Entertaining Psychology

They’re these little seeds in the back of your mind, waiting for a chance to grow and show themselves. Whenever you think about them you have no idea why they popped into your head in the first place. Some are simple, sometimes overly-optimistic thoughts while others are the exact definition of pure evil and sadism. I’m of course talking about intrusive thoughts.

Intrusive thoughts are basically involuntary thoughts people have that seem weird to them when they think about them and are hard to get rid of/manage since they constantly recur. Sort of like when a person goes into a room and forgets why they’re there in the first place, there has to be a reason they’re in there but they can’t think of it. Such is the same with intrusive thoughts, they just sort of happen ,and keep happening, without any reason the person having them can think of, for them to exist.

Intrusive thought in general is usually attributed to things like guilty consciences or evil dark sides. However, this isn’t always the case. Intrusive thought could also be caused by traumatic events involving a certain one of the five senses or by the environment one is exposed to. The majority of the intrusive thoughts people have are, unfortunately, unpleasant and have even lead some to complete and total insanity. When someone thinks “intrusive thoughts” they usually picture this nice little child who is very timid and bashful suddenly thinking about everything totally opposite of their character (such as  turning into a dreamed Texas Chainsaw Massacre with them being the main serial killer). However, not all intrusive thoughts are necessarily as bloody, gorey ,or evil as real-life Jason Voorhees next to you at the bus stop. Some intrusive thoughts can actually be somewhat of a good thing. As stated earlier, intrusive thoughts have the ability to change people usually because of their recurring nature. So, if a nice kid can be turned into an insane monster with intrusive thought, what’s preventing a relatively mean kid from being turned into a kind fellow of the community? Nothing, that’s what! Intrusive thoughts are not necessarily things deemed unpleasant by society, they are things deemed unpleasant by the person having them. If someone thinks being mean is good and they start having intrusive thoughts about being good to others, that can have a major psychological effect on them. Certainly this isn’t always the case that people are changed by intrusive thought (I manage it quite well ;)) but it just goes to show that intrusive thoughts are not necessarily a bad thing. I personally think intrusive thoughts are what can lead us to our fullest potential in life and can give us a better understanding of how the human psyche works and functions.    

Careers and Salary

Money, one of the most limiting and most talked about factor of our daily lives.Money is what buys food, water, shelter, and luxury. Money can also lead to crippling debt and personal economic depression as well.Money is what makes people work and provide for others, but money is also what makes people steal and scam. So, with money being this important, how is it earned the moral way? Traditionally, the answer to that question has been education from elementary school through college.

Is it a surprise ,then, that some people would rather do what they love to get their degree instead of getting a degree in a job field that’s renowned for having high wages? Maybe or maybe not, but it just shows that salary usually has little or no effect on what area a person decides to major in. For instance, I want to get my degree in aerospace engineering. I’ve been fascinated with flight all my life: how it works, what it does, and what it can do for us as humans. So, when I heard there was a job to literally study the workings of air and spacecraft while also adding my own innovative ideas to the mix (I can’t quite remember if I shouted or said it to myself, more than likely I burst out in joy since I was 7 at the time) I said, immediately, “That’s what I’m going to be when I grow up!” Ever since then I’ve been focusing my education path on that road, while also dabbling in other subjects a little less related as well, unflinchingly. It was only until the 8th grade when I realised why my grandparents and parents were saying I was taking on a great ambition with that last statement. When we did the Future Fair (or whatever it was called) they had us calculate our future wages as entry-class workers in our projected majors so we could have a base starting amount for our yearly payments on life’s necessities and luxuries. When I entered “Aerospace Engineer” in the search results, I was surprised. At entry-level, the program said I would be making $94,000 a year! I then looked around and found that everyone was looking at my screen, absolutely dumbfounded (since the highest salary out of all of them was around $60,000 a year). The people around me then began of accusing me of “picking the job with the most money” and “not following my passion in life”, to which I simply assured them that this was what I wanted to do ever since I was a 7-year old and that I, in fact, had no idea what aerospace engineers made until now. They then apologetically retracted their comments and even congratulated me, but I never, at the time, really understood why. I’m being congratulated for following my dreams? Wasn’t everyone doing the same thing I was doing? Then I realized, they weren’t congratulating me for following my dreams, they were congratulating me for doing that AND having a high salary to go with it.

So, in short, salary had no effect on me choosing a career. The only thing that ever affected my choice of a career was just my childhood fascinations and my ambitious nature to pursue those fascinations into something greater and much larger than I was (at the time).

College Application Article

There was an article I read over the weekend about how Harvard, America’s equivalent to Oxford University, has recently proposed changes to the college application process in America. The list of proposed changes includes making the SAT and ACT optional (to de-emphasize standardized testing), taking into account a person’s performance in their extracurricular activities (instead of just looking at how many they took), and a better way of showing sustained community service for  community (instead of just seeing a couple discrete projects here and there). Overall, I can say I agree with each of these huge changes for various reasons. With the de-emphasis on standardized testing, students won’t feel nearly as much pressure to do well in high school that could lead to the crippling stress and/or (in extreme cases) depression that some students face in high school today just because it seems like their every move is being watched and that, if they don’t do well enough, all of their hopes and dreams will come crashing down.This isn’t good for anyone’s mental health, much less a developing teenager, and seems like a good change to be making solely because of this fact. In terms of extracurricular activities many students who take them really don’t show enough effort for them and drag everyone else who is there for a learning experience down. If colleges began evaluating a student’s performance in these activities the people in them who actually do what is asked of them will receive the credit they deserve for their hard work and won’t be considered equal to a person in the same activity who did nothing in it. Lastly, community service is essential to a community’s survival. I’ve heard of multiple people who say all they did was a couple hour projects here and there and got through the application process who then tell me “so, in other words, don’t worry about community service. They won’t care how much you do anyway” (or something of that nature). An emphasis on the continuousness of community service would be a great emphasis for students to focus and improve on in their lives.

In short, I agree with every single one of these changes and hope to see them implemented as soon as humanly possible.

Animal Thoughts (ramble)

There are many different animal rights groups across the globe, some government sponsored and others just the people rallying for the ethical treatment of animals. Some people love and support these organizations, while some simply don’t care or don’t pay too much attention to this issue. I am one of these aforementioned people.

    It’s not that I don’t care about the treatment of animals, it’s just that there are way too many issues in my life currently that prevent me from having time to support these movements toward ethical animal treatment. So when something comes up about Seaworld not housing killer whales any more there really isn’t much I have in terms of an opinion. Sure, Seaworld’s choice is more than likely because of the backlash happening against it recently from animal rights groups, but I really don’t care either way. It’s just another business choice in the world that really has no effect on me or my life.

Now onto the topic of zoos, aquariums, and circuses. Zoos and aquariums have always been my favorite natural world attraction since I was a kid. They’re educational, fun, and a very interactive way of showing children the biological wonders of the world. Now, I do understand how some people would be concerned for the animals and their treatment by keepers, but the vast majority of the time the animals are well treated by keepers and scientists alike. Most keepers are even required to have a veterinary service background and know basic animal care to even be considered for application. Overall, zoos and aquariums are very good sources of education and entertainment that I feel should stay open whatever the cost in order to inspire a new generation to preserve the natural world around them ( and that’s even what most of these establishments are geared to do in the first place).

Then, there’s circuses. Claimed to be one of the many ways to rule Rome (Pomp and Circumstance, translating to bread and circuses) these mobile entertainment attractions have been entertaining humankind since the times of the romans. However, that doesn’t mean they are completely civilized attractions. Circuses often try to out do each other with the ridiculousness of their stunts and, while most human performers are fine with it, animals are forced against their will to participate in these seemingly ludicrous and insane stunts that are well beyond their capabilities. While I don’t think circuses should be completely condemned, at least have animal guidelines in place so that none of them are forced to do something that they naturally can’t cope with (in other words, horse riding is fine, but horse stacking is wrong).

In all, I am pretty much indifferent to everything involving animal treatment, however it would be nicer to see animals treated better in captivity as fellow beings than as ludicrously impossible to perform entertainment. 

Screening Addictions

You see them everywhere. In your home, at school, even , ironically, at parties. You try and get away, but you can’t. They’re too popular, too “with the times”, to be gone away with. In fact, they’re so much like this that people are beginning to form addictions to their soft glow, their touchable screens, and their buzzing buttons. I am, of course, talking about smartphones.

    Personally, I have never come into contact with a full addiction to my smartphone (or, as I like to refer to it, my “handheld toaster” ). Sure, I spend some time on social media, texting, and the little mobile game once in awhile, but I never really stay on it for more than , on average, maybe an uncontinuous 2 hours a day. This may sound like a long time, but compared to how long the average teenager is on his/her phone it’s a pretty short period of time. Now, this could be because of the multiple things that I do with my time and my personal preferences. Compared to every other smartphone on the market, mine is basically the worst you could get. Small screen, constantly freezing, and very small amount of memory space to use for apps and such. However, even if one of my friends handed me the best new phone tomorrow morning, I would probably still spend little to no more time on it than I do already on my LG Toaster. This is not to say I wouldn’t like one, it’s just to say that I wouldn’t need to spend several hours on it as an addiction, mainly because I have other things to do with my time (namely schoolwork, scout projects, marching band, NHS, etc.) and also because I prefer to socialise with my friends ,rather than text them all the time, if I can. I can understand why some would have an addiction to their phones, but I am not one of those people.  

Death of a Salesman #2

Death of a Salesman, as an overall play, is a very moving piece with a message that not many people want to see or even acknowledge in their lives: the possibility of ultimate failure. The play has the father of Biff and Happy, Willy, deal with the exact realisation of this message. Willy is constantly in a state of delirium, remembering the past and seemingly reliving it in his mind as the time he last remembered everything being alright, his “American Dream” still intact and on the way. However, the present is different (as shown in the last blog I did). Willy’s dreams of having Biff be successful in his life and becoming rich like his brother, Ben, are completely destroyed and he can’t come to terms with this fact. This is especially shown whenever he even so much as glances at Biff, which continually wears on Biff since the reason he ultimately gave up his early successes was because of Willy. In the book, Biff progressively tries to get Willy to see that his dream is dashed and it slowly wears on Willy, eventually having his flashbacks show him that the reason Biff gave up was because of an affair Willy had with his secretary. When Willy finally sees this fact and opens his eyes to the reality of what has happened to his dream, he becomes extremely depressed to the point where his wife, Linda thinks Biff and Happy are only doing what they’re doing to cause Willy pain and suffering instead of opening his eyes for him. In the middle of this depression Willy thinks of a way to show his boys that he is well known and successful to inspire them all while giving them the money to become successful themselves: suicide. After doing so by crashing his car, however, it has a mixed effect on his family. No one comes to his funeral except his family and his best friend Charley with his son ,successful lawyer and childhood friend of Biff ,Bernard. Biff, Bernard, Charley, and Linda only question his motives, saying he didn’t have to do it. Happy, however, takes Willy’s intended message and strives to become a successful salesman and fulfill Willy’s dream of a successful child. A flute plays, symbolising hopelessness and failure, as

the curtain falls.

Death of a Salesman #1

This week, I diverted from my usual literature of chapter books and novels and chose something a little more...pre-fabricated, plays. Plays are pretty much a whole different species of book when it comes to the literature world. They are usually done as a live action or visual performance first before becoming a book, which causes them to lose some of their imaginative potential (especially if someone has already seen the visual version). However, I still enjoy reading them and imagining all of the different versions of written plays that could possibly make sense to different target audiences. Anyway, the play I chose to read for the past week was Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The play follows a salesman, Willy, and his family. Willy is an old man who can’t get over the fact that his first son, Biff, is not nearly as successful as he had hoped back when he was a football star in high school. This has caused him to become disillusioned from reality and look upon ‘the good old days’ instead of what is actually happening around him. Biff and his brother, Happy, visit Willy one day to try and fix Biff’s discord with his father by getting him a real job. Ultimately, this fails since Biff never graduated high school, but Willy won’t accept the truth that Biff isn’t known as well anymore as when he was a football player. Instead, Willy tries to have Biff lie to him, but his persistence to tell the truth leads to Willy going into a fit that only bad things happen to him because Biff flunked high school. The play appears to be mainly about the American Dream and how not everyone can attain their dreams and, instead of changing their dreams to be more attainable, live in self denial that they could never not attain their dream of success. The play currently has me on a cliffhanger which I am desperate to resolve and seems to be able to keep any reader’s interest. I wonder where the plot will progress from there.

Fallen Angels #2

Amazing. That is the one word I will forever associate with the book Fallen Angels. While the beginning seemed to be going at a very slow and snail-like pace as I last left it. The book quickly went ‘around a corner and headed for home’ almost directly after, all while not losing its emotional appeal which, come to think of it, has a pretty large amount of symbolism behind it suggesting that’s how a new soldier usually feels when he’s simply thrown into a war. So, after Perry and Peewee get off their transport plane, they are then shown their quarters and are introduced to their squad, consisting of Lobel, Monaco, and Corporal Brunner (who are basic soldiers) and Sergeant Simpson (the leader of Perry’s squad who just wants to make it out alive). Perry’s platoon leader is first Lieutenant Carroll, a kind and compassionate leader who the men under his command love and adore, and his company commander is Captain Stewart, a man so hell-bent on getting militarily recognised that he constantly puts the men under him at risk and sends Perry’s squad on the most dangerous missions just to get his medal. After a few days without activity, Perry’s platoon is then sent in by airdrop to take a strategic point from the Viet Cong. All seems well when his platoon gets there, but Carroll soon realises it’s a trap and they are ambushed. As Carroll calls for a medevac (Medical Evacuation) he is shot and killed. Perry and his squad all make it out alive (*cough *cough plot armor *cough *cough) and make it back to base in relatively one piece (they have bullet wounds but nothing serious). They are then introduced to their new platoon commander: Lieutenant Gearhart. Gearhart’s inexperience from this point on puts the whole platoon in danger on every mission they go on and leads to mounting casualties on the platoon. Sergeant Simpson is then replaced, after protesting about Gearhart’s inexperience to Captain Stewart, by Sergeant Dongan, an extreme racist who puts anyone who isn’t a white caucasian in the most dangerous and risky situations. Perry’s squad all-around resents the new chain of command, but they eventually default and deal with it. On one mission, Perry’s squad is sent to check out a village supposedly passive. They are then ambushed in a rice paddie, with their entire squad in shock and under fire. Peewee and Perry then are ordered to try and surround the Viet Cong and attack them from the flank. In the process, they get separated and Perry is shot in the leg. From then on he narrates his first battle wound until he meets up with Peewee, who is also wounded and doesn’t have any of the semi-psychotic tendencies he showed in the beginning of the book, as if he had his own brush with mortality. They are both in a cave when suddenly, the gunfire stops and they both pass out from exhaustion. Later, Perry wakes up on a medical frigate and is told he’s going home, he then sees Peewee who confirms that they are both out of Vietnam and heading back to the states. Overall, this book is probably the best I have ever read. It really takes in the whole concept of the ‘soldier experience’ and puts it down not just in words, but in its writing style and demographic. Best of all, it decided to blend the emotional and action-based concepts without having a clear bias to one or the other. Fallen Angels is truly one of the most fantastic books I have ever read.      

Fallen Angels #1

So, after finally wrapping up the Great Gatsby, I decided to choose a book I knew would interest me, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. The story follows a soldier named Richie Perry who is sent to Vietnam after enlisting for the military. The reason he enlists is to escape an uncertain future with his alcoholic mother who can’t afford to send him to college and to help support his younger brother, Kenny. On the military plane on route to the main U.S. headquarters in Vietnam Perry meets Harold Gates, also known as “Peewee” for his relatively small size. Although Peewee seems a little too energetic and quirky for Perry’s taste, the two realise they are stationed together and create a close friendship.

    Obviously this book is going to have as much action as it has emotion since it is about Vietnam and being told through a soldier’s eyes. The beginning sets up very well, showing that not all people who enlist in the military do it for sadistic purposes (which was what many protesters thought when the troops came home and treated them as such). In fact, many soldiers did it to do what Perry did, try and support their families who they either saw as declining or in desperate need of help from the start. Perry’s main purpose isn’t to fight and draw blood, it’s to use his military pay and benefits to help his brother Kennedy to make sure he gets a good education and a well paying job as the result of such that Perry feels he must provide to make up for his mother’s lack of ability to do. Through Peewee, however, we see this other side of ecstasy and potential sadism. Peewee says in the beginning that his main reason for coming is to be a patriot and fight the country’s enemies, which might explain why Perry doesn’t completely agree with Peewee’s motives. The books already off to a great pathological start and I hope this is not completely buried by any over the top action sequences or recurring/shoddy dialogue to try and draw it out.

The Great Gatsby #2

This week, I was able to reread the majority of The Great Gatsby ,by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and better analyze the full plot of the book. As stated last week, I had read a portion of The Great Gatsby but was unable to really grasp a plot due to the awkward dialogue no being clear on who was saying what. Now that I have reread a majority of the book, I can give you at least a partial recount of what is happening.

    My rereading of the book has also helped me find out what basic genre the book is: romance. Yes, of all the ways this book could have branched off, it had to be romance (and I had to be the unlucky guy to pick it up thinking it was going to be a psychological mystery). Anyway, the basic rundown is this: Nick, the main character and objective protagonist the book is told by, moves to New York to start a stock-broker business. He also ends up buying a house on Long Island near his cousin, Daisy. Daisy is married to her husband, Tom Buchanan. However, as Nick soon finds, they have quite a rocky marriage (as Tom often leaves the house alone to have an affair with a downtown mechanics wife). At one point, Jordan Baker, one of Daisy’s friends, mentions to Nick that he lives next door to a man who’s name is Jay Gatsby, an eccentric millionaire. Gatsby then personally invites Nick to one of his parties and meets him for the first time. A few days later, when Gatsby and Nick are having lunch, Gatsby mentions something about Daisy, to which Nick replies that she’s his cousin. Gatsby then shows that he has affections for her and wishes for her and him to meet at Nick’s place for tea so Gatsby can get better acquainted with Daisy. That is a basic summary of the story so far. In all, the book so far seems to be about how a couple wishes to be with other people but, for unexplained reasons, can’t divorce each other. I have a feeling this could get very dramatic very quickly the further I read.

Great Gatsby #1

This week, I was able to get my hands on and read one of the Great American book classics of the 1920s: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. From what I had heard from other people, The Great Gatsby was a book based around an eccentric yet benevolent millionaire in New York named Gatsby who has a mysterious past behind him that no one really knows the whole truth towards. This description, given to me by family and friends alike, made the book sound almost like a murder mystery, which was sort of the main reason I decided to pick it up. The other reason I decided to pick it up was because of its relatively recent setting of 1920s America (unlike Dickens and his 19th century England where every tree branch and corn field has a backstory that must be written in the story because he was paid by the word). That’s also a reason why I like Fitzgerald more than most of the Great American authors, he’s one of the more recent ones, making his books more relevant to modern day society than any other.

However, not everything people tell you is one hundred percent true. While Jay Gatsby is said to have a mysterious past and multiple rumors are spread about his past that all offer different theories on it, it’s not really delved into as much by the book’s central character, Nick, as if it were a part of the mystery genre. Rather, the book seems to focus on an enigmatic love “triangle” with Nick taking  an observational first-person point of view on the whole situation. Then there was the sentence structure. The structure of the vast majority of each sentence that involved multiple people’s dialogue were very cryptic to the point where a person could easily lose track of who was talking and when early on in the book. Unfortunately, it was so cryptic for me that I lost track of most of the explanations supporting the plot of the book and left me unsatisfied, as if all of the time I had spent reading had done nothing and had helped accomplish nothing for me. Because of this, I will be rereading the entire book over again to make sure nothing is overlooked.