Rethinking Oedipus

I was thinking about Sophocles' play again. Oedipus Rex if you didn't catch it the first time.

Previously I had the idea that Sophocles may have been giving too much power to the gods, but I've changed my stance. That is just reading into things. Actually, the strange fact about the story is that had the parents never pursued a prophecy to begin with, then none of the story would have ever happened. Oedipus would not have been abandoned by Iocaste, because there wouldn't have been a prophecy to fear. This could almost be interpreted as a warning against prophecy.

I like to keep my options open though, because really I don't believe that a good story's lessons can be simplified. The lessons are the story itself, the experience of the story. If the author just wanted to write a fortune cookie then I'm sure that's what they would have done, but instead he or she decided to write a story.

Brainstorming a Literacy Narrative

It wasn't a specific a-ha! moment in my life from which my reading and writing world changed forever. There was no box of books in my attic, no prison stories, no specific person who inspired me by example or anti-example... I've probably only finished reading three or four works of fiction in my life. Reading and writing for me has always been a matter of motivation. If there is something I want to read, then I read it. If there is something I want to write then I write it. And so for this, the motivation, there was a turning point... It was a certain video game.

How Would I Manage the Workplace?

If I were in charge at my job, how would I change it? There's really not much I would change. I would offer more regular small raises to give the employees an incentive to do well. As it is, raises don't really exist there. Also I would give employees more breathing room when they're in the shop. I know I would because I've been in charge before, and that's how I handled things. Micromanaging is something managers do when it's been too long since they've been employees. I know that people work best when you trust them to their job. Train them well and then let them do their job, only stepping in if necessary. It's that simple. This may not work on a large scale with hundreds of employees under you, but on a small scale I know it works well, and our company is a very small operation. The last thing someone wants in a small operation is to see the same nagging face every day and never hear that they're doing their job well. As it is, many managers think the employees should be grateful for their job, and this is true, but it's also very important that the management is grateful for their employees. Disgratitude leads to poor performance which leads to more disgratitude, so it's imperative that gratitude finds its way into both the employees and the management.

Oedipus and inevitability

I read Oedipus Rex today for my Theater Appreciation class. In the textbook's introduction, I learned about two aspects of the theater experience that are prevalent in this play: discovery and reversal of fortune. I thought long over these aspects and how I could see them in so many places today, in books, television, movies, etc. If things are just linear, it would be quite boring to say the least. There need to be questions, mysteries; and there also need to be turn-arounds that make us forfeit hasty judgments. I'm going to keep these two things in mind whilst working on this musical I've been going at on and off for about a year or so.

As far as the play is concerned, I would quickly have some beef with some of its themes. The play's theme of inevitability is fair enough in my book. The way I see it, not a single atom moves, not a single neuron in your brain fires, not a single ray of light shines, without there being a reason for its shining, cause and effect. It's in this way that all things are inevitable, at least it seems to be so in principle. But who can know this? In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles seems to say the gods have knowledge of this inevitability and regardless of how hard man may try, he cannot escape this inevitability. I think this is probably usually the case, but I think that in man exists the potential to rise above all the elements, that in his universe-given freedom and awareness, he can make choices that not a single soul, save the universe itself, could foresee. The laws and the gods in place would be necessary for such a man to liberate himself from all things that would try to control him, to turn him away from believing in himself, in his existence that came into being for a reason. And so I sensed a bit of fear-mongering in this play which didn't exactly turn me off from it. It was still quite a moving experience from beginning to end, and that in itself is a great thing. Seeing as how most of that culture lived in fear-induced reverence to the gods, it's not particularly surprising that it's so prevalent in the play, with or without direct intention from Sophocles.

Seriously, ten minutes a day?

I don't think I can write ten minutes of not-random-crap every day... Well, just as I type this I hear a blood-curdling scream from the laundry area in our apartment... I hurry over there to my wife, bug-eyed in terror... It was a little roach... It was already dead. I thought there was a zombie in there eating someone's brains out. Seriously, it sounded that bad.

Lost, one long mystery worth watching

My wife and I just finished season 2 of the show "Lost". Yes, I know we are a bit behind as they're now in what? Season 6? Well, this is how it is with us. We don't have cable, only internet, but with Netflix we can just stream it online. And so when we watch a series it's usually several seasons into it when we're just starting. This is actually highly enjoyable, because not only are there no commercials, but also we can really get into the show and watch up to several episodes back-to-back if we feel like it.

I have been highly impressed with this series so far. The story is extremely unique and engrossing. The main story of plane wreck survivors on an island along with "the others" (a mysterious group who were already on the island) is complemented by the back story of each of the main characters. Part of a back story for one main character is weaved into the main story, a specific character's story for each show. Because of these back stories the first season really seemed to be taking off slowly for me. But the mysteries of the island were unraveling and they kept me watching.

See at first, the back stories were completely secondary to me. I thought the story of the show was just about the island. So I waited patiently through the back stories, thinking they'd be over by the second season and then we'd really get into the real meat of the story. By the end of season 2 though, I noticed my stance had changed very naturally. The back stories continued, some more on the characters we've already come to know and love, and some new characters altogether. The back stories had become just as relevant as the main story.

It really amazes me to watch a good series, especially one that is able to run several seasons well. How can they weave a story together so well over so long? It's extremely impressive to me. As I am a slow fiction reader, I'm not used to this sort of thing. I've never been able to finish a book longer than two or three hundred pages (and that's extremely difficult for me, just not my thing)... So this, a good 17-20 hours of story per season, for six or seven seasons, is just so impressive to me. So many characters woven together seamlessly, a mystery that keeps you on your toes throughout its entirety, by the end of every 40-minute show thirsty for another 40 minutes to solve some more mysteries and uncover new ones... It's such a feat of intelligence I think.

wrote a new song for a musical today

Been working on a musical on and off for about a year or so. Came up with a new song for it today. It will be nice when I have time to put it all together.

New Discoveries today

I downloaded this latest trailer for Final Fantasy 13 today and thoroughly enjoyed the song by Leona Lewis. Searching her out, I discovered new songs I liked as well (some I'd heard before but didn't know who sang them). The game featured here is due out in the U.S. in March this year. It will be a turning point for the series as it will be the first on the PS3 (FF12 was on the PS2). It seems when they jump to a new platform they really give it all they've got. In fact, I'm playing through Final Fantasy 7 again right now on the PSP (originally on the PS1). It is arguably the best game of all time. I have a feeling FF13 will also find its place amongst the ranks of the greats.

For those who aren't already aware of the series, it started on the original Nintendo, moved to the Super Nintendo, then it jumped to the PlayStation 1 with FF7. Making another jump at FF10 it went to the PS2, and now it is jumping to the PS3 with FF13. Each entry is a completely separate story line, with the game demanding at least 20+ hours of gameplay, with optional sidequests, stories, leveling up, etc., which can easily bring the entire game in completion to a good 60 hours or more. Although each entry contains unique story and main characters, occasionally some secondary characters make reappearances. Each installment also has very similar battle mechanics, items, equipment, etc., but also incorporates something new into each game. It's really a fantastic series, and a great opportunity for those in charge to really move people in this fantastic medium. Interactive storytelling at its finest.

I can't wait 'til March :)

"Dawn of civilization"?

In my World History class, we were speaking about this, the so-called "dawn of civilization". Now, it's taught as fact in that class (and I also remember this from high school), that the dawn of civilization began roughly 12,000 years ago. 12,000 years... Now on top of this, it appeared to be happening within the same few thousand years all around the world in groups that had been disconnected from each other. This was a question in this second class on world history. Why development now? What could cause these disconnected groups around the world to take off exponentially all of a sudden? There were several hypotheses given, but to me none of them made any sense at all. The "oasis" hypothesis which states that people gather near water; the "social" hypothesis which states, more or less, that people are social (duh?); and a couple other hypotheses that basically explain why one group might begin to develop. But why in the same period of time did human beings begin to develop? There is no explanation for it as I can tell, not without incorporating concepts from other areas of study.

First of all, a history major needs to really look at the question here. We're talking about in a few thousand year window that separate groups began to develop... the question is not why one group might develop, but why several groups might develop at the same time although seemingly disconnected. We're talking about bipeds who have arguably been around for at least six million years. Six million. That is a big number. So why then, after six million years of animal life, did bipeds make the jump globally to develop in a different way? To me, it's a mystery, although I see no reason to assume that just because we don't have records of civilization earlier than 12,000 years ago means that none existed earlier than that. I see no reason to omit the possibility that entire civilizations could have been wiped out many thousands or millions of years ago in natural disasters, leaving virtually no record.

I suppose this is the original purpose of such studies, to dive into the unknown and to look into possible reasons for what we do know. But I find that many times in the educational system the line is forgotten. Teachers tend to state theories as facts, and then their students become teachers and do the same thing. The line is lost between theory and fact, and in my world it is imperative to differentiate the two.

In my first math class, the teacher was explaining that testing this certain equation, the solution seemed beyond all shadow of a doubt to be a certain number. But, in math, 'seems' is not good enough. An answer must be definite to be an answer. And so, to me, it remains an interesting uniqueness about math, that it deals with definite truths, and when it doesn't it makes clear the line between theory and fact.

Writing blogs? School? Really?

So I just spent my first class of the day on Blogger writing blogs, which is right up my alley :) And there I was in my last post dogging on English classes. If it wasn't for English classes and being forced to read and write throughout the years, then I wouldn't have the skills at all to write in my own time.

Regardless... I might make exceptions for some composition classes. It's the reading big texts, big research papers, etc., that really turn me off.

Why math?

Why choose math?

I've always been good at it. I've always loved numbers. Numbers are free from human opinion or error.

When I write, I write, and I don't really care for criticism on it, because I am the author. When I read or watch a movie, I just read or watch a movie. Over-analyzing these things only detracts from their worth, in my opinion. If a movie or a book is good, it changes you deeper than the mind, the thoughts - not that there's nothing to say about these things, but I am generally turned off by the idea of forced analyzing, and over-analyzing. Sure there are many people who are good at this sort of thing, and I'm sure good comes of it, but for me personally, no good comes of it, just makes my head hurt.

So with math, its purpose is to see facts. One plus one equals two and we all know this. It is a fact beyond discussion, beyond imagination, beyond opinion, beyond dreams, and this is why I'm going for math. It gets down to pure substance.

First Love

I remember being in love for the first time. So caught up with a certain person that I would have never accepted 'no' for an answer. It was faith that brought me through those times, as I was too young and shy to know how to deal with these feelings. But something in me always knew the chance was there, and somehow, some time, it might manifest.

It was high school. Freshman year. And I threw a rotten strawberry at her. She kicked my chair. It was biology class.

I failed that class.

Not because of her. I just rarely went to school those days.

I took the class again in summer school.

We still hadn't really spoken on any close terms. I had my life. She had hers. I didn't see her all summer. She probably didn't remember my name. But I thought about her often...

It was Sophomore year now. I had seven classes - seven chances to see her again.

First class... nothing.

Second class... nothing... still five more chances..

Third class... nothing...

Fourth class... nope...

Fifth class.... oh no, maybe I'll never see her again.

Sixth class... ... ... tapping feet nervously...

Seventh class... NO! I can't believe it! My faith is broken... ... ...

First day of school, last class, my chances are gone. Back to my life. That's okay, I didn't mind being alone, it was just this girl, somehow, I loved her already.

Fifteen minutes into class... and walking through the door comes my queen, resilient, stubborn, full of young life, and beautiful... My entire being couldn't help but smile. My faith broken to be renewed again stronger than before.

That's how things happen. In my life at least. If we got what our heart wanted while our minds still are grasping for it, then it would make us all spoiled brats.

In my life, I always get what I need, although many times it's not until the mind is broken, the grasping is broken, and the fear is extended to such an extent that we just shut up. Then, and only then, can the good come without us taking it for granted, without it being put to waste.

Today... I'm married to that woman.