Paper Tigers

How could a poem about a molecule be made interesting? I looked down at my scratch pad and saw some strained lines about the structure of dopamine. I stared at it until the words turned into fuzzy squiggles, which turned me off to the idea at start.

I enjoy interpreting art--the eureka moment of understanding what the author envisioned, but this makes tending my own poetry seem a dingy slogging task. Seeing my own unfinished product: unwinding the tangled phrases, contemplating rhyme, planning meter and verse. All of these feel like unsightly things reserved for a janitor.

Truly, the most painful part of art is beginning it. While the pen rode over the parchment, I lost track of time, and even when I met a clearing where my poem took a final form, I wanted more. I wanted to feel the pain that marks perfection. So, I spent the night awake, sparring with the English language, forcing it into something closer to what I wanted. This time spent "in the zone," is something I never regret.

Assignment 3: Class Feedback

This was very helpful for me. For public speaking, like any other abstract medium containing creativity, where there is limitless potential for improvements, it is very nice to have some comments to guide what is strong (and worth keeping) and the things that ought to be added. I hope to work to be more relaxed, and be more expressive and engaged with the audience. Since some of my original guidance came from the Toastmasters suggestions and methods, I plan on visiting one of their local chapter meetings and using it as a forum for practice.

Sounding Board: A Case for More than Internal Dialogue

There is a blind side to human nature to trust the self and exclude all other facts. The topic I want to cover is about how the most excellent thinkers have an external check on this, another individual or group that they consult, even as they go through the formulating process. An example that illustrates the effect of this is one most students will be able to relate to. Lets say that there's a report due this Thursday and one of the students of this class is worried that he might forget it on his way to class. He decides that the appropriate thing to do is to TAPE the report to the doorknob, making it impossible to forget the detail of keeping this among his class materials. This is similar to setting up thought checking, explaining your ideas to another to make sure they are feasible and hold up under scrutiny. This is something the rational mind would set up based on past experience.

The real life prospect of this was best shown in Albert Einstein's first set of published works. For each of his first five proposed scientific theories, the prenatal development came while walking through the countryside along a railroad track with his friend, Besso. Although Besso was another patent-office worker and not filled with a profound understanding of physics, he would accompany Einstein on these walks and listen to his theories, trying to understand by asking questions. The challenges he posed were answered by Einstein to great effect, and resulted in the publishing of Einstein's first five works, the so called "Annus Mirabilis Papers." Even though Besso had no degree in physics, and contributed no specific theories of his own, Einstein had the mind to thank him in all of these papers. Besso's patience, efforts, and inquisitiveness had driven forward Einstein's progress.

Writings: Influence on opinion

If you were one of those trying to glean details about a candidate's policy from television broadcasts or journalism, it was not easy to sift through hype and pathos to get to any logical arguments. That is why, for this election day, I took some time to educate myself about two issues that I felt had the most sway: economic and health care policy. The things I found in a library search and skimming long articles changed my opinions from my basic intuition and biases, and made me see how influential writings can change ideals of others.

At start I had been under the influence of authors and proponents of "Objectivism", taking a lot of stock(pun not intended) in the idea of growth as the ultimate and interminable economic goal. The only examples I believed government regulation was relevant were the cases of unmanageable and necessary community goods (things that cannot be charged for i.e. air, water sunlight). I felt that business should not be limited by regulations controlling their decisions for competition, and that the wealthy should be allowed any reward they could glean from a market. I saw earnings as the reward for innovation, and as soon as you disallow these takings, you would destroy what compelled entrepreneurs to innovate. These ideas had been romanticized and colored in fairly well, and I thought they were safe grounds.

In reality things are much different. The world is full of limited commodities, and growth cannot be endless in the short term. As long as we are all restricted to the confines of this one earth, theories expressed by economists don't necessarily make themselves practical or visible. One such example I studied in detail is the "trickle down" concept. In theory, the value added to the wealthiest in an economy should impel these people to start or fund business ventures. The sum result of this would be creation of jobs, and a means for the poor to support themselves. In an outlined argument, I consulted some statistics from other smaller capitalist countries (made more ideal for study by their size), and the schism between this theory and reality was undeniable. For every $100 added to an economy, it was visible that only $0.60 made its way to the poorest 10% of the population. In addition, in the United States average factor of difference in salary between the lowest income employee of a fortune 500 company and the top executive is over 500. To compare this to other institutions, colleges and universities usually operate on a scale of 10-20 different pay grades. This figure of 500 becomes an unfathomable amount when considering the applied needs of any individual. It is no longer a reward scale, but a dull number. Judging by figures, this wealth cannot naturally diffuse or spread as intended, concentrating itself instead in the nests of the wealthy.

My bit of research also included the medical field and nationalized health care. Our current system is one of comprised of both insurance companies as well as hospitals competing for customers by offering the lowest price, and building of reputation, . With the examples nationalized health care systems of Canada and the UK, there is a good basis for comparison. Nationalized systems have a whole different set of systems motivating them. These systems are effectively granted a monopoly in trust, and are allotted a certain amount to meet their yearly needs. With these limits, the objective of many becomes cutting costs, while meeting the standards of regulation. It can become difficult to regulate these things through inspection or patient activism because of the volume of cases that pass through a hospital. Still, as an aside I believe providing children health insurance is a step that is needed, as they are not yet capable of providing this for themselves or deciding whether it is prudent.

My results came down pointing to different candidates. Truly we can become a compilation of contradictions in our lives, but the aim should be to grow. With my research done, I ventured to cast my ballot cast for Obama. I felt uncomfortable, uncertain, but hopeful. The future is never certain.