know how right they were.

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"We as humans want thing to last longer than they can. And we fool ourselves into thinking that even though we move away and move on, we can still keep things the way they used to be. But we can't. And we're left with a sweet sense of melancholy; a yearning for the past that makes us want the present to be that much better. A remembrance of child-hood adventures, high school sweethearts, and the good times that get better with the passing of years that we want to pass on to our kids. While location can pretty much end a relationship as it was, it can also create new ones with our memories; the kodachrome images of the past that we show on gently humming slide projectors, while sipping creams sodas in the quiet dark." --CEH

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It's funny how nostalgia can set in so quickly. Sometimes it happens when you watch the sunset and you remember how it felt to see it the first time. Sometimes it's the taste of Bing cherries on a summer afternoon that takes you back in the years to another summer afternoon. It's watching your children take their first steps, their first soccer game, their first day of school...or their last. It's watching a movie you haven't seen since forever ago and still remembering all the lines. It's when you're driving down a long road, and you put in a cassette tape that you thought only existed in your memories. It's sorting through boxes of memorabilia and remembering everything between the tears. And all these things stay with you. The feeling of time gone by and the memories of all the good and bad times that fit together like puzzle pieces. That's what life is all about.

~

"I don't know where we're goin' but there's no use bein' late."--Quigley Down Under

"Time is nature's way of stopping everything from happening at once."

"Not all those who wonder are lost." --J.R.R. Tolkien

"This is my day of opportunity. I will not waste it." --Pres. Monson

"Woman was created for our destruction; and from her all our miseries arise."--The Three Musketeers; Alexander Dumas

"Success will come when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change."

"If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0" :)

Luck

I'd like to pick a fight with the person who says that luck doesn't exist. Today I wanted to go to the movies with a friend of mine. We go to the theatre and get there about twenty minutes before the film starts. The credit card machine breaks down so all the people paying cash get to go ahead of us while they try to fix it. Of the four of us, on paid with cash. My friend Laney went right in front of me and paid with a card and then when they go to swipe my card, the machine breaks again and we find out they're sold out. So two of us have tickets and two of us don't. The two with tickets decided to see the show and my other friend and I drive north to the other theatre in town to see if the movie has a showing there soon and if we can get into that show. The show starts a half hour later there so we have plenty of time to get tickets. That is, would have had plenty of time if their credit card machines weren't acting up too. So, my friend got her ticket with a credit card right before I did and then the whole system shuts down. We wait in line until ten minutes after the movie has started for her to get her money back. We drive back to the other theatre in the hopes that we can purchase tickets for a later showing of the movie, but they still won't take anything but cash. We spend almost an hour and a half driving around and standing in line just to find out that we'll have to see the movie next week in stead. Who says there's no such thing as luck?

Oh, and the best part? This sort of thing happens to me all the time...

On the other hand, I also have really awesome things happen to me too. It's an interesting trade off. I can't decided whether I'd prefer having everything right in the middle or two very high extremes. I think I'm okay with the extreme dichotomy because if nothing else, it makes a good story. And, these things have to happen to someone. It might as well be me.

~

"If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen."

"If you can keep you head when everyone around you is loosing theirs, it's quite possible you haven't grasped the situation."

"Sarcasm doesn't come across as well through written text."

"All power corrupts. Absolute power is kinda neat."

"When setting about a task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you're going after Moby Dick, take along the tarter sauce."

"On the other hand, you have different fingers."

"I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it."

~

Today's Quote:

"In the cacophony of chaos that rages all around, there is peace and reflection in the soft, dulcet sounds of raindrops on your window pane."

Dreams

The character Glinda in the Broadway hit "Wicked" says the following:

"Cause getting your dreams, strange as it seems, is a little, well, complicated. There's a kind of a sort of cost. There's a couple of things get lost. There are bridges you crossed you didn't know you crossed until you crossed... [but] happy is what happens when all your dreams come true. Well, isn't it?"

Have you ever gotten what you wanted or had something really good in your life? Has it ever turned out to be just another road to follow and not the gateway to ease and comfort? Yeah. Now we share a boat. Grab a paddle and start rowing.

Life is hard. On the other hand, life is easy. But always, life is beautiful.

There are hard times that prime us for harder times. There are calm waters every so often to let us rest between the waves. (When the tides of life surround you and the water upsets your boat, don't waste your tears on what might have been, just lie on your back and float)

Chances are that 75% of complaining is pointless and silly because life really isn't that bad. The other 25% is probably a representation of truly hard times, but the complaining doesn't do anything other than make you that much more like Lamen and Lemuel. (And 59% of all percentages are made up)

Never ASK for patience. Just work on it when situations occur.

My life really isn't as complicated as I like to complain that it is. All the "problems" that I have in my life are just parts of life that I need to deal with and stop complaining about.

I need to stop worrying so much about tomorrow and start thinking more about today. (If you keep waiting for tomorrow, you'll find yourself with a whole lot of empty yesterdays)

I need to do everything in my power to be on the path I need to be on, doing the things I should be doing, and leaving the rest to Heavenly Father. (Praise Allah and tie your camel)

And everything I have stated above are all things that I know to be true... but have a harder time applying than saying.

One small consolation at pursuing higher education: "Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."--John Wayne

Chapter One

Every story has a first chapter. Even the mundane things in life had to start somewhere. But, I have found that it's not so much where you start that matters; it's where you go from there.

In the "original" Dr. Dolittle (staring Rex Harrison) one character says: "Here I stand at the crossroads of life. This way? That way? Which shall I go?" These are my sentiments exactly. I am in college pursuing a bachelor's degree in English/Psychology, I am finishing the last few weeks of a course to become a certified Phlebotomist, I coach Debate at Cedar High School, and I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. Here I am at one of the most important stages of my life and I don't know what to do or where to go. But guess what? That's okay. I don't have to decided my whole life right now. Some decisions must be made in advance, but right now? Just one day at a time... starting now.

Quotes/Thoughts for today:

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone."--C.S. Lewis

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept it; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Your tongue is clever and swift. Be careful you do not trip over it."--The Wind and the Lion