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We’re in Wisconsin, and my parent’s have dialup. So I’m not updating really until I either get around to a wifi hotspot, or I get home on the 31st. So this may be my last post of 2006. We’ll see. Either way, I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!
walking across a bridge
downstream, a waterfall, but facing the wrong direction
upstream, 2 brances. at first only one, both shores with trees
then tir (I think) picks up a bunch of trees, which creates a new branch upstream, greatly increasing the amount of water flowing
now the downstream waterfall is much bigger in volume, but it still the wrong direction. In other words, I can see the waterfall, so it is like the waterfall is another stream meeting with this river. Except there’s no real angle difference, so it’s like 2 rivers making a head on collision…but no collision point. very odd
So I decide to start moving back to shore, and the bridge is out. it just ends, no supports or anything. I turn back and before long, that disappears too. So I do the only thing I can and fall/jump off into the water. I was a bit scared in the water, but just went with it, and everything was fine. I don’t remember anything else after. Time to look up the meaning of water I guess…
They finally have another option for the 3 column theme! Woohoo! I really like having the text centered, and then having other information on the edges, but that left me with only one simple option for a theme. It’s not bad, but the colors were never quite what I wanted. Now I can finally tweak the colors more to my liking. I hope you all like it as much as I do. I’m still tweaking a bit, but this is good enough for now. Nice bright, deep blues… Hooray!
I still haven’t done an actual reiki treatment on myself or Carrie, there just hasn’t been time. But, I have noticed that energy flows much easier than before. I’ve used it to ease some aches in my knees. I feel relief immediately, but it goes away pretty fast if I remove my hands too soon.
Last night, carrie took her math final. It was taking a long time, so I thought I could try to help her out. I focused on feeling her in the other room, and visualized a bubble around her. I imagined it as a force field that other people’s thoughts couldn’t enter. I had this visual of the field rotating a bit, moving back and forth. I did this for the last 15 minutes of her test or so. She mentioned that towards the end she found herself able to return to the word problems and complete them, which is the closest thing we have to ‘proof’ that it worked. Too bad it doesn’t work on physical sounds.
My goal is to get a reiki treatment done by the end of the weekend. We leave for Wisconsin on wednesday, so at the very least I can do it on the train. We have a sleeper car, which means privacy! (and free food that is super good!)
Well, I better get to bed. Every night I stay up a bit later. I’ll have to buckle down to get up earlier. Also, tonight was fun with the meteor shower. I saw 10 meteors! It would have been even better in the middle of nowhere, but my patio was better than nothing. Hooray!
I figured out final grades yesterday, and discussed them with my supervisor. We’re required to have an average in the B range for the course, and it should be in the lower part of the B range. All of my classes were pretty good with that, with one class at a 3.4. He agreed with my distributions, and that was that. Last night I get an email from a student trying to get me to lower the curve so he can have an A. Problem is, if I do that, I have to do it for 3 other people, raising the class average to a 3.5, which is way too high. He already talked to my supervisor, who explained that there will always be people on the border of the line. He asked for a regrade, but was told that the chances are much better that we’d find more errors and his grade would go down even more. I hope he’s dropping the issue.
At this point, I’m just annoyed. For one, I don’t have to curve the class at all. I could use an absolute scale, like in all of my wife’s classes, and be done with it. But I don’t; I give a slight curve with primarily reduces the number of C’s I hand out. Also, everyone gets to drop their lowest lab score. Which means, if we counted all labs, his average is even lower! So he’s even more in the B range. So, I’m trying to figure out why I should give someone an A when they earned a B. Quite simply, I shouldn’t, and won’t. My supervisor backed me up on this, and thanked me for maintaining my stance. You know what’s funny? This is a 1 credit course. Which means it barely affects their gpa. This grade fulfilled the graduation requirement, it’s time to accept that you simply did a B job and move on.
Some people…
While not suprised, I am saddened by a pole I just took part in. Over 80% of people are not concerned at all about the conditions in jails. Which of course means a lot of people who read this will disagree with me.
We, as a society, and as individuals, are defined by how we treat our so called lessers. The way we treat children, animals, and criminals defines so much of our society, and overrules any arguments to the contrary. After all, isn’t this one of the reasons we claim Saddam Hussein was evil? He tortured prisoners. I’m sure there are people saying that what disgusts them is that he tortured innocent people, but really, who’s to say who is innocent? Every day we hear of another verdict being overturned due to new evidence, or finally getting around the dna testing. Even if you say, let’s torture people who commit heinous crimes (how we define that is also up for debate), what of all the people falsely convicted of those types of crimes?
Our criminal justice system does not work. It will not work until we actually do things that affect the cause of crime. Locking even the most innocent person into a 5×9 cell for 23 hours a day will destroy their mental and physical health, leaving them unable to function in society. No positive change comes from that.
How do we create lasting change? Address the issues of the individual. Do they have mental problems? Did they never have guidance and structure growing up? There are many ways to address emotional issues that actually work, like EFT (emotional freedom techniques). Address the underlying beliefs that cause the conflict. That’s true healing, and true freedom. Then, give the people tools to survive in the world. You can’t expect a person to function if they were never given tools. If no one teaches you how to live, where do you learn it? You make do. And that often leads to crime.
I personally feel that if a person cares nothing for those in prison, they are no better than criminals themselves. To lack compassion and desire to help and heal, what difference is there between you and the average criminal? Just because you follow the rules society places before you does not make you a good person. Nor does the breaking of societies rules make you a bad person.
So if you’re part of the 80% who has no concern about our prison system, perhaps it’s time to use a little empathy with intelligence. Learn the facts about these places. Hell, there are shows on all the time showing the prison system from the inside out. Look at those who successfully rehabilitate people. It’s not by placing them in a small box for most of the day. And then, think of what you would want if you were falsely convicted of a crime. I bet you’d start caring pretty darn fast. What if it was your child? What if someone did commit a crime? What if a person kills their abuser, someone who made their life hell for years? Should they then spend the rest of their life in a small box? What if you found out someone had molested your child, and in the moment you lost your mind and killed them? Self defense and insanity pleas don’t get you very far these days, never assume you can get off in these situations.
It’s time to care, about everyone. Until we do, this world will not improve. And we, as a society are no better than any others. As a final thought, here is the golden rule from many religions. I wonder…how many religious people are in that 80%?
The “Golden Rule” in Eight Faiths
Brahmanism — Mahabharata 5:5157
This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.
Buddhism — Udana-Varga 5:18
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
Christianity — Matthew 7:12
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (King James) So always treat others as you would like them to treat you. (Jerusalem)
Confucianism — Analects 15:23
Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.
Islam — Sunnah
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Judaism — Talmud, Shabbat 31a
What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.
Taoism — T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien
Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.
Zoroastrianism — Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5
That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.
I’ve been asking around about this, because it’s been an odd weekend. Warning for personal information.
Today, I caught a quick blurb on the View where Rosie is talking about the trouble with kids when their parents have different last names. It’s usually not a problem, but if you’re dealing with the emergency room, it can definately be an issue. This got me thinking about the issue of names for Carrie and I, and eventually our kids.
One option is to change everyone’s name. We could do a hyphenated thing, hape-meyer, or we could create our own new name, hapemeyer, which works because there are lots of German names involving something and meyer. We’d then be able to continue each of our lines in some sense. Plus, then we’d all have the same name, making it more obvious that we’re a family.
Putting this into practice, however, feels wierd. For one, I’m very attached to my name. It’s been my name for 28 years after all! I don’t know how women do it when they get married. I mean, why should I have to change my name? It’s a silly patriarchal concept that reinforces the concept of male ownership and male blood lines. Yet each person contributes 50% of the genetic material, so no one has any more claim than anyone else. And then, when there isn’t a father involved, it’s even more complicated.
I don’t want to change my name. I don’t want to have to learn how to sign my name over again. Carrie is also very attached to her name. Their family line is quickly dying out, and she wants to keep it going. The last thing I would do is ask her to change her name, removing her outside family identity. This isn’t much of a problem, until kids come along. Then, they need to have a last name that identifies them as part of the family, once the adoption comes through. It seems easiest to hyphenate the name. Then, it should be clear enough that if someone has the last name meyer or hape, they are probably related, right? It may be a little confusing for the kids at first, but they’ll figure it out eventually. Plus, if we end up with mail addressed to the hape-meyer’s, I won’t mind. I just don’t want to have to learn to sign my name differently.
Some people may say we’re too independent. That marriage is about compromise. But I don’t think it’s a compromise for one person to change their name, and not the other. I also don’t see it as being that important for both people to change their name if they don’t want to. How much simpler would life be if we didn’t have to learn everyone’s new names all the time? I hate that I can’t track down old friends because they’ve gotten married and I don’t know their last name! It just seems to be a system that isn’t needed anymore. I do admit that I’m not sure how to fix this so that families are easily identifiable, but we don’t have impossibly long last names. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.
This morning I had a dream that I bet I can find information about in dream books, so I want to write down what I can remember. It seems like most of my dreams aren’t easy to find information about, which is frustrating when trying to discover meaning. Maybe this one is different.
I went into an apartment that was supposed to be empty. I thought it was supposed to be ours. As I walked through the apartment, which was relatively dark, I noticed a few items left behind that shouldn’t have been there. I kept walking around, though I’m not sure what I was looking for. This apartment was setup kinda wierd, because I started going through the house in a clockwise manner, and eventually came to the bedroom, which had these huge doors. I’m not sure what you call them. There were two doors, that you open so that now it’s a pretty wide open room if you wanted. They took up half of the wall or so. I end up in the living room area, though there must be more to the apartment yet. I start asking if there’s anyone there, because there’s even more stuff in the living room/kitchen area, including a tv turned on. I start to get nervous, and have the sense that I’m in the wrong apartment, or that I’m in it too early. Maybe we had only agreed to take it, and it was still being shown? I packup Carrie’s laptop, though I don’t know why it was there and plugged in, but I was sure it was her’s. I shoved it in a bag that I now had with me, hoping no one would question the ownership. Basically, I didn’t want to get in trouble for being somewhere I thought was mine, and having things that were mine in my bag. In the end I was able to leave without trouble, though it made me nervous.
I’ll add to this once I can look in some books or something.
