4

4

6/30/13

There is more than meets the eye with actor/comedian Dave Chappelle.  I have been a huge fan of Chappelle since I first saw his stand up in the late 90’s/early 00’s.  Chappelle’s standup routines are some of the funniest I have ever seen.  He not only has hilarious content throughout his set, but his general character and demeanor are equally funny.  He is also in several movies, starring in his very own “Half Baked”.  While this movie and many of his other feature film roles are amusing, they pale in comparison to his TV show “Chappelle’s Show”.  In the same vein as “Saturday Night Live” or “In Living Color”, Chappelle’s Show features skit comedy in ½ hour timeslot episodes.  During the Chappelle’s Show run, most of America was very familiar with the show.  His impersonations of Rick James and Prince became staples of pop culture.  Chappelle also very actively attacked and mocked racism through his show.  Instead of doing it in the traditional comedy format of “White people do X, Black people do Y”, Chappelle went for much more cutting and absurd takes on racism.  The first skit of Chappelle’s Show has Dave portraying a blind black man who was raised in the south by white supremacists always believing he was white himself.  In this skit Chappelle goes onto be a strong proponent of white supremacist ideals, despite being black (though unaware) himself.  This demonstrates the ridiculousness of racism and bigotry perhaps better than any other piece of comedy I have ever come across.  Dave Chappelle was later featured on an episode of a TV show called “Inside the Actor’s Studio”.  A much more serious Chappelle was on display for the audience that evening.  While he still joked throughout the program, Chappelle shared details of his upbringing and background.  He later talks about his feelings of the state of show business, talking about how little control an artist or performer can sometimes have over his or her own work.  I highly recommend to any and everybody to check out any and everything that Dave Chappelle is involved with.  He is not only hilarious, but also insightful and highly intelligent.

Credo

Credo

The primary tenant of my creed is perception dictates reality.  I believe the only true consistency in life is that change will always come.  Striving to remember the primary tenant helps me adapt and work through the ever-changing landscape of life.   It is nearly impossible to change things external to myself, especially other people.  Instead of working to convince others to change, I instead work to change how I understand a situation or circumstance.  Behavior is a direct result of perception; therefore instead of laboring to change my behavior, I work on shifting perception.  An easy example of how changing perception leads to adjusting behavior and reality is a hot stove.  The stove by itself is a metal box, with other smaller parts installed throughout it.  If I am aware of a stove being in my vicinity, I am unlikely to pay any special attention to it.  If, however, I am aware that the stove is hot, before anything else changes, my perception of the stove changes.  Instead of being an inanimate object, the stove is now a possible danger.  Now that my perception has shifted, my behavior also changes, and now I am careful around the stove.  I believe people are very powerful, capable beings, whose greatest source of power comes from the ability to shape reality just by altering their perception.  

3

3
6/29/13

Something I find interesting is the different opinions people have on the importance of lyrics in music.  I personally feel like lyrics are secondary in most cases.  To me music is about the sound of it all, the feelings invoked from hearing the different sounds together, not just what somebody is saying.  The only genre I listen to in which I can concede the importance of lyrics would be rap/hip-hop.   Rap/hip-hop music is arguably the most lyrically intensive genre.  Personally I don’t actually enjoy the lyrics of most rap, especially post 2001 rap music.  I do have some old school rap favorites like 2-Pac, but I find that my enjoyment of that music comes from the sound of an entire song, instead of the story or meaning that can be gleaned from the lyrics.  My favorite band of all time is a progressive rock band called Tool.  I listened to Tool for around two years without knowing a vast majority of the lyrics or even song titles.  What I found was that the vocals were used like another instrument, as opposed to always being the focus of a given track.  As such I was never interested in trying to know “what a song was about” from the lyrics, and instead was able to just enjoy feeling from the music.   I also greatly enjoy some sub-genres of electronic music.  In most of the electronic music I enjoy, the lyrics are very ambiguous.  It again creates a situation in which vocals are just part of the melody, and sometimes are absent entirely.  In the case of Tool, being a rock band, it is rare to find similar music in their genre that I enjoy.  On the contrary, electronic music is filled with countless examples of artists whose music doesn't place a heavy emphasis on lyrics, but still entertains the use of vocals as a complementary piece.

Know Your Audience Analysis

After completing the discussion board exercise from assignment 3.2, I certainly have a better grip on who my peers are for this class.  I would say more than anything, cliché sounding or not, that we have an incredibly diverse group.  We have people who are within a few years of their high school graduation, some who may have seen a reunion or two, and everything in between.  We have single people and people with families. 

Some of the questions posed were very good, such as, “What is your happiest place on Earth?” asked by Maggi Bowers.  I especially liked this question, because it offers a great deal of insight into what people value at this point in their lives.  As there aren’t any strings attached to this question, people seemed to be comfortable giving honest answers.  There was a large variety in answers, demonstrating how different we all are.  I would say that despite this group of people being unique in many ways, a common thread is that everybody is enthusiastic about learning and excelling in this class.  Nobody on the forum was sarcastic or condescending with any of the questions or answers.  Everybody was interested in sharing their experiences and connecting to some degree with their classmates. 

I know personally, my social circle largely consists of people similar to myself.  So normally, I can make a lot of assumptions about what somebody is familiar with during a conversation.  I found this “Know your Audience” exercise to be a strong reminder that my classmates have different interests and backgrounds than I do.  So while I intend on writing about things that are of personal interest to me, I need to make sure that I explain fully what I am talking about.  I also need to try to not get caught up in the minutiae of a topic, but instead look for ideas and themes that anybody can relate to, regardless of their interest in whatever subject I am writing about. 

In conclusion, I feel like our class is a great microcosm for the rest of life.  People will always be different, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t work together or learn together.

2

2

6/28/13

Today I will make my case for Kobe Bryant.  For those who do not follow sports, Kobe Bryant is a professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers.  Both Kobe and his team are very polarizing in the sports world.  I am an atypical sports fan in that I do not have allegiance to any one team.  Instead I find players that I like and follow their careers, regardless of the team the play for.   So for the record, I am not a Laker fan, but a Kobe fan.  I do cheer for the Lakers, but only until the Black Mamba (a Kobe nickname) is no longer around.  I also cannot defend a young Kobe.  I did not become a Kobe fan until around 2008.  Young Kobe is very different than current/old Kobe.  It’s evident in his play on the court but also in his off the court demeanor, i.e. interviews.  Young Kobe on the court was accused of being selfish and unavailable to his team on a personal level.  Young Kobe off the court was always all smiles and giggles, always trying to look and be cool.  Around 2008, Kobe changed.  On the court he turned into a marvelous leader.  Off the court he was a statue.  No longer concerned with being popular, Kobe was solely focused on winning an NBA championship.  My favorite Kobe moment goes as follows:

The Lakers were perennially meeting the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs.  Phoenix had a player named Raja Bell who claimed in a press conference that Kobe Bryant was not a threat to him.  Bell claimed that Kobe would barely score with Bell guarding him, and basically dismissed one of the top three scorers of all time in Kobe Bryant out of hand.  In a follow-up press conference with the Lakers, Kobe was asked what he had to say about the comments Raja Bell had made.  Kobe’s response was, “Who?  Never heard of him.”   

This dismissal of Bell by Kobe sums up better than any other story what I refer to as “Kobe Status”.  I don’t think it’s arrogance, as much as supreme confidence.  Instead of going to the level of Bell and insulting his game, Kobe just dismissed Bell’s existence.  Instead of worrying about what some opponent has to say, Kobe just completely put it out of his mind.  Whenever I encounter a “hater”, I just try and break out the Kobe Status.

1

1

6/27/13

Today I am free writing about Chinese food.  I greatly enjoy Chinese food.  Really it doesn’t have to be Chinese either.  I enjoy Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and a variety of other Asian based cuisines.  While I am a Springfield, MO native and do enjoy cashew chicken, it is not all I like.  I love stir fry.  The variety of veggies is great.  It’s amazing how a different sauce can completely change a meal.  Using relatively the same ingredients except for the sauces, it’s possible to make wildly varied dishes.  Since I was able to drive myself places, I have always have a nearby Chinese joint that I hit up on the regular.  The restaurant has changed many times over the years, but I always have one.  I also cook Chinese for myself.  I can’t stand the smell of the kitchen after deep frying stuff, so I stick to stir fry on a wok.  Many times I have prepared enough for myself to eat leftovers for an entire week.  This is rare however, because my roommates will end up wanting some too.  I have considered opening a restaurant or something myself and calling it Walk’s Wok.  I think it would be a smashing success.   I have spent time as a line cook though, and I can’t say I am too thrilled about actually working in Walk’s Wok.  Maybe I can get my fancy slip (degree) and then earn enough to save away and someday open it up.  It seems like it would be rough in this town, there is a Chinese place on every corner it seems.   But I guess as a Springfield, MO Chinese connoisseur myself; I know there are good ones and bad ones.  I would insist upon Walk’s Wok being one of the good ones.   If anybody is keeping score, yes I did go back and correct some misspellings in this writing, so it’s not a completely real free write.  I did try and edit after though, to not break up the flow during the exercise.

This I Believe Pre-writing Freewrite

I believe basketball is my favorite sport.  I have felt this way for my entire life.  I played basketball from a very early age.  I guess I played baseball even earlier, but basketball was always my favorite.  Basketball is the ultimate team game.  Football, baseball, and soccer have more players on a team, but ultimately are not decided by the performance of a team like basketball.  I like the NBA more than any other form of basketball.  I love the fact that out of the whole world we get to watch the top 600. Basketball is also a game just about anybody has some ability to participate in.  Even if you can’t run or jump, you can throw the ball at the goal and play a game of horse or something.  As a young kid I thought I might be a basketball player when I grew up.  I was always the tallest kid in my class, so I thought I would be some huge guy like Shaq or something.  Instead of seven feet though, I only grew to 6’4”.  That might seem tall to some, but I spent my whole life playing like I would be a post player instead of spending time learning to be a guard.  In the NBA being 6’4” means you are one of the smaller players on the floor at any given time.  Granted there are examples of guys who are small playing big like Charles Barkley.  But those examples are few and far between and I was not destined to become one of them.  One of my favorite things to do when I played basketball competitively was to set screens.  If the opponent did not have warning of the screen, it could be very effective.  Since I liked setting screens so much, I have wondered if I should have tried football instead.  I played football for one season when I was very young, but I did not like getting hit in the knees, so I stopped after the first year.  I have not played basketball for a long time at this point.  I am not in shape enough to run up and down the court for any amount of time.  Perhaps someday I will return to that kind of shape.  As for now though, I can at least enjoy watching the NBA.  I don’t really watch college very often.  Its just not as high level as professional sports.  People talk about the college kids wanting it more or playing just to win instead of for money.  I disagree with the notion for the most part.  There are some bad teams in the NBA where this is true, but once you get to the post season, teams are playing to win.

 I am now done with the 10 minute exercise.  The total word count is 471.

This I Believe Pre-writing - List

I believe this exercise will probably get strange after a few minutes.

I believe freewriting is an interesting idea.

I believe basketball is my favorite sport.

I believe game 6 of the ’13 NBA finals Is one of the best in recent memory.

I believe Ray Allen is one of the purest shooters of all time.

I believe it’s hilarious that Ray Allen left Boston for Miami, and actually got his ring.

I believe university level education can be challenging.

I believe the online format of university classes works for me better than traditional seated environments.

I believe breakfast is a good thing.

I believe in laughing.

I believe in laughing as many times a day as possible.

I believe in being kind to others.

I believe in the general kindness of others.

I believe that I just drew a blank on the next thing to type.

I believe I am just typing to try and keep typing for the 10 minutes.

I believe something more interesting than this will come out soon enough.

I believe I like video games.

I believe my parents thought I would stop playing games at some point, I have never stopped.

I believe gaming can be a more engrossing experience than other forms of entertainment media.

I believe that gaming suffers from a lack of good stories.

I believe that gaming might suffer from a lack of good story telling.

I believe that its harder to tell a story in gaming than other mediums because the player has some choice in the order that things are experienced.

I believe I only have a couple more minutes left to keep typing.

I believe in planning.

I believe in rational thought.

I believe traffic in Springfield is terrible sometimes.

I believe I have never lived in a big city and that the driving there could be worse.

I believe the 10 minutes has concluded and I am done here.

2.4 Jung Typology Test

     After completing the Jung Typology Test I was promptly informed that I fall into the category of ESTJ.  Upon reading through the Jung Typology Indicators for ESTJ I would say I mostly concur with the results.  Ultimately the typology test and indicators report did not open my eyes to anything new, as much as reinforce understandings that I already had. 

     
     I certainly prefer planning and structure to spontaneity; however, unlike an ESTJ I do enjoy learning about theories.  I am very comfortable in group settings, and rather enjoy collaborating with others.  I also meet deadlines, but as the ESTJ report stated, it is important that I don’t rush things just to meet deadlines.  This is usually circumvented with planning which, as the report also stated, I am prone to do.

     
     As far as learning, I am definitely a person who likes to have information applied to something in order to understand it.  This shows up more in math or science than it does in English/writing classes.  I have actually had one situation in which the instructor refused to demonstrate the idea we were learning beyond what the text book included, which led to me dropping the class.  I also prefer clear expectations when it comes to work, whether that work is academic or professional.  I believe managing expectations is a large part of working with and for others. 

   
     The report was interesting on more levels than just writing and learning and I found most of the categories to be accurate.  I am not sure how knowing that I am an ESTJ according to this test will help or hurt me academically.  I feel that it has no direct impact, but that it still could be of some benefit.  I think the most interesting thing about the typology indicators is the amount of typology indicators there are.  This shows that there are many types of people, who will all have different ideas about how to accomplish a task or goal.  When working with others on group assignments, this report helps me to understand that not everybody is like me and that patience is important.  I will hope that my peers are able to be patient with me when I struggle, and that I can be as gracious in return.  I feel like this typology indicators report will be something I will return to from time to time, to see how I have changed or reinforced the different characteristics within myself.