Killing Time

With time off, it can be a little difficult to decide exactly what you want to do with it, especially when that time off lasts more than a few days.  Most people would probably try to get away, but there's something refreshing about staying at home, too.  I personally tend to stay at home on long breaks.  It gives me a great opportunity to work on projects around the house that have eluded due me to being busy with other things.  It also gives me the chance to relax quite a bit.  There have been several days over this past week where I didn't go to bed until midnight and I would wake up around eight.  It's quite nice having that freedom from responsibilities from time to time.

But there is a disadvantage to these large amounts of time off.  At least for me there is.  I find that after several days off I become too relaxed and need to re-motivate myself to do work.  It's not the physical relaxation that gets to me, it's the mental relaxation.  Just like the body, if you don't exercise the brain, it gets sluggish.  I try to do something that exercises the mind at least once a day, even if it is something as simple as addition and subtraction.

Bah Humbug...

I have never really been a fan of Christmas-as-we-know-it.  It has become too commercialized with the idea that if you want your friends and family to like you, you'll buy them things.  My family has fell a sort of victim to this mindset, especially with my mother.  Every year it's the same; I tell her that she doesn't have to get me anything, and every year she doesn't listen to what I'm saying and just gets things for me.

The abundance of gifts was exaggerated last year when my fiancée and I spent our first Christmas together.  Her mother hasn't always been the best and appeared like she was trying to make up for things by buying us gifts that she really couldn't afford.  Her father also spoiled us a little with gifts, but no where near as much.

This year appeared to be a nice balance of gifts and what I think the holidays should have their focus on: spending time with family and friends.  Even my fiancée has said that she enjoyed the focus being on the time spent together, rather than the gift giving.

Ready... Set...

Interns need to work harder than most other employs do.  It's not because they will have more work, but because they are there to prove they are worth something.  An intern must demonstrate that worth by being punctual, being eager and motivated, and to be able to handle making mistakes in order to learn from them.

I feel I have shown internship readiness throughout my time at Year Up.  I make it a point to come early and have never been late to class.  I am eager to get to work and motivated to the the work, especially since I enjoy the material.  I do need to be a bit more resilient at making mistakes, however, as I can get frustrated with them.

I need to work on being able to handle making mistakes better.  My plan for this is to make myself understand that I'm there to learn and that they are bound to happen, though I'm not sure how I'll make myself understand that.

Everybody's Working on the Weekend

I've had a few jobs over the years, and I’ve enjoyed most of them.  Of course, there were things that I didn’t enjoy all the time, but that’s life.

One of the first jobs that I’ve had was being a counselor at Cub and Boy Scout camps.  It was fun being able to partake in different activities that were both fun and allowed you to learn.  I got to pass on the skills and the knowledge that I’ve gotten over the years through the Boy Scouts to younger Scouts.  Though it was fun for me, it also allowed me to learn some things.  One of those things was how to have patience for those that don’t have the same level of skills as I do.  Another thing that I learned was how to deal with the “office politics” that happens; there was a bit of a “good old boys” club with the staffers that have been working at the camp for several summers before.

While I haven’t really had a job that I haven’t enjoyed, there have been several details I have had to do while in the military that weren’t very fun.  The thing I found to be the least enjoyable would have to be burning trash while in Afghanistan.  It’s an unfortunate job, but it has to be done, or our health would be in jeopardy.  Most of us would have ephemeral enthusiasm, as we would enjoy the act of burning the trash at first, but soon find the heat too much to handle.  There wasn’t much to learn from this experience, other than the importance of staying hydrated.  And being rather intolerable to heat, I found that I could do the job as long as I stuck at it.

Communication Failure

http://www.kuar.org/kuarnews/41863-army-lr-city-hall-fail-to-warn-public-about-special-forces-exercise.html

According to KUAR News in Little Rock, AR, there was a failure to communicate between US Army officials and officials of City Hall.  A Special Forces unit was scheduled to conduct a training mission in an old VA hospital, but scared the public due to a lack of information given out before the mission was to take place.  The police department was suppose to get the word out, but ended up trying to get the Army to get the word out due to a lack of man power with the police department.  Eventually, no one got the word out.

The frustration that was caused from this incident isn’t from who was going to inform the public, but who is going to take the blame for not informing the public.  Each side thought that the other would take care of the “problem”.  But it was agreed when the Mayor let the Army use the public air space as well as the old VA hospital that the elected positions as well as local law enforcement would inform the public with the aid of media.  So really, there’s no excuse as to why the public couldn’t have been informed.

I can relate to this rather well as that there is a bit of communication problem in the military.  But it usually doesn’t get to this type of problem.  Most of the time it’s last minute things that come up and need to get done before the day is over.  Sometimes those in charge know about these things, other times they don’t, but either way it’s never really fun to have to try rushing around to get these things done.

My Inspiration

Many people say that they have been inspired by one thing or another, but what were they inspired to do?  Did they watch a movie about gorillas and became inspired to eat a banana split?  Becoming inspired is one thing, but doing something with that inspiration is another.

I’ve never really looked at whom or what inspires me before; I’ve never truly felt inspired, at least, not until rather recently.  I guess it’s because I never really was asked about it.  No one cared to know what I was inspired to do, so I ended up not caring about it myself.  I ended up becoming rather lazy and just floating by through life.  Everything appeared to be working out.  But it wasn’t until after leaving the Army that I found myself lost and not sure what to do with my life.  I needed my own inspiration.

I would have to say that my biggest source of inspiration comes from both my mother and my fiancée.  While they may be two sources of inspiration, they both inspire me to do the same thing.  This inspiration is to better improve myself for those I care about.

My mother raised my brother and me as a single parent ever since I was young.  She worked night shifts at the hospital as a nurse and was often tired, but she always made sure that she had enough time to make dinner for us before she left.  Looking back on it, her hard work has inspired me to work hard to take care of those I care about.

My fiancée is another inspiration for me to work harder.  She put herself through college, which wasn’t easy with her controlling mother.  Even with problems of a professor losing her work which would prevent her from graduating, she took classes over the summer while working to finish earning her degree.  She’s even studying to get her CPA while working a full time job.  She inspires me to continue my education.

Who Are in My Community? - Boy Scouts

Members of the Community:
The members of the Boy Scout community are very friendly and kind people.  They're made up of the boys that participate in the program as well as their parents and other adult leaders.  They belong to Troops that meet usually once a week.  At these meetings they plan outings and partake in activities to earn rank advancement, awards and otherwise improve their skills.

Characteristics:
The community has many good things about it.  It allows for boys to learn different skills they'll need in life such as leadership and teamwork.  It's a great way to meet new people and go new places.  They give back by preforming community services through different events.

Unfortunately there are some problems with the community.  Most Troops are having problems with retention, especially when boys get to high school.  They go off to participate in other activities such as sports.

Stage 1 Complete

What are some of the things you learned about yourself as a student or a professional in Module I? Did you surprise yourself in any way? Were you proud of yourself? Were you at all disappointed in yourself? Why?

Self reflection hasn't really been a strong suit of mine; I tend to be rather hard on myself.  I feel like there are things that I should have done better on and don't always see the things that I did well.


One of the things that I feel I did well on, however, was helping others.  I have quite a bit of experience working with the things we covered in our Tech class and made sure that I was able to share that knowledge.  There were several times where I would finish my work quickly and went around helping my fellow students with their work.


I was very surprised when I got a certificate for being an "assassin" in our BC class.  I didn't think I stood out that much with my work.  But after hearing that it was also for my helping others in class, the reason made a little more sense.


Even with being recognized as I had been, I know there are still things that I need to work on.  One of the biggest things I need to work on is not putting my work off to the last possible moment, especially my homework.  It was a big problem for me in high school and soon spiraled out of control to where I wasn't even doing my work.  I've managed to get every assignment in for the module, but I could definitely have started on them sooner when I got home.  I also tend to be a bit quiet in a group, letting people give their input before I do, almost to the point where my ideas come a bit too late.

Whispers of Yesterdays

I haven't lived where I'm living now for very long, so it hasn't really affected who I am all that much.  The house I grew up in played a bigger part in how I behave than anywhere else I've lived.  This house was in the middle of a court up a steep hill.  It is a quiet place, out of the way from most traffic and noise.  Most of the people who lived on the court were older couples, leaving my brother and me to be the only kids on the street most of the time.

More often than not it felt like living up there was a place to be forgotten and hide away.  It was a place to get away from, almost as if it were to trap you there if you would let it.  And most of the time it would trap me there.  I became more and more reclusive as the years went on.  I would lose myself in television, movies, computer games and video games.  Chores and homework would fall by the wayside for less productive activities.  I would rarely leave the house.  Sure, I went to school, participated in Boy Scout events, and to visit friends and family, but those things were few and far between.

My mother ended up thinking that I had motivational issues and signed me up for therapy.  This really didn’t help much.  I found that it was more of an issue of usefulness than motivation that kept me from doing some of the more “important” things.  Why clean my room if I knew it would get dirty again?  Why do homework for history when I’ll probably never use that information?  I would do what I thought mattered in the long run.  This sort of mindset has followed me throughout my life.  I don’t feel like doing something unless it makes a matter for a long period of time, but this makes it so I put a lot of energy into things that I truly want to do.

Spreading the Gap

Earning money any way you can, that's the true nature of capitalism.  But is that nature hurting others?  I think it may with how someone goes about earning their money.

Credit card companies make their money by the interest they charge their customers.  The money they make off of this interest allows them to expand the credit they can give to other customers.  Though these companies have traditionally looked away from giving credit to low income houses, they've recently started to look to them as a way of making more money at the turn of the century.

And it's not just the credit card companies that are doing this, other businesses have made a lot of money by making offers to the less fortunate that appear to be good deals.  These offers only encourage the less fortunate to become deeper and deeper in debt.

An example of this is with Byrider, a used car lot which offers financing to those that aren't as well off.  Often they will sell a car with a high interest rate.  If the payments aren't being paid off, then they will reposes the car, keeping the money they have already gained.

Other places that offer rent-to-own deals do things similarly, though they aren't as obvious.  Renting to own can appear like a good idea, but over time you end up spending more money than you would have if you bought it at the beginning.

While these companies are earning their money, they are creating a larger and larger gap between the wealthy and the poor.  This is making it harder for those less fortunate to get out of the situations they're in, spreading the opportunity divide.

But it's not just the companies fault for this spread.  People need to educate themselves about the good and evil of credit.  They need to understand what credit is, how it's used properly and how it can hurt them.  A big part of that, and probably the simplest thing to learn about is interest.  Interest is where most people get bogged down by the numbers, not realizing that even if they pay the minimum payment, they'll not be making a dent in how much they owe with interest building up.

It can be hard to know where to start learning about credit.  In high school it was mandatory for all seniors to take economics as a semester class.  The class itself taught us the basics of how economics works, but not much of a practical use of this information.  I feel that a class in practical economics should be taught in every high school.  This would at lest give young adults a starting point for their knowledge so they can better themselves in the future.

Playing Games

How we spend our free time and our interests tend to define who we are with others.  The titles people give us based on what we do can range from insulting to a playful joke.  I'm usually seen as a gamer and a nerd.

The games I play don't tend to be the usual board games you might see, such as Monopoly or Clue.  I play games that are usually referred to as "specialist games".  These games usually have background and story that one can indulge in, also known as "fluf", that isn't really needed to know to play the game, but can make the game a little more fun.  I primarily play Magic the Gathering and Warhammer 40,000.

I started playing Magic when I was in middle school.  A friend of mine would bring a few decks of his and we would play at lunch.  Playing at lunch became a bit of a tradition that carried out through most of high school.  While the game is fun in itself, it has some things that can help build cognitive skills.  Math is a big part of the game, as both players start with a live total of twenty, and when it reaches zero they lose.  They have to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division primarily, but there are also a little bit of using variables as well.  Another thing that it helps develop is critical thinking.  With so many combinations in the game that can be done with different cards in order to win, one has to plan out what they're going to do in their turn as well as a few turns ahead.

I started playing Warhammer 40,000 in high school. This is a table top war game where one builds and paints models to represent characters in an army.  It also helps build cognitive skills.  Similar to Magic, it uses math and critical thinking.  You also need to use spacial thinking and statistics with the placing models and figuring out how well you can do based on what you need to roll on a six-sided-dice.

The thing I like most about these games is the social aspect of them.  I have met and kept several close friends who also play these games.  Being social games, they help build more interpersonal skills, such as how to deal with others with a disagreement as well as just generalized small talk (Though they may be focused around the games).

Schooled

Castro Valley wasn't the most interesting place growing up.  I mean sure, it had a few things to entertain it's population such as a movie theater and one could visit Lake Chabot, but for me I would have to say my favorite place would be at the high school.

Now you're probably thinking that sounds like quite a strange thing to say, but I have my reasons.  Mostly it's because I would be able to hang out with my friends on a regular basis.  For what ever reason none of us could really get our schedules to match up for everyone to get together very often, making the school a great place to hang out.

The campus got a lot better as I was there.  The cafeteria/auditorium and one of the halls got remodeled between my freshman and sophomore years.  By the time I left, there had already started to build an entirely new hall and had plans to remodel the entrance to the stadium (The picture is the new entrance to the stadium).

The teachers, for the most part, try very hard to come up with things to do in class that would be enjoyable activities to learn from.  These range from doing simple things such as bingo to more critical thinking activities like a mock governments.  There are even a few teachers that I go back to the school and visit with from time-to-time.

For the most part I enjoyed my high school experience.  There were times where I wasn't the most motivated, and it's kinda surprising I even passed with how often I didn't do my homework, but I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Who influenced my language?

I’ve thought about this for a while and I’m still not sure what the answer is completely.  I think it has to do with the way that I learn in general.  I’m not big on reading or studying to get my knowledge; I learn from listening, watching and doing.

There were very few people in my life while I grew up that would use any sorts of slang or what would be considered broken English.  That doesn’t mean to say that they wouldn’t slip up and use something that wasn’t proper, though.  With my mother being one of eight children from her family, there were a lot of times where things became social.  Every major holiday we would go down to my grandmother’s house for dinner and just about everyone would show up.  They would spend hours talking about their life, their jobs, their friends or even nothing in particular.

Even with the social side of my mother influencing how my speech patterns developed, I believe it was my father that was the major influence in how I talked.  His family is not as close as my mother’s and I think this lead to him being more of a quiet person.  Yes he is social and has friends that he visits with on a regular basis, but the way he talks is much more of a “when it’s needed to be said” sort of way.

I fall somewhere in between these.  I’m a rather quiet person and talk when I feel I can add to the conversation, but I for the most part speak following most of the rules of English.