Wednesday, September 28, 2016

a hug is nearly a gun spelled backwards

Your best friend and America are falling off a cliff; which one do you save? I don't think that anyone in their right mind would put their love of patriotism over their love of their personal relations. A person's relationships with others are extremely important because once we learn to nurture and take care of those relations, we can then spread happiness and positivity. And we all know we can't spread joy and sparkles without getting a little on ourselves. Patriotism isn't all that bad either. It's a great manner to express your love and support towards your country. Although patriotism may be a great attribute, it is possible to have it lead in more of a negative direction rather than a positive one. For example, passionate nationalists may get out of hand when expressing their flag-waving emotions and instead of their spirit coming off as joyful, people can get annoyed or offended by their actions. While with personal relations, you can only create stronger connections with the fondness being outspread. When it comes down to the bond of you and a loved one versus you and your country, I think the correct choice is obvious.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

logical fallacies

1. Straw Man
ex.  He said she's pretty, so he really said she's beautiful and would leave his wife for her.

2. Slippery Slope
ex.  Once we legalize gun use, we might as well legalize bombs and grenades soon too.

3. Red Herring
ex.  How do we feel about racism and discriminant violent acts? Well have you guys seen the crazy stuff going on in L.A.?

4. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
ex.  "Most rapists read pornography when they were teenagers, obviously, pornography causes violence towards women." (csunlogicalfallacies)

5. Argumentum Ad Nauseam
ex.  Trump is dumb. I think Trump is dumb. Trump is dumb. So Trump must be dumb.

6. Argumentum Ad Misericordiam
ex.  Aww poor children in Africa. Why aren't we doing anything to help them?

7. Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam
ex.  The world is coming to an end because nobody has proven it isn't.

8. Appeal To Nature
ex.  God didn't create us to be in the world like this so it's obviously wrong.

9. Non Sequitir
ex.  "Racism is wrong, we need affirmative action."(csunlogicalfallacies)

10. Argumentum Ad Hominem
ex.  He lied in the last interview, who's to say he won't be lying now?

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

vocab #4

adroit: clever or skillful in using hands/mind
He was adroit at his job.
amicable: friendliness, without serious disagreement
They reacted quite amicable considering their earlier dispute.
averse: having strong dislike of something
She was not averse to his new 'friend'.
belligerent: hostile and aggressive
The people at the nursery seemed belligerent.
benevolent: well meaning and kindly
The old lady was always benevolent.
cursory: hasty, not detailed
I only got a cursory look at the notes.
duplicity: deceitfulness, double-dealing
She didn't appreciate the duplicity of the information.
extol: praise enthusiastically
He extolled his new girlfriend.
feasible: possible to do easily
Tonight's homework seems feasible.
grimace: ugly, twisted expression on a person's face
He turned with a nasty grimace.
holocaust: destruction/slaughter on mass scale
He didn't want to think about a holocaust.
impervious: unable to be affected by
She wanted to be impervious to the cold.
impetus: force that makes something happen/ makes something happen quickly
His mom's threats were his impetus to get home.
jeopardy: danger of loss, harm, or failure
His marriage was in jeopardy.
meticulous: very careful and precise
The surgeon was very meticulous.
nostalgia: sentimental longing for the past
He stared at me with a look of nostalgia.
quintessence: most typical example
She was the quintessence of her class.
retrogress: go back to earlier state, worse one
He retrogressed to his old ways.
scrutinize: examine closely and thoroughly
The researcher began to scrutinize her actions.
tepid: showing little enthusiasm
Their reactions to the play were tepid.

big question discipline/s

why do we dream?
•discipline of psychology
•discipline of neurobiology
•discipline of neuropsychology

Thursday, September 8, 2016

bad words

What makes a word bad is if it has a bad intention behind it. But then there's a huge gap of misunderstanding and different meaning of explaining a bad word to a high school student and a toddler. We don't really want a kid in preschool to be cursing out at recess and think it's okay just because he wasn't directing the bad word at an individual. An appropriate use of euphemism is when you know that the expression about to come out of your mouth is going to hurt someone. Another could be when you're about to curse and there's kids around so you kind of go around the words you're trying to say. It becomes phony and confusing when people use overly complicated and fancy words just to explain a simple word or expression that anybody would understand.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Literature Analysis #1 - Catch-22

1. The story is about a World War II bombardier, Yossarian, stationed on an island and in a squadron hospital. He claims to be sick, but they can't find anything wrong with him. He decides to stay in the hospital, avoiding the madness going on with the war, where he befriends and makes enemies with other "insane" people.

2. The theme of the novel is that everybody's crazy. You're crazy for thinking you're crazy, you're crazy for thinking you're not crazy. In the book, Doc Daneeka explains to Yossarian that a Catch-22 is a concern for one's own safety in the face of danger is the sign of a rational mind. If a man was crazy he could be grounded and not go to war, all he had to do was ask. But by asking, the man would be showing he is, indeed sane. He'd then be forced to fly out to more missions, even if he knows he's insane.

3. Joseph Heller doesn't have a morning routine because he's dead. But based on the tone of the book, I think his morning routines went a little like this:
He'd wake up pretty early in the morning, go to a little coffee table with sunshine shining on it and have breakfast. He'd have a nice hot cup of caffeinated coffee, fried eggs with bacon, maybe a whole grain muffin, and maybe a small bowl of fruit (despite him describing the men's food as fresh meat, chilled fruit juice and chocolate milk). Because Yossarian likes playing with words and is clever with them, I think the author does crossword puzzles in the morning and then goes to visit old friends from time to time. He's generally a happy, sarcastic, humorous guy. He constantly makes his friends laugh, even when his tone isn't cheerful. In the novel, Heller continuously makes conversations between the characters that seem very repetitive and make the characters annoyed, but the readers laugh.