No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it: He’ll be a thorn in my side

So there I was: biting my tongue, gritting my teeth, and it’s only been 15 minutes. He shows up at the classroom exactly at the time class is to start, but with the wrong keys to open the door.  Ten minutes later, we are sitting at our desks but he can’t take roll because he forgot the student list.  Five minutes after that, we quickly discover this professor – this college graduate – can’t spell. 

To Eat or Not to Eat: That is the Question

It's the time of the year when we spend hours wrestling with crowds in the mall, when finding a parking space within a ten minute walk of the store is the high point of the day, when we send cards to people we didn't talk to all year, and warm our homes with the smells of baking and cooking. Turkey, ham, potatoes, fruitcake, yams, bread, and of course, holiday cookies: especially chocolate chip cookies. After all, what are the holidays without lots of diet-busting, tooth-decaying cookies to eat? Ahhh... you just have to love chocolate chip cookies... the feel of the dough as you mix it, the eating of a few raw chips before you add them to the mixing bowl, and the heart-warming smell of them baking.

O, What a Rogue and Peasant Slave am I!

With the simple, melancholy, yet profound words of “Now I am alone” (Shakespeare 2.2.500), Shakespeare conveys the poignant yet tortured inner struggle that Hamlet is experiencing over the death of his father, and his ghosts’ request to avenge his murder. In the third soliloquy – a mere 60 lines – Hamlet’s angst, cowardice, procrastination, melancholy, resistance, intelligence, reason, and even some bravery are superbly articulated.

Critical Thinking: Is U.S. Society Becoming More or Less Colorblind?

I would say we are becoming both more and less colorblind.  While recognition exists that there has been – and still is – disparities between how society as a whole views the various races and ethnicities of the people of the United States, there has been great strides in reducing the disparities.  Yet there has not been enough reduction: bigotry and racism still exist.  Surely, the blatant bigotry and racism of the past is significantly less common than it was just a few decades ago, but by no means has it gone completely away:  it has just become more subtle.  On the other hand, blatant racism has become not just legally wrong: it has become socially unacceptable. 

Critical Thinking: Rise of Latin Music

Critical Thinking Question Chapter 14 #3: What does the growing significance of Latin music by performers such as Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Ricky Martin suggest about ethnicity in the United States?

Perhaps this will sound somewhat cynical, but the first thought to come to mind is that the growing significance of Latin music has everything to do with money.  When an ethnic or racial group achieves large enough numbers to become a market force, businesses are going to target them for profit.  Businesses recognize that there is a growing Hispanic/Latino population, that they would probably buy music by Hispanic performers, so therefore, they are going to target them by creating products that they will spend money on – in this case, music by Hispanic performers.  The growing significance of Latin music suggests that the Hispanic population has grown large enough for big businesses to target the potential profit to be made from them. 

On the less cynical side, however, many non-Hispanics not only enjoy music by these performers, they also buy the music.  By being exposed to music that is “non-White” (or “non-Black” or whatever), those who are not of Hispanic/Latino background have been enriched by this music, have had their appreciation and recognition of the talents of people other than their “own kind” raised, and at the same time, the bridge of “difference” has been shortened, if not quite crossed yet. 

Therefore, the growing significance of music by Hispanic/Latino performers suggests that this population has grown to a size large enough to be a target for profit.  At the same time, it has increased the appreciation of Hispanic/Latino music by people outside of the Hispanic community, therefore, increased the appreciation of the Hispanic community as a whole by non-Hispanics. 

Written for Professor Swanson’s Sociology I class at Pikes Peak Community College, 8^th December 2003.

Debussy, Arabesque, No. 1 in E

Arabesque No. 1 in E, by Claude Debussy, has a melody that, although a single line, is fluid yet somewhat complex, with little repeating. It is very smooth, with each note easing itself into the next nearly seamlessly. It is as if each note belongs to the one before and after it exactly so, for if it were to be between two other notes it would not belong. For the most part, the range of notes is quite narrow, almost closed, although there is the occasional “leap” to a much higher note, for what feels like a moment of emphasis and punctuation to the experience.

Epictetus: The World Happens Around Us, Not To Us

The philosophical doctrine of Stoicism, which dates back as early as the 3^rd century BCE, is believed to have been founded by Zeno of Citium (IEP 1). Stoicism, a system of ethics, uses logic as “theory of method,” and physics as the foundation (IEP 1). Stoicism teaches, amongst other concepts, that one must live life with “perfect indifference (apathea) to everything external, for nothing external could be either good or evil” (IEP 1).

Epictetus, one of the most influential of the Stoic philosophers, was born around 50-55 CE in Hierapolis, Phrygia (Sedon 1). Sold into slavery as a child, he was eventually freed, opened a school in Nicopolis, and died around 135 CE (Sedon 1). Epictetus’ teachings dealt primarily with the ethics side of Stoicism, and much of his thoughts were recorded in two works: the Discourses and the Encheiridion (Sedon 1). Epictetus believed that one should live a life of “rigid austerity and self-denial,” that one should avoid the accumulation of money and other material goods for their own sake, entertainments by “outsiders and … persons ignorant of philosophy,” pleasure for pleasure’s sake, and honor for honor’s sake, amongst other things (“Encheiridion” 100-112). Stating that our lives came down to what was under our control (“conception, choice, desire, aversion, and everything that is our own doing”), and what was not under our control (“our body, our property, reputation, office, and everything that is not our own doing”), his teachings can be summed up simply: The world happens around us, not to us (“Encheiridion” 100).